Podcast Of The Week: Jason Isbell’s Documentary w/ Bill Simmons

I was stoked when I found out the Duplass brothers were doing a Jason Isbell documentary with Bill Simmons as executive producer for HBO.

If you have the HBO subscription, we watched Running With Our Eyes Closed once already, and I’m planning to watch it two or three times in the coming weeks. It’s awesome. Especially for anyone with creative or artistic tendencies. Bonus points if your spouse/significant other is creative too (because you get some truly vulnerable and amazing Amanda Shires/partner-interaction moments).

If you need a companion to the documentary, or just want a dose of Isbell being the intelligent philosophizer that he is, check out the Bill Simmons podcast episode from 4/5/2023. You’ll have to jump to the 51 minute mark unless you’re into golf tournament food, but it’s so worth it.

They talk about how when an artist gets older they stop proving themselves and start protecting what they’ve accomplished (and how that’s so boring).

They talk about how success means everything in life has to get bigger and that can be really hard.

They talk about how at the lowest point in Isbell’s life he met two of the most important people in his success.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get the documentary to watch and then laugh and cry some more, with a few songs stuck in your head.

Or at least that was my experience.

Check it out. And let me know what you thought of it!