Jon Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and #1 New York Times bestselling author. He’s known for ‘The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels,’ ‘American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House,’ ‘Franklin and Winston,’ ‘His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope,’ and a book co-written with country star Tim McGraw called ‘Songs of America.’

His newest project is a podcast called ‘Fate of Fact’ and the premise is meant to explore how fear conquered truth, the history and origins of the strong grip misinformation and disinformation have on our politics, and how we got here today.

In this interview, Meacham talks about his three tests to choose a book subject, how to focus on durable projects that take a great deal of time, the commitment of fact-checking, and how all books are part of an “unfolding conversation.”

If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below…

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If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Originally, to honor his immigrant parents, Bao Nguyen thought he was going to become a lawyer. As a small child, he worked in his father’s shop behind the register, where he spent his time between customers sketching and drawing what he now sees as storyboards.

Working as a Director and Cinematographer since 2009, Nguyen worked on projects like ‘We Gon’ Be Alright’ and ‘Live from New York!’ before tackling his largest project to date, a documentary about the personal life of icon Bruce Lee.

The official description reads, “Rejected by Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to Hong Kong to complete four films. Charting his struggles in two worlds, ‘Be Water’ explores questions of identity and representation through rare archive, intimate interviews, and his writings.”

In this interview, Nguyen talks about his father’s secret dream to become an architect, why he avoided “talking heads” for the film, why documentarians should seek humility, how to account for every frame in a doc, and how we went about humanizing Bruce Lee.

If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below…

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If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Indonesian actor Joe Taslim fell in love with Judo, where he won his first National Championship in 1997. About 15 years later, he took his MMA repertoire to the big screen, eventually landing roles in major Hollywood films.

Taslim is best known for roles in The Raid: Redemption, Fast & Furious 6, Star Trek Beyond, Warrior, and now, Mortal Kombat, where he stars as the iconic character Sub-Zero.

In this interview, Taslim talks about his transition from judo to acting, how action stars can better portray energetic characters without using doubles, why he trains twice per day for “violent dances,” and why Asian movies train for months for those amazing action sequences.

If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below…

Join the email list here: www.brockswinson.com

Follow us on Instagram for updates: @brockswinson

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Australian Director Simon McQuoid got his start in the commercial world, making spots for all sorts of companies and games, including Star Wars, Call of Duty, and Halo 3. Eventually, he was asked to make the jump to film, with his debut film being Mortal Kombat.

The description for the reboot reads, “MMA fighter Cole Young seeks out Earth's greatest champions in order to stand against the enemies of Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe.”

In this interview, McQuoid talks about drawing movie posters as a kid, how he transitioned from commercials to features, why he did a Halo 3 ad for free, the power of accepting ideas from anywhere, and why he nearly avoided doing a video game adaptation for his first movie.

Stay tuned for our next interview with Mortal Kombat star Joe Taslim (Sub-Zero)in Episode 273.

If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below…

Join the email list here: www.brockswinson.com

Follow us on Instagram for updates: @brockswinson

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Former Entertainment Weekly editor Mark Harris was an editor and journalist for publications like The New York Times, Fortune, The Guardian, and Slate, until he dared himself to submit a book proposal on his 40th birthday.

These days, he’s best known for his entertainment-based books, such as Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War, and his latest book, Mike Nichols: A Life.

In this interview, Harris talks about his career as an editor, how he chooses subjects worthy of a book such as Director Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Charlie Wilson’s War), how he uses the Bird by Bird approach, and how he and his husband Tony Kushner (Munich, Lincoln) encourage each other as writers of different mediums.

Currently, Harris is working with Turner Classic Film Festival to introduce Nichol’s first movie, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and a documentary called Nichols and May, a story about Nichols’ life before he became a Director, as an improv comedy group.

If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below…

Join the email list here: www.brockswinson.com

Follow us on Instagram for updates: @brockswinson

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Emma Needell grew up on a solar-powered cattle ranch in Colorado. While they didn’t have television, they did have movies. “They had everything from Tora! Tora! Tora! to Do the Right Thing,” said Needell about her parents’ movie collection. 

“Rural Colorado is cowboy country and I’m a nerdy Jewish girl who is allergic to horses,” she joked. “I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up, but movies were proof that there was an outside world full of different people and different ideas.”

Needell eventually used this imaginative nature to create her own worlds. Most recently, she’s created The Water Man, about a boy who goes on a quest to save his ill mother by searching for a mythic figure said to have healing powers.

In this interview, the screenwriter talks about The Water Man and Songs of the Damned, why she loves collaboration, how to write grounded fantasy, how to avoid “shinecrafters,” and why sometimes the obstacles provide the best answers.

If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below…

Join the email list here: www.brockswinson.com

Follow us on Instagram for updates: @brockswinson

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Thanks to an early interest in film from his father, Nick Stagliano, went down a road of being a fan, then a creator of cinema. Focused on character-driven drama, Stagliano is known for The Florentine, Good Day for It, and most recently, The Virtuoso.

The latest film stars Anthony Hopkins, Anson Mount, and Abbie Cornish. In this story, “Danger, deception and murder descend upon a sleepy town when a professional assassin accepts a new assignment from his enigmatic boss.”

In this interview, the Director talks about why good actors are more important than big budgets, what makes him stop turning the page while reading a script, why juxtaposing characters are vital, and how to beef up side characters for a better film.

If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below…

Join the email list here: www.brockswinson.com

Follow us on Instagram for updates: @brockswinson

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

George Gallo sold his first screenplay at age 19, despite not knowing anyone in the business. “The movie never got made,” he said about the lucky break, “but I had a possible vocation as a screenwriter. So then I just started writing a lot of scripts.”

Eventually, one of Gallo’s scripts did get made. The comedy-crime movie Wise Guys, starring Danny DeVito and Joe Piscopo revolved around two errand boys from the mob. This was the beginning of a string of action-comedies from the screenwriter/director.

Following the “tough movies with humor” category, Gallo eventually sold scripts for movies like Midnight Run, Bad Boys, The Whole Ten Yards, Middle Men, and most recently, Vanquish and The Comeback Trail.

In this interview, Gallo talks about how technology now influences heist plots, how to write action sequences, his lifelong relationships with Morgan Freeman and Robert DeNiro, and why it’s more challenging to get an original script made today.

If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below…

Join the email list here: www.brockswinson.com

Follow us on Instagram for updates: @brockswinson

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Craig Zobel got started by making shorts and videos for people like Iggy Pop. Now, he’s best known for films like Compliance, Z for Zachariah, and The Hunt. Currently, he’s the Director for HBO’s new series, Mare of Easttown.

Mare of Easttown stars Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce. In the naturalistic series, “A detective in a small Pennsylvania town investigates a local murder while trying to keep her life from falling apart.”

In this interview, Zobel talks about how television is similar to Indie films, how he shot The Hunt as a satirical horror film, how everyone wants you to succeed, and his philosophies on prepping a shot versus being spontaneous on set to find “the shape of the scene.”

If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below…

Join the email list here: www.brockswinson.com

Follow us on Instagram for updates: @brockswinson

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

While his Central Saint Martins classmates were learning InDesign, Price James wanted to learn to shoot on 16mm Bolex and explore more tangible film effects.

Soon, he was working on dark comedy shorts like 'Action Man: Battlefield Casualties,' which stars Matt Berry, and music videos for bands like Incubus.

In his latest movie, ‘You Cannot Kill David Arquette,’ the Writer-Director partnered with David Darg (Body Team 12, Fear Us Women) for an unusual idea about the rocky return of actor David Arquette to the sport of wrestling, which nearly ruined his Hollywood career.

In this interview, Price talks about his roundabout path to DIY filmmaking, stop motion versus animation, how to create a heightened reality for a documentary, and how explore brutal ideas in filmmaking satire.

If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below…

Join the email list here: www.brockswinson.com

Follow us on Instagram for updates: @brockswinson

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!