Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso23 Nov 2025

The Noah Baumbach Retrospective

Filmmaker Noah Baumbach has spent the past three decades transmuting his experiences into cinema, culminating in his latest film, Jay Kelly, his love letter to movies (and the memories they evoke).

We begin with the “quiet crisis” Baumbach found himself in on the heels of releasing White Noise (5:30), finding his way back to the page, with co-writer Emily Mortimer, to create Jay Kelly for George Clooney (10:20), the films that defined his early years (15:00), and the week that Mike Nichols’ production of Heartburn took over his Park Slope childhood home (22:45). Then, we walk through his early, funny work in Kicking and Screaming (29:00) and Mr. Jealousy (30:45), how art imitated life in The Squid and the Whale (32:00), and the start of his lasting collaboration with Greta Gerwig in Greenberg (43:00).

On the back-half, Baumbach talks about his love of working with actors (45:30), setting the stage for the infamous Marriage Story fight scene (47:00), his process of writing personal stories (51:30), and how his subconscious seems to always be one step ahead of him (52:00). To close, the influence of Noah’s Hollywood mentor, the late Peter Bogdanovich (58:45) and a prescient essay from Baumbach’s mother, former film critic of The Village Voice, Georgia Brown (1:05:00).

Subscribe to our new YouTube channel. Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at mail@talkeasypod.com.

Get 50% Off Monarch, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarch.com/talkeasy.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(547)

Sam Interviews Nathan Lane on ‘Fresh Air’

In celebration of the Tony Awards, Sam’s conversation on ‘Fresh Air’ with the legendary Nathan Lane.At the time of recording, Lane had just received a nomination for his starring role as Willy Loman i...

7 Jun 42min

Tony Nominee Christopher Abbott (‘Death of a Salesman’) Takes Center Stage

Christopher Abbott is one of the finest actors of his generation. He joins us this week from the Winter Garden Theatre, where he plays Biff Loman in the latest Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman ...

31 Mai 1h 15min

Is Josh Johnson (‘The Daily Show’) the 21st Century Comedian?

Emmy-nominated writer and stand-up Josh Johnson is making comedy that’s timely and timeless.On the heels of his new HBO special Symphony, we begin with his creative process of shaping new material wee...

24 Mai 1h 1min

The Michelle Obama Interview

Michelle Obama is the former First Lady of the United States, a bestselling author of books like Becoming and The Look, the co-founder of Higher Ground, and now, a host alongside her older brother Cra...

17 Mai 1h 23min

Mother’s Day with Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld, Veep) is a national treasure with more primetime Emmys than any performer in the history of television. Then there’s her latest decade in film: two collaborations with N...

10 Mai 52min

Actor Riz Ahmed Remakes the Leading Man

For the better part of two decades, Emmy and Oscar-winning actor Riz Ahmed has moved seamlessly between worlds: indies, blockbusters, prestige TV, writing, rapping.We discuss the long road to his new ...

3 Mai 1h 20min

Showrunner Lee Sung Jin is Back with More ‘Beef’

Since the arrival of Beef in 2023, showrunner and creator Lee Sung Jin has been hailed as “the preeminent social satirist” working in television.The Emmy-winning writer/director joins us around the an...

26 Apr 1h 29min

Play It Again: Actor Oscar Isaac

On the heels of Beef S2, we're revisiting a favorite of ours with actor Oscar Isaac.We begin with his 2023 Broadway debut in The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (5:10), the play's timeless writing (6...

19 Apr 52min