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Speaker: Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR. [Music fades out.]
jesse
I’m Jesse Thorn. It’s Bullseye.
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“Huddle Formation” from the album Thunder, Lightning, Strike by The Go! Team. A fast, upbeat, peppy song. Music plays as Jesse speaks, then fades out.
jesse
Odds are, you know Eugene Mirman by his voice. He plays Gene on Bob’s Burgers. He was also on Adult Swim’s Delocated, where he played Yevgeny Mravinsky, a Russian hitman and aspiring standup. In real life, he’s a great standup comedian. [Music fades out.] For ten years, he ran the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, in New York City. The festival was absurd and brilliant. There was the time that Ira Glass got super hammered onstage. There were sessions with a licensed therapist in a bouncy house. The history of the festival is recounted in the new documentary, It Started as a Joke. In it, comics like Kristen Schaal, Kumail Nanjiani, and Reggie Watts talk about how Brooklyn’s alt comedy scene grew up around the festival. But it’s also a story about Eugene and his family. When a lot of his friends moved to LA, he stayed behind on the east coast. His wife, Katie, was battling cancer. She died earlier this year. It’s a beautiful, touching documentary with plenty of laughs to make things go down a little easier. Here’s a bit of Eugene Mirman performing standup at the final farewell show at the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival.
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Eugene Mirman: A friend of my recently told me that when we were in elementary school, our teacher told her to not be my friend, because I was a loser. [The audience hoots with laughter.] That’s the ‘80s for you. And then to prove it, she showed her my test scores. [The audience laughs sympathetically.] I know! What—I get that you could show a test that proves that someone is bad at math, but what’s the test that proves someone is a loser? Like, was the question like, “What’s your favorite food?” And I was like, [yelling] “Sour creeeeam!” “Who’s your favorite band?” “My rabiiiii!” Oh, that—[laughs] that kid is…
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jesse
[Chuckling.] Eugene Mirman, welcome back to Bullseye. It’s nice to talk to you.
eugene
Thank you very much for having me.
jesse
Now, are you talking to me from Cape Cod?
eugene
I am, yeah. I’m on Cape Cod, right now, in my home talking to you.
jesse
You moved to Cape Cod a few years ago. It’s an unusual showbusiness destination. How did you end up living there?
eugene
[Chuckles softly.] I’m now only focused on recreated One Crazy Summer, so it’s a very reasonable move. [Jesse laughs.] Sooo, at the time now in, I don’t know, 2014 or so? My wife and I bought a house here, on Cape Cod, with sort of the idea that—well, one, to be able to see family who was in Massachusetts more and to be closer to family. And then, when we moved here full-time from Brooklyn, which was—you know, probably actually half a year or a year after that—it was with, sort of, the idea that we would eventually be in the Boston area. And, sort of, split our time. And we are—or, I am, and my son—partially in Somerville, now.
jesse
Was there a reason that you ended up committing to it, fulltime?
eugene
Y-yeah. It was—well, I mean, there were several reasons. One was that—I mean, that Katie had terminal cancer and we wanted to be near family. And that we also wanted to have a son and—I mean, a child. [Chuckles.] Who turned out to be a son. It just made sense, since we had bought a house on Cape Cod, to live in that house and be closer to family. So, it was—it was largely a decision to be near family and also—you know, not far from where she was gonna get treatment. Which was in Boston. And then, eventually, to be in the Boston area.
jesse
It’s both the time to reconfigure your life and, I imagine, also—like—kind of a… difficult time to reconfigure your life, when you and your wife find out that she has terminal cancer. Like, it’s a—it’s a really big change that’s necessary, but also, you know, what a—what a hard time to do it. You know what I mean?
eugene
Yes. Yeah. We did a lot of the things that I guess—[chuckles] I mean, I guess moving is very—is stressful. But seems not as stressful, in comparison to terminal cancer.
jesse
[Laughs softly.] Yeah, that’s very fair.
eugene
Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, there’s like a list of things that are stressful. We did a lot of them. We really tried to tick off all the stuff that could stress people out. The one thing that we never got to together was the pandemic. [They laugh.]
jesse
Yeah, it’s tough. How are you holding up?
eugene
[Beat.] I am not a fan of the pandemic, I’ll be honest. I’m doing okay, but I don’t like it and I look forward to it being over in—I don’t know, 1 to 18 months, I guess.
