Five Things

Clarence Bucaro is a singer-songwriter and a one-time stay-at-home dad. He's been making albums since 2000, with some twists and turns along the way. He's also in a two-person book club with his mom. #goals +

This week’s episode is an update from one of our previous guests, Joe Phelps. He was originally on the show in May of 2017, when he spoke about the unexpected loss of his son, his work as pastor of Highland Baptist Church, and that one time he got to hang out with Bruce Springsteen. It’s still one of my very favorite episodes we’ve ever done. Last fall, I reached out to him for a follow-up conversation, because I had heard he had retired from Highland Baptist, and I was curious about what he was doing.

I met Mario Landa probably 15 years ago, when he was the doorman in my apartment building in New York City. For five years, I saw him almost every single day. If you’re not familiar with what a doorman does, we’ll talk more about that in this interview. Spoiler: it’s a lot more than opening a door. We’ve kept in touch since I moved away from the city, and last summer I sat down with him in his apartment to do this interview. He cracked open a couple of beers, and his two little dogs scurried around at our feet.

Musician Ben Sollee, who was first on the show in September 2017, gives us an update on his new daughter, his new day job, and his new side gigs. It's a lot.

Writer Minda Honey has an advice column for Louisville's LEO Weekly, and she's working on a memoir about her dating life. She also really, really loves her rice cooker.

As an attorney, taking a case to the Supreme Court is about the highest goal one can aspire to -- and then actually winning that case, and helping change the lives of millions of Americans... it's a huge achievement. So what's a fellow to do next? If you're Indiana lawyer Dan Canon, and you just helped make marriage equality legal in all 50 states, it looks like this: make a run for Congress, while still maintaining a law practice, cooking for a growing family, and maybe picking up a guitar once in a while.

It’s not often that a poem goes viral. But it happened in 2016, with “Good Bones” by Maggie Smith. I won’t read it for you now, but it’s short and you can find it online with a quick search. It speaks to anyone who’s concerned about the current state of our world -- which is probably most of us. It’s honest, and hopeful, and feels like a friend taking your arm, maybe a little bit too firmly, and saying, “We can get through this.” So I was delighted when I was asked to interview Maggie at the Writers’ Block Festival, an annual gathering put on by Louisville Literary Arts. She and I were onstage at Spalding University’s College Street Building on a Saturday morning, in front of an appreciative audience of writers, poets, agents, and publishers.

Checking in with Emily McCay, who was a guest on this podcast in July of 2017. She was known around Louisville as "The Diaper Fairy," because of her cloth diaper business of the same name, which had also grown into a store and a community center for new parents. When we spoke last summer, she was in remission from acute myeloid leukemia.

Today’s guest has two personalities, in a way -- in daily life, he’s Samuel Penn, 26 years old, grew up in Frankfort, Kentucky, then moved to New York City. He’s also a drag queen, named Gilda Wabbit, with huge hair, long fingernails, a big voice and a pretty filthy mouth. www.gildawabbit.com

Our guest is Mindy Thomas, host of "Wow in the World," a podcast for kids about science from NPR, and "Absolutely Mindy" from Sirius XM. Her actual hands aren't particularly tiny but she has some fake ones that have come in... handy. (Sorry not sorry.)

Idris Goodwin is a playwright and the (new) Artistic Director of StageOne Family Theatre in Louisville. Listen to find out what a breakbeat poet is, how a cookbook is like a play script, and his complicated relationship with Mary Shelley.

A dog, a houseplant, an old car for driving around town. These are the things valued by a busy touring musician-slash-restauranteur.

I first “met” writer Susan Piver when I read her book, “The Hard Questions: 100 Questions to Ask Before You Say ‘I Do’” which I recommend as an excellent guidebook for talking with your significant other before taking that big step. Later, I learned that she was a Buddhist and a meditation teacher, and I had the opportunity to spend some time with her in person at a retreat center. But don’t assume that her whole life has been blissful and super-chill -- she’s got some stories to tell.

