There’s No Business Like...

NBL Rewind: Tara Bailey: Take Less Crap from People This week Bryan ensures we feature our friends from the north as we rewind to Danielle’s Season 1 conversation with Canadian agent and Friend of the Pod, Tara Bailey! On this episode Danielle sits down with agent Tara Bailey. We learn how the Grateful Dead and planning underground parties led to a career in the arts. Through Tara’s story we learn...

NBL Rewind: Bob Bennett: Quality Takes Time This week Kevin rewinds us all the way back to Episode 32 to revisit the lessons and great advice offered by Bob Bennett in May 2023. This is also one of Katie’s favorites! Bob Bennett, and his impressive beard, join Josh for a conversation about Jazz, Jazz St. Louis, and all of the options of being part of the industry outside of performance. Bob talks...

NBL Rewind: The State of Development with Lori L. Jacobwith This week Katie is rewinding to earlier this year and gasp! recommends you sit still and listen deeply to this one! So grab your earbuds, a pen, and comfy chair and adult beverage of choice and enjoy! This week, Kevin sits down with fundraising professional Lori L. Jacobwith to talk about the changing development landscape. Lori shares he...

NBL Rewind: Micah Christian: A Process Unfolding It’s summer vacation! The Pod Squad is taking a break and sharing some of their favorite conversations from the beach for the month of July. This week Josh rewinds to Ep. 64 with musician Micah Christian. This week Bryan sits down with the lead vocalist of Sons of Serendip, Micah Christian. Micah opens up about his journey into creating music, learn...

Ep 142: Investing in Our Future This week guests Paige Hernandez, Daniel Hahn, and Karoline Myers stop by the pod to talk about the importance of and creative ways of commissioning new work from both the artist and venue perspectives. Daniel and Karoline also share about a new commissioning funding model, the TYA Tour Development Collective, which just completed its pilot year and is connecting ar...

Ep. 141 NBL Summer Check-In Join Josh, Katie, and Kevin this week as they talk about what they are thinking about in our industry – the good and the bad. We would love to hear what you are thinking about- send us an email or reach out through socials. Follow us on social media and let us know your thoughts and questions – https://linktr.ee/nobusinesslikepod   Our theme song is composed by Vic Davi...

Ep. 140 Finding the Future Together This week Danielle recaps the 2025 TYA/USA National Festival and Conference with guests Brian Fahey, Ashli St. Armant, and Sarah McCarthy. They dig into some of the best professional development sessions, major takeaways around audience investment, pay what you wish models, meeting student needs as teaching artists, seeing new work, advocacy, and more. The TYA/U...

Ep. 139 Broadway’s Biggest Night – Voting for the Tonys The lights are bright on Broadway as Katie and Josh learn all about the Tony Awards from Broadway producer Rashad Chambers and the Wharton Center’s Eric Olmscheid, who both serve as Tonys voters. We discuss seeing 42 shows in a season, the voting process, Tonys marketing and press, the role the Tonys play in the larger theater industry landsc...

Ep. 138 Christopher Kendrick-Castanho: Full Circle Moment We’re headed to Broadway this week as Danielle and Bryan talk about the Broadway League’s 2025 Spring Road Conference and arts marketing with guest Christopher Kendrick-Castanho. Christopher shares about social media and influencer marketing, some of the rising challenges in the Broadway touring industry, and turns the tables on Danielle an...

Ep. 137 The Pod Goes “Wildcard” It’s a “choose your own adventure” discussion as Katie borrows this week’s format (with tweaks) from the NPR podcast “Wildcard” and our hosts select their questions from a deck of notecards. We reflect on our work, our current challenges, what’s bringing us joy...and the time machine is back! Share your own answers with us via social media or email us a voice note v...

Ep. 136 State of the Arts: Montana Edition!   This week, Katie sits down with the head of a presenters consortium, the head of a state arts council, and the head of a performing arts center, all from the State of Montana, in our first ever episode focused on one singular state. They discuss how presenting in Montana is different, funding concerns, the Yellowstone Effect, and more. Emily Wolfram is...

Ep. 135 Arts Data Redefined- The Conversation This week the Pod Squad shares their thoughts on Josh’s conversation with Angela Meleca, Founder and Chief Advocate Officer of Meleca Creative Associates ( https://www.melecacreative.com/ ). They share their thoughts on the Return on Arts concept and more. If you have not listened to that interview, please listen to Episode 134, first. Follow us on soc...

Ep. 134 Angela Meleca: Arts Data Redefined This week Josh shares his conversation with Angela Meleca, and our hosts opt to save their commentary until next week so our listeners can sit with this one a bit longer. Angela shares her journey to where she is now, spending more time on her true passion, the Return on Art (ROA). Angela also shares how she is leading a cohort to measure the social, emot...

Ep. 133 What Keeps You Up? This week Barron Ryan and Jacob Deaton join Katie, Josh, and Danielle to talk about the industry and what keeps them up at night. Don’t worry, it’s not all doom and gloom, what’s keeping these folks up are big ideas! To learn more about our guests, you can listen to their full interviews: Ep. 35 Jacob Deaton: Work Hard and Be Patient Ep. 60 Barron Ryan: The Evidence of B...

Ep. 132 Michelle Grove Herzog: There Is Not a Linear Path This week Danielle sits down with Michelle Grove Herzog to talk about going from a musician (violin) to consultant and Director of the Arts Admin Program and the University of Arizona. She shares conversations about board management, fiscal sponsorships, grants and more. The Pod Squad talks about their interactions with grantmaking, boards,...

Ep. 131 Mark Ross and Erika Finley: Does Your Board Reflect Your Community? Josh finally asks the important question, what would our hosts name their bands! Then he shares his conversation with Mark Ross and Erica Finley when they spoke at APAP 2025. Mark and Erika share how they got started in the arts, the interesting history of Community Concert Associations, volunteerism, and more. Mark Ross a...

Ep. 130 Alex Morgan is Silencio Pantomimo: From the County Fair to Paris This week Bryan sits down with professional mime, Alex Morgan. Alex shares how he got into the art form, running away to Paris, and finding his character, Silencio Pantomimo. The interview really takes off when Alex allows Bryan to interview Silencio and we learn how we went from busking in Paris to touring internationally. A...

Ep. 129 Bracket Madness:  What Our Industry Can Learn From Sports Marketing.  This week the hosts go all in on March Madness sharing their prowess and knowledge of College Basketball, which does not take long so they move onto what our industry can learn from sports, more specifically sports marketing. Follow us on social media and let us know your thoughts and questions – https://linktr.ee/nobusi...

Ep. 128 What’s Happening in D.C.? This week Kevin, Josh, and Katie discuss Ep. 126 with James Shapiro, and connect it to what is happening with the Kennedy Center and the National Endowment for the Arts in 2025. They dive into some practical and philosophical questions surrounding the politicization of two national arts entities and potential impacts on the live performing arts field. Follow us on...

BONUS: James Shapiro working on Broadway’s Othello This week’s episode had too much for one episode! Enjoy this excerpt that was cut for time where James Shapiro talks about his work on performances, specifically Othello featuring Denzel Washington. James Shapiro ( https://www.jamesshapiro.net/ ) is the author “THE PLAYBOOK: A Story of Theatre, Democracy, and The Making of a Culture War.” Follow u...

Ep. 126 “The Playbook” with Author James Shapiro This week Katie is joined by author, professor, and Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at the Public Theatre, James Shapiro. They talk about Shapiro’s new book “THE PLAYBOOK: A Story of Theatre, Democracy, and The Making of a Culture War” which is the story of the start and end of the Federal Theatre Project in the 1930s. Shapiro shares how this refle...

Ep. 125 The State of Development with Lori L. Jacobwith This week, Kevin sits down with fundraising professional Lori L. Jacobwith to talk about the changing development landscape. Lori shares her top 5 things you can do right now and gives insight into the world of philanthropy. If you want to go deeper on the topic with Lori, you can check out her webinar with GrantStation on April 1: https://gr...

Ep. 124 Of, By, and For Community – A Discussion about Community Engagement This week Katie invites industry leaders Donna Walker-Kuhne, Gary Minyard, and Marisol Sánchez-Best to discuss community engagement – a broad term that touches many facets of our industry. This delightful conversation between colleagues and friends just scratches the surface as they discuss language, metrics, internal comm...

Ep. 123 What’s Next? The Pod Goes Rogue The Pod Squad has been hosting the most amazing podcast (we know we’re biased!) for over two years – and it’s time to shake up the format. Listen for what’s next for There’s No Business Like... and give us your feedback via our audience survey! We’d love to hear your ideas for topics, guests, and more. Fill out the survey here: https://forms.gle/najC47yc8Zfm...

Ep. 122 What Now? Our Current Moment in the Arts This week we discuss the current state of the arts in early February 2025 and identify a few of the many challenges ahead for our field, including the strain on arts workers after recovering from the pandemic, as well as how we can stand together moving forward. As some of our podcast friends say, things may have changed by the time you hear this. T...