Bonus: Interview with StoryMill Media's Steve Hein

Over drinks, Berly and LA chat with StoryMill Media's Founder and CEO, Steve Hein, about his background, Supernatural, and StoryMill's podcasts, like Supernatural Then and Now. Now, let's get tipsy!  CW/TW for violent and lewd commentary; listeners beware! 🔞

Summary: In this episode of the "Denim Wrapped Nightmares" podcast, hosts Berly and LA interview Steve Hein, founder and CEO of Story Mill Media. Steve discusses his extensive background in entertainment, including his roles at NBC, Legendary, and 20th Century Fox. He explains the responsibilities of a film and TV producer and his transition to podcasting. Steve highlights his podcasts, including "Supernatural Then and Now," which explores the show "Supernatural" with co-hosts Richard Speight Jr. and Rob Benedict, and "Your Mom is a Podcast," a parenting podcast co-hosted by Sandeep Parikh. He also shares details about "Anomalie," a guided meditation podcast that won a Signals 2024 award.

Resources:

• https://www.storymill.media/
• https://www.seekanomalie.com/

Transcript

Berly: 0:01

Ella, welcome to denim wrapped nightmares, Tipsy exchange Podcast where we explore the supernatural series, episode by episode,

LA: 0:10

over drinks, we'll discuss the lore the gore and what we adore about the Winchesters and their adventures.

Berly: 0:17

I'm Burleigh, and I'm a new fan of the series. I'm

LA: 0:20

LA, and I'm here along for the ride. Now let's get Tipsy. Hello, LA, hey, Burley,

Berly: 0:28

it is our mid season bonus episode, and we've got another interview for our listeners. I'm excited about this one

Unknown: 0:37

I know,

Berly: 0:39

aren't you? Oh, yeah. Well, why don't you tell our listeners who we'll be talking with?

LA: 0:46

Alright. Well, we will be talking to Steve Hein, founder and CEO of story mill media. Steve is a seasoned entertainment executive and producer. He founded his podcast company story mill, media in 2022 and supernatural then and now was the company's inaugural podcast. Prior to story mill, Steve was an executive at studios and networks such as NBC, legendary and 20th Century Fox. At NBC, his division produced a number of companion podcasts for NBC shows such as The Good Place Brooklyn, nine, nine and law and order. No big deal, just no few little known shows, but he

Berly: 1:26

just has some experience in the field. You know,

LA: 1:29

Steve's most recent project is anomaly, which are guided meditations in Tolkien esque fantasy worlds. Ruth Connell and Todd stashwick provide some of the voice work. It recently won signals 2024 listeners Choice Award for Most Innovative audio experience. And it's awesome. Yeah, it's a good show. Can personally attest to it? Yes,

Berly: 1:54

we both listen to supernatural then and now. We've both listened to anomaly. We both want to listen to your mom as a podcast.

LA: 2:02

I know, yeah,

Berly: 2:03

it's a really great company. It puts out quality, entertaining content. So we definitely were excited to talk to Steve. So here is our conversation with Mr. Steve Hine. So Steve, a lot of your history says that you started as a producer. And I do have a question for you real quick before we dig into the podcast stuff. What do producers do? I was watching the boys and I was reading the credits, and they listed more producers than cast members, so I'm just curious, what all do you do? Yeah,

Unknown: 2:38

it's different on film and TV and film, the producers, typically the one who puts the package together, like raises the money, brings the director on board, solicits the talent, supervises the development of the script, supervises the budget. He is a CEO of the film, so to speak, whereas maybe the director is more the chief creative officer, kind of making more of the all the creative decisions the producer is there to kind of make a lot of the practical and financial decisions on films and TV. Most of the producers on television are actually the writers, like, on Supernatural, you know, like Ben edland and Sarah gamble and Eric and Andrew dabb and like, they all get producer credits, um, on every episode. But then there's guys like, you know, Bob singer, who's taking care of the practical things, and there's Todd aronauer, who's supervising post. And they also get producer credits. So in TV, producer credits tend to be more spread hours. In film, usually there's a producer, and then there's sometimes, like an executive producer who maybe, is that the company that put up the money, or maybe if they got a superstar like Brad Pitt, it's Brad Pitt's manager who gets an executive producer because he's Brad Pitt. So sometimes they're vanity credits, and sometimes, you know, usually the producer, you know, the producers do are there to kind of, you know, make all the practical decisions and bring the whole thing together and make sure it gets delivered.

Berly: 3:57

Okay, okay. I've heard people sometimes in your interviews on Supernatural then and now, talking about how, well, that won't do anything for my IMDB. So I guess that makes sense that sometimes it is, like you said, a vanity title, like we're gonna give you a producer credit so that you can get a producer job. All right, so then you transitioned, oh, transitioned from being a producer for film to were you being a producer for podcasts over at NBC? Is that what you started at? No,

Unknown: 4:26

I was an independent producer for like the first 10 years in my career, and then in like 2008 I got a job at Fox, and my title was VP of Digital and short form video. Because while I was producing feature films, I was spending a lot of time producing short films for all my friends that were directors, including Eric. You know, I produced a couple of Eric's short films that help get him his first representation and get into film festivals. And I had done that in the early 2000s and late 90s for about a half a dozen of my friends that I went to film school with. And this is like pre. YouTube, internet. And so I did a lot of these short films, and a lot of these first generation internet video companies started calling me, being like, hey, we want to get into the short film. We want to put your films on the internet. And blah, blah, blah, and and so while I was working, you know, as an independent producer, like I started getting into the short film in the digital video business, and all of a sudden I had more momentum in digital video, in short form video in the early 2000s that I was in terms of momentum from the feature film business and and Fox called me one day when, like, right after Fox had bought MySpace, and they were trying to sue YouTube and Twitter had just launched, and they were like, we don't really get what all this stuff is. We know that you have a history and digital video and short form video. Can you guys come kind of help us figure it out? And so that started a kind of a 15 year career at like Fox, then legendary, then NBC, and I was, it was when I was at legendary. And legendary is the company that makes all the Godzilla movies and stuff they owned, like Nerdist and Geek and Sundry at the time. And at the time, Chris Hardwick was doing the Nerdist podcast, you know, this was like 2000 this was 2015, and that was the first time I got exposed to kind of podcasts. Was when I was at legendary we built a kind of a comedy Podcast Network on the on the success of the Nerdist podcast. And then when I got to NBC, my boss is there, you know, at NBC, I was in charge of my title was SVP of digital content. And so I was in charge of all the stuff that went to, like YouTube and Instagram and Twitter for all of the prime time programming. And he's like, can you get us into the podcasting space? And so I did a slate of about 12 podcasts for everything from like, the good place in Brooklyn, nine, nine and American Ninja Warrior and Days of Our Lives even. And I left NBC in 2021 and I knew I wanted to kind of stay in the podcasting space and be entrepreneurial in it. I raised a little bit of money to kind of finance my own shows, because I didn't want to be just a gun for hire, like just doing agency work, which is great. Agency work really pays the bills, but I wanted to kind of be the webmaster of my domain a little bit and own some of the shows that we were producing. And so, you know, in 2022 launched story mill, and the first podcast out of the gate was supernatural then and now.

Berly: 7:13

What made you decide to do a podcast on Supernatural a variety

Unknown: 7:18

of things. One is, is kind of a love letter to Eric in the show, because, you know, Eric's one of my closest friends. It's always, it's a show that I always wanted to watch all of and never like knew I would never do it unless I had to. Yeah, and, you know, it was a show I knew that I could be if I was doing a companion podcast for it, I would stay excited about it, as opposed to, you know, a show that maybe I didn't have a personal connection to or personal interest in.

Berly: 7:50

Are you enjoying it so far?

Unknown: 7:52

I love it. I mean, I think it's like the coolest thing to be able to kind of do. And early on, people, like somebody asked me if it was a hobby or a job, and it's, fortunately, it's kind of both.

