BIT Improv Comedy Network | MAIN STAGE

Loud People, Soft Voices Today on Bit Public Radio, host Cherry Sage asks a deceptively simple question: How do people find their voice? The answer, apparently, involves secret libraries, motivational shouting, naked civic festivals, billionaire coffee, sentient books, rogue robbers, labor-organizing cats, and at least one municipal unicycle. As Cherry guides listeners through stories about confidence, volume, self-expression, and public-radio fundraising, BPR correspondents discover that finding your voice can be empowering, dangerous, expensive, and occasionally strong enough to rupture an eardrum. Along the way, the annual pledge drive gets increasingly out of control as BPR attracts a demographic it has historically struggled to reach...Billionaires. 👀 What You'll Definitely Not See Coming: A secret library where the books are considerably more opinionated than the patrons. A motivational philosophy so powerful it may actually rupture an eardrum. A public-radio pledge drive that somehow attracts billionaires, organized cats, and some deeply suspicious coffee. Cherry Sage hosts Loud People, Soft Voices with the calm, thoughtful composure BPR listeners expect from public radio. She is shy, introspective, soft-spoken...and somehow responsible for keeping control of a live fundraiser involving correspondents, wealthy callers, aggressive sponsors, free zucchini, duck eggs, suspicious coffee, and an increasingly organized feline population. Her professional philosophy: 👉 Everyone deserves to find their voice. 👉 Some people should probably use theirs less.👉 Never underestimate what can happen during a pledge drive. Apologies BPR apologizes to sentient library books, wheat spies, The NeverEnding Story, motivational shouters, the Pied Piper, San Francisco robbers, fairy-tale mushrooms, naked unicyclists, mimes, zucchini farmers, billionaire coffee drinkers, exploited coffee cats, the Icelandic Christmas Cat, anyone who has ever paid $15,000 for coffee, and anyone who is now deeply concerned about where their morning coffee came from. We would apologize to the billionaires. But frankly, they seem fine. Credits Director and Creator: Billy Merritt Producer, Editor & Graphics: Hill Kane Featuring: Billy Merritt - Himself  Angela Washko - Cherry Sage, BPR Host Hill Kane - Herringbone Hendrix, Correspondent #1 Brent Kohler - Robert Kennison, Correspondent #2 Amber Bellsdale - Aurora Lighness, Correspondent #3 BIT Crew (various and sundry characters):  Don Slovin Jim Tripp Flannery Wilson Luke Bovard Lisa Steckman   Music: BPR Theme Song: Lyrics Hill Kane, musical composition created on SUNO AI Hosting: Libsyn "The BIT" and "The BIT Improv Comedy Network" are trademarks owned by Billy Merritt. © 2024–2026 Billy Merritt. All rights reserved. Inquiries: [email protected] Website: BITComedyNetwork.com  Production + Graphics: Hill Kane, Raising Kane Media + Marketing  

Gravestone Chic Today on Bit Public Radio, host Lana Schur explores the ever-changing nature of cool. Is "cool" determined by fashion? By celebrities? By invisible gravestones? By barbarian Goths invading Rome? Nobody seems entirely sure. Correspondent Jimbo Brandywine travels to a Renaissance Faire to investigate the unexpected return of the Goths, only to uncover turkey economics, a family raised by actual turkeys, and one very confused human identity crisis. Next, Flannery Wilson reports from Beverly Hills, where luxury shoppers have embraced the newest status symbol: gravestones that don't actually exist. The investigation somehow leads to ghost tourism, HOA disputes, Walt Disney, and a long-overdue confrontation with Mary Poppins. Finally, former failed "CNN" investigative journalist Paisley Bowie uncovers an underground community living inside pottery kilns, where magical ashtray-producing fairies, eternal curses, and suspiciously enthusiastic smokers reveal the surprising intersection of ceramics and public broadcasting. Throughout it all, Lana desperately attempts to keep an increasingly chaotic pledge drive on the rails—offering listeners everything from Butterball turkeys and job-shadowing opportunities to invisible burial plots and disgraced journalism awards. Somewhere in there... someone might actually donate. Apologies Butterball, Renaissance Faires, Goths (both Visigothic and Hot Topic), Vogue magazine, Patrick Swayze, pottery instructors, ceramics departments, ashtrays, smokers, non-smokers, Walt Disney, Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews, Disney Parks, cryogenic researchers, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Louis Vuitton, homeowners associations, psychics, ghosts, goblins, fairies, turkey farmers, Renaissance turkey vendors, Robert Smith, The Cure, BBC journalists, NPR pledge drives, public radio tote bags, kiln manufacturers, pizza ovens, anyone currently preserving their brain for the future... and anyone attempting to start a fashionable invisible cemetery. Credits Director and Creator: Billy Merritt Producer, Editor & Graphics: Hill Kane  Featuring: Billy Merritt - Himself  Katya Vasilaky - Lana Schur, BPR Host Jim Tripp - Jimbo Brandywine, Correspondent #1 Flannery Wilson - Correspondent #2 Dean Aisles - Paisley Bowie, Correspondent #3 BIT Crew playing various and sundry characters:  Don Slovin Hill Kane Geoff Taylor Brent Kohler Angela Washko Luke Bovard Music: BPR Theme Song: Lyrics Hill Kane, musical composition created on SUNO AI Hosting: Libsyn "The BIT" and "The BIT Improv Comedy Network" are trademarks owned by Billy Merritt. © 2024–2026 Billy Merritt. All rights reserved. Inquiries: [email protected] Website: BITComedyNetwork.com  Production + Graphics: Hill Kane, Raising Kane Media + Marketing

Curiosity Morning Today, We're Curious About... Canada 🇨🇦 Today on Bit Public Radio, host Jane Kane welcomes border officer Mark Hadley to answer one simple question: What exactly is Canada? The answer, it turns out, is... surprisingly complicated. As Jane and Mark explore our neighbors to the north, BPR correspondents uncover an international bagpipe smuggling operation, questionable border security practices, suspicious hockey interference, and the diplomatic complexities of pouring maple syrup on complete strangers. Along the way, listeners learn almost nothing about Canada—but quite a bit about stereotypes, curiosity, and why you should never underestimate the power of a well-played bagpipe. 👀 What You'll Definitely Not See Coming: A multinational war on illicit bagpipes. Operation Bagpipe Hockey... and its even worse sequel, Operation Baggy Waggy. A tourist who mistakes Canada for Europe. The surprisingly dangerous legal consequences of making poutine jokes. A prison sentence involving hot cocoa, public healthcare, and an alarming number of Timbits. Switzerland somehow becoming collateral damage. About Today's Guest Mark Hadley joins Curiosity Morning as a veteran U.S. border officer whose entire understanding of Canada has been assembled from conversations at a border crossing... despite never actually setting foot inside the country. His professional philosophy: 👉 Curiosity is important. 👉 Crossing the border is easy. 👉 Crossing your own assumptions is considerably harder. Today's Closing Thoughts Curiosity crossed the border. Stereotypes forgot their passports. Everyone owed Canada an apology. Apologies BPR apologizes to the people of Canada, Canadians living abroad, border patrol officers, customs officials, RCMP officers, hockey players, hockey pucks, bagpipe players, Scotland, Braveheart, Tim Hortons, Timbits, maple trees, maple syrup producers, poutine enthusiasts, Lake Louise, Southern lawyers, Swiss immigration officials, Switzerland, multilingual citizens, horses named Joke, breakfast diners, ant colonies, prison wardens, public healthcare systems, and anyone who has ever attempted to smuggle anything inside a bagpipe. Also... anyone who genuinely tuned in hoping to learn something about Canada. Credits Director and Creator: Billy Merritt Producer, Editor & Graphics: Hill Kane  Featuring: Billy Merritt - Himself  Hill Kane - Jane Kane, French Canadian Judge Mark Hadley - Border Tooper U.S.A. (Also,  Mark Daganal, The Baggoning Dater #1, Swiss Border Official #1) Amber  Bellsdale - 1st Station ID Brent Kohler - Number Picker, U.S./Canadian Border Officer, Hockey Interview Show Host, Luke's Friend back home in the South, Sascatchawan Jailor #2 Don Slovin - Himself, Bagpipe Houligan #2, The BaggoningDater #2, Bagpipe/Drug Smuggler, Offender of Canada and Switzerland Flannery Wilson - Detective Janice, Scottish Bagpiper, Wounded Bagpiper #2, Sascatchawan Jailor #3, Swiss Border Official #2 Jim Tripp - Bagpipe Houligan #1,  Breakfast Server #1, Bagpiper ER Doc, Don's Lawyer Luke Bovard - Himself, Underground Bagpipe Vigilante, Humble Southern American Lawyer, Southern Ontarian Prosecutor, Sascatchawan Jailor #1, Swiss Person #3, 2nd Station ID Music: BPR Theme Song: Lyrics Hill Kane, musical composition created on SUNO AI Hosting: Libsyn "The BIT" and "The BIT Improv Comedy Network" are trademarks owned by Billy Merritt. © 2024–2026 Billy Merritt. All rights reserved. Inquiries: [email protected] Website: BITComedyNetwork.com  Production + Graphics: Hill Kane, Raising Kane Media + Marketing

What happens when you drop a troupe of improvisers into one of Japan's most charming neighborhoods with absolutely no rehearsal and one simple rule: Everyone has to be a cat. Inspired by the real streets of Yanaka Ginza—Tokyo's famous "Cat Town"—this Mystery Pod sends the BIT Players on a feline adventure through hidden cat statues, cat cafés, souvenir shops, quiet cemeteries, and the neighborhood's iconic staircase. From there... things get wonderfully out of hand. Luxury cat hotels, CatTok influencers, alley cats, podcasts within podcasts, cardboard box commercials, organized crime, laser light shows, and Princess Donut all collide in a world where every player fully commits to the bit and every "yes, and..." makes the town even stranger. As rival gangs form, tourists hunt for statues that may not actually be statues, and an entire community of cats prepares for the concert event of the year, one question remains: Will anyone survive the laser show? If you've ever wondered what happens when improvisers are given a real place, a ridiculous premise, and complete creative freedom, welcome to PodCAT Town. Pack your catnip. Practice your "meow." And remember... Sometimes the password really is "meow." Credits Director and Creator: Billy Merritt Producer, Editor & Graphics: Hill Kane Featuring: Billy Merritt (Himself, Narrator) Luke Bovard (Mr. SophistiCAT, Spokesman: BB's Finest Cat Litter Emporium | BB's Fine Cardboard Box Emporiums Hill Kane (Mrs. SophisitiCAT) Angela Washko (Cat Hotel Receptionist, Donut Shop Patron, FiFi - Cemetery Country Club, Polly Pussy) Flannery Wilson (Cat Hotel Manager, Eco-Scruffy-Cat-Tourist #1) Brent Kohler (Speakeasy Server, Eco-Scruffy-Cat-Tourist #2, Laser Light Show Producer) Katya (M. Partridge - wealthy widow at Speakeasy, Fluffy - PodCAT Co-Host) Don Slovin (Cat Mob Boss, Puffy - PodCAT Co-Host) Jim Tripp (Bad Cat turned scaredy Cat turned Rebel Cat) Amber Bellsdale (Princess Donut - Rebel Cat | Posse of Pussy Gangleader) Gary Yorke (Cat Hotel Speakeasy Guest, Sparky - Sparky's Catnip) Music: "Shark Bait" performed by Little Kahunas | Produced by the late, great Peter Miller. Hosting: Libsyn "The BIT" and "The BIT Improv Comedy Network" are trademarks owned by Billy Merritt. © 2024–2026 Billy Merritt. All rights reserved. Inquiries: [email protected] Website: BITComedyNetwork.com  Production + Graphics: Hill Kane, Raising Kane Media + Marketing  

Today on Bit Public Radio, Host Luke Bovard explores the strange and unpredictable world of misconception. Correspondent Angelina Washington reports from Troy, New York, where a Flag Day celebration honoring Uncle Sam escalates into civic confusion, alphabet panic, and unexpected papal involvement. Next, Mandy Keyes investigates food misconceptions at a farmer's market in Pashook, Iowa, where a simple question about tomatoes leads to nightshade conspiracies, unusual educational materials, and some deeply confusing ideas about reproduction. Finally, in her first-ever field report, Gail "Shut Up Gail" Shephard accidentally investigates immaculate conception instead of misconception, uncovering mysterious pregnancies, impossible football outcomes, secret societies, and gardening techniques that defy explanation. Misunderstandings were made. Conclusions were reached. Facts became optional. Apologies Residents of Troy, New York, Uncle Sam,   Karate schools, karate students, karate parents, people named Xavier, Xander, and Yolanda, Zachary; Sesame Street, literacy advocates, the Vatican, Pope Leo, RC Cola, Fanta, farmer's markets, tomato growers, eggplant farmers, nightshade researchers, conspiracy theorists, sex education teachers, bananas, tomatoes, condom manufacturers, PBS cooking programs, Las Vegas sportsbooks, giant communities, golden geese, secret student societies, ACE Award nominees, workplace birthday cards. Also... SHUT UP GAIL! Credits Director and Creator: Billy Merritt Producer, Editor & Graphics: Hill Kane Featuring: Billy Merritt - Himself  Luke Bovard - Himself  Angela Washko  - Angelina Washington Amanda Keyes - Lisa Steckman Gail Shephard - Hill Kane Amber Bellsdale, Brent Kohler, Don Slovin, Jim Tripp and Katya Vasilaky - various and sundry characters and oddball sound effects. Music: BPR Theme Song: Lyrics Hill Kane, musical composition created on SUNO AI Hosting: Libsyn "The BIT" and "The BIT Improv Comedy Network" are trademarks owned by Billy Merritt. © 2024–2026 Billy Merritt. All rights reserved. Inquiries: [email protected] Website: BITComedyNetwork.com  Production + Graphics: Hill Kane, Raising Kane Media + Marketing