Episodes

Episode 246: Toni Collette, Bill Callahan, and Oil Balls

Photo: Nick Haddow

This week: Toni Collette grabs the wheel … Rob Delaney takes us to a dark, dark chocolate place … Ben Schott shares speichelgleichmut … Texas singer-songwriter Bill Callahan remembers the Seventies … Celia Rivenbark smuggles in the sauce … Poetry among thieves … And savor-ish dough balls straight from Amsterdam.


“Brown & Sticky” – Ben Schott

Icebreaker


Ben Schott Expands His Vocabulary

Chattering Class, Small Talk

Writer and "gentleman miscellanist" Ben Schott turned to the linguistic flexibility of German to create his own glossary of new words for very specific modern states.


Poetic Thief 'Black Bart' Botches a Job

A History Lesson With Booze ®

This week in 1883, gentleman thief Black Bart finally botched one job after pulling off 27 stagecoach robberies. The lyrical larcenist left poems – but never dead bodies – at the scene of his crimes.


Seventies Songs for a Swinging Fondue Party with Bill Callahan

Soundtrack

American-inflected singer-songwriter Bill Callahan is back with "Dream River," his 18th record since 1990. When compiling his dinner party soundtrack, he recalled his parents' 1970s dinner parties and went with a subtle, retro sound and a bit of depth below the surface.


Celia Rivenbark is Southern, Sassy - and Slightly Profane

Etiquette

As a professional purveyor of Southern sass, nationally-syndicated humor columnist and best-selling author Celia Rivenbark has no compunction about telling the world what she thinks. Armed with her new etiquette manual, she tells our listeners how to behave (bless their hearts).


Rob Delaney Parts His Hair on the Danzig Side

Eavesdropping

Beloved by almost a million followers on Twitter, comedian Rob Delaney has broken out of the 140 character limit to write a collection of personal essays.


Oliebollen: The Dense Dutch Doughnut

Main Course

As Rico learned in Amsterdam, it's just not a holiday without a lump of dough stuffed with raisins and fried in oil.


Toni Collette Releases Some Tension

Guest of Honor

In her starring role on television series "Hostages," Toni Collette plays a woman under intense pressure. She talked to us about how she finds balance and about being a mom who isn't 'just a mom.'


Comic Artist Joe Sacco Faces the Black and White of War

Chattering Class

A journalist and comic book artist, Joe Sacco uses the medium of graphic novels to tell non-fiction events in striking ways. In "The Great War" he focuses in on a single battle of WWI in great detail.


Playlist: Episode 226

Playlist

Music used in this week's episode