Only One In The Room

Scott Slaughter co-host and producer of The Only One In The Room has a short and casual, yet deep conversation with our guest Tim Barnes right after the show. Special thanks to our sponsors: Away: We love our new sponsor AWAY, the modern lifestyle brand that creates thoughtful products for every traveler and every kind of trip. Start YOUR 100-day trial and shop the entire Away line-up of travel es...

What if you never experienced violence while growing up in your all-Black neighborhood, but when you moved to a city, which is less than 2% Black, violence found you for the first time? Tim Barnes, comedian and television writer grew up in South Central Los Angeles and was stabbed by a stranger after moving to the tony city of Santa Barbara, leaving him to wonder if it was a random stabbing or had...

Ginna Green is a strategist-consultant-movement-builder who is helping Jewish (and other) organizations change through her new firm, Uprise. She is on the boards of progressive Jewish groups including Bend the Arc and the Jews of Color Initiative and lives in Columbia, South Carolina, where she went to high school and college. Her interests include cooking, bourbon, and annihilating her four child...

We loved MJ’s episode so much that we asked her permission to read a couple of excerpts out of her critically acclaimed YA book, Badass Black Girl: Quotes, Questions, and Affirmations for Teens.  Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, M.J. Fievre’s publishing career began as a teenager. Since then, M.J. has authored nine books in French that are widely read in Europe and the French Antilles. She works wit...

Chronic illness and fatigue can happen to anyone and may lead to some very dark and challenging times. How would you look to heal yourself if every path you took seemed to be a dead end and the sickness continued?  Host Kelly Nishimoto, Founder of Cute Booty Lounge, speaks with Tamra Dae, entrepreneur and fitness model, about her journey through various professional pursuits, breast implant illnes...

Scott Slaughter co-host and producer of The Only One In The Room has a short and casual, yet deep conversation with our guest Christophe Denek right after the show. Special thanks to our sponsors: Mercato: Mercato is a grocery delivery service that supports local, independent merchants. Sign up for Mercato Green at https://www.mercato.com/ for unlimited free delivery and use the code THEONLYONE to...

What if you were born with a rare form of dwarfism, and the doctors told your parents that you would never lead a normal life, that things like running, biking, or even walking without assistance might not be possible for you? 4’4, Actor/Stuntman, Pro Drummer, ​podcaster, and Surfer, Christophe Zajac Denek, found it challenging to watch the other kids grow taller around him, but he didn’t want to...

“𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗺𝗲. 𝗜𝗻 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁, 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿” GoAskAlex is an 18+ performer, sex educator, and advocate for the representation of disabled bodies in pornography. She has spent the past six years as a webcam model and online companion. After becoming an ostomate in 2019 she focused her career on advocating for underrepresented bo...

Orlando “Ori” Spado is best known as The Hollywood Mob Boss and we were lucky enough to interview him (episode 106, The Only Accidental Gangster In The Room). You’ll want to hear him tell this particular story in his own words (and voice) but I had to read it to you because I love it so much.  Orlando (Ori) Spado sold insurance for the Prudential Insurance Company where he was a leading agent for...

Imagine fighting breast cancer and not only processing your own emotions but having to negotiate the reactions of others as well. Would you hide yourself away or work through the ups and downs of cancer treatment with your family and friends at your side?  Host Kelly Nishimoto, Founder of Cute Booty Lounge, is back today with Jessica Coulthard & Elissa Kalver to conclude their eye-opening conversa...

Scott Slaughter, co-host and producer of The Only One In The Room, has a short and casual, yet deep conversation with our guest Ori Spado right after the show. Special thanks to our sponsors: Away: We love our new sponsor AWAY, the modern lifestyle brand that creates thoughtful products for every traveler and every kind of trip. Start YOUR 100-day trial and shop the entire Away line-up of travel e...

Imagine meeting the underboss of the Colombo crime family and unexpectedly ending up with a friendship that would last for the next 40 years. Orlando, “Ori” Spado, went from insurance salesman to Hollywood Mob Boss, until he went to federal prison on a Colombo crime family RICO indictment in 2008.   But what would you do if after getting out of prison you had a chance to tell people what it was re...

Catherine Kapphahn’s Immigrant Daughter: Stories You Never Told Me received The Center for Fiction’s Christopher Doheny Award. Her writing has appeared in Motherwell Magazine, Newtown Literary, the Feminist Press Anthology This is the Way We Say Goodbye, and CURE Magazine. Catherine is an adjunct lecturer at City University of New York at Lehman College in the Bronx, where her students’ brave stor...

Peter Sage’s story is so incredible that we made his episode our season 10 finale The Only One In The Room Who Was Grateful To Be Imprisoned (Episode 99). Please don’t forget to go back and listen to his incredible interview after you hear today’s reading of two excerpts from his best-selling book, The Inside Track. Peter Sage was sent to the most violent prison in the UK as the only non-criminal...

What would you do if you were diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of forty...would you hide away and tell no one, living out your diagnosis alone with just those close to you? Or would you live it out loud by leaning into the process to help all of us better understand the nuances of what having breast cancer is really like? Host Kelly Nishimoto, Founder of Cute Booty Lounge and host of the...

Scott Slaughter co-host and producer of The Only One In The Room has a short and casual, yet deep conversation with our guest Sofia Rose right after the show. Special thanks to our sponsors: Smile Brilliant: You could have a dentist make your trays for three, four hundred dollars, or you can head over to www.smilebrilliant.com and use their lab-direct mail process for a fraction of that. Just head...

Imagine being an actress in an industry where the norm is twenty, white and thin and you are a proud forty-something Latina who identifies as fat. Sofia Rose, critically acclaimed Latina performer, published model, pioneering BBW pornstar became an adult film actress knowing that she’d be fetishized by some and criticized by others.  But what would you do if you discovered that by simply being you...

Hari Ziyad is a cultural critic, a screenwriter, and the editor-in-chief of RaceBaitr. They are a 2021 Lambda Literary Fellow, and their writing has been featured in BuzzFeed, Out, the Guardian, Paste magazine, and the academic journal Critical Ethnic Studies, among other publications. They are also currently a writer on the new season CBS show, The Neighborhood, and were previously a script consu...

We shared Jennifer Eikenhorst’s heart-wrenching/heartwarming story with you in season 10: The Only One Who Found Hope After A Deadly Accident (episode 96). I encourage you to go back and listen as she unravels the events that lead to the death of a motorcyclist named David. This year on the 5th anniversary of his death, Jennifer wrote this beautiful essay and I asked her if we could share it with...

Scott Slaughter co-host and producer of The Only One In The Room has a short and casual, yet deep conversation with our guest Tonya Evans right after the show. Special thanks to our sponsors: Pitches With Bitches: Laura Cathcart Robbins and Stefanie Wilder Taylor are conducting a virtual pitching workshop on Oct 23rd from 11-1 pm (PT). We will tell you everything we know about getting your work pu...

What if you, a tenured professor at a prestigious university wanted to buy your mother a home and the bank treated you like a suspect instead of a prospect? Dr. Tonya Evans, professor at Penn State Dickinson Law School who was recently named to the Forbes 50 over 50 list, in the category of investment, teaches her students how Crypto Currency can bypass the old guard gatekeepers and be the key to...

There are over 4.7 million people in California caring for a relative or close friend, and many of them are COVID 19 patients. The media is filled with the stories of COVID 19 patients and healthcare workers, but what about the people who are dedicating themselves to taking care of a loved one? Scott and I couldn’t find many of those stories, so we asked AJ to come over and share hers with us. AJ...

I think I employed every single one of these twenty phenomenal tips from Zibby Owens while looking to get my memoir published, and it is my absolute pleasure to share them all with you! Zibby Owens is the creator and host of award-winning podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, one of Oprah.com’s favorite book podcasts two years in a row. The CEO and founder of Moms Don’t Have Time To, Zibby h...

Scott Slaughter co-host and producer of The Only One In The Room has a short and casual, yet deep conversation with our guest Emmylou Diaz right after the show. Pitches With Bitches: Laura Cathcart Robbins and Stefanie Wilder Taylor are conducting a virtual pitching workshop on Oct 23rd from 11-1 pm (PT). We will tell you everything we know about getting your work published online to build up your...

Imagine getting your MFA in acting at Harvard and then moving to Los Angeles only to find that the parts you're auditioning for were either the Chola or the gangbanger? Screenwriter, Emmylou Diaz, whose credits include Jane The Virgin and Charmed, decided to take a writing class one day after realizing that she wasn’t being taken seriously as an actress. But what would you do if you got a job that...