EngAGE Blog

Tune in to Experience Talks, our weekly “Radio Magazine for the Experienced Listener,” on Sundays at 5:30 PM PDT on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara, 99.5 China Lake, 93.7 N. San Diego, streaming live online, and now syndicated on up to 100 Pacifica Network stations! Experience Talks is produced by the non-profit EngAGE, Inc.

Miss the show? You can always hear it as a podcast on the Listen Page of our website! You’ll also find an archive-in-progress of all of our previous shows there for you to enjoy. New shows are usually posted within 48 hours after broadcast.

Sunday 7/7 @ 5:30 PM PDT

Steven Hancoff
Beth Troy
Host: Cynthia Friedlob

The Yukon Quest is a 1,000 mile international sled dog race from Whitehorse, YT, to Fairbanks, AK. Our guests served as handlers (helpers for the mushers who drive the sleds) at the most recent event. Steven celebrated his 71st birthday on the Quest. Beth says that she and Steven “have decided to try to live lives of profound experience,” a goal that includes sharing unusual adventures like this one.

STEVEN HANCOFF began his career as a self-taught guitarist, writer, and arranger, by learning, then ultimately recording, traditional American music, from Ragtime to Tin Pan Alley to New Orleans Jazz to Duke Ellington. For fifteen years, he toured the world – about 50 countries – as an official Artistic Ambassador representing the United States of America for the State Department. He is also an adventurer. This is is third visit to Experience Talks. Learn about his music career here, and learn about his rafting trip down The Blue Nile in Ethiopia (also with Beth) here. Visit his website here.

BETH TROY was born in Toms River, NJ, in 1951 on a chicken farm to a Brooklynite father & Canadian mother, both of whose parents hailed from Russia. She studied developmental psychology and education at Goddard College in Vermont, and Antioch in Cambridge, MA. Her first career was as a school psychologist in a collaborative in public schools in Boston. Psychology led her to the study of aromatherapy, reflexology, and the healing arts. After studying in England and France, she created a thriving aromatherapy/  massage practice in Israel. She and Steven (who happens also to be a Rolfer) met about 17 years ago, and their shared adventures began with her accompanying him on his musical world tour.

Tune in to Experience Talks, our weekly “Radio Magazine for the Experienced Listener,” on Sundays at 5:30 PM PDT on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara, 99.5 China Lake, 93.7 N. San Diego, streaming live online, and now syndicated on up to 100 Pacifica Network stations! Experience Talks is produced by the non-profit EngAGE, Inc.

Miss the show? You can always hear it as a podcast on the Listen Page of our website! You’ll also find an archive-in-progress of all of our previous shows there for you to enjoy. New shows are usually posted within 48 hours after broadcast.

Sunday 6/23 @ 5:30 PM PDT

Saratoga Ballantine
Dea Lawrence
Host: John Semper Jr.

We are rebroadcasting this interview from 2013 to celebrate the news: Troupers has just been made available for streaming on TUBI TV (free in the U.S.), Google Play, and Amazon Prime, where you can purchase, too!

Saratoga Ballantine and Dea Lawrence’s documentary, Troupers, profiles actors over 80 in Hollywood, giving new meaning to the phrase, “hang in there.” Meet twelve talented, successful people who beat the odds, followed their dream, and are still working well into their 80s and 90s [including Ballantine’s father, well-known comedian Carl Ballantine]. Troupers takes a humorous look at how this group of fearless folks survived parental disapproval, the blacklist of the ’50s, poverty, divorce, rejection, disappointment, critics, bad acting coaches, nasty casting directors, and decades of auditions to do what they wanted to do: Act. Click here to learn more.

Dea Lawrence and Saratoga Ballantine

Troupers marks the directorial debut for both Saratoga Ballantine and Dea Lawrence. The women are actresses whose previous creative collaboration includes a political sketch comedy show, White House Chicks which they performed at numerous comedy clubs and venues throughout Southern California, the show White Chicks at the HBO Comedy Workspace and the short film, The Smoking Section. Having spent most of their lives pursuing their passion of acting, the theatre, and the pain and misery that may sometimes accompany accolades, they decided to investigate how anyone can spend a lifetime in this crazy profession.

Tune in to Experience Talks, our weekly “Radio Magazine for the Experienced Listener,” on Sundays at 5:30 PM PDT on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara, 99.5 China Lake, 93.7 N. San Diego, streaming live online, and now syndicated on up to 100 Pacifica Network stations! Experience Talks is produced by the non-profit EngAGE, Inc.

Miss the show? You can always hear it as a podcast on the Listen Page of our website! You’ll also find an archive-in-progress of all of our previous shows there for you to enjoy. New shows are usually posted within 48 hours after broadcast.

SUNDAY, JUNE 16 @ 5:30 PM PDT
BRUCE GRAY
Host: CYNTHIA FRIEDLOB

Photo by Matt Ullman

This show was originally broadcast in 2014.
We were sorry to learn that Bruce Gray passed away last week.

BRUCE GRAY was a prolific artist who lived at The Brewery in Los Angeles. His playful, imaginative work includes kinetic art, rolling ball machines, mobiles, giant objects, abstract paintings, magnetic sculptures, functional art, modern metal sculptures, and more. It has been featured at many museums, art galleries, in over 40 books, and countless times on TV and in movies. Visit Bruce’s website here, and read his blog, The Steel Whisperer, here.

Photo by Mark Concha