Berly: 8:02

We're trying we're trying to get. So what did you know about supernatural before you started the podcast? Other than it was Eric's one of Eric's babies. Well,

Unknown: 8:12

I mean, I'd watched the first five seasons. I'd watched Eric's reign, and then I had watched a couple of the, you know, more popular fan episodes like Scooby natural and French mistake and some of the other ones that were popular that came out afterwards. And it was, it wasn't so much I got lost interest in the show. It was I had started the job at Fox. I had just had a baby when season six started. And so just like, life became more complicated. So I watched far less television. And so that was kind of why I kind of became a lapsed viewer. And now, you know, and I'm excited. I'm excited that to be watching because I the first five seasons of the podcast were a night. It was a nice walk down memory lane, but now I like being in the middle of season six, and it's like fresh episodes of supernatural I hadn't seen before. Season

Berly: 8:58

Six was frustrating for me. I mean, that was the mystery of everything. Yeah,

Unknown: 9:05

yeah. I mean, there is a like, a lot of like, where is this going to go? And I gleaned from the interview so far that, and rightly so, you know, Sarah and Bob and Eric and even Jared and Jensen. You know, season six, they were just trying to mix it up. Seasons one and two and three were one thing, and four and five or something completely different, and they knew they couldn't go back and do more of the same. And so, you know, it was a lot of like, let's just kind of try some new stuff. You know, some and some of it works in a dozen I think, I think Solis Sam has really grown on at least Rob. And I, I don't know. I think the verdict is still out with rich.

Berly: 9:41

Y'all aren't spoiled on the big y'all don't know the big twist in season six yet. And from the episodes I've heard, y'all haven't been spoiled on it yet. So, oh, really.

Unknown: 9:49

Okay, right. So it's, it's not, so let's say it's not. It's not that Samuel was doing it for Mary. There's something bigger down the road coming. I

Berly: 9:57

told you to watch Chinatown before this scene. Sense, Steve, I

Unknown: 10:00

know. I mean, I know Chinatown. Well,

Berly: 10:04

don't do what I did, though, because I almost ruined the season for me trying to figure it out in advance the whole time. And part of me wishes I had just sat back and enjoyed the ride. Is

Unknown: 10:13

it the leviathans? No, because I know about that now I'm excited. I'll let you know. I'll let you know when I get to whatever it is you're talking about. Is talking about. It's in season six. It's

Berly: 10:24

going to be at the very end. Yeah, it's at the very end. It's, it's revealed that something's been happening, like, well, toward the end, not the finale, toward the end, like, the last few episodes will be about it. Oh, fun. I'm excited. I didn't see it. We didn't see it coming. It surprised both of us. Yeah,

Unknown: 10:39

I know you guys are halfway through season seven, right now, right? Yes, yeah. So

Berly: 10:42

we're in the Leviathan season. Yeah, we've just met Dick and are getting a whole bunch of dick jokes in the in the show, right?

Unknown: 10:49

That's gonna be great for for Richard,

Berly: 10:54

yeah, y'all, y'all, are gonna have fun when you get to season seven. So since you've kind of been doing a re watch, and you're getting exposed to new episodes and whatnot. What has surprised you, stood out or caught your attention since you've, I guess I should say, restarted the series.

Unknown: 11:10

It's, it's a hard question to answer, because over so, you know, we've done over 100 episodes now, and it's been, you know, we're coming up on the three year anniversary of the podcast. I think the one, the one, the one thing that touched me the most, that I thought was the coolest, was the when we talked to Jim Beaver about dead men who don't wear plaid, and he talked about the relationship he had with his the guest star, and how it was a deeper relationship than just co workers, and they used that to kind of feed their performance. I thought that was really interesting. I thought that was fascinating. It's nice to hear Jim's story about, you know, he lost his wife, and he was grieving, and this was that episode was like a real part of a healing process for him. And I thought that was, I thought that was super cool, yeah,

LA: 11:53

how did, how did you meet Eric?

Unknown: 11:55

We met in college. Yeah, we were, we were both at film school together in college. Oh, nice. I

LA: 12:01

bet he's an interesting guy.

Unknown: 12:02

We lived together for six years after like our first we had like, an apartment together after college for about six years.

Berly: 12:10

Nice. He just seems like such a little maniac. I love it. Yeah, yeah.

