Toney Earl, Jr. is the executive director and co-founder of MADE-Transitional Services, the non-profit agency to provide opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals to transform their lives. Through job readiness, job placement and life skills training, MADE promotes personal responsibility, healthy relationships and support for the participants to make a positive contribution to society. Toney is a genuine, dynamic spokesperson addressing  at-risk youth, business owners in the private and non-profit sectors, academia, and policy makers. He speaks about mass incarceration, social justice and restorative justice, while helping to develop innovative solutions to expand workforce inclusion for formerly incarcerated men and women. Toney’s devotion to the people he serves and the challenges he faces is driven by his own personal experience of incarceration and a promise he made to God and himself to work twice as hard in doing right as he had done wrong. The first guest on my podcast back in January, was Tarik Greene, Toney’s business partner, if you haven’t already, listen to episode #2. On the day my podcast was launched, my husband and I organized a Benefit Concert in Brooklyn, thanks to my daughter, Julia and her amazing circle of musician friends, to raise funds for Toney and Tarik’s MADE-Transitional Services. It was so successful that we are hosting another Benefit Concert in June. For those who would like to make a donation to this worthy organization, please visit their website www.made-transitions.org Links: Fair Chance Hiring FaceBook Instagram Website: MADE-Transitions.org

Estefania Ochoa is an entrepreneur, innovative event planner and a radiant soul! She and I met last month and had an immediate soulful connection, sharing values, life philosophy and our dreams to make a difference in the world; Estefania is my new kindred spirit! She has started her own magazine SOYYO (translated from Spanish “I am me”) which is the answer she eventually gave to people’s discomfort with her ethnic ambiguity, constantly asking “what are you?” With SOYYO, Estefania taps into various artistic communities (art, music, and fashion) to promote a culture of self expression, while focused on sustainable development. Estefania’s teen parents raised her in California, but by the time she was 17, her family moved back to Mexico, challenging Estefania to tap inner resources to develop independence and resiliency. Honoring and supporting artists, Estefania is determined to create community, while grounded in humility and gratitude. She brings a mindfulness to life, discovering the lessons in mistakes, and embracing a rare balance of grace and courage.

Links: www.soyyomag.com

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Mark began his career as a musician, performing and composing throughout California. He taught music in CA and OR public schools before moving to New York about 20 years ago, when he became the director of the music program at Rockland Country Day School. From there he devoted 14 years to teaching music at the Fieldston School in Riverdale, NY before retiring last year.  Mark isn’t really retired, he simply changed careers, for Mark has enthusiastically thrown himself back into his passion for visual arts, and is now a full time sculptor. Mark is not just creating beautiful metal sculptures, he is developing grassroots collaboratives with other artists and doing the leg work to create a community sculpture walk. 

You may recall that Mark’s wife, pilates instructor Jennifer Attebery, was a guest last month on episode #18. We talked about our shared loved for bocce - a game my husband and I want to  play with Mark and Jennifer well into our 90s!

Mark shares some highlights of his father’s truly inspiring story of finding true love at the ripe old age of 89; a story that made headlines all over the world, via Public Radio’s The Moth. To experience the magic, I encourage you to read “Howard and Cynthia: A Love Story”. Enjoy the podcast!

Links: Instagram Facebook Web Site The Moth NY Times Bocce Article Howard and Cynthia: A Love Story

Susanna Styron, filmmaker, writer and director, has made meaningful films that reflect people’s resilience to hardship. From her feature film “Shadrach”, documentaries of her relief work in New Orleans, Ground Zero or Haiti, to a short film of life after divorce, as well as her most recent film “Out of My Head” about the mysterious disease migraine, Susanna covers natural disaster, social/political injustice, life transitions and personal illness. She is inspired by courageous people who are driven by integrity and value family (be it biological or created). Speaking of valuing family, Susanna integrates both of her daughters in her recent movies; Emma Larson is featured in the movie "Out of My Head" and Lilah Larson wrote a song for the sound track of "House of Teeth".

“Out of My Head” will be shown at Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY on Monday May 21st at 7:00pm. If you or someone you love suffers from migraine, I urge you to see it. Susanna and the film's producer, Jackie Ochs will be there for a Q & A after the screening.

Susanna has been on the directing faculty at Columbia University for over a decade, while also teaching TV and film in both undergraduate and graduate schools at Columbia University, NYU and Princeton. She is currently working on a film about Roxcy Bolton, an American feminist, civil and women's rights activist. Enjoy the podcast!

Films: “Shadrach” “9/12: From Chaos to Community" “Many Hands” (Haitian American Nurses Association) "House of Teeth" "Out of My Head"

Links:

www.outofmyheadfilm.com

Jacob Burns Film Center, 364 Manville Road, Pleasantville, NY

The Migraine Project

IMDB

Stephen Carr is a man of faith, lifetime learner, maritime lawyer and avid sailor. He also happens to be my dear father and I am delighted to share my conversation with my dad. The release date of this podcast, April 30th, 2018 is his 88th birthday! Steve is my eldest guest and I marvel at his long, rich life as he shares childhood memories, family history, his 4 years in the seminary and decision to leave, his appreciation of his education, first at St. Michael’s College/ University of Toronto, then at Georgetown University Law School, before landing a job at the law firm of Haight, Gardener, Poor and Haven. Dad embraces his Irish roots, love of the Clancy Brothers and John O’Donohue as well as other writers who stimulate and nourish him: Thomas Merton, Richard Rohr, Ernest Hemingway, Gregory Boyle. After retiring from his law firm, Dad kept up 20 years of legal consultation, volunteered in prisons, and to this day, stays active with walking, biking, sailing and pickleball (and he credits his wife, Vivian for helping him stay young). I’ve always loved how easily my dad cries, he is touched deeply by tender moments in life, and lets the tears flow. I know I may be a bit biased, because he is my Dad, but I think you, too, will enjoy Steve’s thoughtful, funny, sentimental life reflections.