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Something Rather Than Nothing

Ken Volante | Creative Organizing

Why is there something rather than nothing? 

This podcast is a philosophical and psychological exploration into the act of creation. Follow the paths to personal liberation, creativity, music, painting, deep thinking and the art of the intelligent conversation.

ONE LOVE!

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  • 21 episodes
  • Avg 46 min
  • English

Episodes 21

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  • S1 · E324
    Wednesday · 42 min

    Vanessa and Isobel Stockard tackle The Universe

    Famous Painter Vanessa Stockard and her adventurer-space-mind-explorer-daughter Isobel tackle The Universe! A Something Rather Than Nothing podcast exclusive

  • S1 · E323
    August 17 · 30 min

    swinewomb

    Swinewomb is a Southern Gothic psychosexual horror play set in the deeply religious town of Caleb’s Rest, where two siblings unravel in the aftermath of their parents’ deaths. As Shiloh spirals into a dangerous affair and begins hearing a voice that may be the devil’s, hysteria spreads through the community. The play blurs the line between piety and possession, asking where evil truly lives. This episode features Reese Villella, Julia Ordway and Carter Williams. Play opening details: Venue: The West End Theatre, 263 W 86th St, New York, NY 10024 Dates: August 22 & 23, 2026 This is Something Rather Than Nothing

  • S1 · E322
    July 29 · 59 min

    Victor V Gurbo

    Victor V. Gurbo is a roots revivalist singer-songwriter whose work blends folk, blues, and Americana into a sound that feels both timeless and contemporary. Backed by a four-piece band, he delivers original songs anchored in storytelling and driven by raw, rhythmic energy. His music draws inspiration from the canon of American song and poetry while maintaining a distinct, contemporary voice. Whether performing in intimate venues or on larger stages, Gurbo brings an unfiltered intensity to his work. With a deep respect for tradition and a forward-looking approach, he continues to carve out a unique space within today’s Americana landscape.

  • S1 · E321
    July 22 · 27 min

    Jadon Allen and Guilt!

    Guilt! is a clothing & video company founded in Portland, Oregon, by Jadon Allen. Each creative work from the company draws inspiration from street art, life experiences, and collaboration. Dark themes are juxtaposed with unapologetically bold and colorful visuals. The company recently relocated to Madison, Wisconsin, with a mission to continue expanding its creative endeavors and connect with new people. New pieces release Fridays at 2:22 PM (PT) on GUILT and video services are available worldwide. DM @guiltpdx for more information! Something Rather Than Nothing Podcast Website

  • S1 · E320
    July 15 · 49 min

    NOX SINISTER with Nathan Shapiro

    Nox Sinister is hard to pin down into just one subgenre of heavy metal. They use a blend of techniques borrowed from NWOBHM, thrash, progressive, death and even power metal. The members of Sinister pride themselves on marrying aggression with theatricality, often using brutal thrashing riffs to tell complex stories with broad themes. Heavily inspired by the works of Shakespeare, dark fantasy, medieval history, comic book supervillains, and the world of horror movies, Nox Sinister seeks to create a new kind of sound and a new kind of live performance. Often using the phrase they have coined; "violent musical theatre,' Sinister is a force to be reckoned with both in the studio and on the stage. Something Rather Than Nothing Podcast

  • July 9 · 53 sec

    Something Rather Than Nothing Trailer

    Listen to Something Rather Than Nothing one of the world's biggest indie podcasts! Explore ways to creativity, paths to philosophy, ideas to transform and introductions to life's most fascinating creators. Find dancers, painters, thinkers, musicians, esoteric conceptualists, physical contortionists, baseball stories, poets, s^xy movers and shakers, movie directors and, maybe, FIND YOURSELF!? Website Here

