All Episodes: Seasons 1 & 2 (2026)

Episode 1: Welcome to the podcast!

Episode upload: 9/24/25…………In this debut episode, Karl Gibson, writer, host, and veteran of legacy studios, streaming startups, Netflix, and seven seasons at The Hollywood Reporter back when it was a daily magazine, introduces himself and shares what’s to come…

Episode 2: “You Don’t Need a Job?”

Episode upload: 9/24/25…………In Episode 2 of Let’s Talk About Hollywood™, we rewind to the summer of 2001, before my first big break at The Hollywood Reporter. I had just quit my job of four years and found myself staring down the side‑eyes of temp agency managers while trying to rebound fast. This episode is about the resilience it takes to bet on yourself, the messy reality behind “breaking in,” and how those early choices shaped my Hollywood journey

Episode 3: Crewbies

Episode upload: 9/24/25…………In Episode 3 of Let’s Talk About Hollywood™, we rewind to the summer of 2001, before my first big break at The Hollywood Reporter. I had just quit my job of four years and found myself staring down the side‑eyes of temp agency managers while trying to rebound fast. This episode is about working on a gig with in-transition industry workers and crew craftspeople on a gig, how kindness, courage and appreciation for what you don’t know can make all the difference!   

Episode 4: My TV Pilot Audition

In Episode 4 of Let’s Talk About Hollywood™, we rewind to the summer of 2001, before my first big break at The Hollywood Reporter. I had just quit my job of four years and was doing temp work, as while trying to rebound fast. This episode is about my spontaneous one-day notice to audition for a featured role as a Black bisexual soap opera star for a TV pilot.

Episode 5: Cheap Shoes

In Episode 5 of Let’s Talk About Hollywood™, we rewind to the summer of 2001, before my first big break at The Hollywood Reporter. In this episode, one job is about to end and Bebbles Stone and Karl, together for two years, hit a wall.  

Episode 6: Workable Beefcake

2001. UCLA Westwood. I’m temping on a research project. They offer me the permanent role. I say no.

The 2001 SAG strike gets averted. Hollywood feels conservative, risk averse. My agents are flaky. I’m in a dry spell. Saying no to “safe” feels insane. It isn’t. It clears the path to The Hollywood Reporter.

This is Let’s Talk About Hollywood. Career clarity plus real life from the mediasphere, for adults. I’m Karl Gibson and this is a first-hand audio Hollywood memoir from 2001 on. No blind items. No gossip. Just what it costs to say no in the shadows of the A-list.

In this episode: eating lunch with Milos Forman on Man on the Moon in 1998. Working with Courtney Love, Danny DeVito, Marilu Henner, Jeff Conaway, Carol Kane, and Christopher Lloyd. Meeting Tara Reid. Watching What’s The Worst That Could Happen and Josie & The Pussycats flop. Navigating fruitless alliances and entitled dudes. Realizing corporate America isn’t scared of me.

Where are the visionaries? Sometimes you have to get out of your head to find them. Sometimes you have to turn down workable beefcake. Thank you, Christopher Lloyd.

Written and read by Karl Gibson.

Episode 7: Enter The Hollywood Reporter

Karl starts at The Hollywood Reporter for a two-month assignment that ultimately becomes a 7-year full-time role, from one day in the mailroom to the newsroom for good. 

Episode 8: It’s A New Ball Game Now

There’s a vacancy at The Hollywood Reporter and I’m up for the job. Will my agency blow it? A high-placed newsroom caller goes off, and a full-time role is within reach

Episode 9: There Is No Turning Back

The world witnesses the events of  9/11 and The Hollywood Reporter’s coverage, devoted to the news of the day, sets a standard for Hollywood trade magazines. Negotiations continue over my future role with the magazine and a theater legend’s funeral leads to some stark realizations. 

Episode 10: Character Studies

The 2001 Emmys are postponed for a month, anthrax attacks hit the mail, and war is looming.

Episode 11: These Are the Times

Karl lands his first major job in Hollywood at The Hollywood Reporter, with his contract being bought out to work there full time as an editorial assistant. Long hours, adjusting and balancing the rhythm of home and the Industry’s needs is a learning curve, especially at home.  

Episode 12: I’d Dance On A Box First

After a long Emmy night and a lesson in newsroom politics, Karl finds humor, observational realities, and a touch of childhood fandom at The Hollywood Reporter’s Next Generation gala….including a surprise encounter with Three’s Company’s Jenilee Harrison.

Episode 13: The Fire Escape

More details from a different vantage point of The Hollywood Reporter’s 2001 Next Generation event in Hollywood as reporters, agents, writers, worker bees (me) and more converge for our own mini-party, I find some clarity and plenty to be grateful for in retrospect and, inside, a director goes off the rails. 

More details from a different vantage point of The Hollywood Reporter’s 2001 Next Generation event in Hollywood as reporters, agents, writers, worker bees (me) and more converge for our own mini-party, I find some clarity and plenty to be grateful for in retrospect and, inside, a director goes off the rails.

Episode 14: In Memoriam: Thank You Bebbles Stone

This episode is extra personal. It’s a goodbye and a thank-you to Bebbles Stone, who was my partner, my love, and the person who saw me through more chapters than most ever got to witness.

It isn’t a typical episode, but it’s a moment of reflection, love, and loss. It’s a way to honor a person who shaped my life and, in many ways, The Hollywood Reporter seasons I worked and experienced, as well as my career to come.

Episode 15: The Season 1 Finale!

In this episode, 2001 draws to a close, the labor market in Hollywood gets soft, layoffs are sure to happen and a New Year – 2002 – awaits!

Episode 16: How Hollywood Lost the Plot (And How to Break Through Anyway)

Welcome to Season 2! It’s a super-sized episode with 83 minutes on the state of the industry, from someone who’s been inside it for 24 years and can give some positive and very real perspective. It’s honest, thoughtful talk about what’s broken, what still works, and why faith matters when everything feels uncertain.

Episode 17: If Hollywood Gets to Be Too Much

It’s the start of 2002 and awards season is in full swing with growing pains, staying out of the fray as an assistant, and hoping I can do a full year at The Hollywood Reporter.

Episode 18: Lily Allen’s Divorce Album, Britney Spears, WGA Talks, AI & Layoffs

Pop-culture topics for the week of Nov 2, 2025, including the divorce album heard around the world, in defense of Britney Spears, WGA talks, AI and layoffs, DEI hope for a world that’s already there.

Episode 19: “There’s a Price for All This”

In this episode, the 2002 Oscar nominations are out, the annual American Film Market (AFM) comes to Santa Monica and Hollywood’s nerves are on edge.

Episode 20: Oscars, AFM, The Girls Next Door & Recap Chat!

AFM is still in full swing, the Oscars are approaching, Bebbles and Karl go to Vegas, plus plenty of stories including: The Girls Next Door, Raquel Welch, Gloria Allred, getting kicked out of Six Flags in 2000 (for the day), keeping the faith in 2025 and more Hollywood observations from 2002 and more! It’s a real-cap recap – I think you’ll like it!

Episode 21: Thanksgiving Thoughts, Thanks & Love!

Happy Thanksgiving! In this episode I wanted to take the time to thank you, the listeners, for your support, downloads and helping this podcast grow over the last 2 months and 21 episodes since it launched. It’s about hope, loss, resilience, faith and knowing you’re not alone! 

Episode 22: A Studio Worker’s Survival Guide to the Warner Bros. Sale

As a former contractor for both Warner Bros. and Netflix, respectively, here’s my take on the studio worker’s guide to surviving uncertainty, above-the-paygrade stress, and keeping your cool when a studio and billions of dollars are on the line. Is it an end of a Hollywood era…or can Hollywood change it in its favor? Ultimately, audiences will decide and they are who need you.

Episode 23: These Players Will Come Back and Need Something

It’s back to the journals of spring 2022. In this episode, the Oscars are over and things get tense at the magazine for some, Stone is fired, and a date night to a critically-acclaimed play – where the entire audience leaves and the actors come back to an empty stage – becomes a tense situation 8 years later.

