What I Really Want to Talk About

Graham Griffith , also known as GG, is an open-source program designer and journalism missionary. He is a media strategist and audio producer who launched the award-winning national radio programs On Point and The Takeaway , as well as being part of the team that created Spotify's Sound Up, GG has developed a unique perspective on podcasting and radio specifically, and journalism in general. We ha...

Mike Savage is the General Manager of WEKU, a public radio service of Eastern Kentucky University. WEKU serves Lexington, and much of Eastern, Northern and Central Kentucky. We dive right into a discussion about the role of the Federal Communications Commission in the light of its threat to pull ABC's broadcasting license in response to a joke Jimmy Kimmel made about the First Lady and the Preside...

Tony Crachiolo is the volunteer Director of the Berea Kentucky Food Bank. The organization's goal is that hunger never finds a home in Berea. In ten years the food bank has more than doubled the people they reach and help. Tony and his team have flipped the food pantry paradigm in crucial ways that have allowed the Berea Food Bank to serve many more people and to provide their clients with full, n...

Dr Madeline Rogers is a virtuosic concert pianist and music educator. We have a lively conversation about connecting today's audiences to classical music and about how her musical journey has been marked by her faith and her belief in the power of music to bring people together. She also discusses her passion for highlighting contemporary composers.

Shaniqua Robinson is the Executive Director of The Association for Teaching Black History in Kentucky. We talk about her work helping teachers center Black History in the curriculum. Shaniqua also talks about reclaiming her roots as a Black Appalachian woman and about exploring the culinary traditions of Black Appalachia.

Rick is a writer and a native of Estill County, Kentucky. His debut novel, Turkeyfoot (Shotgun Honey Books), focuses on the influx of fentanyl in Appalachia. He lives with his family in Eastern Kentucky where he also serves as Berea College’s Appalachian Male Advocate & Mentor. Rick talks about his perspective on the opioid problem in Appalachia, writing his first novel and working with women...

Sam Gleaves is a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and music instructor from Wytheville, Virginia. He began studying and playing old-time music as a teen. Sam has performed and taught Appalachian music throughout the United States and all over the world. He has released seven albums, including his debut Ain’t We Brothers (2015) and his most recent collaboration with Kay Justice, The Cabin Sessi...

Bruce Fraley is the 5th Mayor of Berea Kentucky. He is serving his second term and plans to run for a third. He is very excited about a program that will create new building sites in this part of the Bluegrass region designed to attract new business to Berea and beyond and generate perhaps more than 1,000 jobs. In this era of bitterly divisive partisan politics, I thought it would be good to hear...

Jeffrey Sanderson is a painter based in Chicago where he has been engaged in an intuitive and exploratory home studio practice steadily for over 20 years. Jeff says. “My work depends upon and celebrates the remarkable sensitivity and uncanny memory that humans possess.” We talk about how his work can preserve marks and evidence of a conversation between a maker and a surface. His paintings are imp...

Christina Cornelison is the Director of the Madison County Public Library with branches in Richmond and Berea Kentucky. In a county with fewer than 100,000 residents her libraries welcome more than 300,000 visitors and circulate over a half million books each year. She is passionate about the role a library can play in encouraging early reading and language development and in providing a vast arra...

Larry Gratton is a husband and a dad and a math professor. He is also crazy about vintage motorcycles. We talk about his passion for solving the puzzle of restoring old bikes to new glory--especially Hondas from the late 60s and early 70's. We have a great conversation about the place that the motorcycle holds in our cultural imagination and the many ways in which Larry's passion for these machine...

As Happy Chandler once said, “I never met a Kentuckian who wasn’t on his way home.” Tom Martin is native of Morehead, Kentucky and has come home after a long and illustrious career in radio broadcasting that went from Morehead to Washington DC to New York City and back to the Bluegrass. Tom has been a national news anchor, the substitute host for the legendary Paul Harvey and now is the producer a...

Emily Hilliard is the folklorist at Berea College in Kentucky, and the co-owner of Spinster, a feminist record label. We talk about her lifelong passion for folk music and folkways and how it has evolved. We also discuss the power of folk music to create community bonds and bring people together in positive ways. Emily also talks about the future of folk, and her belief that it is a living, breath...

Dr Collis Robinson is the Dean of Labor at Berea College. He is the first in his family to go to college and earn a degree. We talk about the positive and powerful influence teachers and schools have had on his life and how the pursuit of education led him to opportunities he had never dreamed possible. We also muse on big topics like the struggles of boys in school the future of education in Amer...

Gary Price is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He is the co-founder and editor of Library Journal’s infoDOCKET. He is a nationally-known leader in the world of libraries, research and information science. What he really wants to talk about, though, is his experience being the father of an autistic child, his son, Matthew. We...

Dr Emmanuel Joshua Stokes—E.J.—wants to spread Beloved Community everywhere he goes. In this deep, meaningful and joyful conversation we discuss how to build beloved community, how to lift up those who bring light to our lives—the life lanterns as EJ calls them—and how EJ has promoted all of this through his work as the Director of Bera College’s amazing Black Music Ensemble. EJ discusses the impa...

Katie Startzman is the founder and owner of Native Bagel and Night Jar, two very successful eateries in Berea KY. She went from operating a food cart to running an amazing brick and mortar restaurant in spectacular fashion She is a member of the Berea City Council and a Business Coach with the Kentucky Small Business Development Center. She is also the author of the Knitted Slipper Book, an everyt...

Bill Littlefield is a retired radio host, writer, teacher, and public speaker. He has written nine books, seven of which have been published. For 34 years he wrote and voiced commentaries for WBUR in Boston and NPR; for 25 of those years, he also hosted “Only A Game,” NPR’s fantastic weekly sports magazine program. Bill is also involved with the Emerson Prison Initiative, a program that makes a co...

Cam McWhirter is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and the co-author of American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15. He feels strongly that we all need to know more about James Weldon Johnson. Johnson was a civil rights leader, lawyer, diplomat, writer and musician in the early 20th century. He was at the forefront of the Harlem Renaissance, and served as the first Black Executive Secretary of...

Eric is the founder and Partner of AL Media a political consulting and media company that has managed campaigns and produced effective political ads and media for presidential campaigns, senatorial campaigns, congressional campaigns, gubernatorial campaigns and issue-related efforts all over the country. for 30 years. His firm has worked with Vice President Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, Senator Ra...

Reverend Kent Gilbert is an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ and since 1997 has served as pastor and teacher to Union Church in Berea, Kentucky. Kent has never been much of a sports fan, but having traveled to Japan multiple times, he has developed a passion for Sumo Wrestling. We discuss the rules, the strategy and the cultural significance of this fascinating and ancient sport that...

Murphy Monroe is a non-profit executive and nationally-known advocate for the benefits of float therapy or sensory deprivation. We talk about how floating works and about the profound impact it has had on his own life. Murphy also outlines the physical, mental, and emotional benefits that floating can provide for anyone. Murphy is a knowledgable and truly passionate advocate for this unique form o...

For 60 years now the starship Enterprise and all of its enduring characters have been wandering the galaxy in search of new life and new civilizations. John Siuntres has been on that trek since the very beginning. We talk about the enduring popularity of the Star Trek franchise and why John has been hooked ever since Neal Armstrong and his crew landed on the moon. John is a podcast pioneer who is...

Denise Vargas is the Executive Director of El Hogar in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. The organization’s mission is to provide children from vulnerable conditions with the opportunity to become future leaders. She was born and raised in Tegucigalpa and has a BA from Dartmouth and an MBA. We talk about the state of wonder that poetry provides her, and how poetry is her way to express things...

Chad Berry is a husband, a dad and a grandfather. He is the Vice President for Alumni, Communications and Philanthropy at Berea College and holds the Goode Professorship in Appalachian Studies as a Professor of History. We discuss place, placelessness and displacement in America, and the ways the places from which we come give us identity and can also sometime feel burdensome. We focus particular...