The most powerful people in American politics are bypassing polished network anchors to sit on a casual couch with a guy who might ask about national tax policy and a childhood stray raccoon in the same breath. How did Theo Von dismantle the interview?

This episode is a story-driven biography of comedian and podcaster Theodore Capitani von Kurnatowski III, tracing how reality-TV baggage, an unusual upbringing, and a locked Hollywood door forced him to build an independent media kingdom that politicians now can't ignore.

• A Polish-Nicaraguan upbringing in working-class Louisiana, raised partly by a father born in 1912
• Legal emancipation at 14, six colleges, and the survival-tour life that made him able to read any room
• The MTV 'reality TV curse' that branded him radioactive to comedy talent agents
• How the vo ...