Check Your Brain

Dennis Kucinich has been a mayor (at just 31 years of age), state senator, and member of the US House of Representatives. His blue-collar style of politics has drawn undying support and staunch criticism from members of both parties in nearly a half century in politics.   Kucinich has a new book out called The Division of Light and Power, which not only chronicles his fight as mayor of Cleveland v...

Andrew Gruel is a chef, restaurant owner, and TV/radio personality based in Southern California. Restaurants across the country were obliterated not by the COVID-19 virus, but the government response to it, and it will take a monumental effort for them, as well as the owners, managers, and employees, to recover.   86 Restaurant Struggle is a fund to help those workers whose jobs and livelihoods we...

As you may have noticed, there has been a worldwide pandemic going on since early 2020. And because of that, pretty much every event had been postponed for over a year, with certain exceptions. Leah and Tony Mazur did get married in 2020, but will have a mask-free, full-capacity wedding in 2021.   Leah Mazur, the wife of Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur, joined her husband in the studio to talk about...

Beer for a dime? So conceivably, a person can get trashed at the ballpark for just one dollar? Many such cases occurred on June 4th, 1974 at Cleveland Stadium between the Indians and Texas Rangers, which caused a brouhaha between the fans and players as the game progressed (or regressed).   Jim Clark is the play-by-play man for the Akron RubberDucks and the author of the book Rally 'Round Clevelan...

The Social Gospel has been used as a wedge to inject social justice causes inside Christianity, essentially gutting it from the inside. How do we as Christians fight this? Lucas Miles has some ideas, and he gives some background in his new book, The Christian Left: How Liberal Thought Has Hijacked the Church. Lucas talks to Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur about this Christian Cabal, the progressive...

Native Ohioan David Giffels has penned a new tome on his home state and how it is a microcosm for the rest of the country. From its farming roots in the rural areas to the high tech larger cities, to the numerous colleges, Ohio has it all. Giffels sat down via Zoom with Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur to chat about the Buckeye State, its affection for demagogue politicians, and how Ohio seems to be...

Russ Cohen is an author and podcaster. He is the go-to guy when it comes to New York and Philadelphia sports, most notably baseball and hockey.   Russ and Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur talked about a variety of baseball-related topics, from their favorite current and past ballparks, the greatest players in New York Mets history, who New Yorkers root for, and the best rookie seasons in baseball his...

On May 12th, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced the newest members to grace their hallowed halls. Tina Turner, The Go-Go's, Foo Fighters, Jay Z, Todd Rundgren, and Carole King make up the 2021 class at the Rock Hall.   For today's podcast, Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur chats with John Goehrke, the Director of Fan Engagement and Onstage Experience at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland ab...

This is part two of Tony Mazur's conversation with NYC-based comedian and host of In Hot Water and Gum Fridays' Geno Bisconte.   In this episode (which was split in two, as it lasted nearly three hours), Tony and Geno talk about what New York and Los Angeles will look like after the pandemic is over, the hysteria surrounding COVID-19, his relationship with cohost Aaron Berg, and watching sports gr...

If you turn on basic cable right now (well, after you listen to this podcast), A League of Their Own is probably on somewhere, either IFC, Sundance, or TBS. But how accurate was the film? And how accurate are analytics in today's game?   In this two-part episode, Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur first chats with Anika Orrock, author of the book The Incredible Women of the All-American Girls Professio...

You've seen Colin Mochrie make cameos on TV shows and commercials, but he is best known for his long tenure on Whose Line is it Anyway?, both the British and American incarnations.   Colin sat down with Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur about his upbringing in Canada and what propelled him to get into Second City. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he and Brad Sherwood were continuing their improv shows vi...

The story of 2020 was indeed COVID-19, but perhaps the story of 2021 may be the result of the lockdowns.   Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur sat down with author Michael Betrus, and they touched on the hysteria surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, from the actual science of face coverings and lockdowns, to the deaths of despair that seem to be ignored by the mainstream media.   You can purchase Michael'...

Avid newspaper readers have seen Tom Batiuk's work for nearly a half century. He is the creator of the wildly popular and sometimes controversial Funky Winkerbean, and he also created Crankshaft, a spinoff of the former.   Tom and Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur talked about the history of Funky Winkerbean, how it went from a "gag-a-day" strip in the beginning to a narrative-based story arc years la...

If you're a die-hard baseball fan, you've probably been told that Abner Doubleday started baseball about 155 years ago. According to author Thomas W. Gilbert, not only is that a myth, but he explains the story behind the myth in his book, How Baseball Happened.   Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur chats with Thomas about the beginnings of baseball, what sport it was derived from, the early teams and st...

Geno Bisconte is a New York City-based comedian and host of the podcasts In Hot Water and subscription-only Gum Fridays.   Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur got so much content out of Geno he needed to split it into two episodes (the second part will be released down the road). Tony and Geno riff about their cats, past relationships, his early days in standup, and coming up with edgier material in thi...

In the days before Twitter and Instagram, fans would have to pen a personal letter to their favorite celebrity, stamp it, send it through the postal service, and MAYBE said celeb has a chance at reading it, AND THEN the opportunity a response will be sent is quite minuscule.   David Fantle and Tom Johnson were so obsessed with the golden age of Hollywood that, as teenagers, they flew all over the...

FREE PODCAST. A year ago today, I was in Southern California for work, and decided to make a side trip to Los Angeles to catch a hockey game, concert, and comedy show, all while the world began shutting down. From the moment I picked up the rental car at 3 PM till when I arrived some 10.5 hours later at the hotel in Carlsbad, the world became a different place.   I decided to start this "311 Day"...

Linkin Park is one of, if not the most successful rock band of the last two decades. But their beginnings weren't so meteoric. All of that trial and error and they never gave up; they just needed someone who saw their potential. Jeff Blue was the one to give him their first break, and he documented their success with their debut album, Hybrid Theory, in his new book, From Xero to #1: Becoming Link...

Darryl Strawberry is a multi-time all-star, Rookie of the Year, and four-time World Champion. So after all the accolades, why is his post-career life more fulfilling? The Straw sobered up from the booze and the blow and found the Lord. And for the last two decades, he has become and author and evangelist. His new book is called Turn Your Season Around.   Don Chaney is a long-time NBA player and co...

Kevin Brennan is a nationally touring standup comedian and occasional television writer originally from Philadelphia, but is currently based out of the New York City area. He made guest appearances on Spin City and Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update, but he had to massive breaks: an HBO One Night Stand special in 2005, and a 2014 Sirius XM radio appearance that endeared him to a new audience, wh...

John Byner has been a fixture on the small screen for decades. From his early appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s, through his cameos in the '70s on The Odd Couple and The Carol Burnett Show, to starring on his 1980s sketch show Bizarre, Byner's face and especially his voice (or should I say voiceS) are unmistakable.   His new autobiography is out now called Five Minutes, Mr. Byner: A...

Tom Seaver was the first superstar of the New York Mets. During his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992, Cooperstown, New York was a sea of Mets blue and orange. Sadly, he passed away in 2020 after complications of Lewy body dementia and COVID-19.   Bill Madden is a former New York Daily News columnist, and he is the author of the book Tom Seaver: A Terrific Life, and he spoke with Ch...

Comedy and rock music make strange but familiar bedfellows, yet not many comedians have tested those waters. Sam Kinison did in the 1980s, and Jim Breuer is doing that today, but not many have taken advantage of that.   Jim Florentine is a New Jersey-based comedian, and is the host of Everybody is Awful (Except You) podcast on Barstool Sports. He also voices the character Special Ed on Comedy Cent...

"Just one more thing," "There's something that bothers me," and of course "What did you pay for those shoes?" are some iconic lines in the history of Columbo, one of NBC's rotating Mystery Movie programs in the 1970s, then later brought back as one-off specials on ABC from 1989 through 2003.   Mark Dawidziak is a former television critic at the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon Journal, and...

Welcome to the Check Your Brain Podcast! In this brief episode (if you want to call it that), host Tony Mazur previews what's to expect in the forthcoming episodes. It is essentially a hodgepodge, a menagerie of interests that pop into Tony's mind, from sports to comedy, to pop culture and even some politics and religion. Not every episode will be something that piques your interests, but he assur...