To get in the right frame of mind for today’s interview, I set aside my usual German bologna and Muenster cheese sandwich and went with tuna fish. Because after all the Mayonnaise my wife mixes in with a can of tuna, it isn’t much about the fish, either. My guest today is Marshall Craig, a Yale man and Wharton MBA who says he frittered away most of his life making a living and raising a family when he could have been fishing. And while I know he loves his wife and family, I think he’s genuinely pretty serious about his lost time away from casting a line. MARSHALL CRAIG podcast excerpt: "We don't just catch the whopper fish. We have friends we got out with, with whom we share the interaction, pushing the boat off, lunch or what we discuss (on the water) -- occasionally what we catch. But fishing is about more than just that finny thing you get at the end of your hook!" If you’re a man or woman who likes to get away from civilization to fish in remote and exotic places, Marshall is the kind of guy you’ll want to do it with. I reached that conclusion based on the humorous essays found in his new memoir, You’ll Need A Guide: Fishing Stories That Aren’t Much About the Fish. In the interests of full disclosure, I want to share with you that my wife, Mimi, edited Marshall’s book and we liked it so much that we published under the Mr. Media Books imprint. It is available in paperback or ebook on Amazon or wherever you buy books about fishing. Marshall Craig

2019: While I can’t tell you that I have read Lynn Johnston’s wonderful daily comic strip, “For Better or For Worse” from the very beginning in 1979, I can’t remember a time when The Patterson Family was not a part of my own family. I was a college sophomore when Lynn started. I remember becoming immediately attached to John and Elly’s daily adventures, raising their children, Michael and Elizabeth, their dog, Farley, getting to know their extended family—such as when Grandpa Jim started dating—and even the heart-breaking death of Farley. Lynn Johnston podcast excerpt: "Everybody my age was great (when I started in the business). But there were a bunch of old farts that were just awful! At one point, I was president of the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) and they would draw naked pictures of me as I was conducting a meeting! But I drew naked pictures of my own and got back at them.It was hard; they would have preferred I make them coffee and serve them tea and not really run the meetings." When Mimi and I got married, we often read the strip together or shared a favorite. When Charlie was born, I related to the Patterson kids in new ways. And when Charlie started reading at four, I introduced him to collections of “For Better or For Worse” which he devoured over and over again. On any given day, “For Better or For Worse” could be funny, sweet, bittersweet or hauntingly dramatic – just like life in my own family or yours. Perhaps nothing about the strip was more shocking than the day in 2008 that Lynn announced she would no longer be producing new strips but would be re-releasing the original strip from day one, with occasional fixes to continuity and timeliness. Would that even work? It has and it does, with the strip continuing to appear in an astonishing 2,000 newspapers in 23 countries around the world. We are conducting this interview just days after learning of the sudden death of the former editor of Universal Press Syndicate, Lee Salem. And here is something Lynn and I share in common: Salem acquired both “For Better or For Worse” and Mr. Media, which started life in 1994 as a weekly syndicated newspaper column. Lynn Johnston • • • • • • • • •

2019: If your faith in the United States Government has been shaken by political developments over the last three years, you’re apparently right where the political leaders and oligarchs of Russia want you to be. Oh, and President Donald Trump and his aides are likely complicit in this result. BARBARA SLATE podcast excerpt: "There is all this drama and madness created (around President Trump). Everybody is trying to protect him ... But he says (paraphrasing), 'That's was I did. So what?'" Those are among the clear takeaways from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s massive two-year, 400-plus-page report that few of us have read – including most Republicans serving in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Since we’re Americans living in the 21st century, we need everything boiled down and spoonfed with splendid simplicity. Sure, that’s what CNN and MSNBC have done with the Mueller Report, but graphic novelist Barbara Slate, a frequent guest to this show, has gone them one step further. She’s adopted it into a comic book. Mueller Report Graphic Novel, Vol. 1 reduces the horrifying hacking of American democracy to its essence in just 33 pages packed with political cheating and anti-American conspiracies. BARBARA SLATE podcast excerpt: "This is the most exciting project that I've ever done. I feel som passionate about the Mueller Report ... When was the last time you had a conversation when Trump was not mentioned?" Vol. 2 will soon follow. Our mutual friend, the late Will Eisner, the father of educational comics in the 1940s, would be proud. Barbara Slate • •

2019: Pity the poor indie filmmaker. I’m sitting around for three years with nothing better to do than be anxious for Quincy Rose’s follow-up to the brilliantly titled and whack-a-doodle Friends Effing Friends Effing Friends, while he’s out hustling a budget, writing, directing, editing and submitting his latest creation, The Narcissists, to film festivals and seeking a distribution deal. Where does the time go? QUINCY ROSE podcast excerpt: "I don't know if (my godfather) Woody (Allen) watched 'The Narcissists'; I did send it to him but he's been busy shooting his newest film. But he did call me when my dad (Mickey Rose) was ill and he said, 'So I watched "Miles To Go" and yeah, I gotta tell you -- it's not a bad movie!' I thought that was the greatest compliments I could ever get from Woody. He doesn't think any of HIS films were good, so it was really great (to hear). He said it reminded him of what he used top do in his younger days." The good news is that, thanks to President Trump, at least today we can all spell “n-a-r-c-i-s-s-i-s-t-s,” so that’s one mountain climbed for the young filmmaker, who is the son of the late, legendary comedy writer Mickey Rose, one-time partner of Woody Allen. And Quincy is Woody’s godson, which might explain more tthan a few influences in the film, such as the long, loving camera shots of New York City, the sharp, biting conversation between the four principals, and the naming of the character of “Letty.” Letty Aronson is Woody’s sister’s name. Joining me today are Quincy Rose, who stars in the film as “Oliver,” and one of his co-stars, Augie Duke, who plays “Letty.” Quincy Rose •  • • •  • • •  • Augie Duke • • • • • • •

2019: One of the best novels I read in 2018 was Renèe Rosen’s Windy City Blues, in which she told the story of Chicago’s legendary Chess Records through the eyes of a fictionalized young woman who worked at the nascent blues and rock ‘n’ roll label. And even though she never existed in reality, you couldn’t help but come away from reading the book feeling like she was flesh and blood. I had the same experience with Rosen’s latest book, Park Avenue Summer. RENEE ROSEN podcast excerpt: "Helen Gurley Brown had this little doll's chair (in her 'Cosmopolitan' magazine office) on which she would sit and hold meetings because  she never wanted anyone to feel intimidated. She always wanted everyone to feel bigger than her -- and everyone WAS bigger than her!" Once again, the author delivers up a slice of actual history by taking us through it in the persona of a young woman, named Alice Weiss. This time, Rosen takes her readers back in time to the moment in 1965 when Cosmopolitan magazine is on the verge of shutting down, only to be saved against all logic by an inexperienced new editor named Helen Gurley Brown, best known as the controversial and provocative author of Sex and the Single Girl. Rosen’s portrayal of Brown is incredible, as is her ability to capture an era that most of us know best through the eyes of TV’s Don Draper in “Mad Men.” If you ever watched that show, flip it on its ass and imagine it’s the magazine industry, instead of advertising, and that you’re seeing the start of the Swinging ‘60s and the sexual revolution through the eyes of women, not men. I can’t wait to find out what the author has planned for us next! Renèe Rosen • • •

2019: NOTE — Due to some recording issues, this isn’t the easiest audio to hear. We’ve fixed the problem going forward, but my apologies to Jon and to you! – Bob Andelman, Mr. Media. I was a little young for underground comix at the height of their anti-establishment run at the end of the 1960s and early ‘70s, but still managed to discover them in my teens at places like Weird Harold’s Head Shop in Milltown, New Jersey, upstairs and around back from the Krauser’s Dairy Store. Most of the social humor and politics of the era went over my head at the time, but I always loved the art and gathered a small stack of those comix over time, spread among my piles of Marvels and DCs. The art of Robert Crumb – a.k.a., R. Crumb, a.k.a., Bob Crumb, a.k.a., just plain Crumb – always stood out. His style was unique unto itself, much as another of my favorites of the 1980s, Drew Friedman’s, was. They drew comics, but their heroes didn’t look like Kirby, Ditko, Romita or even Steranko. JON B. COOKE podcast excerpt: "(Crumb) thinks I'm a nut, so I think he sees a kindred spirit. I am a nut. But this is the book I would want." And Crumb, who often drew himself into his work, was so weird! It all comes together in my friend Jon. B. Cooke’s new oral history of Crumb’s long-running magazine, Weirdo. In The Book of Weirdo: A Retrospective of R. Crumb's Legendary Humor Comics Anthology, Cooke interviews dozens upon dozens of creators who worked with Crumb, the man who created the magazine in 1981, and who was followed in time by artist Peter Bagge and Crumb’s artist wife, Aline Kominski, and recreates what it was like to work with Crumb and what the experience meant to them. It is a massive work by Cooke that even Crumb himself questions the logic of, although he admits he learned quite a bit about himself and his magazine by reading it. As for Cooke, who is a graphic designer by day and editor of Comic Book Creator magazine by night, he also worked with his brother Andrew on the documentary Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist. This is Jon’s third appearance on Mr. Media. Jon B. Cooke  •  •  • •

2010: Reports of the death of the TV hospital drama—foretold by the end of "ER" last season after 27 years on the air—were apparently premature. Showtime has "Nurse Jackie"; TNT has "HawthoRNe" and NBC is back with a new one that adds an "M," a "C" and a "Y" to "E" and "R" and that gives us "Mercy." (Oh, stop groaning—you saw that one coming a mile away.)  JAMIE LEE KIRCHNER podcast excerpt: "It's a friendship show. It's like 'Sex and the City' with cheaper footwear. There's a lot of comedy; just when you think you know who these people are, they make a hard left turn."  But alert Nurse Hathaway! In this network show, the nurses—not the doctors—are running the asylum. Starring Taylor Schilling, Michelle Tractenberg and my guest today, Jamie Lee Kirchner, "Mercy" lets viewers know who's really in charge on the floors. Jamie Lee Kirchner •

2019: To me, the arrival of a new Ravi P.I. novel by Adi Tantimedh is like being handed a fresh-baked soft pretzel and a Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. I’m going to try and consume it slowly, savoring every biteand every sip. But in the end, I always give in to the impulse of zooming through because it’s just so damned good! Of course, when it’s gone, I’m left wanting another. And another. And with the third book in the series, Her Fugitive Heart, Tantimedh has such a commanding grip on what makes his characters swing through murder, intrigue, a secret, kinky sex club, deception, lies and – yes! – marriage that this installment is as good as the first two combined. ADI TANTIMEDH podcast excerpt: "Ravi is starting to realize that maybe the gods might be real that he might not be crazy after all" The real question: is this the end of Ravi’s adventures? Or is it just the beginning? Joining me today for the third time is the creator and author of the series. NOTE -- Due to some recording issues, this isn't the easiest audio to hear. We've fixed the problem going forward, but my apologies to Adi and to you! - Bob Andelman, Mr. Media. Adi Tantimedh  •  •  •

2009: This should be an interesting show. We have a guest who is allergic to beer and a host who never touches the stuff. Naturally, the subject is… beer! Anat Baron is the director of a new documentary called . Now available for sale on DVD, it’s not a movie about rival frat houses—on second thought, maybe it is. Baron presents a sometimes tongue-in-cheek study have how the big three brewing companies—Anheuser-Busch, Coors and Miller—will stop at nothing to gobble up shelf space in your neighborhood convenience, grocery or liquor store and kick the little guys to the curb. Sprinkled throughout the film are familiar pop culture touchstones from old beer commercials to industrial films and even a word about competition from an imaginary beer, Duff. ANAT BARON podcast excerpt: "I was really interested by new consumers who are similar to those going to farmers markets, eating local foods, supporting small companies over large companies. People who are saying, 'Yes, I can buy chocolate from Hershey, but there is a guy down the street making it, too, and I want to support him.'" Baron, as I mentioned, is allergic to beer, but that didn’t stop her from becoming general manager of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, where she took the company from nowhere to $200 million in sales. Anat Baron • • • • • •

2010: I start each show talking about “So much media, so little time…” But David Mathison sees the media differently. Instead of observing it from afar, he wants you to be the media—you, yourself. Mathison, a former executive with the Reuters news agency, takes the whole notion of 21st century media very seriously. In his new, self-published handbook, Be The Media: How to Create and Accelerate Your Message… Your Way, Mathison lays out how anyone can have a message and spread it using online tools ranging from standbys such as print, radio and video to blogs and podcasts.   DAVID MATHISON podcast excerpt: "We're trying to teach people to repurpose your work and have a back end. The incremental revenue streams may be strong, but when you add them all up..." Forget the so-called media elites, the social media guru says—and as one of them I object!—and take control of spreading the word about your own project yourself, whether you’re the producer of music, films, podcasts, radio or television programs. I couldn’t agree more. And I would add that Mathison’s book, which you can order on Amazon.com or his website, , is a perfect companion bookend for Guy Kawasaki’s most recent book, Reality Check. Together, these are 3 pounds, 13 ounces of paper you really should own and study. David Mathison • • • •