Mixed Mental Arts

Bryan Callen sits down with comedian and podcaster, Tom Segura. They talk about stand-up comedy and much more. Also, be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

In a very special episode of The Bryan Callen Show, Mike Callen joins Bryan and Hunter in interviewing the authors of one of his very favorite books: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. Detailing the combined atrocities of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union, Professor Snyder's book views these events not as separate phenomenon but as different facets of the same tragedy. More than an important piece of scholarship, Professor Snyder's book is our best defense in assuring that atrocities like this never happen again. Mike Callen, Professor Snyder, Bryan and Hunter discuss the opening of the Soviet archives, why Hitler's atrocities are so much better remembered than Stalin's and why this period of history is so relevant today. Also, be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

Bryan and Hunter sit down with comedian and SNL Alumni, Jon Lovitz. They discuss their experiences doing comedy and sketch shows. Jon spoke about his personal experience coming up as a comedian as well as auditioning for SNL, not to mention getting the gig. Also, be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

Sarah Rose is the author of For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History. At the beginning of the 19th century, China had a global monopoly on tea. One of the most valuable export products in the world, China carefully guarded every part of tea's production: the techniques, the workers and, most of all, the plants. So, when the British East India Company went looking for someone to steal every part of tea production and bring it to their plantations in India, they needed someone truly remarkable. At that point, no Westerners were allowed into the interior of China. Whoever the Company selected for the task would need the linguistic and cultural knowledge to pass into the heart of the Empire disguised as a Chinese person while still possessing the botanical skills to bring the tea plants out intact. They selected Scottish botanist Robert Fortune.A thrilling mix of history, industrial espionage and culture clash, For All the Tea in China is a very enjoyable read. Br

Bryan sits down with good friend and comedian, Bret Ernst. They discuss comedy, acting, entertainment, sports and Bret marriage plans. This is our first installment of comedy Thursdays. Be sure to check us out on Mondays and Thursdays for new episodes. Also, be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

The New York Times called Karen Karbo "a very funny writer" something that becomes abundantly clear in her wit-filled Kick-Ass Women series of books. Examining the lives of women who lived life on their own terms Karbo's treatment of Coco Chanel, Georgia O'Keefe and Katharine Hepburn goes beyond mere biography to discover the truths to making the most of every day. In her latest book Julia Child Rules: Lessons on Savoring Life, Karbo gives not just the most personal view of Julia Child yet but more importantly surprising insights like the idea that lacking a skill can be your biggest asset. In this episode, Karen, Bryan and Hunter discuss Julia's rules and especially rule no. 5: all you need is a kitchen and a bedroom. Through sex and pie, Julia and Paul Child built a great marriage. Does anything else matter? You can find out for yourself by taking on Karen's #LiveLikeJulia challenge. Pick one of Julia's rules and try it out for one week, then share the results with the world. Karen Karbo blogs at karenkarbo

Kim Dower is fast becoming acclaimed in the poetry world for her humor and "turns." The Los Angeles Times described her first collection Air Kissing on Mars as, "sensual and evocative lyrical snapshots of life's bittersweet moments, seamlessly combining humor and heartache." Recently, one of the poems in her latest collection Slice of Moon was selected by Garrison Keillor for his show, The Writer's Almanac, which broadcasts on 320 radio stations throughout the United States.In this episode, Bryan, Kim and Hunter discuss why poetry matters, why it is no longer a part of most people's lives and why it needs to make a comeback. Both of Kim's poetry collections are available on Amazon. You can find out more about her work at kimdowerpoet.com.

In 2006, Josh Foer became the U.S.A. Memory Champion and yet he insists his memory is totally average…and so do other memory champions like Ben Pridmore. In fact, as Foer recounts in his New York Times bestselling book Moonwalking with Einstein, memory champions are just like the rest of us. Sure they can memorize the sequence of a deck of 52 cards in under 20 seconds or vast strings of random numbers, but it's not because they have better memories. It's because they use their memories better.From a time before the internet, the printing press and even the written word, the world's greatest memory champions drew a series of techniques that build on the strengths of human memory to make almost unimaginable feats doable. Foer lays bare how the ancients memorized epic poems like the Odyssey, innumerable speeches and developed an intimate knowledge of religious texts. The book is a journey into the fascinating subculture of international but more than that it is an examination of the power of the right kind of pr

