Salt Lake Dirt

Exploring Global Lessons and Resilience with Peter Felix Today on Salt Lake Dirt , Kyler sits down with author Peter Felix to talk about his memoir, Around the World in 80 Years . Drawing from a life spanning multiple continents, Felix traces his journeys from early volunteer work in East Pakistan to witnessing the Vietnam War firsthand and living through key political shifts in Hong Kong. Driven...

Commemorating 50 Years of Women at the Air Force Academy in Necessary Turbulence Today on Salt Lake Dirt , Kyler speaks with author Eileen Isola about Necessary Turbulence: Fifty Years, One Unbreakable Sisterhood Forged in the Crucible of the Air Force Academy . Written by a team of nine female Air Force Academy graduates to mark the 50th anniversary of women entering military academies, the book...

Memory, Secrecy, and Sisterhood in Juliet Faithful’s Liar’s Dice Today on Salt Lake Dirt , Kyler sits down with author Juliet Faithfull to discuss her novel Liar’s Dice . Set against the backdrop of 1970s Brazil under a military dictatorship, the story follows identical twin sisters Dolores and Mita, who grow up in a rural village. After Mita develops disabilities around age seven, she is abruptly...

Navigating Darkness and Youth in Erica Kent's Black Dog Today on Salt Lake Dirt , Kyler interviews author Erica Kent about her novel Black Dog . Set against the backdrop of the 1980s, the story begins on the night of John Lennon's murder and follows protagonist Jessica Ryder from age 11 as she navigates adolescence and a rapid descent into heavy substance abuse. Drawing inspiration from Winston Ch...

Episode 415: Today Kyler speaks with filmmaker Jeremy Max about his upcoming short film Bleeder , screening at the HollyShorts Film Festival at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on August 20th. Jeremy discusses the genesis of the project—how a period of personal disconnect and grief transformed into a story about a former boxer who takes on a job getting beaten up to cope with repressed trauma....

John Fraser: Grayscale Morality, Darkroom Nostalgia, and 'Choir Girl' On today's episode of Salt Lake Dirt , Kyler chats with Australian writer and director John Fraser about his feature film, Choir Girl . John shares the long road to bringing the project to life, tracing its origin from an Australian song lyric to a gritty, black-and-white noir set in the world of analog photography....

Exploring Appalachia and Craft with E. Davis Enloe Today on Salt Lake Dirt , Kyler chats with E. Davis Enloe about his novel, Into the Night Woods . Set in 1961 western North Carolina, the story follows 12-year-olds Boyd and Roger as they venture into the forest toward a hidden cave. Drawing from his own childhood in Rutherford County, Enloe captures a rural past while grounding the plot in real d...

Today on Salt Lake Dirt , Kyler sits down with Michigan-based tattoo artist and TikTok creator Sydney Mulvaney . Her TikTok ( @sydneytattoos ) and personal painting projects have built a dedicated following. In the interview, she opens up about landing her first apprenticeship at 17, navigating a chaotic and male-dominated shop culture in the early days, and the grit it took to build her career. S...

I sat down with author Alexa Morris to discuss her book, The Courtyard , which chronicles how her father-in-law, Ben, survived Nazi-occupied Paris as a young boy. For over two years, Ben and his family hid inside a courtyard warehouse, entirely protected and kept alive by their working-class neighbors and local shopkeepers. Alexa spent a decade collaborating with Ben to capture this history, creat...

I sat down with author Pauline Steinhorn to talk about her book, Dreaming of the River , which draws from the 1945 journals her mother and grandmother kept immediately following their liberation from a displaced persons camp. Pauline spent years sorting through boxes of family papers to piece together this history, which shows how her Polish family used music, quick wit, and incredible survival in...

Today I welcome author and physician Jonathan Hammel to discuss his powerful historical novel, The Jewish Hospital. Inspired by his grandmother—a wartime nurse who survived deportation and later founded the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine—Hammel spent a decade researching the incredible history of Berlin’s Jewish Hospital. Operating under direct Gestapo supervision, the institution rema...

Author and poet Scott Laudati joins me to discuss his latest poetry collection, Rainbow Road . The book offers a raw, observant, and humorous look at the chaotic realities of touring the independent poetry circuit across the United States. Scott shared some of the wild experiences that inspired the work, from having a gun pulled on him by a fellow writer in Little Rock to sleeping on a sidewalk in...

I recently had the chance to read an incredible book that completely blew me away. It is easily one of the best things I have read in the last couple of years, and I was thrilled to sit down with the author, Krystle Ratticus , to talk all about her debut book, Ornery Cuss . Designed with a pocket-sized, dime-store pulp novel aesthetic, Ornery Cuss sits in a fascinating space right between fiction...

I recently sat down with Emmy-winning comedy writer Brent Forrester, whose credits include The Simpsons , The Office , King of the Hill , Judd Apatow’s Love AND Mr. Show with Bob and David. We discussed his path from a television-free childhood reading Mad magazine to breaking into the industry under the mentorship of The Golden Girls creator Susan Harris. Brent shared how he taught himself the me...

I recently sat down with co-directors Ivan Malekin and Sarah Jane to discuss their new feature film, After the Act . The movie follows three friends over a single day and night in Berlin as they face the fallout of a sudden betrayal. The film's remarkably natural dialogue relies entirely on improvisation. Working from a concept outline rather than a traditional script, the filmmakers collabora...

My next guest on Salt Lake Dirt is Sam Farhi , author of the novel The Sapsuckers . The book centers on two brothers, Pete and Rem, and the eerie, unsettling fallout that follows Rem's mysterious death. Rather than a straightforward mystery, Farhi pieces the narrative together through a non-linear timeline, utilizing diary entries, transcripts, and shifting perspectives that examine how we con...

Today I chat with author Nan Fischer about her new domestic suspense thriller, This Is a Lie , written under the pen name Cleo Ballard. The novel follows Penn, a computer science student who creates an AI best friend named Aletheia to protect her from deception after a devastating personal betrayal. The tension quickly escalates as the algorithm begins interpreting protection as total destruction,...

On today's episode acclaimed author Craig Nova discusses his fifteenth novel, The Last Sweet Taste , out now from Arcade Publishing. The conversation explores his masterful use of first-person perspective to establish distinct character voices. Drawing from his twenty years in rural Vermont, Nova shares how a practical engagement with everyday reality gives the book its vital resonance. Nova a...

On today's show author Luke Goebel discusses his novel Kill Dick , a fierce literary work fueled by personal loss and his own recovery from addiction. The conversation covers his survival of a harrowing car accident, his subsequent creative shift to the Southern California desert, and his mission to keep authentic literature alive by taking the reins of Tyrant Books. Published by Red Hen Press...

This is a major milestone for the podcast. For the 400th episode of Salt Lake Dirt , I wanted to bring back a guest whose voice and perspective I truly respect. Hannah Sward , author of the incredible memoir Strip , joins me once again to catch up and talk about the realities of keeping things authentic in a noisy world. Hannah opens up about the process behind her Substack, Summer of Men , which...

Today on Salt Lake Dirt , Kyler reconnects with author Emmalea Russo to discuss her latest novel, The Moon Papers , releasing June 30th from Arcade Publishing. Serving as a follow-up to her previous book, Vivienne , the new novel expands on characters from its predecessor but stands entirely on its own. Great chat, incredible novel! Thanks for listening. --- Episode Links: Purchase The Moon Papers...

Sarah Velk joined the Salt Lake Dirt podcast to discuss her literary journey, moving from Los Angeles to New York, where she co-founded the reading series Punisher . Alongside co-founder Kennedy Wright , Velk established the series to challenge the rigid, academic tropes often associated with traditional literary events, opting instead for an energetic, inclusive atmosphere that features both esta...

Vanessa Matic recently joined the podcast to discuss her new poetry collection, American Dreams in Havoc Heaven . Published by Hat and Beard Press, the book strips away the glossy cliches of the traditional American dream, trading white picket fences for an open, gritty landscape of youth, intimacy, and structural decay. Matic, who is also the founder of the grassroots Agape Lodge Poetry Society i...

On today's show I welcome Mark Malkoff to discuss the behind-the-scenes reality of hosting The Tonight Show . In Love Johnny Carson , Mark's research reveals a grueling early format where Johnny Carson performed two separate monologues across an hour-and-45-minute runtime. While the media frequently labeled Carson cold, our conversation highlights a shy, private man who still maintained a down-to-...

I had the chance to speak with director and co-writer Catherine Hardwicke about her new film, Street Smart , which she penned alongside Nic Sheff (author of Tweak , the basis for the film Beautiful Boy ). The film serves as an "Oliver Twist" style look at young creatives supporting each other through hard times in Venice Beach. Catherine shared the fascinating story of casting newcomer I...