Podcasts about MFA

Diane Gottlieb, Jennifer Fliss, and Nina B. Lichtenstein join Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about their work as editors and what they look for in submissions, setting your writing apart, knowing where to omit for maximum impact, the magic of prompts, working with supportive editors, how constraints give us freedom, ordering an essay collection, how stories sustain us, disentangling the artist from politics, allyship, the process of becoming ourselves, celebrating our heritage, the ecosystem of Jewish life, submission calls, and our new anthology Manna Songs: Stories of Jewish Culture and Heritage. Also in this episode: -being seen -writing into joy -being a Jew by choice    Purchase Manna Songs here: https://elj-editions.com/mannasongs/ and wherever you get your books www.Dianegottlieb.com www.Jenniferflisscreative.com https://www.ninalichtenstein.com/   Diane Gottlieb, MSW, MEd, MFA, is the editor of Manna Songs: Stories of Jewish Culture & Heritage, the award-winning anthology Awakenings: Stories of Body & Consciousness, and Grieving Hope. Her writing appears in Brevity, Witness, River Teeth, 2023 Best Microfiction, Smokelong Quarterly, Bellevue Review, Colorado Review, JUDITH, and Jewish Book Council among many other lovely places. She is the winner of Tiferet Journal's 2021 Writing Contest in Nonfiction, and a finalist for Hole in the Head Review's 2024 Charles Simic Poetry Prize and Florida Review's 2023 Editor's Choice Award in Nonfiction. Diane is the Prose/CNF Editor at Emerge Literary and the Special Projects Editor at ELJ Editions. Connect with Diane:  https://elj-editions.com/mannasongs/ dianegottlieb.com @dianegotauthor   Jennifer Fliss (she/her) is a Seattle-based author of the collections, As If She Had a Say and The Predatory Animal Ball. Over 200 of her stories and essays have appeared in F(r)iction, PANK, Hobart, The Rumpus, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. She was a Pen Parentis Fellow and recipient of a Grant for Artist Project award from Artist's Trust.  www.jenniferflisscreative.com https://nupress.northwestern.edu/9780810146259/as-if-she-had-a-say/ https://okaydonkeymag.bigcartel.com/product/the-predatory-animal-ball-by-jennifer-fliss   Nina B. Lichtenstein is a native of Oslo, Norway, and holds a PhD in French literature from UCONN and an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast program. She is the founder and director of Maine Writers Studio, and the co-founder and co-editor of In a Flash Lit Mag. Her writing has appeared in various journals, magazines, and outlets, as well as in several anthologies. Her book, Sephardic Women's Voices: Out of North Africa, was published by Gaon Books in 2017, and her memoir, Body: My Life in Parts by Vine Leaves Press in May , 2025. She has three adult sons, and lives in Maine with her husband.  https://www.facebook.com/ninalich/ https://www.instagram.com/vikingjewess/ https://ninablichtenstein.substack.com/ https://www.ninalichtenstein.com/ https://www.mainewritersstudio.com/ https://vineleavespress.myshopify.com/products/body-my-life-in-parts-by-nina-b-lichtenstein – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

Following a young woman over the course of one outrageous and insufferable downtown dinner party at the home of her estranged best friends—an artist and curator couple, whom she now realizes stands for everything she detests—Happiness and Love (Scribner, 2025) is a piercing debut novel about brazen materialism, self-obsession, and the empty careerism of so-called cultural elites.Years after escaping New York and the center of its artistic world—a group of self-important, depraved, and unscrupulous artists, curators, and hangers-on—our narrator is back in town. With no plans to see anyone she once knew, she's wandering around the Lower East Side, thinking about the recent death of her former best friend, Rebecca, when she runs into Eugene, one half of the artist-curator couple at the heart of her old social set. Despite her better judgement, she accepts his invitation to a dinner party. And though the party is held only hours after Rebecca's funeral, it not a memorial of Rebecca but a dinner held in honor of a young, newly famous actress whose lateness delays the party by hours.As the guests sip their natural wine and await the actress's arrival, the narrator, from her perch on the corner seat of a white sofa, silently, systematically, and mercilessly eviscerates them—their manners, their relationships, their delusions and failures, and the complete moral poverty that brings them here, to Nicole and Eugene's loft on the Bowery. When the guest of honor finally does arrive, she sets in motion a disastrous end to the evening, laying bare the depravity and decadence of the hosts' empty little lives—a hollowness that the narrator herself knows all too well. Zoe Dubno is a writer from New York. She attended Oberlin College and has an MFA from Rutgers University, Newark. Her writing has appeared in Granta, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, The Nation, Vogue, and elsewhere. Happiness and Love is her first novel. Recommended Books: Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following a young woman over the course of one outrageous and insufferable downtown dinner party at the home of her estranged best friends—an artist and curator couple, whom she now realizes stands for everything she detests—Happiness and Love (Scribner, 2025) is a piercing debut novel about brazen materialism, self-obsession, and the empty careerism of so-called cultural elites.Years after escaping New York and the center of its artistic world—a group of self-important, depraved, and unscrupulous artists, curators, and hangers-on—our narrator is back in town. With no plans to see anyone she once knew, she's wandering around the Lower East Side, thinking about the recent death of her former best friend, Rebecca, when she runs into Eugene, one half of the artist-curator couple at the heart of her old social set. Despite her better judgement, she accepts his invitation to a dinner party. And though the party is held only hours after Rebecca's funeral, it not a memorial of Rebecca but a dinner held in honor of a young, newly famous actress whose lateness delays the party by hours.As the guests sip their natural wine and await the actress's arrival, the narrator, from her perch on the corner seat of a white sofa, silently, systematically, and mercilessly eviscerates them—their manners, their relationships, their delusions and failures, and the complete moral poverty that brings them here, to Nicole and Eugene's loft on the Bowery. When the guest of honor finally does arrive, she sets in motion a disastrous end to the evening, laying bare the depravity and decadence of the hosts' empty little lives—a hollowness that the narrator herself knows all too well. Zoe Dubno is a writer from New York. She attended Oberlin College and has an MFA from Rutgers University, Newark. Her writing has appeared in Granta, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, The Nation, Vogue, and elsewhere. Happiness and Love is her first novel. Recommended Books: Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

As the Sami community (Norway) struggles to protect ancestral lands from the building of a damn in 1979, Oslo detective Hans Sorensen arrives in the north of the country to investigate sabotage on a damn. Then a body is discovered, and Sorensen has to delve into his own past and heritage. He is Sami but no longer immersed in the culture, and Sorensen is also mourning the recent death of his wife, so he's hesitant to return to his hometown. He ends up following the trail of two women, a journalist and a musician, and discovers the writings of a relative, a real-life Sami author who wrote about his struggle to survive. If the Owl Calls (Sharon White, WTAW Press 2025) is a fascinating mystery filled with Norwegian and Sami history, about identity and memory. Sharon White is an award-winning author whose work spans nonfiction, poetry, and fiction. She has written extensively about nature, place, and memory, bringing a lyrical and reflective voice to her storytelling. Her books include Vanished Gardens, the AWP Award in Creative Nonfiction winner; Boiling Lake, winner of the Italo Calvino Prize in Fabulist Fiction; and Minato Sketches, a Rosemary Daniell Prize winner. White received her BA in English Literature from Colby College and spent a year studying at Manchester College, Oxford University. She has an MFA from Goddard College, where she was a member of the first class of graduates in Ellen Bryant Voigt's innovative program. She holds a PhD in English Literature from the University of Denver. An Associate Professor Emerita at Temple University, White has dedicated her career to writing and teaching. A passionate traveler, she draws inspiration from diverse landscapes and cultures. In Scandinavia she researched the life of Danish painter Emilie Demant Hatt, and in 2019, as an artist-in-residence in Dunedin, New Zealand, she immersed in the region's literary and artistic culture. She has also taught creative writing at Temple University Japan. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Scott Masker. When not working or traveling, she loves to garden and take walks around the city. She also enjoys skiing and biking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In this episode of the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast, host⁠ ⁠⁠Sherrod DeGrippo is joined by security researchers Tori Murphy and Anna Seitz to unpack two financially motivated cyber threats. First, they explore the Payroll Pirates campaign (Storm 2657), which targets university payroll systems through phishing and MFA theft to reroute direct deposits. Then, they examine Vanilla Tempest, a ransomware group abusing fraudulent Microsoft Teams installers and SEO poisoning to deliver the Oyster Backdoor and Recita ransomware.   Together, they discuss how attackers exploit trust in identity, code signing, and SaaS platforms and share practical steps organizations can take to strengthen defenses, from phishing-resistant MFA to stricter executable controls and out-of-band banking verification.  In this episode you'll learn:       How Payroll Pirates diverted university salaries through SaaS HR phishing schemes  Why universities are prime targets for identity-based cyberattacks  How Vanilla Tempest evolved from basic ransomware to complex multi-stage attacks  Some questions we ask:      How are attackers stealing credentials and paychecks?  Why do attackers create inbox rules after compromising accounts?  What alerts should organizations monitor for these types of attacks?  Resources:   View Tori Murphy on LinkedIn   View Anna Seitz on LinkedIn  View Sherrod DeGrippo on LinkedIn   Investigating targeted “payroll pirate” attacks affecting US universities  Microsoft Threat Intelligence healthcare ransomware report highlights need for collective industry action    Related Microsoft Podcasts:                    Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson  The BlueHat Podcast  Uncovering Hidden Risks        Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts     Get the latest threat intelligence insights and guidance at Microsoft Security Insider    The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast is produced by Microsoft and distributed as part of N2K media network. 

How do you set realistic expectations in publishing? If a book doesn't sell, how do you cope with rejection? Literary agent and author Kate McKean chats about her latest book Write Through It! She also shares tips for honing your writer's intuition, pitching your book, and what queries stand out in the slush pile.Kate McKeanWebsite: https://www.katemckean.com/Social: @kate_mckeanGood Story Company: If you have a story in your head, we're here to help you get it out into the world. We help writers of all skill sets, all genres, and all categories, at all stages of the writing process. Need a hand with brainstorming? Want to find a critique partner? Looking for an editor to help polish up your pitch, your idea, or your entire manuscript? We have all of it and more in our community. If you're ready to take the next step (or the first step) on your writing journey, we're here to help you.Website: https://www.goodstorycompany.comMembership: https://www.goodstorycompany.com/membershipWriting Workshop: https://www.storymastermind.comMary Kole: Former literary agent Mary Kole founded Good Story Company as an educational, editorial, and community resource for writers. She provides consulting and developmental editing services to writers of all categories and genres, working on children's book projects from picture book to young adult, and all kinds of trade market literature, including fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and memoir. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and has worked at Chronicle Books, the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, and Movable Type Management. She has been blogging at Kidlit.com since 2009. Her book, Writing Irresistible Kidlit, a writing reference guide for middle grade and young adult writers, is available from Writer's Digest Books.Manuscript Submission Blueprint: https://bit.ly/kolesubWriting Irresistible Kidlit: http://bit.ly/kolekidlitIrresistible Query Letters: https://amzn.to/3yg511KWriting Irresistible Picture Books: https://amzn.to/3SrApRUHow to Write a Book Now: https://BookHip.com/ZHXAAKQWriting Interiority: Crafting Irresistible Characters: https://amzn.to/4evsX0BWriting Irresistible First Pages: https://amzn.to/4gxgslqNEW! Show and Tell: https://amzn.to/4kCc4noFollow us on social:YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/goodstoryBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/goodstory.bsky.socialInstagram: https://instagram.com/goodstorycompanyTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@goodstorycoFacebook: https://facebook.com/goodstorycoSubstack: https://goodstoryco.substack.com/

As the Sami community (Norway) struggles to protect ancestral lands from the building of a damn in 1979, Oslo detective Hans Sorensen arrives in the north of the country to investigate sabotage on a damn. Then a body is discovered, and Sorensen has to delve into his own past and heritage. He is Sami but no longer immersed in the culture, and Sorensen is also mourning the recent death of his wife, so he's hesitant to return to his hometown. He ends up following the trail of two women, a journalist and a musician, and discovers the writings of a relative, a real-life Sami author who wrote about his struggle to survive. If the Owl Calls (Sharon White, WTAW Press 2025) is a fascinating mystery filled with Norwegian and Sami history, about identity and memory. Sharon White is an award-winning author whose work spans nonfiction, poetry, and fiction. She has written extensively about nature, place, and memory, bringing a lyrical and reflective voice to her storytelling. Her books include Vanished Gardens, the AWP Award in Creative Nonfiction winner; Boiling Lake, winner of the Italo Calvino Prize in Fabulist Fiction; and Minato Sketches, a Rosemary Daniell Prize winner. White received her BA in English Literature from Colby College and spent a year studying at Manchester College, Oxford University. She has an MFA from Goddard College, where she was a member of the first class of graduates in Ellen Bryant Voigt's innovative program. She holds a PhD in English Literature from the University of Denver. An Associate Professor Emerita at Temple University, White has dedicated her career to writing and teaching. A passionate traveler, she draws inspiration from diverse landscapes and cultures. In Scandinavia she researched the life of Danish painter Emilie Demant Hatt, and in 2019, as an artist-in-residence in Dunedin, New Zealand, she immersed in the region's literary and artistic culture. She has also taught creative writing at Temple University Japan. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Scott Masker. When not working or traveling, she loves to garden and take walks around the city. She also enjoys skiing and biking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Following a young woman over the course of one outrageous and insufferable downtown dinner party at the home of her estranged best friends—an artist and curator couple, whom she now realizes stands for everything she detests—Happiness and Love (Scribner, 2025) is a piercing debut novel about brazen materialism, self-obsession, and the empty careerism of so-called cultural elites.Years after escaping New York and the center of its artistic world—a group of self-important, depraved, and unscrupulous artists, curators, and hangers-on—our narrator is back in town. With no plans to see anyone she once knew, she's wandering around the Lower East Side, thinking about the recent death of her former best friend, Rebecca, when she runs into Eugene, one half of the artist-curator couple at the heart of her old social set. Despite her better judgement, she accepts his invitation to a dinner party. And though the party is held only hours after Rebecca's funeral, it not a memorial of Rebecca but a dinner held in honor of a young, newly famous actress whose lateness delays the party by hours.As the guests sip their natural wine and await the actress's arrival, the narrator, from her perch on the corner seat of a white sofa, silently, systematically, and mercilessly eviscerates them—their manners, their relationships, their delusions and failures, and the complete moral poverty that brings them here, to Nicole and Eugene's loft on the Bowery. When the guest of honor finally does arrive, she sets in motion a disastrous end to the evening, laying bare the depravity and decadence of the hosts' empty little lives—a hollowness that the narrator herself knows all too well. Zoe Dubno is a writer from New York. She attended Oberlin College and has an MFA from Rutgers University, Newark. Her writing has appeared in Granta, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, The Nation, Vogue, and elsewhere. Happiness and Love is her first novel. Recommended Books: Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Ransomware isn't a lone hacker in a hoodie. It's an entire criminal industry complete with developers, brokers, and money launderers working together like a dark tech startup. And while these groups constantly evolve, so do the tools and partnerships aimed at stopping them before they strike.  My guest today is Cynthia Kaiser, former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI's Cyber Division and now the Head of the Ransomware Research Center at Halcyon. After two decades investigating global cyber threats and briefing top government leaders, she's now focused on prevention and building collaborations across government and industry to disrupt ransomware actors at their source.  We talk about how ransomware groups operate, why paying a ransom rarely solves the problem, and what layered defense really means for organizations and individuals. Cynthia also shares how AI is reshaping both sides of the cyber arms race and why she believes hope, not fear, is the most powerful tool for defenders. Show Notes: [01:04] Cynthia Kaiser had a 20-year FBI career and has now transitioned from investigation to prevention at Halcyon. [03:58] The true scale of cyber threats is far larger than most people realize, even within the government. [04:19] Nation-state and criminal activity now overlap, making attribution increasingly difficult. [06:45] Cynthia outlines how ransomware spreads through phishing, credential theft, and unpatched systems. [08:08] Ransomware is an ecosystem of specialists including developers, access brokers, money launderers, and infrastructure providers. [09:55] Discussion of how many ransomware groups exist and the estimated cost of attacks worldwide. [11:37] Ransom payments dropped in 2023, but total business recovery costs remain enormous. [12:24] Paying a ransom can mark a company as an easy target and doesn't guarantee full decryption. [13:11] Example of a decryptor that failed completely and how Halcyon helped a victim recover. [14:35] The so-called "criminal code of ethics" among ransomware gangs has largely disappeared. [16:48] Hospitals continue to be targeted despite claims of moral restraint among attackers. [18:44] Prevention basics still matter including strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, and timely patching. [19:18] Cynthia explains the value of layered defense and incident-response practice drills. [21:22] Even individuals need cyber hygiene like unique passwords, MFA, and updated antivirus protection. [23:32] Deepfakes are becoming a major threat vector, blurring trust in voice and video communications. [25:17] Always verify using a separate communication channel when asked to send money or change payment info. [27:40] Real-world example: credential-stuffing attack against MLB highlights the need for two-factor authentication. [29:55] What to do once ransomware hits includes containment, external counsel, and calling trusted law-enforcement contacts. [32:44] Cynthia recounts being impersonated online and how she responded to protect others from fraud. [34:28] Many victims feel ashamed to report cybercrime, especially among older adults. [36:45] Scams often succeed because they align with real-life timing or emotional triggers. [38:32] Children and everyday users are also at risk from deceptive links and push-fatigue attacks. [39:26] Overview of Halcyon's Ransomware Research Center and its educational, collaborative goals. [42:15] The importance of public-private partnerships in defending hospitals and critical infrastructure. [43:38] How AI-driven behavioral detection gives defenders a new advantage. [44:48] Cynthia shares optimism that technology can reduce ransomware's impact. [45:43] Closing advice includes practicing backups, building layered defenses, and staying hopeful. Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.  Links and Resources: Podcast Web Page Facebook Page whatismyipaddress.com Easy Prey on Instagram Easy Prey on Twitter Easy Prey on LinkedIn Easy Prey on YouTube Easy Prey on Pinterest Halcyon Cynthia Kaiser - LinkedIn

In this candid and forward-looking conversation, host Will Rose sits down with longtime Words on a Wire co-host Daniel Chacón to examine how profoundly the writing life has changed—and what the new realities mean for anyone trying to build a writing career in 2025.Drawing from personal experience and decades inside the MFA world, Chacón reflects on the fading era when a single book and an MFA could reliably lead to a university teaching job and a stable writing life. That model, he explains, has all but dissolved. With thousands of new MFAs minted each year and only a handful of creative-writing jobs available, the old path is no longer the norm—it is the exception.The episode explores the daunting numbers behind today's publishing landscape: millions of new books released annually, the vast majority selling fewer than 100 copies, and the rise of self-publishing as a legitimate entry point rather than a career dead-end. Will and Daniel also discuss how writers must navigate the “attention economy” by developing skills in branding, social media, community-building, and even entrepreneurial thinking.

1134. This week, we look at the poetic power of personification (the language quirk that gives human traits to nonhuman things) and why style guides advise against using it for AI. Then, we look at the different names for common sayings, defining a proverb and breaking down the four main types: maxim, adage, dictum, and truism.The personification segment was written by Karen Lunde, a longtime writer and editor turned web designer and marketing mentor. Solo service business owners come to her for websites where beautiful design meets authentic words that actually build connections. Find her at chanterellemarketingstudio.com.The proverbs segment was written by Jim Norrena, MFA, who has been writing, editing, and leading grammar and proofreading workshops for more than thirty-five years. He founded TypoSuction.com, an independent editorial service, and is a member of Bay Area Editors' Forum. He also serves on the board of Professional Publishers Network. You can find him at LinkedIn.

Edgar Gomez joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up poor in Florida, wanting to believe in the American dream and realizing it's not accessible, surviving a precarious childhood, reckoning with trauma, grappling with and excavating shame, what queer people want vs. what they get, navigating sex work, the Pulse nightclub tragedy, when to tell family about our memoirs, writing about others with generosity, staying true to our identity, fighting for joy, and their memoir in essays Alligator Tears.   Also in this episode: -staying true to ourselves -growing up NicaRican -navigating queerness   Books mentioned in this episode: Butterfly Boy by Rigoberto Gonzalez Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden Their Eyes Were Watching God by Nora Neale Hurston   Edgar Gomez is a queer NicaRican writer born and raised in Florida. He is the author of the memoir High-Risk Homosexual, winner of the American Book Award, a Stonewall Israel-Fishman Nonfiction Book Honor Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. Their sophomore book, Alligator Tears, was released in February 2025 and was called "Triumphant, dazzling, and unfailingly stylish" by Publisher's Weekly. A graduate of the University of California's MFA program, Gomez has written for The LA Times, Poets & Writers, Lithub, New York Magazine, and beyond. He has received fellowships from The New York Foundation for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, and The Black Mountain Institute. He lives between New York and Puerto Rico. Find him across social media @OtroEdgarGomez.   Connect with Edgar: Website: EdgarGomez.net @OtroEdgarGomez on Bluesky and instagram.  Get the book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743399/alligator-tears-by-edgar-gomez/   – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com   Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

Rone Shavers joins Jared for our annual application episode to discuss the differences between MFA and PhD applications and programs. Rone and Jared talk about how to choose the right program, put together the best application, and get the most out of your time in a program. Before that, they discuss Rone's “funky” novel Silverfish and how getting over the pressure of making a commercially viable book allowed him to write the book he wanted to write.Rone Shavers is the director of the creative writing program at The University of Utah, which offers both an MFA and a PhD in creative writing. Rone is the author of the experimental Afrofuturist novel Silverfish from Clash Books, a finalist for the 2021 Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) Firecracker Award in Fiction and one of The Brooklyn Rail's “Best Books of 2020.” He is also fiction and hybrid genre editor at the award-winning journal, Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora. Find him at roneshavers.com.MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.BE PART OF THE SHOWDonate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee.Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.Submit an episode request. If there's a program you'd like to learn more about, contact us and we'll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application.STAY CONNECTEDTwitter: @MFAwriterspodInstagram: @MFAwriterspodcastFacebook: MFA WritersEmail: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Ep # 95: Queer History Is Everywhere: Dr. Kate Henry on Archives, Rhetoric & Lisa BenSummary of the episodeHey its Stephanie here! In this episode of noseyAF, we get into queer history, archives, and public scholarship with Dr. Kate Henry — writer, scholar, poet, and creator of Lisa Benography, a public scholarship project documenting Lisa Ben, the woman behind the first known lesbian magazine in the U.S. Kate and I talk about the magic and messiness of archives, what feminist historiography actually is, and how queer stories survive even when institutions try to erase them.We also get into creative writing, rhetoric, butch/femme histories, and what it means to consider your own life an archive. It's tender, nerdy, funny, and honestly one of my favorite conversations.What we talk aboutHow Dr. Kate first stumbled into queer history and feminist historiographyThe wild, brilliant, and deeply influential life of Lisa BenWhy archives matter — and how everyday people create themThe difference between academic scholarship and public scholarship (and how to make knowledge accessible)Creative writing, rhetoric, and the “moves” queer creators make under censorshipA juicy tangent on personal archives, family keepsakes, and documenting our own livesHow queer histories survive through scraps, letters, love, and community careThings We MentionedLisa Benography website (Kate's public scholarship project)ONE Archives at the USC Libraries (where Lisa Ben's papers live)“Vice Versa” — the first known lesbian magazine in the U.S.The book Overlooked by The New York Times (Kate is cited in the Lisa Ben entry)Patrick Kelly biography project by Dr. Eric Darnell PritchardMagazine of Horror / sci-fi fanzines (Lisa Ben's “Tigrina” work)Chapters:00:09 - Exploring Queer History: The Legacy of Lisa Ben09:06 - Public Scholarship and Queer Histories24:11 - The Impact of Lisa Ben and Queer Archives34:53 - The Legacy of Lisa Ben: Documenting Queer Histories47:01 - The Evolution of Personal and Public ScholarshipAll about Dr. Kate HenryDr. Kate Henry is a Productivity Coach who specializes in sustainable and well-being-oriented productivity for folks working on academic writing projects. Kate holds an MFA in Creative Writing and a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition, and she researches and publishes as a public scholar. She's the author of the newsletter "Tending," the host of the podcast "Honing In," and she lives in Boston, MA, with her spouse, two cats, and a 7-pound chihuahua.Connect with Dr. Kate HenryInstagram: @thetendingyearWebsite: https://katehenry.com/Newsletter: Tending with Dr. Kate HenryPodcast:

Nelson and Alex DeMille's The Tin Men is an electrifying read and a chillingly timely one," writes The New York Times best-selling novelist Megan Abbott of the third and final father-son collaboration in the Scott Brodie & Maggie Taylor series. "[It's] both a master-class in suspense and a haunting exploration of the dangers and costs of a surrender to technology, an abandonment of the human." Yes, it is. It's also the final novel from legendary author Nelson DeMille, completed posthumously following his death in September 2024, and a follow-up to the duo's first two collaborations in the series—The Deserter and Blood Lines, both immediate New York Times best-sellers.  Its publication offers Alex DeMille an opportunity to reflect on growing up under the influence of one of our finest storytellers—a backdrop that at first inspired Alex to become a filmmaker. A graduate of the MFA program in film at UCLA, Alex's films have won many awards and fellowships, and have played at festivals worldwide, including "My Nephew Emmett, " which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short in 2018.  "I want to thank my father," he writes in an emotional grace note to the new book, "who might be reading this somewhere among the stars with a good scotch in hand. Thank you for all you've given me, all you've taught me, for your love, your encouragement, for making me laugh and making me think. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for showing me the way. I hope this makes you proud." Learn more about Alex DeMille: Website Instagram Threads Twitter Facebook

Paul Chitlik is appearing on StoryBeat for the third time. Paul is a truly gifted storyteller and teacher who has written screenplays, novels, and non-fiction, including writing for all the major networks and studios in both English and in Spanish.   Paul's been a story editor, director, and producer in both TV and features. He was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award for "The Twilight Zone" and a GLAAD Media Award nomination for Telemundo's "Los Beltrán.”  And he won a Genesis Award for a Showtime Family movie. He also happens to be one of the best screenwriting teachers in the world.  He's taught in various MFA programs around the world, including: UCLA and Loyola Marymount in L.A., and in Barcelona, Cuba, Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, and Sweden.  His highly regarded book, Rewrite, is one of the essential, must-read books for anyone interested in writing screenplays, teleplays, plays, and even novels. I've read his latest screenwriting book, The Screenwriting Sensei, which I thoroughly enjoyed because it took me straight back to Graduate School at UCLA when I was one of Paul's numerous students. Paul's teachings have remained exceptionally influential on me for both my own writing and in my subsequent years as a college professor of screenwriting. I highly urge anyone interested in writing for the screen to check out The Screenwriting Sensei.  

 They put in their cover letter, “Honestly, we're just gonna go up to Yellowstone around that time and we would love to swing by and show the movie.”Rudi Womack is the Director of the Wyoming International Film Festival and the creator of the YouTube channel The Film Festival Guide.In this conversation, Rudi talks about:* What watching thousands of film festival submissions has taught him about good storytelling* The biggest mistake filmmakers make when they submit to festivals* Why transparency matters and why he published all of the submission and acceptance stats for the Wyoming International Film Festival * The importance of a compelling poster and thumbnail* How to write a good description of your movie* The most important questions filmmakers must askHere is a link to Hiike, the new film festival submission platform that Rudi mentioned.If you enjoyed this episode please forward to a friend.Here is an AI-generated transcript of my interview with Rudi. Don't come for me.79. Film Festival Director Rudi WomackBEN: Hi everyone. This is Ben Guest and this is The Creativity Education and Leadership Podcast. My guest today is Rudy Womack, who is the director of the Wyoming International Film Festival, and also Rudy has a fantastic YouTube page called The Film Festival Guide. So for all my filmmakers out there who are interested in submitting to festivals in this interview and on Rudy's YouTube page, he breaks it down. Enjoy.Rudi, thank you so much for joining us.RUDI: Hey, it's my pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.BEN: So I always start off with a fun question, and we're entering the holiday season, so very important holiday question. Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?RUDI: Absolutely. A hundred percent. Come on.BEN: I love it. So I, I told you this off Air, I found you through the Rate YouTube channel.You have the Film Festival Guide. Is that the right name? I wanna make sure I get the name right. Yeah. The filmRUDI: festival guide. Yep.BEN: On YouTube Film Festival Guide on YouTube. Please. Any filmmakers out there go and subscribe. The information is so helpful. What, why did you start the this YouTube page?RUDI: I, as a filmmaker have gone through the festival circuit several times and I made a lot of amateur mistakes. I didn't know what I was doing. Definitely fell on my face a couple of times, but I also had some successes. And as I did more film festivals, I started learning more about the circuit.I got invited by a film festival to become a programmer, and so I started reviewing a lot of films and seeing a lot of the submissions. And I think instantly that made me a better filmmaker just because I saw what was working, what wasn't working, and how other filmmakers really brought to, brought their stories to life on the screen.And it, it was truly inspirational. Very long story short, the Wyoming International Film Festival was started by a gentleman named Alan Oi, and he's a, he's a documentarian out of Wyoming, which is where I'm from. I'm from Wyoming. So Alan had the film festival and he had run it for some years and it was going great and everything.But then Alan retired and now he's retiring. He wants to move outta Wyoming and he doesn't wanna run a live event. ‘cause it is a lot of work in his words. And I quote, it's a young man's game. And at the same time, COVID hit and he didn't wanna do the whole online thing and it was just a big mess.So Alan was like, I'm done with the festival, it's done. I'm just gonna let it die. And I was begging him, no, Alan, you can't do it. It's so important for indie filmmakers. And at the time I'm just finding my feet in the festival circuit as well as both a filmmaker and now I'm a programmer.I'm begging him like don't let it die. It's important, maybe I can help out. And he was like, why don't you run it? And I was like, absolutely not, man. What are you talking about? That's crazy. No way. No way. And I was like, I'm going to be your director of programming. That's what I'm going to do.I'm gonna help you get films in so you don't have to do that work. Very long story short, I ended up running it. I ended up taking over the festival from Alan. I did so reluctantly. But when I started working with the festival, working with the community, working with my hometown filmmakers and my home state filmmakers, and just seeing how important a film festival can be for a local community to uplift indie filmmakers to help them along the way I fell in love with it and here I am now, I run the film festival.And your question was, how did I start the YouTube channel? Sorry, I'm getting there. But I got a lot of questions from filmmakers about festivals, like how to navigate ‘em. And there's just so much mystery behind film festivals ‘cause it's so opaque. There's not a lot of transparency from film festivals.Film festivals are sketchy about which films they do select and which they don't. And frankly, there's a lot of misinformation out there about festivals. So I started answering a lot of questions and I started repeatedly answering the same question again and again and again. And I had some friends who told me, you should write a book.But I was like, yeah, but books, there are books, like people have already written books, bluntly, frankly, people far more experienced and knowledgeable than myself have written books. And so if you're not reading those books, then you're probably not gonna read my book. So that's when I decided, you know what, the YouTube channel is a great way to just do very easy outreach.Take one single topic, break it down for 10 minutes, and hopefully help filmmakers along on their film festival journey.BEN: I love it. And you said something for all the filmmakers who are listening. I'm gonna come back to it. Don't worry. You said something about once you started programming and watching so many films, you got a good sense of what works and what doesn't.So I definitely wanna come back to that. I know the filmmakers listening want to hear that. But before that you mentioned 10 minute videos. You strike me as somebody who, does research and takes time to Yes. Before they do something. What did you discover about running a YouTube page?What things work, what things don't work?RUDI: I'm still very early on in my own YouTube development. I'm still trying to learn what does and doesn't work. So I'm probably the worst person on earth to give advice. Definitely that first 32nd hook is so important on YouTube, just like it is on a film that, that intro, how we come into the story, whatever, on YouTube, you can see a massive drop off and apparently it's that way on every channel.Again, I'm not a YouTube guru, so I don't give advice, but that first 32nd hook is a big deal, but also just my presence on camera. I come from the post world. I'm an editor, so I'm not just behind camera. I'm behind, behind the camera. So I'm very much not used to an on-camera presence, so I'm developing that and learning it as well.What kind of energy I can bring. How to make it engaging. But also I don't wanna be zany and too quirky or anything because I am trying to give good guidance to filmmakers, but I also don't want to lecture them and bore them to death. So it's finding that balance of information that's valuable, but also entertaining enough that people don't wanna click off.And it's actually quite a complex thing that I'm still unraveling one video at a time. But the best advice that I saw was some YouTube guru who is just focus on getting 1% better on every single video. So is that little bit better graphics or better delivery, or better audio, or better editing or whatever it is.And after a hundred videos, you're now a hundred percent better. So that's what I've been focusing on. Just very small baby steps.BEN: Yeah, that's such a great way to break it down, right? It just makes it bite-sized, get 1% better.RUDI: I think you can apply that to life in general. There's a lot of things in life just today be 1% better.That's it,BEN: so you mentioned once you start a programming scene, get enough feel for what works, what doesn't, especially with short films, both narrative and docs. What are you seeing that works and doesn't work?RUDI: In the shorts world I'm seeing a couple of things. One, a self-contained story, and this is something that I had a problem with because oftentimes I would go for more of a quote unquote scene instead of a full beginning, middle and in, in a story.So a self-contained story typically is gonna make your short film much more successful. This can be hard for some filmmakers because they're trying to make a proof of concept short film that they're gonna go and get financing for their future. So one of the things that they often do is they just take a scene outta their feature and then just shoot that, which has mixed results.And the problem is the films that have gotten financed and been made from shorts that have done that are the ones that you see. So it's actually a survivor bias, where it's like it, it works for those particular films and therefore everybody thinks it's gonna work for their film. But obviously the films that it doesn't work for, you're never going to see.So you don't understand, actually for the majority of films, it doesn't work. So if you have a proof of concept, I actually say, don't pull a scene outta your feature. I say write its own scene, or sorry, your own short film. That exists in the same world and universe with the same characters as what your feature film is.And I think that's gonna have much more success on the film festival circuit. And that will lean you or lead you to whatever your goal is, financing or distribution or whatever. So that's a big thing with short films that makes ‘em successful is make sure it is actually a self-contained story and it doesn't have any loose ends, so to speak.What doesn't work is something that I myself struggle with, ironically as an editor. And that's things being too long and you need to parse them down. Now a lot of people will say, shorter, the better, which is true, but I actually think that's a result of actually getting to the core of the problem.And that's make your film as concise as possible. Get the idea. The emotion, the story out as concise as you can. And what that does by happenstance is it makes your film shorter. So it's not that shorter is better. I know there's it almost sounds like I'm just splitting hairs here, but I've seen plenty of five minute films that didn't work.I've seen plenty of 10 minute films that board me to death. So shorter isn't necessarily better. It's more concise of your story is better. And sometimes that still manifests as a 20, 30, 40 minute film. But if it's a very interesting 20, 30, 40 minutes, that's not gonna matter.BEN: It's such a great point. And for me, when I get to a certain point in the edit, I like to just bring in a couple friends and have them watch it. And then I just sit there and watch them watch it and whatever feedback they're gonna provide afterwards. 95% of what I need, I can just tell from Body Language as they're watching the film.RUDI: Yep.BEN: You come fromRUDI: theBEN: Go ahead.RUDI: Oh I was just gonna piggyback off that and just say, audience feedback is worth its weight and goal.BEN: Yeah.RUDI: And every filmmaker when you hit that fine cut stage, like you said, get your friends and family together, buy everybody some burgers and fries or whatever.Get ‘em all together. Gather ‘em up in a room, watch them, watch your film. That's gonna tell you more than anything else. We'll be able to about the success of your film and where it's strong, where it's weak, where you can still fix things. And I always suggest do it in your fine cut stage because nothing's locked in and you can still move things around and adjust, or whatever it is you need.BEN: Love it. And I think earlier what you are really getting at is telling a good story. Yes. And I'm amazed at, not amazed, but maybe a little disappointed, especially in today's world, the technical side of filmmaking. Even for an amateur, even for an indie filmmaker that you can, things can be d done so well technically, but there's no story.RUDI: Yes. All the time. So when I get onto Reddit, ‘cause you mentioned Reddit earlier if I go onto our filmmakers, right? Yeah. I don't have to look far to see people just geeking out over the newest Camerons. It's, and it's always cameras. Everybody always talks about. This camera is so fancy and it has so many stops above and this lens can do this and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.It has this big bit rate, whatever. Everybody gets so excited about cameras and I always say to myself, man, if they got this excited about audio, I wouldn't have to reject half the films that we have to reject because the audio is just blah. So if we're gonna talk tech, if we're gonna talk about the quote unquote quality of the filmmaking, I think what filmmakers need to understand is there are so many films out there we're that is just the foundation.It is the base level, it is the bare minimum that the film looks good. It sounds good. It feels good. So for us, festival guys, we see so many of these films. You're super gorgeous cinematography, you're really fancy, VFX, whatever it is that you think really separates your film from the pack. I don't wanna discourage you, I don't wanna sound jaded or anything, but it's not as impressive to us as you might believe it is, simply because we see hundreds and sometimes thousands of films like that.So for us it constantly falls back to originality and the story. Is the story well done? Is it well told? Is it a new and interesting story that we've never seen before? Is it a story that we've seen before but told in a very unique way, from a specific point of view, that is what is going to move us as festival people.‘cause when I put it into the theater and my audience walks in and they pay a ticket. My audience is used to going down to the theater and seeing a hundred million dollar movies. So for them, quality is just a given. It's just assumed they're not going to be thinking about it for them. They go and watch a movie ‘cause they're interested in, and I think if more filmmakers really dialed in on their story, they're going to find more success.BEN: So many great points there and a hundred percent agree with what you were saying about people get excited about the camera. And so I did my MFA at USC and there were three different times where I was on a set that, that I felt was unsafe. Not that I felt it was unsafe, what they were doing. Geez. And I walked off and it was always to get the cool shot.Like no one's ever hanging off a balcony to get room tone. You know what I mean? It's just, it's always to get the cool shot that, again, if you're not telling a good story, it doesn't matter. And to your point, I've always felt good audio is more important than good video.RUDI: Good image.BEN: Yeah.RUDI: Look at the documentary. Look at the nonfiction world. We see verite stuff all the time. We see stuff people recorded on their phone or, security camera footage or whatever, like at the end of the day in the nonfiction world is a great example of the quality of the shot doesn't necessarily matter so much as the quality of the story and how it's being told and how it's being revealed to us.And the audio is always gonna be very clean, very top notch, even if it's quote unquote found footage or. Veritate footage or whatever, the audio is always peak. I saw that Netflix doc recently, it was super heartbreaking. The perfect neighbor. And most of it is police body cam footage, but the audio is clean so we're able to follow the story so no one sits back and thinks of themselves this isn't a good shot.Of course it's not, it's police potty cam footage. Like it doesn't look good and it's not meant to,BEN: but it sounds good. And so you can follow it.RUDI: Yes.BEN: What what are some tropes that you think you've gotten tired of seeing in, especially in short films?RUDI: So every year it's a little bit different.You would be surprised what things pop up and what don't. The one trope that kind of rubs me the wrong way, I, I don't know how to describe it any other way than filmmaker self therapy. Like they, they're definitely going through something at the moment and they're not focused on creating a good story.They're more focused on using their art form to emotionally process whatever it is they're going through, which fine, you are an artist that makes sense to do, but also I can't sell my audience on that. So while I don't wanna discourage someone from making a film that is very near and dear and personal to them, at the end of the day, it might not be a good fit for film festivals.And so I, I would really think twice about whether or not that is a story that an audience, frankly, needs to see. Filmmaker cell therapy is one that when I get it, I'm always eh I don't know what to do with it. I just, I don't know what to do. Some other tropes that we see very commonly are like.Obviously right now, tech and AI and stuff like that gives a lot of people anxiety. So there's a lot of like evil robot takes over or the big reveal at the end of the movie, they were a robot the whole time, or the whole thing was a simulation or whatever. That's being very well tread right now.For me, I'm I am not a political person and anytime some big thing is in the news, we see tons of films on it. So I understand politics do affect people's day to day and their lives, so I understand that manifest. But man, I probably have a hundred immigration films right now and that's a lot. And I'm not gonna screen that many, so I'm only gonna pick like one, maybe two, so that's a tough one to do.Anything that's like a hot button political issue. We always see a big wave of those come in. And then honestly, romance dramas get tough. It isn't evergreen. We do have an audience for it. We usually do have some kind of a selection of them. Romance dramas have existed since the beginning of time.It's always been a thing. But filmmaker broke up with his girlfriend, so now he has a character who breaks up with his girlfriend. It gets it, it doesn't get very original. I, it just it gets exhausted. So those are some of the kind of general tropes I would avoid. I have heard other festival directors talk about like cancer films and Alzheimer's films and stuff like that.This year I'm not seeing so much of those, but I have seen those in the past. So tho those are some other. Tread stories we'll see.BEN: One of the things that I appreciate about. Your series of videos is your transparency, and you have one video where you literally break down. Here are all the films the number of films, Wyoming International Film Festivals received. Here's how it breaks down, here's how many we, we accepted, et cetera, et cetera.You have another one where you literally show the viewer, this is what we see as a programmer on our film freeway portal. Here's the scoring sheet. I think it's a little bit different from the one you guys use internally, but basically here's what the scoring sheet on film freeway looks like. Why is transparency so important to you?RUDI: Because I'm a filmmaker, because I've been to so many festivals where I have no idea what the hell's going on. I've been to festivals where I think my film is gonna be a good fit. I think based on what I've been able to investigate on my own, digging through their website, digging through their archive.Seen what they've programmed before. I think I'm a good fit, but I don't actually know. And I've submitted to festivals where later on, I see what they programmed or I got rejected or even accepted and then gone to the festival itself and have been a little disappointed when was like I this festival didn't fit my goals the way that I thought it would, or, this festival wasn't going to do the things for me.Or this festival, like really promoted themselves very heavily as this big event. And then you get there and then it's not, and that's a little bothersome. So when I stepped into my role at the Wyoming International Film Festival, I made a whole bunch of changes. But one of the changes that I made was, we are going to be transparent.I don't ever want a filmmaker to submit to our festival, get in, get accepted to the festival, drive all the way out to Wyoming and be disappointed. I don't want them to do that. That's not good for them. It's not good for us. It's not good for the community. It's not good for indie film at large.What's better is if we just be what we are in Wyoming, we're straight shooters. We just say it as it is. So I'm going to tell you exactly how many films were submitted, which films we accepted, what the percentage rates are, how many shorts versus features, how many docs versus narratives, how many music videos, all of this stuff.And we've been releasing the data for the past couple of years. This year, like we went all out with the data it was much more thorough than what we've done in years past. And even me, the director of the festival, I sit back, I look at the data and I can see some weak spots in it. I can see where we need to improve as a festival, where we need to start, bringing in a certain type of film or where other films might be overrepresented or how we can give more of an experience to our filmmakers.Just by boiling it down to numbers and looking at it. I can start seeing some of our weak spots and I want to improve on that ‘cause I want to have a good festival. And I think if more festivals were to do that, I think the filmmaking community at large would be much more appreciative. And I think film festivals need to understand.That if you have fewer submissions, that's not a bad thing because the submissions that you are going to get are filmmakers that really want to be in your festival and that's good for the health of your festival, the community, the filmmakers, everything. So I, I think the only way we get there is by being transparent.And thankfully there are other festivals that are publishing their data, which is great. And that makes me very happy to see. And I hope that trend continues and I hope even more festivals start publishing more of their data and showing how they review films, what their scorecards look like, what they're looking for.‘cause ultimately I genuinely believe that just serves the filmmakers better and ultimately makes everybody have a better experience on the film festival circuit, including the festivals themselves.BEN: When you took over as directorWhat were the biggest challenges?RUDI: So our biggest challenge to this day is our venue.So there's only one movie theater in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It is owned by a company outta Casper, Wyoming. They own pretty much a monopoly of movie theaters across the state, like most of them. And they don't allow anybody into their theaters at all. They don't allow her private screenings or corporate events or, in individuals who wanna screen their film or film festivals.I'm not the only film festival in Wyoming. I talk with other festival directors. They can't get in either. It's funny, the film commissioner of the state can't even get in. You would think the movie theater would at least want to partner with the state film Commission, but no. So for us, the challenge has been a venue and luckily our partners over at Laramie County Community College.Have graciously allowed us to use their facilities for the last couple years. They have a beautiful auditorium that we do some of our screenings in, but we also have screening rooms in a black box theater that they have as well as a conference room. And when I say conference room, most filmmakers like their heart drops a little bit.They're like, oh man, I'm just, I'm going into a conference room. It's not a proper movie theater. And that's fine. We publish that data on our film freeway page on hike. We are transparent about that. So when you submit, you might be in the conference room. But ironically, I think it has some of the best audio and it has some of the best projection.So even though it's the quote unquote least movie theater, like I actually think it has some of the best projection, best color. But venue is probably one of our biggest challenges and we continue to develop that. We continue to. Trying to innovate. We're trying to build our own screening room there on the campus.Like we're trying to use one of their big classrooms for it. And what we wanna do is we wanna turn it into a lounge. We wanna bring in like couches and sofas and comfy chairs where it's like much more of a chill environment in there. And that's the type of film we wanna screen in. There's some you can literally sit back, settle in and relax.So there's things that we're doing to create a better environment for our filmmakers and of course our audience, our guests at the festival.BEN: I love it. What's been the biggest reward?RUDI: The, I get to meet you. That's what the biggest reward is. I get to meet so many filmmakers. I get to hear their stories.I get to be inspired. I get to learn stuff. I was talking with a festival director a couple of days ago. Who asked me about how we do our audience award scores and how we process that and what they do. And I just like I lit up, I'm like, oh my God. It's such a better way, it's more efficient, it's easier on the staff.It's more representative of how the audience actually feels about the film, the way the scores are aggregated and counted. It's so great. I get to meet so many people in this world of film and every single day it's like a new, whole new world is opened up to me and I get to hear so many fantastic points of view.I get to see so many awesome films, like just how many great movies are out there is a cinephile. It's like the most rewarding thing in the world. I'm an addict. I'm totally addicted to it. It's so great.BEN: I love it. I remember I used to coach basketball in my first year as a head coach. I was like, yeah, everybody's gonna be pretty competitive, other coaches and so forth.And they were, and I was. But at the same time, when coaches would get together, it was just so supportive. And people are sharing, this is what I'm doing in practice. I'm looking at this offense, this defense. And I imagine it's the same with other film festival directors and programmers. Oh, yeah. Just a supportive environment comparing notes.RUDI: It is. And the more that I meet, the more I truly do understand. 99% of festival directors out there are programmers, people who work in it. They have some tie to cinema. Most of them are filmmakers. Those who aren't, have a deep passion and love for cinema and for storytelling, and.Everybody's a volunteer. Everybody has a day job. Nobody makes money on this. They do it from the love of their heart. They truly do. And the way that they serve their communities, the way that they serve their filmmakers, some of the cool ideas they come up with there's some really neat festivals out there with like very interesting hooks or events or whatever.And I think it is such an incredible ecosystem and I think I'm truly privileged to be part of it.BEN: What are some lesser known or maybe mid-tier festivals or local festivals that you love to attend?RUDI: Okay, so one of my favorite festivals I guess you said lesser known. This one is not lesser known, but Film Quest over in Provo, Utah, damn man, pe like festival people talk about building community. They're on a different level. They've built a family. Like everybody who goes to that festival is just so tight knit there. There's no other festival like Provo or sorry, film Quest in Provo. It is just, it's on another level. And how well they treat their filmmakers is fantastic.Some years ago I was invited to be a jury member at the Fair Film Festival, which is in Ferazi Kosovo. So that is in southeastern Europe. It's a landlocked country, just a little bit above Greece, a little bit north of Greece and north of Macedonia. And Fari is a small town. And I went to that festival and first off, wow.What a great festival. I strongly suggest you submit your film to fair film. It's so good. But the cool part of being in this European festival, and frankly a small European country, most of the films are international, obviously. And so there's filmmakers coming in from like Jordan and Spain and Germany and Slovakia and Slovenia and like all over the place, Greece, Turkey, you name it.And how interesting it is to have this incredible cross section of languages and cultures and peoples, but we're all united by this one singular thing. And that's our love for storytelling and our love for movies. It had to be one of the most incredible experiences of my life. And the next movie I make, taking it back to cosBEN: Fantastic.Just had a question. What was it? Oh okay. So with the huge caveat of besides making. A good film, a film that tells a story. Besides that, are there any tips or tricks, things on the margins that filmmakers can do when they're applying to festivals to be aware of? Sometimes festivals. Ask for a cover letter orRUDI: Yes.BEN: Press kit, things like that. Okay.RUDI: So with, sorry, my phone is loud. I should turn that down. So obviously with a huge caveat of make a good film or whatever, what's the easiest way to get it? All of the stuff on film Freeway, and I do have a video on this, on my YouTube page if you wanna check it out, where I give you a tour of film, freeway from the festival side of things like what the festival can see and how we see it and how we navigate it.On the festival end of things. We can see your cover letter, your screenings and awards your. Cast and crew information, your director's bio, your director's statement, your photographs, your EPK, that's your electronic press kit your trailer, all of that. All of that. As much of that as you can possibly make, you should make it.It's very important. And you never know which piece is gonna be more important to a particular film festival. For instance, here's something crazy. I was meeting with some of my programmers last night. They had a whole bunch of films that they wanted to recommend to go to the next level programming.And we require films. Tell us where in the world or where in the United States the film was made. And every single one of ‘em was California. California. California. California. California. Which fine, whatever. California has a big film industry. That's, it's a very big state, population wise. Makes sense, right?But I am sitting back thinking, okay. I don't want it just to be a bunch of California movies. We have a big country here. I would like to see something else. And something caught my attention. One of the filmmakers, their address was in Birmingham, Alabama, but the film was shot in California, so I am suspicious.I haven't dug into it myself. I'm suspicious either that filmmaker's from Alabama and they have moved to California, or that filmmaker lives in Alabama and they shot their film in California. So they're answering where it was shot correctly. But for me, I'm like, there you go. When everybody's from California.I want that unique perspective. I wanna see someone's from Alabama and what their perspective is now. I haven't watched the film yet. I don't know if it's what we're looking for. Obviously it's a good film if my programming team has recommended it, there's no doubt in my mind it's good film. Now there's other considerations we're gonna have, but.That alone was something, even my, like I myself did not know that I would be looking for. So filling out all of that data on film, freeway, all of your information that you possibly can, your cover letters your screenings, your awards, whatever it is, the more information you give us as a festival, the more we have to make our selections.And it only benefits you. It only helps you out. So filmmakers don't get lazy. Fill out all of that information. We need it. We use it. It's important. Just do it.BEN: You mentioned a meeting with your programmers last night. Take us inside that conversation. What does that look like? What do you discuss, et cetera.RUDI: So there's. There's a big programming team and it's divided up into two different groups. There's our kind of first round screeners and then there's our senior programmers and the senior programmers pretty much review the films that have gone through that first round of screening that are getting recommended to go onto the next one.So typically when I'm talking with my screeners and everything, it's a very different conversation on the bottom end of it where they're just sorting through all of the submissions versus a different conversation I have with the senior programmers who are on the top end of it. We're now trying to decide how to block films together, how we're gonna organize it, what's the schedule maybe look like, what's the overall tone and vibe of the festival going to be, okay.If we wanna have a sci-fi block, do we even have enough sci-fi films? If we don't. Where else can we find homes for ‘em? Stuff like that. So those conversations are a little bit more high end, if you will. And it tends to be less about the story of the film itself and more about how that film is going to fit into the festival.Whereas when I'm talking with the screeners, it's much more on the story end. Like what about the story did you like or you didn't like? Or what was the unique point of view? Or whatever. So depending on which group I'm talking to it, it's gonna be different. And then of course that divides out further on features and shorts and documentaries and narratives and music videos.So like obviously my conversation with the music video people are gonna be much different than my like short documentary people.BEN: Shout out to short documentary people as a documentarian primarily makes shorts I'll ask a question for us folks. In one of the videos, as I mentioned, you literally show here's what the scoring sheet looks like.Yes. And that was for narrative with, I think one of the categories was acting and so forth. So for a documentary or documentary shorts, what does that scoring sheet look like? What do those discussions entail?RUDI: Film freeway does not allow us to have more than one scoring sheet.So unfortunately, there's just this one scoring sheet that's for everything. What I tell my screening team, and we definitely double check everything, like there's multiple people who look at something. So it's not just one person's opinion. You have at least two, oftentimes three, pretty often four.So for something like documentary they skip over that. That's what they do. So if there's no acting in the film, they skip over that. They don't rate acting if there is no acting. But you'd be surprised. There are documentaries that have acting in ‘em. There are like docudramas or documentaries with recreation In the recreation is like actual scenes and performances and stuff like that.So in those cases, even though it's a nonfiction and a documentary, yeah, we'll still judge it for the acting ‘cause that's what it has. I get the question. I'm gonna hijack your question for a second, but it is applicable. I get the question, do we accept AI in our film festival, we do not have any official policy for or against ai, which scares some filmmakers.But we do rate AI on the same standards as we would anybody else. So when it comes to creativity and originality, guess what, you're getting a nothing. ‘cause AI didn't create it. AI is not original. AI just mashes together a bunch of information from other people. So that's no creativity and originality.Same thing for something like, I don't know, art design. If you have a AI character walking through a scene or whatever you're getting zero on your art design. Nobody built those sets. Nobody costumed that actor. Nobody was the makeup artist or the hair or whatever other art deck or, PD or anything on the set.So we will accept ai. We have accepted one single AI film so far because despite all of its quote unquote handicaps, and it was a music video. It still was successful in other categories that had a good enough score. We as a team sat down, said Yes, that it still is a good film. The audience is still gonna enjoy it.The filmmaker definitely had a vision with it. They wrote out a whole thing on like why they chose to use ai. ‘cause they're also an experimental filmmaker, so it made sense for them and everything. So we were like, you know what? That's legit. Let's put it in. But other AI submissions, like I got an AI children's animation the other day and I'm like they didn't animate it themselves.They didn't voice act it themselves. It's not getting good scores on any of these. So we'll see. We'll see. We'll see if it gets through or not, but already you're shooting yourself in the foot. So don't do ai.BEN: Okay. Couple little. I don't know, around the edges or micro questions. One of the things that you talked about in one of your recent videos was having a good poster and you talked about designing your poster for your film prudence.RUDI: Yeah.BEN: Talk, talk to me about,RUDI: I specifically gave my posters an example, not a great poster,BEN: But talk to me about that.For the no budget or low budget filmmaker that can't afford to hire a a designer to make a poster. Talk to me about poster design and how that impacts the presentation of the film for festivals.RUDI: So I strongly believe that a big part of filmmaking and marketing and packaging your film together, all of that is psychology.And as much as we want to sit back and say, Hey, don't judge a book by its, cover it, that literally goes against human psychology. People are not hardwired to do that. It, it is. In our DNA, it's not just a bad habit, it is literally a survival mechanism. So if you want to stand out, you do need to have everything put together.Your cover letter, your synopsis, your photographs, all of that, and of course all of your key art. That's your poster. That's any banners that you have, that's how you're going to be promoting the film. And you have to understand it's not just about making your film look pretty to get filmmakers to go, or sorry your programmers go, Ooh, and ah, it's a pretty film.We are looking at that as a mechanism for us to advertise the festival. You gotta understand if I have 150 films in the festival, I have to get an audience for those films. And the easiest way for me to do that is through your marketing materials. We don't have the capacity. To design marketing materials for 150 different films.We are relying on the filmmakers to do that so we can go out and promote the festival. So people show up to your screening, which I would presume is what you want if you're going to a film festival. So anything you're trailer, any photographs that you can provide, which some filmmakers only provide BTS photographs, BTS is fine.It's great. Give me some good key art I can also use, please. That's what newspapers, that's what the local news that's what podcasters, whatever, that's what they want to see. So that's what I can provide. And of course, your poster. Now, there are a lot of online tools to help in poster design, frankly, I don't have an excuse for making a bad poster like I did, which is one of the reasons I use it as an example is I am shaming myself being like, this could be better and it should be. But there's a lot of online resources that can help with poster design. And also for filmmakers who are a little bit strapped for cash, you would be surprised what people will do for in kind, service for service.So if you have a friend or if there's someone that you can find that's Hey, they'll design your poster if you can design whatever their website or whatever it is that your skills might be there, there's a lot of exchange that you can do on that part. So yeah your marketing, your packaging, all of that together is actually quite important.BEN: Such a great point. And I've written and published a memoir and through that, I've worked with other authors on, on. Both writing and marketing their books, editing and marketing their books. And I tell people the exact same thing. People judge a book by its cover all the time. And in this day and age, they judge it for listeners, I'm holding my thumb and forefinger part as a thumbnail on a computer screen.Yeah, that's the size. So even for a programmer or a festival director watching it on film freeway through their platform, they're not gonna see the poster like we see it in the movie theater. They're gonna see it as a thumbnail image. Yeah. So it has to work as a thumbnail image. And if you can't read the title as a thumbnail or can't make out what's on the image, what's on the poster as a thumbnail, then you've failed that part of the process.RUDI: One, one of the things that like really clued me into how important a poster is, I went to a film festival, I believe it was Kansas City Film Festival. Some years ago, and they had a bunch of posters of films out, but there was one that was like bright pink. It was like super bright pink and had like very eye popping design and everything on it.And it was like in a whole field of like dark drama posters that are all like gritty and everything. And I'm like that stands out. That really drew my eye to it. And I think that was like my big light bulb moment of like how important this stuff actually is. And one of the things that I've been saying for some years, I've said it on the channel, I think, I don't know, some, sometimes I record things and edit out.So I don't know what I've said on the channel sometimes but one of the things that I say is making a film is half of film making. The other half is marketing, the other half is getting butts in the seats. The other half is getting eyeballs on your movie. The other half is selling your film to an audience or a film festival or a distributor or a programmer or whatever you're trying to do with it.It's getting it out there. So making a film is half a filmmaking. The other half marketing, that's what it is.BEN: I'm just nodding along with everything you're saying and I've always felt both with films and with books, with art in general, you're trying to make an emotional connection from what's in your head and your heart to the audience.And if you don't do your job, getting your film out there and helping an audience come and see your film. Then you're not helping that connection. You're missing sort of the point of making this, unless it's just for yourself. It's for, it's to connect with other people and for other people to connect with your work.And that is marketing.RUDI: It's valid. If you're just making a film for yourself, that's absolutely valid. It's in art form. You can make a film for yourself, but if you're sending it to me at a film festival, you're not you're literally trying to find an audience. So these are the things you need to consider.BEN: I love it. I got two more just in the weeds detail questions.RUDI: Alright, let's do it.BEN: Let's talk description. And what I've seen ‘cause I'm in the middle of applying to festivals. And by the way just for. Listeners, this might interest you. So I discovered Rudi's YouTube page and I was like, this is so helpful.And then I went to the Wyoming International Film Festival page and all the transparency and statistics that, that Rudi puts out, that the festival puts out. And I realized, okay, so the short documentary I have is not a good fit for this festival. Exactly what Rudi's saying. So just for anybody listening, thank you for doing research.RUDI: Thank you. That's good. That's not a bad thing, right? That means it saves you time, it saves you money, it saves you heartbreak. It's so good. Do research before you submit. I'm sorry, but I, it's in, in almost every single one of my videos, I tell filmmakers, do your research before you submit. Find the festivals that gel with your film.And if it, if they don't screen the type of movie that you have, don't submit to ‘em. You're wasting your time, you're wasting your money. And the festival, like the programmer behind the screen, might love your film. They truly might love your film, but they're programming for a very specific audience and they know what that audience's taste is.So that's why they're driving specific films to that audience. So even if they love it, they might not include it, which is why you should always do your homework and do your research before you submit. I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's so importantBEN: And yes. And the flip side of that coin is now I also know what the Wyoming International Film Festival looks for.So in the future, if I have a doc or a film, I'm like, oh, this would be a great fit for this festival.RUDI: Yes.BEN: It helps both ways.RUDI: It does. And it helps you dial in. Which festivals you should target, which festivals are gonna help you with your specific goals. Whatever your goals are with the film it's gonna help you with your budgeting and your travel plans and your own personal calendar.It's gonna help with your mental health. It just, it helps on so many different aspects. And on the film festival side of things, I appreciate it when I hear from filmmakers say, Hey man, I looked into your festival looks good, but you don't have the kind of film that I have. And I'm like, not a problem man.Maybe I can point you in the right direction. Maybe I know some film festival programmers, I can make a recommendation, on your behalf too, that's not a bad thing. We love movies and we want to see them successful, but not every single fest or film and story is going to be successful in every single market.So it's very important to find your audience. And believe me, we are going to be cheering you the whole way.BEN: I want get back to my kind of in the weeds questions, but you've mentioned something that is big picture, that's so important. I feel like I've buried the lead here. And you mentioned this you've mentioned this multiple times in your videos.Is that a Phil, it's key. Maybe the most important part of this process is of the film festival submission process is a filmmaker needs to understand what are their goals in applying to a festival. Yes. So can you just talk a little bit about that?RUDI: So film festivals are a tool. And they can be a tool for many different things, but they are a tool.And just every single tool is not right for every single job, every film festival is not gonna be right for every film and vice versa. So before you go out to film festivals, you just need to ask yourself why? Why am I going out to film festivals? Why am I spending the money, the time, the energy, the effort?What do I want out of film festivals? And that's where you need to identify your goal. And the more specific you can be with the goal, the better it's going to be you going on your film festival journey. So for many filmmakers, a common reason they go out to film festivals is networking. So I'm gonna use that as an example.So let's say your goal is I want to network, I want to meet other. Filmmakers, I wanna meet, directors of photography and producers and other people that I can hire for my projects, or they're gonna hire me for their projects, and I want to build that network and I want to meet more filmmakers.Fantastic. Great. That's your goal. So the first thing that you need to do is you need to be looking at festivals that have networking events. And in this particular instance, you need to ask yourself two things. One, does it have networking? Is there in-person networking parties or networking events?And two, do the types of people that I want to meet actually attend those networking events. So us at the Wyoming International Film Festival, we have a pretty broad spectrum. We have filmmakers that are just beginning their journey. They're totally new, wet behind the ears. They're green they're just starting their journey.That's great. All the way up to every year we have multi Emmy award-winning filmmakers. Like people who do this professionally they're in unions or professional organizations, or they're a member of the academy, motion picture Arts and sciences or the TV Academy or sometimes like the Grammys and stuff like that.I, myself, I'm a professional editor, so there's people like me who professionally work, but they're like below the line. They're cinematographers editors, gaffers, what have you. So if your goal is to meet some like high-end producer that's gonna throw, a million dollars at your movie our festival is not the festival that's gonna help you with your goal.So you should skip over us because we don't have that kind of person in attendance. But if your goal is to meet other filmmakers at your level that you can collaborate with or get hired by or whatever. We're a great festival. We have tons of networking, and we bring in a ton of those filmmakers.We're a great event for you. So when you identify what your goal is and you're very specific about it, it's easier to identify which festivals you should start targeting. I take that one step further, and then once you've narrowed down which festivals are gonna help you with your goal, then you look into their history and see which of them have screened movies like yours in the past.So if you have a, you know I use the example, if you have a seven minute comedy coming of the age film, now you know which festivals have good networking, which festivals have the kinds of people you want to network with. Now you look at which ones have screened short coming of age comedy films in the past, and have a history of doing that.So that's gonna help you filter it even further. And by doing that, you're gonna really start to develop your film festival strategy. Now I do have some exciting news. There is something coming now, it's called Hike, H-I-I-K-E. It's hike with two I. And what Hy is doing, it's a submission platform similar to film Freeway, but among many of the tools that they're giving filmmakers, they're giving filmmakers customized festival strategies and they're scraping all of that data from film festivals, what they've programmed in the past.And when you as a filmmaker, join Hike, you take a little quiz, you tell them what your goals are, what your film is, you know how long it is, what the genre is, tell them about yourself. And they literally have. Data scientist who's built this like machine learning algorithm that pairs the data from the film festival to what the filmmaker provides.That literally gives you a compatibility score. So it's, it comes out and tells you, if you want to network with, professional filmmakers but not mega producers and you have a short comedy coming of age film Wyoming International Film Festival has that crowd screens those types of films and you would have a 90% compatibility.So it actually helps you develop your festival strategy for you.BEN: It's so needed. And Rudi has a great video on how to spot scam film festivals. Yes. That's something that is just prevalent these days. So for filmmakers who are getting ready to submit, I encourage you to watch that video. I'll link to it in the show.I'll link to everything that we're discussing in the show notes. The. So Rudi talked about one goal a filmmaker can have is to network other goals at various points in my, film festival my limited film festival career I've applied to festivals ‘cause I wanted to go to that city, new Orleans Fest, new Orleans Film Festival.TravelingRUDI: is totally legitimate reason to go.BEN: People apply because they want distribute, they wanna meet distributors or financiers for the next film. Although, that's what everybody wants. SoRUDI: you, you would be surprised. So in, in 2018, I had a feature film and my, my goal like most feature films was to land a distribution deal.But I was like, that's not specific enough. There are many steps to land a distribution deal. So what I need is I need good press on my film. So that was a goal. So I wanted to target festivals that had press. I wanted laurels. I wanted to win some awards with it, but I also knew my film was. Small and kind of small scale.So it wasn't gonna win laurels at big festivals. So I was like, okay, I need festivals with press. I need festivals that are legitimate and above board, but also small enough where I'm gonna be competitive. And then I wanted to actually meet distributors. And I know they only go to big festivals, so I actually had to target three different kinds of festivals.‘cause I had three, let's call ‘em conflicting goals with my own film. So that's what I did. I did a split strategy. I targeted festivals where I was gonna be this tiny little fish in a very big pond. And no one's really gonna notice me, but I'm just happy to be there. I targeted festivals where I know that I was going to get very good press and very good reviews on the film.And I targeted festivals that were small, still legitimate, but I was gonna be competitive and maybe bring home some trophies. And so that was my strategy and it worked, and I landed a distribution deal.BEN: That's so great. I, I'd love to do a part two at some point we can talk distribution deals and all of the, yeah.Things like that. But I think for people listening, the big takeaway is even with this multi-pronged goal, three different goals connected to each other. Once you identify what your goals are, then you work backwards and you create your strategy to Yes, to achieve those. Okay. Back to the two in the weeds.Two more in the weeds questions. Yeah. So description, and as I'm looking at other film descriptions, and I saw this at USC all the time as well, and we talked about earlier, filmmakers wanting to sit in emotion or sit in something traumatic and have the audience experience that I notice a lot of times in descriptions of short films.Can so and so come to terms with this? Can, and just as someone who has a little bit of experience marketing stories, where's the action? What's the active what's this person actively trying to accomplish, rather than can they just come to terms with something? Can you talk a little bit about film description, just three or four lines.What pops?RUDI: So just like your poster, just like your marketing and everything, a film description is your way to reach through the screen, grab the audience, grab the programmer, and pull them into your movie. Keep in mind, your whole entire goal is to get people to watch your film, get them excited about your film.And so if you just have a very drab, like description that's just yeah, has to face consequences for a decision they made or come to terms with something when I, that's a good V one, that's a good place to start, but that's not going to get an audience excited about your film.I saw film, I don't know if it was at my festival. It wasn't at my festival. We didn't screen it, but I'm saying, I don't know if it was submitted to my festival or if I saw it at another festival, but I remember one of the descriptions it was great. It was whatever the two character names were, John and Jane, I forget what the characters are, but like John and Jane are on a date, there's a bomb in the other room.I I hope the date goes well, or something like that. Let's hope the date goes well. And I'm like, what is this movie? That gets you really excited for it. You're. It, it creates so much mystery. And also just the cavalier way that it was written immediately tells me this is gonna be a comedy, or it's not taking itself too seriously.It's not some like gritty, dive into the underworld or whatever. Like just how blunt it was about the dis of the film and just that like small little description. I know I'm paraphrasing what it was, but it stuck with me for years at this point. ‘cause I'm like, that is how you write a description for a film.That is how you get someone excited to see what is this movie about? Let's jump in. Piggybacking off a description. Titles are another great way to do that. In, in my own repertoire of films I've had film called Prudence. Okay, fine, whatever. Prudence doesn't really tell you much about that film.I had a film that I'm very proud of. It's artsy, it's a little bit magical realism and it's called in this gray place, and it has that artsy mystique around it in this gray place. And I love that title. I did it, I did a film back in film school. It's terrible, but the title's great.It's called Back to Fort Russell. It was a Western and I, to this day, it's one of my favorite titles that I've ever had. But it tells you something. It clues you into what this film is going to be, what the journey of this movie is going to be. And some films do that better than others. And some films, yeah, it's not necessary.But I, I get more excited when I hear something like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre than I do something that's just like love. Or mom or something.BEN: I think this is the last question. So again, with all these little details, cover letter, talk to me about cover letters.RUDI: It's so interesting you asked me that question ‘cause hearing about four or five days, I'm posting a video on the YouTube channel about cover letters. It's short, it's only four or five minutes long, but cover letters are so important.Should absolutely write a cover letter. And a couple of days ago I was talking with programmers at dances with films, and if you don't know dances with films, look ‘em up. They are an incredible film festival. They are in the big leagues for sure. And I was talking with a couple of programmers and I asked them about covert letters and they said, it's so important it.How the filmmaker is going to put an audience in the theater is very important for their festival. How they're going to get people to attend is very important for them and they're like, a good indication in a cover letter is when they, the filmmaker indicates how they're going to market their film and they use the example of football.Let's say it's a movie about football. They're like, if it's a movie about football and you tell me in the cover letter that you're part of several like football organizations, or you're gonna be reaching out to sports organizations or youth organizations for sports or something like that, to attend the film.That's a very good indication for them in the cover letter. For me, I think a cover letter is very important in that it shows. You're going the extra mile to show the festival you care. You're not just submit and quit. We're not just one festival on a list of 50 that you're submitting to. There is a reason you want to screen with us, and that's a specific reason.Either you feel that your film is good fit for our audience, or there's something that you want to connect with. In Wyoming, I had one cover letter and we did accept this film and it was really funny. They put in their cover letter like their film was a comedy, so their cover letter was also very comedic, but they're like, honestly, we're just gonna go up to Yellowstone around that time and we would love to swing by and show the movie.And I laughed. I laughed so hard at that and I'm like. But that shows me they care. Like they want to be there. And the film was good and it was funny and we screamed it and they were there. So it's a way to show a film festival enthusiasm and it's way to inform the festival about yourself, about your film, and how that's gonna gel with their particular event and their audience.BEN: I love it. And that reminds me, I got one more, I got a bonus question. Yeah. Can you talk about applying early?RUDI: Yes. Statistically, when I look at our own data, statistically, it does seem to be that the earlier you apply, the better chance that you have. And so I don't want to give the impression that if you applied late.You have no chance. I think in the video where I literally broke down the data and the statistics, I think at our festival we had a one in five chance of getting in on the late deadline, which is about a 20% acceptance rate. But it was much higher the earlier it came in. So just with the raw data taking out my opinions, my emotions on it, whatever, just the data itself shows earlier is better.Now, here's where my opinions and my feelings towards it come from. I think it's a couple of things. One, when you get in early, you set the pace for the rest of the festival, you're telling us, okay, it's a drama. We're gonna compare your film against others. Like you have now become the benchmark that we're gonna compare other films to when it comes to like dramas or whatever.What it also does. It's something I'm going to discuss in my video and cover letters, but it also engages something, what's called mere exposure effect in psychology, which is essentially the more that you are exposed to something, the more preference you have towards it. Which means if you get in early, you are exposing yourself, your film, and your story to the programmers more often and more readily than late submissions are.So it's more likely that the programmers form some attachment to your film, and that's just human nature, that's just psychology. There's some practical reasons for it as well. Obviously, earlier submissions, earlier deadlines are cheaper, so it's better to get in. It's just gonna cost you less money to do and then lastly, there are many festivals that are developing their program as they go. So as films are coming in, they're shaping. We got a ton of dramas. Maybe we need two drama blocks, or, we, we don't have enough sci-fi for a sci-fi blocks, we gotta spread it out or whatever. So if you come in late, you're now trying to elbow some other film out of the way in order to find your screening slot.Which don't get me wrong, there are plenty of programmers that are absolutely gonna go to bat for you. They're gonna fight hard to get you in. Doesn't matter if you come in early or late or whatever, but the chances are just better. And the data shows that if you get in early. All that said, a couple of years ago, the very last film that came in with only two hours left in our deadline, we ended up programming it.So it, it is possible.BEN: Rudi, I cannot thank you enough. I can't tell you how helpful this has been. There's so much great information for filmmakers. Filmmakers submitted to festivals, people just interested in going to festivals. So thank you so much for taking the time.RUDI: Hey it's always a pleasure.I always love talking film festivals and for any filmmakers out there, head on over to YouTube hit up the Film Festival Guide. That's my YouTube page. I'm coming out with videos every two or three weeks. That's about what I put ‘em out there for. So if you need any guidance or any, I don't know, insight for film festivals that's where I am.BEN: Film Festival Guide. I'm a subscriber. I can't recommend it enough. Any other social media where people can find you?RUDI: Oh no, I'm terrible on social media. YouTube's enough for me right now.BEN: So Film Fest.RUDI: I will probably expand in the future and I'll probably make some announcement on the YouTube channel.Got it. But for right now, I'm just trying to get good information out there to as many filmmakers as possible.BEN: Thank you so much for doing that. It's such a huge benefit for film.RUDI: Thank you very much for the support and thank you very much for having me on. I enjoyed this. This was a lot of fun.BEN: Me too. This was great. Thank you. And that was my interview with Rudy Womack, director of the Wyoming International Film Festival and creator of the great YouTube page, the Film Festival Guide. Hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please forward it to one person. Thank you and have a great day. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit benbo.substack.com

