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Ken Volante
Why is there something rather than nothing? This podcast is a philosophical and psychological exploration into the act of creation (poets, musicians, writers, painters, thinkers, all of us) by: Ken Volante
Total 273 episodes
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Cristina of espooky

Cristina of espooky

Cristina Lumague is a freelance podcast producer, editor and the host of Espooky Tales, Historias Unknown and Novelas Con Cafecito.Enjoy this SRTN Halloween Special! Cristina and Ken talk about spooky tales, horror movies, telenovelas, podcasting, art y mas . . . espooky Patreon SRTN Podcast 
52:5031/10/2023
Charles Mulford

Charles Mulford

Charles Mulford is a sculptor based in New Jersey. He holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts and a BFA from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts. His sculptures have been exhibited in the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ, the Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA, the Bruton Museum, Somerset, UK, and The Center for Contemporary Art, Bedminster, NJ. Mulford apprenticed at the Seward Johnston Atelier, specializing in metal chasing and fabrication. His work is part of the special collection of the Vanderbilt University Library and Temple University Library.Charles Mulford’s sculptures explore the complex emotions surrounding anxiety through the lens of humor. Cartoon figures, 3D-modeled objects, and scans of human heads act as vehicles for theatrical narratives. Mired in tragic circumstances, the characters express their feelings about illness and death. Exaggerate scenes capture a sense of unease, reflecting the stress and vulnerability of anxiety. The result is a visual representation of a tortuous and sometimes humorous world.Mulford websiteSRTN Website
47:2126/10/2023
Nick of Skeleton Boy

Nick of Skeleton Boy

Host Ken Volante was watching some 'Dark Souls' gameplay and heard some rocking music down at the Albany, Oregon skatepark. He got to meet Nick of Skeleton Boy and here we bring you some of the sounds from the Willamette Valley. Thanks Nick for the great chat!💀Welcome to The Bone Zone💀💀Punk-ish band from Albany, Oregon💀💀Keepin' it spooky 24/7/365💀Skeleton BoySRTN Website
35:0021/10/2023
Carol Butler

Carol Butler

Carol Butler is a ballpoint illustrator based in Boise Idaho, where she works seasonally as an organic farmer.An avid cyclist, and Norm Macdonald fan. She spends her time being a day dreaming degenerate while getting lost in the throws of a good science fiction novel.Featuring special guest host Sarah Romano-DiehlCarol in Insta!SRTN Website
59:4116/10/2023
Angel Marcloid is Fire-Toolz

Angel Marcloid is Fire-Toolz

Producer / composer / multi-instrumentalist Angel Marcloid records music under the moniker Fire-Toolz. Though Marcloid’s output emerges in a litany of distinct aliases and projects — from the jazz fusion / new age of Nonlocal Forecast to the vaporous nostalgia of MindSpring Memories — the Fire-Toolz catalog remains the central focus of the prolific artist’s musical universe and a home for Marcloid’s most ambitious and combinatory work. 'I am upset because I see something that is not there.', the fifth Fire-Toolz album to join the Hausu Mountain catalog since 2017, follows 2021’s sprawling double-album Eternal Home (HAUSMO111) and 2022’s self-released EP I will not use the body’s eyes today. I am upset […] offers listeners a prismatic cross-section of juxtaposed genres and compositional contortions to explore, maintaining Fire-Toolz’s signature density and complexity while tightening the scope of Marcloid’s experimentation into the project’s most focused song cycle to date. Perhaps more than any previous Fire-Toolz album, I am upset […] presents some form of pop music, carried in Marcloid’s passages of clean vocals, in the bright synth and keyboard tones that animate its tracks, in the yearning saxophone lines that pour into view and whisk the narrative onto a new path. The format of a one-person “band” carries a different weight in a landscape of solo artists crafting abstract modernist productions that don’t allude in the slightest to various twentieth-century rock-related traditions. Fire-Toolz exists on both sides of this divide.Fire-ToolzSRTN Podcast 
45:4009/10/2023
Jadon Allen of Guilt!

Jadon Allen of Guilt!

Jadon Allen is the founder of Guilt! or guiltpdx, a streetwear and street art company based out of Portland, Oregon with the main goal of pushing creative boundaries. Guilt! produces a plethora of goods including unique clothing, colorful artworks, photography, and videography sold both online and in local Portland stores. More work can be found @guiltpdx on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.Jadon AllenSRTN Website
26:3406/10/2023
elle nash

elle nash

Elle Nash is the author of the short story collection Nudes (404 Ink and SF/LD Books) novels Gag Reflex (Clash Books) and Animals Eat Each Other (404 Ink and Dzanc Books), which was featured in the 2018 June Reading Room of O - The Oprah Magazine and hailed by Publishers Weekly as a ‘complex, impressive exploration of obsession and desire.' Her new novel, Deliver Me (Unnamed Press) was released October 2023. Her work appears in Guernica, BOMB, The Nervous Breakdown, Literary Hub, The Fanzine, Volume 1 Brooklyn, New York Tyrant and elsewhere. She is a founding editor of Witch Craft Magazine and has edited fiction at both Hobart Pulp and Expat Literary Journal.elle's websitepodcast website
33:5003/10/2023
Anna May

Anna May

Alternative tragic Americana, invocations for peace & judgment reshaping with bleeding heart stream of consciousness poems.Originally from Connecticut, before becoming a western transplant, Anna May is a singular artist whose songs bear a placelessness that lends to their timeless nature.The deep exploration of heartbreak and trauma has been an ongoing quest throughout Anna's work.Her lyrics have been heavily textured by a lonesome whimsicality that finds itself most at home in the vastness of the American West.Anna's music honors the nomadic spirit with memory, meditation & fresh interpretations of folk music and jazz influence. She honors a hope to enhance connection, humility, healing, and joy among people in the process of parting with typical genre rules.Anna's lyrical sensibility is steeped in wisdom, and layered with evocative musicality and metaphysical embroidery while eschewing the mainstream & parting with platitudes. Anna explores both estrangement and connection while taking cues from artists like Billie Holiday, Shawn Colvin, Neil Young, and Leonard Cohen.As a yogi, pianist, teacher & poet, she masterfully blends all of her influences into her songwriting.Anna has performed at wildflower music & arts festival, treefort music festival, Boston arts festival, water lantern festival, trout lake hall, abbey arts in Seattle, Globe Hall in Denver, Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, Broadway Comedy Club in Manhattan, the Mint in Los Angeles, and many more.Anna May WebsiteSRTN Website
45:3025/09/2023
Sarah Romano-Diehl

Sarah Romano-Diehl

Sarah Romano Diehl is a comic artist based in Seattle, WA. Her work is published in Seattle Magazine, The Stranger, and Scarff Comics Newspaper. Sarah has been publishing her minicomics and collabing with other comix artists and writers for around ten years. She loves being outside and near water.Sarah's websiteSRTN Website
01:15:1018/09/2023
Caytha Jentis and Paul Adams

Caytha Jentis and Paul Adams

Over to the NYC to get exclusive coverage of the plays Sex Work, Sex Play by Caytha Jentis and Doris Day: My Secret Love by Paul Adams!Caytha Jentis is a former literary agent. She has written, produced and directed a number of award-winning features including Bad Parents starring Janeane Garofalo, Cheri Oteri, Christopher Titus and Kristen Johnston (Cinedigm), And Then Came Love starring Vanessa Williams and Eartha Kitt (Warner Bros), and The One starring Jon Prescott (TLA Releasing). She has an MFA from UCLA in screenwriting and a BS in TV/film from Syracuse University. She is a member of the Producers Guild and NYWIFT.Paul Adams founded Emerging Artists Theatre in 1993 and has been the Artistic Director for the life of the company. During this time, he has helped showcase hundreds of new works (plays, solo-shows, musicals & dance pieces) for off and off-off Broadway. Some of his favorite credits include directing the off-Broadway production of Sisters’ Dance by Sarah Hollister at Baruch Performing Arts Center and producing the solo-show The Sensational Josephine Baker by Cheryl Howard which had two off-Broadway runs at Theatre Row and received a rave review in the NY Times. Paul performed his critically acclaimed solo-show The Cleaning Guy at FringeNYC in 2016 and is currently workshopping his full length play, Doris Day: My Secret Love. He has also served on the NY Innovative Theatre Awards committee since its inception.Emerging Artists TheatreCaytha Jentis SRTN Podcast Website
56:5512/09/2023
Nataša Babič

Nataša Babič

Nataša Babič is a New York actress, originally from Ljubljana, Slovenia. Natasa studied musical theater at the Performing Arts Studios Vienna. She continued her studies in New York at The Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute. Upon completion, she joined the HB Acting Studios and studied with Austin Pendleton in his advanced scene study class.Nataša performed Off and Off Off Broadway for many years. Her first Off Broadway role was Sandra/Sissy a split personality character in Anne L. Thompson Scretching’s "The Sanctuary" at the American Theater Of Actors. One of her favorite roles was the impressionist painter Mary Cassatt in The Independents. The play opened Off Broadway at the Jerry Orbach Theater in 2019 and extended it's run twice. Nataša’s latest performance Off Broadway was Tammany Hall at the SoHo Playhouse. This immersive theater production was directed by Alexander Wright and Darren Lee Cole. Nataša has also developed her film and TV career. Amongst others she played a lead role in a horror movie Dark Tarot, a supporting role in an indie feature Life is Too Short and a thriller Gunpoint.Nataša joined the Hallmark Movie Channel family in their new production The Dancing Detective, A Deadly Tango. She is playing a lead supporting role of Mary Aston. The movie premiered on Hallmark in June 2023. Nataša is looking forward to what the future might bring and is a determined optimist on this ever changing path of life.Website SRTN Website
51:1106/09/2023
Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz)

Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz)

A special interview with Sadie Dupuis.Dupuis chats about art, labor, music, meaning, poetry and Speedy Ortiz's 'Rabbit Rabbit" record release out this very same day! Features the tracks "Scabs" and "Ranch v Ranch."“Rabbit rabbit” is a superstitious incantation repeated on the first of each month to bring good fortune—a belief practiced by Sadie Dupuis, the guitarist, singer and songwriter of the Philadelphia rock quartet Speedy Ortiz. As a child with OCD, she followed arbitrary rituals, a coping mechanism commonly triggered by early trauma, and “rabbit rabbit” was one that stuck. When Dupuis began to parse difficult memories for the first time in her songwriting, it felt like kismet to name her band’s resultant fourth record after an expression of luck and repetition: Rabbit Rabbit. Instead of re-treading old routines, the record finds Speedy Ortiz interrogating conventions, grappling with cycles of violence and destructive power dynamics with singular wit and riffs. Rabbit Rabbit finds Speedy Ortiz at its most potent: melodically fierce, sonically mountainous, scorching the earth and beginning anew.SadieSpeedy OrtizSRTN
01:06:5101/09/2023
Rick Staggenborg

