The True Philadelphia Podcast with Matt O'Donnell
Philadelphia's morning news guy for 6abc Action News talks to the "true" people of Philadelphia and the surrounding region. They are tough, they are frank, they fascinating and they are ours!
Episodes
June 28, 2021 • 18 mins
The music director and conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2012 has been starved of performing live music since the shutdowns began in March of 2020. And he knows classical music lovers are starved for its return.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin sat down with Matt O'Donnell at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts ahead of the special "Hail to the Heroes" performance, the Orchestra's first before a live audience in 14 months.
"Hai...
Mark as Played
November 10, 2020 • 45 mins
Yes, calling oneself the "Director of Fun" is a boastful exercise but Springdale Golf Club professional Keith Stewart lives the title every day. His early career brought him to Isleworth Country Club in Florida while Tiger Woods was destroying PGA fields and golf courses in the late 90s and early 00s and has great insight ahead of the best time of year for golf: Masters Week! Tiger will be defending his 2019 title and we talk about...
Mark as Played
Dr. Jonathan Epstein leads an institution that is researching just about every angle you can think of when it comes to COVID-19: vaccines, treatments, contact tracing, the long-term effects of an infection, the mystery of being asymptomatic and who should be vaccinated first.
Dr. Epstein is the Chief Scientific Officer at Penn's Perelman School of Medicine. He has been leading this pivotal institution from his home in Wayne, PA sin...
Mark as Played
October 12, 2020 • 42 mins
Back in the spring, Adam Weiner decided he had to do something. The pandemic suddenly prevented his band, Low Cut Connie, from their lifeblood - performing live music. While in the spare room of his South Philadelphia home, he started broadcasting what would become the "Tough Cookies" series. He sings, he dances, he bangs on his stand-up piano, he offers words of enlightenment and hope. Originally a vehicle to simply entertain thos...
Mark as Played
October 8, 2020 • 21 mins
Buddy Blanchard fronts the world's greatest Van Halen tribute band: Philadelphia's own Romeo Delight. Buddy, as you might have guessed, plays the part of David Lee Roth.
We first met several years ago when I started this podcast. I thought it was great that we had such an authentic representation of the great music of Van Halen right in our backyard. I played with the band in their practice space in Huntingdon Valley and I had the ...
Mark as Played
September 10, 2020 • 15 mins
Dr. Argie Allen-Wilson is a mental health and relationship therapist based in Montgomery County. My conversation with her on this episode of Inside Story was such a positive experience, I wanted to share it with you.
So much negativity is converging as we speak: the pandemic, a new and frustrating school year, the nastiness of the presidential campaign, joblessness, poverty, systemic racism and uncertainty for our future.
Dr. Argie...
Mark as Played
September 4, 2020 • 29 mins
Dr. Thomas Farley spent much of his adult life preparing for this moment: leading a large US city through a worldwide pandemic. The health commissioner of Philadelphia is a North Jersey native, a pediatrician and an epidemiologist with a deep background in studying infectious diseases, particularly with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Farley and I spoke via Zoom and went back to those early days of the pandemic ...
Mark as Played
TRUE PHILADELPHIA PODCAST:
Brian Tierney is Philadelphia's ultimate "Ad Man." The list of companies he's represented in strategizing, marketing and crisis management is long and diverse: Independence Blue Cross, Uber, Aramark, IBM, Verizon to name a few. He's the former owner and publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Daily News and (what was then known as) Philly.com. He has a deep resume in campaign politics: Sam Katz and Ge...
Mark as Played
July 20, 2020 • 32 mins
Maribel Aber of CNN Newsource has been providing Action News with early morning financial reports for eight years. Typically she reports live from the NASDAQ Marketsite in Times Square, New York. She moved her broadcast operation to a home in Florida when the pandemic began to set in and has been there ever since.
Maribel's deep knowledge of Wall Street, business and stocks is apparent. So is her positive, uplifting personality. We...
Mark as Played
When you ask Michael Coard what he thinks about anything, he will give you an answer - unfiltered. The longtime Philadelphia criminal defense lawyer has been talking for decades about racial issues that we now see at the forefront today: inequities in how African-Americans are treated in the judicial system, by police, in the workplace and with history.
Coard joked that as fewer and fewer people see him as a "radical" maybe he need...
