What I Really Want to Talk About

What I Really Want to Talk About

by Tim Monroe

Society & Culture

Season 1

Kent Gilbert Really Wants to Talk about Sumo Wrestling

Reverend Kent Gilbert is an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ and since 1997 has served as pastor and teacher to Union Church in Berea, Kentucky. Kent has never been much of a sports fan, but having traveled to Japan multiple times, he has developed a passion for Sumo Wrestling. We discuss the rules, the strategy and the cultural significance of this fascinating and ancient sport that has been continuously practiced for more than 1,500 years. We discover that there is a lot more to it than just two very large men crashing into each other.

Murphy Monroe Really Wants to Talk About the Power of Float Therapy

Murphy Monroe is a non-profit executive and nationally-known advocate for the benefits of float therapy or sensory deprivation. We talk about how floating works and about the profound impact it has had on his own life. Murphy also outlines the physical, mental, and emotional benefits that floating can provide for anyone. Murphy is a knowledgable and truly passionate advocate for this unique form of wellness and also the owner and operator of a float spa himself. We have a great conversation and this episode is perfect for anyone looking for an interesting and fun way to improve their overall health and wellbeing.

John Siuntres Really Wants to Talk About Star Trek

For 60 years now the starship Enterprise and all of its enduring characters have been wandering the galaxy in search of new life and new civilizations. John Siuntres has been on that trek since the very beginning. We talk about the enduring popularity of the Star Trek franchise and why John has been hooked ever since Neal Armstrong and his crew landed on the moon. John is a podcast pioneer who is the host of Word Balloon, a long running pop culture podcast where he has done more than 1000 interviews with top creators in comics, TV and film. John had a podcast before anyone knew what a podcast was. We discuss the tv shows, the movies and why Star Trek and sci-fi in general remains relevant.

Denise Vargas Really Wants to Talk About Poetry and Living in a State of Wonder

Denise Vargas is the Executive Director of El Hogar in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. The organization’s mission is to provide children from vulnerable conditions with the opportunity to become future leaders. She was born and raised in Tegucigalpa and has a BA from Dartmouth and an MBA. We talk about the state of wonder that poetry provides her, and how poetry is her way to express things that are hard to say in any another way and a way, as she says "to make the fleeting permanent." She describes her poetic process and reads from her own beautiful work. We discover the deep connection between her poetry and the work she does in Honduras to help children move out of the shadows and shine their own light.

Chad Berry Really Wants to Talk About “Place” and How We Carry With Us the Places We are From.

Chad Berry is a husband, a dad and a grandfather. He is the Vice President for Alumni, Communications and Philanthropy at Berea College and holds the Goode Professorship in Appalachian Studies as a Professor of History. We discuss place, placelessness and displacement in America, and the ways the places from which we come give us identity and can also sometime feel burdensome. We focus particular attention on the Appalachian region and how that place carries so much beauty, complexity and significance, and we worry about the loss of unique places in America.

Amy Burkhardt Really Wants to Talk About Prince

Amy Burkhardt is a successful higher ed fundraiser and the host of her own radio show focused on women artists. Since the age of five when her father brought home a mysterious red cloak that just might have belonged to Prince, she has been smitten. We talk about his boundary crossing music, his lyrics that made it ok to be different, and his status as a cultural icon. Amy also does a deep dive into Purple Rain--the song, the album, the movie, and the new musical which premieres in October in Minneapolis. Of course, Amy already has tickets.

Dave Marran Really Wants to Talk About the History of Baseball on the White Sox Scoreboard

Dave Marran is a sportswriter and has been a member of the Chicago White Sox scoreboard operations team for decades. We talk about the pursuit of the perfect scoreboard stat, and the evolution of the fan experience at ballparks and stadiums. We also discover Dave is telling the history of the White Sox--and of baseball itself--one fascinating factoid at a time. Dave and I are lifelong friends and along the way we talk about switching allegiances from the Cubs to the White Sox and the how he White Sox and the old Comiskey Park are so integrated into the history of the city of Chicago.

Aaron Beale Really Wants to Talk About Watches

Aaron Beale, is a husband, a dad, a craftsman of fine furniture and the Vice President of Student Craft at Berea College, but what he really wants to talk about is watches. We discuss his love for beautiful and functional timepieces and the origins of this passion. We delve into deeper questions about the intersection of form, function and aesthetics, and even muse about the role of time keeping itself in this digital age where seemingly everything—except for maybe a mechanical timepiece—is disposable. We also touch on the notion of the watch as a marker of status and the keeper not just of time, but of a legacy. And, oh by the way, does anyone really know how all those gears and springs work anyway?

Jacob Dickerson Really Wants to Talk About MonsterVision

Dr. Jacob Dickerson is a husband , a dad and the Chair of the Communication Department at Berea College. He has a Ph.D in Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media. His current research examines the idea of “memory ecology” which is made up of the collection of many remembrances of a particular event. But what he really wants to talk about is MonsterVision, the late night movie marathon series—hosted by Joe Bob Briggs—that ran on TNT throughout the 90’s. We discuss the enduring popularity of horror/slasher films, the concept of “camp,” and Jacob does a deep dive into the uncannily terrifying Blair Witch Project. We also examine his near-obsessive mission to re-watch and rate every single movie that aired on MonsterVision during its nine-year run. And oh by the way there’s a shoutout to Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

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