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Seth welcomes the three previous hosts of Late Night -- series creator David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon -- in this collection of conversations from the archives.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Paul Leary in conversation with David Eastaugh https://buttholesurfersmovie.com/ THE BUTTHOLE SURFERS ARE LEGENDS. NO ONE FLEW THEIR FREAK FLAG HIGHER. The band exploded onto the underground music scene in the 1980s, amazing a growing audience as they built one of the most mind-boggling surrealist rock and roll spectacles ever devised. Their very name was a fuck you to the straight, conformist, homophobic Reagan ethos of the time. They were radically inclusive and pushed the limits of artistic expression and lifestyle. They lived on the edge – nomadic art-punk pioneers on an endless tour, blowing minds and spreading their art to a cult following. When they started, their name was so shocking newspapers wouldn't print it. Ten years later, Beavis and Butthead and Letterman were saying it on prime-time national TV. Insiders always knew how important they were: one of Kurt Cobain's favorite bands, Perry Farrell asked them to perform at the first Lollapalooza, Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones produced their first major label record, and their fans are a who's who of some of the world's most influential artists.
What happens when a 53-second performance on live television outrages a sitting US President and sparks early cancel culture?
There is a version of leadership that looks effortless from the outside. The one where the leader always has the answers, always holds the vision, always appears composed. And then there is the version that happens in private, at 5:00 AM, when your mind is rehearsing every possible failure and no one can see it. What surprises most people is how often those two versions belong to the same person. In part two of my conversation with Christian O'Connell, breakfast radio host heard by hundreds of thousands of Australians every morning, we get into the parts of leadership nobody talks about publicly. Christian opens up about the loneliness of leading a team, the night he finally put his thoughts on a whiteboard and told his people the truth about how he'd been feeling, and why he believes his next book will be about leadership because nobody warned him how hard it would be. If you have ever found yourself carrying something heavy at work and deciding the most responsible thing to do as a leader is keep it to yourself, this conversation will make you question whether that instinct is actually protecting your team or just protecting you. Christian and I discuss: Why confidence is the wrong thing to aim for before you speak in public What happened when Christian finally stopped pretending everything was fine with his team The one thing that does more for a team than any solution or action plan Why 5am is the worst possible time to trust your own thoughts The David Letterman line that changed how Christian thinks about taking risks Why Christian considers himself an accidental leader, and what he's doing about it Key quotes "Confidence is something that catches up. Momentum is more important." "It's a beautiful thing, leadership. If you get it right, it's a path of aliveness and transformation. If you get it wrong, it's the opposite." Connect with Christian O'Connell on Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn and his website. Tune in to The Christian O’Connell Show and check out his latest book Unscript: The Radical Act of Being Yourself. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast ButlerSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Forty-eight years to the same woman — in Hollywood? Dan and Peggy Rupple have been married 48 years while working inside one of the most corrosive industries on the planet. In today's episode, Aaron sits down with them to talk about God's move in Hollywood, navigating media with your kids, and the non-negotiables that held their marriage together through it all.About Dan & Peggy RuppleDan and Peggy Rupple are the founders of Master Media International, a ministry serving as a Christian presence inside the mainstream entertainment industry. Dan spent over 50 years in Hollywood — from nearly being cast in SNL's original lineup, to The Price Is Right, to Late Show with David Letterman. Peggy has walked alongside him through every chapter. Dan's new book, Glimpses: Viewing the Media Through the Lens of Faith, is available now at mastermedia.com.In This EpisodeHow Dan and Peggy met — and why they were married within a yearNearly landing Saturday Night Live before Dan came to ChristWhy Dan is more excited about God's move in Hollywood than ever beforeWhy Hollywood is in crisis — and what's filling the gapWhat the top 25 box office films of all time have in commonBe a Daniel: excellence and integrity as a Christian in the industryThe non-negotiables that protected their marriageHow to navigate movies and media with your kidsAI and the danger of losing imaginationAnd moreResourcesBook: Glimpses: Viewing the Media Through the Lens of Faith — mastermedia.comMaster Media International — mastermedia.comWindRider Film Forum — windrider.orgAct One Masters Class in screenwriting and producing — mastermedia.comPlugged In (movie reviews for parents) — pluggedin.comIf this conversation encouraged you, please share it with a couple you love, and subscribe wherever you listen.Follow us on Instagram: Marriage After God · Unveiled Wife · Husband RevolutionWant to go deeper? Become a patron and help us keep creating resources for marriages that pursue God together.Smith Family Resources, Inc © 2026
Indy 500 winner and legendary racing champion Bobby Rahal—co-owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing alongside late-night television icon David Letterman—joins the JP Emerson Show. Rahal pulls back the curtain on the unmatched teamwork, dedication, and precision that propelled him to the absolute pinnacle of American motorsports.Listen as Bobby breaks down the mind-blowing, late-race pass that secured his historic 1986 victory and reacts to hearing deeply emotional, unearthed audio of his late father. This is what it takes to live life in the fast lane. Connect with Bobby here:Website: https://rahal.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/robert.w.rahalhttps://www.facebook.com/RahalLettermanLaniganRacingInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/rllracing/X: https://x.com/rllracing Connect with Red Line Oil:www.redline.comConnect with Mecum Auctions:www.Mecum.comConnect with JP Emerson: www.jpemerson.comOlivia “Liv” Harper, PR, Marketing, & Distribution Executive: www.jpemerson.com Proudly Supporting:• Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC): Keeping families with sick children together and near the care they need. Visit www.ronaldmcdonaldhouse.org• Texas Hearing Institute: Advancing health services and spoken language education for children with pediatric hearing loss. Explore their programs at www.texashearing.org.
Send us Fan Mail Back in 2008, I had the pleasure of interviewing Peter Lassally, then winding up his extraordinary career in late night as executive producer of The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson. For close to an hour, at his office deep within CBS Television City, Lassally regaled me with stories about Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Ferguson and many others.In listening back to the conversation — for the first time in 18 years — I'm struck not just by his professionalism but also by how generous and candid he was on that day. He truly had Carson's gift for making the guest look good and feel at home.Lassally blew my mind when I asked if there was a common thread to Carson, Letterman and Ferguson. The soft spoken TV executive did not hesitate with his answer.“They have one thread — they all have mothers that didn't give them enough love.”Left unspoken was the fact that, in Lassally, they also all had one hell of a father figure. I've edited down this interview to share some of the wisdom received on that day. Condolences to his family and friends and to all who value such a first hand connection to late night broadcasting and its roots. SUGGESTION: the sound quality for this episode, where a simple digital recorder was used, is sub-standard. Lassally was very soft spoken, so you'll need to crank up the volume.
Send us Fan MailA nickname you never wanted can become the thing that gets you booked, remembered, and introduced for the rest of your career. We sit down with Bay Area stand-up Larry “Bubbles” Brown to trace how a deadpan, low-key approach cut through a high-energy comedy scene and turned into decades of steady work. If you love stand-up comedy history, comedy club stories, and the behind-the-scenes reality of being a road comic, this one is packed with the kind of details you only get from people who were actually there. We talk about Larry's early days at Laughs Unlimited, the specific weeks and lineups he still remembers, and the comics who made the learning curve feel survivable. Larry tells the true story of how Paula Poundstone coined “Bubbles,” why he resisted it, and why it ultimately helped. From there we get into longevity, including Larry's rare record of returning to the David Letterman show more than two decades after his first appearance, and what it really takes to keep a stand-up career alive year after year. Then the conversation opens up into classic road-gig chaos: a week in a condo where the Governor of California is literally next door, the strange pressures of constant travel, and even a bomb threat called into a club with the timing aimed right at stage time. We also revisit the San Francisco comedy boom, with stories that include Dana Carvey's first open mic shock and Robin Williams' reputation for supporting other comics. After the chat, we roll into a full Larry Bubbles Brown stand-up set with sharp jokes on sex, depression, marriage, aging, and politics. If you enjoy the show, subscribe, share this episode with a comedy fan, and leave a review so more people can find it. What's the weirdest thing you've ever seen at a live show?Hosted by: R. Scott EdwardsSupport the show www.StandupComedyPodcastNetwork.comWebsite....check it out, podcast, jokes, blogs, and More!"NEW" Video Podcast: Tag Team Talent Podcast on Spotify & YouTubeInterested in Standup Comedy? Check out my books on Amazon and the "BookBaby" Book Store for Discounted copies!"20 Questions Answered about Being a Standup Comic""Be a Standup Comic...or just look like one"
Conan O'Brien explains on his podcast that slicked-back “greasy” hair came from rubbing oil into a sunburned scalp after attending the outdoor Obama Museum opening, where others like Stephen Colbert and David Letterman got badly burned. The show also covers Seth Meyers mocking President Trump's World Cup-related comments and joking about a “hex” at MetLife Stadium, and Jimmy Kimmel telling Variety his ratings improved after news of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ending, while inviting Colbert to guest host (he declined). Other items include Kimmel promoting Celebrity Millionaire with Colin Jost and Michael Che, Jost discussing pronouncing Scarlett Johansson, an AGT Howie Mandel impersonator getting buzzed off, comedian Bob Marley's campfire accident, promotion of LiveOne's Weekly Comedy Thing, and Just for Laughs Montreal highlights including Mae Martin recording a Netflix special and coverage of the Nasty Show and Culture Show.00:30 Conan Hair Mystery01:51 Seth Meyers vs Trump03:22 Kimmel on Colbert03:48 Celebrity Millionaire Bits04:23 Jost Pronounces Johansson05:31 Fake Howie on AGT06:22 Bob Marley Catches Fire07:38 Poolside Podcast Chaos08:33 Weekly Comedy Thing Plug09:32 Just for Laughs Wrap09:56 Nasty Show Highlights11:00 Culture Show Lineup11:44 Summer Sunday SignoffBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/daily-comedy-news-with-johnny-mac--4522158/support.Daily Comedy News is hosted by Johnny Mac and releases every weekday. Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite app. Part of the Caloroga Shark Media network. For transcripts and show notes visit www.dailycomedynews.comDaily Comedy News with Johnny Mac is a daily podcast covering comedians, stand-up comedy, late night television, and the comedy industry. New episodes every morning. Follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Contact John at John@thesharkdeck dot com For Uninterrupted Listening, use the Apple Podcast App and click the banner that says Uninterrupted Listening. $4.99/month John's Substack about media is free.
Jason went to John Williams' Greatest Scores at the Minnesota Orchestra last night and he would like you to put a little effort in your 'fits, please. Colleen thinks Chicago is the superior sandwich town to Minneapolis -- c'mon we need some good sammies! Plus, Ryan Gosling's "La La Hand" gets fixed and Tom Holland prepares to play Fred Astaire. And we take a moment to lament the Emmys snub of "Half-Man." Jason vacation stories: Racist Golden Girls. Johnny Depp returns to Hollywood in "Ebenezer" -- are we ready for his comeback? Oprah is getting Jason excited to read "Theo of Gold." And BIG FAT THEATER REVIEW: Colleen saw "Iceboy!" Chicago's hottest play!SCREEN QUEENS: "Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross," "The Man Will Burn," Jason's YouTube rabbit hole of Minnesota on "Letterman," and Will Ferrell on "Good Hang." Plus, WEEKLY TRIVIA FACE-OFF: Dolly Parton edition! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Holly is inspired by "Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross," Colleen checked out the HBO docuseries "The Man Will Burn" about Burning Man, Jason's YouTube rabbit hole of Minnesota on "Letterman" in 1997, and Will Ferrell charms on the "Good Hang" podcast! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
There's a new sensation sweeping the nation. No, it's not talk shows. They say Kimmel is building, but not like Jimothy the Raccoon. Next week we'll have moved onto the next thing, but though his reign will be as short as his spine, he'll always be remembered.Topics:Conan O'Brien's new hairTalk shows are still badJimothy the RaccoonEarly flights are also badEthan has infinite energyAlex went to the GuthrieWhy does nostalgic food taste so bad now?Letterman's Stupid Human Tricks
Poolside host Johnny Mac covers fan reactions to Conan O'Brien's slicked-back “Greaser Conan” hair on his podcast with Molly Shannon, including jokes likening him to a drug lord. He reports on David Letterman's Montreal Comedy Festival appearance featuring Paul Shaffer, a big Canadian flag, “O Canada,” jokes apologizing for American leaders, remarks that Canada is not for sale, guest Will Arnett (SmartLess, Arrested Development, BoJack Horseman), a Will Arnett-themed top 10 list, and a closing singalong of “Takin' Care of Business” including French lyrics. Mac notes Netflix's Kevin Hart film “72 Hours,” Hart's barbs at LeBron James, and Cosmo/Hola interviews with Ben Marshall and Marcello Hernandez about the movie and comedy. He previews Weird Al's tour setlist and the Just for Laughs schedule, makes Comedy Stock Market “buys,” and plugs upcoming Rory Scovel and Whitmer Thomas specials plus Brian Bates' new special. 00:19 Greaser Conan Hair01:25 Letterman Montreal Night02:58 Kevin Hart 72 Hours03:53 Ben Marshall Profile05:55 Marcello Hart Impressions06:58 Weird Al Tour Preview09:11 JFL Schedule Rundown10:36 Comedy Stock Market Buys14:14 Why Buy Scovel Thomas15:48 Maher Netflix Skim16:10 Leslie Jones HGTV16:44 Brian Bates Special Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/daily-comedy-news-with-johnny-mac--4522158/support.Daily Comedy News is hosted by Johnny Mac and releases every weekday. Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite app. Part of the Caloroga Shark Media network. For transcripts and show notes visit www.dailycomedynews.comDaily Comedy News with Johnny Mac is a daily podcast covering comedians, stand-up comedy, late night television, and the comedy industry. New episodes every morning. Follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Contact John at John@thesharkdeck dot com For Uninterrupted Listening, use the Apple Podcast App and click the banner that says Uninterrupted Listening. $4.99/month John's Substack about media is free.
Tim Conway Jr. (07.22) HR 2 The eagle that captured the hearts of many in Southern California is still in critical condition after a brutal fight with two other eagles. This beloved bird, Jackie, has been a source of fascination for many, and her story has been closely followed by the public. But what's behind the scenes, and what's happening to help her recover? This episode of the Conway Show delves into the world of wildlife and firefighting, as the host talks to a former fire captain about the latest developments in fire season and the importance of aircraft in fighting fires. The conversation touches on the complexities of fire season, the role of aircraft in firefighting, and the challenges faced by firefighters. The host also shares a personal anecdote about seeing a bald eagle in real life, highlighting the majesty and size of these birds. Meanwhile, the show's whip-around segment sparks a lively discussion about the size of bald eagles, with the host and his guests sharing their estimates. The episode also explores the world of late-night comedy, as the host pays tribute to the late Peter LoSalle, a legendary producer who worked with Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Craig Ferguson. The host shares a touching story about LoSalle's remarkable life and legacy. If you're interested in learning more about the fascinating stories and topics discussed in this episode, tune in to the full show to hear the host's conversation with the former fire captain, the whip-around segment, and the tribute to Peter LoSalle.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week Duncan MacKenzie and Ryan Peter Miller head north to the Door County Contemporary Art Fair to sit down with artist, curator, writer, gallerist, and all-around art evangelist Shane McAdams. Broadcasting from a gazebo in Door County, Wisconsin, the conversation ranges from the weather, custard, and pontoon boats to larger questions about why contemporary art struggles to reach broader publics, why the Midwest needs more artist-run infrastructure, and how we might create healthier cultural ecosystems. McAdams makes the case for a bigger, messier, more porous art world—one where commercial galleries, nonprofits, academia, collectors, artists, and curious newcomers all coexist. This is a conversation about building bridges: between Chicago and Minneapolis, between contemporary art and regional audiences, between artists and the merely art-curious. It is also a reminder that art remains one of the few places where genuine meaning-making and community formation can still occur. Name Drops Shane McAdams https://www.shanemcadams.com/ Door County Contemporary Art Fair https://www.doorcountycontemporary.com/ Real Tinsel Gallery https://www.realtinsel.com/ Saint Kate – The Arts Hotel https://www.saintkatearts.com/ Peninsula School of Art https://www.peninsulaschoolofart.org/ Claire Ashley https://clairehelenashley.com/ David Letterman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Letterman Marcel Duchamp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp Robert Ryman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ryman James Audubon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_James_Audubon Mark Glimcher / Pace Gallery https://www.pacegallery.com/ Peter Buggenhout https://www.axel-vervoordt.com/gallery/artists/peter-buggenhout University of Chicago https://www.uchicago.edu/ University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art https://art.uga.edu/ Trainspotting https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117951/ Miami Art Week https://www.miamiartweek.org/
The word is franchise and the nerds start by discussing various franchise operations, both real and fictional. Specific topics include a boardgame called Fast Food Franchise, those paper food service hats, the current Bricks & Minifigs scandal, the details of mundane healthcare in a fantasy RPG world, and this week's “favorite thing” discussion, which is about restaurant franchises. Then they each report on recent events they've returned from, with Andy going to Origins where he was debuting his new game, Seven Islands, and Keith going to a bluegrass festival, where he was previewing his newest game, The Banjo King. Other topics include the game designer's problem of what to do with old prototypes, a world where everyone is named Phil, and a classic Top Ten List from David Letterman. Lastly, they extend last week's “Dream Crew” discussion to add an Ensign and a Starship.
