Storybeat with Steve Cuden

This episode includes discussions of mental health issues, substance abuse, and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised.

Christa Parravani is the author of the bestselling books, Her: A Memoir, and Loved and Wanted: A Memoir of Choice, Children, and Womanhood.

Loved and Wanted is acclaimed for its take on curtailed maternal health care as it pertains to children, and its condemnation of the personal, financial, and emotional repercussions of curtailed access for women. Loved and Wanted was a New York Times Editor's Choice, and one of Dwight Garner's favorite books of the year. 

Christa’s bestselling book, Her: A Memoir shares her journey through grief after the death of her identical twin sister, Cara. Her was an NPR critics pick. Vanity Fair called Her, "astonishing." Bookforum said, “Her invites obsessional reader behavior because Parravani has the ability to make life, even at its worst, feel magic-tinged and vital and lived all the way down to the bone.” I’ve read Her and can tell you it’s a most beautifully written and unnerving memoir. I was deeply moved by Christa’s telling of her experiences in confronting Cara’s challenged life and untimely death. 

Christa also happens to be married to one of my favorite StoryBeat guests, the extraordinary writer of Jarhead and other books, Tony Swofford.

Gabby Gruen is appearing on StoryBeat for the second time.  He has been a writer and producer of ads and commercials for several top tier ad agencies and their high-profile clients. 

As a screenwriter, he’s sold work to Fox 2000 Films, and wrote movie scripts on assignment for a number of independent production companies.

More recently, Gabby has been publishing novels. We chatted about his excellent first book, The Uniform, a Holocaust thriller, during his first time on this show. I found The Uniform to be an intense page-turner with real heart and wit.

Gabby’s next book, The Ride of a Lifetime, a Crime Novel, is set on the frozen streets of Detroit. I’ve read The Ride of a Lifetime and can tell you it’s a gritty trip through the criminal underbelly of Detroit. If you like urban noir thrillers, I’m certain you’ll enjoy The Ride of a Lifetime.

Tricia Gardella, who is known as National Park Gramma, is the award-winning author of scores of children’s books, including a 10-book Mouse Travelers Series, which explores and promotes a love of national parks and monuments. I’ve read Mouse Visits Everglades National Park and can tell you it’s a charming story, wonderfully illustrated, about Tricia’s hero, Mouse, exploring the Everglades during a most engaging journey through the park so that young audiences can get a sense of the beauty of the endangered species that live there.

Tricia’s had her writings published in Highlights Magazine, been interviewed on Sacramento TV shows, and was featured in her local newspaper. 

She’s a Lifetime Member of The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, as well as an active member of Women In Publishing, the Independent Book Publishers Association, and The Alliance of Independent Authors. 

Tricia’s not only a celebrated author, she’s also the matriarch of a large family, and an entrepreneur who has run a half-dozen businesses, including an ice cream parlor, crafting, and ranching. 

After raising her family, Tricia earned her B.A. in Ancient History and Classical Archaeology at the tender age of 75. 

Barbara Mujica is a multi-award-winning, bestselling novelist, and a professor emerita at Georgetown University. She’s also a short-story writer, essayist, and critic. She’s been published in The New York Times, The Miami Herald, and The Washington Post. Barbara's stories have appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals.  She’s a two-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize for Fiction. And her work has been optioned for the movies and adapted for the stage. 

Her latest novel, Miss del Río, which is a historical fiction about the great Mexican-American actress, Dolores Del Rio, has been optioned for a film by John Black Productions. It was a Target Book Club pick, an Apple Audio "Must Listen," a Library Journal "Best Book of the Year" selection, and The Washington Post named it "One of the five best recent historical novels." 

I’ve read Miss Del Rio, and can tell you it’s riveting storytelling about a real-life major movie star as she lives and works in an elite world few ever get to experience. Miss Del Rio is a fascinating glimpse into many of the true characters of Hollywood’s silent era as it transitioned to talkies and far beyond.

Among Barbara’s published books are Frida, a best seller is based on the tumultuous relationship between the artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Sister Teresa, I Am Venus, The Deaths of Don Bernardo, and three short story collections: Imagining Iraq, Sanchez Across the Street, and Far from My Mother's Home. 

As a scholar, Barbara specializes in Early Modern Spanish literature and contemporary Latin American Culture. 

Barbara’s also been active in veterans' issues at Georgetown since 2010. Her book Collateral Damage: Women Write about War was inspired by a symposium she organized at Georgetown on women and war. 

And you may have seen or heard Barbara being interviewed on CBS-TV News, NPR, NBC Radio, The PBS TV News Hour, and CNN-Latino

In case you’re wondering about the intermittent snoring throughout much of the show, it is Barbara’s dog, Frankie, who was taking a long snooze as we were recording. 

Mike Bodayle is a semi-retired insurance company executive. His favorite things in life are proudly displayed in the images on the four luggage tags found on his suitcase: the Yankees logo, a cassette mix tape, a slice of pizza, and the Starbucks logo. 

In the mid-1970s Mike wrote about music for his college newspaper. From 1995-2001, Mike published Beyond Belief, an Elvis Costello international fanzine. In 2016, he left printed media for two blogs: The Pizza Snob and Music City Mike. 

In 2025, Mike published A League of His Own, the family memoir he’d long dreamed of writing. I’ve read A League of His Own and can tell you it’s a highly detailed, personal accounting of his family, focused largely on his beloved father’s adventures with softball, baseball, and life. This led Mike to develop his seminar, How and Why to Write a Memoir, which has returned him to his love of public speaking.

Mike’s first work of fiction, Music Leads to Murder, is soon to be published. It was inspired by his passion for rock music and his love of murder mysteries, New York City, and London.

So, for all those reasons and many more, I’m delighted to welcome the writer and speaker, Mike Bodayle, to StoryBeat today. Mike, I’m so glad to have you join me on the show! 

Crystal Manich has directed over 90 productions of opera, plays, musical theatre, and circus across the USA, Argentina, Australia, and Europe. Her work has been acclaimed by the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other major publications for her “lively” and “imaginative staging.” 

She wrote and directed her first opera libretto, Time to Act, written with composer Laura Kaminsky, which premiered at the Pittsburgh Opera in 2026. I saw Time to Act and found it to be well-written, hard-hitting, and compelling. She is also the writer-director for Triângulo: A Mixed Martial Arts Opera, which premieres in 2027.

Crystal served as Artistic Director for Cirque du Soleil’s Crystal and previously on Quidam. She directed the opera The Copper Queen as a western-thriller feature film for Arizona Opera, garnering an award at the 2021 Toronto International Women's Film Festival.

She was nominated for a 2021 Chicago EMMY for a multi-camera livestream of Daniel Catán’s Spanish-language opera La Hija de Rappaccini for Chicago Opera Theater at the Field Museum.

Crystal holds a BFA in Drama-Directing and a Master’s in Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon University, a certificate in Business and Management of Entertainment from UCLA Extension, and a Professional Certificate in Screenwriting from UCLA.

Barry Greenfield is making his second appearance on StoryBeat. He’s a working musician and songwriter whose career spans from 1968 to the present. His 12 CDs have enjoyed global sales. Barry’s written three number-one songs and had twenty-plus songs covered by other artists. In 2025, his music was selected by HBO, BBC TV, and Australia Films for their original programming.

Barry’s also an author. His first book, a memoir, My Journey to Blue Sky, was published in March 2025. He and I chatted about My Journey to Blue Sky during our first conversation. You can find that episode on storybeat.net, wherever you listen to podcasts, and on YouTube.

Barry’s second book is a novel called All You Need Is Courage, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. It tells the fictional tale of a young songwriter who meets and works with his heroes, The Beatles, during their heyday. The saga has more than a few parallels to Barry’s own history. If you enjoy stories about hardworking artists triumphing in the music business, I highly urge you to read All You Need Is Courage. You may find it to be truly inspirational.

Barry’s also written music for a documentary he produced called My Day in Auschwitz.  A selection from the film, The Gate, was published in the Yad Vashem 2025 coffee table book, Lessons from the Shoah.

Please stick around at the end of this episode because Barry has generously lent us his fantastic song, The Beautiful Band, which we’ll play for your listening pleasure.

Doug Thompson started his broadcast career at CHUM Radio Toronto in the mid 1960’s. Since then, he’s worked in New York, Los Angeles and London, England. He’s created programming for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Telemedia Network Radio in Canada as well as ABC Radio, NBC Radio, and the Unistar network in the U.S.

Doug has written, produced and directed over 1000 hours of network and syndicated radio programming that’s been heard by millions around the world as well as creating several thousand radio commercials and promos. He’s worked with major celebrity hosts like John Candy, Ringo Starr, Grammy Award winning music producer David Foster and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member Graham Nash.

In television, he wrote and directed over 30 documentaries, including “Hi-Fi Salutes” and “Hitsville U.S. Eh!” about Motown with a Canadian perspective.

Doug has won 154 awards for his work in both radio and TV. He’s taught broadcasting at Seneca College in Toronto for 10 years, and he’s currently the chair of the Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation.

My guest today, the actor David Reivers has had a career spanning 40 years in theatre, film, and TV.  

He’s best known for various TV roles in shows like Charmed, Felicity, Drake and Josh, The Disney Channel’s Jump In, and recently in season one of The Pitt. 

Film roles include Malcolm X, After the Sunset, Circle, Poseidon, and most recently, The Accountant 2.

You may have also seen David from his appearances in over 200 commercials.

For the record, David played the voice of Lucky, in the movie called Lucky that I directed and co-produced. He suavely and coolly played an evil little dog that haunts the twisted mind of animation writer Millard Mudd, who was played by a favorite StoryBeat guest, and the movie’s co-producer, Michael Emanuel. Without David’s unique and spot-on voicing of Lucky, the movie wouldn’t have turned out as amazingly well.

David is the father of four children, three incredibly wonderful daughters, and stage and screen star, Corbin Bleu.

Stephen Cole is returning to StoryBeat for the third time. He’s an award-winning musical theatre writer whose musicals have spanned the globe.

Stephen’s first production was Dodsworth starring Hal Linden. His Off-Broadway musicals include After the Fair, The Road to Qatar and Inventing Mary Martin. He won the prestigious Kleban Award for The Night of the Hunter. And Saturday Night at Grossinger’s had successful runs in Dallas, LA, Florida, and Sonoma.

Broadway legend Chita Rivera toured in Casper, which was reborn as Casper-The Friendly Musical. Merman's Apprentice, premiered at Birdland in New York and won the San Francisco Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Score. Stephen's latest musical, Goin’ Hollywood, had its world premiere at WaterTower Theatre in Texas.

His published books include That Book About That Girl, I Could Have Sung All Night, and MARY & ETHEL…and Mikey Who? which we talked about during Stephen’s last appearance on this show.  His current theatrical memoir, Camelton, also doubles as his one-man show, which played to sold-out crowds in New York.

I’ve read Camelton, and can tell you it’s a terrifically entertaining account of Stephen’s extraordinarily challenging time writing a musical celebration for the Emir of Qatar. His reminiscence captures all the crazy sturm und drang of creating a massive musical under commission in a foreign land.