Mischa Willett is a poet and writing professor. He is the Director of the Whitworth Writers' Workshop MFA in Creative Writing at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. In this episode, Mischa Willett and Jonathan Rogers talk about MFA programs, failure as a means of getting work done, and apology letters written by robots. This episode is sponsored by The Habit Writer Development Cohorts. Join "Cohort Week Zero" a free mini-class, TheHabit.co/Development.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today on Whats My Frame I'm joined by acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Daniel Pearle. Daniel joins us to chat about his newest project THE BEAST IN ME where he served as writer and executive producer. We take a deep dive into creative process, research and understanding your character's voice. Daniel's plays have been produced and developed at Lincoln Center Theater, London's Old Vic, The Vineyard, Ars Nova, and at regional theaters around the country. His play A Kid Like Jake premiered in a sold-out run at LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater (NY Times Critic's Pick). Other plays include Freefall (finalist, 2017 O'Neill Playwrights Conference), Remote Viewing (semi-finalist, 2015 O'Neill Playwrights Conference), and The Prodigies (semi-finalist, 2013 O'Neill Playwrights Conference).Daniel's feature film adaptation of A Kid Like Jake premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The film is directed by Silas Howard and stars Claire Danes, Jim Parsons, and Octavia Spencer. Other film credits include: Minyan (2020) and Oliver Sipple (currently in development with Mad Chance Productions).Daniel served as co-showrunner and executive producer on season 2 of Fox's Accused and is currently a writer and executive producer on Netflix's upcoming The Beast in Me. Other TV credits include Impeachment: American Crime Story (FX) and One of Us is Lying (Peacock). Daniel was awarded the 2018 Humanitas New Voices Grant for emerging writers in television. He is an alum of Ars Nova's Play Group and a MacDowell Fellow. He earned his BA from Harvard University and his MFA from The New School for Drama.Official site@danielpearle

Debut novelist Amy Rossi shares her journey as she launches The Cover Girl. Amy Rossi received her MFA from Louisiana State University, and she lives in North Carolina, by way of Massachusetts, with her partner and two dogs. The Cover Girl is her first novel.Learn more at amyrossi.com Special thanks to Net Galley for an early preview copy.Intro reel, Writing Table Podcast 2024 Outro RecordingFollow the Writing Table: @writingtablepodcastEmail questions or tell us who you'd like us to invite to the Writing Table: writingtablepodcast@gmail.com.

Who actually owns data protection in a nonprofit? In this fast-paced conversation, host Julia C. Patrick sits down with Taysha Adams, Manager Technology Support at JMT Consulting, and Josh Fricovsky, Engineering Director at Cortavo, to tackle the uncomfortable truth: cybersecurity is no longer “someone else's job.”Taysha starts with a reality check: most vulnerabilities don't begin in a server room. They start with everyday behavior. From checking work email on public Wi-Fi to logging in on a friend's device, casual habits open doors to attackers. As she explains, “Everybody's responsible for data security and protection… most vulnerabilities do come in from the end users.” JMT has spent more than a year realigning internal processes, tightening device controls, and partnering with Cortavo so their own team—and their clients—are better shielded.Josh builds on that by showing how fast the threat landscape is evolving. Cortavo's job as a managed service provider is to sit on the “bleeding edge”: endpoint protection, email security, MFA, VPNs, and now mobile device management for a workforce that increasingly works on the move. He notes that “the cost of inaction is going to be 10 to 100 times more than” the investment in proactive security. It's not just about tools; it's about culture, education, and leadership setting the tone.The conversation then moves to the devices we use every day. Laptops, tablets, and phones are cheaper and more plentiful than ever, but every extra device is another front door. The guests stress that nonprofits need clear policies for using personal phones for work, along with mobile device management to protect company data without “controlling” the phone itself.AI takes the discussion to another level. Both guests are enthusiastic users, but they warn that unregulated use is dangerous. Taysha urges organizations to set guardrails and favor licensed or enterprise tools so prompts, donor details, and templates aren't quietly training public models. Josh goes further, recommending offline or private LLMs for sensitive data and pointing out that attackers are already using AI for sophisticated social engineering, including voice cloning and real-time credential theft.Finally, the trio frames cybersecurity as a governance and financial issue, not just an IT problem. Data loss can mean lost clients, destroyed reputation, and even the end of an organization. Partnering with firms like JMT and Cortavo, building internal awareness, and treating security like an essential protection policy—not a luxury—are presented as non-negotiable steps for modern nonprofits.This episode is a must-watch for executives, boards, and staff who touch data in any way—which is everyone.#TheNonprofitShow #NonprofitCybersecurity #DataProtectionFind us Live daily on YouTube!Find us Live daily on LinkedIn!Find us Live daily on X: @Nonprofit_ShowOur national co-hosts and amazing guests discuss management, money and missions of nonprofits! 12:30pm ET 11:30am CT 10:30am MT 9:30am PTSend us your ideas for Show Guests or Topics: HelpDesk@AmericanNonprofitAcademy.comVisit us on the web:The Nonprofit Show

Napa, CA-based artist Arleene Correa Valencia talks about: Why she lives in Napa, CA, and the two distinct versions of the town, for the wealthy and for the poor ("you're either the owner of the vineyard, or you're working the vineyard," as she put it); how she's the first generation to not be working the vineyards, his dad having worked the vineyard for a period before transitioning to hand-painting etched wine bottles for a winery (which he had to ultimately leave for lack of being paid enough because he didn't have an MFA); her favorite wines by grape (Pinots and Cabs from Sonoma mainly), and more recently a master fabricator color theorist and surface touch-up artist; making her dad's dreams to become an artist come to fruition through her; how she always refers to the work she makes as 'ours,' assuming everyone knows that her father always has a hand in the projects, in addition to consistently collaborating with makers from her culture of origin; the letters she exchanged with her father, while he was working to lay a foundation for the family to move to the U.S., among the artworks acquired by Stanford's Cantor Arts Center; her complicated DACA (Dreamer) status, and the exhibition she was able to have in Mexico (in Puebla, about 2 hours from Mexico City) which ultimately allowed her to apply for, and get, a green card; how she had to defer her dream to go to a 4-year university or art school until she received DACA status, and then she got a Diversity Scholarship that allowed her to attend California College of the Arts, which she would never otherwise would have been able to afford; how one of her 1st interviews was for someone interested in learning about being undocumented in the arts (originally published in Hyperallergic, she had to have it taken down for legal reasons to protect her); how her various supporters propelled her into her art-making and her art school education, and in turn the questions she asks herself about how she can help others, undocumented and otherwise… This podcast relies on listener support; please consider becoming a Patreon supporter of the podcast, for as little as $1/month, here: https://www.patreon.com/theconversationpod         In the 2nd half of our conversation (available on Patreon), Arleene talks about: How her mom comes from a family with 36 brothers and sisters, so is part of an enormous extended family; the BRCA mutation in her family, in which bodies are much more susceptible to various cancers, including breast cancer and ovarian; why ICE hasn't been active in the Napa Valley area, very likely because people of wealth and/or power won't allow their wine supply to be affected; how aware she is of her career and her sales, and that she's proud of her production rate and the work her gallery is doing with her; the demand for her truck paintings, and why she has a need to make those paintings, not producing them for a paycheck; when she requested a collector give her more time to finish a piece that she wasn't happy with, and re-made it; how integral her dad is to her work and her process, and how he's celebrated along with her, if only through his tremendous pride in her, and that it wouldn't all happen without him; the work they do with a tattoo family, and how it's similar to the dynamic that she and her dad as a family do together, which she acknowledges is a bit like the man behind the curtain; her Tochtli (rabbit) tattoo, a symbol in her family that signifies selflessness and the ultimate sacrifice; how the evolution of her being tattooed, which started when she was 18, has been about honoring the story of her ancestry and claiming her identity, and how her brothers, like her, are acquiring full body suits of tattoos.  

Episode SummaryThis week, host Justin Boark sits down with award-winning playwright, director, and educator James Ijames, the creative force behind plays including Kill Move Paradise, The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Tony-nominated Fat Ham. Their conversation digs into process, purpose, and the responsibility of telling stories that reshape the American stage. If you care about bold writing, fearless storytelling, and the next wave of theatrical innovationEpisode NotesGuestJames Ijames – @jwijames  | Official Website - https://www.jamesijames.com/Playwright of Abandon, Good Bones, Reverie, Youth, History of Walking, Matter Out of Place, Kill Move Paradise, White, Moon Man Walk, The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington, The Threshing Floor, Fat Ham, and TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever.Topics Covered• Acting, directing, and writing• Philadelphia, PA• The work of playwright August Wilson• Finding the comedy in Hamlet James Ijames Bio – James' plays have been produced by Flashpoint Theater Company, Orbiter 3, Theatre Horizon, Wilma Theatre, Theatre Exile, Azuka Theatre (Philadelphia, PA), The National Black Theatre, JACK, The Public Theater (NYC), Hudson Valley Shakespeare Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre, Definition Theatre, Timeline Theater (Chicago IL) Shotgun Players (Berkeley, CA) and have received development with PlayPenn New Play Conference, The Lark, Playwright's Horizon, Clubbed Thumb, Villanova Theater, Wilma Theater, Azuka Theatre and Victory Garden. James is the 2011 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist recipient, and two Barrymore Awards for Outstanding Direction of a Play for The Brothers Size with Simpatico Theatre Company and Gem of the Ocean with Arden Theatre. James is a 2015 Pew Fellow for Playwriting, the 2015 winner of the Terrance McNally New Play Award for WHITE, the 2015 Kesselring Honorable Mention Prize winner for ....Miz Martha, a 2017 recipient of the Whiting Award, a 2019 Kesselring Prize for Kill Move Paradise, a 2020 and 2022 Steinberg Prize, the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama recipient and a 2023 Tony nominee for Best Play for Fat HamJames was a founding member of Orbiter 3, Philadelphia's first playwright producing collective. He received a BA in Drama from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA and an MFA in Acting from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.The Scene TeamJustin Borak - Host Zach Dulli - Executive Producer KJ Lampar - Producer Leah Barker - Producer & Talent CoordinatorJim Colleran - EditorAdditional music and sound effects licensed through Envato ElementsLinksBe sure to follow The Scene Podcast on Instagram and YouTubeSubscribe to The Scene NewsletterSpecial ThanksJennifer IsaacsonLauren KardosJeffery KeilholtzShow ContributorsLeah BarkerJustin BorakJim ColleranZach DulliJames IjamesKJ Lampar The Scene TeamJustin Borak - Host Zach Dulli - Executive Producer KJ Lampar - Producer Leah Barker - Producer & Talent CoordinatorJim Colleran - Editor Additional music and sound effects licensed through Envato Elements LINKSBe sure to follow The Scene Podcast on Instagram and YouTubeSubscribe to The Scene Newsletter

I loved reconnecting with Lauren Messina for part ten of our Belhaven Dance Alumni series! Lauren is an award-winning choreographer, community builder, and founder of Skool Dance, an innovative online space connecting dancers of all backgrounds worldwide.In our conversation, Lauren shares about her journey in dance, the importance of community, and her experiences at Belhaven for both her undergraduate and MFA studies. We also dive into her current work in New Orleans as well as the founding of Skool Dance. We chat about the significance of community for artists, the joy of movement, and the resilience of artists in challenging times. Lauren's voice is one of encouragement as she reminds us to embrace the joy of dance in everyday life.Several other Belhaven Dance Alumni have shared their stories on the podcast over the years, so we've gathered all the episodes together in a playlist for you! Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠playlist on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!. . . . .Welcome to The Creative Impact Podcast, where you will find encouragement to live out your calling as an artist.. . . . .Watch this episode on YouTube! Check out our YouTube Channel and be sure to like and subscribe!⁠http://www.youtube.com/@creativeimpactpodcast⁠Join our Patreon community for behind-the-scenes and bonus content!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ patreon.com/creativeimpactpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Find the show notes and more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://creativeimpactpodcast.com/episode-137/Some topics we chat about in today's episode include:Belhaven University, dance, community, MFA, choreography, New Orleans, online community, motherhood, joy in movement, advice for artists. . . . .Let's Connect!Instagram & Facebook:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@creativeimpactpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. . . . .The podcast music was produced by Michael Cash.

Send us a textIn this episode of Talking Book Publishing, hosts Kathleen and Adanna sit down with Naomi Kim Eagleson, writer, editor, and founder of The Artful Editor, for a deep dive into the full editing journey—whether you're self-publishing or going the traditional route. Naomi takes us through her four-phase editing model and explains why many manuscripts spend too long in “line-edit purgatory” when what they really need is a developmental overhaul.We talk manuscript critiques vs. developmental edits vs. line-editing vs. proofreading — Naomi breaks each one down, explains when they belong in your publishing timeline, and shows why waiting too long (or paying too early) can hurt your book. She also shares veteran insights on what agents look for in your first 5–10 pages, why voice matters more than perfect punctuation at query time, and how simple tactics like reading your work aloud or letting Word speak it back can reveal structural problems you'll miss by eye alone.Whether you're polishing your first draft or prepping your launch, this episode delivers practical, actionable advice to elevate your manuscript and position your book for success.Resources: • Website ArtfulEditor.com • Instagram: @artfuleditor • Facebook: @artfuleditorAbout our guest: Naomi Kim Eagleson is a Los Angeles-based writer and editor who founded The Artful Editor, an editorial agency dedicated to helping writers of all stripes elevate their manuscripts for publication. Originally from Hawai‘i, Naomi began her career at Manoa, an award-winning literary journal, where she honed her editorial expertise. After earning her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she moved to California in 2010 and launched her own agency offering full-service editing—developmental edits, copyedits, and query reviews. With more than a decade of experience guiding authors toward their publishing goals, Naomi brings deep respect for craft, clear process, and a compassionate edit-mindset to every project.Related Episodes: • Season 5 | Episode 8 • Kim Dower • Season 5 | Episode 7 • Penny SansevieriReady to level up your manuscript? Subscribe to Talking Book Publishing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite platform—and please leave us a review! Your feedback helps more writers discover these conversations. We'd like to hear from you. If you have topics or speakers you'd like us to interview, please email us at podcast@talkingbookpublishing.today and join the conversation in the comments on our Instagram @writerspubsnet.

In the 2016 documentary The Happy Film, designer Stefan Sagmeister started the film's creative process with one set of expectations and ultimately became a co-director who took multiple risks, and suffered a tremendous loss. During the filmmaking, co-director Hillman Curtis passed away. Stefan's movie about happiness not only forces us to look at his life but also our own lives with a fresh perspective, and it teaches us the importance of coping with harsh, tragic, and unforeseen realities.-Stefan Sagmeister is an Austrian designer living and working in New York. He received his MFA from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and as a Fulbright Scholar he earned his MFA in communication design from The Pratt Institute. In 2025 he received an honorary degree from Pratt, the Doctor of Fine Arts, for being a creative and innovative leader in the field. He's also been honored by the AIGA, received a National Design Award from the the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and exhibited his solo and collaborative designs internationally. Early in his career, Stefan brought new life to music packaging with his memorable, interactive designs for albums by the Talking Heads, Brian Eno, and David Byrne, among others, winning two Grammy Awards. His work is in multiple permanent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, and he is the author of "Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far" a blend of visual whimsy, serious plan, and sound advice. https://sagmeister.com/‍ ‍https://www.grammy.com/artists/stefan-sagmeister/9972‍ ‍https://www.moma.org/artists/30682-stefan-sagmeister‍ ‍-The Happy Film (2016)rent/buy @ Amazonhttps://amzn.to/3WIdnb6‍ ‍https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5134870/‍ ‍-Sagmeister's "Now Is Better"https://amzn.to/4hP4J49‍ ‍-Sagmeister's "Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far"https://amzn.to/49UmPzD‍ ‍-Other movies and shows discussed:Comedian (2002)

Melissa Rosenberg - creator of JESSICA JONES, head writer of DEXTER, and screenwriter of the TWILIGHT films - joins Lorien to talk about what it takes to stay grounded as a storyteller. From building creative communities to rediscovering her artistic voice after decades in Hollywood, Melissa reflects on the evolving balance between ambition, authenticity, and healing through story. --- Looking for more support on your writing journey? Join Meg and Lorien inside ⁠TSL Workshops ⁠- your first 5 days are free. Episode Links: Bennington College's new MFA in Screenwriting Check out the TSL merch shop TSL on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky The Screenwriting Life is produced by Jonathan Hurwitz and edited by Kate Mishkin. Email us at thescreenwritinglife@gmail.com. --- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode Hilliard and guest co-host writer/director Gregg Simon sat down for almost two hours with DANIEL PEARLE Executive Producer of the new Netflix thriller called THE BEAST IN ME starring Claire Daines and Matthew Rhys.Daniel Pearle is an American playwright and screenwriter. His plays have been produced and developed at Lincoln Center Theater, London's Old Vic, The Vineyard, Ars Nova, and at regional theaters around the country. His play A Kid Like Jake premiered in a sold-out run at LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater (NY Times Critic's Pick). The play won the 2013 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award and was also awarded the prestigious Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation's Theatre Visions Grant.Daniel's feature film adaptation of A Kid Like Jake premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The film is directed by Silas Howard and stars Claire Danes, Jim Parsons, Octavia Spencer, Priyanka Chopra, Amy Landecker, and Ann Dowd. IFC Films acquired domestic rights for the film, which opened in theaters June 1, 2018. He is currently writing an original feature film for Warner Bros.His other plays include Freefall (finalist, 2017 O'Neill Playwrights Conference), Remote Viewing (semi-finalist, 2015 O'Neill Playwrights Conference), The Prodigies (semi-finalist, 2013 O'Neill Playwrights Conference), and Plunder (winner, 2008 Loeb Drama Center's Phyllis Anderson Prize). His short play The Truth About Christmas was a winner of the 2011 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival.Daniel was a recipient of the 2018 Humanitas New Voices Grant for emerging writers in television. He received a WGA Award Nomination for his work on FX's Impeachment: American Crime Story. Other TV credits include One of Us Is Lying (Peacock) and Accused (Fox). He is an alum of Ars Nova's Play Group and a MacDowell Fellow. He earned his BA from Harvard University and his MFA from The New School for Drama.

What really happens during a cyber attack? Not the Hollywood version — the real one. The kind businesses experience every single day when a single compromised password, phishing email, or zero-day vulnerability ignites a full-scale crisis.In this full episode, we take you inside the anatomy of a real data breach with digital first responders from NetGain Technologies — the cybersecurity professionals who live inside ransomware events, Business Email Compromise (BEC) incidents, and wire-fraud attacks every week.You'll see how attacks start, how fast they spread, what attackers do once they're inside your email, and the exact steps that decide whether a company recovers… or collapses.What You'll Learn: • How a phishing email turns into credential theft and internal compromise • Why Business Email Compromise (BEC) is now the #2 most expensive breach type • The tricks attackers use to hide inside inboxes and impersonate executives • How wire transfer fraud really happens — and how the 2-person rule stops it • What zero-days look like in the wild (and why patches aren't enough) • The role of MFA, phishing-resistant MFA, email controls, and layered security • Why backups must be immutable, air-gapped, and isolated • How incident response teams contain malware without destroying evidence • When to call cyber insurance, law enforcement, and breach counsel • The IR playbook: detection → containment → communication → forensics → recovery • Why every business — no matter how small — IS a target⌚ CHAPTERS 00:00 – Intro: What BEC Really Looks Like Today 03:42 – How One Email Starts the Attack Chain 11:20 – Why Finance Teams Are Target #1 19:05 – The Social Engineering Playbook 27:48 – Live Breakdown of a Real BEC Incident 38:22 – What Happens During Wire Fraud Recovery 46:10 – Technical Controls That Actually Work 55:36 – How to Build a No-NonsSend us a textGrowth without Interruption. Get peace of mind. Stay Competitive-Get NetGain. Contact NetGain today at 844-777-6278 or reach out online at www.NETGAINIT.com Support the show

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists.My guest today is Jameson Green. Jameson is an artist living and working in Hudson, NY. He holds an MFA from Hunter College. Green has exhibited extensively with Derek Eller Gallery and Almine Rech, including solo exhibitions in New York, Paris, London, Brussels, and Santa Monica. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art, Museo Picasso Málaga, and ICA Miami. You can also find Green's work in the public collections of the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the High Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Pérez Art Museum in Miami.A couple weeks ago, Jameson braved a wild rainstorm to visit my Greenpoint studio—a rare reversal for this show. What followed was one of the most fluid and wide-ranging conversations I've had on ARTMATTERS, so I've split it into two episodes. On today's show Jameson and I discuss the three elements of great painting, draftsmen vs. pure painters, drawing, sampling from art books and other paintings, rhythm, abstraction, narrative, and why great paintings are littered with hypocrisy. We also discuss Frances Bacon, John Singer Sargent, Guston, Picasso, Matisse, and Jenna Gribbon. Enjoy this conversation with Jameson Green.Special shoutout to my fluffy silent producer who finally made a sound mid-episode. Extra points if you hear her over the rain:)ARTMATTERS is listener-supported. If you want more conversations like this, take 30 seconds right now to leave a five-star review. It's the single most effective way to keep the show going.Support this podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/artmatterspodcastHost: Isaac Mannwww.isaacmann.comInstagram: @isaac.mannGuest: Jameson Greenwww.derekeller.comInstagram: @r.jamesonMusic by ARRN, Detroit-based artist and instrumentalist.

This week on Tipsy Casting! We are so thrilled to have a FIRST on the show as we welcome the extremely talented cinematographer, Ed Wu to the podcast! Ed is a man of many talents including being a classically-trained Violinist, Ultimate Frisbee Athlete and most importantly a cat lover! Ed was recognized as one of the Rising Stars of Cinematography in the February 2017 issue of American Cinematographer. In 2016, he was selected to be a part of Variety's Below-the-Line Impact Report - Up Next Category. Ed transplanted to Los Angeles from Long Island, NY in search of uncovering and learning the magic behind visual storytelling. To refine his craft, Ed was accepted to study at the prestigious American Film Institute, receiving an MFA in cinematography. Through his experiences as a cinematographer and wanderer of the world, he's seen the power of an image and constantly continues to search for the perfect frame to tell the story. He is extremely knowledgeable and I was able to see that first hand on the films we have worked on together like LINOLEUM and SLEGHT. His other recent credits include MOTHER OF THE BRIDE, PONYBOI and LOST ODYSSEY: SHADOWS OF DESTINY to name a few. In this episode we discuss...How he went from being a violinist/sports guy to learning the cinematography wold and wanting to train up in it. He breaks down all the terminology of the roles within the camera and lighting departments so we can best understand each role. We dive into the many different ways to go about gaining experience and climbing the preverbal ladder. He breaks down 2 of his favorite scenes from the film LINOLEUM and how they pulled off these not only amazing shots of dropping a car but also the emotional breakdown of scenes and the challenges. We discuss how being the head of department has its advantages but also disadvantages in running the crew and how the intimate relationship with the director really comes into play. How he approaches working with actors in such a close environment from the day they meet to the evolution throughout the shoot.He gives his tips to actors on how to best be an actor's DP and help him help you look your best on screen!And lastly any particular genres or types of films that are on his manifesting list to be a part of Make sure you are subscribed to Tipsy Casting on all platforms as well as rate and review the podcast!!!Resources: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ed's WebsiteEd's IMDBEd's Instagram──────────────────────────⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Stay Tuned with Tipsy Casting on IG⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tipsy Casting YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Jessica ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Jenn ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Learn More About ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jess ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠& ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jenn's⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Casting Journeys 

In this episode of Cybersecurity Today, host David Shipley covers the latest threats in the cybersecurity landscape. Highlights include the emergence of the quantum root redirect (QRR) phishing kit, a sophisticated automated phishing platform targeting Microsoft 365 credentials across 90 countries. The hospitality industry is also being hit with a new 'click fix' phishing campaign, compromising booking systems and targeting hotel guests. Researchers discover new vulnerabilities in ChatGPT, exposing private data via indirect prompt injection attacks. Additionally, the University of Pennsylvania confirms a massive data breach, highlighting the risks of not implementing comprehensive MFA protocols. Stay informed with the latest cybersecurity news and insights to protect your organization. Cybersecurity Today would like to thank Meter for their support in bringing you this podcast. Meter delivers a complete networking stack, wired, wireless and cellular in one integrated solution that's built for performance and scale. You can find them at Meter.com/cst 00:00 Introduction and Sponsor Message 00:46 Quantum Root Redirect: A New Phishing Threat 03:47 Click Fix Phishing Attacks on Hotels 07:58 ChatGPT Vulnerabilities and AI Security Risks 11:37 University of Pennsylvania Data Breach 15:12 Conclusion and Call to Action

In this episode of "Dance Talk” ® with Joanne Carey , host Joanne Carey interviews choreographer, Jeevika BhatIn this episode of "Dance Talk” ® host Joanne Carey interviews Jeevika Bhatt, a choreographer and dancer premiering her work 'Clothesline,' which explores the cultural significance of the sari through dance. Jeevika shares her journey in dance, her experiences moving to New York, and the creative process behind her latest project. The conversation delves into themes of cultural identity, the evolution of traditions, and the impact of modernization on heritage. Jeevika reflects on the questions of home and belonging, and how her work seeks to bridge the gap between her Indian roots and her American upbringing.Jeevika Bhat Jeevika Bhat is a dancer and choreographer who explores the confluence of her cultures through a contemporary Indian medium. Her technical background is in Odissi, an East Indian classical dance form known for its nuanced storytelling and graceful fluidity, which she studies under the guidance of Guru Jyoti Rout. Academically, she is a graduate of UC San Diego, where she earned a BS in Mathematics with minors in Linguistics and Dance, and UC Irvine, where she earned an MFA in Dance. Her upcoming work, Clothesline, which is co-presented by the CUNY Dance Initiative at The City College of New York, is additionally supported by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Creative Engagement Grant and the GALLIM Moving Artist Residency.Clothesline is a contemporary Indian dance story, told from the perspective of a sari which is passed down through generations of Indian women. In addition to exploring themes of home, homesickness, and heritage inheritance, this show is largely about laundry, musing about how culture fades with each wash.tinyurl.com/clotheslinetickets“Dance Talk” ® with Joanne Carey "Where the Dance World Connects, the Conversations Inspire, and Where We Are Keeping Them Real."⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://dancetalkwithjoannecarey.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Joanne Carey on Instagram@westfieldschoolofdance

Join LFS Board Member Rachel Annette Helson as she sits down with Tamlin Hall to talk about his new film, Red Camellia, film here in Louisville.Tamlin Hall is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who's films have won top prizes at Dances With Films, Atlanta Film Festival, and the Breckenridge Film Festival. Hall's work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Hall received his MFA from UCLA.Support the show

Anne Abel joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about her experiences winning the Moth StorySLAM, what she learned from the storytelling community, the lifelong toll of her parents' abuse and her chronic, recurrent depression, overcoming self-loathing, how Bruce Springsteen changed her life, following a hunch, overcoming writers block, why it's better to overwrite than underwrite, her giant following on TikTok and Instagram, why it's never too late to move forward, taking a leap and landing on our feet, allowing ourselves to persevere and dream, and her new memoir High Hopes.   Also in this episode: -capturing story -leaning into dialogue -why it's never too late to move forward Books mentioned in this episode:  -Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy -Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen -Educated by Tara Westover -Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs   Anne Abel is an author, storyteller, and influencer with over 700 thousand followers. Her first memoir, Mattie, Milo, and Me, (2024), about unwittingly rescuing an aggressive dog, was inspired by her Moth StorySLAM win in New York City. Her second memoir, High Hopes, was inspired by her Moth StorySLAM win in Chicago. It will be published September, 23, 2025. In January, 2025 she was featured in Newsweek, “Boomer's Story About How She Met Her Husband of 45 Years Captivates Internet.” She holds an MFA from The New School for Social Research, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and a BS in chemical engineering from Tufts University. She has freelanced for multiple outlets over the course of her career.   Anne lives in New York City with her husband, Andy, and their cavapoo puppy, Wendell. You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok: @annesimaabel Connect with Anne: Instagram, TikTok, FB @annesimaabel Website: www.anneabelauthor.com High Hopes: A Memoir: https://a.co/d/88HiMkb Mattie, Milo, and Me: A Memoir: https://a.co/d/aiDwCqw – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

An abandoned, dilapidated swimming pool in the forest. A pile of trash smoldering in a secluded backyard. A dark and deserted highway flanked by an unexplained light. Michael Endo's kiln formed glass is about the potential of empty spaces and how people inhabit the subliminal area between the civilized world and wilderness. It begs the question: Is our world real or manufactured?  Says Endo: "Locked in a loop of familiarity and strangeness, my gestural paintings, drawings, glasswork and sculptures exist in a moment of tension. By depicting the boundary between a wild space and the city, I present scenes where my interest in alternative communities, the relationship between space and psychology, occult knowledge, eschatology, ecology and the uncanny converge." To reveal and examine the experiences people tend to gloss over is Endo's primary aesthetic goal. He states: "Some people get turned off by what they perceive as a darkness to the work. But it doesn't bother me. They are entitled to their own opinion, and I don't consider it while I am making the work. I don't think the work is exclusively dark. People read that into it, but I am interested in exploring these marginal spaces and experiences and bringing them forward."  Endo's work is currently on view in What Remains, the fourth exhibition at The Byre, a centuries-old stone barn turned into an exhibition space by Bullseye Projects in Caithness, the northern-most county in mainland Scotland. What Remains features site-specific installations and works by Celia Dowson, Katharine Dowson, Endo, and April Surgent that reflect on stories and experiences reconstructed from fleeting shadows in memory and the earthed-over remnants found in the landscape. The show will remain on view until March 2026. Born in Portland, Oregon, in 1979, Endo received an MFA in painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan, in 2009 and a BA from Portland State University, Oregon, in 2005. His studio work has been included in national and international exhibitions at venues such as The National Glass Centre (Sunderland, UK), Disjecta (Portland, Oregon), Yuan Yuan Art Center (Jinan, China), and Bullseye Projects (Portland, Oregon and Mamaroneck, New York). Endo is currently the curatorial consultant at Bullseye Projects, organizing exhibitions at The Byre and assisting with traveling exhibitions and art fairs. In 2019, he moved to Yucca Valley, California, where he founded High Desert Observatory with his partner Emily Endo. Michael is currently the Artistic Director at Pilchuck Glass School. This year was "a banner year" for both interest in and enrollment at Pilchuck, says Endo, who sites the school's successful casting conference and upcoming design conference as high points. Enjoy this conversation with the artist about his studio practice and the balance he maintains between curation, administration, and studio as well as the role Pilchuck plays in glass education around the world.  

HIPAA isn't a moving target—it's a framework that still defines how patient data must be protected in 2025 and beyond.This episode features our full webinar, Your Actual HIPAA Requirements, presented by Jordan Scherich, Lead Business Analyst at Medcurity. She breaks down what regulators expect right now, how upcoming Security Rule updates will change encryption, MFA, and vendor oversight, and the practical steps every covered entity and business associate should take to stay compliant.We cover the biggest misconceptions, the real focus areas in OCR enforcement, and how to keep compliance continuous—not reactive. Whether you're updating your Security Risk Analysis or building everyday compliance habits, this session will help you strengthen your program with clarity and confidence.Learn more about Medcurity here: https://medcurity.com#Healthcare #Cybersecurity #Compliance #HIPAA #SecurityRiskAnalysis #RiskManagement #VendorRisk #OCR #Privacy #SecurityRule

In this episode – recorded live at the 2025 Writers Conference – I have an intimate conversation, in front of 1500 people, with the novelist and poet Ocean Vuong. When he was two years old, in 1990, Ocean immigrated with his family from Vietnam. They settled in East Hartford, CT, seven relatives sharing a one-bedroom apartment. His mother worked at a nail salon. When Ocean learned to read at 11, he became the first literate member of his family. Then he became the first to attend college, eventually earning an MFA in writing from NYU. In 2016, he published his debut poetry collection, “Night Sky with Exit Wounds,” which drew immediate attention and acclaim. In 2019, his first autobiographical novel, “On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous,” written in the form of letters from a Vietnamese American son to his mother, became a bestseller and led to his being awarded a MacArthur Genius grant. By every outward sign, he had seemingly achieved the American Dream as a writer. Then his mother, who'd never been able to read his books, died of cancer. Another celebrated poetry collection, “Time is a Mother,” followed. And now we have Ocean's magnificent second novel, “The Emperor of Gladness.” Photo credit – Tom Hines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Based in New York City, Carol prefers to leave the studio and seek out the immediacy of city life, whether sidewalks, parks, boxing studios, or Coney Island. In this conversation, Carol Fabricatore shares her extensive experience as a professional illustrator and how she teaches advanced MFA students to advance on their creative journey. She talks about the mystery of capturing motion and energy in drawing, the role of fearlessness in artistic practice, and the transformative journey of students in MFA programs. She emphasizes the value of leaving the computer and drawing by hand, the necessity of experimenting and taking risks, and the significance of narrative and storytelling in art. Carol encourages even experienced artists to explore beyond their comfort zones, leave their existing style behind, and pursue a creative journey toward new ways of seeing and working. Carol began her career in editorial and book illustration, with work appearing in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Chicago Tribune. Over the years, her practice has expanded into fine art, where she combines acrylic and gouache to capture both the complexity and vulnerability of human experience. With a BFA from Parsons School of Design and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, Carol has spent more than two decades teaching narrative drawing. For additional information: Carol's web site Music by license from SoundStripe: "Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ "Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ "What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich   Copyright (c) 2026 Keith Sawyer

We delve into the evolving landscape of filmmaking in the region, the importance of authentic, locally rooted narratives, and the critical role of institutions like the Doha Film Institute in fostering emerging talent. Award-winning filmmaker and associate professor at Northwestern Qatar, Rana Kazkaz, offers a glimpse into her current project "The Hakawati's Daughter," and provides recommendations for essential Arab cinema. She shares her experiences teaching film in the Arab world, highlighting the unique challenges and immense joys of mentoring a new generation of storytellers. This episode is in collaboration with Qatar Foundation. 0:00 Introduction0:23 The Joy of Mentoring Arab Students3:19 The "Why" of Storytelling: Finding Your Authentic Voice4:44 Navigating Censorship and Risk in Filmmaking7:24 How Technology is Shaping New Narratives10:47 Shifting Away from the "Other" Narrative14:55 Building the Filmmaking Pipeline: The Role of the Doha Film Institute19:39 The Critical Need for Producers in the Arab World21:39 The Impact of Non-Regional Producers on Arab Films26:12 Recommending Authentic Arab Films for Students29:28 Addressing Class Bias in the Film Industry31:19 Unlearning Self-Orientalism in Storytelling33:40 The Genesis of "The Hakawati's Daughter"41:26 Essential Films from the Arab World Rana Kazkaz is a filmmaker and associate professor in residence at Northwestern University Qatar. Her films have been recognized at the world's leading festivals including Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Tallinn, Tribeca, and Abu Dhabi. She received her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University/Moscow Art Theater and BA from Oberlin College. With a focus on Syrian stories, her producing, screenwriting, and directing portfolio includes The Translator (2020), Mare Nostrum (2016), Searching for the Translator (2016), Deaf Day (2011), and Kemo Sabe (2007). Her current film projects include The Hakawati's Daughter and Honest Politics. She is a member of the Académie des César and was awarded fellowships with the Buffett Institute, MacDowell and the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women.Connect with Rana Kazkaz

Host Shayla Oulette Stonechild hosts Chyana Marie Sage on the Matriarch Movement Podcast, discussing her new book ‘Soft as Bones,' which has become a national bestseller. Chyana shares her journey from a tumultuous childhood marked by abuse and intergenerational trauma to becoming a renowned storyteller. She emphasizes the importance of cultural roots, storytelling, and healing through writing and ceremony. Chyana also discusses her foundation's mission to create spaces for Indigenous storytelling and her ongoing projects, including a novel adaptation and a short film. The conversation highlights the power of Indigenous storytelling in healing and community building. More about Chyana Marie Sage: Chyana Marie Sage is a Cree, Métis, and Salish writer from Edmonton, Alberta. She has an MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University and lives in New York City. Chyana loves to travel and be with nature. She shares the pain of growing up with her father, a crack dealer who went to prison for molesting her older sister. In revisiting her family's history, Chyana examines the legacy of generational abuse, which began with her father's father, who was forcibly removed from his family by the residential schools and Sixties Scoop programs. Yet hers is also a story of hope, as it was the traditions of her people that saved her life, healing one small piece in the mosaic that makes up the dark past of colonialism shared by Indigenous people throughout Turtle Island. https://www.instagram.com/softasbones/ https://storestock.massybooks.com/item/temoIPlhFAidq8S_8vUqOw/⁠ https://chyanamariesage.com/ Thanks for checking out this episode of the Matriarch Movement podcast! If you enjoyed the conversation, please leave a comment and thumbs-up on YouTube, or leave a five star review on your favourite podcast app! Find Shayla Oulette Stonechild on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/shayla0h/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Find more about Matriarch Movement at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://matriarchmovement.ca/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ This podcast is produced by Women in Media Network ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.womeninmedia.network/show/matriarch-movement/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Why Distance Learning, hosts Seth Fleischauer, Tami Moehring, and Allyson Mitchell welcome Cassie Bride, Director of School Programs, and Lauren Yockel, School Programs Education Specialist at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). Together, they explore how one of the nation's most renowned cultural institutions is transforming museum education through live virtual programming—making world-class art accessible to students anywhere.Museums have long been seen as places you must visit in person to truly experience their magic. But how can educators bring the depth, texture, and storytelling of art to students who may never set foot in a gallery? Traditional outreach—slideshows, static images, or “loan boxes”—often fails to capture the atmosphere, intimacy, and discovery of the real museum experience.Cassie and Lauren share how the MFA Boston reimagined its approach by taking students inside the galleries through interactive live video sessions. Using simple technology—an iPad on a mobile tripod—they bring artworks, curators, and educators directly to classrooms. Students not only see art up close but also hear the sounds of visitors and experience the living energy of the museum.They discuss how this approach:Deepens students' curiosity and contextual understanding of art.Extends the museum's mission by reaching beyond geography and accessibility barriers.Creates hybrid experiences where virtual and in-person visits enrich one another.Builds relationships—teachers and students often recognize Lauren as a “celebrity” when they visit in person!Strengthens collaboration with Boston Public Schools, ensuring alignment between curriculum, distance learning, and professional development.For educators and cultural organizations, the MFA's model offers a powerful lesson: distance learning doesn't replace the field trip—it multiplies it. Start small. Use simple, mobile setups. Focus on creating authentic connections rather than high-tech production. Whether you're teaching art, science, or history, virtual access can spark awe, equity, and engagement in ways that complement, not compete with, in-person learning.Episode Links:Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – Distance Learning ProgramsHost Links:Discover more virtual learning opportunities and resources at CILC.org with Tami Moehring and Allyson Mitchell.Seth Fleischauer's Banyan Global Learning provides meaningful global learning experiences that prepare students across the globe for success in an interconnected world.

October — Dante's New South: Dario Plevnik - was born in 1969 in Osijek, Croatia. A guitarist and composer since age 10, he creates the music, lyrics, arrangements, and production for his songs, performing all instruments except winds, with classical guitar as his first passion. He recorded four albums for Croatia Records: “Duše” (1994), “Iskre strasti” (1998), the instrumental “Snovi” (2000), and “English Songs” (2000). An instrumental from “Snovi” appeared on the UK release Chrisanne Collection IV alongside Henry Mancini, Nat King Cole, Bill Elliott, and Pedro Garcia. In 1999 he combined the tamburica and electric guitar in “Slavonian Horses,” representing Croatia at major European ethno festivals in Austria and Hungary. His piece “Mogu” supported therapeutic horseback riding and represented the Croatian team at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. Active on TikTok with 167k+ followers, fans call his sound “Croatian Heart & Soul.”Links: https://linktr.ee/darioplevnik • https://www.tiktok.com/@dario.plevnikBen Smith has served as Senior Pastor of Central Baptist Church in Waycross, Georgia, since 2012, with prior ministry in Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas. He holds a B.S. in Christian Ministry from Shorter University and an M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. His ministry centers on clear, verse-by-verse expository preaching that helps believers live out Scripture.Website: https://www.BenSmithSr.orgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/BenSmithSr.orgX: https://www.x.com/BenSmithSrInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/BensmithsrAmanda Dennis is the author of Her Here and Beckett and Embodiment. Her work appears in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, and Guernica. She has held fellowships at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Columbia and Cambridge Universities, and UC Berkeley's humanities center in Madrid. She co-directs the MFA in Creative Writing at The American University of Paris.Website: https://www.amandadennis.netInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/amargaretdennisKeith “Hip” Hughes is a longtime educator known for his HipHughes History YouTube channel, with 55M+ views and more than 250k subscribers. He has also served as an adjunct professor of multimodal literacy at the University at Buffalo.YouTube: https://youtube.com/@hiphughesInstagram: http://instagram.com/hiphughesAdditional Music: Dario Plavnik — https://www.tiktok.com/@dario.plevnikAdvertisers:The Crown: https://www.thecrownbrasstown.comLinden Row Inn: https://www.lindenrowinn.comRed Phone Booth: https://www.redphonebooth.comWe Appreciate:UCLA Extension Writing Program: https://www.uclaextension.eduMercer University Press: https://www.mupress.orgAlain Johannes: https://www.alainjohannes.comHost: Clifford Brooks — The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, Athena Departs, Old Gods.Order books: https://www.cliffbrooks.com/how-to-order

My guest this episode is Lynne Golodner, a former journalist who built a successful marketing business before deciding to make creative writing her priority. She now writes full time, runs her own publishing imprint, and helps other writers gain the confidence to tell their stories. Her novels weave Jewish identity into contemporary life, and she's found freedom and success as an independent author. Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center, with a huge archive of 2,000+ blog posts, and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. We invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. About the Host Howard Lovy has been a journalist for 40 years and now amplifies the voices of independent author-publishers and works with authors as a developmental editor. Find Howard at howardlovy.com, LinkedIn, and X. About the Guest Lynne Golodner is the award-winning author of twelve bestselling books and hundreds of essays and articles, as well as a marketing expert, writing coach, and retreat leader. With an MFA in poetry, she has lived in New York and Washington, D.C., and eventually settled in her Detroit hometown, where she raised four children and now lives with her husband, Dan.

Mark is joined by Charlie Batch this hour to talk Steelers and Chargers. MFA makes his picks for the weekend Ask Mark Anything

Mark is joined by Charlie Batch this hour to talk Steelers and Chargers. MFA makes his picks for the weekend Ask Mark Anything See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"I have this desire to write as a novelist might write but write nonfiction," says Sasha Bonet, the author of The Waterbearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters (Knopf).Today we have the brilliant writer, the brilliant mind, Sasha Bonet, author of The Waterbearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters. This book is a masterpiece that chronicles the matriarchal lineage of Sasha's family, and the pain, and the struggle, and the triumph of will, of the slow, methodical, generational march forward and the residue of generational trauma, what we can outrun and we can never outrun. Damn, man, it's something of a family epic that brought to mind A Hundred Years of Solitude to me in its scope, in its sweep. I don't know. Maybe I have no clue what I'm talking about.Sasha is a writer, critic, and editor living in the socialist hellscape of New York City, woot, woot!Her essays have appeared in the Paris Review, Aperture, New York Magazine, Vogue, and BOMB, among others. She earned an MFA from Columbia University and teaches nonfiction writing at Columbia's School of the Arts and Barnard College. You can learn more about Sasha at sashabonet.com and follow her on the gram @sasha.bonet.This is a rich conversation about: Community The in-between place Not holding back Her influences Her writing practice And how jazz informs her writingShe's also good friends with G'Ra Asim, who appeared on these podcast airwaves way back on Ep. 256.Order The Front RunnerNewsletter: Rage Against the AlgorithmWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston, US, has agreed to return two works from 1857 by the enslaved 19th-century potter David Drake to his present-day descendants. By the terms of the contract, one vessel will remain on loan to the museum for at least two years. The other—known as the “Poem Jar”—has been purchased back by the museum from the heirs for an undisclosed sum and now comes with “a certificate of ethical ownership”. Ben Luke talks to Ethan Lasser, the MFA's chair of the art of Americas, about this landmark agreement. At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the exhibition Wifredo Lam: When I Don't Sleep, I Dream opens on Monday. Lam, who was of African and Chinese descent, is now widely regarded as a key, and singular, figure in Modernist painting. Connected in his long life to the Surrealists and Pablo Picasso, and to literary greats including Aimé Césaire and Edouard Glissant, his distinctive practice was above all centred on a profound engagement with Black diasporic culture. Ben talks to the two lead curators of the exhibition, Beverly Adams, curator of Latin American Art at MoMA, and the museum's new director, Christophe Cherix. And this episode's Work of the Week is the Adoration of the Magi (1488) by Domenico Ghirlandaio. The painting is in the Ospedale degli Innocenti, the first hospital for unwanted or orphaned infants, or foundlings, in Europe, built by the great Renaissance architect, Filippo Brunelleschi. The Innocenti, as it is called, is the subject of a new book, called The Innocents of Florence: The Renaissance Discovery of Childhood, by Joseph Luzzi, and Ben speaks to him about the painting and its significance in the Innocenti's collection.Wifredo Lam, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 10 November-11 April 2026.The Innocents of Florence: The Renaissance Discovery of Childhood, published in hardback by WW Norton, from 11 November in the US, priced $29.99, and from 28 November in the UK, priced £23.New subscription offer: eight-week free digital trial of The Art Newspaper. The subscription auto-renews at full price for your region. Cancel anytime. www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-8WEEKSOFFER Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Although they cater to different senses, photography and music share much in common. In both these arts, timing, rhythm, and mood are key. It's been a while since we've mixed photography and music on the show, so we're particularly excited about today's chat with two photographers who share a passion for documenting musicians and their fans—in particular, devotes of punk and indie rock. From early memories of being truly moved by music to practical tips about photo access, image rights and restrictions, plus the complexities of organizing your work for a book, the conversation doesn't miss a beat. So, turn up the volume as Bootsy Holler reminisces about dropping into the Seattle music scene in the early 1990's to capture the raw energy of her favorite bands, now compiled in the book Making It: An Intimate Documentary about the Seattle Indie, Rock and Punk Scene. And Chris Ortiz describes how the house parties he captured at a punk commune in Kansas served as the foundation for his skills as a music photographer with a keen eye for differentiating himself in the photo pit. As Chris points out when it comes to preparing for a show. "It goes back to knowing that music and knowing the band, and being able to sit back and say, Yes, I am a fan of the band, but I also am professional, so this is what I'm going to look for when the band comes out." Guests: Bootsy Holler & Chris Ortiz Episode Timeline: 3:20: Bootsy Holler recalls her early days dropping into the Seattle music scene, photographing garage bands and dive bars. 9:41: Chris Ortiz talks about his start in photography, and his time photographing house parties at a punk rock commune in Lawrence, Kansas. 12:01: The difference between documenting live music and making portraits of musicians, where you need to develop a rapport with your subjects.  17:32: A tip of the hat to Chris as a longtime podcast superfan, plus what he's learned from listening to our 10-year archive of shows.   20:20: Bootsy's early stylistic influences and its effect on her art and music photography. 25:54: The earliest memory of being truly moved by music and the songs Bootsy and Chris were listening to when they truly got it. 31:56: Applying the inner feels of music to photographing a concert and connecting with the rhythm to grab key moments. 39:00: Negotiating access, shooting from the photo pit vs the side of the stage, plus differentiating your pictures from other photographers' work. 48:00: Episode Break 48:56: Chris talks more about current dynamics for gaining access when shooting music and concerts.  53:44: Current limits on concert photo usage and restrictions on contracts offered by some artists and entertainment companies. 58:28: Legal parameters related to pictures in Bootsy's book, plus the difference between concert pictures and portrait situations. 1:02:26: Bootsy's nine-year process of assembling a book, working with a designer for big picture decisions, plus leaving room to break the rules. 1:08:09: Finding publishers, choosing between options, plus the importance of owning the rights to your images. 1:10:20: Bootsy and Chris name the band at the top of their bucket lists to photograph.   Guest Bios: Bootsy Holler has spent 30 years capturing the essential personality and emotions of her subjects. Best known for her work as a portraitist, Bootsy's journey began with intimate depictions of herself and friends at the center of Seattle's pivotal music scene during the early 1990s. These formative years at both ends of the lens cemented her style as well as the methodology behind her empathic and journalistic approach. Bootsy's work has been recognized by the Society of Photographic Journalism and twice selected for the Critical Mass Top 50. Her photos have been exhibited and published internationally and are included in the permanent collection of the Grammy Museum. In 2019 she published the monograph, TREASURES: objects I've known all my life. Most recently, her book Making It: An Intimate Documentary about the Seattle Indie, Rock and Punk Scene, was released by Damiani books. Stay Connected: Website: https://bootsyholler.com/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bootsyholler/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shop.BootsyHoller/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BootsyHoller    Chris Ortiz has enjoyed a relationship with photography since age six, when he learned the basics from his stepfather. He's specialized in music and documentary subjects since 1998, shooting with both digital and medium format black and white film. After earning a bachelor's degree in art history, Chris obtained an MFA in photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Select documentary projects include Portraits of Latinx Identity, and We Are All We Have Tonight, featuring portraits and personal narratives from punk rock enthusiasts, describing each subject's connection to the scene. Additionally, Chris works as news editor for the Prescott Daily Courier, covering area news and events.  Stay Connected: Website: https://www.chris-ortiz.com/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fastboyent/   Credits: Host: Derek Fahsbender Senior Creative Producer: Jill Waterman Senior Technical Producer: Mike Weinstein Executive Producer: Richard Stevens  

Too many artists graduate from art school with crushing debt and then spend years figuring out how to make money while trying to maintain a studio practice. Stephanie Brown did the opposite. She graduated from a private art school debt-free, secured a fully funded MFA, and has been treating her art career like a business from day one. In this conversation with host Alyson Stanfield, Stephanie breaks down exactly how she did it, and why being strategic about money doesn't make you any less of an artist.