Category

Non Fiction

Non Fiction, Psychology, Relationships, Self-help, Women's Issues

NOV 04: Rev Up Your Relationship with Psychologist Kelli Miller

Kelli’s heard it all & is here to help

Love Hacks with author Kelli Miller

Whether you’re falling for someone new, or have been side-by-side for years, psychologist Kelli Miller offers practical tips and practices you can start using today to help build a more connected, authenitc, and fulfilling love life.

We discuss some of the 15 most common struggles couples face – all covered in Kelli’s book Love Hacks: Simple Solutions to Your Most Common Relationship Issues. And we get honest about things that trip us up: Cultural differences, the beliefs and upbringing we carry into our relationships, deep-rooted anger, heartbreak , infidelity, and how to effectively communicate with each other.

Kelli also shares the four cornerstones of a solid partnership, and offers gentle, honest guidance on a big question that many of us struggle with: When is it time to stop trying and move on?

Kelli Miller, LCSW, MSW, is a psychotherapist, best-selling author, and television/radio host. She is a three-time award-winning writer, with her most recent book, Love Hacks: Simple Solutions to Your Most Common Relationship Issues, offering practical tools for navigating everyday relationship challenges. Kelli’s expertise has been quoted in various publications including Oprah Magazine, Authority Magazine, Wellness Magazine, and others.

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Narrative Nonfiction, Non Fiction, True Crime

OCT 28: #1NYT Bestselling True Crime Author Gregg Olsen with Ordinary Wife – America’s Forgotten Serial Killer

She was beautiful. Charming. An excellent cook and … a killer.

Ordinary Wife – True Story of America’s Forgotten Serial Killer with Gregg Olsen (coauthored with Morgan Olsen)

Imagine frontier Idaho in the early 1900s. Men naturally swarmed around Lyda Trueblood. They also died around her … rather unnaturally.

Six deaths in five years. A 1921 trial that made her a national sensation. And a nickname that newspapers of the day could not resist: Lady Bluebeard.

How did an Ordinary Wife become one of America’s most chilling, and overlooked, serial killers? One of America’s best known true crime writers joins us to shed light on the story behind the headlines.

We discuss why Gregg Olsen some of the challenges of digging into the past and writing historical narrative nonfiction. The ethics around telling true stories. Why father and daughter collaborated on this. And much more.

Meet Gregg Olsen

Gregg Olsen is the #1 New York Times, #1 Amazon Charts, #1 Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and USA Today bestselling author of more than 30 crime books. Based in rural Washington State, Olsen is a two-time Edgar Award-nominated author whose work has been honored by the Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. Gregg’s latest book, coauthored with debut author Morgan Olsen, is Ordinary Wife – The True Story of America’s Forgotten Serial Killer.

Morgan Olsen is the daughter of Gregg Olsen. She and her twin sister spent their childhood tagging along on interviews, answering collect calls from prison, and learning early how not to become a “Dateline Girl.” Morgan is a second-grade teacher by day. An avid runner by night. And the person everyone wants on their side when there’s a mystery to be solved.

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Artificial Intelligence, Health & Wellness, Healthcare, Non Fiction

Oct 14: The Machines Will See You Now … Are You Ready?

Picture this. You walk into a clinic, and before a human being says one word to you, a machine has viewed and summarized your medical records.

The Machines Will See You Now: A Human Roadmap to Autonomous Healthcare with Anmol Madan

Like it or not, Artificial Intelligence has moved from the research lab into the exam room. Before you see your doctor, AI’s reviewed all of your scans, tests, history, and ratings. And red-flagged anything the AI tool thinks important.

Does that feel like the future of healthcare you want? For many, replacing the human touch with AI raises big questions.

Machines make mistakes. They’re cold. Impersonal. AI hallucinates. And maybe the biggest question: What happens to the human connection with your doctor, radiologist, cardiologist?

Anmol Madan, author of The Machines Will See You Now: A Human Roadmap to Autonomous Health Care, discusses the pros and cons of AI in healthcare. He shares where we’re heading, and why Anmol says that‘s “very good news”.

Meet Anmol Madan

An MIT-trained computer scientist, Anmol Madan was the co-founder/CEO of Ginger.io (acquired by Headspace). He’s the former Chief Data Scientist at Teladoc/Livongo, and the current CEO of RadiantGraph. In The Machines Will See You Now: A Human Roadmap to Autonomous Health Care, Anmol argues for “autonomous health” – machines and human doctors in partnership, with machines handling diagnostics, prediction, and prevention so clinicians can focus on empathy.

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Health & Wellness, Non Fiction, Relationships, Self-help

Sep 09: Physician Turned Author Says Connection Is the Cure – Dr Beth Ricanati

The Braided Prescription: Seven Practices for Living Well from the Ancient Ritual of Making Challah.

The Braided Prescription with Dr. Beth Ricanati

Reduce stress & anxiety, reconnect with yourself & others, get your mojo back!

When Dr. Beth Ricanati began a life-changing journey to relieve stress in her life, she simply wanted to get well and share her story. But along the way she discovered the Seven Practices for Living Well that she includes in her new book The Braided Prescription.

A balance of science, psychology, Dr’s notes, and personal stories, we share insight into those 7 Practices, including how Dr. Beth uses the making of Challah bread as a metaphor for living well with intention. And how this ongoing journey has reshaped her own life as well as thousands of others.

Meet Dr. Beth Ricanati

Dr. Ricanati is a board certified MD in internal medicine. She’s built her career around bringing wellness and wellbeing into everyday life through traditional medical clinics, wellness programs – and now, as an author and speaker. At the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Ricanati worked with Dr. Mike Roizen to create Lifestyle180 – a groundbreaking lifestyle modification program to treat chronic diseases with nutrition, exercise, and stress management. Dr. Ricanati’s first book was her memoir, Braided: A Journey of a Thousand Challahs. Today we discuss her latest book The Braided Prescription: Seven Practices for Living Well from the Ancient Ritual of Making Challah.

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Non Fiction, Psychology, Relationships, Self-help, Social Issues

Sep 02: You’d Never Join a Cult, Right? Daniella Mestyanek Young Says”You’re probably already in a cult. You just don’t know it…”

Why We Hand Our Power to High-Control Groups & How To Get It Back

The Culting of America: What Makes a Cult and Why We Love Them with Daniella Mestyanek Young

Today’s guest is a leading expert on group-think, high-control situations, corporate cultures, clubs, and some of the most insidious cults in America. She says, you might want to look at some of the organizations and people you associate with, before it’s too late.

Last time we spoke with Daniella Mestyanek Young it was about Uncultured, Daniella’s escape from the insidious Children of God cult. Today we explore some of the insights in her latest book, The Culting of America: What Makes A Cult & Why We Love Them.

We look at the difference between cults, groups, and clubs. Discuss a couple of well-known organizations and corporations that meet the 10 criteria shared by all cults. We unpack what makes cults dangerous. How to recognize the signs of high-control groups before it’s too late. And why, and how, we get sucked into them.

Meet Daniella Mestyanek Young

Daniella Mestyanek Young is a cult survivor, U.S. Army veteran, Harvard-trained organizational psychologist, and the author of two books about high-control groups—her critically- acclaimed memoir Uncultured. And her latest, The Culting of America. Born into the Children of God—the infamous sex cult known for weaponizing religion, sexuality, and isolation—Daniella escaped at 15, only to join another high-control institution: the United States Army. She became one of the first women to serve on an integrated ground combat team in Army history, while working as an intelligence officer who studied terrorists for a living. Her work sits at the intersection of leadership, identity, group psychology, and coercive control.

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Inspirational, Non Fiction, Women's Issues

Aug 26: She Come By It Natural – Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs

Sarah Smarsh explores how Dolly Parton’s musical storytelling influenced women in poverty – including her own family.

She Come By It Natural with Sarah Smarsh

With the sad loss of a great American icon yesterday, we dug through our archives to bring you an interview with journalist Sarah Smarsh on her 2020 book, described as a loveletter to Dolly Parton, She Come By It Natural.

Growing up amid Kansas wheat fields and airplane factories, Sarah Smarsh witnessed firsthand the particular vulnerabilities, and strengths, of women in working poverty – playing in the background, country songs by female artists told powerful stories about life, men, hard times, and surviving.

In her family, Sarah writes, “country music was foremost a language among women. It’s how we talked to each other in a place where feelings aren’t discussed.” And no one provided that language better than Dolly Parton.

Meet Sarah Smarsh

Journalist and award-winning author Sarah Smarsh is recognized as one of the most important commentators on socioeconomic class in America. She’s written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Harper’s. She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs is Smarsh’s second book. Her first, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, was a New York Times Bestseller, and a finalist for the National Book Award. She has a much-anticipated new book coming out next month: Bone of the Bone Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class.

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Non Fiction, Personal Development, Psychology, Self-help

Aug 19: Coach Bridgit Dengel Gaspard Helps You Get Unstuck

What are your inner selves & how do they help or hold you back?

The Final 8th: Enlist Your Inner Selves to Accomplish Your Goals with Bridgit Dengel Gaspard

Many listeners loved Bridgit Dengel Gaspard’s deeper dive into The Final 8th and want to know more (Deper Dive recently aired here). Sohere’s our first conversation with Bridgit, while we were still recovering from the pandemic. Bridgit’s work is more relevant than ever in today’s chaos-filled world, when so many lives are being flipped upside down.

If you’re ready to get unstuck, dive in! We learn how Bridgit, a former actor and comic turned psychotherapist, got involved in this work and how she’s developed it. Most importantly, we learn how using the tools discussed in The Final 8th can help you get unstuck or help you get over the finish line with that project that’s almost done, but you’ve been procrastinating on finishing. 

Bridgit handles the inner critic beautifully – explaining when you might want to listen to it, and when you should ignore it. We also discuss often overlooked nonverbal signals, such as tension, insomnia, frustration. How to figure out which of your inner selves is helping or hindering. Which is the perfectionist or procrastinator. And, why they sometimes have conflicting motives.

Meet Bridgit Dengel Gaspard

As a therapist and founder of the NY Voice Dialogue Institute, Bridgit Dengel Gaspard has led workshops for Omega Institute, New York Open Center, and many other organizations. She’s a former performer and comic, and as therapist and voice dialogue expert, specializes in overcohttps://bridgitdengelgaspard.com/final8th/ming creativity blocks. The foreword to The Final 8th: Enlist Your Inner Selves to Accomplish Your Goals is written by the original creators of voice dialogue, Hal and Sidra Stone.

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Advemture, Health & Wellness, Non Fiction, Personal Development

Aug 12: How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age with Caroline Paul

Stuck in a rut? Get outdoors & do something a little scary.

Tough Broad with author Caroline Paul

Caroline Paul is no stranger to adventure. From mountain biking the Bolivian Andes to pitching a tent mid-blizzard on Denali, Caroline’s spent a lifetime chasing exhilaration.

Somewhere along the way, she noticed that the women adventuring alongside her kept disappearing. Not literally. And not because they wanted to stop having adventures. But because nobody gave them permission to keep adventuring as they got older.

Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking – How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age is part science, part psychology, part love letter to every woman who’s been told she’s too old for something new.

We look at the five pillars of adventure, why they matter even as we age, what adventure means. And it’s not just base jumping or wing walking. Sometimes it’s an 80-year-old boogie boarding with her crew in the San Diego surf. Sometimes it’s learning to skateboard for the first time at 52. And sometimes it’s a woman in a wheelchair finding the edge of her comfort zone and pushing past it.

We share the research, and the hard-won takeaways from years spent talking to women who refused to slow down.

Meet Caroline Paul

She’s a former journalist turned firefighter, turned New York Times bestselling author. For her latest book, Tough Broad, Caroline Paul conducted scores of interviews, deeply researched the science and psychology of aging, and had a few adventures along the way. See more about Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking – How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age by Caroline Paul.

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Animals, Non Fiction, Science

Jul 22: What’s Really Going On in Your Pet’s Head? The Truth Behind Their Wildest Behaviors

Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice reveals secrets your pets may not want revealed!

Your Pets’ Secret Lives with author Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice

Your dog’s not guilty. Your cat’s not innocent. And your bird? Not nearly as drama-free as you think.

We tell ourselves stories about our pets – that the guilty look means remorse, that the cat only wants mice and birds, that the parakeet is living its best, most uncomplicated life. But entomologist and science writer Eleanor Spicer Rice is here to gently and hilariously wreck all of that nonsense.

In Your Pets’ Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pets’ Wildest Behaviors, Eleanor shakes up our pets’ family trees, pokes around in their brains, and even occasionally follows a poop trail – all to find the answer to the question every pet owner asks: What the heck is really going on in your head?

We discuss why “guilty dog face” isn’t what you think. The wild evolutionary history hiding behind your pet’s weirdest habits. What your cat’s hunting instincts reveal about millions of years of biology. Why science communication about the animals we love matters – and how to make it fun.

Meet Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice

Eleanor Spicer Rice, PhD, is an entomologist and the author of many nonfiction books, including Your Hidden Life: Unseen Jungle and Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Spiders. ​Eleanor is also the senior science editor at Verdant Word, a science communication company she co-founded with Robin Sutton Anders. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband, sons, dogs, hermit crabs, an assortment of spiders and insects, and a small, valiant flock of homing pigeons. Your Pets’ Secret Lives was illustrated by Rob Wilson, an award-winning illustrator and graphic designer who has created work for the Washington Post, New York magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, and the covers of best-selling books. He is the illustrator of Your Hidden Life: Unseen Jungle and the creator of the icon for the popular podcast Welcome to Night Vale. Rob Wilson’s work has been featured in galleries in London and New York City.

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Animals, Conservation, Memoir, Non Fiction, Wildlife, Writers on Writing

Jul 07: Award-winning Nature Writer Takes Us Inside A Season of Flight & Wonder

David Gessner celebrates 25th anniversary edition of Return of the Osprey.

Return of the Osprey with David Gessner

David Gessner spent his career chasing wild things with a pen – from ospreys, grizzlies, and hurricanes, to a red-tailed hawk named Flaco who captivated the hearts of New York. But it’s the osprey that changed him.

For six months, Gessner traded his desk for a bike, a kayak, and binoculars, fully immersing himself in one nesting season on his home turf of Cape Cod. The result is Return of the Osprey: A Season of Flight and Wonder, part memoir, part natural history, part love letter to a bird once called the very symbol of the New England coast.

We discuss the near-extinction of the osprey, what saved them, and why – even after their remarkable recovery – their fight for survival isn’t over. We also unpack the writer’s side of the story: How you take six months of notebooks, obsession, and raw wonder and shape it into a book so beloved it’s been reissued in a 25th-anniversary edition, with a new foreword from Helen MacDonald.

Meet David Gessner

David Gessner is the author of 14 books that blend a love of nature, humor, memoir, and environmentalism, including the New York Times bestselling, All the Wild That Remains, Return of the Osprey, Sick of Nature and Leave It As It Is. A professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine, Ecotone, his writing has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Audubon, Orion, and more. Awards include a Pushcart Prize and the John Burroughs Award for Best Nature Essay for his essay Learning to Surf. In 2017 he hosted the National Geographic Explorer show, The Call of the Wild.

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