Saving the World with Barry & Lucas

Barry and Lucas continue their Quar-ing Twenties series with another really smart and hopeful guest. Ed Avol is a Professor of Clinical Preventive Medicine, with expertise in exposure assessment and acute/chronic respiratory and cardiovascular effects of airborne pollutants in populations at risk. He was also part of BARACK OBAMA’S Clean Air Act commission. Remember Obama? He was one of the people who helped rid LA of it’s smog problem in the 90s and has a lot to say about the many ways our environment affects our health, good ozone vs. bad ozone, how farts might be killing us and why this pandemic could lead to action in climate change.

WE’RE BACK! AND THE SAME AS EVER! For part 1 of this special on-going “Quar-ing Twenties” Barry and Lucas talk to Don Forsyth, a professor in the Leadership School at the University of Richmond and a social and personality psychologist who studies groups, leadership, ethical thought, and moral judgment. We get into how group psychology could be an interesting way this quarantine can bring up together, the idea of relative morality, the nature of “group buffoons”,  the movie version of the novel version of the novel Corona-virus, and why Barry is a narcissist.

Everyone's favorite guest Greg Barris is back to update us on his mission to use coffee to power the world. We surprise Lucas' dad to ask for some unexpected legal advice, formulte a mission for 2019, and Greg makes fun of us for being richie Ritzy boyz.

Jessica Salans is one of the founders of Ground Game LA, an organization that grew out of her 2017 campaign for LA city council. She is now a field manager for the city councilman in the 11th district of Los Angeles. We'll talk about homelessness, what constituents really look like, and whether or not to watch Welcome to Marwen.

Barry and Lucas talk about ways to help for the holidays, and also finally get to know each other better. We find out how to donate toys to kids, the most scared Lucas has ever been, and why Barry poops standing up. Happy holidays everybody!

Newlyweds Ayden Mayeri (Homecoming, New Girl) & Miller Davis (head writer of Gorburger) are Lucas and Barry's good friends. We talk about self-driving cars, whether or not there will be a WWIII, and if Miller would want to be a dog-sized spider robot.

This week we're joined by Keya Vakil, who spent 3.5 months in Houston working as a field organizer on the Beto O'Rourke campaign. We talk about what it really means to drop everything and go work on a campaign, conceptions and misconceptions of Texas, whether or not Beto will run in 2020, and how to calculate the diameter of a hat with a four foot circumference.

Caitlin Stasey, notable Australian actor (Please Like Me) and founder of the feminist website herself.com joins us to go over some expert predictions of the future that we found online. We talk about everything from prosthetic brains and japanese toilet innovation to how to kill a cow with your bare hands. It's our funniest and most enjoyable one yet!

In this very special episode, we've got Red Cross spokesperson Dan Halyburton, who is currently on the ground in California, handling the relief effort for the Paradise Camp Fire. We discuss what the Red Cross actually does for people, the ways you can prepare for disaster, and first-hand stories from the fires. Go to redcross.org to volunteer or donate.

Kyle Stanger is the founder of Boys Get Sad Too, a clothing line that raises awareness about the high male suicide rate in the UK, where currently 87 men end their lives every week. Kyle's clothing line donates proceeds to CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably), an award-winning charity dedicated to preventing male suicide. We talk about the reasons for this epidemic, the reasons why boys feel like they can't be vulnerable, and why you'd want to drink a cider with Tigger. Also, Kyle has a lovely voice. Real easy to listen to.

Harley Rouda is a successful business owner who is running in California's 48th district. He believes the pressing issues facing America today are climate change, infrastructure, and affordable healthcare. His opponant, Dana Rohrabacher believes in housing discrimination againsts LGBTQI+ people, has illicit finincial connections to Russia, including contact with known Russian spies, and can't get anyone in congress to sign his bills because he's a dweeb. We also learn what Harley Rouda thinks should be on his winning pizza. Go to HarleyForCongress.com to learn more!

Sean Casten is running in Illinois's 6th district, which has been Republican since 1973. He is a molecular biologist, who for decades has run profitable, clean energy businesses, and in that time helped create 6,000 jobs. He wants to protect the Affordable Care Act, stop climate change, and repeal his opponant Peter Roskam's immoral tax act. We talk about climate change, why facts don't require your belief, and how we're doing elections wrong.

