George Kareman and Dan Klein
George Kareman and Dan Klein are the hosts of Man Thinkers. Follow George on Twitter here, Dan on Twitter here, and Man Thinkers on Twitter here.
Describe Man Thinkers in 10 words or less.
George: A satirical podcast making fun of Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro etc.
What part of the show is serious and what part of the show is funny, and how do you balance that?
George: The entire thing is funny or rather, an attempt at being funny. About half the time we ask our guests “serious” or “real” questions that aren’t funny questions themselves but then we look for a way to respond to their answers humorously.
Dan: The topics are serious: the economy, artificial intelligence, politics, etc. And the guests are serious. They’re themselves. But the show is funny because our characters are doing our best to be grifters and opportunists and fail at that. We “accidentally” insult our guests and openly admit that the supplements we’re attempting to sell you are just capsules filled with sand. Specifically, sand from the beach that we took ourselves.
How much of the show is improvised and how much do you plan in advance?
George: All the stuff between Dan and me is improvised, like all the banter about our personal lives etc. The Big Question section is also entirely improvised but we come into it knowing what the Big Question is going to be and a general idea of our characters take on it but we don’t script anything out or follow an outline or anything, we just riff. With the interview portions, we usually have about 15-20 pre-written interview questions for our guests and then of course we improvise questions as well during the interview based on how it’s going / what we’re talking about.
Dan: The show is almost fully improvised. The format was originally based on talk shows, most specifically The Colbert Report, but that show had a team of Ivy League educated white people to help them write jokes, segments and guest bits, whereas we have literally nobody to help us write anything. We do have a producer who does some research on the guests, and even just that is helpful for us to deal with the workload. But yeah otherwise it’s just George and me coming up with takes, questions, and then improvising the hell out of it.
How are you two different as hosts, and how are you similar? What do you each bring to the table?
George: Dan’s character is more antagonistic than my character which usually leads him into asking more “uncomfortable” questions to some of our guests. My character is very insecure and has a strong need to be liked by whomever he is interacting with, a classic people pleaser. Both characters are idiots but for different reasons and we sort of straight man each other’s crazy at different points in the show. So, for example, my character is a spiritual seeker and has been duped by a bunch of cults in the past, so Dan’s character will sort of remind me “hey, what you’re talking about right now sounds like a cult” when I go off about how I recently met some friendly “community with attractive people who just want to help me” or something like that. And then my character will often check Dan’s character on his incel views and general misogyny, “Dan, what you’re describing right now is sexual harassment just to be clear.”
Dan: Yeah, I go for the jugular during interviews. I figure if I offend our guest so badly that they end the interview, that might work out to the show’s benefit. George seems to want to be liked because he has self respect or something.
You have really good chemistry. Can you talk about your friendship? I mean it really sounds like you can’t stand each other the show :) but I know that comes from a place of love and respect.
George: The characters have a love/hate relationship, they both claim to dislike the other one but clearly they are both very important to one another. In real life, Dan and I have been friends for a while. We became closer when I moved to LA in 2015 and ended up moving into the same building as Dan and his wife. We made a web series together around then called TWO GUYS WHO HATE EACH OTHER which sort of has the spirit of Man Thinkers in it.
Dan: In addition to what George said, we’re both east coast guys with one immigrant parent, and I think that informs the way we think about a lot of things. Fast-talking, rude people are just funny to us. We’re both sensitive emotional boys who grew up idolizing athletes and wanting to be cool and strong, but we were absolutely not that, so we’re both able to discuss traditionally masculine topics while poking fun at it too.
Can you each, in character, say something nice about the other?
George: Dan is punctual, I’ll give him that…
Dan: I like when George stops talking because it gives me an opportunity to talk.
If people haven’t listened to an episode yet, where should they start?
George: My favorite episode is prob the one with Nithya Raman as our guest but our most famous guest is probably Alan Dershowitz. The Dan Savage episode was good too.
Dan: Kevin Sorbo, the guy who played Hercules in a 90s Saturday morning kids show, feels strongly about wanting more guns in schools. That was quite a conversation.
The Victoria Jackson episode was hilarious…she is such a character. But how much was she a real character? Was she trying to be funny?
George: She was trying to be entertaining in the way that entertainer does that sort of thing but I think she believes in and stands for everything she said.
How do you approach people to be guests? Do the ones getting kind of teased understand that?
George: Our producers do all the heavy lifting on getting guests but they never lie to anyone, they make it clear it is a comedy podcasts and we are playing characters but tbh, I don’t think the people being teased do much homework on it, they just sort of show up and it ends up being more of an Ali G thing bc once we all hop on the Zoom for the interview, Dan and I are in character and we stay in character until the person leaves.
Dan: I also think most people don’t read the emails explaining the show.
Will Man Thinkers run forever? Please say yes.
George: We love making it! But in order to get a 2nd season we need as many listeners as possible, please tell your friends!
Dan: The entertainment industry seems to be in a “recession” and the only way CEOs can keep their 8-figure salaries is if they cut shows like ours, so I expect it will be done fairly soon. It would be a shame for Man Thinkers to end, but we’ll all be happier knowing that CEOs won’t have to sell their second boat just so we could survive. Phew, disaster averted!
Fill in the blank: if you like _____ you will like Man Thinkers.
George: The Colbert Report, Ali G, Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Joe Rogan, Sam Harris.
Dan: Ted Lasso. Actually, I don’t think that’s true, but I know a lot of people like Ted Lasso.
What’s your goal for Man Thinkers?
George: To have it be a live action television show on a network like HBO or Apple TV.
Dan: I just want men to live manlier lives while I profit off their desperation.
What’s the best way to grow a podcast audience?
George: We have no idea.
Dan: I thought this interview was going to do that. Are we rich now?
Are there too many podcasts?
George: No. The World needs more content! What would we do without content? Like actually talk to people? Go outside in nature? No thanks!
Dan: Sometimes I look at Netflix and don’t see enough shows I want to watch. That means we need more content. If we’re not constantly pumping out TV shows, podcasts, and TV shows based on podcasts, that means China is winning the content war.
Are you podcast listeners?
George: Yes. I end up listening to a lot of the guys we are satirizing for ideas etc.
Dan: I like books on tape because reading is too hard to do it myself.
Self-care tip:
George: Cold showers. They suck but you feel amazing afterwards.
Dan: Playing video games while using recreational marijuana counts, right? Cuz that feels pretty great. That, and Waterpiks. Gotta get a waterpik if you want top notch oral hygiene.
Hot take:
George: Hot takes aren’t as hot as people think they are.
Dan: Billionaires are bad.
Thanks, George and Dan!