Non-Fiction Books with John Temple ("American Pain") and Hollee Schwartz Temple ("Good Enough is the New Perfect") - 007
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Release Date: 02/18/2016
Sitcoms with Janae Bakken ("Scrubs") - 026
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Janae Bakken grew up in Minnesota - where she spent too many frozen winters on the cross-country ski team, and went to college in Chicago - where she rarely saw the sun, so she made her escape to Los Angeles soon after graduation. She worked on the production staffs of such shows as Mad About You, Caroline in the City, and Malcolm in the Middle before making the jump to writer, where she spent eight years writing on the critically-acclaimed Scrubs, rising from a Staff Writer to Co-Executive Producer. Janae was twice-nominated for an Emmy Award with the...
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How I Broke Into Writing with Taffy Brodesser-Akner (GQ, NY Times) - 025
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
is a writer who has contributed compelling non-fiction features to major publications such as the New York Times Magazine, GQ, Cosmopolitan, Los Angeles Times, SElf, and so many more. Taffy is also the author of the forthcoming Random House novel, Schrödinger's Marriage. Taffy has been a finalist for multiple awards, including the James Beard Award and the Mirror Award, and has won awards from the New York Press Club, the Los Angeles Press Club, Society of Feature Journalists. She also teaches a phenomenal writing class, but the class we discuss in this interview unfortunately sold out...
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How I Broke Into Photography with Jordan Matter ("Dancers Among Us") - 024
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Jordan Matter, a Manhattan portrait photographer, is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Dancers Among Us, a collection of photographs of dancers in everyday situations around the world, and his collection of photos of nudes in public places, Dancers After Dark, is a monumental achievement, in my humble opinion. He and his work have been featured on television, in print, online, and in exhibitions throughout the world, including Buzzfeed, ABC World News Tonight, Today, The Tyra Banks Show, the BBC, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, #1 on Reddit, Daily Mail U.K., O, The Oprah...
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Surf Art with Nelson Ruger, "Nelson Makes Art" - 023
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Nelson Ruger grew up along the beaches of southern New Jersey, finding his stomping grounds among Ocean City’s 7th Street and North Street beaches and boardwalks. Loving art from an early age, he dove into a career as a theatrical artist, designing scenery and lighting for stage productions up and down the eastern United States, lending his creative style from tiny one-room shows to huge regional theaters. In 1998, he fulfilled his dream of designing on Broadway. With this life goal achieved so young, Nelson began searching for new horizons and artistic possibilities. Nelson...
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Charity with Brad Broder, Kenya Education Fund - 022
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Bradley Broder is the founder and Executive Director of the . Bradley founded Kenya Education Fund as a means of supporting the children he befriended while serving in the US Peace Corps for two years (Kenya 1999-2001). Bradley has over 17 years experience working with Kenya and speaks fluent Kiswahili. His deep, personal connection with Kenya and knowledge of international development issues has led Bradley to focus KEF focus on keeping Kenyans in school to develop the country’s human capital and reduce dependency on foreign aid. Brad holds a BA in Spanish from SUNY...
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Chef Life with Chef Rossi, Anti-Caterer, "The Raging Skillet" - 021
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Chef Rossi, of the renowned Raging Skillet, is a master storyteller, and this episode doesn't disappoint. She is not your ordinary chef. She credits her success to everything from "kishka and grits" to marijuana munchies to the Hasidim in Crown Heights to foul-mouthed bar tending. Her stories are phenomenal, worthy of a Moth competition. Oh, and don't take my word for it: her cookbook (!)/memoir is being turned into a play and screenplay! Rossi, yes, she only has one name -– has been a writer for many publications, such as The Daily News, The New York Post, Time Out New...
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Circus Life with Ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson (Ringling Bros. "Greatest Show on Earth") - 020
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson is the Voice of the Greatest Show on Earth. He began performing at age 11 with the world-famous Boys Choir of Harlem. For seven years, he was intensely trained in all forms of music including classical, jazz, hip hop and gospel. Johnathan experienced a string of unforgettable, inspiring moments as a member of the Boys Choir, which included being awarded the lead tenor role for the choir, singing at the intermission for Luciano Pavarotti's Concert in Central Park, performing in a live show on Broadway for two weeks and winning second place in the Lena Horne...
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Artisan Cheese with Adam Moskowitz, founder of the Cheesemonger Invitational - 019
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Adam Moskowitz is the wunderkind President of and , and he founded the Cheesemonger Invitational, an in-demand twice-a-year event that is considered the Olympics of cheese skills, an celebrates what are to cheese what sommeliers are to wine. The profits from the CMI, which Adam hosts as his alter-ego, "Mr. Moo," go towards The Barnyard Collective, an organization devoted to food education. Adam was responsible for the introduction of Challerhocker cheese to the U.S., just as his father was responsible for the introduction of cave-aged Gruyere to the U.S. But Adam bought out his own father's...
