How Gary Gulman Turned Depression Into Comedy Gold | Better in Person
Gary and Stephen talk about creativity, recovery, getting fired, and holding grudges. They also get outside and play basketball, which is a big part of how Gary stays well.
If you'd like to see the video version of Better in Person, watch it on YouTube or Apple Podcasts.
- Duration
- 47m
- Broadcast on
- 28 Jul 2026
- Audio Format
- other
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
Gary and Stephen talk about creativity, recovery, getting fired, and holding grudges. They also get outside and play basketball, which is a big part of how Gary stays well.
If you'd like to see the video version of Better in Person, watch it on YouTube or Apple Podcasts.
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This episode of Better in Person is presented by Chat GPT. Put Chat GPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Download the new Chat GPT desktop app today. Hey there, Steven Dubner. This is the third episode of a new video interview show we're making called Better in Person. Today's guest is the comedian Gary Gullman. You are going to love him. I guarantee. If you want the full video experience, go to the Freakonomics YouTube channel. It looks good on your phone, but it looks great on a bigger screen. You can also watch it on Apple Podcasts. Just search for Better in Person. But we also made this audio version for the Freakonomics feed in case you don't want to be distracted by the video. We aim to please. As always, thanks for listening, and now, thanks for watching, too. What do you have to understand about show businesses? The hyperbole is at such a high level that if they love you, it means they don't want to work with you, but they think you're pretty good. If they're obsessed with you, they'd like to work with you. And if this fails, it's all over, and you'll never hear from them again. And then I don't know what the next level will be. I want to chop you up in a Cuisinart and drink you like a smoothie. And that will mean that they would like to make your projects. This is Better in Person with Steven Dubner and Gary Gullman. Gotta choose one word to describe the comedian Gary Gullman. It might be kind, which is not a word you associate with comedians very often. He's also tall, six foot six, which helps make him good at basketball. Back! He's also smart. He enunciates beautifully. He's got an amazing vocabulary, and he wrote a really nice memoir called Misfit, Growing Up Awkward in the 80s. And yes, he is wickedly funny. Consider his first HBO special, The Great Depression. I still see a therapist, I believe I broke him on Monday. Yeah, I was leaving his office, and I was shutting the door, and I heard him go, "A show about one man's depression should not be funny, but this one is, and it's also deeply human. Goldman's honesty makes his fans love him even more, and now I also love Gary Gullman. I mean it. That's not hyperbole. So I make this podcast, Freakonomics Radio, which is very research intensive, and my producers for this show have been telling me that I need to back off, that I get over-prepared, and I get a little paralyzed. So for you, I've done zero. Okay. I know your first name is Gary. No. It's like you're an accountant, I understand?
Transcription truncated.
Gary and Stephen talk about creativity, recovery, getting fired, and holding grudges. They also get outside and play basketball, which is a big part of how Gary stays well.
If you'd like to see the video version of Better in Person, watch it on YouTube or Apple Podcasts.