Sam Fragoso

“With writing or any bit of art-making, it’s coming from the you that’s in the moment, but it’s inadvertently for the you that you don’t know yet. That is what I try to do with Talk Easy. The big difference between the show now and the beginning is that there’s much more of me in it today.”

-Sam Fragoso, episode 383 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

To commemorate his 30th birthday, Abbi Jacobson interviews Sam!

They talk about Sam’s early days in journalism (8:00), his Almost Famous-like experience as a teenage film critic (10:30), making Talk Easy and how the show evolved post-pandemic (13:15), and the email from the late Roger Ebert that changed his life (22:30).

On the back-end, they discuss Abbi’s annual birthday prompts (28:00), why Sam’s episode with filmmaker Werner Herzog has stayed with her (31:57), and how he approaches asking hard questions on Talk Easy (36:43). To close, a passage from Sam’s debut episode with Don Cheadle (45:28) and a philosophy captured in his short film Sebastian (53:20).

Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at sf@talkeasypod.com.

Show-notes:

Illustrations by Krishna ShenoiReference photograph by Julius Chiu.

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