Podcasts about Western Connecticut State University

The most common mistake advisors make with prospects? They deliver a logically-driven pitch showcasing all the ways they can help. But, prospects make decisions with the emotional part of the brain. And, that's why logical pitches fall on deaf ears. Stacy Havener, Founder and CEO at Havener Capital Partners, has raised billions for boutique asset managers, and she did it with words, not numbers. Her story-driven method taps into something most pitches miss: emotion. If you want to connect with prospects, you need to master the art of storytelling. In this conversation, she unpacks why logic-based pitches fail, how to structure a first meeting to connect at a human level, and the neuroscience behind compelling narratives that convert. You'll learn:  How you can set the tone for a vulnerable and authentic conversation How to turn a good story into a compelling offer that moves clients to action Structuring prospect meetings to build an emotional connection and trust from the start The science behind storytelling and how it triggers buying decisions at a subconscious level Tips for creating powerful “backstories” and using emotional cues that resonate with your audience *To sign up for Brendan's newsletter packed with resources to master the human side of advice → Click Here Resources: The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga  Connect with Brendan Frazier:  RFG Advisory LinkedIn: Brendan Frazier Connect with Stacy Havener:  LinkedIn: Stacy Havener Website: Havener Capital Partners About our Guest:  Stacy Havener is the Founder/CEO at Havener Capital Partners, a sales and marketing agency that helps boutique asset managers build, launch and grow funds. Havener Capital is on a mission to level the playing field in asset management by raising $100B for boutiques over the next decade. Stacy holds her Series 6, 7, 24, 63, 66, and 79 licenses and is a registered representative of Compass Securities Corporation. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Western Connecticut State University, graduating summa cum laude in 1998. That same year, Stacy was named to both the NCAA and the GTE/CoSida Academic All-American teams for Division III Women's Soccer and subsequently nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year. Based in Newport, RI, Stacy often spends her mornings walking the beach, sipping a Dunkin' coffee, and listening to 90's hip hop – Content here is for illustrative purposes and general information only. It is not legal, tax, or individualized financial advice; nor is it a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any specific security, or engage in any specific trading strategy. Information here may be provided, in part, by third-party sources. These sources are generally deemed to be reliable; however, neither our guest nor RFG Advisory guarantee the accuracy of third-party sources. The views expressed here are those of our guest. They do not necessarily represent those of RFG Advisory, its employees, or its clients. This commentary should not be regarded as a description of advisory services provided by RFG Advisory, or performance returns of any client. The views reflected in the commentary are subject to change at any time without notice. Securities offered by Registered Representatives of Private Client Services. Member FINRA / SIPC. Advisory services offered by Investment Advisory Representatives of RFG Advisory, LLC (“RFG Advisory or “RFG”), a registered investment advisor. Private Client Services and RFG Advisory are unaffiliated entities. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where RFG Advisory and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advisory services may be rendered by RFG Advisory unless a client agreement is in place. RFG Advisory is an SEC-registered investment adviser. SEC registration does not constitute an endorsement of...

197 To celebrate Melanie and Nadine's collaborative masterclass, Publishing Your Stories, on May 13, we're bringing back this chat with Melanie Brooks. If you can't make it live, you can still register and catch the replay.---Many of us have carried at least one hard story for years, suffering under the weight of secrecy and silence. But what if you didn't have to carry it anymore? What if writing or telling it could not only free you, but deepen your relationships with your loved ones? Melanie Brooks--author of Writing Hard Stories and A Hard Silence--is here to help us write and tell our hard stories. Covered in this episode:The life changing impact that Writing Hard Stories had on NadineMelanie's surprising experiences with renowned authors as she researched her bookThe benefits of writing a hard story How and why it gets easierWhat you discover when you're writing hard stories and how it's able to help you processThe phases we go throughout when telling hard stories What prompted Nadine to write and publish her hard storyThe 2 books Nadine reread while writing her memoirThe hard silence Melanie had to keep for almost 10 yrsThe long term impact of not being able to speak your truthWhat helps us stay centered while writing hard stories The guilty pleasure TV show that Melanie and Nadine both watch when they need to escape How it felt for Melanie and Nadine to have their vulnerable books be published What it was like for both writers to write about real life characters and what their family's reactions wereWhat narrative medicine is and how it's changing health care Hear Melanie read a moving passage that gives anyone permission to share their hard story About Melanie:IG: melaniejmbrookswriterwebsite: melaniebrooks.comMelanie Brooks is the author of the memoir A Hard Silence: One daughter remaps family, grief, and faith when HIV/AIDS changes it all (Vine Leaves Press, 2023) and Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017) She teaches creative nonfiction in the M.F.A. program at Bay Path University and in the M.F.A. program at Western Connecticut State University and professional writing at Northeastern University. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast writing program and a Certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. She has had numerous interviews and essays on topics ranging from loss and grief to parenting and aging published in the The Boston Globe, HuffPost, Yankee Magazine, Psychology Today, The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, and other notable publications. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from university), and chocolate Lab.About Nadine:Nadine Kenney Johnstone is a holistic writing coach who helps women develop and publish their stories. She is the proud founder of WriteWELL, an online community that helps women reclaim their writing time, put pen to page, and get published. The authors in her community have published countless books and hundreds of essays in places like The New York Times, Vogue, The Sun, The Boston Globe, Longreads, and more. Her infertility memoir,

Send us a textHappiness is a moxie job! To kick off the 4th Moxie season, Mary O'Neill, co-creator and co-host of Main Street Moxie, explores the connection between happiness and moxie. Happiness is a topic on which Mary is well-versed. She has immersed herself in the topic through the lens of multiple disciplines, and it underpins her work as an educator and life design and career coach. For Mary, rainbows and unicorns do not signify a happy life. Instead, she draws on the Ancient Greek philosophy's emphasis on living a life of virtue and values. A happy life is one lived in alignment with qualities such as courage, moderation, honesty, humility, integrity, and, most crucially, practical wisdom, which involves knowing how and when to apply various virtues in the situations we encounter.This kind of life might not always be Insta-worthy, but it will lead to one of authenticity and coherence, which will buoy us in times of struggle and adversity.Viewing happiness in this way makes it less dependent on feelings and more rooted in action, doing, and MOXIE!In addition to being the co-founder and co-host of Main Street Moxie, Mary is a seasoned and award-winning educator, lecturer, and trainer. She has taught classes in philosophy, including an interdisciplinary course she created on happiness. She has also taught classes in sustainability and nature, global business, life design, career success, and college first-year studies at Western Connecticut State University. Currently, she serves as the Director of Life Design at Boston Global Communications and Performance, Inc., and as the Career Services Coordinator at CT State: Northwestern. Mary is also a life design and career coach in private practice. ResourcesGreater Good Science CenterHarvard Happiness and Leadership LaboratoryHappiness Research InstituteHappiness Studies AcademyYou Doing You Life Design and Career Coaching.Support the show

A proud product of public education, John Coleman received his undergraduate degree in history from Western Connecticut State University. Alas, that was to be the end of his flattering academic titles. Unwilling to once again become a debt slave to usurers, his graduate studies were scotched at the half-way point. John wasted over a decade of his professional life attempting to establish a high school for a community who took neither themselves nor their worldview seriously. Burned by these unseemly experiences, on Holy Saturday of 2013 Apocatastasis Institute was founded.The Institute primarily exists to protect the humanities in se, and to provide a haven for academics in a disintegrating professional field. The author of Hurt: Some Thoughts On Disillusion, Distrust, and Disorientation These Last Few Years (2015), The Trotsky Train: Some Words To The Discupulate (2018), An Excess Of Love (2024), and Pearls Before Swine (2024), John daily continues his work of restoring formal classroom learning in light of the proper personal, social, and political ends of a school.In 2025 John won the Excellence In Education award from the Education 2.0 conference organization. I first got to know John a few years ago, when I studied Latin under his excellent tutelage at Apocatastasis. I interviewed him for the podcast back in November, 2022: Agency, Vision and Discipline. John and I intended to focus this conversation on health and the connections between health and education, but we ended up having a much broader discussion, exploring questions like: What makes a healthy society? What's the role of education in reforming society? And how does a conditioned lack of agency impede that reform? We talked about:* Formal education as the last coming-of-age ritual we all share in common – and how and why John believes that ritual is coming to an end;* The role of AI in future education – and what John sees as a positive outcome of that trend;* How commerce has taken over education and turned teachers into “service sector workers” vs. the role that teachers have historically played;* Formal education as a fulcrum for social reform – and what kind of education would contribute to a healthy society;* How modern pedagogy saps the agency of both students and teachers – and lack of agency as a fundamental social problem;* And much more!In the conversation, John mentions an article by Ted Gioia: What's Happening to Students?Find out about John's work:* main site: www.ApocatastasisInstitute.wordpress.com* Apocatastasis on Substack* Geopolitical Turnings Conference Replays* coming up in July: Health Conference* Rumble channel* Bitchute channel* Telegram channel* Contact John: apocatastasisinstitute@aol.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit embodiedaquarian.substack.com/subscribe

Speculative memoir allows Matt Homrich-Knieling to lean into the subjective nature of memory and explore his experience with separation anxiety. Plus, he and Jared discuss how Matt created a specific list of experiences he wanted from an MFA, which allowed him to narrow his MFA application list to just three programs. They also talk about how the WCSU program requires students to choose both a creative and a professional genre, and how they develop community despite being a low-residency program. Matt Homrich-Knieling is a writer and educator based in Detroit, MI. He is a second-year MFA student at Western Connecticut State University focusing on creative nonfiction and editing. Matt currently serves as editor-in-chief for Poor Yorick, the literary magazine housed at West Conn's MFA program. Matt is particularly interested in reading and writing speculative memoir. He has had essays published in Brevity Blog, Metro Parent, Edsurge, and elsewhere. For his MFA creative thesis, Matt is working on a speculative memoir that explores the connections between his family history and his experiences with separation anxiety. MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com. BE PART OF THE SHOW Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Submit an episode request. If there's a program you'd like to learn more about, contact us and we'll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience. Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

If you have any questions about the college audition process, feel free to reach out at mailbag@mappingthecollegeaudition.com. If you're interested in working with MTCA for help with your individualized preparation for your College Audition journey, please check us out at mtcollegeauditions.com, or on Instagram or Facebook.  Follow Us!  Instagram: @mappingthecollegeaudition YouTube: @MTCA (Musical Theater College Auditions)  TikTok: @mtcollegeauditions  Charlie Murphy:@charmur7  About MTCA:  Musical Theater College Auditions (MTCA) is the leader in coaching acting and musical theater students through the college audition process and beyond with superlative results. MTCA has assembled a roster of expert artist-educators who can guide students artistically, organizationally, strategically, and psychologically through the competitive college audition process. MTCA provides the tools, resources, and expertise along with a vast and strong support system. They train the unique individual, empowering the artist to bring their true, authentic self to their work. MTCA believes that by helping students reveal their potential it allows each school to connect with those who are truly right for their programs, which in turn guides each student toward their best college fit.  About Charlie Murphy:  Charlie is a proud graduate of Carnegie Mellon University's BFA program. As an Actor he has performed with theaters such as: NY Public Theatre's “Shakespeare in the Park”, The Pearl Theatre Company, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Chautauqua Theatre Company, Kinetic Theatre Company, and the Shakespeare Theatre of DC. With MTCA [Musical Theater College Auditions -- mtca.nyc], he has been helping prospective theatre students through the college process for over 15 years. As a Teacher and Director, he is able to do a few of his favorite things in life: help students to find their authentic selves as artists, and then help them find their best fit for their collegiate journey. Through this podcast, he hopes to continue that work as well as help demystify this intricate process. This episode was produced by Kelly Prendergast. Episode theme music is created by Will Reynolds with Additional Vocals from Elizabeth Stanley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gina Troisi joins Lets Talk Memoir for a conversation about searching for home and belonging, writing difficult stories and releasing them into the world, feeling too close to our manuscripts and taking breaks, why memoir is sometimes misunderstood, when material feels too difficult, thinking of ourselves as a character, reckoning with self-abandonment and hurting others, writing memoir as fiction first, moving from stand-alone essays to book length work, staying true to our creative vision and her memoir The Angle of Flickering Light.   Also in this episode: -unpacking honest emotions -self-destructive cycles -winning writing awards Books mentioned in this episode: -The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch -Wild by Cheryl Strayed  -The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion -Lovesick by Sue William Silverman -Abandon Me by Melissa Febos -Memoirs by Abigail Thomas   Gina Troisi is the author of the memoir, The Angle of Flickering Light (Vine Leaves Press, 2021), which was a finalist for the 2022 Maine Literary Awards. The Angle of Flickering Light won first place for the 2021 Royal Dragonfly Book Award for Memoir, received a Silver Medal for the 2022 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), a Silver Medal for the 2021 Reader's Favorite Book Award, and has placed in several other contests, including but not limited to the 2021 New England Book Festival Award for Non-fiction, the 2021 Paris Book Festival Award for Memoir, and the 2021 Southern California Book Festival Award for Memoir. Gina's novel-in-stories, After the Rush, was the First Place Winner for the 2023 Book Pipeline Unpublished Contest For Literary Fiction, a Semi-Finalist for Ohio State University's 2023 Non/Fiction Collection Prize, and a Finalist for the 2023 Acacia Prize for Fiction.   Gina received an MFA in creative nonfiction from The University of Maine's Stonecoast MFA Program in 2009. Her essays and stories have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Fourth Genre, The Gettysburg Review, Fugue, Under the Sun, Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment, and elsewhere. She teaches writing at Southern New Hampshire University, and is a mentor in the Masters of Fine Arts Creative & Professional Writing Program at Western Connecticut State University. She also offers academic tutoring as well as one-on-one coaching for creative writers. Connect with Gina: Website: https://gina-troisi.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gina.troisi.7/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ginatroisiwriter/ X: https://x.com/troisi_gina   – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

Welcome to our newest episode of the Government Coins podcast! We are excited to have a special guest with us who has dedicated over 38 years of service to the City of Danbury, CT. He began his career in procurement after earning his Bachelor of Business Administration from Western Connecticut State University. He spent his early professional years as a buyer for Perkin-Elmer Corp. and Amphenol Corp. before making a lasting impact in the City of Danbury's Purchasing Department, where he has served for 25 years as the Purchasing Agent. In addition to his professional achievements, our guest is deeply involved in the community. He serves on the Board of the Danbury War Memorial Association, is a lector at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, and contributes to the church's Finance Committee. His commitment to both his profession and community is truly inspiring. Please join me in welcoming him! Want to learn more about the City of Danbury, CT: https://www.danbury-ct.gov/ Connect with Chick Volpe on: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chick-volpe-a4727812/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/governmentcoins/support

Welcome to our newest episode of the Government Coins podcast! We are excited to have a special guest with us who has dedicated over 38 years of service to the City of Danbury, CT. He began his career in procurement after earning his Bachelor of Business Administration from Western Connecticut State University. He spent his early professional years as a buyer for Perkin-Elmer Corp. and Amphenol Corp. before making a lasting impact in the City of Danbury's Purchasing Department, where he has served for 25 years as the Purchasing Agent. In addition to his professional achievements, our guest is deeply involved in the community. He serves on the Board of the Danbury War Memorial Association, is a lector at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, and contributes to the church's Finance Committee. His commitment to both his profession and community is truly inspiring. Please join me in welcoming him! Want to learn more about the City of Danbury, CT: https://www.danbury-ct.gov/ Connect with Chick Volpe on: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chick-volpe-a4727812/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/governmentcoins/support

