Finding Favorites with Leah Jones

Thea Lux, an LA-based actor, writer, comic and voice-over artist , jumped on Zoom with me to talk about knitting - specifically all the sweaters she's been knitting during COVID. We talk about patterns, finding errors and deciding when to start over. Did you vote yet? Show Links Follow Thea on Twitter and Instagram Hot Dog City, USA on Etsy Like Mother on Audible Support Geeky Teas in LA Thea was...

Author Joanna QL and I talked about Writing the Rails, I Fight Dragons and what it was like to mix social media and music business in the late aughts.   Links Writing the Rails I Fight Dragons A Seasonal Table: Winter

Joanna QL, author of The Seasonal Table: Winter, loves all forms of making and crafting. Whether it's cooking, sewing, wood burning or massive home projects - she's your go to person! We talk about her Ayurvedic training, a new cookbook and then dive deep on where her love of making comes from. She also has a warning for people running Zooms with kids - watch out for the Motion Sickness Opera and...

Shai and I went down a winding path during our CATS episode about close-up magic, movies about magic and the Magic Castle in LA. Somebody invite us both when all of this is over, please. Chicago Magic Lounge Magic Castle David Copperfield disappeared the Statue of Liberty

Shai Korman, from Friday Night Movie Podcast and the Goldnerds , joined me to talk about his devotion to the musical CATS. We do talk about the How Did This Get Made livestream show about CATS a fair amount, but I think we limited the inside baseball to a low roar. Show Links Follow Shai on Twitter and Instagram Femmebot PhD: CATS One Person Show - CAT The Amazing Alexander - "it was better than C...

Adrienne Ciskey, aka @ solarpowerspork , has been playing Sims for 20 years and is only recently willing to talk about her love of the game in public. She walked me through the different types of players, things that The Sims is famous for, what she hopes for the future of the gaming franchise and how The Sims can teach us to build a more equitable world. Links Lift Every Voice and Sing arranged b...

As the saying goes, "teach a girl to propagate a cactus and she'll eat fish for a lifetime." That's not the saying, but Whitney Wasson , who makes jokes for a living, joined me from her plant-filled Uptown apartment to talk about what it takes to keep all sorts of plants thriving during a quarantine. We also talk about the business of stand-up comedy, sobriety and the theory of dumbbell maps. Just...

Show and tells don't always translate to podcasts, so here is the tour that Whitney Wasson gave me of her houseplants - which includes Shamrocks, bunny cactus and scallions.   Follow Whitney everywhere !

In the full length episode of my interview with Keidra Chaney, I deleted a 10-minute segment of us oohing and aahing while we looked at Instagram. It was some of the most fun we had during our interview and so here's the clip. Hit up #KPopDollstagram on Instagram and scroll for cuteness.   Here are some of the specific dolls that we adored during our chat. Knitted French and English overalls Going...

Keidra Chaney, known to most of us as @ kdc , is the co-founder of The Learned Fangirl and the person who introduced me to KPop music as I followed her trips to Japan to see a band called Shinee. In this episode we talk about KPop fandom as a whole, but then do a deep dive on #KPopDollstagram - the Instagram hashtag you are going to love before the episodes ends. Episode Links Fan Studies Network...

Adam Phelps, owner of Ghostwood Farms and an instructor at Lee's Martial Arts, loves Hapkido and martial arts. He was also the college radio DJ that Leah listened to every Sunday night in high school. This episode is mostly about martial arts and coming to martial arts as an adult, but also about music, COVID and farming. Related Links Lee's Martial Arts Bloomington (for Wednesday classes with Ada...

Steve Higgins is an award-winning English professor at Lewis and Clark who loves all things Doctor Who. We had a lovely conversation about how he first found the Doctor on two local PBS stations near St. Louis and rediscovered the Doctor in a clearance bin at a record shop. Follow Steve on Twitter and Tik Tok where he does one minute poetry lessons. Related Links BroaDWcast.org David Steel: The Po...

Jen Myers, a Chicago-based technologist, writer and podcaster, loves the movie-watch-along show Mystery Science Theater 3000. We talk about her earliest fandom to how she's trying to figure out how to take a life size Tom Servo along with her to Comic Cons.   Related Links Mystery Science Theater 3000 IMDB Follow Jen on Twitter and check out her website for news about projects. Quiet Little Horror...

Jason Diamond is a Brooklyn-based writer who loves the weird American suburb, so much so that he wrote the book on them. The Sprawl: Reconsidering the Weird American Suburb is available today and is Jason's exploration of the art and culture that is born of suburbs. We talk about so many of his favorite things, starting with a conversation about music and the Chicago live-music scene in the 90s, R...

Scotty Iseri, the host of The Imagine Neighborhood , loves open mic nights (and probably open mic afternoons, too). He learned plenty of life lessons trying to make strangers look up from their laptops and pay attention to him. Links The Imagine Neighborhood The Digits Scotty Got an Office Job Emily Heller - writing retreats Tumblr acquired by Yahoo, David Karp founder Thea Lux runs a Zoom open mi...

Robert Loerzel was once voted Chicago's best person to follow on Twitter and he still is. He also loves the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and all of the assorted books, comic books, and music associated with it. Robert almost picked David Lynch, so we don't leave him out of the conversation. Leah recorded an extra-long introduction about the Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, which is available on Pla...

Amy Hatch, a content consultant and CEO of her own business , loves all things Disney. The parks, the properties, the cruises and the movies. She takes us through her journey of melting her Gen-X cynicism with the power of Disney. Links The Imagineering Story Disney Fairy Tale Weddings Follow Amy on Twitter  

In this episode, I flipped the script and interviewed one of my favorites - Andy Slavitt. You can find him on Twitter at @aslavitt or on almost any given news channel on a daily basis. He is a tireless advocate for improving healthcare access in the United States and is currently focused on stopping the public mismanagement of COVID-19. The episode ends with a pep talk for people planning High Hol...

William Pacholski, the owner and founder of the Portland Psychic School , talks with me about Dave Malloy's musical Natasha and Pierre and the Great Comet of 1912. The Great Comet ran on Broadway for nearly a year, closing on September 3, 2017, but as you'll hear - it was performed in a variety of venues for a few years as Dave Malloy developed the show.   Additional Links The One That Got Away vi...

Esther Kustanowitz is an LA based writer and journalist who loves most things Star Wars. Join us as we talk about how she found Star Wars, what she loves about it and her special appreciation for Carrie Fisher. She explains what the Machete Order is and recommends some novels that fill in Princess Leia's life story.   You can subscribe to Esther's podcast The Bagel Report , follow her on Twitter w...

Jill Alexander Essbaum is a poet, author and professor based in Austin, Texas. Her favorite thing is old time radio - specifically thriller radio programs. We talk about Suspense (CBS Radio from 1940 to 1962) , how Jill found the first set of CDs that turned her on to Old Time Radio, and just how many hours of recordings she keeps on her iPod. Her new book of poetry, Would-Land , is available from...

Brad Manilla, AKA DJ Sparklebomb , is a user experience designer and recovering entrepreneur who joined me to talk about how he became a DJ. In this episode, Brad describes his chill summer mix tape Infinity Pool, which I suggest you listen to before diving into our full conversation. Fakin' the Funk is his new mixtape that brings you a lot of underground hip hop that we talk about. Learn more abo...

Brandy Agerbeck, who writes on and teaches visual thinking, loves Harold and Maude. In this episode she describes being drawn to the movie because of the distinct graphic design and how it led her to Rocky Horror Picture Show. Find her classes, books and swag at Loosetooth.com Recommendations Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders Straight Up All of Nicole Byer's podcasts OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies Za...

Scott Smith, known to the internet as Our Man In Chicago , is living his best Josh Lyman life as Chief Communications Officer for the Cook County Assessor’s Office. He is a writer and former journalist who produces The Frunchroom - a reading series that features five stories about the South Side of Chicago, often from South Siders, but also from those throughout Chicago who’ve experienced all that...

Saul Colt is an experiential and word-of-mouth marketer based on Toronto (available for you to hire at The Idea Integration Co ) who loved David Letterman. In this conversation, not only does Saul sing praises for the premise of Finding Favorites, he walks us through the bands, movies and comics that he found through David Letterman. Late Night with David Letterman started on NBC in 1982 and laste...