Interviewing strangers over a meal since 2008 (as featured in the Washington Post)
Donna Lynne Champlin is an accomplished stage, television and film actress whose most recent credits include the role of Paula Proctor on the CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Hortense Bellacourt on Comedy Central’s Another Period. She’s also great company for lunch. Earlier this month, during a holiday to Los Angeles, I met Donna…
Meet Pierre Phipps and Terrance Wilson, also known as the rap duo Freaky Boiz. They’re gay artists who met in a high school dance class in Chicago, and went to college together in Illinois. That’s the time when, just for their own amusement, they made a video rapping verses about…
Demetrius Harmon calls himself a “normal” 20-year-old. On a regular day, he wakes up, calls his friends, plays the video game Fortnite, he might make the occasional YouTube video or get on Twitter to share his thoughts. Pretty normal. Except he has more than a million people listening to him….
New Orleans has many famous dishes, and that includes poor boys. Poor boys, or po’ boys as they’re also known, are sliced loaves of French bread stuffed with mounds of shrimp, or oysters, or roast beef with a thick gravy known as “debris,” or ham and swiss, or many other…
The 107th interview is finally online! Last week I met actor Erick Lopez in New York, at the end of his visit from Los Angeles to promote the film Flavor of Life. In the drama, he plays an estranged grandson who reunites with his grandfather and has to help him save…
Dean Gold is the owner and executive chef of Dino’s Grotto, an Italian-inspired restaurant in Washington, DC. It’s the second incarnation of his dream venue, after he had to close his bigger restaurant Dean in DC’s Cleveland Park due to a drop off in business. Having eaten at Dino’s with…
Jamila Robinson is a lifelong foodie, always eager to try new restaurants and also experiment with cooking at home. She’s taken that passion and used it to develop a career in media where, at several major newspapers, she’s edited features sections finding innovative ways to tell captivating stories about food,…
André Hueston Mack is a busy man. The sommelier turned wine company owner has a packed schedule that includes touring the country to visit the vineyards that supply his wine, giving motivational talks highlighting how he took chances to get to his current position, writing a memoir, and getting ready…
For 24 years, Mustafa Santiago Ali was an employee of the Environmental Protection Agency, working on environmental justice (EJ). Also known as environmental equity, EJ generally refers to addressing the disproportionate adverse impacts of industrial pollution on low-income and minority communities. It’s a cause that is personal for Mustafa, but…
At least 10 times a day, people stop Kurt Fuller to tell him they swear they’ve met before. What’s actually happening is that they’re recalling one of the almost 200 roles that Kurt, 64, has played in movies including massive hits like Ghostbusters II, Wayne’s World and Scary Movie or scene-stealing roles in television…