I had the pleasure of appearing on Larry Davison’s final 2024 episode of his podcast, The Artful Periscope, which just dropped on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other platforms this week.
I was the first of Larry’s two interviews for his non-fiction-focused episode and was followed by best-selling author Daniel de Visé, who talked about his latest book, The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic.
In December, I wrote a post about how Larry’s final 2024 episode was bittersweet because it was the last one he recorded with his longtime sound engineer, Chris DeChristofaro, in the Sachem Library sound booth on Long Island. Chris left Sachem to become the Assistant Director at Half Hollow Hills Community Library in Dix Hills, NY.
But what none of us knew at the time was that the episode I recorded with Larry was also one of his last to be hosted in the Sachem Library. Larry announced on social media this week that the library would not be replacing Chris with other technical staff and that he’s looking for a new home with tech support for The Artful Periscope. Otherwise, “this podcast could go dark,” he said.
More on Larry’s announcement and his decades-long career in radio, TV, and podcasting follows a brief recap of our Episode 94 podcast discussion.
Chained Birds did not begin as a memoir
“Out of the darkness and into the light” is Larry’s tagline for The Artful Periscope, which has explored “the nimble craft of storytelling” for five years. He opened our interview by saying he loved Chained Birds, was a huge fan of memoirs, and wanted to know how the true crime story ended up with a memoir component.
“Truthfully, I didn’t start out writing this story as a memoir. I was just going to tell it from a journalist’s standpoint and be the third-party narrator,” I told him. “But as I became more and more involved in the story, it was impossible to separate myself from the characters … I became a character, so it had to be a partial memoir.”
Chained Birds’s revolves around federal prisoner Kevin Sanders, and chronicles my involvement with him over a ten-year period. As a writer, I could not ignore that my odyssey as Kevin’s friend and advocate on the outside was just as impactful to the story as the other characters who crossed his universe. It started with my high school friend Scott, a lawyer, who introduced me to Kevin and brought me into his criminal case. But the terrifying fallout, including threats of violence against both Scott and me, is something none of us foresaw. The only way I could figure out how to tell this story of prison gangs, penal violence and corruption, and our disparate criminal justice system was to write it as I experienced it. That is memoir.
You can hear the full two-author episode of The Artful Periscope here: Episode 94 – How Many Threads Connect Us to Relationships? Author Carla Conti and Journalist Daniel de Vise.
Larry’s prolific career in radio and TV spans decades
Larry’s had an extensive career in radio and television — often interviewing the rich and famous — for over 20 years. Prior to launching The Artful Periscope, he was Executive Producer and Host of Davidson & Co., a half-hour weekly interview program that aired for 20 seasons on Long Island’s Cablevision system, earning awards from the Northeast Regional Video Festival. He also served as the Executive Producer and Consultant for the Four Village television studio.
Larry also created and hosted several other shows, including:
- Pulse!, a health and fitness program nominated for a local Cable Ace award.
- First Look with Larry Davidson, a live, one-hour radio program on AM 1240 WGBB.
- Writers on the Vine, an author interview series hosted at Palmer Vineyards on Long Island.
- Authors on Parade for the Smithtown Public Library.
- Truthfully Speaking with Larry Davidson for the 92nd Street Y/Makor-Steinhardt Center.
- Conversations from Main Street at Landmark on Main Street in Port Washington, NY.
Larry’s radio background included being the producer and host of WGBB Tonite on AM 1240 WGBB, as well as the producer for the Extrahelp channel. He collaborated with the Turn of the Corkscrew bookstore in Rockville Centre, interviewing notable authors such as Kevin Baker, Nelson DeMille, Adriana Trigiani, Maria Shriver, and Kathy Lee Gifford.
Also notable are the offspring of famous writers Larry has interviewed, like: John Steinbeck’s son Thomas; James Jones’s daughter Kaylie; Kurt Vonnegut’s son Mark; Alger Hiss’s son Tony; Woody Guthrie’s granddaughter and singer Sarah Lee Guthrie; John Cheever’s daughter and son Susan and Ben; Hallie Ephron; Nelson and Alex DeMille; and from the Kennedy family tree Maria Shriver. “All of them gifted storytellers in their own right,” Larry said of the list.
“For me, every conversation/interview is challenging, kind of like tabula rasa — you never know how it will be received,” he added.
Larry’s love for strong storytelling and the creative process became the focus of The Artful Periscope podcast he launched in 2019. Most of the authors Larry interviews are best-sellers and household names, like recent guests Daniel de Vise, David McCloskey (author of The Seventh Floor), Jeffrey Archer (An Eye for an Eye), the Edgar-winning Attica Locke (Guide Me Home), and so on.
And then, once in a while, Larry will pluck a debut author, like me, out of the wind to interview. He says debuts are his “favorites,” and he talks fondly about having interviewed David Benioff, the now-famous screenwriter and producer behind HBO’s Game of Thrones, before David’s screenwriting career took off. Larry interviewed David about David’s 2000 debut novel The 25th Hour, which was later adapted into a film starring Edward Norton and Phillip. David wrote the screenplay for that Spike Lee production.
Larry is such a terrific equal-opportunity interviewer and host! Please don’t leave us! 🥹
URGENT! The Artful Periscope needs a new sound studio and tech support!
Larry posted a video on social media this week, explaining what could happen to The Artful Periscope if he can’t find a new sound studio and tech support. “It’s quite possible, hopefully not, this podcast could go dark. But if it does, I want to thank everyone from my earliest work experiences until now. I’ve always tried to do the right thing. I think this podcast, over five years, we have done the right things … I want to thank all of you, the listeners and subscribers, for joining us on The Artful Periscope.”
Larry’s last recording at the Sachem Library on Long Island will be on February 11th. Here’s hoping a professional studio and sound technician will come to the rescue so Larry can continue offering his fun, insightful author interviews and keep shining a light on debut authors like me 🙏
Larry can be reached by email, as well as on X, Facebook, Threads and Instagram.
Carla Conti is a true crime journalist, storyteller, and prison reform advocate. Her debut book, Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir of Justice, Survival and Redemption Behind Bars, is out now with WildBlue Press.
