The Happiness Quotient

Episode #88 on The Happiness Quotient: America’s only full-time professor of art crime.  Erin Thompson studies a variety of relations between art and crime, including the looting of antiquities, museum theft, art made by detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and the legalities and ethics of digital reproductions of cultural heritage. 

Erin Thompson has discussed these topics for the New York Times, CNN, NPR, and the Freakonomics podcast, among many others...and coming up next on The Happiness Quotient

SHE IS AN author, speaker, art crime professor at the john jay college at the City University of New York….

If you enjoy this episode or any episode of The Happiness Quotient, please subscribe  wherever you may be listening, leave a rating and a review, which are so important to a podcast’s success. And, if you know someone who is interested in art, or art crime, be sure to personally share this episode with them….

ERIN THOMPSON can be found at
 https://www.artcrimeprof.com/

Her twitter handle is @artcrimeprof 

Erin's art show from the prisoners of Guantanamo can be found at https://www.artfromguantanamo.com/

Her upcoming book is Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments  that will be by WW Norton

=========
For more information about Thom Dharma Pollard:
http://eyesopenproductions.com/

For a free downloadable copy of A Course In Happiness:
www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotient

Our theme song, Happiness Jones, appears courtesy of The Wood Brothers.

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If you've been enjoying the podcast and find value in the content, we'd be incredibly grateful for your support. Your monthly contribution helps ensuring that we can continue delivering great content for you to enjoy.

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Thank you!
Thom Dharma Pollard

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Today, a special guest, Peter Hillary, son of the first man to ever climb Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary,…..Peter himself has climbed Everest twice. In addition to being an accomplished mountaineer Peter is a speaker, and he raises funds for Himalayan Foundations around the world....  Together with his sister Sarah Hillary, they manage the intellectual property of the Ed Hillary estate. I can almost guarantee you know someone named after his dad...

During a recent conversation, Peter and  I talked about the environment of Everest, the current state of Nepal and the Khumbu region, the garbage and growing human waste problem….how COVID has devastated Nepal, and what is being done about it. 

For more info on Peter, how to give to the Himalayan foundations, or to inquire about a speaking engagement by Peter, visit

https://www.peterhillary.com/

And, on June 30th there will be a Facebook live event hosted by Musa Masala, to benefit the Wongchu Memorial Hospital….

Links to the event are in the show notes or you can visit

https://musamasala.com/

=========
For more information about Thom Dharma Pollard:
http://eyesopenproductions.com/

For a free downloadable copy of A Course In Happiness:
www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotient

Our theme song, Happiness Jones, appears courtesy of The Wood Brothers.

Send us Fan Mail

If you've been enjoying the podcast and find value in the content, we'd be incredibly grateful for your support. Your monthly contribution helps ensuring that we can continue delivering great content for you to enjoy.

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Thank you!
Thom Dharma Pollard

Support the show

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Greetings to you all - this is a special edition of the HQ. In April I had the honor of doing an Instagram Live event with my old friend Renan Ozturk to talk about Everest, creativity, filmmaking and, yup, nutrition in the mountains. I mean, we’re talking to a guy who used to sustain on candy bars and Ramen and coffee at altitude.

The event was hosted by one of our 2019 Sandy Irvine Search Expedition sponsors, Good To-Go foods, the ultimate in dehydrated backpacking food.

THANK YOU TO THE WOOD BROTHERS FOR THE USE OF THEIR SONG HAPPINESS JONES FOR OUR THEME SONG HERE ON THE HQ

If you like this episode or any of th e HQ please click subscribe on Apple Podcasts and give me a rating and a review….

For more on Renan check out, his artwork is out of this world, as is his photography and filmmaking, modern day Renaissance man

https://www.renanozturk.com/ 

More on Good To-Go https://goodto-go.com 
Real Food. Real Adventure. The most delicious meals, using clean ingredients, to be enjoyed wherever your adventures take you. Just Add Water - Vegan Options - Gluten Free - Handmade Made in Maine

=========
For more information about Thom Dharma Pollard:
http://eyesopenproductions.com/

For a free downloadable copy of A Course In Happiness:
www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotient

Our theme song, Happiness Jones, appears courtesy of The Wood Brothers.

