All Episodes

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...

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....

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, t...

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 — wh...

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 ...

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 convers...

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 re...

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 mus...

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...

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 buil...

Jay Glennie is the author of The Making of Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie, the film has cemented itself as one of Tarantino's most personal and meticulously constructed works—every prop, location, costume, and needle drop carefully chosen to reconstruct a disappearing version of Los Angeles. Glennie was granted rare access to document how that world came together. Drawing from more than sixty interviews with Quentin ...

In this encore episode, we revisit our conversation with Luxxury—music producer and co-host of the hit podcast One Song. Each week on their podcast One Song, Luxxury and his co-host Diallo Riddle take a deep dive into a single classic song, and explore the inspirations and specific production techniques that make the track unique. By playing rare, isolated vocal and instrumental stems, they give listeners the chance to rediscover familiar songs, revealing details and textures often hidden in th...

MGMT are the musical duo of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, known for creating irresistibly catchy, genre-blurring music. In this Encore Episode, we dive into how they continually push the boundaries of pop and indie music while still maintaining their unmistakable sound. We also discuss the politics of performing at Madison Square Garden, their unexpected rise to TikTok fame, and how their views on drugs have evolved since their debut album. Since their time as art students in the ear...

Andy Nicholson is the bassist and founding member of Arctic Monkeys. This episode he sits down for one of his most open and personal interviews yet. With the 20-year anniversary of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not approaching, Andy reflects on the band's explosive early years and the moments that shaped modern indie rock. Andy shares the story behind his brand-new photography book, I Bet This Looks Good on Your Coffee Table, featuring rare and intimate behind-the-scenes photos from...

Kevin Macdonald is the Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind One Day in September and the new documentary One to One: John & Yoko. We sit down to discuss One to One, a film that redefines how we understand John Lennon and Yoko Ono in early 1970s New York. Using archival footage—from TV shows, protests, commercials, news footage, and intimate home recordings—Macdonald creates a fully immersive, 360-degree view of their lives, activism, and art. From John Lennon's one and only post-Beatles con...

Paul Mittleman worked as VP of Design and Creative Director at Stussy. In this episode, he shares stories from decades shaping the DNA of modern street culture. From working directly with Shawn Stussy to influencing brands like Supreme, Adidas, and Converse, Paul reflects on authenticity, creativity, and the evolution of streetwear. He explains why early Stussy and Supreme succeeded where others failed, and why the term "streetwear" misses the point entirely. Paul also dives into collab cultur...

Zosia Mamet is an author and actress known for her breakout role as Shoshanna on HBO's Girls. In this episode, she joins us to discuss her raw, funny, and deeply personal new book, Does This Make Me Funny? In this candid conversation, Zosia opens up about anxiety, self-worth, family legacy, and the constant challenge of defining herself outside of fame. She shares the emotional rollercoaster of turning her private journal entries into a published book — what it feels like to expose your inner wo...

Larry Charles is the writer and director behind Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Borat. Larry shares raw, unfiltered stories about Hollywood, comedy, and the creative process. From working alongside Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld to directing groundbreaking films like Borat, Bruno, and The Dictator with Sacha Baron Cohen, Larry reflects on risk-taking, failure, and why comedy still matters in a divided world. If you're curious about the behind-the-scenes of classic TV, the challenges of mak...

Mark Ronson is one of the most influential music producers of the past two decades. Starting out as one of New York's most in-demand DJs in the 1990s, he went on to produce for Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga, Adele, Dua Lipa, Jay-Z, Paul McCartney, and more. He also co-wrote Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk"—one of the defining hits of the 21st century, and most recently curated The Barbie soundtrack. In his new book Night People, Ronson reflects on the unpredictable rhythm of his career—from early acclaim a...

MC Serch made his mark as one-half of the legendary rap duo 3rd Bass. With classics like The Gas Face, Brooklyn Queens, and Pop Goes the Weasel, the group left an unmistakable stamp on hip-hop. In '94, Serch went on to executive produce Nas's groundbreaking debut, Illmatic, cementing his place in rap history. But that's only part of the story. In this encore episode, Serch takes us inside his wild early days — from battle rapping in Far Rockaway, to a life-threatening clash with MC Hammer in LA,...

Lisa Andersen is a Surfing Hall of Fame inductee and a 4 time consecutive world champion. As a teenager, she left behind a troubled home life in Florida to pursue her dreams of becoming a professional surfer. By 25, she was ranked the best female surfer on the planet. With her aggressive yet elegant style, she helped transform the entire perception of female competitive surfing. This episode we sit down to discuss the emotional challenges of being the subject of a documentary film about your lif...

Leo Fitzpatrick is a New York-based actor best known for his breakout role in the groundbreaking 1995 film KIDS. To mark the 30th anniversary of this controversial classic, we're bringing back our conversation for an encore release. Leo's debut in KIDS—a raw, unfiltered look at the downtown NYC skate scene—was as jarring as it was unforgettable. With its explicit portrayal of sex, drugs, and youth culture, the film felt disturbingly real, and the aftermath for Leo was intense. In the years sinc...

Ione Skye is an actress best known for her standout performances in the classic films Say Anything, River's Edge, Gas Food Lodging, and many others. But behind her breakout success was a far more complicated coming-of-age story — shaped by a turbulent teenage relationship with an older man battling addiction, estrangement from her famous musician father, and periods of self-destructive behavior. In her new memoir Say Everything, she pulls back the curtain — recounting everything from her on-sc...

Alex Corporan is the director of the new documentary Empire Skate, which chronicles the rise of Supreme and the evolution of downtown New York skate culture. It was a movement that reshaped streetwear, art, and youth identity around the world. Alex wasn't just there to witness it — he helped build it. To celebrate the release of the film on ESPN, we're bringing back this special encore episode, originally recorded before the documentary's debut. From 1996 to 2004, Alex was the store manager of...