15 Minutes: A Podcast About Fame, With Jamie Berger

Since Episode 21 aired about a year ago, Bulldog's first album has dropped. Find it here!http://www.getembulldog.com/musicFind us here!Since Episode 21 aired about a year ago, Bulldog's first album has dropped. Find us and the original episode notes here!http://www.15minutesjamieberger.com/news/2016/12/5/episode-21-nora-murphy-of-bulldogFind us here!http://www.15minutesjamieberger.comHappier 2018 all! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Brooke Gladstone... is co-host of the most essential radio show/podcast in my weekly listening, On The Media. She also has an incisive, insightful, and oddly comforting (you'll hear that word a lot in the episode) new book, The Trouble with Reality, A Rumination on Moral Panic in our Time. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Here’s part two of Jamie's conversation with Michael Ian Black, with a bonus clip from Episode 48 guest Elna Baker, and an intro regarding famous and unfamous men's power, and how we need to reckon with it. It gets a lot funner and funnier after that.Topics include toe fungus, tacos, and Marc Maron.For more on Michael and to find any of those previous 50 episodes:http://15minutesjamieberger.comYou can find us on Soundcloud, iTunes and lots of other places where pods are cast.Insta/Twit: @15minsjamiebHappy December! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episode 50 - Michael Ian Black, pt. 1Hello and goddam we made it to FIFTY!After this year and a half of letting politics and social commentary exist on this show only as it came up within the conversations, for the first time, I’ve decided to talk for a few minutes all by myself at the top of the show, pretty much completely off topic, pretty much about my working through how to be a 53-year-old white straight male ally in these days of Trump and Weinstein and C.K.If you can make it through that ...Michael Ian Black and I talk about everything from our moms (of course) and his recent memoir, “Naval Gazing,” about his mother and her illness, among other things, to his podcast, “How to Be Amazing,” to dream jobs, to his twitter activism fighting Trump and all the other horrible shit therein that’s happened this year, to his three-decade (what I’m calling) love-feud with Marc Maron. Oh, and fame. We talk about fame too. Here’s verifiable information his bio says about him:Michael Ian Black is a multi-media talen

Almost at 50, re=airing some faves. Here's Bob's Burgers "Gene" and stand-up comedian and stand-up human being, Eugene Mirman! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On our way to Episode 50, revisiting some hits - here' s author/podcaster/Jeopardy Champ and Greatest American Living Writer Neal Pollack. Find the greatness here!https://www.nealpollack.com/Find all of our episodes here!http://15minutesjamieberger.com(or on itunes or stitcher or soundcloud or ...) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mira Bartok is a dear old grad school and Pioneer Valley friend. We had a conversation about the Cinderella-story-40-plus-years-in-the making that is the last whirlwind two years of her career as a writer and an artist, during which, among other wonders, her debut middle-grade novel was snatched up by Hollywood before it was even sold as a novel or even finished! Here’s her official Bio:Mira Bartók is the author and illustrator of numerous books for children and adults, including The Memory Palace, a New York Times bestselling memoir and winner of the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography, and The Wonderling, the first in a middle grade series, published by Candlewick Press. A major motion picture of The Wonderling, directed by Stephen Daldry (The Crown, Billie Elliot, The Reader), is currently in development. Mira is also a spokesperson for TransCultural Exchange, an international arts organization that seeks to foster greater understanding between world cultures through artistic collab

