Stars: 4/5

Pete Holmes has produced the most random yet stimulating podcast to date. If you enjoy learning about science, popular culture or anything in between the two, this may be the podcast for you.

“You Made It Weird” with Pete Holmes is a weekly interview podcast with a wide range of guests. The interviewees range from comedian Sarah Silverman to scientist Bill Nye, which leaves the premise of the podcast a little confusing.

If Holmes’ voice could win awards, it probably would have already won several. He has voiced many characters on Comedy Central’s cartoon, “Ugly Americans” and was the voice of the E-Trade baby on a commercial. In addition to these, he has the podcast, which displays his vocal talents for about two to three hours every week.

Each episode has a guest who is interviewed by Holmes for a number of their accomplishments. Holmes finds many different guests with very different backgrounds, but it wasn’t always so diverse. In the podcast’s first few episodes, Holmes had exclusively comedian guests. He didn’t branch out of the realm of comedy until he had Rob Bell, pastor and author of “Love Wins: At the Heart of Life’s Big Questions,” on the podcast. This isn’t to say that the pastor/author doesn’t keep the episode humorous while they discussed sex, God and all things in between.

Holmes decision to open up the podcast to non-comedians made room for Brian Greene to become a guest and talk about theoretical physics. The two men talked about string theory and the universe for about two hours and it was surprisingly bearable. Holmes’ humor helps make the hard topics easier to understand and, dare I say, enjoyable.

The beauty of “You Made It Weird” is Holmes’ ability to talk with anyone. He can transition from comedians to some of the planet’s greatest scientists. The podcast doesn’t seem to have much of a central theme, but it does have the consistently funny Holmes who helps tie each episode together.  

“You Made It Weird” sometimes tackles difficult topics, such as Brian Greene’s episode where they discussed the end of the world, but Holmes always keeps the episodes light-hearted. It’s clear that he makes his guests comfortable enough to share their opinions, which is definitely critical for a talk show.

Though each episode is lengthy, the hours fly by with the blends of humor, seriousness and interesting guests.