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Unstoppable Mindset
Episode 472 – Unstoppable Lessons From My 9/11 Survival Story

Unstoppable Mindset

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 4, 2026 58:44


Surviving September 11 took more than courage. It took preparation, trust, and the ability to manage fear. I share my experience escaping from the 78th floor of the World Trade Center with my guide dog, Roselle, and the lessons that shaped how I responded that morning. You'll hear how years of learning my surroundings, trusting my training, and understanding my role as a leader helped me stay focused during the evacuation. I also explore blindness, the limits society places on blind people, and the power of teamwork between a guide dog and handler. Most of all, this story is about focusing on what you can control, trusting the relationships you've built, and preparing yourself to act when fear shows up. Highlights: 00:10 – Why Michael is revisiting September 11, 25 years later. 11:45 – How Michael learned that blindness itself isn't the limitation. 32:50 – Why preparation inside the World Trade Center mattered when crisis hit. 36:40 – How staying calm helped Michael lead others toward safety. 44:46 – The lesson Michael heard while running from the collapsing tower. 51:59 – What Roselle taught Michael about fear, trust, and moving forward. About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Transcript: Michael Hingson  00:04 Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of Unstoppable Mindset. I am your host, Mike Hingson, and today we're doing something a little bit different. This is Friday, september 4, 20/26, and this is the first of four episodes commemorating all of the events that happened in and around September 11, 2001. As many of you know, I was in the World Trade Center working for a company. I had opened an office for them on the 78th floor of Tower One of the World Trade Center, and on September 11th, I was in my office because we were going to be doing some special sales training for people, and I was there getting prepared to do all of that when the terrorists attacked the towers, and then later the Pentagon. And as you may know, a fourth aircraft was crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, because people on the aircraft took it over from the terrorists or tried to anyway, so one of the things that we thought would be helpful would be for me to give you again a taste of what I actually went through and what occurred on September 11, 2001, when we started this podcast back in August of 2021, I played a speech that talked about some of what happened to me in the World Trade Center. But today we're going to do a different speech. In April of 2024, I was invited to be a speaker at the Marshfield, Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival. Now that festival is a yearly event celebrating and commemorating different events in American history. In 2024, I was invited to come and speak and talk about my experience at the World Trade Center and to help put some of that into context. I thought it would be very relevant for all of you if we played that speech for you, so that you would again get a taste of what occurred with me, why I was able to survive and escape, and a little bit about the lessons that we should learn about not only September 11th, but frankly, from my perspective, being the fact that I have been blind since I was born in 1950, I want you to learn a little bit more about blindness. So we're going to present to you now my speech delivered in April on April 27, 2024, at the Marshfield, Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival. I hope that you'll enjoy it. I hope that it will teach you some things, and don't forget that we have other episodes coming up. We have another episode occurring on the eighth of September where I'm going to be interviewed by Michelle Abraham from Amplify You. Amplify You is the company that I work with to get these podcasts out twice a week, and Michelle has her own podcast, and she's going to interview me to talk about lessons we've learned, to talk a little bit about what happened on September 11th. But we won't give anything away for what's going to happen later in this series of episodes. On September 11th, I will be talking with Bob Ellis. Bob was at the Pentagon on September 11th and literally just walked out the door just before the aircraft hit the Pentagon. We're going to talk about that and again, hopefully, put some of things in perspective for you. Then on the 15th of September, I'm going to come back on episode 475 of our podcast, and talk a little bit more in detail about the lessons that I've learned, and talk about things that I hope people will take away and remember from september 11. I know many of you weren't even born when the World Trade Center terrorist attacks occurred, and so this episode 472, especially, I hope will give you a little bit better sense of what occurred, and from my perspective, why things occurred the way they did, and and how we proceed. So I hope you'll enjoy this episode. Hope that you'll enjoy what it brings, and we will definitely be moving forward to talk about some other things later on. Speaker 1  04:24 There are moments in American history that changed the national conscience. Yesterday, we heard about the assassination of President Kennedy. Some of you might be old enough to remember the attack of Pearl Harbor, and for most recently in American history, of course, the terrorist attacks September 11th. Today, you're going to hear a riveting account, a a heroic story of a man whose story I believe will really pull at your heartstrings. And to moderate that panel today, or that interview, to do is conduct our interview. Today is Mary Acher, who's no stranger to this stage, good friend, presidential historian, and a great interviewer. If you'll put your hands together for Miss Mary, Speaker 2  05:11 I just am so honored to met Michael Hinkson and Alamo. You know by what you see that he came down on the 78th floor of the North Tower with his guide dog Brosel, but I have a friend named Doug Weed who always told me, "You don't brag on yourself; you get somebody else to brag on you. And I want to brag on Michael before we start this. Before I ask him to tell this story, Michael was a premature baby, and at the time when he was born, they put the babies in pre in a the premature babies in a incubator sealed with 100% oxygen, and the doctors didn't know that then, but it blinded the children, and Michael was blinded at birth. So Michael was very fortunate that he had parents that refused to allow him to even think about being disabled. They mainstreamed him before mainstreaming was even known, and they taught him to ride a bicycle. They let him drive a car, and later in his life, he actually piloted an airplane. Is that amazing? He loved mathematics. He loved physics. He was taught geometry. He solved math problems in his head. He's got a master's degree in physics and another-not a master's, but a regular in in teaching. So that is why he is such an amazing man. He's never ever let this what enough people call a disability stop him at all? As a matter of fact, he has been such an amazing gift to the unsighted community in in the Braille and things that technology that blind people can utilize to be online and be all kinds of of things that they wouldn't ever have been allowed to do even 50 years ago. So anyway, I'm just so honored to have met you, Michael. It's just been amazing. I'm going to take him to Lambert's tomorrow. He says I have to catch the rolls, or somebody else will catch them and they'll eat them and he won't get it. I promised him I'd catch the rolls. All right, my dear Michael, would you start telling us about that horrendous day? I am Michael Hingson  08:00 going to not do what I said I was gonna do. I'm gonna stand up, and I'm gonna be very interested to go to Lambert's to see what they do with me, since normally they would throw the rolls, as I understand it. And I'm gonna point out that doesn't really work. So now, what are you gonna do? Because if they all fall on the floor and the dog gets them, and the dog gets sick, you guys are in trouble. So I'll be interested to see exactly what happens. No, I'm sure it will work out. Mary, thank you for those those kind words. I'd like to start by defining a couple things to help us in all of this. Mary is absolutely right about what my parents did in their position, the doctors told my parents when it was discovered I was blind at about four months of age that I should be sent to a home because no blind child could ever grow up to amount to anything or contribute to society. If you think that's bad, it was worse in other parts of the world where, when children were born who were blind, were just drowned in a bucket of water. So, in a sense, it wasn't as bad. Not every child who was born premature and put in an incubator did go blind, and it's unfortunate, in a sense, that at the time that I was born. Dr. Arnold Papps at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University had discovered that, in fact, oxygen could cause blindness, and even a few minutes a day of a non-oxygen environment would drop the incidence of blindness down to zero. But medical science didn't believe him because they said, "Well, too much oxygen can't be a problem. And what Dr. Arnold Pats essentially really proved is that too much of anything can be a problem. So it is it is an issue. I finally actually some time ago got to meet Dr. Pats. Before he passed, it was it was fascinating to talk with him about that. The condition at the time when I was born was called retroenterial fibroplasia. If you want to know how to spell that, I wrote a book called Thunderdog: The Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero, which we plan to have here, but the publisher messed up, so it wasn't. But you can go buy Thunderdog anywhere, and you can learn how to spell retrolateral fibroplegia. It is now called retinopathyoprematurity. I guess that's a little easier to spell. I don't know still why they changed the name, but they did. So fine, I don't care. I am blind. I don't care. Blindness isn't the problem. I've learned from my parents and growing up and being alive now for yep 74 years, blindness isn't the problem. The problem is our perception of blindness, what we believe blind people can and can't do, as opposed to what they truly can and can't do. If you want to really see a story or something about a blind person driving a car, there is a website www.blinddriverchallenge.org. Blinddriverchallenge.org. The president of the National Federation of the Blind in October of 2001 challenged private industry and universities to create a vehicle that a blind person could drive, not an autonomous vehicle, but truly a vehicle that would transmit to the blind person the information necessary for them to drive the vehicle. What you will see at blinddriverchallenge.org is a video of a gentleman named Mark Riccobono. Too many marks. Mark Riccobono driving a vehicle independently without any assistance around the Daytona Speedway, right before the 2011 Rolex 24 race, he will go through an obstacle course. He will pass boxes that are being thrown out of a van to try to block his way. He will pass the van and a number of things like that. The reality is, what is driving? It's all about you having the information necessary for you to control your vehicle, and as far as I'm concerned, given what Mark Riccobono did, and given the reality that the information is available to us, given the way most sighted drivers drive, I'll take me any day, especially where I live in Victorville. My gosh! But the the reality is, blindness isn't the problem. I grew up believing that I went to public school. I went to college. Michael Hingson  12:26 I did get a master's degree in physics. As I love to tell people, I'm as good as Doc Brown from Back to the Future in building reactors and nuclear bombs. The only difference between me and Doc Brown is I won't go steal fissionable material from some source that might come after me later. So you know, I think I was a little smarter than Doc Brown, but the fact is, again, it's not the problem. I was also the program director of the campus radio station for a while, and I worked at the campus radio station KUCI 89.9 on your FM dial for seven years. I did a show playing old radio shows every Sunday night from six to nine. Didn't even know what 60 minutes was. I heard about it, and one day finally somebody from the show or from the the Orange County Jail called and said, "We really got a situation. We want you to know about it here at the jail. People who heard about you, they've heard about 60 minutes, and on Sunday nights we have to divide the jail in half. Half of the people go up to a television room to watch 60 Minutes, and the other half, which is the bigger half, want to hear your show playing old radio shows on Sunday nights. So you know we must be doing something right. That even at the jail, they liked us. I went to work in 1976 for the National Federation of the Blind. It's the largest organization of blind consumers in the country. I was offered a position because I was in in the science world, one of the few at the time in that world. And the president of the federation, Dr. Jernigan, told me in late 74, early 75, we got a situation. There's a guy named Ray Kurzweil. You may have heard of Ray. He's a futurist. He's an inventor. He's invented the singularity. I'm not totally sure I agree with everything that Ray says. You know, Ray once said the only problem with God is we haven't invented it yet. I don't agree with that. And the other part about it is Ray says that we're really going to all become part of the world when chips are created that will allow us to directly interact with computers. Well, we'll see. I don't want to chip in my brain yet. But Ray at that time had developed a piece of technology that would actually look at a printed page. It actually had to build it up line by line, so it wasn't like snapping a picture. But it would learn to recognize all the characters on that page, no matter what their type styles or print styles were, and it would read it out loud, called the Kurzweil Reading Machine for the Blind. Just like with blindness and retro-entral fibroblasia, the government didn't believe he could do it because nobody else had been able to do it, and so they wouldn't help fund it. He came to the federation, and the federation said, "Tell you what we're going to do." Ray, I'm not sure they said it quite that way, but tell you what we're going to do, Ray. We're going to send somebody up there with a bunch of material, and if your machine reads what we bring up, not what you want to read, if it reads what we bring up, then we're going to help you get funding. And Ray, I'm sure again it wasn't quite the way he said it, but he said, "Bring it on. They did. It did, and a relationship began that exists to this day-a machine that literally would read print out loud. And Ray wanted the first application of omnivore optical character recognition to be a machine that would read print out loud for blind people. We created a project where we purchased several machines, and then for 18 months, from 1976, in October through June of 1978, I lived in suitcases or out of suitcases in hotels, traveling around the country where we put machines at places like the New York Public Library, the Iowa Commission for the Blind, the San Francisco Public Library, and some other agencies for the blind around the country. Michael Hingson  15:59 The idea being that we wanted blind people to come and use the machine, read whatever they wanted to read, and then give us information about what needed to go into a final production model of the machine. I wrote training curriculum. I wrote the the technical manuals for teaching people how to use the machine. I taught people to use it. I observed people using it. Sometimes grabbed my old soldering gun and fix things that broke on the machines. These were $50,000, 400 pound machines. They weren't little things like an app on an iPhone today, right? So anyway, we finally wrote the final recommendations, and then Ray said, "I want to hire you to come and do the same sort of thing within the company. So I went to work for Ray, moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Actually, I learned I moved to Winthrop, Massachusetts, learned how to go from Winthrop to Cambridge every day, and we began a relationship. And I worked at Kurzweil Computer Products, in and that started in again October of 1978. In May of 1978, I was called into the office of the VP of Marketing, and Andrew Parson said, "We're laying you off. What? We're laying you off. Why? Oh, it's not that you're doing a bad job or anything, but unfortunately, like a lot of engineering startup companies, we've hired too many people who aren't revenue producers, and we have to have more revenue producers. And so, as important as your job is, it's not as important as making money for the company. So we have to lay you off. Then he paused and he said, "Unless you'll go into sales. Now, I'm a science guy. However, I thought about it for a micro nanosecond, and I said, "Sure, I'll go into sales. As I love to tell people, I decided I would lower my standards and go from science to sales, and did. I said I don't know anything about sales. He said we'll send you to a Dale Carnegie sales course and all that. Well, I started selling, but not the reading machine for the blind. Instead, I sold a new product they had called the Kurzweil Data Entry Machine, and unlike the reading machine for the blind that sold for $50,000, if you want one, we might be able to find one of the old machines for you for 49 995. Instead, I sold a new product called the Kurzweil Data Entry Machine, which was only $125,000. I guess they had confidence in my ability, and I was very grateful for it. The real reason that I didn't want to refuse the sales position is I knew that at that time, and it's still somewhat today, the unemployment rate among employable blind people is close to 70. That is seven 0% It's not because we can't do the work; it's because people think we won't be able to do the work and don't give us the opportunity. So the bottom line is, I lowered my standards and went from science to sales, and did that for a while. And then in 1981, while Xerox was considering and actually working toward buying the product, I was asked by Ray and the VP of Sales to move back to California, where I was from, to help integrate Kurzweil into the Xerox West Coast environment, including their research center called Palo Alto Area Research Center Park, and I did. And my thanks for that was that after the the whole sale was consummated and Xerox completely took over. I was the last salesperson in June of 1984 to receive a FedEx letter saying thank you for your service, but we don't want you anymore. Goodbye, because all Xerox wanted was the technology. They didn't want the people. Now I was confronted with the situation. How am I going to find a job? What am I going to do? 70% unemployment. and I went out and I wrote lots of cover letters, sent out lots of resumes, and I even got a headhunter who called me and said, "Love your resume. We're going to have you interview with this company up in San Jose, California. We'll send you a ticket. They sent me the ticket the night before the flight. The guy called. Back and he says, "You know, I was just looking at your resume again. I see you do a lot of things with blind people. Michael Hingson  20:04 Is there somebody in your family who's blind? You notice that? And I said, "Yeah, I'm blind. You're blind? Well, I'm going to have to call them. They're not going to want to talk to you. I said, "Nothing has changed. My resume is still the same, but you're blind. It's all changed. No, it hasn't. There were no laws to stand on. The reservation was canceled, and I didn't do the interview. Their loss. If Speaker 3  20:30 you enjoy Unstoppable Mindset and would like to help us continue bringing these conversations to you each week, we've created a way for you to support the show. Your contribution helps us cover production costs and continue sharing stories, insights, and ideas that inspire people to live with purpose and possibility. If supporting the podcast feels right for you, you'll find the link in the show notes. Thank you for being part of the Unstoppable Mindset Community. Michael Hingson  21:02 Eventually, not finding a job, I started my own company selling computer-aided design systems to architects. A blind guy selling CAD systems? Why the heck not? I didn't need to work the machine. What I needed to know was how to work the machine, so I could describe it to architects, and I could sit them down in front of a machine and talk with them and talk them through it. We also hired people to demo CAD systems, and I did that for four years. And then I went back into the workforce. And when I went back into the workforce, my wife and I were talking one day, and she said, "You know, I got this great job I just discovered in the newspaper. It's selling high-end, new, revolutionary, hot, pluggable disc technology. It's perfect for you. You should apply. And I said to my wife Karen, who I had married in 1982. By the way, Karen also had a disability. She was in a wheelchair her whole life. She reads. I push. Worked out well. I said, so do I say in my cover letter I'm blind or not? Because typically, if you say you're blind, same thing will happen with the headhunter. You won't even get a call back if you don't say you're blind. You might get a callback, but then they're going to have all their defenses go up when you show up for the interview. And she said, "You're an idiot. Wives can do that, gentlemen, and it's fine. You're an idiot. Why? What's the most important thing you always said to every salesperson you ever hired, well, I wasn't quite sure which things she was thinking of. I had several things that I always said to salespeople I hired. She said, "You always told every salesperson you ever hired turn here's the operative word perceived liabilities into assets. You ever watch those little cartoons in the newspapers and all that, where the light bulb goes on over your head. Well, that's what happened, and I went and I wrote a cover letter to send with this resume to this company. And here are the last two paragraphs of the letter. The most important thing you need to know about me is that I am blind. As a blind person, I have had to sell all my life just to be able to function and survive. I've had to sell to take my guide dog on airplanes. I didn't tell them that we had to sue one airline because they violated their own policy because they wouldn't let me go on an airplane with my guide dog. I've had to sell to convince people to let me buy a house, move into apartments, sometimes take my guide dog into grocery stores, and do anything else because I was blind, I've always had to sell. So, second paragraph: When you're hiring someone for this job, do you want to hire somebody who comes in and works for eight or 10 hours a day, and then just goes home because the job is over, or do you want to truly hire somebody who understands sales for the science and art that it is, and who sells 24 hours a day as a way of life. Sent off the letter. Waited for two weeks, wondering if I'd get a call or an email. Well, no, not an email, not back then. But in late June 19 or May 1989, I got a call. This is Doug Cooper, head of marketing for Articon. We love your letter. Would you come for an interview? And I said sure. Next day we were down there. I was hired and started on july 2, 1989. Love to start on the second of July, or actually the third of July, because then I got the next day off. It was great. So I went to work for them, and we moved from where we were living in Mission Viejo down to Vista, California. The company was in Carlsbad. I began selling to the East Coast, selling our technologies and other technologies, Sun Microsystems products, and so on. And then in 1996, the owner of the company asked me to move to New York for them because we were selling to Wall Street. Michael Hingson  24:37 Wall Street was always good at getting and demanding and getting what they demanded, and they always said, "If you are a manufacturer and you're selling products to us, we want a representative, not an agent, but we want the company in Wall Street Arena to be able to to hold responsible and deal with. So we moved to New York. And I went to work on the 23rd floor of Tower Two of the World Trade Center, and was there for about a year, and then was recruited away by another company, and it wasn't hard because Articon did not figure out how to support a branch operation. So I was recruited away, and then in 1999 I was recruited away by Quantum Corporation, and now we're getting to what Mary asked about. But I needed to give you the background. Hope it was okay. So in 1999, I was hired to open an office for Quantum Corporation on well in New York City. Quantum was a company that made products called tape libraries. They were big boxes that consisted of tape drives and lots of tape cartridges, and you would attach them to computer networks, and then you would use software like one called Veritas, which is still used today. And what you would do is you would back up all of your data over the network into these tape libraries, onto tape cartridges, and then you would take the tape cartridges out and store them off-site. Now I gotta stop and be spiteful because in New Jersey they love to say that they stored them in a town called Mountainside Under a Mountain. You ever see a mountain in northern New Jersey? I came from California where we had mountains that were eight, 910, 1000 feet tall. They didn't even have decent hills, but they still called it a mountain. That was fine, whatever. They still were able to store the tapes in safe places. But the point is that all the data was backed up off-site, which is what they needed to do. We opened the actual office on august 1, 2000. I hired a staff, and we had a staff that came in and and sold, and we also worked with resellers. And in August of 2001, our main distributor Ingram Micro said, "You know, we got a lot of resellers who are selling your products, but they don't really know how to do it. Can we hold some seminars to teach our your reseller partners, our customers, the resellers, how to sell your product? I said, "You bet. We worked it out with the folks at Quantum. David Frank, who was in charge of pricing and distribution, said he wanted to come back to be a part of the seminars, and we set up doing the seminars. The idea was that we would teach them. I would be their main point of contact since I worked and lived there. David would be the person that I or they would contact without with any pricing issues, but I would be the technical point of contact contact. Master's degree in physics helps, and so we set up the seminars. And wouldn't you know it, we set them up to be held on september 11, 2001. The evening before, or the morning of September 11th, about 12:30, Roselle, my guide dog at the time, woke me up. She was very nervous and fidgety. I knew what it was like when she was fidgety. It was usually because it was a thunderstorm. She didn't like thunder, and we went down to my office. And of course, a thunderstorm did happen, and the storm literally came right over our house. I've never been in an environment where bombs went off around me, but I got to say that in this case, the thunder claps were, as I said, literally right over us, and it had to be like what a bomb sounds like going off. Anyway, it went on till about two, and then we went back up and got a couple more hours of sleep, three more hours of sleep. I got up. We went in and got to the office at about 7:40 in the morning on September 11th. As I came to the door, somebody came up with a cart. It turns out it was a guy from the Port Authority cafeteria. Michael Hingson  28:33 We were going to be providing breakfast and snacks for the first and second seminarians. We had seminars going all day, so we went in. I showed him where I wanted to set up everything in the conference room. I went in, got my laptop computer out of my backpack briefcase. I got my PowerPoint projector, and I went into the conference room and set everything up because I was going to be doing a PowerPoint show that day to give people all the information they needed about the ATLP 3000, the ATLP 1000, and so on. Yes, blind people can do PowerPoint, folks. It's not magic. You sighted bigots. So I had a script, and my wife and I had created the script, and I'd used it many times. The script was in Braille. I knew what was on every slide. We put a couple of things in addition on the script. We put all the wording from the slides on the script, and we also put on the script descriptions of the pictures, as well as where the picture would show up on the screen. So I would, for example, when we showed this to other customers around the city, I'd blow their minds because I would be doing the presentation. My sales guys loved it when I went out and did PowerPoint presentations because I could just point over my shoulder. On the left side of your screen, you'll see the ATLP 3000 with 16 cartridge, 16 drives, 326. Cartridges, and you see the label that says Prism Technology. We could hook five of them together. On the right side of your screen, you'll see the ATLP 1000, which was a single unit with 30 cartridges and one tape drive. And people would come up to me afterwards, and they say, "You know, we're ticked at you. I go, "Why? Well, first of all, your presentation was not boring, which usually they are. But second of all, you never turned and looked at the screen. You kept looking at us, even though you were pointing right to where everything was with your laser pointer. We didn't dare fall asleep. We forgot you were blind. And my response was, "You don't get it. My dog was down here taking notes. If you'd fallen asleep, we would have got you anyway. But that was what it was about. My responsibility was to be the leader of that office, and I had to do what anyone else would do. One of the main things that I did was spend hours, days walking around the World Trade Center, learning what the kiosks were in the shopping mall on the first floor, learning where different offices were, consulting with the Port Authority police and the fire prevention people learning what to do in case of an emergency because sometimes I might be in the office all by my little self. There would be nobody else around. I didn't want my staff in the office. I wanted them out selling and working and supporting customers. Not being in the office, of course, they did usually come in at least once a week. And and so I learned never watched The Sopranos, but I got to tell you, I learned more about the Sopranos from all the Italian Americans on my staff who talked about the Sopranos constantly. Bada bing, bada boom, and I learned a whole lot about Tony Soprano without ever watching the show. But the point is that I needed to know all that stuff. I needed to know where the restaurants were. Customers come into the office. Oh, you want to go out to lunch? What kind of food do you want? There's a great deli downstairs called Fine and Shapiro. Let me take you there. How would it have looked if I didn't know how to do that, and I had to say to someone, "You're going to have to let me take your arm and lead me there because I don't know how to get there, and two hours later we're supposed to be negotiating multi-million dollar contracts? No, I needed to know it. I didn't have the luxury, and I don't regard it as a luxury. I regard it as a disability of reading signs. I needed to know all of that stuff. What I didn't realize is that was creating a mindset in me, which I'll talk about in a moment. Michael Hingson  32:15 Anyway, got all the laptop projectors and everything set up. The only thing I knew I didn't know how to do extremely well is to get it exactly aimed right, but about 8o'clock, David Frank came in and I said, "Say, David, this is all set up, but let's aim the projector just exactly where you want it on the screen. And we did have to turn it just a little bit, but not too much. But anyway, at 845, I was in my office and David was with me. We were creating a final list of all the people who were going to be attending the seminars, because the Port Authority police, the security people, needed to know who was coming. There were two ways you could get into the building: either we faxed on letterhead a list of people who were coming on any given day, and then the people coming in would show their photo IDs, and it would be verified against the list. And if they were allowed in, then they would be given a badge that they would put over their neck, and they would carry that, and they could scan barcode and go into the appropriate elevator to come onto our floor, or they'd have to call us every time somebody came in. And I didn't want a lot of phone calls coming in, so we were faxing the list. I was reaching for Letterhead to fax to to print the list on Letterhead when suddenly I heard and felt kind of a muffled thump and a vibration. And then literally, if you any blind people in the room, well, I'll do it anyway. I'm holding up my hand, and what happened was that literally, as I'm now tipping my hand toward you, the building began to tip. We probably moved about 20 feet. The building kept tipping and tipping. David and I said together, "What's going on? I don't know. What's going on? What do you think? Was it an explosion? I said. David said, "Didn't sound like it. Is it an earthquake? David was from New York, and now he's living in California. He didn't know about earthquakes. I said, "No, the building wasn't shaking around. It was going in one direction. And finally, and I went over and I stood in the doorway between my office and the the outside lobby of our our offices, and I stood there. Roselle was asleep under my desk. David was just on the other side of my desk, holding it near our windows, looking out over Manhattan, the south side of Manhattan. And finally, David and I both said goodbye to each other because we thought we had moved so far that the building was going to take a 78 floor plunge to the street. And then the building slowed down, and it stopped, and it moved back. As soon as it got vertical, I started walking back into the office. I met Roselle coming around from under my desk. I took her leash. I said "heel, which meant to come around behind me to sit and lie down, which is what I would normally have Alamo do, but he's comfortable, so we'll just leave him there. Roselle sat down, and about that time. The building dropped straight down about six feet. Why did it drop down? Because tall buildings like that literally are springs. They're made to flex in windstorms and other things like that. An Empire, an airplane hit the Empire State Building in the 1940s because it got lost in a fog bank. Tall buildings are flexible. They have expansion joints, and when the building was hit, the expansion joints took up all of the the things that were going on. And then when the building got straight again, the expansion joints dropped back down to their normal configuration. I knew that because I had talked to people about stuff like that. I'd forgotten it until later, but I knew it. What I hadn't realized is that what was happening when I was learning so much stuff was that a mindset was being developed in me that said, "You know what to do in an emergency. And as soon as the building dropped, David turned and looked out the window and started shouting, "Oh my God, Mike! There's fire and smoke over us! There were millions of pieces of burning paper falling outside the windows. Michael Hingson  35:59 We got to get out of here right now! Slow down, David. No, we got to get out of here. The building's on fire. I could hear things rushing and brushing outside our windows, and now I knew what they were. David told me millions of pieces of burning paper, right? And I didn't smell any smoke. Roselle wasn't doing anything to indicate any concern, and David kept saying, "We got to get out of here. The building's on fire. And I kept saying, "Slow down. Our guests began to scream. We had like five or six who were in our conference room. Early arrivals. They started coming out, but then they heard me say, "Slow down, stop, David. Just wait. And they waited to see what was going to happen. And finally, David used the big line: "You don't understand. You can't see Speaker 4  36:37 it. The Michael Hingson  36:38 problem wasn't what I wasn't seeing, the problem was what David wasn't seeing-a dog sitting next to me, wagging her tail, yawning, going, "Who the heck woke me up? I was comfy, not giving any indication of fear. And I eventually got David to focus, and I said, "David, get our guests to the stairs. Don't let them take the elevators, because I knew if there's fire, especially because if there's fire, the elevators could become fire traps. The fire could get into the elevator shafts, which it did, and anybody in the cars would be burned. David left with our guests, got them to the stairs. Meanwhile, I called Karen and told her that there had been an explosion or something. We had no clue. There was no way to know. I love it. Reporters, even today, and other people say, "Well, of course you didn't know you couldn't see it. Excuse me, you numbskulls. The last time I checked, Superman and X-ray vision were fiction, and the airplane hit 18 floors above us on the other side of the building. No one knew. All the way down the stairs, we didn't know because no one saw it. No one knew. Anyway, I called and told Karen she wanted to know more. I said, "I don't know anything else. I've got to go because we're not staying here. We knew instantly that we had to leave, but we got our guests out. Then David came back. We swept the offices one last time. Went to the stairs and we started down. If I knew it was the last time I was going to be in the building, I would have taken a couple of things that I didn't take. Like I had a really neat talking scientific calculator that I couldn't replace. And if I had known that I wasn't coming back, I would have taken it. It would have been a little heavier, but I would have taken it anyway. We started down the stairs. There were other people, of course, on the stairs. We got down about four floors, and I was smelling an odor. I couldn't quite figure it out, and suddenly I realized I'm smelling the fumes from burning jet fuel. I traveled 100,000 miles a year for my company. I knew what the odor of jet fuel was like. I knew the kerosene smell, but it took a while to associate it with the World Trade Center because no one would have ever thought you would have smelled it there. When I realized what it was, I observed to the other people around me on the stairs, "I'm smelling the fumes from burning jet fuel. And they said, "Yeah, you're right. That's what it is. We must have been hit by an airplane. You understand? Nobody knew. We must have been hit because of what we're smelling, so we all accepted that that was what was going on, but we had no clue. We continued down the stairs, about 10 floors down. At one point, a woman stopped right behind me, and she said, "I can't go on. I can't breathe. We're not going to make it out. And I stopped and turned around and said, "Sure, we are. Come on, this is my guide dog Roselle. He's guiding me, and and she'll encourage you. Roselle gave her kisses, and this lady gave Roselle a few pets, and so on. And other people surrounded her, and we had a group hug, and the lady was able to keep going. A few burn victims passed us on the stairs as we went down. At about the 50th floor, David, who had gotten a little quiet. Suddenly said, "Mike, we're going to die. We're not going to make it out of here. Now you heard that I have a teaching credential. What you don't know, and teachers won't generally acknowledge it, but I'm going to tell you anyway. There's a secret class we take called Voice 101: How to Yell at Students. Didn't know that, did you? And anyway, as soon as David. Said Mike, "We're going to die. We're not going to make it out of here. I just said as sharply and with a snap into my voice that I could, "Stop it, David! If Rosella and I can go down these stairs, so can you. And David told me later that that brought him out of his funk. Michael Hingson  40:12 What he then said is, "I got to keep my mind off this. I want to walk a floor below you and shout up to you what I see on the stairs. Is that okay? And I said, sure. Did I really need him to do that? No. Did it matter? No, but it did to David. However, what I came to realize over time was, David doing that was one of the most important things that I experienced on that day. So I'm going down the stairs. I get to floor 49. David, I'm on the 48th floor. All's clear here, Mike. Going on down. I get to 48 floor, 47. We keep going down. Finally, I get to the 45th floor, David. I'm on the 44th floor. This is where the Port Authority cafeteria is. Not stopping. So David was obviously doing better, and he kept going down. Why do I say what I did about David and doing that? Because David became a focal point for anyone within the sound of his voice who could hear him say, "43rd floor, all's clear, everything is good. He had to have helped 1000s of people stay focused and not panic going down the stairs, and I think that was so cool that he did that all the way down 42nd floor, all good. We kept going down the stairs. We met firefighters on the 30th floor. They wanted to escort me down, and I finally convinced them that I was capable of going down without them. And I did it by playing the sight card. I said, "Look, my friend David is here. He can see we're good, and the firefighters let us go. I didn't want them to escort me. First of all, they don't know how to work with a blind guy and do sighted guide. But second of all, I didn't want to break up their team because I knew that each of those people were carrying the equipment that they had to use to fight the fire. You couldn't store it somewhere. Where would you store it? Oh, the 34th floor. And what happens if a fire broke out on the 33rd floor, you couldn't get to it. You had to carry the equipment, so we kept going down the stairs. Finally, got to the first floor. David got there, and I was at floor two. And he said, "Hey, there are water sprinklers running. You're going to have to run through a waterfall or a down torrent of water to get out of the stairwell. Why was there all that water? Because it wanted to keep fire either in or out of the stairs, if fire was around. David ran through. Then I got to the bottom. Roselle stood there, and I picked up her harness and said, "Rosel, forward, hop up, which is a command to speed up. We went through this torrential downpour. It was a waterfall, and we came out the other side, soaking. David was there, and there were voices. Hey, don't go outside! No, no, don't go that way. Go this way. A PA system, a guy on a bullhorn. No, no, no! Don't go outside. Don't go to the outside. Go this way. What we didn't know is, if they had let people go out, they might have been right below where people were jumping. And so that was one of the reasons they didn't want anyone out. They wanted people to go through the complex and get out at the far side, as far away from where everything was occurring that they could. This guy comes up to us and he goes, "I'm with the FBI. I'll get you where you need to go. And of course, I'm sitting there with my warped sense of humor, going, "I'm sorry, I only talked to McGarrett, and I didn't do it. I'm innocent. I just thought that I didn't say any of it out loud. Anyway, he got us through out to the outside of Tower One. We passed now the empty Ben and Jerry's ice cream kiosk that was there. Darn didn't get a chance for a scoop. Kept going. Finally, went up an escalator and got outside into the sunshine outside of Tower. Well, of the whole complex, as far away from the towers as we could be, we got outside. Michael Hingson  43:44 We were told to leave the area, but David looked around and he said, "Mike, I see fire in Tower Two. And I said, "What are you talking about? There's fire in Tower Two, really? What's that all about? We didn't feel a thing going down. We were in our own little cocoon, our own little cave. We had no clue. Anyway, we were told to leave, so we went to Broadway. We walked across the plaza to Broadway, turn left, going now north on Broadway. There was a building on my left. Broadway was on my right. We crossed several streets, crossed Fulton Street, finally got to Vetsy Street. David said, "I want to stop because I can see the fire in Tower Two really clearly from here, I want to take some pictures, and I said, "Great, I'll try to call my wife. I got out my phone. David was taking pictures, which I have today. I tried to call Karen. I couldn't get through. Later, of course, we learned that people were saying goodbye to loved ones, and that was why the circuits were busy. I had just put my phone away, and a police officer, and while David was putting his camera away, and a police officer yelled out of here! It's coming down now. We heard this rumble that became this deafening roar. I describe it as kind of a combination of a freight train and a waterfall. You could hear glass breaking and tinkling, and metal crashing down, and then this white noise sound as Tower Two, 100 yards away from. Pancake down. Everyone turned and ran. David ran. He was gone. I literally lifted Roselle by the harness, turned her 180 degrees, and started running back the way we came. And the first thing I remember saying in my mind was, "God, I cannot believe that you got us out of a building just to have it fall on us. And as soon as I thought that, I heard in my head as clearly as you hear me now, a voice that said, "Don't worry about what you can't control. Focus on running with Roselle, and the rest will take care of itself. Who is God? Absolutely no question. Don't worry about what you can't control. Focus on running with Roselle, and the rest will take care of itself. And so I also had this incredible sense of peace and calm that came over me. That said, you're okay if you work together. We kept running. We got back to Fulton Street, turned right on Fulton Street, and ran about 25 yards. And suddenly we caught up to David, who had apparently gone the same way. And David suddenly realized that he had left us behind and he was going to come back, but we caught up to him first, and he apologized. I said, "David, don't worry about it. Let's just keep going. The building's coming down, you know. And we both just started to run with Roselle, and suddenly we were engulfed in all the dirt and debris and the dust cloud from Tower Two. It was so thick that David said he couldn't see his hand six inches in front of his face, and all I can tell you is that every breath I took, I felt dirt and debris and junk going down my throat into my stomach, and we knew we had to get out of that. So I started telling Roselle, "Go right, right. There was a building on our right side, and I wanted her to find the nearest opening if she could even hear me, see my hand signals, or whatever. And I was also listening for openings. Yes, I can hear when I pass an opening, and I and I can tell it's there and deal with it accordingly. Like during a time when you're running away from a collapsing building, run into it. Suddenly, I heard an opening on the right, and Roselle must have known what I wanted. She must have been able to see my hand signals or something because she turned right, she took one step, she stopped, and she would not move. Come on, Roselle, keep going. She wouldn't move. Come on, Roselle. Nope, wouldn't do it. And I realized, focus on running with Roselle, and the rest will take care of itself. So I stuck out a foot. Michael Hingson  47:13 I trailed a hand along a wall, and realized that we were at the top of a flight of stairs. Roselle had done exactly what she was supposed to do, and I knew what I was supposed to do if I wanted to get her to move. But before I did that, I gave her a big hug, good girl, and then I said, "Roselle, forward! That's the command. And we went down the stairs into an arcade area that was the entrance to the Fulton Street subway station. There were a few other people down there. Then a guy came up from the subway system and saw about eight or nine of us there. He introduced himself as Lou, an employee of the subway system, and he took us down to an employee locker room where we could sit down and and kind of hack and cough and get the dust out of our lungs. There was a water fountain and there were fans. We were there about 10 minutes. Then a police officer came, and he said, "You got to get out of here right now. The air's clear up above. You can't stay here. And so we followed him. Of course, he probably had already been told that Tower One was going to collapse. the The officials knew that each building was going to collapse probably about a half hour before it actually did. At least that was their presumption, and that's what I've been told. Anyway, we followed him back up the stairs, through the arcade, up the last two flights of stairs. We got outside. David looked around and he goes, "Oh my God, Mike, there's no Tower Two anymore. And I said, "What do you see? And he said, "All I see are pillars of smoke, hundreds of feet tall. We stood there for a moment, and then we just turned, and we kept walking. Now west on Fulton Street, we walked about 10 minutes, and we were in this little plaza area when we heard that freight train waterfall sound again, and we knew it must be our tower collapsing. We saw a little retaining wall David did, and we got behind it and ducked down, and we waited until everything stopped, and then we stood back up. And David looked around and he said, "Oh my God, Mike, there's no World Trade Center anymore. And I said, "What do you see? And he said, "I just see fingers of fire and flame, hundreds of feet tall. We see, I see pillars of smoke. It's gone. Are you sure? Yeah, it's gone. It's not there. We stood there a moment, then I tried to call my wife Karen again. That was kind of my first thought. I need to tell her we're okay. This time I did get through because clearly the circuits were were free. And after some tears on both sides of the phone, she is the one who told us how two aircraft had deliberately been hijacked and crashed into the towers, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth at that time was still missing over Pennsylvania. Who would have thought? We spent the rest of that day getting up toward Midtown Manhattan, and eventually I got to Penn Station, learned that the trains were running, and went back. Out to New Jersey, David wanted to go back up to be with his sister, who he who he was staying with. She lived on the Upper East Side, so I got on trains and I went back over toward New Jersey. I called Karen and told her what was going on, and a friend of ours, a friend that Karen had known since high school out in California, Tom Painter, was also living in New Jersey, he had come down to be with her, not even knowing at the time whether I was in the World Trade Center or working from home that day or whatever. But he drove her to the station in our accessible van, and as I came off the train, I heard the van show up. I went downstairs, climbed and went up the ramp into the van, and got to hug Karen about 7o'clock that night, for the first time since leaving home, we got home. Tom drove us home. We all went inside. I was going to take Roselle outside because she hadn't been out since like five that morning. Michael Hingson  50:53 Well, I take that back about six that morning, and I took her harness off. But before I could do anything else, she was off like a shot. She went to her toy box, found her favorite tug bone, and started playing tug of war with my retired guide dog Linny. Why? Because it was over for her. And I talked to the guide dog people later, and I said, "Will any of this affect her? And they said, "Was she threatened? Did anything hit her or injure her in any way, and I said no. They said then no. It was over for her because dogs don't do what if. It was over. It was done. She was fine. Lesson to be learned. Lesson you will learn more about if you buy our new book, Live Like a Guide Dog: True Stories from a Blind Man and His Guide his dogs about being brave, overcoming adversity, and walking in faith. That that book is available for pre-order, and I've been signing bookmarks all day. I still even have a few with me. But the point is, you can pre-order it, and and it's about something that I learned later. I thought about during the pandemic. I've talked a lot about escaping and not being afraid because I developed a mindset that said you know what to do, but what I've not done is to teach others how they can learn to recognize that fear is not something that needs to blind or overwhelm you. You can use fear as a very powerful tool to guide you and steer you in the right direction if you know how to control it, and live like a guide dog is all about that. So I hope that you'll all get that when it comes out in August. But again, you can pre-order it now if you go to michaelhinkston.com. There's a link there where you can go to a web page to get information and to go to a link where you can pre-order it. And like I said, I have some bookmarked with a QR code on it, and and I'm and I yes I am plugging the book, but I'm also saying, look, folks, the bottom line is we operate in so many ways with misconceptions about things. I've talked about blindness. Anybody could have been in the World Trade Center, and and a lot of people were. The reality is, though, if you learn what to do and how to prepare for situations in general, when it becomes something specific, you'll know what to do. People have asked a number of times, "Well, wasn't your guide dog trained to operate in an emergency like the World Trade Center? How are we going to do that? No, the dog isn't trained to do that. The guide dog's job is not to lead. Guide dogs do not lead blind people. Guide dogs' jobs are to make sure that we walk safe. It's my job to know where to go and how to get there to give the dog direction. The dog depends and relies on me to give it direction. The dog's job, as I said, is to make sure we walk safely. It's a team effort. We each have a job to do, and we develop a trusting relationship when we learn to trust each other and respect the job the other member of the team is doing, which is what it's all about. Which is what happens on any team, trust is all around us. Trust is under attack in so many ways from our politicians, and in so many ways. But the reality is, trust is all around us. I think we all trust that the roof isn't going to fall in on the church. I think that we trust that the PA system is going to continue to work, and so on. Trust is all around us. The difference between dogs and people is that dogs, while they do love unconditionally, do not trust unconditionally. But dogs are open to trust unless some incredibly traumatic thing has happened to them where they lose that ability. But dogs are open to trust, dogs want humans to give them direction to establish rules, and all too often with our pets and so on, we don't do that. We don't really develop the relationship that we should and can with them. Michael Hingson  54:54 If we would, we would have so much stronger bond and relationships with them. It would be. Amazing for for all of us, but the bottom line is that's the relationship that I get with each guide dog. That's the relationship I have with Alamo. He trusts that I am going to feed him before too awfully long. He trusts that you guys are going to buy books, so he'll have kibbles for me to feed him. Just saying, but but seriously, the the trust has to be earned with a dog or with people or whatever, and if you find that you you discover you can't trust someone, don't wish them ill will, forgive them and move on. So you don't trust them, but you know what you have, and you go off and make new friends and learn other trusting relationships that you can develop. Focus on running with Roselle; the rest will take care of itself. The reality is, we worry so much about so many things. We are always doing what if we create most of the fears that we face in our lives, and we Don't need to do that. If we would focus on just the things that we have some control over and leave the rest alone, well, we might want to be aware of them, but we don't have to worry about them. We don't have control over them. Trust and deal with the things that you have to deal with, and let the rest take care of itself. And that was what I learned on September 11th, listening to the voice of God, absolutely, and that is something that I pass on to all of you, and I think that's the most important thing that I can leave you with. Hi again, everyone. This is Mike Hingson. I hope that you found that speech to be helpful and relevant and interesting. I hope that you learn some things from it. From a personal standpoint, I hope that you learn that blindness isn't really the big problem that I face. The challenge that I face really comes from the fact that people who have eyesight tend to believe that blind people are not capable of doing much because they can't see. Wrong thing to believe. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that because we did it during the speech, but I just wanted to thank you for being here today, for listening and watching this episode. I hope that you will also tune in for our episode on Tuesday, where I'm in conversation with Michelle Abraham on next Friday, the 11th of September, that you will tune in to hear the conversation with Bob Ellis, and then episode 475, which will occur on the 15th of September, where we will talk about lessons to be learned and and give you some things to hopefully take away that maybe you haven't thought about. Thanks very much for being here with us. I really very much appreciate all of your support. If any of you have any questions or want to reach out to me, you are welcome to do so. Please feel free to email me at speaker@michaelhinkson.com. That's s p e a k e r at m i c h a e l h i n g s o n.com speaker@michaelhingson.com hope to hear from you and as you gather I do speak I continue to speak publicly I've been a keynote speaker since September 11 if anybody knows of anyone that needs a keynote speaker or you can use us in events that you have please reach out to me at speaker@michaelhingson.com let's talk about it. Let's see how we can help. I'm always looking for ways to inspire, but also to teach and help. And I'd like to be part of your world in that regard. Thanks again for being here. Thanks for listening, and come back next time for another episode of Unstoppable Mindset.

BBS Radio Station Streams
Hollywood and Horsepower Show, September 3, 2026

BBS Radio Station Streams

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 3, 2026 58:45 Transcription Available


Hollywood And Horsepower Show with Mark Otto Frank Santorelli: From Boston Comedy Clubs to The Sopranos and Beyond Summary From Class Clown to the Comedy Stage Frank Santorelli describes an early instinct for making people laugh, beginning with childhood impressions and class-clown behavior before his first organized performance as a guard in a school production of The Wizard of Oz. He says his professional stand-up path began around 1981 after he was living in New York City and studying acting with ambitions of becoming a dramatic actor. A friend encouraged him to try an open mic in Cleveland, where he won repeatedly and was soon placed into regular comedy shows. Santorelli recalls narrowly missing Drew Carey at the Cleveland club and then expanding into venues in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and other cities. He moved to Boston in 1985 as the city's comedy scene was booming with clubs, colleges, and one-night engagements. The discussion emphasizes how many nights a week young comics worked and how little money they often made while trying to establish themselves. The Competitive Craft of Stand-Up Comedy Santorelli and Marc Otto discuss the difficult progression from opener to middle act to headliner and the amount of material required to close a show successfully. Santorelli explains that he needed roughly forty-five minutes of strong material before he could become a reliable headliner and that comics at every level were trying to outperform the act ahead of them. They describe Boston as a working comedy market rather than merely a showcase city, which meant comedians had to deliver for paying audiences night after night. Otto brings up the importance of clean, durable material and the amount of writing that goes into apparently effortless stand-up. Santorelli says he still develops material by noticing what strikes him as funny and writing it down so it can be shaped later. Both men also reflect on how the collaborative camaraderie of earlier comedy scenes has become less common as performers increasingly work as independent operators. Breaking Into Acting and Building a Screen Career Santorelli explains that professional acting opportunities began to arrive after managers and agents saw him performing stand-up in New York. Early work included a commercial for the Omni Biltmore in Providence, a television role on Providence, and an early film he remembers as Crooked Lines. He says he continued doing stand-up while acting because television and film jobs paid more but were unpredictable and separated by long gaps. The scheduling could also be difficult because actors might be called to a set before dawn and then wait many hours before their scenes were shot. Santorelli describes balancing the financial reliability of live comedy with the opportunity and higher pay of screen work. The conversation later touches on Meet the Parents, where he says he worked in a scene with Ben Stiller and met Robert De Niro on set. He characterizes De Niro as highly professional and businesslike while emphasizing that he avoided asking working stars for photographs or selfies. Becoming Georgie on The Sopranos Santorelli recounts auditioning for what was then an unknown project called The Sopranos after being told the production needed a bouncer-type character. He describes reading for casting director Georgianne Walken and performing the repeated "hello" phone bit that became associated with his character, Georgie. Although he was hired as a one-day player, Santorelli says David Chase ordered elaborate tattoos for him and encouraged the physical business and background activity he improvised around the club set. Santorelli built Georgie by constantly cleaning, moving, kibitzing, and adding silent reactions, and he realized the production might bring him back when Chase insisted that the makeup department photograph the tattoos for continuity. He says the one-day job eventually became thirteen episodes without a long-term contract, with the production simply calling him back as needed. He also describes the large cast read-throughs, the hierarchy around the table, the early Radio City Music Hall screening, and the excitement of realizing the new series might become something extraordinary. James Gandolfini, Ensemble Chemistry, and Celebrity Encounters Santorelli remembers James Gandolfini as serious, hardworking, pressured, and personally very different from Tony Soprano. He emphasizes the enormous emotional and dialogue burden Gandolfini carried because so much of the series revolved around his character. Otto and Santorelli discuss how The Sopranos blended crime drama, family conflict, humor, and multiple overlapping story lines in a way that helped make the series compelling. Santorelli says most of the cast did not even know he was also a stand-up comedian, and he recalls Michael Imperioli reacting with surprise when the subject came up. The conversation expands into stories about Robert De Niro, Don Rickles, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Foster Brooks, Joe Piscopo, Tom Selleck, and other performers whose professional habits or comic instincts made an impression. Santorelli and Otto repeatedly return to the idea that performers such as Rickles could improvise fearlessly because they had an unusual command of timing, character, and the room. Still Working, Still Auditioning, and Still Writing Santorelli says he remains active in stand-up comedy and continues to work multiple dates in a week. He explains that his method for developing material is simple but disciplined: recognize what is genuinely funny to him, write it down, remember it, and test or refine it. He and Otto discuss advice from comedians such as Jay Leno and the unforgiving instant feedback of a live audience, where a joke either produces a laugh or it does not. Santorelli also says he continues auditioning for television, mentioning Dexter: Resurrection and Tulsa King as recent opportunities for which he came close to being cast. He does not believe his Sopranos identity prevents him from being considered for new roles because casting is often driven by whether an actor visually and dramatically fits the part in front of them. The episode closes with Santorelli directing listeners to Facebook for updates, followed by Otto's acknowledgments of Old Friends Equine and No Fallen Heroes and his appeal for listeners to support the organizations if they can.

Spears & Steinberg
Aries Ranks The Greatest Sopranos Episodes of All Time

Spears & Steinberg

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 20, 2026 60:04


Aries and Andy dig into The Sopranos this week — starting with the episode Aries thinks is the most overrated in the entire series, then running through his personal top 5, closing out with a full debate on whether Tony Soprano was actually a weak man underneath all the bravado, and a breakdown of that infamous finale cut to black. Then the guys shift gears into a reaction to Christy, the new boxing biopic starring Sydney Sweeney as Christy Martin — her physical transformation for the role, Don King's involvement, the true story behind her husband's attack, and how it stacks up against Million Dollar Baby as a piece of cinema. Subscribe for new episodes of Spears & Steinberg every week. My website: Tour (tickets), merch and more - http://www.ariesspears.com Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/ariesspears TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@realariesspears Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ariesspears Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/spearsbergpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Popcorn And Soda Starring Tallal Azim

Actor David Proval (The Sopranos) Joins the show to discuss all things his memorable performance as Richie Aprile on The Sopranos. We discuss David being cast on the show, Auditioning for Tony Soprano, Creating Richie's menacing personality and mannerisms, James Gandolfini, Favorite scenes, The finale and more!Follow Popcorn and Soda:Instagram:   / tallalazim  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6P4GrVA...Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-po...IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14857450/

La Ventana
La Ventana de la tele | ¿El 'streaming' acabó con la época dorada de la televisión?

La Ventana

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 28, 2026 26:21


Hubo un tiempo, no muy lejano, en el que ver una serie era una obligación cultural. Había que saber qué le estaba pasando a Tony Soprano, cómo iba a terminar Walter White o quién conseguiría sentarse en el trono de hierro. Se habló durante años de la edad de oro de las series, esa en la que la televisión dejó de ser la hermana pequeña del cine y se convirtió en el lugar donde estaban las historias más arriesgadas y de moda. ¿Ese tiempo ha terminado? 

Novara Media
Downstream: Who Profits From Genocide? w/ Andrew Feinstein

Novara Media

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 27, 2026 92:41


A new consensus has emerged in Westminster, seemingly overnight: we need more defence spending, and we need it now. But the Ministry of Defence has a record for waste that would put Tony Soprano to shame. £13 billion down the drain, since 2010, at the very least. Aircraft carriers that come in late, overbudget, and beset by mechanical failures. IT systems that cost millions, and are wildly out of date. No other government department could get away with it. But the arms trade spends billions of dollars on greasing the wheels of political consent. They employ armies of lobbyists, print reams of analysis, and bribe politicians the world over to keep the war machine funded. The result isn't just a crisis of corruption. It's a threat to our survival as a species. Andrew Feinstein is a former-minister in the South African government, turned investigative reporter. He is the executive director of Shadow World Investigations, and serves on the board of Declassified UK. And in 2024, he stood against Keir Starmer in Holborn and St Pancras. He joins Ash Sarkar on Downstream to lift the lid on how the arms industry really works, and tell us about his political journey.

BiPolar Coaster
Lindsey Grammar aka I am Running Out of Ideas for Podcast Titles

BiPolar Coaster

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 17, 2026 395:35


Brief thoughts about returning to open mic-Recaps of last week's TNA Smackdown, AEW Collision, this week's Raw AEW Dynamite and NXT-going into my mind state going back to comedy after a month hiatus, and not knowing if it will be the same post melt down-not writing my irrational thoughts down for several days-Forest fires in Canada and how the air quality looked so yellow it gave me a Tony Soprano level trigger of one of my most infamous 2011 dreams-comments about me going aggressive over women cogs in media when Ive literally risked my life going at top level men in the game so limited identity politics won't work on me especially if pick me's in media are auditioning to be Mar A Lago bimbos online political fandom mad at me for calling propagandists that normalized Platner-How todays personalities want to be Howard Stern but all they are is Ralph Cirella-Alt media personalities are uncharismatic-every cog in the game being initiated-every delegation adding to the divide-how I want to be a spirit-country vs country aesthetic-glorified thots-AIPAC funding both sides of discourse-grifting off genocide-glad Im not sought after-Taking advantage of ppl spying journal entries-embracing irrational thoughts-not needing to please ppl to have a social life if it reminds of the past-regretting going back on IG-suspecting everyone lies-blind fandom-Howard and Vince similarities-not knowing half of the staffers released by Stern Show-Me doing more consistent broadcasting than Howard-being black balled-being punished by the hive mind-how being into women gives them the upper hand-Hollywood always being conservative and funding the internet discourse-looking at all the angles of potential scenarios-regressive behavior-Trolls-Dreams-Jay Z Concert discourse-the beef in hip hop and where it is going-Chuck Schumer farting- Ebro Rosenberg-Music from last week-DSOTR TNA Episode 3-power slap-Conor McGregor-wrestling conspiracies-CM Punk discourse Mia Yim/Keith Lee-Meltzer Mercedes-Lindsey Graham dead-Is Mitch McConnell alive-Streamers not main character ready and won't take accountability-ICE-the fake libs deny Bill Clinton is a creep-the fake libs and left uplifted Hunter Biden only for him to hang out w Nick Fuentes Gimmicked elections-Boosie Trump-dumbing down Joe Rogan-Iran war-fake martyr politicians-gender affirming care-Israel aid-Fetterman against democrats

Vanderpump Rules Party
The Valley talks Porn, McBee Ending? Mama Kristi is the new Tony Soprano, Tea on the LoriK Accusations, Jax, Brittany, & Lala.

Vanderpump Rules Party

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2026 78:47


We get into all the latest news on the McBee Drama, threats to quit, Mama Kristi is the real puppetmaster, Steve Sr. Calls from Prison. Then we do a full Valley recap and discuss the Valley Cast's takes on Porn, on why people don't like Janet, relationship struggles and celebrations!Visit www.bollandbranch.com/pumpers and use code PUMPERS for 15% off and free shipping. Exclusions Apply.Make your summer wardrobe feel easier. Go to www.Quince.com/vpr for free shipping on your order and 365-day returnsReady to reach your goals? Visit www.forhers.com/vanderpump to get personalized, affordable care that gets youVisit www.patreon.com/vanderpumprulesparty for bonus content including content from 2024 Jax and Lori K's first rumored affair. Allegedly. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Magellan AI - https://docsend.com/view/5vdvbdx7cr4tikmyClaritas - https://claritas.com/privacy-legalPodscribe - https://podscribe.com/privacy

Beer Blues and BS
Why Modern Sci-Fi Reboots Are Failing Existing Fans

Beer Blues and BS

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 3, 2026 85:21


Grab your alumni gear, because Episode 271 of Beer, Blues, and BS is officially in session! We're kicking things off with a massive shout-out to our listeners tuning in all the way from Hong Kong, alongside a proud roll call for fellow Fighting Sioux alumni. This week, a major pop culture news drop takes center stage as the crew reacts to breaking headlines from the BBC regarding the future of Doctor Who—including a canceled Christmas special and a surprising shift in production. This immediate dive down the entertainment rabbit hole sparks an incredibly passionate debate about the overall decline of massive franchises like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and the newly axed Stargate reboot. The guys break down why the modern "10-episode streaming season" is failing character development, contrasting it with the gold standard of 90s television. Over on the beverage counter, the "What's on Tap" segment delivers a relentless gauntlet of hits and misses. Mark Kidder mixes up a cherry-free Old Fashioned dedicated to his grandfather, while Tony Soprano drops in late (thanks, Windows updates!) to review a hard seltzer that tastes exactly like old-school green plastic-tube popsicles. Meanwhile, LCL Geek and Howard Blues team up to test a highly anticipated hop water from Montana that, unfortunately, leaves them feeling like they're drinking watery IPA backwash. Inside this Episode: Franchise Fatigue: Why Hollywood keeps alienating long-term fans by "chasing new audiences" instead of telling good stories. The 1940s World Cup Twist: Howard tracks the chaotic, final-minute heartbreak of the USA vs. Paraguay soccer match. AI Thumbnail Fails: Howard shares a hilarious nightmare creation from Google Gemini after attempting to sharpen a blurry photo of Doc. On Tap this Episode: Mark Kidder: An artisanal Old Fashioned featuring Batch 27 Bourbon and local syrup. Tony Soprano: Happy Dad Hard Seltzers (Lemon-Lime and Watermelon). Rudeboy Kyle: A crisp German Pilsner out of Iowa and a Mexican-style Lime Lager. Doc: Old Keg Premium Butterscotch Beer & Hawaiian Soda Co. Passion Orange Guava. Big D: A Belgian-style ale paired with NBA Finals leftovers & a canned Blue Hawaiian cocktail. LCL Geek & Howard Blues: Kettle House Hop Water    Recorded: 6.12.26 0:00 – Intro 3:09 – What's on Tap? 24:05 – Viral Video & Henri Mancini 29:08 – Dad Jokes of the Week 31:08 – AI Doc 36:02 – What's on Tap? Round 2 45:41 – Doctor Who News & Reaction 55:11 – Hollywood Rehash Rantings 1:21:16 – Cheap Plugs   https://streamlabs.com/beerbluesbs https://beerbluesbs.podbean.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@BeerBluesBS?sub_confirmation=1 https://open.spotify.com/show/1pnho1ZzuGgThbLpXbAs3t https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Unmhz98iRYU97l18uJp99 https://www.twitch.tv/tuez13 https://www.youtube.com/@HowardsCaveofWonder?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.twitch.tv/krdneyewitnessweathernow 1:48   #BeerBluesAndBs #Podcast #TripleBBSPodcast #Podcast #ComedyPodcast #BeerPodcast #Brews #Laughs #BrewsAndLaughs #podcast #tripleb #Comedy #Beer #Blues #Bs #IPA #CraftBeer #BeerBluesBS #DoctorWho #Stargate #StarTrek #ChrisFarley #HopWater #OldFashioned #PopCultureDebate #FightingSioux #PodcastLife #Starwars #IndianaJones

Working Perspectives Podcast
Ep. 570 - The Ultimate TV Dad Tier List: Tony Soprano, Uncle Phil & Cliff Huxtable!!

Working Perspectives Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 26, 2026 30:29 Transcription Available


The Ultimate TV Dad Tier List! Who gets the top spot?

Gravetop Church
Mini Me | You Don't Own Your Kids (And Why That Changes Everything) | Faith & Family pt. 3

Gravetop Church

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2026 55:20


Whether we like it or not, our children are our ultimate "mini-mes"—catching our habits, our words, and our faith in the quiet, unfiltered moments of everyday life. In Part 3 of the Faith & Family series, we are tearing down the legalistic checklists and diving into the raw, beautiful, and sometimes exhausting reality of parenting.From a childhood memory of getting lost off a school bus to an unexpected insight from Tony Soprano, this episode unpacks a foundational shift every parent needs to make: We are stewards, not owners, of our children.If you've ever felt completely unqualified, overwhelmed, or terrified of repeating the mistakes of your past, this conversation is for you. We explore how to navigate the high-wire act of discipline, grace, and freedom, and why setting healthy boundaries today builds a resilient foundation for your child's future. You don't have to be a perfect parent to be a faithful one. Tune in to discover how to lead your family with clarity, intention, and a grace that outlasts the mess.Key Scripture Covered:Genesis 33:5, Genesis 48:9, Isaiah 8:18 (Children as a gift)Luke 12:48 (The weight of stewardship)Ephesians 6:1-4 & Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (Structure and continuous instruction)1 Corinthians 11:1 & Titus 2:6-7 (The power of modeling)—To connect, learn more or donate, visit gravetopchurch.com  Follow us on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok by searching @gravetopchurch

Keeping Up With Jones: The Lonnie Jones Podcast Adventure

The witness protection program is about changing a person after they become a witness. Jesus asks us to change in order to become witnesses.Life lived is life learned. Every experience has facts, concepts and applications.  These arestories from the eclectic life of Lonnie Jones, Licensed ProfessionalCounselor, Minister, SWAT Team Chaplain, Outdoor Enthusiast, Quixotic Jedi andholder of an honorary doctorate from the University of Adversity.  To Support this podcast projectplease send gifts via Venmo @Lonnie-Jones-19 or use Cash App$Lonniejones3006.    Please follow us and share. Want lonnie to speak at yourevent?  Contact:  lonjones@bellsouth.net Check out YouTube for thelive eye view while the episode was being recorded.  Also look for archived lessons, Skits, and videosshowing/explaining some of the rope stuff we talk about.  YouTube.com/@LonnieJones Visit www.lonniejones.org  to find links tooriginal art, swag, 550guys and the following books:"Cognitive SpiritualDevelopment: A Christ Centered Approach to Spiritual Self Esteem";"Grappling With Life. Controlling Your Inside Space";"Pedagogue" The Youth Ministry Book by Lonnie Jones; "If I Werea Mouse" a children's story written and illustrated by Lonnie Jones;"The Selfish Rill, a story about a decision" A fantasy parableby Lonnie Jones.   T-shirts, stickers, prints and other art at www.teespring.com/stores/lonnie-jones-art https://lonnie-jones-art.creator-spring.com/listing/buy-podcast-swag?products=46  #www.worldchristian.org#tkminc2001@twlakes.net #www.hcu.edu #hpcitizensfoundation.orgFaulkner.edu/kgst  graduateenrollment@faulkner.edu    

Flims Network
¿Oye, y tú viste Los Soprano? S02E07 y E08.

Flims Network

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 16, 2026 77:11


En este capítulo de su podcast favorito de la serie del momento, Los Soprano, Diego y Valeria comentan dos tremendos capítulos: Por una parte está la incursión de Christopher en Hollywood con "D-Girl" (S02E07) y por otra el error que comete Tony Soprano en "Full Leather Jacket" (S02E08), un capítulo que tiene consecuencias tan nefastas que dan ganas de ver el 09 al tiro, cosa que no haremos porque debemos respetar la grabación de podcast. Recuerden seguir nuestro Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bada.bingers/ Y recuerden también que pueden suscribirse y tener estos episodios antes en www.patreon.com/hermeselsabio

Will Love Listen
Eric D'Alessandro on Italians, Boomers, AI, Streamers, Comedy (S5E23)

Will Love Listen

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 16, 2026 32:56


Eric D'Alessandro joins the pod to poke fun at Italians, boomers, streamers, and AI. Eric discusses parenting today, why younger generations are not aging like older generations, and how the fuck were Tony Soprano and George Costanza in their 30s during The Sopranos and Seinfeld? Eric also breaks down why serious comics and streamers have caused the line between performance vs real life to be blurred. If you say something is a joke, but you actually believe it, is it really comedy!? 

The Unofficial Shopify Podcast
He Reviewed 500 Deals Before Buying One Shopify App

The Unofficial Shopify Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 2, 2026 66:45


"You would probably prefer to take money from Tony Soprano." Jeremy Horowitz has spent a decade in the Shopify ecosystem, scaled brands at Gorgias, and now runs a PE fund that's reviewed nearly 500 deals. He acquired a WhatsApp marketing app called Coco AI and he's still hunting for his next Shopify brand in the $10-100M range. We get into what actually makes a business sellable (and what kills a deal instantly), how earnouts and seller notes really work, why DTC as we knew it is dead, and his scorching take on why Shopify Capital loans are worse than credit card debt at 40% effective interest. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS Jeremy Horowitz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyhorowitz1/ Coco AI (WhatsApp Marketing for Shopify): https://my-coco.ai/ WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

Throwing Fits
The Matt McCormick Interview with Throwing Fits

Throwing Fits

Play Episode Listen Later May 25, 2026 110:06


Subscribe to Throwing Fits on Patreon. Apologies about this week's audio. Sadly we lost one of the tracks so reverting to the camera audio was our only option. We know this is less than ideal. Our interview with Matt McCormick is a piece of art. Matt—a bi-coastal multimedia artist—swung by our stu in his old stomping grounds to talk all black fits to honor the fallen homies, copping Tony Soprano's watch, Japanese cigs are healtheir, the artistic appeal or lack thereof of Zyns, how addiction hindered his practice, he probably served us back when he was bartending in NYC, the current state of the American male and how his masculinity has evolved over the years and influenced his work, cowboys fuck with him, the good, the bad and the ugly of the art world, Instagram changed everything, he was too much of a boomer to figure out NFTs, how he uses AI as an ethical tool, we try to get him to hate on a bunch of wack shit, westernwear stolen valor, guys who mount skate decks on their walls, when he was on the road babysitting Odd Future he was the actual troublemaker, why the tech world doesn't want to buy art, how his buddy John Mayor commissions pieces, and much more on Matt McCormick's interview with The Only Podcast That Matters™.

BiPolar Coaster
The Fall Out of the Fall Out of Mental Vulnerability

BiPolar Coaster

Play Episode Listen Later May 19, 2026 410:37


Last Week's Raw NXT AEW Dynamite Recaps-Mental Health fall out from last podcast and potential mind games-trolls doubling down-weaponizing my mental health-turning artforms into drama-years of notes on tactics used against me-unsubscribing from a lot of alt media-higher ups contaminate everything in my life-decades of agents marketed drama -being passed down to different Iceberg Slims-lack of true freedom of speech-future vindication- wokeness-the numbers game-mental health victory made others spiral as much as they wanted me to-vultures- instilling drama so you never have mental clarity-Howard Stern gave vultures a style to run with-cogs could not truly handle the role they have given me-Tony Soprano level therapy sessions- realizing inexperienced cogs need to experience the bad before understanding their mental illness-worst impulses- Katt Williams humiliation ritual-preparing for mental battles and people disturbing my peace-earning the right to call my shots mentally-regressive behavior will wear the unwell done as it accumulates-Unbiased Drake recap and the discourse around his ICEMAN heel persona and not so much on the other albums-being in the worst era of analysis from hip hop media-DJ Khaled Palestine-Mainstream comedy becoming sports entertainment-online media watering down comedy like reality shows watered down artists leverage-Tony Khan- Joe Rogan-bored with political discourse-Fundamentalists regimes-fake left embracing white nationalists-AEW Collision and TNA recap-More Mental Health stuff and envisioning every scenario possible-being a social experiment the last 20 years-punishment for being irrational-tokens-preparing for alienation-people looking for public meltdowns-not giving into the drama-my word standing on its own-people doing tactics I have studied for decades-cogs all ending up alone in the end because we are all discarded-people want darker side to come out-how I lash out about my thoughts-dealing with mentally unwell people-industry spies keeping an eye on who says what-irrational hatred for by people who secretly listen-spending days away from political and wrestling discourse that I don't even give a shit if my recap from last week's Raw is out of date

The Ringer Fantasy Football Show
A Wild Summer Mailbag

The Ringer Fantasy Football Show

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2026 95:15


The guys spiral through “cognitive push-ups,” James Bond trivia, Tony Soprano recall battles, and the greatest hockey player names of all time—including the legendary Jimbob Ghostkeeper. Plus: lavender vanilla matcha allegations. (00:00) Intro (01:04) Mailbag (31:36) Bud Grant (51:47) Wife advice (01:10:43) Lifetime supplies Discord link: https://discord.gg/Ge8bbYHrau Check out The Ringer's 2026 Fantasy Football Rankings: https://theringer.com/fantasy-football/2026-preseason Email us! ringerfantasyfootball@gmail.com Shop Amazon and save the everyday. Visit amazon.com today. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producers: Austin Gayle, Abou Kamara, Carlos Chiriboga, and Cameron Dinwiddie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gangland Wire
Jerry Catena and the New Jersey Genovese Empire

Gangland Wire

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2026


Retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit Detective Gary Jenkins sits down with returning guest Scott Deitch for a detailed exploration of one of the more understated yet influential figures in organized crime—Jerry Catena. Scott Deitch, known for his deep research and engaging storytelling, brings insight from his books Cigar City Mafia, Garden State Gangland, and his upcoming release Jersey Boss. The conversation moves from Tampa's mob history to the inner workings of the Genovese crime family, with a focus on Catena's calculated rise through the ranks.

The Sopranos Podcast
S6 Part 2: Episode 6 - Catching It

The Sopranos Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2026 78:39


Chris, Paul, Jordan & Lily cover one of the bleakest hours of the show yet where we seem to get the answer to a fundamental question about Tony Soprano's true nature. It's an uncomfortable, audacious, and fascinating hour in which we get to talk about casinos, funeral etiquette, death platitudes, and drug-induced revelations. All this and so much more, just as soon as we hand-carry Paul through the worst crisis he ever had...   WE HAVE A PATREON NOW! Please check us out and support us so we can keep dishing out some audio Sunday dinner for you at www.patreon.com/thesopranospodcast   TheSopranosPodcast@Gmail.com @TheSopranosPodcast - Instagram @SopranosPodcast - X (Formerly Twitter)

Locked In with Ian Bick
I Was Hells Angels President — These Are the Prison Stories I Never Told Anyone | Charles "Pee Wee" Goldsmith Pt. 2

Locked In with Ian Bick

Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2026 136:19


Charles "Pee Wee" Goldsmith is back. The former President of the Hells Angels Las Vegas chapter returns to Locked In with Ian Bick for Part 2 — and this time nothing is held back. In this episode Pee Wee goes deeper than ever before. From police raids and Tony Soprano comparisons to the untold stories from inside the club, the Hollywood appearances nobody knew about, and what it was really like going to prison as a Hell's Angel. He opens up about his biggest regrets as President, the members who never should have joined, and what the next generation of bikers will never understand about the old school way of life. This is the conversation Hell's Angels insiders don't want you to hear. _____________________________________________ #HellsAngels #TrueCrime #BikerLife _____________________________________________ Thank you to RUGIET for sponsoring this episode: Head to https://www.rugiet.com/lockedin and get 15% off your ED treatment. _____________________________________________ Connect with Charles "Pee Wee" Goldsmith: https://charliepeeweegoldsmith.com/ _____________________________________________ Watch Part 1: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Ulmi1IoyeMgIqJ9kBwnh9 _____________________________________________ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ _____________________________________________ Shop Locked In Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop _____________________________________________ Timestamps: 00:00 The Police Raids, Tony Soprano Comparisons and How It All Started 01:01 What Life Actually Looks Like After Leaving the Club 01:45 The Best Moments — Traveling the World as a Hell's Angel 02:18 How Other Countries See the Hell's Angels Differently 03:03 The Politics Nobody Talks About — Support Clubs and Power 05:40 Territory Wars, Rivalries and What Happens When You Cross the Line 07:02 Violence, the News and How Social Media Changed Everything 09:02 What Power Really Feels Like From Inside the Club 11:14 Reputation, Podcast Drama and the Loyalty Problem 13:02 Where the Hell's Angels Are Headed — Generational Change 15:01 Being a Father, Club Brotherhood and the Regrets He Carries 19:01 Police Raids, Chaos and Why He Can Laugh About It Now 22:20 The Rules Nobody Breaks — Drugs, Order and Club Discipline 24:30 His Biggest Regrets as President and Who Should Never Have Joined 28:00 Women, Property Patches and the Truth About Club Relationships 31:00 Vegas, Gambling and the Members Who Got Kicked Out 34:00 Club Dues, Work Requirements and Financial Discipline 38:00 Dealing With Cops, Legitimate Work and Everyday Club Life 45:00 Hollywood Came Calling — His Movie Appearances and Famous Encounters 48:30 The Stories He's Never Told — Funny Moments From Inside the Club 53:00 Club Life vs Family Life — How He Balanced Both and Screened Wives 01:00:00 Old School Bikers vs the New Generation — What Changed 01:10:00 Going to Prison as a Hell's Angel — Brotherhood, Gangs and Survival 01:22:00 Prison Stories — Cellmates, Drama and the Toughest Times 01:38:00 What Brotherhood Really Means When You're Behind Bars 01:49:00 Surviving Prison by Hustling — What He Did to Get By 01:58:00 Healthcare Nightmares, Lawsuits and Adjusting to Life After Release 02:09:00 The Day He Stopped Riding and What That Felt Like 02:13:00 Losing His License and Keeping His Independence 02:15:00 Final Thoughts — What He'd Tell Anyone Thinking About This Life _____________________________________________ To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/LockedInWithIanBicka Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Locked In with Ian Bick
I Was Hells Angels President — These Are the Prison Stories I Never Told Anyone | Charles "Pee Wee" Goldsmith Pt. 2

Locked In with Ian Bick

Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2026 141:48


Charles "Pee Wee" Goldsmith is back. The former President of the Hells Angels Las Vegas chapter returns to Locked In with Ian Bick for Part 2 — and this time nothing is held back. In this episode Pee Wee goes deeper than ever before. From police raids and Tony Soprano comparisons to the untold stories from inside the club, the Hollywood appearances nobody knew about, and what it was really like going to prison as a Hell's Angel. He opens up about his biggest regrets as President, the members who never should have joined, and what the next generation of bikers will never understand about the old school way of life. This is the conversation Hell's Angels insiders don't want you to hear. _____________________________________________ #HellsAngels #TrueCrime #BikerLife _____________________________________________ Thank you to RUGIET for sponsoring this episode: Head to https://www.rugiet.com/lockedin and get 15% off your ED treatment. _____________________________________________ Connect with Charles "Pee Wee" Goldsmith: https://charliepeeweegoldsmith.com/ _____________________________________________ Watch Part 1: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Ulmi1IoyeMgIqJ9kBwnh9 _____________________________________________ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ _____________________________________________ Shop Locked In Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop _____________________________________________ Timestamps: 00:00 The Police Raids, Tony Soprano Comparisons and How It All Started 01:01 What Life Actually Looks Like After Leaving the Club 01:45 The Best Moments — Traveling the World as a Hell's Angel 02:18 How Other Countries See the Hell's Angels Differently 03:03 The Politics Nobody Talks About — Support Clubs and Power 05:40 Territory Wars, Rivalries and What Happens When You Cross the Line 07:02 Violence, the News and How Social Media Changed Everything 09:02 What Power Really Feels Like From Inside the Club 11:14 Reputation, Podcast Drama and the Loyalty Problem 13:02 Where the Hell's Angels Are Headed — Generational Change 15:01 Being a Father, Club Brotherhood and the Regrets He Carries 19:01 Police Raids, Chaos and Why He Can Laugh About It Now 22:20 The Rules Nobody Breaks — Drugs, Order and Club Discipline 24:30 His Biggest Regrets as President and Who Should Never Have Joined 28:00 Women, Property Patches and the Truth About Club Relationships 31:00 Vegas, Gambling and the Members Who Got Kicked Out 34:00 Club Dues, Work Requirements and Financial Discipline 38:00 Dealing With Cops, Legitimate Work and Everyday Club Life 45:00 Hollywood Came Calling — His Movie Appearances and Famous Encounters 48:30 The Stories He's Never Told — Funny Moments From Inside the Club 53:00 Club Life vs Family Life — How He Balanced Both and Screened Wives 01:00:00 Old School Bikers vs the New Generation — What Changed 01:10:00 Going to Prison as a Hell's Angel — Brotherhood, Gangs and Survival 01:22:00 Prison Stories — Cellmates, Drama and the Toughest Times 01:38:00 What Brotherhood Really Means When You're Behind Bars 01:49:00 Surviving Prison by Hustling — What He Did to Get By 01:58:00 Healthcare Nightmares, Lawsuits and Adjusting to Life After Release 02:09:00 The Day He Stopped Riding and What That Felt Like 02:13:00 Losing His License and Keeping His Independence 02:15:00 Final Thoughts — What He'd Tell Anyone Thinking About This Life _____________________________________________ To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/LockedInWithIanBicka Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Leadership and Loyalty™

Why We Stopped Cheering for Heroes | The Psychology of the Anti-Hero & Cultural Collapse . What if our obsession with anti-heroes isn't entertainment at all… but psychological confession? . Why did millions secretly cheer for Walter White after he poisoned a child? Why do cultures increasingly trust the man who "refuses to come back" from the darkness? And what happens to a civilization when it stops believing in the final stage of the Hero's Journey? . In this episode of The Polymathic Perspective, Dov Baron examines why modern audiences no longer resonate with heroes who return transformed, but instead become emotionally attached to characters who descend into darkness and stay there.  . Through the polymathic lenses of Depth Psychology, Cultural Narrative, Political Identity, history, and Emotional Source Code™, this episode explores: Why anti-heroes function as psychological permission slips  The hidden meaning behind our fascination with Walter White, Tony Soprano, Don Draper, The Joker, and Beth Dutton  How entertainment acts as emotional rehearsal, not escape  The rise of the "Disenfranchised Self."  Why authoritarian leaders psychologically mirror the modern anti-hero  The emotional mechanism behind Andrew Jackson's rise, and why it still matters  How wounded populations search for vessels to reclaim their denied identity  Why collapsing trust in institutions changes the stories cultures consume  The dangerous psychological seduction of coherence during uncertainty  What happens when a culture no longer believes anyone is waiting "at the fire" for the hero's return  . This episode is about the emotional architecture beneath modern identity, politics, leadership, belonging, and cultural fragmentation. . If you've ever felt yourself pulled toward characters who break rules, reject systems, or stop pretending entirely, this conversation may explain why. . Because the real danger isn't the anti-hero. The real danger is a culture that no longer believes transformation is possible. Key Themes Anti-heroes and modern identity  Emotional Source Code™  The Disenfranchised Self  Political psychology  Cultural collapse  Hero's Journey vs anti-hero narrative  Meaning-making and identity  Psychological projection  Leadership and authoritarianism  Entertainment as emotional rehearsal  Joseph Campbell and modern culture  Psychological coherence in unstable systems . About the Host Dov Baron is a polymathic thinker, speaker, and creator of Emotional Source Code™, known for examining the hidden emotional architecture beneath leadership, identity, culture, and human behavior. His work bridges neuroscience, psychology, meaning-making, systems thinking, and organizational leadership. https://DovBaron.com Subscribe & Share If this episode challenged you, irritated you, or made you rethink something you thought you understood… share it with someone capable of sitting inside difficult questions. And if you've spent your life sensing patterns other people miss, you're not broken. You may simply be seeing the architecture beneath the surface. Subscribe to The Polymathic Perspective for weekly documentary-style explorations into power, identity, culture, perception, and meaning. . #PolymathicPerspective #DovBaron #BreakingBad #AntiHero #WalterWhite #LeadershipPsychology #EmotionalSourceCode #PoliticalPsychology #CultureWars #HeroJourney #JosephCampbell #IdentityCrisis #PsychologyOfPower #Authoritarianism #MeaningMaking #CulturalAnalysis #DepthPsychology #NarrativePsychology #HumanBehavior #SystemsThinking  

The Sandy Show Podcast
Sandy's Spaghetti Roadblock and Elvis Make Me Feel Funny!

The Sandy Show Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 12, 2026 20:08 Transcription Available


“Has Comedy Gone Too Far? Spaghetti Standoffs, Sour Candy Poetry, and the Elvis Effect” JB opens up about watching a high-profile celebrity roast and realizing it crossed a line from clever to uncomfortable, admitting, “If it makes me uncomfortable, that says a lot.” Sandy jumps in with sharp insight about where comedy, fame, and humanity collide, turning a pop-culture moment into a deeper discussion about boundaries, empathy, and what humor should really do. From there, the episode takes its signature turn into laugh-out-loud territory. Sandy confesses he's delaying getting his life back on track because of one extremely specific obstacle: a massive batch of homemade shrimp spaghetti no one else will touch. The debate spirals into classic JB and Sandy banter, complete with Tony Soprano vibes and zero regrets. Things get delightfully bizarre with a listener request that pushes Sandy to his creative limits—an original Ode to Lemonhead Candy. What follows is a sour, chaotic, surprisingly passionate performance featuring lines like “You sour little punk” and a self-issued thumbs-down that somehow makes the whole thing even better. The episode also hits peak nostalgia and curiosity with a rapid-fire question that sparks instant consensus in the room: Who is the sexiest man of all time? Tricia doesn't hesitate, declaring vintage Elvis Presley the clear winner—prompting reactions ranging from awe to mild identity crises. “Even his fingers looked sexy,” she insists, and honestly, it's hard to argue. Add in quirky small-town observations, Fredericksburg peach drama, Wordle obsession strategies, and the long-running “Babies Love” saga, and you've got an episode that perfectly captures the heart of the show: smart conversation, genuine laughs, and moments you didn't know you needed. 

Fixate & Binge
When America Fell in Love With Villains: Did Prestige TV Break Our Moral Compass?

Fixate & Binge

Play Episode Listen Later May 12, 2026 43:28


Send us Fan MailWhat if television didn't just reflect America's changing morals… but helped shape them?For over two decades, audiences have celebrated antiheroes like Tony Soprano, Walter White, Dexter Morgan, and Ray Shoesmith — deeply flawed men whose violence, corruption, and manipulation become strangely acceptable because we understand their motivations.In this provocative solo discussion, Joe Curdy explores the rise of morally gray storytelling and asks an uncomfortable question:Did America become so conditioned to rooting for antiheroes that we started doing the same thing in real life?Connecting prestige television to modern politics, celebrity culture, and the growing belief that “the ends justify the means,” this episode examines how the antihero became America's favorite archetype — and what that says about us now.Thank you for listening! You can find and follow us with the links below!Read our Letterboxd reviews at:https://letterboxd.com/fixateandbinge/Follow us on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/fixateandbingepodcast/?hl=msFollow us on TikTok at:https://www.tiktok.com/@fixateandbingepodcast

Between the Stripes LOI podcast
S10 Ep14: S10EP14 Daly Departs | Bradley Backlash | Cork City Crisis

Between the Stripes LOI podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2026 89:16


What a dramatic May Bank Holiday in the League of Ireland. We saw our first managerial casualty as Jon Daly finally fell by the wayside at Waterford, but who wants the job as Tony Soprano once said? At the top, Rovers are back in control, but find out why Stephen Bradley was unhappy on two fronts this weekend. Meanwhile, in the First Division, the Usher out brigade are back in full swing following a shocking weekend for Cork City. Surely they can't blow promotion, can they? Sponsored by QuinnAV.ie & BAR 1 Betting (18+, gamblingcare.ie)

Write Your Screenplay Podcast
Dying for Sex: A Lesson in Tone

Write Your Screenplay Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 12, 2026 95:10


How do you make a devastating story feel funny—without losing its truth? In this episode of the podcast, Jacob Krueger explores Dying for Sex, the extraordinary limited series created by Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock, to break down one of the most elusive tools in screenwriting: tone. Focusing on a single scene from episode 5, Jake shows how the writers take one of the darkest confrontations imaginable—a daughter facing her mother about trauma—and shape it into something that is simultaneously heartbreaking and hilarious. Along the way, he explores three key ideas: how juxtaposing tones can deepen emotional impact, why tone is something you layer over your script in rewrites, and how tone is central to a television series engine—helping a show feel both the same and different across episodes. Drawing inspiration from Falstaff's tragicomic end in Henry IV, Part 2, Tony Soprano's fractured family, and his own early playwriting misadventures, Jake reveals a powerful truth: Tone isn't a single instrument you play. It's something you shape—note by note—until the whole piece sings.

Good Earners (Reviewing The Sopranos)
Back of The Bing: Episode 13 "Soprano Character Endings" Part I

Good Earners (Reviewing The Sopranos)

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2026 98:12


In this episode, we break down how it all ends in The Sopranos—from the top of the food chain to the most forgotten soldiers. Who really won? Who lost everything? And what does that infamous cut to black actually mean?We dive into the fates of Tony Soprano, Christopher Moltisanti, Adriana La Cerva, Corrado "Junior" Soprano and more—grouping them into one harsh reality: in this world, there are only three endings… you die, you flip, or you survive long enough to lose everything.From tragic downfalls to quiet survivals, we unpack how each character's ending reflects the deeper themes of the show—power, family, loyalty, and the illusion of control.This isn't just about who lives or dies… it's about what it all costs.Email: Goodearnerpod@gmail.com

Spears & Steinberg
761: Hoes in the Window

Spears & Steinberg

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 19, 2026 72:26


On this episode Aries and Andy talk about black illuminati, opinions, impressions, a message for Marc, Andy is wrong, JayZ, time capsule, the same people, Tony Soprano, when in Europe, clarification, & the return of Sheri! Social Media Instagram: @SpearsBergPod Twitter: @SpearsBergPod Facebook: SpearsBergPod Patreon: SpearsBergPod Youtube: SpearsBergPod  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mock and Daisy's Common Sense Cast
Hilarious Impressions of Trump, Russell Brand & Tucker Carlson

Mock and Daisy's Common Sense Cast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 7, 2026 20:55 Transcription Available


Join The Chicks on the Right as they host Tony Lapidus, a master impressionist known for his uncanny ability to bring cultural icons to life. From Donald Trump to Piers Morgan, and even Russell Brand, Tony demonstrates how he studies mannerisms, accents, and speech patterns to deliver hilarious and spot-on performances.In this episode, Tony shares his creative process, how he chooses which characters to impersonate, and the challenges of embodying voices like Eminem or Tony Soprano. We also explore his thoughts on AI, imperfection in art, and how human nuance keeps impressions funnier than digital recreations. Fans will love his hilarious anecdotes about being “touched by a demon,” crafting new words like “wankulate”, and even dealing with British journalist Peter Hitchens's reactions.Tony wraps up with a live challenge, flipping seamlessly between Trump, Piers Morgan, and Tucker Carlson, showcasing why his impressions are more than mimicry—they're performances you won't forget. Follow Tony on Instagram, X (Twitter), and YouTube for more impressions and comedic brilliance. This episode is a must-watch for comedy lovers, impression enthusiasts, and anyone who enjoys political satire with a human touch.Subscribe and stay tuned for new episodes every weekday!Follow us here for more daily clips, updates, and commentary:YoutubeFacebookInstagramTikTokXLocalsMore InfoWebsite

Top Chef Fantasy League
The Draft (Top Chef: Carolinas)

Top Chef Fantasy League

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2026 50:31


It's time for Top Chef! In this episode, we pick our chefs for the season. Tony Soprano stops by the studio to help Ify with his draft, Sierra picks off the injured reserve list, and Mike watches an alarming amount of other cooking shows. Check out our merch at maxfunstore.com, support us at maximumfun.org/join, follow us on Instagram @tvcheffantasyleague, and leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts!

Entertain This!
A Hit is a Hit: From the Chartbusters to the Ratings War

Entertain This!

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 2, 2026 59:55


Send a textIn this episode of Entertain This!, the hosts stage a no-holds-barred main event: a ringside dissection of professional wrestling's legendary “Monday Night War,” the 1990s ratings cage match that pitted World Wrestling Federation's Monday Night Raw against World Championship Wrestling's Monday Nitro. From Vince McMahon's corporate suplexes and Eric Bischoff's nWo invasion to Stone Cold Steve Austin's beer-soaked rebellion, the conversation delivers a perfectly executed takedown of the storylines, egos, and cultural body slams that turned wrestling into prime-time must-see television.The bell then rings for round two as the discussion pivots—without missing a beat—from steel chairs to therapy sessions. HBO's The Sopranos receives a masterclass analysis of its groundbreaking narrative, the morally ambiguous family business, and the way Tony Soprano turned the mob drama into prestige television's original hit job. Expect sharp insights on character arcs sharper than a wiseguy's knife, thematic depth deeper than the Hudson, and the series' enduring legacy as the show that whacked network television's formulaic playbook.Clever, contextual, and endlessly entertaining, this episode proves that whether the action unfolds inside a squared circle or a New Jersey living room, the real prize is capturing an era's imagination—one Monday night at a time.Tune in to Entertain This! wherever podcasts are streamed. New episodes drop weekly.Support the show

Garry Meier Show
The Meier Minute-ish -With all due respect I disagree with Tony Soprano - 2-9-26

Garry Meier Show

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 9, 2026 2:22


Topic: With all due respect I disagree with Tony Soprano

The Christian O’Connell Show
MINI: Fictional Dinner Guests

The Christian O’Connell Show

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 8, 2026 6:22 Transcription Available


Christian O'Connell's got a wild idea - a dinner party with three fictional TV characters: Tony Soprano, Coach Taylor, and Ted Lasso. He's imagining the hilarious conversations and potential dad-bro bonding between these three. But that's not all - he's also inviting some of his favorite fictional friends, including Phoebe from Friends, Leslie from Parks and Rec, and Fran from The Nanny. Who would get along, who would clash, and what would they talk about? Christian's got a whole crew of fictional characters coming over for a night to remember.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thanks For Your Concern
For Shits & Giggles

Thanks For Your Concern

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 21, 2026 31:01


In this For Shits & Giggles episode, the hosts look back on all the ridiculous, unnecessary, and absolutely iconic things they've done purely for the plot. From dressing as Camp and hitting the town, to renting a limo just because, to fully committing to a DIY Char Dee McDennis game, nothing is off-limits. They also unpack the current bits in rotation—including Ella's wildly committed Tony Soprano impression—because sometimes the joke is the point. This episode is a love letter to doing things just to do them.Follow & stay connected:IG: @thanks4urconcern @berenicediazm @ellaltudorTikTok: @thanks4yourconcern @berenicediazm @ellaltudorYouTube: https://youtube.com/@thanksforyourconcernpod

The Medical Dads Podcast
What to do about insurance

The Medical Dads Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 21, 2026 52:18


In this episode of the Medical Dads, Dr. Harman and Dr. Hsu talk about the intricacies of navigating insurance as a doctor, witnessing patients deal with fine-print issues in life and disability insurance, and having to deal with certain physical therapists whose practices remind Dr. Hsu of Tony Soprano. The doctors also talk about socialized health care in Canada, but first they start off with a discussion about the dangers of falling asleep in the cinema... when you have sleep apnea.Check out Dave's Substack for more! https://davidmhsu.substack.com/

Psychology In Seattle Podcast
The Psychology of Tony Soprano (2019 Rerun)

Psychology In Seattle Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 2, 2026 138:01 Transcription Available


[Rerun] Was Tony Soprano a psychopath? Why did he have panic attacks? Are mobsters inherently sociopathic? How can we explain his behavior and attitudes? Dr. Kirk Honda and Humberto explore these questions and more. December 23, 2019This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/KIRK to get 10% off your first month.Become a member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOUZWV1DRtHtpP2H48S7iiw/joinBecome a patron: https://www.patreon.com/PsychologyInSeattleEmail: https://www.psychologyinseattle.com/contactWebsite: https://www.psychologyinseattle.comMerch: https://psychologyinseattle-shop.fourthwall.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psychologyinseattle/Facebook Official Page: https://www.facebook.com/PsychologyInSeattle/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kirk.hondaThe Psychology In Seattle Podcast ®Trigger Warning: This episode may include topics such as assault, trauma, and discrimination. If necessary, listeners are encouraged to refrain from listening and care for their safety and well-being.Disclaimer: The content provided is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only. Nothing here constitutes personal or professional consultation, therapy, diagnosis, or creates a counselor-client relationship. Topics discussed may generate differing points of view. If you participate (by being a guest, submitting a question, or commenting) you must do so with the knowledge that we cannot control reactions or responses from others, which may not agree with you or feel unfair. Your participation on this site is at your own risk, accepting full responsibility for any liability or harm that may result. Anything you write here may be used for discussion or endorsement of the podcast. Opinions and views expressed by the host and guest hosts are personal views. Although, we take precautions and fact check, they should not be considered facts and the opinions may change. Opinions posted by participants (such as comments) are not those of the hosts. Readers should not rely on any information found here and should perform due diligence before taking any action. For a more extensive description of factors for you to consider, please see www.psychologyinseattle.com(By The Daily Telegraph. Copyright holders of the image of Madeleine at three are Kate and Gerry McCann. The age-progressed image was commissioned by Scotland Yard from forensic artist Teri Blythe for release to the public. Both images have been widely disseminated by the copyright holders, and have been the subject of significant commentary., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39861556)

Cops and Writers Podcast
FBI Special Agent Séamus McElearney and Flipping Capo: How the FBI Dismantled the Real Sopranos.

Cops and Writers Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 28, 2025 54:05


Welcome, everyone, to part one of my interview with Author and retired FBI Special Agent Seamus McElearney. Come back next Sunday for the conclusion of my interview with Seamus. Séamus McElearney began his distinguished career with the FBI in 1998, joining Squad C-10 of the New York Organized Crime Branch. Tasked with investigating the Bonanno and DeCavalcante crime families—infamously known as “the real Sopranos.” In December 1999, he was assigned to arrest Anthony Capo, a violent soldier in the DeCavalcante family, as part of a sweeping indictment. Not only did he safely execute the arrest, but he also achieved a historic breakthrough: persuading Capo to become the first made member in the family’s century-long history to cooperate with law enforcement. This unprecedented move triggered a domino effect of cooperation that ultimately led to the dismantling of the DeCavalcante family. In all, 71 defendants were convicted; 11 murders were solved. As a result, Séamus and the team received the U.S. Attorney’s Office Director’s Award. Following this six-year investigation, Séamus was promoted to lead Squad C-38, overseeing the Colombo crime family. Under his leadership, the squad dismantled the Colombos through a series of operations—including spearheading the largest Mafia takedown in FBI history. The Bonanno squad was later merged into C-38 under his command. As Supervisor, Séamus oversaw investigations that led to the conviction of more than 200 defendants and the resolution of 20 murders. Throughout his career as an Agent and Supervisor, Séamus helped convict ten Mafia bosses, recover five bodies, and solve the murder of an NYPD officer. He was part of historic FBI teams that dismantled three organized crime families—an achievement no one else can claim. Seamus is also the author of the popular book, Flipping Capo: How the FBI Dismantled the Real Sopranos. I’m a fan of the TV show The Sopranos, so it was amazing listening to Seamus explain how the “Real Sopranos” operated and how they were dismantled and brought to justice by Seamus and his team. Please enjoy my conversation with Seamus!   In today’s episode we discuss: ·      Growing up in the Bronx as a first-generation Irish-American. ·      The amazing work ethic that was instilled in him by his parents. ·      Lessons learned working at his dad’s gas station as a kid. ·      Why he chose the FBI and even a dislocated knee couldn’t stop him! ·      How he proved himself as a new FBI agent. ·      His interest in organized crime and his first organized crime case. ·      The benefits of consensual witness phone recordings. ·      Omerta and how RICO changed the code of not being a rat. ·      How to get confessions from mobsters. ·      Anthony Capo and his first impression of the man Tony Soprano was molded from. All of this and more on today’s episode of the Cops and Writers podcast. Visit Seamus's website to learn more about him and his book. Check out the new Cops and Writers YouTube channel! Check out my newest book, The Good Collar (Michael Quinn Vigilante Justice Series Book 1)!!!!! Enjoy the Cops and Writers book series. Please visit the Cops and Writers website.

Planet Money
The summer I turned binge-y

Planet Money

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 24, 2025 30:56


On the eve of Netflix shoveling a fourish-hour chunk of Stranger Things onto Christmas Day, we visit the past, present, and future of binge-dropped television shows. The strategy of releasing an entire season at the same time has been key to taking Netflix from a little startup that used to lend us DVDs in the mail … to a company so big and powerful, it is maybe going to buy Warner Brothers and own Bugs Bunny and Tony Soprano and the Harry Potter movies.But even Netflix may be flirting with some slightly less binge-y models of content release. Are we entering … the end of the binge drop?On our latest: what data tells us about binge watching. Was it the greatest business decision, and who does binge watching really benefit? Here's some of the research. Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.This episode was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Meg Cramer. It was fact-checked by Dania Suleman and engineered by Maggie Luthar. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Consider This from NPR
The fight for the future of Warner Bros. just got messier

Consider This from NPR

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 8, 2025 8:51


There's a growing fight in Hollywood over some of the biggest characters on screen, like Tony Soprano, Daenerys Targaryen and Harry Potter. All feature in shows and films owned by Warner Brothers Discovery, and now two companies are fighting to get a piece of the action. First, on Friday, Netflix struck an $83 billion deal to acquire Warner Brothers Studios and HBO. Then, just days later, Paramount upped the ante with a higher bid of $108 billion for Warner Brothers Discovery – which includes not just the movie studios and HBO, but also WBD's cable channels, like CNN.As corporate giants vie to take over Warner Brothers, we ask: What are the stakes for Hollywood and the news business? Editor's note: Warner Bros. Discovery is a financial supporter of NPR.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.  Email us at considerthis@npr.org.This episode was produced by Jordan-Marie Smith, Mia Venkat and Karen Zamora. It was edited by Pallavi Gogoi and Christopher Intagliata. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Barış Özcan ile 111 Hz
213- Anti Kahramanları Neden Severiz?

Barış Özcan ile 111 Hz

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 8, 2025 30:04


Walter White, Tony Soprano, June Osborne gibi ekran başında izlerken desteklediğimiz, hatta bağ kurduğumuz anti kahramanlarla gerçek hayatta karşılaşsak ne olurdu? Muhtemelen arkamıza bakmadan kaçardık. Peki ama ahlaki açıdan kusurlu, hatta suç işleyen bu "anti kahramanları" neden bu kadar seviyoruz? 111 Hz'in bu bölümünde mitolojik hikayelerden modern psikoloji deneylerine, Carl Jung'un "gölge benlik" kavramından neoliberalizmin etkilerine uzanan bir yolculuğa çıkıyor; içimizdeki karanlık yanla yüzleşmemizi sağlayan bu karakterlerin cazibesinin ardındaki sırları keşfediyoruz. Sunan: Barış Özcan Hazırlayan: Kevser Yağcı Biçici Ses Tasarım ve Kurgu: Metin Bozkurt Yapımcı: Podbee Media Tüm bölümler ve daha fazlası için ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podbeemedia.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠'u ziyaret et! ----- Podbee Sunar ------- Bu podcast reklam içermektedir.

The Modern Manager: Create and Lead Successful Teams
380: Why Good People Sometimes Turn Into Bad Bosses (and How to Change) with Mita Mallick

The Modern Manager: Create and Lead Successful Teams

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 21, 2025 30:54


Most people don't set out to be “bad bosses.” But good intentions aren't enough when your habits unintentionally create frustration, fear, or disengagement.Thankfully, today's guest helps us see what's really happening beneath the surface. Mita Mallick is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today Best-Selling author. She's on a mission to fix what's broken in our workplaces. She's a corporate change-maker with a track record of transforming businesses and has had an extensive career as a marketing and human resources executive.In this episode, we explore what makes a bad boss (and how to avoid becoming one). Mita reveals common behaviors that erode trust, how to give feedback that empowers instead of intimidates, and why inclusive leadership is the foundation of a healthy culture. You'll learn small, everyday actions that rebuild connection, create safety, and turn self-awareness into your most powerful leadership tool.In the extended members-only conversation, Mita opens up about the “Nap Boss,” “Tony Soprano,” and “Sheriff” archetypes—real examples of toxic leadership behaviors that managers can learn from. She also shares practical ways to respond to bullying or bias at work, including how to use the “Five Ds” framework to intervene and support colleagues safely and effectively.Get FREE mini-episode guides with the big idea from the week's episode delivered to your inbox when you subscribe to my weekly email.Join the conversation now!Conversation Topics (00:00) Introduction: What makes a “bad boss”?(00:51) Meet Mita Mallick and her leadership journey(02:40) The myths we believe about being a good boss(05:12) Why well-intentioned leaders can still be toxic(08:43) Understanding inclusion as a leadership skill(12:25) How to recognize your own blind spots(17:18) Building trust and psychological safety(21:36) Giving feedback with care and clarity(25:49) The small habits that make a big difference(29:10) Keep up with Mita(31:46) [Extended Episode Only] The Nap, Tony, and Sheriff bosses' workplace impact(36:18) [Extended Episode Only] How to intervene: The Five Ds model

Not Today, Pal with Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Robert Iler
Rob Vs Jamie: Survey Says...Chaos! | Not Today, Pal

Not Today, Pal with Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Robert Iler

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 16, 2025 39:24


SPONSORS: - Download Cash App Today: https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/6fv5azex #CashAppPod. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. See terms and conditions at https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/card-agreement. Direct Deposit, Overdraft Coverage and Discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit http://cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. - Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at https://shopify.com/nottoday, all lowercase - Head to https://acorns.com/NOTTODAY or download the Acorns app to get started. - New players play $5 and get 500 total Spins over 10 days on Cash Eruption games! Sign-up using https://dkng.co/nottoday or through my promo code NOTTODAY It's game night on Not Today, Pal — and chaos reigns supreme. The crew trades mics for buzzers in a rowdy, no-rules showdown inspired by Family Feud. Tanner hosts as Team Duck Dynasty (Jamie, Carley, and Niana) face off against Team Rub (Rob, Zollo, and Enny) in a battle of speed, sass, and questionable logic. From “what color in the toilet you don't wanna see” to “foods Tony Soprano eats,” the questions get weirder, the answers get dumber, and the accusations of cheating fly faster than the points multiply (times two, times four—nobody really knows). Expect meltdowns, math debates, and one unforgettable answer involving a baker's wife and a loaf of bread. Who will come out on top — the boys, the girls, or the judge losing his mind in the booth? Tune in for Not Today: Friendly Feud — where the only thing more unpredictable than the game is the players themselves. Have a question for Rob and Jamie? Reach out at nottodaypalpodcast@gmail.com Not Today, Pal Ep. 116 https://www.instagram.com/jamielynnsigler https://www.instagram.com/nottodaypalshow https://store.ymhstudios.com Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (MI/NJ/PA/WV). Help is available for problem gambling, call (888) 789-7777 or visit https://ccpg.org (CT). 21+. Physically present in MI/NJ/PA/WV only. Void in CT/ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. 1 per new customer. Opt-in req. Min. $5 in wagers req. Max. 500 Casino Spins for featured game. Spins issued as 50 Spins/day upon login for 10 days. Spins are non-withdrawable and expire 24 hours after issuance. $0.20 per Spin. Game availability may vary. Terms: https://casino.draftkings.com/promos. Ends 1/4/26 at 11:59 PM ET. Sponsored by DK. Chapters 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:57 - Round One - Garth Brooks 00:05:39 - Round Two - Toilet Water Colors 00:08:33 - Round Three - Tony Soprano Food 00:14:46 - Round Four - Murder Evidence 00:17:42 - Round Five - Neighbor In A Bathrobe 00:21:29 - Round Six - Baker's Pet Names 00:29:29 - Final Round - Valet Driver 00:35:22 - A Controversial Ending? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Acid Capitalist podcasts
Acid Breath: America in Sepia

The Acid Capitalist podcasts

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 16, 2025 45:36


Send us a textARM Ascends, Oil Drifts, Queens EnduresI open on macro static and shutdown fog, a strange steadiness where the market beat goes on. The Beige Book whispers fractures, three Fed districts up, five flat, four softening, a recalibration more than a roar. The feature turns to ARM, where the data center bottleneck is power, not code. ARM sells the blueprint, cutting CPU energy use perhaps by half, and the live question is simple: can it win 50 percent of data center CPUs. Then energy's riddle: oil sits near $56, where it was in 2005, with about 1.5 trillion barrels of proven reserves setting the rough scale. I close with Queens County, a Tony Soprano thrift that became my acid test and first great trade, the name fades, but the fuse remains.If this hit the mark, tap 5 

American Diplomat
The Gaza Peace Plan: What Could Go Wrong?

American Diplomat

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 16, 2025 34:37


Amb. Patrick Theros is back to parse just how the Gaza Peace Plan will likely unfold and why Trump will have to marshal his inner Tony Soprano to get it done.

Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
From the Archives: Steven Van Zandt

Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 30, 2025 48:18 Transcription Available


Singer, songwriter, producer, and actor Steven Van Zandt aka Little Steven is perhaps best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. But the talented musician also co-founded the band Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, as well as his solo act, Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul. He later found success in an entirely different career, playing the inimitable role of Tony Soprano’s consigliere Silvio Dante in The Sopranos and Frank Tagliano in Lilyhammer. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member recently released his autobiography, “Unrequited Infatuations,” which chronicles the many twists and turns that make up his remarkable life. Steven tells Alec why Bruce Springsteen was originally not allowed in his band, why he decided to walk away from the music business, and how he became a part of television history - twice. Originally aired March 22, 2022See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're Gonna Love Me with Katie Maloney
The Spicy Episode | Disrespectfully w/ Katie Maloney & Dayna Kathan

You're Gonna Love Me with Katie Maloney

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 10, 2025 61:48


Hello to our lovely coven, happy Wednesday! In today's episode, we are graced with the voice of the one and only, the fabulous Raleigh Seldon! As Katie and Dayna swap pillows and stories of insomnia, Katie kicks us off with daddy listing the king of all daddies: The Big T aka Tony Soprano. Then the girls share their thoughts about the VMAs, childhood stars growing up, and digging into all things Burning Man, including a cryptic pregnancy turned surprise burn…th…birth! Ideas of the worst Saw trap ever are shared, including how to build a Nightmare Pizza, and finally, Katie and Dayna address the comments made by Scheana. In need of something cute and cool for the summer? Get yourself or whoever's on your daddy list a tee, hoodie, or daddy hat from our store! Please support our show and show off your love for Disrespectfully by repping our official gear :) K Love ya bye! Thank you to our sponsors! Osea: Get 10% off your first order sitewide with code DISRESPECTFULLY at https://OSEAMalibu.com Mint Mobile: Get your 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just $15 a month at https://MintMobile.com/DISRESPECTFULLY Rosetta Stone: Get Rosetta Stone's Lifetime Membership for 50% off at https://www.rosettastone.com/disrespectfully O Positiv: Take proactive care of your health and head to https://OPositiv.com/DRF or enter DRF at checkout for 25% off your first purchase Willie's Remedy: Get 20% off of your first order + free shipping on orders over $95, and enjoy life in the high country at https://drinkwillies.com and use code DISRESPECTFULLY  Connect with the Coven! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1930451457469874 Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/disrespectfullypod/ Listen to us on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disrespectfully/id1516710301 Listen to us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0J6DW1KeDX6SpoVEuQpl7z?si=c35995a56b8d4038           Follow us on Social! Disrespectfully Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/disrespectfullypod Disrespectfully Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@disrespectfullypod Katie Maloney Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musickillskate Dayna Kathan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daynakathan Leah Glouberman Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leahgsilberstein Allison Klemes Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisonklemes/ Buy our merch! https://disrespectfullypod.com/ Disrespectfully is an Envy Media Production.

All In with Chris Hayes
"We don't have Ronald Reagan—we have Tony Soprano"

All In with Chris Hayes

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 14, 2025 41:45


August 13, 2025; 8pm: The immediate reality of Trump's D. C. occupation. And as Texas Republicans look to consolidate power for Donald Trump, blue states are taking matters into their own hands. Then, the growing alarm over a MAGA makeover of American history. Plus, a preview of Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska. To listen to this show and other MSNBC podcasts without ads, sign up for MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts. Want more of Chris? Download and subscribe to his podcast, “Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes podcast” wherever you get your podcasts.