'Nobody Knows Anything' is here to make you (and me) smile more

By Franklin Leonard

Published Dec 10, 2024 10:37 AM

Listen • 1:16:34

Four people are on a stage, sitting in green upholstered chairs with microphones in front of them. The person on the far left is a Black man wearing a black suit and shirt. To his left are 3 people: A red-headed white woman wearing a green and red track suit jacket and black pants; a biracial man with a shaved head and glasses; an Asian woman with long black hair in a ponytail. The last woman's face isn't visible. She is facing the other guests and host.

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Last week, a friend of mine texted to tell me that I need to smile more (which, yes, is loaded in more ways than I can count for the purposes of this essay.) He's not wrong. This is especially true in photos. He’d just seen a photo from the Gotham Awards, where The Black List had been honored. (I've just always felt awkward posing for cameras.)

But it's also true generally. What is this life for if not some experience of joy and laughter, even in the face of <gestures generally at everything>?

We're making Nobody Knows Anything in that spirit. The work we do at The Black List — trying to find all of the great writing in the world and make it visible, wherever it comes from — is serious. The work itself doesn't need to be, and more often than not, the making of the work shouldn't be.

Put differently, I'm trying to laugh and have some fun with some dope people.

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A Black man with a beard and long dreadlocks, wearing a black jacket and shirt, looks at the camera with a serious expression on his face.

Nobody Knows Anything is game night, if all of the games were about movies and television, and all of your guests were people who worked in movies and television, and ... if you were me.

It's going to be fun. It's going to be funny. And yes it's going to be educational (if nothing else, your Letterboxd Watchlist is about to get an upgrade), but more than that, it's going to be fun, and it's going to be funny. You've just gotta trust me on this one. I've heard the first few episodes, and our guests are hilarious.

We hope you listen. We hope you enjoy it. And we hope you'll like and subscribe and all of the other stuff I'm supposed to say here.

Shoutout to our executive producers, Shana Naomi Krochmal, whose DM birthed what this became, and Megan Halpern, who saw what it could be before I did. They and the rest of the crew are doing incredible work. If you don't enjoy the show, it's probably because of me. And fair play if that's the case.

Listen to the first episode of Nobody Knows Anything:

Listen • 1:16:34

NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING: Growing Pains

What makes a blockbuster, or a box office bomb? The truth is, as famed screenwriter William Goldman put it, “Nobody knows anything.” Join us each week as we put your favorite actors, directors, and writers through the wringer (aka through a series of games) to see if they’ve got what it takes to make it in this wild town.
This episode is all about coming-of-age stories — movies and TV shows about first loves, schoolyard scrapes, and the realization that the world is far bigger than the block you live on.
Guests: Actor, writer and director Natasha Lyonne (“Poker Face,” “Russian Doll”); actor and comedian Sherry Cola (“Joy Ride,” “Nobody Wants This”); director and Oscar-winning screenwriter Cord Jefferson (“American Fiction”).

“NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING” is a production of The Black List and LAist Studios, in partnership with The Ankler. This episode is presented by FX.

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Franklin Leonard is founder and CEO of The Black List. He is also host of the new LAist Studios podcast 'Nobody Knows Anything.'