Beginnings

I used to do bonus episodes of the show somewhat regularly called "Field Guides" where I'd talk to people about the actual steps they took to create a project or about a specific topic around the theme of creating things for a living. Like, I talked to Abbi and Ilana about how they actually made the Broad City webseries (back before it was even a TV show!) - and the idea is to try and demystify making TV, videos and other creative things on a professional level. Today on the show I talk to Indian American author Karan Bajaj about how he overcomes writer's block through world travel. Karan is the author of three contemporary Indian novels, Keep Off the Grass (a semi-finalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award), Johnny Gone Down, and The Seeker, and a super-interesting guy. And we talk about everything from growing up in a small, remote village in India to what it was like to live on an ashram and meditate all day. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to stand-up and writer Bonnie McFarlane. Bonnie hails from Canada, where she grew up on a small farm in Alberta. An accomplished stand-up, she's appeared on everything from The Tonight Show to Letterman to Last Comic Standing and has her own HBO One Night Stand and Comedy Central Presents. In addition to being the director of the wonderful documentary Women Aren't Funny, Bonnie is also an author, and her memoir You're Better Than Me was recently published by Anthony Bourdain's Ecco imprint. (And it's quite fantastic!)This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to Peabody Award-winning and Emmy nominated stand-up and writer Josh Gondelman. Originally from Boston, Josh is currently based in New York where he previously wrote for Billy on the Street and currently writes for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. In addition, Josh is the co-author (along with Joe Berkowitz) of the book You Blew It, and his latest comedy album Physical Whisper was released just last month. (And heck is it wonderful!)This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to writer and actor Dylan Marron. Dylan is a Drama Desk-nominated writer & performer based in New York City. He is the voice of Carlos on the hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale and the co-creator and performer of Ridgefield Middle School Talent Nite, a 17-character middle school talent show, in which he and Jo Firestone play every role. Dylan's also an ensemble member of the New York Neo-Futurists, as well as the creator of Every Single Word, a video series that edits down popular films to only feature the words spoken by people of color.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Larkin Grimm. A descendent of the Brothers Grimm themselves, Larkin grew up in a monastic order called The Holy Order of MANS. Spending her childhood in rural Georgia, Larkin eventually earned a scholarship to Yale, which she attended on and off for many years, using the intervening sabbaticals to travel all over the world. At Yale, she met Dave Longstreth and became a member of Dirty Projectors for a time, and after began recording music on her own, which includes four albums: Harpoon, The Last Tree, Parplar and Soul Retrieval.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg. Scott grew up in Stockton, California where he met his childhood friend and future bandmate Stephen Malkmus. Along with drummer Gary Young, the two formed Pavement in 1989, and went on to release five albums and a number of EPs, eventually becoming one of the biggest indie rock bands of the time. After the band broke up in 1999, Scott went on to record two albums as The Preston School of Industry and one album under his own name. He is currently finishing up his latest as-yet unnamed record, which is his first in seven years.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to TV writer Curtis Gwinn. Originally from Chicago, Curtis grew up in the suburbs outside of New York City, eventually finding his way to UCB. There he became a teacher and performer, and co-founded the team Death by Roo Roo, one of the best improv groups to come out of the theatre. His first professional jobs included writing for The Man Show and Human Giant, and from there he went on to co-create the Adult Swim show Fat Guy Stuck in Internet. Since moving to Los Angeles, he's written for NTSF:SD:SUV, The Walking Dead, The Leftovers, The Bastard Executioner and the forthcoming NTSF spin-off Filthy Preppy Teen$.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to comedian Gareth Reynolds. Gareth's parents originally hail from the UK, but Gareth was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He's co-created The Travel Channel show Mancations and the MTV show Failosophy, he's written for the Comedy Central show Idiotsitter, and nearest and dearest to my heart, he's the co-host of one of the best podcasts around The Dollop, an American history podcast he does with stand-up and Maron-writer Dave Anthony.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to stand-up and writer Jacqueline Novak. Easily one of the best and most creative stand-ups in New York, Jacqueline has been performing for over a decade. She has her own comedy album Quality Notions, she's appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden, and recently Three Rivers Press published her first book How to Weep In Public, a part-memoir/part-comedic guide to dealing with depression.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to the creators of the new HBO show Animals Phil Matarese and Mike Luciano. Phil and Mike are from New Jersey and Long Island respectively, and while working at an advertising agency together, the two created the webseries Animals, which was then shown at Channel 101 and garnered the "Best Comedy Pilot" award at the 2013 New York Television Festival. After a manager introduce the pair to the Duplass brothers, Mike and Phil moved to LA where the Duplasses helped them independently produce a season of the show, which then got sold to HBO (where you can now see it!).This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to Tony-nominated actor Geneva Carr. Geneva is a film, theater and television actor originally from Jackson, Mississippi. After studying French at Mount Holyoke, she moved to Paris and began a career in the world of business. Banking proved to be a lackluster life though, and a chance rekindling of her childhood love of acting led to her pursuing it professionally. This has obviously paid off, as Geneva just ended a run on Broadway in the fantastic play Hand to God, playing the role of the newly-widowed Margery, a performance which earned Geneva a Tony nomination for "Best Performance by a Leading Actress".This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to comedian and writer Streeter Seidell. Streeter first gained popularity as part of the cast of CollegeHumor's online videos, including the viral series Prank Wars. This led to an MTV series with his fellow CollegeHumor colleague Amir Blumenfeld called Pranked. In 2013, Streeter wrote for the ABC sitcom Trophy Wife and a year later joined the writing staff Saturday Night Live.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to filmmaker Alex Ross Perry. Alex was raised in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and attended NYU, where he graduated from their film program. In 2009, he made his first feature film Imipolex on a shoestring budget, and since then, he's made three other films: The Color Wheel in 2011, Listen Up Philip in 2014 (which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival) and his most recent film Queen of Earth starring Elisabeth Moss, which had its world premiere last year at the Berlin Film Festival..This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode - the sixth anniversary of Beginnings - I talk to writer Rick Moody. Rick was born in New York City, and attended Brown and Columbia universities. His first novel, Garden State, was the winner of the 1991 Editor’s Choice Award from the Pushcart Press and his next novel, The Ice Storm, was published in May 1994 by Little, Brown and Company. The film version, directed by Ang Lee, was released by Fox Searchlight in 1997 and won best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival. Since then, ten more of his novels have been published, including his memoir The Black Veil and two collections of short stories. Rick has been the recipient of many awards for his writing including the Paris Review Aga Khan Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his latest novel, Hotels of North America, was published in 2015.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Andrew Keoghan. Originally from New Zealand, Andrew is a Brooklyn-based indie pop/folk artist. His first album Arctic Tales Divide was released in 2011, and was short-listed for a Taite Music Prize, which is an annual prize awarded for the best album from New Zealand. His latest album Every Orchid Offering will be out later this year.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to New York-based country music artist Laura Cantrell. Born in Nashville, TN, she came to New York to attend Columbia, and found that her abiding interest in country music helped her stay connected with her family roots. That interest was the motivation behind her long-running radio program The Radio Thrift Shop, which was on WFMU for thirteen years. She began her career as a recording artist as part of one of Mac McCaughan's first groups Bricks, and she even sings on TMBG's Apollo 18. Her first album of her own Not the Tremblin' Kind was released in 2000, and John Peel said of it: "[It is] my favourite record of the last ten years and possibly my life". Five more albums of hers have been released since then, and her latest is 2014's No Way There From Here, which is simply brilliant.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter, composer, and pianist Xenia Rubinos. Originally from Hartford, CT, Xenia was raised in a multicultural household by a Cuban father and a Puerto Rican mother. And bits and pieces of her heritage show up in her music, along with everything from Deerhoof-inspired riffs to Caribbean rhythms to math rock like Hella and everything in-between. This is all showcased on her debut album Magic Trix, which is amazing and available on Ba Da Bing! Records.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

Happy New Year's Eve, friends! Instead of a new guest this week - I didn't want them to get lost in the holiday shuffle - I thought I'd try something I haven't done in a few years. I used to do bonus episodes of the show called "Field Guides" where I'd talk to people about the actual steps they took to create a project. Like, I talked to Abbi and Ilana about how they actually made the Broad City webseries (back before it was even a TV show!) - and the idea is to try and demystify making TV, videos and other creative things on a professional level. So, my almost-wife Naomi Ekperigin and I are currently in the middle of creating a pilot presentation that could possibly become a TV series, so I thought we'd spend a little time talking about that, about how one gets the opportunity in the first place to make a TV show, about what does it mean to executive produce something and much more. Hope you enjoy it, and we'll see you next week for a new episode!This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follo

On today's episode, I talk to musician Gabby Smith, the woman behind the band Eskimeaux. As Gabby puts it in an interview with Stereogum, Eskimeaux began slightly to spite an ex-boyfriend that accused her of not doing anything. So overnight in 2007, she recorded her first album. Since then she's released a number of records, and her latest is the beautiful Two Mountains, which is available from Yellow K Records. Gabby is also a founding member of The Epoch, a Brooklyn-based songwriting and art collective.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to comedy writer Daniel Kibblesmith. Originally from Chicago, Daniel has has done many cool comedy things in his career. This includes being a contributing writer for The Onion News Network, writing for Buzzfeed and ClickHole, producing exclusive videos for Funny or Die and The Best Show, co-authoring the humor book How to Win at Everything, and writing the amazing Twitter feed GOPTeens. And that's just a selection! Currently, Daniel is a writer on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.