Episode 24: Happy New Year’s Eve from Karl! Leaving L.A.

Happy New Year’s Eve! I’m leaving California after 29 years in Los Angeles. Time to find work, but I won’t be leaving the industry or this podcast! The podcast will be on hiatus until January 28th, but until then, I wanted to wish you a Happy New Year’s Eve! The podcast runs on donations, so if you’re so moved, I appreciate your support! Much love and see you all soon – don’t go away! : )

Ep 25 – Shake Up the Algorithm! From L.A. to Tampa Bay

It’s a New Year and I’m back from a 4-week hiatus after leaving Los Angeles for the Tampa Bay area. In this episode I talk about what informed that move and how when you know you know. Big leaps of faith can lead to big results, just shake up your own algorithm in life! It’s not easy, it takes adjusting and you’ll have your days…just know that greater connection awaits! If you’d like to support the podcast – it’s always free and runs on donations, of any amount, like yours, you can do so below! Thank you and see you next week.

💛 To support the podcast and help keep it independent:  
https://donorbox.org/please-support-the-let-s-talk-about-hollywood-podcast-series

Ep. 26 – This Time, I’m Getting In

Welcome back! In this episode I talk about being torn between wanting to make my new career as an editorial assistant at The Hollywood Reporter, balancing a 440-hour a month work schedule and the same class system I left as a stage actor that I’m starting to see is different, but also the same: it’s nuts! Breakthroughs – yours and mine – are never too late.

If you’d like to support the podcast – it’s always free and runs on donations, of any amount, like yours, you can do so below! Thank you and see you next week xox

💛 To support the podcast and help keep it independent:  
https://donorbox.org/please-support-the-let-s-talk-about-hollywood-podcast-series

Ep. 27 – Running Toward Him

Welcome! In this episode I talk about my first and only husband and a moment of missing each other that I see even more clearly now. It’s been 20 years, yet he was so intrisic to my career and life that there are times, in dreams, where all I want to do to make sense of the world is…to go running toward him for that moment. 

If you’d like to support the podcast – it’s always free and runs on donations, of any amount, like yours, you can do so below! I use Donorbox, available in 96 countries and currencies. And it’s safe! Thank you and see you next week.   xox – Karl

💛 To support the podcast and help keep it independent:  
https://donorbox.org/please-support-the-let-s-talk-about-hollywood-podcast-series

Ep. 28 – The Hustle and the Hell

Welcome! In this episode I talk about my first party in 2002 where I gained entree into Black Hollywood. This is a two-parter and also touches on those early days in Hollywood, or a career, where the hustle feels like hell until your career kicks off – but it does get better, so hang in there! Sometimes it just takes one manifest to let you know you’re on the right track.

Ep. 29 – “You’re the Golden Child, It Doesn’t Matter”

I’m back and offering prayers for love, peace and safety in our current global conflict. My first solo invite to a party in 2002 where I gained entree into Black Hollywood. This is part two of a two-parter and also touches on those early days in Hollywood, the vibes of trying to get on the radar of PR execs and the town. I throw Bebbles a party and, later, a bar brawl nearly ensues when an admirer gets too close. 

Ep. 30 – It Comes Back to Your Career

This week’s episode talks about the current armchair analysis of Hollywood in certain forums that incorrectly see a wholesale AI takeover and is crowning winners of a future consolidate Hollywood without taking into account that the paying customers and audiences will be the judge of that. The 2002 journals detail an impending move, the stress of trade-offs in a career, leaving Hollywood in style, and why it’s not so much leaving in style so much as it is leaving on your own terms and with your sanity intact. Let’s talk…about Hollywood!

