Topics
The subjects the shows we cover keep returning to, and what was actually said about each.
Comedy 28
Stand-up as an art form, its roots in political tension, and the state of the industry in America.
Saturday Night Live 15
Both guests have hosted the show, and Fey reflects on her years as its first female head writer.
Addiction 5
Recurring discussions of substance use, sobriety, and its role in comedians' lives and material.
Stand-Up Comedy 4
The business, craft, and culture of live comedy performance.
Longevity 3
The science of living longer and healthier, a recurring throughline across the health shows we cover.
Physics 3
The scientific study of matter, energy, space, and time, from classical mechanics to quantum theory.
Television 3
The ongoing project of making shows, running sets, and wondering if anyone is actually watching.
Acting 2
The craft, psychology, and career management of screen performance.
Anxiety 2
The low-grade dread that apparently powers most successful comedy careers.
Artificial Intelligence 2
The accelerating development of AI systems and their effects on work, economics, and society.
Celebrity Culture 2
The mechanics of fame, image management, and public performance among high-profile figures.
Cosmology 2
The branch of physics concerned with the origin, structure, and large-scale dynamics of the universe.
Hollywood 2
The film industry, its personalities, and the making of movies.
Marriage 2
Advice, research, and debate around long-term romantic partnership and what makes it last.
Parenting 2
How raising children shapes, strains, and sometimes strengthens adult relationships.
Psychology 2
The science of human emotion, decision-making, and behavior.
Reality TV 2
Unscripted television, particularly Bravo's Real Housewives franchise, as cultural obsession and sleep-destroying vice.
Albert Einstein 1
The theoretical physicist whose work on relativity reshaped how science understands space, time, and gravity.
Austin, Texas 1
The city's comedy scene, centered on the Comedy Mothership, as a hub for emerging and established performers.
Basketball 1
Bulls loyalism, Nets gentrification theory, and the moral case against Michael Jordan's mustache.
Biohacking 1
The practice of self-experimenting with compounds, devices, and protocols outside standard medical care, increasingly overlapping with peptide and hormone use.
Body Language 1
The study of nonverbal cues, gestures, and micro-expressions as windows into emotional states.
Cardiology 1
The field of medicine concerned with the heart and cardiovascular system, increasingly linked to stress and mental health outcomes.
Celebrity 1
Coverage of public figures and the personal stories they choose, or are compelled, to share.
Celebrity Feuds 1
Public interpersonal conflicts that play out on screen and in the courts.
Celebrity Interviews 1
The particular energy of two famous people who genuinely like each other pretending to barely tolerate each other.
Childhood 1
Stories and memories from growing up, often embarrassing, occasionally formative.
Children's Television 1
The history and aesthetics of kids' TV and music, from Really Rosie to Sesame Street.
CIA 1
The Central Intelligence Agency's programs, operations, and controversies.
Cleveland 1
Travis Kelce's hometown, site of the Cavs playoff loss to the Knicks and the announcement of his minority stake in the Guardians.
Cold War 1
The decades-long geopolitical and intelligence standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Creator Economy 1
How independent creators build audiences and businesses without traditional funding or media infrastructure.
Directing 1
The creative and logistical demands of actors who step behind the camera.
Entrepreneurship 1
The mindset and practical decisions involved in building a business and creative career.
Estonia 1
The small Baltic nation whose post-Soviet cultural opening shapes Matti's worldview and comedy.
Eurovision 1
The annual European song competition that draws 200 million viewers and apparently features men jogging in human-sized hamster wheels with no explanation.
Extraterrestrial Life 1
The ongoing cultural and scientific debate over whether we are alone in the universe.
Faith 1
The role of religious belief and Christian practice in personal and family life.
Food 1
What people eat, why they regret it, and what it reveals about them.
Free Speech 1
The ongoing debate over algorithmic censorship, platform control, and who decides what audiences hear.
Friendship 1
Long-term creative partnerships and what it looks like when two people have genuinely liked each other for thirty years.
Golf 1
The sport, its culture, and the people who dedicate their lives to it.
Grief 1
How people live alongside loss and find language for it.
HBO 1
The premium cable network whose creative latitude is a recurring subject of gratitude here.
Identity 1
How people construct, revise, and commit to a sense of self over time.
Independent Film 1
American cinema outside the studio system, from the Safdie Brothers to Paul Thomas Anderson.
Independent Filmmaking 1
Comedians and creators bypassing traditional Hollywood infrastructure to make and distribute their own projects.
Inequality 1
The structural gap between earners that shapes who can actually follow financial advice.
Infidelity 1
Stories and analysis about cheating, betrayal, and the dynamics that lead to the breakdown of marriages.
Injury Prevention 1
Methods for identifying and correcting physical weaknesses before they become chronic problems.
Investing 1
Building long-term wealth through index funds, retirement accounts, and compound growth.
Motherhood 1
How having children reshapes identity, ambition, and one's relationship to strapless dresses.
Narcissism 1
Psychological patterns of grandiosity and insecurity as observed in public figures.
Nashville 1
Tennessee's capital city as a hub for entertainment, touring, and development.
New York City 1
The subway, the MTA, bodega neon signs, and the unwritten laws of a packed 2 train.
NFL 1
The National Football League and its surrounding culture.
Norm Macdonald 1
The late comedian remembered here as a gambling recluse who once let Will Ferrell cost him thirty thousand dollars on a rainy Michigan game.
Nostalgia 1
The pull of formative pop culture, from Blockbuster rentals to early MTV, and what it means to have been shaped by a particular era.
Nutrition 1
How food choices affect metabolic health, energy, aging, and long-term disease risk.
Parapsychology 1
The scientific and pseudoscientific study of psychic phenomena, including remote viewing and extrasensory perception.
Parks and Recreation 1
The NBC sitcom that ran from 2009 to 2015 and produced an apparently indestructible alumni network.
Particle Physics 1
The study of fundamental particles and forces, including experimental searches at high-energy colliders.
Peptides 1
A rapidly expanding category of biology-derived compounds being used for everything from weight loss to tissue repair, with regulatory status and safety profiles that vary wildly.
Personal Finance 1
Strategies for saving, investing, and building wealth at the individual level.
Philosophy of Science 1
Questions about how scientific knowledge is built, tested, and accepted.
Podcasting 1
The medium and its particular freedoms compared to broadcast television.
Pregnancy 1
The science of maternal nutrition and how prenatal diet shapes a child's lifelong health outcomes.
Recovery 1
The process of getting sober through rehab, sober living, and twelve-step programs.
Resilience 1
The psychological and physiological capacity to adapt to adversity, trauma, and chronic stress.
Sam Altman 1
CEO of OpenAI whose shifting public statements on AI job displacement have drawn scrutiny.
Sam Kinison 1
The preacher-turned-comedian whose volcanic 1980s run redefined what standup could sound like.
Second City 1
The Chicago comedy institution that trained a generation of performers and apparently ran an extremely competitive baritone horn program.
Self-Improvement 1
Frameworks and practices for living a more intentional life.
Simulation Theory 1
The philosophical proposition that reality as we experience it is a computer-generated construct.
Sports Culture 1
The overlap between athletic life and entertainment, fandom, and public spectacle.
Stand-Up 1
The live comedy form both hosts grew up watching and, in Burr's case, built a career on.
Strength Training 1
Discussion of resistance training methods, programming, and injury prevention across the lifespan.
Stress 1
The cascade of hormonal and cardiovascular responses triggered by modern life, and the effort to manage them.
Theater 1
The production and performance decisions that shape how live shows land on an audience.
Unemployment 1
Structural job loss driven by automation and technological change.
Van Halen 1
The classic rock band whose internal drama has apparently fueled years of celebrity text chain content.
Vanderpump Rules 1
The Bravo reality series whose Scandoval storyline became the most-talked-about drama in the show's history.
Wellness 1
How people think about health, weight, sleep, and the habits that hold it together.
Writers Strike 1
The 2023 WGA strike and what it might mean for Hollywood's content pipeline.