Best Matthew Phillp Podcasts (2025)

1
Ione Skye on Rejection, Self-protection and Reconciling with Donovan 1:21:14

4d ago1:21:14

1:21:14

Erin & Elizabeth talk with Gen-X icon Ione Skye (Say Anything, River's Edge, Zodiac), the actress and author of the NYT-bestselling memoir SAY EVERYTHING. Ione's father is the 60s folk wizard and Sunshine Superman, Donovan. But while Donovan did claim Ione's brother Dono as his own, he referred to Ione since birth only as "the girl," only meeting h…

1
On the Care and Feeding of Anthony Bourdain with Laurie Woolever 52:10

2M ago52:10

52:10

Erin talks with Laurie Woolever, the author of the new memoir Care & Feeding, out this week from Ecco/HarperCollins. Laurie was Anthony Bourdain's assistant from 2009 until his death by suicide in 2018. She coauthored the cookbook Appetites and World Travel with him, and is the New York Times bestselling author of Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biog…

1
Our 2025 Oscars Episode With Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson 1:21:15

3M ago1:21:15

1:21:15

It’s our annual TMAYF Academy Awards special, in which we examine the ten Best Picture nominees through the lens of literal and symbolic fatherhood. Joining us, as always, is the founding cousin of the TV recap, Vanity Fair’s chief critic, and co-host of the Little Gold Men podcast, Richard Lawson. Together, Matt, Erin, Elizabeth, and Richard chat …

1
Psychic Phoebe Hoffman on Couples Therapy with Her Father 1:11:56

3M ago1:11:56

1:11:56

On this episode, Erin & Elizabeth talk to animal intuitive Phoebe Hoffman, one of the stars of the new documentary about NYC psychics, Look Into My Eyes (currently on Max). The film hints at Phoebe's colorful life growing up with her divorced father Stanley, who Phoebe lived with in a studio apartment in Manhattan throughout her teenage years, when…

1
The 2024 Daddy Awards! 32:45

5M ago32:45

32:45

It's the end of 2024 and the time has come for TMAYF's 788th Daddy Awards, which recap the year in masculinity and spotlight the actions of notable fathers and daddies who made our listeners ask themselves, how did we get here, and when will it end. Our shortest ep of the year features all new categories like the Holding Space Award, that recognize…

1
Oh Captain, My Captain: Eulogy for a Father Figure With Erin Hosier 40:04

6M ago40:04

40:04

This Thanksgiving holiday, Erin pays tribute in the form of a eulogy for her late friend, mentor and stepfather, Terry Orvis, who died in August after a long illness. It's a collaborative approach, as Erin includes conversations she and Terry recorded in 2020 after he was diagnosed with dementia, and tells the story of a complicated, brilliant arti…

1
Peyton Dix on Learning to Speak 'Problematic Father' 48:06

6M ago48:06

48:06

Peyton Dix, writer, social media strategist, and hilarious co-host of the eminently watchable new pop-culture podcast Lemme Say This, has been on Elizabeth's Tell Me About Your Father guest shortlist for a while, and the day has finally come! Peyton joins her to discuss her comedian dad, their occasionally complicated relationship, and the ways in …

1
Daddy Issues and the 2024 Election: TMAYF’s First-Ever Presidential Deep Dive 1:49:02

7M ago1:49:02

1:49:02

Welcome to our first ever presidential election ep not about Biden, wherein we break down the (daddy) issues of the core 4 candidates in the way only TMAYF can or will. Some fun facts about our candidates' formative lives: Kamala's father - named Donald - did not congratulate her on being named VP in 2020, and did not attend the inauguration. Accor…

1
My TV Dad: A Very Special Episode, Starring Indira Samuels 55:55

7M ago55:55

55:55

In this episode, Erin talks to Cleveland writer Indira Samuels about her Jamaican immigrant dad, Lionel, and their unique bond, cemented by watching television together up until the day Lionel died in 2014. Like so many dads we talk about on this show, Lionel was a man of few words himself, especially when it came to the big stuff like his daughter…

1
Erin Gibson on helping her dad through his final act. 1:01:42

8M ago1:01:42

1:01:42

Emmy nominated writer, comedian, producer and podcaster, Erin Gibson talks with Matt about growing up in Texas with a father who was, deep down, an actor and writer, but who was put through a military academy, fought in Vietnam, and who became an engineer and never saw his natural talents come to fruition. She recalls, three years after his death, …

