Roads Taken

In college, Jesse Israel knew that his major didn't really matter so much because he wanted to pursue a life in entertainment and media and early experiences landed him on the path right away. An out-of-season internship at NBC Sports landed him in the president’s office, with access to top executives and the inner workings of things. And when graduation coincided with the Atlanta Olympics, he had a job waiting, albeit a few flights down from the head office. With a career that saw him in every sort of producing role, eventually developing major star vehicles, he realized—in an industry that had transformed thoroughly since he began in it—that there might be another way to use the full range of skills he’d honed over two decades.

In this episode, find out from Jesse how tapping into relationships and dealing with rejection can be quite transferable…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Jesse Israel is a certified financial planner, wealth manager, and insurance expert, who currently advises at Capstone Partners Financial and Insurance Services in Los Angeles, where he previously spent a career in the entertainment industry that spanned two decades with stints at NBC Sports and Dateline, and development roles for numerous feature film deals. Being a very proud husband and father of two girls, he is cofounder of the Dad Club, which is just the coolest.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

Starting out as pre-med and a member of the development ski team, Dan Kashman changed courses a couple of times in college, first getting his ski time in as a ski instructor instead of on the team, then switching to economics. Right after graduation, he worked got an investment banking job but knew very soon he wanted to get his hands more dirty, or rather more snowy. He wrote to a number of consolidating ski resort companies and figured out how to use his Wall Street experience in a different way. Ultimately, he found that his interests and skills made the most sense in the world of marketing. Moving between smaller companies and larger shops with powerful tools, he learned to find the connections between data, technology, and creativity for companies of all sizes, including his own.

In this episode, find out from Dan how changing course and pursuing longevity aren't always in opposition…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Dan Kashman is an experienced Chief Marketing Officer and entrepreneurial executive with over two decades of experience in finding the connections between data, technology, and creativity for companies large and small. His marketing consultancy Tenth Mountain is a multidisciplinary marketing firm with clients in all sectors. But as a devotee of the health and wellness space, he is also the founder of Medo, which uses AI-powered health coaching to make preventative health optimization accessible to everyone. Check to get your free Sense Score and a holistic view of your longevity potential.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

As she began college, Annie Soutter Horton had a clear, singular identity: She was a swimmer. But something began feeling off and she had to make a change that left her in search of who she really was at core and how she could feel more whole. In following a path toward education, she saw others who might not be secure with who they were and what made them well. She continued to center the idea of wellness in her work. When an opportunity came to move her family across the world to New Zealand she leaned in and found ways to incorporate indigenous ideas of wellness into her academic studies and home life.

In this episode, find out from Annie how quieting yourself to tune into the elements of wellness can bring you fill circle…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Anne Soutter Horton would tell you Three Sisters is her mountain, Metoliius is her river, Oregon is where she is from, Christchurch is where she lives, and her name is Annie. She is currently a lecturer in Educational Studies and Leadership in the Faculty of Education at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, where she teaches courses on child and adolescent wellbeing and health, as well as leadership. She is raising a brood of five children with college classmate Travis Horton and, in summer of 2024, competed in New Zealand’s South Island Short Course Championships and broke longstanding national records in her age group in the 400-, 800-, and 1500-meter freestyle.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

When we last spoke with Jonathon Stewart, known affectionately to us as Stew, he was in LA hitting his stride in the world of screenwriting and working on animated and live-action feature films. He has continued on this path with his long-time creative partner, depsite the ups and downs that have come in this period of redefinition for the entire film industry. 

In this Roads Taken Revisited, find out from Stew how now, with the perspective one gets in the middle stages of life, sometimes looking at the long game really just tracks with searching for the little things that make us human…on Roads Taken Revisited with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Jonathon “Stew” Stewart is a screenwriter, producer, and consultant for business, education and content creators. With his long-time creative partner Eyal Podell, he has written for the likes of Pixar, Warner Brothers, Dreamworks, Paramount, Sony, and Netflix. He has two kids who will invariably feature in his future storytelling.

For Stew’s first appearance on Roads Taken, listen to Character Study.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

When last we spoke with Pace Duckenfield, he was on the cusp of retiring from a long and decorated military career and he was weighing how he might use his skills and experience in the private sector. He parlayed the cybersecurity skills he gained in the Army into a stable day job, but he’s most passionate at this point about the business he has started with his brother through the Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) program. Though he kept his roots in Georgia for continuity for his wife’s job and community they have built for their daughters, he has still found ways to branch out through the new strategy consultancy.

In this episode, find out from Pace how finding gratitude for one path ending and another beginning is the key to moving on…on Roads Taken Revisited with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Pace Duckenfield is a retired Major from the U.S. Army who served four overseas tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, who is co-founder and CEO of DX3 Strategists where he leverages his extensive background in military intelligence and cyber security to guide and manage the firm’s overall operations and to assist its private sector and government clients. He lives in Georgia with his wife, two daughters, and bearded dragon, El.

For Pace’s first appearance on Roads Taken, listen to Intelligence Quotient.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

Somehow, Michael Rigney always knew he wanted to work in the climate and energy space. So he studied engineering, but then wasn’t sure what the path would be. He figured the business side of that world would likely make the most sense for him, so he started out in consulting. But he was drawn to a life that would get him closer to the heart of things. In taking an early opportunity to start a business with his brother, the entrepreneurial bug bit him and after business school he worked in various start-up environments in a variety of fields. All the while, he worked on balancing his natural intensity with units of happiness and ultimately weaved all his experiences into a start-up of his own.

In this episode, find out from Michael how many times the journeys that create the most meaningful things are the long ones …on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest// Michael Rigney is a serial entrepreneur and current CEO and co-founder of Cala Systems, makers of the world's first intelligent heat pump water heater for the residential market. The new company is the culmination of his decades of leadership experience in climate and energy start-ups combined with a background in building products and in thermal sciences. 

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

When we last spoke with Kira Lawrence, more than two years ago, she was taking a sabbatical from her tenured faculty position to work within New Jersey's Division of Clean Energy at the state’s Board of Public Utilities to try to make more direct impact on the climate crisis. Her time there made her think at length about how to best leverage her time and expertise and realized that—right now—she needs to be outside academia to have a chance to making the immediate impact she seeks. What she learns now about the skills necessary in the future, will hopefully help her return to higher education down the road to develop more people into the agents of change our planet needs. This is similar to the work she is doing to back others in the public sphere facing the broader topics of community diversity and equity.

In this episode, find out from Kira how leadership is rarely about having the answers but motivating people from diverse backgrounds to take on the gnarly questions…on Roads Taken Revisited with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Kira Lawrence is currently senior policy advisor for the board of public utilities for the State of New Jersey.

For Kira’s first appearance on Roads Taken, listen to Better Environments.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

A chance trip to the Soviet Union just before the fall had a huge impact on Erika Monahan and she entered college knowing that she wanted to learn the Russian language and travel back there. Configuring her studies around travel, she became a history major and decided to focus on the present and let the future stay out there until she was ready for it. A web of connections allowed her to revisit after college some of the places she’d gone previously. But her own desire to go deeper into the history and a little adventure put her on a path to navigate other geographies for her career and family. In this episode, find out from Erika how, while clues from the past can certainly inform the future, the present provides a necessary grounding…on Roads Taken Revisited with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Erika Monahan is currently an associate professor in the department of history at the University of New Mexico, where she has been since 2008. Her research and teaching focus on the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Russia from the ninth century to the present, with special emphasis on the history of the Russian empire, environmental history, commerce in this part of the world, and Russia in a larger European and global context. Her writing and scholarship have won numerous awards and she recently served as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow in Cologne, Germany. 

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

When Brandon del Pozo first thought about the life of an academic, it seemed way too slow-paced. Like Jack Kerouak, he needed to go experience what people were doing across America. But once he'd walked that road, he realized he could spread innovation by getting beyond the local beat. After concluding his long policing career, he did go back for his PhD and had just completed it when he first spoke with Roads Taken, somewhat in academic limbo as a postdoctoral researcher.

In this episode, find out from Brandon how reflecting on what you've seen and know locally can have eventual large-scale impact …on Roads Taken Revisited with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Brandon del Pozo is currently an assistant professor of medical and health services, policy and practice at Brown University. He conducts NIH-funded research at the intersection of public health, public safety, and justice, focusing on substance use, the overdose crisis, and violence. Prior to his research career, Brandon served as a police officer for 23 years, 19 with the New York City Police Department and an additional four as Chief of Police of Burlington, Vermont, where he directed the city's interdisciplinary response to the opioid crisis, an effort associated with a substantial and sustained reduction in opioid overdose deaths. His book, The Police and the State: Security, Social Cooperation, and the Public Good, was published in 2023 by Cambridge University Press. You can find out more at brandondelpozo.com. (240)

For Brandon’s first appearance on Roads Taken, listen to The Philosopher Officer.

Find out how reflecting on what you've seen and know locally can have eventual large-scale impact..

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley will be returning for an all new season this summer— but don’t expect frothy beach-read material. We’re getting into the heavy stuff of the current moment—the opioid epidemic, higher education, the climate crisis and scariest of all, online dating. As in all our previous seasons, we will talk with new guests—all a quarter-century-plus after college—about who they were as they graduated, who they thought they’d become, and how they’ve traveled down various roads to get where they are today. But this time, interspersed with those new voices, we will be sitting down anew with some previous guests to get an update on the paths they've trod since our last conversation. It might not all be fun and games but, in talking to these special humans, we will certainly be finding the humanity in it all.//You might want to re-listen to a few previous episodes.

Particularly handy might be the episodes withBrandon del Pozo (The Philosopher Officer),Kira Lawrence (Better Environments), andAdam Medros (Disruptive Mindset). Or visit our full archive at RoadsTakenShow.com. And be sure you've subscribed or you're following in your favorite podcast app and that your auto download feature is turned on so you don't miss any new episodes when they start dropping later in July 2024.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]