Unknown: 12:18

He's pretty he's a lot of fun to hang out with. The

Berly: 12:20

podcast started season six, not long ago. As we've already said, what were your favorite episodes, though, from the first five seasons?

Unknown: 12:29

Oh, the first five. Okay, I'm gonna look at my spreadsheet

Berly: 12:31

and why. Why were they your favorite? I wanna know Steve's thoughts.

Unknown: 12:36

Let's see, in season one, was looking at my list of episodes. I like faith in season one. I thought that was pretty great. That was one of LA's favorites. Yeah, with the faith healers, I thought that was a nice twist. And like, the fact that they didn't save the girl, like at the end, I thought that was a nice, a nice touch. And I thought that guy who was the faith, the actor who was the faith, the faith healer was great actor. Like that guy was super creepy on his own, you know, in season two, In My Time of Dying with Jeffrey Morgan in the hospital and Jensen. Great episode. Great writing, great performance. Yeah, Kim manners, he's giving

Berly: 13:13

us his favorite one for every season.

Unknown: 13:17

I like crossroads. Blues in season two is also another favorite, Croatoan. I thought was a great episode. I like that one a lot. The winches. I always like the ones where they go back in time, same

Berly: 13:28

Yeah,

Unknown: 13:29

we do too, and that, you know, I know we got one coming up with the Colt. I'm wondering if I'm going to like that one as much.

Berly: 13:35

That was one of our favorite episodes out of the entire season. It's so good. Yeah, I can tell you right now that one is going to make at least one of our lists for one of the best episodes out of the gamble era, because we'll do a big gamble extravaganza at the end of season seven. That's is so good. It's so cute. I love

Unknown: 13:54

the Hollywood Babylon. I thought was a great one, because there's a lot of inside jokes on that one that maybe some people got, maybe some people didn't Mystery Spot. I mean, you know, it's all like, just, Justin bellow, I think doesn't get enough attention. Is a great episode. That was the one in the prison. You know, ghost facers. You know, it's the same, like, unless a lot of people, monster movie with Todd stashwick. Love it. Yellow Fever,

Berly: 14:17

I think yellow fever is overrated, really. Yeah, it's good. Don't get me wrong. It's a good episode. But if I were to be asked to pick my top 10 favorite episodes from crypkey's first five seasons, I don't think yellow fever would make my top 10 Interesting. Interesting. It was good though. I just, I thought it was sad. I felt so bad for that ghost. He was so sad. He just had a crush on that girl because she was nice and he didn't hurt anybody. And they were just like, You know what? Let's tie a chain around this ghost's neck and drag him. Yeah, yeah,

Unknown: 14:53

that's pretty dark. Um, Lucifer rising is great, yeah? Sympathy for the Devil. The end again, yeah? More moving forward in time than backward, but still, time travel. That's another

Berly: 15:04

one I think. Is overrated, really. Yeah,

Unknown: 15:07

yeah. Early this interview is over.

Berly: 15:11

It's good. It's good. I enjoyed it, but yeah, that wouldn't make one of my top 10 either. Yeah. And then,

Unknown: 15:16

of course, you know, like, the finales are always great. I mean, like they put they always pay off so well. Like, swan song, it's like, it's such a good, oh yeah. Like, such a well written episode where they, like, Chuck is talking about baby and how, like, the guys didn't have a home, but were never homeless. And it's just like, like, that kind of word plays, I think, pretty brilliant. And, you know, I don't think I surprised you with anything. A lot of those are on a lot of top 10 lists. You did,

Berly: 15:40

you did surprise me. I thought that you were going to list the one with Hal oz San, where he was the witch. Oh,

Unknown: 15:48

that is a good one. I mean, actually, you know what, but I like it. I like it more. I like it because, after we talk to Hal, because he's such a fucking cool guy, okay, square, yeah,

Berly: 15:59

this is explicit, explicit. I want to hang out with him.

Unknown: 16:07

And so that's why, like, I love the episodes good, but I love it so much more once we had the conversation with houses, because he was like, you know, I don't know if you've ever experienced this, like with video conferencing, either for work or your podcast, like, because sometimes these people have so much charisma, it burns through the zoom. He's one of those guys.

