Five Things

Writer Leesa Cross-Smith is based in Louisville, and she’s just published her first novel, "Whiskey and Ribbons." Find out why she considered it a radical act to tell the story in the way she did, what’s her secret weapon when it comes to getting writing done, and the tweet so good… she put it on a coffee mug.

My guest this week is one of my very favorite musicians, Joe Henry. His brother Dave was one of my first guests on this show, and I was thrilled when Joe agreed to take part as well. He’s just released his fourteenth studio album, called “Thrum,” and he’s also produced records for a lot of amazing musicians, including Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Ani DiFranco, and Allen Toussaint. He’s co-written songs with Roseanne Cash and with Madonna -- who happens to be his sister-in-law.

The host of "Note to Self," a podcast about the human side of technology, tells us about the simple, small things that keep her grounded (and on time).

Mark Schultz is the author of "Evocation to Visible Appearance," among other plays, and he's also a priest in the Episcopal Church. He was in Louisville for the premiere of his play at the Humana Festival at Actors' Theatre, and we talked about his fondness for black metal, Kurt Weill, and his husband.

This episode's guest is Chef Anoosh Shariat, owner of two Louisville restaurants, Anoosh Bistro and Noosh Nosh. He grew up in Iran, learned classical “fine dining” techniques, and was a local pioneer in fusion cooking.

My guest this week on Five Things is Claude Stephens, who works as an educator at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, just south of Louisville. But as he says, there are many other ways he moves through the world.

Vin Scelsa is a familiar name to anybody who grew up listening to FM radio in the New York/New Jersey area. He spent nearly 50 years playing music on the radio, starting out at a college station, then a couple of  commercial stations, before heading to public radio.He was on the air the night that John Lennon died in 1980, and he turned WNEW's airwaves into a kind of virtual wake, with callers sharing their grief.  Along the way, he interviewed everybody from David Bowie to Suzanne Vega to Kurt Vonnegut.  I met Vin when we were both working at WFUV in the Bronx, Fordham University’s public radio station, and he did a weekly show called “Idiot’s Delight.” He’s retired now, and I visited him last summer at his home in suburban New Jersey, where he and his wife Freddie had bagels and coffee waiting for me. After we ate and caught up, we went into his home studio to talk.

Amanda Stahl works at Mattingly Edge, a Louisville organization that works with people with disabilities, with the goal of helping them live independently. Amanda has a masters degree in social work, and works at Mattingly as a counselor, talking with clients about personal and emotional issues. She has a disability herself and uses a wheelchair, so she has a particular understanding of some of her clients' specific concerns. I hope you'll listen as Amanda blows up some of the stereotypes that many of us have for people with disabilities. She's a badass.

Musician Dan Zanes calls what he does "family music" or "all-ages music," not "children's music," because he really is playing for everybody. In talking with him, I learned about how he really sees his music and the way he plays as part of an effort toward social justice. We also talked about his new wife (they just got married in January!) and his Grammy award, and he turned me on to some super cool Haitian music.

This week’s guest is a big thinker, with his head in a million different places. He’s got a very public job that puts him in touch with a lot of people -- and the ensemble he leads had the number 1 classical album in the country last year -- but this was a rare opportunity to just sit down and talk with Teddy Abrams, music director of the Louisville Orchestra.

This week's guest is Angie Fenton, a name that’s familiar to many Louisville TV viewers -- she’s frequently seen on WHAS 11, as a contributor to their morning news show. She seems to be everywhere -- emcee-ing a gala event, reporting on happenings all around the community. She’s the editor-in-chief of Extol Magazine, which she runs with her husband, Jason Applegate, and as of December (after our interview was recorded), she's also the editor-in-chief of The Voice-Tribune, a society newspaper.

This week’s guest is a performer who specializes in hiding what he’s actually doing onstage -- and directing your attention elsewhere.

My guest this week is an author based in Corydon, Indiana, not far from Louisville. Frank Bill has just released his third book, a novel titled The Savage. It’s a post-apocalyptic tale of survival, set in and around Corydon after the economy has totally collapsed, and civil society along with it. In a word: it's intense.

Hannah Drake is a poet, a spoken-word artist, and a cultural producer with Ideas xLab, which works at the intersection of health and art. She’s someone who thinks deeply, feels deeply, and communicates brilliantly. All of Hannah’s items were fascinating, but one in particular resonated with me in a way I didn’t expect.

This week, my guest is someone who spends some of his time in creative work, but it’s not something he ever imagined he’d do. James Prichard is a member of Shakespeare Behind Bars, a theatre troupe based at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in LaGrange, Kentucky. That also means -- he’s incarcerated there.