2019: If you’re a man or woman who likes to get away from civilization to fish in remote and exotic places, fly fisherman tired author Marshall Craig is the kind of guy you’ll want to do it with. I reached that conclusion based on the humorous essays found in his new memoir, "You’ll Need A Guide: Fishing Stories That Aren’t Much About the Fish." It is available in paperback or ebook on Amazon or wherever you buy books about fishing.
2019: On any given day, “For Better or For Worse” could be funny, sweet, bittersweet or hauntingly dramatic – just like life in my own family or yours. Perhaps nothing about the strip was more shocking than the day in 2008 that cartoonist Lynn Johnston announced she would no longer be producing new strips but would be re-releasing the original from day one, with occasional fixes to continuity and timeliness. Would that even work? It has and it does--the strip appears in 2,000 newspapers in 23 countrie
2019: Graphic novelist Barbara Slate, a frequent guest to this show, has adopted Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's two-years-in-the-making investigation into a comic book. "Mueller Report Graphic Novel" reduces the horrifying hacking of American democracy to its essence, packed with documented political cheating and anti-American conspiracies. Enjoy!
2019: Once again, novelist Renee Rosen delivers up a slice of actual history by taking us through it in the persona of a young woman, named Alice Weiss. This time, Rosen takes her readers back in time to the moment in 1965 when Cosmopolitan magazine is on the verge of shutting down, only to be saved against all logic by an inexperienced new editor named Helen Gurley Brown, best known as the controversial and provocative author of "Sex and the Single Girl."
2019: "Weirdo. In The Book of Weirdo: A Retrospective of R. Crumb's Legendary Humor Comics Anthology" is a massive work by Jon B. Cooke that even Crumb himself questions the logic of, although he admits he learned quite a bit about himself and his magazine by reading it. As for Cooke, who is a graphic designer by day and editor of "Comic Book Creator" magazine by night, he also worked with his brother Andrew on "Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist." WARNING: Audio problems make this a tough listen.
2010: Reports of the death of the TV hospital drama—foretold by the end of "ER" last season after 27 years on the air—were apparently premature. Showtime has "Nurse Jackie"; TNT has "HawthoRNe" and NBC is back with a new one that adds an "M," a "C" and a "Y" to "E" and "R" and that gives us "Mercy." (Oh, stop groaning—you saw that one coming a mile away.) It stars Taylor Schilling, Michelle Tractenberg and my guest today, Jamie Lee Kirchner.
2019: To me, the arrival of a new Ravi P.I. novel by Adi Tantimedh is like being handed a fresh-baked soft pretzel and a Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. I’m going to try and consume it slowly, savoring every biteand every sip. But in the end, I always give in to the impulse of zooming through because it’s just so damned good! Of course, when it’s gone, I’m left wanting another. And another.
2009: This should be an interesting show. We have a guest who is allergic to beer and a host who never touches the stuff. Naturally, the subject is… beer! Anat Baron is the director of a new documentary called Beer Wars. Now available for sale on DVD, it’s not a movie about rival frat houses—on second thought, maybe it is. Baron presents a sometimes tongue-in-cheek study have how the big three brewing companies—Anheuser-Busch, Coors and Miller—will stop at nothing to take space in your neighborhoo
2010: David Mathison’s book, "Be The Media," is a perfect companion bookend for Guy Kawasaki’s most recent book, "Reality Check." Together, these are 3 pounds, 13 ounces of paper you really should own and study.
2009: Drew Waters possesses the kind of body that other men can only wish to emulate and women dream of well, you know. He grew up in Texas and gave up a track & field scholarship at Rice University to join the Navy. While still serving his country, he won a modeling contest over 3,500 other contestants and—after completing his military tenure—began a career as an international print model. He appeared in an episode of “Breaking Bad,” and scored a recurring role during season 3 of “Friday Night Li
2009: The really funny thing about Judy Tenuta? Pretty much everything. And she’s actually quite a lovely woman, as you can see from the photos on her website—JudyTenuta.com. I wanted to get that out of the way now, before she reminds me of what a pig I and all the rest of you men are.
2009: For those who remember Dominique Swain from her first starring role—as “Lolita” opposite Jeremy Irons—this is quite a departure. For one thing, she’s all grown up. And for another she’s really freaked out. Joining us today, in addition to Dominique, is the director of Fall Down Dead, Jon Keeyes. He is a veteran of indie horror films including American Nightmare and Suburban Nightmare.
2010: As a middle school girls soccer coach, I enjoy working with kids and their parents, But not, I suspect, enough to want to be Jo Frost, the star of the ABC TV series “Supernanny.” And while it would be tempting to be called “Super-Manny,” the title that falls to her associate Mike Ruggles, I don’t think I’d want to be him, either.
2011: This was so cool, I had to share it again: in 2011, I took a flyer on a paid commercial for the Mr. Media podcast on Kevin Smith's new Smodcast daily, online radio show, Plus One Per Diem. The show features Smith, the director of Clerks, Chasing Amy and Red State, and his wife, actress Jen Schwalbach, discussing life, culture and family. I wrote some suggested points for the live read of the commercial, but Smith improvised the best and rest of it. Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!
