Learn all about Audible’s new Channels podcast line-up with Eric Nuzum, the company’s Vice President of Original Content. He joins new co-hosts Chris Bannon and Lex Friedman in the Wolf Den to explain what Channels is, and how the effort intends to grow the audience for spoken word audio by expanding the variety of content. Eric talks about how he evaluates programming and its performance, and recalls a mentor from early in his career who taught him what makes for really good content. He also addresses his move from NPR  to Amazon, as well as the migration of talent out of public radio, reflecting on changes that public radio could make to adapt to the changing landscape. Plus, Eric shares his advice for podcasters and producers who are pursuing success.

This episode is sponsored by Blue Apron.

Comedian, actor, writer Yassir Lester (writer for HBO’s Girls) joins Sarah and Susan to talk about The Jackson 5 Reunion for Motown’s 25th Anniversary, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos being helpful for crying, the last scene from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Barack Obama’s re-election speech, and Spike Lee’s Crooklyn.

This episode is sponsored by Third Love and Blue Apron.

Actress, comedian, and writer Phoebe Robinson of the podcast “Sooo Many White Guys” joins Kevin for a discussion on the 1993 thriller “Pelican Brief.” They do some mild humblebragging and watch the new trailer for Denzel’s new movie “The Magnificent Seven.” Later, they examine the “90s realness” of “The Pelican Brief” and rate its overall Denzelishness.

Check out Phoebe’s new book here: https://blaria.com/buy-my-book-you-cant-touch-my-hair/.

Musical guests Austin Lucas, Fernando, and Adam Faucett return along with John Gemberling, Billy Merritt, and Brian Huskey to improv4humans with Matt Besser. Austin brings some talented musicians with him to play songs that inspire songs about a band that cannot emote and a record label that pays its artists in compliments. Later, we visit a future where nobody touches anything and meet a couple of parents that take wishes too seriously.

Check out Austin Lucas’ music over at www.austinlucasmusic.com!

Ira Madison III (Senior Writer at MTV News) joins Andrew this week to discuss exposing violence by the use of phones, current trends, Pokemon Go, and much more. As always, leave us a message about anything you think is racist at (323) 389-RACE.

Melissa Stetten takes on Paisley Grey in Round 2 of the Pistol Shrimps Radio: Summer Masters Mini-Golf Tournament.

The Shrimps on Twitter: @pistolshrimpsbb

The Shrimps on Instagram: @thepistolshrimps

Pistol Shrimps Radio on Twitter: @ShrimpsRadio

Matt Gourley on Twitter and IG: @MattGourley

Mark McConville on Twitter and IG: @MarkMcConville

Jamie Donnelly aka “Brush-a Brush-a Brush-a” Jan the Pink Lady is back to talk more about the 1978 musical Grease. We’ll hear if Jan was a snacker onstage as much as she was in the film, what would be the future of all the Grease characters, and possible inspiration for the end of the film. Plus, Jamie shares stories of stagnant LA river water, Seabreeze shammies, and Johnny Depp finger kisses.

This episode is sponsored by Blue Apron, Casper Mattresses, and Now Hear This Podcast Festival.

Tim Pinebluff (Matt Besser), the founder of the All Lives Matter movement, joins Mark and Pete live from the Republican National Convention to discuss why some lives matter more than others and the demise of Crystal Pepsi. Plus; Mark reads poetry, Donald Trump (Anthony Atamanuik) promises to burn Ted Cruz alive, and Pete sneaks off to chat up his daughter Tiffany.

Katie Couric had her dream job, her dream husband. After he died of colon cancer, Katie was left to raise their two girls young girls on her own—all while interviewing our nation’s most famous and infamous figures. To join the conversation about this episode, go to longestshortesttime.com!

This episode is sponsored by Havenly, Hooked on Phonics, Icon Undies, Bumby Box, Zappos, and Horizon Organic.

