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!
51
Chef Magnus Nilsson
In 2019, Chef Magnus Nilsson closed Fäviken, his one-of-a-kind Michelin-starred restaurant in remote Sweden at the peak of its success. He shares how Fäviken became one of the top restaurants in the world, how the industry it was a...
49 min
52
Matthew McConaughey on Catching Life's Greenlights
is an Academy Award-winning actor, but he is also a poet, philosopher, husband and father of three, global traveler, writer, occasional orchestra conductor, and passionate student of life. Today he shares some of things he's learned about...
53 min
53
Astronaut Scott Kelly
This is a rerun of my interview with astronaut Captain Scott Kelly. He talks about his year on the International Space Station, including how it pushed his body the limit, why the hardest physical test was re-adjusting to life on...
40 min
54
Preview of Get Wired Podcast
We’re doing something a little different today. Instead of a regular episode of KickAss News, we wanted to share a clip from our friends over at the podcast. is produced by Wired and hosted by senior writer Lauren Goode....
1 min
55
Joe Scarborough Discusses Harry Truman's Lastin...
I talk with Joe Scarborough, host of on MSNBC, about our mutual affection for the politician dismissed as the “strange little man” from Missouri, why Harry Truman couldn’t even get respect from his own wife and mother-in-law, and how...
50 min
56
Oscar-winning Director Steve McQueen
Director won an Academy Award for Best Picture for telling the dramatic true story of a free African-American who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in his film Twelve Years a Slave. Now he’s addressing a form of racial oppression...
32 min
57
The Mindhunter John Douglas
Legendary FBI criminal profiler talks about some of the 5000 cases with which he has been involved and his chilling face to face encounters with the worst monsters in recent memory from Edmund Kemper to Ted Bundy. He reveals why he...
60 min
58
David Sedaris Returns
returns to the podcast to talk about his pre-election anxiety, his lifelong blackout of all social media, and the time he got bullied while testifying before the British House of Commons. He discusses what it was like the comb through 25...
37 min
59
Michael Riedel on Broadway's Recent Past and Un...
New York Post theatre columnist shares his thoughts on Broadway's uncertain future, what New York theatre may look like whenever it emerges from the pandemic, and some hopeful lessons from Broadway’s dramatic recovery in the wake of the...
47 min
60
Stacey Abrams on Counting Every Vote
With Joe Biden taking a razor thin lead in George and a run-off election expected to decide who controls the Senate, many credit with making sure that every vote gets counted and likely delivering Georgia for the Democrats. Today's episode is a...
35 min
61
Tim Heidecker Is on a Mission to the Moon
talks about his new comedy series , collaborating with fellow comedy geniuses John C. Reilly, Fred Armisen, and Jonathan Krisel on the show, and what it was like to visit NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and SpaceX headquarters as part of their...
39 min
62
Legendary Newsman Dan Rather
Legendary newsman Dan Rather talks about his 60 year career and how his travels and conversations have given him a “wide shot” of the American experience and the values that unite us. He condemns recent attacks on some on those values...
41 min
63
Lenny Kravitz Reveals How He Found His Voice
Grammy-wining musician shares how his parents' biracial marriage and very different personalities fostered what he calls his "gemini soul," how his mom, actress Roxy Roker from TV's The Jeffersons, inspired the artist in him, and how he and...
39 min
64
Peter Frampton Comes Alive
Rock legend talks about the making of that seminal rock album Frampton Comes Alive! and the story of his famous guitar that he nicknamed "The Phoenix." He recalls learning to play guitar by ear when he was a boy, growing up with...
38 min
65
John Cleese on Creativity
As the actor and writer behind Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and films like A Fish Called Wanda, is among the most creative minds in entertainment. He opens up about his writing process, why he often finds inspiration in the most unlikely...
58 min
66
Google's Eric Schmidt
Former chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt discusses how former college football coach Bill Campbell mentored him and many of Silicon Valley's greatest visionaries from Jeff Bezos and Larry Page to Marc Andreessen and Steve Jobs. Eric recalls...
34 min
67
Tim Robbins on Defeating Tyranny with Satire
Oscar-winning actor/writer/director/producer Tim Robbins shares how he originally developed his latest project as a movie with the director Adam McKay, but he was inspired to adapt his screenplay for an auditory medium when the pandemic...
44 min
68
99% Invisible's Roman Mars on How People, Polit...
host discusses his new book why it’s taken him a decade to finally write a 99% Invisible book , all of the thought that this design fan put into the look of his first book, and some of the secret publishing considerations that determine...
44 min
69
H.R. McMaster Looks at America's Greatest Chall...
Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster served in the US Army for 34 years and then as National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump. He discusses what it was like to take over that job in the chaotic period following the firing of his...
47 min
70
John Lithgow Takes on Trump with Rhyme and Verse
John Lithgow shares some of his favorite poems from his new book and how a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most famous song inspired him to express his political voice through rhyme and verse. He reveals that he originally...
45 min
71
Jeff Daniels and Billy Ray on Capturing the Rea...
Based on James Comey's memoir A Higher Loyalty, is a two night television event that is written/directed by Oscar-nominee Billy Ray and stars Emmy-winner Jeff Daniels as the embattled FBI Director. They join me on the podcast to open...
40 min
72
Actor Richard Jenkins Discusses His Long Path t...
Oscar-nominated actor Richard Jenkins talks about his prolific career as one of Hollywood’s most reliable character actors and achieving fame later in life on the hit HBO series Six Feet Under. He talks about some of his favorite...
42 min
73
Actress Carrie Coon Is Riding a Hot Streak
The past 5 years have been an amazing ride for actress with a near constant string of excellent performances in some of the best film and television of the past decade including , S3, S2, , and . Now she says quarantine is the longest period...
43 min
74
Jack Black and Kyle Gass of Tenacious D
For more than 25 years, actors and musicians Jack Black and Kyle Gass have been performing as the rock satire band . They’ve toured around the world, recorded Grammy-winning albums, started a music festival, made a tv...
43 min
75
Former White House Photographer Pete Souza
As Official White House Photographer under Ronald Reagan and then Barack Obama, was an eyewitness to the unique and tremendous responsibilities of being the most powerful person on Earth. Now he's the subject of a new documentary film...
32 min