jesse
Are there things that you’ve found, in this weird circumstance, that you weren’t expecting to find?
eugene
In a certain way, so much of what we were doing before and, you know, doing on the Cape is—in ways, you know, sort of what… what I’d been doing in the years past, is partially what I’m doing now. I don’t—I don’t know that I’ve found—I think that, right now, there’s just a certain unknown. Like, you know. Will—like, will things open up in two months? In more? Will there be some treatments? Like, will our hospitals—like, there’s just so much uncertainty that I find that uncertainty was something that we had lived with for six years, essentially. I mean, Katie had had cancer and then—you know—it went away through treatment and surgery. And then it came back and when it came back, it was terminal. And her life expectancy was sort of two to five years. And she lived for six. And we, you know, sort of lived month-to-month, ‘cause we knew that—you know—that was about how much time it would take for things to—you know, if she switched treatments or if a treatment stopped working, you know, it would take a month or two, kind of, to see if the new treatment was working or not. And we rarely planned things for more than a month in advance. So, in that sense, I think one of the things that’s hard about this is that I did expect for there to be—you know, this idea of figuring out how to deal with grief and how to, you know, help Ollie and help me. And, you know—and then it’s like, now we’re sort of in a similar situation where it’s—you know, again, sort of month-to-month. Except it’s because of a pandemic.
jesse
Do you have other family with you? Or is it just the two of you?
eugene
We have—so, on the Cape, our nanny is here and she’s at home, quarantined with her daughter. But she comes and helps. So, I don’t have any—I mean, there’s family in Massachusetts, but I’m—it’s basically, you know, our sort of little bubble.
jesse
I mean, even just to have a person come sometimes feels like a big difference, to me. You know what I mean?
eugene
Yes, yes. Having a person come sometimes is incredible. It is, yeah. No, it’s… it is great. Yeah. I think that… you know. Um, it’s—are these interviews [laughing] normally—I’m like, “Is this too dour?” Like—but yes.
jesse
[Laughing.] We’ll probably get less dour, eventually. It just sort of ended up starting here.
eugene
I don’t know. It’s just gonna be, like—people are like—just the idea of people, I don’t know, driving aimlessly in their cars being like, “I was already depressed! Like, this is not helping!
jesse
[Laughs.] “I thought this was an interview—I thought this was a comedy show!”
eugene
[Laughing.] Like, “Don’t you—don’t you have one—like what’s one nice thing that’s happened?” And then I’m like, “Nothing!” [Jesse laughs.] “I thought there would be peace and there is none!” No, but I have been cooking a lot. [Jesse laughs.] Because I’m not allowed to go anywhere because of the pandemic. I mean, I like cooking. I mean, I’ve been—[chuckles] I mean, successfully looking up local farms. And I found one, not far away, that delivers. So, I’ve—today I got some sausage and chicken hearts and eggs. I’m not a lunatic. But that’s what they had. But it’s—so I’m doing fun projects. Like ordering chicken hearts.
jesse
[Laughing.] And, I imagine, also figuring out what you do with chicken hearts.
eugene
Oh, you know. You grill ‘em. I didn’t have—I didn’t have a chicken heart recipe that I knew off-hand. Though I’ve made them before.
jesse
One of the stories in your documentary, It Started as a Joke—which is nominally about the comedy festival that you put on for a decade, the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival. “It started as a joke” being a reference to the fact that the festival itself started as a joke—is that you’re a comedian who has always done goofy material that is not about your personally. It very much comes from your personal perspective, but there’s not a lot of stories about the life of Eugene Mirman in a Eugene Mirman bit, unless you—you know—started writing ridiculous letters to someone and seeing what the replies would be, or something. One of the stories in this is that in this final festival, you’re actually working on a little bit of material that is both that and also about this real thing that you were living through, your wife’s illness. How did it—how did it change your working life when your—when your wife was sick enough that it was, like, “Gosh, everyday counts.” Also, you know, you’re a professional comedian. You work the road for a living.
eugene
Yeah, I mean, to a degree. And the truth is, my career involved a lot of different things. So, anything from recording Bob’s Burgers, to touring and doing standup, to—you know—I did a podcast for a while. And the truth is I sort of adjusted things. And also, once our son was born—you know—I toured significantly less, because I was, you know, basically the primary caretaker. You know, I would do standup, like—I mean, I would—I would do some stuff—some stuff locally or I would—you know, I would sort of—like, I did—the longest thing I did was a tour for a few—for three and half weeks, in the UK, with Flight of the Concords. Now, maybe, two years ago? And other than that, I did very few shows, actually. Or would do, like, little stints here and there. You know, we tried to—I mean, again, at every given point, you’re just trying to make the best decision you can. So, I toured a great deal less and was home a lot more. But, you know, part of that—while also moving to Cape Cod, that was sort of the expectation, anyway.
jesse
Was it harder for you to find space in your life or define space in your life to be a goof and [laughs] generate the kind of goofy stuff that you do, onstage?
eugene
Well, part of it is that everything—you know, it’s true that my standup isn’t necessarily that personal, always. But everything was sort of about things happening in my life. And then so much of my life had increasingly become about, sort of—you know, having cancer be a part of it that it felt like it was, you know—and there were funny things and things to joke about. And Katie and I joked about lots of things. You know. You know, there was also—in 2015, I put out an album that was nine volumes and a lot of ridiculous stuff. And we were recording it—me and two friends, Matt Savage and Christian Gondare, recorded it in Boston. And it had a lot of really, really silly things. A lot of dumb things. So, in that sense, it was an outlet for doing really silly stuff during this time. And then—yeah, I mean, I think that… you just—I just found different outlets. But yes, I was—I mean, I also was just sort of focused on being at home more than, you know, standup.
jesse
Why do you think you spent a lot of time and effort in the last few years, especially, putting together a comedy festival that was not—by all accounts—not particularly profitable and, you know, maybe the—maybe the math didn’t stack up, if you’re matching dollars to minutes? Why was it important to you?
eugene
Um. I mean, in general, I think community has always been important to me and, you know, working with friends. And so, Julie and I—you know, love doing it. But she had moved to Massachusetts and I had also moved so Massachusetts. And so, it—you know—I think became—I think we basically did the festival maybe twice? Potentially three times? When we weren’t living in New York. I mean, me certainly. I think that we had, sort of, had this idea of doing it for ten years. I think once we had sort of started doing it… what was—sorry, was the question [laughing] why did we keep doing it? [Jesse confirms with a laugh.] I think we only did it two more times, after we left. And also, just everyone was leaving. It was really fun. I mean—I mean the answer really is that it was very, very enjoyable. It was wonderful to see people and friends and work with friends on stuff and it was lovely to go back to New York and put on these shows and see people. So, you know—but as everyone moved to LA and as we left, it became increasingly harder. You know, at one point there were very few flights booked and very little travel and very few accommodations. But then, you know, eventually we added accommodations and travel for us and, you know, there were just a lot of logistics, aside from all the sort of silly stuff we would do. So, you know, the reason we kept doing it was because it was enjoyable and then the reason we stopped is because it wasn’t exactly feasible. And our lives had become more complicated and, you know, we had kids. And Katie was sick, and it was just not fully realistic to put in all this effort and go back to New York. Especially when so many people had also moved.
jesse
What are some of the silliest things that you did at the festival that you are happy that you did?
eugene
[Chuckles.] Um, we had—so, we had an eye contact booth. We did, I think, a few times. Which was basically a cardboard box that I would sit in and you could make eye contact with me. [Jesse laughs.] And that was really nice. One year, we had an awkward party bus.
jesse
Wait—what? Hold on. Hold on. Hold, hold on. I want—Eugene, I wanna hear about the other things, but you said [laughing]—
eugene
Sorry, did I say that like it was normal? Because I keep thinking, like, “Yeah! You get it! An eye contact booth where you can make eye contact [laughing] with someone!”
jesse
Honestly, I think the part that threw me was not even the fact that you did an eye contact booth. I’ve seen many interesting things that you’ve done over the years. It was that you said, “And that was nice.” Like, it sounds—it sounds so hard to me, to make eye contact with people who come up to your booth.
eugene
Well, it was mostly that there was just a slit in it and you could—you know, the only part that was unpleasant is sometimes people would come right up to it and just stare at me like it was a staring contest, when the point of it was just to make eye contact and move on. I think we eventually, some year—I think we did it, like, three times. And maybe the last year had to put, like, a velvet rope or something, so that people stopped, like, breathing into my eye slit. Yeah, it was—but it was fun. Because also, like, a lot of it was—you would just hear people being like, “What is that? Oh—I—I think that’s Eugene. Is that Eugene?” And then I would—I would make eye contact. [They laugh.] We also had an awkward party bus, which was a pretty fun party bus. And I made it a really great mix and every other song was a Harry Chapin song. [Jesse laughs.] And also, our friend, Teresa—who was an actress—sat on the bus crying. And I had a lot of people come up to me—you know, there was a sign that said, “Awkward Party Bus”. [Laughing.] And I had a lot of people come up to me and be like, “I was on the bus. It was really weird. Like, there was someone crying and music… kept changing.” Like it was—it was like, “Yeah! It was awkward, right?” But it felt somehow like it was an accident, to people. Which was, to me, very enjoyable, that for some reason even though we said exactly what it was, they still were like, “Huh, it seems weird here.”
jesse
Was it hard to live somewhere else, after you had invested a lot of your heart into a community that was both… you know, both kind of aesthetically driven, or personality driven—that it was a community of people—of likeminded artists—but also geographically focused. That it was, like, people who lived in New York and especially in Brooklyn. Was it hard to leave that behind?
eugene
What was, I think, really hard was actually leaving the people that are still there behind. But so many of my friends had moved to LA, and so much of the scene—in that sense—was changing in terms of like for a long time going to shows meant also meeting up with your friends and seeing your friends and spending time with them. But then, as many of them moved, you know, and your life sort of changed and—you know, you—you know, have a family or an eventual family, then, like—you know, much—the bigger difference in my life was, like, having a child, than moving to Cape Cod from New York, in a sense. Because, you know, I was—I would have been largely home, anyway. So, I think that—by the time we were moving—also, by the time we were moving, so much in a sense had changed and our priorities were sort of different. But, yeah, it was—in a sense—hard to leave people and, obviously, the sort of like, you know, majesty of New York. But by the time, also like, we were coming here, I was like, “I’m gonna—if I bought a chair, I could put it anywhere.” Like, I don’t have to throw out a bed because I have a chair. [Jesse laughs.] So, I think, like, there’s just a thing to New York where just—and our apartment was, like, lovely. It had, like, two balconies. There was, like, a nice deck. You could sit outside. It was—it was, like—you know. I don’t know. Like, you could—you could have ten people outside or something like that. So, that’s like very pleasant. And I remember my mom seeing our apartment and just being like, “Wow, this is like a really nice student apartment.” [Jesse laughs.] Which she was, like, not wrong. You know what I mean? So, there’s just something to, like—I have a yard and a swing set here for Ollie. And, like, I have a little fire pit. And it’s—and it’s lovely. And also, a lot of my friends and family are in Massachusetts. And so, you know, there is somewhat of an element of leaving—you know—a beloved professional community behind. But there’s also trains, and we would go visit and people would come and visit us. And you know, I had—when I first moved to New York, in 2000, I remember missing—you know—a lot of my friends in Boston, a lot. And then I was like, “Wait, I can just go there. It’s just—it’s very close by.” So, I think that in general, I would put effort into the things that were important to me, which—so, you know, that’s—that sort of—so, it was in one way hard to leave New York, but it was also really great to have space. And have friends and family be able to visit, on the Cape.
jesse
More with Eugene Mirman still to come. After the break, we’ll ask him what it was like saying goodbye to the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, and what he has in store for the future. It’s Bullseye, from MaximumFun.org and NPR.
