To see him making records for a major label and touring the world with a rock icon, you’d never guess how close musician and producer Jerry Fuentes came to missing out on his dream: four days and $400.

Dropping in from his home studio in Nashville, the Last Bandoleros frontman walks us through the early days of Texas burger joints and tourist traps, his hardscrabble Brooklyn years, and the big break in Los Angeles that almost never happened.

He also explains how technology has changed the music-making process, what he’s learned from (and about) frequent collaborator Sting, and why his own band’s biggest blessing is also a curse. Enjoy.

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Kara Peck is Senior Director of Strategy and Partnerships for B Lab U.S. & Canada, where she works with companies looking to harness the power of business for good. Globally there are more than 4,000 certified B Corporations, each of which opens itself up to be tracked and evaluated on things like environmental performance, public transparency, and legal and social accountability.

She joined us from her home in Colorado to talk about everything from climate change to carbon footprints to cookie dough — and much more. Enjoy.

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In his second term as Bexar County (TX) Commissioner, Tommy Calvert's list of accomplishments is dizzying: He's the youngest Commissioner of the 16th most populous county in America, and also its first African-American Commissioner. He's negotiated multi-million dollar deals and chaired committees overseeing everything from Cyber and IT to the land usage of a major Air Force base. He's served on the National Committee for US-China Relations Young Leaders forum. He once led an organization that raised $50 million to fight human trafficking. He's flown a fighter jet.

In this installment of Something To Look Forward To, Calvert shares his unique insight into several front-page issues he’s intimately connected with — from energy to immigration to law enforcement and beyond.

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As frontman for bands like Drakulas and The Riverboat Gamblers, Mike Wiebe is known for a theatrical, no-holds-barred style of performance — famously, he once broke a rib and collapsed a lung while playing a gig at South by Southwest, but finished the set anyway.

In this installment of Something To Look Forward To, Mike walks us through all of that — along with digressions into the “Baptist-y microaggresions” of his childhood hometown, how death-metal bands allocate their corpse-paint budget, and the time Bruce Springsteen compared him to James Brown. Enjoy.

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Ben Roy is best-known as one-third of comedy outfit The Grawlix, and as raging history teacher Billy Shoemaker from the TV comedy Those Who Can’t. He’s also been a professional musician since before he could drive.

We discuss his path to stardom, the elements that make up a great movie Western, and the best strategy for bilking Columbia House out of dozens of CDs in the 1990s. Plus, Ben shares some under-the-radar film and music recommendations.

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Author Dom Testa’s new adventure series follows super-spy Eric Swan -- a happily married, deeply covert agent whose consciousness can be uploaded from one body to another when he dies.

We discuss the big ideas behind the Swan books, what life was like as an Air Force brat moving from Texas to Italy to Alaska every two years, the best one-sentence book review of all time, and which long-running TV series tops the list of all-time great spy stories. Plus, Dom shares some under-the-radar book and band recommendations.

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