Kickass News

Jim Belushi is a man of many talents, actor, singer, dancer, and now legal cannabis farmer.  He shares how he’s using cannabis to combat the opioid crisis and heal vets suffering from PTSD, how high school football might have led to his brother John Belushi's tragic death, and why he believes that John would be alive today if he’d done more weed and less cocaine.  Jim discusses some of his best films and his two seasons on Saturday Night Live, how a man known as the "Smell of SNL" is helping him Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin talks about his new book True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump.  He discusses why this was the hardest book he’s ever written, and how he managed to gain access to a number Robert Mueller’s lead investigators (including a few of those so-called "angry Democrats").  He reveals why Mueller declined to subpoena Donald Trump, why he never attempted to get ahold of Trump’s financial records, and why he ultimately stopped just short of Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CNN's chief national security correspondent and anchor of CNN NewsroomJim Sciutto discusses the Nixon-era origins of the so-called "Madman Theory" and how it applies to President Trump’s unpredictable approach to foreign policy.  He reveals that the President’s intelligence team deliberately avoids bringing up Russia for fear of upsetting him and how this has lead to a dangerous ignorance of America’s number one geopolitical foe.  Jim delves into the President’s fraught relationship with China, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ambassador Susan Rice is currently at the top of Joe Biden's shortlist for Vice-President.  It's not hard to see why.  She established a good working relationship with Biden during the Obama Administration, and she has been at the table during the most pressing international crises of the past 30 years.  She talk about her family’s unique American story and how playing peacekeeper during her parents troubled marriage made her grow up fast but also prepared her for a life in international diplomacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paul Begala, former strategist to Bill Clinton and CNN political commentator offers a game-plan for how Democrats can beat President Trump in November.  He starts be admitting what he didn’t understand about Donald Trump in 2016  and sharing which of the lessons learned in 2016 can be applied in 2020.  Paul tells the story of how the Obama White House warned the incoming Trump Administration about the threat of a global pandemic almost 4 years ago, and he outlines the best way for Joe Biden to addres Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Al Roker returns to the show to tell stories from The Today Show and his early days in local television including how he annoyed his way into his first gig as a TV weatherman, some of his worst on-air flubs, and what he loved about doing those quirky, feel-good segments at the end of your evening news.  He says every local news team has there own version of Ron Burgundy, recalls working with a young Maury Povich back when Maury was serious DC newsman, and how he once handled a racist comment from anot Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Silicon Valley icon Guy Kawasaki recalls his childhood in Hawaii, his start in the jewelry business, and how his skills at jewelry sales came in surprisingly handy when he became chief evangelist for Macintosh. He talks about personally witnessing the genius and dark side of Apple founder Steve Jobs, he shares some rules that he calls "the Gospel According to Steve," and opens up about the argument that led him to quit Apple in the 90s.  He talks about honor and honesty in the tech industry, his litmus te Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oscar-winning writer/director Oliver Stone (Platoon, Wall Street, JFK) discusses why he dropped out of Yale and volunteered to go fight in Vietnam, some of the horrors that he witnessed during that war, and how the black soldiers in his platoon opened his eyes to injustice and saved his life.  He talks about how writing a screenplay about the experience helped him process what he had been through in Vietnam, why it took him 16 years to get Platoon made, and how the ouster of Filipino strongman Ferdinand Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer Palmieri served as the former Communications Director to President Barack Obama and then for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.  She spent most of her career advocating for herself and for other women from "within the system," but now she says it is time from women to break from that system and rewrite the playbook in her new book She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence from a Man's World.  Jennifer looks back at the roots of the American feminist movement, the surprising his Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Max Brooks (World War Z) discusses what a fictional Sasquatch massacre can teach us about the perils of eco-utopianism, what happens when man encroaches on nature, and those people who still refuse to wear a mask in public.  Max says people in the 21st Century are exchanging resilience and know-how for technological convenience - a trade-off that may not serve us very well when we’re put to the test in a true emergency like the COVID-19 crisis.  He talks about his childhood fascination with the legend o Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ambassador John Bolton reveals what he witnessed during his 17 tumultuous months as National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump.  