On the heels of his first Emmy win, actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach joins us on the show to unpack the return of The Bear.

We begin with a dream story (6:00) before diving into Season 3 of the hit show (7:00), a powerful scene with co-star Jeremy Allen White (9:00), and how Moss-Bachrach manages to keep adding layers to his portrayal of Cousin Richie (15:20). Then, he describes the early, artistic path that he discovered in Massachusetts (23:24), the day he knew he wanted to be an actor (26:00), and the start of his formative collaboration with actor Jon Bernthal (29:20).

On the back-half, we talk about one of his first roles as a jazz musician in Warren Leight’s Side Man (30:00), Moss-Bachrach’s ideas about success and living a more balanced life (36:00), the joy he felt while filming Girls (38:00), a guiding scene from The Bear (43:00), and the work he hopes to continue making in years to come (50:00).

Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at sf@talkeasypod.com.

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“You’re never gonna forget where you were last night at 7:30,” says James Carville. “It has the potential to be that consequential.”

Carville is regarded as one the most influential (and animated) operators in the Democratic Party. He came to prominence as the chief architect behind Clinton’s 1992 Presidential campaign, and has remained one of the most incisive political analysts in the country.

He joins us this week from the Aspen Ideas Festival, the day after the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump (8:15), to discuss what he saw from each candidate (10:30), whether Biden should (or will) step aside in the months ahead (16:16), and who, theoretically, would be fit to run come August at the DNC (26:00).

On the back-half, Carville shares how he would reframe the Democrats' political strategy (33:19), the “coastal condensation” that has slipped into the bloodstream of the left (36:30), his advice on winning elections (54:00), and how he aims to inspire swing voters in purple states through the American Bridge project (59:48). To close, a scene from the 1993 documentary The War Room (1:01:57), and why his love of politics remains undiminished even after this dark week in American democracy (1:05:10).

Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at sf@talkeasypod.com.

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Beloved playwright Annie Baker won the Pulitzer for Drama in 2014 for her play, The Flick. A decade later, she’s releasing her directorial debut, Janet Planet, through A24.

We begin by talking about her striking first feature (7:55): the Western Massachusetts origins of the project (11:00), the mother-daughter love story at its center (13:24), how Thomas Mann’s “The Magic Mountain” shaped Baker’s understanding of time (22:55), and why she’s routinely sidestepped the slippery-slope of “confessional” autobiography in her own work (30:30).

On the back-half, we discuss Annie’s early jobs in New York before she turned to the page and the classroom (40:00), the issues of class that continue to plague contemporary theater (45:00), a formative Rainer Maria Rilke poem as read by Sam (55:50), and whether she believes art “matters” in 2024 (1:00:18)

Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at sf@talkeasypod.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.