Posts by Benjamin
A Simple, Radical Act
When my alma mater, Conestoga Senior High School, asked me to speak with students and parents about service and leadership, I figured the small gathering would be a great space to road-test some new ideas. And I decided to go for broke. I would focus my message on parents, lead with the hardest stuff (ie:…
Read MoreA Sort Of Homecoming
In Friends & Neighbors, my father narrates my Iowa origin story thusly: “You were born Saturday morning, September the 4th, and Sunday at two o’clock I left for Maryland.” Mom, Chris, and I followed three weeks later. So when I say I’m from Iowa, it’s factually true. But I was raised in Maryland, Indianapolis, Illinois, Pennsylvania,…
Read MoreListen to the Friends & Neighbors Premiere Q&A
For a couple of years now, as I’ve been shooting and editing Friends & Neighbors, I imagined the day when the entire cast of helpers would come together to watch the film, and discuss it. That day came last week when we screened Friends & Neighbors for our friends and neighbors at Theater N in…
Read MoreLiane Su: Station To Station
It’s a career begun in the front seat of a Buick Riviera. As a kid growing up on the edge of Orange County, future MTV News producer, Liane Su, commandeered the stereo in her mom’s car, endlessly toggling between: pop, rock, and hip-hop, Wham, Jane’s Addiction and Wu-Tang Clan, on KISS, KROQ, and POWER 106.…
Read MoreJim Fraenkel: Smells Like Fun
“I will never forget this one day where Nirvana was in the office…” That’s Jim Fraenkel, current EVP of Documentaries and Current at World of Wonder, one-time VP & EP of MTV News, and all-time King of VO, recalling the first days of his career. Where did it go from there? This week, Jim, takes…
Read MoreMerle Ginsburg: Marquee Moon
Early MTV was a corporate exercise launched by Big Radio guys with Big Banking money. Still, its hallways were teeming with young artists, writers, rebels, and punks like Music and Fashion Writer and Editor turned RuPaul’s Drag Race co-star, Merle Ginsberg. “My parents were very, very normal, good, hard-working people who watched sitcoms at night,”…
Read MoreJoin Us For “Friends & Neighbors” Screenings
When I landed in the bucolic Philadelphia exurbs after 25 years in New York City and left my globetrotting gig at Facebook shortly thereafter, I realized that the relentless pace of my previous life left me feeling anxious and depressed. Then came COVID, and a PTSD diagnosis. I realized pretty quickly that I wasn’t alone.…
Read MoreDarin Byrne: Hands On
How did the 10th of 11 kids go from the Elliot Housing Projects in Chelsea to shooting Eminem’s very first MTV interview? If you’re a certain Maplewood, New Jersey-based Development Exec, EP and showrunner, the answer may include a consciousness-shifted, college-era Friday-night in front of The Week In Rock. “I was enraptured with the back…
Read MoreLinda Corradina: The Godmother
For a generation of viewers, iconic shows like The Week In Rock, The Big Picture, and House of Style are part of the firmament: always there, always on, and always great. But it wasn’t always so. “There was no Internet,” Linda Corradina laughs of her early days at MTV News. “There was no Snapchat. We were speaking…
Read MoreCorey Moss: Double Underdog
Ever feel like an underdog? How about a double underdog? Despite interviewing everyone from Stevie Wonder to Billie Joe Armstrong, being a part of the early Aughts MTV News Dot Com Team amidst a remote newsroom of TV producers often made one-time MTV News Senior Writer Corey Moss feel that way. “I came from online and…
Read More