Podcast appearances and mentions of mark jordan legan

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Best podcasts about mark jordan legan

Latest podcast episodes about mark jordan legan

As Told To
Episode 89: Alan Zweibel

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later May 20, 2025 101:28


"Comedy writers learn early on that we have a high degree of anonymity," writes podcast guest Alan Zweibel in his memoir Laugh Lines: My Life Helping Funny People Be Funnier. "Our words are spoken publicly by others who often have famous faces. Or by unknown people on their way to having famous faces." As one of the founding writers on Saturday Night Live, Alan's words were given voice by a cast of virtual unknowns, all on their way to becoming famous faces, eventually earning worldwide acclaim as some of the most iconic comic performers of their generation. Over the course of his 50-year career, he has penned jokes for dozens of Borscht Belt comedians and written for some of SNL's most memorable characters (such as Gilda Radner's "Roseanne Rosannadanna," John Belushi's "Samurai," and Garrett Morris's "Chico Escuela"), and helped to craft SNL producer Lorne Michaels's now-legendary appeal to invite the Beatles to appear on the show for the standard artist fee of $3,000.  Alan is the recipient of five Emmy Awards for his work in television, which in addition to SNL also includes "It's Garry Shandling's Show" (which he co-created and produced), "The Late Show with David Letterman," and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." He is the author of 11 books, including the 2006 Thurber Prize-winning novel The Other Shulman, and Bunny Bunny: Gilda Radner—A Sort of Romantic Comedy, and six off-Broadway plays. He also collaborated with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award-winning play "700 Sundays," and with Martin Short on his Broadway hit "Fame Becomes Me," and co-wrote the screenplays for the films "Dragnet," "North," "The Story of Us," and "Here Today." He joins us on the podcast to reflect on a singular career as one of our leading comedy writers and humorists—and a wickedly funny body of work that has earned him an honorary Ph.D. from the State University of New York, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Writers Guild of America, East.  Learn more about Alan Zweibel: Website Facebook Instagram Bluesky Please support the sponsors who support our show: John Kasich's Heaven Help Us (now available for pre-order) Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 88: Rachel Holtzman

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2025 67:34


How much does ego play a role in the art and craft of a book collaborator? That's a question at the heart of this conversation with #1 New York Times best-selling ghostwriter Rachel Holtzman, co-author of more than 60 books on topics ranging from wellness and spirituality, to cooking and entertaining, including collaborations with such celebrated personalities as Shaquille O'Neal, Alicia Silverstone, Robin Quivers, and Christine Quinn. Prior to her work as a self-described “book doula,” Rachel was an editor at Penguin Books and ELLE magazine, before a detour to culinary school and a short stint in the kitchen at New York's Gramercy Tavern helped to launch her career as an in-demand cookbook co-author and recipe tester and developer. “We're climbing inside the minds or the lives of our clients in order to produce something that is really of them,” she reflects, “while also leaving behind a pretty big footprint of our own, because it is of us as well. We're not ChatGPT.” Rachel joins us at a busy time on the collaboration front, as she celebrates the publication of four new titles this month—Tahini Baby, a collection of “veg-forward” Middle Eastern and Mediterranean-inspired recipes, written with television food personality Edin Grinshpan; The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook, featuring seasonal recipes from celebrity chef and style curator Meredith Hayden; Living in Wisdom, a guide to peak living, from wellness educator Devi Brown; and, Playful by Design, a parenting primer on nurturing independent play, from Myriam Sandler, creator and founder of the Mothercould lifestyle platform. Learn more about Rachel Holtzman: Website Instagram Books Please support the sponsors who support our show: John Kasich's Heaven Help Us (now available for pre-order) Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 87: Adam Ross

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 22, 2025 70:08


Adam Ross's second novel, Playworld, is one of the best-reviewed books of the year. A story “dipped in molten nostalgia and flecked with love and sadness,” according to The Washington Post, it was hailed immediately upon publication by The Los Angeles Times as “extraordinary” and by The New York Times as “a gorgeous cat's cradle of a book.” He is also the author of a previous novel, Mr. Peanut, which was selected as one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Economist, and the story collection Ladies and Gentlemen, which featured a story entitled “In the Basement,” a finalist for the BBC International Story Prize. Adam has been the Mary Ellen von der Heyden fellow in fiction at the American Academy in Berlin, and a Hodder Fellow for Fiction at Princeton University. His non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Daily Beast, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and other publications. Since 2017, he has been the editor of The Sewanee Review, the oldest, continuously published literary quarterly in the United States. He joins us to discuss his remarkable new novel, and the collaborative aspects of his work as one of our most acclaimed editors and novelists. Learn more about Adam Ross and the topics discussed in the episode: Adam Ross' Instagram Adam Ross' Facebook U.S. Center for Safesport Anthony Quinn's One Man Tango Please support the sponsors who support our show: John Kasich's Heaven Help Us (now available for pre-order) Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 86: Salwa Emerson

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 8, 2025 71:05


“Sometimes our own stories get snatched from us, hidden in darkness for years,” writes podcast guest Salwa Emerson, “until it's time to reclaim them.” Salwa is well-known to publishers as an author, editor and ghostwriter, specializing in memoirs, thought-leadership books, and book proposals. To hear her clients tell it, she has a way of bringing those stories out of hiding and into the light. She has collaborated with world-renowned chefs, professional athletes, reality television personalities, Oscar-winning actors, and Pulitzer Prize winners. Before turning to ghostwriting, she worked on the other side of the desk, for publishers such as St. Martin's Press and DK Publishing. Her most recent publication—The Conservative Environmentalist: Common Sense Solutions for a Sustainable Future, written with environmentalist Benji Backer—was hailed by former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prior to publication as “an essential read that shows how protecting our natural resources and advancing America's national interests are mutually reinforcing goals.” Join us as Salwa shares her thoughts on helping to find an author's “voice”, the three clauses all ghostwriters should have in their contracts, and the best ways to engage with readers, fellow writers and potential clients. Learn more about Salwa Emerson: Website LinkedIn Please support the sponsors who support our show: John Kasich's Heaven Help Us (now available for pre-order) Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 85: Elizabeth Shockman

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2025 61:21


“My job was to dance so well that it didn't matter who favored me or why.” That's a line from the compelling new memoir by world-renowned ballerina Joy Womack, “as told to” podcast guest Elizabeth Shockman. Together, in (dare we say it?) balletic prose, the two recount Womack's storied career as the first American woman to dance under contract for the Bolshoi Ballet Theater in Moscow. “The dancers beside me were tired, pale after months of clouded winter skies,” they write in Behind the Red Velvet Curtain: An American Ballerina in Russia. “They bent and bowed, their bodies corded with muscle, like sallow stalagmites that had mushroomed off the floor of a cave.” Womack's story offers a first-hand glimpse of the cutthroat world of ballet, complete with acts of violence and intrigue, tales of eating disorders and body shaming, and profiles of legendary Bolshoi coaches who encouraged obsessive devotion and imposed their uncompromising standards on their young charges. And yet beneath the ugliness of graft and competition, the author's love of dance and her appreciation for the place ballet holds in Russian culture fairly leap off the page, as she reflects on the intersection of art and politics and exposes the shadowy underbelly of the world of professional ballet. First-time collaborator Elizabeth Shockman is a public radio journalist based in Minnesota. Her work has been featured on National Public Radio, Public Radio International, Minnesota Public Radio, and the BBC. She has previously written for Reuters, The Moscow Times, and other publications. She first met Joy Womack on assignment for Reuters in Moscow and spent over a dozen years collaborating with her on this book. (Yes, Elizabeth agrees, that's a very long time to work on one project, but as she shares in this episode of As Told To: The Ghostwriting Podcast, it sometimes happens that life and career take center stage, both for an author and her subject, as memoir waits in the wings.) Learn more about Elizabeth Shockman: Instagram Twitter BlueSky Joy Womack Instagram Joy Womack Facebook  Please support the sponsors who support our show: John Kasich's Heaven Help Us (now available for pre-order) Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 52: The Film Freaks Honor Gene Hackman

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2025 80:57


The terrific multiple Oscar-winning actor passed away recently and Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan wanted to pay tribute to this incredible performer—a five-decade career filled with critically acclaimed box office hits like “The French Connection”, “Bonnie & Clyde,” “The Poseidon Adventure,” “The Conversation,” “Unforgiven,” “Get Shorty,” and the list goes on and on. The Film Freaks take you on a fascinating tour through his early days as a TV guest star to Academy Award-winning work. The episode is filled with some unique and rare audio clips. So come join us and enjoy many compelling highlights of Mr. Hackman's filmography. Please note: Some audio clips contain adult language. This episode is sponsored by: Libro.fm (FILMFREAKSFOREVER) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership The Writer's Bone Podcast Network

As Told To
Episode 84: David Peisner

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2025 66:52


David Peisner is a freelance journalist and ghostwriter/collaborator based in Atlanta. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, New York, Esquire, Playboy, and other publications. His first book collaboration—with “Steve-O,” the legendary co-star of the legendarily out there MTV reality series “Jackass”—grew out of a magazine assignment, taking Peisner on a sidelong career turn he hadn't anticipated. “If you are only going to buy one book this year about an alcoholic, self-abusive, vegan, pyromaniac ex-circus clown with a talent for vomiting on command and stapling his scrotum to his leg, make sure this is the one,” he wrote upon the book's publication. That book, Professional Idiot, became a New York Times best-seller, and led to a follow-up title, A Hard Kick in the Nuts, and a string of ghostwriting projects that helped to supplement Peisner's income as a freelance newspaper and magazine writer. Curiously, those two Steve-O books made headlines in December 2024, when they surfaced on the Goodreads account of suspected “CEO Killer” Luigi Mangione, charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson—a connection that put Peisner's work in an unexpected sliver of spotlight. It also brought his collaborative work to the attention of the similarly-named host of this here podcast, resulting in this conversation. Join us for a reflection on what it takes to build a career as a freelance journalist, and how to walk the fine line between writing about a celebrity subject and writing for a celebrity subject. Learn more about David Peisner: Website BlueSky Twitter Threads Homey Don't Play That! – The Story of In Living Color and the Black Comedy Revolution “Devil With a Cause” (05/19/24 Rolling Stone profile of Kid Rock) Please support the sponsors who support our show: John Kasich's Heaven Help Us (now available for pre-order) Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 83: Cynthia DiTiberio

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 25, 2025 63:41


“We all have to figure out our own ways to carve out our own creativity,” says New York Times best-selling ghostwriter Cynthia DiTiberio about finding time to do her own writing alongside her collaborative work. “Not that our creativity doesn't go into our ghostwritten books, but you can't claim it in the same way.” Cynthia knows what it takes to create a successful book. She started her publishing career as a senior editor at HarperCollins, where she worked with a number of authors, including NIH director Francis Collins and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Jeffrey Marx. From there she went on to co-author a number of best-selling books with a variety of well-known personalities, including Emmy-nominated actress and producer Roma Downey; author-turned-political activist Marianne Williamson; and business strategist and motivational speaker Tony Robbins. She currently writes the Substack newsletter “The Mother Lode,” and is the former publisher of Literary Mama, and her work has appeared in Scary Mommy, The Lily, Mutha Magazine and The Voices Project. Learn more about Cynthia DiTiberio: Website Instagram LinkedIn Box of Butterflies Napkin Notes Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 82: Hannah Bos & Paul Thureen

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 11, 2025 33:07


We're taking a bit of a pivot here at the podcast factory with this one, pinching from the season-opening episode of Writer's Bone, our flagship podcast at the Writer's Bone Podcast Network.  “As Told To” producer and Writer's Bone host and founder Daniel Ford featured a conversation with the writing team of Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, co-creators of the enchantingly poignant HBO series “Somebody Somewhere,” starring actress/comedian Bridget Everett—a conversation that brushed up against so many relatable aspects of collaborative writing that we decided to rebroadcast it (to re-podcast it?) here.  “Somebody Somewhere” ended its three-season run in December, shortly after the creators sat with Daniel Ford to discuss the series—hailed by The Los Angeles Times as “epic television”—and we were charmed by their conversation, inviting listeners behind the scenes to reflect on how the show came about, and the singular place it now holds in the annals of bittersweet television.    Paul Thureen is a founder and co-Artistic Director of The Debate Society, a Brooklyn-based theater company.  He received an OBIE Award for his performance in the company's Blood Play. Hannah Bos, also a founder and co-founder of the company, received a Drama Desk Award for her performance in the Signature Theater Company's production of Will Eno's The Open House. Together, they have written for “Mozart in the Jungle” and “High Maintenance,” and developed pilots for HBO, FOX, Amazon and Paramount.  “This has been a dream come true,” Hannah reflected on the duo's “Somebody Somewhere” run as the series came to a close. “It was a dream that they made the pilot. It was a dream that they made the first season, the second season, the third season. And it was a dream that we made it with really fun, good people. So I hope we can do it again.” Paul's reflections were a little less…well, reflective, as he shared what it was like to write for a group of midwestern-ish characters who weren't used to talking about their feelings. “If it gets a little too real,” he said, of the pain and heartache that could often be found at the show's core, “then you have to make a fart joke.”  Indeed.  Learn more about Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen: “Somebody, Somewhere” Season Three Trailer Hannah Bos Website Paul Thureen Instagram The Debate Society Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 51: The Film Freaks Meet Cute!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 8, 2025 83:35


With February being the month of Valentine's Day, your Film Freaks Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan decided to take a moonlit stroll at the beach and fall madly in love…with the romantic comedy genre! Six wonderful, sexy, witty comedies are discussed, starting with the very first American romantic comedy from 1932 all the way up to now. Everyone from Claudette Colbert to Jack Lemmon to Hugh Grant to Ali Wong to Maya Erskine are part of the cavalcade of cuties that shine in these charming, whimsical rom-coms. Give it a listen and laugh and love and cry and recklessly text old flames! You're welcome, love birds. Warning: a few of the audio clips include adult language. This episode is sponsored by: Libro.fm (FILMFREAKSFOREVER) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership The Writer's Bone Podcast Network

As Told To
Episode 81: Laura Morton

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 28, 2025 93:53


“The work that we do is actually very difficult to detach from when you're writing in somebody's voice,” notes veteran collaborator Laura Morton on the emotional connection she often feels when channeling her clients' stories.   Laura comes by this observation honestly, after spending more than thirty years helping to tell other people's stories.  In that time, she has written more than 60 books, including 22 New York Times bestsellers. Her most recent bestseller Fire in the Hole: The Untold Story of My Traumatic Life and Explosive Success, written with GoDaddy and PXG Golf founder Bob Parsons—was a publication of Lasega Books, her own imprint at Forefront Books, an innovative independent publisher.   Over the years, Laura has worked with a wide range of celebrities, entrepreneurs and innovators, including Joan Lunden, Al Roker, Jennifer Hudson, Susan Lucci, Melissa Etheridge, Justin Bieber, Danica Patrick, John Maxwell, Glenn Stearns, and the Jonas Brothers.   Laura is also the writer, co-director, and producer of the award-winning 2022 documentary “Anxious Nation,” exploring the age of anxiety and depression, and a leading mental health advocate and workshop facilitator.     Join us for a wide-ranging conversation on the changing face of publishing, as Laura reflects on her long career as one of the industry's leading storytellers, and on her recent shift from ghostwriter to “mission-driven” publisher, helping to build a platform for her collaborative clients and other authors looking to land their stories on America's bookshelf.   Learn more about Laura Morton: Website Lasega Books Forefront Books Facebook Instagram Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 80: Benjamin Dreyer

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 14, 2025 73:37


“You'd be amazed at how far you can get in life having no idea what the subjunctive mood is,” writes Benjamin Dreyer, retired managing editor and copy chief of the Random House division of Penguin Random House. “As if it's not bad enough that English has rules, it also has moods.” Yes, it does. Happily, the mood of the room for writers in Benjamin's good hands as a copyeditor was cheerful and patient and winning… and, for the most part, grammatically correct. Over the course of his 30+ years in publishing, he helped to shepherd the work of writers such as Michael Chabon, Edmund Morris, Suzan-Lori Parks, E.L. Doctorow, Elizabeth Strout, and Shirley Jackson into print. Somewhere in there, he also found time to write a book of his own: The New York Times best-selling stylebook Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style—a “brilliant, pithy, incandescently intelligent book [that] is to contemporary writing what Geoffrey Chaucer's poetry was to medieval English,” according to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham, another Random House author who benefited from our guest's unseen hand.   Join us as Benjamin reflects on the collaborative role of the copyeditor in the publishing process, on the joys of creative footnoting, on the particularly lovely frustration of working with Isabella Rossellini, on a writer's lifetime allotment of exclamation points, and the excesses to be pruned from phrases like “assless chaps,” “slightly ajar,” and “passing fad.”   (Note the ever-popular serial comma in the previous sentence, and the expenditure of one of those allotted exclamation points in this parenthetical aside!)   Learn more about Benjamin Dreyer:  Website Blue Sky Facebook Instagram Substack Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Second Printing: Peter Asher and David Jacks

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 31, 2024 81:57


This episode originally aired June 20, 2023 First-time author David Jacks, a veteran video editor and music supervisor, ran into legendary music producer Peter Asher at a Santa Monica taco joint in 2003 and asked if he could interview him. Jacks, a long-time admirer of the man said to be the inspiration for Mike Myers' “shagadelic” Austin Powers character, who first came to prominence as one-half of the hit-making British pop vocal duo Peter and Gordon and would go on to produce generation-defining albums for artists such as James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, and Diana Ross, immediately asked Asher if he would sit for an interview.  The aspiring journalist thought he might use the interview as the basis for an article in a music magazine, but the two-time Grammy-winning Producer of the Year didn't think anyone would want to read it. Nevertheless, that first interview led to another… and another… and on and on. Over the next two decades, the two continued to talk, while Jacks lined up interviews with hundreds of musicians and record industry professionals who had worked with Asher over the years, eventually leading to the publication of Peter Asher: A Life in Music, the first book-length account of the producer's life and career.  Join us for a two-part conversation with author and subject, as Asher reflects on a book he never thought anyone would be interested in reading, and Jacks shares what it was like to tease out the story of a shape-shifting pioneer—“a fascinating music business anomaly,” according to The New York Times, who could never quite understand what all the fuss was about.   Learn more about our guests:  Read The New York Times profile of Peter Asher, timed to coincide with the publication of the David Jacks book. Read Peter Asher: A Life in Music Read Peter Asher's The Beatles from A to Zed, based on the author's popular Sirius XM radio show on The Beatles Channel. Peter Asher on Instagram David Jacks website Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters/ASJA “Andy Awards” Guidelines Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 79: Seth Rogoff Returns

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 17, 2024 74:08


Here at the podcast factory, we're thrilled to welcome back novelist, translator, collaborator and cultural critic Seth Rogoff to talk about his new novel—a thrilling and unsettling coda to Franz Kafka's unfinished masterwork The Castle. Seth joined us in Season 2 (Ep. #35) to talk about the also thrilling and decidedly unconventional memoir he helped to write with ESPN basketball analyst and former NBA star Kendrick Perkins, The Education of Kendrick Perkins, which took a critical look at racism in America, and in professional sports, and sounded a call for justice and social change—a book hailed by Kirkus Reviews as “a well-balanced blend of activism and memoir.”  In that first interview, we talked a little bit about Seth's work as a noted Kafka translator, and we're picking up that conversation here, as Seth celebrates the publication of The Castle—“a palimpsestic fever dream” of a novel, according to another noted Kafka translator, Ross Benjamin.  (Go ahead and look up palimpsestic—we'll wait.)  In this follow-up conversation, we talk with Seth about the collaborative nature of translation, the state of contemporary memoir, and the never-ending search to find meaningful stories in the life and work of others.  Learn more about Seth Rogoff: Website BlueSky Threads Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters/ASJA “Andy Awards” Guidelines Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 50: The Film Freaks Get Rushed to the Hospital!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 10, 2024 70:17


In this entertaining episode, the Film Freaks put a stethoscope up to the hospital movies genre and luckily have found a very healthy heartbeat! Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan discuss six films—covering four different decades. Everyone from Laurel & Hardy to George C. Scott to Michael Douglas to Robert Mitchum come along a fun ambulance ride. Comedies, melodramas, searing satire, thrillers, and even a slasher movie are highlighted. Fascinating films with terrific audio clips and the usual amazing Film Freaks trivia are featured. So, turn your head, cough, and give this new episode a listen! This episode is sponsored by: Libro.fm (FILMFREAKSFOREVER) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership The Writer's Bone Podcast Network

As Told To
Episode 78: Mike Thomas

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 3, 2024 68:32


“In general, magazine profiles are to biographies as inland lakes are to oceans,” writes the late entertainment journalist and ghostwriter Bill Zehme in The New York Times best-selling Carson the Magnificent. “Far less sprawling and easier to navigate.”   This is true—and readers need look no further than Zehme's latest (and last) book, completed posthumously, for confirmation. Zehme, who collaborated on memoirs with Jay Leno and Regis Philbin and was a frequent contributor to Esquire, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Vanity Fair, worked on his Carson biography for over a decade, before a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress. When he died in 2023, The New York Times cited “Carson the Magnificent” in his obit as one of the entertainment world's “great unfinished biographies.”  Enter podcast guest Mike Thomas, Bill Zehme's former research assistant and longtime friend, who was tapped to complete the project, which was an immediate New York Times best-seller upon its publication last month. “Everything I needed (and so much more) was there, somewhere, stashed in long-unopened binders and torn envelopes and dusty bins,” Mike Thomas writes of this collaboration. “It was mostly a matter of sifting through the stockpile, extracting and sorting the relevant material and reaching out to a handful of Bill's sources, all of whom were eager to help, for further illumination. But I've never lost sight of the fact that, despite my contributions, this is Bill's book.” The book, Mike says, has been a blessing, gifting him the chance to keep connected to a close pal with whom he can no longer communicate directly—a mentor who cheered him on during his own career as arts and entertainment features writer at the Chicago Sun-Times, as a regular contributor to Chicago magazine, and as the author of two critically-acclaimed books of his own—The Second City Unscripted and You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman. Learn more about Mike Thomas: Instagram Threads Grantland profile of Jan Hooks Mentioned on the show:  The Bob Book, by Bill Zehme and ATT guest David Rensin Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters/ASJA “Andy Awards” Guidelines Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Second Printing: Winnie Holzman

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 26, 2024 76:40


This episode originally aired on Feb. 14, 2023 “I moved on to the next thing I was going to write,” says the noted dramatist and television writer Winnie Holzman, recalling the cancellation of her critically-acclaimed series “My So-Called Life,” after just one season. “That's what we do as writers.  We move on to the next thing.”  Indeed. In Winnie Holzman's case, one of those “next things” turned out to be the book for the hit Broadway musical “Wicked,” with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz—one of the longest running shows in Broadway history. The collaboration earned her a prestigious Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, as well as a Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical. Prior to her Emmy-nominated work on “My So-Called Life,” which she created for executive producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, Winnie wrote several scripts for the Zwick-Herskovitz drama “Thirtysomething,” and she would go on to serve as executive producer of “Roadies,” created by Cameron Crowe, and as co-creator of the series “Huge,” with her daughter Savannah Dooley.  Join us as Winnie reflects on her wickedly successful career writing for the stage and the small screen, the many ways writers measure their successes, and the give-and-take that has fueled her collaborations with some of the most creative minds in theater and television. Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters/ASJA “Andy Awards” Guidelines Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 77: Hal Donaldson

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 19, 2024 62:07


Hal Donaldson's faith-based humanitarian organization Convoy of Hope is a magnificent agent of change.  In partnership with local churches, businesses, civic organizations, and government agencies, the organization is deeply committed to healing the world in all its broken places, through children's feeding initiatives, community outreach and disaster response.    Convoy of Hope currently feeds more than 571,000 children worldwide each day—and has served more than 250 million people in total since Hal, together with his brothers and friends, started the organization in 1994. It's the 35th largest charity on the latest Forbes “100 Largest U.S. Charities” list. So what does all of this have to do with ghostwriting?  Well, before launching Convoy of Hope, Hal started out as a journalist and ghostwriter. Early on in his career, on a ghostwriting assignment in Calcutta, he had the opportunity to interview Mother Teresa, who turned the tables on their interview and asked the young journalist what he was doing to repair the world. Hal had no answer, but when he returned to the United States a short while later, he rallied his friends and family and began donating goods and supplies to communities in need.  As the organization has grown, Hal has continued to write. He's just out with his latest collaboration, What Really Matters: How to Care for Yourself and Serve a Hurting World, written in collaboration with his daughter Lindsay Donaldson-Kring.  Join us for an inspiring conversation on what really matters, as Hal Donaldson reflects on the good works that continue to flow from the first strokes of his pen.  Learn more about Hal Donaldson: Website Convoy of Hope Website Convoy of Hope Facebook Convoy of Hope Instagram Convoy of Hope Threads Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters/ASJA “Andy Awards” Guidelines Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 76: Aaron Philip Clark

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 5, 2024 71:03


What does it take to help channel one of the most singular voices in rap in an entirely new medium? Join us as we chat with novelist and screenwriter Aaron Philip Clark, co-author of the just-published thriller The Accomplice, written in collaboration with rapper and entertainment mogul Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.    Aaron is perhaps best known for his International Thriller Writers Award-nominated crime fiction series featuring Detective Trevor Finnegan (Blue Like Me, Under Color of Law), as well as for his standalone novels.     His first book with 50 Cent introduces readers to Nia Adams, a New York-born, Texas-bred detective who always dreamed of becoming a Texas Ranger, who sets off on the tail of a hardened Vietnam vet bad guy who steals the secrets of the rich and powerful.    In addition to writing fiction and screenplays, Aaron teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension, and he collaborates with a variety of public figures and luminaries.    Learn more about Aaron Philip Clark: Website Facebook Instagram 50 Cent Instagram G-Unit Film & Television Instagram Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters/ASJA “Andy Awards” Guidelines Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 75: Betsy Lerner

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 22, 2024 79:23


“Lots of ambitious books announce themselves,” writes Lauren Christensen in The New York Times Book Review of podcast guest Betsy Lerner's debut novel Shred Sisters. “This one doesn't need to.” High praise for a first-time novelist, but that's not surprising considering Betsy's long and distinguished career as an editor and literary agent. A born storyteller (and, story-sharer), Betsy has helped to shape our literary landscape, as the guiding hand behind such cultural touchstones as Patti Smith's Just Kids and Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation.  She's also earned her As Told To stripes as the co-author of The New York Times best-selling Visual Thinking, written in collaboration with Temple Grandin, in addition to writing several non-fiction books of her own, including the memoir The Bridge Ladies, and the writing guidebook The Forest for the Trees.   A recovering poet, Betsy received an MFA in poetry from Columbia University, where she was selected as one of PEN's Emerging Writers, before trading her pen for a red pencil and embarking on a heralded career as an editor.  With the publication of her first novel, longlisted prior to publication for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, Betsy kick-starts an exciting new chapter in her writing life, offering a rich, bittersweet tale of sisterhood, mental health, love and loss, and reminding us that it's never too late to become the artist you were always meant to be.   Learn more about Betsy Lerner: Website TikTok Facebook Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters/ASJA “Andy Awards” Guidelines Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 74: Jill Sobule

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 8, 2024 67:20


Over the course of her nearly forty-year career, singer-songwriter Jill Sobule has earned a singular spot in the American songbook. Best known for her breakout 1995 singles “Supermodel” (from the “Clueless” soundtrack) and “I Kissed a Girl” (which came out more than 10 years before the Katy Perry hit of the same name), her quirky, heartfelt, cheer-filled songs are difficult to categorize: she sings about the death penalty, anorexia, shoplifting, the French Resistance, LGBTQ issues and Mexican wrestling.  In another decade, Jon Pareles, the chief pop music critic of The New York Times, wrote that she stands “among the stellar New York singer-songwriters of the last decade”—high praise that has surely applied in all subsequent decades.      Jill's songs are enchanting, disarmingly funny and achingly poignant, and many of them are featured in her Drama Desk-nominated autobiographical musical "F*ck 7th Grade," which premiered at the Wild Project in NYC in 2022 and returns for a limited engagement in November 2024.  “We didn't have to create a story around these songs,” she says of the show, which she really, really hopes isn't dismissed as just another jukebox musical featuring songs from an artist's back catalogue. “These songs are my story. I just wrote a few more to fill out the narrative.” Jill joins us on the podcast to discuss her rich and varied career as one of the music industry's most uniquely collaborative artists. She's performed with musicians such as Neil Young, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, Cyndi Lauper, and Warren Zevon, and once released a concept album of original music with lyrics written by some of her favorite writers, including Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody, Mary Jo Salter, Vendela Vida, and David Hajdu. She regularly tours with comedian/actress/author Julia Sweeney in their two-woman “Jill & Julia” show. Two highlights from the very many cool, pinch me-type moments that have stamped Jill Sobule's remarkable career: she inducted Neil Diamond into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, and she appeared as herself on an episode of “The Simpsons.”  So, you know, there's that.  Learn more about Jill Sobule: Website Patreon Instagram Threads Facebook Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Writer's Bone
As Told To: Jeff Daniels

Writer's Bone

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 26, 2024 85:14


As you're about to discover, we're doing something a little different on our channel today. We've been looking for ways to highlight and promote shows across the Writer's Bone universe and don't you know it, we've got a passionate, informed, and engaged audience right here on our airwaves, why not share stand out episodes like the one you're about to hear. Daniel Paisner has been on quite the heater on his show As Told To: The Ghostwriting Podcast. The conceit of his show is talking to ghosts like him about how they got into this kind of work, how they interact with their well known clients, what material they produce from their own imaginations, and how one goes about building a writing life in service of someone else's voice. He's talked to the likes of Michelle Burford, Frank Santopadre, Seth Davis, Amy Ephron, Jodi Lipper, Jon Sternfeld, and the granddaddy of ghostwriters William Novak. Almost a year ago, Daniel called us and said that he was in talks with Jeff Daniels to appear on the show to discuss his audible original “Alive and Well Enough.” And as an added wrinkle, this all happened during the writers' strike in Hollywood, so we couldn't do a deep dive into his oeuvre, which actually led to a more intimate, in-depth conversation. Please enjoy this conversation that originally aired Oct. 10, 2023. Also subscribe to As Told To and continue the conversation with us.  Note: This episode of As Told To: The Ghostwriting Podcast features narrative and song excerpts from Jeff Daniels's audio memoir “Alive and Well Enough,” presented courtesy of Audible Originals. Jeff Daniels photo credit: Sam Jones More from Jeff Daniels:  Jeff Daniels & Jonathan Hogan, “Together Again” Website Facebook Please support the sponsors who support As Told To: Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog & Horizontal Hold Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount Writer's Bone is proudly sponsored by Libro.fm, As Told To: The Ghostwriting Podcast, and The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. 

