On this week’s Naked Lunch podcast, co-hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild catch up with Donny Osmond with whom they also appear in an episode of the Netflix's series Somebody Feed Phil for, as the show writes, "a fun, funny and far-ranging conversation including some of your fan questions and eventually, Phil’s wife Monica Rosenthal joins the party."

Last week, I came across a video that caught my attention for what seemed to be its amusing oddity, and it turns out that the fellow has made a whole series out of it, and they’re extensive.  And (for my taste) great fun.  They’re called “European Reacts.”  He’s a guy from Portugal, named André, who absolutely loves America and posts videos of his first reaction to things about the country.  But all the better is that he has a friend named Sara (also from Portugal) who he often has on as a guest for her reactions.  And those especially are a total joy.  (In fact, he mentions in one how viewers love when he has her on.)  Moreover, I should add that in some of the most-recent videos, he refers to her as his wife. 

Their accents are very thick.  Sometimes putting on Closed Captioning might help, but a lot of the fun is just listening to them as they are.  And overall, one of the treats of the videos are that, when seeing the country through the eyes of people being introduced to it, bring a reminder of appreciation that, living here, we tend to take for granted.

They all aren't consistently wonderful, so I'll try to only post the ones that are most fun.  And this first is my favorite of them all so far.  As it happens, it's also the first one that I found.  And it's with Sara.
 
The point of the video is André showing her maps of European country and how small they are compared to American states.  And it’s so fun.  And she’s often disbelieving and in total awe.  A phrase you hear him say a lot throughout the video is, “Really, I am not joking.  This is true.”  (By the way, the video they’re watching is extremely well-done.)  Great fun, too, is when they deal with pronouncing the states.  In fact, the funniest point in the video is when they get to “Massachusetts.”  He makes a bet with her, insistent that he knows he’s right – and he’s not, her guess is pretty close.  And in the Comments section below (which is fun on its own, especially here since so many people chimed in to say that Sara was right), the very first comment is from Sara herself, who writes -- “Sara here.  Thanks, everyone.  André’s gotta pay up!” Followed by a smiley face. 😂
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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 open water swimmer Becca Mann, who became the first person to swim through the 40-mile channel crossing three Hawaiian islands.  Her conversation with guest-host Negin Farsad (who, alas, is overly giggly and overly enthusiastic whenever she sits in – though it at least actually fits more appropriately in this interview) is light-hearted and interesting, including when talking about what, if anything, makes her scared on her swims.  And no, it’s not sharks.  Along with the challenges of swimming for so long in salt water. And a fun question about hotel pools.
 
This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts at the 20:30 mark.

On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest contestant is actress Cynthia Nixon. She tells a bunch of fun stories in her conversation with host Peter Sagal, notably what it was like making Broadway history by being the first person ever to act in two Broadway plays at the same time.  As well as stories about starring in Sex in the City and its impact on the culture, and an amusing insight about costumes for the Victorian The Gilded Age.
 
This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts just before the 20:30 mark.

On this week’s Naked Lunch podcast, co-hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild welcome the Emmy-winning TV writer and producer Mike Scully about his long and impressive career working on shows including "The Simpsons" (for which he was the showrunner for four years), "Parks and Recreation," and with Phil on "Everybody Loves Raymond." With great stories about Conan O'Brien, Yakov Smirnoff, Don Knotts, Mick Jaffer and Keith Richards. And a lot about “The Simpsons.”