“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.”
Into Your Arms
Into Your Arms
Through tsunamis, draught, insurgencies, pandemics, heartbreak, worry and regret, one deep, simple and essential truth provides sanctuary.
Into The South
Into The South
From Nashville to Memphis and Muscle Shoals, join “Friends & Neighbors” host Benjamin Wagner as he travels deep into the south to walk the floor at The Ryman Auditorium, meet Elvis’ ghost, and record with The World Famous Swampers.
Joe Smith
Joe Smith
Whether playing The Best Buy Guy, Cheez-It Scientist, or Generally Clueless Husband, actor Joe Smith always breaths humanity and humility into his characters.
Roger Clark
Roger Clark
For two decades, reporter Roger Clark has been Spectrum News NY1‘s everyman, rendering curiosity, empathy and humility for the world’s most-watched local news channel. Today, he shares tales from his Queens upbringing to his trial-by-fire as a newly-minted reporter in the weeks after September 11th.
Megan Watkins
Megan Watkins
Farm Sanctuary CEO, Megan Watkins, shares her journey from Newton, Massachusetts, to Barnard College, Big Banking and beyond, including the moment she knew what she had to do to align herself with her values and lead a movement
Tim Madigan
Tim Madigan
The highly-decorated columnist and author of I’m Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers and The Burning: The Tulsa Massacre, shares deep, hard-earned insights on how the stories we tell can transform us, and one another.
Áine Kerr
Áine Kerr
What’s life like on the edge of your comfort zone? Kinzen Co-Founder and COO, Áine Kerr, shares her journey from quiet County Monaghan to the front lines of the battle against misinformation.
Bill Flanagan
Bill Flanagan
As an MTV executive, Bill Flanagan helped passionate music fans get closer their favorite artists. As an author of six books, he helps readers get closer to their humanity. As a mentor, Bill has helped me understand myself, and my work. This week, Bill shares a few tales from some wild rides with everyone from Bruce Springsteen and Ray Davies to Jimmy Buffet and Robert Plant.
Anna Sale
Anna Sale
For nearly a decade on her NPR show, “Death, Sex & Money,” and in her new book, “Let’s Talk About Hard Things,” Anna Sale reminds us that, as Mister Rogers said, “What is mentionable is manageable.”
Kara Goldin
Kara Goldin
The dots may connect when we look back at our lives, but how can we make sense of the moment when we’re in it? And keep growing despite bad days, bad luck, negativity and naysayers? Hint CEO, Kara Goldin, shares insight from her book, “Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts & Doubters.”
Negin Farsad
Negin Farsad
If laughter is the best medicine, how do we use it to cure the cancer of racism without flatlining? My guest and friend, Social Justice Comedian, “How To Make A White Person Laugh;” Writer, Director and Star of “3d Street Blackout,” “Fake The Nation” Host, Mother and The Only Person I Know To Sustain A Mime-Related Injury, Negin Farsad, offers a prognosis.
Season Two Trailer
Season Two Trailer
In Season Two, Farm Sanctuary CEO, Megan Watkins, encourages us to be helpers; Hint CEO, Kara Goldin, reminds us that even our most confounding challenges make sense in the end; and social justice comedian, Negin Farsad, shares how she uses comedy to shatter stereotypes. We’ll also go deep with “Death, Sex & Money” Host, Anna Sale; New York Times Columnist, Ron Lieber; TV Executive and Author, Bill Flanagan, and more.
