Career, Environment, Self-help

OCT 14: National Geographic’s Night Sky Guy, Keep Going with Austin Kleon, & Dr. Tammy Nelson’s When You’re the One Who Cheats

So when the going gets tough, what do the tough do?  They Keep Going!  Creativity expert Austin Kleon returns with his latest book to share ways to stay creative in good times and bad.

Find out why this “writer who draws” describes himself as a mongrel, and how that benefits his work. Why he says life is for art, and not other way around. How burnout can strike even if you love what you do. And, the big question, can you separate the art from the man, and the man from the art?

Austin Kleon’s New York Times bestselling books include Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work.

Are you a stargazer? Andrew Fazekas is. So much so, that his passion for stargazing developed into a star-studded career, earning him the alias “The Night Sky Guy”.

Today, he shares fun science facts, such as what causes the elusive “green flash” at sunset. And sheds light on his partnership with National Geographic to take the world’s first open-air, augmented-reality planetarium, to a global audience.  Exciting times in Backyard Guide to the Night Sky.

A science writer, speaker, and broadcaster Andrew Fazekas writes the StarStruck for National Geographic, and is the author of Star Trek: The Official Guide to Our Universe.

Ending today’s show, if you’ve ever been cheated on, you might find it confusing when the cheater claims they are also confused. You may not even believe them–but according to sex therapist Dr. Tammy Nelson, they’re probably telling the truth.

Dr. Nelson returns to Conversations Live to help unravel confusion on both sides of the cheating situation.  She’ll offer tips on how to stop cheating if you’re the guilty party, and ways to move forward in When You’re the One Who Cheats: 10 Things You Need to Know.

Tammy Nelson, PhD is a sex and relationship expert, international speaker, author, and licensed psychotherapist. She has 30 years of experience working with individuals and couples, and you can catch our earlier conversation on The New Monogamy here.

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Health & Wellness, Non Fiction

OCT 09: Dr. Barbara Bruce & The Mayo Clinic Guide to Fibromyalgia

10 million people in the United States, 75-90% of them women, suffer from Fibromyalgia, yet it remains one of the most difficult to diagnose and misunderstood disorders.  In the Mayo Clinic Guide to Fibromyalgia: Strategies to Take Back Your Life, co-author Dr. Barbara Bruce dispels myths surrounding Fibromyalgia, and using the latest scientific research, offers easy-to-follow steps for reducing pain and other symptoms so you can manage it successfully.

Dr. Bruce is a clinical health psychologist in the Mayo Clinic Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, and Associate Professor of Psychology at the Mayo Clinic College of Science and Medicine, Mayo Clinic.  She served as Clinical Director of the Mayo Clinic Pain Rehabilitation Center Program in Rochester, MN, where she also led the development of the Mayo Clinic Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Program.

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Career, Health & Wellness, Personal Development, Self-help, Women's Issues

OCT 10: Reshma Saujani’s Brave, Not Perfect & Jane Finkle’s Introvert’s Complete Career Guide

 

Young boys are taught to be bold and adventurous, young women are taught to be prim, proper, and demure.  Brave, Not Perfect: Fear Less, Fail More, and Live Bolder by Reshma Saujani shows you how to end your love affair with perfection and rewire yourself for bravery.

Reshma began her career as an attorney and activist., surging onto the political scene in 2010 as the first Indian American woman to run for U.S. Congress.  She is Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, a national non-profit organization.

Next, while the squeaky wheel gets the grease, remove the quiet wheel and the bike becomes useless.  Jane Finkle knows firsthand the unique challenges and obstacles introverts face.  Her new book, The Introvert’s Complete Career Guide: From Landing a Job, to Surviving, Thriving, and Moving on Up, provides the tools to creating a path to a more fulfilling life.

Jane has 25 years of experience as a career coach for universities and has run her own career counseling firm since 2002.

 

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Fiction, Writers on Writing

OCT 02: Casey Barrett’s Tower of Songs

Today Vicki is joined by former Canadian Olympic team swimmer turned broadcaster turned novelist Casey Barrett.  You’ll learn how the discipline he learned as a world class swimmer translates to his writing career.  We’ll also discuss the darker side of competitive sports, why he bucks the conventional advice regarding writing prologues, and the best and worst things that can happen while writing a novel.  His latest work Tower of Songs continues the saga of his anti-hero, Duck Darley.

Casey is a Canadian Olympian and the co-founder and co-CEO of Imagine Swimming, New York City’s largest learn-to-swim school. His short fiction, essays, and books coverage have appeared in The Village Voice, Mystery Tribune, Crime Reads, Booktrib, and elsewhere.  He has won three Emmy awards and one Peabody award for his work on NBC’s broadcasts of the Olympic Games.

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Career, Fiction, Health & Wellness, Non Fiction, Personal Development, Self-help, Writers on Writing

SEP 30: Victoria Dahl’s False Step & Kimberly Friedmutter’s Subconscious Power

Your highest goals and deepest desires are well within reach, the trick is unlocking your self-empowerment.  Today, we will demystify tapping into your hidden ability to navigate life’s hurdles, reduce stress, improve sleep, overcome addiction, get fit, and achieve career goals.  Stars and political power brokers alike have used the techniques found in Subconscious Power: Use Your Inner Mind to Create the Life You’ve Always Wanted.

Kimberly Friedmutter is a UCLA Health Systems Board Member, Certified Master Hypnotist, Spiritual Counselor Specialist, Medical and Dental Specialist, and board-certified on the American Board of Hypnotherapy among other organizations.  She has appeared on Entertainment Tonight, The Doctors, TLC, CNN, and more.

