Politics September 2023 – How Does 2024 End?

I certainly would not describe the Billy Dees Podcast as a political show. However, we do showcase current events and commentary in addition to interviews with creatives.

The 2024 election will likely be some of the best theater we have had in years.

The best way to describe this episode would simply to be a preview of the political year to come. The discussion covers many of the leading candidates as well as the political climate in the country.

Is there a clear path or shape that the campaigns will have? At this time, probably not.

That alone is a concern.

This episode features Billy Dees and guest cohost Shaman Isis – It was produced September 13, 2023.

Here is a preview:

Full videocast on YouTube
Full episode on Spotify.

HumorOutcasts Interview – Deborah Fezelle “The Time of Our Lives”

The Time of Our Lives

by Deborah Fezelle

In this book, Deborah Fezelle takes the reader inside the famous Juilliard School, down the halls of the Drama Division, and into the classrooms with her classmates.

Set in New York City during the early ’70s, Deborah describes life both inside and outside of Juilliard. The backdrop is the Upper West Side, the Village, and the Times Square of that era.

During this interview Deborah Fezelle elaborates about her experiences described in the book. She expresses what it was like to experience New York for the first time as a young drama student during an incredible transformative period of her life.

Deborah Fezelle

For those who trained at Juilliard, this book is a trip down Memory Lane. For those who dream of becoming an actor, it’s a road map for what it takes to survive in a business where “rejection is the norm and stability is a dream.”

This interview is courtesy of HumorOutcasts.com and is available on your favorite podcasting platform listed under the Billy Dees Podcast. For your convenience, the episode is below on Spotify.

You can find Deborah Fezelle on

X (Twitter)

Special thanks to Donna Cavanagh and Shorehouse Books.

Sample audio:

The full podcast on Spotify:

Lindsay Shares Her Recovery Journey and Inspires Others as a Creator and Advocate

On this episode we are talking with a Recovery Community creator and advocate, Lindsay.

Lindsay shares her own recovery story in the hope that doing so will raise awareness for the problem of addiction and reduce the stigma which often prevents those who are struggling from coming forward.

Lindsay also talks about being a content creator within the recovery community and what she hopes to accomplish by being an inspiration.

You can find Lindsay on the old Twitter, now X, @L_Villandry and her YouTube Channel is @RecoverLoudly.

How Can We Tell Where the Truth Ends and Fake News Begins?

In my opinion, this conversation with Shaman Isis is as good as anything you will hear all week on digital or broadcast media.

Billy Dees and Shaman Isis

What we may refer to as an “absolute truth” is very illusive philosophically, scientifically, and in life.

However, have we lost our way in determining what an objective truth is in a practical manner?

Are “truths” that we don’t agree with increasingly becoming “fake news?” How do we know when news is news, or happens to be some version of a given truth that someone else wants us to believe?

Moreover, are we contributing to the problem?

Do we only pay attention to informational sources that reinforce what we already believe or have decided?

You can follow Shaman Isis on X (Twitter) @shamanisis and find her on her website shamanisis.com.

Here is a preview:

Full length podcast below on Spotify and YouTube:

All Things Media – Will Social Media Become Something More Than Social Media?

Twitter has now become “X.” Could it be an everything app?

Every so often I do an “All Things Media” podcast episode that generally centers around topics such as media, social media, and current events. That much isn’t new. What is new is how I presented the video version of this podcast.

The audio platforms are where much of my listenership resides. Therefore, I have always been careful to make sure the audio is as pristine as possible and guard against visual references during the shows.

However, many of my guests or their publicists wanted video links so that their clients could be showcased in a professional forum for their followers on social media.

The natural thing to do was to start a YouTube channel for the Billy Dees Podcast. I never really pushed the show on YouTube, it was a support platform for the podcast. YouTube has recently implemented a podcast tab which is long overdue. YouTube is also a major search engine, and I wanted our content to be discoverable on the platform. For all these reasons, maintaining a YouTube channel for the podcast is a good idea and I will continue to do so.

In the meantime, Twitter has always been my social media home. I have often said that Twitter was built for podcasting. If you are a creator of pretty much any category – author, advocate, or artist etc. – the audience that Twitter has built-in is enormous. For any news or trending topics, Twitter is about as good as it gets.

When the reported attempted coup was happening in Russia a short while back, I intensely followed the story on Twitter and TikTok. I anxiously tuned into the national news that evening anticipating detailed professional coverage of the event. All three major networks, NBC, ABC, and CBS, lead with the submarine story at the Titanic location which by that time was already a week old. The tragic fate of the occupants was known, and the story had moved to the “how could this happen” phase. The following day, news promos on the networks said, “Tune in tonight for continuing coverage of the coup in Russia.” The only problem was by that time, it was already over.

NBC News always leads its program with the phrase “breaking news.” That’s broken news.

In the meantime, Tucker Carlson and other media figures began moving long-form media content to Twitter with much success. Elon Musk also rebranded Twitter into “X,” what some may call a move toward an “everything app.” This would include a new app with tweets, now referred to as “posts,” long form posts, audio and video content, and financial transactions.

Simultaneously, Meta launched “Threads,” a Twitter copy, by leveraging its users mostly from Instagram. Was I the only person who wondered how the same people, with the same contacts, sharing the same content, was going to be a grand slam? It wasn’t.

Also at the same time, cable news and news in general continued to flounder.

During this turmoil, I decided to give the video version of the podcast a try on X. I did my commentary about the branding move from Twitter to X and the recent UFO news – and placed the video version on the platform. It makes perfect sense to place video content native to the platform where the users are.

I have heard different things about the usage and traffic on X since the rebranding. There have also been other changes to the old Twitter platform that many users have not liked. So far, the platform seems stable to me. It is simply too early to say but so far I am not alarmed.

I do consider my full-length posting on X a success. The views and engagement were very strong. X has also made the paid boosting process for marketers much more streamlined than it was before on the old Twitter.

Granted, this was the first time I tried posting long-form content on Twitter X, so I don’t have a good gauge yet. For more discovery, I added another full-length podcast interview episode to Twitter X on August 6, 2023. This is a practice I plan to continue for the near future as the new incarnation of the platform starts to take form.

As it stands, I am cautiously optimistic about X. I have never been a Meta person, although strategic Facebook boosts do work for the right circumstances. Instagram has not caught fire for me. LinkedIn has its place, to be sure, especially with the B2B crowd. But, if you are counting on trending and active engagement, the LinkedIn “What’s My ROI Zombies” are not going to do it for you.

This is an interesting time for how news gets disseminated. I’ll just leave that right there for now…

…and if X turns out to be what it is intended to be, I want to be a part of it.

Hey, follow me on Twitter! I mean X! @BillyDees

You can find the full-length commentary podcast on X here.

Spotify and YouTube are below.

“Growth : A Mother, Her Son, and the Brain Tumor They Survived” by Karen DeBonis

Can a woman who never learned to stand up for herself find the courage to speak up for her son?

Karen is a happily married, slightly frazzled mother of two when her eight-year-old son, Matthew, develops a strange eye-rolling tic. Matthew’s tics quickly multiply. He becomes clumsy and lethargic, a gifted program dropout.

Karen tries to get her husband and their pediatrician to acknowledge what’s happening, but they dismiss her concerns. As a people-pleaser, Karen lacks the skills to assert herself and stifles the growing dread in her heart. For three years, Matthew steadily deteriorates while Karen questions if she has the fortitude required of motherhood. Finally, desperation breaks through her fear of conflict, and she demands answers, only to be horrified by the truth.

Karen DeBonis

Matthew has a brain tumor.

A delicate surgery and promise of complete recovery convince Karen her battle is over. But she is wrong. The ensuing years launch her on a journey of perseverance and personal growth she never imagined, teaching Karen just how weak she is–and then exactly how strong.

On this episode Karen shares her journey with her son’s health battle and why she decided to chronicle the story in her book.

More about the author here at KarenDeBonis.com

Jessica Guerrieri Talks Writing, Querying, and Maintaining Sobriety

Jessica Guerrieri

Jessica Guerrieri is a true advocate for sobriety and the recovery community. It was a pleasure to have her on as a guest on the podcast.

Jessica is a mom to three fierce, young daughters and has spent the past decade as an advocate for addiction recovery.

Jessica enjoys competing in Spartan Races all over California and in May of 2023 she celebrated a decade of sobriety.

Follow Jessica on Twitter!

Jessica has a BA in English from UC Davis with an emphasis in creative writing. Her articles have been published on Scary Mommy, Yahoo Life, Mom.com, BluntMoms, Filter Free Parents, and Sonoma Family Life and Mendo Lake Family Life magazines.

“Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” is book (being queried now) about an alcoholic mother’s obsession with her mother-in-law’s perfectionism which ultimately forces her to reexamine the enemy in the mirror.

During the interview Jessica shares her personal journey of recovery into sobriety. She also shares the trials and tribulations of being an author going through the query process of getting published.

Jessica’s website is www.jessicaguerrieri.net

You can find her on Twitter and IG @witandspitup

The full podcast is available here: