LIVE from Largo in Los Angeles, Golden Globe Award winner Rachel Bloom of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and HDTGM All-star Jessica St. Clair of Playing House join Paul and Jason to discuss the 1984 rock & roll fable Streets of Fire. They’ll cover everything from Rick Moranis being a bad ass to the Michael Pare slap fight. Plus, everyone asks why Dottie from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure is in the movie during Audience Q&A!

Don’t forget to check out Blake Harris’ Oral History of Streets of Fire over at www.slashfilm.com!

HDTGM: LIVE! returns to Largo at the Coronet on March 19th at 7pm and 9:30pm! Get your tickets now over at www.largo-la.com!

Attention: The Crash Test special that Paul & Rob Huebel performed on a 60 foot glass bus is available online on Comedy Central! Get yourself a BB-8 “What Is Its Mission?” T-shirt or Tote Bag over at http://howdidthisgetmade.bigcartel.com/! People of the internet: Watch Paul in Fresh off the Boat on ABC and a while ago, Paul and Rob Huebel did a comedy special on a 60 foot glass bus that traveled around LA and now you’ll be able to see it. Go to https://itun.es/us/3M4J9 now to buy it! You can also see Jason in Transparent on Amazon and in Dirty Grandpa in a theater near you! 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!).

Marissa and Listler are back with their special guest, Mr. Dan Tennis (Andrew Barbot), Marina Del Rey High’s Computer Teacher on this week’s WOMP IT UP! Mr. Tennis talks Apple and Marissa has a few choice words for listeners during “What’s Cheesing You?”. Then, the spotlight is on Mr. Tennis as he tells us about his model train hobby, his foster kids, and his passion for playing acoustic covers of Dave Matthews Band. Plus, Listler reveals what happened to her previous marriage during Listler’s Love Lockdown!

Paul F. Tompkins welcomes everyone, including non-listeners, back to SPONTANEANATION! This week, Paul’s special guest is podcaster, TV host, and author Dave Holmes! They chat about whether to live without electricity or a toilet, why Dave’s no longer able to eat donuts, and parental eccentricities regarding science fiction. Paul is then joined by Jessica Chaffin, Craig Cackowski, and Brandon Johnson to improvise a story set in The One Beauty Parlor in a Small Town. And as always, Eban (only the best) Schletter scores it all on piano!

LIVE episodes of SPONTANEANATION return to Largo on The Coronet on Saturday, February 6, 2016! Get your tickets now: bit.ly/SPONT0216

Get yourself a pair of Spont socks, as seen on NATIONAL TELEVISION on The Bachelor Live in the Earwolf store: http://ear.wf/1K61sLq

A short list of completely ridiculous things we put up with as English speakers: 

1. I before E except after C (apart from numerous exceptions that you should memorize)

2. The letters C and K making the same sound (except when they don’t)

3. The multiple pronunciations of ‘ough’ (Cough, Through, Rough, Thought, etc.)

4. Different countries putting a U in words like Favo(u)rite or Colo(u)r

What the hell is going on here? How did our language get like this? Why is this the 2nd most spoken language in the world when it makes no sense? 

To get a grasp at the enormity of English, Jack O’Brien is joined on the phone by Susan Bennett, the original voice of Siri, to talk about her time recording every sound in the English language and how programmers put it all together.

Later, Jack is joined onstage at the UCB Sunset Theatre in Los Angeles by Dan O’Brien, Carmen Angelica and Alex Schmidt. They talk about the history of English, how it combines the best of French and the worst of German, the grammar’s endless nonsensical rules, and some simple things other languages do that we wish we had.

Stephen and James are joined by guest questioner Manoush Zomorodi, host of the Note to Self podcast. Manoush and the guys attempt to figure out what exactly would happen to the economy if everyone stopped buying poorly constructed and cheap items.

Comedian, writer, actor Deirdre Devlin joins Andrew all this week to answer some racism questions. Today they discuss how sometimes comedy and music heroes have awful points of view. Be sure to call us at (323) 389-RACE to ask if anything is racist.

