Hosts Alek Haak-Frost and Doug Sears Jr. are joined by Watershed Voice’s resident holiday expert Steph Hightree for a very special episode of Keep Your Voice Down. After a brief NewsMatch update, the greatest trio since Garfield, Holland, and Maguire discuss elves on shelves, new and old traditions, the legitimacy of ham, Christmas cats, their favorite holiday films, and more. So grab your egg nog and glorified rice because it’s about to get real — festive.
Podcasts
Keep Your Voice Down Presents: This interview with Matt Erspamer, a journalist, copy writer, and film and television critic, who also happens to have went to Central Michigan University with hosts Alek Haak-Frost and Doug Sears, Jr. The three CMU journalism school alums discuss a new partnership between Matt and Watershed Voice, the pros and cons of streaming services acting as movie studios, the origin of Matt’s passion for cinema, and why only one of them is currently practicing journalism.
On this week’s episode of Keep Your Voice Down, Alek and Doug are joined by Washington-based hip hop producer and artist Blake Alford. The Anderson, Indiana native talks about his latest project Domino Effect, and the added effort that went into producing the album’s first single, Oxygen, which is set to drop on November 10.
The trio also discuss how Blake has evolved as an artist, why community and collaboration are vital to any creative process, and answer the question on everyone’s mind, “what kind of music does Alek listen to when playing video games?”
Following a totally planned and not at all unintentional 80-day hiatus, Keep Your Voice Down is back! Alek and Doug return to their respective mics to discuss the 2023 LION Local Journalism Awards in North Carolina, mental health, and Watershed Voice’s upcoming NewsMatch fundraising campaign.
Welcome to Screen Tea Podcast! This week, join your hosts for a doubleheader as they record their impressions following their double-feature of Barbie and Oppenheimer, also affectionately known as Barbenheimer!
Welcome to Screen Tea Podcast! Join Lisha and Jules for a trip this week as your hosts take a spin into the land down under with Daini Reid’s 2023 horror hit, Run Rabbit Run!
Alek and Doug attempt to recap the magic that was the third annual Watershed Voice Artist Showcase, while Alek grapples with the authenticity of certain pop culture references and idioms used by characters in Ginny & Georgia. Would a teen in the 2020s reference Ghost (1990)? How often does Pinky & the Brain (1995) come up? Is Casper the Friendly Ghost on the typical Gen Z-er’s radar? We ponder.
Welcome to Screen Tea Podcast, and the third ever Small Screen Tea! It’s all bangers all the time over here, so pull on your headphones and join your hosts as they get heated and dissect HBO’s infuriating and incredible dramedy, Succession!
Doug and Alek are, in fact, alive. After a lengthy hiatus the duo return to preview the third annual Watershed Voice Artist Showcase (Saturday, July 15, 6 p.m., The Huss Project, Three Rivers), recap all that has happened between the last KYVD episode and this one, including Three Rivers Pride, Alek’s first tattoo(shout out to Portfolio Ink and Amber Ward), and how Alek’s wife Deborah is the Tom Hagen of Watershed Voice.
Welcome to Screen Tea Podcast! Lisha and Jules are back from their (unplanned, oops) hiatus with an episode featuring a special guest: their very own D&D DM (say that 10 times fast (Lisha does))! This is fitting, since they’re coming back to you with this year’s adventure fantasy film, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves!
Kim Moffat, executive director of We Are Voters and prolific podcaster (Here’s What’s Happening, Dawson’s Darlings, My America), joins Alek and Doug on Keep Your Voice Down this week to discuss all things voting. We Are Voters is a nonpartisan nonprofit that aims to reimagine civics education, reestablish a healthy dialogue concerning government and politics, and build stronger, more informed voters regardless of political affiliation.
This episode of NerdPop Radio contains news and rumors from the last week, as well as a long discussion on The Mandalorian, Season 3.
In this week’s episode of The Unapologetics Podcast, Malachi “A+scribe” Carter asks, “So, how do we respond to arguments against Critical Race Theory and its potential compatibility with the Gospel? What should you say when presented with claims from a thought leader like Neil Shenvi? This installment of Theory and Theology with guest Rasool Berry, teaching pastor at The Bridge and author of Critical [G]race Theory: The Promise & Perils of CRT and UnCritical Race Theory, provides some insightful talking points to help us navigate the rhetoric while addressing the heart of the matter.”
In this episode, the NerdPop Radio crew discusses geeky film rumors and headlines from the past week, and the 7-time Oscar winning film, Everything Everywhere All at Once.
With the recent passing of Dr. John K. Hartman, a professor who impacted Alek and Doug‘s lives and a great many others, the Keep Your Voice Down hosts decided to honor Hartman with a special episode. Fellow Central Michigan University alums Chad Livengood (Detroit News Politics Editor) and Steve Coon (CMU instructor, Grand Central Magazine advisor) join Alek and Doug to reflect on the life and impact of a truly great journalistic mind, and a loving friend, mentor, husband, and father.
Alek’s childhood friend and standup comedian Rio Riojas stops by Keep Your Voice Down to discuss his recent foray into the world of standup comedy and his upcoming show in Kalamazoo (Wednesday, March 22 at Final Gravity Brewing Company, 8 p.m.). The Bay City native and East Lansing resident tells Doug and Alek about how he got started, how his act has evolved over the last year, his comedic style, how becoming a father has influenced the way he performs onstage, and why you shouldn’t bring your kids to see his act.
In this episode of NerdPop Radio we discuss geeky headlines since our last episode before discussing the new docuseries on Disney+ that was released for International Women’s Day — “MPower.
Three Rivers Public Library Director Bobbi Schoon returns to Keep Your Voice Down to discuss the library’s involvement with the Smithsonian’s Spark! Places of Innovation program. Spark! explores the unique combination of places, people, and circumstances that sparks innovation and invention in rural communities. The Three Rivers Library will be hosting its very own exhibit alongside a traveling Smithsonian exhibit that will make its way to the library this summer.
Alek, Doug, and Bobbi also discuss Women’s History Month, National Reading Month, and the myriad of ways citizens of Three Rivers can engage with the library.