Send us Fan Mail

If you've been enjoying the podcast and find value in the content, we'd be incredibly grateful for your support. Your monthly contribution helps ensuring that we can continue delivering great content for you to enjoy.

Click on the link below:

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Thank you!
Thom Dharma Pollard

Support the show

Here are a few ways you can help support us:
Patreon for access to exclusive content:
https://www.patreon.com/everestmystery

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TODAY I HAVE A GUEST OF UNIMAGINABLE INSIGHT AND TALENT WITH US, THE PULITZER PRIZE WINNING JOURNALIST REPORTER, JOHN BRANCH OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TO TALK ABOUT HIS NEW BOOK

Sidecountry: Tales of Death and Life from the Back Roads of Sports

In 2017 I received a request  from today’s guest, whom I’d never met before, but as you’ll find out in the interview, I was well familiar with his work, 

John Branch, a NY Times sports reporter  -  not your traditional sports, but rock climbing, skiing, mountaineering….or alligator hunting and wingsuit flying...that kind of sports.

As it turns out, sometimes his stories begin, for him, when someone is killed in pursuit of some lofty goal, whether climbing Everest, or skiing deep into the backcountry, or sidecountry, as it’s referred to….

When John first contacted me he was heading to India to spend time with the families of four Indian climbers who were part of an Everest expedition in 2016 -- three men died and a woman survived. Of the three who died, one body was recovered in 2016. The other two bodies were still on Everest, and John was doing a feature on the effort to try to find and recover those bodies, an effort that involved the Indian municipalities, a large sum of money had been raised. John had learned that I’d directly encountered these climbers on my summit day….and he wanted to ask about what I saw, or remembered, from those encounters…..

John’s story was called DELIVERANCE FROM 27,000 FEET...an incredible feature which you can find online.

JOHN’S NEW BOOK INCLUDES THIS INCREDIBLE AND POIGNANT, OFTEN PAINFUL BUT SYMPATHETIC STORY…

SIDECOUNTRY: Tales of Death and Life from the Back Roads of Sports

Sidecountry gathers the best of Branch’s work, featuring 20 of his favorites from the more than 2,000 pieces he has published in the paper.

Sidecountry features such classic Branch pieces, including “Snow Fall,” about downhill skiers caught in an avalanche in Washington state, and “Dawn Wall,” about rock climbers trying to scale Yosemite’s famed El Capitan. In other articles, Branch introduces people whose dedication and decency transcend their sporting lives, including a revered football coach rebuilding his tornado-devastated town in Iowa and a girls’ basketball team in Tennessee that plays on despite never winning a game. The book culminates with his moving personal pieces, including “Children of the Cube,” about the surprising drama of Rubik’s Cube competitions as seen through the eyes of Branch’s own sports-hating son, and “The Girl in the No. 8 Jersey,” about a mother killed in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting whose daughter happens to play on Branch’s daughter’s soccer team.

John Branch has been hailed for writing “American portraiture at its best” (Susan Orlean) and for covering sports “the way Lyle Lovett writes country music―a fresh turn on a time-honored pleasure” (Nicholas Dawidoff). Sidecountry is the work of a master reporter at the top of his game.

Here is my JUNE 9TH, 2021 INTERVIEW WITH PULITZER PRIZE WINNING JOURNALIST, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER BUFFALO FOR LIFE, TALKING ABOUT HIS THIRD BOOK

To buy Sidecountry:

https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324006695

For John's work in the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/by/john-branch

=========
For more information about Thom Dharma Pollard:
http://eyesopenproductions.com/

For a free downloadable copy of A Course In Happiness:
www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotient

Our theme song, Happiness Jones, appears courtesy of The Wood Brothers.

For more information about The Wood Brothers:
https://www.thewoodbros.com/

The Wood Brothers on YouTube:

Send us Fan Mail

If you've been enjoying the podcast and find value in the content, we'd be incredibly grateful for your support. Your monthly contribution helps ensuring that we can continue delivering great content for you to enjoy.

Click on the link below:

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Thank you!
Thom Dharma Pollard

Support the show

Here are a few ways you can help support us:
Patreon for access to exclusive content:
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This episode has a transcript for hearing impaired.

COVID19 wasn’t all bad. A ton of musicians and recording artists invested themselves in projects that they wouldn’t normally have been able to do if they were on tour. On Tour is where the Wood Bros find themselves for much of the year, at least pre-covid.

