The Merlin Show

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Merlin talks with The Sound of Young America’s Jesse Thorn about his roots in radio at UC-Santa Cruz and how having to borrow his Mom’s car led to him putting his radio shows on the web. We also learn some surprising things that Jesse has in common with basketball superstar, Manute Bol.

Note: This is the first segment in our six-part interview with Jesse Thorn. Stop back soon for more.

Jesse Thorn (a/k/a, “America’s Radio Sweetheart”), is a nationally syndicated public radio host, raconteur, and podcaster who’s best known for The Sound of Young America and several other podcasts under the aegis of his “Maximum Fun” site:

• The Sound of Young America
  Episode Archive, Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  Jesse’s terrific interviews with comedians, writers, actors, and other people he finds awesome.
• Coyle & Sharpe: The Impostors
  Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  More info at their site. Vintage street terrorism from the skinny-tie 60s. Classic bits from the original and quintessential “man on the street” comedy put-on team.
• Jordan, Jesse, GO!
  Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  Jesse and his pal, Jordan Morris (Boy Detective), do free-form. And it’s really funny. Seriously.
• Kasper Hauser Comedy Podcast
  Episode Archive, Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  Sketch comedy from San Francisco’s hilarious “Kasper Hauser” comedy group, perhaps best known for their “Sky Maul” catalog parody.
• The College Years
  Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  Santa Cruz-era episodes of The Sound of Young America, decanted for your present-day enjoyment.

• Also mentioned in this episode: Bob Odenkirk (TSOYA episode), The Human Giant (TSOYA episode), Manute Bol, Ira Glass, Terry Gross
• Jesse has dibs on the term “The New Sincerity” - “A perfect example of the New Sincerity is Evel Knievel. There’s no way to take Evel Knievel literally. It’s impossible.”
• Merlin’s personal picks for a few Sound of Young America episodes to get started with:
  • October 13th, 2006 — Best Friends - “Guests John Hodgman and Jonathan Coulton. Our guests were college classmates, and remain close friends today. Hodgman is an author and is regularly seen on The Daily Show. Coulton is a comic singer-songwriter.”
  • April 10th, 2007 — Jack McBrayer - “We talk with Jack McBrayer, who plays Kenneth, the lovable NBC Page, in the NBC sitcom ‘30 Rock.’”
  • August 26th, 2006 — The Impostors - “Guest Mal Sharpe. Mal Sharpe was half of Coyle & Sharpe, a ground-breaking team of put-on artists who terrorized 1960s San Francisco.”
• Merlin Show/Jesse Thorn trivia: Jesse and TSOYA are mentioned in the first sentence of Merlin’s first interview with Jonathan Coulton.
• Super-nerdy Merlin Show trivia: This is the first set of interviews shot with our new HV-20s (amazon). That film look comes from the tasty new 24p functionality. Hope you all like the new fanciness.