Three Song Stories

Episode 273 - Dr. Eric Otto

Dr. Eric Otto plays guitar for the Immokalee Road Band with his FGCU colleagues Miles Mancini and Mike Kennedy, and since 2019 he has also been the guitarist for the Gulf Coast Big Band, which raises scholarship money to support jazz education in Southwest Florida. For his day job, Eric is Professor of Environmental Humanities, Director of General Education, and Interim Chair of the Department of Integrated Studies at FGCU. 

 

Episode 272 - Konstantinos Vranishti

Konstantinos Vranishti is a 35-year old student at Florida Gulf Coast University who was born in Albania but spent most of his life in Greece before moving to the United States in 2019.

His family first landed in Maryland, but then moved to Fort Myers during the early days of the pandemic. He started off as a journalism student at FGCU because he worked as a journalist in Greece, but recently changed his major to Communication.

Episode 271 - Dayna Harpster

Dayna Harpster is a journalist, writer, and Communications Specialist at WGCU. She started teaching journalism classes at Florida Gulf Coast University last year.

Episode 270 - Craig Pittman

Craig Pittman is the author of Oh, Florida! How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country which made the New York Times bestseller list; Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther, which earned him the Rachel Carson Award from the national Sierra Club; and his latest The State You’re In: Florida Men, Florida Women, and Other Wildlife, and he co-hosts the podcast “Welcome to Florida.”

Craig is also a journalist and native Floridian, born and raised in Pensacola, so he is a literal Florida Man. He studied journalism at Troy State University in Alabama, where according to his bio “his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him "the most destructive force on campus." 

Episode 269 - Rada Angelova

Rada Angelova is known for her work in theater in New York City. She started as the actor, writer & producer of her own solo show that was presented at the Midtown International Theater Festival, and then she stepped behind the curtain to represent some of the world’s longest-running musicals including “Chicago” and “Cats” while they were on tour in the U.S. 

Rada is originally from Bulgaria where she says she first found her passion for music. Today she co-writes with songwriters from Nashville, Canada, North Macedonia and others. Her songs “Anonymous In New York” and “Margarita” are among her most popular and can be found under her music artist name “Rada And Subject To Change.” 

Episode 268 - Greg Longenhagen

Greg Longenhagen is an accomplished actor, director, producer, teacher, and coach. Greg’s career spans over 30 years in professional theatre, radio, television, and film, and he's a member of the original founding company of Florida Repertory Theatre in downtown Fort Myers, and is in his third decade with the organization, now serving as its Artistic Director. 

Greg has been involved with 64 productions at Florida Rep and has also performed at numerous theaters here in Florida and around the country.

He served as the Resident Director for Pittsburgh’s “Shakespeare in the Schools” while working as an actor in New York City, and he later served as an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Florida Gulf Coast University. 

Episode 267 - Brian Schreck

Brian Schreck is a music therapist at the Norton Cancer Institute in Louisville, Kentucky and has been professionally serving people with a wide range of illnesses since 2004. He pioneered music therapy services at St. Vincent’s Catholic Hospital Medical Center in Manhattan, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and the Norton Cancer Institute in Louisville. 

Part of Brian's work involves using the sounds of a patient's life to create individualized recordings and projects for patients and their families and loved ones, including using stethoscopes and microphones to capture heartbeats that he weaves into musical compositions.

Episode 266 - Karyn Parsons

Karyn Parsons is probably best known for playing Hilary on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Her character was, and is, truly beloved by fans around the U.S. and beyond. What her fans didn't know until 2005 was that Parsons was also a writer who spent quite a bit of time writing short fiction, and learning about history - particularly inspiring and empowering stories of African American achievement.

Once she set acting aside in the early 2000s, and had her first child, Parsons decided it was time to take her passion for writing and history seriously and so founded a nonprofit called Sweet Blackberry. They would turn her stories about little-known African American figures, ones that she thought would pique the imaginations of young people, into short films and picture-books. The animated films feature narration from voices like Alfre Woodard, Queen Latifah, Chris Rock, and Laurence Fishburne. 

Parsons published her first young adult novel called "How High the Moon" in 2019 and has another one coming out this Summer. “How High the Moon” was inspired by her mother's childhood stories of being a young person growing up in South Carolina during the time of Jim Crow.

Episode 265 - John McKenny

John McKenney is a bassist who has played in bands like “The Tropics”, “The HiTones”, and “The Painted Faces” which was one of Ft. Myers most well known bands. They played all over Florida and opened for a number of big names including Roy Orbinson and Neil Diamond. They were written up in BillBoard magazine and were listed as one of the top Florida garage bands of the 60s.

John is currently playing in a Blues band and rehearsing with a local 80s band in Portland, Oregon, which is where he and his wife have lived since 1979. 

Episode 264 - Jennifer Rowley

Jennifer Rowley is a soprano who is acclaimed worldwide for her voice and stage presence, and for her wide variety of roles that have spanned many of opera’s greatest heroines. She has appeared at The Metropolitan Opera in lead roles including in Cyrano de Bergerac, Tosca, Il Trovatore and La Boheme.

Throughout her career she has also performed at Opernhaus Zurich, Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Staatsoper Berlin, Opera National de Paris, the National Theatre Prague, and the Royal Opera House in London.

Jennifer also recently created her own summer festival in Sarasota, called Jennifer Rowley’s Aria Bootcamp. She has been a Artist in Residence at Baldwin Wallace University, Fort Worth Opera, and the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia, and is sought after for her seminars and masterclasses. 

Episode 263 - Robert Van Winkle

Robert Van Winkle is Community Outreach Ambassador for the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, but is still often recognized as the former Chief Meteorologist for NBC-2 in Fort Myers. He’s also a U.S. Navy Veteran and worked as a meteorologist on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. 

After a 31-year career on television Robert “retired” and moved to Arizona to take care of his Mom when she was diagnosed with cancer. After returning to Southwest Florida, he worked a number of jobs including Real Estate, Substitute Teaching, and even Naturalist on Whale Watching tours in Sitka, Alaska. 

Episode 262 - Teen Edition: Kristen Noble

Kristen Noble is a 17-year-old Senior at Cypress Lake High School.

As a musician, Kristen released her original debut album, “Lyrical Therapy” in October of 2022. It’s on all streaming platforms and as of this recording it has accumulated more than 400,000 streams on Spotify. 

She's also participated in many music ensembles and groups, including "The A Cappella Group," at Cypress with whom she recorded original songs on two albums and won Outstanding Arrangement for her original song "Simple Math." 

Episode 261 - Dan Bern

Dan Bern is a singer-songwriter whose songs have appeared in numerous films and TV shows, including original songs for the film “Walk Hard — The Dewey Cox Story”. He's released 30 albums and EPs, and played thousands of shows across North America and Europe over the course of his life.

Episode 260 - (4 and) 5 Year Review

Mike, Richard, Tara, and Jared gather to reminisce about the last two years of guests, songs, and stories in our (usually) annual review! Join us for 9 song stories, a Dungeons and Dragons montage, and an encore of "Rock Talk" - Mike's Rock tumbling podcast".  

 

Episode 259 - Robin Young

Robin Young is host NPR's Here & Now. Robin is a Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker who has also reported for NBC, CBS, and ABC television and for several years was substitute host and correspondent for The Today Show.

Robin has received several Emmy Awards for her television work, as well as cable's Ace award, the Religious Public Relations Council's Wilbur Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Gold Award. She has also received radio's regional Edward R. Murrow award.

As an independent documentary filmmaker, she produced and directed the opening film for Marion Wright Edelman's White House Conference on Children and followed the rise of then unknown filmmaker John Singleton in the film "Straight From the Hood."

Her documentary "The Los Altos Story," made in association with the Rotary Club of Los Altos, California, won the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award and is now the backbone of a worldwide HIV/AIDS awareness initiative.

Episode 258 - Ryan Wolfgang

Ryan Wolfgang is Assistant Manager of Props at Universal Creative (as in Universal Studios) and has been in the prop and decor field since 2003, first working in the motion picture industry, starting out as an intern and then working his way up to Propmaster on feature films, commercials for international brands and other various video, photography, and TV projects. 

Episode 257 - Jeremy Hobson

Jeremy Hobson is an NPR Host, Journalist, and Producer who has worked in public radio for more than 20 years, most recently as host for Here and Now where he was for more than seven years. Prior to that he reported for and then hosted the Marketplace Morning Report.

Jeremy has also reported and hosted for public radio stations in Rhode Island, Cape Cod, and Illinois. And he spent time as a producer for All Things Considered, Day to Day, and Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

He's also the creator and host of The Middle, a new show focusing on listeners, voters, and the marginalized in the "middle" of the country. 

Episode 256 - John McEuen

John McEuen is a banjo, guitar, mandolin, and fiddle player, and a founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. He has made almost 50 albums, that have earned four platinum and five gold records, multiple Grammy Awards and nominations, CMA, and ACM awards. 

John produced Steve Martin’s 2010 album, The Crow, which won a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album.

He was inducted in 2017 to the American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame, and his popular Sirius/XM Acoustic Traveller Show is now in its 14th year.

He’s also an author - his bio “The Life I’ve Picked” was published in 2018.

Episode 255 - Alex Adams

Alex Adams is a theatre major at FGCU, with a background in musical theatre which began all the way back when she was 6 years old. She will be playing the role of Horatio in FGCU’s upcoming April production of Hamlet.

Episode 254 - Laura Ellis

Laura Ellis is Director of Podcasts and Special Projects at Louisville Public Media, WFPL. She’s a Peabody Award-winning producer who started her career in public radio as a talk show assistant. She’s managed WFPL’s podcast strategy as Senior Producer and Podcast Editor since 2018.

In her role as Director of Podcasts and Special Projects, Laura manages a podcast incubator designed to amplify important and diverse voices and stories in Louisville.

When she's not making radio, she's on stage or in a sound booth making theater, or singing old-fashioned music.