Rick Staggenborg

Very happy to share a ranging conversation with activist Rick Staggenborg. Recorded at a union hall in Albany, Oregon, host Ken Volante and Rick talk about public banking, health care for all, philosophy, God, veterans, service and hope for the betterment of humans.Rick is a retired psychiatrist who specialized in PTSD and worked in community psychiatry before finishing his career at the VA, retiring in 2010.Rick advocates for universal health care as a member of Physicians for a National Health Program and by serving in multiple roles with Health Care for All Oregon and is  chair of the Faith Caucus.Rick is also an Army veteran and is active in the antiwar movement as the President of the Linus Pauling Chapter of Veterans For Peace.Listen in on this special and exploratory episode!SRTN Website
48:1625/08/2023
Charles Payne

Charles Payne

Charles Payne is a Madison transplant, a certified teacher, and self-taught social artist, originally from Michigan. Payne is a Shop One Educator/Artist Residency Finalist and a 2022 TMT New Play Development Playwright. Their play ‘Da Classroom Ain’t Enuf’ was an American Players Theatre New Voices: Creating the Classics of Tomorrow semi-finalist and a Wisconsin Wrights 2022 New Play Development project finalist. Payne is an Isthmus contributor, a Madison Magazine contributor and the Arts + Literature Lab’s inaugural ALL Originals Prize winner.Charles Payne - One Water MadisonSRTN Podcast Website
35:0122/08/2023
Ainsley Costello

Ainsley Costello

In a world dominated by overnight internet sensations and one-hit-wonders, emerging artist Ainsley Costello has her eyes set on creating a legacy that stands the test of time. A power house voice in the vain of Haley Williams or Pink, Ainsley's lyrics can also be delicately delivered. Costello's heartfelt and personal approach to lyricism translates into an easily digestible and heartwarming listening experience.At only 15, the Seattle native (now based in Nashville) released a strikingly diverse debut album titled ‘You Know I Am’ – on the surface, a collection of country pop songs, but dig deeper and you’ll unravel a multitude of diverse musical influences and lyrics that speak to all of the insecurities of today’s teenage girls.In February 2020, Ainsley and her family relocated to Nashville, just as the world and the music industry shut down due to the Pandemic. But that didn't stop Ainsley, throughout quarantine she used her time to write new material and connect with dozens of Nashville "row writers" to hone and perfect her craft. Creating a body of work that speaks volumes for her young age Ainsley already has a catalogue of nearly 200 unreleased, and 24 published works. In 2021 Ainsley released a song each month, the equivalent of her second studio album and in 2022 she has released 5 more songs.Ironically, after moving to Nashville (the country music capital of the world), Ainsley began to pivot away from the country music that had originally inspired her. Realizing that Nashville was more than just country music her creativity cracked open. Her newest songs clearly have a more pop-rock leaning vibe.  While many reviewers still hear elements of country tones in her voice, paired with the edgier music, some have started to describe her music as "country-punk" or "pretty pop." Inspired by Paramore, Kings of Leon and Caitlyn Smith (all hailing from Nashville) you clearly hear a unique sound emerging in her 2022 works. With a strong sense for live instrumentation others have described her music as a strain of LA/POP from the 90's and early 2000's. Another reviewer described it as acoustic college rock with a modern twist. With a dedicated and growing following it is clear that Ainsley is set on creating a career that stands the test of time.Ainsley began performing in school talent shows and musical theater productions at the age of 7. She has since gone on to study piano, guitar, vocal performance, and songwriting. She attended Tacoma School of the Arts as a freshman in high-school and shortly thereafter began traveling and touring the West Coast full-time. At just 15 Ainsley moved to online high-school (so she could tour) and simultaneously began taking classes at the prestigious Berklee College of Music Online. She graduated from high school at 16 and was formally accepted to the Berklee College of Music's Business Degree program shortly after. At just 19 years old, in May 2023 Ainsley graduated from Berklee College of Music with a Bachelors of Art in Music Business.Ainsley began performing live shows with a full band of adult professional-level musicians at just 13 years old. By the time she was 14 she could regularly hold down a 3-hour cover set. At 13 & 14 she was involved with unaired episodes of "The Voice" and "American Idol." At 14, Ainsley became one of Breedlove Guitars youngest endorsed artists and has since been endorsed by Mackie Sound and has strategic partnerships with Taylor Guitars and Sennheiser Microphones. To date she has performed over 200 shows in 20 states on festival, fair, and bar states alike.Ainsley Costello WebsiteSRTN Website
44:2617/08/2023
Keddies Resort

Keddies Resort

Born in the sterile hills of Happy Valley Keddies Resort is breathing life into the bloated carcass of the rock world. With an ever changing sound they continue to find a unique position in the current musical landscape. Maintaining a foundation of punchy riffs, temple throbbing breakdowns and melodic intricacy, they have set themselves on a continuous crash course for musical explosion.Keddies Resort fans lodge here InstaSRTN Podcast Website
45:4015/08/2023
Joe Maldonado

Joe Maldonado

Joe Maldonado is a poet and mental health professional, author of the poetry collections Subterranean Summer and Skeleton American. His work has also appeared in numerous anthologies, including Remembering Jack Kerouac (National Beat Poetry Foundation, 2022). He served on the council of the Transformative Language Arts Network from 2017-2020 and hosts monthly open mics in New York.. You can follow him on social media, @joemaldonado81 SRTN Website
34:0008/08/2023
Dakota Noot

Dakota Noot

SRTN is happy to have THE Dakota Noot back on the show!Dakota Noot is a Los Angeles-based artist and curator. He uses drawings, paintings, and installations to create animal-human hybrids that explore rural yet fantastical, queer identities. Originally from Bismarck, North Dakota, he continues to show in both North Dakota and Los Angeles, including solo and two-person shows at Highways Performance Space, MuzeuMM, and PØST. Noot has exhibited in group shows at Charlie James Gallery, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Torrance Art Museum, and LAST Projects. His series of cutout drawing-installations have been shown at LA Freewaves, Cerritos College Art Gallery, and Otis College. His work has been featured in Hi-Fructose. Noot graduated with a BFA in Visual Arts from the University of North Dakota (2015) and an MFA from Claremont Graduate University (2017).First SRTN appearance on Episode 92 DakotaSRTN
29:1604/08/2023
Lilian Sue

Lilian Sue

Talking storytelling, music, publishing, PR, art and philosophy with Lilian SueAs a PR coach and publicist, Lilian Sue is in the storytelling and relationship building business. She empowers creative entrepreneurs to push past limiting beliefs and gain the confidence to learn how to build strong PR and marketing mindsets and learn how to build and launch successful PR campaigns.Why? Because she believes that inside every entrepreneur is the potential to become a global industry leader and it is her goal to make sure that entrepreneurs feel empowered, and have the confidence to advocate for their goals when working with a publicist or PR agency as well as the tools and knowledge to launch their own strategies.Lilian Sue SRTN Website
44:5001/08/2023
Cissi Efraimsson

Cissi Efraimsson

Wag your tail to this one! Listen thru for the addicting pleasure of the song "WAG IT!"Cissi Efraimsson is a Swedish LA-based artist and director working in the fields of stop motion animation, sculpture, painting and music.Efraimsson graduated the MFA program in Experimental Animation at the California Institute of the Arts in May 2022. She received a BFA in Fine Arts from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm in 2018.Efraimsson works at the borderline between reality and the surreal/supernatural. She often uses elements from folklore and places them in the real world, within a contemporary context inspired by pop culture. Efraimsson works on the border between the ordered and near-perfect and the skew and absurd. The atmosphere she creates is often a balance between the ugly and beautiful, and Efraimsson mines events and dialog from her own life – with a certain degree of twisting and turning. Recurring themes include fantasy, escapism, magic, and the subconscious, while humor and a playful energy course throughout everything Efraimsson creates.Her musical output is vast, and Efraimsson currently sings and drums in punk-pop trio Vulkano, having previously drummed in Those Dancing Days.VULKANO CissiSRTN PodcastWag it, gonna wag it, gonna wag it, 4u . . . 
30:1127/07/2023
Nick Malster

Nick Malster

Nick Malster is the co-founder of Fountain, a podcast app that helps creators get discovered, build a community and get paid for their work.Recorded between Albany, Oregon and London, England.We talk Podcasting 2.0, the movement, bitcoin, sats, value for value (v4v), direct support for podcasts and musical artists, art, creativity, the Fountain app and the podcasting industry at present.Fountain App SRTN
41:4624/07/2023
Blair Borax (Warbling Creek Studios Episode)

Blair Borax (Warbling Creek Studios Episode)

Special Episode!Recording artist Blair Borax returns with a touching live SRTN set in Eugene, Oregon.  This episode is guest hosted by the lovely Jenny Jo Peterson and features four Borax tracks:Tender LatelyWink or WorseCall me LazyLike the WeatherAfter releasing her debut album “Keep Walking” in June 2022, she is working on her sophomore record, “Tender Lately” and plans to release it in Fall 2023.This episode, as always, is crafted by Editor and Producer, Peter Bauer.Blair BoraxSRTN Podcast
46:1619/07/2023
Meruzh Mazmanyan

Meruzh Mazmanyan

Meruzhan Mazmanyan is an Armenian-American artist from the Portland, Oregon Metro area.In a variety of mediums, Meruzhan uses his artwork as a way to send a message; from political propaganda posters, to sci-fi comics, to still life paintings. He feels that the purpose of art is to make a statement, and he makes that clear with pieces commenting on the American dream, consumerism, genocide, and more.Meruzh on InstaSRTN Website
16:1615/07/2023
Fantasy in Terms of Liberation

Fantasy in Terms of Liberation

Helming the 'Fantasy in Terms of Liberation' project is multi-disciplinary artist Julienne Baptiste, aka PCP, and director and artist Christopher Diana-Peebles. Hailing from Ocean City, MD.Baptiste has called Portland, Oregon home since 2015. Her background includes a focus on dance, theater and music, which all come into play throughout the film. Baptiste most recently gained notice as front woman of rock trio Dirty Princess. Baptiste and Diana-Peebles initially worked together on imagery for the band before developing this Fantasy in Terms of Liberation project as collaborators. As a founding member of the Futro Collective, Christopher began making music videos and other visual content after moving to Portland over 15 years ago. Diana-Peebles’ credits include the independent films Malignant, Unicorn and The Tree, with a passion for working on imagery on behalf of local non-profits like experimental technology collective CETI, p:ear and media center Open Signal in an effort to further their important social reach.JEWLZSRTNChristopher Diana Peebles
47:4612/07/2023
Maya MacGregor

Maya MacGregor

Maya MacGregor is an author, singer, and artist based in Glasgow, Scotland. A fluent Gaelic speaker, Maya is active in many community activities in Gaelic music as well as writing contemporary YA and adult fiction (as Emmie Mears and M Evan MacGriogair). Maya has a degree in history and is passionate about writing the stories for teens they wish had existed when they were younger and fills them with the type of people who have always populated their world. Their pronouns are they/them.THE MANY HALF-LIVED LIVES OF SAM SYLVESTER is Maya’s first YA novel and is a finalist for the Andre Norton Nebula award. THE EVOLVING TRUTH OF EVER-STRONGER WILL, Maya’s next YA, comes out in 2023.Maya MacGregor Something Rather Than Nothing
01:37:5006/07/2023
Sara Hardin

Sara Hardin

New Orleans-based visual artist and art educator, Sara Hardin creates paintings that explore the connection between place and memory. She synthesizes collage, painting, and digital media to investigate this relationship. Pulling from both personal and collective recollections, she brings awareness of the space and the unique intricacies of the human experience; the ticks, the quirks, and the machinations of everyday life. Her work plays with the unique characteristics and culture of New Orleans, her hometown. Sara enjoys investigating new places and learning about the people that occupy that space. Her inspiration comes from her surroundings, and she captures the beauty in her everyday world as a crucial element of her art. She then takes that beauty and builds a collaged space, filled to the brim with memory and ritual. Sara’s work is a cacophony of recollection, color, expressive brush strokes, and the enigmatic nature of our lived experiences.Sara graduated from the University of Louisiana in 2016 with her degree in Arts Education. From here, she began teaching visual arts at the secondary level. From 2019 to 2020, Sara took part in several group exhibitions and was a member of the Basin Arts Artist Collective in Lafayette, Louisiana. In 2021 she was awarded a fully-funded artist residency in VanCleave, Mississippi. Sara graduated with her Master’s in Fine Arts, with a concentration in painting, at the University of New Orleans in 2023, where she was conferred numerous Graduate Assistantship Awards. She is currently being represented by M Contemporary in New Orleans and working as an Art Educator in the greater New Orleans area.Sara HardinSRTN
40:3103/07/2023
Swamp Thing Rather Than Nothing

Swamp Thing Rather Than Nothing

BEHOLD!! The Swamp Thing Rather Than Nothing Episode!!WITH!!!! Special Panel:Curious wisdom-speaker and plant-woman Em Grebner-Gaddis appears. Painter and eccentric gatherer Swamp Ken  (Kenneth Nicholson) speaks to history, body-horror and early 90s bizarro.Craig Randall thinks of living-thru-doom, hope and plants from the fertile crescent of the Pacific Northwest.The guiding question and idea behind this fervid inquiry: Why is Swamp Thing Important?Host Ken Volante corrals most tendrils of this wonderful panel to: explore the brilliance and radical edge of Alan Moore; the connection of Heather Locklear's foot and Midsommar; The Swamp Thing DC movie Universe speculated upon; the Wes Craven film (1982) dismantled and apprehended; the omnipresent threat to women in the films; Kudzu vine Swamp Thing biology theory; the (in)humanity of Alec Holland; the alien-transcendence of orchids; mental health, loneliness and alienation; and, so you know, SWAMP THING in a JEEP - this actually occurs in The Return of The Swamp ThingEnjoy!!!SRTN WEBSITE
01:47:4526/06/2023
Dysgenia

Dysgenia

Dysgenia is Riley Holland, Brian Wilson, and Dustin Vandehey."How much can you you say without words?" That's the question these Portland-based musical veterans seek to explore with their boundary-dissolving instrumental psych/prog/metal outfit Dysgenia. Dysgenia have distilled their own unique brand of controlled musical chaos, equal parts head, heart, and gut.Dysgenia BandcampSRTN Website
31:4019/06/2023
Bex Carlos (Tu Tía Bruja)

Bex Carlos (Tu Tía Bruja)

A warm welcome to the talented and creative artist Bex Carlos! Gonna tell you a bit about her podcast Tu Tía Bruja . . . "In the Dumpster Fire year that was 2020, Tu Tía Bruja was born. Tu Tía Bruja is a podcast that focuses on conversations about witchcraft, ghosts, the occult, true crime, anti-racism, and the abnormal. Recorded mostly in English with episodes also available in Spanish.Since launching in June 2020, the show has charted within the Top 200 Spirituality Podcasts in Canada, Finland, Germany, the U.K., Costa Rica, Chile, Denmark, Spain, Mexico, Australia, Belgium, South Africa, Colombia, and the U.S. It has been a huge pleasure growing my community all over the world."Bex WebsiteHorror Beauty Product Line Glamgoria:https://www.instagram.com/glamgoria/Mariah Day Tik Tok Ethical True Crime Activist:https://www.instagram.com/tutiabruja/https://www.tiktok.com/@tutiabrujaFortaleza TequilaSRTN Website 
59:3115/06/2023
Jayne Karma Lamo

Jayne Karma Lamo

Jayne Karma Lamo is a neurodivergent multi-instrumentalist, performer, recording artist and producer from Salmo, BC.  Jayne creates dreamy, post-grunge alt-rock, drawing from multiple self produced albums worth of original material.  Her signature sound has been influenced by the likes of PJ Harvey, Radiohead, the Dandy Warhols, among many others.  Jayne plays with a full band, or is available for solo shows doing live looping or acoustic material.  Audiences can expect to be captivated by her otherworldly vocals, moody melodies, and her thought provoking, emotionally charged lyrical content! As a space holder, Jayne also creates deeply relaxing and nourishing soundscapes and very unique immersive sonic journeys for small or large groups.JayneSRTN Podcast
01:22:5112/06/2023
Florence Williams

