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BREAKTHROUGH, Bruce, and Barreling to the Bay Area: The Week In Podcasts

Another great week on the Nerdist Podcast Network? Yes, if we do say so ourselves. (And we do.) Take a gander:

Ron Howard joined repeat guest (and his Imagine Entertainment production partner) Brian Grazer for a Nerdist Podcast all about their careers and their new National Geographic Channel series Breakthrough. Their relationship goes all the way back to Night Shift, and, well, you know the rest. They talked about Apollo 13 and the genesis of Breakthrough and about comedy, too, so science AND comedy AND show biz with a couple of legends… not bad at all, huh?

Dirk Ahlborn and Bibop Gresta of the amazing Hyperloop project explained what they’re up to on the Nerdist Podcast, and what they’re up to might be the future of travel. The Hyperloop is Elon Musk’s project to initially build a tube from L.A. to San Francisco to send passengers back and forth at over 700 mph (a half hour each way), and if this thing works, it could revolutionize travel and even alter society in overpopulated areas. Chris got the lowdown on what they’re doing and where it stands.

The Chin is back with Starz’ Ash vs Evil Dead, so Bruce Campbell came on the Nerdist Podcast — finally! — to talk about it and be his usual gregarious, hilarious self. (It’s posting Friday at a time yet to be determined at this writing, but it’s coming, believe you me.) Chris and Bruce talked about Hollywood leading men of yore, Shatner, directing Xena, The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr., and some of your questions, too.

Mark Flanagan owns the venerable L.A. club institution Largo (where, at the old Fairfax location, I once saw Chris Hardwick and Mike Phirman do their Rodeohead medley on the bill at Greg Behrendt’s Bring the Rock), and he visited You Made It Weird to talk about life and comedy with Pete and Pete’s very special guest, his girlfriend Valerie. Somehow, things started with Swan Lake and weed gummies and go from there. Much giggling with that combination, there was. And there was talk about Largo and its place in the L.A. comedy and music world over the last 20 years. “You’re like the farmer and we’re the crazy crops,” Pete said of “Flanny,” and that’s one way to put it.

What’s Adam Sessler up to these days? He came on The Indoor Kids to talk about just that, including the Kickstarter for Friday the 13th: The Game, and Matt Damon’s poop situation in The Martian, and more. Oh, and this was the last episode before a little bit of a hiatus for Emily (who has a great new sitcom writing job) and Kumail (who, well, you know, he’s in every single thing Hollywood is producing right now), but they will be back. Oh, they WILL be back.

Scott Aukerman himself brought the Comedy Bang! Bang! spirit to Pop My Culture. Scott didn’t just talk the usual pop culture but about sketch comedy, plus the 1992 production of A Christmas Carol at the Sacramento Theater Company, which co-starred Cole and Scott. Few in the audience then realized that they were in the presence of future comedy royalty. And Scott talked about how he ended up writing for Mr. Show and more career stuff. And zombies.

Ben brought the showrunners of four CBS/The CW shows — Rob Doherty (Elementary), Aline Brosh McKenna (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Craig Sweeny (Limitless), and David Rosenthal (Jane the Virgin) — together for an all-star session of the Nerdist Writers Panel.

Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney, Sarah Mirk of Bitch Media, Hutch Harris of The Thermals joined Janet for a recorded-live The JV Club from the All Jane Comedy Festival in Portland.

Daniel Montgomery of Welcome to DeadCast joined Bowser to talk Goosebumps on Bizarre States.

Ben Hoffman ate stuff on Dining with Doug and Karen, this time sans chef but with treats brought in by Doug, Karen, and Katie.

Sean James, who’s been doing Chris Hardwick’s hair since the ’90s, had an interesting conversation with Tom on Pro You.

Steve Mazan was on the couch for a second session on Cash Withdrawal.

Tony Gardner taught Gil all about special effects on The Mutant Season.

Comic and actor Justin Hires compared knowledge with Razzle on Today We Learned.

And Tom Martin returned for more Showroom madness on a Halloween-themed Todd Glass Show.

Find all of that and more on the Nerdist Podcast Network homepage and Facebook page. And more to come, because we can’t stop, won’t stop.

Contributor: Kyle Clark
Photo Credit: Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for Louis XIII

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