Detoxicity: By Men, About Men, For Everyone

I met John Hill it must have been a decade ago through the magic of social media. John ran a blog called Pop Music Notes and as a music blogger myself, we connected pretty quickly. A lot can change in a decade or so, and while music has changed and our relationships to social media have changed, John and I have stayed in touch. While our conversation for Detoxicity begins and ends with discussions...

Three years is a lot of time (although I'm still attempting to process the fact that this podcast has been an ongoing concern for almost that amount of time). Lives can change dramatically in that time span, and that is the case with the person I'm interviewing, singer/songwriter Julian Velard . Since he and I last spoke for the pod ( Episode 30 ), Julian and his family have pulled stakes and move...

Happy early Thanksgiving. I hope you're all set to spend a few days with loved ones. Sorry there wasn't an episode last week. The recording I planned to use had some massive audio Gremlins, which is disappointing because I thought it was a really good conversation. Anyway, this week's episode features an interview with journalist and comedian Jack McDonald. Most of our conversation centers around...

In this episode, I'm talking to Chad Dryden, who is the co-owner of The Record Exchange, an independent record shop in Boise, ID. Our conversation covers quite a bit, from transitioning into ownership to the fact that Chad and his family actually moved to Ohio from Boise during the pandemic, which puts something of a challenge into owning a business. We also talk about taking care of your mind and...

This episode's guest, Clay Fernald (AKA Clay N Ferno), was voted the Most Popular Man in Boston back in 2005, thanks to MySpace (those were the days, huh?) In those days, Clay did marketing and promo for The Middle East, one of Boston's most legendary concert venues (I've maybe seen 100 shows there). These days, Clay does his own thing: he's an independent contractor, he hosts a podcast, has a Sub...

Roman Rimer is an actor, improv performer, radio host and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this episode, Roman and I discuss activism and allyship in various communities. We discuss the gentrification of San Francisco and how he tries to stay true to the city's original spirit of being a place for those who often exist on the margins of society. Roman also charts his course as a tr...

Dan Wilson is a Grammy-Award winning musician and songwriter who has scored hits as a member of the band Semisonic ("Closing Time"), as a solo artist (his EP Dancing on the Moon was released earlier this month), and as a collaborative songwriter with Taylor Swift, Chris Stapleton, John Legend and more.   Dan and I discuss his history of collaboration and dig deep into what makes him such a good pa...

I'm super stoked to be bringing Cornell Verdeja-Woodson back to the podcast. Cornell is the head of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at the meditation app "Headspace" (I've used it, it's great) and also runs Brave Trainings, LLC , an organization that provides a starting point for organizations to unpack sensitive diversity topics through authentic dialogue. Cornell and I discuss his jou...

Bill Bodkin originally appeared on Detox back on Episode 33 . He is the founder and editor in chief of T he Pop Break (a pop culture website) and hosts so many podcasts that even my workaholic ass had to take my hat off and bow in his honor.  We revisit many of the themes from our original chat in this episode, including coping with COVID-19 as an immunocompromised person and struggling with self-...

My guest for this episode of Detoxicity is comedian and writer Colby Smith . Colby and I began our acquaintance about six years ago while debuting our respective Radio Free Brooklyn shows. He has moved on to co hosting the podcast "Honey Baby Sweetie Love", which takes a humorous look at online dating.    Our conversation touches on our radio experiences, but Colby also details the course that led...

Ty McKinnie grew up in suburban Atlanta and moved to NYC for grad school. He is a multi-faceted creative; singing, acting, doing theater and aspiring to produce and direct films. In our conversation, Ty shares the long road to self-acceptance as a gay Black man brought up in the American South in an environment that was not immediately supportive. He talks about the people who paved the way for hi...

In this episode, I'm talking to Billy Mack , a musician and stay at home Dad based in Pennsylvania. Billy writes "happy songs about being uncomfortable" and we spend a lot of time discussing his emotions in various contexts. We talk about touring the country as an independent artist, and the highs and lows that come with it. The conversation covers child-rearing, traditional gender roles, therapy,...

I met David Schulze at Swingset Takes Desire! last year and we hit it off immediately. David and his partner Laura run an event called Poly Camp NE , which brings together polyamorous and lifestyle-adjacent people for a long weekend of activities, community and fun in the mountains of New Hampshire. During our chat, which was recorded maybe a week before the 2022 edition of Poly Camp happened, Dav...

Nabil Ayers is the president of Beggars Group, a family of independent record labels, and has worked in or around music his entire life. This shouldn't be surprising when you consider his mother was a dancer and his father is legendary jazz and R&B musician Roy Ayers. Earlier this year, Nabil published a memoir entitled "My Life in the Sunshine" , which explores his history and that of his family....

Jarret Berenstein is a writer and comedian best known for pointed political satire. I met him when we were both on Radio Free Brooklyn. If you're interested in offbeat improvisational comedy, his show Famous Dead People might be your jam. Whenever I interview comedians, I wonder what the impetus was for them to decide they wanted to be funny as a profession, and Jarret discusses that during our co...

Zander Masser is an occupational therapist based in Montreal. He recently released a book called "Unburying My Father", which contains narrative text designed to thread the needle to photographs taken by his father Randy, who contracted HIV via tainted blood and passed away from AIDS-related complications in 2000. Zander speaks eloquently about grief and how putting together this book was a healin...

Alex Marcus, by day, is a behavioral therapist working with autistic children. By night, he is building an empire as the podcasts editor for the pop culture website thepopbreak.com . Our conversation covers divorce and being the "man of the house" at an early age, and why Alex's fractured sense of family led him to his current career. We also talk Alex's life with a debilitating bone disorder and...

In this episode, I talk to Lenny Schwartz. Lenny is a playwright and filmmaker based in the tiny town of Scituate, Rhode Island. He came into the world of theater by accident, but now has a lot of opinions about film in general and about the art he makes specifically. Lenny also discusses growing up socially awkward and developing a debilitating case of body dysmorphia as a teenager. We also discu...

Proud to bring you Episode 111, which is kind of a wild one. I talk to filmmaker & musician (and "The Nosy Anthropologist) Noam Osband about his extreme interest in getting to know people, raising his kids in San Francisco, navigating his youth in an Orthodox Jewish community, and more.  You can find Noam on IG and Twitter at @noamosband, or hear some of his (admittedly quite creative) songs/see s...

Sean Zearfoss is an educator and musician (drummer in the band Small Reactions), based in the Atlanta, GA area. Our conversation covers the diversity of the South and his pride for his hometown. We talk about his experiences in the Scouts, what led him to therapy, his late start in music, and the advice he learned from Evel Knievel.   Follow Sean on IG: @seanzearfoss Follow Sean's band on IG: @sma...

Brooklynite (by way of Ohio) Luke Wesley made the decision to become a musician after deciding a life in the clergy probably wasn't the life he wanted after all. You'll hear about that fateful career switch and more during our conversation. Luke discusses his Midwestern upbringing as one of six (!!) boys, he talks about the skills he's acquired as a New York City bartender, waxes poetic about his...

About a year ago, I got together with relationship experts Kevin Patterson, Dylan Thomas and Ryan "Prof" Bentham to discuss "coming out of the pandemic", and how we'd adjusted our relationship styles and practiced self-care during a trying period. Little did we know that twelve months later, we'd still be navigating our way through things. In addition to discussing the changes that have occurred i...

In this episode, we're traveling out to Denver Colorado to talk to Patrick Brown, who is the newly-minted owner of Twist and Shout, the Mile High City's #1 independent record store. Patrick and I talk about the thrills and hard work that come with being a brand new business owner, and what management tactics he's learned over the years. We travel back in time to Patrick's time at NYU film school a...

Benjamin Wagner is the founder of a consulting firm called Essential Industries Inc, but that's not all he does or has done. Over the course of his life, Benjamin has worn the hats of journalism, musician and filmmaker, co-creating the PBS documentary "Mister Rogers & Me". He hosts a podcast called "Friends & Neighbors". Friends & Neighbors is a show fundamentally about empathy, listening to the s...

You might know Christian Finnegan  from his stand up, or from his role on the series Are We There Yet, or from VH-1's Best Week Ever, or from the infamous Chappelle's Show Mad Real World sketch. What you might not know is that Christian fell into comedy almost by accident, or that he lost both of his brothers and his mother to heart problems, or that he had heart surgery himself just about a year...