John and Craig welcome back writer, director, and comedian Mike Birbiglia (Don’t Think Twice, Sleepwalk with Me) to take a look at several true news stories and ask, how would this be a joke? Stories include run-club haters, a conflicted bone marrow donor, and the coyotes roaming San Francisco.
We also look at how Mike developed his new Netflix special, The Good Life, and answer listener questions on taking an idea from a podcast and knowing when you’ve broken a story.
In our bonus segment for premium members, Mike walks us through how he’s able to market his work without it feel like marketing.
Links:
- Mike Birbiglia
- The Good Life on Netflix
- Mike’s previous episodes: 121, 168, 261, 427, 443, and Working it Out: Screenwriting Advice You’ll Actually Use
- Episode 660 – Moneyball
- Ira Glass on Mike’s podcast Working it Out
- Elizabeth Gilbert TED Talk
- The Run Club Haters by Melissa Dahl for Curbed
- I Hadn’t Heard From My Dad in Over a Decade. Now He’s Returned With a Brazen Request. I’m Actually Considering It. from Slate’s Care and Feeding
- The Coyotes of San Francisco by Heather Knight and Loren Elliot for NY Times
- Coyote Vest
- Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney
- Chris Fleming
- Blue Prince
- Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
- Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
- Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription!
- Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube
- Craig Mazin on Instagram
- John August on Bluesky and Instagram
- Outro by Nick Moore (send us yours!)
- Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt with help from Sam Shapson. It’s edited by Matthew Chilelli.
Email us at ask@johnaugust.com
You can download the episode here.
UPDATE 5-28-25: The transcript for this episode can be found here.