Everyone Is...with Jennifer Coronado

The Mom Jar

Earlier this season Jen dedicated an episode to her Dad. Now it is her Mom’s turn. Fight on Linda.  www.slightlyprod.com

Vicki Dobbs Beck-When Magic Happens

Some careers read like a straight line. This one is a map of brave detours, timely breakthroughs, and the stubborn belief that story and technology belong together. Vicki Dobbs Beck—VP of Immersive Content at Lucasfilm and ILM—to unpack how a kid from Kirkland, Washington, rode a love of books and big ideas to help launch ILMxLAB and push real-time storytelling into the mainstream. We trace the arc from a palm-tree dream of Stanford to an unlikely first win at ILM: drafting the company’s first business plan by interviewing senior creatives and stitching their wisdom into direction. From there, the conversation travels through Lucasfilm’s early experiments in location-based entertainment and the visionary but early Lucasfilm Learning, where a mystery about disappearing ducks introduced project-based, no-single-answer learning—an immersive idea before VR could carry it.   When real-time rendering finally hit cinematic quality, the door opened for ILMxLAB. Vicki breaks down the creative-operational engine behind XR: align high-fidelity media with interactivity and give audiences agency without sacrificing story.   If you’re building a creative career, rethinking education, or chasing the edge of immersive tech, this conversation will change how you plan and how you dare. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves story and innovation, and leave a review.   www.slightlyprod.com

Ahmed Best: The Poetry Behind It

What happens when rhythm, science, and vulnerability collide inside one artist? We sit down with Ahmed Best to explore a creative life that refuses boxes: a South Bronx kid raised by drums and physics, a performer who treats movement as first language, and an educator who teaches students to design for feeling rather than stumble into it. Ahmed opens up about being an “emotional athlete,” choosing vulnerability on cue, and why social media’s loudness can’t replace true listening. He walks us through his Dramatic Narrative Design framework at USC—start with the emotion you want the audience to feel, then build story choices to deliver that outcome with intention.   We also talk frankly about Jar Jar Binks and the cost of pioneering performance capture. Ahmed helped shape tools and techniques still used across film and games, yet the backlash nearly ended the work he loved. His reflections aren’t bitter; they’re practical, generous, and deeply human. He explains how to endure critique without losing truth, why mastery is a series of new beginnings, and how returning to Star Wars came from love rather than nostalgia. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more curious listeners can find us. www.slightlyprod.com

Jerry Becker: The Road to Train

A loud Cleveland house. Nine kids. A basement full of drums and harmony guitars.  We sit down with Jerry Becker, Train’s multi-instrumentalist and music director to trace a winding creative path—from a rejected teenager who formed his own band to a music store employee who told a stranger in a Steelers hat that his team “sucked,” then sold him a saxophone and changed his life. Jerry takes us inside the machine of a modern touring act: how set lists are shaped, how transitions breathe, and why almost everyone in the band plays drums.  We talk about the lost art of album narratives, the rise of high-quality home recording, and the urgency of finishing a song while the idea is still in the air. The biggest curveball? A four-year plunge into Broadway. Jerry, Pat Monahan, and drummer Matt have written dozens of songs for a stage adaptation of Begin Again, discovering the thrill and terror of hearing other voices carry their melodies. It’s the hardest writing he’s done—and the most clarifying.   If you care about the craft of live music, the realities of today’s music business, and the courage to say yes before you know how, this conversation will hit home.  Follow along, share with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the show. www.slightlyprod.com

Kim Libreri: “The Matrix” of Innovation

** Episode Note: We did have some audio issues with this episode, but it was too good a conversation to keep on the shelf! Tech visonary Kim Liberi, walks us through the mindset that carried him from early console graphics and London VFX labs to the painterly breakthroughs of What Dreams May Come, where live action became living brushstrokes using optical flow and fine-art sensibilities to his ground breaking work on the Matrix films, and his most recent incarnation as CTO of Epic Games.   The conversation opens into simulated worlds and the convergence of film and games. Kim breaks down how procedural cities, photogrammetry, and Unreal Engine’s real-time rendering shift power back to creators—letting directors dial weather on set, game designers craft cinematic beats, and teams reuse systems without losing soul.  If you’re curious about how math, art, and collaboration turn into wonder—on set and on screen—Kim's path is one that will resonate with you.  www.slightlyprod.com