Let's Talk Media with Vedant Akhauri

Why does a character we absolutely love to hate on screen bring us so much collective joy? How does an actor step into the shoes of a detestable historical antagonist to make a story of good versus evil truly land?

In this episode of Let’s Talk Media, the podcast exploring the craft, careers, and chaos of the creative world, host Vedant Akhauri sits down with 15-year industry veteran, dedicated character actor, and SAG Award-winning ensemble member Dave Maldonado.

Dave's extensive television and film credits include Deepwater Horizon, The Tomorrow War, The Devil All the Time, Greyhound, Free State of Jones, The 5th Wave, Trumbo with Bryan Cranston, Caddo Lake,The Burial, True Detective, Treme, NCIS: New Orleans, Dynasty, Homeland, From Dusk Till Dawn, Queen Sugar, Queen of the South, American Crime, Sleepy Hollow, Revolution, Your Honor, Tulsa King, Reservation Dogs, Will Trent, Love & Death, and Netflix's His & Hers. His recent experience also includes Hogwood, the local K*K leader and Bert's uncle, in Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan's cultural and box-office juggernaut, the movie Sinners.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Auditioning Blind & The Vampire Twist: How Dave read for casting director Megan Lewis without knowing the plot, director, or stars, only to find out three-quarters of the way through the table read that he was starring in a 1930s Southern vampire movie.

• The Unplanned Musical Audition: Dave's nerve-wracking experience of having to awkwardly sing Irish-folk vampire melodies directly to co-star Hailee Steinfeld at the table read to fill in for absent cast members.
• The Duality of the Antagonist: How Dave approached playing the folksy yet deeply detestable K*K-affiliated character Hogwood, and why he believes character actors must step up to play evil so that good can triumph on screen.
• Riddled with Bullet Squibs on Day One: The intense adrenaline of filming his character's violent sawmill shootout on his very first day on set, taking a personal-record number of explosive squibs, and how Michael B. Jordan broke character between takes to help lower his anxiety.
• The Anatomy of an Unscripted Spit: How Dave pitched a viral, unscripted floor-spit to Ryan Coogler, and why he had to swap the crew's burning beef jerky substitute for a real can of Skull tobacco to make it look authentic.
• The Red Carpet Red Tape: The hilarious mishap at the New York premiere where red carpet security refused to let Dave in, forcing him to pull up his own IMDb page on his phone to prove he was in the movie.

You can check out Dave's custom black-and-white Sinners fan art on his Instagram @dave.maldonado. You can find all of Dave's credits on his IMDb.

If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes! You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram @letstalkmediava.

What happens when life forces you to slow down? How do you translate the physical confinement of a severe, bedbound chronic illness into a universal work of art that heals both the creator and the reader?

In this episode of Let’s Talk Media, the podcast exploring the craft, careers, and chaos of the creative world, host Vedant Akhauri sits down with Kirkus-praised, #1 Best-selling poet and author, Autumn Williams.

Autumn shares her deeply moving journey of turning her struggle with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) into her chart-topping poetry collection, Clouds on the Ground. She opens up about the therapeutic power of "painting with words", the strange ways time bends when you are physically still, and her brilliant self-publishing blueprint—including the $1.00 launch strategy that propelled her to the top of Amazon's bestseller lists.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Painting with Words: How Autumn turned to poetry during her first year of being bedbound, finding healing, escape, and a renewed sense of purpose through free verse.
• The Origin of "Clouds on the Ground": The beautiful night-time visualization that began as a sleep aid and evolved into a powerful metaphor for pulling heaven's peace and earth's simple joys closer.
• The $1.00 Bestseller Playbook: Autumn's self-publishing and marketing secrets, including how she leveraged print-on-demand and a tactical $1 eBook release to hit #1 across multiple Amazon poetry categories.
• Assembling the Creative Dream Team: How Autumn collaborated with top-tier talent, including celebrated poet-editor Shelby Leigh and illustrator Drew Clark, to bring her visual book to life.
• The "Anti-Hustle" Flow: Why Autumn rejects modern hyper-productive hustle culture, choosing instead to write only when her body and energy allow.
• Waves of Healing: A sneak peek into her free promotional chapbook, Waves, and how she uses the metaphor of the ocean to process loss and hold on to hope.
• Live Reading: Autumn reads a short, evocative untitled poem from page 150 of Clouds on the Ground. Grab a free copy of Autumn’s promotional, ocean-themed chapbook, Waves, at freechapbook.com.

You can find all of Autumn’s books, newsletter updates, and social links at her website, autumnwilliams.com, as well as on Instagram @autumnwilliamspoetry.

If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes! You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram @letstalkmediava

Why does a certain song make us feel happy, excited, or deeply melancholic? How does the human brain instantly translate physical sound waves into raw emotional narratives?

In this episode of Let’s Talk Media, the podcast exploring the craft, careers, and chaos of the creative world, host Vedant Akhauri sits down with retired music professor, professional pianist, composer, and Fulbright scholar Kurt Ellenberger.

Kurt, who is also a contributing editor at All About Jazz and has written for NPR and the Huffington Post, shares his fascinating insights into how our brains mathematically predict melodies, why minor chords act as "acoustic interlopers" to induce sadness, and why evolutionary science has hit a complete dead end trying to explain why humans love music in the first place.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Math Before Meaning: How our brains instantly translate analog sound waves into electronic signals, using predictive processing to mathematically calculate where a melody will go next.
• The Power of the Binary Series: A deep dive into the perfect binary progression (1, 2, 4, 8, 16...) that dictates octaves.
• The "Sonic Doppelganger" and the Physics of Melancholy: Kurt breaks down the physics behind his theory of why minor keys make us feel sad.
• Tempo and Physiological Mimicry: Why humans behave in a highly mimetic way to musical tempos, matching our nervous systems and heart rates to the beat.
• Hearing the "Ghosts in the Ether": How modern technology allows us to electronically strip away the fundamental notes of a performance so that we can physically hear the hidden, quiet harmonic partials vibrating in the room.
• The Evolutionary "Dead End": Why Charles Darwin and modern science cannot convincingly explain the survival advantage of a genetic mutation that allows humans to calculate octave symmetry and predict pitches.
• Follow Along: Kurt's mentioned examples can be found here.

You can find all of Kurt’s music, articles, and book links at his personal website, kurtellenberger.com, as well as on allaboutjazz.com.

If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes! You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram @letstalkmediava

In this episode of Let's Talk Media, the media analysis podcast, host Vedant Akhauri sits down with David Fenton, the legendary public relations pioneer who has been named one of the 100 most influential people in PR and dubbed the "Robin Hood of PR" by the National Journal. Fenton has spent over fifty years driving communications campaigns for progressive social causes.

The conversation spans his early days as a high school dropout and activist to his modern reflections on digital-age communication:

• Early Activism and Abbie Hoffman: Fenton dropped out of high school to join the Liberation News Service to capture alternative photography of the Vietnam War protests and counter misleading mainstream media narratives. During this era, he was mentored by activist Abbie Hoffman.
• The Power of Music in Advocacy: Fenton highlights how music and celebrity can shift the culture. In 1971, he co-produced a benefit concert featuring John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Stevie Wonder to free political prisoner John Sinclair. He later co-produced the iconic 1979 "No Nukes" concerts at Madison Square Garden and partnered with Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon in 2012 to successfully ban fracking in New York.
• The "Enlightenment Fallacy" and Framing: Fenton argues that progressives frequently lose messaging battles because they fall into the "enlightenment fallacy" - the mistaken belief that a policy or scientific fact is so intrinsically brilliant that it will magically sell itself. Instead, he advocates for framing to activate existing neural pathways, such as using the phrase "blanket of pollution" rather than abstract terms like "carbon" or "net zero" that the public cannot easily visualize.
• The Discipline of Repetition: Fenton stresses that public opinion only changes through the continuous repetition of simple, truthful messages.
• PR in the Digital Age: Fenton contrasts the early days of PR, which relied heavily on relationships with three major television networks, with today's landscape.
• Excessive Identity Politics vs. Unity: Fenton cautions that "excessive" identity politics and polarizing slogans can act as PR failures that alienate the broader public and hand rhetorical weapons to political opponents, even though everyone deserves the right to be seen and respected for themselves. He explains how to unify disparate groups to build the political majorities needed to win real power.

David's website is ⁠https://davidfentonactivist.com/. His podcast is called The Fenton Forecast and is available on all major podcast platforms including Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Amazon Music, etc. 

If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram @letstalkmediava. New episodes drop on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

How does a teenager manage to publish dozens of books before even graduating high school? In this episode of Let's Talk Media, the podcast exploring the craft, careers, and chaos of the creative world, host Vedant Akhauri sits down with 18-year-old powerhouse author Shanti Hershenson.