Florence Williams

Florence Williams is a journalist, author, and podcaster. She is a contributing editor at Outside Magazine and a freelance writer for the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, The New York Review of Books  and numerous other publications.Florence’s latest book, Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey, won the 2023 PEN/E.O. Wilson Award for Literary Science Writing and is called “show-stopping” and “courageous” by Publisher’s Weekly.  Her first book, BREASTS: A Natural and Unnatural History  (W.W. Norton 2012) received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in science and technology and the 2013 Audie in general nonfiction. It was also named a notable book of 2012 by the New York Times. Her 2017 book, The Nature Fix, was an Audible bestseller and was named a top summer read by J.P  Morgan.  She was the writer and host of two Gracie-Award-winning Audible Original series, Breasts Unbound and The Three-Day Effect, as well as numerous episodes for Outside Magazine’s podcast.  The Wall Street Journal calls her writing “droll and crisp,” which makes her feel like a pastry.Her public speaking includes keynotes at Google, the Smithsonian, the Seattle Zoo, the Aspen Ideas Festival and many other corporate, academic and nonprofit venues. A fellow at the Center for Humans and Nature and a visiting scholar at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Florence’s work focuses on the environment, health and science.In 2007-2008, Florence was a Scripps Fellow at the Center of Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado. She has received many awards, including a PEN America award, two National Magazine Award nominations, six magazine awards from the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the John Hersey Prize at Yale. Her work has been anthologized in numerous books, including Outside 25, the New Montana Story, How the West Was Warmed and Best American Science and Nature Writing 2008. Florence serves on the board of  two of her favorite non-profits, the Trust for Public Land and the Ted Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Journalism.Florence WilliamsSRTN Website
35:1005/06/2023
R.W.W. Greene

R.W.W. Greene

R.W.W. Greene is a New Hampshire USA writer with an MA in Fine Arts, which he exorcises in dive bars and coffee shops. He is a frequent panelist at the Boskone Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention in Boston, and his work has been in Stupefying Stories, Daily Science Fiction, New Myths, and Jersey Devil Press, among others. Greene is a past board member of the New Hampshire Writers’ Project. He keeps bees, collects typewriters, and lives with writer/artist spouse Brenda and two cats.  He has published three books: The Light Years, Twenty-Five to Life, and Mercury Rising, all with Angry Robot Books.RWW WebsiteSRTN Podcast Website
49:2601/06/2023
Sick Town Roller Derby

Sick Town Roller Derby

ROLLER DERBY EPISODE! SRTN 202 drops you onto Oregon State University parquet with the skaters of Sick Town Roller Derby (Albany and Corvallis, Oregon)Immerse yourself in the sounds and story of fighting for survival, being yourself, getting out your angst, sounding your barbaric yalp and having fun!Sick Town Derby Dames is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization located in Corvallis, Oregon. We are a skater-owned and operated flat-track roller derby league based in Linn and Benton counties.We respectfully skate on the ancestral land of the Kalapuya represented today by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and are committed to supporting the surrounding community through active participation in local events, volunteering for benevolent causes, and hosting charities at our sporting events.Sick Town WebsiteSRTN Podcast Website
38:4527/05/2023
Karyn Ann

Karyn Ann

Described as a “combination of Patty Griffin grit and Amy Winehouse grace” by American Songwriter, Portland-based Soul/Americana singer-songwriter Karyn Ann has been charming audiences across the US with her powerful vocals and emotive lyricism. Her debut album Into the Depths (2015) and subsequent follow-up Be Loud (2018) garnered critical acclaim and radio play, leading this once geologist now turned-road musician to gain a steady following along the West Coast and beyond.She’s shared stages with Haley Johnson, Liam St. John, and Fox and Bones, as well as Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls (at the 2017 Women’s Redrock Music Festival), and has performed at the legendary Bitter End in NYC . Her work is featured in the award-winning full-length film Undeserved (2016), and most recently in the indie-short Second Story (2022), which went on to win the “Gold Award for Best Acting Duo” by the Independent Shorts Awards, and ‘Best Romantic Short” by the IndieX Film Fest.In 2020 she was selected for the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Emerging Artist showcase, and placed runner-up in the Red Lodge Songwriters Contest and TOP 100 in the Great American Songwriting Contest singer-songwriter category. Her 2021 self-produced EP - “I Am Not Yours” was featured on Hare’s Paw Literary Journal, and received positive reviews. Karyn's newest work is an EP titled “Consequence of Fear."Karyn's website SRTN website
46:4424/05/2023
Talkin' Baseball with Ellen Adair ⚾

Talkin' Baseball with Ellen Adair ⚾

Ellen Adair is a regular analyst on MLB Network's "Off Base," and has also appeared on "MLB Now," "Hot Stove" and "MLB Central."Ellen is a multi-talented artist, actor, writer and baseball brain.Ellen was the guest on SRTN 128 Ellen is the co-host of the podcast "Take Me In to the Ballgame," on the Underdog Sports Network.Thanks Ellen for chatting baseball on EPISODE 200 of Something (rather than nothing)!Props to the Red Sox and the Phillies.SRTN Podcast Website
01:06:3017/05/2023
Blair Bathory

Blair Bathory

Blair Bathory has been creating works of horror for many years. She began her career as maestro of the macabre when she was just 19-years-old. Beginning with a 3-minute short film entitled ‘First Date: A Modern Love Story’, Blair wrote, directed, and produced the short film. Instantly gaining a large following after premiering the film online, she decided to follow her success with another film.Immediately following, Blair wrote another short horror film, but this time at longer length and more ambitious. Planning to create a full foam-latex creature suit she set out to raise the money for production through crowdfunding. After successfully garnering three-times what she asked for; Kitty, Kitty was shot and completed in 2014. It was invited to many film festivals around the world and eventually released online in 2016.In the process of creating her own horror stories, Blair quickly realized the lack of platforms that short form filmmakers had to showcase their work. Furthermore, she felt the need for a centralized location for the massive amounts of short horror films in existence. With her love for anthology shows like ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘Tales from the Crypt’, and ‘Goosebumps’ she saw an opportunity to combine the two mediums. From her years of working within the genre and meeting so many talented filmmakers, Blair had an arsenal of films to choose from.In May of 2015, Blair Bathory rose from the grave and lit the candles inside FEAR HAUS. Once a week The Lady of the Haus introduces her Victims to one new short horror film. Showcasing independent directors from all over the world, an audience quickly grew. Since its conception, Blair has been invited to host a night of horror films at The Rome International Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, Frightfest and many others around the world. Also, in 2017 Blair took the position of Festival Director at The Spooky Empire Film Festival - running that for the next three years.Spooky Empire, one of the nations largest genre conventions, was a massive success and gave Blair yet another opportunity to see the best of the best in independent horror cinema first. FEAR HAUS helmed by Blair has done brand activations now at DreamHack, the world’s largest streaming convention, and a tour with across the East Coast sponsored by several liquor companies.Currently, she is the new host for the widely successful podcast Something Scary, which boasts over 3 million fans.Blair’s personal social media platforms are highly popular and she reaches over 250,000 fans.YouTube TikTok InstagramSRTN Podcast
01:00:3611/05/2023
Craig Randall

Craig Randall

Craig Randall is a poet, author, and teacher who lives in beautiful Corvallis, OR with his wife, children, two cats and dog. A passionate advocate for mental-health, his body of work is a byproduct of his own battles with anxiety and depression and has served as a vehicle for empathy, healing, and connection. His works include two novels, The Doom that Came to Astoria, and The Dreams in the Pearl House (the first two books in The Northwest Trilogy) and two collections of poetry, To Chase the Sun, and Among the Wildflowers. A third novel and two more collections of poetry are coming soon.Craig Randall WebsiteSRTN Website
01:08:5108/05/2023
Alex Fine and Chloe Niclas

Alex Fine and Chloe Niclas

Alex Fine is an illustrator living and working in the Baltimore area. He spends his time creating art for various magazines, book publishers, and advertising firms…and most importantly, dressing his cat Roger in fancy neck ties.Alex Fine SIteChloe Niclas was a guest on SRTN 189.Episode 189SRTN Website
01:44:0604/05/2023
Leanna Renee Hieber

Leanna Renee Hieber

Leanna Renee Hieber is an actress, playwright, ghost tour guide and the award-winning, bestselling author of over fourteen Gothic, Gaslamp Fantasy, Supernatural Suspense and Non-Fiction books for adults and teens with publishers such as Tor, Sourcebooks and Kensington Books. A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America's Ghosts, co-authored with Andrea Janes, is a 2022 Bram Stoker Award finalist for "Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction". The book explores the intersection of women's history and ghost stories.Her Strangely Beautiful saga, beginning with The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, hit Barnes & Noble and Borders Bestseller lists and garnered numerous regional genre awards. Tor Books notes Strangely Beautiful as a "foundational text of Gaslamp Fantasy" and new, revised editions are now available via Tor. Darker Still hit American Bookseller's Association's "Indie Next List", was a Scholastic Book Club "Highly Recommended" title and a Daphne du Maurier award finalist.The Spectral City was a # 1 bestseller across several genres and digital platforms. A 4-time Prism Award winner for excellence in the genre of Fantasy Romance, Leanna's short stories have been featured in notable anthologies and her books have been selected for national book club editions as well as translated into many languages. She lectures on Gothic fiction and ghostly themes for prominent institutions such as New York University, Miami University and at conventions, libraries and conferences around the country.A proud member of Actors Equity and SAG-AFTRA, Mystery Writers of America, SFWA, Historical Novel Society, International Thriller Writers and The Dramatists Guild, she lives in New York where she is a licensed NYC tour guide working with Boroughs of the Dead and has been featured on television in Mysteries at the Museum and Beyond the Unknown, discussing Victorian Spiritualism. She tours a one-woman show as 19th century designer Clara Driscoll and is represented by Sara Megibow and Chelsea Hensley of the KT Literary Agency. She tweets often @leannareneeSRTN Website
01:18:3101/05/2023
Em Grebner-Gaddis

Em Grebner-Gaddis

Em Grebner-Gaddis is a self-professed plant nerd with a love of history and story-telling. She started Rooted to share her passion for plants, and as many cursed history facts as she can. Rooted is a weekly podcast diving into the tall tales & true stories of plants. If you like folklore, history, plant facts, and terrible puns, you're going to dig this show..ROOTEDSRTN WEBSITE
24:4927/04/2023
Suziey Block

Suziey Block

Suzanne (Suziey) Block was born in Fenton, Michigan. She graduated from Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan where she studied film/video production and theater. Suziey made her film debut in a small scene in Michael Bay's The Island before moving to Los Angeles, California. This Scream Queen steals the show in Horror in the High Desert, Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva, Entrance, Wonder Valley and more . . . Suziey InstaSRTN WEBSITE
01:20:3224/04/2023
Ryan Brosmer

Ryan Brosmer

Ryan Brosmer is a cartoonist and illustrator who lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with his wife, two dogs, and four cats. He aims to create stories that meet at the intersection of classic Saturday morning cartoons and newspaper comics. Ryan has been creating comics all his life except for a brief period between ages 10 and 32. He probably has something new out now or coming soon found here:https://www.instagram.com/awfulquiet/SRTN WEBSITE
47:5520/04/2023
Alise Versella

Alise Versella

Alise Versella is a twice Pushcart nominated contributing writer for Rebelle Society and the author of the full length poetry collection When Wolves Become Birds (Golden Dragonfly Press 2021).  Her chapbook Maenads of the 21st Century is due out with dancing girl press and her collection A Psalm for the Weary is out this April 2023 with Alien Buddha Press. She has been widely published in various magazine and journals as well as long listed for Palette Poetry's 2021 Sappho Prize and a nomination for Best of the Net. You can find her at www.aliseversella.comSRTN WEBSITE
42:3617/04/2023
Victoria Astuto and Matthew Kyle Levine

Victoria Astuto and Matthew Kyle Levine

Victoria Astuto is an actress, musician, and educator based in New York.  She is most known for her roles in Some Time Soon and Trusted Hands.  In addition to acting, she also plays Clarinet with the Brooklyn Wind Symphony and is a Band Director in the Hudson Valley.Matthew Kyle Levine is a filmmaker based in New York City. His short films have won awards and played at numerous film festivals throughout North America, including the Williamsburg Independent Film Festival and the Canada Shorts Film Festival.Watch 'Some Time Soon' and Levine's other films here: MKL VIMEOSRTN WEBSITE
42:3113/04/2023
Lauren Bright Pacheco

Lauren Bright Pacheco

Lauren Bright Pacheco is 3-time Emmy Award-winning Producer, Podcast Host, Media Writer and Storyteller.You should know her spellbinding work on:Happy Face PresentsMurder in OregonThe Murders at White House Farm Murder in IllinoisAnd as the producer of:Speed of Sound with Steve Greenberg Wholly Human with LeAnn Rimes.SRTN WEBSITE
01:28:1010/04/2023
Chloe Niclas

Chloe Niclas

Chloe Niclas is an illustrator from Baltimore, MD. She is fascinated by the unexplainable and bizarre aspects of the world, often executing the otherworldly and impossible to feel within reach of existence. Her work has been recognized by American Illustration and the Art Director’s Club, and has appeared in The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, Politico Europe, and others.https://www.chloeniclas.com/Follow on Instagram @chloe.niclasSRTN WEBSITE
43:5006/04/2023
Susan Tomorrow

Susan Tomorrow

Susan Tomorrow is a film programmer from Austin Texas, specializing in cult, horror, and Golden Age Hollywood cinema. “As Co-Owner/Programmer of the Clinton Street Theater I am thrilled to be helping to bring back that William Castle MAGIC.”Clinton Street TheaterSRTN WEBSITE
51:5003/04/2023
Lauren Redniss

Lauren Redniss

Lauren Redniss is an artist, author, and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant." Her books include Radioactive, a finalist for the National Book Award, Thunder & Lightning, winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West, called "astonishing" and "virtuosic" by the New York Times. She has been a Guggenheim fellow, a fellow at the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars & Writers, the New America Foundation, and Artist-in-Residence at the American Museum of Natural History. She teaches at the Parsons School of Design in New York Cityhttps://www.laurenredniss.comSRTN WEBSITE
57:5030/03/2023
Michael Conley (Warbling Creek Studios Episode)

Michael Conley (Warbling Creek Studios Episode)

Michael Conley writes murder ballads, jukebox romances, and love songs in between.Conley was in from Nashville and the SRTN hosted  a magical set + interview from Warbling Creek Studios in Eugene, OR.  This is something special. Follow Michael on Instagram @isleepinmyjeansNothing Risked EP out now on all streaming platforms.SRTN WEBSITE
45:1027/03/2023
Melissa Oliveri

Melissa Oliveri

Melissa Oliveri has been an artist her entire life. As an only child, she would spend hours entertaining herself by writing and illustrating stories, playing music, drawing, writing plays, making puppets and other crafts. This has translated into adulthood in the form of one person wearing many creative hats.As a musician, Melissa goes by the stage name Cannelle. She composes original songs in a variety of styles, often compared to Tori Amos, Regina Spektor, or Kate Bush. She also writes original music for her Podcast, The Skylark Bell. She likes to take a creative approach to songwriting, often including her audience in the task. An example of this are her "Post-It Project" songs, for which she requests people assign her a set number of words that she will build the song around. The topics she covers are also varied and can range from a dedication to a lost loved one, to a song about a salt shaker or a silly song about her disdain for the long winters she has known her whole life.After years of sitting on a series of unpublished books, a friend suggested Melissa turn one of her stories into a podcast. Being unfamiliar with podcasting, Melissa was hesitant, but the thought of composing original music for the podcast, including sound effects, and finally getting the story out to the world eventually won her over, and The Skylark Bell podcast was born. The podcast has not only proven to be a great success, it has inspired Melissa to imagine expanding The Skylark show beyond all dreams!https://melissaoliveri.com/aboutFollow on Instagram @cannelle.musicLink Tree with all the things: https://linktr.ee/theskylarkbellWe highly recommend you listen to the Skylark Bell PodcastSRTN WEBSITE
01:22:1023/03/2023