Back in September of 2020 I talked with Oliver where he was at his home in Nashville, The Wood Brothers tour had been effectively shut down and, I learned later, that in addition to trying out some new songs and jamming with friends, he was making standard breakfast and "dad spaggetti"  for the wife and kids.

The things you remember to ask someone after the call is done...

In this episode I play selections from the album and intersperse them throughout the conversation.

Here’s my June 8, 2021 conversation with Oliver Wood from Charleston S C where he is on a tour stop with the Wood Bros….to talk about his newly released album ALWAYS SMILIN’

Songs from Always Smilin' in this episode:

Climbing High Mountains (Trying To Get Home)
Face of Reason
Get The Blues
Kindness
Molasses
Fine Line

For more information on The Wood Brothers visit:
https://www.thewoodbros.com/

For tour dates and album info, plus a kick ass bio on Oliver, visit:
https://www.oliverwoodmusic.com/


=========
For more information about Thom Dharma Pollard:
http://eyesopenproductions.com/

For a free downloadable copy of A Course In Happiness:
www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotient

Our theme song, Happiness Jones, appears courtesy of The Wood Brothers.

For more information about The Wood Brothers:
https://www.thewoodbros.com/

The Wood Brothers on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTvWKQovDZlLceuct1EEMMQ

Happiness Jones video can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKIoiVWwF5A

Send us Fan Mail

If you've been enjoying the podcast and find value in the content, we'd be incredibly grateful for your support. Your monthly contribution helps ensuring that we can continue delivering great content for you to enjoy.

Click on the link below:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/268133/support

Thank you!
Thom Dharma Pollard

Support the show

Here are a few ways you can help support us:
Patreon for access to exclusive content:
https://www.patreon.com/everestmystery

EVEREST MYSTERY Membership for access to perks and exclusive content:
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Tip Jar for anyone who would like to help support us:
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Episode #83 is an amazing story of Mount Everest with six time summiter and the climber leader of our 2019 expedition to search for the body of Sandy Irvine, New Zealand's Jamie McGuinness. 

The original intent of my interview with Jamie was to talk about the expedition of ours in 2019, which has since become a National Geographic film called Lost on Everest and is the subject of a book by NY times bestselling author Mark Synnott called THE THIRD POLE, MYSTERY OBSESSION AND DEATH ON MOUNT EVEREST….which we did talk about.

However, in starting our interview I asked Jamie about what it was like working as a sherpa on expeditions back in the day. The Sherpa are incredibly strong, almost super human, adapted over centuries of living at high altitude to be stronger and faster at altitude...and Jamie joined their ranks….THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING. 

In explaining this, Jamie began telling me about the story of David Sharp, the English mountaineer who died near the summit of Mount Everest in 2006. His death caused controversy and debate because he was passed by a number of other climbers heading to and returning from the summit as he was dying, although a number of others tried to help him. Jamie knew David very well, and tells a full breakdown of one of the most tragic stories in recent history on Everest. 

In that story he also shares about the story of Lincoln Hall, an Australian climber, who during that same year that David Sharp lost his life, he was reported to have died….then, miraculously, survived. Jamie was on the front line of that story. 

He shares about it all here, on The Happiness Quotient.

Here’s my May 2nd, 2021 conversation with one of the strongest climbers from New Zealand since Sir Edmund Hillary….

=========
For more information about Thom Dharma Pollard:
http://eyesopenproductions.com/

For a free downloadable copy of A Course In Happiness:
www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotient

Our theme song, Happiness Jones, appears courtesy of The Wood Brothers.

For more information about The Wood Brothers:
https://www.thewoodbros.com/

The Wood Brothers on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTvWKQovDZlLceuct1EEMMQ

Happiness Jones video can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKIoiVWwF5A

Send us Fan Mail

If you've been enjoying the podcast and find value in the content, we'd be incredibly grateful for your support. Your monthly contribution helps ensuring that we can continue delivering great content for you to enjoy.

Click on the link below:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/268133/support

Thank you!
Thom Dharma Pollard

Support the show

Here are a few ways you can help support us:
Patreon for access to exclusive content:
https://www.patreon.com/everestmystery

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The didgeridoo, the long wooden musical instrument dating back 10,000 years or more, are commonly and rightfully associated with the aboriginal culture.

