Storytelling Breakdown

“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” 

When Ben, Caleb, and Stephen joined the Deus Vult podcast for a crossover episode in November, this quote came up. It’s from Nucky Thompson, the main character in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. While recent dramas set in the roaring twenties, such as Boardwalk Empire and Peaky Blinders, have taken liberties with historical events, they tell really good stories and feature fascinating characters. 

Caleb and Ben welcome their friend Carolynn Stouder into the studio to talk about both of these shows, performances that stand out, comparisons that can be made, and what issues their stories address. We’ve got flappers, bookies, bootleggers, band leaders, rebels, clay kickers, and corrupt officials navigating the chaos for this look at Boardwalk, Blinders & The Roaring Twenties. 

The 2009 film The Secret of Kells is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight. Our guest is Jeremy Stroup and he is introduced around the 01:15:49 mark. 

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon. You can contact us via email at [email protected] or using the Storytelling Breakdown Facebook or Instagram. 

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer, writer, and editor. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions. 

Starting in 2022, the Storytelling Breakdown team will be expanding. We’ll be adding co-hosts with Stephen Stachofsky and Larissa Whitaker stepping into the roles. 

A tried and true pop culture staple is the top five list. Another tried and true pop culture staple is the gangster movie. In an attempt to reach the length of gangster epics of the past, Ben, Caleb, and Stephen have recorded our longest episode to date. If these movies, scenes, directors, actors, and characters are in themselves a meeting of the five families, who gets a seat at the table? Who’s in the room even if they just missed out on one of the five seats?

This is the third and final entry in the Cinematic Icons series for Storytelling Breakdown’s second season. After previous discussions of Hitchcock and Spielberg, plus our Halloween favorites, this episode looks at the works of Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cagney, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and so many others who have appeared in legendary gangster films. Fuggedaboutit.

The 2020 film One Night in Miami... is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight. Our guest is Kibwe Cooper, host of the EmpowerYou podcast and he is introduced around the 01:30:25 mark.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon. You can contact us via email at [email protected] or using the Storytelling Breakdown Facebook or Instagram.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer, writer, and editor. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions.

Starting in 2022, the Storytelling Breakdown team will be expanding. We’ll be adding co-hosts and we can announce that one of them will be a dear friend of the show, Larissa Whitaker. She was first heard on the program for the first Spotlight of Fake Doctors, Real Dramedies, speaking about Black Panther around the 01:19:12 mark.

Maybe it starts with a special delivery. Perhaps the first thing you see is the exterior of the New York Public Library. Or maybe we begin in the present with everything shrouded in black and white at an auction in an abandoned, old opera house, before the chandelier is lit and we go back in time. Halloween looks a little different for everyone and for this episode, Stephen, Ben, and Caleb discuss their go-to Halloween movies.

Some of our early conversations about movies focused on more recent releases. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and the Planet of the Apes trilogy of the last decade only go back as far as 2011. For our Cinematic Icons, we go back a little further. Stephen’s pick gives us a chance to explore the iconic latter-day appearances of Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. For Ben’s pick, we enjoy everything the original Ghostbusters film gave us, as we anticipate a sequel. Finally for Caleb’s pick, we consider the brilliant pairing of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music and Joel Schumacher’s visuals. Spend a part of your spooky season with your favorite Halloween movie and the Storytelling Breakdown team.  

The Apple TV+ series Mythic Quest is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight. Our guest is our social media coordinator Ella Abbott and she is introduced around the 57:14 mark.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon. You can contact us via email at [email protected] or using the Storytelling Breakdown Facebook or Instagram.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer, writer, and editor. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions.

Starting in 2022, the Storytelling Breakdown team will be expanding. We’ll be adding co-hosts and we can announce that one of them will be our dear friend and collaborator, Stephen Stachofsky.

Storytelling Breakdown has now been around for a year! 

One topic that has always resonated with the Storytelling Breakdown team is voice acting, going all the way back to our first episode in September of 2020 when we highlighted Mark Hamil’s Joker. How do voice actors create such memorable performances so radically different from their own? What can be done to help these virtuosos of voice understand their instruments better? Dr. Colette Feehan is the first doctor to come on Storytelling Breakdown and voice acting is something of a *cue sassy Obi-Wan voice… speciality. We talked with Colette about her research at IU, the amazing connections she made at comic cons, and the final chapters of earning her doctorate. 

For the first time since our first two episodes, Caleb and Ben each did Spotlights for this one. They start at the 54:21 mark. Caleb explores some of his favorite aspects of Downton Abbey after a quarantine watch and Ben highlights an epic battle royale from Critical Role.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon. You can contact us via email at [email protected] or using the Storytelling Breakdown Facebook or Instagram.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer, writer, and editor. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions.

This podcast exists because for all of us on our team, someone fueled our passion for movies. Connections can be drawn between actors, writers, and in the case of this episode, directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg. 

We have two guests in the studio for this episode. Ben Clemmer’s brother Don is a lifelong cinephile and provided an early influence for interests like comics, Star Wars, Batman, and The Lord of the Rings. Don is also the seventh guest to appear on Storytelling Breakdown who was once a student of Jane Martin. Jane is a professor of communication at the University of Saint Francis and this episode was a welcome throwback to her Film as Art class. 

The award winning episode of Batman: The Animated Series, Heart of Ice is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight. Our guest is Bryant Rozier and he is introduced around the 48:13 mark.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon. You can contact us via email at [email protected] or using the Storytelling Breakdown Facebook or Instagram.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer, writer, and editor. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions.

Our team has a great love of comic books. The stories include, but are not limited to superheroes. Some we couldn’t put down as children. Others enthrall us as adult readers. Plus, there is so much major media available today that is based on stories told in the pages of comic books. We’re continuing our series of crossover shows with a full Breakdown featuring Albert Wiltfong, Austin Shinn, and Zephyr Ostrowski from The Omniplex Podcast.

Albert, Austin, and Zephyr are avid comic book fans who recently interviewed J.M. DeMatteis on their podcast. That conversation sparked an idea that led to a trip to the proverbial aquarium.

The card game Intel is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight. Our guests are the creators, John Jehl, Ethan Sternke, and Alex Shinn, and they are introduced around the 01:13:47 mark.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon. You can contact us via email at [email protected] or using the Storytelling Breakdown Facebook or Instagram.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer, writer, and editor. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions.

Welcome to this episode. Have a look around. Anything that brain of yours can think of can be found...

We’re still processing the emotions we felt when watching Bo Burnham: Inside. The pandemic has been hard on our team’s mental health and Caleb and Ben watched the special for the fourth and second time before recording this month’s episode. From the songs, to the lighting, to the feelings, this is Bo Burnham Breakdown.

The American anime-influenced, adult computer-animated web series, RWBY is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight. Our guest is Jacob Ganser and he is introduced around the 01:17:00 mark.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon. You can contact us via email at [email protected] or using the Storytelling Breakdown Facebook or Instagram.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer, writer, and editor. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been praised for its interconnected film and television spanning stories, which have remained largely consistent in tone and continuity since Iron Man came out in 2008. DC films have been… well, not that.

After Caleb and Ben saw Zack Snyder’s Justice League, they invited Lucas Gerke to return to the podcast for a deep dive into how we got here. In addition to studying film and directing for years, Lucas has actively followed the events that led to the 2021 release of the “Snyder Cut” on HBO Max. The entire experience was different, especially if you are a fan of Cyborg, the Flash, and villains that aren’t flat.

You get the idea. 

We’ll also wrap up by digging into an alternate timeline proposed by Ben in the Storytelling Breakdown blog. Here’s the links to parts one, two, and three. 

The different aspects of playing a character in an RPG is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight portion and we’ll hear more from Casey Stombaugh as he’s interviewed by Stephen Stachofsky.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon. You can contact us via email at [email protected] or using the Storytelling Breakdown Facebook or Instagram.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer, writer, and editor. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions. Special thanks to John for recording the majority of this episode in his studio space.

When Storytelling Breakdown Writer, Editor, and Producer Stephen Stachofsky wrote a blog for SB this week, he included this quote from George Lucas, "after Star Wars was released, it became apparent that my story—however many films it took to tell—was only one of thousands that could be told about the characters who inhabit its galaxy. But these were not stories that I was destined to tell. Instead, they would spring from the imagination of other writers, inspired by the glimpse of a galaxy that Star Wars provided.”

Today on Storytelling Breakdown, we’ll hear how SB’s Ben Clemmer and Stephen Stachofsky combined forces to create an RPG campaign in the Star Wars universe. The crew of misfits was prone to bad luck and unpredictable, and things were pretty interesting for the characters too.

This is Rogue Producers: A Star Wars Story.

The Jedi Code is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight portion and we’ll hear more from the Deus Vult Podcast. The creators, Fr. Stephen Felicichia and Deacon Dan Koehl, are both Catholic clerics in the Fort Wayne area. Their section of our show begins at the 59:19 mark. You can find their podcast at their website or wherever podcasts are found and learn more from their Facebook and Instagram pages. 

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon. You can contact us via email at [email protected] or using the Storytelling Breakdown Facebook or Instagram.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer, writer, and editor. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions. Special thanks to John for recording the majority of this episode in his studio space.

You can hear the choppers in the distance. A slight tilt of the head and looking off screen, and you’re in a fantasy. The realities of facing death every single day collide with some of the best comedy and writing of their eras. Storytelling Breakdown’s Caleb Meyer grew up watching M*A*S*H. Ben Clemmer grew up watching Scrubs. In this episode the pair discuss the connections and parallels between the two.

The stories feature fake doctors, but real dramedy.

Once you’ve done everything you can to get yourself kicked out of the army and finished your last overnight shift at Sacred Heart, you’ll be able to hear from a variety of team members and friends of the show for our Spotlight portion.

Hope Arthur and Kurt Roembke are both halves of the duo, Silbo Gomero. This episode features their new song called Whale Fall. The track features percussion recorded in a session with Nick Broste at the Shape Shoppe in Chicago, Illinois. The music video was written and directed by Kurt Roembke with puppets designed and constructed by Lyssa Troemel. Lyssa Troemel and Tara Olivero performed as puppeteers.

Our first Spotlight in this episode comes from Larissa Whitaker and focuses on the contributions from two female characters in Black Panther. She is introduced around the 01:19:12 mark.

Our second Spotlight features Rob Martinez, who has his own show called The Movie Music Spotlight, and he has a followup to our main topic from last episode. You can hear his insights into the filming of The Blues Brothers at the 01:29:38 mark.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon. You can contact us via email at [email protected] or using the Storytelling Breakdown Facebook or Instagram.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer, writer, and editor. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions. Special thanks to John for recording the majority of this episode in his studio space.