Good People, Cool Things

You step up to the mic, perhaps with weak knees or sweaty palms. Maybe you feel mom's spaghetti on your breath as you inhale deeply, ready to impress the world. 

No, we haven't stumbled into the set of 8 Mile. Adam Wainwright and Ed Cunard are the hosts of The Greatest Song Ever Sung (Poorly) podcast, a show that takes karaoke exactly as seriously as it should be taken. 

We're chatting about some of their favorite karaoke memories, the worst songs they've ever done, and tips to help you excel onstage or while giving any kind of public speaking performance.

April is World Autism Month. People with autism are talented in a number of categories, from music to art to coding. However, they often experience difficulties finding careers as many employers have misconceptions and a lack of understanding. 

One woman and son duo is setting out to change these unemployment trends. Tiffany Hamilton and her son Isaiah are the founders of Victor Wear, with goals to create a vibrant community that inspires and motivates people while creating awareness and opportunities for those with autism and other disabilities. 

Fun fact: This is Tiffany's VERY FIRST podcast appearance. I think she did great, don't you?

The NBA playoffs are upon us! While I can certainly rattle off some random games for you, I don't hold a candle to today's guest: statistician Dave Heeren, who has watched more than 75 YEARS of NBA basketball.

Dave started dissecting games in college and quickly joined the New York Knicks as a team statistician. He's developed his TENDEX value rating to highlight the best to ever play the game. He's diving into TENDEX and so much more in his book Seventy-Five: Best NBA Players and Teams Rated by Statistician who has Seen Games Since 1947.

We're talking about the top players and teams, why you need to trust data, and some of the coolest moments Dave has experienced as a basketball fan.

So many businesses start by identifying a problem people have and trying to solve it. That was the idea behind GreenPal, the “Uber for lawn care” that connects homeowners with local lawn care professionals. But as GreenPal CEO and co-founder Bryan Clayton discovered along the way, he was actually solving a differentproblem for his customers. More than speed, more than a good deal, they want reliability. 

Today, GreenPal has more than 100,000 active users and makes thousands of transactions every day. It’s Bryan’s second successful landscaping company, following the $10 million annual revenue of Peachtree, Inc., which sold to Lusa Holdings in 2013. 

Let's hop in and get your business growing!

Help! I need somebody...to listen to all the good stuff in this episode. Dan Greenberger is the author of The Boys Next Door: A Novel About the Beatles, and he's diving into his writing process for this historical fiction novel, rules around creative liberties, and a Hollywood career that's spanned a quarter-century.  

We're also discussing how someone with creative ambitions can find a place in Hollywood, the best writing exercise Dan did while in college, and his top Beatles songs.

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Damion Taylor has long been fascinated by the intersection of data and creativity, and he's used a unique skill set to create content for brands and media companies such as Warner Bros., NBC Universal, and Machinima.

Damion also created the Professional Confession podcast after experiencing the murder of Ahmaud Arbery and the Central Park Karen incident. The podcast features those conversations from people that aren't frequently told, from people of color, women, and queer individuals.

Additionally, we're diving into the joys of traveling and being curious about others, and we go down a wacky Disney rabbit hole. 

You'll definitely learn lots from this episode, and I hope you tell someone — or maybe everyone — you know to check it out.

John Copenhaver's latest book The Savage Kind has gotten something just about every author hopes for: a great review from The New York Times. That's just one small part of the writing process, though. 

Beyond two books in the...uh...books, John teaches high school English for dyslexic kids and college courses on writing fiction. He's also a co-host of Mystery Radio Show and writes reviews of queer crime fiction for Lambda Literary. And yes, he's still got multiple books on the way.

We're chatting some of the best ways to market your writing, how to tie a mystery trilogy together, and why teaching students isn't SO different from completing a book.

Have you ever said things like "I'm not a science person" or "I can't do math"? Those types of phrases are actually be holding us back from achieving our goals, and they sure aren't helping the generations coming after us.

Chris Emdin, PhD, is the founder of HipHopEd.com and the author behind STEM, STEAM, Make, Dream: Reimagining the Culture of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathwhich is making STEM more accessible to all cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds.

We're chatting all about his new book, why it's important to reach out to people that interest you, and some of the great artists—and lyrics—in hip-hop.

Julia Taylor is a self-taught web developer and online business owner who, by her own accounts, is an "accidental entrepreneur." Yet she's turned that happy accident into GeekPack, a thriving community built around empowering women and girls everywhere to create better lives for themselves through coding, managing their own businesses, and rocking the digital world.

Julia's sharing how she got started, her favorite tips for finding things on Google, her favorite travel destinations, and we get an inside look at GeekPack's 5-Day Coding Challenge.