Berly: 16:26

It was John Emmett. Tracy with us after we hung up with John Emmett, Tracy LA was like, let's call him back. So yeah, it doesn't normally happen through zoom, so it does stick with you when it does.

Unknown: 16:40

Yeah, super cool guy. And I'm surprised he hasn't like now he's his career is pivoted, and he's doing more writing, writing acting. And I'm surprised he hasn't his acting stuff. You know, he's not doing much acting anymore, but you know, whatever, I

Berly: 16:53

personally liked that episode a lot, too. Whenever you guys are doing your favorite episodes of the season and you're like, come on, anybody else? I was like, yeah, like, I loved that episode. The villain got away at the end. Yeah, that doesn't No,

Unknown: 17:07

I would have liked to sin. It would have great to see him come back, because he's out there somewhere, right, still in years off people's lives.

Berly: 17:14

So speaking of that, I'm going to ask you the question that we've asked all our guests so far. Have you seen American Horror Story or no of the show?

Unknown: 17:23

Yeah, no of the show. Part of the part of the first season. Okay, well, they did

Berly: 17:27

a spin off called American horror stories. Real, real, unique title there. But the idea of it is they, it's individual standalone episodes, and they each focus on a character or a place or something like that from a previous American Horror Story season. Now you know they're talking about a revival for supernatural that that's something that's been toyed around with, and we've decided that we hope that they do something like that with supernatural, where it's standalone episodes that revisit a character like HAL oz sans witch, or a location where things weren't necessarily resolved, like the apartment complex, where it was being haunted by what's the guy, the ghost, the hotel ghost guy, oh, I don't HH Holmes, yeah. And they just had Bugs, bugs, or bugs, yeah. What happened? What happened to that land? Did they just

Unknown: 18:21

land still there? We don't need another developer

Berly: 18:29

that episode, because she hates bugs, not because of the script or anything, but anyway, it's literally an unlimited list of things that they could go and do a standalone episode. And so what Mr. Steve Hein would be the episode you would like to see them revisit, to go either answer an unanswered question or just revisit a character that you would like. No Winchester is involved. So it's an episode that it does not center around the Winchester brothers,

Unknown: 18:56

not around the Winchester. But could it going back to, like my time travel. Idea who we see young Mary and young young John again? Yeah, I'd like to see some, maybe something along like more young Mary and young John could be cool. But let me that's an easy that's like low hanging fruit. Let me see if there's like a monster or something. What happened at the end of, at the end of monster movie? Did Todd's? Did his shape shifter get killed. I don't remember.

Berly: 19:21

Yes, yes. The the blonde shot him with a silver bullet. That's right, but I would like to see his origin story,

Unknown: 19:30

yeah, like when he's a child with his dad, like his dad beating him and stuff. That'd be cool.

Berly: 19:35

Or see him move to this house. And how did he construct this house, giant castle. You

Unknown: 19:41

know what I you know what I want to see. What is, is the Bob and Rufus as partners in the 80s as hot young men driving like muscle cars and picking ass and this kind of cool rock country soundtrack with in like running around. Nashville or running around, like, Tennessee or West Virginia as like, two guys in their early 20s who were, like, kicking ass and taking names. I would love fighting monsters.

Berly: 20:11

It's literally an endless list of ideas of things. So that's why I'm hoping they'll do it. I'm like, you know, so many people are struggling to find original ideas. I'm like, here you go, all these people are wanting original IP and yet original ideas. And I'm like, supernatural, literally,

Unknown: 20:26

when I was at Fox, there was a moment this, you know, in 2008 DVD was still really big. Like, there was real conversation about it, about doing something similar with Buffy, where taking like, doing like a spike movie that's straight to DVD, and doing like a willow movie straight to DVD, like just taking all those characters and giving them their own movie. They will come out on DVD. I mean, they should, I, you know, I think what everybody wants, though, is like a reunion. They want, you know, a six episode, HBO, Max. It's called Max now, six episode on max, and it's Dean comes back from heaven. And I always have pitched it as, like, The Avengers, they gotta get all the angels back together some way through whatever way they do it. Even some of the dean, like Crowley's on the team, and Rowen is on the team. And like, they put they have to put together this team to fight this big evil. You see, Castiel, like, sacrifices himself for Dean one last time and Dean die in his arms, like, just give everybody the moments they wanted, rather than the weird ending we got.

Berly: 21:26

I know that's the end game. LA's, like, that'd be good. I know that's the end game. I'm just saying building up to it. Take the time to make sure that script is perfect, you know. And while they're building up to it, what happened to Martin in Albuquerque? I want to know, yeah, yeah. At

Unknown: 21:42

the very least, they should do it as like, a book series, or a comic book

LA: 21:45

series, something I'm bummed about the Buffy stuff not happening now, right?

Berly: 21:52

I still would, to be honest, I was, and I was thinking,

LA: 21:54

I was like, they all haven't really aged that much so,

Unknown: 21:58

and even if

Berly: 21:59

they did, we don't care if you're a fan and you want to see that person reprise the role like no one's gonna care that Spike has wrinkles now, like no man

Unknown: 22:08

if Mark Hamill can come back and play like a 30 year old. Luke,

Berly: 22:11

right? Yeah, it's about the nostalgia. We want to see it. Okay, so next question, you're no stranger to filming horror as you were a producer on the boogeyman trilogy. Were you on set for any of those films? And have any supernatural episodes been reminiscent of your experience on Boogeyman? My priest

Unknown: 22:33

and partner, Gary brymon and I were the main producers for boogeyman two, and so we were on that was that one was filmed in Los Angeles, and so we were kind of front and center for that one. Boogeyman, one was filmed in New Zealand, and Rob tapper, Sam Randy's producing partner, was kind of the main producer on that, and I was an executive producer. And then the third one was filmed in like Bulgaria, and so I was not on set for that one. So just, just to Yeah, Scarecrow kind of felt like Boogie mannish to me, yeah, I like the kind of self deprecating jokes about the film in Hollywood. Babylon crypkey talks about how terrible boogeyman is.

Berly: 23:20

So I have a spontaneous question here, yeah, yeah. With YouTube shorts taking off YouTube kind of pushing for more content creators, tik, having monetization opportunities and whatnot. Have you ever thought about getting back into the short film space?

Unknown: 23:40

You know, not so much. I mean, I think it's, it's a bigger lift than podcasting is, I think I like, I like, you know, specializing in audio, specializing in podcasting, I'm trying to kind of stay in that space, rather than because I could, you know, get into short film again. But I'm enjoying what's happening in the podcast space, in the audio space.

Berly: 24:01

All right, so next question, this came from one of our Patreon members who's also one of your Patreon members. Off the check out your Patreon. Do you have any plans for the podcast after season 15, or will it just end from there? Is it going to evolve?

Unknown: 24:18

We've talked about, like, there's two ideas. I mean, it just depends where we're at in life and the podcast and how well it's doing. And, you know, one idea is to start again now. Now, rather than Robin rich being first time watchers, now they're, you know, repeat watchers, and they can kind of seeing, you know, the second viewing through different eyes is a different experience. And we would change the format, maybe not have the guest, and maybe it's just rob and rich talking about it, or maybe include a third person, but and then another idea, and people have asked me about this a lot, and is maybe the, you know, v2 let's call it is, we have, we include more fan opportunities to be like fan call in stuff to interact. With us. We don't do it on this one. We there. You know, people have hit me up on our Patreon and on social but like, oh, you should have a fan on and this, that's not this show. That's not what supernatural then. Now is supernatural dinner. Now is about Robin Rich's experience, and Robin rich talking to people who made the show. Are

Berly: 25:16

you planning to do the single season of the Winchesters when you guys get to the end, maybe,

Unknown: 25:21

you know, we did the one Winchester special, but we might do, like, a re watch of the of the first season of the Winchesters.

Berly: 25:27

Is there a question about supernatural then and now that we should ask you, and we haven't, not really.

Unknown: 25:33

I mean, I tried to, like, you know, I've hosted a couple of amas on the show's Patreon that I try to answer all the questions as thoroughly and honestly as I can, you know, I don't know. I mean, is there is, I don't have an answer for that. Well,

Berly: 25:46

you just gave me a new question. What all do your Patreon members get whenever they join the supernatural Then and Now page?

Unknown: 25:55

Well, we have the angel tier, which we get early access, ad free episodes and bonus content. And then we have the archangel tier, where you get all that stuff, plus video interviews and live streaming and live Q and A's with Robin rich,

Berly: 26:09

great. Let's pivot story mill. Media pivot, yes, talk to me about what other podcasts you have available.

Unknown: 26:17

Let's see we do. I have another show called your mom. Is a podcast, which is a parenting podcast. He's co hosted by a guy named Sandeep Parikh, who's a frequent Felicia Day collaborator. So if you know felicia's work, you'll you'll probably recognize Sandeep, but it's a parenting podcast where we bring on like people that we all admire. And it's kind of like, I don't know if you guys remember the format of the newlywed game, let's say we're gonna have burleon as a guest, we'll interview your mom first and record all the all the answers, and then interview you with the same questions, and then play back her answers and see how her answers compare to your answers. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. And we've had, like, some guys, some folks from supernaturally Chris Leonard song, and he has, like, a great story, because his his son is trans, and he talked about that journey and how he he supported him through that transition, and how Chris's parents kind of processed it and accepted it, and and what that journey was like for he and his family and and we're gonna have an episode coming up with Rob that we need to still make. But we talked, you know, Rob's it's a really interesting Rob's journey as a parent is really interesting because he's, you know, he has two children who are almost fully, you know, one in high school and in college, and then he and Ruth, everybody knows, just recently had a baby. And Rob is, you know, in his early 50s. And it's just like what that experience is like of being, you know, being a parent and having kids, and thinking before he decided to have a baby, thinking that you're part of that journey is over, and then starting again. And as you know, being an older dad, and, you know, I think that's a really unique story, and I'm excited to get to that. So it's a fun podcast to kind of get to know people and get some parenting tips. And it's really interesting. It's funny because we did it, because both the hosts are comedians, and so we thought it'd be funny, but it's really heartwarming. And out of the dozen or so episodes we've put out so far, I would say in nine of them at like, usually the guest is brought to tears at some point during the conversation. Yeah, but it's funny. It's, it's funny too, just because people it's provides people a way to kind of have a conversation with their parent that they've never had before, right? And so it's a really interesting social experiment.

Berly: 28:30

I imagine that it involves asking questions that maybe the parent and the child have never thought to ask each other too. So you're probably learning some

Unknown: 28:39

stuff thought to ask, or just never made the time to sit down and have a this is true. This kind of, that kind of conversation, because we asked, you know, we try to kind of ask pointed questions about, like, what do you feel like you did right as a parent? What do you feel like you did wrong as a parent? You know, what we when were you most proud of your child? What's your biggest regret? Like, we try to ask questions that kind of pull, you know, both sides of it out. It's fun. It's a fun show. I encourage your listeners to give a shot, especially if they, if they are have kids and they're trying to kind of navigate that journey. I have another, you know, another show which, you know, I'm sure supernatural fans are aware of, is anomaly, which is something that is near and dear to my heart that I'm very excited about, and it just won an award for being the listeners choice for most innovative audio experience. So for those don't know, anomaly is a their meditations, but they're meditations for people that are fans of like Tolkien and Dungeons and Dragons and fairies and monsters and elves and dragons and stuff like that. And so in it, you're guided through this land, but through the same time, you're like, learn to like, do things like brew a tranquility potion, or you visit a kind of magical land that was once vanquished by a dragon. And but at the same time, you're like, learning to center yourself. Find strength or courage or forgiveness, and over the course of the eight episodes, a bigger kind of story slowly unfolds, and it's narrated by by Ruth Connell and Todd stashwick. And another woman who's not part of supernatural alumni is woman NC Gray, who's an RnB singer. Now, three of them have incredible voice. I mean, what's better than having Ruth whisper in your ear for 45 minutes,

Berly: 30:25

having Todd whisper in my ear

Unknown: 30:31

and so and so, they're great. I mean, I think fans have really come to love them, and it's, it's the feedback I've gotten from a lot of the people I've talked to, and I've reached out to a number of people, number of listeners who had done interviews with them, and some and a lot of folks are really generous with their time, and I appreciate that for them to give me, the feedback was that it's really helped for people that, like, want to meditate, but never have kind of had the attention span to do. So it's really helped them, like, by just by having a little bit of story within it. It allows them to hold on to something, to really sit down for 25 or 30 minutes and meditate, as opposed to, like, getting distracted. But we're talking about season two and and I'm trying to kind of raise the money, because the plan is turned into an app, and then we would introduce different kinds of worlds. There's, you know, there's a version of this, this science fiction, another version that's like a mystery that takes place in 19th century Philadelphia, with clairvoyance and magicians and seances and so there's all these different kind of stories we want to tell within this kind of framework.

Berly: 31:29

I love that. LA and I have both ready for them. Yeah, the visualization that you get to do while you're meditating, I find is helpful, like you said, like the attention span, if I'm asked, just sit there and clear my mind that ain't going to happen. Gonna happen. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. So having this guided meditation where you're being asked to visualize certain things, and it's great that signal has acknowledged the sound quality to the podcast, because that definitely assists to you, being able to sit there and kind of visualize what you're being asked to visualize, and then that breathing and everything they were asked to do while you're doing these things, it just kind of happens naturally as you're listening to the show. So I'm happy to hear you're doing Season Two. Yes, yes,

Unknown: 32:15

yeah. We're working. We're writing scripts, and, you know, creating, there'll be new characters and new storylines and new lands, new monsters and new mysteries. So

Berly: 32:23

for anybody who might be interested in finding these other podcasts, from story mill media, where should they go? Steve, Well, they

Unknown: 32:30

can go to story mill dot media. Or, you know, you can just initially, you know, search for your mom as a podcast, or search for anomaly wherever you listen to podcasts.

Berly: 32:41

All right. Well, that's all the questions we have for you today.

Unknown: 32:44

All right, ladies, it's good to meet the both of you. Good to meet you too.

Berly: 32:47

Thank you. Damn it. What I just remembered a question I forgot to ask. I forgot to ask Steve, how dreamy is Richard spay Jr, speaking? Of dreamy, though, what did you think of those blue eyes? Oh

LA: 33:06

so pretty. He's just so cool. He's adorable.

Berly: 33:10

Yeah, and well spoken and just casual. It was a wonderful interview. Very

LA: 33:15

like easy to talk to.

Berly: 33:17

I will say I'm happy that I asked him to talk a little bit more about his background, that bio that we have does not do him justice. Yeah, it's impressive, and it's interesting to hear how one thing kind of cascaded into the next, cascaded into the next, and why he started supernatural then and now. I thought that was sweet. Yeah, feeling like brag about yourself a little bit more. Mr. Hein, yeah, come on. Plus, you're gonna make us sound better, because we got a badass guest exactly, take your modesty and just put it aside. So really

LA: 33:49

good background. Mm, hmm. I also like to style. He looked nice. So clean that jacket and the hat, clean beard

Berly: 33:58

he's got, he's got a bald head. Oh yeah, yeah, I could have taken her leaving the hat. Well, yeah, looked good. I hope that they do another photo shoot. I think it was interesting how he was talking about having good chemistry through camera. And it's like you do that too, Steve,

Unknown: 34:16

oh yeah for sure, like, we

Berly: 34:18

could have easily kept going. So, great interview with Mr. Steve. To close it out, we'd like to thank our patrons. First off, thank you to Jordan, Jasmine armadillo, Callie SP cat, Alicia, Wooten, Shannon, Selden, Emily Williams, basket of daisies, Ellen McCarthy, Theresa Hampton, Amanda camp, Patricia Holland and James defrange, thank you guys so much, and until next time, cheers. Thank you for listening to denim wrapped nightmares. Follow

LA: 34:59

us on Twitter. Or Instagram, leave a review and let us know how we can get involved in the fandom. This was

Berly: 35:05

fun, jerk.

LA: 35:07

It always is, bitch. You.