Frank Buckley Interviews

It's a new year. Is one of your resolutions to be more mindful? Maybe you've heard of mindfulness and wondered what it means. My guest on this podcast is Andy Puddicombe who says meditation is the way to achieve mindfulness. He's co-founder of Headspace, a meditation app that London's Telegraph newspaper described as having "brought mindfulness to the masses." The company is a thriving start-up with offices in London and Santa Monica that claims 11 million downloads and users in 190 countries. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Nancy Silverton is one of the most celebrated and honored chefs in the U.S. and is a co-owner of three of the most popular and well-regarded restaurants in Los Angeles--Osteria Mozza, Pizzeria Mozza, and Chi Spacca. With partners Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich, the three restaurants have wowed critics and diners from the day each opened. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Actor Corbin Bernsen became a star with his portrayal of divorce lawyer Arnie Becker in the critically acclaimed, audience favorite "L.A. Law" on NBC from 1986-1994. He also starred in another long-running series "Psych" from 2006-2014. Fans will also remember him from major roles in movies like the "Major League" franchise among many others. In recent years, Corbin has also become known for being a filmmaker with a production company that focuses on family and faith. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Jonathan Gold is the restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times. He is the most influential restaurant critic in Southern California. His "Jonathan Gold's 101 Best Restaurants" list in the Los Angeles Times is a bible for foodies, and being on the list is the aspiration of every restaurateur and chef in Southern California. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Dave Holmes is the editor at large for Esquire.com and a former VJ on MTV. He got the VJ job in the late 1990s after being a contestant on MTV's "Wanna be a VJ?" contest. His book "Party of One" is an honest and hilarious memoir about being a boy in a big Catholic family in St. Louis in the 1970s, about his time on MTV, about feeling like he was "different" at an early age, and about how being a closeted gay kid led to him feeling like an outsider. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

David Koechner is probably best known for his role as the absurd Champ Kind in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and its sequel. But that's just one role of some 160 or so film and TV credits to his name. Many of them are comedic roles. After all, he trained at Second City Theater in Chicago and was a cast member on Saturday Night Live in the mid 90s. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

McDonald's Big Mac and fries? You can place that order just about anywhere in the world. In the 1940s though, this American success story was just a single restaurant in San Bernardino, California started by a couple of brothers named McDonald. That is until a man named Ray Kroc entered the picture in 1954 and became the franchising agent for McDonald's. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Romany Malco is an actor who you'll recognize from films like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Think Like A Man" and from TV shows like Showtime's "Weeds" and ABC's "No Ordinary Family." Recently, he starred in Amazon's "Mad Dogs." In short, he's a well-respected and constantly working actor who you probably recognize. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Corporal Todd Nicely was leading a group of Marines on a security patrol in Afghanistan on March 26, 2010 when he stepped on a 40-pound bomb. Corporal Nicely survived the blast, but the improvised explosive device left him a quadruple amputee. Today this young man is one of only five Americans to survive deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan as quadruple amputees. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Dr. Kristi Funk is a breast cancer surgeon who was thrust into the public eye in 2013 when Angelina Jolie wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times explaining her decision to have a double mastectomy. In it, she mentioned that she had the procedure at Dr. Funk's Pink Lotus Breast Center in Beverly Hills. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

If you've ever been laid off from a job and heard the cliche phrase: "When one door closes, another one opens," and wondered: Does it really? Candace Nelson, founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes, is proof that it can in a big way. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Sara Blakely is the founder and owner of Spanx--a company that has disrupted the undergarment business with a product that Sara invented in her apartment after cutting the feet out of a pair of pantyhose. Today, she's a self-made billionaire. Full show notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Dr. Francine Kaufman is the chief medical officer for the Diabetes Group at Medtronic. On September 28th, the medical technology company announced a major breakthrough in the treatment of type 1 diabetes. Full podcast notes available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Adam Nagourney, Los Angeles Bureau Chief of the New York Times, is my guest on this podcast "extra" edition of "Frank Buckley Interviews." I wanted to speak with the former chief national political correspondent for The Times before the third and final debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Full episode notes available at ktla.com/FrankBuckleyInterviews.

James Worthy is a Lakers legend; A Hall of Famer who is considered to be one of the 50 best to ever play in the NBA. He played with the Los Angeles Lakers during one of the team's most exciting periods--the "Showtime" era led by Magic Johnson. Full show notes available at ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Roy Choi is the co-founder and co-owner of Kogi Korean BBQ--several taco trucks which began rolling in LA in 2008 serving delicious Korean barbecue in a Mexican taco. The taste sensation and the way it was marketed--via Twitter--revolutionized food trucks and launched a chef onto the world stage. Full show notes are available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Asdru Sierra is a co-founder, lead singer, and musician with the popular and Grammy-winning band Ozomatli. The LA-based band has won Grammys for best Latin rock/alternative and Latin Grammys for best alternative music album. But their music crosses multiple genres. It's eclectic and sometimes hard to define, but Ozomatli is always interesting. Full show notes are available at ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Vin Scully is retiring after a remarkable 67 years with the Dodgers. No one in the history of baseball — or any professional sports team for that matter — has been a broadcaster with one team for that long. Among his many honors and awards over the decades was being the grand marshal of the 125th Rose Parade in Pasadena. Full show notes available at ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor are best friends who founded a global fashion empire. Juicy Couture pioneered velour tracksuits for women with the word “Juicy” embroidered across the rears of the celebrities who wore them and women who aspired to dress like them. Full show notes are available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.

Rob Manning is a man of many hats at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California-- including the chief engineer of the Mars Curiosity Rover. Rob is well-positioned to give us an overview of what's happening on Mars now, and what we can expect in the years ahead. Full show notes are available at http://ktla.com/frankbuckleyinterviews.