Whistling in the Dark

Filmmaker Matt Wolf and I chat about his latest documentary – the story of Eloise illustrator Hilary Knight executive produced by Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner for HBO - and last year’s dazzling Teenage which details the history of youth subcultures (produced by Jason Shwartzmann and legendary punk writer Jon Savage), how his formative years as a disenfranchised, gay political activist in silicon valley lead him to a career in filmmaking, and a joint, in-depth pondering of where the hell all the teenage rebellion went.  

There’s lots on the mind of this renowned CFDA Award-winning fashion designer the day we catch up on the floor of her NYC studio; how so many women she knows are giving up their careers way too early as the fight to find work/life balance  becomes too much and why millennials might just have the answer, what becoming a widow at 34 taught her, and the surprising correlation between addiction and social media.   This episode is sponsored by The Podcasters' Studio and Essentia Water - a distinctive alkaline 9.5 pH water with a special blend of electrolytes, that hydrates you better.   For your chance to win one months supply of Essentia Water, go to Whistlinginthedarkshow.com and enter your email. That’s it! That’s all you have to do to get tons of this clean and smooth tasting water delivered right to your door!

I meet up with journalist, humorist, author and documentary filmmaker Jon Ronson. We dig in to our opposing personality styles; he = introvert, me = extrovert… and find common ground in shared loves for everything from Malcolm Gladwell, cult female-band The Shaggs and Marc Maron’s podcast to our respective Ted Talk experiences. He tells me how he single-handedly tried to tackle the long unsolved Ted Kennedy/Chappaquiddick murder mystery, and that his brush with a particularly terrifying psychopath had near consequences for his son. We chat at length about social media, the way in which it’s being used to facilitate western civilization’s obsession with public shaming and how it’s informed his soon-to-be-released new book. No conversation with Ronson is complete until a deep dive in to modern psychiatry is explored, which we do, followed by a hack attempt at unpacking my father’s questionable pathology and the Robin Williams suicide.  We his high brow Marrakech experience with the Richard Branson clan, his wri

TV writer (HBO’s Girls, MTV’s Awkward and Brooklyn Nine Nine), author of seminal teen book Dear Diary (with a forward written by Chloe Sevigny) and former Vice advice columnist Lesley Arfin gives me the inside scoop on why she got fired from Brooklyn Nine Nine, her unsuccessful attempt at navigating the Harvard National Lampoon boys club as the only girl in the writer’s room and her dysfunctional dynamics with authority figures including Lena Dunham. Lesley waxes philosophical on why marriage is an act of bravery, how to break bad relationships patterns and learning to choose better dudes. We share our joint loves of Gone Girl, Pinterest, David O Russell and why cutting off ties to our parents was the best decision we ever made. Sponsored by Julep Cosmetics, The Podcasters’ Studio and Fire Records. If you enjoyed the show or even if you didn’t, we’d like to know. Please rate and review the show in iTunes or Stitcher. It helps us to grow the show. Want a chance to win a year of Julep Beauty? Simply sign up to

The Orange Is the New Black star and I meet up in NYC to dish on the show including how it has made her a better mother, her relationship with the fans, and why behind the scenes friction can lend itself to great on-screen chemistry. We bond on everything from the lost art of alone time, road rage, Rebel Bingo (don’t ask) and how my losing the option to the OITNB book 5 years ago was a good thing for everyone involved. The Netflix star gives me insight into why Hispanic culture is actually divided and falling victim Dascha Polancoto destructive infighting, and how she is creating her own modern Latina ethos by combining her mother’s Dominican traditions with the new ones she is creating with her own daughter.

I catch up with the noted photographer and talk show host (Lifetime’s The Conversation whose guests have included everyone from Lady Gaga, and Gwyneth Paltrow, to Miley Cyrus, Sarah Silverman and Melissa McCarthy), to talk about her marriages to Duran Duran’s John Taylor and Nick ValensiAmanda de Cadenet of The Strokes, how a year in juvenile detention at the age of 14 saved her, the upside of being a teenage mom, addiction, raising kids in the selfie generation, and how gender roles and relationships are completely messed up now that 51% of women are in the workforce.

I hang with the author, nationally syndicated sex advice columnist (Savage Love), podcaster (Savage Lovecast) and co-founder of the It Gets Better project deep in the bowels of Soho House West Hollywood where we lament the loss of our jointEmmy nomination to Sesame Street but rejoice in the news that the show also saved a life! Dan schools me on why one night stands can be the stuff great marriages are made of, how monogamy is destroying relationships but technology is actually making them better, when you should tell the person you’re dating your deepest secrets, and how at some point you WILL be betrayed by your long term partner. Oh and did I mention he got paid to watch people have sex live on British tv?