The Rob Burgess Show: August 2016

Friday, August 26, 2016

Ep. 25 - Marc Levin

Today's podcast is brought to you by audible.com - get a FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/TheRobBurgessShow. Over 250,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

Hello and welcome to The Rob Burgess Show. I am, of course, your host, Rob Burgess.

On this, our 25th episode, our guest is Marc Levin.

But, before we get to that, I need to take a moment to tell you about our sponsor.

For you, the listeners of The Rob Burgess Show podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook download with a free 30-day trial to give you the opportunity to check out their service.

I usually only recommend one book each episode, but this time I have three:

"Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion” by Gary Webb; “The Killing Game: Selected Writings by the Author of Dark Alliance” also by Gary Webb and edited by his son, Eric Webb; and “Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb” by Nick Schou. Whatever book you pick, you can exchange it at any time. You can cancel at any time and the books are yours to keep. To download your free audiobook today go to audibletrial.com/TheRobBurgessShow. Again, that's audibletrial.com/TheRobBurgessShow for your free audiobook.

Also please make sure to comment, follow, like, subscribe, share, rate and review everywhere the podcast is available. Whether it's iTunes, YouTube, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Facebook, Twitter, Internet Archive, TuneIn or RSS you can find links to everything on the official website, www.therobburgessshow.com. You can also find out more about me by visiting my website, www.thisburgess.com.

Marc Levin is an award winning independent filmmaker who brings narrative and verite techniques together in his feature films, television series and documentaries. Among the many honors for his work, he has won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, the Camera D'Or at Camera D'Or, three National Emmys and four duPont-Columbia Awards. He is the director of such feature films such as “Slam,” Whiteboyz” and “Brooklyn Babylon,” and documentary films such as “CIA: America's Secret Warriors,” “Protocols of Zion” and, most recently, “Class Divide.” He also directed the television series “Brick City” and “Chicagoland,” an episode of “The Blues,” titled “Godfathers and Sons”; and three episodes of “Law and Order.”

I first interviewed Marc, and the subject of his documentary, “Freeway: Crack in the System,” “Freeway” Ricky Ross, last year. The film premiered on Al Jazeera America and I was lucky enough to screen the film prior to its release. Here's the movie's trailer:

I first became aware of the story of “Freeway” Ricky Ross in 2008 when it was revealed that not only was the rapper calling himself Rick Ross was actually named William Roberts, but Roberts had also been a correctional officer in Florida. I then went on to read the late Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb's seminal series, “Dark Alliance,” in which he connected the dots between Ross, who was being supplied with cocaine by Nicaraguans raising money for the CIA-backed Contras through drug sales. (Webb's story was also told the Jeremy Renner-starring dramatic film “Kill the Messenger,” based on the book of the same name.)

July 21, Levin's film, “Freeway: Crack in the System,” was nominated for an Emmy award in the Outstanding Investigative Journalism: Long Form category. The winners will be announced during the awards ceremony Sept. 21 in New York City.

And now, on to the show.

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Ep. 24 - Kim So-hee

Hello and welcome to The Rob Burgess Show. I am, of course, your host, Rob Burgess.

On this, our 24th episode, our guest is Kim So-hee

But, before we get to that, I need to take a moment to tell you about our sponsor.

For you, the listeners of The Rob Burgess Show podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook download with a free 30-day trial to give you the opportunity to check out their service.

A book which pertains to this episode is “Feminism Unfinished: A Short, Surprising History of American Women's Movements” by Dorothy Sue Cobble, Linda Gordon and Astrid Henry. Whatever book you pick, you can exchange it at any time. You can cancel at any time and the books are yours to keep. To download your free audiobook today go to audibletrial.com/TheRobBurgessShow. Again, that's audibletrial.com/TheRobBurgessShow for your free audiobook.

Back to today's show.

If you've listened Episodes 2, 10, 20 and 21, you've heard regular guest Jonathan Fowler. If you haven't heard those episodes, Jonathan graduated with a BA in history from Indiana University in 2006. He is an unabashed left-wing political junkie. He has lived and worked in South Korea for over 9 years, trying to help the citizens of that great nation, hopefully, "talk pretty one day."

On July 31, Jonathan told me he knew a Korean woman who would be interested in being a guest. He said her name was Kim So-hee. She had been a member of his book club for a month. After I contacted her, this is the biographical paragraph she sent back:

“I'm the person who is figuring out my life. I really don't have name that I wanna be called. But just for now, you can call me so hee because I haven't found right name for myself. I'm interested in my own mental health and my own happiness. If there's anything against it, I wouldn't join it or let it affects me. I have interests about self-love (or self-esteem), relationships, feminism and anything about minority (but only connected my own condition). I'm challenging or doing in my life things like acting, singing, dancing, sex education, meeting total strangers, sharing opinions, recognizing my own thoughts and feelings and organizing it through writing, finding out myself in diverse way, meeting a shrink and taking pills, being more intimate with who have cared about me (or cares) and solving my family issues on my own etc. I'm really interesting, attractive and sensitive person. I try to be more clear about myself and I know I'm in my progress. Therefore I support myself as best I can.”
And now, on to the show.

