Shaping Opinion

New York Times best-selling author and professional organizer Julie Morgenstern joins Tim to talk about how to get your life back on track thanks to the right mindset and a system for getting organizing your time and space. She’s advised a wide range of people on how to get organized, from top business executives and celebrities to people just like us. In this episode, Julie talks about how to re-emerge from this pandemic a more organized person, ready to take on a new chapter in your life.

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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics measures such things as productivity. It’s a key economic indicator that reveals a lot about the health of our economy.

Now that we’re in the middle of a pandemic-related economic slump, people are looking for ways to be productive – at home, working from home, at a workplace, or in too many cases, they are trying to be productive in looking for work.

No matter who you are, there’s a good chance you feel you could be more organized. So, how do you get there? How do you find a way to get organized so you are better prepared to take on the challenges that life throws at you?

We often hear about the need for better time management, or the need for everything in our house or workplace to have a place.

Link

* Julie Morgenstern

Country music star Larry Gatlin joins Tim to talk about a life in country music, as a songwriter, as a performer and as a member of one of the most famous vocal groups in the history of country music. Larry is the oldest of the three Gatlin Brothers who hale from West Texas. He is an award-winner, a chart-topper and a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

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Larry Gatlin was born in Seminole, Texas, the son of a driller in the oil field. He’s the oldest of three musical brothers – Larry, Steve and Rudy would later become known to millions simply as The Gatlin Brothers.

The three brothers started singing young. Larry was only seven when he and his younger brothers would sing at family and church events.

Larry played football on scholarship at the University of Houston, where he didn’t study music, but instead, he majored in English. He said that at college he developed a love affair with the English language, a passion that would serve him well as a songwriter.

After college, Larry started to make a name for himself as a songwriter and performer in Nashville. His brothers would join him later and by 1976, the group had arrived on the national stage.

They toured the United States and around the world. They saw their songs rise in the charts and have enjoyed a career that anyone who aspires to be a country music star would want.

Larry wrote every Gatlin Brothers hit and more. He wrote songs that were recorded by others, like Elvis Presley, Glen Campbell, Barbra Streisand, Johnny Cash and many others.

He’s written an autobiography called “All the Gold in California,” a nod to the title of one of his hit songs. He’s won numerous awards and has seen success on and off of the stage.

Last October, Larry was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Special Thanks to...

* Larry Gatlin for his time and for the use of some of his music in this episode.

* Kay Waggoner of Absolute Publicity in Nashville, Tennessee for arranging this interview.

* Bonnie Brozik Teague, Larry's assistant who made sure the interview went off without a hitch.

Links

* The Gatlin Brothers, Grand Ole Opry

* The Gatlin Brothers website

* Larry Gatlin Bio, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame

* All the Gold in California, by Larry Gatlin (autobiography at Amazon)

* Dottie West, Country Music Hall of Fame

* Mickey Newbury was Country Music Royalty, CMT

About this Episode’s Guest Larry Gatlin

Country star Larry Gatlin was born in 1948 in Seminole, Texas, the son of a driller in the oil field. The oldest of the three Gatlin brothers, by age six, he was already accompanying younger brothers, Steve and Rudy in singing at family and church events.

After high school, Larry went to the University of Houston on a football scholarship. Larry majored in English and developed "a love affair with the English Language" that later served him well in his songwriting.

On the strength of his songwriting talents,

Jazz piano legend Fred Hersch joins Tim to talk about his life in and out of jazz, his new virtual concert series called Fred Hersch at Home. Fred was one of the first to live stream his performances daily on Facebook, entertaining tens of thousands who may never have had the chance to see him in person. And we talk about the new world in which we’re living and how jazz is making a positive impact.

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I mentioned Fred Hersch’s Grammy nominations, but that’s just the beginning of the pianist’s many accomplishments. He was the recipient of a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition. He was named a 2016 Doris Duke Artist and has twice been awarded Jazz Pianist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association.

He travels the world with the Fred Hersch Trio and as a solo artist. He’s been a member of the Jazz Studies faculty of the New England Conservatory, and he now teaches at Rutgers University

He’s written a best-selling memoir called “Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In and Out of Jazz.” And he’s even been the subject of a feature documentary called “The Ballad of Fred Hersch.”

If you visit Fred on his Facebook Page, you’ll get information on something he just launched on his Patreon page. It’s called “Fred Hersch at Home,” a weekly online concert series that gives you access to a 15-20 minute mini concert that goes live at 1 p.m. every Monday.

Our Thanks to …

* Fred Hersch for providing all of the music used in this episode.

