A Toast to The Arts

Victoria Chick, the artist spearheading the Southwest Regional Museum of Art & Art Center in Silver City, New Mexico, joins Lisa D. Smith on Big Blend Radio’s "World of Art" Podcast. In this shared episode, they start with October’s pop-up museum weekends, where temporary walls and museum-quality exhibitions showed Silver City what’s coming. Victoria also explains why a first-rate art museum matters for the whole southwest corner of New Mexico, a region about 270 miles wide with no museum close by.

Then the conversation turns to Leighton Fossum (1922–2011), a graphic designer and illustrator born in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, a destination on the historic Jefferson Highway. He retired to Tucson and later New Mexico and became a fine artist. Several of his paintings are now in the museum’s permanent collection. Victoria shares what she found going through his belongings: patents for his inventions, his Air Force discharge papers, and an easel covered in faces. She also talks about his tiny pen-and-ink detail, his fast-drying casein paints, a cow at a gas pump, a tumbleweed flying through the air, and why she thinks he pushed his compositions to the edge on purpose.

Read Victoria’s article on Leighton Fossum, play the online puzzle of his painting Going Home, and learn more about the museum using the links below.

LINKS:

To celebrate National Book Month, award-winning crime novelist James W. Ziskin joins Matt Cost and BJ Magnani on this shared episode Big Blend Radio’s "Pets, Plots & Poisons" Podcast to talk about his "Ellie Stone" Mysteries, set in the 1960s, and his new standalone suspense novel, "The Prank."

The conversation starts with pets: Saint and Millie’s dirt-road romance, Dr. Watson the fetch-playing cat, and Jim’s cats Tuppy and Boko, including Tuppy’s ice cube “launch pad.” 

Then Jim explains how a pug named Little Leon sneaks into every "Ellie Stone" book, why he’s named after Trotsky, and what it takes to write a 1960s female reporter as a man. They also dive into Dante, the Decameron and Ellie’s trip to Italy, how Jim wrote about 80,000 words of "The Prank" in roughly 40 days, and a plot tip on pantsers, plotters and keeping your continuity straight. BJ closes with her poison of the month: cyanide, plus the 1982 Tylenol poisonings that changed packaging forever.

Pets, Plots & Poisons airs every 3rd Thursday on Big Blend Radio.

LINKS:

Author Kayla Hardy on "The Quarter Queen," her debut historical fantasy reimagining Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, and her rebellious daughter, Ree. 

Voodoo queens, secret societies, and the mother-daughter bond that can make or break a family. For National Book Month, Kayla Hardy joins Big Blend Radio’s "Books & Authors" with Books Forward, to talk about The Quarter Queen, a lush, richly researched story of two generations of powerful women in a magically and racially divided 1840s New Orleans.

In the novel, Ree finds her formidable mother, Marie, comatose in the bayou and has to uncover the secrets of Marie’s past to save her. Enemies are circling, including a puritanical Brotherhood of alchemists, the slaveholding mayor of the city, and Ree’s childhood best friend turned witch hunter.

In this conversation, Kayla talks about:

Kayla Hardy is a mythology expert and multi-hyphenate author and screenwriter of Louisiana Creole descent. She earned her PhD in creative writing and African American literature from SUNY Binghamton University, where she is an adjunct professor and an accomplished scholar of Black folklore, mythology, and Voodoo. "The Quarter Queen" (Ballantine) is her first novel, named an Essence Most Anticipated Book of 2026 and a Book Riot Best New Book of March.

Kayla Hardy’s website: https://KaylaHardy.com 

Harry Belafonte was a legend in music, but the film "Following Harry" isn’t about his music. It’s about what he did when the music stopped. In this Big Blend Radio conversation, host Lisa D. Smith talks with Emmy-nominated filmmaker and editor Susanne Rostock, director of "Following Harry" and its companion film, "Sing Your Song," about the last twelve years of Harry Belafonte’s life and the new generation of artists and activists he mentored.

Susanne shares how the film began. "Sing Your Song" ended with Harry looking straight at the audience and asking, “What do we do now?” Not long after, he invited her to move her editing equipment into his brand-new office, which became a hub of activism where you never knew who might walk in. She talks about the podcast she once planned to make there, and how a front-row seat to Harry’s conversations with young people turned into a film about how movements are built.

You’ll hear why young people listened to Harry: he was gentle, he was a true conversationalist, and he wasn’t there to lecture. He left what Susanne calls “a trail of crumbs” and invited the next generation to pick it up, or bring something better. We talk about the mentors who shaped him, including Paul Robeson, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela, and about why passing the baton mattered so much to him.

Lisa also shares her own connection to the story. She grew up in Kenya and South Africa listening to Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela, and Susanne talks about Harry’s love for African music and the power of the album he made with Makeba. We also talk about love with conviction, doing what you can with the platform you have, the role of the arts in crossing divides, and Susanne’s work editing the film, which Nancy J. Reid (Big Blend Media) called seamless.

Perfect for Global Diversity Month, this episode is about common humanity, mentorship, and what we choose to leave behind for the next generation. Following Harry is available on Amazon Prime in the US and Canada, starting October 13, 2026.

Watch the trailer and get more information on the film:

More from Big Blend Media House:

Step inside the 100 Men Hall in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, a 1922 Chitlin' Circuit landmark and Mississippi Blues Trail stop just across from the historic train depot. On location for Big Blend Radio's "Travel with Terri" Podcast, this shared episode features travel journalist Terri Guthrie who sits down inside the hall with Rachel Dangermond, the writer and award-winning journalist who purchased it in 2018 and now leads the nonprofit that keeps it alive. It's the perfect episode to celebrate Global Diversity Awareness Month! 

Rachel traces the hall's roots to a self-reliant benevolent association formed in the Black community during Jim Crow, and shares the skits, the manless weddings, and the legendary musicians who played here, including James Brown, Ray Charles, Etta James, Guitar Slim, and BB King. She also explains how a Mardi Gras crew began in the hall as the Merrymakers, why the Chitlin' Circuit story is more nuanced than most people know, and how the hall's mission has grown to celebrate every community through A Soulful Christmas, Día de los Muertos, and the Matzo Ball.

You'll also hear about the hall's four annual fundraisers: Rock 'N' Roux in January, Swamp(gr)Ass Get Down in April, Booker Fest over Labor Day weekend, and Cigars Under the Stars benefiting Gulf Coast veterans. Rachel talks about the endowment protecting the hall's future and why visitors from as far as Japan, Australia, and New Zealand keep coming back. Along the way, Terri shares the route of Amtrak's Mardi Gras Train, which runs twice daily between New Orleans and Mobile.

RESOURCE LINKS:

TRAVEL WITH TERRI:

In celebration of Global Diversity Awareness Month, Big Blend Radio's "American Jukebox" Podcast series takes a seven-song journey from Cuba to Brazil, Spain to Detroit, showing how global traditions have shaped American music, and how American artists have inspired the world right back.

Singer-songwriter Johnny Schaefer and Lisa D. Smith talk through Rufus Wainwright & John Legend, Rodríguez, Gilberto Gil, Buena Vista Social Club, Rosalía, Rusted Root, and Michael Franti & Spearhead, plus a look ahead to November's Songs for Positive Change. Timely note: Rosalía returns to Saturday Night Live as the musical guest on Saturday, October 10! 

NOTE: This is the spoken-word version of the episode. Hear the full version with all seven songs on our episode page: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/american-jukebox-global-diverse-voices 

LINKS:

What happens when a comedian walks into a volcano? In this return visit on this shared episode of Big Blend Radio's "Toast to the Arts & Parks" Show with the National Parks Arts Foundation (NPAF), Lisa D. Smith catches up with stand-up comedian Ben Miller, the scientist-turned-comedian who became the first stand-up comedian ever selected as an NPAF artist in residence, at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park in February 2023.

That month on the Big Island, spent learning from volcanologists, entomologists, archeologists, and local Hawaiians, became "Volcano," a science comedy hour that has toured 70+ cities internationally and is now available to watch on YouTube. It was filmed at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the first stand-up comedy special ever taped at a science museum, and it carries what may be the longest bibliography in comedy history: 281 sources.

In this conversation, Ben talks about taking "Volcano" from the Edinburgh Fringe to Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and New Zealand. He describes writing an hour of jokes in a single month, performing in national parks and even a cave, and why he cites his sources on stage. He also explains how he writes jokes that are funny without being cruel, including how he approached Mount St. Helens, and shares what's next: a new hour of science jokes and a tour for next year.

Along the way, the conversation wanders through ʻōhelo berry pies, a 3 a.m. croissant disaster, silkworms and monarch way stations, lava crickets and invasive earthworms, Pompeii's ancient bread, and the persistent myth that a volcano gave us Frankenstein. It's also a reminder of why arts in parks matter: more storytelling means more preservation, conservation, and interpretation.

MORE:

Mexican-American author Leslie Adame joins Big Blend Radio for Global Diversity Awareness Month to talk about her middle-grade fantasy series following Chloe Vega, a twelve-year-old from East LA whose biggest fear is that her undocumented parents will be taken away — until she discovers her family belongs to a secret magical society, and that she has powers of her own.

The first book, "Chloe Vega and the Agents of Magic," is out now. The second, "Chloe Vega and the Missing Unseen," arrives October 6, 2026 from HarperCollins Children's.

In this conversation, Leslie talks about building a magic academy that blends cultures from across the Americas, the family moment of holding her first physical book, a reader story about a niece whose father is in detainment, the boundaries of writing about real immigration issues for kids, and her upcoming book tour.

Leslie's website: https://leslieadame.com 

Every fourth Sunday, Big Blend Radio's "Music Talks" series brings together host/producer Lisa D. Smith and co-host Joey Stuckey — the award-winning musician, producer, and Macon's own "Music Ambassador." This time, the mic turns toward Joey's own milestone year.

Joey opens up about "Alive Day" — the anniversary of surviving a childhood brain tumor doctors once called inoperable — and the moment his parents reframed it forever: "September 29th is not the day you almost died. It is the day you lived."

This year's celebration doubles as the grand reopening of Joey's Shadow Sound Studio, newly outfitted with an SSL Origin Evo console, with longtime friend and Wet Willie vocalist Jimmy Hall joining him for a day of recording, a special in-studio taping of Joey's own podcast Stuck on Sound, and a free hour-long concert. It's all part of marking 30 years in the music business — and Joey's got a new record taking shape too, tracked in part at the historic Les Paul Recording Studio in Hollywood. We'll dig into the album itself next month.

Learn more at: https://joeystuckey.com

Listen to more episodes: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/t/joey-stuckey

Photos courtest of Maryann Bates and Matthew Odom.

Debut novelist Tara Badstubner joins us on Big Blend Radio's "Toast to the Arts Podcast" as her first novel, "Every Room Remembers" (Sibylline Press), arrives on September 25, 2026. 

The novel follows SJ Monroe, an interior designer grieving the sudden death of her husband, and Wyatt, a ghost in a liminal state who must watch in silence as she mourns everything left unresolved in their marriage.

Tara shares the three experiences that sparked the story: anxiety about losing loved ones during COVID, an accident across the street that drew her whole town to mourn, and an extraordinary haunting during a writers' visit to a house in upstate New York. 

She talks about why grief calls for treading lightly, how she wrote an imperfect marriage, and the animal signs that appear at pivotal moments in the book, including a black snake, a fox, green beetles, and a Carolina wren. She also tells the story of the bluebird that keeps tapping at her own windows, and takes us to the Osprey House restoration in Beaufort, South Carolina.

Tara reads a passage from the book, and we talk about book clubs, reading through grief, favorite rereads, her writing habits, and advice for first-time novelists.

"Every Room Remembers" is available for pre-order now. A must-read for fans of "Remarkably Bright Creatures" and the film "A Ghost Story." 

Visit: https://www.tarabadstubner.com/