  • S1 · E319
    July 8 · 1 hr 11 min

    Rachael Renae and How to Prioritize Play

    Rachael Renae Rachael Renae is an artist, play enthusiast, and creativity hype gal based in Detroit, MI. She helps people prioritize play to overcome creative blocks, better connect with themselves and their people, and confidently live big, fulfilling lives. When she’s not facilitating play workshops or co-hosting the Chaotic Creatives podcast, she’s likely gabbing with pals over voice notes and making a papier-mache project. Something Rather Than Nothing Website

  • S1 · E318
    June 22 · 45 min

    'On the Phone' Film Premiere with Kenny Sale and Matthew Kyle Levine

    When a young influencer lands a dog food sponsorship, she recruits her estranged mother to co-star - hoping to turn a work obligation into a chance to reconnect. As she road-trips with her boyfriend toward the visit, anxiety builds while personal and professional pressures blur, culminating in a surreal unravelling. Interview with STAR Kenny Sale and Star Director MKL. Raindance timely info for SHOWING Son June 23, 2026 Matthew Kyle Levine page

  • S1 · E317
    May 26 · 1 hr 6 min

    k.g.m.r. and The Rockford Files aesthetic

    kgmr is a composer, songwriter, keyboardist, field recorder, sampler, and noise maker. kgmr writes for solo piano, rock trio, larger ensembles, and electronic instrumentation. Her music has been used in films, theater, and radio. She appears elsewhere as a guest keyboardist.kgmr started writing and recording music in elementary school using a Casio keyboard, a Magnus organ, and a tape recorder. Her first compositions were imagined as soundtracks for horror films. Early sampling projects using prank phone calls and the tape recorder were unfortunately stopped by the police. As a child, she formally trained under Mlle. Yvonne Combe at the French School of Music. The kgmr band is a Portland-based duo made up of kgmr (keyboards, samples, field recordings, noise, vocals) and Bobby Read (guitar, bass, drums, violin, samples, field recordings, noise, vocals). They invite collaborators on projects locally, nationally, and internationally.​​discography: Backlash of the Hunter (Live EP), kgmr, 2025 St. Roch (LP), kgmr, 2025 Keep Going Mystical Rider (EP), kgmr, 2022Spin Down Night (EP), kgmr, 2021 this happened (LP), Half Ass West Studio Band, 2009evening with fallen tree (LP), kgmr, 2008 migrate to carnivora (LP), kgmr, 2007i nstant confidante (LP), kgmr, 2005body language (EP), kgmr, 2003​​​ k.g.m.r. Something Rather Than Nothing Podcast

  • S1 · E316
    May 5 · 30 min

    Cryptic Divination from the soil of Eugene, Oregon

    Influenced by bands like Opeth and Cynic, Cryptic Divination is a unique "second generation" of sounds from '90s death metal to '70s prog rock. Utilizing heavy riffs, clean sections and screams, they embody a new wave of pacific-northwest progressive death metal.

  • S1 · E315
    April 13 · 29 min

    April Fox and Deep Dark Yoga

    April Fox has been teaching yoga in Portland OR since 2014, and running classes to doom metal since 2016. 🌒Deep Dark Yoga 🌘 is slow, gentle flow to the sludgiest, heaviest tunes you can test your amps to. Great for beginners and “not into yoga” people — perfect for anyone interested in tuning on their mat with an epic soundtrack

  • S1 · E314
    March 23 · 45 min

    Lee Upton

    Introduction to Lee Upton: I am a multi-genre author, not because I’m polygamous when it comes to genre, but because each genre is addictive and possibly a bit contagious. Along with The Withers and Tabitha, Get Up, I’ve written seven collections of poetry, two short story collections, a novella, four books of literary criticism, and an essay collection. My poetry has appeared widely, including in The New Yorker, Poetry, and Southern Review, as well as three editions of Best American Poetry. I am the recipient of the Pushcart Prize, Poetry Society of America awards, the Miami University Novella Prize, the Saturnalia Book Prize, and other honors. For over three decades I taught at Lafayette College, where I assumed the title Francis A. March Professor Emerita of English and Writer in Residence when I stepped away from teaching to write full time.

