Something (rather than nothing)

With ancestral roots in the Lheidli T’enneh, Cree and Secwépemc Nations, KYM GOUCHIE is fostering change through her music and art. Her music brings awareness to First Nations and women’s issues, promoting reconciliation and community building while reminding us that we are all in this together. Her stories are a testament to the human spirit, weaving together threads of her own journey from perso...

Jessica McDiarmid is a Canadian journalist who has worked across North America and Africa, writing for publications such as the Toronto Star, the Associated Press, Maisonneuve, Canadian Business and the Harvard Review. Highway of Tears is her first book. She lives in British Columbia. For decades, Indigenous women and girls have gone missing or been found murdered along an isolated stretch of high...

Benjamin Gorman is the author of The Sum of Our Gods (2013, Not a Pipe Publishing), Corporate High School (2015, Not a Pipe Publishing), and The Digital Storm: A Science Fiction Reimagining of William Shakespeare's The Tempest (2017, Not a Pipe Publishing), and Don’t Read This Book (2019, Not a Pipe Publishing). Corporate High School became an Amazon bestseller in 2016, and The Digital Storm was n...

 Interdisciplinary artist avery r. young is a 3Arts Award winning teaching artist, composer and producer with work that spans the genres of music, performance, visual arts and literature.  Examining and celebrating Black American history and culture, his work also focuses in the areas of social justice, equity, queer identity, misogyny, and body consciousness. As a writer, this Cave Canem alum has...

Rachel Lally is an actor, writer, model, director, street theatre performer, poet and drama facilitator who trained with Crooked House Theatre Company and Kildare Youth Theatre before going on to obtain her MA in Theatre from The Gaiety School of Acting and NUI Maynooth. Rachel has toured as an actor (and briefly, folk metal singer with Cruachan) both nationally and internationally as well as appe...

Great chat this episode with two gifted creators - Paige Henderson and Nicole Murray. Their most recent joint project is the YouTube webseries - Dead Friends.https://youtu.be/LYoeOUXbEioPaige Henderson graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature: Cinema Studies from the University of Washington. Even amongst various film production jobs she spent a year travelling the world. Upon h...

New episode of the ‘Something (rather than nothing)’ podcast with Opera Singer Mackenzie RogersI had a most stimulating conversation with Mackenzie about art’s role in a pandemic, art's role in challenging white supremacy, opera, van Gogh, painting, Cabaret, philosophy and what it feels like to be painted into a painting. Ms. Rogers is a talented actress and performer whose recent credits include...

Mishka Shubaly is writer, musician, runner, comedian, teacher and thinker. We got to chat all about that stuff as well as drinking and not-drinking, art, creation, nothingness and somethingness. His books 'Cold Turkey', 'The Long Run', 'Of Mice and Me', and 'Beat the Devil' and 'Shipwrecked' are intense, raw and honest reads. I deeply appreciated Mishka's talents and his ability to range on some r...

Great new episode with Indigenous artist and musician Sara Billdt!!!We chatted about her music, her graphic art, and her traditional bead work. It was exciting to learn more about her philosophy, her experiences in the heavy metal scene, and finding her remarkable voice. Sara has been involved in the music scene of Eugene, Oregon for over a decade. Starting out as a solo artist, she went on to fou...

I chatted with JASON MAYOH, author/director of ‘Tales of Rocky Point Park.’ It was an inspiring and delightful conversation that covered horror, childhood, comics, philosophy, the pandemic, the creative process, Rocky Point and more!!!Many Americans enjoyed amusement parks in their childhood and in non-pandemic summertimes. Rhode Islanders and Southern New Englanders had Rocky Point park with its...

WOW! An interview with GINA GLEASON lead guitarist for the incredible metal band BARONESS.Gina Gleason, a product of Philly, began playing guitar at fourteen and has had a wild journey through Rock&Roll, playing for Misstallica (all female Metallica tribute band) as well as Queen Diamond (all female King Diamond tribute band). She performed as the character 'The Muse' in the world-renowned Cir...

BRAD BALUKJIAN hit the sweet spot of the baseball in his new book WAX PACK. The book is a joy for baseball freaks but also serves as a fantastic memoir on relationships and life. The LA Times Bestselling book is a road trip journey of history and the psyche. Built on the randomness of a fifteen pack of baseball cards with a crisp stick of tongue cutting gum, Brad builds a 10,000 mile adventure int...

Michael Burns is a university teacher, writing coach, film director, labor activist, editor, and storyteller. He has a B.A. from Georgetown University, an M.S. from University of Massachusetts - Amherst, and holds a Ph. D. in documentary film history from the University of Birmingham in the UK. Burns directed five films for international television and his work has been seen in over twenty countri...

EPISODE 32 - of ‘Something (rather than nothing) podcast with writer Allison C. Meier! Allison C. Meier is an Oklahoma-born, Brooklyn-based writer focused on visual culture, architecture, and overlooked history: she believes in writing about the arts and heritage of our world in an accessible, engaging way. We talked about her recent, haunting Fall 2019 article on the Spanish Flu and the depiction...

Such an enjoyable conversation with New York Yankees hitting coach RACHEL BALKOVEC!Rachel is a deep thinker whose ability to both challenge norms and seek deeper truths have served to forge her path. She notes that "by trade I'm a hitting coach, but in reality, I'm a student, athlete, minimalist, feminist and nomad.  Those are things that I resonated with long before my career and will be with me...

This episode is pure sci-fi/science geek heaven. Join the Tattooed Scottish-American N7 Slytherin Rebel from Starfleet - Dr. Erin Macdonald. Dr. Macdonald is an astrophysicist, science fiction consultant (currently for the Star Trek franchise), and host of the online series "Dr Erin Explains the Universe". Her specialty is in general relativity, having previously worked in the LIGO Scientific Coll...

BUELL THOMAS - master on trumpet, vocals and philosophy ---Buell began playing the trumpet at 9 years young. The Marriage between the two, like any other, has had its peaks and valleys throughout but every musician has his soul instrument. Mr. Thomas has used his to be able to share the gift of expression with many others over his Career. His first Band was SUPERBUG, in South County, Rhode Island....

JAMES SWEET is an Oregon based Producer, Director, and Writer. Sweet is the Director for the much-anticipated Friday the 13th fan film JASON RISING. For many of us horror fans,  Jason Voorhees is the source of nightmares and a cause for pause in the consideration of sex, drugs, alcohol and rock & roll. The Friday the 13th series remains a primary source of slasher film horror since 1980. Jason...

PHOEBE BLAKEPhoebe Blake is a Tucson-based artist who was born in Eugene, Oregon. She works in a lot of mediums - oils, ink, printmaking, marker on wood and colored pencils Blake also creates hand-poked tattoos, makes zines, quilts and sews appliqué denim jackets. She is known to plan and execute elaborate themed costume parties with old school handbill-style invites as a personal remedy and respo...

Episode 26 with DAVID VERESPY     Hi, I’m David Verespy, Professional Photographer.  But, I am way more than that, I am an active creative professional who really can’t sit still without creating something. I have been a creative all of my life, whether it be drawing, doodling, painting, sculpting, photography, print making, writing, inventing or exploring the creative world. I create with an eye...

Episode 25 with LIZZY FALCONCaptivating, fascinating, unique, and soulful, describe Lizzy Falcon’s artwork. Lizzy's work has a whimsical, yet "emo-like" feeling. Thematic threads of her work are grey-toned girls with one big eye as "Big-Eye-Art" and the Lowbrow Art Movement have had a major impact on her, and she (usually) only exposes one eye: the left eye, as that is the eye that represents true...

Rosalie Fish is a member of the Muckleshoot and Cowlitz tribes and is a competitive runner and college student. Rosalie made national headlines when she painted a red hand over her face in order to represent Missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW). She also painted the MMIW hashtag on her leg and ran races for specific Indigenous women. Her actions of bravery have helped spark greater awarene...

You are really going to enjoy this deep dive into profound questions with Canadian Artist MAGDOLENE DYKSTRA. Her work with clay prompts the viewer to consider profound questions of ecology, elementals, growth, decay, the climate and art. I really love her Artist Statement that helps to describe the sheer profundity of her project . . .A desire to understand my place in the universe drives my work....

Anne Bujold combines metalsmithing and blacksmithing techniques with alternative materials such as felt, ribbon, and plastics. In her sculpture, animals are agents examining the spaces between definitions, that fertile ground where new forms emerge. Bujold is currently the Artist-In-Residence for the Metals Department at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, TN. She received her MFA from...

GERALD ROULETTE is native of Missouri and a graduate of Truman State University (BFA). He has been involved with art since kindergarten and was accepted into an art school in Arizona at 12 years of age. Roulette studied art in Strasbourg, Austria under the tutelage of Dr. William Unger and Oscar Kokoshka. He has earned multiple awards for his artwork and has lectured at colleges, universities and...