RiYL
Episodes
Episode 157: Dan Friel
15 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
When I first met Dan Friel, he was working the front desk at The Onion. I was but lowly intern and he was tasked with, among other things, handing me ...
Episode 156: Douglas Rushkoff
07 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
There’s an art to interviewing Douglas Rushkoff — and really, “interview” isn’t the right word. It’s akin of offering suggestions and watc...
Episode 155: Tom Hart
29 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Rosalie Lightning is one of this year’s most difficult and most important books. It’s the story of a parent grieving the death of his young daught...
Episode 154: Brooke Arnold
23 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“Other ATI beliefs that I learned range from utterly bizarre to downright barbaric,” Brooke Arnold writes in the essay, I Could Have Been a Duggar...
Episode 153: Gene Luen Yang
18 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Not too long before our conversation, the Library of Congress appointed Gene Yang its “Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.” It’s the kin...
Episode 152: Nicole Georges (Bonus)
10 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Friend of the podcast Nicole Georges joins us via Skype to discuss her brand new show, Sagittarian Matters, which combines her love of conversation, a...
Episode 151: Noah Van Sciver, Derf and Tommi Musturi
09 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
We kick things off Noah Van Sciver, one of comics’ most exciting — and prolific — young talents. Last year alone, the Denver cartoonist released...
Episode 150: Bill Griffith
01 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been several years since I last spoke to Bill Griffith. I’m fairly certain I spent much of that last interview attempt to talk the cartoonist...
Episode 149: Josie Long
26 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“It’s woven very densely into the fabric of my life,” explains Josie Long. “It happens when you do your accounting every year. You look at you...
Episode 148: Eric Bogosian
19 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Eric Bogosian is not an easy interview — but he’s a good one. I came ready to discuss his recently published book on the Armenian genocide, Operat...
Episode 147: Walter Martin (of The Walkmen)
12 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Walter Martin and I keep getting kicked out of coffee shops. It’s a strange thing. Over the course of the 50 minute interview, we close out two plac...
Episode 146: Carla Speed Mcneil and Denis Kitchen
04 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Our final round of interviews from Baltimore Comic Con includes two artists who have had a profound impact on the American underground/independent com...
Episode 145: Judd Winick
30 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers describes the auditioning process for The Real World: San Francisco. The spot the McSweeney’...
Episode 144: Chip Kidd
21 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Of course Chip Kidd put out a book with Art Spiegelman. In an age when the transition to digital seems all but inevitable, both artists have a vested ...
Episode 143: Colin Hay
16 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
“All you really want to do is get yourself excited, get your wife excited, get your friends excited,” Colin Hay explains with a smile. “Beyond t...
Episode 142: Jules Feiffer
09 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The artist has been something of a hero before I’d even heard his name, through his illustration work in the aforementioned classic children’s boo...
Episode 141: Scott Fagan
01 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
By all rights, the story of South Atlantic Blues should have ended in 1968. Released the same week as Van Morrison’s masterpiece of pastoral angst, ...
Episode 140: Jim Starlin and Brian Stelfreeze
28 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Two conversations with extremely talented — and patient — artists conducted at Baltimore Comic Con. Both were also prefaced by waiting quietly for...
Episode 139: Lucy Sante
25 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve been wanting to have Lucy Sante on the show for some time now, and a recently appearance at the Brooklyn Book Fair finally afforded the opportu...
Episode 138: Sara Varon
22 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
It had been a while since I’d last spoken with Sara Varon. At the time, the artist had a handle of comics and kids books under her belt, including m...
Episode 137: Stan Sakai
18 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Like many of roughly my age bracket, my first exposure to Usagi Yojimbo was as an action figure — a badass samurai rabbit that fit in perfectly in w...
Episode 136: Jennifer Hayden
13 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
“The head space for a lot of people post-any kind of cancer is ‘I gotta get going,’” Jennifer Hayden explains with the positive energy of an a...
Episode 135: Dylan Horrocks
10 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
This one gets pretty raw. No surprise, really, given the nature of Sam Zabel And The Magic Pen, a semi-autobiographicalish comic that deals with the n...
Episode 134: (Bonus) Joe Biel
06 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
“It's a good story,” Joe Biel wrote in an email from a few weeks back. “It’s our 20th anniversary book and my big reveal is that I have Asperg...
Episode 133: Kinky Friedman
04 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
He calls it “the curse of being multi-talented” and insists that it is, in fact, a curse. Musician, author, politician, comedian, and all around g...
