The Nato Sessions

Today's guest is comedian and writer J Elvis Weinstein. He's known for his work on Mystery Science Theater 3000, Cinematic Titanic, Freaks and Geeks, and America's Funniest Home Videos. We talk about all that plus Bill Hicks, the early alt comedy scene in LA, and the Jews of Minnesota.

Today's guest is writer/poet/activist Chinaka Hodge. We talk about Oakland, Mesherle, gentrification, poetry, adolescence, zombies, and the rap video we were in together.

In this episode, Nato talks to University of San Francisco Geography professor Rachel Brahinsky. They discuss the complicated history of Hunter's Point and San Francisco gentrification as a tale of resistance as much as of displacement.

On The Nato Sessions, I talk to politician and comedian Tom Ammiano and comedian and writer Guy Branum about the history of camp as an indigenous gay style of humor, drag, HBO's Looking, and homophobia.

Today's guest on The Nato Sessions is humorist, storyteller, writer, comedian Dylan Brody. We talk about the depths of depression, the power of humor in darkness, and writing Ross Perot jokes for Jay Leno when that was a thing.

Today's guest on The Nato Sessions is comedian Andy Kindler (Bob's Burgers, Maron). Andy strongly identifies with 1960s counterculture, so Nato takes Andy on a pilgrimage to the Haight-Ashbury. We discuss counterculture, nostalgia, the birth of alternative comedy, and why atheists are so obnoxious.

Today's guest on The Nato Sessions is Jeff Chang, author of the recently “Who We Be: the Colorization of America.” We talk about the difference between race conversation and race spectacle, whether capitalism can end racism, and who is more cynical.

Today's guest is comedian Louis Katz (Comedy Central Presents, Totally Biased). We talk about his class of SF comics, about being a nerdy Jew in an Asian-American sketch group at UC Berkeley, and growing up in a political house in Los Angeles.

Today on The Nato Sessions, my guest is author and activist Rebecca Solnit, whose new book is “Men Explain Things to Me.” She brings hope to two of the most depressing topics of all time: rape and climate change.

Today's guest on the Nato Sessions is Vernon Reid, multi-Grammy-winning guitarist with Living Colour. Vernon and I talk about his roots in avant garde jazz with drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, his ties to both fabled New York healthcare union SEIU 1199 and Reagan's attack on PATCO, and the price comedians and musicians have to pay to be free. And of course, Captain America.

My guest is Tom Ammiano, California State Assemblyman from San Francisco, former President of the Board of Supervisors, protégé of Harvey Milk, champion of all progressive causes, and one of the first out gay comedians in San Francisco. Nowadays, a lot of people don't know about Tom's comedy days, but in today's episode he talked about blazing trails, names names of the closet-cases of comedy and the homophobic bookers, and the early days of the AIDS epidemic.

Today's episode is another round-table, with Kevine Boggess of Coleman Advocates for Children & Youth, Ken Tray of United Educators of San Francisco, and educator and comedian Micia Mosley. Are schools a way to create social equity or a way to crush children's spirits? Why can't we just have good schools for kids?

This episode, Nato talks to Aaron Davidman, whose one-man show “Wrestling Jerusalem,” about to close in San Francisco and begin a national tour, deals with Israel and Palestine in all its complexity. They talk about using art to unstick imagination and allow us to contain contradictory feelings. Also bonus standup clips from the vault.

Nato's guest is comedian (and writer and director and TED talker) Negin Farsad from the tour documentary “The Muslims Are Coming” out now on Netflix. We talk about life as an Iranian-American feminist from Palm Springs with two master's degrees, why people hate her, and stumbling into standup.

Vanessa Veselka is known for writing the novel Zazen and the “Best American Essay” “Truck-Stop Killer,” but she also has stories about growing up in 30 Rock, organizing unions, guitar, working on ships, and being a teenage runaway hitchhiker who escaped from a serial killer. She calls bullshit on memoir and Vanessa and Nato reveal the untold story of Nato's abortive standup performance at Occupy San Francisco.

On The Nato Sessions we talk to comedian and comedy writer Guy Branum (of Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell & Chelsea Lately) about the impossible labyrinth of growing up a gay, Jewish, redneck Arkie almond farmer in rural California. We discuss working as a comedy writer while maintaining your own voice as a standup, and hash out our disagreements on boycotts, clickbait, outrage, and building the movement of gays where they go to find dick.

These days in San Francisco, gentrification is hotter than a gelato/massage food truck. We've got soaring housing costs. Mass evictions. Venerable businesses disappearing. Imperious techno-snobs. Google bus blockades. It's scary and hard to understand what's really behind it or what to do about it. Nato gets to the bottom of it ONCE AND FOR ALL with help from activists and thinkers Fernando Marti, Chris Carlsson, and Alicia Garza.

The Nato Sessions revisits the thrash-funk music scene in the Bay Area in the early nineties. Nato asks House of the Limbomaniacs, Damion Gallegos of Fungo Mungo, and Damon Wood of Smoking Section about the rise and file of the madcap live music community that most famously created Primus and Mr. Bungle. We learn about shit-and-dick-based songs, a new kind of toga party, and how important cheap rent is to musical innovation.

Whip out that tallis because on The Nato Sessions today it's all about Judaism, Jewish identity and the Torah with Rabbi David Kasher and writers Ben Greenman (The New Yorker) and Caitlin Roper (Wired). Ben and Caitlin contributed to the new book “Unscrolled: 54 Writers & Artists Wrestle with the Torah” as part of the Reboot network. We argue. A lot. Passionately, which I guess is the point.

In this episode, Nato has a great talk with Canadian Jew Kenny Hotz, best known from Kenny vs Spenny on Comedy Central. They ask the big questions like what is morality? Why is the real always funnier than the fake? Can Kenny make radical Muslims think Jews are ok?

Today on The Nato Sessions, I talk to gender queer feminist porn star Jiz Lee. We talk about queer aesthetics in porn, shifting standards of obscenity, and the wonders of fisting.

Today on The Nato Sessions, Nato visits Oakland's beloved communist rapper Boots Riley, frontman of The Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club. They reflect on Occupy Oakland, the ins and outs of political art, and the first time getting drunk as a teenager... on revolutionary possibility.

On this episode of The Nato Sessions, Nato talks to novelist Helene Wecker, whose first book “The Golem & the Jinni” was released this spring. They talk about mystical Jewish and Syrian creatures, fin de siècle New York City, chassidic wizards, and how Midwestern Jews make/ruin a brisket. Also, Nato takes a blow to the face.

This week Nato chats with Bay Area author (and Jew) Ayelet Waldman, author of Bad Mother. They talk about the satisfaction of being disappointed with Obama, twitter trolling, and things that may or may not have been in Nato's butt.

Nato sits down with Marc Maron, the beloved comedian, podcaster, author, and star of his own IFC tv series Maron, which was just renewed for a second season. They talk about intellectual inspirations in Albuquerque, Maron's contentious relationship to liberalism, and what lessons should be drawn from his newfound creative success.

The Nato Sessions Episode 1: Gerard Jones Nato was a comic nerd as a kid, before nerds took over the culture. He sits down at Stage Werx in San Francisco with former comic book writer, comic book historian, and mass culture critic Gerard Jones. Gerard wrote “Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book.” They talk fandom, white panic fantasies, the heroic accountant, and superhero Jewiness.