Warm interviews with public lives in focus.
Frank Buckley Interviews pairs polished setup with patient conversation, giving guests room to tell fuller stories. Recent episodes move from Hollywood craft and K-beauty pressure to earthquake memory, open-water endurance, canine behavior, and Blue Angels filmmaking.
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Frank Buckley Interviews is a wide-ranging conversation show built on patient questions and clear setup. It has the polish of a news interview, but the strongest moments come when a guest’s public story turns personal. The show is comfortable with celebrity, craft, culture, memory, and survival. It does not rush past the details. Paul Feig’s episode starts with films, comedy, and martinis, then lands on why he dresses formally on set and what respect means to a director. Cesar Millan’s episode moves from television success to the everyday rituals people create with their dogs, especially the difference between excitement and calm leadership. Elise Hu’s conversation about K-beauty reaches beyond beauty products into money, maintenance, body shame, and the pressure to keep chasing an ideal look. Paul Crowder’s Blue Angels episode looks at the making of a documentary as much as the spectacle of the planes themselves. The access matters. So does the discipline behind the spectacle. Kim Chambers brings a different kind of physical story, tracing a devastating injury into open-water swimming and record-setting endurance. The Northridge earthquake episode carries the weight of lived memory, using Frank Buckley’s own reporting experience and KTLA coverage to recall the morning Southern California shook. George Takei’s episode has the breadth of a life interview, moving through Star Trek, marriage, civil rights, Japanese American incarceration, Hollywood diversity, and anti-Asian hate. Across the feed, the format stays steady. A concise introduction frames the guest, then the conversation opens into craft, identity, resilience, and public life. The show works best for listeners who like interviews that are accessible without feeling thin. It is especially strong when a familiar name reveals the discipline, fear, conviction, or cultural pressure behind the headline. The tone is warm, never fawning. Its range is the point: one week may hold comedy and cocktails, another may hold earthquakes, war memory, or the cost of beauty.
Made for: For listeners who like measured, accessible interviews with recognizable guests and newsmakers. It fits people who want personal stories, cultural context, and professional craft without a panel format or argument-driven pace.
What sets it apart: The show combines broadcast clarity with enough breathing room for guests to move from career highlights into more revealing personal territory. Its range is unusually broad, connecting Hollywood, disasters, beauty culture, animal behavior, aviation documentaries, endurance swimming, and civil rights through the same calm interview frame.
KTLA Morning News anchor Frank Buckley engages fascinating guests in conversation. The award-winning Frank Buckley Interviews features newsmakers, celebrities, technologists, entrepreneurs, authors, athletes, artists, and everyday people doing extraordinary things. In 2022, Frank Buckley Interviews was honored with a National Entertainment and Journalism Award from the Los Angeles Press Club for one of its episodes. New episodes are released every Wednesday. The TV version airs on KTLA-TV Channel 5 on weekends and is also available on YouTube and the KTLA+ app.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Frank Buckley turns public interviews into clear conversations about achievement, identity and the social pressures beneath a guest's work.
Frank Buckley uses the public interview as a route from a guest's work into the values and pressures around it. Paul Feig connects filmmaking to respect for crews and the treatment of women in comedy, while Cesar Millan turns dog behavior toward questions of human calm and…
Frank Buckley gets past the marquee name and into the life choices you will keep thinking about.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Paul Feig connects martinis, old Hollywood polish, and respect for funny women on screen.
Paul Feig comes through as a filmmaker with a strong sense of ritual, from martinis and suits to his fondness for old Hollywood poise. Frank Buckley uses those details well, letting them open into Feig's larger view of directing as a job built on tone, trust, and respect.
Millan's dog-training philosophy expands into a case for calm, confident behavior around dogs and family.
Cesar Millan frames dog behavior through the difference between affectionate rituals and calm leadership, then turns that idea toward the human habits that shape a dog's daily life.
George Takei connects stardom, family history, and representation with warmth and a long view.
George Takei comes through as an artist shaped by performance, memory, and public duty. He talks about the asteroid named for him, his family's wartime incarceration, LGBTQ rights, and the still-unfinished work of representation in Hollywood.
Kim Chambers turns a devastating injury into a steady conversation about endurance, failure, and returning better prepared.
Kim Chambers's path into open-water swimming starts with a fall down the stairs, a devastating injury, and a 1% chance of walking again without help.
Ira Glass frames weekly theme-driven segments spanning family secrets to Portland's protest conflict.
Shankar Vedantam unpacks the psychology behind relationships, careers, and money through researcher interviews.
David McRaney interviews researchers on cognitive bias, motivated reasoning, and why minds change.
Ryan Holiday pairs daily Stoic lessons with long-form guest conversations at his Texas bookstore.
NHPR's Jason Moon investigates the Bear Brook barrel murders and a New Hampshire wrongful-conviction case.
Russ Roberts interviews authors and economists on ideas from classical liberalism to AI.
Frank Buckley interviews George Takei, the actor known for Star Trek and civil rights activism.
Frank Buckley interviews Kim Chambers, an open water swimmer who overcame a devastating leg injury that gave her a 1% chance of walking unassisted.
Interview with director Paul Crowder about his documentary 'The Blue Angels', chronicling the U.S.
Paul Feig describes how watching glamorous people drink martinis in a Las Vegas casino nursery shaped a lifelong fascination with adult life, then connects that childhood image to his path from Mount Clemens, Michigan, to USC Film School and Universal Studios in 1981.
Frank Buckley Interviews talks with Cesar Millan about his path from Culiacán, Sinaloa, to the Dog Psychology Center in Santa Clarita and 20 years on TV.
Elise Hu frames Seoul's K-beauty industry as a 10 billion-dollar market built around youthful, poreless, ageless looks.
Frank Buckley interviews Jesse Katz about MacArthur Park, where a 2007 gang shooting killed three-week-old Luis Angel Garcia instead of street vendor Francisco Clemente.
Interview with director Paul Crowder about his documentary 'The Blue Angels', chronicling the U.S.
Frank Buckley interviews record-setting open water swimmer Kim Chambers about her journey from a devastating injury to historic swims.
Frank Buckley recounts his experience covering the 1994 Northridge earthquake as a reporter, blending personal narrative with news coverage.