Let Me Ascertain You: The Civilians Podcast

This is our fourth and final episode of our Let Me Ascertain You: Be The Death of Me Series. These interviews are part of an ongoing investigation about death, dying and whatever comes after that. We talked to more than a hundred people so far, and many of these conversations centered on how we remember and how we memorialize those that we’ve lost. Maybe you’ve passed an entirely white bike chained up somewhere and wondered what it was. And maybe you guessed that it’s a memorial for a cyclist killed in that location. We talked to Jessie, one of the people who makes these public memorials. She’s one of the co-founders of the New York City Ghost Bike Project, performed here by actor Megan Stern. Jessie connected us to Lizi, a mother whose son was killed on his bike in Queens, performed by Indika Senanayake. And as our final piece in this series about endings, we have an actor performing an interview we did with another actor. To close, Brad Heberlee plays Everett. Interviews for this podcast were conducted by Elsa Carrette, Ian Daniel, and Leonie Ettinger. To get the latest about our next topic, be sure to subscribe!

Here’s episode three in our new podcast series Let Me Ascertain You: Be The Death of Me. What you’ll hear are excerpts from a larger ongoing project about life, death, and whatever happens after that. As part of this investigation, our team spoke to those who work every day in matters of life and death — people who spend their days in the places that witness the demise of our bodies. We’ve put three of those stories together for this episode. To kick things off, here’s actor Peter Friedman performing a man named Leonard: he’s a doctor of internal medicine. Then Danielle Davenport performs an interview we did with Sara, a child life specialist in the general pediatric unit at NYU Hospital. Keith Randolph Smith closes out this episode with his performance of Rocky, who is the co-founder of The Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps, which it turns out is the nation’s first minority-run volunteer ambulance corps. Since 1988 the Bed-Stuy ambulance corps greatly improved emergency care in the Bed-Stuy community and to this day it continues to train young people and adults in life-saving skills. The interviews for this podcast were conducted by Micharne Cloughley, Dan Domingues and Meridith Friedman.

We’re back with the second episode of Let Me Ascertain You: Be The Death of Me. For this Civilians' project we took a prismatic look into the end of life and talked with a cross-section of New Yorkers - ER nurses, priests, funeral directors, vampires, shamans, crime-scene cleaners, and many ordinary people dealing with the extraordinary experience of loss. In this episode we share three of those stories. Actors Gardiner Comfort, Jennifer Morris, and Jeremy Shamos perform.

The interviews for this podcast episode were conducted by Matt Dellapina, Meridith Friedman, and Donnetta Lavinia Grays. We encourage you to subscribe if you haven’t already, and if you’re feeling extra generous write us a review. It makes a big difference! Until next time.

We’re starting up a new series here at Let Me Ascertain You taken from a couple of live events we did recently about death. The show called “Be The Death of Me” is about facing that final curtain and maybe what lies on the other side. A small army of artists spent six months interviewing all sorts of people here in New York City. A cast of 33 brilliant actors performed these pieces at the Irondale Center in our home neighborhood of Fort Greene Brooklyn. And over the next few episodes, we’re going to share some of these stories with you.

Most people, it stands to reason, have some fear of dying - but not everyone does. As you’ll hear in this episode, some are planning on doing what no man or woman has done before: escape it altogether. Stephen Plunkett performs Father Sebastiaan, a local vampyre and fangsmith. Mia Katigbak performs an interview we did with a medium named Therese. Matt Dellapina performs our interview with Futurist/Techno-Philospher Gray Scott.

Interviews for this podcast were conducted by EllaRose Chary, Ian Daniel, and Leonie Ettinger. If you haven’t yet, please make sure you've subscribed so you can hear upcoming episodes in this “Be The Death of Me” series.

Check out our fourth and final episode of our "Let Me Ascertain You: LGBTQ All Out!" podcast series. This was recorded live at the Barrow Street Theater in NY where actors performed various real people we interviewed about their experiences related to sexuality and gender. One of our special guest performers that night was Laverne Cox who stars in the TV show "Orange Is the New Black." She performs an interview we did with a staff member at Housing Works which is a NYC non-profit healing community of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. (http://www.housingworks.org/) Then Mike Brun and Alyse Louis perform "Barricade" another song by Robin Eaton and Jill Sobule from our upcoming musical “Times Square” that will feature music from Robin and Jill with book by Tony-nominated writer Jim Lewis about two teenage runaway lesbians who form an underground punk band in 1980s seedy Times Square! To close out this special podcast series, Stephen Plunkett performs an inteview he did for our show "This Beautiful City" about Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs has a number of military bases and this interview was done a number of years ago before the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell." Interviews for this podcast were conducted by Stephen Plunkett and Dan Domingues. Be sure to subscribe to stay in the loop about other amazing stories from our investigations! For more, please visit http://www.thecivilians.org. To leave a comment, please visit The Civilians' blog http://blogforthecivilians.blogspot.com/!

Up next is our third podcast of our series "Let Me Ascertain You: LGBTQ All Out!" dedicated to sexuality and gender. For this episode, we've got another interview from a staffer at the Rainbow Heights Club in Brooklyn, an advocacy program for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender emotional recovery and wellness. You can learn more about them at rainbowheights.org. Samira Wiley performs Danee live in New York City at the Barrow Street Theater.

Then, our next performance comes from an interview we did a couple years ago as part of our research for writer Neal Bell's play, SHADOW OF HIMSELF. Actors Matt Maher, Brian Sgambati and Maria Dizzia drove down to rural Pennsylvania to visit Harold and Bob in their home that has number of cages upstairs, locked cells downstairs and something of a small prison camp outside. At the time they were all empty. Matt Maher plays Harold and Brad Heberlee plays Bob.

Since we started this LGBTQ series, we did a concert of the show TIMES SQUARE by Jill Sobule & Robin Eaton and Jim Lewis. It's a show about two girls who fall in love and discover themselves. To close out the podcast, we share a song for Nicky, one of the two girls at the center of the story. Nicky's a streetwise butch girl and in this song "Cigarette Burn" she's trying out a new song onstage at the Pussycat Palace in the heart of sleazy Times Square. It's sung here by the extraordinary Jill Sobule.

Interviews for this podcast were conducted by Donnetta Lavinia Grays and Matt Maher.

We’re back with the second episode of Let Me Ascertain You: LGBTQ All Out recorded live at the Barrow Street Theater; actors perform various real people we interviewed about their experiences related to sexuality and gender. One of the groups who helped us out on this show was the Theater of the Oppressed NYC, they have an awesome theater troupe for queer homeless youth. We talked to one their troupe member Vincent and in this episode you’ll hear Jax Jackson perform that interview. Then actor Pedro Pascal performs an interview we did with a man named Mark, and to close out this episode composer Michael Friedman sings an original song of his called “Horrible Seders” and it’s about playwright Tony Kushner. The interviews for this podcast were conducted by Ian Daniel and Dan Domingues.

We’ve got a new topic here at Let Me Ascertain You that we're calling "LGBTQ All Out!” and it's all about those who have battled for, celebrated, and championed their sexual orientation and gender identity. We dig into the personal stories, struggles and triumphs of a group of individuals in the LGBTQ community. Here, our Associate Artists and special guests perform interviews that we conducted recently. This podcast was recorded live at Barrow Street Theater in NYC.

In this episode you’ll hear actor Paul Stovall perform an interview we did with Randy who works at a great organization here in Brooklyn called the Rainbow Heights Club. Check out their website: http://www.rainbowheights.org/. Then actor Blair Baker performs Tarina, an interview we did several years ago back when we were creating our show about the city of Colorado Springs. To close things out, we’ve got a song from Times Square. It’s a musical based on the early 80’s movie. The story is about two girls from opposite sides of the tracks, they meet, they fall in love, they form a band called the Sleez Sisters all set in the untamed Times Square of the 1970’s. Songs are by the amazing team of Jill Sobule and Robin Eaton, and here’s one of them. This is “Last Kiss” performed by Alyse Alan Louis with Mike Brun on guitar. Interviews for this podcast were conducted by Dan Domingues and Alison Weller.

Now for the finale of our Occupy #S17 series! This episode contains recordings of a live performance of interviews with Occupy protesters that we presented at Joe's Pub for the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. First up is our Associate Artist Matt Dellapina performing a demonstrator named Alexander. Next up is Jahi Kearse as Sumumba. To close this episode out, we have Mary Kate O'Neil and Jill Sobule leading the evening's cast and musicians in a sing-along of Neil Young's protest song, "America." Interviews were conducted by our Associate Artist Dan Domingues, and the performance was directed by Mia Rovegno. Thanks for listening! Subscribe, rate, review!

Here are more of our interviews from the Occupy Wall Street movement, presenting interviews we’ve conducted with activists since the beginning at of it all at Zuccotti Park on September 17, 2011. We created an event at Joe’s Pub in NYC and invited theaters, schools, and other non-profits from around the country to join us in performing an Occupy anniversary show simultaneously the night of the 17th. Here are some performances from our show in NY, starting with our Associate Artist Colleen Werthmann back with more of Andrea Ciannevi discussing the trajectory of the movement. Next up is Associate Artist Maria Elena Ramirez who performs Sofia, a young protestor from Puerto Rico. To close this episode, we’re excited to have musical guests Sandra Velazquez and Maria Elena of the band Pistolera join us for their song "Cazador." Interviews for this podcast were conducted by Steven Cosson, Ian Daniel, Dan Domingues and the performances you just heard were directed by Mia Rovegno. Thanks for listening. Please subscribe, rate, and review!