Moving from New York to Los Angeles, LaRayia Gaston (https://www.linkedin.com/in/larayia/) was struck by the extreme poverty she saw in a part of the city known as skid row, and how close it was to extreme wealth. Raised to always lead with love and be of service, she could not turn away. While simultaneously launching and building her own design and branding agency, she founded Lunch On Me (LOM) (https://www.lunchonme.org/). The organization now redistributes organic food that would otherwise be discarded to people living on skid row six days a week, reaching 10,000 people a month.

The story of this community, along with Gaston's time both helping, then living on skid row for 43 days, is the subject of a forthcoming documentary called 43 Days. You can learn more and help contribute to its production here (https://www.crowdrise.com/o/en/campaign/43days).

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

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

Jimmie Vaughan started playing blues guitar when he was a kid and now, more than 5 decades later, he just never stopped. Growing up in Dallas in the 50 and 60s, Jimmie and his little brother, Stevie Ray used to spend their time listening to music and figuring out how to play it on guitar.

By the time Jimmie was about 15, he’d already been getting paid to play in a band 6 nights a week and decided to strike out on his own, eventually landing in Austin, where he’d end up playing with legends like BB King, Eric Clapton and nearly every other blues legend, and eventually earn his own place a legendary blues player.

Along the way, his brother, Stevie Ray Vaughan would join him in Austin, carving his own iconic status in the world of blues. Tragically, Stevie lost his life in a helicopter crash, leaving Jimmie in what he calls his dark years, trying to carry on with music and life. He eventually emerged and has been a guiding light in the world of Blues for more than 50 years now. His new album, BABY, PLEASE COME HOME (https://www.jimmievaughan.com/), is a rolling and righteous celebration of everything the blues can be.

And, as with all of our very special music episodes this month, at the end, Jimmie plays a bit of guitar for us. This one was really special for me, because Jimmie didn’t have his guitar with him in the studio, but he gave me the great honor of playing the acoustic guitar I’d built with my own hands almost a year-to-the-day earlier. 

Jimmie is currently touring (https://www.jimmievaughan.com/jimmie-vaughan-tour-dates), so be sure to catch him on the road!

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

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

Jim Kwik (http://kwikbrain.com/) is the founder of Kwik Learning, host of the top-ranked Kwik Brain podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kwik-brain-with-jim-kwik/id1208024744), and a globally-acclaimed expert in speed-reading, memory improvement, brain performance, and accelerated learning.

This is pretty surprising, given that a brain injury left him learning-challenged and labeled the 'boy with the broken brain' as a child. He has since dedicated his life to helping others learn and live their brightest self through courses, keynotes, consulting and media.

In today's conversation, we dive into his powerful journey of discovery and, in the latter half, Jim shares key ideas designed to help us all learn better and live bigger.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

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

Thrust into the world of presidential politics in her twenties, Laura Gassner Otting (https://lauragassnerotting.com/) found herself working in the White House, before a series of events led her to launch her own firm, and grew it into a powerhouse in the non-profit search world, then eventually sell the company to focus on her next act. Having worked at the highest levels of power and potential, she learned a ton about what truly makes people feel what she calls “limitless.” Her awakenings are distilled into a great new book, appropriately entitled, Limitless, which builds upon something she calls consonance. In this episode, we explore her remarkable journey. 

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

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

Growing up between New York City’s South Bronx and Queens in the 1970s, Rosanna Durruthy's (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmdurruthy/) family and home were often the place where everyone gathered, people from all walks of life had a place at the table. Now, the Head of Global Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at LinkedIn, Durruthy works to bring all voices to the table and empower people with a sense of value, inclusion, equality and belonging. This conversation isn't just about work, though, it's about the power of being open, finding your own voice and power, valuing others and creating a sense of welcoming, compassion and understanding in our lives in the name of making it a richer place to be being a catalyst for change.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

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

Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist (http://www.lorigottlieb.com/) and New York Times bestselling author who writes the weekly “Dear Therapist” advice column for The Atlantic.

She has written hundreds of articles related to psychology and culture, many of which have become viral sensations all over the world. A contributing editor for the Atlantic, she also writes for The New York Times Magazine, and appears as a frequent expert on relationships, parenting, and hot-button mental health topics in media such as The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Dr. Phil, CNN, and NPR.

Her latest book, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, (https://amzn.to/2Tj5UMZ) and this week's conversation is a revealing look at the inner thoughts, struggles and revelations of a therapist who finds herself on the "needing help" side of the conversation, and all the unexpected things this shift in dynamics brings up.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

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

From the outside looking in, Leon Logothetis (https://leonlogothetis.com/about/) had everything. But, from the inside looking out, he was dying a little bit more every day, fiercely lonely and falling apart.

So, he made a radical decision that led to several trips traveling across America without cash, sustaining himself only on the kindness of others and giving back along the way.

This journey into the heart of kindness became a film and the basis of a book and then The Kindness Diaries (https://leonlogothetis.com/netflix/) series, which can now be seen on Netflix. And, Leon has a new book out called Go Be Kind, (https://amzn.to/2Oc5h6x) that is more of a daily journal of fun and easy ways to be kind.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

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

Abby Wambach’s (http://abbywambach.com/) name is synonymous with soccer. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, FIFA World Cup Champion, and the highest all-time goal scorer ever, she is an icon. But, that's not the whole story. Not by a long shot.

Her new book, Wolfpack, (https://amzn.to/2F6gxNx) and the movement and company she’s launched along with it, is a reclamation. It's a call to agency and community.

We explore this powerful journey, along with many of the deeper motivations, struggles, moments of awakening, defining stories and so much more in today’s powerful conversation.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

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

At the age of seven, Shobha Rao (https://shobharaowrites.com/about/) moved from India to the United States and found herself in a world of wonder and discovery that's never left her.

In fact, as we'd discover in today's conversation, she is so committed to presence and wonder, her cellphone has no internet, nor does she ever use her camera. And, when she teaches students, she invites them to have their heart's broken by leaving their phones at the door.

Obsessed with books, Rao eventually became a writer, won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction, and her story “Kavitha and Mustafa” was chosen by T.C. Boyle for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 2015. Her latest book, Girls Burn Brighter (https://amzn.to/2VFe0S1), is a heartbreaking and eye-opening exploration of friendship, sisterhood, patriarchy and the boxes society often seeks to put people in.

Rao is currently the 2018 Grace Paley Teaching Fellow at The New School in New York City.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

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

Seane Corn (http://www.seanecorn.com/) is an internationally celebrated yoga teacher known for her impassioned activism, unique self-expression, and inspirational style of teaching.

Featured in magazines, TV, radio, and Oprah.com, Seane now utilizes her fierce commitment to action and her massive platform to bring awareness to global humanitarian issues. Since 2007, she has been training leaders of activism through her co-founded organization Off the Mat, Into the World®. Seane has spent time in the US, India, Cambodia, Haiti, and Africa working with communities in need- teaching yoga, providing support for child labor and educating people about HIV/AIDS prevention.

Her forthcoming book, Revolution of the Soul (https://amzn.to/2UA2LZP), will be published in September 2019. And, this week, we're diving deep into her personal journey, early-childhood trauma and struggle with OCD, awakening to her own sense of power and agency, discovering yoga and a global community of teachers, practitioners and heart-led activists and so much more.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

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