Fay Wolf is an actress, author, musician, professional organizer, and one of Nate’s closest friends. Fay joins Nate this week to talk about her new book New Order: A Decluttering Handbook for Creative Folks (and Everyone Else), how people need permission to begin purging their memorabilia, searching for her own permission to call herself a musician, and the process of electronic decluttering. Make sure to get a head start for the next book club by grabbing yourself The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and send in your thoughts on the book at readingaloudpodcast@gmail.com.

Welcome back to Shut Up and Pants With Me! with your hosts Linda and Carol (Alana Johnston, Holly Prazoff)! It’s the podcast solely dedicated to the wonderful world of pants. This week they are joined by Yolanda, only the hottest Ponte Pants designer to answer burning questions. Why Ponte? Are shorts pants? Who wins in a battle against Gauchos vs. Culottes? Plus, Traci Reardon stops by to help her Twitter followers with advice on how to stay popular without going out and more in another edition of “Help Me, Rhonda.”

Michaela Watkins is amazing in every role she plays, from Wanderlust to the comedy series Casual on Hulu, she is a powerful comedic force. Michaela joins Randy & Jason to talk about her early days of studying acting at Boston University, what lead her to join The Groundlings shortly after, and the joy she experienced joining the cast of Saturday Night Live which was something she always aspired to accomplish as a child. Later, Jerry Jones, owner of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys stops by the studio to talk about how many teams are coming to Los Angeles and much more.

Andrew Ti and special guest Matt Braunger finish the week off by discussing The Ridiculous 6 and The Academy Awards. As always, leave us a message about anything you think is racist at (323) 389-RACE.

No guest this week. Looks like another Boys Ni–wait, who’s this guy at our table?

Credits

Arnie: Arnie Niekamp
Chunt: Adal Rifai
Usidore: Matt Young
Assassin: Ross Kimball
Bungaree Chubbins: Tom Gottlieb
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

Sponsored by: Field Notes via The Chicago Podcast Cooperative

Alice Wong, Founder and Project Coordinator for The Disability Visibility Project (http://disabilityvisibilityproject.com) joins Kamau to give her perspective on Denzel playing a disabled character in the 1999 thriller The Bone Collector. Plus, Kevin and Kamau talk about The Oscars Boycott, Stacey Dash’s thoughts on the BET Awards, and Kevin’s TV situation.

The fabulous Kenneth Turan, film critic for the Los Angeles Times and NPR’s Morning Edition & author of Not To Be Missed: Fifty-Four Favorites from a Lifetime of Film joins Sarah and Susan to talk about The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Casque d’Or, and Make Way for Tomorrow.

On a bonus interview episode, Franklin chats with screenwriter Charles Randolph about his 2016 Academy Award nominated screenplay The Big Short (directed by Adam McKay and now in theaters). Then, Franklin talks with screenwriter Billy Ray (2014 Academy Award nominee for Captain Phillips and 2014 Black List Labs Mentor) about his most recent project, Secret in Their Eyes, which he wrote and directed.

The time has come to determine who will officially be Scott’s intern. Intern Gino Lambardo and Intern Marissa Wompler go head-to-head in the very first Comedy Bang! Bang! Intern Challenge judged by none other than CBB’s first ever guest Rob Huebel of The Descendants, Childrens Hospital, and Crash Test fame. Two enter and one will leave the intern duties for good. Who will be victorious? Tune in to find out!

Putting for dough with Jen Kirkman.

Andy Daly, Sean Conroy, and Billy Merritt are members of the legendary improv team The SWARM and this week they join Matt Besser for a LIVE improv4humans from the UCB’s Sunset theater in Hollywood California! Listen as they catch people swimming in MLK’s reflecting pool burial ground, follow an employee who pushes the envelope on wearing what they want at their job, and work on their “Rock, Paper, Scissors” subliminals. Plus, We Need To Talk About Kevin shares the New Year’s Resolutions of the humons on Hollywood Blvd and an audience member tells us a story about an unexpected visit from a family member he’s never met before. Make sure to sign up for Seeso.com to get Matt Besser’s new standup special “Besser Breaks the Record” and the new live comedy show filmed at the UCB theaters called “The UCB Show”.

