Frank Buckley Interviews

Nigel Lythgoe is a TV producer, choreographer, dancer and show creator who is best known for executive producing "American Idol" during many years of its highly successful 15-season run on Fox. He also created (with Simon Fuller) and is the executive producer of "So You Think You Can Dance" on Fox. During this podcast, Nigel discusses his life and career including his childhood in Wallasey, England and the early years of his career. He also reveals what it was like to develop and produce "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance." And then his son Kris Lythgoe joins us to discuss their live stage productions of a centuries-old English holiday tradition known as panto and happening in the U.S. as the "Lythgoe Family Panto," family friendly theater productions happening at venues in Southern California, Tennessee and North Carolina. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Andrew D. Bernstein is the longtime official photographer of the Los Angeles Lakers and senior NBA photographer. His photos are paired with Kobe Bryant's commentary in the new book "The Mamba Mentality: How I Play." During this podcast, Andrew discusses 20 years of photographing Kobe Bryant, specific photos in the book, and his career as one of only two photographers ever inducted into the NBA's Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

In this episode of Frank Buckley Interviews, Frank shares clips from some of KTLA's other podcast offerings from Spoken Dreams, The News Director's Office, and California Cooking. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Luke Davies is an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, novelist and poet best known for the award-winning 2016 film "Lion" and for the novel "Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction" based at least in part on his own experiences as a heroin addict in the 1980s. Luke is the co-writer of the new film "Beautiful Boy" based on the true-life stories of David and Nic Sheff and David's efforts to save his son Nic's life after he becomes addicted to crystal meth. During this podcast, Luke reveals why he almost turned down "Beautiful Boy," and how his own struggles with addiction as a young man helped to inform the writing of the screenplay. He also discusses his next project as an executive producer and writer on George Clooney's production of  "Catch-22" set to air as a mini-series on Hulu. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/thefrankbuckleyinterviews.

Sera Gamble is a TV writer and producer who is the co-creator and executive producer/showrunner of Lifetime's "You" and Syfy's "The Magicians." She is one of only a few women in Hollywood who are in charge of two TV shows. During this podcast, Sera discusses her career from "baby writer" to showrunner, her responsibilities as a female showrunner in the era of the Me Too movement, and her process when it comes to writing and producing two popular TV shows. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Gene Simmons is co-founder of the rock band KISS which has been performing and recording for 45 years. KISS has earned more gold albums (30) than any American band in history. In 2019, the band goes on tour in what it's calling the "End of the Road" farewell tour. Gene is also a prolific entrepreneur and co-founding partner of Rock and Brews restaurants. There are more than three-thousand KISS licensed products including a collaboration with Hello Kitty to market KISS-Hello Kitty merchandise in 90 countries. During this podcast, Gene discusses his life and career, his love of America, his respect for military and first responders, his entrepreneurial spirit, and the upcoming farewell tour. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.  

Ali Noorani is the executive director of the non-partisan National Immigration Forum which describes itself as bringing together "moderate and conservative faith, law enforcement and business leaders...in support of practical and common sense immigration, citizenship and integration policies." Ali is also the author of the book "There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American immigration." During this podcast, Ali discusses his search for nuance in the immigration debate with more than 50 interviews conducted for his book with leaders in faith communities, law enforcement, business, and immigration among others. He also talks about what he calls the "exhausted majority" in the immigration debate, his views on what can be done to achieve comprehensive immigration reform, and how one town in Iowa decided to make it a community effort to welcome immigrants and how that turned out for the town. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Victoria Arlen is an on-air personality at ESPN, a gold and silver medalist from the London Paralympics, and a survivor who was in a vegetative state for nearly four years as a child "locked" in her own body unable to speak, move, eat or communicate with the people around her. During this podcast, Victoria reveals what it was like as she emerged from the vegetative state and was eventually able to communicate to family members that she was conscious and aware of her surroundings despite being unable to move. She also discusses her long road to recovery, her faith and family, her triumph at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, and her zest for life. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews. 

Doris Kearns Goodwin is a presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize winning author. Her new book "Leadership in Turbulent Times" profiles Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson. During this podcast, Doris discusses the human qualities that all of these presidents possessed, she reveals personal experiences she had working with President Johnson, and she explains how the title of her new book and the histories of the presidents she profiles are relevant to our times today. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Nate Boyer is a former U.S Army Green Beret and Iraq and Afghanistan veteran and former football player who in 2016 convinced then San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to kneel during his national anthem protests instead of sitting after Nate wrote an open letter to Kaepernick in the Army Times. Nate is also co-founder of Merging Vets and Players, a non-profit created for combat veterans and former professional athletes to support each other as they transition from active duty and/or professional sports to new chapters in their lives. Nate was a five-year player for the University of Texas Longhorns who made the team after completing his active duty military service. He was also briefly signed to the Seattle Seahawks as a long-snapper. During this podcast, Nate reveals how he ended up standing alongside Kaepernick on the field as the quarterback kneeled for the first time, and he discusses what's happened since that day. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Mirai Nagasu is a figure skater who at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games became the first American woman to land a difficult triple Axel in the Olympics. Her three-and-half revolution jump helped the USA team to win a bronze medal. But Mirai's participation in the Winter Games was marked by controversy after her comments during a press conference that many perceived as criticism of her American teammates. She also suggested that her individual program was an audition for "Dancing with the Stars." During this podcast, Mirai discusses the controversial comments and her performance in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. She also reveals her disappointment about being left off the 2014 USA Olympic team despite placing 3rd at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. And Mira talks about her childhood in Southern California and her future. http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Warren G is a rapper and hip hop legend from Long Beach, California. He was childhood friends with future hip hop stars Snoop Dogg and the late Nate Dogg and in 1990 they formed a group known as "213" after what was then the Long Beach area code. Warren G is one of the pioneers of G-Funk hip hop which became the most popular genre of hip hop of the 1990s. Warren G is probably best known for his song "Regulate" released in 1994 which became an instant hit. During this podcast, Warren G discusses his teen years with Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg, the early days of West Coast hip hop and the G-Funk sound, the story of how "Regulate" was written and produced, and the YouTube documentary "G Funk." Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews. 

MaryLinda Moss is an artist, wife and mother who suddenly became a hostage when an armed gunman stormed into the Silver Lake Trader Joe's store on July 21, 2018 after he'd allegedly shot and wounded his grandmother and girlfriend and led police on a pursuit.   Trader Joe's manager, Melyda Corado, was shot and killed during the initial exchange of gunfire between the suspect, Gene Atkins, and police officers. Some 40 Trader Joe's customers and employees were then held hostage as police negotiators spoke to Atkins and MaryLinda, who at times held the phone during the negotiations.   During this podcast, MaryLinda describes the takeover in detail including how she worked with another customer, Mike D'Angelo, and two store employees to keep the gunman from committing any further violence, and how her earlier life experiences informed her actions that ended with the gunman giving up and walking out of the store in handcuffs with MaryLinda, Mike, and the two store employees. Full show notes available at http://

Taylor Bisciotti is an anchor and reporter for the NFL Network and the youngest on-air person the network has ever hired. She hosts and anchors programs like "ICYMI: All 32" and "NFL Up to the Minute" on the NFL Network. During this podcast, Taylor discusses the challenges she faces as a woman working in the male-dominated NFL, the kinds of inside stories she sees that fans may not be aware of, and she gives us her analysis of the 2018 Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers, and the Oakland Raiders. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Taro Kono is the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Japan and has served in that position since August 2017. He is an eight-term member of Japan's House of Representatives and a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. During this podcast, Minister Kono discusses the state of U.S.-Japan relations including Japan's perspectives on the $68.9 billion U.S. trade deficit with Japan, President Trump's threatened tariffs against Japanese auto imports into the U.S., along with the Japanese view on North Korea and President Trump's recent summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

"Weird Al" Yankovic is a singer-songwriter best known for creating hit songs based on parodies of other hit songs. During this podcast, Al discusses his childhood, his career, and his biggest hits. He explains his approach to writing and performing parodies, reveals the reason why he continued a concert tour despite the sudden death of his parents by carbon monoxide poisoning, and his appreciation for his multi-generation fanbase. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Jay Shetty is a former monk who now makes inspirational videos seen on Facebook and other platforms with the guiding principle to "make wisdom go viral." He achieved two billion views of his videos in 18 months and was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2017 as a game changer in media. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Filmmaker Jon M. Chu returns to the podcast to discuss his latest film, Crazy Rich Asians. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Angelica Ross is a transgender actress and one of the stars of the critically acclaimed FX series "Pose," from the prolific TV producer Ryan Murphy. She is part of what FX says is the largest cast of transgender actors in “regular series” roles in TV history, and the largest recurring cast of LGBTQ actors ever for a scripted series. FX recently announced that Pose was renewed for a second season. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Bassem Youssef was a heart surgeon in Egypt who rose to fame in 2011 during the Arab Spring protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square after becoming a popular political satirist and TV show host. Bassem was known as the Egyptian Jon Stewart while hosting a Daily Show style program "Al-Bernameg" (The Show) that would at one point be seen by 30 million people each week--roughly a third of Egypt's population. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.