Wits ® – APM Podcasts

Rhett Miller is a singer-songwriter and front man of the Old 97’s and a friend of the show. He stops by to talk about how touring with the same batch of guys is way different in your 40s than in your 20s. He also plays a song that’s all about a daydream of romance wherein his heart gets crushed. We listen back to Rhett’s appearance in the Wits game show from March of 2012. It is both hilarious and bittersweet. And we get a visit from Jan the custodian.

It’s a comedy interview DOUBLE SHOT! First up, Maria Bamford. She’s one of the biggest and easily one of the funniest comedians working today. Maria has appeared on The Comedians of Comedy tour, Louie, and in somewhat unsettling Christmas commercials for Target. We climb inside Maria’s head in a revealing interview. Hannibal Buress recently starred in the Comedy Central special, Hannibal Buress: Animal Furnace, and is a former writer for SNL and 30 Rock.

On this week’s program, we get a haunting visit from the ghost that haunts the Fitzgerald Theater in St Paul. If you listen closely, you can almost hear him attempt to do standup comedy. Also, a look inside Mitt Romney’s tax returns. Yes! In the wake of his electoral defeat, he has released them only to us. What? Why wouldn’t he? And a chat with Julia Sweeney about how Wits — yes, this very program — led her to reassess her literary career and her daughter’s taste for fame.

This week, host John Moe chats with songwriter John Roderick. He’s the lead singer and guitarist in The Long Winters, and the co-host of the podcast Roderick on the Line. Roderick has been tweeting about the connection between nuclear war and ’80s movies and music and our apparent nationwide insistence that the town we are in would be the first one hit. We also hear Roderick perform his song Not Moving to Portland with our music director John Munson in a Wits appearance. Plus, an interview with War Horse about how many horses and bayonets the American military really needs.

This week, host John Moe visits with the multi-talented John Hodgman. He’s the author of several books of fake knowledge, including the latest, That Is All, which has just been released in audiobook form. We hear Hodgman’s thoughts on margarine tub percussion, the hugs one receives while famous, and the model set by George Plimpton. If you don’t know who George Plimpton is, go look it up. Please. Also, a Wits classic: Julia Sweeney tells the story of the bumpy road toward explaining sex to her daughter. And we get a news update and debate analysis from the somewhat disturbing @HereAreTheNews team.

Host John Moe welcomes a pair of singer/songwriters/memoirists. Rosanne Cash talks about her love of John Denver, William Shakespeare and Mike Doughty. Doughty returns the love and is enthused over Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and the cavernous cars of the seventies. Plus an update on the lesser Nobel Prizes and a classic from the Wits archive: Andy Richter and Reggie Watts visit, among other places, Mummytown.

On this, the inaugural Wits podcast, host John Moe visits with comedian and actor Paul F. Tompkins, who provides valuable insight in how to podcast, the liabilities of having 100 podcast hosts speaking at once, and the invigorating powers of Irish music. John also talks with a certain enormously tall bird who was the surprise star of the first presidential debate, and we explore the career of time-traveling history repairman and U.S. President James K. Polk.