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jesse
Welcome back to Bullseye. I’m Jesse Thorn. Eugene Mirman is my guest. He’s a standup comic and actor. You’ve heard his voice on Bob’s Burgers, where he plays Gene. He’s also worked on Archer, Delocated, and Flight of the Concords. For ten years, he and Julie Clem Smith ran the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, in New York City. It was a fun, weird celebration of Brooklyn’s alternative comedy scene. The festival is being commemorated in a documentary directed by Clem Smith. It’s called, It Started as a Joke. Have you worked on Bob’s Burgers, recently? Do you—do you have a booth at your house, or you usually go in somewhere?
eugene
I record—like, so, they sent us—like—the mic I’m recording now, with—they sent us stuff just for ADR—for additional dialogue recording. So, just, like a few lines, you know, to fill in for episodes we had recorded. You know, the stuff we’re recording right now—or was—you know, before the lockdown, was I think largely for next year. For episodes for next year. You know, ‘cause I think it’s sort of—sort of takes nine to twelve months to kind of make an episode. So, I haven’t gone in. I do have a booth I had made, in Somerville. But not with the intention of recording, like, stuff for television. With the intention of just making weird, fun things with friends. So, I don’t know, but—you know, I mean… we were recording, and I was recording. And, you know, it was basically we record, sort of, two or three times a month, essentially, for much of the year.
jesse
Bob’s Burgers is a really special show. It’s—I mean, it’s, for one thing, really funny. But I think also, it has a sweetness in the heart of it that attracts a really special kind of fan. At least, that’s my perception from the outside, that there is this—for one thing, a lot of kids. You know, it’s a lot of kids entre into sophisticated comedy. But, also, just various kinds of sweetums. Just sweethearts love the show, because it’s such a sweet show. And it’s so rare to get a show that has that kind of heart that is also—funny to somebody who really cares about sophisticated comedy. [Eugene agrees.] And I wonder if you ever—if you ever get a chance to interact with the people to whom—to whom the show means a lot?
eugene
[Beat.] I do! I mean, at Comicon or various random—I, like, at conventions. I mean, in general, people—you know—send me messages and I see people, in the world, who say that it—that it means a lot to them. Yeah. I, you know, I think a lot of that is—you know, obviously Loren Bouchard, who created the show, and sort of put it all together. He cast each of us, you know, and then we—together—made the demo for Bob’s Burgers over a period of a few years. And yeah, I love that it’s something that, like, families watch together and that a lot of people find comfort in. And they find it to be very sweet. You know, I think that’s a really, you know, great quality of the show.
jesse
I swear I wasn’t leading into this, because I only just remembered it just now, but—you know, you were on—I’m the cohost or the second banana on another podcast called Judge John Hodgman, and there was an episode that you were on. [Eugene confirms.] And the situation was that a dad… a dad and his daughter, I believe it was, had seen you, like, in a store or something. Like a grocery store, or something.
eugene
At the Milwaukee Public Market.
jesse
There you go! [Laughs.] And had not said anything, because the daughter was embarrassed. You know, she was—she was like 12 or 13. [Eugene affirms a few times.] And John Hodgman, the host of the show, got these two on the show. They laid out this thing. I think the dad was trying to be a—was trying to be a pushy cool dad and say that she should have talked to you, or something. And Hodgman called you on the phone. And when you called in, this sweet girl—and she was really lovely, very bright—she was in tears! Because… because you were talking to her. And it was the sweetest thing in the world. And, you know, like, we get—when we do live shows, we have sometimes kids come to the live shows, you know. Often, you know, 10 or 12 year olds is probably our top kid demographic. Sometimes teenagers. And they’re, like, always wearing a Bob’s Burgers t-shirt. [Laughs.] You know what I mean? Like, it’s these really—it’s these really sweet, gifted kids. You know what I mean?
eugene
Yes, we’re inspiring a new generation of geniuses. Kind-hearted geniuses.
jesse
[Laughs.] But, like, I really think—you might not be inspiring them, but at the very least, you’re—
eugene
We’re inspiring them! No. Sorry. Go on.
jesse
You’re their favorite—you’re their favorite show to watch after school, or whatever. You know what I mean? Like, what a—what a wonderful role to get to play in the entertainment industry.
eugene
It is. I mean, and also—I mean, it’s—you know, it’s recorded with friends. I’ve known a lot of the people for a long time. You know, Loren, I—you know, have known when he—from when he lived in Boston and worked on Dr. Katz. Yeah. So, it’s—you know, it is a really wonderful show, you know, to work on. I do feel very fortunate for that and to have met these people and get to work with them. And that it also means so much to all these people.
jesse
Making this documentary, did you feel—did you feel proud of the work that you’ve done on this festival, over this—over this decade?
eugene
Yes! You know, Julie and I—and it’s—and you know, I say this because Julie is really—she’s as much the festival as I am, and she directed the movie. But because she directed the movie, she could insert herself as much or as little as she wanted. [They chuckle.] But I—you know, we’d always wanted to sort of document it in some way. And then, as we were ending it, it made sense to try to capture this. And Olivia Wingate—who was my manager and now is a producer—you know, really helped spearhead getting the documentary made. And it was—it’s, you know… it is really nice to have this, sort of, document of both this time in Brooklyn in this scene, and then also of Katie. You know, so it’s—yeah. In general, it is—it is really, sort of, amazing having this thing exist in the world.
jesse
You know, you put so much into this festival, particularly, over such a long period of time. And I can only imagine how hard the decision is to say, “I’m done with it.” Do you feel like the end of this festival and the story that this film tells is also a—you know—carries the possibility of opening up room for new things?
eugene
Yeah. I mean, I guess it’s funny, ‘cause to me. Julie and I still do lots of stuff together. So, I see that as ending, you know, but we’ll probably still do events and we’ll probably still do shows. And, you know, we will probably start a small comedy record label and maybe do a podcast or, you know, other projects together. So… I see that as, you know—you know, ending because it’s—you know, it’s like, I’m still friends with people from—with, you know, some of my closest friends are still from college. And even though college is over, that doesn’t mean that, like, none of us can talk or interact. [They chuckle.] So, I do think that the community that was fostered, in that time and in Brooklyn, exists and I’m close friends with many of those people and many of those people came and visited us in, you know, Somerville in the last—you know—months of Katie’s life. And would come here often, to the Cape, and hang out. So, I think, like, obviously things move on. But it isn’t like a clear, like, “Well, no more jokes, now!” [They laugh.] “Now, we’re in—now, we live on Cape Cod and we hunt fish and we’re very serious.” Like, I—Julie lives an hour from here and closer, slightly, than that to me, in Somerville. And so, we’ll continue to do things. And, you know, me and my friends Matt and Christian—who made the album in 2015—are starting to work on, like, kid’s stuff and other projects together. So, I think, like, you, you know, find ways to work with people and continue to do stuff that’s enjoyable. I mean, mostly what’s been a through-line for me is working on projects with friends. And I’m continuing to do that. Though, it is true, that I probably won’t put on the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, in Brooklyn.
jesse
Well, Eugene, thank you so much for taking this time to be on Bullseye. It was nice to get to talk to you again. It had been a long time.
eugene
Thank you very much. Thank you so much for having me.
jesse
Eugene Mirman. The documentary of which he is a subject, It Started as a Joke, is available to rent or purchase now.
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Percussive, relaxing music.
jesse
That’s the end of another episode of Bullseye. Bullseye is produced out of the homes of me and the staff of MaximumFun, in and around Los Angeles, California. This week, Jesus—my colleague—shaved half his beard off and kept it that way for a day before shaving the rest of it off. We’re all going a little nuts in our homes and apartments. The show is produced by speaking into microphones. Our producer is Kevin Ferguson. Jesus Ambrosio is our half-bearded associate producer. We get help from Casey O’Brien and Jordan Kauwling, at MaximumFun. Our interstitial music is by the great DJW, Dan Wally. Our theme song is by the wonderful The Go! Team. Thanks to them and their label, Memphis Industries, for letting us use it. Just heard they’re working on a new record. So, look forward to that. We’ve been making this show for a very, very long time with hundreds of episodes in our archives, at MaximumFun.org. If you’re a Bob’s Burgers fan, we’ve had several conversations with H. John Benjamin, who plays Bob, on the show. We also talked to Kristen Schaal, who plays Louise. If you like Adult Swim, we did a great interview with Jena Friedman, who created the insane documentary series, Soft Focus, for that network. You can also keep up with us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Just search for Bullseye with Jesse Thorn. And I think that’s about it. Just remember: all great radio hosts have a signature sign off.
promo
Speaker: Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR. [Music fades out.]
About the show
Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.
Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.
If you would like to pitch a guest for Bullseye, please CLICK HERE. You can also follow Bullseye on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. For more about Bullseye and to see a list of stations that carry it, please click here.
Get in touch with the show
@bullseye.bsky.social
@bullseyewithjessethornPeople
How to listen
Stream or download episodes directly from our website, or listen via your favorite podcatcher!
