Nathans & Roncast

Aaron’s song “Sorry, Alan” explores the inspirational and tragic life of Alan Turing, father of computer science and World War II hero. To take a deeper look at Turing, we speak with George Dyson, author of “Turing’s Cathedral: Origins of the Digital Universe.” It’s the story of how in the 1940s and ‘50s, a small group of people gathered in Princeton, New Jersey to build one of the first computers that would realize Turing’s vision of a universal machine. It also tells the story of how the computer and hydrogen bomb were invented at around the same time. Dyson, who […]

The Ronstadt family has been in Tucson, AZ for five generations and the next generation is growing fast! That being said, if we rewind back to 1995, Michael J. Ronstadt, father of cellist Michael G. Ronstadt of the Nathans & Roncast, we find some music that has never seen the digital light of day.  Michael J. Ronstadt (“Papa Mike”) closed down the Ronstadt Pump Company in the early 90’s to take $100 a week playing music at Cragin Elementary school. He sang and played guitar, bringing old cowboy music, Mexican music, Irish lullabies, and kids’ music to all the classrooms. […]

This song by Aaron explores the simple pleasures of a parent playing in the snow with their child. We are pleased to interview Doug Hamilton, whose fiddle plays an important part in the sound of this song. He describes himself as classically trained, but physically drained by years of violin playing. A polymath and veteran of half a century performing in venues from tiny bookstores to arenas, Hamilton is still trying to figure out the purest path to musical truth. In this interview, you’ll hear tales of being on tour as a backing musician to such big names as Reba […]

In this first mini-episode, we feature “My World,” by Michael’s cousin, Bobby Ronstadt. Bobby was born and raised in Tucson, spent some years in Los Angeles until one too many earthquakes brought him back home in 1995. He has since been hosting Monthly Music nights, been featured on numerous recordings and is currently a member of PD Ronstadt and the Company. Bobby brings his own musical reflections of life from juvenile to retrospective and maybe some instrumentals in between.

“I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome, I took some comfort there,” wrote Paul Simon in “The Boxer.” That’s the theme of “Without the Cold,” the third track on the Nathans & Ronstadt album “Hello World.” Melancholy isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it can be a feeling of peace. That was the idea of Alan Jay Prescott, who contributed to a Nathans & Ronstadt Kickstarter campaign, with the reward of providing a concept for them to write a song around. In the end, Prescott was credited as a co-writer on “Without the Cold.” In this enlightening […]

Who was Dr. Morris Joelson? In this episode we revisit the life of a physician in Paterson, New Jersey who was famous for having delivered 20,000 babies during his lifetime. But Dr. Joelson (1885-1958) was also a beloved family doctor, willing to brave any weather to pay a house call, and if the family couldn’t afford it, not only would he refuse payment — he might just leave a little money under the ashtray. We interview Sally Hayman, Dr. Joelson’s granddaughter, who is a licensed clinical social worker (a therapist) living in Palo Alto, California. In this interview, she looks […]

Learning any new skill requires that scary first step. We’re honored to take our first step into podcasting with our guest Brian Kernighan, a groundbreaking computer scientist whose “Hello, World!” program reshaped the way people learned to program computers. If a budding coder can successfully input a few lines, they are rewarded with seeing “Hello, World!” on their screen, and suddenly they are on their way. It’s a metaphor for being brave enough to try something new, much like “Hot Cross Buns” serves as a piano player’s first learned piece. Brian’s program inspired the title track to our new album, […]