Tell Me About Your Father
by Erin Hosier, Elizabeth Thompson & Matthew Phillp
Everyone on the gender spectrum has to deal with men and that's enough of a reason to study their impact on our lives. Join hosts Erin Hosier, Elizabeth Thompson and Matthew Phillp for this bi-weekly podcast discussing dads, father figures and the paternal mystique. Episodes include interviews with people who have compelling father stories, recaps of father-centered TV and movies, and our talk show ‘Daddy Issues,’ featuring a cavalcade of brilliant guests who help us parse pop culture news through a dadly lense. If it's about dads, we'll be talking about it. It’s your mom’s favorite podcast! tellmeaboutyourfather.substack.com
Episodes
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The Monk in the Family
“I said, ‘Mom, I want this guy to be my dad.’” We’ve had many authors on the show who have written books about their fathers, but Josie Adams co-wrote a book with her dad, Tony Shalhoub (your favorite actor from Monk, Wings, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Big Night), embodying his voice as she...
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Nadia Bowers: Dear Dad
“ When I said I was gonna move out to San Francisco, he said, "Why are you doing this to me?" Our guest today is Nadia Bowers, whose new memoir Dear Dealer is about the loss of her older sister Sasha at age 44 in 2015 due to an accidental fentanyl overdose. The book includes a series of letters…
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Dads: You've Come a Long Way, Baby
“When your child is having an extreme outburst of emotions, for whatever reason it might be, repeat to yourself, ‘He's not giving me a hard time. He's having a hard time.’" The dad-themed books of my childhood were always found on the back of the toilet, or nearby. Filled with jokes about golf,...
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Pride Cocktail Hour with Richard Lawson
In our annual Pride episode, Matthew is joined by film and culture critic Richard Lawson for a living room conversation over cocktails. Starting with Richard's fresh-out-of-the-theater reaction to He-Man: Masters of the Universe and Matthew's just-finished viewing of Richard Gadd's HBO series…
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The Pitt & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
A couple weeks after The Pitt’s second season ended, we’re still thinking about Kathryn VanArendonk’s essay “Robby Has Never Been Your Daddy.” Kathryn joins Erin and Elizabeth to discuss Noah Wyle’s vision of Robby, the show’s shifting ideas about masculinity and caregiving, and why people seem…
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Benoit Denizet-Lewis on change and becoming his father.
“ Am I just becoming my father and there’s really nothing I can do about that?” What does it actually feel like to change? Not the story you tell about it afterward. Not the version you post. The actual, messy, doubt-filled experience of becoming someone different — or realizing you already have....
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What Dad Read
By the time Dan Pelzer died last year at the age of 92, he'd accomplished many admirable things. Over the decades, he'd worked as a Marine, a Peace Corp volunteer in Nepal, a seminary student, a passionate campaigner for Jesse Jackson's presidential run in the 80s, a security guard, and as a...
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Talking Oscars, Best Pictures, and Fathers with Richard Lawson
It’s that time of year again. Every year, we put the 10 Best Picture nominees under the same deceptively simple microscope: How are fathers portrayed? Joining this conversation, as always, is: member of the New York Film Critics Circle, author of the Premier Party newsletter, host of the Critical...
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Natalka Burian and the Fear of Forty-Four
At 15, Natalka Burian’s last words to her father were “I hate you.” That afternoon, he died at 44. Now a parent the same age he was, Natalka joins Erin and Elizabeth to talk about regrets, the fear of repeating a parent’s fate, and how to make peace with what you cannot know. Get full access to...
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The 2025 Daddy Awards!
2025 began with Elon Musk's 4-year-old son X telling Donald Trump to shut his mouth, and it ends with us - the father of all award shows. We're rounding up the men who surprised and delighted us this year, and the one who repelled, in pop culture, politics and beyond. Love you and thanks for...
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A Season in Hell With Christian Nightmares
Christian Nightmares, our favorite chronicler of evangelical Christianity’s tightening grip on American politics in 2025, returns to Tell Me About Your Father for a look back at a truly frightening year in Christian Nationalism that aims to ensure that America is truly one nation under God Trump....
