Podcast appearances and mentions of Jesse Williams

What makes a character so compelling that readers will forgive almost anything about the plot? How do you move beyond vague flaws and generic descriptions to create people who feel pulled from real life? In this solo episode, I share 15 actionable tips for writing deep characters, curated from past interviews on the podcast. In the intro, thoughts from London Book Fair [Instagram reel @jfpennauthor; Publishing Perspectives; Audible; Spotify]; Insights from a 7-figure author business [BookBub]. This show is supported by my Patrons. Join my Community and get articles, discounts, and extra audio and video tutorials on writing craft, author business, and AI tools, at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn This episode has been created from previous episodes of The Creative Penn Podcast, curated by Joanna Penn, as well as chapters from How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book. Links to the individual episodes are included in the transcript below. In this episode: Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' trifecta, how to hook readers on the very first page Define the Dramatic Question: Who is your character when the chips are down? Absolute specificity. Why “she's controlling” isn't good enough Understand the Heroine's Journey, strength through connection, not solo action Use ‘Metaphor Families' to anchor dialogue and give every character a distinctive voice Find the Diagnostic Detail, the moments that prove a character is real Writing pain onto the page without writing memoir Write diverse characters as real people, not stereotypes or plot devices Give your protagonist a morally neutral ‘hero' status. Compelling beats likeable. Build vibrant side characters for series longevity and spin-off potential Use voice as a rhythmic tool Link character and plot until they're inseparable Why discovery writers can write out of order and still build deep character Find the sensory details that make characters live and breathe More help with how to write fiction here, or in my book, How to Write a Novel. Writing Characters: 15 Tips for Writing Deep Character in Your Fiction In today's episode, I'm sharing fifteen tips for writing deep characters, synthesised from some of the most insightful interviews on The Creative Penn Podcast over the past few years, combined with what I've learned across more than forty books of my own. I'll be referencing episodes with Matt Bird, Will Storr, Gail Carriger, Barbara Nickless, and Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer. I'll also draw on my own book, How to Write a Novel, which covers these fundamentals in detail. Whether you're writing your first novel or your fiftieth, whether you're a plotter or a discovery writer like me, these tips will help you create characters that readers believe in, care about, and invest in—and keep coming back for more. Let's get into it. 1. Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' Trifecta When I spoke with Matt Bird on episode 624, he laid out the three things you need to achieve on the very first page of your book or in the first ten minutes of a film. He calls it “Believe, Care, and Invest.” First, the reader must believe the character is a real person, somehow proving they are not a cardboard imitation of a human being, not just a generic type walking through a generic plot. Second, the reader must care about the character's circumstances. And third, the reader must invest in the character's ability to solve the story's central problem. Matt used The Hunger Games as his primary example, and it's brilliant. On the very first page, we believe Katniss's voice. Suzanne Collins writes in first person with a staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short declarative sentences—that immediately grounds us in a survivalist mentality. We care because Katniss is starving. She's protecting her little sister. And we invest because she is out there bow hunting, which Matt pointed out is one of the most badass things a character can do. She even kills a lynx two pages in and sells the pelt. We invest in her resourcefulness and grit before the plot has even begun. Matt was very clear that this has nothing to do with the character being “likable.” He said his subtitle, Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love, doesn't mean the character has to be a good person. He described “hero” as both gender-neutral and morally neutral. A hero can be totally evil or totally good. What matters is that we believe, care, and invest. He demonstrated this beautifully by breaking down the first ten minutes of WeCrashed, where the characters of Adam and Rebekah Neumann are absolutely not likable, but we are completely hooked. Adam steals his neighbour's Chinese food through a carefully orchestrated con involving an imaginary beer. It's not admirable behaviour, but the tradecraft involved, as Matt put it—using a term from spy movies—makes us invest in him. We see a character trying to solve the big problem of his life, which is that he's poor and wants to be rich, and we want to see if he can pull it off. Actionable step: Go to the first page of your current work in progress. Does it achieve all three? Does the reader believe this is a real person with a distinctive voice? Do they care about the character's circumstances? And do they invest in the character's ability to handle what's coming? If even one of those three is missing, that's your revision priority. 2. Define the Dramatic Question: Who Are They Really? Will Storr, author of The Science of Storytelling, came on episode 490 and gave one of the most powerful frameworks I've ever heard for character-driven fiction. He explained that the human brain evolved language primarily to swap social information—in other words, to gossip. We are wired to monitor other people, to ask the question: who is this person when the chips are down? That's what Will calls the Dramatic Question, and it's what he believes lies at the heart of all compelling storytelling. It's not a question about plot. It's a question about the character's soul. And every scene in your novel should force the character to answer it. His example of Lawrence of Arabia is unforgettable. The Dramatic Question for the entire film is: who are you, Lawrence? Are you ordinary or are you extraordinary? At the beginning, Lawrence is a cocky, rebellious young soldier who believes his rebelliousness makes him superior. Every iconic scene in that three-hour film tests that belief. Sometimes Lawrence acts as though he truly is extraordinary—leading the Arabs into battle, being hailed as a god—and sometimes the world strips him bare and he sees himself as ordinary. Because it's a tragedy, he never overcomes his flaw. He doubles down on his belief that he's extraordinary until he becomes monstrous, culminating in that iconic scene where he lifts a bloody dagger and sees his own reflection with horror. Will also used Jaws to demonstrate how this works in a pure action thriller. Brody's dramatic question is simple: are you going to be old Brody who is terrified of the water, or new Brody who can overcome that fear? Every scene where the shark appears is really asking that question. And the last moment of the film isn't the shark blowing up. It's Brody swimming back through the water, saying he used to be scared of the water and he can't imagine why. Actionable step: Write down the Dramatic Question for your protagonist in a single sentence. Is it “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you brave enough to love again?” or “Will you sacrifice your principles for survival?” If you can't answer this with specificity, your character might still be a sketch rather than a person. 3. Get rid of Vague Flaws, and use Absolute Specificity This was one of Will Storr's most important points. He said that vague thinking about characters is really the enemy. When he teaches workshops and asks writers to describe their character's flaw, most of them say something like “they're very controlling.” And Will's response is: that's not good enough. Everyone is controlling. How are they controlling? What's the specific mechanism? He gave the example of a profile he read of Theresa May during the UK's Brexit chaos. Someone who knew her said that Theresa May's problem was that she always thinks she's the only adult in every room she goes into. Will said that stopped him in his tracks because it's so precise. If you define a character with that level of specificity, you can take them and put them in any genre, any situation—a spaceship, a Victorian drawing room, a school playground—and you will know exactly how they're going to behave. The same applies to Arthur Miller's Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, as Will described it: a man who believes absolutely in capitalistic success and the idea that when you die, you're going to be weighed on a scale, just as God weighs you for sin, but now you're weighed for success. That's not a vague flaw. That's a worldview you can drop into any story and watch it combust. Will made another counterintuitive point that I found really valuable: writers often think that piling on multiple traits will create a complex character, but the opposite is true. Starting with one highly specific flaw and running it through the demands of a relentless plot is what generates complexity. You end up with a far more nuanced, original character than if you'd started with a laundry list of vague attributes. Actionable step: Take your protagonist's flaw and pressure-test it. Is it specific enough that you could place this character in any situation and predict their behaviour? If you're stuck at “she's stubborn” or “he's insecure,” keep pushing. What kind of stubborn? What kind of insecure? Find the diagnostic sentence—the Theresa May level of precision. 4. Understand the Heroine's Journey: Strength Through Connection Gail Carriger came on episode 550 to discuss her nonfiction book, The Heroine's Journey, and it completely reframed how I think about some of my own fiction. Gail explained that the core difference between the Hero's Journey and the Heroine's Journey comes down to how strength and victory are defined. The Hero's Journey is about strength through solo action. The hero must be continually isolated to get stronger. He goes out of civilisation, faces strife alone, and achieves victory through physical prowess and self-actualisation. The Heroine's Journey is the opposite. The heroine achieves her goals by activating a network. She's a delegator, a general. She identifies where she can't do something alone, finds the people who can help, and portions out the work for mutual gain. Gail put it simply: the heroine is very good at asking for help, which our culture tends to devalue but which is actually a powerful form of strength. Crucially, Gail stressed that gender is irrelevant to which journey you're writing. Her go-to examples are striking: the recent Wonder Woman film is practically a beat-for-beat hero's journey—Gilgamesh on screen, as Gail described it. Meanwhile, Harry Potter, both the first book and the series as a whole, is a classic heroine's journey. Harry's power comes from his network—Dumbledore's Army, the Order of the Phoenix, his friendships with Ron and Hermione. He doesn't defeat Voldemort alone. He defeats Voldemort because of love and connection. This distinction has real practical consequences for writers. If you're writing a hero's journey and you hit writer's block, Gail said, the solution is usually to isolate your hero further and pile on more strife. But if you're writing a heroine's journey, the solution is probably to throw a new character into the scene—someone who has advice to offer or a skill the heroine lacks. The actual solutions to writer's block are different depending on which narrative you're writing. As I reflected on my own work, I realised that my ARKANE thriller protagonist, Morgan Sierra, follows a hero's journey—she's a solo operative, a lone wolf like Jack Reacher or James Bond. But my Mapwalker fantasy series follows a heroine's journey, with Sienna and her group of friends working together. I hadn't consciously chosen those paths; the stories led me there. But understanding the framework helps me write more intentionally now. Actionable step: Identify which journey your protagonist is on. Does your character gain strength by being alone (hero) or by building connections (heroine)? This will inform every plot decision you make, from how they face obstacles to how your story ends. 5. Use ‘Metaphor Families' to Anchor Dialogue and Voice One of the most practical techniques Matt Bird shared on episode 624 is the idea of assigning each character a “metaphor family”—a specific well of language that they draw from. This gives each character a distinctive voice that goes beyond accent or dialect. Matt explained how in The Wire, one of the most beloved TV shows of all time, every character has a different metaphor family. What struck him was that Omar, this iconic character, never utters a single curse word in the entire series. His metaphor family is pirate. He talks about parlays, uses language that feels like it belongs in Pirates of the Caribbean, and it creates this incredible ironic counterpoint against his urban setting. It tells us immediately that this is a character who sees himself in a tradition of people that doesn't match his immediate surroundings. Matt also referenced the UK version of The Office, where Gareth works at a paper company but aspires to the military. So all of his language is drawn from a military metaphor family. He doesn't talk about filing and photocopying; he talks about tactics and discipline and being on the front line. This tells us that the character has a life and dreams beyond the immediate scene—and it's the gap between aspiration and reality that makes him both funny and believable. He pointed out that a metaphor family sometimes comes from a character's background, but it's often more interesting when it comes from their aspirations. What does your character want to be? What world do they fantasise about inhabiting? That's where their language should come from. In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a spiritual hermit, but his metaphor family is military. He uses the language of generals and commanders, and that ironic counterpoint is part of what makes him feel so rich. Actionable step: Assign each of your main characters a metaphor family. It could be based on their job, their background, or—more interestingly—their secret aspirations. Then go through your dialogue and make sure each character is consistently drawing from that well of language. If two characters sound the same when you strip away the dialogue tags, this is the fix. 6. Find the Diagnostic Detail: The Diagonal Toast Avoid clichéd character tags—the random scar, the eye patch, the mysterious limp—unless they serve a deep narrative purpose. Matt Bird on episode 624 was very funny about this: he pointed out that Nick Fury, Odin, and eventually Thor all have eye patches in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eye patches are done, he said. You cannot do eye patches anymore. Instead, look for what I'm calling the “diagonal toast” detail, after a scene Matt described from Captain Marvel. In the film, Captain Marvel is trying to determine whether Nick Fury is who he says he is. She asks him to prove he isn't a shapeshifting alien. Fury shares biographical details—his history, his mother—but then she pushes further and says, name one more thing you couldn't possibly have made up about yourself. And Fury says: if toast is cut diagonally, I can't eat it. Matt said that detail is gold for a writer because it feels pulled from a real life. You can pull it from your own life and gift it to your characters, and the reader can tell it's not manufactured. He gave another example from The Sopranos: Tony Soprano's mother won't answer the phone after dark. The show's creator, David Chase, confirmed on the DVD commentary that this came from his own mother, who genuinely would not answer the phone after dark and couldn't explain why. Matt's practical advice was to keep a journal. Write down the strange, specific things that people do or say. Mine your own life for those hyper-specific details. You just need one per book. In my own writing, I've used this approach. In my ARKANE thrillers, my character Morgan Sierra has always been Angelina Jolie in my mind—specifically Jolie in Lara Croft or Mr and Mrs Smith. And Blake Daniel in my crime thriller series was based on Jesse Williams from Grey's Anatomy. I paste pictures of actors into my Scrivener projects. It helps with visuals, but also with the sense of the character, their energy and physicality. But visual details only take you so far. It's the behavioural quirks—the diagonal toast moments—that make a character feel genuinely alive. That said, physical character tags can work brilliantly when they serve the story. As I discuss in How to Write a Novel, Robert Galbraith's Cormoran Strike is an amputee, and his pain and the physical challenges of his prosthesis are a key part of every story—it's not a cosmetic detail, it's woven into the action and the character's psychology. My character Blake Daniel always wears gloves to cover the scars on his hands, which provides an angle into his wounded past as well as a visual cue for the reader. And of course, Harry Potter's lightning-shaped scar isn't just a mark—it's a direct connection to his nemesis and the mythology of the entire series. The rule of thumb is: if the tag tells us something about the character's interior life or connects to the plot, it's earning its place. If it's just there to make the character visually distinctive, it's probably a crutch. Game of Thrones takes character tags further with the family houses, each with their own mottos and sigils. The Starks say “Winter is coming” and their sigil is a dire wolf. Those aren't just labels—they're worldview made visible. Actionable step: Start a “diagonal toast” notebook. Every time you notice something strange and specific about someone's behaviour—something that feels too real to be made up—write it down. Then gift it to a character who needs more texture. 7. Displace Your Own Trauma into the Work Barbara Nickless shared something deeply personal on episode 732 that fundamentally changed how I think about putting pain onto the page. While starting At First Light, the first book in her Dr. Evan Wilding series, she lost her son to epilepsy—something called SUDEP, Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy. One day he was there, and the next day he was gone. Barbara said that writing helped her cope with the trauma, that doing a deep dive into Old English literature and the Viking Age for the book's research became a lifeline. But here's what's important: she didn't give Dr. Evan Wilding her exact trauma. Evan Wilding is four feet five inches, and Barbara described how he has to walk through a world that won't adjust to him. That's its own form of learning to cope when circumstances are beyond your control. She displaced her genuine grief into the character's different but parallel struggle. When I asked her about the difference between writing for therapy and writing for an audience, she drew on her experience teaching creative writing to veterans through a collaboration between the US Department of Defense and the National Endowment for the Arts. She said she's found that she can pour her heartache into her characters and process it through them, even when writing professionally, and that the genuine emotion is what touches readers. We've all been through our own losses and griefs, so seeing how a character copes can be deeply meaningful. I've always found that putting my own pain onto the page is the most direct way to connect with a reader's soul. My character Morgan Sierra's musings on religion and the supernatural are often my own. Her restlessness, her fascination with the darker edges of faith—those come from me. But her Krav Maga fighting skills and her ability to kill the bad guys are definitely her own. That gap between what's mine and what's hers is where the fiction lives. Barbara also said something on that episode that I wrote down and stuck on my wall. She said the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul. I've been thinking about that ever since. On my own wall, I have “Measure your life by what you create.” Different words, same truth. Actionable step: If you're carrying something heavy—grief, anger, fear, regret—consider how you might displace it into a character's different but emotionally parallel struggle. Don't copy your exact situation; transform it. The emotion will be genuine, and the reader will feel it. 8. Write Diverse Characters as Real People When I spoke with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673—Sarah is Choctaw and a historical fiction author honoured by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian—she offered a perspective that every fiction writer needs to hear. The key message was to move away from stereotypes. Don't write your American Indian character as the “Wise Guide” who exists solely to dispense mystic wisdom to the white protagonist. Don't limit diverse characters to historical settings, as though they only exist in the past. Place them in normal, contemporary roles. Your spaceship captain, your forensic scientist, your small-town baker—any of them can be American Indian, or Nigerian, or Japanese, and their heritage should be a lived-in part of their identity, not the sole reason they exist in the story. I write international thrillers and dark fantasy, and my fiction is populated with characters from all over the world. I have a multi-cultural family and I've lived in many places and travelled widely, so I've met, worked with, and had relationships with people from different cultures. I find story ideas through travel, and if I set my books in a certain place, then the story is naturally populated with the people who live there. As I discuss in my book, How to Write a Novel, the world is a diverse place, so your fiction needs to be populated with all kinds of people. If I only populated my fiction with characters like me, they would be boring novels. There are many dimensions of difference—race, nationality, sex, age, body type, ability, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, class, culture, education level—and even then, don't assume that similar types of people think the same way. Some authors worry they will make mistakes. We live in a time of outrage, and some authors have been criticised for writing outside their own experience. So is it too dangerous to try? Of course not. The media amplifies outliers, and most authors include diverse characters in every book without causing offence because they work hard to get it right. It's about awareness, research, and intent. Actionable step: Audit the cast of your current work in progress. Have you written a mono-cultural perspective for all of them? If so, consider who could bring a different background, perspective, or set of cultural specifics to the story. Not as a token addition, but as a real person with a real life. 9. Respect Tribal and Cultural Specificity Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673 was emphatic about one thing: never treat diverse groups as monolithic. If you're writing a Native American character, you must research the specific nation. Choctaw is not Navajo, just as British is not French. Sarah described the distinct cultural markers of the Choctaw people—the diamond pattern you'll see on traditional shirts and dresses, which represents the diamondback rattlesnake. They have distinct dances and songs. She said that if she saw someone in traditional dress at a distance, she would know whether they were Choctaw based on what they were wearing. She encouraged writers who want to write specifically about a nation to get to know those people. Go to events, go to a powwow, learn about the individual culture. She noted that a big misconception is that American Indians exist only in the past—she stressed that they are still here, still living their cultures, and fiction should reflect that present reality. I took a similar approach when writing Destroyer of Worlds, which is set mostly in India. I read books about Hindu myth, watched documentaries about the sadhus, and had one of my Indian readers from Mumbai check my cultural references. For Risen Gods, set in New Zealand with a young Maori protagonist, I studied books about Maori mythology and fiction by Maori authors, and had a male Maori reader check for cultural issues. Research is simply an act of empathy. The practical takeaway is this: if you're going to include a character from a specific cultural background, do the work. Use specific cultural details rather than generic signifiers. Sarah talked about how even she fell into stereotypes when she was first writing, until her mother pointed them out. If someone from within a culture can fall into those traps, the rest of us certainly can. Do the research, try your best, ask for help, and apologise if you need to. Actionable step: If you're writing a character from a specific culture, identify three to five sensory or behavioural details that are particular to that culture—not the generic version, but the real, researched, lived-in version. Consider hiring a sensitivity reader from that community to check your work. 10. Give Your Protagonist a Morally Neutral ‘Hero' Status Matt Bird was clear about this on episode 624: the word “hero” simply means the protagonist, the person we follow through the story. It's a functional role, not a moral label. We don't have to like them. We don't even have to root for their goals in a moral sense. We just have to find them compelling enough to invest our attention in their problem-solving. Think of Succession, where every member of the Roy family is varying degrees of awful, and yet the show was utterly compelling. Or WeCrashed, where Adam Neumann is a narcissistic con artist, but we can't look away because he's trying to solve the enormous problem of building an empire from nothing, and the tradecraft he employs is fascinating. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, readers must want to spend time with your characters. They don't have to be lovable or even likable—that will depend on your genre and story choices—but they have to be captivating enough that we want to spend time with them. A character who is trying to solve a massive problem will naturally draw investment from the audience, even if we wouldn't want to have tea with them. Will Storr extended this idea by pointing out that the audience will actually root for a character to solve their problem even if the audience doesn't actually want the character's goal to be achieved in the real world. We don't really want more billionaires, but we invested in Adam Neumann's rise because that was the problem the story posed, and our brains are wired to invest in problem-solving. This connects to something deeper: what does your character want, and why? As I explore in How to Write a Novel, desire operates on multiple levels. Take a character like Phil, who joins the military during wartime. On the surface, she wants to serve her country. But she also wants to escape her dead-end town and learn new skills. Deeper still, her father and grandfather served, and by joining up, she hopes to finally earn their respect. And perhaps deepest of all, her father died on a mission under mysterious circumstances, and she wants to find out what happened from the inside. That layering of motivation is what turns a flat character into a three-dimensional one. The audience doesn't need to be told all of this explicitly. It can emerge through action, dialogue, and the choices the character makes under pressure. But you, the writer, need to know it. You need to know what your character really wants deep down, because that desire—more than any external plot device—is what drives the story forward. And your antagonist needs the same depth. They also want something, often diametrically opposed to your protagonist, and they need a reason that makes sense to them. In my ARKANE thriller Tree of Life, my antagonist is the heiress of a Brazilian mining empire who wants to restore the Earth to its original state to atone for the destruction caused by her father's company. She's part of a radical ecological group who believe the only way to restore Nature is to end all human life. It's extreme, but in an era of climate change, it's a motivation readers can understand—even if they disagree with the solution. Actionable step: If you're struggling to make a morally grey character work, make sure their problem is big enough and their methods are specific and interesting enough that we invest in the how, even if we're ambivalent about the what. 11. Build Vibrant Side Characters Gail Carriger made a point on episode 550 that was equal parts craft advice and business strategy. In a Heroine's Journey model, side characters aren't just fodder to be killed off to motivate the hero. They form a network. And because you don't have to kill them—unlike in a hero's journey, where allies are often betrayed or removed so the hero can be further isolated—you can pick up those side characters and give them their own books. Gail said this creates a really voracious reader base. You write one series with vivid side characters, and then readers fall in love with those side characters and want their stories. So you write spin-offs. The romance genre does this brilliantly—think of the Bridgerton books, where each sibling gets their own novel. The side character in one book becomes the protagonist in the next. Barbara Nickless experienced this firsthand with her Dr. Evan Wilding series. She has River Wilding, Evan's adventurous brother, and Diana, the axe-throwing research assistant, and her editor has already expressed interest in a spin-off series with those characters. Barbara described creating characters she wants to spend time with, or characters who give her nightmares but also intrigue her. That's the dual test: are they interesting enough for you to write, and interesting enough for readers to demand more? As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, characters that span series can deepen the reader's relationship with them as you expand their backstory into new plots. Readers will remember the character more than the plot or the book title, and look forward to the next instalment because they want more time with those people. British crime author Angela Marsons described it as readers feeling like returning to her characters is like putting on a pair of old slippers. Actionable step: Look at your supporting cast. Is there a side character who is vivid enough to carry their own story? If not, what could you add—a specific hobby, a distinct voice, a compelling backstory—that would make readers want more of them? 12. Use Voice as a Rhythmic Tool Voice is one of the most important elements of novel writing, and Matt Bird helped me think about it in a technical, mechanical way that I found really useful. He pointed out that the ratio of periods to commas defines a character's internal reality. A staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short sentences—suggests a character who is certain, grounded, or perhaps survivalist and traumatised. Katniss in The Hunger Games has a period-heavy voice. She's in survival mode. She doesn't have time for complexity or qualification. A flowing, comma-heavy style suggests someone more academic, more nuanced, or possibly more scattered and manipulative. The character who qualifies everything, who adds sub-clauses and digressions, is a different kind of person from the character who speaks in declarations. This is something you can actually measure. Pull up a passage of your character's dialogue or internal monologue and count the periods versus the commas. If the rhythm doesn't match who the character is supposed to be, you've found a mismatch you can fix. Sentence length is the heartbeat of your character's persona. And voice extends beyond rhythm to the words themselves. As I discussed in the metaphor families tip, each character should draw from a distinctive well of language. But voice also encompasses their relationship to silence. Some characters talk around the thing they mean; others say it straight. Some are self-deprecating; others are blunt to the point of rudeness. All of these choices are character choices, not just style choices. I find it useful to read my dialogue aloud—and not just to check for naturalness, but to hear whether each character sounds distinct. If you could swap dialogue lines between two characters and nobody would notice, you have a voice problem. One practical test: cover the dialogue tags and see if you can tell who's speaking from the words alone. Actionable step: Choose a key passage from your protagonist's point of view and read it aloud. Does the rhythm match the character? A soldier under fire should not sound like a philosophy professor at a wine tasting. Adjust the ratio of periods to commas until the voice feels right. 13. Link Character and Plot Until They're Inseparable Will Storr made the case on episode 490 that the number one problem he sees in the writing he encounters—in workshops, in submissions, even in published books—is that the characters and the plots are unconnected. There's a story happening, and there are people in it, but the story isn't a product of who those people are. He said a story should be like life. In our lives, the plots are intimately connected to who we are as characters. The goals we pursue, the obstacles we face, the same problems that keep recurring—these are products of our personalities, our flaws, our specific ways of being in the world. His framework is that your plot should be designed specifically to plot against your character. You've got a character with a particular flaw; the plot exists to test that flaw over and over until the character either transforms or doubles down and explodes. Jaws is the perfect example. Brody is afraid of water. A shark shows up in the coastal town he's responsible for protecting. The entire plot is engineered to force him to confront the one thing he cannot face. Will pointed out that the whole plot of Jaws is structured around Brody's flaw. It begins with the shark arriving, the midpoint is when Brody finally gets the courage to go into the water, and the very final scene isn't the shark blowing up—it's Brody swimming back through the water. Even a film that's ninety-eight percent action is, at its core, structured around a character with a character flaw. This is the standard I aspire to in my own work, even in my action-heavy thrillers. The external plot should be a mirror of the internal struggle. When those two are aligned, the story becomes irresistible. Will also made an important point about series fiction, which is where most commercial authors live. I asked him how this works when your character can't be transformed at the end of every book because there has to be a next book. His answer was elegant: you don't cure them. Episodic TV characters like Fleabag or David Brent or Basil Fawlty never truly change—and the fact that they don't change is actually the source of the comedy. But every episode throws a new story event at them that tests and exposes their flaw. You just keep throwing story events at them again and again. That's a soap opera, a sitcom, and a book series. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, character flaws are aspects of personality that affect the person so much that facing and overcoming them becomes central to the plot. In Jaws, the protagonist Brody is afraid of the water, but he has to overcome that flaw to destroy the killer shark and save the town. But remember, your characters should feel like real people, so never define them purely by their flaws. The character addicted to painkillers might also be a brilliant and successful female lawyer who gets up at four in the morning to work out at the gym, likes eighties music, and volunteers at the local dog shelter at weekends. Character wounds are different from flaws. They're formed from life experience and are part of your character's backstory—traumatic events that happened before the events of your novel but shape the character's reactions in the present. In my ARKANE thrillers, Morgan Sierra's husband Elian died in her arms during a military operation. This happened before the series begins, but her memories of it recur when she faces a firefight, and she struggles to find happiness again for fear of losing someone she loves once more. And then there's the perennial advice: show, don't tell. Most writers have heard this so many times that it's easy to nod and then promptly write scenes that tell rather than show. Basically, you need to reveal your character through action and dialogue, rather than explanation. In my thriller Day of the Vikings, Morgan Sierra fights a Neo-Viking in the halls of the British Museum and brings him down with Krav Maga. That fight scene isn't just about showing action. It opens up questions about her backstory, demonstrates character, and moves the plot forward. Telling would be something like: “Morgan was an expert in Krav Maga.” Showing is the reader discovering it through the scene itself. Actionable step: Look at the main plot events of your novel. For each major turning point, ask: does this scene specifically test my protagonist's flaw? If not, can you redesign the scene so that it does? The tighter the connection between character and plot, the more powerful the story. 14. The ‘Maestra' Approach: Write Out of Order If you're a discovery writer like me, you may feel like the deep character work I've been describing sounds more suited to plotters. But Barbara Nickless gave me a beautiful metaphor on episode 732 that reframes it entirely. Barbara described her evolving writing process as being like a maestra standing in front of an orchestra. Sometimes you bring in the horns—a certain theme—and sometimes you bring in the strings—a certain character—and sometimes you turn to the soloist. It's a more organic and jumping-around process than linear writing, and Barbara said she's only recently given herself permission to work this way. When I told her that I use Scrivener to write in scenes out of order and then drag and drop them into a structure later, she was genuinely intrigued. And this is how I've always worked. I'll see the story in my mind like a movie trailer—flashes of the big emotional scenes, the pivotal confrontations, the moments of revelation—and I write those first. I don't know how they hang together until quite late in the process. Then I'll move scenes around, print the whole thing out, and figure out the connective tissue. The point is that discovery writers can absolutely build deep characters. Sometimes writing the big emotional scenes first is how you discover who the character is before you fill in the rest. You don't need a twenty-page character worksheet or a 200-page outline like Jeffery Deaver. You need to be willing to follow the character into the unknown and trust that the structure will emerge. As Barbara said, she writes to know what she's thinking. That's the discovery writer's credo. And I would add: I write to know who my characters are. Actionable step: If you're stuck on your current chapter, skip it. Write the scene that's burning in your imagination, even if it's from the middle or the end. That scene might be the key to unlocking who your character really is. 15. Use Research to Help with Empathy Research shouldn't just be about factual accuracy—it's a tool for finding the sensory details that create empathy. Barbara Nickless described research as almost an excuse to explore things that fascinate her, and I feel exactly the same way. I would go so far as to say that writing is an excuse for me to explore the things that interest me. Barbara and I both travel for our stories. For her Dr. Evan Wilding books, she did deep research into Old English literature and the Viking Age. For my thriller End of Days, I transcribed hours of video from Appalachian snake-handling churches on YouTube to understand the worldview of the worshippers, because my antagonist was brought up in that tradition. I couldn't just make that up. I had to hear their language, feel their conviction, understand why they would hold venomous serpents as an act of faith. Barbara also mentioned getting to Israel and the West Bank for research, and I've been to both places too. Finding that one specific sensory detail—the smell of a particular location, the specific way an expert handles a tool, the sound of a particular kind of music—makes the character's life feel lived-in. It's the difference between a character who is described as living in a place and a character who inhabits it. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, don't write what you know. Write what you want to learn about. I love research. It's part of why I'm an author in the first place. I take any excuse to dive into a world different from my own. Research using books, films, podcasts, and travel, and focus particularly on sources produced by people from the worldview you want to understand. Actionable step: For your next piece of character research, go beyond reading. Watch a documentary, visit a location, talk to someone who lives the experience. Find one sensory detail—a smell, a sound, a texture—that you couldn't have invented. That detail will make your character feel real. Bonus: Measure Your Life by What You Create In an age of AI and a tsunami of content, your ultimate brand protection is the quality of your human creation. Barbara Nickless said that the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul, and I believe that with every fibre of my being. Don't be afraid to take that step back, like I did with my deadlifting. Take the time to master these deeper craft skills. It might feel like you're slowing down or going backwards by not chasing the latest marketing trend, but it's the only way to step forward into a sustainable, high-quality career. Your characters are your signature. No AI can replicate the specificity of your lived experience, the emotional truth of your displaced trauma, or the sensory details you've gathered from a life of curiosity and travel. Those are yours. Pour them into your characters, and they will resonate for years to come. Actionable Takeaway: Identify the Dramatic Question for your current protagonist. Can you state it in a single sentence with the kind of specificity Will Storr described? Is it as clear as “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you the only adult in the room?” If you can't answer it with that kind of precision, your character might still be a sketch. Give them a diagonal toast moment today. Find the one hyper-specific detail that proves they are not an imitation of life. And then ask yourself: does your plot test your character's flaw in every major scene? If you can align those two things—a precisely defined character and a plot that exists to test them—you will have a story that readers cannot put down. References and Deep Dives The episodes I've referenced today are all available with full transcripts at TheCreativePenn.com: Episode 732 — Facing Fears, and Writing Unique Characters with Barbara Nickless Episode 673 — Writing Choctaw Characters and Diversity in Fiction with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer Episode 624 — Writing Characters with Matt Bird Episode 550 — The Heroine's Journey with Gail Carriger Episode 490 — How Character Flaws Shape Story with Will Storr Books mentioned: The Secrets of Character: Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love by Matt Bird The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr The Heroine's Journey by Gail Carriger How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book by Joanna Penn You can find all my books for authors at CreativePennBooks.com and my fiction and memoir at JFPennBooks.com Happy writing! How was this episode created? This episode was initiated created by NotebookLM based on YouTube videos of the episodes linked above from YouTube/TheCreativePenn, plus my text chapters on character from How to Write a Novel. NotebookLM created a blog post from the material and then I expanded it and fact checked it with Claude.ai 4.6 Opus, and then I used my voice clone at ElevenLabs to narrate it. The post Writing Characters: 15 Actionable Tips For Writing Deep Character first appeared on The Creative Penn.

'The View' co-hosts weigh in on the president's response to protesters clashing with law enforcement following a second shooting in about a week involving ICE in Minneapolis.  Then, the co-hosts question if the search of a Washington Post journalist's home is an attack on journalism.  Plus, the co-hosts react to people finding comfort in shows where characters are good at their jobs that some are calling “competency porn.”  Kenan Thompson talks working with his heroes on ‘Saturday Night Live,' looks back on his iconic sketches on the show and shares the inspiration behind his new children's book, 'Unfunny Bunny'!  Jesse Williams discusses his new documentary 'Hoops, Hopes & Dreams' and shares what surprised him the most while studying Martin Luther King Jr. for the film. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two unlikely travel mates and a tour of the American South that turns into a masterclass on what college sport really demands. We bring together Jesse Williams, national champion at Alabama and Super Bowl winner, and Chris Bates, a former Oklahoma State tennis player and founder of Study & Play USA, to map the modern pathway for Australian student athletes.Across locker rooms and alumni halls, we test the myths. Is JUCO a step down or a launch pad? Does NIL change everything or just turn up the noise? Jesse cuts through with lived experience: be undeniable. Best players play, but the best people last. He shares how JUCO forged resilience, why Alabama's culture still shapes his life, and how alumni support in the U.S. feels like coming home. We talk about the transfer portal, social media pressure, and the simple truth that winning cultures value character as much as speed and strength.If you're an Aussie eyeing the U.S., this is your blueprint. We break down why data-driven combines matter, how to build a credible athletic and academic profile, and why the right mindset beats hype every time. You'll hear the line that stopped a future first-rounder in his tracks: bridge the gap between who you think you are and who you really are. It's tough-love mentorship delivered with clarity, purpose, and a clear call to action—give yourself twelve months to build the missing 10 percent.Subscribe for more stories, practical steps, and honest insight on U.S. college sport. If this helped sharpen your plan, share it with a mate who needs a push and leave a review to help others find the pathway.

Think you know U.S. college sport from the headlines? Try walking seven campuses in ten days and stepping inside the rooms where performance is built. We share what's actually changed since COVID and why the pathway for Australian student athletes is more compelling than ever.From the moment we arrived, the pattern was unmistakable: proximity drives progress. Training centres, rehab, academic support, and fueling stations sit within a short walk of the dorms. That convenience isn't just nice to have; it hardwires better habits. We unpack how facilities have levelled up across divisions, why nutrition stations are everywhere, and how live data in gyms and tennis centres is turning PBs and workload into daily decisions. The vibe is alive, the systems are mature, and the focus is clear: help athletes improve faster.Coaches told us their appetite for internationals is growing, with Australians high on the list. The reason is athletes who travel far tend to value the opportunity and stick the process. We explain how to stand out: start early, build your baseline before you go, and use film, results, and academics to widen your options. We also cut through media noise: the “student athlete bubble” is real, and day-to-day life is more about class, training, and team travel than politics or headlines.NIL is reshaping incentives, especially where American football's economic engine is strongest. We take you behind the scenes at places like USC, Clemson, Georgia, and Alabama to show how game-day scale funds world-class support across sports. Even if your sport is smaller, understanding NIL, compliance, and personal brand can open real doors. It all adds up to a simple truth: if you prepare well before you land, the system is ready to accelerate you.

Jesse Williams On His Heart Attack + Alabama Football Mid-Season Evaluation!It's another hard-hitting episode of The Bama Standard, the show where Alabama football legends and diehard fans keep it real! Hosted by Justin Riley, former Alabama linebacker Marvin Constant, and Daniel Pettey, this week's show dives deep into how the Crimson Tide survived South Carolina and what's next as they head into a crucial bye week.We open with Marvin Constant's raw and unfiltered quick take on Alabama's latest performance — breaking down what went right, what still needs fixing, and how Kalen DeBoer's team can stay focused for the stretch run. Then, we welcome an Alabama great, Jesse Williams, to the show. The former Crimson Tide defensive lineman shares his thoughts on this year's squad, his emotional return to Tuscaloosa on game weekend, and his powerful story of battling back from heart issues with the same toughness that made him an Alabama legend.Whether you're a lifelong Alabama fan or just love college football, this episode delivers elite insight, passion, and real talk from inside the Tide family.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Silver Quintette - "Sinner's Crossroads" [0:00:00] Evangelist David Shows Sr and the Christian Seeker Chorus - "That Liar Shall Not Tarry in Thy Sight" [0:03:18] Mr. Jesse Williams and the Mt. Pisgah Chorus - "Serving the Lord" [0:07:39] Southern Gates Quartet - "I Found the Lord At Last" [0:12:39] Mr. Jesse Williams and the Mt. Pisgah Chorus - "Who Brought Me Safe" [0:17:33] Royal Gospel Travelers - "The Lord is My Shepherd" [0:19:33] Kelly Brothers - "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" [0:22:19] Singing Crusaders - "Now Lord" [0:25:17] Dixie Melo-Tones - "All In My Room" [0:32:22] Mighty Travelneers - "Liar" [0:34:42] Dixie Travelers - "Jesus Has Gone On" [0:39:18] Converters - "He Will Give What You Need" [0:44:55] Seniors of Harmony - "Let Him Come In" [0:41:49] Spiritual Redeemers - "He's My Friend" [0:47:39] Fabulous Golden Wings - "I've Got a Friend" [0:51:20] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/157479

This week, Louis is joined by comedian Brendan Scannell to discuss Taylor Swift's new album, The Life of a Showgirl, as well as The Rock's A24 debut in The Smashing Machine. Jesse Williams also joins to discuss his new Amazon series, Hotel Costiera, his experience with Steve Martin, Martin Short and Meryl Streep on Only Murders in the Building, as well as his memories of the late Richard Greenberg and his the Tony-winning play, Take Me Out. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A severed hand, a missing billionaire, and a suspicious trophy wife. The pilot (“Sheryl”) of Hotel Costiera on Prime Video sets two tracks: a season-long mystery about the hotel owner's missing daughter and a one-off circumstance involving a billionaire's scheme to game his shareholders and family. We discuss the cliffside vibes and the cast—led by Jesse Williams, who steers a small crew of talented misfits through the hotel's emergencies. After weighing the pros and cons, and the logic faux pas, we share our rating. Tune in and enjoy. Welcome to Today's Episode!

On episode 67 of the Innovators Podcast, Annabelle Wadle, a Communications and Marketing Intern at the Iowa State University Research Park, interviews Jesse Williams, Founder of Dinder. In this episode we discuss what led Jesse to create his app, Dinder, and his experience with CyStarters.

For Hotel Costiera, Jesse Williams was drawn to making "something that is global.” The new Prime Video series stars Williams as Daniel De Luca, a former Marine who returns home to Italy to work at a hotel, only to find himself tasked with finding the missing daughter of the hotel's owner. While he has “no complaints” filming in Positano paradise, “I tried to stay relatively disciplined, but I ate a lot of pasta and bread,” Williams told Newsweek's H. Alan Scott. Of the character, he related to his duality. "I don't really say I'm half anything," he notes. "That has to have found itself stewing in something Daniel DeLuca is dealing with." And this series represents a new phase for Williams, taking creative control as a producer. "It certainly feels good... to bet on you in the same way you're trying to bet on yourself.” After leaving his iconic role on Grey's Anatomy, his first move was a deliberate challenge, first going to Broadway and now this, raising the stakes even further by creating an original show. “It's not based on IP or something else. Like it's really trying to forge something new in a space.” But at the end of the day, it's all about the process. "I love the collaboration that exists in our business." Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.newsweek.com/newsletter/the-culture/ Follow me: https://linktr.ee/halanscott Subscribe to Newsweek's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/newsweek See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jesse Williams & Regina Hall join host Andy Cohen. Listen to lively debates on everything from the latest drama surrounding your favorite Bravolebrities to what celebrity is making headlines that week live from the WWHL clubhouse.Aired on 09/28/25Binge all your favorite Bravo shows with the Bravo app: bravotv.com/getbravoSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jesse Williams se bagarre dans "Hotel Costiera". On vous conseille aussi "House of Guinness" sur Netflix

NBC News Medical Contributor Dr. Natalie Azar discusses gut health and creating a healthy microbiome. Plus, Selma Blair opens up about her personal journey navigating multiple sclerosis. Also, Jesse Williams talks his new action-comedy 'Hotel Costiera.' And, Orthopedic Physical Therapist, Karena Wu shares some footwear upgrades to ease pain and discomfort. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Broncos SMASH Melbourne Storm | We break down the facts on the 3 Second Rule | A warning to all sons & daughters about Father's Day | NFL Legend Jesse Williams on Super Bowl | Margaux slept in her car last night!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fáilte ar ais chuig eagrán nua de Ar An Lá Seo ar an 5ú lá de mí Lúnasa, liomsa Lauren Ní Loingsigh. I 1973 tharrtháil triúir buachaillí óga tar éis a síobadh a bháid innill ó thalamh agus mhúch an t- inneall den bhád. I 1988 d'fhostaigh na hospidéil sa tír 2 mhíle altraí sealadach. I 2000 tháinig sé amach nach mbeadh an t-ainm O'Kennedy ar an pháipéar ballóide don chéad uair ó 1965. Bhí tuairimíocht ann go raibh Orla O'Kennedy chun dul chuig Fianna Fáil tar éis an nuacht go raibh a athair Michael chun seas síos ach chuir sí na ráflaí chuig an leaba. I 2010 tháinig an nuacht amach go mbeadh post nua I gCaiseal de bharr go raibh siad ag tógáil stáisiún peitril nua le hionad mearbhia ann. Bhí an stáisiún peitril Topaz chun a bheith ag Waller's Lot agus bhí McDonald's chun a bheith ann chomh maith. Sin Los Del Rio le Macarena – an t-amhrán is mó ar an lá seo I 1996. Ag lean ar aghaidh le nuacht cheoil ar an lá seo I 1984 chan Bruce Springsteen cheolchoirm 1 amach as 10 ag The Meadowlands I New Jersey chun an teacht abhaile den turas Born In The USA a mharcáil. I 2007 rinne 12 duine tástáil DNA mar go raibh siad ag rá go raibh amhránaí James Brown a athair agus tháinig sé amach go raibh ar a laghad beirt acu ag insint na fírinne. Agus ar deireadh breithlá daoine cáiliúla ar an lá seo rugadh Louis Walsh in Éirinn I 1952 agus rugadh asiteoir Jesse Williams I Meiriceá ar an lá seo I 1981 agus seo chuid de na rudaí a rinne sé. Beidh mé ar ais libh amárach le heagrán nua de Ar An Lá Seo. Welcome back to another edition of Ar An Lá Seo on the 5th of August, with me Lauren Ní Loingsigh 1973: 3 young boys were rescues and brought back to safety after their motorboat drifted away from land when their engine cut out. 1988: Irish hospitals employed 2,000 temporary nurses. 2000 -For the first time since 1965, the O'Kennedy name will not appear on the ballot paper for the next general election. The speculation of Orla O'Kennedy would go seek the Fianna Fail nomination in the wake of her father Michael's recent decision to stand down next time around, vanished.  2010 - CASHEL was set for a major jobs boost with the construction of a new petrol service station and major fast food outlet. Topaz had plans for a new petrol service station at Waller's Lot, Cashel, which will also run in partnership with a McDonald's restaurant.  That was Los Del Rio with Macarena – the biggest song on this day in 1996 Onto music news on this day In 1984 Bruce Springsteen played the first of ten nights at the Meadowlands in New Jersey to mark the homecoming of the Born in the USA Tour. 2007 DNA testing on about a dozen people who claimed late soul star James Brown was their father revealed that at least two of them were telling the truth. And finally celebrity birthdays on this day – Louis Walsh was born in Ireland in 1952 and actor Jesse Williams was born in America on this day in 1981 and this is some of the stuff he has done. I'll be back with you tomorrow with another edition of Ar An Lá Seo.

Fáilte ar ais chuig eagrán nua de Ar An Lá Seo ar an 5ú lá de mí Lúnasa, liomsa Lauren Ní Loingsigh. I 1973 tharrtháil triúir buachaillí óga tar éis a síobadh a bháid innill ó thalamh agus mhúch an t- inneall den bhád. I 1988 d'fhostaigh na hospidéil sa tír 2 mhíle altraí sealadach. I 1988 chuaigh cúpla daoine ón chontae a sheinm cheol chuig an Eastóin sa U.S.S.R. I 1994 bhí feachtas tiomsú airgid mór ann chun forbairt a dhéanamh do Sea World I Lahinch. Sin Los Del Rio le Macarena – an t-amhrán is mó ar an lá seo I 1996. Ag lean ar aghaidh le nuacht cheoil ar an lá seo I 1984 chan Bruce Springsteen cheolchoirm 1 amach as 10 ag The Meadowlands I New Jersey chun an teacht abhaile den turas Born In The USA a mharcáil. I 2007 rinne 12 duine tástáil DNA mar go raibh siad ag rá go raibh amhránaí James Brown a athair agus tháinig sé amach go raibh ar a laghad beirt acu ag insint na fírinne. Agus ar deireadh breithlá daoine cáiliúla ar an lá seo rugadh Louis Walsh in Éirinn I 1952 agus rugadh asiteoir Jesse Williams I Meiriceá ar an lá seo I 1981 agus seo chuid de na rudaí a rinne sé. Beidh mé ar ais libh amárach le heagrán nua de Ar An Lá Seo. Welcome back to another edition of Ar An Lá Seo on the 5th of August, with me Lauren Ní Loingsigh 1973: 3 young boys were rescues and brought back to safety after their motorboat drifted away from land when their engine cut out. 1988: Irish hospitals employed 2,000 temporary nurses. 1988: Clare was set to be represented by Irish musicians on their tour to Estonia in the U.S.S.R. 1994: A major fundraising campaign was launched in efforts to raise needed funded to develop Lahinch Sea World. That was Los Del Rio with Macarena – the biggest song on this day in 1996 Onto music news on this day In 1984 Bruce Springsteen played the first of ten nights at the Meadowlands in New Jersey to mark the homecoming of the Born in the USA Tour. 2007 DNA testing on about a dozen people who claimed late soul star James Brown was their father revealed that at least two of them were telling the truth. And finally celebrity birthdays on this day – Louis Walsh was born in Ireland in 1952 and actor Jesse Williams was born in America on this day in 1981 and this is some of the stuff he has done. I'll be back with you tomorrow with another edition of Ar An Lá Seo.

Let's Welcome to the Georgia Songbirds family a local singer-songwriter, the winner of the Georgia vs Pennsylvania Songwriters Showdown and a super talented musician Jesse Williams. If you don't know Jesse you should really look into her music. She's one of a kind for sure, a truly old soul. Jesse came on the show and we talked blues, about her family, influences, the struggles and more. She even played us a few songs. So pull up a seat and listen in to mine and Jesse's conversation. Plenty of stories, phrases, and good times all around. 

Jay Maguire from the Texas hemp Federation and Jesse Williams from the Texas cannabis Collective joined the discussion this week regarding sb3 and the state of several bills in the 89th Texas Legislature. Countdown only 2 weeks remain! WILL HEMP SURVIVE IN TEXAS? Bad Science, Bogus Raids, and Bad Bills Testing Issues Law Enforcement Raids Timely Regulatory Bills Will Hemp Survive? www.texashempreporter.com www.BlazedNews.com 

Jesse Williams says "Music is medicine. Makes time fly. Makes things pause and puts words and sounds to things that are otherwise abstract and hard to get across.” This sweet soul from the North Georgia Mountains is a heck of a musician. Her guitar doesn't just sing—it cries, howls, and tells stories.

Jesse Williams grew up in church but didn't have a true relationship with Jesus until he was radically saved in November of 2018—setting him free from a porn addiction and fornication. Now, Jesse has recently married his wife, Ladayah, and he serves as a minister in Nova Hub church as their chief intercessor and a staff prophet. FOLLOW US: https://linktr.ee/elijahfireshow /// ElijahFire and ElijahStreams are part of Elijah List Ministries. Thank you for making the always-free Elijah List Ministries possible! Click here to learn how to partner with us: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/elijahfirepodcast ~

In this episode Breezy, Matthew, and Jim talk about two new signings, the Jesse Williams departure, roster construction, twitter vs bluesky vs threads, and more! Jim is on- Blue sky at @jimhicks.bsky.social Twitter at @ChattaGooner   We are on- instagram at @section109podcast twitter at @section109pod bluesky at @section109podcast.bsky.social tiktok at @section109podcast

On a special episode of The FloTrack Podcast, Ryan Fenton sits down with Sound Running's Jesse Williams to talk about the upcoming 2024 Cross Champs streaming live on FloTrack on Nov. 21, plus chat about what Sound Running hopes to do in the sport. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

October 21, 2024 ~ Guy, Lloyd, and Jamie are live on the 2024 WJR College Tour from Wayne State University, and talk with senior Sumer Chaudry, junior Sophia Martell, senior Jesse Williams, senior Austin Churley about life on campus, how they're being prepared for post-college life, and more!

This week on The Business of Open Source, I spoke with Jesse Williams and Brad Micklea, co-founders of Jozu and each with a long history of experience in various open source companies behind them. Even though Jozu is young, there was a lot to learn from these two and their experience in both open source and non-open source businesses. We talked about open source and not open source from CodeEnvy, Red Hat, AWS and Docker. “It's very hard to get a sustainable open source project if you don't have a company behind it paying those developers to work on it.” Some things we talked about: Why it's important to focus on ‘what people get” instead of ‘what you give people.' This is a fundamental component of effective product strategy and understanding your value prop: You can't just talk about about the features you're delivering; you have to connect that and focus on the value that people get from using the product. Jesse talked about the wizard behind the curtain that makes open source projects drive commercial adoption and revenue. You must be able to communicate the additional value of the commercial product; otherwise you will run the company into the group.Many open source companies get taken hostage by the open source community and end up having trouble monetizing because they make give away value in a way that is not sustainable.Users — and especially customers — are often unwilling to commit to a project if they are not convinced that the business behind it is healthy and has a sustainable business model. Open source, open standards and open governance — the relationship between the three and why we should all talk more about open standards and open governance in the open source ecosystem. The importance of really thinking through why you are open sourcing something, something that many companies don't think through. We wrapped up the conversation talking about how difficult it is to figure out which features to prioritize — and that this is a really hard decision for any startup. This is a big part of my shift to focusing on product strategy in my consulting. If you're an open source startup struggling with product prioritization and strategy, check out my product strategy offering. 

Ni bad om det och vi levererar – vi är tillbaka med våra ”Love is Blind”-reaktioner! Denna gång om UK-versionen som precis haft premiär. Vi snackar våra favoriter, snygghetsgraden på deltagarna, vem som har orimligt stora biceps, frånvaron av stereotypa brittiska tänder, white ass Jesse Williams-kopian, meditation-iskalla-duschar-och-träna-två-gånger-om-dagen som red flags, folk med oproportionerligt stora ansikten, vem som har ”stark rodent aura”, yrket ”luxury shopping guide” som täckmantel för ett kefft jobb, snubbar som blev sårade för TOLV år sen och fortfarande inte kan öppna upp, basic skålar + mycket mer! Vi lyckas också göra oss ovänner med både skönhetsoperations- och självhjälps-communityn. Enjoy! . Glöm inte att ni hittar videoversionen av podden på patreon.com/svh!  Stötta oss på Patreon för regelbundna bonusavsnitt + mer! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's Sponsor: Robinhoodhttp://thisistheconversationproject.com/robinhood      Today's Rundown:Ben Affleck & Jennifer Lopez's Alleged Divorce Papers Suggest They Have No Plans for a Messy Splithttps://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/ben-affleck-jennifer-lopezs-alleged-174628129.html      UK leader Starmer condemns attack on asylum-seeker hotel as far-right violence spreadshttps://apnews.com/article/uk-protests-far-right-children-stabbed-police-2de808d796f81f719950acb4ea6f0af5   Wesley Snipes Nabs Guinness World Records with Blade Reappearancehttps://gizmodo.com/wesley-snipes-blade-deadpool-3-world-record-2000482467   Simone Biles not ruling out 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeleshttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/simone-biles-not-ruling-2028-olympic-games-los-angeles-never-say-never-rcna165010  More US schools are taking breaks for meditation as teachers say it helps students' mental healthhttps://apnews.com/article/back-to-school-mental-health-mindfulness-5f73bbd3324ad4e9e9723b5c49fa1616 Walgreens and CVS tinker with new looks as their usual way of doing business faces challengeshttps://apnews.com/article/cvs-walgreens-mini-drugstores-clinics-a62ee2422fb8178975b514e5b618ebe1 Pumpkin Spice is already on the menu — in Augusthttps://nypost.com/2024/08/02/lifestyle/pumpkin-spice-is-already-on-the-menu-in-august/‘SNL' star Punkie Johnson says she's leaving show after 4 seasons during NYC comedy gighttps://nypost.com/2024/08/02/entertainment/snl-castmember-punkie-johnson-says-shes-leaving-during-comedy-show-ahead-of-50th-season/ Haliey Welch Files For Several Head-Scratching Trademarks After “Hawk Tuah” Famehttps://www.totalprosports.com/general/haliey-welch-files-for-several-head-scratching-trademarks-after-hawk-tuah-fame/  RFK Jr. admits putting dead bear cub and old bicycle in New York City's Central Park nearly 10 years agohttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-admits-dead-bear-cub-old-bicycle-central-park-10-years-ago/   Website: http://thisistheconversationproject.com  Facebook: http://facebook.com/thisistheconversationproject  Twitter: http://twitter.com/th_conversation  TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@theconversationproject  YouTube: http://thisistheconversationproject.com/youtube  Podcast: http://thisistheconversationproject.com/podcasts  ONE DAY OLDER ON AUGUST 5:Maureen McCormick (68)James Gunn (58)Jesse Williams (43)   WHAT HAPPENED TODAY:2009: A study revealed that the French spend more time at the table and in bed than other nations.2013: The Washington Post was purchased by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos.2023: A brawl erupted at the riverfront dock in Montgomery, Alabama, after a dispute over a dockside parking spot between the co-captain of the Harriott II riverboat and the occupants of a private boat. The altercation, which had racial undertones and involved multiple people, gained significant media attention and led to several arrests and charges.  WORD OF THE DAY: requisite [ rek-wuh-zit ]https://www.dictionary.com/browse/requisite    required or necessary for a particular purpose, position, etc    The requisite qualifications for this job include both a degree in marketing and experience in digital advertising.   DAILY AFFIRMATION: Every Day, I Grow Stronger And More Resilient.Positive Mindset Reinforcement: This affirmation encourages a positive outlook, reinforcing the belief that challenges contribute to personal strength and resilience, making you more optimistic and proactive in facing life's challenges.https://www.amazon.com/100-Daily-Affirmations-Positivity-Confidence/dp/B0D2D6SS2D/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3EETIICRH9WKL&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.fTzmfgWDkLbB298QSG1XHw.XNema1TWDSl7tirdaNi6vv-LBlJA9T-P0y-UeCE2MN8&dib_tag=se&keywords=100+affirmation+payne&qid=1722807450&sprefix=110+affirmation+payne%2Caps%2C1345&sr=8-1   PLUS, TODAY WE CELBRATE: Green Peppers Dayhttps://www.checkiday.com/b082e70286aac96d90424d2ca09cc291/green-peppers-day#google_vignetteGreen peppers, known as green bell peppers or green sweet peppers, have their day today. There are other colors of bell peppers, like red, yellow, and orange, but just the green are celebrated today. Although considered vegetables in the culinary world, they actually are fruit. They are part of the Grossum cultivar group of the Capsicum annuum species, which are part of the Solanaceae family, or nightshades. Native to the tropics of the Americas, they were introduced to Europe and Asia by Spanish and Portoguese explorers in the late fifteenth century. They spread from there and are now grown around the world.  

Elisabeth Seldes Annacone is a screenwriter, producer and educator with over three decades experience in film & TV. Her career started working with Oliver Stone on WALL STREET, TALK RADIO, and BORN ON THE 4TH OF JULY. Elisabeth then served as VP for Francis Ford Coppola, during DRACULA, SECRET GARDEN, and BUDDY. As a Sr. VP at MGM, Elisabeth had a helping hand in films like GET SHORTY, MULHOLLAND FALLS, TWO DAYS IN THE VALLY. After getting her MFA from UCLA in screenwriting, Elisabeth's first feature, THE GREAT LILLIAN HALL was released by HBO and stars Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates Pierce Brosnan, Jesse Williams and Lily Rabe. It is currently a New York Times critics' pick. Her pilot, WEEKENDS, is at UTV with Debra Chase producing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of the 3 Geeks Podcast! Today, we have an extraordinary guest, Bryan McClure, joining us to discuss his latest role as a documentary filmmaker in HBO's original movie, The Great Lillian Hall. In this riveting film, McClure stars opposite Oscar winners Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates. The story centers on Lillian Hall (Lange), a beloved Broadway star battling confusion and forgetfulness as she prepares for her next big role. McClure's character, Keith, documents Lillian's tumultuous emotional journey, adding depth to this poignant narrative. Directed by Michael Cristofer and featuring a stellar cast including Lily Rabe, Jesse Williams, and Pierce Brosnan, The Great Lillian Hall is a must-watch! McClure shares insights into working on set, his collaborative experience with Kathy Bates, and the rewarding process of bringing his character to life. Bryan McClure has an impressive career spanning various genres and platforms. From his role as The Headless Knight in Disney's Haunted Mansion to recurring roles in Prime Video's The Summer I Turned Pretty and Netflix's Mindhunter, McClure has captivated audiences everywhere. Fans will also recognize him from The Walking Dead, Magnum P.I., Atlanta, DC Doom Patrol, and more. Don't miss this in-depth interview with Bryan McClure, where we explore his dynamic career, his experiences on set, and his future projects. Tune in now! Bryan's Socials: https://www.instagram.com/bryanmcclure/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/ActorBryanMcClure/ #BryanMcClure #TheGreatLillianHall #3GeeksPodcast #JessicaLange #KathyBates #HBO #PodcastInterview #ActorLife

GUEST HOST Bigg Bump on de facto Affirmative Action in med school! Oakland stoplight copper wire stolen! Mixed race, radical spirit! The Hake Report, Monday, May 27, 2024 AD — Memorial Day Bigg Bump COHOST LINKS: https://www.youtube.com/@biggbump  |  https://x.com/bigg_bump  |  https://www.instagram.com/bigg_bump  |  https://soundcloud.com/bigg-bump  //  TIME STAMPS (combined) * (0:00:00) Topics with Bigg Bump * (0:03:46) Hey, guys! USS Iowa tee, LA hat/tee * (0:06:44) Affirmative Action, UCLA med school * (0:13:07) Picking black or picking white * (0:15:35) Vulnerable suffer; Cry racism. * (0:17:37) Social justice in medicine. Dean Jennifer Lucero * (0:25:22) GREGGATRON: Affirmative Action culture * (0:29:35) GREGGATRON: Fave callers list. * (0:34:10) GREGGATRON: Addressing Mark, understand him now * (0:36:36) Bigg Bump: Older whites saw better blacks * (0:40:10) Oakland stoplights now stop signs: Copper wire theft* (0:49:51) STEPHEN, MD: Greggatron a D.I.A.N. (D—b Ig'n—t A— N—) * (0:57:15) STEPHEN interrupted — STREAM DIED! * (0:57:22) WE'RE BACK! Part 2 * (0:59:28) Here with Bigg Bump * (1:00:57) Mixed-race, radical spirit (Jesse Williams!) List: Compensating * (1:19:25) Blacks not from the South, mixed compensation * (1:25:33) JOE, AZ: Affirmative Action, critical thinking * (1:28:57) JOE: 3/5ths, Missouri Compromise * (1:25:48) JOE: Mark putting channel at risk * (1:38:41) JOE: Trump travel ban judge, threats * (1:37:51) JOE toots his own horn * (1:41:53) JOE vs Bigg Bump, Trump * (1:43:16) Bigg Bump - "Get This Truth" BLOG  https://www.thehakereport.com/blog/2024/5/27/bigg-bump-with-hake-on-memorial-day-mon-5-27-24 PODCAST / Substack  HAKE NEWS from JLP  https://www.thehakereport.com/jlp-news/2024/5/27/trump-spoke-to-libertarians-endured-booing-hake-news-mon-5-27-24 Hake is live M-F 9-11a PT (11-1CT/12-2ET) Call-in 1-888-775-3773 https://www.thehakereport.com/show VIDEO  Rumble*  -  YT Pt 1 / YT Pt 2  -  FB Pt 1 / FB Pt 2  -  X Pt 1 only  -  BC Pt 1 / BC Pt 2  -  Ody Pt 1 / Ody Pt 2*  PODCAST  Substack  -  Apple  -  Spotify  -  Castbox  -  Podcast Addict  *SUPER CHAT on platforms* above or  BuyMeACoffee, etc.  SHOP  Spring  -  Cameo  |  All My Links  JLP Network:  JLP  -  Church  -  TFS  -  Nick  -  Joel  Get full access to HAKE at thehakereport.substack.com/subscribe

Hiya! Did you miss us? Don't answer that. Anyway, we took a lil break but we're back, baby, and this we are discussing the 2011 horror/mystery, The Cabin in the Woods! It stars a Chris Hemsworth who is most famous for being Liam Hemsworth's brother, Jesse Williams who is aging backward, and some other people that you've seen some stuff and things. Wanna know what think of this movie? Listen to the end to find out! Follow us on Instagram @meangirlsinterrupted for info on upcoming shows Watch Us: Mean Girls, Interrupted on Youtube Email Us: meangirlsinterrupted@gmail.com Visit: meangirlsinterrupted.com for all this stuff in one place!

One-Night-Only Month continues with The Cabin in the Woods! Ben, Bree, and Sam discuss Drew Goddard's 2011 horror-comedy satire. Directed by Drew Goddard, written by Joss Whedon and Goddard, and starring Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford.

...And we're back! There's not enough true romance in the world these days. If you can't be friends with someone across the country for 20 years and then start a blended family together in LA, what can you really do anymore? The guys are wrapping up Your Place or Mine (2023), starring Reese Witherspoon, Ashton Kutcher, Zoë Chao, Jesse Williams, Wesley Kimmel, Tig Notaro, and Steve Zahn. 

Is it going to drive anyone else nuts that the title of this movie doesn't have a question mark? Just Jared? Russ and Jared are cruising through Your Place or Mine (2023), starring Reese Witherspoon, Ashton Kutcher, Zoë Chao, Jesse Williams, Wesley Kimmel, Tig Notaro, and Steve Zahn. Long time listeners know the guys love a good montage, but will this movie go too far? (Probably not, it's not The Kissing Booth) Stay tuned for part 2 on Thursday!

Happy (almost) Valentine's Day to those who celebrate from your pals at ITMT! There's the smell of romance and comedy in the air, and what better way to celebrate than with another bad movie? The guys are falling in and out of love with the trailer for Your Place or Mine (2023), starring Reese Witherspoon, Ashton Kutcher, Zoë Chao, Jesse Williams, Wesley Kimmel, Tig Notaro, and Steve Zahn. Friends of the pod galore and a terrible premise, what's not to love?! Stay tuned for the full, scene-by-scene breakdown next week.

Larsa Pippen discusses her sex life, but is shower stuff sex? Our crew makes the important determination. Then, Jim Harbaugh, the NFL, and a discussion on the most successful siblings. Plus, our Friendly Neighborhood Race Lady Jemele Hill stops by to discuss the Detroit Lions, Todd Bowles and the weather, Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola's approach to concussions, and Bradley Cooper. Also, Billy has a comparison for Taylor Swift: Grey's Anatomy actor, Jesse Williams. He'll explain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"My father said that when you look at the cultural traditions of people, the European cultural tradition is a generation makes a mask. They put it up on the wall, put a glass box around it, and they point to it and say that's the greatest mask that's ever been made. The African tradition is every generation makes their own mask. So what we see with this constant creativity, this constant improvisation is a very human, African, homo sapiens tradition of not taking something and classicizing it to the point that nothing can be created beyond it and the generations after just have to kneel. It's about moving the culture forward."  Raoul Roach My guest is Raoul Roach, the son of the iconic and internationally revered jazz musician, Max Roach. Born in 1924, Max was firmly entrenched in activism, civil rights, and the social justice movement of the sixties and seventies. As a result, growing up, Raoul had a strong interest in social activism, being exposed to and mentored by some of the most pivotal black figures of that period, including Maya Angelou, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, and Alvin Ailey.Born and raised in New York City by age fifteen, Raoul was cutting his teeth working for his legendary dad, first as an office assistant, a roadie, and eventually Max's road manager, before ultimately producing several of his concerts. As a 40-year upper echelon executive of the music industry, Raoul has worked with the biggest names in entertainment from Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, and Anita Baker. Raoul helmed the successful turnaround of Jones's Qwest Records as the organization's co-executive director.Raoul also co-founded and pioneered Harry Belafonte's social justice entertainment enterprise, Sankofa.org, as the organization's co-executive director along with Gina Belafonte. Raoul executed the recruitment of artists and celebrities such as; Usher, Jay Z, Beyoncé, Jesse Williams, John Legend, Common, Dave Matthews, Carlos Santana, Michael B Jordan, T.I., and many more in coordination with grassroots organizations and activists to produce, films, music videos, social media campaigns, PSA's, concerts and major festivals. These initiatives raised resources for non-profit organizations as well as awareness to impact social movement and social justice.Currently, Raoul is coordinating along with his siblings Max Roach 100, an 18-month international centennial celebration of his father's music and life that includes film, documentaries, social media, concerts, exhibitions, new and previously unreleased recordings. Experience the groundbreaking sounds of bebop pioneer and virtuoso composer Max Roach, whose far-reaching ambitions were inspired and challenged by the inequities of the society around him. "American Masters – Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes" premieres Friday, October 6 at 9/8c on PBS. HOW WE MOVE Stay tuned to the end of the guest interview when international speaker, writer and diplomat Ambassador Shabazz (daughter of Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz) spends a few moments unpacking the discussion and highlights some of the interesting people, places and things that have her attention.   Instagram: Corner Table Talk  and Post and Beam Hospitality LinkedIn: Brad Johnson E.Mail:  brad@postandbeamhospitality.com For more information on host Brad Johnson or to join our mailing list, please visit: https://postandbeamhospitality.com/ Theme Music: Bryce Vine Corner Table™ is a trademark of Post & Beam Hospitality LLCSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Life transitions are often some of the most difficult experiences for people to work through.  Whether you're facing a career change, a personal evolution, a shift in your health or relationships, or moving to a new home, change requires the skill of adaptability. In today's episode, our guest, Jesse Williams, reflects on the life experiences that helped him hone his skill of adaptability, and reveals the wide variety of areas where that skill became the lynch pin of his success. Although Jesse would describe himself as a washed up athlete, he is anything but that.  Growing up on the south-side of Brisbane, Australia, he rose from playing for the local football team to moving to America, playing as a powerful anchor on the defensive front at Arizona Western.  There, his exceptional skills led him to become America's top recruit, earning him a position at the University of Alabama, where he played a vital role in securing two National Championships.  Defying all expectations, Jesse was drafted to the Seattle Seahawks, becoming the only Australian to win a Super Bowl.  A husband, father, and coach, Jesse now speaks worldwide about his journey as an athlete and cancer survivor, working to provide opportunities for the next generation and using football as the catalyst. Despite the fact that Jessie talks a lot about sport, and a good bit about strength and conditioning, at its core, this episode is about transitioning into different cultures, finding yourself throughout the process, and learning how to take your platform and use it for something bigger than yourself. Some of the specific topics we get into are, The childhood adversity that laid the foundation for his success (12:20) The life transitions that forced him to become a better communicator (19:45) Specific skills that transferred from being an athlete to a coach and entrepreneur (32:20) The lessons he learned from the coaching staff at Alabama - what it means to “do your job” at the highest level (39:20) About Jesse/ How to Support His Cause: LinkedIn Instagram Link Tree - find information on Gridiron Australia and speaking requests here X - @GridironAust Referenced Resources: Ask us anything!  Go to artofcoaching.com/question for anything you'd like us to speak on or if you'd simply like us to help you get started finding the answers you're looking for! Podcast E266: How to Find Your Voice & Get Out of Your Head Art of Coaching Staff Development:  Consistent professional development is a non-negotiable if we want to perform and stay relevant in our field.  And as the leader of a staff or department, we do our best to promote an environment of consistent growth and high performance in all areas - both in technical skills and on the interpersonal side of things.  However, despite our efforts, organized and routine continuing education often gets pushed down the priority list when compared to all the other responsibilities we have on our plates.  That's why we at Art of Coaching have created a virtual staff development program, which is tailored to the needs and goals of your staff and department.   This program is NOT just an inspirational, “rah rah,” type of experience.  Specific and customized to your mission and values, we provide you and your staff with educational resources and guide you through discussion, tools, and strategies you can use to grow together in the areas of building trusting relationships, becoming better communicators, and strategically approaching hard conversations. Reach out to us HERE for more information.

TICKETS TO OUR 2023 TOUR ARE NOW ON SALE! BREAKING: Jesse Williams assigns his kids extra homework? Jenna Dewan broke her pinkie? Ashley Tisdale is an "Amazon Person"? What do all these extremely boring tabloid stories have in common? It's more stupid than you think. The Daily Mail thinks they're dragging Kate Beckinsale... but are they? Lauren Sanchez's bachelorette party ft. Kris Jenner; Normani gets a new manager (thank god); Megan Fox wrote a book of poetry; Tana Mongeau loses a podcast sponsor because she had a bad time on an Italian wine tour. No, really! Plus, T*yl*r Sw*ft (unintentionally?) steals the spotlight at a big Who Wedding and Noah Cyrus steals the spotlight (intentionally) at another big Who Wedding (her mom's). Call in at 619.WHO.THEM to leave questions, comments & concerns for a future episode of Who's There?. Support us and get a TON of bonus content over on Patreon.com/WhoWeekly To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this special milestone Episode number 100, we take a moment to reflect on an incredible journey and express our heartfelt gratitude to you, our dedicated listeners. Today we're celebrating authenticity and its profound meaning to each of us. Listen in as I invite you to look back at how embracing one's unique expression of authenticity has paved the way for the leadership journey for the guests in the last 99 episodes of the show. Plus, an invitation to discover what authenticity means to you. KEY TAKEAWAYS [0:00] - Celebrating Episode 100: A Special Journey of Authentic Leadership[00:00] - Welcome to milestone Episode 100! [00:17] - Gratitude for you, the listener, and Judi Fox whose persuasion led to the public debut of the podcast.[01:01] - Saluting our first guest, Raj Kapoor, who fearlessly stepped into the unknown as the first guest of the show. [01:16] - Special thanks to SquadCast the remote recording software solution I use to record every episode and the incredible Squadcaster community. [01:34] - A special thank you to Harry Duran Founder and CEO FullCast for strategically better episodes, and to the skillful hands at ProPodcast Solutions for making me sound good. [01:58] - Thanks to Adam Adams from Grow Your Show for steering us to remarkable growth.[02:09] - The artists behind our visuals: Rich Sullivan and Robby Beller.[02:17] - And a big shout out with gratitude to Nicholas (aka Nico) Cattaneo, and the musical ensemble behind our theme music - Tony Savarino and Jesse Williams.[02:46] - Beating the odds. [03:39] - Celebrating authenticity: the core of leadership.[04:41] - Decoding authenticity: drilling beyond the buzzwords to get to the true essence of authenticity and its connection to leadership.[05:42] - A story about the reason behind Taylor Swift's success and how authenticity propels individuals towards greatness. [06:46] - Three major insights from my conversations with extraordinary leaders. [07:25] - The journey to authenticity: embrace, don't conform, unless you're an a**hole, then do better (from Episode 98 with Vyra Scher). [08:29] - The spectrum of authenticity, based on how you want to design your professional...

Clea and Joanna share that Jesse Tyler Ferguson—a   previous Best Friend Energy guest—has a new podcast called Dinner's on Me! On his show, he's breaking bread with big-name friends—old and new—for a delicious meal and candid convos that can only happen over a glass of wine.   He's getting out of the studio and into his favorite restaurants in LA and   NYC with guests like his on-screen Modern Family sister Julie Bowen, Kristen   Bell, Fred Armisen, Jesse Williams, and so many more. He and his guests will get vulnerable about everything from relationships and family history to mental health and imposter syndrome. They'll laugh about his attempted modeling career and being starstruck by Beyoncé. Look, will a chocolate soufflé get him to reveal all his secrets? Yeah. Yeah, it will. So, join Jesse… dinner's on him. Dinner's on Me is a Sony Music Entertainment production. Want to be the first to get new episodes of Dinner's on Me? Subscribe to Dinner's on Me PLUS to get access to new episodes one week early and completely ad-free. Just click ‘Try Free'   at the top of the Dinner's on Me show page on Apple Podcasts to start your free trial today. To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email   podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Find more great podcasts from Sony Music   Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us at @sonypodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit   podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jesse Tyler Ferguson is breaking bread with big-name friends—old and new—for a delicious meal and candid convos that can only happen over a glass of wine. He's getting out of the studio and into his favorite restaurants with people like his on screen Modern Family sister Julie Bowen, Kristen Bell, Fred Armisen, Jesse Williams, and so many more. A celebrity-interview podcast, who's doing that? No one. Which is why Jesse needed to. He and his guests will get vulnerable about everything from relationships and family history, to mental health and imposter syndrome. They'll laugh about his attempted modeling career and being starstruck by Beyoncé. Look, will a chocolate soufflé get him to reveal all his secrets? Yeah. Yeah, it will. So, join Jesse… dinner's on him.  Dinner's on Me is a Sony Music Entertainment production.  Want to be the first to get new episodes of Dinner's on Me? Subscribe to Dinner's on Me PLUS to get access to new episodes one week early and completely ad-free. Just click ‘Try Free' at the top of the Dinner's on Me show page on Apple Podcasts to start your free trial today.  To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com  Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us at @sonypodcasts  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grey's Anatomy star and my Take Me Out co-star Jesse Williams joins me at Pijja Palace, an Indian American sports bar in L.A.'s hip Silver Lake neighborhood. Over green chutney pizza, wings and soft serve – we dig into our relationships with our fathers, his childhood moving place to place, and we share some humiliating early career stories. Join us! Want next week's episode now? Subscribe to Dinner's on Me PLUS. As a subscriber, not only do you get access to new episodes one week early, but you'll also be able to listen completely ad-free! Just click “Try Free” at the top of the Dinner's on Me show page on Apple Podcasts to start your free trial today. A Sony Music Entertainment & A Kid Named Beckett production. To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Find out more about other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm breaking bread with big-name friends—old and new—for a delicious meal and candid convos that can only happen over a glass of wine. We're getting out of the studio and into my favorite restaurants across Los Angeles and New York City with people like Julie Bowen, Kristen Bell, Fred Armisen, Jesse Williams, Niecy Nash-Betts, and so many more. I know, a celebrity-interview podcast, who's doing that? No one. Which is why I needed to. We'll get vulnerable about everything from relationships and family history, to mental health and imposter syndrome. We'll laugh about my attempted modeling career and being starstruck by Beyoncé. Look, am I saying a chocolate soufflé is going to get me to reveal all my secrets? Yeah. Yeah, I am. So, join me… dinner's on me. Coming May 23rd, Dinner's on Me is a production of Sony Music Entertainment and A Kid Named Beckett Productions. Want to be the first to get new episodes of Dinner's on Me? Starting on May 23rd, you can subscribe to Dinner's on Me PLUS on Apple Podcasts, to get access to new episodes one week early and completely ad-free. To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us at @sonypodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The ladies are back this week discussing Ellen Pompeo's not-so-ceremonious exit from the iconic show ‘Grey's Anatomy.' After 19 seasons, Ellen finally says goodbye to Meredith Grey. Next, Juliet and Amanda discuss ‘Your Place or Mine', starring Ashton Kutcher, Reese Witherspoon, and Jesse Williams. They also discuss Rihanna's British Vogue cover, featuring her baby boy and A$AP Rocky, and more! Hosts: Juliet Litman and Amanda Dobbins Producer: Jade Whaley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We have another Grey's Anatomy cast member in the O.R.! Becca and Tanya hang out with Midori Francis (Dr. Mika Yasuda) and we talk ALL things Greys! Midori is sharing so many behind the scenes stories and we break down why this season might be the best season yet! And she shares what it was like meeting Jesse Williams on his return!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Broads are back to chat life updates, pop culture, and a #broadsquad update! First Jess gives a recap of her and her daughter's Rupaul DragCon experience (the amazing and the hilarious) and Bekah chats about why Grayston may never go to Disneyland again! Then (00:35:00) they dive into pop culture discussions about Bekah's Arie Luyendyk theory, Jesse Palmer becoming the official Bachelor in Paradise host, Kravis' wedding, Kourtney and Travis' PDA in front of Scott, Kendall's cucumber fiasco, Julia Fox's grocery store undies, Jess' Jesse Williams' d*ck pic rage, and Cara Delevinge/Megan Thee Stallion!   THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: ***THRIVE MARKET: Join Thrive Market today to get 40% off your first order AND a FREE gift worth over $50 at THRIVEMARKET.COM/CHATTY  ***FRAMEBRDIGE: Go to FRAMEBRIDGE.COM and use promo code CHATTYBROADS to save an additional 15% off your first order! ***FIRST PERSON: Get 15% off your first order at GETFIRSTPERSON.COM with code CHATTY ***AWAY: Start your 100-day trial and shop the entire Away lineup of travel essentials at AWAYTRAVEL.COM/CHATTY    ADVICE EPISODE INVOLVING #BROADSQUAD UPDATE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/377-someones-man-is-sus-someone-needs-to-make-a-move/id1441571050?i=1000556282662 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Senate failed to pass a bill on Wednesday that would effectively codify the right to an abortion. The bill, called, “The Women's Health Protection Act,” was expected to fail because Democrats didn't have enough votes to pass it and beat a filibuster. Democratic New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand joins us to discuss what comes next.And in headlines: Palestinian-American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed in the West Bank, over 107,000 people died from a drug overdose last year in the U.S., and someone leaked footage of actor Jesse Williams naked in a Broadway show.Show Notes:Ban Off Our Bodies Rally on May 14th – https://bit.ly/3P1KxgNDonate to abortion funds, take action and more via Vote Save America – votesaveamerica.com/roeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/whataday/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

Luenell talks about a deleted scene we never saw in ‘Borat' where she and Sacha Baron Cohen parodied ‘Baywatch'. Adam and Luenell swap stories about getting their starts in stand-up and their experiences performing in ‘Netflix is a Joke'. Gina reports on today's news including: Mario Batali being cleared of all charges, a guy landing a plane when his pilot fell ill, James Cromwell supergluing his hand to a Starbucks counter, a Dolly Parton Mexican Pizza musical, and the leaked nudes of Jesse Williams. THANKS FOR SUPPORTING TODAY'S SPONSORS: BlindsGalore.com HyundaiUSA.com BonnerPrivateWines.com/Adam