Many people know John Mauceri from his work as conductor for the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. What is less known is that the orchestra was re-created after a forty-year gap just for him to conduct. He has conducted around the world in a variety of classical formats, and is also an academic and an author. I spoke to him at his home in New York for his …

By Ed Goldberg

By Ed Goldberg

I had the opportunity to see Janis Joplin perform at the Fillmore East. She was astonishing. Her untimely death was a blow to the 60s music scene, and felt personally by her fans. There has been much misinformation over the years about Janis's life, some of it her own creation. Holly George-Warren has done a brilliant and sensitive job of sifting t…

[This interview is unabashedly left progressive. Even if you consider yourself a conservative, I urge you to listen. Thom Hartmann is a scholar of American history and politics and I have not found him to get his facts wrong.]Talkers Magazine ranks Thom as the #1 progressive talk show host in America, with a cumulative audience of 6.5 million (excl…

Cara Wall is a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and Stanford University. While at Iowa, Cara taught fiction writing in the undergraduate creative writing department as well as at the Iowa Young Writer’s Studio in her capacity of founder and inaugural director. She went on to teach middle school English and History and has been published by Gl…

Kira Jane Buxton's writing has appeared in The New York Times, NewYorker.com, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Huffington Post and more. She calls the tropical utopia of Seattle home and spends her time with three cats, a dog, two crows, a charm of hummingbirds and a husband. Her latest book is Hollow Kingdom. I spoke with Kira at our studio.…

Michael Benanav is an author In addition to his books, Michael writes and/or shoots for The New York Times, Lonely Planet, The Christian Science Monitor Magazine, Geographical, Afar, CNN.com, Wend and Hand/Eye among others. His photographic work has been selected to appear in the National Geographic book, Rarely Seen: Images of the Extraordinary an…

Mona Awad was born in Montreal and has lived in the US since 2009. Her debut novel, 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A FAT GIRL (Penguin), won the Amazon Best First Novel Award, the Colorado Book Award and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Arab American Book Award. It was also long-listed for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour and the Internation…

Erica Ferencik is a Massachusetts-based novelist, screenwriter and stand-up comic.Ferencik was born in Urbana, Illinois and later obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in painting and French from University of Massachusetts and later a Master of Arts in creative writing from Boston University.Ferencik did stand-up comedy for ten years at various comed…

EPISODE 6: New Gig, New Perspectives And we're back… after life threw some curveballs. Susan started a new job and needed some time to get her brain refocused on creativity. Dan took spring break off to hang out with the kiddo and go flying with his dad. Lots of running around doing parent stuff. Dan is working on his boat photo project and battlin…

Episode 5: Blizzard Camping & "Ugly Babies" Week three of a winter plague has hit the house right along with the blizzard of the century (so far). We've been scrambling to keep life moving forward despite being snowed in, and have spent lots of time creating. We've had four days of snowbound solitude, sledding and working on projects. It's apartmen…

EPISODE 4: Resolutions & New Beginnings Susan and Dan are catching up at the end of 2015 after a crazy December full of holidays, family stuff and life. Dan has been helping the kiddo learn about color and engage with it in different ways. The kiddo is 6-years old and obsessed with arts and crafts. She has a new paint station and likes to mix paint…

Show Notes Card weaving for CRAFTY birthday party Episode 3: Surviving December - Production vs. Inspiration December is here and we're dragging a bit under the weight of the impending holidays and related fun. Dan has been learning how to edit the podcast and conquering the learning curve. Despite frustrations, it's interesting because it involved…

EPISODE 2: Post-Thanksgiving Inspiration and Birthdays Galore Post Thanksgiving long-weekend relaxation and Happy Birthday to Dan! This week Dan jumps into exploring color in his birthday present, which is a brand new adult coloring book. He was really excited to set aside time to explore creativity for creativity's sake - not for work or related d…

EPISODE 1: Introductions & Welcome to the Sparks & Muses Podcast EPISODE 1: Introductions and Welcome to the Sparks & Muses podcast Susan and Dan introduce themselves, their creative inspirations and how they got started in their creative endeavors. They also discuss why they have decided to document their creative processes publicly through the po…