Becoming Wilkinson

Send us Fan Mail Kevin  has travelled extensively throughout the USA.  After getting kicked out of his home as a teen, he had many harrowing adventures that seemed to bring him to various forks in the road.  But somehow, he beat the odds and was able to choose the path away from certain destruction. In other words, he takes many round about ways to get places but eventually always makes it! He cur...

Send us Fan Mail Adam Ross is a writer, a three-time Moth StorySLAM winner, and a three-time Moth GrandSLAM performer. His stories have been featured on The Moth Podcast and the Bawdy Storytelling Podcast. He has performed at curated storytelling shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Chicago and New York City, including Strong Words, GatherNYC, OUTspoken, This Much is True, Talk Thera...

Send us Fan Mail Shawn Smith shares his stories of coming out in the rural midwest. His involvement in an emerging Gay college campus organization began a path of LGBT activism, advocacy, and community-building as the Gay Rights Movement began to coalesce in the mid-70's across America. Lured by the freedom and anonymity of big city life, Shawn shares his adventures along the road to freedom...

Send us Fan Mail Aaron Jay Young grew up in a very conservative, religious home in Pennsylvania. He escaped at age 19 and he's spent his adult life on a journey of growth and self-discovery.  Today he's an amazing portrait photographer based in LA and Palm Springs.  I'm proud to have had the chance to get to know and interview this beautiful soul. In Aaron's own words: "My...

Send us Fan Mail Matthew Hardy is a New York City based actor and musical theater writer. His musicals can be seen Off-Broadway, at theaters across the United States and as far away as Poland. As an actor he has performed in theater, film and television but has recently made the leap to the tiny screen where you can find him on tiktok singing impromptu songs in his underwear. www.matthewhardy.org...

Send us Fan Mail Rob Ollander-Krane Rob grew up in New Jersey where he met his husband Jason 43 years ago at 19 years old! It was there that he also started his career in retail and Human Resources…a career that led to Harvard Business Case creating a case study that focused on the innovative work he did in Performance Management. The two left New Jersey for the greener pastures of California and...

Send us Fan Mail Ram Charan has been passionate about exploring consciousness through meditation and healing work for decades.  A native of New York, he has spent the greater part of 30 years in India where he gained a deep appreciation and understanding of spiritual awareness practices and intuitive wisdom, which finds expression in his practice of integrative bodywork and transformational coachi...

Send us Fan Mail RUSSELL POE When he was a young man, Russ Poe had a professor who told him not   to follow his passion of becoming a teacher.  Years later, with a lot of life experiences under his belt and with three children of his own, circumstances in his life changed and he was able to once again come back to his passion. He returned to school, obtained the necessary teaching credentials and...

Send us Fan Mail RICKY REIDLING Ricky was born in the small southern town of Winder, Georgia on May 15th. Doing local theater productions since he was a kid he got his first real break when he was 15 when he was asked to audition for "Annie Get Your Gun" playing 'lil Jake, Annie's brother. He won the audience's over with great reviews to follow. Ricky continued acting in v...

Send us Fan Mail I met Tom Grissinger online more than 20 years ago.  We had initially considered dating but that didn't work out.  We remained friends over these many years. In this episode, he discusses the  rather unique grieving process he used in dealing with the unexpected death of his partner Kelly Turner. We bounce around on many topics, including why he chose to father four children...

Send us Fan Mail Who is Alex Stratikis?  Here's his story in his own words: "Hi, I’m Alex Stratikis , founder of Autism Adventures Abroad.   I’m a 20-something travel blogger/writer (I’m also a Japanese to English translator too!) and I just happen to have an Autism diagnosis too. I was inspired to start my blog and establish this website to encourage other young autistic people who are...

Send us Fan Mail XIAOBING is from China. He spent four months as an artist in residence at the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles. After that experience, he's been traveling around the US.  I caught up with him as a guest at my Airbnb in Palm Springs (Palm Springs Interlude). He chats with me about his art, his family and gay life in China. Photo: Copyright Wilkinson/2022 Opening and cl...

Send us Fan Mail Vinnie Rotalo is an amazing man.  He hasn't had an easy life.  When he was only 14, he tried to save his mother's life via instructions in CPR given by a 911 dispatcher.  After her death, he had to go live with his father whom he didn't really know. He became a trainer and was settling into a successful career with modeling potential when he became paralyzed.  It to...

