WDEK Podcast Ep. 57: Melena Ryzik, Emily Wells & Danielle Gray - February 8, 2018

We Don't Even Know

While we've been mourning the close of our former WDEK podcast home, the HiFi Bar we are excited to host our first show of 2018 at Caveat, a new speakeasy space in LES which showcases "intelligent nightlife." Yeah, we know what you are thinking. Let us be delusional for a little while, will you? Christian and Shonali discuss good (not so good depending on who you are talking to) times had at the MLK tribute at BAM, the NYC Women's march and Barry's Bootcamp. Below is the pic we shared of Christian from the Women's March during the show. Our first guest is New York Times reporter Melena Ryzik. Melena is a bad ass NYC bicylist. Find out why she had to get fingerless gloves. Melena is a journalist at the forefront of covering the MeToo movement and sexual harassment in the entertainment world (Louis CK, Russell Simmons.) We get into it. Christian says he wants to listen .... let's see how long.

Our second guest is a Russian Hacker* Eugeny Smith who happened to be in our audience during the show just as Shonali suspected. He not only confesses to reading Shonali's emails but he reads them to the world. So embarrassing.

Our third guest is multi instrumentalist, composer, producer, visual artist Emily Wells. Emily's work is stunning. She describes growing up with a Music Minister father, building a world around her during her performance, choreographer Pina Bausch and her love of what she does. Purchase Emily's music asap! Emily performs two songs for us at the end of the show.

Uta Seibicke joins us for Get It Off Your Chest! Man of The Woods, adults charmed by their young children's bathroom breaks, and the subway are our topics of conversation.

Our last guest is Danielle Gray, former Obama Cabinet Secretary and Senior Adviser to President Obama. Kudos to her for making it to the show on what was for her a very tough night (listen to Ep to find out why.) Danielle tells us what is was like for her working at the White House. She also gives us some insight as to how during this past year she stays focused on causes she believes in and stays a good distance from social media. Have you heard of 3 Card Monte? Danielle a real New Yorker knows what it is.

Our Russian Hacker is played by Alan Yaspan.