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Show Notes
Season 2
Episode 208 - Michael Melamedoff (The Problem With Apu, Black Women OWN The Conversation)
“Good producing is about finding ways to help people tell the stories in ways they didn’t know they could.Giving them the resources and the permission to make their voices heard.”
*The book we spoke about in the podcast is Range by David Epstein*
Today I interviewed Michael Melamedoff from Cowboy Bear Ninja.
Michael Melamedoff is a partner in New York based production company Cowboy Bear Ninja, where he heads up their film and television division. His work as a producer includes the Emmy winning series Black Women OWN The Conversation, Paid Off with Michael Torpey and Shade: Queens of NYC. He is also a director and producer of narrative and documentary films and television, including the critically acclaimed and culture disrupting doc The Problem with Apu starring Hari Kondabolu. Other feature documentary credits include Victori, which the Boston Globe hailed by writing: "Exploring the fine line between kitsch and genius, Melamedoff's dead-pan doc out mocks some of the best of Christopher Guest." Mr. Melamedoff is also the producer and co-star of Flames (Tribeca `17, Hot Docs `17), a searingly erotic meta-documentary that Film Threat called "...a brilliant time capsule of the Obama era."
In this episode we speak about:
What is feels like to win an Emmy
Creating in new directions in COVID
What to do when a project doesn’t work out
How to gather the right team
Pitching dos and don’t
Bringing NYC back with the arts.
Then my character Ivanka Trump asks about the Hollywood conspiracy against her.
To catch up with our guest:
www.instagram.com/cowboybearninja
Episode 207 - Doug Brady and Robyn Adams (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Election Special)
Today I interviewed Doug Brady and Robyn Adams who produced on Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Election Special and more!
Doug Brady is an Emmy-Nominated, Webby-Winning Producer / Writer. He's Showrun for a few comedy shows including "Billy On The Street" and most recently "Last Night's Late Night" for Quibi. (RIP Quibi) Check out more about Doug at dougbradywork.com.
Robyn Adams is a writer, director, producer whose work has appeared on Colbert, Conan, various Triumph the Insult Comic Dog incarnations, a The Daily Show special, and Kevin Hart: What The Fit. robyn.adams on insta.
In this episode we speak about how:
How they got where they are
What “producer” actually means
How to prepare to write for different types of shows
Behind the Scenes of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
Then my character DAD asks about how they film on-the-street segments when people are assholes.
To catch up with our guests:
Instagram: robyn.adams
Episode 206 - Sabir Sultan
“The balance is to amplify voices when I can and to put together interesting events that are going to excite people.”
Today I interviewed Sabir Sultan of Strand Book Store
Sabir Sultan is the Director of Events at the Strand. Prior to that he was the Events Manager at Barnes & Noble 5th Avenue. He loves reading books, thinking about books, talking about books, and programming book events.
In this episode we speak about:
Creating an ideal audience experience and exchange of ideas at book events
How to navigate spoilers
Being responsive to world events
Delightful idiosyncrasies of different book audiences
Then my character Judy revels about the parallel organization of the Strand and the produce aisle of her cop.
To catch up with our guest:
Twitter: @SabirSultan
Episode 205 - Dr. Lindsay Hoffman
“How much further down this abyss of complete hatred of each other are we willing to go. And for what?”
Today I interviewed Dr. Lindsay Hoffman.
Dr. Lindsay Hoffman joined the faculty of the Department of Communication at the University of Delaware in September 2007 after receiving her Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. Her research examines how citizens use internet technology to become engaged with politics and their communities. She also studies individual and contextual effects of media on individuals' perceptions of public opinion; the effects of viewing political satire on knowledge and participation; social capital and communication; and factors leading to public-affairs news use.
Dr. Hoffman's research is theoretically grounded in political communication, mass communication, and public opinion. Her work emphasizes both the social circumstances and psychological predispositions that influence individual media uses and effects. Her research also examines the components of mediated messages that encourage individuals to participate in -- or distance themselves from -- political activities such as voting, news viewing, or simply expressing opinion.
Dr. Hoffman holds a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science and International Relations, and is the Associate Director of the Center for Political Communication. She is also the Director of the annual National Agenda Speaker and Film Series. She teaches courses in political communication, politics and technology, media effects, and research methods.
In this episode we speak about how:
How she gets people to interact with others outside their political bubbles.
Her experience being the director of The National Agenda Speaker and Film Series
Why we should be hopeful that we can learn to be better citizens.
Then my character Candice Twyla voices her doubts about giving up clicks and likes in order to be a better human.
To catch up with our guest:
Twitter: @TheDocHoff
Center for Political Communication: cpc.udel.edu
#DocHoff
Episode 204 - Bassem Youssef
“A lot of people are annoyed by differences and they are scared of it. … If they can only see how being different enriches a place, a community, it doesn’t take away from it. ”
I interviewed Bassem Youssef
Bassem Youssef, dubbed the Jon Stewart of the Arab World, was the host of popular TV show AlBernameg – which was the first of its kind political satire show in the Middle East. AlBernameg became the first online to TV conversion in the Middle East and the most watched show across the region with 30 million viewers every week.
AlBernameg received wide acclaim around the world with coverage in some of the biggest media outlets, topping it off with Youssef’s appearance on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart , Colbert and Trevor Noah.
Throughout its three seasons AlBernameg remained controversial through its humorous yet bold criticism of the ruling powers. In recognition of his success, Youssef was named among the Time Magazine most influential list for 2013 – under the “Pioneers” category, was awarded the International Press Freedom Award by the CPJ, and was chosen by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the global thinkers during the same year.
Youssef left Egypt in November 2014. Since then he has been quite visible in various media and academic circles in the US.
In the spring of 2015 Youssef served resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at the John F Kennedy School of Government for one semester. In the fall of 2016 Youssef was a visiting Scholar at Stanford University at the Center of Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL)
Youssef’s most recent projects include Democracy Handbook; a ten-part series exploring topics of democracy on fusion.net, and the launch of a new book, Revolution for Dummies: Laughing Through the Arab Spring in the spring of 2017. Bassem has also been the subject of the critically acclaimed documentary movie “Tickling Giants” . In the process of promoting these projects Youssef was hosted repeatedly with Jon Stewart, Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, Larry King and may more television and radio appearances plus being in numerous publications including the New Yorker.
He has hosted the International Emmy Awards gala of 2015, as well as the 49th Carthage Film Festival in Tunis.
Youssef majored in cardiothoracic surgery. He worked in Cairo University as an attending surgeon. He also passed the United States Medical License Exam (USMLE) and is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS). Aside of his new found media career Bassem Youssef have started a new global initiative under the name Plant B. He created the only bilingual platform in the world to educate people about how to prevent and reverse chronic diseases through plant based diet. He continues to amass followings to that initiative that now have surpassed over 20 million viewers plus those who follow the platform
In this episode we speak about how:
* He built a writers room when creating a first-of-its kind show in Egypt
* How he started doing standup in the US
* The differences between American and Egyptian comedy
* His new book The Magical Reality of Nadia
Then Bassem teaches Melania learns some Arabic curse words.
To catch up with our guest:
Bassem.xyz
Twitter: @Byoussef
Intagram: @bassem
Episode 203 - Henry Alford
“Anything I can find that inspires me, propels me, goads me, is great.”
Today I interviewed Henry Alford.
Henry Alford is a humorist and journalist HA writes for the New Yorker and Airmail. His six books include Big Kiss, which won a Thurber Prize, and most recently, a book about dancing called And Then We Danced.
In this episode we speak about how:
changes in audiences throughout his career, particulars of publishing, dealing with competition, and pondering the effect of the internet on comedy.
To catch up with our guest:
henryalford.com
Twitter: @henryalford
Episode 202 - Dom Nero
“[Moonstruck] represents a part of our culture that doesn’t always get the spotlight”
Today I interviewed Dom Nero.
Dom Nero is a staff video editor at Esquire Magazine, where he also writes about film, television, and video games. He's the co-host of Eye of the Duck, a podcast about movies and the scenes that make them special.
In this episode we speak about: being Italian American beyond the Godfather, specifically:
the legacy of Italian American anti-fascism,
what Sebastian Maniscalco
means for the community,
where the racist bent in the community comes from
why Moonstruck should be the new touchstone movie for Italian Americans.
To catch up with our guest:
Follow Dom on
Twitter at @dominicknero.
www.domnero.com/
EPISODE 201 - Jay Martel
“There’s nothing better than satirizing what’s going on right now and knowing that thousands of people are reading it.”
Today I interviewed Jay Martel.
JAY MARTEL is a novelist, essayist, screenwriter, director, actor, and TV producer. The science-fiction comic novel “Channel Blue” was published by Head of Zeus in 2013, and “The Present” was released as an Audible Original in March of 2021. He’s a contributor to The New Yorker. As a journalist and critic, he’s written for Rolling Stone, Vogue, GQ, TV Guide.
Martel served as a showrunner, executive producer and writer for the award-winning sketch show “Key & Peele,” and many other comedies, including “Alternatino,” “Teachers,” “Halfway Home,” and “Strangers With Candy.” He has created numerous series for MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. For his work in television, Martel has received Emmy, WGA, Peabody and Comedy awards.
He has worked extensively as a writer, producer and presenter with Michael Moore, collaborating on the television programs “TV Nation” and “The Awful Truth” as well as the film “Fahrenheit 911.
He’s gardened for Richard Nixon and was once arrested for confronting Jeb Bush about Florida's death penalty program.
For more, go to jaymartel.com.
In this episode we speak about how:
Taking control of your career and creativity to maintain sanity, Satire post-Trump, avoiding comparisons and finding happiness in show business, and Strangers With Candy
To catch up with our guest:
jaymartel.com
Season 1
Episode 27: How to Talk to a Trumper With Sammy Rangel of Life After Hate
“They do change and that’s what these messages mean. People do change.”
Today I interviewed Sammy Rangel of Life After Hate. He was also a guest in a two-part series in Episodes 109 and 112
In this episode we speak about how:
The far right exploited the pandemic to terrorize vulnerable communities.
Far right groups are stealing recruitment techniques from ISIS.
The work continues - the election outcome does not change that people have been radicalized
We evaluate a conversation with a Trumper (my dad) to give you concrets tips and strategies to engage in this necessary dialogue
To catch up with our guest:
Episode 26: Election Special With Dr. Danielle Holtz
This bonus episode gets us ready for the election in 2020 — and beyond! The lessons in this episode apply to the Democratic process overall.
Danielle Holtz is a historian of US political culture, intellectual history,and US foreign policy, Dr. Holtz focuses on conservatism and white supremacy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is currently working on a book manuscript about racial nationalism and American politics based on her dissertation, “’Who Are the True Conservatives?’: A Critical History of American Conservatism in the Nineteenth Century.” She received her PhD in History from the University of Pennsylvania in 2017. She also served as the assistant editor for the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Military and Diplomatic History, published in 2013.
To catch up with our guest:
Twitter: @daniholtz
In this episode we speak about:
Dissidents have existed throughout US history, but have been written out of the historical record.
Democracy takes work. If we don’t do the work we get fascism.
Donald Trump is our era’s James Buchanan.
Election interference can signal an end of democracy.
How caring for each other is part of the work.
EPISODE 25 : Democracy Needs to be Taught! With Timothy Shaffer, PhD
“We think about [Democracy] happening someplace else … and how I think about it and encourage students to think about it: it’s there yes … but it’s also in you.”
Today I interviewed Timothy Shaffer, PhD
Timothy J. Shaffer is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies and director of the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy at Kansas State University. He is also principal research specialist with the National Institute for Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona. Connected to these efforts, Shaffer also serves as the associate editor of the Journal of Deliberative Democracy, as a country expert on deliberative democracy with the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem Institute) research project, and as a co-director guiding the work of the Deliberative Pedagogy Lab, an international project focused on applied scholarship about the ways that deliberation can transform higher education educational approaches and environments.
As an interdisciplinary scholar and practitioner of deliberative democracy, civic education, and small group communication, Shaffer focuses on the role of civic professionals in institutional settings such as local government, higher education, and non-governmental organizations in relationship with diverse communities. Through his scholarship, he contributes to discussions within fields such as communication studies, higher education, and civic studies where themes of citizenship, professionalism, community, and civic life are explored.
He received the Early Career Recognition Award from the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement.
In this episode we speak about:
Democracy is more than institutions, it’s also about the individual and a constant practice
How Facebook rants are not constructive civil discussion
What civility really means
People must be able to change your mind is okay
The rise in authoritarian is significant and real
The idea that colleges make people more liberal is a myth
To catch up with our guest:
Kansas Civic Life Project: www.k-state.edu/icdd/research/kclp.html
Twitter: @timothyjshaffer
Kansas State Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy: @KSU_ICDD
EPISODE 24 : COVID Planning Over Herd Immunity With Dr. Sema Sgaier of the Surgo Foundation
“The fundamental principle of a testing desert is: you’re in a county and there’s not a single test site. … About 40% of rural counties in the United States are testing deserts.”
Today I interviewed Dr. Sema Sgaier.
Dr. Sema Sgaier is Co-founder and Executive Director of Surgo Foundation, a privately funded action tank whose mission is to bring precision to solutions that save and improve lives by integrating behavioral science , data science, and artificial intelligence. Previously at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she led large-scale health programs in India and Africa. She is faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the department of Global Health at the University of Washington. Her research interests include methodologies to understand human behavior, novel data systems and analytic approaches, and management practices to drive innovation within large-scale global health programs. She was selected as a Rising Talent by the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society. She is on the board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Alumni Network. Sema has a PhD in neuroscience.
In this episode we speak about:
How a group of scientists created a tool called CCVI to help governments allocate money and resources for COVID.
Testing deserts: what they are and how 40% of rural counties qualify
The path from data to white paper in Congress to critical action
How you can use the CCVI tool to advocate for your community
What herd immunity is and why it’s not the answer for the COVID outbreak
COVID vaccines: Will they actually help?
Then Queens Marie comes up with a plan to get the CCVI in federal hands using toilet paper.
To catch up with our guest:
Twitter:
@SurgoFoundation
@SemaSgaier
EPISODE 23 : Books As Activism With Jeannine Cook of Harriet’s Bookshop (Noted by Oprah’s Book Club)
“To me what movement work means is creativity.”
Today I interviewed Jeannine Cook.
For the last 10 years Jeannine Cook has worked as a trusted writer for several startups, corporations, non-profits, and influencers. In addition to a holding a master’s degree from The University of the Arts, Jeannine is also a Leeway Art & Transformation Grantee and a winner of the South Philly Review Difference Maker Award. Jeannine’s work has been recognized by several news outlets including Vogue Magazine, INC, MSNBC, The Strategist, and the Washington Post. She recently returned from Nairobi, Kenya facilitating social justice creative writing with youth from 15 countries around the world. She writes about the complex intersections of motherhood, activism, and community. Her pieces are featured in several publications including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Root Quarterly, Printworks, and midnight & indigo. She is the proud new shopkeeper of Harriett’s Bookshop in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia.
In this episode we speak about:
How Harriet’s Bookshop was only open for 6 weeks before the pandemic, yet won the Best of Philadelphia and got a shout-out from Oprah’s Book Club, as well as Usher
How people will read if you give them material they can connect to
Holding up a book is just as impactful of holding up a sign - how Harriet’s Bookshop provides free books and gave them out to protestors
When an idea hits you in your gut, take small steps towards it
How to the community protected Harriet’s Bookshop during the riots and continues to do so as we move towards the election
Then Melania asks for a book recommendation for Donald.
To catch up with our guest:
HarriettsBookshop.com
Instagram: @harrietts_bookshop
Episode 122: The Problem With Empathy With Fritz Breithaupt
“You’re not a rockstar and I’m not an angel either, and that’s why we need each other, and that’s why we need empathy, actually.”
Today I interviewed Fritz Breithaupt.
Fritz Breithaupt is a provost professor at Indiana University, Bloomington since 1996, since 2010 as a full professor of Germanic Studies, an adjunct professor of Comparative Literature, and an affiliate professor of Cognitive Science. He co-founded the European Union Center at Indiana University in 2005 and served as its co-director until 2007. In Germany, he is most well known outside of academic circles as a columnist for ZEIT Campus magazine and the author of the recurring feature "Frag den Prof" ("Ask the professor"). In 2009-10, he was the distinguished Remak Scholar of Indiana University. He has twice (in 2003 and 2009) won the grant of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation, which is "granted in recognition of a researcher's entire achievements to date to academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future."
His 2017 book The Dark Sides of Empathy, which we will talk about today, offers an analysis of Donald Trump's technique to draw empathy to himself. The book appeared on the German bestseller list in February 2017 (Spiegel-Bestseller Liste).
In this episode we speak about:
How empathy is not always a good thing and people can often be oppressed in the process. A healthy dose of cynicism is often good!
Emotion sharing does not always lead to empathy.
The reaction towards the German Refugee Crisis showed us that empathy isn’t always based in reality.
Donald Trump has changed the American dream to be a victim hero.
You need to be careful in using empathy in conflict resolution.
Sadistic empathy can explain dinner table screaming matches.
Then my DAD comes in and tells Fritz that he wrote the book of his life.
To catch up with our guest:
Twitter: @FritzBreithaupt
Episode 121: Comedy on Capitol Hill with Mark Eaton of The Capitol Steps
“We get into this weird thing, that if politicians don’t get made fun of [by The Capitol Steps] they get mad. ”
Today I interviewed Mark Eaton of The Capitol Steps.
The Capitol Steps began as a group of Senate staffers who set out to satirize the very people and places that employed them.
The group was born in December, 1981 when some staffers for Senator Charles Percy were planning entertainment for a Christmas party. Their first idea was to stage a nativity play, but in the whole Congress they couldn't find three wise men or a virgin. So, they decided to dig into the headlines of the day, and they created song parodies & skits which conveyed a special brand of satirical humor.
In the years that followed, many of the Steps ignored the conventional wisdom ("Don't quit your day job!"), and although not all of the current members of the Steps are former Capitol Hill staffers, taken together the performers have worked in a total of eighteen Congressional offices and represent 62 years of collective House and Senate staff experience.
Since they began, the Capitol Steps have recorded over 35 albums, including their latest, The Lyin' Kings. They've been featured on NBC, CBS, ABC, and PBS, and can be heard twice a year on National Public Radio stations nationwide during their Politics Takes a Holiday radio specials.
In this episode we speak about:
What motivates the Cap Steps to leave their Senate jobs and become improv comedians.
The grossest things that Senators do.
How they find ways to perform for people of all political persuasions.
Then Melania talks to Mark’s impression of Bill Clinton about the best way to sneak around the White House and George W. Bush about the pluses and minuses of a second term.
To catch up with our guest:
Episode 120: Make the Stage and the Crowds Will Come With Mona Shaikh of Minority Reportz
“Somebody described our comedy shows as going to Chippendales because it’s so rowdy. These women don’t want to leave.”
Today I interviewed Mona Shaikh.
Mona Shaikh is a stand-up comedian, host, emcee and producer of Minority Reportz. She most recently emcee’d the Women’s March in SF in Jan 2019 and made history by being the first South Asian/Middle Eastern Female Comedian to perform in front of over 50,000 people! She’s been featured in LA Times, Newsweek, The Guardian, LA Weekly, New York Post, Huffington Post, Washington Post and BBC. She can also be seen regularly on The Young Turks, The Stephanie Miller Show on SiriusXM and Mo’Kelly Show on IHeartRadio. Mona has also headlined in Dubai, Portugal as well as London. In addition to being seen all around Los Angeles at major comedy clubs as The Comedy Store, Flappers Comedy Club, The Laugh Factory, Ice House Pasadena, Hollywood Improv and many more, she hosted the Hollywood Improv for Comedy Juice night with Dane Cook. She became the first Pakistani female Comedian to be selected for the Laugh’s Factory Funniest Person in the World Competition and made history by becoming the first Pakistani female Comedian to headline Hollywood Improv.
In this episode we speak about:
How Mona creates an environment for diverse communities through her Minority Reportz shows.
How Minority Reportz was covered by Hustler Magazine and was going to be the 2020 official comedy show of LA Pride.
How a lack of diversity on stages and screens creates a ripple effect in performers career and life.
And then Melania asks a question, which escalates to Mona and I going on a rant that might get us death threats.
episode 119: The Conservative/Liberal Divide With Dannagal Young
“I’ve been asked over the years a lot for the potential of humor to bridge these divides and I have not figured out a way it work. .... Unless you’re someone who is willing to targets the machinery that creates the division in the first place.”
“I’ve been asked over the years a lot for the potential of humor to bridge these divides and I have not figured out a way it work. .... Unless you’re someone who is willing to targets the machinery that creates the division in the first place.” - Dannagal Young
Today I interviewed Dannagal Young.
Dannagal G. Young (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, 2007) is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Delaware where she studies the content, audience, and effects of political humor. She has authored over forty academic articles and book chapters exploring themes related to political entertainment, media psychology, public opinion, and misinformation. Her latest book "Irony and Outrage" examines satire and outrage as the logical extensions of the respective psychological profiles of liberals and conservatives (Oxford University Press, 2020: available here).
Young is a Research Fellow with the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication and was awarded the University of Delaware's Excellence in Teaching Award in 2014. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center and an Affiliated Researcher with the University of Arizona's National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD). Young is also a co-editor on the 2019 NICD volume: "A Crisis of Civility: Political Discourse and its Discontents"
In this episode we speak about:
How our media landscape is a direct consequence of changes in media legislation.
The coronavirus response is actually the opposite of how we’d expect conservative and liberals to act.
Comedians more often lean left and yet conservatives think that liberals can’t take a joke.
People’s perception of how they get information and what they know are often different.
Because of how liberals and conservatives are oriented affects the type of programming they seek out.
True satire comes from people without a stake in the system.
We no longer have a mass media to unite people so we have to find other ways to unite people.
Then my character Melania Trump asks how we can make Donald more funny.
To catch up with our guest:
Read her book Irony and Outrage: The Polarized Landscape of Rage, Fear, and Laughter in the United States
Follow her @dannaga
****
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Episode 118: CAll-Out Culture with Loretta Ross
“Call-out culture impoverishes our pools of meaning because we don’t get to share what everybody is thinking. Because some people are intimidated by the brutality with which an unfolding thought is received.”
I’m a Black Feminist. I Think Call-Out Culture Is Toxic. by Loretta Ros
Episode 117: Heroin, Hooking, and Happiness With Mary Goggin of Runaway Princess
“I have choices. I’m responsible for my happiness.”
To support the show donate at: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/runaway-princess
episode 116: Publishing Unique Voices With Rick Kaempfer and David Stern of Eckhartz Press
“Everyone has a story to tell and when its your personal story you’re selling yourself, too. And that, to me, is a very easy sell.”
Rick’s super funny book Father Knows Nothing is available via ebook until July 4th by clicking here.
episode 115: Restorative Justice With Gina M. Hill
“Restorative justice is about healing. And healing in communities.”
Resources we spoke about in our conversation:
episode 114: Vulnerability in the age of social disconnect with Richard W. Gretzinger
“Everybody has a uniqueness to them and I try to celebrate that.”
Episode 113: Creating comedy in quarantine with jesse sneddon
“It’s quite possible that TikTok is the Nintendo of this generation.”
All Podcast VIPers get a free “They’re Gaslighting You” sticker with any purchase from The Melania Show Etsy store. Not just during our sale … but for all of time (while we have it).
Episode 112: White Supremacy and the Violent Far Right With Sammy Rangel of Life After Hate
“People are being groomed and don’t realize that they’re being groomed or that they have been groomed.”
"FOURBEARS: The Myths of Forgiveness", Sammy’s autobiography
Sammy’s Ted Talk on the power of forgiveness
Episode 111: How to Deal People NOT Social Distancing on Purpose With Charles LoGiudice, Jr.
“You can fix a lot of things. That’s why erasers were made. But the one thing you can not fix is stupid.”
To see the full playlist of Driving With Dad please visit this page.
Episode 110: How to Convince People to Take COVID-19 Seriously With Dr. Danielle Holtz
“I don’t think people understand the number of people we’re going to bury before this thing is over.”
Episode 109: Confronting Hatred With Sammy Rangel of Life After Hate
“Hatred is also a form of suffering expressed.”
"FOURBEARS: The Myths of Forgiveness", Sammy’s autobiography
Sammy’s Ted Talk on the power of forgiveness
Episode 108: Public Discourse + American History With Dr. Dani Holtz
“There is the ideal of a pristine moment in U.S. history when, surely, people were able to communicate without the kind of violent rhetoric you see today, but the truth is that’s never been the case.”
Dr. Holtz’s list of book reccomendaitons is coming soon. Thank you for your patience.
Episode 107: Creating Impressions With MJ Trump
“Today we’re going to talk about creating impressions. You’ll hear about my process of creating my Melania Trump character, that will be featured in my book Inside Melania: What I Learned About Melania Trump by Impersonating Her that is out in March. ”
To get your free Melania Trump prank call email inthemidstprod@gmail.com with phone number + name of person I’m pranking + what you’d like me to say + when you’d like me to do it. I’ll respond confirming the prank and will send you the audio once it’s complete.
Episode 106: Are Video Games the Problem? With Josh Boykin
“We’re now starting to see more people be able to use their voices in the [gaming] space. And the space as a whole is changing as people see that the stories of marginalized people are stories that everyone can relate to regardless if whether or not they have that specific marginalization.”
For a thoughtful collection of Intelligame essays, generously assembled by Josh, click here.
Episode 105: “That’s Not Okay” With Neil Rubenstein
“I don’t judge people on their sins. People make mistakes in their lives and if you think you’re morally superior to someone else you’re out of your mind.”
The first five people who send me their name, email address and name + city of their local comedy club get Neil’s EP emailed to them before it’s available on Spotify & iTunes. Email lauren.logi (@) gmail.com.
Episode 104: Meditation For the Rest of Us With Justin Michael Williams
“When we can pause and can respond from a place of compassion, and a place of love, and a place of understanding, which is what meditation is all about … then you don’t have to react to somebody.”
For Justin’s FREE course on creating next year’s mission, vision, and goals go to ww.ManifestNYE.com.
Episode 103: Asking the Right Questions With Oracle Dyana Valentine
“If we’re operating on a level of real, then there’s no question that we’re more effective at dismantling these systems of oppression within ourselves, within our family systems, within our local communities, and within our general societies.”
Here is a link to a free PDF of my book recommendations on making creative introspection a habit.
Episode 102: The Power of Story Can Save Us: Interview With Novelist and Comic Dave Terruso
“There’s no real person you can straight-up demonize once you get to know them.”
For two weeks after the podcast goes live, get the David’s book ALTER EGO: THE OTHER ME via e-book here.
Episode 101: Melania Interviews Dr. NYC: Psychologist Working With High Conflict Families
“There are many ways of finding achieving family connection, through shared tradition, meals, stories, games, but trying to achieve closeness by having a relative affirm or adopt a political position is ill-advised and very unlikely. ”