Smartest Person in the Room

It's finally here! Our best books of the year episode. Host Laura Tremaine and her real life book club friends Stephanie Newman-Smith and Yasmin Dunn discuss their favorite books of the year and some of the most buzzed about books of 2018.    Books mentioned on this episode: Becoming by Michelle Obama The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies by Ben Fritz You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld  Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Florida by Lauren Goff Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce Alone Together by Sherry Turkle The Yes Brain by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson Heavy by Kiese Laymon Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes's Hollywood by Karina Longworth (30:40) Circe by Madeline Miller  (34:50) 9 Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty (44:36) The Witch Elm by Tana French (54:55) An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (1:00:10) The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai  (1:04:04) Educated by Tara Westover (1:12:30) The Line That Held Us by David Joy   * Follow SPITR on Facebook Follow SPITR on Instagram Sign up to receive episode emails

You've probably heard Rachael MacFarlane speak at some point in her 20 year acting career. She's given voice to characters from Johnny Bravo, Tom & Jerry, Fancy Nancy, Family Guy, and she has played Hayley on American Dad since 2005.  Now Rachael has written a children's book titled Eleanor Wyatt, Princess and Pirate. Laura talks with Rachael about her career, her new book, parenting in L.A., and why the message of Eleanor Wyatt is so important.  * Sign up for new episode emails here Follow SPITR on Facebook Follow SPITR on Instagram      

On today's episode, Laura is the smartest person in the room because she is the ONLY person in the room. That's right, it's a first for this podcast: a solo show! Laura shares the best books she's read so far in 2018.  Click here for the full show notes. Follow Laura on Instagram where she shares what she's reading in real time, or sign up for her Secret Post emails here.  * Follow SPITR on facebook Follow SPITR on Instagram Sign up for episode emails here

This is the final episode in the BIAS series. We're sharing our thoughts on creating and releasing this series, and answering some of the questions we've received over the last few weeks. We're also making an announcement about the future of this conversation in this space, since of course this work doesn't stop here. Please check out our ever-evolving resource page here.  Thanks for joining us for the BIAS series of Smartest Person in the Room!  * Follow SPITR on facebook Follow SPITR on Instagram Don't miss an episode! Sign up here to be in the know. 

Over the past several episodes, we’ve mentioned several times that my friend and co-host for this series Yasmin is married to a white man. Yasmin has talked about how being part of an interracial marriage has given her a unique perspective on the dynamics of race in our culture, and I couldn’t think of a better way to conclude our series on bias than by asking her husband Jason to sit down and talk with us about his perspectives on the reality of racial bias in our country. SPITR on Facebook SPITR on Instagram Sign up for episode emails here

This episode is different from any episode of Smartest Person in the Room that I’ve ever recorded. Months ago, when Yasmin and I were planning this series, I mentioned that though I’ve lived in Los Angeles for 17 years now, I’ve hardly ever been to the historically black neighborhoods of South LA. And so, Yasmin decided to take me on a little field trip in our own city.   SPITR on Facebook SPITR on Instagram Sign up for episode emails here

This is an unplanned episode. Yasmin and Laura were talking off the record, but the mic was recording. With Yasmin's permission, we are sharing this story.  The blog post we reference from Luvvie Ajayi can be found here.  * Follow SPITR on Facebook Follow SPITR on Instagram Sign Up for our episode emails

Early in our friendship, Yasmin and I realized that we had pretty different perspectives on most things pop culture. So many factors (and especially our racial makeup) affects how we see everything from music to movies to the Great American Novel. In this episode, we talk about Beyonce, Black Panther, Get Out, Michael Jackson, and more. And Yasmin has a SHOCKING (to me) opinion about one of America's most beloved novels.  * Follow SPITR on Facebook Follow SPITR on Instagram Sign up for our episode emails! www.smartestpersonintheroom.com 

This episode is all about racial identity, and how it matters. I'm speaking with my friends Jason & Yvonne Lee, actors and producers here in Los Angeles.  I met Jason & Yvonne through our children, and in our very first conversation we ended up talking for hours about Jason's story of being a black man adopted and raised by a white family. He and his wife Yvonne have really interesting things to say about racial identity, and why it matters.  There are so many layers to this conversation. Make sure you listen all the way until the end.  * Follow SPITR on Facebook Follow SPITR on Instagram Sign up to receive episode emails  

Continuing our series on racial bias, a black and white conversation between friends.  In this episode, Yasmin and I talk to her friend and former colleague Melissa Kaplan, the Deputy Superintendent of Education at Bright Star Schools. Melissa tells the story of how she was inspired to take her life experiences of growing up poor with an addict for a father and struggling with a learning disorder to the classroom where she believed she could help her students overcome their challenges the way she had been able to: through hard work and education. But she experienced an unexpected awakening to the realities of race in our country that, as a white woman, she had been unprepared to encounter. Follow SPITR on Instagram Follow SPITR on Facebook Sign up for our episode emails!

This is the beginning of a new series and this time we're trying something a little different. I'm sitting down with my good friend Yasmin Dunn talking heart-to-heart, friend-to-friend about inherent racial bias. Yasmin and I have been having these conversations privately for a few years now, and we thought that bringing these honest exchanges forward might be helpful for an audience who wants to learn more and ask more about race reconciliation. That said, Yasmin and I are not perfect people and this is not a perfect conversation. We want to stress that neither of us claim to speak for the entirety of our respective races and in these episodes you’ll hear us speaking as friends do: candidly, with a slight shorthand, and with knowledge that the other is bringing only the best of intentions. We want this series to be a launching point for YOU to start having your own conversations. At the end of the series we’re going to talk more specifically about how to do this in your own life. In lieu of show notes for this episode, we’ve created a blog post with book, podcast, movie and documentary suggestions that can serve as a resource on this topic. We’ll add to this as the series goes on. You can find that and all of our show notes on the Smartest Person in the Room website under the episodes tab.  

We're talking about the best books we read in 2017! My guest is Yasmin Dunn, a friend and member of my real life book club. We cover all the best novels, self-help, memoirs, and general nonfiction that we read in 2017.  Read the full show notes here. Sign up for email alerts each time there's a new episode.  Follow SPITR on Facebook  Follow SPITR on Instagram  

After 6 episodes, we've concluded our Mind/Body connection series. In this wrap-up episode, host Laura Tremaine and producer/editor Megan Tietz talk through the series as a whole. We discuss the origins of this series, what stands out to us from concepts and guests, and which episode broke download records (I'll give you one guess). The wrap-up episodes are for people who enjoy the insider play-by-play. We like to break down what worked and what didn't in a series, and sum up what we learned while making it.  See all the episodes in the Mind/Body Connection series here.  Thanks for listening! Follow SPITR on Facebook Follow SPITR on Instagram Don't miss an episode! Sign up for our emails here. 

Bethany Cole is an only child born to conservative Christian parents who was assigned the gender of male at birth. By the age of five, she realized there was something different about her as compared to her cousins and playmates, but she didn’t how to express how and why she felt so different from other kids.       Read the full show notes for this episode here.  Follow SPITR on Facebook. Follow SPITR on Instagram. Sign up for our episode emails here. 

There is no way to cover the vast topic of Mind/Body connection and not explore the issue of sexuality. We are sexual beings, and yet culture often prevents us from discussing sex in a realistic way. The truth is that sexual gratification enhances many other aspects of our lives, including relationships, mood, and overall health.  And yet many people live unfulfilled sexual lives because they're afraid to explore what they find pleasurable. That aspect of their mind/body connection languishes out of fear or because of cultural norms. In this episode with sex therapist Dr. Hernando Chavez, we set aside all moral judgements to have a frank discussion about how to identify and ask for sexual pleasure.  We discuss a number of books in this episode, including: Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cecelia Jetha Coping with Erectile Dysfunction by Barry McCarthy SM 101 by Jay Wiseman The Erotic Mind by Jack Morin   You can read the full show notes here.   Make sure you're following us around the web!   SPITR on facebook   SPITR on Instagram

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. And yet this disease is widely misunderstood and vastly under researched.  But before one is diagnosed with an eating disorder, there are many steps that fall under the umbrella of disordered eating. And as it turns out, a lot of us have a complicated relationship with food.  In this conversation with registered dietician Nicole Avila, we talk about a person's relationship to food and how we can reach a healthier mindset about hunger. * Read the full show notes at www.smartestpersonintheroom.com  SPITR on facebook SPITR on Instagram  

Mark Zupan is known for a lot of things: his Gold Medal for rugby in the 2008 Paralympics. As the star of the award-winning documentary Murderball. Inspiring a character on the tv show Friday Night Lights.  But even without all those accolades and extreme experiences, his perspective on the life-altering accident that rendered him paralyzed would be remarkable.  This is a conversation about what happens when the mind/body connection is severed. Permanently.  Read the full show notes here.  * Follow SPITR on Facebook Follow SPITR on Instagram

What is acupuncture and how does it work? Most of us have a vague idea of the ancient Chinese practice involving thin needles stuck in your skin all over your body. Acupuncture has been used for thousands of years to treat pain, depression, fertility, and to promote general health and wellness. But do you understand how it works? What are those needles actually doing? Guest Salena Hanrahan is a licensed acupuncturist and she explains the basics of acupuncture and how to find someone credible to work with you on this intense mind/body connection. She also talks about how acupuncture is becoming more popular here in the west, and how it's often prescribed by doctors as part of an overall treatment plan. Get full show notes here. This is part of the Mind/Body series. Other episodes include: Pilates with Kerri Campbell ** Follow SPITR on Facebook Follow SPITR on Instagram  

This is the first episode in the Mind/Body series and we're getting personal. We’re exploring a topic that is relevant to every human on earth: how our minds and our bodies are intrinsically connected, maybe more so than we ever knew. We’re talking about this from an emotional standpoint and a medical one. It’s a subject that’s been getting a lot of attention lately, and for good reason. The truths behind the mind/body connection are changing lives.  I’m going to start this series with my own life-changing story. In my thirties, after two babies and a lifetime of bad eating habits, I didn’t even know how disconnected I had become from my body until a series of physical and mental ailments sent me looking for answers. By chance, I landed in a personal Pilates class. What I learned in just my first few sessions put me on a path that has transformed my body and my brain. The teacher behind this transformation: Kerri Campbell, owner of the Pilates Body Shop here in LA.  Kerri practices Fletcher Pilates, and has been named one of the top 10 Pilates instructors in Los Angeles. In this conversation, we talk about how reconnecting to the body can bring about happiness, how tweaking just the smallest movements can eliminate pain or bring about energy.  Pilates has taught me a whole new way to live in my body. Kerri explains why and how this practice can work for everyone.  * Follow Smartest Person in the Room on Facebook and Instagram.  SaveSave SaveSave

A sneak-peek of Series 4 of Smartest Person in the Room!

The best books of 2017 (so far) and what is on our summer To Read lists! In this special edition episode of Smartest Person in the Room, we're breaking from our series format to discuss all things books and reading in 2017. I invited my friend Stephanie Newman-Smith from my Los Angeles book club to sit down with me to share the best things we've read so far and what we can't wait to read next.  We’re talking novels, non-fiction, light & fluffy, dark & deep. We hope our conversation today will help you discover the best book you haven’t read yet as well as inspire some meaningful book talk with the readers in your life. For a full list of the many titles we mention, go to the show notes. Follow SPITR on Facebook. Follow SPITR on Instagram. Host Laura Tremaine is on twitter and Instagram.  

Jen Glantz is a professional bridesmaid. That’s right, you can hire out the role traditionally held by best friends or sisters or cousins or old roommates. But this unique career started with a Craigslist ad going mega-viral. After a long wedding season of being a traditional bridesmaid for friends near and far, Jen Glantz threw up a Craigslist ad touting her experience and usefulness wearing taffeta on a wedding day. Within 24 hours her Craigslist posting had been featured on Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post, and she was fending off offers to be on the morning talk shows. Jen's new career was launched, but she found it to be so much more than a business.  This is an episode about going VIRAL, but even more than that it's an episode about relationship. Are we outsourcing our friendships to the internet? And can it actually work?  This conversation will make you think about what it means to share special moments with strangers, and question what is real (and what is not) about online relationships.  Complete show notes here. Follow Smartest Person in the Room on Facebook Follow Smartest Person in the Room on Instagram Sign Up for our episode emails here. Follow Laura Tremaine on Twitter and Instagram

