3/2/20 @9:00am pst - Modern motherhood & mental health expert Katherine Wintsch joined host Janeane on KUCI 88.9fm

LISTEN to today's show with Katherine Wintsch

Modern motherhood & mental health expert Katherine Wintsch is founder CEO of The Mom Complex and author of SLAY LIKE A MOTHER: How to Destroy What’s Holding Your Back So You Can Live the Life You Want (paperback release March 3, 2020; Sourcebooks). In both her business and her book, Katherine’s goal is to help mothers embark on a new chapter in life as a parent – away from the self-defeating tendencies and feelings of inadequacy and toward the deeply held belief that you’ve always been more than enough as a mother and a woman.

“I loved this book! It’s packed with important and actionable advice.” —Eve Rodsky, author of Hello Sunshine book pick & New York Times best-selling book, Fair Play


While parents worry about their children being bullied, mothers bully themselves constantly with negative self-talk, yet think nothing of it. Watch this heartwarming video of mothers sharing their dragons of self-doubt. We constantly strive to pass ourselves off as perfect – but that act is exhausting. While the struggle of parenthood is real, the suffering is optional. It is time for moms to shift from worrier to warrior with Katherine’s practical solutions, including:

· How to start treating MORE like a four-letter word, and how to start saying NO.

· How to teach the negative voice in your head some manners.

· How to stop seeing the success of other women as an indictment against yourself.

· How to teach your children to be dragon slayers.

· How to avoid setting expectations that set you up for failure.

· How to make more time for me-time.


About Katherine WintschKATHERINE WINTSCH is an internationally recognized expert on the topic of modern motherhood. The majority of her expertise comes from studying the passion and pain points of mothers around the world—the rest is accumulated from a little trial and a whole lot of error while raising her own two children with her husband in Richmond, Virginia.

As the founder and CEO of The Mom Complex, Katherine and her team help develop innovative new products, services, and marketing strategies for the world’s largest mom-focused brands, including Walmart, Babyganics, Pinterest, Kimberly Clark, and the Discovery Network.

Katherine’s sought-after research and expertise have been featured by Today, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company, and she regularly writes about the topic of motherhood on her popular blog, In All Honesty, and for Working Mother magazine.



Additional Praise for SLAY LIKE A MOTHER:

"Slay Like a Mother is a feisty, clever, and fun blueprint for modern motherhood that belongs on every book shelf and in every diaper bag. No mom has time for a drippy self-help tome, and this guide cuts right to the point: when you turn your doubt into strength, the sky's the limit. As a woman and mother, you'll gain a newfound power, happiness, and ability to leap tall Lego buildings in a single bound." —Erin Falconer, author of How To Get Sh*t Done: Why Women Need to Stop Doing Everything So They Can Achieve Anything

"I love everything about this book. The tone, the candor, the acceptance that we must love ourselves first before we can slay anything in life. And it is so needed. We mothers are experts at thinking we are not good enough or do enough. It is time for us to let go of the guilt and let in the love. Thank you for this gift, Katherine. Slay on!" —Julie Foudy, former captain of the US Women's National Soccer Team, ESPN analyst and report, Olympic Gold Medalist

"Entertaining and honest, Katherine's story reveals that the most powerful force for changing your life is you."—Mel Robbins, author of the international bestseller The 5 Second Rule

"Life-changing. That is the only way to summarize the impact of Slay Like a Mother. As I devoured the transformative words of this book, I wished I'd had it during a desolate time in my life-but it was not too late. Every time fear, anxiety, inadequacy, or self-doubt gripped me, I opened Slay Like Mother. Waiting to inspire me was a relatable anecdote or fool-proof strategy with the power to help me say no, draw a boundary line, ask for help, and show up for my life. Slay Like a Mother is much more than a self-help book for women; it is the end of self-doubt and the beginning of self-love... and that is nothing short of life-changing." —Rachel Macy Stafford, New York Times bestselling author of Hands Free Mama



