Riverside Chats

Keyonna King is an associate professor in the UNMC College of Public Health. She holds a doctorate in public health from Loma Linda University. King specializes in community-based participatory research, or CBPR, an approach that works with community members to make public health programs more equitable and inclusive.  King is also a co-investigator in UNMC’s BEAT Cancer study. BEAT Cancer, which stands for Black Equity, Access and Testing for Cancer, seeks to increase colorectal cancer screening and decrease mortality rates related to the disease in Omaha’s Black community. Today she is in conversation with Michael Griffin. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Josh Tague was born and raised in Omaha and has a business degree from UNO. He’s played guitar in various bands and is a regular audience member at local concerts — including performances by the biggest local band in town, the Omaha Symphony. As director of marketing and communications at the Omaha Symphony, Tague is responsible for building and cultivating the group’s audiences and brand. Today, Tague and Michael Griffin are talking about the symphony’s history and about how classical music spaces can become more diverse and inclusive.  The Omaha Symphony could be Grammy winners after this weekend. The ensemble is nominated in three categories for its work with composer Andy Akiho, who was commissioned to pay tribute to Ree and Jun Kaneko. The resulting album, “Sculptures,” was premiered and recorded at the Holland Center in March of last year and conducted by music director Ankush Kumar Bahl.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Jaden Perkins is grassroots community organizer from Omaha who specializes in coalition building. He currently works for the Heartland Workers Center as a policy fellow. Perkins has also worked on campaigns for local political candidates, including Dave Pantos, Cammy Watkins, and Jasmine Harris.  His event, "Politically Speaking… It’s a Drag," uses performing arts to help audiences understand political issues. Perkins previously hosted the event in October of 2022 with then–Douglas County Attorney candidate Dave Pantos. "It’s a Drag" will be held on Saturday, Jan. 27 at The Sydney in Benson. Today's show is a conversation between Perkins and Michael Griffin. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Mia Perales is a freshman at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Last year she won an environmental achievement award from the Nebraska chapter of the Sierra Club after leading climate work with the city-wide group Students for Sustainability and starting a lunch composting program at Omaha South High School that’s since been adopted at Central High School. David Corbin is a longtime environmentalist in Omaha. He’s been a public health professor at UNO, a leader in the local Sierra Club and a staple at Earth Day in Elmwood Park with his guitar and extensive catalog of Neil Young songs. Currently he’s involved with a group protesting the North Omaha coal plant’s delayed shutdown from 2023 to 2026. Omaha officials are currently working on a plan to prepare for and prevent the worst effects of climate change. On today's episode, Perales and Corbin are in conversation with Chris Bowling. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Lee Emma Running is an artist who sculpts with animal bones, glass and precious metals. She uses her work to engage audiences in conversations about the impact of human-built systems on the natural world, and explore the intersection of art and science. Running’s work “Opera Coat” was unveiled on Nov. 11 at Kaneko, the culmination of her year-long residency with Opera Omaha. “Opera Coat” is an enameled cast iron sculpture, embellished with copper and bronze. It’s a direct cast of a coat in Opera Omaha’s costume wardrobe, meaning each piece of the sculpture is cast exactly from the fabric. The piece is on display at Kaneko through Feb. 11 and here is Running's conversation with Michael Griffin. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Jen Landis is an artist, author, and assistant professor of practice in graphic design at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Her organization, Pincurl Girls, started in 2009 and creates products and services to help young girls find their confidence--including a podcast, art classes, a scholarship program, and a text club that sends daily words of affirmation to members. In July, Landis published the tween and teen self-help book, 'Skip the Bad Songs: the Art of Rocking a Happy Mindset.' On today's show, Landis is in conversation with Maria Corpuz about how the book can help youth during common challenges in that stage of life, including advice on fostering new relationships, creating healthy routines, recognizing accomplishments, and more tactile things like step-by-step instructions for making a zine. Landis also discusses her own mental health journey, how parents and caregivers can empower their teens, and why it's important for everyone to talk about their feelings. --- Support th