* Ann Braithwaite of Braithwaite & Katz Communications for arranging this interview and providing content used in these show notes and during the podcast.

Links

* Fred Hersch Music - Get all of the latest information on music, performances, and more.

* Fred Hersch Recordings (Amazon)

* Good Things Happen Slowly: A life in and out of jazz, by Fred Hersch (Amazon)

* The Ballad of Fred Hersch (Documentary)

* The Jazz Pianist Fred Hersch, New York Times

About this Episode’s Guest Fred Hersch

Photo credit: Vincent Soyez

A select member of jazz’s piano pantheon, Fred Hersch is a pervasively influential creative force who has shaped the music’s course over more than three decades as an improviser, composer, educator, bandleader, collaborator and recording artist. He has been proclaimed “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade” by Vanity Fair, “an elegant force of musical invention” by The L.A. Times, and “a living legend” by The New Yorker.

A 15-time Grammy nominee, Hersch has regularly garnered jazz’s most prestigious awards and has long set the standard for expressive interpretation and inventive creativity, whether through his exquisite solo performances, as the leader of one of jazz’s era-defining trios, or in eloquent dialogue with his deeply attuned duo partners. His acclaimed 2017 memoir, Good Things Happen Slowly (Crown Archetype Books/Random House), was named one of 2017’s Five Best Memoirs by the Washington Post and The New York Times.

TV news industry veteran and consultant John Altenbern joins Tim to talk about the business of TV news. John runs a consulting firm named Crawford Johnson & Northcott, Inc., that specializes in helping TV news operations get better ratings and grow their audiences. John tells what it takes for TV news operations to compete against each other for your time and attention. He gives a glimpse of some of the methods and strategies those news directors, producers and reporters use to keep us tuned in.

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In 2016, the Pew research organization published a report that told us that more Americans get their news from local TV stations than any other place.

Pew reported that back in 2007, that 29.3 million people watched their local evening newscasts, but by 2015, the total was roughly 22.8 million. A big drop of over 6 million, but still the most sizable audience for news consumption.

In this episode, we explore some of the reasons why the change, and also why local TV news remains so dominant in the media landscape.

In 1965, Westinghouse Broadcasting, known as Group W, owned a TV station in Philadelphia, KYW-TV. The station was a CBS network affiliate.

Until this time, the stereotypical newscast looked like this. A curmudgeonly man sat at a desk delivering headlines as though it was ripped right off of a wire service ticker tape machine. He’d deliver the news with all the seriousness of Walter Cronkite. In many cases, the producers would even pipe in background audio of the tickety tap of typewriters and wire machines as the anchor man delivered the day’s news.

But news director Al Primo had a different idea. He hired field reporters and sent them out into the city to get the news, and then film their reports from the field. (Yes, they used film cameras, not video cameras).

He diversified the news team, adding women and minorities, and he instructed his team to engage in more relaxed conversation in between the delivery of those serious news stories. He called it Happy Talk.

If you tuned into KYW back then, you’d see the news anchors walking into their places on the set in a hurry, scripts in hand, as though they were working right up until air time to bring you the latest news.

He even gave his approach to news a brand. He called it Eyewitness News.

On the other side of town, WPVI-TV responded to the challenge. News director Mel Kampmann gave his viewers a different brand. Rather than happy talk, he focused on short news clips, and nothing but hard, fast news. The pace of the stories was relentless, giving viewers the idea that if they changed the channel, or even left the room, they might miss something.

Mel branded his approach to the news as well. He called his style Action News.

In this episode, John gets into detail on just how the business of TV news works and why.

Links

* Crawford Johnson & Northcott

* How COVID-19 Has Impacted Media Consumption, by Generation, Visual Capitalist

* Oy, the Traffic. And it's Pouring! Do I hear sirens?, Columbia Journalism Review

* State of the News Media, Pew Research Center

* Reinventing Local TV News, Nieman Reports

About this Episode’s Guest John Altenbern

John Altenbern is President of Crawford Johnson & Northcott, Inc., - or CJ&N - an Iowa-based media market research and consulting...

Author Charles Casillo joins Tim to talk about the most iconic sex symbol in the modern era Marilyn Monroe. Charles is the author of the novel “The Marilyn Diaries” and a non-fiction work “Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon.” In this episode, we about Marilyn Monroe, her legacy in the entertainment industry, in society and her imprint on pop culture.

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Marilyn Monroe died at the age of 36 on August 4th, 1962 of an apparent drug overdose, leaving questions about whether it was a suicide or not. Since then, there have been more questions than answers.

One thing is certain. The glamorous Hollywood icon’s death only added to her mystique, leaving her forever young and somewhat mysterious in the minds of millions of fans of her day and for generations of fans to come.

Believe it or not, Marilyn Monroe only enjoyed nine years of stardom in her life. She lived a lifetime in those years.

It’s 2020 and you can still easily find her iconic image throughout popular culture. On clothing, in memes, on posters, in documentaries and on video, and of course in books. Marilyn Monroe the person is no longer with us, but Marilyn Monroe the industry and societal influence is as strong and omnipresent as ever.

Charles Casillio is an author who has written two books about Marilyn Monroe. One is a novel called The Marilyn Diaries, and the other, a non-fiction work, is called Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon.

And while he’s written about other legendary figures, Marilyn Monroe has a special place in his heart.

Links

* Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon, by Charles Casillo (Amazon)

* The Marilyn Diaries, by Charles Casillo (Amazon)

* Charles Casillo, IMDB

* Charles Casillo, McMillan

About this Episode’s Guest Charles Casillo

Charles Casillo is a native of New York City. He is the author of “The Marilyn Diaries,” “The Fame Game,” “Boys, Lost & Found,” and “Outlaw: The Lives and Careers of John Rechy.” His non-fiction work on Marilyn Monroe is entitled, “Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon.”

He is also the author of the biography Outlaw: The Lives and Careers of John Rechy which tells the story of the legendary literary lion, provocateur, and sexual renegade. Casillo's profiles, short stories, articles, reviews, and poems have appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Christopher Street, The Lambda Book Report, The Washington Post, Frontiers, Men's Style, The Harvard Review and many others. He divides his time between New York and Los Angeles.

He has contributed to The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books and others. His movies include: “Let Me Die Quietly,” and “Fetish.”

Judith Martin, better known to millions of readers as Miss Manners, joins Tim to talk about good manners, an understanding of etiquette and civility are as important as ever. Judith is an author and a syndicated columnist. In this episode, she talks about her career at the Washington Post, about how etiquette and manners in society have evolved, and about her new book called, “Minding Miss Manners: In an Era of Fake Etiquette.”

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In Judith Martin’s official bio, she describes herself as being a quote – “perfect lady in an imperfect society.” She’s Miss Manners, the pioneer mother of today’s civility movement. And then with her wry sense of humor, she adds, quote, “Now, if she could only persuade people to practice civility as much as they talk about it.”

Her syndicated newspaper column under the heading of Miss Manners is distributed three times a week in more than 200 newspapers in the United States and other countries. Her column has chronicled matters of manners since 1978.

She’s written several books over the years, and she has received numerous honors for her work, among them the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to society as America’s foremost etiquette columnist and author.

In these current times, you wouldn’t be faulted if you believe that the world needs a champion for better manners now more than ever. Judith Martin is that champion.

Links

* Minding Miss Manners: In an Era of Fake Etiquette, Good Reads

* Miss Manners, Syndicated Columns

* MissManners.com

* Miss Manners Archive, Washington Post

* Judith Martin Books, Amazon.com

About this Episode’s Guest Judith Martin

Photo Credit: Daniel Lake

Judith Martin, aka Miss Manners, is a columnist, bestselling author of numerous books, and manners authority. Born a perfect lady in an imperfect society, Miss Manners is the pioneer mother of today’s civility movement. She lives in Washington, D.C. and Venice, Italy.

Ketch Secor joins Tim to talk about his long journey in roots music, his band the Old Crow Medicine Show, that now iconic song he co-wrote with Bob Dylan, and how the nation’s COVID quarantine has created a new phenomenon – an explosion of live music on the Internet. Coming to a live stream near you!

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There’s an old saying, March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. This year, March came in like never before and we’re still feeling the effects.

As the coronavirus started to spread around the world and take a foothold in the United States, the political season was in full swing at the start of the month of March. Super Tuesday, the day when the largest number of states held their primaries on the same day, was slated for March 3rd.

What wasn’t on the schedule was a natural disaster that hit Nashville and left a trail of devastation no one could have expected. East Nashville was hit hardest.

And just when it seemed like things couldn’t get any worse, the entire nation went into various stages of quarantine in response to the spread of that COVID-19 virus.

And ever since, the nation has faced a series of new challenges. Lockdown. Shuttered small businesses. Stay at home orders. Closed parks. Closed restaurants and community centers. Nursing homes and hospitals closed to visitors. The NBA, the NHL, Major League Baseball, seasons on hold.

And live entertainment came to a standstill. Music venues large and small, the lights dimmed, the doors locked, the performers quiet.

But people are funny in a resilient sort of way. They seem to find a way. So, almost on cue, we started to see people make things happen in a new way.

Jazz, pop, rock and old-time country music started to pop up with live performances on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Natural disaster and a health pandemic could not silence the music.

And for its part, the music has been doing what music does. Bring communities together to entertain, to provide an escape, to heal.

One person in the middle of all of this has been Ketch Secor. He’s the founder of the roots music band Old Crow Medicine Show. And he’s been doing his part, by creating brand new music in response to the disasters, and by creating a live stream like you’ve never seen. He calls it the Hartland Hootenanny.

Links

* Ketch Secor

* Old Crow Medicine Show

* Hartland Hootenanny

* How Ketch Secor Started Wild Roots Band Old Crow Medicine Show, Rolling Stone

About this Episode’s Guest Ketch Secor

Ketch Secor is a founding member of Old Crow Medicine Show, a Grammy Award—winning group that has been inducted as members of the Grand Ole Opry. In 2017 and 2018, Old Crow Medicine Show released three critically acclaimed albums: Best of Old Crow Medicine Show (Nettwerk), 50 Years of Blonde On Blonde (Columbia Nashville), a reimagined version of Bob Dylan's classic Blonde on Blonde album, and Volunteer (Sony Music Nashville). His most well-known work, "Wagon Wheel," a song he co-wrote with Bob Dylan, is ranked among the top country songs of all time.

Joel Griffith joins Tim to talk about how America will get back to work in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and related quarantines across the country. Joel is a research fellow for the Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity at The Heritage Foundation. In this episode we look ahead to what’s possible and exactly how the country can get its economy back on its feet and humming again.

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The unemployment rolls are growing. Millions are out of work. Millions of businesses, large and small have been shuttered, at least for the time being. People who were at first worried that they could become infected with the COVID-19 virus as now worried if they will have a job to go back to in the not too distant future.

As the shutdowns drag on, those worries intensify, and people who are complicit in social distancing directives from their governors and federal officials are getting more restless. They want to get back to work. They want a plan. They want to know what’s next and they want it to be soon.

For many, it’s really not a matter of “want.” They need the process for restarting the economy to commence as soon as possible. For their families and their financial futures.

They need answers. Joel Griffith may have a few. He’s a research fellow for the Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity at The Heritage Foundation, and he’s been spending a good deal of time lately talking to cable news anchors about this very issue.

One of the things he observes in many of his conversations is that many people often forget that there is a major psychological component when the subject is economics.

Links

* The Heritage Foundation

* How to Restart National Economies During the Coronavirus Crisis, McKinsey & Company

* Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

* Want to stop consumer hoarding in times of crisis? New research may have the answer, INFORMS and its journal Marketing Science

About this Episode’s Guest Joel Griffith

Joel Griffith earned his juris doctor at the Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law, with a dual emphasis in Alternative Dispute Resolution and Federal Income Taxation; he is currently a member of the State Bar of California. At Chapman, he was a charter board member and treasurer of the Investment Law Society, served as a charter member and vice-president of the Chapman chapter of the California Republican Lawyers Association, and competed on both the mock trial and mediation teams.

Following law school, Joel managed an equities trading account utilizing market neutral strategies. As an attorney, he worked with Heideman Nudelman Kalik, PC in Washington, D.C. During the 2012 presidential primary season, Joel worked for a campaign as MI state field director, OH state operations director, and WA parliamentarian/assistant delegate strategist.

Joel is currently a research fellow for the Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity at The Heritage Foundation. Previously, he worked as a researcher for a former member of The Wall Street Journal editorial board. Joel also was Deputy Research Director at the National Association of Counties. Most recently he was Director of the Center for State Fiscal Reform at the American Legislative Exchange Council. Numerous media outlets have featured Joel’s written analysis,

Carol Roth joins Tim to talk about a wide range of things, most notably how to use humor to make a point. Carol is a 2020 version of a renaissance woman, a national media personality, a former investment banker, a New York Times best-selling author, and now an investor, business advisor and entrepreneur. We talk with Carol about her career and the niche she has carved for herself providing tough love on business, entrepreneurship and how she leverages the power of humor to make a point.

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Carol Roth describes herself as a recovering investment banker and billion-dollar deal maker, and that’s just the beginning.

She’s a national media personality, a business advisor, a company director, investor, sought after speaker and the author of the New York Times bestseller, “The Entrepreneur Equation.”

She was a judge on the Mark Burnett TBS network series called “America’s Greatest Makers.” Think of it as a “Shark Tank” for technology ideas.

She’s been the host of Microsoft’s Office Small Business Academy, and makes frequent appearances on Fox Business Network’s Bulls & Bears, CNBC and many other network news programs. She has a popular blog and is the host of a podcast called “The Roth Effect.”

And, of course, she’s what you might consider a social media influencer, with a legion of followers on Twitter and a big presence on other platforms.

But as I mentioned, if Carol has a super power, it’s probably her ability to drive a point home with a sense of humor that’s edgy and contains no small amount of truth.

Links

* Carol Roth (website)

* Carol Roth Twitter Account

* The Entrepreneur Equation, by Carol Roth

* The Roth Effect, (podcast on Apple)

* Future File

About this Episode’s Guest Carol Roth

Carol Roth is a national media personality, creator of the legacy planning system Future File, ‘recovering’ investment banker/billion-dollar deal maker, business advisor, company director, investor, speaker and author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Entrepreneur Equation. She has been a judge on the Mark Burnett (Shark Tank, The Voice, Survivor, The Apprentice) produced technology competition series, America’s Greatest Makers, on TBS and the Host of Microsoft’s Office Small Business Academy show, among other on-air engagements.

Carol also contributes various media, where her multimedia commentary covers big and small business and the economy, current events, politics and pop culture topics. She hosts the podcast The Roth Effect and is a weekly panelist on Fox Business’s Bulls & Bears, as well as other programming. Her avid defense of capitalism, free markets and reason finds her op-eds published in a variety of outlets.

Previously, Carol was the host of The Noon Show, a current events talk show on WGN Radio and a contributor to CNBC where she was a weekly panelist/co-host of CNBC’s Closing Bell. Carol has also been seen weekly on a variety of national television outlets including Fox Business, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.

Carol has worked with hundreds of companies, ranging from a single entrepreneur with an idea to Fortune 500 businesses, on all aspects of business and financial strategy. Collectively, she has helped her clients complete more than $2 billion in deal transactions, including raising more than $1 billion in capital, completing $750+ million in mergers and acquisitions,

PR veteran Rick Miller joins Tim to talk about helping Dockers change the way people dress in the office. He and his team played a part in the launch of the now ubiquitous “business casual” dress code. In this episode he talks about some of the keys to getting society to change its mindset about fashion and other things.

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Depending on your age, you may not remember a time when wearing a suit to work was a requirement for most men. And for women, it was almost mandatory that they wear a skirt and heels to the office.

That all started to change in a big way in California in the early 1990s, but the birth of “business casual” can be traced further back – to the 1960s and Hawaii.

In the 1960s, Bill Foster was the president of the Hawaiian Fashion Guild. The Guild was trying to figure out a way to sell more of those iconic and colorful Aloha shirts to Hawaiian residents, not just tourists.

So, they launched a campaign called Operation Liberation. The project provided two Aloha shirts to every member of the Hawaii House of Representatives and the Hawaii Senate. The goal of the campaign was to get politicians to allow government workers to wear the seasonal shirts to beat the summer heat and to support the state’s garment industry, while making a fashion statement for the state’s tourism industry.

By 1966, the custom was dubbed Aloha Friday, because Fridays became the day when it was socially acceptable to wear your Aloha shirt to work if you lived in Hawaii.

Meanwhile, around the same time on the Mainland in California, one of the anchor companies in Silicon Valley had its own fashion ideas. Hewlett-Packard says it was the first to introduce casual attire in the workplace. The company called Fridays its “Blue Sky Days,” and it didn’t stop just with shirts.

Bill Hewlett and David Packard were the founders of Hewlett Packard, and they wanted people in their company to start to think out of the box and be more creative. So, they got behind the idea of letting employees dress more casually on Fridays, and encouraged them to think more differently about their approach to business solutions.

Before long, the idea spread throughout Silicon Valley.

Fast forward to 1992, and an idea that was hatched at a brand Levi’s had recently acquired. That brand was Dockers. Rick Miller was on the PR team that worked for Dockers at the time, and he remembers how “business casual” became a real thing in America, and not just for Fridays.

In this episode, Rick talks about how a Dockers marketing campaign led to a transformation in the way we dress for business.

Dockers had been considered weekend wear. Golf course, barbecues and parties. But in 1992, the company sent an eight-page Guide to Casual Business Wear to 25,000 human resource managers to distribute to employees

That was a game-changer, but it was just the beginning of both the campaign and the fashion transformation.

Links

* Rick Miller Communications

* Dockers

* Why American Workers Now Dress So Casually, The Atlantic

* Casual Friday and the End of the Office Dress Code, The Atlantic

* Who Started Casual Fridays?, MentalFloss

About this Episode's Guest Rick Miller

Rick Miller,