2/15/18 - Ned Johnson, co-author with William Stixrud, of the Self-Driven Child joined KUCI's Janeane

William Stixrud & Ned Johnson

Child experts share how to combat the chronic stress
plaguing kids today

 

LISTEN to Janeane's conversation
with author Ned Johnson!

American kids are grappling with an epidemic of anxiety and depression. Chronic stress is taking a toll during the formative years when children are “sculpting” their developing brains. What we are doing as parents and as a society isn’t working and something needs to change. THE SELF-DRIVEN CHILD offers a revolutionary new approach to parenting, based on decades of clinical experience and the latest developments in brain research. William Stixrud, a revered clinical neuropsychologist, and Ned Johnson, the founder of one of the most sought-after tutoring companies in the country, show how we are raising our kids in a brain-toxic environment. The result is a generation of highly scheduled, tightly wound teens who feel like imposters, lack direction, and often unravel in high school or their freshman year of college. American children are robbed of agency when countless studies reveal that a low sense of control is deeply damaging.


Johnson offers advice to parents, such as:

· When parents work harder than their kids to solve their problems, their kids get weaker, not stronger.

· Home should be a “safe base” where kids can recover from the stress of schoolwork and extracurricular activities.

· If you let your child make decisions for herself while she’s young, her brain will build the circuits that are necessary for resilience.

· Allow your child time to do things he enjoys. When you see your child focused on building a Lego castle, he is conditioning his brain to associate intense enjoyment with highly focused attention, practice, and hard work.

· Daydreaming, imagination, and fantasy are essential elements of a healthy mental life. Let your kids “do nothing” sometimes.

· If a teacher is assigning too much homework, speak with the teacher and tell them, “This isn’t working for my child.” You’d be surprised by how willing teachers can be to make adjustments if homework has become a real problem.

· College is a brain-toxic environment. Not all high school seniors are ready to go straight on to college. Talk to your child. If you both decide he needs to take a gap year, that’s in no way a sign of failure -- it’s a demonstration of maturity.



Stixrud and Johnson demonstrate that the best thing we can do for children is to help them develop the skills to make difficult choices, to own their mistakes, to learn ‘Plan-B thinking’ and make independent course corrections when things don’t go as planned. It’s not the kids who have never gone off track who run into trouble; it’s those who have never been allowed to take the wheel.



ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

William Stixrud, Ph.D., is a clinical neuropsychologist who teaches at Children's National and the George Washington University School of Medicine. An expert on learning and executive disorders and the effects of stress, sleep deprivation, and technology overload on the developing brain, he has been a frequent keynote speaker at conferences, has been widely cited in major media. A proponent of transcendental meditation, he is on the board of the David Lynch Foundation.

Ned Johnson is the founder of PrepMatters, a leading tutoring and test-prep service in Washington, D.C. He is the coauthor of Conquering the SAT: How Parents Can Help Students Overcome the Pressure and Succeedand is a sought-after speaker and a teen coach for study skills, parent-teen dynamics, and anxiety management. His work has been featured on NPR and NewsHour and in U.S. News & World Report, Time, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Newsweek.

2/13/18 - Janeane spoke with award-winning journalist, Catherine Price, who presents a practical, hands-on plan to break up—and then make up—with your phone, in her new book HOW TO BREAK UP WITH YOUR PHONE.

LISTEN to today's conversation with Catherine Price!

Is your phone the first thing you reach for in the morning and the last thing you touch before bed? (YES!) Do you frequently pick it up “just to check,” only to look up forty-five minutes later wondering where the time has gone? (Uh, yes!) Do you say you want to spend less time on your phone—but have no idea how to do so without giving it up completely? (Absolutely!)

In HOW TO BREAK UP WITH YOUR PHONE, you will discover how phones and apps are designed to be addictive, and learn how the time we spend on them damages our abilities to focus, think deeply, and form new memories. You will then make customized changes to your settings, apps, environment, and mindset that will ultimately enable you to take back control of your life.


Catherine Price discusses:

· What to do if email controls your life

· How to leave your house without your phone

· What to do about phones and kids

· Apps that can help you spend less time on apps

· The National Day of Unplugging

Packed with tested strategies and practical tips, HOW TO BREAK UP WITH YOUR PHONE is an essential, life-changing guide for everyone who owns a smartphone.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CATHERINE PRICE is an author and science journalist whose articles and essays have appeared in The Best American Science Writing, the New York Times, Popular Science, O, The Oprah Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post Magazine, Slate, Parade, Salon, Men’s Journal, Self, Mother Jones, and Health magazine, among other publications. Her previous books include Vitamania: How Vitamins Revolutionized the Way We Think About Food and 101 Places Not to See Before You Die. She’s based in Philadelphia.



Visit phonebreakup.com for additional resources,

and a guided 30-day phone breakup challenge.

Filmmaker Ethan Warren called in to KUCI 88.9fm to chat with Janeane about his debut film, West of Her!

