Podcasts about cha cha cha

What does it take to keep your voice—and your purpose—strong through every season of life? In this episode of Unstoppable Mindset, I sit down with my friend Bill Ratner, one of Hollywood's most recognized voice actors, best known as Flint from GI Joe. Bill's voice has carried him through radio, animation, and narration, but what stands out most is how he's used that same voice to serve others through storytelling, teaching, and grief counseling. Together, we explore the heart behind his work—from bringing animated heroes to life to standing on The Moth stage and helping people find healing through poetry. Bill shares lessons from his own journey, including losing both parents early, finding family in unexpected places, and discovering how creative expression can rebuild what life breaks down. We also reflect on 9/11, preparedness, and the quiet confidence that comes from trusting your training—whether you're a first responder, a performer, or just navigating the unknown. This conversation isn't just about performance; it's about presence. It's about using your story, your craft, and your compassion to keep moving forward—unstoppable, one voice at a time. Highlights: 00:31 – Hear the Flint voice and what it takes to bring animated characters to life. 06:57 – Learn why an uneven college path still led to a lifelong acting career. 11:50 – Understand how GI Joe became a team and a toy phenomenon that shaped culture. 15:58 – See how comics and cartoons boosted classroom literacy when used well. 17:06 – Pick up simple ways parents can spark reading through shared stories. 19:29 – Discover how early, honest conversations about death can model resilience. 24:09 – Learn to critique ads and media like a pro to sharpen your own performance. 36:19 – Follow the pivot from radio to voiceover and why specialization pays. 47:48 – Hear practical editing approaches and accessible tools that keep shows tight. 49:38 – Learn how The Moth builds storytelling chops through timed, judged practice. 55:21 – See how poetry—and poetry therapy—support grief work with students. 59:39 – Take notes on memoir writing, emotional management, and one-person shows. About the Guest: Bill Ratner is one of America's best known voice actors and author of poetry collections Lamenting While Doing Laps in the Lake (Slow Lightning Lit 2024,) Fear of Fish (Alien Buddha Press 2021,) To Decorate a Casket (Finishing Line Press 2021,) and the non-fiction book Parenting For The Digital Age: The Truth Behind Media's Effect On Children and What To Do About It (Familius Books 2014.) He is a 9-time winner of the Moth StorySLAM, 2-time winner of Best of The Hollywood Fringe Extension Award for Solo Performance, Best of the Net Poetry Nominee 2023 (Lascaux Review,) and New Millennium "America One Year From Now" Writing Award Finalist. His writing appears in Best Small Fictions 2021 (Sonder Press,) Missouri Review (audio,) Baltimore Review, Chiron Review, Feminine Collective, and other journals. He is the voice of "Flint" in the TV cartoon G.I. Joe, "Donnell Udina" in the computer game Mass Effect, the voice of Air Disasters on Smithsonian Channel, NewsNation, and network TV affiliates across the country. He is a committee chair for his union, SAG-AFTRA, teaches Voiceovers for SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Media Awareness for Los Angeles Unified School District, and is a trained grief counsellor. Member: Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild-AFTRA, National Storytelling Network • https://billratner.com • @billratner Ways to connect with Bill: https://soundcloud.com/bill-ratner https://www.instagram.com/billratner/ https://twitter.com/billratner https://www.threads.net/@billratner https://billratner.tumblr.com https://www.youtube.com/@billratner/videos https://www.facebook.com/billratner.voiceover.author https://bsky.app/profile/bilorat.bsky.social About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well on a gracious hello to you, wherever you may be, I am your host. Mike hingson, and you are listening to unstoppable mindset. Today, we get to have a voice actor, person, Bill Ratner, who you want to know who Bill Radnor is, go back and watch the old GI Joe cartoons and listen to the voice of Flint.   Bill Ratner ** 01:42 All right. Lady Jay, you better get your battle gear on, because Cobra is on their way. And I can't bring up the Lacher threat weapon system. We got to get out of here. Yo, Joe,   Michael Hingson ** 01:52 there you go. I rest my case Well, Bill, welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Bill Ratner ** 02:00 We can't rest now. Michael, we've just begun. No, we've just begun.   Michael Hingson ** 02:04 We got to keep going here. Well, I'm really glad that you're here. Bill is another person who we inveigled to get on unstoppable mindset with the help of Walden Hughes. And so that means we can talk about Walden all we want today. Bill just saying, oh goodness. And I got a lot to say. Let me tell you perfect, perfect. Bring it on. So we are really grateful to Walden, although I hope he's not listening. We don't want to give him a big head. But no, seriously, we're really grateful. Ah, good point.   Bill Ratner ** 02:38 But his posture, oddly enough, is perfect.   Michael Hingson ** 02:40 Well, there you go. What do you do? He practiced. Well, anyway, we're glad you're here. Tell us about the early bill, growing up and all that stuff. It's always fun to start a good beginning.   Bill Ratner ** 02:54 Well, I was a very lucky little boy. I was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1947 to two lovely people, professionals, both with master's degree out at University of Chicago. My mother was a social worker. My father had an MBA in business. He was managing editor of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. So I had the joy of living in a better home and living in a garden.   Michael Hingson ** 03:21 My mother. How long were you in Des Moines?   Bill Ratner ** 03:24 Five and a half years left before my sixth birthday. My dad got a fancy job at an ad agency in Minneapolis, and had a big brother named Pete and big handsome, curly haired boy with green eyes. And moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was was brought up there.   Michael Hingson ** 03:45 Wow. So you went to school there and and chased the girls and all that stuff.   Bill Ratner ** 03:54 I went to school there at Blake School for Boys in Hopkins, Minnesota. Couldn't chase the girls day school, but the girls we are allowed to dance with certainly not chase. Michael was at woodhue dancing school, the Northrop girls from Northrop girls school and the Blake boys were put together in eighth grade and taught the Cha Cha Cha, the waltz, the Charleston, and we danced together, and the girls wore white gloves, and we sniffed their perfume, and we all learned how to be lovers when we were 45   Michael Hingson ** 04:37 There you are. Well, as long as you learned at some point, that's a good start.   Bill Ratner ** 04:44 It's a weird generation. Michael,   Michael Hingson ** 04:46 I've been to Des Moines before. I was born in Chicago, but moved out to California when I was five, but I did some work with the National Federation of the Blind in the mid 19. 1970s 1976 into 1978 so spent time at the Iowa Commission for the Blind in Des Moines, which became a top agency for the Blind in well, the late 50s into the to the 60s and so on. So   Bill Ratner ** 05:15 both my parents are from Chicago. My father from the south side of Chicago, 44th and Kenzie, which was a Irish, Polish, Italian, Jewish, Ukrainian neighborhood. And my mother from Glencoe, which was a middle class suburb above Northwestern University in Evanston.   Michael Hingson ** 05:34 I Where were you born? 57th and union, north, south side, no, South   Bill Ratner ** 05:42 57th union is that? Is that west of Kenzie?   Michael Hingson ** 05:46 You know, I don't remember the geography well enough to know, but I know that it was, I think, Mount Sinai Hospital where I was born. But it was, it's, it's, it's a pretty tough neighborhood today. So I understand,   Bill Ratner ** 06:00 yeah, yeah, my it was tough, then it's tough now,   Michael Hingson ** 06:03 yeah, I think it's tougher, supposedly, than it was. But we lived there for five years, and then we we moved to California, and I remember some things about Chicago. I remember walking down to the local candy store most days, and had no problem doing that. My parents were told they should shut me away at a home somewhere, because no blind child could ever grow up to amount to anything. And my parents said, You guys are you're totally wrong. And they brought me up with that attitude. So, you   Bill Ratner ** 06:32 know who said that the school says school so that   Michael Hingson ** 06:35 doctors doctors when they discovered I was blind with the   Bill Ratner ** 06:38 kid, goodness gracious, horrified.   Michael Hingson ** 06:44 Well, my parents said absolutely not, and they brought me up, and they actually worked with other parents of premature kids who became blind, and when kindergarten started in for us in in the age of four, they actually had a special kindergarten class for blind kids at the Perry School, which is where I went. And so I did that for a year, learn braille and some other things. Then we moved to California, but yeah, and I go back to Chicago every so often. And when I do nowadays, they I one of my favorite places to migrate in Chicago is Garrett Popcorn.   Bill Ratner ** 07:21 Ah, yes, with caramel corn, regular corn, the   Michael Hingson ** 07:25 Chicago blend, which is a mixture, yeah, the Chicago blend is cheese corn, well, as it is with caramel corn, and they put much other mozzarella on it as well. It's really good.   Bill Ratner ** 07:39 Yeah, so we're on the air. Michael, what do you call your what do you call your program? Here I am your new friend, and I can't even announce your program because I don't know   Michael Hingson ** 07:48 the name, unstoppable mindset. This   Bill Ratner ** 07:51 is unstoppable mindset.   Michael Hingson ** 07:56 We're back. Well, we're back already. We're fast. So you, you, you moved off elsewhere, out of Des Moines and all that. And where did you go to college?   Bill Ratner ** 08:09 Well, this is like, why did you this is, this is a bit like talking about the Vietnam War. Looking back on my college career is like looking back on the Vietnam War series, a series of delusions and defeats. By the time I the time i for college, by the time I was applying for college, I was an orphan, orphan, having been born to fabulous parents who died too young of natural causes. So my grades in high school were my mediocre. I couldn't get into the Ivy Leagues. I got into the big 10 schools. My stepmother said, you're going to Michigan State in East Lansing because your cousin Eddie became a successful realtor. And Michigan State was known as mu u it was the most successful, largest agriculture college and university in the country. Kids from South Asia, China, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, South America all over the world came to Michigan State to study agricultural sciences, children of rich farmers all over the world and middle class farmers all over the world, and a huge police science department. Part of the campus was fenced off, and the young cadets, 1819, 20 years old, would practice on the rest of the student body, uniformed with hats and all right, excuse me, young man, we're just going to get some pizza at eight o'clock on Friday night. Stand against your car. Hands in your car. I said, Are you guys practicing again? Shut up and spread your legs. So that was that was Michigan State, and even though both my parents had master's degrees, I just found all the diversions available in the 1960s to be too interesting, and was not invited. Return after my sophomore year, and in order to flunk out of a big 10 University, and they're fine universities, all of them, you have to be either really determined or not so smart, not really capable of doing that level of study in undergraduate school. And I'd like to think that I was determined. I used to show up for my exams with a little blue book, and the only thing I would write is due to lack of knowledge, I am unable to complete this exam, sign Bill ranter and get up early and hand it in and go off. And so what was, what was left for a young man like that was the theater I'd seen the great Zero Mostel when I was 14 years old and on stage live, he looked just like my father, and he was funny, and if I Were a rich man, and that's the grade zero must tell. Yeah, and it took about five, no, it took about six, seven years to percolate inside my bread and my brain. In high school, I didn't want to do theater. The cheerleaders and guys who I had didn't happen to be friends with or doing theater. I took my girlfriends to see plays, but when I was 21 I started acting, and I've been an actor ever since. I'm a committee chair on the screen actors guild in Hollywood and Screen Actors Guild AFTRA, and work as a voice actor and collect my pensions and God bless the union.   Michael Hingson ** 11:44 Well, hey, as long as it works and you're making progress, you know you're still with it, right?   Bill Ratner ** 11:53 That's the that's the point. There's no accounting for taste in my business. Michael, you work for a few different broadcast entities at my age. And it's, you know, it's younger people. It's 18 to 3418 years to 34 years old is the ideal demographic for advertisers, Ford, Motor Company, Dove soap, Betty, Crocker, cake mixes and cereals, every conceivable product that sold online or sold on television and radio. This is my this is my meat, and I don't work for religion. However, if a religious organization calls, I call and say, I I'm not, not qualified or not have my divinity degree in order to sell your church to the public?   Michael Hingson ** 12:46 Yeah, yeah. Well, I, I can understand that. But you, you obviously do a lot, and as we talked about, you were Flint and GI Joe, which is kind of cool.   Bill Ratner ** 13:01 Flynn GI Joe was very cool. Hasbro Corporation, which was based in Providence, Rhode Island, had a huge success with GI Joe, the figure. The figure was about 11 and a half inches tall, like a Barbie, and was at first, was introduced to the public after the Korean War. There is a comic book that was that was also published about GI Joe. He was an individual figure. He was a figure, a sort of mythic cartoon figure during World War Two, GI Joe, generic American soldier, fighting man and but the Vietnam war dragged on for a long time, and the American buying public or buying kids toys got tired of GI Joe, got tired of a military figure in their household and stopped buying. And when Nixon ended the Vietnam War, or allotted to finish in 1974 Hasbro was in the tank. It's got its stock was cheap, and executives are getting nervous. And then came the Great George Lucas in Star Wars, who shrank all these action figures down from 11 and a half inches to three and a half inches, and went to China and had Chinese game and toy makers make Star Wars toys, and began to earn billions and billions dollars. And so Hasbro said, let's turn GI Joe into into a team. And the team began with flint and Lady J and Scarlett and Duke and Destro and cover commander, and grew to 85 different characters, because Hasbro and the toy maker partners could create 85 different sets of toys and action figures. So I was actor in this show and had a good time, and also a purveyor of a billion dollar industry of American toys. And the good news about these toys is I was at a conference where we signed autographs the voice actors, and we have supper with fans and so on. And I was sitting next to a 30 year old kid and his parents. And this kid was so knowledgeable about pop culture and every conceivable children's show and animated show that had ever been on the screen or on television. I turned to his mother and sort of being a wise acre, said, So ma'am, how do you feel about your 30 year old still playing with GI Joe action figures? And she said, Well, he and I both teach English in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania school system, and last year, the literacy level of my ninth graders was 50% 50% of those kids could not read in ninth grade. So I asked the principal if I could borrow my son's GI Joe, action figures, comic books and VHS tapes, recordings of the shows from TV. And he said, Sure, whatever you want to try. And so she did, and she played the video tapes, and these kids were thrilled. They'd never seen a GI Joe cartoon in class before. Passed out the comic books, let him read comics. And then she said, Okay, you guys. And passed out notebooks and pens and pencils, and said, I want you guys to make up some some shows, some GI Joe shows. And so they said, Yeah, we're ready. All right, Cobra, you better get into the barber shop, because the barber bill is no longer there and the fire engines are in the way. And wait a minute, there's a dog in the street. And so they're making this up, using their imagination, doing their schoolwork, by coming up with scenarios, imaginary fam fan fiction for GI Joe and she raised the literacy level in her classroom by 50% that year, by the end of that year, so, so that was the only story that I've ever heard about the sort of the efficacy of GI Joe, other than, you know, kids play with them. Do they? Are they shooting each other all the time? I certainly hope not. I hope not. Are they using the action figures? Do they strip their guns off and put them in a little, you know, stub over by the side and and have them do physical battle with each other, or have them hump the woods, or have them climb the stairs, or have them search the trees. Who knows what kids do? Same with same with girls and and Barbies. Barbie has been a source of fun and creativity for lots of girls, and the source of of worry and bother to a lot of parents as   Michael Hingson ** 17:54 well. Well, at the same time, though, when kids start to react and relate to some of these things. It's, it's pretty cool. I mean, look what's happened with the whole Harry Potter movement and craze. Harry Potter has probably done more in the last 20 or 25 years to promote reading for kids than most anything else, and   Bill Ratner ** 18:17 that's because it's such a good series of books. I read them to my daughters, yeah. And the quality of writing. She was a brilliant writer, not only just the stories and the storytelling, which is fun to watch in the movies, and you know, it's great for a parent to read. If there are any parents listening, I don't care how old your kids are. I don't care if they're 15. Offer to read to them. The 15 year old might, of course, say mom, but anybody younger than that might say either, all right, fine, which is, which means you better do it or read, read a book. To me, sure, it's fun for the parent, fun for the kid, and it makes the child a completely different kind of thinker and worker and earner.   Michael Hingson ** 19:05 Well, also the people who they got to read the books for the recordings Stephen Fry and in the US here, Jim Dale did such an incredible job as well. I've, I've read the whole Harry Potter series more than once, because I just enjoy them, and I enjoy listening to the the voices. They do such a good job. Yeah. And of course, for me, one of the interesting stories that I know about Jim Dale reading Harry Potter was since it was published by Scholastic he was actually scheduled to do a reading from one of the Harry from the new Harry Potter book that was coming out in 2001 on September 11, he was going to be at Scholastic reading. And of course, that didn't happen because of of everything that did occur. So I don't know whether I'm. I'm assuming at some point a little bit later, he did, but still he was scheduled to be there and read. But it they are there. They've done so much to help promote reading, and a lot of those kinds of cartoons and so on. Have done some of that, which is, which is pretty good. So it's good to, you know, to see that continue to happen. Well, so you've written several books on poetry and so on, and I know that you you've mentioned more than once grief and loss. How come those words keep coming up?   Bill Ratner ** 20:40 Well, I had an unusual childhood. Again. I mentioned earlier how, what a lucky kid I was. My parents were happy, educated, good people, not abusers. You know, I don't have a I don't have horror stories to tell about my mother or my father, until my mother grew sick with breast cancer and and it took about a year and a half or two years to die when I was seven years old. The good news is, because she was a sensitive, educated social worker, as she was actually dying, she arranged a death counseling session with me and my older brother and the Unitarian minister who was also a death counselor, and whom she was seeing to talk about, you know, what it was like to be dying of breast cancer with two young kids. And at this session, which was sort of surprised me, I was second grade, came home from school. In the living room was my mother and my brother looking a little nervous, and Dr Carl storm from the Unitarian Church, and she said, you know, Dr storm from church, but he's also my therapist. And we talk about my illness and how I feel, and we talk about how much I love you boys, and talk about how I worry about Daddy. And this is what one does when one is in crisis. That was a moment that was not traumatic for me. It's a moment I recalled hundreds of times, and one that has been a guiding light through my life. My mother's death was very difficult for my older brother, who was 13 who grew up in World War Two without without my father, it was just him and my mother when he was off in the Pacific fighting in World War Two. And then I was born after the war. And the loss of a mother in a family is like the bottom dropping out of a family. But luckily, my dad met a woman he worked with a highly placed advertising executive, which was unusual for a female in the 1950s and she became our stepmother a year later, and we had some very lovely, warm family years with her extended family and our extended family and all of us together until my brother got sick, came down with kidney disease a couple of years before kidney dialysis was invented, and a couple of years before kidney transplants were done, died at 19. Had been the captain of the swimming team at our high school, but did a year in college out in California and died on Halloween of 1960 my father was 51 years old. His eldest son had died. He had lost his wife six years earlier. He was working too hard in the advertising industry, successful man and dropped out of a heart attack 14th birthday. Gosh, I found him unconscious on the floor of our master bathroom in our house. So my life changed. I My life has taught me many, many things. It's taught me how the defense system works in trauma. It's taught me the resilience of a child. It's taught me the kindness of strangers. It's taught me the sadness of loss.   Michael Hingson ** 24:09 Well, you, you seem to come through all of it pretty well. Well, thank you. A question behind that, just an observation, but, but you do seem to, you know, obviously, cope with all of it and do pretty well. So you, you've always liked to be involved in acting and so on. How did you actually end up deciding to be a voice actor?   Bill Ratner ** 24:39 Well, my dad, after he was managing editor of Better Homes and Gardens magazine in Des Moines for Meredith publishing, got offered a fancy job as executive vice president of the flower and mix division for Campbell within advertising and later at General Mills Corporation. From Betty Crocker brand, and would bring me to work all the time, and would sit with me, and we'd watch the wonderful old westerns that were on prime time television, rawhide and Gunsmoke and the Virginian and sure   Michael Hingson ** 25:15 and all those. Yeah, during   Bill Ratner ** 25:17 the commercials, my father would make fun of the commercials. Oh, look at that guy. And number one, son, that's lousy acting. Number two, listen to that copy. It's the dumbest ad copy I've ever seen. The jingles and and then he would say, No, that's a good commercial, right there. And he wasn't always negative. He would he was just a good critic of advertising. So at a very young age, starting, you know, when we watch television, I think the first television ever, he bought us when I was five years old, I was around one of the most educated, active, funny, animated television critics I could hope to have in my life as a 56789, 1011, 12 year old. And so when I was 12, I became one of the founding members of the Brotherhood of radio stations with my friends John Waterhouse and John Barstow and Steve gray and Bill Connors in South Minneapolis. I named my five watt night kit am transmitter after my sixth grade teacher, Bob close this is wclo stereo radio. And when I was in sixth grade, I built myself a switch box, and I had a turntable and I had an intercom, and I wired my house for sound, as did all the other boys in the in the B, O, R, S, and that's brotherhood of radio stations. And we were guests on each other's shows, and we were obsessed, and we would go to the shopping malls whenever a local DJ was making an appearance and torture him and ask him dumb questions and listen obsessively to American am radio. And at the time for am radio, not FM like today, or internet on your little radio tuner, all the big old grandma and grandpa radios, the wooden ones, were AM, for amplitude modulated. You could get stations at night, once the sun went down and the later it got, the ionosphere would lift and the am radio signals would bounce higher and farther. And in Minneapolis, at age six and seven, I was able to to listen to stations out of Mexico and Texas and Chicago, and was absolutely fascinated with with what was being put out. And I would, I would switch my brother when I was about eight years old, gave me a transistor radio, which I hid under my bed covers. And at night, would turn on and listen for, who knows, hours at a time, and just tuning the dial and tuning the dial from country to rock and roll to hit parade to news to commercials to to agric agriculture reports to cow crossings in Kansas and grain harvesting and cheese making in Wisconsin, and on and on and on that made up the great medium of radio that was handing its power and its business over to television, just as I was growing As a child. Fast, fascinating transition   Michael Hingson ** 28:18 and well, but as it was transitioning, how did that affect you?   Bill Ratner ** 28:26 It made television the romantic, exciting, dynamic medium. It made radio seem a little limited and antiquated, and although I listened for environment and wasn't able to drag a television set under my covers. Yeah, and television became memorable with with everything from actual world war two battle footage being shown because there wasn't enough programming to 1930s Warner Brothers gangster movies with James Cagney, Edward G   Michael Hingson ** 29:01 Robinson and yeah   Bill Ratner ** 29:02 to all the sitcoms, Leave It to Beaver and television cartoons and on and on and on. And the most memorable elements to me were the personalities, and some of whom were invisible. Five years old, I was watching a Kids program after school, after kindergarten. We'll be back with more funny puppets, marionettes after this message and the first words that came on from an invisible voice of this D baritone voice, this commercial message will be 60 seconds long, Chrysler Dodge for 1954 blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I watched hypnotized, hypnotized as a 1953 dodge drove across the screen with a happy family of four waving out the window. And at the end of the commercial, I ran into the kitchen said, Mom, mom, I know what a minute. Is, and it was said, it had suddenly come into my brain in one of those very rare and memorable moments in a person's life where your brain actually speaks to you in its own private language and says, Here is something very new and very true, that 60 seconds is in fact a minute. When someone says, See you in five minutes, they mean five times that, five times as long as that. Chrysler commercial, five times 60. That's 300 seconds. And she said, Did you learn it that that on T in kindergarten? And I said, No, I learned it from kangaroo Bob on TV, his announcer, oh, kangaroo Bob, no, but this guy was invisible. And so at five years of age, I was aware of the existence of the practice of the sound, of the magic of the seemingly unlimited access to facts, figures, products, brand names that these voices had and would say on the air in This sort of majestic, patriarchal way,   Michael Hingson ** 31:21 and just think 20 years later, then you had James Earl Jones,   Bill Ratner ** 31:26 the great dame. James Earl Jones, father was a star on stage at that time the 1950s James Earl Jones came of age in the 60s and became Broadway and off Broadway star.   Michael Hingson ** 31:38 I got to see him in Othello. He was playing Othello. What a powerful performance. It was   Bill Ratner ** 31:43 wonderful performer. Yeah, yeah. I got to see him as Big Daddy in Canada, Hot Tin Roof, ah, live and in person, he got front row seats for me and my family.   