May 24, 2025 • 9 mins
Huge book club with week with Gregory Maguire so Lisa and Ryley break down what they enjoyed most about it. Then they quickly touch on AI and how it is affecting writers and even the radio industry.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Well, welcome into the Lisa's Book Club, a bonus chapter edition,
Saturday Edition. I'm here with producer Riley and Riley.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We had quite a week, we did. You had quite
a week, Lise.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Oh, we all had quite a week. This was incredible.
You're busy, busy, but we had an amazing book club
and some people say it's the best book club we've had.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I personally thought so. Gregory was the cutest little old man,
great storyteller. I didn't read the book, but I watched
the movie and hearing the backstory and just him describing
this book, I was like, Okay, I'm going to read
this now.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I think you're right. I think that at the book club,
we had a lot of people coming at the story
from different places. Maybe someone saw the stage production, maybe
someone saw the movie, maybe someone read the book or
all three. Yeah, so we were really speaking to people
that had, you know, different touch points to the story.
I thought that Gregory maguire was so generous with his
(01:06):
time and with his stories, and he gave us such
insight into his backstory how he came up with this
amazing concept that has now generated one point seven billion
dollars in revenue for the Wicked, you know, just sort
of phenomenon, and how the stories that he told in
(01:28):
the book Wicked, which are some of them are very
dark and very heavy, are still resonating today in our society.
So that was really important. Yeah, we just we had
an incredible and incredible event. I thought super proud of it.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I thought something that hearing him talk about race was
so important and like just so so cool to come
from like like he is a white man, and to
hear somebody who has like the depth and the knowledge
to speak about race the way that he did was
so incredible to hear.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Well.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I asked him a question about what he thought about
Cynthia Arrivo's approach to the Alpha BA character, because it's
been played by so many people in such a big way.
And this is what he said.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
That was in Greece a couple of weeks ago with
about thirty teachers and three or four of them were
black teachers. A couple of men, couple women. We were
touring the sites and one day we were sitting having
a glass of wine at the end of the day
and one woman said to me, you know what, I
(02:36):
and my girlfriends, you know, the part of Wicked the
movie that really gets to us, And I said, oh, no,
tell me, and she said, the thing that made all
of our hearts wobble it isn't Defying Gravity. It's when
(02:59):
Cynthia Revo sings I'm not that girl. Because every one
of us black women know what that feels like, and
we have lived with that sentiment our whole lives. So
when you ask, what does what did Cynthia bring to
it and what does she communicate? Adina sang that song beautifully.
(03:21):
Anybody I've ever heard play that part plays that moment beautifully.
But there's something even more heartbreaking when Cynthia does it
on the screen.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
To me, the depth of Cynthia's connection to the role
and the power of her voice. I have to say,
like I bawled when I watched that movie, and every
time I listen to Defying Gravity, I well up because
it's just such a beautiful, beautiful take on it with
Ariana Grande and Cynthia, And you can really tell that
(03:54):
it was a moment for them too on the set,
and Gregory spoke about that too when he visited the set.
He could tell that this was a moment for the
two of them in such a special way.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, I think like these were people that were made
for these roles. Absolutely, and I have of course, I
grew up listening to the set, like the Broadway soundtrack
of it. I've bootlegged it. I've never seen it live.
I would love to, and obviously those people put so
much passion into it. But this was just like a
different take but needed.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
I think this absolutely, Yeah, and I can't wait for
Act two to come out on November twenty first, I'm
so excited. As I said, this is the longest intermission
of all time. But yeah, his his writing, his writing style.
You have to pick up his new book, Elfie, which
is why we were there. That was the jumping off
point because it just came out and it's the prequil,
(04:46):
so it takes you back to when Alpha Ba was
a young child, like young, young, young, you know, three
four or five, all the way up to her early
teenage years. And I love the backstory because there's one
character he owns like a clothing shop in town, and
he really took Alphaba under his wing and he became
(05:07):
a mentor for her, and you really get to understand
what a beautiful person she was, and you know, gives
an understanding about you know, sort of what happened to
her later.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah. I love authors who can't like not like can't
let it go, but they there's so much more to
a world that they're like, I just want to keep
writing about it. And he's exactly like that.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
He is.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
But he also said that who better to write it
than him because he feels like someone else might might
write it, so he should be writing them. He should
be writing all of these sort of offshoots like Son
of a Witch and those books. So there were eight
of them in total. And he also told us, you know,
during the event, that he's working on his memoir.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, that was like breaking news, it was.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And then the other breaking news was that Cynthia Rivo
is in talks to do the audiobook for Elfie. So
I can't wait to see what that sounds like.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
You were saying we might have gotten into a little
bit of trouble.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
As to take the social post down, Yeah, because you know,
all the the te's haven't been crossed yet and the
eyes not dotted, so I think there's still working on stuff.
But yeah, but you know what I loved Gregory and
his passion and how excited he was to share that.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
So it was a great interview.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Lease, Yeah, it was really I just I loved every
second of it. I also wanted to mention I saw
actually on the news this morning an interesting topic this
local writer Lori Gold. She came out with a book
called Romantic Friction, and it's a novel where she incorporates
how young writers right now are really struggling with the
(06:41):
role of AI and how what's going to happen to
their career. And I think it's an interesting discussion because
when you sit down with people like Gregory Maguire, who
literally created a story in his own head and then
wrote it on paper for all of us to enjoy,
and look at what it's created over the last thirty years,
I just don't see AI doing that. I don't see
(07:03):
AI ever being able to connect with that level of
emotion and passion and ideas.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I have a big fear of AI, just as people
who work in radio. I'm like, there could be a
day where they don't need us. Yeah, like they don't
necessarily need people to be doing our job. True idea.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
But again, when you look at like the Billy and
Lisa in the Morning show, we bring passion, we bring craziness,
we bring our life stories, and we bring connection. Yeah,
and again, AI can do the job. But at the
end of the day, do you really want something just
doing the job? Don't you want it to be a
little bit more.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeah, no, I completely agree with you, And I think
that I don't think that AI could do the job
of people like us or writers or you know, people
who write scripts and actors and stuff. Is just like,
I just have a fear that you never know, especially
with the way that like CHAGBT is like taking over everything.
Like students in school aren't even writing reports, they're not writing,
(08:06):
they're not doing their homework, They're just having AI and
chat GBT do it. It freaks me out.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, that's troubling.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
It really is. And I know that teachers like talk
about it all the time, like.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
You can tell that if AI's done the work, you can, Yeah, absolutely,
And now they have all these apps now that can
tell you if AI has done the work right. It's
just this whole under other industry I know. But I
think it's an interesting conversation and I'm glad that Lori Gold,
who's a local writer from the South Shore, kind of
decided to you know, delve into it.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
It's something that needs to be talked about more totally.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
But anyway, well this was fun. Yeah, yeah, onto the next.
We have more book clubs coming this summer, more exciting
things that we will be announcing soon.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
So excited. And the entire interview with Gregory is up
on the podcast and also on the Facebook page if
you want to like, actually watch it.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah, it's a good watch, it's a good listen, so
take it all in and thanks again to Gregory maguire.
We really appreciated his time. H
Well, welcome into the Lisa's Book Club, a bonus chapter edition,
Saturday Edition. I'm here with producer Riley and Riley.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We had quite a week, we did. You had quite
a week, Lise.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Oh, we all had quite a week. This was incredible.
You're busy, busy, but we had an amazing book club
and some people say it's the best book club we've had.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I personally thought so. Gregory was the cutest little old man,
great storyteller. I didn't read the book, but I watched
the movie and hearing the backstory and just him describing
this book, I was like, Okay, I'm going to read
this now.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I think you're right. I think that at the book club,
we had a lot of people coming at the story
from different places. Maybe someone saw the stage production, maybe
someone saw the movie, maybe someone read the book or
all three. Yeah, so we were really speaking to people
that had, you know, different touch points to the story.
I thought that Gregory maguire was so generous with his
(01:06):
time and with his stories, and he gave us such
insight into his backstory how he came up with this
amazing concept that has now generated one point seven billion
dollars in revenue for the Wicked, you know, just sort
of phenomenon, and how the stories that he told in
(01:28):
the book Wicked, which are some of them are very
dark and very heavy, are still resonating today in our society.
So that was really important. Yeah, we just we had
an incredible and incredible event. I thought super proud of it.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I thought something that hearing him talk about race was
so important and like just so so cool to come
from like like he is a white man, and to
hear somebody who has like the depth and the knowledge
to speak about race the way that he did was
so incredible to hear.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Well.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I asked him a question about what he thought about
Cynthia Arrivo's approach to the Alpha BA character, because it's
been played by so many people in such a big way.
And this is what he said.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
That was in Greece a couple of weeks ago with
about thirty teachers and three or four of them were
black teachers. A couple of men, couple women. We were
touring the sites and one day we were sitting having
a glass of wine at the end of the day
and one woman said to me, you know what, I
(02:36):
and my girlfriends, you know, the part of Wicked the
movie that really gets to us, And I said, oh, no,
tell me, and she said, the thing that made all
of our hearts wobble it isn't Defying Gravity. It's when
(02:59):
Cynthia Revo sings I'm not that girl. Because every one
of us black women know what that feels like, and
we have lived with that sentiment our whole lives. So
when you ask, what does what did Cynthia bring to
it and what does she communicate? Adina sang that song beautifully.
(03:21):
Anybody I've ever heard play that part plays that moment beautifully.
But there's something even more heartbreaking when Cynthia does it
on the screen.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
To me, the depth of Cynthia's connection to the role
and the power of her voice. I have to say,
like I bawled when I watched that movie, and every
time I listen to Defying Gravity, I well up because
it's just such a beautiful, beautiful take on it with
Ariana Grande and Cynthia, And you can really tell that
(03:54):
it was a moment for them too on the set,
and Gregory spoke about that too when he visited the set.
He could tell that this was a moment for the
two of them in such a special way.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, I think like these were people that were made
for these roles. Absolutely, and I have of course, I
grew up listening to the set, like the Broadway soundtrack
of it. I've bootlegged it. I've never seen it live.
I would love to, and obviously those people put so
much passion into it. But this was just like a
different take but needed.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
I think this absolutely, Yeah, and I can't wait for
Act two to come out on November twenty first, I'm
so excited. As I said, this is the longest intermission
of all time. But yeah, his his writing, his writing style.
You have to pick up his new book, Elfie, which
is why we were there. That was the jumping off
point because it just came out and it's the prequil,
(04:46):
so it takes you back to when Alpha Ba was
a young child, like young, young, young, you know, three
four or five, all the way up to her early
teenage years. And I love the backstory because there's one
character he owns like a clothing shop in town, and
he really took Alphaba under his wing and he became
(05:07):
a mentor for her, and you really get to understand
what a beautiful person she was, and you know, gives
an understanding about you know, sort of what happened to
her later.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah. I love authors who can't like not like can't
let it go, but they there's so much more to
a world that they're like, I just want to keep
writing about it. And he's exactly like that.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
He is.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
But he also said that who better to write it
than him because he feels like someone else might might
write it, so he should be writing them. He should
be writing all of these sort of offshoots like Son
of a Witch and those books. So there were eight
of them in total. And he also told us, you know,
during the event, that he's working on his memoir.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, that was like breaking news, it was.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And then the other breaking news was that Cynthia Rivo
is in talks to do the audiobook for Elfie. So
I can't wait to see what that sounds like.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
You were saying we might have gotten into a little
bit of trouble.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
As to take the social post down, Yeah, because you know,
all the the te's haven't been crossed yet and the
eyes not dotted, so I think there's still working on stuff.
But yeah, but you know what I loved Gregory and
his passion and how excited he was to share that.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
So it was a great interview.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Lease, Yeah, it was really I just I loved every
second of it. I also wanted to mention I saw
actually on the news this morning an interesting topic this
local writer Lori Gold. She came out with a book
called Romantic Friction, and it's a novel where she incorporates
how young writers right now are really struggling with the
(06:41):
role of AI and how what's going to happen to
their career. And I think it's an interesting discussion because
when you sit down with people like Gregory Maguire, who
literally created a story in his own head and then
wrote it on paper for all of us to enjoy,
and look at what it's created over the last thirty years,
I just don't see AI doing that. I don't see
(07:03):
AI ever being able to connect with that level of
emotion and passion and ideas.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I have a big fear of AI, just as people
who work in radio. I'm like, there could be a
day where they don't need us. Yeah, like they don't
necessarily need people to be doing our job. True idea.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
But again, when you look at like the Billy and
Lisa in the Morning show, we bring passion, we bring craziness,
we bring our life stories, and we bring connection. Yeah,
and again, AI can do the job. But at the
end of the day, do you really want something just
doing the job? Don't you want it to be a
little bit more.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeah, no, I completely agree with you, And I think
that I don't think that AI could do the job
of people like us or writers or you know, people
who write scripts and actors and stuff. Is just like,
I just have a fear that you never know, especially
with the way that like CHAGBT is like taking over everything.
Like students in school aren't even writing reports, they're not writing,
(08:06):
they're not doing their homework, They're just having AI and
chat GBT do it. It freaks me out.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, that's troubling.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
It really is. And I know that teachers like talk
about it all the time, like.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
You can tell that if AI's done the work, you can, Yeah, absolutely,
And now they have all these apps now that can
tell you if AI has done the work right. It's
just this whole under other industry I know. But I
think it's an interesting conversation and I'm glad that Lori Gold,
who's a local writer from the South Shore, kind of
decided to you know, delve into it.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
It's something that needs to be talked about more totally.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
But anyway, well this was fun. Yeah, yeah, onto the next.
We have more book clubs coming this summer, more exciting
things that we will be announcing soon.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
So excited. And the entire interview with Gregory is up
on the podcast and also on the Facebook page if
you want to like, actually watch it.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah, it's a good watch, it's a good listen, so
take it all in and thanks again to Gregory maguire.
We really appreciated his time. H
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