Mike Mooney was speeding down the freeway to Knox Henderson's and then, presumably on his way to the bar, called me to discuss his new Audible podcast. hold fast.
A long-form journalist beloved for his storyteller's eyes and full beard, Mooney is a friendly reporter known only by his last name. He attended Grapevine High School, the home of Post Malone, and was later signed to the school. of atlantic ocean and GQ.
This story begins at his first port of call. miami new timespart of the alternative weekly empire run by Mike Lacey and the late Jim Larkin, which at its height was village voice, LA Weeklyand several once-strong city newspapers, including Cleveland, Denver, and Dallas, still own the chain. dallas observer (My former employer).
“I thought this project was about working at an alternative weekly magazine during its heyday,” says Mooney. It's a Shangri-La that we both experienced firsthand. The pre-Internet era of the '90s and early August was a prime time for alternative newspapers (emphasis mine), with huge ad dollars lining the cage for the generation of proto-hunter S. Thompson. Alternative weeklies have cultivated a certain kind of rebel who can use public records requests to pry open the bars to speak truth to power, or at least speak ill of them freely. And while such a story would make a good book or documentary, Mooney was joined by two stalwarts from his Miami days, Sam Eifling and Trevor Aaronson, the latter of whom insisted on a podcast.Aaronson added punch to that category. alphabet boys and ISIS in America, a tragedy about a Pennsylvania child who went to Syria to join ISIS. “He's one of my top five podcasts,” Mooney said, so he was sold.
Every story needs an antihero, and this one features Brawler Lacey, known only by his last name.It was started by a drunk and swinging newspaper reporter. phoenix new times Riding the counterculture energy of the '70s during the Vietnam protests, we rode into the peacetime era when tabloid free papers on the racks of deserted dive bars could still make a profit for daily newspapers. “You get paid to neuter them,” Lacey says of the world lost in the pod. He's an old-school Irish scrapper with the phrase “Stay strong” tattooed on his fingers, a phrase he saw on the knuckles of his violent father.
Things didn't go well for Lacey or his more level-headed business partner, Larkin. Adult advertising, once a lifeline, led to him being dragged into two federal trials on charges of money laundering and sex trafficking. Earning so much of their alternative weekly income, the two founded the infamous Backpage.com that the Department of Justice labeled them the biggest prostitutes in the history of the world. Listeners will have to decide whether these two are champions of free speech or self-righteous bastards who've been hoisted up by their own pets.
Their stories make for some outrageous stories, including an FBI raid, a giant jug of LSD, a man in a diaper, and the current Vice President of the United States.
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“Hold Fast” will debut on April 11th.
