Mixed Mental Arts

Bryan sit down with MTV's Girl Code, Jessimae Peluso. She is “a bottle rocket with a pulse,” headed in only the expected, upward trajectory of a firecracker, and ready to explode. The self-proclaimed "insecure narcissist" has founded a solid comic reputation in New York City and beyond, slaying audiences with her unequivocal, straightforward, ravishingly raw humor. Slamming listeners with her stances on everything from her roots in Syracuse New York, her fear of children to her infatuation with John Stamos, Jessimae will lay her hook in you from the moment she hits the stage. The dynamic Jessimae Peluso is an artist in the truest sense of the word, persistently out to challenge herself and her audience. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes. 

Growing up in the age of the great transatlantic liner, William Francis Gibbs had only one dream: to build the world’s greatest ship. In that age, nations competed to build the largest, most luxurious and the fastest ship. In particular, they competed to win the Blue Riband, the prize awarded to the fastest ship to cross the Atlantic. Although Gibbs was the product of tremendous wealth and privilege, he was clear that it was not his family’s fortune that made him a success rather it was his father losing it all. Forced to drop out of Harvard and lacking basic mathematical skills, Gibbs became America’s greatest naval architect through boundless determination. Although he would build many ships, it was that first ship that he dreamed of that would mark the high-water mark of his career. The SS United States would be the largest, most luxurious and the fastest ship would know. It was also the last ship to hold the Blue Riband. In a book The Wall Street Journal called one of the ten best non-fiction books of 201

Don's has an unique brand of comedy unlike most other comics and that makes him the clubs perfect closing act every night. Don was the co-creater/star of the cult classic film, "Windy City Heat", which was developed in the Comedy Store's Belly Room. The show is now called The Ding-Dong Show and it continues every Monday night as it has since 1992 making it the longest running show in the clubs history. Don can also be seen nightly as the audience warm-up for ABC's, "Jimmy Kimmel Live". Don's eyes are blue and his relationship status is complicated.

For decades your teachers, authority figures and textbooks have been lying to you. You do not have five senses. Your tongue doesn't have neatly segregated taste-bud zones. You don't know what the pyramids really looked like. You're even pooping wrong - Jesus, you're a wreck! Fortunately, the team from Cracked.com is here to clue you in on the truth. Jack O’Brien, the editor-in-chief of Cracked.com, joins Bryan on the show to share with us the latest book from the popular site. Bringing together six years worth of research, The De-Textbook was built from the ground up to systematically seek out, dismantle and destroy the many untruths that years of misguided education have left festering inside of you, and leave you a smarter person...whether you like it or not. The De-Textbook is a merciless, brutal learning machine. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are informed. It’s also incredibly entertaining

Bryan sits down with comedian, Jay Larson. They discuss a variety of topics. With appearances on TOSH.0, The Late Late show, The Smoking Gun Presents, Conan and his own half hour special on Comedy Central Jay has come a long way since he moved to Los Angeles in 2000.  After flunking out of college, then finally getting accepted back after many attempts, Jay threw away his diploma to pursue a career in Stand Up comedy.  After living in a condemned house for 14 months, I mean who hasn’t, Jay started opening for comedy greats such as Nick Swardson, Daniel Tosh and Pablo Fransisco.  He soon became known as a comedian with a whacky, original voice who tends to get a little weird.  Since those early days Jay has continued climbing the ranks with multiple TV appearances, many internet short films and his first album, “Self-Diagnosed”, available on itunes direct lender payday loans. His voice continues to grow as he has delved into the world of interacting with strangers and creating conflict with people he doesn’t k

By 2004, Tim Ferriss was running an online brain and body supplements company that was grossing $40,000 a month. He was his own boss. He was making a lot of money. Things seemed good until one day his girlfriend handed him a plaque that read “Business Hours End at 5p.m.!” Suddenly, it dawned on Tim that things were actually very, very bad. What did success matter if you didn’t have the time to enjoy your life? So, he booked himself a ticket to Europe and promptly had a nervous breakdown. He didn’t know what to do with himself. His entire identity was wrapped up in his work. It didn’t matter that he was his own boss, because he still had no freedom. And so, Tim embarked on a quest to figure out how to get maximum results in the minimum amount of time. The result has been the incredibly successful 4-hour series of books. The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef have all become bestsellers and been translated into dozens of languages. Ferriss’ website has a million visitors a month. Now, with The Ti

Bryan sits down with comedian, UFC Commentator, and Podcaster of the "Joe Rogan Experience," good friend, Joe Rogan. They discuss their personal hunting experiences and as a added bonus, Master Hunter Steven Rinella.

"Grann himself inspires a devotion in readers that can border on the obsessive,” writes a Slate journalist describing the work of New Yorker reporter David Grann. We can understand why. Grann’s work is obsessively researched and crafted until he produces journalism so exquisitely wrought that you found yourself obsessively talking about it with anyone who will listen. Fittingly enough, Grann’s favorite topic to write about is obsession—the obsession of explorers, detectives, murderers, con artists or anyone. In his first book, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, Grann tells the story of Percy Fawcett a once world famous explorer’s search for El Dorado, a legendary city Fawcett believed to be in the Amazon. Through penis-parasitizing fish, terrifying parasites and much more, Fawcett’s expedition endured a harrowing journey through one of the most potentially deadly places on the planet. In his second book, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession Grann br

Bryan sits down with comedian, Bill Burr. As with other comics associated with The Opie & Anthony Show, in 2008, Burr's voice was featured in the game Grand Theft Auto IV. In the game, Bill plays Jason Michaels of the biker gang The Lost MC in the mission "No Love Lost". In 2009, he reprised his role in the game's expansion pack The Lost and Damned. Burr's special Let it Go was recorded at The Fillmore in San Francisco and premiered on Comedy Central on September 18, 2010. A later special, You People Are All The Same, premiered in 2012 as a Netflix exclusive. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

As a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Dave Epstein helped break the story that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003. He's written for the Swimsuit Edition--which he describes as the cushiest assignment ever--and he covered the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Like anyone who has spent a lot of time in and around sports, one question has always nagged at him: how much of a difference do genetics make in athletic performance. Wading into issues like race and gender, Epstein's book lays out the scientific realities of what we today know about the role of genetics in top-level athletic performance. In today's episode, Dave tells us about hyper-muscular babies, the African tribe that dominates distance running and what trait is over represented among top female athletes and fashion models.The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance is available in all good bookstores. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes. 

Bryan sits down with fitness expert, Tony Blauer. Blauer Tactical Systems (BTS) is one of the world's leading consulting companies specializing in the research and development of close quarter tactics & scenario-based training for law enforcement, military and professional self-defense instructors. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

In Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M Conway reveal that the same handful of individuals who have made a career out of selling doubt. Fred Singer, Fred Seitz and Bill Nierenberg began their career as physicists and Cold Warriors. Committed to doing anything they could to oppose a growth in governmental power, they created pseudoscience that denied the dangers of smoking, nuclear winter, the depletion of the ozone layer, acid rain and, most recently, global warming. From their positions well-respected physicists, they have used their credibility to sow doubt in the mind of the public on issues of health and the environment and thereby ensure that nothing is done to change the situation. In this week's episode, Naomi and Erik tell the story of how "small numbers of people can have large, negative impacts, especially if they are organised, determined and have access to power." They tell Bryan and Hunter the realities of global warming. They make it clear, as they say in the book that "there are many re

Over the course of three decades working in Hollywood, John Truby has fixed over a thousand film scripts. In his book Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller, John refutes the advice so often given to writers to "just write." By providing specific tools, he takes the process of screenwriting from a mysterious act of inspiration to a series of tools that can be applied to break down any script. But John's advice is not just for storytellers. As John, Bryan and Hunter discuss, a writer cannot take his characters through the process of moral growth without going through that process himself. More than the cornerstone of a great film, writing is a powerful tool for figuring out who you really are and what you really stand for.

Alexis Ohanian co-founded Reddit out of his dorm room at the University of Virginia. As a leader of the grass-roots movement that overturned Congress's Stop Online Piracy Act and Senate IP Protection Act, he earned a spot in The Daily Dot's top ten most influential Internet Rights activists of 2012 and was dubbed the "Mayor of the Internet" by Forbes. Still, as you'll discover in this episode, Alexis is an incredibly down-to-earth guy with a great sense of humor. On today's show, Alexis, Bryan and Hunter talk about Alexis' book Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed. As more and more individuals use the internet to innovate and create better and better business opportunities, there's plenty of reasons to be optimistic. However, there are things we need to do to ensure those freedoms. Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed is available from all major booksellers. Alexis can be followed on twitter @alexisohanian.

Bryan Callen sits down with actor and comedian, Harland Williams from such movies as "Dumb and Dumber," "Freddy Got Fingered," "There's Something About Mary," "Half Baked," "RocketMan," "Sorority Boys," "Down Periscope" and "Employee of The Month." He is an author and illustrator of his own series of children's books involving a little brontosaurus named Jimbo. Williams' love of art drove him to create the series, in which the curious, young dinosaur embarks on a series of amazing adventures and learns important life lessons in the process. The artistically inclined Williams had refined his passion for drawing and painting at Canada's Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario. Finding a creative outlet in poetry and painting while working as a forest ranger for five years after dropping out of Sheridan College, Williams set his goals to leave the forest as a stand-up comic and actor, soon moving to Los Angeles to pursue his newfound calling. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes. 

Bryan and Hunter take this episode to reflect on and synthesize everything they've learned over the course of the last dozen or so episodes recording the show together. From the philosophy of Professor Dan Robinson to understanding human memory with Josh Foer, it's been a wild ride. This was a much needed opportunity to digest all they'd learned and pull out the big overarching lessons they've learned in talking to so many awesome guests.

Bryan and Hunter sit down with the star of "Sullivan and Son," on TBS, stand-up comedian, Steve Byrne. They discuss Steve's sitcom as well as other career moments, including trips overseas doing USO tours, getting married, and having kids. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

Charles C. Mann didn't plan to write about the world before and after Columbus, but, at a certain point, he realized he couldn't wait for anyone else to do it. In his book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Mr. Mann relentlessly dispels the myths of Native American life in the Americas before Columbus made landfall in 1492. Although native Americans are often depicted living in an untouched wilderness, the reality of native American life was very different. They transformed their environment, built empires, made war and invented two technologies that would prove vital to Europe's rise: the potato and the corn plant. In his book 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, Mr. Mann describes how Columbus' arrival in the new world set off the exchange of species between the Americas and the rest of the world. After centuries of relentless plant breeding, the peoples of the new world had transformed the minimally useful ancestors of corn and potatoes into the most productive food-producin

Bryan sits down with comedian, actor and podcaster, Jimmy Shubert. He's been seen on his own Comedy Central Special, King of Queens, Italian Job, Go!, and countless other movies and television shows. He has his very own podcast show, called "The Jimmy Shubert Show," which is produced on The Network Studios." Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

"Big Mike" Callen, aka Bryan's dad, brings his many years of experience in banking and foreign policy to to a discussion of the government shutdown and the state of Washington today.