Simcha Jacobovici | Lost Tomb of Jesus
June 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It was a great honor to feature Simcha Jacobovici on the show today! A journalist with many awards to his name, and great controversy, we get to the bottom of things in this special long interview… Simcha is an award-winning, controversial documentary film director and producer. His numerous awards include a Gold Medal from the International Documentary Festival of Nyon, a certificate of Special Merit from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, a Genie Award, three U.S. Cable Ace Awards, two Gemini Awards, an Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Award, a British Broadcast Award, a Royal Television Society Award and the Edward R. Murrow Award. Jacobovici has also won the Emmy for “Outstanding Investigative Journalism” an unprecedented three times (1996, 1997 and 2007). http://www.simc
Tim Kellis | Relationships & Wall Street
April 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
We spoke with Tim Kellis today about marriages and why they break up so often in this country. Kellis analyzes the break ups from a Wall Street perspective.More information from Tim Kellis’ website:
Why is knowledge of mathematics important to understanding relationships?
Almost without exception, observed the great 20th Century philosopher Bertrand Russell in his exhaustive study of the history of Western philosophy, modern Platonists “are ignorant of mathematics, in spite of the immense importance Plato attached to arithmetic and geometry, and the immense influence that they had on his philosophy.
Russell aptly sums up why modern psychology has been remarkably unable to grapple with the very human struggle of modern relationships. Tim Kellis calls today’s relationship gurus Freudian failures as one out of every two marriages are dissolving in divorce. The approach by Dr. Phil and others is merely psychological and intuitive, when what’s required is a more analytical and scientific evaluation of the philosophy in human relationships we call happiness.
According to Kellis, mathematics is the very basis for science as well as a prerequisite for understanding logic and philosophy. A student of mathematics and engineering, as well as a brilliant Wall Street analyst, he tells his clients: “Happiness is a philosophy not a psychology.” The ability to comprehend the causes of relationship struggles requires the skill to analyze, comprehend and then write, he says. His mathematically derived analytical skills provide the foundation for his ability to find the relationship solution that can save marriages.
For Kellis, writing this book has been a life experience involving his professional and personal life, as well as his imposing intellectual and emotional development, that has led him to understand how to make a relationship work.
“Too often I’ve heard ‘I’d rather be happy and single, than unhappy and married.’ Yet my parents taught me that divorce was not an option in life, something they taught me not by what they said, but by how they lived. They had a very unhappy relationship for a very long time, but they stayed married. The only reason I was able to come to understand how to make a relationship successful is because I was able to overcome my own childhood shortcomings, forgive my parents and see them for who they really were–my parents.
Ambition and a strong aptitude for math helped lead Kellis to discover how to make relationships work. His math skills led directly to an engineering degree, nine years in the telecommunications industry, an MBA in finance, and finally on to Wall Street, where he became the very first semiconductor analyst to focus on the communications market.As an analyst you are required to be an expert in your field. The research completed before writing Equality: The Quest for the Happy Marriage was pursued in the same fashion as that required before becoming an analyst. The search for the truth requires a critical mind.
After publishing a 300-page initiation piece entitled Initiating Coverage of the Semiconductor Industry: Riding the Bandwidth Wave, Kellis became a leading semiconductor analyst at one of the biggest firms on Wall Street. As an analyst, he was in constant contact with investors, honing his presentation skills to the point that he became an expert presenter, a skill he believes is essential in his new role as relationship advisor. The experience he gained as a Wall Street analyst provided an excellent backdrop for researching and writing a book on relationships. As an analyst he had to deal with many egos, some healthy, some not. During this time, he learned why corporations and systems functioned at their best or worst and today applies much of what he learned to smaller, more intimate systems embodied in relationships.
What is the thread common to all corporations? Regardless of industry, almost every company starts out initially with the sole purpose of providing a product or service that makes its customers happy. The exception here is relationship therapists who have simply rationalized unhappiness. Competition exists to keep every corporation on its toes. Try to think of a product that makes customers unhappy or a television commercial where the actors are portrayed being unhappy using a specific company’s product or service. There aren’t any.
According to Kellis, “working with so many people who loved their jobs on Wall Street exposed me to many happy relationships. Their happiness was not simply a result of how much money they made, many of the happy relationships were with people who were not making a lot of money, but because they found working on Street incredibly intense and exciting. The common notion within mainstream psychology that relationships without arguments are impossible is simply a fallacy.
Don Saliers | Music & the Church
April 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Don Saliers, father of Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls, spoke with us today about his book with his daughter, and about his long career in music and the church. Listen in to hear about a father and daughter’s relationship through music, politics and all the rest.More about Don from the Indigo Girls website:
“I found warmth, wisdom, and love to be present on every page of this book. Emily and her father, Don, have found a way to have a deeply meaningful conversation about their life experiences and share it with the reader. The result is this beautiful expression of music as many things–healer, gift, symbol of freedom and community, and agent of change.”—Mary Chapin Carpenter
“Don and Emily Saliers trace the songlines of two very different lives through this thought-provoking book. It is full of stories, quotations from songs old and new, and even their personal discussions as they explore the boundaries between their worlds. Their words plumb the depths of human and musical differences: the way song can divide as well, bring us together and its power to bring us ‘back to life’ from grief or pain or spiritual anguish. May we all be able to find songlines as rich as those uniting this intelligent, affectionate, and musical father and daughter.”—Alice Parker, author, Yes, We’ll Gather!, Creative Hymn Singing, and Melodious Accord
“In this sweetheart of a book, Don and Emily Saliers do far more than write convincingly about the healing power of music. They show us how it works by letting their own love of ‘deep song’ lead them across generational, aesthetic, and religious differences into a place of such holy listening to one another that even the angels lay down their tambourines.”—Barbara Brown Taylor, author, Bread of Angels, Home by Another Way, Gospel Medicine, The Preaching Life, God in Pain, and Speaking of Sin
“Emily and her dad have created a beautiful celebration of how music and spirit connect us all.”—Bonnie Raitt
Haider Ala Hamoudi | Iraq & Politics
April 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Today we spoke with Haider Ala Hamoudi about Iraq and the political situation there and here. Listen in for some interesting insights from an Iraqi-American law professor.More about Haider Ala Hamoudi from his website:
Professor Hamoudi received his B.Sc. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993, with a double major in Physics and Humanities with a Near Eastern Studies Concentration. He was both a member of the Physics Honor Society, Sigma Pi Sigma, and a Burchard Scholar for Excellence in the Humanities and Social Sciences. In 1996, Professor Hamoudi received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. After graduating, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Constance Baker Motley in the Southern District of New York and then worked as an Associate at the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton until 2003.Thereafter, Professor Hamoudi went to Iraq and acted as both a legal advisor to the Finance Committee of the Iraq Governing Council, as well as a Program Manager for a project managed by the International Human Rights Law Institute of DePaul University School of Law to improve legal education in Iraq. Professor Hamoudi continues to advise the Iraqi Government, primarily through the Iraq Mission at the United Nations. Professor Hamoudi’s scholarship focuses on commercial law, Islamic law, and the intersection of the two in the contemporary era. He has written for numerous law reviews, spoken at conferences sponsored by the MacMillan Center at Yale University, the American Association of Law Schools and the New York City Bar Association, and given interviews to various news organizations including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour Online and the New York Law Journal.Professor Hamoudi is also the author of a blog on Islamic Law entitled Islamic Law in Our Times.
Gary Freiman Transcript
April 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. My next guest on the show is Gary Freiman, and he is a successful businessman who has written a book about conservative life in the United States, about politics, terrorism and connection to God, and a whole bunch of interesting opinions. So, wonderful to greet you and say welcome to the show. Gary Freiman, how are you?
Gary Freiman: Thank you, Kent.
Kent: Tell me a little bit about your book.
Gary: The book is really a deep look into the United States and particularly all the stuff that probably our parents, as kids, told us not to talk about at the dinner table. It’s a deep look into politics and religion, and some things that political correctness probably stops us from speaking freely about.
Kent: And your book is called “Current Events, Conservative Outcomes: Predictions for America’s Future”. I understand that you’re able to predict a little bit about what’s coming up for us.
Gary: Yeah. To be honest with you, as a young man I discovered that I had a talent to actually go through and sometimes see future events. Not that I can always pick out exactly what it is that I choose to see, but over time I could pick out events that pertain to our country.
Kent: And what do you think of what’s happening right now?
Gary: In general right now, obviously the United States is in a stressful time, and that’s really what drove me to write the book.Shortly after September 11th, as everybody probably did, I looked at myself and said, “What can I do to help?” And really, for a couple of years, I couldn’t think of anything. You know? I wanted to help, but I really couldn’t figure out anything to do.And then I realized, maybe if I was to help predict some of the events in the future and take away a little bit of the stress, and more importantly than predict events, explain why things happen so the people could understand exactly how future events occur and what we can do to change future events.
