Cultural Catalysts with Alison McNeil

Alison McNeil
  • 5.0 (36)
  • Performing Arts
  • Weekly

Welcome to Cultural Catalysts with Alison McNeil—the podcast that celebrates the creative visionaries working behind the scenes in arts and entertainment. This podcast uplifts the voices of producers, publicists, directors, and other behind-the-scenes creatives who shape culture but don’t always get the spotlight. From the challenges of building sustainable careers to the triumphs of crafting unforgettable artistic moments, Cultural Catalysts dives deep into the inspiring lives of those who make the magic happen. If you’re curious about the people driving creativity and innovation in the arts, this podcast is for you. 🌐  MCE Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/mcearts 🌐 Impact Roadmap™: The Art of Describing Your Impact: http://mceimpactroadmap.com

  1. 23h ago

    Dialect Architect: How Bridgett Jackson Became One of the Few Black Women Shaping Voices in Film and TV

    Bridgett Jackson, certified speech-language pathologist, dialect coach, professor, and self-described "Speaker Tweaker," joins Cultural Catalysts — and longtime friend and fellow Hampton University alumna Alison McNeil — for a conversation about the role that quietly shapes every performance audiences have ever loved. Bridgett traces her path from growing up in Indianapolis to spotting inconsistencies in onscreen accents one day and Googling her way into an entirely new career. Bridgett has left her mark across theater, network TV, indie film, and major streaming platforms, working alongside Halle Berry, Queen Latifah, Samuel L. Jackson, and Oprah Winfrey, and is now preparing to head to Paris for the Josephine Baker biopic with FKA Twigs. Bridgett breaks down: Her three-step approach to coaching any accent — auditory, phonetic, and physiological — and why being a speech pathologist gives her tools most dialect coaches don't haveWhat it took to transform British actress Naomi Ackie into Whitney Houston across three distinct vocal phases: New Jersey accent, General American, and the hoarse voice that came with Whitney's struggles in the ninetiesHow aspiring dialect coaches can get started — with YouTube accent tag videos, a sound-by-sound cheat sheet, and the courage to reach out to someone already in the fieldFind out more:  Connect with Bridgett: InstagramXWebsiteHoward University - Speech-Language Pathology (M.S.) Program DetailsFKA Twigs Confirmed For Josephine Baker Role In Maïmouna Doucouré’s Biopic As Studiocanal Launches Sales – Cannes Market Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today. 🔗 Connect with Alison: LinkedInInstagram🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

  2. Oct 28

    Where's My Money? Monet Little on Music Rights, Royalty Administration, and What Artists Don't Know They're Signing

    Monet Little, music rights and royalty administration specialist, co-chair of Women in Music DC, and professional member of the Recording Academy DC chapter, joins Cultural Catalysts to pull back the curtain on one of the most essential and least understood corners of the music business. A creative first, Monet found her way into this world through an internship with DC-based jazz musician and entrepreneur Marcus Johnson, discovered SoundExchange was right in her backyard, and applied three times before landing her first music industry role. Monet has worked every angle of how money moves from a stream to an artist's bank account, and she now brings that full-circle knowledge to independent artists and labels. Monet breaks down: What music rights and royalty administration actually is: not the deal itself, but the operational work that happens after the deal is signed to make sure money flows correctly to every rights holder, per the contractThe most common and costly mistake artists make: signing a deal without understanding what recoupment means, confusing an advance for a windfall rather than a loanThe representation gap she sees every day: women and people of color are largely pushed toward creative and artist-facing roles, while the business and financial decision-making rooms remain far less diverse — and why she shows up anywayFind out more: Connect with Monet: InstagramLinkedInMusicCreate Music GroupWebsiteSoundExchangeWebsiteConcordWebsiteWomen in MusicWebsite Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today. 🔗 Connect with Alison: LinkedInInstagram🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

  3. Oct 21

    From the Drum Kit to the Boardroom: The Grammy Guy Reinvented

    Jeriel Johnson, a Berklee College of Music-trained drummer turned music executive, joins Cultural Catalysts to pull back the curtain on preparing for an awards campaign in the music industry, a world  few outsiders understand. After seven years at the Recording Academy, including roles as head of urban music for the Grammy Awards and executive director of the DC chapter, Jeriel earned recognition from Billboard Magazine as a Change Agent. Jeriel found himself fielding free advice calls from artists and executives so often that a friend finally asked the obvious question: why not get paid for it? That conversation led to The Awards Agency, the consultancy he now runs with longtime friend and former Grammy colleague Lisa Goich-Andreadis, helping artists and labels navigate the genuinely human reason an award like the Grammy matters: peer recognition, hard-won and rarely about chart position or sales. Jeriel breaks down: His path from Berklee drummer to senior roles at Disney, Warner Brothers, and NBCUniversal, and the surreal moment a song he played drums on, almost by accident, ended up Grammy-nominated.Co-founding the Recording Academy's Black Music Collective with Riggs Morales in 2020, a pivotal effort to rebuild trust with Black music creatorsHis hard-earned advice for anyone trying to build a career behind the scenes: start with what you're great at, lean into collaboration, and trust that your gift will make room for you.Find out more: Connect with Jeriel: InstagramLinkedInThe Awards Agency:WebsiteInstagram Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today. 🔗 Connect with Alison: LinkedInInstagram🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

  4. Oct 14

    All of We Is One: How Suzan Jenkins Has Led Arts and Humanities Grant Making in Maryland for Nearly 20 Years

    Suzan E. Jenkins, CEO of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) and leadership coach, joins Cultural Catalysts as the first funder to appear on the show — and she wastes no time demystifying what a local arts agency actually does. From distributing the largest arts grant funding of any local agency in Maryland, to advocating with county legislators, to managing the complex ecosystem of individual donors, private foundations, state and federal dollars. Suzan breaks down:  How grant-making actually works, including the part most people miss: that funders also have to raise money, navigate politics, and work within real constraintsThe Montgomery County Cultural Plan, a years-long community-driven process built on seven modes of engagement, seven languagesThe guiding principle she carried from her childhood in the Caribbean: all of we is oneFind out more: Connect with Suzan: LinkedInArts and Humanities Council of Montgomery CountyWebsiteFacebook Open Sky JazzWebsiteLeadership CoachingEmail Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today. 🔗 Connect with Alison: LinkedInInstagram🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

  5. Oct 7

    The Detective of the Room: Erica A. Hart on the Real Work of a Casting Director

    Two-time Artios Award-winning casting director Erica A. Hart joins Cultural Catalysts to pull back the curtain on one of the most influential yet least visible roles in all of entertainment. She traces her path from growing up in Washington, DC, to stumbling into casting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts when a classmate needed someone to fill the last slot on a crew list, to spending seven years at ABC Primetime Casting and eventually going independent in 2020 with Hart Casting. She speaks candidly about the realities of entrepreneurship, the guilt of taking a vacation, and the emotional intelligence required to navigate rooms full of competing producers, directors, and studio execs — all trying to agree on one person out of hundreds, sometimes thousands of submissions.  Erica breaks down: How casting really works — describing herself as the "detective" of the industry, given a set of clues (the script and character breakdowns) and sent out to find the talent to bring a story to life.Why casting is fundamentally a buyer-and-seller relationship, and how the job shifts depending on budget and medium What she's actually looking for when she watches self-tapes: not someone trying to stand out, but someone grounded in a natural, truthful quality.How casting is a producer's job, and after 90-plus years, the Academy has finally started recognizing it as a category Find out more: Connect with Erica: InstagramLinkedInHart Casting:Website Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today. 🔗 Connect with Alison: LinkedInInstagram🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

  6. Season 3 Trailer

    Welcome to Cultural Catalysts: Season 3!

    Welcome back to Cultural Catalysts — the podcast that takes you behind the scenes with the people shaping culture. They are the creative visionaries working behind the scenes in arts and entertainment. The producers. The publicists. The dealmakers. The funders. The creative leaders. The people making things happen who don’t always get the spotlight. We’re back for Season 3 — and now, we’re on YouTube. This season: what it really takes to build a career in the business of creativity.  Cultural Catalysts. Season 3.Listen wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe — and now, watch on YouTube. Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today. 🔗 Connect with Alison: LinkedInInstagram🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

  7. 12/17/2025

    Executive Management Consulting in the Arts and Culture: How Candace Jackson Built CJAM

    Consultant, strategist, and CJAM Consulting Principal Candace Jackson joins Cultural Catalysts for this season’s final episode to trace how an operations and HR leader inside arts organizations became a designer of what she now calls “executive management consulting.” She shares how believing in serendipity and deja vu as confirmation helped her recognize when she was on the right path, including the “accident” of shortening her too-long business name—Candace Jackson Arts and Management Consulting—into CJAM at a client’s request so it would fit on a check. Candace unpacks early missteps in setting her hourly and day rates based on her last salary, before realizing she needed to price in overhead, insurance, and employer taxes, and reflects on being repeatedly tapped as an interim executive director by boards navigating leadership transitions.  Candace’s experiences clarified that she no longer wanted to stay inside the organizational frame permanently and instead wanted to enter as an external partner who can stabilize, support, and then step back out through CJAM’s executive management consulting model—combining interim leadership, executive searches, and deep partnerships with leadership teams. Throughout the episode, Candace talks about naming and claiming her lane, treating “accidents” as alignment, and building a consulting practice that centers clarity, structure, and care for the people doing the work.​ Find out more: CJAM Consulting / CJAM Consulting on InstagramCandace Jackson Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today. 🔗 Connect with Alison: LinkedInInstagram🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

  8. 12/10/2025

    From Booking to Big Vision: How Anshia Crooms Shapes Tours, Careers, and Festivals

    Entertainment executive and booking agent Anshia Crooms joins Cultural Catalysts to share how a small-town girl who fell in love with film and music, built a nearly 20-year career shaping live experiences and artist opportunities. As founder, CEO, and Chief Booking Agent of Briclyn Entertainment Group, Anshia has evolved her company from an artist management shop launched at age 23 while in grad school at The New School into a boutique booking and events agency representing Adam Blackstone, Eric Roberson, Gabby Samone, and more, placing them on stages from Afropunk to the Kennedy Center and Jazz Café in London. She breaks down the difference between management and booking, how her SummerStage apprenticeship became a masterclass in live production, and why every artist on her roster must be able to deliver a powerful live show.  Anshia also discusses the role of relationships and team “zones of genius” in sustaining festivals like the Love Music Festival and East Orange’s Mac Fest, and how her faith and instincts guide who she works with and which pivots to make as the live events landscape shifts. Anshia is candid about seasons of being broke in New York, weathering slow ticket sales and economic uncertainty, and using affirmations, prayer, community, and simple joys like nails, massages, and quarterly “friend dates” to stay grounded while continuing to pour into others. Links: Briclyn Entertainment GroupAnshia on InstagramProject Hygiene: ph@projecthygiene.orgThe Recording Academy: MusiCares | Grammy UMastering Publicity Strategies with Nyle Washington: Apple Podcasts | Spotify Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today. 🔗 Connect with Alison: LinkedInInstagram🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

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5
out of 5
36 Ratings

About

Welcome to Cultural Catalysts with Alison McNeil—the podcast that celebrates the creative visionaries working behind the scenes in arts and entertainment. This podcast uplifts the voices of producers, publicists, directors, and other behind-the-scenes creatives who shape culture but don’t always get the spotlight. From the challenges of building sustainable careers to the triumphs of crafting unforgettable artistic moments, Cultural Catalysts dives deep into the inspiring lives of those who make the magic happen. If you’re curious about the people driving creativity and innovation in the arts, this podcast is for you. 🌐  MCE Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/mcearts 🌐 Impact Roadmap™: The Art of Describing Your Impact: http://mceimpactroadmap.com

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