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Modern KidLit with Amy Ignatow ("The Popularity Papers, "Mighty Odds") - 018
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Amy Ignatow is a writer and illustrator living in Philadelphia with her family. After graduating from Moore College of Art and Design she worked as a freelance illustrator, a stationery designer, an air-brush face and body painter, an art teacher, an SAT prep instructor, a reporter, a wedding singer, and a florist. Amy was not very good at working for other people. Or with other people. Or around other people. Now she happily works in a studio by herself. She is the author and illustrator of the critically acclaimed middle grade POPULARITY PAPERS series as well as the upcoming ODDS...
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Miracle Making with Hal Elrod, Author of "The Miracle Morning" - 017
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
For most of my life, I was a night owl. Starting a little more than 5 years ago, I went through a series of transformations to better my life, and one of my greatest and most difficult transformations was going from a night owl to an early bird. When people heard what I was doing, many told me about this amazing book, The Miracle Morning, widely regarded as “one of the most life-changing books ever written”. I read it (and listened to the audio book), and I was inspired. When I started up my podcast, Hal Elrod was on the short list of people I just had to interview. Hal...
info_outlineJohn Temple teaches reporting and writing courses at West Virginia University. His specialty area is narrative nonfiction writing.
His new book 2016 Edgar Award nominee “American Pain” chronicles how two young felons built the largest painkiller distribution ring in the United States. The book, published by Rowman & Littlefield, also explores the massive rise in the use and abuse of narcotic painkillers over the past two decades.
Temple is the author of two previous nonfiction books: “The Last Lawyer: The Fight to Save Death Row Inmates” (2009) and “Deadhouse: Life in a Coroner’s Office” (2005). In 2010, “The Last Lawyer” won the Scribes Book Award from the American Society of Legal Writers. More information about Temple’s books can be found at www.johntemplebooks.com.
Prior to teaching at WVU, Temple taught and studied creative nonfiction writing at the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned an M.F.A. Temple worked in the newspaper business for six years. He was the health/education reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a general assignment reporter for the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., and a government and politics reporter for the Tampa Tribune in Tampa, Fla.
Hollee Schwartz Temple is a journalist-turned-lawyer-turned-professor at West Virginia University College of Law. She is the co-author of Harlequin's "Good Enough is the New Perfect" and the textbook "West Virginia Legal Research."
After graduating at the top of her class with a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree from Northwestern, Hollee headed to Duke University School of Law. She graduated in 1999 and began a four-year stint as a litigation associate at a large Pittsburgh law firm. After her first son was born in 2002, Hollee returned to her firm part-time before joining the WVU faculty the next year.
An active scholar and speaker, Hollee has been published in newspapers (including the Miami Herald, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Michigan City News-Dispatch), national law reviews and legal writing publications. She has conducted seminars on generational issues and projecting professionalism in writing for large law firms.
John and Hollee have also been small business owners since 2013, when they opened the Morgantown, West Virginia's party destination beauty salon known as "The Beauty Bar."
Notes from the show:
John takes 6 months to a year to put together a book proposal. Hollee's proposal on her first book took 3-4 months. A book proposal contains sample chapters, outline, and Hollee's included a national survey she and her co-author Beck conducted.
Mentioned: The New Times article "Pain and Gain", David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and the eponymous television show.
Warner Brothers bought the rights to "American Pain," to be adapted for the screen by Melisa Wallack.
"Figuring out who you want to talk to and who is at the center of your story and how to find them is a large portion of the process."
"There's a human compulsion to tell your story."
"You can ask anybody almost anything as long as the think you really want to know [the answer]."
Mentioned: "Dreamland" - Sam Quinones
"It's a daily struggle [to balance work and home life]. And only one of us could be working on a book at one time."
The Beauty Bar draws on a theme from Hollee's book that women deserve to feel beautiful.
The California model of a "blowout bar" didn't translate to Morgantown, WV, so they pivoted the Beauty Bar to providing many more salon services.
Managing staff and personalities is the toughest part of being a small business owner.
Hollee is a big fan of BNI.
Mentioned: "The Price of Nice Nails"
Hollee gained a competitive advantage through social media and working with Mom blogs.
They are able to juggle home life and work a little more now that their kids are older. Priorities change as children grow. The kids are integrated into their work life.
Academic jobs allow for their lifestyle.
Hollee can oversee a large staff by living close and having 10 security cameras connected to her cell phone.
Best business advice:
Hollee's: "I'm the heart of the business. I can't just give that away."
John's: "Stick with it until the 18 month point."
Best book writing advice:
John's: "You have to schedule your writing into your day and give it a prime spot in your day."
Hollee's: "I got up at 5 to write for a couple of hours before everyone else got up."
Recommended book: "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield
This podcast hosted by New York attorney Michael Prywes was sponsored by Prywes Schwartz, PLLC, a law firm devoted to artists and entrepreneurs.
This podcast may contain attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes.