Connor Ratliff Talks with Sarah Larson, Plus Chef Bryant Terry

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An aspiring actor named Connor Ratliff thought he had it made when he got a small part on the 2001 miniseries “Band of Brothers,” in an episode directed by Hollywood legend Tom Hanks. The day before shooting his scene, Ratliff was unceremoniously fired by Hanks, who said the rookie had “dead eyes.” It was a life-altering disappointment for Ratliff. He told Sarah Larson how he came to launch the podcast “Dead Eyes,” which explores failure as a universal part of life—in show business and beyond. When Ratliff was able to land Tom Hanks as a guest on the show, fans thought their interview would bring “Dead Eyes” to a close. But Ratliff has other ideas. Plus, Helen Rosner talks with the cookbook author and food-justice activist Bryant Terry about uplifting diverse traditions in Black cooking and reclaiming veganism from white hipsters.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:09.5	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:13.5	Failure is just a part of life, an experience to learn from, as we're told constantly by everyone from school teachers to management consultants.
0:22.4	We have our disappointments and embarrassments, and most of us try to learn from them and
0:27.3	put them behind us somehow. But some of us, some of us make podcasts out of them, and failure,
0:34.1	one particular failure, is what Connor Ratliff's dead eyes is all about.
0:40.1	Staff writer Sarah Larson writes about podcasts for The New Yorker, and she spoke with Connor Ratliff last week.
0:49.1	Connor Ratliff is a brilliant and funny comedic performer and actor who's beloved in the improv world and among
0:55.9	his fellow performers. Like, a lot of the funniest people we've enjoyed on TV and in movies in the last
1:02.2	few years think Connor's one of the funniest people they know. So if he's so great and beloved,
1:08.9	why doesn't everybody know who he is?
1:14.6	There was one point I was approached by an agent or a manager.
1:15.7	I don't even remember which they were.
1:17.4	He said, what's your story?
1:18.5	Why? How come you don't have representation?
1:21.9	And I said, well, because they have no interest in working in show business.
1:22.7	I don't like it.
1:28.8	What could make someone who loves performing and who's so good at it stop performing?
1:33.0	It all begins with Tom Hanks.
1:36.3	I'm a huge Tom Hanks fan and always have been.
1:44.2	I was the kid in high school that when people would talk about, you know, this Tom Hanks movie or that Tom Hanks movie,
1:47.7	I'd be like, but do you remember his episodes on Family Ties? Like, those are really good.
	...

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