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Life

Essays, Memoir, Non Fiction, Writers on Writing

Books, Stories, Poems, Writers, & Life with Best American Short Stories Author, Peter Orner

November 22, 2023

Still No Word from You: Notes in the Margin

Podcast with author Peter Orner

Peter Orner is a storyteller. He’s a writer’s writer … a novelist, short story master, and prolific essayist. What he really wants to accomplish with his writing, is to connect — especially with readers who can’t not read.

In Peter’s seventh book, Still No Word from You: Notes in the Margin, he shares intimate stories from a life of living and reading. We discover how Peter’s stories are often built around small moments that may otherwise seem insignificant. We discuss how he identifies moments that will make a great story. What it means to live the writer’s life, and the challenges that presents.

About Peter Orner

The author of two novels and several story collections, Peter Orner‘s work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, and more. His previous essay collection, Am I Alone Here? Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. Peter Orner is a 3-time recipient of the Pushcart Prize and has received numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Fulbright in Namibia. He is currently the director of creative writing at Dartmouth College.

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Health & Wellness, Non Fiction, Personal Development, Psychology, Self-help

Help for Sensitive People in Today’s Turbulent World with Dr. Judith Orloff

October 18, 2023

Dr Judith Orloff Empath's Survival GuideThe Empath’s Survival Guide: Life Strategies

If you find yourself turning off the news, avoiding certain people, or declining events simply because you can’t cope with one more thing, Dr. Judith Orloff gets you.

Speaking personally as a high-empath, and professionally as a licensed psychiatrist, Dr. Orloff feels your pain and understands firsthand how being sensitive can lead to anxiety, stress, and feelings of being overwhelmed.

Today we share how to tell what kind of empath you are and what that means. Dr. Orloff highlights the different experiences between introvert and extrovert empaths. We discuss the neuroscience behind empaths that  shows why some people feel things more than others. How to rise above self-medication (think, food, alchohol, and other substances}. And we share easy solutions to help combat toxic energy.

About Judith Orloff, MD

Dr Judith Orloff is the New York Times bestselling author of The Empath’s Survival Guide and Thriving as an Empath. A psychiatrist in private practice, and a member of the psychiatric clinical faculty at UCLA where she specializes in treating highly sensitive people and empaths, Dr. Orloff’s work has been featured by The Today Show, Oprah Magazine, and The New York Times.

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Inspirational, Non Fiction, Personal Development, Self-help

Jul 20: Live Your Authentic Life with Award-Winning Author Kate Eckman

July 20, 2022

Eliminate Perfectionism, Stop Procrastinating with The Full Spirit Workout

Did you promise yourself during Covid lockdown that things would be different? That you’d start an exciting creative project, quit your job, look for a career that fits you better. Or maybe you decided to work less and spend more time with family. Go back to school. Or simply play more. And then … life happened.

You’re not alone. Kate Eckman returns to Conversations Live to explore how we can overcome two of the biggest blockers to our personal and professional success – perfectionism and procrastination.

About Kate Eckman

As a former elite athlete, Kate Eckman deeply understands sports psychology and performance. She’s a  certified executive coach, working with leaders in business and sports, and the award-winning author of The Full Spirit Workout: A Ten-Step System to Shed Your Self-Doubt, Strengthen Your Spiritual Core, and Create a Fun and Fulfilling Life.

 

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Journalism, Memoir, Non Fiction, Travel & Adventure

Jul 13: A Hard Place to Leave: Stories from a Restless Life with Marcia DeSanctis

July 13, 2022

Travel journalist of the year reveals the push-pull tension between home and away

What did travel writers do when their wanderings were halted during COVID lockdown? Marcia DeSanctis sorted through a decade’s body of work to compile her new book  A Hard Place to Leave: Stories from a restless life.

We discuss some of Marcia’s adventures and insights into being a travel writer. Why the desert is her sweet spot. How she balances her introverted self with writing open honest personal stories – including the search for her way back after falling in love with another man. And, how Marcia finds stories that resonate while traveling the globe.

About Marcia DeSanctis

Marcia DeSanctis is a Contributing Writer at Travel + Leisure, and writes essays and stories for Vogue, Town & Country, Departures, BBC Travel, and many other publications. She received the 2021 Grand Solas Award for Travel Story of the Year, and has received 5 Lowell Thomas Awards for excellence in travel journalism, including one for Travel Journalist of the Year. She’s the New York Times bestselling author of 100 Places in France every Woman Should Go … and the book we talk about today, A Hard Place to Leave Place to Leave: Stories from a restless life. 

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Fiction, Humor

May 11: Unlikely Animals with Annie Hartnett

May 11, 2022

Spirits narrate. Animals talk. Humor, heartache,  love, & a missing girl … a magical tragicom filled with the messiness of family life and death.

Author Annie Hartnett‘s second novel wasn’t going too well. She wasn’t enjoying authoring it and wondered if all second novels were this difficult to write. But as she took a drive through New Hampshire, Annie spotted something that changed the direction of her story and brought Unlikely Animals to life … or raised it from the dead … because the folks in the cemetery narrate the story.

About Annie Hartnett

Annie Hartnett‘s first book, Rabbit Cake, was listed as one of Kirkus Review’s Best Books of 2017 and was a New England Book Award finalist. Annie was awarded fellowships and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library. She holds degrees from the MFA program at the University of Alabama. Information for Book Clubs.

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Memoir, Non Fiction

SEP 01: Dr David Weill with Exhale-Hope, Healing, & a Life in Transplant

September 1, 2021

Memoir of a top transplant doctor who rode the emotional rollercoaster of saving and losing lives — until it was time to step back and save his own.

Dr. David Weill joins us to talk very openly about his painful journey with major burnout — something that’s impacting Americans in droves right now. He discusses the importance of selfcare, decisions he had to make, experiences that changed his life. And some of the challenges of transplant medicine from the perspective of doctors and patients.

About David Weill, MD

David Weill is the former Director of the Center for Advanced Lung Disease and the Lung Transplant Program at Stanford. He is currently the Principal of Weill Consulting Group, which focuses on improving the delivery of transplant care. Dr. Weill’s writing has appeared in numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek. And he’s been featured on media platforms such as CNN and the Wall Street Journal.  Exhale: Hope, Healing, and a Life in Transplant is Dr. Weill’s first book.

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Personal Development, Self-help

FEB 05: Daphne de Marneffe’s The Rough Patch & Abby Juan’s How Me Found I

January 27, 2018

STOP!  It’s a trap!  You’ve heard people refer to marriage as an end to individuality, killing ‘me’ by becoming ‘we’.  In The Rough Patch: Marriage and the Art of Living Together, clinical psychologist Daphne de Marneffe, PhD., explores that part of a relationship where the need to grow as an individual collides headlong into the demands of the relationship.

Daphne is a licensed clinical psychologist with almost thirty years of experience working with a wide range of mental health problems.  As a research-trained clinician, she sees psychology as an evolving science, and continually integrates current research findings into her clinical practice.

Also today, Who Are You is not just a song by The Who, it’s a question you can stand in front of a mirror and ask.  If you are not living the life you have always wanted, Abby Juan will help you reboot and change your reality in How Me Found I: Mastering the Art of Pivoting Gracefully Through Life.  You will learn how to harness your own personal power to overcome living with fear and thrive on your terms.

Abby Juan was a successful businesswoman, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist until she became bedridden for close to two years. As a teacher, speaker, author, and Sherpa guide, Abby Juan assists others in walking their own paths to greatness in the same manner as she was shown.

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Memoir, Personal Development, Self-help, Writers on Writing

JAN 08: A Life in Novels with Kathleen Hill & Life is a Musical with Tim Federle

January 5, 2018

When books come to you at the just the right time, they can change your life.Kathleen Hill’s new memoir, She Read to Us in the Late Afternoons: A Life in Novels, explores defining moments of a life illuminated by novels.

Kathleen is a noted author who teaches in the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College.  Her first two books have received critical acclaim and her stories have appeared in numerous collections.

Everything Tim Federle knows about life he learned from doing theater – think Don’t Sweat the Small Stuffwith Jazz Hands. Life is Like a Musical: How to Live, Love, and Lead Like a Star is designed for anyone who wants to find and live by their own song, whatever that means to them.

Tim is a Broadway dancer-turned-author who won awards for his Young Adult books and pun-tastic cocktail novels, and works with Fox Animation in developing new projects.

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Memoir, Personal Development, Self-help, Writers on Writing

OCT 23: A Life in Novels with Kathleen Hill & Life is a Musical with Tim Ferdele

September 23, 2017

When books come to you at the just the right time, they can change your life. Kathleen Hill’s new memoir, She Read to Us in the Late Afternoons: A Life in Novels, explores defining moments of a life illuminated by novels.

Kathleen is a noted author who teaches in the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College.  Her first two books have received critical acclaim and her stories have appeared in numerous collections.

Everything Tim Federle knows about life he learned from doing theater – think Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff with Jazz Hands. Life is Like a Musical: How to Live, Love, and Lead Like a Star is designed for anyone who wants to find and live by their own song, whatever that means to them.

Tim is a Broadway dancer-turned-author who won awards for his Young Adult books and pun-tastic cocktail novels, and works with Fox Animation in developing new projects.

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