The Weekly Show This Week

On this “The Weekly Show” podcast with Jon Stewart, his guest is Jonathan Swan, New York Times reporter and co-author of the book "Regime Change."  As the show writes, “As Trump’s second administration pursues a radically different playbook from his first, Jon is joined by Jonathan Swan. Together, they discuss what’s changed between Trump’s first term and now, how to puncture the president’s reality distortion bubble, and the craft behind a great interview. Plus, Jon takes listeners’ questions about causing political diabetes and Trump’s 9/11 efforts.

By the way, even if you don’t plan to listen to this interview, check out the first 40 seconds that the video opens with.  It’s an excerpt from later in the show, and it’s so pithy, spot-on and with a hilarious reaction from Jon Stewart to how Jonathan Swan responds that it almost covers everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PNBKR09_BY

Wait, Wait...

On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest contestant is Sally Field.  Her conversation with host Peter Sagal is entertaining, wide-ranging on her wide-ranging career, and self-effacing, filled with some amusing stories, particularly about The Flying Nun.

This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts right before the 20.15 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBPY0k1Lj1Q

Happy "Talk Like a Pirate Day" 2026

Today is one of the more offbeat holidays of the year, International Talk Like a Pirate Day.  And as always, Talk Like a Pirate Day gets me to think about the quite-wonderful video I've posted here before, Ahaarrrr! This is one of my favorite videos that I've ever tracked down.  As I've written here in the past, it's a little British film, 13-minutes long, which I came across back in 2010 and have been passing it around since -- mostly to friends of my who do voice-over work, on either side of the microphone.  Oh, boy howdy, do they ever empathize with it...  And now I post it on this site every year.I don't know very much about its history or the wonderful creative mind behind it, Jonathan Kydd, who wrote and stars in the short film (impressively, as both the voiceover artist and the director!  I didn't even realize that the first half-dozen times I watched it).  But it did win the (Mid Ulster) Critics choice at the DIY Festival LA.  As it happens, I also know very little about that festival -- other than that sentence I just typed. I do see on the iMDB that Mr. Kydd deservedly has had a long career with a great many acting credits -- not shockingly, most over the past 20 years in voiceover work, notably eight Harry Potter video games, as well as the Toy Story That Time Forgot video.  And for the animated series, The Adventures of Paddington Bear, he provided the voice of Paddington.  But yes, mixed in among that and especially before getting involved with voiceover acting, he has also done a good deal of live-action, on-camera TV work.

And I have an addendum to all this.  I recently watched a 1960  British comedy with Peter Sellers and Terry-Thomas, I'm All Right Jack.  And I noticed in the credits an actor named Sam Kydd.  So, hmmm -- I wondered.  And checked it out.  And yes, Sam Kydd is the father of Jonathan Kydd.  Furthermore, he is credited as having been in 346 movies!  Most were small roles, but still.  And at least on Wikipedia, it says that this is considered the most movies by any British actor. Anyway, back to video.  As the description below says, this is indeed the voice over session from hell. But for the rest of us, once again, a total joy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXA-89TmEs&feature=emb_logo