Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture. Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney's, which called it "the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world."
Episodes
April 23, 2024 • 37 mins
Throughout his nearly fifty year music career, Raffi has fought for kids. He's done it with beautiful, fun, and funny music. He's also done it as an activist. Raffi is on the really short list of children's performers who connect directly with the youngest people. When we last chatted with Raffi, he had just released his 2014 album Love Bug. He talked to us about the album, his early childhood in Egypt, his social activism and why ...
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April 19, 2024 • 46 mins
Steve Buscemi! The best ever. The actor, director and producer joins Bullseye to talk about dying on screen dozens of times, and how his father shaped his career in the civil services and encouraged him to pursue acting. We'll look back on the first ever movie he acted in – one that ended up being a pivotal moment in the history of American queer cinema. Plus, he'll talk to us about trying his hand at stand-up as an eighteen year o...
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April 16, 2024 • 43 mins
DJ Quik is one of the most prolific figures in West Coast hip-hop. He's a great rapper, but he's always considered himself a producer first, crafting some of the most inventive samples and beats of the genre. This summer, DJ Quik joins fellow legends Warren G and Snoop Dogg for a tour across that great nation to the North on the Cali to Canada Tour. When Quik joined Bullseye in 2014, he talked about the method behind his sampling a...
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April 12, 2024 • 32 mins
Keita Takahashi is a video game creator and designer. He's responsible for the classic genre defining puzzle game Katamari Damacy. Keita Takahashi has a new game coming out soon. It's called to a T and it's about a child whose arms stick straight out like a "T". We talked with Keita Takahashi about how he got into designing video games and how he pitched the idea for Katamari Damacy to the folks at Namco. He also talks with us abou...
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April 9, 2024 • 34 mins
Alison Brie is the star of beloved television shows Community, Mad Men and BoJack Horseman. She joins us on the latest episode of Bullseye to talk about her latest: Apples Never Fall. We get into her time growing up in South Pasadena and what she learned about herself while working on the physically demanding wrestling tv series GLOW. Does she think the long-awaited Community movie is actually happening? Only one way to find out!
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April 5, 2024 • 35 mins
Paula Pell spent 18 years behind the scenes as a writer on Saturday Night Live. These days, you can see her on Girls5Eva–a sitcom about a 90s girl group that reunites today. She plays Gloria, the queer elder of the group making the most of their second wind. When she joined the show back in 2019, Pell starred in Wine Country alongside a few SNL legends. She also gave us an insider's view on some of her more controversial work on th...
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April 2, 2024 • 39 mins
Shabaka Hutchings makes brilliant, beautiful genre blending songs. His music is vivid, complex and hypnotic. He recently hung up his saxophone and is playing the flute these days. When Shabaka joined the show back in 2021, his band Sons of Kemet had just put out a record called Black to the Future. He talked with us about making the new record during quarantine. He also discussed being an only child, the first instrument he learned...
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March 29, 2024 • 40 mins
On the latest episode, R&B singer SiR joins us to talk about his new record Heavy, growing up in Inglewood and his musical family. Plus, he gets vulnerable and frank about his path to sobriety. Right now is the best time to support Bullseye and the MaxFun podcasts you love by starting a monthly membership or upgrading your existing one! Learn more at https://maximumfun.org/join/
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March 26, 2024 • 44 mins
Jenny Slate has starred in films like Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Obvious Child and Everything Everywhere All at Once. She's also a standup - she just released her second special! Jenny Slate: Seasoned Professional. Slate joins us to talk all about it. The MaxFunDrive is still going strong – right now is the best time to support Bullseye and the MaxFun podcasts you love by starting a monthly membership or upgrading your existin...
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March 22, 2024 • 46 mins
There aren't many actors who can straddle the worlds of high art and blockbusters as deftly as John Malkovich. His latest project is The New Look, a TV show on Apple TV +. The series takes place in Nazi-occupied France and tells the story of how France's fashion industry navigated a terrifying, inhuman reality. John Malkovich joins us to chat about The New Look and his love of fashion. He also talks to us about his upbringing and e...
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March 20, 2024 • 17 mins
Movie stars, writers, artists: these are the typical fare for Bullseye interviewees. For our production company's annual MaxFunDrive, though, Jesse talks with Bullseye listeners. He asks them the same question: Hey, what's your job? We're presenting a sneak peek at one such interview with Joe - an apprentice an electrician in South Boston.
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March 19, 2024 • 40 mins
Peter Dinklage joins us on the latest episode to talk about his new film American Dreamer and working alongside Shirley MacLaine. We also get into Game of Thrones and his time breaking into the industry. Plus, he talks about his time as a singer in a pop-punk band and getting a scar at the legendary venue CBGB's! The MaxFunDrive kicks off this week. Right now is the best time to support Bullseye by starting a monthly membership or ...
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March 15, 2024 • 32 mins
Kali Reis is a boxer, with two championships in two weight classes. She's also an actor. She first starred in the indie film Catch the Fair One, and her latest role is in HBO's True Detective: Night Country. Kali Reis joins the show to talk about the new season of True Detective, what it's been like to break into acting and more.
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March 12, 2024 • 38 mins
Bill Bradley is a two-time NBA champion and hall of famer, Olympic gold medalist, and former U.S. Senator. He recounts all of this and more in his one-man show, Rolling Along: An American Story. Bill joins Bullseye to talk about his theatrical performance, his 2000 run for President of the United States, and so much more.
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March 8, 2024 • 42 mins
Musician Laura Jane Grace fronts the punk band Against Me. On the latest , episode Jordan Morris chats with Laura about her early days playing shows in laundromats, her love of Guns N' Roses, and what it's like to record an album while in quarantine. Laura Jane Grace's latest album Hole in my Head is out now and available on her Bandcamp. Jordan Morris co-hosts a new podcast with Emily Fleming on Maximum Fun called Free with Ads.
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March 5, 2024 • 34 mins
Bob Edwards died last month. He was 76. Edwards was the original host of Morning Edition when the program launched in 1979 – a legend in the public radio game. To commemorate his passing, we're replaying Jesse's 2007 interview with Edwards - back when the show was broadcast out of the woods in Santa Cruz, CA.
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March 1, 2024 • 43 mins
Corb Lund is a country and western musician from Alberta, Canada. He's been recording music since the nineties and just released a new record called El Viejo. Like his earlier work, it's clever, plain spoken and beautifully produced.When Jesse first talked to Lund, back in 2010, it was at a folk festival up in Calgary – his hometown. Now, he joins us in the studio with his guitar to talk about the new album and play a few songs.
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February 27, 2024 • 44 mins
Catherine Opie's photographs have been shown in museums all over the world. Her career spans nearly four decades. Breathtaking photographs of queer and fetish communities, street photography in Los Angeles, portraits of surfers, her friends and families. She joins us to talk about her latest exhibit — a retrospective at Regen Projects. Plus, she tells us about the time she made her own dark room in her childhood bathroom, and also ...
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February 23, 2024 • 34 mins
Sacha Jenkins has chronicled hip-hop culture for decades now. He is one of the founders of the legendary magazine Ego Trip and has produced documentaries on Wu-Tang Clan and Cypress Hill. His new documentary, All Up In The Biz, highlights the life and rhymes of the late rapper Biz Markie, known for his 1989 hit "Just A Friend." Sacha Jenkins sits down with us to talk about Markie's legacy and unconventional approach to life and mus...
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February 20, 2024 • 37 mins
Ten years ago Seth Meyers hosted the NBC show Late Night for the first time. Taking on a gig like that might seem a bit daunting, but Seth was up for the challenge. He's since gone on to interview hundreds of guests, create thousands of regular segments and navigate a pandemic-induced lockdown. Seth Meyers joins us on the show to talk about all things Late Night. He shares what ideas he had when first starting the show, what he lov...
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