Mixed Mental Arts

Latest Episodes:

Ep78 - Bill Burr Nov 21, 2013

Show notes

Bryan sits down with comedian, Bill Burr. As with other comics associated with The Opie & Anthony Show, in 2008, Burr's voice was featured in the game Grand Theft Auto IV. In the game, Bill plays Jason Michaels of the biker gang The Lost MC in the mission "No Love Lost". In 2009, he reprised his role in the game's expansion pack The Lost and Damned. Burr's special Let it Go was recorded at The Fillmore in San Francisco and premiered on Comedy Central on September 18, 2010. A later special, You People Are All The Same, premiered in 2012 as a Netflix exclusive. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

Ep77 - David Epstein Nov 18, 2013

Show notes

As a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Dave Epstein helped break the story that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003. He's written for the Swimsuit Edition--which he describes as the cushiest assignment ever--and he covered the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Like anyone who has spent a lot of time in and around sports, one question has always nagged at him: how much of a difference do genetics make in athletic performance. Wading into issues like race and gender, Epstein's book lays out the scientific realities of what we today know about the role of genetics in top-level athletic performance. In today's episode, Dave tells us about hyper-muscular babies, the African tribe that dominates distance running and what trait is over represented among top female athletes and fashion models.The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance is available in all good bookstores. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

Ep76 - Tony Blauer Nov 14, 2013

Show notes

Bryan sits down with fitness expert, Tony Blauer. Blauer Tactical Systems (BTS) is one of the world's leading consulting companies specializing in the research and development of close quarter tactics & scenario-based training for law enforcement, military and professional self-defense instructors. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

Ep75 - Merchants of Doubt Nov 11, 2013

Show notes

In Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M Conway reveal that the same handful of individuals who have made a career out of selling doubt. Fred Singer, Fred Seitz and Bill Nierenberg began their career as physicists and Cold Warriors. Committed to doing anything they could to oppose a growth in governmental power, they created pseudoscience that denied the dangers of smoking, nuclear winter, the depletion of the ozone layer, acid rain and, most recently, global warming. From their positions well-respected physicists, they have used their credibility to sow doubt in the mind of the public on issues of health and the environment and thereby ensure that nothing is done to change the situation. In this week's episode, Naomi and Erik tell the story of how "small numbers of people can have large, negative impacts, especially if they are organised, determined and have access to power." They tell Bryan and Hunter the realities of global warming. They make it clear, as they say in the book that "there are many reasons why the United States has failed to act on global warming, but at least one is the confusion raised by Bill Nierenberg, Fred Seitz, and Fred Singer." Before we can solve the problem of global warming, we have to agree that there is a problem. Merchants of Doubt can help us do just that.Merchants of Doubt is available from all good booksellers.

Ep74 - John Truby Nov 07, 2013

Show notes

Over the course of three decades working in Hollywood, John Truby has fixed over a thousand film scripts. In his book Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller, John refutes the advice so often given to writers to "just write." By providing specific tools, he takes the process of screenwriting from a mysterious act of inspiration to a series of tools that can be applied to break down any script. But John's advice is not just for storytellers. As John, Bryan and Hunter discuss, a writer cannot take his characters through the process of moral growth without going through that process himself. More than the cornerstone of a great film, writing is a powerful tool for figuring out who you really are and what you really stand for.

Ep73 - Alexis Ohanian Nov 04, 2013

Show notes

Alexis Ohanian co-founded Reddit out of his dorm room at the University of Virginia. As a leader of the grass-roots movement that overturned Congress's Stop Online Piracy Act and Senate IP Protection Act, he earned a spot in The Daily Dot's top ten most influential Internet Rights activists of 2012 and was dubbed the "Mayor of the Internet" by Forbes. Still, as you'll discover in this episode, Alexis is an incredibly down-to-earth guy with a great sense of humor. On today's show, Alexis, Bryan and Hunter talk about Alexis' book Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed. As more and more individuals use the internet to innovate and create better and better business opportunities, there's plenty of reasons to be optimistic. However, there are things we need to do to ensure those freedoms. Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed is available from all major booksellers. Alexis can be followed on twitter @alexisohanian.

Ep72 - Harland Williams Oct 31, 2013

Show notes

Bryan Callen sits down with actor and comedian, Harland Williams from such movies as "Dumb and Dumber," "Freddy Got Fingered," "There's Something About Mary," "Half Baked," "RocketMan," "Sorority Boys," "Down Periscope" and "Employee of The Month." He is an author and illustrator of his own series of children's books involving a little brontosaurus named Jimbo. Williams' love of art drove him to create the series, in which the curious, young dinosaur embarks on a series of amazing adventures and learns important life lessons in the process. The artistically inclined Williams had refined his passion for drawing and painting at Canada's Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario. Finding a creative outlet in poetry and painting while working as a forest ranger for five years after dropping out of Sheridan College, Williams set his goals to leave the forest as a stand-up comic and actor, soon moving to Los Angeles to pursue his newfound calling. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

Ep71 - Reflections Oct 28, 2013

Show notes

Bryan and Hunter take this episode to reflect on and synthesize everything they've learned over the course of the last dozen or so episodes recording the show together. From the philosophy of Professor Dan Robinson to understanding human memory with Josh Foer, it's been a wild ride. This was a much needed opportunity to digest all they'd learned and pull out the big overarching lessons they've learned in talking to so many awesome guests.

Ep70 - Steve Byrne Oct 24, 2013

Show notes

Bryan and Hunter sit down with the star of "Sullivan and Son," on TBS, stand-up comedian, Steve Byrne. They discuss Steve's sitcom as well as other career moments, including trips overseas doing USO tours, getting married, and having kids. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

Ep69 - Charles Mann Oct 21, 2013

Show notes

Charles C. Mann didn't plan to write about the world before and after Columbus, but, at a certain point, he realized he couldn't wait for anyone else to do it. In his book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Mr. Mann relentlessly dispels the myths of Native American life in the Americas before Columbus made landfall in 1492. Although native Americans are often depicted living in an untouched wilderness, the reality of native American life was very different. They transformed their environment, built empires, made war and invented two technologies that would prove vital to Europe's rise: the potato and the corn plant. In his book 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, Mr. Mann describes how Columbus' arrival in the new world set off the exchange of species between the Americas and the rest of the world. After centuries of relentless plant breeding, the peoples of the new world had transformed the minimally useful ancestors of corn and potatoes into the most productive food-producing technologies in the world. Europe--for centuries in the grip of famine--was finally able to free itself from the struggle for survival, grow its population and usher in the modern world. In China, the sweet potato allowed previously sparsely-inhabited regions to become major population centers. In the Americas, diseases like smallpox created a Native American apocalypse while diseases like malaria would incentivize the development of a slavery based on the forced importation of West African peoples. The roots of our modern world can be traced to the exchange of a few key species. Drawing together the latest scientific research from biology, history, archaeology and anthropology, in this episode Mr. Mann paints a vision of the world that might allow us to finally transcend the narrative of race and allow us to finally see all the peoples of the past as they truly were: just like us.1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus and 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created are both available on Amazon and through all good booksellers.

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