Kyle Meredith

Plus new music, classics, news, and etc.

6p ET on WFPK. Original parts still included.

James Marsden, meanwhile, arrived as Owen Ash, part Bond, part Gatsby, part Oklahoma chaos agent who walks into a room full of status anxiety and acts like velvet ropes are just decoration. A very polite grenade in a very expensive neighborhood.

Have you finished the 2nd season yet? Either way, dig into my talk with this pair.

Plus new music, classics, news, etc.

6p ET on WFPK. Contents may have shifted.

In Times New Roman had Queens of the Stone Age running on gallows humor, fear, fuzz, and whatever happens when you stop caring about genre rules because you’re not 17 and trapped in a record store argument anymore. Homme talked about making music for all stereotypes, rejecting guilty pleasures, laughing when everything gets impossible, and using fear as fuel instead of pretending it isn’t sitting there in the room. “When life is tough, that’s when life is funny,” he said.

At the time, Hobo Fabulous felt like a goodbye to that version of the job. He didn’t want a normal special, he didn’t want to chase Trump jokes, and he didn’t want to be “like a boxer who stayed too long.” But even then, the real point wasn’t retirement. It was refusing to do the obvious thing. Ferguson talked about making comedy more personal, defending the idea that PC culture can force comics to be clever, and being proud that The Late Late Show was never really for people who wanted late-night to behave itself. Done with stand-up? Maybe for a minute. Done being strange on purpose? Not a chance.

He said The Cult never really belonged to any one scene, not goth, not hair metal, not whatever box people needed them in that week. Under the Midnight Sun had him crooning through apocalypse warnings, Burroughs references, ecological collapse, and dark spiritual weather, but he wasn’t interested in nostalgia. “That’s what other people want to project on you,” he said. “That’s not how I live.”

“This wasn’t some late-career vanity project,” Morton said. “It was a muscle that had been hungry for decades.” We also got into The Serpent Queen, where Catherine de’ Medici gets to stare down the camera like Fleabag with a body count, and why the show works because it’s not just costume drama. It’s Succession with corsets.

He told me The Cult has always been “the outlier. The contradiction,” and the Death Cult shows were less about looking backward than getting back to zero point, the original DNA before MTV, velvet ropes, press wars, and the machinery that tried to flatten him into a version he didn’t recognize. He also got into Severance, Euphoria, The Clash, Berlin, dark wave, Ethel Cain, and why rock still needs more danger. Astbury’s still gathering the tribes. He just wants everyone to show up before the corporations rent the tent.

Plus new music, classics, news, and whatever survived the tour van.

6p ET on WFPK. Some assembly required.

CBS pushed Pelley out after he confronted new 60 Minutes leadership, including Nick Bilton and Bari Weiss, and accused them of “murdering” the show. Oliver’s line was brutal and pretty exact. CBS fired Pelley for the crime of “being too cool in a meeting.”

That matters because Paramount is set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which would put Oliver under the same corporate roof. Pelley says CBS leadership is sacrificing 60 Minutes to “curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.”

All that to say how delicious this is. John Oliver and even the entire crew of The Daily Show have no plans to hold back from holding Bari Weiss, CBS, and Paramount's feet to the fire. This is getting more interesting by the hour.

On day 500 of his second term, Trump’s approval sits at just 35%, giving him a net rating of -25. The poll found majorities oppose his decision to go to war with Iran, while 60% say the economy is getting worse and three-quarters rate economic conditions as only fair or poor.

The Economist’s model now gives Democrats a 90% chance of retaking the House, while the Senate remains a toss-up. Trump currently holds a positive net approval rating in only four states.

Geddy Lee told the crowd they were there to celebrate more than 50 years of music he, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart created together, while also paying tribute to their late bandmate. Peart’s presence was felt throughout the night, with multiple video tributes woven into the show.

The concert opened with “Xanadu” — the first time Rush has ever used the song as a show opener — and featured classics from across their catalog, including “Limelight,” “Freewill,” “The Spirit of Radio,” “Tom Sawyer,” “YYZ,” and “Working Man.”

Drummer Anika Nilles stepped into the role once occupied by Peart, while Aimee Mann joined the band for “Time Stand Still,” marking the first time she has reportedly performed the song live with Rush.

The show also included the first performance of “By-Tor & The Snow Dog” in more than 20 years.

Set List:

1. Xanadu

2. Limelight

3. Far Cry

4. Subdivisions

5. Freewill

6. Bravado

7. Caravan

8. La Villa Strangiato

9. Vital Signs

10. The Spirit of Radio

Set 2:

11. 2112 Part I: Overture

12. 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx

13. 2112 Part VII: Grand Finale

14. Distant Early Warning

15. Red Barchetta

16. Dreamline

17. Natural Science

18. Time Stand Still

19. Red Sector A

20. YYZ

21. The Garden

22. Tom Sawyer

23. By-Tor & The Snow Dog

24. Working Man

Owens backed Scott Pelley too, saying Pelley was standing up for the show when he confronted new leadership and adding, “Scott can smell a fraud from a mile away.”

Scott Pelley isn’t softening the language after his firing from 60 Minutes. In a new interview with The New York Times, he said Paramount Skydance should remove Bari Weiss from the top of CBS News, arguing that “television’s not her thing” and that the network now needs “adult supervision.”

Pelley said Weiss’ leadership has brought “a political bias” he’d never seen in his 37 years at CBS News. He also pushed back on the idea that 60 Minutes needed outsiders to drag it into the digital age, pointing out that the show launched 60 Minutes Overtime back in 2010 and that he was already shooting verticals for TikTok on assignment.

Of course, CBS just removed Tanya Simon, Dragaan Mihailovich, Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, and Pelley in the middle of a massive overhaul. Pelley says the remaining correspondents were trying to stay inside the building to protect the broadcast.