Mark as Played
The idea of the US government spending several decades preparing to ride out an apocalypse by building an entire city in a hollowed-out mountain is fascinating - and terrifying, all the same. This city is contained within a massive bunker carved out of an Appalachian mountain known as Raven Rock. Historian, author and journalist Garrett Graff wrote the definitive book about it.
I spoke to Garrett via a Zoom connection from his home...
Mark as Played
May 15, 2020 • 25 mins
Jerri Williams spent 26 years as an FBI agent, mostly in the Philadelphia division. You might remember seeing her on Action News as the spokeswoman for the FBI and later on SEPTA before her retirement. Williams was able to remold herself post-retirnement as a successful author of fiction and non-fiction and as a podcaster. How did she figure out how to do this? She just learned, worked hard and did it.
I spoke to Williams through a...
Mark as Played
April 27, 2020 • 35 mins
Jeff Pearlman and I were classmates at the University of Delaware and colleagues at the independent campus newspaper The Review. Jeff was the editor-in-chief our senior year and let's just say, that was a pretty crazy year. We explain why during this podcast.
Jeff is a New York Times best-selling author. His latest book coming out this fall details the Kobe Bryant-led era of the Los Angeles Lakers. That begins our discussion, which...
Mark as Played
April 22, 2020 • 25 mins
Ali Gorman has been our go-to for all things health, medical and wellness for more than 12 years. The South Jersey native's expertise has never been more needed or valued now.
The registered nurse started her medical career with the Navy as a Nurse Corps officer. She knows what people on the front lines are dealing with right now. Ali opens up her knowledge bank to offer her thoughts on the whole host of uncertainties about this no...
Mark as Played
When concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated and the stay-at-home orders went into place in March of 2020, my entire family was suddenly at home a lot more than usual. My dog Bailey, a generally happy-go-lucky eight-year-old Shichon, immediately knew something was wrong. He seemed spooked, he acted stressed and he watched us more closely. Bailey might have even picked up on our general concern as parents - I mean, remember...
Mark as Played
Archbishop Nelson Perez was all set to bring new leadership to the Philadelphia Archdiocese - until all of his plans changed. The coronavirus pandemic has eliminated gatherings and kept 1.4 million Catholics in our region at home.
Archbishop Perez talks about his very strange and unexpected start in his new job with the church. Our conversation also veers off the COVID-19 course to get his views on God, heaven, leadership and Pope ...
Mark as Played
March 29, 2020 • 31 mins
Dr. Susan Weiss works in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. She is also the co-director of Penn's newly-founded Center for Research on Coronaviruses and Other Emerging Pathogens. Penn's lab, which is considered a Biosafety Level 3 lab, obtained actual samples of the coronavirus that is sweeping across the world. Dr. Weiss is working from her home in Montgomery County to p...
Mark as Played
March 20, 2020 • 40 mins
Ricky Singh is an amazing man. He climbed Mount Everest and made it back alive on May 21, 2019. Before even considering attempting this feat, Singh went and ran a marathon in every single state. Fifty of them! Doing both of these is a first. Singh says he is also the first American Sikh and second Indian-American to reach the top of the planet. He is also the first Everest summiter I've ever met, which is a far more insignificant a...
Mark as Played
March 19, 2020 • 22 mins
We need a little hope right now, don't you agree? I called my colleague and friend Ajay Raju to help me convey some positive thinking on this crisis. Please know that both of us truly understand people are suffering out there. Lives are being lost, people are getting sick, incomes have diminished to nothing, hopes and dreams have been erased. But in times of crises, human beings always adapt and survive. It is our nature.
Ajay is a...
Mark as Played
March 18, 2020 • 29 mins
Let's get back to the basics on this pandemic. What is a virus? What is a coronavirus? How long have they been around? Why aren't young people getting infected as much? Dr. Judd Hollander answers all of these questions and more, and tells us which questions we cannot answer yet.
Dr. Hollander is an associate dean at Jefferson's medical college, an emergency room doctor and has been working on a project to expand "telemedicine" whic...
Mark as Played
Popular Podcasts
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.
Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S. centering Latino stories, hosted by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Maria Hinojosa Every week, the Peabody winning team brings you revealing, in-depth stories about what’s in the hearts and minds of Latinos and their impact on the world. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peaks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Latino USA and all our podcasts. www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus