Bullseye With Jesse Thorn

The legendary funk bassist joins us to talk about creating the persona of Bootsy, playing music with two very different band leaders, James Brown and George Clinton, and more.

The Long Winters' frontman, John Roderick, talks to us about the song that changed his life: ZZ Top's Gimme All Your Lovin'.

For Jonathan Coulton, success as a musician has come with recording music himself, releasing individual songs online one-at-a-time, and even selling his catalog on a USB drive. So in a way, his new album Artificial Heart is a terrifying turn to the traditional, and a creative risk. It was produced with They Might Be Giants' John Flansburgh in a studio with a full band, the old-fashioned way. Jonathan and John talk to us about that process.

John Hodgman guest hosts this interview with astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. Dr. Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium, but the layperson likely knows him as the host of Star Talk Radio and the PBS program Nova ScienceNOW. His upcoming projects include a new version of the TV series Cosmos — originally hosted by Carl Sagan — and a new book titled Space Chronicles. He talks to us about how money for space exploration stacks up to other spending, his personal space travel dreams, and more.

John Hodgman guest hosts an interview with the fantasy, science fiction and horror author George R. R. Martin. Martin is the author of the very popular series known as "A Song of Ice and Fire", which has recently been adapted for the HBO show "Game of Thrones". He joins us to talk about creating a fantasy universe, (very) involved fans, and more.

Is cultural innovation at risk when we indulge in retromania? Music critic Simon Reynolds joins us to talk about why songs today are more unimaginative when we have unprecedented access to decades' worth of past music, the loop of re-creating old sounds, and more. His new book is Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to its Own Past.

Nicolas Winding Refn is the Danish director of the new film "Drive", starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. Refn had a very specific vision for the film, which included trance-like music and throwbacks to the aesthetics of films of his childhood. "Drive" won Refn the Best Director award at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Robert Popper is a British comedy writer behind projects like the BBC mock educational series "Look Around You" with Peter Serafinowicz and the new BBC America series "Friday Night Dinner". He's also an accomplished prankster. We'll talk to him about regressing to childhood in the company of your siblings and parents, the construction of some of his favorite comedy bits, and more.

Paul Scheer, an actor and comedian behind shows like Adult Swim's NTSF:SD:SUV:: and MTV's Human Giant, talks to us about low budgets, when parody comes from a place of love, and more.

Damian Kulash talks to us about the moment he heard Herbie Hancock's Rockit, and how it it informed his life today as the lead singer of OK GO. The band's live album, 180/365, is out now.

Bruce Campbell is a writer, producer, and cult movie actor who starred in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series and can currently be seen on the USA show Burn Notice. We talked to him about the DIY aesthetic and feeling of his projects, obsessive fans, and how he came to make cult horror movies, of all things.

Danny Pudi is an actor and comedian, best known for his role as the pop culture-obsessed Abed Nadir on the NBC show Community. He talks to us about working on a show that's as much fun to shoot as it is to watch and working improv comedy into a scripted show.

Bruce McCulloch, best known as one of the members of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, is a writer, actor and director of movies like Superstar and Stealing Harvard. He talks to us about tracing his musical comedy roots, the dynamics of The Kids in the Hall, and more.

Our hip hop contributor Noz of the blog Cocaine Blunts joins us to talk about his favorite tracks of the moment.

Tig Notaro is a veteran stand-up comedian who you might recognize from her Comedy Central special or perhaps her stint as "Officer Tig" on The Sarah Silverman Program. She's just released her debut comedy album, Good One, on Secretly Canadian Records.

This week, guest host Dave Holmes talks to singer songwriter Bob Mould. Mould is one of the original members of seminal 1980s punk band Hüsker Dü, who's since struck out on his own with alternative rock band Sugar and his own solo projects. His new memoir, See A Little Light: The Trail Of Rage And Melody, goes deep into his past, exploring band politics, his sexuality and more.

A talk from On the Media's Brooke Gladstone, a conversation between John Hodgman and Toy Story 3's director Lee Unkrich, and comedy from Graham Clark, Maria Bamford, Greg Behrendt, Josie Long, and Jerry O'Hearn. It's all here from our third annual MaxFunCon, a gathering of creative people who wish to be more awesome.

Paul Provenza is a veteran stand up comic, but he's also ventured into documenting the world of comedy at large. He's collected interviews with comedians in his book Satiristas and explored the variations of a very dirty joke when directing the film The Aristocrats. He currently hosts Showtime's The Green Room, which seeks to re-create the feeling of being behind the scenes with some of the most celebrated comedians of our time. The show has just entered its second season.

Jeff Garlin is an actor, director and comic — and perhaps best known as Larry David's best friend and manager Jeff Greene on the acclaimed HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm. The show recently kicked off its eighth season.

It's that time again - Jordan Morris spells it all out for us. From the bottom to the top, it's Jordan Ranks America.