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Samantha Berger Pt 2, Children's Book Author, TV Writer

My guest this week needs no introduction. That’s partly because she is a force of nature, a wonderful presence, an engaging encourager, and a real pleasure to talk to, but it’s also because I introduced her last week in part 1 of our conversation!If you haven’t already, do go back to last week’s episode and listen to the beginnings of my conversation with Samantha Berger, where we cover a lot of her history in children’s media, from working at Nickelodeon to her years at Scholastic to zine publishing to independent picture book authorship.We start this week by talking about more of her books – specifically in the follow up to talking about the sloth-love show Snoozefest at the end of last episode, we discuss the touching and therapeutic Rock What Ya Got, and go into why a book called Glam-Ma is so necessary for proper representation. Later in the conversation we talk about one of my favorites of hers, What If..., and why you should always create.Finally, do stick around for our discussion of Samantha’s work with Sesame Street in Communities and Sesame Street International. There’s a lot of well-deserved praise both for Samantha as well as for Sesame and what it stands for.We start by talking about more of her books – specifically in the follow up to talking about the sloth-love show Snoozefest at the end of last episode, we discuss the touching and therapeutic Rock What Ya Got, and go into why a book called Glam-Ma is so necessary for proper representation. Later in the conversation we talk about one of my favorites of hers, What If, and why you should always create.Finally, do stick around for our discussion of Samantha’s work with Sesame Street in Communities and Sesame Street International. There’s a lot of well-deserved praise both for Samantha as well as for Sesame and what it stands for.

Samantha Berger Pt 1, Children's Book Author, TV Writer

For those who may not know Samantha Berger, you’re missing out on a real good and delightful person. It would be impossible for me to track down all EIGHTY-some of her children’s books to read, as some of them aren’t even published under her name proper, but the recent ones are really good and usually pretty close at hand at your local library or bookstore. It’s also impossible to track down all the rest of the TV, illustration, voiceover, and other miscellaneous – yet critical – writing threads that make up the Samantha Berger tapestry.The more I read and learned about her as I prepared for our conversation, the more I felt intimidated by compressing all her writing experience – and otherwise! – into just one chat. We do manage to cover in this conversation the gamut from differences with your parents to zine publication to corporate culture to supporting peers to heavier backdrops informing more joyous works.Samantha Berger’s words in an email she wrote to me, "Believe in yourself and your work. Get it to the place where YOU love it. All it takes is one person to believe in you back. Believe in someone else, as well," resonate throughout this conversation. What could have been a very self-focused trip through her incredibly prolific writing career thus far is peppered with support, recognition, acknowledgment, and love for those she looks up to and those who have helped get her to where she is.#VerseShow comprises conversations that give voice to creators, their process, their struggles, and the celebrations of their work. It's an interview podcast with a bend toward curiosity about the creative process.

Jack Forman, Musician, Recess Monkey

My guest this week has been in my ears for almost the entirety of my time as a father, from the days of taking my older daughter for walks accompanied by the sub-genre he helped build, kindie music – that’s kid plus indie.Jack Forman is an educator, hailing from Seattle, born and raised. His work as an educator and entertainer of kids quickly evolved from formal teaching to family-friendly music with pals Drew Holloway and, later, Korum Bischoff. Together, the three of them comprise Recess Monkey.Recess Monkey has been around and hitting it hard for almost fifteen years. And when I say they hit it hard, I mean that in the band’s tenure thus far, they’ve released fourteen studio albums. Jack himself has released two in the last several years.Recess Monkey’s ponderous music catalogue is joy-filled, catchy, and at the same time relatable to current as well as former kids. While Jack plays bass and does vocals in Recess Monkey, he’s a talented multi-instrumentalist and audio engineer, producing his solo albums entirely from his home studio.Speaking of his home studio, you can also find Jack hosting a daily live call-in radio show on Sirius XM Kids Place Live called Live from the Monkey House. He brings the same level of energy, entertainment, and engagement to his radio show that you’d expect from hearing his music.#VerseShow comprises conversations that give voice to creators, their process, their struggles, and the celebrations of their work. It's an interview podcast with a bend toward curiosity about the creative process.

Kamal Bell, Farmer-Educator, Sankofa Farms

Kamal Bell is championing one of the most noble and traditionally patriotic American pursuits I could think of. It’s a fantastic conversation to have for the 4th of July.Through his ownership of the Durham, North Carolina-based Sankofa Farms, he’s looking to do a lot. He has worked since 2016 to render a dozen wild acres arable, while also balancing being a middle school teacher, raising his two boys, and bringing direct benefit to his community through Sankofa’s Agriculture Academy program as well as directly addressing our American food desert problem.#VerseShow comprises conversations that give voice to creators, their process, their struggles, and the celebrations of their work. It's an interview podcast with a bend toward curiosity about the creative process.

Uzma Jalaluddin, Writer, Ayesha At Last

Uzma Jalaluddin is my guest for this episode! Uzma is an English teacher in Toronto, a parent of two boys, a columnist for the Toronto star with a regular parenting feature called Samosas and Maple Syrup, and a novelist with her debut work, Ayesha At Last, just having dropped in the US.If there’s anything I’ve learned from the initial handful of conversations making up this show, it’s that you pursue creativity best when it’s something you believe in with your whole heart. Where your heart goes, so goes your interest, passion, and time.Uzma first started work on Ayesha At Last in 2007. That’s a dozen years working on getting this story right, working around kids and a job about which she’s passionate, working through a dozen or so drafts, and a lot of patience. And editing.The passion, care, attention, and heart comes through in the writing of Ayesha At Last. It’s a love story perfect for the summer, with pages that fly by as the novel’s characters work through their arcs, both interwoven and distinct. Ayesha At Last is a modern remix on Pride and Prejudice, but – like me – you don’t need to have read Pride and Prejudice to get a lot out of it.The template extracted from Jane Austen’s seminal story is apt and works really well for the environment of Ayesha At Last. Uzma’s main characters, Khalid Mirza and Ayesha Shamsi, are observant Muslims living and breathing in the tight-knit Muslim community of the east end of Toronto.They wear traditional clothing and wrestle with arranged marriage, the trappings of faith, and honoring family, but they also hit those universal coming-of-age notes of simply learning who they are as people, accepting themselves, and figuring out how to love.#VerseShow comprises conversations that give voice to creators, their process, their struggles, and the celebrations of their work. It's an interview podcast with a bend toward curiosity about the creative process.

Karie Fugett, Writer, Editor, Memoirist

Birds chirping in a blue sky, the wind whistling through the trees. The crunch of footsteps on freshly chewed Oregon grass. Somewhere, a dog barking.This is the pastoral Oregonian backdrop for my conversation with Karie Fugett. I hesitate to announce her as 'writer' Karie Fugett since, as our conversation alludes, you don’t always define yourself as one thing. We contain multitudes.Karie is a writer, though, among other things, and you can find her writing, including bits of her upcoming memoir, already available online.If you haven’t met Karie, or don’t know her online, or haven’t read her work already… her story is amazing and deserves to be told.At 17, Karie was a high school dropout. At 24, Karie became a widow. Her husband Cleve was injured by an IED in the Iraq war, later lost his leg, eventually to succumb to an overdose. Nine years after Cleve’s death, Karie works as a writer, editor, and memoirist, traveling to live in Oregon from her home in Alabama, telling their story through her words and experiences as she’s now completed a master’s program in creative nonfictionI will not do a disservice to Karie’s story by telling more of it here – there’s a lot to it - but instead will suggest that you go seek out her words!#VerseShow comprises conversations that give voice to creators, their process, their struggles, and the celebrations of their work. It's an interview podcast with a bend toward curiosity about the creative process.

Rachel Bodi and Robert Poe, Ballet 314

If you’re curious about what a dance company is or what goes into the seamless, flowing performances by well-rehearsed professional dancers that we’ve all seen, this conversation is for you because there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than you might think.Thanks to Rachel Bodi and Robert Poe, artistic directors of nonprofit ballet company Ballet 314, I now understand a little bit better what it takes to make a dance company. Experience, passion, support, a collaborative spirit. The right opportunity and the right network. The right vision to recognize the right time to make something new happen. Their care and passion for creating opportunities for local dancers while also connecting as directly as possible with the community fuels everything about Ballet 314.#VerseShow comprises conversations that give voice to creators, their process, their struggles, and the celebrations of their work. It's an interview podcast with a bend toward curiosity about the creative process.

Melanie Lee, Author, The Adventures of Squirky the Alien

Melanie Lee is a Singaporean freelance writer and author of the interview-based spiritual text Quiet Journeys as well as the six-book children's serial The Adventures of Squirky the Alien, helping children understand what it means to be adopted. Melanie works across genres, formats, lengths, and disciplines. She would probably be too humble to say this, but she’s serene, self-assured, and seems well aware of her place and position in the creative world.As with many of the folks I’ve talked to for this show, I’ve known Melanie for a long time - almost two decades. That being said, aside from social media connections she and I legitimately haven’t spoken for 19 years. I’ve always been curious as to what’s been behind her creativity, and I’m glad to be able to record and represent Melanie Lee’s work.#VerseShow comprises conversations that give voice to creators, their process, their struggles, and the celebrations of their work. It's an interview podcast with a bend toward curiosity about the creative process.

Kelly Light, Children's Book Author, 'Louise Loves Art'

Kelly Light’s primary works, the ones for which she’s know the best, are two picture books for young kids called Louise Loves Art and Louise and Andie and the Art of Friendship, about an earnest girl named Louise who can’t put her pencil down for love of drawing. The art in these two books is expressive, animated, and dynamic. Like Kelly, Louise is at her best and happiest when she’s making art.The story we tell through our conversation touches on Kelly’s quick ascent to something some might call fame and glory, but also what’s more important about that mountain peak: the work it took to get to the top, and also a realistic look at what it takes to stay there, as well as what happens when you stumble from your peak.#VerseShow comprises conversations that give voice to creators, their process, their struggles, and the celebrations of their work. It's an interview podcast with a bend toward curiosity about the creative process.

Rob Nunn, Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street

Rob nunn has written a Sherlockian pastiche – that is, a fictionalized reimagining of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle – called The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street. After this conversation, I have a better appreciation for the ways in which being a fan of something can evolve into a more considered exercise in historical context, critical analysis, and debate. What Sherlockians do is what you might have observed in the Stranger’s Room of the Diogenes Club as part of the Sherlock canon. Considered discussion and intellectual exercise and creative expression with a shared experience.Rob’s creative exercise would have come to nothing – and likely wouldn’t even have started - without his deep passion and analysis. The passion that fuels so many people in their creative pursuits, the pure fandom of whatever it is you’re doing, takes just a slightly different spin here with a Sherlockian context.#VerseShow comprises conversations that give voice to creators, their process, their struggles, and the celebrations of their work. It's an interview podcast with a bend toward curiosity about the creative process.