Whitlockville: A Katonah Podcast

There's a mystery in Katonah and we bring on private investigator Brian Willingham to help us untangle the web of mystery wrapped in an enigma enveloped in a shroud of stupidity as to who sent me a Valentine's Day card from "Dave Becker." We have always wanted to do a local serial-like investigative deep dive on the pod and well, this definitely wasn't that....

We talk to Dr Bertin about children’s social and emotional struggles during the pandemic. Ahead of that terrific interview, Dave, Craig and I talk about shoveling snow, the best places to sled in the area and how I didn’t get the CEO role at Amazon despite not having any qualifications or even applying for the role.

Because I've never been more bored, we're back for one last 2020 podcast with resident tv watcher extraordinaire Jeremy Nevins joining us to talk about what we should be watching on tv. We ask the question: if Katonah were a tv show, what show would we be. We also talk about one of Dave's chickens dying while he's conveniently away and how I should dispose of it (perhaps with a Viking Funeral on Todd's Pond).

We talk with Lynn Garofolo about teaching 5th grade fully virtually across multiple klsd elementary schools, how desperate she must have been for content to have invited us “in” to speak to her class about the podcast and what grade she gave us for our interview of her. At the beginning of the pod, well, we got to talking about colonoscopies, snow storm survival kits, break dancing in the Olympics and Weird Al (again).

An interview with Katonah Halloween star Creepy Pete, also known as Peter Linz, a true star of the stage, screen and as a puppeteer, hand. We discuss Peter’s amazing 29 year career as a puppeteer on Sesame Street, his performance as Walter in The Muppets, his stint as an original cast member in Avenue Q and how much candy he gives out during Halloween. At the top of the pod, Craig and I talk about reimagining the game Clue for Covid times, while doing one of our fun deep dives on the origin of the game. Finally, we scroll through the top 10 albums of Rolling Stone’s Top 500 album list. Sadly, none of the artists are from Katonah.

We have a great conversation with Ed Baum, Editor-In-Chief of The Record-Review.  We discuss the history of the paper, the need for local journalism, journalism under fire and whether or not The Record-Review would want to buy our podcast (after listening to the rest of the podcast, I'm guessing no).  Our banter at the beginning of the pod includes way too much Weird Al Yankovic (best not to ask why) and I finally unmute Craig after leaving him hanging for the last couple of episodes.  

We are excited and honored to welcome Andrew Selesnick on to our podcast days ahead of the opening of school. We touch on a wide array of topics while getting to know Andrew a little better. Dave and I have our usual fun at the beginning of the pod discussing the power outages and the recent NYT real estate article mentioning Katonah. For those new to our podcast, you will be getting the full array of our terrible sound quality as this is worse than usual. Apologies in advance.

We broaden our horizons beyond the Bedford/Lewisboro area and are pleased to have Ken Jenkins on to discuss all things Westchester including: his role in our local government working with County Executive George Latimer, Covid-19 (duh) and his thoughts on race and the peaceful protest in Bedford.  While not a sports podcast, Dave and I can't help but be semi-excited over the start of sports again and wonder how good our wives would be as sports broadcasters (hint: probably not very).  

We interview the Katonah Chalker and discuss his mysterious yet beautiful ways while bringing happiness to people on their daily walks in and around town. Ahead of the interview, we are back to normal goofball mode talking llamas, Dave “accidentally” drinking Rich’s beer while in a pandemic, selling naming rights to Todd’s Pond and someone giving the podcast a (gasp) two star rating.

Kelly Nolan and Luke Mercer join us to talk about how Covid has impacted their senior year of high school including lacrosse, graduation and prom, and what the fall is going to look like for them as they enter their freshman year of college. We start off the pod with heartfelt thoughts on George Floyd and the many great protests here in our backyard.