Today we speak with the legendary former Creator/Director of the Knoxville Film Festival, Keith McDaniel! We catch up on what's going on Keith's life and feature a great news story about his work at Roane County High School.

A solo podcast where I remember seeing the film Blade on opening night August 21st 1998 with my friend Ethan in the small town of Athens, TN.

In the midst of ongoing debate regarding the military service record of Democratic party vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, Providence's Marc LiVecche spoke with Marine Corps veterans Mac Owens and Keith Pavlischek to clarify the real issues. Focusing on the charge that Walz placed his own interests over his duty to his men by retiring rather th…

Jamison & Tiffie Stalsworth are East Tennessee filmmakers who create short form video under the name Dr Moon Rat. They are awesome. Check out their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/drmoonrat

Paul Harris and Curt Willis are creators of Film Fest Knox. For the first time ever they go DEEP on Elev8or Pitch Film Competition.

Actor Ronnie George is a legend in Knoxville. We hang out and talk about filmmaking and his recent engagement (and of course, Drew Barrymore)

Kelly Burke is a filmmaker for Knoxville, TN. His film won 3rd place at last year's Film Fest Knox Elev8or Pitch film competition. He discusses the making of the film and the mentorship after the festival that he was awarded as a result of the top finish.

Marc LiVecche hosts COL Keith Pavlischek, USMC (RET), long-time Providence contributor for a long-form discussion about the Israel-Hamas War. Points of focus include getting the meaning of proportionality right, the criticality of making basic distinctions between good and evil, right and wrong, causal and moral responsibility, and much else.Among …

Curt Willis is the Co-Founder/Director of Film Fest Knox - an international film festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, hosted by Visit Knoxville and the Visit Knoxville Film Office in partnership with Regal and The Public Cinema. The First Annual Film Fest Knox took place on November 9-11. I speak with Curt about the his first experience organizing a f…

Former Knoxville Film Festival Director Keith McDaniel gets in his undies. My reaction to the announcement from Film Fest Knox's Elev8or Pitch Film Competition

Levi Weaver of The Athletic joins the show to talk about the Rangers building this thing backwards, whether or not it's good to have the current Wild Card situation, and in the second half of the show we talk about megachurches and Rasputin; not necessarily in that order.By Chris Crawford

The Knoxville Comedy Film Festival takes place at Central Cinema on August 12th. It's FREE! Come hang out and watch some funny short films, make friends, be less lonely, find meaning in the meaninglessness.

Michael Baumann of FanGraphs is our special guest this week. We talk about prospect hoarding, play my Baseball-Reference game, and talk a lot about cycling.

Nick Crockett gets in his undies and talks about his new 4 part web series, Glass Valley. View the episodes on YouTube @nicholascrockettfilms Link to episode one: https://youtu.be/--pufjwYXWM

ESPN's Kiley McDaniel joins the latest episode of Sports Sometimes. We discuss the draft, the perks and negatives of having to travel so much for the job, and a bunch of stuff including immaculate grid(s) in the second half of the show.By Chris Crawford

Grant Brisbee of The Athletic joins the show to talk about why we didn't necessarily love the perfect game, why the Giants might be good but not great, and why collecting records is fun, but weird, but fun.By Chris Crawford

In the latest episode of Sports Sometimes, I'm joined by Patrick Daugherty of NBC Sports/Rotoworld. We talk about what it's like to write about fantasy sports, whether the NFL needs to discuss making changes to the sport, and our favorite/least favorite parts of the country.By Chris Crawford

Today's episode features the excellent Meg Rowley; the managing editor of FanGraphs and co-host of Effectively Wild. We talk about subjects like what's surprised us so far in regards to the new rules, whether the A's are a systemic problem, and offer fun things to do in Seattle for the All-Star game come July.…

Today's special guest is Craig Calcaterra, a former colleague of mine at NBC who writes an awesome daily substack Cup Of Coffee, and the equally awesome book Rethinking Fandom: How to Beat the Sports-Industrial Complex at Its Own Game. We talk about how important it is for the commissioner to like baseball, whether a relegation system could ever wo…

Christy Lemire from Roger Ebert and the Breakfast All Day podcast joins the show to talk about her favorite sports movie, the best and worst parts about being a film critic and picks movies set in Seattle as her subject for the second half of the show. Follow Christy on Twitter @christylemire, and subscribe to her and Alonso Duralde's excellent You…

Keith Law of The Athletic joins the show to talk about the best and worst parts about prospect writing, play the Baseball-Reference game and also talk about pizza. Lots and lots and lots of pizza.By Chris Crawford

Knoxville filmmaker, Seth Young, talks about his experience in the Middle TN 54 Film Fest.

Chris Crawford is joined by Jake Mintz and Jordan Schusterman of Cespedes Family BBQ. They discuss the World Baseball Classic, play a fun game involving bWAR, and talk about the Kosher lifestyle/what they'd give up for Lent.By Chris Crawford

David Roth (@david_j_roth) is the first volunteer for this experiment. We discuss the new rules in baseball, the ever changing landscape of college football, and David chooses his own surprise topic.By Chris Crawford

The Knoxville Film Festival closes its doors after 19 years of serving the viewing public. I speak with the Knoxville Film Festival's founder and director Keith McDaniel on his decision to end the festival and the wisdom he's gained over his years running a successful film festival. I also give Keith the opportunity to crown the greatest 7 day shoo…

I catch up with a couple friends at the Knoxville Horror Fest at the Parkway Drive-in Movie theater in Maryville, TN to discuss the 2022 Grindhouse Grindout trailers and the film festival in general. Featuring Daniel Fersner, Ronnie George and Tiffie Stalsworth.

Rebecca Munson—department chair for government and public policy at Liberty University’s Helms School of Government—talks with Mark Melton about how the United States has combatted human trafficking globally. She explains how big of a problem human trafficking is and assesses America’s role in combatting this crime while comparing it to the Europea…

Olivia Enos of the Heritage Foundation speaks with Mark Melton about how the Chinese government has been snuffing out liberty in Hong Kong. She discusses the recent arrests of Cardinal Zen and pro-democracy advocates and explains what they mean for religious liberty in the city-state. She also analyzes the Vatican’s deal with the Chinese Communist …

Jeff Snell calls in via burner phone while on the run to discuss the beefs between him and Kevin Wines, and also Tyler Broadway vs Bing Fu. According to Jeff, Keith McDaniel's video addressing the drama within the community is layered with hidden messages which we break down in this episode.

In this episode, Mark Melton speaks with Paul Miller about what may happen in Ukraine now that the Battle of Kyiv appears to be over and the war is moving into a new, probably longer phase. In addition to discussing the current situation in the country, Miller covers what Russia’s relations with the United States may look like in the medium to long…

In this episode, Mark Melton speaks with Lieutenant Colonel Tyson K. Wetzel (US Air Force) about how the United States can help Ukraine fight Russia effectively without NATO and Russia getting into a war. Wetzel helped conduct a survey and write a report for the Atlantic Council that created a “strategic risk calculator.” The survey asked foreign p…

In this wide-ranging and impassioned conversation about the war in Ukraine, Providence editors Marc LiVecche and Rebeccah Heinrichs, also of the Hudson Institute, discuss the latest developments, the intersection of just war reasoning and the facts on the ground, future options against Putin, how best to assist President Zelensky and his brave comp…

In this episode, Mariam Wahba and Adela Cojab talk about their new show "American-ish: Daughters of Diaspora", which covers the topics of faith, culture, religion, and more. Wahba is a Coptic Christian who was born in Menya, Egypt, and Cojab is a Syrian-Lebanese Jew born in Mexico City. They both now live in New York City. While talking with Mark M…

Weifeng Zhong and Christine McDaniel of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University talk with Mark Melton about the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. They cover how forced labor in China works and how the world knows this is happening. Zhong and McDaniel also discuss potential difficulties with how the law might be implemented and the dilemmas…

Rebeccah Heinrichs of the Hudson Institute speaks with Mark Melton about the Russian threat to Ukraine. She gives an update of the latest situation in Ukraine at the time of recording (the morning of February 7) and explains why Americans should be concerned about a Russian invasion of the country. Heinrichs details how the United States has respon…

Just saying Hi and talking some local film news and recent movies that I've seen.

In this special Dark Ops episode of the podcast, Mark Melton and Marc LiVecche discuss the 1946 movie It’s a Wonderful Life and the short story that inspired it, “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern. The film premiered in New York City 75 years ago on December 20, 1946. During the episode, Melton and LiVecche cover how the movie depicts th…

In this episode Mark Melton speaks with Igor Sabino about the political situation in Brazil and that country’s role in global affairs. They focus on the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, and Sabino explains the reasons why Brazilian evangelicals supported him. While courting the evangelical vote, Bolsonaro promised to improve relations with Israel, so …