The Plug w/ Justin Jay

Latest Episodes:

Michael Che Nov 05, 2026

Show notes

Michael Che is the co-anchor of Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live and the comedian behind the new Netflix special Shot in Minnesota.

We sit down to talk about how an hour like Shot in Minnesota gets built, what more than a decade inside SNL has taught him, and why bombing is part of the job.

Che came up on Chris Rock, George Carlin and Patrice O'Neal, comics who didn't waste words, and he brought that economy to the Update desk. He's willing to bomb with a joke for a year or two because he can see the spark: "It might take me two years to get this right, but I'll know when it's right." His view on edgy material: "We're like doctors being afraid of blood. We work in words. In the right hands, anything can be funny."

We get into the origin of Joke Swap with Colin Jost, born from jokes that died at dress rehearsal, and why Che pushes back on fans who love "the racist jokes segment." His answer: it's about making each other uncomfortable. He takes us inside the machine, a show written on Tuesday and live on Saturday with nine sets in one room, explains why he leaves the sketches to Kenan, and shares the card Lorne Michaels sent with flowers the night he taped the special: "Please don't embarrass me."

More than a decade at the Update desk, and he's still willing to bomb for a joke he believes in.

00:00 Intro

02:02 Shot in Minnesota and the Update desk

05:42 Callbacks and Lorne's card

07:51 Likeability and bombing for a joke

11:50 Joke Swap with Colin Jost

17:01 The r-word and the N-word

23:19 Character, trust and dark material

25:25 SNL's stakes and the weekly machine

33:28 Bombing, Norm and today's Update

39:22 The Plug: Ashley Padilla and listening

YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@theplugwithjustinjay

Website → https://www.theplugwithjustinjay.com

Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-plug-w-justin-jay/id1517322794

Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/3M3BwnadvgbuwtErUHN1pl

Email → theplugpodcast.jj@gmail.com

Justin Jay Photography → https://justinjay.com

HI 1K - 10 Years / 1000 Moments On Hawaii's North Shore by Justin Jay → https://www.hi1k.com

Mark Ronson Oct 22, 2026

Show notes

Mark Ronson is the Oscar- and Grammy-winning producer behind "Uptown Funk" and Amy Winehouse's Back to Black.

ENCORE EPISODE — With Night People now out in paperback, we're revisiting this conversation.

We sit down to talk about Night People, his memoir of the downtown New York that made him, years before the hits, when he was the most in-demand DJ in the city.

Ronson went on to produce for Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga, Adele, Dua Lipa, Jay-Z and Paul McCartney, and curated the Barbie soundtrack. But Night People isn't about the studio. It's a portrait of a grittier, unpolished New York during hip-hop's golden age, and of a career that ran from early acclaim as the city's "It DJ" through post-hype setbacks to reinvention.

We get into the unwritten rules of DJing, why you should never play a hit to an empty room, and the thrill of turning a skeptical crowd into a sweaty, euphoric mess. He also traces how Giuliani-era crackdowns and the rise of bottle service turned NYC nightlife from a chaotic melting pot into velvet-rope exclusivity.

The city in the book is gone. The rules he learned there still run the room.

YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@theplugwithjustinjay Website → https://www.theplugwithjustinjay.com Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-plug-w-justin-jay/id1517322794 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/3M3BwnadvgbuwtErUHN1pl Email → theplugpodcast.jj@gmail.com Justin Jay Photography → https://justinjay.com HI 1K - 10 Years / 1000 Moments On Hawaii's North Shore by Justin Jay → https://www.hi1k.com

Fab 5 Freddy Jul 23, 2026

Show notes

Fab 5 Freddy is a founding figure of hip-hop culture and the original host of Yo! MTV Raps.

This episode we sit down with Fab 5 Freddy, artist and filmmaker, for a conversation about the exact moment graffiti, breaking, rap, and downtown punk culture stopped being separate scenes and became one culture: hip-hop.

Fab was there for all of it. In his new memoir, Everybody's Fly, he traces the whole arc, from a Brooklyn childhood spent skipping school for the museums to the making of Wild Style, the film that first put the culture on screen.

We get into what actually happened the night he realized the audio from Wild Style's climactic concert scene was completely blown out. The reshoot came a year later, and by then Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five had already blown up too big to get back in front of the camera.

Fab also talks candidly about running with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring back when all three of them were broke and sneaking onto the subway without tokens, and what it was actually like watching two of his closest friends become two of the most famous artists in the world.

Plus: the letter PBS sent calling the idea behind Wild Style "trash," the real story behind Debbie Harry's "Fab Five Freddy told me everybody's fly," and growing up with a father who marched on Washington with Martin Luther King and was in the room the day Malcolm X was assassinated.

Hip-hop didn't have a name yet. Then it did.

Dave Taylor / Waco Surf Jun 11, 2026

Show notes

Dave Taylor is the owner of Waco Surf, the 500-acre surf park that brought wave culture to the middle of Texas.

We sit down for a wide-ranging conversation about building something from scratch, the culture of surfing, and what it means to bring a coastal lifestyle to the heart of the Lone Star State.

A Southern California native who spent years in entertainment and the restaurant industry, Taylor stumbled into wave pool ownership almost by accident. A three-day visit to Waco Surf in 2019 — while he was weeks away from retiring to Mexico with his pregnant wife — convinced him he couldn't walk away. What started as a beat-up water park with a rough reputation has become a surf destination drawing everyone from professional surfers to first-timers who've never seen the ocean.

We get into the real costs and regulatory hurdles behind building a surf park, why a Texas zoning loophole called the ETJ made it possible when California couldn't, and how Waco Surf carved out its identity as the "people's pool" in contrast to Kelly Slater's Surf Ranch. Taylor also gets philosophical about whether a perfect wave on demand carries the same meaning as one you earned in the ocean — and what it looks like to build a genuine surf culture somewhere that's never had one.

A laid-back Californian bet everything on Waco, Texas. It paid off.

Nikolai Fraiture / The Strokes Apr 24, 2026

Show notes

Nikolai Fraiture is the bassist and a founding member of The Strokes.

ENCORE EPISODE — To celebrate the landmark performance The Strokes delivered at Coachella 2026, we're revisiting this conversation.

We sit down to talk about what it actually looked like from the inside of one of the most hyped band launches in rock history, and what's happened in the two decades since.

We get into the Grammy win for The New Abnormal and the making of Reality Awaits with Rick Rubin in Costa Rica — and what it took for Rubin to get a band that started in a New York basement back to playing like one.

The Strokes were the first band any of them had ever been in. After 20 years, Nikolai describes a lock-in with his bandmates that he says can't be manufactured: "I wouldn't walk away from something that special that comes along so rarely." And he's candid about early fame in a way that doesn't feel performed: "I don't think I handled it very well."

Reality Awaits is coming. This is where it started.

Andrew McCarthy Apr 09, 2026

Show notes

Andrew McCarthy is the star of Pretty in Pink and St. Elmo's Fire, and a New York Times bestselling author.

We sit down for a candid conversation about friendship, identity, and reinvention.

Over the last decade, McCarthy has carved out a second act as a deeply introspective writer. His latest book, Who Needs Friends, documents a 10,000-mile solo road trip across America, where he spoke with strangers—from cowboys to cops—to explore the often unspoken realities of male friendship.

The conversation dives into why men struggle with vulnerability, how friendships evolve (or fade) over time, and what happens when a life in Hollywood gives way to a quieter, more reflective creative path. McCarthy also opens up about the complicated legacy of the Brat Pack, the loneliness of the open road, and the surprising honesty he found in conversations with strangers.

Our conversation with Andrew is a thoughtful look at connection in modern life—and a reminder that it's never too late to redefine who you are.

Purchase Who Needs Friends by Andrew McCarthy → https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/andrew-mccarthy/who-needs-friends/9781538768945/

De La Soul / Posdnuos Mar 26, 2026

Show notes

Posdnuos, AKA Plug One, is a founding member of De La Soul, one of the most influential groups in hip-hop history.

