The Robin Smith Show

Today on the show I sit down with Nashville's finest, Josh Foster. Josh is currently the Chief Marketing Officer for a substance abuse and mental health treatment organization named JourneyPure.  He was the front man of Parachute Musical based out of Nashville Tennessee where he has lived since 2007.  After years of touring, writing and recording for Parachute Musical and his solo project, Josh found a life of sobriety and the opportunity to give that gift back to his community.

Josh and I get into:

• How he became obsessed with music and how that has changed over his life
• What inspired and accompanied the process of writing parachute musical songs
• His struggle with addiction and sobriety
• His experiences growing up in the Jehovah’s Witness faith tradition, how leaving the faith affected family relationships and ultimately took him to Nashville, TN
• How he got into the business of interventions, drug and alcohol rehabilitation and his work at JourneyPure
• And much more

Speaking of those indie country vibe songs that were never released, in this episode, an exclusive listen of two Josh Foster gems  - "This Isn’t the End" and "Heart Around Yours".

Check out his work and learn more:
https://parachutemusical.bandcamp.com/music
https://journeypure.com/
@joshfoster1234

Got a question? We'd love to hear from you!

I ramble about Stanley Cup hockey, curating our family's friendly neighborhood trail, personality assessments, and more.

https://bigfive-test.com/

Featured track - Casual Comparison
https://counterfeitmolly.bandcamp.com/

Got a question? We'd love to hear from you!

My next guest is a veteran nanny, labor rights advocate for domestic workers, and author of three full-length novels. Today I sit down with one of my favorite political junkies, the great and powerful, Alicia Ryan. Having lived in numerous states, cities, and countries, Alicia has a unique perspective on social issues. She hopes to become a part of the movement for a domestic worker bill of rights in Maryland. She is currently pursuing her degree in Public Policy from the University of Baltimore. She loves nothing more than a good research study and has delved into myriad topics both for school and from pure interest. Alicia is also a mother and wife currently residing in West Baltimore.

Learn more about Maryland's unemployed worker's class action lawsuit:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/unemployment-benefits-hogan-lawsuit/2021/06/24/aff6ce34-d50c-11eb-9f29-e9e6c9e843c6_story.html

Update: 

Got a question? We'd love to hear from you!

Today I sit down with Eric W. Brown. Eric is a drummer, audio designer and award-winning video game composer currently based in Denver, CO. He has been touring the world as a member of various bands for over 14 years. He is the full-time drummer of Nekrogoblikon, Swashbuckle and Wizardthrone, and also holds down a full-time position as composer and audio director at Sabotage Studio, an independent game studio from Québec City, Canada. Their first project The Messenger released in 2018, and their current project Sea Of Stars raised over $1.6 million CAD in the midst of a pandemic, making history as one of the most successful Canadian video game Kickstarter campaigns of all time.

Eric and I get into:

• His work at sabotage studios and the hotly anticipated release of sea of stars
• The attraction of writing chip tune music
• How rainbow dragon eyes blew up (no thanks to Linked In)
• How he got into music at a young age
• Being in a committed romantic relationship with a touring musician
• How Eric is able to cash checks made out to The Legendary Pirate King
• His work doing sound design and mixing audio for video games

Check out his work!

Nekrogoblikon : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsMKOx6fumc
Wizardthrone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqg37F6RhtM
Rainbowdragoneyes: http://www.rainbowdragoneyes.com
Swashbuckle: https://swashbuckleband.bandcamp.com/
Sabotage Studio: https://sabotagestudio.com/
The Messenger: https://themessengergame.com/
Sea of Stars: https://seaofstarsgame.co/
Insta: http://instagram.com/ericwbrownovfire

Got a question? We'd love to hear from you!

My next guest is an astrophysicist who works at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. I'm speaking about none other than my friend, Joe Eggen. Aside from being the father of my daughter's best friend, Joe is your friendly neighborhood science guy. He earned his Ph. D. in Astronomy and Physics at Georgia State University where he did his dissertation on "Optical Polarimetry and Gamma-Ray Observations of a Sample of Radio-Loud Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies." I don't know what that means, and neither do you.

Joe and I get into:

• How stars create new elements through fusion
• Neutrinos, gamma rays, and gravitational waves
• His gripe with the way people talk about geniuses
• The era of multi-messenger astronomy
• Pulsars, Quasars, and Blazars, oh my!
• And of course, his take on the most recent unexplained arial phenomenon ... the aliens.

Learn more about Joe and the work he does with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope!

References:

• Tabetha Boyajian's TED talk on The Most Mysterious Star in the Universe: https://www.ted.com/talks/tabetha_boyajian_the_most_mysterious_star_in_the_universe
• The next total solar eclipse in the Americas comes on April 8, 2024. Totality first touches Mexico, enters the United States at Texas, cuts a diagonal to Maine, and visits the maritime provinces of Canada.

Got a question? We'd love to hear from you!

My next guest is the legendary Pablo Leon. Pablo is an author and artist from Guatemala, currently living in Los Angeles, California, jumping between working in the TV animation industry and comics world. His original comic “The Journey”, about the true accounts of people migrating from Central America to the U.S., was a 2019 Eisner Award nominee. He has worked with Warner Brothers Animation, OddBot Inc, DreamWorks Animation, Bento Box Entertainment, and most recently landed a gig at Disney Television Animation where he’s working on a new show called Hamster & Gretel.

Today I have him on the show to talk about his most recent release:

Miles Morales: Shock Waves
Go pick up your copy, and don't forget to review it on Amazon.

Check out more of Pablo's work at his website
http://artsypabster.com/

Follow Pablo on Instagram @artsypabster and on Twitter @artsypabster

Got a question? We'd love to hear from you!

https://counterfeitmolly.bandcamp.com/

Got a question? We'd love to hear from you!

Today on the show I sit down with Nicholas Trietsch. Nick graduated from Shepherd University with a Bachelors Degree in Sociology and a minor in Environmental Studies. They went on to obtain Masters of Social Work from West Virginia University.

Their experience is local to the eastern panhandle and includes community mental health with substance use and persistent mental health differences, foster care and adoption with children, adolescents, birth families, and blended families; domestic violence and child trauma; and at a local mental health private practice working with children, adults, and families from all walks of life and challenges.

Nick has also taught the social work Sex and Gender class for Shepherd University in 2015.

Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church
https://www.shepherdstownpresbyterian.org/

Eastern Panhandle Youth Alliance
https://www.facebook.com/EasternPanhandleYouthAlliance

Nurture and Balance Counseling and Coaching
https://nurturebalancewv.squarespace.com/about

Got a question? We'd love to hear from you!

Today on the show I sit down with an old friend of mine Margaux Zion. Margaux is a practicing astrologer, mystic interpreter, creator, counselor, and community organizer, who works to help connect people and groups with the specialness of our soulful identity and growth missions on earth. With a background in marketing technology and communications, Margaux has served Fortune 500 companies as a program manager, experience strategist, and campaign producer. In addition to her astrological studies and session counseling, Margaux works as a marketing strategist and business advisor, consulting for non-profit organizations and community groups.

Learn more about Margaux at https://www.margauxastrology.com/

Got a question? We'd love to hear from you!

Today on the show, I bring you one of the most interesting individuals I've talked with since starting the podcast. I'm talking about Doug Kallmeyer. Doug is a composer, producer, bassist, audio engineer, projectionist, and multimedia artist. His career has taken him through so many different incredible experiences including:

• touring with Blonde Redhead
• touring with Phantogram
• working with acts like Big Boi, The Flaming Lips, Rancid
• running sound at venues including Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, Lollapalooza, Coachella, Austin City Limits
• working with clients appearing on Letterman, O'Brien, Fallon, Kimmel, Meyers
• and the list just keeps going people!!

Learn more about Doug and his work at
https://www.versesrecords.com/the-mantis-dc.html
https://versesrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.dougkallmeyer.com/

Follow him on IG at @dubchampion

Got a question? We'd love to hear from you!