Episode 132: Olivier Schrauwen
28 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
When I asked for interview suggestions for my five day work trip to Berlin, Comics Reporter Tom Spurgeon suggested Olivier Schrauwen, heaping praise u...
Episode 131: Raina Telgemeier
21 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
It had been eight or so years since I last interviewed Raina Telgemeier. After a few years spent adapting the beloved young adult series The Babysitte...
Episode 130: Jaime Hernandez
13 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
“It comes down to a lot of educated guessing and trying to handle it like a grown up,” explains Jaime Hernandez. We’re seated on a curb outside ...
Episode 129: Ed Piskor and Marc Bell
07 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
I first encountered Ed Piskor’s work through the cartoonist’s collaborations with the legendary Harvey Pekar. The duo released the book Macedonia ...
Episode 128: Congressman John Lewis, with Nate Powell and Andrew Aydin
30 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
It was one of the most surreal things I’ve experienced, legendary civil rights leader turned congressman John Lewis leading a procession of small ch...
Episode 127: Anders Nilsen
22 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In one sense, perhaps Comic Con is the ideal setting for this conversation. It’s a conversation about authenticity, about the unintended artifice of...
Episode 126: (Bonus) Alex Winter Talks Frank Zappa
19 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The moment I heard Alex Winter was working on a Zappa documentary, I wanted to get him on the phone again. For starters, their was our first conversat...
Episode 125: Dean Haspiel
16 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
We delve into insecurities almost immediately. It’s a surprising way to kick off a conversation with an artist infamous for going topless at regular...
Episode 124: Kate Beaton, Jeffrey Brown and Jeff Lemire
26 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
As we prep ourselves for the onslaught of belated Comic Con interviews, here’s a trio of quick conversations with comics creators, Kate Beaton, Jeff...
Episode 123: (Bonus) Roderick on Politics
21 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
With his Seattle City Council campaign behind him, I suggested to John Roderick that we sit down for a short conversation to reflect on the run. But...
Episode 122: Bobby Tisdale
19 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
This conversation with Bobby Tisdale begins with a story in which he picks a scab until he starts bleeding on a woman on the subway, segues into a con...
Episode 121: John Leguizamo
12 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Some days nothing goes right with an interview. Other days the stars align and you score someone like John Leguizamo on a bit of a whim, because he ha...
Episode 120: (Bonus) Mike Mignola
10 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The contents of this interview originally appeared as a Q&A for my day job at TechTimes. I enjoyed speaking with Mike Mignola so much I thought it wou...
Episode 119: Darren Murph
05 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Nothing says reunion of old friends quite like a few cups of tea and a couple of microphones. It had been a year or two since I’d last seen my forme...
Episode 118: Leah Hayes
29 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The indie comics booths present a perfect sort of eye in the middle of the Comic Con storm. Top Shelf, Drawn & Quarterly and Fantagraphics form a perf...
Episode: 117: Jeff Smith
22 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Jeff Smith made comics safe for kids again. In 1991, the cartoonist began self-publishing, an all-ages adventure story rendering in a style reminiscen...
Episode 116: Sam Seder
15 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Some context before we get started: I met Sam Seder five or so years back when he cohosted a video show in the Air America break room. By then the pro...
Episode 115: Lisa Wilde
08 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
I would have been more than content to discuss Wild Cat Academy, the New York City second chance high where Lisa Wilde has taught for more than a deca...
Episode 114: Kevin Allison
01 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
This isn’t the first time this has happened, the realization that an upcoming guest has recently been on WTF fills me with an immediate sense of dre...
Episode 113: Jeffrey Lewis
24 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
I’m pretty sure I first heard about Jeffrey Lewis through his music. By the time I arrived in New York City, the singer-songwriter was already a vet...
Episode 112: Ayun Halliday
17 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
I’m fairly certain the phrase “mommy blog” is tossed around once or twice over the course this interview. I only mention it here as I’m sure i...
Episode 111: Bruce McCulloch
10 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
For me, it goes Kids in the Hall, Kurt Vonnegut and punk rock, in that order. I shudder to think what sort of person I might have become had Comedy Ce...
Episode 110: Jon Spencer
03 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Jon Spencer is tired of talking about music. Perhaps it’s the fact that he’s been talking about it professionally ever since Pussy Galore emerged ...
Episode 109: Mark Stewart (The Pop Group)
27 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Stewart doesn’t want to talk about music. Least of all his own. A few hours ahead of The Pop Group’s appearance at The Bowery Ballroom in sup...
Episode 108: Shannon Wheeler (Again)
20 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The Too Much Coffee Man creator became a member of the extremely rare two-timers club, with a second RiYL appearance. Shannon Wheeler was among the sh...
