E289 Turhan “Troy” Caylak‘s role as Akhmal in HBO’s hit show “Barry” earned him a SAG award nom. The actor, writer, producer has a long list of tv and film credits to his name. Turhan’s rapid-fire conversational style is a joyful and wild ride through his polymath brain as we chat about his craft, childhood […]

E288 Roby Sobieski is an accomplished magician who has traveled the world practicing his craft, sometimes with interesting results (like being accused of being a god or demon). He has consulted on David Blaine’s national tours, and has been a sleight-of-hand consultant on the Harley Quinn “Birds of Prey” film. We discuss magic, history, philosophy, […]

E287 Austin Antoine & Raul Herrera are from Get Lit – Words Ignite (founded by Diane Luby Lane), an arts-education non-profit “using poetry to increase literacy, empower youth and inspire communities.” Diane also founded the Get Lit Players, “an award-winning classic teen poetry troupe who have appeared at the White House three times, collaborated with […]

E286 D.J. Vodicka has been called a “rat,” and “dead man walking” for exposing corruption at Salinas Valley State Prison. Sacrificing his career and risking his life, Vodicka, a decorated veteran officer, served in the Investigative Services Unit (a branch of Internal Affairs) and was the “whistle-blower” who uncovered a gang of rogue prison guards […]

E285 Sister Irene O’Neill has devoted her life to helping others. She’s the president of Sisters Rising Worldwide, a non-profit of 650,000 Sisters doing life-changing work in 190 countries, sharing ideas and strategies that solve the root causes of injustices throughout the world, and in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities. She also spent […]

E284 Human Scott Augenbaum is a cybercrime specialist, retired FBI supervisory special agent and former Crimes Against Children coordinator. He’s the author of “The Secret to Cybersecurity,” and spends his time helping to empower people against cyber attacks on their work and home computers, and phones – from phishing to romance scams to password shenanigans […]

E283 Human Ben Kutylo is executive director at ForwARd Arkansas, working to “accelerate the innovative and equitable transformation of education in Arkansas.” He’s worked with Chicago schools to help educators change the direction of learning. He’s also the co-founder of Fremont Street, a national nonprofit philanthropy dedicated to helping school systems change from within. We […]

E282 Human Dr. Thomas Ousterhout, a psychologist, and member of the Association of Computing Machinery, writes about mental health for TheMighty.com and the “Conquer Your Mind” group, is the author of “The Matrix Has You,” and wrote his dissertation on text emojis! We discuss his own suicide attempt in childhood, his subsequent experience on “lockdown” […]

E281 Human Andrea James is a consumer activist, writer, producer, filmmaker, “sexual radical,” and transgender pioneer. She began her career in advertising, has created award-winning websites and videos of trans-related and scholarly content, founded a production company and the Gender Media foundation, edited thousands of Wikipedia pages, voice-coached trans women, and has recently been asked […]

E280 Human Dr. Mao is a 38th generation practitioner of Chinese medicine and is co-founder of Tao of Wellness and Yo San University, both award winning centers for health and Traditional Chinese Medicine graduate education, respectively. He’s the author of over a dozen books about health and anti-aging. For more information and links, please visit: […]