A CONVERSATION highlighting the role of comedy as a political, moral and analytic tool in our time: Taboos are everywhere. Plain facts are being denied. Arguable propositions are foisted on us as if they were certainties. Decorum and politeness sometimes blind us or intimidate us or deceive us. The comic makes us laugh, for sure. But, in that act he also creates space for saying the unsayable. He has "plausible deniability." He can be a truth teller, a liberator, a sage... Featuring: Glenn Loury: Professor of Economic and Professor of International and Public Affairs, Brown University. Host of The Glenn Show podcast. He is among America’s leading critics writing on racial inequality. Roland Fryer: Harvard Economist, Macarthur "Genius" Fellow, Time 100 Honoree, McDonalds Employee of the Month specializing in Race and Education. Standup Comedian. Coleman Hughes: Writer, podcaster, rapper, and multi-instrumentalist who specialises in issues related to race, public policy and philosophy. Noam Dworman: Owner of the Comedy Cellar

Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by comedian Mia Jackson and Juanita Dworman to discuss the slap heard around the world.  Mia Jackson is a Georgia native now living in New York.  Her first half hour special is available on Epix and her second half hour special is on Comedy Central. She is a regular at The Comedy Cellar. 

Harrison Greenbaum is a magician and a comedian who began performing stand-up comedy while studying psychology and English at Harvard. He has been featured on numerous television shows, including NBC's America's Got Talent, NBC's Last Comic Standing, TBS's Conan and Comedy Central's This Week at the Comedy Cellar.  He is a regular at the Comedy Cellar. 

David Stone is a Comedy Cellar superfan. He has played in Scrabble tournaments since the mid-1990s and was once rated within the top 50 players in North America. Katie Hannigan is a stand up comic and actor. Her television appearances include The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central, Just For Laughs New Faces and MTV. She is a Comedy Cellar regular. 

Michael Mailer has been working extensively in the independent film world since graduating Harvard University. His first feature film, A Fool And His Money, starred Sandra Bullock and George Plimpton. Since then, Mailer has gone on to produce over 25 features. His father is the American novelist, Norman Mailer.  Nick Griffin has appeared on Conan, The Late Late Show, in his own half-hour Comedy Central special and was featured on The Late Show with David Letterman eleven times. He is a Comedy Cellar regular. 

David Chalmers is University Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science and co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness at NYU.  He is president-elect of the American Philosophical Association.  He is known for his formulation of the "hard problem" of consciousness, which inspired Tom Stoppard's play, The Hard Problem, and the idea of the "extended mind", which says that the tools we use can become parts of our minds. Al Lubel is stand up comic and a regular at The Comedy Cellar. His special, Mentally Al, is available on YouTube.

Alan M. Dershowitz is Brooklyn native who has been called “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer” and one of its “most distinguished defenders of individual rights,” “the best-known criminal lawyer in the world. He was a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School for  fifty years.  He has published more than 1000 articles in magazines, newspapers, journals and is the author of fifty books.

Frida Ghitis is a long-time world affairs columnist. She is a weekly contributor to CNN Opinion and World Politics Review and a contributing columnist for the Washington Post. In addition, she is an on-air analyst for CNN en Espanol, and provides her perspective across multiple television and radio outlets in the US and elsewhere in English and Spanish. Frida started her career at CNN, where she worked for almost 20 years as a unit manager, producer and correspondent. She has worked in more than 60 countries, in all corners of the world.  Frida is the author of The End of Revolution: a Changing World in the Age of Live Television.

Guests: Tanael Joachim (TJ) and Fred Kaplan.  Tanael Joachim is a standup comedian who has made appearances on Gotham Comedy Live on AXS TV and on Good Day New York on FOX. He is based in New York City but was born and raised in Haiti and is a regular at the Comedy Cellar.  Fred Kaplan is is the national-security columnist for Slate and the author of six books, including The Bomb and the Plot to Change the American Way of War, which was a New York Times best-seller and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He was the Boston Globe’s Moscow Bureau Chief and the Globe’s defense correspondent for a decade before that, during which time he was on a team of reporters that won the Pulitzer Prize for a special magazine on the nuclear arms race. 

Coleman Hughes is a writer, podcaster and opinion columnist who specialises in issues related to race, public policy and applied ethics. He is also a jazz/hip-hop artist. 

Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand with Dov Davidoff.  His numerous television appearances include  Hustlers, Crashing, Shades of Blue. He is a regular at The Comedy Cellar.   

Al Lubel is a stand up comedian whose documentary, Mentally Al was chosen by The NY Times as best comedy doc of 2021.  

Zarna Garg is a TikTok comedy sensation with over 75 million views and 370k followers.  She is the winner of Kevin Hart's Lyft Comics comedy competition on Peacock and the winner of the 2021 Ladies of Laughter Newcomer Award.  She also won the Top Comedy Feature Screenplay Award at the 2019 Austin Film Festival.  The project is now in development.  She is a Comedy Cellar regular.  Uriel Epshtein is the Executive Director of the Renew Democracy Initiative dedicated to defending the values of liberal democracy in the US and around the world.   

Dr. Alina Chan is a co-author of the book, VIRAL: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, and a researcher with a background in medical genetics, synthetic biology, and vector engineering. At the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard, Dr. Chan is currently creating next generation vectors for human gene therapy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Chan began to investigate problems relevant to finding the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and in parallel spearheaded the development of the COVID-19 CoV Genetics (covidcg.org) browser for scientists worldwide to rapidly track virus lineages and mutations by locations and date ranges of interest.

Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand sit down with Nick Griffin and Ryan Reiss.  Nick Griffin has appeared on Conan, The Late Late Show, in his own half-hour Comedy Central special and was featured on The Late Show with David Letterman eleven times.  Ryan Reiss can be seen daily opening for Seth Meyers.  They are both Comedy Cellar regulars. 

Alan Dershowitz and Lara Bazelon discuss Ahmaud Arbery, Kyle Rittenhouse and Larry David. Lara Bazelon is an author and Professor of Law. She is also the Director of the Criminal & Juvenile Justice and Racial Justice Clinics at University of San Francisco School of Law. Alan Dershowitz is a prolific author and was a professor at Harvard School of Law for fifty years. 

Franqi French is one of 2020 Variety’s 10 Comics To Watch, reigning champion of Stand Up NBC and a regular at the Comedy Cellar. She can be seen on season 10 of Curb Your Enthusiasm. 

Ray Ellin is a comic and the Executive Producer of This Week at the Comedy Cellar on Comedy Central. He is the founder of www.comedycloud.co

Paul Bloom is Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, and Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University. He has won numerous awards for his research and teaching.  He has written for scientific journals and for popular outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly. He is the author of six books, including his most recent, The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning Ray Ellin is an Executive Producer on This Week at the Comedy Cellar on Comedy Central and a regular at The Comedy Cellar. 

Bo Winegard has a PhD in social psychology from Florida State University. He is an essayist who is interested in evolutionary psychology, philosophy, and literature. Marcus Monroe is the recipient of the prestigious Andy Kaufman Award, regularly performs all over the country, has made numerous television appearances and is a regular at The Comedy Cellar. 

Ismael Loutfi is a stand up comedian in NYC who’s performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Bill Burr Presents, and has a Comedy Central Half Hour special coming out soon. He has written for Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj and is a Comedy Cellar regular. 

TJ is a standup comedian born and raised in Haiti, currently based in New York City. He started performing standup in 2012 and quickly became a rising star in the NY scene due to his caustic wit, fearless approach, and conversational delivery. He's a regular in all New York comedy venues, including the world famous Comedy Cellar. His debut special January 3rd is available on Amazon Prime.

Katherine Dee is an internet historian and writer based in the Midwest. You might also know her as Default Friend on Twitter. Jordan Jensen is from upstate NY where she started started doing stand up then after a brief love affair with Nashville, she moved to Brooklyn where she was selected to be a new face of Just for Laughs Comedy Festival. She is a Comedy Cellar regular and opens for Louis CK. 

David Zweig is a contributor to the Atlantic, New York magazine, Wired, and the New York Times, among other outlets. He is the author of the nonfiction book Invisibles, and is working on a forthcoming book about American schools during the pandemic, called An Abundance of Caution. Dov Davidoff is a comic, an actor and a Comedy Cellar regular. 

Al began getting work at comedy clubs and within a year won the $100,000 Comedy Grand Prize on television’s Star Search. Doing the Tonight Show was a childhood fantasy so he auditioned and luckily became one of the last comics to appear with Johnny Carson. He then went on to make a bunch of appearances on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Late Show with David Letterman. He is the subject of a new subject of the documentary, Mentally Al. Jon Fisch is a Comedy Cellar regular and has a new album called HINGED. 

Michael Moynihan is a correspondent for Vice news and co-host of the Fifth Column Podcast. Alingon Mitra is Comedy Cellar regular who has performed on Conan, Colbert, and Comedy Central. He has also been a writer for Adam Ruins Everything and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

Linette Palladino is a Major in the United States Army and stand-up comic, who deployed three times in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and Inherent Resolve. As a stand-up comic, she recently competed as one of five nation-wide finalists in HBO Latino's stand-up competition. She has performed as far and wide as Iraq and Hong Kong. Jon Fisch is a Comedy Cellar regular. His newest album is called HINGED. 

