Hey, I’m Tim Barnes, you are the genre, and in this episode I’m chatting writer Andrew E. Colarusso. I interviewed him in text form a few years back in the newsletter, but now he joins me in audioland to discuss his latest collection of poetry PETTYGOD. The collection is irrepressible, holy, profane, tender, hilarious, "too hot to touch."

Our two creative paths intersect in strange ways. For instance, another text interview of mine with DuVay Knox influenced one of the poems in PETTYGOD. Which is why I should warn you: some explicit words are said in this episode!

Andrew owns and operates Taylor & Co., an independent bookstore in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. I worked there for a while as the “Monday guy” and can attest that it’s a uniquely inviting space filled with an eclectic roster characters popping in each day.

As risk of being petty, Andrew also flips the script and interviews ME about my scripted audio series JUDGE TRAVIS.

I hope you get to check out both of our projects.

-Tim

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“Andrew E. Colarusso’s newest is a sharp-edged erotic, politically unflinching poetry collection where syntax is shattered to reveal deeper ancestral reckoning. Like Kamau Brathwaite, Colarusso understands the page as a score to conjure rebellion, bend grammar, break form, and tune the line to the frequency of diaspora, confessional grief, and spiritual survival. His language pulses with both prophecy and protest, as seen in poems like ‘The Pussy Detective,’ which blends pulp poetics, satire and sovereignty, and refuses the sanitized gaze of empire while regarding the vernacular as sacred terrain. In ‘Who Hath Known the Mind of God,’ the writer reckons despair and the brutal intimacy of city life as it unfolds into a fever dream of love and despair. Across his work, interiority becomes a site of disruption, therefore, Pettygod be a living archive for the haunted and the holy. Colarusso scribes like fire, raising sacred spaces from ash, where fracture and ruin form the raw scaffolding of a resilient desire to be free.”—Mahogany L. Browne

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Hey, I’m Tim Barnes, you are the genre, and this is a preview of an upcoming scripted audio series that I have coming out February 11th called JUDGE TRAVIS, which you should subscribe to now wherever you listen to podcasts! I’ll be interviewing people involved with the show here on You Are The Genre as we switch to a Monday release schedule between February 9 and March 16.

JUDGE TRAVIS is your front-row seat to the behind-the-scenes chaos of America’s favorite fake TV judge. Through the guise of leaked audio, listeners eavesdrop on the absurd drama unfolding behind the bench of the reality television court show, JUDGE TRAVIS. Starring Bashir Salahuddin (SOUTH SIDE), Langston Kerman (INSECURE), Brandi Denise (POWER), Keesha Sharp (GIRLFRIENDS), Amber Ruffin (LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS) and George Wallace (CLEAN SLATE).

Created and directed by television writer Tim Barnes (THE TONIGHT SHOW, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central), Judge Travis draws inspiration from classic Hollywood-satire comedies like THE BERNIE MAC SHOW and THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW. Court shows are one of America’s favorite pastimes. But why do we love these stern authority figures? And who are the real people behind those robes? JUDGE TRAVIS proves the answers to those questions are crazier than anything you’ve ever seen on TV.

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Merch and more are coming soon at YouAreTheGenre.com

Hey, I’m Tim Barnes, you are the genre, and in this episode I’m chatting with novelist and media multi-hyphenate Noël Stark. Her debut novel is a steamy romance titled LOVE, CAMERA, ACTION and it caught my attention because of the behind-the-scenes nature of the story. I love behind-the-scenes stories. It’s my THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW is one of my favorite sitcoms and why my upcoming scripted audio series JUDGE TRAVIS reveals the inner workings of a reality TV court show.

Stark and I dive deep into the misunderstood genre of romance novels, compartmentalizing your creativity, and growing up in the Canadian woods.

This was recorded months ago in 2025 but it’s ready for your ears now and everyone will find something to love in it.

Stay healthy and sane out there,

-Tim

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LOVE, CAMERA, ACTION is Noël Stark’s debut novel. She’s worked in almost every position in the Film/TV industry, both in front of and behind the camera. Although she’s Canadian, she lives in L.A. with her young son, desperately missing winter. She likes chocolate milk in her coffee and gets most of her real world intel from her three step kids.

Merch and more are coming soon at YouAreTheGenre.com

CREDITS:

* Host: Tim Barnes

* Guest: Noël Stark

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

* Music Engineer: Adam Smith

* Podcast Art: Madhuri Shukla

Hey, I’m Tim Barnes, you are the genre, and beyond my excitement for the JUDGE TRAVIS audio series I have coming out in February, I'm thrilled to present this chat with novelist and television writer Kashana Cauley. Before comedy, Cauley worked in the world of law, but she rose to internet fame on Twitter (back when that place was kind of fun) for writing political hot takes that were so funny, they prompted Neal Brennan to bring her into the fold as a writer for Trevor Noah’s freshly minted version of The Daily Show in 2017. Since, Cauley has written for multiple television series and penned two novels: THE SURVIVALISTS, and her latest—THE PAYBACK, which was published by Atria Books in July 2025. We spoke around June of that year, but now the episode is finally being released as we kick off this new season of You Are The Genre!

THE PAYBACK was named an NPR and Electric Literature Best Book of the Year. It was also named a Best Book of Summer 2025 by many outlets, including the Boston Globe, Vanity Fair, and the NYT, as well as an NYT Editor’s Choice.

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Cauley is a TV writer who has written for The Great North, Pod Save America on HBO and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and a former contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She has also written for The Atlantic, Esquire, The New Yorker, Pitchfork, and Rolling Stone, among other publications.

Merch and more are coming soon at YouAreTheGenre.com

CREDITS:

* Host: Tim Barnes

* Guest: Kashana Cauley

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

* Music Engineer: Adam Smith

* Podcast Art: Madhuri Shukla

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.

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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.

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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.

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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