And now Audio Theater Central. Hello, welcome to Audio Theater Central. This
is the show that explores family friendly audio drama through news, reviews and interviews.
I'm your host, JD. Setter, and this is episode two hundred.
Wow, thank you, thank you very much. Appreciate that. Oh
my goodness. This is a milestone episode. So we are breaking the mold
this time doing something completely different, and I hope you will enjoy this celebration
and allow me just an episode to sort of reflect back a little bit and
just commemorate this milestone. Now, the show has been going since two ten,
so just a few months away and we'll hit our fourteen years. And
yes, there are lots of other podcasts which have surpassed two hundred episodes,
but with this one being a monthly show, I think that's still a great
accomplishment. And yes, I am patting myself on the back a little bit
because there aren't a whole lot of shows that have been running for this long,
and so I am very thankful for this journey that I've been able to
go on and for all the people who have come along since the very beginning,
and so I am excited about what we've got coming up in this episode.
But first I just want to say real quickly thank you to Blake for
nudging me to do a special episode. I was not really planning to because
of well, for several different reasons, because it wasn't coinciding with any particular
special date, you know, in terms of the run of the show,
and just with everything that I've got going on in my personal life right now,
I just wasn't really going to consider it. And Blake sent a couple
of emails and really nudged me to do that. So I decided, all
right, let's do it. We're gonna go all in. We're gonna,
as I said a moment ago, break the mold and do something completely different.
So in this episode, we're gonna have some feedback from several folks in
the ATC community, both audio drama fans and some industry folks. So thank
you to everybody who sent in a voice message. Also, an industry guest
spectacular is what I'm calling it. We've got some short conversations with actors,
writers, directors, sound designers, composers. Oh my goodness, some amazing,
amazing folks agreed to join us for this special episode. And so I
can't wait to get to that. It's gonna be awesome sharing those conversations with
you. Also, the ATC contributor team is backstage right now and they will
be joining the show a little bit later, so that's going to be great.
And to kick things off, we're gonna run through some fun stats and
facts about the show before we jump in to the conversations with everybody. So
thank you for joining me for this special episode, and if it's your first
time, be sure to come back next time or pop in on an episode
in the archive for our regular format, but this time we're doing something totally
different. Testing one, two, three. Testing. That was just me
talking. I do that a lot. Where's my speech? How long you're
going to work with it? That's what I want to talk about. So
I thought it would just be kind of fun to take a look at some
interesting stats for this particular podcast. I figure there are some of you in
this audience who are numbers nerds and they like all this kind of stuff like
I do. So we'll take you just a couple of minutes to run through
some numbers here that I thought were interesting. So, first off, the
top ten countries that are listening to Audio Theater Central. So there have been
nearly fifty countries in just the last year, and the top ten are well.
At number ten we have a tie Mexico and Spain, and then at
number nine we have a three way tie with South Africa, France, and
India. Number eight is Romania, number seven is Germany, Number six is
the UK, Number five is Singapore, number four Japan, number three Australia,
and number two Canada, and of course number one is the United States
with a little over eighty percent. Now, it doesn't surprise me that Canada
and Australia and the UK are listening, and maybe even in South Africa because
there's a lot of English speakers there. But some of these countries really surprise
me. And the fact that they're so high on the list of Japan and
Singapore at number four and five really really surprised me. But I think it's
interesting nonetheless, So if you are listening in any of these other countries besides
the US, Canada, or UK, I'd love to hear from you,
So hit us up Audio Theatercentral dot com slash contact now. Of course,
this is episode two hundred, so these these figures don't include this particular episode,
but of the previously released episodes of Audio Theater Central, the total duration
of content is two hundred and eleven hours, sixteen minutes and twenty two seconds.
Wow. Wow, that is a lot of content. That equals out
to nine days, seventeen hours, twenty three minutes, and fifty nine seconds,
or a week and two days worth of content. And that does not
even count the twenty two hours, seven minutes and thirty seven seconds of content
that is in Audio Theater Central backstage. So that means over the nearly decade
and a half of this show's running, we have created over two hundred and
thirty hours of content all about clean, family friendly audio drama. I think
that's pretty cool. That tells me that there is some amazing stuff happening in
this space and that it's worth talking about. Now. I'm not so I'm
not so arrogant as to think that every single thing that comes out of my
mouth on the show is amazing content. But what I'm saying is that there
is some awesome stuff happening in this space, and we are trying to do
our best, myself and the rest of the team to bring that information to
you and support the professionals in this industry in any way that we can as
well. That's the goal of this show. And speaking of the listeners where
people are listening, these are the top five places where people are listening to
Audio Theater Central. Number five on the app call pocket casts. That is
the app that I personally use myself. It runs on iPhone and Android,
and there's also a browser version of pocket Casts that allows you to listen to
podcasts as well, so a great tool. Number four is iTunes on a
computer. Now this is not on Apple Mobile. This is specifically for iTunes
the program on a computer. Number three is Spotify with over ten percent,
and that's growing, that has been growing, especially over the last few years.
Number two at twelve percent, is right on the Audio Theater Central website,
which I think is really cool because that means that tells me that people
are going to the posts for the episodes, because the show notes take a
long time for me sometimes to get all the great information and links and photos
and pertinent information, so that lets me know that people are reading them.
And number one is the Apple Podcasts app at over fifty percent, so still
the number one place where people are listening, and it has been like that
for years. Also in terms of the audience, Now this is specifically on
Spotify because we don't have these stats for all of the platforms, but because
Spotify does ask you to share this information when you create an account, we
have that, and that is the audience demographics and our audience is this is
amazing to me. Now, apparently not everybody answers this question, so it's
not a total one hundred percent, but forty eight percent male, forty eight
percent female. That is great. We're reaching everybody and I think that's so
cool. And thirteen percent of the audience is seventeen and under, and then
eighteen to twenty two is nearly fifteen percent. Twenty three to twenty seven,
now I don't know why they break it down like this, but that's how
they do it. Twenty three to twenty seven is about fourteen percent, twenty
eight to thirty four about ten percent, and thirty five to forty four twenty
percent, forty five to fifty nine seventeen percent, and sixty and up about
eight percent. So this is interesting information. We've we're covering all the age
groups with this community, and I think that's amazing because as we've noted in
the past, a lot of the content in the family friendly audio drama space
is for children, and it's just been in the last few years where there's
really been an effort to make content for older listeners and older fans of audio
drama. So to see these demographics reflected in this ATC community is really really
cool, So I'm really excited about that. Just a couple of other quick
numbers that I thought were interesting, we have done almost one hundred and ten
interviews over the years with eighty two different industry folks, and that does not
count all of the fan interviews at events like that Get in the Show finales
and Sonic Con, where we interviewed lots of audio drama fans in those episodes
as well, but eighty two different industry folks and over one hundred interviews over
the years. Most appearances this I did not know. I figured I knew
who it was until I started going through the numbers, and it's actually Katie
Lee. She has appeared on the show five different times. Nathan Hubler and
Phil Lawler are tied at four, and Mark Hamby, Paul McCusker and John
Fornoff are tied at three. Appearances on the show, and most of these
numbers are going to be shifting up again for today because nearly all of them
are appearing in this episode two, so that's coming up very shortly. But
the last thing I wanted to mention was co hosts. I have had twelve
different co hosts over the years, and that includes Roy and Andrew, who
are my regular co hosts for several years over a decade, and also the
current round of contributors. So this has just been an amazing ride. Yes,
I've been behind the scenes doing a lot of the stuff to get things
going, but I could not have done it without these folks, and I
just wanted to mention them, and of course all of the industry folks who
have been willing to give their time and appear on the show. It's just
been amazing. And speaking of industry folks, let's jump into the next segment
where we're gonna chat with some of those great industry professionals. Right now,
just say your name and the role you're playing in this production. Please excuse
me, excuse me, the local news station would like to talk to you.
Oh and here's a company play, right, I'm here to ask you
a couple of questions. Well, I couldn't think of a better way to
celebrate this milestone than to reach out to a bunch of the folks who make
the amazing audio drama content we all love around here. And I wanted to
speak with a nice cross section of the industry professionals in all different disciplines composers,
writers, directors, sound designers, and actors. And not just that,
I wanted to speak with some of the stalwart, longtime members of this
community as well as some of the newer entrants. And so that's what we're
going to do today now. Because I wanted to have a lot of folks
involved, we did have to try to keep these conversations as short as possible.
So I decided I'm going to ask everybody the same questions and just get
some varied perspectives on the same topics across the board. And because we have
this cross section of disciplines in the space, we might get some really interesting
answers. Now, of course, there is going to be some overlap because
audio drama is a medium that appeals to a lot of different people for some
of the same reasons, and so there will be some similarities in their answers,
but I still think it was a great time to chat with all of
these folks and share their feelings on this medium that we all love so much
with you. So let's get going. We're going to start off with sound
designer Rob Jorgensen. You've heard his work on Adventures and Odyssey, Focus on
the Family Radio Theater, Lamp Ladder Theater, The Extraordinary Adventures of Ga Hinty,
and in more recent years, on the Luther Podcast. So the question
that I'm asking everybody today, Rob is it's sort of a two parter,
and you can tackle it however you want, But what is it about the
medium of audio drama that you enjoy so much? And or you know,
how has working in this industry changed or impacted your life. I found that
I loved it because it just fell to me naturally. It made sense to
me the moment I put my hand to it. And you know, I
started by making radio commercials, dramatic radio commercials when I was working in radio
stations, and it just it was the part of the job that I loved
the most. Then when I got to do it as you know, a
professional audio dramatist, it just elevated Obviously, when you get to work with
great writers and great actors, everything elevates. But I think the one part
of it that I love the most is having I'm a blue sky thinker,
I'm I'm. I love starting from absolutely nothing in creating something. And audio
drama is such a unique medium in that I was able to create a full
scene and do all of the work myself. Where in movies you're you're so
you're so tight in your one little area that that you're a part of.
But in the audio drama world, I was thinking of it, creating it,
making all the sound effects, mixing it, mastering it, you know,
bringing it completely to fruition, and and my dream and vision of what
that was supposed to be actually was so I love that to think of what
a scene should be like and then to dig into the depths of it and
create it. Oh that's so cool. That's so cool. So now the
next part of this little conversation here is we're just gonna have fun. We've
got a little lightning round. I'm calling it this or that. I'm gonna
throw out a couple of things, and you just first one that jumps out
at you that you prefer between these two. You're gonna just tell me,
and if you want to, you can say why as long as we keep
it super short. So are you ready? All right? Yes, all
right? Mountains or the beach. Oh, the beach. Absolutely. I
live in Florida. Ah, that makes sense there it is rubber chicken or
rubber ducky chicken. It's funnier. That's a good answer. Yeah, all
right. In our final one, Mexican food or Italian food. Mexican all
day long? All right, what's your favorite dish? So I don't remember
the name of it. My wife and I discovered on our last date night
some guy in another table was eating this thing. We had never seen it
before, and we asked the waitress what is that. She told us it's
a big clay pot and it was full of terreriso and shrimp and chicken and
steak with and it just was boiled all together with their special sauce. It
was literally the single best Mexican food I've ever had in my life. You
can only probably do it once a year, but it was so good.
We're going back awesome. That sounds amazing. I'm gonna have to add that
to my list. Absolutely, it is good. I wish I remember the
name of it. All right, Well, thank you so much, appreciate
it. You're welcome. Derby Kerr is a writer, director, and actor.
He has written for shows such as Left Behind, Kids, Corner Abide,
Lamp Ladder Theater, The Extraordinary Adventures of GJ. Hinty, and of
course he is the creator of the Jake Muller Adventures. So the question I'm
asking everybody, Darby, is I wanted to have a question that you know
could apply to a lot of different professionals, regardless of what they work on
in the space, and so feel free to tackle this however you like,
sort of a two parter. The question is, you know, what is
it about this medium of audio drama that you love? What keeps you,
you know, working in this space and enjoying it? And or how has
working in audio drama changed or impacted your life? Oh man, how much
time do you have? I three minutes? Okay, I can't do it.
I think, I think what the reason I stay in it is because
I'm really not suited to do anything else. I've done a variety of jobs
in my life, but none of them as well as audio drama. And
I'm still learning a lot there too, So I just I love the medium.
Since I was a kid, my dad played the old radio shows.
You know, you and I've talked about this. The Shadow is a big
one, The Little Ranger. And then as a teenager I started listening to
the BBC show The Goon Show, which had Peter Seller's on it. It
was just a wacky, surrealist kind of fun show. But it really shows
you what the radio medium is capable of. So and that's fun, I
mean, because you know, I just think I don't know how spoilery I
want to get with things that we just recorded in Jake Muller, but I
mean there are some huge action sequences that unless we had a James Bond budget,
we could never film this. So it's great to get in the studio
and record a story that we could never afford to put on film. And
the other thing that is something I love about this medium is there's no happier
place for me than to be in a room with creative people and to be
able to call in my friends, yeah and just really really just explore things.
And you know it's I get to do that at every once in a
while, and I'd rather do that than go to Walt Disney World or Universal
Studios or any of those places. I'd rather do that see a good movie,
and you know it's it's work. I mean, we just did get
finished with six pretty intense days of recording, and I'm still a wet noodle
mentally and physically, but you know what, every second of it is worth
it. And I get to hang out with people like Michael Touchet, Jonathan
Cook this time, Todd Busteed, Dugan Sherbone who plays Jake. Fantastic.
There's just so many, so many good people, and if I start listening
to the rest of them, I'll forget them all and somebody will be mad
at me. But every one of them is just just a dream. That's
That's the thing that makes me want to get back into the studio with them
soon. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a fantastic community. It's nothing better.
Yeah. All right, So no, we get the serious question out
of the way. Let's have a little fun. I have a little lightning
round for you. Okay, all right, I'm calling it this or that.
I'm just gonna give you a couple of things and you just whichever one
is your preference. Just shout it out and if you if you want to
give a couple of word explanation, you can, but no obligation. Are
you ready? Okay? I hope so all right? Mountains or beach.
Oh, mountains, but I haven't been there recently. Rubber chicken or rubber
ducky. Oh, rubber ducky. That's a bathtub, man, I love
it. That's all Douglas Adams too. Oh yeah. Mexican food or Italian
food? Oh? Come on? How am I supposed to choose? It
depends on the night, but most times Mexican. All right, a favorite
dish? I think I know the answer here, Coco, Yeah, you're
going to say that. Yeah. I like lasagna a lot too. Hey,
there's no wrong answers here, So great choices, Oh no, there's
not. You don't me wrong answers tonight, eat them exactly. Well,
thank you so much, Darby, oh JD. Thank you, and and
we are so happy that you are. You're a part of this community.
I'm sure everyone will say how much they appreciate you, and if they don't,
it's because they forgot. We really really appreciate what you do. And
don't cut this part out because we hold you in very high regard. Wow,
well, thank you. That means a lot. I appreciate it.
It's like you said, the people, it's it's one of my favorite things
about this space. I mean, I love this medium of storytelling, but
the people are just amazing. Yeah. And you know what, you and
I have some very very excellent friends and I don't deserve them. You probably
do, but I don't. And I'm just I'm just so excited to uh
to create for them. When I when I think about what I'm working on
or what we're doing, I don't think about some some faceless, massive people.
I think about about our friends and love them all. Love, love
you, man, Oh, thank you, thank you. Nathan Hubler that
is a name that any Adventures Odyssey fan knows and knows well. Most likely.
He's a writer, director, producer for Adventures in Odyssey and has been
for many, many years. Of course, the creative behind the official Adventures
in Odyssey podcast and a lot of things that happen for that show behind the
scenes, and of course, back in the day, he created the one
of the biggest AIO fan sites, the AIO HQ. So, Nathan,
the question that I'm asking everybody today is what is it about this medium of
audio drama that really resonates with you? Why do you love working in this
medium, and or how has working in this medium impacted your life? Sure
well, let me start with the first one. So what I love about
audio drama is from the productions side and from the listener side, it's so
imagination driven. So anything that you can think of, pretty much anything can
be created an audio drama. People talk about movies these days and how exciting
they've gotten with visual effects and all that, and sets and costumes, and
it's true, it's pretty amazing what they're able to create in film, but
still none of that holds a candle to the power of the imagination. And
nothing can match what God has given us in our brains to create these pictures.
And so anything that you can imagine you can have as part of an
audio drama. And that goes with the listeners as well. Is that unlike
a film where you just say, Okay, here's what this character looks like,
here's what this place looks like, and it might be pretty amazing,
but there's only one look then that's the established look for that character or place,
whereas with audio drama, everybody's part of this, and they're creating their
own picture of the character. So everybody has their own picture of the town
of Odyssey, John Aver Whittaker of Wits End, and so it's almost like
a choose your own adventure kind of thing with audio drama is that everybody approaches
it differently. Yeah, yeah, I hadn't thought about it in quite those
terms before, but yeah, that's absolutely right. As far as how audio
drama has changed my life, I feel like everybody who has worked on a
program would say, you know, working on something for a long time,
there's no way that it can't change your life. I grew up listening to
Odyssey and had a great impact on my spiritual life. Still does, and
I've been doing Odyssey as my job or career for twenty plus years now and
hope to do it for at least another twenty more, Lord Willing, So
I'd certainly been one of the foundational pieces of who I am today. Yeah,
that's wonderful. It's beautiful. And you know the problem with these quick,
short interviews is I can't follow up on him, and I want to
just dive deeply into these answers people are given. But we can't. We
we're trying to get as many people involved as possible. So I love your
answer, but we're gonna move on to the lightning round. I'm calling it
this or that. I got a couple of things I'm gonna toss out at
you, and you just whatever one your preference is between these, you just
shout it out. And if you want to add a couple of clarifying words,
that's that's totally fine too. But are you ready? I'm ready?
All right? Mountains or beach, Oh, mountains, all right? Rubber
chicken or rubber ducky, rubber ducky and Mexican food or Italian food? Italian?
All right? A favorite dish canlony? Ooh oh right, all right,
hey, most people go with the savory stuff, but yeah, gotta
mix in some sweet stuff every once in a while too, right, Well,
are you thinking of Canoli's or cannelony? Oh? Yes, yes,
you're right, Yeah, I was thinking of Cannoli. Yeah yeah, Well
Canloni is like the they look similar, but Canloni is usually filled with cream
and cheese and chicken maybe in the Catalonia is like the sweet stuff. So
that's rights similar shape, probably have the same root word thinking, you know,
considering Italian, probably yes, Well, thank you so much. Yeah,
thank you, JD. And thanks for all you're doing for the medium
of audio drama. Oh it's my pleasure. I love this space so much.
Todd Busdeed is an amazing sound designer who has been working in the industry
for many years. And Todd has worked on shows like Adventures in Odyssey,
Lamplighter Theater, Left Behind, the Augustine Institute Radio Theater, and more recently
with River Cross and did some amazing work with them. Well, Todd,
the question that I've been asking everybody today is what is it about this medium
of audio drama that you love that keeps you working in it year after year?
And or how has working in audio drama impacted your life. Well,
there's a historical anchoring, JD. In that I grew up as a kid
listening to all these great dramas generated by Moody Radio Sailor Sam, Sugar Creek
Gang and even back to that, and then of course stories of great Christians,
and so I grew up on that. But the thing that really turns
my crank is that it ignites the imagination, because when you hear a voice
of the bad guy. You can attach the figure of that guy down the
street who would yell at you if you happen to ride your bike across his
lawn, and so that became the bad guy, and it just became so
much more personal. And so it's a medium that engages the imagination, the
theater of the mind. We like to say we're doing everything you'd hear in
a movie except the pictures, because you know, a movie tells you exactly
what the bad guy looks like, and if you don't know anybody like that,
there's a subtle sense of detachment, whereas if you hear a voice,
you can project that onto somebody who you know might be a scary part of
your past. So yeah, and in terms of how this has been,
it's just a wonderful journey for me. I've had so many opportunities to play
around with storytelling. And that's really, you know, I mean, it's
really the essence of it. It's play It's a playful medium. You're storytelling,
you're putting together people who have similar passions, different gifts, and the
end product is this storytelling. So whether you're doing post or whether you're writing,
whether you're just one voice in a cast of forty, whether you're directing,
whatever it is you're doing, you're part of this collaborative storytelling. And
it's wonderfully playful in its essence. Oh yeah, absolutely, I love that
aspect of it too, Just the collaborative, the process, it's just amazing.
And hearing that final mix as it comes together, it's just it's just
beautiful. Yeah, it's bigger than any one person because there is no audio
drama that is the product of one person. Now you can have a drama
about a person. We've done the story of C. S. Lewis during
the war years, so that's about CS Lewis. But it's all this collaborative.
We have great composers coming in, we have a fantastic cast of actors
of writers. It's this wonderful collaboration. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, the
downside of these short, quick conversations is that we can't go any further into
this. But we're gonna have to have you back on to do that at
some point. But let's move on to the lightning round. I'm calling it
this or that. I'm going to toss out a couple of things and you
just tell me which is your preference. In these pairs of things. How's
that sound yep, let's do it all right, mountains or beach mountains,
all right? Rubber chicken or rubber ducky, definitely rubber ducky. Okay,
okay, how about Mexican food or Italian food? Oh see, Now,
now you're gonna get me in trouble because there is a gentleman sitting in the
control room who espouses the former, though I kind of lean towards the latter,
so I'm going to say Swiss cheese. See how I went neutral?
Okay, Well, hey, that works. There's no wrong answers here,
so I'm glad to hear that. Well. Thank you so much, Todd.
I really appreciate it. Love it. JDT, you sent me an
email and said we're just going to talk for ten minutes, and I thought,
how do you talk for ten minutes about something so fun? Is audio
drama? But apparently you're just gonna cut it off and we'll have to live
to chat another day, Yes, sir, Thanks JD. Thank you.
Alisia Hansen is a newer entrant into the audio drama space in just the last
handful of years, but she's already making some amazing content and working on all
sorts of different projects. She is a writer, director, producer, actress
for Eternal Future Productions, the company behind Pirateers, Robin Hood, Rising to
Honor, and the upcoming show Venture, and of course as an actress,
she has participated in lots of other shows as well well. Thank you Alicia
for coming on this special episode. The question that I'm asking everybody today is
what is it about working in this medium of audio drama that you really enjoy?
What keeps you pumped to keep working in this space, and or how
has working in this space impacted your life? So the first thing that comes
to mind when I think about, like why I love audio drama so much
is it's the people. And it was the first thing I noticed as I
was kind of getting my feet wet and gaining more experience in this just how
kind everybody is and how supportive and how you know, people just want to
help each other out and want to see each other succeed. And I saw
so much evidence of that even in the pulmonary audiodramas I was creating for my
resume basically, and you know, start out as fun, and I realized
I wanted to do more of it because a big reason is just the people,
and my other reason is is and my most important reason is for God,
because I found my purpose in creating audio drama for Him and you know,
finding ways to glorify Him through that. And I've always loved to tell
stories, as you know, as a kid, and audio drama is such
a beautiful way to do that because you're not just immersing listeners in a story.
You're giving them this opportunity to visualize things themselves and to imagine things themselves.
And it's such a beautiful partnership. And I think I think I've heard
that before, actually, that somebody has said that, you know, audio
drama is very much like a partnership with you and the listeners, and so
yeah, I just it's really comes down to the people and just the beautiful
people I have met and even become very dear friends with. I think of
Jonathan Cook and Craig Hart and Bethany Baldwin, just to name a few,
and that doesn't even include the entire amazing ADA group. And that wouldn't have
been a possiblity without you, JD. Because You've been incredible to just your
support and the resources you've provided to Jonathan and I and we would never have
met you had we not explored audio drama. So too many good things to
count, Oh, very kind. Yeah, and that's sort of a theme
that I've been hearing talking with people. Is you use the word partnership,
I've heard collaboration. I've heard other different terms used for this same sort of
concept of working with the listener to create the story. So yeah, I
love that. I love that. So I appreciate you sharing your thoughts.
So, you know, are you ready to have a little bit of fun,
we'll jump into the lightning round I'm calling it, yes, or that.
I'm going to toss out a couple of things and you just let me
know what's your favorite between these and feel free to, you know, explain
it a little bit if you want to, but no, no obligation.
First off, mountains or beach, beach, rubber chicken or rubber ducky hmm,
I'd say rubber chicken just because I don't see those very often. And
lastly, Mexican food or Italian food. Italian all right, to any particular
dish that's your favorite. I love. I know it seems a little boring,
but I love spaghetti. And meatballs. It's just comforting. And when
you add garlic bread to that, it's just divine. It's perfection. Yeah,
awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking a few minutes out
of your day to chat with me today for this special episode. Appreciate it
very much. Yes, thank you so much, Shady, and for everything
that you do for us. I appreciate it. Oh, it's my pleasure.
Greg Hart is a longtime voice talent and novelist who has entered into the
audio drama industry in just the last few years, and he is now a
writer, director, actor and producer in this industry working for his company LRT
Media, the company behind productions like The Titanic, waf Sherlock Holmes, Heritage
Chapelain Squeak, and Robin Hood Rising to honor. Well, Craig, thank
you so much for joining us on this special episode. And the question that
I've been asking everybody today, and it's sort of a two parter and you
can tackle it however you wish. What is it that you love about working
in this medium of audio drama, what keeps you coming back to it,
and or how has working in audio drama impacted your life? We'll take the
second part first. So it's impacted my life immensely. I've been listening to
audio drama since I was a little kid, and that formed my imagination and
so anything, I really credit audio drama in a big way with all of
the things that I have been doing with that's writing books, producing audio dramas,
of the various things that I've done over the years, a lot of
that usually it's creative and imaginative in nature, because that's what I love doing,
and that is a big part has been because of that early exposure to
audio drama, and that ties in with my answer to the first part of
that question, which is what I love about it, and that is kind
of the same answer that it allows a person to delve into their imagination in
ways that I do not believe is possible with say TV or movies. Books
are similar, but when you've got something like television and movies that presents everything
you need to know on a silver platter, you don't need to do the
work yourself. And again, I think that's what is tempting to a lot
of people about TV and movies because you can zone out and there's nothing necessarily
wrong with that. If you're relaxing whatnot. But there's something about like reading
books or in this case, listening to audio dramas that forces you to engage
in the product in order to get out from the product what is necessary to
enjoy the product. And in doing that way, it's sort of the symbiotic
relationship where it's you're supporting audio drama, but you're also doing yourself a great
favor in building your imagination and your ability to think, your ability to enter
into other worlds, and ultimately, because of that, increases your empathy for
the world around you and those who inhabit it. Yeah, I mean,
you're you're a participant in the storytelling process. It's a collaborative medium in that.
Yeah, you're absolutely right. I love that well. I mean I've
been telling people the downside of these is that I don't get to follow up
and carry on the conversation here, which I would love to go deeper on
these things. But we want to get as many people as possible participating in
this episode, So we're gonna move on to the lightning round. I'm calling
it this or that. You just I'm gonna shout out a couple of different
things you tell me off the top of the head, which one you prefer?
Are you ready? I think so we'll take it easy on you,
all right. First off, mountains or beach beach, rubber chicken or rubber
ducky chicken. And lastly Mexican food or Italian food. Mexican food, all
right, any particular dish I love, like the inchilada is where you get
multiples, like in the same dish, so you can have your cheese and
your your beef and your whatever carnetas hopefully red or green sauce. Oh,
I guess red sauce. These are tough questions. The first one was easier.
You're talking about food now I can't handle it. Yeah, I know.
The good thing is there's no wrong answers. So oh this is really
fun. Thank you so much, Craig. I really appreciate you taking the
time, absolutely time. Phil Lawler is another name in this industry that anybody
who's been around the space for any length of time has heard. He is
the co creator of Adventures in Odyssey and of course a writer and director for
that show. He's the creator of Iliot House. He was also a writer
for Kids Corner as well as in recent years, writing for a Lamplighter Theater.
Well, Phil, the question that I've been asking everybody today is what
is it about the medium of audio drama that you love working in and you
know it just keeps you coming back here after year and on different different shows,
and or how has working in this medium impacted or changed your life?
Well, the answer to the first question is, I think it's the best
way to tell stories. All of the all of the communication media are wonderful
in terms of they have their their individual strengths and some weaknesses, and some
of the weaknesses are really really weak. But I think audio drama especially is
the best way. It gets the best of all worlds. And the reason
I say that is and a lot of people say, now, wait a
minute, how come you don't have any visuals? Yeah, that's exactly it.
That's exactly the reason. You have to rely on story. You have
to rely on great storytelling and writing and the performances of the actors and sound
effects and music, and those are all that you have. And so it
provides the strongest elements of movies, of film and television and video and YouTube,
video, whatever whatever you want to call it, whatever visual medium you
decide to go into it provides those strengths because those strengths are important in those
areas as well. But it also provides the strengths of books, of written
things that are written out on paper. And then for those who say,
yeah, but how how does it provide the strengths of movies without the visuals,
Well, you have the visuals. You provide the visuals. It's all
in your head. It's active listening. You have to participate in the story.
You have to participate in the story. So many of us, I
can tell you right now everybody has gone through a period where they looked at
where they're watching a movie, or they're watching a television series, or they're
watching some stuff on YouTube or on the computers or whatever, and it's all
background. You don't have to participate in it is there. It is just
there, and you can be thinking about something else, doing something else,
doom scrolling, whatever it is that you want to know that you want to
be doing, but you can't really do that with audio drama. You have
to participate in it. You have to be there either you know this is
Yoda time, it's do or do not. There is no try, there
is no just kind of letting it go on in the background. When I
hear when I see people right into it to us and say, oh,
we just have Odyssey on in the background all the time. No, you
don't. You really don't. I mean, either you are listening actively to
it or you're not doing it at all, and it really is just noise.
I mean, it's possible for to just be noise in the background.
But that's why I love the medium so much. I think it's such a
great storytelling medium. It's the strongest storytelling medium that there is, in my
opinion. I've worked in all of the other ones. I've written books,
I've written television shows, I've worked on films, I've done different kinds of
video stuff. And while I while I've enjoyed myself immensely doing all those things,
I always want to come back to audio drama always, always, always,
And it's a special a specialty kind of writing. You have to know
how to write for it. You have to have a real strong grasp of
story and how that works, and performance is the same way. You have
to All of it has to come through the voice. All of it has
to come through the voice. And if you it's a specialty type of acting
too. I mean, it really is. If you don't know, you
have to you have to do all of that without overperforming. You know,
everything has to come to the voice without without you chewing the scenery or chewing
the microphone or whatever it is. You know, you've got to be able
to know when to get close on that microphone and when to pull back from
that microphone, and when to get the dynamics are enormously important in audio drama,
and part of that is the director and part of that is the performer.
