Face2Face with David Peck

Julie and Face2Face host David Peck talk about the Philadelphia Eagles, non-profits, charity, and how we as individuals and community-based organizations can create a more significant impact.

Biography

Julie Hirshey is the Director of Community Relations for the Philadelphia Eagles where she works to execute the team’s mission to serve as proud partners of the Philadelphia community. In this role she leads the team’s efforts to support generations of Eagles fans and works to partner with non-profits throughout the region. Hirshey was instrumental in the creation of the Eagles Care initiative, which focuses on non-profit capacity building. Her department also executes public facing corporate social responsibility initiatives such as the team’s Healthy Food Drive and Tackling Breast Cancer. Hirshey also serves as an officer of the Eagles Charitable Foundation, which is a public charity that serves thousands of low-income children in the Greater Philadelphia region every year with a focus on improving health outcomes through vision care and autism research and services. Prior to joining the Eagles in 2000, Julie worked in the television and business affairs department at the National Hockey League in New York. She received her BS in Sociology from Boston University where she worked for the Terriers Ice Hockey team. Julie is a native of the Philadelphia area and comes from a family of long-time Eagles Season Ticket Members.

Find out more about the Philadelphia Eagles Community Outreach.

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For more information about my podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit my site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new book Light Come Shining, change, the “blood fo the land”, the world-weary qualities of Bob Dylan and his relevance still today.

You can purchase the book here: Light Come Shining: The Transformations of Bob Dylan

Or pick up the other one Andrew mentioned in the interview: Chronicles Volume 1.

Biography

Andrew McCarron is a teacher and writer born and raised in the Hudson River Valley. He holds a Ph.D. in Social/Personality Psychology and currently runs the Religion, Philosophy & Ethics Department at Trinity School in New York City.

His first collection of poetry, Mysterium, was published by Edgewise Press in 2011, and book length study of the poets Charles North, Tony Towle, and Paul Violi, Three New York Poets, was published by Station Hill Press in 2015.

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Paul and Face2Face host David Peck talk about pain, loss, fear, grief, and a god that never existed, celebrating life, love and relationships and the “holiness of the other.”

Paul’s New Book: Lies We Believe About God

The Shack

Find more at the end of this article!

IMDB

Synopsis

The Shack shares the story of a father’s uplifting spiritual journey. After suffering a family tragedy, Mack Phillips (Sam Worthington) spirals into a crisis of faith. After receiving a mysterious letter, Mack journeys to the shack and encounters an enigmatic trio of strangers led by a woman named Papa (Octavia Spencer). Through this meeting, Mack finds important truths that will transform his understanding of his tragedy and change his life forever.

Biography

Wm Paul Young, author of the novels, The Shack, Cross Roads, and Eve, and recently released non-fiction Lies We Believe about God, was born a Canadian and raised among a stone-age tribe by his missionary parents in the highlands of what was Netherlands New Guinea (now West Papua).  He suffered great loss as a child and young adult, and now enjoys the “wastefulness of grace” with his growing family in the Pacific Northwest.

Facts never tell real stories.  The journey has been both incredible and unbearable, a desperate grasping after grace and wholeness, the pain of trying to adjust to different cultures, of life losses that seemed too staggering to bear, of living with an underlying volume of shame so deep that it constantly threatened any sense of sanity, of dreams not only destroyed but obliterated by personal failure, of hope so tenuous that only the trigger seemed to offer a solution. A few facts also do not speak to the potency of love and forgiveness, the arduous road of reconciliation, the surprises of grace and community, of transformational healing and the unexpected emergence of joy.

More of Paul’s writing and related material:

Music from the movie

CrossRoads

Eve

The Shack: reflections for Every Day of the Year

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Louis, John and Face2Face host David Peck talk about

Synopsis

It’s an absurd truth about the Church of Scientology that one of the world’s most secretive organizations will step angrily out into public view when provoked.

This reactiveness is at the core of My Scientology Movie, the cheeky, acclaimed “reverse-investigative” documentary starring British broadcaster/journalist Louis Theroux and directed by John Dower.

