May 9, 2025 • 48 mins
In this episode, I sit down with Monte Belmonte, a longtime Western Massachusetts radio host, producer, and community activist, to explore how intuition, creativity, and compassion fuel collective impact.
From Monte’s March to his Campout for Cancer Connection to his work at NEPM’s The Fabulous 413, Monte shows how following your inner call can uplift an entire community.
Find me on Instagram @ToHumisHuman and www.sonorouslight.com
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
Hello friends, welcome back to another episode
of To Hum is Human, the podcastwhere we explore the
transformative power of tuninginto our intuition to express
our passionate purpose.
I'm your host, Donabelle, andI'm so happy you're joining us
today.
I think you're going to lovethis episode because we will
(00:30):
explore intuition in action,stories of inspired impact,
because when we answer the callto lift one.
We lift everyone.
I'm so excited about my nextguest.
Monty Belmonte is host andexecutive producer of New
England Public Media, or NEPM'sThe Fabulous 413.
(00:54):
He was born and raised inMassachusetts and has been a
radio host in Western Mass forthe last 25 years, 17 of them as
host of Mornings with Monty onthe River, 93.9 WRSI.
As host of Mornings with Monty,he developed several local
fundraising campaigns, includingthe annual pre-Thanksgiving
(01:17):
Monty's March for the Food Bankof Western Massachusetts.
And this has been something thateveryone looks forward to every
year.
It's phenomenal.
Monty also volunteers as thepresident of the board of the
nonprofit Shea Theatre ArtsCenter in his hometown of Great
Falls or Turners Falls,Massachusetts.
(01:38):
Welcome, Monty.
SPEAKER_02 (01:40):
Thanks so much for having me, Donabelle.
SPEAKER_00 (01:42):
Oh my gosh, it was just a no-brainer when I decided
to start this podcast.
Now, you've been a fixture onthe airwaves for quite some
time.
And at one point, we workedtogether on the Bill Newman
Show, which is now Talk the Talkon WHMP.
Those were some fascinatingconversations.
SPEAKER_02 (02:02):
Well, those conversations were led by you.
That was my backseat role as aproducer, where I just pushed
the buttons and made sureeverybody got on the radio and
then would Every once in awhile, just make a dumb quip.
But you brought all sorts ofgreat artists and introduced us
to great artists through thatshow.
And we were really appreciativeof that.
And you yourself got to hearabout all the things that you
(02:23):
were producing, the events, thepublic events of art and
celebration in Florence,Massachusetts.
And yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (02:29):
Oh, my gosh.
It was an
SPEAKER_02 (02:30):
honor.
SPEAKER_00 (02:31):
Oh, my gosh.
Are you
SPEAKER_02 (02:31):
still doing that with them with Talk the Talk?
SPEAKER_00 (02:33):
I'm still doing Artbeat.
Yeah, I'm still doing Artbeat,highlighting local artists and
arts organizations in theValley.
But, you know, what I was alwaysadmiring when you were on
producing, you know, the BillNewman show was that you would
have the most encyclopedic musicarchive in your mind.
(02:54):
And somehow you were able to tapinto knowing what outro music to
play after the guest was on.
How do you
SPEAKER_02 (03:03):
do that?
It's not in my mind.
The Rivers Music Library, whichI had access to in the WHMP
studios, I would sometimes justbe like, I'm going to search for
a keyword here and then find it.
I mean, I do know a decent chunkabout music, but I was assisted
with a simple search function onthe library of the Rivers
database.
SPEAKER_00 (03:23):
Yeah, well, you know, you're very modest, but
there is definitely anincredible connection between
the song that you would chooseright after the show.
Because, you know, you couldpick any song, but really, it
was quite brilliant.
I try.
So my first question to you is,did you come out of the womb
with a microphone in your hand?
(03:46):
No.
How did you become socomfortable speaking and being
really on stage?
SPEAKER_02 (03:52):
I know it's weird because this is a stage of
sorts, but I don't considermyself an actor and it is comedy
of sorts, but I don't considermyself a comedian.
I am in this very, it's like thelowest tier of the performing
arts.
I like to think of it.
Radio.
They're like people that do allthese amazing classical
Juilliard-trained performers andstage actors and blah, blah,
(04:12):
blah.
And then the radio host.
But I've always loved music, andmusic was my gateway into the
world of radio.
But given how spiritual your ToHum as Human podcast is, I have
to begin with the idea that Igrew up Catholic, going to Mass
with my family in the Bostonarea to an Irish mom and an
(04:34):
Italian dad.
Classic, you know, Boston suburbstory.
And, you know, not really beingthat into it.
And then as a teenager, kind ofgetting into the rock and roll
lifestyle and drugs and gettingin trouble, even with the
police.
But then also realizing like,yeah, maybe my life isn't going
in a direction that I think itshould be going.
(04:56):
And at the time I was in a bandwith some guys who were taking
guitar lessons from a guy whowas a youth group leader at a
Baptist church.
So when I was about 15 yearsold, I had this like radical
born again Christian experienceafter getting arrested.
SPEAKER_00 (05:11):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, what happened?
SPEAKER_02 (05:15):
How did I get arrested?
SPEAKER_00 (05:17):
Well, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (05:18):
Can you tell?
Oh, yeah, sure.
OK.
Statute of limitations is up.
SPEAKER_00 (05:22):
OK.
SPEAKER_02 (05:23):
And, you know, I'm a white dude.
So they were they went reallyeasy on me.
If I weren't, I'd probably stillbe in jail.
Yeah, I we my friends and I, itwas just shenanigans.
We would sneak out of ourparents' houses in the middle of
the night and walk to a localgolf course.
and take the golf carts out ofthe open sheds at the country
club, smoke weed, and joyridethem all over the golf course
(05:45):
while the sprinklers were on andthe moonlight was out.
And it was delightful.
And despite the fact that thecops chased us off of the golf
course, let's say on a Tuesday,we went back again on a
Wednesday.
SPEAKER_01 (05:58):
And
SPEAKER_02 (06:01):
so we weren't the brightest bulbs.
Yeah.
And I ended up handcuffed to awall in the police station and
then was like, maybe I shouldnot do this anymore.
And so then I kind of like fellinto the rhetoric that we were
hearing from the Baptist Churchyouth group leader.
And, you know, it fundamentallychanged the way that I wanted to
go in this very important periodof time in your life where
(06:22):
you're like picking colleges andthings like that.
So I said, I want to go to aChristian college and, you know,
I want to be the white saviorand go and save the world.
And I did go to a Christiancollege and then I, in my very
first semester there, you canstop me at any time or I'll
SPEAKER_00 (06:38):
just keep going.
This is fascinating.
SPEAKER_02 (06:41):
I, so I did start, I was going to go for a Bible
study, theology.
And, uh, I did go for that.
And in my first semester there,I'd always been intrigued by
India and the juxtaposition ofwhat we call poverty in the U.S.
versus how poverty manifestsitself in other countries.
And I had particularly beeninterested in Kolkata, which was
(07:01):
still called Calcutta at thetime, and went in my first
semester of college and spentthe whole Christmas break there.
So about a month.
Wow.
I met Mother Teresa and hermissionaries of charity, which
is another like complicated partof the legacy of like getting
involved in helpers helping andwho should be the helpers
(07:22):
helping how.
And that really changed myperspective on everything.
So it'd been a couple of yearsof hearing evangelical U.S.
Christian rhetoric and seeinghow it didn't play out in the
same way outside of the boundsof the United States.
(07:42):
I still considered, you know,continued studying theology and
did a semester in Jerusalem aswell.
So I'm now in this other reallyhotly contested epicenter of
religious thought where threemajor world religions come
together or don't.
And also had seen a lot of howHindu and Buddhism manifested
(08:07):
itself in the time that I spentin India.
Basically came away from all ofthat saying, I don't think
anybody has the entire truth.
And I think that theology andbeing in the church or a pastor
of some sort is not my future.
The woman who is now mymother-in-law, who at the time
was only my girlfriend's mom,said when she knew I was having
(08:29):
this mid-college crisis, well,you're pretty good at talking
and you love music.
Maybe you should go on theradio.
So a very long story short is mymother-in-law said I should do
it.
And I did.
SPEAKER_00 (08:39):
Really?
Yeah.
I mean, you know, but you havethis sort of facility, I have to
say, you know, because everyonecan try to go on radio, but
there's a certain facility youhave with connecting with
people.
And that didn't just come fromsomeone telling you to go on
radio.
I mean, there had to besomething about you just being
(08:59):
comfortable within your ownself, right?
Yeah,
SPEAKER_02 (09:03):
I agree.
I guess to a certain extent.
I think that there– I don'tremember if there was a
particular moment, but I willhave to credit somebody who many
people find controversial.
Howard Stern was– as a kidlistening to Howard Stern, he
was not the radio host who wasgoing to be talking like this
and playing the hits.
(09:24):
He would have these– very honestconversations and sometimes
inappropriate conversations dueto how radical his honesty was
he would go to places otherpeople wouldn't go and to me
that it felt more authentic toto ask the real con the
questions that people reallywant to know the answer to and
to just be yourself and not puton a radio voice or anything
(09:46):
like that and uh I think theorigin story of just trying to
be a conversationalist kind ofcomes from there.
But I wasn't going to put on anyairs.
SPEAKER_00 (09:56):
Fascinating.
Howard Stern.
I would never have thought that.
SPEAKER_02 (10:01):
If you ask Ira Glass from This American Life, he'd
tell you the exact same thing.
SPEAKER_00 (10:04):
I mean, you know, when someone is sort of speaks
their truth in a way that you'renot quite used to hearing, of
course, it's going to demandattention and a way to sort of
make you think about things andhow things are presented.
So, yeah, I could see that.
I could definitely see that.
I'm curious about role playingfor you, because I And creative
(10:29):
expression, really, becausethere's a lot of what you do,
just even in your dress.
Like right now, you're wearing afabulous shirt with this
gorgeous...
Oh, my goodness.
Look at the sneakers.
These
SPEAKER_02 (10:41):
are Nike Air Max Atmos 1 Safari Pack.
So they're Nikes that havedifferent animal print, like
one, two, three, four, like fivedifferent animal prints on them.
I found them in a thrift store,despite the fact that they were
like$300 sneakers out of thebox.
SPEAKER_00 (10:54):
That's crazy.
And then paired with a beautifulsort of floral...
Is that...
Yeah, it's just
SPEAKER_02 (10:59):
a little roses.
SPEAKER_00 (10:59):
Roses all over your shirt.
So there's something aboutcreative expression in things
that you do.
And I'm curious about that.
Like, I know you wear costumesoften.
Like, there is this sort oftheatricality about how you sort
of bring your message.
SPEAKER_02 (11:16):
Yeah, I always have kind of had a penchant for the
fabulous when it comes toclothing and things like that.
You know, when I had hair, I hadlong blonde hair.
Wow.
Wow.
(11:45):
Because they were just morecolorful, more vibrant, more
fun.
And it's, you know, the wholegender as a construct thing is
something that I firmly believein.
We were just looking through mywife's grandfather's clothing
and it's all these like littledresses for babies.
And I'm like, see, this is agender construct.
You know what I mean?
In the early part of the 20thcentury, they'd be putting these
(12:07):
hardcore boys until they werefour or five years old in
literal dresses.
So if I want to wear a literaldress now and again...
I'm going to.
SPEAKER_00 (12:16):
Yeah.
Well, you know, I think that'ssort of the rebel in you.
I feel that has been sort ofthis feisty awareness that you
have to sort of shake things up.
And I feel like over the years,how do you find, well, we'll
talk about that specificallywith a lot of your philanthropic
(12:37):
work.
But there's something about waysin which to really help people
think outside of themselves.
Yeah, I
SPEAKER_02 (12:48):
don't really know how to describe it.
And it doesn't feel likerebellion to me.
It just feels again likeauthenticity.
It just feels like I'm notnecessarily doing it because it
feels like a rebellious act.
I'm doing it because it feelslike an authentic act.
It feels like it's going to befun for me.
So this food bank march that youmentioned, you know, I knew I
(13:09):
love the Broadway musicalWicked, and I knew the movie was
coming out the weekend beforethe Food Bank March.
And I thought, wouldn't it befun to be both of the witches of
Wicked, one on one day of theMarch and one on the other day
of the March?
And I happen to know theBroadway makeup designer who
designed the Broadway stage showfor Wicked, Joe DeLude II,
shameless plug, if there was aTony for Wicked.
(13:30):
For Broadway makeup, he wouldhave won 10 by now, but there
isn't, which is a crime.
But he taught me how to do allof the Elphaba and Glinda makeup
and stuff.
But then, you know, I didn't doit as a rebellious act
necessarily.
I did it because I loved thatmusical and I knew the guy who
did the makeup and I knew itwould be fun.
And I knew I could bring in alocal fabric hoarding
organization, for lack of abetter word, that loves to
(13:52):
repurpose old fabric and makethings out of it.
So they made my dresses out ofreclaimed fabrics and things.
But while I was on that march,there was, you know, a male
presenting person who saidspecifically to me, thank you
for normalizing putting ondresses whenever you want.
And I was like, yeah, I wasn'taiming for that, but I totally
(14:15):
appreciate that you feelemboldened to do that now if you
want to do that.
SPEAKER_00 (14:19):
Right.
Right.
Well, you know, I think a lot ofwhat you're speaking about is
the sense of authenticity andhow you project that out into
the world and how take it orleave it in some way.
I think...
Probably the word rebellious wasnot the word I was going for
because I'm someone who likes tothink outside of the box and
(14:41):
help people understand thatthere are many perspectives to
look at a particular subject.
And, you know, when you'reworking with organizations,
especially organizations thatmay be underrepresented or, you
know, aren't necessarily in theforefront and you bring them out
(15:02):
through your perspective,platform.
Like, you know, you use yourplatform as a host on a podcast,
but you actually go out in theworld and physically go out to
these places.
How do you engage and talk aboutsort of difficult subjects with
people like, you know, thinkingabout poverty, thinking about
food insecurity, thinking aboutthose types of things?
SPEAKER_02 (15:25):
I think, again, it comes back down to just being
honest with yourself and askinghonest questions.
So that's, you know, that's whatthis American life does.
They would take a recorder outinto the world and get this
found sound.
And that became an inspirationto me.
It goes back to the Stern again,where he'd like he may be asking
(15:46):
the more salacious questions ata certain time.
But I think as he's evolved,even, you know, he realizes that
that radical authenticity andgetting to the heart of a
matter, it can be the mostengaging style of communication
ever.
for listeners and for thecommunicator.
Like it's more fun for me to gointo a situation as authentic.
(16:06):
Like the only true wisdom is inknowing that, you know, nothing
is what I stole from Bill andTed's excellent adventure.
And if you go into a situationlike, uh, food insecurity, like,
uh, racism as a, you know,there's, I'm in the body that I
was born into, and there's a lotof things I've never had to
experience and you, If you wantto learn about those things, go
(16:28):
into it understanding you don'thave all the answers.
Ask honest questions.
Accept when you have made amistake.
Ask for forgiveness.
And I think it grants you adifferent level of access when
you go in there with the ideathat I'm a learner and I know
I'm going to make mistakes.
But please, I'd love to hearyour story.
(16:50):
It opens up these doors.
doors in different ways asyou're communicating with
individuals.
And then those individualcommunications can cascade into,
you know, bigger conversations.
SPEAKER_00 (17:00):
I absolutely believe that the whole butterfly in the
tsunami conversation.
SPEAKER_02 (17:05):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (17:05):
People, you know, when they feel like I'm just one
person, I can't really make thatmuch of a difference.
And I see you and it's just likeyou're one person and you're
making an incredible differencein your community.
What do you What do you say topeople like that who have that
sort of mindset?
SPEAKER_02 (17:22):
Well, I feel like I'm trying to make a difference
for me.
And if it makes a difference forother people, too, that's great.
But I'm trying to learn.
I'm trying to understand.
I'm trying to engage and havefun with my community in ways
that feel good and authentic tome.
I'm not going out there sayingI'm going to go and fix this
problem.
I'm saying I'm really interestedin this as a topic and I'd like
(17:46):
to learn more about it.
Maybe you can come along on thislearning journey with me.
And ultimately, maybe morepeople learn about it.
And ultimately, maybe it makes abig difference.
But the goal isn't to make thebig difference in a big way.
The goal is to make anindividual difference within
myself, you know, and hope, Idon't know, be the change that
(18:08):
you want to see, I guess.
But I mean, there's some truthto that idea that like, if I can
change my own heart and mind,and just be an authentic witness
to that.
Maybe other people will want tolearn too.
That's
SPEAKER_00 (18:22):
a beautiful way of stating it.
And if someone were having thissort of uncertainty about ways
in which they themselves canimpact.
It really does start withyourself.
Yeah.
You know, you got to have alittle self-love first before
you can actually bring more ofthat into the world.
And what I love is that you havethis incredible curiosity.
I find that your mind reallyseeks all the truths out there.
(18:49):
And what does that look like?
And yes, it may align withwhatever I'm thinking about, or
it may...
reconfigure a lot of the thingsI think about.
You co-host the fabulous 413with Haley Smith.
And for those listeners who arenot from the area, tell us what
that is and what you cover.
SPEAKER_02 (19:08):
Well, it grew out of the show that I created on 93.9
The River, which was a mostlymusic show.
But like, as I mentioned, I'dbring a recorder out into the
world.
Sometimes I'd bring guests bythe studio, but I loved the
sound from just a sonicperspective of like, if you're
talking to a farmer to hear thesheep in the background, there's
nothing.
That's literally what's going tobe on our show today.
(19:29):
So I'm very excited to hear howmuch sheep is going to be
presented.
And I was doing this for areally community focused, but
commercial music radio station.
And I've been a fan of publicradio for as long as I've been a
radio and our local public radiostation wasn't doing a lot of
local conversation.
And I had pitched them actuallymany times over the years to
(19:51):
say, don't you think that thiskind of thing that I'm doing
would work on public radio?
And I got turned down and gotturned down and got turned down.
There was new management hereand they were like looking for
people in the area to try tobring these conversations to the
public radio station.
And they didn't.
came to me and said, what wouldyou think about doing this?
And I had a very particularvision about like what your
(20:13):
station is missing is not allthings considered in Morning
Edition, those great programsthat everybody knows and loves,
but can get literally at anyother public radio station or
online as a podcast.
If radio that is electricitysent to a tower on a hill in an
area that is broadcastinginvisible light to a certain
radius is not talking about thatradius, why would you even have
(20:37):
that tower up?
You know, just go online, justlisten to the, you know, radio
as a technology has a verylimited radius.
And I wanted to talk about thatradius specifically and
exclusively.
So we came up with the idea ofcalling it the fabulous 413.
We were going to just call itthe 413, but somebody had
already trademarked thatsomehow, even though it's the
(20:59):
area code for this area.
Adding the fabulous to it wasenough distance that we called
it that.
The same person, he's thepresident of NEPM, Matt
Abramovitz, who was reaching outto me to have conversations, had
heard Khalees Smith on my othershow, On the River, just nerding
out about board games and musicand things, and said, do you
(21:20):
think Khalees would want to cometoo.
And I was like, well, you shouldask Khalees.
And as much as she missesspinning records, she's been a
part of the show since the verybeginning here, a big part.
And I hope that she thinks thatit was the right decision.
SPEAKER_00 (21:35):
Well, you make a dynamic duo for sure.
I think the chemistry isfantastic.
And I'm curious how you choosewho to engage with to bring to
your audience.
SPEAKER_02 (21:47):
Well, the secret sauce is like it's not it's a
five day a week show.
So imagine doing this show fivedays a week.
SPEAKER_00 (21:53):
I don't know how you do it.
So
SPEAKER_02 (21:56):
here's how you come up with a couple of benchmarks.
segments that, you know, areinteresting, engaging people or
ideas that you want to engagewith on a weekly basis.
So we've got one for every dayof the week, essentially, where
I talk to an astronomer, afriend of mine from Hampshire
College who's been on myprevious show for decades now.
We always team up with CISA, thelocal agricultural advocates,
(22:17):
and find a farmer to talk to.
Merriam-Webster's dictionary isin our backyard and words
fascinate me.
So a friend of mine is an editorat Merriam-Webster who's on the
show every week.
I'm a wine snob.
So we'll go to different wineshops and do a wine tasting and
talk about that and kind ofdispel the myths and rumors
about how highfalutin wine oftenseems to be and make it more
(22:37):
accessible to people that mightjust like to want to try that.
And then our U.S.
Congressman, Jim McGovern, who'salso a big part of the Food Bank
March, is a weekly guest on theshow as well.
So arts and culture.
Yeah, I'll
SPEAKER_00 (22:54):
tell
SPEAKER_02 (22:58):
you that.
And building it around that.
So we did the whole showyesterday from the Emily
Dickinson Museum in Amherst.
So sitting in Emily Dickinson'shouse, first of all, and giving
(23:21):
it that radio terroir.
that I like to use, which isborrowing a wine snob term and
bringing
SPEAKER_00 (23:26):
it over here.
I know that term,
SPEAKER_02 (23:27):
yes.
Yeah.
Placiness is the best way todescribe it.
