We Don't Even Know

Shonali Bhowmik and Christian Felix co-host a chat, music, variety talk show with guests comedian and oversharer Calvin Cato; humorist, cartoonist, artisanal pencil sharpener and tv host David Rees along with music by Tigers and Monkeys. Christian Felix is back in his co-hosting seat after a trip to Singapore where they know how to deal with the heat.  Calvin Cato, a self professed oversharer, explains how as a premed major, he made his way into the world of comedy.  Calvin wrote an open letter to his white male friends and WDEK endorses his sentiment.  Get It Off Your Chest with audience member Martina Potratz.  If you ever wondered, strangers really do yell things out at pregnant women in the streets.   David Rees is a master of many trades including a fact checker, an artisanal pencil sharpener, the creator of the cartoon Get Your War On, the host of a tv show called Going Deep (find it online) but one of his most important works was his Financial Transparency - Journey Into Hell presentation. Both David

  We Don't Even Know Ep. 62 live at Red Room hosted by Shonali Bhowmik and guest co-host comedian Greg Johnson with special guests comedian Maeve Higgins, comedian Hari Kondabolu and musician Camille Harris. Get It Off Your Chest with our audience member Maggy Adeleye.   Special guest co-host comedian Greg Johnson joins Shonali to host Ep. 62 of WDEK Live at Red Room while Christian Felix is away on the hottest night of the year so far.  Greg, Shonali and Christian met while working on a huge case at a Manhattan law firm which is why the word "chron" makes them giddy.   Greg was our Ep. 17 guest 5 years ago on 9/10/13. Greg Johnson's #1 is the first stand-up comedy album to be released by Little Lamb Recordings, Shonali's label.  Our first guest is comedian, author and actress Maeve Higgins.  Maeve first impressed Shonali with her sparkly sandals but Maeve's undeniable wit and intelligence are what sealed the deal in their friendship.  We discuss Maeve's new book Maeve In America along with worldly topics l

Guest co-host Jordan Clifford joins Shonali for Episode 61 while Christian Felix is in Singapore doing who knows what. Jordan helps Shonali analyze her disgusting dream.  Our first guest is actress, dancer, comedian Sunita Mani. Shonali and Sunita are family friends. Jordan and Sunita were in the same crew together in college at Emerson College.  Jordan tried to make Sunita cry once.  We discuss Sunita's success as an actress (Mr. Robot, GLOW) and if it has gone to her head. Look for Sunita in No Activity.  Out of nowhere, a podcast protestor interrupts our show!  Our second guest is comedian, writer & producer Myka Fox.  Myka just celebrated her birthday and Shonali forces Myka to tell a depressing story about a specific past birthday. Find out whether Myka ever had an ex-boyfriend help her move?  Myka has the best Twitter account & you must follow her.  Check out Myka's Friday night weekly show at the Cobra Club called Live From Outer Space.  Sidenote: Have you seen the PBS documentary on Maya Ange

We celebrate our 60th episode of We Don't Even Know with special guests comedian and family documentary photographer Ahna Tessler; comedian, writer, actor and director Jon Glaser; and improv musician and comedian Rebecca Vigil.  Shonali & Christian applaud the  awesome audience in attendance at WDEK Live for getting out of the fetal position and making it to the show while the news cycle continues to kick all of our asses.  Our first guest of the night is comedian, actress and photographer Ahna Tessler.  She is also a mother and we all agree doesn't get enough attention these days.  We told her she could swear as much as she wanted during the taping.  Ahna's longtime comedy partner Lauren Engle was in attendance at the show.  They are legends. Ahna has made so many fantastic videos which she calls 'dumb' but we call hysterical.  There was a little controversy surrounding Ahna's breastfeeding video.  Check out Ahna's beautiful family photography. She is humble and doesn't brag about it bc she is a woman. 

Welcome to our 59th Episode of WDEK Podcast. Justin the intern starts the live show on a Tuesday night at the Red Room in NYC! Christian just returned from father's retirement party in Chicago. Shonali just returned from Nashville where she kept up with the news about a racist crazy tv star and her tweets. What's it like to have your creative work rejected in person to your face over and over?  We ask our first guest that question. She is cartoonist, illustrator, writer and performer Emily Flake.  She has "cobbled" together a living as a cartoonist for a long time now. She's come a long way from being an ad sales person for alt weekly New York Blade to becoming a successful cartoonist who has had hundreds of her works featured in the New Yorker.  She's written a book about parenting called Mama Tried. She's a parent who refreshingly doesn't think being a parent is the MOST awesome thing in the world. How cool is that? Look out for her upcoming YA (Young Adult) book she's working on now, a fictional fanzine f

Episode 58 was taped on April 3, 2018 - the 50th Anniversary of MLK's" I've Been to the Mountaintop" final speech.  Shonali & Christian have been traveling.  When was the last time you stayed in a hostel.  Our first guest is actor, writer & director Sanjit De Silva who recently closed out a run at New York Theater Workshop starring in the play An Ordinary Muslim written by Hammaad Chaudry.  After working for 15 years as an actor, the play was his first time to be in a majority brown people cast. We talk breaking our parents hearts and the glamorous life of a working actor. Pat Alvarado joins us for our Get It Off Your Chest segment or does he? Our second guest is comedian & writer Alison Leiby.  Alison wrote for Comedy Central's The President Show and currently writes for Jordan Klepper's The Opposition. Find out what Alison thinks about Christian's solar system shirt.  She shares her recent dealings with Twitter trolls and how a near death experience led her to comedy. Alison has great advice fo

  While we've been mourning the close of our former WDEK podcast home, the HiFi Bar we are excited to host our first show of 2018 at Caveat, a new speakeasy space in LES which showcases "intelligent nightlife." Yeah, we know what you are thinking.  Let us be delusional for a little while, will you? Christian and Shonali discuss good (not so good depending on who you are talking to) times had at the MLK tribute at BAM, the NYC Women's march and Barry's Bootcamp. Below is the pic we shared of Christian from the Women's March during the show.  Our first guest is New York Times reporter Melena Ryzik.  Melena is a bad ass NYC bicylist.  Find out why she had to get fingerless gloves.  Melena is a journalist at the forefront of covering the MeToo movement and sexual harassment in the entertainment world (Louis CK, Russell Simmons.)  We get into it.  Christian says he wants to listen .... let's see how long.  Our second guest is a Russian Hacker* Eugeny Smith who happened to be in our audience during the show just a

Episode 56 is a momentous occasion, with the news that HiFi will close at the end of October 2017, this is the last time we will tape our show in our beloved home space.  Currently we are looking for another home and expect to return to a new space live in front of an audience in January of 2018. Christian & Shonali open the show with quality conversation about bunions, butts and adult day care. Our first guest is lawyer, environmental activist and national carryout bag expert Jennie Reilly Romer.  After helping San Francisco and Los Angeles enact laws on plastic bag policy, Jennie moved to New York with the mission of doing the same thing here.  She came really close!  Jennie explains why these thin plastic bags are so problematic, what we can do to help (plasticbaglaws.org); who is lobbying against the policy and how Christian did the wrong thing by putting the plastic bags in the recycling bin.  We salute Jennie on her work and look forward to her to running for New York City Council! Go Jennie.   With

Welcome back Christian! The news today bummed us out to no end so we had to talk about it.  Christian went to Haiti and all he brought back was the Missing Key Story.  Our first guest is comedian, writer and Employee of the Month talk show host Catie Lazarus.  Catie is an expert on germs in the gym. Christian is one on airplane germs.  Catie grew up in DC with a Public Policy White House advisor father and a peace activist brother. Find out how a doctoral student becomes the "funniest resident of NYC."  Shonali and leftovers don't go well together. Comedian George Gordon is from Virginia. He currently supports his comedy by bartending. What makes a great bar patron? Comedian Doug Stanhope changed George's life. He's good at doing a "tight five." #GetItOffYourChest is back with audience member and former WDEK guest Alan Yaspan! Our last guest is musician Lori Scacco.  Lori and Shonali are old friends who both started their music careers in Atlanta, Georgia. Lori currently has many musical ongoing projects inc

Shonali's special guest co-host is comedian Danny Cohen, her favorite FB live video maker! Guests include scientist Kelly Reidy, filmmaker Heather Fink and musician Miyuki Furtado.  "The Summer of Shonali and Danny" thus far has included a trip to a cemetery in the Berkshires and eating lots of snacks. Danny was banned from Facebook.  WDEK's first guest is scientist & indie songstress Kelly Reidy.  Say "theoretical condensed matter" three times real fast. Kelly is a Museum Hack tour guide and recently gave Rob Lowe and his family a Natural History Museum tour.  We talk ghost sex (it's a thing) and ghost attire.  Follow Kelly @drunkascheese on Twitter and Instagram. Danny and Shonali discuss DuckFace and why it still exists? Our second guest is filmmaker, actress, director, comedian Heather Fink.  Heather took a leap of faith and changed her career path from stand-up to filmmaking. We talk believing in yourself, rejection, getting dumped and her first feature length film Inside You which will be screened

