Writer Evan Osnos (The New Yorker, CNN) has been interviewing Joe Biden on and off for the past decade. He recently profiled the 46th President ahead of his State of the Union, offering a rare (and revealing) portrait of the elder statesman fro

Oscar Sunday with Actor Ke Huy Quan

Mar 12th, 2023 52m 13s

To celebrate Oscar Sunday, we return to our talk with actor Ke Huy Quan! At the top, he reflects on the making of A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Once (3:35), growing up in Vietnam (6:36), and his family’s perilous journey to Los Angeles in

The Road to Actor Ke Huy Quan’s Second Act

Jan 15th, 2023 55m 28s

Today, we sit with actor Ke Huy Quan! At the top, he reflects on the making of A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Once (5:40), growing up in Vietnam (9:10), and his family’s perilous journey to Los Angeles in the late seventies (11:20). Then, w

A Double Feature: Vicky Krieps and Melanie Lynskey

Nov 14th, 2021 1h 2m

This week we present a double feature with actors Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) and Melanie Lynskey (Yellowjackets)! To begin, Krieps shares the story behind making Bergman Island (6:00), what it meant to work with director Mia Hansen-Løve (7:3

Fran Lebowitz

1 Jul 19th, 2020 1h 20m

Legendary American author and public speaker Fran Lebowitz joins us via landline. In conversation, there's nothing off-the-table for the famously persnickety sexagenarian. We discuss how she's weathering the COVID crisis as a tried-and-true New

Episode 138 - Pam Grier

May 19th, 2019 1h 10m

On the brink of 70, legend Pam Grier sits down to reflect on a series of pivotal moments from her inimitable life. For example: moving to Los Angeles at 18 in 1967, becoming a trailblazer through iconic films like Foxy Brown and Coffy, getting

Episode 137 - Werner Herzog

1 May 12th, 2019 59m 32s

Werner Herzog is 76 years old with three films coming out in 2019. I don't know how he does it, but I try to find out in this conversation. From a childhood encounter with god in the Bavarian mountains to sitting across from Mikhail Gorbachev,

The Week That Changed Los Angeles

1 day ago 1h 2m

Writer Emily Witt (“Health and Safety: A Breakdown”) has spent the past two weeks on the ground covering the Los Angeles wildfires for The New Yorker. Her latest story centers around the Benns (5:39), a multigenerational Black family with deep

A Hopeful Climate Conversation with Richard Powers

8 days ago 57m 47s

This week, we revisit a soulful conversation around climate change and the restorative power of nature with author Richard Powers. We begin by defining the thematic through-line between The Overstory and Bewilderment (5:06), the eco trauma arti

A New Year with Writer Jia Tolentino (‘Trick Mirror’)

15 days ago 1h 20m

Writer Jia Tolentino (The New Yorker) became a literary sensation in 2019 upon the release of her best-selling essay collection, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion. She joins us this week to ring in 2025. We start by discussing the eros

A ‘Babygirl’ Holiday with Harris Dickinson

22 days ago 1h 3m

To close out the holidays, our conversation with actor Harris Dickinson. We discuss his latest role in Halina Reijn’s Babygirl (6:50), Nicole Kidman’s “disarming and generous” quality on set (9:27), and the exploration of masculinity in Harris’

Writer Hilton Als on Prince and ‘What Joan Didion Means’

29 days ago 54m 26s

For the holiday week, we’re revisiting one of our favorite conversations with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and critic Hilton Als. At the top, we unpack his approach to writing profiles (5:50), inspired by the words of photographer Diane Arbus

The Year of Actor Sebastian Stan (‘The Apprentice’)

Dec 15th, 2024 1h 16m

Actor Sebastian Stan has built a career out of shapeshifting. This week, he joins us to discuss the process of transforming into Donald J. Trump in The Apprentice (8:27), his personal relationship to the American dream (15:35), and the extensiv

Remembering Poet Nikki Giovanni

Dec 11th, 2024 56m 31s

For the past 50 years, Nikki Giovanni has been one of our preeminent poets. Rest in Power to the legendary writer and activist, who passed this week at the age of 81. Today we return to our conversation from 2021, reflecting on how her childhoo

Talk Easy in 2024: A Mixtape

Dec 8th, 2024 1h 12m

It’s been a year. And while we’re not quite done with it (3:15), we wanted to take a moment to celebrate some of our favorite episodes and guests from 2024. On the front half, we revisit passages from actor-turned-director Dev Patel (5:45), th

Host Padma Lakshmi (‘Taste the Nation’) is Just Getting Started

Dec 1st, 2024 1h 5m

To close out the holiday weekend, we're revisiting our conversation with writer, food expert, and television host Padma Lakshmi. At the top, we discuss her Hulu docuseries Taste the Nation (4:40), a formative episode in El Paso, Texas (8:14), a

Play It Again: Jeff Daniels

Nov 27th, 2024 1h 13m

Today, for your holiday week, we’re returning to one of our favorite 2024 conversations with actor Jeff Daniels. Daniels is always writing. Plays, songs, a script or two. Even in interviews you get the sense the Michigan native is trying to rel

Jesse Eisenberg Steps Into His Past

Nov 24th, 2024 1h 2m

Actor, writer, and director Jesse Eisenberg’s latest project, A Real Pain, is perhaps his most personal to date. He joins us today to unpack the journey that shaped the film (9:18), memories from his travels to Poland (15:40), and what he obser

Actor Josh Brolin: A Life in Vivid Color

Nov 17th, 2024 1h 25m

Since the turn of the century, actor Josh Brolin has had quite a run. From No Country for Old Men and Hail, Caesar! from the Coen Brothers, to Inherent Vice from Paul Thomas Anderson, to Sicario and the Dune films from Denis Villeneuve. His new

What Can Be, Burdened By What Has Been (with Astead Herndon of NYT)

Nov 10th, 2024 1h 9m

It’s been a week. To help us through it, we’ve enlisted The New York Times political reporter Astead Herndon. We start with election night 2024 versus election night 2016 (6:35), what Astead discovered about the electorate reporting across the

Ta-Nehisi Coates (‘The Message’) is Live in Los Angeles

Nov 3rd, 2024 1h

On the heels of his latest book The Message, author Ta-Nehisi Coates joins Sam for a conversation in Los Angeles. At the top, we discuss how his Atlantic piece The Case for Reparations guided these three new essays (6:10), Coates’ early educati

Actor and Director Anna Kendrick: Life Imitates Art

Oct 27th, 2024 1h 2m

Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air) has been a fixture in Hollywood for the past fifteen years. She joins us this week to discuss Woman of the Hour, her directorial debut and most revealing project to date. At the top, we dive into the

This Conversation with Author Jason Reynolds is a Gift

Oct 20th, 2024 1h 33m

For the past decade, Jason Reynolds has become an inspiring voice in the literary world. He’s a New York Times bestselling author and as of this month, a 2024 MacArthur fellow. Reynolds sits with us today to share his latest YA novel Twenty-Fou

Wesley Morris Returns with ‘The Wonder of Stevie’

Oct 16th, 2024 1h 25m

Today, culture critic Wesley Morris (The New York Times) returns to Talk Easy for a conversation about The Wonder of Stevie, his new podcast with the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions. At the top, Wesley unpacks Stevie Wonder’s legendary five-a

Director Jason Reitman’s Love Letter to ‘Saturday Night’

Oct 13th, 2024 1h 7m

Since his directorial debut in 2006, Jason Reitman has made the kind of films they say Hollywood doesn’t make anymore. Today, we sit to discuss his latest project Saturday Night (9:09), the influence of 1970s movies like Michael Ritchie’s The C