Melanie Brooks is the author of the memoir A Hard Silence: One daughter remaps family, grief, and faith when HIV/AIDS changes it all (Vine Leaves Press, 2023) and Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017) She teaches creative nonfiction in the M.F.A. program at Bay Path University and in the M.F.A. program at Western Connecticut State University and professional writing at Northeastern University. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast writing program and a Certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. She has had numerous interviews and essays on topics ranging from loss and grief to parenting and aging published in the The Boston Globe, HuffPost, Yankee Magazine, Psychology Today, The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, and other notable publications. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from university), and chocolate Lab. Website: https://www.melaniebrooks.com/ ‘A Hard Silence' book from: https://shorturl.at/ipHQ4

Send us a textWe all want peace, but the road toward it can be elusive. Our perceived differences loom large and seem insurmountable. Yet, some individuals like Lisa Worth Huber labor tirelessly to educate people about the self-work required to build peace and understand how the creative arts are a vehicle to express our stories, heal, and begin to bridge with others. This work takes moxie! It's granular and slow yet rich and rewarding, leaving Lisa with hope for building a family, community, and world where all are seen and valued. Peace provides a platform for all of us to flex our moxie, free from fear and able to devote our energies to being part of building something larger, not exhausting ourselves in pits of division.Lisa serves as President of the National Peace Academy. She is on the board of directors and faculty of the Global Peace Education Network (G-PEN), which currently works in partnership with UNESCO. She is a member of the Advisory Council for the Connecticut Center for Nonviolence, where she is a mentor to teaching artists pursuing their certification in Kingian Nonviolence. Lisa designed, implemented, and served as Academic Director for Connecticut's first accredited MA program in Peace and Conflict Transformation, and was a member of the international Launch Team for the Global Sustainability Fellows program, a trainer for the UnGUN Institute: Collective Trauma Healing Through the Arts, and an adjunct professor of Sociology at Western Connecticut State University.Additionally, Lisa has been a teaching artist for several decades, working in universities, K-12 classrooms, homeless shelters, and safe houses, and is the first recipient of the Frank McCourt Prize for Excellence in Teaching.  Along with designing and implementing nonviolent and peacebuilding programs, Lisa incorporates the arts to elevate voices, address injustice, heal trauma and PTSD, nurture compassion, and imagine new futures. Lisa blends story in its myriad forms with peace, humanitarian, social justice, and environmental concerns, and nurtures the development of creative activism and ecological stewardship.This episode of Main Street Moxie is proudly sponsored by Main Street Magazine.ResourcesLisa Worth Huber National Peace AcademyUnGUN InstituteGlobal Peace Education NetworkGlobal Sustainability Fellows programBridging Differences | Greater Good Science CenterSupport the show

We had the best chat with the beautiful soul that is THE Amanda Carbonell!! @amandacarbonell25 

Wesley Allen Ball, age 73 of Richmond, VA, passed away on August 3, 2024. He was born on February 1, 1951, and raised in Powhatan, VA. He was preceded in death by his parents, Margaret and Omar Ball, Jr. He is survived by his sister, Betty Ball Bowman and her Husband, Joseph A. Bowman. Wes retired in June 2013, returning to VA, after serving as Coordinator of Music Education at Western Connecticut State University. He earned a BME degree from Shenandoah University-Conservatory, a MM degree in Piano Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, along with an MA and PhD...Article LinkSupport the Show.

Melanie Brooks joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about the misinformation and fear around HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, the role of the evangelical church in her family's history, the emotional toll of keeping secrets, her work in the growing field of narrative medicine, radical listening, revisiting our heritage and beliefs, leaning into courage, vulnerability and risk, and her memoir A Hard Silence.   Also in this episode:  -self-care -permission to take our time  -our integrated selves   Books mentioned in this episode: Writing Hard Stories by Melanie Brooks    Melanie Brooks is the author of the memoir A Hard Silence: One daughter remaps family, grief, and faith when HIV/AIDS changes it all (Vine Leaves Press, 2023) and Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017) She teaches creative nonfiction in the M.F.A. program at Bay Path University and in the M.F.A. program at Western Connecticut State University and professional writing at Northeastern University. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast writing program and a Certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. She has had numerous interviews and essays on topics ranging from loss and grief to parenting and aging published in the The Boston Globe, HuffPost, Yankee Magazine, The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, and other notable publications. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from college), and chocolate Lab.   Connect with Melanie: Website: www.melaniebrooks.com FB: https://www.facebook.com/melanie.brooks.1690 IG: https://www.instagram.com/melaniejmbrookswriter X: https://x.com/MelanieJMBrooks LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-brooks-504826121   — Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com   Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

For this episode, we step a bit outside of our usual topics and pay homage to the upcoming Olympic Summer Games. Join us as we talk with Margaux Farrell, Chief of Staff of the Root Center for Advanced Recovery and Olympic Bronze Medalist, and Dr. Shane Murphy, Professor of Psychology at Western Connecticut State University and former sport psychologist for Team USA.

153 Many of us have carried at least one hard story for years, suffering under the weight of secrecy and silence. But what if you didn't have to carry it anymore? What if writing or telling it could not only free you, but deepen your relationships with your loved ones? Melanie Brooks--author of Writing Hard Stories and A Hard Silence--is here to help us write and tell our hard stories. Covered in this episode:The life changing impact that Writing Hard Stories had on NadineMelanie's surprising experiences with renowned authors as she researched her bookThe benefits of writing a hard story How and why it gets easierWhat you discover when you're writing hard stories and how it's able to help you processThe phases we go throughout when telling hard stories What prompted Nadine to write and publish her hard storyThe 2 books Nadine reread while writing her memoirThe hard silence Melanie had to keep for almost 10 yrsThe long term impact of not being able to speak your truthWhat helps us stay centered while writing hard stories The guilty pleasure TV show that Melanie and Nadine both watch when they need to escape How it felt for Melanie and Nadine to have their vulnerable books be published What it was like for both writers to write about real life characters and what their family's reactions wereWhat narrative medicine is and how it's changing health care Hear Melanie read a moving passage that gives anyone permission to share their hard story About Melanie:IG: melaniejmbrookswriterwebsite: melaniebrooks.comMelanie Brooks is the author of the memoir A Hard Silence: One daughter remaps family, grief, and faith when HIV/AIDS changes it all (Vine Leaves Press, 2023) and Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017) She teaches creative nonfiction in the M.F.A. program at Bay Path University and in the M.F.A. program at Western Connecticut State University and professional writing at Northeastern University. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast writing program and a Certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. She has had numerous interviews and essays on topics ranging from loss and grief to parenting and aging published in the The Boston Globe, HuffPost, Yankee Magazine, Psychology Today, The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, and other notable publications. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from university), and chocolate Lab.About Nadine:Download Nadine's mini-retreat reset for busy women here. This guided meditation creates calm and clarity so you can listen to the directions of your heart. Nadine Kenney Johnstone is a holistic writing coach who helps women develop and publish their stories. Her infertility memoir, Of This Much I'm Sure, was named book of the year by the Chicago Writer's Association. Her articles and interviews have appeared in Cosmo, Authority, Good Grit, OnSite Journal, MindBodyGreen, HERE, Urban Wellness, Natural Awakenings, Chicago Magazine, and more. Nadine is the podcast host of Heart of the Story, where she shares stories from the heart as well as interviews with today's most impactful female creatives. Pulling from her vast experience as a writing, meditation, and yoga nidra instructor, Nadine leads women's workshops and retreats online and around the...

 In this episode of the Whistleblower of the Week podcast, host Jane Turner talks to Dr. Jeremiah P. Johnson, founder and director of the Lamplighter Project. Dr. Johnson recognized a need to support law enforcement whistleblowers who reported criminal misconduct in 2016 from experience in his own police department.   Jeremiah has served in various sworn and civilian roles across the criminal justice system, including policing, sentencing, and corrections. He began his law enforcement career in 2002 as a patrol officer for a Connecticut municipality, progressing to operational, administrative, and investigative roles. In 2021, Jeremiah was appointed to serve on the Connecticut Sentencing Commission. He currently works as an executive for an extensive city jail system.   Jeremiah has a decade of teaching experience, delivering undergraduate and graduate courses at several institutions of higher learning. He holds a BA in Sociology from Geneva College, an MS in Justice Administration from Western Connecticut State University, an MA in Criminal Justice from John Jay College, and a PhD in Criminal Justice from the City University of New York Graduate Center.  Listen to their discussion about his experience in law enforcement and reporting internal criminal misconduct, the culture of reporting, and how his organization is working to support individuals and change the industry for the betterListen to the podcast on WNN or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Amazon. Subscribe on your favorite platform!

In this episode of the Health Nonprofit Digital Marketing podcast, Spencer Brooks sits down with Valaree Machen, a seasoned nonprofit professional passionate about digital marketing and accessibility. They delve into the importance of equity and accessibility in the digital realm and how these principles can benefit nonprofit organizations, especially those focused on health-related issues. Valaree shares her insights on integrating accessibility into various channels, the difference between compliance and usability, and the practical steps her organization, Uplifting Athletes, has taken to ensure everyone can access their communications. About the guest Valaree grew up in the real-life town that inspired the television show Gilmore Girls, but has traveled extensively across the United States throughout her life. Valaree earned a Professional Writing degree from Western Connecticut State University and began working for three chapters of The Y upon graduation. From there, her passion for non-for-profit work led her to the Society of Plastics Engineers and the National Organization for Rare Disorders before landing at Uplifting Athletes. Valaree graduated from West Virginia University in 2023 with a Master of Science degree in Data Marketing. Valaree's personal philosophy is that for-purpose work should be done with purpose and specializes in strategic, data-driven marketing. Resources Sprout Social: sproutsocial.comWomen in Email Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/womenofemail Contact Valaree Uplifting Athletes: upliftingathletes.orgLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/v-machen/ 

Every year, Police1 columnist Terry Dwyer breaks down United States Supreme Court rulings of significance to law enforcement. In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, Terry joins host Jim Dudley to discuss this year's summary. Terry retired from the New York State Police after a 22-year career as a Trooper and Investigator. He is now a tenured Professor in the Justice and Law Administration Department at Western Connecticut State University and an attorney in private practice representing law enforcement officers in disciplinary cases, critical incidents, and employment matters. He is the author of the forthcoming "Legal Issues in Homeland Security" from Looseleaf Law Publications. About our sponsor This episode of the Policing Matters podcast is sponsored by OfficerStore. Learn more about getting the gear you need at prices you can afford by visiting OfficerStore.com.

What do you get when you blend athletic skill with a love for weather? An elite ninja warrior, of course! Joe Moravsky is a meteorologist and the manager of the Stamford Ninja Academy in Connecticut. He has appeared on multiple seasons of the hit NBC series "American Ninja Warrior" and is one of the show's most successful contestants. Moravsky shares his unique story and discusses his background in weather and athletics on this week's episode. We want to hear from you! Have a question for the meteorologists? Call 609-272-7099 and leave a message. You might hear your question and get an answer on a future episode! You can also email questions or comments to podcasts@lee.net. About the Across the Sky podcast The weekly weather podcast is hosted on a rotation by the Lee Weather team: Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia. Episode transcript Note: The following transcript was created by Headliner and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically: Ninja Warrior Weatherman Forecasts His Future Lee Enterprise National Weather podcast features Joe Moravsky from American Ninja Warrior Joe Martucci: Welcome back to another episode of the across the Sky Podcast, our Lee Enterprise National Weather podcast. We are joined with you from our meteorologist across the country. With us, today, Matt Holiner in Chicagoland, Sean Sublette over in Richmond, Virginia. Kirsten could not be with us today, but he will be back soon enough, of course, as we, go through the months and the year ahead, guys. So we've done sports in weather before, but we've never actually interviewed somebody who does sports and is a meteorologist. And we're going to have that for the first time today, as we welcome on Joe Morvasky from American Ninja Warrior. They call him the Weatherman, not just because that's what they just decide to call him, but he is a meteorologist. He got a meteorology degree, and we're very happy to have him. Matt Holiner: Yeah, there are not many meteorologists who are also athletes. We're kind of a nerdy bunch. And so, athletics is, for most of us. Most of us, it's, not our forte. We're more, into the books a little bit. The sciency nerds. Although I'd like to think we're the cool science nerds. We do focus on the cool part of science. Meteorology, I think, is the one that more people are like, oh, I like that kind of science. Maybe not so much the physics and chemistry. So I would say we were a cooler science, but, not too many of us athletically inclined. I'm certainly one. So it was really cool to chat with him about how he mixed these two worlds, how he kind of broke the mold of a meteorologist and really, got into the athletic side and how he got involved with American Ninja warrior, because that is very much a niche we're talking about in the sports world. That is a very big niche. So chatting with him about his interest in weather and also how he also has gone on this athletic path was really cool. Sean Sublette: Yeah, it's nice to see that because so many times, as you mentioned, Matt, we kind of get pigeonholed, if you will, into this is what a meteorologist or weatherman or whoever is like. This is what they're like for me, a little bit older. It was really kind of cool to see Cantore, the Weather Channel rise into popularity. Kind of gave our geekdom a little more street cred, if you will. So that's nice to see. And, of course, look, Jim is buff. I mean, dude is. Matt Holiner: That's just the way of the world. Sean Sublette: But it's good to show that this community of people who geek out about weather, do have a broader focus to have other interests. And, I think that's very important in this day of age. And certainly the stuff Joe is doing and how long he's been doing it honestly surprised me. So really looking forward to this conversation. Matt Holiner: Yeah. Joe Martucci: Well, let's dive into it here, get you into the episode with Joe Moravsky from American Ninja Warrior on the across the Sky podcast. American Ninja Warrior Joe Moravsky is the Weatherman Joe Martucci: All right, and it is time for our interview here with a very special guest. Don't know if we've ever, had this segment of meteorology before. How about American Ninja Warrior in Weather? I don't know if we've had that combination our podcast before. It might be a first, but we are very pleased to welcome on Joe Moravsky to the podcast. He is an American Ninja warrior athlete known as the Weatherman. He has competed since season five of American Ninja Warrior and has twice been the last ninja standing, beating everybody in the country. He is also a husband and father of three and currently manager of Stanford Ninja Academy in Stanford, Connecticut. He also got his meteorology degree from Western Connecticut State University. Joe, I think I'm saying that right. welcome to the pod. We appreciate it. Joe Morvasky: Thank you. Thank you guys for having me. It's funny, kind of breaking barriers, right? We got the sports world and the weather world, and we put them together with American, Ninja Warrior, the weatherman here. So, it's always, they're very unique conversations I end up having because, people are like, what is the weatherman? How does that have to do with Ninja? So I'm sure we're going to get into that today. Joe Martucci: Yeah, definitely. Well, I'll tell You what, Joe. So when I do, talks at schools and it's about different careers in weather or just kind of talking about what I do as a meteorologist, one of the slides I have is different segments of meteorology. So I talk about working in the National Weather Service, working in media, and then I say, sometimes you get to become an American Ninja warrior. And I use a photo of you in my PowerPoint presentation. So thank you for helping me talk to kids, all across New Jersey here. Joe Morvasky: No problem. We're on the same team, man. Joe Martucci: We're on the same, you know, weather is a small field. Joe Lacey says he always wanted to be a meteorologist Joe Martucci: So, let me ask you about the weather part first. How did you get interested in weather? Was there something that just bit you? Ah, like a lot of people. Did you fall into it? Joe Morvasky: How did it work out? I'm sure just like all of you here, would agree there are so many stories, right? So many stories that got us into weather. I would say the first memory I have of just recognizing, the wow factor of weather was when I was a kid, my mom was telling me, I remember driving. I remember this day so perfectly, or this moment so perfectly. It's such a simple moment, but it was so powerful to me. We're sitting in the car. I must have know, maybe I don't even know. Eight years old, nine years old. And I remember her driving, saying, Joe, look at those clouds. They were cumulus clouds. I didn't know that at the time, but nice big old cumulus clouds. And she was like, you see how that one looks like a shape that looks like this or whatever that was? And I was like, oh, yeah, that's really cool. She's like, yeah, those are my favorite. They're so cool. They look so big and powerful, and they take all these different types of shapes. And I don't know, I was so young and so out of touch because of that, that I didn't ever think of that. I never really looked up at the sky and said, wow, look at that. And that was the first moment that kind of, got me interested. And I remember in fifth grade, I'll never forget this, we went through, what do you want to be when you get older? To all my fifth grade teacher students. And I told her I wanted to be a meteorologist. And I said, one day I'm going to say, hey, Mrs. Lacey, I'm going to tell you the weather. Matt Holiner: When you wake up in the morning. Joe Morvasky: Before school, I'll make sure to shout you out. And she's like, I hope so, Joe. And, I was like, but wait, that's not all I want to do. She was like, oh, well, what else do you want to do? And I said, I want to be a professional athlete. She was like, and who doesn't have dreams and aspirations of being a professional athlete, right? Especially somebody like, guess. But I've always wanted to do it. I never thought doing both would be possible. But I guess I kind of. Joe Martucci: Mean, I can think of a couple of athletes and meteorologists. Owen Daniels, who was a tight end for, Oh, geez, I think Minnesota Vikings. Texans. That's the only one I can think of. I'm probably missing somebody you might know, Joe. Joe Morvasky: So there's one person in particular that, from what I understand, never became a meteorologist, but was always fascinated with the weather. I remember I heard this on some interview somewhere once, and I was like, wow, I like this guy even more. You probably won't even believe it. Michael Jordan, really? Michael Jordan. Now we're going to need some fact checkers on that, but I'm almost positive that that's what I heard him say from his mouth, that he loved the weather and he always wanted to be a meteorologist. And I was like, whoa, that's so cool, Michael Jordan himself. Joe Martucci: Yeah, I know. Mike Trout is a big weather guy too. Joe Morvasky: I didn't know. This is good. Joe Martucci: He's been on the Weather Channel a couple of times with Jim Cantore, talking during snowstorms and stuff, of course. Okay, so you got a nice little fraternity there, you and Michael Jordan right there. Joe Morvasky: Yeah, right. Jim Cantori is the one guy, I met Reed Timmer a couple, many years ago. Now, at this point, he was a big idol of mine. But Jim Cantore, I mean, come on, who doesn't want to meet that know out in the snow waiting for. Joe Martucci: The thunder or even some thunder. Snow. Growing up in Connecticut, it's all about the Nor'easters Joe Martucci: And that leads me into my next question here. Growing up in Connecticut, it's all about the Nor'easters and the snowstorms, baby. So are you a big snow guy and do you have any memories growing up of some big snow events? Joe Morvasky: Absolutely. I didn't even know about thunder snow until older, my older years, I don't know exactly when, but I remember being outside during a big storm and a big snowstorm and I remember exactly where I was. Just one of those moments, I remember the snow coming down so hard, this sky had this almost like a pinkish hue to it, which was interesting. And all of a sudden I heard a rumble of thunder and I was like, what is that? Like, I didn't know that was a thing at the time. I must have know middle school at that point. And sure enough, I come to find out, I think I saw Brad Field on NBC Connecticut, one of my big role models, of the NBC Connecticut World. And I sure enough, I think he spoke on NBC that evening. He was like, we had some reports of Thunderstorm. I was like, thunder snow, my world has been changed. I didn't know that was a thing. And so those of course are such incredible moments to hear thunder within a snowstorm. It's really cool and pretty unique. I'm sure you guys have heard it, although maybe not because some of you are not from the Northeast, but either way, it's pretty cool. Joe Martucci: I've heard it and it is very cool. Matt Holiner: on Halloween day, I was in Chicago and I experienced Thunder Graupel for the first time, it was not snow, almost snow, but it was actually graupel. And that was a unique experience. I feel like I'm one of the few that have had that experience. Joe Morvasky: That's cool. I actually had somebody at my job yesterday. He was like, it was hailing this morning. I was like, it wasn't to break it to you. He was like, what do you mean? Matt Holiner: There is a know. Joe Morvasky: It's our job. We got to explain it. But, yeah, it was not common. Matt Holiner: But, yeah, Graupel is a thing. You can Google it and learn all about it. How did you get involved in American ninja Warrior after graduating from college Matt Holiner: But, Joe, what I want to walk through is, let's go after you've got your meteorology degree, how things played out. So what did you do right after college? What was your meteorology experience? And then how did you get involved in American ninja Warrior? Joe Morvasky: Yeah, it's very interesting. So the condensed version of the story is, when I graduated college, I had this opportunity. I had watched American Ninja Warrior on TV, and it just so happened that somebody that I knew, knew a guy that was on the show. And this was before it was really big. It was really before it grew into the NBC giant that it is today, or at least it used to be. The ratings on TV are going down across the board. But back five years ago, six years ago, was really millions and millions of people who were watching. But before it got to that point, there was somebody on the show that I ended up meeting with, and, I asked him all about it. How can I get on the show? This is something I've loved to do. When do they film? And, I asked him everything, and he said, we usually film the spring. And I was like, okay, well, I'm graduating a semester next only because, or a semester late because I ended up switching majors. Not a lot of people know this. I switched from meteorology to secondary education. I really wanted to be a coach. I wanted to stay in that sport world, even though I was sacrificing it to be a meteorologist. And so I was like, you know what? I'm going to transition. I'm going to stick to science and math. I'm going to teach that in high school, and I'll be a coach. It'll be awesome. I'll be able to stay, in the athletic world for the rest of my life if I want to. And it was something that really got me excited. And then I had a moment where I was like, you know what? Something's not right. And I switched back. I switched back a semester later. And, ended up graduating a, semester late, and because of that, graduated in December. The filming of the show was in March, and I was lucky enough to know about it and start training for it in the summer before, just in case. And, here I am today. They love the idea of a weatherman coming in and they wanted to tease me. I know they did. Everyone had like a shtick back then and it was like, the frog man is coming out and look, he's got a silly costume. And then Captain NBC was dressed up as at the time, Captain G Four, I think it was on G Four network. And, he had a thing and other people had a thing, and the fireman and the police officer and the teacher. So they wanted a weatherman. They thought that'd be great. They thought it was going to be a novelty act. They thought they were going to just tease me and so be it. But they found out that I was a real athlete and it kind of took off from there. That was the condensed version. That's surprisingly, but that's how it all started. Sean Sublette: Yeah. So when did you actually begin to train for that, and how long did you train in anticipation? I mean, did you still have to try out and then qualify? How many hoops did you have to ultimately jump through to compete on the program? Joe Morvasky: I started training the summer before. It was probably August of, 2012. I got on the show in the spring of 2013. And honestly, it wasn't a ton of training to get where I got to because I was already a serious athlete. I had played, baseball and basketball. I tried out for the baseball team in college, and it was on the bubble to make the team. And then I realized, you know what? I have a job. I have this career that I'm really aiming for, and I'm pegging my way through college. So how am I going to do this? And so, unfortunately, I gave in to the walking away from sports. But I was always an athlete, always. Growing up. I played varsity sports in high school and like I said, college baseball for a short time and then rec sports in college. So it was really just fine tuning my athleticism to be a ninja. So I did a lot more upper body work. Like I was doing pull ups every other day in the weight in the gym. I was rock climbing a little bit. I was just trying to fine tune myself to be ready, and I did a pretty good job. It worked out. So, that's kind of how it all started there. American Ninja warrior is a sport that takes getting used to Joe Martucci: Let's talk about a little bit about how the sausage is being made during these episodes. I have watched American Ninja warrior before, but I will say I know a lot of kids are interested in American Ninja warrior, at least with the kids that I've spoken to. So when you're there, what's it like? How long are you actually there competing? Because I know it looks like a lot of different cuts on television. So what is a day of competition like? Joe Morvasky: Oh, it's rough, I'll tell you that. It's rough. It's something that really takes getting used to, and it's definitely a younger person's sport, I'll tell you that. Because the older, you know, like me, you get married, you have kids. It's a lot harder to change your sleep schedule because we film this overnight. We usually get there depending on where the location is. Let's take the Vegas finals, for example. Vegas finals. They want us there early to make sure there's no hiccups. We go over rules of the course at 07:00 p.m. Right around 07:00 p.m. Local time in Vegas, and we end up getting there. About 530 in the evening. So it's 530 until seven. We're sitting around in a tent doing nothing. From seven to eight, it's rules. And about 830 to 09:00, the competition starts at about that time. We run through the night, and we don't finish filming until about 05:00 a.m. So it's a very long 12 hours of just sitting around trying to deal with the anxiety and the stress of, having to give it your all in that one shot that you have. And it's hard also, because sometimes there are hiccups along the way where the course will malfunction, and then there's even more of a delay. And this has happened two years in a row for me, where I'm supposed to run one night, there's a course malfunction. I have to run now the next night, and the next night is reserved for stage two of the Vegas finals, and the next night after that is sometimes stage three and four, which is the final stage. So it really depends on the year. But if I get bumped from one night to the next, sometimes relief, sometimes I'm like, oh, I'm ready. I want to go know. So it's frustrating, and you kind of have to be okay. Know, changing things on the fly. And as a meteorologist, this is what I love so much, because people don't understand that you'll have your producer, in your ear saying, hey, Joe, we need 30 more seconds. And you're like, oh, my gosh, I'm on the seven day already. What am I going to do? So you just slow it down and you start to talk a little bit like this. And maybe there's a chance for some rain overnight, but we're going to have to keep an eye on the computer models, of course, because I don't know what I'm saying. I'm just filling time. And so you have to be able to adapt to anything that comes your way. And so that parallel between meteorology and sports, it's actually pretty amazing. And not to mention all the physics that I've taken and the understanding of how obstacles should work and how my body should move through the air to be able to beat these obstacles, I mean, it's all a huge advantage, and, people wouldn't normally think that. Joe Moravsky says there have been a few memorable weather moments during competitions Matt Holiner: And Joe, how many cities have you traveled to to do the show? And I'm also curious along the way, in all these travels and all these competitions, has weather ever been an issue? Has there been weather that has occurred during the course of the event that maybe had a little bit of an impact? Joe Morvasky: Absolutely. There's a few really cool moments in the St. Louis. Oh, no, it was in Colorado. I wasn't there for that one. But we actually had some snow on that course, and so they built a snowman at the top of the warp wall. That one was cool. In St. Louis for one year, we had severe thunderstorms to where we canceled the entire night. Another year in St. Louis, we, got snow, but it was like the back end of the front, so the rain had gone through, and then there was some flakes behind it, and it got bitterly cold and windy. It was terrible. But I think the most memorable was in the Vegas finals, a couple of years ago. We got rain right before we started running, and it was summertime in Vegas. You're not really getting rain. So that was kind of cool and unique. But, aside from that, there was one time Minneapolis, the Minneapolis, city qualifiers and finals. I just landed at the airport right when I landed, I got alerts on my phone for, a severe thunderstorm warning. I was like, everywhere I go, everywhere I go. And people, they look at me because I got some ninjas coming off the plane with me and like, Joe, you're supposed to be in control of. Come on. Yeah, yeah. So it is funny. Yeah. There's definitely been quite a few moments where weather, has impacted the. Absolutely. Joe Martucci: And do they ask you, has anyone said, ask you what the weather is going to be like? Who's actually making that decision to tell me about it? Joe Morvasky: You would think, right? They have their own in house meteorologist, apparently. And I've offered my advice. I've been like, hey, we got about 30 minutes, producers. Let's go. I'm up in three runners. Let's go. And sure enough, that year in Philadelphia, I got rained out. I was the next to run and there was eleven of us left, in Philadelphia, and we got rained out for the rest of the night. It was going to be three days of rain, so they canceled the shoot. The next eleven runners, the final eleven runners got sent to Minneapolis, which is where that, severe thunderstorm warning hit me right when I got off the plane. So that was a year. That was a year. Joe Martucci: Interesting. All right, well, we're going to take a break. We'll have more with Joe Moravsky on the other side of the across the sky podcast. Joe Moravsky is the Weatherman on American Ninja Warrior Joe Martucci: Welcome back, everybody, to the across the sky podcast. Hey, new episodes come out every Monday, wherever you get your podcast and on your favorite local news website. We are back with Joe Morovsky, famously, known as the Weatherman on American Ninja Warrior. We are talking all about weather, American Ninja warrior, athletes and beyond. Joe, let me ask you, know, what is your involvement with meteorology? Joe Morvasky: Know, it's really kind of sad, you know, I, we just had our first snow here in Connecticut. Was it yesterday, I think? Yeah, it was yesterday. Yeah. So you know better than I do, and I was here. But that's the point. You know what I mean? I'm very much still in love with it. But the conclusion I've come to is I'm 34 years old. I can be in my fifty s or sixty s or even 70s if I want to be a meteorologist, I can't be in my fifty s, sixty s, seventy s, competing at this level on Ninja Warrior. And so I have put everything on halt. I'm focusing on my career with Ninja, managing the gym and hopefully franchises soon. So there's a lot that I'm working on. But, yeah, meteorology is not one of them. So it is always nice and refreshing to do this, you know what I mean? To kind of get the weather weenies together. I know the general public is like, what is that? But that's what we call ourselves. Joe Martucci: No, we understand. So you're still getting excited when the snow is coming in? Joe Morvasky: Oh, absolutely. You should have seen me. I was like a kid on Christmas yesterday, I was like, it's snowing out. I made sure everyone knew I was texting everybody the best part, though, and this is always fun, me and a small group of my friends. Every so often, I'll say, snow is coming on Wednesday. For example, I said this last week. I was like, snow is coming on Wednesday. You heard it here first. And I sent it to them. And, sure enough, Wednesday morning, I got a text from them. They're like, you son of a. You were right. I was like, you better believe it. So not always right, as we know, but I nailed that one. And, I think it was a week out, so I was happy about have. I have nobody checking up on me, so it's not a big deal. I can make big claims. How much longer do you think you'll stay with America Ninja Warrior Sean Sublette: Well, Joe, back to your role right now. What is your relationship with America Ninja Warrior? I mean, are you still doing competitions? ARe you kind of advising what is your role and influence with them right now? Joe Morvasky: So we just filmed season 15. I had a really good season. Didn't hit a lot of buzzers, but felt really good. Made, it to the Vegas finals, got to our head to head showdown, which is on stage two in Vegas. It's a brand new format where we actually race somebody, and the winner goes to stage three. And in the history of American Ninja Warrior, I'm still the only person with the most amount of stage three visits. So I've been there the most out of everyone in history, which is really cool. And it helps with the confidence trying to get back there. I'm like, all right, come on. Come on, Joe. You've been there before. Let's do it again. And, it does, you know, I ended up losing my race. I ended up misplacing a bar. The bar had to go into these bear traps that were inverted, and you had to push the bar through the bear trap, and it locked in place on its way out. And I only got one side in because I'm mid race. I'm trying to really focus at a high speed, and I just missed. I'm talking by an inch. And so my season was over. But the good news is they brought me back for season 16. We filmed back to back seasons. Joe Martucci: we think it had to do. Joe Morvasky: With the writer strike. So they were getting ahead of it. So from what I'm hearing, the rumor is, and this is just a rumor, it's not confirmed that early 2024, January, February, season 16 will air, which is something we've already filmed. I can't tell you how it did. But let's just say ninja. Ah, warriors should want to keep having me back for years to come. Let's hope. It's always good, though, when I step out on the course. So, in all seriousness, they've always loved taking the weatherman back on the show, for whatever reason. Maybe it's the fact that I grew up on TV, right? I started as a 23 year old, just with a girlfriend and no kids. And ten years later, I have a new house, three, kids, a wife, a new job, and I've grown up on TV. And it's really relatable to a lot of people watching, especially the people that started watching what, you know, they get to see the guy from Connecticut that turned, into, a ninja superstar. So it's really cool. Matt Holiner: And going off of that, how much longer do you think you're going to keep competing and keep at it before you make that career transition back to meteorology, maybe. How much longer do you think you're going to stay with Ninja Warrior? Joe Morvasky: That's the question, man. If you asked me that two years ago, I'd say this is it. Because the COVID season was really hard on me, I got disqualified, because my wife caught COVID while we were at the Vegas finals. I can relive that, man. I can't tell you how awful that felt. Like I was ready to run. I was 19 people away from stepping on the stage. One course in Vegas, which, by the way, is outdoors and we're vaccinated, and blah, blah, blah, blah. I can go on. And. But. And we got tested, and I was negative that night for COVID. But because my wife is a close contact, I got disqualified from the competition, and I did mentally retire that year. I retired that night. I made the decision. I was like, this is how it's going to end. This is how it was meant to end. And, the more I sat on that thought, the more okay I became with never winning, because I hadn't ever won at this point and still haven't. Maybe season 16, but we don't know yet. And so I had let it go. I let the dream go. I was like, it's okay. It's okay to not achieve your dreams. You did so much, and it's okay. But just something came across me in that time of reflection, the months later, and I just realized, you know what? I can't. How often do people walk away at their peak? I can't. I still have more to give. And there's so many people that rely on seeing me out there, rely on me for motivation, inspiration, never giving up. Right? And I've touched too many people's lives, and I've heard too many people's stories about how I have to walk away. And I've learned that it's not just about me at this point anymore. I do it for people that look up to me and want to see me back, for whatever their reason is. And so that's powerful enough to keep me going, among all the other things. So I'll be back. And I continue to take, it one year at a time, but I don't see myself walking away in the next two or three years. I got time left, and I'm ready to commit to it. Joe Martucci: Joe, kind of following up on that. Do you hear from aspiring meteorologists on American Ninja warrior Joe Martucci: do you hear from aspiring meteorologists throughout your years on American Ninja warrior? Matt Holiner: Do you do school visits? Joe Martucci: What's your relationship like with younger people who are interested in whether as a career, but are still in school? Joe Morvasky: Yeah. So I definitely had a lot of people reach out to me. Twitter, Instagram. Twitter is a really great place where people have reached out, especially meteorologists. I don't know what it is about, us meteorologists and Twitter, but, yeah, a lot of people have reached out there. I think, on that last, podcast, that I was on, I think they found me through, Twitter, as, I mean, I've. I've done school visits and know slideshows and wife school at other schools. And, I've even had the really cool opportunity to meet Al Roker a few times on the Today show and be on his morning show there. So that was fun. That was a lot of fun. It's been a few years since that, but I told Al was like, hey, we got to get you on the course. He was like, okay, no way. But, yeah, it comes with a job. I'm always going to have people reaching out, whether they're meteorologists, meteorology wannabes, or actual, ah, meteorologists, or just kids interested in the weather. I've had them all reach out, and it's really cool. It's really cool to be able to reach, so many people. Joe Martucci: I did a little Facebook sleuthing on your public page here. I saw you went to Long Beach Island, over the summer. Joe Morvasky: Yes. Joe Martucci: What'd you? Joe Morvasky: It. You know, it just so happened Taylor Swift was there at the same. Joe Martucci: Time. Joe Morvasky: Guess who got to meet her? Not me. Not me. Joe Martucci: I was going to say she got to meet you, right? Matt Holiner: It'd be the other. Joe Morvasky: Oh, please. I wish, man. What? It's her. And, Kelsey. Joe Martucci: Yes. Travis Kelsey. Joe Morvasky: Yeah, Travis Kelsey. They're together now. The whole world knows that. But yeah, Taylor Swift was down there. But beside from that, Long Beach Island is beautiful. I mean, it's close enough to Connecticut where it's not like driving. We went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina a couple of years ago. That was a drive, let me. But it was beautiful. Yeah, Long Beach Island, we loved it. And we'll probably go back. I know my dad is already interested, so maybe we'll see you out there. Joe Martucci: let me know. We'll get you in the studio. We can do a live weather video for you. Yeah, we can go live, do whatever you want. We appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. Maybe after Season 16 airs Joe Martucci: Joe, anything else you want to end with here before we wrap it up? This has been a great, half hour with you. Joe Morvasky: Yeah, I mean, I'm just so thankful for these opportunities and, to keep my foot in the meteorology door. It's always been a passion of mine to just be in the weather community and to be involved in weather in some way. And whether I'm doing it all the time or not doesn't mean I don't love it. So this means a lot to me. It's fun to meet other fellow meteorologists. And, I'll see you on the next podcast. Joe Martucci: Absolutely, yeah. We'd love to have you back. Maybe after Season 16 airs. Joe Morvasky: Let's hope it's a good one. Joe Martucci: Well, we're rooting for you, Joe. We really appreciate you taking your time to chat with us and, we'd love to have you again soon, but thanks again for the time. Joe Morvasky: Thank you, Joe. Thanks, Matt. Thanks, Sean. Sean Sublette: Thanks for repping so well, man. Joe Morvasky: Appreciate it. Matt says weather plays a big role in American Ninja Warrior competitions Joe Martucci: And we are back here. So, guys, as I'm listening to this, I hear him talking about those storms in Connecticut, talking about fronts. He's just like one of us. It's just you see him on, know, a couple times a year competing on American Ninja warrior. It's, just really cool to have him on it is really. Sean Sublette: Go ahead, go ahead. Matt Holiner: No, I was going to say, I. Also like how he can't escape the weather. He had the rain delay in Philadelphia, then he said, oh. So then they decide to move it to Minneapolis and got the severe thunderstorm warning there. So it's hard for him to escape the weather in these events because they do occur outside. So there is an element, the weather does impact him in his game. Even when he's not actively working as a meteorologist. The weather is having an impact and people are teasing about it and asking him questions about it. So, the weather continues to follow him and knows he's a meteorologist. Sean Sublette: Yeah. And to that end, almost all of their competitions are recorded at night, which I think is also important. If you're training, you're going to be training a different way if you have to perform outside in the daylight, especially in spring, summer, fall, the sun is up and it's different than if you're out there at nighttime. And to say nothing of they record well into the night. Not like, oh, we're done at 930 or ten. They go well past midnight recording some of this stuff. So that's an additional stress on the body, just being up when it is not accustomed to being up. And the fact that he is still doing this. Very impressive. Matt Holiner: Yeah, I didn't realize that either that I figured. You do see that it's filmed at night, but I kind of said, oh, just during the evening hours. I wasn't thinking, in my mind for some of those people. Yes, some of them, they start in the evening, but they're going all night. So some of them are doing this. Three in the morning, four in the morning, which just makes it even harder again, especially if you're trying to live a normal life most of the time. But when you do the competition, to be up at those hours. Yeah. It just makes it more difficult. So it makes it more impressive that he's done as well as he has. Joe Martucci: I like what you said earlier, Matt, about breaking the mold. Right. Not too many athletes that are meteorologists. I was going to ask you guys, did you guys do sports in high school or college? Matt Holiner: Oh, definitely not college. Joe Martucci: Everybody's. Matt Holiner: I did middle school golf team. But then again, my talent level wasn't good enough for the high school golf team, so I switched over to band. Another nerdy thing. Sean Sublette: Just a bunch of pickup soccer and intramural softball. That's about as exciting as it got for me. Joe Martucci: But I think, aren't you a. Sean Sublette: Disc golf guy, Sean, my son, is really the big disc golf guy, and he's got me into doing it and he's had to show me how to hold the discs the right way. The right way to kind of move your body so you have control of the discs. But that's fun. But I wouldn't call that high stress exercise. Joe Martucci: It's a lot of walking. Sean Sublette: It is a lot of walking. Joe Martucci: Got to walk around walking. That ain't nothing. Next week, we're going to do Bob Dylan in the weather Joe Martucci: All right, so we have plenty of more episodes coming up. Of course. Coming up next week, we're going to do Bob Dylan in the weather. Now, Bob Dylan was not a meteorologist, but he did write a lot of songs about the weather. And we actually have, Dr. Alan Roebach, who was one of my professors at Rutgers, come on the podcast. Because, guys, he actually did his thesis about Bob Dylan and the weather, which, when we were in school, we used to just kind of be like, that's pretty incredible. Maybe a little different. But it's going to come to be a real surprise when he talks about this, because he has a lot to say about this. He might be Bob Dylan's biggest fan. Sean Sublette: Well, I think. Wasn't Bob Dylan the guy who wrote, you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing? Wasn't that Dylan? Joe Martucci: I'm not sure. Sean Sublette: I think it was Dylan. I'd have to go Google it. But, I mean, Dylan has written a lot of stuff with these weather undertones, so, I'm not surprised. But I'm looking forward to hearing what, Alan has to say and a. Matt Holiner: Quick shout out, like, the reason we actually came up with this idea. Gosh, I think it's now coming up on almost a year when we did our top ten weather songs. Sean Sublette: Has it been a year now? Matt Holiner: I think it's almost been. You're going to have to go back in our podcast history. Scroll back. But we did an episode, the top ten weather songs, and we talked about Bob Dylan on there. And then Joe said, oh, my professor did his whole thesis on Bob Dylan and the weather. And it's like, you know what? He might be a good one to bring on. And so we're finally getting around to it. Joe Martucci: That was our November 28, 2022 episode. Group: Wow, almost a year. Yeah. Joe Martucci: top ten weather songs we, did. That was with Terry Lipshetz, who's our, producer here, our podcast producer for not just us, but all of our Lee Enterprises Weather, podcasts that we do. We're, also going to do ten things to know about weather that's coming up the 18 December. And then at the end, we will do our year in review. So we do have, course, more things coming up. And, we'll make it even better as we go into the new year, which is rapidly approaching. Believe, it or not. I can't believe. Sean Sublette: And I did just Google it. Yes. You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. That's Dylan. Joe Martucci: That is true. But if you need to forecast which way the wind blows, well, I mean. Sean Sublette: A compass to know which way the wind blows. That's all you need. You don't need me. Just need a compass. Joe Martucci: Well, I'm, trying to give us some credit here. I'm trying to give us some credit. I'm saying, if you need a wind forecast, that's where you come with us. We got it there. If, you have a question, you can leave one for us at 609-272-7099 609-272-7099 you can also email podcasts@lee.net so for Matt Holiner in Chicagoland, Sean Sublette in Richmond, and Kirsten, who couldn't be with us, but she is saying hello from Tulsa, Oklahoma, I'm meteorologist Joe Martucci, and we'll see you next Monday on the across the Sky Podcast.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 Pano believes that we earn moxie through putting in the work and paying the price, not instant gratification. As a lover of the outdoors and wild places, he finds opportunities to cultivate moxie and apply the lessons of nature to his life and the lives of those he encounters through his work, teaching, and volunteer commitments.Pano is the director of Emergency Management and Environmental Health and Safety Programs for Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT, where he oversaw the University's successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He teaches in the University's Department of Biology and the Kathwari Honors Program and is the faculty advisor to the WCSU Adventure Club. If that's not enough, he's a volunteer firefighter for the Woodbury Volunteer Fire Department, a certified EMT, a steadfastly loyal Liverpool FC fan, and a bread baker. He has been an instructor at the Connecticut Fire Academy and the Technology Management program at Central Connecticut State University.Pano's understanding of risk and how to assess and manage it provides a foundation for moving through the world with less worry and more empowerment. He observes that nothing we do in life is 100 percent risk-free–our job is to identify risk, minimize it, and understand that there are some parts of life we can't plan for or control. His time outdoors allows him to hurl expletives into the ruthless ascents of the trail, literal and figurative. But by immersing in forests and canyons, he finds the confidence to know that whatever life throws at him, he has the inner resources and moxie to get through it.This episode of Main Street Moxie is proudly sponsored by Elyse Harney Real Estate and Kindred Property Care.ResourcesEmergency Management – Western Connecticut State UniversityGet Help | Emergency Preparedness | Red CrossReady.govEmergency Preparedness and Response | CDCCommunity Safety Resources - National Safety Council (nsc.org)Support the show

His life is one of firsts for the United States. Having contributed to the Federalist Papers, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, in 1812 James Madison became the first President to make a declaration of war.In the fourth episode of our presidential series, we're taking a closer look at Madison's two terms. How did his policies differ from those of his predecessors? How much was his diplomacy influenced by his former role as Jefferson's Secretary of State? Why might this period of Madison's life be seen as his least impressive?Don is talking to Kevin R. Gutzman of Western Connecticut State University, author of 'James Madison and the Making of America' and 'The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe'.Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Siobhan Dale. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, James Holland, Mary Beard and more.Get 50% off your first 3 months with code AMERICANHISTORY. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up at historyhit.com/subscribeYou can take part in our listener survey here

We're joined by Dr. Jacqueline Gudza, political commentator and professor at Western Connecticut State University, to discuss media literacy, how to determine facts or misinformation, and how the media has played its own role in the presidential election.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5189985/advertisement

On July 19, 2023, historian and bestselling author, Kevin R. C. Gutzman, presented the 2023 Hazel and Fulton Chauncey Lecture. Before the consecutive two-term administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, there had only been one other trio of its type: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Kevin R. C. Gutzman's The Jeffersonians is a complete chronicle of the men, known as The Virginia Dynasty, who served as president from 1801 to 1825. The three close political allies were tightly related: Jefferson and Madison were the closest of friends, and Monroe was Jefferson's former law student. Their achievements were many, including the founding of the opposition Republican Party in the 1790s, the Louisiana Purchase, and the call upon Congress in 1806 to use its constitutional power to ban the importation of enslaved people beginning on January 1, 1808. Gutzman's new book details a time in America when three presidents worked toward common goals to face challenges and strengthen our republic in a way we rarely see in American politics today. Kevin R. C. Gutzman is Professor of History at Western Connecticut State University and a faculty member at LibertyClassroom.com. He has his law degree from the University of Texas Law School and his Ph.D. in American history from the University of Virginia. His books include Thomas Jefferson—Revolutionary; James Madison and the Making of America; Virginia's American Revolution; Who Killed the Constitution? (with Thomas Woods); and The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

Go back in time with Allison and Mallory's guest on today's show, Jeanne Bokina Christie, Zeta Beta - Wisconsin/Stout, as she shares her passion for sharing women's roles during wartime. We start with her own experiences as a Donut Dollie with the Red Cross Supplemental Recreation Activities Overseas program during the Vietnam War.  Jeanne then spent a career as a university professor, first teaching at the University of Richmond before moving to Connecticut, where she taught Communications and Leadership at Post University, Western Connecticut State University and Manhattanville College. She's just published a book, "The Women of City Point, Virginia, 1864-1865" which focuses on the many roles of women in the City Point area during the siege of Petersburg and the end of the Civil War.

Heartland's Tim Benson is joined by Kevin R.C. Gutzman, Professor of History at Western Connecticut State University, to discuss his new book, The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. They discuss the foreign policy, domestic, and constitutional agenda of the Virginia Dynasty, their successes and failures, and what the presidential administrations of these three Founders meant for the history of the country. Get the book here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250135452/thejeffersoniansShow Notes:Law & Liberty (AUDIO): “The Jeffersonian Republic” (AUDIO) https://lawliberty.org/podcast/the-jeffersonian-republic/U.S. National Archives: “The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe” (VIDEO) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrUBnbZaZGYWall Street Journal: David O. Stewart – “‘The Jeffersonians' Review: Virginia Dynasty https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-jeffersonians-review-virginia-dynasty-11671057455Washington Free Beacon: Luke Thompson – “Reality Mugs a Founder” https://freebeacon.com/culture/reality-mugs-a-founder/

Thomas Jefferson called the election of 1800 a "revolution," meaning a return to the principles of 1776.  For the next twenty-four years, he and his close allies James Madison and James Monroe, would hold the office of President.  How well did they do?  Did their administrations fulfill the promise of the Revolution?  We discuss the Jeffersonians with Kevin Gutzman, gutzman.com/rofessor Kevin Gutzman, historian, Professor of History at Western Connecticut State University, and author of The Jeffersonians:  The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. 

Heartland's Tim Benson is joined by Kevin R.C. Gutzman, Professor of History at Western Connecticut State University, to discuss his new book, The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. They discuss the foreign policy, domestic, and constitutional agenda of the Virginia Dynasty, their successes and failures, and what the presidential administrations of these three Founders meant for the history of the country. Get the book here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250135452/thejeffersoniansShow Notes:Law & Liberty (AUDIO): “The Jeffersonian Republic” (AUDIO) https://lawliberty.org/podcast/the-jeffersonian-republic/U.S. National Archives: “The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe” (VIDEO) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrUBnbZaZGYWall Street Journal: David O. Stewart – “‘The Jeffersonians' Review: Virginia Dynasty https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-jeffersonians-review-virginia-dynasty-11671057455Washington Free Beacon: Luke Thompson – “Reality Mugs a Founder” https://freebeacon.com/culture/reality-mugs-a-founder/

GameTimeCT's Pete Paguaga and Scott Ericson are back with the third episode of the High and Tight high school baseball podcast for the 2023 season. The duo is joined by Abbott Tech baseball coach Dave Simone. The Abbott Tech coach has been leading the Wolverine program for 10 years. He played at Immaculate before going on to play at UConn-Avery Point and then Western Connecticut State University. The trio discusses coaching in the Connecticut Technical Conference (CTC), what the struggles are, what are the misconceptions about the league as a whole. The interview wraps up with a draft of Biggest Pet Peeves in Baseball. Rundown 0:00 - 01:44 — Introduction 1:44 - 9:49 — Top 10 Poll Review 9:50 - 11:54 — Pre-Interview 11:55 - 34:10 Interview with Abbott Tech coach Dave Simone 34:11 - 46:32 — Biggest Pet Peeves in Baseball Draft with Abbott Tech coach Dave Simone 46:48 - 48:05 — Wrap up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Clay Jenkinson has a conversation with Dr. Kevin Gutzman, Professor of History at Western Connecticut State University and author of The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe held the presidency between 1800 and 1824. These three close friends and Virginia neighbors pursued a common set of public holidays. They managed to extinguish the Federalist Party and by the time Monroe began his second term, a Boston newspaper called it The Era of Good Feelings. Clay and Dr. Gutzman explore the friendship and political collaboration between Jefferson and the greatest of his proteges, James Madison, and the ways in which poor Mr. Madison had to talk Jefferson off the ledge of some of his wilder ideas about America.   Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about Clay's cultural tours and retreats at jeffersonhour.com/tours. Check out our merch. You can find Clay's books on our website, along with a list of his favorite books on Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and other topics. Thomas Jefferson is interpreted and portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson.

In This Episode:Kevin Gutzman, professor of History at Western Connecticut State University, joins the podcast to discuss the presidencies of Democratic-Republican presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroehow the states and sectionalism played an important role in the Early Republic, and why Jefferson and his successors emphasized the importance of state's rights and decentralized powerthe key events during the presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe that kick off Westward Expansion and Manifest DestinyTexts Mentioned:The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe by Kevin GutzmanJames Madison and the Making of America by Kevin GutzmanFirst Inaugural Address by Thomas JeffersonLetter from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 15 February, 1791“Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank” by Alexander Hamilton“A Summary View of the Rights of British America” pamphlet by Thomas JeffersonJames Madison's Notes of the Constitutional Convention from June 18, 1787Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Robert Livingston, 18 April, 1802Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Dickinson, 9 August, 1803Proposed Amendment to the Constitution Regarding Louisiana by James MadisonTrans-Continental Treaty of 1819 Monroe DoctrineCalhoun: American Heretic by Robert ElderDiary of John Quincy AdamsBecome a part of ISI:Become a MemberSupport ISIUpcoming ISI Events

Welcome back to The Nerd Expansion! Today's guest is the one and only  Steven Silverstein and his nerd love is Bewitched. It's awesome.Steven Silverstein has music directed and accompanied the famous and near famous on Broadway (Blood Brothers, Swinging on a Star, & the revival of Promises Promises); Off-Broadway, (When Pigs Fly, The Green Heart, & Annie Warbucks); Regional Theatre (Goodspeed Opera House, Papermill Playhouse, & Westport County Playhouse); and Specialty (54 Below & Noel Coward: The Women of His World at Lincoln Center with Dava Ivey, Dee Hoty & Cady Huffman). He has coached and played piano for Debra Messing, Sean Hayes, Megan Mullally, Harry Connick Jr., Carole King John Treacy Egan, Neva Small, Tony Award Winner Bill Irwin, and the Tony award winner Annaleigh Ashford.  In addition to his vast experience as a musical director and coach, he has a MAC nomination (Manhattan Association of Cabarets) and has tickled the ivories for cabaret performances at 54 Below, The Duplex, and Don't Tell Mama in NYC. Steven is also a prolific published composer and arranger, having published two children's shows (Enchorage Press) . His work was  performed at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in the Bruno Walter Auditorium.    Steven's song Shoot Me (with Andrew Zachary Cohen)  received an  honorable mention from the City Center's Lobby Project 2022 highlights as composer: His musical Forever and A Day (with bookwriter lyricist Marcus Scott) was part of the Downtown Urban Arts Festival in  June,  His musical Nothin But Love (with Andrew Zachary Cohen) had an informal reading in July,   Six of his songs (with Michael Colby) in OTHER LIVES were presented as part of Winter Rhythms at Urban Stages in December. He shares his love and passion for music and musical theatre with students of all ages at American Music and Dramatic Academy.  He also has been on the faculty of  The Neighborhood Playhouse Junior School, Marymount Manhattan College, PACE University, SUNY  Purchase and NYU. Steven's students have appeared on Broadway in Annie, Newsies, The Producers, 30 Rock among others.  Steven holds a B.A. in Theatre/B.S. in Finance from the University of Bridgeport and an M.A. in Music Education. Upcoming: 2023 Students at Western Connecticut State University will be doing a staged reading of his musical HOW RUDE (written with Phillip George of Forbidden Broadway). Find Steven:YoutubeTwitterFacebookWebsiteTikTokInstragramCheck out Steven's podcast: "Stay Awake with Silverstein" and Making the News SingHosted By: Nick Bowan & Sasha WeissTheme song written by Korrie YamaokaPerformed by Sasha Weiss & Korrie Yamaoka

This interview is so powerful! Sarah is a survivor of the killing fields in Cambodia. She takes us through what it was like to be in these forced labor camps and a prisoner of war. This is a must watch!Sara Im is one of the most inspirational female speakers in the marketplace today.She is an author of an award-winning book “How I Survived the Killing Fields” in Cambodia and co-author of “Holistic Approach”. Sara graduated from Western Connecticut State University. Sara is a member of Women Speakers Association, and Toastmasters International. She is a founder and director of Christian Professionals Network of Tampa Bay. Sara operates her wellness business, Smart Healthy Living where she advocates for healthy personal self-care.Sara speaks to inspire her audience throughout Florida, at conferences, seminars, churches, schools, TV, Podcasts, radios and more.Sara lives in Florida and she look forward to celebrate her 33 years of marriage.Website: www.saraim.comhttps://linktr.ee/saraim2https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraim-speaker-author/https://www.facebook.com/SaraImSpeakerAuthorhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/AThrivingConversation____________________Please LIKE

If you are like me, when you hear the term lunch lady you immediately think of Adam Sandler and Chris Farley, but today's guest on Uncorking a Story, Vanessa David, smashes that stereotype. But this episode really isn't about lunch ladies—it's the story of a woman who overcame struggles and heartache to find the love within. Meet Vanessa David Vanessa David graduated from Western Connecticut State University with a BA in Theatre in 1995 and spent over 20 years working in the theater as an actor, playwright and stage manager. Her acting credits include Ron Destro and Yoko Ono's Hiroshima at Theatre for the New City in New York, A Cup of Coffee at Yale Repertory Theatre directed by Joe Grifasi, and As You Like It with Shakespeare on the Sound directed by Ezra Barnes.  Vanessa's plays have been performed across the country and several are published by Smith and Kraus. Having a theater career means having survival jobs, and Vanessa worked as a frozen yogurt slinger, sandwich artist, cake decorator, and eventually typecast herself as a server. Later in life she went back to school at Norwalk Community College and earned a Culinary Arts Certificate. When she got a job with the Darien School Lunch Program her culinary and theater skills came together for seven joy-filled years, and then it all came apart. The only thing she could do after that was write a book. Vanessa lives in Connecticut with her husband, Dave, and their dog, Apollo.  Key Topics: How her mother's insistence that she become famous impacted Vanessa from a young age. Vanessa's history in the theater, including all the ups and downs. Why Vanessa turned to writing plays. How an interaction with a lunch lady in middle school impacted her decision to earn a Culinary Arts Certificate. How she reinvented what a lunch lady is and the important role she played in the lives of students. Why she wrote a memoir about her time as a lunch teacher and how it helped her heal some childhood wounds. Connect With Vanessa David Website: https://www.thelunchteacher.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelunchteacher/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vanessadavidplaywright Connect with Mike Website: https://uncorkingastory.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSvS4fuG3L1JMZeOyHvfk_g Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory Twitter: https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/ If you like this episode, please share it with a friend. If you have not done so already, please rate and review Uncorking a Story on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Empower Leadership Team is back with another uplifting and empowering episode of the Lead with Empower Podcast. Operations Manager Ron Davis and President/GM Dan Jaskot aim to provide tools and tips to simplify your leadership skill development and touch on the following topics: An update from one of our most recent events - Sports Leadership and Team Building Training with Coach Heather Stone and the Western Connecticut State University's Softball Team The most recent Lead with Empower Blog Article - "Leadership Positions Available - Superheroes Need Not Apply" 3 Daily Actions that will improve your leadership skill development Strengthening grit and resiliency through the "Keep/Stop/Start" method of skill development/improvement The Empower Leadership Team has 22 years of experience facilitating team building programs and leadership development workshops to over 170,000 participants from schools/youth programs, corporations/municipalities, colleges/universities, and athletic teams/programs. Learn more about Empower Leadership at www.leadwithempower.com. Find out more at https://lead-with-empower-podcast.pinecast.co

In this, the first in a series of episodes on Awakening Your Inner Deming, Andrew talks with Dr. Bill Bellows about his journey. He started with Taguchi, read his way through other quality "gurus", and finally found Deming in unexpected places - solving big problems in space shuttles along the way! 0:00:02.1 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz. I'll be your host as we continue our journey into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, I'm here with featured guest Bill Bellows. Bill, are you ready to share your Deming journey? 0:00:15.7 Bill Bellows: I am ready. I've got my seatbelt on, crash protection devices. I'm ready to go, Andrew. [chuckle] 0:00:23.3 AS: And I am ready indeed. So let me introduce you to the audience. Bill's a 35+ year specialist in the field of quality and engineering management. In addition to adjunct professor roles, he is president of InThinking Services, partnering with clients to facilitate the understanding and application of the Deming philosophy. So, Bill, can you tell us a bit about how you first came to even learn about the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming and what hooked you? 0:00:57.8 BB: Well, I was minding my own business. No. Actually, I finished my graduate studies in 1983 and went to work in the aerospace industry with a sense that I wasn't gonna... [chuckle] I wasn't quite sure I was gonna like it. I greatly enjoyed what I was doing in the field in graduate school, and the work I was to be doing in industry was very similar. So I felt okay, but it didn't take long before I just didn't like it. And I found myself teaching some college classes and then wondering what I wanted to do. And it took about... Two years after I was working at this company, I took a class in problem solving and decision making. A one-week class. And I loved it. I started looking at everything through this lens of a model for decision making, a model for problem solving. 0:02:13.4 BB: And shortly thereafter, I was approached by the training director of the company. We were growing leaps and bounds in terms of business and employment. And this guy came in and was really cool in terms of bringing us what he thought was some really professional development training. And he knew I was excited by this one-week course. And he said, "Bill, how'd you like to be the person in engineering trained in that and to teach this course?" And I was like, "Yeah. Yeah. Sign me up." So I went away for a two-week train the trainer, very intensive training. And what was interesting is I was the only one in the room, two dozen people that wasn't an HR and wasn't a trainer. I didn't know how to train... I was gung ho on the material, but I did not know what it was like to get in front of an audience. And in fact, the instructors used to kid me that I was almost afraid to move beyond the podium. I just wanted to hide behind it. 0:03:17.0 BB: And so I came out of that having been... I have to we prepare for the next day, five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes. Next thing you know, we're preparing these one hour long teachers. And I love... I liked it. And then back at work, the plan was that, given this role as the auxiliary instructor for this material, when people in engineering, my organization, have a need for this training to be used, I'd be called upon. And that was really cool. It got me associated with people I wasn't working with, and it was a much more exciting than what I was doing. And Lo and behold, the guy in training, the director says, "Hey, you know this... " He mentioned Deming's name, and I was a sponge. And I really respected what he was doing. And he gave me... He introduced me to Deming's work. And I remember, I think it was Quality, Productivity and Competitive Position. And I looked at that and I thought, "Okay." 0:04:30.4 BB: But then going back to the problem, we'll come back to that. That was my exposure to Dr. Deming's name. But in parallel, I was working on a very big problem on the... On our number one product, which were gas turbine engines, you could think of as jet engines, for applications in the US Army's battle tank. And we were making 120 of these a month. And I mean, it was a big, big... It was the biggest business of the company. And once or so a year, there'd be a major crisis. We can't ship hardware and the Army would come in and say, "Stop production until you solve this." And I had been dragged into some of those before. And that kind of got me in the realm of, "Hey, why don't you go off and take this training?" So now I'm not sitting in the back of the room. Now I'm in the front of the room but leading the facilitation of these techniques for problem... Mostly problem solving. What is a problem? The car won't start. It used to work. 0:05:38.5 BB: And so we're working on one big problem. And it was... It had incredible relevance relative... This is the height of the Cold War, Andrew. This is '87, '88 timeframe. And there was reason to believe by the Army that the majority of the battle tanks had a problem. And those tanks were the front line of defense of the allied forces in Europe. And so, we were running tests 24/7 trying to solve this, solve this, solve this, solve this, solve this, and we weren't going anywhere. And at one of the meetings, once a month, somebody had to go explain to the army, essentially our lack of progress. At one of those meetings, somebody said General Motors makes the transmissions for the tanks, and whenever they have an issue like this, they use this thing called Taguchi methods. So we're gonna contact General Motors and ask for their help and you're gonna send somebody then in Indianapolis to find out what it is and is it relevant. 0:06:49.8 BB: And so I go to this meeting and I learn about these goings-on, and I turn to the manager of the tank engine program. And I said, "So who's gonna go to Indianapolis?" And he said, "You are." And I looked at him dumbfounded and I said, "Why me?" He says, "You're the problem-solving guy." He says, "I want you to go." And Andrew, I had no interest in going. I was looking for reasons why it made no sense. And in the back of my mind anytime I get into a situation where I'm not happy with whatever it is, I look for something positive to make it appeasing. And believe it or not, I didn't wanna go to Indianapolis, but I thought, but I can go to the Indy 500 Museum, which a neighbor did years ago, and if nothing else, I can go to the Indy museum. And that's really what I was looking forward to, is going to the Indy museum 'cause I thought this meeting was just gonna be a waste of time. 0:07:49.7 BB: And I go into the meeting and I'm... And this is what hooked me on Taguchi then we'll come back to Deming. I go into the meeting and there were these transmission division's top people in Taguchi methods. Well, their senior people, their top most person had recently left the transmission division to go work for a new part of GM called the Saturn Corporation. And I'm thinking, holy cow, your top Taguchi guy is at Saturn, which I knew about. So now I'm thinking, 'cause prior to going out, I did a literature search. We didn't have the internet and I pulled up a bunch of stuff and it was just a mishmash. But when he said, "Our top guy who wrote this book... " and he showed me the book, "went to the Saturn Corporation," I'm thinking, now my ears are perking up. 0:08:56.4 BB: And then he says the other thing that's funny here. They brought in their chief transmission designer and he looked at the drawings of the parts that were failing in the engine. And he says, "This looks like a German design." I don't know anything about design, but he looks at the drawings and he says, "This looks like a German design." And I said, "It is a German design." In fact, I said, "The people who designed this engine designed the very first German jet engine in the late '30s for Hitler." I said, "It's the same team of people." And so anyway, he looked at it and he had some ideas, but that wasn't why I was there. But then the other two guys were there, and the first question they asked me is, "How do you come up with ideas for what's wrong with this tank engine?" I said, "Everyone's got an idea." And I said, "And what if that doesn't work?" He says, "Here's what we do. Somebody comes up with an idea and every idea we come up with, we write it down and we go run a 10-hour test at a thousand bucks an hour, which I thought was expensive. 0:10:01.5 BB: And then at the end of the test, we decide to go forward or not. Are we onto something or not? And he said, "What if it's not?" And I said, "Well, then somebody's always got an idea, somebody's always got an idea. We're running test, we're running test. Well, why are we here?" Because we're running through ideas, running through ideas, and we ain't finding anything. So then he says, "What do you measure?" And it's so funny. I don't know anything about gears other than the gears have teeth. I'm a heat transfer guy. [chuckle] So I said, "After each test, somebody goes to the manager in the gear group and shows them the gears that contact each other," and he holds 'em up and he says, they look good or they look bad. He says, "How does he do that?' I says, "He just looks at 'em." He says, "He doesn't measure anything?" I said, "No, he just holds them up to the light and he says, that looks worn, or that doesn't look worn." 0:11:01.3 BB: And I said, "Based on that decision, we run the next test." Well, he says, "Here's our first piece of advice." He said, "Stop thinking of it as being it's worn or it's not." He said, "It's really shades of grey." And he says, "What I want you to do is measure each tooth on each gear before and after." He said, "You're throwing away a lot of information based on this measurement." And I thought, okay, okay. And I said, how do you do it? Blah, blah, blah. And I went back about a week later based on what he shared with me and we put together a test plan that solved that problem in about two weeks later. And so now I'm all over Taguchi's work, I am all over Taguchi's work, all over Taguchi's work, and it became my next look. 0:11:49.0 AS: What does Taguchi have to do with just measuring versus eyeballing something? 0:11:54.9 BB: Well, that's a good question. I'd say Taguchi's work in that situation was the use of fractional factorial testing, but the issue was that we were treating the data as black and white, which is, in terms of statistics, it is a poor way of doing things, but that's... It wasn't... 0:12:19.0 AS: So either you accept or reject as opposed to measuring? 0:12:22.1 BB: Yeah. And I was... I took an undergraduate class in statistics and I just... It wasn't a field I didn't know that much about. So I just bought into it and he just brought it to my attention, and I said, okay, and it kind of makes sense where he's coming from, but the... So really, the biggest thing that came out of the meeting was not so much... It was driven by you gotta look at this Taguchi guy and it was a combination of running tests using Taguchi's ideas, which would've included using variable data and not... What was it called? Category data. And so that, it was just incredible. This was a problem that was going on with incredible high visibility at the Pentagon, and it got us out of a big jam. And we just couldn't, the answer was right in front of us, but we couldn't see it based on not so much the testing method, the evaluation method. So then that got me in love with Dr. Taguchi's work, so... 0:13:40.4 AS: Let's stop there for a second and think about the listeners for a second, and the viewers. How would you describe the lesson that you learned from that experience? 0:13:56.2 BB: I say a really big lesson is that a simple shift in our thinking, kind of like putting on glasses allowed us to see what we couldn't see that was right in front of us. 0:14:11.7 AS: And it happened by you going outside of the organization also, it sounds like. 0:14:15.7 BB: Oh inside... Oh, the organization. See, I had no reason to challenge the organization. These were the gear people. I'm a heat transfer person, so I don't challenge the gear people. What is that all about? That's why I'm just going along with the guy says, "What do you measure?" I said, again, I was out of my element relative to how organizations operate, out of my element relative to... Now I just looked at that and say, they're the experts. Why would I... I mean, [chuckle] I was just gullible. And I don't think that's uncommon. Where I worked, I found that there were fields in which everyone was an expert. And then there were fields in which... Meaning that if you... Where I worked in Connecticut, if you had some skill with statistics, people would get outta your way and they would just treat you like you walked on water, even though you were full of it. They just bowed to Andrew because you... 0:15:33.2 BB: And so I think it was something like that. I just didn't... And again, I don't think that's uncommon in organizations. But to your point, in fact, back to your point, when I walked away from that very first meeting, and here's what was cool is, it was the two of them, the designer left the room and were in a small conference room. And here I am with two instructors and me, two instructors and one student. I had a ball. And I'm taking notes and I'm writing everything down. And I'm asking this one, asking this one, asking this one, asking this one. And the plan was I would come back in a week, take the ideas, go back, talk to the experts. Well, one of the things we did when we went back is we threw out everything we thought we knew about those experiments because every decision we had made was based on this premise of look and hold a part up to the light. 0:16:27.6 BB: So I said, all this testing is meaningless. So now we've gotta go back to the original list and go forward 'cause typically you'd think, like with Edison, you try this, try this, try this. You don't go backwards. We went backwards based on what you're talking about is that I lost trust in everything we thought we knew. So we went back to the original list, which was... And the original list was what a bunch of recent design changes. So we went back to that list that had been tested, and using a shifting from black and white data to continuum data, we discovered what no one else could see. And it just jumped right out. It was just so damn obvious what was going on, but we couldn't see it. And so that got me intrigued in Taguchi's work. I was then on a mission to learn everything I could. And I then began to see my role in the organization as the facilitator of training that I was doing, and then training in this and helping the organization on applications. 0:17:41.9 BB: And it didn't take long. We were solving some pretty big problems after that. And the VP of engineering liked what was going on. And I went to one day and I said, "I'd like a job," I said, "There's incredible opportunities for us to use this, and I'd like to be the person leading that effort." And he smiled, and... "Andrew, this is the height of TQM, this is 1988. TQM is huge." And he's kinda nodding to me. And sometime thereafter I told him, I said, well what is I brought the Taguchi people in from Detroit to do a big seminar, $30,000. And I'm in charge of bringing them in. I'm in charge of who's coming to this. I remember I went to the HR training guy and I said, "Who do I invite to this training? This is out of my league." And he gave me incredible advice, and I'm sure you've heard before, he said, "It's easier to ask... " He said, "It's easier to apologize than ask permission." 0:18:48.5 BB: He said, "You are in charge of the whole damn thing." He said, "You invite who you think needs to be there." And I was like, whoa, [laughter] And I said, when did he had to tell me that. And I had so many from engineering, so many from operations, so many from procurement, invited the people in, took the course, we were able to as part of the course show what we had done and we were on a roll. And eventually I went to the VP of engineering and I said, "This is what I wanna do." And I even... In a nice way, he and I got along really well and I said, "The job I want, I've shared with you," and I said, "And I really hope it comes to be." I said, "But if it doesn't come to be, it will be because I found that job elsewhere." [laughter] 0:19:44.0 BB: "So if I come to you and say I'm leaving, this is why." 0:19:50.0 AS: It's for that job. 0:19:50.6 BB: This is why. And then in the very same time frame that I'm out looking, looking, looking, looking, looking 'cause it would... Did not appear to be coming. And then I heard about Deming again and I heard that he was speaking about an hour away from where I worked. And at that point, I had taken an introduction to Taguchi's course, an advanced course where I drove to Detroit and self-funded a week's vacation. I was intense. And I hear about Deming speaking in the area and I thought, "Being a student of quality, I need to go find out what this is all about." So I... 0:20:28.0 AS: And what year is that and what city was it that that was happening in? 0:20:34.8 BB: Dr. Deming was speaking in February of 1990 in Danbury, Connecticut at Western Connecticut State University, and he spoke three times that day. I was there for all three and I have videotapes from the inviter, the professor. He shared with me two of the three videotapes, and one of them, the evening lecture about an hour and a half long I believe is on YouTube. I can get you that information to the link and... But Dr. Deming spoke for about an hour to the faculty, an hour to the students, and what was so cool is I attended with two colleagues from a graduate school who were in transition and I said, "Hey, there's this Deming guy appearing." He was about... He was appearing about midway between where these classmates were. So they drove and got there and I got there and we're driving around campus trying to find where this is. And what's so cool was we found the building, and found this auditorium which was empty, and as soon as we find the room, we turn, and there's Dr. Deming getting out of a limo. [chuckle] 0:21:49.9 BB: And it's about noon time, and he's with his host and all in there, and I guess they went off for lunch. So we're in the room before any... So when we found the room, we see this guy that looks like Dr. Deming. So, okay, this is the right place. So we just kind of made ourselves at home there, kind of sat. Found the place where we wouldn't be sitting kind of in the back, and he came in and started speaking, and he was entertaining. But so much of what he was saying, he was using a language that was nowhere near anything I had learned from Dr. Taguchi, who in my opinion, I was just in love with Taguchi's work. So I'm looking at Deming by comparison, I'm thinking that doesn't fit what I know from Taguchi. That doesn't fit, that doesn't fit, that doesn't fit. [laughter] So he gave pretty much the same presentation to the students and the faculty and then a little bit longer in the evening. And so much of what he said was interesting. 0:23:02.6 BB: And some of it is entertaining, I mean, entertaining in the sense that I could tell it was a joke. I mean, some of his jokes are in the context of his work and I wouldn't laugh at that 'cause I don't understand the context, but others were, so it was interesting. And then a few days later, the two guys who went with me, who lived in my hometown, I went to see them and a third classmate who got his MBA when we were getting Masters in Engineering, he showed up and he knew of Deming and he said, "So what'd you learn?" And the thing that stood out more than anything else, I said, "I don't quite... " [chuckle] I said, "I don't understand the majority of what he said." I said, "But what did stand out... " I told this classmate, I said, "I've never heard anyone speak ill of competition," 'cause Dr. Deming referenced Alfie Kohn's book, the case against competition. I can't remember the... "No Contest", right? 0:24:12.8 BB: And the guy says, "Well, what's wrong with competition?" And I said, "I don't know." I said, "All I know is he distinctly did not like it." And I'd never heard anyone... When I say people, until Deming, I've never heard anyone speak ill of competition. People always say, it brings out the best in people, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but here's Deming railing against it, and that was what stuck in my mind from Tuesday through Saturday was, he doesn't like competition. 0:24:45.1 AS: And when he was talking about competition, was he talking about competition, setting up competition within your company? Or he doesn't like companies competing with each other? 0:24:54.0 BB: No, and that's a very good point. And he's... And I believe that in Deming community there's some confusion. It was hard for me to distinguish competition within the company from competition between Ford and GM. All I knew is he didn't like it. 0:25:14.4 AS: Yep. 0:25:15.0 BB: And yeah. I mean, fast-forward he's very... 0:25:17.6 AS: In America, that's just a bizarre concept. 0:25:19.9 BB: He's talking about competition... Well, he's talking about competition within the team and he would say, "Naturally, Ford and GM are gonna compete in the marketplace, so they may find opportunities to collaborate." But at that point, what just blew me away was this guy doesn't like competition. That's the only... I mean, he'd mentioned special causes and common causes. That didn't mean anything to me. I never heard those words before. So, I mean, nowadays when I go back and watch it, I can see how... What an incredible set of material he was presenting, but I didn't have anything to hold onto to be able to... I'm looking at what he's doing through a Taguchi lens, looking for the black and white and the shades of gray and some other things. But there's so much of what he was saying didn't come close. 0:26:11.9 BB: But going back to the comment of the colleague... The classmate, he said, what's wrong with the competition? I distinctly remember saying to him, I said, "I don't know." I said, "But maybe because we did okay. And graduating getting master's degree," I said, "Maybe we like competition because we won - that we did okay." And what I was also thinking about when I said that was I had a summer job in college and a factory in my hometown, and in the factory people I went to grade school with, and I was thinking of them. And so when he said,"What's wrong?" I'm thinking, I've got a PhD in mechanical engineering. I didn't drop outta high school and go work on a factory. And that's what I was doing. I'm self-reflecting on, maybe it worked for me, but maybe it didn't work for the others. And that's pretty much... And I believe in that timeframe. I mean, Dr. Deming hands out an article at that time on Profound Knowledge, two or three pages and yeah, okay. There's four elements, but I pretty much put it in the back burner. 0:27:24.0 AS: So what happened next and how did you move on in your Deming journey? 0:27:29.6 BB: Well, that was February of 1989. Later that summer, I took an advanced class in Taguchi methods, and I'm interviewing with Dr. Taguchi's company. I didn't have gray hair. I didn't have any training experience. I didn't quite fit the mold they were looking for. And so I'm trying this, and I'm just trying every opportunity, I want a job in Taguchi methods. And towards the end of the year, I met some people and they gave my resume to RocketDyne where I eventually was hired and now I'm working full-time as a Taguchi expert. You know who is an expert. If I know more than you, that makes me an expert Andrew. [laughter] 0:28:18.5 AS: One step ahead. 0:28:20.6 BB: But where Deming came back to me was 1993, The New Economics comes out, and occasionally, I go to the bookstore, that's just before Amazon. So I go to the bookstore and I was subscribing to the American Society for Quality. So I was in that community of quality practitioners learning about it. And I literally went to the bookstore... A brick and mortar bookstore, got a copy of The New Economics, and what do I do when I look at it? First thing I do, I go to the index and say, what does this guy think of Dr. Taguchi? [chuckle] And I go to the end and it's Genichi Taguchi. So I go to the page's reference, and what floored me was chapter 10, the very last chapter, the last six pages is all about Dr. Taguchi's work. And I'm thinking, I like this guy, I like this guy. 0:29:27.5 BB: So the vote of confidence in what he is talking, I'm thinking. So I think Taguchi stuff is everything and Deming's liking it too. And when I read The New Economics... So meanwhile, in Connecticut, when I was brought in to solve, help, support issues, once or twice a year, I pretty much stopped my day job, went full-time into this problem solving practitioner facilitator mode, which could take a month or two months. And then I go back to my job. Now in Connecticut, I'm the full-time problem solving guy. This is not a part-time thing. It's a full-time thing. And the exciting thing is I'm working on some very big issues, some of which were a couple months old. One in the spatial domain engine was a year and a half old. And this is exciting, but then I'm starting to realize that there's something wrong with the business model at the organization. 0:30:28.7 BB: And when I looked at Dr. Demings, when The New Economics came out, again, I had spent three years working on major problems in the special domain engine, major problems on space station hardware that RocketDyne was developing, the electric power for. I'm briefing very senior NASA people on problem solved, problem solved, problem solved. But I'm starting to hyperventilate thinking we are kept in business by being able to solve problems. The problems we don't solve, what NASA does is they call you up and they say, "Andrew, we've given you the contract to develop the engine." You're like, "Yep, yep, yep." "And we've given you the contract to produce the engine." "Yep, yep, yep, yep." "But we understand you've got a problem on this component. We're looking to have somebody else make that." 0:31:19.7 BB: And what I saw in front of me was I'm working on a problem that's a year and a half old. There's other problems on the engine. NASA's getting frustrated saying, we're gonna outsource this work to a competitor. And I'm thinking we're gonna lose the engine one component at a time. So I'm working on a big component. And before that problem was solved, a bigger dollar value component was given to a competitor. And I'm thinking one after another. So when I read The New Economics, the first thing that jumped out is, what I'm experiencing is not unique to where I work. What I read into Dr. Deming's work, my interpretation of Deming's work was kind of reinforcing that problem solving is the result of how we see the world, that we're stuck in a rut, because I'm looking and thinking... 0:32:16.7 BB: Again, the good news is I'm kept in. I'm being kept incredibly busy working on some very high visibility problems, going to very senior people at NASA headquarters to present solutions with the president of the company. I'm feeling really good. I mean, relative to having fun, but I'm thinking, but fundamentally how the company is running is not sustainable. And so, I'm looking and thinking, "I'm enjoying this. I'm keeping busy." But we shouldn't have these problems. If we understood what Deming's talking about, my interpretation was we could be preventing these problems, not solving these problems. And I'm not saying all problems, but I'm just thinking that we're behind the eight ball, and I looked at Deming's work as how to get out in front of it, not behind it. And the big part of it was we didn't understand variation. 0:33:15.9 BB: And so what I looked at it was, if you're ignoring variation, then you're... And we'll get into more detail in another session, but what I found was we didn't see the warning signs, the way it was... This goes back to the black and white, and I liken it to things are going well, which is like, your car has gas. Okay, the car has gas. Should I go get gas? No. How do I know we shouldn't get gas, Andrew? Because the car is running. 0:33:48.2 AS: The car has gas. Yeah.   0:33:50.0 BB: And so I'm thinking, "So why are people coming to me with a problem?" Because when the car is running, they don't think they need gas. [chuckle] And now I'm thinking, "If we just had gas gauges, simple devices to monitor and get away from the car has gas or it doesn't, which is the black and white thinking that I grew to, not despise, but just become aware of its limits. And now I'm realizing it, if we looked at things along a continuum, we could be preventing these problems in the first place. And then I'm thinking, "I mean, we've got an incredibly sophisticated engineers and hardware, but we're falling victim to a mindset that says the car has gas, but nobody's asking how much." But so I, from that moment on, reading Deming's book one, it was holy cow, because the riddle I was trying to solve was, why do you come to me when the car runs outta gas? 0:34:54.2 BB: And what it didn't dawn to me was why should they come see me when the car has gas? [laughter] And Deming was... Again, and I'm not saying everybody looks at Deming's ideas the same way. And we both know that's not the case, but what excited me about him at that point was that what I was dealing with was not... The solution wasn't technical. The solution was a shift in mindset. And I then very distinctly began moving from all about Taguchi to all about Deming. And what was interesting is when I started to share that influence with people, really good friends in the Taguchi community, they looked at me, some of them down their nose. Then I've...   0:35:53.3 AS: A traitor to the cause.   0:35:56.5 BB: I'm just like I had discovered a new religion, but they looked at me like, "Deming? Deming?" And I'm thinking to myself, "Well, first of all, I was, I had great... " These were really sharp people in the Taguchi community that I had greatest respect for. And I thought they'd be excited by that. And what I was sensing was kind of a weakness. And I then, from that point on, I went from the solution was Taguchi training and advanced training and blah, blah blah. And then began to think that the reason I can't get in to do these things that I wanted to do with Dr. Taguchi's work, which is focusing on things that are good and making them better. Why am I focus... I'm applying Taguchi's ideas to go from bad to good. And all the training I had is that his ideas go the other way from good to better and better and better. And I'm thinking, "I'm stuck in this rut. And Dr. Deming's giving me great insights as to how to get out of the rut." And you can tell from my excitement it was a game changer for me and a game changer for how what we did in terms of how we were deploying Taguchi's ideas and Deming's ideas where I worked.   0:37:25.0 AS: So if we go back, I mean, let's... Now that's a good breakdown of kind of your history with it. And I'm just curious, if we think about a young person right now who doesn't know much about Deming, how would you describe what they can gain from starting their Deming journey? What would you describe now? I mean, in the beginning you've described kind of simple solutions to simple problems, but there's so much more that you started discovering.   AS: Let's just talk about when I think about young people these days and I look at the management that they're learning in universities, their MBAs and all the things, and I'm looking at the KPIs and things like that, that are going on in this world, I see some strong reasons why people should pay attention to the teachings of Dr. Deming. And I'm just curious, the question I like to ask is, why Deming? Why now? BB: Yeah. I'd say my approach is to use examples with people of all ages that are new to Deming, right? So you don't have to be right out of college. But I like to look at it as how can I help you understand through questions and examples the degree to which you have the ability to see with new eyes right now, meaning that when I talked earlier about the limits of black and white thinking, versus shades of gray thinking. Shades of gray thinking is looking at a gas gauge and see the gas gauge is going from full to less to less to less. It's time to get gas while I still have gas. Black and white thinking just says I have gas. What about now? I have gas.   AS: Accept, reject. [chuckle] BB: And it's not to say that black and white thinking is bad, but it's simple versus shades of gray thinking. So what I point out to people is in our personal lives, we use both modes. Throughout the day we're in one cat... We're in one mode or the other not paying attention. And it may well be that the mode we're using is the proper mode to use in that situation. But if we became more aware of those modes, if we had the ability to flip the switch deliberately, 'cause right now what I found is I can ask you a question and get you to go into the black and white mode. You don't know that, and I'll give you another question. And to me, you're jumping between modes, you don't know it. So my strategy, is how people become aware. Why? Because what Dr. Deming's... I'll give you an incredible, a great quote that Russ Ackoff shared in a conversation with Dr. Deming, and Russ says, the... BB: And for those who don't know, Russ was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and he passed away about 10 years ago, or so. And he and Dr. Deming were colleagues, very deeply, deep admirers of one another, but 19 years different. Dr. Deming was 19 years older than Russ. And Russ says, "The characteristic way of management we have taught in the western world is to take a complex system, break it in the parts, and manage each part as well as possible." And then he goes on to say, "And if that's done, the system performs well." And I ask people to complete the sentence and they'll say... And actually the sentence I pose it as, "And if that's done," so the character's way of management is to take a complex and then breaking into parts manage the parts as well as possible. And if that's done, okay, how would you answer it? And they'll say, "things go well, things go well."  BB: Well, what Russ says is, "And the system will behave badly and perform well." And then that's absolutely false. And so what I then try to show to people is that what Russ is describing is what we do at work. And then, I gradually point out to them that what he is describing we should be doing is what we do at home. [chuckle] And I try to get 'em to realize that at work they're responsible for machining a whole... Delivering, converting some data from one form to another and passing it on to the next person. But they don't know what the next person does, and I point out at home, whether they're planning a vacation, planning a wedding, buying a home, they're handing off to the next person. And they are the next person, and then they are the next person. And so I try to point out to them the differences between how you would behave if you were the next person. And by comparison, what do we do at work. BB: And I try to use examples that show the incredible shortcoming of how we treat the next person at work versus how we treat the next person at home, who is me. And so I just give them the same scenario and just say, "So why at home, do we do this and at work we do this?" And then they'll wrap their heads around it. "Because at home I'm dealing with wood and at work, I use metal." And I've had that happen, people will say, "In the garage, I have... I'm working, making a project at wood, and that's why I do that at home. And at work, it's all metal." And I try to point out, "Who designs it at home?" "I do." "Who buys the materials at home?" "I do." Or the elements of whatever it is I'm making and I try to point out, "At home, you are the ones who conceive it, bring together the elements, buying them and putting 'em all together. Then you are the user, but that's not the case at work." BB: And so what I try to do back to your point is show them how much more advanced our thinking at home is in terms of how we treat the next person, me, versus what we're allowed to do, the next person. Try to point out to them is that, "At home, you, the receiver and you are receiving from you the provider, and at home, the person upstream may not be as generous. Nor will you at work be as generous for the next person downstream. So I try to use examples like that of how... And get into the realm of what does it mean to look at things as a system versus looking at things in isolation. And I find examples like that can grab their attention. But it's not uncommon with these people. I'd be learning about what they do and try to use examples from what they do and point out. BB: And again, like we were talking earlier, the difference between a shades of gray approach and a black and white approach versus, am I looking at the thing in isolation? So I try to point out those types of things. Now, I mean depending on who it is, I may look at other aspects of Dr. Deming's System of Profound Knowledge, if I think that will get me a toe into the door. AS: Yep. So let me ask you, in wrapping up, what would you say is the most influential part of Dr. Deming's teaching for your life? BB: The concept of the System of Profound Knowledge is... That has been a... That has changed my life. That there isn't a day that goes by that I don't look at things through the lens he's describing. The other thing I'll say for people that are new, to the Deming philosophy, and you come across this thing called the System of Profound Knowledge. And Dr. Deming would say, "If you have a better name, please help me." You have to call it something. And then you go to a Deming seminar and you learn there's four elements, and then you learn the psychology piece and this piece. And it's not uncommon, we go to school and we learn things a chunk at a time, a chunk at a time, a chunk at a time. And the challenge is that for people that are new to this, study the pieces in terms of Ackoff, in terms of the system of profound knowledge, if you're looking at variation. Dr. Deming's vast experience in education is all about variation and Shewhart's work. BB: But if you wanna study psychology, you have to do what Dr. Deming did, was read books on psychology that are not written by Dr. Deming. Read books on systems such as from Russ Ackoff. And so what I find is my strategy was, I mean, the simplicity of the Deming philosophy relative to the System of Profound Knowledge, no one else put together those elements like that. But what I also point out to people is you're gonna have to go beyond Deming's writings to study systems and bring it back to that focus, study psychology and bring it back to there. Now again, depending on who you're reading in, may not fit the psychology Deming's talking about. But I think a big thing is you gotta be able to go beyond The New Economics to go into depth in those areas. And what you'll find is in the beginning, we think of psychology as separate than variation. BB: And what you'll find is over time, you can't separate, and so that's what I would say is that, I know as you're coming across it and you see it for the first time and you think, "Okay, that's over there, that's over there." But don't be surprised as you continue on your Deming journey that these things come together, and then you realize that that separation is just a teaching device. And that teaching device is in every course we take, we break it in to parts and then at the end of the semester it's a whole. And that's what I would say is, what I find just breathtakingly remarkable is how that system has enabled me to think about things in a way that I would never be able to think about before. And I'm not saying I see everything, but it has enabled me to be in situations where I can turn to colleagues and say, so where do you think we're gonna go based on this decision?   BB: And we can use Dr. Deming's work to get a sense of how that might go off the rails or whatnot. And so if you think of... Dr. Deming would describe his work as a theory of management. And what is a theory? It's a prediction, so I find it's a fascinating crystal ball to look at a situation or a decision being made and start to anticipate what could happen. And I'm thinking, how can that not be invaluable to people? Yep. Well, Bill, on behalf of everyone at The Deming Institute, I wanna thank you again for coming on the show. And I ask, do you have any parting words for the audience? BB: I'd say, if you're new to the Deming community, welcome. [laughter] It's never too late to join. And if you're part of the community, I would say don't stop learning. AS: Fantastic. That concludes another great story from the worldwide Deming community. Remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. This is your host, Andrew Stotz. And I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming, and that is, "People are entitled to joy in work."

Peter Filichia, James Marino, and Michael Portantiere talk about Allegro @ Western Connecticut State University, Conversations After Sex @ Irish Arts Center, Love @ Park Avenue Armory, and Becomes a Woman @ Mint Theater Company “This Week on Broadway” has been coming to you every week since 2009. It is read more The post This Week on Broadway for March 5, 2023: Allegro @ Western Connecticut State University appeared first on BroadwayRadio.

Kevin Gutzman is Professor of History at Western Connecticut State University. He has published half a dozen books on Jefferson, Madison, and the Constitution. His latest book is The Jeffersonians. Cultural Debris Patreon - Support the podcast!   Cultural Debris logo by Rachael Sinclair Twitter | Instagram   The Jeffersonians, by Kevin Gutzman Kevin Gutzman Website | Twitter

Join Jeff as he has a conversation with Dr. Matt Doiron of Western Connecticut State University about a great method for teaching music ed students at the collegiate level! Methods courses not just for instrument types, but for age levels as well! To gain access to all show notes and audio files please Subscribe to the podcast and consider supporting the show on Patreon - using the button at the top of growingband.com Our mission is to share practical advice and explore topics that will help every band director, no matter your experience level, as well as music education students who are working to join us in the coming years. Connect with us with comments or ideas Visit our merchandise store to purchase exclusive swag from The Growing Band Director Podcast Follow the show: Podcast website : Growingband.com On Youtube The Growing Band Director Facebook-The Growing Band Director Podcast Group Instagram @thegrowingbanddirector Tik Tok @thegrowingbanddirector If you like what you hear please: Leave a Five Star Review and Share us with another band director!

Bo Ryan is principal of the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts Middle School in Hartford, CT. Ryan also served as a Principal for Woodside Intermediate School in Cromwell, CT. He is passionate about building and sustaining professional learning communities; and led both schools to Model PLC status. Ryan has been an educator for 27 years with a background as a teacher, coach, director, adjunct professor, and administrator. His first job was as a graduate assistant football coach for Syracuse University where he was a full time football coach and graduate student. He was a part of 2 bowl victories and 1 Big East Championship with the team. His teaching career began at JC Clark Elementary in the city of Hartford. In the school, Ryan created various before school and after school programs for students in the neighborhood. His daily morning gym program was open for all students an hour before school and served hundreds of students on a daily basis. Also at JC Clark, he started a basketball team in the school to help the students most at-need. The season was from October to May. Ryan also coached football, basketball, and served as director of the National Youth Sports Program at the local college during the summer. In addition, Ryan taught a graduate class at St. Joseph's College for 4 years on using PLCs as the system for creating interventions. Ryan is a board member for the Connecticut Association of Schools Student Services Team. As a teacher, he was named both educator and teacher of the year. As a director, he led his camp, NYSP, to national recognition. As a coach, he coached and supported athletes at both the collegiate and high school levels. At Woodside Intermediate School, they also were named a model SRBI and PBIS sight and welcomed visitors from all over. The school also served as a Professional Development School with Central Connecticut State University with college students, staff, and interns in the building at all times. A partnership was also created with Wesleyan University athletic department as athletes visited the school during recess and other times to support students. During his time at Woodside, Ryan presented on Professional Learning Communities to educators in CT and Massachusetts, presented on reading instruction to the CT Reading Association, and presented on RTI or SRBI in CT. Ryan helped open at brand new school in Hartford in a renovated factory. During his time, the school was selected a model professional learning community just 4 years after it opened. They were also selected a Solution Tree Success Story and featured on their website. As an educator, Ryan believes in relationship building with students and connecting with the community, as evident in 25 years of home visits. Ryan is currently a Solution Tree associate and certified PLC, RTI, and priority school presenter. He has presented across the United States on creating and sustaining PLCs in schools with the focus on the team. Bo earned undergraduate degrees from Western Connecticut State University, a master's degree from Syracuse University, and his sixth-year degree from Southern Connecticut State University. Key Takeaways: If you want to create a culture of collaboration you have to be creative in finding time to support it. You have to create templates for teachers to use if you are to maximize the time and coach them up. If you are to track the success of kids you need to break learning up into periods of time that provide data. Good instruction starts with collaborative teams. One of his chapters lines out the whole system for improved teaching and learning. You need to create systems when you don't have certified personnel that are needed. Tight loose leadership allows teachers to place the students where they're needed in a way that teachers can reach them. Reading is essential for students to improve academically. Make sure you hire people that have a high commitment to students and being good teammates regardless of years of experience. CREC calls them Associate Instructors. It's hard to create interventions when you aren't teaching skills for success and focusing on grades. Everything needs to be based on mastery of the standard. Its' critical to constantly be a learner, believe in your teachers, and continually improve. Stay Connected: Book: Brilliance in the Building

Bo Ryan is principal of the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts Middle School in Hartford, CT. Ryan also served as a Principal for Woodside Intermediate School in Cromwell, CT. He is passionate about building and sustaining professional learning communities; and led both schools to Model PLC status. Ryan has been an educator for 27 years with a background as a teacher, coach, director, adjunct professor, and administrator. His first job was as a graduate assistant football coach for Syracuse University where he was a full time football coach and graduate student. He was a part of 2 bowl victories and 1 Big East Championship with the team. His teaching career began at JC Clark Elementary in the city of Hartford. In the school, Ryan created various before school and after school programs for students in the neighborhood. His daily morning gym program was open for all students an hour before school and served hundreds of students on a daily basis. Also at JC Clark, he started a basketball team in the school to help the students most at-need. The season was from October to May. Ryan also coached football, basketball, and served as director of the National Youth Sports Program at the local college during the summer. In addition, Ryan taught a graduate class at St. Joseph's College for 4 years on using PLCs as the system for creating interventions. Ryan is a board member for the Connecticut Association of Schools Student Services Team. As a teacher, he was named both educator and teacher of the year. As a director, he led his camp, NYSP, to national recognition. As a coach, he coached and supported athletes at both the collegiate and high school levels. At Woodside Intermediate School, they also were named a model SRBI and PBIS sight and welcomed visitors from all over. The school also served as a Professional Development School with Central Connecticut State University with college students, staff, and interns in the building at all times. A partnership was also created with Wesleyan University athletic department as athletes visited the school during recess and other times to support students. During his time at Woodside, Ryan presented on Professional Learning Communities to educators in CT and Massachusetts, presented on reading instruction to the CT Reading Association, and presented on RTI or SRBI in CT. Ryan helped open at brand new school in Hartford in a renovated factory. During his time, the school was selected a model professional learning community just 4 years after it opened. They were also selected a Solution Tree Success Story and featured on their website. As an educator, Ryan believes in relationship building with students and connecting with the community, as evident in 25 years of home visits. Ryan is currently a Solution Tree associate and certified PLC, RTI, and priority school presenter. He has presented across the United States on creating and sustaining PLCs in schools with the focus on the team. Bo earned undergraduate degrees from Western Connecticut State University, a master's degree from Syracuse University, and his sixth-year degree from Southern Connecticut State University. Key Takeaways: It's important to recognize where we have benefited and give back. Educators have to realize that the student experience isn't always the same as their own personal experience when they were in school. We improve ourselves and make the culture better by realizing and utilizing the importance of teams. Team meetings have to be guided by a process and coached by a leader first if they are going to be effective. Tight loose leadership is key if you are to have effective PLCs in your building. It's important to focus on solutions rather than continue to highlight problems. Implement systems that change mindsets.  PLC work has to be research based. Stay Connected: Book: Brilliance in the Building

Before the consecutive two-term administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, there had only been one other trio of its type: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Kevin R. C. Gutzman's THE JEFFERSONIANS: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe (St. Martin's Press) is a complete chronicle of the men, known as The Virginia Dynasty, who served as president from 1801 to 1825 and implemented the foreign policy, domestic, and constitutional agenda of the radical wing of the American Revolution, setting guideposts for later American liberals to follow. The three close political allies were tightly related: Jefferson and Madison were the closest of friends, and Monroe was Jefferson's former law student. Their achievements were many, including the founding of the opposition Republican Party in the 1790s; the Louisiana Purchase; and the call upon Congress in 1806 to use its constitutional power to ban slave imports beginning on January 1, 1808. Of course, not everything the Virginia Dynasty undertook was a success: Its chief failure might have been the ineptly planned and led War of 1812. In general, however, when Monroe rode off into the sunset in 1825, his passing and the end of The Virginia Dynasty were much lamented. THE JEFFERSONIANS details a time in America when three Presidents worked toward common goals to strengthen our Republic in a way we rarely see in American politics today. KEVIN R.C. GUTZMAN is Professor of History at Western Connecticut State University and a faculty member at LibertyClassroom.com. He has his law degree from the University of Texas Law School and his Ph.D. in American history from the University of Virginia. His books include Thomas Jefferson - Revolutionary; James Madison and the Making of America; Virginia's American Revolution; and, with Thomas Woods, Who Killed the Constitution --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/steve-richards/support

Will Arndt is a professional athlete, quarterback, and quarterbacks coach from Newtown, Connecticut who was most recently signed with the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League. A graduate of Western Connecticut State University, a mere stones throw from where the podcast is located, Will defied the odds and is now living his dream. Will has also appeared in a few movies, such as the HBO movie Paterno where he portrayed Penn State play caller Matt McGloin. I was so excited to chat with Will right here in Brookfield while he was home for Thanksgiving. We covered how we both graduated from Newtown High a year apart and haven't seen each other in 10 years, his High School playing days, his days at Westconn, workouts with current NFL superstars, when he was signed by the CFL, the other movies that he has appeared in, what it has taken to get where he is today and so much more!

Summary:Only twice in American history has there been three two-term presidencies in a row. The second time, the presidencies of Clinton, Bush, and Obama, featured presidents with little in common in terms of political principles. The first time, however, was a different story. Kevin Gutzman joins Tom to talk about his new book on the subject, The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe.Guest bio:Kevin R. C. Gutzman is the New York Times best-selling author of five books, including Thomas Jefferson—Revolutionary: A Radical's Struggle to Remake America , a History Book Club Selection. Gutzman is Professor and former Chairman in the Department of History at Western Connecticut State University and a faculty member at LibertyClassroom.com . He holds a bachelor's degree (With Honors and With Special Honors in History), a master of public affairs degree, and a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as an MA and a PhD in American history from the University of Virginia.More info on his website at kevingutzman.com.Additional Reading:The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe (pre-order now!)Free Gifts from Tom:Back by popular demand! Download a free copy of Tom's e-book, An Anti-State Christmas, at antistatechristmas.com. Also available in paperback. A great stocking stuffer!Download a free copy of Tom's new e-book, It's the Fed, Stupid, at itsthefedstupid.com. It's also available in paperback here. It's priced at a pre-hyperinflation level so grab a few copiesfor friends if you can.It makes a great introduction to the government's most economically damaging institution for liberals, conservatives, libertarians, socialists, and independents alike.Like the music on Tom Mullen Talks Freedom? You can hear more at tommullensings.com!

On this podcast I will talk with Lori Simon about Holiday Fantasy vs. Holiday Reality. Do you ever find that the way your holiday preparation and holiday celebrations turn out are quite different from the way you picture it in your head? Then this episode is for you! Lori and I will talk about holiday decorating, gift wrapping, baking, celebrating and managing our own expectations as well as those of our children. We will also each commit to taking something off our already full plates this holiday season. Or, well, we will think about taking something off, LOL! On this episode Lori mentions her tradition of making these sugar cookies: https://www.bettycrocker.com/products/cookiemix/sugarAnd Lauren mentions her tradition of making this Gingerbread Recipe (I'll also post it in our Facebook group: Ginger Snaps (Gingerbread Men)2 cups flour (sifted)¾ cup shortening2 tsp baking soda1 cup sugar1 tsp ground ginger4 Tbsp molasses1 tsp ground cloves1 egg1 tsp cinnamonSift together flour, baking soda, ginger, cloves and cinnamon.  Set aside. Cream shortening. Add sugar, egg and molasses. Beat well.  Add flour mixture and beat until smooth. Mixture will be very stiff. For snaps: Take a teaspoon of mixture, roll into a ball, and then roll ball in sugar. Bake on greased cookie sheet for 10 to 12 minutes at 350 degrees. For Gingerbread Men: Chill dough for one hour. Lightly flour rolling surface and rolling pin. Roll and cut dough with cookie cutters. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees. Length of time will vary according to how big or how thick the cookies are. For small gingerbread men, (approximately 3 inches long) they baked for me in 10 – 12 min. A Little About Lori: Lori Simon graduated with a Bachelors in Science in Medical Technology from Western Connecticut State University. She is a wife and mom to 6 kids. She is currently home schooling 3 children (at what she likes to refer to as Simon School) while the other 3 attend college. Lori loves all things Disney and frequents Disney World, which is about two hours from her home in Florida. When Lori is not at Disney World you can find her using her creativity to make every day fun including minor holidays (think groundhog meatloaf) or of course, talking to Lauren on the phone. Lori believes in the go big or go home approach to most things, especially when it comes to decorating for Halloween and Christmas. Side note……… Lori was busy teaching children how to dissect cow eyeballs so Lauren had to write this bio. EW! LOL or as Lori likes to say, LOL, LOL, LOL!!! If you like this episode please subscribe! It also will help others to find this podcast when you leave a 5 star rating and review. If you have a question, comment or an idea for a future episode please reach out. You can email me at: YourZenFriendPod@gmail.comor find me on instagram @YourZenFriendPodOr in facebook groups at: www.facebook.com/groups/yourzenfriend/For more information on Lauren's counseling services check out: www.LaurenCounseling.com 

On this podcast I will talk about how opposites attract and how we can have rich and rewarding friendships when we respect and celebrate each other and our differences. I am excited to have an interview with my friend of over 35 years Lori Simon! A Little About Lori: Lori Simon graduated with a Bachelors in Science in Medical Technology from Western Connecticut State University. She is a wife and mom to 6 kids. She is currently home schooling 3 children (at what she likes to refer to as Simon School) while the other 3 attend college. Lori loves all things Disney and frequents Disney World, which is about two hours from her home in Florida. When Lori is not at Disney World you can find her using her creativity to make every day fun including minor holidays (think groundhog meatloaf) or of course, talking to Lauren on the phone. Lori believes in the go big or go home approach to most things, especially when it comes to decorating for Halloween and Christmas. Side note……… Lori was busy teaching children how to dissect cow eyeballs so Lauren had to write this bio. EW! LOL or as Lori likes to say, LOL, LOL, LOL!!! On this podcast I mention author Brene Brown. Check out Brene's famous talk on vulnerability here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o&t=492sHere are Lori's hot holiday toys recommendations for 2022: https://www.target.com/p/magic-mixies-blue-magical-crystal-ball/-/A-84797840?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&fndsrc=tmnv&DFA=71700000100919980&CPNG=PLA_DVM%2Ba064R0000138jTxQAI-TargetToys_HKC_GoogleSearch_Holiday_2022-719030&adgroup=PLA_TargetToys&LID=700000001393753pgs&network=g&device=c&location=9003431&gclid=CjwKCAiA68ebBhB-EiwALVC-Nl7qxDh_2jKpCbbFARiu_t02VKbh8acOrq3i93Pg6m9nGlmknnyRzBoC5OMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.dshttps://www.thetoyinsider.com/toys/little-live-pets-mama-surprise/If you like this episode please subscribe! And help me out by leaving a review below. If you leave a 5 star review I may read it on a future episode. By rating and reviewing this podcast you will help others to find it who could benefit from the content. If you have a question, comment or an idea for a future episode please reach out. You can email me at: YourZenFriendPod@gmail.comor find me on instagram @YourZenFriendPodFor more information on Lauren's counseling services check out: www.LaurenCounseling.com 

On this episode I will be talking about the importance of embracing embarrassing and awkward situations. And man oh man I have those on the regular. Why on earth would you want to embrace embarrassment you might be asking? Because it helps us to lead happier, more fulfilled lives. I'll talk more about that in this episode. I'll also give you tips on how you can help your children to move through embarrassment and take healthy risks.  This episode would not be complete without some laugh inducing real life embarrassing moments. I'll share some of my own AND my special guest, Tennette Correia will share some of her own giggle worthy embarrassing stories.  A little about Tennette Correia:Tennette is a graduate of Western Connecticut State University with a Communications degree. She began her career in marketing and ended up working in the world of relocation where she is today. Tennette is a mother of two adult children. She considers herself a work in progress and still doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up. Her super power is attracting people. Strangers tend to share personal information. It used to freak her out but now she embraces it. If you like this episode please subscribe and share it with a friend. I would also appreciate it if you take a moment to rate and review it. A 5 Star Review would really make my day! :) If you would like to share an embarrassing story, add a comment or ask a question you can email me at: YourZenFriendPod@gmail.com or find me on instagram @YourZenFriendPodFor more information on Lauren or her counseling services check out: www.LaurenCounseling.com 

Sara Im is a survivor of mass genocide in Cambodia, an event that claimed two million lives. She is an inspirational speaker and the award-winning author of the book How I Survived the Killing Fields. Join Hilary and Sara as they unpack the deep work of processing pain and trauma and moving into a space where you can thrive and live out your true purpose. About Our Guest: Sara Im is a survivor of a Mass Genocide in Cambodia, the event that claimed 2 million lives. She is an inspirational speaker and an award-winning author of the book “How I Survived the Killing Fields”. Sara graduated from Western Connecticut State University. Sara is a member of Women Speakers Association, Toastmasters International, and a founder and director of Christian Professionals Network of Tampa Bay. Sara speaks to inspire listeners to thrive from pain to purpose. She shares her impactful message at corporate events, conferences, churches, schools, podcasts, and more. Sara lives in Florida and is about to celebrate her 33 years of marriage. https://www.saraim.com/ (https://www.saraim.com/) https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraim-speaker-author/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraim-speaker-author/) https://www.facebook.com/SaraImSpeakerAuthor (https://www.facebook.com/SaraImSpeakerAuthor)

We interview Dr. Theresa J. Canada, who is a professor in the Education and Educational Psychology Department at Western Connecticut State University. She is the author of "Desegregation of the New York City Schools: A Story of the Silk Stocking Sisters." The book explores the use of young black and brown children to eliminate segregation in an urban public school to meet the challenges of equal education opportunity in the North during the mid-twentieth century.Check out the book's websiteFor bonus content, full interviews, and the ability to vote for future topics, $5/month supports us at patreon.com/blackhistoryforwhitepeople.Check us out on Twitter @BHforWP and Instagram @BlackHistoryForWhitePeople or freel free to email us at hello@blackhistoryforwhitepeople.com.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/black-history-for-white-people/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Summary: Bestselling author and constitutional scholar Kevin R. C. Gutzman returns to discuss yet another significant decision by the Supreme Court, this time concerning the EPA. Guest bio: Kevin R. C. Gutzman is the New York Times best-selling author of five books, including https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IN9FC5W/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01IN9FC5W&linkCode=as2&tag=tomusbl-20&linkId=b0bc08de54daafe4a86a9667a0605b22 (Thomas Jefferson—Revolutionary: A Radical's Struggle to Remake America ), a History Book Club Selection. Gutzman is Professor and former Chairman in the Department of History at Western Connecticut State University and a faculty member at http://www.libertyclassroom.com/dap/a/?a=18 (LibertyClassroom.com ). He holds a bachelor's degree (With Honors and With Special Honors in History), a master of public affairs degree, and a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as an MA and a PhD in American history from the University of Virginia. More info on his website at http://kevingutzman.com/ (kevingutzman.com.) Additional Reading: https://amzn.to/3OQsAkO (The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe (pre-order now!)) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596985054/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1596985054&linkCode=as2&tag=tomusbl-20&linkId=9b9cb455825e440b7a11fed6ceb6f5b2 (The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312625006/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0312625006&linkCode=as2&tag=tomusbl-20&linkId=25444249adafe87f52b34fd0ce543196 (James Madison and the Making of America) Additional Listening: These two previous episodes featuring Kevin Gutzman lay a helpful foundation for the constitutional issues discussed on today's show: https://tommullentalksfreedom.com/podcast/1/ (Episode 1 How Can Biden Mandate Vaccines Without Congress? With Kevin R. C. Gutzman) https://tommullentalksfreedom.com/podcast/28/ (Episode 28 A Forgotten Principle Returns in SCOTUS Vaccine Mandate Decision with Kevin R C Gutzman) Free Gift from Tom: Download a free copy of Tom's new e-book, It's the Fed, Stupid, at https://forms.aweber.com/form/87/2092395087.html (itsthefedstupid.com). It's also available in paperback https://amzn.to/3HTYSYh (here). It's priced at a pre-hyperinflation level so grab a few copies for friends if you can. It makes a great introduction to the government's most economically damaging institution for liberals, conservatives, libertarians, socialists, and independents alike. Like the music on Tom Mullen Talks Freedom? You can hear more at https://skepticsongs.com/ (tommullensings.com)!