
Fail Better with David Duchovny
Lemonada Media - lemonadamedia.com
Latest episode: Tue Dec 16 2025
To be human is to fail – period. And not just to fail once, but to fail a lot. As the author Samuel Beckett said: “Fail again. Fail better.” This saying means a lot to me and my family – so much so that my daughter got a tattoo of it. Why are we, and so many others, so deeply concerned by failure? And if it’s something we all do so often, why are we so afraid of it – especially those of us here in win-at-all-costs America? In this podcast, I sit down with successful, thoughtful people like Ben Stiller, Bette Midler, Sean Penn and more to talk about failure – or what they labeled “failure,” but what was really an unparalleled opportunity for growth and revelation. I even want to delve into my own hardest moments, when I wrestled with setbacks, shame, and fear. We’ll still fail again. And again. But maybe if we fail better, we’ll feel better -- and maybe if we can all laugh together in failure, that's a start.
Dec16Fail Again: Catching Up with Gillian Anderson63mins
Dec9John Seabrook’s Family Was the Vegetable Version of ‘Succession’46mins
Dec2The Many Lives of Peter Weller51mins
Nov25Introducing: Don't Listen To Us with Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody47mins
Nov18Kyle MacLachlan (Directed by David Lynch)60mins
Nov11How Megan McArdle Became a Liberal-tarian50mins
Nov4Waxing Poetic with Jia Tolentino (Live at Strand)46mins
Oct28Failure? Success? Judd Apatow Says Give It 10 Years to Decide50mins
Oct21Fail Again: Ben Stiller Confronts His Parents' Legacy51mins
Oct14Listen Now: Alive with Steve Burns45mins
Oct7No Scars, No Stories with Charlie Sheen (Live at 92NY)57mins
Sep30Looking Back: Gretchen Rubin Wants to Make You Happy/ish51mins
Sep23How Steve Burns Found His Aliveness Again56mins
Sep16Tom Pelphrey Wouldn’t Change a Day53mins
Sep9Gene Simmons: The Demon Loves His Mom60mins
Sep2Check It Out: Building a Legacy with Tisha Campbell (Legacy Talk)53mins
Aug26Amanda Knox’s Story Isn’t Over67mins
Aug19The Pitfalls of Manhood with Terry Real60mins
Aug12An Hour with Melissa Febos About a Year Without Sex62mins
Aug5Jess Walter Can Hoop (and Write)68mins
Jul29Tim Minchin’s Infinite Universes52mins
Jul22The Family Business with Robert Downey Jr.56mins
Jul15What Jake Clark Wants You To Know About Trauma56mins
Jul8A Forensic Analysis with Emily Deschanel59mins
Jul1Check It Out: The Disappearance of Eric Robinson (Uinta Triangle)62mins
Jun24Truth and Lies with James Frey53mins
Jun17From “Junkie Doctor” to Addiction Specialist with Dr. Jason Giles61mins
Jun10AI Should Fear Justine Bateman63mins
Jun3Chris Carter Wants You To Believe63mins
May27Check it Out: Ira Glass on Three Decades of ‘This American Life’ Magic83mins
May20Not Reading the Comments with Maureen Dowd48mins
May13Remembering to Forget with Lewis Hyde47mins
May6Playing God with Jonathan Roumie59mins
Apr29Looking Back: One Year of Fail Better59mins
Apr22Chris Evert Hates To Lose More Than She Loves To Win54mins
Apr15The Grit and Grind of Steve Lukather49mins
Apr8EXCLUSIVE PEEK: Reflections on Alec Baldwin, Kenya Barris, and more42mins
Apr1Graydon Carter and The Editor’s Eye55mins
Mar2525 Years Later and Bree Sharp Is Still Asking Why Won’t I Love Her46mins
Mar18Failure Matters with Jaleel White55mins
Mar11Check it Out: “Use a Messy Closet, a 3-Hour Rule for Difficult People & Renowned Judy Blume on Reading”32mins
Mar4Peter Singer Wants to Save Animals… and Humans, Too56mins
Feb25Failure-ish with Kenya Barris61mins
Feb18Kara Swisher Is So Much More Than the World’s ‘Musk-splainer’77mins
Feb11Failure, Freedom, and ‘Friends’ with Maggie Wheeler65mins
Feb4EXCLUSIVE PEEK: Reflections on Gillian Anderson, Rosie O’Donnell, and more37mins
Jan28The Humor of Being Human with Costica Bradatan52mins
Jan21Looking Back: Mary Trump Knows We’re At a Crossroads59mins
Jan14The Buoyancy of Rob Lowe59mins
Jan7Gretchen Rubin Wants to Make You Happy/ish51mins
Dec31Looking Back: Ben Stiller and the Curse of the Sequel50mins
Dec17Alec Baldwin Might Need to Write Another Memoir59mins
Dec10Dr. Vivek Murthy Wants to Help Us Heal55mins
Dec3Socialism, Anarchy, and Pixar Movies with Jack Halberstam50mins
Nov19Aimee Mann Is In My Pantheon55mins
Nov12Catching Up with Gillian Anderson63mins
Oct29Jia Tolentino Battles The Internet44mins
Oct28The Election5mins
Oct22Bluffing with Nate Silver49mins
Oct15Roads Taken and Not Taken with Jason Beghe46mins
Oct1What Madonna Taught Rosie O’Donnell About Fame57mins
Sep28EXCLUSIVE PEEK: Reflections on Lisa Loeb and Kathleen Hanna17mins
Sep24Why Lisa Loeb Struggles to Finish a Song54mins
Sep17Andy Cohen’s Concept of Reality47mins
Sep10Seth Meyers Loves When a Joke Fails51mins
Sep3EXCLUSIVE PEEK: Reflections on Mary Trump, Sean Penn, and more40mins
Aug27Check it Out: “The art of failure with David Duchovny”31mins
Aug20Kathleen Hanna’s Music is Her Message48mins
Aug13Kumail Nanjiani’s New Ambition52mins
Aug6Mary Trump Knows We’re At a Crossroads59mins
Aug3Check it Out: “How to Succeed at Failing, Part 1: The Chain of Events”55mins
Jul30Griffin Dunne: An Actor Builds Character48mins
Jul23Sally Jenkins Thinks Losing Is Wonderful59mins
Jul16Jeremiah Fraites Isn’t Just The Tambourine Guy50mins
Jul9The Singular Fredness of Armisen55mins
Jul2Check it Out: “Kierkegaard or Californication? (with David Duchovny)”49mins
Jun25Tony Hawk and the Trick That Changed Everything50mins
Jun18Sean Penn and the Squared-Away Individual56mins
Jun11Patric Gagne and the Art of Sociopathic Zen61mins
Jun4Stephen Dubner and the Joy of Quitting41mins
May28Sarah Silverman and the Stupid, Shitty Things You’ve Done39mins
May21Brad Gilbert and the Problem with Perfection43mins
May14Gabor Maté and the Reason We’re All Addicted48mins
May10Bette Midler and the Meanest Man in Showbiz43mins
May8EXCLUSIVE PEEK: Reflections on Bette Midler8mins
May7Ben Stiller and the Curse of the Sequel50mins
Apr16Coming Soon… Fail Better with David Duchovny (Official Trailer)2mins