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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

86:10

Novelist Salman Rushdie at ‘The Eleventh Hour’

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/11/02

For more than three decades, author Salman Rushdie has lived under threat. In 1989, a fatwa forced him into hiding. In 2022, he was stabbed more than a dozen times while speaking on stage—and nearly killed. Less than two years later, he recounted the attack (and remarkable recovery) in his memoirKnife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. Now, at seventy-eight, Rushdie returns to fiction with The Eleventh Hour, a collection of five interlinked stories that explore anger, peace, mortality,

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78:12

‘Before’ Director Richard Linklater

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/10/29

Director Richard Linklater has made a career out of telling personal stories with universal appeal. Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, the Before trilogy, Boyhood. No matter the genre or form, Linklater’s human touch remains. To mark the arrival of his latest films, Blue MoonandNouvelle Vague, we return to our talk last summer with Linklater. We begin with Hit Man (6:36), his action-packed neo-noir (8:15) that also explores the malleability of identity (11:00). Then, Linklater reflects on his

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73:11

GQ’s Will Welch on the Future of Magazines (and Men)

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/10/26

Is it possible the rumors of the death of print magazines (and masculinity) have been greatly exaggerated? We sit this week with GQ's Global Editorial Director Will Welch to discuss the magazine’s 2025 Special Issue on American Masculinity (3:53), its revealing survey of nearly two thousand men across the US (5:00), the absence of “low-stakes mischief” in today’s surveillance age (9:40), the widespread obsession with Gen Z (12:00), and the “125 Rules for Modern

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59:37

Does Fashion Have a Future? Designer Gabriela Hearst...

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/10/19

Gabriela Hearst is one of the rare figures in fashion with an unwavering commitment to sustainability. At the top, we discuss her luminous Spring Summer 2026 collection at Paris Fashion Week (4:00), her childhood herding cattle on a 17,000-acre ranch in Uruguay (6:00), and the gaucho traditions that shaped her philosophy around art-making (10:00). Then, Gabriela reflects on the manifestation practice that’s guided her since adolescence (15:00), how love and heartbreak fueled her creatively

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51:07

Actor Rose Byrne: A Woman on the Verge

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/10/12

Rose Byrne has taken many forms on-screen. In Mary Bronstein’s new film If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, she delivers a career-defining performance as a Long Island therapist and mother slowly unraveling under the weight of her child’s mysterious illness. We begin by discussing the maternal madness at the heart of this new film from A24 (6:30), the long, collaborative road to shaping the character (10:00), and what it was like to have Conan O’Brien as a scene partner (13:30)

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101:52

A Cup of Coffee with Director Benny Safdie (‘The...

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/10/08

Director, writer, and actor Benny Safdie stops by Sam’s home this week to discuss his new film, The Smashing Machine (1:30)—an unflinching portrait of mixed martial arts icon Mark Kerr (7:00), played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (9:00). In the second half, we revisit our conversation from 2023. There, Safdie unpacks his collaboration with comedian Nathan Fielder on their television series The Curse (44:30), the timely premise that inspired the show (47:20), and his history

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61:35

Ta-Nehisi Coates Has a Message to Deliver. Can We...

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/10/05

Few writers have examined the tension between history and morality more urgently than Ta-Nehisi Coates. Last fall, on the heels of his new book The Message, Coates joined Sam for a conversation live in Los Angeles. At the top, they discuss how his Atlantic piece The Case for Reparations guided these three new essays (6:10), Coates’ early education growing up in West Baltimore (14:57), and his powerful dispatches from South Carolina (22:00) and the Middle East (29:30). On the back-half,

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65:24

And In Our Hour of Darkness, Writer Arundhati Roy

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/09/28

“Sometimes I feel that I’m not going to write again,” says Arundhati Roy, “but then it becomes harder to keep quiet than to write it.” Few writers have bridged the personal and political as powerfully as Arundhati Roy. With her first memoir, fittingly titledMother Mary Comes to Me, she turns to her turbulent relationship with her late mother, Mary Roy, a pioneering feminist who reshaped Indian law. Act I: Let It Be We begin with the imagery that animates the new book

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60:41

Director Francis Ford Coppola Keeps His Dream Alive

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/09/21

Director Francis Ford Coppola doesn’t just want to make movies. He wants to change them. This was true in 1969 when he co-founded Zoetrope Studios with George Lucas, and it remains true today. Watch the video of our conversation on YouTube. We return to our talk with Coppola upon the anniversary of his modern-day Roman epic fable Megalopolis, discussing his decades-long process developing the film (6:16) and the inspiration he’s taken from Georges Méliès (17:00) and

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69:23

Seth Rogen’s ‘The Studio’ Takes the Emmys

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/09/15

At this year’s Primetime Emmys, Seth Rogen took home four major awards for The Studio, including Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. We sat with Rogen around the show’s release back in the spring to discuss his key influences (6:15), from Robert Altman’s The Player to The Larry Sanders Show (13:25), the evolving state of “show business” (15:36), and a life-changing piece of advice from director and producer Judd Apatow (25:00). On

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99:30

The Terry Gross Interview

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/09/14

This month marks 50 years of Terry Gross as the host of Fresh Air. What began in 1975 as a local experiment at WHYY in Philadelphia has since grown into a national institution—one that not only transformed public radio, but laid the groundwork for the world of podcasting. To commemorate a half-century on the air, Terry Gross joins us for a rare appearance in the interview seat. At the top, we discuss her Brooklyn upbringing (10:26), early memories of writing (13:00), and her improbable road to

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72:45

Cook Samin Nosrat (‘Salt Fat Acid Heat’) Returns with...

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/09/07

Eight years ago, cook and writer Samin Nosrat created a kitchen staple with Salt Fat Acid Heat: a New York Times bestseller that later became a hit Netflix series. Nosrat returns with Good Things, a collection of personal recipes straight from her dining table. We discuss the influences that shaped the book (8:30), the ephemerality (and pleasure) of produce (9:30), her complicated San Diego childhood growing up with Iranian parents (17:30), the high expectations placed before her (22:40), and how

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60:14

The Homecoming of Dev Hynes (Blood Orange)

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/08/31

Over the long holiday weekend, Dev Hynes (Blood Orange) released his latest album, Essex Honey. To celebrate, we return to our 2022 conversation with the visionary musician. At the top, we dive into his EP Four Songs (3:15), performing at Madison Square Garden with Harry Styles (4:40), and the process that guides much of his music (6:39). Then, Dev describes growing up in Essex, England (7:04), falling in love with music at his sister’s piano lessons (11:00), his dreams of entering the New

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87:02

Laura Dern on Living Well (The Dan Buettner Podcast)

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/08/28

We’re excited to share a new show from Lemonada Media: The Dan Buettner Podcast.Today’s episode features the incomparable Laura Dern. In his groundbreaking Blue Zones research, National Geographic explorer and bestselling author Dan Buettner uncovered the secrets to longevity and happiness from the world’s longest-lived populations. Now, on the podcast, he’s sharing the practical habits, mindsets, and wisdom that can set the stage for a longer, more fulfilling life—at

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68:07

A Candid Conversation with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/08/24

It’s been a year in Los Angeles. Between the historic wildfires, rapid recovery efforts, and the ICE raids over the summer, Mayor Karen Bass has been tasked with moving at a breakneck speed to meet the demands of a city in peril. Watch this conversation on our new YouTube channel. The Mayor joins us this week to reflect on her office’s response to ICE in Los Angeles (7:00), the federalization of thousands of National Guard troops by the Trump administration (11:20), and the ongoing

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85:30

The Stories of Actor Josh Brolin (‘Weapons’)

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ·

2025/08/17

With the arrival of Weapons in theaters, we return to our conversation with actor Josh Brolin. Since the turn of the century, Brolin has had quite a run. From No Country for Old Men and Hail, Caesar!from the Coen Brothers, to Inherent Vice from Paul Thomas Anderson, to Sicario and the Dune films from Denis Villeneuve. His memoir, From Under the Truck, contains stories about the life in between.We discuss his upbringing bouncing from Paso Robles to Santa Barbara (8:49), the influence of his mother

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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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