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879 · Return to Progress City: Imagining Walt Disney’s City of TomorrowWhat if the most interesting thing about Walt Disney’s Progress City isn’t that it was never built, but that it was never really finished?Recorded live at the WDW Radio booth at D23, former Walt Disney Imagineering President Bob Weis and artist, architect, and former Imagineer Eric Robison join me to explore Eric’s extraordinary new book, Return to Progress City.What begins with Walt’s original vision for EPCOT becomes something much bigger: a conversation about imagination, architecture, storytelling, technology, creativity, and what happens when you give yourself permission to start with a blank page.Eric shares how a pandemic project to paint another 100 Mickeys ended at number 38 when his imagination pulled him back to the Progress City model that had fascinated him since childhood. Bob also reveals something remarkable from Marty Sklar’s archives: Marty’s original handwritten notes from conversations with Walt about EPCOT and the City of Tomorrow.We explore the wonderfully strange Progress City story Bob and Eric dreamed up over pastrami and martinis, how Imagineers move from rough “chicken scratch” to places filled with story and emotion, why Eric believes something human can disappear when we jump too quickly to the computer, the role of AI in creativity, and why even the most beautiful visual idea still needs a writer and a story.And then Bob hands Eric a blank card and asks him to draw the future, right there at the table.I also share something very personal from D23: the release of my new book, The Disney Interviews: Disney Legends Edition. This new 456-page collection preserves 18 in-depth conversations with Disney Legends including Julie Andrews, Marty Sklar, Richard M. Sherman, Tony Baxter, Alan Menken, Joe Rohde, Bob Gurr, Alice Davis, Don Hahn, Jodi Benson, Paige O’Hara, Dave Smith, and more, along with completely new introductions, stories, context, and artwork, along with completely new introductions, stories, context, and artwork. It is available now in paperback and Kindle on Amazon.If Walt handed you that blank page today, what would you add to Progress City?📣 Comment in the WDW Radio Clubhouse or 📞 Call the Voicemail: 407-900-9391✈️ Looking to visit a Disney Park, Disney Cruise Line, or any vacation destination around the world? Let our friends at Mouse Fan Travel help you with expert planning at no cost to you! - visit MouseFanTravel.com📬 Stay Connected:- Subscribe for email updates + get my FREE Disney book!- Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube🎧 Explore More:WDWRadio.com - Blog, archives, podcasts, and moreWDW Radio Nation - Support the show and unlock rewardsWDWRadioLIVE.com - Watch and chat LIVE Wednesday nightsEvents & Cruises - Join us for group trips and in-person meetups!LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.Please subscribe, tell a friend, and join me again next week... and as always, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show!

877 · Disney Worldbuilders Interview with Leslie IwerksDisney Worldbuilders asks a question most of us have never thought to ask... where does a Disney world actually begin?Not the land. Not the ride. The moment before any of it existed, when it was still just a feeling inside one person's head.This week I sit down with Leslie Iwerks, director of The Imagineering Story and Disneyland Handcrafted, to talk about her ambitious new documentary. Disney Worldbuilders brings together Bob Iger, Josh D'Amaro, James Cameron, Kevin Feige, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Pete Docter, Jennifer Lee, and Jared Bush for a series of remarkably candid conversations about how deeply personal ideas become stories, characters, and physical worlds that millions of people can walk into.I had the privilege of screening the film before its release, and it is even better than I hoped.In our conversation, Leslie shares:Why so many of today's most influential creators were Disney fans first, and what that says about the parksHow personal struggles and childhood memories shaped stories like Frozen, Inside Out, and ZootopiaThe brutal note Jared Bush received on an early version of Zootopia, and what pulled it back from the edgeWhy Kevin Feige's favorite detail in any Disney land is a construction wallWhy story and technology have always worked together at Disney, going back to Walt and UbWhat creative failure, uncertainty, and rejection can teach the rest of usHow great leadership protects storytellers and creative riskWhy honoring Disney's history cannot mean being afraid to evolve itThe moment Leslie filmed that became the emotional heart of the filmLeslie also reflects on her grandfather, Disney Legend Ub Iwerks, and her father, Disney Legend Don Iwerks, and how their legacy of combining storytelling and technology continues through Disney's worldbuilders today. She does not just study world builders. She comes from them.Disney Worldbuilders premieres at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event on August 16 and begins streaming on Disney+ on August 20.Subscribe to WDW Radio so you never miss an episode. Then tell me this: What Disney story, character, attraction, or world first made you believe that something impossible could become real? Share your answer in the WDW Radio Clubhouse at WDWRadio.com/Clubhouse, or leave me a voicemail at 407-900-9391.📣 Comment in the WDW Radio Clubhouse or 📞 Call the Voicemail: 407-900-9391✈️ Looking to visit a Disney Park, Disney Cruise Line, or any vacation destination around the world? Let our friends at Mouse Fan Travel help you with expert planning at no cost to you! - visit MouseFanTravel.com📬 Stay Connected:- Subscribe for email updates + get my FREE Disney book!- Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube🎧 Explore More:WDWRadio.com - Blog, archives, podcasts, and moreWDW Radio Nation - Support the show and unlock rewardsWDWRadioLIVE.com - Watch and chat LIVE Wednesday nightsEvents & Cruises - Join us for group trips and in-person meetups!LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.Please subscribe, tell a friend, and join me again next week... and as always, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show!

875 · The runDisney Companion: Your Race Day Guide from Fantasy to Finish LineBefore sunrise at Walt Disney World, thousands of people round the bend toward Cinderella Castle and fall in love with running in a way most guests never will. That is runDisney - and whether you are eyeing your very first 5K or chasing your next Dopey, there has never been one book to take you from registration to the finish line. Until now.In WDW Radio #875, Lou Mongello sits down with Lisa DiNoto Glassner, founder of The Castle Run, to talk about her brand new book, The runDisney Companion: Your Race Day Guide from Fantasy to Finish Line and Beyond. It is the guide so many runners wished they had - part race day handbook, part love letter to the runDisney community, and part a collection of hard-won lessons that reach far beyond the finish line.Lou and Lisa get into everything that makes a runDisney race work, from the 5K and 10K to the Princess Half Marathon and the full Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. They cover how to survive registration morning, why entering through a charity can be the smartest move, how to start training from scratch, how doable a 5K really is, the one mistake nearly every new runner makes, and why getting to the start line is harder than getting to the finish line. Plus the dozen life lessons at the heart of the book, why the community cheers louder for the last finisher than the first, and Lisa's simple challenge to anyone still on the fence - if you love Disney, you owe it to yourself to do a 5K.There is a powerful personal story behind the book too, one of grief, running as healing, and the courage to walk away from one life to begin another. But at its core, as Lisa says, it is not about running at all. It is about the courage to step up to the starting line, before you know how the story ends.📣 Comment in the WDW Radio Clubhouse or 📞 Call the Voicemail: 407-900-9391✈️ Looking to visit a Disney Park, Disney Cruise Line, or any vacation destination around the world? Let our friends at Mouse Fan Travel help you with expert planning at no cost to you! - visit MouseFanTravel.com📬 Stay Connected:- Subscribe for email updates + get my FREE Disney book!- Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube🎧 Explore More:WDWRadio.com - Blog, archives, podcasts, and moreWDW Radio Nation - Support the show and unlock rewardsWDWRadioLIVE.com - Watch and chat LIVE Wednesday nightsEvents & Cruises - Join us for group trips and in-person meetups!LouMongello.com - Creator or solopreneur? Turn your passion into your profession with coaching, courses, and events, including our Momentum events in Walt Disney World. I am also a keynote speaker who shares how to leverage lessons from Disney on customer service, experience, and leadership.🙏🏼 Thank you for listening, being part of the WDW Radio family, and helping the show be recognized as the Best Travel Podcast for nine consecutive years - and for the incredible honor of being inducted into the ⭐️ Podcast Hall of Fame.Please subscribe, tell a friend, and join me again next week... and as always, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show!