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PODCAST

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma

Treefort Media & Touchy Feely Films

chin-wag: to have a chat, a friendly conversation. Actor Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma, author and philosopher, join forces for a freewheeling series of conversations that dive deep (like, really, really deep) into the wilderness of the mind. Featuring prominent guests from diverse fields, Chinwag is esoteric in the best way possible, as Paul and Stephen delve into anything and everything: Are we living in a simulation? What’s the most perfect sentence in literature? Is Bigfoot interdimensional

history

All Episodes

123:11

The Final Wag

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2025/02/26

🌋🏹🐷This is it. The wag of all wags. The waggiest wag to ever wag. The final wag. But this one’s for you, Waggers—so we’re diving into the WagBag one last time. Schrödinger’s cat, Pompeii, volcanoes—oh my! We’re tackling everything from gulags to the greatest literary whodunit of all time: Did Shakespeare actually write his own plays? (Or was it, like, some guy named Francis?) And because no farewell would be complete without a little chaos, Paul and Stephen are getting their Nick Cage on—yes,

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71:45

Philosophy of Film 101 with Bill Hader

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2025/02/19

🎞️🪖🤡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

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37:59

CHINWAG LIVE: He Said Droids, Not Druids!

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2025/02/12

🐢🎸🌆Paul and Stephen’s Q&A at Harvard! Megaliths! French comics where Gauls endlessly pummel Romans. Paul’s unexpected relationship with the theremin. And the big question—should Paul and Stephen finally start their paranormal blues band? Theremin, guitar… what more do you need? Let us know in the comments if you’d give that album a listen. Plus, will today’s skyscrapers become the megaliths of the future? And stay tuned for a special treat—live from Sketchfest in San Francisco, Stephen sits

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54:05

CHINWAG LIVE: Monolith Mania

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2025/02/05

🗿🗿🗿Live from the hallowed halls of Harvard University, Paul and Stephen tackle one of the universe's greatest enigmas: monoliths. What's the deal with Stonehenge? Why were mysterious bodies buried nearby? Are aliens behind these stone wonders, or is it just really bored Druids? Paul’s got theories—and a suspicious amount of insider knowledge. Did he really climb Stonehenge? And how in the world did he fall asleep in a neolithic tomb? Animal carvings, Gobekli Tepe, and a mini ice age—yes, all

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41:38

Max Headroom, More Mothersbaugh

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2025/01/29

🏴‍☠️🍔🥶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

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34:11

Aliens 101

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2025/01/22

👽🛸👾Brace yourself for an intergalactic Chinwag as Professor Asma brings you into Office Hours to take on the ultimate extraterrestrial thought experiment: how would we deal with aliens? From UN protocols and risk management strategies to spotting laser pulses and heat signatures, they explore the practical, the philosophical, and the downright bizarre. Stephen looks at sci-fi classics like HG Wells’ War of the Worlds, and contemporary works like Zixin Liu’s Three-Body Problem. Do aliens think

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45:45

Paul Giamatti, King of Neptune + Demonology 101

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2025/01/15

🧜‍♂️👻👹Paul and Stephen hit Town Hall in Seattle for a wild audience Q&A. Paul’s crowned King of Neptune, a Brooklynite gets deep with hardcore Buddhist philosophy, and Bigfoot? He’s back—and Stephen’s sure he’s still out there, buried somewhere. Fans fire off questions about ghosts, cryptids, mermaids, and Guillermo del Toro… Later, Stephen drops a demon-hunting masterclass in Office Hours, featuring St. Anthony, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Heinrich Kramer, the Inquisitor. Buckle up,

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61:41

CHINWAG LIVE: Beware the Batsquatch

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2025/01/08

🧜🦕🦇Live from Town Hall Seattle, Paul and Stephen venture into the Pacific Northwest’s strangest and creepiest cryptids. What’s the deal with Batsquatch, the massive winged terror spotted near Mount Rainier? Or the Gumbaroo, a rubbery bear-like creature rumored to explode during forest fires? They also unearth the legend of the dog-headed saint—how does it stack up on the ultimate creepiness test? And let’s not forget "Caddy," the mysterious sea serpent lurking in Puget Sound. Packed with weird

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65:18

ENCORE: Natasha Lyonne’s Infinite New Year

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2025/01/01

🎆🎆🎆To ring in the New Year, we’re celebrating with a special encore featuring Natasha Lyonne, where the conversation takes a wonderfully strange and quantum-tinged turn. Paul and Stephen read a letter from a very interesting Wagger before they follow Natasha around her home, feed Rootbeer the dog, and uncover her unusual bedtime habit: falling asleep to quantum physics audiobooks. Hear why discipline and restraint and the structure of mathematics is grounding and leads to talk of Stanley

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54:40

ENCORE: Ruddiculous Holiday Party

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2024/12/25

🥳🎁🎄 This holiday season, we’re looking back at one of our favorite guests of 2024, with an encore incomparable Paul Rudd recorded live from Brooklyn! Two Pauls and one Stephen dive into fears, phobias, and weird childhood memories, exploring everything from stage fright to public speaking. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Chinwag without creepy puppets, recurring nightmares, and tales of real-life bears on a movie set. Ring in the joy, laughs, and a touch of weirdness—perfect for the holiday

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60:27

The Great Fortean Taylor Swift Conspiracy

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2024/12/18

🐰👣😱 Paul and Stephen welcome back Ian Simmons from the Fortean Times for another dive into the eccentric, the uncanny, and the downright bizarre. In this episode, the trio explores everything from conspiracy theories’ transformation from quirky fun to dangerous obsession, to the KLF’s wild antics, including burning a million pounds and wielding fake machine guns. They also venture into giant rabbit sightings, Taylor Swift’s rumored occult connections, and the enduring weirdness of Aleister

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40:25

The Reel Mind: AI Through Film

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2024/12/11

🤖🎞️🧬Transcend into Office Hours with Professor Asma as he breaks down the consciousness of artificial intelligence through the lens of iconic films. He examines how movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ex Machina, and After Yang tackle the question of whether AI can truly possess consciousness—or even the will to exist—delving into emotions, desires, and memory. Do you need language to be conscious? Could we one day upload our consciousness to the internet? These questions and more are explored

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54:21

The Twilight Zone and the Matrix We Live In

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2024/12/04

📺🤖🧐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

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72:44

ENCORE: Hanksgiving

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2024/11/27

🦃🎞️⏳As we approach Thanksgiving, we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations with the legendary Tom Hanks. Paul, Stephen, and Tom discuss the speed of information, ChatGPT, cognitive dissonance in AI, and even question the use of Waze to beat traffic. How have our memories changed since the advent of cell phones? Are acting skills useful when it comes to writing a book? Plus, Tom still recalls his Bosom Buddies co-star Peter Scolari’s lines from 1980 and shares a baseball/acting analogy

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36:02

Were Neanderthals Cannibals? + AI With Professor Avi...

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2024/11/20

🤖🔭😱 Join Paul and Stephen for a double feature that kicks off with a captivating letter from Bree, who’s asking a question that takes us back in time: What happened to the Neanderthals? Were they victims of cannibalism, or was it something else entirely? Then, as a bonus, they continue their mind-expanding conversation with Harvard astrophysicist Dr. Avi Loeb! Together, they dig into how artificial intelligence is reshaping our approach to the universe and the mysteries of the cosmos. Dr. Loeb

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52:15

Paul Reads H.P. Lovecraft Part 3

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2024/11/13

🌌☄️☠️In this third and final installment, Paul reads aloud the eerie saga of The Colour Out of Space, one of his favorite stories from the master of cosmic horror, H.P. Lovecraft. So far in our reading, we felt the creeping dread as the Gardner farm transformed under the influence of a sinister meteorite. Strange colors, twisted vegetation, and a growing sense of madness gripped Nahum Gardner and his family. But the worst is yet to come. In Part Three, the horrors deepen. A member of the

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30:11

Paul Reads H.P. Lovecraft Part 2

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2024/11/06

🌌☄️☠️ In this second of three hair-raising installments, Paul continues reading the eerie saga of The Colour Out of Space, one of his favorite stories from the master of cosmic horror, H.P. Lovecraft. As we return to the shadowed countryside west of Arkham, the strange events at the Blasted Heath intensify. Following the meteorite crash on Nahum Gardner's farm, unnatural transformations have begun to infect the land, twisting the environment in terrifying ways. The creeping dread grows as Paul’s

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34:07

Paul Reads H.P. Lovecraft

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2024/10/30

🌌☄️☠️In this first of three spine-tingling installments, Paul reads aloud the eerie saga of The Colour Out of Space, one of his favorite stories from the master of cosmic horror, H.P. Lovecraft. Set in the remote, shadowed countryside west of Arkham, the story takes us to the desolate Blasted Heath, where strange things have begun to take root. After a mysterious meteorite crashes on Nahum Gardner's farm, unnatural transformations spread across the land, and the creeping dread of the Heath

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41:46

First Contact with Professor Avi Loeb

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2024/10/23

👽🤖👀 Get ready for a mind-bending special episode of Chinwag, where Paul Giamatti and Steven Asma dive deep into the future and the search for alien life with Harvard astrophysicist Dr. Avi Loeb! But that's not all—Dr. Loeb also takes us on a cosmic journey through his cutting-edge research on interstellar objects and alien space trash. Could we be on the verge of discovering ancient tech from another civilization? Is a "first contact" with extraterrestrial life closer than we think? It’s a

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23:55

Witch Trials 101

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma ·

2024/10/16

🧙‍♀️🐈‍⬛🧪What kind of mischief were the Windsor witches into? Were they shapeshifters? And what’s the deal with black cats? Professor Asma dives into the infamous stories of witchcraft and witch trials, exploring the dark, mysterious history behind them. The Professor sheds light on the use of Voodoo dolls within witchcraft, while also breaking down real-world, practical theories about the Salem Witch Trials—could lead poisoning have driven some of the hysteria? Plus, we tackle the big

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