Author Unfiltered

The Agency at Brown Books

Most author interviews are rehearsed. The talking points are tight, the story is clean, and the messy middle — the doubt, the pivots, the version of the book that almost won — stays off the record. Author Unfiltered exists for everything that gets left out. Each episode, host V Taybron — a book publicity insider who has spent her career behind the scenes of how stories get made and sold — sits down with authors for the kind of conversation that doesn't happen on a press tour. Why did this book exist? What almost stopped it? What does the writer know now that they didn't when they started? What did the process cost them — and was it worth it? If you're a reader who finishes a book and wants to understand the person behind it, you'll find that here. If you're an aspiring author trying to figure out what this actually looks like from the inside, you'll find that here too. No talking points. No polished publicity version. Just the real story, from the person who lived it. Follow Author Unfiltered on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen — and never settle for the sanitized version again.

Episodes

  1. Jun 4

    Why This Rescue Dog's Journey Is Inspiring Thousands, JoJo the Tornado Dog

    Every copy of JoJo the Tornado Dog helps save the lives of rescue animals. That is the mission behind Rado's Press, a nonprofit publishing initiative created to turn books into funding for animal rescue organizations including Operation Kindness. In this special episode of Author Unfiltered, award-winning author Michael Sampson shares the true story that launched the very first title from Rado's Press—a rescue dog who survived tornadoes, abandonment, shelters, and overwhelming odds before finding the family that would change his life forever. JoJo's story is more than a children's book. It is a tribute to the shelters, foster families, volunteers, and rescue networks that fight every day to give animals a second chance. Michael takes listeners inside JoJo's incredible journey, the real organizations that helped save him, and why he, his illustrator, and Rado's Press chose to donate proceeds to support rescue efforts. If you love dogs, believe in adoption, support animal welfare, or simply want to hear a story that proves one life can make a difference, this episode is for you. Because sometimes saving one dog can help save thousands more.

    44 min

  2. Jun 3

    The Lawyer Who Took On the Catholic Church, Airlines, and Gunmakers

    What does it take to challenge some of the most powerful institutions in America and keep fighting when the odds are stacked against you? In this episode of Author Unfiltered, legendary trial attorney Windle Turley joins V. Tabron for a powerful conversation about justice, courtroom strategy, resilience, and the landmark lawsuits that helped shape modern litigation in America. From arguing before the United States Supreme Court early in his career to taking on major airlines, dangerous product manufacturers, gun companies, and the Catholic Church, Windle shares the mindset and preparation behind high-stakes legal battles where the outcome could impact countless lives. The conversation also explores his memoir, A Sense of Urgency, where he reflects on growing up in Oklahoma, developing the drive that fueled his legal career, and why compassion, integrity, and courage matter just as much as legal knowledge inside the courtroom. Topics include: • Supreme Court litigation • Catholic Church clergy abuse lawsuits • Firearms and aviation litigation • Jury psychology and courtroom strategy • Why preparation matters in trial law • Integrity and compassion in legal work • Family legacy and working with multiple generations of attorneys • What law schools fail to teach young attorneys • The meaning behind A Sense of Urgency Get the book A Sense of Urgency: https://a.co/d/0bu7Pn0I Learn more about Windle Turley: https://www.windleturleyauthor.com/ Listen to more episodes of Author Unfiltered: https://authorunfiltered.podbean.com/

    27 min

  3. May 19

    The Man Who Kept the Receipts: 40 Years of Mortgage Secrets Wall Street Never Explained

    You think you understand the housing market. You know rates go up, prices go crazy, crashes happen. What you don't know is why — and that gap is costing you. Michael Youngblood spent four decades inside the US mortgage securities industry before he retired in 2024 and discovered something unexpected in his old files: he had personally witnessed, and documented, the entire history of how America finances home ownership. The first non-agency mortgage security ever issued. The original Standard & Poor's rating report from 1976. Forty years of innovation, failure, and consequence — sitting in boxes in his office. So he wrote it all down. In this conversation, Youngblood walks V Taybron through each decade of mortgage history the way an insider explains things when nobody's recording — which is to say, clearly and without apology. He describes what actually happened in the 2008 crash and why Wall Street was allowed to build instruments that could bet against the American home in infinite volume against a finite number of real families. He talks about the high loan-to-value lenders of the 1990s who were writing mortgages at 125% — and why their losses were no worse than a credit card. He explains why Dodd-Frank, intended to protect homeowners, quietly closed a door for first-time buyers that still hasn't reopened. And he does all of it with a popcorn analogy that actually works. This is not a book for people who are bored by finance. It's a book for anyone who has ever felt like the housing system was designed by people who weren't thinking about them — and wanted to understand who those people were, what they built, and whether anyone learned anything from it. The Evolution of U.S. Mortgage Securities is available on Amazon. Follow Author Unfiltered for the conversations that go further than the book ever could.

    37 min

  4. May 7

    The Greatest Ponzi Scheme on Earth by Les Rubin — A Bold Economic Reckoning

    Nobody wanted to publish this argument. Les Rubin made it anyway. For decades, the conversation around Social Security has been managed — softened by politicians, sidestepped by economists, and packaged into talking points that protect the system from the questions it can't survive. Rubin isn't interested in protecting it. In this conversation, he walks through the structural logic behind his book with the kind of directness that makes people uncomfortable and keeps them listening. This isn't an episode about partisan politics. It's about math, time horizons, and what happens when a financial framework built for one era gets carried into another without honest reckoning. If you've ever felt like the official version of this story was missing something, this is the version that fills in the gap. The Greatest Ponzi Scheme on Earth is available on Amazon. Follow Author Unfiltered so you don't miss what comes next.

    37 min

  5. May 7

    Dear Ted: How My Dog Taught Me to Be a Better Human – Melissa “Missi” Bunker on Dogs, Grief, and Learning to Live Again

    In this tender episode of Author Unfiltered, host V Taybron sits down with Melissa “Missi” Bunker to explore Dear Ted: How My Dog Taught Me to Be a Better Human, a letter‑driven love story to the dog who quietly reshaped her life. Through intimate, observant letters to her dog Ted Williams, Missi reflects on loneliness, anxiety, perfectionism, and the ache of unmet expectations—and how one wise, goofy, endlessly loyal dog taught her to laugh more, love more freely, and see herself with a little more compassion. It’s a conversation about the small domestic moments that become turning points, the rituals that carry us through grief and uncertainty, and the radical honesty that emerges when you write as if you’re talking to the one creature who never judges you. V and Missi also talk craft and genre: how Dear Ted evolved from a simple coffee table photo book into a hybrid of memoir, essay collection, and inspirational gift book for dog lovers and reflective readers alike. They dig into why stories about dogs and the human–animal bond resonate so deeply, how writing about mental health and self‑worth can feel both terrifying and necessary, and what readers can expect from the book—from laugh‑out‑loud puppy chaos and chewed steering wheels to quiet meditations on family, friendship, faith, and learning to be okay with the life you actually have. Whether you come for the dog stories, the personal growth, or the writerly conversation, this episode of Author Unfiltered from The Agency at Brown Books will leave you reaching for Dear Ted, sharing it with your favorite dog person, and following the show on your go‑to podcast platform.  Available for purchase on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612548245

    26 min

  6. May 7

    Mystic Spires Post-Mortem: Author Stacey Jernigan on AI, Cold Cases, and the Price of Truth

    What happens when the obsession to solve a murder collides with cutting-edge technology and the relentless machinery of social media? In this compelling conversation, host V Taybron sits down with Author and Judge Stacey Jernigan to discuss her latest legal thriller, Mystic Spires Post-Mortem, a novel that explores the dark side of artificial intelligence, true crime culture, and the pursuit of justice at any cost. Set against the backdrop of Dallas, Texas, Jernigan weaves a story around the unsolved murder of hotel heiress Gigi Mesero—a case that has haunted investigators for eight years. When Judge Avery Lassiter takes matters into her own hands, the consequences spiral in unexpected and deadly directions. Jernigan, a sitting U.S. bankruptcy judge and former corporate lawyer, brings courtroom authenticity and literary depth to a thriller that asks whether technology is helping or harming our ability to find truth. This episode explores the creative tensions of writing fiction while serving on the federal bench, the ethical complexities of AI in criminal investigation, and how true crime podcasts and social media influencers are reshaping our relationship with justice. Jernigan opens up about her dual career, the controversy sparked by her previous novel that made headlines in The Wall Street Journal, and why she chose to tackle themes of technology, deception, and moral ambiguity in this gripping cold-case mystery. Whether you're a fan of legal drama, mystery fiction, or thought-provoking conversations about the intersection of law and technology, this episode offers something unforgettable. Pick up Mystic Spires Post-Mortem on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612547257 and join the conversation. Subscribe to Author Unfiltered for more intimate discussions with today's most compelling storytellers, brought to you by The Agency at Brown Books.She's a sitting federal judge. She wrote a thriller anyway — and it made headlines in the Wall Street Journal before it even hit shelves. Judge Stacey Jernigan didn't write a safe book. Mystic Spires Post-Mortem takes an eight-year-old unsolved murder, a judge who stops waiting for the system to work, and a web of AI surveillance and true crime obsession — and asks a question most legal thrillers avoid: what does justice actually cost the person chasing it? In this conversation, Jernigan talks about writing fiction from inside the federal bench, why artificial intelligence is changing what investigators can find and what they can hide, and what it means to put your name on a controversial story when your name is also on a courtroom door. This is a rare one. Mystic Spires Post-Mortem is available on Amazon. Follow Author Unfiltered for more conversations that don't stay on script.

    1h 2m

  7. May 7

    Killer Vintage: A West Texas Wine Thriller - Murder, Merlot, and the DEA: Eric D. Sanchez

    Nobody expects the drugs to be moving through the wine. Eric Sanchez spent years inside the wine industry before he started writing about what could go wrong inside it. Killer Vintage follows a college kid who takes a summer job at a West Texas winery and walks straight into the aftermath of a missing DEA agent, cartel money, and a trafficking operation hidden in stainless-steel tanks. The 1990s setting means no smartphones, no easy exits, and no one to call who doesn't already know. In this conversation, Sanchez talks about the specific details that make crime fiction feel true — the economics of a small winery, the culture of a crush pad, the geography of the borderlands — and why he wanted to write a thriller that took the setting as seriously as the plot. Killer Vintage is available on Amazon. Follow Author Unfiltered and send this one to anyone who thinks they know what a summer job can turn into.

    41 min

  8. May 7

    The R Factor: Heather Verity on Reinvention, Risk, and the Reality Behind Success

    She was the most reluctant author in the room. She also turned out to have the most important thing to say. Heather Verity spent decades inside high-pressure environments — Fortune 500 boardrooms, NFL programs, companies in crisis — before she wrote a word of The R Factor. The framework she built her work around is deceptively simple: E+R=O. Event plus Response equals Outcome. The event is never the problem. The response is everything. What makes this book different from every other leadership framework on the shelf is that Verity doesn't just teach it — she shows you the moments in her own life where she had to use it and almost didn't. This conversation goes into what it cost her to be honest in print, why she resisted writing the book for years, and what she wants readers to walk away able to do — not just feel. The R Factor is available on Amazon. Follow Author Unfiltered for conversations with authors who gave you the version they don't give everyone.

    58 min
  • 8 Episodes

About

Most author interviews are rehearsed. The talking points are tight, the story is clean, and the messy middle — the doubt, the pivots, the version of the book that almost won — stays off the record. Author Unfiltered exists for everything that gets left out. Each episode, host V Taybron — a book publicity insider who has spent her career behind the scenes of how stories get made and sold — sits down with authors for the kind of conversation that doesn't happen on a press tour. Why did this book exist? What almost stopped it? What does the writer know now that they didn't when they started? What did the process cost them — and was it worth it? If you're a reader who finishes a book and wants to understand the person behind it, you'll find that here. If you're an aspiring author trying to figure out what this actually looks like from the inside, you'll find that here too. No talking points. No polished publicity version. Just the real story, from the person who lived it. Follow Author Unfiltered on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen — and never settle for the sanitized version again.

Information

  • Creator
    The Agency at Brown Books
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    8
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 All Rights Reserved
  • Show Website
    Author Unfiltered