Riverside Chats

You may or may not know that this show began as a series of live conversations in Benson, before transitioning into a podcast that was recorded at Petshop for almost a year. Petshop is the headquarters for BFF, also known as Benson First Friday, which is celebrating its tenth year of operations as a hub of Omaha artistic expression and bringing the community to the artists. BFF co-founder Alex Jochim is here with Zach Schmeider to talk to Tom Knoblauch about BFF’s evolution and its upcoming music festival, Petfest, which will be held on August 13th. Some of the bands and performers at this year’s Petfest include Amulets, Universe Contest, Aly Peeler, Ghost Foot, and Dave Nance. Tickets for Petfest are available now and can be purchased here. 

Matthew Wurstner returns to discuss everyone’s favorite subject: taxes. Earlier this year, the Nebraska State Legislature passed what Governor Ricketts called the biggest tax relief measures in Nebraska history. Taxes come up a lot here in assessing quality of life, what a competitive tax climate might mean for retaining young people in the age of brain drain, and in general how our taxes here look compared to similar states. Specifically, Wurstner talks to Tom Knoblauch about recent legislative bills 873 and 310 and what they mean for the average Nebraskan and why, even if it doesn't sound exciting, people should pay attention to the shifting tax landscape.

Bri Full is a candidate for the Omaha Public School Board to represent Subdistrict 2. Full is an active community organizer and policy advisor at the Nebraska State Legislature. On today's show, Full talks to Tom Knoblauch what she believes OPS should do following a mass exodus of hundreds of teachers this spring to ensure a stable, successful future for education in the metro area.

Joe Pera is an comedian, actor, and the creator of the beloved Adult Swim show Joe Pera Talks with You, which just aired its third and final season and is available for streaming on HBO Max. Adult Swim is known for mature, crude programming, so Joe Pera is an unconventional fit with his show that resembles something more like Mr. Rogers than Rick and Morty and emphasizes a quiet comedy rooted in kindness and empathy. Today Pera talks to Tom Knoblauch about how he found his voice and where it fits into the comedy landscape of today, which is often cynical and dark, as well as how his persona does and doesn't match with his real life self. Pera will be performing in Omaha at the Admiral on August 6th. Tickets are available here.

Dan Mirvish is an award winning filmmaker and co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival. His films include Omaha The Movie, Open House, Between Us, and Bernard and Huey. His new film is 18 ½, a Watergate thriller and dark comedy starring Willa Fitzgerald and John Magaro as a transcriptionist and reporter who find the infamous gap of tape in Richard Nixon’s White House recordings. Today Mirvish talks with Tom Knoblauch about the film’s thematic relevance to today, how his filmic influences, including mentor Robert Altman, played into its conception, and what the efficacy of political art is in today’s climate.

Eileen Wirth is professor emeritus of journalism at Creighton University and the author of several books including From Society to Front Page: Nebraska Women in Journalism and A History Lover’s Guide to Omaha. Her latest book is The Women Who Built Omaha: A Bold and Remarkable History, which supplements our city’s story from what has been described as a man’s town by exploring the women who played major roles in education, health, culture, social services, and other fields since Omaha’s founding in 1854. Wirth talks with Tom Knoblauch about the women who built Omaha as well as what it means to reframe history by adding what she refers to as missing chapters and how cultural attitudes are impacted by both the absence and presence of women in our shared narratives.

Check out the The Women Who Built Omaha here. 

Erik Larson is the author of bestselling historical nonfiction like The Devil in the White City, The Splendid and the Vile, and In the Garden of Beasts. Today he talks with Tom Knoblauch about how he uses history to process his anxieties about the present and what made him turn to fiction for his latest work, a ghost story called No One Goes Alone, which is exclusively available on Audible.

Katie Otten is an actor and writer who has worked with just about every local filmmaker and has just launched her first web series called Inner Worlds, which follows a series of friends who engage in a tabletop roleplaying game of the same name. Otten created, wrote every episode of, and stars in Inner Worlds, and every episode is streaming now. She talks with Tom Knoblauch about the project, her evolving process, and her vision for its future. Learn more about the project (and support season 2) here.

Ross Benes wrote the 2021 book Rural Rebellion: How Nebraska Became a Republican Stronghold in which he diagnoses “a gradual shift in the types of candidates we elect to our state legislature and the US Congress." He argues that "[t]he accumulative changes over the past few decades have made it extremely difficult for Democrats to be competitive outside of certain parts of our two biggest cities, Omaha and Lincoln, and even there, it is often an uphill battle for liberals.” He came on the show last year to discuss the cultural landscape of highly loyal GOP voters and today he’s back to talk with Tom Knoblauch about just how strong that Republican stronghold is in what appears to be a 2022 rocked with scandals, resignations, in-fighting, dark money, and the specter of Donald Trump.

Randy Nogg currently runs the talent agency Actors Etc. Limited and its entertainment division Theater-To-Go. He previously lived in LA where he produced the film Reefer Madness 2, which is now available on Amazon Video, before returning to Omaha to bring a bit of Hollywood back to the Heartland. Today he talks with Tom Knoblauch about the way Hollywood dreams entered his Midwestern life and how that brought him on the long journey to both making and distributing his film.