Host Tim Barnes welcomes listeners back to the podcast and teases the February 11th release of his scripted audio series, JUDGE TRAVIS. New You Are The Genre episodes can be expected each Monday featuring guests Kashana Cauley (The Daily Show), Rebecca O’Neal (2 Dope Queens), Dave Hill (Last Week Tonight) and more!

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In honor of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast coming to an end, Tim gives a rambling monologue of update on You Are The Genre’s return from hiatus and invites those in (or visiting) New York to attend the new weekly RAD COMEDY showcase he’s co-hosting with Emily Wirth in Brooklyn!

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Merch and more are coming soon at YouAreTheGenre.com

CREDITS:

* Host: Tim Barnes

* Theme Song: “You Are The Genre” by Freddie Nunez

* Music Engineer: Adam Smith

* Podcast Art: Madhuri Shukla

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Tim Barnes chats with Felipe Torres Medina (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) about growing up in Columbia, the impact comedic imports from America, and the everlasting power of being a moody boy. His book, America, Let Me In: A Choose Your Immigration Story was published March 2025 and has earned some pretty cool reviews from Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly. ORDER IT NOW!

Felipe Torres Medina is an award-winning humorist and writer based in New York City. He is a writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where he’s written bits for his boss and also some celebrities who don’t know him. His writing for The Late Show has earned him a WGA Award and a Peabody Award as well as five Emmy nominations. His book, America, Let Me In: A Choose Your Immigration Story was published March 2025 and has earned some pretty cool reviews from Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly. ORDER IT NOW! His work has appeared on The New Yorker, BuzzFeed and BuzzFeed Español, McSweeney's, Reductress, and CollegeHumor. He trained as a writer and comedian at the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York and did many comedy shows in the basements of bars, grocery stores, and other places littered with fire hazards. He has also been published in several important media publications in Latin America such as El Espectador, KienYKe and Revista Arcadia. He once appeared on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, but in Colombia. His millions are in Colombian pesos.

Listen to episodes a week earlier than the rest by selecting a paid subscription to the newsletter!

Merch and more are coming soon at YouAreTheGenre.com

CREDITS:

* Host: Tim Barnes

* Guest: Felipe Torres Medina

* Theme Song: “You Are The Genre” by Freddie Nunez

* Music Engineer: Adam Smith

* Podcast Art: Madhuri Shukla

Tim Barnes chats journalist Philip Lewis about how his early passions led him to journalism.

Philip Lewis is a journalist from Detroit, Michigan. He is the author of the What I'm Reading newsletter.

Listen to episodes a week earlier than the rest by selecting a paid subscription to the newsletter!

Merch and more are coming soon at YouAreTheGenre.com

CREDITS:

Host: Tim Barnes

Guest: Philip Lewis

Theme Song: “You Are The Genre” by Freddie Nunez

Music Engineer: Adam Smith

Podcast Art: Madhuri Shukla

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Tim Barnes chats with Ryan Perez (SNL, The Tonight Show) about the impact of Scorsese films on his sensibility as a comedian, writer, and filmmaker.

Listen to episodes a week earlier than the rest by selecting a paid subscription to the newsletter!

Merch and more are coming soon at YouAreTheGenre.com

CREDITS:

* Host: Tim Barnes

* Guest: Ryan Perez

* Theme Song: “You Are The Genre” by Freddie Nunez

* Music Engineer: Adam Smith

* Podcast Art: Madhuri Shukla

Tim Barnes chats writer Nathan Rabin about his early interest in politics and trivia, and how they influenced his career as a dissector of pop culture’s past, present, and future.

Nathan Rabin coined the phrase Manic Pixie Dream Girl, co-wrote the coffee table book of his childhood hero “Weird Al” Yankovic and has written for the A.V Club longer than anyone else, with a career stretching back two decades. He’s also written five books: The Big Rewind, My Year Of Flops, Weird Al: The Book, You Don’t Know Me But You Don’t Like Me (which was named a “Best Book of the Year” by both Slate and Rolling Stone, which gave the book a four star review), and, most recently, 7 Days In Ohio: Trump, the Gathering of the Juggalos and the Summer Everything Went Insane, which was just released in a hugely expanded version. Rabin was also a panelist on Movie Club With John Ridley, a show hosted by Oscar-winning 12 Years A Slave screenwriter. He’s sung onstage with They Might Be Giants, attended five Gathering of the Juggalos and thirty-something Phish shows in addition to appearing on podcasts with the likes of Marc Maron, Scott Aukerman, Harris Wittels and the Sklar Brothers. He is currently a columnist at The A.V Club, Rotten Tomatoes, TCM Backlot and Splitsider and is working on a book about the video game and movie Postal and Donald Trump. He lives in Decatur with his dog and baby and wife and is trying his damnedest to learn how to drive. He’s trying, man. He really is.

