Synopsis
Kyle Meredith With... is an interview series in which WFPK's Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Meredith digs deep into the artist's work to find out how the music is made and where their journey is going, from legendary artists like Robert Plant, Paul McCartney, U2, and Bryan Ferry, to the newer class of The National, St. Vincent, Arctic Monkeys, Haim, and Father John Misty.
Episodes
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Jeff Tweedy on Twilight Override, Making a Triple Album, and Radical Hope
22/09/2025 Duration: 24minWilco’s Jeff Tweedy joins Kyle Meredith to dive into his ambitious new triple solo album, Twilight Override. Clocking in at 30 songs across three discs, the project explores the past, present, and future—not as a rigid concept record, but as a flowing arc of memory, meaning, and hope. Tweedy shares how the record was inspired by the voices of his touring band, and how writing for their harmonies pushed the songs into new emotional territory. He also reflects on post-pandemic generational trauma, the ongoing challenge of maintaining empathy in a fractured world, and the creative power in resisting doomscroll culture.From the autobiographical storytelling of “parking lots” to the messy guitar solos and meditative closing track “Enough,” it’s a generous and unguarded collection—released, hilariously, on the 30th anniversary of Wilco’s debut. No nostalgia tours here, just a big-hearted flood of new music. Get tickets to Tweedy's upcoming tour dates here: https://stubhub.prf.hn/l/kVkPdWg/Listen to Jeff Tweedy
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Michael Chiklis, Mary Stuart Masterson & Rob Corddry on The Senior and Redefining Second Chances
17/09/2025 Duration: 35minThe cast of The Senior -- Michael Chiklis, Rob Corddry, and Mary Stuart Masterson -- along with the actual former football player the movie is based upon, Mike Flynt, join Kyle Meredith to talk about the film's wild-but-true story. The Senior follows Flynt as he becomes the older player to ever suit up for a college football team -- at the age of 59.Chiklis, who was also 59 when filming, talks about the physical toll of hitting the field, how he approached portraying a living person, and why this became one of the most meaningful projects of his career. Corddry and Masterson, who play Flynt's coach and wife, respectively, discuss finding unexpected emotional depth in their characters, navigating the real people behind the roles (including Eileen Flynt watching on set), and how the film explores masculinity, redemption, faith, and the long game of unfinished business. It’s a sports movie, sure — but one that trades cliché locker room speeches for something a lot more human.Listen to the cast of The Sen
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Hannah Stocking, Madison Pettis & Yvonne Orji on The Wrong Paris, Reality TV, and Playing Big Characters
15/09/2025 Duration: 16minHannah Stocking, Madison Pettis, and Yvonne Orji talk with Kyle Meredith about The Wrong Paris on Netflix — where a contestant (played by Miranda Cosgrove) signs up for a Parisian dating show and lands in Paris, Texas instead, plotting an early exit until feelings complicate the plan. We get into audition choices (including a full-throttle Southern accent), improv on set, playing “ambitiously passionate” reality-show personas, and how Yvonne’s hosting on real-life dating shows informed her in-film emcee. It’s backstage chaos, bull-riding bruises, and a surprisingly sweet heart under the satire—all in a fast, funny hang with Kyle Meredith.Listen to the cast of The Wrong Paris discuss the new film or watch the interview on YouTube here. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.Our Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle
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Willem Dafoe, Corey Hawkins, Anna Diop & Nadia Latif on The Man in My Basement
10/09/2025 Duration: 26minKyle Meredith talks with Willem Dafoe, Corey Hawkins, Anna Diop, and director Nadia Latif about turning Walter Mosley’s novel The Man in My Basement into a psychological thriller where race, trauma, and grief haunt every frame. The story follows Charles Blakey (Corey Hawkins), a man on the verge of losing his ancestral Sag Harbor home, who agrees to rent his basement to the mysterious Aniston Bennett (Willem Dafoe) for the summer—only to find himself pulled into a chilling reckoning with history, family ghosts, and the root of all evil. Dafoe digs into acting as “pretend” courage, why first days on set still terrify him, and how genre lets hard truths sneak up on an audience. Latif reflects on making her feature debut and weaving her own story of loss into Mosley’s text, while Hawkins details playing Charles’ transformation opposite Dafoe in a basement where time itself bends. Diop speaks to how horror and thriller connect with Black history in ways straight drama can’t. From prosaic lines that ring like bell
