After winning an Oscar for writing the film "12 Years a Slave," John Ridley created the award-winning series "American Crime" and the new Showtime miniseries "Guerrilla." He's also releasing a documentary coinciding with the 25 anniversary of the L.A. riots called, "Let It Fall." He and Brendan discuss the director's own experience during the riots, the creative choices behind constructing the documentary's narrative, and more.
Millions of listeners tune in to hear Charlamagne co-host the nationally syndicated radio show "The Breakfast Club." He's known for his long, sometimes combative interviews with everyone from Kanye West to Hillary Clinton. Now, he's available in book form. Before answering our listeners' etiquette questions about competitive gym bunnies, he explained his ideas behind the title of the book, his "F" Your Dreams principle, and more.
In this clip, radio host Charlamagne tha God talks about wanting to quit the social media platform, how it affects discourse online, and how he wants to empower women of color on the social media site.
Improviser, actor, and all-around funny fellow Thomas Middleditch earned an Emmy nomination for playing Richard Hendricks, the hero of the HBO comedy series "Silicon Valley." The show launches its fourth season on April 23. Listen as actor chats with Rico about the commercialization of nerd culture, the startup investment tips he's picked up from working on the tech comedy series, and more.
In the past decade or so chefs have become celebrities. So, it's kind of remarkable that pioneering chef Jeremiah Tower isn't better known. However, a new documentary from filmmaker Lydia Tenaglia sets out to change that with "The Last Magnificent." It profiles Tower's role in changing what and how Americans eat and why his personal flaws might've contributed to his obscurity.
In each chapter of her book "Animals Strike Curious Poses," Elena Passarello tells a different true story about an animal that made its mark on history. In the audio above, she reads from a chapter called "Vogel Staar" co-starring a young Mozart... and a musically inclined starling.
Nathan Willett and Matt Maust are two-fifths of indie rock band Cold War Kids. The band just released their sixth record. It's called, "L.A. Divine." Listen as Nathan and Matt pick songs by Fiona Apple, The Walkmen, and more to pull at your heartstrings as they look back at their missed encounter with a rock superstar.
This week back in 1800, the U.S. government's oldest cultural institution was founded. Find out how the founding father influenced the library’s scope, then toast with a cocktail celebrating the institution's current top librarian.
We want to hear your embarrassing (and etiquette question-inspiring) stories!
We were talking about this around the office, and realized we didn't know much about how salt does what it does. To fix all that, Rico sat down with Eric Schulze, a science writer and Senior Scientist at Memphis Meats in the Bay Area. During our chat, Eric taught us everything from salt basics to the science of "dry brining" your next steak.