MAPSO Podso

Rolling Stone Editor (and Maplewood resident) Kate Storey stops by to chat about her best selling book "White House By The Sea," a riveting look at the Kennedys through their time spent at the famed Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port. We discuss how this tiny Massachusetts town became the epicenter of America's most powerful political family and how Kate's time researching on Cape Cod led her family...

Celebrity chef David Burke joins me in the first episode of season 2 to talk about taking over The Fox & Falcon, New Jersey's culinary reputation and why chefs have to be a little bit crazy! And am I a fool for ordering meat medium well?  Meanwhile, I'm shaking off the summer rust as I forgot to say my sign off line and neglected to mention Jed Bennett.  Fox & Falcon Site: https://www.thefoxandfal...

Recorded live from his set at PorchFest, Nate Sullivan performs his song "Once in a While" (AKA the MAPSO Podso theme song) - and the crowd loves it! ("Once in a While" orginally appeared on the 2013 album Fight Songs from Nate's band Glenn's Army, which is available on Spotify. Please follow Nate on Instagram at @NateSullivanMusic to stay up to date on upcoming releases and live shows!)  

At long last - a meeting between the two most powerful podcasts in town! Cat and Chrissy from SOMAPSO came by the house to hang out and we covered a lot of ground: their semi-obsession with Andrew McCarthy, Cat's disdain for Dirty Dancing and "boffing" Muppets. It's all very unprofessional but tons of fun! Both shows are posting this historic meeting at the same time, which means that everyone nee...

Would you believe that MAPSO once had it's very own amusement park? I mean a real, legitimate amusement park! We interrupt your summer with a quick history of Maplewood's Olympic Park. 

In the final episode of Season 1, resident actor Matt Servitto sits down to talk about his start in soap operas, his problem with South Orange gas lamps and playing Agent Dwight Harris for six seasons on The Sopranos .  We cover it all in the longest episode yet: sharing the screen with James Gandolfini, the show's rock star success and the infamous series finale. Plus, South Mountain Reservation...

You may have seen National Wildlife Federation naturalist David Mizejewski on Animal Planet, NatGEO WILD or on his regular TV appearances with Conan O'Brien. The Maplewood resident stops by the house to answer all of my crazy wildlife questions. Where do bears come from when they're spotted in town? What could eat you when you're hiking in the reservation? What are the coolest local animals to loo...

"Bearded Boomer" (Marco Hurtado) has over a million TikTok followers who devour his countless feel good dance videos - which landed the Maplewood resident a spot as a contestant on the NBC show  Dancing With Myself . He tells me how it all started and shares his philosophy on life. And the great Matt Boren ( How I Met Your Mother ) is back - in the co-host chair! Plus, nobody walks more than Jed B...

You might know that tennis great Althea Gibson broke the color barrier at the U.S. National Championships in 1950. You probably don't know that the path to that moment ran directly through MAPSO. I talk about her legacy and explore the history of racism in our community with Althea's second cousin and South Orange resident Don Felder as well as former Maplewood mayor Fred Profeta, co-founder of th...

Have I been mispronouncing the name of my own podcast? Almost three months into the show, I finally address the critics! Plus, I dig into the history of our area's two nicknames - MAPSO and SOMA. 

There was big trouble on South Orange Avenue in 1961! Seton Hall basketball, a top team at the time, was rocked by a major point shaving scandal that destroyed the program for years to come.  ​ I tracked down Frank Besson, a 6'3" backup forward on the '61 squad, to help me run through the details.

You've probably read the sign: "On October 29, 1929 baseball legends Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played an exhibition game on Cameron Field" in front of "more than 12,000 spectators." Baseball historian and NJ Historical Society Chairman John Zinn joins me to help fill in the details and separate fact from folklore.  Check out John's books and blog at https://www.zinnbooks.com . 

Before he was a member of the rock band Ween, Claude Coleman Jr. spent his teenage years banging his drums in the basement of his family's home on Bowdoin Street. Claude joins me from his new home in Asheville, NC to talk about his musical upbringing at Columbia High School, the inner workings of Ween and the near death experience that changed his outlook on life.  Ween: https://ween.com/ Amandla...

As the longest tenured host of the PBS series This Old House , Maplewood native Kevin O'Connor has been helping educate viewers about home improvement for two decades. ​ I chatted with Kevin about the inner workings of the show, his unlikely TV stardom and his love of The Roman Gourmet. Plus - he answers some of your home improvement questions!

One of my favorite novelists, Joshua Braff, joins me from the West Coast to talk about his books, the world of publishing and finding inspiration in his hometown of South Orange.  ​ Learn more about his writing, music, art and photography at  www.joshuabraff.com . And check out his band North Beach Gritty on Spotify .  (And yes - they're related.)

Music legend Dionne Warwick joins me on Zoom (from a mile away) to talk about living in South Orange, her love of Twitter and the day she scared Snoop Dogg. ​ The new documentary about her life, Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over, is now streaming on HBO Max.

Owner Cathy Rowe welcomes me into the Timothy Ball House in Maplewood, where legend has it that George Washington spent time during the Revolution. ​ But what do I know? So we present the evidence to Alexis Coe, author of the best selling Washington biography You Never Forget Your First, and await her verdict. 

International attorney Jon "Jonny" Hines invites me into his Manhattan apartment to share the story of how he and his friends invented Ultimate Frisbee in the Columbia High School parking lot. Hines, a South Orange native, was inducted into the Columbia High School Hall of Fame in 2022. 

Writer/Actor Matt Boren stops by the house to talk about his move from Los Angeles to Maplewood and his recurring role as Stuart on the hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother .  Check out his debut novel Folded Notes From High School wherever books are sold and his Audible Original, Brackish Waters, narrated by Christina Applegate. (Oh - and we met in high school!)

Introducing a MAPSO (Maplewood/South Orange) podcast for all people! Learn about some of the great history and pop culture connected to our wonderful and quirky community. Coming soon!