Vocalist Kenny Williams

Well friends, it has been a while hasn't it!? So much has changed since I last recorded an episode and took a very unexpected break so that I could MOVE BACK TO CALIFORNIA!

If you hadn't heard already, Dr. Roben and I bought a 12 acre farm near where we grew up in San Jose. The place is beyond amazing and we are hard at work to turn it into the place of our dreams. I have uploaded a number of video's documenting the process on Youtube. 

With a lack of decent internet and even worse cell phone service I may not be able to do as many interviews as I would like so I figured I would make this season about the move back and talk about what I am learning about life on the farm! I hope you stick around and enjoy! 

Episode 24 - Amanda Weiler took a class in high school which changed her life forever when she learned to SCUBA dive. After working in some pretty delightful spots around the world doing research, she eventually made her way to Chicago where she began volunteering at and then working at Shedd Aquarium.  She is now working as a dive officer at Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas.

Instagram - scubamanda

Music
Father John Misty: “Fear Fun” “I love you, honey bear” & “Pure Comedy”
Iration: “Hotting Up” & “Time Bomb”
Slightly Stoopid: “Everything you need” & “top of the world”
Arcs: “yours, dreamily,”

Podcast
ologies by Alie Ward


https://www.whatcanyoutellme.com/

https://www.instagram.com/whatcanyoutellme/

https://www.facebook.com/whatcanyoutellme/

What Can You Tell Me Spotify Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4VCQ3STiUJkW0ktT7g73G4?si=Fa6OsJdXRlyDc3Vm0Aqt3w

Episode 23

Melani Hoffman was born in Flint, Michigan and as a young adult settled in Chicago alongside her brother. She went to college but it just wasn't for her. She worked in bars and restaurants and quickly worked her way up to management. Melani moved from Chicago to NY and spent several years learning about beers and at the same time running a small theater. A move back to Chicago gave her the opportunity to open her own bar, The Green Lady, a phenomenal beer-focused bar located at 3328 N Lincoln Ave.
www.thegreenladychicago.com

Instagram:tglchicago 

Fb:The Green Lady

Twitter: TGLChicago

Music

Black Pumas

https://www.whatcanyoutellme.com/

https://www.instagram.com/whatcanyoutellme/

https://www.facebook.com/whatcanyoutellme/

What Can You Tell Me Spotify Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4VCQ3STiUJkW0ktT7g73G4?si=Fa6OsJdXRlyDc3Vm0Aqt3w

Episode 22 - David Kovac is an incredibly charming and talented actor turned magician who keeps busy entertaining and emceeing at the world-famous Magic Castle. David talks about growing up Buddhist, getting slapped by The Cat in the Hat, how his wedding was almost ruined until some wonderful friends came together to save the day, and how the graceful Neil Patrick Harris spent an evening with his sister while she was flying solo at the Magic Castle.

http://www.davidkovac.com

MUSIC

Shirley Horn - I Love You Paris (live)

Leonard Cohen

Mccoy Tiner with Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane

https://www.whatcanyoutellme.com/

https://www.instagram.com/whatcanyoutellme/

https://www.facebook.com/whatcanyoutellme/

What Can You Tell Me Spotify Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4VCQ3STiUJkW0ktT7g73G4?si=Fa6OsJdXRlyDc3Vm0Aqt3w

Episode 21 -  
Ellen Joyce grew up in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago, a classic south side Irish neighborhood. She went to school at Eastern Illinois University and earned a degree in Public Health Education and then went to graduate school at University of Illinois for the same.

At 25 Ellen moved back to Chicago when her mother had a stroke and she took the test to become a police dispatcher. Two years later she got the call that she was hired. This was in 1998 and 22 years later she is still on the job.

Some hilarious calls that she has received while dispatching.

MUSIC

Classic Rock

Beatles

Led Zeppelin

Ani DiFranco

https://www.whatcanyoutellme.com/

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What Can You Tell Me Spotify Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4VCQ3STiUJkW0ktT7g73G4?si=Fa6OsJdXRlyDc3Vm0Aqt3w

Episode 20-

Samuel Sake

https://www.tesfacuisine.com/

https://www.instagram.com/tesfaethiopiancuisine/

https://www.wbez.org/stories/chicagos-beloved-ethiopian-restaurants/d1f87d9d-4355-4116-9dad-bc08c2ab5e54

Born and raised in Moyale, Ethiopia in 1990, Samuel moved to Chicago in 2005 speaking about six words of English. Listen as he recounts his amazing first time experiencing snow fall and cold, the hilarious time he was asking for a rubber in a high school class and how we met when he began training circus at Circesteem as a teenager.

