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On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest contestant is Tiffany Haddish. She’s extremely energetic throughout, especially when talking about all the many jobs she did before breaking through – including recreating what she’d do working as an “energy producer” to make bat mitvahs more fun. This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts at the 20:45 mark.
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On this week’s episode of 3rd & Fairfax, the official podcast of the Writers Guild of America, the guest is actress Kristen Stewart. She talks about writing, directing, and producing her debut feature film, The Chronology of Water. She also discusses the creative choices of adaptation from page to screen, art vs. commerce, and much more.
From the archives. And it's charmingly different. The contestant…well, no, make that “the contestants” are the Advanced Placement Music Theory class at Lincoln High School from Tallahassee, Florida, along with their teacher Scott Leaman. The piece of music is beautiful, but for the longest time I didn’t know the composer style – however, I eventually made a guess…and was happily right! (Interestingly, everybody in the class except one person guessed someone else, but the teacher let that one person make the guess – I suspect because he agreed with her and thought she was right – and indeed she was.) It was not shocking that a class of high school students didn’t get the hidden song – though I didn’t either. But the teacher did. Even on a second playing, I had a hard time picking out the song, though I did hear a couple of passages that made me think, “Ah, okay, there it is…”
The guest on this week’s Al Franken podcast is an encore presentation with comedian, radio host, and NYT bestselling author John Fugelsang. As the show writes, “Donald Trump and the Republican Party have the backing of Evangelicals and fundamentalist Christians. But if you read the Bible or listen to the teachings of Jesus Christ, it would be clear that their policies are anything but Christ-like. In this Best Of episode, we revisit our October 2025 conversation with John Fugelsang to discuss his book, Separation of Church and Hate. “Fugelsang shares his unique perspective as a Christian who was raised by a former nun and a Franciscan Brother. He shows the disconnect between what far-right Christians claim Jesus taught versus what he actually said in the Bible. Jesus promoted peace, love, compassion, and mercy... None of which are evident in today's Republican Party. “We also break down many social issues that right-wing Christians use their faith to justify. Jesus advocated against the death penalty, provided for the poor, and never once said that homosexuality is a sin. Not to mention abortion, which was weaponized in the 1980s to consolidate power under Ronald Reagan. “We hope this interview can help you engage with right-wing Christians in a civil way by pointing to actual scripture, which might help them see the contradictions and lies that their party embraces.” With the Artemis II astronauts back on earth from the trip to the moon, it just seemed that I had to go with this. The song was written by Bart Howard, and to my surprise the original artist who recorded it was Kaye Ballard in 1954. It was done as a slow ballad, and by the time Sinatra recorded it 10 years later, songwriter Howard estimated there had been around 100 cover versions. Sinatra's swing recording with Count Basie was arranged by Quincy Jones. And there's a reason it's the one associated with the number (which was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame as a "Towering song") -- which I think is pretty clear from its joyful spirit. |
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 
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