Time Crisis with Ezra Koenig


Time Crisis is a fortnightly internet radio show hosted by Ezra Koenig and Jake Longstreth. The show began airing on July 12, 2015 on Apple Music's radio service, Beats 1. The show covers a variety of topics, such as politics, corporate food history, 1970s rock music, city living, as well as frequently analyzing the latest in contemporary pop music by contrasting it with music released in another era. In addition to Koenig, a variety of guest hosts have appeared over the show's history, including Jonah Hill, Rashida Jones and Jamie Foxx. Since 2017, Koenig is accompanied by co-host, Jake Longstreth, who regularly proclaims his love for the "tasteful palette" of classic rock, particularly music from The Grateful Dead, Ween and Guided by Voices.
The show typically airs every two weeks. In March of 2020, motivated by the increased number of listeners working from home due to the novel coronavirus, Time Crisis began airing on a weekly basis. As of June 7th, 2020, 123 episodes have aired. The show is in its sixth season, as of 2020.

Format and Segments

The show follows a general format each episode during its two-hour runtime, usually with listener emails and other discussions in the first half of the show and the Top Five on iTunes at the episode's conclusion.

News Discussions

The most common segment on the call, in which Koenig and his co-hosts discuss the most relevant and obscure news topics of the week, generally relating to politics or current happenings in the world of entertainment.

''The Time Crisis Mail Bag''

This has been a regular segment since the show's third season. Initially, the segment began after a fan located Jake Longstreth's personal email. The segment now utilizes the email 8minutecapecod@gmail.com a reference to an episode aired in July 2017 where they joked about the prospect of an 8 minute Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa to be played on the next Vampire Weekend tour.
Fans generally send in questions regarding 1970s music and suggest artists to the hosts that they believe are "tasteful" and fit Longstreth's ideal palette. Another popular topic submitted by fans relates to the corporate food history segment of the show.

Corporate Food History Discussions

Frequently, Koenig and guests analyse the current landscape of the corporate food industry, as well as looking back on the history of snack foods across the world. In 2016, Jennifer Saenz, chief marketing executive of the Frito-Lay corporation appeared. Additionally, the show has discussed Subway on multiple episodes and their obscure promotions, such as the Five Dollar Footlong deal. In 2018, the show highly criticised the Lady Dorito proposition by hosting a Lady Dorito's Town Hall, featuring Rashida Jones and Longstreth's wife and filmmaker, Hannah Fidell.

''Time Crisis Hotline''

Koenig regularly takes phone calls and has intimate discussions with notable journalists, political commentators, corporate food professionals and celebrities. Notable calls have included Seinfeld theme composer, Jonathan Wolff, Reading Rainbow composer, Steve Horelick and more.

''Jake's Takes''

A recurring segment in which Longstreth recommends or discusses music, with notable recommendations such as The Grateful Dead, Guided by Voices, Ween, Phish, Neil Young, Small Faces and more. Occasionally, Longstreth compiles playlists for Apple Music, notably The Tasteful Palette of Seventies Rock and more recently, Jake's Old Wisdom Playlist.

''Sweet Chili Heat World Premiere''

A segment in which the crew premiere fan generated music. The music is often inspired by events that take place on previous episodes of the show.

''Top Five on iTunes''

Koenig and Longstreth regularly compare and contrast the iTunes chart from the current week with another music chart from the same week in another year. Notably, the show has regularly jokingly criticized the music of Ed Sheeran, such as his 2017 hit, Shape of You. Koenig and Longstreth commonly refer to the song as Bed Sheets, in reference to one of the song's lines. Fan response to this criticism has been overwhelmingly positive, with one particular fan even compiling the discussions into a complete 32-minute compilation.

Other Segments

Other segments have included New York News.

Cast

Core Crisis Crew

Enemies of the Show

Season 1 (2015-2016)

Season 1 aired from 2015 to 2016. Notable guests included Rashida Jones, Jamie Foxx, Mark Ronson, Jonah Hill and Azealia Banks.
Season 2 aired in 2016. Notable guests included Jerrod Carmichael, Jonah Hill, Jennifer Saenz and Ariel Rechtshaid.
Season 3 aired in 2017. Notable guests included Jerrod Carmichael, Cazzie David, Tim Heidecker, Zachary Fox and Seinfeld theme composer, Jonathan Wolff.
Season 4 aired in 2018. Notable guest stars included Carson Mell, Rashida Jones, T-Pain, Chris Baio, Alanis Morissette, Dave Longstreth, Cazzie David, Jason Mantzoukas and Hannah Fidell.
Season 5 began on January 13, 2019 and ended on December 15, 2019. Due to the launch of Vampire Weekend's album, Father of the Bride and subsequent touring, many episodes were pre-recorded and are known as banked episodes or also 'banked eps'.

Merchandising

There have been a few pieces of official Time Crisis merchandise, which have been available through various giveaways on Twitter. The most common have been T-shirts bearing the phrase, '8 Minute Cape Cod' on the front, with various designs and colors.
Time Crisis Honorary Membership cards have also been given away, which mention the Core Values.
On November 3, 2019, Seinfeld2000 coined the term, 'Popcorn and Raisins' and promoted a line of merchandise based upon this phrase. Shirts were made available the following week.