But to do a broadcast from EmilyDickinson's house, talking about
the history of Emily Dickinsonand her work with contemporary
poets from the area, while youhear a lonesome train whistle in
the background going by and thenreading a poem Emily Dickinson
wrote about how her dad broughtthe trains to Amherst.
And like, it really creates thismagical sense of place.
(23:50):
None of that was explicitlyplanned other than it's national
poetry month.
We're going to the EmilyDickinson museum
SPEAKER_01 (23:55):
and here's a train station,
SPEAKER_02 (23:57):
but you've got to leave yourself open to the magic
of what can happen in those, andby putting yourself in those
contexts and then authenticallyreacting to them in real time
and not being upset that there'sa train whistle that's ruining
my pristine broadcast, but tolike lean into that, you know?
SPEAKER_00 (24:12):
Well, you know, I have to, I have to speak about
this magic because essentiallyyou're sort of drawing in, oops,
all these experiences.
That
SPEAKER_02 (24:22):
was, I don't believe in the, maybe the depths of
levels of spirituality andthings that you're talking
about, Donabelle, but somethingjust knocked over that something
as a cautionary tale to leave,leave it in.
Don't
SPEAKER_00 (24:35):
edit it out.
I'm not.
Okay.
I'll leave it in.
Thanks.
Thanks for that inspiration.
Cause I'd be like, Oh, I'll mutethat.
But, but there's, somethingabout becoming this force.
I feel like you bring thisenergy with you and then you
draw in the experiences throughthese collaborations.
And, you know, I want to go backto the time you traveled when
(24:59):
you were in college and you'reexperiencing all these different
levels of being and seeing.
Does your link to beingconnected with philanthropy stem
from those experiencesspecifically?
I
SPEAKER_02 (25:17):
think so.
Yeah.
I mean, there's one way to lookat it.
You know, as I mentioned, I grewup Catholic and had this radical
born again Christian experience.
And this is going to soundsomewhat blasphemous when I say
this, that it comes from a veryChristian perspective,
obviously.
And it almost doesn't matter tome whether Jesus was a
historical figure or not.
(25:38):
The lessons that you learnthrough Jesus's life, that you
also can learn through everyother major world religion, the
do unto others, the golden rule,that has been what has mostly
stuck with me.
And that is one truth that I dobelieve I can say that I
personally believe is absolutelytrue, that there is some
(26:01):
ineffable something out there.
Nobody has the entirety of itunderstood, but everybody has
that part of it understood.
So I go into everything kind ofwith that.
mentality that the these acts oflove towards our neighbor is is
what drives all of it and i didlearn that through both my
(26:22):
religious upbringing but alsoseeing that work in action in in
travel you know i went tojerusalem with all of this
perspective about pro-israel andthe palestinians are bad when i
lived in jerusalem Almost all Idid was hang out with
Palestinians and they would takeme to their homes and I would go
to Gaza and I would go to theWest Bank or I'd go to the East
(26:44):
Jerusalem and and see how eventhat one city was so divided.
And it became very clear thatthe rhetoric I was being taught
was not real in real people'slives.
That being said, the only timeanyone has ever thrown a rock at
me, it was a child who is a partof Hamas.
And the only time I've ever beenstopped and frisked by a police
(27:05):
officer was It was the IsraeliDefense Force.
So there's so much tension.
And yet at the same time,underneath all of that, there is
this real humanity.
There is this real love that Iwish we could figure out how to
tap into.
And I will keep trying.
SPEAKER_00 (27:25):
That's the goal, I guess.
That's the life mission.
Well, and it's interestingbecause walking in their shoes
in a lot of ways makes me thinkabout Monty's March.
And well, you know, it's kind ofinteresting.
I just had this vision and Iguess I could be authentic about
(27:45):
it in some way becauseimmediately I was thinking as
you were speaking about Jesusand, you know, I have all
respect for all religions.
I'm not religious myself.
I believe in sort of the divinespirit within all.
But there's something about ashe was parading with the cross.
And this is so strange, but Ijust saw the vision of you
(28:12):
walking with the grocery cart.
And I know there are noparallels to that, but that was
just an interesting segue whenyou're talking about it.
That vision came to my mind.
How did you even begin to thinkFirst of all, the timing is
impeccable for this eventbecause it's so it's so much in
the awareness of food andbounty.
(28:33):
But then you really think aboutthe lack of for some.
How did you get started withthis whole because Monty's March
has been happening for how longnow?
SPEAKER_02 (28:41):
I don't know, 16 years.
SPEAKER_00 (28:44):
I'm
SPEAKER_02 (28:46):
also terrible at like anniversaries and things
like that.
They don't they don't matter tome at all.
So I don't really pay attentionto it.
Many years.
SPEAKER_00 (28:53):
Many years.
SPEAKER_02 (28:53):
Yeah.
It started, first of all, theStations of the Cross and Jesus
Carrying the Cross is verydifferent
SPEAKER_00 (29:01):
in my perspective.
Yes, and that's why I said Ijust want to mention that.
But I
SPEAKER_02 (29:05):
appreciate you leaning into your radical
authenticity about wanting tosay that.
I love it.
It is a ridiculous publicitystunt that people that I know
that do this work of foodjustice day in and day out have
asked me to stop calling aridiculous publicity stunt
because they do believe it hashad an impact.
And that makes me feel reallyhonored and humbled.
(29:27):
I was doing another ridiculouspublicity stunt for another
great organization called theCancer Connection in Florence,
which helps people kind ofemotionally navigate through
what it's like to go with cancerwhile at the same time receiving
medical treatment, all for free.
And I would camp out in the coldin the middle of downtown
Northampton and wouldn't leavethis downtown courthouse lawn
(29:47):
until we raised X amount ofdollars for the Cancer
Connection.
That went on for over 10 years.
People started camping out withme over the years and went from
trying to raise$5,000 in yearone to raising over$100,000 in
the last year.
SPEAKER_00 (30:02):
Incredible.
SPEAKER_02 (30:04):
We were also doing a fundraiser for the food bank
where we would put a shoppingcart out in front of Whole Foods
and ask people to put in cans.
It wasn't a fundraiser.
It was a food drive.
And the people from the foodbank.
I think being somewhat jealousof the success of the Cancer
Connection campout, said, if wedid a fund drive, we could
actually, you know, you're goingto pay$3 for a can of pinto
(30:26):
beans at Whole Foods.
But if we get$3, we can go buy awhole pallet of scratch and dent
pinto beans that fell off atruck and we have the capacity
to warehouse it.
If you really care about thisissue, would you consider a fund
drive rather than a food drive?
And it was a very great argumentand makes total sense to me.
Like canned drives are great.
They feel good.
You can be interactive.
(30:47):
And yet that$3 I spent at WholeFoods, if I gave it right to the
food bank, they can do so muchmore with it.
So we brainstormed about what itcould be because I thought
another ridiculous publicitystunt might work.
They said, what if you took thatshopping cart that was parked in
front of Whole Foods and pushedit like door to door in downtown
North Hampton and asked like thelocal businesses to make
(31:07):
contributions?
And I said, what if I took thatshopping cart and pushed it from
North Hampton all the way toGreenfield, 26 miles away and do
like a marathon.
And that was the aha moment.
Light bulb went off and we wereall like, let's do it.
And the first year was the samething where it was like, let's
try to raise$5,000.
It was just me and like the guydriving the radio station van.
(31:28):
And when the sun went down,another like salesman, you know,
holding a flashlight out infront of me so I didn't get hit
by a car.
And it's now grown into thishuge event.
SPEAKER_00 (31:39):
How much do you raise now?
SPEAKER_02 (31:40):
We raised over $600,000 this last year.
SPEAKER_00 (31:43):
Oh, my
SPEAKER_02 (31:44):
God.
Yeah.
So it is stupid.
But great.
I mean, and it's not all fromindividual contributions.
There's a lot of businesses thathave stepped up their support.
There's a lot of people andbusinesses that incentivize
other giving by putting upchallenge donations and things
like that.
So, yeah.
And that...
grew out of the river and thenHMP, the station that you are
(32:07):
on, it's also a big booster ofit.
But the fact that the publicradio station, I basically said,
I'm going to do this march oneway or the other.
You can either help participatein it too, or I'm going to keep
doing it with my old buddieshere.
And it's been another amazingopportunity for competing medias
to come together for a goodcause.
SPEAKER_00 (32:29):
Well, and what I love too is it's also engaging
for the community.
In real life, like people marchwith you.
You're not out there aloneanymore.
You have trails of people.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_02 (32:40):
it's great.
I mean, and it first of all,it's, you know, the physicality
because it's grown from just 26miles from Northampton to
Greenfield to 43 miles over twodays from Springfield, where I
am now at any p.m.
to Northampton on day one andNorthampton.
And the reason that I wanted toexpand it is because the more I
learned about food insecurity,the more I learned about how the
(33:03):
greatest need was in these urbanareas, Springfield, Chicopee,
Holyoke, which we all gothrough.
And as you know, Donabelle, ifyou live north of the so-called
Tofu Curtain, the Holyoke Range,yeah, there's a lot of affluence
and a lot of, you know, let'sjust say it, you know, affluent
whiteness and well-intentionedaffluent liberal whiteness north
of the tofu curtain, while inliteral walking distance south
(33:25):
of the tofu curtain, there'speople of all different
backgrounds that are sufferingto a much greater level of
issues of food insecurity thanthey are just 25 miles north.
So it was an opportunity to thatentire time we are walking to be
talking and listening aboutthese issues while raising money
(33:45):
and while doing a ridiculouspublicity stunt.
while dressed up as one of thewitches from Wicked.
SPEAKER_00 (33:51):
Well, I have to say, you're definitely upping your
game with your
SPEAKER_02 (33:55):
costumes.
Yeah, I don't know what I'mgoing to do
SPEAKER_00 (33:58):
next year yet.
It's hard to top that one,although you've been...
Tell us what other charactersyou've been over
SPEAKER_02 (34:05):
the years.
Ooh, let's see.
The first year, I just was like,can I even walk 26 miles in one
day?
That's a good question.
So I just wore athletic gear,and then I wore a shirt that had
the map of...
Massachusetts on it.
And then I dressed up as anastronaut and I dressed up in a
gold lame suit and I had anElvis costume made for me.
(34:28):
I remember that one, yes.
There's so many other good ones.
Oh, I one year, AOC went to theMet Gala in a dress that said
tax the rich.
SPEAKER_01 (34:36):
Yes.
So I
SPEAKER_02 (34:37):
had a dress on me that said tax the rich and also
had a shawl that said end hungernow.
So,
SPEAKER_00 (34:43):
yeah.
So on point.
You are so on point and withyou.
your costumes.
I
SPEAKER_02 (34:48):
was Barbie and Ken.
So I was Ken one day and thenBarbie the next
SPEAKER_00 (34:53):
day.
I thought you did half and half.
SPEAKER_02 (34:55):
No.
Yeah.
It would be too hard.
Maybe one of these years I'll dothat.
SPEAKER_00 (34:58):
Well, you know, you're lucky it's like November.
So you can actually put on a lotof clothing.
If this was in the summer, thatwould definitely be quite a
challenge for you to have.
Well, when I
SPEAKER_02 (35:08):
was Elphaba, I mean, when I was Glinda and when I was
Barbie, I did not have on a lotof clothing.
So it was also cold.
SPEAKER_00 (35:14):
But you're moving.
Well, that's true.
You're moving.
So, yeah.
That's true.
So what's next for you?
Is there anything...
on the horizon that you'reparticularly excited about?
Aside from your daily work,working with communities.
SPEAKER_02 (35:27):
Yeah.
I mean, I don't really, I don't,I'm not one of those people
that's like, what's my five-yearplan?
You know, I really try to justtake it day to day or maybe like
in all honesty, like month tomonth.
So there's no, like, I'm notworking on any big, huge project
right now, other than creating adaily radio show at a new ish,
(35:49):
place for me to make.
So I want to make sure that thelevel of quality is there, but
expanding, you know, pushing theboundaries of what has been done
in this building more and more,which is really exciting.
So we're, I mean, we're livingin an era where everything is
feeling like it's spiraling outof people's bounds of
(36:09):
understanding.
And what I'm trying to use theshow to do is to create a force
where people can still feel likethey can Yeah.
(36:44):
would talk about these reallybig and important issues.
And then he would also go likevisit a crayon factory to learn
how crayons are made and alsolike go hang out with Yo-Yo Ma
and hear some beautiful music.
So those touchstones and hismentality, it permeates
everything we do here.
I do feel like we'reneighborhood building a la
(37:06):
another public radio, a publictelevision legend, Mr.
Rogers.
SPEAKER_00 (37:12):
Well, it's interesting being on, New
England Public Media versus,say, WRSI, have you noticed a
difference in how you engagewith the audience or how the
audience engages with you?
SPEAKER_02 (37:26):
Well, I mean, it was a live call-in show on WRSI, so
there was some real-timeengagement that's not happening
here, and I don't really thinkit would work for the format
that we're doing very well.
And the other thing is becausewe're a public media and
associated with a newsorganization, I don't and can't,
(37:46):
by contract, advocatespecifically for specific
issues.
Well, I guess nobody'spro-hunger, I don't think.
So I have to be a little bitmore careful to protect the
whole organization to make surethat we're looking at issues
fairly, while at the same timerecognizing that there are some
(38:07):
very clear wrongs that arehappening in the world and to
still be talking about them.
And art is a nice way to viewall of these things through a
non-political lens to addresssome very political problems.
And that's sort of the onlydifference we've made.
We're like on the river duringthe post-murder of George Floyd
(38:33):
and in the middle of COVID,there are people that were
feeling like they wanted to taketo the streets, but also felt
like they didn't want to getsick.
So like I created with the teamthere, this rolling rally, the
Black Lives Matter rally, wherepeople would get in their car
and there was a soundtrack thatwe had curated and had a bunch
of speakers talking about issuespertaining to racism and police
(38:57):
brutality that you could just,with your family, if you wanted
to, drive around and listen towhile listening to this
soundtrack.
So that would be somethingharder to do here, not only
because we're not a music radiostation, we're a talk radio
station, and also because thatmight be viewed as too overtly
advocacy.
And I have to kind of try toview things in a more fair and
(39:19):
balanced way.
It's why you should continue tosupport public radio and
television.
Yeah, because they want to tryto be as fair as possible, you
SPEAKER_00 (39:26):
know?
Right, right.
And, you know, without ourpublic radio, who knows what
we'd be listening to?
Yeah.
Exactly.
And I feel like also too, youknow, and I'm sure you believe
this too, but the arts reallyhave...
this unique ability to fostersocial change in ways that other
(39:46):
platforms may necessarily havestruggled with.
And the interesting thing isthey're cutting funding for the
arts.
And so, you know, that's a wholeother conversation at
SPEAKER_02 (39:58):
this point.
It's why when there's these hugefascist political movements that
it's often the artists and thepoets that they come for very
early on because they add theinspiration They bolster the
spirit of the people that areadvocating for change.
So if you take away that hopeand joy at the beginning, it's a
(40:19):
lot easier to enact your agenda.
SPEAKER_00 (40:22):
Oh, my gosh.
Right.
Well, you know, as long as thereare people like you out in the
world, which is why I alwayslike to highlight the lights in
the world, who really bringabout the beauty of our
humanity.
you know, how we are allconnected in ways that are
special and unique, butessentially we're all the same
(40:46):
and we kind of have to look outfor each other.
And when you are in a place ofprivilege where you have a
platform to sort of spread thatin a way that's so impactful,
it's a beautiful thing.
And, you know, I'm so thankfulthat you Yeah.
Yeah.
(41:13):
Oh, yeah.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_02 (41:29):
I go three days a week.
It is my it's my new religion, Iguess.
I mean, I tell everybody I'm adevout agnostic, but I do
believe in what you were sayingwhere there is this
interconnected humanity that weare made of star stuff and we're
all the same stuff.
And yet things can get sochaotic and the busyness of
daily life.
And also, I hate exercise.
(41:49):
So if I can be training the mindand the body at the same time, I
can trick myself into believingI'm not exercising.
That's become a really, youknow.
And then I'm at the Sheavolunteering a lot.
But then again, that's just metaking in more art.
It's me.
I'm a consumer.
I'm trying to consume all of thegoodness that the universe has
to offer us because I know ourtime here is limited.
(42:12):
So I literally get angry everynight when I have to go to bed
because I hate sleep.
I feel like it is a flaw in thedesign.
We should just be able toexperience all of the wonder all
of the time.
And I feel...
ripped off when I'm like, oh,
SPEAKER_00 (42:27):
I'm going to be sleeping for eight hours.
Come on.
Well, briefly, I would love toknow your connection with the
Shay because I know they're inyour hometown.
I understand that.
But what do you love about theShay?
SPEAKER_02 (42:40):
Well, it started because my kids were in a
Shakespeare program where theywere learning, doing full uncut
works of Shakespeare.
And there was a board that wasrunning this tiny little gem of
a theater.
And the board was not going tocontinue until And my kids
program still wanted to use thatas their home base.
It was convenient for us asparents because it was a mile
from our house as opposed tohaving to drive them wherever.
(43:01):
And because I was connected withso many other people in the
arts, it was actually theNorthampton Center for the Arts
director at the time, PennyBurke, who was like, hey, we're
moving our building.
We don't have anything to do.
The Shea needs a board.
We're going to you should formit and we're going to help you.
And I was like, oh, fine.
So.
SPEAKER_00 (43:20):
I love that they just tell you and you're like,
okay.
SPEAKER_02 (43:22):
When Penny Burke tells you what to do, you do it.
So we did do it.
And I got together a great groupof people that many of whom are
still very much involved, if noton the board.
And yeah, and it's really justusing this theater as a place
where if you can imagine howthis theater can be used, we
want to help enable that.
Can I swear on this podcast?
(43:43):
Sure.
Sure.
Okay.
So it's like right this week,I'm convening a bunch of
Franklin County creatives in ateam that I'm calling the Shea
Helpful Imagination Team or theshit.
Excellent.
To literally just be like, lookat the bones of this building.
And you're an artist who has atrack record of making things
happen.
Want to make anything happenhere?
(44:04):
Let's figure out how to make ithappen together.
Because it's a nonprofit.
It's owned by the town.
It's a community asset.
And I want to just continue tofigure out how to make it
thrive.
SPEAKER_00 (44:13):
And it's a beautiful venue.
Yeah, it is.
A historical venue.
And it's just, it's a gem.
It literally is this diamond inthe rough.
And it's just, you've turned itinto now this sort of epicenter
in this, in the town, I'd haveto say.
You're trying, you know, yourone little spark.
Well, as we closed today, isthere anything particular you
(44:33):
would love to say to helpencourage people to...
Kind of be thinking about thebigger picture.
I
SPEAKER_02 (44:49):
don't know how to encourage people or inspire
people to do it other than tojust to do it myself and hope
that I'm doing it in a way thatfeels inspirational to other
people.
But I like to say that, like, Idon't feel like this comes from
within me.
I like to think of myself as amirror that, you know, there is
so much goodness around us that.
(45:12):
given the platform that I am solucky to have, if I can be the
biggest mirror I can to shinewhat else and reflect what else
is going on to everyone else,then maybe their mirror will
reflect it.
And it'll be this incredible,like, you know, series of light,
these little lights of ours, youknow, shining and reflecting all
(45:32):
over the place.
The other thing I love to say,and it's almost cliche at this
point, because I say it sofrequently, but, you know, when
you come into a radio studio,there's a, sign that goes on
that says on the air but thetechnology of radio is actually
light it's part of the invisiblelight spectrum so we're not
blowhards we don't have to beblowhards creating air we can
(45:56):
literally be spreading light andso I try to remember that I have
this power at my disposal thathas been granted to me for one
reason or another and to justremember to keep spreading the
light
SPEAKER_00 (46:10):
oh
SPEAKER_02 (46:10):
man
SPEAKER_00 (46:11):
That's so beautiful.
I love that.
I love your passion foruplifting the community.
I love what you do in the world.
It's so remarkable.
And to be witness to that issuch a privilege.
And I hope I can do that aswell.
And I love that.
I love being the mirror becauseI always feel like we're
(46:33):
basically a disco ball.
We're all different.
We're parts of the disco balland every facet of that disco
ball is us.
And, but we're all part of thesame disco ball.
And if we could just like shinethe light on that, it's, it
creates a beautiful rainbow.
SPEAKER_02 (46:48):
I'm stealing your, I'm stealing your disco ball
metaphor.
It's more, it's more in linewith all my quirky, weird
costumes and David Bowie loveand things.
SPEAKER_00 (46:56):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I actually got that from myteacher when she said, you know,
Life, L-I-F-E, is love in fullexpression.
And the disco ball is where it'sat.
That's where I go by.
But anyway, I appreciate you andI appreciate you being on the
show.
Monty Belmonte, thank you forjoining us today and just
(47:17):
sharing the love, sharing thelove.
SPEAKER_02 (47:19):
Thank you for welcoming me here, Donabell.
It's been great.
SPEAKER_00 (47:25):
Thanks so much for tuning in today.
I'm so glad you spent this timewith me.
If something in this episoderesonated, feel free to share it
or pass it along to someone whomight need that little spark.
