Chris Olszewski is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, podcast host and video game developer. He has been the lead singer and one half of the writing duo of Balloon Ride Fantasy for the past 15 years as well as my partner in crime hosting this podcast. It has been on my list for a while now to interview my dear cohost Chris since we started this podcast, so listeners can have a chance to get to know the man behind the mic! In this episode, we discuss everything from life...
Dec 03, 2025•1 hr 31 min
Donny Donovan is the owner and founder of Free Will Health and Wellness, a Pittsburgh-based company that specializes in personal training, muscle activation, gender affirming fitness, health coaching, and exercise programming. Donny is a member of the LGBTQIA+ trans community and presented at the 2022 TransPride Pittsburgh Health and Wellness Conference on “Gender affirming and inclusive personal training.” Recently, Donny won 2nd place for Best Personal Trainer for the Pittsburgh City Paper’s B...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 53 min
Mike Mihm is an actor and producer who has appeared in such films as Unsane , Bunker , The Taking of Pelham 123 , The Box Cutter and The Old Maid and such shows as The Blacklist . Most recently, he appeared in a commercial starring Tom Brady for Fox, which airs during NFL 2024-25 season games. Aside from acting, Mike works as a carpenter and welder for film and tv sets. In this episode, we get a taste for his infectious positive outlook and professionalism, which all started with his Pittsburgh ...
Oct 23, 2024•1 hr 36 min
Chris and Bethany chat on a weekend summer morning from their respective homes. Topics broached include but are not limited to: hair-sparagus, being inspired by our guests, ideas for future episodes, our backlog of guest videos, Chris's new original video game, pets dying, intrastate flights, Bethany's new airport friend, girls juggling phone scrolling and movie viewing, and an insane movie Bethany recently saw. If you want to make this episode a drinking game, you can drink every time Bethany s...
Oct 02, 2024•1 hr 11 min
In this interview, Chris couldn’t make it, so it’s a one-on-one chat between Bethany and our guest, Jacquea Mae, vocalist for the band NASH.V.ILL. Jacquea is much more than a singer--she is a presence. When she performs, yes you hear her big, gorgeous voice, but you also experience her strong and beautiful aura. Outside of music, she works as a teaching artist, playwright, poet, spoken word artist, actress, business owner, event creator, coordinator, host and community activist. In this conversa...
Jun 19, 2024•1 hr 41 min
David Rullo is an award winning journalist and senior writer at the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. His work has appeared in national and international newspapers, magazines and literary journals. He has spent the better part of five decades exploring and contributing to the city’s art and literary scene. In this interview, we discuss Rullo's recent book published by Arcadia Press called “Gen X Pittsburgh: The Beehive and the 90s Scene.” The Beehive was Pittsburgh’s first true coffeehouse which bec...
Apr 30, 2024•1 hr 47 min
Cheryl is an artist living in Pittsburgh, who has carved out a name for herself by focusing on several niche art forms: puppet making, and dryer lint sculptures. However, her artistic endeavors go well beyond the scope of creating tangible artwork, as she is also an art teacher by day and leads several events in the city that center around her very fun and colorful puppetry. We talk about how Cheryl got started, her influences, family life, challenges and lessons, as well as lots of laughing abo...
Mar 06, 2024•2 hr 2 min
Byron Nash is a prolific musician, songwriter, and performer, playing guitar in the Pittsburgh-based rock/funk/R&B band NASH.V.ILL, as well as other projects including his own solo work. He also serves as the Events Coordinator at the Andy Warhol Museum and as a fitness trainer for his own company called Duya Wellness. Byron has had an exciting career of evolution–from working in the bar & restaurant service industry for many years, to interviewing bands for the Rock N Roll Reporter, at ...
Jan 31, 2024•1 hr 49 min
Gordon Berkstresser is a retired accountant and former U.S. Army Lieutenant. He has lived in a handful of different places and worked in various capacities, notably as a platoon leader in the Vietnam War, an auditor for U.S. Steel, and Aristech, VP & Controller for RMI Titanium, a professor at Robert Morris University, and later as the CFO of Lifenet Health, where he worked for the last 14 years of his career. Gordon shares some very personal stories and we sure did learn a lot. Our conversa...
Dec 19, 2023•1 hr 40 min
Kathryn Heidemann is the President + CEO of the Cleveland Institute of Art, an arts & design college in our neighboring state to the west. Kathryn has been working in the arts & culture administration sector for 25 years, having spent nearly 2 decades of her career in Pittsburgh. She also plays a mean bass guitar and sings AT THE SAME TIME. You may know her from such bands as Rockit Girl, Blindsider, The Victors!, and most recently, Garter Shake. She is a powerhouse of a woman and in thi...
Oct 19, 2023•1 hr 44 min
Franklin Carpio is a filmmaker based here in Pittsburgh. He holds a degree in entertainment design, has directed six short films and will soon be releasing his biggest project to date, EOS Six (Enemy on Sight), a sci-fi crime thriller (watch the trailer here ). He’s also the owner of Carpio Pictures, a small indie film company. It’s been fun to watch Franklin grow as a professional filmmaker through his work on various TV shows like Yellowstone, American Rust, A League of Their Own, and the film...
Aug 16, 2023•1 hr 43 min
Gina Winstead (she/her, they/them) has paved her own road to become the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh’s first ever Vice President of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA). She is working to improve IDEA within Carnegie Museums, including placing a major focus on nurturing relationships with the community and breaking down barriers to pull more people from all backgrounds into the museums. In this interview, we learn all about the important work that goes into preserving the art ...
Jun 21, 2023•2 hr 8 min
Anne Celedonia is a professional musician and singer-songwriter who has been working in the music industry for over a decade, notably serving for years as a background vocalist in the acclaimed Pittsburgh rock n soul band The Commonheart. In this episode, we discuss Anne’s start in the classical music realm, and how her path took her to several cities before finding her way back to Pittsburgh. We chat about her current role as pianist & lead vocalist for Anne Eliza, an ambient pop duo with m...
May 09, 2023•1 hr 42 min
Dr. Lawrence Ian Reed is a clinical and research psychologist at NYU, who completed his studies at Pitt and his residency and post-doctorate research at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Reed now studies facial expressions of emotion, focusing on why we so visibly express our private motivational and emotional states, and he specializes in treating adolescents and adults with mood and emotional disorders. Dr. Reed is also an old college friend and music collaborator of Bethany’s. He currently lives in...
Apr 05, 2023•1 hr 34 min
Walter Ino is an L.A. based touring multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer/songwriter who was born and raised in Pittsburgh. Music has taken him all over the world playing with such bands as the multi-platinum, Grammy award winning band Survivor, Eagles of Death Metal, Wilson Phillips, Denny Laine of Wings/Moody Blues, The Babys, and many more. Currently, he plays keyboards for Tommy DeCarlo and the legendary rock band Boston. More personally, Walter served as Bethany’s guitar teacher years ...
Feb 21, 2023•1 hr 31 min
Nearing midnight on New Year's Eve, Bethany and Chris tipsily sit down to reflect on their first 6 months of podcasting, including memorable moments, favorite guests, and their own personal growth following some culturally enlightening interviews. During their chat, Bethany and Chris discover they each pronounce a certain word differently, which means one of them had been inadvertently taught the "yinzer" pronuncation of the word during their Pittsburgh youth, (see the Fact Check on our website ...
Feb 15, 2023•31 min
Oleh Dovhun is a Ukrainian professional boxer, who currently holds the North American Boxing Association super-bantamweight title and is #3 in the WBA. Nicknamed the “Ukrainian Pitbull,” Dovhun is an undefeated southpaw from Stebnyk, Ukraine, currently living in Pittsburgh, PA. In this episode, we chat about his experiences training and fighting, and his observations on notable fights and big names in boxing. He also shares what it has been like for him to immigrate to the U.S. and live in Pitts...
Jan 19, 2023•1 hr 29 min
Dr. J. Scott Colombo is a physical therapist and former collegiate basketball player for the University of Pittsburgh from 1986-89, when the team won two Big East regular season championships (1987 & '88), as well as the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu (1986). Since then, Dr. Colombo has spent many years coaching basketball and he founded The Player’s Edge, a community program here in Pittsburgh that offers youth basketball clinics and performance workshops, among other training and education. I...
Nov 27, 2022•1 hr 42 min
Shaimaa Fayek is an Iraqi immigrant and proud Muslim living in Pittsburgh. Our interview takes place during the holy month of Ramadan, so we talk about the significance and cultural traditions of Ramadan. Shaimaa shares her story of growing up in Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s rule, and her family’s experience during the U.S. bombing of Baghdad and subsequent Iraq War. She describes the circumstances leading up to her family’s decision to leave Iraq–including a kidnapping–and what it was like havin...
Oct 10, 2022•1 hr 54 min
Dr. Sara Petras is a veterinarian who has spent extensive time abroad in Hungary. In this episode, Dr. Petras shows up with her new baby in one hand and a bottle of Hungarian brandy in the other to celebrate her last day of maternity leave. Peer pressured, Bethany and Chris find themselves doing shots at the start of the interview. Chris is promptly drunk and Bethany tries to remember her train of thought for the rest of the interview. Dr. Petras and Bethany discuss their grade school days toget...
Aug 31, 2022•1 hr 35 min
Josh Verbanets is a musician (Meeting of Important People, Lohio, The You), and one half of the award-winning kids’ music/comedy performance duo Josh and Gab. In this episode of Yinz World, we chat about Josh’s recent trip to London with VisitPittsburgh, his early music influences, playing in bands in the Pittsburgh music scene and other music industry experiences. Josh and Chris bond over their shared love of horror films and Josh talks about his work with comedian Gab Bonesso promoting kindnes...
Jul 25, 2022•1 hr 23 min
In this episode, we chat with terminally ill father of four, Chris Engelbert. Chris humbly shares with us about his experience being diagnosed with stage IV cancer at just 41 years old. A lover of comedy, Chris swapped the comedic jabbing for some real talk in this deep conversation that is sure to leave a lasting impression on you, as it did for us. He shares about his favorite life experiences, what it's like living with pain everyday, thoughts on the afterlife, and the way his diagnosis has s...
Jul 14, 2022•1 hr 36 min•Season 1Ep. 1
In this episode, we introduce ourselves, give a little taste of who we are, and explain our motivations for starting this podcast. Each episode's "fact check" is available at yinzworldpodcast.com. If you like our show, please rate and review on your listening platform! Drop us a line at yinzworldpodcast@gmail.com or on instagram @yinzworld.
Jul 14, 2022•43 min•Ep. 1
Jul 13, 2022•1 min
