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PODCAST

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso is a weekly series of intimate conversations with artists, activists, and politicians. Where people sound like people. Hosted by Sam Fragoso. New episodes every Sunday.

society & culture film interviews

All Episodes

50:28

Actor Julia Garner is Hollywood’s Secret ‘Weapon’

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/08/10

Actor Julia Garner (Ozark) has built a career out of shapeshifting. This summer, the Emmy-winning performer lands on the silver (surfer) screen with two major projects—The Fantastic Four: First Steps and the highly-anticipated horror film, Weapons. At the top, we walk through the spine-tingling world of Zach Cregger’s new film (6:45), the Moleskine character journals she keeps for each role (9:22), and some lessons from her time in clown school (14:01). Then, she reflects on her

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79:19

David Mamet Exits Stage Left

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/08/03

David Mamet is one of the most celebrated American playwrights of the last century: Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Speed-the-Plow, American Buffalo, and Glengarry Glen Ross— which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1983 and remains timely today. Our conversation unfolds, fittingly, in three acts. Act I: the inspiration behind his new novel about education,Some Recollections of St. Ives (5:38), weathering the ‘emotional hurricane’ of his childhood in Chicago (18:22), and how the

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42:44

Director Celine Song on ‘Materialists’ (Death, Sex &...

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/07/30

Long before Celine Song was nominated for an Academy Award for her feature directorial debut, Past Lives, she was a struggling playwright in New York City with an unusual side hustle: matchmaking. In this special episode presented by Death, Sex & Money, host Anna Sale sits with Celine to unpack how this personal experience inspired the plot of her new A24 movie, Materialists, starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal. Follow and listen to Death, Sex & Moneywherever you get your

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56:03

Actor Patricia Clarkson (‘Sharp Objects’) Goes Her...

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/07/27

After nearly four decades of working in Hollywood, actor Patricia Clarkson (The Station Agent, Pieces of April) says her portrayal of women’s rights activist Lilly Ledbetter is “the greatest privilege” in her storied career. We sat with the legendary actress as part of this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival to discuss her powerful turn in Lilly (4:10), her colorful New Orleans upbringing (10:17), and the educator who first recognized Patricia’s talent (13:25). Then, she

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63:34

Play It Again: Joaquin Phoenix

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/07/23

“I wanted to be good, but I completely burned up the morning,” said Joaquin Phoenix on day 1 of Eddington. “Ari and I stayed on set when everyone left for lunch—and, slowly, something emerged. I don’t know if it’s any good, but it didn’t make me want to end everything.” With the film’s arrival in theaters, we return to our candid, long-form talk with Phoenix. At the top, we unpack his transformation in Joker: Folie à Deux (7:10), his

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56:05

Director Ari Aster (‘Eddington’) Has Made an American...

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/07/20

“Eddington is a film about a bunch of people who know that something is wrong,” says writer-director Ari Aster. “It’s just that nobody can agree on what that thing is.” Aster joins us this week to unpack his controversial, COVID-era western: his time back home in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he wrote through lockdown (9:30), the works of Robert Altman (18:00) and Oliver Stone (19:15) that served as sources of inspiration, and how Beau Is Afraid (5:54) cleared the path

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75:02

Lena Dunham is Never ‘Too Much’

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/07/16

Writer/director Lena Dunham is the voice of my generation. Or at the very least, a voice of a generation. Her new show,Too Much,is now available to stream on Netflix. We start by discussing her 2022 film Sharp Stick (6:20), the 1970s cinema that inspired it (9:50), and how it offers a “three-way mirror” to the female experience (12:41). Then, Lena reflects on meeting Judd Apatow on the heels of Tiny Furniture (15:39), her rapid ascension following Girls (17:39), the pain and power of

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89:01

How ‘Big and Beautiful’ is Trump’s Bill? (with...

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/07/13

From the opinion pages of The New York Times to his popular TikTok feed, Jamelle Bouie is a leading voice in American politics. This week, Bouie helps us sift through the inner workings of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” (4:38): its promise of prosperity for the middle class (8:44), the “moral economy” guiding the legislation (13:00), the projected losses in healthcare coverage across the country (18:07), particularly in right-leaning, rural communities (23:50), the

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52:29

Actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach Returns to ‘The Bear’

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/07/06

To celebrate the fourth season of The Bear, we return to our conversation with Emmy-winning actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach. At the top, we dive into the making of the hit series (9:22), his unforgettable collaboration with Jeremy Allen White (11:20), and how Moss-Bachrach manages to keep adding layers to his portrayal of Cousin Richie (14:26). Then, he describes the mounting pressures around this new season (19:23), the day he knew he wanted to be an actor (27:35), and his work through the years with

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86:03

Comedian Jerrod Carmichael is Creating His Own Truman...

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/06/29

In just under a decade, Jerrod Carmichael has had a remarkably varied career. On the heels of his latest HBO special, we return to our conversation with Emmy-winning comedian. At the top, we unpack the origin of his deeply personal seriesJerrod Carmichael Reality Show (6:30), his early days making his NBC sitcom (10:57), and why he decided to broadcast a deeply intimate conversation on the reality show (13:00). Then, he unpacks his view of the camera as a vessel for honesty (17:10), the response

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58:05

Live From New York with Sam Rockwell (‘The White Lotus’)

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/06/22

Oscar winner Sam Rockwell has established himself as one of the most versatile actors of his generation. In our recent sit-down, recorded at the Tribeca Audio Festival, we trace the arc of that career culminating in his season-stealing turn in The White Lotus. We begin with his bifurcated childhood, split between San Francisco and New York City (10:00), falling in love with the movies of the ‘70s and ‘80s (15:30), the cathartic release of performance (18:05), advice from the late Gene

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60:43

Father’s Day with Seth Meyers

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/06/15

For the past twenty-four years, Seth Meyers has built a comedy career inside the walls of 30 Rock. We join him there today for our Father’s Day special, reflecting on the past decade ofLate Night. At the top, we talk about making the show four nights a week (3:00), his approach to parenting as seen in his HBO specialDad Man Walking (12:00), and the formative lessons that shaped his comedic voice (17:00). Then, we unpack the characters he brought to his SNL audition (22:00), what it takes to

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59:45

Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) is Creating a...

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/06/08

Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) has long turned to music to make sense of the past. Today, she joins us to unpack all of the emotional terrain covered in her latest album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women). We discuss the literary (6:08) and musical (7:32) influences that shaped the new record, her transformative year spent living and writing in Korea (13:12), and the daily diary she kept while abroad (15:44). We then celebrate her late mother (18:56), her exploration of identity in

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88:02

Writer Ocean Vuong’s Vision of the Future

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/06/01

Since his bestselling novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous debuted in 2019, Ocean Vuong has become one of the most beloved writers of his generation. He first sat with Sam in 2021 amid the pandemic. Today, Vuong returns to discuss the personal history within his latest novel, The Emperor of Gladness—a piece of fiction that draws from the contours of his own coming-of-age in East Hartford, Connecticut (5:43). We begin with the class dynamics at the heart of the book (9:27), the surrogate

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75:22

Graduation Week with Columbia Journalism Dean Jelani...

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/05/25

Even before Jelani Cobb became Dean of the Columbia Journalism School, he was an educator. His reportage at The New Yorker (where he’s been writing about race and politics since 2012), steeped in history. And yet not even Cobb could’ve been prepared for what he’s described as a “harrowing” year in academia. On the heels of graduation week at Columbia, Cobb joins us for a wide-ranging discussion about the climate on campuses across the country (5:17), the Trump

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59:54

Play It Again: Sarah Silverman (‘PostMortem’)

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/05/21

To commemorate the release of her new, deeply personal Netflix special ‘PostMortem,’ we revisit our conversation with Sarah Silverman. At the top, we reflect on loss (7:16), her HBO special Sarah Silverman: Someone You Love (12:35), and coming of age in the ‘80s (18:42). Then, Silverman talks about her early comedic influences (25:35), her path fromSNL to Los Angeles (32:30), and the mentorship of Garry Shandling (35:10). On the back-half, we walk through the evolution of her

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49:44

Pulitzer Prize Winner Percival Everett (‘James’)

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/05/18

Earlier this month, writer Percival Everett was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for James, his subversive and singular reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. At the top, we discuss the philosophical problem that led to James (5:50), what repeated readings of Twain’s classic unlocked in Percival (7:56), the influence of his father’s sense of humor (16:20), how he arrived at writing growing up in South Carolina (19:40), and his relationship to the publishing industry, as

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85:53

Ira Glass on Three Decades of ‘This American Life’ Magic

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/05/11

Thirty years. Over 850 episodes. Nine Peabodys. One Pulitzer. And yet somehow, three decades in, This American Life (and its creator, Ira Glass) remains as innovative and timely as ever. We begin with a week in the life of Ira: a typical Monday at This American Life (4:52), the rigorous notes process (6:05), and how the team selects the stories it wants to tell that Sunday (8:23). Then, we unpack Trump’s ongoing threats to slash government funding for public media (14:14), Glass’

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67:31

Penn Badgley: Here’s Looking at ‘You’

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/05/04

Television, perhaps more than movies, has a way of etching its stars in stone. And few actors seem to be able to break the mold more than once. Which is what makes Penn Badgley’s career—first on Gossip Girl then You—special. We sit this week around the fifth and final season of You (7:00) to unpack its shocking series finale [spoiler] (9:13) and the political climate in which the show is coming to a close (12:10). Then, Penn opens up about the solitude of his west coast upbringing

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69:53

The Many Lives of Viola Davis

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/04/27

Before Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder) became an EGOT-winning actor, she was an observer. Her work takes the human experience and transmutes it, offering a mirror and a window into ourselves. Today, we sit to unpack her recent, liberating projects in The Woman King (4:24) and G20 (4:50), the formative years she spent growing up in Rhode Island (13:52), and how she captured those familial memories in her 2022 memoir Finding Me (17:12). Then, we talk about Viola’s start as a performer

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517 results

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