Michael Hingson ** 31:53 Yeah, we weren't in the front row, but we saw it. We saw it on on Broadway,   Bill Ratner ** 31:58 the closest I ever got to James Earl Jones. He and I had the same voice over agent, woman named Rita vinari of southern Barth and benare company. And I came into the agency to audition for Doritos, and I hear this magnificent voice coming from behind a closed voiceover booth, saying, with a with a Spanish accent, Doritos. I thought that's James Earl Jones. Why is he saying burritos? And he came out, and he bowed to me, nodded and smiled, and I said, hello and and the agent probably in the booth and shut the door. And she said, I said, that was James Earl Jones. What a voice. What she said, Oh, he's such a nice man. And she said, but I couldn't. I was too embarrassed. I was too afraid to stop him from saying, Doritos. And it turns out he didn't get the gig. So it is some other voice actor got it because he didn't say, had he said Doritos with the agent froze it froze up. That was as close as I ever got to did you get the gig? Oh goodness no,   Michael Hingson ** 33:01 no, you didn't, huh? Oh, well, well, yeah. I mean, it was a very, it was, it was wonderful. It was James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer played Iago. Oh, goodness, oh, I know. What a what a combination. Well, so you, you did a lot of voiceover stuff. What did you do regarding radio moving forward? Or did you just go completely out of that and you were in TV? Or did you have any opportunity   Bill Ratner ** 33:33 for me to go back at age 15, my brother and father, who were big supporters of my radio. My dad would read my W, C, l, o, newsletter and need an initial, an excellent journalism son and my brother would bring his teenage friends up. He'd play the elderly brothers, man, you got an Elvis record, and I did. And you know, they were, they were big supporters for me as a 13 year old, but when I turned 14, and had lost my brother and my father, I lost my enthusiasm and put all of my radio equipment in a box intended to play with it later. Never, ever, ever did again. And when I was about 30 years old and I'd done years of acting in the theater, having a great time doing fun plays and small theaters in Minneapolis and South Dakota and and Oakland, California and San Francisco. I needed money, so I looked in the want ads and saw a job for telephone sales, and I thought, Well, I used to love the telephone. I used to make phony phone calls to people all the time. Used to call funeral homes. Hi Carson, funeral I help you. Yes, I'm calling to tell you that you have a you have a dark green slate tile. Roof, isn't that correct? Yes. Well, there's, there's a corpse on your roof. Lady for goodness sake, bring it down and we laugh and we record it and and so I thought, Well, gee, I used to have a lot of fun with the phone. And so I called the number of telephone sales and got hired to sell magazine subscriptions and dinner tickets to Union dinners and all kinds of things. And then I saw a new job at a radio station, suburban radio station out in Walnut Creek, California, a lovely Metro BART train ride. And so I got on the BART train, rode out there and walked in for the interview, and was told I was going to be selling small advertising packages on radio for the station on the phone. And so I called barber shops and beauty shops and gas stations in the area, and one guy picked up the phone and said, Wait a minute, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Are you on the radio right now? And I said, No, I'm just I'm in the sales room. Well, maybe you should be. And he slams the phone on me. He didn't want to talk to me anymore. It wasn't interested in buying advertising. I thought, gee. And I told somebody at the station, and they said, Well, you want to be in the radio? And he went, Yeah, I was on the radio when I was 13. And it just so happened that an older fellow was retiring from the 10am to 2pm slot. K I S King, kiss 99 and KD FM, Pittsburgh, California. And it was a beautiful music station. It was a music station. Remember, old enough will remember music that used to play in elevators that was like violin music, the Percy faith orchestra playing a Rolling Stone song here in the elevator. Yes, well, that's exactly what we played. And it would have been harder to get a job at the local rock stations because, you know, they were popular places. And so I applied for the job, and   Michael Hingson ** 37:06 could have lost your voice a lot sooner, and it would have been a lot harder if you had had to do Wolfman Jack. But that's another story.   Bill Ratner ** 37:13 Yeah, I used to listen to Wolf Man Jack. I worked in a studio in Hollywood. He became a studio. Yeah, big time.   Michael Hingson ** 37:22 Anyway, so you you got to work at the muzack station, got   Bill Ratner ** 37:27 to work at the muzack station, and I was moving to Los Angeles to go to a bigger market, to attempt to penetrate a bigger broadcast market. And one of the sales guys, a very nice guy named Ralph pizzella said, Well, when you get to La you should study with a friend of mine down to pie Troy, he teaches voiceovers. I said, What are voice overs? He said, You know that CVS Pharmacy commercial just carted up and did 75 tags, available in San Fernando, available in San Clemente, available in Los Angeles, available in Pasadena. And I said, Yeah. He said, Well, you didn't get paid any extra. You got paid your $165 a week. The guy who did that commercial for the ad agency got paid probably 300 bucks, plus extra for the tags, that's voiceovers. And I thought, why? There's an idea, what a concept. So he gave me the name and number of old friend acquaintance of his who he'd known in radio, named Don DiPietro, alias Johnny rabbit, who worked for the Dick Clark organization, had a big rock and roll station there. He'd come to LA was doing voiceovers and teaching voiceover classes in a little second story storefront out of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. So I signed up for his class, and he was an experienced guy, and he liked me, and we all had fun, and I realized I was beginning to study like an actor at 1818, who goes to New York or goes to Los Angeles or Chicago or Atlanta or St Louis to act in the big theaters, and starts acting classes and realizes, oh my goodness, these people are truly professionals. I don't know how to do what they do. And so for six years, I took voice over classes, probably 4050, nights a year, and from disc jockeys, from ex show hosts, from actors, from animated cartoon voices, and put enough time in to get a degree in neurology in medical school. And worked my way up in radio in Los Angeles and had a morning show, a lovely show with a wonderful news man named Phil Reed, and we talked about things and reviewed movies and and played a lot of music. And then I realized, wait a minute, I'm earning three times the money in voiceovers as I am on the radio, and I have to get up at 430 in the morning to be on the radio. Uh, and a wonderful guy who was Johnny Carson's staff announcer named Jack angel said, You're not still on radio, are you? And I said, Well, yeah, I'm working in the morning. And Ka big, get out of there. Man, quit. Quit. And I thought, well, how can I quit? I've always wanted to be a radio announcer. And then there was another wonderful guy on the old am station, kmpc, sweet Dick Whittington. Whittington, right? And he said at a seminar that I went to at a union voice over training class, when you wake up at four in the morning and you swing your legs over the bed and your shoes hit the floor, and you put your head in your hands, and you say to yourself, I don't want to do this anymore. That's when you quit radio. Well, that hadn't happened to me. I was just getting up early to write some comedy segments and on and on and on, and then I was driving around town all day doing auditions and rented an ex girlfriend's second bedroom so that I could nap by myself during the day, when I had an hour in and I would as I would fall asleep, I'd picture myself every single day I'm in a dark voiceover studio, a microphone Is before me, a music stand is before the microphone, and on it is a piece of paper with advertising copy on it. On the other side of the large piece of glass of the recording booth are three individuals, my employers, I begin to read, and somehow the text leaps off the page, streams into my eyes, letter for letter, word for word, into a part of my back brain that I don't understand and can't describe. It is processed in my semi conscious mind with the help of voice over training and hope and faith, and comes out my mouth, goes into the microphone, is recorded in the digital recorder, and those three men, like little monkeys, lean forward and say, Wow, how do you do that? That was my daily creative visualization. Michael, that was my daily fantasy. And I had learned that from from Dale Carnegie, and I had learned that from Olympic athletes on NBC TV in the 60s and 70s, when the announcer would say, this young man you're seeing practicing his high jump is actually standing there. He's standing stationary, and the bouncing of the head is he's actually rehearsing in his mind running and running and leaping over the seven feet two inch bar and falling into the sawdust. And now he's doing it again, and you could just barely see the man nodding his head on camera at the exact rhythm that he would be running the 25 yards toward the high bar and leaping, and he raised his head up during the imaginary lead that he was visualizing, and then he actually jumped the seven foot two inches. That's how I learned about creative visualization from NBC sports on TV.   Michael Hingson ** 43:23 Channel Four in Los Angeles. There you go. Well, so you you broke into voice over, and that's what you did.   Bill Ratner ** 43:38 That's what I did, darn it, I ain't stopping now, there's a wonderful old actor named Bill Irwin. There two Bill Irwin's one is a younger actor in his 50s or 60s, a brilliant actor from Broadway to film and TV. There's an older William Irwin. They also named Bill Irwin, who's probably in his 90s now. And I went to a premiere of a film, and he was always showing up in these films as The senile stock broker who answers the phone upside down, or the senile board member who always asks inappropriate questions. And I went up to him and I said, you know, I see you in everything, man. I'm 85 years old. Some friends and associates of mine tell me I should slow down. I only got cast in movies and TV when I was 65 I ain't slowing down. If I tried to slow down at 85 I'd have to stop That's my philosophy. My hero is the great Don Pardo, the late great   Michael Hingson ** 44:42 for Saturday Night Live and Jeopardy   Bill Ratner ** 44:45 lives starring Bill Murray, Gilder Radner, and   Michael Hingson ** 44:49 he died for Jeopardy before that,   Bill Ratner ** 44:52 yeah, died at 92 with I picture him, whether it probably not, with a microphone and. His hand in his in his soundproof booth, in his in his garage, and I believe he lived in Arizona, although the show was aired and taped in New York, New York, right where he worked for for decades as a successful announcer. So that's the story.   Michael Hingson ** 45:16 Michael. Well, you know, I miss, very frankly, some of the the the days of radio back in the 60s and 70s and so on. We had, in LA what you mentioned, Dick Whittington, Dick whittinghill on kmpc, Gary Owens, you know, so many people who were such wonderful announcers and doing some wonderful things, and radio just isn't the same anymore. It's gone. It's   Bill Ratner ** 45:47 gone to Tiktok and YouTube. And the truth is, I'm not gonna whine about Tiktok or YouTube, because some of the most creative moments on camera are being done on Tiktok and YouTube by young quote influencers who hire themselves out to advertisers, everything from lipstick. You know,   Speaker 1 ** 46:09 when I went to a party last night was just wild and but this makeup look, watch me apply this lip remover and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, no, I have no lip.   Bill Ratner ** 46:20 You know, these are the people with the voices. These are the new voices. And then, of course, the faces. And so I would really advise before, before people who, in fact, use the internet. If you use the internet, you can't complain if you use the internet, if you go to Facebook or Instagram, or you get collect your email or Google, this or that, which most of us do, it's handy. You can't complain about tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. You can't complain about tick tock or YouTube, because it's what the younger generation is using, and it's what the younger generation advertisers and advertising executives and creators and musicians and actors are using to parade before us, as Gary Owens did, as Marlon Brando did, as Sarah Bernhardt did in the 19 so as all as you do, Michael, you're a parader. You're the head of the parade. You've been in on your own float for years. I read your your bio. I don't even know why you want to waste a minute talking to me for goodness sakes.   Michael Hingson ** 47:26 You know, the one thing about podcasts that I like over radio, and I did radio at kuci for seven years when I was in school, what I really like about podcasts is they're not and this is also would be true for Tiktok and YouTube. Primarily Tiktok, I would would say it isn't as structured. So if we don't finish in 60 minutes, and we finish in 61 minutes, no one's gonna shoot us.   Bill Ratner ** 47:53 Well, I beg to differ with you. Now. I'm gonna start a fight with you. Michael, yeah, we need conflict in this script. Is that it The Tick Tock is very structured. Six. No,   Michael Hingson ** 48:03 no, I understand that. I'm talking about podcasts,   Bill Ratner ** 48:07 though, but there's a problem. We gotta Tone It Up. We gotta pick it up. We gotta there's a lot of and I listen to what are otherwise really bright, wonderful personalities on screen, celebrities who have podcasts and the car sucks, and then I had meatballs for dinner, haha. And you know what my wife said? Why? You know? And there's just too much of that. And,   Michael Hingson ** 48:32 oh, I understand, yeah. I mean, it's like, like anything, but I'm just saying that's one of the reasons I love podcasting. So it's my way of continuing what I used to do in radio and having a lot of fun doing it   Bill Ratner ** 48:43 all right, let me ask you. Let me ask you a technical and editorial question. Let me ask you an artistic question. An artist, can you edit this podcast? Yeah. Are you? Do you plan to Nope.   Michael Hingson ** 48:56 I think conversations are conversations, but there is a but, I mean,   Bill Ratner ** 49:01 there have been starts and stops and I answer a question, and there's a long pause, and then, yeah, we can do you edit that stuff   Michael Hingson ** 49:08 out. We do, we do, edit some of that out. And I have somebody that that that does a lot of it, because I'm doing more podcasts, and also I travel and speak, but I can edit. There's a program called Reaper, which is really a very sophisticated   Bill Ratner ** 49:26 close up spaces. You   Michael Hingson ** 49:28 can close up spaces with it, yes, but the neat thing about Reaper is that somebody has written scripts to make it incredibly accessible for blind people using screen readers.   Bill Ratner ** 49:40 What does it do? What does it do? Give me the elevator pitch.   Michael Hingson ** 49:46 You've seen some of the the programs that people use, like computer vision and other things to do editing of videos and so on. Yeah.   Bill Ratner ** 49:55 Yeah. Even Apple. Apple edit. What is it called? Apple? Garage Band. No, that's audio. What's that   Michael Hingson ** 50:03 audio? Oh,   Bill Ratner ** 50:06 quick time is quick   Michael Hingson ** 50:07 time. But whether it's video or audio, the point is that Reaper allows me to do all of that. I can edit audio. I can insert, I can remove pauses. I can do anything with Reaper that anyone else can do editing audio, because it's been made completely accessible.   Bill Ratner ** 50:27 That's great. That's good. That's nice. Oh, it is. It's cool.   Michael Hingson ** 50:31 So so if I want, I can edit this and just have my questions and then silence when you're talking.   Bill Ratner ** 50:38 That might be best. Ladies and gentlemen, here's Bill Ratner,   Michael Hingson ** 50:46 yep, exactly, exactly. Now you have won the moth stories. Slam, what? Tell me about my story. Slam, you've won it nine times.   Bill Ratner ** 51:00 The Moth was started by a writer, a novelist who had lived in the South and moved to New York City, successful novelist named George Dawes green. And the inception of the moth, which many people listening are familiar with from the Moth Radio Hour. It was, I believe, either late 90s or early 2000s when he'd been in New York for a while and was was publishing as a fiction writer, and threw a party, and decided, instead of going to one of these dumb, boring parties or the same drinks being served and same cigarettes being smoked out in the veranda and the same orders. I'm going to ask people to bring a five minute story, a personal story, nature, a true story. You don't have to have one to get into the party, but I encourage you to. And so you know, the 3040, 50 people showed up, many of whom had stories, and they had a few drinks, and they had hors d'oeuvres. And then he said, Okay, ladies and gentlemen, take your seats. It's time for and then I picked names out of a hat, and person after person after person stood up in a very unusual setting, which was almost never done at parties. You How often do you see that happen? Suddenly, the room falls silent, and someone with permission being having been asked by the host to tell a personal story, some funny, some tragic, some complex, some embarrassing, some racy, some wild, some action filled. And afterward, the feedback he got from his friends was, this is the most amazing experience I've ever had in my life. And someone said, you need to do this. And he said, Well, you people left a lot of cigarette butts and beer cans around my apartment. And they said, well, let's do it at a coffee shop. Let's do it at a church basement. So slowly but surely, the moth storytelling, story slams, which were designed after the old poetry slams in the 50s and 60s, where they were judged contests like, like a dance contest. Everybody's familiar with dance contests? Well, there were, then came poetry contests with people singing and, you know, and singing and really energetically, really reading. There then came storytelling contests with people standing on a stage before a silent audience, telling a hopefully interesting, riveting story, beginning middle, end in five minutes. And so a coffee house was found. A monthly calendar was set up. Then came the internet. Then it was so popular standing room only that they had to open yet another and another, and today, some 20 years later, 20 some years later, from Austin, Texas to San Francisco, California to Minneapolis, Minnesota to New York City to Los Angeles. There are moth story slams available on online for you to schedule yourself to go live and in person at the moth.org as in the moth with wings. Friend of mine, I was in New York. He said, You can't believe it. This writer guy, a writer friend of mine who I had read, kind of an avant garde, strange, funny writer was was hosting something called the moth in New York, and we were texting each other. He said, Well, I want to go. The theme was show business. I was going to talk to my Uncle Bobby, who was the bell boy. And I Love Lucy. I'll tell a story. And I texted him that day. He said, Oh man, I'm so sorry. I had the day wrong. It's next week. Next week, I'm going to be back home. And so he said, Well, I think there's a moth in Los Angeles. So about 15 years ago, I searched it down and what? Went to a small Korean barbecue that had a tiny little stage that originally was for Korean musicians, and it was now being used for everything from stand up comedy to evenings of rock and roll to now moth storytelling once a month. And I think the theme was first time. And so I got up and told a silly story and didn't win first prize. They have judges that volunteer judges a table of three judges scoring, you like, at a swim meet or a track beat or, you know, and our gymnastics meet. So this is all sort of familiar territory for everybody, except it's storytelling and not high jumping or pull ups. And I kept going back. I was addicted to it. I would write a story and I'd memorize it, and I'd show up and try to make it four minutes and 50 seconds and try to make it sound like I was really telling a story and not reading from a script. And wish I wasn't, because I would throw the script away, and I knew the stories well enough. And then they created a radio show. And then I began to win slams and compete in the grand slams. And then I started submitting these 750 word, you know, two and a half page stories. Literary magazines got a few published and found a whole new way to spend my time and not make much   Michael Hingson ** 56:25 money. Then you went into poetry.   Bill Ratner ** 56:29 Then I got so bored with my prose writing that I took a poetry course from a wonderful guy in LA called Jack grapes, who had been an actor and a football player and come to Hollywood and did some TV, episodics and and some some episodic TV, and taught poetry. It was a poet in the schools, and I took his class of adults and got a poem published. And thought, wait a minute, these aren't even 750 words. They're like 75 words. I mean, you could write a 10,000 word poem if you want, but some people have, yeah, and it was complex, and there was so much to read and so much to learn and so much that was interesting and odd. And a daughter of a friend of mine is a poet, said, Mommy, are you going to read me one of those little word movies before I go to sleep?   Michael Hingson ** 57:23 A little word movie, word movie out of the   Bill Ratner ** 57:27 mouths of babes. Yeah, and so, so and I perform. You know, last night, I was in Orange County at a organization called ugly mug Cafe, and a bunch of us poets read from an anthology that was published, and we sold our books, and heard other young poets who were absolutely marvelous and and it's, you know, it's not for everybody, but it's one of the things I do.   Michael Hingson ** 57:54 Well, you sent me pictures of book covers, so they're going to be in the show notes. And I hope people will will go out and get them   Bill Ratner ** 58:01 cool. One of the one of the things that I did with poetry, in addition to wanting to get published and wanting to read before people, is wanting to see if there is a way. Because poetry was, was very satisfying, emotionally to me, intellectually very challenging and satisfying at times. And emotionally challenging and very satisfying at times, writing about things personal, writing about nature, writing about friends, writing about stories that I received some training from the National Association for poetry therapy. Poetry therapy is being used like art therapy, right? And have conducted some sessions and and participated in many and ended up working with eighth graders of kids who had lost someone to death in the past year of their lives. This is before covid in the public schools in Los Angeles. And so there's a lot of that kind of work that is being done by constable people, by writers, by poets, by playwrights,   Michael Hingson ** 59:09 and you became a grief counselor,   Bill Ratner ** 59:13 yes, and don't do that full time, because I do voiceovers full time, right? Write poetry and a grand. Am an active grandparent, but I do the occasional poetry session around around grief poetry.   Michael Hingson ** 59:31 So you're a grandparent, so you've had kids and all that. Yes, sir, well, that's is your wife still with us? Yes?   Bill Ratner ** 59:40 Oh, great, yeah, she's an artist and an art educator. Well, that   Michael Hingson ** 59:46 so the two of you can criticize each other's works, then, just   Bill Ratner ** 59:52 saying, we're actually pretty kind to each other. I Yeah, we have a lot of we have a lot of outside criticism. Them. So, yeah, you don't need to do it internally. We don't rely on it. What do you think of this although, although, more than occasionally, each of us will say, What do you think of this poem, honey? Or what do you think of this painting, honey? And my the favorite, favorite thing that my wife says that always thrills me and makes me very happy to be with her is, I'll come down and she's beginning a new work of a new piece of art for an exhibition somewhere. I'll say, what? Tell me about what's, what's going on with that, and she'll go, you know, I have no idea, but it'll tell me what to do.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:33 Yeah, it's, it's like a lot of authors talk about the fact that their characters write the stories right, which, which makes a lot of sense. So with all that you've done, are you writing a memoir? By any chance, I   Bill Ratner ** 1:00:46 am writing a memoir, and writing has been interesting. I've been doing it for many years. I got it was my graduate thesis from University of California Riverside Palm Desert.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:57 My wife was a UC Riverside graduate. Oh, hi. Well, they   Bill Ratner ** 1:01:01 have a low residency program where you go for 10 days in January, 10 days in June. The rest of it's online, which a lot of universities are doing, low residency programs for people who work and I got an MFA in creative writing nonfiction, had a book called parenting for the digital age, the truth about media's effect on children. And was halfway through it, the publisher liked it, but they said you got to double the length. So I went back to school to try to figure out how to double the length. And was was able to do it, and decided to move on to personal memoir and personal storytelling, such as goes on at the moth but a little more personal than that. Some of the material that I was reading in the memoir section of a bookstore was very, very personal and was very helpful to read about people who've gone through particular issues in their childhood. Mine not being physical abuse or sexual abuse, mine being death and loss, which is different. And so that became a focus of my graduate thesis, and many people were urging me to write a memoir. Someone said, you need to do a one man show. So I entered the Hollywood fringe and did a one man show and got good reviews and had a good time and did another one man show the next year and and so on. So But writing memoir as anybody knows, and they're probably listeners who are either taking memoir courses online or who may be actively writing memoirs or short memoir pieces, as everybody knows it, can put you through moods from absolutely ecstatic, oh my gosh, I got this done. I got this story told, and someone liked it, to oh my gosh, I'm so depressed I don't understand why. Oh, wait a minute, I was writing about such and such today. Yeah. So that's the challenge for the memoir is for the personal storyteller, it's also, you know, and it's more of a challenge than it is for the reader, unless it's bad writing and the reader can't stand that. For me as a reader, I'm fascinated by people's difficult stories, if they're well   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:24 told well, I know that when in 2002 I was advised to write a book about the World Trade Center experiences and all, and it took eight years to kind of pull it all together. And then I met a woman who actually I collaborated with, Susie Florey, and we wrote thunder dog. And her agent became my agent, who loved the proposal that we sent and actually got a contract within a week. So thunder dog came out in 2011 was a New York Times bestseller, and very blessed by that, and we're working toward the day that it will become a movie still, but it'll happen. And then I wrote a children's version of it, well, not a children's version of the book, but a children's book about me growing up in Roselle, growing up the guide dog who was with me in the World Trade Center, and that's been on Amazon. We self published it. Then last year, we published a new book called Live like a guide dog, which is all about controlling fear and teaching people lessons that I learned prior to September 11. That helped me focus and remain calm.   Bill Ratner ** 1:04:23 What happened to you on September 11,   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:27 I was in the World Trade Center. I worked on the 78th floor of Tower One.   Bill Ratner ** 1:04:32 And what happened? I mean, what happened to you?   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:36 Um, nothing that day. I mean, well, I got out. How did you get out? Down the stairs? That was the only way to go. So, so the real story is not doing it, but why it worked. And the real issue is that I spent a lot of time when I first went into the World Trade Center, learning all I could about what to do in an emergency, talking to police, port authorities. Security people, emergency preparedness people, and also just walking around the world trade center and learning the whole place, because I ran an office for a company, and I wasn't going to rely on someone else to, like, lead me around if we're going to go to lunch somewhere and take people out before we negotiated contracts. So I needed to know all of that, and I learned all I could, also realizing that if there ever was an emergency, I might be the only one in the office, or we might be in an area where people couldn't read the signs to know what to do anyway. And so I had to take the responsibility of learning all that, which I did. And then when the planes hit 18 floors above us on the other side of the building, we get we had some guests in the office. Got them out, and then another colleague, who was in from our corporate office, and I and my guide dog, Roselle, went to the stairs, and we started down. And   Bill Ratner ** 1:05:54 so, so what floor did the plane strike?   Michael Hingson ** 1:05:58 It struck and the NOR and the North Tower, between floors 93 and 99 so I just say 96 okay, and you were 20 floors down, 78 floors 78 so we were 18 floors below, and   Bill Ratner ** 1:06:09 at the moment of impact, what did you think?   Michael Hingson ** 1:06:13 Had no idea we heard a muffled kind of explosion, because the plane hit on the other side of the building, 18 floors above us. There was no way to know what was going on. Did you feel? Did you feel? Oh, the building literally tipped, probably about 20 feet. It kept tipping. And then we actually said goodbye to each other, and then the building came back upright. And then we went,   Bill Ratner ** 1:06:34 really you so you thought you were going to die?   Michael Hingson ** 1:06:38 David, my colleague who was with me, as I said, he was from our California office, and he was there to help with some seminars we were going to be doing. We actually were saying goodbye to each other because we thought we were about to take a 78 floor plunge to the street, when the building stopped tipping and it came back. Designed to do that by the architect. It was designed to do that, which is the point, the point.   Bill Ratner ** 1:07:02 Goodness, gracious. And then did you know how to get to the stairway?   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:04 Oh, absolutely. And did you do it with your friend? Yeah, the first thing we did, the first thing we did is I got him to get we had some guests, and I said, get him to the stairs. Don't let him take the elevators, because I knew he had seen fire above us, but that's all we knew. And but I said, don't take the elevators. Don't let them take elevators. Get them to the stairs and then come back and we'll leave. So he did all that, and then he came back, and we went to the stairs and started down.   Bill Ratner ** 1:07:33 Wow. Could you smell anything?   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:36 We smelled burning jet fuel fumes on the way down. And that's how we figured out an airplane must have hit the building, but we had no idea what happened. We didn't know what happened until the until both towers had collapsed, and I actually talked to my wife, and she's the one who told us how to aircraft have been crashed into the towers, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth, at that time, was still missing over Pennsylvania. Wow. So you'll have to go pick up a copy of thunder dog. Goodness. Good. Thunder dog. The name of the book is Thunder dog, and the book I wrote last year is called Live like a guide dog. It's le

Pour cette deuxième émission nous approfondissons les courants musicaux des années 50′ aux années 70′ avec une sélection de vinyles…

Tanzen ist mehr als Bewegung. Man drückt sich aus und kommuniziert miteinander. Während früher eine strenge Etikette gewahrt werden musste, geht es heute beim Tanzen viel freier zu. Laien und Profis eint dieselbe Leidenschaft. Hübert, Henning www.deutschlandfunk.de, Das Wochenendjournal

On this week's video episode, Dylan is joined by Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star and Dancing With The Stars contestant Jen Affleck for an open and honest conversation about her postpartum journey. From dancing on countertops to perfecting the Cha Cha Cha, Jen opens up about how DWTS became the light at the end of her tunnel. She breaks down her surprising Taylor Swift connection through dancer Jan Ravnik, the reality of raising a family while filming two massive shows back to back, and how manifestation played a role in landing her dream ballroom moment. Go to the BravoByBetches YouTube page to watch full length episodes every Tuesday: Youtube.com/@BravoByBetches Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time for Life in the Fast Lane, Tokyo Drift Minute 21, and a deep dive into Bow Wow... and Frankie Muniz? After reviewing a surprisingly low amount of Vinstagrams -- Effort, is on you... -- we uncover a wild fact about Planet X that shakes us to our cores. We discuss the reception to The Smashing Machine in Venice, what hours Cha Cha Cha is open, and the most troubling scene in Tokyo Drift when you factor in in the franchise's retcon. In Extracurricular Activities, we talk about reality TV, Barbarian (and other horror movies), and Silksong. Joe imagines what it would be like to talk to Vin Diesel. Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠family@cageclub.me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Visit our Patreon page at patreon.com/2fast2forever⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Show your support at the 2 Fast 2 Forever shop⁠⁠⁠⁠!Extra special shout-out to Alex Elonen, Brian Rodriguez (High School Slumber Party), Michael McGahon, Lane Middleton, Jason Rainey, Wes Hampton, Josh Buckley (Whole Lotta Wolves), Michael Moser, Christian Larson, Terra New One, Aaron Woloszyn, and Randy Carter for joining at the “Interpol's Most Wanted” level or above!Intro music by Nico Vasilo. Interlude and outro music by Wes Hampton.

El genial comediante se conectó desde Uruguay con El Show del Rock para contarnos la previa de su espectáculo Cha Cha Cha junto a Alfredo Casero, este sábado 23 de agosto en el Arena Maipú.

"I probably shouldn't have had that third old-fashioned." Everybody loves Earleen, but nobody supports her like her husband, who will have a crowded Tombstone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sintonía: "Jazz" - Chico O´Farrill"Alex Mambo" - "Chattanooga Cha Cha Cha" - "Sentimental Mambo" - "Christopher Columbus" - "Cha Cha Cha Charinete" - "The Jamaican" - "Feeding The Chickens" - "Bananas" - "Relax And Mambo" - "Donkey Serenade" - "Un poquito de tu amor" - "At Sundown" - "Vaya Nina" - "Jungle Drums" - "Why Do I Love You" - "Tea For Two"Todas las músicas extraídas de la recopilación (1xCD) "Mambo y Cha Cha Cha" (Saludos Amigos, 1993) de Machito and His OrchestraEscuchar audio

JAZZENELAIRE DE VERANO-HAPPY BAND SEDAJAZZ-ME SIENTO BIEN-JAZZACTUALIDAD.-936- 48º Festival de Jazz de Vitoria.-Jazzmeia Horn- I Feel Good Sedajazz Happy Band Precio: 12 € Una recopilación de arreglos de grandes éxitos de la historia de la música jazz, jamaicana, reggae, ska, soul y más, con un repertorio abierto a la improvisación. El objetivo es compartir esta experiencia pedagógica para que pueda servir de inspiración a otros niños, padres y educadores. La Sedajazz Happy Band es una jovencísima banda del taller Sedajazz compuesta por niños entre 7 y 13 años. Al igual que la Sedajazz Kids Band, son el alma de Sedajazz. Son formaciones infantiles que nacen de la inquietud del Colectivo de Músicos por despertar el amor a la música y potenciar el talento desde la base educativa. Con el único objetivo de disfrutar a través del aprendizaje, las niñas y niños de Sedajazz se han convertido en una referencia y un ejemplo a seguir debido a su curiosidad, motivación pura e ilusión contagiosa. Demostrando que las personas tenemos una predisposición natural hacia la música, Sedajazz reúne en un mismo círculo a niños de distintas edades que son capaces de comunicarse de forma individual a través de sus instrumentos y de formar parte de una unidad en la que todos encuentran su espacio. El atractivo del repertorio de la Happy Band de Sedajazz se basa en una recopilación de arreglos de grandes éxitos de la historia de la música jazz, jamaicana, reggae, ska, soul y más, con un repertorio abierto a la improvisación. Con el objetivo de compartir esta experiencia pedagógica para que pueda servir de inspiración a otros niños, padres y educadores, las bandas infantiles de Sedajazz visitan habitualmente distintas instituciones educativas, así como festivales infantiles en los que actúan con el único propósito de disfrutar de la música en sí misma. Músicos: Lilit Soria: Saxo Tenor y Flauta Eliana Vuldzhev: Saxo Alto y Flauta Lleo Garcia: Saxo Alto y Voz Leo Gomez: Saxo Soprano Laia Juste: Saxo Soprano Marti Garcia: Trompeta Pepa Todo: Trompeta Claudia Medrano: Trompeta Mauro Santabasilisa: Trompeta Bruno Jerez: Trompeta Pep Ballester: Trombón Adria Grau: Trombón Martin Amoros: Trombón Andreu Isona: Piano Esteban Ribera: Contrabajo Joan Miquel Diaz: Batería y Percusión Marco Machancoses: Batería y Percusión Fco. Blanco Latino: Contrabajo y Dirección Temas 1. Cha Cha Cha 02:36 2. Muppets Show 01:18 3. Soul Bossa Nova 04:43 4. I Feel Good 04:06 5. Halleluhaj I Love Her So 03:22 6. Tijuana Taxi 01:58 7. Limbo Jazz 03:14 8. Inside Out 05:11 9. Tequila Blues 04:57 Jazzmeia Horn, la cantante y compositora de jazz estadounidense de ascendencia africana que abrirá la velada, suma varios premios y reconocimientos, como el Concurso Internacional de Jazz del Thelonious Monk Institute o Rising Star Award de la Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Jazz Competition. Precisamente, ha sido comparada con legendarias voces como la de Vaughan, Betty Carter o Nancy Wilson, e incluso con Ella Fitzgerald por su dominio del scat. Jazzmeia Horn, nombre real que le puso su abuela paterna al nacer, ha sabido en poco tiempo catalizar y atraer la atención del público y, por supuesto, de la crítica.

Ein Smoking, ein Bett, Workshops auf hoher See und eine mysteriöse Gestalt names Zylt Tscheschke - diese AIDA-Tanzreise hat alles zu bieten. Zwischen gutem Essen und Cha-Cha-Cha plaudern Alex und Zsolt über Fotoshootings, tanzbegeisterte Gäste und die berühmte Klopapier-Studie. Alles andere gibt's hier:

Greg would be really bothered if the Sox traded Bregman // Wiggy wants the Celtics to tank for a high pick when Tatum comes back // Robert Kraft continues his Jerod Mayo apology tour //

Sintonía: "Cannonology" (Adderley) - Machito"Tin Tin Deo" - "Wild Jungle" - "Oyeme" - "Ring-A-Levio" - "Conversation" - "Kenya" - "Minor Rama" - "Blues a la Machito" - "Frenzy" - "Congo Mulence" - "Holiday" - "Mango Mangue" - "Okiedoke" - "Mambo (Part. 1 & 2)" Todas las músicas interpretadas por Machito y su OrquestaTodas las músicas extraídas de la recopilación (1xCD) "Afro Cuban Jazz" de Machito y su OrquestaEscuchar audio

Durante los años 40, 50 y 60, la música latina vivió una explosión global gracias al mambo, el cha-cha-chá, el son montuno y otros ritmos afrocaribeños. Fue una era en la que Puerto Rico, Cuba, México y Nueva York se convirtieron en epicentros de una revolución musical que influyó en el jazz, el pop y hasta el rock & roll. Con la percusión como corazón de la música latina. En este episodio gozamos aquellas musicas memorables. Playlist: Jack Costanzo - Latin Fever; Desi Arnaz - Babalu; Benny Moré - Bonito y sabroso; Benny Moré - Qué bueno baila usted; Tito Puente - Ran Kan Kan; Tito Puente - Cuando Suenan los Tambores; Tito Puente - Que Sera Mi China; Perez Prado - Mambo #5; Rosemary Clooney & Perez Prado - Sway; Rosemary Clooney & Perez Prado - Corazon de melon; Aragon Orquesta Cubana - El bodeguero; Aragon Orquesta Cubana - Al vainen de mi Carreta; Aragon Orquesta Cubana - Quien sabe, sabe; Cuarteto D'Aida - Las Mulatas del Cha Cha Cha; Cuarteto D'Aida - Totiri Mundachi; Dave Barbour - Mambo Jambo (Que Rico El Mambo); Yma Sumac - Gopher Mambo; Chano Pozo - Manteca; Jack Costanzo - I Got a Bongo.

Sintonía: "Mambo Boogie" - Johnny Otis Orchestra"Non ! pas comme ça" - Gata Rubia (Francia, 1962); "Méphisto Mambo" - Benny Bennet (Francia, 1956); "Cha Cha Twist" - Margarita ´Cha-Cha´ Sierra (España, 1961); "Bikini e tamure" - Michelino E il suo complesso (Italia,1963); "Stu Mambo Cha-Cha-Cha" - Marino Marini et Son Quartette (Italia, 1956); "Fattouma" - Bruno Mory (Francia, 1960); "La suppa del pichon" - Los Merecumbes (Bélgica, 1961); "Torero" - The Southlanders (Inglaterra, 1958); "Mambo en sax" - Eddie Warner (Alemania, 1956); "Dos arbolitos" - Teddy Stauffer (Suíza, 1959); "Tequila" - Ben Sa Tumba & Son Orchestre (Francia, 1959); "Zou bisou bisou" - Pepe Zapatta (Francia, 1961); "Chouchou" - Les Chakachas (Bélgica, 1959); "Mambo gitano" - Sylvain David (Francia, 1958); "Cha-Ba-Di Cha-Ba-Da" - Franco E I "G.5" (Italia, 1961); "Oui, oui, oui, oui" - Jack Ary et son High Society (Francia, 1959)Bonus track: "Rhythm 56" - Les Cha-Cha BoysTodas las músicas extraídas de la recopilación (1xLP+CD) "Mambo, Cha-Cha-Cha & Calypso" Vol. 4: European Session" (Jukebox Music Factory/Platinum Records, 2021)Todos los singles (7") compilados por El VidocqRelación de fechas de emisión de los 3 anteriores volúmenes de la serie "Mambo, Cha-Cha-Cha & Calypso":1.- Volume 1: Girls Session! - emitido el 04/06/20202.- Volume 2: Crazy Session! - emitido el 24/02/20253.- Volume 3: Blues Session! - emitido el 26/03/2025.Escuchar audio

Eurovision 2025 is finally upon us, and with a busy week ahead, Steven brings your essential rundown of what's happening, how you can watch, and Douze Points' coverage throughout the week.Stay with us and you won't any of the twists, turns and breaking news as we go full steam ahead towards Saturday's Grand Final in Basel..Mentioned in this episode:Baby Lasagna - ‘Rim Tim Tagi Dim' (Croatia, 2024): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIBjarAiAVcKäärijä - ‘Cha Cha Cha' (Finland, 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rS8Dv5g-8Silvester Belt - ‘Luktelk' (Lithuania, 2024): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8YuQzJLR_k.If you love Eurovision as much as we do, don't forget to connect with us on social. DM us on Twitter at @Bingewatch_Pod and join our Facebook Page.You can also now support the show with a generous Douze Points of your own!And if you want more bingeworthy TV coverage, check out our other shows:BingewatchBitesize BingewatchDouze Points is a Podcasts By Liam production, presented by Steven Perkins and produced by Liam Heffernan. Original theme composed by Ian MacEwan. The Bingewatch network was created by Hannah Fernando and Ian MacEwan. For any queries, including advertising & sponsorship, please email hello@podcastsbyliam.com

Eurovision 2025 is finally upon us, and with a busy week ahead, Steven brings your essential rundown of what's happening, how you can watch, and Douze Points' coverage throughout the week.Stay with us and you won't any of the twists, turns and breaking news as we go full steam ahead towards Saturday's Grand Final in Basel..Mentioned in this episode:Baby Lasagna - ‘Rim Tim Tagi Dim' (Croatia, 2024): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIBjarAiAVcKäärijä - ‘Cha Cha Cha' (Finland, 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rS8Dv5g-8Silvester Belt - ‘Luktelk' (Lithuania, 2024): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8YuQzJLR_k.If you love Eurovision as much as we do, don't forget to connect with us on social. DM us on Twitter at @Bingewatch_Pod and join our Facebook Page.You can also now support the show with a generous Douze Points of your own!And if you want more bingeworthy TV coverage, check out our other shows:BingewatchBitesize BingewatchDouze Points is a Podcasts By Liam production, presented by Steven Perkins and produced by Liam Heffernan. Original theme composed by Ian MacEwan. The Bingewatch network was created by Hannah Fernando and Ian MacEwan. For any queries, including advertising & sponsorship, please email hello@podcastsbyliam.com

Follow @foobarshowEpisode 365 - May the 4th Be With YouDoom Scrolling IntroThe Foos talk about Steph's birthday celebration-Joe C rants about the Cha Cha Cha during the birthday song people againGeeking Out:-The Tales of the Underworld-Star Wars TriviaHere's What I Would Do:-Marcus in Woodland Hills has a friend who is ghosting him-Celeste in Pomona lives a single life while her friends are having familiesGive us a 5-star positive review on Apple Podcasts!Listen at foobarshow.com or anywhere you get your podcasts.

