Greetings!
It’s been quite a week.
I started off last week with a really fun two-day Mommy-son trip to Corning, NY. It’s a cute little area with a few shops, a few restaurants, and an incredible glass art museum.
A few days later, I had a fantastic phone call with Nancy Wilson of Heart, which was a dream come true. Seriously, childhood dream achieved. I remember watching Heart’s videos as a kid—such peak ’80s ridiculousness with the hair and the costumes and the heavy makeup.
Nancy was very sweet and we had a lovely chat.
I did the interview for Next Avenue…right after learning that Next Avenue will be shutting down in a matter of months.
As you’ve probably heard, Republicans in Congress decided to cut already-approved federal funding to PBS and NPR, which is having massive ripple effects throughout the public media landscape. Next Avenue is run by Twin Cities PBS. Last week, they laid off most of their staff.
And though they’re honoring any assignments in progress (like my interview with Nancy), most other assignments for later in the fall have been killed. I had four interviews with pretty big names slated for the September-November time frame and now they’re not happening. Which means I’m not getting paid.
It’s just sad. It’s getting harder and harder to make a living as a journalist. Collectively, we’re losing so much incredible reporting. I’ve seen multiple posts this week from writers who are going into different fields because they just can’t deal with the stress or the low pay anymore. It’s pretty bleak out there.
But…I’m forging ahead, because what else can I do? I have a lot of great interviews scheduled for Creative Reverberations. And I’ll keep pitching to other outlets in the hopes that I can continue to build a portfolio of work that I’m proud of. I think that’s all any of us can do right now. Keep our head down, do work we’re proud of, and hope it all works out okay.
Changing topics, I hope you had a chance to check out my chat with Eddie Yang last week. He’s done so much cool work and I loved hearing about how being a self-described “weird kid” led to his work in movies.
Later this week I’ll finally share my interview with Mackenzie Astin. We talked about everything from being a child star on The Facts of Life to his work on The Pitt, as well as growing up in a family of actors and how Gomez Addams might not have existed were it not for a production of Our Town. I hope you enjoy it!
That’s it for now. Wishing you a wonderful, art-filled week!