Here We Go Again With Kal Penn
Each week, Kal Penn takes today’s trends and headlines and asks: Why does history keep repeating itself? From the new space race and plane delays to fad drugs and movie remakes, our guest's answers will make you feel better about everything.
Episodes
Comedy is often political. In fact, it's been landing comedians in hot water for years. Take the warrant for George Carlin's arrest after those seven memorable words he said on television. In 1973, a year after Carlin's arrest, the US Supreme Court made it much harder to throw performers in jail for their offensive language, but that doesn't mean comedians in plenty of places don't still end up in jail -- or at least with warrants ...
It's no secret that during acts of war, artifacts get stolen as an old act of dominance. But you may not realize that it's still happening today. In 2024, the Metropolitan Museum of Art physically returned 14 statues to Cambodia when they discovered that they had been looted during decades of civil war. And in 2023, the CEO of Hobby Lobby was indicted when he was found to be at the center of stolen Iraqi pieces that were for his Bi...
Last week, you heard about brain rot and its neuroscience. So this week, we wanted to tackle how to combat it. Manoush Zomorodi is a journalist and host of TED Radio Hour. Mostly, she's trying to figure out how technology is changing your body, your brain, and your behavior. She and Kal sit down to talk about how movement and boredom can be vital parts of warding off the more negative effects of scrolling and screentime.
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Brain rot is a slang term for the cognitive decline we're experiencing these days due to screentime, social media, and the like. But is it a real thing? And is technology making us dumber? Kal sits down with neuroscientist David Eaglemann to delve into the relatively new idea of brain rot -- and whether it's so new after all.
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Despite its massive popularity, the culture of NASCAR has shifted -- from banning the Confederate flag at races to settling an antitrust lawsuit. Kal sits down with legendary NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, who just celebrated his first "crown jewel" victory. How is the sport evolving? How has it stayed the same? And, what's next?
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Are there harmful chemicals in our drinking water? Climate change and environmental reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio, Mara Hoplamazian, is on a mission to find out. On their new podcast, SAFE TO DRINK, Mara wades through the depths of what PFAS/PFOA Chemicals have been doing to us. Just how much is in our water, and how can we protect ourselves? And how come this same issue keeps repeating again and again across the country?
Need a ride? This week, Kal speaks with co-founder, president, and executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Bhairavi Desai, about the ongoing disruption of the taxi industry. Bhairavi has fought alongside more than 21,000 drivers to raise the base income, create a cap on the number of ride-sharing vehicles permitted to drive in New York City, and relieve drivers of hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. But in a...
Short form video is everywhere today. But if you rewind back to 2005, comedy trio The Lonely Island had only just released Saturday Night Live's first digital short: "Lazy Sunday." It went viral, transforming the lives of its members Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer. The Lonely Island would go on to produce hit after hit for SNL, from "I'm On A Boat," to "Dick in a Box." Kal and Jorma sit down to talk about digital s...
When COVID told us we all needed to be six feet apart, some people became addicted to TikTok and other people picked up a racket. Since 2019, tennis participation in the U.S. has grown by 54 percent. And that's excluding all the avid pickleball lovers who keep stealing their courts. So, why are we just becoming obsessed with a game that Andy Roddick has been obsessed with his whole life? Kal talks to the former number one player in...
LA City Council Member Nithya Raman is running for mayor. On this episode, she joins Kal for a candid conversation. She opens up about how she got into politics, LA's homelessness crisis, and being compared to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. What does being a democratic socialist mean to her? And, what does it take to implement real change in her city?
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Bobak Ferdowsi is more than just the NASA Mohawk guy. He's a Systems Engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory with an incredible aptitude for studying spacecraft failures so we can learn from them. Kal breaks down Bobak's career through the spacecrafts that defined them, from the Mars Curiosity Rover to a brand new satellite. Plus, why our failures aren't always bad and how to keep the worst ones from happening again.
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Does anyone completely trust the media landscape anymore? Mehdi Hasan, a broadcaster, journalist, and newly minted CEO & Editor-in-Chief of independent media company Zeteo, has a few insights that might shed light on how we've gotten to where we are, and how distrust has shaped his very specific, highly uncompromising style of reporting.
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It's been a crazy year for late night TV -- from ratings on the decline and budget cuts to cancellations and political influence. Bill Carter, the journalist and author behind The Late Shift and The War for Late Night, joins the show to talk about the evolution (and de-evolution) of late night.
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Baby boomers, millennials, now Gen Z -- they all have their haters. Whichever generation is in their twenties is always walking around with older people rolling their eyes at them. As the former Editor in Chief of Teen Vogue, journalist and millennial Versha Sharma is here to help us understand the seemingly cyclical generational pecking order.
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Though he's a comedic actor, Kal has always felt like the label "comedian" was a sort of stolen valor. That is, until this past year, when he started opening for some of his stand-up friends. This week, Kal calls up Patton Oswalt, a legend in stand-up comedy, to get some advice about getting on stage, what's changed in the comedy world, what hasn't, and what's next.
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Since 2018, sports betting has been legalized in 38 states. Plus, sports betting apps have brought gambling right to our fingertips. It turns out this country has a pretty long and fraught history with gambling. Albert Chen, journalist and author of the book, Billion Dollar Fantasy, helps us answer: How dangerous is sports gambling? Is it tainting the games we love to watch? And, how is technology changing the landscape?
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Ann Friedman was running popular blogs, newsletters and podcasts before media people flocked to those mediums. But now that the industry is trapped in a rinse and repeat cycle of rising and falling and consolidating, she's getting off the social media content creator wagon and asking a much different question: What does the long game look like?
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Some historians trace this idea of the American dream back to the first European settlers and colonizers. American businessman, James Truslow Adams, popularized the phrase in his book: The Epic of America. But this notion of a single Americcan dream isn't so cut and dry. This week, Kal talks to Rafael Agustin, TV writer, film producer, and author of the memoir, Illegally Yours, about the weight of inheriting someone else's American...
It's been coined, "The Caitlin Clark Effect." For the WNBA's last few seasons, it's translated to a surge in popularity, viewership, and revenue, sparked by one extremely talented, ever-watchabale player. But are women's sports at large suddenly having a moment? Where was that attention two or three decades ago? And what does the future look like for female athletes? Sports journalist, former college athlete, and Good Game podcast ...
Americans weren't always accepting of languages other than English. But nowadays, being bilingual is a huge asset. Kal talks to Patty Rodriguez, the founder of bilingual children's publishing company Lil' Libros, about transforming the narrative of multilingualism in the United States.
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