How Timothée Chalamet, Taylor Swift and Other Celebs Try Too Hard To Be Cool and The MTV Revolution

The Nerve with Maureen Callahan

MK Media & SiriusXM

News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this week's edition of the Nerve At Night, Maureen Callahan is joined by MTV co-founder Tom Freston for an inside look at how the network rewired the entire music industry and had a transformative effect on entertainment and politics. Freston walks Maureen through MTV's rock-and-roll golden era, his relationship with former Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone, and their legendary clash over Tom Cruise. Later in the show, Maureen welcomes journalist Elle Hunt to break down the science of “cool,” including the personality traits that separate those who are genuinely cool from the trying-too-hard celebs, and how some stars seemingly make being uncool their full-time job. Maureen then turns to Troublemaker mail, reading audience stories about an arrogant A-Rod encounter, Michelle Obama’s eyebrow-raising remarks about black women and swimming, Oprah’s sky-high ticket prices for her appearance in New Zealand, and more. Tom Freston - https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Unplugged/Tom-Freston/9781668089798 Elle Hunt - www.ellehunt.net Instragram.com/elle_hunt 120Life: Go to https://120Life.com and use code NERVE to save 15% Oxford Natural: To watch their full stories, scan the QR code on your screen or visit https://oxfordnatural.com/nerve/ to get 70% off your first order when you use code NERVE. Lean: Visit https://BrickhouseSale.com for 30% off

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the nerve at night. I am your host, Maureen Callahan. We have an
0:17.1	incredible show for you today. We've got two really intriguing, fascinating guests.
0:23.2	We are going to be talking first to Tom Freston, who ran MTV for years when MTV really mattered and dominated the conversation.
0:34.8	He was like the big, big guy there. When I worked there, which was around 89 to like 92, 93.
0:43.3	So I'm really, really fascinated to talk to him about his new memoir.
0:48.2	It's called Unplugged Adventures from MTV to Timbuktu.
0:53.1	And in honor of Tom, I'm wearing my 1984 Van Halen tour
0:57.4	t-shirt, my favorite Van Halen of all with like the smoking baby. Because we're going to talk about
1:02.7	one of MTV's earliest fan contest, which was called Winna, it was called Lost Weekend with Van Halen.
1:09.9	And this was when David Lee Roth was in Van Halen,
1:11.9	and they were touring with like little people as like their security guards. It was like Van Halen
1:18.3	at its, at their peak. And so the guy who won the contest was like this really nerdy guy
1:26.3	from like a really small town. And like he couldn't believe like he was back. Like the cameras were following this whole weekend. He couldn't believe he was backstage like a big Van Halen Arena show. And he had his friend with him. And it was so cute because like he looked a little scared and he should have been. And they, the band got this kid so, I mean, he was like legal, I'm sure, but they got him so wasted.
1:51.5	Like by the end of the end of the show, they're taking him backstage.
1:54.7	They're like in the bowels of the arena.
1:57.1	And like this kid is like zonking himself into like concrete walls and like David Lee
2:02.8	Ross trying to like keep him upright while like he's trying to usher in the like the little
2:08.5	guys who are in like the their karate like outfits with like you know I forget what they're
2:15.1	called kumona like whatever it's called I sorry, I'm forgetting what it's called.
2:36.0	And they have like these sunglasses on and these like headbands. Like they look like mini like karate kids. Again, you couldn't get away with it today. It's like this close to spinal tap adjacent. You know what I mean? It really, it's like to die. So anyway, we've got a lot to talk to Tom about. and then we're going to get into your feedback.
2:37.3	It's amazing.
2:36.0	Your feedback is so... So anyway, we've got a lot to talk to Tom about. And then we're going to get into your feedback.
	...

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