Paul Giamatti

Shows

Episodes

  1. Philosophy of Film 101 with Bill Hader

    02/19/2025

    Philosophy of Film 101 with Bill Hader

    🎞️🪖🤡 The incredible Bill Hader drops by Office Hours to dig deep into film, philosophy, and all the weird stuff in between. He breaks down how Taxi Driver and The Thin Red Line made a mark on his psyche, why horror movies are masters at playing with tension, and how directors like Sam Fuller and Terrence Malick weave big existential questions into their work.   Bill and Stephen also dive into the murky morality of Barry, the blurred lines between good and evil, and why we’re all a little obsessed with antiheroes like Tony Soprano and the Joker. Bill opens up about his true crime fixation and how filmmakers like Kubrick and the Coen Brothers use dark humor to explore life’s chaos.   From cosmic horror to cinematic villains, this episode is packed with laughs, wild insights, and plenty of deep dives into why movies mess with our heads in the best way possible. Paul Giamatti is a Golden Globe award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art.  Bill Hader is an actor, comedian, writer, producer, and director. He rose to fame on Saturday Night Live and co-created and starred in the acclaimed, Emmy Award winning HBO series Barry.  🎞️🪖🤡 ========= Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm ========= Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 10m
  2. CHINWAG LIVE: Bill Hader Unleashed and Waggin'

    06/19/2024

    CHINWAG LIVE: Bill Hader Unleashed and Waggin'

    🎬🍿🎞 Recorded live at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles, Paul and Stephen are joined by comedy legend Bill Hader for a night of hilarious and obscure impressions, a rundown of insane B- movies, their shared fear of the school bus, and so much more! What did Hader overhear director Sam Raimi say walking out of a screening of Cannibal Holocaust? What advice did Arnold Schwarzenegger offer young production associate Bill Hader? You know you’re dying to know - and hear Hader’s uncanny Schwarzenegger impression too!  Then, Paul and Stephen probe Bill’s past, asking the first moment in a film that left an indelible mark - the eerie disappearance of a bus in The Children. Armed with his dad’s camcorder, Bill tells how he unleashed his own version of the cult classic Evil Dead, chasing his sisters and summoning the undead. And when the conversation turns to forgotten classics, Bill conjures the ghost of Shirley Temple, while Paul reveals his dream of starring in Chainsaw Massacre 4. Then it’s on to a dissection of the old studio system—actors plugged into roles, shifting from westerns to bellhops overnight - and a mini-cinema master class on The Wolf Man, Spider Baby, Caligula, The Seventh Victim, and The Beastmaster. So put your feet up, grab your popcorn, dim the lights, and behold this Chinwag Live that transcends the silver screen! Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer, and the self-proclaimed Emperor of Neptune. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. He also is the acting Minister of Triton for the Chinwag. Bill Hader is an actor, comedian, writer, producer, and director. He rose to fame on "Saturday Night Live" and co-created and starred in the acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning series "Barry." 🎬🍿🎞 ========= Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm ========= Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 4m
  3. Stephen Colbert Pt 2:  More Magical Thoughts

    09/27/2023

    Stephen Colbert Pt 2: More Magical Thoughts

    🧙🏻‍♂️🧙🏻‍♂️🧙🏻‍♂️ Catch PART 2 of Paul and Stephen’s dip into the profoundly thoughtful mind of Mr. Stephen Colbert. Explore the power of prayer and magical thinking, the importance of unlearning what you know, and Paul and Colbert’s shared love of sci-fi, or as Stephen Asma calls it, “Gandalf and sh*t.” What’s the difference between sci-fi and fantasy, and can Lord of the Rings help process one’s grief? Tune in for musings on improvisation, zen master Amy Sedaris, and the fantastic conclusion to Colbert’s inspirational chance meeting with astronaut, Orly. Stephen Colbert is an Emmy award winning writer, performer and late night host who also loves to fish. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. 🧙🏻‍♂️🧙🏻‍♂️🧙🏻‍♂️ ========= A special shout out to Mary Ellen Matthews, who provided such a beautiful headshot of Mr. Colbert for the episodic artwork. More on MEM's portfolio here: https://www.instagram.com/maryellenmatthewsnyc/ ========= 🎥 CATCH A LIVE RECORDING OF CHINWAG 🎥 October 14th at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA October 17th at the Murmrr Theatre in Brooklyn, NY 🎟️ Buy Tickets before they sell out! 🎟️ ========= New episodes of CHINWAG drop Wednesdays for free... n(🧊) Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    43 min
  4. Talking Sense with Stephen Colbert

    09/20/2023

    Talking Sense with Stephen Colbert

    🐟🐟🐟 Paul and Stephen get their daily dose of happiness during PART 1 of this illuminating and hilarious chat with writer, comedian, late night host, Mr. Stephen Colbert. Have you ever wondered why some spell Stephen with a V, while others with a PH? No? It’s great party fodder, trust us! Mr. Colbert captivates with his love of fishing, the evolution of the flounder, the consequences of unaddressed grief, and the religious sermon that changed him forever. Stay tuned for talk of Jungian archetypes and two transformative stories from Colbert’s Northwestern University days. Also on the docket: some causes of atheism, Paul’s affinity for contact guilt and contact sin, G.K. Chesterton and the difference between belief and faith. All this and Talking Heads make an appearance. It’s too much, yet it’s all in this week’s Chinwag!  Bonus: you might’ve been saying Colbert wrong all this time. Vocab word of the week: Orthographically Stephen Colbert is an Emmy award winning writer, performer and late night host who also loves to fish. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. 🐟🐟🐟 ========= And, a special shout out to Mary Ellen Matthews, who provided such a beautiful headshot of Mr. Colbert for the episodic artwork. More on MEM's portfolio here: https://www.instagram.com/maryellenmatthewsnyc/ ========= 🎥 CATCH A LIVE RECORDING OF CHINWAG 🎥 October 14th at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA October 17th at the Murmrr Theatre in Brooklyn, NY 🎟️ Buy Tickets before they sell out! 🎟️ ========= New episodes of CHINWAG drop Wednesdays for free... n(🧊) Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    52 min
  5. The Twilight Zone and the Matrix We Live In

    12/04/2024

    The Twilight Zone and the Matrix We Live In

    📺🤖🧐 We’re dipping into the Wagbag as Paul and Stephen kick off a fascinating journey into the Twilight Zone, sparked by a letter from Christopher! Join the lads as they share their favorite episodes like “Time Enough at Last,” “To Serve Man,” and “The Eye of the Beholder,” and celebrate the genius of Rod Serling. The conversation broadens to explore early Hollywood television, highlighting Serling's cultural impact through works like Requiem for a Heavyweight and Planet of the Apes. This is classic Chinwag: part Hollywood history, part existential rabbit hole, all fascinating. Plus, Paul reminisces about his early days in soap operas: why are they called that, anyway? And what made Dark Shadows such a cult gem? With a dash of TV oddities—from Ed Wood to the rise of reality shows—this segment is a smorgasbord of nostalgia, oddball trivia, and quirky asides. Then, we’re stepping into Office Hours with the professor, where he unpacks the daunting question: are we living in a simulation? Can AI, alien civilizations, or an evil genius be behind the game we call life? And even if we are in a simulation, does that strip away meaning—or open new ways to find it? Tune in for an eye-opening journey through philosophy, science fiction, and the unexpected twists of reality. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. 📺🤖🧐 ========= Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm ========= Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    49 min
  6. No Woo-Woo for Sarah Vowell

    10/04/2023

    No Woo-Woo for Sarah Vowell

    ✍🏼✍🏼✍🏼 Paul and Stephen love their history, so who better for this Chinwag than brilliant essayist, author and historian, Sarah Vowell? Listen in as they contemplate the tricky business of retelling history that doesn’t live up to the current moral code. Which President is the biggest zero? The least sexy? And what did Benjamin Harrison – our 23rd president – actually do while in office? You know you want to know! All that and a front row seat to Sarah’s midlife crisis spent watching a difficult camel birth. Not enough? Well Sarah’s not into all that “woo woo stuff”, but a chance moment at the town pump in Ennis, Montana challenges her literal mind.  BONUS: Sarah’s unvarnished thoughts on cowboys and why they call it a “10 gallon hat” (no one actually knows - write in and tell us your theory!)   Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. Sarah Vowell is an author, journalist, essayist, social commentator and actress. She has written seven nonfiction books on American history and culture including Assassination Vacation, The Wordy Shipmates, and The Partly Cloudy Patriot. She was also the voice of Violet in the 2004 animated film The Incredibles and its 2018 sequel. ✍🏼✍🏼✍🏼 ========= Vocab Word of the Week: UNGULATES ========= 🎥 CATCH A LIVE RECORDING OF CHINWAG 🎥 October 14th at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA October 17th at the Murmrr Theatre in Brooklyn, NY 🎟️ Buy Tickets before they sell out! 🎟️ ========= New episodes of CHINWAG drop Wednesdays for free... n(🧊) Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    51 min
  7. Max Headroom, More Mothersbaugh

    01/29/2025

    Max Headroom, More Mothersbaugh

    🏴‍☠️🍔🥶 Join Paul and Stephen for a double feature that kicks off with a dip into the Wag Bag! Dave writes in about the May Day Mystery, which somehow spirals into airtime pirates, the Max Headroom hijacking, the Ashtar Galactic Federation, and the meaning of this entire podcast (yes, we go there). Then, DEVO co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh crashes the party to talk time travel, AI, Neuralink, and—wait for it—cheeseburgers having sex. He spills on aliens, ghosts, and the time Timothy Leary casually mentioned his cryogenic freezing plans. Meanwhile, Stephen reveals his caveman preference for staying offline forever. The trio also tackles sensory deprivation tanks, tour bus naps, John Lilly chatting with dolphins, and even Dick Tracy. This is a weird one folks… Paul Giamatti is a Golden Globe award winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art.  Mark Mothersbaugh is an artist, composer, and co-founder of the influential rock group DEVO. His latest art book titled Apotropaic Beatnik Graffiti is a collection of neo-dada streams of conscious visual poetry. 🏴‍☠️🍔🥶 ========= Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm ========= Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    39 min
  8. Stuff You Should Chinwag About with the Silurian Hypothesis