Izio Rosenman is 83 years old, he was born in Poland, he spent his childhood in the Buchenwald concentration camp, and he has lived in Paris since the camp was liberated. Professionally, he was a physicist, a psychoanalyst, and an anthropologist. He 's got some thoughts on life.

Hey, it's Tara, here with a quick update. I know this feed has been quiet for the past little while, and I'm here to let you know that the next season of Five Things is coming up really soon! I've been working this summer on seeking out some extraordinary guests to interview, and I think you'll really enjoy hearing what I have in store. Starting September 6th, I'll have conversations with fascinating people including an 83-year-old Holocaust survivor, a drag queen, a lawyer who ran for Congress, a Buddhist meditation teacher who used to be part of the Guardian Angels -- and more. So, sit tight, thanks for listening, and I'll see you back here on September 6th.

Jesse Thorn, of NPR's "Bullseye" as well as "Jordan, Jesse, Go!" and "Judge John Hodgman," tells us about the highly idiosyncratic objects that sum up his highly idiosyncratic life. I recently learned that he is a devotee of "Antiques Roadshow," and I knew I needed to get him on Five Things. **Programming note: this is the last episode of the season! We're taking a break for the summer and will be back in the fall. In the meantime, might I suggest you peruse our archives? I bet your new favorite episode is just sitting there, unlistened. :)

This week’s guest is Angela Davis, a schoolteacher whose primary teaching tool is knitting needles. And this conversation between us arose from her first item -- I saw her at the theatre, wearing a gorgeous coat, and I had to ask her about it.

This week, we’ll hear from a woman whose job is to get kids psyched up about reading. And through that job, she met her hero.

Writer Leesa Cross-Smith is based in Louisville, and she’s just published her first novel, "Whiskey and Ribbons." Find out why she considered it a radical act to tell the story in the way she did, what’s her secret weapon when it comes to getting writing done, and the tweet so good… she put it on a coffee mug. http://www.leesacrosssmith.com/ https://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/1353-ain-t-half-bad

My guest this week is one of my very favorite musicians, Joe Henry. His brother Dave was one of my first guests on this show, and I was thrilled when Joe agreed to take part as well. He’s just released his fourteenth studio album, called “Thrum,” and he’s also produced records for a lot of amazing musicians, including Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Ani DiFranco, and Allen Toussaint. He’s co-written songs with Roseanne Cash and with Madonna -- who happens to be his sister-in-law.

The host of "Note to Self," a podcast about the human side of technology, tells us about the simple, small things that keep her grounded (and on time).

Mark Schultz is the author of "Evocation to Visible Appearance," among other plays, and he's also a priest in the Episcopal Church. He was in Louisville for the premiere of his play at the Humana Festival at Actors' Theatre, and we talked about his fondness for black metal, Kurt Weill, and his husband.

This episode's guest is Chef Anoosh Shariat, owner of two Louisville restaurants, Anoosh Bistro and Noosh Nosh. He grew up in Iran, learned classical “fine dining” techniques, and was a local pioneer in fusion cooking.

My guest this week on Five Things is Claude Stephens, who works as an educator at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, just south of Louisville. But as he says, there are many other ways he moves through the world.

Vin Scelsa is a familiar name to anybody who grew up listening to FM radio in the New York/New Jersey area. He spent nearly 50 years playing music on the radio, starting out at a college station, then a couple of  commercial stations, before heading to public radio.He was on the air the night that John Lennon died in 1980, and he turned WNEW's airwaves into a kind of virtual wake, with callers sharing their grief.  Along the way, he interviewed everybody from David Bowie to Suzanne Vega to Kurt Vonnegut.  I met Vin when we were both working at WFUV in the Bronx, Fordham University’s public radio station, and he did a weekly show called “Idiot’s Delight.” He’s retired now, and I visited him last summer at his home in suburban New Jersey, where he and his wife Freddie had bagels and coffee waiting for me. After we ate and caught up, we went into his home studio to talk.

Amanda Stahl works at Mattingly Edge, a Louisville organization that works with people with disabilities, with the goal of helping them live independently. Amanda has a masters degree in social work, and works at Mattingly as a counselor, talking with clients about personal and emotional issues. She has a disability herself and uses a wheelchair, so she has a particular understanding of some of her clients' specific concerns. I hope you'll listen as Amanda blows up some of the stereotypes that many of us have for people with disabilities. She's a badass.

Musician Dan Zanes calls what he does "family music" or "all-ages music," not "children's music," because he really is playing for everybody. In talking with him, I learned about how he really sees his music and the way he plays as part of an effort toward social justice. We also talked about his new wife (they just got married in January!) and his Grammy award, and he turned me on to some super cool Haitian music.

This week’s guest is a big thinker, with his head in a million different places. He’s got a very public job that puts him in touch with a lot of people -- and the ensemble he leads had the number 1 classical album in the country last year -- but this was a rare opportunity to just sit down and talk with Teddy Abrams, music director of the Louisville Orchestra.

This week's guest is Angie Fenton, a name that’s familiar to many Louisville TV viewers -- she’s frequently seen on WHAS 11, as a contributor to their morning news show. She seems to be everywhere -- emcee-ing a gala event, reporting on happenings all around the community. She’s the editor-in-chief of Extol Magazine, which she runs with her husband, Jason Applegate, and as of December (after our interview was recorded), she's also the editor-in-chief of The Voice-Tribune, a society newspaper.

This week’s guest is a performer who specializes in hiding what he’s actually doing onstage -- and directing your attention elsewhere.

My guest this week is an author based in Corydon, Indiana, not far from Louisville. Frank Bill has just released his third book, a novel titled The Savage. It’s a post-apocalyptic tale of survival, set in and around Corydon after the economy has totally collapsed, and civil society along with it. In a word: it's intense.

Hannah Drake is a poet, a spoken-word artist, and a cultural producer with Ideas xLab, which works at the intersection of health and art. She’s someone who thinks deeply, feels deeply, and communicates brilliantly. All of Hannah’s items were fascinating, but one in particular resonated with me in a way I didn’t expect.

This week, my guest is someone who spends some of his time in creative work, but it’s not something he ever imagined he’d do. James Prichard is a member of Shakespeare Behind Bars, a theatre troupe based at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in LaGrange, Kentucky. That also means -- he’s incarcerated there.

This week's guest on Five Things is Ophira Eisenberg, stand-up comedian, writer, and host of the NPR comedy game show Ask Me Another. She's also got a new comedy special just out, called "Inside Joke," which she taped when she was about 38 weeks pregnant with her first child. She was 43 years old and never thought she'd be a mother -- and she is very honest about some of those concerns that first-time moms have, but rarely share in public. We had a great conversation about some of the things that she values, including a collection she never meant to have, some jewelry sent to her from faraway relatives, and the pickiest plant there is.

Kayla Rae Whitaker is the author of "The Animators," a novel published earlier this year by Random House. She's a Kentucky native who recently moved to Louisville after several years in New York City. Among other things, we talked about what it's like to come back "home" and how she finally learned to accept her (gorgeous) curly hair. Kayla's essay for Lenny on imposter syndrome: http://www.lennyletter.com/life/a1000/my-imposter-year-kayla-rae-whitaker/ Kayla's essay for BuzzFeed on getting sober: https://www.buzzfeed.com/kaylaraewhitaker/dating-after-drinking?utm_term=.woKL7ZoZG#.whrbKakay

This week's show was recorded live at the Writers' Block Festival in Louisville, Kentucky, in October 2017. Kentucky's Poet Laureate, Frederick Smock, was my guest -- we talked about how children are natural poets, how his father taught him to be a professional "noticer," and what writers can learn from rejection.

This week, we're sharing a rebroadcast of one of our most popular episodes: a conversation with Joe Phelps, pastor at Highland Baptist Church in Louisville. He's recently announced his retirement after 20 years of service. After nearly 50 episodes of Five Things, I can honestly say that this is one of the conversations that has most stuck with me.

My guest this week has been in situations that I can only imagine -- four deployments with the US Army will put you in harm’s way on a regular basis. Fred Johnson is a retired Army colonel who now describes himself as a “professional volunteer,” as he’s trying to find his path after nearly 30 years in the military. He’s written a book about his experience, called Five Wars: A Soldier's Journey to Peace -- he says the fifth war was after he came home and tried to reintegrate into civilian life. I first met Fred when he came to tell a story at The Moth StorySLAM, which I produce here in Louisville. I was struck by his openness and clarity, and his very public search for healing. He told stories about cultural differences in Afghanistan, about the mistake he feels he made in Iraq, and about the moment when he knew he needed help.

This week's guest on Five Things is writer and community leader Amy Bammel Wilding. She's the creator and lead facilitator at Red Tent Louisville, which she describes as a gathering place "dedicated to witnessing and inspiring the reawakening of the Sacred Feminine." A collection of guided meditations that Wilding wrote for gatherings at the Red Tent has just been released as a book, "Wild & Wise: Sacred Feminine Meditations for Women's Circles and Personal Awakenings."

The first Victor LaValle book I ever read was his 2012 novel, "The Devil In Silver." It's a masterful blend of horror and social commentary -- horror's not typically my thing but I loved it. LaValle has won all kinds of awards and accolades, and his latest book, "The Changeling," not only received glowing reviews, but it's in development for a television series. His recent comic book, "Victor LaValle's DESTROYER," is a continuation of the Frankenstein story with a Black Lives Matter twist. When I was in New York over the summer, I reached out to see if Victor would be up for doing an episode of Five Things, and he graciously welcomed me to the apartment he shares with his wife and two kids. We sat at the kitchen table on a sunny morning and talked.

This week's guest on Five Things is an accountant who's finally figured out how to use her skills to support the things she believes in. Let me explain -- Dawn Howard has experienced a political transformation over the past few years. She describes herself as a former Republican who is now "super-left," as she says, and she says that change started when she broke her ankle while living in Ireland. (Listen to the episode to learn how that makes sense together.) She recently quit her job as a corporate tax professional to open her own consulting firm, and that led her to becoming a paid staffer for a political campaign: she's now the finance director for Dan Canon's Congressional run in Indiana's 9th District. Dawn is a friend of mine, and that's why I knew she'd be great in this context -- she's unusually open about her challenges in life, and she talks about serious things in a really smart, funny way. I'm so glad to share her story here.

Reshma Shetty and I met nearly 20 years ago in Lexington, Kentucky, when she had just moved to town for graduate school in music and I was working at the university. Later, we both lived in New York City, right around the corner from each other. I helped her practice her lines when she had an audition for a TV show that turned out to be her first big gig: the role of Divya Katdare on USA Network's Royal Pains. That show has now ended after 8 seasons, and Reshma had her first child a couple of years ago, so life is looking different for her these days.

NPR reporter Sam Sanders was one of the breakout stars of the 2016 election season. He's now the host of his own podcast (and radio show), called It's Been A Minute, in which he talks with newsmakers, artists, and other reporters about everything from music and television to a round-up of the week's news. It's been described as a show for people who are exhausted by the news but can't stop — which probably describes many of us these days. I was delighted to talk with Sanders recently, although he was in a studio at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., and I was in a studio in Louisville so we couldn't see each other. He sent me a couple of pictures of some of his items, including a compost bin that was part of a story he did very early in his career, a hat that looks like a pizza (yep), and his couch.

Will Russell founded Lebowski Fest, a yearly celebration of the Coen Brothers’ movie that then spread nationwide. He owned two stores, Why Louisville, that sold t-shirts and other work made by local artists. Then he got a big, ambitious idea -- around the same time that his mental health started to falter. After a very public meltdown that included several arrests, a declaration of bankruptcy, Will Russell is ready to talk about his experience -- what got him there in the first place, and what got him through.

This week’s guest is world-renowned opera singer Christine Brewer, a Wagnerian soprano who’s performed on just about every stage and with every company you can imagine: the Metropolitan Opera, The London Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and more. She’s collaborating with composer John Williams -- you know, the guy who wrote the Star Wars music -- on a new album. She's also delightfully down-to-earth.

My guest this week, Louisville-based musician Ben Sollee, has been recording and touring since 2008, so he's done a LOT of interviews over the years. He's good at talking about his music, how he makes it, why he does what he does, and the environmental and cultural issues he wants to advocate. But this exercise of selecting physical objects is a way to get someone like Ben out of the usual "artist interview" routine, and even if you've heard him interviewed before, this conversation was something different. He’s got a new album just out, called “Kentucky Native,” and a new baby on the way later this fall. And as you’ll hear, he’s taking stock of what’s important and thinking about what’s next.

Each week on Five Things, we meet a guest who has selected five physical objects that have been resonant or important in his or her life, and we learn about that person from those things. Usually we sit in a quiet studio at Louisville Public Media, but for this week’s interview, I went to visit Tom Edwards at his business, the MozzaPi cafe. It’s a huge brick and wood space, with giant doors that open onto a peaceful wooded area. So at various times in this conversation, you’ll hear a train going by, you’ll hear the cicadas and birds outside, and you’ll hear the whoosh of a massive fridge kicking on and then off again. The cafe is just one part of Edwards’ constellation of businesses: he also owns Louismill, which mills grain into flour and grits, an artisan bread-baking school, and a catering business. But he sees his business ventures as more than just a way to earn a living -- he's got a bigger vision about the way we interact with food, with the earth, and with each other.

A situation almost guaranteed to produce dread: when your friend says, "Hey, I'm performing the one-woman play that I wrote about my life, you should come!" I hadn't known Teresa Willis all that long when she invited me to come see "Eenie Meenie," but I wanted to be supportive, even though a solo autobiographical show sounded like a cringe-inducing couple of hours. As it happened, however, the show was terrific: smart, funny, self-deprecating, enlightening, and authentic -- much like Teresa herself. I'm so pleased to have Teresa as a guest on Five Things this week. We had a great conversation about her creative journey, her upbringing in Louisville, and how her famous cousin has impacted her life.

On this week’s episode of Five Things, our guest is writer Patrick Wensink, a novelist whose first-ever children’s book is coming out next week. "Go Go Gorillas” was inspired by Wensink's visits to the zoo with his young son, when he wondered why the gorillas were always sleeping during the day. The book suggests that maybe the gorillas are partying all night! Wensink has been based in Louisville for several years, and recently moved with his family to Portland, Oregon, so he can attend grad school. His 2015 novel, "Fake Fruit Factory," was on NPR's list of best books of the year, and his 2012 book, "Broken Piano for President" got some attention for its Jack-Daniels-inspired cover art. He talked with me about one of his collection of Johnny Mercer lyrics, which he used as inspiration when he was writing his rhyming book for kids, along with other objects of creative resilience.

On this week’s episode of Five Things, my guest is Matt Jones, the host of Kentucky Sports Radio and the co-founder of the New Kentucky Project. He’s best known for being a professional fan of Kentucky basketball, but he’s also an attorney with several years of practice under his belt. We talked about an experience in law school that changed his life, about how winning a golf tournament at age 10 made him feel, and about an important novel given to him by his childhood pastor.

This week's guest is a writer who first came to my attention when she performed at The Moth StorySLAM in Louisville (producing that monthly event is my other job). Tasha Golden seemed a bit nervous as she told a story of living next door to a couple who were obviously going through some domestic violence, and she didn't know what to do. She ended up winning the competition that night, and I wanted to know more about her. As it turns out, she had spent plenty of time onstage at previous times in her life, but usually as a singer, touring with the band Ellery. A few years ago, an episode of severe depression led her to get off the road, get an MFA in poetry, and pursue a public health degree, studying the effects of the arts and health. She also teaches writing workshops for young women who are incarcerated, and Ellery has just put out a new EP, their first release since 2010. Our conversation about the objects that are precious to her was funny and touching, and ultimately, it was about resiliency.