Life 2.0

The son of a Greek immigrant grocer, Kass was born on Chicago's South Side and grew up there and in Oak Lawn. He held a number of jobs — merchant marine sailor, ditch digger, waiter — before becoming a film student at Columbia College in Chicago. There, he worked at the student newspaper and caught the attention of Daryle Feldmeir, chairman of the journalism department and former editor of the Chi...

Martha Stewart dressed up like a homeless person for Halloween and wonders why there's blowback, which gives John a chance to share his time on the Martha Stewart Channel on XM Radio back in the day, but Garry tops that experience with his memory of asking Martha out for a date after watching her work over a turkey. Of course, there's John's "Nude Pilgrim Party" experience and getting locked up po...

The billboard for this podcast features "Mr. Bones," who is the oldest remaining artifact from the "Haunted Castle" from back in 1966. For two decades, Mr. Bones greeted hundreds of men, women, and children to have the crap scared out of them in our basement during October. My dad, a mild-mannered banker by day, became "The Count) at night (of course) and was supported by mad scientists, Frankenst...

As John continues his journey from the clutches of the Grim Reaper just 10 days ago, the first item on the audio agenda is the battle between Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks, which leads Garry to the conclusion that $7 latte mocha choco whatever will never go away. With the political season in full swing, it's time for a "Garry Meier Minute-Ish" offering around the phenomenon of attack ads and how th...

It's been just about a week since I had a "life-threatening event" (the official term nowadays for a heart attack), and as you can imagine, this has been a serious time of reflection on what is and what isn't important in my life. If you have ever been in this position, I'm sure you understand the feeling of a "2nd chance" at sticking around for a while longer, and the fact that 51,000 humans die...

Just 48 hours after he suffered a "life-threatening event," John is back on track and chatting with Garry about the ins and outs of the "heart attack experience." But it's not all about his ticker, as the guys find their way into "Shark Tank" infested waters, the unfortunate priest who was felled by a giant crucifix at the altar, and walk down Oprah memory lane as it pertains to why television and...

Digging into the vast Aurora Media Productions audio archives, the magic arrow led me to my conversation with the late, great Christopher Reeve for the Saturday Morning Rewind episode. This was a live show from back in 2002, the day before he and his now-late wife, Dana, were opening a national paralysis center that was created as a result of his equestrian incident in 1995, rendering him paralyze...

So, what happens when the police find a body on the railroad tracks? A million extra people flood the Chicago area expressways heading downtown (John is one of them), and then there's the unfortunate person who got launched from a rollercoaster, and the less-than-intelligent guy who became lunch for a tiger. How about the growing interest in having raccoons as pets? Did you know that a rat's favor...

29 years ago today, John Denver lost his life in a plane crash in Monterey Bay, California. He was just 53 years old. In the nearly three decades since his death, I have been able to put together a "connect-the-dots" map showing how crossing paths with John in the early 90s set me on a trajectory that continues today. This remembrance for John includes some of the many conversations about the man,...

The average cost for a family of 4 to attend Da Bears game is over $2K (tickets/parking/food/beers), which is well over the NFL average of $1400 bucks per gridiron match. Too much? Not enough? Is there an end in sight to the bloated games that humans will pay for as entertainment? And hey, didya hear that Da Pope came out with a statement that fouling the Earth as us humans do is a sin? Garry and...

I can count on one hand the people who have influenced my life. Coach Frank Preo is on that list. He passed away last week at the age of 88, leaving a legacy of leadership, character, and a voice and presence that I have seen in very few people. I played for him in high school, and later coached football with him and the late Ray Smith in Coach Preo's final year as the head coach at Schurz High Sc...

So, what do John Hinkley Jr's podcast, Burt Reynolds toupee, Broderick Crawford, Chuck Connors, Case Keenum, Casey Kasem, Rudy Ruettiger, Da Bears, the NCAA, the NFL, Bill Kurtis, and George Washington Carver have in common? They are all part and parcel of another outing in audio excellence with Garry and John as they attempt to find common sense during very uncommon times.

Thirty years ago, this past week, I walked from the little town of Rapid River, Michigan, to Chicago (where we had just moved from) with Duane Kinnart and Joe Johnson. I barely knew Duane and had never met Joe. But they were part of a much bigger puzzle that started months earlier, when a business deal with a couple of pro wrestling friends of mine fell through because of some incredible circumsta...

After a two-week hiatus, Garry and John are back at it, this time dissecting John's recent foray to Egypt, his ongoing challenge with "Travelers' Gut" that was only made bearable by Dude Wipes (and a $5 tip to a guy at a public toilet). After descending 450 below the desert in searing heat to take a picture of King Tut (cue Steve Martin) and cruising up and down the Nile River, as well as being a...

Back after a self-imposed hiatus, a 12-day trip to the African continent, and a cruise up (and down) the Nile River in Egypt. This episode could easily be titled "The Heat of Egypt" because it's the hottest place I've ever spent time on Earth. When this picture was taken, the heat index was 125°F, and I felt like my internal organs were melting into the desert sands. I had to take along my Svengoo...

A hiatus is defined as: "a gap or interruption in space, time, or continuity; a break." And that's exactly what I'm going to do for a few weeks. But before that starts, I came across a piece of paper with words I wrote nearly 30 years ago on a trip to Arkansas with some friends. I clearly remember the circumstances that led to me putting pencil to paper on a weathered picnic bench under a massive...

So, what do the rage-fest of Burning Man, the late Dolly Parton's songwriting prowess, Earth Matters with Bill Kurtis, and cryptocurrency have in common? Probably nothing, but in this episode of Saints & Sinners, GM and JSA have a "throw everything they can think of in 35 minutes against the virtual wall of sound and see what sticks" kinda show as they span the globe in search of pointing out...

Long before NFL players had teams of trainers, nutritionists, therapists, agents, and other specialists, the dynastic Green Bay Packers of the 1960s relied on a different kind of support staff: their wives. In Lambeau Ladies, mother and daughter Laura Kostelnik Biskupic and Katherine Biskupic tell the remarkable, largely untold story of the women who helped to keep the Lombardi-era Packers perform...

So what do a Double Beaver, ME-TV, and live radio have to do with this episode of Saints & Sinners? As it turns out, Garry starts his day with a double dose of "Leave It to Beaver" to stay balanced in the 21st century. John prefers the town of Mayberry for his METV fix, and then it's a deep dive into the virtues and shtick of the Beav's buddy Larry, Barnard T. Fife, and our growing fascination...

I first met Dino over 30 years ago, when we were both working on a big sports memorabilia project focused on Joe DiMaggio. Selling high-end fine sports art wasn't on my dance card, but I knew there was more to this project to explore than the commissions (which were great!). Back then, he was an intense, intelligent, and interesting guy that I'd never thought I would ever see again. But through th...

Have we lost our collective perspective on the rapture of being alive? Has unsocial media bent our joy factor totally out of whack? Are the billionaires (and millionaires) who live lives filled with stuff, bells and whistles that most of us don't have creating a modern-day caste system? Garry and John take a deep dive into figuring out what makes up happiness and how to offset the influx of intern...

You might be asking yourself, "Why is John doing an episode on an office chair?" Well, if you listen, you will learn about the puzzle pieces that led to me getting a new chair called "The Vortex" have more to do with than just replacing an old chair; it includes another strange "WTF, how did this happen" moment for me, when I found someone's car keys in my pocket after going to a White Sox game, w...

When he was just a 14-year-old lad, Dan Mason was sending production notes to radio stations he listened to and was a "contest pig," sucking up everything from Beatles tickets to trips to Coney Island. He became an overnight DJ and moved up the radio ladder to program director at various stations and eventually was named President and CEO of CBS Radio not once, but twice. He talks with Garry and J...

Contrary to the Rolling Stones, time is NOT on your side. Digging through some of my audio archives this morning, I came across one of my favorite clips from back in 2001, when vaunted sports writer Dick Schaap was my guest on the radio talking about a new book, and we surprised him with a call from an old friend, Jerry Kramer. Dick passed away six months after our conversation, but Kramer is stil...

They're back at it again, another weekly foray into varying levels of WTF with John's experience of spending 3 hours watching Matt "Bourne" Damon and his son Tom "Spider-Man" Holland while learning that it takes 6 feet of film to create 1 second of an IMAX movie. And why does it cost so much coin just for a couple of sodas and popcorn? Garry takes a deep dive into R-rated AI content with "Leave it...