If you’d like to support the podcast – it’s always free and runs on donations, of any amount, like yours, you can do so below! I use Donorbox, available in 96 countries and currencies. And it’s safe! Thank you and see you next week.   xox – Karl

💛 To support the podcast and help keep it independent:  
www.letstalkabouthollywood.com/support

Ep. 31: Chaos & Confrontation on the Sunset Strip

In this episode, an update comes in 2002 about one of my closest actor friendships, an actor I’d worked with for nearly two years and shared off-the-set experiences with, that came to a chaotic and argumentative end on Sunset Blvd. at 2 a.m. in 1998.

This episode honors friendship, grief, and touches on the start of when a loved one’s drug use overpowers everything you used to know about each other. 

If you’d like to support the podcast – it’s always free and runs on donations, of any amount, like yours, you can do so below! I use Donorbox, available in 96 countries and currencies. And it’s safe! Thank you and see you next week.   xox – Karl

💛 To support the podcast and help keep it independent:  
www.letstalkabouthollywood.com/support

Ep. 32: Summertime Madness

In this episode, it’s the summer of 2002 and everyone (except my Mom and sister) is pissy and stressed. I’m working 6-day weeks at The Hollywood Reporter, my spouse has just gotten a new job, we’ve got a new apartment just weeks away from moving into, my then-best friend is tripping, and overall it’s just a slice of life of pre-autumn summertime madness!

If you’d like to support the podcast – it’s always free and runs on donations, of any amount, like yours, you can do so below! I use Donorbox, available in 96 countries and currencies. And it’s safe! Thank you and see you next week.   xox – Karl

💛 To support the podcast and help keep it independent:  
www.letstalkabouthollywood.com/support

I’ve launched a GoFundMe for this podcast and my Industry reset and I’m 37% toward my goal! If you’re interested in supporting, or even sharing the link, please do so here:
https://gofund.me/9fa60a3b2

Ep. 33: Hollywood Assistant: Pay Your Dues, Not Your Identity (2002)

In this episode, I talk about what it’s like being an assistant at an multi-million dollar enterprise and how being the best at your work and paying your dues is smart, but losing your identity and your own unique career path doesn’t come with the job. I share a slice of life, the clashes and the wins that set a precedent for the career to ultimately come. As always, it’s not what you say yes to, it’s what you say no to and why. Assistants rock and this episode represents for all! 

Ep. 34: AKA – Ask Karl Anything

In this week’s Ask Karl Anything episode, I answer listener questions about leaving Los Angeles after 29 years, starting over on Florida’s Gulf Coast, and whether making this podcast and sharing candid parts of my life is ever hard.

It’s an episode about home, memory, reinvention, career and what it means to speak honestly about your life. Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you there!

Ep. 35: The Disney Layoffs ’26: Regroup, Recalibrate, Ready!

This week of April 12, 2026, Disney laid off 1000 employees. My LinkedIn filled with 86,000 impressions in my written response to lazy AI slop about “streaming failure.” Disney+ is a streaming success. But 1000 careers were cut. I see you. You have value. You’re not done and your success will land anew. 

I’ve been out of work 18 months. That’s not a trauma dump: that’s my receipt. I’m still here. I’m still making things. And if I am, you are. The layoff ended your job. It didn’t end your career.

This episode is for Disney employees and any worker in the world who just lost their job and can’t see the horizon right now. How could you? It’s fresh. So, here’s what I’ve learned in 18 months: no timelines, just truth.

Ep. 36: Hollywood Heatwave 2002: Labor Day Fight, 125 Degrees

Labor Day 2002. New apartment. No A/C. 125 degrees inside.

Me and Bebbles Stone, unpacking boxes, making daiquiris, trying to start a life. I was an editorial assistant at The Hollywood Reporter. He was staging our new home, I was cooking, and the heat got into everything.

This is Let’s Talk About Hollywood. Career clarity plus real life from the mediasphere, for adults. I’m Karl Gibson and this is a first-hand audio Hollywood memoir from 2001 on. No blind items. No gossip. Just what it costs to build a marriage and a career in the shadows of the A-list.

Love is not naive. It is a choice you make…even when you are exhausted and overheated.

Bebbles was my first husband. I honored him in Season 1 in In Memoriam: Thank You, Bebbles Stone. I will tell that story in Season 5.

For now, it is 2002. It is Labor Day. It is hot. We are a hidden power couple.

Ep. 37: It’ll Get Better, Trust Me

It’s fall 2002 in Hollywood and everything is shifting at once. A new apartment, a new schedule, a boss who keeps telling me it’ll get better and a newsroom that never stops.

In this episode, I take you inside my Labor Day move-in with my husband Stone, including the moment I grabbed him by the chin and made it clear he wasn’t going anywhere, and why that mattered more than he knew.

We swim, we laugh, we plan a housewarming with a very strict guest list, and I become a human catamaran.

Meanwhile at work, my supervisor is leaving, the Emmys are calling, a Shannen Doherty superfan flew 7,000 miles for reasons I had to talk her out of, and two executives had a shouting match that was just this side of Itchy and Scratchy.

Episode 37 is about new beginnings, holding on to what matters and growing up.

Written and read by Karl Gibson.

💛 To support the podcast and help keep it independent, donations can be made from 96 countries here:  
https://letstalkabouthollywood.com/support

or to support my GoFundMe here, international currency donations available: 

https://gofund.me/9fa60a3b2

The podcast will always be free and runs on audience donations. I’ll thank you on the air in an episode! Thank you!

Ep. 38: Thank You To My Listeners In 30 Countries!

This is Episode 38 of Let’s Talk About Hollywood : a listener appreciation episode from the newsroom floor to you.

Less than 1% of independent podcasts reach 30 countries. This one did. With no ads, no PR, no notes from brands. Just a 2002 newsroom diary that leads to 24 years (and counting) of Hollywood and you.

In this episode: My thank you to my listeners both in America and the world!  Why I’m here. To share not just my Hollywood journal, but the loss of a spouse, the weight of $100 million and multi-billion dollar brands, and the truth that art and entertainment are the great equalizer. Audiences are the key to any profession and I’m grateful you’re here with me.

I talk about which episodes you’ve connected with most, and my aim to stay honest while building a global narrative community. From editorial assistant to studio executive, this archive is ours now.

Season 2 continues. Thank you for making this more than an audio memoir. Love is real and I wish you all great things!

Ep. 39: Leaving It All On The $50 Million Dollar Floor (2002)

September 10-12, 2002. The Hollywood Reporter newsroom.

My supervisor’s leaving. I turned her job down. Twice. Boss asks my salary and the first two numbers lower than my age. He looks astounded. “Your boss needs you both. If you leave, he’s f*cked.” Raises submitted for January 2003. $13.50 an hour. Sales up 23%.

It’s the 1-year 9/11 anniversary. Moment of silence in the office park. THR’s issue: no exploitative pictures. Stone’s IT department confiscates his World Trade Center photos for their commemoration. “Why do you need these?”

Emmy meeting. “No way in hell I want a temp on that night.” 3pm-1am overtime. Red carpet. Bomb sweep. Stone: “Think positive!” Me: “It’s about thinking realistically.”

I was 32. Leaving it all on the $50M floor. Because that’s how you stay A-list on any rung of the totem pole.

From the newsroom floor to 30 countries. Season 2 continues.

Ep. 40: Assistant to the Editor

September 13-18, 2002. The Hollywood Reporter newsroom.

Looking back, the job and salary negotiations were straight forward and direct: my boss called me in, closed the door, and a plan to fill the Assistant to the Editor role was cemented. Clear. Direct. Respect.

I took the role: Assistant to the Editor. More than a 1/3 salary jump in 11 months. My co-assistant is the editor for the Calendar of Events page with her much deserved byline. I keep my 52-extension phone console so we all have access to breaking news. “What I don’t know, I need you to H-E-L-P me,” I told my boss. He said, “You’re good at math.”

Stone wanted to run around the office yelling. Mom said get close to the salary number. Peter Pryor said “great hire.” Bob Dowling still has to approve it, but “there’s no turning back.”

Black journalists were ∼5% of U.S. newsrooms then. I was one of them. On the phones. On the floor. 

Everyone’s career peak is their respective ride….just be ready.