Where You Are

I’m so excited to share this conversation with Carla Youngblood, who is one of the funniest, smartest people I know. In this interview, Carla talks about doing stand-up and one-woman show, writing her debut book, surviving breast cancer, teaching a class at ArtPlay in Birmingham, and so much more. She offers some excellent advice for all of us on living our best lives. Her book, Cancer Ain’t Funny! Laugh Anyway …, is available at her website, www.keepyoulaughing.com, along with her DVD, The Truth about Cancer. Carla’s mission is to inspire and encourage others, and that is exactly what she does!

In this episode, I sit down with Jonathan Sweatt, the director of Small Mouth Sounds by Bess Wohl. The show is a production of Theatre Downtown in Birmingham, Alabama.

In this episode, I make good on my promise to feature a few conversations with former students from Marion Military Institute. First up is Emily Kirby, who I taught way back in 2011 through 2013. Emily moved on to Jacksonville State University after MMI, where she worked on the school newspaper, The Chanticleer. Eventually, after graduating and working outside journalism for a while, she landed a job as a reporter for The Fort Payne Times-Journal, not far from her hometown of Pisgah, Alabama. She was just recently promoted to Managing Editor of that paper. This makes her a part of the long history and tradition of The Fort Payne Times-Journal that stretches all the way back to 1878, making it Dekalb County’s oldest newspaper. The Times-Journal publishes three days a week, and according to its website, serves about 8000 readers daily. I am so proud of Emily King for helming this publication! I think you will enjoy our conversation, which covers not only Emily’s stories of growing up in Pisgah, of attending MMI and JSU, of reporting for and now managing a newspaper but also some touching moments and insights about life, work, community, education, and the state of media.

In this episode, I join my friend, Ben (a great teacher and all-around wonderful guy), in a conversation about the current state of education. Ben is a high-school science teacher, who values experiments and projects that foster deeper learning in his students, and in this podcast, he discusses not only some of the problems he encounters in his efforts at improving education but also several fascinating ideas about teaching and learning, as well as mobilizing teachers. If you are interested in education, or if you are a teacher, or even if you are a student (and maybe especially if you’re a student), then trust me: you will find this discussion invigorating.

In this episode, I share my conversation with Barry Perkins, registered nurse, makeup artist extraordinaire at the Atrox Factory—yes, he has been making you scream for years at the largest indoor haunted attraction in the Southeast—AND he is also known as Reese Eve Cocx, drag queen and show director at Our Place, right here in Birmingham, AL. In addition to being a nurse, a makeup artist, and a fierce queen, Barry spends much of his time giving back to the community, along with his fabulous husband, the inimitable Sharon Cocx. This drag supercouple, in fact, was recently crowned the incoming Dueling Queens of the Mystic Krewe of Caritas, whose Disney Villains-themed Bal Masque XII is Saturday, January 18 at the Boutwell Auditorium.

In this episode, Fox and I chat for a few minutes about the trailer for the new Wonder Woman movie and our predictions about Steve Trevor, as well as our review of Trey Edwards Shults’ brilliant new film, Waves. Then, in the first of my series on consequential strangers—a term borrowed from Blau and Fingerman—Fox and I sit down with Kara, a young woman who works at a restaurant that I frequently visit; over the past year, she and I have had some interesting conversations, so I invited her to be a part of the podcast. In this interview, she discusses theology, dating, the #churchtoo movement, and more.

In the premiere episode of Where You Are, Carlton V Bell II and Damone Williams talk about Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Company and their upcoming production of Donja R. Love’s Sugar in Our Wounds.

Check out the following links for more information related to this interview:

• The Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre

• Carlton V Bell II (website)

• Official Site for Sugar in Our Wounds

We’ll see you next week for the first episode, but here’s a brief introduction about our plans for Where You Are.