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Basil Lee took quite the circuitous route to co-founding a craft brewery. He attended art school on the road to becoming an architect, working for a large firm for almost 10 years. As so often happens, Basil came to a crossroads. Does he keep progressing with his current company? Does he try to open his own firm? Or is it time for a new challenge altogether?
Basil chose to dive into the craft beer world with art school friend and Finback Brewery co-founder Kevin Stafford. Together they secured a space in little-traveled Glendale, a neighborhood in Queens that’s a good 30-minute walk from the closest subway station.
Over the years, Basil has been remarkably creative in positioning the business for success, pivoting to a delivery service during the pandemic and designing each space for different experiences.
Hear how that flexibility - and his unique talents - have helped Finback grow into a beloved part of the vibrant New York City beer scene in this illuminating conversation.-Follow Alex on Instagram
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Isaac Zablocki has always had a passion for film - from watching movies at an early age to studying them to helping make and curate them as a professional.
Throughout his career, he's wondered...what are people not seeing in the industry right now? Since Isaac dealt with a learning disability earlier in life, the answer was evident and brought about the creation of the ReelAbilities Film Festival.
It's the largest endeavor of its kind - showcasing films involving disabled filmmakers and actors with themes that revolve around inclusion.
As if that's not enough, Isaac also serves as Director of Film Programs at the Meyerson JCC in Manhattan, bringing a wide range of features to the public throughout the year.
Isaac is helping push cinema forward and make it more inclusive. Learn more about him and ReelAbilities in this informative conversation.-Follow Alex on Instagram
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Asher Perlman has spent his entire professional life in comedy - from the famed Second City in Chicago to writing for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but his foundation came from cartoons.
His dad taught him the basics from a young age growing up in Madison, Wisconsin and he's carried on that legacy as one of the few cartoonists to publish in The New Yorker regularly. That's no surprise - Asher's work is pithy, his observations are spot-on and his jokes are universal.
His debut cartoon collection "Well, This Is Me" comes out on June 18th and is already an Amazon Best Seller.Learn where Asher's ideas come from, how he converts them to paper and what drives his creativity in this in-depth conversation.
-Follow Asher on Instagram
-Preorder "Well, This Is Me"-Follow Alex on Instagram
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Maurizio Leo's considered one of the country's top sourdough experts. You'd think that means he's been a professional baker his entire adult life, right? Not so much. The Albuquerque, New Mexico native grew up in his father's Italian restaurant but actually became a software engineer.
Maurizio never stopped baking for fun and started his website The Perfect Loaf a little more than a decade ago, where he’d post sourdough recipes he was trying out in the kitchen. It grew slowly at first, but that little side project became the launching point for countless bakers as they began their sourdough journey - it was for me.
Learn Maurizio's process for developing new recipes, how he grew The Perfect Loaf into a New York Times best-selling cookbook and how a passion has become so much more.
There's something here for everyone - from the expert bread baker to someone who's never heard of a sourdough starter!
-Follow Maurizio on Instagram
-Check out The Perfect Loaf-Follow Alex on Instagram
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Michael Goldwasser has done just about everything in the music industry - from performing to production - and across all different genres. He also founded Easy Star Records in 1996, which has become a leading independent reggae label.
Recently Michael teamed with Jason Mraz to produce his album Look For The Good, a collection of songs that not only entertain, but deliver an important message about life and ways to look at the world around you.
Learn about Michael's musical influences (they aren't only reggae), find out how he possibly manages so many different roles and discover what he's learned from a lifetime of music in this expansive conversation.
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Check out Michael's website-Follow Alex on Instagram
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Jeff Chen has published 138 crossword puzzles in the New York Times. That's already tied for 22nd all-time and he's only been doing this for 12 years.
Why the late start? Jeff's background is actually in mechanical engineering and technology. He was immensely successful in the pharmaceutical industry but felt like it was time for a new adventure.
Enter wordplay and writing. Jeff now spends his time constructing puzzles, authoring novels and exercising the more creative side of his mind. Turns out...he's pretty good at that too.
Learn about what drew Jeff into the world of crosswords, how he brainstorms different themes to entertain solvers and what keeps him coming back for more in this intriguing conversation.
-Follow Jeff on Twitter
-Check out Jeff's website-Follow Alex on Instagram
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Amber Share had always been passionate about design, but never pursued it as a career, instead opting for a life in marketing. That wasn't enough - she never felt completely fulfilled and still had the urge to create.
Then Amber began the venture that would change her life - Subpar Parks. Simply put, she takes a 1-star online review of a national park or monument, draws an image from it and then slaps on a ridiculous comment. A perfect example is the one she did for Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming - "just a big rock".
What started as a pet project has grown exponentially - with her Instagram amassing more than 400-thousand followers and she's now working on it full-time, shipping out calendars, puzzles, prints and more.
Learn why Amber decided to start Subpar Parks, how she turns a negative review into an illustration and she reveals her short list of favorites in this illuminating conversation.
-Follow Subpar Parks on Instagram and Twitter
-Shop Amber's designs-Follow Alex on Instagram
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Sam Rosenthal is the founder and CEO of The Game Band, an award-winning studio that aims to inspire hearts and minds by pushing the boundaries of interactive storytelling. Their latest endeavor, Blaseball, has become a viral sensation, drawing a diverse group of "fans" in an incredibly unique format.
Learn all about why Blaseball is so innovative, how Sam fell in love with gaming and much more in this in-depth conversation.
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Visit The Game Band's website-Follow Alex on Instagram
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Samantha Bowers - you might know her as Sammy Rae - learned she could sing and write music at an early age, immersing herself in the greats from years ago...masters at connecting with their audiences.
With her 7-piece band, Sammy Rae and the Friends do just that - fostering a safe space filled with light, joy and acceptance. They're currently out on a massive tour across America and their audience is expanding exponentially.
Discover how Sammy developed her vocal style, what goes into writing one of her songs and what she's learned from a life filled with music in this all-encompassing conversation.
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- Check out the If It All Goes South Music Video
- Follow Sammy Rae on Instagram and Twitter-Follow Alex on Instagram
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Ever since Chef JJ Johnson graduated from the world-renowned Culinary Institute of America, he seemed destined to work in the world of fine dining and that’s exactly what he did. JJ cultivated his path from storied eateries like Tribeca Grill, Jane and the Morgan Stanley Executive Dining Room and eventually became the executive chef at the Cecil, which was named the Best New Restaurant in America by Esquire.
But he wasn't fulfilled and decided to choose a new path, opening up an unassuming, fast casual rice bowl shop in Harlem called Fieldtrip, which features menu items spanning the globe and celebrates culture from all different countries.
In this eye-opening conversation learn what caused his career shift, how his roots influence his own cooking and become a rice expert in the span of just 45 minutes as JJ walks you through its fascinating history and impact on society and the world.-Follow Alex on Instagram
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If you’re a fan of the band Phish (a phan), you probably know Don Hart or at least have heard the fruits of his labor. He's lead guitarist Trey Anastasio's composer and arranger and Don's transformed some of Trey and Phish's most beloved and well-known tunes into orchestral masterpieces.
All of that work culminated in the Beacon Jams - a pandemic-inspired eight-show live stream residency at an empty Beacon Theater in New York City. Trey and his friends didn't repeat a song the entire run and the repertoire ranged from Phish compositions with the Trey Anastasio Band to incorporating a string quartet, at times pushing Don to turn around those parts in less than a week.
Among some of the highlights In this light and eye-opening conversation, Don tells us what that experience was like, how he goes about arranging Trey and Phish's music, and which tune was the most challenging to adapt (it might surprise you!)-Follow Alex on Instagram
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Adam Farber has always been interested in building things, which led him to a thriving career behind the scenes in theatre. As head carpenter on the first national tour of Broadway's highly acclaimed (and soon to be Tony-nominated) musical SIX, he's responsible for making sure the show looks the same in Chicago as it does in Omaha - basically what's drawn on paper is what the audience sees on stage.
But to do that, he has to be much more creative than you might think. Learn how he uses that creativity to problem-solve on the road and much more in this insightful conversation.-Follow Alex on Instagram
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Ari Brand never imagined he would one day write a play and have it performed on stage, but that's exactly what happened when he put pen to paper (so to speak) and told his father's story in Scenes from Childhood.
His father Natan was a concert pianist who died from AIDS at the height of the epidemic at just 46 years old, raising a family but also living a secret life.
In this conversation, Ari raises the curtain on his creative process, giving us an inside look at how a play goes from an idea to a production with plenty of insight and tips along the way.-Follow Alex on Instagram
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Annette Insdorf is a renowned film historian, professor, and moderator of the Reel Pieces series at New York City's 92nd Street Y, where she talks with the biggest names in Hollywood from Meryl Streep to Andrew Garfield to Jason Reitman and beyond.
Learn how she prepares to interview these masters of their craft in front of a live audience, which star has actually audited her film classes at Columbia University, and many more priceless stories in this exciting conversation.-Follow Alex on Instagram
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Zach Swartz produces multimedia content with the top athletes in the world for WME Sports, but this wasn't always his passion. Learn how Zach found his creative path and why his willingness to take advantage of every opportunity helped him stand out in a now-crowded field.
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LJ Rader started the Art But Make It Sports meme account not expecting much, but it's grown to 12.5K followers on Instagram and now almost 10K on Twitter. How does he create these viral posts? What makes them unique? Where does his inspiration come from? Find the answers to those questions and much more in this week's episode.
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Play-by-play broadcaster Mike Couzens shares his journey to ESPN, how he prepares for a game and what drives his thirst for storytelling in this enlightening and inspiring conversation.
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