Podcast Categories: Society & Culture

Award winning broadcaster, author, and professor Michael Krasny shares in-depth interviews with leading newsmakers, scholars, authors and intellectuals.

Author, Speaker, Whistleblower and award-winning Director Mark Vicente was behind the sleeper hit “What The Bleep Do We Know?!” Several books have been written about the film’s remarkable grassroots marketing campaign, which led to its unprecedented success.

Mark was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1965. Taking his first photograph at age four, he quickly discovered his passion for being behind the camera. After attending film and drama school in South Africa, he began working his way up the ranks of the camera department, from Assistant to Operator to Cinematographer. His first big break came as Director of Photography on the musical “SARAFINA,” starring Whoopi Goldberg. In 1992, he set his sights on Hollywood and relocated to Los Angeles to shoot his first studio picture for Disney;  “FATHERHOOD,” starring Patrick Swayze and Halle Berry. At the age of 26, he became one of the youngest cinematographers to shoot a big-budget studio picture. 

Over the next few decades, he went on to shoot an additional 14 feature films and numerous documentaries, music videos and commercials. Mark soon found there were in him, untold stories he desperately wanted to express as a Director. He was driven by the conviction that tales of greatness, nobility and introspection could be exciting and financially successful. 

Perhaps because of the very obvious race and class iniquities in South Africa, he found himself propelled to question certain fundamental assumptions at a very young age. Beliefs about human behavior, cosmology, religion, existentialism and mysticism. Along the way, he stumbled into a few situations where leaders with malignant pathologies (masquerading as saintly philosophers) spoke the talk of self-improvement but did untold damage to their followers… and him. 

Looking back, he can now say he has been in at least two cults. His last foray into personal growth and his defection from NXIVM was chronicled in the HBO series “The Vow”. Mark and a few plucky whistleblowers exposed the criminal activities of the organization, resulting in multiple arrests and indictments. He doesn’t consider himself a cult expert, but by his own admission, “I’m an expert in being screwed over, waking up, and knowing how to spot them.” He’s got a pretty salty approach to most things and is fascinated by the myriad patterns in the human psychodynamic that create the best and the worst in civilization. 

Join Mark as he unpacks a whole range of topics to do with: Psychology, Consciousness, Morality, Narcissistic Abuse, Spirituality, Cults, Propaganda, Science, Filmmaking, and Philosophy.You never quite know what you’re going to get, as it really does depend on… WTF is on his mind?!

Join author Allison Dickson as she puts her fascination with the weird, morbid, and macabre out on the airwaves with a wide array of topics ranging from art to true crime. Featuring some of her favorite people as recurring cohosts, there will be no shortage of information and fun.

We’ve seen small towns romanticized in countless books, movies, and TV shows – there’s always fall leaves coating the road, nosy neighbors who somehow know all of your business and that one bar, where the bartender knows everyone’s order. So why do we love small towns so much? And how does that image match up with reality? On HGTV’s Townsizing, renowned author and writer Anne Helen Petersen takes you to small towns across the U.S. and talks to the people who make them special. From HGTV’s Ben and Erin Napier who helped revive their hometown of Laurel, Mississippi to Brian Brigantti and Domonick Gravine of who open up about the realities of being queer in a rural Tennessee, we speak to the people who are creating community, building legacies and shattering stereotypes about small town life. And if you’re thinking about making the jump from the big city to a quieter pace of life, we’ll help you figure out if you’re ready, and get to the bottom of the mystique and allure of the American small town.

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Most of us hope to live well through to the end of our lives but how do we do that? Each week, you’ll hear thought-provoking talks from relationship experts, death doulas, nurses, comedians, and more who give us permission to break free from old thinking that says you’re either sick or well, loving or leaving, strong or vulnerable. Learn why having a healthy relationship with dying is the first step towards having a more joyous relationship with living.

Hosted by Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider.
To learn more about End Well and our movement to make end of life a part of life go to endwellproject.org.

A Superbloom is a rare botanical phenomenon that is associated with an unusually wet, and rainy season. After the rainstorms, seeds of wildflowers that have lain dormant in desert soil begin to germinate and blossom all at once into a beautiful and magnificent superbloom. 

This is what our host, Candice King, wants. Life has felt like one rainstorm after another and now, after laying dormant for a bit, I’m ready for a superbloom. On A Superbloom Podcast host, Candice King is asking others who’ve experienced their own roadblocks, grief, or tough times to share in how their experiences went on to feed their souls. To talk about the events and passions in their life that allowed them to grow and superbloom into their next chapter.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.