But when you get the two, I mean, I go to My
example for me would be Gregory Javara and his performance in Christmas Bells. I
keep coming back to that because he was so good in that, and and
I just gave him this direction of saying, Okay, when you're doing the
poems, I want you to enter into an ethereal world. This is like
talking to the next It's a transcendent experience, transcendent experience, and I want
it to feel that way as opposed to when you're playing Longfellow, just as
Longfellow, and then as opposed to when you're being Pastor Wilson. You know,
and and he he just nailed it, just nailed it. I was
talking to Jonathan Crowe yesterday. He came by and he saw me here when
I live in Arizona. He was passing through and he had some coffee,
and I said, you know that we've been so privileged to experience so many
magical and that's the best word for it, just magical moments in the studio
where we're creating this stuff out of nothing. You know, it's air,
and yet whole worlds are being created. It's the teeniest, tiniest, most
infinitesimal taste of what it must have been like for God at creation. Just
out of nothing, you're creating something that's this world that people really love and
really think is out there and really want to be a part of themselves.
So that's the reason that I love audio drama more than I think any other
kinds of storytelling. I know, I do more than any of the kind
of storytelling I like. I write writing books that that has been a good
experience, too, a really wonderful experience, all of it. All of
it has been really really good. But audio drama just has everything else beat
by a mile. And in terms of storytelling and narrative storytelling. As far
as what it's done to my life, I think you can tell from the
passion that I have for it, what's done, what's done to my life?
You know, I always, I always liked listening to audio dramas.
When I was a kid, I always I really loved listening to the old
Jack Bennie shows and you Bet Your Life and radio radio shows from from the
golden age of radio. I loved listening to those and doing stuff in front
of a live audience listening to those kinds of shows. And then and then
the dramas themselves they used to have. There used to be a show on
called the CBS Radio Mystery Theater and I would listen to that when I was
a teenager and I was working at Dairy Queen, and we would listen to
that while we were cleaning up. It was right right when closing time happened,
and we were cleaning up, and so we turn on the radio and
there would be CBS Radio Mystery Theater and they were producing original stuff at that
point, and they had really great They had people who had great voices on
that show. So Fred Gwynn, who played Hermann Munster on The Munsters,
was was one of the actors that they would and he had such a great
voice. I listened to his voice, I'm like, wow, wow,
listen to that tone, that quality. It's so cool. And and so
when I got the opportunity with Focus on the Family to create Adventures in Odyssey
and to work with really good top Knoch actors how Smith and Walker, Edmiston
and Will Ryan, Katie Lee Parley Bear, Dave Madden, all of these
people who were who were so good for me. It was just a masterclass.
I sat there, Yeah, I'm supposed to be directing you, but
I'm just listening to you because I want to know, how do you guys
do that? How do you do that? How do you make that quality
come across in the microphone? Earl Bowen, Earl Bowen, for goodness sakes,
Earl's voice, Hory Burton's voice. These guys had such remarkable voices,
and man, that that was truly life changing too. It was just like
wow, wow. And again it's the it's the magic of the combination their
performances, their vocal quality, saying words that you've written or that we've written
and we've all worked on, and then making those words sound natural and even
better than what you did when you wrote them. And those those things are
all all really just uh phenomenally transforming. I mean, they do change everything.
They change, they change your life. And you walk around now,
and you you, I'm sure you know this, producing your own dramas,
doing your own programs like this. You walk around and you're hearing things that
you never heard before because your ears are so attuned to oh, oh you
hear that. You hear that noise? Isn't that cool? And everybody else
around you is what noise? What are you talking about? Oh? Why
wait? Wait wait here it comes there? He goes, do you hear
that thing? Isn't that cool? I got to record that noise because I
betge we could use that somewhere, you know. Uh. And you're so
attuned to nuance of language. When you're talking to people and you realize they
just said something, Oh, they just said that. There was a huge
amount of subtext in that little delivery that they just did a huge amount of
subtext. They're telling me one thing, but they really mean something else.
You recognize that. It becomes part of who you are, and so that
that's really wonderful. And then I think for me. Also part of the
change of how it changed my life transformed everything is being able to produce biblical
stories, being able to produce stories from scripture, and getting into that This
works on so many different levels. It works on the writing level because you
really have to dig deep. You have to do a lot of research to
make sure that you're being true to the story and you're getting across what the
story says. You know that you have to get the right characters, you
have to write, get the right actors for the parts, and then in
the directing of it, you really have to know how the nuance of performance
works and what you really want these characters to say. Because these are scriptural
characters, you want to make them human. But by the same time,
everything they say is symbolic of something else that's going on. There's always so
much more depth to every single line in scripture than we realize, and so
you while we don't have time to do all of that in a half an
hour show, you want to give an inkling of it. You want to
have them understand that this you know them, and then convey that to the
audience to understand the deeper meaning of scripture and that of course is always always
a transformative experience. So yeah, those those are that would be my that
would be my answer. I'm sure I'm going way off here, but those
are those are all transforming? Oh yeah, absolutely absolutely, And there's so
much that I would love to dive into. But we're just gonna happen to
have you come back on the show and we'll go a little more deeply into
all of these other things. But hey, you ready for the lightning round?
All right? Here we go. All right, I'm gonna throw a
couple of things at you. You just fire off what your preference is between
these two things, all right, mountains or beach mountains. How about rubber
chicken or rubber ducky rubber chicken? And lastly, Mexican food or Italian food.
Oh boy, this is not fair because I love Italian food. We
can't eat it. It's all cumb sauces and cheeses and stuff, and I
can't really do that. And I really love Mexican food, but I've had
it like three times this week, so I'm really off Mexican. So I
had it just last night, and we had it two nights before that,
and I'm like kind of off Mexican food right now. But if I had
to make a choice, if I was put up, I think probably Italian.
There's some Italian I can eat, and so I eat that stuff.
That'd be great. And living in the Southwest, you get a lot of
Mexican food and great Mexican food down here. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely, definitely we were going to go.
This is so funny that you should say that, because just last night we
were going to my wife and my grandson. Their birthdays are close together,
so we were going to go out. We had a whole family where we're
gonna go out to an Italian restaurant. But somebody didn't make reservations. Oh
no, and this the only Italian restaurant even close to us. It's like
the only one around here. And so we all went down there and they
said, well, it's going to be like an hour to an hour and
a half. We had nine people and it's like going to be hour an
hour and a half. Four of them were kids. It's like, we
can't wait an hour. So guess where we went. We went to a
Mexican place. Well, I mean, you didn't really lose I guess no,
no, it was all fine. It was very good. We really
love the we really love the Mexican place too, but it was just it
was just so funny that you picked those two things. That was hilarious.
Oh, Phil, thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate
it. You bet, buddy. Anytime, welcome, we'll come back.
We'll have an even more in depth conversation about audio drama and what it means
and how it works. Yes, Sir. Dave Arnold is another mainstay in
this industry who has been working tirelessly for many years now as the executive producer
of Adventures in Odyssey. He is a writer, director, producer, and
sound designer, and in addition to his work on Adventures and Odyssey, he
also has worked on Focus on the Family Radio Theater and the standalone production The
Shepherd's Prayer. Well, Dave, I mean, this is kind of crazy
to have this be your first appearance on the Audio Theater Central podcast for such
a short chat here, but thank you for doing it. And the question
that I'm asking everybody in this episode is sort of a two parter, and
feel free to tackle it however you wish, but I'm just kind of like
to know your opinions on what is it about this medium of audio drama that
just keeps you engaged, why do you keep coming back to it a year
after year, and or how has working in this space impacted your life personally.
Yeah. The reason I enjoy working on audio drama I've done it for
thirty seven years, so I guess I really do enjoy it. But first
of all, it's provided me with so many different creative opportunities through the years.
I started as a sound designer, I moved into writing and directing.
I've done some acting, I've produced the show, I've executive produced the show.
It's also led to the opportunity to write some books for the series,
and other opportunities I can't even talk about yet because they're on the cusp of
things. So I've had so many different opportunities creatively, and I love that
I've been given those opportunities. Plus just to meet so many amazing creative people.
It's the voice talent in the industry is filled with genuinely nice people,
people you enjoy working with with no ego, no inflated ego. They just
love working and they love acting. I'd say the second reason I enjoy it
so much JD is because even though a story can be told in any number
of ways, from a book to a film, or through photos, even
or through the oral expression of just telling a story or drama, is that
every one of those has different, unique, peculiar benefits. Like a book,
for example, will take you deeper into the character's mind and maybe they
can describe this setting a bit more. But a book takes a greater investment
of time, and it doesn't supply you with quite as much information as audio
does in terms of how to understand what a sound would be in that sort
of environment. Film just gives you everything. All that requires is time and
attention. It applies all of the information to you. But audio dramas involve
the listener as a co creator in the process. And I love that.
I love the fact that we give you enough information. And if we tell
it well, if we do our sound design well, if we tell the
story well, it conjures. Well not conjures is a bad word, but
it solicits you in a creative fashion to create the images in your mind,
to see those pictures, and you supply ten different people can have ten different
images. And I really like that because now they are participating, and they're
engaged in it, and it just gives them an opportunity to understand creativity.
And quite honestly, I think that's why so many of the people that have
listened to Odyssey through the years have gone on into creative environments themselves, because
they have tasted of the beauty of the creative expression. I had not thought
about that before, but that makes absolute sense. And I know I'm supposed
to keep this short, but I just want to. I want to keep
going. You know many, I mean, Odyssey has had such an impact
on the majority of the other shows in this space. I mean there's been
some connection in some way to Adventures and Odyssey, either either just as a
listener or you know, as you know, many of the people who have
worked on Odyssey have gone on to other projects. But yeah, that's that's
a huge, huge part of it. So yeah, I love that.
I love that, and I love that because it just expands ministry, right,
So, I mean some people might think that were threatened by other people
doing audio dramas. Are you kidding me? I love it. You know,
it just expands the kingdom. It's more people doing God's work and filling
in information that can be transformative. And I don't know if you had heard
this, but I was really I was really humbled when I heard that.
Dallas Jenkins, who has done the Chosen, he said that Odyssey inspired him
to move into the creative field even more than his dad, who is Jerry
Jenkins writing the books. I thought, Wow, you know it's again,
it's not us. It's the fact that God will use whoever he's going to
use and whatever he's going to use to accomplish his mission and inspire other people
to carry that mission into the different regions of the world. And that's what
he started with his disciples. They took the message out because they were persecuted,
went out into the world in different regions, and that was how the
gospel was bred. And it's the same thing creatively. Yeah. Absolutely,
Oh, I love that. There's so much we could talk about, but
we've got to move on. Are you ready for the lightning round? Do
it? Let's do it all right? So I'm gonna throw a couple of
items at you and you just let me know which one you prefer. I'm
calling this this or that. Let's do it mountains or beach beach. Okay,
rubber chicken or rubber ducky oh, rubber chicken? Are you kidding?
And lastly, Mexican food or Italian food? Mexican down all the time,
all right, all right, any particular favorite dish. My wife and I
go out for Mexican quite often and we share I've got if you ever come
to Colorado Springs, I've got the perfect restaurant for you because it's become our
favorite. But we share a big fajita plate and it's just the smoked beans.
Well, now you're get me hungry. Oh well, thank you so
much, Dave. I really appreciate you taking the time today to chat with
me about this. Yeah, thank you for asking. I really enjoyed the
conversation. I hope we can do it again sometime, Yes, sir,
let's do it alrighty, Well, there are more great industry conversations to come,
but let's take a moment to hear from you here in the ATC community.
So what are you think of the show? Please leave your message after
the chillne Hi Audien Peter Central, Hey, guys, this is awesome.
Hell about j D Royan Andrew Minum is Victoria Now. Yesterday I received a
letter from a big fan. No time to joy, I've got an email.
Listen another package for me today. No, it's actually just your mail.
Well, for the feedback segment of this milestone episode, I wanted to
only feature audio comments this time, just hearing your voice, because I wanted
your voice to be a part of this episode rather than just reading comments on
a blog post or an email things like that, which I'm always grateful to
get any feedback at all, but I thought it would be special to include
your voice as members of the ATC family here in this special episode. So
let's go ahead and jump into this. Hello, Audio Theater Central. This
is Christian Nanascian from Radio Theater Wiki and Henty Live Wiki coming at you from
all the way up here in the paw Manitoba. I'm also well known for
being a huge fan of Philip Glassparo and I wanted to wish you guys a
happy two hundredth episode and thanks for all that you have done over the years
in making more people aware of amazing family friendly audio drama. Here's to two
hundred more. And Philip, if you're listening, thank you for all of
the amazing work you have done over the years. And I hope to hear
more from you in the future. God bless you. Hi, Audio Theor
Central. This is Caleb Bresler. Hey, oh, no one wants to
hear from you. Hello, Audio Theater Central. You now have the pleasure
of hearing a much more amazing actor than the person formerly speaking. I am
extending sincere congratulations on your two hundredth episode. In fact, I have written
a short soliloquy for your enjoyment, which I am going to perform. What
are you doing? I'm breaking in to spare the audience. Congratulations again on
the two hundredth episode and goodbye. How dare you you would deprive the audience
of my brilliant don't you? Dare? Presler? Stop button? Don't Hey?
This is David from Vancouver, Canada, just calling to congratulate ACC on
two hundred episodes. That is quite the accomplishment. Some of my favorite Audio
Theater Central episodes have been your interviews with the Odyssey cast and crew, and
I especially loved your Will Ryan and Katie Lee interview. It was a lot
of fun and I actually re listened to that one recently and I just want
to thank you JD for your dedication for all the work you put into the
podcast and the Seneca Awards and just promoting audio drama as a medium. And
it was through ATC that I discovered so many audio dramas like Lamplighter and Heirloom
Audio. And I just want to thank you for everything you do, and
I am so glad that ATC exists. All right, take care. Hello
Audio Theater Central. This is Caleb Bresler. So I did my fun voicemail
and now here's my serious voicemail. So, first of all, congratulations on
your two hundredth episode, and I also wanted to say how much I appreciate
Audio Theater Central as a resource. I've made connections with people and heard about
shows and got involved in things that I would not have otherwise. So thank
you very much. I enjoy listening to the show each month when it comes
out and look forward to hearing what comes next. So once again, congratulations
on your two hundredth episode, and thanks again. Hello, Audio Theater Central
contest. This is Jeremy Leavy from Colado. I have been a loyal listener
to Audio Theater Central concasts since twenty nineteen. I just wanted to send a
message congratulating you on your two hundredth episode. I love the episode when you
talk about Adventures and Odyssey and Pause and tales. Again, congratulations on your
two hundredth episode. Thanks bye. Hi. This is Odyssey Fan. Congratulations
on two hundred episodes. I've been listening since early on specifically content related to
Adventures in Odyssey, and I had the privilege of meeting JD in person in
twenty twelve and being interviewed for episode twenty five. I've been a sponsor of
the ATC Ceneco Awards for the past five years and recently reconnected with JD again
at Sonic Con twenty twenty three. I think the ATC has helped set the
standards for other audio drama industry and I'm looking forward to the next chapter in
family friendly audio drama. Congratulations again. Audio Theater Central, congratulations Audio Theater
Central for your two hundred episode. Herty Hazza on a brilliant milestone. This
is Jason Markilitz, audiobook narrator, actor, voice actor and director of Marketwitz
Audio Work. Wishing JD and Audio Theater Central my spirius. Congratulations on two
hundred episodes. The work you do in support of the audio drama industry is
appreciated by all of us, and here's the two hundred more. Here's to
you. Hey, everybody at Audio Theater Central. Phil Lahler here, just
wanted to congratulate you on your two hundredth episode. That's fantastic but a great
milestone, and here's to two hundred more. God bless you all and thank
you for doing the work that you do. Thank you, JD. Bye.