Omaha native Aissa Aset Bey is a loctician, artist, and entrepreneur. Her business, Loc Legacies, offers services related to Black haircare as well as education and training for aspiring locticians. Bey is in conversation with Michael Griffin about the culture and science of hair. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Problems today rarely originate in our present context. Some problems are so deeply rooted in human history and maybe human nature that it’s a tall order to try to diagnose, let alone solve them in an hour on the radio. But we try! Today, attorney and Common Cause Nebraska advisory board member Wes Dodge is back on the show to discuss the thorny issue of religion in our political discourse–how America’s complicated relationship with Christianity has manifested and been co-opted across our history, and what it means for our future. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

On today's show, Nebraska State Senator Tony Vargas talks with Michael Griffin about the issues on his mind as he runs against Congressman Don Bacon to represent Nebraska's Second Congressional District in the 2024 election. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Kristine Langley Mahler is a local author who grew up all around the country. The lack of a permanent home in her childhood informs much of her current writing. In her most recent book, 'A Calendar is a Snakeskin,' Mahler excavates personal meaning from astrology, tarot, motherhood, and the past, present and future. On today's show, Mahler is in conversation with Michael Griffin about the art of memoir and the process of putting together her new collection. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

The Inflation Reduction Act, passed last year, is said to be the largest bill ever to address the climate disaster. The legislation includes about $30 billion for homeowners to make energy-efficient upgrades to their houses, such as installing solar panels or a heat pump. Sounds great, right? But it’s daunting for the average taxpayer to navigate the byzantine world of tax credits to access IRA funds for those upgrades. David Holtzclaw wants to help. He owns Transduction Technologies, an engineering firm that provides energy consulting services to commercial and residential clients in Omaha. He’s here today in conversation with Maria Corpuz to explain how local homeowners can take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act to make their homes greener. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

The funny thing about genres like alt, punk, indie is that there was a point when these things were directly in opposition to something mainstream and corporate, but then somewhere along the way they became styles and aesthetics that could also be mainstream. It's not always clear what it means to be alt-rock or alt-country these days or even how to listen to an album in the streaming age where our music habits are changing so rapidly all the time. On today's show, Tom Knoblauch is in conversation with Julia Steiner, whose band Ratboys just released a new album called The Window, about the always-shifting music landscape, the construction of an album, and how she developed her unique style over the past decade. Ratboys will be playing at the Reverb Lounge on October 19th. Tickets can be found here. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

On today's show, Maria Corpuz is in conversation with Andy Saladino, development director of Youth Emergency Services. Youth Emergency Services, or YES, assists youth ages 16 to 21 experiencing homelessness and near homelessness by meeting immediate needs for food, shelter, clothing and safety. YES has a street outreach team whose members distribute supplies out of backpacks and provide immediate information and services. YES’s services also include a 24-hour emergency shelter, transitional living program and maternity group home. YES’s 'Dance for a Chance' Halloween Ball is on Oct. 12 and includes a dance contest and silent auction to raise funds for the organization. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

The Flatwater Film Festival is an annual event committed to bringing together established and first-time filmmakers from across the state of Nebraska to celebrate their art by providing a non-competitive platform that showcases their work, to develop a strong community that promotes inspiration and support, and ultimately to foster the next generation of Nebraska filmmakers. The 2023 festival will be held October 6-8 at the historic Rivoli Theatre in downtown Seward, NE. On today's show, Tom Knoblauch talks with festival founders Joshua Weixelman and Greg Gale about the state of Nebraska's film scene, how it has changed over the past two decades, and what to expect at this year's Flatwater Film Festival. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

On today's show, Maria Corpuz is in conversation with Jewel Rodgers - a poet, artist and placemaker from North Omaha. She was a Buffett Scholar at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and went on to receive a Master’s in Real Estate Development from New York University. She was nominated for best performance poet at the 2022 Omaha Entertainment and Arts Award. Her multi-sensory poetry collection “Wax Over Water” received a Populus Fund Grant in 2023 through the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York, and she’s a 2023 fellow at the Union For Contemporary Art in Omaha.  Rodgers is a youth poetry coach at Culxr House with the Nebraska Writers Collective. She also founded PlaceMade, a resident-led group creating community spaces on vacant lots in North Omaha. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Money is nice, right? It’s fun to buy things. But there are contexts where you’d hope that the equation is more complicated than dollar equals result, like medicine or politics. In particular, Nebraska has been the focus of several concerns about the line between money and political results. Today Jack Gould from Common Cause Nebraska is in conversation with Tom Knoblauch about the influence of lobbyists and special interest groups in our state legislature--as well as what can be done to improve the problems of money in our politics. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Drew Shuck sings and plays the drums in local punk band Bug Heaven. Adam Haug produces beats as Haunted Gauntlet for emcee Conny Franko in M34n Str33t. The bands recently collaborated on the remix of the song “Survived By,” written by Shuck and performed by Bug Heaven. The song, off Bug Heaven’s debut album “We Love to Live in Hell,” is about the pain of losing loved ones to suicide. Bug Heaven and Mean Street, along with rapper S1SW, will perform at The Slowdown on Sept. 7. A portion of the proceeds from the concert and the new song will benefit Youth Emergency Services, which provides outreach, shelter and other resources to unhoused youth, and the mutual aid group Omaha Autonomous Action. On today's show, Maria Corpuz is in conversation with Drew Shuck and Adam Haug about the Omaha DIY music scene, the process of remixing “Survived By,” and what to expect at their upcoming concert. This episode comes with a content warning, as it contains discussion of mental illness and suicide. --- Support this

Last year, author, screenwriter, and host of Studio 360 Kurt Andersen joined Riverside Chats to discuss his two volume explanation of America, Fantasyland and Evil Geniuses. In that conversation, he mentioned that he was working on a third part to this series, which would be fictional. He wouldn’t give away any details at the time, but it turns out that he was working on Command Z, a new 8 part web series directed by Steven Soderbergh. The show follows a team from the 2050s who can transport their consciousnesses back into people today to try to reverse the trends leading to catastrophes of climate, economics, income inequality, and more. Today Andersen is back in conversation with Tom Knoblauch about how the series came to be, what Soderbergh could bring to the Andersen's diagnosis of the American present, and then how a show like this can impact viewers in a bleak political environment. All episodes of Command Z are available now at commandzseries.com. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.

If you’ve ever had Adult Swim on at night and wondered what in the world you’re watching, there’s a good chance you’ve seen something created by Tim Heidecker. He got his start making bizarre sketch series like Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show, Tom Goes to the Mayor, and On Cinema. Since then, he’s appeared in several movies, such as Us, Bridesmaids, and The Comedy and he’s extended his On Cinema universe into the film Mister America and a new subscription service called the Hei Network. His latest turn in a multifaceted career is to a live tour–but maybe not quite in the way you’d expect. Half of his show has him in character as a bumbling, awkward comedian failing to connect with the audience. Then the rest of the show is genuine, authentic music written by Heidecker and performed with his Very Good Band. Today Heidecker is in conversation with Tom Knoblauch about artifice and authenticity, how he harnesses both, and the decision to bundle them in his Two Tims Tour, which you can see at the Admiral on August 2

Nebraska prides itself on its Unicameral, which in theory reduces partisanship by forcing cooperation and moderation. That is, unless it doesn’t. In the headlines from this year’s legislative session, a common concern was whether partisanship had finally overtaken the body. Was this a breaking point? A sign of the future? Just a fluke year? It can be difficult to tell in a vacuum, so today's show has Tom Knoblauch in conversation with attorney Wes Dodge to parse through what happened, why it happened, and what it means for Nebraska going forward. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support