Happy Holidays from Conversations Live! Enjoy this special re-broadcast! Get wined and dined as Vicki welcomes a globe trotting expert on food and vino today! But first, Vicki shares tips to promote a clear-cut guide to achieving a healthy lifestyle – the right way. Tune in to Conversations Live Mondays at noon on KKNW 1150AM.

From the mountainside vineyards of Germany, to the baked red earth of Australia, to the shady verandahs of Niagara, Natalie McLean whisks you away with colorful stories about the passionate personalities around the world who inhabit the world of wine. Her new book, Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines will amuse and enthrall as McLean takes a stand against wine snobbery using her signature conversational style. Her adventures as she traipses around the world include encounters with sharks, goats, predatory hawks, and obsessive personalities. McLean is the award winning writer of the bestselling Red, White and Drunk All Over. Her regular wine columns in print reach over 5.1 million readers.

Vicki shares the holiday’s top seven rules from New York Times best-selling author Tosca Reno. In her 13th book, Just the Rules, she trims everyday food decisions into a simple guide for eating right.

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Find out how to channel your inner genius with Gina Rudman, and CBC producer Marina Sonkina takes you on a fictional historical journey around the world with her book of short stories! Plus learn to live an upscale lifestyle on a limited budget with returning guest Danny Kofke!

Danny Kofke is a special ed teacher, whose latest work, A Simple Book of Financial Wisdom: Teach Yourself (and Your Kids) How to Live Wealthy with Little Money, debunks the theory that your income should limit you ability to enjoy the finer things in life. He has been a featured guest on the CBS Early Show.

Gina Rudman is the president of Genuine Insights Inc., a professional development and training practice with the mission of leveraging the genius within individuals and organizations. Gina has been a guest lecturer, trainer and strategist for organizations such as Merck Co., the BETNetwork, the United States Department of Agriculture and the Stern School of Business at New York University among many others. She is the author of Practical Genius: The Real Smarts You Need to Get Your Talents and Passions Working for You!

Marina Sonkina uses her short story collection to gives the readers unexpected characters put into surreal situations, taking place in diverse settings from Russia to Montreal to Mexico, and in different periods of time. She draws upon her real life experiences as a Russian refugee who escaped to Canada as a linguist, and eventually became an author and producer with CBC.

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Sometimes it seems that no matter what you do, you just cannot satisfy your partner. If you are in a relationship with someone who is critical to the point of endangering the relationship, Dr. Michelle Skeen has the answer. Later, Dr. Abraham Verghese discusses his first novel that’s been on the New York Times Bestseller List for more than a year!

Has it ever seemed like your partner blames you for things out of your control? Or perhaps exaggerates what they interpret as character flaws? If your self-esteem has taken a hit, Dr. Michelle Skeen recognizes these all too common behaviors and has written a book that will help readers understand the behaviors of these critical partners and ultimately end this destructive pattern. In The Critical Partner: How to End the Cycle of Criticism and Get the Love You Want, Dr. Skeen presents a clear step-by-step plan to help develop new coping strategies and deflecting criticism. Dr. Skeenhas provided both brief and long-term therapy for individuals and couples using schema, cognitive, and behavioral therapies to address a myriad of personal issues.

The new book by Dr. Abraham Verghese, Cutting For Stone, shares the captivating story of two brothers born of a union clouded in secrecy and abandoned by the death of their mother and the disappearance of their father. The twins come of age over a shared fascination with medicine, only to be torn apart and separated by an ocean over their passion for the same woman. Cutting For Stone is filled with mystical scenes and deeply engaging characters. Dr. Verghese is Professor and Senior Associate Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford University. He is also an adjunct professor for the University of Texas Health Science Center where he founded the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics. His essays and short stories have appeared in many periodicals and he is a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Join him also for Ted Talks… Ideas Worth Sharing.

Today, Vicki also welcomes Larry Kane, bestselling author and veteran newsman about the sad state of local television news and reportage. He will also talk about his new novel, Death By Deadline. Kane currently hosts the Voice of Reasonshow on Comcast Network, and has the distinction of being the only newsman to anchor at all three network stations in Philadelphia.

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Fight the bad economy and grow your business in spite of it! And later, Vicki talks with Jason Selk, the Director of Mental Training for the World Series winning St. Louis Cardinals, about how to reach the next level by developing your mental toughness! Join Vicki and her guests on Monday at noon on KKNW 1150AM!

As founder and CEO of Intertech, a Minneapolis based consulting and training firm, Tom Salonek used his meteoric rise as the basis for his book Building A Winning Business. In it, he covers the basics like hiring and time management, and demonstrates why the poor economic times have little to do with business growth if you are doing the “right things”. He also shares how growing up on a farm made him a better business owner. Salonek holds a degree in computer science, and has written over 50 articles on business and leadership, and in 2005 was named one of Minnesota’s top business leaders under 40.

Dr. Jason Selk is the author of Executive Toughness: The Mental Training Program to Increase Your Leadership Performance. He uses his in-depth knowledge and experiences working with the world’s finest business leaders, athletes, and coaches to help individuals and organizations achieve extraordinary levels of success by developing their mental toughness. He covers a wide range of topics including whether women can benefit from mental toughness as well as men, if mental toughness requires a thicker skin and more competitive nature, and how these skills can affect your home life as well as business.

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The holidays are fast approaching, which means most of us will suddenly be thrust into family circles where old tensions can rear their ugly heads. Today Vicki talks with a psychologist who contends that dignity is the key to resolving these conflicts! Tune in at noon on Monday on KKNW 1150AM!

Turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, … tension? As much a tradition as pumpkin pie around the holidays, getting the family together is often a wonderful experience, but just as often old conflicts can appear at a moment’s notice. Dr. Donna Hicks has written a book that can help YOU be the one put these matters to rest! Dignity: The Essential Role it Plays in Resolving Conflict sets the focus on yourself, and shows how taking the concious effort to assume responsibility rather than blame others helps you set the example for others to follow. She points out that this is a perfect time of year to take stock in your relationships and mend fences by taking the first step towards re-establishing dignity to your family members, as well as yourself! Dr. Hicks is an Associate at Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.

Later, Thanksgiving is one of the biggest holidays for travelling of the year, and Vicki talks with air traffic analyst Chris Hills regarding making your travel plans as well as the best ways to deal with the TSA. And find out just how much Conversations Live producer Eric Reidar knows about Turkey Day as Vicki grills him with her Thanksgiving quiz!

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If you think you own your body you might ask: Who has a patent on your genes? The answer: Drug companies. 40,000 patents to be precise! Harvard medical ethicist, Harriet Washington, on Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself – and the Consequences for Your Health and our Medical Future. Listen live Monday at Noon PT / 3 pm ET on KKNW.

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She survived avalanches, insulin shock in sub-zero temperatures, and dangerous mountainside rescue operations.  Would those same survival skills help save her husband from a rare and fatal liver disease? Join us Monday at noon Pacific / 3 PM Eastern time to find out!

Kim Kircher is a Professional Ski Patroller, EMT and Type-I diabetic who lives life on the edge–throwing bombs to create safe avalanches, saving skiers’ lives in perilous conditions–all while keeping herself at an arm’s length from diabetic shock in the cold. When her husband was diagnosed with liver cancer and informed he needed a liver transplant within nine months in order to live, Kircher turned to her expertise in crisis management to weather the storm. In her new book, The Next 15 Minutes: Strength from the Top of the Mountain, she expertly juxtaposes her crisis experiences on the slopes with the extreme nature of her husband’s illnesses.

Also joining Vicki today is Annette Sym, whose low fat cooking recipes have been endorsed by the Diabetes Association. She can take you from fat to fabulous without missing the food you love, all based on her own experiences. She is Australia’s #1 lowfat cookbook author, and her latest book, Symply Too Good To Be True is available in an American version! Annette turned a dream into a multi-million dollar company and has won many awards for her business acumen.

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Popular Harvard Review columnist Peter Bregman’s intervention plan to use your time wisely! And Amy Ahlers delivers a critical message about the Big Fat Lies Women Tell Themselves.

Harvard Review columnist Peter Bregman’s 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get The Right Things Done was named one of Publisher Weekly’s Top 10 Business Books of Fall/Winter 2011. In it, he establishes his plan for a better way to focus your time and achieve your priorities in work and life. Earning degrees from both Princeton and Columbia Universities, Bregman has advised CEO’s and senior leaders in companies as varied as Merck, Nike, and American Express, among many others. In 1998, he founded Bregman Partners, a global management consulting firm.

Amy Ahlers invites you uncover the big fat lies you are telling yourself and how to break free of their grasp! As CEO of Wake-Up Call Coaching, her mission is to show women how powerful, magnificent, and amazing they are. In Big Fat Lies Women Tell Themselves, she invites you to “ditch your Inner Critic and wake up your Inner Superstar!” Ahlers holds a degree from the University of California, and has been a featured expert on ABC TV, as well as in the Washington Post and Oakland Tribune. She also leads workshops in the US and abroad.

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Turn fear into courage… learn to motivate the most unruly employee… Vickis welcomes guests today that can turn the most negative aspects of your company into the most positive ones! Plus the remarkable journey of a young woman making a difference in hundreds of lives.

In his new book Breaking The Fear Barrier: How Fear Destroys Companies from the Inside Out and What To Do About It, Gallup executive Tom Rieger explains how to transform a fear-plagued organization into one that is courageous and unstoppable! Rieger draws on his companies global research across many varied industries to identify a common problem that puts many organizations up against a barrier: fear. In his book, Rieger identifies the three levels in the pyramid of bureaucracy and how to counter-act each to avoid self-destructing from within. Prior to joining Gallup in 1994, he designed and ran a global customer measurement program for a Fortune 100 company. He holds a Master of Science degree in Industrial Administration which he received from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.

He can be rude. She can be an egomaniac. They are a bunch of slackers. He goes AWOL whenever you need him most. She misses deadlines, he screws up assignments, they all chase away clients, and combined, they fracture your team morale. Who are they? They are the unmanageable employees-and they are costing your company a fortune. In Managing the Unmanageable: How to Motivate Even the Most Unruly Employee, co-author Jezra Kaye demonstrates how to quickly create action plans to turn the above slackers into your star performers! She offers key words, simple tips, and proven models to effectively lead your team to success. Kaye, President of Speak Up for Success, is a former marketing consultant to Fortune 500 companies and an acclaimed keynote speaker. She is a certified MBTI consultant and studied Sociology at UC-Berkeley.

Finally, Vicki talks today to a remarkable young woman who is on a life changing journey in which she has made dramatic differences in the lives of hundreds of orphans. She first visited Uganda at the age of 18, and returned the next summer to teach kindergarten at an orphanage there. Katie Davis chronicles this on-going journey in Kisses from Katie. She will also discuss with Vicki her non-profit organization Amazima Ministries International and how she has adopted and is raising 13 children… all before her 23^rd birthday! Follow her blog here.

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