Employee Of The Month

After running iconic campaigns as an Ad Exec, Cindy Gallop decided to create a campaign for a subject dear to her heart. In 2009, she gave a now legendary Ted Talk and launched MakeLoveNotPorn.com. Since then she has gained a cult fan base for speaking about the myths surrounding pornography and real sex. We spoke about renting out her massive black apartment for rap videos, including for Notorious B.I.G.. We also spoke about whether Mad Men resonates for Ad Executives today and how she balances wanting to redesign the future of business and the future of sex. If you enjoyed our interview, please check out future live tapings at www.employeeofthemonthshow.com.

JOSH RADNOR is currently appearing as a brilliant, but afflicted and drug addicted, doctor in PBS’s civil war drama MERCY STREET. In our interview, we discussed his range as an actor and found out why the Dalai Lama picked Josh to speak at the beloved spiritual leader’s 80th birthday extravaganza. Josh reveals whether the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso needs a flu shot. When not writing or directing, Josh often speaks to colleges and audiences, like at the INK Conference in India. Josh speaks about the “golden handcuffs” of being a famous TV sitcom actor. The perk of being the star of a syndicated, network sitcom is obvious. Assuming you don’t blow all of the money on blow, you’re set for life. But it also comes with challenges, be it existential, like the contrived intimacy and projections from fans, to practical, like being typecast in future parts. Josh, who played the role of Ted Mosby for nine years on the Emmy winning, CBS sitcom HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, has chosen very different roles for himself...

While at Columbia, Nigerian born and New York raised Inyang Bassey was giving her first concert. Well, she was singing in her shower and her roommate suggested, they get a bigger shower. Actually, her roommate advised her to audition for one their university's productions. She did and decided to giving a singing career a real go. A couple years later when Moby was looking for a back up. An extraordinary singer Jenny Wasserman recommended Inyang. Before she knew what had happened, Inyang found herself singing on tours and albums with Moby. When not working with Moby, her unique ability to deliver soul to funk to blues to pop enabled Inyang to then team up with a range of artists, including neo-soul singer Binky Griptite, cellist Yair Evnine, and cabaret sensation Lady Rizo. Now, she is striking out on her own and working on her own album. You can catch Inyang perform solo and with some of her contemporaries at the Mckittrick Hotel, where she performs weekly. To find out more about Inyang, go to...

NATE SILVER may be best known as political pollster, but he describes himself as "well rounded" and talks about the perils of having, what I call, a halo effect. In our interview for Employee of the Month, which was taped live at Joe’s Pub in New York, we spoke the day before Halloween on everything from how he deals with his own confirmation basis to how 538 differs from Ezra Klein's Vox Media, and why Silver feels more free to do what he wants as a journalist at a gigantic corporation, i.e. Walt Disney, which owns ESPN, versus his prior employer, The New York Times, which is arguably one of the most respected institution for journalism. Since I had previously interviewed Jill Abramson, the former Editor-in-Chief of The New York Times, about her negotiations with Nate Silver, I wanted to get his perspective. Silver says he didn’t just leave for more money. We, of course, dig into what to expect in the upcoming Presidential elections and Nate proves that he, as he says, “knows his shit” when it comes to...

After appearing in TV shows like Broad City to VH1's Best Night Ever, writing for TV shows, like The Newly Wed Game, stand up comedian Katina Corrao just released her first stand up comedy album HOT DATE. You can go to www.katinacorrao.com to get it and see her hilarious web series, THE GOOD NEIGHBOR MINUTE, which chronicles her antics as a nosy neighbor. You can also catch her live, as she performs stand up all over the country. If you're in New York, she co-hosts the weekly stand up show Lasers in the Jungle at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater (UCB EAST). In our interview we spoke about starting out in stand up and doing bringer shows in stand up, which even Amy Schumer and Demetri Martin suffered through, as well as the roles that finances, rejection, courage, and family play when working in showbiz. She is AMAZING! Seriously, we shot a video called You're Amazing, which you can get to via Employee of the Month's Youtube channel. If you enjoyed our interview, please check out the live shows. Our...