Bolton shares how he reacted to Trump’s eagerness to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, why the second North Korea summit was so hastily put together, and what took place behind closed doors in Trump’s infamous one-on-one meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.  He says the President rarely ever reads and recalls his frustrations at trying to educate a Tr Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Savage (Mythbusters, MythBusters Junior) talks about building a working prototype of Marvel’s Iron Man suit for his series Savage Builds and what it was like to fly around with tiny jet engines strapped to his forearms.  He discusses how Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson helped him take to the skies in a real World War I dogfight, why Adam's attempt recreate one of World War II’s most bizarre contraptions was less than successful, and how it served as a lesson in the importance of embracing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Zimmern host of Bizarre Foods on The Travel Channel talks about how he became the man who’ll eat anything and some of the weirdest foods he’s tried over the years.  He reveals some of the strangest delicacies that turned out to be surprisingly good and whether he’s finally learned to love his old nemesis - the infamously stinky durian fruit.  He’ll discuss his broader mission to spread tolerance and understanding because as he puts it, "social change often starts with our stomachs."  He Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This Monday June 29, the world lost comedy legend Carl Reiner at the ripe old age 98.   In his honor, we’re sharing a conversation that I had with Carl in 2017.  He talks about working with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows, making The 2000 Year Old Man, and directing Steve Martin in The Jerk.  He also discusses his pride over his son director Rob Reiner's career, his thoughts on politics and Donald Trump, his enduring friendship with Mel Brooks, and how he stays sharp and spry well into his 90s. See o Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sir Michael Caine has starred in over 100 movies and won two Academy Awards, and today he shares stories and advice from his remarkable career.  He reveals why he never believed in taking advice from older movie stars, why he never wanted to be James Bond, and how the 1960’s made it cool to be a young cockney in the movies.  He recalls his humble working class beginnings in the projects of London known as the Elephant Castle, shares how he learned his famous discipline while serving in the Korean War Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says that America overuses (and often MIS-uses) the military to achieve its strategic goals while neglecting other (and often better) non-military options.  He discusses how Congress and the last 5 Presidents have allowed many of those non-military instruments of power to wither and die in the three decades after the Cold War.  He suggests that the United States needs to be "less monastic and more Madison Avenue" in how we talk about the good we do around the worl Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Director Peter Medak looks back on his filming of the famously disastrous Peter Sellers movie Ghost in the Noonday Sun for his new documentary The Ghost of Peter Sellers.  He discusses emotional toll that working with Peter Sellers took on him, why he thought that he would be the one director who could tame Sellers, and why he wanted to revisit that painful experience all these years later.  He talks about the mad genius and superstitions of Peter Sellers, and why Sellers was one only happy playing a ch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Mike Birbiglia discusses his new book The New One: Painfully True Stories from a Reluctant Dad including the seven reasons he originally never wanted to be a parent, the lies couples tell themselves when they decide to have a baby, and the scourge of parents who try to push babies on other people.  He opens up about he and his wife's initial troubles conceiving, reveals that President Barack Obama was the first person to learn that they were pregnant, and shares some pretty good parenting advi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(, , podcast) talks about growing up in a Mennonite community in Ontario, Canada, his brief flirtation with conservatism in his youth, and how his father’s boundless curiosity inspired him to always ask questions.  We delve... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace talks his five decades in broadcast journalism, following in the very big footsteps of his father Mike Wallace, what he’s learned from interviewing 7 different U.S. Presidents, and what it was like to date Walter Cronkite's daughter when he was a 16-year-old intern at CBS News.  Then he discusses his new book Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World.  He reveals how Harry Truman agonized over the decision to use the atomic bomb, the surprising dissenter among his military generals who warned against it, and how Truman broke the news of the bomb to Joseph Stalin.  He shares how the U.S. government managed to keep the enormous Manhattan Project under wraps, the many unknown variables that weighed on everyone involved in the mission, and his own touching experience of visiting the Enola Gay with an 80 year old Japanese woman who survived the Hiroshima blast. Order Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic B