“Friends & Neighbors” began as a podcast in 2020, inspired by the wisdom of Fred Rogers, seeking to cultivate depth and simplicity in complex lives. Initial episodes explored guests’ personal insights and approaches to building community, managing possessions, and finding reflection. As COVID-19 raged and host Benjamin Wagner grappled with post-traumatic stress, conversations shifted towards mental health. Dialogues with authors, lawmakers, and advocates about trauma, authenticity, and healing illuminated the power of making the “mentionable manageable.” By creating a space for sharing stories and journeys, the podcast provides roadmaps for healing and strategies for healthier lives, embodying Rogers’ belief that “when we look for the helpers, we know there’s hope.”
Michael Alex
Michael Alex
Few MTV News staffers had a run like Michael Alex. From producing “The Week in Rock” and “Choose or Loose,” to launching MTV News Dot Com, Michael did it all. Buckle up and ride shotgun with Michael and Paul McCartney, Kieth Richards, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Paul Simon, Sinéad O’Connor, Bootsy Collins, and many, many more.
John Norris
John Norris
In his more than two-decade tenure, MTV News Correspondent John Norris interviewed everyone from Britney Spears and Janet Jackson to U.S. Senator John McCain and Vice President Al Gore. In this broad, deep, and thoughtful conversation with the self-described “retrophobe,” we trace the arc of his career, hitting the club with Madonna, going to court with Michael Jackson, walking the VMA Red Carpet with Green Day, and much, much more.
Luke Russert
Luke Russert
The journalist and author dives deep into his New York Times Best Seller, “Look For Me There,” in which he recounts a journey that began a few months of travel to decompress, and became a three-year, six-continent odyssey to discover the world, process his grief, and find himself.
Hannah Storm
Hannah Storm
As Founder of Headlines Network, Hannah Storm is at the forefront of creating connections and driving conversations toward improving journalists’ mental health. From her home north of London, Hannah discusses her early career, experience with journalism safety and wellness, and her own healing journey.
LJ Malberg
LJ Malberg
In this wide-ranging conversation, Coach, Community Builder and CoMuse CEO, LJ Malberg and I go deep on cultivating compassion, finding connection, getting uncomfortable, and letting go.
Tracey Quillen Carney & Dr. Julius Mullen Sr.
Tracey Quillen Carney & Dr. Julius Mullen Sr.
Delaware First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney and Trauma Matters Delaware Chairperson Dr. Julius Mullen discuss their pioneering work in recognizing and responding to childhood trauma.
John Faye
John Faye
Singer/songwriter and alt-rock frontman John Faye’s “The Yin and the Yang of It All: Rock’n’Roll Memories from the Cusp,” takes us for a ride into the belly of a dream. In the new memoir, Faye beautifully renders his healing journey from an alienated and grief-stricken teen and major label frontman to a fiftysomething father, mentor and champion of the middle-class musician.
Elisa Peimer
Elisa Peimer
Longtime singer/songwriter friend, Elisa Peimer, discusses growing up in Ossining to a steady soundtrack of Styx and Queen, being the only female audio engineering student at NYU, her mid-life pivot from music marketer to psychotherapist, and what she’s hearing post-COVID.
In The End
In The End
I was recording “In The End” in Muscle Shoals just a week after demo’ing it, when bandleader Will McFarlane, asked, “Should we go full Otis on this one?” Otis Redding recorded his posthumous hit, “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay,” in that very room on those very keyboards just months before dying in a plane crash in 1967. “Absolutely,” I responded. The story behind Constellations’ fifth and final song and Kyiv-penned music video, this week on Friends & Neighbors.
Paul Cheung
Paul Cheung
Prior to becoming CEO of Center for Public Integrity, Paul Cheung put in three decades at America’s most prestigious journalism institutions including The Wall Street Journal, Miami Herald, Associated Press, and the Knight Foundation. This week, Paul travels back to his childhood in Hong Kong and immigration to Manhattan’s Lower East Side, adolescence in suburban New Jersey, and storied career at the intersection of journalism, technology and social justice.
Finding The Secret Song
Finding The Secret Song
In this audio companion to my recently premiered documentary short, I trace my road trip from Memphis to Muscle Shoals writing and recording my tenth album, “Constellations,” and reveal how a Texan waitress, Mexican tailor, and Tupelo pop icon’s secrets helped inspire my path towards recovery.
David Smydra
David Smydra
For more than a decade, David Smydra has been at the forefront of assuring that tech platforms deliver personalized, high quality news by leading “humans in the loop,” journalists who bridge the gaps between editorial quality, product and audience development, and algorithmic design. This week, the former Google and Twitter curation lead and Online News Organization Board President shares his journey from Detroit to Palo Alto and Back East, as well as his firsthand experience of what it was like when when Elon Musk showed up at his place of now former employ.