We return from our two month break after our WDEK Variety Fest with a Sizzling Summer Show - SSS show - BAM! Is it still considered alliteration if the words start with the same letter although letter doesnt have the same sound - Sss vs sh? Will you look that up for us?  While Christian is away, our special guest host this month is a longtime friend of WDEK; the multi talented (musician, illustrator and writer) Mr. Marcellus Hall! Our first guest is comedian, writer & actress Becky Yamomoto.  Find out how she got to NYC and created a successful career here as a standup & actress although her Mom and Dad never go to her shows.  Her web series Uninspired is one of Shonali's favorites.  Shonali performs a new song yet to be released called The Dream Is Still Alive with Marcellus on harmonica.  Our second guest is Mars Ganito, guitar player, singer and one of the leaders of the punk pop indie band Aye Nako. We talk about life on the road, growing up in Arkansas within a large family and his love of coun

Our first ever We Don't Even Know Variety Fest held on April 23, 2017 at DCTV in downtown Manhattan was a smashing success! To all of you who were able to attend - we love you and because of you we are certain to do it all over again next year.  Although we won't be able to share all of the performances via our podcast format from that day, we are honored to share with you our dear friend, a living music encyclopedia, WFMU's Duane (Train) Harriott and his interview with soul and dance music icon, one of the original lead vocalists of Chic, the legendary Alfa Anderson.   Duane explains his spiritual connection to disco and introduces us to the amazing Alfa Anderson.  Alfa talks about coming to New York City from Augusta, Georgia as a young woman seeking a teaching job until the moment she realized she could actually make a living as a singer.   Does the name Luther Vandross ring a bell? "Big" Luther and Alfa used to hang out on a park bench near W. 72nd Street before they became famous! Alfa explains to us how

Returning from Hawaii to a blizzard has Shonali feeling down.  Leave it to Christian to come up with a story about his jacket to cheer her up. The Get Out of A Funk episode starts out with special guest actor & performer Colin Buckingham.  Shonali is impressed with Colin's stage combat skills which he has had to use in real life. Do you know what a "half nelson" is?  If you want to fight a drunk person "take out their knees."  Colin has a achondroplasia which is a form of dwarfism.  We discuss labels, entitlement, empathy and privilege.  In addition to acting professionally on film and tv, Colin has recently joined the cast of Sleep No More.  He is also in a new tv show which he can't tell us anything about.  Look for him in Black Magic for White Boys at Tribeca Film Festival pilot series.  Our second guest is comedian, writer, actress Selena Coppock.  Selena has a popular twitter feed @NYTvows which makes fun of what she calls the "wedding industrial complex."  She has written a book and she is currentl

  We celebrate our 50th Episode of WDEK on Mardi Gras with party horns, beads and great guests.  Shonali shares a feel good story about a NYC cabbie. Christian gives us his take on rules for shushing at the movie theater.  We have new WDEK T-Shirts for sale at the show and now online. Our first guest is a comedian, writer, filmmaker, author, Ted Fellow...the list goes on and on, Negin Farsad.  She made a film which came out in 2014 called The Muslims Are Coming which follows a group of Muslim American comedians as they visit towns all over the US to combat Islamophobia. Turns out it can be exhausting combatting Islamophobia.  She also met Bono and turns out they have something in common.  Negin has a political roundtable podcast called Fake the Nation and wrote a book called How to Make White People Laugh. She is an inspiration.   We play a special WDEK 50th Ep trivia game with our WDEK regular audience member Isabel Restrepo.  Somehow Isabel wins a WDEK t-shirt without passing the quiz.  Our second guest i

Happy New Year All! Christian and Shonali have brand new haircuts and new resolutions.  A familiar audience member has lots to say about our resolutions.  Our first guest is actress, writer, poet and director Amber Tamblyn.  She comes to us with a Guinness in hand and a baby bump. We discuss her busy schedule this past year which includes a 50+ city tour promoting her own poetry book Dark Sparkler about the lives & deaths of child star actresses.  She toured along with her husband comedian David Cross and they got along perfectly on the road.  Amber is also just finishing up a film festival circuit for the upcoming April release of a film which she wrote and directed, Paint It Black, based on the Janet Fitch novel.  Wonder Woman Amber is also currently enjoying writing her first novel while expecting her first baby.   Our second guest is comedian and writer Damien Lemon.  You may have seen him on Guy Code or as the host of TruTv's Comedy Knockout but he has been performing standup for 11 years.  He knew h

