Talk! with Audrey

The economic disruption of COVID-19 has challenged small business owners and entrepreneurs to adopt fresh approaches to become more competitive in the post-pandemic marketplace. This is especially true for minority-owned and women businesses in underserved communities. To address this issue, Maggie Ference, Senior Vice President, BB Credit & Ops Director, Huntington National Bank joins me to offer tips  to help empower your small business and community.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital, in Illinois wants to encourage us to learn the truth about organ and tissue donation. Most organ donations take place after the donor has died however, some organs can be donated while the donor is still alive. This can be a great alternative to waiting on the ever growing transplant list and can help save lives. Dr. Juan Caicedo, Director of the Liver Transplant Program, Living Donor Liver Program and Hispanic Transplant Program at Northwestern Medicine joins me to talk about organ donation and discuss some of the latest research available and Northwestern Memorial’s role in advancing treatment.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, STEM jobs are projected to grow 8.8% from now until 2029. STEM education encourages critical thinking skills, innovation and creative problem-solving.  Competency in these areas is a strong indicator of future career success. Joining me to talk about the importance of STEM education as kids head back-to-school, Phil Cook, high school chemistry teacher and TikTok star (@chemteacherphil 3.3M followers.

Kevin L. Schewe has penned another action-packed romp in his critically acclaimed Bad Love series his latest, Bad Love Medicine takes readers from the deep-space beauty of Planet Azur back to a WWII Europe riddled with danger and espionage, bringing the Bad Love Gang face-to-face with one of history’s greatest villains—Adolf Hitler himself , the Bad Love Gang (based on his own friends in high school) once again set out to save history—this time, by stopping the Nazis from creating a time machine of their own.

Cobra Gold is an annual multinational military exercise co-hosted by the United States and Thailand and involves 29 participant nations. PETA has exposed a dark secret: One Cobra Gold drill billed as “survival” training is in reality a gruesome macho party. Joining me with the details, Shalin  Gala, Vice President, International Laboratory Methods at PETA.

After four years of collecting data, the first scientifically authenticated documentation of unidentified aerial phenomena UAP’s was released by the Genesis 2 Project (G2P) and Primeau Forensics in 2020 which included images captured with infrared technology.  Former Los Alamos National Labs biophysicist Dr. Jennifer van Velkinburgh and  former FBI Special Agent and Forensic Scientist in the Evidence Response Team Unit at the FBI Lab Debra LaPrevotte to discuss the report and the ongoing release of scientifically-authenticated UAP recordings  . . . from the Genesis 2 Project.

Matt Blashaw, licensed contractor; television host on HGTV and DIY Networks joins me with a rundown of the most common summer home repair issues and how to tell when a project has become too big or dangerous for you to handle yourself and how to find qualified, vetted professionals when you need them!

Now that summer is well underway, it's a great time to revisit your budget to make sure you are on track with your spending and saving goals, while still enjoying all that summer has to offer.Jason Gaughan, Consumer Card Product Executive at Bank of America, is here to discuss his top tips for keeping your spending in check.

A year and a half ago, a family received a devastating diagnosis in the midst of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, that mother is sharing her son’s experience with (SMA), a rare, devastating genetic disease that is also a leading genetic cause of infant death, and how early diagnosis and treatment transformed his life. My guests are Dr. Sandy Reyna, Vice President of Global Medical Affairs, Head-Therapeutic Area at Novartis Gene Therapies and Kathryn McBride, parent of child with SMA. We talk about the signs of SMA, the importance of newborn screening and an early diagnosis, and new treatment options.

According to PETA, instead of using modern research methods to find a cure, billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent and more are set to be spent on sepsis experiments on animals, while the more than 150 medicines that have effectively treated sepsis in other species have then failed in humans.   . . . joining me to discuss the very real cost to animals and humans of this failure to switch gears, EMILY TRUNNELL, Ph.D., Neuroscientist and Research Associate for PETA joins me with information about state-of-the-art, human-relevant research methods that are available and the very real cost to animals and humans of this failure to switch gears.