2019: From the time I started reading John Barbour’s career-spanning memoir, "Your Mother’s Not A Virgin: The Bumpy Life and Times of the Canadian Dropout Who Changed the Face of American TV!" I kept searching for the right word to describe my over-arching impression of the man. It wasn’t easy because in the course of 700 pages, Barbour is a comedian, a talk show host, a culture critic, a writer for singer Frank Sinatra, a husband and father, and creator of NBC’s “Real People.” I settled on "una
2010: I’m interested to talk with "Saved By the Star" Dennis Haskins about his recent multi-episode arc on the first season of the new TNT dramedy, “Men of a Certain Age.” His certain were with Scott Bakula.
2010: Most of us probably remember Ming-Na best from her run as a young doctor on the long-running NBC medical drama, ER. Or, if you’ve got a daughter, like I do, you’ve probably sat through the Disney animated films Mulan and Mulan 2 a couple hundred times. That’s right, Ming-Na was the voice of the heroic Mulan. More recently, she did an eye-popping arc as one of Charlie Sheen’s love interests on Two and a Half Men, which somehow led to her joining the star-filled ensemble of Stargate Universe.
2010: When the producers of the CBS reality TV hit “Undercover Boss” brag that their show is about corporate presidents getting their hands dirty, they couldn’t be more accurate than this week’s episode. Because on Sunday, April 4, 2010, the boss going undercover is Rick Arquilla, president of Cincinnati, Ohio-based Roto-Rooter Services Company. That’s right, the top guy at America’s largest drain cleaning service will be shown as one of the guys, one of the grunts, repairing and snaking America
2010: Buying or selling a home is one of the biggest financial transactions that most people will ever make. First-time homebuyers in particular have no idea where to start. What they need is a road map and an experienced guide that can advise when to shop and when to not, what’s a gem and what’s a scam. Peter Richmond is probably that guy. He’s the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Buying a Home. If anyone can offer good, simple advice on how to do it, it’s got to be him.
2019: Exploitation Nation, Mike Watt’s bi-annual journal in which he gives lowbrow entertainment a highbrow survey, is all about underground comix in its sixth issue. I’m always looking for an excuse to feature comics-related subjects on Mr. Media, so seeing previous Mr. Media guests Howard Cruse and Trina Robbins on the cover, plus art by Will Eisner – whose authorized biography I wrote 15 years ago – it was a pretty easy reach for me.
2010: It’s been like “Beauty Visits the Beast” around here lately at Mr. Media Radio, with recent drop-bys from “Supergirl” Laura Vandervoort, “10 Things I Hate About You” star Lindsay Shaw and Mulan’s Ming-Na. Today brings another lovely treat as WWE diva Brie Bella—who works with her twin sister Nikki Bella on “Raw”—joins me to discuss her appearance as a special guest with Nikki on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” hosted by Ty Pennington.
2010: David Russo, author of "17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent: Why Engaged Employees Are Your Greatest Sustainable Advantage," spent 19 years as VP of human resources for SAS Institute, which won numerous quality-of-work and quality-of-life awards during his tenure. More recently, he founded Eno River Associates to consult on best practices and workforce strategies with companies of all sizes.
2010: You have a brilliant idea: Write a book about a year in the sporting life of the world’s greatest golfers. A publisher snaps it up and you seemingly have it made. Except you pick the wrong year to focus on the wunderkind, who self-destructs as your year on his tail comes to an end. Even worse, you miss catching him at his real sport, mistressball. But you move forward and the result, Unplayable: An Inside Account of Tiger's Most Tumultuous Season, still captures a true year on the links with Tiger.
2008: Today's podcast is a lost-and-found item; recorded on September 27, 2008, live at Blog Orlando, an "Unconference" held at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, it has been missing in action for more than a decade. Appearing on this episode, in order, are: • J.C. Hutchins, science fiction novelist; • Dana Willhoit, freelance writer and internet marketer; • Michael Hinman, podcaster, "Syfy Radio"; • and Tommy Duncan, blogger, "Sticks of Fire."
2010: My guest today is Robert L. Dilenschneider, founder and chairman of the New York City-based Dilenschneider Group and former president and CEO of one of the world’s best known and most successful public relations agencies, Hill and Knowlton. He is also the author of a new book, "The AMA Handbook of Public Relations." AMA, in this case, stands for the American Management Association, by the way.
2009: Christopher Ventura, a 2009 graduate of the film program at Syracuse University, is the man behind Ventura Creative, which produces “It’s OK! I’m an Actor.” Also joining us is Ventura’s co-producer, Peter LaSala. He’s created several film and video shorts in both narrative and documentary genres. If you're a fan of such shows as It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, you may feel right at home watching “It’s OK!”
2019: How much do you need to a know about a band beyond the fact that you like their sound? I heard a few tracks from the Canadian group Across the Board and that was enough for me. They just released a new album, "Wild Ones," so I invited them on the show today and figured we could just dive in and learn about them together.
2011: Mary Ewing-Mulligan is the co-author (with her husband, Ed McCarthy) of six wine books in the Wine For Dummies series — including French Wine For Dummies and Italian Wine For Dummies — as well as her latest , Wine Style. She has taught hundreds of wine classes and visited nearly every wine region in the world.
2011: Two interviews in one show: first up is comedian Debi Gutierrez, followed by Patrick Muldoon, actor in "Starship Troopers" and singer in The Sleeping Masses.