“Love stories and scary stories are flip sides of the same coin. They each tap into the most basic human drives: to survive and to mate.”  From high in the Wasach Mountains of Utah comes Victoria Helen Stone, formerly known as Victoria Dahl.  Why the pseudonym? Find out today as she discusses her latest novel False Step.

Victoria Helen Stone, formerly writing as USA Today bestselling novelist Victoria Dahl, has left the lighter side of fiction under her former guise and continues her bestselling ways with a turn to dark suspense.

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Inspirational, Non Fiction, Writers on Writing

SEP 25: NYT Bestseller & History Channel Host Brad Meltzer

Brad Meltzer returns to Conversations Live today to talk about his bestselling non-fiction children’s pitcure book series, Ordinary People Change the World, which includes two books we’ll discuss today … I am Marie Curie and I am Walt Disney.  Brad delves into how the 2016 election surprisingly boosted sales of two particular books in the series, and we’ll find out where his inspiration comes from in choosing the subjects of each book.

The versatile Brad Meltzer is a NYT bestselling author of thrillers, non-fiction, children’s books, and more.  He is also the host of Brad Meltzer’s Lost History on H2 and Brad Meltzer’s Decoded on the History Channel. The Hollywood Reporter recently put him on their list of Hollywood’s 25 Most Powerful Authors.

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Conservation, Environment, Health & Wellness, Personal Development, Spirituality, Travel & Adventure

SEP 23: Susan Hand Shetterly’s The Seaweed Chronicles & Dan Millman’s The Life You Were Born to Live

Known as the Peaceful Warrior, Dan Millman returns to Conversations Live today to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Life You Were Born to Live: A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose.  The new revised edition includes key spiritual laws to overcome life’s hurdles, how to live in harmony with the nine-year cycles of your life, and more.

Dan is a former world champion athlete, university coach, martial arts instructor, and college professor.  He has authored 17 books, and delivers keynotes, seminars, and workshops to people from all walks of life.

Next, nature writer Susan Hand Shetterly takes you on a journey from her native Maine, to Canada, Wales, Japan, the Philippines, and beyond, as she reveals the hidden world of nature’s most abundant resource.  Her latest book, Seaweed Chronicles: A World at the Water’s Edge comes out in August.

An award-winning author of nine books, Susan has also written for several magazines, including Down East, Yankee, and Audubon Magazine. She was a contributing writer for Maine Times for many years, writing essays and articles on wild lands and wildlife, and the people who work with them.

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Health & Wellness, Non Fiction

SEP 18: Dr. Bill Sullivan’s Pleased to Meet Me

“Trust your gut” is an oft used and usually sound piece of advice.  What if we told you that it actually has a scientific basis?  Why do some people like broccoli and others find it disgusting?  What makes some people vote liberal and some vote conservative?  Dr. Bill Sullivan joins us today with evidence that our microbiota … the trillions of microbes living in our gut … influence and affect our behavior and moods.

Dr. Sullivan, author of National Geographic’s Pleased To Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are, holds a doctorate in cell and molecular biology and is an award-winning professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, where he studies genetics and infectious diseases.

 

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Inspirational, Memoir, Non Fiction, Social Issues, Women's Issues

SEP 16: Laurie Halse Anderson’s SHOUT & Meredith May’s The Honey Bus

Today, we pollinate your mind with a buzzworthy guest … literally.  Meredith May learned some of life’s most pivotal lessons about community, loyalty and survival from one of nature’s most fragile and important creatures.  Raised by her fourth generation beekeeper grandfather while her mother’s mental state slowly deteriorated, Meredith found everything she needed to know about family was buzzing right there in the hive.  Her new memoir is The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees.

Meredith spent sixteen years at the San Francisco Chronicle, where her narrative reporting won the PEN USA Literary Award for Journalism and was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize.  She is a fifth generation beekeeper.

Later, frustrated by how little has changed in the 20 years since first writing about sexual assault in her groundbreaking, award-winning novel Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson reveals her personal history as a survivor of sexual assault and her journey to healing in her new book SHOUT.  Today, she’ll discuss solutions to this ongoing problem, sharing key insights from among the thousands of women she has interviewed over the last two decades.

Laurie is a New York Times bestseller whose writing spans young readers, teens, and new adults.  In addition to combatting censorship, she regularly speaks about the need for diversity in publishing and is a member of RAINN’s National Leadership Council.

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Conservation, Environment, Journalism, Social Issues

SEP 02: Multi-time Award-winning Filmmaker John de Graaf

“John de Graaf is one of the good guys in our world, always right there with the next important, life-affirming idea,” says The Giraffe Project’s Ann Medlock.  The late 70’s gave birth to John’s award-winning documentary film career that continues to this day.

Today, we’ll explore John’s career as a filmmaker and activist, and find out why he does what he does. We’ll hear about his latest film, REDEFINING PROSPERTIY, and some of the activism he’s engaged in. We’ll discover how John chooses projects, and how he navigated his own prolific creative path while still making a difference in people’s lives.

“I’m an author, filmmaker, speaker, and activist with a mission to help create a happy, healthy, and sustainable quality of life for America,” reads John’s mission statement.

With over 40 documentaries and countless short films to his credit, he has received over 100 regional, national, and international awards for filmmaking.  15 of his films have been broadcast nationally in primetime on PBS, and he has taught filmmaking at the University of Washington, Evergreen State College, and Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts.

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