“Unfolds like a dream.” – Flick Nation


“Enchanting and full of mystery.” – The Film Yap

“Mesmerizingly beautiful.” – The Independent Critic

LISTEN to today's conversation with Ethan Warren!

Filmed across ten states in three weeks in iconic American locations from the sweeping midwest plains to the majestic Rocky Mountains, the stark southwest desert to the busy streets of Memphis,WEST OF HER is a film for anyone who's ever longed for adventure, romance, and a life of meaning.

Alone and adrift in life, Dan signs on with a mysterious organization, agreeing to roam the country with an enigmatic stranger named Jane, working by night, laying small linoleum tiles in the streets of towns across America, each bearing the same cryptic message.

Dan feels like a jigsaw piece from the wrong puzzle, that the tiles represent something bigger, and that their mysterious employers know vital secrets, while Jane sees their task as a whimsical lark. Though Dan is an open book, Jane refuses to reveal anything about her life, or what she might know of their employers, who communicate only with her.

As they travel, growing closer even as they butt heads, Dan’s sincerity softens Jane’s cynical exterior. Their contentious relationship grows and deepens, changing both of their beliefs about what they're doing, until they're forced to choose between their work and the possibility of a future together.

WEST OF HER was written and directed by first-time filmmaker Ethan Warren. The film stars Ryan Caraway and Kelsey Siepser. It has a running time of 87 minutes. Gravitas Ventures will release the film on VOD and across all other digital platforms on February 6, 2018.



For more information and to view the trailer, go to: http://www.westofherfilm.com/

Beth Liebling, who regularly hosts her own radio show, “Love and Laughter with Beth” on ESPN Houston 97.5 joins host Janeane to talk about her latest book, “Love and Laughter: Sexy (Meaningful) Fun for Everyone”

LISTEN to Beth Liebling on KUCI 88.9fm!

Beth Liebling is a sex expert from Houston who regularly hosts her own radio show, “Love and Laughter with Beth” on ESPN Houston 97.5. She's also released a book right now, “Love and Laughter: Sexy (Meaningful) Fun for Everyone” recently!

Beth's attitude is a unique one--divorce attorney for years, struggling to help couples see where they had gone wrong, but it was too little, too late. Once they were in her office, she couldn’t help them repair the relationship...she supported the process to end it. She began asking her clients questions most divorce attorneys might not put forward; Beth asked about sex. She found out that all of these couples had unsatisfying sex lives, whether it was the cause or effect of their crumbling marital state. As she says now, "Sex without erotic excitement is like flat soda. It's not the same, and everybody notices the lack of fizz!" She's put that principle to work, and she runs (with her adult children) an erotic luxury boutique in Houston, Darling Way, which she has made a community resource for sex-positive conversations and the exploration of nonjudgemental sexuality.

An Important Message From The Bernstein Family...The #BlazeItForward memorial will be held February 25th at 4:30pm!

The #BlazeItForward memorial on February 25th at 4:30 is coming together. This will be an event that is "A Tribute to Blaze Bernstein & Communal Call For Kindness". We know that many people could not attend the funeral and want to welcome everyone with open arms to celebrate the life and impact that Blaze made on our world. We will be speaking, thanking search & rescue volunteers, Orange County School of the Arts students will be performing & reading some of Blaze's poetry, and there will be some amazing videos that are being produced.

FREE TICKETS FOR THE EVENT WILL BE RELEASED ON FRIDAY, February 9th at 10AM. 

There are almost 3000 seats in The Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa. Thanks to the generosity of the Segerstrom Center and some anonymous donors, the whole event is underwritten. What can you do? As a community service opportunity, guests can bring 3 cans/person that will be donated to Second Harvest Food Bank. 

If you can't make it, the event will be livestreamed (details to follow).

The link and further details on the tickets and event are at: https://blazebernstein.org/blog/blazeitforward

#dogoodforblaze Love, The Bernsteins

2/12/18 David Ihrig joined Janeane on KUCI 88.9fm to talk about acting and brain science, the Ihrig Approach and more!

LISTEN to today's show with David Ihrig!


About David Ihrig
MFA in Acting, Certified Practitioner
of NLP

WATCH the Science of Acting at UC Irvine -
Innovative UCI course blends neurobiology and the stage.

What can David Ihrig teach actors about acting? 

That's a fair question, and an important one to answer before you invest your time or money learning his approach.

Quite unexpectedly, a jock from Northern New Jersey fell in love with the process of acting at a small state college in Southern New Jersey. There he studied The Meisner Technique with Gene Terruso. He continued in graduate school where he received a MFA in Acting from Northern Illinois University under the tutelage of Kathryn Gately. He subsequently moved to Chicago.

It was there he first experimented with organic rehearsal techniques while directing a staged reading of a short play. While sharing only the objective elements of the script, the actors were allowed to find the meanings in the story for themselves. The actors saw the script for the first time at the final run-though. It was the actors who insisted on performing the show off-book and staged. David was as surprised by the incredible success of that experiment as anyone.

