random topics.

just go watch Blake's Comedy Special Daddy Long Legs on YouTube. 

major family transitions and getting run over by the speed of life.

Sam Goldstein (https://www.instagram.com/onlysamscomedy/) is a comedian, podcaster, and the producer of Don't Tell Comedy all over San Luis Obispo, CA.

Matt and Sam built the #BrewingComedy brand before the pandemic and have been doing comedy together since 2012 when they met doing spots at the Rack in Woodland Hills and various other weird venues in Southern California.

MAPS resources:

The Article I read in this episode. Breakthrough Therapy Designation: Streamlining the Path to Approval.

NYTimes article The Psychedelic Revolution Is Coming. Psychiatry May Never Be the Same. And another one here A Psychedelic Drug Passes a Big Test for PTSD Treatment.

Rick Doblin Ted Talk

Maps.org & Maps Public Benefit Corporation

What would you do if you could re-do the pandemic knowing what we now know (still not everything) about covid. what are you happy for? what did you learn? enjoy...

"When you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras." - Professor Theodore Woodward 1948

Woodward is credited with coining, in the late 1940s, the medical zebra aphorism (following the principle of Occam's razor) paraphrased variously as: "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras." and "When you hear hoofbeats behind you, don't expect to see a zebra.

Paul Slater (@slaterinseattle), co-founder & CEO of BillionMinds (@risingbillion) - a new company with a mission to help people maximize their personal effectiveness -  and  former Microsoft CTO joins me to explain cricket in the most effective way possible...long form conversation and fun banter. We managed to not talk about work at all. It was awesome. Cricket, like life, comes down to the weather, the conditions of the playing field, and time. 

Check out the Way Too Busy podcast by BillionMinds for a weekly deep dive into personal effectiveness with the founders as well as amazing guests and authors from around the business and tech world.

If you want to check it out after listening, Paul suggests you check out the 2019 World Cup England V. New Zealand match. And I am fascinated by the story of Don Bradman.

By day, Paul is the co-founder of BillionMinds. Check it out...

BillionMinds is close to launch, and you can now Pre-order it with a discount code from this Podcast! Just go to Billionminds.com/offer and use the pre-order code WAYTOOBUSY to get 15% off the pre-order offers.

Way Too Busy is a podcast brought to you by BillionMinds -  If you wake up in the morning not sure what to do, if your life sometimes seems like a never ending series of tasks with no obvious purpose, or if you end the day unable to switch off,  you need BillionMinds - the first software designed from the ground up to make YOU more personally effective.

BillionMinds launches this summer.

Sign up now to be one of the first to try it at www.billionminds.com.

Follow Blake on all the socials @BlakeWexler and here's his website:

Buy his albums on iTunes.

Subscribe to his podcast Blake's Takes for God's Sakes and sign up for his Patreon for some reason.

And here's Rudy Gobert.

Don't miss the Meat Dave Tour sponsored by Bear Mountain BBQ.

Go to DaveWilliamsonComedy.com for tickets and check out the Meat Dave Podcast.

We discovered we are both Modernas, we both are triggered by toilet paper aisles, we are both finding other things to do until we can get back into large rooms of people.

We go deep on making Mead and the Tavern he build in his house during the pandemic, and I think we finalized his plan to start a podcast which explores his heavily religious upbringing and his transformation to the person he is today.  

Check him out and subscribe, like & review the Biofriendly Podcast.

Check out his work on Good Cops, Intermission, and I Had A Bloody Good Time at House Harker.

Solo session where I read and comment on my article about the Synergy of Medicine, Science & Public Benefit and the work being done at MAPS.

Watch this TedTalk from the founder of MAPS, Rick Doblin.

Here's the article if you want to check it out - https://maps.org/news/bulletin/articles/407-bulletin-spring-2016/6100-the-synergy-of-medicine,-science,-and-public-benefit-%E2%80%94-spring-2016

Can we have a simple Humans 101 ? 

A few simple pictures we can all agree on  - one human - one planet - you know, stuff that really shouldn't be a  dispute at all. 

