My guests, Iva and Rose, talk about the bond of friendship, the trauma of war —and finding the light during the darkest of moments.

Join us for this important — and timely — conversation.

We discuss Iva and Rose’s search for inner peace. Iva lived through a war in Lebanon and Rose is currently living in Israel. We explore how to cope, heal, and have vision for unity within the heartbreaking chaos. We also talk about the magic of travel, the power of love, and the importance of choices on a guided path. 

At the conclusion of our talk, Iva reads a special excerpt from her memoir, FROM RIFLES TO ROSES: MEMORIES AND MIRACLES, soon to be released as an audiobook.

IVA NASR
Mentor, Speaker, Author

Website

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KARA KAVENSKY

karakavensky.com

@karakavensky on FB, IG, LinkedIn, TikTok, Threads

Receive updates on Kara's new memoir release, FINDING JOY here.

PRODUCTION

Sponsored by: Adam Gibson Design

Produced by: Marilou Marosz

Original music written and performed by: Adam Gibson

Season 3 of Finding Joy with Kara is now Season 1 of Record Scratch.

When something unexpected happens in our lives, just like in the movies, everyone and everything seems to freeze, and the soundtrack playing in the background stops abruptly with the sound of a needle across vinyl.

A record scratch.

This podcast focuses on the courage and resiliency it takes to move through disruptive moments.

My guests share their transformational record scratch moments and offer tools to help us heal our wounds. We address varying topics including generational trauma, grief, PTSD, and what we can do to heal and be better humans.

Please subscribe to my Record Scratch podcast and follow me on social media: @karakavensky on IG, TikTok, FB, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Maureen Monte builds winning teams. She brings a Moneyball approach to the inside game so that individuals and teams can harness the talent within and reach their full potential.

She has leveraged CliftonStrengths® as a competitive advantage accelerator since 2006. She focuses on highly motivated teams, including over 1,500 athletes and coaches at the middle/high school, college, and Olympic levels, and hundreds of global corporate teams on all the continents but the cold ones!

She is a Gallup® certified strengths coach, has a BS/MS in Engineering, and an MS in Leadership, was engineer of the year for IBM, and an instructor for Cornell’s online leadership development programs for tech execs.

She is the author of the book Destination Unstoppable: The Journey of No Teammate Left Behind, and a soon-to-be-released book, The Win Like a Girl Project: a courage, confidence, and self-leadership program for female athletes to become champions at the game of life.

website: maureenmonte.com

Twitter: @maureenemonte

FB: https://www.facebook.com/DestinationUnstoppable

FB: https://www.facebook.com/WinLikeAGirlProject

Connect with Kara karakavensky.com @karakavensky on Twitter, FB, IG 

https://www.facebook.com/karakavenskywriter/

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Music by Adam Gibson of Adam Gibson Design Mixing by The Brassy Broadcasting Company

There are so many fascinating people in this world — and one of them, an angel named James “Jimmy Mack” McDowell walked into my life and showed me that I should look forward to getting older. Forever young at 90 when I met him, he remained evergreen until he passed away earlier this year, which was a few months after his 99th birthday.

Jimmy was a big band singer during WWII, and subsequently experienced an amazing life filled with fun and entertainment. Jimmy was a renowned broadcaster, both on radio and tv, then became a professional DJ, photographer, and videographer. He built his life around music and kept a pulse on Central Indiana entertainment.

Jimmy and the woman who would become his wife, Peggy, wrote thousands of pages of letters during their engagement while Jimmy was stationed overseas during WWII.

Part of the reason he was a prolific typist, is that he took (4) semesters of typing to graduate from HS in Lincoln, NE. After being drafted, he was stationed at Camp Atterbury. Typing was a highly coveted skill in the Army and Jimmy was stationed with a medical unit, where he would triage incoming patients. He was stationed within the 8th Air Corps in England.

Listen as Jimmy’s daughters, Bonnie McDowell Hinkle and Robin McDowell, and I reminisce about their dad and growing up with “showbiz” parents.

Connect with Kara karakavensky.com @karakavensky on Twitter, FB, IG 

https://www.facebook.com/karakavenskywriter/

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Music by Adam Gibson of Adam Gibson Design Mixing by The Brassy Broadcasting Company

Eric Lipp is the CEO and founder of Open Doors Organization, a non-profit organization based in Chicago. It was founded in 2000 for the purpose of creating a society in which all persons with disabilities have the same consumer opportunities as everyone else. They aspire to teach businesses how to succeed in the disability market, while simultaneously empowering the disability community.

A day before his 30th birthday Eric was diagnosed with Von Hippel Lindau disease, which had resulted in a tumor growth on his spinal cord. Eric was told that due to the trauma of the surgery he might never regain his ability to walk. This diagnosis and subsequent spinal cord surgery have not stopped Eric from participating in life to the fullest. This experience was the catalyst in encouraging Eric to found the Open Doors Organization.

Over the past 20 years, Open Doors Organization has proven itself to be the little non-profit that could, making a significant impact within the transportation and hospitality industries, not just in the US but worldwide.

Open Doors Org just release its 4th nationwide study on the travel patterns and spending of American adults with disabilities.

Listen as we discuss how powerful one voice can be on behalf of others.

opendoorsnfp.org

Connect with Kara karakavensky.com @karakavensky on Twitter, FB, IG 

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Music by Adam Gibson of Adam Gibson Design Mixing by The Brassy Broadcasting Company

Paul Kapsalis is an author, coach, and dreamer. He and his family discovered soccer when he was 5 years old in St. Louis. Paul’s story is one of the GOAT sports stories. Never count out the underdog, especially one that is driven by love and passion for a sport.

Growing up in the Midwest, Paul Kapsalis dreamed of playing soccer at powerhouse Indiana University, but coaches said he simply wasn't good enough. After barely making the team, he fought through years of rejection, failure, and a career-threatening injury that sidelined him for an entire season. Then he surprised even himself by becoming captain of that powerhouse program. Listen to how he accomplished this and discover the lessons Paul has carried throughout his life and learn other valuable insights on his journey. He has chronicled his story in his autobiography, To Chase a Dream. Paul has also written The Leadership Code.

Listen as we explore Paul’s miraculous journey and legacy.

“Believing in yourself can take you far. Having others believe in you can take you farther.” — Paul Kapsalis.

Connect with Paul

https://paulkapsalis.com

Facebook:  Paul Kapsalis:  The Culture Coach

Website:  www.paulkapsalis.com

Twitter:  Paul_Kapsalis14

Email:  [email protected]

Connect with Kara karakavensky.com @karakavensky on Twitter, FB, IG 

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Music by Adam Gibson of Adam Gibson Design Mixing by The Brassy Broadcasting Company

Versatility, passion, and innovation are the hallmarks of American conductor Janna Hymes — not to mention energetic! Renowned for her inspiring performances, musical depth, and energetic presence both on and off the podium, she has developed a reputation as an exciting, detailed communicator.

She is also one of the first female conductors to lead an orchestra, and the first to lead the Carmel Symphony Orchestra.

Born in New York City, Janna Hymes is a Fulbright scholar, recipient of a 1999 Geraldine C. and Emory M. Ford Foundation Grant, and a prizewinner of the 1998 International Conducting Competition in Besancon, France.

She studied under such prominent conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Gustav Meier, Otto Werner-Mueller, and Gunther Schuller, and holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati. She also studied at the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, the Festival at Sandpoint (ID), and the Conductor’s Guild Institute.

Janna is normalizing diversity as a conductor of a mostly-classical orchestra. Listen to how she brings the joy of music to others and to herself.

Connect with Janna Hymes

CarmelSymphony.org

Connect with Kara karakavensky.com @karakavensky on Twitter, FB, IG 

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Music by Adam Gibson of Adam Gibson Design Mixing by The Brassy Broadcasting Company

Mike Green is a Cultural Economist, Consultant, Speaker, and the Chief Strategist at The National Institute for Inclusive Competitiveness. He is the Co-founder of Common Ground: Conversations on Race in America 

He is also an author of the recently released: A playbook for improving Diversity and Inclusion in Entrepreneurship Centers and of a couple of other books on how to make the world a better place (this is not the title, I am ad-libbing here because he writes collegiate textbooks on Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a subject where he is a global expert.

Being an expert on entrepreneurship means Mike isn’t afraid of failure. In fact, Mike Green is fearless.

When he was 12 years old, he didn’t know how to swim so he jumped in the deep end of the pool. Prophetically, He later served in the Navy for 12 years.

As a Navy recruiter, when he spoke with the young men and women he would ask them, “What do you want out of life?” The #1 answer was: I don’t know.

Mike realized that by helping young people figure out what they wanted to do with their lives, he discovered what he wanted to do with his: Mike Green helps others succeed.

Connect with Mike Green

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amikegreen2/

Twitter: @mikegreen2

Connect with Kara Kavensky

karakavensky.com @karakavensky on Twitter, FB, IG 

https://www.facebook.com/karakavenskywriter/

https://www.instagram.com/karakavensky/ 

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Music by Adam Gibson of Adam Gibson Design

Mixing by The Brassy Broadcasting Company

The Arc of Indiana is committed to all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities realizing their goals of living, learning, working, and fully participating in the community.

Fate is what brought Kim Dodson to her current position, for it was literally an accident while she was a junior at Purdue University that steered her career course. Dodson was involved in a fatal car crash that claimed the life of her fiance. After recovering from her own injuries, she changed her major from investment banking to pre-law. During the course of an internship for a Congressman, Dodson was introduced to lobbying.

Dodson worked for a law firm as a lobbyist representing the Amusement Parks. It was during that time that Dodson met Emily Hunt, a young woman badly injured in an amusement park accident that claimed the life of Hunt’s grandmother and rendered Hunt a quadriplegic. Hunt was lobbying for increased safety inspections at amusement parks. Dodson was representing the other side. After a hearing on this issue, Dodson returned to the law firm and told her boss that they needed a compromise. The managing partner said no. Dodson quit two months later. (the law firm no longer exists)

That summer, reports of abuse and neglect leaked out about the treatment of patients with special needs at state-run institutions. And she had no history of people with disabilities but was called to help in this effort, as it greatly offended her. Dodson called The Arc of Indiana. Then Executive Director John Dickerson was looking for a lobbyist. Now 20+ years later, Dodson is the Executive Director and advocating for equality for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Listen to Kim’s story and the importance of the Arc’s mission and their amazing accomplishments — and they are just getting started.

Connect with Kim

The Arc of Indiana — FB

@thearcin IG

arcind.org

Connect with Kara karakavensky.com @karakavensky on Twitter, FB, IG 

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Music by Adam Gibson of Adam Gibson Design Mixing by The Brassy Broadcasting Company

A moment of adversity sparked opportunity for Tom Morris, who is in his 15th year with the Indiana University Strength and Conditioning Department, serving as the Senior Director of Athletic Performance.

Tom is responsible for the development and implementation of sport-specific strength conditioning, flexibility, speed, and agility programs for the 8-time national champions IU men’s soccer program, as well as a multitude of other teams from track and field to men’s and women’s basketball, swimming and diving, and more. Tom doesn’t just work in fitness–he lives and breathes it, day in and day out.

Tom has completed countless triathlons, numerous cycling races, and 12, 24, 36, and 72-hour adventure races. But in May of 2012, Tom’s journey changed forever when he suffered a spinal cord injury while mountain biking and broke his C6 and C7 vertebrae, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. After a year of rehabilitation, Tom returned to Indiana University to where he continues to lead the strength and conditioning programs.

Listen to Tom reflect on his experience training the nation’s top athletes, and how his life-changing accident changed his perspective on day-to-day life. You will not only hear his insight on developing programs that challenge top-tier athletes and shape national championship teams–you will learn the value of optimism and hear what it truly means to use adversity to create opportunity.

Everything is possible. The impossible just takes longer. — Dan Brown

TomMorrisPerformance.com

@TomMorrisPerformance (IG) FB, Twitter