Fine Beats & Cheeses

Today we are invite you in to this episode about vampires! Our guest is friend of the show and returning guest, author and herbalist Rissa Miller. She talks about movies that bring vampires outside of their castles: specifically "The Lost Boys", "Near Dark", the Twilight series and recent winner of multiple Oscars, "Sinners". This was a really cool conversation and we hope you love it. Rissa Miller is an editor, author, herbalist, seer, and storyteller. You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and her website, Teaandsmoke.com. You can also check out her children's book, "Room With a Boo".

We would be in Misery if we didn't take a Stand about the genius that is the writing of Stephen King, and today, we talk his influence with return guest Analese Alvarez. Don't be scared! It's a good one :). Analese Alvarez is a high school principal, Buffy fanatic and cohost of Nerd Best Friends, the podcast that covers all of the NERDY conversations you are already having.... OR WISH YOU COULD!You can find her and the show on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

We just can't get enough of today's episode, where we talk 80s Synth Pop music with theatre veteran Thembi Duncan. We talk our favorite songs of the era, but also about what this music meant to us and how it still means something now!Thembi Duncan is an award-winning theatre practitioner, educator, and speaker with over 25 years of experience captivating audiences through storytelling, performance, and insightful discourse. She has served as a keynote speaker, panel moderator, workshop presenter, and event host for organizations in Washington, D.C., New York City, Western New York, and beyond.You can find her at Thembiduncan.com, on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

We WILL talk about Bruno, because today is all about the music of Bruno Mars, and our guest is our good friend (and frequent visitor to Fine Beats and Cheeses) Elicia Marie. Elicia is a Hooligan (what fans of Mr. Mars call themselves), and we had a wonderfully joyful conversation. We hope you like it!Elicia Marie is a licensed clinical social worker/therapist in private practice. She enjoys shaping the future of the profession as an adjunct professor in a master of social work program. She is a federal worker by day, working on mental health awareness campaigns and health communications. In her spare time, Elicia loves travel, cooking, music, reading, writing, movies, and talking pop culture and observational humor with her witty friends.

It's a different world than where you come from, but it's the same delightful podcast as we talk classic HBCU sitcom, "A Different World" with returning guest, Kelly Macias! This was a really fun discussion about college, growing up, and seeing yourself in the shows that you watch, which was absolutely our experience with this show. We hope you enjoy it!Kelly Macías (she/her) is a writer, researcher, and storyteller. The multidisciplinary arts-based approach to her work is inspired by the many lived experiences of Black women and what emerges from their wisdom and magic across time and geographies. Her writing has appeared in Prose Online, The Sunlight Press, Newsweek, The Baltimore Sun, and elsewhere. She is the creator of Toogood Stories, a platform dedicated to documenting, preserving, and making visible the many facets of Black women's lives. When she isn't engaged in her mindfulness meditation practice or binge watching Netflix, she can be found somewhere in the world dancing Argentine tango in a pair of Chuck Taylors. You can find Kelly and her work at toogoodstories.co and on Instagram.

Travel with us today to a small town with quirky people who drink a lot of coffee and talk really fast and are all in each other's business but love each other! We talk iconic 2000s-era show "Gilmore Girls" with our guest, Nicole Howze. This was such a fun conversation with a wonderful friend and we hope you love it. Nicole Howze is a mom of three, wife of over 20 years, Music lover and I mean all kinds of music, singer, and movie/TV fanatic. Don’t like horror movies though.

Today, we talk selfies, relationships and celebrity culture with attorney and media legal commentator Dave Aronberg. This was a really fun conversation. Dave Aronberg served three terms as the elected State Attorney for Palm Beach County from 2012 to 2024, where he led a team of 115 prosecutors and 180 professional staff in five offices throughout Palm Beach County. He is also a former Assistant Attorney General, White House Fellow and Florida Senator. In 2016, Aronberg created a Sober Homes Task Force that made more than 120 arrests for patient brokering and insurance fraud in the rehab industry, and has led to several new Florida laws. He is a trial skills instructor at Harvard Law School, and frequently appears on cable television as a legal commentator, and is the managing partner of Dave Aronberg Law, P.A., and a strategic partner with Capital City Consulting in West Palm Beach.You can find him at davearonberglaw.com.

It's Tuesday, (and) we're in love with these songs that were the soundtrack to our most of our teen years. Our guide on this tour to yesteryear is our friend, award-winning audiobook narrator, actor and bestselling author, Marni Penning! In this episode, Marni and each of the Fine Beats Crew list their favorite pop and alternative songs of the late 80s, and talk about the line between popular and alternative (and when they are almost the same thing). This is a really, really fun episode, and check this space and our social media for playlists of the songs we mention. Good stuff!Marni Penning is an Award-winning audiobook narrator, actress, & Amazon Bestselling Author. She's been acting onstage since age 8, including 54 productions of 23 of Shakespeare's plays, and co-founded Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (now in its 30th year!). Marni has performed on stages all over the US and in England and Scotland, and now gets to play ALL the parts in audiobooks recorded in her broadcast-quality home studio, with over 330 titles available on Audible, 500+ large-cast recordings for Graphic Audio (including the ACOTAR, Fourth Wing, and Crescent City series), and 600+ articles narrated for the Curio app.You can find out more about Marni on her website, theladyhamlet.com! You can also check out her book, The Penning Method for the Panicked Actor, a guide to less-panicked auditions. She is also theladyhamlet on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Baby Fishmouth is sweeping the nation AND our podcast this week as we talk the romcom classic, "When Harry Met Sally", with 3x guest and friend of the show, Jennifer Inglis. We talk about friendship turning into more, true love, and also the legacy of brilliant late Director, Rob Reiner. This is a wonderful episode and we hope you love it. Jennifer Inglis is a writer and author of two novels: “Girls Who Wear Glasses” and “Enchanting Sarah Greenberg.” You can find her on Instagram and Threads.

Enjoy this delightful blast from the past (2 years ago)! See you with a new episode next week. Stay warm!Summon your inner Sugarbaker as we talk the late 80s-early 90s sitcom classic "Designing Women". We are THRILLED to have as our guest Sarah Marshall, influential podcaster and host of two of our favorite shows, "You're Wrong About" and "You Are Good", which she co-hosts with past FB&C guest Alex Steed. On our episode this week, we talk how this show is very 80's AND very current all at the same time because much of what ailed the world almost 40 years ago is still ailing us. This is a discussion that was funny and deep, like "Designing Women" itself. Enjoy!Sarah Marshall is a writer, podcaster, and media critic focused on setting straight our collective memory—or at least getting to the bottom of why we believe and in turn define ourselves by popular narrative and myth. Why is the maligned woman a staple of our news media? Why do we believe that serial killers are brilliant? How do we keep stumbling into all these moral panics? These are some of the questions that propel Sarah forward. She is the host of the popular modern history podcast You’re Wrong About, which has been highlighted in the New Yorker, the Guardian and Time Magazine. Her writing has appeared in the Believer, Buzzfeed and the true crime collection Unspeakable Acts.https://www.remembersarahmarshall.com/

CW: SALike sands through the hourglass, so is this REALLY fun episode about classic NBC soap (now on Peacock) "Days of Our Lives". Our guest is editor, writer and creator Michelle Havich, and we had a blast. Even if you've never watched an episode, I think you'll love it!Michelle Havich is a detail-oriented editor and writer focused on conceiving and producing creative and dynamic content for a variety of niche audiences. You can find her on Instagram and LinkedIn.

SPOILERSNo one mourns the Wicked, but we hope that you listen to this episode anyway, as we talk "Wicked: For Good" with returning guest and friend of the show, writer Stephen Robinson. We talk the music, the characters and also the political pieces of it that seem timely. Because we know you, Cheese Cubes, we have been changed for good. Because you listen to us :).Stephen Robinson is and Arts and political writer. Subscribe to his newsletter The Play Typer Guy (www.playtyperguy.com), Instagram, and YouTube.

Sometimes scary can be soothing, as we find today when we talk with actor and educator Belle Burr about the horror movies that give her comfort! We hope you love it.Belle Burr, is an alumni of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and has studied classical theater, Commedia Dell'arte, Dance and Film. When not directing Belle combines theater with history to teach children of all backgrounds about the world around them and as an actor she has performed all over the country in various styles of dramatic and comedic theater.You can follow her adventures via @BelleBurr on Instagram, check out her reviews and podcasts at Pop Culture Uncovered and PCU on YouTube, catch her on tour with the American Immersion Theater or join her at a show with the crew of Drop Three Sketch and Improv

Almost Happy New Year from us! Here is a rewind episode from January 2024, where we talk New Year's Eve favorite, "Last Holiday", the Queen Latifah classic tale of a humble retail worker who follows her dreams all the way to a fancy European resort where a new confidence and LL Cool J are involved. Our guest is friend of the show, Elicia Marie!! We had a good time with this one and we hope you love it.Elicia Marie is a licensed clinical social worker/therapist in private practice. She enjoys shaping the future of the profession as an adjunct professor in a master of social work program. She is a federal worker by day, working on mental health awareness campaigns and health communications. In her spare time, Elicia loves travel, cooking, music, reading, writing, movies, and talking pop culture and observational humor with her witty friends.

Today, In the third of our trio of episodes with members of the Fine Beats and Cheeses team, we talk decorating and our guest is our very own co-host, Producer Sam. We talk holiday traditions, enjoying whatever you enjoy with wild abandon, and overcoming grinchitude!Born in Baltimore City, Sam Lewis is an artist at large, you can see his stuff at MadeBySam, or Instagram or even Facebook!