I'd also love to hear what cameup for you.
Send me a message or drop acomment on Instagram at
tohumishuman.
(47:46):
You can also find more episodesand updates at sonorouslight.com
or on your favorite podcastplatform.
Until next time, keep humming.
Hello friends, welcome back to another episode
of To Hum is Human, the podcastwhere we explore the
transformative power of tuninginto our intuition to express
our passionate purpose.
I'm your host, Donabelle, andI'm so happy you're joining us
today.
I think you're going to lovethis episode because we will
(00:30):
explore intuition in action,stories of inspired impact,
because when we answer the callto lift one.
We lift everyone.
I'm so excited about my nextguest.
Monty Belmonte is host andexecutive producer of New
England Public Media, or NEPM'sThe Fabulous 413.
(00:54):
He was born and raised inMassachusetts and has been a
radio host in Western Mass forthe last 25 years, 17 of them as
host of Mornings with Monty onthe River, 93.9 WRSI.
As host of Mornings with Monty,he developed several local
fundraising campaigns, includingthe annual pre-Thanksgiving
(01:17):
Monty's March for the Food Bankof Western Massachusetts.
And this has been something thateveryone looks forward to every
year.
It's phenomenal.
Monty also volunteers as thepresident of the board of the
nonprofit Shea Theatre ArtsCenter in his hometown of Great
Falls or Turners Falls,Massachusetts.
(01:38):
Welcome, Monty.
SPEAKER_02 (01:40):
Thanks so much for having me, Donabelle.
SPEAKER_00 (01:42):
Oh my gosh, it was just a no-brainer when I decided
to start this podcast.
Now, you've been a fixture onthe airwaves for quite some
time.
And at one point, we workedtogether on the Bill Newman
Show, which is now Talk the Talkon WHMP.
Those were some fascinatingconversations.
SPEAKER_02 (02:02):
Well, those conversations were led by you.
That was my backseat role as aproducer, where I just pushed
the buttons and made sureeverybody got on the radio and
then would Every once in awhile, just make a dumb quip.
But you brought all sorts ofgreat artists and introduced us
to great artists through thatshow.
And we were really appreciativeof that.
And you yourself got to hearabout all the things that you
(02:23):
were producing, the events, thepublic events of art and
celebration in Florence,Massachusetts.
And yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (02:29):
Oh, my gosh.
It was an
SPEAKER_02 (02:30):
honor.
SPEAKER_00 (02:31):
Oh, my gosh.
Are you
SPEAKER_02 (02:31):
still doing that with them with Talk the Talk?
SPEAKER_00 (02:33):
I'm still doing Artbeat.
Yeah, I'm still doing Artbeat,highlighting local artists and
arts organizations in theValley.
But, you know, what I was alwaysadmiring when you were on
producing, you know, the BillNewman show was that you would
have the most encyclopedic musicarchive in your mind.
(02:54):
And somehow you were able to tapinto knowing what outro music to
play after the guest was on.
How do you
SPEAKER_02 (03:03):
do that?
It's not in my mind.
The Rivers Music Library, whichI had access to in the WHMP
studios, I would sometimes justbe like, I'm going to search for
a keyword here and then find it.
I mean, I do know a decent chunkabout music, but I was assisted
with a simple search function onthe library of the Rivers
database.
SPEAKER_00 (03:23):
Yeah, well, you know, you're very modest, but
there is definitely anincredible connection between
the song that you would chooseright after the show.
Because, you know, you couldpick any song, but really, it
was quite brilliant.
I try.
So my first question to you is,did you come out of the womb
with a microphone in your hand?
(03:46):
No.
How did you become socomfortable speaking and being
really on stage?
SPEAKER_02 (03:52):
I know it's weird because this is a stage of
sorts, but I don't considermyself an actor and it is comedy
of sorts, but I don't considermyself a comedian.
I am in this very, it's like thelowest tier of the performing
arts.
I like to think of it.
Radio.
They're like people that do allthese amazing classical
Juilliard-trained performers andstage actors and blah, blah,
(04:12):
blah.
And then the radio host.
But I've always loved music, andmusic was my gateway into the
world of radio.
But given how spiritual your ToHum as Human podcast is, I have
to begin with the idea that Igrew up Catholic, going to Mass
with my family in the Bostonarea to an Irish mom and an
(04:34):
Italian dad.
Classic, you know, Boston suburbstory.
And, you know, not really beingthat into it.
And then as a teenager, kind ofgetting into the rock and roll
lifestyle and drugs and gettingin trouble, even with the
police.
But then also realizing like,yeah, maybe my life isn't going
in a direction that I think itshould be going.
(04:56):
And at the time I was in a bandwith some guys who were taking
guitar lessons from a guy whowas a youth group leader at a
Baptist church.
So when I was about 15 yearsold, I had this like radical
born again Christian experienceafter getting arrested.
SPEAKER_00 (05:11):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, what happened?
SPEAKER_02 (05:15):
How did I get arrested?
SPEAKER_00 (05:17):
Well, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (05:18):
Can you tell?
Oh, yeah, sure.
OK.
Statute of limitations is up.
SPEAKER_00 (05:22):
OK.
SPEAKER_02 (05:23):
And, you know, I'm a white dude.
So they were they went reallyeasy on me.
If I weren't, I'd probably stillbe in jail.
Yeah, I we my friends and I, itwas just shenanigans.
We would sneak out of ourparents' houses in the middle of
the night and walk to a localgolf course.
and take the golf carts out ofthe open sheds at the country
club, smoke weed, and joyridethem all over the golf course
(05:45):
while the sprinklers were on andthe moonlight was out.
And it was delightful.
And despite the fact that thecops chased us off of the golf
course, let's say on a Tuesday,we went back again on a
Wednesday.
SPEAKER_01 (05:58):
And
SPEAKER_02 (06:01):
so we weren't the brightest bulbs.
Yeah.
And I ended up handcuffed to awall in the police station and
then was like, maybe I shouldnot do this anymore.
And so then I kind of like fellinto the rhetoric that we were
hearing from the Baptist Churchyouth group leader.
And, you know, it fundamentallychanged the way that I wanted to
go in this very important periodof time in your life where
(06:22):
you're like picking colleges andthings like that.
So I said, I want to go to aChristian college and, you know,
I want to be the white saviorand go and save the world.
And I did go to a Christiancollege and then I, in my very
first semester there, you canstop me at any time or I'll
SPEAKER_00 (06:38):
just keep going.
This is fascinating.
SPEAKER_02 (06:41):
I, so I did start, I was going to go for a Bible
study, theology.
And, uh, I did go for that.
And in my first semester there,I'd always been intrigued by
India and the juxtaposition ofwhat we call poverty in the U.S.
versus how poverty manifestsitself in other countries.
And I had particularly beeninterested in Kolkata, which was
(07:01):
still called Calcutta at thetime, and went in my first
semester of college and spentthe whole Christmas break there.
So about a month.
Wow.
I met Mother Teresa and hermissionaries of charity, which
is another like complicated partof the legacy of like getting
involved in helpers helping andwho should be the helpers
(07:22):
helping how.
And that really changed myperspective on everything.
So it'd been a couple of yearsof hearing evangelical U.S.
Christian rhetoric and seeinghow it didn't play out in the
same way outside of the boundsof the United States.
(07:42):
I still considered, you know,continued studying theology and
did a semester in Jerusalem aswell.
So I'm now in this other reallyhotly contested epicenter of
religious thought where threemajor world religions come
together or don't.
And also had seen a lot of howHindu and Buddhism manifested
(08:07):
itself in the time that I spentin India.
Basically came away from all ofthat saying, I don't think
anybody has the entire truth.
And I think that theology andbeing in the church or a pastor
of some sort is not my future.
The woman who is now mymother-in-law, who at the time
was only my girlfriend's mom,said when she knew I was having
(08:29):
this mid-college crisis, well,you're pretty good at talking
and you love music.
Maybe you should go on theradio.
So a very long story short is mymother-in-law said I should do
it.
And I did.
SPEAKER_00 (08:39):
Really?
Yeah.
I mean, you know, but you havethis sort of facility, I have to
say, you know, because everyonecan try to go on radio, but
there's a certain facility youhave with connecting with
people.
And that didn't just come fromsomeone telling you to go on
radio.
I mean, there had to besomething about you just being
(08:59):
comfortable within your ownself, right?
Yeah,
SPEAKER_02 (09:03):
I agree.
I guess to a certain extent.
I think that there– I don'tremember if there was a
particular moment, but I willhave to credit somebody who many
people find controversial.
Howard Stern was– as a kidlistening to Howard Stern, he
was not the radio host who wasgoing to be talking like this
and playing the hits.
(09:24):
He would have these– very honestconversations and sometimes
inappropriate conversations dueto how radical his honesty was
he would go to places otherpeople wouldn't go and to me
that it felt more authentic toto ask the real con the
questions that people reallywant to know the answer to and
to just be yourself and not puton a radio voice or anything
(09:46):
like that and uh I think theorigin story of just trying to
be a conversationalist kind ofcomes from there.
But I wasn't going to put on anyairs.
SPEAKER_00 (09:56):
Fascinating.
Howard Stern.
I would never have thought that.
SPEAKER_02 (10:01):
If you ask Ira Glass from This American Life, he'd
tell you the exact same thing.
SPEAKER_00 (10:04):
I mean, you know, when someone is sort of speaks
their truth in a way that you'renot quite used to hearing, of
course, it's going to demandattention and a way to sort of
make you think about things andhow things are presented.
So, yeah, I could see that.
I could definitely see that.
I'm curious about role playingfor you, because I And creative
(10:29):
expression, really, becausethere's a lot of what you do,
just even in your dress.
Like right now, you're wearing afabulous shirt with this
gorgeous...
Oh, my goodness.
Look at the sneakers.
These
SPEAKER_02 (10:41):
are Nike Air Max Atmos 1 Safari Pack.
So they're Nikes that havedifferent animal print, like
one, two, three, four, like fivedifferent animal prints on them.
I found them in a thrift store,despite the fact that they were
like$300 sneakers out of thebox.
SPEAKER_00 (10:54):
That's crazy.
And then paired with a beautifulsort of floral...
Is that...
Yeah, it's just
SPEAKER_02 (10:59):
a little roses.
SPEAKER_00 (10:59):
Roses all over your shirt.
So there's something aboutcreative expression in things
that you do.
And I'm curious about that.
Like, I know you wear costumesoften.
Like, there is this sort oftheatricality about how you sort
of bring your message.
SPEAKER_02 (11:16):
Yeah, I always have kind of had a penchant for the
fabulous when it comes toclothing and things like that.
You know, when I had hair, I hadlong blonde hair.
Wow.
Wow.
