Three Song Stories

Jason Calabrese is a combat-disabled veteran who served with the 1st Infantry Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom II and has participated in several hurricane-response missions with the Florida National Guard. After 18 years of military service, Jason medically retired. He says his military experience continues to shape how he thinks about service, sacrifice, the bonds between veterans, and the challenges of coming home. Jason has taught composition and literature at Florida Southwestern State College’s Collier Campus for about 15 years. 

Song 1: "The Regular Army O" by Mick Moloney from his 2006 album McNally's Row of Flats. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrPT-fuM0vo&list=RDyrPT-fuM0vo&start_radio=1

Song 2: Bob Dylan performing his song "John Brown" at Sony Music Studios in New York City for his MTV Unplugged recording in 1994. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TXqGe0cB_s&list=RD-TXqGe0cB_s&start_radio=1

Song 3: Martin Simpson's rendition of "Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKrQH847bEc&list=RDrKrQH847bEc&start_radio=1

Kevin Cornell (AKA Mister C) is a 3-time Emmy Award winning producer for his children’s programs DIY Science Time and Speakers & Beakers, and science educator who got his start in education as an elementary school teacher. Using music as a learning tool led to starting a YouTube channel called LearningScienceIsFun. Through YouTube and social media, "Mister C" is known for his fun and wacky science experiments and educational content - all presented with the help of songs. He’s got more than 200K YouTube Subscribers and more than 1000 videos. He also tours extensively doing live stage shows for kids of all ages.

Song 1: "Get up and Move" by S&K - full version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki9v48pn7-k&sttick=0

Song 2: "The Fox (What does the Fox Say)" by Ylvis https://youtu.be/jofNR_WkoCE?si=IZ0DGbHEIWT8UpZ0

Song 3: “My Boo” by Ghost Town DJ's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPu-WOicwLk

Dave Beaty is a filmmaker who has produced documentary films for the History Channel, The Travel Channel PBS, and more. At his own company Cinegraphic Productions, Dave is producer, DP, editor, and 3D modeller. 

He’s been working with The World War II Foundation producing documentaries for PBS on the stories of the men and women in the Pacific and European theater during WWII - and he’s currently working with actor Gary Sinise on a film about his family legacy as military vets. 

Dave’s own passion projects these days included films on the mysteries of UFOs, including the viral YouTube video “The Nimitz Encounters” and films on ESP, Psychic Phenomena and Near-Death Experiences streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Gaia TV. 

Song 1: “A Taste of Honey” by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass off the album Whipped Cream & Other Delights released in 1965. https://youtu.be/gRGOm071sE0?si=5NLkSltgiuLp53y7

Song 2: “Owner of A Lonely Heart” by Yes off their 1983 album 90125. https://youtu.be/TqbEWFMpgKw?si=mfIpe47nKmA3VTj_

Song 3: "If You're Not The One" by Daniel Bedingfield, released in 2002 on the album Maid in Manhattan. https://youtu.be/U_sPZrW6vqc?si=5MLFUrvOReGYqcTD

Seth Singleton is a fiction writer who got his start in the world of comics as the lead writer for a children’s comic strip series called Greedy Greg that teaches kids that greed can ruin anything, no matter how good it starts off.

Seth has contributed to projects including Comics Lit Vol. 1, Anachronistic Comics, Spellcasters MLM, and The Tragic Nerds serialized comic which he makes with illustrator Eric Lee, who was episode # 433 guest on this show.

Song 1: “One Voice” by The Wailin’ Jenny’s from their 2004 album 40 Days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-24qGCvo7A

Song 2: “The Whole Game is Based on Faith” by King Tut. It was released in 2008 on their debut album Chopping Wood & Carrying Water. https://youtu.be/YIc24j30ZaQ

Song 3: “Little Secrets” by Passion Pit from their album Manners released in 2009. https://open.spotify.com/track/3kb38wezoUA8ki5jPYy3t5

Eric D. Johnson is a singer and songwriter and composer best-known as the guy behind the indie-folk-rock band Fruit Bats which he started as a four-track side project while living in Chicago in the late 90s and playing in indie-rock bands like I Rowboat and Califone.

He relocated to the Pacific Northwest and Fruit Bats was signed to Perishable Records and began releasing albums, starting with the official debut Echolocation in 2001. In the years since, Fruit Bats has put out about a dozen records and Eric tours extensively…sometimes with a band, sometimes solo. For about four years starting in 2007, he served as a core touring and recording multi-instrumentalist for the indie-pop-rock band The Shins - and in 2018 he co-founded the folk supergroup Bonnie Light Horseman alongside Anaïs Mitchell and Josh Kaufman. Their 2020 self-titled debut album earned two Grammy nominations. 

Song 1: "More Than a Feeling" by Boston off the 1976 album, Boston.

Song 2: "Unsatisfied" by The Replacements from their 1984 album, Let It Be.

Song 3: "Mountain Rain" by Archie Fisher, released in 1970 on the album, Orfeo.

Desmond Meade is a MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow; a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and having been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. He's also’s author of the 2020 book “Let My People Vote: My Battle to Restore the Civil Rights of Returning Citizens.”

Desmond is President of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition -- the organization that led the successful effort to restore voting rights to some 1.4 million former felons in FL. The amendment passed with nearly 65% support. 

Desmond was born in St. Croix but grew up in Miami, and after a time in the Army, he found himself addicted and homeless in Miami. He served time in jail for felony drug possession, and after a fight with his brother was convicted of aggravated battery, also a felony. Then, in 2001, he was convicted of possession of a firearm as a felon and sentenced to 15 years in prison. An appeals court reversed that conviction and he was released, but still a convicted felon with no right to vote in the Sunshine State.

Desmond graduated from Miami-Dade College in 2010 while living in a homeless shelter, enrolled in the FIU College of Law, graduating in 2013, joining the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition while in law school.ppearances on CNN, MSNBC, 60 Minutes, and Fox TV demonstrates his ability to appeal to and inspire people from all walks of life.

SONG 1: "Lose Yourself" by Eminem from the soundtrack to the 2002 movie 8 Mile. https://youtu.be/xFYQQPAOz7Y?si=RFYS3pPTCqZAnVOT

SONG 2: "We Are the World" - the charity single originally recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson and produced by Quincy Jones. https://youtu.be/9AjkUyX0rVw?si=jPzSQ23ydm5wl6yN

SONG 3: "Freedom" by King Blackman ft Ronnie VOP, Desmond Meade.
https://youtu.be/95Nc4JF_NpE?si=JcXPdk3muIVwnt2T

Dan Mangan is a Vancouver, BC-based musician. Dan has played Jimmy Kimmel Live, Glastonbury, and sold out Massey Hall, as well as scored soundtracks for television and feature film. He is also a co-founder of Side Door, a marketplace platform connecting artists with alternative venue spaces for in-person & online shows.

Dan has won 2 JUNO Awards and is thrice Polaris Music Prize-nominated for his work, and has released at least 7 albums and EPs. His latest album, Natural Light, which just hit the world, emerged after he and his longtime bandmates Jason Haberman, Mike O’Brien and Don Kerr secluded themselves deep in the woods of southern Ontario for a week intending to workshop some songs and possibly do some writing. 

SONG 1: “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinead O’Connor from her 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

https://youtu.be/Ouf9-bOqJVk?si=Z3YOnoosZ9VPJIcn

SONG 2: “No Surprises” by Radiohead from their album OK Computer released in 1997

https://youtu.be/u5CVsCnxyXg?si=oh1zP41Yk5nZAU_w

SONG 3: “Float On” by Modest Mouse from their 2004 album Good News for People Who Love Bad News

https://youtu.be/88XhEqgmRhM?si=hKa_85bbJGsNpNvK

Jack Bishop is senior content advisor and tasting lab expert at America's Test Kitchen. He was part of the original team that launched the show in 1993. He grew up in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey and studied Literature at Yale University and worked in publishing in New York City out of college before joining the staff of Cook's Magazine in 1988. It morphed into Cook's Illustrated in 1993, and America’s Test Kitchen grew out of it.

He’s also Executive Producer of and on-camera Judge in Amazon's America's Test Kitchen: The Next Generation which launched in 2022 and has had two seasons so far.

Jack has published at least seven cookbooks of his own - the first was called Lasagna: Classic and Contemporary Favorites. He’s also edited or contributed to well-over 100 cookbooks through the magazine and America’s Test Kitchen.

Song 1: "The River" by Bruce Springsteen from his 1980 double album of the same name.  https://youtu.be/y7BUXRsTbvI?si=kDovogcEoXu9tRYA

Song 2: "Suavemente" by Elvis Crespo released in 1998 album of the same name. https://youtu.be/_T_SIDKGRjs?si=j99aMxPjaefxa5T_

Song 3: "The Weight" by Rostam from the (May) 2026 album American Stories. https://youtu.be/UvNI0hMn4n8?si=YJDpWzybxqmwSj30

Karyn Parsons is probably best known for playing Hilary on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Her character was, and is, truly beloved by fans around the U.S. and beyond. What her fans didn't know until 2005 was that Parsons was also a writer who spent quite a bit of time writing short fiction, and learning about history - particularly inspiring and empowering stories of African American achievement.

Once she set acting aside in the early 2000s, and had her first child, Parsons decided it was time to take her passion for writing and history seriously and so founded a nonprofit called Sweet Blackberry. They would turn her stories about little-known African American figures, ones that she thought would pique the imaginations of young people, into short films and picture-books. The animated films feature narration from voices like Alfre Woodard, Queen Latifah, Chris Rock, and Laurence Fishburne. 

Parsons published her first young adult novel called "How High the Moon" in 2019 and has another one coming out this Summer. “How High the Moon” was inspired by her mother's childhood stories of being a young person growing up in South Carolina during the time of Jim Crow.

Emma Briggs Coleman (who performs and releases music under Emma Briggs) is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, drummer, and multi-instrumentalist from Fort Myers whose music is rooted in the timeless spirit of rock, folk, and blues. She performs more than 300 live shows a year throughout Southwest Florida, including being selected to perform at the 2025 Island Hopper Songwriter Fest and she’ll be back again for it in 2026.

Emma says her goal with her music-making is to create meaningful connections with audiences, preserving memories, inspiring others, and reminding people that the most powerful songs are often the ones that make us feel a little less alone.

Song 1: "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes from their 2003 album Elephant.

Song 2: This is Jeff Buckley's version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" - which Buckley released in 1994 on the album Grace.

Song 3: "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac from the album Life Becoming A Landslide  released in 1975.