Having published her first two novellas in the sixth grade, Shanti has since written an astonishing 38 books across science fiction, dystopia, poetry, and contemporary drama (with more on the way!). Shanti pulls back the curtain on her relentless creative process, how she built a massive social media following to bypass traditional gatekeepers, and why she’s dedicated her platform to advocating against modern bullying.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The "Accidental" Sixth-Grade Novelist: How a desire to print a physical copy of a fun, chaotic school project led an 11-year-old Shanti to discover Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, laying the foundation for her serious writing career.
• The 1,000-Word Daily Discipline: Shanti breaks down the daily writing routine she has strictly maintained since the seventh grade.
• Bypassing the Gatekeepers via BookTok: How Shanti leveraged the TikTok community to build an audience of over 50,000 followers. She discusses the massive undertaking of operating as a "one-woman show" from managing email newsletters and website design to sourcing cover artists and reinvesting 100% of her royalties back into marketing.
• Battling Ageism and Trolls: The frustration of having her accomplishments belittled as "cute", and dealing with online accusations that she uses AI or that her parents write her books.
• The YA Dystopian Cycle: Vedant shares his "old school" high school memories of the 2010s YA dystopian craze (The Hunger Games, Divergent), and they discuss why stories about taking down oppressive systems continuously cycle back to help teens process their own rebellion against the world.

You can purchase Shanti’s extensive catalog online and at select bookstores.

Her books we cover:

• The Never Dying series: Explores a future where a genetic mutation allows random individuals to be born with immortality. Fearing overpopulation, a ruthless regime led by President Wilde publicly preaches equality while systematically executing these "Immortals."
• The Biome Lock Saga: A young-adult science fiction trilogy. The story is set thirty years after a brutal alien invasion, leaving the surviving remnants of humanity trapped inside isolated, heavily guarded biological habitats ruled by a ruthless alien regime known as the Zorb.

• The Aris Andraase Duology: The story takes place in a United States ravaged by a second civil war. It follows 19-year-old Eris Andraste, who survives an alleyway shooting by miraculously catching the bullet in the palm of her hand. This event thrusts her into the center of the conflict as she flees to find answers about her true existence.
• The Chronicles of Zeal Delane: The plot centers around Aaron Hearth and Ziel DeLaine as they attempt to survive and escape a forbidden, hauntingly magical dream world known as "Dreamland". They are relentlessly hunted and tormented by an eccentric and insane conjurer named Silly Kingston, who forces them into increasingly dangerous psychological challenges and horrors
• The Bane of Angelfall Academy: A genre-bending book where science fiction borders fantasy, set in a magical school.
• Little Green Man: A fun sci-fi novel centering on Birdie, a 17-year-old alien enthusiast and town outcast in Colorado who stumbles upon a real alien plot

Connect with her on TikTok (@shantiwhowrites), Instagram (@shantihershenson), or visit her website at shantihershenson.com.

If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram @letstalkmediava. New episodes drop on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

How do you take on the monumental task of recreating the sacred music of Led Zeppelin? In this episode of Let's Talk Media, the podcast about the careers and chaos in media, host Vedant Akhauri sits down with Clementine Moss, the founder and drummer of the legendary all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band, Zepparella.

With millions of YouTube views, including 25 million on their cover of "When the Levee Breaks", and over 20 years of touring, Clementine takes us behind the scenes of what it takes to keep the spirit of 70s experimental rock alive.

We explore the band's origins, their unique cross-city logistics, and how they navigating the hard rock scene.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The Origins of Zepparella: Clementine shares how she and guitarist Gretchen Menn met while playing in an AC/DC cover band (AC/DShe), eventually forming Zepparella so they could emulate their musical idols, John Bonham and Jimmy Page.
• Meet the Band: Get to know the powerhouse lineup behind the music: Clementine Moss (Drummer interpreting the role of John Bonham), Gretchen Menn (Lead Guitarist interpreting Jimmy Page), Anna Kristina (Lead Vocalist interpreting Robert Plant, also contributing harmonica), and Holly West (Bassist, interpreting John Paul Jones).
• The Logistics of a 20-Year Tour: How does a band split between San Francisco and Los Angeles stay so tight?
• Honoring "Sacred" Music: The immense pressure of interpreting Led Zeppelin's legendary tracks.
• Curating the Perfect Setlist: Discover how the band crafts their epic two-hour shows.
• Overcoming the "Novelty" Label: What it was like forming an all-female hard rock band in 2005?
• The Spirituality of the Drum Kit: How the still, silent place Clementine searches for on her meditation mat is the exact same mental space she needs behind the drums to enter a flow state and become a pure channel for the music.
• The Humble Realities of Touring: The extreme contrasts of a 30-year gigging career, from the intense stress of performing on Late Night with Seth Meyers to the humbling reality of getting dressed in a mop closet or playing to just ten people.

• From Bonham to Buddha and Back: The Slow Enlightenment of the Hard Rock Drummer -> We explore this 2023 book written by Clementine. She explains how her creative life moves fluidly between the electrifying chaos of touring and the stillness of spiritual inquiry.
• Refusing to Chase Trends: Clementine’s creative philosophy, her jazz-infused vinyl album Clem & Clarite, and why focusing on modern music trends will inevitably stifle your creativity.

You can find all of Clementine's work, including her book, her blog (Bliss and Drumming), and her original music at clemthegrate.com.

Follow her and the band online:

• @ClementineMossMusic on Facebook and @clementinemoss on Instagram.
• @Zepparella on Facebook, @zepparellaofficial on Instagram, and @Zepparella on YouTube.

If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram @letstalkmediava

What is the reality of being a military spouse when the polished brochure fades away? In this sister episode to our interview with veteran Annie Emprima, we explore the flip side of the military lifestyle.

Host Vedant Akhauri sits down with Allison Burton - a military spouse of nearly 20 years, a speaker, and a self-described "professional truth teller". Allison exposes the hidden mental load, emotional labor, and systemic failures that military families navigate behind the scenes.

Ahead of the release of her upcoming book, Silent Ranks, Loud Burdens, Allison explains why she is finally breaking the conditioned silence to hold the system accountable.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Breaking the Conditioned Silence: Allison discusses the historical expectation for spouses to act as quiet, compliant "Stepford wives". She explains how speaking out about hardships was previously discouraged because a "loud" or difficult spouse could negatively impact the service member's promotion.
• The Weaponization of "Resiliency": Why military spouses despise the word "resiliency". Allison explains how the military uses the term as an excuse to avoid fixing systemic issues, forcing spouses to quietly endure a 24% unemployment rate, terrible childcare, and bottom-of-the-barrel healthcare.
• The Reality of Identity Erosion: The crushing toll of constantly packing up and moving every 11 months to four years. How the lifestyle strips away your individuality until you feel like a "shell of yourself" known only as someone's wife or mother.
• Navigating Hidden Resentment: Allison shares a deeply vulnerable story about harboring intense resentment toward her husband while stationed in Germany during the 2020 pandemic. She shares the vital lesson she learned through therapy: It is completely normal to hate the military lifestyle and your spouse's job while still loving your partner unconditionally.
• Calling Out "Mean Girl" Culture: Exposing the toxic, rank-based bullying within the spouse community.
• Changing the Narrative: While the book is written to validate struggling spouses, Allison reveals her ultimate goal: handing Silent Ranks, Loud Burdens directly to military leadership in Washington, D.C., to force a top-down change in how families are treated.

You can sign up for updates on Allison's upcoming book, Silent Ranks, Loud Burdens, and access her vetted list of resources for military families at allisonson.co.

• Allison on Facebook: Allison Burton I Author, Speaker, Advocate
• You can follow the book's campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/allisonburton/silent-ranks-loud-burdens

allisonburton_author_speaker

If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram @letstalkmediava

What happens when the battlefield follows you home, and the injuries aren't just physical? In this episode of Let's Talk Media, the podcast about the careers and chaos in media, host Vedant Akhauri sits down with US Army National Guard veteran and trauma educator, Annie Emprima.

Following a deployment to the Middle East, Annie returned home with what she describes as intense "whiplash"—a jarring transition from a high-tempo military environment to a civilian life with no safety net. Ahead of the August 12th release of her book, Trauma Whispers Before It Roars, Annie shares her deeply personal journey of surviving unseen trauma and explains her unique, holistic approach to coaching.

NOTE: This released alongside the other episode, Silent Ranks, Loud Burdens: Book on The Realities and Identity Erosion of a Military Spouse. It features an interview with upcoming author, Alison Burton, about being a military spouse. Both are being released as sister episodes to show both sides of military households. If you like Annie's interview, be sure to check out both episodes.

In Annie's episode, we discuss:

• The "Whiplash" of Returning Home: Annie discusses the disorienting transition from a high-adrenaline deployment to civilian life. She explains why returning to a chaotic or dysfunctional household prevents a veteran's highly-alert nervous system from ever truly exhaling and standing down.
• Redefining the Battlefield: While Annie experienced literal combat, including taking fire on a C-130 cargo plane in the Middle East, she explains why her most overwhelming stressors actually stemmed from internal leadership issues, unit drama, and feelings of extreme helplessness.
• When the Body Roars: How trauma physically manifests in the body. It's often the body's way of screaming when the subtle emotional whispers of trauma go ignored.
• A "Holodeck" Approach to Healing: Discover Annie’s fascinating alternative coaching methods. Because many veterans resist traditional hypnosis due to deep-seated control issues, she uses a mental "elevator system" to guide clients into a "black room", similar to a Star Trek holodeck. Here, they can safely communicate with their superconscious to process buried trauma without ever losing control.
• The Mind, Body, and Soul Connection: Why treating just the mental or physical symptoms of PTSD isn't always enough.

You can find Annie's book, Trauma Whispers Before It Roars, on Amazon and in select stores starting August 12th. To learn more about her coaching services, simply search for "Annie Emprima" online.

If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram @letstalkmediava

Disclaimer: This episode contains mature and sensitive discussions about trauma. The long gaps and struggle to find words have been intentionally kept to preserve the heaviness of the subject matter. Listener discretion is strongly advised.

In this episode of Let's Talk Media, host Vedant Akhauri sits down with Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Ammar Farooki to explore the gritty, unpolished realities of the indie music hustle.

Leaving behind a secure, decade-long career in corporate banking and marketing in Pakistan, Ammar took a massive leap of faith and moved to New York City in 2019 to immerse himself in its vibrant, multi-venue indie culture. From working as a barista and a guitar store clerk to fund his home studio, to navigating the expensive reality of being an independent artist, Ammar shares exactly what it takes to self-fund, self-produce, and release his brand-new, 12-track debut album, Twelve.

In this episode, we explore:

• Two Different Musical Worlds: Ammar discusses the stark contrast between Pakistan's music scene, which he notes is heavily driven by big corporate brands and platforms like Coke Studio, and the intimate, live-performance indie scene he was desperately searching for in New York.
• Sufi Philosophy and Universal Connection: Discover the profound Sufi inspirations behind his album, 12. Ammar shares why he actively asks listeners to leave their national and cultural identities at the door to fully connect with the universal messages in his music, which includes a beautiful translation of 17th-century poetry from Baba Bulleh Shah.
• The Architecture of Songwriting: Ammar offers a brilliant metaphor for his creative process, comparing his songwriting to an architect building a "gray structure". He explains how he intentionally leaves enough open space within his music so the listener can act as a tenant, decorating the song with their own personal emotions and memories.
• The "Rick Rubin" Approach to Self-Producing: For fellow indie musicians and music lovers, Ammar breaks down his evolution from his earlier EP (which earned co-signs from Rolling Stone and Forbes) to his new full-length album. Learn how he intentionally avoided stacking endless instruments, instead treating each song as its own universe and adopting the "Rick Rubin approach" of actively removing layers to reveal a track's true essence.

If you are interested in the realities of independent art, deep storytelling, and finding human connection through music, be sure to check out the full episode!If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram @letstalkmediava

Have you noticed those dramatic, minute-long shows flooding your social media feeds? They aren't just a niche internet trend - they are the foundation of a massive new "parallel economy" in Hollywood.

In this episode of Let's Talk Media, host Vedant Akhauri sits down with actress, director, and producer Delaney Hathaway to unpack absolutely everything you need to know about vertical dramas (also known as micro-dramas). Having starred in projects across major vertical platforms like RealShort, Salty TV, and GoodShort, Delaney provides a firsthand look at the wild, fast-paced world of this rapidly booming industry.

In this comprehensive breakdown, we cover:

• What They Are & The $9B Boom: Discover how these minute-long series, which typically run 60 to 100 episode, are engineered to maximize retention. We also break down how this format has become a $9B global market, outpacing the biggest companies in the streaming era.
• Who is Watching & Where: While they are marketed on TikTok, full series live behind paywalls on dedicated apps like Real Short, Good Short, Vigloo, and Gamma Time. Delaney explains how they skew towards Millennials and older generations, and how the format is expanding beyond steamy romances into true crime and thrillers.
• Welcome to "Vertical Landia": A look inside the grueling, marathon-like production schedules where actors shoot 12 to 20 pages of script in a single 12-hour day, completing an entire series in just 7 to 11 days. Delaney shares her best advice for memorizing lines and why it's a highly profitable business for actors.
• The Dark Side of AI & Contracts: With AI-generated vertical content jumping from 7% to nearly 40% of the market, Delaney warns about the gray areas of non-union contracts, including "in perpetuity" clauses that allow companies to use their "digital replicas."
• Set Safety & The SAG-AFTRA Shift: Because many of these romance-heavy shows operate without union protections, there is a concerning lack of intimacy coordinators on set. However, we explore the hope on the horizon: SAG-AFTRA's new October 2025 vertical agreement.

Whether you are an actor looking to break into the industry or just a curious viewer wondering why you can't stop watching these bite-sized soap operas, this episode is your ultimate guide!

If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram @letstalkmediava.

New episodes drop on Tuesdays and Thursdays.