Katie Hill is running in California's 25th district, which has been republican for 40 of the last 50 years. Katie has been an advocate for homeless rights as the executive director of PATH (People Assisting The Homeless) and has worked with Emily's List. We'll talk about how she grew up as a liberal in a family of republicans, how she decided to run for congress while taking a shower, and being brave on rollercoasters.

Eriel Deranger is the executive director of Canada's only indigenous-led climate justice organization, called Indigenous Climate Action. She is a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, and we talk with her about the indigenous model for living sustainably with the land, how colonial systems are continuing to take sovereignty from indigenous peoples, the problems with cap and trade, and who she would bring back from the dead to punch in the testicles.

Rory O'Malley is a Tony Nominated actor, singer, and actorvist. He was in Book Of Mormon, the new Lifetime show American Princess, and on stage during the Mike Pence performance of Hamilton The Musical. He also started a voting initiative called Belt The Vote. We'll talk about marriage equality, why the Broadway community can make a difference everywhere, and why petuitary is Barry's most favorite word.

In addition to being one of our best friends, one of our co-stars on Downward Dog, and a wonderful actress and comedian, Kirby Howell-Baptiste volunteers for an organization called LA For Choice, where she assists women in safely accessing healthcare. We talk about weekly abortion protests, the politics of UCB improv, and why Americans would love the term knob cheese.

Greg Barris is a comic chameloen, street wizard, culture jammer, and innovative thinker when it comes to alternative sources of energy, among other things. We'll talk about how the amount of coffee waste we already have can power the world 2.5 times over, why we should all be using our waste as fuel, and whether or not Joseph Stalin invented the one liner.

In this hot fourway with comics and hosts of Suicide Buddies, Dave Ross and Hampton Yount recount their experiences with depression and the ways they found transformation and connection. We also get into whether or not it's better to be a genius or the best and if comedians need to be depressed and why we need to talk about depression.

Katherine Hodges and her husband Samm Hodges (creator of the critically acclaimed ABC series Downward Dog, on which Lucas and Barry became the best of friends) come on to discuss growing up devoutly Christian, meeting each other, and eventually leaving their faith. They also discuss the necessity of seeking answers to difficult questions, how to live with doubt, and what it's like to come out as an agnostic. Also, what's grosser: fingers or toes?

Anna Hossnieh and Shereen Lani Younes are cohosts of the podcast Ethinically Ambiguous, which tackles being brown in America, and being Iranian and Syrian respectively. We talk about what it's like to grow up split between two cultures, surprising facts about Syria, and when everyone became cool.

Melissa Schwartz is a software engineer who, in an effort to combat voter fraud, is developing an app that secures fair and transparent elections through an independant exit poll audit. We talk about election fraud, the future of elections, block-chain technology, direct democracy, and Lucas and Barry nearly derail the podcast with a lengthy, awkward, and unprecedented heated exchange.

Wendi Rice and Megan Starling of the selfish help podcast JAMMERZ join Barry and Lucas for a topic jumping episode: humans holding each other accountable, the ability to make meaningful personal change, the Doe Fund, and a variety of hard-hitting RELEVANT topics.

Tilly Lawless is a queer sex worker and feminist who has fought tirelessly to protect the rights of sex workers. You can find her writing online, watch her Ted Talk, or listen to this podcast. We talk about the difference between legaliaztion and decriminalization, why a job doesn't have to be empowering to warrent human rights, and why she would refuse to talk to an alien.

Tippi Thole is able to live a life where she has reduced her waste to less than one mason jar per week. She's an advocate for the zero waste movement, and she'll explain how the heck she does it, shares the unexpected benefits of being zero waste, and literally convinces Barry & Lucas to buy bidets.

Dr. Heather Berlin knows A LOT about the brain and a bunch of other stuff. She's a Cognitive Neuroscientist and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the ICAHN School of Medicine, she's the host of Superhuman Showdown on Discovery and Startalk Allstars with Neil Degrasse — she also does not believe in free will. We'll talk about how the brain determines things for people before they choose to, the future of brain understanding, parenting as a brain scientist and the debate between Linguine and Rigatoni. 

Elad is a writer, community builder, and activist, who also became Hassidic at the age of 23. He is writer for Forward with his colum Pop Chassid, as well as an activist for the organization Torah Trumps Hate. We'll talk about the challenges of being progressive in an insular and traditionally conservative community, why the Jewish community should be bottom up instead of top down, and why gefilte fish is better than Kasha. And, introducing our new segment Grace.Fully.Fed with Barry's wife, Chef Grace.

It's our 25th episode everversary! Meade Palidofsky is a director, lyricist, and award-winning playwright and is the founder and artistic director of Storycatcher's theater, a nonprofit organization that teaches theater arts to incarcerated and post-release youth as part of their therapy and rehabilitation and has done so for the past 30 years. She has been featured in This American Life. We talk about teaching police and judges empathy through theater, the direct power that storytelling has in healing trauma, and her total indifference and contempt to our points system.

Aisling Bea is a world renowned comedian, acitivist, writer, and Irish person. She is a vocal advocate for women's reproductive rights who faught successfuly to repeal the anti-choice 8th Amendment. We examine the political history of Ireland in regards to women's rights, religion, the difficulties of being an Irish person abroad, why Irish people can't find their houses, and what the funniest number is.

This week’s episode is a must listen! Barry and Lucas have a profoundly moving, insightful and funny conversation with Clemantine Wamariya. She’s an author, a speaker, and a human rights ambassador who worked with the Obama administration, and we talk with her about her new book, “The Girl Who Smiled Beads.” It’s an incredible book (AVAILABLE NOW) which deals with her experience with atrocity as a child in Rwanda and then her life after as a refugee in the United States. We talk about the importance of language, of why it’s always better to be “us” people, why we should all be living our best lives, and why Oprah and Ellen should have a tv show together with dancing! Also Lucas mispronounces Elie Wiesel’s name! What a dummy!

You definitely know Ben Higgins as a former Bachelor from the show THE BACHELOR, but what you might not know is that he co-founded a charitable for-profit coffee brand called Generous Coffee. We talk to him about how you can manage doing-good with turning a profit, how his coffee is better than Starbucks, the difficulties of dating after being the Bachelor and why Ben mostly agrees with Mary J. Blige.

This week we have a very special episode of Saving the World with JUST Barry and Lucas! They will grill each other on all the big questions like: do sports serve a purpose or is it just an awesome Orwellian Distraction? Does Net Neutrality matter? Is a de-nuclearized North Korea worth a second term of Trump? What name does Barry wish he had? Could Hitler be a point guard in the NBA? Tune in and finally know the right answers to everything!

In addition to being a comic, Shane Mauss is an ambassador for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, and an avid user of DMT, psilocybin, and even MDA. We talk about what MDA is, how we're currently in our second psychedelic revolution, why everyone should consider taking DMT, and why Barry and Lucas need to be reprimanded. Go check out his new documentary Psychonautics, premiering June 15th at the TCL Chinese Theater.

Yes, you read that correctly. Mary Wareham, a co-laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize, leads the Human Rights Watch’s advocacy against particularly problematic weapons, and her current campaign is to STOP KILLER ROBOTS. We talk about all types of weapons, AI, blinding lasers, roombas, friendly robots, and the why the best music comes from New Zealand.

Johnny Pemberton and Greg Barris are two of the smartest and funniest people on earth, which is why we had them on to talk about everything, ranging from facial recognition to the hegelian dialectic thinking to breaking a hardshell taco around a boner.

Lauren Miller Rogen joins us to talk about her crusade to stop Alzheimer’s and help those living with the disease, her family’s battle with Alzheimers, her organization “Hilarity for Charity,” which she runs with her husband Seth Rogen (now a special on Netflix), and why it’s important to poo on camera for a good cause! She’s also the writer, director and producer of the new film “Like Father” premiering on Netflix August 3rd!

In this episode, the hilarious actorvist and comedian Kurt Braunohler joins us to talk about electrocuting Asian carp, fake river guides and how he jet skied down the Mississippi River to donate goats and chickens to needy families. And we learn how chickens have sex! (By scissoring!)

Henry Zebrowski, host of Last Podcast on the Left, co-creator of Your Pretty Face is Going To Hell on Adult Swim, Sea Otter in Wolf of Wall Street, and Barry’s close friend, joins us for a wild conversation about serial killers, magical masturbation rituals and his work with My Friend’s Place, an organization focused on helping homeless youth. Also, just what is dog repellent??!

Brian Moses is a hilarious comic and Coach Tea is a hilarious DJ who also helps rehabilitate juveniles on probation, together they are the creators of the cult sensation “Roast Battle” which has become its own Comedy Central series. We’ll talk about the power of roasting, the limits of speech, how to prevent childhood incarceration and Barry’s strange podcast voice.

Alan Neff is so much more than Lucas’ father, he’s also an attorney, voting rights activist, writer and teacher. We will talk to him about gerrymandering, Michael Cohen, whether or not Lucas is his favorite son and the definition of a Dad joke.

The German sensation, Flula, has been seen in Pitch Perfect, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and all over Youtube and now he joins us to explain "Flulanthropy", the future of social media, and why showing your pee pee is better than being barefoot.

Did you know there was a ton of new oil fields being built in Culver City, and that fracking is a problem in Los Angeles? We didn't either! Until we had a great conversation with Seven and Andrew who are both working to STOP FRACKING. We'll also talk about how NYC banned fracking, how to rebrand Fracking to be called "Yucky", and how activism is similar to pornography.

Lucas Neff welcomes guest host Keilla Roldan and guests Katrina Eroen, Laura Donney, to talk about why it's "Her Time Now", the true amount of global sadness, women fighting back, Stalin and Keilla sings jingles for that sweet corporate moolah.

We talk to Kai Daniels, a local Los Angeles art preparator and curator about: the importance of vulnerability, how to fix art, what makes art art and what would happen if you met a dragon in real life.

Bees are more incredible than you know, and we welcome Eli Lichter Marck, a real bee keeper, to e explain everything about bees from: how they have sex, to how they puke honey, to how they dance, to why they’re feminist and woke. And we ask your listener questions.

Jessica one day decided she was going to run for city council in Los Angeles. Then she did. And got 14% of the vote. We’ll find out how, why and also discuss her new venture Ground Game LA as well as exploring whether you’d rather have no nose or no front tooth.

Johnny Pemberton is an absolute comedic genius, hosting the Live to Tape podcast, starring in the FOX show Son of Zorn and NBC's Superstore, and also a genius genius. We'll get high and talk to him about how TM changed his life and could change the world, peak oil and pitching a show to the meditation network.

Scotty Landes is a writer of comedy and horror who has a new movie with Blumhouse, has written for Workaholics and also sells "Mudflap" bikinis to benefit the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. He has a great cause, a voice like leather and stories about cold sending postcards to producers to break into the industry. We'll get high and talk about how to start your own charity, why pot will end crime and how to survive a rabies apocalypse.  CHARITY - bagsoflove.com/stores/mudflap Twitter - @marylandmudflap

Barry and Lucas welcome Katie Levine. She’s the head of podcast production at Nerdist but, more importantly, she works with the Best Friends Society of Los Angeles and NKLA to make sure dogs from high kill shelters end up in great homes. We’ll talk about animals, farts, cuteness, laws to end puppy shelters and why social media has helped dogs find families.

Barry and Lucas get high with documentarian Kyle Salazar (The Vervet Forest), who brings his own homegrown strain of weed with him! They talk about Kyle’s volunteer work with the Vervet Monkey Foundation in South Africa and his documentary, Barry’s childhood lion obsession, giving candy to German children, the inevitable dolphin uprising, and not just saving cute animals. Check out the Vervet Monkey Foundation: http://www.vervet.za.org/ and Kyle’s film: http://www.thevervetforest.com/

Barry and Lucas are joined by writer, community organizer, and youth mentor Monique Mitchell, who doesn’t get high but laughs at the guys while they do. They talk about Monique’s incredible work bringing literacy to LA youth with the organization Get Lit, and Monique teaches the guys about different types of poetry. Lucas gets trapped in an On This Day loop, Barry has some good news about coral reefs, and Monique has to make a tough choice during the Eat The Food segment. Check out Get Lit: http://getlit.org/

Barry and Lucas get high & save the world with actress and musician Nora Kirkpatrick (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Virtually Mike and Nora on Hulu)! They talk about her work teaching filmmaking to incarcerated youth, the MPTF retirement community, compassionate moms, undercover cops, playing the accordion, shooting virtual reality, and so much more. Check out InsideOUT Writers: http://insideoutwriters.org/