Growing Up Naked

Welcome back and don't despair- jazz is always in the air. Especially right here, right now! Kenny Wessel is living jazz history. He worked with legendary sax player Ornette Coleman for 12 years and toured the world as a member of Coleman's Prime Time ensemble. He's played with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and with the London Philharmonia. He's a featured soloist on Dona...

Who do you want to have your back? LARRY SCHAEFER! Larry is one of our most beloved family members. He's kind, funny, generous, a mentor to many and one of the smartest people we know. And he's regular people. A champion of the bullied and a walking one and only. Where do you start with this guy??? Well, you sit him down in a chair and put a microphone in front of him and turn the heat u...

Welcome back!                                                                                                                      As we all know, the world is going to shit. When we started to record this episode, we had no idea it would turn into this. What might have become a stark, raving commentary on our times instead turned into a movie/SAG acting award love fest.                           ...

Welcome back! Today is gonna be a magical day and you know why? Because our buddy Will Sturdivant says so! Will doesn't wait to be asked he LEADS with his story and he roars into life and into this podcast with a message to the people- ALL people- BE A HUMAN!  We talk about new friendship, identity, blackness, whiteness, gayness, childhood trauma, community, the system, and the power we all h...

Welcome back, intrepid listeners! We're back after a little hiatus, together in the bouncy room, with much conversation about coming home, the play "Primary Trust", the adventures of a junior year at college, music, goals, performing anxiety, being hard on yourself and the pursuit of perfection, witnessing excellence, the book "Burst" by Rachel Awes, the film "One Bat...

Welcome back! You think you know somebody...and then you have them on your podcast. HA! We know Sid to be loving, kind, self deprecating, sometimes caustic, always funny, cultivated and richly stewed in life's many juices, but even so, we've never heard some of these stories. Join us in a long sit down as we spit ball on irrational fears, dogs pooping on an incline, hot yoga, Dr. Stein,...

Welcome back to the show! SEASON SIX, EPISODE FIFTY ONE! Holy shit- Thank you for sticking with us! We're back and revealing our souls in all their raw and naked glory. What comes up this time? Vunerability, neck fat, EGO and need. That demonic little voice that asks "will I ever work again?", trying to live in the present with all the insecurities that add to to the recipe of your...

Are these guys still making this podcast??? YES WE ARE! And to our faithful listeners we offer you more G.U.N. pearls! There's a lot to chew on- this volatile world, the cold, the fires, a "squeezed into a shoe box" vacation with the family, grandparents, could we have a family band? (random), movie acting, fame, Bob Dylan, and Garth Hudson. Enjoy a back from NYC in-person sit aroun...

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays, the cold weather of Minnesota is here but things are nice and toasty in the podcast shack! Just Pearce and Milo having a Thanksgiving catch up and shootin' the shit about dogs and turtles, the tv show "From" (spoiler alert- we give a lot away about the latest season finale starting around the 27 minute marker). We also get into the perils of bi...

Serendipity! We actually recorded this episode in August right before Milo moved back to NYC and before the election changed life as we thought we knew it. But it turns out there's no better tonic for the blues than a laugh filled swim in Hudson river life with our pal, Aarnuts. He's as authentic a human being as you could ever hope to meet and our conversation lifts off like a rocket as...

Ok, WE'RE BACK! Sorry about the delay. We (like everybody else in this country with a pulse) are having a lot of feelings (of course, Pearce is especially worked up). Join us we reconnect- Growing Up Naked style- with another pithy sit down that includes (among other things) THE ELECTION!, roach clips, broken teeth, Mo moving back to NYC, THE ELECTION!, Sandusky, Ohio, giant spiders and punch...

Welcome back! (ok, we took a little summer vacation) But this time Pearce is on the east coast and Milo is in the Minnesota. Long distance, new mic, and... Life on the road and Shakespeareyness, stumbling around onstage during a heat wave in Elizabethan clothes, hittin' the beach at Asbury Park in the land of THE BOSS, Milo's summer job, turning 20 and adulting and a deep dive into the m...

There's mayhem in the world and we're talking about it! Like a bat out of hell we go from war (oops- the "special operation") in Ukraine to war in Israel and Palestine to student protests, then segue (in our inimitable style) into dwarves and Larry David, with a birthday shout out to our old buddy Ryan Dawes, a hey ho to Heart To Gold and Why Not, and a happy landing on cows, h...

For better or worse,  imagine yourself a fly on the wall. Casually conversatin' about affairs of the heart (literally), staying in touch with the ones you love (and not waiting for a podcast), more understudy drama, Julian Lage, Martha Washington, Kendrick Lamar, Staten Island, and featuring a couple of musical revelations by Adrianne Lenker and Friko. Layin' back loooong distance with l...

Welcome back to school everybody! High School, Music School and the School of Life. It's a little time machine for you back to last Thanksgiving, 2023, in which we sit down with Milo's band mate, Willis Ray.  (yeah, we got episodes stockpiled!) Much is discussed- Understudy drama, awkward Thanksgiving moments, TERF's, and the cost of playing clams. It's a  magical and musical c...

Hey there, it's been a while 🤪! We're back with the Season 5 premier spectacular (!!!) where stories rear their pointy heads, from opening night anxiety to grace for a sick friend, rough encounters on the streets of New York, gender neutral bathrooms, grandparents struggling with cell phones and the incident at Katz's Deli. Like a ri-VUH, yo! It's good to be riding the airwave...

WORK WORK WORK! We're always working on ourselves and each other! Our final episode of Season 4- Episode # FORTY! And after taking MO to see a show in NYC, cousin Sarah came to MN a couple days later to see a live show of her favorite podcast (which evidently isn't ours). We talk about work at school, working for a school, working on hard stuff, the glorious trials of the middle school y...

Milo's on their own in NYC, flourishing, struggling and wrastlin' with the good and the less good, magnificently.  No context in this episode- just pure, raw conversation. If there's a theme, it's what's underneath. A conversation that takes the road less travelled and feels the truth of winter coming. Sleeplessness, Rhett and Link,  Marsha P. Johnson, Angry Birds, Minnie...

Ok, it's not that hard to edit and put up one of these episodes, so why did this take so long? Well, life and how we do it is a little more confusing since Milo left the Minneapolis. But now he's in the BIG APPLE-ISS and THIS IS OUR FIRST LONG DISTANCE EPISODE! We talk about a new life in New York, which in Milo's case involves bumping into a jazz guitar legend, college, roommates,...

Sigrid Nielsen is a beautiful human and mom. She's brilliant, courageous, disciplined, supportive and adventurous. Her son Beckett is a 16 year old aspiring filmmaker and High Schooler, who although quiet, is fully present in the moment and keenly aware. We sat down with with these amazings to learn about their lives, their unique mother/son relationship, the things they stand for and the peo...

Lisa Channer is a theater artist, teacher and filmmaker. Her 18 year old son, Daniel, is going to music school this fall, just like Milo, except in Chicago. We've known these guys for a long time-ever since Milo and Daniel were little pip squeaks. We sat down to catch up and had another great Growing Up Naked conversation about the kids' different views of leaving home, what it's li...

It was always going to be like this- if we got together with Irve Dell in the cozy room it would no doubt be a nitro A.D.D. wildfire of a conversation that spins and digresses and changes on a dime faster than superman (creepy crawler variety) chases a speeding bullet. I mean we do slow down sometimes but...  Irve Dell, the Why Not dad, Isaac Dell's father, joins us and we cover A LOT of topi...

In which we return after a long hiatus (last episode-April-WTF???), recording late at night in the bouncy room with the window fan blowing and fireworks in the distance. Milo's move to NYC, family trips, Tedeschi Trucks, The Grateful Dead, relationships- we have a lot to catch up on but... WE'RE BACK!  With more episodes to follow soon! Growing Up Naked Theme composed, played and recorde...

Mike Halleen, Milo's Grandpa and Pearce's father-in-law, was born in 1938. He's a Minnesota boy who's witnessed the world grow up in the 20th century and beyond. As a Covenant pastor, he took up the calling of both his grandfathers and has always been a steady flame of faith, compassion and understanding for his family. Mike can tell a story (or a thousand) and move you to tear...

Darius Dotch- Minnesotan by way of Baton Rouge, Louisiana- hip hop artist, actor, life /fitness coach, podcast host and compassionate motivator is in the HOUSE bringing inspiration to the cozy room! Growing Up Naked theme by Isaac Dell Music- Soul Food, I Ain't Proud Of That, They Selling Crack                  written and performed by Darius Dotch Listen to Darius' podcast, "Master...