Today I’m going to introduce you to an ambassador of the Aboriginal culture, a fascinating man with a deep and learned understanding of his culture and also of the didgeridoo and the art and dance that goes with it. 

I first met didgeridoo musician George Dow at Sydney Bay, Australia, at the Circular Quay. My Friend Rod McCurdy and I were about to board a ferry to see some features of the Sydney area, when from about 100 yards away I spotted my George seated with his back against a fence, the Sydney Opera House across a span of water behind him, in his traditional aboriginal garb, sparsely dressed with clay powder turning his skin almost white. In front of him sat a 4 foot long didgeridoo.

To donate to George and his music and art his PayPal account is

 [email protected]

The link to the popular video of George can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTdD84wFwZ4&t=8s

=========
For more information about Thom Dharma Pollard:
http://eyesopenproductions.com/

For a free downloadable copy of A Course In Happiness:
www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotient

Our theme song, Happiness Jones, appears courtesy of The Wood Brothers.

For more information about The Wood Brothers:
https://www.thewoodbros.com/

The Wood Brothers on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTvWKQovDZlLceuct1EEMMQ

Happiness Jones video can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKIoiVWwF5A

Send us Fan Mail

If you've been enjoying the podcast and find value in the content, we'd be incredibly grateful for your support. Your monthly contribution helps ensuring that we can continue delivering great content for you to enjoy.

Click on the link below:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/268133/support

Thank you!
Thom Dharma Pollard

Support the show

Here are a few ways you can help support us:
Patreon for access to exclusive content:
https://www.patreon.com/everestmystery

EVEREST MYSTERY Membership for access to perks and exclusive content:
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Tip Jar for anyone who would like to help support us:
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Thirty years after he successfully summited Mount Everest from the north side, Port Townsend, WA resident Andy Politz is leaving Base Camp AT THE TIME OF THIS POSTING for his second ascent. Age 61, Politz' first expedition to Everest was on the West Ridge in 1985. During that season was the very first guided expedition in the history of Everest. Today, Andy reports seeing 1,000 or more tents. And, whereas perhaps one fixed wing aircraft flew by for a sightseeing tour, today alone Andy witnessed 30 helicopters in and out of Base Camp before mid-afternoon.

This is a news-worthy and fascinating interview with my old friend, who discusses COVID, the icefall, changes on the mountain and his own new perspectives on climbing the mountain.

=========
For more information about Thom Dharma Pollard:
http://eyesopenproductions.com/

For a free downloadable copy of A Course In Happiness:
www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotient

Our theme song, Happiness Jones, appears courtesy of The Wood Brothers.

For more information about The Wood Brothers:
https://www.thewoodbros.com/

The Wood Brothers on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTvWKQovDZlLceuct1EEMMQ

Happiness Jones video can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKIoiVWwF5A

Send us Fan Mail

If you've been enjoying the podcast and find value in the content, we'd be incredibly grateful for your support. Your monthly contribution helps ensuring that we can continue delivering great content for you to enjoy.

Click on the link below:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/268133/support

Thank you!
Thom Dharma Pollard

Support the show

Here are a few ways you can help support us:
Patreon for access to exclusive content:
https://www.patreon.com/everestmystery

EVEREST MYSTERY Membership for access to perks and exclusive content:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEk3e_XGyNnqwK2ZlxH7fEA/join

Tip Jar for anyone who would like to help support us:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/EverestMystery

"The only disability is a bad mindset," says former NFL linebacker David Vobora, who went  from the TOP OF HIS GAME, to the agony of defeat and addiction, and in so doing, discovered his true calling. David was picked LAST in the NFL draft of 2008...which earns the dubious moniker of MR IRRELEVANT.

This is anything but a football story, and how wrong the Mr. Irrelevant tag was...for a person who has gone on to help countless broken veterans who’ve returned from the war, emotionally broken, with one, two, three, even four less limbs. As you’ll see, David’s ‘Why’ is closing the gap between who a person think they are and who they are called to be….and that takes place through hard, work, challenge and sweat at the Adaptive Training Foundation n Carrolton Texas. 