Episode 107: Kevin Barnes (Of Montreal)
13 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin Barnes has a cold. He looks tired, taking swigs of coconut milk from one of those oddly-shaped cartons, but his face is sparkling in the mid-day...
Episode 106: Joe Biel (Microcosm Publishing)
06 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Several years ago, I began to notice a pattern emerging. Practically every book of interest I'd pick up at independent bookstores and zine fest had th...
Episode 105: Jean Grae
29 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The last time I saw Jean Grae in person, she was giving out free hugs in Union Square. The event was a unique attempting to cope with and have a discu...
Episode 104: Brooks Wheelan
22 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
I knew Brooks Wheelan was moving. His PR reps had already alerted me to the fact that the comedian only had a few days remaining before moving on to g...
Episode 103: Vivek Tiwary
17 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
I shouldn’t have been surprised when, in the email lead up to our interview, Vivek Tiwary told me he was pals with former RiYL guest, Mike Watt. Whe...
Episode 102: Guy Branum
14 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
While the old adage about truth making for great art certainly applies to standup, the equation can be something of a mixed bag. After all, comedy is ...
Episode 101: Jesse Malin
08 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
I never knew New York before the war. The towers were gone by the first time set foot in the city. But nearly a dozen years after making the place my ...
Episode 100: They Might Be Giants
28 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Flood is my Beatles on Sullivan, my self-titled Velvet Underground record and Run-DMC on MTV. It was the first time I remember being keenly aware that...
Episode 099: Dick Gregory, The Black Lips, Annie Koyama and Farel Dalrymple (Bonus)
28 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
This one’s going to be a bit different, as you’ve no doubt gathered from the title. It’s a bit of an, as the Who so eloquently put it, odds and ...
Episode 098: Sara Benincasa
24 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
One of the real dangers of recording interviews is that plenty can change over the course of a few weeks. One interviewee lost her job of 17 years the...
Episode 097: Alex Winter
17 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
If I’m being totally honest, it takes me a few minutes to shake the fact that I’m sitting across the table from Bill S. Preston as I unspool mic w...
Episode 096: Guster
11 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
“All the bull**** of the music industry dying,” Brian Rosenworcel explains, his passion drowning out the din of the packed Manhattan bar, “all t...
Episode 095: Jeffrey Cranor (of Welcome to Night Vale)
04 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Art Bell will forever hold a special place in my heart. Coast to Coast was a mainstay as I drove late at night to fill in 3AM slots at my college radi...
Episode 094: Vijay Iyer
25 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
I’d have been content to spend the whole time talking about Thelonious Monk. There’s a picture of the composer wedged in one corner of the home of...
Episode 093: Roz Chast
18 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant isn’t as easy book. As the title implies, in deals in topics few are equipped to candidly discuss: fam...
Episode 092: Scott McCloud
11 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The phrase “those who can’t, teach” runs through my head pretty consistently when I sit down in front of a blank page in an attempt to flex some...
Episode: 091: Legs McNeil
04 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
I feel a bit bad entering the hotel room. There was a bit of a miscommunication on timing, and Legs McNeil is clearly quite comfortable lying in bed w...
Episode 090: Jordan Morris
26 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The list of people I’ve cohosted ska shows with is a short one indeed. It’s like going into battle with someone, really — a battle that trades t...
Episode 089: The Birthday Boys
22 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Practically every episode of RiYL has had the same format — two people having a long form discussion into two microphones. Given my portable setup, ...
Episode 088: Jim Woodring
13 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
I’m not sure where to start with one, but the gallery seems as good a place as any. It was, after all, the reason Jim Woodring was in New York for a...
Episode 087: Mary Timony
06 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
“I feel like this band is what I’ve been search for during my entire musical career.” Some pretty strong words from someone who’s been in band...
Episode 086: Cory Doctorow
30 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
There are worse places to conduct an interview with Cory Doctorow than the press center above the New York Comic Con show floor. Granted, it’s still...
Episode 085: Francoise Mouly
23 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The Greenwich Village loft space occupied by Toon Books is one part office space, part living comics museum. There’s a row of iMacs where most of th...
Episode 084: Tom Scharpling
16 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
It must be around 11PM by the time Tom Scharpling arrives at my apartment, and he’s predictably exhausted. We’d scheduled something for earlier in...
Episode 083: Craig Finn and Tad Kubler ( of The Hold Steady)
10 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The Hold Steady are just one of those bands — it takes all my will-power not spend the entire interview drilling down on the specifics of all of tho...
Episode 082: Matt Sharp (Mini)
03 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve had questions for Matt Sharp since 1994. Hell, I had the guy’s visage on my wall back in the mid-90s, in the form of a blown of poster of the...
Episode 081: Mike Watt
26 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a whole of confusion when I arrive at the Mercury Lounge. By the time I emerge from the front of the club, on being informed that I was supp...
Episode 080: Tim DeLaughter
19 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In 2013, The Polyphonic Spree released, quite possibly the best album, a decade into their existence — quite the feat for a band many had written of...
Episode 079: Glenn Tilbrook
11 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
I first met Glenn Tilbrook two years back in a hotel bar roughly 40 minutes or so outside of downtown Austin, Texas. I was nursing a whiskey after a l...
Episode 078: Greg Cartwright
05 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
There are few people around I’d rather sit down and discuss music with for 45 minutes than Greg Cartwright. Beyond the laundry list of excellent ban...
Episode 077: Jillian Tamaki
29 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In amongst the throngs of costumed chaos that the Jacob K Javits Center on the Saturday of New York Comic Con weekend, we find a reasonably quiet corn...
Episode 076: Kevin Seconds
22 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin Seconds is seated next to me on a small bench just in front of the Knitting Factory. As I prep the record and unravel the mic cords, fan after f...
Episode 075: John Porcellino
15 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
I’d spoken with John Porcellino not all that long ago for Publishers Weekly feature discussing The Hospital Suite, the indie cartoonist longest self...
Episode 074: Jason Nash
08 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The best interview subjects and the best comedians share a common thread: brutal honesty. There’s a sense that nothing is off-limits in pursuit of t...
Episode 073: Art Spiegelman
30 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Two years ago, while on a take a half day off following a photography convention, I ran into Art Spiegelman on the streets of Cologne, Germany. Actual...
Episode 072: John Darnielle
24 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
“Once a bugle stood in the window of a store that sold brass goods.” That’s the first line of The Magical Bugle, a short story written by a youn...
Episode 071: Mike Doughty
17 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In retrospect, there’s probably not a heck of a lot that we talk about here that Mike Doughty didn’t touch upon in Book of Drugs. His 2012 memoir ...
Episode 070: Whitney Matheson
10 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
“It’s funny how life can change on a dime.” That’s how Whitney Matheson put it, asking whether I was still planning on running this interview....
Episode 069: Wreckless Eric
03 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
1993’s The Donovan of Trash, just might be Eric Goulden as his most unhinged — which is, naturally, saying a lot for a guy who’s borne the “Wr...
Episode 068: Sean Nelson
27 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Harvey Danger was one of the last of the Buzz Bin bands, in those waning when major labels were still forces to be reckoned with and MTV rotation was ...
Episode 067: Dave Wakeling
20 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
There’s always been some degree of confusion over what, precisely, constitutes The Beat. Here in the States, the group has long added the word “En...
Episode 066 (Mini): Peter Diamandis
15 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
A short one this week because, well, Peter Diamandis is a busy guy. Recorded at a financial tech conference in Manhattan, we managed to get 15 minutes...
Episode 065: Julie Klausner
06 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a hot one out there today. Come, have a seat on the couch in Julie Klausner’s fancy Manhattan apartment, while we discuss podcasting and writ...
Episode 064: Dan Kennedy
30 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Over its 17 year existence, The Moth has shaped the age-old art of storytelling into something uniquely its own, a style as instantly recognizable as ...
Episode 063: Peter Kuper
23 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Every time I speak to Peter Kuper, the conversation invariably turns to New York — or, as is often the case, begins there. It’s my own fault. I’...
Episode 062: Lizz Winstead
16 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
“It’s not usually this crazy,” Lizz Winstead apologizes, greeting me at the door of her Brooklyn apartment alongside two overstimulated dogs. In...
Episode 061: Richard Hell
09 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
When we sat down in the East Village tenement apartment Hell has occupied since 1975, the conversation turned turned to writing. His aforementioned me...
Episode 060: James Kochalka
02 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
It’s catch up time with cartoonist/musician/general purpose raconteur James Kochalka. It’s been a few years since the both of us we’re in the sa...
Episode 059: Scott Aukerman (Again)
25 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Where does one go after the fake Zach Galifianakis talk show they produce books the leader of the free world? If you’re Scott Aukerman, you sit down...
Episode 058: Erik Friedlander
18 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve encountered plenty of musicians who’ve made me come around on certain songs and even musical genres, but off the top of my head, I can only t...