As we approach episode 50, and also because he's on Fresh Air today talking about his new book, "Vacationland," and we know you'll be itchin' for more John Kellogg Hodgman both before and after, that, here he is, John Hodgman, our very first guest back in May 2016, and the only episode that's even close to being actually 15-minutes long. Next up is Mira Bartok.http://15minutesjamieberger.com@15minsjamieb on the twitters See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As we approach 50 episodes (49 coming Monday 10/30, with writer/artist Mira Bartok), revisiting a few. This one, well, it's a lot of Lois asking me (Jamie) stuff about the show, looking back on year one and why I'm making this thing. Been wondering why, myself, lately, so I'm glad we made this "session." See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Elna Baker - writer, storyteller, performer, comedian and author of the 2010 memoir, “The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance.” You may have heard her tell stories on the Moth, TAL, among other places.On top of telling and producing stories for This American Life for six years, she’s also on the staff of the show. I’m not sure exactly what her title is, but it’s along the lines of producer, consultant, comedian. We talk about that a bit.We’ve met a few times through NYC comedy-world friends. Earlier this year we ended up having dinner with a group of friends after a show at the NY Podcast Festival. I found myself sitting across from Elna, and her This American Life boss, Ira Glass, and while Ira was uninterested, at best, when I found my way around to talking about my podcast - something to the effect of “Why would anyone want to listen to famous people talk about fame” - I clarified that it wasn’t just famous people talking about it, point is, Ira was clearly never going to be a listener, let al

(reposting some faves as we near Episode 50!)George Saunders is as famous as contemporary literary fiction (let alone short-story) writers get, to the extent of being named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2013. His first novel, “Lincoln in the Bardo,” comes out February 14th, 2017 and is receiving glowing reviews. The audio version of the novel is read by an unarguably star-studded cast of 166, including Susan Sarandon, Jeff Tweedy, David Sedaris, Ben Stiller, Lena Dunham, Keegan Michael-Key, Julianne Moore, and Saunders’ parents.He’s also one of my favorite writers ever.I’ll let his short autobiography on his site tell you more about him.www.georgesaundersbooks.com/about/We talked about fame’s perks and pitfalls, artmaking, humility, kindness, the president (just for a minute, promise), beans, and much, much, so much more.Here are the two nonfiction pieces of his we referred to in our conversation: “Congratulations, by the Way” (a graduation speech from 2013 on kindness - a

Because it's a fave, and because he's back on the road and headed to our neck of the woods . . . .David Sedaris is a bestselling writer, humorist, trash collector.Here's what we *didn’t* talk about:- sex- drugs- alcohol- suicide- trash collectingSome of what we *did* talk about:- moms- embarrassment at success- a dirty joke about pizza- dread of going on TV- the graciousness of Whoopi GoldbergENJOY!!! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOTE: Somehow in three edits, I didn’t catch the fact that I said the word “October” when I meant the word “Boy.” U2 fans will understand, if not forgive.A "Meet Your Heroes" episodeMatthew Silverstein is Associate Professor of Philosophy at NYU Abu Dabi. But to me (Jamie, here), He's Matty, a friend who 20-years ago was a callow youth wandering Dublin hoping to run into his idols, the members of the band U2. Click play to find out what happened!He is interested in the foundations of ethics — that is, in the question of what, if anything, we can say on behalf of our most basic ethical commitments. He is also interested in the Chicago Cubs, opera, classical music, and Roger Federer. We talk about all that, but mostly he tells his U2-fan Odyssey. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Scott McCloud is a comics-maker and philosopher and theoretician - he’s perhaps best known for Zot! (1984-90), Understanding Comics (1993), and most recently, his first graphic novel, The Sculptor (2015). When I contacted him recently after reading The Sculptor and finding it chock-full of stuff to talk about on here, Scott was, surprisingly, the first guest to bring up obscurity as perhaps an equally familiar and fascinating topic as fame. We talked about everything from “legacy” and the Mathematics/Physics of acclaim to the Vulcan Empire, with stops at Scott Adams and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles along the way. I really had a great time talking to him, and found it interesting to edit and listen to the second and third and … times around, so I hope you’ll enjoy it too. We spoke on the phone on Labor Day.***Scott McCloud can be found at http://scottmccloud.com***All episodes of this here can be found on iTunes and pretty much everywhere pods are cast, and at http://15minutesjamieberger.com See acast.com/priv

