Welcome to Season 2 of the An American, but...not really podcast! What a great first season run. I loved every guest from Season 1 and can't wait to have more amazing guests in Season 2. Please welcome my very first episode's guest of Season 2 – Phil O'Brien.

Phil O'Brien calls himself an entrepreneur. Or, rather - a funemployer. He is always looking to connect with someone who has survived (and flourished through) similar experiences as he did. From beginnings as a press photographer in his home town of Liverpool, to founding at age 22 a photo agency - EMPICS that was acquired by to the Press Association in 2004, Phil has found his calling when he's heard the term "funemployment". Since then, Phil has been enjoying “funemployment” with roles as diverse as a Strategic Advisor to the Duchess of Rutland to the founder and chair of a charitable trust for children. He likes anything which has the Wow! factor. In '14 he found a magazine W42ST and built it up from zero to 90,000 subscribers, from being distributed in hotels, restaurants and residential buildings to the actual mail and online subscriptions. Pandemics forced many media outlets to close, including his magazine. At some point he had to go to back to UK and couldn't get visa back. Even New York Times covered his visa story. Phil, a native of UK, had his visa denied because immigration officials deemed his struggling business “marginal.” But Phil did not expect it to come to this. He felt that he was running a dedicated local news business that was just getting back on its feet after a bruising stretch. In the interview with NYT, Phil said: “I feel like I’m being treated like a retired guy who does a blog once every six weeks and wants a visa for the United States." But Phil's magazine and site goes beyond being "a blog" - he has been covering serious issues before major newspapers would even notice them. He has been bringing attention to criminal, political, business and art scenes of his neighborhood, which is a big part of Manhattan. He hasn't been just running a publication, he has been building a community of New Yorkers who cared about the hometown. At least 90 people, including readers, neighbors and local politicians, sent emails to immigration officials on Phil’s behalf (Source: NYT.) While waiting and re-applying for visa, Phil continued running the site from London. But finally Phil is well and with us and has never been busier. So, you can imagine how hard it was for me to get Phil to be on this podcast. He has been a busy bee. As a matter of fact, KOB Publishing LLC, the publisher behind W42ST.nyc, Phil's magazine, acquired Manhattan Sideways, a platform dedicated to showcasing small businesses across New York City's side streets. Together, they will continue their mission of shining a spotlight on the diverse and vibrant small business landscape in New York City, which is very much needed when small businesses are often under-represented and can't compete with the big companies. To subscribe to Phil's newsletter, go here.

Here's another An American, but not really who fought very hard to establish himself in USA and stay connected with the local communities but on a global scale. I always feel like there's always something valuable to learn from every individual and I hope you would take something out of this conversation. Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast here or on any of the podcast platforms you are using: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anamericanbutnotreally

Well, hello, hello, hello! It's been a minute. I know. I missed you too! I can't believe it's already time for the second season and it wouldn't have happened without you. So, thank you to my listeners, comments, likes, reviews. I get your feedback. I hear you. So, just to recap the first season - I got to talk to some amazing people - publisher, editor, filmmakers, real estate agent, artists, designers, yoga instructor, etc. I covered topics on dating in the 21st century, World Cup - from the streets of Argentina, and how I came to be in USA thirty years ago. My guests and I tackled such issues as sexism in a workplace, sexual harassment in Hollywood, motherhood/parenthood, careers, lots of New York talk - because I live here, immigration, marriage, friendships, dating, etc. This podcast is about professionals who made it happen - whether they are immigrants, expats, newcomers or were born and raised in USA. So, I'm very exited about the second season and my upcoming guests. I feel like there would be a lot of talking about parenthood/motherhood because it's a big part of my life and I see a lot of things happening around that raise small and big questions not only with me, but with other parents, so there will be a few quests to answer these questions, but there will be also enough of entertainment and information for you to take something, hopefully, out of each of my conversations. So, thank you again for your support. Please do continue sharing and commenting on my podcast. It matters a lot. And welcome to the second season of the American, but not really podcast.

An award winner Maria Belen Avellaneda, one of NYC’s top producing real estate agents, shares her experience about the real estate industry in New York City, Hamptons and Florida, her areas of expertise. We talk about what it takes to be a real estate agent and why it's not as glamorous as it's usually portrayed in reality shows like "Million Dollar Listing" and "Selling Sunset", which I, personally, consider my guilty pleasures and can't get enough of. We talk about stereotypes, what to look for when shopping for a home, and how to manage it all - profession that comes with a lot of self promotion, networking, and stress, while being a mom and a wife - a common situation that is very familiar with all the working mothers. We talk about the guilt feeling that you can't have it all and if you do - it comes with expense.