(11:45):
Because they were just morecolorful, more vibrant, more
fun.
And it's, you know, the wholegender as a construct thing is
something that I firmly believein.
We were just looking through mywife's grandfather's clothing
and it's all these like littledresses for babies.
And I'm like, see, this is agender construct.
You know what I mean?
In the early part of the 20thcentury, they'd be putting these
(12:07):
hardcore boys until they werefour or five years old in
literal dresses.
So if I want to wear a literaldress now and again...
I'm going to.
SPEAKER_00 (12:16):
Yeah.
Well, you know, I think that'ssort of the rebel in you.
I feel that has been sort ofthis feisty awareness that you
have to sort of shake things up.
And I feel like over the years,how do you find, well, we'll
talk about that specificallywith a lot of your philanthropic
(12:37):
work.
But there's something about waysin which to really help people
think outside of themselves.
Yeah, I
SPEAKER_02 (12:48):
don't really know how to describe it.
And it doesn't feel likerebellion to me.
It just feels again likeauthenticity.
It just feels like I'm notnecessarily doing it because it
feels like a rebellious act.
I'm doing it because it feelslike an authentic act.
It feels like it's going to befun for me.
So this food bank march that youmentioned, you know, I knew I
(13:09):
love the Broadway musicalWicked, and I knew the movie was
coming out the weekend beforethe Food Bank March.
And I thought, wouldn't it befun to be both of the witches of
Wicked, one on one day of theMarch and one on the other day
of the March?
And I happen to know theBroadway makeup designer who
designed the Broadway stage showfor Wicked, Joe DeLude II,
shameless plug, if there was aTony for Wicked.
(13:30):
For Broadway makeup, he wouldhave won 10 by now, but there
isn't, which is a crime.
But he taught me how to do allof the Elphaba and Glinda makeup
and stuff.
But then, you know, I didn't doit as a rebellious act
necessarily.
I did it because I loved thatmusical and I knew the guy who
did the makeup and I knew itwould be fun.
And I knew I could bring in alocal fabric hoarding
organization, for lack of abetter word, that loves to
(13:52):
repurpose old fabric and makethings out of it.
So they made my dresses out ofreclaimed fabrics and things.
But while I was on that march,there was, you know, a male
presenting person who saidspecifically to me, thank you
for normalizing putting ondresses whenever you want.
And I was like, yeah, I wasn'taiming for that, but I totally
(14:15):
appreciate that you feelemboldened to do that now if you
want to do that.
SPEAKER_00 (14:19):
Right.
Right.
Well, you know, I think a lot ofwhat you're speaking about is
the sense of authenticity andhow you project that out into
the world and how take it orleave it in some way.
I think...
Probably the word rebellious wasnot the word I was going for
because I'm someone who likes tothink outside of the box and
(14:41):
help people understand thatthere are many perspectives to
look at a particular subject.
And, you know, when you'reworking with organizations,
especially organizations thatmay be underrepresented or, you
know, aren't necessarily in theforefront and you bring them out
(15:02):
through your perspective,platform.
Like, you know, you use yourplatform as a host on a podcast,
but you actually go out in theworld and physically go out to
these places.
How do you engage and talk aboutsort of difficult subjects with
people like, you know, thinkingabout poverty, thinking about
food insecurity, thinking aboutthose types of things?
SPEAKER_02 (15:25):
I think, again, it comes back down to just being
honest with yourself and askinghonest questions.
So that's, you know, that's whatthis American life does.
They would take a recorder outinto the world and get this
found sound.
And that became an inspirationto me.
It goes back to the Stern again,where he'd like he may be asking
(15:46):
the more salacious questions ata certain time.
But I think as he's evolved,even, you know, he realizes that
that radical authenticity andgetting to the heart of a
matter, it can be the mostengaging style of communication
ever.
for listeners and for thecommunicator.
Like it's more fun for me to gointo a situation as authentic.
(16:06):
Like the only true wisdom is inknowing that, you know, nothing
is what I stole from Bill andTed's excellent adventure.
And if you go into a situationlike, uh, food insecurity, like,
uh, racism as a, you know,there's, I'm in the body that I
was born into, and there's a lotof things I've never had to
experience and you, If you wantto learn about those things, go
(16:28):
into it understanding you don'thave all the answers.
Ask honest questions.
Accept when you have made amistake.
Ask for forgiveness.
And I think it grants you adifferent level of access when
you go in there with the ideathat I'm a learner and I know
I'm going to make mistakes.
But please, I'd love to hearyour story.
(16:50):
It opens up these doors.
doors in different ways asyou're communicating with
individuals.
And then those individualcommunications can cascade into,
you know, bigger conversations.
SPEAKER_00 (17:00):
I absolutely believe that the whole butterfly in the
tsunami conversation.
SPEAKER_02 (17:05):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (17:05):
People, you know, when they feel like I'm just one
person, I can't really make thatmuch of a difference.
And I see you and it's just likeyou're one person and you're
making an incredible differencein your community.
What do you What do you say topeople like that who have that
sort of mindset?
SPEAKER_02 (17:22):
Well, I feel like I'm trying to make a difference
for me.
And if it makes a difference forother people, too, that's great.
But I'm trying to learn.
I'm trying to understand.
I'm trying to engage and havefun with my community in ways
that feel good and authentic tome.
I'm not going out there sayingI'm going to go and fix this
problem.
I'm saying I'm really interestedin this as a topic and I'd like
(17:46):
to learn more about it.
Maybe you can come along on thislearning journey with me.
And ultimately, maybe morepeople learn about it.
And ultimately, maybe it makes abig difference.
But the goal isn't to make thebig difference in a big way.
The goal is to make anindividual difference within
myself, you know, and hope, Idon't know, be the change that
(18:08):
you want to see, I guess.
But I mean, there's some truthto that idea that like, if I can
change my own heart and mind,and just be an authentic witness
to that.
Maybe other people will want tolearn too.
That's
SPEAKER_00 (18:22):
a beautiful way of stating it.
And if someone were having thissort of uncertainty about ways
in which they themselves canimpact.
It really does start withyourself.
Yeah.
You know, you got to have alittle self-love first before
you can actually bring more ofthat into the world.
And what I love is that you havethis incredible curiosity.
I find that your mind reallyseeks all the truths out there.
(18:49):
And what does that look like?
And yes, it may align withwhatever I'm thinking about, or
it may...
reconfigure a lot of the thingsI think about.
You co-host the fabulous 413with Haley Smith.
And for those listeners who arenot from the area, tell us what
that is and what you cover.
SPEAKER_02 (19:08):
Well, it grew out of the show that I created on 93.9
The River, which was a mostlymusic show.
But like, as I mentioned, I'dbring a recorder out into the
world.
Sometimes I'd bring guests bythe studio, but I loved the
sound from just a sonicperspective of like, if you're
talking to a farmer to hear thesheep in the background, there's
nothing.
That's literally what's going tobe on our show today.
(19:29):
So I'm very excited to hear howmuch sheep is going to be
presented.
And I was doing this for areally community focused, but
commercial music radio station.
And I've been a fan of publicradio for as long as I've been a
radio and our local public radiostation wasn't doing a lot of
local conversation.
And I had pitched them actuallymany times over the years to
(19:51):
say, don't you think that thiskind of thing that I'm doing
would work on public radio?
And I got turned down and gotturned down and got turned down.
There was new management hereand they were like looking for
people in the area to try tobring these conversations to the
public radio station.
And they didn't.
came to me and said, what wouldyou think about doing this?
And I had a very particularvision about like what your
(20:13):
station is missing is not allthings considered in Morning
Edition, those great programsthat everybody knows and loves,
but can get literally at anyother public radio station or
online as a podcast.
If radio that is electricitysent to a tower on a hill in an
area that is broadcastinginvisible light to a certain
radius is not talking about thatradius, why would you even have
(20:37):
that tower up?
You know, just go online, justlisten to the, you know, radio
as a technology has a verylimited radius.
And I wanted to talk about thatradius specifically and
exclusively.
So we came up with the idea ofcalling it the fabulous 413.
We were going to just call itthe 413, but somebody had
already trademarked thatsomehow, even though it's the
(20:59):
area code for this area.
Adding the fabulous to it wasenough distance that we called
it that.
The same person, he's thepresident of NEPM, Matt
Abramovitz, who was reaching outto me to have conversations, had
heard Khalees Smith on my othershow, On the River, just nerding
out about board games and musicand things, and said, do you
(21:20):
think Khalees would want to cometoo.
And I was like, well, you shouldask Khalees.
And as much as she missesspinning records, she's been a
part of the show since the verybeginning here, a big part.
And I hope that she thinks thatit was the right decision.
SPEAKER_00 (21:35):
Well, you make a dynamic duo for sure.
I think the chemistry isfantastic.
And I'm curious how you choosewho to engage with to bring to
your audience.
SPEAKER_02 (21:47):
Well, the secret sauce is like it's not it's a
five day a week show.
So imagine doing this show fivedays a week.
SPEAKER_00 (21:53):
I don't know how you do it.
So
SPEAKER_02 (21:56):
here's how you come up with a couple of benchmarks.
segments that, you know, areinteresting, engaging people or
ideas that you want to engagewith on a weekly basis.
So we've got one for every dayof the week, essentially, where
I talk to an astronomer, afriend of mine from Hampshire
College who's been on myprevious show for decades now.
We always team up with CISA, thelocal agricultural advocates,
(22:17):
and find a farmer to talk to.
Merriam-Webster's dictionary isin our backyard and words
fascinate me.
So a friend of mine is an editorat Merriam-Webster who's on the
show every week.
I'm a wine snob.
So we'll go to different wineshops and do a wine tasting and
talk about that and kind ofdispel the myths and rumors
about how highfalutin wine oftenseems to be and make it more
(22:37):
accessible to people that mightjust like to want to try that.
And then our U.S.
Congressman, Jim McGovern, who'salso a big part of the Food Bank
March, is a weekly guest on theshow as well.
So arts and culture.
Yeah, I'll
SPEAKER_00 (22:54):
tell
SPEAKER_02 (22:58):
you that.
And building it around that.
So we did the whole showyesterday from the Emily
Dickinson Museum in Amherst.
So sitting in Emily Dickinson'shouse, first of all, and giving
(23:21):
it that radio terroir.
that I like to use, which isborrowing a wine snob term and
bringing
SPEAKER_00 (23:26):
it over here.
I know that term,
SPEAKER_02 (23:27):
yes.
Yeah.
Placiness is the best way todescribe it.
But to do a broadcast from EmilyDickinson's house, talking about
the history of Emily Dickinsonand her work with contemporary
poets from the area, while youhear a lonesome train whistle in
the background going by and thenreading a poem Emily Dickinson
wrote about how her dad broughtthe trains to Amherst.
And like, it really creates thismagical sense of place.
(23:50):
None of that was explicitlyplanned other than it's national
poetry month.
We're going to the EmilyDickinson museum
SPEAKER_01 (23:55):
and here's a train station,
SPEAKER_02 (23:57):
but you've got to leave yourself open to the magic
of what can happen in those, andby putting yourself in those
contexts and then authenticallyreacting to them in real time
and not being upset that there'sa train whistle that's ruining
my pristine broadcast, but tolike lean into that, you know?
SPEAKER_00 (24:12):
Well, you know, I have to, I have to speak about
this magic because essentiallyyou're sort of drawing in, oops,
all these experiences.
That
SPEAKER_02 (24:22):
was, I don't believe in the, maybe the depths of
levels of spirituality andthings that you're talking
about, Donabelle, but somethingjust knocked over that something
as a cautionary tale to leave,leave it in.
Don't
SPEAKER_00 (24:35):
edit it out.
I'm not.
Okay.
I'll leave it in.
Thanks.
Thanks for that inspiration.
Cause I'd be like, Oh, I'll mutethat.
But, but there's, somethingabout becoming this force.
I feel like you bring thisenergy with you and then you
draw in the experiences throughthese collaborations.
And, you know, I want to go backto the time you traveled when
(24:59):
you were in college and you'reexperiencing all these different
levels of being and seeing.
Does your link to beingconnected with philanthropy stem
from those experiencesspecifically?
I
SPEAKER_02 (25:17):
think so.
Yeah.
I mean, there's one way to lookat it.
You know, as I mentioned, I grewup Catholic and had this radical
born again Christian experience.
And this is going to soundsomewhat blasphemous when I say
this, that it comes from a veryChristian perspective,
obviously.
And it almost doesn't matter tome whether Jesus was a
historical figure or not.
(25:38):
The lessons that you learnthrough Jesus's life, that you
also can learn through everyother major world religion, the
do unto others, the golden rule,that has been what has mostly
stuck with me.
And that is one truth that I dobelieve I can say that I
personally believe is absolutelytrue, that there is some
(26:01):
ineffable something out there.
Nobody has the entirety of itunderstood, but everybody has
that part of it understood.
So I go into everything kind ofwith that.
mentality that the these acts oflove towards our neighbor is is
what drives all of it and i didlearn that through both my
(26:22):
religious upbringing but alsoseeing that work in action in in
travel you know i went tojerusalem with all of this
perspective about pro-israel andthe palestinians are bad when i
lived in jerusalem Almost all Idid was hang out with
Palestinians and they would takeme to their homes and I would go
to Gaza and I would go to theWest Bank or I'd go to the East
(26:44):
Jerusalem and and see how eventhat one city was so divided.
And it became very clear thatthe rhetoric I was being taught
was not real in real people'slives.
That being said, the only timeanyone has ever thrown a rock at
me, it was a child who is a partof Hamas.
And the only time I've ever beenstopped and frisked by a police
(27:05):
officer was It was the IsraeliDefense Force.
So there's so much tension.
And yet at the same time,underneath all of that, there is
this real humanity.
There is this real love that Iwish we could figure out how to
tap into.
And I will keep trying.
SPEAKER_00 (27:25):
That's the goal, I guess.
That's the life mission.
Well, and it's interestingbecause walking in their shoes
in a lot of ways makes me thinkabout Monty's March.
And well, you know, it's kind ofinteresting.
I just had this vision and Iguess I could be authentic about
(27:45):
it in some way becauseimmediately I was thinking as
you were speaking about Jesusand, you know, I have all
respect for all religions.
I'm not religious myself.
I believe in sort of the divinespirit within all.
But there's something about ashe was parading with the cross.
And this is so strange, but Ijust saw the vision of you
(28:12):
walking with the grocery cart.
And I know there are noparallels to that, but that was
just an interesting segue whenyou're talking about it.
That vision came to my mind.
How did you even begin to thinkFirst of all, the timing is
impeccable for this eventbecause it's so it's so much in
the awareness of food andbounty.
(28:33):
But then you really think aboutthe lack of for some.
How did you get started withthis whole because Monty's March
has been happening for how longnow?
SPEAKER_02 (28:41):
I don't know, 16 years.
SPEAKER_00 (28:44):
I'm
SPEAKER_02 (28:46):
also terrible at like anniversaries and things
like that.
They don't they don't matter tome at all.
So I don't really pay attentionto it.
Many years.
SPEAKER_00 (28:53):
Many years.
SPEAKER_02 (28:53):
Yeah.
It started, first of all, theStations of the Cross and Jesus
Carrying the Cross is verydifferent
SPEAKER_00 (29:01):
in my perspective.
Yes, and that's why I said Ijust want to mention that.
But I
SPEAKER_02 (29:05):
appreciate you leaning into your radical
authenticity about wanting tosay that.
I love it.
It is a ridiculous publicitystunt that people that I know
that do this work of foodjustice day in and day out have
asked me to stop calling aridiculous publicity stunt
because they do believe it hashad an impact.
And that makes me feel reallyhonored and humbled.
(29:27):
I was doing another ridiculouspublicity stunt for another
great organization called theCancer Connection in Florence,
which helps people kind ofemotionally navigate through
what it's like to go with cancerwhile at the same time receiving
medical treatment, all for free.
And I would camp out in the coldin the middle of downtown
Northampton and wouldn't leavethis downtown courthouse lawn
(29:47):
until we raised X amount ofdollars for the Cancer
Connection.
That went on for over 10 years.
People started camping out withme over the years and went from
trying to raise$5,000 in yearone to raising over$100,000 in
the last year.
SPEAKER_00 (30:02):
Incredible.
SPEAKER_02 (30:04):
We were also doing a fundraiser for the food bank
where we would put a shoppingcart out in front of Whole Foods
and ask people to put in cans.
It wasn't a fundraiser.
It was a food drive.
And the people from the foodbank.
I think being somewhat jealousof the success of the Cancer
Connection campout, said, if wedid a fund drive, we could
actually, you know, you're goingto pay$3 for a can of pinto
(30:26):
beans at Whole Foods.
But if we get$3, we can go buy awhole pallet of scratch and dent
pinto beans that fell off atruck and we have the capacity
to warehouse it.
If you really care about thisissue, would you consider a fund
drive rather than a food drive?
And it was a very great argumentand makes total sense to me.
Like canned drives are great.
They feel good.
You can be interactive.
(30:47):
And yet that$3 I spent at WholeFoods, if I gave it right to the
food bank, they can do so muchmore with it.
So we brainstormed about what itcould be because I thought
another ridiculous publicitystunt might work.
They said, what if you took thatshopping cart that was parked in
front of Whole Foods and pushedit like door to door in downtown
North Hampton and asked like thelocal businesses to make
(31:07):
contributions?
And I said, what if I took thatshopping cart and pushed it from
North Hampton all the way toGreenfield, 26 miles away and do
like a marathon.
And that was the aha moment.
Light bulb went off and we wereall like, let's do it.
And the first year was the samething where it was like, let's
try to raise$5,000.
It was just me and like the guydriving the radio station van.
(31:28):
And when the sun went down,another like salesman, you know,
holding a flashlight out infront of me so I didn't get hit
by a car.
And it's now grown into thishuge event.
SPEAKER_00 (31:39):
How much do you raise now?
SPEAKER_02 (31:40):
We raised over $600,000 this last year.
SPEAKER_00 (31:43):
Oh, my
SPEAKER_02 (31:44):
God.
Yeah.
So it is stupid.
But great.
I mean, and it's not all fromindividual contributions.
There's a lot of businesses thathave stepped up their support.
There's a lot of people andbusinesses that incentivize
other giving by putting upchallenge donations and things
like that.
So, yeah.
And that...
grew out of the river and thenHMP, the station that you are
(32:07):
on, it's also a big booster ofit.
But the fact that the publicradio station, I basically said,
I'm going to do this march oneway or the other.
You can either help participatein it too, or I'm going to keep
doing it with my old buddieshere.
And it's been another amazingopportunity for competing medias
to come together for a goodcause.
SPEAKER_00 (32:29):
Well, and what I love too is it's also engaging
for the community.
In real life, like people marchwith you.
You're not out there aloneanymore.
You have trails of people.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_02 (32:40):
it's great.
I mean, and it first of all,it's, you know, the physicality
because it's grown from just 26miles from Northampton to
Greenfield to 43 miles over twodays from Springfield, where I
am now at any p.m.
to Northampton on day one andNorthampton.
And the reason that I wanted toexpand it is because the more I
learned about food insecurity,the more I learned about how the
(33:03):
greatest need was in these urbanareas, Springfield, Chicopee,
Holyoke, which we all gothrough.
And as you know, Donabelle, ifyou live north of the so-called
Tofu Curtain, the Holyoke Range,yeah, there's a lot of affluence
and a lot of, you know, let'sjust say it, you know, affluent
whiteness and well-intentionedaffluent liberal whiteness north
of the tofu curtain, while inliteral walking distance south
(33:25):
of the tofu curtain, there'speople of all different
backgrounds that are sufferingto a much greater level of
issues of food insecurity thanthey are just 25 miles north.
So it was an opportunity to thatentire time we are walking to be
talking and listening aboutthese issues while raising money
(33:45):
and while doing a ridiculouspublicity stunt.
while dressed up as one of thewitches from Wicked.
SPEAKER_00 (33:51):
Well, I have to say, you're definitely upping your
game with your
SPEAKER_02 (33:55):
costumes.
Yeah, I don't know what I'mgoing to do
SPEAKER_00 (33:58):
next year yet.
It's hard to top that one,although you've been...
Tell us what other charactersyou've been over
SPEAKER_02 (34:05):
the years.
Ooh, let's see.
The first year, I just was like,can I even walk 26 miles in one
day?
That's a good question.
So I just wore athletic gear,and then I wore a shirt that had
the map of...
Massachusetts on it.
And then I dressed up as anastronaut and I dressed up in a
gold lame suit and I had anElvis costume made for me.
(34:28):
I remember that one, yes.
There's so many other good ones.
Oh, I one year, AOC went to theMet Gala in a dress that said
tax the rich.
SPEAKER_01 (34:36):
Yes.
So I
SPEAKER_02 (34:37):
had a dress on me that said tax the rich and also
had a shawl that said end hungernow.
So,
SPEAKER_00 (34:43):
yeah.
So on point.
You are so on point and withyou.
your costumes.
I
SPEAKER_02 (34:48):
was Barbie and Ken.
So I was Ken one day and thenBarbie the next
SPEAKER_00 (34:53):
day.
I thought you did half and half.
SPEAKER_02 (34:55):
No.
Yeah.
It would be too hard.
