Podcast
If This Is True with Chris Hall
Hosted by Chris Hall · EN
The podcast that asks all entertainers from writers to actors to musicians what's true about them and the passions that drive them. What's true about you?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Monte Schulz Snoops Around The Other Side Of Metropolis In His Book, Undercity
3d ago00:33:29Tap to summarizeMonte Schulz received his M.A. in American Studies from University of California, Santa Barbara. He published his first novel, Down by the River, in 1990, and spent the next twelve years writing a novel about the Jazz Age. His most recent novel, award winning Metropolis, was published in 2022. His father is the late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. Building on the world Schulz created in his highly successful book Metropolis, Undercity collects the voices of brave survivors, of those who’ve refused to submit to the indignities of eugenical persecution, the horror of gas chambers, and relentless warfare in rural provinces. Some of these stories demonstrate the moral disaster of eugenics, while others tell of courage and love and that indomitable magic of the human spirit that refuses to be silenced in the face of unspeakable crimes. This sweeping tale is a warning to us, as well, that what we might think is unimaginable needs only apathy and inattention to arise. We discussed writing, music and so much more. Don't be a blockhead! Listen to this!This episode, like all episodes of If This Is True, brings forth what drives creatives to do what they do. For more of this content and interaction, you can also go to my substack, coolmite25.substack.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →John Lutz Brings Improv Magic To 30 Rock, SNL And The Del Close Marathon 26!!
1w ago00:37:08Tap to summarizeJohn Lutz is an actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He is best known for playing J. D. Lutz on the sitcom 30 Rock, and for his work as a writer on the NBC series Saturday Night Live for seven seasons. In 2014, he joined the writing staff of the NBC late-night talk show Late Night with Seth Meyers.Lutz began his professional career as a writer-performer with Chicago's ImprovOlympic and The Second City theaters. He was hired at Saturday Night Live in February 2004 after spending three years touring with Second City. We discussed life on the road and in Chicago, struggling with the Harold and succeeding with its structure, and so much more. Don't miss this one!John will be performing in 2SQUARE with Peter Grosz at Del Close Marathon (DCM) 26, Sunday, June 14, at 7:30 PM at the Theater for the New City, Stage Two. For tickets, go to https://ucbcomedy.com/dcm.This episode, like all episodes of If This Is True, brings forth what drives creatives to do what they do. For more of this content and interaction, you can also go to my substack, coolmite25.substack.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Alexandra Beller Uses Movement To Inspire Communication Through Dance!!
2w ago00:41:33Tap to summarizeAlexandra is an artist, educator, and somatic guide working with movement as a way to access creative authority, embodied clarity, and deep personal voice. Her work supports artists, teachers, activists, facilitators, and guides to strengthen their inner compass while leading, creating, and communicating. She is fascinated by how decision-making lives in the body: how gesture holds belief, habit becomes pedagogy, and intuition is a fluent language.She is a choreographer, director, and educator working at the intersection of dance, theater, and somatics and was a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company from 1995–2001. She founded Alexandra Beller/Dances in 2002, creating more than forty dance-theater works across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.Her theater credits include Off-Broadway productions of Sense and Sensibility (Folger Shakespeare, A.R.T., Portland Center Stage; Helen Hayes Award, Lortel nomination), How to Transcend a Happy Marriage (Lincoln Center Theater), and The Mad Ones, as well as regional work with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, La MaMa, La Jolla Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, and The Goodman Theatre. Her directing credits include Macbeth (Theater Row) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (92Y).She has taught at institutions including Barnard, SUNY Purchase, Rutgers, UC Santa Barbara, the University of Michigan, The New School, and Princeton University, where she taught for seven years. Alexandra currently serves on faculty at the Laban Institute for Movement Studies and Gibney Dance Center and teach internationally through residencies and master classes. Her forthcoming books are The Embodied Conductor: A Somatic Approach with Laban and Bartenieff (Meredith Music, 2025) and The Anatomy of Art: Unlocking the Creative Process for Theater and Dance (Bloomsbury, 2026). You can get her books at alexandrabellerdances.org.This was an inspired episode. Give it a listen!This episode, like all episodes of If This Is True, brings forth what drives creatives to do what they do. For more of this content and interaction, you can also go to my substack, coolmite25.substack.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Dr. Peter Cotton Takes Us On A World Tour Of Medicine and Children's Books!
May 1500:23:07Tap to summarizeMeet Dr. Peter B. Cotton, a renowned gastroenterologist and professor with a five-decades-long career, who has touched the lives of thousands, including royalty and celebrities. In his second act, he has become an award-winning children’s book author, captivating young minds with his tales.His latest book, “What Fred The Snake And Friends’ Learn About The Chinese Zodiac – And The Great Race,” introduces young readers to the Chinese Zodiac, blending education and entertainment. This book is part of a beloved series featuring Fred the Snake, inspired by the flexible instruments Dr. Cotton used in his medical procedures.Dr. Cotton has done a gazillion interesting things, and we only had time for half that in this episode! Check it out!This episode, like all episodes of If This Is True, brings forth what drives creatives to do what they do. For more of this content and interaction, you can also go to my substack, coolmite25.substack.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Brad Elder Takes Us On The Journey For His Book, Recoil Of Justice!
May 100:41:37Tap to summarizeBrad Elder is an award-winning author and attorney, living in Texas. Prior to writing his action thriller, Recoil of Justice, his writing credits Included millions of emails and text messages, and a couple of dozen witty social media posts.When not poking fun at himself, Brad spends his days in Lubbock, TX, with his wife, Ashton, and his two children, Lauren and Jake.We talked about the hero's journey of his protagonist, Ryan Wolfe, and how he wrote his first novel. Don't miss it!This episode, like all episodes of If This Is True, brings forth what drives creatives to do what they do. For more of this content and interaction, you can also go to my substack, coolmite25.substack.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Michael Kell Mahoney Takes Us To Kosovo In His New Book!!
