Spotlight On

Latin Grammy-winning producer, composer, percussionist, and writer, Barrett Martin, has been playing music professionally for over 30 years, including work on over 100 albums worldwide. His work can be heard on albums by REM, Queens Of The Stone Age, Mad Season, Screaming Trees, Tuatara, Blues legend CeDell Davis, and recording sessions that range from the Peruvian Amazon, to Brazil, Cuba, the Palestinian West Bank, the Mississippi Delta, and the Alaskan Arctic. Barrett also holds a master’s degree in ethnomusicology and linguistics, and has practiced Zen and various martial arts for over 25 years.Barrett has taught at several universities across the United States, and has written essays for The Huffington Post and Riot Material. In 2014 he was awarded the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thompson Award for excellence in writing, and in 2017 he won a Latin Grammy for producing the Best Brazilian Rock Album (Nando Reis, “Jardim-Pomar”). Barrett’s first book, “The Singing Earth,” was released in 2017, and his second book, “The Way Of The Zen Cowboy,” was released in 2019. His solo band, The Barrett Martin Group, has released 9 studio albums to date.His essays for Huffington Post can be read here: Huffington PostHis essays for Riot Material can be read here: Riot MaterialScattered Diamonds is the 9th studio album from Latin Grammy-winning producer, composer, percussionist, and writer, Barrett Martin. This time around, Barrett is featuring his collaborations with artists from around the world, from countries such as Iraq, India, Senegal, and Ghana, and including well-known rock and jazz musicians from Seattle, WA and Santa Fe, NM. These songs are as diverse as the guests themselves, and feature Barrett’s original compositional style, built around his visceral drumming and global percussion techniques. As Barrett describes it in his own words:Scattered Diamonds is a collection of my best songs and collaborations with friends from around the world. The album represents my global musical influences, and it seems particularly timely now, because they feature musicians and singers from the Middle East, West Africa, and India, as well as several jazz and rock musicians, who I have worked with over the years. Scattered Diamonds encapsulates all of these special guests and their immense talents, organized into one concise album. Each of these songs is a diamond in their unique example of how music can be expressed globally, and I think it’s my favorite album so far – it’s certainly the most adventurous!”Barrett has also been promoting his 2 books, The Singing Earth and The Way Of The Zen Cowboy (both available as audiobook, paperback, E-Book, and Kindle), and he will be embarking on a One-Man Storytelling Tour in 2021. At the shows, he will be telling stories from his books, performing on drums and multiple percussion instruments, and presenting a slideshow of his photos from 6 continents, over the course of 30 years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As a Latin percussionist with a PhD and the General Manager of Sunyata Records & Books, Dr. Lisette Garcia has carved out a wide path in her formidable artistic and academic career. Dr. Garcia recently recorded percussion on the 3 most recent albums from the Barrett Martin Group: “Transcendence” (2017), “Indwell: Music For Movement” (2019), and “Songs Of The Firebird” (2019), which also includes performing with this modern jazz ensemble. She recently returned from a recording project in the Peruvian Amazon where she helped to record and translate the healing songs of the indigenous Shipibo Shamans for their newest album, “Woven Songs Of The Amazon II.” Dr. Garcia just finished her book, "Poderosas: Conversations with Extraordinary Ordinary Women" sharing stories of the powerful women around the world with whom she has worked. Earning a Ph.D. from Tufts University in Social Psychology, Dr. Garcia lived in New York City for 15 years where she worked as a professor before starting her own company. During that time she also deepened her studies of Yoga Asana and Tibetan Buddhism in the lineage of the Dalai Lama. She has been a prominent academic, musician, writer, and a speaker ever since.After four years of silent meditation retreat, Dr. Garcia has proven the efficacy of meditation in changing one’s mind, heart, and reality. Her goal has been to distill her knowledge into music, books, and photography to help achieve mindfulness, happiness, and success.Learn more about Dr. Lissette Garcia here and tune in next week to her a conversation with her husband, Barrett Martin.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Art Chang has spent over 25 years in technology transformation for large companies and government. As an insider, he has helped design and implement technology change and as an entrepreneur and investor, led major projects that delivered web-based software solutions for enterprise and government. Art’s experience includes financial services, music, e-commerce, publishing, fashion, architecture, and government. Art believes that great software, applied intelligently, can result in positive social and economic change, and uses that philosophy to guide his teams.Now Art is running for mayor of NYC. You can read more about Art's campaign for NYC mayor here. His platform focuses on building a government that works, universal childcare, housing, small business, public safety, climate change, education, and of course the arts. Read about his plans for these issues here. And you can schedule a time to talk with Art yourself here.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tyler talks about his love of coffee, military experience, roles in engineering which eventually lead him to start Coffee Shift. Coffee Shift is a coffee company doing it differently. Coffee Shift is co-owned by the participating growers and was created to share greater benefit with the very farmers who produce our coffee, coffee that is fairer than fair trade.With corporate presence in both Silicon Valley and Chinchina, Colombia, Coffee Shift is not only sourcing and importing the finest small batch grower-sourced coffee but also developing technology to allow individual coffee growers to sell direct to consumers with the supporting supply chain to make that a reality.You can see a documentary about the Coffee Shift story here. And you can order one of their Connoisseur Kits to get a sampler of their coffee here.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michaelangelo Matos is the author of "The Underground Is Massive: How Electronic Dance Music Conquered America" and "Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year." "Can't Slow Down" is the definitive account of pop music in the mid-eighties, from Prince and Madonna to the underground hip-hop, indie rock, and club scenesEverybody knows the hits of 1984 – pop music's greatest year. From "Thriller" to "Purple Rain," "Hello" to "Against All Odds," "What's Love Got to Do with It" to "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," these iconic songs continue to dominate advertising, karaoke nights, and the soundtracks for film classics (Boogie Nights) and TV hits (Stranger Things). But the story of that thrilling, turbulent time, an era when Top 40 radio was both the leading edge of popular culture and a moral battleground, has never been told with the full detail it deserves – until now. Can't Slow Down is the definitive portrait of the exploding world of mid-eighties pop and the time it defined, from Cold War anxiety to the home-computer revolution. Big acts like Michael Jackson (Thriller), Prince (Purple Rain), Madonna (Like a Virgin), Bruce Springsteen (Born in the U.S.A.), and George Michael (Wham!'s Make It Big) rubbed shoulders with the stars of the fermenting scenes of hip-hop, indie rock, and club music.Rigorously researched, mapping the entire terrain of American pop, with crucial side trips to the UK and Jamaica, from the biz to the stars to the upstarts and beyond, Can't Slow Down is a vivid journey to the very moment when pop was remaking itself, and the culture at large – one hit at a time.Michaelangelo has also written for MixMag, Pitchfork, the New Yorker, GQ, NPR and a variety of other publications. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David has quite a storied career having managed many artists you know the names of, working as a motorcycle messenger at Stiff Records, MD at Pinnacle Records, and distribution at Rough Trade Records. He's worked with artists like David Bowie, David Byrne, Luna, Natalie Merchant and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. He currently manages Keeley Forsyth, Joe Jackson, Lloyd Cole, Helmet, Joe Henry and the instinctive theatrical brilliance of Hugh Laurie through his management company, Maine Road.He shares a bunch of stories and common projects that he and LP worked on over the years. And they dive into a discussion about David's favorite band, the Faces. Learn more about Maine Road Management Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael F. Schein is the author of The Hype Handbook: 12 Indispensable Success Secrets From the World’s Greatest Propagandists, Self-Promoters, Cult Leaders, Mischief Makers, and Boundary Breakers (McGraw Hill, January 12, 2021).His articles have appeared in Fortune, Forbes, Inc., Huffington Post, and Psychology Today..He speaks to international audiences spanning from the northeastern United States to the southeastern coast of China.As founder and president of marketing agency MicroFame Media, he has launched campaigns and created content for companies including eBay, Magento, The Medici Group, University of Pennsylvania, Gordon College, University of California Irvine, United Methodist Publishing House, Ricoh, LinkedIn, and Citrix.He has also recently begun practice the martial art Wing Chun, giving him yet another similarity with Robert Downey, Jr. __________Join us for a special live interview recording with "Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year" author, Michaelangelo Matos, followed by a Q&A with our Zoom audience on Friday, January 15th at 1pm ET. RSVP HERE__________ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're bad at hiatuses. What can we say? But we're super excited to feature Giselle and Elizabeth on the podcast talking about the Austin Arthouse Film Festival which takes place THIS WEEK. Grab your tickets here. Spend an evening at AFS viewing work from filmmakers who "defy conventions, champion art and challenge audience expectations." Some 60 films ranging from short, mid-length and feature length will be available on Vimeo Dec. 26 through Dec. 31. Documentaries, narrative features and animations are presented. Every film will begin with a short introduction by the filmmaker.A festival pass is $25 and can be purchased at austinarthousefilmfestival.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His poetry has been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, PEN American, and various other journals. His essays and music criticism have been published in The FADER, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. His first full length poetry collection, The Crown Ain't Worth Much, was released in June 2016 from Button Poetry. It was named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Prize, and was nominated for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. With Big Lucks, he released a limited edition chapbook, Vintage Sadness, in summer 2017 (you cannot get it anymore and he is very sorry.) His first collection of essays, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, was released in winter 2017 by Two Dollar Radio and was named a book of the year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, Paste, CBC, The Los Angeles Review, Pitchfork, and The Chicago Tribune, among others. He released Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest with University of Texas press in February 2019. The book became a New York Times Bestseller, was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, and was longlisted for the National Book Award. His second collection of poems, A Fortune For Your Disaster, was released in 2019 by Tin House, and won the 2020 Lenore Marshall Prize. In 2021, he will release the book A Little Devil In America with Random House. He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.explores a single year: 1980 - the brilliant, awkward and sometimes heartbreaking opening to a monumental decade in popular music. He hosted the most recent season of KCRW's Lost Notes, a collection of the greatest music stories never told. This season explores a single year: 1980 - the brilliant, awkward and sometimes heartbreaking opening to a monumental decade in popular music.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ethan is an entrepreneur in his own right who has turned his natural talents to elevating women and minorities. Founder of Girl Empire, Parlor Shows, Lean Crafting and Checklet, he’s a start-up super-connector. He’s played a critical role in countless business launches and partnerships. It’s no surprise he sits on Lieutenant Governor Mark Hutchison’s Nevada Entrepreneurship Task Force.Distributed ledgers? He got in on the ground floor and has it on lock. His wife, Allison Clift-Jennings, is the founder and CEO of Filament, an IOT company using blockchain technology. They read whitepapers the way other couples read the Sunday New York Times. They aren’t just investors, they’re pioneer builders. This goes way past the theory, emerging tech is the business they’re in, and they’re committed using tech to make the world a better place. Not many know, they’ve made the final round of the Anu & Naveen Jain Women’s Safety XPRIZE.Ethan and Allison have been hard at work launching their latest endeavor with Tonic Audio Labs. The first product is called Lumos and is easy-to-use songwriting hardware that leverages AI. The product will hit Kickstarter in February and Ethan breaks down how this product will make songwriting even easier.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.