Happy two hundredth episode ATC and JD. This is such an incredible milestone.
I know you're so excited, and I just wanted to hop on and
say congratulations. We really appreciate everything that ATC does. There's truly nothing like
it out there. It's an incredible resource for everyone, for those in the
industry, for fans, and even for new listeners who haven't heard of audio
drama before. This is a great place to jump in and learn. And
I'm so excited to see where you go from here. Here's to two hundred
more episodes. Hi. This is Trisia Rose, voice actor, audiobook narrator
and co host of Audio Drama Insiders. Happy two hundredth episode Audio Theater Central.
Congratulations and being the go to podcast that delivers solid, genuine news and
reviews of all things family friendly audio drama. My favorite part of the show
is the new segment. I always get excited hearing about all the new projects
in the works. I remember somehow stumbling over this podcast a number of years
ago when I must have been searching for information on how to get involved in
voice acting, and the first episode I listened to was one where JD was
hosting live from some Adventures in audisationdig and I bookmarked it to explore later.
The podcast came back to my life at a later time, and since then
I knew that if I wanted to be serious about pursuing voice acting and audio
dramas, I needed to become a devoted listener. So Audio Theater Central has
been crucial in my life. I'm so glad to know there is a community
of like minded fans and creators of audio drama that are passionate about telling worthy
stories. Audio Theater Central brings so much value to the world and JD you
are awesome and very much appreciated. Oh thank you so much to every single
one of you. I would love to have been able to take the time
to respond individually to each and every one of these messages, but that would
just take too much time. So I just want to say to all of
you collectively, thank you so much for taking the time to send in a
message. It really really means a lot to me. And there were two
calls there where they did not leave their name, and the first was Best
Nicholson, that very short message there about halfway through, and then towards the
end Bethany Baldwin also. But both of them are great actresses in the audio
drama space, and I'm sure I'm very confident that you will be hearing from
them a lot more in the coming years. Again, thank you to all
of you. Well, let's jump into more conversations with some industry guests.
I have some very important information and I thought i'd be getting it into the
hands of a real reporter. Sir, sir, can I speak to a
moment? Oh well, there's nothing to it. I just ask you the
questions and you answered them in the tape recorder. Here play the interview.
Aaron Fullan is a composer and actor who has experience in both film and audio.
In both of those disciplines composer and actor, but in terms of audio
drama, he has composed music for adventures in Odyssey, Heirloom Audio as well
as The Brinkman Adventures well Erin. Thank you so much for taking time to
chat with me for this milestone episode. I really appreciate it. And you
know, like I give you a little bit of a fore warning. You
know, you have a little bit of a serious question and then we're going
to jump into some fun stuff. But you know, the question I've been
asking everybody, just to get some different perspectives from industry folks, is what
is it about this medium of audio drama that just draws you in? Why?
Why do you love working in this space? And or it's sort of
a two parter, how has working in this space impacted your life? So
feel free to tackle that however you wish. Oh Man, First of all,
thank you so much for having me on JD. Congratulations on two hundred
episodes. That's a phenomenal milestone and I'm just thrilled for you and appreciate all
that you have done for the audio drama medium. It the first word that
comes to mind with a question like that is adaptable, like radio drama is
such like it doesn't matter how old you are, it draws you in as
much as your brain is able to at that age, you know, hearing
stories that I heard when I was six, Now I see them differently through
the ears of an adult. And you can't say that for any sort of
visual medium. You know, when you see a movie at six years old,
it's the same movie you watch when you're thirty four. Audio drama,
you create the visuals in your mind, and so it's adaptable to whatever age
that is listening to it, and I think that is one of the most
powerful things about it, and the fact that nobody's vision of what they're listening
to is the same. And I love how unique this medium is, and
it's one that I've been passionate about for a long time. Working in it
as a composer creating music. Working alongside the likes of John Campbell and Jared
Typesqual and people who have really established a name for themselves in the audio drama
world has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. And when I
first got asked to compose an episode of Adventures in Odyssey, that really was
for me one of those bucket list items. So I just feel so blessed
and honored to be part of this community. Oh yeah, for sure,
that's fantastic. I love hearing that. Well, you know, there's so
much we could talk about. I'm sure we could talk for hours about it,
you know, as a fellow fan and not just a creative in this
space. I mean, I'm sure there's a lot we could talk about,
but unfortunately we're confined by time. So so you ready for jump into this
little lightning round. I'm calling it this or that. I'll just throw a
couple of things at you and you just tell me which one you prefer.
All right, Okay, let's do it. First off, mountains or beach
beach okay, rubber chicken or rubber ducky ooh, rubber ducky hands down,
okay. And lastly, Mexican food or Italian food. Mexican? All right?
I love tacos. Oh, I mean who doesn't. I mean,
if you don't love a taco, then what is wrong with you? I
agree wholeheartedly. Oh goodness, well, thank you so much again. I
really enjoyed this, and we're gonna have to have you back on the show
to talk a little bit more in depth about some of the nitty gritty about
audio drama. But thank you for taking the time. I really appreciate it.
You're welcome, Jadi, thanks for having me on. Kathy Sarah is
a prolific actress in this space. As well as having an experience on stage
and on screen, she has worked with shows such as Focus on the Family
Radio Theater, Lamplighter Theater, The Extraordinary Adventures of g A. Hinty River
Cross, Big Finish BBC Radio and The Brinkman Adventures. Well, Kathy,
first of all, just want to say thank you so much for taking the
time to join us for this special episode. And the question I've been asking
today is what is it about the media of audio drama that you enjoy working
in. As somebody who has experience on the stage, on screen and in
front of the mic, I'm interested in your perspective and or how has working
in audio drama impacted your life? Thank you well. I won the BBC
Carlton Hobbs Radio Drama Prize at Drama School, which gave me a contract working
for six months on audio drama for the BBC Wow and I was learning every
day from great actors, absolute legends of UK acting profession and it was absolutely
foundational to my career. It opened up hundreds of doors to work that I
have absolutely loved, and I think I also love its challenge distilling all character
work, all intentions and emotions into just the voice and the variety of roles.
I would never have been able to play these parts on stage and screen,
that these opportunities would never have opened to me, from playing the young,
desirable Porsche of the Chambers in Rumpole of the Bailey to another day a
drunken old Cockney mother from the personification of imagination which believed me really was my
role title, to playing all the female characters in an episode of Doctor Who
recently. And so I love it for the learning, for the challenge,
for the variety, and then I think for me finally in summary, for
its playfulness. Yeah, that's beautiful, and I really really wish I had
more time to just sit and chat with you, But if you're up for
it, we're gonna have to have you come back at some point and have
a proper sit down interview. I would love that, absolutely love it.
Well, let's move on to the lightning round here. I'm calling it this
or that. I'm gonna throw out a couple things at you and you just
respond with whichever one is your preference. And feel free to expound on it
a little bit if you want to, but no obligation to first off mountains
or beach mountains. All right, Yes, I love walking. I love
walking and getting up high and being able to get that perspective. I'm not
good at lying still on a beach, and that's what it comes up for
me, So I just need to be walking and get to a pinnacle and
get the view. Yeah, yeah, I like that. How about this
one rubber chicken or rubber ducky oh, I think rubber chicken. I have
a rubber chicken downstairs, and my husband is really quite mischievous, seems to
have kind of delivered this rubber chicken at various points to various ministers and colleagues,
and so it's been rather great fun in our lives. So yes,
definitely rub a chicken. I love that. That's awesome. And lastly,
how about this Mexican food or Italian food? Oh? Italian, though I
feel that I'm now not saying the right thing because I've just been to Bolivia
and I suppose Mexican is probably it's a little bit closer, and I do
love Mexican food, but no Italian Italian you could just anything with Italian flavoring.
I would any particular favorite dish? Oh, I knew you're going to
say that. What would be my favorite dish? I love crabb Linguini.
I love the fact that they use a little bit of chili in it,
a little squeeze of lime. I think that would be my favorite. You're
making me hungry over here. Oh well, thank you so much. I
really really appreciate you taking the time, and we're definitely happy to have you
back. That would be wonderful. JD. Thank you. Marshall Younger is
a writer and director as well as the current showrunner for Adventures in Odyssey,
which he has of course been a writer and director on that show for many
years, but he has also written for Lamplighter Theater and River Cross. I'd
kind of like to hear from your perspective working in this space and not just
on Odyssey, but you know Lamplighter and you know you've worked on a lot
of other projects as well. So what is it about this medium of audio
drama that that just draws you in? Why do you enjoy working in this
medium and or how has working in this space impacted your life? Well,
there are a lot of reasons why I love audio drama, but I'll give
you I'll give you two reasons. Number One, it's obviously a dialogue driven
medium, and I love dialogue. I love words in general, and I
love that. I love the rhythms that people I still that the rhythms of
of how people talk, uh, the rhythms of of jokes of comedy,
and I'm I'm just I'm fascinated with that, and I feel like that's something
that I'm uh, that's that's my strength. I think, I think even
more than story and character, I think I'm I'm good at dialogue and uh,
it really it's a bit of a cliche, but good dialogue really is
like music to me. And there there are sometimes when I when I will
think of, uh, what I feel like is a good line of dialogue,
and I will form an entire show around it, and I'll think,
Okay, how can I get to that line of dialogue, you know,
and uh in a natural way? And so you know, I'll do this
outline and I'll put that line in. And so that's I love that about
audio drama, is that it's so dialogue driven. And a second reason is
that when I was in college, I was a Radio TV Film major,
and even though radio is a third of that, I don't think I don't
think I had ever heard an audio drama in my entire life up to that
point. I don't think I had. But the thing that the department of
the Radio TV Film department, they didn't really emphasize radio that much. It
was more like working at a radio station kind of thing, like being a
DJ, that that kind of feel. But when they talked about TV and
film, it was always that they said that film is a director's medium and
TV is a writer's medium, meaning that the final product is more of a
result of the imagination of the director in the case of a film, and
a writer in the case of TV. That's changed a little bit by now
though now it's TV has become so complicated that it's becoming a director's medium and
in fact, you know, there are comedies now there so that are in
TV shows that are improvised on the spot, and so it's becoming an actors
medium. But the thing about audio drama is that to me, it's a
listeners medium. I mean, it's also a writer's medium, but it's a
listener's medium more than any any of the other ones, because it requires the
listener to fill in the blanks. You know, they've they're the ones who
have to decide what the people look like in the scene. They are the
ones that have to decide what the setting looks like. They're the ones that
have to have to decide what the what what the facial expressions are the people
that are talking and and and film, you know that's facial expressions communicate just
as much as the dialogue at times, and so uh and and so because
it's a listener's medium, it makes it a more immersive experience for the people
that are listening. And when it becomes an immersive experience, uh, they
put themselves in the place of the characters. They empathize with the characters,
they love the characters more. And when that happens, you have the ability
to change hearts because the emotion is real, the wisdom is real. And
and that's I love that about audio drama. So those are those are the
two things. And as as far as as being in the in the industry
is concerned, it helps that it's comparatively, it's it's a it's an inexpensive
way to make a show, you know, It's an inexpensive way to to
get your stuff out there because there's not as much pressure when you don't have
a million dollar budget, you know. Yeah, you know, I went
through a phase when I loved film and I loved television and I want That's
all I wanted to do was write screenplays and work for work for a television
show. And I got to do a little bit of that. So so
so I got that out of my system and I'm to the point now where
I'm just really grateful that I have a platform to get my stuff out there
and that people can listen to it and potentially, you know, be moved
by it. Hmm. Yeah, Yeah, that's that's wonderful. And I've
been loving here in these perspectives from everybody. And as I said to you
a moment ago before we started recording it, you know, I'm gonna have
to have you come back because there's so much that we could talk about.
I mean, River Cross and the work you did a Lamplighter, So we're
gonna have to do that at some point. But that's that's all we can
squeeze in for today. But we do have a quick little lightning round.
I'm calling it this or that. I'm going to toss out a couple of
things and you let me know which one is your preference. Are you ready?
I'm up for it, go for it. First off, mountains or
beach. Oh, mountains, I don't. I couldn't care less about the
beach. My wife would be completely the opposite. And so we have,
you know, some conflicts there and where to pick our vacations. But I
love the mountains. I love the hiking in the mountains. That's one of
the favorite things to do. But the beach, you know, eh,
I mean other than the weather. I mean the weather's usually nice in beaches.
So yeah, okay, Well, how about rubber chicken or rubber ducky.
I don't know what that means. Rubber chicken is funnier, rubber chickens
are funnier. Yeah, you gotta admit that rubber duckies may be more useful.
I don't know what that means. That might be the strangest question I've
ever been asked, but I love it it. I'm going to say rubber
chicken. Okay, all right? And lastly, how about Mexican food or
Italian food? Oh? Wow, I find that Mexican food like in like
restaurants, is is less consistent. I think, I think it's very easy
to get bad Mexican food and so and so I'm going to go with Italian
just for that I love I love pizza and pasta and all that stuff,
and so I'm gonna go Italian, but just barely, just okay, if
if the Mexican food is really good, if Mexican food is really good,
then yeah I might go the other way. But for end of the day,
well, hey, you can always count on ATC to ask the hard
hitting questions. So yes, yes, and now and now I'm not gonna
be able to sleep tonight because I'm I don't know how how I feel about
ruber chickens versus rubber duckies. So that that's really this is changing my life.
Well, thank you for this, having this life changing conversation with me.
I really appreciate you taking the time. All right, Well, thanks
for having me Jay Day. This was fun, and yes, we absolutely
need to have a longer conversation because there are lots we could talk about.
I have been very blessed to be involved in lots of really really well done
audio drama, and so I'd love to talk about it, love talking about
it. Glenn Haskell has been in and around the audio drama space for many
many years as a writer, director, producer, and actor, and he
is the creative behind First Acts Productions, bringing us shows such as Dragnet,
Arrange, Drifters on Demand, and many more. But he's also written for
and provided voices for Misfits, Audio, LRT Media, Eternal Future Productions,
Greenhorn Tales, and just recently he provided a voice for one of my micro
audio dramas. Can you just share a little bit about what it is about
this medium of audio drama that you love and or how has working in this
medium for such a long time impacted your life? Well, I think probably
I'd have to go back to the start of whatever it is that I'm currently
doing, and that would have been late seventies, early eighties, doing some
stage things and helping We had a gong show at school and some other things
where I would go up in MC and this sort of thing. Then I
became involved djaying at a skating rink. Ultimately that led to radio, and
that led to Stan Freeburg. And if that name rings means anything to you,
he really was the one that urged me to think differently about how I
created radio spots, and that in turn is what led me ten years later
into audio drama. And so I've been hanging out doing that kind of sessence
ninety four. So that's He's the guy stand free work. There are others
since then, but he was the first. So what is it about this
medium that keeps you working in it? You know, it's no secret.
I took about three years off and I thought I was done. I thought,
you know, I did some things that I'm proud of, and I'm
happy with it. I'm also pleased to provide voice work for other people,
but I don't need to do the writing. And it's crazy. Once,
once I came back and wrote something for the first time a little over a
year ago, I just that was the thing I've been missing. You know,
I do a lot of other writing. This allowed some creativity that isn't
always President and He and all the other. Not that I'm not creative elsewhere,
but you just scratched a different edge. I guess. Sure, sure,
yeah, Well that's that's the serious business question there. But let's let's
move on to something a little more fun. Uh, I'm calling it this
or that so I'm going to toss out a couple of different things at you
and you just let me know what is your preference between the two. Are
you ready? Sure? All right? First one, mountains or beach mountains.
You know, I grew up in Wyoming, so that just seems,
you know, and I'm still where I'm at now, I'm not too far
away from Colorado. So yeah, mountains great? Great. How about rubber
chicken or rubber ducky rubber chicken they have better videos. And lastly, Mexican
food or Italian food? Oh? Probably Italian? It was real close.
Any particular dish pizza? Oh yeah, yeah there Actually Italian made pizza is
a little different than you know, the the other stuff. But yeah,
that's it. That's the no no hardballs, huh yeah, I mean the
softballs. I mean I think I caught him. Yeah, there's no wrong
answers here. And I gotta agree with you on that. Some fresh sliced
mazzarell on there and maybe some basil leaves at all, that's some good stuff.
Yeah, absolutely agree. Well, thank you so much for taking a
few minutes to join us for this special episode. Yeah, thank you for
asking. How nice of you it was my pleasure. Katie Lee is a
prolific voiceover talent with experience in all different aspects of voiceover, but of course
in this space. She's most known as the voice of Connie Kendall on Adventures
in Odyssey, but she's also worked on shows such as Lamp Ladder, Theater,
The Advinum, The Watch, and Abide. Well, thank you Katie
for joining us for this special episode. I wanted to get perspectives from various
different arenas of this industry, and so the question I'm asking everybody is what
is it about the audio drama medium that really keeps you pulled in? I
mean, you've been doing Odyssey for so many years, but in recent years
you've been doing a lot more audio drama. So what is it about audio
drama that keeps you coming back? And or how has working in this industry
of audio drama impacted your life? Oh? Wow, Well, I've always
liked audio drama. I mean ever since there was a kid. This is
what I like is audio radio? You know, a broadcast. I think
I think it's the most intimate medium. You know, It's just it's something
very personal when you listen to something to somebody several times you feel like you
know them, and it's a little different watching you know, entertainment on TV.
I don't know why. I think adding that other dimension sort of takes
out your brain being more active, like it is an audio drama. So
I think it's you know, it's interesting because there were records when I was
growing up, there was radio. Then we called it audio drama. But
now they're called scripted podcasts and people, you know, it turns out it's
never it's never been out of style. People just have more access to it
now. So it's great because we have more opportunity to work in the medium
we didn't have before. It used to take so much to a show,
right, I mean when I started, I was editing tape with a razor
blade. It's not like that anymore. Yeah, it's quite a bit different,
right, Yeah. And I love the sort of resurgence of it because
of the ease of access these days. So it's amazing. Yeah. I
think if people, you know, if it weren't popular, it wouldn't be
growing. I mean, I think it's just something that will always exist in
you know, when I teach too, this is what I heard. Your
hearing is the last sense to go when you're dying. Our hearing is just
just so key to our you know, existence, and our hearing plays a
huge part in communication. Like when I'm teaching voiceover, I'll say, you
know, if you don't feel it here in your chest, we don't hear
it in our ears. And our ears are light detectors, So I think
you have to be I mean, you can listen to a story and be
entertained, but you know, a really good voice actor has nothing to no
other tools but their voice. I mean, of course we use our bodies
too, but you know, how we express ourselves can convey truth if we're
really honest, and if we don't our ears, no, we can still
be entertained, but we can go. You know. Okay, that was
good, But to be really moved by somebody's vocal performance is so deep,
I think, and I don't know the word for it, palpable, I
guess, Yeah, that's amazing. I love that perspective, and so I
appreciate you taking the time. Now, you know, we did the business
up front. Now it's time for the party in the back. So I've
got three quick questions here for you. I'm calling you like a mohawk right,
A mullet, Yeah, a mullet, not a mohawk. Y's right.
So I'm calling you this or that. I'm just gonna throw a couple
things at you and you tell me which one you prefer, if you want
to expound on it. That is that, I prefer that. I'm with
you on that. Okay, Okay? How about this mountains or beach?
Oh? I love them both. I love being outside. I'll say beach.
I live at the beach. Okay. How about rubber chicken or rubber
ducky rubber ducky okay? And lastly, Mexican food or Italian food? Mexican?
All right, I gonna have to think hard about that. Hey,
there's no wrong answers. Speaking of rubber duckies. You know I'm going to
London, right, uh huh. They've made some the I don't know if
you've seen them, these rubber ducks that look like certain cartoon characters. And
there's a Shila the Thief rubber duck and yeah, I'm going to see them
when I get to England, and in person, I'm gonna hopefully someone will
buy one autographed at my booth. Yeah, there you go. That's awesome.
Yeah, a little Sheila Robbert Duck. How cool is that? That's
that's great. Yeah, I've seen like the ones that look like Sherlock Holmes
or different things like that. Yeah, yeah, that they think they're there.
It's kind of like the Funko Pop Competition or something. Yeah, there
you go. I don't know. I mean, Robert Chickens are pretty cool
too, though. I must say, oh, thank you Katie for taking
time to chat with us for a few minutes. I really appreciate it.
I love you. Oh, thank you so much. I love you too.
Bye. Pat Roy is a writer, director, and producer, probably
most known as the co creator of Jonathan Park as well as the co creator
of Time Chroniclers and producer of Journey to Nova Upta. Well, Pat,
thank you so much for joining us on this this special episode. It's spent
a long time, I mean, and I know you've been sort of following
us from the beginning, and so it's great to have you with us.
And we're going to start off with a question, a serious question that I've
been asking everybody today, and that is, you know, this medium of
audio drama is an interesting one for storytelling, and what is it about it
that you really like working in and or how has working in this medium of
audio drama impacted your life? Well, JDY, before I even answer that,
congratulations, two hundred episodes. That's incredible. Hut, oh, thank
you, thank you, well, I remember when you first started. Just
incredible, So, JD. The reason I love it is because storytelling is
powerful, and you know, when you tell a story and you attach truth
to it, I think it goes deep into somebody's heart and I love that
and JD, as you know, one of the things that's cool as a
Christian when you're sharing a Christian message. If I share a truth, maybe
a hard truth, with a friend face to face, you know, they
may become offended by it and maybe even put up a wall between us as
we're trying to communicate. But if I tell a story that's got the same
message, that goes just as deep and somebody listens to that, you know,
they don't put up the wall. In other words, it goes straight
to their heart. So JD, I think that telling stories audio drama is
so powerful in so many ways. You know. The other thing I love
about audio drama is you know I also do video now as well, and
it's been shown scientifically that people kind of go into more of a sleep state
while they're watching video, right, But when you're doing audio drama, the
listener is actually creating all of the characters and backgrounds in their own mind,
and that means that they are more engaged than they usually are. And so
what a powerful medium for sharing the truth. Yeah, that's absolutely true.
Yeah, yeah, you know, I know, as with all of our
guests today, there's so many things that we could talk about, but we
just don't have the time if we're going to have all of these amazing people
involved, so we're going to have to move on into the fun section.
But thank you so much for sharing your heart about that. I appreciate that.
Yeah. Absolutely, let's do this thing. All right, here's the
Lightning Round. I'm calling it this or that. I'm gonna throw a couple
things at you and you just tell me which one you prefer, and if
you want to elaborate it a little bit, feel free, but don't no
obligation to Okay, Okay, you may just totally stop me. I may
just sit here dumbfounded, all right. First up, mountains or beach?
Oh yeah, both, that's exactly Yes, excellent yep, no, I
love the mountains, I love the beach. It's awesome. How about rubber
chicken or rubber ducky, well, I don't know. There's a couple of
restaurants here that actually serve a rubber chicken, and you know it lasts for
a long time. One bite will last you about ten minutes. Okay.
Well, speaking of food, the final one here is Mexican food or Italian
food. Oh, Mexican food all the way. Okay, definitely a particular
dish. Oh, I don't know. I get feta vehitas just about every
time. But as you know, JD. With Mexican food, it's always
the same. Food comes in different formats right right here, it's small tortilla,
large tortilla, no tortilla, but it's the same thing and it's always
awesome. That's right. That's right. Well, thank you again, Pat,
really appreciate you taking the time and it's always a joy to talk with
you. Absolutely and Jad again, congratulations buddy. You guys have been doing
an awesome job. You have been so kind to so many people. You've
influenced so many people. It's amazing. I remember clear back when you started
and to see you now it's amazing. Matter of fact, even this episode
is a celebration of all the people that you've been involved with. So good
job, Thank you, sir, Thank you very much. Paul McCusker is
another great contributor to this space as a writer, director, producer for many
years on Adventures and Odyssey of course, as well as focus on the Family
Radio Theater. He worked on productions for that series such as The Screwtape Letters
and the Chronicles of Narnia, just to name a few, and in recent
years launched the Augustine Institute Radio Theater, which has put out some amazing shows
such as the Legends of Robin Hood and The Victory of Joan of Arc.
Well, this episode would not be complete if we're talking about industry guests,
longtime professionals in this space without having Paul McCusker, So thank you for taking
the time. Paul, really appreciate it. We're going to start with this
question that I've been asking everybody today, what is it about this medium of
audio drama that you really enjoy working in. You've done a lot of other
You've done writing for a lot of other mediums, but you continue to work
in audio drama year after year. So what is it about this medium that
keeps you coming back? And or how has working in this medium impacted your
life? Well, I think the second part of the question is obvious.
It's impacted my life because I've been involved in it for so many years,
and the opportunity when it started to work on family portraits than Odyssey, USA
Adventures and Odyssey, I mean changed my life completely because it became the center
point of all of the writing that I was doing. Honestly, I'm a
bit of an opportunist, and I think if I had been approached by somebody
who was willing to pay me a full time salary to do something else,
I would have gravitated that way. But this was the opportunity to came up.
And you know, as a kid, and it's almost cliche to say
it, as a kid, I always messed around with audio. I was
always playing around with a real to real recorder that had been lent to me
by a relative and was creating short things things messing with sound more or less.
And I'm a huge music fan, and I've always been fascinated by how
music uses sound through instrumentation and melody and everything else. In order to create
feelings and images and things. So honestly, I mean, for me,
it's obviously changed my life because it has been the thing I've been doing for
so many years. And I think you've probably heard from everyone else. I
mean, the most obvious thing about it is the way in which it engages
the imagination in a way that other formats don't or can't. And I actually
look this up. There is a technical explanation for this that I can give
to you. It basically says, this is official. It engages the imagination
by bypassing the octavial cortex of the brain and going straight beyond the parliamentary lobe
and directly into the hypocrania thanos where audiovations are stored. True story, It's
a true explanation. You can look it up. So really that's what draws
me to audio drama. That explanation right there, Well, that says it
all right there. Yeah, I'm good. Well, thank you for sharing
that. And you know I know that you know you've worked on so many
different shows and this industry would be completely different without having you, so you
involved in with the radio theater and air theater and just the stellar work that
has come out of it. So I just want to say thank you.
Well, you're very kind, thank you. I mean, the privilege is
all mine, the honor is mine. It is humbling, honestly to be
part of something that, especially such a fringe thing, because when we started
it, and Phil and I have talked about this a lot. I mean,
for Phil, he told me just flat out, he said, I
don't know why you write books. Everybody's writing books. You want to do
things that nobody else is doing. And he was absolutely right, because at
the time we started doing Odyssey, no one else was doing it. And
to continue to be able to do that has been a privilege. And I've
been thinking over the last few days honestly about intended outcomes and unintended outcomes.
And it sounds pretentious, but honestly, when you embark on something, whatever
it is you're doing, there are intent outcomes, the things that you hope
will happen. With an adventures in Odyssey, there were intended outcomes that we'd
hope would happen, That kids would be entertained and educated to a great degree,
inspired in their spiritual lives, all of those things. And I think
we can look at Odyssey and a lot of what we've done over the years
and say, well, okay, those intended outcomes have happened, but then
they're the unintended outcomes. And on the positive side of the unintended outcomes is
the thing that I don't remember us ever talking about. There was no presumption
on our part that we were working on something that might actually influence another generation
or even two generations of listeners who would not only be inspired in their daily
lives and relationships, but then would go on to create their own that they
would go, oh, because you did that, we want to do that,
but we're going to do it with movies and TV. And I mean
Dallas Jenkins has said that that Adventures in Odyssey was a big influence on him
and triggered his desire to some degree to want to tell stories through film.
So that's what you could call an unintended outcome. We didn't think in those
terms. All we were thinking about was the job at hand and to do
it and hopefully do it properly. So I'm grateful, I really am.
I think we've been very fortunate and blessed to be able to work on something
like this and see to a great degree the impact that it's had in all
humility truly, Oh, absolutely huge impact. And as you said, not
just in other mediums, but I mean, I would say the majority of
the current new batch that's a bad word, but of creators in this space
now, and I'll point back to EIO as an influence. So yeah,
it's been huge. Well, thank you. Well, I mean, you
know, we could talk about this all day, but it's time to move
on to the lightning round. Have a little bit of fun here. I'm
gonna call it this or that. I'm gonna throw a couple things at you.
You'd let me know which one is your preference. Are we ready?
Ready mountains or beach mountains? How about rubber chicken or rubber ducky, rubber
ducky, But that's Phil's fault. Okay, about Mexican food or Italian food?
Italian Okay, any particular dish I'd have to think about that. Say,
I'm allergic to garlic, so I have to be very careful about what
I have, but a lot of Italian. I can't think of a particular
dish. Honestly. Well, it's all good, right, you know.
Yeah, yes, well, Paul, thank you so much for taking the
time, and we're gonna have to have you come back on at some point
and give us the backstory to the Chicken and Phil story. So yes,
I'll do that sometimes. But I think a stude fans will equate just the
idea of a chicken, and I would say a talking chicken with with Phil
and one of the Odyssey shows, Oh for sure. Yeah. And so
even when you say rubber chicken, I think of of that, So I'd
go with the rubber ducky Okay, okay, that makes sense. Yeah.
You know what when I was I was younger, that episode I loved it.
I listened to it over and over, but it always creeped me out,
but I still enjoyed it. No, that was that was Phil's twilight
Zone episode. I mean, he he was always keen to do Twilight Zone
type episodes, and that was one where he did it. I mean when
you talk about when you talk, when I talked to fans of the show
about it, that one inevitably comes up. It's one of those. Yeah.
I listened to it a lot, but boy did it freak me out.
It was just so creepy on so many levels. And so he did
a very good job doing that one because that's what he was trying to do.
Mission accomplished. Yeah, well done. Oh, thank you, Paul,
all right, thank you, Judy. Jared Deepesqual is a composer who
has worked in this industry for many years and has written scores for shows such
as Focus on the Family Radio theater, working on productions like The Sacred Garden,
Le Miss Arab, The Hiding Place, to name a few, and
of course he has worked on Adventures in Odyssey or The Adventum Jonathan Park,
Augustine Institute Radio Theater, and The Brinkman Adventures. Well, Jared, first
of all, thank you so much for coming on the show again. Really
appreciate that. And I just wanted to get some perspectives from different professionals in
this industry. And the question I've been asking is what is it about the
medium of audio drama that you really enjoy working in and or how has working
in this medium impacted your life? Yeah, you know, because I came
to audio drama first as a score guy that had worked primarily in television and
film. You know, the deadlines on film and television are so tight,
and even when you're working on something that's really good, the deadlines are so
tight that you don't really emotionally invest in something the way you do with audio
dramas, particularly of projects that are of length. And for me, when
I work on a lengthy audio drama, it could mean I'm literally working on
it for six months, which gives you a lot of time to really invest
in the characters and the story arc and internalize it. And because of that,
I found certain audio dramas really impacting me in pretty serious ways. I
certainly remember Little Women being probably the first one to really impact me. I
was in my late twenties, and at the time I was so career focused.
I really didn't consider whether I wanted a family or kids. It just
wasn't on my I was just a workaholic, and being in Little Women for
six months it really kind of birthed a desire in me to have a family.
And then, of course, you know, working on The Hiding Place
that was very life changing. And then all the way into like twenty sixteen,
when I got to do a Brother Francis was just that impacted me so
much. I felt like I would never be the same person after spending that
kind of time with Francis, And so that's what I love about the medium.
Boy, it just it hits me so hard. It really gives me
time to consider the story's themes and the character's motivations in a way that most
other media projects don't simply because the deadlines don't allow me to m Well,
I'm going to break my rule here and ask a follow up question. So
I know that you put a bit of yourself into every score, but does
a vice versa happen? Does the as it happened as well? Do you
think a little bit of each score lives in you as after you've moved on
from those projects. That's pretty deep, JB. I mean, I don't
know. I mean, certainly, to a certain degree, the themes that
I've written for those particular types of shows, whether it's Little Women or The
Hiding Place or Francis or Patrick or Joan of Arc or Freedom, those themes
are like almost at my beck and call the way they'll They're a part of
my language in the same way that the English language is a part of my
language. Does that make sense? Those It's like those themes are kind of
forever tied to me as part of who I am, and that's that's kind
of weird, you know, but it's kind of cool. No, I
don't think it's weird at all. As I creative myself, I completely understand
what you're saying. I mean, that makes perfect sense to me. I
mean, if you're a writer and you write a character's whether it's like a
monologue or a soliloquy, and you put everything you are into that character's lines,
I would have to believe as a writer you remember some of those sentence
structures because they're so connected to who you are as a writer and a person.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Oh you know I could talk about this
stuff with you all day long. Well, so we're going to move on
to the party at the back. As I was. I told it,
Katie Lee, we have the business at the front, and we're going to
move on to the party at the back. With the lightning round. I'm
calling it this or that. I'm gonna throw a couple of things at you.
You just let me know what your preference is between the two, and
if you want to expound on it a little bit, feel free, Okay,
this or that? I like it all right? Mountains or beach beach
okay, rubber chicken or rubber ducky rubber ducky rubber Chicken's kind of weird to
me, okay. And lastly, Mexican food or Italian food. Ah,
So I'm half Italian, but I'm gonna choose Mexican simply because my wife likes
Mexican and we go there all the time. So I'm kind of going against
my heritage on that answer. Hey, there's no wrong answers around here unless
your wife has something to say about it. So well, she's a passionate
Mexican food person, so i think I've adopted that. Great. Great,
Well, thank you so much for taking a few minutes to join us for
this special episode, and it's always a pleasure to talk to you. Oh
YouTube, JD Man, thanks for having me. John Tharnoff is a writer,
director, producer, and actor who has worked on so many different shows
in this industry. There's too many to name here, but he's got his
fingerprints on a lot of different projects in this space, including Adventures in Odyssey,
Lamplighter Theater, The Advenum, The Extraordinary Adventures of Gia Hinty and Jonathan
park Well. John. As I was thinking about putting together this special episode,
I knew I had to have John Fornoff involved in this lineup of industry
guests because you've been involved in all different aspects of audio drama. So I'm
anxious to hear your opinion on this question. But the question that I've been
asking everybody today is what is it that you love about this medium of audio
drama? What keeps you coming back to it all year after year, and
or how has working in the medium of audio drama impacted your life? What
an amazing question. Thank you love it. I love it. I love
audio drama because it awakens your imagination. I like watching, you know,
TV shows, watching movies, that kind of thing, But I love audio
drama because that stuff is spoon fed to you. When you're watching a TV
show or a movie. With audio dramas, you're creating as you're listening,
so you're actually co creating. Wakes up the creator in you, and it
is just a fun, interactive medium like like no other one another one out
there, because you're creating as you're listening, So you are, in a
way you're directing. You're directing where the actors are, You're directing what their
costumes look like, production design, what's the room look like? You're picturing
all that you're creating. So as you are in the audio drama, you're
participating in it. It becomes part of you. It's a very personal,
beautiful, imaginary experience, and it's very vivid, so it wakes up your
imagination and also just wakes up that creativity in you, and you are participating
in it like no other medium. Yeah, that's absolutely true. And you
know, there's so much more that we could talk about here, and I
that's the limitation of this particular format of this episode. But you know,
we're gonna have to have you come back on at some point and talk about
this a little more in depth, because again, the last time you were
on here, you hadn't really been moving into the acting side of things too
much other than you know, a bit part here and there. So we
definitely want to talk about that and some of the other projects you've been working
on in recent years. But if you're ready, let's move on to the
lightning round here. Okay, real quick, I got a very quick one
which might be a nice, nice little caveat for you, Just a very
quick one. I was working with Adventures in Odyssey on the writing team.
Just that was a dream job. Loved it. I mean, the best
of the best audio drama writers and directors right around me. And I pitched
a question one time and I said, okay, you walk into What's end,
what do you see? And somebody says, well, you walk in
in the Soda Countain, you know the counters on the right. And then
you got no, but no, no, no, no. Somebody says
no, no, no, it's on the left, and like somebody said,
no, no, no, it's in the back, and you gotta
go no, that's where. So these are the writers for Adventures in Odyssey,
and we have our own picture of what it looks like. We have
different versions. That's the beauty of audio drama is you're you're making up your
own story, your own environment as you're doing it. And that goes right
back to the Adventures of Odyssey writers. We were just you know what it
looked like, because because part of you is like, don't mess with that.
That's that's what it looks like right there, you know. So I
thought that that's kind of a fun question to ask. Yeah, absolutely,
yeah, absolutely, all right, well let's move on to the fun stuff
here. And that's the lightning ground. I'm calling it this or that I'm
gonna throw a couple of things at you and you just let me know which
one you prefer. Cool, awesome, all right? First up is h
mountains or beach? Ouh beach? How about rubber chicken or rubber ducky?
Oh oh oh oh oh oh. That's so hard. Rubber ducky. That
was a painful one. That was really painful. You know, I asked
the hard hitting questions around here, man, talk about journalism. This is
this is this, this is gone places I've never gone with the journalists before,
so this is amazing. Lastly, how about Mexican food or Italian food?
Italian? All right? All right, yeah, yeah, any particular
dish, yeah, you know, just just anything Italian. I love Italian.
There's something romantic. I mean, Mexicans I'm sure romantic too, but
it just has a different vibe with you know, but Italians they there's something
about they talk with their hands. I talk with my hands. I eat
with my fork usually not my hands. But anyway, I love the food.
I love the atmosphere. It's romantic. It's like it's it's a motive.
It's just like just yeah, I just enjoy it. So romantic in
me fantastic. Well, thank you sir for participating in this milestone episode.
Really really appreciate you taking the time. Thank you. It's a joy.
It's a joy being here. JD. Thank you. It's a blessing,
all right, thank you. Well, huge, huge, thank you to
every single one of these industry guests for coming on the show. I've gotten
to know all of these people over the years, and I've been able to
meet many of them in person, and they have become friends of mine over
the years, and I'm so grateful for them, and I am so honored
that each and every one of them was willing to spend a little bit of
time with me on this particular episode. Thank you, every single one of
you. Well, it is time to bring onto the show the current lineup
of ATC contributors and let's have a fun chat with the ATC team. I've
been looking forward to this segment for a long time. I reached out to
the guys oh Man weeks and weeks ago and said, Hey, ATC two
hundred is coming up. What do you think about trying to bring in all
of the current co host cast and have a little round table discussion. They
were down for it, and then it reached out to the blog contributors and
tried to get them involved as well, and when everybody confirmed, I was
just so happy because we've never done anything like this before and so I'm really
excited to bring the creative people behind ATC two on the show today. All
of the contributors. Austin Peachey is here. Austin, thank you for coming.
Thank you, good to be here. Michael Schrader, frequent co host
in recent years. Hello, Yes, I'm honored to be among one of
the members of this August group of people on this recording as well. You
should. And Christopher Green, who has been a co host a couple of
times and a blog contributor as well. Oh, glad to be here.
And lastly, but not leastly, Robert Thacker, thank you so much for
coming on. You've never been on the podcast before, but you've been a
blog contributor for many, many years, so thank you for coming. Yeah,
Hello, Hello, thank you for having me. Unfortunately, Joe Pearson,
our other blog contributor, was not able to make it today, but
you know, we're gonna have to try to do this something like this again
and get him as well. But this is way overdue, and so thank
you gentlemen for coming on the show. I thought it would be fun to
just as we were marking this milestone here of two hundred episodes, I thought
it would be kind of fun to just reach out to you guys and find
out, well, not find out because I already know, but we're going
to share with the listener how you first got connected with ATC and and you
know, how you started getting involved with this show and the blog and things
like that. So, Austin, I think I think you were the first
one, although it might have been It might have been Robert now that I'm
thinking about it, but one of you guys was the first. But Austin,
you've been on the podcast more often, So let's start with you.
Tell us how you first found Audio Theater Central. Now, this one,
I'm not sure because I don't know if I remember this story, so this
might be news to me too, So I guess I can make up anything
I want and you wouldn't know the difference. No, just kidding. So
I think I first heard about ATC on the Odyssey Scoop website, which is,
in my opinion, the best Odyssey fansite out there. Jacob isam is
a very connected person and he was so great at sharing new podcasts, websites
and things like that to his audience. So I think I read on there
one of his blog posts about audio there Central, and it's not interesting to
me, like you know, it's a podcast that's not just Odyssey but other
shows as well, and so I checked it out. I think I listened
to episode like zero zero. I think was labeled like the intro thing.
I'm not sure if episode one had dropped yet or not, but yeah,
I listened to it and I enjoyed it. I grew to love it much
more later, but it was interesting. It was an acquired taste, I
did. I came out wrong. Yeah, I came out wrong. Sorry
about that. I shouldn't have laughed. I'm sorry. I know you're good.
You're good because like you know, first episodes of my podcast, and
I'm sure JD would say to you know, the first episode is always going
to be not the not the greatest, but as you go. I loved
your first episode, JD. I don't know what I ever been invited back
again, am I, but no, yeah, I enjoyed hearing not just
Audissey related stuff because that's a lot of the podcast. I listened to his
Audissey related stuff and hear about Lamplightder Theater. I think I heard about Lampeyder
Theater first on Odyssey Scoop two and I got to hear the interview. I
think the first episode was an interview with Mark Hanby, I think, and
then her view of season one I think, something like that of Lamplighter Theater.
And you know, I follow the show. I think I listened to
every single episode after that pretty much. I might have listened to one if
there was an it was a production I had heard yet, and I wanted
to avoid any kind of spoilers or something like that. But yeah, I
have. For lack of a term, it wasn't quite love at first sight,
but ATC has now become my number one favorite podcast to listen to.
It's not just because I'm able to be a part of it. That was
true before I started being on the podcast. It is the first one on
my podcast app, the very first one in the listened in podecast is Audiofia
Central, and I am so privileged to be a part of this team and
to be able to listen to a new episode every month. It's always a
joy and a pleasure to be able to do that. Oh, thank you.
Yeah, it's been so much fun working with you over the years,
and I think you've probably written the most posts out of anybody here from the
contributors. I mean, I think obviously I write a post every month for
the episodes, but you know, actual articles and things like that, news
updates and stuff. So your contributions have not gone unnoticed and definitely definitely appreciated.
Well, you're most welcome, all right, Who should we go to
next? How about Robert? Because I do think he was probably one of
the first ones who wrote a post. I think your first post, Robert
was a review of a Lifehouse theater on the air production, wasn't it?
Or maybe it was a Lamplighter theater? Do you recall? I believe it
was either Sir Malcolm or was it Ricky Ticky Tabby? Those were like my
first two from Lifehouse. Yeah, yeah, but that was about ten years
ago. I think it was twenty fourteen, so it's been a bit so
sorry Crack Research team. His first blog post was the review of Sir Malcolm
in The Investing Prince, published on July first, twenty fifteen. Okay,
oh, okay, I'm a year off. Yeah, but you were.
You had reached out before then, I'm pretty sure. So let us know
how how did you first hear about ATC and how did we first connect?
Yeah? So, yeah, probably about ten twelve years ago. My oldest
brother, who had been a podcast listener for a while, let me know
about ATC because we both loved the audio dramas and he was like, you
should check this out, And ultimately, through that, I ended up working
with pat Roy creator Jonathan Park and did some really cool things through that.
So I have a lot to thank ATC for in just how it's actually had
a pretty significant impact in what I've done over the years, and then specifically
writing articles. I think I had started writing on my own website, just
some audio drama stuff, kind of kind of to try to introduce more people
to the genre who hadn't necessarily grown up with it. And I think that
was what I had kind of pitched to you JD of like, here's my
writing, and I would love to contribute at some point, and the rest,
I guess is history. Yeah. Yeah, and yeah, you've written
some pretty in depth posts and I always appreciate it, And now I don't
remember all the specifics, but you wrote a review of season one of The
Encounter, which was the show produced by Liberty University, and then you ended
up going to Liberty, right, and you met those guys after that,
and so they knew you from atc right. Yes, that was a wild
story. And I did not expect to be able to make that connection with
those folks because I wrote that article on the Encounter and then probably a good
six months to a year past, and a friend of mine had actually been
a student at Liberty and worked with the guys who created The Encounter. But
I did not know about that connection. I just heard, you know,
there's some people there that my friend knew, and so he set up just
a lunch when I went down there with the creators of the Encounter, and
so I got to talk with them. I had no idea that they read
my article and that they knew who I was. So that was just that
blew my mind when I sat down with them, and it was just very
cool to talk with them about it. That is really really neat. Yeah,
I remember later actually you may have let me know that that happened shortly
thereafter, but I when I connected with the Liberty people, they told me
about it too, so I was like, well, that's cool. I
didn't I mean, I knew that they had read the review because they took
us a snippet from it a blurb and used it on their website and they
cited you, said Robert Thacker. Yeah, so that's so cool. You
know, this industry can seem like it's pretty big, but once you get
into it there it is quite a bit smaller. And there's some just really
cool people in this space. I mean, I think all of us would
agree with that. Mm hmm. Yeah, I mean I'm here, so
I mean, of course that goes without saying so clearly. Well, and
I just want to brag about ATC for a second here, because it's been
such a central hub for people who love audio drama and who are working in
this space to actually be able to connect. Like if the site did not
exist, all these connections that we're talking about right now would not have been
made. And so I really do appreciate it and it's pretty special. Yeah
you're here, well, thank you, And it's due in part to the
contributions of all of you. And again, Robert, thank you for all
of the reviews, and we probably need to have you on the podcast a
little bit more often because I think that that would be fun. I'd love
it. Well, Michael, I know this story pretty well, but let's
listener know how because I probably forgot well. I mean, I know how
we first connected, but I guess I don't really know exactly how you first
heard about atc oh well. I can't quite remember, but I think it
was a Google search. I was probably looking for free audio drama and I
came across Audio Theater Central and I was like, ah, this is a
free audio drama. And then I was like, but it's people talking about
audio drama. So if I can get a review and get most of the
storyline, I don't feel like I need to buy it. I'm sorry,
that wasn't a good joke to make here. Just cut cut that out Cut
that out, strike that from the record. But uh no, I and
so I just and it was like audio dramas that I was already familiar with.
I think I'd already been working with Lamplighter a little bit, and so
I was like, Wow, this is this is great. And then when
I connected with you was at one of the Odyssey Live shows and I forget
which one it was. Do you remember it was the first get in the
show finale? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, And you put out a
call on the on the podcast saying if anybody's going to the event, I
could use some help. I don't remember what you were wanting help with,
just like to carry equipment or something. Didn't take photos? Yeah, oh
take photos? Did I take photos? Get you coffee? Yeah? Yes,
the most important was from the list of coffee, you know. And
so see, I just showed up to the event with a cup of coffee,
and I knew exactly what he wanted, and he thought it was weird
and I'm just kidding. No, I just and I I reached out and
said, hey, I live in Colorado and so I'm not that far from
Focus on the Family and so I just met up with him there. I
think I met Austin on that trip too, So it was just like a
weekend of celebrities and so that was pretty cool. Well yeah, so,
I mean you've reached out and said, hey, I'm going to be there,
I'd be happy to help you. And so yeah, we met for
the very first time there at Focus on the Family, headquarters. And now
looking back on that, you know, I don't know this guy. I
mean, he says he listens to the podcast. Apparently he does because he
heard me put the call out. But I have no idea who this guy
is. But I was like, yeah, sure, come on in,
I'll let you help me know. But I know you were very gracious,
and it was crazy because we had some mutual connections, like I actually knew
your parents because I'd met them through some like church events, because they pastored
a church in southern Colorado, and so I'd already met them at some point.
But I had no idea of any of this at the time. In
fact, well I didn't either when I first when I first met you,
I didn't. We didn't find that out until after at the event then that
day, and so yeah, it was really cool. That was a great
event. You were a huge, huge help to me taking photos. I
carried your back so well, making sure that I hit record when we were
interviewing Bob Smiley the second time. That's right, Yeah, it's this button,
JD, not that one. Yeah. Yeah, And really it was
just like a backstage pass for me because JD had he had the press badge
and the connections, and so I was able to get in there and meet
actors and stuff that I wouldn't have otherwise. So that's that's what I've been
all through my experience with atc IS. I follow behind JD and then people
are like, oh, you're with JD. And I say, yes,
of course I am, and then they suddenly respect me, and it's amazing.
Yeah. I remember you telling me because I said, when you get
to the entrance, because I was already inside the main camp or the main
building of the campus, and I think something happened because you were you were
coming down from Northern Colorado to through the Springs and you were running a little
bit behind, and so I said, well, I'm already in. Just
tell the security guy at the door that you're with JD with Audio Theater Central
and they'll and they'll bring you in. And so you got, you get
there and you tell him and they're like, usher you right back in,
and you were just like blown away, like they just let me come right
in, like I didn't even have to go through the line or anything.
Yeah, an experience with JD is an experience and imposter syndrome. For me.
It's a it's a pretty pretty great his name opens Doors. And then
I don't know, I don't know if this was the second time, if
it was after the first Getting the Show or not, but I was coming
down to Arizona for a wedding and I was driving with my mom and I
said, I let you know, and you offered, well, I don't
know if I asked you or if you offered now, but anyways, we
stayed at your house. Yeah. Yeah, and you barely knew us at
all, and so that that was even more gracious. And I made fun
of h o Way's while I was there, and then you told me that
you worked for any so something to do with the Joys, and I was
like, oh, man, probably never talked to this guy again. Yeah,
that was a great trip, and I really enjoyed having you and your
mom and Michael. You've actually become a really good friend over the years,
and I appreciate you and your involvement in the in the show. And of
course now you're involved with Greenhorn Tales as well. I don't remember how that
came about, but I remember that at that Get in the Show event,
you told me about your novel, which I then read. Actually you gave
me a copy and I really enjoyed that, and so I'm like, well,
this guy's a writer. And when Greenhorn Tales came about, I don't
remember how it first happened, but I guess I must have asked you,
Hey, what do you think about writing for the show, and so yeah,
now I think you wrote three or four episodes from season one and more
to come in season two. But yeah, it's it's been a great relationship
and having you on the ATC team has been a lot of fun. And
obviously the people have heard you on our episodes from Soniccon and subsequent reviews and
so become a great part of the show. So thank you. Yeah,
I really appreciate you welcoming me in like you did, and and all of
the stuff I've done has just come through your gracious acceptance of me overlooking of
my of my many faux pause. So I appreciate that. Oh, it's
it's it's easy to do. You're such a likable guy. Thank you.
And Christopher, you're not allowed to talk at this point. Well he speaking
of Christopher. That's a perfect segue. Christopher. Yeah, let's let the
people know how we first or how you first found out about ATC. We
just talked about this just recently, but Michael said I can't talk so well.
Thank you everybody for joining us for this episode. Just kidding, all
right. I relinquished the right to make you not tell me that was really
hard. Actually, it's funny because I think I'm the only one here that
didn't get an introduction to JD through ATC actually, but was introduced to ATC
through JD. So I first interacted with JD because of a mutual connection to
Christopher one sixty four, who is a blogger at the time. He's a
YouTuber now and he was a big fan of Audio Theater Central as well as
the Ceiling Fan podcast which I by Kevin McCreery, which I was working on
with Kevin at the time, and I've been chatting up with Christopher and he,
I guess did the discuss comment system that is used on a lot of
websites, including JD's personal website jdsutter dot Me, little name drop for JD.
There great some great content there you should check out as well if you
have not. But he was using that discuss comment some on there, as
was Christopher on his own blog at the time. And it kind of gives
you, like recommendations on other blogs that people you comment follow, kind of
like a social system kind of also comment on. And so I checked out
this post that I saw something about field recorders I believe was the post,
and you know, portable recording devices, and I had a zoom H four
N for recording fully stuff on audio dramas, and so I dropped in to
read the article, and I think I commented on the article saying like,
Oh, this is sounds like a really neat field recorder you're talking about.
I use this field recorder when I do fully And Jad's like, fully,
what what do you do fully on? And so I told them about some
of the projects that I was working on, and I think we connected from
there to do to eventually work together on Versus in Vox, which is another
fantastic podcast you guys should check out. I don't remember the u r all
off by heart, but you should definitely check it out. Versus in Vox
dot Com. There we go, Versusvox dot Com a great poetry show.
And I did some sound design on that for JD. And I forget exactly
what it is in that point that I started listening to to ATC. Actually,
I think I had heard about it before I interacted with JD, but
I didn't put two together for shockingly long, and then I did put two
and two together, so I checked it out. And I've always appreciated the
in depth reviews that JD has done and how he's even reformatted the show in
recent years, and the monologue segment has become one of my most favorite segments
for sure, to hear what JD's JD's thinking and yeah, yeah, and
I think I remember you telling me about shadows in Daylight in that comment section,
and that's all still there. I went and read through it not that
long ago. It's all still there in the comments on that post on my
website, and I was like, this is a really cool time capsule kind
of looking back. And now we've known each other for what it's been over
ten years now, and now we're you know, we work on all kinds
of projects together. I mean, I've voiced characters in your show, and
then we make Greenhorn Tails together, and now you're part of the ATC crew
and Audio Drama Alliance. I mean, that's a whole other thing that we
could talk about for a long time, which we don't have time for today,
but oh my goodness, yeah, it's just been it's been a crazy,
amazing ride. And all of this comes back to ATC. I mean,
if this didn't exist, I wouldn't know any of you guys. So
it's just really cool. It's really cool. Well, and going back to
that value that ATC brings to the community and those connections. And I think
it was Austin that was mentioning it earlier about those connections. That could be
wrong, but I'll give Austin credit anyways, he doesn't get enough credit.
He's a great guy. But going back to those connections, I mean,
I've I've done surveys, I've done you know, stats and links tracking and
those kinds of things. And I can say with the strong certainty that the
majority of my listenership in projects that I've work on, like personally, like
things like Shadows and Daylight comes from people who checked it out because of Audio
Theater Central and so like that's a significant impact on not just my shows but
shows in general, that people are going to check it out because of Audio
Theater Central. I've checked out so many shows because of Audio Theater Central.
I'd be like, I don't know what's what's good, you know, and
then checking seeing what I think a bit of time travel. I think I
first checked out because of Audio Theater Central, if I remember correctly, or
I could be totally nuts about and wrong, but I've checked out a few
things specifically because of ADC. Well, well, thank you that that's very
kind, and just to clarify, those are two different things. You could
be nuts and you could be wrong too, so I mean those are not
utually exclusive. No, no, that was very funny after those very kind
words, and then I just give you an uppercut right to the jaw.
So yeah, no, but yeah, you guys are so great and it's
always fun to work with the post that you haven't written. When you guys
are on the show, it's just a blast to work with people that you
like working with. I've said that kind of thing before, but it's it's
really true, and I at this point I have to say, I mean,
it would be totally remiss if I didn't say shout out to Roy and
Andrew for over ten years of co hosting the show with me. I'm getting
it running up and running with me and a huge, huge, part of
the content over those years and just so integral in what ATC became. And
you guys have been stepping in since their exit and it's been it's been great
having you guys involved. Before we head out the door, just real quickly,
and we don't have a whole lot of time, but and I know
this is going to be a challenge, but we'll go down the line and
just to real quickly share what it is about audio drama that you really love,
what what keeps you invested in this medium. So well, we'll start
with you, Austin, I like it betterman, someone else goes first.
That is a is a really tough question. That's a great reason, Austin,
Well, audio drama to me is something I grew up with that in
folks is my main media source. And I don't know, there's something so
cozy about it, something that is so personal and something so unique about auto
drama that it's like I listened to Vich and Ossi for years and like those
characters and even the actors on their basically I consider those people to be my
family, even though they're fictional characters. And I think there's studies about how
listening to something directly, like if you listen to like a podcast or a
talk show host or something like that, there's something more personal about just listening
to their voice not seeing any visuals. And I think it's been a big
part while I love audio drama and how it makes my imagination bigger and it's
such a fun way to consume stories. Yeah, I mean, there's no
wrong answers here. I mean it's gonna be a little bit different probably for
every one of us, but I think it will also overlap a little bit
too, because this medium is audio is called an intimate medium. I mean,
because it is it's going right into your ear drums, and especially if
you're listening to something with headphones or something, it's just it draws you in.
It's very very close. And so I love that about it too,
how about you, Robert, Yeah, I mean I could second everything that
Austin just said there. But one of the things that I really appreciate about
audio drama is how it is a form of story that forces creativity because you
cannot write a audio drama without using some unique ways of telling a story,
and then as a listener, you get to interpret it with the creators,
you know, because you're you're playing a role in imagining what's going on.
Yeah, and that's that's a pretty unique thing for audio drama. Of course
you have that with with books as well, but audio drama has a whole
other level of all of the visuals are prompted with sound effects, with voice.
Yeah, but then you get to fill in the gaps and I think
that's just beautiful totally. Yeah, how about you, Michael Man see Austin.
It was better to go first because you know everything you guys said,
I'm just gonna be repeating stuff because yeah, it just gives so much scope
for the imagination. And growing up, we took a lot of long car
trips. We didn't we didn't have TV. I think we you know,
would watch a movie every once in a while, but audio drama was like
the primary form of entertainment for us, and still as an adult. It
gives you the ability to like engage with story even while you're doing other things.
Audio drama taught me to be a multitasker. That's it's one of the
foundational things now and a lot of the creators of audio drama, well at
least those stuff that I've been exposed to there's so much high quality audio drama
that agrees with my values, you know, as a Christian, and I
appreciate that a lot. And so there's really great stories that are being told
with this really great medium. And so that's why I appreciate audio drama very
different from Austin and Robert. But you know, I just I know that
that is respective. Yeah, that is a good point. I hadn't I
hadn't thought really about that too much. But yeah, that's that's very valid,
all right, Christopher, Okay, try to come up with something new,
no pressure. I like how visual it is. No, I'm just
kidding me. One could say that, make a case for that, but
that's not the case that I'm going to make. I think some of what
I appreciate about audio drama, the two things that I was just thinking of
is collaboration and the other thing is so I'm a multimedium artist, I guess
you could say, And I think what I appreciate in different mediums is how
you can lean into the either showing and not telling or the hiding certain facts
until just the right moment. We talked about Greenhorn Tales briefly that JD and
Michael and I all work on and that's a comedy. And there's the fact
that you can obscure certain things from the audience because they can't see it until
you let them know about it, and you let them know it just the
right time for the perfect comedic effect. You can do that in mystery and
all kinds of other things too, So I like using the fact that you
can't see to read direct people with that clever sleight of hand. But the
other thing that I like about audio drama is the collaborative aspect. Now this
may not have been something we would have said about audio drama fifteen twenty years
ago, necessarily, but I think in this day and age of connection through
the Internet and everything like that, there's a whole new world of audio drama
collaborative opportunities that would be much harder in another medium like film. You know,
if the five of us in this virtual room wanted to make a short
film together, it would be much harder to do that in a seamless way
remotely that would not feel piecemealed and awkward. Whereas I have collaborated in some
form or fashion with the five of you in this virtual room on audio drama
at some form, shape or form at some point, and it's seamless.
You wouldn't know we weren't all in the same room kind of thing, you
know. And certainly there is something to be said about recording people in the
same room has a certain effect too, But I think it opens up a
wealth of opportunity to collaborate with really cool people from all over the place and
may just make something that's greater than the some of its parts that is hard
to do in other mediums. That's absolutely true. Yeah, and I should
say I mean, I don't know why this didn't occur to me earlier,
but both Robert and Austin have also been involved in Greenhorn Tails. Austin did
some voice track editing very early on in I think it was either on the
pilot or season one, you know. I think it was one episode of
season one. I did a little bit, okay, and then Robert did
sound design on an episode from season one. I'm blanking on the title now,
Robert, can you remind me there was a violin? I honestly forget
the title too. Oh, fiddles and flapjacks or flapjacks and fiddles, one
of those two flap jackson. Yeah, yeah, yeah, great job on
that. So yeah. In fact, his snippet of his work got featured
at Soniccon the first Sonic Coon because that was the only piece of Greenhorn Tales
that was actually finished at that at that time. But oh wow, I
did not know that. That's awesome. Yeah, so we get to premiere
that little a segment of that episode at Sonicon. But yeah, so man,
guys, thank you so much for doing this. This is it's a
joy to work with all of you. It was so great having you all
on the show. I've really appreciated it, and I just want you to
know publicly that your contributions have not gone unnoticed. And I was just telling
Austin this the other day because it was not long ago. It was his
birthday. But I don't say it enough, but I really do appreciate you
guys and the contributions you've made to this community, and not just to ATC,
but to audio drama as a whole, because each of you have have
you know, as as Robert's story earlier illustrated, have impacted others in the
industry. And now Austin is working as an audio drama producer these days,
and Christopher has been producing stuff too, and so it's just it's a great
community. And I just want you guys to know that I appreciate all of
you. Well, we appreciate you, JD. More than you know,
more than you realize. Here here absolutely well. Before we say goodbye,
I have one final question, and this is going to be probably the most
difficult one yet. So I don't know if you guys are ready for this.
No, no, I'm not. Wait. I want to ask you
why why are you so passionate about audio drama? JD. You've done two
hundred episodes of Audio Theater Central, and I'd like you to answer the question
that you made us answer before you go onto the last really hard one.
I have to prepare myself. It's getting power, Hugly. You should have
waited for him to ask the question, then ask him the question, so
you had time to think about your answer while he's answering the question. I
am so bad at timing. You're right, okay, ask the question.
No, But similar to you, Michael, I mean I did grow up
in a home without a television too, so audio entertainment was you know,
what we listened to, and it's the same thing here. My family did
travel a lot. We took road trips. I mean, we didn't have
a whole lot of money, so our vacations were usually road trips to visit
family in nearby states or things like that, or going to see some natural
wonders in our area, different things like that. And so we were constantly
listening to stories, and of course I was listening to things on the radio
as well, and so audio drama has been a part of my life for
as long as I can remember, really, and I remember the very first
audio drama I ever heard. I was probably four years old, and it's
from a series called Stand and Tall. They're no longer in production, but
you can still find them out there. And they're not super deeply immersive stories
like we might get from Odyssey or radio theater, but they were audio drama,
full cast, sound effects music, and they taught character building lessons with
each production, and they would come in on a cassette and there was a
little book that would go along with it, and there was illustrations all throughout,
and the entire script of the story was in the book, so you
could follow along as you were listening. And like I said, I was
about four years old, listening to those stories, and so I grew up
with those and I don't know when it first really just sunk in, as
I love this medium so much, but it became such a part of my
life that as I started working in producing audio for other things and hosting shows
and things like that, I was thinking, you know, there's got to
be other people out there like me who really enjoy audio drama and would like
to talk about it. And so that was one of the reasons why they
decided to do ATC. But it's just because this medium is so amazing and
it is so immersive, and I do love the aspect and I'll hear as
where I'll start repeating everything you guys have said. But you can be driving
for a long distance. I mean not just writing in the car, but
you can be driving and listen. You can't watch something while you're at least
you shouldn't. Don't do that. But you can't be playing a video game
or you know, those kind of things. And so there's a way to
consume great content that's not just high quality. But as you pointed out,
my whole the majority of the high quality audio drama in the world, and
I don't have any qualm saying that some of the highest quality audio drama in
the world is being made in the family friendly space, specifically by Christian organizations,
and so it's great, not just awesome stories, but it's great for
you as a person, character building and spiritual lessons and things like that.
So this storytelling medium is just amazing. And I would be out mowing the
lawn with a walkman clipped to my belt listening to Adventures and Odyssey and things
like that. You know, it's just wow, what's a Walkman? Google
it, you'll figure it out, okay. But and the more I got
into it, and in the early days of the Adventures of Odyssey website and
seeing the behind the scenes of the voice actors and things like that. I'm
sure all of you here remember that old website that had sort of like a
pie chart looking graphic on the front page with the different sections of the website
wedges, you know, and just, oh goodness, the good old days.
And finding some of these other fans. I mean, I think maybe
the aio HQ was around back then when I first started getting online and looking
at stuff like that, and and so it's just seeing the fan base and
just thinking you know, it would be awesome to be a part of this,
and so I don't know, I think I went a little bit beyond
the original question. But it is an amazing storytelling medium. And the more
I've gotten into the on the behind the scenes sort of things on the production
side of things, the more I appreciate the medium because it is so powerful
and there are so many things you can do with it you can't do with
other mediums, and it's so versatile, and and I just I love it
well. And I love that you found such a creative way to contribute,
because I think a lot of us growing up listening to Adventures in Odyssey thought,
oh, I'd love to be part of audio drama, you know,
as an actor, writer or whatever. But to do reviews and then the
Seneca Awards and all the different ways that you've brought the audio drama community,
all these different players together. It is a really cool way to contribute.
So I think that's a really awesome thing about ATC. But JD also contributes
now more and more, I would say, as as a as an actor
and all these things things as well. Right, I'm just gonna and I
know, I know that you weren't glossing over that, Michael. But I
just like to, you know, inflate JD's tires because I know he's not
gonna I know he's not He's he's not too self promote, so I'm going
to promote him for him. But he's done recently a fantastic short audio drama
called Another Year Older, Another Year Wiser, I think is one of the
best things that I've heard recently in audio drama. So you can check that
out at JD. Suttert Me as well. So that's a that's a great
one to check out. But yeah, he's done more and more voice too,
shown up in Pirateers as well as what else have you been? You've
been in a bit of time travel, I believe. Can I say this
a recent Heart Matters production that came out, you can edit that out.
If I can't say that, I think I can say that that's already been
on the po. Yeah, there you go, and uh, you know
it's so yeah exactly. So I mean, like, I think there's there's
quite a bit of contributions in you know, echoing what Michael said, You've
you've contributed in some unique ways, but also increasingly I think what I like
is that because you've spent it's like it's like you spent so many years studying
how they do it, and now you just like come out of the gate
and just be just kind of like people like, WHOA, where did JD
come from? He's just like he's he knows his stuff, so you know,
well researched, yeah, yeah, and he's got such inflated tires.
I know, it's like a monster truck. What are you gonna do?
Well? And the more I got involved, you know, with meeting just
the people behind the scenes, as I started interviewing them for Audio Theater Central,
the more I realized that this community not talking about just us here as
sort of the critics of the industry, but that the people actually making these
shows are so down to earth and personable and fun to be around. I
mean, Michael knows many of them from going to the Lamplader Guild and being
involved with lamp Ladder, and I know Austin has met several of them as
well. And so these people that you, at least for me, I
mean a lot of them, I grew up listening to their work either as
actors and like in the case of Phil Lawler. I remember hearing him on
the show as an actor, and of course his writing and Jungle Jam and
Odyssey and all this stuff, and now I know them. They're just genuine
nice people. And so as I got to know the industry, I thought,
more people need to know about this amazing work that is being done in
this space a lot of Christians Evangelicals as a whole, like Odyssey is like
the staple, like people know Odyssey, but there are some other high quality
stuff that could get out to a broader audience. A lot of what radio
theater has done, our adaptations of classic literature, those can have a broader
reach, and you know, a lamplightder theater. Even though a lot of
that stuff is explicitly Christian, a lot of it is just great storytelling.
And so I thought, you know, what can we do to help broaden
the scope of the reach of these shows. And so that's sort of been
a passion of mine, is to help bring more people, more listeners in
and then also those people who love Adventures in Odyssey, introduce them to this
other stuff that's really really great. And another aspect of that is as I
started to connect with more people in the industry. I was able to connect
them with each other for different projects, for example, bringing Jered Dipesqual onto
Ian Boltman's radar to bring him in to work on the Brinkman Adventures. And
that's just one example. And I love making those connections and so I,
oh, go ahead, go ahead, just to give it. Throw out
another example. One of the actresses on Shadows and Daylight, she came on
to Shadows and Daylight because she was interviewed on Audio Theater Central and so that's
Abigail Bourne, who was part of She was being interviewed for her involvement in
the Lamplighter Guild and we were looking for our replacement for a particular character at
the time. The previous person, just life commitments, wasn't able to keep
up with the role anymore. And I was listening to the episode just because
ATC is great and I was listening to it, and then I was like,
you know, her voice could totally fit this role. And so JD
was able to introduce that connection and make that happen. So that's just another
one of the many ways that JD is the talent broker, the spider in
the web. Oh if you will not comparable to the part you played on
the Heart Matters would Yeah, no connection whatsoever. Or to Professor Moriarty,
you're the good Professor Moriarty of radio drama. JD. I've always thought of
you that way. He's the good twin of Moriarty. That's right. Oh
well, thank you guys for those kind words. I appreciate it. And
it's like I said, I already said this, but it's a pleasure knowing
all of you and having you involved. But if Michael doesn't have any more
interruptions, I'm gonna throw it. I'm sorry. I know that was a
long derailing, but it was so worth it. Guys. We got such
great content out of that. That was a good answer, JD. Good
answer, and he forgot to ask us the question. Oops, all right,
no, I'm ready. I'm ready. Now this is behind the scenes.
Thing that people don't know is that like JD doesn't actually come on the
show with like notes and stuff. It's just like Michael actually just like gives
him a prompt a question and then JD just rips the entire show and he
just cuts the part with Michael out. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. I've
actually been involved with every episode giving me you a peek behind the curtain here
at episode two hundred. No. Now, this is a question that I've
been asking all of the industry guests, and I'm gonna throw it at you
guys. Now, you guys have been at backstage. You haven't heard what
they've been answering. So now I'm gonna throw it at you. Are you
ready? No? Yes? Maybe? All right? So this is going
to be this or that, and you have to immediately answer the first thing
that comes to mind. Austin Mexican food or Italian food, Mexican food,
Robert Italian, Michael Oh Mexican, Christopher Mexican. Oh wow. Well,
as I said before, there are no wrong answers. What's what's your favorite
dish? Chileiriano's and enchiladas? Oh okay, Lazagna. That's a personal favor
of mine too. You me and Garfield, I mean we love our lozign
Michael, how about you do carneasada fries? Count? Is that more American?
I'll allow it, Thank you, thank you. Isn't that a taco
bell thing? No? No, no, no. There's this place down
the street that I'm pretty sure is run by a cartel, but they have
great CARNIASDA fries, and they're so authentic you can taste. But anyways,
let's move on from that. All right, how about you, Christopher Burritos
used to work in a burrito place, and there's a particular way that I
make them, having learned from their day. I really like how how well?
Is it a secret? No? Not really, I guess the main
difference is just it's there's a particular it's hard to this is almost impossible to
explain it audio. There's just a particular way that it's like rolled and then
like cooked on all sides of the outside. He's clapping his hands together for
our audio listeners, and I can see it. I can see this.
It's amazing. I just make a burrito on the show. Yeah. Wow.
And then the way you got your feet involved that was wild. That
was oh my goodness. All right, that's a Greenhorn Tales episode right there.
Forget season two. We'll just post that. Yeah, I love I
love a good burrito too. And the cornea. That was a great segue.
Sorry, sorry, come in again. That's why I'm a professional and
not Michael. Right, that's why I don't have a podcast. I'm gonna
mute myself. But the Carney of Fries, I mean, that's the thing
down here in Arizona as well. I mean a lot of these food trucks
and and different taco shops, takarias they you can get those there. So
honestly, I have never had them before, so maybe I'm missing out.
You are, okay, I'll take your word for it and I will try
them. I've never even heard of them. Well, thank you again,
gentlemen, it's been a pleasure. And uh, in the show notes,
we don't have time to go through and all but all of these guys are
involved in some great projects elsewhere outside of ATC that are linked in the show
notes that you'll definitely want to go check out. I want to give them
some love here in the in the show notes, and so head over and
check out what they're doing and that they have done in the past. So
thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for coming on the
show. You are most welcome. Thank you. JD. Yeah, it
is an honor to be here. Thanks for inviting me. Yes, thank
you. This was a lot of fun. And Joa, We're going to
catch you next time. Four hundred episode. We've sent people there looking for
you. They will find you. Oh that was such a blast chatting with
those guys. We are an amazing group of creatives that I am so pleased
to be able to work with and to bring the content on this podcast and
the website to you along with their help. So thank you to every single
one of them. And just a quick correction, I said in the conversation
that I met Michael at the first get in the show finale. That is
incorrect. It was actually at the second get in the show finale in twenty
seventeen. That is chronicled in ATC number ninety six, so you can hear
that if you would like. And that is actually also where I met Austin
In for the first time. And so that is a fun, fun episode
that you'll want to check out if you haven't heard before. Well, this
episode would not have been possible without so many people, and I just want
to take a moment to say thank you to all of the industry guests.
In alphabetical order, starting with the ladies, we have Alisha Hansen, Katie
Lee, and Kathy Sarah, followed by Dave Arnold, Todd Busteed, Jared
di Pesqual, John Thornoff, Aaron Fullen, Craig Hart, Glenn Haskell,
Nathan Hubler, Rob Jorgensen, Droby Kern, Phil Lawler, Paul McCusker,
pat Roy and Marshall Younger. These are some of the top professionals in this
industry. This episode featured a who's who of family friendly audio drama and I
am so so grateful that they would take the time to talk with me and
share a little bit about their thoughts on this medium with you. So thank
you to every single one of you. Also to the ATC contributors Roy Andrew
Austen, Robert Michael, Christopher and Joa, thank you so much for your
contributions to ATC and to this industry as a whole. Thank you so much.
To every past guest host and interviewee who's ever appeared on the show.
Thank you, I appreciate you. To all of the listeners who left a
voice message for this episode. Christian Manassian, Caleb Bresler, David Hilder,
Jeremy Levy, Odyssey Fan, Betsy Nicholson, Jason Markowitz, Phil Lawler,
Bethany Baldwin, and Trisha Rose. Thank you so much to each of you,
and to every single one of you. Who listens to this show,
thank you for listening. And if you've ever shared the show with a friend
on social media or in a text message or in a conversation, thank you
for doing that. That helps us grow this community. So please continue to
do that. Share ATC with a friend. If they love audio drama,
I think if they give it two or three episodes, they're going to love
ATC as well. So thank you for listening and thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for two hundred episodes of the show. I'm just very
very grateful. Well, if you would like to get in touch with us
as always, you can head over to audio Theatercentral dot com slash contact.
All of the different ways to reach out are listed there. The show notes
for this episode are at audio Theatercentral dot com slash two hundred. Ah.
It's still hard to imagine saying that two hundred episodes, but anyway, I'll
see you next time. Thank you so much for listening. Hi. This
is Betsy Nicholson from Elizabethdintonnessee. Audio Theater Central is a production of Porchlite Family
Media. The theme music was composed by Sam Avendanio. The show is produced
and edited by JD. Sutter. Find the website at audio Theatercentral dot com.
Sporchlight Family Media your source for family centered content Scorchlightfamilymedia dot com