The Assignment with Audie Cornish

Actor Ken Leung is no stranger to the toxic male archetype. He embodies it as Eric Tao, the ruthless baseball-bat-carrying trading floor bully he plays on HBO’s “Industry.” Leung talks with Audie about what pushes characters like Eric—on screen and in real life—over the edge from family man to a name you could see in the Epstein files.  They also discuss why women of color don’t get the “anti-hero” treatment, and how “Industry” has evolved into a portrait of the greed, corruption, and class conflict defining this moment.   

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This episode was produced by Lori Galarreta and Jesse Remedios

Senior Producer: Matt Martinez  

Technical Director: Dan Dzula   
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Let’s talk about professional sex. Audie sits down with Yehuda Duenyas, a SAG-AFTRA Hollywood intimacy coordinator, to go behind the scenes of how physical romance is choreographed, why stars like Gwyneth Paltrow and Sean Bean are skeptical of the position, and what depictions of sex on screen reveal about our culture.

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This episode was produced by Sofía Sanchez. 

Senior Producer: Matt Martinez  

Technical Director: Dan Dzula   
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Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX halftime show is still resonating as fans celebrate his history-making rise from Puerto Rico to global dominance.  Audie is joined by journalist Suzy Exposito to talk about the power of Benito's unique brand of authenticity--and how he's wielding it in the culture war. Exposito has covered Bad Bunny from the beginning. She is an editor at De Los, the Latin culture wing of the LA Times. 

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This episode was produced by Sofía Sanchez. 

Senior Producer: Matt Martinez  

Technical Director: Dan Dzula   
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The fashion season is officially underway. Celebrities are strolling the award show red carpets and models are strutting the runways in Paris and Milan. CNN Senior Style Reporter Rachel Tashjian joins Audie to talk about the complicated politics in the fashion world, fashion vs style, and which designers are getting the most notice for dressing celebrities.

Producer: Lori Galarreta

Senior Producer: Matt Martinez

Techincal Director: Dan Dzula

Executive Producer: Steve Lickteig
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This year marks a milestone for Millennials: the youngest of the cohort finally turns 30. So what comes next for the first generation of true digital natives now that they have achieved “unc” status? Audie talks with Sam Sanders, host of KCRW’s The Sam Sanders Show, about the generation that watched media transform from Buzzfeed quizzes into AI slop. They also discuss Millennial activism taking over the generation’s Instagram feed as ICE protests continue in Minneapolis.  
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