Kickass News
Hosted by Hollywood producer and political media strategist Ben Mathis, KickAss News is a twice weekly podcast that features the most interesting personalities and thought leaders in politics, entertainment, tech, business, science, and more. Enjoy the podcast? Then please support the show and help keep us on the air by making a donation to our GoFundMe campaign at www.gofundme.com/kickassnews. Another way you can support the show is to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review on iTunes to help keep us ranking strong on the top podcasts charts. For more information visit www.kickassnews.com. Thanks for listening!
226
Jeff Bridges Gets Zen About Art, Acting, and th...
discusses his 6 decades in Hollywood and what he learned about acting from dad Lloyd Bridges. He recalls the "Little Rascals" version of Tucker that he and Francis Ford Coppola made prior to filming, laughing it up with...
48 min
227
Drs. Warren Farrell and John Gray Warn That Boy...
Bestselling authors () and () warn that boys around the world are in crisis and say it's largely the result of a crisis of fathers who suffer from a "purpose void" as their traditional role is being diminished. They reveal how moms and dads...
42 min
228
Alyssa Mastromonaco on Surviving Presidential T...
Alyssa Mastromonaco spent 6 years in the Obama White House as assistant to the president, director of scheduling and advance, and deputy chief of staff for operations. She says working in the West Wing is a lot like VEEP and recalls some of the...
48 min
229
Bryan Callen Believes We're All Complicated Apes
Actor/comedian (THE GOLDBERGS, SCHOOLED, HANGOVER I & II) shares how his childhood growing up in countries all over the world inspired him to question labels and defy categorization, and he discusses his particular issue with the catch all...
51 min
230
Arthur Brooks Rejects the Politics of Outrage a...
, president of the , returns to the podcast to call on Americans to reject the culture of contempt and the outrage industrial complex. He talks about the event that woke him up to the ugliness of our political discourse two and a half...
47 min
231
Into the Danger Zone w/ Captain Dan Pederson
On the 50th Anniversary of the Navy's legendary fighter pilot school known as Top Gun, the founder Captain Dan Pederson discusses how the pilot losses he witnessed in the Vietnam War led to the formation of Top Gun, how he and the other original...
46 min
232
Roger McNamee Says Facebook Undermines Democracy
Roger McNamee was a mentor to a young Mark Zuckerberg and an early investor in Facebook, but now he warns that the social media platform has become a threat to democracy, privacy, competition, and even public health. He talks about when he...
49 min
233
The Man Who Caught El Chapo
For 30 years, DEA special agent Jack Riley led the manhunt for the world’s most wanted drug-lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. He reveals how El Chapo cleverly wrangled the cocaine trade from the Columbian cartels, how he saw America’s...
39 min
234
The French Intellectual Who Loves America
France’s leading public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy accuses President Trump of following the same path of retreat begun by Barack Obama and suggests it has created a void that is now being filled by five old-world empires that are making...
48 min
235
Parag Khanna Says the Future Is Asian
says America has a China problem and the solution is Asia. He suggests that rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership and building stronger ties with other countries in the region are much more effective and less risky ways to gain leverage over...
44 min
236
The Dangerous World of Larry Charles
Legendary comedy writer and director Larry Charles (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Borat) talks about traveling the world in search of humor in the most unusual, unexpected and deadliest places for his new Netflix series . He...
55 min
237
Governor Chris Christie Gets the Last Word
Former NJ Governor sets the record straight about his tenure as a corruption-busting prosecutor and a Republican running a Democratic state, as well as what really happened on the 2016 campaign trail and inside Trump Tower. He recalls how his...
38 min
238
Madeleine Albright Warns That Fascism Is Making...
Madeleine Albright fled fascists during her childhood and faced them down as Secretary of State, and today she comes on the podcast to warn that fascism is once again on the rise. She shares how her own refugee experience during World War II and...
43 min
239
National Geographic Chair Jean Case on Being Fe...
Former AOL exec and chairman of National Geographic Society Jean Case talks about her new book . She says leaders need to start viewing risk as R&D and failure as a learning experience. In fact, Jean Case encourages people to...
50 min
240
Marc Freedman on Connecting the Generations
founder says seniors are an untapped resource and calls on society to stop segregating the elderly from society and renew the bond between young and old. Marc talks about the mentors who influenced his life, what we can learn from the...
55 min
241
White House Aide Cliff Sims Tells All
Cliff Sims recalls his time as President Trump's Director of Messaging Strategy in a chaotic White House that he likens to "Game of Thrones with the cast of VEEP." He shares the real story behind the fiasco around Trump’s inauguration numbers,...
38 min
242
Rock Star Scientist Professor Brian Cox
Science Communicator reveals why he left a popular rock band for a career in particle physics, what he is learning through his participation in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, and why he says the LHC has disproven...
57 min
243
Filmmaker Joe Berlinger Goes in the Dark Mind o...
Award-winning filmmaker (Brother's Keeper, The Paradise Lost trilogy) reexamines America's most notorious serial killer on the 30th anniversary of his execution in his new Netflix documentary . He discusses how one of Bundy’s first jobs gave...
43 min
244
Dr. Phil Says People Never Stop Surprising Him
says that some of his guests still surprise him even after 2000+ episodes of his #1 daytime talk show . He recalls how losing a football game in junior high school inspired him to go into psychology, what it was like to go...
51 min
245
Dr. Steven Pinker Says Good News Is a Hard Sell
A year ago, 's book made headlines for giving hard data that proved that the world is safer, happier, and freer than ever, but he was surprised by how many people just don't want to believe good news! Today Dr. Pinker returns to the...
54 min
246
Howie Mandel's Audience Is His Muse
Howie Mandel talks about making his first comedy special in 20 years, his childhood growing up in Toronto, and how the show Candid Camera inspired him to pull an elaborate prank that got him expelled form high school. He shares how...
56 min
247
Broad City's Abbi Jacobson on the Road Trip as ...
Abbi Jacobson opens up about the frustrations of TV development hell, playing “herself” on ’s , and being a woman in a position of power. She discusses her ongoing struggle with work-life balance, how it took a book deal just to make her...
51 min
248
Brad Meltzer on the Secret Plot to Kill George ...
Brad Meltzer is the #1 bestselling author of political thrillers like The Escape Artist and The Inner Circle. Today he talks about making his first foray into nonfiction for his latest book , all the research that went into it, and his...
53 min
249
Bill Murray (Rerun)
Actor Bill Murray (Lost in Translation, Rushmore) discusses how his music and poetry album evolved out of a chance meeting with classical cellist Jan Vogler on a flight from Berlin to NYC. Plus, Bill Murray shares his philosophy of life, his favorite...
39 min
250
Bob Woodward on Nixon, Impeachment, & How Power...
Today's episode is a rerun of my interview with journalist Bob Woodward that originally aired 11/04/15. Bob talks about his book which chronicles the White House career of Alexander Butterfield, who served as deputy assistant to President...
41 min