Reasonably Spontaneous Conversation

Singer, songwriter Amber Crowley is based in Naples, Florida with salty Cape Cod roots. Her music reveals human spirit and emotion, with a feel-good beach vibe that appeals to all ages.  Amber has performed professionally for over 40 years, with multiple CDs and EPs. An emergency room physician, Amber has shared her music for many years with patients and staff at Hope Hospice, American Cancer Society and many other nonprofit events. Amber's website:  ambercrowleymusic.com

Travis Lohmann is a composer for film/media.  His work has been showcased at various film festivals such as the LA 48 Hour Film Festival, The United GI Film Festival, The Dam Short Film Festival, and the Laughlin International Film Festival. Travis’s music can be heard on NBC Sports, Discovery, Oxygen, Lifetime, and Bravo.  In 2015, Travis had the opportunity to perform with Circus Couture in their charity event "Twelve". In 2017, he composed the music for "Blue" and "Green" Acts in their show "PRYSM". Here is Travis’ website: travislohmannmusic.com

Janel Sarlls is an award-winning, classically-trained fine artist living in the small, South Texas town of Victoria. After years of writing for various magazines, Janel realized she had something valuable to share with the world and turned to writing full time, focusing on children’s books. Manuel Zamora is a writer, artist, and illustrator living in Victoria, Texas. His approach and output are constantly evolving as he hones his personal style.  Manuel approaches each project with complete enthusiasm and total dedication, especially when he is collaborating with his partner, Janel Sarlls, on their books. Go to their website, enjoy and buy some books for children of all ages:  www.janellybean.com

Dannel and David Arnold are the sons of Hollywood and television icon Danny Arnold who was the creator/producer/writer/show runner of Barney Miller and produced Bewitched, That Girl and so many other properties.  https://youtu.be/0dtYqi8fC7A is the link to the Reasonably Spontaneous Conversation I did with Danny in 1997 on my public access TV show called "Reasonably Spontaneous Conversation". Dannel and David talk that interview with their father and about growing up in Hollywood and their lives afterward.  Such fun!

I had a wonderful RSC with Corrie Lynn Green on May 20, 2021.  What a delightful, joyful session with a rising star and influencer in the music industry!  Plus, she is a delightful, insightful, and gracious human being. Corrie Lynn Green brings her own unique brand of story telling to long forgotten Appalachian Mountain Music. With her original lyrics and and twist on banjo playing style, Corrie digs deep and brings something new to something old. See about Corrie Lynn here!  https://linktr.ee/CorrieLynnGreen

Kim Ware is a singer-songwriter, drummer, podcaster, writer, lover of improv, MA in counseling student, wife, daughter, niece, aunt, friend, and cat mom. Among other things. Now based in the small town of Kings Mountain, NC, Kim discovered her love of expressing herself through song in 2006, while living in the booming metropolis of Atlanta, GA. She writes and performs under the name the Good Graces, and has toured up and down the east coast, down to Texas, over to California, and performed at such festivals as 30A, NXNE, and LEAF, where she was a finalist in the 2019 NewSong singer-songwriter competition. In 2015, Kim's song "Cold in California" caught the attention of the Indigo Girls, and the band was invited by the renowned duo to support some Midwest and Southeast shows during their summer tour. Shortly thereafter, Kim began work on tGG's 4th full-length album, "Set Your Sights," which received accolades from the likes of No Depression and Noisey. The follow-up LP, "Prose and Consciousness," was released on October 11, 2019. You can learn more about the Good Graces at www.thegoodgraces.org, and visit Kim’s podcast, “Quarantuned With the Good Graces,” at anchor.fm/kim-ware

Kim Ware is a singer-songwriter, drummer, podcaster, writer, lover of improv, MA in counseling student, wife, daughter, niece, aunt, friend, and cat mom. Among other things. Now based in the small town of Kings Mountain, NC, Kim discovered her love of expressing herself through song in 2006, while living in the booming metropolis of Atlanta, GA. She writes and performs under the name the Good Graces, and has toured up and down the east coast, down to Texas, over to California, and performed at such festivals as 30A, NXNE, and LEAF, where she was a finalist in the 2019 NewSong singer-songwriter competition. In 2015, Kim's song "Cold in California" caught the attention of the Indigo Girls, and the band was invited by the renowned duo to support some Midwest and Southeast shows during their summer tour. Shortly thereafter, Kim began work on tGG's 4th full-length album, "Set Your Sights," which received accolades from the likes of No Depression and Noisey. The follow-up LP, "Prose and Consciousness," was released on October 11, 2019. You can learn more about the Good Graces at www.thegoodgraces.org, and visit Kim’s podcast, “Quarantuned With the Good Graces,” at anchor.fm/kim-ware

On Saturday, January 23, 2021, protests broke out all over Russia in response to the arrest of dissident Aleksei Navalny upon his return to his home country to continue his resistance to the regime of Vladimir Putin. A self-described “average Russian citizen” decided to attend the protest and was plucked out of a peaceful crowd and arrested. This, in his own words, is his story on that day. Translation courtesy of  Rachel Campbell.  Edited by Clay Boykin.

Constantine Nasr and I had a conversation in late Dec 2020 upon the release the 80th Anniversary of Bugs Bunny in a Limited Edition Boxed Set of 60 re-mastered shorts starring Bugs. Constantine produced a documentary that is included in Boxed Set with interviews with many of the animation masters who worked in the Warner Brothers Loony Tunes studio, including Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny. A clip from an interview I did with Mel in 1979 is included in Constantine’s documentary! To purchase the Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Limited Edition Blu-Ray Box Set from Amazon, click here: tinyurl.com/3zno8vhd Or merely put "Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Limited Edition Blu-Ray Box Set" in the Amazon search.  You will be delighted you did!

Simon Cohen is one of the most brilliant and compassionate humans I've ever met.  What a treat it was to have this conversation on November 10, 2020, Simon in the UK and me in Texas and experiencing the present moment together.   For more (much more!!!) on Simon and his presence visit: www.mrsimoncohen.com

In early April of 2020, as the Covid-19 virus was shutting down the world, I had my first "A Conversation with Dr. James Crowe", the head of the antibody research lab at Vanderbilt University.  This 2nd ACW was done on October 17, 2020 to see what he and his team have learned in the last 6 months and what we all can expect and not expect from medical research and development.   I learned so much and I believe you will, too. This podcast was produced by Renée Yaworsky and edited by Clay Boykin.  A Conversation with..." is sponsored by "In Search of the New Compassionate Male"    www.newcompassionatemale.com

Comedian Maher Matta has been performing comedy since college and has performed at various comedy clubs and festivals throughout the country. Maher is a regular at the annual Arab American Comedy Festival in New York City, and recently recorded his first comedy special with Dry Bar Comedy out of Provo, UT. Maher's material revolves around storytelling observational humor. He also has his own podcast called, "The Bald Spot", and it's available on iTunes and Spotify. His new podcast:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bald-spot/id1295501750 Stand up Routines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFEQnNzTfZw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNNmody3hPU&list=PLOtGG5Ek6p4MbN1_Zr2jdqehZraoHijLh&index=118 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPz_fPgjh4o https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x36y36x https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2qoo-BH-hs&list=RDjFEQnNzTfZw&index=2 This episode of A Conversation with was produced by Renée Yaworsky and Dennis Tardan

Betsy West is the director/producer of RBG (Magnolia, Participant, CNN Films, 2018) along with Julie Cohen. She is a 21-time Emmy Award winner for her work as an ABC News producer and executive producer of the documentary series Turning Point. As vice president at CBS News from 1998 to 2005, she oversaw 60 Minutes and 48 Hours. She was executive producer of the MAKERS (AOL & PBS, 2012) documentary and digital series, the short documentary, The 4%: Film’s Gender Problem (Epix, 2016) and the feature  documentary, The Lavender Scare (2017). Betsy is a graduate of Brown University and is the Fred W. Friendly professor at Columbia Journalism School. This episode of "A Conversation with..." was produced by Renée Yaworsky and Dennis Tardan and was recorded on April 2, 2020.

Ross MacPhee is a paleomammalogist on the curatorial staff of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where he has worked since 1988. He has conducted more than 50 expeditions in many parts of the world, researching the evolution and extinction of Ice Age mammals. In addition to numerous scientific papers in Science, Nature, PNAS and other professional journals, Ross is the author of End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World’s Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals (WW Norton, 2018), Race to The End: Amundsen, Scott, and the Attainment of the South Pole (Sterling, 2010) and the editor of Extinctions in Near Time: Causes, Contexts, and Consequences (Kluwer/Plenum, 1999). Here is where you can buy Ross' book, End of the Megafauna:  https://tinyurl.com/uhldnca This episode of "A Conversation with..." was produced by Renée Yaworsky and Dennis Tardan.

This conversation with Dr. Crowe was recorded on April 5, 2020, while much of the US was on lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr. James Crowe is Director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center and the Ann Scott Carell Professor of Pediatrics, Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt.  His laboratory studies the human immune response to infection for a wide variety of major human pathogens, including many emerging infections. Dr. Crowe is the Director of the HUMAN IMMUNOME PROJECT, an ambitious effort to identify the sequence of all transcripts for human adaptive immune receptors.  His research group uses a very broad array of techniques including molecular and cellular biology, state-of-the-art imaging and flow cytometry, bioinformatics, and bioengineering approaches to attack scientific problems at the forefront of immunity research.  The group has been recognized widely as a leader in antibody sciences, for instance as the Best Academic Research Team, 11th Annual Vaccine Industry Excellence Awards, World Vaccine Congress, recipient of the 2019 Merck Future Insight Prize for Pandemic Preparedness, and large-scale research grants and contracts from NIH and DoD, including the DARPA Pandemic Prevention Program (P3). Here is Dr. Crowe's powerful TEDx talk:  https://youtube.com/watch?v=YfuS3__1a-k This episode of "A Conversation with..." was produced by Renée Yaworsky and Dennis Tardan.