    05/29/2024

    Stuff You Should Chinwag About with the Silurian Hypothesis

    ☢️☢️☢️ Paul and Stephen are joined by Stuff You Should Know’s Chuck Bryant for a deep wag on lizard people, the importance and impermanence of what we leave behind, the rarity of finding dinosaur bones, nuclear semiotics, and of course, the Silurian Hypothesis. How do we know advanced civilizations didn’t exist before us and what does that mean for life on other planets? How can we be sure that proof of past civilizations hasn’t decayed without a trace? And why does it even matter if intelligent life was here billions of years ago? What counts as a sign of intelligence and can you build technology without thumbs? Paul and Stephen are all too happy to not be considered experts, or even factually accurate, but if there’s one podcast future generations discover, THIS is the Wag that could help define our civilization’s legacy. Or not. Get on board Wagoneers! Chin-word of the week: THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer, and the self-proclaimed Emperor of Neptune. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. He also is the acting Minister of Triton for the Chinwag. Chuck Bryant is the co-host of the award-winning podcast Stuff You Should Know. ☢️☢️☢️ ========= Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm ========= Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 11m
  9. Mothman: Legend and Lore

    07/05/2024 ·  Bonus

    Mothman: Legend and Lore

    👨🏼‍🏫🍏🕰️ The Professor is in for Chinwag Office Hours! Professor Stephen Asma offers his rarefied time and detours into more of the unusual topics you crave. This week on Office Hours, Stephen drops his knowledge on the Mothman and the psychology of creepiness. What is the purpose of creepy feelings and eerie sensations? Are they interdimensional beings of energy that exist to warn and protect us? Hear the first sightings of the Mothman, classic stories of Mothman, and question whether this legend is a cryptid or a demon or something else entirely? Maybe it’s really a creature developed in human imagination, as posited by Fortean author John Keel. And what’s the connection to Jacques Vallee, UFOs and fairies? Are Mothmans just the domain of human thought, products of collective consciousness or ultra terrestrials? Brace yourself for firsthand accounts of Mothman that may make you rethink your skepticism! Or maybe the Mothman is just a Blue Heron…either way, we’re glad you swung by the Chinwag basement for our inaugural Office Hours! Chin-word of the week: TULPA Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer, and the self-proclaimed Emperor of Neptune. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. He also is the acting Minister of Triton for the Chinwag. 👨🏼‍🏫🍏🕰️ ========= Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm ========= Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    22 min
  10. The UFO Episode

    08/21/2024

    The UFO Episode

    🛸🛸🛸 Paul and Stephen are joined by intrepid investigative journalist Leslie Kean — the very journalist who broke the groundbreaking 2017 UFO story to The New York Times and introduced the world to the Pentagon’s UFO videos. Leslie unveils the intriguing story of Luis Elizondo, the former head of the Pentagon program responsible for the investigation of UFOs—now known as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). Elizondo released groundbreaking videotapes of pilots' first-hand encounters with UFOs, including the white “Tic Tac” shaped unidentified flying object the public often sees alongside news stories of UFOs. Leslie recounts how Elizondo actually found documentation from the 1940s and 50s that describe the same Tic-Tac shaped objects, and discusses the existence of underwater submerged objects, adding a whole new depth to the UFO narrative. And did you know that official, legislated language has expanded to include sightings of this broader phenomena? Then, Jacques Vallee’s and Carl Jung’s perspective on extraterrestrials, and does anyone think these are literally aliens or another unexplained psychological phenomenon? Famed UFO expert Budd Hopkins and Harvard Psychiatrist John Mack get their due, and where does Leslie stand on alien abduction phenomena? Later, the trio dive into accounts from individuals who claim to have had extraterrestrial experiences. Is whistleblower David Grusch more reliable than Bob Lazar? And what motivated the Department of Defense to create the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)? Tune in to this thrilling Chinwag with Leslie Kean and dive into the ocean of UAPs and soar high into the cosmos of possibilities! Chin-word of the Week: ANOMALOUS Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art.  Leslie Kean is an investigative journalist who co-authored a series of groundbreaking stories on UFOs for The New York Times from 2017 to 2022. She is the author of two books: UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record and Surviving Death: A Journalist Investigates Evidence For An Afterlife which was turned into a Netflix docuseries. 🛸🛸🛸 ========= Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm ========= Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    48 min