1
Komail Aijazuddin on "Manboobs," lineage, and its many forms. 1:18:21

10M ago1:18:21

1:18:21

Matt Phillp talks with Komail Aijazuddin, author of new memoir Manboobs about what it was like to grow up Muslim, fat, and queer in Pakistan - with no ability to hide any of those characteristics. He talks about the process of extricating himself from the oppressive silence of his family and from Lahore and what it was like to discover that the Ame…

1
Tricia Romano on the Radical Legacy and Father Figures of the Village Voice 1:19:07

10M ago1:19:07

1:19:07

Elizabeth talks with journalist Tricia Romano, author of the new oral history The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of The Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture. Tricia, who was a contributing writer at the Village Voice for nearly a decade covering New York City’s nightlife and club scenes in the early 2000s…

1
Luke Perry and How a Generation Grew Up, with Margaret Wappler 1:14:22

11M ago1:14:22

1:14:22

In this episode, Erin and Elizabeth talk with Margaret Wappler, author of A Good Bad Boy: Luke Perry And How a Generation Grew Up, which was excerpted in Vanity Fair. The "Bad Boy" refers to Luke Perry's character on Beverly Hills 90210, Dylan McKay, a Gen-X James Dean with a tender heart. A Good Bad Boy is a dual biography of Luke Perry and Margar…

1
Christian drag queen Flamy Grant talks deconstruction, democracy, and dad. 54:12

12M ago54:12

54:12

It’s our PRIDE episode! Recorded a few days before her new song, SPRKL, dropped - Christian country music star and drag queen Flamy Grant talks candidly about her journey out of the evangelical southern church in which she grew up and became a worship leader, through her parent-sanctioned ex-gay therapy, and eventually out the other side as a gay m…

1
The Evangelicals with Tim Alberta 44:20

12M ago44:20

44:20

Tim Alberta joins Ravi Gupta to discuss his new book, “The Power, the Glory, and the Kingdom." The book takes an in-depth, personal look at the birth and rise of America’s evangelical movement and explores how deceit, scandal, and fear have contributed to the wreckage it stands on today. Subscribe to Lost Debate on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.…

1
Ravi Gupta on connecting with his MAGA dad. 1:04:24

1y ago1:04:24

1:04:24

On this Memorial Day weekend episode of Tell Me About Your Father, Matt talks with former Obama staffer and school principal and current co-host of both the Majority 54 podcast and the Lost Debate podcast, Ravi Gupta, about growing up with a democrat mother and an increasingly right wing father and how the conflict between them often took form in p…

1
Alex Steed on his dad's resting bitch presence. 1:19:17

1y ago1:19:17

1:19:17

Matt talks with Alex Steed, producer and co-host of the podcast You Are Good - a feelings podcast about movies - about choosing to live with his father in rural Maine at 12 years old - a dynamic he describes as “a 12-17 year old living with an old man as a roommate,” how his childhood led him to become a “chaos goblin” and how he worked through tha…

1
My Father, the Shag Monster: A Conversation with Miki Berenyi of Lush 1:15:54

1y ago1:15:54

1:15:54

Elizabeth and Erin chat with indie rock icon Miki Berenyi of the '90s band Lush about her critically acclaimed memoir, "Fingers Crossed," hailed by Rolling Stone and Rough Trade as one of the best autobiographies ever. Miki opens up about her unique upbringing by her eccentric Hungarian sports journalist father and her Nazi-sympathizer grandmother,…

1
TMAYF: 2024 Oscars Edition, With Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson 1:10:26

1y ago1:10:26

1:10:26

It's our annual Oscars episode with Tell Me About Your Father pal Richard Lawson, chief critic of Vanity Fair, discussing all the dad themes in this year's Academy Award-nominated films. We've got J. Robert Oppenheimer as the father of the atomic bomb in "Oppenheimer", a perma-wounded mad professor dad named "God" in "Poor Things," a philandering d…

1
The 2023 Daddy Awards! 34:43

1+ y ago34:43

34:43

Who was this year’s Best-Worst-Late Father-of-the-Year? Who was the best animal dad? Which saviors of culture are in line to clinch the Patrick Swayze Memorial Award for Excellence in the lifelong practice of Holistic Hotness? From Elon and King Charles to the best of this year’s celebrity memoir tell-alls, the celebrity dads of Tik Tok, and the fi…

1
Marcie Bianco on Breaking Free of Fathers 1:06:13

1+ y ago1:06:13

1:06:13

Matt Phillp talks with culture writer Marcie Bianco, author of Breaking Free: The Lie of Equality and the Feminist Fight for Freedom about her childhood growing up working class in South New Jersey with a father who, as she puts it “erased himself” and how that foundation informs her perspective on society and politics today. They talk about how he…

1
F-U Daddy, One More Time: A Deep-Dive into Britney Spears' "The Woman In Me" 1:41:12

1+ y ago1:41:12

1:41:12

This is our third episode, since the launch of TMAYF, dedicated to the life story of Britney Spears. Erin and Elizabeth discuss her long-awaited memoir The Woman in Me, and look back at the cultural mood that led to the pop princess tragically being held prisoner by a legal conservatorship that gave her father Jamie the right to control her person …

1
Author Leta McCollough Seletzky: My Father, the Black Spy at MLK's Side 53:52

1+ y ago53:52

53:52

In this episode, we are joined by Leta McCollough Seletzky, author of the recent book, “The Kneeling Man: My Father's Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr." Seletzky's father, Marrell "Mac" McCullough, appears in the famous photo of Dr. King seconds after he was shot at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968. In…

1
Bryan Safi on fathers, politics, and Mariah Carey 1:01:29

2y ago1:01:29

1:01:29

For the season 4 finale and 2023 Pride episode of Tell Me About Your Father, Matt spoke with comedian, TV and film actor, and Emmy award-winning writer Bryan Safi. As the co-host of three weekly podcasts, "No Autographs Please," "Ask Ronna," and "Attitudes!" formerly known as "Throwing Shade," Bryan is as much a master of comedic improv as he is a …

1
Writer Gretchen Cherington on the Secret She Kept About Her Famous Father 1:04:29

2y ago1:04:29

1:04:29

Gretchen Cherington, author of the 2020 memoir "Poetic License," discusses her complicated relationship with her late father, Richard Eberhart, a Pulitzer-prize-winning poet and former U.S. poet laureate. Growing up surrounded by literary titans, Gretchen idolized her father but experienced a disturbing shift in their dynamic during her teenage yea…

1
He Made Me Breathe Funny: Unpacking “Succession” Part 2 - With Hunter Harris 1:57:01

2y ago1:57:01

1:57:01

In part 2, Erin and Elizabeth, look at the Roy family’s connections to the Murdochs and Kennedys, before diving deeper into the show's final season. We look more at Siobhan, and Tom as her masochistic dog to kick, the legacy of NRPIs in a family where love goes to die, and the ceaseless game of “stop hitting yourself” that is getting a narcissist p…

1
Raised by Wolves: Unpacking “Succession” Part 1 1:29:25

2y ago1:29:25

1:29:25

In part one of our two-part exegesis on Succession, Erin and Elizabeth parse the incredible storytelling at play on this show, including the emotional and psychological underpinnings of the motivations and machinations of each slime puppy in the Roy pack, and the daddy issues at the root of this razor-sharp comedic satire about an American family b…

1
Actor and Author Andrew McCarthy on Lessons Along ‘The Way’ 1:00:03

2y ago1:00:03

1:00:03

Actor, director, and bestselling author Andrew McCarthy talks to Erin about Walking with Sam, his new memoir about making the 500-mile-long trek across Spain on the Camino de Santiago with his 19-year-old son. This episode is excerpted from their live conversation at the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Cleveland on May 15th. Andrew opens up about…

1
Komail Aijazuddin on the UK’s New Dad/King and the Fallout of Empire. 1:27:28

2y ago1:27:28

1:27:28

A day after Britain crowned its third Charles as King in 1200 years, Matt and Erin spoke with author Komail Aijazuddin about what it was like growing up gay in Lahore, Pakistan with a father who was the honorary consul to the UK, what it was like being taught how to be a British gentleman at a British-style school in Pakistan, and how he once curts…

1
Hole's Melissa Auf der Maur's Crush on Her Father's Gravedigger 1:22:16

2y ago1:22:16

1:22:16

Rockstar Melissa Auf der Maur (Hole, The Smashing Pumpkins) joins Erin and Elizabeth to talk about her professionally provocative father, Nick, a legendary journalist, leftist politician and “unofficial mayor” of Montreal for three decades, where he pinched butts and influenced culture until his death at age 54. Twenty-five years later, Melissa reg…

1
Iconic Radio DJ Nic Harcourt On Breaking the Cycle 1:01:13

2y ago1:01:13

1:01:13

Noted radio DJ Nic Harcourt joins Elizabeth to talk about his difficult relationship with his late TV news anchor father, his own struggles with fatherhood, and putting in the work to rebuild his relationships with his kids. Listen as Nic talks about “blowing up” his life and marriage and the subsequent work he has done to be closer to his children…

1
A Father Finds the Words After Catastrophic Loss 1:23:20

2y ago1:23:20

1:23:20

What do you say when someone close to you has lost everything? Colin Campbell, author of FINDING THE WORDS: Working Through Profound Loss With Hope And Purpose talks with Erin about losing his two teenage children, Ruby and Hart, who were killed by a drunk driver in a car crash in 2019, leaving him and his wife Gail grappling with their own identit…

1
From the Archives: Rebecca Carroll on Growing Up Surviving the White Gaze 54:57

2y ago54:57

54:57

This week, we're highlighting Elizabeth's May 2021 interview with the writer and cultural critic Rebecca Carroll, whose memoir "Surviving the White Gaze" details a childhood with white adoptive parents that left her feeling disconnected from her identity as a Black woman. This episode features a new intro, in which Elizabeth reads from some of Carr…

1
Oscars 2023: Little Gold Dads with Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson 1:10:18

2y ago1:10:18

1:10:18

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair's chief critic and co-host of its awards podcast Little Gold Men, joins us for our annual Oscars episode to discuss father themes in this year's nominated films. From the chest-beating patriarchs of Avatar 2 to the unhappily married backdrop dads of Everything Everywhere All At Once to the leering father-daughter Lifetim…

1
George Washington and “The Thigh Men of Dad History” 55:54

2+ y ago55:54

55:54

Presidential historian Alexis Coe, author of the New York Times bestseller “You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington,” joins Elizabeth for a special Presidents’ Day edition of Tell Me About Your Father to discuss what we get right and wrong about the legacy of America’s first dad. Alexis is the first female historian to write a…

1
Becoming a Closeted Evanglical Pastor to Earn Dad’s Love 1:08:10

2+ y ago1:08:10

1:08:10

How do you connect with a father who is so emotionally stoic that the only thing you can really talk to him about is the weather? On this episode, Matt talks with George Azar, author of the forthcoming My Gay Church Days: Memoir of a Closeted Evangelical Pastor Who Eventually Had Enough, about how diving head first into political and religious cons…

1
Food, Fathers, and the Memories That Bind Them 45:12

2+ y ago45:12

45:12

Matt talks fathers with two queer Asian food professionals: cookbook author and graphic designer Frankie Gaw (author of "First Generation") and Yuhe Su, the talented chef behind the professional home kitchen Daddy's Got Chopsticks, about the ways in which they maintain a connection with their fathers through recipes from their respective childhoods…

1
It’s the 2022 Daddy Awards! 23:05

2+ y ago23:05

23:05

We’re using this sleepy week between Christmas and New Year’s to honor and shun a cavalcade of celebrity fathers and men, from dicks to dictators and zeroes to heroes. Listen as the glamor unfolds with appearances by Meghan Markle, King Charles III, and Don Draper, as we recognize and alienate Daddy Awards veteran offenders including Alec Baldwin, …

1
AJ Daulerio: Recovered Man 1:38:33

2+ y ago1:38:33

1:38:33

AJ Daulerio, writer, and creator of the excellent recovery newsletter The Small Bow, returns to Tell Me About Your Father for a second time to discuss our recent episode on Shia LaBeouf. That episode, which also focused on Shia's fellow recently canceled peer Armie Hammer, examined Hollywood's need to quickly forgive famous men who have done bad th…

1
"Y'all Need to Step Off The Step Daughters:" Daddy Issues with Cody Seiya 1:07:08

2+ y ago1:07:08

1:07:08

Effervescent, thoughtful king and GayVN award-nominated porn star Cody Seiya joins us on the latest edition of our current events talk show, DADDY ISSUES. In the first half of the episode, Cody describes how art and anime offered solace from his difficult relationship with his late father and his upbringing as a Chinese American Jew in the Reagan-e…

