WDEK Podcast Ep. 93: Cisco Bradley & LaKendra Tookes - 6/29/21

Happy Pride Everyone!  We celebrate our friends and our fashion icon former guest Jack Dwyer!  June was the first month in a year and a half that we were social in a seemingly "normal" way.  Shonali's exhausted already.

Our first guest is Cisco Bradley!  He's an Author, Professor of Cultural & Social History, Free Jazz & and Experimental Music Aficionado!  Just what is "cultural production?"   Cisco has just published a book about the genius free jazz bassist William Parker, titled Universal Tonality. We dig deep into the philosophy and inspiring music & words of this influential artist whose career has spanned over 5 decades.  We tie together Mr. Parker's philosophy of life and art to the current state of the world.  Cisco says "...the history of the United States is the history of racism and the struggles against it..." We discuss underappreciated artists in America & Shonali brings up Shannon Wright, our former Ep. 61 guest! Turns out Cisco is also her fan! Cisco knows what's up! 

Father-to-be Justin The Intern gets his own Get It Off Your Chest segment and he surprises us all with what is annoying him today. We are all injured.  Christian insists everyone must get Zoom First Aid Kit. 

Our second guest is comedian, former SNL writer, actress LaKendra Tookes!  LaKendra does not discount out all catcallers! She shares what is acceptable.  LaKendra gives us an honest account of her times down time during this pandemic.  She has decided "she only wants to do work that uplifts & celebrates black people and black joy." She is resilient and radiates hope! LaKendra shares her guilty pleasure - reality tv! Did you know LaKendra and her dog Savannah are not scared of rabid squirrels?! 

And we leave you with the fresh summer dance hit by comedian Greg Barris! Check it out here on YouTube- Galimmimus! Enjoy and stay safe, mask up everyone.  The variant is surging across America! 

Ep. 47: Jeffrey Joseph, Amanda Duarte, Tyson Meade & Nimesh Patel - Oct. 25, 2016

Comedian Nimesh Patel fills and special guest co-host for our spooky October 2016 edition of We Don’t Even Know. How Indian do you believe Shonali and Nimesh are? They wonder if anyone really cares.

Their first guest is comedian, actor, writer and teacher Jeffrey Joseph. What does he not do? We find out why he left a successful career in comedy to destress himself for ten years and what made him come back. Besides performing standup regularly, he teaches playwriting to youth and knows qi gong, a Chinese energy cultivation exercise. He also went to India before Nimesh ever did. What does that say about Nimesh?  Shonali and Jeffrey are chicken pox nose scar twins. Shonali has some frightening news for you.  Sorry to bum you out.

Our second guest is Amanda Duarte, a writer, performer, comedian and is responsible (along with her new friend - NYTimes writer, Jessica Bennet who created the art) for starting the viral sensation #PussyGrabsBack.  Sales proceeds of her PGB shirts on spreadshirt.com go to the Rape and Incest Network.  Amanda is not scared of ghosts, but she does share what she is scared of.  Go see her monthly show Dead Darlings at Judson Memorial Church. Today’s #GetItOffYourChest guest is former WDEK episode 13 guest and Shonali’s former personal trainer, Reno Villacis.

Here from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, our special musical guest is a musician, painter and writer named Tyson Meade.  Tyson and Shonali have infectious laughs that could get on Nimesh’ nerves.  Tyson has a similar story to Jeffrey Joseph’s, in that he quit music for 10 years and has recently rediscovered himself as a musician.  In his early years as a musician, he influenced artists like Kurt Cobain, Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips and Billy Corgan.  In between those years and now, Meade ran a boarding school in China and taught electricians to learn English in Saudi Arabia. He rediscovered music while helping a prodigal violin player student in China.   The end result is a new solo album to be released by him in February, and one released last year titled “Tomorrow In Progress.”  Enjoy him hear singing "Tiniest of Guys" and “She’s Gone Mad.”  Enjoy and next month Christian will return for our November episode. 

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EP. 43 - Kim Barker, Sasheer Zamata & Holly Miranda - May 31, 2016

We catch up with Christian who auditioned to become a hand model & Shonali who returned from her honeymoon in Peru. Their new segment GET IT OFF YOUR CHEST is now open to audience members.  Please share your rants with us on stage at the next show. We will rap right along with you. Highlights of Ep. 43 include Christian’s first time receiving a mani-pedi and Shonali’s new fluency in Spanish.

WDEK’s first guest is journalist, NY Times reporter and author of the Taliban Shuffle, Kim Barker.  Kim shares her need to write a dark comedy about war after being the bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune in South Asia.  The movie version of her book, became Whiskey Tango Foxtrot starring Tina Fey.  Kim grew up wanting to be a superhero but settled for being a journalist.  Find out about bruised peaches, her 18 points twitter rant and her love of writing New York stories, “a wonderful big awesome corrupt place.” WDEK’s long time sound engineer Stephen Kurpis is leaving but not without giving us his famous secret marinara sauce recipe. One secret - do not use Extra Virgin Olive Oil (see below).  Thank you Stephen.

Comedian, actress and SNL cast member Sasheer Zamata talks duvets with Christian and Shonali. They are hard work.  Our conversation with Sasheer covers SNL, celebrity, Larry Wilmore’s use of the N-word and what it’s like to be confused with other funny black women. Also, watch out for Sasheer’s mom who may very well become one of the newest cast members of SNL.

Our musical guest is Holly Miranda, also a former Tennessean who was given speech therapy to lose her accent when she moved to Detroit.  Holly who has been playing music since she was 16, very poignantly explains she “had a life” when she took five years off between her latest album and her previous one.  We talk Joshua Tree, Ayahuasca, and song writing. Between Christian, Shonali & Holly they have written at least 3 fan letters - find out to whom by listening to this special episode of We Don’t Even Know. What a treat to hear Holly Miranda perform three beautiful songs for us.  We melt.  Please follow us on Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook.  We will meet again on Episode 43!

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