Riverside Chats

Kristine Langley Mahler is a local author who grew up all around the country. The lack of a permanent home in her childhood informs much of her current writing. In her most recent book, 'A Calendar is a Snakeskin,' Mahler excavates personal meaning from astrology, tarot, motherhood, and the past, present and future. On today's show, Mahler is in conversation with Michael Griffin about the art of memoir and the process of putting together her new collection. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

The Inflation Reduction Act, passed last year, is said to be the largest bill ever to address the climate disaster. The legislation includes about $30 billion for homeowners to make energy-efficient upgrades to their houses, such as installing solar panels or a heat pump. Sounds great, right? But it’s daunting for the average taxpayer to navigate the byzantine world of tax credits to access IRA funds for those upgrades. David Holtzclaw wants to help. He owns Transduction Technologies, an engineering firm that provides energy consulting services to commercial and residential clients in Omaha. He’s here today in conversation with Maria Corpuz to explain how local homeowners can take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act to make their homes greener. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

The funny thing about genres like alt, punk, indie is that there was a point when these things were directly in opposition to something mainstream and corporate, but then somewhere along the way they became styles and aesthetics that could also be mainstream. It's not always clear what it means to be alt-rock or alt-country these days or even how to listen to an album in the streaming age where our music habits are changing so rapidly all the time. On today's show, Tom Knoblauch is in conversation with Julia Steiner, whose band Ratboys just released a new album called The Window, about the always-shifting music landscape, the construction of an album, and how she developed her unique style over the past decade. Ratboys will be playing at the Reverb Lounge on October 19th. Tickets can be found here. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

On today's show, Maria Corpuz is in conversation with Andy Saladino, development director of Youth Emergency Services. Youth Emergency Services, or YES, assists youth ages 16 to 21 experiencing homelessness and near homelessness by meeting immediate needs for food, shelter, clothing and safety. YES has a street outreach team whose members distribute supplies out of backpacks and provide immediate information and services. YES’s services also include a 24-hour emergency shelter, transitional living program and maternity group home. YES’s 'Dance for a Chance' Halloween Ball is on Oct. 12 and includes a dance contest and silent auction to raise funds for the organization. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

The Flatwater Film Festival is an annual event committed to bringing together established and first-time filmmakers from across the state of Nebraska to celebrate their art by providing a non-competitive platform that showcases their work, to develop a strong community that promotes inspiration and support, and ultimately to foster the next generation of Nebraska filmmakers. The 2023 festival will be held October 6-8 at the historic Rivoli Theatre in downtown Seward, NE. On today's show, Tom Knoblauch talks with festival founders Joshua Weixelman and Greg Gale about the state of Nebraska's film scene, how it has changed over the past two decades, and what to expect at this year's Flatwater Film Festival. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

On today's show, Maria Corpuz is in conversation with Jewel Rodgers - a poet, artist and placemaker from North Omaha. She was a Buffett Scholar at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and went on to receive a Master’s in Real Estate Development from New York University. She was nominated for best performance poet at the 2022 Omaha Entertainment and Arts Award. Her multi-sensory poetry collection “Wax Over Water” received a Populus Fund Grant in 2023 through the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York, and she’s a 2023 fellow at the Union For Contemporary Art in Omaha.  Rodgers is a youth poetry coach at Culxr House with the Nebraska Writers Collective. She also founded PlaceMade, a resident-led group creating community spaces on vacant lots in North Omaha. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Money is nice, right? It’s fun to buy things. But there are contexts where you’d hope that the equation is more complicated than dollar equals result, like medicine or politics. In particular, Nebraska has been the focus of several concerns about the line between money and political results. Today Jack Gould from Common Cause Nebraska is in conversation with Tom Knoblauch about the influence of lobbyists and special interest groups in our state legislature--as well as what can be done to improve the problems of money in our politics. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Drew Shuck sings and plays the drums in local punk band Bug Heaven. Adam Haug produces beats as Haunted Gauntlet for emcee Conny Franko in M34n Str33t. The bands recently collaborated on the remix of the song “Survived By,” written by Shuck and performed by Bug Heaven. The song, off Bug Heaven’s debut album “We Love to Live in Hell,” is about the pain of losing loved ones to suicide. Bug Heaven and Mean Street, along with rapper S1SW, will perform at The Slowdown on Sept. 7. A portion of the proceeds from the concert and the new song will benefit Youth Emergency Services, which provides outreach, shelter and other resources to unhoused youth, and the mutual aid group Omaha Autonomous Action. On today's show, Maria Corpuz is in conversation with Drew Shuck and Adam Haug about the Omaha DIY music scene, the process of remixing “Survived By,” and what to expect at their upcoming concert. This episode comes with a content warning, as it contains discussion of mental illness and suicide. --- Support this

