11 JUL 2023 · Tandy Culpepper talks with author, lecturer, and broadcast journalist Reba Merrill. This is a woman one Hollywood wag dubbed "The Queen of the Hollywood Press Junket." Merrill came to Los Angeles and sought to build a brand in entertainment journalism at the unheard of age of 47 -- unheard of because, for a woan at that time, 47 was over the hill. So after assorted trials and tribulations, she beat the odds and overcame both misogyny and ageism. Now, her lengthy career has been capped off with a major honor: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated Merrill for inclusion in a vault created with funding provided by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. The vault, housed at the University of Southern California, contains items chronicling the history of Hollywood. Merrill's digitized interviews -- perhaps 1500 or so -- will be known as the reba Merrill Collection.

22 JUL 2023 · Dr. James Michael Stevens is a professor of music and chair of the music department at Welch College in Gallatin, Tennessee. Stevens is also a composer and a prolific one at that. By his estimation, he has some 8,000 compositions to his credit, mainly for piano but also for organ and choral groups. The chorale composition Without Love We Have Nothing– written with Joseph M. Martin – has been performed and recorded all over the world, particularly in South Korea. Last month, Dr. Stevens was invited to join the Recording Academy as a voting member of the Grammy Awards. In this episode of The Hollywood Beat, Dr. Stevens talks with Tandy Culpepper about his career and this latest achievement with the Grammy Folks.

24 JUL 2023 · I caught up recently with a woman who, like me, graduated from Goucher College's MFA program in Creative Nonfiction. She and I have been Facebook friends, but we spoke by phone for the first time only in the last month. I came across one of her posts in which she shared that she had just come out with a poetry collection titled The House Inside My Head. In this episode of THB, she tells us about her new book, about how she became a poet, why she took up painting, and workshops she conducts in something called ekphrastic writing, i.e. writing about works of art and the like. John Keats's Ode on a Grecian Urn is an example. Chris is also an ardent baseball fan and has edited books on the subject. We hear her read two of her poems as well as a section of the preface from one of the baseball books.

8 AUG 2023 · Pamela Skjolsvik and I met in 2008 at Goucher College where we both were enrolled in the Creative Nonfiction MFA program. We’ve kept in touch over the years. When Pamela decided to try her hand at fiction, she settled on a topic guaranteed to raise eyebrows. The novel is Forever 51, a dark comedy about a menopausal vampire named Veronica. Pamela’s protagonist is forever condemned to a life of irritability and hot flashes. The idea for the high-concept tale came to Pamela as the result of a question posed by her young son. Hear the question in this interview. Pamela reads from Forever 51 as well as from her first book, a reported memoir titled Death Becomes Us. By the way, Pamela plans a trilogy, and the second in the series will be called Wasted on the Young. Forever 51 is available on Amazon.

13 AUG 2023 · Dr. Nancy Irwin is a Los Angeles-based clinical psychologist and hypnotherapist. A longtime mutual friend thought I’d enjoy interviewing Dr. Irwin, and our friend was right. She came to this profession by way of an interesting journey . Can you imagine a stand up comic who morphs into a shrink? Well, Dr, Irwin traveled that road. I talk to Dr. Irwin about why people — including Hollywood celebrities — seek her services.

18 AUG 2023 · Judy Lev (the pen name for Judy Labensohn) is an American-Israeli writer whose new memoir -- Our Names Do Not Appear -- breaks new ground for the genre. One book critic referred to it as a "hybrid memoir." After reading it, I must opine that hybrid is an accurate description for the book. Judy mixes creative nonfiction with elements of fiction, and she does so with a deft hand. The story mines memories from a traumatic childhood event that the author carries with her for many years until she faces the same sort of dilemma after becoming a young adult starting her own family. Lev/Lebensohn grew up in Shaker Heights, a small municipality just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. When she was 21 -- in 1967 -- she moved to Israel for what she thought would be a year. All these years later, she's still there. Judy and I talk about the childhood that prompted her to write this book, as well as how she chose to structure her memoir which breaks conventions to craft something heretofore little seen in the genre. We also discuss the current turbulent political climate and how it mirrors what is transpiring in the United States and certain other nations around the globe.

21 SEP 2023 · Recently I had the opportunity to interview the D.C. based singer-songwriter Lauren Calve. By her own wry admission, she’s something of a late bloomer. In fact, one of the tracks on her debut long-form album, Shift, bears that very title. The ten track collection was released the first week of September. Calve recorded the LP in Nashville – and, boy, howdy, did she have heavyweight musicians in the studio with her. From her website LaurenCalve.com:(Shift) was recorded in Nashville at 3Sirens Music Group with producer, engineer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Dex Green (Margo Price, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Allison Russell). “He took songs that had never been road tested, songs that went directly from my living room to the studio, and effortlessly brought them to life,” says Calve. He also brought heavy hitters into the studio: Fred Eltringham on drums (ACM Drummer of the Year, Drumeo Country Drummer of the Year, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson), Audley Freed on guitar (Sheryl Crow, The Black Crowes), Robert Kearns on bass (Sheryl Crow, Lynyrd Skynyrd), Marlon Patton on drums (Larkin Poe, Lera Lynn), Jared Reynolds on bass (Ben Folds) and Joe Costa on the board (Ben Folds). And from American Songwriter comes this praise:As the disc’s title and opening track imply, the songs are tied loosely together by Calve’s ability to understand and adapt to the various shifts—age, economic, romantic—that occur in her, and everyone else’s lives. Will it take me or break me under its weight? Or will I take it and break away? she sings as a slowly pumping drum thumps behind her like a heartbeat and guitars soar, then dive, with the dramatic yet earthy sweep of the best Tom Petty material… Calve’s striking songs emerge out of the speakers full and alive, making this one of the most notable debut recordings this year and worthy of the advanced acclaim from her peers.

20 OCT 2023 · For several months, I had been trying to pin down journalist Francine Kiefer for an interview regarding her award-winning work as West Coast bureau chief for The Christian Science Monitor. My efforts were complicated by unforeseen circumstances not of our making. Kiefer had been asked to assume the role of interim national news editor pending results of a search to fill the position long term. I caught up with Francine the second week of October, a time in which news from overseas was dominated by events taking place in Israel and the Gaza Strip. On the home front the top news story was the ongoing search for a new speaker of the House. Prior to heading to the West Coast, Kiefer served as congressional correspondent for the Monitor. In our interview Kiefer and I discuss the situation in the Middle East, the search for a new House speaker, as well as the race to fill the Senate seat held most recently by the late Dianne Feinstein.

6 NOV 2023 · I’d been trying to schedule an interview with veteran broadcast journalist Don Dahler (most recently of CBS News) for weeks. We finally found a good date in October, and looking back, I realize had we conducted the interview in September, I would have missed out on his valuable observations regarding the Israel-Hamas war. Earlier in his career — as a war correspondent with ABC News — Dahler was embedded with American forces during the second Gulf War. That experience informs much of this episode as he provides insights into the major players in the current armed conflict. Though Don is a top-notch journalist, he has lent his talents to another form of storytelling. He’s the author of three novels: A Tight Lie, Water Hazard, and Do A Little Wrong. He has also penned a biography of the first woman to pilot a plane across the English Channel. Fearless: Harriett Quimby A Life without Limits.

8 NOV 2023 · You may know him as John Ondrasik. You may know him by his stage name Five for Fighting. No matter. By any name, this acclaimed singer- songwriter is recognized throughout the music industry as one of America’s greatest balladeers. Think Superman and 100 Years. Last year, Ondrasik set out on an arduous and perilous journey. After Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, John sat down at his piano and composed Can One Man Save the World. It’s a paean to Ukraine and a soaring anthem that begged for an orchestral accompaniment. Rather than perform the composition at home in Los Angeles, John secured approval from the Ukrainian government to come to Kyiv. There he produced a music video with the Ukrainian Orchestra. On October 15th, only last month, the Ukrainian rock band Antytila performed in Los Angeles as part of their North American tour. In a surprise turn, John joined them to sing Can One Man Save the World in a duet with frontman Taras Topolia. John devotes much of his off-stage energy in philanthropic work. Find out more on this website: WhatKindof WorldDoWeWant.com. Follow his touring, news and general info at FiveForFighting.com.