Michael Ian Black

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We're joined by comedian and actor Michael Ian Black on an all-new Bullseye! He's a founding member of the comedy groups The State and Stella as well as a regular on the kind of talking head pop culture shows that were all the rage in the late aughts. When he's not busy making us laugh on stage and screen, Michael is a prolific author. His first book, a children's book, was titled Chicken Cheeks and was the first of many books geared toward kids. He's also written several books for adults. His latest is A Better Man. It's a touching long-form letter to his teenage son about the perils and pitfalls of manhood and what it means to be a man in a society that often attempts to pigeonhole what manhood is allowed to look like. Black chats with guest host Carrie Poppy about raising a son and daughter, the lessons he's learned and how his mother's tumultuous past impacted how he sees the world.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:10.0	It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn.
0:21.4	Michaelian Black maybe has one of the most varied resumes in comedy.
0:25.3	He was of course a founding member of the comedy group's The State and Stella.
0:29.8	He's a beloved TV host and panelist.
0:32.0	He's acted in dozens of movies, appeared on even more TV shows and podcasts.
0:36.9	He's also a prolific writer.
0:39.3	Since 2009, he's written almost a dozen books, some for children, some for grown-ups, and
0:44.9	then there's his latest, which is kind of for both.
0:47.8	A Better Man is as the title calls it a mostly serious letter to his son, whose college
0:53.6	aged now.
0:54.8	Knit Black talks about his own childhood and the lessons he wishes he'd been taught, the
0:59.1	stuff you'd expect to see in a memoir.
1:01.1	But then he digs deeper, asking what it means to be a man in today's world.
1:05.6	He talks about mass shootings and suicides both of which are disproportionately committed
1:09.6	by men.
1:10.6	He talks about toxic masculinity and what it means to be a man in its absence.
1:16.2	Our good friend and guest host Carrie Poppy recently read the book and she was so compelled
1:20.2	by it she decided to bring Michael on Bullseye to talk about it so, without any further
1:24.6	ado, let's get into it.
1:26.6	Michael Ian Black in conversation with Maximum Fund's own Carrie Poppy.
1:36.7	Michael Ian Black, welcome to Bullseye.
	...

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