The music director and conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2012 has been starved of performing live music since the shutdowns began in March of 2020. And he knows classical music lovers are starved for its return. Yannick Nézet-Séguin sat down with Matt O'Donnell at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts ahead of the special "Hail to the Heroes" performance, the Orchestra's first before a live audience in 14 months. "Hail to the Heroes" airs on 6abc Saturday, July 3 at 7pm. Matt also ...
Jun 28, 2021•19 min
Yes, calling oneself the "Director of Fun" is a boastful exercise but Springdale Golf Club professional Keith Stewart lives the title every day. His early career brought him to Isleworth Country Club in Florida while Tiger Woods was destroying PGA fields and golf courses in the late 90s and early 00s and has great insight ahead of the best time of year for golf: Masters Week! Tiger will be defending his 2019 title and we talk about his chances. We also discuss how the pandemic has only made the ...
Nov 10, 2020•45 min
Dr. Jonathan Epstein leads an institution that is researching just about every angle you can think of when it comes to COVID-19: vaccines, treatments, contact tracing, the long-term effects of an infection, the mystery of being asymptomatic and who should be vaccinated first. Dr. Epstein is the Chief Scientific Officer at Penn's Perelman School of Medicine. He has been leading this pivotal institution from his home in Wayne, PA since COVID-19 restrictions began back in the spring. Dr. Epstein sh...
Oct 28, 2020•32 min
Back in the spring, Adam Weiner decided he had to do something. The pandemic suddenly prevented his band, Low Cut Connie, from their lifeblood - performing live music. While in the spare room of his South Philadelphia home, he started broadcasting what would become the "Tough Cookies" series. He sings, he dances, he bangs on his stand-up piano, he offers words of enlightenment and hope. Originally a vehicle to simply entertain those watching on Instagram and Facebook, the episodes have gone so f...
Oct 12, 2020•43 min
Buddy Blanchard fronts the world's greatest Van Halen tribute band: Philadelphia's own Romeo Delight. Buddy, as you might have guessed, plays the part of David Lee Roth. We first met several years ago when I started this podcast. I thought it was great that we had such an authentic representation of the great music of Van Halen right in our backyard. I played with the band in their practice space in Huntingdon Valley and I had the honor of performing as a guest drummer with Romeo Delight at Musi...
Oct 08, 2020•22 min
Dr. Argie Allen-Wilson is a mental health and relationship therapist based in Montgomery County. My conversation with her on this episode of Inside Story was such a positive experience, I wanted to share it with you. So much negativity is converging as we speak: the pandemic, a new and frustrating school year, the nastiness of the presidential campaign, joblessness, poverty, systemic racism and uncertainty for our future. Dr. Argie helps guide us through these issues, helps us make sense of our ...
Sep 10, 2020•16 min
Dr. Thomas Farley spent much of his adult life preparing for this moment: leading a large US city through a worldwide pandemic. The health commissioner of Philadelphia is a North Jersey native, a pediatrician and an epidemiologist with a deep background in studying infectious diseases, particularly with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Farley and I spoke via Zoom and went back to those early days of the pandemic to discuss what worked, what didn't and whether it was tough to g...
Sep 04, 2020•29 min
TRUE PHILADELPHIA PODCAST: Brian Tierney is Philadelphia's ultimate "Ad Man." The list of companies he's represented in strategizing, marketing and crisis management is long and diverse: Independence Blue Cross, Uber, Aramark, IBM, Verizon to name a few. He's the former owner and publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Daily News and (what was then known as) Philly.com. He has a deep resume in campaign politics: Sam Katz and George H.W. Bush are among the names who have listened to Brian's a...
Aug 04, 2020•48 min
Maribel Aber of CNN Newsource has been providing Action News with early morning financial reports for eight years. Typically she reports live from the NASDAQ Marketsite in Times Square, New York. She moved her broadcast operation to a home in Florida when the pandemic began to set in and has been there ever since. Maribel's deep knowledge of Wall Street, business and stocks is apparent. So is her positive, uplifting personality. We had always talked about meeting in-person for a podcast intervie...
Jul 20, 2020•33 min
When you ask Michael Coard what he thinks about anything, he will give you an answer - unfiltered. The longtime Philadelphia criminal defense lawyer has been talking for decades about racial issues that we now see at the forefront today: inequities in how African-Americans are treated in the judicial system, by police, in the workplace and with history. Coard joked that as fewer and fewer people see him as a "radical" maybe he needs to start acting crazier. Throughout our conversation, he gave t...