  • S1 · E313
    February 24 · 36 min

    SWOON with Caledonia Curry

    Caledonia Curry, known as Swoon, is a contemporary artist and filmmaker recognized around the world for her pioneering vision of public artwork. Through intimate portraits, immersive installations, and multi-year community based projects, she has spent over 20 years exploring the depths of human complexity, and asking how art can fundamentally re-envision the communities we live in towards a more just and equitable world. She is best known as one of the first women Street Artists to gain international recognition in a male-dominated field, pushing its conceptual limits and paving the way for a generation of women Street Artists. As a classically trained printmaker, she has innovated new approaches to create large-scale relief prints and intricate papercut works. The deep consideration of form is inseparable from Curry’s vision of the transformative role of public art in communities. Her critical engagement with issues of social and environmental justice have positioned her at the forefront of the emergent discourse around socially-engaged art practices. Her commitment to expanding the possibilities of art to repair trauma and foster personal and collective healing continues to drive her substantial contributions to contemporary art through her work with portraiture, sculpture, installation and most recently, stop-motion animation. Something Rather Than Nothing Website

  • S1 · E312
    January 27 · 33 min

    Darrin Doyle

    Darrin Doyle was born in Saginaw, Michigan. He has worked as a paperboy, a janitor, a mover, a telemarketer, a door-to-door salesman, a Kinko's Copy Consultant, a porn store clerk, a pizza delivery guy, a prep cook, a magazine store clerk, a technical writer, a freelance newspaper writer, an English teacher in Japan, and finally, a professor and an author. ​Darrin has a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do and wishes he had stuck with it a little longer to get the danged black belt. Darrin hoards and plays lots of musical instruments: guitar, piano, drums, mandolin, banjo, bass, ukelele, and a diatonic 4-string stick dulcimer. He lives in Mount Pleasant, Michigan and teaches at Central Michigan University. He knows what skeletons do.

  • S1 · E311
    January 1 · 1 hr 10 min

    ART BAR Magazine

    Art Bar is a thick, coffee table Art Magazine, printed in the U.S. on high quality paper stock. The features are about the lived human experiences of creatives and how they shape our artwork. We are aiming to fill a space in the art world, inspiring both established and emerging artists.

  • S1 · E310
    Dec 1, 2025 · 32 min

    Keeli Littleleaf and Indigenous Fashion

    A proud powwow dancer, cultural educator, and fashion visionary, Keeli Littleleaf continues to blaze trails wherever she goes. Known for her signature high-step jingle and fringe style, she embodies power, healing, and movement through every step and every stitch. As the founder of the Northwest/West Coast Indigenous Fashion show & Market and creator of AYAYAT, a fashion line inspired by her Indian name Ayayat Washasha — meaning “beautiful dancing” — Keeli weaves ancestral teachings into breathtaking couture that celebrates body positivity, inclusivity, and Indigenous elegance. From walking NYC Fashion Week to designing for MMIP awareness with her powerful Medicine Ledger Dress, Keeli’s artistry moves with purpose and passion. She is the heartbeat of a new generation — where fashion becomes ceremony and storytelling becomes medicine.

  • S1 · E309
    Nov 17, 2025 · 39 min

    'Connoly' with Stefan Diethelm and Bradly Valenzuela

    Stefan Diethelm is a Swiss and German artist, originally from Uzwil, Switzerland. He fell in love with performing at a young age, was trained in classical voice throughout his teens, and studied musical theatre in Hamburg, Germany. He moved to New York City to further his craft, and studied at the HB Studio under instructors like Lonny Price, Peter Francis James and Theresa McElwee. HB Studio is also where he met Eduardo Machado and started writing plays while in his class. Since graduating from the studio, he has been a working playwright, actor, producer, and director here in the city. He has acted on various stages, from Off- and Off-Off-Broadway to Switzerland and Germany, and his plays have been performed in a variety of theaters and festivals in New York and beyond, garnering positive national and international reviews. His biggest influences as a playwright include Sarah Kane, Samuel Beckett, Adrienne Kennedy and the European classics. He aims to create original, human art for our commercialized times. Bradly Valenzuela is a New York City based director, playwright and producer. He is originally from Rocklin, California and attended university in Southern California at California State University, Fullerton. He graduated with a BA in Theatre with an Emphasis in Directing. Bradly is a recipient of the Honorable Mention Directing Award for Region 8 of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. For the past 5 years, he has worked within many theater companies such as Bated Breath Theatre Company, Mabou Mines and Theatre for the New City. He also has worked in multiple festivals, including the Rogue Theater Festival and the New York Theater Festival. Along with collaborating in these given spaces, Bradly shows continued commitment to workshopping and developing new works, both as a director, playwright and as a producer, being responsible for 6 debuts in the last 2 years.

