Curtis Eller is a banjo player, songwriter and rock & roll singer who's songs describe a dreamlike vision of American history where all points in time have collapsed into one. A twenty-year show business veteran, Eller has developed a devoted international following with his band, The American Circus. I'm giving away two tickets to see Curtis in Cl…

Jimmy Falun Gong is the pseudonymous host of the podcast “Programmed to Chill”, which describes itself as a show about “business, crime, parapolitics, and esoterica”. Jimmy does multi-part deep dives into the history of intelligence agencies, who financed hitler, the industrialists who profited and persisted after WWI and II, international spycraft…

In part 2 of my interview with Philip Fairbanks we discuss Walking the Wire, a new podcast series releasing in April that will re-examine David Simon's groundbreaking series, "The Wire", episode by episode. This Friday at 9pm EST Philip will be joining me for a livestream Q&A on YouTube, Facebook, or via Twitter Spaces. Follow Walking The Wire on T…

Look for part 2 of this interview in a couple days. This Friday at 9pm EST Philip will be joining me for a livestream Q&A. If you're a Patreon supporter, a PDF copy of Fairbanks book is available for you at https://www.patreon.com/bzdouglas. FOOTNOTES: https://philfairbanks.com/ Fairbanks' recent "Reverse Madoff" story Pedogate Primer: The Politics…

I recently watched the excellent video essay, "A Modern Anarchism Part 1" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag9EcQsqP_8), and immediately reached out to the creator, Anark, to schedule an interview. On today's episode, we dive right into discussing how we each came to adopt anarchy as our political identities, how we practice anarchy individually, a…

It's time for a review of 2021 and what the major events of the last year mean for us going forward in 2022. Original Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swh9G2qxlsc *** PANELISTS *** Contraband https://www.thecontrabandwagon.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoqBnhnfqzB6GFPdode6pbg Progressive American https://progressive-american.com/ http…

My guest today, the first of the new year, is Nico Walker, author of the novel, Cherry. The book is a fictionalized account of an unnamed character who follows a path very similar to Walker’s own life story. He joins the army at 19, serves in Iraq as a medic, spirals into heroin addiction as he deals with crippling PTSD, and finally sets off on a s…

A meta discussion of my latest story investigating allegations of prosecutorial misconduct against Dan Kasaris and Mark Bennett. Read the full report here: https://bzdouglas.substack.com/p/unreliable-witnesses-suppressed-evidence Please support my independent journalism by becoming a paying Substack subscriber or Patreon supporter.…

The story of Tony Viola told in the press up until now leaves one with the impression of a devious criminal who was defrauding banks out of nearly fifty million dollars through a complicated mortgage fraud scheme with a cast of shady operators. If the news coverage was to be believed, the affable, honorable, and generous person Viola’s friends and …

My interview with LaTonya Goldsby and Kareem Henton, President and Vice President of Black Lives Matter Cleveland. We discuss this local organization's history, and the important work they are doing in Cleveland and the surrounding areas to help the Black community, demand for justice for victims of police violence, and push for major reforms polic…

I have been approved to utilize the Video Podcast feature on Anchor.fm, so to test it out I'm posting my full report on Vincent Belmonte's killing by East Cleveland Police officer Larry McDonald. If your podcast app doesn't support video, you can watch the report on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8R0yFss27M On January 5th, 2021, Vin…

Mariah Crenshaw of Chasing Justice, LLC has been tracking officer training closely for nearly 3 years now. Prior to that, Crenshaw assisted the Department of Justice in their administration of the federal consent decree that was imposed on the city of Cleveland. For the first “Monday with Mariah”, she joined me in my home to go over some details ab…

Taking the podcast back to its musical roots today with NYC-based alternative band, Believe in Ghost! On today's show we talk about their new EP, "BOO!", their musical origins, how they navigated the pandemic, and the beef behind their new song "Keep in Touch" Bandcamp Spotify Soundcloud

I covered a Shontel Brown campaign event this weekend, and captured her having a "Please Clap" moment all her own. (This audio is from the YouTube report, which provides more detail, but functions perfectly as a podcast. https://bit.ly/shontel-brown) Joining me is Dr. Richard Montgomery, who shares his reactions to Shontel Brown's stump speech. Dr.…

Tim Collingwood is a local actor, playwright, stage manager, arts advocate, and activist. On this episode, we discuss his experiences and perspectives in activism as a person on the autistic spectrum.

Please enjoy this unscripted, unedited, emergency episode announcing the release of my new documentary series State of Injustice! Our Indiegogo Campaign to fund the pilot season ends on Wednesday 3/24. For the last day, I'll be co-hosting an all day stream-a-thon from BLM Cleveland. You can catch that stream via one of the links below. We're going …

My guest today is John Bonifaz, the Co-Founder and President of Free Speech For People. He previously served as the Executive Director and then General Counsel of the National Voting Rights Institute, an organization he founded in 1994, and also served as the Legal Director of Voter Action, a national election integrity organization. John joins me …

Today’s episode is taken from a video report I posted on Wednesday. It’s the story of the Cleveland Warriors, a semi-professional football team in the National Public Safety Football League, and how their management snuck Tamir Rice’s killer, Timothy Loehmann, onto the team. When black players found out and complained, they were pushed out themselv…

BZ & DZ sit down with local activist Devorah Phillips to talk about the fascist riots at the Capitol on 1/6.

Watch this episode on YouTube My guest today is Dr. Joel Schwartz, a clinical psychologist who specializes in working with adults with childhood trauma, neurologically diverse children and adults, and is a strong proponent of the neurodiversity paradigm. I share a bit about my experience living as an ADHD'r, and learn about how understanding has ev…

A few weeks ago I assisted the People's Archive of Police Violence in Cleveland in setting up and conducting an interview with Emanuel Franklin, father of Desmond Franklin. On April 9, 2020, plainclothes Cleveland Police officer Jose Garcia, badge #2168 shot and killed Desmond. Garcia drove in an unmarked car, fired five shots into Franklin's movin…

Today’s guest is technically me, as I’m re-broadcasting an interview I gave with Brenton Lengel on his YouTube channel a few weeks ago about an article I published at the end of October: "Euclid officer Matthew Rhodes and officials throughout Ohio facing charges of homicide, dereliction of duty due to non-compliance with state-mandated training" Mo…

BZ Douglas moderates a panel discussion with local activists about who they're voting for up and down the Cuyahoga County ballot, and how they feel about their choices. Panelists: Mariah Crenshaw - Chasing Justice, LLC Kareem Henton - Black Lives Matter Cleveland Keith Wilson - Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus…

Today's episode contains bombshell revelations that have the potential to shake Ohio law enforcement to its core. My guest is Mariah Crenshaw of Chasing Justice LLC. According to her research, a significant portion of officers in the state ("40-60%" in her opinion), are currently operating while designated as "cease function" according to Ohio Revi…

(Audio fixed, if there's an audio gap in the intro, re-download the episode) Today my guest is Tim Tolka, author of Blue Mafia, which is best described by the closing line of the first chapter: “This is the story of two police departments, their turbulent relationship with the local community, and how a 'crazy' lawyer risked everything to bring in …

Today the show is returning to its roots, showcasing criminally overlooked grassroots artists, with one my favorite acts and friends from NYC, Jadon Woodard. We talk about his origins in music, the ups and downs, and his days free-styling on the trains of NYC alongside Charley Crockett as part of "The Train Robbers". This episode contains tracks fr…

Today I am interviewing members of the People's Archive of Police Violence in Cleveland. I first learned of them while covering a Black Lives Matter Cleveland "Defund the Police" protest on the fourth of July, where volunteer Emily Forsee spoke about the importance of documenting police brutality. In this episode I’ll be speaking with Emily and two…

Here's a teaser of my very first guest appearance on another podcast: Stoner Morning Show. The host, Shawn Wickens, is an old friend of mine from my improv days in NYC. Last year he mentioned on Facebook that he wanted advice on how to start a podcast, and I told him everything I learned in exchange for him being a guest on my show. I can’t thank h…

Kareem Henton joins me today to discuss what first roused him to activism, how BLM functions as an organization nationally and locally, and what his greatest hopes and fears are for the outcome of this national protest movement. A lot has happened since my last episode. Let’s see: Bernie dropped out, a global pandemic broke out, which caused the ec…

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I first saw Justus performing a couple weeks ago at the McFarland Manor November show. On today's episode, I chat with him about his creative process, how he became "big in Algeria", his terms of success, and the lessons he's learned navigating Spotify's playlist algorithm. Justus has a new track Risky debuting today, December 11th, on Spotify. Lis…

Today I’m bringing a new thing to the show with my guest Shawn Wickens, who will forever hold the distinction of being the first comedian on the podcast. I met Shawn about twelve years ago, back when I was going through my improv comedy phase. He happened to be passing thru Cleveland a couple of weeks ago on his way to play a show in Louisville, Ke…

Today my guest is writer Christopher Johnston, and we’re discussing his book “Shattering Silences: Strategies to Prevent Sexual Assault, Heal Survivors, and Bring Assailants to Justice”. Chris also has a new play with Playwright’s Local, Live Bodies for Sale. The show premieres tomorrow Friday November 22, and will run until December 15th. You can …

My guest today is actor and musician, Ben Paul Williams. I first met Ben about 10 years ago at a little open mic in Astoria Queens. We chat a bit about his stage career, the recent pull he’s been feeling to getting back to performing original music, and play a little catchup since the last time we spoke. So suffice to say, Ben has been one of my fa…

Today my guest is Cal Folger Day, a singer-songwriter that’s a bit hard to pin down genre-wise, but if I had to slap a label on her, it’d probably be “Avant Folk”, similar the band Cutleri, who I had on earlier this year. Cal is based out of Dublin, Ireland, but I met her around 2010 back when we were both living in New York City. We chat a bit abo…

Today my guest is playwright and author, Brenton Lengel. Brent and I go back nearly ten years, when I first met him at an open mic in New York. In this episode we spend a bit of time catching up and tracking the arc of his writing career, but the main reason I invited Brent onto the show was to talk about his new comic “Snow White Zombie Apocalypse…

Today’s guest is “Doom-Chip” performance artist, N6664, aka James Barney. I had heard chip-tune music before (for those who haven't, it's a style of synthesized electronic music generated using the sound boards from vintage gaming consoles), but never anything like this. It was discordant, disturbing, and disorienting. My first thought was, “This m…

Hello and welcome to an especially schmultzy episode of BZ Listening. Today is my seven year wedding anniversary with my amazing wife Deb Zep. Unfortunately, she’s not here to celebrate with me because she is off on a 10 day vacation in Italy with her sister. So I am role-playing the life of a single father for the next week, but what could be a be…

The podcast will be returning in September, but I wanted to share the new audiobook “The War on Everyone” by former guest, journalist Robert Evans. This is the second half, Chapters 1-3 are in the previous episode. Robert is the host of one of my favorite podcasts, “Behind The Bastards”, where he profiles some of the worst people in history. The wo…

The podcast will be returning in September, but I wanted to share the new audiobook “The War on Everyone” by former guest, journalist Robert Evans. Robert is the host of one of my favorite podcasts, “Behind The Bastards”, where he profiles some of the worst people in history. The work he has done to catalog the history of White Supremacy in America…

Click Here to Donate! Welcome to a special episode of BZ Listening. The podcast is officially on vacation, but I wanted to help spread the word about a fundraiser for The Footlight, a venue in Ridgewood Queens that is very near and dear to my heart, as are its owner Laura Regan, and her husband Tim. The Footlight opened just as I was departing New …

On today’s episode, at the top I announce a brief break from the show, and some state of the podcast reflections as the show nears its first anniversary. There may be a surprise episode or two, but no regularly scheduled music until September. Today’s guest is Jane Arnoff Logsdon. I met Jane randomly last year when we were both cast in a play as pa…

Justin Curry has been playing violin since he was 16, and has performed all over the US, and internationally. We talk about how he started playing following a severe injury (content warning, if you can’t handle graphic stories about kneecaps going where they shouldn’t, then be sure to skip the 13-14minute mark), and then get into much more pleasant…

Henry Black was born in Medicine Lake, Montana before the turn of the last century. Upon moving to New York City in late-2015, he rose to prominence among the acclaimed singer-songwriter scene. In 2019, he formed a seven-piece group comprised of two guitars, three keyboards, a backing vocal section, and a rhythm section in order to recreate the swi…

Today’s guest is one of the first musicians I befriended in New York City, Pat Hull. Pat is a singer-songwriter from Connecticut currently based out of Chico, CA. He has a unique finger picking style, but what really sets him apart is his counter-tenor vocal range. Be sure to swing by pathullmusic.com for all his music, merch, and upcoming tour dat…

Today, my guests are Amanda Nyx, a painter, teacher, and installation artist, along with former guest of the show, musician Michael McFarland. I’m such a huge fan of the work Amanda and Michael do in the Cleveland area, especially their work on the McFarland Manor shows, so I wanted to have them on to help spread the word about their new project fo…