Dedicated with Doug Brunt

Harry Connick Jr: green tea

Harry plays a game of battle of the bands, ranks his preference for genres of music, tells the story of composing and recording a musical tribute for a victim of the Newtown school shooting that is too painful ever to perform, describes his creative state when writing the music of his mother’s (Babe’s) life, tells the story of setting foot inside Carnegie Hall in 2026  for the first time ever to perform the tribute for Babe, tells the story of calling Carnegie Hall as a ten year old boy when first learning of his mother’s cancer diagnosis, shares stories from his career in film, TV and Broadway. 

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Dolph Lundgren: Hard Cut Vodka (3 ounces shaken over ice, sip neat)

Dolph discusses the physical abuse he suffered from his father and how that drove many of his decisions in his adult life, how he broke the cycle of abuse with his own children, strange moments inside Studio 54 with Grace Jones, his terrible experience with the Swedish healthcare system, whether he might have more children, who wins the fight between Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Lorenzo Lamas, Wesley Snipes and Jason Statham.

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CJ Box: Blanton’s bourbon whiskey  

CJ tells the best first-agent-first-book-deal story I’ve ever heard (by far), shares his daily writing routine in Wyoming, describes the way working in print journalism has helped his fiction career, reveals that people have frequently thought they are a character in one of his novels, gives a raw appraisal of Taylor Sheridan.

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Douglas Brunt: Negroni (1 ounce gin, 1 ounce sweet vermouth, 1 ounce Campari, garnish with orange rind and Luxardo cherry)

Elliot Ackerman (best selling author, former special forces and intelligence officer) guest-hosts Dedicated, including bartending, to interview Doug about THE LOST EMPIRE OF EMANUEL NOBEL. They discuss the world's century-long quest to capture oil, Russia and Ukraine from the time of Nobel and Stalin that mirrors the present day, Rasputin and the Romanovs, the differences between fiction and nonfiction writing (Elliot and Doug have each published both), and how to make a good cocktail. 

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Gregg Hurwitz: gin and tonic

Gregg takes us inside the famous NYC Thrillerfest event, offers advice to aspiring writers on how to develop sales momentum for their books and pitfalls to avoid, names one thing that Artificial Intelligence will *never* be able to do, offers thoughts on how to approach a career path in the face of AI, describes the secret squirrel work he’s currently doing to detect foreign state-sponsored efforts to foment discord in the United States.  

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Jack Carr: whiskey  

Jack talks about what Chris Pratt does to set the tone on the set of TERMINAL LIST, the experience filming the show in Morocco, why he decided to develop a new character and very different feel for his new novel THE FOURTH OPTION, how he draws on his own experiences downrange to inform his fiction, his thoughts on whether the world is a safer place today compared to when he was last on DEDICATED in June 2023. 

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Tim Blake Nelson: green tea

Tim names the best actor of his generation (and the certain things that this actor requires of everyone on set), shares thoughts on AI and the future of film, describes the difference between films that lead with art or with entertainment, reveals how the generosity of Robin Williams touched his family, explains why there can never be another Picasso, and lists the best superhero movies ever made. 

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Joshua Hammer: Negroni (1 ounce gin, 1 ounce sweet vermouth, 1 ounce Compari, garnish with orange rind)

Joshua tells of his harrowing kidnapping in Gaza in 2001 while he was the Jerusalem bureau chief for Newsweek, then of his second kidnapping in Iraq in 2004, recounts overlapping with Jon Meacham at the Reagan Ranch, gives his thoughts on how to structure a magazine piece and a book-length work of narrative history, tells the pros and cons of being an expat in Berlin, and paints a bleak picture for the future of the print magazine.

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Nick Petrie: whiskey on the rocks  

Nick reveals the sage advice CJ Box gave him at the reception for the Edgar Awards that he’s held onto ever since, explains how his work as a building inspector meeting veterans who were buying a first home became a driving force for his debut novel, tells the meaning behind the character name Peter Ash, identifies the key differences between being a full-time or part-time writer, names the two possessions of each writer. 

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Julian Sancton: dry martini (3 ounces gin, 2 drops dry vermouth, lemon twist)

Julian shares the greatest sunken treasure story of all time (and it’s real) that makes the treasure of the Outer Banks tv series look puny, warns of the harm that Bob Iger and Disney’s move into OpenAI could do, discusses the impact that podcasts will have on the media landscape, reveals the pros and cons of growing up with a father and grandfather who are published authors.

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