Jordan Jensen is from upstate NY, where she started started doing stand up. After a brief love affair with Nashville, she moved to Brooklyn where she was selected to be a new face of JFL. She is Comedy Cellar regular and opens for Louis CK.

Sheba Mason is a NYC based comedian whose album was recently released called “Not Just a Whore.”  Danny Cohen is a Comedy Cellar regular.

Pete Lee is a comic. His new special, Tall Dark and Pleasant is available on Showtime Anytime. Ilya Shapiro is the Director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and author of Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America's Highest Court.   

Dr. Constantino Mendieta, who basically pioneered the Brazilian butt lift and comic and Trump impersonator, Bob Dibuono.

Isabel Hagen is a stand up comedian who’s been featured on the Tonight Show and the Just For Laughs festival, and a classical violist who went to Juilliard.

Kyle Smith is critic at large for National Review and for 12 years was a film critic and columnist for The New York Post.

David M. Buss is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Buss previously taught at Harvard University and the University of Michigan. He is considered the world’s leading scientific expert on strategies of human mating and one of the founders of the field of evolutionary psychology.  His new book: When Men Behave Badly: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment, and Assault (2021) uncovers the evolutionary roots of conflict between the sexes. Buss has more than 300 scientific publications. In 2019, he was cited as one of the 50 most influential living psychologists in the world.

Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand with Guest Zoe Strimpel, a columnist, historian of gender and intimacy in modern Britain, and author. 

The whole gang is back in the studio!  Nick Griffin is a Cellar regular, has made multiple appearances on Letterman and hosts a podcast called Scary Monsters.  Rob Feld is a journalist and filmmaker. He is currently working with Duke University professor Chris Bail on a documentary series that debunks the myths around how social media impacts political polarization and the free exchange of ideas.

Eve Barlow

Patrick Sharkey is professor of sociology and public affairs at the PRinceton School of Public and International Affairs. He was formerly chair of sociology at NYU, where he taught for 10 years before joining Princeton. He is founder of americanviolence.org, former scientific director of crime lab new york, and author of the book Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence

Mehran Khaghani and Lara Bazelon

Jeannie Suk Gersen is a law professor at Harvard Law School and a contributing writer to The New Yorker. Myq Kaplan is a comic, his most recent album AKA is available now. 

Raanan Hershberg is a comedian who has performed on The Late, Late Show with James Corden and Comedy Central.   Misty Marris is a trial attorney based in New York City specializing in the defense of clients in entertainment, sports, employment, civil rights and sexual assault/abuse cases. Misty appears as an independent legal analyst on a variety of news networks including Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, HLN and NBC covering of the moment cases and legal  issues.  

Wesley Yang is a widely published essayist and narrative nonfiction writer who has written for Harper's, New York Magazine, and the New York Times Magazine and the author of the 2018 collection the Souls of Yellow Folk published by W.W. Norton and named as one of the year's best books by the New York Times and Washington Post. He is at work on a book about what he has termed the Successor Ideology and about to launch a Substack that will explore the ongoing bourgeois moral revolution that goes by that name.  Comic Brittany Carney recently made her aired standup debut on Comedy Central Stand-up Featuring. 

  Lara Bazelon is a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law where she holds the Barnett Chair in Trial Advocacy and directs the Criminal & Juvenile Justice and Racial Justice Clinics.  Her first novel, a courtroom thriller titled A GOOD MOTHER, will be published next month.   Seaton Smith is a comedian and actor. His special, The Lockdown Special can be seen on EPIX.

Mayoral candidate, Andrew Yang, joins us!  Andrew Yang is a NYC public school parent, business owner, and activist. He is running for mayor to help the city recover, after having successfully running a top education company, a non-profit recognized by President Obama, and building an anti-poverty movement during his presidential campaign.

Glenn Miller is a one time manager the Dworman Conglomerate including: Cafe Wha, The Olive Tree Cafe and The Comedy & VU and FBP.  Saranne Rothberg started The ComedyCures Foundation from her chemo chair in 1999.   

Andrew Hankinson is a journalist and author. His second book, Don't Applaud. Either Laugh or Don't. (At the Comedy Cellar) is a portrait of the iconic New York comedy club.   Jon Laster is a stand up comedian, actor, writer, producer and regular at The Comedy Cellar.

Von Decarlo is a stand up comedian & Executive Producer of The Patrice O’Neal Documentary Killing Is Easy.  Marina Franklin is a comedian, actor, writer, and host. 

Jamie Kirchick is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a columnist for Tablet magazine. His first book, The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues and the Coming Dark Age, was published in 2017, and his next book, Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington is forthcoming from Henry Holt.  Erin Jackson has appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers and CONAN and just made her Netflix debut as part of Season 2 of Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready.