Craft: Exploring Creativity

I think I became aware of The Talk that African American parents have with their children a few years ago, most likely during the start of the Black Lives Matter movement. This is probably one of the surest signs that I have lived a life of white privilege. I’d grown up around casual racism with the N-word being an accepted part of many people’s vocabulary, so my not knowing about The Talk was par for the course.

Brendan Kiely had in some ways a similar and in others a very different kind of youth, and that’s led him to confront racism and write The Other Talk: Reckoning with Our White Privilege. He’ll appear with at this year’s virtual Ohioana Book Festival from Friday, April 29 to Sunday, May 1, 2022.

Listen in as we discuss his book and efforts at understanding racism and how he feels he’ll deal with it with his children.

Ron Allan from Big Voice Productions in central Ohio has performed and taught voice acting throughout the Midwest and has over 30 years of experience. As he said during our discussion, “somewhere, right now, this minute, I’m on a radio commercial, a TV commercial, an industrial narration, a phone message, or an audio book.”

We discussed the background needed for voice acting and the potential careers that are available. Currently, there’s less demand for the traditional announcer voice and more for conversational voices, or as Ron put it: roles from “a grandfather to a child, and any age in between: the soccer mom, the stereotypes, the football coach in the locker room, the cop, the lawyer, the professor. There’s tons of roles to be played, even voices of aliens and animals.” Is there a voice acting role for you? Check out our discussion and decide for yourself.

Cleveland poet George Bilgere’s latest collection is Central Air, which was released March 2022. He hosts “Wordplay” on Cleveland Public Radio, which has been described as the car talk of poetry. He joins the Ohioana virtual Book Festival on April 29 through May 4.

Bilgere writes poems about his life and locations from Berlin to Cleveland Heights and all stops in between.

The last time we spoke, 10 years ago, he “was gloriously free.” Listen in to find out what’s happened since then and why it’s never funny when ribs are involved.

Celtic Folk rock group Tempest has a history of playing pirate songs and playing at WCBE. They will be in town on April 8 at Byrne’s Pub. I spoke with founding member and lead singer/electric mandolinist, Lief Sorbye, about how the band writes. music, especially during downtimes like the pandemic.

So listen to the interview and then get to Byrne’s Pub where you can do your imitation of a pirate.

On her way to selling over 30 million books, Lisa Scottoline has had plenty of time to imagine what’s the worst that could happen in any situation. And fortunately, she’s written about it.

This time, it’s tailgating that turns into carjacking that sends a family into hiding. Her latest novel What Happened to the Bennetts looks at what happens to a family under pressure. She’ll be in Columbus virtually on Tuesday, April 5 at 7 pm with Gramercy Books in Bexley.

Lisa Scottoline is a pleasure to talk to and I recommend her books. Listen in to the podcast and then get her latest, What Happened to the Bennetts.

It’s that time again: time to reach into your wallets and purses and neighbor’s couch cushions and help support central Ohio’s NPR station, WCBE!

In today’s show, I talk with Greg Moebius, General Manager at WCBE. We discuss the theme of the spring fund drive–community–and how WCBE supports a myriad of community programs. In Greg’s words:

So donate what you can at WCBE.org!

You ever look at something and think, “Yeah, that’s hiding a terrible secret?” Tonight’s story is just that kind of event, a moment that made me shiver with fear when I saw a deadly contraption roaming the sidewalks and streets of a local institute of higher education.

Enjoy this warm little celebration of the increasing mechanization of our daily lives. I’ll continue being the old curmudgeon in the corner, wondering why we have to replace people with machines and when it will end.

A professor in my graduate school was fond of saying that technology offered constraints and affordances meaning pluses and minuses in academese. Sometimes, all it affords is constraints, like it did for poor Karen.

Thanks to Freesound.org user Unfa for the soundtrack to tonight’s show.

​Violinist Savannah Buist, cellist Katie Larson, and percussionist Michael Dause make up The Accidentals, who will perform in Columbus on March 12 with Six String Concerts. I spoke with Sav and Katie about their time as musicians, how the pandemic changed their musical abilities (think: engineering), and how they got to cowrite with some of their musical heroes on the Timeout Project.

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Cardiologist and author of Heartbreak and Heart Disease Dr. Stephen Sinatra believes that some habits could unexpectedly impact your heart health. During our conversation, we discussed the many ways that how much not getting enough sleeping at night can negatively impact your cardiac health before covering his interest in grounding, aka earthing, the idea that electric currents in the earth can be access by direct physical contact. Listen in for Dr. Sinatra’s health advice.

Larry Griffin co-founded Capriccio Columbus 13 years ago and still serves as its artistic director. He’ll present this year’s Christmas with Capriccio concert on December 19 at Worthington United Methodist Church. Listen in as he describes the songs they’ll play, which ones make Larry cry, and the involvement of his musically gifted family. If you like Vivaldi, this one’s for you.

Note: COVID safety protocols will be used for this concert.