  • S1 · E308
    Nov 3, 2025 · 1 hr 31 min

    Crystal Skillman

    Crystal Skillman is an internationally award-winning playwright, fictional podcast writer, and comic book author who has written for Stories Podcast (Wondery Kids), Girl Tales, Adventure Time comics, as well as Marvel comics. In addition to Open and The Rocket Men, Crystal is the dramatist of RAIN AND ZOE SAVE THE WORLD (premiered in the UK in 2022) and the NYTimes Critics’ Pick plays GEEK, CUT, and KING KIRBY which you can listen to on Broadway Podcast Network. We talk about the big issues of history, war, justice and art. We focus on her new play 'The Rocket Men.' The Rocket Men is a unique theatrical experience that carries us through time in a blink of an eye to present the story of the German "Rocket Men" who used their scientific skills to flee Nazi Germany and settle in the most unlikely of places...North Alabama. These men form the backbone of NASA’s rocketry program. In this modern play, women (employees at Space Camp), step into roles playing the men focusing on Heinz- Hermann Koelle, a lesser-known young German rocketeer, who joined this "Operation Paperclip" team years later; Rocket Men explores the dynamic relationship of Wernher von Braun and Koelle as these two have set their sights on getting us to the Moon and beyond. But as the play counts down to the launch of Apollo 11, Koelle is befriended by a Jewish engineer hell-bent on exposing the truth: the Germans' technology is based on the V-2 rockets built by slave labor. Played by six female-identifying women who force us to theatrically re-examine this explosive story - still widely not known in America - “The Rocket Men” asks who gets to be remembered in the history books, and why?

  • S1 · E307
    Oct 22, 2025 · 45 min

    Patricia Lynn

    Patricia Lynn is a playwright/actor who has worked extensively in NYC independent theatre. As a writer, Patricia fancies herself to be a gothic feminist; she loves to subvert the classic genre by creating provocative plays inspired by traditional gothic stereotypes. Her plays have been developed at Triad Stage, New Perspectives Theatre Company, The Secret Theatre, Rogue Theater Festival, and Phillips’ Mill Community Association. As an actor, Patricia has worked at TheatreWorksUSA, Trinity Repertory Theatre, Soho Playhouse, Capital Fringe, NYC Fringe Festival, and many more. MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University; MFA in Acting from Brown University/Trinity Repertory. In this episode we talk about her new play The Truth about Transylvania debuting during Halloween week October 24, 2025.

  • S1 · E306
    Oct 13, 2025 · 34 min

    Victoria Astuto

    Victoria Astuto is a musician, composer, videographer, and educator based in the Hudson Valley. Her debut EP, The Place features clarinet, saxophone, flute, bass clarinet, synthesizers, and vocals to create dreamy, lush, and atmospheric textures. The album is inspired by a cross country trip she took which influenced many of the themes ranging from loneliness to finding a place in the world to escaping a place you’re already in. Additionally, Victoria scores films for indie filmmakers in NYC, utilizing her large palette of instruments to create dense orchestration inspired by the works of Johnny Greenwood, Gerald Busby, and Bernard Herrmann. You can find her album and music videos on YouTube, Tidal, Apple Music, Spotify, and Band Camp. Band Camp Spotify Tidal Apple Music YouTube

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