Bobby Tisdale is a comedian, former writer for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and actor/voice actor. He's currently the voice of Zeke on Bob’s Burgers. For many years, he co-produced the weekly stand-up/variety show Invite Them Up with Bobby Tisdale and Holly Schlesinger, which won a Nightlife Award. We pop down the Trump-dismay-and-rage rabbit hole a few times, but we also pop our heads up for some fun from time to time to talk some inside-baseball stuff about calling bingo and so much more!***Find out more about Bobby Tisdale at, of all the nutty places, http://bobbytisdale.com***Fin out more about this show and all episodes at http://15minutesjamieberger.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Comedian Josh Johnson has had a big couple of years. He arrived in NY (after a few years in Chicago doing stand-up) just a couple of years ago, but has already written for and appeared on the Tonight Show, his first solo album, “I Like You,” on Comedy Central Records, came out in July, debuting at number 4 on iTunes and 11 on Billboard, and his first half hour special will appear on Comedy Central network this fall. A solid start, huh? We talk about that stuff, and his favorite high school teacher who told him in high school he’d see him on the Tonight show and then ended up in the house when Josh took that very stage. We also talk talk about what he has in common with Conor McGregor. (Funny thing about this show and audience. Conor McGregor is both one of the most famous people in the world and someone some of you never have heard of. If you’re one of the latter, he’s an Mixed Martial Arts fighter who’s about to have a huge, unprecedented fight with champion boxer Floyd Mayweather on August 26. It’s unpreced

Our guest this week is Jonathan Katz whose animated Comedy Central Series from the 90s has been re-launched as "Dr. Katz: The Audio Files" on Audible. In the show, Katz plays a psychotherapist whose clients are comedians, playing themselves who come to him for therapy. Joining Katz on the Audible series are original and amazing cast members Jon Benjamin and Laura Silverman, as his son and receptionist, respectively. Guests on the audio reboot so far have included Ray Romano, Sarah Silverman, Weird Al Yanovic, Maria Bamford, and Ted Danson (whose episode you’ll hear a snippet of). There’s also an Emo Phillips episode, and I think by now Emo must think I’m some kind of a psycho fan - I’m not - in fact, back when he was a bigger star, I never really followed him, I think it was the voice. BUT, he tells a story on another Audible series, Eugene Mirman’s “Hold On,” which is now available on iTunes, too, and it’s great and he’s great and everyone should listen to it. I know I know it’s starting to seem like I’m a

Julie Klam is the author of five books whose previous two memoirs have focused on seeing her life through the lens of dogs and dog rescue.Her latest, “The Stars in Our Eyes: The Famous, the Infamous, and Why we care Way Too Much about Them,” is something of a departure, and clearly something 15-Minutes-worthy, to say the least. About the book, Us Weekly writes, “In her eye-opening and humorous collection of essays, Julie Klam explores the fascination with the rich and powerful, while also breaking down the challenges tied to fame and why all this actually matters.”We talked about everything from Patti LuPone’s Flonase addiction (KIDDING about the addiction part, but Mis LuPone and nasal spray do come up), her friend Timothy Hutton, what it’s like to make your first appearance on The Tonight Show, and lots of other juicy stuff! Also, stay tuned at the end for our first 15 Minutes celebrity endorsement!Link to the book trailer with Timothy Hutton we discussed:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpuX3hsjegY See acas

Episode 9's guest returns. When first we spoke, Matthew Latkiewicz, formerly a writer, was reluctantly (to say the least) headed into the life of a television host, of Tru TV's "You Can Do Better." A year and 26 episodes later, he's still reluctant, but has moved permanently to LA . . .so not *that* reluctant. We discuss his year, and while we do go into the troubling aspects of fame, we also touch on perks such as the ego boost of it and flying on private jets now and then and MEETING SHAQ - listen in, won't you? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Kurt Braunohler and Lauren Cook are married, and as such, host the "Wedlock" Audio Series on Audible, in which they address all things wedlocky in fun and fascinating ways. Kurt Just had his first Comedy Central hour-long stand-up special this spring, and he's currently in (and helped write) Kumail Nanjiani's new movie, "The Big Sick." We talk about all of the above, and babies and dogs and, oh, yeah, FAME. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.