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The Sad Ballad of Tim and Jeff Buckley
Jeff Buckley spent his life trying to escape the shadow of his estranged father, folk musician Tim Buckley. Yet after both died young, Tim of an overdose in 1975, Jeff in a tragic river accident in 1997, their stories became inseparable. Rolling Stone editor David Browne, author of Dream Brother...
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Finding Her Father in the Margins of His Books
It’s not quite accurate to say that Hester Kaplan’s father Justin Kaplan was a man of few words because Justin Kaplan was a man of many. His first book, a biography of Mark Twain published in 1966, won both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award, a debut that ensured Kaplan would enjoy a long…
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Task Finale Recap: A Still, Small Voice
In the Task finale, "A Still, Small Voice," TMAYF gets into three Fs that have always been at the core of the series: faith, forgiveness, and fatherhood. (Also, feathers, but this is our least bird-centric recap to date.) We also discuss Mark Ruffalo’s Phillies-cup redemption arc, say goodbye to...
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Task Recap: Episode 6: "Out Beyond Ideas of Wrongdoing and Rightdoing, There is a River."
The one thing we don’t discuss in this, our penultimate, recap of HBO’s Task is that the title of episode 6 is a play on a line from a poem by the 13th century Persian poet Jelaluddin Rumi (sorry if you already knew that!). We just thought its meaning was self evident because there IS a river in...
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Julian Brave NoiseCat on Fathers and the Stories We Inherit
Writer and filmmaker Julian Brave NoiseCat joins Elizabeth to talk about We Survived the Night, his new book about his father, Indigenous North Americans, survival, and storytelling. Listen as he reflects on his dad—found as a newborn in an incinerator at a Catholic-run residential school—and how...
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Task Recap: Ep 5: "Vagrant"
“Vagrant,” the fifth episode of HBO’s Task, which we are recapping for TMAYF nation, is overflowing with more moles than a dermatologist’s office. And don’t get us started on the animal references in general in this episode alone: at least four different kinds of birds, a baby giraffe, the dead...
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Task Recap: Ep 4: All Roads
In this recap of episode 4 of HBO’s Task, we wonder aloud for 58 (tight) minutes about why this show isn’t actually called I’m Going to Tell You About Some Fathers, unpack Lizzie's chunky highlights, anoint Maeve, once again, as the only functioning adult in the room, and do impressions of birds...
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Task Recap: Ep. 3 "Nobody’s Stronger Than Forgiveness"
This week on Operation Recap HBO’s Task, we ask why Task isn’t called Dads of Delco or Maeve of Easttown, or even, For Fifty-Year-Old Men, By Fifty Year Old Men, and actually deliver an answer that we heard on another podcast. BUT, don’t worry - you are getting fresh insights here, when we break...
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Task Recap: Ep. 2 "Family Statements"
Pull up a seat with an alarmingly overstuffed hoagie, because it's time for this week's episode 2 recap of HBO’s Task! From FBI war rooms to chicken coops (both are essentially shacks), Task keeps building its character-driven “Sons of Anarchy reject script” storytelling around the big question:...
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'Task' Recap: Mark Ruffalo’s Sad Dad Detective Agency
Welcome to our first weekly recap of HBO’s latest Sunday night prestige crime saga, Task. This Delco-set Tale of Two Sad Dads from Mare of Easttown writer-director Brad Inglesby stars Mark Ruffalo as a grieving ex-priest–turned-alcoholic FBI agent with a philosophy degree, and Tom Pelphrey as a...
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Caroline Calloway & Elizabeth Wurtzel's Guide to Unknowable Fathers
Literary It girl Caroline Calloway joins Erin Hosier and Elizabeth Thompson to talk about her father's tragic suicide amidst her viral public shaming in 2019, her obsession with the late Prozac Nation memoirist and Gen X agent of chaos Elizabeth Wurtzel (who Erin knew well as EW's first assistant...
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Aatish Taseer on exile, assassination, and supernatural revelation
Author Aatish Taseer, whose new book A Return To Self: Excursions in Exile comes out this week, did not meet his father, Salman Taseer, the former Governor of Punjab, Pakistan until he was 21 and their relationship was, to say the least, complicated. In 2009, he wrote a book about the experience,...
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Pride 2025: A George Michael episode
It's Gay Pride (in America)! To commemorate iconic homosexual musician George Michael in the week of what would have been his 62nd birthday, and for our fifth annual Pride episode in the last week of Pride MONTH, Matt takes a look at the enduring cultural impact of George Michael's song Father...
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The Father's Day Clip Show
On today’s bonus episode of TMAYF, we look back at 6 episodes over the last 5 years that we just can’t stop thinking about. Featuring political podcaster Ravi Gupta, psychic medium Victoria Laurie, fine artist Chris Santa Maria's on his Uncle Bunky, Superstar Molly Shannon, author Gretchen...
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Elon Musk, Part 3: The Daughter Who Got Away
In Part 3, we take a closer look at Elon's descent into Dark MAGA, his unshakeable bond with his father Errol (who now hosts a YouTube channel called Dad of a Genius), and the hopeful rebellion of Musk’s daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson. Sometimes, being your own dad is the only way out. Get full...
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Elon Musk, Part 2: Legion
In Part 2, we strap ourselves into the roller coaster of Musk’s chaotic romantic relationships, his obsession with fathering a “legion” of children, and the dumb pro-natalist ideology behind it. From pay-for-silence pacts with exes to a compound in Austin for all the sister wives, this episode is...
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Elon Musk Part 1: The Father of the Problem
In part one of our two-part series on Elon Musk, based mostly on Walter Isaacson's 2023 biography, we look past the desperate memes and fuckwit chainsaws to see the bruised man underneath the $400 billion net worth. From apartheid South Africa and a violent father to ketamine-fueled Oval Office...
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Ione Skye on Rejection, Self-protection and Reconciling with Donovan
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…
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On the Care and Feeding of Anthony Bourdain with Laurie Woolever
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...
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Our 2025 Oscars Episode With Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson
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…
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Psychic Phoebe Hoffman on Couples Therapy with Her Father
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...
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The 2024 Daddy Awards!
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...
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Oh Captain, My Captain: Eulogy for a Father Figure With Erin Hosier
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,...
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Peyton Dix on Learning to Speak 'Problematic Father'
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...
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Daddy Issues and the 2024 Election: TMAYF’s First-Ever Presidential Deep Dive
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…
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My TV Dad: A Very Special Episode, Starring Indira Samuels
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,...
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Erin Gibson on helping her dad through his final act.
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...
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Komail Aijazuddin on "Manboobs," lineage, and its many forms.
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...
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Tricia Romano on the Radical Legacy and Father Figures of the Village Voice
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…
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Luke Perry and How a Generation Grew Up, with Margaret Wappler
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...
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Christian drag queen Flamy Grant talks deconstruction, democracy, and dad.
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...
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The Evangelicals with Tim Alberta
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.…
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Ravi Gupta on connecting with his MAGA dad.
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…
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Alex Steed on his dad's resting bitch presence.
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...
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My Father, the Shag Monster: A Conversation with Miki Berenyi of Lush
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...
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TMAYF: 2024 Oscars Edition, With Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson
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…
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The 2023 Daddy Awards!
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...
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Marcie Bianco on Breaking Free of Fathers
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…
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F-U Daddy, One More Time: A Deep-Dive into Britney Spears' "The Woman In Me"
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...
About this show
Everyone on the gender spectrum has to deal with men and that's enough of a reason to study their impact on our lives. Join hosts Erin Hosier, Elizabeth Thompson and Matthew Phillp for this bi-weekly podcast discussing dads, father figures and the paternal mystique. Episodes include interviews with people who have compelling father stories, recaps of father-centered TV and movies, and our talk show ‘Daddy Issues,’ featuring a cavalcade of brilliant guests who help us parse pop culture news through a dadly lense. If it's about dads, we'll be talking about it. It’s your mom’s favorite podcast!
tellmeaboutyourfather.substack.com
Hosted by
Erin Hosier, Elizabeth Thompson & Matthew Phillp