Daniel N. Robinson is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgetown University and a Fellow of the Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University. According to Bryan, he's also probably the smartest man alive. Beginning his career in the biological sciences, Professor Robinson transitioned into studying everything from law to philosophy to the classics. In this episode, Professor Robinson, Bryan and Hunter discuss everything from the most brilliant but least known of the Founding Fathers to what today's architecture reveals about the religion and philosophy of our times. Professor Robinson is the author of, well, a lot of books on a whole variety of topics. Take a look at the list below and you'll understand why Bryan isn't joking when he says that Professor Robinson is probably the smartest man alive. Also, in today's episode, Professor Robinson quotes from Homer...in Ancient Greek. So, yeah, he's really, really smart. If you've ever wanted to have the chance to study at Oxford...this is your chance

Larry Flynt is America's most controversial and perhaps most effective living defender of the First Amendment. However, by his own admission, Larry Flynt did not set out to defend the Bill of Rights. He set out to have some fun and make some money. By the time he hit thirty, he had turned an $1,800 loan from his mom into a chain of eight strip clubs and founded the Hustler newsletter to promote his clubs. A couple of years later, that newsletter would become a full-fledged national magazine and Larry Flynt would become a millionaire. As Hustler grew, Flynt published more and more graphic pictures and more and more outrageous articles and satirical pieces all of which added up to Mr. Flynt spending a lot of time in court on obscenity charges. As he defended himself, he found himself having to defend the First Amendment. Unwilling to allow the courts to settle the matter, an assassin with a high-powered rifle attempted to take Mr. Flynt's life shooting him in the spine and paralyzing him below the waist. This w

Listening to the news or hyperlinking our way through blog posts, it might seem like the end is nigh. Whether the coming crisis is environmental, economic or some intoxicating mix of the two, the message is always basically the same: humanity is about to screw everything up…forever! As Matt Ridley reveals in his 2010 prize-winning, bestseller The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves this eternal pessimism has more to do with human psychology than it does with the facts of the situation. Throughout history, there have always been professional harbingers of doom. In the old days, doomsdayers predicted man's greed and lust would bring about divine retribution. These days, we're treated to the idea that we might bring about our own destruction because of our relentless pursuit of wealth. In our desire for more food, bigger cars and a more comfortable lifestyle, we will use up all the oil, overheat the planet, pollute the oceans and wipe out all the polar bears. Notice any similarities? Man gratifies his desi

Imagine a bank that operates in 67 countries around the world, has one employee, has made thousands of loans with an average value of $25 a pop and is committed to never making a profit but believes it can help eradicate poverty through capitalism. You just imagined The International Bank of Bob. And Bob Harris thinks what he's done is so easy and so rewarding that it won't be long before you decide to set up The International Bank of "Your Name Here".While jet setting around the world as a writer for Forbes Traveller, Bob Harris found himself wondering when luxury moves from being fun to just being a waste of money. Is it when the hotel you're staying in offers a $7438 "cocktail" that is really just a shot of whiskey in a golden take-out cup? Or is it when you charge a small fortune for a cup of coffee because it has been pooped out of the ass of a rare Indonesian cat which you claim releases the subtle flavors of the beans? (It's called Kopi Luwak.) Or maybe it's when you spend billions of dollars building

For over 120 years and across three separate wars, Rome and Carthage battled for control of the Mediterranean in a no-holds barred conflict that would see Hannibal march his elephants across the Alps, terrorize the Italian mainland for fifteen years but ultimately be utterly defeated. When the Romans defeated Carthage, they not only sold its people into slavery but also razed it to the ground until the city, the civilization and its written records were wiped from history. To this day, many of us are still captivated by Hannibal's famous march and awed by the idea that the Romans not only destroyed the city but salted the earth so that nothing living could ever survive there again. Why does this civilization that has left no great monuments, no great books and no great institutions still capture our imagination?Richard Miles is the senior lecturer in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney and the author of Carthage Must Be Destroyed. In this episode of the show, he says tha

As a professor at the University of Virginia, Jonathan Haidt uses the scientific method to study human morality…which leads to asking people some pretty screwed up questions. Would it be wrong if a man bought a chicken from the store for dinner, had sex with it and then ate it? A brother and sister are on holiday together and they decide it would be fun to have sex. The sister is already on the pill, but the brother decides to use a condom just to be safe. They enjoy it, but they decide to just do it this one time and keep it as a secret between them. The secret brings them closer. You may or may not have a problem with having sex with your dinner, but you probably have a big problem with a brother and sister having sex. The question is why? Most people's first reaction is to say that close relatives shouldn't have children because of the high risk of genetic abnormalities, but with the sister on the pill and the brother using a condom is that really a risk. But wouldn't it destroy their relationship? Well, i

Dr. Ken Chase is the author of Firearms: A Global History to 1700, which legendary historian William McNeill described as "a great achievement." In Firearms, Ken does much more than summarize how firearms develops; he asks why China was the first to develop gunpowder but failed to turn that early lead into an effective gun. Popular explanations tend to focus on culture and race, but Ken has delved deep into the records of the time and in an engaging narrative reveals that not developing the modern gun was a rational response when you realize the Chinese were fighting the Mongols. Unlike modern firearms, early firearms were slow, heavy, lacked range and were ineffective…especially against fast moving Mongol horsemen. That's because a cannon required not only the horses to carry it, but the horses to carry the food to feed the horses that carried the cannon. Then, of course, more horses were needed to carry food for those horses meaning that all in all 200 horses were required to provide support for a single ca

While working as a vet and running a practice with fifteen employees, James began writing again. Beginning with short stories, he built his confidence and his skills until eventually he felt ready to tackle a full novel. As a huge fan of spelunking--or caving--it was natural that his Freshman effort should take place in a cave. Using the beats of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park as a template, he created a story set deep in the bowels of the earth called Subterranean. After 50 rejections, he finally found an agent. James' response was to start writing in an entirely  different genre: fantasy. Nowadays, James Czajkowski maintains two entirely separate but highly-successful literary careers, writing thrillers under the name James Rollins and fantasy novels under the name James Clemens. He is still a vet as a "hobby."James is best known for his Sigma Force series of novels, page turners which incorporate history, science and action. The latest in the series Eye of God sees the Sigma Force team racing around the

When Mark Kurlansky wrote Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, he was not only publishing a New York Times Bestseller but also creating a whole new type of book. Since then books focused on everything from coffee to bananas to the color purple have tried to capture Kurlansky's ability to narrow in on one aspect of history and show us that contained within that seemingly tiny story we can see the entire world. Bryan and Hunter discuss Kurlansky classics such as Salt, The Big Oyster, 1968 and The Basque History of the World before moving onto Kurlansky's 25th book…that's right…his 25th book which is released today, July 11th. Ready For a Brand New Beat takes a detailed look at Marvin Gaye's 1964 classic song Dancing in the Street and shows how the Motown classic, while striving to stay apolitical couldn't help becoming the anthem of America's changing political consciousness. The show ends with a discussion of what Dancing in the Street has to teach us about politics and protest today and whethe

As a reporter for ABC and Bloomberg Television, Lara Setrakian crisscrossed the Middle East reporting live as the Arab Spring spread throughout the region. Her first-hand experience of what was happening in the region left her increasingly frustrated with the rift between what was actually occurring and what the American people were hearing. Breaking away from a burgeoning career in TV news, Lara took a cue from the digitally-savvy young Arabs who were transforming the region and set out to use the power of the internet to create a revolution in the way news is provided.Since December 2012, Lara has runSyriaDeeply.org, a site devoted exclusively to in-depth coverage of the Syria conflict. With interactive tools such as timelines, a defection tracker and diagrams that map out the relationships between the key players, Syria Deeply empowers visitors with the tools and the stories to move beyond mere awareness of the conflict to a deep and genuine understanding. With other single-issue news sites in the works--r

In 2009, Jim Rickards was invited by The Pentagon to participate in a new kind of war game where the only weapons to be used would be financial. From the lessons of The Great Depression to the possibility of returning to the gold standard to what's really wrong in Washington, Bryan Callen, Jim Rickards and Hunter Maats pick apart the state of the financial world today. In addition to his work as a lawyer and investment banker, Jim Rickards is the author of The New York Times-bestseller Currency Wars.

Hunter Maats sits in with Bryan Callen on this episode. Bryan interviews magician David Kwong. Called the "Illusunist for Intellectuals," by the Wall Street Journal also known as Hollywood's Favorite Trickster. A scholar of the history of magic. They discuss a variety of different topics focused around the magic industry.