What if living your most authentic life leaves you dead?
You Belong to Me with author Hayley Krischer
Hayley Krischer joins us to dive into You Belong to Me— a dark, atmospheric, emotionally charged YA novel that’s captivated teens and adults alike.
We discuss the underbelly of the wellness industry, a multi-trillion dollar economy encompassing many false claims and scams.
We look at character development and motivation. And why Hayley’s favorite characters were inspired by followers of an infamous cult (think Charles Manson). The challenges of pace in plot. And some of the themes at the heart of You Belong to Me such as the need for belonging, and what it means to trust yourself.
Meet Hayley Krischer
Hayley Krischer is an award-winning journalist who has written for the The New York Times, The Atlantic, Elle and more. She has an MFA from Lesley University. Her books include fiction and nonficiton. Find out more at her website.
Tap Into and Harness the Creative Genius Hidden Inside of You
Creative Genius You, the Equation that Makes You Great with author Patti Dobrowolski
In Creative Genius You, The Equation That Makes YOU Great! Patti Dobrowolski’s simple formula helps you unlock a unique genius and creativity all of your own.
Today Patti shares how visual acuity can help liberate you from blocks and accelerate the creative process.
She provides insight into the subtle math behind goal achievement. Why granting yourself permission to listen to your inner voice is vital.
Patty explains the Desire + Love + Sweat equation. And the importance of developing our curiosity, intuition, and imagination.
About Patti Dobrowolski
Three-times TedX speaker, Patti Dobrowolski, is a critically acclaimed comic performer, international keynote speaker, writer, and business consultant. She has taught innovative visual practices to Fortune 500 companies, NGOs, and small businesses. In an earlier podcast you can hear about Patti Dobrowolski’s first book, Drawing Solutions: How Visual Goal Setting Will Change Your Life.
Stories Sell: Storyworthy Strategies to Grow Your Business and Your Brand
Stories Sell with author Matthew Dicks
Like it or not, everyone in the workforce today has a brand – whether you’re self-employed, a contractor, freelancer, or employee.
Some have more than one brand — Matthew Dicks is a high-school teacher, an author, keynote speaker, Moth GrandSLAM champ, consultant to Fortune 500 groups, and even a wedding DJ!
Some brands have commonalities. Some do not.
But at the heart of your ability to sell yourself, your work, your products, or services there’s a common link to success and connection. And that is storytelling.
Today we look at Matthew’s book, Stories Sell: Storyworthy Strategies to Grow Your Business and Your Brand. He shares how where most companies, salespeople, and marketers get storytelling wrong. Why you should focus first on story, then on purpose. And what makes the all-important 5-second Moment.
Matthew Dicksis and expert storyteller and the internationally bestselling author of several novels, including Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, and Something Missing. His nonfiction titles include books we’ve discussed on the show before: Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling.Someday is Today: 22 Simple Actionable Ways to Propel Your Creative Life. And his latest, Stories Sell: Storyworthy Strategies to Grow Your Business and our Brand. Matthew Dicks is a 56-time Moth StorySLAM Champion, and a 9-time GrandSLAM Champion, whose stories have been featured on the nationally syndicated Moth Radio Hour. His stories have also appeared on PBS’ Stories From the Stage.
The Extraordinary Events that Created New York and Shaped America
Taking Manhattan with author Russell Shorto
It’s well known that in 1626, Indigenous inhabitants sold the entire island of Manhattan to the Dutch for just $24 worth of beads and trinkets. What’s not so well known is the history behind the English seizure of the island and its transformation from New Amsterdam to New York.
Author, investigative journalist, historian Russell Shorto took on the challenge of researching the fascinating details behind this. Today we explore some of the highlights around that, and meet some of the key characters integral to the transition. Russell also presents a picture that’s maybe, less about seizure, and more about collaboration between the parties who once pointed cannons at each other.
Meet Russell Shorto
Russell Shorto is the best-selling author of eight books, including Smalltime, Revolution Song, Amsterdam, and The Island at the Center of the World. He is the director of the New Amsterdam Project at the New York Historical and senior scholar at the New Netherland Institute.
The Parrot and the Igloo: Climate and the Science of Denial
The Parrot and the Igloo with author David Lipsky
“Lipsky spins top-flight climate literature into cliffhanger entertainment.” ~ The New York Times
David Lipsky is a writer’s writer as well as a reader’s writer. In The Parrot And The Igloo: Climate And The Science Of Denial, Lipsky explores how the virulent “anti-science” movement in America was set up by design.
In other words, it was planned, programmed, and paid for.
Today, we learn when, how, and why planned “denial” movements began, and who won the casting call to become the first Celebrity Doubter and “paid voice” behind the massive Climate Denial Campaign.
We look at scientists who sounded warning bells. And how we went from being a country that supported science, to a population divided into science supporters versus science deniers, hucksters, and propagandists.
Meet Bestselling Author David Lipsky
David Lipsky is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Absolutely American and Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, the basis for the movie The End of the Tour. He’s written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Harper’s Magazine, and is a recipient of the National Magazine Award and the GLAAD Media Award. His work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Magazine Writing anthologies. Lipsky teaches writing and literature at NYU and lives in New York City. The Parrot And The Igloo is a NYT Editors’ Choice, a New Yorker and Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2023, and a USA Today Must Read.
Feel helpless to break the work, sleep, work cycle? Dr Romie’s 8 week plan maximizes focus, tames anxiety, & leads to a healthy sleep pattern.
The Busy Brain Cure with author Dr. Romie Mushtaq
Stressors are often misconstrued as a sign of a hectically important life, worn as a badge of honor, but the reality is that chronic stress kills. Dr. Romie Mushtaq discovered that the hard way when she suffered major career burnout, while simultaneously undergoing life-saving surgery.
The irony was not lost on her that, as a neurologist, she should have known better. But her wake-up call set Dr. Romie on a global journey to research and heal the negative impacts of stress responses on our brains, bodies, and teams. The Busy Brain Cure: The Eight Week Plan to Find Focus, Tame Anxiety, & Sleep Again takes an integrated approach to reduce stress, avoid burnout, and live with zest.
Find out why the constantly new trending diets and cleanses should give way to occasionally embracing certain comfort foods to fight stress. We discuss how to overcome the stimulant-sedative cycle, lower your caffeine independence by day and sleep aids at night. And Dr. Romie shares how to heal the root cause of ADHD, anxiety, and insomnia without addictive medications.
About Dr. Romie Mushtaq
Dr. Romieis a board-certified physician, award-winning wellness speaker, and the founder of brainSHIFT. She combines over 20 years of authority in neurology, integrative medicine, and mindfulness to deliver programs and create cultural change. Dr. Romie currently speaks and consults for Fortune 500 companies, professional athletes, & global associations. She is also the Chief Wellness Officer (CWO) for Great Wolf Lodge. And was formerly the CWO for Evolution Hospitality, where she scaled a mindfulness & wellness program for over 7,000 employees. Her expertise is featured in the national media, such as NPR, NBC, TED talks, and Forbes.
“[Shelley’s writing] warms us with the wisdom and perspective that come from a lifetime filled with animals, people, history, science, and literature. An absolutely unique memoir by one of the South’s great storytellers.”
— Danny Rubin, Screenwriter (Groundhog Day)
When you’re used to being needed and hearing someone shout “Mom” a hundred times a day, who are you, and what do you do when the kids leave home? Like millions of other moms, award-winning writer Shelley Fraser Mickle faced that same dilemma. Her solution found her.
Today Shelley shares why she wrote to author William Faulkner and how that worked out. We discuss the importance of storytelling and passing down family stories. How humor helps us physiologically; why we should laugh out loud and try to find the humor even during dark days. Shelley shares her love of horses, and the dog who saved her, Buddy. We also discuss the challenges and joys of writing a memoir, ITCHING TO LOVE: The Story of a Dog.
Meet Shelley Fraser Mickle
Shelley Fraser Mickleis a multiple award-winning author and beloved storyteller. Her readings delighted listeners on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition from 2000 to 2006. Shelley’s second novel, REPLACING DAD, won a Friends of American Writers Award and was adapted into a Hallmark Channel movie. Currently, her 2023 narrative history WHITE HOUSE WILD CHILD: HOW ALICE ROOSEVELT BROKE ALL THE RULES AND WON THE HEART OF AMERICA is in development as a film series. ITCHING TO LOVE: The Story of a Dog is Shelley’s memoir.
One Woman’s Attempt to Restore 200 Acres of Farmland in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Bad Naturalist with author Paula Whyman
With humor, humility, and awe, writer Paula Whyman faces her limitations, while getting to know a breathtaking corner of the natural world.
When she first climbed a peak in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains looking for a home in the country, she had no idea how little she knew about hands-on conservation, or how quickly her tidy backyard ecology project would grow into a massive endeavor.
From Bad Naturalist: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop we explore some of Paula’s many challenges, failures, and successes as she learns hour by hour how to work with nature and its seasons, with indigenous versus invasive growth, and nature … the ultimate boss.
Meet Paula Whyman
Paula Whyman’snew book, Bad Naturalist: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop, is a blend of memoir, natural history, and conservation science. Her short story collection You May See a Stranger, earned praise from The New Yorker, a starred review in Publishers Weekly, and won the Towson Prize for Literature. Paula Whyman’s stories have appeared in journals including McSweeney’s Quarterly and Virginia Quarterly Review, and her fiction was selected for the anthology Writes of Passage: Coming-of-Age Stories and Memoirs from The Hudson Review. Whyman’s nonfiction has been featured on NPR, and in the Washington Post, The American Scholar, and The Rumpus. She is co-founder and editor-in-chief of the literary journal Scoundrel Time.
Triumph, Tragedy, and History’s Greatest Arctic Rescue
Realm of Ice and Sky with author Buddy Levy
Winner of 2023’s National Outdoor Book Award, Buddy Levy, returns to Conversations Live with Vicki St. Clair, this time to talk about his latest Arctic survival book, Realm of Ice and Sky: Triumph, Tragedy, and History’s Greatest Arctic Rescue.
“The gripping account of a fatal polar adventure. Hair-raising suffering and heroism in the Arctic.” ~ Kirkus Reviews
Levy says it’s not the history of one voyage. It’s the history of one TYPE of voyage – trying to reach the north pole airborne, in an airship. If successful, it would signal a changing of the guard – from dog and sled travel, to the new technology of airborne travel.
We explore “the greatest Arctic rescue”– a dramatic, nearly forgotten 19th-century mission that tested human resilience, ingenuity, and survival in one of the most unforgiving environments on Earth. We also discuss the journeys of the three key explorers; their challenges, failures, and successes. And Buddy shares how he pieced together these 19th century adventures to make a riveting story.
Meet Buddy Levy
Buddy Levyis the author of nine books including Realm of Ice and Sky, and Empire of Ice and Stone: The True Story of the Canadian Arctic Expedition That Went Horribly Wrong. [Hear that PODCAST.] His work has been featured or reviewed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, USA Today, The Washington Post, and many other outlets. He was the co-star, for 25 episodes, on HISTORY Channel’s hit docuseries Brad Meltzer’s DECODED. In 2018 he was an on-camera expert on the 4-part TV Series THE FRONTIERSMEN: The Men Who Built America (HISTORY, Executive Producer Leonardo Di Caprio).
Expert advice in ENOUGH: Because We Can Stop Cervical Cancer
Enough: Because We Can Stop Cervical Cancer with Dr. Linda Eckert
Did you know that cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women? That it’s highly treatable and almost 100% preventable? Yet each year, approximately:
— 340,000 women around the globe die of cervical cancer.
—14,000 women in the U.S. receive news that they have cervical cancer.
— Over 90% of cervical cancer cases are caused by the Human Papillomavirus, or HPV as it’s commonly known.
In ENOUGH: Because We Can Stop Cervical Cancer, Dr. Linda Eckert integrates scientific evidence, personal stories, and policy advocacy to inspire readers to take action. We discuss what you need to know — from symptoms to treatments and prevention. She busts common myths around vaccines, HPV, which groups of women are disproportionately affected. And how HPV can also affect men. Most of all, Dr. Eckert leaves us with hope, and the knowledge we need to help wipe out cervical cancer.
Meet Dr. Linda Eckert
Dr. Linda Eckert is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist with over three decades of experience in women’s health. She serves as a professor in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Global Health at the University of Washington, where her clinical practice is centered at Seattle’s Harborview Women’s Clinic. Her areas of expertise include vaginal and vulvar infections, vaccines, cervical cancer screening, and cross-cultural medicine. In addition to her research and clinical practice, Dr. Eckert serves on the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s Expert Immunization Committee and is the organization’s liaison to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. She was also the obstetrics lead for the Global Alignment of Immunization Safety in Pregnancy Program.
