Alex Ebert is a man on mission; he wants to set you free. Through confronting his addiction and destructive lifestyle, Alex was able to enter a period of deep reflection and personal excavation, uncovering his root and the flower it feeds. In this journey he unearthed his ability to disrobe and unmask in the face of social anxiety and worldly pressures. Now, as the front man to the band, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, in front of thousands of... Read more
I was a junior in high school when I first came across the legend that is Larry Campbell. Bob Dylan had just reemerged onto the music world with the release of his Grammy winning record, Time Out Of Mind, and had been on the road playing his “never ending tour.” Standing next to him from 1997 until 2004 was a slick looking gunslinger named Larry Campbell. I remember always being drawn towards Larry onstage for two reasons: First, and most... Read more
After leaving high school Arian and I set out on separate artistic journeys. Mine led me to the West Coast and eventually living in a van for a couple years. Arian’s, on the other hand, led him to New York where he co-founded the theater company Waterwell. Twelve years after high school graduation I sat in a Broadway theater in New York and watched my old friend alongside Robin Williams in the production “Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo.” Arian... Read more
Three and a half miles from my house runs the Milwaukee River. Not too big, not too impressive, bearing the name of a city of the same characteristics. When I first moved out of the city and north I didn’t know too much about the area. What was there to know? I assumed it was, like all other small Wisconsin towns, a German settlement from back in the 1800s. I was a little worried about moving out of the city. ... Read more
I met Christopher West when I was 21 years old and a student at Marquette University. He is 10 years older, but at the time, he seemed 150 years ahead of me and from another universe. He had conviction, faith, and spoke a foreign language. We were coming from different places, it was clear, and I wasn’t too sure I wanted to be associated with his end of anything. Then we talked about music and a bridge was formed. A... Read more
As a kid I made my room into a living-breathing thing. My room was vibe, full of image, sound, smell and feel … (smell?). It wasn’t color; it was tone. Like an Instagram filter it just had haze and drift. I remember distinctly going to the mall and resale shops in suburban Chicago looking for fitting additions. Felt posters of Marley and Zeppelin, tie-dye tapestries, Christmas lights, rugs, incense, candles and blacklight. I even had an electric kettle and I... Read more
At the time of this interview, summer of 2015, Kristian Bush was the most popular guest I have had on my podcast. He had come out of the Atlanta music scene when it was on fire, launching acts like REM, Indigo Girls, Black Crows, Shawn Mullins, John Mayer and his band, Billy Pilgrim. Billy Pilgrim had some success touring the world, even appearing in one of the first episodes of VH1 storytellers. Next for him was the creation of pop/country... Read more
When I scheduled an interview with sportscaster Brian Anderson, I wasn’t sure how to approach the conversation. What is the common thread between Brian’s work and my other guests, like Jim Gaffigan or Greg Brown, who are mostly artists and performers? Does Brian fit into the world of artistic inspiration and expression? Was this conversation going to fit my podcast theme? Was it a loss?? It wasn’t until our conversation was underway that I realized… Brian is a storyteller! At... Read more
I often find myself straddling a life of the sacred and secular. The goal is always to seamlessly weave the two, never letting one negatively influence the other. The objective is to see the sacred in all the places it resides, to see the wheat in the weeds and live life accordingly. This whole podcast, Time & The Mystery: Conversations with Mike Mangione, has been an effort to find that magical place where the sacred dwells in the secular and... Read more
I remember being taken back by Johnny Cash’s description of his childhood in his autobiography, Cash. He spoke about the hardships of moving to government subsidized land in Arkansas with his family and having to work the land with his father. The land was littered with stone and needed to be cleared in order to field a potential harvest. Even then their efforts would be at the mercy of nature’s elements. Early on in his story, I was mesmerized by... Read more
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