Let's Talk About It

Dr. Shepherd's special guest is Alison Dreith, interim director at NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri. NARAL's mission is to guarantee women the right to make personal decisions regarding reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion. She has had many positions in related fields, including working at a health center and as their grassroots organizer. Before coming to NARAL Missouri, she was the statewide organizer at Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition, where she worked to support pro-choice candidates in key elections.

This program presents views that are challenging but not confrontational, political but nonpartisan, scientific-cultural but metaphysical-theological on a central issue of our times, as Dr. Shepherd asks some hard questions about abortion and the pro-choice povement. Whether you are pro-choice or pro-life, this interview will keep you better informed about the ongoing cultural war being waged about this highly controversial topic.

Dr. Tom's special guest is a seasoned veteran in the field of juvenile justice. Officer Blu Nicholson has 25 years' experience in the field of juvenile justice in both corrections and law enforcement. He received a bachelor's in criminal justice from Texas A&M and a master's in counseling from Amberton University. Officer Nicholson currently holds a State of Texas Master Peace Officer certification and a Texas Juvenile Probation Officer certification. Officer Nicholson has served as a juvenile probation officer for Henderson County, Texas, for the past 8 years. He is vice chair of the Athens ISD Crimestoppers Committee and member of the Safe Schools Committee. If you know kids who have had trouble with the law, this show will offer ideas about what you can do to help them avoid replaying the same old mistakes.

A middle-aged man is admitted to the hospital, suddenly plucked from familiar surroundings and given a bunk in a public building, like a stranger in a strange land. People stick him with needles, almost at whim. A train of uniformed workers swing in and out of his room like it was a station stop on a commuter line. Then another stranger arrives, announces herself as the chaplain, and asks, "How are you doing?" The patient immediately thinks: Great. They send in the angel of the Lord-am I going to die?

Dr. Tom Shepherd's special guest this week is anything but an angel of death. Rev. Dr. Charles Robertson, chaplain supervisor at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Chaplain Robertson works with men and women preparing for professional ministry, including Unity Institute® and Seminary students, to familiarize them with how to do ministry in a hospital setting. An ordained Nazarene minister, Chaplain Robertson holds a degree in business administration from the State University of New York at Buffalo, Master of Divinity from Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, and Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. His insights on the role of the clergy as a spiritual resource to hospital patients, staff, and administrators will give you a new appreciation for the people engaged in health care and those they serve. If you've ever visited a friend or relative in the hospital, or been hospitalized yourself, this show is for you.

Dr. Tom's guest this week is John Lindsay-Poland, peace activist who has written about, researched, and organized action for human rights and the demilitarization of U.S. policy, especially in Latin America, for more than 30 years. From 1989 to 2014, Lindsay-Poland served the interfaith pacifist organization Fellowship of Reconciliation. Since May of 2015 he serves in the Wage Peace program of the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers). He is the author of several books including Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama. He was Editor and staff writer of Panamá Update, a quarterly publication from 1992 to 1999; Puerto Rico Update from 2000 to 2005; Colombia Update from 2006 to 2011; and the monthly Latin America Update from 2011 to 2014. He is now developing tools and curriculum to research militarism on behalf of activist campaigns.

Health care generates ongoing controversy in the United States, but what are the issues for biomedical ethics when insurance companies dictate what treatment may or may not be administered by withholding payment for necessary drugs, tests, or procedures? And where should our society spend its health care dollars-to sustain life at the ending stages or improve the whole quality of life by emphasis on wellness and disease prevention? What about allowing suffering patients with no hope of recovery the choice to end their lives painlessly?

Dr. Tom's special guests are two Unity Institute® and Seminary students who will graduate in 2016 and become Unity ministers, both lively speakers who are uniquely qualified to speak about medical practicality and economics issues.

Keri King earned a bachelor's in nursing at Carroll College in Wisconsin. She worked as a clinical care/ICU nurse for more than 20 years and is still a practicing member of the nursing profession. She brings enormous practical knowledge to the discussion of patient care and medicine.

Richard Belous has a bachelor's from Columbia College and earned both a master's and Ph.D. from George Washington University. He went on to teach as adjunct faculty at GWU, a position he still holds. "Dr. Rick" was appointed chief economist for the United Way and serves as research advisor to Unity Worldwide Ministries.

Don't miss this one. You will hear amazing insights about the way money and medicine interplay, and learn what a person of faith can do to help those who feel lost in the whirlwind of health care today.

Dr. Tom's special guest this week is Episcopal Priest Denise Vaughn. She graduated from the University of South Florida in 1976 with a bachelor's in political science and minor in business. She earned her Master of Divinity from the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, and today serves the 158-year-old Grace Episcopal Church in Chillicothe, Missouri, as rector (senior minister). She cofounded a residential homeless shelter in Chillicothe.

Rev. Vaughn also works in prison ministry. She writes: "The work of the priest is as a pastor and teacher; proclaiming by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ; loving and serving the people among whom I work, caring alike for young, and old, strong and weak, rich and poor ..."

You are invited to discover the battle to help the desperate being waged by people like Rev. Denise Vaughn, female Episcopal priest and frontline worker in spiritual social action.

Dr. Tom's special guests this week are Gregory Stahr, soon-to-be middler year student at Unity Institute® and Seminary, and his son Christopher Stahr, who is graduating from high school/homeschooling today. Christopher talks about his experiences in homeschooling and public schooling and discusses what it's like to grow up in the Unity church. Greg, his excitedly proud poppa, shares stories about their time together and Christopher's passion for a good education. This is a great family show. Pass it along.

It's hard to believe the Vietnam War came to an unsatisfying conclusion 40 years ago this week. Dr. Tom and both his special guests have personal experience with the era. Unity Institute® and Seminary senior Nhien Vuong Dougherty was born in Vietnam and brought to the United States by her parents at the fall of Saigon in 1975; she was 2 years old. First-year UI student Don Ray served with the U.S. Army in Saigon during the infamous 1968 Tet Offensive. Also, Dr. Tom flew medical evacuation helicopters in combat during 1971. Their experiences bring listeners personal stories only veterans and survivors of the unhappy conflict could provide. Do not miss this one. Share the link with friends and Vietnam veterans.

Dr. Tom's guests will be three Unity Institute® and Seminary students preparing for Unity ministry-Michael Perrie, Elise Cowan, and John Beerman. They will share stories about how their ecological consciousness has grown throughout the years, plus facts and trends in environmental awareness, global warming, pollution of land and sea, and hopes for recovery from humanity's dependency on trash-producing activities and fossil fuels. A program worth listening to year-round.

Dr. Tom's guest this week is Richard Belous, a student in the second year of the three-year Master of Divinity residency program at Unity Institute® and Seminary. Prior to enrolling in the Institute, he earned his bachelor's at Columbia University, and master's and Ph.D. in economics from The George Washington University. Dr. Belous is an advisor to Unity Worldwide Ministries on philanthropic, social, and economic trends, and research issues. He is also an adjunct professor in economics at The George Washington University and the former vice president for research and chief economist for the United Way system. Dr. Belous has authored, or coauthored, 13 books and numerous articles on economic and philanthropic trends. He has served on the advisory council for Giving USA and as an advisor to two United States Presidential Commissions.