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[0:01] Michelle Simone Miller: Welcome to a new episode of Mentors on the Mic podcast. I'm your host, Michelle Simone Miller, and this is your roadmap to the entertainment industry. Now, while most of my episodes are interview-based, this special bonus episode is really cool because I'm going to take you through the Atlantic Festival. I had the pleasure of doing two festivals in the same week, the Atlantic Festival and the Innovation Festival, and I'm going to do a little short bonus episode talking to you about each. This particular festival was incredible. I really, really enjoyed the Atlantic Festival. I'm going to take you a little bit behind the scenes. I had such a good time. The festival covers everything from politics and economics to sports and health, but I curated my experience to arts and entertainment.

You really could do that, and storytelling as well. You really could do that with this particular festival. It was wonderful. I learned a lot of really great stuff, and I wanted to share with you some of them. So, for instance, I got to see a really cool panel with actress Florence Pugh, director and writer Zoe Kazan's, and then Netflix's Bela Bajaria. I'll go into it, but they reveal a lot about the upcoming Netflix series. I think it's not upcoming. I think today it came out, East of Eden. We're going to go over how Netflix decides what stories they make, how Zoe Kazan's changed the character of Kathy in Steinbeck's East of Eden for this adaptation. I also want to give you some little things about storytelling and public speaking that I took from Andrew McCarthy and Annie Joy Williams.

I wanted to share with you the performance that they had the first night of the festival that was a collaboration between The Atlantic and Juilliard, and that was called A Soundtrack of a Nation. It was one of my favorite shows of the year. I mean, it was so good. I'm going to talk a little bit about two conversations that I didn't expect to stick with me. One was Ben McKenzie on Crypto, the actor, Ben, yeah, from The O.C., and Malcolm Gladwell on violence and gun control. Then I'm going to kind of share with you the very real attempt I made to get Andrew McCarthy on Mentors on the Mic. I've asked his team to come on before a couple of years ago when his documentary was at Tribeca, and I got a no. I thought, I'm going to try again this year.

Come with me to The Atlantic Festival, and I'm going to share with you everything that I took from it. Firstly, first impressions. We walk in. It's a beautiful building, Perlman Center, right by the World Trade Center. You walk up these gorgeous steps. They lift them up like they're all The Atlantic magazine red, like The Atlantic red. It was so good. You walk in. I got my press badge, and I will show you. I have the press badge right here. I got my press badge. It says my name. If you're watching this on video, I'm going to show some things on video. Really great badge, as well as they gave you a little program. The program was really great and well organized, the agenda. What I really liked was they also, right when you walk in, they had an information desk.

You can immediately go, okay, where's this, this, and this? They had a big screen where they had listed all of the events. That stuff was really crucial because when you walk into these things, you just have no idea how this particular space works. Especially if you haven't been to the festival before, they've changed venues. That happens quite a few times. I really appreciated walking and being able to ask a question. I got The Atlantic hat. This is like a bright mustard orange hat, which I may give away. If anyone has an interest in this, let me know. It's a beautiful hat. I'm not a big hat person. I only wear a couple hats and not very often. They gave it to me because we're subscribers from The Atlantic.

They gave us also The Atlantic magazine, which was wonderful. I think we got it a day earlier than we would have gotten it at home, as well as a tote bag, The Atlantic tote bag. What's cool is they gave you the option. This was part of the experience. They had a little engraving area right when you walk in on the left. You can choose to engrave it with an A for The Atlantic or your initials. They were pretty crowded. I asked for my initials in block letters, and they gave it to me in script. But it took a little bit. I came back an hour later, two hours later, and I think they texted me. I was like, oh, I think I asked for block letters. They're like, you did. Sorry. We have so many orders. I was like, I don't care.

But I still really like it. I like a good tote bag, and I like it engraved. Again, the hat's not really my color. I also don't think I would ever wear it. If anyone is interested in The Atlantic hat, I'm happy to give that away. But the whole thing was really beautifully curated. I thought everything ran on time, which is a big one. They started exactly when it was supposed to and ended exactly when it was supposed to. I thought that really stood out to me and was impressive. It was a really great crowd. I didn't do a lot of networking, to be honest, but I think everyone was really nice when I did talk to them. The food was fantastic. If you guys know Marcus Samuelson, the chef, he is the chef at this place, at the venue.