Kent: So give me an example of some future events.
Gary: Well, in the book, after each topic, essentially the book is divided into seven different topics, I have some predictions. It could be things as simple as, obviously we’re going to have turmoil in Africa over the next generation or two due to dwindling resources and religious issues.That’s one prediction that I’ve made, and that’s not a big stretch. I think anybody can see that as a real possibility.
Kent: Right. And as far as this country, let’s talk about current events. Whether it’s Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side or John McCain on the other, they’re all talking about change, going a different direction. Do you not see that as a hopeful next step?
Gary: To be honest with you, change is good in that, right now, like I mentioned, we’re at a stressful time. So yes, I think change will be good.There’s no doubt that change in the United States will be positive, but in my opinion it definitely has to be from a conservative nature, in that it’s absolutely crucial that America remembers that we are a country founded on Christian ideas and ideologies. And we need to make sure that we don’t stray too far from that.
Kent: So give me an example specifically having to do with these political candidates. I know that John McCain’s been deeply criticized for not being conservative enough. Could you talk about that?
Gary: Sure. The people on the right obviously feel that John McCain, he’s weak on immigration; he’s been weak throughout his career on a lot of conservative ideas. The three choices that we have to lead our country are the three choices that we have. So obviously, the people on the right are going to be forced to choose John McCain over the two candidates in the general election.
Kent: So let’s talk about, his main focus is on security, and the economy is something different. Let’s just talk about security. How does America fit into world politics over the next generation?
Gary: I actually did a piece in my book about world politics, and largely because America is, right now and for roughly the last… since World War II, has been the leader in world politics. And I think it’s absolutely crucial that we remain the world leader, and people realize that there are countries out there - if you notice the unrest you see in China over Tibet.We can’t forget that although many countries are grasping the capitalistic model in an effort to be more successful, they still don’t have the personal freedoms that we enjoy here in the United States. And again, we are a Christian country and the fact that we are, we expect certain freedoms, and there’s a lot that goes with that answer the quality of life for lots of people. And I think it’s crucial that the United States lead the world to make sure that’s still is the predominant way of thinking.
Kent: So how should the United States deal with non Christian nations?
Gary: You know, no different than we ever had. There’s nothing that says that Christianity is the best religion. Let’s be honest, just because we’re a Christian nation, we’ve been very successful. It doesn’t mean we are the only people in this world and the only ones who know how to handle things.I mean God is God and what is important is that people realize that they have to have a relationship with God, not only as a country but as individuals. Whether that’s Islamic, whether that’s Buddhist or whatever you choose or how to choose to worship. It’s the same God, so I don’t in any stretch of the imagination feel that we have the ultimate way of living here in the United States. But I think it’s important that a country with our power realizes that we should lead the world to ensure that those other nations have that opportunity.
Kent: First tell me about the poverty in the United States. Do you have a position on that, within our own country?
Gary: I sure do. A part of my book was written about poverty in the United States. It was really a tough reading for me to go out and try to determine exactly my thoughts and what happens to the future of United States.I’ll be honest with you. I see the wealth gap between the middle class and the lower class growing over the next generation or two. And it’s largely related to lots of jobs being shipped overseas. I should say manufacturing-type jobs being shipped overseas. And the reason for that is because of the low cost provider countries that are out there.That being said, I also feel that some of the poverty in this country is self-inflicted because with the availability that our government that does such a great job at providing low interest student loans, there’s really not much of an excuse for anybody in the United States of America to not take advantage of the free high school system and take advantage of the college student loans to get themselves educated. Where you can jump into that middle class and not be somebody who fell into that lower class of wage earners.
Kent: So, your book deals with all of these issues and more. Give me a little sound clip about your book to tell people where to go, what it’s about and how to find it.
Gary: Great, “Current Events, Conservative Outcomes: Predictions for America’s Future” is the title of the book. I have a website, that’s www.conservativeoutcomes.com and there’s some snippets on there and lots of information about the book, where you can buy it.A little bit about the book and a little bit about me and what my abilities are, what I have attempted to do to help our nation. But the book itself again is a deep look at the United States and gets things out in the open that a lot of people are just afraid to talk about because of political correctness in our country.As I say, we are all in the same team here, Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives; we all want the same thing. We want a successful America. We want to spread freedom throughout the world so other people can live as we do in a free market and have the ability to work and live successfully.And in the book, I talk about six or seven different topics ranging from politics to religion to social issues and so forth, terrorism, all the big things that you hear and see talked on the nightly news. And I say, “Hey, there’s the real story behind these things. And here’s how we can overcome these things.”So no matter what’s your political ideology is, if we stay close to our relationship with God and this country. And if we utilize the tools that He can give us, there’s no limit to what we can do.
Kent: It’s been a real pleasure speaking with G. A. Freiman, Gary Freiman. His book is available from Barnes and Nobles at Amazon.com, as well as his website conservativeoutcomes.com. His book is called “Current Events, Conservative Outcomes: Predictions for America’s Future.” It’s been a real pleasure. Have a wonderful day.
Gary: Thanks, Kent.
Kent: And my next guest is Susan Hetrick, and she’s going to chat with us about the big mix of families, blended families. Come on back. [instrumental music]
Marie Howe Transcript
April 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome to Sound Authors. Today is the 4th of April. On this day in 1968, 40 years ago, Martin Luther King was shot and killed. It’s a sad memory, but it’s been a long 40 years since then. Now we have a black candidate running for president and many things have happened since.Today on the show we’ve got four guests. At the end of the show, Jeff Beal, the famous composer of “Pollock” and “Rome” and some other wonderful music, and three authors, Susan Hetrick talking about families, Gary Freiman with some unique political opinions, and it’s my special honor to welcome Marie Howe. She’s a wonderful poet from New York. Welcome to the show.
Marie Howe: Thank you very much. It’s an honor to be here.
Kent: You have quite a record. You’ve gotten a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Nation Endowment of the Arts Fellowship. Tell me a little about your background.
Marie: Oh, gosh. I grew up in Rochester, New York, as one of nine children and I didn’t start writing poetry in any serious way until I was about 29 years old. I was teaching high school before that.
Kent: What did you teach in high school?
Marie: I loved reading but I had no idea you could be a living person and write poetry.
Kent: What did you teach?
Marie: I taught English to the kids in high school who could hardly make it to school.
Kent: Your work is stunning. You have a new book that is just coming out.
Marie: Yeah.
Kent: What’s the release day?
Marie: Actually it just officially came out about two week ago. I never quite notice. It’s called “The Kingdom of Ordinary Time.”
Kent: There’s some really beautiful poetry, especially striking to me in looking through. The very first poem in the book confronts where we are right now after 9/11. Would you mind reading that?
Marie: I would love to read it. This is completely ridiculous, but I realize I’m standing here with my phone and my book is across the room. I’m on a phone that can’t reach, so I’m just going to reach over here.
Kent: I’ll do a little filler time here.
Marie: Do a little and I’ll be right there.
Kent: In 1987, she put out “The Good Thief.” In 1995, “In The Company of My Solitude: American Writings from the AIDS Pandemic.” In 1998, “What the Living Do.” Her new book is called “The Kingdom of Ordinary Time.”
Marie: And here I am.
Kent: OK.
Marie: Thank you so much.
Kent: Yeah.
Marie: I want to say something about Dr. King. I’m so moved to hear this information and to know this, and to be talking with you on the very day when he was killed, and to think of him as I’m about to read this. Would that he were here, and thank goodness Barack Obama is.It’s called “Prologue.” “Ordinary Time,” just for you listeners, I originally came to this term when I was growing up. The liturgical calendar, there was always this thing, we always stand there with the missals and there’s a period of time that’s called Ordinary Time, which is the period of time between the High Holy seasons. Not the Christmas season, not the Pentecost season, not Lenten season. It’s pretty much the rest of the year where nothing apparently miraculous happens.”Prologue.The rules, once again applied.One loaf equaled one loaf. One fish equaled one fish.The so-called kings were dead.And the woman who had been healed grew tired of telling her story,And sometimes asked her daughter to tell it.People generally worshiped where their parents had worshiped,And the men who’d hijacked the airplane prayed where the dead pilots had been sitting, and the passengers prayed from their seats–So many songs went up and out and into the thinning air.People, listening and watching, nodded and wept,And, leaving the theater, one turned to the other and said,What do you want to do now?And the other one said, I don’t know. What do you want to do?It was the Coming of Ordinary Time. First Sunday, second Sunday.And then (for who knows how long) it was here.”
Kent: What a stunning poem.
Marie: Thank you. That was so strange because the so-called kings were dead, right? I wasn’t even thinking of Martin Luther King, but of course he was one.
