LaGuardia Lounge

Where Fame Graduates Come to Tell the Stories Hollywood Never Heard For every student who walked through the doors of New York City's legendary Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, there's the story everyone knows—the one made famous by Fame. Then there are the stories that never made the movie. LaGuardia Lounge is where those stories finally get told. Hosted by classmates Dan Hort, Brett Singer, Ed Garcia Luna, and Michael Criscolo, the podcast reunites alumni from one of America's most celebrated arts high schools for conversations that are funny, heartfelt, and surprisingly revealing. Every episode feels less like a formal interview and more like sitting at the corner table while lifelong friends remember the people, teachers, performances, victories, disasters, and chance encounters that shaped their lives. Guests include actors, educators, artists, television performers, digital art pioneers, and classmates whose careers took unexpected directions. Whether speaking with Sesame Street veteran Alison Bartlett, digital art innovator Laurence Gartel, educators like Angela Rodriguez, or fellow alumni whose lives unfolded outside the spotlight, every conversation circles back to a shared experience: growing up in an extraordinary creative community. What emerges is something larger than nostalgia. It's an oral history of New York arts education, of friendships that have endured for decades, and of how one remarkable school continues to influence generations of artists long after graduation. For anyone who ever dreamed of attending LaGuardia—or simply wondered what happened after the curtain came down—LaGuardia Lounge offers a front-row seat.