1
Author Kathryn Schulz on what remains after loss 1:07:08

2+ y ago1:07:08

1:07:08

In this episode, Erin and Elizabeth talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Kathryn Schulz, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of the new bestselling memoir Lost & Found - in paperback 11/22 - which has been longlisted for The National Book Award and the Andrew Carnegie Medal, and has been called a best book of the year by NPR and the New Yo…

1
Reaching the Dead on Zoom: A Halloween Special 1:21:50

2+ y ago1:21:50

1:21:50

On today’s special Halloween episode of Tell Me About Your Father, Matt sits down for a real psychic reading with medium Victoria Laurie who reaches into the primordial ether to get in touch with his deceased father, Ross. Featuring unedited excerpts from the session, the episode is a moving, funny, and unexpectedly pragmatic conversation between V…

1
Shia LaBeouf, Armie Hammer and the Curse of Legacy Cannibalism 2:20:38

2+ y ago2:20:38

2:20:38

On this special double episode of Tell Me About Your Father, hosts Erin and Elizabeth take a graphic look at familial curses, generational trauma and the rules of inheritance as they relate to addiction, abuse, and American men in power. We're looking at two actors in the news right now—satiric “actual cannibal,” Shia LaBeouf, and actual alleged ca…

1
Move that inkwell, King: “Daddy Issues” with Erin, Matt and Elizabeth 1:09:59

2+ y ago1:09:59

1:09:59

In a gold-plated return to the airwaves, our current events show “Daddy Issues” is back from its summer hiatus with a special super-sized catch-up edition of all the celebrity dadly dysfunction we must discuss as we enter into pumpkin season. Matt explains the British monarchy in the wake of mummy HM Queen Elizabeth’s death, and the saga of Britain…

1
There Goes My Hero 1:02:40

2+ y ago1:02:40

1:02:40

On this episode of Tell Me About Your Father, writer Brandi Larsen tells Erin about her late father Eric Kleinert, an appliance repairman and volunteer firefighter whose unsolicited life lessons transcended the textbook they published together in the early 90s when she was just 15 (turning them both into authors, and not for the last time). Eric wa…

1
My Christian Con Dad From Hell 1:19:37

2+ y ago1:19:37

1:19:37

On this episode of Tell Me About Your Father, Jenna Perry tells Erin and Matt the story of how she spent her entire childhood unwittingly on the run as her con-man father moved his fundamentalist family from state to state (and church to church). But long before her father’s lies had expanded to the point of fracture, even as a small child, Jenna h…

1
Actress and Comedian Alyssa Limperis on Her Late Father and Her New Special, “No Bad Days” 47:52

3y ago47:52

47:52

When the comedian and actress Alyssa Limperis was 25 years old in 2015, her dad was diagnosed with a stage four glioblastoma tumor in his brain. It’s an aggressive form of cancer that is almost always lethal and her father, Jim, a vivacious sheet metal salesman who was athletic, strong, and almost supernaturally optimistic, would be dead in a year.…

1
Jason Kander on PTSD, fatherhood, and the presidency 51:02

3y ago51:02

51:02

To celebrate 4th of July, Matt speaks with Jason Kander, veteran, author, former Secretary of State for Missouri, and the first millennial elected to statewide office, about his new memoir, Invisible Storm: a Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD, co-written with his wife, Diana. Jason discusses how he approaches fatherhood post-therapy, and what h…

1
Keith Gessen’s Battle Hymn of the Bear Dad 57:47

3y ago57:47

57:47

On this week’s episode of Tell Me About Your Father, we speak with author Keith Gessen about his new memoir “Raising Raffi,” a collection of essays on the first five years of fatherhood to his first-born son, Raffi, now 7. Gessen, the author of the novels “All The Sad Young Literary Men,” and “A Terrible Country,” is a founding editor of n+1 magazi…

1
Brad Listi on the bravery and brevity of fatherhood 1:10:42

3y ago1:10:42

1:10:42

On this special Father's Day-themed episode of Tell Me About Your Father, Erin talks to her old friend and real-life dad of two, Brad Listi, the author and host of the much-loved literary podcast Otherppl with Brad Listi, where he has epic conversations with legendary writers. In his new autobiographical novel, Be Brief and Tell Them Everything, Br…

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