Jul 09, 2020•45 min
The idea of the US government spending several decades preparing to ride out an apocalypse by building an entire city in a hollowed-out mountain is fascinating - and terrifying, all the same. This city is contained within a massive bunker carved out of an Appalachian mountain known as Raven Rock. Historian, author and journalist Garrett Graff wrote the definitive book about it. I spoke to Garrett via a Zoom connection from his home in Vermont about the analogies he's seeing between preparing for...
Jun 03, 2020•38 min
Jerri Williams spent 26 years as an FBI agent, mostly in the Philadelphia division. You might remember seeing her on Action News as the spokeswoman for the FBI and later on SEPTA before her retirement. Williams was able to remold herself post-retirnement as a successful author of fiction and non-fiction and as a podcaster. How did she figure out how to do this? She just learned, worked hard and did it. I spoke to Williams through a Zoom connection from her Gloucester County, New Jersey home abou...
May 15, 2020•26 min
Jeff Pearlman and I were classmates at the University of Delaware and colleagues at the independent campus newspaper The Review. Jeff was the editor-in-chief our senior year and let's just say, that was a pretty crazy year. We explain why during this podcast. Jeff is a New York Times best-selling author. His latest book coming out this fall details the Kobe Bryant-led era of the Los Angeles Lakers. That begins our discussion, which then leads into a breakdown of what amateur and professional spo...
Apr 27, 2020•35 min
Ali Gorman has been our go-to for all things health, medical and wellness for more than 12 years. The South Jersey native's expertise has never been more needed or valued now. The registered nurse started her medical career with the Navy as a Nurse Corps officer. She knows what people on the front lines are dealing with right now. Ali opens up her knowledge bank to offer her thoughts on the whole host of uncertainties about this novel coronavirus. Recorded through Zoom on April 20, 2020 In this ...
Apr 22, 2020•25 min
When concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated and the stay-at-home orders went into place in March of 2020, my entire family was suddenly at home a lot more than usual. My dog Bailey, a generally happy-go-lucky eight-year-old Shichon, immediately knew something was wrong. He seemed spooked, he acted stressed and he watched us more closely. Bailey might have even picked up on our general concern as parents - I mean, remember the early days of the pandemic when everything seemed to happen ...
Apr 11, 2020•19 min
Archbishop Nelson Perez was all set to bring new leadership to the Philadelphia Archdiocese - until all of his plans changed. The coronavirus pandemic has eliminated gatherings and kept 1.4 million Catholics in our region at home. Archbishop Perez talks about his very strange and unexpected start in his new job with the church. Our conversation also veers off the COVID-19 course to get his views on God, heaven, leadership and Pope Francis. Recorded at the rectory at Archdiocesan headquarters in ...
Apr 06, 2020•33 min
Dr. Susan Weiss works in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. She is also the co-director of Penn's newly-founded Center for Research on Coronaviruses and Other Emerging Pathogens. Penn's lab, which is considered a Biosafety Level 3 lab, obtained actual samples of the coronavirus that is sweeping across the world. Dr. Weiss is working from her home in Montgomery County to protect herself from getting infected; she is part of the known hi...
Mar 29, 2020•32 min
Ricky Singh is an amazing man. He climbed Mount Everest and made it back alive on May 21, 2019. Before even considering attempting this feat, Singh went and ran a marathon in every single state. Fifty of them! Doing both of these is a first. Singh says he is also the first American Sikh and second Indian-American to reach the top of the planet. He is also the first Everest summiter I've ever met, which is a far more insignificant accomplishment. Singh is an extremely spiritual man whose outlook ...
Mar 20, 2020•41 min
We need a little hope right now, don't you agree? I called my colleague and friend Ajay Raju to help me convey some positive thinking on this crisis. Please know that both of us truly understand people are suffering out there. Lives are being lost, people are getting sick, incomes have diminished to nothing, hopes and dreams have been erased. But in times of crises, human beings always adapt and survive. It is our nature. Ajay is a panelist on Inside Story, the host of Overheard at Tredici and t...
Mar 19, 2020•23 min
Let's get back to the basics on this pandemic. What is a virus? What is a coronavirus? How long have they been around? Why aren't young people getting infected as much? Dr. Judd Hollander answers all of these questions and more, and tells us which questions we cannot answer yet. Dr. Hollander is an associate dean at Jefferson's medical college, an emergency room doctor and has been working on a project to expand "telemedicine" which he also explains in this podcast. Recorded on March 17, 2020 at...
Mar 18, 2020•30 min
Tina Halladay looks like the modern-day rock star, which like so many other things in our society, destroys the stereotypes of old. She is the lead vocalist of Sheer Mag, which formed in Philadelphia right after all of the members left college in New York and decided to move here. The band is a hard rock time machine that updates the stadium rock of the 1970s and 1980s without sounding outdated or artificial. Tina invited me to the Sheer Mag practice space in Southwest Philadelphia, which is a r...
Mar 16, 2020•47 min
Anchor Sarah Bloomquist and producer Jessica Gonzalez spent an entire month researching this baffling missing persons case from South Philadelphia. Watch their report on the 6abc True Crime YouTube page and then listen to this podcast extra. Sarah, Jess and I go even deeper into what is known about the night of February 19, 2005, the events leading up to it and some of the things the FBI has learned in the 15 years it has been investigating the couple's disappearance. The Main Players: Sarah Blo...
Feb 24, 2020•38 min
Joe Conklin, A.K.A. "The Man of a Thousand Voices," is a Philadelphia institution. There is no one like him around here, and perhaps no one like him anywhere else. He can look and sound like anyone he wants: Andy Reid, Allen Iverson, Charles Barkley, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joel Embiid, Merrill Reese, Rich Kotite...the list truly goes all the way to 1,000 and maybe beyond. I grabbed a table with Conklin at the New Wave Cafe in South Philadelphia to talk about where his abilities and comedy a...
Feb 14, 2020•43 min
City Councilwoman At-Large Kendra Brooks did something that essentially hadn't been done in 100 years in Philadelphia - win her seat while not being a member of the two major political parties. I met Brooks at her new office during her first week at City Hall. The Working Families Party member was asking staff to fix a light bulb in the hallway. It mattered because Brooks plans to make it a habit of arriving early and staying late at her office, when most other lights are out. We spent nearly an...
Jan 17, 2020•54 min
G. Love & Special Sauce is one of the pioneers of the blues and hip hop style of music that is so prevalent these days. Their self-titled debut album was released in 1994 and made G. Love famous. With their latest album "The Juice" (2020), G. Love is out to prove that his "Philadelphonic" sound still has relevance and in fact can be empowering to his listeners. The man whose real name is Garrett Dutton is convinced: the world needs more G. Love, now more than ever. The Philadelphia native an...
Jan 14, 2020•27 min
Baroness is one of the most critically-acclaimed and internationally successful bands that fall into the "extreme" metal category (even though they are much more complex than that) and yet few people seem to realize they are based in the Philadelphia area, not Georgia where the band started in 2002. John Baizley, the founder, lead singer, guitarist, composer and album cover artist for Baroness prefers that anonymity. John invited me to his home in Montgomery County where he lives with his wife a...
Dec 21, 2019•1 hr 5 min
Adam Weiner is the heart and soul of South Philadelphia-based rock 'n' roll boogie band Low Cut Connie and may be one of the most charismatic performers in music today. He graduated from Cherry Hill East High School and admits he didn't have a "plan B" - he was going to be a rock star. With a hugely talented voice and a ceremonious devotion to being the best piano player he can be, Adam can be found in rock venues across the country jumping around the stage, rolling around his piano and undressi...
Dec 12, 2019•39 min
Philadelphia's Republican City Committee is putting its hopes on Rep. Martina White (R-PA) to help it maintain relevance - and maybe even survive. The party was embarrassed again in the 2019 mayoral race - Mayor Jim Kenney didn't even campaign against GOP opponent Billy Ciancaglini and ended up winning with 80% of the vote. Plus, an independent candidate snatched a city council at-large seat from Republican Al Taubenberger, reducing the GOP's already slim role in city politics even more. Enter W...
Dec 04, 2019•45 min
Nia Meeks, a communications strategist in Philadelphia, is a frequent panelist on Inside Story (Sundays at 11:30am on 6abc). She always arrives with well-informed ideas about the issues facing Philadelphia and the surrounding region. So I thought it would be enlightening (and also entertaining) to ask her to take part in this special True Philadelphia Podcast episode. Both of us came up with three HUGE ideas, without worry about feasibility or cost, that we think should happen now or in the near...
Oct 30, 2019•47 min
Fran Dunphy is a Philadelphia basketball coaching legend. He led the Penn Quakers from 1989-2006 and the Temple Owls from 2006 until his retirement this last season, winning multiple league championships and coaching awards throughout. Dunphy teaches a business management class at Temple. We spent some time in his office after class to talk about his career, how basketball has changed, how players have changed, how he has changed and why his worst loss was his most important game as a coach. In ...
Sep 26, 2019•39 min