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Rewind: Soft Cell’s Marc Almond & OMD’s Paul Humphreys: Orchestras, Glitch, and Making the Past Feel New
08/09/2025 Duration: 24minIt's a Rewind double feature today on Kyle Meredith With, as we bring you a pair of episodes from 2017. First, Soft Cell’s Marc Almond talks with Kyle Meredith about shaping his 2017 solo album, Shadows and Reflections, as a '60s-steeped, orchestral “torch and baroque” set—curating lesser-known gems, keeping the original arrangements’ DNA, and slipping in two new cuts (including the filmic “No One to Say Goodnight To” and the Walker Brothers-sized “Embers”). Then on the second half of the episode, OMD’s Paul Humphreys talks about the band's own album from that year, The Punishment of Luxury, balancing four decades of signature melody with modern minimalism and glitch textures, limiting the synth palette to dodge the “tyranny of choice,” and turning a WWI painting into a rhythmic teaser with gunfire as percussion—while still embracing the hits.Show your support for Kyle Meredith With by making sure to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all ou
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Sabrina Impacciatore on The Paper, Carrying the Weight of The Office, and Doing the Worm
03/09/2025 Duration: 20minSabrina Impacciatore showed up to The Paper — the long-awaited return to the world birthed by The Office — like a heat-seeking comet, all glamour, sharp elbows, and survival instinct. She spoke with Kyle Meredith about stepping into a franchise with generations of fans and finding the funny even when the stakes feel like a barbell on your shoulders. She calls the weight a motivator, not a burden, and her character of Esmeralda arrives fully charged: vintage-star hair, weaponized nails, and a don’t-look-down ambition that keeps the newsroom whirring. Listen now.Impacciatore laughs now about the terror of those early table reads, admitting “My legs under the table were shaking." She adds that she "didn’t understand what was going on” through the language haze -- but the nerves didn’t dull the commitment. Case in point: the soon-to-be infamous “worm” moment. “Why don’t we shoot me doing the worm?” she pitched, only to discover the worm is an ’80s break-dance move that she absolutely didn't know how t
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Lzzy Hale on Halestorm’s Everest, 30 Years of Rock, and the Brilliance of Nick Cave
01/09/2025 Duration: 27minLzzy Hale of Halestorm spoke with Kyle Meredith about Everest, the band’s roaring new record born from a “desert island” headspace in Savannah with Dave Cobb. Nearly three decades into their run, Hale framed the album as a live-wire snapshot instead of a genre exercise: big melodies, bigger punches, and zero interest in coloring inside the lines. It’s the sound of a band refusing to calcify. Listen now.“We were writing and recording in real time,” Hale says, describing how the band ditched old riffs and notebooks to chase whatever felt electric that day. That gamble paid off on “Watch Out,” where a 4:00 a.m. voice-note flipped the entire track: “Dave’s like, ‘That’s the chorus — screw the other part.’”She also lit up at the mention of Nick Cave, praising the way he can drop a single word — like sin — and suddenly the song carries a new kind of gravity. “He’s one of those rare, once-in-a-lifetime artists who can be otherworldly and still completely genuine," she says. "There’s this balance he mastered
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Rewind: Wayne Coyne on King’s Mouth, Miley Cyrus and Kesha, and the Dark Side of The Flaming Lips
27/08/2025 Duration: 51minFor this edition of Kyle Meredith with..., listen to Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips across three interviews that span their albums King’s Mouth and The Terror, collaborations with Miley Cyrus and Kesha, and covers of The Beatles. Coyne also digs into concept records, becoming a new father, the perception of songs like “Giant Baby,” and why useful music — like “Happy Birthday" — matters. He also reflects on the band’s legacy, staying curious, the balance between pop culture chaos and charity work, and why Flaming Lips fans embrace constant change.Listen to Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips or watch it on chat about all this and more. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.Our Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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David Rysdahl on Alien Earth, Big Monsters, and Working with Noah Hawley
25/08/2025 Duration: 24minDavid Rysdahl sat down with Kyle Meredith to dig into FX’s Alien: Earth, the latest installment of the Alien franchise. Known for roles in Fargo and Oppenheimer, Rysdahl steps into a story that uses sci-fi horror as a Trojan horse for bigger questions — AI, environmental collapse, corporate greed, even the messy question of whether humanity deserves to stick around. Listen to the conversation now. For Rysdahl, working again with creator Noah Hawley after Fargo meant playing more than just a scientist — he was embodying a piece of Hawley himself. “I do feel like I’m playing a part of Noah,” he tells Meredith. “Arthur is the conscience and the heart of Alien: Earth. Wayne in Fargo was that for his family, and Arthur is that in this story. Both are idealists who have their faith and their world shaken.” He laughed about Hawley sending him a one-line email — “You want to come to Thailand?” — and knew right then he was back in the deep end.That deep end, of course, comes with the Alien franchise’s weight and a mod
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DEVO on Netflix Doc, Neil Young, and Cosmic De-evolution with The B-52s
20/08/2025 Duration: 25minDEVO’s story has finally been distilled into a new documentary, and it’s landed on Netflix thanks to director Chris Smith. Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale joined Kyle Meredith to talk about the film, which charts the band’s path from Kent State to post-punk pioneers to MTV oddities to cultural prophets who survived long enough to tour with The B-52's(get tickets here!). It’s been a long time coming, but in true DEVO fashion, the doc doesn’t offer an “ultimate truth” — just one version of their truth filtered through another outsider’s lens. Listen now.The pair also reflect on the path from their hippie-era influences to creating a soundtrack for the paranoia of the 1970s. Mothersbaugh remembers wanting to be “a pioneer” with sound the way Hendrix was for the ’60s, while Casale points out that DEVO’s obsession with futurist art and media helped them break rock’s formula. Along the way, they found themselves jamming with Neil Young — years after his song “Ohio” haunted them as Kent State survivors — an
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Rewind: DJ Shadow & Black Eyed Peas on Reinvention, Activism, and New Worlds
18/08/2025 Duration: 32minFor this special Rewind episode, Kyle Meredith talks with DJ Shadow, as well as Black Eyed Peas’ Taboo and apl.de.ap, about pushing their artistry into bold new directions. Revisit the conversations now.DJ Shadow takes us inside The Mountain Will Fall, which at the time was his first “artist show” in four years. Plus, he chats about the rediscovery of long-lost multi-tracks and how staying forward-thinking keeps his music vital.Taboo and apl.de.ap discuss their song “Street Livin'” as a raw diagnosis of America’s social and political climate and their continued activism from Standing Rock to schools in the Philippines. Then, they touch on Masters of the Sun, a Marvel-published graphic novel expanded into augmented and virtual reality that boasts an all-star voice cast and a Hans Zimmer-assisted soundtrack.Listen to DJ Shadow and Black Eyed Peas’ Taboo and apl.de.ap chat about all this and more. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date w
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Genndy Tartakovsky on Comedic Boundaries, Pushing Adult Animation Forward, and Netflix's Fixed
15/08/2025 Duration: 18minGenndy Tartakovsky has spent decades shaping the animation landscape with everything from Dexter’s Laboratory to Samurai Jack, but when he sat down with Kyle Meredith, the talk was all about his first leap into unapologetically adult animation. His new Netflix film Fixed follows a good-natured dog named Bull on the last wild night before his scheduled neutering, a premise Tartakovsky says came to him in a single lightning-strike moment. Seventeen years, multiple pitches, and one truly committed cast later, the result is a raunchy-but-heartfelt comedy that pushes cartoons beyond TV-safe snark. Listen now.As Tartakovsky explains, the road to Fixed began with a character-driven buddy movie idea loosely inspired by his childhood friends, which studio execs insisted needed a hook. “They said maybe even an adult concept,” he recalls. “And instantly I said, ‘What if they’re dogs, and one finds out he’s getting neutered in the morning?’ Everyone laughed, and that was it.”Idris Elba, voicing Rocco, got the lion’s shar
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Alien: Earth Cast on AI Anxiety, Dead-Eye Acting, and the Humanity Beneath the Horror
11/08/2025 Duration: 20minThe Alien franchise has never been short on xenomorphs, but FX’s Alien: Earth proves there’s plenty more to fear than acid blood and chestbursters. In a conversation with Kyle Meredith, showrunner Noah Hawley, producer David W. Zucker, and cast members Timothy Olyphant, Sydney Chandler, Samuel Blenkin, Alex Lawther, and Babou Ceesay unpacked the series’ deeper bite: AI ethics, corporate dystopias, and what happens when humanity hardwires itself into machines. Listen to all of the conversations now.Hawley says his entry point wasn’t just the monster, but “the moment Sigourney Weaver leans back and Ian Holm is revealed to be an android,” sparking a story about “being trapped between the primordial past and an AI future you created that’s now turning on you.” Chandler adds that Alien: Earth doesn’t “feed the audience answers,” but leaves space for viewers to chew on questions long after the credits roll. And while the genre demands a little running-and-screaming, the cast was just as invested in the subtler mome
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Documentarian Amy Berg on Capturing the Myth and Humanity of Jeff Buckley in It’s Never Over
06/08/2025 Duration: 31minDocumentarian Amy Berg has tackled powerful subjects before — from clergy abuse to the West Memphis Three — but this time, she's turned her lens on one of music’s most luminous and elusive figures: Jeff Buckley. In a conversation with Kyle Meredith, Berg opens up about It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, a documentary that traces the short, brilliant life of the Grace singer through rare archival footage, intimate interviews, and a narrative woven with personal depth. It’s a project that took over a decade to come together, and one that goes beyond the myth to reveal a complicated, driven, and beautifully human artist. Listen now.“There’s only going to be one time this is going to happen,” Berg explains, referencing the trust it took for Buckley’s mother Mary Guibert to allow the project to move forward. “I’ve wanted final cut since 2009, and she just finally felt ready.” The result is a film shaped just as much by vulnerability as by sound. Buckley’s infamous self-doubt, perfectionism, and emotional openness
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Rewind: They Might Be Giants on Doom, Decrepitude, and the Enduring Art of the Absurd
04/08/2025 Duration: 36minRevisit the time Kyle Meredith sat down with John Flansburgh and John Linnell of They Might Be Giants on this special Rewind episode. The crew chats about the albums Nanobots and I Like Fun, digging into how the band continues to find new ways to be weird 20 albums in. Listen to their insights now.The Johns discuss the strange comfort fans find in their music during chaotic times, how short songs and dark characters let them explore new creative corners, and why they’ve never subscribed to the cliché rock lifestyle. Flansburgh shares how Jack Bruce’s homemade Mellotron choir helped shape “I Like Fun,” and both Johns reflect on writing about death, dread, and Peter Pan syndrome with equal parts humor and sincerity. Plus: opinions about James K. Polk, writing beats by email, and the eternal mystery of Louisville’s incredible junk stores.Listen to John Flansburgh and John Linnell of They Might Be Giants chat about all this and more. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your
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Luciane Buchanan on Chief of War, Polynesian Identity, and Her Spiritual Journey
30/07/2025 Duration: 15minLuciane Buchanan joins Kyle Meredith With… to talk about her powerful role in Chief of War, the new Apple TV+ series created by and starring Jason Momoa. Set during the late 18th century, the show tells the story of the unification of the Hawaiian Islands—told through an Indigenous lens—and Buchanan plays Queen Ka'ahumanu whose political savvy and presence made the unification possible. It’s an expansive, lushly shot series about resistance, legacy, and the long shadow of colonization. Listen now.“I had no idea about Hawaiian history at all,” Buchanan admitted. “I had heard of King Kamehameha, but that was about it.” Once cast, she took a deep dive into archives and oral histories, even tracking down the Queen’s birthplace in a cave on Maui. “I just kind of let her spirit know that I might not be the right person to do so… but I wanted to honor her in the best way I could,” she said of a solo pilgrimage that turned unexpectedly spiritual. “The trees started to shake. The wind picked up. And then it all we
