On this episode of Tom and D, Deren welcomes his friend and casting legend Craig Campobasso—a McDonald’s-commercial kid turned Emmy-nominated casting director, filmmaker, and cosmic storyteller.

Craig’s career kicked off at 15, working on films like Dune and Total Recall, and casting hits like Picket Fences and Amazing Stories. A spiritual awakening at 26 launched his writing path, leading to The Autobiography of an ExtraTerrestrial Saga and the award-winning short film Stranger at the Pentagon.

He’s since become a go-to voice in UFO circles, with best-selling books like The Extraterrestrial Species Almanac and appearances on Ancient Aliens and Coast to Coast AM. His latest? A 2025 documentary based on the Almanac—and yes, it’s out of this world.

In this episode of Tom and D., D introduces the incredibly talented Scott Buckwald, whose credits include Dead to Me, The Old Man, Mad Men, Queen of the South, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, and dozens more.

Scott dives into some wild behind-the-scenes antics and shares a few of his favorite Hollywood moments—including the unforgettable birth of his son, Theo, during the filming of Baby Geniuses, and the surreal sight of Kathleen Turner cradling the newborn between takes.

As a seasoned armorer, Scott also offers a sobering look into what went wrong on the set of Rust.

Recording from Kansas City, Deren is forced to wrap things up early due to a massive storm and a tornado warning—but not before Scott promises to come back for more stories and laughs in a future episode.

EP 6: Chris Edell – 7 Marathons, 7 Days, 7 Continents

In this episode, Tom and D sit down with Tom's guest-- his stepbrother, entrepreneur and 2025 World Marathoner, Chris Edell—a man who ran seven marathons in seven days across seven continents.

After a year of intense training, mental fortitude, and pushing through a foot injury, Chris completed one of the toughest endurance challenges on Earth. He ran 26.2 miles every day for seven days in Antarctica, South Africa, Australia, the UAE, Spain, Brazil, and the United States—a total of over 183 miles in just one week.

An incredible story that will inspire while also making you laugh.

In this episode, our hosts Deren Abram and Tom Fry swap stories that’ll either have you laughing or wondering, “wait… what?” — including Tom’s less-than-thrilling tale about his grandfather in Greece (spoiler: not exactly The Odyssey) and D’s hilarious confession about inventing a fake assistant just so he could follow up with clients without looking like a total idiot.

Tom’s guest this time is film and stage actor David Caprita. Tom and David reminisce about meeting in the legendary Sanford Meisner acting class, bonding over their shared roots as radio guys. David’s had a wild career — showing up in some of the biggest crime shows and action flicks — though he admits he’s usually only recognized as “that dude who gets punched and bloodied up.”

In this episode, D’s guest is entertainment lawyer Dave Ratner from The Creative Law Network in Denver, Colorado. Through some laugh-out-loud but surprisingly informative chats, they dive into the legal landmines that filmmakers and artists constantly stumble over. Along the way, we also uncover Dave’s rock ‘n’ roll past as a band manager before he traded backstage passes for law books.

This episode is as hilarious as it is eye-opening — and an absolute MUST-LISTEN for anyone in entertainment, especially if you’re wrangling with licensing, releases, copyrights, or just trying to avoid accidentally getting sued.

In this episode, D’s guest is longtime friend and multi-hyphenate screenwriter-producer-director, Gregory Poppen.

Greg and Deren first crossed paths back in the day on movie sets, and while Deren was busy doing… well, whatever Deren does, Greg was busy building a career that stretches across just about every corner of entertainment. From heartwarming Disney holiday specials to edgy ESPY Awards monologues, and even wrangling the live TV circus at Miss Universe (yep, that one — you know the moment where Steve Harvey announced the wrong winner), Poppen’s been there, done that, and probably wrote the script for it too.

Get ready — this conversation promises stories, laughs, and maybe a little behind-the-scenes dirt you didn’t know you needed.

In this episode, Tom surprises everyone by bringing on an unexpected guest — his mom, Kathleen O’Brien: author, and once officially the “most heard voice in America.”

Kathleen shares some amazing (and hilarious) stories, from a cringy encounter with Larry King, to being literally the voice everyone heard across the country, to writing the most “seen” slogan in America. She also dives into the wisdom she’s packed into her book, Reclaim Your Right to Grow Old.

And of course — we get the inside scoop on what Tom was really like as a kid. (Spoiler: brace yourself.)

In this first episode, the hosts (Deren Abram and Tom Fry) kick around names for their new podcast—half-jokingly calling it "Tom and D.” but then going with it.

Between laughs, Tom opens up about their friendship since college and trying to quit vaping.

They bring in Brian Wilson, a podcast producer for influencer-giants like MeatDad and drops some wisdom on podcasting and content creation. He shares the wild success story of MeatDad—a butcher-turned-influencer with 5 million plus followers—and stresses the power of consistency and the importance of getting started. The episode wraps with some good-natured ribbing and loose plans for more to come.