What I Really Want to Talk About

Graham Griffith, also known as GG, is an open-source program designer and journalism missionary. He is a media strategist and audio producer who launched the award-winning national radio programs On Point and The Takeaway, as well as being part of the team that created Spotify's Sound Up, GG has developed a unique perspective on podcasting and radio specifically, and journalism in general. We have a deep and broad conversation about what journalism is and where it's going, and how we can all work and gather together to make sense of a complex and confusing world.

Mike Savage is the General Manager of WEKU, a public radio service of Eastern Kentucky University. WEKU serves Lexington, and much of Eastern, Northern and Central Kentucky. We dive right into a discussion about the role of the Federal Communications Commission in the light of its threat to pull ABC's broadcasting license in response to a joke Jimmy Kimmel made about the First Lady and the President. We also have a wide-ranging conversation about the current and future state of public broadcasting and the clear need for journalism in the public interest to survive and thrive.

Tony Crachiolo is the volunteer Director of the Berea Kentucky Food Bank. The organization's goal is that hunger never finds a home in Berea. In ten years the food bank has more than doubled the people they reach and help. Tony and his team have flipped the food pantry paradigm in crucial ways that have allowed the Berea Food Bank to serve many more people and to provide their clients with full, nutritious meals. This was a great conversation with a true community leader.

Dr Madeline Rogers is a virtuosic concert pianist and music educator. We have a lively conversation about connecting today's audiences to classical music and about how her musical journey has been marked by her faith and her belief in the power of music to bring people together. She also discusses her passion for highlighting contemporary composers.

Shaniqua Robinson is the Executive Director of The Association for Teaching Black History in Kentucky. We talk about her work helping teachers center Black History in the curriculum. Shaniqua also talks about reclaiming her roots as a Black Appalachian woman and about exploring the culinary traditions of Black Appalachia.

Rick is a writer and a native of Estill County, Kentucky. His debut novel, Turkeyfoot (Shotgun Honey Books), focuses on the influx of fentanyl in Appalachia. He lives with his family in Eastern Kentucky where he also serves as Berea College’s Appalachian Male Advocate & Mentor. Rick talks about his perspective on the opioid problem in Appalachia, writing his first novel and working with women in recovery through writing. Rick's clear and fluid voice--both in his writing and on this podcast--makes us all want to pay closer attention.

Sam Gleaves is a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and music instructor from Wytheville, Virginia. He began studying and playing old-time music as a teen. Sam has performed and taught Appalachian music throughout the United States and all over the world. He has released seven albums, including his debut Ain’t We Brothers (2015) and his most recent collaboration with Kay Justice, The Cabin Sessions (2026).In this episode, Sam plays a couple of original songs and talks about the women who have had a powerful and positive impact on his life and music career.

Bruce Fraley is the 5th Mayor of Berea Kentucky. He is serving his second term and plans to run for a third. He is very excited about a program that will create new building sites in this part of the Bluegrass region designed to attract new business to Berea and beyond and generate perhaps more than 1,000 jobs. In this era of bitterly divisive partisan politics, I thought it would be good to hear from an elected official who is not driven by ideology or party loyalty, but by getting things done for the people in his city and in his state.

Jeffrey Sanderson is a painter based in Chicago where he has been engaged in an intuitive and exploratory home studio practice steadily for over 20 years. Jeff says. “My work depends upon and celebrates the remarkable sensitivity and uncanny memory that humans possess.” We talk about how his work can preserve marks and evidence of a conversation between a maker and a surface. His paintings are improvised which leads us to a wonderful conversation about how each mark or color or brush stroke leads to the next in the thrilling moments of creation. It leads us to talk about how great live music can also feel that way and even how life itself is often the decisions we make and steps we take upon realizing our plans may not meet the moment.

Christina Cornelison is the Director of the Madison County Public Library with branches in Richmond and Berea Kentucky. In a county with fewer than 100,000 residents her libraries welcome more than 300,000 visitors and circulate over a half million books each year. She is passionate about the role a library can play in encouraging early reading and language development and in providing a vast array of services to the community from 3D printing to GED classes--all for free. We have a great conversation about the importance of neutrality in a library where there should be no agenda, and the crucial role that libraries play in offering unfettered access to information to anyone who wants it. Christina makes it clear that libraries should be focused on books but also on the many ways they serve and educate all members of a community with no cost and no barriers.

Larry Gratton is a husband and a dad and a math professor. He is also crazy about vintage motorcycles. We talk about his passion for solving the puzzle of restoring old bikes to new glory--especially Hondas from the late 60s and early 70's. We have a great conversation about the place that the motorcycle holds in our cultural imagination and the many ways in which Larry's passion for these machines runs counter to the images that are conjured in our heads when we thing about who rides a motor bike. While Larry's heart might rev up when he is working on a bike, he prefers slow meandering rides through country roads as he dons--not tough black leathers-- but a bright yellow safety jacket.

As Happy Chandler once said, “I never met a Kentuckian who wasn’t on his way home.” Tom Martin is native of Morehead, Kentucky and has come home after a long and illustrious career in radio broadcasting that went from Morehead to Washington DC to New York City and back to the Bluegrass. Tom has been a national news anchor, the substitute host for the legendary Paul Harvey and now is the producer and host of Eastern Standard on WEKU, the NPR affiliate that covers eastern, northern and central Kentucky. Tom and I talk about the power of radio, a and the way the news media has changed over the years. Tom is also an accomplished musician and tells the story of how his music and his life were forever altered the first time he heard R&B music on his transistor radio coming all the way from Nashville on WLAC. Tom has a beautiful, melodious radio voice and I could have listened to him tell his stories all day long.

Emily Hilliard is the folklorist at Berea College in Kentucky, and the co-owner of Spinster, a feminist record label. We talk about her lifelong passion for folk music and folkways and how it has evolved. We also discuss the power of folk music to create community bonds and bring people together in positive ways. Emily also talks about the future of folk, and her belief that it is a living, breathing thing and not just an artifact of the past to be preserved.

Dr Collis Robinson is the Dean of Labor at Berea College. He is the first in his family to go to college and earn a degree. We talk about the positive and powerful influence teachers and schools have had on his life and how the pursuit of education led him to opportunities he had never dreamed possible. We also muse on big topics like the struggles of boys in school the future of education in America.

Gary Price is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He is the co-founder and editor of Library Journal’s infoDOCKET. He is a nationally-known leader in the world of libraries, research and information science. What he really wants to talk about, though, is his experience being the father of an autistic child, his son, Matthew. We had an informative and moving conversation about autism and its effects, the trials and tribulations of finding the right services for a child with special needs, and, of course, the challenges and profound joys of simply being Matthew’s dad.

Dr Emmanuel Joshua Stokes—E.J.—wants to spread Beloved Community everywhere he goes. In this deep, meaningful and joyful conversation we discuss how to build beloved community, how to lift up those who bring light to our lives—the life lanterns as EJ calls them—and how EJ has promoted all of this through his work as the Director of Bera College’s amazing Black Music Ensemble. EJ discusses the impact that bell hooks had on his work and his thinking and how the intentional creation of beloved community is his, and hopefully everyone’s, life’s work.

Katie Startzman is the founder and owner of Native Bagel and Night Jar, two very successful eateries in Berea KY. She went from operating a food cart to running an amazing brick and mortar restaurant in spectacular fashion She is a member of the Berea City Council and a Business Coach with the Kentucky Small Business Development Center. She is also the author of the Knitted Slipper Book, an everything-you-need-to-know guide to making this exciting variation on the sock. But what she really wants to talk about is gardening and the magic of public gardens. We discuss the perennial movement, the transformative power of beautiful public green spaces, and we even begin to plan a garden tour of England.

Bill Littlefield is a retired radio host, writer, teacher, and public speaker.He has written nine books, seven of which have been published. For 34 years he wrote and voiced commentaries for WBUR in Boston and NPR; for 25 of those years, he also hosted “Only A Game,” NPR’s fantastic weekly sports magazine program. Bill is also involved with the Emerson Prison Initiative, a program that makes a college education more accessible to people who are incarcerated.In this episode we talk about Mercy, his second novel. In his graceful prose, Bill explores the multifaceted nature of mercy, forgiveness, and human connection, set in a suburban neighborhood grappling with the release of a dying mob boss from prison. We catch glimpses into lives of these neighbors seeking connection and working to to give mercy, especially the powerful kind we give to ourselves.

Cam McWhirter is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and the co-author of American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15. He feels strongly that we all need to know more about James Weldon Johnson. Johnson was a civil rights leader, lawyer, diplomat, writer and musician in the early 20th century. He was at the forefront of the Harlem Renaissance, and served as the first Black Executive Secretary of of the NAACP. He is perhaps best remembered for writing the lyrics to Lift Every Voice and Sing, often referred to as the Black National Anthem.We discuss Johnson's life and achievements and even hear Johnson's own voice from an old recording of his poem,We To America.

Eric is the founder and Partner of AL Media a political consulting and media company that has managed campaigns and produced effective political ads and media for presidential campaigns, senatorial campaigns, congressional campaigns, gubernatorial campaigns and issue-related efforts all over the country. for 30 years. His firm has worked with Vice President Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, Senator Rafael Warnock, Governor Katie Hobbs, and Mayor Michelle Woo among MANY others. So of course, he wants to talk about his lifelong and painful obsession with the Cleveland Browns one of only our teams to have never playted in the Super Bowl.

Reverend Kent Gilbert is an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ and since 1997 has served as pastor and teacher to Union Church in Berea, Kentucky. Kent has never been much of a sports fan, but having traveled to Japan multiple times, he has developed a passion for Sumo Wrestling. We discuss the rules, the strategy and the cultural significance of this fascinating and ancient sport that has been continuously practiced for more than 1,500 years. We discover that there is a lot more to it than just two very large men crashing into each other.

Murphy Monroe is a non-profit executive and nationally-known advocate for the benefits of float therapy or sensory deprivation. We talk about how floating works and about the profound impact it has had on his own life. Murphy also outlines the physical, mental, and emotional benefits that floating can provide for anyone. Murphy is a knowledgable and truly passionate advocate for this unique form of wellness and also the owner and operator of a float spa himself. We have a great conversation and this episode is perfect for anyone looking for an interesting and fun way to improve their overall health and wellbeing.

For 60 years now the starship Enterprise and all of its enduring characters have been wandering the galaxy in search of new life and new civilizations. John Siuntres has been on that trek since the very beginning. We talk about the enduring popularity of the Star Trek franchise and why John has been hooked ever since Neal Armstrong and his crew landed on the moon. John is a podcast pioneer who is the host of Word Balloon, a long running pop culture podcast where he has done more than 1000 interviews with top creators in comics, TV and film. John had a podcast before anyone knew what a podcast was. We discuss the tv shows, the movies and why Star Trek and sci-fi in general remains relevant.

Denise Vargas is the Executive Director of El Hogar in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. The organization’s mission is to provide children from vulnerable conditions with the opportunity to become future leaders. She was born and raised in Tegucigalpa and has a BA from Dartmouth and an MBA. We talk about the state of wonder that poetry provides her, and how poetry is her way to express things that are hard to say in any another way and a way, as she says "to make the fleeting permanent." She describes her poetic process and reads from her own beautiful work. We discover the deep connection between her poetry and the work she does in Honduras to help children move out of the shadows and shine their own light.

Chad Berry is a husband, a dad and a grandfather. He is the Vice President for Alumni, Communications and Philanthropy at Berea College and holds the Goode Professorship in Appalachian Studies as a Professor of History. We discuss place, placelessness and displacement in America, and the ways the places from which we come give us identity and can also sometime feel burdensome. We focus particular attention on the Appalachian region and how that place carries so much beauty, complexity and significance, and we worry about the loss of unique places in America.

Amy Burkhardt is a successful higher ed fundraiser and the host of her own radio show focused on women artists. Since the age of five when her father brought home a mysterious red cloak that just might have belonged to Prince, she has been smitten. We talk about his boundary crossing music, his lyrics that made it ok to be different, and his status as a cultural icon. Amy also does a deep dive into Purple Rain--the song, the album, the movie, and the new musical which premieres in October in Minneapolis. Of course, Amy already has tickets.

Dave Marran is a sportswriter and has been a member of the Chicago White Sox scoreboard operations team for decades. We talk about the pursuit of the perfect scoreboard stat, and the evolution of the fan experience at ballparks and stadiums. We also discover Dave is telling the history of the White Sox--and of baseball itself--one fascinating factoid at a time.Dave and I are lifelong friends and along the way we talk about switching allegiances from the Cubs to the White Sox and the how he White Sox and the old Comiskey Park are so integrated into the history of the city of Chicago.

Aaron Beale, is a husband, a dad, a craftsman of fine furniture and the Vice President of Student Craft at Berea College, but what he really wants to talk about is watches. We discuss his love for beautiful and functional timepieces and the origins of this passion. We delve into deeper questions about the intersection of form, function and aesthetics, and even muse about the role of time keeping itself in this digital age where seemingly everything—except for maybe a mechanical timepiece—is disposable. We also touch on the notion of the watch as a marker of status and the keeper not just of time, but of a legacy. And, oh by the way, does anyone really know how all those gears and springs work anyway?

Dr. Jacob Dickerson is a husband , a dad and the Chair of the Communication Department at Berea College. He has a Ph.D in Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media. His current research examines the idea of “memory ecology” which is made up of the collection of many remembrances of a particular event. But what he really wants to talk about is MonsterVision, the late night movie marathon series—hosted by Joe Bob Briggs—that ran on TNT throughout the 90’s. We discuss the enduring popularity of horror/slasher films, the concept of “camp,” and Jacob does a deep dive into the uncannily terrifying Blair Witch Project. We also examine his near-obsessive mission to re-watch and rate every single movie that aired on MonsterVision during its nine-year run. And oh by the way there’s a shoutout to Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.