As Told To
Episode 73: J. Michael Straczynski

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 24, 2024 69:58


“The task of writing is to take a character and put him up a tree and start throwing rocks at him,” notes novelist, screenwriter, comic book writer, and television showrunner J. Michael Straczynski. The two-time Hugo Award-winning author is perhaps best known as the creator of the television series “Babylon 5”, and as the screenwriter for the 2008 Oscar-nominated Clint Eastwood film “Changeling.” He is also the author of the Superman: Earth One” trilogy of graphic novels, and for many years he was the writer for Marvel Comics' “Thor,” “Fantastic Four,” and “The Amazing Spider-Man” series, as well as for DC's “Superman,” “Wonder Woman,” and “Before Watchmen” titles.     These days, Joe is spending most of his time throwing rocks on behalf of his late friend Harlan Ellison, the legendary writer of speculative fiction, who is having a bit of a moment more than six years after his death. As the executor of the Harlan Ellison estate, Joe has been the driving force behind the re-release of the first two installments of Ellison's landmark story collections Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions, which the author had always imagined as a trilogy. Now, thanks to Joe Straczynski's dedication, the long-awaited third installment of “the most significant and controversial Science Fiction collections of our time,” will finally see the light of day with the publication of The Last Dangerous Visions, due from Blackstone Publishing in October 2024. “Harlan was my friend, and I have an obligation to him to get his work where it needs to be, in front of a mainstream audience,” Joe reflects on a year that has also seen the publication of a new collection of Ellison's stories (Greatest Hits) as well as a novel of his own (The Glass Box).  Join us as we talk with J. Michael Straczynski on his influences as a writer, on the art and craft of storytelling in all its many forms, and on what it has meant to him to be able to breathe new life into the work of an artist hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “a twentieth-century Lewis Carroll.” Learn more about  J. Michael Straczynski: Website Facebook Instagram Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 72: Nancy French

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 10, 2024 76:21


Best-selling author, investigative journalist, political commentator and memoirist Nancy French is a storyteller at heart. She's helped to write more than a dozen books, including five New York Times best-sellers, with a variety of collaborators from conservative politicians to Olympic athletes to reality television stars.  Her latest memoir—Ghosted: An American Story—was published in Spring 2024 to wide critical acclaim. CNN's Jake Tapper hailed the book prior to publication as “a great read for anyone trying to make sense of cultural whiplash over the last few years,” and went on to write that “Nancy French's journey from poverty-stricken mountains to a presidential campaign plane is a joy.”  Join us as we kick off Season 4 at the podcast factory with an insight-filled conversation on what it means to lend your voice to leaders who share your values, only to find yourself “ghosted” by a political establishment that seemed to want to punish you for your refusal to endorse the 2016 Republican Presidential nominee.    Learn more about Nancy French: Website Facebook Twitter Instagram Threads Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Second Printing: Frank Santopadre

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 27, 2024 87:26


Originally aired Dec. 6, 2022. Frank Santopadre is a veteran comedy writer and the longtime co-host of “Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast,” with the late, great Gilbert Gottfried. Prior to working with Gilbert, Frank helped to write jokes and supporting material for numerous awards shows (including the Daytime Emmys, the TV Land Awards, and the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize). He has also written comics for Bazooka Joe bubble gum, and mock ad copy, concepts, and character profiles for the Topps Company's popular Wacky Packs and Garbage Pail Kids trading cards series. Oh, and did we mention he also wrote for Mad and Cracked magazines? And the somewhat less zany The New York Times, The Washington Post, People, US Weekly, and Politico? Along the way, he has created comedy material for an eclectic line-up of celebrated personalities, including Bill Murray, Howard Stern, Sarah Silverman, Meryl Streep, Martin Short, and Ben Stiller, and briefly served as a staff writer on what he proudly calls “the worst sitcom in television history”—a forgettable show from the late ‘90s called “Lost on Earth,” hailed by The Los Angeles Times during its mercifully-brief run as “mirthless.” Join us for a somewhat more mirth-filled hour, as we talk about what it was like to help give voice to one of the most singular voices in the annals of American comedy—a joyful burden Frank kinda, sorta shared with podcast host Daniel Paisner, who collaborated with Gilbert Gottfried on his 2011 memoir Rubber Balls and Liquor. Learn more about Frank Santopadre, visit his official website, like his Facebook page, and follow him on Twitter.  Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 71: Gathering of the Ghosts

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 13, 2024 70:28


Join podcast host Daniel Paisner as he moderates the keynote panel discussion at the inaugural “Gathering of the Ghosts” ghostwriting conference earlier this year—an event jointly sponsored by Gotham Ghostwriters and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.   Dan is joined by music journalist Holly Gleason and former As Told To guests Seth Davis and Jodi Lipper for a spirited discussion on their ghostwriting journeys, and a reflection on the many ways authors and journalists are writing in collaboration.  Learn more about our guests: Follow Seth Daviss on X | Episode 61 Holly Gleason Website Jodi Lipper Website | Episode 28 Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

ghosts fall writer journalists libro american society unmaking seth davis mighty blaze holly gleason mark jordan legan x episode film freaks forever
As Told To
Episode 70: Hope Edelman

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 30, 2024 75:49


Hope Edelman is an author, ghostwriter, essayist, writing instructor and life coach. The through-line connecting much of her work, from the collaborations she's helped to write to her own best-selling memoirs, is the theme of parent-loss. “Navigating motherhood without your mom is like assembling a complex puzzle without the picture on the box,” she writes in a blog post on her website. She's been writing about the grief and loss in her own life since her best-selling 1994 memoir Motherless Daughters—a book she began as a graduate student at the University of Iowa, when she realized she was being called to write about her mother's death more than a decade earlier.  It's a calling that connects Hope to her ghostwriting clients as well. Her first collaboration, a dual memoir written with actors Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez—Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son—is informed by the death of Sheen's mother, when the actor was just 11 years old, while her current project, written with Owen Elliot-Kugell, the daughter of the late Cass Elliot—My Mama, Cass—finds its narrative drive in the sudden death of the author's mother, who died in her sleep in a London apartment nearly ten years after she shot to fame as a member of The Mamas & The Papas. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize for Creative Nonfiction, Hope has taught writing at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the University of Iowa, and Antioch University-Los Angeles.  Join us for a compelling conversation on what it means to find a way to heal as you find your voice as a writer.    Learn more about Hope Edelman: Website Facebook Instagram Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 69: Adam Nimoy

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2024 73:43


Television director, filmmaker and author Adam Nimoy, the son of actor Leonard Nimoy, knows what it means to grow up in the chilling shadow of a famous father. He also knows what it means to tell a helluva story, and he does so in the pages of his new memoir The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy. The book explores the author's complicated relationship with his father and reflects on how it informed his views on marriage, parenting, addiction and recovery. A graduate of Loyola Law School, Adam Nimoy started his career working in entertainment law, before becoming a filmmaker, ultimately directing dozens of network television shows—some of them, he allows with self-deprecating good cheer, “sublime”, and some of them “eminently unwatchable.” He also directed the documentary “For the Love of Spock,” which was originally conceived as a collaborative venture with his father shortly before the actor's death in 2015. Adam also taught writing, directing and acting at the New York Film Academy, and filmmaking at Beit T'Shuvah, an addiction treatment center.   “Whether you're a Leonard Nimoy fan, a Trekkie, or from another planet,” writes noted rabbi and social justice advocate Shmuly Yanklowitz, “you are sure to find this vulnerable, brave, humorous, and intimate story about Spock, the outer limits, a father-son relationship, and teshuvah (recovery and repair) deeply moving.”   Learn more about Adam Nimoy: Website Instagram Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 68: Michael Franklin

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2024 66:17


Michael Franklin is the co-founder and executive director of Speechwriters of Color, a community of expert and aspiring communicators helping to give voice to leaders at every level of the public, private and non-profit sectors. As a proud partner of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, the organization has placed dozens of candidates in both full-time and contract roles as speechwriters across the Biden-Harris administration.   “We are definitely understanding and realizing the power of words to make a difference,” Michael says.   As the founder and chief thought leadership officer of Words Normalize Behavior, a Black- and Gen Z-owned and certified LGBT Business Enterprise, Michael has developed a reputation as a leading communications strategist, working with clients in higher education, political advocacy, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, sports and entertainment.   Michael's commitment to telling stories through coalition building, targeted outreach and inclusive communications practices has its roots in his commitment to public speaking and debating.  While a student at Howard University, he was the inaugural HBCU Speech and Debate League National Champion in both Parliamentary Debate and Extemporaneous Speaking and helped to lead the school's debate team in 2019's “Great Debate” against Harvard University.  Learn more about Michael Franklin: LinkedIn Website Twitter Instagram Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 67: Ellis Henican

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 18, 2024 77:49


Ellis Henican—New York Times best-selling collaborator, Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist, and popular television news pundit—had perhaps the coolest side-gig of any of our podcast guests to date. He provided the voice of “Stormy” in the adult animated television series “SeaLab 2021,” which ran on the Cartoon Network for four seasons.  This spring, he's also provided the “voice” for books by former New Jersey governor Chris Christie (What Would Reagan Do?); legendary actor Tom Selleck (You Never Know); and, high-stakes hostage negotiator Mickey Bergman (In the Shadows), marking him as perhaps the busiest ghostwriter of the publishing season.  Ellis's other collaborative credits include Home Team, a New York Times best-seller written with New Orleans Saints football coach Sean Payton; In the Blink of Any Eye: Dale, Daytona, and the Day that Changed Everything, with two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip; and Doc, with former All-Star pitcher Dwight “Doc” Gooden.  For 20 years, he wrote a thrice-weekly column in New York Newsday, where he shared a Pulitzer Prize for the newspaper's coverage of the Union Square train wreck. Join us as Ellis reflects on his mid-career pivot from the newsroom, the lessons he's learned writing on behalf some of our most influential athletes, actors, and politicians, and how it happened that a veteran journalist found his way to becoming a cartoon character.  Learn more about Ellis Henican: Twitter Instagram Facebook LinkedIn Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 66: Chelsea Devantez

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 4, 2024 77:29


“Celebrity memoirs have always been my favorite book genre,” reflects podcast guest Chelsea Devantez, the Emmy-nominated writer, comedian, director, and host of the celebrity book club podcast “Glamorous Trash.” “That is what happens when your nearest bookstore growing up is a Wal-Mart. That was my fate.”  Chelsea is just out with a celebrity-adjacent memoir of her own, I Shouldn't Be Telling You This (But I'm Going to Anyway), from Hanover Square Press. It's a book that might surprise her loyal podcast listeners, or viewers who know her from her work as a television writer for shows like “Not Dead Yet,” “Girls5Eva,” and “Bless This Mess,” or as the head writer for the Apple TV+ show “The Problem with Jon Stewart.”  The book is wildly funny in spots, but harrowing and traumatic in others, as Chelsea tells her story through a series of essays about the many women who have given her life shape and meaning, recounting a tumultuous childhood, a series of toxic relationships, and a pattern of domestic violence that might have upended a less determined soul.  Join us as we talk with Chelsea about her new book, about her unlikely career path, and about the current state of the celebrity memoir, in a conversation that will hopefully make you think about the stories we share, and the ways we go about sharing them.  Learn more about Chelsea Devantez: Website "Glamorous Trash" podcast Instagram Twitter Facebook TikTok Patreon Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 65: Maria Burns Ortiz

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later May 21, 2024 76:07


“You gotta be the best on your worst day.” Words to live by from the mother of Ronda Rousey, the mixed-martial-artist-turned-professional wrestler known as “the baddest woman on the planet.” Rousey's mother happens to be first American to win a gold medal at the World Judo Championships, and she also happens to be the mother of podcast guest Maria Burns Ortiz, co-author of Rousey's just-published memoir Our Fight. The book is a follow-up to the sisters' previous collaboration—the New York Times best-selling My Fight/Your Fight.    Maria has taken her mother's hard-won advice to heart, in an entirely different arena from her famous sister. A former columnist at ESPN.com, with an expertise in digital integration in sports media, she was honored as the National Association of Hispanic Journalists' Emerging Journalist of the Year in 2007 and has served as an adjunct professor of journalism at Emerson College.  Alongside her work as a journalist, Maria is also a leader and innovator in the game development industry. She is the CEO and co-founder of 7 Generation Games, an award-winning developer of educational adventure games for children, and was recently named executive director of Global Game Jam, the world's largest game creation event.  Join us as Maria shares what it was like to give voice to a shared childhood and a family history that gave rise to one of the most celebrated female athletes of our time.  Learn more about Maria Burns Ortiz: Website X/Twitter Instagram Ronda Rousey on Instagram Ronda Rousey on Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 64: Zibby Owens

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later May 7, 2024 47:45


“Reading to me is like breathing,” notes Zibby Owens, the creator and host of the Webby Award- winning podcast “Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books,” who joins us on the podcast to discuss her lifelong love of reading and writing and her commitment to championing books and authors. Indeed, Zibby has built on the success of her podcast to become the publishing industry's “most powerful book-fluencer,” according to New York magazine.  A frequent contributor to “Good Morning America” and other media outlets, she is the co-founder and CEO of Zibby Books, an independent book publisher, and the owner of Zibby's Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, California. Across her Zibby Media empire—which devoted followers have christened “the Zibby-verse”—she also offers retreats, classes, special events, a book club, a writing group, and other bookish opportunities.  “Everything has unraveled one thing at a time,” she says, of her full-on embrace of the book world, and the community of book lovers she has helped to nourish. “It's like a carpet sort of unspooling in front of me.”  Most recently, Zibby has added the title of novelist to her long list of credits.  Her just-published first novel, Blank, the story of a frustrated writer who seeks to disrupt the publishing industry, was hailed as “a delightful gift to book lovers,” by New York Times best-selling author Carley Fortune. Join us for a fresh, candid conversation on what it means to celebrate the written word.  Learn more about Zibby Owens: Website Zibby Media “Moms Don't Have Times to Read Books” Facebook Twitter Instagram Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 63: Todd Strasser

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 23, 2024 64:32


“This is an author who really has his finger on the way kids think,” The New York Times says of podcast guest Todd Strasser, the author of over 150 books, including the award-winning young adult and middle-grade novels The Wave, Give a Boy a Gun, and Fallout. He is also the author of the wildly popular Help! I'm Trapped series of books for young readers, as well as several other best-selling series and movie tie-in books and novelizations.  His books have been translated into more than twenty languages, and several have been adapted for film and television. Many of his standalone books are pulled from today's headlines, exploring difficult themes like bullying, homelessness and school shootings. Join us as we talk with Todd about his influences as a writer, and his unlikely career turns writing X-rated fortune cookies (“clairvoyant contortionist is one who can see her own end”) and soap operas (“Guiding Light”) to become one of our most prolific YA novelists.   Oh, and he also finds time to share one of the best pieces of writing advice he ever received, after struggling for a way to explain how the character of Cameron Frye managed to place a chair on the edge of a diving board, facing the pool, before sitting himself down in it, as he attempted to “novelize” a key scene in the “Ferris Bueller's Day Off” script: “You just cut to it!” Learn more about Todd Strasser: Website Twitter Facebook Summer of ‘69 The Lazy Person's Guide to Surfing (with Lia Strasser) Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 62: Genevieve Field

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2024 87:12


Veteran magazine journalist Genevieve Field joins us to discuss her mid-career pivot into ghostwriting, as she celebrates the success of her “Andy Award”-winning collaboration with Hollywood stuntwoman Kimberly Shannon Murphy. Glimmer: A Story of Survival, Hope, and Healing, Murphy's unflinchingly honest account of intergenerational familial abuse, was honored this winter with an inaugural “Andy Award”—so named for the “and” credit often awarded to ghostwriters—at the first annual “Gathering of the Ghosts” conference in New York City, jointly sponsored by Gotham Ghostwriters and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.    Genevieve Field is no stranger to long-form storytelling in the voice of one of her subjects, but she is a relative newcomer to book-length memoir and collaborative non-fiction. Prior to embarking on a freelance writing career, she worked as a story editor at The New York Times Magazine, as the editorial director of Seventeen online, and the features director at Glamour. While at Glamour, she was a frequent contributor to the magazine's first-person celebrity features, presenting “as told to” articles in the voices of notable figures such as Rachel Maddow, Cecile Richards, and Sarah Silverman. She also co-founded the Webby-Award winning magazine and dating site, Nerve. “I help writers unearth the stories in their hearts, get that deep wisdom on the page, and create breakthrough books,” she writes on her website. “Whether serving as a collaborator or editor, my purpose is always the same: to help bring important stories and great writing into the world.” "This book is so much more than the sum of its parts,” notes actor Cameron Diaz in the forward to Glimmer. “It is a gift. It is Kimberly's offering to readers suffering in silence. It is a companion for anyone who has endured trauma, at any level. And it is a beautiful tribute to the strength and power of the human spirit." And, in the talented hands of podcast guest Genevieve Field, it is a powerful example of what it takes to collaborate on a deeply personal memoir of sexual abuse and childhood trauma. Learn more about Genevieve Field: Website LinkedIn Glimmer: A Story of Survival, Hope, and Healing Glamour piece by Sarah Silverman, on her battle with depression, as told to Genevieve Field Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 61: Seth Davis

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2024 71:47


Seth Davis is a veteran sports journalist and broadcaster, and The New York Times best-selling author of Wooden: A Coach's Life and When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball. He is the co-author of the just-published memoir It's Hard for Me to Live with Me, written with NBA veteran and University of Kentucky basketball legend Rex Chapman—a book that transcends (and upends!) the sports memoir genre and stands as a devasting and inspiring story about the human struggle for self-acceptance.  Over the course of his career, Seth has written for The Athletic and Sports Illustrated and served as a college basketball studio analyst and reporter at CBS Sports.   “You have to make the phone ring,” he says, echoing a piece of advice once shared with him by his one-time SI colleague and longtime friend and mentor Rick Reilly, of his efforts to grow his game from magazine and broadcast journalism and jump-start his career as an author and collaborator.   Join us as we celebrate “March Madness” with one of our leading sportswriters who is fast becoming a sought-after ghostwriter, calling on the hard-won experience he's developed in thousands of locker room and post-game interviews to help his subjects reflect on the games we play and the reasons we play them.  Learn more about Seth Davis: Twitter/X Substack: “Seth Davis Writes Again”  TikTok Wake Up with Purpose! (with Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt) Empower: Conquering the Disease of Fear (with Tareq Azim)  Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 60: Mark Dagostino

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 12, 2024 71:03


Veteran journalist and collaborator Mark Dagostino is the author of more than two dozen books written with some of our most compelling public figures. He has helped to write seven New York Times best-sellers, including the #1 best-selling The Magnolia Story, with Chip & Joanna Gaines, co-stars of the hit HGTV show “Fixer Upper.” Mark began his career at The Boston Globe, as a general assignment news reporter, before moving on to a ten-year stint at People, where he turned his focus to popular culture as a correspondent, columnist, and senior writer.  While at People, he conducted interviews with such celebrities as Michael J. Fox, Christopher Reeve, Justin Timberlake, Sting, Ben Afleck, and Nicole Kidman, developing many of the skills that would help him become one of the most sought-after collaborators in publishing.     Join us for an engaging, insightful conversation on what it takes to pivot from journalism to the journalism-adjacent field of ghostwriting.   Learn more about Mark Dagostino: Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Hulk Hogan: My Life Outside the Ring Crossing the Desert by Payam Zamani Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 46: The Film Freaks Meet Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2024 91:36


Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan, your Film Freaks have the honor of sitting down and interviewing the terrific writing team of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (“Ed Wood,” “The People v. Larry Flynt,” “Man on the Moon,” “1408,” “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” “Dolemite Is My Name,” etc.). Scott and Larry are also true Film Freaks and we hope you enjoy this free-wheeling, fun, fascinating discussion where they discuss how they met as college freshmen at USC. The four of us share weird and wild cinema and pop culture trivia—everyone from Mel Brooks to Dom DeLuise to Kaypro computers to Anthony Quinn to Frank Sinatra to John Wayne to Dabney Coleman to Milos Forman to Midnight Spook Shows to regional filmmakers like Charles B. Pierce to Billy Jack are discussed and debated. Give it a listen and please subscribe and give us a five-star rating. Thanks, fellow Film Freaks! This episode is sponsored by: Libro.fm (FILMFREAKSFOREVER) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership The Writer's Bone Podcast Network

As Told To
Episode 59: Douglas Preston

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2024 69:05


“What really amazed me here was that so many of the authors who submitted stories wrote something completely outside their genre,” reflects best-selling author Douglas Preston, one of the project editors behind the dynamic new collaborative novel Fourteen Days. “This book is full of all kinds of weird stories.”  Yes, it is. And so is podcast guest Douglas Preston, co-author of dozens of New York Times best-selling thrillers written with his longtime writing partner Lincoln Child—a shining example of what it means to write in collaboration. In all, Preston has published 39 books of fiction and non-fiction. In addition to books, Preston writes about archaeology and paleontology for the New Yorker. He has worked as an editor for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University and is the recipient of numerous writing awards in the U.S. and Europe. He served as president of the Authors Guild from 2019 to 2023. Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Fourteen Days turns on a narrative frame written by Preston, with contributions from a disparate collection of contemporary writers, headed by fellow project editor Margaret Atwood. In addition to Atwood and Preston, the novel features the “voices” of Charlie Jane Anders, Joseph Cassara, Jennine Capó Crucet, Angie Cruz, Pat Cummings, Sylvia Day, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, Diana Gabaldon, Tess Gerritsen, John Grisham, Maria Hinojosa, Mira Jacob, Erica Jong, CJ Lyons, Celeste Ng, Tommy Orange, Mary Pope Osborne, Alice Randall, Ishmael Reed, Roxana Robinson, Nelly Rosario, James Shapiro, Hampton Sides, R.L. Stine, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Monique Truong, Scott Turow, Luis Alberto Urrea, Rachel Vail, Weike Wang, Caroline Randall Williams, De'Shawn Charles Winslow, and Meg Wolitzer. All proceeds from the book will be directed to the Authors Guild Foundation, the charitable and educational arm of the Authors Guild, dedicated to empowering all writers, from all backgrounds, at all stages of their careers.  Learn more about Douglas Preston: Author's Guild Author's Guild Foundation Instagram Facebook Preston & Child website The Lost Time: And Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 45: The Film Freaks Go Long - Pro Athletes Who Tried Acting!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 15, 2024 83:30


In this exciting, last-minute, long-touchdown-pass-to-win-the-game-type of episode, your Film Freak hosts, Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan, guzzle Gatorade, draw up some plays, and take the field to shine stadium lights on a wonderful, fun, interesting topic: pro athletes who went into acting. Some crashed and burned, but others showed real talent and became successful box office/TV ratings stars! Everyone from Babe Ruth to Jim Brown to Alex Karras to the late, great Carl Weathers are discussed as your Film Freaks bring you in-depth trivia and, of course, many terrific and entertaining audio clips from the dozens of films and TV shows they cover. Get your uniform on and meet us on the field, rookie! High five! This episode is sponsored by: Libro.fm (FILMFREAKSFOREVER) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership The Writer's Bone Podcast Network

As Told To
Episode 58: Sarah Tomlinson

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2024 79:38


“Sometimes the truth is just too much, and sometimes it's not enough.” That's a line from Sarah Tomlinson's new novel, The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers, the story of a young ghostwriter scratching at the truth that threatens the legend of the fictional rock band of the title.  A veteran journalist, essayist, music critic, ghostwriter, and memoirist, Sarah's work has appeared in The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Review of Books, Marie Claire, Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly, and Huffington Post. Her new novel puts an exclamation point on the maxim that says writers should write what they know: Sarah has covered the recording industry and the music scene for years, writing for Spin.com, Billboard.com and penning a local music column for the Boston Phoenix. She's even written band bios for record labels like Virgin, Red Ink/Columbia, and MySpace Records, and contributed to the electronic press kits for artists on Warner Bros. Records.   As a ghostwriter, she has helped to write more than a dozen books, including three New York Times best-sellers and the forthcoming Dancing on the Edge, co-authored with the iconoclastic actor, dancer, choreographer Russ Tamblyn.   Join us for a candid conversation on what it means to pick up a pen on behalf of someone else, and then to set that pen down to tell the tale of a ghostwriter looking to make sense of the senselessness and sensibility of a rock ‘n roll life gone sideways.  Learn more about Sarah Tomlinson: Website The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers Dancing on the Edge Good Girl: A Memoir Facebook Instagram Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 57: Bethanne Patrick, Missing Pages 'Ghostwriting Non-Fiction The Literary Chameleon'

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 30, 2024 40:12


“How do you tell someone else's story, but make it authentic?” That's the question at the heart of this episode of As Told To: The Ghostwriting Podcast, which is really a repurposed, repackaged edition of a recent episode of Missing Pages, the critically-acclaimed investigative podcast hosted by renowned literary critic Bethanne Patrick—known to readers across social media as “The Book Maven.” Bethanne and her production team at The Podglomerate, a leading producer of original podcasts, pull back the curtain on the lucrative culture of non-fiction ghostwriting, and offer a compelling take on the art and practice of writing in collaboration, and the role “literary chameleons” have come to play in the telling of high-profile tales. Along the way, Bethanne looks at the evolution of the practice, and interviews ghostwriting veterans like Jon Sternfeld and Dan Gerstein, both former As Told To guests, as well as cookbook author J.J. Goode. She also spends some time chatting with As Told To host Daniel Paisner, who weighs in with a hard-won insight or two.  This special crossover edition of As Told To is being presented with the permission of the Podglomerate team, and Bethanne Patrick, and is intended to further the conversation among writers and creatives who continue to write and create in service of someone else's voice or vision.  Also listen to Part II of the two-part Missing Pages exploration of the ghostwriting trade: “Ghostwriting: Fiction – Will the Real Tom Clancy Please Stand Up?”  Learn more about Bethanne Patrick and Missing Pages: Bethanne Patrick's website Bethanne's memoir, Life B: Overcoming Double Depression Missing Pages The Podglomerate  The Podglomerate Twitter The Podglomerate Facebook Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 56: Kevin Anderson

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 16, 2024 69:53


Kevin Anderson is one of the publishing industry's leading authorities on ghostwriting and editorial development. As the founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of Kevin Anderson & Associates, a Manhattan-based firm that specializes in developing collaborative projects, he is uniquely positioned to weigh in on what it takes to write a best-selling book. His firm represents over 200 widely-published writers, and relies on the editorial and publishing expertise of more than a dozen former Big 5 acquisitions editors. “A client who hires a ghostwriter is still the author of their book,” Anderson once told The Washington Post. “With the exception of some research-based projects, the content, ideas and concepts for ghostwritten books come directly from the client… A ghostwriter is an interpreter and a translator, not an author, which is why our clients deserve full credit for authoring their books.” Join us for an informative conversation on how many of our collaborative books are conceived, and how they fight their way through the publishing process and onto our bookshelves. Learn more about Kevin Anderson: Kevin Anderson & Associates website Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Norman Ollestad's Crazy for the Storm Scott Cawhon's Five Nights at Freddy's Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 55: Andrew Crofts

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 2, 2024 66:35


“I'm quite good at detaching and passing the tissues and just listening,” says Andrew Crofts, one of the world's most prolific ghostwriters, on his ability to help his clients share their most intimate, most harrowing, most traumatic experiences in the pages of their memoirs.  As the author or co-author of more than eighty books, including a dozen Sunday Times best-sellers, Andrew is well-known in England for his work behind-the-scenes with top television personalities, footballers, politicians, and ordinary individuals caught in extraordinary circumstances.  He is also well-known among publishers for his willingness to take on any subject, and to collaborate with any celebrity, as long as the project comes with the promise of a good story. “Extremes of evil are as interesting as extremes of goodness,” he writes, of his ability to work with heroes and villains alike. In fact, he once told a reporter for The Guardian that he is grateful he was not born early enough to pursue this type of work during Adolf Hitler's rise to power. “I have a horrible feeling that if I'd got the call from Germany in the 1930s,” he said, “I would have hopped on that plane like a Mitford.” Learn more about Andrew Crofts: Website Confessions of a Ghostwriter Ghostwriting Facebook Twitter Links to some of Crofts' collaborations discussed in our interview: The Boy Who Never Gave Up, with Dr. Emmanuel Taban: A Boy Called Hyppo, with Hyppolite Ntigurirwa:  Sold, with Zana Muhsen Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 54: Rebecca Shaw & Ben Kronengold

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 19, 2023 64:01


“Voices of their generation. Except for Greta Thunberg. And Malala. Amanda Gorman . . .you know what, I take it back.” — Jimmy Fallon That's high praise for the comedy writing duo of Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold, from their former boss at NBC's “The Tonight Show,” where our podcast guests became the two youngest writers in that program's storied history and earned a shared spot on Variety's “Power of Young Hollywood Impact List” in 2021. Shaw and Kronengold began dating and writing together as freshmen at Yale University and capped their undergraduate career with a 2018 commencement address that went a little bit viral.  (Okay, it went a whole lotta viral – their speech was seen by more than 5 million people, and landed them an agent…and, eventually, their “Tonight Show” gig.)  Together, they've just published a disarmingly funny collection of essays, stories, and humor pieces called Naked in the Rideshare: Stories of Gross Miscalculations, which was hailed by actor and comedian Will Ferrell as “incredibly original, bizarre, and funny” prior to publication by William Morrow in November. Join us as we talk about what it means to find your voice in collaboration with your partner, and to take that voice to one of the most dynamic writing rooms in late night television – and beyond. Learn more about Rebecca Shaw & Ben Kronengold: Website Rebecca's website Ben's website Rebecca's Instagram Ben's Twitter “Wax Paul Now” Trailer Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 53: Rob Kutner

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2023 73:22


George McFly's A Match Made in Space, from “Back to the Future”… Hank Moody's God Hates Us All,” from “Californication”… Dr. Frederick Frankenstein's How I Did It, from “Young Frankenstein”… Some of our best-loved movies and television shows feature books written by one of the lead characters. In many cases, the publication of those “books” becomes a central plot point or a running gag. (Think Handbook for the Recently Deceased, from “Beetlejuice.”) In other cases, those books leap from the screen and onto our bookshelves—IRL, as the kids like to say. That's the case with Look Out for the Little Guy, the in-movie memoir by Scott Lang, also known as Ant-Man, as seen on screen in the Marvel Studios blockbuster, “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.” The book was published by Hyperion Avenue in September and became an immediate New York Times best-seller, but here's a news flash: it wasn't really written by Scott Lang, the “Everyman Avenger” played in the movie by actor Paul Rudd. And no, it wasn't really written by Paul Rudd, whose face graces the front cover of the book in stores and online, and as it appears as a prop in the movie. In fact, the book was really written by our guest Rob Kutner, a veteran comedy writer who has collected five Emmys, a Peabody and a Grammy writing for such shows as “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” on Comedy Central, and “Conan,” on TBS. Rob's other television writing credits include “Teen Titans Go,” “Angry Birds: Summer Madness” and “Dennis Miller Live,” and he has also written material for the Oscars, Emmys, and MTV Movie Awards broadcasts, as well as for two White House Correspondents Dinners. He is also the author of Apocalypse How: Turn the End-Times into the Best of Times! and the just-published Snot Goblins and Other Tasteless Tales, with illustrations by David DeGrand. Join us as Rob shares what it was like to channel the voice of a fictional character to craft a page-turning memoir of an ex-con turned world-saving superhero, and to be tasked with the caretaking of the life and legacy of one of the most beloved characters in the Marvel Universe. Learn more about Rob Kutner: Website Facebook Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog & Horizontal Hold Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 44: The Film Freaks Hide in the Shadows of Noir!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 2, 2023 107:09


Your Film Freaks put their feet up on their private eye desk, slip a gat in their pocket, and light a Chesterfield, see? Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton discuss six of their favorite crime noirs—some well known and some rather obscure—the films cover the time period of 1940 through 1959. Everyone from Peter Lorre to Ida Lupino to Robert Ryan to Lucille Ball show up in these tough, fast-talking flicks where bad guys and dangerous dames stay back in the shadows and plan their next moves. Directors like Henry Hathaway, Richard Fleischer, Nicholas Ray, and even producer John Houseman are discussed. Like always, lots of fun, fascinating audio clips are played throughout this episode. Come join us or take a slap across the mouth or a one-way ride to the river, get me? This episode is sponsored by: Libro.fm (FILMFREAKSFOREVER) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership The Writer's Bone Podcast Network

As Told To
Episode 52: Adeena Sussman

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 21, 2023 63:22


“If I'm developing a recipe for a client, or for my own books, I'm all about people telling me what they think about it, what it invokes for them, what they would do differently,” notes New York Times best-selling cookbook author Adeena Sussman about the collaborative nature of preparing recipes for readers. If there's anybody who knows what it means work in partnership in the kitchen, it's Adeena Sussman—the co-author of 15 books, including the best-selling Cravings series written in collaboration with model and television personality Chrissy Teigen. Adeena is also the co-author of The Sprinkles Baking Book, written with Candace Nelson, the noted pastry chef and founder of Sprinkles cupcakes. Adeena's latest solo book, Shabbat: Recipes and Rituals from My Table to Yours, celebrating (and reimagining!) the traditional foods that have long graced her family's Shabbat table, became an immediate best-seller upon publication in September 2023. The book is a follow-up to Adeena's 2019 cookbook Sababa, named one of the best cookbooks of the year by The New York Times, Bon Appetit, and Food & Wine. A lifelong visitor to Israel who has been writing about that country's food culture for almost twenty years, Adeena lives, cooks, and writes in Tel Aviv, in the shadow of that city's famed Carmel Market. Learn more about Adeena Sussman: Website Instagram Facebook Pinterest Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog & Horizontal Hold Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 51: Rennie Dyball

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 7, 2023 68:10


Rennie Dyball is an award-winning journalist, ghostwriter, middle-grade novelist and children's book author who's found a way to marry her lifelong interest in horses with her many and varied talents as a writer. Together with her co-author Piper Klemm, she created the popular Show Strides series of equestrian-themed novels for middle grade readers—originally published by The Plaid Horse and soon to be reissued by Andrews McMeel Universal.  Rennie's standalone novel for children, Good Boy, Eddie, was published by The Plaid Horse earlier this year.  As a ghostwriter, Rennie has helped to give voice to a number of celebrity-driven autobiographies and memoirs, including the Audible Original memoir, Stronger Together, with Terry Crews and Rebecca King Crews; Full Circle, with Andrea Barber (Kimmy Gibler from “Full House”); A Famous Dog's Life, with Hollywood animal trainer Sue Chipperton; and, Fierce Style, with fashion designer Christian Siriano. An accomplished equestrian, Rennie has also drawn on her love of horses to collaborate on With Purpose: The Balmoral Standard, with top trainers Carleton and Traci Brooks. Her most recent book, B Is For Bellies, a picture book celebration of body positivity, with illustrations by Mia Saine, was published by Clarion Books in July.  Rennie was a reporter and writer at People for over 15 years, before retiring from the magazine in 2017, and she continues to write for People.com as a freelance book critic.  “People was the best training ground I could imagine,” she says of her development as a writer. “More than anything, I took away the importance of making every word count.” Join us for a winning conversation on what it takes to build a life and career out of two abiding passions—in Rennie's case, riding and writing.  Learn more about Rennie Dyball: Website Instagram Threads Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog & Horizontal Hold Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 43: The Film Freaks Get Groovy Scary With 70's Horror!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 28, 2023 125:44


Your Film Freaks Forever! hosts, Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan shine a harvest moon on some of their favorite 1970s horror films. It makes for a fun, fascinating, frightening witches brew! They discuss the decade itself, share some terrific drive-in trailer clips, and then take deep dives into six wonderful flicks. Everyone from Shelley Winters to Vincent Price to Gregory Peck to Sir Ralph Richardson join in the freaky fun! Have a funky, nifty Halloween and we'll see ya on the flip side. This episode is sponsored by: Libro.fm (FILMFREAKSFOREVER) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership The Writer's Bone Podcast Network

As Told To
Episode 50: Dani Shapiro

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 24, 2023 68:21


“I've been obsessed with the corrosive power of secrets since my first novel,” reflects the best-selling novelist and memoirist Dani Shapiro, a writer who has been mining her own secrets since she first put pen to paper. In a far-ranging, free-wheeling interview with host Daniel Paisner, pulled from a “Book & Author Luncheon” program sponsored by the Friends of the Port Washington (N.Y.) Library in May, 2023, she reflects on her inspirations for her most recent novel Signal Fires, New York Times best-seller and National Jewish Book Award-winner now out in paperback, and for her gripping 2019 memoir Inheritance, also a New York Times best-seller and National Jewish Book Award-winner. Her fascination with secrets is at the heart of Dani's wildly popular podcast Family Secrets, now in its ninth season, which invites guests to examine the secrets they choose to carry and the ones they choose to share, and it is at the heart of this conversation. “We all live in aftermath, all the time,” she tells Paisner. “Aftermath is the story of our lives, really. And the question is, What do we do in that aftermath? And how does an incident or a secret that is kept impact us over a long lifetime?”  Join us as Dani Shapiro looks to answer her own question—and in the process, sheds meaningful light on the stuff of all fiction and memoir.  Learn more about Dani Shapiro: Website Facebook Instagram Twitter More resources mentioned in the episode:  Port Washington Library Website Daniel Ford's short story collection Black Coffee Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog & Horizontal Hold Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 49: Lindsey Jacobellis

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 17, 2023 85:54


Lindsey Jacobellis is the most dominant athlete in the history of women's snowboardcross—a thrilling head-to-head sport that made its Olympic debut at the 2006 games in Torino, when Lindsey also stepped to the Olympic stage for the first time. And yet the inaugural running of the event was nearly her undoing. At 20 years old, Lindsey had a commanding lead heading into the final stretch of the medal round when she grabbed her board on the penultimate jump and was unable to land cleanly, spilling off the course and looking on in despair as her rival, Tanja Frieden of Switzerland, sped past to claim the gold. The world looked on as well, in judgement and disbelief, and Lindsey's fall would go down as one of the biggest unforced errors in sports—a misstep that allowed her to ultimately write one of the greatest comeback stories in Olympic history.   It also cost her many of her sponsors, and shook her confidence, and in many ways stamped her career before it had really begun, and in her just-published memoir Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall, co-written with podcast host Daniel Paisner, she revisits the anguish and heartbreak that found her on the back of that fall— and followed her around like a black cloud through the next four Olympic cycles, finally leading to her two gold medal runs at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.   “I'm calling this book Unforgiving because that word has taken on so many meanings for me,” she writes. “It speaks to the single-minded, relentless pursuit that has helped to shape my snowboarding career…but it also reflects the punishing, intolerant treatment I received in the press, and in and around the Olympic and snowboarding communities. And it reminds me that for the longest time I wasn't able to forgive myself for this one stupid, rash, thoughtless mistake—a mistake that cost me a whole lot more than a simple medal or the chance (for the moment!) to call myself a champion.”   One of the ways Lindsey was finally able to put the fall behind her and reclaim her own narrative was to lean into her many other interests away from the mountain. She moved to California and took up surfing. She became a certified personal trainer and wrote a children's book, Sochi: A True Story, based on the life-affirming bond she developed with the stray dog she met in the athletes' village at the Sochi games. And she helped to launch Super Girl Snow Pro, an event series working to showcase the world's top female pros and provide an inspirational platform for young female athletes.  Join us as we visit with the GOAT of women's snowboardcross to talk about what it was like to rewrite her story on the snow—and, now, to share that story on the page.   Learn more about Lindsey Jacobellis: Website Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall Instagram Facebook Super Girl Snow Pro Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog & Horizontal Hold Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 48: Jeff Daniels

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 10, 2023 78:14


“Sometimes I'm asked if I'll ever write a book,” notes actor, playwright and singer-songwriter Jeff Daniels, “and I always answer that I already have. It's in my songs.” This is true. But now it's also true that the stuff of Jeff Daniels's life is on delightful display in the Audible Originals memoir “Alive and Well Enough”—a collection of stories, musings and songs that invites listeners into the heart and mindset of one of our most versatile performers, offered with grace and good cheer and midwestern soul.  Daniels, the two-time Emmy Award-winning actor and star of such iconic films as “Terms of Endearment,” “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” “Dumb and Dumber,” “Pleasantville,” and “The Squid and the Whale,” recalls being inspired in this effort by the story-laced songs of Steve Goodman and Arlo Guthrie, and, more recently, by Bruce Springsteen's “Springsteen on Broadway.” Part podcast, part musical memoir, part bulletins from the frontlines of contemporary storytelling, “Alive and Well Enough” is a wildly entertaining mash-up of Jeff Daniels's many gifts as a writer and performer, including scenes from some of the author's original plays, many of which have been staged at The Purple Rose Theatre Company in his hometown of Chelsea, Mich. “[It's] is the only place where I get to do everything I do,” he says of his new audio project, which he calls “an adventure of an accidental artist who one day looked up and realized he had a sense of humor, a passion for writing, and stories to tell.” Join us for an insightful, engaging and surprisingly candid conversation on what it means to channel the work of some of our finest playwrights and screenwriters – like Lanford Wilson (“Fourth of July”), Scott Frank (“Godless”) and Aaron Sorkin (“The Newsroom” and the Broadway adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird”).  “When you're inside the writing, it rubs off,” he says.  This is true as well.  Note: This episode of As Told To: The Ghostwriting Podcast features narrative and song excerpts from Jeff Daniels's audio memoir “Alive and Well Enough,” presented courtesy of Audible Originals. Jeff Daniels photo credit: Sam Jones More from Jeff Daniels:  Jeff Daniels & Jonathan Hogan, “Together Again” Website Facebook Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog & Horizontal Hold Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 47: Dina Kraft

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 26, 2023 70:54


Dina Kraft is a veteran foreign correspondent based in Tel Aviv, where she co-hosts the influential podcast “Groundwork,” sharing stories about Palestinians and Israelis working to change the status quo. She began her overseas career in the Jerusalem bureau of the Associated Press and has written and reported for a number of publications, including The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Los Angeles Times. She currently works as the opinion editor for the English-language edition of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.   A 2012 Neiman Fellow at Harvard University, and a 2015 Ochberg Fellow at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University, Dina has taught journalism at Harvard University, Boston University and Northeastern University, where she was the director of media innovation at the university's School of Journalism. Dina's first collaboration, My Friend Anne Frank: The Inspiring and Heartbreaking True Story of Best Friends Torn Apart and Reunited Against All Odds, written with the late Hannah Pick-Goslar, recounts a brief but enduring friendship that somehow flourished during one of the darkest periods in history. “Lies,” Anne Frank wrote in her diary, referring to Goslar by her childhood nickname, “you are a reminder of what my fate might have been.”   Join us as Dina reflects on the story behind Goslar's best-selling memoir, and on what it means to bring a journalist's eye (and ear!) to the task of shining meaningful new light on one of the most familiar chapters in the literature of the Holocaust.   Learn more about Dina Kraft: Website Facebook X/Twitter Groundwork: The Podcast Watch "My Friend Anne Frank by Hannah Pick-Goslar" on YouTube More post-show reading material: The Girl in the Green Sweater: A Life in Holocaust's Shadow by Daniel Paisner Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog & Horizontal Hold Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 46: Lee Goldberg

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 12, 2023 76:07


Novelist, screenwriter, producer and publisher Lee Goldberg knows what it is to work in collaboration. He has helped to write and produce a number of television shows, including “seaQuest” and “Monk,” and he also served as a supervising producer and executive producer of the long-running series “Diagnosis Murder,” starring Dick Van Dyke.  While working on “Monk” and “Diagnosis Murder,” he wrote several original tie-in novels based on those series. Lee is also an accomplished storyteller in his own right—the author of nearly 40 novels, including Lost Hills, True Fiction, and the first five books in the Fox & O'Hare series, written with best-selling mystery novelist Janet Evanovich. His latest book, Malibu Burning, tells the story of an elaborate heist staged in the middle of a raging California wildfire, and he's got two additional books coming out in the weeks ahead—Calico and Dream Town.   Join us for a fun and informative conversation on what it means to work in and around television, and how it is that one writer has been able to capture the imagination of audiences in a variety of mediums. Learn more about Lee Goldberg: Website Facebook Twitter/X Instagram Threads BlueSky Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog & Horizontal Hold Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 42: The Film Freaks Honor Their Friend, Treat Williams

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 7, 2023 82:02


In a special episode of the podcast, Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton honor their dear friend, the terrific actor Treat Williams who sadly passed away this summer. Gone too soon, Phoef and Mark share memories of getting to work with him for two seasons of the family drama “Chesapeake Shores,” where Treat played the patriarch Mick O'Brien. They also cover his five-decade career, highlighting some of the wonderful films, TV series and TV movies he appeared in. Treat worked with some of the truly great film directors, such as Sidney Lumet, Milos Forman, Steven Spielberg, John Sturges, Sergio Leone, etc. Everything is discussed from “Hair” to “Prince of the City” to “The Late Shift” to “Everwood” to “We Own This City,” and many more. Come join Mark and Phoef as they raise a glass and share their joy and gratitude of getting to work with such an amazing talent and that they were fortunate enough to call him their friend. Rest In Peace, Treat (1951-2023)

As Told To
Second Printing: Amy Ferris

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 15, 2023 73:31


This episode originally aired February 1, 2022. Amy Ferris writes like a dream. About love. Also: strength, humanity, depression, aging, inspiration, resilience. But mostly about love. It's kind of her thing—a thing that led her to her first gig as a collaborator, a dual memoir from Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons and Justine Simmons called Old School Love. Amy's worked primarily as an essayist, an editor, a screenwriter and playwright. She's even published a young adult novel called A Greater Goode. She made a whole bunch of noise with the publication of her 2009 breakout book, Marrying George Clooney: Confessions from a Midlife Crisis, a wildly funny and yet achingly wistful collection of middle-of-the-night musings on life and death and connectedness. (Don't just take our word for it: The New York Times called it "poignant, free-wheeling, cranky and funny.") The book helped to establish Amy as a voice of her generation and a leading champion of women and women's issues. She is the co-editor of anthology Dancing at the Shame Prom: Sharing the Stories That Kept Us Small, and editor of Shades of Blue: Writers on Depression, Suicide and Feeling Blue, a collection of essays that looked to shine meaningful light on the shadow of depression. She is a founding board member of the Scranton, PA-based Pages & Places Literary Festival, a co-director of the Story Summit Writer's School, and a frequent guest at writer's conferences and workshops all over the world. Follow her on Facebook, where she posts almost daily on the stuff of her life and the human condition. Oh, and love...a whole lotta love. Learn more about Amy Ferris: Website Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Second Printing: Eugene Pack

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 1, 2023 83:44


This episode originally aired March 15, 2022. Eugene Pack knows a thing or two about what it takes to write a compelling celebrity memoir – and yet he's never actually written one. As the creator and co-producer of the hit theatrical revue “Celebrity Autobiography,” developed with Dayle Reyfel, he has pushed audiences to consider what it means to live a book-worthy life and how it is that readers have come to accept the wit and wisdom and worldviews of our most celebrated personalities when they are presented on the page. The show has been staged in theaters all over the country, including runs on Broadway, on London's West End, and at the Sydney Opera House, with guest performers such as Kristen Wiig, Lily Tomlin, Mandy Patinkin, Paul Rudd, Billy Crystal, Maya Rudoph, Whoopi Goldberg and Martin Short helping to give hilarious voice to the so-called insights and dubious reflections of the famous and infamous. “Celebrity Autobiography” was awarded a Drama Desk Award for “Unique Theatrical Experience” when it debuted in New York to rave reviews, and it continues to delight audiences all over the world, drawing on an ever-changing slush pile of source material and an ever-evolving cast. An accomplished playwright, Pack's short original comedies are featured on his uniquely-imagined and endlessly-entertaining podcast, “The Pack Podcast,” performed by an assortment of talented actors, with proceeds going to the Actor's Fund, an organization that provides a safety net for performing artists and entertainment professionals. His full-length plays include “Columbus and Amsterdam,” “Sharpies” and “The Poets of Amityville,” as well as the autobiographical musical “To Be Loved,” written in collaboration with Motown founder Berry Gordy. Pack is also an Emmy-nominated writer and producer, and the creator and executive producer of CMT's longest-running series, “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team.” Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

As Told To
Episode 45: Debra Ollivier

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 18, 2023 83:02


“I love the process, and the craft of writing, and helping people who have a real deep yearning to put their own story on the page,” reflects best-selling author and collaborator Debra Ollivier, who has helped to develop, ghostwrite, and edit more than 20 titles, with a broad and eclectic mix of authors.  Debra, who lived and worked in Paris at the front end of her writing career, is the author of two enlightening and engaging guides on what it means to be a French woman and why it matters—What French Women Know and Entre Nous—as well as books on wellness, mindfulness, yoga, parenting, cooking and performance training. Her work is featured in the best-selling anthologies Mothers Who Think and Because I Said So. She has served as a contributing editor for Salon and a managing editor for The Huffington Post, and has also written for Harper's, Playboy, The New York Times, Parents, Le Monde, and other publications. “I think for me I kind of have to be all in,” she says about the factors she considers when taking on a new project. “I do like working with people who are very purpose driven… I find that I work better when I have an intrinsic level of enthusiasm, and when I feel like I'm not only helping this author-slash-client, but I'm also making a contribution to the world, as cliché as that might sound.”  Learn more about Debra Ollivier: Website Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network

As Told To
Episode 44: Arthur Smith

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 4, 2023 84:56


“The more you try, the luckier you get…” Words to live by, from podcast guest Arthur Smith, the pioneering television producer behind some of the longest-running unscripted series in history, and author of the just-published motivational memoir Reach: Hard Lessons and Learned Truths from a Lifetime in Television. Arthur's long-running hit “Hell's Kitchen,” with Gordon Ramsey, helped to forge the modern food competition reality genre, while his Emmy-nominated “American Ninja Warrior” has spawned a cultural movement and inspired millions to push themselves to next-level successes in their own lives and careers.  As the founder and chairman of A. Smith & Co. Productions, Arthur has produced over 200 shows, for virtually every network and streaming platform, including “The Titan Games,” “Mental Samurai,” “Kitchen Nightmares,” “The Swan” and “Paradise Hotel.” Prior to launching his own production company, he served as the youngest Head of Sports in the history of the Canada's CBC television network, and as Executive Vice President of Programming, Production and News for FOX Sports. He also served for four years as Senior Vice President of Dick Clark Productions, producing a wide variety of award shows, special events and non-fiction programming.  In Reach, written in collaboration with podcast host Daniel Paisner, Arthur reflects on his remarkable career and shares some of the lessons he's learned while pushing himself beyond what he ever thought possible.   “In the nonfiction genre people get tired of the same thing,” he recently told a reporter from the Jewish Journal. “The biggest hits in reality/nonfiction television come from originality. So we have to keep reinventing. We have to keep freshening up ideas. We have to keep reaching.” To learn more about Arthur Smith: A. Smith & Co. website A. Smith & Co. Facebook A. Smith & Co Twitter Reach: Hard Lessons and Learned Truths from A Lifetime in Television Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network

As Told To
Episode 43: Peter Asher and David Jacks

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2023 78:51


First-time author David Jacks, a veteran video editor and music supervisor, ran into legendary music producer Peter Asher at a Santa Monica taco joint in 2003 and asked if he could interview him. Jacks, a long-time admirer of the man said to be the inspiration for Mike Myers' “shagadelic” Austin Powers character, who first came to prominence as one-half of the hit-making British pop vocal duo Peter and Gordon and would go on to produce generation-defining albums for artists such as James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, and Diana Ross, immediately asked Asher if he would sit for an interview.  The aspiring journalist thought he might use the interview as the basis for an article in a music magazine, but the two-time Grammy-winning Producer of the Year didn't think anyone would want to read it. Nevertheless, that first interview led to another… and another… and on and on. Over the next two decades, the two continued to talk, while Jacks lined up interviews with hundreds of musicians and record industry professionals who had worked with Asher over the years, eventually leading to the publication of Peter Asher: A Life in Music, the first book-length account of the producer's life and career.  Join us for a two-part conversation with author and subject, as Asher reflects on a book he never thought anyone would be interested in reading, and Jacks shares what it was like to tease out the story of a shape-shifting pioneer—“a fascinating music business anomaly,” according to The New York Times, who could never quite understand what all the fuss was about.   Learn more about our guests:  Read The New York Times profile of Peter Asher, timed to coincide with the publication of the David Jacks book. Read Peter Asher: A Life in Music Read Peter Asher's The Beatles from A to Zed, based on the author's popular Sirius XM radio show on The Beatles Channel. Peter Asher on Instagram David Jacks website Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network

As Told To
Episode 42: Madeleine Morel

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2023 62:57


Literary agent Madeleine Morel has made a career out of representing ghostwriters and collaborators—and only ghostwriters and collaborators. Through her Manhattan-based agency 2M Communications, she has successfully paired her clients with top celebrities, thought leaders, health and fitness experts, business executives and change agents on hundreds of book projects, including more than 60 New York Times bestsellers. She sees herself as a kind of “literary matchmaker,” and publishers are inclined to agree. They regularly seek her out when they're looking for the “right” writer to capture a celebrity author's voice or vision. “It's the best of times and the worst of times,” Madeleine says of the current climate for her clients. “It's the best because there's more collaborative work out there than ever, and it's the worst because there are more collaborators out there than ever.” Join us for a fun, freewheeling conversation on what it takes to write in service of someone else, and how publishers go about putting the famous and infamous together with talented storytellers in pursuit of the next bestseller. Learn more about Madeleine Morel: 2M Communications website LinkedIn Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast

new york times manhattan libro literary morel mark jordan legan film freaks forever
As Told To
Episode 41: Tara Trudel

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2023 57:09


“Songwriting is kind of where my heart is,” says former Second City music director Tara Trudel, a versatile songwriter and composer based in Los Angeles. Tara's unique talents popped on podcast host Daniel Paisner's admittedly limited radar during the launch of Post in Fall 2022, when she created a mini-musical based on the early days and growing pains of the new social media site. Tara started her career teaching early childhood and elementary school music for Chicago's The Merit School of Music and the city's public school system, before pivoting to comedy and theater—a natural extension of her work with children, she says. These days, Tara makes her principal living writing music for comedy shorts and theme songs for children's books—a collaborative niche she seems to have all to herself. Her work has been featured at SXSW, on Amazon Prime, Sony's Voces Nuevas, and Vulture's “Best Comedy Shorts of the Year.” Tara's score for Chelsea Devantez's short film “Basic” was named “Best Score” at the LA Film Awards and the Festigious International Film Festival. Her debut album, “Fractured: Fairy Tales Remixed,” offers listener's Tara's modern take on the classic stories we think we know, featuring guest appearances by her collaborating partners from the Chicago improv scene, including Ashley Nicole Black, Eddie Mujica, and Mary Sohn. Learn more about Tara Trudel: Website Facebook Twitter Post Spoutible Instagram “Fractured: Fairy Tales Remixed” Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast

As Told To
Episode 40: Gregory Collins & Carolyn Pfeiffer

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later May 9, 2023 82:50


“The idea of ‘chasing the panther' is that the panther serves as this metaphor for art, and so it's something that you chase after even thought it is in some ways very, very dangerous, and I think Carolyn would say that is one hundred percent the story of her life, chasing art.” That's writer and filmmaker Gregory Collins explaining the title to his very first collaboration, Chasing the Panther: Adventures & Misadventures of a Cinematic Life, written with the noted independent film producer Carolyn Pfeiffer, who as a young woman found herself swept up in the roiling waters of the French New Wave and Italian film scenes of the '60s and '70s. Together, Gregory and Carolyn have written a vibrant coming-of-age memoir telling the origin story of one of the film industry's first female executives—a woman once dubbed a Hollywood “mini-mogul” by The Wall Street Journal. As the head of Alive Films and Island Alive, Carolyn produced a number of influential films, including “Stop Making Sense,” “Koyaanisqatsi”, “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “Trouble in Mind,” “Far North,” and “The Whales of August.” An accomplished screenwriter and producer in his own right, Gregory's films have premiered at the Malawi International Film Festival, and at the Sarasota and Seattle film festivals. He has taught producing and screenwriting at Penn State University and has served as the director of development of Burnt Orange Productions, at the University of Texas at Austin. Join us at the front end of this episode, as Carolyn and Gregory discuss how they worked together, and share some wild stories about Carolyn's experience on the frontlines of French New Wave cinema, Fellini's Rome, and Swinging London—and then stay with us after the break, as we visit with Gregory and examine the ways he has shifted his focus as a writer from the screen to the page.   Learn more about our guests: Carolyn Pfeiffer, LinkedIn Carolyn Pfeiffer, Twitter Gregory Collins, website Gregory Collins, Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton A Mighty Blaze podcast

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 40: The Film Freaks Mid-Life Crisis!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later May 1, 2023 106:08


In honor of episode #40 (!!), the Film Freaks have decided to trade in their respectable automobiles for cherry red Porches, dye their hair, go to a tanning salon, drive to Vegas, baby, and finally start to live, man!  Come join us as we get cozy with some of the best and eclectic Mid-Life Crisis movies. From decades as far back as the 1930s right up to today, Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan highlight and discuss six terrific, entertaining flicks—everyone from Walter Huston to Bill Murray to Rock Hudson to Julianne Moore to Shirley Valentine herself, Pauline Collins, are part of the podcast party. So put on your coolest clothes, grab a cocktail, and wonder what life is all about with the Film Freaks!

As Told To
Episode 39: Erik Sherman

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2023 78:02


“A strong argument can be made that Fernando Valenzuela brought more new fans to the game of baseball than anyone going back to probably Babe Ruth's era,” notes baseball historian and New York Times best-selling collaborator Erik Sherman, author of Daybreak at Chavez Ravine: Fernandomania and the Remaking of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Before tackling the (largely) untold story of the phenom hailed by sportswriters as “the Mexican Sandy Koufax,” and assessing Valenzuela's impact on the game, Erik made a name for himself as one of publishing's leading chroniclers of our national pastime. As a ghostwriter, he helped to write Out at Home with Glenn Burke, baseball's first openly gay player; Steve Blass: A Pirate for Life; Mookie: Life, Baseball, and the '86 Mets with Mookie Wilson; Davey Johnson: My Wild Ride in Baseball and Beyond; and After the Miracle: The Lasting Brotherhood of the '69 Mets, with Art Shamsky. On his own, he has also written the companion volumes Kings of Queens and Two Sides of Glory, featuring chapter-length profiles of the Mets and Red Sox players on both sides of the storied 1986 World Series.   A 2023 inductee to the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame for his baseball writing, Erik lectures annually at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He is the host of the popular podcast “The Erik Sherman Show,” featuring interviews with sportswriters, broadcasters, baseball executives and former players. Learn more about Erik Sherman:  Website Facebook Twitter (Note: the Gay Talese/Frank Sinatra and Laurence Shames/John Lennon profiles mentioned in this conversation are both hidden behind an Esquire paywall. For more insights into the Talese piece, visit Vulture and for more on the Shames piece, read this open article on Esquire.) Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton

As Told To
Episode 38: Nell Scovell

As Told To

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 11, 2023 73:00


“Writing is not what you start,” writes podcast guest Nell Scovell in her scathingly funny memoir Just the Funny Parts. “It's not even what you finish. It's what you start, finish, and put out there for the world to see.” Indeed, Nell offers this observation from a place of hard-won experience. A veteran television writer (“Newhart,” “The Simpsons,” “Late Night with David Letterman,” “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” “Murphy Brown,” “Coach,” and on and on), Nell understands what it means to get an idea on its feet and out in front of an audience. As Sheryl Sandberg's collaborator on the #1 New York Times best-seller Lean In, she helped to create a guidepost for a generation of women looking for a shared compass point in their lives and careers—a book Nell says she wishes she'd read at twenty-five, as a woman working in the male-dominated field of television comedy, instead of helping to write at fifty-two. Join us as Nell reflects on a lifetime working in collaboration with some of the brightest (and least accommodating!) minds in television, on what it was like to write jokes for President Obama at the White House Correspondent's Dinner (“Obama, out!”), and on what it was like to be Spy magazine's first staff writer, and a contributor to Vanity Fair, Vogue, and The New York Times. Learn more about Nell Scobell: Website Facebook LinkedIn PostNews Please support the sponsors who support our show. Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 38: The Film Freaks Get Animated!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 30, 2022 105:10


Come join your Film Freaks, Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan, as they discuss some of their favorite animated feature films. Like all FFF! episodes, it's packed with fun and fascinating trivia and back stories, plus you'll learn some engrossing facts about such legendary animation giants like Walt Disney, Hiyao Miyazaki, Brad Bird, etc. Everyone from Snow White to the Iron Giant to Forky are discussed and many, many more. So if you love animation as much as the Film Freaks do, come listen to the latest lively, entertaining episode of Film Freaks Forever! Today's episode is sponsored by: Libro.fm (FILMFREAKSFOREVER) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership The Writer's Bone Podcast Network

Hallmarkies Podcast
CHESAPEAKE SHORES Writers Phoef Sutton & Mark Jordan Legan S6 Interview (Chesapeake Chats)

Hallmarkies Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 5, 2022 68:01


Today Kaycee and Kari talk with Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan writers of s6 of Chesapeake Shores Follow Mark on twitter https://twitter.com/MJLegan Follow Kaycee on twitter https://twitter.com/kaycee__simpson Check out Phoef's website at https://www.phoefsutton.com/ Follow Phoef on twitter https://twitter.com/phoefsutton Check out Phoef's Film Freaks podcast https://spoti.fi/3uOgJKB Follow Kaycee on twitter Follow Kari on instagram https://www.instagram.com/hallmark_comics/?hl=en Check out all our content on Chesapeake Shores https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXv4sBF3mPUAAGjeUKcd3-hisBqaCceJN Check out the merch store and get our #hashtag shirts! https://teepublic.com/stores/hallmarkies?utm_campaign=Hallmarkies&utm_medium=8581&utm_source=affiliat For extra fun content and to support the podcast please check out our patreon account https://patreon.com/hallmarkies Follow us on ITunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hallmarkies-podcast/id1296728288?mt=2 https://twitter.com/HallmarkiesPod on twitter @HallmarkiesPodcast on Instagram http://HallmarkiesPodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 35: The Film Freaks Mic Drop – Singers Who Tried Acting!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 22, 2022 81:18


Your Film Freaks invite you to enjoy the latest podcast—where we shine a spotlight on this unique niche—singers who tried to be film actors. And there are a'plenty! Now some absolutely proved they were more than capable—with a few even winning Oscars—like Frank Sinatra and Cher. But so many others quickly showed that standing in front of a microphone isn't the same as standing in front of a movie camera and emoting. We will take you through many fun and fascinating examples where it worked and when it really didn't. (We also have some fun when successful actors tried cutting albums.) We will take the listener through everyone from Roy Orbison to Glen Campbell to Christina Aguilera to the Red-Headed Stranger himself, the one and only Willie Nelson. Come join us for some more Film Freaks Forever! fun with your hosts, Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton. Today's episode is sponsored by: Libro.fm (FILMFREAKSFOREVER) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 34: The Film Freaks Focus on Zero to Hero: Box Office Bombs That Became Classics!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2021 99:01


In the latest episode, the Film Freaks discuss the fascinating phenomenon of movies that bombed at the box office on their initial release and then later found adoring audiences and now are acclaimed classics. Films from “The Princess Bride” to “It's a Wonderful Life” and “Brazil” to “Heathers” have suffered this way. Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan focus on four films that are now beloved classics that certainly laid a box office egg back in the day. These films cover the 1930s, the 1950s, and then a fascinating year in cinema, 1999. Everyone from Brad Pitt, Howard Hawks, Katherine Hepburn, Burt Lancaster, Jennifer Aniston, Tony Curtis, and David Fincher are part of the fascinating group of talent discussed and analyzed. So come give Film Freaks Forever! a listen and enjoy another engaging and compelling episode full of fun facts and captivating cinema discussion. Please note: This podcast contains clips with some strong language. This episode is sponsored by Libro.fm (promo code FILMFREAKSFOREVER) and Film Movement Plus (promo code PODCAST). 

Hallmarkies Podcast
Reinvigorating Chesapeake Shores: Mark Jordan Legan Interview (#Chessies)

Hallmarkies Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 31, 2021 76:02


Chesapeake Shores had a burst of new ideas and energy this season and a big part of that was executive producer and writer Mark Jordan Legan. Kari and Kaycee had a chance to talk to him today Follow Mark on twitter https://twitter.com/MJLegan Follow Kaycee on twitter https://twitter.com/kaycee__simpson Follow Kari on instagram https://www.instagram.com/hallmark_comics/?hl=en Check out all our content on Chesapeake Shores https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXv4sBF3mPUAAGjeUKcd3-hisBqaCceJN Check out the merch store and get our #hashtag shirts! https://teepublic.com/stores/hallmarkies?utm_campaign=Hallmarkies&utm_medium=8581&utm_source=affiliat For extra fun content and to support the podcast please check out our patreon account https://patreon.com/hallmarkies Follow us on ITunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hallmarkies-podcast/id1296728288?mt=2 https://twitter.com/HallmarkiesPod on twitter @HallmarkiesPodcast on Instagram http://HallmarkiesPodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 28: Film Freaks Forgotten Favorites!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 26, 2020 87:04


In this episode, your fellow Film Freaks Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan share six of their favorite forgotten films. Phoef and Mark discuss good movies that fell through the cracks or were well received, but have since faded in memory—some real gems that deserve to be discovered or re-discovered by a wider audience. As you know, film buffs love to turn someone onto an obscure goodie that they’ve never heard of, and this episode has a fascinating menagerie of film talent—everyone from Buck Henry to Nicole Kidman to Gus Van Sant to Kurt Russell to Queen Latifah to Kevin Bacon.   Warning: Some of the audio clips contain strong language.

Castle of Horror Podcast
Gothic Horror Movie Panel with Mark Jordan Legan, Danielle Trussoni, Grady Hendrix, and Bruce Wright

Castle of Horror Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 8, 2020 51:16


Castle Bridge Media presents a live panel on Mid-Century Gothic Horror Films featuring leading voices in horror fiction and commentary. From Britain's Hammer Horror (home of Christopher Lee's Dracula and Peter Cushing's Frankenstein) to Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe movies starring Vincent Price, to standalone works of genius like The Innocents, we'll explore our favorites and the most important words of the genre. Castle Bridge Media organizes this panel in celebration of the release of Bruce Wright's Nightwalkers: Gothic Horror Movies: The Revised Edition (Castle Bridge, August 4).Moderated by Jason Henderson, Co-Publisher of Castle Bridge Media, author of The Book Man and Young Captain NemoPanelists:Grady Hendrix New York Times Bestselling author of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying VampiresMark Jordan Legan, NPR Film Historian/Commentator & Host of the "Film Freaks Forever" PodcastDanielle Trussoni, New York Times Columnist and New York Times Bestselling author of The AncestorBruce Wright, author of Nightwalkers: Gothic Horror Movies

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 22: Film Freak Favorites!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later May 5, 2020 157:33


In the latest episode of the Film Freaks Forever! podcast, Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton provide yet another quarantine edition, recorded from their individual lairs during this unusual time. And though we couldn't record in our regular recording studio, we hope with even a different audio system and a few glitches, you'll enjoy this one. The Film Freaks each picked three of their favorite films that happen to be currently streaming. So sit back and relax, or take the dog for a walk, and enjoy as we discuss and highlight some classic comedies, engrossing dramas, and Oscar winning treats. Everyone from Cary Grant to Carol Lombard to Billy Wilder to Tom Hardy are featured. We appreciate our listeners and love hearing from you. Keep the emails and messages coming. Be well! Today’s episode is sponsored by Final Draft.

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 21: Stay at Home With the Film Freaks!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 11, 2020 129:39


In a special episode of the Film Freaks Forever! podcast, Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan try and record a new episode with both of them isolated in their respective homes during these unusual and abnormal times. Fans wrote in requesting a special podcast suggesting some perfect streaming films to view, entertainment that could provide escape (comfort food movies). And so that's what we've tried to do. Even though we couldn't record in our regular recording studio, we hope with even a different audio system and a few glitches, you'll enjoy this one. We highlight musicals, romantic films, and comedies—plus we highlight a way you can have fun with some childhood memories and stream retro cartoons and television shows! Hope you enjoy this and also visit filmfreaksforever.com for our archive of 20 previous episodes.

stay at home film freaks phoef sutton mark jordan legan film freaks forever
Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 20: Film Freaks of the Living Dead!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2020 86:17


In the latest, exciting edition of Film Freaks Forever!, your hosts Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton take you through the harrowing, haunted history of the zombie movie! Very few know it all began with a 1929 book and then what is considered the very first "official" zombie movie that came out in 1932. Your Film Freaks shine a light on many of the famous and many of the forgotten zombie flicks—everyone from George Romero, Richard Matheson, Bela Lugosi, Val Lewton, Danny Boyle and Simon Pegg are discussed. Some rare, classic ‘70s trailers are played, along with your film freaks always fresh and funny take on this particular nugget of cinema. So board up the windows, wait for further instructions but keep reminding yourself: It's only a podcast…it's only a podcast…it's only a podcast…it's only a podcast…

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 19: Film Freaks Fight Oscar Fever!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2020 72:21


Yes, it's that time of the year where the motion picture industry congratulates itself and hands out little gold statues that drive people crazy! Your Film Freaks, Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan, take a fun and fascinating dive deep into the ocean of Oscar history. From the very first ceremony of 1929 all the way up to 2019, the Film Freaks discuss some of the worst films and performances to be honored to also some of the greatest snubs. The gang's all here—everyone from Frederic March to Frances McDormand to George C. Scott to Diane Keaton. Rare, hard-to-find audio clips are featured throughout this podcast, so give it a listen and enjoy! The envelope please...

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 18: A Film Freaks Christmas!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 15, 2019 82:22


Happy holidays from your Film Freaks, Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton! ‘Tis the season, but if you are tired of the same old holiday movies like “White Christmas,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” and "It’s A Wonderful Life,” your Film Freaks shine some twinkling lights on four terrific Christmas films that you might not even think of as Christmas films. Everything from hilarious screwball comedies to taut bank heist thrillers to a kick-ass action flicks—all with Christmastime settings! So pour yourself some eggnog, throw another log on the yuletide fire, and enjoy yet another fun episode that highlights everyone from Barbara Stanwyck to Elliot Gould to Samuel L. Jackson. Ho ho ho! For those of you in the Los Angeles area, come join us for the first Film Freaks Forever! event in the New Year. On Jan. 18, 2020 come join us at the Arena Cinelounge on Sunset Boulevard for a fun night of cinema and comedy!

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 17: The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Film Freaks!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 22, 2019 108:31


In this entertaining new episode of Film Freaks Forever!, your hosts Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan shine a stage light on the genre of films about show business!  It's always fascinating when the entertainment industry looks inward and the Film Freaks shout "Action!" with four captivating, engaging movies about this biz we call show are discussed and analyzed. Everyone from Ben Hecht to Rita Hayworth to Martin Short to Christopher Plummer are part of the "cast of characters" who highlight how the bright lights of Broadway and the hard luck streets of Hollywood either make you a star or chew you up and spit you out. Hear impressive cinema trivia, delightful banter, and hilarious audio clips from the four films we highlight! No need to wait in the wings—take center stage and enjoy another fantastic segment of the hit FFF podcast.

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 16: Film Freaks Go Trick or Treating!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 24, 2019 99:32


Happy Halloween, fellow Film Freaks! Your hosts Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton have returned from their trick or treating and—as they fight over trading Skittles for Kit Kats (or maybe a Baby Ruth)—they’re thrilled to share with you four fantastic, scary, maybe you know them, maybe you don't 1960s horror films! 1960 started with a bang as Norman Bates brought new meaning to "room service" at the Bates Motel. “Psycho” lead off a decade of eclectic, creepy, spooky horror movies from all over the world. We feature some Italian, British, and American horror flicks that are sure to delight and entertain you. And as with all our episodes, we share behind-the-scenes stories and trivia about the filmmakers and performers that no one else dares to bring you. Everyone from Barbara Steele to Bette Davis to Boris Karloff are part of this excellent edition, so take off your monster masks, open a bag of fun-size candy corns and kick back with yet another terrific Film Freaks Forever! Boo!

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 15: The Film Freaks Time Travel!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 27, 2019 112:30


In the latest edition of the podcast that has been called "cool" and "gives me something to do when walking the dog," your Film Freaks jump through the Fourth Dimension to bring you some of the best, fascinating films on those who have dared to mess with Einstein's theories, H.G. Wells' diaries, and cosmic strings. Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan discuss the whole genre and then shine a light on three of the best movies about the subject, plus one of the most successful franchises ever that popularized Crispin Glover, a DeLorean, and a pissed off Eric Stoltz! So come join us—from whatever century you choose—as we fall down yet another entertaining, thrilling cinema black hole! Take that Tipler's Cylinder!

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 14: Film Freaks Go to College!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2019 79:17


In this episode, your loyal hosts Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton don their caps and gowns and march to "Pomp & Circumstance" to receive their Film Freak diplomas. They're ready to guide you around the coolest campus and find the greatest parties as they educate you on four superb college themed movies—from one of the most popular college comedies ever made to a real obscure, yet clever and compelling, 1970s TV movie. Everyone from Groucho Marx to John Belushi to Dean Stockwell to James McAvoy to a very young Pre-Sherlock Benedict Cumberbatch are along for your tutorial. Tap that keg, roll a fat one, kick your Calculus book under the sofa, and mellow out as the Film Freaks school you in what's up with some of the best in higher education cinema.

The Hidden History of Los Angeles
Lesser-Known L.A. Movies and an Interview with Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan HHLA46

The Hidden History of Los Angeles

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 1, 2019 50:52


This episode explores the lesser-known Los Angeles movies and features an interview with Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan of the podcast Film Freaks Forever. 

history movies los angeles lesser petersen phoef sutton mark jordan legan film freaks forever
Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 12: Film Freaks Frolic in the Sun!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 1, 2019 78:33


In the latest edition of Film Freaks Forever!, we head to the beach and to the swimming pools for summer fun! Slather on some sunscreen, grab your surfboards, and jump in your dune buggy as the Film Freaks, Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton, shine a light on four eclectic summertime films. They discuss the origins of the whole subgenre with “Gidget” and the Frankie and Annette Beach movies to John Milius' cult surfer's film “Big Wednesday.” They also head to the trippy late 1960s Burt Lancaster flick “The Swimmer” and an amazing, campy 1980s horror film, “Blood Beach,” where the beach itself is attacking and killing people! Take that “Jaws!” Today’s episode is sponsored by Final Draft.

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 11: Film Freaks in a Foxhole!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later May 8, 2019 79:51


In the latest edition of every cinephile's favorite podcast, the Film Freaks march you to four of the best World War II films out there—four terrific, yet rather underrated war movies. There are so many famous ones out there, but your hosts, Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton will shine a light on some gritty, muddy, bloody, exciting pieces of cinema that deserve bigger audiences and admirers. Brilliant directors like William Wellman,(“Battleground”), Robert Aldrich (“Attack”), and John Frankenheimer (“The Train”) helmed some of the combat flicks we will examine. And actor/director Stuart Cooper's passion project “Overlord” from 1975 is the hidden gem the Film Freaks are proud to highlight. So hunker down, open some K-rations, and enjoy your hosts discussing these marvelous movies that star and feature superb actors like Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Jack Palance, James Whitmore, Paul Scofield, Eddie Albert, and many more. Today's episode is sponsored by Final Draft.

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 10: The Film Freaks Present the Worst Movie Musicals Ever Made!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 7, 2019 82:09


In the tenth episode of Film Freaks Forever!, our hosts Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton dared to watch and listen to some truly dreadful modern film musicals—so much so that all the wildlife around our place, ran for the hills and have never returned. With so much to choose from, the Film Freaks narrowed it down to four modern film musicals that are truly so bizarre and strange that they'll end up wildly entertaining you and your friends (especially if booze & buds are being passed around, dig?)  Everything from a 20-year-old unknown Olivia Newton-John singing her way through the weird sci-fi musical “Toomorrow” to the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton stinking up great Beatles music in the ill-advised “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” to the truly insane and enjoyable “The Apple” (where Satan himself runs the music industry) to “The Pirate Movie,” where Kristy McNichol and Christopher Atkins butcher soft rock ballads in between Gilbert & Sullivan numbers. So prepare your minds and your ears to hear some of the most outlandish and peculiar songs & lyrics ever recorded—plus some "groovy and with it" hippie dialogue that will impress all your cool friends! Today's episode is sponsored by Final Draft.

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 9: Film Freaks of the Week!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 3, 2019 74:03


In this latest edition of Film Freaks Forever!, co-hosts Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton sit you down in front of a 1970s’ television set and turn you on to the amazing program that was ABC TV Movie of the Week.  Launched in 1969, The ABC TV MOW quickly became a ratings juggernaut and week in, week out, would provide some of the grittiest, well-made TV movies ever seen. Such seminal TV films such as Duel, Tribes, The Night Stalker, and Brian's Song thrilled home audiences. In this new FFF! Podcast, your loyal Film Freaks highlight three terrifically entertaining TV movies from the 1970's that are a little bit more under the radar. However, everyone from Cloris Leachman to Robert Culp to Edward G. Robinson show up in these TV flicks. So put on your most comfortable bell bottoms, grab a Fresca and a big bowl of Funyuns, and let's go back to the wild 1970s—where you could watch some marvelous, socially aware, and damn powerful entertainment right from your very own bean bag chair! Today's episode is sponsored by Final Draft. Buy an FFF! pin! 

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 8: Film Freaks Get Scary!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2019 93:00


Have you ever wanted to rule the world? Of course you have. Have you ever wanted to graft the hands of a murderer onto your rival and steal away his girl? No doubt. Have you ever wanted to escape from prison, cross dress as a sweet old lady and plan the murder of your arch enemies? We all have. Well, in this month's segment of Film Freaks Forever!, Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton shine a light on the cobweb-covered 1930s horror film genre. So many classics to choose from, but we grabbed three of our favorites—"The Invisible Man,” “Mad Love,” and “The Devil Doll.” Please join us for yet another fascinating, informative, and funny discussion of cinema with your favorite Film Freaks. And if you don't, we'll send Dr. Gogol after you!! This episode is sponsored by Final Draft.

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 7: Film Freaks Meet Sweaty Dudes From the ‘80s!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 8, 2018 63:20


Gary Busey, Lorenzo Lamas, and the ghost of Bruce Lee walk into a bar...well, sorta, kinda…  In this exciting edition of Film Freaks Forever!, Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan tackle the crazy world of 1980s action flicks. They explore those campy, cheesy, batshit crazy films with lots of sweaty guys, villains who cackle and do evil things, scrappy underdogs fighting back, power ballads, faded jeans, feathered hair, and lots of synth music! Come join them, dear listeners, as you'll learn many fascinating offbeat facts that you can dazzle your fellow film freak friends with—the kind of things that will either make you the hit of the party or the first asked to leave. Today's episode is sponsored by Final Draft.

Pop Literacy
Episode 10: Should We Still Care About Movies?

Pop Literacy

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 2, 2018 57:33


2018 has brought a few glimmers of hope for disaffected moviegoers sick of superheroes, explosions, and special effects: A Star Is Born, Crazy Rich Asians, Eighth Grade, Boy Erased. But many of us (your hosts included) are much more excited about the seemingly infinite great TV offerings these days than by the prospect of schlepping to the movies to see the latest in high-budget forgettableness. Are we wrong to cross movies off our pop culture to-do lists? Our guests this week are here to persuade us to care about film again. Our Writer's Bone Podcast Network siblings at Film Freaks Forever!, Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan, have been geeking out on movies together since they met in college. (On their first car ride together, the Psycho soundtrack was playing, a fact neither found remarkable, and thus they knew they were soulmates.) They’ve kept their passion for film alive with epic weekly movie nights full of, as they say on their show page, “biker flicks, goofy monster movies, Filipino jungle adventures, Turkish sci-fi rip-offs.” As our guests on this episode, they argue for the continued relevance of new releases large and small, teaching us how to look for the gems and giving us a list of recommendations.

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 6: A Film Freak Is Born!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 4, 2018 106:49


In the latest edition of Film Freaks Forever!, Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton embrace the history of the “A Star Is Born” film franchise. The Film Freaks take you, the listener, all the way back to the very beginning to the great 1932 film that started it all and isn't even called “A Star Is Born.”  In honor of the latest 2018 remake starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, Mark and Phoef guide you through the many versions of this fabled story. And like all our episodes, FFFI shares with you fun, fascinating facts about the various stars, writers, directors, and producers throughout history who joined forces to tell this simple but heart-wrenching story about this biz we call show! Today's episode is sponsored by Final Draft.

Film Freaks Forever!
Episode 4: Film Freaks Go Down A Dark Alley!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 5, 2018 73:27


In Episode 4, the Film Freaks don trench coats, hats, and .45 calibers as they slowly make their way down a rain-soaked alleyway to introduce you to some of the best, underrated crime noir gems. Yes, in this episode the tough, chain-smoking, whiskey-swilling tough guys Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton shine a police patrol light on three terrific examples of the film noir genre that are crackling good crime flicks that have fallen through the cracks but totally deserve a bigger audience. Films full of dangerous dames, missing moolah, hateful hitmen, and greedy guys. Come join the Film Freaks, if you dare, down into the rough part of town where all the great crime noir lives. Today’s episode is sponsored by Final Draft.

Film Freaks Forever!
Introducing Film Freaks Forever!

Film Freaks Forever!

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2018 1:21


A long time ago, two like-minded writers (Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan) met in college, discovered they were both "film freaks" and a lifelong friendship was born. While both having successful careers in television & film, they made sure that they get together every weekend and devour all the strange & bizarre cinema that is out there - biker flicks, goofy monster movies, Filipino jungle adventures, Turkish sci-fi rip-offs, you name it, they've probably seen it. Plus they have always kept a record of what they have watched and this journal lists them all—in order—and it covers decades. This podcast will allow them to shine a light on certain genres and subgenres of film—and point listeners in the right direction to discover fun, freaky, fabulous, and offbeat "gems" of cinema.  Follow the Film Freaks on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Writer's Bone.

turkish filipino film freaks phoef sutton mark jordan legan film freaks forever writer's bone
Castle Talk with Jason Henderson
INTERVIEW: Mark Jordan Legan of MIGHTY MED

Castle Talk with Jason Henderson

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 26, 2014 62:48


We talk to Mark Jordan Legan, co-executive producer of Disney's MIGHTY MED and creator of the hilarious web series WORST CINEMATIC CRAP THAT'S EVER BEEN MADE.

Castle of Horror Podcast
INTERVIEW: Mark Jordan Legan of MIGHTY MED

Castle of Horror Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2014 62:48


We talk to Mark Jordan Legan, co-executive producer of Disney's MIGHTY MED and creator of the hilarious web series WORST CINEMATIC CRAP THAT'S EVER BEEN MADE.

TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live
August 13, 2010

TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 13, 2010 60:32


Luke and Sean break back into their old radio studio (at KIRO) to secretly record an episode of TBTL. Plus, Mark Jordan Legan on two good movies and one TERRIBLE movie (Undefeatable!).

TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live
April 30, 2010

TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2010 85:28


TBTL Pretty Pony Edition! Why would you send an email to an injured horse? Do race horses pee like... race horses? Why is the Kentucky Derby so much fun? Plus, Mark Jordan Legan tells us The Worst Movie You Can Rent This Weekend is: 'The Box'.

kentucky derby mark jordan legan