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Conor Sherry, Ethan Cutkosky, and Maxwell Jacob Friedman on Legacy, Wrestling, and Happy Gilmore 2
28/07/2025 Duration: 13minThe wait is over, and the most chaotic family reunion of the year has arrived. Happy Gilmore 2 sees Adam Sandler reprising his legendary golf-club-swinging man-child — only this time, he's got backup. Kyle Meredith caught up with the new generation of Gilmore lunacy: Conor Sherry, Ethan Cutkosky, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, and newcomer Philip Fine Schneider, who play Happy’s four sons in a long-awaited sequel that’s more absurd, more heartwarming, and somehow even more Sandler. Listen to the episode now.“It just flowed into the movie,” said Sherry about the group’s chemistry, crediting the “banter and camaraderie” that emerged both on and off the set. “We kind of have that cartoonistic aspect,” Cutkosky added, describing the high-energy tone as something that “literally just flows through you.”Friedman—better known as All Elite Wrestling's MJF—is also a classically trained actor who saw this as a homecoming of sorts: “Being able to go back to my roots here… it was really something else.” Schneider, meanw
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Kyle Newacheck on Bringing Happy Gilmore 2 to Life
23/07/2025 Duration: 20minKyle Newacheck sat down with Kyle Meredith to talk about the long-awaited Happy Gilmore 2, which brings Adam Sandler’s hockey-stick-wielding everyman back to the green nearly 30 years after the original. The Workaholics alum and Murder Mystery director had the unenviable task of balancing nostalgia for one of the most quoted comedies of the ’90s with a modern polish. “It’s a comedy-first movie,” Newacheck explains. “There’s no genre overlay. It’s a family, fun, heartfelt comedy.” Listen to the episode now.Newacheck calls the original Happy Gilmore “a fantastic building” and compares the sequel to being asked to construct a new wing on an iconic house. “There’s already so much love baked in,” he says, but he knew he had a winner when he read the screenplay: “You can’t improv a good story -- this script had it. It made me feel something — not just the laughs, but the heart.” He also speaks about striking the balance between the '90s and now: “We’re smoother at filmmaking, sure. But I didn’t want to lose tha
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5SOS’s Michael Clifford on Fatherhood, Fourth-Walling, and His New SIDEQUEST
21/07/2025 Duration: 25minMichael Clifford is no stranger to arenas full of screaming fans as a member of 5 Seconds of Summer, but he’s now venturing into the uncharted territory of solo artistry with his debut album SIDEQUEST. The guitarist-turned-frontman caught up with Kyle Meredith to talk about how the record came to be, the joy and anxiety that came with doing it alone, and how becoming a father restructured his creative compass. Listen now.While SIDEQUEST is certainly a departure from 5SOS’s collective sound, Clifford doesn’t go full scorched earth. “My DNA is always going to be in there as this kid who grew up listening to emo,” he admits. But instead of banking on nostalgia, he chased something more elusive: the sensation of hearing something for the first time. “Watching my daughter discover things kind of unjaded me,” he says. “It made me want to inject that into my music.”That childlike unpredictability permeates SIDEQUEST, especially in songs like “Eclipse,” a chaotic but emotional finale that Clifford says is structured
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Rewind: Caroline Polachek & Alison Goldfrapp on Ghostly Falsettos, Heartbreak Pop, and Disco Dreams
16/07/2025 Duration: 20minOn the rewind episode of Kyle Meredith With.., hear from Caroline Polachek and Alison Goldfrapp — two vocalists who could probably sing a grocery list and still make it sound like avant-garde pop bliss.Polachek, formerly of Chairlift, has turned heartbreak and hyperpop into an art form, floating somewhere between baroque synths and Enya-core. Goldfrapp, meanwhile, has spent decades wrapping disco, glam, and electroclash into one shimmering Goldfrapp package. Lately, she’s stepped out solo just to remind us she can still make the dance floor melt. Expect stories of sonic reinvention, ghostly falsettos, and why "ethereal" is sometimes just another word for unstoppable.Listen to Caroline Polachek and Alison Goldfrapp chat about all this and more. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.Our Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.comAdvertising Inquiries: