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The Invisible Chronicle
Interviews and essays on the invisible work that shapes perception.


Tom Luse: Executive Producer, The Walking Dead
Tom Luse has shaped the worlds behind The Walking Dead, Billy the Kid, Remember the Titans, and plenty of others people forget he worked on. His work in physical production sets the real limits of the story.


Marc Liepis: Late Night Producer & Strategic Communications
Marc Liepis has spent his career working on guest-driven television, where timing, preparation, and judgment decide whether a segment holds together or ends up on the cutting room floor. His work spans SNL, Conan, Fallon, Stern, and VICELAND, sitting between the host, the guest, and the edit.


Sam Viviano: Art Director Emeritus, MAD Magazine
Sam Viviano spent 19 years as the visual steward of MAD Magazine. He decided how a joke would read long before anyone saw a finished page — the choices that shaped what the reader noticed first, what could disappear, and where the composition carried or broke the gag.


Mathew Knowles: Music & Brand Executive
Mathew Knowles helped architect the early careers of Beyoncé, Solange, Destiny’s Child and a long list of award-winning artists. His work in brand building and artist development has shaped entire eras of music.


Melissa Watkins Trueblood: Live Event & Awards Producer
Melissa Watkins Trueblood works in the pressure zone where live television can’t afford a mistake, from The Voice to the Golden Globes to The Roast of Tom Brady. Her judgment is the difference between a night that stays on rhythm and one that veers off schedule.


Ross Richie: Founder, BOOM! Studios
Ross Richie grew BOOM! Studios into one of the few independents that could compete in both the Direct Market and the book trade, a catalogue strong enough for a 2024 Penguin Random House acquisition. His work shaped every story long before it reached a shelf.


Yvonne Grace: Producer & Script Editor, EastEnders & Holby City
Yvonne Grace has spent decades inside the machinery of British drama, from producing Holby City to shaping the narrative on EastEnders and rebuilding Crossroads for ITV. She’s the one who can see if the structure will carry the weight or if it’s already bending.


Andrew Rudick: Stand-Up Comedian
Andrew Rudick performs in rooms where stand-up happens in real time and the room answers back immediately. A national headliner with specials on Dry Bar Comedy and Amazon Prime, and the producer behind Cincinnati’s Don’t Tell Comedy shows, he’s spent years learning how crowds signal what they’ll tolerate and when they’re about to turn.


Darrel Bowen: Production Model Designer, The Simpsons
Darrel Bowen has shaped the visual backbone of The Simpsons for almost twenty years, defining the production models that keep every character, prop, and object consistent across the series. We talked about the invisible rules that decide whether a design belongs in a world or quietly breaks it the moment it appears.


Flody Suarez: Producer, TV & Broadway
Flody Suarez has shaped projects across TV and Broadway, from 8 Simple Rules and The Tick to The Cher Show and What’s New Pussycat. His work sits in the background, but it sets the boundaries the story works within.


Mark Steines: Television Host & Photographer
Mark Steines has spent decades shaping how audiences experience the biggest moments in entertainment. We talked about presence, pressure, and the unseen work that keeps a live moment alive.


Ernest Chan: Animation Supervisor, DreamWorks Animation
Ernest Chan has helped build some of the most watched animated worlds on TV, from Spongebob Squarepants to Kung Fu Panda to Fast and Furious Spy Racers. As an animation supervisor, he’s the one guiding how characters move, react, and hold the emotional beats on screen.


Susannah McCarthy: Prop Master
Susannah McCarthy builds the physical logic of a story. Her work on Mare of Easttown, Only Murders in the Building, The Gilded Age, Task, and FBI lives in details that don’t announce themselves but start to matter the second they’re wrong.


Mark Wheatley: Graphic Novelist & Insight Studios Founder
Mark Wheatley is an award-winning graphic novelist whose work runs from Breathtaker and Mars to museum exhibitions and the Library of Congress. He builds pages around what the eye isn’t shown.


Bulent Gurcan: Filmmaker & Survival Consultant
Bulent Gurcan spent years as a federal agent, war veteran, and pilot before turning to filmmaking and on-camera survival work. We talked about timing, subtext, the small adjustments that redirect a scene, and why every choice matters when you’re working in conditions that don’t forgive mistakes.


Jay Anderson: Astrophysicist, Observatory Scientist, & Astrometry Specialist
Jay Anderson, an astrophysicist and observatory scientist at STScI, explains how his work on PSF modeling, CTE correction, and astrometric calibration for HST and JWST reveals the hidden signatures and detector behavior that quietly decide what the science actually means.


Rob Kutner: Comedy Writer for Late Night & Animation
Rob Kutner is an Emmy winning comedy writer whose work runs from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Conan to Teen Titans Go!, Ben 10, and a long stretch of late night and animation. His writing operates in the quiet mechanics that control tone and timing.


Mark Simon: Storyboard Artist
Mark Simon is the storyboard artist behind Stranger Things, The Walking Dead, Dexter, Lioness, and a few thousand other moments people know without ever knowing who shaped them. He’s the one translating a director’s early ideas into something the crew can actually shoot.


Mitch Burman: Executive Producer & Showrunner, Old Enough!
Mitch Burman has spent three decades shaping unscripted worlds where nothing can be faked twice. His track record runs from Old Enough! Canada to Brother vs Brother to the hidden-camera and competition shows that built his reputation for engineering real reactions.


James McElwaine: Composer, Orchestrator, & Professor Emeritus
James McElwaine built a career across composition, orchestration, recording, and teaching, moving through New York’s music scene for more than forty years. He’s collaborated with artists as different as Randy Newman, Marvin Gaye, and Jim Henson.
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