A recent Law & Human Behavior study found that female lawyers are penalized for displaying anger. It may explain why Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg chose to picked her battles from the get go. Considering she’s successfully advocated for gender equality, among other civil liberties, since 1959, her tactics paid off. Instead of getting angry, she got even. Ruth Bader Ginsburg continues to be one of our nation's greatest social justice crusaders. Still her career hasn't shielded her from personal and professional trials and tragedy. Ginsburg dealt with losing her beloved mother the day before she graduated from high school. Her late husband Marty faced his first battle with cancer while the two were still in school and recently married. Despite being number one in her class at Columbia, Ginsburg could get arrested before she could get hired. Not one New York law firm, not to mention then Justice Felix Frankfurter, would hire, as Ginsburg says, a Jewish female with a young daughter. Luckily, she kept her eyes...

It's not just Barack Obama who is drawn to Will Sheff's music, Lou Reed was a massive fan as well. Like his mentor Lou Reed, Sheff is a bit of a polymath, but best known for being the lead singer for the indie darling rock band Okkervil River straight out of Austin, Texas. Sheff is also an artist and prolific and pithy writer. You can check out his drawings on his website and read his essays on art and fiction in McSweeney’s, The Talkhouse, Magnet, Billboard, and the Austin Chronicle, where he worked as a film critic for a spell. In 2010, Sheff’s liner notes for the Roky Erickson album True Love Cast Out All Evil, which he also produced, were nominated for a Grammy. I didn't even know liner notes could win a Grammy! More recently, Sheff directed, composed the music and wrote the script for the indie film Down Down the Deep River, which reflects on his childhood of growing up in the 1980’s. Okkervill River is celebrating the ten year anniversary of their popular albim Black Sheep Boy with a new release and...

Candice Wiggins was a toddler when her father, Alan Wiggins, a professional baseball player died due to complications from AIDs. He passed away ten months before Magic Johnson boldly came forward about his own status. Once Johnson did, Candice’s mother decided to take her three children out of basketball where Alan had faced racism, and became, what Candice calls, a “basketball family.” Those three children went onto college on basketball scholarships. Candice ended up at Stanford, where she graduated as the highest all-time leading scorer in the Pac-10 women's basketball history. She described her Stanford coach Tara VanDeVeer, had who coached the 1996 Olympic Team, as "like a second mother to me." Wiggins seemed to be off to an incredible start. The Minnesota Lynx later plucked her up as their 3rd overall pick. However, she ended up warming the bunch as they already had All Star Guard. After a series of trades and surviving an injury, the bright, beautiful, smart, and phenomenally talented Wiggins found...

When I wanted to switch to a meditation practice that felt accessible, a former boss and now genuine friend recommended her therapist, Tara Brach. By that time, Brach had segued to focusing on being a meditation teacher. I became a fan of Brach's dharma talks, joining about 200,000 other folks from over 150 countries who download and listen to her regularly. You can as well at www.tarabrach.com. In 1998, Tara founded the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, D.C. (IMCW), which is now one of the biggest non-residential meditation centers. You can take one of her workshops, at places like Kripalu in Massachusetts and Omega in New York. She is also the author of the book Radical Acceptance (2003) and True Refuge: Finding Peace & Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart (Bantam, 2013). Brach helped create the Washington Buddhist Peace Fellowship and co-founded the DC-based Meditation Teacher Training Institute. In our interview, which was taped live at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, we spoke about what...

Journalism is tough to break into for anyone, particularly if you can't afford to work for less than minimum wage. Freelancing requires constantly pitching, not taking rejection personally, and ingratiating yourself to editors, who already have a stable of staff writers and hungry former colleagues. No matter how talented you are, it's a low paying racket, but a truly gratifying one when you see your name in print or get to work with a fantastic editor or write about an enticing subject. It's why Sue Shapiro's classes are so popular and such a rare opportunity, as she generously shares contacts, offers advice how to best connect, and remains loyal to her students. When not nurturing other writers as a professor at NYU, Shapiro is a prolific writer. She regularly contributes to The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and every major publication in between, and her novels and memoirs are accessible, funny, pithy and fun rides. If you like MAD MEN, you'll love her novel WHAT's NEVER SAID....

When NPR launched it became a vital American resource offering reliable news coverage and nuanced analysis. Its first generation groomed and passed the baton to a remarkable crew, including Blumberg, who worked his way up the ladder at the public radio darling This American Life. There his coverage of the subprime mortgage crisis earned him a Peabody Award, and he went onto produce their television spin-off for Showtime. In our interview, we spoke about how the cable network wanted to continue the TV series, but This American Life opted to quit after two seasons. Blumberg left his Mothership to co-found NPR Planet Money with fellow Peabody winner and New York Times money columnist Adam Davidson. But as digital media conglomerates and cable news networks and, more recently, podcasts changed the landscape, Blumberg decided to take what he’d learned about finance and journalism and launch his own podcast company. Enter Gimlet. Blumberg chronicled his own foray into entrepreneurship on the first season of...

It's easy to mistake Lisa Kron for a comedian due to her wry wit, self effacing nature, and comic timing, but Kron is a rarity in the theater word as she doesn't take herself too seriously. An actor and Tony winning playwright, Kron prefers to write and perform characters who can roam emotionally. She grounds comedy in reality and she can depict her own characters and others with equal dexterity and vulnerability. In our interview, Kron talks about writing her first musical Fun Home with composer Jeanine Tesori, that is based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. We also discuss The Ver**zon Play, which premiered 2012 Humana Festival, and surprisingly did not turn her into a Sprint customer. Kron was a downtown darling in New York's theater world, but her show Well put her on the proverbial international map when it was named “Best Play of 2004” by the New York Times, moved to Broadway, and she and her co-star Jayne Houdyshell received Tony nods. Kron wrote and starred in Well, as she did with 2.5...

TNT’s MURDER in the FIRST garnered an Emmy nod, but The New York Times critic Mike Hale wanted to know how Hollywood forgot to nominate LAILA ROBINS for Best Supporting Actress. He is not alone. Laila Robins has steadily worked in film and television for decades since her breakout role in John Hughes’ PLANES, TRAINS and AUTOMBILES with Steve Martin and the beloved John Candy back in 1987. Most recently she did a stint on Showtime’s Homeland. But New York theater directors and producers may not want to share their best kept secret. On Broadway and off, Theater royalty, from the late great Mike Nichols to Pulitzer (and Employee of the Month Award winner) Jon Robin Baitz cast Robins because she consistently delivers her signature subtle, sly, supple, and seductive performances. She’s won the Drama League Award and been nominated for the Helen Hayes and Lucille Lortel Awards, but a consummate worker bee, Robins would rather focus on what’s coming down the pipeline. She just wrapped shooting A WOMAN, A PART and...

Former CIA agent Joshua Katz first signed up to the army when most of his peers were contemplating whether to they'd go to law or business school. His nice Jewish parents were baffled, but it didn't stop Katz. He went onto serve as a Squad Leader in the Special Operation Command (SOCOM), where he trained his unit for special combat. Despite his parent’s fears, Katz thrived. He says his military stint offered him a nuanced sense of how counterterrorism efforts "are used and misused." The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) then recruited Katz and sent him to work on terrorism as an Intelligence Officer in the National Clandestine Service. We spoke about how the secrecy required for the job often reeks havoc on marriage and his decision to invite terrorists into his home with his children for dinner. (I apologize. I should have asked him what food he served them.) Today, Katz is a go to national security and intelligence expert, as part of The Enright Group, which is comprised of several former intelligence...

After winning The Moth, a mecca for those who love storytelling from the last bastion of true freaks and geeks, actor David Crabb spoke to me about transforming his coming-of-age stories as a gay, goth kid in Texas in the 1980's and 1990's into a live one man touring show and debut memoir. David has the rare ability to suck you into 80s pop-culture and the closeted, bigoted world, without sentimentalizing or glorifying debauchery and anomie. His gift as a pithy, hilarious storyteller are as palpable when Crabb tells them live live as they are on the page. We spoke at the Writers Guild (WGA-East) and you can find out more about David at www.davidcrabb.com or davidcrabb.net. To find out more about Employee of the Month, go to www.employeeofthemonthshow.com. www.employeeofthemonthshow.com

I got my start in life in stand-up, I mean not counting that time when I swam, some say was yanked, out of my mom's womb. Anyway, I miss being in stand up because I don't get to spend enough time with performers, like Hari Kondabolu. (Obviously, your thank you letters begging me to stop softened the blow.") Anyway, Hari Kondabolu is hilarious. You don't have to know that The New York Times described him as “one of the most exciting political comics in stand-up today,” because you can figure that out yourself when you see his performances on TV shows like Late Show with David Letterman, Conan, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Live at Gotham, and John Oliver’s New York Standup Show. His Comedy Central Presents half-hour television special and writing and correspondent work for Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell on FX were where he really got to flex his proverbial muscles. I say proverbial, because he is a stand up comedian, and I am not sure if "athletic" is a word anyone would use to describe this bundle of joy....

To know Corn Mo is to love Corn Mo. The singer, composer, and musician Jon Cunningham, who goes by Corn Mo, spoke to me about why he decided not to be a preacher and, instead, joined a sideshow circus. A musician's musician, Corn Mo has performed solo shows, along with his band .357 Lover, Nick Offerman, Ben Folds, Wheatus, They Might Be Giants, and The Polyphonic Spree, when they toured with David Bowie. Once you hear him sing and play the accordion, you'll gras his remarkable range, mischievous wit, and steady hands. So where can you hear Corn Mo? Well, for starters you can hear him perform a couple songs during our interview for Employee of the Month, which was recorded live at Joe's Pub. Our next live taping is Thursday, September 24th at 9:30 pm. For tickets, go to www.employeeofthemonthshow.com

This summer I've walked by numerous psychics fanning themselves as they sit in various dilapidated New York storefronts, leading me to wonder why they don't use their psychic powers to manifest air conditioning. Sure I'll read my horoscope if I'm on an airplane flipping through a magazine, but am wary of self proclaimed experts who overestimate what they know about the world's fate. Yet, I took an immediate shine to astrologers and entertainers Stella Starsky and Quinn Cox, a husband and wife duo, because of their palpable self-awareness, warmth, and especially their dead pan wit. Not only were they not above satirizing metaphysics, they found the budding, often lucrative, field downright absurdly entertaining enough to perm a live show Cosmic Cabaret about their star searching. Our interview was taped live at the Writers Guild, which was fitting since Starsky and Cox wrote two best selling books Sextrology: The Astrology of Sex and the Sexes (Harper, 2004) and Cosmic Coupling: The Sextrology of...

Comedy writers ELISA ZURISTKY and JULIE ROTTENBERG got a big break when they landed a job on the already successful HBO series SEX-And-The-CITY. In our interview, which was recorded at the WGA (Writers Guild), the duo discuss what made working for their boss and SATC's show's head writer Michael Patrick King so fulfilling and, unfortunately, rare in TV writing. They didn't find another boss like him, and when it was time to become head writers on Bravo's Odd Mom Out, they tried to emulate what they had learned. We spoke about there own failed pilots and what it's like to go from childhood friends to go into business with one another. www.employeeofthemonthshow.com

DAVEED DIGGS is back! We spoke at the WGA-East (Writers Guild) during his brief vacation between starring in Hamilton at The Public Theater and, now, on Broadway. We talked about everything from east coast vs. west coast rap vs. regional rap, napping to making sure you don't eat anything that may land you in the loo before curtain call, to why he worships his pop. Daveed's mom was such a good DJ, back in Oakland, that she wooed his dad, amongst others, and their shared love of music and life certainly rubbed off on their son. Before or after you catch Daveed on Broadway in Hamilton or with Freestyle Love Supreme or his own albums, you can hear Daveed talk about his journey and music buying habit in Part and Part II of our conversations. www.employeeofthemonthshow.com