MikeyPod 357 | Author Ayun Halliday

I loved this conversation with writer and zinester Ayun Halliday. We got into her new book Panther City, an illustrated comedy set in the pre-bicentennial Midwest, and talked about how she captured the emotional intensity of childhood without losing the humor and weirdness of that age. The book’s dual-narrator structure gave us a lot to chew on, not to mention the little mysteries she plants along the way. We also talked about our own childhood memories, how kids learn about the world from each other, and why those early peer moments feel so high-stakes. From there, we shifted into the incredible story behind Panther City’s illustrations—drawn by Ayun’s nine-year-old pen pal, Leni Yow-Fairs. The whole process is exactly the kind of DIY magic I adore Ayun for. Ayun and I also dug into creative habits: the pull between festivity and focus, the joy of making work for its own sake, and her long relationship with self-publishing—from traditional book deals to the handmade, decades-long world of The East Village Inky. Based in New York City, Ayun Halliday is a writer, illustrator, performer, and the creator of the legendary zine The East Village Inky, now in its 27th year. She’s the author of books including The Big Rumpus, No Touch Monkey!, Job Hopper, and Peanut, and her newest work, Panther City, blends humor, nostalgia, and the messy emotional landscape of childhood. Her work often mixes cartooning, memoir, and social observation, grounded in a fiercely DIY spirit and an instinct for finding depth in the small, strange corners of everyday life. This podcast is powered by my subscribers on Patreon who, in addition to the warm feeling they get from co-creating with me, get lots of sweet perks including bonus podcast episodes, free downloads, zines, and more! This week’s bonus podcast will feature an extended conversation with today’s guest, Ayun where we talk about procrastination and the creative process!  Learn more right here!

After a three-year hiatus, I’m excited to be back with MikeyPod. This conversation with Kevin (as a robot) Laibson is exactly what I needed—it cracked open things I’ve been grappling with in my own work. I’ve been thinking about AI and human interaction as I work on my creative projects, and Kevin is exploring these same questions through performance. He’s a director and performer working at the intersection of live performance and emerging technology. His solo show The Harmnf—an adaptation of Chekhov using AI tools—is a meditation on failure, alienation, and our relationship with technology. We talk about directing AI actors, how the show evolved, and what he’s learned about human error and connection when technology mediates everything. This is the kind of peer thinking I need—someone building serious work at the edge of what performance can be. Get tickets for this weekend’s performance of The Harmnf right here. Based in New York City, Kevin Laibson is a director, performer, and educator working at the intersection of live performance and emerging technology. As a mixed-reality artist, he explores what happens when human creativity meets AI and code. His work has been featured at SXSW, SIGGRAPH, and venues including National Sawdust, The Flea, and Abrons Arts Center. He’s served as Artistic Director of Magic Futurebox and The Peoples Improv Theater, and currently leads XR performance research at Agile Lens in collaboration with institutions like the Royal Shakespeare Company and NYU. His solo performance The Harmnf—an adaptation of Chekhov using AI tools—is a meditation on failure, alienation, and our uneasy relationship with technology. This podcast is powered by my subscribers on Patreon who, in addition to the warm feeling they get from co-creating with me, get lots of sweet perks including bonus podcast episodes, free downloads, zines, and more! This week’s bonus podcast will feature an extended conversation with today’s guest, Kevin!  Learn more right here!

Pianist and composer Sophia Subbaya Vastek joins me today to discuss her new album, In Our Softening. I am completely enamored with this album, our conversation about Sophia’s music, and the magnificently imperfect instrument that inspired it. Enjoy this conversation, and be sure to check out the entire album as well! Based in Troy, NY, Sophia Subbaya Vastek moves quietly between musical worlds and defies easy categorization. She has been described as “a wonder” and “audacious” (Inactuelles), and as performing with “passion and profound tenderness” (Second Inversion) and “serene strokes and lyrical beauty” (Brooklyn Rail). Her debut album Histories was released on innova Recordings in 2017, produced by multiple Grammy-winning engineer Adam Abeshouse. Second Inversion described the album as “both an homage to Vastek’s own individual histories but also a beautiful mosaic of the larger cultural intersections of our world—and how we weave those histories together through music.”  She has since released the EP Lili, as well as several recordings and singles spanning multiple genres. Sophia has toured internationally across three continents. Timestamps:00:00 Intro05:38 The Seas that Made Us – Sophia Subbayya Vastek10:35 Conversation with Sophia Subbayya Vastek36:05 After Stardust – Sophia Subbayya Vastek40:05 Outro Follow Sophia Subbayya Vastek on Instagram, YouTube, and Bandcamp. Photo of Sophia Subbayya Vastek by Kiki Vassilakis This podcast is powered by my subscribers on Patreon who, in addition to the warm feeling they get from co-creating with me, get lots of sweet perks including bonus podcast episodes, free downloads, zines, and more! This week’s bonus podcast will feature an extended conversation with today’s guest, Sophia Subbayya Vastek!  Learn more right here! I’d love to have you in the Discord server! Think of it as a big chatroom where we can talk about whatever without the typical social media negativity and randos harshing our vibe. There are a few of us active in there right now and we’ve been discussing gratitude, podcast guests, and a bunch of other stuff. If you want to join the community, you can join right here. I’m happy to help if you need it! Thinking of starting your own podcast? Do it! I’m a big fan of Blubrry for podcast hosting! You can get a month free hosting, or get your $100 Blubrry Pro Hosting fee waived when you use the code “mikeypod” at checkout!

Molly Joyce is back on the podcast to discuss her brand new album, Perspective, which features disabled interviewees responding to what access, care, interdependence, and more means to them. We talk about the development of the album, expanding accessibility with our art, and how a question from a mentor inspired the project itself. Thank you for listening! Composer and performer Molly Joyce has been deemed one of the “most versatile, prolific and intriguing composers working under the vast new-music dome” by The Washington Post. Her music has additionally been described as “serene power” (New York Times), written to “superb effect” (The Wire), and “unwavering” and “enveloping” (Vulture). Her work is concerned with disability as a creative source. She has an impaired left hand from a previous car accident. The primary vehicle in her pursuit is her electric vintage toy organ, an instrument she bought on eBay that suits her body and engages her disability on a compositional and performative level. Her debut full-length album, Breaking and Entering, featuring toy organ, voice, and electronic sampling of both sources was released in June 2020 on New Amsterdam Records, and has been praised by New Sounds as “a powerful response to something (namely, physical disability of any kind) that is still too often stigmatized, but that Joyce has used as a creative prompt.” Timestamps:00:00 Intro05:09 Interdependence – Molly Joyce09:34 Conversation with Molly Joyce37:06 Weakness – Molly Joyce41:02 Outro Follow Molly Joyce on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook Photo of Molly Joyce by Shervin Lainez. Molly Joyce previously appeared on MikeyPod 294. Listen to it here. This podcast is powered by my subscribers on Patreon who, in addition to the warm feeling they get from co-creating with me, get lots of sweet perks including bonus podcast episodes, free downloads, zines, and more! This week’s bonus podcast will feature an extended conversation with today’s guest, Molly Joyce!  Learn more right here! I’d love to have you in the Discord server! Think of it as a big chatroom where we can talk about whatever without the typical social media negativity and randos harshing our vibe. There are a few of us active in there right now and we’ve been discussing gratitude, podcast guests, and a bunch of other stuff. If you want to join the community, you can join right here. I’m happy to help if you need it! Thinking of starting your own podcast? Do it! I’m a big fan of Blubrry for podcast hosting! You can get a month free hosting, or get your $100 Blubrry Pro Hosting fee waived when you use the code “mikeypod” at checkout!

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok is my guest on the podcast this week to talk about her creative work, connection, disability, humor, and most importantly: cats. Her play Cost of Living is in its final weeks on Broadway at the Manhattan Theater Club and you need to see it, so get your tickets here! I’m thrilled to share some music from forthcoming MikeyPod guests Molly Joyce and Sophia Subbayya Vastek in this episode as well. Enjoy! Martyna Majok was born in Bytom, Poland and raised in Jersey and Chicago. She was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, Cost of Living, which is currently on Broadway. Other plays include Sanctuary City, Queens, and Ironbound, which have been produced across American and international stages. Timestamps:00:00 Intro03:34 Connection – Molly Joyce07:18 Conversation with Martyna Majok28:50 In Our Softening – Sophia Subbayya Vastek33:36 Outro Follow Martyna Majok on Instagram and Twitter. Many thanks to Nolan Doran for his help in making this conversation possible. Molly Joyce previously appeared on MikeyPod 294. Listen to it here. This podcast is powered by my subscribers on Patreon who, in addition to the warm feeling they get from co-creating with me, get lots of sweet perks including bonus podcast episodes, free downloads, zines, and more! This week’s bonus podcast will feature an extended conversation with today’s guest, Martyna Majok!  Learn more right here! I’d love to have you in the Discord server! Think of it as a big chatroom where we can talk about whatever without the typical social media negativity and randos harshing our vibe. There are a few of us active in there right now and we’ve been discussing gratitude, podcast guests, and a bunch of other stuff. If you want to join the community, you can join right here. I’m happy to help if you need it! Thinking of starting your own podcast? Do it! I’m a big fan of Blubrry for podcast hosting! You can get a month free hosting, or get your $100 Blubrry Pro Hosting fee waived when you use the code “mikeypod” at checkout!

This conversation with interdisciplinary sound artist and composer Brian Harnetty covers everything from spirituality to creative process, to ethics of sampling, and beyond. We talk about (and listen to a few tracks from) his exquisite new album, Words and Silences, which was inspired by and includes archival recordings Thomas Merton made while in his Kentucky hermitage in 1967. I had a great time with this chat, and it inspired me to dive a bit more into the life and work of Thomas Merton. Enjoy! BRIAN HARNETTY is an interdisciplinary sound artist who uses listening to foster social change. He works with sound archives and the communities connected to them, creating encounters that are centered on place and the transformative power of listening. Since 2010, Harnetty’s projects have brought together myth, history, ecology, and economy in Appalachian Ohio, informed by his family’s roots there. His current project, Words and Silences, is a musical portrait of Kentucky monk and writer Thomas Merton, fusing archival recordings of Merton’s voice with newly composed music. Timestamps:00:00 Intro04:22 Sound of an Unperplexed Wren – Brian Harnetty10:17 Conversation with Brian Harnetty26:36 Who Is This I? – Brian Harnetty34:15 Conversation with Brian Harnetty52:14 Breath, Water, Silence – Brian Harnetty58:08 Outro Follow Brian Harnetty on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Spotify. Photo of Brian Harnetty by Poynter Photo. This podcast is powered by my subscribers on Patreon who, in addition to the warm feeling they get from co-creating with me, get lots of sweet perks including bonus podcast episodes, free downloads, zines, and more! This week’s bonus podcast will feature an extended conversation with today’s guest, Christopher Willits!  Learn more right here! I’d love to have you in the Discord server! Think of it as a big chatroom where we can talk about whatever without the typical social media negativity and randos harshing our vibe. There are a few of us active in there right now and we’ve been discussing gratitude, podcast guests, and a bunch of other stuff. If you want to join the community, you can join right here. I’m happy to help if you need it! Thinking of starting your own podcast? Do it! I’m a big fan of Blubrry for podcast hosting! You can get a month free hosting, or get your $100 Blubrry Pro Hosting fee waived when you use the code “mikeypod” at checkout!

Christopher Willits makes his third visit to the podcast today and I could not be more thrilled to share this with you. We talk about his latest album, Gravity, the concept of gravity, creativity, mortality, process, and the beauty in allowing things to be exactly what they are. This is another brilliant connection with a beautiful artist who has been a tremendous inspirational force in my own work, and I am so proud to share this conversation with you! Read more: MikeyPod 351 | Musician Christopher Willits Christopher Willits is a pioneering composer, guitarist, producer, visual artist, and co-founder & director of Envelop, a nonprofit with a mission to inspire and connect through immersive listening. As one of the core artists on the Ghostly International label since the early 2000s, Willits has navigated the field of contemporary ambient music with curiosity and ambition, realizing an acclaimed body of work that includes collaborative projects with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Taylor Deupree, and Tycho. This driven-yet-gentle devotion to deep listening led him to the forefront of cutting-edge spatial audio production, a nascent technology at the time of his 2017 album Horizon, now adopted widely across the music industry. Willits operates with the conviction that music can create physical and emotional space for us to slow down and feel the present moment, which is the central intention of his 2022 album Gravity, his most personal and refined to date. Timestamps:00:00 Intro07:38 Christopher Willits – Crescent12:28 Conversations with Christopher Willits54:47 Christopher Willits – Regrowth62:46 Outro Follow Christopher Willits on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Christopher previously appeared on MikeyPod 120 (2008) and MikeyPod 228 (2017). Here’s my (in progress) Apple Music playlist featuring every song that has been played on the podcast. Some of the songs aren’t available on Apple Music, so not every song, but you get the idea. This podcast is powered by my subscribers on Patreon who, in addition to the warm feeling they get from co-creating with me, get lots of sweet perks including bonus podcast episodes, free downloads, zines, and more! This week’s bonus podcast will feature an extended conversation with today’s guest, Christopher Willits!  Learn more right here! I’d love to have you in the Discord server! Think of it as a big chatroom where we can talk about whatever without the typical social media negativity and randos harshing our vibe. There are a few of us active in there right now and we’ve been discussing gratitude, podcast guests, and a bunch of other stuff. If you want to join the community, you can join right here. I’m happy to help if you need it! Thinking of starting your own podcast? Do it! I’m a big fan of Blubrry for podcast hosting! You can get a month free hosting, or get your $100 Blubrry Pro Hosting fee waived when you use the code “mikeypod” at checkout!

Pageant Queen turned indie-rocker Caroline Weinroth joins me on the podcast this week to talk about Cinema Hearts, the band for which she serves as lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter. We talk about her experience as a contender for Miss Virginia, and how that experience inspired the band’s EP, Your Ideal. Caroline’s insight and openness stopped me in my tracks a few times during this conversation and I can’t wait for you to hear it, as well as a couple of tracks from the album. Listen up! Caroline Weinroth is a musician, educator, writer, and arts advocate from the Washington, DC area. She has a Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry Creative Writing and a Bachelor of Arts in Theater and Audio Engineering, both from George Mason University. Caroline is the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for Cinema Hearts. Cinema Hearts has performed at concert halls and rock clubs, including Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Museums, Arena Stage, AMP by Strathmore, Black Cat, DC9, and more. With Cinema Hearts, Caroline has toured to New York, Philadelphia, and other cities. She has produced four music videos and written three albums of original songs. Caroline is passionate about creating all-ages performance spaces. She has organized hundreds of open mic nights and concerts for young performers, collaborating with Girls Rock camps, Fredericksburg All Ages, Music Production Club of GMU, and local schools. Music:Your Ideal – Cinema HeartsSister – Cinema Hearts Check out Cinema Hearts’ album release show at Comet Ping Pong on Sept 23 at 10PM! Details here.Follow Cinema Hearts on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, and Bandcamp. NYC PODCASTERS: Join as at the 2nd Annual Mini-Conference + Podcast Meetup on October 9! More details here. Here’s my (in progress) Apple Music playlist featuring every song that has been played on the podcast. Some of the songs aren’t available on Apple Music, so not every song, but you get the idea. This podcast is powered by my subscribers on Patreon who, in addition to the warm feeling they get from co-creating with me, get lots of sweet perks including bonus podcast episodes, free downloads, zines, and more! This week’s bonus podcast will feature a long lost episode of a short lived podcast I created in 2005 for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. In cleaning up old files, I found this tucked away and am excited to share it with Patrons! Learn more right here! As I mentioned in the outro, I am just getting rolling on opening up a Discord server. If you want to join the community, you can join right here. Discord is a totally free place where we can chat about the show and anything else. I’ll be adding more there, but for now, feel free to start up a convo in the MikeyPod or general channels. Thinking of starting your own podcast? Do it! I’m a big fan of Blubrry for podcast hosting! You can get a month free hosting, or get your $100 Blubrry Pro Hosting fee waived when you use the code “mikeypod” at checkout!

Composer-Performer Sugar Vendil joins me this week to talk about one of her latest projects, hyPerFormFest, a one day (for now) eclectic, boundary-free music gathering featuring Jerome Gillespie, Chloe Alexandra Thompson, and Jasmine Hearn. We listen to some of her magnificent music, chat about our changing relationships with social media as artists, and so much more. I can’t wait for you to hear this! We didn’t get to talk about the opening piece during our conversation, which was a big miss on my part! Here’s what Sugar had to say about the piece: “May We Know Our Own Strength” is a short film by Jih-E Peng based on Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya’s installation of the same name. Sugar Vendil’s score, featuring her own voice, electronics, piano, and violinist Hajnal Pivnick, recalls feelings of horror and pain, the act of healing through ritual, and collective mourning and strength. Sugar Vendil is a composer, pianist, choreographer, and interdisciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking, known as Brooklyn. She started her artistic life as a classical pianist, and after spending nearly a decade searching for her own voice, her practice evolved into writing her own music and making performances that integrate sound, movement, and unconventional approaches to the piano. She writes and performs her own solo music for piano and electronics and has a keyboard/synth duo, Vanity Project, with composer Trevor Gureckis. Vendil is a proud second generation Filipinx American. Vendil was awarded a 2021 MAPFund grant to support Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia. Recent commissions include Chamber Music America to write a new work for her ensemble, The Nouveau Classical Project, which she founded in 2008; ETHEL’s Homebaked 2019 for Unsacred Geometry, and ACF | Create to write for Box Not Found.  Vendil loves dancing and collaborating with other makers. In September 2020, she danced in choreographer Emily Johnson/CATALYST’s The Ways We Love and The Ways We Love Better – Monumental Movement Toward Being Future Being(s) at Socrates Sculpture Park. She is part of Johnson’s Being Future Being, which showed at Bates Dance Festival and Jacob’s Pillow in July 2021, and will premiere at The Broad Stage in 2022. Vendil took part in premiering composer-saxophonist Darius Jones’ LawNOrder at The Stone and Being Caged in ICE (2018) at Roulette. She has performed at a variety of venues, ranging from arts spaces such as BAM Fisher, Dixon Place, Knockdown Center’s Ready Room, MoMa PS1, National Sawdust, the New School’s Glassbox Theater, The Stone, and Roulette; to galleries and spaces such as The Development Gallery, Milk Studios, and Spring Studios. Music:May We Know Our Own Strength – Sugar VendilBPM – Sugar Vendil Links:Follow Sugar Vendil on Instagram.Subscribe to Sugar Vendil’s Newsletter.Here’s Sugar Vendil’s blog entry about social media that I can’t seem to shut up about.Sugar Vendil’s 2016 appearance on MikeyPod Live! with Eve Beglarian. Photo of Sugar Vendil by Julia Comita.Follow hyPerFormFest on Instagram.Get tickets for hyPerForm 1 on Sept 25th This podcast is powered by my subscribers on Patreon who, in addition to the warm feeling they get from co-creating with me, get lots of sweet perks including bonus podcast episodes, free downloads, zines, and more! This week’s bonus podcast will feature a long lost episode of a short lived podcast I created in 2005 for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. In cleaning up old files, I found this tucked away and am excited to share it with Patrons! Learn more right here! As I mentioned in the outro, I am just getting rolling on opening up a Discord server. If you want to join the community, you can join right here. Discord is a totally free place where we can chat about the show and anything else. I’ll be adding more there, but for now, feel free to start up a convo in the MikeyPod or general channels. Thinking of starting your own podcast? Do it! I’m a big fan of Blubrry for podcast hosting! You can get a month free hosting, or get your $100 Blubrry Pro Hosting fee waived when you use the code “mikeypod” at checkout!

Lavinia Jones Wright‘s film project, Love All Alices, is the exact kind of thing that gets me fired up and inspired to the max. The finish line is a film, sure, but through my conversation with Ms. Jones I discovered the multiple layers of stage, video, community, and love that converge to tell the story of legendary New York acting teacher, coach, and mentor Alice Spivak. While you listen to this magnificent conversation, get yourself over to the Kickstarter for the film which is in its final days! LAVINIA JONES WRIGHT’s unique and creative films, music and writing draw on her experiences in journalism, documentary filmmaking, traditional and digital film production, theater, comedy and rock and roll. With director Alex Steyermark, Lavinia traveled America cutting 78rpm records, producing and writing for the acclaimed The 78 Project Movie (World Premiere, SXSW Film Festival 2014) and The 78 Project web series. As an actor, Lavinia can be seen in The Affair on Showtime as well as in numerous other TV, film and web projects. She is a member of Alice Spivak’s OnTheRoad Repertory Company, and most recently performed in Laundry and Bourbon and a staged reading of I Am Us, both directed by Alice Spivak. With her sister, director Maris Jones, Lavinia co-created The Jones Family Retro Show, a live rock and roll comedy and variety show at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn that Gothamist called one of the “Best Things to Do in NYC.” As a journalist, Lavinia has contributed to The Oxford American, Billboard, SPIN, Harp and Crawdaddy!, and previously wrote and edited for ASCAP’s Playback magazine, website and music industry award shows. She has directed music videos for artists including The Mynabirds and ARMS, and is currently directing her first feature film about the legendary acting teacher Alice Spivak. Along with her sister Maris Jones and production designer Molly Schneider, Lavinia is currently co-creating a women-led, art-forward creative collective and production company as well as multiple upcoming web series and films.  Follow Lavinia Jones Wright on InstagramFollow Love All Alices on Instagram and Facebook.Photo of Lavinia Jones Wright by Maris Jones. 🚨Click here to join the Kickstarter campaign for Love All Alices! 🚨 This podcast is powered by my subscribers on Patreon who, in addition to the warm feeling they get from co-creating with me, get lots of sweet perks including bonus podcast episodes, free downloads, zines, and more! This week’s bonus podcast will feature an even deeper conversation with Lavinia Jones Wright.  Learn more right here! As I mentioned in the intro, I am just getting rolling on opening up a Discord server. If you want to join the community, you can join right here. Discord is basically a totally free place where we can chat about the show and anything else. I’ll be adding more there, but for now, feel free to start up a convo in the MikeyPod or general channels. Thinking of starting your own podcast? Do it! I’m a big fan of Blubrry for podcast hosting! You can get a month free hosting, or get your $100 Blubrry Pro Hosting fee waived when you use the code “mikeypod” at checkout!