Fundamental truths everyone should know. The ones you don't really need to learn but instead  un-learn as you're indoctrinated into culture and society. Can we re-adjust the baseline to eliminate things like racism just as a start.

We now have the capability to create global messaging. It can be pictures so you don't even need a language to understand it.

I'm sure I'm way too utopian and optimistic about it...but someone has to be to know it's possible. Right?

For your reference:

The Clock Of The Long Now

In the words of Stewart Brand, a founding board member of the foundation, "Such a clock, if sufficiently impressive and well-engineered, would embody deep time for people. It should be charismatic to visit, interesting to think about, and famous enough to become iconic in the public discourse. Ideally, it would do for thinking about time what the photographs of Earth from space have done for thinking about the environment. Such icons reframe the way people think."  Order the book.

Had a great chat with Shawn & Ben about their amazong web series My Death Co. We went through it's origins, how it was shot, the choices they had to make and the many really cool things that happened to get it to screen. This conversation was so interesting and inspiring.  

My Death Co. follows a recently deceased man, Sam (@JonHuck), as he’s forced to work as a grim reaper in the afterlife. Sam has to learn to connect with and bring closure to those on the brink of death and, in doing so, finds meaning in his own (after)life. Created by Shawn McDaniel and Ben Hammond as a method of depicting loss in a more positive light, My Death Co.’s dark humor stands out and invokes a sense of hope in dark times. My Death Co. stars Jon Huck, who has appeared in Comedy Central’s “This is Not Happening” and “Live at Gotham,” as well as MTV’s “Punk’d,” NBC’s “Superstore” and CBS’s “Angel From Hell”. He will also appear later this year in “Hidden in the Heart of Texas: The Official Hide and Go Seek Documentary”. For anyone who knows the struggle of letting go and the healing power of comedy, My Death Co. is sure to be a hit.

Check out his radio show  and find him on Twitter  - https://twitter.com/ritters90

And if you're near Montclair NJ, stop by his Restaurant - Brick Lane Curry House

Ritesh in his own words:

I am a digital evangelist, and have been evangelizing digital since the early days of the dot com boom in the late 1990's. As a young man, I joined Agency.com and quickly began to consult with major fortune 500 companies to evangelize the merits of the World Wide Web.

Now working for Ogilvy, I work in the Ogilvy Consulting Practice and consult with major clients on digital transformation and innovation. I am an outspoken digital evangelist and have lent my POV in a variety of forums. I am passionate about educating peers and clients about what the future of digital looks like for healthcare. I have recently taken his mission on the road and speaks at a wide variety of digital and healthcare-centered events across the world.

At heart, I am a Digital and Social Evangelist. With over 20 years of Digital Experience my background includes Online Marketing, Advertising, Sales, CRM and E-Business. I focus primarily on digital strategy, tools, platforms, and ecosystems in Healthcare, focused on Pharmaceutical Companies and Health Systems.

We go deep on some dad strategy this time.

A great time hanging with killer comedian Adrienne Airhart (@craydrienne). Fresh off a few dates in San Francisco with human collector and @AGT vet Alex Hooper (@hooperhaipuff), she's maximizing her pandemic with a few major moves, a few major surgeries, a few major life changes...and holding it together. We tried not to talk about government or covid, but we couldn't help it. We're both optimistic curmudgens...it was a good chat.

Some topics and stuff:

Long covid in the early days, nobody wants to go to Oklahoma, I gush over her amazing web series Two Inches Apart w/ Delanie Fischer, how to fix social media, dr. tiktok, crouching russians, the vibes in San Francisco,  Her podcast Glitchin', Tom Green's Van Life, Brian C. Muraresku's The Immortality Key, and bombing at psychedelic science. Her website is craydrienne.com.

Greg was one of the first Philly guys I met out here in LA. We bonded over music, Philadelphia Eagles, life, perspective, moving to LA and all kinds of stuff. Greg has worked in the music recording industry - major music like Alice in Chains and Tool -  and is full of great stories as you'll hear. Enjoy!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indyfawcett
Website: https://www.indyfawcett.com
Watch My Death Co. on YouTube

Check out his podcast mobile & remote production company. https://www.chobo.co/

Shows he's currently working on:
Speaking Highly with Jon Huck: https://www.speakinghighly.com
The Zach Dresler Show: https://linktr.ee/tzds
The Conscious Club Podcast: https://www.theconsciousclubpodcast.com

Some stuff we mention:
He's inspired to try his hand at comedy, too. Support his efforts!

The Clock of the Long Now
Miner Street Studios | Weathervane Music

The music of Jeff Campbell

Scott (He / Him / His) is an atrocious golfer, sales guru and head of America’s  @Cloudinary. He has a Ted Talk and a Podcast called Beyond Snake Oil.

Topics:

• The Stumbling Stones
• The Winds of Change
• Fan Death

Jimmy’s ongoing and frustrating battle as a progressive, the blowback from the #ForceTheVote and the squad. His request is simple - in a global pandemic the government should provide medicare for all and financial relief. His ability to change Tucker Carlson’s mind on stuff; deep corruption in all politics; moving to Italy, his love of cooking and fancy olive oil. It was fascinating. 

Jimmy's Albums on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/jimmy-dore/284354504

Some of the stuff we talked about for reference: Fred Hampton , Consolidation of Media, George Carlin's Illusion of Choice, 

Jimmy's show http://bit.ly/22AHYDV, Stand Up - Album Sentenced To Live (http://amzn.to/2jDMgwH) Podcast http://apple.co/1P9cd0x Book http://amzn.to/1Hx9l66

Watch/Listen to the Jimmy Dore Show (@JimmyDoreShow) - Become a member at http://jimmydorecomedy.com/donate

We both were very excited to chat and obviously had a bunch of coffee before we started talkin (or we're both equally insane)…so try to keep up. Even though the election and insurrection are behind us, we still found room to panic about other things - like pandemics, parenting in modern times, and being a funny real estate agent.

Jon Shefsky - Follow him on Instagram & check out the Fantasy House Podcast,  

[recorded before the inauguration of Joe Biden - an interesting time capsule]

A ramble through late night #greenroom banter with one of my favorites in the world - Kym Kral (@kymkral). We cover all kinds of stuff including cults, the pandemic, the end of social media, sky dad, her experience with long-haul covid-19, adaptation, and the beatles/paul mccartney is dead conspiracy.

Check out all her stuff - Kym Kral.com, subscribe to her amazing podcast Kral Space, and her conspiracy podcast with Kelsey Lane.

Ken and I can talk about anything for hours - on this particular session, we went deep on old man shit, work becomes career, marriage, moving away from home, new adult friends, casket sharp flowers, forgetting anniversaries, Oprah, the #BLM movement (the podcast photo is Ken's Front Lawn in Georgia), his slow Covid neighbor, his wood shop, his messy office, jumping bikes, his edicts of covid protocol, getting put in facebook jail...it took us almost 2 hours to even start talking about the Capital Insurrection, false equivalence, #BLM & Politics. 

"White people value reconciliation with one another more than they value justice." - Ken Mond

NICOLE AIMEE SCHREIBER can be seen on LIGHTS OUT WITH DAVID SPADE and is perhaps best recognized as one of the stars of Oxygen’s FUNNY GIRLS. She recently recorded standup for Netflix Is A Joke Radio and taped for Comedy Central’s This Week At The Comedy Cellar. She featured for Dave Attell on his latest headlining tour, as well as for Dave Attell and Jeff Ross on their Bumping Mics tour. Previously, she hosted a show on Reese Witherspoon’s HELLO SUNSHINE media network; appeared in shows on networks such as HBO, Hulu, and Comedy Central; and is featured in the Comedy Dynamics documentary POOP TALK. Nicole Aimee is a Paid Regular at The Comedy Store, Comedy Cellar, Laugh Factory, and Hollywood Improv. 

Jessica Michelle is a Paid Regular at The World Famous Comedy Store where she can be seen performing whenever she's in town between touring and she's the idiot host of her popular podcast, "Ignorance is #Blessed". She is a recurring guest on The Stephanie Miller Show on Free Speech TV and Sirius XM. Her comedy can be heard regularly on Sirius XM's Raw Dog Comedy Channel and she has been a featured guest on Playboy TV's "Talking Dirty" and Ari Shaffir’s “Skeptic Tank”. Get her album Please.Don't.Leave.Me on Apple Music

Our discussion swung wildly to topics including a lovely Chest of drawers, Game of Thrones, Dexter, Oz, Six Feet Under, Nicole was Pre-med, donating plasma, choking on vitamins, art supply discounts, dog quarantine, and a return to comedy.

Support their podcast Two Filthy Nerds (@twofilthynerds) podcast and Patreon

Check out Ryan's Webpage.

Check out Ryan's Book - The Party.

His 1 Hour Special is on Amazon Prime Ryan Conner: Live from DC.

Alex has a website. He's been to the quater finals on America's Got Talent in 2020,  Roast Battle and he has a comedy special called "When Does The Club Shut" - it's fantastic. He discusses being diagnosed with Covid-19; we go behind the scenes on his America's Got Talent performances and how he purged the stress with psychedelics; his song at the "legendary" mariachi heckle  @ComecdyAhoyShow  (12/29/2017 w/ Brian McWilliams, Jeff Sussman (@thejeffsussman), Jessica Michele Singleton (@JMSComedy), & Chris Lev (@TheChrisLev); We do some movie reviews (all  thumbs down); pug yoga calendars and postcards and Troy Conrad's amazing photos; the art of the roast;  and his forthcoming personal development workbook Roast Yourself to Happiness; Hugs; Check out Alex's Podcast Achilles Heel. 

Samantha Hale (@thesamanthahale) joins the podcast to discuss sharks, pandemics and producing her own one-hour comedy special which premieres January 12th -  Comedy Dynamics will be releasing Only Happy When It's Raining Men on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Comcast, Google Play, Youtube, Vimeo and more! Or listen on Spotify, Sirius XM, Apple Music, Amazon Music.. and download the album on iTunes.

Our late night ramblings included SharkLab; pizza as the cure for motion sickness, Cancun Adventures, growing a green thumb, an unhealthy obsession with Bath & Body Works, Her iconic horror house tour, and subscribe to her YouTube Channel. The SugarMynt Gallery , Scary Movies, and producing her own comedy special.

Go get Adam's Special on Dry Bar Comedy.

Matt catches up late night with comedian and writer Adam Cozens (@AdamCozens27). Topics include having a baby in a pandemic, quarantine routine, the “gauntlet” at The Rack, wishing he never met @Chip Chantry, NY vs. LA beach proximity, how nothing beats the cheap Apple headphones, hype man Pitbull, missing the movies, and making the best of it through dumb conversations.

Jenna (@jennabrister) & Matt discuss pandemics, conspiracy theories, school field trips, national treasure, slow dancing with pets, hallmark world, the lighthouse operator, the 12th Man, & Comedy Ahoy. We figured out a lot of things are "weird".

Check out the movie Jenna wrote on AmazonPrime: Killer Twin;  Here's the dumb pre-#metoo video we talked about - Boob Grazing

Jenna's amazing podcast series - I, Survivor Podcast

Unofficial Sponsors and Mentions:
5 Threads Brewing Company

DONATE to the Troubadour

Jamie Metzl - Origins of the SARS-CoV-2

Mistakes: *I kept saying Covid originated in the wet markets from a monkey...obviously, I meant bats. And no, the players don't hear the same fake crowd noise.

My conversation with stand up comic Ryan Stout (@StoutRyan) about pandemics, presidents, social media theories, and lots and lots about comedy. We had a good time. I don't know why he bothered to talk to me, but I'm glad he did.

Ryan's Half-Hour Special on Comedy Central

Movies and Shows: Mank on Netflix,  Hell Den on SyFy

Albums: Man in the Suit (2019), How To Be An Audience (2017), Touche (2011)

Listen on Spotify

A few things we mentioned:

Larry Miller's 5 Levels of Drinking

Robert Schimmel

Bouldering in Waco Tanks

Simon Sinek - Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last

Warning: We had Zoom issues, so pardon the weird cuts and glitches.  I decided to cut out the dead silence and asking each other if we're frozen. In between, we had a few laughs. Hope you enjoy it.

Sam (@_SamGoldstein) & I ramble about time travel, his experience touring during a pandemic, buying extra furniture, hope for the future and the economics of girl scout cookies.

Sam is a Los Angeles based stand-up comic, podcaster, writer, and the producer of the Secret Clubhouse podcast with Samuel J Comroe, Ralph Guerra & James Frey. 

Check out his website & podcast - Sam Goldstein's Recorded Talking with Occasional Guests.

Mentions: Why We Sleep - By Dr. Matthew Walker

Several themes emerged through our exhaustion - many uses of "fly" (aka phly), Chuck Knoblauch, shows with a side of existential dread, microphone mana & BYOM, blake’s unsettling habit of spitting on the first few rows, @Eagles football, Heaven Can Wait, Bethlehem Steel, and dusty non-wizard libraries & a new #surprisequiz 

Get Blake's Stuff:

Albums: Stuffed Boy, The Blake Album, Twelve Years of Voicemails from Todd Glass

Podcast: Blake’s Takes for God's Sakes Podcast

Matt and Jen catch up on Jen's Thanksgiving in her car, just a little shrooms, covid live comedy, meet grandma, OnlyFans ideas, Afghanastan USO Tour, #SurpriseQuiz, throw up on the page, Colin Quinn is great, dogshit, @JamesFreyComedy's old timey prospector at the Gauntlet, deciding what to sniff and turning life into comedy.

Albums on iTunes:

Orally Challenged, Size Does Matter

Subscribe to her channel on YouTube

Check out her podcast Jillin' Off w/ Christina Walkinshaw (@walkinsauce)

Matt talks to long time friend Jacob Givens (@jacobgivens) - comic, writer, director, rippin' guitar player, host of the Biofriendly Podcast

His work speaks for itself...watch and subscribe.

Feature Film: I I Had a Bloody Good Time at House Harker on AmazonPrime:

Web Series: Tumbleweed, GoodCopsTV

Short Films: Intermission, Ember: 

Books Mentioned: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Matt has a late night chat with long time friend, producer, writer, mom, and super fun comic, Melanie Baldonado (twitter: @MelanieBcomedy) about all kinds of stuff - Covid, Lockdown, Politics, Doing Shows, Entourage, Kids, School, Head Bangin' 4 year-olds and how Melanie doesn't need to be a 10 on a Wednesday. Check out her podcast - The Answer Me Love Podcast 

Origin story for the only regular segment #surprisequiz

References: Quiet by Susan Cain;  Dom Sisti's UPENN Paper;  Rage by Bob Woodward , Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

My first attempt at a podcast from 2013, a few years before he passed away, I set up a Skype with my favorite person and inspirational childhood influence, the late great Sammy Dee. He was my grandfather, a musician, a mentor, an inspiration and one of the funniest (and most complicated) humans to have ever walked the earth. I love him and I miss him so much. I'm so glad I did this when I could.

Get the Vinyl: https://www.discogs.com/Sammy-Dee-With-Letters-For-Lovers/release/9407126

Rick Doblin, Ph.D., is the Founder and President of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He received his doctorate in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he wrote his dissertation on the regulation of the medical uses of psychedelics and marijuana and his Master’s thesis on a survey of oncologists about smoked marijuana vs. the oral THC pill in nausea control for cancer patients. His undergraduate thesis at New College of Florida was a 25-year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Timothy Leary’s Concord Prison Experiment. Rick studied with Dr. Stanislav Grof and was among the first to be certified as a Holotropic Breathwork practitioner. 

His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise healthy people, and eventually to become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. He founded MAPS in 1986, and currently resides in Boston with his wife and puppy, with three empty rooms from his children who have all graduated college and begun their life journeys. Learn more about Rick by listening to his Origin Story and watching his TED Talk.

MAPS Texas Eclipse Info

Donate to MAPS.org

The JRE Episode that started it all.

The Synergy of Medicine, Science, and Public Benefit.

Lykos Therapeutics

Book: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Ace of Hearts Dog Rescue - https://acesangels.org/

Boxer Rescue LA - https://boxer-rescue-la.com/

Jon Schabl is a stand-up comedian and writer originally from Toronto who now makes his home in Los Angeles. Since moving to LA he was a featured performer on Never Not Funny's 'Write Now!' on the Nerdist Network and TruTV's You Can Do Better.
In the last several years he has made numerous festival appearances including NXNE Music Festival, Riot LA, and San Francisco Sketchfest. Apart from stand-up, his pilot Farm Fresh was a finalist for an International Screenwriters Association Fellowship and won Best Screenplay at the Working Lives Film Festival.

Kintsugi is a centuries-old practice that involves beautifying cracks in broken objects to show their history. The philosophy behind kintsugi is that broken objects are not worthless and their brokenness can be seen as a part of their history and beauty.

In Hawaiian culture, mana is a sacred term that refers to spiritual energy and strength. It can be present in both people and objects. Hawaiians believe that mana can be gained or lost through actions. They also believe that mana is both internal and external.

Dr. Bronner’s is the top-selling soap in the U.S. natural marketplace. Only the purest organic & fair trade ingredients. No synthetic preservatives, no detergents or foaming agents—none! It's also one of the most inspiring organizations in the world! 

David Bronner is Cosmic Engagement Officer (CEO) of Dr. Bronner’s, the top-selling natural brand of soap in North America and producer of a range of organic body care and food products. Under David’s leadership Dr. Bronner’s holds the status of the highest scoring B Corp in the world among companies dedicated to positive social and environmental impact over the profit motive. The brand caps Executive pay at five times the lowest paid fully vested position and has grown from $4 million in annual revenue in 1998 to nearly $170 million in 2022. David was born in Los Angeles, California in 1973 and earned an undergraduate degree in biology from Harvard University. A dedicated vegan and an advocate for drug policy and criminal justice reform as well as regenerative organic agriculture and other social justice and environmental causes, David serves on the board of MAPS and the Regenerative Organic Alliance. He lives in Encinitas, California.

Get Some Soap!

After attending the LVLUP25 Expo in Vegas, a few themes emerged about just how deep and wide the level of the internet creativity has gone to enable GIGANTIC groups of people to connect, bond, and find joy in things that most people have never thought about or knew existed as well as an economy of narrow target celebrities thriving in the world almost undetected.

If you don't already have it, pick up a copy of The Daily Stoic. It just may save your life...and it makes a great gift.

Here's Bring On The Night

Swanson did us in...

Peter Attia's thorough take on Cholesterol.

The ultimate clutch hitter - Bryce Harper last year, and this year. I will always love Mike Schmidt, but Bryce is insane.

Blake joins the podcast again to discuss his upcoming one-hour special Daddy Long Legs on  800 Pound Gorilla.

Watch the Special Here!

Blake Wexler started stand-up at the age of 15 in Philadelphia, and nearly two decades later he has finally gotten around to releasing his first hour special. Blake has appeared on Comedy Central & ABC, and is frequently heard as a chaotic guest on The Daily Zeitgeist & Todd Glass Show podcasts. In “Daddy Long Legs,” the newly-married comedian tells stories about a ghost tour guide who has no respect for ghosts, a deviant dog photographer and using Midol as a hangover cure. 

We also discuss the Phillies, the Eagles, Sharks, the different social media algorithms, and the Writer's Strike.

Blake Wexler's Special Daddy Long Legs - September 28th