Maybe one of these years I'll dothat.
SPEAKER_00 (34:58):
Well, you know, you're lucky it's like November.
So you can actually put on a lotof clothing.
If this was in the summer, thatwould definitely be quite a
challenge for you to have.
Well, when I
SPEAKER_02 (35:08):
was Elphaba, I mean, when I was Glinda and when I was
Barbie, I did not have on a lotof clothing.
So it was also cold.
SPEAKER_00 (35:14):
But you're moving.
Well, that's true.
You're moving.
So, yeah.
That's true.
So what's next for you?
Is there anything...
on the horizon that you'reparticularly excited about?
Aside from your daily work,working with communities.
SPEAKER_02 (35:27):
Yeah.
I mean, I don't really, I don't,I'm not one of those people
that's like, what's my five-yearplan?
You know, I really try to justtake it day to day or maybe like
in all honesty, like month tomonth.
So there's no, like, I'm notworking on any big, huge project
right now, other than creating adaily radio show at a new ish,
(35:49):
place for me to make.
So I want to make sure that thelevel of quality is there, but
expanding, you know, pushing theboundaries of what has been done
in this building more and more,which is really exciting.
So we're, I mean, we're livingin an era where everything is
feeling like it's spiraling outof people's bounds of
(36:09):
understanding.
And what I'm trying to use theshow to do is to create a force
where people can still feel likethey can Yeah.
(36:44):
would talk about these reallybig and important issues.
And then he would also go likevisit a crayon factory to learn
how crayons are made and alsolike go hang out with Yo-Yo Ma
and hear some beautiful music.
So those touchstones and hismentality, it permeates
everything we do here.
I do feel like we'reneighborhood building a la
(37:06):
another public radio, a publictelevision legend, Mr.
Rogers.
SPEAKER_00 (37:12):
Well, it's interesting being on, New
England Public Media versus,say, WRSI, have you noticed a
difference in how you engagewith the audience or how the
audience engages with you?
SPEAKER_02 (37:26):
Well, I mean, it was a live call-in show on WRSI, so
there was some real-timeengagement that's not happening
here, and I don't really thinkit would work for the format
that we're doing very well.
And the other thing is becausewe're a public media and
associated with a newsorganization, I don't and can't,
(37:46):
by contract, advocatespecifically for specific
issues.
Well, I guess nobody'spro-hunger, I don't think.
So I have to be a little bitmore careful to protect the
whole organization to make surethat we're looking at issues
fairly, while at the same timerecognizing that there are some
(38:07):
very clear wrongs that arehappening in the world and to
still be talking about them.
And art is a nice way to viewall of these things through a
non-political lens to addresssome very political problems.
And that's sort of the onlydifference we've made.
We're like on the river duringthe post-murder of George Floyd
(38:33):
and in the middle of COVID,there are people that were
feeling like they wanted to taketo the streets, but also felt
like they didn't want to getsick.
So like I created with the teamthere, this rolling rally, the
Black Lives Matter rally, wherepeople would get in their car
and there was a soundtrack thatwe had curated and had a bunch
of speakers talking about issuespertaining to racism and police
(38:57):
brutality that you could just,with your family, if you wanted
to, drive around and listen towhile listening to this
soundtrack.
So that would be somethingharder to do here, not only
because we're not a music radiostation, we're a talk radio
station, and also because thatmight be viewed as too overtly
advocacy.
And I have to kind of try toview things in a more fair and
(39:19):
balanced way.
It's why you should continue tosupport public radio and
television.
Yeah, because they want to tryto be as fair as possible, you
SPEAKER_00 (39:26):
know?
Right, right.
And, you know, without ourpublic radio, who knows what
we'd be listening to?
Yeah.
Exactly.
And I feel like also too, youknow, and I'm sure you believe
this too, but the arts reallyhave...
this unique ability to fostersocial change in ways that other
(39:46):
platforms may necessarily havestruggled with.
And the interesting thing isthey're cutting funding for the
arts.
And so, you know, that's a wholeother conversation at
SPEAKER_02 (39:58):
this point.
It's why when there's these hugefascist political movements that
it's often the artists and thepoets that they come for very
early on because they add theinspiration They bolster the
spirit of the people that areadvocating for change.
So if you take away that hopeand joy at the beginning, it's a
(40:19):
lot easier to enact your agenda.
SPEAKER_00 (40:22):
Oh, my gosh.
Right.
Well, you know, as long as thereare people like you out in the
world, which is why I alwayslike to highlight the lights in
the world, who really bringabout the beauty of our
humanity.
you know, how we are allconnected in ways that are
special and unique, butessentially we're all the same
(40:46):
and we kind of have to look outfor each other.
And when you are in a place ofprivilege where you have a
platform to sort of spread thatin a way that's so impactful,
it's a beautiful thing.
And, you know, I'm so thankfulthat you Yeah.
Yeah.
(41:13):
Oh, yeah.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_02 (41:29):
I go three days a week.
It is my it's my new religion, Iguess.
I mean, I tell everybody I'm adevout agnostic, but I do
believe in what you were sayingwhere there is this
interconnected humanity that weare made of star stuff and we're
all the same stuff.
And yet things can get sochaotic and the busyness of
daily life.
And also, I hate exercise.
(41:49):
So if I can be training the mindand the body at the same time, I
can trick myself into believingI'm not exercising.
That's become a really, youknow.
And then I'm at the Sheavolunteering a lot.
But then again, that's just metaking in more art.
It's me.
I'm a consumer.
I'm trying to consume all of thegoodness that the universe has
to offer us because I know ourtime here is limited.
(42:12):
So I literally get angry everynight when I have to go to bed
because I hate sleep.
I feel like it is a flaw in thedesign.
We should just be able toexperience all of the wonder all
of the time.
And I feel...
ripped off when I'm like, oh,
SPEAKER_00 (42:27):
I'm going to be sleeping for eight hours.
Come on.
Well, briefly, I would love toknow your connection with the
Shay because I know they're inyour hometown.
I understand that.
But what do you love about theShay?
SPEAKER_02 (42:40):
Well, it started because my kids were in a
Shakespeare program where theywere learning, doing full uncut
works of Shakespeare.
And there was a board that wasrunning this tiny little gem of
a theater.
And the board was not going tocontinue until And my kids
program still wanted to use thatas their home base.
It was convenient for us asparents because it was a mile
from our house as opposed tohaving to drive them wherever.
(43:01):
And because I was connected withso many other people in the
arts, it was actually theNorthampton Center for the Arts
director at the time, PennyBurke, who was like, hey, we're
moving our building.
We don't have anything to do.
The Shea needs a board.
We're going to you should formit and we're going to help you.
And I was like, oh, fine.
So.
SPEAKER_00 (43:20):
I love that they just tell you and you're like,
okay.
SPEAKER_02 (43:22):
When Penny Burke tells you what to do, you do it.
So we did do it.
And I got together a great groupof people that many of whom are
still very much involved, if noton the board.
And yeah, and it's really justusing this theater as a place
where if you can imagine howthis theater can be used, we
want to help enable that.
Can I swear on this podcast?
(43:43):
Sure.
Sure.
Okay.
So it's like right this week,I'm convening a bunch of
Franklin County creatives in ateam that I'm calling the Shea
Helpful Imagination Team or theshit.
Excellent.
To literally just be like, lookat the bones of this building.
And you're an artist who has atrack record of making things
happen.
Want to make anything happenhere?
(44:04):
Let's figure out how to make ithappen together.
Because it's a nonprofit.
It's owned by the town.
It's a community asset.
And I want to just continue tofigure out how to make it
thrive.
SPEAKER_00 (44:13):
And it's a beautiful venue.
Yeah, it is.
A historical venue.
And it's just, it's a gem.
It literally is this diamond inthe rough.
And it's just, you've turned itinto now this sort of epicenter
in this, in the town, I'd haveto say.
You're trying, you know, yourone little spark.
Well, as we closed today, isthere anything particular you
(44:33):
would love to say to helpencourage people to...
Kind of be thinking about thebigger picture.
I
SPEAKER_02 (44:49):
don't know how to encourage people or inspire
people to do it other than tojust to do it myself and hope
that I'm doing it in a way thatfeels inspirational to other
people.
But I like to say that, like, Idon't feel like this comes from
within me.
I like to think of myself as amirror that, you know, there is
so much goodness around us that.
(45:12):
given the platform that I am solucky to have, if I can be the
biggest mirror I can to shinewhat else and reflect what else
is going on to everyone else,then maybe their mirror will
reflect it.
And it'll be this incredible,like, you know, series of light,
these little lights of ours, youknow, shining and reflecting all
(45:32):
over the place.
The other thing I love to say,and it's almost cliche at this
point, because I say it sofrequently, but, you know, when
you come into a radio studio,there's a, sign that goes on
that says on the air but thetechnology of radio is actually
light it's part of the invisiblelight spectrum so we're not
blowhards we don't have to beblowhards creating air we can
(45:56):
literally be spreading light andso I try to remember that I have
this power at my disposal thathas been granted to me for one
reason or another and to justremember to keep spreading the
light
SPEAKER_00 (46:10):
oh
SPEAKER_02 (46:10):
man
SPEAKER_00 (46:11):
That's so beautiful.
I love that.
I love your passion foruplifting the community.
I love what you do in the world.
It's so remarkable.
And to be witness to that issuch a privilege.
And I hope I can do that aswell.
And I love that.
I love being the mirror becauseI always feel like we're
(46:33):
basically a disco ball.
We're all different.
We're parts of the disco balland every facet of that disco
ball is us.
And, but we're all part of thesame disco ball.
And if we could just like shinethe light on that, it's, it
creates a beautiful rainbow.
SPEAKER_02 (46:48):
I'm stealing your, I'm stealing your disco ball
metaphor.
It's more, it's more in linewith all my quirky, weird
costumes and David Bowie loveand things.
SPEAKER_00 (46:56):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I actually got that from myteacher when she said, you know,
Life, L-I-F-E, is love in fullexpression.
And the disco ball is where it'sat.
That's where I go by.
But anyway, I appreciate you andI appreciate you being on the
show.
Monty Belmonte, thank you forjoining us today and just
(47:17):
sharing the love, sharing thelove.
SPEAKER_02 (47:19):
Thank you for welcoming me here, Donabell.
It's been great.
SPEAKER_00 (47:25):
Thanks so much for tuning in today.
I'm so glad you spent this timewith me.
If something in this episoderesonated, feel free to share it
or pass it along to someone whomight need that little spark.
I'd also love to hear what cameup for you.
Send me a message or drop acomment on Instagram at
tohumishuman.
(47:46):
You can also find more episodesand updates at sonorouslight.com
or on your favorite podcastplatform.
Until next time, keep humming.
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