The Great Big Beautiful Podcast

This week, we continue our unexpected spotlight on authors who also happen to be lawyers...or lawyers who moonlight as authors. Not sure which. I'll let Rebecca Roanhorse's own bio stand here, because I kind of love it: SFF writer. Nebula winner. Hugo, Sturgeon, and Locus Award Finalist. Campbell Award Finalist. Pug owner. Yale grad. Lawyer. Ohkay Owingeh/Black. Navajo in-law.

Roanhorse recently dropped a whole bunch of jaws with her debut novel, Trail of Lightning, which steeps the reader hip deep into a world of Native American mythology guided by a monster-hunting protagonist. It's seriously all kinds of awesome. And the best part? It's only the first in a much longer series. The second book, Storm of Locusts, already has a cover and an April 2019 pub date, so take my advice and get in on the ground floor now.

It's everything you think you love about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, and Wynonna Earp. But it surpasses them all and will leave you wondering why those shows have gotten multiple seasons when they pale in comparison so considerably.

On this episode, we talk to Roanhorse about balancing two completely different professional lives, writing in the first-person, crafting a story that's both heavily rooted in Native cultures and incredibly relevant in 2018, and portraying a different side of familiar mythical characters. We also talk about Navajo tradition and what else she's got on the horizon.

This week, we're celebrating the wondrous storytelling, acting, and beauty that comprise a little show called Star Wars Rebels. The show recently wrapped up its fourth (and final) season, so this seems like the perfect time to welcome Tiya Sircar to the show. For Star Wars fans, Sircar is indelibly tied to the character of Sabine. But her career is as busy as they come. If you're a fan of NBC's The Good Place (and if you aren't, shame on you), then you know her as the real Eleanor/Vicky. If you caught Alex Inc. on ABC, then you saw her opposite Zach Braff as Rooni Schuman. But she's also been on Master of None, The Mindy Project, and so much more. On this episode, we talk to Sircar about her early career, starting out in Hollywood, breaking into the business on an episode of Hannah Montana, auditioning for Star Wars Rebels, contributing so significantly to the Star Wars universe, and being able to showcase a villainous streak on The Good Place. We also chat about the lasting influence of Sabine and where she can go from here, now that the show is over.

Kris Bowers is a Juilliard-trained musician who was awarded the Nobel Prize of jazz when he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He performed at the White House (when that meant something), released a CD of jazz originals (Heroes + Misfits), helped bring Ezra Jack Keats's classic picture book The Snowy Day to life for Amazon, and is currently scoring Dear White People on Netflix and Shonda Rhimes' For the People on ABC. He's also won an Emmy (for The Snowy Day) and is working on several upcoming films and documentaries.

Oh, he also happens to be the youngest composer currently scoring a network TV show. Not bad for a 29-year-old closer to the beginning of his career than even the middle.

On this episode, we talk about his parents' somewhat unusual influence on his music, learning to collaborate with a larger creative team in television, his genre-spanning music for Dear White People, and how to write music that evokes specific colors.

This week, we're going to Broadway, baby! The wild, wonderful, kinky side of Broadway - with J. Harrison Ghee and Kinky Boots! Ghee's performance (currently on Broadway) as Lola heightens an already fascinating character and takes her into the stratosphere. Ghee takes you on a ride, and by the end of the show, you'll be head over heels in love with her. And you'll be left wondering how he could possibly do this up to eight times a week. The show is about so many things - acceptance, empathy, dignity, and the freedom to be yourself - but there's also an underlying theme of fatherhood and unmet expectations that forms the backbone of the show and defines the two main characters. On this episode, I talk to Ghee about how he got his start on the stage, his stint at Tokyo Disneyland, his many personal parallels with Lola and Kinky Boots, what the show means to him personally, and what it means to "be a man."

Summer is officially in full swing at this point, and I'd wager that more than a few of you have vacations planned. Plane rides? Long car rides? Full-on road trips? I have one word for you: audiobooks. Audiobooks make any road trip (really, any car trip of any length) go SO MUCH smoother. And as long as I'm making suggestions, might I recommend Amy Ephron's The Castle in the Mist and Carnival Magic? Ephron is a best-selling novelist (of A Cup of Tea, most notably) and journalist (she's a contributing editor to Vogue) whose newest books target a different audience: young readers. The audio versions of both books are narrated by Laraine Newman, and I highly recommend adding them to your listening list. Newman was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, and she and Ephron have been lifelong friends. Having them both together on this week's show and listening to them share memories and stories was an absolute treat. Enjoy!

I can think of no better way to celebrate your Fourth of July than by spending an hour with the impossibly charming Delilah Dawson. Good thing I've got you covered. Dawson published her first novel - Wicked As They Come - in 2012. Over the next six years, she's written more than a dozen books, plus just a ton of short stories and novellas across several genres. She wrote the phenomenally well received and fan favorite Phasma novel for the Star Wars universe. As Lila Bowen, she's writing the "weird west" Shadow series, which began with Wake of Vultures. And her latest book, Kill the Farm Boy (coauthored with Kevin Hearne), begins yet another series. Clearly, she has clones. On this episode, we talk to Dawson about the ridiculous number of words she's written over the last few years, the value of writing advice, Phasma, the weird west, pseudonyms, and the difference between YA and "adult" lit.

Welcome to Harvey Street! Harvey Street Kids takes several of the classic Harvey Comics characters - notably Little Dot, Little Lotta, and Little Audrey - and reimagines them for 2018. It's great fun and also great inspiration for kids to get outside and have their own adventures this summer. On this episode, we talk to Aliki Theofilopoulos about her history with Disney feature animation and Phineas and Ferb, how she made the transition to producing and showrunning (and what she brought with her), the directive she and Brendan Hay were given with these legacy characters, and how they brought the characters into the 21st century without losing the core of what makes them unique.

On this episode, we talk to Dan Fogler about Brooklyn Gladiator, how its fantasy has been slaughtered by the reality in which we live, getting some of his artistic heroes on board, finding a home at Chapterhouse, auditioning as Jacob Kowalski for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and why he's still one of the lucky few who get to create for a living.

This week, we conclude our mini-marathon of Star Trek composers. The music you hear in the current iteration of the televised Trek franchise - Star Trek: Discovery - is thanks to Jeff Russo. Though Russo cut his musical teeth, as it were, as a founding member of the rock band Tonic, he's no stranger to the composer's life. In addition to Discovery, he's written scores for Legion, Fargo, Altered Carbon, Power, and HBO's The Night of. And that's just scratching the surface.

On this episode, we talk about his musical roots, writing music for films versus television, getting the Star Trek gig while on a camping trip, the soul of Trek music, and why he sometimes still needs to pinch himself in the morning.

Today, we're talking about snot. Snotgirl, to be specific. If this one slipped by you, let me help you out. Snotgirl is a current ongoing book from Image Comics by Bryan Lee O'Malley and Leslie Hung. The story features the adventures of an LA-based fashion blogger whose glamorous life unravels due to severe allergies (and, to be fair, a possible murder for which she may be responsible). O'Malley might be best known as the creator, writer, and artist of the Scott Pilgrim series (Oni Press) and Seconds (Ballantine Books), but Snotgirl is the first book on which he's not pulling double duty. He's writing, and Hung is doing the (absolutely incredible) illustrations. Together, they're telling a story that is underrepresented in pop culture: the story of a native Angeleno. The book is groundbreaking in a few other respects. Not least of which is Snotgirl marks Hung's first time working on a graphic novel at all. In fact, the book grew out of O'Malley's desire to get her into the industry and working on a book. On this episode, we talk Snotgirl (obviously), figuring out how to collaborate and finding a new approach to their own creativity, fashion bloggers, online personas, how many of their own neuroses factor into the story, diversity, and mixed cultural heritages.