Guy Raz is the host of NPR’s TED Radio Hour, which has consistently been at the top of the iTunes charts since it debuted in 2012. He is Adam’s guest for an episode that no public radio or podcast fan should miss. Guy explains how the idea for the show came about, and why he decided to step away from hosting Weekend All Things Considered to join the TED Radio Hour. He talks about how he puts together different TED talks to form the themes behind each show, and why it’s so important for there to be a podcast of the show, even though the radio version airs on 620 stations in the US, and on stations in 15 countries. Guy also reveals how working on the show has changed his perspective, and how he convinced NPR management to allow him to voice the podcast ads himself. 

James thinks that human beings’ ability to accept and process new information is what put our species on top. But what does that say about famous politicians, pundits, and other ‘experts’ who only use facts that solidify their concrete opinions?

Matt Braunger and Andrew talk about whether preferring the Cake’s version of “I Will Survive” over the original Gloria Gaynor version is racist. Make sure to leave us a message about anything you think is racist at (323) 389-RACE.

Jonathan is joined by Sullivan Oakley to discuss menstrual cups, the stigma attached to periods, and helping women in poverty-stricken areas around the world.

Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com.

Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com.

Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.

Join Casey by Alene Too and Danielle Bella Gray as they discuss The Real Housewives of Potomac premiere (YAAAS Giselle!), the morally corrupt Faye Resnick and the former life of Yolanda’s health aide. They are joined by the incomparable Deanna Chang who weighs in on Erica Jaynes electrifying pauses and Eileen’s dusty beauty. 

Doug Benson loves movies more than you. Doug’s podcast “Doug Loves Movies” has even given Leonard Maltin street cred thanks to the popularity of “The Leonard Maltin Game.” Doug joins Leonard this week to discuss his lifelong love of movies and one of his recent favorites, Bone Tomahawk starring Kurt Russell.

Matt goes into the IWTT Classic archives once more to share one of his favorite episodes of the past year featuring the great Stephen Tobolowsky. Bing! Actor extraordinaire Stephen Tobolowsky joins Matt to chat about his role as Ned Ryerson, the insurance salesman who pesters Bill Murray each and every morning in Groundhog Day. Stephen talks about shooting his famous scene in every weather condition imaginable, improvising with Bill Murray, Harold Ramis as a personal hero, and much more. Stephen also tells us about his experience on Deadwood, working with a spiritually-transformed Steven Seagal, and the worst squibbing of his life. Plus, Matt interviews a very special lady in his life in a new segment called I Was There Mew.

Businessman and “Just Jillian” executive producer Giancarlo Chersich comes bearing gifts for Ku and H. Michael Kre on this week’s Who Charted? They discuss modern music legends and Generation Z being “alone together” during the Billboard’s Hot 100 music chart. The Top 5 Movies chart inspires conversation about the Oscar-nominated films, making “Just Jillian” and hosting a slime wrestling event in high school. Later, Howard recaps his San Francisco tour and Kulap updates us on “Bajillion Dollar Propertie$” during Two Charted.

A young Mormon plays a long con on his childhood crush—in the hopes of starting a family with her.

To join the conversation about this episode, go to longestshortesttime.com!

A discussion about making and breaking habits takes a turn into Stephen’s obsession with Seattle’s most valuable coffee chain, and how that company should tweak their in-store operations.

Matt Braunger and Andrew talk about whether if it’s okay for a caller to identify as Latino because of their grandmother. Make sure to leave us a message about anything you think is racist at (323) 389-RACE.

In this bonus Ask the UCB episode, Matt Besser, Seth Morris, Eugene Cordero, and Will Hines discuss playing gay improv characters and improvising with what you know. Make sure to sign up for Seeso.com to get Matt Besser’s new standup special “Besser Breaks the Record” and the new live comedy show filmed at the UCB theaters called “The UCB Show”.

The delightful Katie Dalebout of The Wellness Wonderland joins Deanna and Emily this week to discuss some important issues including her experience with orthorexia, an obsession with eating foods that one considers healthy. Deanna & Emily recall their relationship to food when they were in their 20’s. And how now they worry more about #WRINKS and #CREASES then #CALS and #CARBS. Katie takes us through her journey and shares how she overcame her health obsession.