Billiards 🎱 Podcasts

What happens when artistry meets medical education?

On Episode 6 of Grunt Work, host Naire Poole sits down with Kayah Alexandra Bullock and Sam Barber, two Los Angeles-based artists and real-life simulated patients, for a conversation about the work behind preparing future healthcare professionals.

Together, they explore how performance, lived experiences, and identity shape their approach to SP work. From Black maternal health and equitable care to the friendships formed along the way, Kayah and Sam offer a look into a profession that extends far beyond the simulation room.

They also reflect on how the work has influenced their artistry, the way they navigate relationships, and their understanding of what it means to truly care for another person.

Grunt Work is an original Billiards VMSOA podcast hosted by Naire Poole.

Learn more @BilliardsVMSOA on Instagram!

What does it really mean to be a Simulated Patient?

On this episode of Grunt Work, host Naire Poole sits down with real Simulated Patients from across the United States for an honest conversation about the profession that helps shape tomorrow’s healthcare providers.

Together, they explore the emotional realities of portraying patients, balancing performance with education, navigating difficult clinical scenarios, and finding purpose in work that often goes unseen. Through stories that are funny, heartfelt, and deeply reflective, this episode shines a light on the people behind the patient.

Whether you’re in healthcare, medical education, the arts, or simply curious about this unique profession, this conversation offers an intimate look into one of medicine’s most overlooked collaborations.

Guests:

* Michael Jung (Phoenix, AZ)

* Sarah Parr (Los Angeles, CA)

* Ellen Kotzin (Pittsburgh, PA)

* Kerr Lordygan (Sunland, CA)

Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of medical simulation, illness, trauma, death, and emotionally sensitive healthcare scenarios. Listener discretion is advised.

“Think what you think. Question what you think. Then decide whether it’s a thought worth keeping.”

Written and narrated by JaQuan Malik Jones, De/Construct & Simulate is an audio essay exploring medicine, memory, race, consent, performance, and the body as classroom.

What began as research became a deeper reflection on history, identity, and the stories that continue to shape the present.

For anyone interested in Simulated Patient, medical simulation, Black history, or the intersection of art and academia, this piece is for you.

This Juneteenth, we're joined by filmmaker, visual artist, educator, and Simulated Patient director Hailey Elise Byerly. 🎬✨

Together, we discuss storytelling, identity, medical simulation, artistic process, De/Construct & Simulate, and the questions that inspired Simulated Patient.

It's a conversation about humanity, empathy, performance, history, and the work beneath the work.

A huge thank you to Hailey for sharing her heart, insight, and artistry with us. We couldn't ask for a better collaborator as we head into production this August. ❤️

Pull up a chair and join the conversation

Pull up to the table.

On this episode of Grunt Work, we sit down with members of the creative team behind Simulated Patient—a new kind of series moving at the intersection of microdramas and SP work.

We get into what it really takes to build from the ground up: developing story, navigating collaboration, and creating with intention in a space still being defined.

This conversation also holds respect for the medical professionals, educators, students, and SPs whose work lives in the balance between care, communication, and humanity.

If you’re serious about the work, this one is for you.

And stay close—Simulated Patient is gearing up for something bigger this month, with more ways to support the project coming soon.

Norfolk-born ministry leader Aresia Sanders is the founder of Young, Stylish, and Saved, a movement for women who want to be bold, stylish, and completely sold out for Christ.

In this holiday edition of Billiards VMSOA Magazine, Aresia shares how growing up “too hood for the church kids and too churchy for the hood kids” led her to create spaces where faith feels fresh, womanhood feels empowered, and sisterhood feels real.

We talk about her Virginia roots, the heart behind Monday Night Bible Study, why she calls it Godfidence, and what it truly means to be stylish and saved in a world obsessed with comparison.

If you’ve ever felt overlooked, in-between, or unsure where you fit in the church, this conversation is a reminder that God has always had a place and a plan for you.

Press play, lean in, and let this episode carry you into the new season with more faith, more community, and more purpose.

Host Ja’Quan talks with director/playwright Tara Moses (Groundwater Arts) about decolonizing practice, leading with care, and community-first storytelling. Quick hits: wearing many hats, honoring the playwright, real steps for emerging artists. Press play & do the work. 🎧🎙️🎱

In this episode of Billiards MUSIC, we sit down with MANOFTHESTARS — the Black gay producer, visionary, and creative superhero behind I Don’t Hate Me Anymore.

From Virginia roots to cosmic dreams, he opens up about becoming the character, building worlds from emotion, and writing his next chapter, The Reservation of Fatherhood.

A raw and reflective conversation on self-acceptance, sound, and legacy — told with the confidence only a true artist carries.

🎧 Stream the full episode now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Jenna Z. Alvarez on craft, grind, and building Boomin’ VO — Grunt Work x Billiards.

This month, Billiards Magazine & Music Podcast kicks off Season 2 with PrettyBoy the Artist, our cover feature for Billiards MUSIC Magazine.

From Norfolk’s Diggs Park to center stage, PrettyBoy embodies the rebel soul who refused to dim his light. His story is one of defiance, heartbreak, and authenticity — turning setbacks into armor and style into liberation.

In this episode, he opens up about channeling Prince, standing tall when told to “tone it down,” and creating music that’s messy, layered, and unapologetically him — setting the tone for a season rooted in freedom and fearlessness.