Actual People

Welcome to Episode 16! We are nearing the end of Season 1 of Actual People.   In this episode, host Chauncey Zalkin  muses on conflict resolution from a cul-de-sac baseball game between 5-10 year olds to two daft elderly men squabbling on national TV about their golf game when we're worried about the future of our country and who will run it. (hint: it will most likely be one of these two......

Musing on Loss of Organic Culture & Interview with Kate Tellers of The Storytelling Platform the Moth Sense making. It's one of the deepest human drives. We desperately want to make sense of our world and our role in it.  Host Chauncey Zalkin delves into this topic in the episode before this (Ep 14) and reads her own story as a writer using allegory to see truth and heal. We are all maker...

Self-Helping Yourself with Allegory  🐾 With excerpt of novel in progress, Claw 🐾 We're pushing lots of buttons. We're clicking and liking and commenting. We're beeping and booping, scrolling and scheduling. We're drinking from a fire hose of advice, opinions and external standards for how we should live our lives. Where's it all getting us? Welcome to episode 14. This mi...

Get Curious, Get Clear - Writing a Life Brief with Bonnie Wan. Today host Chauncey Zalkin sits down with the author of "The Life Brief ". Her guest, Bonnie Wan, has been the head of brand strategy at famed agency Goodby, Silverstein and Partners for over 13 years - and she took that talent for zeroing in on making meaning for major brands and parlayed it into writing briefs for people&ap...

In this special Mother's Day edition of "Actual People," host Chauncey Zalkin shares a real-life story of serendipity and chance encounters in the mom era of her life.  Three weeks ago, a Saturday morning bagel run turns into an unforeseen adventure when our host and her daughter Sky discover Elijah, a scarred, malnourished, and beautiful older pit bull, wandering the streets in the...

The Anatomy of Collaboration: Insights from a Writer's Room Veteran. Meet Oscar-nominated writer and director,  Rob Pearlstein, known for his work in both advertising and television, MacGyver, Scorpion, Someone Marry Barry, and more. Join Rob and Chauncey as they delve into the dynamics of  collaboration  exploring the intense, intricate world of writers' rooms and creative agencies. The...

Tech Free in NYC? How One Super Successful Digital Marketer and City Mom Gave it All Up And Went For Broke . In the latest episode of "Actual People," host Chauncey Zalkin talks to the author of "Raising Hell and Living Well: Freedom from Influence in a World Where Everyone Wants Something From You, Including Me."  Their discussion explores the pervasive impact of digital influ...

Welcome to this week's episode of Actual People , hosted by Chauncey Zalkin. Today, we delve into the intricate world of relationships, trauma, and the journey towards healing and self-love with relationship and trauma therapist Jasmonae Joyriel PsyD LP, brings her expertise in navigating the aftermath of toxic relationships and sheds light on the path to healthier connections. In This Episod...

Blue Ridge Mountain Edition - On Perfection, Grief and Hindsight Being 20/20 - An Essay That Looks Back on My Father. Today's episode started out as a reading of an essay I wrote about my father's death of Prostate Cancer in 2019 with a title inspired by the Tame Impala song, "Let It Happen" which I heard performed live in Atlanta two days before he died knowing his death was a...

Future Features: A Deep Dive into K Beauty and Beyond - Interview with Flawless Author Elise Hu Join us on our voyage to the uncanny valley and back as we discuss the trajectory of beauty’s “cyborgian” future with TED Talks host and author of “Flawless, Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital,” Elise Hu. In this captivating episode of Actual People, Chauncey sits down with Elise to...

Beauty is a short lived tyranny.   - Socrates "I put the silver stiletto in the trash. The blade started to churn and I heard the snap of wood and strain of leather rending within its metal jaws..." Beauty is sublime, rejuvenating, restorative! but impossible beauty standards can have quite an opposite and deleterious impact.     How do we foster self love and create the kind of beauty w...

In this enlightening episode of "Actual People," host Chauncey Zalkin sits down with  former architect and designer turned generative AI educator, Lori Mazor. As of the date of this episode, Lori has guided over 3000 business leaders through the maze of generative AI.  With a newsletter called "Humans of AI" and an upcoming book called "Temperature: Creativity in the age o...

From Lost In Love to Boy Bye -  How Changing Lyrics Reflect Our Changing Attitudes Toward Love. We used to have ballads. Epic sweeping syrupy sweet songs of undying devotion. Then love grew up - or grew jaded, depending on how you look at it. One thing's for certain, the love song as we knew it is long dead and not coming back. In this  episode, I take it back to the wind machine fueled hair...

What's Next for Us?- Media and Publishing - The Anna Holmes Interview From Jezebel shuttering and resurrecting last year to the 20,000+ layoffs in media, 2023 was a scary year for people working in creative fields, and then 2024 came along...   In this 3rd episode of Actual People, we bring you our first interview which is with Anna Holmes, the creator of online feminist publication Jezebel....

In the second episode of "Actual People,"  I dive into how fear and darkness are useful tools for conjuring the spirits of hope and creativity and how despair is the real monster under the bed. I touch upon the occult, post industrial Manchester, true crime, my 80s Miami childhood (again) and how the artist Jelly Roll, who just gave a rousing speech to Congress, might just might be the t...

In this first episode, I reflect on the shock and freedom of turning 50 at a time in history where nothing is what it was. Gen X is the unsung renegade generation reinventing once again.  What will we do next? Welcome to the very first episode of "Actual People" where I take you on a journey of discovery, reflection, and understanding of the unique path of our generation. As I reflect on...

Welcome to Actual People, an unfiltered exploration of individual and societal shifts in a world undergoing tremendous change. In this podcast, I’ll open up about my own experiences in order to dive into social and cultural phenomena, positive developments, and collective pain. We’ll look at survival, endurance, strength, triumph and despair while imagining a future with creative joy and hope. Eac...