Working Together To End Homelessness

Show Guests: Erin Thompson & Rob Danson

As homeless numbers spike in LA, more and more organizations are seeking volunteers to help battle the epidemic. Erin Thompson from Inner City Law Center’s Homeful.LA and Rob Danson from Food on Foot will discuss how you can volunteer to help our homeless neighbors in need.

As one of the leading online hubs for volunteering, advocating and donating towards homeless prevention in Los Angeles, Inner City Law Center’s Homeful.LA links eager Los Angeles County residents who want to make a difference with homeless organizations including the nonprofit Food on Foot. Volunteers with Food on Foot distribute nutritious meals and clothing to approximately 150 homeless and low-income individuals every Sunday in Hollywood. They empowers homeless people to earn their way off the streets with an astounding 85% success rate. Graduates from their jobs and housing program leave the streets with a full-time job, a fully-furnished apartment, a life-skills education and a huge boost in confidence.

When I Got Out: After Incarceration – When the Live Before and the Live Now, Collide

Show Guest: Peter Seth

Once in a while a novel comes along that profoundly touches on a topic that is tragic, socially taboo, and at the same time as “real” as it gets.

Imagine being one of those young people, who through a series of bad choices in friends, finds himself or herself convicted and imprisoned for being an accessory to a very serious crime. Now, fast-forward years to the day of your release and imagine what you would do when you got out. Can you?

It our interview with Peter Seth, he will share the in-depth research he compiled when constructing this stunning sequel to his best-selling novel, What it Was Like. When I Got Out is chilling, thrilling and deeply touching, all at the same time as Peter weaves a story filled with challenges many ex-cons experience when the world they left behind, and the world they never knew, collide.

Harnessing Darkness: Expressing Mental Illness Through Poetry

Show Guest: Caleb Woods

Harnessing Darkness traces the struggle of living with mental illness. Through sections aptly titled Birth, Life, Death, and Rebirth, Caleb Woods gives readers the experience of what it’s like to live in the mind of someone who struggles with a roller coaster of emotions on a daily basis.

Receiving five-star reviews on Amazons, one reader shared, “As a high school English teacher, I love finding poetry that can and will speak to my students. This book is totally relatable to so many young people today and the struggles they face. Caleb takes the reader through the trials of mental illness with an honest and transparent voice. Both heart-breaking and poignant, this book speaks for those who struggle with depression but don’t know how to articulate it. This will become a staple for readers in my classroom.”

Of Grief, Garlic and Gratitude: Returning to Hope and Joy from a Shattered Life?Sam’s Love Story

Show Guest: Kris Francoeur

When your life is shattered in an instant, can conscious and deliberate gratitude and connection to nature help you find joy and hope again? Of Grief, Garlic and Gratitude follows the first thirty months after Sam Francoeur’s death from an accidental opiate (prescription) overdose. His mother, Kris Francoeur, shares her journey from the first crushing days to her eventually being able to find light, joy, and hope again through the practices of conscious and deliberate gratitude, unconditional acceptance of others, and making strong connections to the natural world. Her story helps to grieve families feel that hope and joy will return, no matter how devastating and permanent loss.

Of Grief, Garlic and Gratitude approaches grief with both a very clear understanding of the realities of the process and also shares a very personal and honest account of living with grief. It presents healing and hope without relying on religion, formal psychotherapy, or pharmaceutical resources. Kris’s story reminds readers that even as people struggle with mental health issues and addiction, they can still bring joy and love to the world, and everyone is worthy of love and acceptance.

How to Raise Kids Who Love Their Bodies

Show Guest: Dana Suchow

We are currently living in an epidemic of self-hate, where children as young as four years old begin to compare themselves to others in unhealthy ways. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), by the age of 10, over 80% of girls and boys are afraid of being fat! Entering their teens years, over 50% of girls and nearly 33% of boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives. 53% of 13-year-old American girls are unhappy with their bodies. This number grows to 78% by the time girls reach 17.

Dina Borzekowski, professor at Johns Hopkins school of public health notes: “Social media may have a stronger impact on children’s body image than traditional media. "She also emphasizes that children most at risk are those with more exposure to media messages and less exposure to rational, clear messages from supportive adults. As an eating disorder survivor, our guest Dana Suchow, who an award-winning speaker and coach, knows firsthand how harmful these thoughts and messages can be to young minds, and she works tirelessly to help parents stop eating disorders in children before they start. Dana will discuss topics that contribute to eating disorders, such as bullying, depression and anxiety, social media usage and more. She will share powerful tools parents can implement right away to help kids know they are loved and accepted regardless of what their body looks like.

Loving Out Loud: The Power of a Kind Word

Show Guest: Robyn Spizman

Ever While it can be easy to feel like it is impossible to make a positive difference in these divisive times, the enclosed advance reading copy of Loving Out Loud: The Power of a Kind Word by beloved television personality and New York Times bestselling author Robyn Spizman promises that our words can go a long way in that regard, especially when we share them out loud.

&"I wrote this book to share the magic of loving life and each other out loud,” writes Robyn. &"It isn’t just love in the romantic sense of the word, but rather the ability to profess out loud feelings we have when we adore, cherish, or care about someone or something. In the pages that follow, you’ll discover the secret to a life well lived. How every day we can wake up joyful, stay positive, and set a little love in motion.”

&"Let this book be your road map to a life well lived. It celebrates how the power of a generous thought and loving-kindness is transformative,” writes Robyn. &"I’ve seen it change lives, build better relationships, and make a person smile from the inside out. I’ve watched how parents and children have formed lasting bonds, and friends and family have reunited. By loving out loud and ‘saying’ it forward, we can rest assured we are doing our best to be a blessing to family, friends, and those around us.”

Beneath the Surface: A Teen’s Guide to Reaching Out When You or Your Friend Is in Crisis

Show Guest: Kristi Hugstad

Ever since author Kristi Hugstad’s husband, after years of struggling with clinical depression, completed suicide in 2012 by running in front of a train, she has dedicated her life to helping to abolish the stigma of mental illness and suicide. That mission is what inspired her to write Beneath the Surface: A Teen’s Guide to Reaching Out When You or Your Friend Is in Crisis, which speaks candidly to today’s youth — and the parents, teachers, and coaches who love them — about the anxiety, depression, and suicide attempts that far too often accompany the unique challenges that face their generation.

Writes Kristi, “This book also offers information on eating disorders, anxiety, substance abuse, self-harm, bullying, technology addiction, peer and academic pressures, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).”

Beneath the Surface includes real-life examples of young people who have suffered depression firsthand to help readers recognize the risk factors and warning signs and offers practical exercises to help them quickly and confidently identify whether they or someone they know are in need of help, and if so, what to do and where to go for it. Depression can strike anyone and does not discriminate. This book can save lives.

Raising the Bottom: Making Mindful Choices in a Drinking Culture

Show Guest: Lisa Boucher

Guest Host: Seth Hall

Women tell me they drink because they have problems—the truth is that they have problems because they drink. The solution stares us in the face, but we don’t like the answer, so we move on to something else: antidepressants, therapy, self-help books, yoga, holistic healers—the list goes on . . . my God, just don’t tell me to quit drinking.

Lisa Boucher, author of Raising the Bottom: Making Mindful Choices in a Drinking Culture, asks real question that needs to be asked is how can you live a joyous, fulfilling life when alcohol—a depressant—gets invited along on every occasion? I am passionate about shifting the scales and helping women of all ages find their joy. Please join us as we travel on a journey with Lisa that is all about changing and saving lives. It’s all about Raising the Bottom

Living on Campus: An Architectural History of the American Dormitory

SHOW GUEST: Professor Carla Yanni

Against the backdrop of sweeping societal changes, communal living endured because it bolstered networking, if not studying. But housing policies often enabled discrimination according to class, race, and gender, despite the fact that deans envisioned the residence hall as a democratic alternative to the elitist fraternity. In "Living on Campus," Rutgers University Professor Carl Yanni focuses on the dormitory as a place of exclusion as much as a site of fellowship, and considers the uncertain future of residence halls in the age of distance learning.