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“Rick Rockwell” says it all. To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://www.advertisecast.com/TheJeffWardShow
Story: 12 Degrees of Seperation Author: Paula Graves Rating: NR Site link: annehaynes.xf-redux.com/stories/12degree.html Read by: PianoGirlXF Summary: 12 DEGREES OF SEPARATION is an X-Files novel, completely unauthorized and probably unappreciated by anyone connected to Ten-Thirteen Productions or the Fox Network. But since I didn't write it for them, I'm not too worried about it. :) I have received no financial compensation for the writing of this story, and I mean no copyright infringement. Consider this an homage to a smart and addictive show. Used by the author's permission. The characters in these works are not the property of the Audio Fanfic Podcast or the author and are not being posted for profit.
Story: 12 Degrees of Seperation Author: Paula Graves Rating: NR Site link: annehaynes.xf-redux.com/stories/12degree.html Read by: PianoGirlXF Summary: 12 DEGREES OF SEPARATION is an X-Files novel, completely unauthorized and probably unappreciated by anyone connected to Ten-Thirteen Productions or the Fox Network. But since I didn't write it for them, I'm not too worried about it. :) I have received no financial compensation for the writing of this story, and I mean no copyright infringement. Consider this an homage to a smart and addictive show. Used by the author's permission. The characters in these works are not the property of the Audio Fanfic Podcast or the author and are not being posted for profit.
Story: 12 Degrees of Seperation Author: Paula Graves Rating: NR Site link: annehaynes.xf-redux.com/stories/12degree.html Read by: PianoGirlXF Summary: 12 DEGREES OF SEPARATION is an X-Files novel, completely unauthorized and probably unappreciated by anyone connected to Ten-Thirteen Productions or the Fox Network. But since I didn't write it for them, I'm not too worried about it. :) I have received no financial compensation for the writing of this story, and I mean no copyright infringement. Consider this an homage to a smart and addictive show. Used by the author's permission. The characters in these works are not the property of the Audio Fanfic Podcast or the author and are not being posted for profit.
Story: 12 Degrees of Seperation Author: Paula Graves Rating: NR Site link: annehaynes.xf-redux.com/stories/12degree.html Read by: PianoGirlXF Summary: 12 DEGREES OF SEPARATION is an X-Files novel, completely unauthorized and probably unappreciated by anyone connected to Ten-Thirteen Productions or the Fox Network. But since I didn't write it for them, I'm not too worried about it. :) I have received no financial compensation for the writing of this story, and I mean no copyright infringement. Consider this an homage to a smart and addictive show. Used by the author's permission. The characters in these works are not the property of the Audio Fanfic Podcast or the author and are not being posted for profit.
Story: 12 Degrees of Seperation Author: Paula Graves Rating: NR Site link: annehaynes.xf-redux.com/stories/12degree.html Read by: PianoGirlXF Summary: 12 DEGREES OF SEPARATION is an X-Files novel, completely unauthorized and probably unappreciated by anyone connected to Ten-Thirteen Productions or the Fox Network. But since I didn't write it for them, I'm not too worried about it. :) I have received no financial compensation for the writing of this story, and I mean no copyright infringement. Consider this an homage to a smart and addictive show. Used by the author's permission. The characters in these works are not the property of the Audio Fanfic Podcast or the author and are not being posted for profit.
Story: 12 Degrees of Seperation Author: Paula Graves Rating: NR Site link: annehaynes.xf-redux.com/stories/12degree.html Read by: PianoGirlXF Summary: 12 DEGREES OF SEPARATION is an X-Files novel, completely unauthorized and probably unappreciated by anyone connected to Ten-Thirteen Productions or the Fox Network. But since I didn't write it for them, I'm not too worried about it. :) I have received no financial compensation for the writing of this story, and I mean no copyright infringement. Consider this an homage to a smart and addictive show. Used by the author's permission. The characters in these works are not the property of the Audio Fanfic Podcast or the author and are not being posted for profit.
Story: 12 Degrees of Seperation Author: Paula Graves Rating: NR Site link: annehaynes.xf-redux.com/stories/12degree.html Read by: PianoGirlXF Summary: 12 DEGREES OF SEPARATION is an X-Files novel, completely unauthorized and probably unappreciated by anyone connected to Ten-Thirteen Productions or the Fox Network. But since I didn't write it for them, I'm not too worried about it. :) I have received no financial compensation for the writing of this story, and I mean no copyright infringement. Consider this an homage to a smart and addictive show. Used by the author's permission. The characters in these works are not the property of the Audio Fanfic Podcast or the author and are not being posted for profit.
Story: 12 Degrees of Seperation Author: Paula Graves Rating: NR Site link: annehaynes.xf-redux.com/stories/12degree.html Read by: PianoGirlXF Summary: 12 DEGREES OF SEPARATION is an X-Files novel, completely unauthorized and probably unappreciated by anyone connected to Ten-Thirteen Productions or the Fox Network. But since I didn't write it for them, I'm not too worried about it. :) I have received no financial compensation for the writing of this story, and I mean no copyright infringement. Consider this an homage to a smart and addictive show. Used by the author's permission. The characters in these works are not the property of the Audio Fanfic Podcast or the author and are not being posted for profit.
Story: 12 Degrees of Seperation Author: Paula Graves Rating: NR Site link: annehaynes.xf-redux.com/stories/12degree.html Read by: PianoGirlXF Summary: 12 DEGREES OF SEPARATION is an X-Files novel, completely unauthorized and probably unappreciated by anyone connected to Ten-Thirteen Productions or the Fox Network. But since I didn't write it for them, I'm not too worried about it. :) I have received no financial compensation for the writing of this story, and I mean no copyright infringement. Consider this an homage to a smart and addictive show. Used by the author's permission. The characters in these works are not the property of the Audio Fanfic Podcast or the author and are not being posted for profit.
Story: 12 Degrees of Seperation Author: Paula Graves Rating: NR Site link: annehaynes.xf-redux.com/stories/12degree.html Read by: PianoGirlXF Summary: 12 DEGREES OF SEPARATION is an X-Files novel, completely unauthorized and probably unappreciated by anyone connected to Ten-Thirteen Productions or the Fox Network. But since I didn't write it for them, I'm not too worried about it. :) I have received no financial compensation for the writing of this story, and I mean no copyright infringement. Consider this an homage to a smart and addictive show. Used by the author's permission. The characters in these works are not the property of the Audio Fanfic Podcast or the author and are not being posted for profit.
Story: 12 Degrees of Seperation Author: Paula Graves Rating: NR Site link: annehaynes.xf-redux.com/stories/12degree.html Read by: PianoGirlXF Summary: 12 DEGREES OF SEPARATION is an X-Files novel, completely unauthorized and probably unappreciated by anyone connected to Ten-Thirteen Productions or the Fox Network. But since I didn't write it for them, I'm not too worried about it. :) I have received no financial compensation for the writing of this story, and I mean no copyright infringement. Consider this an homage to a smart and addictive show. Used by the author's permission. The characters in these works are not the property of the Audio Fanfic Podcast or the author and are not being posted for profit.
Story: 12 Degrees of Seperation Author: Paula Graves Rating: NR Site link: annehaynes.xf-redux.com/stories/12degree.html Read by: PianoGirlXF Summary: 12 DEGREES OF SEPARATION is an X-Files novel, completely unauthorized and probably unappreciated by anyone connected to Ten-Thirteen Productions or the Fox Network. But since I didn't write it for them, I'm not too worried about it. :) I have received no financial compensation for the writing of this story, and I mean no copyright infringement. Consider this an homage to a smart and addictive show. Used by the author's permission. The characters in these works are not the property of the Audio Fanfic Podcast or the author and are not being posted for profit.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFamed Fox Network TV Producer Files Lawsuit Against CIA‘Disinformation' Scientist and Antigravity/UFO Research Firm Contact: Rob McConnellThe “X” Zone Broadcast Network Canadian Media Servicesrobmcconnell@xzbn.net(905) 575-1222 March 7, 2019 – Orange, CA – Robert C. Kiviat, the investigative producer best known for his hit TV Specials FOX Broadcasting aired along with their X-Files series such as Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction?, UFOs: The Best Evidence Ever Caught On Tape and World's Greatest Hoaxes: Secrets Finally Revealed, has filed a lawsuit in California against longtime CIA scientist Ron Pandolfi, who ran the CIA's “Weird Desk” and most recently has been backing InterNASA, an advanced physics firm also named in the lawsuit which Kiviat worked for under contract since 2018, but has yet to pay him.According to the Complaint filed last week, Kiviat – whose 2014 TV Special for NBC Universal's Syfy channel, Aliens On The Moon: The Truth Exposed unveiled never-before-seen NASA photos taken by the Apollo astronauts that appear to show gigantic lunar constructions of unknown origin – is seeking $300,000 in employment salary arrears InterNASA presently owes him. The suit also promises to pry open for the first time, via legal discovery, the inner workings behind CIA operations ostensibly led by Pandolfi comprising a decades-long disinformation campaign designed to influence and confuse the public about UFOs – or exotic technologies – by manipulating researchers, and worse, lead those involved to lose money, and more, in the process. “Covering UFOs and other unexplained topics for TV networks made me keenly aware that both a former Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and a famous astronaut had moved into anti-gravity R & D upon leaving government service,” Kiviat says. “So when InterNASA CEO Joe Firmage assured me he had secured the necessary funding and that Pandolfi was backing his gravity-control research, I accepted a position to oversee InterNASA's Studios division.” Kiviat adds that Pandolfi's apparent support of the science behind Firmage's device was independently corroborated by a prominent researcher and author giving lectures at packed UFO conferences throughout 2017, claiming he learned of it from a known Pandolfi operative. The same month that Firmage was recruiting Kiviat to oversee InterNASA Studios – which Firmage envisioned as a news and entertainment entity for informing the public about the implications of his discovery – The New York Times ran a front-page article announcing that unidentified “Tic Tac” shaped aircraft had been caught on video by U.S. Navy pilots easily outmaneuvering our fastest jets with gravity-defying capability. These videos The Times wrote about were not released by the U.S. military, but by a company headed by former Blink 182 guitarist Tom DeLonge and Dr. Hal Puthoff, a scientist who had conducted government ESP research and is a former paid consultant Firmage employed 10 years earlier when he was just beginning work on the anti-gravity device.“Firmage asked me repeatedly if I knew of any actual technology that was being developed by the company DeLonge and Puthoff were heading, which they named To The Stars Academy (TTSA), and when I told him I didn't, he indicated he felt Puthoff must have usurped his overall ‘new physics Academy' concept he had been talking about for years,” Kiviat recalls. “To be fair, Firmage had a point, in that InterNASA – or its full name, International Academy of Science and Arts, does sound like it could have inspired TTSA. Then he gave me our plan, which was to beat TTSA to the punch and get news stories and TV series made about our efforts to prove gravity-control exists.”While Kiviat explains that he performed multiple tasks for InterNASA working under his employment contract, including corporate communications, investor relations and also managed to make multiple trips to New York to pitch two major TV Networks a series which would, in part, unveil InterNASA's plans, it was Firmage's insistence that Kiviat actually was working for both him and Pandolfi that intrigued him the most.“Often when I would have my daily phone calls with Firmage, and also with Pandolfi's most trusted operative who was stationed at Firmage's Utah home laboratory overseeing technical progress being made on the gravity-control device and reporting back to Pandolfi on the East Coast, Pandolfi would call in and they would both have to aburprtly end our calls,” Kiviat says. “Any claim Pandolfi makes that he did not call in that frequently or was not majorly involved in monitoring InterNASA's technology development is preposterous and demonstrably false.” InterNASA's financial problems started early, Kiviat reveals, when its seemingly most interested investor, former Utah Congressman Daniel Marriott, feigned he would provide the investment capital to cover all operating costs, but kept coming up with reasons for holding up doing so, while curiously, also maintaining that if any other investor stepped in, he would pull his involvement completely. “It was this Catch-22 kind of dealing that basically strangled the company, Kiviat adds. “But Marriott did eventually make as minimal payment as possible to keep InterNASA's technological development going, and also paid me a small amount out of his own pocket to cover a tiny portion of my amassing InterNASA salary arrears.”By the middle of 2018, Kiviat was told by both Firmage and Pandolfi's operative in Utah that a major meeting – or “gravity control” demonstration – was being planned with Pandolfi's assistance in Colorado. But due to Firmage's inability to meet certain deadlines, the meeting abruptly was canceled. Kiviat was informed the company was going “dark” to work on the machine without distraction, and Kiviat – or what Pandolfi's operative called “Media” – would be the last to be paid with whatever funds Marriott was continuing to contribute. “From that point on, I focused primarily on getting a TV deal since it seemed money would have to come in from some outside source to keep InterNASA going, with Marriott manipulating the way he was doing,” Kiviat says. “TV executives I met with in both Hollywood and New York showed a lot of interest, and these negotiations are continuing despite the lawsuit being filed. One way or another, I think the series I presented will get made, and it will be the most definitive and far reaching TV project ever concerning UFOs, the subject's connection to exotic propulsion systems and what the U.S. government knows about possible extraterrestrial visitation.”On the advice of his attorney, Kiviat's lawsuit also names Marriott as a co-defendant and alleges he is culpable for money owed to Kiviat for the year or more of work performed under his employment contract. Yet Kiviat sees his case having much more significance than simply being about receiving his fair compensation. “Not only am I seeking to be paid for what I am owed legally for my dedicated efforts, but the suit has the added value of exposing the way the U.S. intelligence agencies have seemingly manipulated the UFO community and overall, the general public for years. And to put it mildly, it stinks, many good people have been damaged and it has to stop.”##Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-x-zone-radio-tv-show--1078348/support.
They're Back.........Again..........and this time, they have Political Powers......Woe to the Union... SPONSORED BY: Dave's Archives RETROCirq Kier's Nostalgia Corner Kev the Ripper And (of course) our Patrons
Stand Up Comedian and Writer Dave Johnson joins John Ferrentino and Mike Grief this week on The Big Bad Broadcast. These 3 Funny Men, (Funny He He, not Ha Ha) Talk about everything from Stand Up, Comedy Magic, Favorite Jokes, & Magicians Who Reveal Secrets of Magic Tricks. The Big Bad Broadcast Mike Grief was born in New York City, New York, USA. He is known for Liar Liar (1997), Epic Movie (2007), and Edtv (1999). He has been married to Patricia Holihan since February 14, 2000. John Ferrentino is an American comedian and comedy magician. He was born and raised in Long Island, New York. He has made several television appearances (including HBO, VH1, the Comedy Channel, A&E, and Showtime). Toured as the opening act for Crosby, Stills & Nash. He was also a regular on Comedy Tonight on the Fox Network.
In today’s LIVE Trish Regan Show, Trish looks at the potential damage the Smartmatic suit against Fox News could cause not only for the Fox Network, but for the profession of journalism as a whole. Plus, a curious thing just happened in the Leticia James $486 million civil case against Donald Trump. The court switched the judge in the case (Arthur Erdogen) only to put him back on. What’s going on? And, given some of the expected FBI Director Kash Patel’s recent commentary, is there a reason for Letitia James to worry? Trish says YES. Trump is offering up a new solution to the IRS - it’s called the External Revenue Service. Get ready for tarriffs! And, finally, there are growing rumors about Mr. and Mrs. Barack Obama possibly in the midst of a divorce! We investigate. Join Trish LIVE by subscribing to the channel to watch today’s stories and much more.
Buckle up, because this episode is a rollercoaster you didn't know you needed! We dive headfirst into Joy Ride's wild antics and unravel the chaos that's erupting over at The Fox Network. From jaw-dropping moments to behind-the-scenes drama, we're pulling no punches.
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,” Matt 25:35 My guest is Billie Jauss (billie_jauss )- Author, Speaker, & Host of the “The Family Room Podcast” Her latest book, “Baseball Family: Nine Core Qualities for Developing Healthy Relationships,” delves into different relationships with people we encounter and what qualities make a relationship successful. She shares how to be intentional and generous, to love on the person God puts in front of us and showing compassion. Do we care enough about another person to consider how our actions impact them? How do we deal with people who intentionally want to hurt us? She has navigated life all over the world, adapting to many cultures, while her husband, Dave, managed teams of players on the field. Billie has been featured on CBN's 700 Club, The Shawn Bolz Show, Fox Network, and numerous other podcasts and media outlets. Billie Jauss is the wife of a Major League Baseball coach and the mother of three sons who are also involved in baseball at the highest levels. And she uses baseball analogy - the natural way to go for a baseball family! She's also a friend! You can learn more about her books, podcast, and Compassion International on her website, billyjauss.com, and follow her on social media.
Terry L. Fossum is a highly accomplished individual with a diverse background. He served as an officer in the United States Air Force, where he was the executive officer for a group of nuclear B-52 bombers during the Cold War, earning the title of Officer of the Year at Fairchild Air Force Base. Terry transitioned into marketing, ascending into the top 1% of his industry globally. He represented the Boy Scouts of America on a survival reality TV show on the Fox Network and won, became an award-winning actor, author, and TEDx speaker. His book, "The Oxcart Blueprint for Success," reached the #1 best-selling spot, and he is known for his impactful public speaking and coaching. Episode Summary:Host Myrna Young sits down with guest Terry L. Fossum to unravel the secrets behind achieving your goals and why most people fail to reach them. Terry shares his groundbreaking "Oxcart Technique," a goal-setting methodology based on Nobel Prize-winning science, to help listeners understand how to harness both the fear of failure and the allure of success.Terry breaks down how, at one of the lowest points in his life, he discovered the transformative power of combining positive visualization with negative visualization to motivate himself to achieve his goals. This method, consisting of creating a failure scenario, a detailed action plan, making it applicable to various aspects of life, including business success, health maintenance, and relationship improvement.Key Takeaways:Harnessing Emotion: Understand that emotion, not mere facts, is the main driver of actions toward achieving goals.Failure Scenario: Writing down and emotionally engaging with what failure looks like significantly boosts motivation.Success Scenario: Balancing the fear of failure with the vision of success creates a powerful motivational force.Daily Action Plan: Developing a fluid, achievable daily action plan is critical in moving from the fear of failure to the vision of success.Personalization: Ensure all steps are personalized and discussed with key stakeholders, like partners or family, to ensure mutual support and alignment.Support The Sponsors who Support the Transform Your Mind podcast!RO.CO The Ro Body Program provides access to the most popular weight loss shots on the market. Go to RO.CO/TRANSFORMScience Moms - The Science Moms are a non-partisan group of scientists who are, like many of you, moms. Join us at ScienceMoms.comShopify - Go to shopify.com/transform now to grow your businessSee this video on The Transform Your Mind YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@MyhelpsUs/videosTo see a transcripts of this audio as well as links to all the advertisers on the show page https://myhelps.us/Follow Transform Your Mind on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/myrnamyoung/Follow Transform Your mind on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063738390977Please leave a rating and review on iTunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/transform-your-mind/id1144973094
We are joined by Richard Gurman who was the executive producer on the ground breaking show "Married... with Children" and author of the new book, "Married... with Children vs. the World". Richard takes us behind the scenes of the meteoric rise of Married... with Children and the FOX Network. Richard also discusses the process of writing, casting and filming a hit TV Series. Did your favorite TV Series "Jump the shark"? Several successful TV series had a "Jump the shark" moment and Richard explains the background on this terminology.
