The idea of cloning humans, still a scientific fantasy, makes for intriguing stories that lead us to examine ourselves. How would you feel if you woke up one day as a clone, then discovered your real self was a bad person? Or, you discover your real self is dead, and you’ve been cloned, but at a massive cost that you will never be able to repay?

Author Jeffrey Ashkin’s adventures in cloning take a darker turn in his new novel, The Second World of Sendel, a follow-up to his first novel, The Second Life of Jonathan Sendel. In each story, the protagonist is a clone of a man who died. The clone discovers his creation comes with major strings attached. In the new book, Steven Sendel learns that becoming a clone cost a fortune he must now repay by being conscripted to a lunar mining colony.

“He’s in debt, so he’s alive. But in debt,” says Jeff. “So, because of that, he wants to figure out who put him in the situation and also how to get out of it and reunite with his loved ones.”

To repay the debt, Sendel must work on the Moon mining Helium-3. More and more debt piles up, into millions of dollars, a burden shared by fellow miners. He decides to try to return to Earth to discover who signed him up for this arrangement, and the adventure ensues.

The author’s fascination with cloning grabs you from the start and propels you through the story. Here’s our conversation.

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It's possible, even probable, that no one has the depth of knowledge about rock 'n' roll history that Richie Unterberger has. His 40+ year career, starting as a DJ in college to writing 15 books, countless reviews and articles, has focused on the music of the 60s and 70s. This episode focuses on his new books about the Velvet Underground and The Who and looks back at how rock music has changed over the decades.

As a DJ at the University of Pennsylvania’s FM station, WXPN, Richie Unterberger delved into the roots of rock and folk music. It became his passion.

“I can play guitar and piano, but not very well,” he admits. “I realized pretty early on my main strength was going to be as a writer.”

That’s an understatement, looking at his body of work–fifteen books, countless magazine articles, reviews, commentaries and lectures over a career spanning more than 40 years. Throw out the name of a musician or band from the 60s, 70s and beyond, and Richie’s encyclopedic mind will recall chapter and verse–The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds–are just some of the artists he’s written and lectured about. You can find it all at richieunterberger.com.

His latest book, Do What You Fear Most: The History of the Velvet Underground, is an 800-page epic that covers every detail of the group’s members, including leader Lou Reed, the origins of their songs, the labels, the sound engineers, their association with Andy Warhol, and more. Even if you were never a fan, you might become one by immersing yourself in Richie’s book.

“Because I’ve been a fan [of the Velvet Underground] since 1979, I already accumulated a lot of the basic research. I wasn’t starting from scratch. I was reading as much as I could about them. So, I dug through microfilm and collections of vintage magazines. I did a lot of things simultaneously. It’s not hard to find the four principal studio albums and the two live albums that came out, but there’s a lot of unreleased material that really illuminates the group.”

Also released this spring is an e-book version of Won’t Get Fooled Again: The Who from Lifehouse to Quadrophenia. Picking up after the success of the rock opera “Tommy”, this is the story of band leader Pete Townshend’s quest to create another rock opera, “Lifehouse”, and the complications that prevented it from ever being created, and then the success of “Quadrophenia,” which benefited from a much simpler concept.

I was absolutely privileged to speak with Richie, who I consider one of the greatest rock historians of our time, in this edition of Type. Tune. Tint. Watch or listen now!

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Lauren Reisner admits that her dad might not totally love her decision to give up being a lawyer to follow her dream to write.

"My dad is supportive, but he is having a very hard time with me saying, I'm not a lawyer anymore," she says.

Describing herself as "trauma-informed," Lauren brings empathy to those suffering from life's setbacks, allowing her to tread lightly as she gathers information to ghostwrite their personal stories. She credits her 20 years as a disability lawyer, representing people with disability claims through the Social Security administration, with her ability to translate their experiences into words. That experience carries over to her writing process.

"I got my BA in Psychology, so a lot of my writing tends to skew towards psychology, either psych theory or neuropsych or cognitive psych, but in a very accessible way. I always use metaphors and things like that to make it easier to understand. But I think the psych background and the legal background have trained me to see things more analytically and objectively."

Lauren's ghostwriting business has gotten a running start, and she is in the process of querying agents for interest in her first novel. She is happy to lend her storytelling chops to anyone looking for help telling a personal story. Lauren's website is laurenreisner.com, and her Substack is titled Molten Crystal. Here's our conversation on the Type. Tune. Tint. podcast.

Broderick Bebout's career running call centers for an insurance company took an unwanted turn during the COVID pandemic when he was forced into the virtual world. Sitting alone in his basement, he decided he had to do something other than stare at a lit screen. He began drawing on Home Depot construction paper, refined his media to pastels on sandpaper, and today, six years later, has a thriving business called Shakerbrud, selling art, greeting cards, and other merchandise. And it all happened in his 50s.

A new movie about a robotic companion dog for a woman suffering from depression gives us a peek at the real robotic service dog, Jennie, who is about to make her debut in the wider world.

Philadelphia-area media veteran Brandon Brooks has produced a new documentary on The Main Point, a legendary music venue in Bryn Mawr, a suburb of Philly. A fan of the Main Point during its heyday in the 70s, Brandon looks at the history of the Main Point and some of the many musicians who passed through on their way to stardom.

Andrew Schulman attributes his recovery from a near-death experience to music. And in the years since it happened, he's committed himself to bringing music to intensive care units, musical medicine, as he calls it. The data from a study he participated in confirms the healing power of music. His book, Waking the Spirit, is now available as an audiobook with updates on the science of music as medicine, and some of the tunes that make it so.

Andy Regal spent 30 years creating television shows while working for some of the worst bullies in America. He stayed with them out of the false belief that he was the problem. While writing his first book, Surviving Bully Culture, he realized workplace bullying is a real phenomenon. Today, he's an advocate for recognizing workplace bullying, addressing it, and helping heal victims.