Years later, while studying screenwriting in Southern California, David stumbled upon Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), which is the study of how language affects human behavior. He was introduced to Dr. Scott Kudia, a master trainer of NLP. The two combined their respective expertise and formed The Institute of Inner-Action, an acting studio that taught The Meisner Technique using the principles of NLP. Classes included Removing Emotional Blocks, Self Hypnosis for the Actor, and other classes developed specifically for the Institute. By all accounts, it was a very successful program. David noticed specific teaching techniques such as embedded commands, and learning feedback cycles, enabled students to assimilate acting principles at an accelerated pace. Dr. Kudia went on to work on television as a relationship expert, and the two amicably parted ways.

Ironically, one of the greatest breakthoroughs in the development of the approach occurred while teaching young actors in Manhattan Beach, California. While other children's acting classes focused on theater games, David wanted to teach young actors real principles of acting. He had to distill fairly complex ideas into a simple and understandable system. The result of organizing and simplifying all those years studying the principles of human learning and behavior is what is now, The Ihrig Approach.

https://www.theihrigapproach.com

2/12/18- Peg Streep joined host Janeane to discuss her new book, Daughter Detox: Recovering from an Unloving Mother and Reclaiming Your Life (Île D’Éspoir Press) available from Amazon.com

LISTEN to today's show with Peg Streep!

Peg Streep’s new book, Daughter Detox: Recovering from an Unloving Mother and Reclaiming Your Life (Île D’Éspoir Press) was just published and is available from Amazon.com. She has written or co-authored twelve books, among them Mean Mothers: Overcoming the Legacy of Hurt (William Morrow) and Quitting—Why We Fear It and Why We Shouldn’t—In Life, Love, and Work (Da Capo). Streep earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University but is recognized as a research-based science writer. She is best-known for her work on the mother-daughter relationship, although she frequently writes on goal disengagement, verbal abuse, narcissism and narcissists, and brain science as well. 

She’s been interviewed extensively on radio and television, as well as for print and online publications. You can find her at www.Facebook.com/PegStreepAuthor(link is external) or at www.pegstreep.com(link is external)


Peg Streep holds advanced degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University and is author of many spiritual titles, including "Spiritual Gardening: Creating Sacred Space Outdoors," "Altars Made Easy: A Complete Guide to Creating Your Own Sacred Space," "Mary, Queen of Heaven," and "Sanctuaries of the Goddess: The Sacred Landscapes and Objects." She lives in a suburb outside of New York City where she devotes equal time to motherhood and writing.


ABOUT THE BOOK
A self-help book based in science, the result of more than a decade of research, Daughter Detox offers the daughters of unloving mothers vital information, guidance, and real strategies for healing from childhood experiences, and building genuine self-esteem. Writer Peg Streep lays out seven distinct but interconnected stages on the path to reclaim your life from the effects of a toxic childhood: DISCOVERY, DISCERNMENT, DISTNGUISH, DISARM, RECLAIM, REDIRECT, and RECOVER. Each step is clearly explained, and richly detailed with the stories of other women, approaches drawn from psychology and other disciplines, and unique exercises. The book will help the reader tackle her own self-doubt and become consciously aware of how her mother’s treatment continues to shape her behavior, even today. The message of the book is direct: What you experienced in childhood need not continue to hold you back in life. What was learned can be unlearned with effort. 

The book begins with DISCOVERY, opening up the reader’s understanding of how she has been wounded and influenced by her mother’s treatment. Recognizing the eight toxic maternal behaviors—dismissive, controlling, emotionally unavailable, unreliable, self-involved or narcissistic, combative, enmeshed, or role-reversed—lays the foundation for the daughter’s awareness of how her way of looking at the world, connecting to others, and ability to manage stress were affected. DISCERNMENT delves into the patterns of relationship in her family of origin and how they played a part in her development, and then shifts to looking closely at how the daughter adapted to her treatment, either silencing or losing her true self in the process. Next up is DISTINGUISH, seeing how the behavioral patterns we learned in childhood animate all of our relationships in the present with lovers and spouses, relatives, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. The act of distinguishing allows us to see why so many of us end up in unsatisfying relationships, chose the wrong partners, or are unable to develop close friendships. Active recovery begins with DISARM as the daughter learns how to disconnect unconscious patterns of reaction and behavior and substitute actions that will foster the growth of self-esteem. Understanding the triggers that set us off, the cues that put us on the defensive, and the default positions of blaming ourselves and making excuses for other people’s toxic behavior are addressed, as are unhealthy behaviors such as rumination, rejection sensitivity, and more. RECLAIM is the stage at which the reader begins to actively make new choices, preparing herself so that she can live the life she desires by seeing herself as having agency and being empowered. 

Making new choices and figuring out how to manage her relationship to her unloving or toxic mother is the focus of REDIRECT. There are stories to inspire and challenge your thinking, exercises that show you how to swap out self-criticism for self-compassion, guidance on how to use journaling as a tool of self-discovery and growth, and advice on goal setting. Finally, RECOVER challenges the reader to come up with a new definition of what it means to heal, suggests tools to overcome the obstacles she places in her own way, and strategies to become the best, most authentic version of herself.