For years, De La Soul's music was caught in a complicated web of licensing issues and corporate politics, leaving their catalog unavailable on streaming platforms and out of reach for an entire generation of listeners. Now, nearly three decades after their groundbreaking debut Three Feet High and Rising, their full body of work is finally accessible again—sparking a long-overdue rediscovery.

We discuss Cabin in the Sky, the group's first release following the 2023 passing of friend and bandmate Dave Jolicoeur AKA Trugoy the Dove. Pos reflects on the group's commitment to honoring Dave's legacy while continuing forward.

Pos also talks about navigating grief, the decision to carry on as De La Soul, and the defining "Beat Street moment" that reframed loss into purpose. He also reflects on the long fight to reclaim their catalog and the frustration of being absent from the streaming era.

From cassette tapes and crate-digging to algorithms and viral discovery, this episode is a deep look at legacy, artistry, and staying true to the music across decades of change.

KAVES Mar 13, 2026

Show notes

Michael "Kaves" McLeer is a Brooklyn-born graffiti writer, painter, and founder of the rap/punk group Lordz of Brooklyn.

He's also the creator of Brooklyn Pop, an immersive installation celebrating the borough of Brooklyn with hip-hop memorabilia, graffiti, movie collectibles, historical artifacts, and personal items from the neighborhood that shaped him.

In this episode we discuss his path from the proverbial wrong side of the tracks in Bay Ridge to becoming a renowned graffiti writer and musician. We also chat about the neighborhood gangsters growing up, why free Adidas track suits sometimes fell from the sky above the Verrazzano Bridge, and how Brooklyn-based movies and television like The Warriors, Saturday Night Fever and Welcome Back Kotter played a key role in developing self-identity and career goals.

Throughout his career he's designed exclusive visuals for Audemars Piguet, Jaguar, NIKE, Rockstar Games, WWE, MTV, ADIDAS, Van's Warped Tour, and created logos & graphics for world-renowned artists such as the Beastie Boys and Metallica.

Kaves' energy and thirst for creative expression took him to the world of acting and filmmaking. In 2006, Kaves created, produced and directed The Brooklyn Way, a multi-episode docu-series about his family's life. From 2011 to the present day, Kaves has been featured in short and feature films including The Many Saints of Newark, Gravesend, The Humdinger, Star and The Eulogy.

The Brooklyn Pop interactive installation is open to the public at Industry City → https://thebrooklynpop.com/

Arto Saari Feb 26, 2026

Show notes

Arto Saari is a Finnish professional skateboarder and photographer. He is one of only two Europeans to ever win Thrasher Magazine's prestigious Skater of the Year award, and he's one of the most respected and influential skaters of his generation.

Arto built his legacy through groundbreaking video parts and endured numerous brutal injuries along the way. Eventually, he transitioned from professional skating to pursue his passion for photography. His recently released book, Bike Path, intimately captures the vibrant culture and community of Hawaii's North Shore.

In this episode, we dive into the contrasts between skateboarding and surfing culture, we dig into the complex interplay of pain, injury, substance abuse, and addictive personalities in skateboarding, and we discuss the challenging path many pro skaters face as they navigate life beyond their skating careers

Bike Path by Arto Saari:

⁠https://www.artosaari.com/bikepath-book⁠

Naz Kawakami Feb 13, 2026

Show notes

Naz Kawakami is the editor-in-chief of Monster Children, the independent Australian art and media platform.

This episode kicks off a collaboration between The Plug w/ Justin Jay and Monster Children, which has been shaping taste for over two decades. For the next several weeks, Monster Children will be presenting a curated series of encore episodes of The Plug across their website and social channels.

To kick things off, we sit down with Naz to discuss how a scrappy Australian print title built a global audience without losing its point of view. We'll explore the tension between print and digital media, why some stories are too meaningful to be reduced to a digital scroll, and how imperfection can serve as proof that something is real.

Be on the lookout for new episodes here in the weeks ahead, and revisit some of our favorite conversations — including Stacy Peralta, Arto Saari, Tom Sachs, and more — at monsterchildren.com and on Instagram at @monsterchildren and @nazkawakami

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected