Bar Crawl Radio

Bar Crawl Radio

By Alan Winson & Rebecca McKeanSociety & CultureArts
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Bar Crawl Radio episodes

  • Morgane Michael: Fierce on Kindness in Education
    BCR usually records out of a favorite neighborhood bars on the UWS of Manhattan – but for this conversation we Zoomed it with a guest on the other side of this Great North American Continent. Teacher and fellow podcaster and advocator for a kinder world – Canadian – Morgane Michael. She resides and works in Victoria, British Columbia -- and this lady wears a bunch of hats. Morgane is a wife with two young children -- a teacher – speaker -- she produces and is the host of a prodigious podcast on the importance and difficulty of teaching called Kindsight 101 – recently published a book whose title explains its focus -- "From Burnt Out to Fired Up: Reigniting Your Passion for Teaching.”  It is an impactful and fun read if you are a teacher -- or -- if you know that teachers are important to a thriving democratic society. And Morgane is the creator of SMALL ACT BIG IMPACT 21-DAY-CHALLENGE – an activity to make the world a better place through kindness.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    58 min
  • Brian Terrell: A walk with an activist & dreamer

    This is a special edition of BCR - not in a bar but on the streets with a Catholic Worker activist. I recently talked with Brian Terrell in Union Square in NYC on a blistering, cold, sun-bright day in January 2022. He was in the city to give a talk at the recently installed, life-size, white, military drone statue by Sam Durant, above W. 30th Street on the High Line. Brian Terrell is a world-traveling peace activist who has been incarcerated in American prisons for protesting U.S.A. nuclear armament. I have known Brian for several years; he has been on BCR several times. We met several Januarys ago at a Witness Against Torture [WAT] protest in Washington DC. Until COVID, WAT members had marched annually for years in support of the Muslim men imprisoned in Guantanamo, Cuba.

    We talked in Union Square as Brian held a banner calling for the end of American support of the Saudi military's bombing of innocents in Yemen -- and then we walked along the High Line to the 25' Drone statue. This man's work for peace is long and deep and genuine. You may not agree with all of his views; that is unimportant -- Brian speaks a truth that must be heard by those living now in this troubled world and those who will inherit it.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    41 min
  • Bringing Out Baby

    Recently, Rebecca McKean was on the scene when our second grandchild was born. She lied her way into the birthing room pretending to be a doula or obstetrician -- it is not clear. In any case it was a life-changing experience as she watched Zeva enter the world headfirst from the left leg side of our amazing daughter. Learn some little known facts about bringing out bebe as Alan and Rebecca celebrate at the UWS 5Napkin Bar.

    Contact: [email protected]

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    29 min
  • Hunkering Down with Actor Kathleen Chalfant

    I visited with American actor Kathleen Chalfant back when we first hunkered down due to COVID19 for our Hunkered Down Podcast. At the time, I expressed my gratitude to Joel Bernstein for inviting Ms. Chalfant to the podcast.   A celebrated and honored stage, film and television actor, Ms Chalfont debuted on Broadway in Dance With Me followed by M. Butterfly.  She has won numerous awards for her varied, powerful performances – in original Broadway productions. In Wit she played a scholar battling cancer – in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, she played several roles including Hannah Pitt and Ethel Rosenberg.

    I am not going to get into her extensive film and television work. Finally, in addition to the thrill of meeting this great actress, Kathleen was a fun and generous person to talk with.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    38 min
  • Havin' Nuf fun?
    This BCR episode was recorded at Bar Hygge in the Spring Garden neighborhood of Philadelphia. Becky and Alan have a fun-filled evening talking with Catherine Price about her newest book "The Power of Fun" How to feel Alive Again." Ms. Price describes herself as a “recovering tech addict”; she is the author of How to Break Up With Your Phone (2018) which has been published in 30 countries and featured on NPR – The NY Times – The Los Angeles Times – Time Magazine – Wired – Vox – BBC World News – and Good Morning America. Catherine’s 30-day program on ditching her phone and un-breaking her brain received more than 2 million hits in less than a week. Ms. Price is also a science journalist whose work has appeared in The Best American Science Writing and other prestigious science sources -- a speaker, teacher, consultant.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr 3 min
  • Hettie Anderson: Goddess-Like Model of the Gilded Age

    Sometime in the 1890s – a young, tall, deeply handsome, light-skinned African American woman, and her mother, left the Jim Crow south and settled in New York City. She quickly became a sought-after artist’s model. Her form represented -- in statuary and coins, created by the most accomplished sculptors of the time – the ideal of the American Gilded Age – victorious, perfect, strong -- the Classic Greek idea of the female form –for a country in which some had became ridiculously rich during the Industrial Revolution – and most had fallen into poverty.

    We talked with Eve Kahn and Willow Hagans about the golden figure striding ahead of General Sherman in Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan – the Greek goddess “Victory” – and the Black woman who was the model for that figure and who, in many ways, represents the artistic goals of the Gilded Age – Hettie Anderson.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    44 min
  • Most Unusual Jobs

    Park Bench Chats -- back in Riverside Park in Manhattan -- talking with our Upper West Side neighbors about their unusual jobs. And there were several. Join Rebecca and Alan as they talk with:

    • Sam who was a motion picture projectionist for senior citizen homes and was in charge of painting the lines on NYC street -
    • Al Gorgoni, guitarist, who was involved with most of the big hits that came out of New York City in the 60s including the opening riff of Van Morrison's "Brown Eye'd Girl" which he composed. Al also worked with the Monkees amongst many others -
    • Richard, who in the late 1950s, "unloaded cattle on the High Line -- actually large sides of raw cows -
    • Jackie who put jelly in jelly donuts on Cape Cod. No extra jelly--two squirt limit, please.

    Alan talks about collecting sewage samples at a Howard Johnson restaurant. And, Rebecca tells the story of serving Cary Grant ice cream at a children's birthday party.

    Did you ever have an unusual job? Let us know at [email protected]

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    40 min
  • The Lotus Garden ... floating above Broadway.

    ALERT! Garden lovers! This episode is for you. 

    We’ve lived in NYC’s Upper West Side neighborhood for decades, and it was not until BCR producer Alina Larson connected us with the people in charge of The Lotus Garden, that we were aware a verdant urban oasis existed a few blocks from our apartment.

    Near Broadway—floating twenty feet above W. 97th street -- on the roof of a garage -- dwells a garden that has been tenderly cultivated -- for over 30 years.

    Three avid gardeners who are in charge of The Lotus Garden, talk about this UWS escape, with its elder peach tree and babbling lotus pond.  

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    37 min
  • Is Winning the Game "that" Important?
    Alan Winson here -- co-host of Bar Crawl Radio podcast. I had just lost an important Lawn Bowling competition -- by a "squeaker" -- to my former bowling student and friend -- Joe Kelly. I was happy for Joe, but -- hey -- I lost. It got me thinking about the experience of winning the game. Rebecca McKean and I invited Joe and his life partner, Ryan Hastu, to meet us on a Riverside Park bench below the crumbling Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument to talk with us and our neighbors about the importance of "winning" ... and "losing."

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    42 min
  • Mike Vogel: A New York Attitude
    We met Mike Vogel at a BCR Park Bench Chat episode in which we asked our neighbors on an afternoon stroll along the Riverside Park Promenade below the crumbing Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument: Do you like your job? After a bit of cajoling, Mike joined us and told his his job was writing about what annoyed him -- we knew we wanted to learn more. This author of "New York Attitude" [2020] joined us at Gebhard's Beer Culture Bar to talk about his love-affair with misunderstood New York City and NYers. We compared the perks of living in the "City" and the relative merits of the Boroughs -- how the NY subway has changed over the decades and gained insights on Mike's former boss -- Rodney Dangerfield -- a most funny and sad individual.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    45 min

About Bar Crawl Radio

From the publisher's feed

Did you ever have a really interesting conversation at a bar -- sharing ideas over a couple of martinis -- and wish you could've bottled it? That's Bar Crawl Radio. Rebecca…