Maria Belen tells us what to expect if entering the profession of a real estate broker (not agent, there's a difference (!) and we talk about it too!) and what education helps (or does it even matter?)

People are talking about real estate boom in USA, waiting for the bubble to burst, and Maria is here to explain to us what is really happening and what to expect in the next few years.There's a lot to learn from this episode and the thirst for answers has been coming from all around. Maria often shares the tips via her newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-belen-avellaneda-5315866/ and Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mariabelenavellaneda5557

More about Maria: In 2016 Maria was a Top Producer Individual by sales volume and GCI. This high achiever received, among other recognitions, a Quadruple Platinum Award and was cover of Outfront Magazine in December 2016. She has earned an excellent reputation with high-end developers. Her clientele includes some of the wealthiest Family Offices in the world, including royalty, and she works attending each generation’s needs and risk profile. Real Estate is both a passion and tradition Maria. Maria and her family have been investing in New York and Latin America the past 30 years, acquiring prominent properties on Central Park South, Park A venue, Upper East Side and Midtown West. This allows Maria to provide not her brokerage experience but also first-hand investment expertise. She is known executing complex deals including 1031 exchanges, bulk sales, residential and commercial.
Born and raised in Argentina, she moved to New York several years ago to study at Columbia University, where she obtained a Masters degree focused on International Finance, Economics and Quantitative Analysis. As a cultural savvy she works with investors from every corner of the world including the US, UK, China, Russia, India, Singapore, HK, Israel, Dubai, Qatar, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Spain, Chile, Germany, France, The Netherlands, and Uruguay. Prior to her current position, she worked as Consultant at The Inter-American Development Bank, The World Bank, The United Nations, The U.S. Treasury as well as at premier financial institutions. Her family is involved in numerous charitable causes including UNICEF-USA, the Robin Hood Foundation, SEO, and 100Women in Hedge Funds.

If you have questions or guest suggestions, I'd love to hear from you. Leave me a voice message or DM me at: https://www.instagram.com/anamericanbutnotreally/

Links of Interest:
Maria Belen Avellaneda Company Website: https://www.compass.com/agents/maria-belenavellaneda/, Instagram: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariaavellanedacompass/ Articles of interest:  Single Women, Minorities Flock To Digital Mortgage Lenders: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alyyale/2020/03/04/single-women-minorities-flock-to-digital-mortgage-lender-heres-how-minority-homebuyers-can-get-a-leg-up/?sh=7e6590dc63b2,  What living large looks like in the Big Apple https://www.foxbusiness.com/real-estate/new-york-city-luxury-properties

I must admit, John Walter is the first guest on my podcast who I haven't known personally before this podcast. We've met in Soho, Manhattan recently, where his art work got my attention. New York is good at that - meeting random, interesting people and finding many things in common as we learned during our conversation. As two creative types and having been an illustrator myself, I was drawn to his quirky art works, but there's more to John than his work. He has no art education. When he moved to NYC more than 40 years ago, he's done it all - working the night clubs, acting off Broadway, modeling, and along the way got married and had a child. And one day he just decided to start painting, inspired by the city, which is known to inspire many people - from chefs to writers. Something that we also have in common - using New York as a place of continuous inspiration.

Fifteen years later - he has his fans, he established his particular art style - black and white drawings with poetry-like texts that are inspired by everyday quirks and particulars of New York. There are many artists in NYC, but only a few believe that art should be for everyone - they go outside and show the works to everyone who happen to come upon it. Same as Banksy and Kobra graffiti artists - their works grace all over NYC and around the world and they are not confined within any galleries.

John Walter is a Brooklyn based artist and actor. He was born in Troy N.Y. and moved to New York City in 1982. He moved there for its beautiful madness and man-made canyons, not to mention it’s incredible night club scene (at that time). He worked the doors of many of the downtown clubs and began acting and modeling. He appeared in GQ and several other magazines. John made his Off-Broadway debut playing the best man in the hit show Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding. He has also appeared in several short films, a few features and a handful of television shows. John started painting around 15 years ago on an epiphanic whim and hasn’t stopped since. His art is a channeling of the constant stream of signs and images that the city relentlessly throws at him. His small scale pieces are like bite sized chunks of the madness made palpable through humor. His work is often inspired by language and symbols which strive to give us just the brute facts, and often fail, sometimes miserably and comically. The frequent use of black and white lends a certain austerity and noise reducing relief to our current condition. John’s application of text in his pieces draws from his philosophy that words are images and images are words. https://johnwalter.nyc/

John has exhibited his art work at galleries in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Follow him on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/johnwalter.nyc/. Meet him in person on the corner of Prince and Broadway in Soho, Manhattan.

“Every person is a unique and autonomous person, and actually, considered independently, the greatest artwork of all time…" ~ Thomas Bernhard
And don't forget to subscribe, rate, comment, and review this podcast. It's available on Amazon Music, iHeart Radio, Spotify, Anchor.fm, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts. 

My guest is Ruth Walker, an award-winning journalist and editor whose career spans 15+ years, in both digital and print media. She specializes in working with early to mid-stage start-ups, helping them tell their story effectively and build a committed, engaged community from the ground up.

Born and raised in the UK, she was a production journalist on The Daily Mail when it won Scottish Newspaper of the Year, and lifestyle editor of The Scotsman when it won Scottish Newspaper of the Year. In 2015, she moved to New York, hand-picked to edit and build W42ST (https://issuu.com/w42st), a high-quality, hyperlocal magazine, without even being too familiar with New York City.

She knows from first-hand experience what it's like to nurture a brand, find a voice, and build a community – and she helps other small to medium-sized businesses do the same. She has worked with ones of the biggest fashion brands like Paul Smith, Michael Kors, Hermes, and Christopher Kane. She interviewed the likes of Margaret Cho, Katie Holmes, Mark Strong, Gabriel Byrne, and Elizabeth McGovern. She is a lifestyle expert, but she's equally passionate about working in important fields that deal with homelessness, sex positivity, race, LGBTQIA+ issues, social justice, and psychology.

We've met while working together on W42ST in 2015 when I did illustration work and editorial graphics for the magazine, whilst she was my editor who was very open minded and experimental and gave her creatives a lot of freedom, but who always had a keen eye on the outcome. Her work parties were always fun and diverse. She managed in just a few years to built life in New York and surround herself with a very passionate, creative professional community - from Broadway artists and fashion designers to small business owners and merchants. Bonding over the love for creativity and living in Hell's Kitchen, in this episode we reflect on building professional careers, the magic of networking, breaking the stereotypes of New Yorkers, talk about the many faces of creative world of New York City, oh yes - and dating in the 40s! And much more! Tune in, rate and subscribe! Here's more about my guest: https://www.ruthwalker.me. 

The average cost of date night in the U.S., according to dating app Zoosk, is $98. Now, would you pay for the first date if it didn't end well? Would you pay for a first date in general? Would you even invite someone on a first date to an expensive place or would you rather go for a walk? With the rise in the cost of alcoholic beverages away from home since before the pandemic (12%), according to the most recent Consumer Price Index, and with the increase in the cost of the restaurant meals since before pandemic (17%), dating has become expensive. More and more people opt for less expensive dates that involve walks, coffee, walks, etc. OR, they opt to split the bill. Actually, expecting to split the bill. In the recent article by WSJ "Being a Cheap Date Is Suddenly a Major Plus", women and men in their late 20s - early 30s were asked about their expectations. It wasn't just New York, it were Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, Pasadena, Calif., where the interviewees felt very strong about the first dates. While women said that they are expecting for their date to pay for a first date, men were more inclined to split the bill. It all came down to how much of an effort one is willing to make to invest in the first date. First date - is an investment, but how willing are you to invest? What if after speaking and texting for months, in person - you both realize that it's not going well, but you've already spent money on it? I find this subject matter interesting, and I wanted to explore it because coming from a different country (and culture) I grew up with different expectations. Cultures and one's parents' dating history plays a big role. One grows up learning from the parents, but also influenced by the norms of the culture, so once one is exposed to a different culture with its own "rules" and expectations, it might come as a surprise that dating is not the same across the world. In this episode I'm exploring this topic with the help of the random New Yorkers who I interviewed on a street. It's not a big pool of people, but it does give you a glimpse on how certain New Yorkers feel about a first date. This episode is open for discussion and I'd love to hear your feedback. You can leave me a voice message (here are the instructions on how to do it) or on any other platform you're using to listen to your podcasts. Here's a link to the article I refer to. So, who pays on a first date? What do you think?

What it's like to be living among 8+ million people for a person who prefers to be alone, but who is also everywhere? Risa Mickenberg, my guest in this episode, is a writer, director, performer, creative director, provocateur and entrepreneur. She is the author of the bestselling book Taxi Driver Wisdom (Chronicle Books), which is also packaged. She wrote the feature film Egg (2018), starring Christina Hendricks, Alysia Reiner, Anna Camp, Gbenga Akinnagbe and David Alan Basche to address the unspeakable truth - that some women do not want to have kids. She currently is in pre-production on two feature films. A recipient of numerous literary and entertainment awards, Risa is also the co-founder of the clothing brand DJOODIE:  a universal + non-gendered, sustainable garment that rethinks the toxic fashion industry. She is the CEO of the anti-social telecommunications company Hermette Wireless: a wireless plan and wooden phone company designed for people who like to be left the hell alone.  She is the lead singer, lyricist, co-songwriter, manager and label owner of the 8-piece cabaret band Jesus H Christ and the Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse. Their song “Connecticut’s For F*cking” set a record for most weeks at #1 at Sirius Radio’s Alt Nation. She’s written and developed narrative comedy, drama and documentary for HBO. She’s written and directed commercials, short films, documentaries and plays for Kate Spade, Tommy Hilfiger, Keds, Cartoon Network and the Getty Foundation. She’s written screenplays for Fred Zollo, Ellen Barkin + Erin Lauder + Philip Seymour Hoffman just to name a few. She was Associate Producer for Michael Moore’s film CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY. Risa also started a print publication, a magazine, Hermette, which totally makes sense because this aspirational lifestyle magazine for they/hermits. It's goal to unite anti-social deep thinkers and give them a platform to express their aloneness. Her work has been featured in numerous text books on advertising. She was VP/Creative Director for the firm Kirshenbaum & Bond and has worked as a freelance Creative Director at some the top creative design firms, ad agencies and branding firms in the country including Partners & Spade, Mythology, Mother, Work-Order. You can now order & watch EGG here. So, what's next for Risa Mickenberg? Give me a thumbs up if you like this episode and please share with your friends. You can also rate and review and leave me a voice message here.

In this episode I have the honor of sitting down to chat with a TV Commercial producer, a filmmaker, and a daughter of the latest Tony Palladino, Sabrina Palladino. Tony Palladino is someone who will be always highly regarded among the artists and designers around the world. His legacy will leave forever and those he touched through his teaching at the School of Visual Arts - from 1958 until his final days and those he worked with in the industry would always remember him not only as a very curious, talented, extraordinary designer who found daily foundings fascinating, but also his kindness and his continuous kids' spirit. He looked at things like a kid - with naivety and simplicity. Tony Palladino, who passed away in 2014, was an innovative graphic designer and illustrator who created one of the most recognizable typographic titles in publishing and film history, the off-kilter, violently slashed block-letter rendering of “Psycho,” which, in his own words, impressed Alfred Hitchcock so much that he bought the rights to the graphics for his film. Everyone knows what I'm talking about. It's classic. It's one of the kind. Being born to Italian immigrants from Napoli in 1930 in East Harlem, Tony Palladino became one of the most renowned designers of his time, working in commerce, advertising, branding, art and teaching at the design school in NYC for almost six decades. His works can be found in MoMa, The Tony Palladino Collection at the Milton Glaser Study Center and Archives, and on many book and magazine covers. His friends and colleagues, such as Steven Heller, Milton Glaser, George Lois, Blechman, Ivan Chermayeff - most prominent artists, designers and teachers of their own, known in USA and around the world, always regarded him as one of the great artists of their generations with "intensely private vision and a person of unwavering integrity." In this episode I chat with Tony's daughter, Sabrina, on what Tony was like and why his legacy lives on after almost a decade after his death. Who was this extraordinary ordinary man? Source: all audio recording with Tony Palladino are provided by Sabrina Palladino. To learn more about Tony Palladino's work, click here.

Leo Messi is one of the best players in the world. He is a phenomenon and a true hero for many people, especially - for the Argentan people. His popularity in Argentina can only be fully understood when one is present in Argentina when Messi is playing. I had this opportunity and more - I was in Buenos Aires on Sunday, December 18th, when Argentina won the World Cup 2022. In this podcast I'm taking you to Argentina, to that moment that changed everything for me - the way I viewed football before, and for millions of Argentans around the world. The epic final game with France once again showed that there are football fans and there are Argentan football fans. It's a whole different level and I was there to see it with my own eyes - the love for football and the love for Leo Messi. I went to the streets of Buenos Aires and Mendoza to interview Argentans of different ages and gender to ask them just one question: "What Leo Messi means to you?" When I saw hundreds of Argentans flooding the streets after the final, singing, dancing, blowing horns, dressed head to toe in the national football team attire, crying, embracing each other, pounding, screaming - I realized that football might be the only thing in Argentina that unites everyone, in the times when Argentina is experiencing economic and social difficulties. Messi became the only person who managed to unify a very divided country - he united young and old, middle class and lower class, women and men. The World Cup 2022 has been for the Argentans the only time when the country truly felt united and joyful. You can see and purchase my illustrations of Leo Messi, Angel Di Maria and Sergio Romero here.