Apr 1500:37:13Tap to summarizeMichael is a retired New York City detective who somehow found his way from Manhattan to the Balkans. After his time with the NYPD, Michael spent two decades working internationally for the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, and the Department of Justice; He’s seen the best and worst of human behavior — often in the same afternoon.Michael has written Land of Broken Toys: Kosovo, a work of fiction based on real events. The novel is part crime thriller, part dark comedy, and part fish-out-of-water story. There’s humor in the absurdities of peacekeeping life — Irish jokes told over Turkish coffee, UN bureaucracy that would make Kafka blush — but beneath the laughter sits something serious—the idea that belief and integrity still matter.This was a spirited conversation! Don't miss it!This episode, like all episodes of If This Is True, brings forth what drives creatives to do what they do. For more of this content and interaction, you can also go to my substack, coolmite25.substack.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Alex Mann Brings the Law of Improv to Law Enforcement and First Responders!!
Apr 100:29:11Tap to summarizeAlex Mann is an improviser, actor, comedian and author. His book, the Law of Improv came out in paperback in 2025. He has performed in several plays, shows, commercials, and TV shows, based out of the Boston area.He is also been a sheriff for 28 years, and uses that experience to explore how improvisational principles can help first responders communicate and strengthen leadership. The Law of Improv provides a framework for that practice. You ought to be arrested if you don't listen to this one!This episode, like all episodes of If This Is True, brings forth what drives creatives to do what they do. For more of this content and interaction, you can also go to my substack, coolmite25.substack.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Jeremy Clift--Writing the Stories of Living in Space That We All Are Interested In!
Mar 1500:30:42Tap to summarizeThe future of space may be shaped by a coming scramble for off-world resources, the rise of humans born and raised beyond Earth, and the disruptive power of AI and robotics. Genetic engineering will redefine not only crops but humanity itself, transforming survival in stark new ways. And in time, contact with alien species could spark conflicts or alliances that alter our destiny. These are some of the elements explored in a new science-fiction series set just 40–80 years from now, written by Jeremy Clift, a former journalist with two decades of global reporting experience. His books – Born in Space and Space Vault -- have been praised heavily for their mesmerizing world-building, high-impact action, deep character development, philosophical explorations, and most of all, a realistic portrayal of what life in space could look like from the detailed eye of a reporter who has covered war zones, natural disasters, and economic crises. Clift has lived in China, Egypt, Great Britain, India, France, Philippines, Washington DC, and elsewhere. From his international experiences he was able to imagine universal struggles out in deep space.SOOOOO Interesting! Don't miss this one!This episode, like all episodes of If This Is True, brings forth what drives creatives to do what they do. For more of this content and interaction, you can also go to my substack, coolmite25.substack.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Teri M. Brown--How An Author Recentered Her Life On A Tandem Bicycle!!!
Mar 100:23:48Tap to summarizeBorn in Athens, Greece as an Air Force brat, Teri M Brown came into this world with an imagination full of stories to tell. She now calls the North Carolina coast home, and the peaceful nature of the sea has been a great source of inspiration for her creativity.Not letting 2020 get the best of her, Teri chose to go on an adventure that changed her outlook on life. She and her husband, Bruce, rode a tandem bicycle across the United States from Astoria, Oregon to Washington DC, successfully raising money for Toys for Tots. She learned she is stronger than she realized and capable of anything she sets her mind to.Teri graduated from UNC Greensboro with a multitude of degrees – majors in Elementary Education and Psychology and minors in Math and Sociology – she just couldn’t settle on one thing! While homeschooling her four children, she began her writing career by focusing on small businesses, writing articles, blog posts, and website content.Upon winning the First Annual Anita Bloom Ornoff Award for Inspirational Short Story for a piece about her grandfather, she began writing in earnest, and published her debut novel in 2022, Sunflowers Beneath the Snow, a historical fiction set in Ukraine. Her second novel published in 2023, An Enemy Like Me, takes place during WWII. Her latest novel, Daughters of Green Mountain Gap, a generational story about Appalachian healers came out in January 2024. In June 2024, her short story, The Youngest Lighthouse Keeper, came out in the anthology Feisty Deeds: Historical Fictions of Daring Women. Her latest book, 10 Little Rules for a Double-Butted Adventure (Feb 2025), My first children's picture book, Little Lola and Her Big Dream, came out in April of last year.Teri is a delight. Listen to this!!This episode, like all episodes of If This Is True, brings forth what drives creatives to do what they do. For more of this content and interaction, you can also go to my substack, coolmite25.substack.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Cameron Smith--Auteur, Star and Producer of The Loneliest Boy on Earth!!
Feb 1500:31:08Tap to summarizeOver the years, Cameron Smith has used comedy, music and film as ways to process life and connect with people in a real, unpolished way. His latest project, The Loneliest Boy on Earth, came out of that impulse — part experiment, part personal confession, and part attempt to make sense of love and identity in the modern world. He has learned that vulnerability, when shared honestly, can be both healing and entertaining (also provocative and dangerous).Across all mediums — whether film, music, or live conversation — my work is about pushing boundaries, experimenting with form, and ultimately creating something that is both meaningful and entertaining.This was a spirited convo covering what artists should do, loneliness, taking risks and so much more. Don't miss it!!This episode, like all episodes of If This Is True, brings forth what drives creatives to do what they do. For more of this content and interaction, you can also go to my substack, coolmite25.substack.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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