We were able to have delicious food given throughout the day. Not only was there a delicious lunch at a certain time, and while there were lines for the lunch, it didn't take very long. There were multiple tables. I think I could have done with a couple more, but there were a few tables. There were just short lines you have to sit through and then lots of places to sit, both outside and inside. A lot of people were doing work throughout the day when they weren't catching a panel or something. I thought that was really nice as well. The food was delicious. I got a chicken curry sandwich. I got some salmon. There were salads, but I didn't really get there. I think by the time I got to my line, they hadn't replaced the salad yet, but if I waited a little bit or if I'd gone to a different table, I would have been able to get salad.

They were pretty good on that type of thing. The snacks were great too. We got these great chocolate chip cookies, these brownies. There were some vegetables. I don't think there was dip with the vegetables, which I thought was interesting, but there was also little popcorns. We were able to snack on stuff. They also had drinks available. When there was a cocktail hour, you got free drinks, like free alcoholic drinks, which I didn't have, but I think I had a sip of champagne or something at one point, but they had water throughout the day. They had sodas throughout the day. So the overall experience felt really special. I thought that there were beautiful theaters with great screens in the background.

It was really great. I just thought the lighting, everything was really, really well done. It was a really great venue. They made really great use of it. It seemed really high-end in comparison to some festivals I've been to, and so that stuff stood out to me. One of the panels I went to was actually the last panel I went to, which is funny. I've been really excited to go to this. This was Netflix’s East of Eden. This particular panel was, I wish you got to watch a full episode. I guess I'm so used to doing that sort of thing for other stuff I do, but they gave you the first scene of the first episode and then a clip from the second episode. It's a little horror for me. I mean, I've read Steinbeck's East of Eden a while back, so I know what happens, but they do it.

I mean, if you see the trailer, it's a really horror show. It's like real horror. However, it was very interesting to hear Zoe Kazan's's vision for it. She said she fell in love with the book. She has a lot of family history tied with this particular movie or this adaptation. She really wanted to give Kathy, the character of Kathy that's played by Florence Pugh, a lot more backstory, a lot more understanding as opposed to the book, which just really places her as a villain. She's the evil one. She's the villain that changes everything. I'm curious to see the whole show, which I think came out today, October 1st, but I really am curious to see how Kathy is played because the way she's written, they took stuff from the book that were three sentences about Kathy, and they made a whole important scene out of those three sentences.

So you're going to get a lot more from Kathy, a lot more understanding as to why she is who she is, why she does what she does. And I feel like Florence Pugh said she had read the story in her early 20s, decided not to reread it before signing on to this and before filming. She said she's in the middle of a reread now, and she's so happy that she didn't reread the book before because it's so different from how it's presented in Zoe's version that she's really happy she stayed true to that. But yeah, I think that was really cool. And then, I believe it's pronounced Bela Bajaria. She works for Netflix, I believe, as the head of content, essentially. So she decides what stories Netflix chooses to take on.

And she said right away that she felt like she fell in love with the first two episodes she read from Zoe. And she said she really is looking for – at Netflix, she's really looking for powerful stories and told in a very particular way. So even if it's a reimagining of something like East of Eden, she really liked that Zoe had a very particular perspective that she wanted to share. And she said as soon as she saw that Florence Pugh was attached to it, she was like, it was a no-brainer for us. This is exactly what we want to do. On the flip side, it was really interesting hearing – I mean, I know Bella was right there, but Zoe talked about how she really appreciated Netflix as a partner for this, that she said Netflix really supported her, really didn't kind of step on her toes or take on too much, and that she then signed on for another project that she's doing with them that she talked a little bit about.

Yeah, so it was really cool hearing that. It was cool, also, she said they said we were the first people to see a clip from that. I think we were like the first sort of stop on their press tour, I guess. So I really felt like that was really interesting to see them watch the clip, but watch us watch the clip, because they got a kick out of that. Personally, I felt like the moderator, who was someone from the Atlantic, wasn't my favorite. I felt like she was a little – I'm so primed about moderators, because I do it so often, and I interview people a lot. But I just felt she was very tentative in her questioning. Everything felt like she was kind of coming in when she was asking it, kind of like she was a little timid about asking questions.

And then I also felt like some of her questions weren't so tactful. And so I felt a little cringe, like I was cringing a little bit when she asked, like there was this particular question about Zoe's family, which is a little, you know, very famous, but also controversial. And she kind of mentioned that in a way that I just felt like the question and the way it was asked wasn't great. I'm glad she asked that question some ways, because I was curious as to what the answer would be as to why Zoe felt like she wanted to take on this project, you know, considering her family's response to it. But also, it was like, how does she feel about the controversy from her family? And I just felt like it just felt a little too, it was cringing, and also like, just not the form for it.

It felt a little like People magazine, if you will. And I felt like they were very uncomfortable, but like Zoe took it in stride. But as an audience, I was like, oh, this is not done as well as I wanted it to be. So yeah, but overall, that panel was fantastic. It was a nice way to end the whole thing for me. Another one was the first night, at the end of the first night, there was a performance for Juilliard, like with Juilliard that I thought was incredible. So this was called, it was all about America's 250 years. And they like went through music, a little dance through the years. So one was really cool is right off the bat, they had Itzhak Perlman come to play violin. And that was incredible.

And so they like, they basically separated this into segments that celebrated different parts of the industry or like, or just music essentially in America. The history of tap was told while in the midst of like tap dancing and showing different tap moves. We had some jazz music in there. We had some Cherokee traditions in there. There was classical music in the style of like Bridgerton, like pop music, but the classical version of it. And I just felt like it was such a beautiful thing at the end. And there were some really, really great standout performances, which are, you know, hard to explain because of how intricate it was. And it was like song plus music. There was one there was one segment where I mean, it was just there's so much as a lot of classical piano. There was one segment about like this guy who I think he was a famous musician, but also a current or former professor at Juilliard.

[13:37] Michelle Simone Miller: It was really cool. That was fun. There was another one that was just a Celebrating a Juilliard alum that had written some of the most incredible soundtracks for movies, from Harry Potter to Jaws, etc. And so we saw how that had evolved, and that was really cool. Really great voices, really great vocal performance. And then at the end, Laura Linney did this God Bless America tree reading. Simultaneously, everyone who had performed came on stage slowly. It was just a really powerful moment of everyone coming together. At first, I remember being like, I can't believe they're ending it on this. I love Laura Linney, but this is God Bless America. It's just a poem. It's fine. But it was really powerful with everyone coming out at the end.

It was a really great overall performance. I really enjoyed it. Had a great time. Glad they did it. Glad I got to go. Thank you, Atlantic Festival, for allowing me to go to this. And I got to bring a plus one, so my husband and I really enjoyed it. It was the day before our anniversary, and we couldn't really do anything for our anniversary because of family stuff that weekend. So I was like, this kind of felt like an anniversary celebration, which was cool.

[14:44] Michelle Simone Miller: There was an interesting programming that was called A Good Life, Conversations on Connection, Joy and Meaning. And it was featuring a few different people. So one of the reasons why I wanted to go was Andrew McCarthy was there. And I am a fan of Andrew McCarthy, both of his acting, his directing, but also his writing. And so I was like, I definitely want to go to this. But I thought it was going to be a panel. Like I thought it was all these people that were featured going to be in a panel and they're going to be asked questions. That's kind of how it was written, probably to save time or to save space in the programming. But I think they could have explained it better. Maybe they did, and I didn't take as good of a look at it. But I wasn't aware that what it was was actually just an amalgamation of different people and different small subprograms within the whole programming related to A Good Life, Conversations on Connection, Joy and Meaning.

[15:35] Michelle Simone Miller: So it started off with this sort of presentation by Annie Joy Williams, who works at The Atlantic. And she was talking about based on, like, I think, an article that she wrote and other articles her colleagues have written about her experience being single in New York at her age. And so it was a really great thing sort of on public speaking and storytelling and how she can command the attention of the room through humor, through confidence and through storytelling and how we were able to relate to her, her story, even as, for me, a married woman. For some people who've been, you know, single or married for many, many years, how can they relate to her story? So I loved it. I loved her command of the room.

I loved that she used some pictures in the background to emphasize certain points. But at the same time, like, if I asked myself right now what that was about, aside from her being single, like, I can't remember the point that she made. I think it was about, like, oh, I think it was about, like, you can find, you'll have a better time finding a person if you go, like, if you basically focus on your community and focus on growing your community. But maybe I'm wrong, honestly, because that was also something that someone else said at a different panel. I do remember parts to her, her presentation, and it was really funny and there were certain moments that stick out, but I can't remember the overall point. And I think that's actually very telling.

[16:59] Michelle Simone Miller: So I had a couple of panels that were really great. I won't go into it. But at the very end, Andrew McCarthy did come out. And I remember thinking, like, this is almost over. But his was like five minutes. And then he basically talked about the concept for this book that just came out, where he where he talks about, like, aging and how men specifically don't sort of carry on their friendships very well. And they become lonely. And obviously, there's a loneliness epidemic, especially among men. So he basically, like, talks about how it started, like how his son, you know, asked him about how he's really lacking friends. And he said, I have friends, I just don't see them. And he's when he realized that he was like, OK, let me make a point to do so. And so he did a road trip to go visit a friend. And in the meanwhile, asked a bunch of people on the way about friendships, specifically male long term friendships. And then he wrote a book about it.

[17:52] Michelle Simone Miller: So I'll get into a little bit of a story later about how I was trying to get him to be on my podcast. But in the meanwhile, it was a really great it was a really great story. It was a really great public speaking. There were things that were happening simultaneously. People were leaving because, again, thinking, OK, maybe just leave five minutes early because maybe I'm going to something else. And he just took it in stride and he wasn't super distracted by other people. OK, but I'll tell I'll tell my funny story at the end. I'm almost done. Then there are the conversations I didn't expect to stick with me. So I went to one with actor Ben McKenzie. You might remember him from the O.C. He's also been in television since.

He is really, really, really knowledgeable about crypto. And so he made this documentary. There's a lot of humor to the documentary about how crypto is just complete BS. And so he was asked about it. He has a lot of information on it. And it really made me question some things. I am considering reading his book. So that was a really interesting part of the program.

[18:47] Michelle Simone Miller: And then right following that was Malcolm Gladwell. He spoke to a writer at The Atlantic who used to be his roommate. So there was this really sort of fun dynamic between the two of them where they had like personal stories that they shared. And I'm a fan of Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell, I've read a couple of his books already. He was talking specifically about violence and gun control. There were a couple of things that I think kind of went somewhat, I don't want to say viral, semi-viral, where there was like a joke made. Malcolm is Canadian. And so there was this element of like, well, if Canada and America ever went to war, Canada would win because American troops would go to Canada and they just want to stay there.

So I think that was something I'll probably put a link to that in the chat. I saw it online that it's available somewhere. But overall, he made me think a little bit more and a little bit differently about violence. I might read his upcoming book on that. I don't think it's out yet. But I thought that was really interesting and really sort of thought provoking, which I think was the whole point.

[19:47] Michelle Simone Miller: And then lastly, OK, I'm going to tell you about my Andrew McCarthy story. Oh, you know, again, I've been trying to get him on the podcast before. I was like, OK, I'm going to do it this time. So right after I saw that there was a book signing with a couple other people, Ben McKenna, including Andrew McCarthy. So I immediately go to that book signing. I bought the book, which you could buy. There's like a little bookstore area where you could buy a lot of the books by the panelists or the writers of the Atlantic staff. And so I bought his book. No one was there. So by the time he got there, I was like, oh, there's no line. They asked me to, like, start the line essentially, but no one followed.

And so he kind of was just, you know, really sort of down to earth, chilling by himself. And I went up to him and I was like, hi, you know, I'd love for you to sign my book. He goes, thank you so much. He takes this marker. He starts to sign. He goes, what's your name? And we're chatting. And I said, listen, you know, I have a podcast where I interview people in the entertainment industry about their work, how they started, how they moved up to where they are today. I'm a fan of your work. I loved Bratz. I loved your book about Bratz, the documentary as well. And I said, I would love to interview you. Is there someone on your team I can speak to about setting something up? I was like, all right, good for me. I'm so excited. Worth buying the book.

[20:57] Michelle Simone Miller: So he looked at me and he wasn't super like, yeah, I think he did say, like, tell me what your podcast is about. So I did. I told him a little bit more. And then he said, yeah, if you just write to us on my website, like if you just write to us, yeah, we'll get it. And, you know, yeah. And he didn't say it was a basic yes, but he did sound like he'd be interested in doing and coming on. So I said, great, I will. And so I pretty much that day, later that day, I submitted through his contact form on the website saying, hey, you know, I kind of I was addressing him, not his team at that point. But I figured it doesn't matter that much. But no one got back to me. So I might follow up again. But I was a little bummed.

I really had hoped that that would work. Neither here nor there. That happens. But anyway, at the end of the day, the Atlantic Festival was so fun. I'm so glad I did it. Thank you so much to the Atlantic Festival for giving me this press badge, for allowing me to go to all these incredible events, these incredible panels. The event with the night, the collaboration between the Atlantic and Juilliard was really special. Thank you so much for that.

[22:01] Michelle Simone Miller: And I highly recommend this. If this is something if you're a fan of the Atlantic, if you're a fan of people in the entertainment industry or education or politics or health, and you really want to go to things where you're really, which are very thought provoking, which allow you to get more information about topics that you may or may not know a lot about. There were some things I did know, and it was nice hearing it from experts. And there were some things I didn't know. And I enjoyed walking out thinking about them more. There was a whole thing there about, you know, whether there's really this, like, reading shortage. On one hand, a lot of bookstores are opening back up and people are reading more.

But apparently, like, less people are reading that amount. I don't know. There's something like a lot of the people who are reading are reading a lot, but no one else is. And then they also talked about, like, college students who are reading less and less, which is so sad.

[22:52] Michelle Simone Miller: So it's actually kind of funny. They parked right outside the first day of the Atlantic Festival, and they handed out these newspapers. I threw mine out. And they threw out this newspaper basically saying Atlantic believes that people aren't reading. But these are the reasons why that's wrong. And, like, it was such a great way to promote Book of the Month. I found it cheeky. I think it was a little annoying for the people inside or for the people running the program. But I thought it was a little cheeky, very fun, and made you think. But anyway, it was a really great festival. I highly recommend. I will try to go next year. It was really fun. It was probably one of the best executed festivals I've been to, and I've been to quite a few.

[23:33] Michelle Simone Miller: So, yeah. So I'm going to be doing this every once in a while. There's another episode coming out about the Innovation Festival, which I was happy to go to as well. I'm also going to go to the Hampton Film Festival, so I'll do a little recap of that. If you have a minute, subscribe to Mentors on the Mic. You also follow me on YouTube, Instagram, and anywhere you listen to podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. And I also now have a Substack, so feel free to find me on Substack. Link is in my bio and in the show notes as well. But it's really fun. I talk about, like, the behind the scenes for a lot of this stuff, recap some really cool events that I get to go to, and red carpets, et cetera. I'm about to do more Hampton Film Festival, so I'm going to write more about it in the Substack. And, yeah, so follow along. Bye.

[24:17] Michelle Simone Miller: Thank you so much for listening to Mentors on the Mic. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it with a friend in entertainment you know would love it. Let me know what you learned or what stayed with you on our Instagram, at Mentors on the Mic. I love reading your messages. You can also find me at MichelleSimoneMiller on Instagram. On both accounts, I'll be sharing even more information about our mentors. Talk to someone about what you learned today who would really appreciate it and send them the episode. Also, if you love the show, please go ahead and leave us a rating and review on iTunes. It really makes a huge difference in growing this. It makes it easier for people to find our podcast, and I love reading your reviews. So thank you so much, and I'll see you next week. Bye.