Last year, author, screenwriter, and host of Studio 360 Kurt Andersen joined Riverside Chats to discuss his two volume explanation of America, Fantasyland and Evil Geniuses. In that conversation, he mentioned that he was working on a third part to this series, which would be fictional. He wouldn’t give away any details at the time, but it turns out that he was working on Command Z, a new 8 part web series directed by Steven Soderbergh. The show follows a team from the 2050s who can transport their consciousnesses back into people today to try to reverse the trends leading to catastrophes of climate, economics, income inequality, and more. Today Andersen is back in conversation with Tom Knoblauch about how the series came to be, what Soderbergh could bring to the Andersen's diagnosis of the American present, and then how a show like this can impact viewers in a bleak political environment. All episodes of Command Z are available now at commandzseries.com. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.

If you’ve ever had Adult Swim on at night and wondered what in the world you’re watching, there’s a good chance you’ve seen something created by Tim Heidecker. He got his start making bizarre sketch series like Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show, Tom Goes to the Mayor, and On Cinema. Since then, he’s appeared in several movies, such as Us, Bridesmaids, and The Comedy and he’s extended his On Cinema universe into the film Mister America and a new subscription service called the Hei Network. His latest turn in a multifaceted career is to a live tour–but maybe not quite in the way you’d expect. Half of his show has him in character as a bumbling, awkward comedian failing to connect with the audience. Then the rest of the show is genuine, authentic music written by Heidecker and performed with his Very Good Band. Today Heidecker is in conversation with Tom Knoblauch about artifice and authenticity, how he harnesses both, and the decision to bundle them in his Two Tims Tour, which you can see at the Admiral on August 2

Nebraska prides itself on its Unicameral, which in theory reduces partisanship by forcing cooperation and moderation. That is, unless it doesn’t. In the headlines from this year’s legislative session, a common concern was whether partisanship had finally overtaken the body. Was this a breaking point? A sign of the future? Just a fluke year? It can be difficult to tell in a vacuum, so today's show has Tom Knoblauch in conversation with attorney Wes Dodge to parse through what happened, why it happened, and what it means for Nebraska going forward. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Satire uses exaggeration to critique something about the world we live in, but what happens if the world is crazier than any satirist can come up with? How does one parody, as Kurt Andersen has put it, "the greatest self-parodists of all time"? On today's show, Tom Knoblauch is in conversation with Geitner Simmons, author of the new book, Android Run, a sci-fi thriller with a heavy dose of satire to discuss the societal role of fiction, journalism, and the pervasive absurdity no one can escape. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

BFF Omaha, formerly known as Benson First Friday, is a nonprofit arts organization whose mission is to build community through art engagement. BFF started in June 2012, and was named the first official Creative District in Nebraska in 2022. On today's show, Michael Griffin is in conversation with Annie Butler, production manager and the advocacy chair, and Petfest founder Zach Schmieder about the annual showcase of local and national musical acts within the Benson community. Petfest 2023 is on August 19 at the Petshop Gallery in Benson. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

