Comedian & Podcaster Alex Pearlman from “Too Many Tabs” and YouTube’s “Crashing Out” joins us on Story & Craft to talk about his career and personal stories.
Alex shares his take on Donald Trump and Elon Musk and on how social media algorithms shape the news. Growing up, he watched the evening news at the dinner table, and 25 years of stand-up taught him to break big stories down quickly. On “Too Many Tabs,” the comedy history podcast he makes with his wife, he takes the long view, such as the 80-year fight for the 40-hour work week.
He describes the weekly podcast “Crashing Out,” which he co-hosts with Philip DeFranco, who has covered news on YouTube for 20 years. The conversation also covers the live tour that just wrapped, where he found audiences everywhere looking for hope. Alex recalls asking Bernie Sanders in his Capitol office whether anyone in Washington is thinking about the rest of the century.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
00:00 Alex Pearlman joins Story & Craft
04:36 Growing up watching Dan Rather and the evening news
07:08 How short videos and algorithms shape what we see
08:07 Why he calls himself a stand-up comedian, not a journalist
10:56 Comedy heroes George Carlin, Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor
13:37 A typical day of scrolling, family time and picking what to cover
17:04 The moment his young son told him to put the phone down
25:39 Planning for his toddler’s future with trades, college and AI
32:26 “Too Many Tabs” and the long view on the 40-hour work week
33:37 Andrew Carnegie’s libraries, Elon Musk and the Gilded Age
37:51 What he learned on tour: everyone is looking for hope
39:27 Meeting Bernie Sanders in his Capitol office