All posts in Comedians

Nellie McKay, singer-songwriter-activist + Triumph The Insult Comic Dog: 15th Anniversary Show

On this program, we marked the 15th anniversary of “Talking Animals”—almost to the day! I launched the show on June 16, 2003 at KUCI, the campus-community radio station at the University of California at Irvine. At the tail end of 2005, “Talking Animals” found a home at WMNF, not long after my family and I moved our home to Florida. Read more…

Scott Hardy, co-founder of Hardy Hayes Refuge

Scott Hardy—co-founder of Hardy Hayes Refuge, a mom-and-pop rescue-rehab operation with sizable ambitions, and accomplishments to match—outlines his lifelong love of animals, describing a childhood where the insights gleaned from trying to treat a locust as a pet helped shape his sensibilities more than the family’s beloved beagle. Read more…

Paula Poundstone, comic and cat devotee

Paula Poundstone—the veteran comedian perhaps best known these days as a regular panelist on NPR’s quiz show “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me”—returns for her third appearance on “Talking Animals,” and we engage in a sprawling conversation that touched on a slew of topics, including ones you would expect (cats and comedy), as well as ones you might not anticipate, like the serious threat she thinks computers and other devices can pose to kids’ brains and development. Read more…

Dan Piraro, “Bizarro” cartoonist

Dan Piraro—who, for 30 years, has drawn the highly-acclaimed, widely-syndicated comic “Bizarro”—discusses his recently announced plans, over the next two to three years, for retiring “Bizarro,” and how that announcement was initially misunderstood by some, and triggered an uproar in others. Read more…

Allan Havey, comedian, actor, animal guy

Allan Havey—the comedian and actor best known at the moment as Lou Avery on “Mad Men”—recalls his formative years as a budding animal lover with the family dachshund Peanuts. Read more…