With Friends Like These

Old 97’s band members and old time friends, Rhett Miller and Murray Hammond, join us for a conversation about songwriting, falling into friendship love and how a band is like an open marriage. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

Rising artist, Ciara Rae shares her experience of living in Nashville as a songwriter and musician. She tells us about the ups and downs of surviving in a forever evolving industry, staying true to her music and how songwriting helped her into recovery from an eating disorder. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

The Go-Go's made history as one of the most successful all-female bands ever. Bassist Kathy Valentine's new memoir puts their story in context and highlights her own rocky path to recovery, success, and serenity.. The author of ‘All I Ever Wanted’ joins us to talk songwriting, booze, and sex. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

The creator of Sans Bar, the bar without booze, Chris Marshall joins us for a conversation on recovery, community and how to make the perfect mocktail. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

This week is the 400th anniversary of what America knows as Thanksgiving. Join us as food historian Linda Civitello takes us through how the traditional meal has evolved through the decades and what items we love to indulge in owe their existence to indigenous people. We explore the good, the bad and ugly that comes along with this beloved holiday. From the food racism to legacy of the indigenous people and everything in between! For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

Emmy and James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, writer and teacher, Andrew Zimmern joins the show to talk about Food politics, the restaurant industry post pandemic, and his journey with sobriety. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

Writer for the Atlantic and Author of the book The Cruelty is the point: The Past, Present and Future of Trump’s America, Adam Serwer, joins the show to talk about Texas’ politics, the misconceptions about the state and how to create a better America using Texas as our teacher. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

Comedic writer and actress Daisy Haggard joins the show to talk about her work creating the Showtime series “Back To Life,” which follows an underdog female character who returns to her hometown after serving an 18 year prison sentence. Daisy talks about why she wanted to humanize people struggling for redemption, and what she learned about writing, forgiveness and herself. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

Comedian Sophie Santos joins the show to talk about her memoir -- “The One You Want to Marry ---and Other Identities I've Had.” It details Sophie’s life growing up as an Army brat in the South, while also being white, Hispanic, Asian, and gay - and the bumpy (and often hilarious) moments that led her to finding herself as an adult. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

Reporter Eric Garcia's new book -- “We're Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation” -- springs from his experience as a political correspondent and autistic person. Frustrated with the myths and stereotypes about autism found in the media, he set out to report on what autism really looks like and to ask autistic people what they really want and need. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

Lizz Winstead is best known as the co-creator of The Daily Show, a program that reinvented late-night, and showed a new generation of comedians how to combine news with satire and activism. Her next act was founding Lady Parts Justice, now known as Abortion Access Front, an organization that travels the country, supporting abortion clinics and the people who work there. She sits down to offer some practical suggestions for what we all can do about the new Texas anti-abortion law, and what to look out for as other states try to pass similar legislation. To learn more about Abortion Access Front, go to aafront.org For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

After enduring what she calls “700 bad days” in a row, author Kelly Williams Brown realized that simple rituals and crafty projects were often what got her through her most difficult days. In her new book “Easy Crafts for the Insane” she explains the practical, fun, and do-able activities that offer an escape from a chaotic world. Note: This week is National Suicide Prevention Week. This conversation offers a set guardrails to activate in moments of deep crisis. If you need to talk to someone right now, please call the national suicide prevention hotline at 800-273-8255 or try the Crisis Text Line, 741-741 For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

For the past 10 years, actor, author and humorist John Hodgman has hosted the podcast “Judge John Hodgman” where he helps friends, roommates and romantic couples negotiate their long-standing quibbles: Things like: “Which one of us is loading the dishwasher right?” Throughout the years, John’s discovered some deeper throughlines about gender roles and power dynamics. He also talks about his animated show on FXX called “Dicktown” which is a surprising window into male sensitivity and forgiveness. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

Best-selling author of "White Rage" Carol Anderson explores the anti-Black history of the Second Amendment. There is structural racism built into our Bill of Rights! The story of white Americans' fear of black Americans with guns starts with the enslaved people who fought against the British and runs all the way to the killing of legal gun owner Philando Castile - and beyond. Her new book is The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

Fellow Crookedian Rebecca Nagle joins us to talk about Season Two of “This Land.” From the “boarding schools” of the 19th century to the good intentions of the Indian Child Welfare Act — and the big money campaign to repeal it. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

The co-author of “Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth,” Bryan Burroughs, debunks the Anglo-centric fables surrounding Texas’ founding myth — with a cameo appearance from Phil Collins. (In the myth, not as a guest on the show.) For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

Brian Broome’s dad used to threaten to hit him so hard he’d go to heaven — “punch him up to the gods” — if he didn’t conform to the ideal of Black masculinity. Broome joins to discuss his memoir, “Punch Me Up to the Gods, and rising above that threat, finding himself, and finding recovery. Then on this week's Adorables segment, comedian (and fake judge) John Hodgman joins to tell us about his cat Lolo. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

Former young girl and memoirist Melissa Febos joins to discuss the pressures and paradoxes in how society treats female children. Her most recent book is called “Girlhood.” For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

This podcast is now a Simone Biles stan account. ESPN’s Alyssa Roenigk joins to talk about the Olympics as a problematic fave and Biles as an unproblematic one. Women’s gymnastics did a number on a lot of us as young people — the unrealistic body expectations, the idea of “tough love” as the best way to coach. That culture is changing and let’s celebrate that! On Adorables Like These, time to talk to the “sensitive one” in the Pod Save America boy band, Tommy Vietor, who tells us about his bath mat with a pulse, Lucca. (CW for gymnastics conversation: sexual abuse and eating disorders.). For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.

Restorative justice advocate Ruby Welch brings the perspective of a previously incarcerated person to policy. She’s not a fan of how most people (even well-meaning people!) prioritize the needs of the recently released. Find out what it means to be really heard. On this week’s Adorables Like These: Sora, the grumpy-faced kitty companion of Crooked intern Mari Cardenas. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/withfriendslikethese.