Charles McCaffrey is a Navy Veteran with over 35 years of military, government contracting and small business experience; and is a serial entrepreneur, instructor, mentor and ardent supporter of the military community. Charles serves as the Director of the Veterans Career Program (VCP) at Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) that provides FREE employment support and vocational counseling assistance to ALL veterans, transitioning service members, spouses, and caregivers. Prior to joining PVA in Oc...
Mar 13, 2023•1 hr 52 min•Ep. 69
Kacy Tellesen was born in Spokane and raised in Spangle, Washington, a small farming community that clings to the edge of the Palouse. Kacy joined the Marine Corps infantry directly out of high school and deployed twice to Iraq as an Infantry machine gunner with Second Battalion, Third Marines from 2005-2009. He lives in Spangle, Washington with his wife and two children and is currently pursuing a Juris Doctor at Gonzaga University School of Law. Kacy's debut memoir, Freaks of a Feather , has b...
Mar 06, 2023•1 hr 46 min•Ep. 68
Ben Cantwell is a USMC veteran, firefighter and artist from Northern California. His original work reflects his experience as an infantry veteran. Featuring an array of styles, moods and themes, Cantwell’s work is available on custom shirts, playing cards, patches and more. See it here .
Feb 27, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 67
Francisco is a product of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and serves as an editor and contributing writer to Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel . He is an Into the Fire writing retreat scholarship recipient, and a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow. He is a product of the Writers Guild Foundation Veterans Writing Project , and the Veteran’s Summer Writing Intensive at Marlboro College sponsored by Words After War. He also participates in a Veterans Playwriting Wo...
Feb 20, 2023•2 hr 4 min•Ep. 66
Denis Meadows has been plying the craft of playwriting for a long time, encouraged along the way by the likes of Lloyd Richards, Austin Pendleton, Zoe Caldwell, Audrey Wood, Bill Irwin and Robert Ganz. His play A BRUSH AGAINST THE INDIFFERENCE OF THE UNIVERSE placed second (out of over 200 submissions) in VetRep's latest 10-minute playwriting competition.
Feb 13, 2023•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 65
David M. Stamps has developed a play entitled, “The Black Bullet Dichotomy.” It placed as a Finalist in the Arts in the Armed Forces Competition. As well as, Finalist in The Writer’s Guild Foundation, a non-profit affiliated with The Writer’s Guild of America Veteran’s Writing Program. As a Writer/Producer, through his production company, SPOKEN WORLD ENTERTAINMENT, he wrote, produced, performed, and marketed his perennial Spoken Word Film, “The Deadly Ms. Susan Aside.” His latest Spoken Word so...
Feb 06, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 64
Arianna Rose is a professional Playwright, Musical Theatre Writer, Dramaturg, Visual Artist and Educator. She is the recipient of the MAC Song of the Year Award, the York Theatre NEO Award, and various best play/playwright awards from Theatre Odyssey, Tree City Playhouse, Mixing It Up Productions, the Know Theatre, Studio 1 Theatre, South Baldwin Theatre, Veterans Repertory Theatre and Clocktower Theatre Company. Her plays and musicals have been presented to date in twenty-seven states and seven...
Jan 30, 2023•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 63
Deborah Yarchun is a New Jersey-born, Air Force-raised, and Austin-rooted playwright; her plays are just as geographically discombobulated. She’s currently LA/NYC-based. Her plays have been produced and/or developed at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Centenary Stage Company, The Civilians’ R&D Group, Capital Rep, The New Harmony Project, Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, Amphibian Stage Productions, The Great Plains Theater Conference, Jewish Ensemble Theater, The Playwrights’ Center, Rattlestick Playwr...
Jan 23, 2023•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 62
Mike Reynolds is an active duty Marine and Marine Corps Combat Artist. With roots at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA while attending some very basic elective art classes; following the attacks of September 11th, 2001, he left college and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. As an Ammunition Technician he has been assigned to 10th Marine Regiment, 8th Marine Regiment, and Combat Logistics Regi ment-35. As a Chief Warrant Officer, he has served with 3rd Supply Battalion, Marine Corps ...
Jan 16, 2023•1 hr 51 min•Ep. 61
Steve Callahan is a writer, a poet and a former Marine infantryman. Bursting with creative efforts, Steve runs a poetry site, podcast , and is heavily involved in PB Abbate . As someone who separated from the Corps this past February, Steve’s writing about the Marines, his deployment to Helmand and the psychological peaks and valleys of an infantryman’s life feels very fresh and relevant. In fact, I find that Steve writes about the Marines in a very post-breakup sort of way – a kind of writing l...
Jan 09, 2023•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 60
Angelo T. Robinson is an interdisciplinary artist and photographer who lives and works out of Senoia, GA. A self-taught artist, he joined the US Navy in 1992, where he served ten years active duty and four years in the Naval Reserves as a Seabee. Traveling to locales such as Italy, Spain, Turkey, Greece, Africa, France, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Egypt, the Virgin Islands, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates greatly influenced Angelo’s approach to art. The vibrancy, diverse richness and simple beauty o...
Jan 02, 2023•2 hr 24 min•Ep. 59
Don’t listen to this week’s episode. Seriously. We wanted to do a cool, year-end episode to talk about the highs and lows of VetRep’s first calendar year - and we did that. Star, Dex, and Lilla were great - funny, moving, poignant even - but, well, it just sucks to do a four-person Zoom podcast. Everyone’s muted when they’re not talking so you don’t hear the laughing or crosstalk that makes it seem like, well, four people talking. Instead it sounds like we’re each in our own little pods speaking...
Dec 26, 2022•50 min•Ep. 58
The son of a WWII combat veteran, Fred Graver is an American television comedy writer, producer, and network executive. Fred was co-editor-in-chief of National Lampoon along with Sean Kelly, under the pseudonym L. Dennis Plunkett. He left the Lampoon in 1984 to join Late Night with David Letterman , where he worked as a writer until 1990. While at Letterman, he wrote several unproduced screenplays with Kevin Curran (who also edited National Lampoon ). In 1990, Graver worked for Norman Lear's pro...
Dec 19, 2022•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 57
Army combat veteran Christopher Soucy is an actor, puppeteer, director, screenwriter, and playwright living in Savannah, Georgia. He has been writing for stage and screen for over 20 years. Read some of Chris' poetry on the Savage Wonder literary blog here . Chris tweets here . Follow Chris here ....
Dec 12, 2022•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 56
Chris Sparks is an Army veteran who could speak Arabic, a former police officer and current stand-up comic. More than that, he's an incredibly affable, humble, intelligent and ambitious guy. His documentary Thank Me for My Service: A Veteran’s Cry for Help is a tough watch. It is tough technically – intentionally – and it is tough because of its subject matter – which is Chris himself. The film captures a two-day period this past August when Chris finds himself in a manic state due to the meddli...
Dec 05, 2022•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 55
Nicholas Efstathiou is a US Army veteran. He writes horror, paranormal, and strange fiction. He has worked as a bookmobile driver, a librarian, a trashman, a bookseller, and now as a teacher. He has also ghostwritten dozens of popular books. His writing @ crossmassachusetts is not for the faint of heart.
Nov 28, 2022•1 hr 47 min•Ep. 54
Kristopher Battles is a contemporary fine artist creating artworks in a variety of media which honor the highest traditions of representational art. Battles graduated with a BFA in Painting from Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University) in December 1991, and earned his MFA in Illustration from the University of Hartford in September 2013. Originally serving as a Marine Reservist from 1986 until 1996, Battles became a Marine combat artist after reenlisting in 2006, and dep...
Nov 21, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 53
Stephen Camelio is a screenwriter and son of a Vietnam veteran who died from complications due to Agent Orange. Stephen's first film is Mending the Line , the story of a Marine returning from Afghanistan who finds mental health through fly fishing. Previously, Stephen was a freelance writer and former editor at In Style magazine. His work has appeared in books and countless publications including ESPN The Magazine, Field & Stream, Entertainment Weekly and Men's Journal. Having been a long-ti...
Nov 07, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 52
A Seattle-based playwright, photographer and novelist, David A. Tucker II has had several of his plays produced and/or developed at theaters across the nation, including Seattle Repertory Theatre, Abingdon Theater Co., ACT, Tacoma Actors Guild, and Foothill Theater Co. His theatrical works include The Nude, Persistence of Vision, Another Day in Baghdad (about his military experiences in Iraq), Under the Skin and North Wind Blowin’ , a play with music. David received 2016 GAP funding for Smoke , ...
Oct 31, 2022•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 51
James David Henry is an Army Ranger and combat veteran turned actor, playwright and screenwriter. He graduated from NYU's Grad Acting Program in 2021. James will appear as one of the two leads in the upcoming feature film Sirens as well as Gareth Edwards' science fiction blockbuster True Love , releasing in 2023. Follow him here .
Oct 24, 2022•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 50
As the Producing Director at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Jon Jory directed over 125 plays and produced over 1,000 during his 32-year tenure. He conceived the internationally lauded Humana Festival of New American Plays, the SHORTS Festival, and the Brown-Forman Classics-in-Context Festival. He was also the Artistic Founding Director of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, and he has been inducted in New York's Theatre Hall of Fame. Mr. Jory has directed professionally in nine nations,...
Oct 10, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 49
Josh Francis is a Marine veteran who is now a stand-up comic working across the US. A former writer at VET TV, Josh was raised with heavy comedic influences in his life. He embodies not only the flexibility and adaptability of the functional veteran, but the entrepreneurial spirit and discipline necessary to succeed as a comic.
Oct 03, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 48
Matt Smythe is a staff writer for Free Range American . He hails from the Finger Lakes region of western New York. An Army veteran and lifelong outdoorsman, Matt suffers from an inability to sit still. If he’s not in the woods, or on the water, he’s scheming ways to get there. His work has appeared in Gray’s Sporting Journal , the Fly Fish Journal , The Drake , Southern Culture on the Fly , Revive , Midcurrent , TROUT Magazine , and a handful of other non-outdoors-related magazines and literary ...
Sep 26, 2022•1 hr 52 min•Ep. 47
Justin Eggen is a father, 2X national award-winning poet, motivational speaker, combat veteran, and Graduate Student at Florida Atlantic University. Justin Eggen is also the President of the ‘Veteran Owls’, the FAU Veteran Organization, and he holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from FAU. He served active duty Marine Corps from 2008-2012 as a combat engineer attached to 2nd CEB, 2nd MARDIV serving in Marjah 2010 & Sangin 2011. He also the President of Stand To: Change The Narrative...
Sep 19, 2022•2 hr 2 min•Ep. 46
Air Force spouse Ashley Gutermuth turned down a surefire career as a flight investigator and inspector to pursue stand-up comedy. Not only was she not deterred by the pandemic, she succeeded in navigating the Zoom comedy world, finding corporate gigs and continuing to hone her craft. Finding a way to tell jokes and not fully derail her husband's career, Ashley is a natural comic who is just hitting her stride and taking the military community along with her.
Sep 12, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 45
Matt Rendar is an Army combat veteran, current NYPD officer and wildly popular artist. His Etsy shop BattleTribe features evocative, colorful, playful, memorable images that pay homage to both his military past and his pop culture influences. Matt Rendar Twitter Matt Rendar's Etsy shop...
Sep 05, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 44
Ava Aston is an award winning Independent Recording Artist. She is the wife of a U.S. Air Force Veteran and the daughter of a former Purple Heart National Service Officer. Ava is a passionate supporter of U.S. Veterans, Active Duty Military, Fire, Police and First Responders, as well as animal and humanitarian causes. Born and raised in upstate New York where she was classically trained, Ava draws from a broad range of influences from Frank Sinatra and Doris Day all the way to the Goo Goo Dolls....
Aug 29, 2022•2 hr 18 min•Ep. 43
Jason Pizzarello is a Connecticut-based playwright and co-founder of Stage Partners, a digital licensing house for new plays (yourstagepartners.com). He is currently developing his plays Lost Near Daytona, Found (Semi-finalist, Arts in the Armed Forces Bridge Award) with The Tank /dir. Meghan Finn, and his outdoor immersive children’s play Off the Trail (grant recipient, Frances R. Dewing Foundation) with CT’s Stamford Museum & Nature Center. Other plays include: Bethel Park Falls (Everyday ...
Aug 22, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 42
This week on the Savage Wonder podcast… Lindsay Partain is an internationally published and produced Oregon playwright and member of the Dramatists Guild. She holds her BA in Theatre from Pacific University and is a resident artist of Theatre Viscera. She was selected to be part of the Ashland New Play Festival's 2022 New Voices Cohort, her 10-minute play, "Cookie Cutter Christmas" was selected as a top-10 semi-finalist for VetRep Theatre's 2022 Play Writing Competition, her 10-minute play, "Las...
Aug 15, 2022•1 hr 49 min•Ep. 41
Katie Grugin is a Knoxville, TN native who served five years as a Field Artillery Officer and fell into art after injury. She is a pen and ink artist and has illustrated two books of poetry on family and grief. Katie is currently a graduate student in a Master of Science of Social Work program at the University of Tennessee. She has worked with victims of Intimate Partner Violence and is currently working with homeless veterans and men in recovery from substance use disorders. These experiences ...
Aug 08, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 40