Samuel now runs a successful restaurant with his mother- TESFA Ethiopian Cuisine, an absolutely delicious restaurant in Uptown, Chicago that you MUST try!

Sometimes money cannot buy you anything- Try to get someone to carry a suitcase up a mountain for money in Ethiopia… NO... for a chicken maybe...

Ethiopian Music-

Teddy Afro

Yared Negu

https://www.whatcanyoutellme.com/

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What Can You Tell Me Spotify Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4VCQ3STiUJkW0ktT7g73G4?si=Fa6OsJdXRlyDc3Vm0Aqt3w

Episode 19 -

Today I interview vocalist Kenny Williams. Since the age of 5 when he began singing into a hair brush, the sound coming out of Kenny’s mouth has made people stop and listen, whether he was on a Broadway stage, performing on a cruise ship, or as lead singer with the Platters.

http://www.kennywilliamssings.com

https://www.instagram.com/kennywilliamssings/

Music

Gregory Porter

Lianne La Havas 

https://www.whatcanyoutellme.com/

https://www.instagram.com/whatcanyoutellme/

https://www.facebook.com/whatcanyoutellme/

Episode 18 -

Carnival Owner Bill Johnson

Fantasy Amusement Company

https://fantasyamusements.com/

http://www.showmensleague.org/

https://www.oaba.org/

Listen to Bill Johnson talk about how, as a child growing up in 1960's Chicago, he stumbled upon a carnival where he was hired to pick up baseballs at one of the games. While working odd jobs in his young adult life Bill always made his way back to the carnival. When he was 24 years old Bill bought his first ride for $20,000 and today owns Fantasy Amusement Company, an Arlington Heights based carnival ride company.

https://www.whatcanyoutellme.com/

https://www.instagram.com/whatcanyoutellme/

https://www.facebook.com/whatcanyoutellme/

Episode 17 - 

Chris DeRose is currently living in Billings, Montana and working as a reporter with KTVQ and the Montana Television Network. 

Chris started his professional career in Chicago back in 2007. Coming to the Windy City just after college, Chris studied improv and sketch comedy, as well as writing and acting at world famous theaters like The Second City, iO, and Comedy Sportz. He quickly became a staple in the Chicago comedy scene and even help to found the musical improv group Mansical, which still preforms to this day.

It was also during this time, that he was “discovered” while working as a Chicago City Tour Guide onboard a double decker bus. A producer from a local television show spotted Chris and offered him a job on TV. The rest is history. That launched Chris’s career as a daily feature reporter on You & Me, a fun morning television show on WCIU-TV.

During his time at You & Me, Chris logged hundreds of hours both in front of and behind the camera, working on multiple stories at any given time.

 He was best known for his live morning features, ‘Did U Know‘ history pieces, comical man-on-the-street ‘Movie Trivia’s,’ and insightful travel segments. 

At the end of 2016, Chris moved to Los Angeles, California where he freelanced as an actor, writer and producer. While in LA he also worked as an Associate Producer on the Gilbert Gottfried Amazing Colossal Podcast and as a Studio Tour Guide/ VIP Guide at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Chris is a graduate of McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland, and holds a BA in Theater Arts. He was raised in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, a small town just outside of Pittsburgh, which was also home to golf legend Arnold Palmer and television’s Fred Rogers.

Website
https://www.thechrisderose.com/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/thechrisderose/

Music

Eclectic Mix- Broadway to Heavy Metal, Rap and Opera 

Podcasts

WTF with Marc Maron Podcast

The Gilbert Gottried Amazing Colossal Podcast

Mike Rowe - The Way I Heard It Podcast

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Episode 16 - Greg Ellis talks about his career that starts with graphic design and ends with a transition from cutting vegetables to hair. Greg shares his story- the importance of family and why he went from working for James Beard award-winning chef Charlie Trotter to running his own restaurant, and ends with becoming a barber at the renowned Belmont Barber Shop.

www.whatcanyoutellme.com
instagram @whatcanyoutellme
facebook @whatcanyoutellme
twitter @whatcanutellme

Instagram
@Beaconstreetbarber
@Belmontbarber

Jello video - https://www.instagram.com/p/BIvH3Bfh3G2/?igshid=rih7ana4zlig

Music
Colter Wall
Orville peck