This is the third episode in the VIRAL series. WARNING: This episode contains adult language and humor. Stephen Glover is known around the globe as Steve-O, a stunt performer and comedian famous for his provocative and death-defying work on MTV’s Jackass franchise and the Wildboyz television series. He is also recognized for his numerous appearances on the Howard Stern show and his competitive moves on Dancing with the Stars. In recent years, he’s risen to success as a stand up comic, and he is outspoken about his animal activism and his sobriety.   I’ve known Steve-O personally for over 15 years, and don’t let his antics fool you, he has always been one of the smartest people in the room. I originally thought that Steve-O would be a good candidate for the VIRAL conversation because his videos and stunts perfectly lend themselves towards going viral and as an individual he has built an online platform with over 11.5 million fans on FB, and nearly 4 million subscribers to his YouTube channels.   But instead of talking about the logistics of viral content creation, our conversation almost immediately took a deeper turn, about the quest for validation, being a different persona online than you are off, and the mental struggle to always have to top yourself.   This is a personal side to the all-encompassing world of viral.   Complete show notes here.   Follow Smartest Person in the Room on Facebook   Follow Smartest Person the Room on Instagram   Sign up for our episode emails here.  

This is the second episode in the VIRAL series of Smartest Person in the Room. My conversation is with actor and producer Shane Nickerson, who knows more than a little something about VIRAL content, as he’s spent years creating it through tv shows for MTV, CMT, and Nickelodeon. Shane is co-president of the production company Super Jacket with Rob Dyrdek, and together they're responsible for shows like Rob & Big, Fantasy Factory, The Dude Perfect Show, Jagger Eaton's Mega Life, and Crashletes.   Today we delve into the show Shane helped create with Rob Dyrdek: Ridiculousness, which features remarkable short clips culled from the vast sea of the internet. Ridiculousness is so popular that it was responsible for roughly 23% of MTV’s total programming last year.  Shane has some really thoughtful insights about internet culture and viral content, but he tells a story at the end of this episode I didn't see coming. He shares a personal story of something going terribly viral in his own life, something that had the potential to wreck his marriage and his career. He fought back against this viral thing and WON. My mouth was hanging open as we recorded. Complete show notes here. Follow Smartest Person in the Room on Facebook. Follow Smartest Person in the Room on Instagram. Sign up for our episode emails here.

This is the VIRAL series, and we’re looking closely at something that permeates most of our internet culture: viral content. Videos, memes, tweets, graphics, these can take over our online experience and change our minds, culture, elections, or just make us collectively laugh. Things that go viral on the internet can have real power.  Growing up in around the entertainment industry in Southern California and attending NYU Film School still didn't prepare Morgan Shanahan for the success she would find as a content creator. She wrote screenplays and commercials for years before turning to a more personal outlet. Her blog The 818 was a vulnerable look at marriage, motherhood, and mental health and drew her a large following.  Morgan's platform and talent opened an opportunity at the media behemoth Buzzfeed, where she's been the parenting editor and now parenting video producer for several years. The creative content she's making at Buzzfeed get tens of millions of views. In our conversation around the topic of VIRAL, Morgan and I discuss what it takes for something to get shared over and over, the types of content that work best, and what it means for the creator and for society.  Whether you're totally internet savvy or completely non-techy, this episode will be more relevant to your life than you may think. Read the full show notes here. Follow Smartest Person in the Room on Facebook and Instagram.

A sneak-peek of Series 3 of Smartest Person in the Room!

Host Laura Tremaine and producer/editor Megan Tietz break down the six episodes of the RELIGION series. They talk download statistics, listener reaction, and the surprising things that came out of making this series.    The six episodes of the RELIGION series are:   Ep. 10: The Mormon/Evangelical Divide   Ep. 11: Judaism as a cultural identity   Ep. 12: The Political Conversion to Islam   Ep. 13: Religion Reporting in the Time of Trump   Ep. 14: The Mystery of Hinduism   Ep. 15: When God Goes Silent   You can follow the Smartest Person in the Room on Facebook and now on Instagram!

We're closing out the religion series by talking about LOSING your faith.  In the last five episodes, we’ve talked about growing up in a faith tradition and converting to a religion out of deep conviction. But what about when it all falls apart? What happens when you no longer believe the very thing you’ve built your life around?   My guest is Mike McHargue, who you might better know as “Science Mike,” the host of the Ask Science Mike podcast and the co-host of The Liturgists. He’s written a book about the two years he spent secretly an atheist, and Finding God in the Waves is the kind of faith story you don’t hear (truthfully) much about.   I finished his book in one day and couldn’t wait to get him on the show to talk about his experience. Don't let the title of this show fool you, Mike creates space and hope for others with doubts along their spiritual journey. (And isn’t that all thinking adults at some point?)   *   Smartest Person in the Room is now on Instagram! Follow us there or follow the show on Facebook for updates on each new episode. 

This is the 5th episode in the RELIGION series.  Hinduism is the world’s third largest religion, with over 1 billion followers, about 15% of the global population. It is often called the world’s oldest religion, but without a savior, governing body, or binding holy book, it can be difficult to grasp exactly what Hindus believe. Many of the traditions and rituals passed down through the generations are family-specific or regional, but all fall under the umbrella of what Hindus call “the way of life.”      Indian guests Vijay and Divya patiently explain the four Purusarthas - or 4 tenets - of Hinduism: Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. We also discuss their arranged marriage, the rituals of their daily practice, and the Indian ideas that have become popular in the western world, including yoga and meditation.    I've carried the wisdom of this conversation around since we recorded. Being Hindu is a vast topic, but interesting both historically and currently. You will be finish this episode refreshed by this couple's warmth and grace.    Full show notes are here.   Follow SPITR on Facebook for updates.   Sign up for our episode emails!

So far in the RELIGION series we've heard from people from 4 different faiths. Today's episode is a bit of a departure, as we're instead talking to someone who writes nationally about religion as their job. Sarah Pulliam Bailey is a religion reporter for the Washington Post. She’s the former online editor for Christianity Today Magazine and former national correspondent for Religion News Service. In our conversation, we talk about what goes into religion reporting - both the in-depth coverage and the click-bait stories - and how Sarah's own faith affects how she covers religion for the Washington Post. Sarah shares her opinion on the biggest religion stories happening in America right now, as well as what national religion coverage is getting right (and wrong). Read the full show notes here, and follow SPITR on Facebook, or sign up for our episode emails.  Thanks for listening!

Salah Abdul-Wahid was born Daniel Hewlitt. He converted to Islam as an adult, after growing up Catholic in a large Creole family living in Los Angeles.    In the 1960s when Salah was in his early twenties, he found himself caught up in the political unrest within the black communities of Los Angeles. At the time, many people were seeking new answers to old questions about the history of white dominance in the United States and the various systems of oppression that affected people of color in this country. In seeking answers to these questions, Salah found himself open to a radical conversion, leaving behind the Catholic faith of his family and his youth and converting to Islam.   Salah talks about his intrigue with the Muslim intellectuals he observed as a student at the University of Southern California, while at the same time he was drawn to the writings of Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam.    I was fascinated with Salah’s conversion story and why he changed his name and faith at such an important time in his personal life and in American history. I knew only vaguely about famous men who had taken a similar path - Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabar come to mind - but I was unsure of the meaning behind it. This was my chance to ask someone, and our conversation had my head spinning for weeks.   (It should be noted, based on several of the cultural references in this episode, that we recorded our conversation this summer, several months before the 2016 election results.)   Later in his life, Salah would travel the world and glean powerful wisdom about the role of religion in culture, and, as you’ll hear in my conversation with him, his comfort with asking hard questions and having tough conversations has been a consistent way in which he experiences the world.   If you enjoy Smartest Person in the Room, please leave us a review in iTunes and share the show with fellow podcast listeners. You can also follow SPITR on Facebook or sign up for our episode emails.    Thanks for listening!

This episode is about Reformed Judaism as a cultural identity as opposed to a religion focused on worshipping God. The Reformed movement began in 19th century Germany, and today this is the dominant denomination of Jewish people in America.    My guest is Sarah Kate Levy, a writer here in Los Angeles. Her award-winning fiction and nonfiction essays have appeared in magazines and anthologies, and most recently she cowrote the screenplay No Way Jose with Adam Goldberg. She is also the voice behind ChecklistMommy.com, a blog about parenting, marriage, and her attempts at home organization, which draws from her own experiences as a mother of four young children, including twins. She is currently at work on a novel.    Sarah Kate's childhood led her to think her Judaism was just a small part of who she was, but attending college at Yale, surrounded by people who took their heritage seriously, Sarah Kate began to better understand her Jewish identity. In our conversation, she provides answers and insights into how a person can be part of a religion without professing a belief in God. Perhaps one key to understanding this can be found in a religious culture where debate and pushback against accepted beliefs are not only tolerated, but encouraged.   So much of what Sarah Kate said about her cultural and genetic Judaism mirrors other conversations I've had with Jewish friends over the years. Sarah Kate and I have lived in the same neighborhoods in Los Angles, but experience the world from different perspectives. I hope you enjoy listening in on our conversation!

Welcome to the first episode in the RELIGION series of Smartest Person in the Room. For the next few weeks we’ll be hearing stories about people living within their religion, defined here as a “cultural system of behaviors and practices, often (but not always) in relation to something deemed sacred." This episode is about the divide between modern day American Evangelical Christianity and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, otherwise known as LDS or Mormons. For purposes of clarity, in this conversation I refer to my guest Nish Weiseth as a “mainstream” Christian and to guest Emily Belle Freeman as a Mormon. Both living in Utah, Nish and Emily have partnered together to bridge the gaping divide between these two faiths that both follow Jesus.  With their combined influence in both the Evangelical and Latter-day Saint traditions, Emily & Nish have decided to take on the difficult task of getting Mormons and Christians to listen to one another and learn from each other. They work as a pair, speaking to both Mormon and Christian congregations, but they also spend a lot of time in their own camps, trying to dismantle some of the misinformation and stereotypes that each side has of the other. Their hope is that Mormons and Christians will eventually be able to put aside their differences in order to impact the world for good, together. Their online hub is called Multiply Goodness, which includes a blog, resources and more, on how people can start doing this inter-faith work in their own communities.  In this episode we talk about: The main theological differences between the Mormon faith and modern American evangelical Christianity.  If each faith tradition believes the other one is going to hell. How Nish & Emily met and formed an unlikely partnership. Why it's WOMEN who are leading this charge. You can follow SPITR on Facebook or sign up for our episode emails.

A sneak-peek of Series 2 of Smartest Person in the Room!

The Hollywood series has concluded and host Laura Tremaine and producer/editor Megan Tietz decided to sit down to discuss the best and worst parts of making the first series of Smartest Person in the Room. Laura and Megan talk about the most downloaded episode of the series and their personal favorites. They give a behind-the-scenes look at what was special and what was challenging about making the podcast. They also address rumors and questions about the "lost" episode of the Hollywood series: Ep. #7, the interview with the high-powered talent agent that had to be removed 3 days after it debuted.  This is a fun discussion for those who have already listened to most of the Hollywood series and want to hear more about the guests and the creative decisions behind the show. There's also a few hints about the next series topic, which will be hitting your earbuds soon.

Jeff Tremaine is a producer and director best known for co-creating the cultural phenomenon Jackass, an MTV television show that was born out of a skateboarding magazine and went on to four #1 box office movie hits. Jeff's raw and self-taught style is also behind numerous other tv shows, documentaries, and national commercials. His influence and humor permeates through several decades of American youth. Jeff is also host Laura's husband, which makes for a more casual and even more candid interview than any other in Smartest Person in the Room's Hollywood series. In this interview, Jeff talks about: How skateboarding culture influences fashion and art more than any other sport. How Jackass was created out of Big Brother magazine. The most meaningful documentary he's ever directed. The differences between directing television vs. feature films vs. documentaries vs. commercials What it's like to work with "difficult" people (and what defines difficult) Stories about working with Johnny Knoxville, SteveO, Chris Pontius, Travis Pastrana, and more. The book that had the greatest influence on him. You can read the full show notes here. 

Julie Hébert is an award-winning playwright and a television writer, director, and producer. She began her career in the San Francisco theater world, and her plays have been produced across the country and won many honors, including two PEN awards for drama. But for the last two decades, Julie has worked as a writer, director, and producer on some of televisions most popular and influential shows: ER, The West Wing, Third Watch, Nashville, The Good Wife, and many others. She is currently the executive producer and a writer/director on ABC's award-winning show American Crime. In this episode, Julie and I cover a lot of ground, including what it's like to be a woman director in an industry still so male-driven. She shares one of her tricks for bringing instant authority to her role, and her opinion on whether this disparity is getting better. Julie patiently answers all of my questions about how a writer's room works on these large sweeping dramas, and how the cast and crew reacts to having a different director for each episode.  She shares set stories from her days on The West Wing and ER, as well as the responsibility of making a show like American Crime.  This is a GREAT discussion, informative and inspiring. 

Katie Doering is a film and television producer with a passion for documentaries. She started in production working for the groundbreaking and highly acclaimed PBS series POV, and has gone on to produce popular doc-style tv shows as well as award-winning documentaries.    Katie and I drill down into the state of her moral compass while working on shows like A&E’s Intervention, and how she felt about using someone’s vulnerability for entertainment purposes, and how her thoughts on that subject have changed.   These days Katie works for the Sundance Institute, the entity that is responsible for the Sundance film festival in Utah. Katie is a part of the Women’s Sundance Initiative, which tackles one of the entertainment industry’s biggest challenges: gender disparity in both opportunities and wages.    Documentaries Katie mentions:   POV, a series on PBS Two Towns of Jasper The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia Two books that made an impact on Katie: Now Let Us Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans Working by Studs Terkel Remember to follow Smartest Person in the Room on Facebook and sign up here for our emails!

Wayne Newton has been a bodyguard for the most high profile of celebrities, protecting Mariah Carey, Madonna, Miley Cyrus, and many more. In 25 years of private security, he has never once spoken publicly about this job. What he says in this interview will make you rethink any assumptions you have about who is REALLY the smartest person in the room.

Shanna Zablow is an executive producer and general manager for the Gorilla Flicks Productions whose producing credits include MTV’s Rob and Big, Ridiculousness, and Nitro Circus as well as feature length films such as Bad Grandpa, Being Evel, and the Jackass franchise.    This interview was personal for me as I am the one who hired Shanna for her first job in production many years ago, and she has been an irreplaceable part of my husband Jeff’s team ever since. The productions Shanna has worked on for more than a decade are all shows by boys and for boys, and in this episode, she explains how this dynamic has created both difficult challenges as well as a deeply rewarding career as a producer.  

Production designer Ethan Tobman is one of the most sought after artists in Hollywood. He designed the complicated and innovative set for the 2015 Oscar-winning film Room, and is the creative force behind the sets for popular music videos like Ok Go's The Writing's on the Wall and Beyonce's award-winning video of the year: Formation. Tobman has collaborated with Hollywood's most talented and influential directors, actors, and musical superstars. In this episode, he explains the logistics of a production designer's job while weaving in his own tales of working with celebrity and genius.  

Phil Johnston is a Disney screenwriter, producer, and director best known for his work on Zootopia, Wreck-It Ralph, and the upcoming Wreck-It Ralph 2. In this episode, I talk to Phil about the years before he worked on such animated hits and he explains the process of starting with one character and ending up with a feature film. He also tells us how it feels to have worked on a project that made over ONE BILLION dollars, as well as how he compartmentalizes having a children's movie and an R-rated comedy release in the same month.

Laura Tremaine is not the smartest person in the room ... but she knows someone who is.    Smartest Person in the Room launches August 23rd.