Goddard in the World

Spoooooky pod with Mike Alvarez and Sam Rebelein

Welcome back to Mike Alvarez and Sam Rebelein for Goddard in the World’s Spooooooooky Halloween episode! We talk about Mike and Sam’s horror inspirations from childhood to present day and how horror stories helped them cope with their own fears and anxieties. Plenty of recommendations to check out to wrap up the spooooky season! For more on Mike Alvarez: * Season 1 interview: https://goddardalumni.com/alumni-spotlight-mike-alvarez/ [https://goddardalumni.com/alumni-spotlight-mike-alvarez/] * Website: https://www.mfalvarez.net/ [https://www.mfalvarez.net/] * The Paradox of Suicide and Creativity: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498523820/The-Paradox-of-Suicide-and-Creativity-Authentications-of-Human-Existence [https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498523820/The-Paradox-of-Suicide-and-Creativity-Authentications-of-Human-Existence] For more on Sam Rebelein: * Season 1 interview: https://goddardalumni.com/alumni-spotlight-sam-rebelein/ [https://goddardalumni.com/alumni-spotlight-sam-rebelein/] * Website: https://www.srebelein.com/ [https://www.srebelein.com/] * Current publications: https://www.srebelein.com/work [https://www.srebelein.com/work] Find Mike and Sam on Twitter at @mfalvarez121 and @HillaryScruff. Recommendations: Books: * R. L. Stine, Goosebumps series with special shoutouts to Say Cheese and Die, Stay out of the Basement, and Night of the Living Dummy * Priya Sharma, All the Fabulous Beasts Movies: * Friday the 13th series, originally created by Victor Miller & Sean S. Cunningham * Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven * Hellraiser series, originally created by Clive Barker * Midsommar, Ari Aster * Hereditary, Ari Aster * Saw series, originally created by James Wan & Leigh Whannell * The Blair Witch Project, Daniel Myric & Eduardo Sanchez * The Cabin in the Woods, Drew Goddard * Teeth, Mitchell Lichtenstein * Fear Street, Leigh Janiak * The Thing, John Carpenter * Scream, Wes Craven Series: * Caitlin Doughty, Ask a Mortician (YouTube) * Motherland: Fort Salem, created by Eliot Laurence (Freeform)

Goddard Alumni Council

Welcome to Season 2! I'm excited to share this conversation with the Goddard Alumni Council. If you're interested in joining us on the Council, please fill out the nomination form here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIwqSqsmU0WetUY4uMU11-fwhM8fnmdfv2Wy38kUs_pO1bfg/viewform?fbclid=IwAR2qMiX1-WzwmA6XeZYKLjrq8Sl4rmtTYxM_ZN4Bu7OVA9HNVFgk-ibiT1w [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIwqSqsmU0WetUY4uMU11-fwhM8fnmdfv2Wy38kUs_pO1bfg/viewform?fbclid=IwAR2qMiX1-WzwmA6XeZYKLjrq8Sl4rmtTYxM_ZN4Bu7OVA9HNVFgk-ibiT1w] If you're not able to join us on Council this year, please keep up with our activities, volunteer through a task force, sign up for the newsletter at: https://goddardalumni.com/ [https://goddardalumni.com/]

Alumni Weekend with Kailina Mills

Welcome to a special summer episode about Goddard’s upcoming Alumni Weekend with Kailina Mills! We talk about summer blueberries in Maine, fall New England weather, and most importantly the Goddard Alumni Weekend which is taking place virtually and on campus in Plainfield, Vermont from October 8-11, 2021. Kailina takes us through the four keynote workshops being put on by Goddard Alumni including: * John Ollom, Internal Landscapes: Moving into Authentic Expressions (check out his Goddard in the World podcast interview where he describes his methodology: https://goddardalumni.com/alumni-spotlight-john-ollom/ [https://goddardalumni.com/alumni-spotlight-john-ollom/]) * Christina Gerard, CPTSD: Awareness, Rights, and Visibility * Hillary Hawk, Random Harvest Market, Café, and Community Space: Creating a Worker-Owned, Anti-racist Business and Relational Food Economy in the Hudson Valley since 2019 * Rod Rylander, Creating Sustainable Communities: Homestead on a Budget We also talk about other fun ways to participate in-person including Pecha Kucha presentations, Writers Salon, Cabaret, business tabling, bonfire hangs (with margaritas!), and nature walks. The Alumni Association meeting will be open to anyone, whether or not you’re registered. Please make sure your email is updated with the college so you receive the link: https://www.goddard.edu/alumni/stay-connected/update/ This year the virtual option will include the four keynote workshops. The in-person option will include all of the above. To register and for more information, please visit: http://www.Goddard.edu/alumniweekend [http://www.Goddard.edu/alumniweekend] We hope to see you there! For more information on Goddard in the World or to become a guest please visit: https://goddardalumni.com/podcast/ [https://goddardalumni.com/podcast/]