And here is a YouTube playlist of songs discussed in this episode:

Friday, August 12, 2016

Regular guest: Sean Spicer

Sean Spicer has traveled tens of thousands of miles by heel, thumbs, wheels and wit. By the time he was 30 years old, he had hiked the length of South Korea, hitchhiked across America and somehow along the way managed to serve with the 101st Airborne Division and study philosophy at U.C. Berkeley. Driven by an intense need to redefine the impossible as well as himself, he now resides in his home state of California and is slowly teaching his son how to road trip.

In 2016, he began a long walk which is chronicled in his new book, “Guerrilla Camping." You can find out more at his website, guerrillacamping.net.

You can find the book on Amazon at tinyurl.com/h58q9ko.

You can find him on SoundCloud at soundcloud.com/djs4.
Here are the episodes of the podcast on which Sean has been a guest. Click the links for each to listen:
Ep. 1 - Sean Spicer
Ep. 23 - Sean Spicer [II]
Ep. 44 - Sean Spicer [III]
Ep. 66 - Sean Spicer [IV]
And here is a YouTube playlist of all the episodes featuring Sean:

Ep. 23 - Sean Spicer [II]

Hello and welcome to The Rob Burgess Show. I am, of course, your host, Rob Burgess.

On this, our 23rd episode, our returning guest is Sean Spicer.

But, before we get to that, I need to take a moment to tell you about our sponsor.

For you, the listeners of The Rob Burgess Show podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook download with a free 30-day trial to give you the opportunity to check out their service.

A book which pertains to this episode is “Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century” by Alex Cummings. Whatever book you pick, you can exchange it at any time. You can cancel at any time and the books are yours to keep.

To download your free audiobook today go to audibletrial.com/TheRobBurgessShow. Again, that's audibletrial.com/TheRobBurgessShow for your free audiobook.

Back to today's show.

You first heard Sean Spicer on the very first episode of this podcast. Sean has traveled tens of thousands of miles by heel, thumbs, wheels and wit. By the time he was 30 years old, he had hiked the length of South Korea, hitchhiked across America and somehow along the way managed to serve with the 101st Airborne Division and study philosophy at U.C. Berkeley. Driven by an intense need to redefine the impossible as well as himself, he now resides in his home state of California and is slowly teaching his son how to road trip.

In 2006, he began a long walk which is chronicled in his new book, “Guerrilla Camping." You can find out more at his website, guerrillacamping.net.

You can find the book on Amazon at tinyurl.com/h58q9ko.

A quick programming note: On this episode, Sean was kind enough to grace us with some of his mashup creations, so you'll hear a few of his songs played throughout the episode. You can find him on SoundCloud at soundcloud.com/djs4.

And now, on to the show.

After I uploaded this episode to YouTube, it received 11 copyright infringement notifications.

The version you're hearing now if you play the YouTube version below is the same episode, but with the music from the original version removed. I will make sure to have a copy of this episode in its original form posted somewhere on this page so you can hear it as originally intended. (The SoundCloud version posted above is correct.) If you feel the need to keep listening to the modified YouTube version below, though, go right ahead.

And here is a YouTube playlist of songs we discussed during this episode:

Here is one of the mixes featured in this episode:

This mix is featured at the end of the episode and is the intro to "The Rocket Mixes," titled: "A Pirate Nation":

And here's a SoundCloud playlist featuring both of those tracks:

Friday, August 5, 2016

Ep. 22 - Jeff Smith

Hello and welcome to The Rob Burgess Show. I am, of course, your host, Rob Burgess.

On this, our 22nd episode, our guest is Jeff Smith.

But, before we get to that, I need to take a moment to tell you about our sponsor.

For you, the listeners of The Rob Burgess Show podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook download with a free 30-day trial to give you the opportunity to check out their service.

A book I would personally recommend which pertains to this episode is “Mr. Smith Goes To Prison: What My Year Behind Bars Taught Me About America's Prison Crisis” written and read by today's guest, Jeff Smith. Whatever book you pick, you can exchange it at any time. You can cancel at any time and the books are yours to keep.

To download your free audiobook today go to audibletrial.com/TheRobBurgessShow. Again, that's audibletrial.com/TheRobBurgessShow for your free audiobook.

Back to today's show.

Jeff Smith starred in the 2006 documentary “Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?”

He was a Missouri State Senator from 2007 to 2009, representing the city of St. Louis. After serving a year-long sentence in FCI Manchester for obstruction of justice, he then worked as an assistant professor at the New School's Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Planning. He is the author of “Mr. Smith Goes To Prison: What My Year Behind Bars Taught Me About America's Prison Crisis” and “Ferguson in Black and White,” an ebook exploring the roots of the racial tension in Ferguson, Missouri. He is now the executive vice president at Concordance Academy of Leadership, which is “dedicated to reducing reincarceration by providing evidence-based, holistic services to justice-involved adults returning to the community after prison.”

You can follow him on Twitter @JeffSmithMO.

And now, on to the show.