Trump isn’t his first choice, but Representative Peter King is in Cleveland at the Republican National Convention as a Trump supporter. David sat down with Rep. King on the second day of the convention to talk about his decision. Keep an eye on your podcast feed this week for more conversations from the RNC!

Have you ever pretended to start a fight with someone much larger than you in the middle of the night just to start a conversation? What about entering a private community garden while people stare at you? James has done those things in the past few weeks, in fact, and today he’s helping Stephen keep his vagabond mindset intact, following a return to the US after weeks abroad.

This episode is sponsored by Magoosh.

Actor and comedian Paul F. Tompkins (SPONTANEANATION with Paul F. Tompkins) joins Howard and Kulap once again for this week’s episode of Who Charted. They take to Periscope to talk bad band names while counting down Esquire’s Top 5 Songs of the Summer, and Howard explains why animals should just stay animals during the Movie Chart. Later, Stard hops in for Two Charted where we hear why Who Charted isn’t in Bora Bora and the story behind “drill videos.”

Make sure to buy Howard’s new album, Oculus Summah, at https://howardkremer.bandcamp.com.

Hayes and Sean team up with fellow showrunners PATRICK WALSH and KEVIN ETTEN to convene a panel on the job of running a writers room where they hold a draft to create the strongest possible room using anyone from history.

He loves animals! But kids? Not so much. This caller delves into his own childhood, his dislike of hardware megastores, and though there’s a little darkness, this is one of the more lighthearted calls we’ve ever had.

This episode is sponsored by Magoosh, The Found Podcast by Wondery, Blue Apron, Stamps.com, and Now Hear This Podcast Festival.

Will James Altucher have the same level of success calling the White House that he did 36 years earlier, as an inquisitive twelve-year-old? Today, we learn that James’ podcasting days began long before he teamed up with Stephen, as James attempted to have phone interviews with every Congressperson and the President of the United States while in elementary school. As James tells his story, we’re regaled to the dulcet tones of the White House switchboard’s hold music.

This episode is sponsored by Magoosh.

Brad Talton of Level 99 Games joins Jensen and Matty to talk about making board games his whole life, working on licensing games, Millennium Blades, Squeegy: On-Demand Mobile Car Wash, Libertalia, “Jewelz” album by O.C., The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, Twilight Struggle Digital Edition, how we were late on Bridge of Spies, and many other things you should know about.

This episode is sponsored by Blue Apron and Casper Mattresses.

Join guest host Paget Brewster as she sits down with actress and comedienne Natasha Leggero (Another Period, The Do-Over). Natasha chats about her early days in LA, collaborating with Paget, and her fantasy of the ideal day.

This episode is sponsored by Blue Apron.

OMFG! O.G. Morgan Walsh is back to join Deanna & Emily in a discussion about how to love and support gender creative children.  They talk about creating safe spaces, like gendernation.org,  where parents of gender creative kids can come together and share their experiences, ask questions and celebrate their gender delightful kids. For more information go to www.gendernation.org!

Comedian Brent Weinbach hops on board the midnight train to Sklarbro County to discuss the dangers of toilet splash-back and Brent’s NBA Jam education. Dan Van Kirk brings stories about a man who set his apartment on fire to escape the sound of his neighbors having sex and a fellow who got his head stuck in a washing machine. Later, they listen to a voicemail from Steven Seagal about his new Kickstarter campaign.

The stage is set for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, and Republican strategist Mike Murphy offers some insight into the state of the party, and the presidential race – which he says would have been the perfect campaign to do well in 1984. Keep an eye on your podcast feed this week for more conversations from the RNC!

There are parts of our daily lives that we just take for granted as being normal, but science proves us wrong. One of the best ways to look at this is language. We’ve previously discussed on the podcast how languages with future tenses (like English) make us really bad at planning for the future. We just think the future is some imaginary place that we’ll always to go later. That’s why we’re great at fun things like procrastinating, drinking and smoking. 

Chinese, on the other hand, doesn’t have tenses at all, so native speakers find themselves naturally better at planning for the time ahead. For Chinese speakers, the future isn’t some magical fairy island that will always come tomorrow–the structure of the language just makes the consequences of life more immediate in their brains.

These little cultural differences literally affect how we perceive the world. In languages with more words for the color green, for example, speakers can actually see more shades of green than us. What is a superpower to us is completely mundane to them because they’ve just had that language and ability their whole life.

On this week’s podcast Jack O’Brien is joined by Cracked executive editor Jason Pargin (aka David Wong) to outline some of the scientific ways our brains trick us with this phenomenon– how our sense perception, something we assume is uniform across all humanity, actually changes depending on what culture we’re brought up in.

Footnotes:

Donald Trump/Bernie Sanders “Yuuuge” Forum Thread: http://goo.gl/xNhQ4e

Blue Square/Green Square Experiment: http://goo.gl/08DBcL

Cracked: Unexplained Things That Only Happen In A Few Places On Earth: http://goo.gl/zf42ye

Cracked: 7 Innocent Gestures That Can Get You Killed Overseas: http://goo.gl/7Nv1es

Cracked: 6 Mental Illnesses That Only Happen in One Place on Earth: http://goo.gl/seibHn

Cracked: 5 Insane Ways Words Can Control Your Mind: http://goo.gl/RlnD

Cracked: 5 Surprising Ways Your Language Affects How You Think: http://goo.gl/3g3nBa

Cracked: I Don’t Know My Age: 5 Things I Learned in My Isolated Tribe: http://goo.gl/6LdJIh

Cracked: 6 Isolated Groups Who Had No Idea That Civilization Existed: http://goo.gl/e49hK

Invisibilia: McDonald’s in Russia: http://goo.gl/nBrjpd

99% Invisible: Devil’s Rope: http://goo.gl/VTbc2K

The McGurk Effect: https://goo.gl/T47EGZ

The Atlantic: Can Your Language Influence Your Spending, Eating and Smoking Habits: http://goo.gl/R9oI0m

Schoolboy Q’s Blankface LP on Spotify: https://goo.gl/BgLM1a

This episode is sponsored by Comic Con HQ, Magoosh, Spotify, and Loot Crate.

Josh catches up with Tom Hiddleston while he is in Australia shooting the new Thor film to chat about his Emmy nomination for The Night Manager. Also, actor Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: Apocalypse) joins Josh to talk about playing Pokemon Go, asking Siri where to hide a dead body, and working alongside Kristen Stewart in his latest film Equals.

Paul F. Tompkins welcomes all with his impressive vocal range to this week’s episode of Spontaneanation! This week, Paul’s special guest is Cedric Yarbrough of Reno 911! and HBO’s Ballers! They chat about how Cedric pronounces “data,” getting into a fist fight as an adult, and unusual nicknames for relatives. Paul is then joined by Mark McConville, Colleen Smith, and Little Janet Varney to improvise a story set at the Minnesota State Fair. And as always, Eban (only the best) Schletter scores it all on piano! 

The next live edition of Spontaneanation happens Saturday, August 6 at Largo at The Coronet! Join Paul & Eban as they welcome improvisors Dan Ahdoot, Tim Baltz and Tawny Newsome, and special interview guest Desmin Borges from You’re The Worst! Tickets are on sale now!

This episode is sponsored by Leesa.com, Seeso, The Bouqs, and Now Hear This Podcast Festival.

The tavern is extra busy, and we have a tiny flying guest with two heads.

Credits

Arnie: Arnie Niekamp

Chunt: Adal Rifai

Usidore: Matt Young

Lyrica: Racheal Mason and Susan Messing

Mysterious Man: Tim Sniffen

Craig: Ryan DiGiorgi

Producers: Arnie Niekamp, Evan Jacover, Ryan DiGiorgi

Editor: Chris Rathjen

Theme Music: Andy Poland

Magic Tavern Logo: Allard Laban

Audio Assistance: Jason Knox

Production Assistant: Garrett Schultz

Episode/Poster Art: Kevin Budnik

This episode is sponsored by Cards Against Humanity, Loot Crate, Blue Apron, and Now Hear This Podcast Festival.