Listen to episodes a week earlier than the rest by selecting a paid subscription to the newsletter!

Merch and more are coming soon at YouAreTheGenre.com

CREDITS:

Host: Tim Barnes

Guest: Nathan Rabin

Theme Song: “You Are The Genre” by Freddie Nunez

Music Engineer: Adam Smith

Podcast Art: Madhuri Shukla

Tim Barnes chats with comedian/director/photographer Rose Kelso about her early love of collecting things and how that ties into her many creative pursuits today.

Rose Kelso is a Brooklyn based director, comedian, and photographer. She is the creator of multiple Comedy Central digital series such as: Boomer Stoop, Rose's Music Show, Rose and Brooks' Small World, and more... In February 2024, she was featured on The Tonight Show's Battle of the Instant Songwriters where she performed a song she wrote in an hour (and won!) She directed promotional ads for MTV's 38th annual Video Music Awards. She was named a Content Creator to Watch at the 2022 New York Comedy Festival​. Her satirical songs are regularly featured on Comedy Central's socials. A few hits include: European Boys, Essential Jerker, You Look Like Your Dad, and Nature is Healing. In 2021, she won a Shorty Impact Award for her Boomer Stoop episode Pronouns.​​ She has photographed editorial ads for: Outsider's Division, Von Dutch, Haus of Hands, and more. She has marginal TikTok fame which is, you know, nice...​ She is repped by WME and Authentic Talent & Literary Management

Listen to episodes a week earlier than the rest by selecting a paid subscription to the newsletter!

Merch and more are coming soon at YouAreTheGenre.com

CREDITS:

Host: Tim Barnes

Guest: Rose Kelso

Theme Song: “You Are The Genre” by Freddie Nunez

Music Engineer: Adam Smith

Podcast Art: Madhuri Shukla

Tim Barnes chats with comedian/TV writer/filmmaker Niles Abston about how his genre of comedy defies the silos of the internet and forges community.

Niles Abston is a stand-up comedian/writer/actor from Mississippi based in Los Angeles and New York City.

Listen to episodes a week earlier than the rest by selecting a paid subscription to the newsletter!

Merch and more are coming soon at YouAreTheGenre.com

CREDITS:

Host: Tim Barnes

Guest: Niles Abston

Theme Song: “You Are The Genre” by Freddie Nunez

Music Engineer: Adam Smith

Podcast Art: Madhuri Shukla

Tim Barnes chats with novelist Micaiah Johnson about following through with her early passion for books and science fiction.

Micaiah Johnson is a Brooklyn-based author and scholar. She received her BA in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside, and her MFA in fiction from Rutgers-Camden. She received her doctorate at Vanderbilt university. On her mother’s side, she is a first-generation traditional high school graduate.

Her debut novel The Space Between Worlds won the Compton Crook Award and was an Editors’ Choice at The New York Times. NPR named it one of best books of 2020 and one of the best science fiction books of the last decade. Her follow-up novel, Those Beyond the Wall, an eerily timely looked at violence during apartheid, was released March 12th, 2024.

In her academic work she is concerned with questions at the intersection of race and technology, particularly as revealed in 19th Century America, a time punctuated by spectacular shifts in both. She also works in the necropolitical implications of preservation, both in centuries past and in our present moment of the Sixth Great Extinction.

Listen to episodes a week earlier than the rest by selecting a paid subscription to the newsletter!

Merch and more are coming soon at YouAreTheGenre.com

CREDITS:

Host: Tim Barnes

Guest: Micaiah Johnson

Theme Song: “You Are The Genre” by Freddie Nunez

Music Engineer: Adam Smith

Podcast Art: Madhuri Shukla

Tim Barnes chats with Mark Bazer about how his early love of comedy bridged into his career as a newspaper columnist and influenced his decision to host the long-running Chicago staple, The Interview Show — which now has a podcast called… you guessed it: The Interview Show with Mark Bazer.

There is more to Mark Bazer than being the host of The Interview Show. For example, he has many emotions and showcases a few of them every day. His day job is at Leo Burnett, the best advertising agency in the world, where he works on the new business team.

Mark also moderates public and corporate events all over Chicago and is a contributing writer for Chicago magazine. And, when called upon, he will attempt to act.

Check out some of Mark’s … OK, let’s cut the charade … this is obviously Mark writing this. So, check out some my recent and/or favorite projects below. And if you want to get in touch, I’m at [email protected].

Listen to episodes a week earlier than the rest by selecting a paid subscription to the newsletter!

Merch and more are coming soon at YouAreTheGenre.com

CREDITS:

Host: Tim Barnes

Guest: Mark Bazer

Theme Song: “You Are The Genre” by Freddie Nunez

Music Engineer: Adam Smith

Podcast Art: Madhuri Shukla