431 episodes listed below
Creative work, bills included.
Past Due talks with comedians, writers, actors, critics, and media builders about surviving creative careers without pretending the math is simple. The conversations stay funny, but they keep returning to bills, day jobs, family pressure, ownership, and the uneasy feeling of finally being secure.
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Past Due is an interview show about making creative work when the old promises of stability no longer hold. It is casual, fast-moving, and unusually willing to ask about money directly. That directness gives the show its shape. Guests are not invited to offer tidy inspiration; they are asked how they paid bills, why they kept or left day jobs, what they outsource, what scared them, and what made the risk worth taking. The recent run moves across comedy, acting, journalism, food writing, streaming, improv, and creator-owned media. Chandler Dean talks about building Abolish Everything while keeping a day job and finding a home for it at Nebula. Mary Holland and Matt Newell describe creative partnership, parenthood, scarce work, and the strain of taking jobs that shoot away from home. Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl’s conversation turns food writing into a story about expertise, restaurant labor, ICE raids, and the everyday anxiety of monthly expenses. Ben Collins brings The Onion, LinkedIn, AI skepticism, politics, and media collapse into the same room. Lilan Bowden’s episode lingers on financial fear that survives even after a career becomes more secure. Will Hines talks about taxes, freelancing, accounting, improv, and the emotional work of admitting when he is underwater. Ron Funches frames a creative career as a patchwork of stand-up, television, animation, Twitch, reinvention, and practical optimism. The show can be funny. It is rarely fluffy. Its best conversations let guests think in real time, moving from a joke to a hard truth without making a production of the turn. The recurring question is not simply how artists succeed. It is how they survive the years before success, the years after it shifts, and the years when the definition of success has to be rebuilt.
Made for: For creative workers, freelancers, media obsessives, and anyone curious about how artists actually keep going. It especially fits listeners who like career talk with jokes, discomfort, and real economic stakes.
What sets it apart: Past Due separates itself from standard creator interviews by putting money, insecurity, and tradeoffs at the center instead of treating them as private background details. The conversations feel lived-in without becoming aimless.
Ana Marie Cox and Open Mike Eagle explore what it takes to survive as a creative today. From juggling side gigs to redefining success, we dive into the real stories behind making a living when one job just isn’t enough
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Past Due turns creative careers into clear-eyed conversations about ownership, compensation, precarity, and the elusive feeling of financial safety.
Past Due follows Ana Marie Cox and Open Mike Eagle into the economics beneath creative work, using guest conversations to connect income insecurity with career decisions.
The day job gets a defense here, and your creative ambition keeps its dignity.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A candid, practical look at the pay and staffing choices behind building a lasting publication.
This single-episode review works best as a grounded business conversation about how a publication becomes durable when the work, money, and responsibilities keep shifting.
A creator-owned show becomes a grounded case study in making ambitious work while keeping a day job.
Chandler Dean's effort to build Abolish Everything without a budget or safety net, while still holding a day job, gives this single-episode review its useful angle on the creative economy.
A grounded look at how scarce creative work turns career choices into family logistics.
Mary Holland and Matt Newell turn a creative career into a household equation, weighing scarce comedy and acting work against parenting and partnership.
A vivid account of how financial scarcity can stay lodged in the body after the emergency has passed.
Financial safety lands here as something felt in the body before it becomes a tidy life milestone. Lilan Bowden, described as an actress, comedian and podcaster, looks back on years of stitching together barista shifts, transcription work and assistant jobs to keep the lights…
Paul Haavardsrud unpacks Canadian money stories, from ski-hill VIP pricing to French butter tariffs.
Real-estate freedom, taught in plain numbers.
Rhett Miller tells Ana Marie Cox and Open Mike Eagle that teaching one songwriting class a week at The New School covers his daughter’s Parsons tuition and, for the first time, his family health care.
Liberal Currents sounds openly led by its values, with a little improvised energy around the edges.
Chandler Dean keeps his day job.
Mary Holland and Matt Newell talk with Anna-Marie Cox and Open Mike Eagle about building a creative life as a couple in a post-pandemic, post-strike, post-child industry.
A conversation with James Beard Award-winning food critic Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl about her career, the state of restaurant criticism, and the impact of ice raids on the Twin Cities restaurant industry.
Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, discusses leaving traditional journalism, building in a media collapse, and the intersection of politics and the creative economy.
Past Due with Ana Marie Cox and Open Mike Eagle talks with Lilan Bowden about the 2015 moment when a Disney Channel series-regular booking changed her finances and then collapsed after a network read.
Will Hines discusses leaving corporate stability for freelancing, managing money, and lessons from improv.
Open Mike Eagle interviews comedian Ron Funches about navigating a career in the creative economy, balancing passion and survival.
Rhett Miller discusses his 30-year music career, mental health struggles, and the challenges of staying creative in a broken industry.
Screenwriter Bob DeRosa discusses the harsh realities of surviving a creative career, emphasizing that success is rare and often comes after years of failure.
Jamie Loftus discusses how she maintains creative freedom despite a lingering scarcity mindset from past financial instability.