We’re Not Finished

We close out this season with Sarah Koenig, the host and co-creator of the heaviest hitter of podcasts, Serial. Sure, her reporting helped overturn a murder conviction by revealing how it was based on questionable evidence, she won a Peabody and reinvented the podcast with Serial.  But did you know we also palled around while working as rookie reporters in snowy New Hampshire back in the late 1990s? Yeah, this doesn't get as much attention in the news reports.  We talk about the deep dive Serial took into the Adnan Syed case. Watching him leave a courthouse a free man. Whether "true crime" fandom is a good thing. And attending the best dang wedding in Concord, New Hampshire.   Thanks to everyone at The Studios of Key West for your partnership on We're Not Finished, which was produced by Kevin Assam.

Artist, muralist and educator Ernest Shaw Jr. talks about being inspired by his hometown of Baltimore, documenting the Black/Africanist experience, spending time in Key West as an artist in residence at The Studios of Key West, and works that left me speechless, like Crossing Gods.    Comedian Charly Esturilho and I talk shop, South Florida life and why his gigs include going into drug rehabs to perform for people in recovery.   Gwen Filosa is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist based in Key West. She is also a regular performer at Comedy Key West.

This episode features two Key West artists who recently made big art news and who know the daily grind needed to succeed on this expensive island.  Tory Mata recently won a prestigious 2022 South Florida Cultural Consortium Visual and Media Artists grant that includes $15,000 and an exhibition at a Miami museum. We talk about how she finds inspiration on the roadside - there was a rusted fender in the desert one time and changing directions in art. Jobie Jacomine, who performs as drag queen Puddin Tain, hosted the wildly successful Queer Keys fundraiser at the Key West Theater recently and has quickly become a popular performer at 801 Cabaret on Duval St. We talk about his New Orleans roots, queer stuff and the hustle needed to pay island rent.     I make this podcast with The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida and producer Kevin Assam, a writer and artist in Key West.

Christa Hunt created Key West Burlesque 17 years ago. She shares about the new season, how to burlesque the Harry Potter franchise and the Gurly Burly Burlesque Show on Sept. 8, which I'm co-hosting btw. Key West is a really small town. Cori Convertito is the curator and historian for the Key West Art and Historical Society. We talk about the Writers in Paradise lecture coming up at Comedy Key West on Sept. 15. The list of writers who have lived on the island include Tennessee Williams, Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, Judy Blume, a longtime resident who runs Books & Books at The Studios of Key West, and the fella who wrote Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises.   This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading art institute in South Florida, at 533 Eaton St., and produced by Kevin Assam. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit tskw.org.

This episode is all about Jordan Peele's latest film Nope. I was knocked out by this spectacle and pronounced it Peele's best work yet. But I have lots of questions about what exactly is going on in Nope.  So I invited two guests.  Rene Rodriguez, an award-winning writer  teaches at the University of Miami and runs the Bill Cosford Cinema for the UM School of Communication. We chatted about the significance of Nope, how it was shot with Imax cameras and whether it's too long.  Runi Goyal is a former board member of the nonprofit Tropic Cinema in Key West. She now lives in Hawaii but she saw Nope while in Boston, after I asked her to be on the podcast. That is dedication to film.  This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida, and produced by Kevin Assam.

Steve Turtell, a poet in New York whose work includes the collection Heroes and Householders, shares about having more than 50 jobs in 50 years, his career as a baker, LGBTQ+ rights and the time he spent in Key West.  Susannah Wells talks about theater work in Key West, the virtues of the board game Clue and we bond about making crafts when we were vacation Bible school kids. This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida. It's produced by Kevin Assam.

Emma Berquist, author of Devils Unto Dust and Missing, Presumed Dead, shares about why people like true crime, writing dark novels and dealing with Twitter.  Erin McKenna, an actor, dancer and founder of Love Cheeky apothecary, talks about her success on Key West theater stages, how she got her start performing and parking legally at the jumping bridge on Sugarloaf Key.     This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West.  Gwen Filosa is a Key West-based journalist with a standup comedy side hustle. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter for Key West news updates.  She performs regularly at Comedy Key West. She is headlining Wednesday, Sept. 7 as part of Womenfest 2022 Showtime is 8:30 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.  Click here for tickets.

Katherine Blanford and I talk about her debut comedy album, "Salt Daddy," the perils of bachelorette trips and why Fort Lauderdale is "Miami with love handles." David Sieminski shares about leather, sex stuff, running Leather Master Key West, and why some Key West leaders can calm down about Fantasy Fest nudity.  This podcast is presented in partnership by The Studios of Key West and produced by Kevin Assam.   gwenfilosa@gmail.com

Key West-based musician Jerome Miller shares about his duo, Dogwater, his Billy the Squid days, working as a stuntman and the difference between South and North Dakota. He also agrees to let me shove him off something someday.   Sam Jindra is an actor, photographer, promoter, model and musician living in Key West. We talk about Vince Vaughn filming Bad Monkey in Key West, working behind the camera on movie sets, how she got into modeling and our mutual disappointment that we've been mispronouncing açaí all this time.   This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit Tskw.org.

Writer Grady Hendirx, a horror and slasher film scholar, joined me to talk about the "final girl" trope, my allegiance to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and the relevance of vampires. His latest novel is Final Girl Support Group, and others include Horrorstör, which is about a haunted furniture store, We Sold Our Souls, and Satan Loves You.   Key West actor Su Nubia shared about working with the Fringe Theater, having 24 hours to create a new play, voiceover work and how on Earth she and I hadn't met before now. It's a small island.   This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading art institute in South Florida. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit. tskw.org.    We're Not Finished is hosted by Key West-based journalist Gwen Filosa, who writes for the Miami Herald, and produced by writer and artist Kevin Assam.

R. Eric Thomas, an award-winning author, journalist and playwright, shared about growing up in Baltimore, writing for young adults and his latest book, "The Kings of B'More."   Margaret Killjoy and I talked anarchy, dealing with haters, great titles - A Country of Ghosts and The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion -  and she endures my inability to pronounce Appalachia, which she calls home.    This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading art institute in South Florida. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit Tskw.org

New York City-based comedian Kristina Kelley and I talked standup shop, her days as a public school teacher in the South Bronx and her recent visit to Key West. Key West-based artist Kristyn LaMoia shared about how the island inspires her work and the challenges of preparing costumes for Fantasy Fest.    This podcast is presented by The Studios of Key West.

Mark Kurlansky shared about this latest book, The Importance of Not Being Ernest: My Life With the Uninvited Hemingway. He also talked about being told he resembles the celebrated author, who left his mark on Key West, where he lived in the 1930s. Hemingway's former mansion is one of the island's most popular tourist attraction. Los Angeles-based comedian Jackie Monahan joined me to talk shop about comedy Twitch show -- the Jackie Mo Show, which airs at 5 p.m. every Saturday. Her comedy special is These Lips, available on Amazon and Spotify.

Theresa Chiechi, an illustrator and cartoonist whose "Drawn to Key West" book documents the lives of the street performers at Key West's famous Mallory Square, joined me. We talked about making art while paying the bills, why sticker art is awesome, the courage to ask strangers for interviews and a dog named Cooper.   Belle Jampol, is a singer born and raised in Key West. We talked about why the Fabulous Spectrelles are so fabulous, learning music before she was even born, growing up in a musical family and what's next.

Chloe Gray, a therapist turned dating consultant who created Advice By Chloe, shared an inspiring story about getting her start polishing up dating profiles. She gently suggested I not post gym photos on a profile. People might think I want to talk about arm day for an hour. "I probably would," I said. (Taking the advice.)   Mant Bares, a poet and writer of fiction and non-fiction, talked about being inspired by the X Files, growing up in Louisiana's Cajun community, and about moving to Germany. She read her poem, "Monster of the Week." Her poetry, under the name Samantha Bares, has been published by OxMag and Guesthouse.   Gwen Filosa is a Key West-based journalist covering the Keys for the Miami Herald. She also does standup comedy at Comedy Key West.    This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West.   For a list of events and more programming like this, visit tskw.org.   We're Not Finished is produced by writer and artist Kevin Assam.

Author and screenwriter Hillary Jordan and I talked about her two novels, When She Woke and Mudbound, and Anonymous Sex, the new anthology of erotica stories she co-edited with Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan. Playwright Catherine Weingarten and I talked about her residency at The Studios of Key West and using humor to comment "upon societal pressures young women face to be impossibly good-looking as well as ridiculously humble."   For events and more programming at The Studios of Key West, visit Tskw.org.

Ginny Hogan, a writer and comedian published in the New Yorker and McSweeney's, and I talked standup shop and why she left a career as a data scientist in the tech industry for comedy. Her latest book is, I'm More Dateable Than a Plate of Refried Beans. Kawana Staffney, the executive director of the Bahama Village Music Program, shared the history of the nonprofit that offers music lessons to local children at no cost.   Gwen Filosa is a Key West-based journalist covering the Keys for the Miami Herald. She's also a standup comic, appearing weekly at Comedy Key West.  For a list of events at The Studios of Key West, and more programming like this, visit Tskw.org.

New York Times Bestselling author Kristen Arnett and Key West singer-songwriter Sharese joined me on this episode. Kristen and I talked about her novels, With Teeth and Mostly Dead Things, and about whether Florida is the gayest state. Sharese shared her new single, "Fixer Upper," and we talked about making a living playing music in Key West.  Gwen Filosa is a Key West-based journalist covering the Keys for the Miami Herald. She also does standup, appearing weekly at Comedy Key West.

Atlanta-based comedian and actor Lace Larrabee and I talked standup shop, her podcast about cheating on partners and whether I can take the place of her bff. She's headlining at Comedy Key West May 19-21. *profanity warning Playwright Neal Ruchman and actor Cassidy Timms and I talked about "The Pickpocket's Daughter," which is at The Studios of Key West starting May 18-28. I asked why some of us find ourselves rooting for the criminal in a story and how Ruchman's family inspired the story.    We're Not Finished is presented by The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida, located at 533 Eaton St. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit Tskw.org. Gwen Filosa is a journalist based in Key West, Florida, who covers the Keys for the Miami Herald. She also does standup at Comedy Key West and is a sought-after dog-sitter.  We're Not Finished is produced by Kevin Assam.

Christiane Escobar is a video creator and photographer who has become a Tik Tok phenom. We talked about Tik Tok success, handling online critics and whether I should move to Austin, Texas, someday.  Emily Landis is a singer-songwriter who has become a regular at the Key West Songwriters Festival. We talked about writing big hit songs in Nashville, having a blast in Key West and she gave me tips on learning the guitar.   We're Not Finished is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West and hosted by Gwen Filosa, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covers the Keys for the Miami Herald. New episodes are posted every Wednesday.   gfilosa@miamiherald.com