Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
Bullseye from NPR is your curated guide to culture. Jesse Thorn hosts in-depth interviews with brilliant creators, culture picks from our favorite critics and irreverent original comedy. Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney's, which called it "the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world." (Formerly known as The Sound of Young America.)

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Syndication

Maximum Fun’s Carrie Poppy (Oh No, Ross and Carrie!) interviews comic actor and writer Julia Sweeney! You probably saw Julia’s work on Saturday Night Live in the early ’90s alongside Chris Rock, Dana Carvey, and Chris Farley. These days, you can see her on Showtime’s Work in Progress. In it, she plays a fictionalized version of herself who has to answer for the damage done by one of her most well known SNL characters: Pat. You can also catch her on the Hulu comedy Shrill. Julia plays Vera, mother to main character Annie. The show talks a lot about body image issues – and how family, especially our parents can sometimes exacerbate those feelings. Carrie Poppy chats with Julia about her work on stage. Plus, her complicated relationship with SNL‘s Pat and how they fit into Work in Progress. We also get into the type of mother she is in real life in relation to her character on Shrill.


Our guest this week is filmmaker, Kelly Reichardt! Kelly’s new film, First Cow, is the story of a loner cook who befriends a Chinese immigrant while traveling across 1820’s Oregon and the cow whose milk they hatch a plan to steal. Kelly joins us to talk about how a Floridian ended up making films about the Pacific Northwest, why she’s not really interested in show business, and how a person goes about casting a cow! All that and more on Bullseye!


FANTI Podcast hosts Jarrett Hill and Tre’vell Anderson are taking over Bullseye this week! Next up, Tre’vell’s interview with Katori Hall. She’s an award-winning playwright. Her most acclaimed work is perhaps The Mountaintop. It imagines Martin Luther King’s last night on earth at the Lorraine Motel. These days, she’s the creator and showrunner of the new Starz show P-Valley. It’s based on a play of hers by the same name. It’s set in a place called The Pynk – a strip club in the Mississippi Delta. The show focuses on the people who work in the club: the women on stage, the bouncers, the bartenders, and the boss: Uncle Clifford. Tre’vell Anderson chats with Katori about the show and where it fits into the broad conversation of stripping and sex work. Plus, where she got the idea for the show and embracing the humanity of this often overlooked industry.


FANTI Podcast hosts Jarrett Hill and Tre’vell Anderson are taking over Bullseye this week! First up, we have Jarrett’s interview with Norm Lewis. The Broadway veteran and Tony-award winning actor has appeared in hit shows like Scandal and was the first African American actor to step into the lead role in “The Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway. He appears in the new Spike Lee film “Da 5 Bloods” about a group of lifelong friends and Vietnam vets returning to the country after decades to fulfill a pact. Norm chats with us about creating a realistic portrayal of the impact of PTSD on Black war vets, his work on Broadway and how stage actors are finding new ways to channel their creativity during quarantine. Plus, he talks to us about how a random bar singing contest gave him his start in the creative arts. All that and more on Bullseye!


Odds are, you know actor Sarah Snook from her role on HBO’s Succession – one of the most acclaimed TV dramas in the last decade. She plays Siobhan Roy, but to her friends and family, it’s just “Shiv.” She is the youngest child and the only daughter in an ultra-wealthy family. The patriarch, Logan Roy, is the head of a large media conglomerate, Waystar Royco. Succession is a show about … well, succession. Shiv’s brothers feud constantly hoping to be the next to lead the family empire, and at first, she’s happy to let her brothers fight it out. But like pretty much every character on Succession, it doesn’t take long for the cracks to show. Linda Holmes, the host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, talked with Sarah about what it’s like to play one of the most fascinating, complex and confounding characters on television today. Plus, what Sarah hopes Shiv will get to do in Succession‘s third season.


Actor-comedian extraordinaire Matt Berry is our guest this week! Matt currently stars on the FX series What We Do in the Shadows, a show about a group of vampires living in current-day Staten Island. Matt joins us to talk about playing a vampire, where he got the inspiration for his Toast of London character, and how writing songs from the perspective of a serial killer really boosted his career. All that and more on Bullseye!


Trash Talk got their start playing DIY venues in Northern California more than a decade ago. They’ve since gone on to play their energetic, cutting version of hardcore punk in front of crowds at music festivals like Coachella and Camp Flog Gnaw. The music they play is fast. It’s loud. Very aggressive. Think along the lines of Black Flag or Suicidal Tendencies with a bit of thrash metal thrown in. Jordan Morris chats with bassist Spencer Pollard, singer Lee Spielman and guitarist Garrett Stevenson of Trash Talk. They talk about their new EP Squalor and what makes the crowds at the band’s shows so different from most punk shows. Trash Talk will be hitting the road once it’s safe to do so – but for now Squalor is perfect for a circle pit in your living room if you’re looking to let out any pent up rage during quarantine.


Rose Bryne chooses interesting characters. She was nominated for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her portrayal of “Ellen Parsons”— a ruthless lawyer on the critically-acclaimed law drama “Damages.” There’s also her role as Helen Harris III in 2011’s ensemble comedy Bridesmaids. This year, you can catch her in the political comedy “Irresistible.” It’s directed by John Stewart and stars Steve Carell. Guest host Jordan Morris chats with Rose about what it was like to work with the former “The Daily Show” host, perfecting the American accent and how Megyn Kelly inspired her role in the film. Plus, she’ll tell us what it was like to be in a Star Wars movie!


We revisit our conversation with Mary Randolph Carter. “Carter,” as she’s known, is the best-selling author of several books on the subject of “junk.” Her latest is called “The Joy of Junk: Go Right Ahead, Fall In Love With The Wackiest Things, Find The Worth In The Worthless, Rescue & Recycle The Curious Objects That Give Life & Happiness.” It’s all about the beauty and lessons that can be found through the art of thrifting. She’s also a creative director at Ralph Lauren! We talk to Carter about how her upbringing shaped her connection to “stuff,” her favorite junk journeys and how a trip to The Outer Banks during hurricane season helped prepare her for a career in treasure-hunting. Plus, we’ll chat about her experience working with the acclaimed design house.