Fascinating Nouns

When I first met Argena while working on The Stelle Experience, I realized she was something special. I am a skeptic by nature. Sure I have an intense interest in the paranormal, but that is because (to quote Fox Mulder) 'I want to believe', not because I do. I have met lots of self-proclaimed psychics, intuitives, sensitives, etc. Argena is the only one who I have ever been blown away by. For the...

Richard Wuydts is the mad scientist behind World's Rare Plants, and is a leading cultivator of rare and carnivorous plants. He has been growing, breeding, and collecting carnivorous plants for 50+ years in his state of the art greenhouse. Today this is a 7 day a week greenhouse, with several hundreds of species for purchase. Richard and his wife Mary built this incredible greenhouse from the groun...

Wendy Piatek describes herself as "Just a mom from Indiana". She is anything but. Over the past 4 years, she has been a witness to absolutely crazy, unidentified objects in the sky. Her experiences have been the genesis for a nation wide search for people like her, others who have had similar experiences. Are the things she is seeing alien in nature? Are they governmental? Are they something else?...

Alex Kwechansky is a Forensic Accountant, which I think is about as sexy as accounting gets. After large amounts of money have been stolen from large companies, Alex recreates the events that lead up to the theft. He interviews witnesses, he analyses financial anomalies in the data, and he follows his gut. You need three things: Motivation, credibility, and an opportunity. This is just like invest...

Have you ever secretly wanted to play make believe, but you thought you were too old to do so? Well lament no longer! Aaron talks about the health benefits of LARPing, or Live Action Role Playing. It turns out, it's not all orcs, foam swords, and lightening bolts. We talk about our first LARPing experiences, his LARP centered charity, and the M.I.L.E.S. system, which stands for Multiple Integrated...

What do auras, aneurisms, incessant name dropping, a dog saliva allergy, being a criminal informant, former Guinness world record holder, The Hollywood Reporter, and asexuality have in common? One man: Siike Donnelly. What I was looking for was a comic book historian for my first live show. What I found was the most interesting man in the world (better than the beer guy). That's about as accurate...

Kristin and Andy Looney: The NASA scientists behind the incredible game company Looney Labs. Think of them as the Ben and Jerry's (Or Ben and Jenny's) of the board/card game world. Sure they are the guys behind the incredibly successful 'Fluxx' series of card games, and 'Chrononauts', which is hands down the most brilliant game design I have ever seen. You play time travelers, and you have to desi...

Adam Nedeff (Pronounced Knee-Deaf) has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of game shows. As am matter of fact, he has written a 4 volume set entitled "This Day in Game Show History" Volumes 1-4. He also wrote the book "Quizmaster" which is about Superstar Game Show Host Bill Cullen. He has appeared as a contestant on several game shows, Trivial Pursuit: America Plays, Catch-21, and Who's Still Stand...

Michael Paul Smith is a guy who has found his niche. He has turned his model collecting/making hobby into incredible photographic works of art. Here it is in a nutshell: He takes die cast model cars, couples them with model buildings (which he creates down to the last detail), and then photographs them against real backgrounds. Sounds incredibly tedious, but the results are mind-blowing. The key t...

Dr. Dennin sticks around and we talk about the X-Men, including Wolverine, Prof. X, and what's her name.....oh yeah, Mystique!

Dr. Michael Dennin describes himself as a modern day Socrates (listen and find out why). A professor of Physics and Astronomy at University of California at Irvine, Dr. Dennin has made a name for himself as the go to guy for explaining superhero powers and abilities in real-world physics. He has appeared in the documentaries Batman Tech, The Science of Superman, Spiderman Tech, and Star Trek Tech....

The lovely Mary Brown, Master Quilter, discusses her sentimental and historic craft. She explains that quilts are both functional items, as well as heart-warming pieces of art. While her passions run high now, it wasn't always the case. Listen to her tell the story of the first quilt she received as a gift from her (probably historically significant) great grandmother. It was hand-crafted in the 1...

Al White is a star of stage and screen. I have always wanted to say that. Al is truly a talent that has done it all with all the big names. He's been on Broadway with Laurence Fishburne, stole a part from Danny Glover, and trained at the same place as Denzel Washington. His television career has spawned several decades and just about every primetime show from 1976-present. Starsky & Hutch, Good Ti...

Chris Dane Owens. You probably know him as the internet sensation whose music video Shine On Me (video below) went absolutely viral after an appearance on Attack of the Show. I have two things to tell you about that: 1. He has a follow-up video called Light Speed which is just as epic (video also below). 2. There is more to this man than high-end, fantasy based viral videos. He is a television pro...

In the world of professional punning, Ben Ziek is a living legend. He is a multi-time world champion. In 2009, his rookie year, Ben was runner-up for Punslingers. The next year, he got his first taste of gold as the 2010 Punslingers World Champion. He repeated that feat in 2011, but failed to place in 2012. Taking those soul crushing defeats and working his ass off during the off-season, Ben Ziek,...

Dr. Cosentino is a retired UCLA professor and author of some of the most definitive books on the subject of vodou. We talk about all aspects of Haitian Vodou, including zombies, sacred objects, rituals, and how it has been combined with Catholic symbolism.

James D. is a mysterious man with eclectic tastes, talents, and experiences. For this chat, I sit down with James and talk about his experiences at the center of the Hippie Movement in the early 1960's. We talk about his step-dad, who was a part of the Manhattan Project, his status as a "Kept Man", his witch girlfriend who rendered men impotent, and I learn the definition of "Capping Acid".

Tamara Jacobs Tamara Jacobs is an industry leader in branding and a career enhancement, not to be confused with being branded, which is much more painful. In her own words: “The founder and president of Tamara Jacobs Communications, Inc., Tamara Jacobs is an internationally acknowledged expert and trailblazer in the field of high-impact contemporary communications, and the author of the defi...

The Winchester House Richard Allan Wagner From his Website: “Educated at the California State University, San Bernardino and the California State University, Fullerton , in Philosophy and World History , Richard Wagner has been teaching, writing and lecturing for more than three decades. In 1998, he made a major discovery connecting the works of Francis Bacon with those of Sarah Winchester (...

Dr. Henry A. Kelly is a Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of English, biblical scholar, author, and expert on Satan. We talk about his book Satan: A Biography. In this incredible work, Dr. Kelly walks us through the historical evolution of the character of Satan as he appears in The Bible. He talks about many of the historical inaccuracies, and explains how these various misconceptio...

Long before Free Parking ruined the game, Ken Koury was winning Monopoly tournaments. I sit down and talk to him about his most heated rivalries, our mutual hatred of House Rules, and the advantage of a playing piece, that is the same color as the board.

Richard Smoley *From his Website* Richard Smoley is one of the worlds most distinguished authorities on the mystical and esoteric teachings of Western civilization.  Educated at Harvard and Oxford universities, he worked at a wide range of journalistic positions before becoming editor of Gnosis , the award-winning journal of the Western spiritual traditions, in 1990, a position he held up to 1999....

George explains the importance of worms for enriched soil, how volcanic rocks stimulate plant growth, and the beautiful unpredictability of Raku Pottery

Nancy Lee Bentley is an expert in the field of Cultured and Fermented foods. We talk about the delicious processes of curdling milk, and fermenting black tea. Nancy also explains how Chocolate, Pickles, and Salami are all technically created by bacteria.

Bill Land, Communal Living Expert, talks about his experiences residing in, and creating various intentional communities. We use Twin Oaks, a mulch-generational, multiracial, and egalitarian community, and an example for how these sorts of intentional communities are created, and maintained. Fun Fact: They use the concept of "consensus" instead of a "Majority Rules" form of democracy.