Bell Cow Productions: Podcasts

The weekly Bell Cow Herd Podcast, hosted by authors, Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride, rounds up the best voices from the Bell Cow Cattle-log and the wider publishing world—publishers, authors, editors and more—to shine a light on the people who compose the remarkable Midwestern literary community. With short, punchy chats, exclusive author readings, and deep dives into their background and cra...

🚨 What happens when a thriller begins with an impossible choice? In this episode of Beyond the Pasture, Bell Cow Productions hosts Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride sit down with Tess Stimson, bestselling author of psychological thrillers including The Perfect Accident. Tess’s latest novel, The Perfect Accident, was released April 23, 2026. The book begins with a devastating tragedy: a high sch...

The weekly Bell Cow Herd Podcast, hosted by authors, Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride, rounds up the best voices from the Bell Cow Cattle-log and the wider publishing world—publishers, authors, editors and more—to shine a light on the people who compose the remarkable Midwestern literary community. With short, punchy chats, exclusive author readings, and deep dives into their background and cra...

📚 What keeps a story alive when books are competing with every screen in the room? In this episode of Bell Cow Field Notes, hosts Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride are joined by C. M. Alongi and Michael Allan Mallory for a lively conversation about storytelling across books, fandom, BookTok, fantasy, mystery, graphic novels, video games, and online culture. Together, they dig into how stories m...

The weekly Bell Cow Herd Podcast, hosted by authors, Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride, rounds up the best voices from the Bell Cow Cattle-log and the wider publishing world, publishers, authors, editors and more, to shine a light on the people who compose the remarkable Midwestern literary community. With short, punchy chats, exclusive author readings, and deep dives into their background and c...

Bell Cow StoryLab is our monthly author panel series, hosted by authors Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride. Each episode brings multiple writers into one craft-focused conversation, spotlighting how books actually get built. Scene by scene, choice by choice. In What We Steal From Other Mediums: Craft Tricks Borrowed From TV, Film and Games, we celebrate the joyful truth that writers are magpies....

The weekly Bell Cow Herd Podcast, hosted by authors, Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride, rounds up the best voices from the Bell Cow Cattle-log and the wider publishing world—publishers, authors, editors and more—to shine a light on the people who compose the remarkable Midwestern literary community. With short, punchy chats, exclusive author readings, and deep dives into their background and cra...

Mystery Conversations: A Bell Cow Podcast brings the best of Minnesota Mystery Night to listeners everywhere. These episodes are recorded live, in front of an audience, at the long-running monthly event that pairs top mystery and thriller writers with smart, engaging interviewers for lively, unscripted conversation. Expect craft talk, publishing stories, crime-fiction gossip of the respectable var...

The weekly Bell Cow Herd Podcast, hosted by authors, Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride, rounds up the best voices from the Bell Cow Cattle-log and the wider publishing world—publishers, authors, editors and more—to shine a light on the people who compose the remarkable Midwestern literary community. With short, punchy chats, exclusive author readings, and deep dives into their background and cra...

The weekly Bell Cow Herd Podcast, hosted by authors, Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride, rounds up the best voices from the Bell Cow Cattle-log and the wider publishing world—publishers, authors, editors and more—to shine a light on the people who compose the remarkable Midwestern literary community. With short, punchy chats, exclusive author readings, and deep dives into their background and cra...

The weekly Bell Cow Herd Podcast, hosted by authors, Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride, rounds up the best voices from the Bell Cow Cattle-log and the wider publishing world—publishers, authors, editors and more—to shine a light on the people who compose the remarkable Midwestern literary community. With short, punchy chats, exclusive author readings, and deep dives into their background and cra...

Bell Cow StoryLab is our monthly author panel series, hosted by authors Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride. Each episode brings multiple writers into one craft-focused conversation, spotlighting how books actually get built. Scene by scene, choice by choice. In Writing Across Genres: The Joy (and Chaos) of Being Unpigeonholeable, we talk about what happens when your imagination refuses to stay in...

The weekly Bell Cow Herd Podcast, hosted by authors, Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride, rounds up the best voices from the Bell Cow Cattle-log and the wider publishing world—publishers, authors, editors and more—to shine a light on the people who compose the remarkable Midwestern literary community. With short, punchy chats, exclusive author readings, and deep dives into their background and cra...

🚨 Welcome to Fresh Off the Stack, the Bell Cow Productions podcast where Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride sit down with authors to talk about brand-new books just as they arrive in the world. This series is all about new releases, the stories behind them, and the conversations that happen when a book is still fresh in readers’ hands. 🖊️ In each episode, we talk with authors about inspiration,...

Mystery Conversations: A Bell Cow Podcast brings the best of Minnesota Mystery Night to listeners everywhere. These episodes are recorded live, in front of an audience, at the long-running monthly event that pairs top mystery and thriller writers with smart, engaging interviewers for lively, unscripted conversation. Expect craft talk, publishing stories, crime-fiction gossip of the respectable var...

🐮 Welcome to the Bell Cow Book Club, a live monthly podcast from Bell Cow Productions. This one is a little different from our usual shows. No edits. No safety net. No second take. Just a real-time conversation about a book, shared with readers, writers, and anyone who loves talking about stories after the last page. Each month, Bell Cow cohosts Rob Jung and Michael MacBride will choose a book co...

The weekly Bell Cow Herd Podcast, hosted by authors, Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride, rounds up the best voices from the Bell Cow Cattle-log and the wider publishing world—publishers, authors, editors and more—to shine a light on the people who compose the remarkable Midwestern literary community. With short, punchy chats, exclusive author readings, and deep dives into their background and cra...

🚨 What do we expect from law enforcement in real life, and why are we so fascinated by fictional officers who bend the rules? In this episode of Bell Cow Field Notes, hosts Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride are joined by retired police commander and ethics instructor Joseph Moravchik, along with authors Judy M. Kerr, Tracy Clark, Craig Johnson, and Doug Dorow, for a thoughtful conversation abou...

The weekly Bell Cow Herd Podcast, hosted by authors, Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride, rounds up the best voices from the Bell Cow Cattle-log and the wider publishing world—publishers, authors, editors and more—to shine a light on the people who compose the remarkable Midwestern literary community. With short, punchy chats, exclusive author readings, and deep dives into their background and cra...

🚨 Welcome to Fresh Off the Stack, the Bell Cow Productions podcast where Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride sit down with authors to talk about brand-new books just as they arrive in the world. This series is all about new releases, the stories behind them, and the conversations that happen when a book is still fresh in readers’ hands. 🖊️ In each episode, we talk with authors about inspiration,...

The weekly Bell Cow Herd Podcast, hosted by authors, Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride, rounds up the best voices from the Bell Cow Cattle-log and the wider publishing world—publishers, authors, editors and more—to shine a light on the people who compose the remarkable Midwestern literary community. With short, punchy chats, exclusive author readings, and deep dives into their background and cra...

Welcome to Fresh Off the Stack, the Bell Cow Productions podcast where Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride sit down with authors to talk about brand-new books just as they arrive in the world. This series is all about new releases, the stories behind them, and the conversations that happen when a book is still fresh in readers’ hands. In each episode, we talk with authors about inspiration, proces...

The weekly Bell Cow Herd Podcast, hosted by authors, Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride, rounds up the best voices from the Bell Cow Cattle-log and the wider publishing world—publishers, authors, editors and more—to shine a light on the people who compose the remarkable Midwestern literary community. With short, punchy chats, exclusive author readings, and deep dives into their background and cra...

Mystery Conversations: A Bell Cow Podcast brings the best of Minnesota Mystery Night to listeners everywhere. These episodes are recorded live, in front of an audience, at the long-running monthly event that pairs top mystery and thriller writers with smart, engaging interviewers for lively, unscripted conversation. Expect craft talk, publishing stories, crime-fiction gossip of the respectable var...

Bell Cow StoryLab is our monthly author panel series, hosted by authors Rob Jung and Michael David MacBride. Each episode brings multiple writers into one craft-focused conversation, spotlighting how books actually get built. Scene by scene, choice by choice. In The Mystery of the Ordinary, we start with a deceptively hard question: how do you turn everyday life (a grocery store parking lot, a qui...