The HALLINS Corporation is a nonprofit whose mission is to stimulate constructive change in underserved communities through art and culture. It was founded in 2016, and puts on both the Omaha Jazz Experience and the LOVAM Jazz Festival. The Omaha Jazz Experience is a ticketed jazz concert that raises for the Hallins Corporation. This year’s show is this Saturday, July 22 at Stinson Park and will feature Grammy-winning saxophonist Najee. On today's show, Michael Griffin is in conversation with Lanesa Ballew-Holt and Shontell Perkins about the event, its cultural aims, and what to expect this year. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Think of the last fruit or vegetable you ate. Do you know where it was grown? Who cultivated it? Harvested it? Transported it to the grocery store? Could you begin to guess all of the people and places involved in making sure that apple or celery or bok choy made it to your plate? When the food production system is global, it can be easy to forget that it’s possible to grow produce right here at home. Today Maria Corpuz is in conversation with Stephanie Finklea and Alex O’Hanlon, two urban farmers who are involved with a number of organizations promoting food sovereignty and agriculture here in Omaha. Finklea is the owner and founder of Black Chick Farm. O’Hanlon is a coordinator at Free Farm Syndicate. Both cofounded Omaha Sunflower Coop and collaborate on Blazing Star Seed Cooperative, which aims to teach seed-saving skills and provide free seeds to the community. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

In the Midwest, we love our cars: fast cars, big cars, small cars, loud cars, quiet cars, different cars for different occasions like shoes. Car culture, in other words, is often indistinguishable from Midwest culture, and has been for so long that it feels natural. But what if it's not? On today's show, Daniel Knowles makes the case that cars are ruining the world while making us unhappy and unhealthy—the subject of his new book, Carmageddon: How Cars Make Life Worse and What to Do About It. Talking with Tom Knoblauch, Knowles outlines the rise of cars around the world, their economic and health impacts, how this warps the design of cities, and what it might look like to envision a future reliant on public transportation. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

In China, the phrase “to eat bitterness” means to persist through hardship without complaint. Artist Jennifer Ling Datchuk used the idiom to title her collection of new and recent work, comprising ceramics, textiles, video and other mediums. Datchuk is a Texas-based artist of Irish and Chinese ancestry. In this conversation with Maria Corpuz, she discusses her work, which explores the intersections of her own identity, as well as the role of women and global labor inequality. Through material culture, the history of craft, and by championing the handmade, Datchuk challenges the social, political, and cultural systems that continue to hold women back. “Eat Bitterness” is on display at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts through September 17. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Chalis Bristol, AKA Crabrangucci, was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. She has been actively involved in the music community for years, and has played over 250 shows since 2021. She features an eclectic mix of genres from indie rock to Top 40, to house music, and K-Pop. Bristol also won the 2022 and 2023 Omaha Entertainment & Arts award for “Outstanding DJ.” Additionally, she is the Assistant Director of Sales & Marketing at the Omaha Symphony and a board member at Omaha Girls Rock. Today she talks with Michael Griffin about her experiences finding music through the internet while growing up in Omaha, the role that DJs have in crafting an inviting space for people to hear something new, and the unlikely connection between dance and classical music. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Alajia McKizia was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. She’s had varied experiences in the local arts community, including as a studio assistant at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. Her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at multiple Nebraska galleries including the Union for Contemporary Art, Kaneko and the Tugboat Gallery. She’s also performed with African Culture Connection and .tbd Dance collective. On today's show, Michael Griffin is in conversation with McKizia about her life, journey, and the upcoming Juneteenth Joy Fest arts and culture festival, which supports Black entrepreneurs and artists in celebration of the Juneteenth holiday. The festival is this Saturday, June 17  from noon to 10 p.m. on North 24th Street. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Because Nebraska has been the birthplace of a relatively small number of Hollywood legends, you end up hearing the same names over and over again. And one name anyone listening to this has likely heard of, whether or not they've watched the movies, is Fred Astaire. Astaire was born in Omaha in 1899 and went on to star on stage and screen in a number of highly acclaimed musicals and Hollywood's Golden Age, such as Top Hat and Swing Time. What you may not know is that Fred Astaire had a sister, Adele Astaire, who was also a successful dancer. On today's show, Tom Knoblauch is in conversation with Eliza Knight, whose new novel is Starring Adele Astaire, delving into the life and career of this often overlooked historical figure. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support