Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Welcome back! This week, celebrated poet, author, and essayist Morgan Parker sits with Sam to discuss her latest book, Magical Negro. They talk about what poetry can look (and sound) like in the Internet era, the loneliness of being a writer in LA, Morgan's experiences of dating (and writing about) white men named Matt, the visceral intensity of her book readings, and how mass (predominately white) audiences engage with her work...

Actress Haley Bennett joins us this week for a reflective look at her life as an actress, starting with her role as a pop-star in Music and Lyrics to her newest film, the disturbing domestic thriller, Swallow. We discuss the serendipity of motherhood, the perils of acting at an impressionable young age, and how she managed to find her artistic voice amid Hollywood pressures. Plus, a Terence Malick story!

If it weren't for her singular acting abilities, Alison Pill would be best known for her boisterous laugh. (That is only kinda a joke.) The chameleonic actress–Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Midnight in Paris, The Newsroom–has been at it since the age of 10. And so we begin on set, unpacking her life as a child actor, and how she managed to find a voice as she grew up on (and off) screen...

Actor Sam Waterston doesn't do many of these. In fact, this is his first podcast. To mark the special occasion the stage and screen performer reflects on his 60-year career, from his days at Yale in Waiting for Godot to breaking into Hollywood with the The Great Gatsby. But what most fascinates Waterston is reflecting on his life behind the camera, off-stage, as a husband and father. For years Waterston was reluctant to publicly give voice to his thoughts...

Dr. Ashish Jha is the Director of Harvard Global Health Institute and a Professor at Harvard T. H. Chan school of public health. If you've turned on your TV over the past few days, you've likely seen him discussing COVID-19. Today he joins us to talk about how the coronavirus spread; the necessity for social distancing; elderly discrimination; what we can learn from the Spanish Flu of 1918; and plenty advice on how to best keep you and your family safe in this critical moment...

Actress Juliette Lewis “lost her anonymity” with the movies. Movies you've probably seen. Cape Fear, Natural Born Killers, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, From Dusk Till Dawn. She's a visceral, singular performer, untethered to convention. This was true in 1989 and even more true in 2020. But it's what unfolds off-screen that Lewis keeps returning to these days. The larger, existential considerations one has as both a human and an artist...

Naomi Klein is an author, filmmaker and climate activist. But above all– she is a journalist. She joins us to reflect on her natural instinct to run toward crisis; her decades long research of disaster capitalism; the striking systemic difference between her home country of Canada and the United States; the influence of her grandfather’s strike against Disney; and how this pandemic has asked her to slow down.

It is important to note this interview was conducted remotely...