Send us Fan Mail A native of San Diego County, Rev. Dr. Jerry Troyer has been a New Thought/Religious Science minister since 2007. Jerry is a founding board member and currently Director of Relationship Development for Urban Street Angels, an organization in San Diego that works to end youth homelessness by providing housing, life skills training and employment referrals to homeless transition age...

Send us Fan Mail Dan Rossi Dan discusses his coming out process, life on the east coast and other topics, including his vast experience heading up several large non-profits. Prior to his current job as Executive Director of the Palm Springs Animal Shelter, Dan  was with the Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh, where he led the very successful Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh over 12 years. Dan is...

Send us Fan Mail John Adam Di Pietro John earned his J.D. degree from the University of Notre Dame. In addition to being a civil litigator for most of his career,  he also brought in excess of four decades of experience in real estate, title, zoning, land use, litigation, business and municipal law to The Danek Law Firm.  He has served as solicitor for many municipalities and zoning and planning b...

Send us Fan Mail Luke Yankee Has written, directed, produced, taught, lectured and acted throughout the country and abroad. He has run two regional theatres, serving as Producing Artistic Director of the Long Beach Civic Light Opera  and the Struthers Library theatre. Luke’s published plays include THE LAST LIFEBOAT and A PLACE AT FOREST LAWN , both published by Dramatists Play Service.   His othe...

Send us Fan Mail "Facing The Truth Of Your Life" by Merle Yost The bad news: Your parents lied to you about who you are and what life is about. The good news: Most parents didn’t do it intentionally. They told you what they learned from their parents. ARE YOU READY TO: Look at the world differently? Challenge the beliefs that you were force-fed as a child? Live life on your terms, being...

Send us Fan Mail Helene Verin has a B.S. in Art from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and has a certificate in arts appraisal from NYU. Verin has worked for many galleries, museums as well as individual artists;  including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Documenta (where she worked with Joseph Beuys), was the Edinburgh Arts Administrator, and worked for Dennis Oppenheim as his reg...

Send us Fan Mail Jeff Witthuhn Peepa's owner & designer, Jeff Witthuhn, has been a Palm Springs resident since 2016. He began his retail career in 1998 when he worked at The Gap. From there he spent twelve years at Express and then moved into a buyers position at The Bon-Ton before moving to Palm Springs and opening up Peepa’s. Peepa’s is named after Jeff’s Great Grandpa, Bud Storch. Bud...

Send us Fan Mail Jared Rohrer is an advocate for healthy touch and sexual exploration. It is his passion to dispel shame by bringing dark things into the light and empowering people to want what they want in a way that benefits everyone’s highest good. To contact him email: jaredrdc@gmail.com Photo: Copyright Wilkinson/2022 Opening and closing music courtesy the very talented Zakhar Valaha via Pix...

Send us Fan Mail Brock Bennett shares his story of growing up in a fundamentalist family with a preacher as his father.  In this "no holds barred" interview, Brock discusses the damage done by a parent who was unable to face the true realities of life and how each person is created and who they are. He was told, and believed, that his "same sex attraction" was his thorn in the...

Send us Fan Mail Prince Fleet Easton: Was born in Akron, Ohio where he made his singing debut at the age of 5. Soon after he began his show business career by appearing in many Broadway musical productions at the Equity Goodyear Musical Theater. He has an extensive background in dance, acting and singing. He studied at American Ballet Theater, Ballet Arts and took master classes at the world-renow...

Send us Fan Mail Kevin Hansen takes us along as he describes his upbringing in an ultra-religious family, his dealing with diabetes and his surviving lung cancer. And one day (while he was a little high), he decided to leave the moderate safety of a house that had begun to flood, in order to go for a fun swim in the floodwaters smack dab in the middle of Hurricane Katrina! He's moved around a...

Send us Fan Mail Jonathan Goldman Jonathan has been involved in teaching improv classes and workshops in Palm Springs for a number of years. After attending public schools in Brooklyn, NY,  Jonathan then trained to be an optometrist in Boston. Upon realizing that there should be more to a career than forever saying, "Which is clearer? One or Two?",  he became the first O.D. to get an M.B...