It's a rainy night in NYC, only a few weeks after the election and our mood has taken a turn for the "what the hell happened?"  Christian does in fact return to the show after a two month absence.  He brings us stories regarding cologne and Shonali shares her important scientific findings as to why the election turned out the way it did.  Christian and Shonali been longtime fans of both of our Ep. 49 guests! Our first guest is comedian, John Roberts Jr. who is gay (don't worry - he's out) and an Emmy nominated voice actor for the character Linda Belcher on the show "Bob's Burgers." But before that, did you see him on YouTube in one of our all time favorite videos The Christmas Tree. We are so happy John is back from the West Coast where he smoked too much pot and now resides only an hour away from NYC with his two cute dogs, Yoko and Iggy. He's also back to cooking at home with his mom. Love ya for it John! As we head towards our 50th episode in February and our upcoming WDEK All Day Fest on February 18th, we

Comedian Nimesh Patel fills and special guest co-host for our spooky October 2016 edition of We Don't Even Know. How Indian do you believe Shonali and Nimesh are? They wonder if anyone really cares.  Their first guest is comedian, actor, writer and teacher Jeffrey Joseph. What does he not do? We find out why he left a successful career in comedy to destress himself for ten years and what made him come back. Besides performing standup regularly, he teaches playwriting to youth and knows qi gong, a Chinese energy cultivation exercise. He also went to India before Nimesh ever did. What does that say about Nimesh?  Shonali and Jeffrey are chicken pox nose scar twins. Shonali has some frightening news for you.  Sorry to bum you out.  Our second guest is Amanda Duarte, a writer, performer, comedian and is responsible (along with her new friend - NYTimes writer, Jessica Bennet who created the art) for starting the viral sensation #PussyGrabsBack.  Sales proceeds of her PGB shirts on spreadshirt.com go to the Rape a

While Christian is away, Jordan Clifford, comedian, producer, actor is our special guest co-host on Episode 46 of We Don't Even Know.  Jordan Shonali and Jordan are in need of new outgoing voice mail messages. Jordan has the look - he has a beard.  Our first guest is performer, teacher, writer, singer, actress, comedian Tessa Hersh, who along with all of her creative endeavors is currently happily teaching teachers.  Our intern Justin Hall shares a highlight from his father's experience as a teacher. Tessa explains sometimes a teacher must tell a child "you can't masturbate here."  Tessa performs regularly at the UCB Theater and has her own web series on Refinery 29's Riot YouTube channel. Check out her Truth Fairy series where she drops truth bombs on Riot which we love - the Baby Shower Rebellion Musical resonates particularly with Shonali.   Jordan is never ready for a fist bump.  Our second guest is Adam Wade, the world champion (that's what we call it - he's a 20 time winner) of the Moth Storytelling Rad

Christian and Shonali talk beach time in NYC, Buddha and getting waxed.  Our first guest on Ep. 45 is animator, creator and director of Adult Swim's Superjail, Christy Karacas.  Christy jumps right in on waxing and how the new normal in art is trying to be weird.  #NothingIsEdgy Christy was a student at RISD and now teaches there.  It's expensive now and kids are mellow.  Christian & Shonali chime in regarding the DNC convention. Christian appreciates our first lady, Michelle Obama and how she brought up the fact that the White House was built by slaves.  Amen. There are dog chew toys of the presidential candidates.  Christy saw them. Christy is currently working on a new pilot for Adult Swim called BallMasterz.  We welcome Colin Buckingham to the stage to join us for a round of #GETITOFFOFYOURCHEST  - This time as usual, there is some blowback from Christian to Shonali and vice versa regarding their GIOYC,  but for the most part Christian drums up some big support for his anti #SANDALSandSOCKS stance. Ch

Christian & Shonali quickly admit to things they never have before in their newest segment called Admissions.  The show is packed and hot, literally due to the fact that it is late June but also the lineup is yet again hawt with first guest comedian, performer, actor, writer Cole Escola in his summer wear: white denim cutoffs. Cole talks with us about growing up in rural Clatskanie, Oregon surrounded by a prison of trees,  following a boyfriend to NYC, getting a tv series at a very young age, and his favorite catcalling moments. Check out his video Mom Commercial and die.  We invite our WDEK friend Isabel Restrepo to Get It Off Her Chest and boy did she ever.  WDEK's second guest of the night is comedian, writer and storyteller Amber Tozer who just published her memoir Sober Stick Figure, a book chronicling her life as an alcoholic and her eventual recovery all told with the help of childlike stick figures.  For the most part her family has been supportive of her TMI book, but then there's Aunt Pam.  Amb