The journalist Richie McGinniss has always craved action. As a reporter he’s found it – and a lot more – in the chaos of the streets, embedding himself with protestors to cover the most divisive and violent demonstrations in American history.

Richie may be a media professional of the new era, posting his intense, on-the-ground videos on social media, but he brings an old-school newsman’s credibility from his extensive professional experience and globe-trotting life story.

Richie studied Arabic and Middle Eastern history at Georgetown University and subsequently traveled to Jordan, Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, and Egypt’s Tahrir Square less than a month before it became the flashpoint for the widespread protests and revolutions that erupted during the Arab Spring.

Richie has worked at the Al-Jazeera program, “Min Washington,” broadcasting to households in Arabic throughout the Middle East, at NBC News’s Washington Bureau as a production assistant, and as the video director at Daily Caller, where he built a team of ten video producers.

While covering the demonstrations in Kenosha, Wisconsin, sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, Richie witnessed Kyle Rittenhouse shoot Joseph Rosenbaum and nearly got shot himself when a bullet ricocheted near his foot. Richie was plunged into the national spotlight and praised for his clear, non-biased, neutral reporting of the violence.

On the ground for the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, Richie not only got closer to the action than virtually any other journalist but emerged with a nuanced understanding of how news events can be interpreted and manufactured by the media.

Richie recently published his book, Riot Diet: One Man’s Ride Through America in Chaos. I’ve read Riot Diet and can tell you it’s a powerful series of reports from some of the most infamous protest riots of our times. Though definitely not for the faint of heart, I highly recommend Richie’s book to anyone interested in an insider’s look at some of the people covering those events and how they unfold.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0DLQXN1DK

Cleo Childs released her spoken word poetry album, “Moving With” in May 2024. And her book, also called “Moving With,” is soon to be released.

Both projects are the culmination of years of writing about the journey of grief Cleo experienced after losing her mother to Alzheimer’s when she was 28 years old.

Cleo’s mom was an English major in college and her grandmother, who is also one of her editors, was an English teacher for 30 years, so she came naturally to writing as a grief processing tool. With her work, Cleo hopes to show the path her grief took from having her mother, losing her mother, and the peace and acceptance she feels now. She also hopes to authentically and honestly look at what her grief felt like so other people going through their own grieving don’t feel alone and have a sense of community.

You can learn more about Cleo and her various projects at cleochilds.com.

Gabby Gruen spent most of his professional life as a writer-producer inside the country’s most prominent ad agencies.

After twenty years of elevating the brands of some of our most prestigious advertisers, and with the help of a Screenwriting MFA from UCLA, Gabby started writing screenplays. His original scripts found homes inside a major motion picture studio and on assignment for several less prominent purveyors of the cinematic arts.

With the recent publication of his first novel, “The Uniform,” a thriller that takes place during the Holocaust, Gabby has begun his fiction writing career. I’ve read The Uniform and can tell you it’s an intense trip through a nasty piece of World War II as experienced by David Korda, a young doctor and Jewish labor camp prisoner, who’s become an enslaved road crew worker destined for a death camp until he comes upon the body of a murdered Gestapo officer. David contrives to use the officer’s bloodied uniform as a means of escape. I was riveted by this chilling page turner. If you like great reads, I highly recommend The Uniform to you.

Gabby will soon publish his second book, The Ride of a Lifetime, a crime story set on the frozen streets of Detroit.

If you are searching for Gabby’s books on Amazon, please search for G Gruen.

The very busy actress, Laila Robins, was recently seen in Ryan Murphy’s anthology series, American Horror Stories. She also has a recurring role as Colonel Grace Mallory on the hugely popular Amazon series, The Boys. Laila starred opposite Amanda Seyfried in the Apple+ limited series, The Crowded Room and opposite Joshua Jackson and Alec Baldwin in the Hulu limited series, Dr. Death. She also recurred memorably as Katarina Rostova on the hit NBC series The Blacklist, and she had a major arc playing Pamela Milton on the final season of AMC’s The Walking Dead.

Among, Laila’s many film appearances are: Eye in the Sky, Side Effects, Blumenthal, Concussion, The Good Shepherd, An Innocent Man, Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael, True Crime, and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

You may have also seen her in such TV series as: The Handmaid’s Tale, Homeland, Deception, 30 Rock, So Help Me Todd, Bull, Person of Interest, Blue Bloods, Damages, In Treatment, The Sopranos, Law and Order, and the series lead in Gabriel’s Fire opposite the late, legendary James Earl Jones.

Laila’s work on Broadway includes Heartbreak House, the Tony-nominated play Frozen, and The Real Thing, as well as Off-Broadway in: the quartet of Richard Nelson’s Apple Family plays. She’s also appeared around the U.S. in numerous stage performances in shows such as: The Lady from Dubuque, Antony and Cleopatra, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, Sore Throats, Tiny Alice, Mrs. Klein, The Merchant of Venice, and many productions at The Guthrie in her hometown of St. Paul/Minneapolis, including Hedda Gabler and The Lion in Winter.

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed quite a few of Laila’s on-screen performances in shows of which I’m a big fan, including everything she did in The Walking Dead, Homeland, The Blacklist and The Boys. Laila never hits a false note even when the stories in which she’s acting brilliantly defy reality.

Of note: Laila also happens to be married to a favorite StoryBeat guest, and someone to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude, the phenomenal actor and singer, Robert Cuccioli, who originated the roles of Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde in the musical I created with Frank Wildhorn, Jekyll & Hyde.

Making a return for his third appearance on StoryBeat is the great jazz and world flutist, Michael Mason. Michael’s been a professional musician and composer for forty years, while simultaneously working in the fire service of the Downers Grove, Illinois Fire Department, recently retiring at the rank of Lieutenant. Michael is one of the first responders from the Chicago area who flew to New York City just days after the destruction of the World Trade Center. He helped the New York City Fire Department and Port Authority for many weeks.

In 2024, Michael released his latest album called “Luminosity,” which follows up 2023’s, “Impermanence,” “Transcendence” in 2022, and “Human Revolution” in 2021. All are original jazz and world music compositions which received approval for voting from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for Grammy Award consideration.

Michael’s musical influences come from James Newton, Ian Anderson, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Sun Ra, Yusef Lateef, and James Galway.

I’ve listened multiple times to each of his excellent records and can tell you Michael’s impressive work will instantly soothe your soul with warm, beautiful melodies, gorgeous arrangements, and Michael’s brilliance on the flute. I highly recommend you check out his wonderful recordings and music.

Michael’s currently in the studio mixing 8 new songs for release in 2025 on the AVG Records label, so be sure to look out for that.

Michael’s been gracious enough to lend us his radiant composition, Moments from Luminosity. Please be sure to stick around at the end of the show to give it a listen.

Doctor Tom Stein recently published his first book, Gratitude Is Not Enough, The True Story of a Belgian Family Forever Changed by a Band of American WWII Soldiers. The book focuses on the Remember Museum ‘39-‘45 in Clermont, Belgium that was opened by Marcel and Mathilde Schmetz, better known as the M&Ms by soldiers in a U.S. Army Company of the First Infantry Division who were briefly quartered on Marcel’s family farm in December 1944 before the Battle of the Bulge. Marcel saved many of the items the soldiers left behind, what he calls “treasure,” and which became the core of this special collection dedicated to the Americans who helped liberate Belgium from four years of Nazi occupation. The Museum, which is adjacent to the M&M’s home, contains the requisite "stuff" of a museum, but importantly, tells the soldiers’ stories, many of whom became lifelong friends with Marcel and Mathilde.

I’ve read Gratitude is Not Enough and can tell you it’s a powerfully written account of what the people of Clermont endured during World War II and the M&Ms efforts to preserve its history in their museum. I highly recommend this book to you.

Dr. Tom Stein is a retired Emergency Physician, as well as a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. He completed his Emergency Medicine Residency at Darnall Army Community Hospital, Fort Hood, Texas and served thirty-eight years in the Army and Army Reserves. Emergency Medical Services and Disaster Medicine are his sub-specialties.

Robert Monroe worked for more than a decade as a New York casting director and talent executive. His credits include projects with the Walt Disney Company, the John Houseman Theater, the Annual MDA Telethon, and the United Paramount Network.

Robert won a Clio Award for casting the Best Performance for Children for a Dole Pre-Cut Vegetables commercial.

Robert eventually moved to Portland, Maine to pursue a career as a photographer. Exhibitions of his work include the Biennial at the Portland Museum of Art, Photographing Maine: Ten Years Later at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, and Return to Peyton Place: Photographs by Robert Monroe at the Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts. And he’s a founding member of the Bakery Photographic Collective.

Recently, Robert published his debut novel, Bungalow Terrace. I’ve read Bungalow Terrace and can tell you it’s a beautifully written tale about four boys growing up to become a powerhouse rock ‘n roll group who endure all the breathtaking highs of success and harrowing challenges of the sex, drugs, and rock and roll fueled 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and beyond. Bungalow Terrace reads like an insider’s account of the lives of The Beatles, The Four Seasons, and The Beach Boys all rolled into one. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it to you.

Screenwriter, producer, and podcaster Adam “Tex” Davis is best known for writing the screenplay of the cult rom-com classic Just Friends, which stars Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart, and Anna Faris. He also wrote the screenplay for the drama Gardener of Eden, which stars Lukas Haas and was produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way.

A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Tex has contributed to over 25 feature film scripts and served as Co-Executive Producer and Head Writer for the Emmy-nominated series Brain Games.

Tex is also a co-founder of Atomic Entertainment, overseeing projects like the Netflix educational series, Brainchild, and a growing slate of podcasts that he writes or stars in such as Slaycation, Mysteries About True Histories, The Oscars: What Were They Thinking? and Who Smarted?!