This week on Operation Recap HBO’s Task, we ask why Task isn’t called Dads of Delco or Maeve of Easttown, or even, For Fifty-Year-Old Men, By Fifty Year Old Men, and actually deliver an answer that we heard on another podcast. BUT, don’t worry - you are getting fresh insights here, when we break down the major question mark of this episode: who are the moles?

Join us next week for Ep 4!

Pull up a seat with an alarmingly overstuffed hoagie, because it's time for this week's episode 2 recap of HBO’s Task!

From FBI war rooms to chicken coops (both are essentially shacks), Task keeps building its character-driven “Sons of Anarchy reject script” storytelling around the big question: who counts as family, and how far will you go to protect them?

Episode 2 maintains the dramatic anchor of Task in in its characters, through messy families and the dangerous weight of responsibility. Naturally, children are in the crosshairs, Harleys are rumblin', and there is a Pearl Jam song prominently featured. How mad is Sean Penn that he is not in this?!

Hit play and see you next week.

Welcome to our first weekly recap of HBO’s latest Sunday night prestige crime saga, Task. This Delco-set Tale of Two Sad Dads from Mare of Easttown writer-director Brad Inglesby stars Mark Ruffalo as a grieving ex-priest–turned-alcoholic FBI agent with a philosophy degree, and Tom Pelphrey as a garbage man–turned–robber trying to keep his family afloat. Sign us UP, girl!

Starting next week, our Task recaps will live on tellmeaboutyourfather.substack.com. All you have to do to hear them is hit “subscribe.” It’s free. Save your money for wooder ices. See you again next week.

Literary It girl Caroline Calloway joins Erin Hosier and Elizabeth Thompson to talk about her father's tragic suicide amidst her viral public shaming in 2019, her obsession with the late Prozac Nation memoirist and Gen X agent of chaos Elizabeth Wurtzel (who Erin knew well as EW's first assistant in 1999), and the generational legacies left by their unknowable fathers (particularly Wurtzel's secret bio dad Bob Adelman). Caroline interviews Erin about the making of Wurtzel's 2001 advice book, Radical Sanity - which is the inspiration for Caroline's latest - and the three discuss the fallout of the daddy issues complicated women inherit from complicated men.

[1:00–12:00] Becoming Caroline Calloway

The rise of Caroline’s Instagram-era fame, her viral captions, and the internet culture that turned her into a lightning rod. Caroline shares how grieving her father led her to a midnight pilgrimage to the Harvard library, connecting with the version of him she loved most.

[12:00–20:00] Scammer and SurvivalCaroline leans into the “scammer” label and reframes it.

[20:00–36:00] Father Fallout

TW: A frank discussion of Caroline’s father’s suicide, mental illness, and the parallels the hosts draw from their own paternal losses.

[36:00–53:00] Ghosts We Can LoveCaroline reads from Scammer, reflecting on the “younger version” of her father she grieves and how memory can be redemptive.

[53:00–1:03:00] The Wurtzel ConnectionErin recounts her friendship with Elizabeth Wurtzel and the confessional literary era of the 90s that reshaped women’s writing, and the tragic true story of EW's secret father

[1:03:00–1:14:00] Literary LineageCaroline explains her obsession with Wurtzel, the artifacts she collected, and why “messy women” matter.

[1:14:00–End] Mentorship, Madness, and MeaningA spirited discussion of mentorship, fandom, and finding beauty in complicated legacies.

Author Aatish Taseer, whose new book A Return To Self: Excursions in Exile comes out this week, did not meet his father, Salman Taseer, the former Governor of Punjab, Pakistan until he was 21 and their relationship was, to say the least, complicated. In 2009, he wrote a book about the experience, Stranger to History, about his journey to meet his father that was also an exploration of what it means to be a Muslim in the 21st Century. Shortly after Aatish made contact with his father, in early 2011, Governor Taseer was assassinated by his own bodyguard for pardoning a woman who had been sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed. On this episode of Tell Me About Your Father, Aatish Taseer talks with Matt Phillp about his new book, the complicated response he continues to have to his father’s violent assassination, the value and beauty of going on a pilgrimage, what it means to identify with a nation, and how it feels to have been ejected by one.

1:24 – Stranger to History & Aftermath. The journey to meet his father, writing Stranger to History, and how the book was used in the trial of his father’s killer.

4:06 – Exile from India & Dual Identity. Losing Indian citizenship after criticizing Modi, and grappling with home, identity, and belonging.

5:10 – Pilgrimage & Spiritual Encounters. Travel, grief, and spiritual moments in Morocco and Mongolia — including Aatish’s first adult prayer and an eerie experience in the Sahara.

21:43 – "Venus & Serena" and royal racism. Aatish recounts his relationship with Lady Gabriella Windsor and the story of Princess Michael of Kent’s black sheep named Venus and Serena.

25:23 – Fragility of Privilege & Royal Absurdity. Reflections on British aristocracy, EasyJet royalty, and being exiled from elite circles.

33:41 – The Power of Ritual. Burning Man, sacred spaces, and the shared human need for grief and connection.

39:28 – Pilgrimage as Memory. A Mongolian shamanic ritual leads to insights on memory, loss, and reconciling with the past.

53:21 – Fathers, Futility & Freedom. The complicated relief after his father’s death, and commentary on liberalism, values, and the West.

1:00:07 – Family, Writing, and What Remains. On estrangement, inheritance, finding home with his husband, and the writer’s role in making sense of it all.

Follow this podcast on Instagram here

Follow Matt Phillp here / Follow Erin Hosier here / Follow Elizabeth Thompson here

It's Gay Pride (in America)! To commemorate iconic homosexual musician George Michael in the week of what would have been his 62nd birthday, and for our fifth annual Pride episode in the last week of Pride MONTH, Matt takes a look at the enduring cultural impact of George Michael's song Father Figure, and the idea that, as eminent American producer, Dick Clark once put it “Music is the soundtrack of your life.” And from there, Matt talks about how George Michael’s music helped him as a small boy to re-discover the fun of pop music, and maybe even life, after the sudden death of his father. It’s an episode about a whole lot of things, it runs a slim, almost 27 minutes (a commute!), and it includes Liza Minnelli, Stephen Sondheim, and The Pet Shop Boys in a small but reassuring way.

Subscribe to our substack here

Follow us on Instagram here

Follow Matt Phillp here

Follow Erin Hosier here

Follow Elizabeth Thompson here

On today’s bonus episode of TMAYF, we look back at 6 episodes over the last 5 years that we just can’t stop thinking about. Featuring political podcaster Ravi Gupta, psychic medium Victoria Laurie, fine artist Chris Santa Maria's on his Uncle Bunky, Superstar Molly Shannon, author Gretchen Cherington, and the incomparable Christian Nightmares.

In Part 3, we take a closer look at Elon's descent into Dark MAGA, his unshakeable bond with his father Errol (who now hosts a YouTube channel called Dad of a Genius), and the hopeful rebellion of Musk’s daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson. Sometimes, being your own dad is the only way out.