Sam Rebelein

Welcome to Goddard in the World’s Season One Finale! We are so excited to end the season with an incredible writer and guest Sam Rebelein. Sam Rebelein is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at Goddard College. His work has previously appeared in Bourbon Penn, Planet Scumm, Shimmer, Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year, and elsewhere. He lives in Poughkeepsie, NY and will be starting a PhD at Texas Tech University in 2021 focusing in English Literature and Film, specifically Horror and Trauma Studies. As an only child, Sam grew up playing by himself and making up stories. We talked to him about how his childhood homes from Minnesota to Ohio to the Hudson Valley influenced his storytelling interests, from landscapes where you can see the weather coming three days away, to woods which are full of power, mystery, and claustrophobia. Reflecting upon why interest in the horror genre demands an explanation, Sam talks about horror as a safe environment to experience fear and address it, and how horror reflects anxieties that are already present in the storytellers and audience, “Horror felt like the one area where stories would be honest about there being something out there or people being terrible…there’s something familiar and cozy about it if you already have it in your head.” Sam started out writing comedy, sketch and theater at Vassar and then pivoted to horror, “both genres depend on catharsis, build up and tension…you’re geared up to have some kind of release whether it’s a laugh or startling.” At Goddard, Sam wrote a collection of short horror stories which is currently being represented and shopped around for publication. “Goddard helped me develop my taste and vibe, I found my voice.” Sam will be starting a PhD program at Texas Tech University in fall 2021, where he hopes to study grief and trauma in horror, how it’s manifested and how it can be utilized. We talk about some movies that illustrate these concepts (spoiler warning for The Babadook!). Check out (and buy!) all of Sam’s current and forthcoming publications at: https://www.srebelein.com/work Follow Sam on Twitter: @HillaryScruff Recommendations: Books: R.L. Stine, Goosebumps series Stephen King, Carrie Bram Stoker, Dracula Stephen King, On Writing Movies: Carrie, Brian De Palma (1976) Murder Party, Jeremy Saulnier (2007) The Babadook, Jennifer Kent (2014) Hereditary, Ari Aster (2018) Midsommar, Ari Aster (2019) Music: Florence + The Machine, “No Choir”

Max Shenk

Max Harrick Shenk (MFA, EDU) was born in Carlisle, PA in 1964. From as far back as he can remember, he says he enjoyed not only writing, but creating his own ‘zines and publishing his work. Max also has delved into the mystical teachings of Neville Goddard and has published two e-books of quotes pulled from Neville’s teachings. We talk to Max about his interests in writing, radio, and teaching which came early to him and parallel his dad’s journey. “My dad was a PA announcer at the high school and local college…I always had a sense that you could do stuff with your voice and make it a job.” Post-undergrad he threw himself into music and songwriting, then writing fiction which eventually led him to Goddard’s MFA program. One of the most valuable things he learned from his advisers was just to keep writing, “The real work of writing is the work of revising and crafting a piece. Put the horrible stuff on paper, then you print it, then you revise it, then it gets a little better. You can’t revise a blank page.” A few years after receiving his MFA, Max returned to Goddard to pursue an MA in the EDU program, writing a thesis in how nontraditionally trained musicians learn music. While Max has published his work in traditional formats (periodicals, books and e-books), he also experimented with drafting stories in his characters’ voices, first via email, and then later via multiple character pages on Facebook. Keep up with Max at the links below: Website: https://maxshenkwrites.com/ Store: https://maxshenkwrites.selz.com/ FB & Instagram: @maxshenkwrites Search #facebookflashfiction on Facebook Welcome to Quaker Valley: https://www.facebook.com/groups/welcometoquakervalley [https://www.facebook.com/groups/welcometoquakervalley] Recommendations: Books Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones Donald M. Murray, A Writer Teaches Writing John Steinbeck, The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication Groucho Marx, The Marx Brothers Scrapbook Other Authors: Edward Abbey, Neville Goddard, Henry Miller Film Jerry Seinfeld: Comedian (documentary)