The Sound of Young America: The College Years is a trip through our salad days at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Listen in on Jesse Thorn, "America's Radio Sweetheart," Jordan Morris "Boy Detective," and Gene "Big Time" O'Neill and their guests each week.
The College Years is a look deep into the vaults of The Sound of Young America. Take a journey with us every week as we post a new program or two from our salad days.
Today's theme: R.I.P. ODB

Charlie Todd is the founder of Improv Everywhere. You may know Improv Everywhere from pranks such as Frozen Grand Central, Ted's Birthday, and Who you Gonna Call. Charlie shares with Jesse the origin of Improv Everywhere and explains the rationale behind their pranks. For more details behind Charlie Todd's "missions," make sure to read the Improv Everywhere book, Causing a Scene.
After that segment, life throws Jesse and Jim a curveball as Ed Helms cancels the interview. Rather than sulk and wallow in a bottomless pit of public radio despair, Jim demonstrates why his nickname is "Master of Would You Rather."
And since this episode is a tribute to the work of Ol' Dirty Bastard, let's finish with Shimmy Shimmy Ya. It's apropos anytime really, but especially for this episode.
The College Years is a look deep into the vaults of The Sound of Young America. Take a journey with us every week as we post a new program or two from our salad days.
Today's theme: Strong Words

To start things off, Jesse welcomes Chuck D of Public Enemy fame. Listen in as Jesse brings out some passionate words about the state of hip hop, politics, and Black entrepreneurship from Chuck D. For more, make sure to check out some of Chuck D's work.

After that, Jesse interviews Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, better known as Tim and Eric. In this segment, Tim and Eric discuss their unique and unusual creation, Tom Goes to the Mayor.
The College Years is a look deep into the vaults of The Sound of Young America. Take a journey with us every week as we post a new program or two from our salad days.
Today's theme: Steve Harvey's Giant Teeth

To start things off, Jesse welcomes Rob Baedeker and James Reichmuth of Kasper Hauser fame and eternal MaxFun friendship. You can look forward to anecdotes of mail fraud, lousy scholarship advice, and beaver skulls. For more hilarity, watch some Kasper Hauser funnies.
Next up, the gentlemen talk with the casting director of Steve Harvey's Big Time Challenge about the show's high expectations while in Santa Cruz. More groin pummelers wanted, apparently.
After that business, Jesse interviews Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors. Sadly, no Rick Moranis in the interview.

Lastly and all too briefly, Jesse and the guys speak with comedian Zach Galifianakis. Fact: Zach was on the Fox series, Tru Calling. Fun Fact: Zach isn't particularly fond of Tru Calling.
The College Years is a look deep into the vaults of The Sound of Young America. Take a journey with us every week as we post a new program or two from our salad days.
Today's theme: Show People

To start the show, Jesse and guest-host Steve Palopoli interview Pearl of the Suicidegirls. While promoting her group's traveling burlesque show, Pearl explains to the guys why Suicidegirls is about more than just pictures of pretty girls. Note: very hard to find SFW links of that other stuff Pearl talks about due to risqué pictures of pretty girls. In any case, if attractive women is your cup of tea, check out the DVD of the tour.

Next, Jesse and Steve talk to the arguably just as NSFW Josh Kornbluth. (NSFW because you might guffaw while listening). Josh speaks about his one man show, Ben Franklin: Unplugged. Although that show has passed, you can still catch Josh in the film, Haiku Tunnel and at future performances.
The College Years is a look deep into the vaults of The Sound of Young America. Take a journey with us every week as we post a new program or two from our salad days.
Today's theme: Free Form

To begin the show, Jesse speaks with Tom Scharpling. Known for his writing on shows such as Tom Goes to the Mayor and Monk. Tom talks about his radio programme, The Best Show on WFMU. Why don't you become Tom's friend?

Next up on this episode, Eugene Mirman! Listen as Eugene shares memories of childhood alienation and loneliness. Meanwhile, Jesse talks about Gallagher. If you're feeling lonely and don't want to listen to another Gallagher album, pick up some of Eugene's hilarious work.
The College Years is a look deep into the vaults of The Sound of Young America. Take a journey with us every week as we post a new program or two from our salad days.
Today's theme: It's All Politics!
First up, Jesse Thorn and guest-host Maria Schell welcome writer Kristin Gore. Kristin talks about her book, Sammy's Hill, her beginnings in comedy with Harvard's National Lampoon, and her time as a writer at Futurama.

Following that, Jesse interviews the great Art Spiegelman. Listen as Mr. Spiegelman reveals some of his motivations for his book about 9/11, In the Shadow of No Towers. It is fantastic. Do yourself a favor and find more of his work
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Lastly, Jesse talks to friend of the show, Patton Oswalt. In the world's shortest interview, Patton drops some funny, Jesse tries to demonize the Chipmunks, and Maria describes what she's wearing. Owe yourself another favor and go to one of his upcoming shows.
The College Years is a look deep into the vaults of The Sound of Young America. Take a journey with us every week as we post a new program or two from our salad days.
Today's theme: Chosen People
Chris Jackson can be described as a sort of pop culture activist. With H.O.P.E. in America, Chris protests the mediocrity prevalent in the entertainment landscape. For example, he ruined Paris Hilton's book signing.

Following that, Jesse and Kathi interview Count Bass D. Listen in as Count Bass D talks about music, his artistic collaborations and making art in Nashville. Check out his latest work.

Lastly, Jesse speaks with his comedy crush Sarah Silverman. Between the flirting and passing of love notes, Sarah reveals her comedy origin story and describes Jesus is Magic as only she can.
The College Years is a look deep into the vaults of The Sound of Young America. Take a journey with us every week as we post a new program or two from our salad days.
Today's theme: Hello Possums!
Randy Newman is a singer, songwriter, and composer. In this programme, Jesse devotes the first hour to the work of Randy Newman. Find his latest music on the Toy Story 3 soundtrack.

Following that musical hour, Jesse interviews Dan Piraro. Dan Piraro is best known as the cartoonist behind the comic “panel” Bizarro. Find his daily feature here.

Also, Jesse welcomes entertainer Dame Edna Everage. As a satirical character played by Barry Humphries, Dame Edna Everage has written several books, hosted many television programmes, and even managed to rile up Salma Hayek.
The College Years is a look deep into the vaults of The Sound of Young America. Take a journey with us every week as we post a new program or two from our salad days.
Today's theme: Mashup, for which we've selected five interviews from the summer of 2004, with co-hosts Jamis MacNiven, Al Madrigal, and W. Kamau Bell.
Tyler MacNiven is a filmmaker and in this program he speaks to Jamis MacNiven and Jesse about his trek across the entirety of Japan. That journey would later be documented in Tyler's 2005 film, Kintaro Walks Japan.

Following that, Jesse interviews Steve Almond. In this episode, Steve Almond discusses his candy "freakdom" chronicled in the 2004 non-fiction book, Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America. His most recent book is Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life: A Book by and for the Fanatics Among Us
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Next, Jesse and Al Madrigal speak with Marc Horowitz. Marc Horowitz is a performance artist, actor, comic and filmmaker. He stops by to talk about a few of his performance pieces, including what happens when you mix burros with picking up the dry cleaning. You might also recognize Marc from one of his recent projects -- a piece that became a series of commercials, "Seven Days in a Sentra". You can find videos of Marc's work at his site, I Need to Stop Soon. He's also a co-host of the new TV series on G4, It's Effin' Science.
And lastly, W. Kamau Bell joins Jesse to interview Tony Goldmark and Jacob Slichter. A musical comedian, Tony Goldmark has been crafting song parodies a la Weird Al since he was a kid, with a debut album when he was only 13. In this episode, he talks about his album Rage Against the Mundane.
Jacob Slichter is a musician and a member of the band Semisonic. Jacob discusses his 2004 book, So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful Of Record Executives and Other True Tales from a Drummer's Life. In the work, he details the often frustrating experience of dealing with the music industry.
The College Years is a look deep into the vaults of The Sound of Young America. Take a journey with us every week as we post a new program or two from our salad days.
Today's theme: Mad Libs. Brian "Business, Never Personal" Lane and Arthur Gauss both co-host with Jesse on today's TSOYA.
Brandon Bird is an artist (and fellow UCSC grad) whose paintings reference pop culture and historical figures; he was an artist-in-residence at Risley Residential College at Cornell University and is a regular contributor to The Believer. He talks to us about creating a "Law and Order" coloring book and performs a dramatic reading of the frankly hysterical tale of "Butt Tinkie," dreamed up by his four-year-old self.

Jimmy Pardo, comedian and host of the weekly podcast Never Not Funny, talks about the gift of a Gentlemen's Chest, his mom, and his worst television performance ever.
We're joined next by Geoffrey Nunberg, Fresh Air's in-house linguist and author of Going Nucular: Language, Politics, and Culture in Confrontational Times. Geoffrey shares his insights on popular language usage, from "nucular" to "like".

We close it out with the legendary comic Shelley Berman, winner of the first-ever Best Comedy Album at the Grammy Awards of 1960 and a founding member of The Second City.