The Talking Pictures Podcast

Todd Mizener

Photojournalism on the radio...sort of. The photography centric podcast is hosted by photojournalists Todd Mizener, Todd Welvaert, Meg McLaughlin and Brian Achenbach. Our goal is to both entertain and inform with our personal experiences or via interviews with a wide variety of guests. We work for the Dispatch/Argus, a mid-sized daily newspaper, located in western Illinois along the banks of the Mississippi River in Moline, Ill. We all get asked questions about our jobs and the podcast let’s us answer some of those questions. It also affords us the opportunity to connect with readers, aspiring photographers and learn a thing or two from our guests. The podcast is also an extension of our historically strong intern teaching program. Please email your questions and/or topic suggestions to [email protected] and don’t forget to tune each week for a new episode.

  • 49 minutes 55 seconds
    The Lost Episode with Andy Abeyta

    Visual journalist Andy Abeyta sat down with me way back in September 2019 just before leaving the Quad-Cities to start a new job a the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Yes, I know it's been 9-months since we've posted an episode. Well here is the lost episode with Andy, hopefully there are more to come in the near future. Fingers crossed :)

    5 July 2020, 4:48 am
  • 1 hour 14 minutes
    Tim Hynds - Beer columnist and photojournalist

    Our guest is Tim Hynds, the visuals editor of the Sioux City Journal, in Sioux City, Iowa. Tim is also a the newspaper's beer columnist. His column started in 2017 and has chronicled the rise of the craft beer industry in both Iowa and around the country. If you like beer and photojournalism, especially beer, then this is the perfect episode for you.

    2 September 2019, 8:58 pm
  • 1 hour 10 minutes
    Dave Marran, election night pizza and surviving journalism

    Dave Marran, the retired sports editor of the Kenosha News and my old high school friend, talk about his successful and happy life after journalism. We also talk about the importance of adapting to the changing face of journalism. Usually, we stick to our guests being photographers, or the topic being photo-centric, but Dave's story is important for anyone working in journalism in 2019. We hope this is the first of the success stories we feature on the podcast. The landscape of the industry is ever-changing and having an open and honest discussion of finding happiness after the newsroom is important.  If you have a suggestion for a topic please email the show.

    14 July 2019, 2:46 pm
  • 1 hour 19 minutes
    Photojournalism legend Phil Greer

    This week's episode is a master's class with photojournalism legend Phil Greer. He is currently the Photojournalist in Residence and Senior Lecturer for Southern Illinois University's School of Journalism. Phil tells great story after great story while preaching the gospel of photojournalism. From his assignments in Central America; to his friendly competition with Sun-Times legend John White; to the Iran/Iraq war; and his emotional meeting with Emmett Till's mother - every story teaches a valuable lesson. During his illustrious career Greer worked for the Champaign/Urbana News Gazette (Ill.), Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, The Courier (Champaign/Urbana, Ill.) and the Chicago Tribune. During his 24 years at the Tribune he served as a staff photographer, Chief Photographer, Director of Photography and Senior Photographer. "He was nominated several times for the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism, and was a member of the Tribune team that won the prize for ‘Gateway to Gridlock’ in 2001." - SIU bio.

    1 May 2019, 4:58 am
  • 22 minutes 19 seconds
    Change is Good

    We're back and things get personal in this edition of the podcast. Todd M fired up the basement studio to thank listeners for sticking with the podcast, despite the long hiatus, and share his emotional story of change.

    21 April 2019, 2:51 pm
  • 50 minutes 14 seconds
    A first time for everything

    The team has recently experienced some milestone firsts but none bigger than Jess enduring her first mid-western snowstorm. She hails from Alabama and needless to say she is currently experiencing a little bit of climate-shock. Photographically speaking we talk about Meg and Jess successfully completing their first photo stories for the newspaper. Other highlights of this episode include Jess' first Pacesetter location portrait shoot and team surfing the blue wave on election night.

    14 November 2018, 6:09 am
  • 29 minutes 54 seconds
    The Pain of Suicide

    Jess and Todd sit down with veteran reporter Jonathan Turner to talk about his recent series of articles on the suicide epidemic. The series featured Todd's collection of black and white portraits titled: "Left Behind - The Pain of Suicide still haunts these loved ones."

    12 October 2018, 6:46 pm
  • 55 minutes 38 seconds
    Photojournalist Brian Powers

    In this week's episode Brian Powers, of the Des Moines Register, talks to us from his mobile newsroom outside the Iowa State Fair. Brian, a graduate of Western Kentucky University, talks to Todd and Jessica about some of his recent projects which includes a powerful series of video interviews dealing with abortion, a muslim TV reporter and an immigration ceremony. A fantastic photojournalist and storyteller Brian also shares his insights on how photographers should deal with criticism via social media. We also talk about pizza, baby pictures and RAGBRI.

    20 August 2018, 3:10 pm
  • 29 minutes 39 seconds
    Introducing Jessica Gallagher

    This week's podcast introduces the newest member of our team - Jessicia Gallagher. The 23-year-old old ginger haired photojournalist comes to us from Georgia, by way of Alabama and seven other states. She brings a fresh new perspective to the podcast and we think "y'all" will really like hearing what she has to say and the images she makes.

    31 July 2018, 8:18 pm
  • 59 minutes 41 seconds
    Photography and Beer

    We are back!!!! Todd and Todd get out of the normal studio and tape a late night podcast this week. Some of the topics include - beer, Belgian lawn games, how to avoid setting a high school athlete on fire, flop sweat, white backgrounds are all not created equal, B&W photography in photojournalism, nutmeg, cutlines and beer.

    3 June 2018, 5:42 am
  • 43 minutes 31 seconds
    Gone with a tip of his cap

    We are back after our three month hiatus. Thank you for sticking with the Talking Pictures Podcast we really appreciate it. If you are a regular listener you already know we moved to new offices in late Decemeber 2017. The combination of getting situated in our new digs and a busy high school sports season conspired to keep us from taping any new episodes. We returned to the studio this week just in time to say goodbye to one of our own. Tune in and find out which member of the Talking Pictures Podcast is walking into the sunset wearing a cowboy hat and Nikes.

    28 March 2018, 4:16 am
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