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE ATF: 
https://www.adaptivetrainingfoundation.org/

NFL 360 feature story on David Vobora:

David Vobora: Career Ending Injury Shaped my Passion for Helping Others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJL3wo4MGfU

=========
For more information about Thom Dharma Pollard:
http://eyesopenproductions.com/

For a free downloadable copy of A Course In Happiness:
www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotient

Our theme song, Happiness Jones, appears courtesy of The Wood Brothers.

For more information about The Wood Brothers:
https://www.thewoodbros.com/

The Wood Brothers on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTvWKQovDZlLceuct1EEMMQ

Happiness Jones video can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKIoiVWwF5A

Tracks in the middle of the episode were found on the Free Music Archive and performed by:

Metyu,VKTRD & Ondro M. off the album VR(Y)T Improvisations Vol.II

For more about Thom Dharma Pollard, about personal coaching or his inspirational presentations, virtual or in person, find him at: 
www.eyesopenproductions.com

To join his mailing list for The Happiness Quotient, email him at [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

If you've been enjoying the podcast and find value in the content, we'd be incredibly grateful for your support. Your monthly contribution helps ensuring that we can continue delivering great content for you to enjoy.

Click on the link below:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/268133/support

Thank you!
Thom Dharma Pollard

Support the show

Here are a few ways you can help support us:
Patreon for access to exclusive content:
https://www.patreon.com/everestmystery

EVEREST MYSTERY Membership for access to perks and exclusive content:
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Tip Jar for anyone who would like to help support us:
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ELISABETH SHARP MCKETTA is a storyteller and the author of eight books: INCLUDING Fear of the Deep (2016) and Fear of the Beast (2019), both collaborations with artist Troy Passey; the biography Energy: The Life of John J. McKetta, Jr. (2017), a true story of a coal miner–and my grandfather!–who set out to change how America uses energy; and a children’s book titled We Live in Boise (2019).  SHE DID A TEDX TALK CALLED “Edit your life like a poem.” 

projects in the works include the anthology What Doesn’t Kill Her: Women’s Resilience Stories; a manifesto/handbook called Edit Your Life;

SHE HAS Literature degrees from Harvard, Georgetown, and the University of Texas at Austin. I wrote a Ph.D. dissertation on the intersections between memoir and myth, a concept that now informs my teaching and writing (and my entire way of looking at the world.) 

Maybe with all this and life with her husband and two children living in Yorkshire Englad during COVID she will ghost write the memoir I have been lying to the world about,,,,,.well, not really.

Elisabeth’s most recent work, the just released She Never Told Me About the Ocean is described by author Karen Russell as “a tidal and intimate book, brimming over with wonders and terrors and the watery echoes that bind generations of women. What a pleasure this book is from start to finish. McKetta maps the dark portals through which her women continuously reinvent themselves, newborn at every age."

Here is my conversation with the brilliant, and ebullient, super intuitive and creative ELISABETH SHARP MCKETTA from her temporary home where she works virtually, on the coast of England.

MORE ON ELISABETH SHARP McKETTA: https://elisabethsharpmcketta.com/

=========
For more information about Thom Dharma Pollard:
http://eyesopenproductions.com/

For a free downloadable copy of A Course In Happiness:
www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotient

Our theme song, Happiness Jones, appears courtesy of The Wood Brothers.

For more information about The Wood Brothers:
https://www.thewoodbros.com/

The Wood Brothers on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTvWKQovDZlLceuct1EEMMQ

Happiness Jones video can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKIoiVWwF5A

For more about Thom Dharma Pollard, about personal coaching or his inspirational presentations, virtual or in person, find him at: 
www.eyesopenproductions.com

To join his mailing list for The Happiness Quotient, email him at [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

If you've been enjoying the podcast and find value in the content, we'd be incredibly grateful for your support. Your monthly contribution helps ensuring that we can continue delivering great content for you to enjoy.

Click on the link below:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/268133/support

Thank you!
Thom Dharma Pollard

Support the show

Here are a few ways you can help support us:
Patreon for access to exclusive content:
https://www.patreon.com/everestmystery

EVEREST MYSTERY Membership for access to perks and exclusive content:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEk3e_XGyNnqwK2ZlxH7fEA/join

Tip Jar for anyone who would like to help support us:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/EverestMystery