Barbara Mujica is a multi-award-winning, bestselling novelist, and a professor emerita at Georgetown University. She’s also a short-story writer, essayist, and critic. She’s been published in The New York Times, The Miami Herald, and The Washington Post. Barbara's stories have appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals. She’s a two-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize for Fiction. And her work has been optioned for the movies and adapted for the stage. Her latest novel, M...

Mike Bodayle is a semi-retired insurance company executive. His favorite things in life are proudly displayed in the images on the four luggage tags found on his suitcase: the Yankees logo, a cassette mix tape, a slice of pizza, and the Starbucks logo. In the mid-1970s Mike wrote about music for his college newspaper. From 1995-2001, Mike published Beyond Belief, an Elvis Costello international fanzine. In 2016, he left printed media for two blogs: The Pizza Snob and Music City Mike.&nb...

Crystal Manich has directed over 90 productions of opera, plays, musical theatre, and circus across the USA, Argentina, Australia, and Europe. Her work has been acclaimed by the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other major publications for her “lively” and “imaginative staging.” She wrote and directed her first opera libretto, Time to Act, written with composer Laura Kaminsky, which premiered at the Pittsburgh Opera in 2026. I saw Time to Act and found it to be well-written,...

Barry Greenfield is making his second appearance on StoryBeat. He’s a working musician and songwriter whose career spans from 1968 to the present. His 12 CDs have enjoyed global sales. Barry’s written three number-one songs and had twenty-plus songs covered by other artists. In 2025, his music was selected by HBO, BBC TV, and Australia Films for their original programming. Barry’s also an author. His first book, a memoir, My Journey to Blue Sky, was published in March 2025. He and I chatted a...

Doug Thompson started his broadcast career at CHUM Radio Toronto in the mid 1960’s. Since then, he’s worked in New York, Los Angeles and London, England. He’s created programming for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Telemedia Network Radio in Canada as well as ABC Radio, NBC Radio, and the Unistar network in the U.S. Doug has written, produced and directed over 1000 hours of network and syndicated radio programming that’s been heard by millions around the world as well as creating se...

My guest today, the actor David Reivers has had a career spanning 40 years in theatre, film, and TV. He’s best known for various TV roles in shows like Charmed, Felicity, Drake and Josh, The Disney Channel’s Jump In, and recently in season one of The Pitt. Film roles include Malcolm X, After the Sunset, Circle, Poseidon, and most recently, The Accountant 2. You may have also seen David from his appearances in over 200 commercials. For the record, David played the voice of Lucky, ...

Stephen Cole is returning to StoryBeat for the third time. He’s an award-winning musical theatre writer whose musicals have spanned the globe. Stephen’s first production was Dodsworth starring Hal Linden. His Off-Broadway musicals include After the Fair, The Road to Qatar and Inventing Mary Martin. He won the prestigious Kleban Award for The Night of the Hunter. And Saturday Night at Grossinger’s had successful runs in Dallas, LA, Florida, and Sonoma. Broadway legend Chita Rivera toured in Ca...

Natalie Lander was inspired to become an actress by watching her dad, David L. Lander, who was best known for playing “Squiggy” on Laverne & Shirley. Natalie has built a résumé that includes a wide range of credits as both a performer and creator. On camera, Natalie has had recurring guest star roles on The Middle, Lopez, and Major Crimes. Other guest-starring credits include Grey’s Anatomy, Étoile, 13 Reasons Why, 9-1-1: Lone Star, Castle, Hannah Montana, and more. She voiced “Goldie” on...

The prolific screenwriter, David Silverman, is back on StoryBeat for the second time. David has written for stars like Robin Williams, Bob Newhart, Rosanne Barr, Drew Carey, Sarah Silverman, Pee Wee Herman, and others. David has co-created 5 TV series and written and produced on more than 30 different series, including hugely popular shows like Newhart, Roseanne, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Alice, Dilbert, and South Park. David co-created The Wild Thornberrys, which spawned two feature...

My guest today, Christine Pedi is known as the “Lady of 1000 Voices." She discovered her talent for multiple personalities through her long association with the legendary Off-Broadway revue, Forbidden Broadway, performing in companies all over the world, including New York, London, Japan, Singapore, and more. Among the dozens of personalities Christine is known to impersonate are: Liza Minelli, Rosie Perez, Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Julie Andrews, Katherine Hepburn and...