Riverside Chats

Cammy Watkins discusses her decision to run for Omaha's City Council after years of waiting for political willpower to manifest in order to fix the city's problems before finally deciding to get hands-on to enact change.

Omaha attorney Matthew Wurstner gives an overview of legal issues from the national to the local, including the recent developments at the Supreme Court and what made it to the ballot this year in Nebraska.

Kara Eastman comes back onto the show to discuss her run to represent Nebraska's Second Congressional District as she challenges incumbent Republican Don Bacon over healthcare, presidential loyalty, and the influence of corporate money in politics. 

This is the third Riverside Chats conversation with Kara Eastman. You can find the old conversations in our episode backlog. 

Nebraska State Senate Candidate Terrell McKinney is running to represent District 11, which is currently represented by Ernie Chambers. McKinney speaks about the legacy of Ernie Chambers as he grew up in North Omaha as well as his personal struggles and ultimate determination to become part of the solution to problems he sees in Nebraska by running for office.

Musician, author, and professor Pascal Bokar discusses the way traditional sounds like the banjo originated in West Africa and became mainstays of Midwestern music, as well as how the center of any country represents its truest cultural expression. Check out his new album American Trails and his book From Timbuktu to the Mississippi Delta: How West African Standards of Aesthetics Have Shaped the Music of the Delta Blues. 

US Senate Candidate Alisha Shelton discusses her life as a practical problem solver and how she's had to forge her own path in every venture, including this particularly messy senate race against incumbent Ben Sasse and primary winner Chris Janicek.

Musician Andrew Bailie discusses his album Wasteland and how he's processing the world around him through his music and neighborhood concerts. 

Screenwriter Christine Burright McGuigan discusses her life leading up to the writing of The Headliner, the award-winning short that played in the Omaha Film Festival, the Film Stream Local Filmmaker Showcase, and won Best Narrative at the Lincoln Short Film Festival. It’s now being developed into a feature with the same core team and cast that they intend to shoot in Nebraska once COVID restrictions have eased.

Edited from the 2019 podcast discussion. 

Beaufield Berry discusses her evolution as a playwright leading up to Red Summer, which dramatized the life of William Brown in commemoration of the centenary of the Omaha Race Riots of 1919.

Edited from the original podcast conversation in 2019. 

Documentarian Georg Joutras discusses his hit documentary, Ocean of Grass, filmed in the Nebraska Sandhills. Edited from the 2019 podcast conversation.