Podcast 419: The Wonder of Aging with Michael Gurian

In a recent interview with Dr. Michael Gurian we discussed his new book entitled ” The Wonder of Aging-A New Approach to Embracing Life After Fifty”. 

This book is a must read for anyone who is over fifty, for Michael offers a comprehensive look at the emotional, spiritual and cognitive dimension of life after fifty.  Michael sees the second half of our lives as an enormously fruitful, exciting and fulfilling time.  I know that many in this age group might have a different opinion but after reading Michaels book you will come away with a different viewpoint of life after 50.

Michael discuss open the issues of sex, and how men and women age differently, effects on the aging of our brains and living with a sense of legacy and purpose.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed doing it.  For more information about Michael Gurian and the Gurian Institute please click the link above or see the Facebook page link below.

Gurian Institute Facebook page

Podcast 418: Food Over Medicine with Dr. Pam Popper MD

I recently interviewed  Dr. Pam Popper the author of a new book entitled ” Food Over Medicine-The Conversation That Could Save Your Life”.   I am so excited by what Pam had to say in our interview together that my wife and I have already shifted our diet.

The wisdom that Pam shares in our interview can certainly save and improve the quality of our lives.   The plant based diet that she advocates is something that she researched, and a plant based diet unequivocally reverses many of the well known diseases that plegue society today.

It is not a question of living longer, we statically are doing that—the question we should ask is what will the quality of our lives be like if we live into advanced years but we don’t have our health?

American’s are overmedicated, overfed and malnourished and fail to realize that the answer to lower disease rates doesn’t lie in more pills but in the foods we eat.    I would really like to encourage my listeners to pay close attention to what Dr. Popper speaks about in our interview if you choose to shift your diet to a nutrient rich diet with lots of green vegetables you are likely to see major shifts in your personal health.

If you would like more information about Dr. Popper’s Wellness Forum then click the link here to be directed to her website.  You can also watch the video below or click on the links attached to her Facebook Page.

I hope you enjoy this wonderful interview with an extremely knowledgable physician with sound health advice—without the prescriptions.

Podcast 417: The Sketchnote Handbook with Mike Rohde

If you will remember I did a series of podcasts  recently with author David Sibbet on Visual Leaders, Visual Teams and Visual Meetings.  This series of interviews lead me to find Mike Rohde the author of an amazing new book entitled “The Sketchnote Handbook-The Illustrated Guide to Visual Note Taking”  

Some of you just might be wondering what the heck is visual note taking.  It is a vey cool  mind connecting process that if learned and practiced allows you to substitute graphic images or doodles with words.  This mental connection allows you to remember more of the speech, class or wherever you might be taking notes.

Since my introduction to the process and reading Mikes book, I have been practicing and I really like the process.  The good thing about visual notes is that it does not matter if you are a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner you will have fun and will remember the experience associated with the event where you were applying the visual note taking.

In my interview with author Mike Rohde we discuss the various techniques, tools and the how to’s.  Mike is one of the early pioneers in this process and I know you will learn a lot from our interview and the links that I have provided below.

I hope you enjoy our interview together, and please click on the links below and watch the cool video of Mike showing you how to take visual notes.

http://rohdesign.com/book

http://www.peachpit.com/promotions/promotion.aspx?promo=139064

http://www.flickr.com/groups/thesketchnotehandbook

http://sketchnotearmy.com/

http://sketchnotetypeface.com/

Podcast 416: Crucial Conversations with Ron McMillan

This is my second interview with co-author Ron McMillan.  The first book I interviewed him about was entitled ” Change Anything-The New Science of Personal Success”.  I found this book to really be life changing, the concepts and ideas that his organization researched on personal success are important for all individuals interested in mastery to read and practice.

In this interview with Ron I speak with him about another book he and his colleagues co-authored  entitled “Crucial Conversations.”  This book is a must read for anyone wanting to learn how to improve their level and depth of communications.  It does not matter if your crucial conversation is with a spouse or a co-worker the principles taught in “Crucial Conversations” apply anywhere.

Ron points out that “Crucial Conversations” are defined by three important factors 1) are individuals strong emotions involved 2) where their opposing opinions and views 3) are the stakes high.  We have all be involved in these types of conversations; the question we need to ask ourselves should be how did we emerge from these conversation? Were we looking to win, were or ego attached to the outcome? If so then you would probably benefit from reading Crucial Conversations.

Ron also points out that in organizations where the employees are skilled at crucial conversations: 1) the employees respond five (5) times faster to financial turndowns in the organization 2) employees are two-thirds more likely to avoid injury or death due to unsafe conditions 3) and when a crucial conversation occurs the savings is over $1,500 and an eight-hour work day—amazing results, every employee should know how to handle themselves during a crucial conversation.

I think that with results like these understanding how to manage crucial conversations would be worth reading about and understanding the techniques and principals.

If you would like to learn more about the book and the courses that Vital Smarts teaches, just watch the short video below or click on the link above to be directed to the Vital Smarts website.

I hope you enjoy this wonderful interview with author Ron McMillan co-author of Crucial Conversations.

Podcast 415: Flourishing: A Frank Conversation About Sustainability with John Ehrenfeld

I recently had a wonderful interview with an amazing man and steward of our planet, John Ehrenfeld.

In John’s new book entitled ” Flourishing-A Frank Conversation About Sustainability”.  John engages in a Q&A with Andrew Hoffman a previous student of John’s where the met while Andrew was a doctoral student at MIT and  John was running the MIT Program on Technology, Business and the Environment.

In my interview with John you will quickly realize that he has many concerns about our environment and sustainability.  As John states “While sustainability has gone “mainstream” he does not believe so and is very concerned about what he see.  He admits that many good things have come out of our society’s pursuit of environmental protection, but he sees our efforts as merely a Ban-Aid that masks deeper, cultural roots of our sustainability challenges.

One of those  issues is our insatiable appetite as a culture for more which utilized our natural resources at an alarming rate, and makes the US the largest consumer of overall resources worldwide.

“Sustainability still has not entered our consciousness in spire of the torrent of its use and that of its distant cousin, green. The world of business and government moves merrily along selling its meager efforts as sustainability, avoiding any meaningful appreciation of the fundamental problem or any actions that would make a difference.”

In my interview with John we cover many pressing topics, I encourage you to listen to and read John’s new book it will open up your eyes to what “really” need to change to create a world that “flourishes” for everyone.

You can learn more about John Ehrenfeld by visiting his Facebook page by clicking here.

Or watch a brief interview by clicking on the video below.

Podcast 414: Making the Matrix Work with Kevan Hall

I know that many of you have seen the movie “The Matrix”, it is one of those movies that alters your sense of reality.

In my interview with Kevan Hall about his new book entitled ” Making the Matrix Work” Kevan alters the readers sense of reality about the complex structure of business today.

In large companies today we are faced with multiple bosses, competing goals, influence without authority and accountability without control of the norm.  In Kevan’s new book he endeavors to show how the matrix can help employees and management increase the individual flexibility and responsiveness without confusing the goals or roles of the teams and employees.

Kevan states that the matrix is a deliberate choice to sacrifice some clarity for increased flexibility.  He introduces tools and ideas to help individuals manage successively higher levels of ambiguity—from things that can be made clear to managing dilemmas and conflict.

If you are in the management of a larger organization then I highly recommend reading “Making the Matrix Work.”.  This book will assist you in better understanding the overall personal and organizational dilemmas that pervade in big business today.

If you would like more information about Kevan Hall you can visit his website by clicking here.

You can also watch a book trailer by clicking on the video below.

 

Podcast 413: Rich Food-Poor Food with Jayson & Mira Calton

Everyone needs to be more concerned and informed on what foods to consume. So much is in the news about GMO’s, and rightfully so.  We are the only nation that does not require labeling for GMO’s in our foods.

In my interview with Jayson and Mira Calton both leading experts in the field of nutrition we discuss their new book entitled ” Rich Food, Poor Food”.  We have a lively discussion about the growing concern over GMO foods, as well learning about nutrient rich foods—those dark leafy green vegetables which are so good for us.

Jayson and Mira have created a book that is not only informative, but quite useful.  They have created the “Ultimate Grocery Purchasing System” and the book guides the reader through what foods to say clear of and what foods will enrich and provide the highest level of nutrition.

I hope you enjoy this interview with Jayson and Mira—-if you want more information please click here to be directed to their website.

You can also watch the video interview below in which they discuss common ingredients which are definitely not good for you.

Podcast 412: Visual Teams with David Sibbet

A few week ago I started an interview with David Sibbet the author of “Visual Leaders”.  We did not get a chance to complete the interview so I invited David back for another podcast.

In this interview we continue our dialogue about  ”Visual Leaders” and we also delve into another of David’s books entitled ” Visual Teams”.

As David states “Visualization provides teams with a common language and serves as  as a powerful tool for improving processes and communicating big picture contexts”.   Engaging in visual meeting using large murals or whiteboards is a very involving way to present and tell a story as well as a way to create engagement and buy-in from the teams members.

If you work in a team or own a business and have not experienced the benefit of utilizing the graphic visualization tools,  then I would invite you to listen to this interview and visit Grove Consulting website by clicking here.  You will find various tools and aids to assist you even if you don’t have an artistic bone in your body.

To learn more about David Sibbets books “Visual Leaders, Visual Teams, and Visual Meetings” please click any of the hypertext links to be directed to the books at Amazon.

Enjoy this great interview with author David Sibbet.

Podcast 411: The Wizard Of Us with Jean Houston

(Note: In two small segments of this interview you will hear me yelling at my dog who was barking and creating lots of noise.  I apologize for the yelling I have asked Jean to do another interview, but wanted to get this posted until she complets the re-do.   I thought the mute was on but obviously not. The wonders of recording podcast without having a sound proof room.  Enjoy the interview anyway, she is an amazing woman.)

I recently had the honor and pleasure of interviewing Jean Houston about her new book entitled “The Wizard of Us”.

Jean provides the reader with lessons that will transform and inspire.  She utilizes the famous heros journey story from the Wizard of Oz as the training ground.  ”The Wizard of Us” offers new understanding of the human condition, and the importance of myth and the critical nature of our role and how we can participate in the creation of a better world.

As Jean states we are living in the most unique time in human history.  Other times in history thought they were it. They were wrong states Jean. This is it.  Often our everyday, local experience is not sufficient for the enormity of the challenges that are laid upon us in this most remarkable of times.

Join author Jean Houston on a journey,  one where you can write a new story about your life and live the life your soul wishes you to live.  ”The Wizard of Us” will take you there through story and myth— find the courage and heart and venture with the Oz characters while you write your new story.

If you want to learn more about Jean Houston please click here to be directed to her website, or click here to be directed to her Facebook page.  You can also watch a video trailer about the book, below.

Enjoy our interview together.