Send us Fan MailAda Gates was born into New York high society, with a family history in America dating back to the 1700s. In 1978, she became the first woman licensed as a farrier to shoe thoroughbred racehorses in the United States and Canada, launching a career that took her far from her expected path in life.In this episode, Ada shares the story of how an unexpected trip West led to her groundbreaking career in the thoroughbred racing industry. She discusses her guest appearances on Late Night with David Letterman, What's My Line, To Tell the Truth, and The Today Show, as well as her role as farrier liaison for the 1984 Olympic Games and official horseshoe inspector for the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. Ada also talks about her service on the California Thoroughbred Foundation Board of Directors, her 2008 Edward Martin Humanitarian Award from the American Farrier's Association, her induction into the American Farriers Hall of Fame, her work on the farrier committee for the World Equestrian Games, and her current role as farrier consultant for horse trainer Monty Roberts' Online University.This episode matters to SGV viewers and anyone interested in horse racing, equine care, or stories of women breaking into male-dominated professions. Ada's journey from an unconventional beginning to decades of recognized service in the thoroughbred industry offers a firsthand account of trailblazing in a field with few women, and her recent Trailblazer of the Year Award from Women at Work, Pasadena speaks to her continued impact today.If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the MySGV Podcast and share it with someone who loves horses, racing, or stories about people who forged their own unexpected path._______________Music CreditsIntroEuphoria in the San Gabriel Valley, Yone OGStingerScarlet Fire (Sting), Otis McDonald, YouTube Audio LibraryOutroEuphoria in the San Gabriel Valley, Yone OG__________________My SGV Podcast:Website: www.mysgv.netNewsletter: Beyond the MicPatreon: MySGV Podcastinfo@sgvmasterkey.com
Nick Cellini and Chris Dimino talk everything Atlanta Sports, the National Sports picture and the current (and WAY back when) in pop culture! Get the latest and your fill of Atlanta Braves, Georgia Bulldogs, Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Hawks daily from two "Southern" Yankees daily Mon-Fri from 10a-2p! The 11 o'clock hour is brought to you by TRAJAN WEALTH; Planning for tomorrow starts today. Visit Trajan Wealth dot com to learn more about retirement and state planning Gunner Stockton joins us from SEC Media Days RedZone - Falcons training camp approaches Today In Baseball History See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What if the future of higher education depends less on old systems and more on curiosity? I speak with John Frost, vice president of marketing and enrollment management at Doane University, about his path from basketball dreams and local news to student recruitment and educational leadership. John shares how storytelling, liberal arts education, strong relationships, and applied learning can turn natural talent into career skills. We also explore AI in education, college costs, financial aid, trade schools, and why higher education is changing rather than fading away. You will find a hopeful look at student success, lifelong learning, and the human support that helps people become unstoppable. Highlights: 04:58 - Why student opportunity matters more than campus image. 12:22 - How one conversation can change a student's future. 16:51 - Why respectful disagreement keeps curiosity alive. 24:55 - How applying knowledge creates real impact. 36:28 - Why AI should support learning, not replace it. 55:12 - How higher education will keep shaping future leaders. About the Guest: How one storyteller–turned–strategist is transforming the way America thinks about college. Meet JOHN FROST, the enrollment innovator on a mission to rebuild faith in higher education. As Vice President of Enrollment Management and Marketing at Doane University, a four-year public university, John is rewriting the playbook on how colleges attract, inspire, and serve the next generation of learners. Before he led campuses, John led with a camera, as a reporter, editor, and photojournalist covering real human stories that shaped communities. That same instinct for truth and connection now drives his work in education, where he helps institutions move beyond numbers and focus on what really matters: student purpose and success. With nearly two decades of experience across Metropolitan Community College, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Doane University, John has guided organizations through shifting markets, declining enrollments, and cultural change. His leadership has sparked bold conversations around student engagement, workforce readiness, and the evolving value of a college degree. John's voice bridges two worlds, media and academia, helping audiences understand not just why college is changing, but how it can thrive again. Ways to connect with John**:** - Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/DoaneUniversity/ - Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/doaneuniversity/ - LinkedIn link: linkedin.com/school/doane-university/ - X link: https://x.com/DoaneUniversity - YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/user/DoaneCollegeNE - Website link: https://www.doane.edu/ About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson 00:04 What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't what's in front of you, but rather what you believe? Welcome to Unstoppable Mindset, where inclusion, diversity, and the unexpected meet. I'm your host, Michael Hingston, speaker, author, and advocate for inclusion and possibilities. This podcast explores how the beliefs we carry shape the way we live, lead, and connect with others. Each week, I talk with people who challenge assumptions, face adversity head-on, and show what's possible when we choose curiosity over fear. Together, we focus on mindset, resilience, and the small shifts that lead to meaningful change. Let's get started. Well, hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Unstoppable Mindset. Today we're going to have a lot of fun. Today we're going to talk to John Frost. John is an interesting kind of guy. He's a higher education strategist. He is the vice president of marketing and enrollment management at Doane University in Crete, Nebraska. And before we started, we were just talking about the weather. We're recording this on the 10th of March, and he said he's in the about 60. We're 60-eight, going up to 70-three here, so maybe spring is finally coming. We can hope. I remember once when we were still living in New Jersey. It was May of 2001. We thought the spring was here, and we got a bunch of snow one afternoon or one evening in New Jersey. Yeah. Well, the next morning, so where I I took the dogs out when we lived in New Jersey, we had to I had to actually walk down a hill, and the next morning, some of the snow started to melt, and that night the whole hillside was as slick as glass because the ice there the snow froze, so it was ice. John Frost 02:10 Oh my goodness! Michael Hingson 02:12 And so what I did was not walk down the hill. I went. I put my snow boots on, and I and I made it down once and came back up. I said I'm not doing that anymore. I had a long flex leash, and I put the long leash on each dog separately, and let them go down the hill. And I stayed at the top to make sure that they didn't slide. John Frost 02:30 It sounds, hey, I like that. It sounds like you're a great strategic person because you came up with a game plan to allow them to go down up and down the hill. Michael Hingson 02:39 Yeah, I certainly wasn't going to go down that hill with him anymore because that was too scary. John Frost 02:43 Yeah, that's dangerous. Michael Hingson 02:45 Well, John, welcome to Unstoppable Mindset. We're glad you're John Frost 02:49 here. Hey, I'm happy to be here, and thank you for allowing me to be on your platform and taking time out of your day. And I'm looking forward to the great discussion that we're going to have. Michael Hingson 02:57 Well, and taking the time out of your day, we appreciate that too. So it's it's 2o'clock there. So by the time we're done, it's going to be time for the afternoon coffee break. John Frost 03:06 Hey, hey, good call, great call. Michael Hingson 03:10 Well, tell us kind of about the early chon growing up. Yeah, that's fun to start there. John Frost 03:15 Yeah, that's a great question. So one of the things I always like to share with people is that when I was a young man, I wasn't planning to go to college to work at a college. That wasn't the game plan. If anything, just like a lot of young, especially young boys growing up in North Carolina, we want to grow up and play basketball. And I thought I was going to go to the NBA, and we all know the greatest basketball player of all time is Michael Jordan. He's from North Carolina, so we all dreamed of that dream. But you know, I played sports growing up. I was fortunate enough to to get an athletic scholarship to go to college, and went to college. Didn't really know exactly what I was going to do already. Well, I finished at Wayne State College, and got my bachelor's degree there. But you know, while I was there, I figured out like, okay, I'm not going to the NBA. What I'm going to do, and so somebody, somebody was like, hey, you know, John, you don't mind, you know, connecting with people, having conversations. You don't, you're not, you're not afraid to talk in public. Maybe you should think about going into broadcasting, and so that's what I started to study. And so I was fortunate enough to get a communications degree, and then I was from that point I went and worked in local news for about four years. So I was able to be a reporter and a photojournalist and an editor, and was able to connect with a lot of people and tell a lot of stories, but the unique thing about doing news is that the only opportunity you have with the story is just to share it. Right? You can't really impact it. And so, one of the things that I appreciate about higher education is that when I transitioned to higher education after four years in local news, I realized. I had the ability to impact the story, so it wasn't just about sharing the story of the individuals that I serve. It was about making their stories a little bit better through education, and so I started my career in higher education as a recruiter, worked my way up, worked at you know for profits and private schools and state schools, colleges and universities, and and now I'm fortunate enough to be the vice president at Doan University, and I've been here for about three years. So that's kind of like a little snapshot of my story. Michael Hingson 05:28 How long were you in broadcasting? John Frost 05:30 For about four years. About four years, Michael Hingson 05:33 sir. And then you went to the schools, huh? John Frost 05:35 Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Michael Hingson 05:36 Wow. So you went. So where did you where did you start, and what kind of colleges did you did you go to all over the country, or what? John Frost 05:46 Yeah. So what's funny is when I started my career in higher education, I started out as a recruiter, and I was working for a for-profit institution. And here's a unique thing: the school that I worked at was in a strip mall, so you could go to Sears and look at a lawnmower, and you can go to Verizon and get a phone, and you can go to the Slurpee shop and get you a slushie, and then you come talk to me about about college. And one of the things that taught me about working at a college in a strip mall was you really had to get to understand the students, and it wasn't about all the glitz and glamor that you may think about a traditional college. It was still about the opportunity. It was about the dream, and that's what I learned when I first started out as a recruiter: is being able to help somebody to make their dream into a reality and having those great conversations. Michael Hingson 06:38 How did you learn the art of storytelling? What what is it that that caused that to happen? Because it sounds like it's kind of natural for you, but did you learn it growing up or what? John Frost 06:49 Well, you know what? That's a great question. One of the things I like to share with people is the art of dialog, right? Just discussion, engagement, and growing up as a kid in North Carolina, we didn't have too much, but we always was able to run our mouths. Right, we was always able to talk. We was always able to talk about what we did or what we didn't do because, as you know, back in the day, we didn't have camera phones. We didn't. We didn't have all this technology that captured everything that we did. And so, when you would when you would you know get somebody's attention, you had to hold it. You couldn't just say, "Hey, I played basketball and it was fun. It would be like, "Hey, I played basketball and I did this move, and this guy tried to guard me, and I blocked the shot and I did this. Or even if you went down the street because your mom wanted you to go get a you know a gallon of milk or a carton of eggs, that was the story behind it because you got chased by a dog and and or whatever. So I think the the the art of storytelling is just something that's natural to the human spirit. But then also not just talking about your story, but being able to understand somebody else's and and being able to connect with them because if you talk to people long enough, you'll find a connection. Michael Hingson 08:02 Yeah, did did your parents encourage storytelling, or did they think about that at all? John Frost 08:07 You know, that's a great question. My dad was probably one of the greatest storytellers I ever met. He was, I mean, the stories that he would tell me about how he grew up, the things that he experienced. I mean, even though he may not had a photo, even though he may not have had like video, he can get you to where he was at, and you could and you could see it. I mean, my dad was a was a guy that could tell you a story, and he'll tell you about hey, because he grew up around a bakery, and he would tell you how the bread smelled. So no matter what the story meant, he would always start off well. You know, I grew up by a bakery, and this is what it smelled like. And and and you would get yourself to that point. And so I would say, if I if if my ability to tell the story, I would say I got that from my dad. Michael Hingson 08:54 Yeah. So it it was something that you learned. Now, are there other kids in your family, or just you? John Frost 09:00 No. So I'm fortunate enough to have. I'm the youngest out of four, so I have an older brother. I had an older sister, and I have another older sister. But unfortunately, she passed away probably like 16 years ago. So, yep. But so it's just three of us now. But but yeah, you know, I was the youngest, so I was the one that's always causing trouble. Michael Hingson 09:24 Well, gives you something to do in your free time. Yeah, exactly. Did did the other two also grow up to tell stories and and appreciate John Frost 09:35 it? Yeah, they was they grew up to tell stories. They couldn't tell them as good as I could, though. But no, my brother he he spent 25 years in the military in the Air Force, and was a Persian linguist, and so he has some really cool stories about his travels in the military. He still works for the military right now as a civilian, and my sister. She works in behavior science. She helps with social work and things like that. And my oldest sister, she helped run her own business before she passed away. Michael Hingson 10:10 Now you were in the military for 24 years. John Frost 10:12 No, my my brother. My brother was okay. I wasn't Michael Hingson 10:15 sure. Okay, great. Yeah, my brother. That makes more sense. Time. Yeah, yeah. No, John Frost 10:18 no. He he decided to take that route. I didn't. Michael Hingson 10:20 Cool. Well, but you're going to claim credit for being the best of the three in storytelling. John Frost 10:26 Absolutely. There you go. Michael Hingson 10:29 And and how would they react if they heard us talking about that? John Frost 10:32 It don't matter. They're not on the call, so it's all good. Michael Hingson 10:37 Good point. Can't can't argue with that. So you. you, so you were in broadcasting for four years, and then you went into to different things in higher education. Why did you end up going into higher education? You know, why didn't you continue in broadcasting, or what happened? John Frost 10:57 Well, you know, I love broadcasting. Don't get me wrong, and it was it was. But I always say broadcasting is a is a very unique career path. You always running and gunning, and I worked here in Lincoln, Nebraska. So you know you doing snow stories, you doing Husker football, you doing things about the budget, things about whatever the government the governor is saying, and at some point, I know for me personally, it was a guy that I ran into who who done what I did when I was in news for 30 years, and one of the things that he had shared with me was don't get jaded, don't go to a story and it's just another story. Don't forget the the human approach. Don't forget the people that you're talking about. And he said the mistake that he made was again he did this for 30 years. He said he he got he stayed in the business too long, that it was just another day. It was just a job. And when he shared it with me, that made me have a lot of time for reflection and thinking about okay, so what is it that I really want to do? Even though I love the broadcasting field, it was always on the go, which I loved to do. I said, "Is there something else for me to to do? And I didn't know anything about higher education, you know. To be honest with you, sir, I did not. Other than I went to college, that's about good as it was. I didn't understand the business. Yeah, yeah. I didn't know the business of higher education and things like that. But anyway, you know, I remember back in the day, I just was curious and looking at some different options, and I happened to apply for a recruiter job. And when I went in for the interview, they said, "Hey, you know, your job is to have conversations with people and try to get them enrolled in school. I was like, "Well, that's simple enough. I don't have to be out in the cold, you know, covering snow stories anymore. And I'm from North Carolina, so I don't have to worry about covering Husker football no more. And then, you know, I get to really make an impact. So that's all it was. It was just, you know, I was still a young man. I was still looking to find my way, and I was fortunate to find higher education. Michael Hingson 13:04 So, when you did recruiting, what what's a favorite story and success that you had at recruiting? John Frost 13:10 Oh, thank you! I love when people ask me this question. So, I always share in my colleague Andrew's in the room with me, helping me do this podcast, and he's probably heard this story like 13,000 times, but you know, Michael, the best story that I like to share is the story when I was a first, and I started out as a recruiter, not really knowing what I was doing. But I had a conversation with a young lady. She was a single mom, and she was a single mom, and we went through the whole process of talking about her goals and her dreams and how we can help, but then as we was kind of finishing up, you know, kind of getting towards the end of the process of the conversation, started getting teary-eyed, and so my first thing is like, oh my goodness, what's going on? Why is she getting teary-eyed? Like, what did I say? What did I do wrong? And then you know, I paused there, and she looked at me, and she said, "You know, you're the first person ever tell me that I can accomplish this goal. You're the first person ever tell me I can do this. And right then and there, sir, that's when I realized what the opportunity I had in front of me is that she went on to get her degree and went and get a master's degree, but with whatever was going on in her life, that was a that was a game changer, and I was happy and fortunate enough to be a part of that. And so that's when I realized what I get to do for recruitment, and I never forgot about that. And and when people ask about why we're successful in doing the things that we're doing, I think you never forget that that it's not just a job. It's an honor. It's a privilege to get to change people's lives through education. Michael Hingson 14:47 You know, going back to what your your friend in the the media for 30 years said, I I agree with that. I have been a speaker now for 24 years, and my belief is it's it's. Never about me. It's about what I can do to be involved and enhance what goes on at an event where I'm invited to come and speak. And I I spend time asking the event organizers what kind of messaging do you want? What can I do? How can I best be of of help to you in making this event as successful as possible because I know there are so many speakers who think it's all about them and and it's not it's it certainly isn't for me so I hear what you say about him saying don't ever let yourself get jaded because that I can see how it could happen, but but I've always just believed that's that's not the way to go. You know, we've got a lot of things going on in the media, and in in our country today, and I talk to so many people who say I don't even watch the news anymore because it just upsets me and so on, and and I say, look, one of my basic philosophies is: don't worry about what you can't control. Focus on what you can. That doesn't mean you're not aware of the other stuff going on, but you don't have to let it affect you because you're not going to be in a position to really control it. Actually, you can once every four years, and that's at the ballot box. But John Frost 16:16 yeah, Michael Hingson 16:17 but but the bottom line is, you can you can still watch the news, but you can choose not to let it affect you and drive you crazy, and and I think that's so important. And you know, all of the all of the presidents lately have all done things that were productive, and they've done things that weren't productive. And you know, we can't. I I I love to say I'm an equal opportunity abuser, which is why we don't talk about politics much on the podcast. But you know I remember so much when the when Barack Obama was about to be inaugurated as president, and I was watching the Letterman show one night, and and Letterman was bemoaning the fact that it's going to get boring around here. We're not going to have a president to pick on anymore. We got a good guy coming in, so you know you knew where he stood. But you know we can't we can't tell the jokes. Well, you know that didn't last very long, but that's okay. But we have control over what we let affect us. It doesn't mean that we don't need to be aware, but we can control whether we allow it to affect us and bother us or not. And I think that's part of the whole art of conversation because we're in a world where people don't want to talk to each other. If you don't believe what I believe, then you're wrong, and and that's just not the way to do John Frost 17:39 it. No, I agree 100% and that and that's one of the things I like to tell people about the how important a college campus is. It's one of the few places still on the planet and in our country where you can agree to disagree, and it's okay. It's called class, right? Yeah. And so, and and you can have different conversations. You can you can share different perspective. The one thing about I think sometimes when we leave college that we forget is that we forget the ability to still be curious, right, and still want to learn and still want to understand. It's not about being right; it's about getting it right. And so I think that's one of the most powerful things that happens on a college campus is that you still are somewhat not forced, but you encourage to engage with people from different walks of life for different perspectives and things like that. So, really good point, and I think it just feeds into what we do here on a college campus. Michael Hingson 18:36 Do you find that that's true across colleges that people are still able to to participate in the art of conversation? John Frost 18:44 Yes, one of the things that one of the things that I've been fortunate enough to do, especially in my role, and I've done it at every school that I worked at, is that I like to sit in the classroom. I like to go to the classes to see what's going on, and I'm telling you, and it never fails. I mean, there's a lot of opinions and thoughts about the future and about the current generation and the future generations, but man, their thought patterns, their ability to kind of have different discussions and conversations. I mean, it's 10 times better than it was when I was that age because they do have access to so much information, so they they can construct a really great argument. One of the things that you see in the classroom is them being able to know how to learn how to deal with disagreement, and so that's been taking place. But yeah, I think the art of conversation is still profound, and I think it's still being encouraged in our classrooms by our faculty members. Michael Hingson 19:44 Isn't it great when you're in a classroom or you're either involved or observing a conversation, and someone just comes up with something incredibly-and I don't mean this in a bad way-but unusual or profound that you never thought of, and maybe the other people hadn't thought of. That's the whole issue with thought patterns, and people just come up with unique things that make you go off in different directions. John Frost 20:07 Yes, yes, it's a beautiful thing. Michael Hingson 20:09 Fun, yeah, John Frost 20:10 fun. It's a beautiful thing. That's what I say. It's a beautiful mind, right? I mean, it's it's that's what we should be doing, right? I always say we're not here to to do this on our own. We're here to to do it together in different ways by conversation, by engagement, by agreeing to disagreeing. Sometimes when somebody disagrees with you, it challenges you to think a little different to make sure what you're saying is: Do you really believe that, or you just saying what you think you know, right? And so I think it's a beautiful thing, Michael Hingson 20:40 and I think it's great when professors contribute to that and make you think in different directions, and you don't even need to know what what they actually think about whatever. Although I'm sure that that usually comes out as as time goes by. But still, if they make people think, then that's a good thing. John Frost 20:59 Yes, yes, Michael Hingson 21:01 it's so important to do, and I think it's important that that all of us do that. I know I had an academic advisor who spent lots of time with me. He was the dean of physical sciences, actually. So I'm not quite sure why I got Dr. Rhinos. He was the discoverer of the neutrino, but I did, and and he he and I had a lot of interesting conversations, and I hope I challenged him too. But he certainly challenged me in terms of some of the ways that that I thought about things, and sometimes we agreed, and sometimes we didn't necessarily agree. But what a what a neat guy, and and it's so great to have people that that basically are in their own way philosophers in whatever they do. John Frost 21:47 Absolutely. Speaker 1 21:51 If you enjoy Unstoppable Mindset and would like to help us continue bringing these conversations to you each week, we've created a way for you to support the show, your contribution helps us cover production costs and continue sharing stories, insights, and ideas that inspire people to live with purpose and possibility. If supporting the podcast feels right for you, you'll find the link in the show notes. Thank you for being part of the Unstoppable Mindset Community. Michael Hingson 22:24 So, what did you do after recruiting? How long did you recruit, and what did you do after that? John Frost 22:30 Well, I mean, I was fortunate enough to to always get promoted and move up, but I'm always recruiting. I always tell people I'm always selling because we're always selling the opportunity of education. I don't, whatever role that I may have, if it's a director or if it's a assistant director or vice president, I feel like the most important role that I have is being an educational advocate. At the end of the day, I know a lot of people have their opinions about higher education or about education in general, but the one thing that I always challenge them with is that education is one of the still one of the real resources that still can change people's lives. It's it's still one of those things. People say, "Well, well, why should I do this and why should I do that? Because it works. You're looking at it. If I mean, if it wasn't for higher education, I probably wouldn't be here. I don't know what I would have done, but because of higher education, just like I mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, it provoked me to think differently about my own skill set beyond just athletics. It was about some of those soft skills, and and hey, John, you naturally don't mind conversating with people and and and talking. Like I didn't know you can get paid to talk. You know what I mean? Like I didn't know that was an option. That wasn't on the bingo card. So, but if it wasn't for education and having those conversations, as we as we talked about, I wouldn't have known that that was an option. And so, at the end of the day, I mean, I'm just a country kid from East Winston, North Carolina, who wanted to be a basketball player. Instead, I turned out to be a guy that's an educational advocate that probably did more in this role than I ever would have done by shooting a basketball. Michael Hingson 24:15 Couldn't get Michael Jordan to come and give you a few pointers, huh? John Frost 24:18 Nah, he he didn't have time for me. You know, maybe he can do that to my sons or somebody, but now he ain't have time for me. Michael Hingson 24:24 Well, you know, that's that's okay. You could have always you could have always gone off and tried to get Magic Johnson or Larry Bird. John Frost 24:31 Yeah, that's true. That's true. But I'm a Mike guy. I'm a Mike guy. Michael Hingson 24:34 Yeah, yeah, yeah, and whatever. That's that that works well. So you you've always been promoted. You said you've been at Doane for three years. Where were you before that? John Frost 24:47 Yeah, so I was fortunate enough to work at College of St. Mary, which is the the undergrad program was for all females, and the graduate program was inclusive of everybody. So I worked there for a few years, and then before. There, I was at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, in Illinois, and that was a great experience as well. And then several other places, like I said, I worked in community colleges, and and then also some private schools throughout the Midwest. And so, been a lot of different places, learned a lot. Every school is different, but they also the same. That's why I tell people because they're the same because they all are trying to do the same things and trying to help people get their educational credentials and opportunities. But they're different in how they go about it. They all have their own character. They all have their features and benefits, and they all have all have their own unique stories. And so, again, it it it ties into our discussion about stories because every person that walks one of those university halls are going to be able to have be part of that overall story of that university. Michael Hingson 26:01 I like one of the things that you said. You learned a lot. You you are always learning, and I think that's so important because the reality is you never know when a new nugget of knowledge will come and be profound and hit you right in the head, and you take it and run with it. But learning a lot is so important. John Frost 26:18 Yes, yes, and and I will piggyback on that is, you know, and something that I try to tell the people I serve and also my kids, you know, information is power. It's power, but information with application allows you to have impact, and so it's great to have the information, but if you're not applying it, then it's not going to be useful, right? Yeah. So even though we all are learners, once you learn something, the question would be, how will you use it moving forward? Michael Hingson 26:49 Yeah, and that's and that's an important part of it. It isn't enough to let it build up inside of you and have all this information if you're not doing something with it. What good John Frost 26:58 is it? Absolutely. Michael Hingson 27:00 And and information and knowledge changes over times. Things that maybe 30 and 40 years ago people studied are so commonplace today because there's so many new things that you know we we evolve. John Frost 27:14 Yes, yes. I always tell people, you know, 40 years ago they used to smoke in airplanes, right? Yeah. At some point, somebody figured out that wasn't a good idea because they got new information. Right. So I agree 100% to what you said. Michael Hingson 27:30 I think one of my best best examples of information is for years the movie Airplane wasn't shown on airplanes, and I flew on a flight once, and then they showed it. I was going, I can't believe it, but they're showing airplane on an airplane. That was great things people do, but but yeah, I hear what you're saying. Yeah, for for years people smoked on airplanes. They had a non-smoking section where I always sat, but still, it's great that there's not smoking. Although they still haven't totally done away with liquor on airplanes, and I've I've seen some people who've gotten pretty exposed to having a number of drinks on an airplane. I was on a flight with one guy. It was a morning flight, actually. We're flying from Ontario to Dallas, and I had gotten upgraded, so I was sitting next to this guy. He ordered a double vodka tonic, and he had nine of them. But by the time we got to Dallas, John Frost 28:26 oh wow! Michael Hingson 28:27 And I'm oh wow, my gosh! I don't know how he got off the plane, but he did. But I'm just, I guess the body adjusts. But I didn't even have one, you know. I'm whatever. Oh John Frost 28:39 my goodness! He must. He must be either either really excited or really nervous, one of the two. Michael Hingson 28:43 I don't know, one of those something, but it was pretty fascinating because he just kept ordering them, and and the other part about it was they kept bringing them. So, wow, yeah, ah, well, the world is a funny place. John Frost 28:58 It is. Michael Hingson 28:58 So tell me a little bit about Doane College, and and I know it's a liberal arts college. So tell me about that. But tell me about Doane. John Frost 29:05 Yeah, Doane University. Doane University. Michael Hingson 29:08 I said college. I'm sorry. John Frost 29:09 No, no worries, no worries. We've been around for 153 years. You don't. You don't Michael Hingson 29:14 sound that old. John Frost 29:15 That's a good one. And we have undergraduate programs. Have about 30-five undergraduate programs. Education was what was built on, was built on again educating the community, educating future leaders, and that's one of the things with our president of the university is that we build leaders. That's one of our mantras that we that we stand on. At the same time, we have opportunities for online, in person, hybrid. So we have a lot of different modalities. We also have graduate programs within business and education, leadership. In addition to that, we have Open Learning Academy. Which that that platform is built for students that may even go to other schools that are looking to take additional courses to get into medical school or some type of additional schooling, but they may not have the the right classes or skills yet, so they take those courses with Open Learning Academy, and we have a lot of non degree seeking opportunities, certifications. So Doane is just is one of those schools that's a leader in building the future. It's a leader in trying to think differently. It's it's a organization that's that's embracing the things that are changing in our society. We don't run from those things. We run we don't run from them. We run to them because we want to be the the leaders in making the world a better place, but also being able to solve problems, be able to have innovation and enhancement to the human experience, and that's what we do. So I can go on and on, but Darwin University is a wonderful place. We have the Crete campus here, which is our main campus, and then we also have class offerings in Lincoln, Nebraska, and also in the Omaha metro area. And then, as I mentioned, online. Michael Hingson 31:12 Where is Crete? John Frost 31:14 Crete is about 40-five minutes away from the state capital of Lincoln, Nebraska. Lincoln. Michael Hingson 31:19 Okay. John Frost 31:20 Yep, and it's about an hour away from the the largest city in Nebraska of Omaha. So that's where it's about at. So it's it's more on the eastern side of the state, but it's a great place to come and and get your education. Michael Hingson 31:35 So it's a liberal arts college. What does that mean exactly? John Frost 31:39 Oh, that's a great question. So the one of the things about the liberal arts is that it's a holistic view of the human experience, right? It's not just hey, I'm learning something just to learn it. It's not just focus on a physical or medical perspective. It's a overall leader, I would say, human experience, so you're not just going to come to school and focus on just your program. You're going to come to school here and get an education in the classroom and outside of the classroom. You're going to study some different things. You're going to do some worldly things. It's going to be hands-on. So the liberal arts is really big because we feel like that's what's missing. I mean, unfortunately, in higher education, sometimes people just want to get the degree and go on with their lives. We want to make sure you understand the degree that you have and how you can utilize it in a multiple of ways beyond just whatever the whatever the program was that you got your degree in. Michael Hingson 32:39 I had the pleasure last September 11th of speaking at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and I had never actually heard of MCLA, but until they they reached out to me, but it was it was kind of fun and and very enjoyable. And people asked really good, well-rounded questions when we had some Q and A sessions, which I always really appreciate. It's it's good to really get people who are are thinking, and so it was a lot of fun. John Frost 33:06 Awesome, yeah, that sounds great. Michael Hingson 33:08 Yeah, they wanted to do something around September 11th, and we did. So John Frost 33:13 yes, Michael Hingson 33:13 I I can't complain about that at all. It was um a it was a little bit of a challenge to get to, because it was the the nearest airport is Albany, and it was like, well, about an well an hour hour and 20 minutes away. But but we got there, so it worked out. So I I but I enjoy the the whole concept of what liberal arts colleges are about. I think it's important to deal with your degree, but I think it's important to also, as as you say, get a more rounded understanding and learn how to use the degree and learn to use the skills that you get. John Frost 33:48 Absolutely, absolutely. Michael Hingson 33:51 Which I think is so. What sets Doane apart? What makes Doane unique? Maybe from a lot of other places. John Frost 33:58 You know, I get that question a lot of what separates Don, and I think it's it's beholden to the individual that I'm talking to. The one thing about Don is I think that separates us from everybody else. It's not about telling somebody what they can't do. It's about figuring out how they can do it, and that's what Don does with us being a small liberal arts college. We're very hands-on, and I know a lot of colleges say that, but we're about relationships. We're not about being order takers. We're about being dream makers, and that's just as simple as I can make it. If you come to Doane University, you're not just coming just to go through the process and and go through the ups and downs of being a college student. We're trying to make sure that you understand what it is that. Because here's the thing: majority of the students that start sometimes don't know exactly what they want to do. I mean, we have a lot of students that start college and they're undecided, and so what. We like to make sure that we do is build that relationship, understand that particular student, and then come up with a game plan to get them to where they want to be. And I feel like that's what we do. We're not just going to say, "Hey, I'm interested in criminal justice, or "I'm interested in nursing, or "and we just say you go, yeah, go ahead. We have that good luck. God bless. We're going to say, hey, you know what? Tell me more about that. Why are you interested in in nursing? And again, one of the things I used to always use when people say they're interested in nursing, I'll ask these three questions. I ask these three questions. First question: Are you afraid of blood? Right. Michael Hingson 35:35 Good point. John Frost 35:36 Second question: What would you do if I vomited right now? Would you be the person that run, or would you be the person that help? And the last question: How do you feel being on your feet for 12 hours a day? Michael Hingson 35:46 Yeah, John Frost 35:47 right. So by the time I get through those questions, I kind of have a good understanding exactly if they are want to be a nurse or not. But then the follow-up question, which is the most important question, Michael, is tell me why do you want to be a nurse? Well, I want to help people, and so, granted, sometimes just like I mentioned about my story, sometimes you're limited on what your options are. So even though somebody wanted to be a nurse because they want to help people, but they may not be a good fit. However, we can show them, hey, there's a variety of ways that you can help people. It may not be nursing, but here's some other options that we can look into, and that's what separate us. That's what we do. We have a conversation, and we don't rush that conversation. It's just like what we're doing right now. We get to know each other, and we get to help. For by the time they walk across that stage, they're excited about that degree they have in their hand. Michael Hingson 36:37 That's great. I every every year I I just always make it a habit to get a physical, and there usually blood draws as part of it. And it's so fun to go in and when I sit down and they're getting the needle and everything ready to do the blood test, I say, now I just have to ask, what are you going to do if I can't stand the sight of blood? I've had a couple who fall into the trap, and then they finally figure out. Oh, this guy's blind. What's he talking about? Oh gosh. But you know, I guess I'd probably be a good nurse. I can I can answer those three questions. But you know, things things happen, and you know, you got to do what you got to do. Well, absolutely. So right now, higher education, like I think so many things are, is going through some some major changes. We're seeing so many technological advances. So higher education is being challenged to adapt faster because so many things are happening. We haven't even talked about AI, but how is Doane responding to all the the new and sometimes innovative ways of of dealing with education and and helping students progress. John Frost 37:51 Yeah, it's just like I mentioned. We embracing all the new changes. I mean, one of the things that Doan is doing is really embracing AI, looking out, looking at how do you teach the future about AI? How do you utilize it? How do you harness it in a way that it makes it something that it's a resource? It's not a shortcut, and and and use it as a prompt to again, as we talked about earlier, to to create curiosity, and it's just like I mentioned before, you know, yeah. There's conversations about higher education, but as I mentioned, I would put higher education up against any other industry about how it changed society. Like I said, it works; it changes people's lives. You have people that come from all over the world to get a college education, right? Because they know it's something that they need to have to be able to move forward in their life, and also to amplify and enhance their abilities that they have. The one thing that I say about college is that it takes those natural talents and make it into a marketable skill set, and so that's what we're doing with the rhetoric and the conversation about higher education, is it worth it? Should people still do it? The one thing that I've always said is like maybe you may not be the student that starts college right out of high school, but at some point in time, you're going to have to get some additional training. At some point in time you're going to have to go get some additional post-secondary education just to be able to progress in life, because as we all said, you know, with AI, different things with technology, different ways of thoughts, being able to work with different people-that that's what a college does, and and that's what you are investing in. That's probably going to be one of the best investments that you're going to have in your life. Michael Hingson 39:40 Do you find that there are some people who still do, or who just do treat AI as as a shortcut and try to use it to circumvent doing the real work that they need to do? John Frost 39:53 Absolutely, but I think that tells more about that person than AI. Yeah. Right. Michael Hingson 39:57 Oh, I agree. I agree. One of one of. My favorite comments about AI is back in I think it was 2022 around Christmas time. I was at a family gathering and there were a couple people there who were complaining about AI, and then teachers are so frustrated because students just write their papers using AI and you don't know that they're learning anything and. and I I popped up and I said, "You're approaching this all wrong. Let if a student wants to use AI to write their paper, let them write their paper. But what the teacher should do is collect all the papers and then take one period and call each student up to the front of the class, right in front of everybody, and give them a minute to defend their paper. John Frost 40:44 Yes, without the paper, Michael Hingson 40:46 you know either they know it or they don't, and you're going to find out very quickly who really did the work and and who didn't, and people who didn't are going to catch on pretty quickly that that doesn't work. John Frost 40:57 Yes, and isn't it funny that when you think about education, when you think about the philosophers from back in the day, you know you had some philosophers who thought writing was the wrong thing to do, right? Because they they they they would get up and just have these lone soliloquies about what they know and and challenge things. So I think it's funny that with AI allowing us to write, it's going to make us be more verbal and have to articulate our stance and perspectives on things a little bit more. So I think it's fascinating how there's a full circle approach because when you first start thinking about education and those things, it wasn't about writing long solitarys about things. It was about being able to get up and and articulate it, and so I think to your point, I think that's what is going to somewhat force us to do is people be able to get up and to defend what they're sharing with other people. Michael Hingson 41:54 Yeah, and if they're and if they're smart, they'll do it right. Yes, I've I've used AI in writing articles. I'll I'll even ask it several times to write an article about something, and then I read through them. And when I find an idea or something that I think is great, I'll incorporate it into what I write Speaker 2 42:11 to to Michael Hingson 42:12 create the article. Well, I think AI is a great tool as far as it goes, but it is a tool. Yes, and it's never going to be as smart as I am, John Frost 42:21 no, and I don't mean Michael Hingson 42:22 that in an egotistical way. It just isn't. John Frost 42:24 No, and AI can only do what we teach it, right? Michael Hingson 42:27 Right. John Frost 42:27 I mean that's the thing. And and what's fascinating is that if you look at electricity, electricity was criticized when it first came out. You know what is this going to do? When you looked at the news, well, there was that Michael Hingson 42:39 that dumb guy who sent his kite up in the air and finally shocked himself. Yeah, exactly, John Frost 42:43 Benjamin Franklin. Yeah, so I mean, throughout history, every new thing has been challenged, and it has been told that it was the beginning of the end of the world. And but you know, 1000s years later, we're still here. Michael Hingson 42:55 Yeah, but as we all know, the Earth is flat. There is still a flat Earth society out there, and they come up with pretty creative things to try to convince people the world is flat. So there you go. Yes. Ah, well, but you know, I think it's a great tool, and people will find ways to use it and use it effectively, and that's what should happen. What about higher education in general, why is, to some degree, it declining, and how do we deal with that? John Frost 43:26 And that's a great question. I'm not sure when people say that. I'm not sure if higher education is declining. I just think people are, aren't doing the normal trend of just coming to higher education straight out of high school. I think that's where the. I think most people are doing education. They're just doing it a different way. I mean, are people going to trade schools? Yes, but everybody's not going to be able to be a plumber or electrician or anything like that. I think it's not declining. I just think it's changing. To be honest with you, I just think people are looking at it from a different perspective and utilizing it, and and that's what it should do. I mean, it should not stay the same forever. And so that's why I'm fortunate enough to be in this industry because I get to be part of that conversation and process of what it's going to look like for my kids, what it's going to look like for my grandkids. To be honest, if we're doing the same things they did when I was in college, we're doing something wrong. Yeah. And so I think it's changing. I think humans are changing, and I think that's what's so exciting about what's happening in higher education right now. Michael Hingson 44:28 One of the big problems, of course, though, with higher education, and I'm I'm assuming I may be wrong, but more now than somewhat in the past is is the cost. It's getting more and more expensive to do, and I don't know whether that's a relative thing or an absolute percentage-wise. You can prove that it's more expensive, but still, how do you deal with with the people who say it's just so much more expensive to go? John Frost 44:51 Yeah, no, that's a great one. And and I think it depends on what are you looking for, right? I mean, everybody is. Looking to go to X Y Z University. I never Michael Hingson 45:03 go to X Y Z anyway. John Frost 45:05 I mean X Y Z because A B C is probably better. Yeah, exactly. But the the thing is, is understanding what is your. It's just like anything. It's an investment, and if it's an investment, it's what is your financial ability to to work towards that investment, and that again goes back to our conversations with the students that we serve, is them understanding what does it cost to come to Doane University, what does it mean to invest in Doane University, and how does that return looks like once you're done here at Doan University? The one thing that I always would tell people, I can't guarantee anything, but what I can guarantee is that you're going to do a lot better with a degree than without it, because you're going to provide yourself an abundance of options that wouldn't be available if you did not have that degree. In which, because if you have those options, that's going to allow you to be able to create revenue for yourself, that then allows you to have additional options that wouldn't have been that you wouldn't have been to have if you didn't make that initial investment up front by investing in college. But like I said, with ever since I've been in this industry, the one thing that I've always stressed to the people that I serve is, you know, understanding your financial responsibility, understanding scholarships, understanding your ability to get scholarships, understanding financial aid, understanding grants, understanding there's a variety of ways that you can get support to support you to finance college, and so that's the main thing is being able to understand those options and knowing how to move forward with those. Michael Hingson 46:38 Do you think there are some people who are better off not going to a four-year college, or rather, let's just say higher education in general. They're more technical, and they should just do a trade school. Or do you think everyone should get a a full bachelor's degree at least in college? John Frost 46:56 Yeah, and as I mentioned, I think everybody deserves the opportunity for some post-secondary education. Not does everybody need to go to a four-year school or two-year school? No. If you put me in a trade school right now, I probably flunk out. That's just not my skill set, right? Me too. Yeah. So, but I do. That's one of the Michael Hingson 47:14 reasons I never go to X, Y, Z. But yeah, John Frost 47:16 you may be more of an A, B, C. You know, yeah, and so, but that's the see, but that's the that's the uniqueness and the joy that I get in what I get to do, is that I get to help qualify what are some of the best options for the individual that I'm working with and serving, and and being able to tell them, hey, I think this is may maybe a better option, or have you thought about these particular things? Because no, I don't think everybody needs to go to Harvard or everybody needs to come to Doane. But I do think if you do decide to go to Doane, you're going to have a wonderful experience, and you're going to be able to do some really great things. But no, I think at the end of the day, is what's best fit for you, and being able to understand those post-secondary education options. Michael Hingson 48:06 How does college, or how should college, work to help people not only prepare for that first career, but for careers, especially those that perhaps we haven't even thought of yet? And how do you do that? John Frost 48:19 Yeah, I think it comes down to like we talked about the curiosity. What are you naturally good at? I think the one thing that I've seen that I guess I I wouldn't say I've been disappointed, but I've seen a decline, is that I don't I don't see a lot of people who are dreaming or curious about what they're good at. It's almost like they're waiting for somebody to tell them what it is. I don't know if that's an online thing or what have you. But even even when I was a recruiter and I would work with young people, they would say, "Well, I don't know what I want to do. And I always say, "I don't care what it is. Take the top 10 things that you dislike. I don't. It could be basketball. It can be writing. It can be candy. It can be whatever. It can be great shoes, whatever, and take the top 10 things. And we have this thing called Google. I don't know if you heard about it, but and just plug those things in there. Hey, I love candy. Is there a career in candy? I love you know looking at shoes and and understanding shoes. Is there a career? I mean the the the uniqueness of information that we have now than we had 30 years ago is amazing, and so I I think that's what I've I've seen a decline. And the way colleges can help prepare people is to to allow them to be courageous and being curious, and and Michael Hingson 49:44 oh, go ahead. No, John Frost 49:46 and I think that's the thing that we want to do. But go ahead, I'm sorry. Michael Hingson 49:48 Do you think that there's so much access to so many things online? You mentioned Google, but just the whole concept of smartphones and and everything else. Do you think that that's. Sort of helping people do less real dreaming and imagination because they just expect everything to be spelled out right in front of them. John Frost 50:09 And I think it's to the eye of the beholder. You know, smartphones are not good for dumb people, right? So, but I think smartphones for curious people are a powerful thing. I can honestly say, and this is kind of off topic, but I wouldn't consider myself a cook about 1012, years ago. But if it wasn't for the internet, if it wasn't for YouTube, I wouldn't have learned how to smoke meat and do barbecue, right? Yeah. Because that wasn't something I did when I was a kid. It wasn't something I was even thinking about, but because I had a curiosity and I and I love barbecuing and I love smoked meats and I love grilling and things like that, I I learned because of my smartphone how to do all those things, how to prep the meat and how to marinate things and how to be curious about recipes and how to develop flavor profiles and all those things that I did not know about. If it wasn't for the the advent of having a smartphone to just look it up, like, hey, how do you how do you make pulled pork? You know what I mean, and just taking it from there. So I think I think again, smartphones are not good for dumb people. I'm not saying people are dumb, but I think it's powerful for curious people. And as long as you're curious, I think it can be a really great asset for you if you utilize it right. Michael Hingson 51:31 And I think that's absolutely true. I think it all comes down again to curiosity. It's great to have a technology so that you can look things up and and satisfy your curiosity, but what we what we do need to do is to try to work as best we can at encouraging curiosity at all levels and encouraging more people to be curious. And that's where I think the real challenge is because people think you don't have to really be curious because you can look things up, they they don't get John Frost 52:03 it. Yes, no, I agree 100, and that's why I say it depends on the type of person you are, right? I mean, if I mean, I don't spend a lot of time on my phone if I don't have to, but when I am curious about certain things, I can go to it and learn more about it and say, "Oh, this is what I need to do. And but if you was a person that was going to cut a corner or do shortcuts, you was going to figure out a way to do that anyway. It's not the it's not the resources you Michael Hingson 52:29 right, and the the time is going to come when you're going to regret taking those shortcuts because you didn't really imagine very well. And I, I always regarded the internet, dark web notwithstanding, as as a as a treasure trove, yes. Of course, I'm I'm waiting for someone since the Department of Justice and the Attorney General back in I think 2022 said that the internet is a true place of business, and so it falls under the ADA, and all websites have to be accessible. I'm just waiting for somebody to go off and challenge one of the dark web sites. That's probably not accessible. I'm waiting for that to happen. Take that before a judge, you know. But but still, but I I think that the internet and and so many things and ChatGPT and all the other large language model technologies are great because they really give you the ability to exercise curiosity, and I think that's so fun. John Frost 53:32 Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Michael Hingson 53:34 So, what's an example that you can talk about? Let's say from Doane about how industry and the college have collaborated to help in terms of education and showing people what they can really do. John Frost 53:49 You know, that's a good question. It happens every day. It happens every day. It happens every day when the first day of school to the last day of graduation. You're looking at the the ultimate collaborative effort of maybe hundreds of people for that individual to walk across that stage. Even though it's one name on that degree, it might have taken 100 people to get them there, from the advisors, from the faculty members, from the friends that they meet, from the from the from the from the coaches, from all types of different people that that one individual encountered to keep them encouraged, to keep them going. Always tell people, especially being here in Nebraska, when you go to school in Nebraska, one day you're gonna have a class that's at 8o'clock in the morning, and you're gonna wake up, and you're gonna walk out there. You're gonna feel negative 10 degree weather, and you're gonna first thing you're gonna think about is I can go right back in and go lay back down. But it's that encouragement of your friends. It's the encouragement of the folks that that are behind you that's gonna tell you you can make it to class. You can make it to class, and that's all it takes. And so I think the the culmination of all those things is what it is that we do. I mean, when that individual walk across that stage and they see grandma or mama or daddy or whomever screaming their name and yelling and all that, they went to class. They didn't turn back around and go. They lay back down. They stood up, and that's why they walk across that stage. So that's the greatest example I can give you, because that's what Dome does. And like I said, we've been doing it for 153 years. So it's not going to be too many places. It's not going to be too many things where you're not going to see a Dome graduate that's doing great things, not necessarily just for themselves, but for the organizations that they serve and and the people that they serve, and then for the greater good of the world. Michael Hingson 55:42 I don't know. For me, I had classes almost every day at eight in the morning. But the other part about it was, if I had a schedule for whatever reason where I didn't have a class at eight in the morning, I felt funny. I was so used to having classes then. I didn't know what you know. I I I I I did figure out I could go study and I could do things and and did, but still I love those early morning classes. That was me. But yeah, I didn't like those John Frost 56:10 early morning classes. No, I didn't like them. Michael Hingson 56:12 You didn't like them, huh? No, that was when Michael Jordan was looking for you to do basketball stuff. Where were you? But yeah, I I hear you. Well, tell me what's next? What's next for the whole future of higher education? Where is it going, or what do you see happening in the future? John Frost 56:30 We're just going to get better. We're just going to get better. That's all. That's that's that's what's happening. I mean, the unique thing about any college campus is that you you have the future in your hands with the people, the people that's going to be running corporations, the people that's going to be finding cures for certain illnesses or things like that, the people that's going to be teaching the youth, future business people, politicians-they're on our campus and they're going to leave their mark because that's one thing that I've always said. I mean, it's not too many discoveries. It's not too many great things that's happening in our society that's not oriented with a college campus. And so the future is that a college campus is just. It may look different. It may feel different. We may do things a little different. But at the end of the day, it's still going to be part of our future. It's still going to be getting better. It's still going to be helping humanity. I always tell the folks that I serve that I don't care what title you have. The first title, the most important title is being a human, and so that's what the future of higher education is going to look like. It's just going to get better. Like I said, it's going to be different. I mean, you got to think when higher education first started. You know, women couldn't go to school, minorities couldn't go to school, and there were so many different things that you couldn't do. Now look at it. I mean, if you talk to the forefathers or the presidents of some of these universities, if you told them that that you and I would even be doing this, they'd be thinking they would throw you an insane asylum, right? That you'll be able to talk to somebody in California and you're in Nebraska, but this this is what this is what curiosity, this is what higher education provokes, Michael Hingson 58:10 as it should be. It's so cool, and I know it's only going to continue, and it will continue to get better. If people want to reach out to you and pick your brain, or just talk with you about Doan, or just talk with you about education, or whatever. How do they do that? John Frost 58:26 Yeah, of course. Feel free to email me at johnfrost@done.edu. So J J O H N dot frost frost at don d o a n e at.edu and then also follow us on social media. Just put us on any social media platform and put don.edu. You can find us, and then if you want to just connect with us, just look us up on our website doane.edu. That's our website. We'd love to learn more about you. If you're thinking about coming to college or looking more into lea
Arj Barker has been a fixture on the local comedy scene for decades, headlining our comedy festivals and turning up on shows including Thank God You’re Here and Spicks and Specks. But the San Francisco-born stand-up began telling jokes at open mic nights in 1989, before appearances on American late night TV for Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno, and David Letterman - not to mention a memorable turn on the hit sitcom Flight of the Conchords. Barker joins us to talk about consciousness, comedy, and the furore that erupted two years ago after he asked a breastfeeding mother and baby to leave his show. This episode is hosted by Good Weekend deputy editor Konrad Marshall. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:00 – Trump's mystery national address 00:03:15 – Alex Jones clips of the week 00:11:16 – Billionaires prepare for "the Event" 00:21:08 – Rogue AI versus Project Blue Beam 00:25:56 – The 2027 UFO deadline 00:35:39 – Brazil's Roswell resurfaces 00:43:00 – The threat of red-eyed aliens 00:51:35 – Dr. Phil embraces UFO disclosure 00:56:32 – The Tippy Top club remix 01:00:40 – Russian warlocks exploit the fuel crisis 01:05:19 – Magic fuel pills promise better mileage 01:10:17 – Russia's rent-a-barbecue companions 01:23:21 – National Hot Dog Day 01:28:10 – Caddyshack II anniversary plans 01:33:11 – Mick Jagger rejects concert politics 01:42:26 – Florida's "Squeeze Ass" license plate 01:47:09 – An Ohio family films Bigfoot 01:55:41 – Tokyo workers trade suits for shorts 02:00:21 – Letterman cuts pants into shorts 02:03:25 – Weekend plans and The Odyssey 02:06:30 – Final sign-off and outro song Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research ▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀ ► Website: http://obdmpod.com ► Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/obdmpod ► Full Videos at Odysee: https://odysee.com/@obdm:0 ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/obdmpod ► Instagram: obdmpod ► Email: ourbigdumbmouth at gmail ► RSS: http://ourbigdumbmouth.libsyn.com/rss ► iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/our-big-dumb-mouth/id261189509?mt=2
In Part 2, we begin with Todd and me rapping about how much digital technology has changed just in our lifetimes. Even when he was in school in Colorado, San Francisco had been a goal for Todd, a destination. He got his impression of The City from skateboarding magazines and TV shows. But before moving here, Todd went to Europe, as he puts it, "chasing a girl." He even tried living overseas. When that didn't work out, he moved back to Grand Rapids to save money. In 2001, he made the big move west. When Todd arrived, he had a job already lined up for him. He just needed to find a place to live. He'd respond to Craigslist ads for apartments, but when he showed up to look at one of them, a roommate situation, it had turned into a party. He got the place, his first San Francisco apartment, at Waller and Masonic. Todd takes a moment to reminisce about living in that area, which he's continued to do in the many years since he moved to San Francisco. His walk down memory lane leads us to the Lower Haight. Todd met a lot of cool people at that first SF job, a dotcom, naturally. One of those coworkers had a separate office space in the Lower Haight that served as an auxiliary pressing plant for a record-pressing company based in the Czech Republic. That coworker was bailing on their job and handed the space and the gig over to Todd. It put him face-to-face with musicians in need of vinyl to be pressed. He handled album art as well. His worlds of art and music were colliding in meaningful ways. He quit his dotcom job to do this new gig full-time under the name Circuit 73. More on that later. In addition to the record-pressing gig, Todd was doing flyer art for a friend's monthly zine as well as other various flyer work. He also did album artwork. Two friends who were new at the time were looking for a space to open a music gear store. They ended up in the same space in the Lower Haight where Todd based himself. Todd's graphic design work really started to take off around this time, the early 2000s. He'd only been in San Francisco a couple of years, but Todd felt like he was where he needed to be. I ask Todd whether, all those years ago, he had a plan for how long he would try his new city out. He says he didn't, but back then, he felt like he wouldn't be here the rest of his life. And yet, more than 20 years later, here we are. Then we turn to one of Todd's alter egos/pseudonyms/whatever you wanna call its—Ink Letterman. That persona was born when Todd got his first Instagram account, around 2014 or so. He wanted an alias, and landed on that. It took off around 2020, when he started doing mural work in the early days of the pandemic. Rewinding a bit, Todd started DJing under the name Circuit 73 (another alias) around 2005 or so. He eventually took a lot of time off from music, though. His growing collection of physical media started to make him anxious, so he stopped buying records. He also started a family in this time. Eventually, digital music platforms more or less solidified, so that helped. He also started listening to KUSF/90.3 FM. Being in an office, sitting in front of a computer, it all led to burnout as well. His son was born in 2015 and he semi-retired from graphic design to focus on being a parent and leaning in more to his art (and away from design). Todd's art is part of a group show curated by Known SF and 415 Zine that's up now through August 24 at Mini Bar. Eventually, DJing came back into Todd's life. He's quick to give credit to KEXP/92.7 FM for roping him back in. Another source of inspiration is his son, Oscar. He loves music as much as his dad does, and the two listen together quite a lot. Todd points to both the quantity and the quality of new music in the recent past. He's excited about a surge in old music being reissued as well. He's got a monthly gig, last Friday of every month, as DJ Circuit 73 at 540 Bar on Clement. And his radio show, Directions in Stereo, is on KXSF/102.5 FM every Monday from 10 p.m. to midnight. We end the episode with Todd plugging himself. Follow him on Instagram @inkletterman. Find him on Soundcloud @circuit73. Photography by Dan Hernandez
Hour 4: A former producer of the David Letterman show calls up Tommy to discuss producer duties in this industry. Tommy also gets numerous calls supporting his best friend and Producer, Rosenberg.
Welcome to an ENCORE PRESENTATION of classic REVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE episodes from the vaults.In celebration of HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT's 40th ANNIVERSARY celebration, I bring you one of the most joyous Revolutions Per Movies episodes of all time--my deep dive into that amazing doc with WILCO's MIKAEL JORGENSON & JEFF KRULIK--The Co-Creator of HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT. And remember that punk rock shit BELONGS ON FUCKING MARS!!!!(Episode 101 originally aired on July 3rd, 2025).ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES:This week I'm joined by WILCO's MIKAEL JORGENSON to discuss a film he knows backward and forwards: HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT! But that's not all… I also got to blow his mind with surprise guest JEFF KRULIK--The Co-Creator of HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT!!!We discuss Mikael's endless creativity and how he decides where to put his energy on any given day, the many hours he spent as a teenager making music on his IBM floppy drive computer, doing David Letterman-style comedy audio cassette recordings, how unusual it was to see Mikael with a computer on stage during his first Wilco tour (and how common it is now), how intense it was for him to join an established band like Wilco, tribalism in music scenes, how the documentary is both terrifying and comforting, how shirtless people outnumber people wearing shirts in this film, Mikael's religious upbringing and its impact on his fear of heavy metal, KISS being in children's TV shows, the genesis of Heavy Metal Parking Lot and how the film found an audience due to VHS tape trading culture, a reenactment of Zebraman's anti punk rock tirade, the undying loyalty of metal fans, Neil Diamond Parking Lot & Heavy Metal Picnic, Judas Priest's reaction to the film, Jeff trying to eat Judas Priest's food backstage, Sofia Coppola wanting to use the film in her work, reconnecting with the stars of Heavy Metal Parking Lot decades later and so much more.So let's smoke a joint so big it stretches across America on this week's episode of Revolutions Per Movie!HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT: https://www.heavymetalparkinglot.com/MIKAEL JORGENSON: https://mikaeljorgensen.com/JEFF KRULIK: https://jeffkrulik.com/WILCO: https://wilcoworld.net/REVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE:Host Chris Slusarenko (Eyelids, Guided By Voices, owner of Clinton Street Video rental store) is joined by actors, musicians, comedians, writers & directors who each week pick out their favorite music documentary, musical, music-themed fiction film, or music videos to discuss. Fun, weird, and insightful, Revolutions Per Movie is your deep dive into our life-long obsessions where music and film collide.Revolutions Per Movie releases new episodes every Thursday on any podcast app, and additional, exclusive bonus episodes every Sunday on our Patreon (over 125 bonus episodes are available and counting). If you like the show, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing it on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!PATREON:The show is also a completely independent affair, so the best way to support it is at patreon.com/revolutionspermovie. By joining, you can get weekly bonus episodes and series such as A Very Opinionated Look At Urgh! A Music War & What Makes The Midnight So Special?, A Devotees Look At New Wave Theater, Exploring The Axis: The Oral History Of Frontier Records With Lisa Fancher, Dips On Chips w/ Jeff McDonald of Redd Kross, physical goods such as a limited edition 7" Flexidisc, and other exclusive goods that I send out to you for supporting the show. It helps the show to keep going and is greatly appreciated!TIP JAR:ko-fi.com/revolutionspermovieSOCIALS:@revolutionspermovieBlueSky: @revpermovieTHEME by Eyelids 'My Caved In Mind'www.musicofeyelids.bandcamp.com ARTWORK by Jeff T. Owenshttps://linktr.ee/mymetalhand Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Todd Kurnat is everywhere. In this episode, meet and get to know Todd. These days, he's also known as Ink Letterman for his art and DJ Circuit 73 for his musical stylings. We begin in Michigan. Both sets of Todd's grandparents grew up in Greenville, Michigan, about an hour outside Grand Rapids. His parents met in high school in that small town. They eventually moved to Grand Rapids, the big city in that part of the world. His dad worked at a transportation company and his mom was a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital. It was the early Seventies—around 1972 or so. Todd was born in 1973. His mom had done some college, and his dad had joined the US military to teach about weapons-grade rockets. He was never deployed to Vietnam. Todd says that engineering DNA in his dad runs through him, although Todd uses it for less destructive ends. Sometime after Todd came around, the family moved to Johnston Street, still in the inner-city part of Grand Rapids. The neighborhood had access to downtown. Todd spent a lot of time riding his BMX bike around the area with friends. Eventually, bikes gave way to skateboards, which he took all over his city. But we'll get to that. His earliest memories on Johnston Street involve playing in the front yard—baseball and football with kids from the hood. In the backyard, they had a basketball hoop. Eventually, Todd was joined by two younger sisters and a younger brother. He remembers spending a lot of time with his sisters before his brother was born when Todd was 13. Another of Todd 's earliest memories involve listening to music. His dad had an 8-track player that Todd used a lot. Those tapes made him so happy that he'd run around the house doing laps. The radio was also on a lot in Todd's house. Todd went to Catholic school until his early high school years. One day, his mom showed up at his private school, got him out, and said, "we're leaving." Both his parents worked to support themselves and their (at the time) three kids. But changes had to happen, and so they put their oldest kid in public high school. It proved to be a life-changing move for Todd. Right away, he made new friends, a few of which have proved to be life-long buddies. The common thread for them was music and movies. Bikes and skateboards, too. Speaking of bikes … Around age 12, Todd had a newspaper route. Because he already had a bike when the BMX craze really took off, around the mid-Eighties, he followed that. He and his friends eventually started riding their bikes on street ramps. They also built and rode on dirt tracks. BMX gave way to skateboarding when Todd was 13 or 14. For a minute, he did both, but then someone stole his bike. Like me, skate videos got him hooked—videos from Powell Peralta featuring pro skaters like San Francisco's own Tommy Guerrero. And it wasn't just the skating in the videos that impressed Todd—he also dug the music enough to record it from VHS to cassette tape. Toward the end of his high school days, Todd taught himself to play guitar. He bought a four-track Tascam recorder and started experimenting with it. He did stuff on his own, but also joined with some friends to form a band called Landis. They played for most of the rest of the Nineties. Relevant to who Todd would become years later, a lot of the existence of Landis involved him screwing around with different configurations and recording locations. Think: experimental, but not necessarily falling into the so-called experimental genre. After high school, Todd moved to Denver and kept playing music. He and two roommates called their Colorado group The Suspect. They played a couple shows. Todd and I go on a sidebar on playing live vs. recording vs. writing songs. Live was always my favorite, and Todd agrees. Moving to Denver was all about escaping Grand Rapids, seeing a little bit of the world, and going to art school. He studied illustration and graphic design. He'd been drawing and doodling about as far back as he could remember. In high school, at the public school his mom put him in, there was a counselor who had steered Todd in the direction of graphic design, and he's grateful for that. Turns out he has spent the better part of the last 30 years doing graphic design. We end Part 1 with Todd looking back on how much technology has advanced since he got started in the digital art world. Check back this Thursday to hear all about Todd's move to San Francisco and what he's been up to since he got here. It's a lot, and it'll all be in Part 2 of this episode. We recorded this podcast in Golden Gate Park in June 2026. Photography by Dan Hernandez
Adam Resnick's surreal, absurdist fantasy comedy, CABIN BOY, is our feature presentation this week! We discuss the film's Late Night with David Letterman beginnings, Tim Burton backing out of the film after it was written for him, the influence of Ray Harryhausen, Chris Elliott's comedy stylings, Hitler mustaches, Bryan Doyle Murray, and much more! We also pick our Top 7 James Gammon Movies in this week's Silver Screen 7! Join our Patreon ($2.99/month) here linktr.ee/brokenvcr to watch the episodes LIVE in video form day/weeks early. Find us on Instagram @thebrokenvcr and follow us on LetterBoxd! Become a regular here at THE BROKEN VCR!
Johnny Mac recaps John Mulaney's Wrigley Field show, hosted by Richard Kind with sets/appearances from Buddy Guy, Fred Armisen, and David Letterman, and quotes reactions praising Mulaney's two-hour performance. He riffs on a Daily Beast item about Nate Bargatze's Dan Patrick Show interview, then runs through New York Comedy Festival headliners and notes it will include Variety's 10 Comics to Watch on Nov. 12. He summarizes Just for Laughs Montreal announcements, including awards for Chris Fleming, Atsuko Okatsuka, Lisa Gilroy, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, and a legacy tribute for Bruce Hills, plus Gianmarco Soresi and Jay Jurden delivering the State of the Industry address. Other items include Margaret Cho's TikTok about Lindsey Graham, Jimmy Kimmel spoofing Mitch McConnell, Ali G at Wimbledon, James Corden's Fox After Hours ratings, Prince Harry on a comedy podcast, and Turkey blocking a comedian's YouTube special and jailing him pending trial.00:16 Mulaney Takes Wrigley01:35 Bargatze MAGA Blowback02:19 NY Comedy Fest Lineup03:30 Just for Laughs Awards04:40 Cicadas and Cho Controversy05:58 Ali G Wimbledon Bit06:31 Corden After Hours Ratings08:32 Prince Harry Podcast Stop09:05 Turkey Comedy Censorship Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/daily-comedy-news-with-johnny-mac-a-daily-briefing-on-comedians-and-the-comedy-industry--4522158/support.Daily Comedy News with Johnny Mac is a daily podcast covering comedians, stand-up comedy, late night television, and the comedy industry. New episodes every morning. Follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Part of the Caloroga Shark Media network.Contact John at John@thesharkdeck dot com For Uninterrupted Listening, use the Apple Podcast App and click the banner that says Uninterrupted Listening. $4.99/month John's Substack about media is free.This is the animal sanctuary mentioned in the February 10 episode.
Bill Maher welcomes media mogul Byron Allen to Club Random for one of the most remarkable origin stories you'll hear all year. Long before building a multibillion-dollar media empire, Byron was a 14-year-old kid hanging around NBC, studying Johnny Carson like it was graduate school and writing jokes for Jimmie Walker alongside young comics named Jay Leno and David Letterman. Bill and Byron trade stories about Carson, the Comedy Store, Hollywood in the '70s and '80s, early career missteps, and the mentors who changed their lives. Byron explains how his mother's persistence shaped everything he built, why showing up earlier than everyone else became his greatest advantage, and why he still believes health—not money—is the ultimate measure of wealth. Support our Advertisers: -Get 50% off plus free daily greens per box at https://www.factormeals.com/random50off with code random50off -Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to https://www.quo.com/random Subscribe to the Club Random YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/clubrandompodcast?sub_confirmation=1 Watch episodes ad-free – subscribe to Bill Maher's Substack: https://billmaher.substack.com Subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you listen: https://bit.ly/ClubRandom Buy Club Random Merch: https://clubrandom.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices ABOUT CLUB RANDOM Bill Maher rewrites the rules of podcasting the way he did in television in this series of one on one, hour long conversations with a wide variety of unexpected guests in the undisclosed location called Club Random. There's a whole big world out there that isn't about politics and Bill and his guests—from Bill Burr and Jerry Seinfeld to Jordan Peterson, Quentin Tarantino and Neil DeGrasse Tyson—talk about all of it. For advertising opportunities please email: PodcastPartnerships@Studio71us.com ABOUT BILL MAHER Bill Maher was the host of “Politically Incorrect” (Comedy Central, ABC) from 1993-2002, and for the last fourteen years on HBO's “Real Time,” Maher's combination of unflinching honesty and big laughs have garnered him 40 Emmy nominations. Maher won his first Emmy in 2014 as executive producer for the HBO series, “VICE.” In October of 2008, this same combination was on display in Maher's uproarious and unprecedented swipe at organized religion, “Religulous.” Maher has written five bestsellers: “True Story,” “Does Anybody Have a Problem with That? Politically Incorrect's Greatest Hits,” “When You Ride Alone, You Ride with Bin Laden,” “New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer,” and most recently, “The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass.” FOLLOW CLUB RANDOM https://www.clubrandom.com https://www.facebook.com/Club-Random-101776489118185 https://twitter.com/clubrandom_ https://www.instagram.com/clubrandompodcast https://www.tiktok.com/@clubrandompodcast FOLLOW BILL MAHER https://www.billmaher.com https://twitter.com/billmaher https://www.instagram.com/billmaher Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
ON MISSION: TO HEAL | James 5:13–20 | Week 1 of the "ON MISSION" SeriesWhat if healing isn't just something God wants to do for you—but something He wants to do through you?In the opening message of our ON MISSION series, Pastor J.C. explores James 5:13–20 and challenges us to see healing as God's mission for every believer. Jesus doesn't simply heal His people; He sends healed people to participate in His restoring work in the lives of others.Discover how prayer, confession, authentic community, and everyday acts of compassion become part of God's healing mission. Whether you're carrying wounds of your own or wondering how God can use you to make a difference, this message will encourage you to take your next step.Main Scripture:
On this supersized edition of the Fifth Hour, Ben Maller takes you on another audio road trip, bouncing from the music of Roy Orbison to the surprising origin of the ice cream sundae—which exists thanks to old alcohol laws. Along the way you'll learn about star berries, population shifts that could reshape the world, and a collection of oddball fun facts worthy of the Maller Militia Hall of Fame. Then it's time for the main event. This is the official preview of MallerPalooza™ 2026, the annual celebration of controlled chaos where a vaudeville variety show collides with David Letterman's Stupid Human Tricks and The Gong Show. Ben pulls back the curtain on what separates unforgettable acts from instant disasters, reveals the exclusive celebrity judge for this year's spectacle, and gives newcomers a crash course on what makes the biggest night in Summer overnight sports radio unlike anything else on the air. As if that weren't enough, the Idiom of the Week adds one final splash of razzle-dazzle, proving there are no crocodile tears when it comes to great storytelling, strange trivia, and offbeat laughs. Buckle up, hit play, and enjoy another globe-trotting, fact-packed, theater-of-the-mind adventure that only Ben Maller can deliver. Follow, rate & review "The Fifth Hour!" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fifth-hour-with-ben-maller/id1478163837 Engage with the podcast by emailing us at RealFifthHour@gmail.com ... Follow Ben on Twitter @BenMaller and on Instagram @BenMallerOnFOX ... #BenMaller #FSRWeekendsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On this supersized edition of the Fifth Hour, Ben Maller takes you on another audio road trip, bouncing from the music of Roy Orbison to the surprising origin of the ice cream sundae—which exists thanks to old alcohol laws. Along the way you'll learn about star berries, population shifts that could reshape the world, and a collection of oddball fun facts worthy of the Maller Militia Hall of Fame. Then it's time for the main event. This is the official preview of MallerPalooza™ 2026, the annual celebration of controlled chaos where a vaudeville variety show collides with David Letterman's Stupid Human Tricks and The Gong Show. Ben pulls back the curtain on what separates unforgettable acts from instant disasters, reveals the exclusive celebrity judge for this year's spectacle, and gives newcomers a crash course on what makes the biggest night in Summer overnight sports radio unlike anything else on the air. As if that weren't enough, the Idiom of the Week adds one final splash of razzle-dazzle, proving there are no crocodile tears when it comes to great storytelling, strange trivia, and offbeat laughs. Buckle up, hit play, and enjoy another globe-trotting, fact-packed, theater-of-the-mind adventure that only Ben Maller can deliver. Follow, rate & review "The Fifth Hour!" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fifth-hour-with-ben-maller/id1478163837 Engage with the podcast by emailing us at RealFifthHour@gmail.com ... Follow Ben on Twitter @BenMaller and on Instagram @BenMallerOnFOX ... #BenMaller #FSRWeekendsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We talked to psychic stand-up comedian, Karen Rontowski! We had a fascinating chat with Karen Rontowski, the psychic stand-up! Karen has spent decades as a touring comedian, appearing everywhere from The Late Show with David Letterman to Comedy Central, and she's also a professional tarot reader who blends full stand-up sets with live card readings on stage. She talks with Jason about growing up doing comedy bits as a kid, moving to chase stand-up, and how her psychic path and her comedy career grew up side by side. They dig into real stories from her life as a psychic (including one jaw-dropping one), what people misunderstand about psychics, gut instinct and deja vu, coherence and energy, and why she thinks everyone has a little bit of psychic ability in them. It's a wild, funny, mind-bending conversation, and it ends with Karen pulling cards live and walking Jason through the podcast's first tarot reading. karenrontowski.com Instagram: @Rontowski, @ThereItIsPod, @JasonFarrPics TikTok: @Rontowski, @JasonFarrToks Threads: @ThereItIsPod, @JasonFarrPics Facebook: @KarenRontowski, @ThereItIsPod Subscribe to our comedy newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/e22defd4dee2/thereitis
People Are Watching | Heal. Connect. Grow. Love. (Week 4)How we love says more about our faith than anything we say.In the final week of our Heal. Connect. Grow. Love. series, we explore our fourth core value: Love. Jesus didn't call us to love only the people who are easy to love. He commanded us to love sacrificially—even those who hurt us, disagree with us, or treat us as enemies.The world is watching. They're watching to see if those who call themselves Christians actually live like Jesus.Join us as we look at Jesus' words in John 15:12–13 and discover what it means to love the way He loved us.Scripture:John 15:12–13 (NIV)If this message encouraged you, be sure to like, subscribe, and share it with someone who could use the hope of Jesus.This week's message is from our Lead Pastor, John Letterman.Let's Connect: http://bit.ly/3XbRE9TFree Access To RightNow Media:https://app.rightnowmedia.org/join/rccreadingSocial Media:@riverviewchristian on Facebook and InstagramWebsite:riverviewchristian.churchSupport the show
On this episode of 'This Was SportsCenter' Rich Eisen sits down with Craig Kilborn for an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look back at his career that saw him go from doing local news in Salinas, California to hosting ESPN's flagship show, to launching 'The Daily Show' on Comedy Central, to succeeding Tom Snyder as the host of 'The Late Late Show' on CBS. In this no-holds-barred conversation, Kilborn shares some must-hear stories about what he did to get suspended from 'SportsCenter' for a week, meeting David Letterman and Clint Eastwood for the first time, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Skywalking Through Neverland: A Star Wars / Disney Fan Podcast
What do you do when you don't have time to attend Fan Expo Anaheim? Create your own event! Feeling a serious case of FOMO, Richard came up with a last-minute idea inspired by David Letterman's "Man on the Street" segments: take Skywalking Through Neverland on the road with our mobile stage, some great prizes, and a whole lot of Star Wars and pop culture trivia. In just a couple of hours outside the Anaheim Convention Center, Richard and Sarah reunited with members of the Skywalking Force, met lots of new friends, and challenged fans to test their geek knowledge. It turned out so much better than we expected! Best of all, this is just the beginning. Everything in this episode leads to a BIG announcement on July 3rd, with next week's episode revealing even more. Have we teased you enough yet?
Christina Hello, everyone, I'm Christina Darnell, the managing editor of MinistryWatch. Welcome to the MinistryWatch podcast. In today's extra episode, I talk with Warren Smith about some news items that are slightly (even significantly) outside of our normal charity and philanthropy “beat.” So, Warren, what's up first? Warren William Bennett famously said, “The plural of anecdotes is not data.” Journalists who write about religion often forget that reality. Christina The latest example came from Carson Daly of the Today Show. He wants us to believe that young people are packing Catholic Churches, and they are leading a Catholic resurgence in this country. But you're not buying it. Warren I'm not. The data tell a different story. I turned to the 2023–24 Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Study, based on nearly 37,000 randomly selected American adults, for a reality check. Among its findings: About 19 percent of U.S. adults identify as Catholic, unchanged since 2014 — but well below historical levels. Even more telling: 43 percent of Americans raised Catholic no longer identify as Catholic. Only 1.5 percent of American adults have become Catholic after being raised in another religion or with no religion. Catholics have experienced the largest net losses of any major Christian tradition through religious switching. Christina What about young people? That seemed to be the focus of the Carson Daly piece. Warren It was, but even among young people, the data don't support that conclusion. Among Americans ages 18–24, 12 percent have left Catholicism, while only 1 percent have converted into it. Pew concluded there is “no clear evidence” of a nationwide religious revival among young adults. Christina Why has this revival narrative been so persistent. We've been seeing it in the Protestant church as well. Warren Journalists want to find unusual stories. The slow secularization of religion over the past 50 years is not unusual. It's been told, and journalists are looking for a new story. As the old saying, “Dog bites man” is not a story. “Man bites dog” is a story. As for the Catholic resurgence story? Well, to torture the metaphor: “That dog won't hunt.” Carson Daly might be able to find a parish whose young adult Mass grows from 50 to 400 people, but that does not make up for the thousands of parishes experiencing gradual (and sometimes significant) decline. Christina Years ago, David Letterman had a routine that he called “Stupid Pet Tricks.” The first story we did, plus the next one, might qualify this episode of the podcast for its own “Stupid Media Tricks” segment. Warren You're right. This week saw another significant media story that caused me to wonder. In this case, veteran National Public Radio Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg wrote a story that Justice Samuel Alito had retired. Christina And, to be clear, Justice Alito has not retired. Warren That's right. But the story that he had retired made it through NPR's editing process and onto the website before someone discovered the mistake. And, of course, if it makes it to one website, the algorithms soon have it everywhere. Christina About an hour after publication, NPR retracted the story, issued a correction, and apologized. But the damage had been done. Warren To be fair, the damage was not severe – except, perhaps, to the credibility of NPR. But it does provide a lesson in how modern media work. Charlie Warzel, writing for The Atlantic, does a fascinating post-mortem on the episode, saying the error highlights several habits of modern journalism that are pathological. Among them: “That a breakneck news cycle is forcing even the best reporters and editors to move too fast, that modern beat reporting itself has become too consumed with being first to report stories.” Warzel's story is a smart look at how the journalistic sausage is made. I recommend it. You can find a link in today's show notes. Christina Our next story is also a media story, of sorts. Warren I had not thought of it that way, but I think you're right. Our friend Joseph Slife forwarded me a story that Michigan's Cornerstone University was offering a degree that could be completed “100%” on a smartphone. Christina Warren, did you check the date on that story. Are you sure it's not an April Fools Day prank? Warren I did check, because that was my first thought. Alas, it is not. According to The College Fix, “Cornerstone University, located in Grand Rapids, is offering an associate degree and bachelor's degree in strategic business management along with a master's in organizational leadership through its new program. Students pay a fixed rate of $2,400 per four-month term or $3,750 for graduate level work. The intended audience is working adults.” Christina That's pretty cheap, and – as a working adult – I couldn't imagine trying to get to a nearby college a couple of nights a week for classes. Warren I get that. 100 percent. I am not a Luddite. I use my iPhone for a lot of things – including learning. YouTube videos have helped me learn new licks on the guitar, have helped me repair my toilet, and have helped me gain new insights into the human condition. Christina But learning via iPhone is a different experience than face-to-face, in classroom learning. Warren That's exactly right. Especially from a wise and well-qualified teacher, in a community with other learners who are grappling with the same ideas — both in class, but also around the dinner table in the dining hall. Christina So what you're saying is that virtual learning is not worthless. It is just different. Warren I do not oppose colleges offering programs virtually, but to offer accredited degrees that carry all the prestige and credentialing power of an in-person degree…well…that is just bearing false witness. Christina Let's conclude today with news that the Texas State Board of Education passed a new required reading list that includes Bible passages. Warren On Friday, June 26, the Republican-controlled board voted 9-5-1 to approve a first-of-its-kind list that will affect more than 5 million public school students. Required readings for younger students include illustrated Old Testament stories such as Noah's Ark and David and Goliath. By upper elementary school, students read New Testament passages about Jesus' teachings and parables. Middle school and high school lessons pair scriptural themes with classic literature. Christina Most Christian groups are praising this decision. But you say…not so fast. Warren I will have to say that net-net I am glad they are reading the Bible in the classroom. You simply cannot understand most of Western literature – from Dante to Shakespeare to Faulkner to Eliot – without some biblical literacy. And I know that there are a lot of great public school teachers who will handle these texts with care and respect. Christina I sense a big fat…however…coming on. Warren Ha. So I'll say it. However… I do wonder what will happen when you put scripture into the hands of militantly secularized teachers, and you give them a platform to air their grievances. They may be forced to read the bible, but what if the teacher spends the rest of the class presenting arguments for its unreliability? Christina So are you opposed to reading the Bible in classrooms? Warren Absolutely not. I'm very much in favor of it, but I do wonder how it's going to be taught. I would recommend that parents in Texas remain vigilant. Time will tell whether this was a positive innovation for the classroom, or one full of unintended consequences. Until then, though, I know that “God's word will not return void.” So, I trust that the positive impact of scripture reading will be greater than any efforts to undermine it. Christina Any final thoughts before we go? Warren If you have not discovered our YouTube channel, check it out here. We now have nearly 200 videos there, and they have attracted tens of thousands of views. Subscribe, like, and share to spread the word about our work. I am in Albuquerque next month. If you live in the Land of Enchantment, one of my favorite states, reach out to me. I would love to share a meal or a cup of coffee with you. My email is wsmith@ministrywatch.com. We'd love to have your financial support as we approach our fiscal year end. Just go to www.ministrywatch.com/donate Christina The producer for today's program is Jeff McIntosh. I'm Christina Darnell, along with Warren Smith. Until next time, may God bless you.
My guest this week is Steve Young (writer for Late Show w/ David Letterman & The Simpsons; co-author of Everything's Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age Of Industrial Musicals & the star of the Bathtubs Over Broadway documentary). We discuss Steve's iconic work writing for David Letterman (including producing the opening monologues for 11 years) and how it led him on a life-long journey that he never expected: becoming immersed in the world of Industrial Musicals. We also talk about Steve finding his voice as a comedy writer, the workload and stress of nightly comedy writing, Dave's Record Collection, the stigma to being an industrial musical performer, how so many people from the punk rock world including Don Bolles & Jello Biafra were also collecting these incredible records, Martin Short's time in industrial musicals, composer Hank Beebe, how Steve felt about being the subject of a doc, how industrial musicals are still being made today, why The Bathrooms Are Coming is perfection on vinyl, the journey of Steve befriending and forming deep friendships with the composers, performers and artists involved in these incredible shows, and more.So...shh...reduce the din....your Revolutions Per Movie's sales meeting...is about to begin!STEVE YOUNG:https://www.steveyoungworld.com/REVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE:Host Chris Slusarenko (Eyelids, Guided By Voices, owner of Clinton Street Video rental store) is joined by actors, musicians, comedians, writers & directors who each week pick out their favorite music documentary, musical, music-themed fiction film, or music videos to discuss. Fun, weird, and insightful, Revolutions Per Movie is your deep dive into our life-long obsessions where music and film collide.Revolutions Per Movie releases new episodes every Thursday on any podcast app, and additional, exclusive bonus episodes every Sunday on our Patreon (over 125 bonus episodes are available and counting). If you like the show, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing it on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!PATREON:The show is also a completely independent affair, so the best way to support it is at patreon.com/revolutionspermovie. By joining, you can get weekly bonus episodes and series such as A Very Opinionated Look At Urgh! A Music War & What Makes The Midnight So Special?, A Devotees Look At New Wave Theater, Exploring The Axis: The Oral History Of Frontier Records With Lisa Fancher, Dips On Chips w/ Jeff McDonald of Redd Kross, physical goods such as a limited edition 7" Flexidisc, and other exclusive goods that I send out to you for supporting the show. It helps the show to keep going and is greatly appreciated!TIP JAR:ko-fi.com/revolutionspermovieSOCIALS:@revolutionspermovieBlueSky: @revpermovieTHEME by Eyelids 'My Caved In Mind'www.musicofeyelids.bandcamp.com ARTWORK by Jeff T. Owenshttps://linktr.ee/mymetalhand Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What do you do when you don't have time to attend Fan Expo Anaheim? Create your own event! Feeling a serious case of FOMO, Richard came up with a last-minute idea inspired by David Letterman's "Man on the Street" segments: take Skywalking Through Neverland on the road with our mobile stage, some great prizes, and a whole lot of Star Wars and pop culture trivia. In just a couple of hours outside the Anaheim Convention Center, Richard and Sarah reunited with members of the Skywalking Force, met lots of new friends, and challenged fans to test their geek knowledge. It turned out so much better than we expected! Best of all, this is just the beginning. Everything in this episode leads to a BIG announcement on July 3rd, with next week's episode revealing even more. Have we teased you enough yet?
Johnny Mac recaps Bill Maher receiving the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize, featuring Maher's remarks about mocking both political sides, “lunatic left/right,” censorship debates around Huckleberry Finn, and praising his audience for valuing truth over pandering; the event included clips from Politically Incorrect, stand-up, and podcasts, appearances by Louis C.K. (crediting Maher for supporting him), Whitney Cummings, Woody Harrelson, Jay Leno, and Matt Friend's Trump impression, and will stream on Netflix July 21, though a Washingtonian writer described the room as sedate with empty seats. Mac also covers backlash framing Nate Bargatze as “MAGA” after Cheryl Hines liked an Instagram clip, Michelle Wolf saying she'd be meaner at the 2018 WHCD and criticizing “podcast bros” platforming Trump, recommends Ryan Hamilton's Netflix special, comments on Des Bishop's Hulu special, notes Trevor Noah's World Cup bias remarks and YouTube view counts, and reports David Letterman's Just for Laughs debut with Will Arnett on July 21. 00:17 Maher Wins Mark Twain01:26 Tributes And Left Critique02:48 Woody Leno And Vibes05:27 Host Health And Nate06:21 Michelle Wolf Reflects07:58 Specials Soccer And Hulu08:52 Trevor Noah Numbers10:47 Letterman JFL Plans11:40 Wrap Up And HousekeepingBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/daily-comedy-news-with-johnny-mac-a-daily-briefing-on-comedians-and-the-comedy-industry--4522158/support.Daily Comedy News with Johnny Mac is a daily podcast covering comedians, stand-up comedy, late night television, and the comedy industry. New episodes every morning. Follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Part of the Caloroga Shark Media network.Contact John at John@thesharkdeck dot com For Uninterrupted Listening, use the Apple Podcast App and click the banner that says Uninterrupted Listening. $4.99/month John's Substack about media is free.This is the animal sanctuary mentioned in the February 10 episode.
Team myWalkers won the company walking challenge! And we go on a tangent on foods that gross us out or delight us: Rhubarb, celery, and peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. And speaking of peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, apparently you guys eat this?! Jason forget to set an alarm for the first time in a decade because he was so tired. And Collin Gosselin's upcoming tell-all book about his mother, Kate Gosselin has us highly intrigued. Brittany from The BK Show calls in so we can ask her about why our studio is so hot. Kevin Spacey is back with a new movie and new interview. OK. HOLLY KNOWS SOMETHING about a familiar food favorite. Plus, what is your old person habit? SCREEN QUEENS: "Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness," a David Letterman rewatch, and "Cape Fear." PlayStation is taking away some downloaded movies and we make the case for owning physical media, and bidets -- are they safe to use?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
We all watched "Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness" and we can only recommend this for the die-hard Larry David-heads, Jason rewatched David Letterman's post-heart surgery episode, and Colleen and Holly are caught up with the latest episode of "Cape Fear" (not for the gore-adverse). Plus, David Harbour and Millie Bobby Brown are working together on a new Netflix series. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Receive 50% off your first order on any of their products. To claim this deal you must go to hiyahealth.com/OTP. Five-time Emmy-winning writer, producer, and director Rob Burnett joins Obsessed to reflect on nearly three decades alongside David Letterman, the shocking end of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and what he believes it means for the future of late-night television. He also discusses his acclaimed new film In Memoriam, casting Marc Maron in his first leading movie role, working with Sharon Stone and Lily Gladstone, and the deeply personal story that inspired the film's emotional exploration of legacy, family, and what really matters. Follow Obsessed on Instagram @beastobsessed Follow Kevin Fallon on Instagram @kpfallon Follow Matt Wilstein on Instagram @mattjwilstein New episodes every Thursday, and Saturday; early drops on YouTube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Stijn Schmitz welcomes Doug Casey to the show. Doug Casey is a Bestselling Author, Speculator, Founder of Casey Research, and Voluntarist Philosopher. The conversation opens with an analysis of the disconnect between geopolitical turmoil, specifically the disruption of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, and equity markets trading near all-time highs. Casey argues the recent de-escalation between the U.S. and Iran is likely temporary, as the core dispute between Israel and Iran remains unresolved. Despite this volatility, he remains bullish on oil, favoring oil and gas stocks due to their low representation in the market and high dividend yields, a sentiment he backs with his own investment strategy. Casey introduces his thesis of a “Greater Depression,” a period of declining real standards of living masked by a debt-fueled financial economy. He contrasts the struggling real economy, burdened by consumer and government debt, with the booming stock market, suggesting the current stability is unsustainable. Looking at long-term trends, he posits that all commodities historically trend toward zero in real terms as technology advances. However, he notes that commodities are currently the cheapest asset class compared to grossly overvalued stocks, bonds, and real estate, making them especially attractive. The discussion shifts to gold and silver, which Casey treats primarily as savings vehicles, noting the 55-year bull market is still intact. While he believes gold is no longer a great speculation at current prices, he finds mining stocks to be exceptionally undervalued, driven by industry-wide unpopularity and neglect from institutional investors. He extends this bullishness to agricultural commodities and fertilizers, deeming corn ultra-cheap and noting natural gas, a key input for urea, is also priced at a bargain in North America. For speculation, he expresses a strong preference for private placements and warrants in smaller, entrepreneur-led companies. The conversation concludes with a grim outlook for U.S. fiscal health, predicting rising interest rates driven by unsustainable deficits and a bond market that will eventually slip the Federal Reserve's control. Timestamps: 00:00:00 – Introduction00:01:02 – Oil Market Geopolitics and Prices00:06:57 – Oil Inventories and Demand Outlook00:09:06 – Debt Economy and Greater Depression00:11:03 – Electrification and Nuclear Future00:14:27 – Long-term Commodity Price Trends00:16:21 – Agricultural Commodities Discussion00:21:34 – Fertilizers and Natural Gas00:25:30 – Potash, Phosphate, & Sulphur00:28:21 – Gold and Silver as Savings00:33:20 – Mining Stocks and Value00:40:00 – Mining Sector Companies00:44:00 – Investment Strategies and Placements00:47:26 – Other Commodities Opportunities00:49:48 – Guest Projects and Resources Guest Links: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEJR3OAeHBNz7aGtFRZXArQ Doug Casey’s Take: https://internationalman.com Amazon Novels: https://tinyurl.com/an3uxhc Book ‘The Preparation’: https://tinyurl.com/theprepa Best-selling author, world-renowned speculator, and libertarian philosopher Doug Casey has garnered a well-earned reputation for his erudite (and often controversial) insights into politics, economics, and investment markets. Doug is widely respected as one of the preeminent authorities on “rational speculation,” especially in the high-potential natural resource sector. Doug’s most recent book, “Assassin,” can be found on Amazon. He has been a featured guest on hundreds of radio and TV shows, including David Letterman, Merv Griffin, Charlie Rose, Phil Donahue, Regis Philbin, Maury Povich, NBC News, and CNN; has been the topic of numerous features in periodicals such as Time, Forbes, People, and the Washington Post. Doug has lived in 10 countries and visited over 175. Today you’re most likely to find him at La Estancia de Cafayate (Casey’s Gulch), an oasis tucked away in the high red mountains outside Salta, Argentina.
This week, Joe sits down with Spike Feresten of Spike's Car Radio to talk about his rise in automotive entertainment, his years at SNL and David Letterman and why he was mad when he drove a Porsche for the first time.
Johnny Mac covers comedy news including W. Kamau Bell's Substack criticism of Nate Bargatze for being photographed “partying with fascists,” plus Bell's comments about avoiding places where “fascists coagulate” and his sharing a 2014 photo with Joe Rogan. Rogan recounts telling Donald Trump backstage at a UFC event he hoped they wouldn't die in a terrorist attack, to which Trump replied, “We gotta go somehow.” Carlos Mencia's lawyers file an emergency motion seeking release from bail in his felony tax case, arguing prosecutors staged an excessive raid and that jail is causing major financial harm. Roy Wood Jr. discusses Pittsburgh plans and his Daily Show experience; Michael Che teases a new standup special and asks what promo platforms matter now. Johnny Mac critiques Bob Iger's claim Kimmel's post–Charlie Kirk joke was removed for “bad taste,” not politics. Worldwide Pants expands Letterman's 6,000-episode archive distribution, Colbert's writers make their own Emmy FYC video, Canal+ develops a French SNL special, and Jemaine Clement says more Flight of the Conchords is unlikely though a film idea lingers. 00:23 Bargatze UFC Backlash01:43 Rogan Backstage Story02:07 Carlos Mencia Bail Fight03:22 Roy Wood Jr Weekend Plans03:55 Michael Che Special Tease04:31 Iger Kimmel Controversy06:34 Letterman Archive Expansion07:33 Colbert Writers Emmy Push08:25 French SNL Attempt09:54 Conchords Future Update Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/daily-comedy-news-with-johnny-mac-a-daily-briefing-on-comedians-and-the-comedy-industry--4522158/support.Daily Comedy News with Johnny Mac is a daily podcast covering comedians, stand-up comedy, late night television, and the comedy industry. New episodes every morning. Follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Part of the Caloroga Shark Media network.Contact John at John@thesharkdeck dot com For Uninterrupted Listening, use the Apple Podcast App and click the banner that says Uninterrupted Listening. $4.99/month John's Substack about media is free.This is the animal sanctuary mentioned in the February 10 episode.
NEWS: "I Will Find You" is the biggest ratings debut of 2026 for Netflix and everyone seems to love the Netflix movie "Voicemails for Isabelle. In other Netflix news, "Hot Ones" gets a Netflix spin-off. Plus, "Late Night with David Letterman" archives are going to streaming and we can't wait to deep-dive into the comedy. And Holly has a review of the new Questlove-directed documentary, "Earth, Wind & Fire: (To Be Celestial vs That's the Weight of the World)" See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
"WINGMAN" Written & Directed by Harland Williams out now! Apple TV: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/wingman/umc.cmc.nfzru25awp5jnendhudhjw9t Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.8feecdc7-1900-406b-aee6-d7192e3e8876?autoplay=0&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wbOfficial Wingman Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wingmanofficialmovie/ Harland Williams is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, musician, and children's book author. He's known for his outlandish stand-up and sketch comedy, and his roles in movies like Dumb and Dumber, There's Something About Mary, and Half Baked. Williams's career began with stand-up in Toronto and Los Angeles, and he's performed on The Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Howie Mandel Does Stuff available on every Podcast Platform Visit the Official Howie Mandel Website for more: https://www.howiemandel.com/ Howie Mandel Does Stuff Merchandise available on Amazon.com here https://www.amazon.com/shop/howiemandeldoesstuff Join the "Official Howie Mandel Does Stuff" Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/HowieMandelPodcast/ Thanks to our sponsors: Keeping a home clean can feel like a constant battle, with spills, crumbs, and everyday messes piling up fast. Steve's Cleaners offers a simple solution with their Lemon Multi-Use Spray, made with plant-based, sugar-derived detergents and real lemon essential oil for effective cleaning without harsh chemicals or artificial fragrances. It's designed for daily use on countertops, glass, tile, stainless steel, and more, making everyday cleaning easier. For a limited time, use code HOWIE15 for 15% off sitewide at stevescleaners.com. Putting a collar on an excited dog shouldn't feel like a coordination test. MAGNEPUP was created to solve that everyday frustration with its Click and Go magnetic system that snaps together automatically and securely. Built with durable materials, reflective trim, and tested strength, it's designed to make walks faster and far less stressful. Head to magnepup.com and use code HOWIE15 for 15% off storewide. Feeling tired, overstimulated, and pulled in a dozen directions? Many wellness routines feel complicated, but Troomy keeps things simple with plant-based gummies and capsules made with triple-extracted, non-psychoactive functional mushrooms designed to fit different parts of the day—from focus and energy to calm, sleep, and recovery. It's an easy way to build a more intentional daily routine without the confusion. Head to Troomy.com and use code TRNDY20 for 20% off storewide. Say Hello to our house band Sunny and the Black Pack! Follow them here! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BlackMediaPresents TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@blackmediapresents Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/01uFmntCHwOW438t7enYOO?si=0Oc-_QJdQ0CrMkWii42BWA&nd=1&dlsi=a9792af062844b4f Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SunnyAndTheBlackPack/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackmediapresents/ Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/blackmediapresents Twitter: twitter.com/blackmedia @howiemandel @jackelynshultz @harlandwilliams @wingmanofficialmovie
Have you ever lost the joy in your creative work — that sense of fun you had when you were starting out, before the admin and the algorithms drained it away? How do mid-career creatives get it back, and what can a four-year-old teach us about play? Austin Kleon talks about productive procrastination, silly rituals, the case for paper reference books in an AI world, and how his newsletter went from a marketing cost to the day job that keeps the lights on. In the intro, Does social media still sell books? [Self-Publishing with ALLi]; Trial by algorithm [The Bookseller]; Publishing's AI Hypocrisy Problem [The New Publishing Standard]; ALLi AI survey for authors; Brave New Bookshelf Podcast, and Pics from signing at BookVault. Today's show is sponsored by ProWritingAid, writing and editing software that goes way beyond just grammar and typo checking. With its detailed reports on how to improve your writing and integration with writing software, ProWritingAid will help you improve your book before you send it to an editor, agent or publisher. Check it out for free or get 15% off the premium edition at www.ProWritingAid.com/joanna This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Austin Kleon is the New York Times and international bestselling author of nonfiction books, including Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going, as well as an artist, professional speaker, and poet. His latest book is Don't Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes Why Austin wrote Don't Call It Art now, and what his kids taught him about creative joy Productive procrastination, silly rituals, and treating writing like Lego Comedy as a philosophical position, and giving yourself permission to be bad in private Sharing process in the algorithm era, and why your whole life is the process Bibliomancy, paper reference books, and what AI can't give you that a dictionary can Style, the Taco Bell distinctiveness rule, and how Austin's newsletter became his day job You can find Austin at AustinKleon.com. Transcript of the interview with Austin Kleon Jo: Austin Kleon is the New York Times and international bestselling author of nonfiction books, including Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going, as well as an artist, professional speaker, and poet. His latest book is Don't Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again. So welcome back to the show, Austin. Austin: Thank you for having me back. It's nice to talk to you again. Jo: You were on the show in March 2020, and at the time, your book was Keep Going, which was prescient considering the pandemic and politics. So I wondered, why this book, Don't Call It Art, now? Was this something you see in the creative community or your own life that made you want to write this book? Austin: Keep Going is a book about what happens when the world goes crazy around you and you're still trying to do your creative work. This is a book about what happens when inside has bottomed out. Keep Going is a book about the world bottoming out, and you're worried that your own creative work is going to bottom out too. How do you keep pushing through and keep making stuff? This book, to me, is about what happens when you bottom out inside—when you've lost that love and feeling for the thing that you wanted to do, and you're just not connecting with it in the way that you used to or the way that you want to. How do you get back? How do you return to that sense of joy and wonder and fun that we have when we're starting out? And for me, it was being around my little kids that taught me how to tap into that. My kids were natural—they didn't have any creative hangups. I would spend all day talking to people who had creative hangups, and then I'd get back in the house, and I'd just be around these beings who didn't have any of them. It was really instructive. I felt like, if I could bottle the energy of my kids when they were about four years old and try to put it in a book, I think it could really help a lot of the people that I run into, and the people with the kinds of problems I hear from. Jo: You mentioned bottoming out. How do people know when they've hit that point? Austin: You just don't want to do it anymore. You're kind of like, “This just isn't giving me back what it used to.” When we start with our creative work, that's the thing that juices us. We come away from it feeling full up. I think you hit a certain point where you start to feel drained after it. Or maybe you don't feel drained by the thing itself that you're doing—maybe it's all the stuff around it, which is more often the case. For example, if you're a mid-career writer like me, who's been publishing books for 16 years now, I still really like writing. I still really like drawing. I still really like cutting and pasting and putting things together. It's the admin around the work—the emails, the meetings, the running-a-business part of it—that's super draining for me, and that stuff can start to bleed over into the creative work. So it's really important for me to make sure that I'm having some playtime, some R&D, some research and development time, to make sure it's not just all business. When you take the thing that you love and you turn it into the thing that you make a living from, you can really run into a lot of problems. Jo: I'm at 20 years, so I know exactly what you're saying, and a lot of listeners are the same. We love writing books, but it's all the stuff that goes around it. So for those of us who do this for money as well as passion, what are some practical ways to have more fun with our creativity? Austin: Something I learned from my kids is that you really are your most creative when you're supposed to be doing something else. So one of the things I use a lot in the studio is productive procrastination. Whatever I'm supposed to be working on, I start another little project, and that's my little naughty fun time. When I first come into the studio, I try to do something that I'm not supposed to be doing—something that I won't have much to show for. That could be making one of my blackout poems. That could be making a collage in my notebook. It could also be sitting here. I have a bass in the studio now, so I can practise my bass guitar. Sometimes I'll do that for the first 15 minutes just to get in that headspace of, “Hey, what's it like to do something just for yourself? Just because you want to do it?” The juice that you get from that little naughty “I'm going to do what I'm not supposed to be doing right now” thing, that carries into the rest of the day. It's like a nice start to things. Jo: Do you think that play could be something different to what we make our money with? For me, writing novels and stories is great fun in one way, but it's also what I then publish and make money on. So writing stories is more serious, I guess, than playing with Lego or something. Austin: Right. So the trick is, how can you make writing your stories like playing with Lego? That's kind of been my whole career. I hate staring at Microsoft Word and that blinking cursor, taunting you like, “Come on, what have you got?” A lot of my creative life has been about trying to make it more playful, trying to make it feel more like a game. That's how I came up with my blackout poems. I take an article from The New York Times and I black it out until it only has a few words left behind. It sort of looks like if the CIA did haiku, for some people listening. That was one little exercise. Then weirdly, that side thing that I thought was just play, just fun—that turned into my first book. So then it's, okay, what else can I mess around with and play with? I do a lot of collage work in the studio, and I rarely actually use that for any of the books. Sometimes I use it for my newsletter to illustrate the newsletter. But it's always about trying to figure out, how can I make writing a game? How can I make it more playful? There are different things that I do to make it feel more playful. One of them's really stupid. I really believe in silly rituals because I think silliness is really powerful. People talk about their daily rituals—Mason Currey has that great book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. When I was reading that book, I realised it was really the silly stuff that I really liked. There was, I think it was Balzac counting out coffee beans or something before he got to write. Or Steinbeck sharpening 12 pencils or something goofy like that. So one of the things I like to do before I write is that I have these cigarette pencils. They're pencils that look like cigarettes in the studio. I put one in my mouth before I start writing, and I pretend to be some old '40s writer on a typewriter. I like doing goofy stuff in the studio because I think when you do goofy stuff—stuff that you'd be embarrassed if anyone else saw it—it gets you in that playful state. Jo: It's interesting. In your book, you have a section that says, “Don't take things too seriously.” For many of us, we write memoir for example, and that is very close to us. It's like the deepest expression of what we want to say in the world. It feels very serious. So how can we hold things more lightly and not take things so seriously? Austin: For me, comedy is actually a philosophical position. What I mean by that is, I think a lot of people set out with a tragic model of creative work. They think, “Oh, I have this special gift,” or, “I have this thing that I really need to do, and I need to put it out into the world, and I need to make the world look more like I want it to look.” They have this idea that, “Through blood and sweat and tears, I'm going to see this thing through, and I'm going to push it into the world, and I'm going to have my way.” I think there's another way of working where it's more like, “I'm just a normal person trying to play with my environment, and take my experiences and put them into something interesting. So I'm going to play and use my wits, and we're going to see what we come up with.” Those really are two modes of life. The pandemic taught me that it was really when we were keeping our sense of humour, when we were having a laugh and keeping our egos in check around the house and just acknowledging how goofy we all were and how ridiculous the situation was, that seemed to be when we were really thriving. Versus, “Well, we're in this tough situation. We've got to make it into what we want it to be.” That felt really bad. But when we cruised along and we were just improvisational, when we went at things with a kind of lightness, that worked. There's a great Italo Calvino essay about lightness in Six Memos for the Next Millennium. Lightness is really underrated. Even when we're going about heavy work, having a sense of lightness and play with it just makes the work better. That's a philosophical position of mine. I aspire to comedy. I aspire to a comic outlook on life. I'm just a creature with a body who's going to die, and I'm fundamentally ridiculous. Life is pretty absurd. You just make the best of it. Jo: There's certainly some truth there. Staying on a similar theme, you have a chapter in the book on permission to be bad. Many of the listeners also have your book Show Your Work, and it shaped many of us into sharing our work in progress. It feels quite dangerous now, in a world where judgment is much louder than it maybe was when you wrote Show Your Work. So tell us a bit about permission to be bad versus should we keep some of this private? Austin: Permission to be bad is about the making part of things. It's the private part. It's permission to be bad when you're in private, when you're actually doing the work. Show Your Work is a book about what you do after you've done the work, or while you're doing the work. It was never about putting up a webcam and running a 24/7 feed. It was more like, hey, what are the ways that I can connect with the kind of audience I can build while I'm making the work itself? So the way I see permission to be bad is, you really have to give yourself permission when you're not sharing, when you're off screen, to really be as bad as you want to be. It doesn't necessarily mean quality-wise. I think it also means letting yourself write stuff that you would never say on social media. Letting yourself read stuff that you wouldn't admit you were reading on social media. Letting yourself listen to stuff. Letting yourself really be that unfiltered, unhinged, private person that you want to be. Then when it comes to sharing, you put some time in between that input time, that making time, and the sharing time, and then you share what you think is going to be useful or helpful or interesting to other people. Jo: I think you wrote that book before TikTok, and how fast people are moving. Do you think people need to slow down a bit in what they share, maybe? Austin: I don't know. I obviously had a lot more faith in social media back then. I use all the principles from Show Your Work in my newsletter. Newsletters are very much the new kind of great thing. They're doing a lot of the work that social media used to do, in that you're still able to have this direct connection with the people that you're trying to reach. The big problem with social media now is that it's all algorithmically tuned, where the people that are following you don't see the stuff that you're doing most of the time. What you have to do now, if you want the people who are following you to see your stuff on social media, is you have to make stuff that the algorithm likes. That's a whole different thing. As far as the Show Your Work principle—which is share your process as much as your product—that carries over to any platform. In my newsletter every Friday, I share a list of 10 things that were going on behind the scenes here. It might have been what I was watching on TV, what I listened to, a new pen I was trying out, or something like that. The Friday newsletter is almost always process stuff. When I talk about process, my definition is actually very broad. For a lot of people, it's drafting, editing, whatever. For me, the process is the whole life. The process is almost everything except the finished thing. A writer's life is 24/7. My friends who have real jobs really are like, “What do you do all day?” And I'm like, “Well, what do you mean?” They're like, “Well, I see you out on your bike ride.” I'm like, “Yes, when you see me out on a bike ride, I'm thinking through something half the time.” If I'm watching TV, I'm thinking, “Hey, would this be good in the newsletter?” I'm never off. My whole life—everything is copy, as Nora Ephron said. That's part of the job. It's very hard to turn off. So I see the whole life as process, and the question becomes, what little bits and pieces of that life and that process can you share with people while you're making the things that you hope to sell them later? Right now, I'm in a cycle where I'm selling this book, but all these people have showed up because I've shared my process every week for the past seven years since I put out a book. Jo: It's funny you say that. I was at the dentist yesterday, and— My dentist literally asked me, “So where do you get all your ideas?” This is a common question for all of us, right? And it just becomes so hard to explain that to people who don't walk around in the world just constantly getting ideas. Austin: I can't believe I'm going to tell this story. I was getting my vasectomy after my second kid, and I was talking to this doctor just before the operation. He said, “So what do you do for a living?” I said, “I'm a writer.” He said, “Oh, that must be cool. You get to use your brain.” And I said, “That's everything that you want your doctor to say.” I was going to say, “Please use your brain,” before he's about to cut into you. He said, “Oh, no, no. What I mean is, I know what I'm going to do every day for the next 10 years.” He knew exactly what his day was going to look like. He said, “You have to use your brain. You've got to figure out new stuff.” I was like, “Oh, that's really interesting.” That's the trade-off, right? He's got the job security. He knows what he's going to do. Every writer has a moment where they have to talk to a normal person about what you do. Jo: I was going to say, I'm married to one. Austin: Now, my wife, on the other hand, grew up the daughter of a writer, so she knows exactly what it's like. Nothing ever phases her. She's totally used to it. She's used to me staring off into space, completely checking out of a conversation. She's used to me using lines on her that I'm going to put in a piece later. She's used to the whole rigmarole. It's very handy. I've been very lucky in that sense. Jo: Coming back to the book, you talk about your use of bibliomancy for inspiration. Since we're talking about that, tell us about it. I think all the book people listening will be happy. Austin: I'm a person who still keeps a dictionary nearby—a paper dictionary. I keep a big old American Heritage. It's just a big, thick book. When I really don't have any ideas, I will turn at random to the dictionary, close my eyes, stick my finger down the page, open my eyes, and just see what I come up with. Sometimes just that act will give me an idea. I also do that with books. I'll go around the studio, pick up a book, flip to a random page, and just see what it says there, or read an old piece of marginalia that I've left in a book. I believe deeply in the power of bibliomancy, and I think it's a case for paper books. I'm one of those people that still really believes in reference books. I've started collecting more and more of them. I have an old, big dictionary that's always open on my desk, and I look up words. I learned from John McPhee, the writer, that you should look up words that you think you know. That was the first time I'd ever heard anyone say that. So I look up words that I think I know. Instead of reaching for a thesaurus when I need a different word, I actually just look up the definition of the word that I already have. That's another McPhee tip. The other thing that happened that I thought was really interesting is, I got a Roget's for the first time—a thesaurus. I don't think most people know what an actual thesaurus is. Most people think of a thesaurus as a synonym finder, and that's not actually what a thesaurus is at all. A thesaurus is more like an encyclopaedia, weirdly. You look up things based on big concepts, and then it gives you a bunch of words to look up later. It's a very strange thing. It's not what most people think it is. I have a couple of editions of Roget's in here. I like the really old Roget's from the 1900s because they actually have opposing ideas facing each other on the page. Do you have an old-school Roget's? Have you ever looked through one? Jo: I don't have one now, but I certainly grew up with them. I was literally just thinking, I wonder if there are ones for Americans and ones for British people, because so often we say different things and mean different things. I always hear Americans say, “Oh, that's a doozy,” or something, and it means the complete opposite thing here. Austin: Like if you say “fanny pack” over there. That means something very different than it means here, right? Chips or fries, that kind of stuff. So I wonder if there are different ones for different cultural references. Jo: I don't know. Austin: As people, with ChatGPT and all these LLMs and stuff, people are like, “Why would you ever pick up a paper reference book?” And I'm like, “I actually like the friction.” I like having to move in space and go over to my dictionary. I like flipping the pages. I like having to scan a page for the word I'm looking for, because— This marvellous thing happens when you're looking for the word, where you bump into all these other words. If you're a word nerd, you get to start thinking about the root of the word—oh, why is this word next to this word? Well, it's because they share the same root. Then you're going down all these fun rabbit holes. The thing that I'm trying to do as a writer and a creative person is, I'm trying to get to the thing that I didn't know I was looking for. The thing that people misunderstand about AI, I think personally, is that it's a great tool if you know what you're looking for. If you're like, “Find me this thing. I want exactly this. I want to see a picture of a dog wearing a king's costume,” or some crap like that, then it can spit that picture out for you. Or, “I want to know what happened on this day,” and whatever. It can do that. But that's not actually what I'm doing most of the time when I'm writing or making something. I start with an idea, but what really happens—the magic of writing and the magic of making stuff in general—is when you discover something that you didn't even know you were headed for. That's the real magic for me. Sometimes I have an idea and I want to articulate it for people, but more often than not, there's something that bothers me or something that I want to talk about, and I sit down and write, and I figure out what it is that I actually have to say and what I actually think. Every writer really knows this, and that's why the dictionary, stuff like that, those are ways of training you to get in that discovery mode. “Well, let me—oh, I bumped into this. I went looking for this one thing and then I ran into this other thing.” That's why I love the library. I don't know what system you use over there, but you look for one book in the Dewey Decimal System over here, and then, okay, here's all these other weird books next to it. Then you end up with three other books other than the one that you were looking for. That's the magic. To me, that's the magic of creative work, discovering what you didn't know you were looking for. That was particularly important for me when I was writing this book because we discovered that my wife has a condition called aphantasia. It's very rare in the population, about 2 to 3% of people. There's probably some people listening to this right now who are like, “What is this? Tell me.” Jo: Aphantasia actually more common in the creative industries. Austin: Yes. What it is, is that you don't see—when I say close your eyes and picture an apple, you don't actually see the apple in your head. You can think about an apple and the qualities of an apple, but you don't actually see it. Some people, and it's a matter of degree—some people like me, I can close my eyes, I can tell you what the apple looks like, I can tell you what colour it is, I can tell you where the shading is. Someone like my wife doesn't see the apple. She can tell you what an apple is. It's really interesting because she has a degree in architecture, which is known as a very visual field. But the thing you discover about aphantasia is, it doesn't keep people from becoming artists. In fact, it's the opposite. Someone like Ed Catmull, who co-founded Pixar, writes about it in his book, and so many of the great animators at Pixar are actually aphantasics. The reason is that they learned that they had to draw in order to see things. When you don't have a picture in your head of what you want something to look like, things appear in the drawing, and you find things that you couldn't even picture. A lot of writers actually are aphantasics. John Green discovered recently that he has aphantasia. It turns out that it's a superpower for writers, because if you don't have a picture in your head, then you don't have to translate that picture into words. A lot of writers talk about thinking in radio, like they have a constant narrator. My wife—she's probably going to kill me for talking about her this much—when she describes it to me, she's like, “Oh, it's like a radio in my head. I'm constantly hearing a voice, and it's a narrator.” I was like, “Holy shit, that would be really helpful to me.” I don't have anything like that in my head. I read Mrs Dalloway for the first time, and I gave it to her and I said, “You've got to read this book. I think this must be what it's like in your head.” And she said, “Oh my God, it is.” Part of the thing that I took away from that experience—this is a long-winded way of getting here—is that I take a lot of inspiration from people with this condition. Most of the people I know in the arts or the creative fields, they set out with this grand vision, and then they start working on the thing and it's nothing like what they had in their head, and they get really depressed: “This isn't what I had in mind.” Whereas if you set out without a picture in your head, and you just start manipulating things and you see what appears, that's more of the comic mode I was talking about earlier. What would happen if we just sat down with our materials and we started playing and we saw what appeared on the page? What if we started typing and saw what appeared, and then we played with that? That's the kind of joy. That's more like how kids operate. Kids are better at that. They're better at reacting to what's actually in front of them, instead of having these grandiose visions about what they're trying to achieve. Jo: Just coming back on the longevity of a creative career. Your books are very distinctive. You have a very distinctive visual style, your handwriting and the way the books are done. I wondered if another part of the ennui, perhaps, or the draining of the later career is that we get trapped into doing something that feels like it looks the same. Or we have a voice, and we're happy in that voice, but sometimes we want to do something completely different. For authors, we have different names. I write under two different names, and that helps. But equally— How do you define author voice, and do you ever feel like doing something completely different to your normal style? Austin: Style, in a lot of ways, is self-plagiarism. Style is the repeated things that we notice in people's work. Hitchcock talked about this in films. Wes Anderson is someone like that—Wes Anderson has a style. I'm sure that he gets really sick of it too sometimes, but you also can't help it in some ways. I thought a lot about this because people worry about style so much. A lot of the time, what we call style is what Adrian Tomine one time said: “Style is just the distance between what's in my head and what comes out of my hand.” I really like that definition. With this book, I was trying to think, “Okay, if I do another book in this series, how can I push things a little bit?” And then I was reading this article about Taco Bell. You guys have Taco Bell over there, don't you? Do you have Taco Bell? Jo: No. Austin: So Taco Bell, for people who don't know, is this American Mexican chain, and they have tacos and burritos and stuff like that. They're well known for making these really insane… it's so American, this company. They make a taco with a Doritos as a shell. Doritos are crisps, I guess. Jo: Yes, we have Doritos. Austin: Okay. I spent time in England, I just don't remember if I ate Doritos when I was in England. Anyway, I was reading this article about Taco Bell. It was really funny. They have an innovation kitchen at Taco Bell, and they have a rule about new products. The rule is called the distinctiveness rule, and the rule is: you can change the flavour or you can change the taste, or you can change the form, but you can't change both at the same time. I got really obsessed with this concept because I thought, “Well, this could be kind of interesting.” If you're someone who's had success and you're known for something, this presents an interesting thing. You could do a complete break and do something completely new, or you could try the distinctiveness rule. Okay, well, what if I play with this idea of taste versus form? What if I change the taste and keep the form? So the idea for Don't Call It Art was, what if I do another one of these books, but the taste is more like if my kids made it? It had the texture of kids' art, it had lots of scribbles in it, it was loose and messy. That was kind of the idea. The actual book ended up being more like the other books. It ended up looking like an Austin Kleon book, because I just can't help that. The thing you said about having multiple names that you write under, that's kind of what I do with the newsletter. I think of the newsletter as very different from the books. The newsletter is this twice-weekly thing where I can be a little bit more of myself. In the books, I'm this very helpful, happy version of myself. It's me, but it's me on my best day. I'm really helpful and interesting for you. The newsletter is still a highlight reel in a sense, but it's a little bit more of my weird everything-I'm-into. It's more of the unclipped version of me. The newsletter becomes a place where I can do a lot of the weird stuff that's much different from the books. I have these little projects going all the time. Sometimes I'll make a bunch of prints and put them online. Sometimes I'll make a bunch of zines on a topic I haven't covered in the book. Sometimes I'll do a mixtape. As someone who's interested in a lot of different forms and genres and just different modes of output, having something like a newsletter has been really creatively fruitful for me. It's kept me from getting too bottomed out with the books because the books do a certain thing for the reader, and as much as I'd love to do a book that was radically different, I also think I've been given a real gift with the form of my books, in that I kind of own the way that they feel and look. There aren't a lot of books that look like those books and feel like those books, and so I like playing with that form. It would be hard to get rid of it now. The pseudonym for me is kind of like the newsletter in a sense. The newsletter is a little bit more of where I get to be wild and wacky. Then the books are a little bit more of a chiselled thing. Jo: The books are perfect examples of the form, as you say, but it's interesting about the newsletter. You mentioned at the beginning that we can be drained by the admin around the work. For many people listening, a newsletter becomes admin. So how does the newsletter fit into your business? The books are traditionally published, they're very professional. How do you have your independent side, and how does all of that work together in your business? Austin: Thank you for asking that question. I run the whole show at the newsletter. The newsletter is just me, and then my wife edits it, and no one else is involved. I don't have an assistant. I don't have a team. It is just me, and that's why I love it. I control everything. I pick who gets in there. I pick everything. I love that. I grew up watching David Letterman over here, and Letterman had a nightly show, and I always thought that was killer. I thought, “Man, what a fun job. You have a show every night where you have a new guest, and you have all these wacky things going on.” It was like a variety show. I always thought that would be really fun, so the newsletter is my version of that. I started the newsletter in 2013, and it was just a Friday newsletter. It quickly became a list of 10 things I thought were worth sharing. I had a friend, Hugh MacLeod, who was like, “Hey, I have a newsletter. It's bigger than any conference you've ever gone to.” He was talking about South by Southwest here in Austin. He's like, “I have a newsletter now, and it's bigger than South by Southwest.” Jo: Oh, I remember him. Austin: He would say, “Every time I have a new print, I put it out, and there's a button, and then they buy it.” He was like, “You've got to get it. This newsletter thing is killer.” This was in 2011 or something. Jo: Yes, I still have his books. Blogging in Your Underwear or something. Austin: Totally. So Hugh's a whole different story, but I was just like, “Oh, I should really get a newsletter.” Letterman always had a top 10 list on his show. I just always thought a 10 list was really fun. And of course the books are lists of 10 too. So it just worked to have a weekly list of 10. It felt good, and it felt like an infinitely repeatable format. What I'm looking for as a creative person is an infinitely repeatable format that can go on and on and on and be new every time. So the list of 10 is something that people know the form of. It goes back to the Taco Bell thing. They know the form, but they're not sure what's going to go inside. They know it's going to be a burrito, but they don't know what's going to be in the burrito, and that's the exciting part. The newsletter, business-wise, was always a marketing cost for about the first eight years of its existence. I paid MailChimp to send it out. Then in about 2021, when I hadn't done a book for a while, my agent said, “You know, you should really think about doing a paid tier of your newsletter.” And this is to his credit, because he doesn't make anything off the newsletter. He said, “There's this thing called Substack now that makes that really easy.” So we moved to Substack in 2021 in October, and I started doing a Tuesday edition of the newsletter that was just for paid people. That grew enough that it's gone from a marketing cost to something that's almost—it's not quite as much as I make on my books, but it's close. And to be candid, my books sell pretty well. So suddenly the newsletter has become this really healthy income stream. The newsletter to me is actually the day job now. The newsletter is what really keeps the lights on. It's also the perfect mix. It's the day job, it's the thing that keeps income coming in on a regular basis, but it's also the thing I like to do the most. I'm not like a traditional writer who likes to just get lost in their book and take years and years and go away. I'm someone who loves to be doing a lot of different things. The newsletter is a perfect format for me. I'm talking myself into not quitting, actually. It's funny. It's gone from this thing that was a marketing cost to now it's a significant part of our income. That journey—such a bad word, journey—that trip has been very interesting. It's been really cool. But I'm also just lucky. I've been really lucky, and I think part of my thing is, I'm always just trying not to squander my luck. Jo: Well, the book is fantastic, and I know people are going to love it. And the newsletter, of course. So tell us— Where can people find you and your books and newsletter online? Austin: The easiest thing to do is to just go to AustinKleon.com, and that has links to everything—the books, the newsletter. I do actually keep an old-school blog still. I'm one of the few people that still maintains their blog and keeps it up to date. I'm hedging my bets because I think in the end everything will come back to a self-hosted website. I think in the end everyone's going to just go back to their little websites, or at least I hope so. Jo: Well, that was great, Austin. Thanks so much. Austin: Oh, thank you. The post Don't Call It Art: Rediscovering Creative Joy With Austin Kleon first appeared on The Creative Penn.
Stephen Colbert's ‘Late Show' ended last night after 11 years. He spoke with Terry Gross in 2016 shortly after he took over from David Letterman. Before that, Colbert played a conservative persona in the vein of Bill O'Reilly on ‘The Colbert Report.' When he started ‘The Late Show,' out of character, he said, “I knew it would be a little bit of a public discovery. It's somebody else's joke, but life is like learning to play the violin in public. You don't know what you're doing until you do it.”Also we remember Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, who died this week at age 86. The influential Democrat helped normalize being openly gay in public office. He spoke with Terry Gross in 2015.Also, John Powers reviews the horror-comedy Apple TV series ‘Widow's Bay.' See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
Megyn Kelly is joined by Glenn Greenwald, host of "System Update" on Substack, to discuss Stephen Colbert's embarrassing hissy fit farewell tour destroying CBS furniture with David Letterman, how late night ratings over the past 20 years show the format completely collapsed, why he should just go out like a man, the tens of millions Stephen Colbert is losing for CBS, his bizarre tactics of kissing male and female guests in his final week, how celebrities in 2026 like Charlize Theron have an addiction to attention, how Michael Jackson was for everyone and achieved fame no one anymore can, the chilling comment China President Xi said to President Trump about the Thucydides Trap, how Trump says he's fine with 500,000 Chinese students coming and staying in America and China buying up farmland, Trump saying we're at war with Iran to help Israel and the Gulf states, what happens if America tries to get out of the war now, whether criminals Alex Murdaugh and Harvey Weinstein deserve new trials, why it's important for everyone in America to get fair trials, and more. More from Greenwald: https://greenwald.substack.com/ Relief Factor: Break up with pain—Relief Factor targets inflammation so you can move better and feel better; try the 3-Week QuickStart for just $19.95 at https://ReliefFactor.com or call 800-4-RELIEF. Birch Gold: Text MK to 989898 for a free info kit and to see if you qualify for up to $10,000 back through May 29. Byrna: Go to https://Byrna.com or your local Sportsman's Warehouse today. Ethos Life Insurance: Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at: https://ethos.com/MK Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKelly Twitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShow Instagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShow Facebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at:https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.