• With the recent death of Paul Krassner I’ve posted below my 2014 podcast with Paul (also featuring Harry Shearer, Negin Farsad and Brian Janosch – it’s a 2-part podcast with bits from Paul in each part).  I can’t tell you what an honor and a pleasure it was to talk with him. Somewhere today up in Heaven I suspect Paul is printing up a batch of “Fuck Hell” bumper stickers just to see if the Pearly Gates Post Office will mail them.

Listen to the podcast on Soundcloud.

For those who are just catching up: Paul Krassner founded The Realist in 1958 and published, edited, and wrote for the magazine on and off for more than 40 years. All editions of The Realist, which included interviews with and writings from numerous notables including Norman Mailer, Groucho Marx, Michael Moore and many others, can be found at The Realist Archives Project.

Paul edited Lenny Bruce’s autobiography, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People, and based the name of his own autobiography, Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut, on a line from his FBI file. He co-founded the Yippies with Abbie Hoffman, took LSD with Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey, and testified at the Chicago 8 conspiracy trial. His writing appeared in Rolling Stone, Spin, Mother Jones, the Nation, the Los Angeles Times, High Times and many other publications. In May 2004, he received an ACLU Uppie (Upton Sinclair) Award for dedication to freedom of expression.

In December, 2010, the writers’ organization PEN honored him with their Lifetime Achievement Award. You can order copies of his books, get links to recent articles, and order the poster-sized, digitally-colored edition of the Disneyland Memorial Orgy on his website.