Storybeat with Steve Cuden

Christopher Fryer is the co-author of the books Jack Nicholson: The Early Years ; Bruce Dern: Things I Said, but Probably Shouldn’t Have , and Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father’s Unsolved Murder . Chris’s non-fiction work has also appeared in Conde-Nast Traveler, Playboy, and the New York Times. I’ve read Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father’s Unsolved Murder , and have chatted about it once be...

Joe Wos is the 6-time Emmy Award-winning creator and host of “Cartoon Academy” as seen on PBS affiliates nationwide. Joe’s been a professional cartoonist since the age of 14. Over the past 35 years, as he’s sought new and innovative ways to pursue his passion for the cartoon arts, his career path has taken as many twists and turns as one of his wonderful mazes. For example, he spent 30 years touri...

The award-winning author, TEDx speaker, screenwriter, Gestalt practitioner, and patient advocate, Risa August, has been living with a pituitary tumor and the rare disease acromegaly for over a decade.  From being a girl with sparkles in her hair to an Ironman athlete, Risa still has a passion for her bike and barbells. With genuine curiosity and a love for trying new (and old) things, you may find...

The rock and roll legend, Billy J. Kramer, grew up in Bootle, a Liverpool suburb.  Upon leaving school, he became a trainee engineer by day and aspiring singer by night, performing under the stage name Billy Kramer. Billy’s performances at local rock clubs around Liverpool soon brought him to the attention of the one and only John Lennon.  John urged Brian Epstein to sign Billy to an exclusive man...

Charlie Adlard has been a veteran of the comics industry for over 25 years. From 2003 to 2019 he spent the majority of his time drawing The Walking Dead through the conclusion of its run as a comic book series. He received many industry awards for his work on the series, culminating in winning the 2019 Sergio Aragonés International Award for Excellence in Comic Art. In his time as a cartoonist, Ch...

Lorie Kleiner Eckert thinks of herself as a cheerleader with the message: life is difficult, but you can handle it! For ten years, she worked as a motivational speaker, addressing more than 22,000 people during more than 250 appearances in 11 states. She’s spoken to every sort of group from PTAs to Procter & Gamble. What makes her programs unique is that they’re illustrated by her artwork, qui...

Pia Mailhot-Leichter is a creative partner, published author, certified coach, and entrepreneur. Her path has been anything but ordinary: a recovering nomad, she’s reported as a journalist in Sri Lanka, graduated summa cum laude from NYU, and worked as an award-winning creative director for some of the biggest brands in the world. Now, as the founder of Kollektiv Studio , through creative partners...

Barry Greenfield began his musical ride in 1965 when he was just 15 years old. Over the subsequent decades, Barry has become a greatly appreciated, old-school, singer songwriter, with three number one records, twenty-five plus covers, and life as a touring musician and storyteller.  He actually walked away from the music business in the mid-70s saying, “it’s not for me,” and yet he remained a dedi...

Paul Chitlik is appearing on StoryBeat for the third time. Paul is a truly gifted storyteller and teacher who has written screenplays, novels, and non-fiction, including writing for all the major networks and studios in both English and in Spanish.    Paul’s been a story editor, director, and producer in both TV and features. He was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award for "The Twil...

This is the second appearance of Scott Christian Sava on StoryBeat. Scott’s an artist, animator, illustrator, writer, director, and producer, whose work over the last 30 years, has brought some of the world’s most beloved characters to life in film, television, comics, and games, from Casper the Friendly Ghost to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to Star Trek to Spider-Man and more. Scott’s unique...

Anthony Swofford is an American writer and former U.S. Marine, best known for his memoir, Jarhead, which details his experiences in the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War as part of a Surveillance and Target Acquisition/Scout-Sniper platoon. He received the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir for Jarhead.   A feature film of Jarhead, directed by Sam Mendes and featuring Jake Gyllenhall, playi...

Susan Gorrell has been the Executive Director of the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival for more than a decade.  This renowned festival has grown under Susan’s direction to become one of the most well-respected film festivals in the indie filmmaking world, attracting filmmakers and film lovers from far and wide. MovieMaker Magazine recognized it as one of the “25 coolest film festivals in...

Tom Ruegger is the fourteen-time Emmy Award-winning producer and creative force behind many of the most popular and successful animated TV series of all time, including: Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid, Histeria, Road Rovers, and the feature film, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Tom also co-wrote the pilot and served as a script editor of the Emmy Award-winning animated series Tutenstein. Tom began...

Janet Skeslien Charles is the New York Times, USA Today, and #1 international bestselling author of The Paris Library, Moonlight in Odessa, and Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade. Janet’s most recent book, The Parisian Chapter, is available as an audio book only.  I’ve read The Paris Library and listened to The Parisian Chapter and can tell you these are both well-written novels of the heart that transpor...

Sören “Sulo” Karlsson is mostly known as the frontman of the Swedish boogie rockers, The Diamond Dogs. But he’s also known for being the singer of the UK supergroup, The Crunch, featuring members from The Clash, Sham 69 and Cockney Rejects.  Since the early 1990’s, Sulo has been carrying the torch for early 70’s soulful rock ‘n roll well rooted in British history. Through his career he’s worked wi...

My guest today, Kit Karson, is the author a series of books, The Anderson Chronicles: A Sheriff Elliott Mystery, which currently comprises five novels, including: Land Grab, Innocence Slain, Justice Rendered, Nefarious Intent, and Savage Malice. All five take place in a small Montana town. Interestingly, as prolific as Kit is as an author, writing is not her principal occupation. Born and raised i...

Alexandra Hainsworth is a British Australian pop artist distributing directly with The Orchard, which is a subsidiary of Sony Music. Her last single, 'Fighter', hit 1.46 million Spotify streams. Collectively, Alexandra has over 330,000 social media followers.  Alexandra is an animal advocate for Four Paws Australia. And she has postgraduate qualifications in psychology. She’s also now a...

Alretha Thomas has found career success in the second half of her life as an award-winning novelist, playwright, and actress.  A resilient survivor of childhood trauma, Alretha is a former model who, as an actress, has appeared in numerous films, TV series, and commercials. She also appeared on two iconic soap operas, Days of Our Lives and General Hospital. Currently, she’s a series regular, playi...

Doug Besterman is a much in-demand orchestrator, arranger, and composer whose works span Broadway, film, television, and concert stages. Doug’s been nominated for the Tony Award six times, winning for The Producers, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Fosse. With a career that includes numerous other iconic productions such as Young Frankenstein, Sister Act, and Anastasia, Doug has helped shape the soun...

This is Tim Quinn’s second time on StoryBeat.  An author, editor, and manager, Tim was born and raised in Liverpool, England, the home of The Beatles.  He began his show business journey as a clown at Blackpool Tower Circus followed by working as a scriptwriter for various comedians of the period.  Comic books came next as Tim worked as a writer and editor for Britain's top periodicals follow...

Teddie Dahlin was born in Norway and graduated from Business School in Gothenburg, Sweden with a degree in International Marketing and Economics. She has worked as a freelance music journalist for several magazines in the UK, most notably Vive le Rock, and she’s written 5 published books. In 2012, after a bad experience with a UK publisher, Teddie established New Haven Publishing to put out her bo...

New York Times bestselling and multi-award-winning author, Wanda E. Brunstetter, is considered one of the founders of the Amish fiction genre. Wanda’s written more than 100 books, with over 12 million copies sold, and her work has been translated into 4 languages. Wanda’s stories consistently earn spots on the nation’s most prestigious bestseller lists.   Wanda’s ancestors were part of the Anabapt...

Qin Sun Stubis is a newspaper columnist, poet, and author of the award-winning historical saga, Once Our Lives , the remarkable true story of four generations of Chinese women who struggled to survive war, revolution, and the eerie power of an ancient superstition that seemed to change their lives for nearly 100 years. Born in the squalor of a Shanghai shantytown, Qin overcame poverty, starvation,...

Animation Director Bill Kroyer was nominated for an Academy Award for his short film Technological Threat, the first film to combine 2D and CG animated characters. He’s perhaps best known for directing the popular animated film, Ferngully, The Last Rainforest, as well as working on dozens of commercials and animated feature film credit sequences. He is also known for having developing the computer...

The highly popular documentary filmmaker, Rick Sebak, is a native Pittsburgher, who’s worked at Pittsburgh’s PBS station WQED since 1987. Rick’s created dozens of local TV documentaries known collectively as The Pittsburgh History Series, including: “Kennywood Memories,” “What Makes Pittsburgh Pittsburgh?” and “Right Beside The River” as well as many more. He’s also produced 15 national programs f...