With the world awash in “exposes” of the neo-religion created by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard – and total denials by the Church itself – My Scientology Movie uses reverse psychology to create a picture of the organization inadvertently painted by its own followers.

It starts with a not-unexpected refusal by the Church to cooperate with a documentary. It continues from there with a very public casting exercise by the filmmakers and former Scientology Marty Rathbun, for actors to play real-life figures like church leader David Miscavige and the church’s most famous follower Tom Cruise.

They then let gossip and paranoia do the rest, attracting the attention of Scientology’s lawyers, threats from church officials, harassment from “squirrel-busters” meeting them at random locations (at least one such incident went viral online) and phony “documentary crews” that followed Theroux, Dower and Rathbun around.

The result is a documentary that doubles down on the story of Scientology. It provides details of its dark side – including the infamous California “Gold Base” facility for wayward Church officials (visited in the movie) and a punishment area called The Hole. And it renders those revelations more plausible by the actual strange and aberrant behavior of followers.

“They behaved in ways that were so clearly pathological,” Theroux says of the counter-tactics he recorded. “You would expect them to understand that other people would see this behavior and conclude that this is a religion of lunatics.”

“This has always been a Holy Grail project to me,” he says. “I’m attracted to stories of people doing profoundly unusual things for explainable human reasons. Normally, I am invited into the worlds I visit. I had to make the decision to make this one anyway, and to lure them out.

“At the heart of it, this is a story about religious fundamentalism, which is a phenomenon that is front and center in our time.”

Biography

Louis Theroux is a British-American documentary filmmaker, and broadcaster. He is best known for his documentary series, including Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends, When Louis Met..., and his BBC Two specials. His career started in journalism and bears influences of notable writers in his family, such as his father Paul Theroux and brother Marcel. He works with the BBC producing his documentaries and television series. He has received two British Academy Television Awards and a Royal Television Society Television Award for his work.

John Dower is one of the Britain's leading documentary directors. His feature Thriller in Manila was in competition at Sundance, BAFTA and EMMY nominated, and won a Grierson and a Peabody Award. Bradley Wiggins – A Year In Yellow was also BAFTA nominated in the best director category. As well as his sporting films he has a keen eye for comedy. His music documentary Live Forever was described by The Guardian as, “Sublime … finds that the truth is stranger and funnier than the myths” and his latest theatrical feature My Scientology Movie praised by The Telegraph as “a giddy, Pythonesque delight”, with Variety calling it “riotously funny”.

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For more information about my podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit my site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andreas and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film Bugs, tasty food, sustainability, colonialism and how we’re so often driven by trends and the media.

IMDB

Trailer

More info about the film here.

Synopsis

BUGS follows three young men from Nordic Food Lab – Josh Evans, Ben Reade and Roberto Flore, as they forage, farm, cook and taste insects with communities in Europe, Australia, Mexico, Kenya, Japan and beyond. During their journey they encounter everything from revered termite queens and desert-delicacy honey ants to venomous giant hornets and long-horned grasshoppers.

The Nordic Food Lab journeymen experiment with culinary practices and tastes – in a two-way process of learning from others around the world while trying to push boundaries themselves.

Over the last few years, since the UN recommended edible insects as a resource to combat world hunger, insects as food has become a hot topic. They have been heralded for their taste by cooks and gastronomes, for their low ecological impact by environmentalists, and for their nutritional content by public health scientists. It would seem that insects are the new superfood that will fix all our problems of global food security.

BUGS offers an open-minded exploration into the world of edible insects.

Biography

Andreas Johnsen has made a number of documentaries as both a director and a producer since 2002. His films have been shown around the world on many festivals and on television in Denmark and abroad.

His film ‘Ai Weiwei – The Fake Case’ was nominated at IDFA’s “Feature Length Competition”, nominated in Berlin 2014 at Cinema for Peace Awards and won the Danish Film Critics Award 2014.

The film has furthermore been selected for over 15 film festivals, been sold to BBC and 7 other territories.

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Fabienne and Face2Face host David Peck talk about the Toronto Black Film Festival, racism, diversity, inclusion and making a difference in the world. 

Biography

Award-winning actress, filmmaker, speaker, business owner and consultant, Fabienne Colas is the ‘Queen of Festivals’ who created and manages 7 successful festivals between Montreal, Toronto, Halifax, New York City and Port-au-Prince – including the Montreal International Black Film Festival, which has become not only Canada’s largest black film festival, but also a key player in cultural diversity in Quebec.

Besides attracting tens of thousands of festivalgoers every year and showcasing hundreds of artists, those events have also welcomed and/or paid tribute to top celebrities from around the globe such as: Harry Belafonte, Stedman Graham, Danny Glover, Spike Lee, Paul Haggis, Martin Luther King III, Dany Laferrière, Wyclef Jean, Alfre Woodard, Bill Cobbs, Souleymane Cissé, Arcade Fire, Clement Virgo, Gbenga Akinagbe and more.

CEO/Founder of Zaza Production, Fabienne is a charismatic leader with an unwavering persistence and perseverance who makes things happen. Her primary mission is to help others unlock their greatness and bring their business to the next level through coaching, seminars, conferences, workshops, online courses and videos tutorials. She continues to create platforms that show a diversity of voices, faces and points of view.

As chairman of the Fabienne Colas Foundation, she supports, awards grants and promotes independent films and artists who, otherwise, would not have been seen or heard. She currently sits as a board member on the Society for the Celebrations of Montréal’s 375th Anniversary.

In 2015, Fabienne was awarded a Medal from Quebec’s National Assembly – by Kathleen Weil, Minister of Immigration, Diversity and Inclusion – recognizing her leadership and contribution in the fight against racism and discrimination in Quebec. She won the Black History Month Award in 2010 for her great involvement in her community.

In 2008, she made her first film, Minuit, a narrative feature on voodoo in which she also played the leading role. Considered by many as the most popular actress in Haitian cinema, Fabienne started out as a model, was crowned Miss Haiti in 2000 and has represented Haiti in numerous beauty contests around the world. In 2003, she was awarded the Ticket d’Or (golden ticket) in Haiti for best actress for her role in the film Barikad (directed by Richard Sénécal) and was also nominated for this same role at the Haitian Entertainment Awards in Florida. She has acted on both the big and the small screens in a number of productions in Quebec, Canada (Watatatow, l’Auberge du chien Noir, Comment Conquérir l’Amérique en une nuit).

Fabienne is a member of both Canadian professional acting unions: the Union des Artistes (UDA) and the Alliance of Canadian Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA). She has sat on a number of prestigious juries in the arts community in Quebec, including those of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (Quebec Council for ththe Arts) and les Prix Gémeaux.

She obtained from the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) a licence for two new television stations, provisionally called Diversité TV and Bon Goût TV, with a view to promoting a better representation of cultural diversity on televisions in Canada and providing a window to those who would, otherwise, never be seen or heard.

Toronto Black Film festival

Founded by the Fabienne Colas Foundation, Toronto Black Film Festival is dedicated to celebrating the very best in cinematic work dealing with the varied experiences of black people from diverse communities. Their mandate is to provide an opportunity for filmmakers to shine the spotlight on authentic stories that reflect the realities of black experiences.

Along with its sister festival, the Montreal International Black Film Festival (now in its thirteenth year), TBFF showcases new voices in cinema and encourages audiences to see the world in new ways. In connecting black films with viewers of all ethnic origins, they recognize the differences that make the communities they serve unique while celebrating the shared values that bring people together. 

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For more information about my podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit my site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adam and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new book Cotton, its empire, commodities and politics, “clothing poverty” and anti-globalization and why we need to be concerned about how the world works.

Biography

Adam Sneyd conducts research on the political economy of commodities and development. He is particularly interested in learning more about the dynamic politics of commodities across Africa south of the Sahara. His research aims to better understand the new challenges that various commodity dependent African countries face in the areas of sustainability and development.

Adam is currently studying the 'commodity politics' associated with corporate 'responsibility' in Cameroon. 

He has written two solely authored academic books on the politics of cotton. The first –Governing Cotton - focused on the challenges associated with cotton and poverty reduction across Sub-Saharan Africa. The second – Cotton, focuses on the global politics of this important commodity. His academic articles have been published in journals including Third World Quarterly, Development and Change, and the Journal of Contemporary African Studies.

Adam has contributed analyses linked to his research program to the Financial Times magazine This is Africa, and to Think Africa Press and African Arguments.

He has moderated a high-level panel at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on cotton in Africa, and is a member of the Academic and Scientific Advisory Council of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS). 

A detailed list of his papers, op-eds, analyses, policy briefs, book reviews and glossary articles can be found here.

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Brian Roberts and James Alan join me in the mysterious back room of The Browsers’ Den of Magic to talk about expectations, secrets and the pressure to fool, card magic, wonder, scripting and the permanence of the coin. It’s a preview of our fun and interesting lecture to benefit the Cambodia War Remnant Museum. 

Spare Change for Social Change 

Enjoy an awesome pair of talks on magic with Brian Roberts and David Peck on February 26, 2017, at Toronto’s Browers’ Magic Den!

They are two local Toronto magicians who have been performing and lecturing on sleight of hand magic now for many years. They both love working with coins and have been known to dabble in cards, parlor and stage manipulation.

Topics covered will include, but not be limited to the Misers Dream, new and polished, workable routines from Brian, thoughts on misdirection and stage manipulation, David’s nuanced take on Wild Coins and why magic is here to stay in this digital age.

Join us for an interesting evening of dialogue, magic, methods and discussion.

All money raised will be going to a social enterprise in Cambodia working with Landmine and PTSD Victims. It’s called The Cambodian War Remnant Museum. It’s making a difference. It presents the story of the war years in Cambodia from a unique perspective. The staff is made up of former soldiers. It’s groundbreaking and changing lives for the better!

 Get more information and tickets at the Browsers’ Den site!

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Robert Osborne

Robert and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film Unstoppable, addiction, making choices and the Fentanyl epidemic in Canada.

Trailer

Synopsis

For the first time, CBC audiences can go beyond the headlines with unprecedented access to the world of illegal fentanyl, and a glimpse inside the mind of one of Canada's most (self-described) skilled producers of black market synthetic drugs, a man known simply as Beeker.

Much like the fictional Walter White character in the critically acclaimed television series "Breaking Bad,"Beeker is compelling, highly articulate, and an altogether unsettling presence. An elite, underground chemist who lives in hiding, Beeker has twice been charged with making controlled substances. Willing to speak openly on-camera about his expertise and how the science of synthetics works, he also delivers a chilling warning: as deadly as fentanyl is, it will soon become "obsolete." The new class of more profitable, more powerful superdrugs it has spawned- are now being made available across Canada, and will cause chaos in our streets, and in our homes.

CBC’s Firsthand, "Unstoppable: The Fentanyl Epidemic" on Canada's point-of-view documentary series, reveals both a dangerous tipping point in the history of the synthetic drug trade, and a dark vision for the future - seen through the eyes of Beeker, and others whose lives and identities are inextricably tied to the legacy of illegal fentanyl.

Biography

Robert Osborne is a multi award winning investigative journalist, writer and television director. He’s spent more than thirty years working for national newsmagazine programs including CTV’s W-5ive, CBC’s Marketplace, Pacific Report and Global Television’s National News. 

In the past year he began working for the internationally acclaimed series “Drugs Inc.” on National Geographic channel providing investigative work for the producers. He’s written investigative articles for the Toronto Star and the National Post. As part of that work Robert has uncovered dozens of stories about the drug trade in Canada—the first complete national story on Fentanyl appearing in the National Post. He’s also worked on numerous stories on drug pipelines between Asia and Canada. 

He has extensive contacts both in the underworld, and with law enforcement across the country. During the last thirty years Robert has won seven RTNDA awards (for Best On-going News

Coverage, Best Feature Program and Best Investigative Documentary,) several gold medals from the New York Film Festival, a CAJ award for Investigative Journalism, (two additional finalist nominations), two Prix Aniks (CBC) and a Chris award from the Columbus Film Festival. He has also been nominated six times for Geminis (two wins for his show.)

In 2009 he received a Citation of Merit from the Governor General’s Michener Awards for a documentary on a lack of police accountability in Canada. In 2013 Robert was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for his work on CTV. 

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For more information about my podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit my site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.