Review of my Podcast Experiences

 Mike Vago: Why is This Not a Movie

My friend Mike Vago, children's book author, and A.V. Club columnist has the highly entertaining podcast "Why is This Not a Movie" where people pitch real stories that should be turned into films:
Why Is This Not a Movie?: Who Killed Dorothy Kilgallen w/Orrin Konheim on Apple Podcasts

This is the description of the Podcast I was in:
"Dorothy Kilgallen was a beloved entertainment reporter, a regular on What's My Line, when she took a hard left turn into crime reporting. She covered murders and organized crime. She was the only person to interview Jack Ruby after he killed Oswald, and got to see the Warren Commission report even before LBJ. But when she started to challenge the official story on JFK's assassination, she soon died under mysterious circumstances. Was she murdered? Print journalist Orrin Konheim joins us to talk about Kilgallen succeeding in a male-domainted field, getting close to the Kennedys, and then dying in a manner suspiciously similar to Marilyn Monroe."


As an armchair caster, this is a great podcast to be a part of.

I've been in talks to do two more:

1) Since I was 10 and my dad got me the Book of Marvels for my birthday, I have long considered explorer Richard Haliburton as a role model. Few other people would do the same because he was so much more well-known from the 20s to the 50s then he has been to the last two generations.

I would have pitched this film as a child-friendly story about a Princeton-educated old money guy who was guided by Oscar Wilde's motto of Not Living an Ordinary Life. The film would be told through a few different vignettes including his swimming the Panama Canal for 25 cents, his tracing of the Seven Wonders of the World or his trip aboard the Flying Carpet.

2) My second podcast proposal comes from a book I picked up at the Amtrak train station this past September en route to New Orleans: King Leopold's Ghost.

As this 8-minute video will show you (King Leopold II & the Congo Free State), Belgian King Leopold II instituted a secret slave kingdom in the Congo from 1885-1908 against prevailing European views on slavery. Rather than tell a dismal story about all the pain and suffering inflicted on the natives of the Congo, I would want to tell a story in the mold of "Hotel Rwanda", "The Kite Runner", "Beirut", or "BlacKKKlansman" where people acted against oppression in notable ways. In this case, the biggest decision is where to focus this epic and I'd want to juxtapose the gluttony and excess of King Leopold II (a sovereign who poured money into elaborate castles while never once travelling to the African continent) against the two working class men who bought down his kingdom--Roger Casement and E.D. Morel -- through careful fact finding and a brilliantly plotted campaign.

Shmuel Levy is a friend of mine from when I lived on the Orthodox Jewish community of Richmond, Virginia.

He recently started wanting to get into pod casting as an extension of his abilities to set up audio equipment. 

His recent podcasting series is on films and I discussed the film "Last Night in Soho" with him. We also branched off to the modern blockbuster.

Last Night in Soho with guest Orrin K.mp3 - Google Drive

Elizabeth "Liz" Katheryn Gray is a friend from my research gig at the National Archives and the Head Hauntress at the Sexy Witches podcast. I have been a guest on it a few times. This past April, Liz invited me to Winchester for a weekend trip to a horror film festival. I didn't understand the genre so it was an exercise in giving something new a try. Liz had me on to discuss what it was like being exposed to the genre for the first time and we also were on to review the Oscars that weekend.

7.5: BEST OF 2020 REDUX, THE OSCARS ReCap and The GRINDSPLOITATION FILM FESTIVAL 04/28 by The Sexy Witches | Film (blogtalkradio.com)

And lastly, there's my own channel, which hasn't produced anything lately, but I did produce some stuff. I have continued podcasting with Adam Spector of the DC Film  Society but haven't put up any new stuff in a year.

It's a bit labor intensive to try this new experiment I was envisioning to enhance the visuals with just putting more than our faces.  

On the channel, I talk about movies and talk to people (sometimes at random) about movies: