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Finding Yourself – Ep 19 with Krystal Chong

Krystal was the former Chief Marketing Officer and advisor to the board for Honey Bun Limited when she resigned to go on a journey to answer the questions that consumed her.

Through her Eat-Pray-Love-esque journey, she not only found the answers she was in search of, and a deepened spiritual relationship with life, but the journey healed her struggles with depression and anxiety and has given her a lasting sense of peace and joy, even in turbulent times.

She is now a motivational writer and speaker, and runs KrystalChong.com, a company which produces media that is entertaining and empowering, designed to help others live their most fulfilling lives. She has an MBA in International Business and a BSc in Psychology. She resides in Manhattan with her Norwegian husband and their unbelievably adorable dog, doing the work that she loves.

In this episode, Jon talks with Krystal about her book, What The Hell Am I Supposed To Do With My Life.

Instagram: Krystal Chong

Facebook: Krystal Chong Live Full Live Free

From FBI Fugitive to Freedom – Ep 18 with Malik Wade

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Malik Wade has lived three lives. As a teenager, he was an enterprising drug dealer. As a young man, he was a fugitive from the FBI and eventually a prison inmate. As an adult, Malik transformed his life to become a mentor, author, entrepreneur, and the Executive Director of Scholastic Interest Group. When not speaking at universities as a youth advocate, he likes to work out, read, write, and travel to places like Ghana. Malik lives in San Francisco.

Buy Pressure: From FBI Fugitive to Freedom on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Social Media for Malik Wade:

How Videogames Transformed Our World – Ep 17 with Andrew Ervin

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Andrew Ervin is the author of the novels Burning Down George Orwell’s House and Extraordinary Renditions. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and many other places. He lives in Philadelphia and teaches at Temple University

In Bit by Bit, a blend of history, memoir, and reportage, Andrew Ervin sets out to understand the explosive popularity of this often maligned cultural form. He travels to government laboratories, junk shops, and art museums. He scientists and hobbyists, critics and game makers. He installs a full-sized and obscenely loud Donkey Kong arcade cabinet in his basement, and plays enough Minecraft to suffer from “Minecraft syndrome,” the effect of seeing objects in real life as poorly rendered blocks.

Social Media:

Andrew’s Facebook

Andrew’s Twitter

Andrew’s Instagram

Andrew’s Amazon Author Page

The Beauty of Space – Ep 16 with Jon Ramer

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Jon Ramer is a space artist, writer, President of the International Association of Astronomical Artists, Fellow IAAA member, retired military officer, avid photographer and world traveller.

IAAA/Jon Ramer’s Patreon page for the new book, Our Alien Earth.

Great Books Written In Prison – Ep 15 with Ward Regan

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Ward Regan has a Ph.D. in Labor and Cultural History from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He teaches history and philosophy at New York University’s Liberal Studies Program. He edited and contributed to Great Books Written in Prison, published in 2015 by McFarland Press. His chapter “Thomas Paine: life during wartime” was published in the anthology Experiencing the French Revolution, published by Oxford University in 2013. He was also a Consulting Producer for the documentary Obit, released in 2017. Dr. Regan was also the first president of UAW 7902, the adjunct faculty union at New York University and The New School.

The Crossroads of Art and Meditation – Ep 14 with John F. Simon Jr.

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John F. Simon, Jr. is a visual artist and author of “Drawing Your Own Path” (Parallax Press, 2016) As one of the pioneers in the development of Software Art, his seminal work “Every Icon” was included in the 2000 Whitney Biennial and his ‘art appliances’ can be found in the permanent collections of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, among others.

Jon speaks with John about his book, Drawing Your Own Path: 33 Practices at the Crossroads of Art and Meditation.

Relevant websites:

Drawing Your Own Path book website
John’s Daily Drawings
John’s Professional and Gallery Work

Social Media:

Facebook group for Drawing Your Own Path
Instagram for Drawing Your Own Path

How To Be A Stoic – Ep 13 with Massimo Pigliucci

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Massimo is a philosopher of science and evolutionary biologist at the City College of New York. He holds PhDs in genetics, evolutionary biology, and philosophy. His areas of research include the nature of evolutionary theory and the phenomenon of pseudoscience. He has written for many outlets, including the New York Times, and has written or edited ten books. He blogs at platofootnote.org and howtobeastoic.org.

Jon talks with Massimo about his book, How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy To Live A Modern Life.

Social media for Massimo:

Piccolo, An Artist’s Tale – Ep 12 with Eileen Merwin

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Eileen Merwin has been fortunate to write and publish fables and other assorted forms of offbeat fiction for both children and adults. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College– and has been published in acclaimed children’s magazines Cricket and Spider, as well as having received the Vermont Playwrights Award and honorariums from Highlights and TADA Youth Theater in New York City.

Currently she writes for Bearport Publishers in New York City and teaches literature & writing at ASA College in the heart of Herald Square where she credits her students with a constant stream of inspiration and encouragement.

Piccolo: an Artist’s Tale, a novella, is the author’s third work of fiction published by Braiswick of Felixstowe, England. Eileen credits Trevor Lockwood, now retired editor in chief, for sustaining her as a writer with his good-natured sarcasm and sometimes searing wit.

Web/Social Media for Eileen:

Website: Book Bogglers
Facebook: Book Bogglers
Eileen’s LinkedIn

Temporary People – Ep 11 with Deepak Unnikrishnan

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Deepak Unnikrishnan is a writer from Abu Dhabi and a resident of the States, who has lived in Teaneck, New Jersey, Brooklyn, New York and Chicago, Illinois. He has studied and taught at the Art Institute of Chicago and presently teaches at New York University Abu Dhabi. Temporary People, his first book, was the inaugural winner of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing.

In this episode, Jon interviews Deepak about his new book, Temporary People.

In the United Arab Emirates, foreign nationals constitute over 80 percent of the population. Brought in to construct the towering monuments to wealth that punctuate the skylines of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, this labor force works without the rights of citizenship, endures miserable living conditions, and is ultimately forced to leave the country. Until now, the humanitarian crisis of the so-called “guest workers” of the Gulf has barely been addressed in fiction. With his stunning, mind-altering debut novel Temporary People, Deepak Unnikrishnan delves into their histories, myths, struggles, and triumphs.

Combining the irrepressible linguistic invention of Salman Rushdie and the satirical vision of George Saunders, Unnikrishnan presents twenty-eight linked stories that careen from construction workers who shapeshift into luggage and escape a labor camp, to a woman who stitches back together the bodies of those who’ve fallen from buildings in progress, to a man who grows ideal workers designed to live twelve years and then perish—until they don’t, and found a rebel community in the desert.

Improving Mental Health – Ep 10 with Dr. Lloyd Sederer

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Dr. Lloyd Sederer is Chief Medical Officer of the New York State Office of Mental Health, the nation’s largest state mental health system; Adjunct Professor at the Columbia/Mailman School of Public Health; Medical Editor for Mental Health at The Huffington Post; and a Contributing Writer to US News & World Report. Dr. Sederer is a monthly regular on Sirius-XM Insight Radio. He has published 7 books for professional audiences and 4 books for lay and student audiences, as well as 500 articles in medical and non-medical publications including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Commonweal Magazine, and Psychology Today.

In this episode, Jon interviews Dr. Lloyd Sederer about his book Improving Mental Health: Four Secrets In Plain Sight.

Social media for Dr. Lloyd Sederer: