Provocative Enlightenment Radio

Peter Singer has been described as the world’s most influential living philosopher. His book Animal Liberation is credited with having triggered the animal rights movement, while his work on global poverty has played an important role in promoting Effective Altruism, which encourages more effective giving to help people in extreme poverty. He is professor of bioethics at Princeton Univ. and now spends part of each year at the University of Melbourne, in Australia, where he is Laureate Professor.

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Most of us will freely admit that we are obsessed with our devices. We pride ourselves on our ability to multitask — read work email, reply to a text, check Facebook, watch a video clip, etc. We can do it all, 24/7! Never mind the errors in the email, or the unheard conversation at the table. In The Distracted Mind, Larry Rosen — a neuroscientist and a psychologist — explain why our brains aren’t built for multitasking, and suggest better ways to live in a high-tech world without giving up our modern technology.

Dr. Larry Rosen is Professor Emeritus and past chair of the psychology department at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is a research psychologist with specialties in multitasking, social networking, generational differences, parenting, child and adolescent development, and educational psychology, and is recognized as an international expert in the “Psychology of Technology.”

Over the past 30-plus years, Dr. Rosen and his colleagues have examined reactions to technology among more than 70,000 people in the United States and in 22 other countries. Dr. Rosen has been featured extensively in television, print, and radio media and has been a commentator on The Daily Show, Good Morning America, NPR, and CNN. He has been quoted in hundreds of magazines and newspapers including USA Today, New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Chicago Tribune, and Los Angeles Times.

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Dr. Pychyl is a Professor in the Department of Psychology, the Director of the Centre for Initiatives in Education at Carlton University and he has a cross-appointment to the School of Linguistics and Language Studies. His research in psychology is focused on the breakdown in volitional action commonly known as procrastination and its relation to personal well-being. He founded the Procrastination Research Group where they have conducted original research on procrastination.

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From the brilliant New York Times bestselling authors of the “refreshingly blunt” F*ck Feelings—this seriously irreverent roadmap reveals the essentials to look for when you’re done being suckered by the promise of true love and want help seeking a real, lasting relationship. Instead of helping readers find true love (also known as “total bullshit”), Dr. Michael Bennett and his comedy-writing daughter Sarah reveal the practical, commonsense criteria for good partnerships.

Dr. Michael I. Bennett (Harvard University ’66, Harvard Medical School ’70) is a board-certified psychiatrist, Canadian, and Red Sox fan. While he’s worked in every aspect of his field, from hospital administration to managed care, his major interest is his private practice which he’s been running for almost 30 years. A distinguished fellow in the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Bennett also spent many years as a member of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society, serving as president in 2004-2005. He’s the author of The Concise Guide to Managing Behavioral Health Care Within a Managed Care Environment, which, to put it mildly, is a dry read. He and his wife, who is also a psychiatrist and doesn’t much care for the title of this book, live in Boston. F*ck Love, published by Touchstone, is his second book with daughter Sarah Bennett.

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Stein’s comprehensive guide to sustainable living skills gives you the tools you need to fend for yourself and your family in times of emergency or disaster. It also provides sound instructions on how to become self-reliant in seemingly stable times by adopting a sustainable lifestyle. The book is truly encyclopedic, covering topics from food and shelter to medicine and metallurgy, and ends on a positive, proactive note with a chapter on Making the Shift to Sustainability.

Matthew Stein is a design engineer, green builder, and author of two bestselling books: When Disaster Strikes: A Comprehensive Guide to Emergency Planning and Crisis Survival (Chelsea Green 2011), and When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency (Chelsea Green 2008), plus a delightful new children’s story, Geronimo the Frog (Create Space December 2013). Stein is a National Merit Scholar and a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he majored in Mechanical Engineering. Stein has appeared on numerous radio and television programs and is a repeat guest on Fox News, MSNBC, Coast-to-Coast AM, Gary Null, Alex Jones and the Thom Hartmann Show. He is an active mountain climber, serves as a guide and instructor for blind skiers, has written several articles on the subject of sustainable living, and is a guest columnist for the Huffington Post.

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Eternal Dharma distills the essence of 5,000 years of spiritual wisdom, teaching us about the very nature of reality and how we can live powerful, effective, and fulfilled lives. It teaches and inspires us to take action and reach enlightenment and pure, transcendental love. Vishnu Swami, who became the youngest Swami in Vedic monasticism at the extraordinary age of 23. We often feel powerless in our lives. We have many desires, but are limited in our ability to transform those wishes into tangible results. We are confused about our desires, and unsure of what will really make us happy.

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David Hand is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Imperial College in London, where he was Professor of Statistics. He served two terms of office as President of the Royal Statistical Society, and is currently Chief Scientific Advisor to Winton Capital Management. As a statistician, he is an enthusiast for data, and how to extract information and understanding from it, and for how probability and chance affect our lives. He’s written 29 books, including The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day.

The Improbability Principle explores the curious and apparently contradictory fact that events which are extremely unlikely seem to occur terribly often. We know that the chance of winning a lottery is astronomically small, and yet someone seems to win almost every week. Worse, there are people who have won lotteries twice, and even three times. We hear stories of people who lose a ring, only to rediscover it twenty years later. Many of us have had the experience of thinking of someone just before the phone rang, and it turns out be them, or of visiting a strange town and unexpectedly bumping into a neighbour or old friend.

In his book, Hand describe why these sorts of things should in fact be expected. They are the result of five laws – scientific and mathematical laws of nature, not magical laws. Put together, these laws essentially say that extremely improbable events are commonplace, and show why this is the case.

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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD, is the founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and professor emerita at California State University, East Bay. The Inner Mammal Institute offers resources for rewiring your mammalian neurochemistry. Dr. Breuning writes the blog, Your Neurochemical Self: Getting Real with a 200 Million-Year-Old Brain, on PsychologyToday.com. Be sure to catch this show and begin enjoying a happy brain chemistry today!

To learn more about Provocative Enlightenment Radio, go to http://www.provocativeenlightenment.com

Do animal rights matter? PETA president and cofounder Ingrid Newkirk has led the world’s largest animal rights organization for more than 35 years. Her passion and dedication to making this world a better place for all living beings has inspired countless others to do what they can to help animals. She has spoken internationally on animal rights issues.

Ingrid was born in Surrey, England, and lived in Europe until she was 7 years old, when she and her parents moved to New Delhi, where her father worked as a navigational engineer and her mother volunteered for Mother Teresa and various charities. Ingrid’s early volunteer experiences—packing pills and rolling bandages for people who were suffering from leprosy, stuffing toys for orphans, and feeding stray animals—informed her view that anyone in need, including animals, is worthy of concern.

Under Ingrid’s leadership, legislation was passed to create the first-ever spay-and-neuter clinic in Washington, D.C. She coordinated the first arrest in U.S. history of a laboratory animal experimenter on cruelty charges and helped achieve the first anti-cruelty law in Taiwan. She spearheaded the closure of a Department of Defense underground “wound laboratory,” and she has initiated many other campaigns against animal abuse, including ending General Motors’ car-crash tests on animals.

Ingrid Newkirk’s biography shows that she is an abolitionist who remains committed to the idea that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.

To learn more about Provocative Enlightenment Radio, go to http://www.provocativeenlightenment.com

Join Eldon and Ravinder for a conversation regarding Choices and Illusions. Why is it we do the very thing we say we will never do? Why is it our own self-talk often betrays our desires. Why is it so hard to believe in yourself? Is there any such thing as bad luck? Is struggle necessary in life? Is it ever too late to change? Why is it that almost everyone wants to change and yet among the most fearful things we deal with in life—it is change? Join in the conversation and learn how to begin to truly make decisions that are more than automatic reactions to programming we all are subject to!

To learn more about Provocative Enlightenment Radio, go to http://www.provocativeenlightenment.com