"Integrity is the single reason anything works or doesn't work." You're going to love Episode 50 of the 'Transformation Starts Today' podcast with Sanyika "The Fire Starter" Street! Here's some background about Sanyika: Sanyika "The Firestarter" Street is a POWERHOUSE. Sanyika is a Speaker, Executive Coach and one of the world's most Powerful Spoken Word Artists. As an executive coach he helps leaders RAISE THE BAR in their Business, their Body and most importantly their Being through his coaching platform, The ALL-IN TRIBE. His personal mission is to help 1 million+ committed leaders go ALL-IN on creating a safer world in their Business, Body and Being through Brotherhood. As a writer, artist and storyteller, he's told stories for the world's biggest brands including Sony Playstation, FOX Network, The United States Department Of Defense, Universal Music Group, Reach TV and INK Global. The Firestarter has also ignited global audiences with his talk show "The ALL-IN Moment" which has a worldwide distribution of 75 million people. Ladies & Gentlemen, please meet Sanyika "The Firestarter" Street! Here are some ways to connect with Sanyika: www.theallinceo.com IG: @theallinceo FB: Sanyika TheFirestarter Street Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@THEALLINMAN/featured Dr. Jamil Sayegh – Spiritual wisdom teacher, energy healer, life-transformation coach, integrative naturopathic physician Learn more about if or how I can help you: https://jamilsayegh.com/lets-connect/
Host Ipek Williamson sits down with the dynamic and inspiring Sanyika "The Firestarter" Street in this episode of the Ultimate Coach Podcast. Sanyika, a transformative leader and founder of The ALL-IN CEO, shares his journey from a challenging upbringing to becoming a powerhouse in personal development and business transformation. He discusses the importance of surrendering to one's greatness, how community and mentorship were pivotal in his growth, and the crucial role storytelling plays in leadership to create deep connections and drive impactful change.Sanyika also delves into his "N Word" campaign, which aims to shift perspectives on the use of a historically charged term. He recounts the powerful experiences and conversations that led to the campaign's inception and its subsequent success. His reflections on the transformative Arizona event and his profound storytelling skills underscore the episode, offering listeners valuable insights into becoming better leaders and more authentic individuals. Through his compelling narrative, Sanyika inspires listeners to embrace radical responsibility and go all in on their personal and professional lives.About the Guest: Sanyika "The Firestarter" Street is a POWERHOUSE.As a Masculinity Coach for Married Businessmen, he helps men RAISE THE BAR in their Business, their Body, and their Being through his coaching platform, The ALL-IN CEO. His personal mission is to help over 1 million men define what it means to live a life fully in ALIGNMENT and built on INTEGRITY, empowering them to become better husbands, fathers, and leaders.As an Innovative Storyteller, Sanyika has worked with the world's biggest brands, including Sony Playstation, FOX Network, The US Department of Defense, Universal Music Group, Reach TV, and INK Global.We're excited for you to experience the transformative power of Sanyika "The Firestarter" Street.To learn more and connect with Sanyika "The Firestarter" Street, please visit www.theallinceo.com. About the Host: A beacon of change and a catalyst for transformation, Ipek Williamson is a multifaceted professional who seamlessly integrates two decades of corporate expertise with a diverse skill set as a coach, mentor, speaker, author, meditation advocate, and teacher. Her mission is to guide individuals through the complexities of modern life, helping them find deep peace and harmony. Ipek's coaching approach, rooted in Core Values, Mental Fitness, and Mind Mastery, empowers clients to unlock their hidden potential and confidently embrace change with joy.Beyond coaching, Ipek's influence spreads through her 100+ meditations on the Insight Timer App and live meditation sessions, where she shares transformative wisdom. Her impact extends to workshops, courses, and training sessions for individuals, groups, and corporations. As a Change Champion, Ipek Williamson is dedicated to promoting positive change, nurturing inner calm, and empowering others to script their own transformation stories.ipek@ipekwilliamsoncoaching.comhttps://linktr.ee/IpekWilliamsonhttps://ipekwilliamsoncoaching.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/ipekwilliamson/The Ultimate Coach Resources
It's a week of duo-quizzes sponsored by Pour House Trivia! Check them out for fully daily trivia games at www.Patreon.com/pourhousetrivia Fact of the Day: Instead of using CGI, Tim Burton opted to use real squirrels in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The squirrels were used for 10 months, and the filming was supervised by the American Humane Association to make sure none of the squirrels experienced distress. THE FIRST TRIVIA QUESTION STARTS AT 02:01 SUPPORT THE SHOW MONTHLY, LISTEN AD-FREE FOR JUST $1 A MONTH: www.Patreon.com/TriviaWithBudds INSTANT DOWNLOAD DIGITAL TRIVIA GAMES ON ETSY, GRAB ONE NOW! GET A CUSTOM EPISODE FOR YOUR LOVED ONES: Email ryanbudds@gmail.com Theme song by www.soundcloud.com/Frawsty Bed Music: "Your Call" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://TriviaWithBudds.comhttp://Facebook.com/TriviaWithBudds http://Instagram.com/ryanbudds Book a party, corporate event, or fundraiser anytime by emailing ryanbudds@gmail.com or use the contact form here: https://www.triviawithbudds.com/contact SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL MY AMAZING PATREON SUBSCRIBERS INCLUDING: Linda Elswick Ansley Bennett Mom & Mac Jamie Greig Rondell Merritt Sue First Nick Vogelpohl Adam Jacoby Adam Suzan Jeremy Yoder Chelsea Walker Carter A. Fourqurean Tiffany Poplin Bill Bavar Courtney Cassal Daniel Hoisington-McArthur Paula Wetterhahn Justin Cone Steven LongSue FirstKC Khoury Keith MartinTonya CharlesBen Katelyn Turner Ryan Ballantine Justly Maya Brandon Lavin Kathy McHale Selectronica Chuck Nealen Courtney French Nikki Long Jenny Santomauro Jon Handel Mark Zarate Keiva BranniganLaura PalmerLauren Glassman John Taylor Dean Bratton Mona B Pate Hogan Kristy Donald Fuller Erin Burgess Chris Arneson Trenton Sullivan Josh Gregovich Jen and NicJessica Allen Michele Lindemann Ben Stitzel Michael Redman Timothy HeavnerHarlie WestJeff Foust Sarah Snow-BrineRichard Lefdal Rebecca Meredith Leslie Gerhardt Myles Bagby Jenna Leatherman Vernon Heagy Albert Thomas Kimberly Brown Tracy Oldaker Sara Zimmerman Madeleine Garvey Jenni Yetter Alexandra Pepin Brendan JohnB Patrick Leahy Dillon Enderby John Mihaljevic James Brown Christy Shipley Pamela Yoshimura Cody Roslund Clayton Polizzi Alexander Calder Mark Haas Ricky Carney Paul McLaughlin Manny Cortez Casey OConnor Willy Powell Robert Casey Rich Hyjack Matthew Frost Joe Jermolowicz Brian Salyer Greg Bristow Megan Donnelly Jim Fields Mo Martinez Luke Mckay Simon Time Feana Nevel Brian WilliamsJordania of Zeilingrisk
Beau McFarland is a stand-up comic, writer, and actor from Southern California. Beau has performed in clubs, theaters and, venues all over the United States, Canada, the U.K., China, and Thailand. He has also performed for the troops in Seoul, South Korea, as well as on season 1 of Fox Network's Boom, and is a frequent contributor to Table Read the Podcast. https://beaumcfarland.com/
This week we discuss Paul Heyman getting exiled from The Bloodline, AEW Forbidden Door, WWE x NBA partnership, Fox Network's censors, WWE security is subpar, Dijak leaving WWE + more.
Close your eyes and imagine a booming voice delivering powerful spoken word storytelling, set to cinematic music that will ignite the deepest part of your soul. Then take whatever you imagined and multiply it times 10. You are about to witness "Cinematic Storytelling" by Sanyika "The Firestarter" Street. His EPIC leadership talks and cinematic performances, achieve the trifecta, they Educate, Entertain & Inspire. As a Storyteller, he's worked with the world's biggest brands including Sony PlayStation, FOX Network, The US Department Of Defense, Universal Music Group, Reach TV and INK Global. He is also the CEO/FOUNDER of an elite coaching program, THE ALL-IN TRIBE, where he teaches Leadership, Communication and Mindset so people can go ALL-IN on becoming the person they always desired to become. Through his storytelling, The Firestarter has ignited brands including Sony PlayStation, FOX network, Ford, MTV, The ALL-Warrior Network and Universal Music Group. As a songwriter he's written chart topping songs for artists like Too Short and Nick Lachey/98 Degrees. His videos have amassed over 3,000,000 social media views. His interview show "The ALL-IN Moment" on REACH TV has a global distribution of 75 million people and features some of the biggest thought leaders in the world. Ladies & Gentlemen, you are about to experience something out of this world, we are proud to present, Sanyika "The Firestarter" Street
The Pemmy & James Kinda-Sorta-Hopefully Funny Cartoon Podcast
They're tiny, they're tooney, they took the fight right to Disney for syndicated dominance! Tiny Toon Adventures brought Warner Bros' animation division back to top form, with the help of Steven Spielberg and a host of talented writers, artists and voice actors. Krissi and James are joined by friend of the podcast Meiou to discuss the wild comedic lunacy of a trio of short subjects from the first season, and a pair of music videos. If you know the show, you probably don't need us to tell you which music videos they are.
On this week's episode, we are joined by Katie Kimball, a passionate advocate for teaching kids essential life skills and fostering independence. Katie, an experienced educator and founder of the Kids Cook Real Food program, shares her insights on the importance of empowering children with practical skills that go beyond the classroom. We'll explore how teaching kids to cook not only boosts their confidence and independence but also instills healthy eating habits from a young age. Join us for an inspiring conversation filled with practical tips and strategies to help your kids gain the skills they need for a successful, independent future. Don't miss this insightful episode on nurturing independence and life skills in children!More about Katie!Katie Kimball, CSME, founder and CEO of Kitchen Stewardship, is passionate about researching natural remedies and making healthy cooking easier for busy families. As a trusted educator and author of 8 real food cookbooks, she's been featured on media outlets like ABC, NBC and First for Women magazine and contributes periodically on the FOX Network locally. Since 2009, Katie has spoken prolifically at conferences, online summits and podcasts and become a trusted authority and advocate for children's health. Busy moms look to this certified educator for honest, in-depth natural product reviews and thorough research, and she often partners with health experts and medical practitioners to stay on the cutting edge. In 2016 she created the Wall Street Journal recommended best online kids cooking course, Kids Cook Real Food, helping thousands of families around the world learn to cook. A mom of 4 kids from Michigan, she is also a Certified Stress Mastery Educator, member of the American Institute of Stress and trained speaker through Bo Eason's Personal Story Power with 2 TEDx Talks. She is on a mission to have every child able to cook, reinforcing the importance of life skills with #LifeSkillsNow summer camp, and coaching others on their TEDx Talks as a speaker coach.Connect with Katie!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katiekimballkidscook/Website: https://kidscookrealfood.comYouTube: https://youtube.com/kitchenstew Facebook: http://facebook.com/kidscookrealfood/Access#LifeSkillsNow: https://members.kidscookrealfood.com/courses/lifeskillsnow-season-three/Connect with Brianna!Instagram: @mombossinaustinLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/briannademikeFollow the Podcast on Instagram: @badassbasicbitchLove the podcast? We would love if you would leave a review!Thank you to this week's sponsors!Air Doctor: Head to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code BBB, you'll receive UP TO $300 off air purifiers!
Hanson is the Emmy-award winning creator, writer, and show runner of the hit TV show Bones, the longest-running scripted hour-long series on the FOX Network. His debut novel, The Driver, was heralded by The New York Times Book Review, The San Francisco Book Review, New York Post, and more. Hart has taken to his new novel THE SEMINARIAN to pen a story of acerbic humor and wit while exploring the importance of friendship, family, faith, and humanity in the face of life's curveballs and seediest rings. Xavier “Priest” Priestly is a snarky former seminarian turned private investigator who gets thrown into a high stakes twisted murder mystery when the girlfriend of his good friend suddenly disappears and an assassin appears to stop him before he has the chance to investigate. Showing surprising tenderness, The Seminarian is a distinctive thriller that is as entertaining as it is insightful. A California resident, Hart Hanson will also be in New York City next month to promote and discuss his propulsive new novel if you would like to set up anything in studio. With his own brand of cleverness and energetic character, I know your audience would enjoy Hart's stories, humor, and observations.
Time to fulfil another Patreon request; this time, Ed Batey Jr. wants us to look at the FOX sitcom that tried to be "The Wonder Years"...Was it fair to consider this show an out-and-out "Ripoff", or did it have its own vision of what the 1960s looked like? SPONSORED BY: Dave's Archives Retrocirq Kier's Nostalgia Corner And our Patrons
Join Michael Litten "The Last DJ" for an in-depth conversation. Playing songs from the bands latest album, Preacher Stone V. Sponsored by Drinkmate Theme music provided by Peter Perkins Special Thank You to O'NEILL PR for providing the talent Preacher Stone began as guitarist Marty Hill's vision of creating a world class southern rock band in the image of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Hill enlisted lead vocalist Ronnie Riddle. The first song the two wrote was “Not Today” which appeared on the Fox Network's hit series “Sons of Anarchy” which gained the band notoriety in the southern rock world and lead to the band being exposed to a worldwide audience through the Lynyrd Skynyrd Simple Man Cruise and the Rock Legends Cruise with ZZ Top. https://preacherstoneband.com
Today's guest is screenwriter Brian Herskowitz. He wrote the book called Process to Product: From Concept to Script: A Practical Guide for the Screenwriter. Like millions before him, Brian Herskowitz moved out to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. He soon learned that there was a dearth of roles for shorter leading men and began searching for other outlets for his creative passions. In 1980 he wrote his first screenplay, an action thriller about a young man who moves to Tokyo to train for the Olympics in Judo and gets caught up in an intrigue with the Yakuza. Through that script, based on his true-life experience as an international judo competitor, he uncovered a knack and passion for writing. As a writer, Brian has completed well over a dozen feature films. His first produced feature was a low budget slasher titled DARKROOM. He currently has several projects in active development including, THE ABDUCTION, THE EMPRESS OF ELSEWHERE (co-written with Theresa Nelson based on her best selling novel), TAKE A RIDE, and FAIRIES (co-written with Pam Dawber and Andy Tobey).His TV credits include a staff writing position on the NBC sit-com BLOSSOM, multiple episodes of the syndicated series HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS, and ACAPULCO HEAT, the HBO hit comedy DREAM ON, CBS's RENEGADE, THE EXILE, MURDER, SHE WROTE, the FOX Network's YOUNG HERCULES, and CBS's critically acclaimed was series TOUR OF DUTY (associate producer). Brian co-wrote the FOX pilot MANTIC with Jason Alexander. In addition, he worked as a punch-up writer on BOB PATTERSON, and LISTEN UP.Brian currently holds the title of lead faculty in screenwriting for the prestigious BOSTON UNIVERSITY IN LOS ANGELES - WRITER IN HOLLYWOOD PROGRAM. Brian has taught online for UCLA EXTENSTIONS and has had students from every corner of the earth. Enjoy my conversation with Brian Herskowitz.
Dan and Ellen talk with Emily Rooney, the longtime host of the award-winning show on WGBH-TV, "Beat The Press." Dan was a panelist on "Beat the Press," which had a 22-year run but was canceled in 2021 by GBH. The show, which is much missed by many former viewers, had a brief second life as a podcast. Emily has got serious television news cred. She arrived at WGBH from the Fox Network in New York, where she oversaw political coverage, including the 1996 presidential primaries, national conventions, and presidential election. Before that, she was executive producer of ABC's "World News Tonight" with Peter Jennings. She also worked at WCVB-TV in Boston for 15 years, from 1979–'93, as news director and as assistant news director. There's a revival of interest in responsible media criticism. Boston Globe columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr recently wrote an op-ed calling for the restoration of a public editor position at The New York Times, The Globe and other news outlets. Dan has an update on one of our favorite topics — pink slime. Wired magazine has a wild story out of rural Iowa involving a Linux server in Germany, a Polish website and a Chinese operation called “the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.” Ellen recounts a legal saga in Southeastern Minnesota involving the sale of a newspaper group and allegations of intellectual property theft. It's all about a single used computer and its role in creating a media startup.
On this episode of Friends Talking Nerdy, join Professor Aubrey and Tim the Nerd as they dive into some interesting topics for your listening pleasure. Professor Aubrey takes center stage to express her adoration for "The Orville," the brainchild of Seth MacFarlane. Tim the Nerd joins in to dissect the show's uniqueness compared to MacFarlane's other creations like "Family Guy," a series Professor Aubrey isn't quite a fan of. Delving deeper, they explore MacFarlane's involvement in the Fox Network's Cosmos reboot, unraveling his multifaceted contributions to the world of television. Shifting gears, Tim delves into a social media storm surrounding the first installment of the Doctor Who 60th Anniversary specials, "The Star Beast." He dissects the controversy sparked by a scene addressing pronouns, highlighting how media amplification and professional agitators contribute to such uproars, prompting a discussion on the role of media in fueling controversies. Finally, Professor Aubrey and Tim dive into the insightful article from Psychology Today titled "Can You Achieve Holiday Bliss?" authored by Nina Ahuja MD, exploring the pursuit of holiday happiness and the psychological underpinnings of achieving contentment during the festive season. With their signature blend of analysis, humor, and passion, this episode promises a thought-provoking exploration of television, social media dynamics, and the pursuit of holiday joy. As always, we wish to thank Christopher Lazarek for his wonderful theme song. Head to his website for information on how to purchase his EP, Here's To You, which is available on all digital platforms. Head to our Linktree for more information on where to find us online. Friends Talking Nerdy is a proud member of the Deluxe Edition Network. Head to their website to find out more information about all the shows available on the Network. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ftnerdy/message
How not to be invisible... Orlando talked about his successful mixing career despite growing up illegally in the US, calculating your flat mix rate, getting the best mix notes from an artist, networking tips, and how to mic timbales, congas, & bongos! Get access to FREE mixing mini-course: https://MixMasterBundle.com My guest today is Orlando Torres a mixer/engineer based in the Los Angeles area who has worked with legendary musicians, including Abraham Laboriel, Joey DeFrancesco, Alex Acuña, Justo Almario, percussionist Ron Powell, Lee Rocker (Stray Cats) and Little Willie G. But he is equally proud of his work with up-and-coming local bands and artists. Orlando has worked on television productions that include an Emmy nominated song for The Young And The Restless and ADR cutting for Law & Order. In 2019 he worked with Kobe Bryant at his Granity Studios as a recording engineer for Kobe's ESPN Detail and as an audio editor for The Punies podcast. He is also an active live sound engineer with experience in all genres including orchestral classical music and house of worship and works as a “Playback” engineer running backing tracks for Trace Adkins, Sheila E, Brittany Howard (Alabama Shakes), Mary Mary, Alex Fernandez, The President's Own Marine Chamber Orchestra and the Fox Network to name a few. I met Orlando at our NAMM 2023 meetup and learned that he has a unique story which includes immigrating from Mexico with his family and becoming a naturalized citizen as part of his life and career journey. Today we will talk about the importance of networking and the challenges we all face in connecting with artists and musicians and how to overcome them even when faced with overwhelming obstacles. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! https://UltimateMixingMasterclass.com https://www.native-instruments.com use code ROCK10 to get 10% off! https://lewitt.link/rockstars https://www.Spectra1964.com https://MacSales.com/rockstars https://iZotope.com use code ROCK10 to get 10% off any individual plugin! https://www.adam-audio.com https://RecordingStudioRockstars.com/Academy https://www.thetoyboxstudio.com/ Listen to this guest's discography on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5rPj20gsl2b74HEyrXulHZ?si=b44cddc6db7c4408 If you love the podcast, then please leave a review: https://RSRockstars.com/Review CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE SHOW NOTES AT: https://RSRockstars.com/432
On April 28, 1988, the then-fledgling Fox Network's The Late Show with Ross Shafer hosted a Batman reunion. However, due to poor time management and a second-rate host, among other problems, the reunion can be a bit of a tough watch - especially they way Alan Napier was shortchanged on airtime at the end as he and Shafer struggled to communicate with each other. Video of the episode, unavailable when we looked for it years ago, surfaced last year, and this time we discuss the problem as well as the interesting bits that we did pick up from the bat-cast. ALSO: The WDR Big Band version of the theme, and we read your mail on episodes 208 and 209. WDR Big Band The Late Show with Ross Shafer's Batman reunion
The Jason & Scot Show. Podcast about e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Editor note: We're trying some fun new AI features for this episode. The following show notes were written by ChatGPT. We're also let AI remove all the "stop words" in our audio, and we've switched from Google to OpenAI for our audio transcription. Let us know your feedback. In this episode of the Jason and Scot show, our special guest is Sean D. Nelson, the CEO and founder of Lovesac. He shares his inspiring journey of starting the company as a beanbag business in his basement and growing it into a successful public company. Sean highlights the key moments of his entrepreneurial journey, including winning a million dollars on Richard Branson's reality TV show and navigating the ups and downs of the business. Sean has upcoming book and podcast, both entitled "Let Me Save You 25 Years: Mistakes, Miracles, and Lessons from the Lovesac Story." Sean emphasizes the importance of being a direct-to-consumer brand and how Lovesac has found sustained success by focusing on customer acquisition costs and offering a high-quality product. He discusses the concept of direct-to-consumer and shares his thoughts on its significance. Sean believes that having a differentiated product that provides value to customers is crucial, rather than simply relying on an online sales strategy. The conversation also touches on the topic of innovation and how Lovesac has been able to push the boundaries of what a furniture company can offer. Sean discusses their Stealth Tech innovation, which incorporates surround sound into their couches, as well as their commitment to creating products that are built to last and designed to evolve. Sean acknowledges the challenges of operating in physical retail and highlights the importance of their showrooms in reducing customer acquisition costs and providing a hands-on experience for customers. He also mentions their partnerships with Best Buy and Costco to expand their reach. The discussion expands to the future of retail and e-commerce, with Sean mentioning the transformative role of AI but cautioning that it takes time for movements to fully evolve. He emphasizes the importance of being patient and keeping an eye on developments in the industry. The conversation concludes with Sean expressing his long-term commitment to Lovesac and his desire to build something meaningful rather than focusing solely on personal gain. Listeners are invited to check out Sean's podcast and website, as well as his upcoming book, which will be released in January. Overall, this episode provides insights into the journey and philosophy behind Lovesac's success and offers valuable perspectives on entrepreneurship, innovation, and the future of retail. Chapters 0:00:46 Introduction and Welcome to the Show 0:08:36 The Journey of Love Sack: From Highs to Lows 0:12:05 Love Sack's Traditional IPO and Company Performance 0:15:49 The Importance of Having a Differentiated Product 0:19:49 The Value and Overhype of Market Movements 0:23:18 Sactionals: Built to Last, Designed to Evolve 0:25:56 Driving a Movement for Sustainable Consumerism 0:31:36 Innovation and the Evolution of Lovesac's Product Line 0:37:07 The Strength of Lovesac's Physical Showrooms in the DTC Landscape 0:40:03 Testing and Learning: Mobile Concierge and Shop and Shop 0:41:52 AI's transformative role in the future of technology 0:50:08 Long-Term Vision vs Quick Profit Episode 313 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday, November 9th, 2023. Transcript Jason: [0:23] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show. This episode is being recorded on Thursday, November 9th, 2023. I'm your host, Jason "RetailGeek" Goldberg, and as usual, I'm here with your co-host, Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:37] Hey, Jason, and welcome back. Jason and Scot show listeners. Jason, we're very fortunate to have a entrepreneur on the show. I'm the entrepreneur side of our partnership. So I always really enjoy these. Introduction and Welcome to the Show [0:49] We have on the show, Sean D. Nelson. He is the CEO and founder of Lovesack. And a little birdie told me that he recently started a podcast himself. He started Love Sack as a beanbag company in his basement when he was around 18. And now it's a public company and doing relatively large revenues over 600 kind of run rate. If I look at the last quarter, I took a little glance at that. Sean, welcome to the show. Shawn : [1:13] Thank you. Thanks for having me. Great to be with you. Jason: [1:16] We are thrilled to have you, Sean. Listeners always like to kind of get the background. I'm imagining you don't have a deep background before you started Love Sack because you started it so young. But can you, like where were you in life when that brought you to start build your own product? Shawn : [1:34] Yeah, strangely, 25 years in and still running the same company I founded as my side hustle in college, which is exactly what Love Sack was. So 95, all the way back then, I made a giant not bean bag because I thought it would be funny. I literally, 10 days out of high school, got off the couch at my parents' house, having this dumb idea, like, how about a beanbag, like, me to the TV, like, the whole floor, like, huge. Drove down to the fabric store, bought some fabric, brought it home, cut it out, and then began sewing it up, broke my mom's sewing machine, neighbor finished it, took three or four weeks to try and stuff it, originally with beads, but couldn't possibly find enough, so looked around the house, I just found out my parents' camping mattresses chopped up yellow foam, you know, like those yellow slabs of foam you take camping, on a paper cutter in the basement. And eventually, I mean, foam, packing peanuts, old blankets, had this thing stuffed and started using it out and about through university, taking it camping, back of the truck, driving movies. Ended up putting it away for a couple years. And by the way, everywhere I took it, everybody wants one. Like everyone's always like, Oh my gosh, what is that thing? Where'd you get it? I was like, I'll never make another one. It was such a pain in the butt and put it away for a couple of years to go be a missionary for my church. [2:58] And came back to finish up university in 1998. And that's when I founded the company. Cause people kept bugging me to make them one. And it became my side hustle in college. And we tried to sell these things eventually beyond our friends and family and beer fest, May fest, October fest, car shows, boat shows, 10 by 10 booths, how we got started. Tried to sell them to furniture stores and they laughed at us and told us it was a dumb idea. [3:34] Eventually, at a trade show got discovered by the limited to this is like, you would not today as justice like in the malls, like little girls pink and purple fuzzy stuff for their bedrooms and, and clothing. Anyway, they ordered 12,000 little love sacks, not knowing it was me and a buddy and like a woodchipper shredding foam in the back of this furniture place. And, and that forced us to source over in Asia, which is, you know, where I had served my mission. So I speak Mandarin Chinese. There's a whole story there I won't get into it it was just kind of one thing led to another led to another week we built a factory to support that 12,000 sack order we then went out to the furniture stores who again laughed at us didn't want our $500,000. [4:19] Beanbags having completed that order wanting to keep the factory going so we finally opened our own store in a mall that didn't even want us there but finally capitulated let us in because they We had a space to fill for the holiday season, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and it just exploded. We did a good job, carpet paint, neon sign, made it look like a proper mall chain store selling giant beanbags, and it just took off. Like, it worked. People came in, flopped down, music bumpin', big screen TV, playin' movies, had a great time. There was a couch in the corner to look pretty, be part of the decor. People kept asking about the couch, And that led us to eventually, many stores later, many states later, invent Saxionals, which is our modular sofa solution, which now drives almost 90% of our sales today. So we're more a couch company by far today than we are a beanbag company. And there was a whole, listen, I'm skipping over decades of time really, but there was a whole transition where we... We went through after we invented the sectionals and solved all these problems people have with couches not only can you ship it to your house via FedEx which was hyper relevant you know for. [5:32] E-commerce and digital marketing obviously but it's watchable and changeable, and movable and it can be with you the rest of your life that that led us to a whole design philosophy that now. [5:42] Drives are innovation we think is a really cool secret sauce called design for life but. 10, 20, 50, 100, 250 locations now. We came public in 2018 on about 100 million in sales. Right around the time there was just tons of fervor in this direct consumer movement. We had farted around, we'll call it as a furniture store, selling rugs and lamps and bowls and baskets and all the obvious things along the way. And it was really when we purged all that stuff around 2015, seeing the Caspers of the world emerge and Warby Parker's and even Tesla with their showrooms. Could we adopt a more e-commerce-led model with showrooms for people to kick the tires, so to speak? And that transition is really what unlocked the lovesack that you see today and where most of our growth has come since about 2015, 16, when we made that pivot, took the company public, wrapped around that direct consumer story. So we're not a digitally native brand originally, we were actually a retailer that pivoted and became digitally led. And now we don't even operate stores in the traditional sense. We don't, we don't stock things there. You know, you don't walk out of there with your product. They're all really online sales and those showrooms are extremely powerful mechanisms for helping people make up their mind around a five or 10, $15,000. [7:06] Purchase where they want to see the thing and sit on it and, and, and see if it's everything it's cracked, it's cracked up to be online. And so we, we, we believe that we really, uh, through that arc. And then by the way, since coming public, I don't know, six, seven X, the company this year, you know, we'll, we'll be on a run rate to the analysts were a public company. So the analysts show us around, you know, it's called 700 plus in revenue and profitable, very profitable and cash generative. So we think, you know, the direct consumer game, in a lot of respects, Love Sack is one of the unlikely winners of that entire movement. Because I think at that scale, there are very, very few, what I call successful direct to consumer brands. And so we're really proud of that. And it's been a long saga, and we continue to grow and change and adapt and evolve. Jason: [8:01] It's an amazing story. And we definitely want to unpack it. But I want to go all the way back to the beginning for one second. Did that neighbor who helped finish sewing the first prototype get any equity? Shawn : [8:13] No, it was my ex-girlfriend's, mom, so about the time she exited, you know. No, it was just a friendly favor, but the truth is a lot of people helped out along the way, and a lot of people had equity or have equity in Love Sack from along the way, but look, we've been through every high, every low. Somewhere in the middle there, I skipped over it just because of brevity. Not only did I win a million dollars on TV with Richard Branson, The Journey of Love Sack: From Highs to Lows [8:38] his reality TV show on Fox Network back in 2005, if you can believe that, the rebel billionaire. But I also guided the company through a complete chapter 11 reorganization back in 2006, spearheaded by Venture Capital, which was painful and ugly and embarrassing and humiliating. So we've been through every kind of thing over these better than two decades. Scot: [9:01] Yeah, my deep dive question is, when you rented or bought the wood chipper, did you tell them you'd be throwing foam in there, or did they think you were clearing up a tree? Shawn : [9:09] Oh, that's so the original story. Yeah, the original woodchipper actually, you know, if you've ever used one in your backyard or, you know, you shove sticks into these things, that's basically what the original shredder was. And it was in the back room of this furniture factory already. They had used it back in the seventies to shred foam, but it had an electric motor, right? Instead of like, okay. Scot: [9:30] So it's okay to be inside here. Shawn : [9:32] Well, yeah, but I had to rehab it because it hadn't been used in like a decade or two because shredded foam had fallen out of favor in furniture. And then later to do that bigger order, we couldn't afford like a proper German, shredder, so we ended up driving out to farm country to find more of those same kind of shredders and actually found a hay grinder called a hay buster can shred 2000 pounds at a whack. Scot: [9:57] And that's a lot of power. Shawn : [9:59] Yeah, it's powered by a tractor. So we, you know, agricultural loan for tractor and hay grinder. I mean, crazy, crazy story in the beginning. Scot: [10:07] Yeah, as a family, you gotta figure out how to get it done, right? Whatever it takes. Shawn : [10:12] Whatever it takes. Scot: [10:13] I didn't know the Richard Branson thing, so that was interesting. Did he like, was he an active investor, or that's like one of those things where his people kind of take over and you never hear from him again? Shawn : [10:22] No, I mean, it was a weird situation. He had a reality TV show, 2004-5, The Rebel Billionaire, you know, whatever, 16 contestants. It was like The Apprentice, but not for apprentices, for entrepreneurs. So my runner-up on the show was Sarah Blakely of Spanx, gives you an idea. Scot: [10:38] Oh, okay, cool, neat. Shawn : [10:39] Yeah, yeah, so we became great friends, she and I, Richard and I. I ended up also being named President of Virgin Worldwide for a minute as part of the prize, believe it or not. So, worked with Richard, worked with all of his CEOs. Totally weird outcome. And, you know, but huge, huge blessing and a huge piece of story. And he was involved in sort of our VC round that ensued on the tail of that. Scot: [11:06] Okay, and then I think I saw that you guys were on Shark Tank, right? You were like one of those that you know, kind of one of the big success stories. Was that the OG Shark Tank or? Shawn : [11:16] No, we weren't on Shark Tank. A lot of people thought that. There was a Love Sack copycat that's on Shark Tank. Okay, and so they got... Scot: [11:23] I was confused because like Google says you were and then I was like, but then I couldn't find the episode. Jason: [11:28] There's a whole TikTok channel dedicated to Love Sack and Shark Tank and it's super weird. Shawn : [11:36] That's super, yeah, people get confused. Scot: [11:42] Yeah, yeah, super weird. Yeah. And then when you did your IPO, was it a traditional IPO or did you guys get caught up in the SPAC craziness? Shawn : [11:51] No, we did a traditional IPO back in 2018 and you know, our stock has been really volatile for lots of different reasons that, you know, COVID was crazy, but the company performance has been really solid. So we're just trucking. Love Sack's Traditional IPO and Company Performance Scot: [12:06] He, I think, was at Graham that said in the short-term it's an emotional machine, in the long-term it weighs your financials. So you got to, it's very hard, you know, I took a company public, not to the level you have. And yeah, it is, I was like, I'm not going to look at the stock, it's not going to influence me. And then suddenly everyone's like, are we making the quarter? And it's like, okay. And then suddenly it's very hard to get out of that, that short-term mindset. So congrats to you for sticking to it for so long. Shawn : [12:29] Yeah, look, I'm actually a big advocate of it, having lived inside of it now for almost six years. Scot: [12:36] Yeah, the transparency is good, you know, and I like that part of it, I think that's good for, you know, to kind of have to put out everything that you're doing, you know, it's a, the ultimate, yeah, it's like, yeah, transparency tends to be a good thing. Shawn : [12:48] I think it's the right way for companies to be governed and ran. Anyway, we could get into that if you want. Scot: [12:56] Yeah, I like the, you know, and you talked about all the other, we call them digitally native vertical brands, like the Warby's and Bonobos and all that. And yeah, a lot of them have not made it past kind of like that hundred million dollar level. And you guys have obviously, you know, six, seven X that, which is awesome. And then, you know, the big knock on Casper for a long time was as we've actually had this guy, Dan on the show, people were able to pick apart the CAC LTV and they found the average selling price was like, Jason will know these numbers, but it was like 350 and their cost to acquire a customer was 400. And they were like, you know, that obviously wasn't sustainable. So it's pretty neat that you guys have figured that out. Shawn : [13:36] Yeah. I mean, that's at the root of why obviously we've had some sustained success. And I think it's also at the root of why there are almost no other direct consumer brands making any money. End of story, full stop. And it's pretty fascinating to watch the whole thing unfold, because it really has been a movement for almost a decade. Scot: [14:01] Yeah, and I don't want to dig into the information you don't divulge publicly, so this is not a trap or anything but is it because the selection or your products, you've kind of cracked the code on Kakao TV, like what do you, and I don't want to know any methods or anything. and what do you attribute it to? Shawn : [14:18] Look, I think, let's start at the root. I think that many companies, product companies, let's start there, overlook the fact that you need a really good product. I think they pick a category and they say, oh, it could be a direct consumer brand. And the truth is, what does that even mean? Do you mean, because here's the funny thing. When I hear analysts and industry people talk about direct consumer, it has become synonymous over the last decade as it's unfolded today with e-comm. Oh, you mean you're an e-comm company and in many cases you do half of your sales through wholesale. So what does it even mean? I mean, if you want to talk about a direct consumer brand, LoveSack may be the most direct. We don't have any wholesale. I'm talking zero, and we only sell through our own channels, whether it's our website or our showrooms. And we have these partnerships, for instance, where we operate our own showrooms inside of a Best Buy or a Costco. [15:26] But you know, so this whole phrase even, direct-to-consumer, I think is really kind of silly. You mean you're a company that sells stuff online and maybe in showrooms and maybe in wholesale? So you're a company that sells stuff. So let's start with stuff. And you have to make, I think, if you want to be successful in the world, it's not a new concept. You have to have... A great product or or you have to have some other really. Hiller efficiency The Importance of Having a Differentiated Product [15:52] and i think what most have discovered it was a list again over this long decade of direction sumer evolution is that without a really differentiated product. You're just another company with a clever name lots of funding and if you throw lots of money at anything it's gonna grow. But you need to be differentiated. So Love Sack, you know, start with the giant beanbags. They were unique, especially in their day. There's tons of copycats out there now. [16:24] Sactionals are extremely unique. The problem is they photograph just like any other sectional sofa. Like if you took an image of Sactionals and an image of one of, you know, out of any competitor that sells couches, ours looks a lot like theirs. But the difference, the differences are myriad in terms of their washability, changeability, quality, and modularity, and many of those aspects, especially on the modular side, are patented at LoveSac. And so once you dig into it, you find that that's the number one driving factor, is we have a product that's truly differentiated, truly gives more value to the customer, and therefore, we can extract more from the market. It's really that simple, right? And that's at the root of why our CLV to CAC ratio it was so high and sustainable and cash-generative and profitable. And then we could go down all kinds of other paths. We could talk about our website, execution and stuff like that. And all of it needs to be there. Look, running a business is multifaceted and difficult. But at the root of it is that. Jason: [17:27] For sure. One of the things I sort of admire about your company is the original premise was not to have a particular go-to-market strategy. It was to have this great product that people wanted to have in their lives, right? And it feels to me like that, the whole quote unquote D to C movement, like this notion that before you solve any other problem, you're just gonna put a flag in the ground, like this is how you're gonna go to market, that just, it just seems silly because that may not be how the customer wants to acquire your product. Shawn : [18:00] Yeah, I think you're right. And I think that, so I think that whole movement that we're a part of, so I don't mean to like bag on the movement. I'm just an observer as well. Like I've been living in it, right? And we put, and I'm being really transparent, we put on those clothes very intentionally. [18:16] Because people that planted those flags were getting funded. People that planted those flags were being understood at the time. And these movements come. Right now, I could hold up a flag that said AI on it and go out there and raise a bunch of money and do something. And in the end, 99 out of 100 of those, flags are going to fall by the wayside after having tons of money thrown at them and Probably 1% of them will go on to you know be the next Googlers or who knows what right? But these movements come and go and and and I'm and this is what I'm saying You gotta be careful. I'm not bagging on the movement because these movements are useful these movements drive economic activity these movements drive innovation But they're often way overhyped, not as, I think, not as, so, you know, I mean, we could get into AI, you guys are, I'm sure, tracking it just like I am. What does that even mean? Oh, you mean like software? You mean like software that, that does stuff in an automated fashion? Like is that, is that, is it really that new? But it doesn't matter. It's a story that's being heard. It's a story that's being understood and it's where the momentum is. And so if you're able to wield, take advantage of these movements in the marketplace to your end, that's what, and that's exactly what LoveSack did. We put on those clothes, we took a concept that had been around for a long time, our concept. [19:42] And look, in the end, the thinking and the development and even like, let's say the web services and all the things available to that movement that The Value and Overhype of Market Movements [19:49] were spun up because of that movement, we benefited from. The money raising pricing aside, momentum, going public, whatever, all these things aside. So that's why I'm saying I think that there is value in these movements, but fundamentally, you still need to have a great business, a great product, something that's truly differentiated, because anyone with some funding can go out, buy a logo, buy a name, and look like they know what they're doing. Jason: [20:20] And yeah, for sure. And to your point, there's a, there's a funny data by going around in, in our industry this week that like over a hundred million dollars or I'm sorry, Amazon's GMV is, I'm sorry, a hundred billion dollars of Amazon's GMV is from AI. And you hear that and you're like, oh my God, that's huge. And then you find out it's product recommendation tiles that they launched in 1997. Shawn : [20:45] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jason: [20:47] Which, yeah. Yeah, so I do just want to like kind of wrap up this section, but put it in context. When you open that first store in a mall, like the mall competition for furniture stores was like Expressions Furniture, right? Which no one on this call would even remember probably. And then like by the time you really, after your IPO and really caught fire, you were competing directly against all these D to C companies that were expanding in malls. You were probably competing for leases. Shawn : [21:18] Yeah. Jason: [21:19] It's quite the, quite the journey. Now, Scot mentioned at the beginning of the show that you had recently started a podcast and I'm two part question. How the heck did you have time to start a podcast and tell us what the premise behind the podcast is and what you're talking about? Shawn : [21:36] Sure. Yeah. Just to comment first on what you pointed out, there is this whole strip in the malls now out there right now. But by the way, in these shopping malls that I was told were dead, you know, I could read the headlines of shopping malls are dead back in 2001 when I was opening my first shopping mall and I was forwarded those kind of emails by friends and family who were concerned. And here we are in 2023 and while these things change, they take decades to change. Meanwhile, they've evolved and you have all of these direct consumer players now and it It just cycles through, you know? What the players inside of these shopping centers happen to rotate, and I've watched it all evolve, and by the way, they're rotating again, because a lot of those players are not viable. Some of the best ones, biggest ones, you know? Like, concepts like Peloton, who I think is amazing as a concept, you know? They have their struggles, and so we watch these things evolve. In terms of, the podcast is relevant to this. Let me explain why. We had the chicken, I'm going to go, given the nature of what your podcast is, I'll give you a much broader picture than just, hey, why am I recording a podcast on my own and writing a book? [22:55] It works like this. We had the chicken before the egg. Sactionals being the chicken, we discovered, as we observed and had success with it, we believe are so successful because they are are built to last a lifetime and designed to evolve. Like those two attributes in our product are quite unique. And those two attributes underpin what we call our designed for life philosophy. Sactionals: Built to Last, Designed to Evolve [23:21] I did not found Love Sack to make products that are super sustainable, sustain hyphenable. In other words, things that actually sustain. Who's talking about that? I was just trying to survive. I made a big beanbag, people liked it. Made a couch because people were asking about couches. who has solved all these problems, observed the success, and that success was rooted in the fact that things were built to last, designed to evolve. Now that's led us to this whole philosophy that will inform our innovation on every product going forward, and it's why I'm so confident that we can continue to succeed, is because of this design philosophy that I'm sharing with you openly. Because it's one thing to say it, it's another thing to execute to it. That's the hard part. It's the execution that's the hard part, you know? Now, that said... [24:08] I'm trying to drive a movement. I believe that there are many people that are sort of aware now that we have been conned into buying too much crap. New season, new collection, the merchandising hamster wheel, new iPhone, now it's got a titanium band. Really? Everyone knows. No, it's not even hidden. It's not even like a secret. it. This whole hamster wheel called planned obsolescence that was not an accident, it's absolutely an economic strategy to lift us out of the Great Depression and onward. And it has roots all the way back to Louis XIV. What's my point? The world has just, I guess, accidentally, not so accidentally, fallen into all kinds of rhythms that are unhealthy, unsustainable, and not good for anyone, not good for the environment, not good for people, you know, we're frenetically chasing out. Now my jeans are too tight, now they're too loose, now they're too long, now they're short, now I got, now they got to show my ankles, now they got to drape over my, like, this is not an accident. This is a self-propelling machine that we have created. What's my point? I believe we can drive a movement amongst people to reject that. And I believe factionals is one of the embodiments of that. Things built to last a lifetime are designed to evolve. So that movement is actually my long-term strategy. [25:33] In the near term, I need to... One of the ways that we will reach people besides buying advertising and using it to drive a strong CLV to CAC ratio is through... I don't know, even podcasts like this is through people finding our brand, finding out about me, finding out about the company through... Whether it be me, whether it be through the goodwill of our customers, sharing this or that, the other. And so I wrote a book called Let Me Save You 25 Years. It's our clever story Driving a Movement for Sustainable Consumerism [25:59] at Love Sack. It's really great. I think it launches in January. I spun up a podcast called Let Me Save You 25 Years where I share my own entrepreneurial mistakes, miracles, and lessons of the Love Sack story. That's the subtitle of the book. That's the spirit of the podcast. I talk to successful people, some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and successful people about these concepts. And it's not an interview podcast. We go really deep into some of these concepts. So my long-term goal ultimately, is to write another book that can help drive this consumer movement that I'm describing because I think if we can get a little bit of luck and get people thinking about these things and then eventually seeking out. Products that can do this, and just a lifestyle that is supported in the way that I'm describing. Buy better to buy less. Buy better stuff so you can buy less stuff. Well, obviously, LoveSack will benefit from that as a company that makes better stuff. And so, look, it's a long, long, long, long way around, but you asked the question, and I'm totally serious about that. Scot: [26:58] Yeah. So I'm gonna guess you're not a fan of fast fashion. Shawn : [27:03] No, I mean, that's obviously gonna be I made the topic of the book, you know? Scot: [27:06] And I'm not. Jason's a huge Xi'an fan, so you just really hurt his feelings. No, I'm just kidding. Jason: [27:11] Hey, I wore a Patagonia, a used Patagonia jacket in honor of tonight's show. What are you talking about? Shawn : [27:18] You are speaking my language, man. And look, it's not even about being a tree hugger. I think that people have a brain. And people, I think, are waking up to the idea after the iPhone 15, that holy crap, Apple probably should have been forced to innovate a long, long time ago. Biggest company on planet Earth because they sell us the same thing every year or two. Had we not allowed them to do that, they would have had to use their enormous treasure and enormous skill base to innovate into other categories and and change the world. Instead, we've allowed them to sell us the same thing every year. Scot: [28:06] That's an interesting ethos. Having built a company, about how many people are in your company at this point? Shawn : [28:12] Total about 1,500. It's about 400 at the headquarters and another 1,000 out in the field-ish. Scot: [28:19] Yeah, you're at that phase where there's people at the company that you've never really met before. And it's awkward because they always expect you to know their name and they all know your name. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when you get a company to that scale, how do you keep innovating? And, you know, one of the ones that I really love that you guys have done is the Stealth Tech. I think that's genius because I love AV and like having a really immersive experience. And I'll let you explain what it is, but, you know, my wife hates the big black speakers that I try to put all over the house. So I think it kind of solves like six problems in one. So A, maybe let listeners know a little bit more about what we're talking about. And then be I'd love to hear like how do you guys you know it's really hard to kind of you know ideas are easy and execution is hard on execution. It's really hard to like you know nail what you're doing and you have a lot going on and then like keep innovating. How do you how do you like get the org functional that way? Shawn : [29:16] Yeah. I mean, I think number one is you have to, you have to really want it, you know, not, not just like, Hey, I want to, I want to get, I want to get more business. I want to sell more stuff. Obviously there's that. But this ethos that I just kind of unpacked for you that, that we tripped stumbled into does the design for life ethos animates this organization. Like, it is a lot of, it is very motivating to think about, holy cow, now that we know our purpose, and it's been identified, right? Inspiring humankind to buy better so they can buy, you know, everyone's like, it was purpose, purpose, purpose, and hire some consultant, you know what I mean? But for real, if you have something that's truly unique, and it's meaningful, it's not just like words on the wall, it really is motivating, it's exciting. Scot: [30:11] And you bake baked in the products have to get better too, right? Like you, that's not well, so you have to support it. Shawn : [30:17] That's exactly right. Like, yeah, like we have to make stuff that's built to last a lifetime and design to evolve, which is really hard because if it was easy, everyone would do that. And here I am telling you openly about it. Like that's what we're going to do. And I'm not afraid to tell you because most companies won't do it because it's just freaking hard. Like it's a lot easier. Like why doesn't love sack? You know, you brought up stealth tech. So Stealth Tech is full Harman Kardon surround sound, no quality sound loss audio. Perfect audio emanating from your couch through the phone through the next layer of fabric and through the decorative layer of fabric that's washable, changeable, removable, tuned down to the color of that fabric so that the audio is perfect rear, front, center, subwoofer, invisible, beautiful, because you don't see it, it looks just like a couch, and it has all that packed in there, it's radically successful. It's been, it's now a huge piece of our business. And nobody saw that coming, because what would they expect a couch company to do next? A couch beanbag company. An end table, a coffee table, a rug, a lamp, you know, decorative accessories, get into the bedroom, who knows, right? Like the obvious stuff. Scot: [31:32] Meatballs. Shawn : [31:32] And what, yeah, right? Why did we do that? We anyway, we saw the opportunity and we also invented it. So one is, Innovation and the Evolution of LoveSack's Product Line [31:40] to answer your question, a lot of play. We are constantly at our innovation lab playing. So it's not just consumer-led insights, which is a big piece of what we do, but it's also a lot of inventions. You gotta have teams to invent. You gotta have engineers. You gotta have, so you gotta support that. So there's a cost structure there. And that's why LoveSack is quite profitable, but not as profitable as it could be in the future, because we are investing in innovation. And there's a lot of heads. there's a lot of engineers, there's a lot of designers doing things. Now they're not just all running around playing, they also have a very disciplined approach to executing on innovation, like launching Stealth Tech a couple years ago, and bringing that to market, which is a heavy lift because it's our invention, it's our patents, and it was not easy for this beanbag company to get into home electronics in a real way. [32:29] We've done, I think, more than 100 million in home electronic sales and making us a pretty, a pretty big player in that space, believe it or not. Already, and I don't think most people even, you know, would think that. But we're, you know, totally serious about it. So, innovation, wrapped around an inspiring path to innovation, I think is the key. Do you have an inspiring path, or are you just trying to make more stuff? Because if I wanted all those things I mentioned, like I'm over here in Asia right now, I'm in Hong Kong. And if I wanted a whole line of living room furniture with our logo on it to make myself feel good, I could have it in four weeks. The suppliers will do it for me. They've been doing it for 30 years over here for all the biggest brands you can think of, you know? And we could give them some designs and give them some ideas and let our, I mean, it's so easy to just source stuff. I'm talking about, you know, product land. Now we're talking fashion, talking furniture, talk any category you want, the same is true. But to truly invent stuff's a lot harder. And that's why I think we've had success, that's why I think we will continue to have success. Jason: [33:35] Yeah, you know, so I am interested, I mean, obviously the product has to be the lead in solving that real problem for a customer. But I do think another helpful aspect to your business is that in order for those products to be successful, like, they have to be demonstrated somehow. Like, per your point, the catalog for the StealthTech sectional looks just like the catalog for a generic sectional. And so I'm thinking you having your own showrooms was a big advantage for being able to tell the story. And ironically, I'm not sure you opened that first showroom because you recognize that problem. It sounds like you opened that first showroom because you had no other way to get distribution. Shawn : [34:21] Oh yeah, yeah. And that's why I'm not taking any claim as some kind of marketing genius. We just kind of tried to survive in the beginning. And opening a showroom was actually a reaction to being rejected by the big furniture guys, because they didn't, you know, want our product, they didn't believe in us, whatever. They couldn't see it. And so thankfully, it went that way. And by the way, they weren't showrooms, they were stores. We were a furniture store for a decade and a half. And we did all the furniture store things. And we sold merchandise, and you pulled your car around and we loaded you up, believe it or not, or we shipped to you. And it took us a long, long time to, after copycatting all those furniture stores and hiring merchandisers and window dressers and all those kinds of things from our competition to do that stuff in our stores. [35:14] To make that pivot to the direct consumer model that we operate on today that obviously looks very prescient in today's model. Now, the reason I think we've been so successful at it is because we had those 15, 20 years to get really good at operating now 250 locations across every state, almost in the United States of America, where people are fighting and bickering and hiring and firing and touching each other, whatever it takes. The point is operating physical showrooms is not something you get good at in a day or a week or a year just because that seems like the next thing to do. We have a website, now people need to see our stuff, to your point. And that's the approach I think a lot of the direct consumer brands have taken. And I don't think that they realize how hard it is to be profitable at retail and how many pitfalls there are. Where if I want to get a little better at digital marketing, which I think we're pretty good at now, but I can hire that. I can agency that, I can platform that. And so I think that the physical side of things is really underestimated. And so thankfully, our very long haphazard history has played out in our favor in that realm. And I think it's a huge strength of ours, because by the way, now that the economy's pulling back and this and that, we're 250 locations ahead of most that are just really coming around to the marriage of physical with digital and not realizing that, You know, it's not something you can just turn on and be good at. Jason: [36:44] Yeah. And I think it's you, you rightly pointed out that like the whole landscape of DTC hasn't been particularly successful. There's not a lot of wins, but the, the people that are outperforming the average, even one thing they all have in common is they all have some kind of physical footprint to, to reduce CAC, right? So they're either have their own stores or they, they are white selling through wholesale, or they're, they're in front of customers in some way, The Strength of LoveSack's Physical Showrooms in the DTC Landscape [37:09] other than, than Facebook ads. Yeah, I, I did. I think there's a super interesting new evolution. I thought I read about though. So like Amen stores and showrooms are super complicated. People wildly underestimate how many mistakes you can, you can make owning and operating a retail store. And now, now that you seem to have that clicking, you guys are bringing the retail store to the customer's driveways. Is that true? Like talk to us about the mobile concierge. Shawn : [37:37] Yeah, so just like we're innovating in product, we're also always innovating go to market. So whether it's mobile concierge, which is a lovesack trucks, where you can, you know, from the comfort of your home, have us pull up in the driveway and show you our products, which we've which we've dabbled in, and have tested into. And we'll see, you know, where that goes. I think that that has its own just like retail has its own complications, but also more, I think, more. I guess scalable already is Shop and Shop. So our showrooms right now in shopping malls, they're only like 800 square feet. So obviously the metrics are great, right? We're selling very big ticket items out of very tiny footprints with a small staff. There's just good metrics. And I don't hide from that. That's been a big part of our success, right? So we chose a good category in that way. We chose a terrible category in the sense is that the home category has all kinds of other issues. Jason: [38:38] Not the easiest category to deliver the product. Shawn : [38:41] Yeah, I mean, there's delivery, but there's also just the cyclical nature. You couple that with the idea that, look, we are selling you something that we are intending you to have for decades. My sectionals in my home are 16 years old, some of them, made with brand new pieces, made with Stealth Tech. That's pretty cool. On the other hand, unless we give you Stealth Tech and other reasons to come back, like, you know, you've got your satchels and you've made your investment. And so look, we deal with cover. So we're innovating on product, we're innovating on go to market, shop and shop. So these thousand square foot showrooms have been very useful for us. We have 200 square foot showrooms inside of Best Buy's or Costco's, where our people are basically checking you out and allowing you to kick the tires on the product. And then look, whether you buy there or whether you go back and buy online, we don't care. We built an agnostic platform where we just want you to be in the family. So I think these are things that have evolved over time and you've got to test and learn, whether it's mobile concierge, as you described, whether it's shop and shops. And these tests and learn activities can take years to play out and really take to scale and stuff like that. And so I think in this day and age of, hey, I'm gonna go raise a ton of money and build my company to X revenue and exit for X multiple, which is I think Testing and Learning: Mobile Concierge and Shop and Shop [40:05] what drives a lot of entrepreneurial activity. [40:09] That kind of mentality just doesn't have the staying power necessary. And that's why you see so many of these brands reach a point where they have to be retooled, like some of them are going through now. And look, they've made someone rich. Sometimes these founders find ways to squeeze a bunch of money out of it, or private equity tosses the hot potato to the next guy and they make a ton of money out of it. But in the end, what's left? a brand that is at scale, doesn't make money, and can't go anywhere. So my point is you gotta have the stomach to grind it out, to spend the time, to really slow cook some of these things, and to be flexible when they don't work, and shut them down and move on to the next. And so constantly innovating on go-to-market, constantly innovating on product, and really putting in the time and energy it takes to refine concepts, you know. Scot: [41:03] I know we're running up against time, and you've obviously spent a lot of time thinking about this. I know your goal is to bring this ethos out, but if you think about retail and e-commerce, what do you think the next five years hold? You talked about AI. There's a lot of this stuff that's temporal, but anything you think that you believe is going to change the way we shop and buy, either in-store or online? Shawn : [41:29] Yeah, look, I think that it will just continue to evolve, and so I think AI is real. I think it will play a transformative role, and I think everyone's trying to figure out exactly what that is, and nobody really knows yet. I wish I could just give you a clever answer, but I think I've witnessed, AI's transformative role in the future of technology [41:53] you know, that's What's the benefit of having a 25-year perspective is it's like I was saying about shopping malls. The mall is dead, headline from 2001. TV is dead, headline from 2008. Here we are with both of them still intact. By the way, TV advertising is still a big piece of our marketing spend. I know that's kind of mind-blowing because it seems like everybody's cut the cord or gone to this extreme. And I'm just telling you, these movements take decades. And so while it's great to be ahead of a movement, you don't, unless you are trying to drive that movement, like unless you are trying to take advantage of that AI, boom, to go raise money and wave that flag or whatever. [42:40] I've found it's okay to be a laggard. It's not always beneficial to, unless you're trying to build your concept around that and take advantage of that movement itself, let the movements evolve. So I can't give you a great prediction of exactly what's going to happen. AI is important. But how, where the winners will actually be and what the effects will actually be, I think it's way too early to tell. But I do think it's important to keep your finger and keep watching and eventually, you know, to find the connection and lean into that to affect your business. You have to be a little bit patient, I think. Jason: [43:27] Yeah, well, certainly 25 years in, I think you've earned your patience creds, by the way. Shawn : [43:35] Maybe too much. Jason: [43:37] Yeah, I mean, there's pros and cons to both. Urgency can be useful in certain circumstances, but short time horizons come with a lot of problems, as you have rightly pointed out. That did lead me to one sort of thought question. And you, you referenced some of your, your CAC economics and side note, we've, we've one of the, our favorite guests on the show is this professor Dan McCarthy. Who's, who's a huge advocate for cohort analysis and customer lifetime value based businesses. And so he would be thrilled that you're on, because I know you guys disclose some of your cohort metrics in, in your financial statements, which he loves. And to me, you're in a really interesting category to do that because although your product has invented a reason for customers to come back and you've sort of turned a product into a system, it's not like a fast cycle, right? Like, and so like when you're thinking about like a time horizon for LTV, and you guys have a very good return on your CAC, but compared to most companies, your CAC still is really high, right? Like, you sell a lot of product to compensate for that. Shawn : [44:57] Yeah. Jason: [44:58] So how, like, you know, you're spending five or six hundred bucks to acquire a customer and then you're earning thousands of dollars on each of those customers. Like, was it difficult to sort of have the financial discipline to have a long enough time horizon to see those sorts of high CLVs come back for that initial customer acquisition? Shawn : [45:23] Yeah, I mean, you could call it discipline. In our case, again, it was just survival, being really transparent. You know, we were just trying to find a way to make this business work, and we weren't profitable right out of the gate. It took us many years to get better at retail, to get better at e-commerce, to have a shopping cart experience that was commensurate to the product, because that's really hard with our product. Our product is really weird and complicated. And so that's something that's overlooked with Lovesack. And I think a lot of our copycats and competitors are realizing that. You can't just use a Shopify checkout if you're going to sell something as dynamic as, let's say, factionals where, you know, you can buy a bunch of these and a bunch of those and combine them in a million different ways. How do you, how do you shopping cart that? How do you Amazon that, you know? And so, and so these are superpowers that we've developed over a long time and thankfully given it enough time to become profitable. So to answer your question about, you know, patience, I think part of it is just been our lot in life to, to be, to have patience forced on us. But secondly, real discipline around. [46:32] Our CLV and CAC metrics. So we are, we are, and have been for a long time, carefully monitoring them, tracking them, constantly innovating and refining on the marketing side, these things that I mentioned, whether TV, you know, over the top, linear, nonlinear, digital marketing with its 500 heads, you know, like I'm talking about species of digital marketing, it's such a big word, right? I have to be constantly and tirelessly refined and risk taken and stuff tried and stuff failed and all rolled it and it all rolls up into that CLV to CAC ratio that you can hope you can keep moving and then couple that with innovation so that people can come back and buy more. And so thankfully, look, we chose a category with a high ticket and that drives the lion's share. That first purchase drives the lion's share of that CLV to CAC relationship. But our long-term point of view now is not only to find other ways that we can do more of that, maybe even in other categories and adjacencies. [47:32] But also give like StealthTack, give people a reason to come back and add on. And then by the way, when they do come back, then they face the consequence of, well, what do I do with some of these things that I need to, let's say, I get StealthTack and I got to swap out two of my sides. Well, okay, the obvious answer is I don't want to throw those in the trash. We don't want them throwing them in the trash and they may not need another couch in another room. So it's leading us to services, trade in, trade up, recycle, you know, all kinds of things that will again, give us more reasons to reach out and touch that customer. And so I think that if you relentlessly pursue. [48:13] A good concept with good intentions being driven by good philosophy and purpose like I've described, it's been my experience that the universe kind of unfolds for you, but it doesn't do it overnight. And you can't just have a, at least in my experience, you can't just have a master plan and be like, we're gonna do this and then that and that. You have to iterate to it. You have to observe, you have to live some, like when we launched Stealth Tech, we just, you know, it's easy now to look back in hindsight and be like, well, of course people are gonna want to or trade in their sides or do whatever. But some of those things aren't always so apparent. And you need to plunge yourself into the pool, see what comes of it, and then react to that. And some of those reactions can take years to unfold. Like some of these services that I just described and whatnot, they'll take us years to manifest. [48:59] But the nice thing is, the core business can generate profits that will carry us to that and we'll invest some of those profits in that innovation that I'm describing. But it's like, it's just relentless, man. It's tiring. It's like you have to have the stomach to go the distance. And that's where the time horizon, look, I'm a big advocate of it. Culturally, you know, like when my whole organization knows, like the theme of our manager fest a month ago, this is where we all get together once a year, was 25 and 25 more. And I'm not kidding. Like my personal point of view, if I'm allowed to be here as a public company CEO, if I do good enough to stay in the seat, which is inherent, and that's why I love the structure. It forces you to be awesome, you know? [49:45] If I can do that, but the fact that my organization knows that I'm in for another 25, you know how grounding that is and stabilizing that is, as opposed to, man, when's Sean's gonna sell his stock and bail and go start his next company? That's what I'm supposed to do, isn't it? That's how I become a bazillionaire, isn't it? I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in building something. And I think that that, I don't know, desire is actually kind of rare these days. Long-Term Vision vs Quick Profit [50:14] I think everyone just wants to be a bazillionaire as fast as they can. Jason: [50:17] Oh, for sure. Yeah. Everybody's assuming you're going to cash out and invest in your first rocket. Shawn : [50:24] Yeah, whatever. And I think it's sad. Look, I'd love to make a ton of money, whatever. That's all great. But whatever happened to the ambition of let's build something awesome, no matter how long it takes. And that's where I'm at. Jason: [50:41] Yeah. Well, Sean, it's been an amazing run so far. This is going to be a great spot to leave it because we have used up our allotted time, but I know listeners are going to appreciate you saving them the first 25 years, and we're going to be super excited to watch what happens in the next 25. Shawn : [50:57] Thank you. Thank you. Scot: [50:59] We really appreciate it, Sean. I know you're in Hong Kong, you're in the middle of your day there, and we appreciate you coming on the show. If folks want to check out your podcast, where would you point them to? Shawn : [51:09] Yeah, wherever you love listening to podcasts, Let Me Save You 25 Years is the name. LetMeSaveYou25Years.com. You can find me on social media, Sean of Lovesack. I'm all over that and love to be connected, slide into my DMs. I mean, I love talking to customers, friends, peers, being very accessible and looking forward to building the movement. Of course, Lovesack.com. We're easy to find. Scot: [51:33] Trey Lockerbie 41 Yep. And the book's coming out in January and I assume it's going to be in all the usual places. Shawn : [51:37] Sean O'Toole 41 All the usual places. Yeah. Let Awesome. Jason: [51:45] Thanks again and until next time, happy commercing!
They attempted the impossible, and that makes them mighty! This week, Emily and V jump into the Firefly 'verse, and the Whedonverse at large, to take a look at the 2002 Firefly Immediate Assistance Campaign. They look at all of the odds stacked against Firefly by the Fox Network, and how so many of those marketing woes made the show catnip for fandom. Plus, the Jossification of scifi in the 2000s, silliness about Nathan Fillion and Jewel Staite, and why Firefly (gulp) might not hold up in 2023. Are you a Firefly fan? What are your Whedon thoughts?
For the Halloween season Ally, Andy, Jeff, and Ria review the Haunted Mask. Debuting in 1995 on the Fox Network, Goosebumps would become a Fox Kids staple through the mid-late 90's. We take a look at the pilot episode, and bit of background on the Goosebumps series as a whole. Andy brings back "Do You Know it?!" and Ally introduces a contreversial new segment!It's a scary little blast, so join us if you dare!FacebookInstagramWesbiteCheck out the Big Door Prize Podcast Network
A story about Mulder, Scully, and the Fox Network. But those are metaphors. Transcript
For this week's very special oversized bonus episode, Rick and Mike dig deep into their memories and pick their favorite networks for each TV season from the 1980s. ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and eventually the fledgling Fox Network all get at shot at the title, but wil one come out victorious? #podcast #tv #retrotv #eighties #list #networks #nbc #abc #cbs #pbs #fox
This week, Emmy nominated Writer/Producer Jonathan Fener, (American Dad!, iCarly, The Mindy Project, and many more) is on the podcast discussing the importance of having access to industry professionals, getting his footing in the industry, and working in the multi-cam world.Show NotesJonathan Fener on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0271779/Jonathan Fener on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jfenskiMichael's Online Screenwriting Course - https://michaeljamin.com/courseFree Screenwriting Lesson - https://michaeljamin.com/freeJoin My Watchlist - https://michaeljamin.com/watchlistAutogenerated TranscriptMichael Jamin:I always say, you're kissing the wrong asses. Kiss the asses of assistants because they're not go, you know, they don't get their asses kissed. They, they love it. I mean, who wouldn't get, give 'em some attention. They get abused all the time, then they rise up eventually. So, yeah, those are the ones. You gotta be nice to the assistants always, you know.Hey everyone, it's Michael Jamin. Welcome back to Screenwriters. Need to hear this. I have a wonderful guest today. This is a, this is a, I'm gonna tell you the story, how, how we met. So, as you know, the Writers Guild of America's on Strike, and my next guest is a well-known Setcom writer, although we've never worked together over the years. So our paths, you know, we haven't really crossed, but we know all the same people. And then we started, we were on the picket line outside of CBS Radford, and we started chatting and we had a really nice talk. And I was like, well, this, I gotta bring this guy in the podcast. So everyone, if you're driving your car, please pull over, put your hands together. A warm round of applause for Mr. Jonathan Fener. He is, let me just give you some of his credits before I let him talk.You'll notice it's a 45 minute podcast, and I, I do talking for about 44 minutes of it, but I'm gonna talk about your credits. He, he wrote on Bette, the Bette Midler show, Veronica's Closet, do-Over Kid, notorious. It's all relative Method. And Red Father of the Pride, you remember that one with Siegfried and Wright the 78th Annual Academy Awards. I wanna talk about that. American Dad. We know that happy endings, old Soul telenovela, the Mindy Project. How come that wasn't a show? Why was that? Just a project. Trolls Holiday, Elliot to Vegas, American Housewife, trolls, holiday in Harmony. We'll talk about that. And most recently, the iCarly reboot as well as well Mullaney. But guys, this guy's been around the block. John, thank you so much for being on the show.Jonathan Fener:My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Thank.Michael Jamin:So, I wanna find out, I wanna know all about your, your history. Let's take it back from the beginning when your great grandparents met. Let's really do a deep dive into your life. ,Jonathan Fener:Eastern Europe.Michael Jamin:Eastern Europe. Let's justJonathan Fener:Do, yeah, let's go back to Eastern Europe.Michael Jamin:But tell me were you, were okay, so how did you first break into the business and did you always know you wanted to be a, a, a setcom writer?Jonathan Fener:Yeah. I, I, even when I didn't know that's what I wanted to do, I, I look back and I'm like, oh, that's what I wanted to do. You know, I, I feel like I'm part of a, a generation that you know, back to watching television shows, videotaping, you know, Saturday Night Live and Uhhuh and sitcoms and, and like I used to audiotape them toMichael Jamin:StudyJonathan Fener:Them and watch. Yeah. And, and, and like, I would, I would watch Saturday Night Live, even when I was old. It wasn't old enough to like watch it. I would tape it on the VCR that we had, the, the one that popped up Yeah. At the top. And then and then I would have an, and then in the morning I'd watch it all day. And I would, and, and I used to make mixtapes, I guess video mixtapes where I would like, like mix and match different sketches that I liked. And then I and I used to listen to those all the time. And then I would also, I'd watch television shows. I did do that thing where I, I would tape television shows and then I would try and like write out the script. I didn't, I didn't know what the formatting was, so I always was interested in Yes, you'dMichael Jamin:Write it, what kind of word for word? Or you'd write your own,Jonathan Fener:I'd write it word for word. I would transcribe.Michael Jamin:Because that made you a writer then. Did you think that was, what was the point of that?Jonathan Fener:Well,Michael Jamin:,Jonathan Fener:It's like this this, this is gonna sound douchey maybe, but I remember reading this quote, I, I, I think Hunters Thompson once said that he used to just type pages of the Great Gatsby, just to feel oh, what it was like to really, to write those words. Yeah. and so you can draw a direct line between me and Hunter s Thompson and The Great Gatsby. Yeah. And, you know, the Bette Midler show. Like, they're basically one to one.Michael Jamin:But then, and Okay, go on. So then, then as a kid, you,Jonathan Fener:Well, I always was a, I was a huge comedy fan. I was a huge movie, television, e everything fan, standup comedy. I loved standup comedy. Right. So was always too afraid to do it. But yeah, I mean, I always knew I wanted to be part of making that comedy, you know, television, movies, all that stuff. So I went to Fast Forward, I went to usc. I, I I didn't go to the film school, but I, I just was, just wanted to be in la Oh. And I guess sort of the way sort of goes, you, you get outta school and, and I, I knew a guy that I went to school with who worked at a talent agency, and he got me a job as a messenger when they were still inMichael Jamin:Existence as a messenger. And so you were driving around town delivering envelopes.Jonathan Fener:That sounds terrible. Thomas Guide. WithMichael Jamin:Your ThomasJonathan Fener:Guide, right? No yeah. In the heat and the traffic. And howMichael Jamin:Long did you do that for?Jonathan Fener:I was probably a messenger for about, I don't know, matter of months, maybe like 3, 4, 5 months. And then a desk opens up and then you're, you're answering phones, so, oh, soMichael Jamin:You didn't have to go to the mail room, you went from Messenger toJonathan Fener:It really wasn't a mail room. I, it was a very small town agency. Okay. It, it was called the Herb Schechter Company. Sure. I dunno if you ever No, I've heard. And it was like back in the day where, you know, he mostly represented like TV writers. They had a whole below the line department. It was a small agency and they didn't really have a male. One boutique. Yeah. Boutique. Boutique. They had a lot of like, guys that were like supervising producers on Magnum, stuff likeMichael Jamin:That. But that's a good, but then, so how long, cuz you know, I was a, I was an assistant at William Morris for three days. I got fired on my second day and I go, but I stuck out the week. I finished the week . So I, I applaud you for being like, it's just a hard job being an assistant for an agent, because I found it was,Jonathan Fener:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was an assistant for a lot of different people. I was, I, and it, I think it helped that it was kind of, I, I don't know if low, I guess low stakes, cuz it wasn't like, I wasn't at caa. I wasn't at, you know, William Morris. I was at this tiny little agency and this woman I worked for was, you know, she represented like stunt coordinators and, and oh, like that. So not that, look, I still had to do the like, rolling calls thing and all thatMichael Jamin:Stuff. But did you, but did that, did that give you context? Like what did that, what what, what was your takeaway from doing that job for howeverJonathan Fener:Long? Honestly, a lot of the jobs I had until I was a writer were, it taught me what I didn't want to do. Yes. I'm like, oh, I work for an agent. I don't wanna be an agent. Right. And then there's like a network of assistances mm-hmm. where, you know, there was another agent there, this really nice woman named Deborah Lee. I still remember her. She she called me in one day. She's like, what do you want to do? What are you doing? I'm like, I don't know. You know, I mean, I, I think I wanna write, but, you know, may maybe I wanna be a creative exec. I just, I wasn't sure. Okay. So she was like, well, I have a friend who works at Fox and they need an assistant. So, you know, if you wanna get outta here and go work there.And I was like, great. So I went to go work for this other woman and then I just met, I would just meet assistants and they would offer me other jobs. I worked for this guy. My biggest assistant job was I worked for this guy John Matian, who was the president of Fox Network. Mm-Hmm. . So that was the first time where I saw an entire television season from pitches, development scripts and shooting all the way through. Right. Cause I was on his desk and I read every script that came across his desk that was like, I don't know if you remember that guy, or even like, that was the year, that was like in the early mid nineties when they were like, maybe gonna try and do like friends. Like they had this show called Partners and Ned and Stacy andMichael Jamin:Ned and Stacy. Yep.Jonathan Fener:It was becoming a little bit more of like, let's try and make a, a friends clone. So like the XFiles was happening then, right? It was just like, it was, I had one year where I had an entire overview of television and I'm like, and then I would read the scripts and I'm like, I think I can, I I can do this. I can. SoMichael Jamin:Did who, where did you learn to write then? What do you, what was the next step?Jonathan Fener:I just figured it out. I mean, I think that what happened was I met my partner who was my friend Josh by Cell. And we were buddies. And he was at UCLA in screenwriting school actually. Okay. And he was actually writing with his dad. He, him and his dad were writing a script together. It was, it was very, and I was, we would just talk about stuff. And, and then, so the story is that we had another friend who was a PA on this show called The Single Guy. Yep. Remember that show with Jonathan Silverman? Yes.Michael Jamin:Jonathan Silverman. Yep.Jonathan Fener:Yeah. The Brad Hall show. And we, he used to bring home scripts every week and we would read them and we were like, I can't remember, one of us pitched an idea, but funny if they did an episode, whatever, like in real time of whatever. And then we're like, we should write it. Let's just write it. We know how to do it. We should just write it. So we sat down and wrote this script and it was, I thought it was pretty good. And , we, we, and, and again, the assistant network was we knew somebody who was an assistant to Richard Whites at the time. Yeah. Who was a young guy. AndMichael Jamin:And young agent. He was I c m probably, right?Jonathan Fener:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and it was just one of these things where like, after a while I was assistant for three, four years and I had access cuz all the young people that I was working with were now becoming executives or agents. Yeah. So there were people you could actually hand your script to. They would read it as opposed to just throwing it in a pile. Right. And the, the, the long and the short of it was Richard read the script because Brad was a client of his, and I remember he called me at my house and he was like, your friend Mallory gave me your script. I think it's funny and I think that you need to write something else because no one will read a single guy. He's like, I only read it because I represent Brad, but no one will read. He's like, you have to write friends, you have to write Seinfeld, you have to write news, radio, whatever. So Right. That, that was kind of the first thing where we were like, Hey, we can maybe do this. Let's doMichael Jamin:This. That's interesting because this is what I say. Cuz people always sit and they're like, well, do I have to move to Hollywood to break into Hollywood? It's like, well, this is how you do it. You get these jobs, you know, you become an assistant and you network or you get on the network and then that's how you make connections. So that's what you did. I do. I wonder, do you think the assistant network is still strong now? I mean, so everything's changing so much.Jonathan Fener:Yeah. You know, it's a good question. You know, it's like, that's the age old question. Like, how do you break in? And, you know, I feel for years now that like, maybe that's not the way it's done anymore. May maybe I'm just looking at like, stuff as like an older guy where like I look at people and I go, I don't know. Can't you make your own television show on your phone? Or something like, I, but you know, you, you still need some kind of access, I think. And maybe I don't even, maybe I don't, I can't wrap my mind around it a little bit. But like, it just seems like if you do, if you write something, if you make something, someone's gotta watch it. Someone's gotta see it. Mm-Hmm. that can make a decision for you or, or help you. Right. And that's about, that's about that relationships.Michael Jamin:But then how did, so what was your next step? How did you get on staff?Jonathan Fener:We wrote a bunch of specs and we had some friends that were becoming agents. A guy that I, I, I was, I was an assistant with a guy who became an agent and he was a paradigm. We, we kind of, we worked with him for a little bit, but it was, we, cuz like we were friends and like, when things don't go so well sometimes mm-hmm. , it's like it's messing up the relationship. So I think we just were able to get, look, we, we, we, anybody that would read our script, that was a, that was a young agent, we would somehow try and get to them. And everybody passed. One guy at I C m mm-hmm. was signed us. I mean, I, I remember very clearly getting a phone call. I, I, you know, my partner and I, Josh, our birthdays are a week apart. We really were like, you know, we were friends, we were, you know, we, it was like intertwined lives. But we were having like a joint birthday party mm-hmm. . And we got a phone call that, you know, they wanted to sign us. And that was a big, big fuckingMichael Jamin:Deal. And, and what, and they submitted you to which show? What was the first show then?Jonathan Fener:Well, this is funny how things work too. So his one big connection was this woman shit. Her name was Debbie. This is Embarra. I, that's okay. She, she ran Bry, Kaufman Crane. She was like their development person.Michael Jamin:Right.Jonathan Fener:And I feel bad that I don't remember her name cuz she was sweet. And, but that was a good relationship that he had. Mm-Hmm. . So they submitted us for Veronica's Closet. Right. The, it, it was, it had done a year. It did. Well, you know, Christie alley's back to TV and it was, I mean, it was Thursday night. Yeah. Nbc I mean, it was a huge, huge show. AndMichael Jamin:Let's take it back for a second. That used to be a big time slot. Thursday night, n b slate, nbc. Now I don't even know what now. I don't know what they, what they're doing there, but maybe some, it's reality. It's soJonathan Fener:Fire, something fire.Michael Jamin:Is it some dump Dumpster fire? But that's the one. So, but it's, so, but this is something else that you bring up which I think is really interesting. Like, people always say you're kissing, I always say you're kissing the wrong asses. Kiss the asses of assistant because they're not go, you know, they don't get their asses kissed. They didn't, they love it. I mean, who wouldn't get, give 'em some attention. They get abused all the time, then they rise up eventually. Yeah. So those are the ones you gotta be nice to the assistants always, you know,Jonathan Fener:Oh, yeah. Christmas, you know, send them, get the, get the gift card, do the thing. Yeah. I mean, you know, they'll put your call through. I mean, look, I mean, they can do only so much, but yeah, it was, it's just, again, everybody, even if it's the same trajectory, everybody's story is a little bit different, you know? Yeah. And you know, it, it was, I think we were, I think we were lucky, but it was also, it was a, it was, you know, I, I hate to sound like I'm a thousand years old, but it was a very different time. Yeah. And, you know, staffing was like, almost were all seemed like so many opportunities. And it was just like, it almost seemed like, it wasn't like, you know, if I'm gonna get staffed, it was sort of like, where am I gonna get staffed? And, and but, but you know, you sweated out and I never felt like that. I mean, and for every, we, we, I don't think, you know, look, I, I think we were good and, and, but and still are. But you know, I never felt like we were juggling offers . Yeah. You know, it was definitely like, you know, okay, we got this gig and, and you know,Michael Jamin:Yeah. People don't, people don't realize that as well. Like, once you're in, it's great. It, that first job is hard, but you're, then you always gotta worry. You gotta worry about your next job. None of it's, you know, if people think well, you know, it is like you must have it made, but you don't, you never have it made. You're always hustling.Jonathan Fener:Never.Michael Jamin:What did you feel your first season as a staff writer? Did you feel comfortable? Did you feel like, oh, and over your head?Jonathan Fener:Honestly, no. I, I, I can say that with confidence. I felt like I got there and I was like, yeah, this is what I should be doing. Oh, you said I'm not just Yeah. You know, look, we were the youngest guys that, you know, we were the staff writers. Right. The baby writers. It was a very challenging place to work. I mean, you know, Bry, Kaufman Crane, you know, look, we, I could, we could do an entire podcast on just working on b Brianca's Closet and just literally being down the hall from season five of friends. It's like the Beatles. Yes. They, they, their, their dressing room is down the hall. And I'm, you know, with Jerry the Pacemakers or something. Not that, not that. That's, that's a great reference, by the way, for all your younger,Michael Jamin:I don't, I don't know. Listener. Yeah.Jonathan Fener:Just some, but it was like, and the show was, you know, it, it was what it was. It was funny. There were tons of funny people on that show, people I still talk to, to this day. Honestly, but it was like the, the culture of that. And I think it, it's a, it's, it's not a news story in sitcoms. But, you know, we worked, we watched the Sun come up all the time, and it was really, that was my first step. It was like, I had never done it before, but I was like, I knew immediately. I'm like, this is not the way it, this is not the way it should be. Right.Michael Jamin:Was it cause stories were being tossed out? Or notes from the network or what?Jonathan Fener:Yeah, it, it was poor, poor management.Michael Jamin:Oh, time management. It wasJonathan Fener:Poor time management. You know, I would say like, you know, you're, when you work on a, on a show with terrible hours, you're just like, you're a victim of somebody else's badMichael Jamin:Work. Well, there's, there's that. Yeah. Yeah. I always felt very when we were running a show, I was like, I always felt I would crack the whip just because I felt like I want people to go home. I want stop messing around. And, and I was a hard ass in that way. Cause I wanna go home and I think you wanna go home too, don't you? You know, like, let's just work and go home.Jonathan Fener:Those are the ones, the ones that don't want to go home. Those are theMichael Jamin:Worst. Yeah. Those are the worst. Right. Did you, were you on many shows like that, where you felt like a hostage ?Jonathan Fener:No. well, let me think. Not really. That was the worst. And then there were a couple other shows that were rough, but I think that, like, as time went on, I definitely got lucky as time went on that I, I worked for de Decent people.Michael Jamin:Well, you also had another show that was basically the stepchild, which was American Dad compared to Family Guy. I mean, family Guy. Was this behemoth, not that American Dead was any slouch, but you were still in the shadow of a, a family guy, right?Jonathan Fener:That's right. The other one. Yeah. Yeah. The other show. Which, but that Yeah. And that, that was good point. No, but it was, it was and animation was something that I, you know, we got into pretty early on too. And I really, really liked that. And you know, there, there's animation usually is not terrible because the deadlines are, are way far apart. Yeah. Like, as far as like, you know, like Multicam is probably the worst because it literally, you gotta rewrite itMichael Jamin:Tonight at four, at four o'clock you start your day basically. Yeah. AfterJonathan Fener:The run Yeah. Run through is it ruins your whole night. And then it's like someone has, like, if you're doing single camera, you know it, you're usually reading a script for the next week. So, you know, you want to get it done by tonight, but, you know, maybe you can leave a couple of jokes and then the next day you can like, sort of clean it up. Right. But like Multicam, they're, they're at rehearsal at 9:00 AM so they need a script.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Yeah. And that was your joint. You were on the Warner Brothers slot. All right. So then, so then what happened? You, I'm gonna, I'm going with your credits over here. So Veronica's closet. And then what about, what was, you were there for, well, how many, well, how many seasons was that? The show was what? Two seasons?Jonathan Fener:They did? Th they three. I was on the last two.Michael Jamin:The last two. And then when it was done, what happened?Jonathan Fener:When it was done, I was like, I, I did it. I, you know, no, I, I was like we, we just got back out in the staffing pool, you know?Michael Jamin:Right. And then you just jumped.Jonathan Fener:We, we, yeah, that was the next, the next season we went to, we got on the Bette Midler show, which at the time was like massive. It was massive. ThatMichael Jamin:Was massive. And then,Jonathan Fener:And that's another, I'm sorry to interrupt. I was gonna say, like, that's an interesting story where, you know, I don't know if you think of 2 26 year old guys as like, yeah, we gotta get those guys on the Bette Midler show. Mm-Hmm. . But our agent submitted us, and at the time we were even thinking to ourselves like, what, what samples can we write that are a little different? So we wrote a Buffy, the Empire Slayer Script, just cuz like, we liked the show and Right. The tone. And so we wrote that and then, and I think we were like, maybe we can look and see about, you know, maybe getting on like an hour or something like that. And then the, it just so happens that Jos Whedon, I think worked for the guy that created that show, Fette.Michael Jamin:So I was gonna say, I wanted to say Cohan and Nik, but no, that, I don't think that's right. Who created it?Jonathan Fener:Jeffrey Lane.Michael Jamin:Jeffrey Lane, of course. Right,Jonathan Fener:Right. Who was a big mad about you, dude.Michael Jamin:Yes. And then, then working for Bette. I mean, that's, that's a whole other thing. You have this oversized star, really a giant star. And she must have had a lot of creative input.Jonathan Fener:Yeah, yeah. You know, she had opinions, but no, she was it was, it was nuts. I mean, you know, they picked that show up for a full season, which even, even then wasn't a thing. And she, she just was like, like such a massive force, you know? Yeah. Almost too big for television. I would even say, like, I remember thinking, she's on the stage and I'm like, and I mean the sound stage. Like I can see her playing Caesars just live or in the movies where she's gigantic. But there's also, there's, there's, I don't know if muting is the right word, but you know what I mean, like, like, there's just something about those mediums that like, sort of, and, and I just think on tv she just was like, massive. Just like, but, but, you know, really funny. And, you know, she did everything. You know, she sang the Rose and she, it was like, pulled out all the stops. It was just, it was almost like, and I don't think she knew what being on a television show entailed. I think when you take people that have never worked on TV and put them on tv, they're like, I have to come back again tomorrow. And Yeah. Tomorrow. And it's a new script today. And like, they're used to shooting films, but even like, it, it's, it's a grind for everybody. Yeah.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Jonathan Fener:SoMichael Jamin:She, she became a little cantankerous. You think ?Jonathan Fener:She, I think, yeah. No, she, she, she, you know, she liked me. she liked me and my partner. We, we wrote this episode actually with Kobe Bryant in it.Michael Jamin:Oh, okay.Jonathan Fener:And I think they were like, get the young guys to write this. And Kobe was, and he agreed to do the show. I think his wife was a huge Bette Midler fan. He, I think he said, I mean, he was nice guy. I remember meeting him and the show, I mean, think about this. We shot the sh we shot our episode in the forum. Like, and, and the, the, the plot of the show is that, that becomes like, she basically accidentally gets onto the court and she starts dancing with the Laker girls. IMichael Jamin:Don't know, but it was a multi happened. It was a Multicam, right?Jonathan Fener:Yeah. But they just, they shot it on the forum, I mean, on form. They, and it was, it was the kind of thing where it was like, whatever it cost, it cost,Michael Jamin:Right.Jonathan Fener:They booked the forum and, and that episode sort of turned out okay. And then I think she felt like, oh, these guys get the show. So they took us out, she took us out to lunch, and she's like, what should, what should the show be? You guys see that? OhMichael Jamin:No. Oh no. And you guys are, you guys are story editors at this point. Right. See, that would be panicked about that. That's not good.Jonathan Fener:Co Cohen was at that lunch too.Michael Jamin:Oh, she took Rob. See, that's the thing. She lovedJonathan Fener:Rob, loved Rob.Michael Jamin:My, my rule of thumb early in my career is don't let the actors know your name cuz only bad things can come of it. . And then, and then, right. So she takes you and now you're, maybe you don't wanna talk about this, but I, that puts you in a difficult position because she should be taking the showrunner and the showrunner should be bouncing you. She should be bouncing the ideas and not, you know,Jonathan Fener:You know. Yeah. It was a Yeah, it was. I mean, I didn't know. We were just like, well, you know, just more do more of this stuff. Right, right. You know, we'll, you know, go to a baseball game. Or, I, I just think she, I, I, look, I think that she was searching for what the show was. I think the showrunner was, I think they just were, and it was a, it was a weird, not a weird premise, but it was like, she, she played a character named Bette, and she played Aer that was a famous Hollywood actress and had been in a movie called The Rose and all these things that were true. Right. But she kept saying, I'm, but I'm not Bette Midler.Michael Jamin:She would say that in the show, but I'm not Bette Midler. She would say, she would say that toJonathan Fener:Us. Oh, okay. Cause we would write jokes and she's like, but I'm not Bette Midler. And we're like, but you were in The Rose. And we're like, okay. Bette Schidler. You're bet. Schidler. Yeah. And, and, and a lot of stuff that happened to her in real life we would try and put into the show. But it was like, it was just one of those things where we were just trying to find our footing and, and, and never really found it.Michael Jamin:Wow. But that's pretty cool though. I mean, hanging out with Bette Midler's pretty cool. SheJonathan Fener:Was something else, man. She was like a, like I said, like a force, like just funny and, and just larger than life. AndMichael Jamin:You know, but we were, we didn't just shoot me. And and George Siegel, of course, in the seventies, there was no bigger actor than George Siegel. And he wasJonathan Fener:Huge. Yeah. Funny.Michael Jamin:And then c just shoot me. And we wrote an episode and he, George could not have been a sweeter guy, such a nice guy and great sense of humor. But there was one episode he, I guess he wasn't happy with what he was playing. Maybe he didn't have enough lines, or maybe he thought his storyline was dumb or whatever. . But I remember he, we were all the writer's rehearsal. And George goes, you know, I was nominated for an Emmy. I'm sorry. He was, you don't have nominated for an Oscar. You know that. Right. And one of the writers goes, yeah, that was a long time ago. George. Get in the dunk tank. . And George thought that was so funny. I mean, he like, to his credit, he just laughed. He thought it was great. .Jonathan Fener:That's so funny.Michael Jamin:That's what's fun about working with some of these, you know, some, some of these old timers are great, some of them are, you know, a little di difficult. Who knows. All right. So then what, at what point did you guys start developing your own shows? Cause that's always a big leap.Jonathan Fener:You know, we, we were kind of like wanting to do that early. And I remember that was another thing that was not encouraged. Yeah.Michael Jamin:Not then itJonathan Fener:Wasn't at all. It was just sort of like, it was the tail end of it, but it was kind of just like, here's the model. Get on staff. Mm-Hmm. work your way up to producer, supervising producer, get a deal. Mm-Hmm. and then you develop. Right. So that was the, that was the the road. But we were like, no, we have some ideas. And you know, if they don't wanna listen to us at, at nbc, then maybe they'll listen to us at mtv. So we had heard that MTV was looking to develop shows. Cheap show. I mean, it's like that thing every, like couple of years. MTV's like, we wanna do scripted. And then they would hardly ever do it, but Right. We had this idea that we would do cuz they wanted to repurpose videos, but somehow do it in a scripted way.So we had this idea that we would do like Dream on, but with music videos. So it was about a kid whose interior monologue was music videos instead of old movies. Right, right. And like, just seemed it was like risky business, but the kid is 16 and he's just that. So we sold that. We actually sold that and wrote it and it never got shot. But that was like, pretty early. That was like a couple years in. And we sold a movie. Like, we were kind of like trying a bunch of stuff. But I think that we early on were like, I feel like we should do our own stuff too. Uhhuh . So I always have said like, like, like I don't, I don't know what it's like to have just like one job. I always feel like I was doing two things at once. So like, eventually if people are always like, they're on staff, like I was always on staff. And then on the weekends I was working on the other thing.Michael Jamin:You see, people don't understand how exhausting that is cuz you're on staff, you're working very long days and then on the weekends you're working more. You know, it's, it's, it's good for you when you're, you know, it's hard. It's hard to do that. Yeah.Jonathan Fener:It was hard. And I think it was the right look. I wasn't, I was, I was, I was married, but I didn't have any kids and mm-hmm. , you know, but it's, it was tough, man. I mean, you know, and, and that was back before you, we were zooming. So like, we would go, I'd go to Josh's house, he'd come to my house, Uhhuh, . I mean, we used to literally meet in the middle and trade.Michael Jamin:Oh. Cause you guys, you guys let, did you live far apart from each other?Jonathan Fener:Yeah, yeah. We, we, we, yeah. UsuallyMichael Jamin:Trade far discs. So I'm, I'm skipping ahead a little bit, but, but I'm curious to know, well first of all, I wanna know how, what was the academy, how did you work on the Academy Awards? How did that come about? That's such an odd term for you thatJonathan Fener:Yeah, that was, that was the connection. There was, that was the year John Stewart hosted, I don't know if that was his first time. I know he did a bunch of times. It was the year of crash crash one. Okay. The best picture. And like Philip er Hoffman one for Capote, but John was Right. Was hosting and he brought out like a bunch of daily show people. And my partner went to college with a guy, Ben Carlin. Yes. Who I kind of became friends with too, because of those guys. So, so Ben was running the Daily Show. He was one of the eps. And so when he came out, he called me and Josh and a couple of other guys and asked if we wanted to be part of the staff of people. Basically they, the, the Daily Show guys wrote the monologue. They asked us the la guys to write like short film parodies of the nominees.Right. So, and then, you know, maybe help out with the, and and, and on on show night we would be part of the joke room cuz they're writing jokes throughout the night. With like, I mean, Bruce Lance was there mm-hmm. and some local school guys were, were there. But so yeah. So we basically pitched like 20 little short filmed things and they picked five or six of 'em and then we got to produce them and, and, and all that. But we were part of that whole thing. That sounds fun. Yeah, it was really fun. It was really, really fun. And like on show night, we literally, they put us down in this basement and we are like watching the show live and it was like instant messaging. If whatever, who, if somebody won something, we would like shoot a bunch of jokes up to them and the wings. ButMichael Jamin:Did you have to wear a tuxedo to do that? Yes. In my mind. You, I knew it in my mind, you have to wear a tuxedo even though you're not gonna be on camera, but you're at the Oscars. Wow. They tell you thatJonathan Fener:Because Yeah. Be because we were, I mean, it was really cool. I mean, we got, went, went to, you know, my, my wife and, and Josh's wife and, and all the wives got to go to the show. Right. They got tickets to the show. We were downstairs and then afterwards we went to the governor's ball. Right. I mean, it was really, I mean, we had access.Michael Jamin:That's a trip.Jonathan Fener:That's, it was, that didn't get a gift back. I was really hoping I'd get like a, because I always, I'm like, there's like a trip to Australia in there or something, but I,Michael Jamin:But you got a nice, you got a nice paycheck that's got that kind of counts for something.Jonathan Fener:I don't remember how much we got paid. I don't know if it was, I, I feel like, I don't knowMichael Jamin:Now what about it was great. What about the Mindy Project? Cuz that was like a big, that must have been a big experience for you.Jonathan Fener:Yeah. Yeah. That was, that was fun. And, and that when we were, we had a deal at Universal mm-hmm. . And we had, we, we were kind of lucky. Like we, that was when I worked on the Malaney show and Right. We did a lot of development when we were there and we supervised and ran a couple of shows there. But that was sort of towards the end where they just asked us to come and help out.Michael Jamin:Okay.Jonathan Fener:Oh, for a season. Yeah. And it was it was like, it it is one of those things though, where it was a very tight, well-oiled machine and we, and it was, it was fine. It, it was, it was kind of funny though cuz it was like, you, this sort of happens where, you know, you, you write pilots, you shoot pilots, you run shows, but then sometimes you're a staff guy again. Yeah. And that was a gig where we were sort of like, alright, we're part of this staff. And, and everybody there was like, really funny, really smart. Like, I think, I think that writer's room literally had like three former Lampoon editors, Uhhuh and just like really, really funny smart guys. Right. And women. And we just were like, okay, we're just pitching jokes.Michael Jamin:You're, oh, okay. And then so that, that's, that's the whole experience. But did Mindy run the show? Was she the showrunner at,Jonathan Fener:I mean, she, I she, she had, there was a guy named Matt War Burton, who was sort of running the room mm-hmm. When she was gone. Because the most impressive thing was that she, she shot all day. Yes. Because it was seeing the camera show. She was the star of the show. But she came in at lunch, Uhhuh . And Matt would pitch her and she very efficiently was like, I love this. I love this. What if this happens? What if this happens? Gotta go. And so she, she had the final say. Right. But she was busy, you know. Yeah. And, and that, I I'm trying to think Melany was that way too, but Melany was really part of the writing and that was also a Multicam. So,Michael Jamin:And that was probably, it's, that Melany show was probably three years too soon. Like, you know, like before he really became huge.Jonathan Fener:Yeah. Yeah. That was, you know, I, I think that, that, this was my opinion and I'm not like making this up. And I remember we used to talk, like John was trying, I feel like John was trying to do something where, you know, everyone just looked at it and at face value and said, oh, it's Seinfeld. He's just doing Seinfeld. But Uhhuh, I think he really, really liked the, the medium. He liked multi-cam, but there was a part of it that I think was a little bit satirical. Mm-Hmm. . But it really, I, I think that if you didn't know that you're just like, oh, he's just, is just a, you know, like I feel like some of the stories that he pitched he felt were funny because it's like, oh, this is kind of a clammy story. But I, but I think it's funny in like, I'm doing it with a wink. Right. But I think people maybe saw it and said, there'sMichael Jamin:No wink. I don'tJonathan Fener:See the wink. Yeah. There's no, yeah. And, and, you know, but it, it was, it's not that it was the wrong vehicle because it was his show. And, and, and he is the funniest guy in the room always, you know? Right. I mean, and NA, see Petra was on the, was in the cast too. She was really funny. There was a great cast. Elliot Gould was on that show. Martin Short was on that show. Yeah. It was like, it was, it was, it was really, really fun. But yeah, maybe it was, I, I think maybe he was trying to like rein, not reinvent the multi-cam, but just like, turn it on 10 a little bit. Right. And it maybe wasn't, no one was like, ready for that.Michael Jamin:Hey, it's Michael Jamen. If you like my videos and you want me to email them to you for free, join my watch list. Every Friday I send out my top three videos. These are for writers, actors, creative types. You can unsubscribe whenever you want. I'm not gonna spam you and it's absolutely free. Just go to michael jamin.com/watchlist.Did you, cause whenever we developed for comics, we, you know, we wound up studying, then we read, we watched the act, we read, listened to their, whatever the audio books or, you know, read their, did you do the same as well forJonathan Fener:I just knew you mean for that show or for,Michael Jamin:Well, for Malaney or, or for any, any comic that you're writing for. Really. Or even like Bette, you know, for example,Jonathan Fener:Well, Bette, I mean, we definitely like combed through her career and her life and mm-hmm. tried to get stories from it. Mm-Hmm. yeah. Whenever, and, and, and, and, you know, the, the Mullany thing, we, we kind of like, we were also, that was a period of time where like, we were on that staff for a period of time, and then we had a pilot picked up and went to go shoot it. Oh. So we were sort of there for a, a specific period of time. But like, that show was all him to me. I mean, he ran that with a guy John Pollock, a good friend who who's also like, he, he's, he's such a good, he's a pro guy. He's a pro and, and can guide things. He's so funny and smart. But so I think that, that they really clicked well. And there were a lot of really funny people on that staff too. But yeah. Yeah. I, I think that to answer your question, it's always good, especially if you're dealing with somebody who's gonna put a little bit of their lives into it, to just mm-hmm. because I mean, frankly, you, you kind of want to like, connect with them too. Like, it's something that they can connect with. Right. Unless they don't wanna do it. Unless they wanna be completely a different person if they're being some version of themselves. Yeah.Michael Jamin:What's so odd is that you and I have never worked together, even though we've worked with so many of the same people, you know? Yeah. It seems, it seems like very odd that, you know, how how did that never happen? But how do you see, like, so okay, we are on strike. How do you see the business now? Like, what do you, like, what's your take on the past, I don't know, three to five years? You knowJonathan Fener:Everything's going great. It's great.Michael Jamin:Everything's perfect.Jonathan Fener: and just getting betterMichael Jamin:.Jonathan Fener:I, everybody knows what's going on. Yeah. no, I I think it, to me it feels like it's a massive sea change. Yeah. It really feels like even having lived through the first strike, like that was streaming was just kind of coming around and, you know, Netflix was a thing and, but now everything has completely been disrupted and mm-hmm. , I just think that I mean look, this is nothing new, but like, you know, to, to me, cable seemed to be working okay. And then streaming came in and it just seemed like there were no parameters. It's like all the streaming services come, came around. And I understood economically that like all the studios are gonna want to have their own thing mm-hmm. and not have to license it to anybody anymore. But without the structure of a, of a schedule, like a nightly schedule, it's just like, it just became a bottomless pit.Yeah. And so there was this five, you know, it, it was the, it was the old, it was the, the Wild West again. And there's a billion shows. And I, I, you know, some of these studios I guess were just like, wait, this is so expensive. Like a full staff for every show and we're making so many shows. We need to, now, now it's like we overspent now we need to back up a little bit. And then, but in the meantime, to me, I just felt like it was, like the rules got changed where there was a somewhat of a model in network television and even cable where it's like, we're gonna pick this show up for X number of episodes. We're gonna have this many people on staff. That's the way it's done. Mm-Hmm. . And then now the, it's like, oh, we have this new area of streaming. We're just gonna do things differently. Now we're gonna hire three people. Mm-Hmm. , or the guy that created the show is just gonna write 'em all and then shoot 'em all. And it, it just, I don't, it's, it's, you know, I mean, all I can know, all I can do is keep doing what I do, but it's, you know, it seems more, it, it really seems, it feels like the ground underneath us is that much more Yeah. Shaky. Really shaky.Michael Jamin:How do you, and what's your take? I don't know if you work a lot with, well you know, young, well, let's see. I actually, I have two questions I wanna ask you cuz your last, your last network show was probably was what The Mindy Project? Cause I haven't worked, I haven't worked in the network for a while. It's all been cable. Right.Jonathan Fener:The last network show I worked on was American HousewifeMichael Jamin:Oh. American House. So it's so interesting. Which wasn't even that long ago. And so you're working with young, there's bigger staffs on network. You're, they're bringing in younger writers. What's it like? What, what are the kids like? Do you think they're different these days on network shows?Michael Jamin:Because we had a hierarchy. We had, there was a pattern. There was a, you know, all broken.Jonathan Fener:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I, I think it's probably better. I mean, I worked, I worked in some rough rooms and then I worked in some more, you know, I certainly, I don't feel like I ran a rough room. What do you mean?Michael Jamin:What do you mean by rough room? What were they like?Jonathan Fener:Just a, that the, the real hierarchy. Like when I was a staff writer, you were not really expected to talk very much. Right. It was kind of like sit and listen. Right. But and then I'd say I'd, I'd pitch something and they'd be like, not now. And I'd say, I'm sorry. And they'd say, don't be sorry. Just be quiet.Michael Jamin:. Don't be sorry. Don't let happenJonathan Fener:Again. Don't be sorry. Just be quiet. I, I, and like, look, that's the, that's the, it was always done with a joke. You know what I mean? Right. And, and like, I don't ever feel like I was treated cruelly. Mm. I mean, I mean, I guess I, I guess it was cruel that, you know, I did feel like I was held hostage and, you know, yeah. Going home at 6 30, 7 o'clock in the morning in, in rush hour traffic the wrong way. Like yeah. My nights and days were mixed up. But like, eventually what I was gonna say was I just feel like there was something to earning it a little bit. You know, I, I just feel like, you know, even even those first jobs, like, especially like Bright Coffman Crane, I remember there were certain things that you, like, they were big on floor pitching Right.On, on, on, on show night. And that's great experience. I mean, look, multi cams aren't around as much as they used to be, but like, I remember learning a ton. Like, I, I can still shoot back to the time we were on show night and a joke bombed, and then you just huddle up mm-hmm. and you're just staring at each other and everyone's thinking, and you gotta come up with an alt. And people are pitching stuff and it's like, and you pitch a joke and everybody laughs and you're like, oh my God, you're theMichael Jamin:Hero.Jonathan Fener:Amazing. And then, yeah. And then, and then they put it in and itMichael Jamin:Dies and it, and it dies. Yeah. That's what a flip joke. People listen. That's what a floor pitch is. I'm showing that on a multicam, you at the last minute throw a joke in after one bombs. SoJonathan Fener:Yeah. Right. And then you finally, you, you give up and you just pitch a joke with the word nipple in it. . And people laugh at that and you're like, ah, I hate myself. Yeah. But no, but, but I, I think that now, you know, ha like being the older guy and, and even, you know, running a show, like, there, there is a, there is a certain level of like, everybody has an equal voice mm-hmm. . And, which I think is good, you know, but I also think that there's, it's not that you are less than at all. To me it was always about like experience. Mm-Hmm. . Like, you, you just gotta, you know what it is, it's about, it's, there's, there's no substitute for being able to read the room. Yeah. And there are people sometimes that are younger and less experienced and they, they pitch an idea and no one says anything, which is like the night, it's, it's, you know, the worst is if someone says, that sucks. Right. But if you pitch a joke or a story and no one really like, jumps on it, no one Yes. Ands it, you know what, let it float away because Yeah. You know, and then if you re-pitch it and then you re-pitch it,Michael Jamin:You're gonna get yelled at, you'reJonathan Fener:Gonna get yelled at. Like, that's just not cool. And I feel like sometimes maybe people don't like that anymore. You know? Yeah. Like, you're not supposed to do.Michael Jamin:Yeah. I hear you. What, what? Surprised It's so hard. There's a huge learning curve on their job. And when someone pitches an idea, if it's a good idea, it really doesn't matter who it comes from, but it's pretty obvious when it's a good idea. The right. Like the, the senior writers are, oh, that's good. Right. And if you're new inexperienced, you just don't know what's, what's a good idea from a bad idea. And I think they sometimes get a little offended or hurt. It's no, it's, it's not, it's not, it's not, it's just the idea. It's not you, you know? Right. The idea didn't land.Jonathan Fener:Sometimes it's them. No. Sometimes it'sMichael Jamin:ThemJonathan Fener:. But yeah, it's, it best idea wins always, always, always. Yeah.Michael Jamin:Best idea. Gets you homework faster and so and so. Yeah. I know. Well, I was gonna ask you something else. Oh. Oh, that's, that's how I was gonna say we met, we met years ago. Cause you were running a show, which is an interesting thing that you did was said you were running a show called Awesome Town, but you were running it. Someone else with less experienced writer wrote it and you guys were brought on to supervisor it. Right,Jonathan Fener:Right, right.Michael Jamin:It was like, so talk about your experience doing that kind of stuff.Jonathan Fener:That was the first time we'd ever done that. We've, and we've done that a bunch just because I feel like my partner and I, that's not really something that a lot of people love to do, like run other people's shows. Everybody wants to, you know, get your own thing. And we were writing our own pilots at the time too. But if you get enough experience, honestly, you know, my feeling is you want to have as many skills as possible in this business because mm-hmm. , you know, you want to just have another arrow in your quiver.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Jonathan Fener:That's the right term. But like, so i, if you can successfully help someone just guide the ship and it's their show and they've never done it before, cuz that's a really hard job.Michael Jamin:Were there creative struggles though, between you and them at all when you do this?Jonathan Fener:No, honestly, no. I really feel like it was this guy, Adam Ste. Hillel, who's like super nice guy. He he's like big feature guy now. I think he wrote Black Adam. Mm-Hmm. , he like, works with the Rock a lot and, and he created Undateable with Bill Lawrence too. Mm-Hmm. . So he's, he's had a bunch of stuff. No, he's very nice guy. Very funny. And it was actually kind of cool that he got this job on, it was basically just about the, these four like early twenties friends and negotiating life afterwards and they threw a lot of stuff. It's funny, I remember they, they picked the show up because I feel like a, b C was looking to do something in the younger space. Right. But it did, it was one of those shows. It wasn't, it was very low concept. And there was a whole opening teaser that we, I I always suspected, this is why it got picked up cuz it was very, it was very American pie.It was like kind of dirty and there was like a couple and somebody had peanut butter on them and a dog was looking and Right. You can imagine. So but I remember thinking like, this is why they picked it up because this is outrageous. There's no way they ever shoot this though. Right. Which is like, that's like an age old story in tv. It's like the thing they love about it. Mm-Hmm. is the thing they cut first. It's exactly right. You know, it's like you, you, you pick up a show called like Immortal because the, the lead character ha has been alive for a thousand years. Uhhuh. And then the first note is, can we make him immortal please? Yes,Michael Jamin:That's exactly right.Jonathan Fener:Yeah. but, and you do it cuz you're like, oh, they just they just picked up the show. They just gave me a budget and Right. But so they, they made a bunch of changes to this show and including changing that entire teaser. But it was, it was just an opportunity that came because again, like I think we had written a pilot for the studio that made it and they needed somebody we, like, we had just gone through, you had a deal,Michael Jamin:You probably had a deal at the time, an overall deal. Right.Jonathan Fener:I don't know if we had it like, you know what we did, I think we had just sold a pilot to like 20th Uhhuh . And it was like a very good experience, but we just, it just was one of those shows that like almost got there but didn't Yeah. But then, then they picked up all their other shows and they're like, oh, we're gonna pick up this show with these guys. And we had a good relationship with the development people that like, you know, maybe John and Josh can help with that. So that was awesome. That was, that was like, and I remember like, we cast whoever we want. Like we changed roles because we found, like I'd never seen Brett Gelman before and he came in and was so funny. We're like, we're putting him in this show somehow. He was easily 10 years older than everybody. Well, was supposed to be a coworker, Uhhuh, , ally Wong came in, we're like, Uhhuh, let's create a intern. But it was like, it, it, it was like, it was the first it was a good gig to get. And then from there we, we got a bunch more of those gigs to sort ofMichael Jamin:Like, see, that's, that's a talent, because a lot of, I think sometimes when you have a no, a young creator will create a show. Then they assign a showrunner, and sometimes the showrunner's like, well, listen, my name's on this too, and I don't want this to have, I don't have a stink on me if this is terrible. So they kind of turn into what they want it to be. It doesn't sound like you did that. It sounds like you were very much trying to realize the vision of the person who created these shows, which is nice of you.Jonathan Fener:Yeah. I mean, I don't, maybe that's just the way that we are. I mean, I just feel like that's the fir like, and I'm, look, by the way, that's probably a good way to get the gig, is to go have lunch with them and go, listen your show, man. We're just here to help you carry the water from here to there. Right. And we know how to do it. And but that it's the truth. I mean, honestly, I like, I don't want it to be bad, but like, you know, and like, I'll tell you what, I think I'll give you my opinion, but also like, again, I don't know anybody that could ever do that, show that job alone. Like, it's, it's miserable and not mis, you know what I mean? And we we owe, and plus, you know, you could relate to this too, just being, I mean, being on a writing staff is collaborative anyway, but being in a writing partnership, you just really learn how to negotiateMichael Jamin:Mm-Hmm. Jonathan Fener:Compromise. Mm-Hmm. and talking it out. And, you know, single writers tend to be really, you knowMichael Jamin:Yeah.Jonathan Fener:Hold onto their stuff cuz there's mm-hmm. Never any other counterpoints. So I feel like we have the right skillset forMichael Jamin:That. Yeah. There's also a sense of, there's so many decisions to be made. If I don't make this one decision, that's okay. I gotta make a million other decisions. So it's okay if I didn't, if I don't make this one decision, you know, there's a lot to do.Jonathan Fener:Yeah. I don't need to be in wardrobe. I always say that. I don't need to be, I don't need, I I you can do rack check. I don't need to do that.Michael Jamin:Yeah, yeah. There's exactly, there's exactly, there's a ton. I, when we ran Marin, we, the the wardrobe people loved us cuz they chose us choices. And I go, what do you think, you know, well this one. And I said, well, why do you think that one, they gimme reason. I go, all right, sounds like you know what you're doing, . Sounds like you got a good idea there, so let's do what you say.Jonathan Fener:Yeah. Yeah. I mean how, how many episodes did you do of Maryland?Michael Jamin:We did four seasons. I, I want, it was probably around 50. Cuz each show, each season was, I don't know, whatever, 12, 13 or something like that. Uhhuh . So, yeah. But that was I c and that was a pleasure because it was low budget. They just leave you alone. It was wonderful. So, yeah.Jonathan Fener:And I mean, did you finally that it was, was it hard to produce? Because I mean, how big was your staffMichael Jamin:The first season? So that was a show that was created by this guy Duncan Birmingham. We didn't create it, but he wrote the pilot. He was a young writer. He wrote the presentation and then with Mark, so that season, the first season when they picked it up, it was Mark Marin, who's very good writer, but had no writing experience for sitcoms. He's a, you know, standup, this guy Duncan Birmingham, who was a, a young guy who they just, they they could exploit. So he had no experience and it was me and my partner, and that was it. So we, the ones with any real sitcom experience. And then, but then as each season one, we picked up a couple more writers and then we rounded it out. But but it was a great, it was a wonderful experience, but the budget was tiny. The budget was, it was like nothing. It was nothing. Yeah. And we shot each episode in two and a half days, soJonathan Fener:Really?Michael Jamin:Yeah, it was, yeah. As long as someone's finger wasn't in front of the lens, we got it. , let's move it on. So yeah, that was, that was such a great experience. And, and, and no one remembers that. No one remembers, you know, like, hey, the show, it wasn't that perfectly lit. Yeah, that's okay. But people liked the writing. They like the acting. That's the important thing, you know. So what if the camera went like this a little bit ?Jonathan Fener:Right. my, yeah, my partner always was like, when you're like, he's like, they're doing laundry. They're paying their, they're paying their bills while they watch this. Like, they like the people. Oh,Michael Jamin:Oh, yeah.Jonathan Fener:Yeah. They're like, they're, they're, they're like, they're listening. They're half, you know, they're, they're not,Michael Jamin:Not even anymore. Now they're on their phones and watch. I mean, now they're really not watching the show. . He's Right. Cause like everyone, you know, Siebert, you say the same thing you'd say. Like Yeah, they're, they're reading People magazine, not any anymore. They're not, now they're on, they're watching the show and on TikTok and getting text messages, , they're not paying attention.Jonathan Fener:They're reading the live tweeting. Yeah. Of other people read, likeMichael Jamin:Watching the show for them, so. Right. It's an odd time, but yeah. So what do you s so what do, what excites you then going forward? What, as we, as we wrap it up, what is your, like what excites you now?Jonathan Fener:In entertainment?Michael Jamin:Yeah. Or just, yeah. As a, as a writer. Yeah.Jonathan Fener:I still, I mean, I like what I always liked, honestly. Like, I feel like right now I want to, the thing that I want to do is I, I want to try new things, but I also, I know this is like, but but, but, but also I feel like as I get older, like you have to, you have to always write what's sort of like, I don't know, is like personal to you. Like, I don't know, this is, because then it sort of seems inauthentic. Right? but having said that, like I think that I, I would really like to get back into animation mm-hmm. , I feel, I feel like I, I know it's like, I feel like features, like, like I feel like weirdly streaming has opened that up. Mm-Hmm. a little bit too, cuz like, you know, it's hard to get a movie out in the theaters. I mean, especially now. Yeah. it's not a Marvel thing or something like that. So like, there might be like avenues to go with with streaming movies and stuff like that. But like, I don't know. That's, I mean, it's, it's, it's, I I feel like I don't have any, a good answer to that question because I still really, like, I, I still feel like I always have ideas, Uhhuh, but and, and honestly like more often than not, like I'm looking to collaborate with more people. Yeah. Different people, you know, becauseMichael Jamin:Not necessarily on air talent, but writers as well.Jonathan Fener:Other writers. Yeah. Yeah. I just feel like, you know, if you're lucky you have a long career and mm-hmm. a lot of different types of careers and, you know, my partner and I always said like we we've sort of had an open marriage a little because mm-hmm. , we started out together, we, and, you know, you work very closely with a writing partner and, and we worked together for many, many years and then we sort of split on staff for a while, and then we came back together mm-hmm. for a while, and then now we're separate again. ButMichael Jamin:Was that hard for you when you're writing after you split to start writing alone? Let's say even on staff, cuz this is the first Okay. You usually, you have somebody to bounce an idea off of. Now you're, you're on, you know, you're looking at that blank page by yourself.Jonathan Fener:Yeah. Yeah. It's hard. Mm-Hmm. , it's hard to be in that. It's, it's, it's definitely hard. And I feel like I'm getting better at like, sort of reaching out to mm-hmm. other writers and just sort of like, can you look at, because it's like my wife can't hear it anymore, you know? Yeah. Like, go walk into the kitchen. It's like, would this character say that? She's like, I don't know, like, what are you talking about? So I have to, I I I just feel like you have to, I guess you, you learn to sort of like mute your ego a little bit mm-hmm. and just sort of like, let o let other, like, sometimes you just have to talk it out and, and that's what a partner was for, you know. Yeah. but I don't even know if I answered your question. That'sMichael Jamin:Okay. We're just, we're we're chatting. What about, what about advice for aspiring writers? What do you, what do you tell them? Either about the craft or about the business?Jonathan Fener:I mean, to get in nowMichael Jamin:Mm-Hmm. .Jonathan Fener:I think that starting out the, the best thing about now to me mm-hmm. , is that it seemed like in the beginning when we started, it was really all about like, what's the speck of the big show.Michael Jamin:Mm-Hmm. ,Jonathan Fener:Which there's a, there's an art to that, you know, beca
1:57 - How to get guests on Linkedin3:20 - Rewind button: First job4:23 - Greatest lesson at Chucky cheese5:12 - The first job felt like an Entrepreneur6:08 - Early Negotiation6:42 - Background of starting a company9:26 - Working with job boards10:16 - Scared of launching a company alone12:58 - Breakdown of years16:14 - Inspiration17:31 - Business Model19:18 - Robots vs Humans20:21 - Reassess the metrics21:32 - A ha fun moments with ChatGPT22:35 - Thought on co-founders24:44 - How did the product come up? (Luxury Tequila)29:17 - The good, the bad, the ugly in the web3 space31:57 - Effect on Philanthropy33:47 - Joe's Go-to interview Questions36:28 - Single greatest piece of advice37:43 - Joe's North Star
This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, April 28th, 2023. https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/04/27/argentina-shuns-u-s-dollar-will-pay-for-china-imports-in-yuan/ Argentina Shuns U.S. Dollar: Will Pay for China Imports in Yuan Argentina struck a deal with Beijing on Wednesday to stop using U.S. dollars to pay for Chinese imports and embrace the yuan instead. The measure, driven by Argentina’s leftist President Alberto Fernández, is designed to relieve the South American country’s dwindling dollar reserves, AP reports. The deal further enhances China’s rise on the world stage and the diminished role of the U.S. on a host of fronts under President Joe Biden. After reaching the agreement with various companies, Argentina will use the yuan for imports from China worth about U.S.$1.04 billion from next month, accelerating trade with China as Beijing seeks to gain a further foothold in South America. In November last year Argentina expanded a currency swap with China by $5 billion in an effort to increase its yuan reserves. That agreement allowed Argentina “to work on the possibility” of advancing the rate of imports with yuan-denominated import orders being authorized in 90 days rather than the standard 180 days. The decision comes as Argentina battles critical levels in its dollar reserves amid a sharp drop in agricultural exports caused by a historic drought, as well as political uncertainty ahead of elections this year. It has also been working hard to build a relationship with Beijing after having officially joined China’s infrastructure-building Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) last year. Argentina’s government finalized a deal with Beijing soon after to construct a nuclear plant based on Chinese technology near Buenos Aires, Argentina’s national capital, in the near future. The Chinese Communist Party will reportedly provide $8 billion in financing toward the project’s $12 billion total budget. As Breitbart News reported, Argentina currently owes the International Monetary Fund (IMF) $44 billion. The international organization is in talks with Argentine authorities to finalize a fourth review of its program that includes a flexibilization of the proposed foreign exchange reserve accumulation as Argentina, whose foreign reserves are now at a $5 billion deficit, cannot comply with the current goals. https://www.foxnews.com/world/singapore-executes-man-conspired-traffic-2-pounds-cannabis Singapore executes man who allegedly conspired to traffic 2 pounds of cannabis Singapore on Wednesday executed a man accused of coordinating a cannabis delivery, despite pleas for clemency from his family and protests from activists that he was convicted on weak evidence. Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, was sentenced to death in 2018 for abetting the trafficking of 2.2 pounds of cannabis. Under Singapore laws, trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis may result in the death penalty. Tangaraju was hanged Wednesday morning and his family was given the death certificate, according to a tweet from activist Kirsten Han of the Transformative Justice Collective, which advocates for abolishing the death penalty in Singapore. Although Tangaraju was not caught with the cannabis, prosecutors said phone numbers traced him as the person responsible for coordinating the delivery of the drugs. Tangaraju had maintained that he was not the one communicating with the others connected to the case. At a United Nations Human Rights briefing Tuesday, a spokesperson called on the Singapore government to adopt a "formal moratorium" on executions for drug-related offenses. "Imposing the death penalty for drug offences is incompatible with international norms and standards," said the spokesperson, who added that increasing evidence shows the death penalty is ineffective as a deterrent. Singapore authorities say there is a deterrent effect, citing studies that traffickers carry amounts below the threshold that would bring a death penalty. The island-state's imposition of the death penalty for drugs is in contrast with its neighbors. In Thailand, cannabis has essentially been legalized, and Malaysia has ended the mandatory death penalty for serious crimes. Singapore executed 11 people last year for drug offenses. One case that spurred international concern involved a Malaysian man whose lawyers said he was mentally disabled. https://dailycaller.com/2023/04/26/red-state-bill-religious-institutions-state-funding/ Red State Passes Bill Allowing Religious Institutions Access To State Funding The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday protecting religious institutions from being denied access to state funding. The Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act was introduced by Republican state Sen. Shane Jett and Republican state Sen. Julie Daniels to further reinforce the First Amendment by preventing the state from denying faith-based groups access to taxpayer dollars, according to the bill. The legislature passed the act Tuesday by a 64 to 27 vote, officially sending the act to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt’s desk to be signed into law. The bill makes way for religious institutions to access state funding by barring the state from denying applications for funding “based solely on the religious character or affiliation of the person or entity.” The act adds to religious protections the state passed in 2021 preventing the government from declaring church activities non-essential, as was often the case during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some Democrats argued that the bill was an unnecessary addition to the First Amendment, according to KFOR.com, a local media outlet. One Democratic state representative warned that the bill could lead to government funding of religious activities at religious schools. Republican state Rep. John Echols, who co-authored the bill, disagreed with his colleague’s assessment, according to KFOR.com. Oklahoma has been at the center of this discussion for some time. Earlier this month, Gov. Stitt and state Attorney General Gentner Drummond clashed over a Catholic charter school application that would have created the first state-funded religious charter school in the nation. The application was temporarily denied by the state’s virtual charter board but will be voted on again in the coming weeks. Stitt told the Daily Caller News Foundation that he was disappointed by the the attorney general’s response to the charter and continued to hope that Oklahoma would host the nation’s first state-funded religious charter school, providing more options for parents. Stitt, Jett, Daniels and Echols did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-ex-producer-suing-tucker-carlson-has-never-even-met-him?utm_campaign=64487 Ex-producer suing Tucker Carlson has never even met him Tucker Carlson Tonight producer Abby Grossberg is suing Carlson and the Fox Network over sexual behavior in the workplace, despite never having met Carlson in person. The Spectator reports that lawyers for Grossberg have confirmed that she never actually met Carlson. "Like many on the [Tucker Carlson Tonight] staff, Abby never met Tucker Carlson in person because he taped the show from his personal studios in Maine and Florida, and he did not visit Fox's NY HQ during her time there," said one of Grossberg's attorneys Kimberly A. Catala. Grossberg was the head of booking from July 2022 until she was recently placed on leave in March. She "alleges that Carlson encouraged a hostile and sexist workplace environment among his employees. Grossberg says she was subjected to bullying, antisemitic comments and sexism by staff while working out of Fox’s Manhattan office," Spectator reports. Despite never having met Carlson, Grossberg told rival network MSNBC that "Tucker and his executive producer Justin Wells, who was also fired, really were responsible for breaking me and making my life a living hell." "Since Tucker did not come to the Fox office, he relied on Justin Wells, his executive producer, and others like Alexander McCaskill, senior producer, who were present in the office every day to be his eyes, ears and mouthpiece, and to convey his ‘tone,’ as they threateningly reminded Ms. Grossberg," Catala said. The allegation per Grossberg's attorneys is that Carlson directed the "sexist" environment from afar. Apparently, the attorneys posited that Carlson had staff work as his "eyes" and "ears" in the New York office while he worked away in Maine. Carlson and Fox parted ways on Monday morning, though promos for the evening's show were already airing as the press release from Fox went out. It is unclear as to why Fox dismissed the insanely popular news anchor, though speculation abounds, including that Fox owner Rupert Murdoch took issue with Carlson's Christian beliefs. Carlson has been seen in Florida enjoying time with his wife, and laughing about finally being able to dine together on weeknights. His show has been on the air for 7 years, and in that time he amassed a loyal following. In the hours following his departure from the network, "RIP Fox News" was trending on Twitter as many viewers found they had no reason to tune in once Carlson was no longer on the air. The end of the Tucker Carlson Tonight era was celebrated by AOC, who had called for federal regulation of Fox and Carlson, which routinely took aim at her and her shenanigans. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/us/colorado-rock-throwing-arrests.html 3 Teens Charged With Murder in Rock-Throwing Spree That Killed Colorado Driver Three teenagers have been charged with first-degree murder in connection with a rock-throwing spree on Colorado roads last week that led to the death of one driver, the authorities said. The three suspects, all 18 and identified as Joseph Koenig, Nicholas Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak, were arrested on Tuesday evening at their homes in Arvada, Colo., for taking part in a series of rock-throwing episodes on April 19 that fatally wounded Alexa Bartell, 20, who was killed when one of the rocks smashed through her windshield and struck her, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office announced on Wednesday. In addition to murder, the three men are charged with extreme indifference; other charges to be determined by the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office are expected. It was not immediately clear if the three, who are seniors from different high schools, had lawyers on Wednesday. The rock-throwing spree began shortly after 10 p.m. on April 19 in Westminster, Colo., which is a city of about 114,000 residents north of Denver, the authorities said. During that hour, the authorities said, the three drove a pickup truck around the county and threw large landscaping rocks at six vehicles, including a minivan and an S.U.V., hitting their windshields and driver’s side windows. Those drivers had minor or no injuries. Around 10:45 p.m., Ms. Bartell was driving north on Indiana Street when her Chevrolet Spark, a subcompact, became the last vehicle struck during the spree, the authorities said. Moments before she was killed, Ms. Bartell was on her phone talking to a friend “when the phone went silent,” according to the sheriff’s office. Her friend tracked her phone and drove to the location on Indiana Street where she found Ms. Bartell “fatally wounded inside her car, which was off the roadway in a field.” It was unclear which of the men were driving but “all three are suspected of throwing rocks,” the sheriff’s office said. They were believed to be in a black 2016 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. “Ultimately, mobile device forensics and supporting information from the public helped lead to the identification and arrest of the suspects,” according to the sheriff’s office, which did not release additional details. The men, who were booked into the jail at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, are scheduled to appear in court on Thursday. Before we end today… how about some good news?! https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/mom-wins-lottery-with-ticket-she-bought-celebrating-daughters-victory-over-cancer/ Mom Wins Lottery with Ticket She Bought Celebrating Daughter’s Victory Over Cancer After shelling out her life savings to pay for her daughter’s breast cancer treatment, a Florida grandmother got a nod from the universe. Buying the last available scratch-off from her preferred lottery game at the store, she landed a $2 million jackpot. Geraldine Gimblet of Lakeland was celebrating the moment that her daughter, Lawrencia Jackson, rang a bell at the local hospital signifying she had finished her breast cancer treatment. A long-time lottery player, Gimblet, 74, spent $10 on the last scratch-off card at the store, and it happened to be a winner. “I just didn’t know,” Gimblet told Good Morning America regarding her reaction,, ‘Are you sure, would you check this on your phone?’ And, I won!” Daughter Jackson, who accompanied Gimblet to the Tallahassee lottery offices to accept a lump sum of $1.6 million, described it as a “blessing.” Gimblet didn’t hesitate to finance the cancer treatment, saying she just “did what I had to do,” with Jackson adding that she would “just have to keep loving her,” as a means to try and repay the kindness. +-
A federal judge believes the DOJ's case that Trump may have used his own defense attorney to commit a crime in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents probe – what that could mean for the former president's legal defense. Plus, new details about the inner workings of the FOX Network from a lawsuit filed by a producer that describes the toxic stew of sexism, misogyny and anti-Semitism she experienced there. And, Tacopina vs. Tacopina - Trump's lawyer is now saying something very different than he did on CNN Tonight in 2018 about the alleged Stormy Daniels hush money payments.Also tonight : law enforcement sees an uptick in violent chatter online from right-wing extremists about Trump's possible indictment – is it any different than what we heard before January 6? Plus, a quiz to test your A.I. knowledge, what a potential Trump indictment would mean for presidential politics, a workers' strike shuts down the Los Angeles school district, and, Novak Djokovic is unseated as the #1 tennis player after missing tournaments due to not being vaccinated against Covid.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy
John gives a monologue on Ronna McDaniel's "Loyalty Pledge" and the news that Fox Network chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that some hosts endorsed the lies by former President Donald Trump that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that he didn't step in to stop them from promoting the claims. Then he interviews Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard - Naomi Oreskes. She is co-author of the new book “The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market". Next Mary in Manhattan calls to chat about the Fox News defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems and Mitch at Kent State calls to discuss John's interview with George Harrison and other music trivia. Then finally Rhonda Hansome joins the fun and they talk about the dropping of the comic strip "Dilbert" due to the cartoonists racist comments. They take calls from listeners on Dilbert and racism. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Today, John discusses an article in the New York Times by Bret Stephens which claims masks don't work in the fight against Covid 19. Then he takes calls from Sean in California and Greg in Florida about why masks are important. Next producer, writer, actor, and political commentator Bob Cesca returns and they talk about the looming indictments in the Georgia election tampering probe and the revelation that Fox Network hosts knew all along that Trump was lying about the 2020 election being stolen. Then finally attorney Marie from Atlanta calls in to discuss the comments made by the grand jury forewoman who was making decisions about whether Donald Trump should be indicted for election crimes in Georgia and Rob in Orlando calls in to chat about MTG asking for states to succeed from the Union.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In today's podcast - Glenn talks about the recent New York Times article (written by former prosecutors) which claims according to wording in the Georgia special grand jury report - indictments seem to be coming for Trump and/or his accomplices. Then Glenn speaks about the news that the defamation lawsuit against Fox Network by Dominion Voting Systems has brought to light that their hosts knew the election was not stolen but said so anyway in their emails and on the air. He then discusses what the government can do about these media lies that create divisiveness to the country and harm to our democracy. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
LIVE from Radio Row, Super Bowl 57 Week on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe, the main story that has been brewing this week is the announcement of Tom Brady's retirement and his big contract to broadcast NFL games for FOX Network. Sean Payton is taking his coaching talents to the Denver Broncos to try and get Russell Wilson and the team on the right track. Trent Dilfer makes comments about the times within the NFL and how it was a lot different when he played the game.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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