Curiosity Invited

For over 60 years Michael Stearns has been discovering and exploring the world of and through sound. He is an ambient music composer and performer, film composer, sound designer and soundtrack producer for theatrical films, documentaries, large format films, commercials and themed attractions. His award winning scores to Ron Fricke’s non-verbal global film masterpieces “Chronos”, “Baraka” and “Samsara” have played to audiences around the world.

Michael’s music has been used by Laserium, NASA, and choreographed by the Berkshire Ballet. Through his soundtrack production company, Michael Stearns Productions, he has created the soundtracks to Universal’s “Back To The Future, The Ride” and Paramount’s “Star Trek, The Experience.”

David and Michael look back ... and forward ... over Michael's expansive career.

Leila Steinberg speaks frankly about her work as a dedicated educator, artist, and business woman that has spanned over four decades.  Perhaps most widely known for being an early mentor and manager of rap legend Tupac Shakur and more recently Earl Sweatshirt (Thebe Kgositsile),. Leila Steinberg has is a business woman, educator, writer, poet, and founder of Aim 4 The Heart a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to helping at-risk youth find their voice using an emotional literacy curriculum and writing workshops. 

Leila met Tupac when he was an unknown student in her writing workshop and remain connected with him until his tragic and still unsolved murder in 1996. They met when he was a student in her writing workshop, The Microphone Sessions, in the Oakland Bay area. Today Ms. Steinberg manages the rapper Earl Sweatshirt. 

Her nonprofit project, Aim 4 The Heart (aim4theheart.org) is dedicated to making emotional intelligence and literacy central in our society, especially in the education of youth. Combining art, activism, education and law has been at the core of Leila Steinberg's work for her entire career.

Andrew Carter did not grow up dreaming of being a mushroom farmer ...although you might not guess that when you speak with the dynamic and creative Co-Founder and CEO of Smallhold.  

“Smallhold wants people to eat more mushrooms. We are mainly just trying to get mushrooms on people's plates in any sort of way possible. We want them to be grown locally, so they're fresh and enjoyable.” 

Smallhold, Carter and the Smallhold team is upending the food industry by growing their mushrooms in Michelin-star rated restaurants, grocery stores, and through their network of onsite and macro farms. Smallhold is inverting the way food is traditionally grown and distributed. Today, 68% of all mushrooms consumed in the United States come from a single town in Pennsylvania called Kenneth Square. 400 million pounds worth of mushrooms per year, to be exact. Carter and the Smallhold team are changing that. 

I hope you enjoy this very fun conversation. I know I did! In fact my Smallhold Blue Oyster mushroom kit is fruiting as I post this video.

https://www.Smallhold.com

Omar Imady & Noel Hagman - Author and Editor:  Creative Symbiosis

Author. poet, intellectual, Omar Imady is an uncommon collection of many things – poet, historian, novelist, Syrian, American, exile, Sufi, ‘Alan Wattsian’, cat lover, avid coffee drinker, insatiable gastronome – all of which find expression in his growing repertoire of eclectic fiction. He is the author of multiple books, including The Gospel of Damascus, a 2012 Book of the Year Award finalist, and When Her Hand Moves, a collection of three controversial, thought-provoking novellas. His forthcoming novels dig ever deeper into the human experience of alienation and the quest for meaning in a world increasingly hostile to answers.  

Noel Hagman-Kiziltan is Hagman is a partner, Editor-in-Chief, and Chief Creative Officer of Villa Magna Publishing. Joining an independent publishing company was the perfect opportunity for Noel to combine her passions – an addiction to reading, all (media) forms of storytelling, and her love for creative design. 
    Born in Los Angeles, CA, into a celebrity family, she grew up with a unique perspective of the entertainment industry, and had the luxury of being exposed to a truly dynamic creative world, surrounded by artistic legends, prolific pioneers and lots of the craziness in between. Several years after her education, Noel met her soul-mate, followed her heart, moved to Istanbul. A mother of three Noel still nevertheless makes time as a founder of Villa Magna publishing.

Determined to help others in the community avoid the pain and loss he felt, Josiah Citrin speaks candidly about what the loss of his son Augie about the painful loss of his son, Augie as a result of fentanyl poisoning. Like so many who believe they are using a familiar substance, Augie died tragically when he was poisoned by the counterfeit narcotic.  

Josiah Citin Background:  

Josiah Citrin is a culinary expert and veteran of Los Angeles’s gourmet dining scene, with more than 25 years of experience. He is a two-star Michelin chef and owner of Santa Monica's highly-acclaimed Mélisse, Charcoal Venice, and Dave’s Doghouse at the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles and Indian Wells Tennis Garden. His culinary philosophy, “In Pursuit of Excellence” sets the standard for all of his concepts, whether fine-dining or casual.

Citrin discovered his passion for food through his family at an early age, growing up in Santa Monica and Venice with a mother who was a caterer, and a French grandmother who cooked family meals. Their knowledge, combined with his excitement for cooking and business, led him to pursue a culinary career. Citrin moved to Paris to explore his French heritage after graduating from Santa Monica High School, and worked for three years at fine Parisian restaurants Vivarois and La Poste, gaining an understanding of and respect for the rules of traditional French cooking.

This invaluable experience taught him both the art and discipline of cooking and fine dining, and formed the definitive basis of his training.  He returned to the United States in 1990 and began applying his skills at Los Angeles’ finest restaurants—notably Wolfgang Puck’s celebrated Chinois on Main and then at Granita.  After two years, Josiah moved on to join Patina and Pinot Bistro and cooked alongside famed chef and savvy restaurateur Joachim Splichal. Citrin subsequently became chef at Capri restaurant in Venice and Jackson’s in West Hollywood. With a heightened interest in French gastronomy and a spirit for entrepreneurship, Citrin launched JiRaffe in 1996 alongside childhood friend and fellow chef Raphael Lunetta. Selling his interest to JiRaffe to Lunetta in 1999, Citrin pursued his lifelong dream of opening his own fine dining establishment by debuting Mélisse which opened to critical acclaim and has been impressing the culinary world ever since.  

Citrin’s honors include: Two Stars from Michelin Guide (2007, 2008, 2021), #1 for Top Food in Los Angeles and #1 American-French Restaurant for Food in Los Angeles by Zagat (2013, 2014), “Best Wine List” by LA Weekly (2015), “Top 100 Restaurants in the World” by Elite Traveler (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), Five Stars by Forbes Travel Guide (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), “Top Ten New Chefs” by Food & Wine magazine (1997), and “Best Chefs of the Year” by Los Angeles magazine (2012).

In this episode, the microphones turn as Katalin Hanappi asks questions to help us get to know our very own host, David Bryan, a bit more!

From David Bryan:

I first met Katalin Hanappi when she was in the 5th grade, when I went to dinner with her parents who were considering placing Katalin in the school I started in California. She was thrilled at the possibility of being at a school where she would be encouraged to explore and be excited about discovering the world and expressing herself.  

Fast forward 24 years, and Katalin is a celebrated documentary film maker, an artist, and explorer, and perhaps just as thrilled when I first met her.  A month or so ago, she agreed to appear on Curiosity Invited. We had a lovely conversation/reunion, in the middle of which she said, "Someone should interview you on a podcast."   Half in jest I responded that I think she should interview me.  The results are here.

Katalin Hanappi is a Vienna based documentary filmmaker, but likes to refer to herself as an escape artist. She was born in Vienna, Austria into an artistic and rather nomadic family, that is changing its patchwork patterns until this day. Katalin grew up in Austria, Canada, England and the United States, learning soon to adapt to new surroundings and witnessing many forms of education and lifestyles. What was a constant in her life was always storytelling- being the oldest of first one, then two, later three and now a few more siblings, she liked to write stories and books for them. And she used them as actors in homemade plays and films. (note: They later became actors and music composers) As a thirteen year old she stumbled into being a news anchor for a children's' news program on the Austrian National television which she presented every weekend for four years until her family moved away again to England. There Katalin discovered her passion for theater and screenplay-writing.
In her early twenties she wrote plays for theaters in Vienna but then decided to enroll to film school and soon started working as a documentary filmmaker. Now over ten years later Katalin has directed more than 3 dozen documentaries for broadcast and cinema, most of them in the genre of wildlife, adventure, science and nature. Her aim is to get everyone excited about this one gorgeous planet. In order to inspire others she feels she needs to keep inspiring herself and spends most of the year traveling. Together with her partner who runs a design studio she shares a secret double life on a sailboat. Together they recently started the production company “Sailing Studio productions” that produces little fun short films with big meanings.  

Katalin Hanappi is known for her exceptionally sensitive and intuitive approach to challenging stories.

In 2015 she received the Austrian „Best 30 under 30“ journalism award. 

https://katalinhanappi.com/
https://offf.media/index/studio-elastik-katalin-hanappi

Katalin Hanappi is a Vienna based documentary filmmaker, but likes to refer to herself as an escape artist. She was born in Vienna, Austria into an artistic and rather nomadic family, that is changing its patchwork patterns until this day. Katalin grew up in Austria, Canada, England and the United States, learning soon to adapt to new surroundings and witnessing many forms of education and lifestyles. What was a constant in her life was always storytelling- being the oldest of first one, then two, later three and now a few more siblings, she liked to write stories and books for them. And she used them as actors in homemade plays and films. (note: They later became actors and music composers) As a thirteen year old she stumbled into being a news anchor for a children's' news program on the Austrian National television which she presented every weekend for four years until her family moved away again to England. There Katalin discovered her passion for theater and screenplay-writing.
In her early twenties she wrote plays for theaters in Vienna but then decided to enroll to film school and soon started working as a documentary filmmaker. Now over ten years later Katalin has directed more than 3 dozen documentaries for broadcast and cinema, most of them in the genre of wildlife, adventure, science and nature. Her aim is to get everyone excited about this one gorgeous planet. In order to inspire others she feels she needs to keep inspiring herself and spends most of the year traveling. Together with her partner who runs a design studio she shares a secret double life on a sailboat. Together they recently started the production company “Sailing Studio productions” that produces little fun short films with big meanings.  

Katalin Hanappi is known for her exceptionally sensitive and intuitive approach to challenging stories.

In 2015 she received the Austrian „Best 30 under 30“ journalism award. 

https://katalinhanappi.com/
https://offf.media/index/studio-elastik-katalin-hanappi

Stephen James Taylor - Musician & Explorer : Trans-tonal Music - Transcendent Thinking

Stephen James Taylor has a unique musical identity. His style has often been called “Afro-futuristic) as it represents a blend of classical, rock, blues, gospel, world music, homemade instruments, and avante garde. His past projects include scoring Richard Tanne’s 2020 Amazon film Chemical Hearts, music for the Star Wars Cantina at Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge (2019) {the first microtonal music ever in rotation at Disneyland), the PBS documentary by Charles Burnett entitled Power To Heal (2018), Maya Angelou-And Still I Rise (2016), Richard Tanne’s theatrical release, Southside With You (2016), Tom Bradley: Bridging the Divide (2015), People Are The Sky, (2015), Marvel’s TV Series The Black Panther, music for theme parks such as Disney World and The Red Sea Astrarium, Universal's The Adventures of Brer Rabbit, Disney’s Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas (for which he won Best Original Score at the 2004 DVDX Awards), Teachers Pet, a Disney animated feature with wide theatrical release in 2003, and most of the films directed by Academy Award winner, Charles Burnett including To Sleep With Anger and the blues documentary, Warming By the Devil’s Fire produced by Martin Scorsese. He has composed scores for many of Robert Townsend’s films such as The Making of the Five Heartbeats (2017) Of Boys and Men (2008), Carmen, A HipHopera (2004) and Holiday Heart (2000). In 2001 he wrote underscore and produced some of the songs for Clark Johnson’s Boycott (HBO films) as well as his 2018 Netflix film, Juanita (2017). In 1996 he was commissioned to write an orchestral suite for the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics and was one of the conductors of the Atlanta Symphony for that occasion. In 1993, Stephen received an Emmy nomination for an R&B song he wrote for I’ll Fly Away as well as a Daytime Emmy nomination for his classical orchestral score for an episode of the animated series, The Lion King’s Timon and Pumbaa. Other Emmy nominations have been for the PBS movie Brother Future (1991), and Raw Toonage an animated series for Disney. In 1999 and 2000 he has received Annie nominations for his work on Disney’s Mickey Mouseworks. He has also done string arrangements for James Taylor and for Crosby, Stills, and Nash. He is currently working on a cartoon series for Netflix.

After graduating from Stanford University in 1976 with a B.A. in music, he studied composition for four years with Henri Lazarof, professor of music at UCLA. He studied microtonality with Erv Wilson for 20 years with whom he helped develop a new 810 key microtonal keyboard used in many of the above scores.

Taylor’s second chamber symphony was commissioned and premiered by the Pasadena Chamber Orchestra in 1983. The Detroit Symphony later performed it in 1990. His various chamber works have been performed throughout the country. He has done a great deal of composing in surround sound. His 2001 “COME ALIVE” premiered at the El Paso Microhoot and has been presented many times since. More recently his 55 minute surround suite, “MUSIC FROM THE OTHER WAKANDA”, was selected by the composition faculty at Virgina Tech to be presented as part of its 2022 Afrofuturist themed “Cubefest”. Other projects include a trans-tonal pop album entitled Embrace It All (now available on itunes). A filmmaker as well, he has also completed some short films of his own: the award winning documentary, SURFING THE SONIC SKY, the science fiction short, I AM HERE. as well a research documentary about the micro- geometry of subatomic matter with co-director Jesus Trevino called “Gurule Shells, A Quantum Metaphor”.

A few samples:
"Red Sun Blue Highway" (fretless acoustic blues guitar} https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgBIf...

“The Bradley Variations” (31 tone guitar solo)

Kelly Rigg has been an environmental activist for over 40 years. As a senior advisor to, and later Executive Director (2009-2014) of the Global Call for Climate Action, she led a major international alliance campaigning for a fair, ambitious and binding global climate agreement. She also coordinated (2004 – 2009) the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, made up of more than 60 NGOs worldwide, campaigning to achieve a UN General Assembly moratorium on high seas bottom trawling.

She worked for Greenpeace off and on for 20 years. She led Greenpeace International’s campaign on the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, with a focus on climate change and renewable energy. She also led Greenpeace’s successful international campaign to save Antarctica (1986-1990), combining a political campaign with field expeditions and the establishment of a scientific base on the ice. During this time she represented Greenpeace at the UN.

Kelly began campaigning for the environment in 1982, working for Greenpeace USA against offshore oil drilling when the Reagan Administration planned to open virtually the entire US continental shelf to oil development. In 1984 she became the organization’s wildlife campaign director.

Founded in 2003, The Varda Group has vast experience across a wide range of issues, including climate change, marine biodiversity, fisheries conservation, the Arctic and Antarctic, maritime policy, nuclear safety, security, and arms control, toxic pollution and clean production, fresh water management and sanitation, sustainable consumption, tobacco control, international governance, international trade, access to information and transparency.

https://www.vardagroup.org/
https://twitter.com/kellyrigg

Artist, author, teacher, Jane Edberg speaks candidly and profoundly about the practices that carried her through deep sadness and grief over the loss of her son toward joy, wellbeing, and insight into metabolizing life's most profound challenges. Due to be published in 2022, The Fine Art of Grieving promises to be an intimate and insightful look into the relationship of vulnerability and strength.

https://www.facebook.com/thefineartofgrieving
https://www.thefineartofgrieving.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thefineartofgrieving/?hl=en