Comedian extraordinaire Jim Gaffigan joins the prestigious Comedy Bang! Bang! 1st Timers Club! Jim and Scott chat about why strawberries suck, having his real family be in TV car commercials, and what he wants the world to know about his TV Land show “The Jim Gaffigan Show.” Later, our old friend Tito Ben returns from the Eagle Rock plaza to update us on his Filipino Blockbuster business and to pitch movies starring himself and Jim. Plus, fugitive Matt Knight arrives to confess what has been keeping him on the run for over 20 years.

This episode is sponsored by Spotify, Magoosh, Leesa.com, and Comic Con HQ.

After last week’s PTA double-hitter, Devin and Amy are back to talk about the classic film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” They discuss the fortuitous casting of Audrey Hepburn in lieu of Marilyn Monroe, director Blake Edward’s skill at candy coating darker themes, and what role the movie played in the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Later, they theorize about how Truman Capote might react to the movie’s fanbase and inspect the questionable inclusion of a racist caricature in the film. Does “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” belong in the Canon? Head to the Earwolf forums to cast your vote!

From mannequins with magical genitalia to a superhero who is seemingly magical. Paul reveals the next HDTGM movie and opens the Explanation Hope Line to address listener’s thoughts on his previous comments on Philadelphia and fireworks. Blake Harris also interviews Mannequin Two director Stewart Raffill to answer all our burning questions including why those buff dudes were dubbed. Plus, Corrections and Omissions for Mannequin Two: On the Move! Send your own voicemail explanation hopes for Paul to answer by calling 619-PAUL ASK. If you want to check out Blake Harris’ interview with director Stewart Raffill go over to www.slashfilm.com.

This episode is sponsored by Avion Tequila and Now Hear This Podcast Festival.

WATCH Filthy Preppy Teen$ on the FullScreen App today! Get yourself a BB-8 “What Is Its Mission?” T-shirt or Tote Bag over at http://howdidthisgetmade.bigcartel.com/ Set your DVRs for Party Over Here, a new FOX sketch comedy show from The Lonely Island and Paul starring Nicole Byer, Jessica McKenna, and Alison Rich. It airs Saturdays at 11 pm. People of the internet: Watch Paul in Fresh off the Boat on ABC. Awhile ago, Paul and Rob Huebel did a comedy special on a 60 foot glass bus that traveled around LA. Now you’ll be able to see it. Go to https://itun.es/us/3M4J9 now to buy it! You can also see Jason and June in Lady Dynamite on Netflix! Also, check out June in Grace and Frankie available on Netflix, and in all the episodes of NTSF:SD:SUV:: on HULU for free, and Jason in The Dictator (he’s still in it!).

Book Club regulars meet new book club readers as Seth Morris, Alison Pill, Alison Becker, and Nelson Franklin join Nate this week to discuss “The Girls: A Novel” by Emma Cline. Who absolutely loved it? Who had unanswered questions? Tune in to find out!

Ronna & Beverly visited the Big Apple and had a fantastic time! Listen as they welcome comedians Ellie Kemper (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and Wyatt Cenac (People of Earth) for a grand ol’ time recorded live from The Bell House in Brooklyn! What more can you ask for?

This episode is sponsored by “Once A Soldier” by Mary Jo Putney and Third Love.

Sirius/XM host John Fugelsang and comedian and Nightly Show producer Benari Poulten join Negin this week. What’s on tap? Adorable baby talk between Trump and the Notorious RBG,  Bernie’s “endorsement” of Hillary, and the polarizing issue of gun violence and gun control. Plus, in case Pokemon Go brought you here, hang tight, we have a monster for you at the end.