EMF: Band HistoryEMF (short for “Epsom Mad Funkers”) is an English alternative dance band from Cinderford, Gloucestershire, England. Formed in 1989, they became known for blending dance rhythms with alternative rock and pop elements, emerging during the “Madchester” era.Their debut single, “Unbelievable,” released in 1990, became a major international hit, reaching No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1991. Their first album, Schubert Dip (1991), followed shortly after and included other singles like “I Believe,” “Children,” and “Lies.”EMF's second album, Stigma (1992), showed a darker, more introspective side of the band but did not match the commercial success of their debut. Their third album, Cha Cha Cha (1995), leaned even further into experimentation, leading to mixed reception and declining sales. The group disbanded in 1997 following label struggles and internal tensions.After the passing of bassist Zac Foley in 2002, the band took an extended hiatus. They reunited for live performances in the 2000s and released a new album, Go Go Sapiens, in 2022 — their first full-length collection of new material in over two decades.In 2024, EMF released another new album titled The Beauty and the Chaos, continuing their tradition of fusing energy, melody, and dance-rock elements. This album marks another step in the band's ongoing evolution, reflecting both their roots and new influences.Current and former members include: • James Atkin (vocals) • Ian Dench (guitar) • Derry Brownson (keyboards, samples; no longer active with the group) • Zac Foley (bass; deceased 2002) • Mark Decloedt (drums)Official Links • Official Website: https://www.emf-theband.com • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emf_theband • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EMFtheband • Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/emf_theband

Chinatown Cha Cha Cha is an inspiring documentary that uncovers Chinatown's lively nightlife, telling stories of perseverance, cultural pride, and resilience through unforgettable performances—don't miss this engaging look into Chinese-American history! The post “Chinatown Cha Cha Cha”: Interview with Luka YuanYuan Yang appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Chinatown Cha Cha Cha is an inspiring documentary that uncovers Chinatown's lively nightlife, telling stories of perseverance, cultural pride, and resilience through unforgettable performances—don't miss this engaging look into Chinese-American history! The post “Chinatown Cha Cha Cha”: Interview with Luka YuanYuan Yang appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Chinatown Cha Cha Cha is an inspiring documentary that uncovers Chinatown's lively nightlife, telling stories of perseverance, cultural pride, and resilience through unforgettable performances—don't miss this engaging look into Chinese-American history! The post “Chinatown Cha Cha Cha”: Interview with Luka YuanYuan Yang appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Chinatown Cha Cha Cha is an inspiring documentary that uncovers Chinatown's lively nightlife, telling stories of perseverance, cultural pride, and resilience through unforgettable performances—don't miss this engaging look into Chinese-American history! The post “Chinatown Cha Cha Cha”: Interview with Luka YuanYuan Yang appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Chinatown Cha Cha Cha is an inspiring documentary that uncovers Chinatown's lively nightlife, telling stories of perseverance, cultural pride, and resilience through unforgettable performances—don't miss this engaging look into Chinese-American history! The post “Chinatown Cha Cha Cha”: Interview with Luka YuanYuan Yang appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Chinatown Cha Cha Cha is an inspiring documentary that uncovers Chinatown's lively nightlife, telling stories of perseverance, cultural pride, and resilience through unforgettable performances—don't miss this engaging look into Chinese-American history! The post “Chinatown Cha Cha Cha”: Interview with Luka YuanYuan Yang appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Steven Perkins brings you all the latest breaking Eurovision news, including a new relaxed flag policy following last year's controversy AND what is the UK's favourite Eurovision song of all time? Well, the BBC conducted a survey and the results are in....Mentioned in this episode:Efendi - ‘Mata Hari' (Azerbaijan, 2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTQ22S5YC7QThe Roop - ‘Discoteque' (Lithuania, 2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNweec5olYwOlsen Brothers - ‘Fly On The Wings Of Love' (Denmark, 2000): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF8fkHK0AWsSam Ryder - ‘Space Man' (United Kingdom, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ0hqX_92zILoreen - ‘Euphoria' (Sweden, 2012): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfo-8z86x80Conchita Wurst - ‘Rise Like A Phoenix' (Austria, 2014): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRUIava4WRMAlexander Rybak - ‘Fairytale' (Norway, 2009): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXwgZL4zx9oKäärijä - ‘Cha Cha Cha' (Finland, 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rS8Dv5g-8.If you love Eurovision as much as we do, don't forget to connect with us on social. DM us on Twitter at @Bingewatch_Pod and join our Facebook Page.You can also now support the show with a generous Douze Points of your own!And if you want more bingeworthy TV coverage, check out our other shows:BingewatchBitesize BingewatchDouze Points is a Podcasts By Liam production, presented by Steven Perkins and produced by Liam Heffernan. Original theme composed by Ian MacEwan. The Bingewatch network was created by Hannah Fernando and Ian MacEwan. For any queries, including advertising & sponsorship, please email hello@podcastsbyliam.com

Send us a textVictor, Evelyn, and Mark hang out this week to celebrate Victor's birthday with a roast, time limits in the bathroom, free things for your birthday, Val Kilmer, and wanting plates.

There's an official statement from Mikey correcting the misinformation spread by the boys in Tuesday's episode. Jordan's been duped into a World Book Day costume at his “other job”, and William has a wonderful gift from a G&Diva who is satisfying his appetite for more Cha Cha Cha's. Join Sexted Extra and laugh along to William Hanson and Jordan North helping you navigate the challenges of modern life ad free at https://plus.acast.com/s/sextedmyboss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us this week for the bonus episode of ‘Hometown Cha Cha Cha' as we give the entire 16 episodes a spoiler-filled review! This time around we really embody the vibes of the show and just enjoy our time together talking about places, people, and memories this show reminded us of. Stick around until the end to hear our final rating on the show!—————Find all our stuff on Patreon!Check out our website!Email us at playonkpodcast@gmail.comAnd leave a rating and review wherever you listen!

Two Hours of trashy garage, punk, rock, soul and fury with host DJ JDub.This week: A bunch of good stuff! It's week two of the 2025 LuxuriaMusic fund drive. Kat sits in with JDub. Hour 1 is mostly new music. Most of hour 2 celebrates black history month.Outrage Radio playlist – February 27, 2025[0:00]1.      Thee Hypnotics – Soul Trader2.      Gino & The Goons – Hit and Run [17:57]3.      Split System – On The Edge  (2025)4.      Split System – On The Loose (2025)5.      Lambrini Girls – Filthy Rich Nepo Baby (2025)6.      The Circulators – On The Loose (2024)7.      Plexi Stad – Returning (2024)8.      Ekko Astral – Head Empty Blues (2024) [38:58]9.    Ughh – I Taste The Taste (2024)10.  The BellRays – Snakes  (2024)11.  Heavy Mother II – One Man's Love (2025)12.  The Cha Cha Cha's – Send Help  (2025)13.  Blonde Revolver – Want It All (2025)14.  999 – Rael Rean (Live)  [2024]15.  Pyrex – Coma  (2025)16.  Pypy – Lonely Striped Sock (2024)17.  Cowards – 3020 (2025) [1:12:48]18.   The Dirtbombs – Can't Stop Thinking About It19.   Pure Helll – Hard Action20.  Bad Brains – Big Takeover21.   Paris – Guerillas In The Mist22.  Andre Williams – Only Black Man In South Dakota23.  Howling Wolf – Do The Do24.  Black Joe Lewis – What Love Is [1:36:04]25.  Betty Davis – Walkin Up The Road26.  Funkadelic – Funky Dollar Bill27.  Curtis Knight & The Squires – Hornet's Nest28.  Big Maybelle – Ocean Of Tears29.  Bo Diddley – I'm Looking For A Woman30.  Chuck Berry – Downnbound Train [1:52:00]31.  Public Enemy – Shut Em DownMake a donation here: https://store.luxuriamusic.com/#!/Outrage-Radio/c/27891268/sort=addedTimeDesc&limit=9Outrage Radio broadcasts live 9-11PM (Pacific) on Thursday nights from Downtown Los Angeles at the LuxuriaMusic .com radio studio.

It's time for the finale! Join us this week for episodes 15-16 of ‘Hometown Cha Cha Cha' as we unravel a mystery, celebrate a life, and rank the couples from most to least memorable.—————Find all our stuff on Patreon!Check out our website!Email us at playonkpodcast@gmail.comAnd leave a rating and review wherever you listen!

Join us this week for episodes 13-14 of ‘Hometown Cha Cha Cha' as we wind down from one of the wildest plot twists we've ever seen, unpack the love triangles of yester-sode, and predict the secret that's driving everything.—————Find all our stuff on Patreon!Check out our website!Email us at playonkpodcast@gmail.comAnd leave a rating and review wherever you listen!

Join us this week for episodes 11-12 of ‘Hometown Cha Cha Cha' as we (respectfully) yuck some yums, recognize some familiar faces, and question comedy.—————Find all our stuff on Patreon!Check out our website!Email us at playonkpodcast@gmail.comAnd leave a rating and review wherever you listen!

Join us this week for episodes 9-10 of ‘Hometown Cha Cha Cha' as we talk about the fight scene we totally could have fought better, the second lead who is killing us, and the character who needs more therapy than any other.Leave a comment or sign up for our newsletter on our website (playonk.com), give us a hey by email (playonkpodcast@gmail.com) or on Instagram (@playonkpodcast), on TikTok (@playonk_emily), on the app previously known as Twitter (@playonk), or on YouTube (Play on K), and leave a rating and review wherever you listen!

Eurovision results are a dramatic affair, and are arguably as entertaining as the performances themselves. Even more so when the expert jury and general public disagree wildly on their favourites.So in this deep dive, Steven looks at the biggest discrepancies in Eurovision history, where the jury and televote scores differ the most. From singing grannies and milk maids to runaway winners, this list has it all!.Mentioned in this episode:Klavdia - ‘Asteromáta' (Greece, 2025): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxzeTezgey4Red Sebastian - ‘Strobe Lights' (Belgium, 2025): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxzeTezgey4Klemen - ‘How Much Time Do We Have Left?' (Slovenia, 2025): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg6RH6nZL1c July Jones - ‘New Religion' (Slovenia NF, 2025): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drAIk9nW1oY Melody - ‘Esa Diva' (Spain, 2025): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H46FB-rLh04 Cezar - ‘It's My Life' (Romania, 2013): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgHWFiavqjAErmal Meta and Fabrizio Moro - ‘Non mi avete fatto niente' (Italy, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81M-mp5t8uMIl Volo - ‘Grande Amore' (Italy, 2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TOMqZV2jA8Donatan & Cloe - ‘My Słowianie - We Are Slavic' (Poland, 2014): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ920cN2HmA Michał Szpak - ‘Colour Of Your Life' (Poland, 2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ920cN2HmA Zoë - ‘Loin d'ici' (Austria, 2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xuPYt5i5cEMargaret - ‘Cool Me Down' (Poland NF, 2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H39-Ls6Yhy4 Sergey Lazarev - ‘You Are The Only One' (Russia, 2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e94dst20C9Y Dami Im - ‘Sound Of Silence' (Australia, 2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ymFX91HwM0Jamala - ‘1944' (Ukraine, 2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-rnM-MwRHY Zdob și Zdub and Advahov Brothers - ‘Trenulețul' (Moldova, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUqf_zO2QaIBuranovskiye Babushki - ‘Party For Everybody' (Russia, 2012): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgUstrmJzyc Käärijä - ‘Cha Cha Cha' (Finland, 2023);

Join us this week for episodes 7-8 of ‘Hometown Cha Cha Cha' as we talk about the (K-drama required) villain, the toxic town gossip, and our very different takes on old-friendships-turned-new-love-triangles.Leave a comment or sign up for our newsletter on our website (playonk.com), give us a hey by email (playonkpodcast@gmail.com) or on Instagram (@playonkpodcast), on TikTok (@playonk_emily), on the app previously known as Twitter (@playonk), or on YouTube (Play on K), and leave a rating and review wherever you listen!

Join us this week for episodes 5-6 of ‘Hometown Cha Cha Cha' as we talk about the love triangle that we aren't hating, the boy band that is braver than us, and the song contest!!Leave a comment or sign up for our newsletter on our website (playonk.com), give us a hey by email (playonkpodcast@gmail.com) or on Instagram (@playonkpodcast), on TikTok (@playonk_emily), on the app previously known as Twitter (@playonk), or on YouTube (Play on K), and leave a rating and review wherever you listen!

HR3 - Courtney and Scheim are lamenting the pending tiktok ban // Newest WEEI team member Teddy Johnson checks in to talk new afternoon show // Wiggy and Greg have differing opinions of Drake Maye skipping town early //

Join us this week for episodes 3-4 of ‘Hometown Cha Cha Cha' as we talk about the road trip conundrum, toxic group chats, and damsels in (very little) distress.Leave a comment or sign up for our newsletter on our website (playonk.com), give us a hey by email (playonkpodcast@gmail.com) or on Instagram (@playonkpodcast), on TikTok (@playonk_emily), on the app previously known as Twitter (@playonk), or on YouTube (Play on K), and leave a rating and review wherever you listen!

Ma cocotte en fonte, comment vas-tu? Perso, j'expérimente une phase “momolle” (motivation et énergie

Happy new year everyone! This week we started a new drama! Join us here for episodes 1-2 of ‘Hometown Cha Cha Cha' as we talk about characters we haven't pinned down yet, meet cutes that are not so cute, and the setting that might take over our whole year.Leave a comment or sign up for our newsletter on our website (playonk.com), give us a hey by email (playonkpodcast@gmail.com) or on Instagram (@playonkpodcast), on TikTok (@playonk_emily), on the app previously known as Twitter (@playonk), or on YouTube (Play on K), and leave a rating and review wherever you listen!

Quinta y penúltima entrega de los episodios dedicados a repasar 2024 a través de 100 canciones favoritas.Playlist; (sintonía) THE BABALOONEYS “Pivot cup”RAY COLLINS' HOT-CLUB “Kelly and Grant”LAUREL AITKEN and THE MIGHTY MEGATONS “Only a smile”TITO RAMIREZ “Molly malone”THE LAZY TONES “My blame”THE DESLONDES “I’ll do it”TYMON DOGG and THE DACOITS “Turning of the world”THE FLESHTONES “It’s getting late”THE CHA CHA CHA’S “Send help”THE CUBICAL “Run it off”F.A.N.T.A. “Thelma y Louise”FOOD FIGHT “Justicing the deplorables”LIE DETECTORS “Masaje Uzbeko”RICK WHITE and THE SADIES “Fly away”SKEGSS “I think I can fly”JON MUQ “Flying away from home”Escuchar audio

"Cha cha cha" is a weird name for a road, but once you understand the historical significance of the campaign that bears this name, you soon realize that naming a road "Cha cha cha" isn't so weird after all. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/50ttdz/support

No new episode this week because we're are both speaking at the AI for the Rest of Us conference this week.So instead we've hit up the vaults for the wonderful Paula Cizek, Chief Research Officer at Nobl. She guides leaders and teams through the change management process, from assessing the organization's readiness for change to implementing initiatives. In this episode, we explore the fascinating topic of Corporate Change and how its lessons can be applied to cybersecurity.Normal service resumes next week but for now keep secure!Show NotesAsana's guide to running Project Pre-mortemsHow to “Start with the Skateboard” - SpotifyExplaining Fail save vs Safe to Fail changes - NOBLBarriers to Change - NOBLHow long does it take to make organisational change? NOBLComplexity Science Explained - Complexity ExplainedAn introduction to Network theoryBlending Complexity Science and Network TheoryDisentangling Risk and Uncertainty: When Risk-Taking Measures Are Not About RiskNegotiation Tips - Getting Comfortable being UncomfortablePsychological Safety - McKinseyAbout Paula CizekPaula Cizek is the Chief Research Officer of NOBL, where she guides organizations through large-scale transformation. A thought leader in change management and change resistance, she specializes in translating complex concepts into simple, practical tactics that deliver immediate and meaningful change.Before joining NOBL, she was Innovation Manager at the IPG Media Lab, advising brand and media clients on emerging technology. Prior to that, she was Senior Innovation Consultant at Mandalah, where she led consumer behavior and brand strategy research for brands around the world. She's worked with a diverse roster of clients including Warner Bros., Chanel, Capital One, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Airbnb, Chipotle, Grupo Bimbo, and more, and she's been published or quoted in publications like BrandingMag and Women's Wear Daily. She graduated from Georgetown University, majoring in Marketing and International Business.LINKS FOR Paula CizekPaula's LinkedInNOBL

Changes are on the horizon & this week's mixtape is songs about change. Check out the entire mixtape on Spotify @ https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4WQiU3tniIgsDDwDY1ddL5?si=78f78fb6cba447e3

From Bossa and Samba to Cha Cha Cha, Bolero, Rumba, Mambo, Son Montuno and Merengque Michele Fernandez joins us to help band directors teach Afro-Latin Jazz Music more effectively. We learn which countries each style originates from, study characteristics in each one, and listen to examples from Michele's music. This episode is also available in short segments by style on The Growing Band Director Youtube channel. To gain access to all show notes and audio files please Subscribe to the podcast and consider supporting the show on Patreon - using the button at the top of thegrowingbanddirector.com Our mission is to share practical  advice and explore topics that will help every band director, no matter your experience level, as well as music education students who are working to join us in the coming years. Connect with us with comments or ideas Follow the show: Podcast website : Thegrowingbanddirector.com On Youtube The Growing Band Director  Facebook-The Growing Band Director Podcast Group Instagram @thegrowingbanddirector Tik Tok @thegrowingbanddirector If you like what you hear please: Leave a Five Star Review and  Share us with another band director! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kyle-smith95/support

Part 2 of a 5 Part Series - Today we explore the Cha Cha Cha! Including example charts in each style for your band! In this series we explore specific styles of Afro-Latin Jazz - what makes them unique and what makes them similar. Each video has a uniform opening segment general set up, rehearsal techniques, and specifics needed for each style. To gain access to all show notes and audio files please Subscribe to the podcast and consider supporting the show on Patreon - using the button at the top of thegrowingbanddirector.com Our mission is to share practical  advice and explore topics that will help every band director, no matter your experience level, as well as music education students who are working to join us in the coming years. Connect with us with comments or ideas Follow the show: Podcast website : Thegrowingbanddirector.com On Youtube The Growing Band Director  Facebook-The Growing Band Director Podcast Group Instagram @thegrowingbanddirector Tik Tok @thegrowingbanddirector If you like what you hear please: Leave a Five Star Review and  Share us with another band director! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kyle-smith95/support

Many of us are in a season of change and for some, you are change-capable.  You welcome it!  You see it as an adventure.  If that is you, this might not be the episode for you!  But for those of you that are change-resistant, go ahead and push play. Elizabeth shares her about her upcoming major change, the discomfort that comes with it, how it is impacting her and her family, and offers some practical, helpful advice that she has learned in the process.Elizabeth Pehrson created The Exchange in 2015. The Exchange is a monthly event for ALL adult women. Women who work outside the home. And women who work in the home. Women who are single. And women who are married. Women who are moms. Women who are grand-moms. No matter what season of life you are in, The Exchange is here to inspire you to live life ON PURPOSE and WITH INTENTION.The Exchange is a non-profit that provides an environment for women to hear practical advice from topics Elizabeth has read and life lessons she has learned, and is currently learning. Equipping us to become better women tomorrow than we are today. And to ultimately use that to pour back into those around us. Tickets and info: theexchangeus.orgfollow us on instagram: theexchangeusfollow us on Facebook: the exchange cumming

Mark & Mike talk about the many changes that are coming to Overtime Live and 94.3 WINX-FM. Jake Coleman stopped by for a little roasting visit too. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/timeoutwithshoresports/support

105Carrie Green founder of Happy Birthday Cha Cha Cha is spreading kindness one birthday at a time!  Have you ever thought, I want to do something for those in need but “what difference can I make?” you get overwhelmed by all the obstacles, and in the end you end up doing nothing?  I certainly have!   Carrie Green has proven that an act of kindness can start small in your own hometown or school district and with the help of family and community grow from 129 students gifted to over 6,500 and counting!  Now that's time for KINDNESS!!!!  www.happybirthdaychachacha.orgwww.mrskashadavis.com

You can't control change; it controls you. Chances are, you are in one of two camps: 1) Those who embrace technology or 2) Those who are overwhelmed with all the change. Now, you may still be a damn the torpedos, I am going to use my printed Franklin planner and Palm Pilot Blueberry thingy kind of person, but I want to try and help you understand what change matters and what may not when it comes to you and your business. My goal here is to help you better understand how to embrace the benefits of these changes. Heck, you can always hire an assistant to deal with all those technology changes that keep coming at you like stars in a hyperdrive Star Wars scene. It's Not About You, it's about people choosing you. I'm going to let you in on a little secret: In today's reality, it's not you choosing the customer, advocate, or power partner, they choose you! What you have to do is find a way to become distinctive, memorable, and top-of-mind. This is the power of social networking and social media, getting you to that top-of-mind position and helping you stay there. You just have to learn how to leverage the tools in a way that creates and enhances relationships.