EXAMPLE TALKING POINTS 

1. Why did you write Slay Like a Mother?

2. What do you want mothers to know?

3. Talk about the difference between struggling and suffering.

4. What exactly is a “dragon of self-doubt” and what does living with it feel like?

5. When was your own dragon born, Katherine?

6. You say self-doubt doesn’t discriminate, tell me more.

7. What areas of a mother’s life are affected by self-doubt?

3/2/20 @9:15am pst - Katherine Keith - Endurance Racer and Author of the Debut Memoir: EPIC SOLITUDE

LISTEN to today's show with Katherine Keith

KATHERINE KEITH

Endurance Racer and Author of the Debut Memoir:

EPIC SOLITUDE

Blackstone Publishing

About the Author

Katherine Keith is a wilderness athlete, experience junkie, spiritual questor, long-distance dog musher, and mother to a fifteen-year-old daughter Amelia and thirty-five dogs, living above the Arctic Circle in Kotzebue, Alaska (pop. 3,266). Professionally, and as a jack-of-all-trades survivalist, she is a small business owner, rural Alaska project director, energy engineer, commercial fisherman, and wellness advocate. Accomplishments such as completing six Ironman triathlons and five 1,000-mile dog sled races form the cornerstone of Katherine’s philosophy of generating grit through overcoming real-time obstacles. A never-ending dreamer, Katherine is currently pursuing climbing the seven tallest summits on every continent as a budding alpinist. EPIC SOLITUDE is her first book. Learn more at http://www.katherinekeith.com/.

Book Summary

Epic Solitude is a moving reflection on a harsh but ultimately inspiring life of endurance dog-racing, motherhood, grief resolution, and spiritual discovery in the Alaskan back country. Divorced at twenty from her high school sweetheart following a youth of abuse, mental illness, and eating disorders, Keith moves from Minnesota to the remote Alaskan wilderness to begin again, only to face the deaths of her newborn daughter, and then her husband the following year. Left to raise her second daughter on her own in the wilderness, Keith finds solace in the athleticism and solitude of traversing the sublime Alaskan tundra as a dog-musher, allowing her to reconnect and recover from past and present traumas as she learns to appreciate the beauty that life offers.

Praise

“A good read for fans of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild.” —Working Mother, 20 Most Anticipated Books of 2020 by Working Mother

“This intense and uplifting treatise on self-exploration celebrates the resiliency of the human spirit.” —Publishers Weekly

“[Katherine Keith] tells her story with brutal honesty, unafraid to ask difficult questions and face the answers, while making clear the deep passion she feels for her sport and her love for her dogs. This is a story of survival and triumph in an unforgiving place, told by someone who understands that despite the solitude, the journey forward is always, somehow, a shared one.” —Booklist

2/25/20 - Dani Shapiro, New York Times Instant Bestselling Memoirist, Novelist and Host of the hit podcast Family Secrets shares her story about the staggering family secret uncovered by a genealogy test: an exploration of the urgent ethical questions surrounding fertility treatments and DNA testing, and a profound inquiry of paternity, identity, and love

LISTEN to today's conversation with  featured guest
Dani Shapiro.

DANI SHAPIRO
Instant New York Times bestselling memoirist, novelist and host of the hit podcast, Family Secrets, shares her story about the staggering family secret uncovered by a genealogy test: an exploration of the urgent ethical questions surrounding fertility treatments and DNA testing, and a profound inquiry of paternity, identity, and love – now in paperback

In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA for analysis, Dani Shapiro received the stunning news that her father was not her biological father. She woke up one morning and her entire history—the life she had lived—crumbled beneath her.

This shocking revelation propelled Dani into a journalistic and personal quest that resulted in her latest memoir, INHERITANCE — the book she was literally born to write. Chronicling Dani’s journey to unlock the hidden story of her own identity, INHERITANCE, which became an instant New York Times bestseller in hardcover, is a gripping exploration of the secrets we keep from one another—out of shame, for self-protection, or in the name of love—and how to answer the fundamental question: What makes us who we are?


Dani Shapiro discusses:
· Her writing process for INHERITANCE and why she was driven to start writing in real time as the story was unfolding.

· How her own sense of identity -- a central theme of INHERITANCE – has changed over the course of her DNA discovery to now, as well as how it has affected so many readers on their own journeys of secrets and identity.

· Her advice to the millions of people who will take personal DNA tests (as many as 50 million are estimated to have received personal DNA test kits such as 23&Me and Ancestry for holiday gifts this past season alone). She shares her thoughts on how these tests have affected our society in both good and worrisome ways.

· Her hit podcast, Family Secrets, now in its third season, with over 7 million downloads.


INHERITANCE is a book about secrets—secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman’s urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years, years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history. It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in—a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.



About the Author

DANI SHAPIRO is the author of the memoirs Hourglass, Still Writing, Devotion, and Slow Motion and five novels including Black & White and Family History. Also an essayist and a journalist, Shapiro's short fiction, essays, and journalistic pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, One Story, Elle, Vogue, O, The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, the op-ed pages of the New York Times, and many other publications. She has taught in the writing programs at Columbia, NYU, the New School, and Wesleyan University; she is cofounder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. Shapiro is the host of the hit podcast, Family Secrets. She lives with her family in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

2/27/20 @9:30am pst - Joey Travolta spoke with host Janeane Bernstein about his film Carol of the Bells

LISTEN to today's show featuring Joey Travolta

Carol of the Bells (2019) 1h 40min | Drama | 19 October 2019 (USA) A young man with a troubled past seeks out his biological mother. His world is turned upside down upon discovering that she is developmentally disabled.

WATCH the TRAILER

A crew of 70% individuals with developmental disabilities recently produced Inclusion Films’ first feature length film, Carol of the Bells, directed by Joey Travolta. Fresh from earning the Audience Favorite Feature award at the San Diego International Film Festival in October - Carol of the Bells will release in multiple cities in December. Travolta teaches filmmaking to individuals with developmental disabilities at 6 partner studios across California via Inclusion Films. Carol of the Bells was produced in association with Futures Explored, Inc. and Options for All. 

“Carol of the Bells” was the world's first feature film production, where up to 70% of the crew had a developmental disability. Under the network and resources of Inclusion Films, this film was made within two weeks in Bakersfield, California.

Synopsis: A young father battles his past to find peace with his wife and son. Scott Johnson has always struggled with his secret adoption, and his life-changing moment as a child at Christmas time. Now, Scott has the answer to his greatest fear. Can he take the final step to bridge the truth about his first family and heal his wounds?

Director/Producer Joey Travolta shared “Carol of the Bells is a beautiful story by itself, but the way it was made is even more beautiful. Working with a crew where 70% are developmentally different offers insight into just how much they bring to the table when offered the opportunity. Having the opportunity is the key. Inclusion Films has a mission of inclusion - to train people with different abilities in the art of filmmaking. The soft skills learned in the training program can then be applied to other jobs and all aspects of their life.” 


When asked what drives his passion for inclusion, Travolta shared “My father raised us in an environment of inclusivity. Family was important, kindness was important, everyone was equal and everyone was welcome. That’s what first led me to being a special education educator. Partnering that passion for equality with filmmaking has become my life’s work. I want everyone to have that sense of belonging when they are trained by us, come to our camps or work with us on a film. That sense of belonging brought out the best in everyone - and allowed for an environment for this talented diverse team to create an award winning feature film. No small feat. I’m looking forward to sharing their work on Carol of the Bells and helping to create a shift in employment opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities.”



Director: Joey Travolta

Writer: JC Peterson

Producer: Dale J Oprandy

Editor: Chris Duguay

Cinematographer: Andy Ryan

Production Designer: Jo O'Meara


Cast: RJ Mitte (Breaking Bad), Yuly Mireles, Lee Purcell (Television and movies), Andrea F. Friedman, Elijah Maximus and Donna Pescow (Saturday Night Fever), Donna Mills (Television and movies)

2/27/20 - 9:15am pst - Angelou Exeilo spoke with host Janeane Bernstein about her book, Engage, Protect, Connect: Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders

Engage, Connect, Protect

Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders

by Angelou Ezeilo with Nick Chiles

LISTEN to today's show!

Angelou Exeilo on Engage, Protect, Connect: Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders. This is an important contribution to the ongoing conversation about our environment, and an inclusive one as well. For everyone looking to really make an impact, be of service, connect and bridge the cultural and generational divide, this is it! 

"Ezeilo's book is powerful, personal and practical. Speaking truth to power, she engages our hearts while challenging our comfort zones as it relates to race and the environment.— Carolyn Finney, Ph.D. author, Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors

While concern about the state of our land, air, and water continues to grow, there is widespread belief that environmental issues are primarily of interest to wealthy white communities. Engage, Connect, Protect explodes this myth, revealing the deep and abiding interest that African American, Latino, and Native American communities – many of whom live in degraded and polluted parts of the country – have in our collective environment.

Part eye-opening critique of the cultural divide in environmentalism, part biography of a leading social entrepreneur, and part practical toolkit for engaging diverse youth, Engage, Connect, Protect covers:

>Why communities of color are largely unrecognized in the environmental movement

>Bridging the cultural divide and activate a new generation of environmental stewards

>A curriculum for engaging diverse youth and young adults through culturally appropriate methods and activities

A resource guide for connecting mainstream America to organizations working with diverse youth within environmental projects, training, and employment.

Engage, Connect, Protect is a wake-up call for businesses, activists, educators, and policymakers to recognize the work of grassroots activists in diverse communities and create opportunities for engaging with diverse youth as the next generation of environmental stewards.

Angelou Ezeilo is founder and CEO of the Greening Youth Foundation. A 2016 Ashoka Fellow. she is a member of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights' Women in Solidarity Society. She lives in Atlanta, GA and Victoria Island, Nigeria.

2/24/20 @9:00am pst - successful comic artist and visual designer, Sam Sawyer, joined Janeane live on KUCI 88.9fm

LISTEN to today's conversation with Sam Sawyer!

As a teenager in suburban Phoenix, aspiring artist Sam Sawyer couldn’t stop thinking about a story about a monster searching for an identity – an animated series that would feature a non-binary character as a hero.

Fast-forward a few years: now a successful comic artist and visual designer, Sam has launched a Kickstarter campaign for the animated series “SALEM: The Secret Archive of Legends, Entertainments, and Monsters,” featuring the vocal talent of Rob Paulsen (“Animaniacs”), Laura Bailey (“Critical Role” and “Dragon Ball Z”) and Adam McArthur (“Star vs. the Forces of Evil”). It’s the story of a “cryptid” (creature) named Salem, raised by the Boogeyman, who learns that they are adopted. Without a gender and without a core identity, Salem embarks on a journey of discovery among the world of faeries, goblins, and other cryptids.

Rob Paulsen said of Sam “She did what all the folks at Comic Con love about this whole experience. It’s not about anything but utter joy in expressing yourself, being creative and being accepted for who you are. I’m really proud of her.”

But Sawyer isn’t only determined to bring back the edgy animation of her youth; she’s also a veteran comic book artist, a published author, and designer of three Tarot decks. She appears at over 20 Comic Con events per year and was an artistic collaborator on the new Lindsey Stirling music video, “The Upside.”

With her pink and purple “hombre” style haircut and bright personality, the queer-identified Sawyer knew she was an artist from a young age. Despite leaving home early, and even being homeless for a time, her determination and talent allowed her to find a space for her unique artistic vision and gave her the confidence to keep conquering new frontiers.


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHerrVAmSkXZKxl9ngePrrw

Kickstarter campaign: www.thesalemseries.com


http://mysincerelysam.com/

2/18/20 - Janice Kaplan explores the powerful forces that have rigged the system—and celebrates the women geniuses past and present who have triumphed anyway—in her fascinating and timely new book, THE GENIUS OF WOMEN: From Overlooked to Changing the World

LISTEN to today's conversation with journalist and
New York Times bestselling author Janice Kaplan.

We tell girls that they can be anything, so why do 90 percent of Americans believe that geniuses are almost always men? When asked to name a genius, people mention Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Steve Jobs. As for great women? In one survey, the only female genius anyone listed was Marie Curie. Journalist and New York Times bestselling author of The Gratitude Diaries, Janice Kaplan explores the powerful forces that have rigged the system—and celebrates the women geniuses past and present who have triumphed anyway—in her fascinating and timely new book, THE GENIUS OF WOMEN: From Overlooked to Changing the World.

We define genius almost exclusively through male achievement. Janice Kaplan set out to determine why the extraordinary work of so many women has been brushed aside. She realizes early on that genius is not just about possessing spectacular talent—it is about having that talent recognized. Blending memoir with one-on-one interviews with neuroscientists, psychologists, and dozens of women geniuses at work in the world today, she highlights how women are fighting to have their genius recognized, nurtured, and celebrated—and how society needs to shift to make that possible.



Kaplan reveals unexpected, paradigm shifting findings in THE GENIUS OF WOMEN, including:


· A new perspective on power: Defining genius as a combination of extraordinary talent and celebrity, Kaplan shows how women have often had only one half of the equation, and she explains the unconscious biases that keep their talents from being recognized.

· The traits that women geniuses share: Kaplan explores the qualities that allow some women to overcome obstacles and thrive no matter how challenging the circumstance. She shows how resisting stereotypes and labels, and facing the world in a positive way, can help all of us reach our potential.

· How we can help girls find their own genius: The messages girls receive from popular culture often contradict the Girl Power t-shirts they wear. Kaplan explores research showing how girls as young as six think that only boys can be geniuses—and she looks at the struggles women at all ages have over beauty and genius.

· Why women geniuses aren’t what you expect: Many of the women Kaplan interviewed were married with young children, and she shows how having a multi-faceted life contributes to genius, rather than detracting from it.

Some of the amazing women she talks to who are changing the world right now:

· Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe

· Jo Dunkley, astrophysicist at Princeton

· Tina Landau, Broadway director

· Shirley Tilghman, molecular biologist and former President of Princeton

· Frances Arnold, chemical engineer and Nobel Laureate

· Lise Eliot, neuroscientist who studies female and male brains

· Fei-Fei Li, global expert on AI and professor at Stanford

· Meg Urry, NASA scientist and physicist at Yale University

· Cynthia Breazeal, roboticist at MIT Media Lab
Some of the geniuses from history:

· Maria Anna Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s sister. She was also brilliant musician, but her talent was never nurtured because it considered improper for a woman to perform in public. Instead, she was sent off to get married.

· Lise Meitner, physicist who discovered nuclear fission in the 1930s. The Nobel Prize went to her male lab partner since nobody believed that a woman would be capable of making such a huge discovery.

· Émilie du Châtelet, mathematician and philosopher who was one of the most respected thinkers of the 16th century. Anyone studying science at the time learned it from her books, but now she is remembered mostly in relation to a man—since she was Voltaire’s lover.


Across the generations, even when they face less-than-perfect circumstances, women geniuses have created brilliant and original work. Kaplan’s rousing examination of female genius will provoke, delight, anger, and inspire in equal measure, leaving readers hungry for change and ready to fight for it.



About the Author

Janice Kaplan has enjoyed wide success as a magazine editor, television producer, writer, and journalist. The former editor in chief of Parade magazine, she is the author or coauthor of fourteen books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Gratitude Diaries and I'll See You Again. She lives in New York City and Kent, Connecticut.


JaniceKaplan.com | Twitter: @JaniceKaplan2 | Instagram: janice.kaplan