Kent: Of course it matches wonderfully. You talk so much about politics in your work. How does politics mix with this Ordinary Time and everyday life patterns?
Marie: It’s a time right now, as you know, as we all know, when holy wars are raging and there are people who, including our administration, are willing to kill for what they believe. There are people who are willing to die and blow themselves up for what they believe, and there are so many of use who don’t know what we believe.It’s such a strange time to be alive, especially given the last five years. I really hope that things will change with a new administration because of the way things have polarized so terribly. But also, there’s the sense of Ordinary Time where it seems as if the sacredness of any religion, as acted out in the war and the war zones, is being overshadowed by a kind of dogma, and the truly miraculous of course still keeps happening. [laughs] But I think in this country in particular it’s such an important and crucial moment in our history, given all the rights we’ve lost and the direction in which the empire is going to move next.
Kent: You’re a teacher. You teach in New York City. You said you taught English at a high school?
Marie: Yeah, that was a long time ago. That was almost 30 years ago now. I’ve been teaching in college and universities since then.
Kent: I’m curious about what the difference is from when you first began teaching to when you teach poetry now. What’s the difference for you?
Marie: Oh, gosh. There’s a lot to say. When I first started writing in 1980, people were just beginning to write from the margins, if you will. When I was in graduate school, we were taught maybe two or three women writers, and I don’t think any writers of color, and within the last 28 years.And really, it was beginning right then. Everybody has come into the writing world. Women, of course, people of color, people with different sexual identities, people from different countries, out loud, on the page, wrapped. Everything just poured into the world of what we used to call poetry. It’s really, really thrilling that so many people are writing now and many more people, I think, are reading poems that are written and spoken by lots of different kinds of voices.
Kent: I would love to listen to another poem. I’m going to put you on the spot here. Do you have another favorite in the book?
Marie: Sure, let me see. It’s funny, Jesus shows up in this book a lot. I’m not a practicing Christian but I grew up with those stories, and I just love the guy. There’s a little poem here called “The Star Market” that I’d love to read. A lot of what is throughout this book is that Jesus said “the kingdom of heaven is within you,” and I’ve been thinking about that for a long time.What does that mean, the kingdom of heaven is within each of us? So there’s a couple of questions in that case. I’ve been thinking about the problems in the world’s politics, and if the kingdom of heaven is within us, who governs there? Really? How do we govern ourselves? That’s another poem called “Government,” but maybe I’ll just read this little poem called “The Star Market.”"The people Jesus loved were shopping at The Star Market yesterday.An old lead-colored man standing next to me at the checkout.Breathed so heavily I had to step back a few steps.Even after his bags were packed he still stood,Breathing hard and hawking into his hand.The feeble, the lame, I could hardly look at them,Shuffling through the aisles, they smelled of decay,As if The Star Market had declared a day off for the able-bodied,And I had wandered in with the rest of them, sour milk, bad meat, looking for cereal and spring water.Jesus must have been a saint, I said to myself,Looking for my lost car in the parking lot later,Stumbling among the people.Who would have been lowered into rooms by ropes,Who would have crept out of caves,Or crawled from the corners of public baths.On their hands and knees begging for mercy.If I touch only the hem of his garment,One woman thought, could I bear the look on his face.When he wheels around?”
Kent: It’s fascinating how you can weave this biblical narrative into poetry. When did you start thinking about doing that?
Marie: I didn’t really think about. The stories are really real to me. I love how my daughter sits in the bathtub and says, “Tell me another story about Moses!” [laughs] It’s her fairy tale. I just love these stories, the Old Testament and the New Testament. So it’s not something I consciously do, it’s just something I do as I walk around.
Kent: Tell us about your daughter.
Marie: My daughter is adopted from China. To anybody who’s listening, I went to China, I began the adoption process when I was 50 years old. I had just gotten divorced. So if there’s any woman who’s thinking, “Oh, I’m just too old to go and adopt a kid, I say go do it.I went to China when I was 52, came home with a three-year-old who is just an extraordinary person. I can’t tell you. She’s amazing. She’s like a joyful Buddha. It just changed my life. Her name’s Anon. She’s a wonderful person. She just turned eight. So there’s that. I’m exhausted and happy.
Kent: And how does looking at her life, when she’s going to be a grown-up, how do you think this country and the world will change between now and then?
Marie: Oh, good lord, don’t we all wonder this? I don’t know if this is opinion radio, but I really do hope Obama becomes president. I feel like we have to realize that we’re a failing empire, and that China and these other countries are economically so much stronger. We have to put down our guns and begin to live as one world.It’s so strange, the Internet already lives like this. It’s almost like the world’s consciousness. The Internet already knows that we’re one world. We have to get politicians to understand that. We have to get them to begin to talk with each other and mediate our difference because this old “shoot ‘em up” thing is over.
Kent: [laughs] We’ll all work towards that. Can your read us one more poem from your book?
Marie: Sure. Another one of the major characters in this book is Mary, who is the Mother of Jesus. It’s not the Virgin Mary and not Mary as she’s been depicted, but Mary as the human being. I think I’ll just end with this little poem of Mary’s at the very end of the book. It partly comes from a sense of being exhausted as a new mother at my age with a little kid, not having any time to write.It’s also, of course, the illuminations that come with that presence in your life. It’s called “Mary, A Reprise” and it’s at the very end. It refers to all the paintings of Mary. She’s always sitting there in the Italian and Dutch paintings with a book in her hand and the book is half-closed. I’ve always been very interested in that.”What is that book, we always see, in the paintings? In her lap?Her finger keeping the place of who she was when she looked up.When I look up, my mother is dead,And my own daughter is calling from the bathtub.’Mom, come in and watch me. Come in here right now.’No Going Back might be the name of that angel.’No more reverie. Let this be done to me,’ Mary finally said.And that was the last time, for a long time,That she spoke about the past.”
Kent: What a wonderful poem. That’s from “The Kingdom of Ordinary Time,” just released by Norton, and Marie Howe’s been our guest. It’s been a real pleasure. You’re actually headlining the White Pine Festival in Stillwater, Minnesota, this summer.
Marie: Yeah, I am.
Kent: My mother’s going to be a solo poet with you, Cynthia Gustavson.
Marie: I am so delighted to hear this. And may I tell you, sir, it’s been a great joy talking with you today.
Kent: It has been a pleasure. Have a wonderful day. My next guest is going to be Gary Freiman. He certainly has a different opinion about politics, and we’ll chat with him. Thank you so much for being on the show, Marie Howe.
Susan Hetrick | Family Blender
April 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Today we spoke with Susan Hetrick, about her “Blender” concept for families, and her new book. Here is more from her website:
Tales from the Blender is a collection of stories, suggestions and guidance garnered from the real-life experiences of Christian couples living in blended families all over the United States. These families generously shared the good, the bad and the ugly about blending: what to look forward to, what to watch out for, what challenges they faced and, most importantly, what has worked for them. Susan Hetrick gives you real-life illustrations on how to deal with: • We’ll-live-happily-ever-after-Syndrome • Choosing to love children who wish you were dead • Bonding as a family without using duct tape • Holidays with ex-spouses • The “Ex-tended” family experience – fruits and nuts aren’t just for breakfast anymore • Talking yourself out of that urge to run away to Timbuktu With fundamental discussion questions for the entire family, a succinct synopsis at the end of each chapter, and a unique House Blend Recipe, Susan Hetrick whips up an honest, challenging, inspiring and funny serving of the house blend, with a Christian twist.
Gary Freiman | Conservative Future
April 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Gary Freiman’s recent book, Current Events, Conservative Outcomes: Predictions for America’s Future takes a deep look into America and the pressing issues or our time. He divides is book into 7 sections: terrorism, world issues, US politics, US social issues, personal issues, American culture and God. Each section of the book is subdivided by Freiman into the pivotal issues that he states will determine the fate of the United States.More information from Gary Freiman’s website:
G.A. Freiman is a very successful businessman who has a deep passion and love
for the United States of America. Mr. Freiman was brought up modestly in the southern United States and has a belief that America is among the chosen people in our world. Raised Roman Catholic yet from a broken home, G.A. Freiman had an interesting path to his faith. Discovering an uncanny ability as a young boy that allowed him to accurately predict future events also greatly complicated this young mans course to God. G.A. Freiman now in middle age has utilized his abilities to explain why we in the United States of America are so blessed, as well as what actions should be taken to continue our favor with the creator. Mr. Freiman has predicted the outcomes of the most difficult topics our country faces as a way to provide guidance in the troubled times we live in. When asked what should be on the back cover of his work, G.A. Freiman said “Americans who understand our history and listen to the great minds of our past will understand why I wrote this book about our future” “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke “Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.” Ronald Reagan “If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction program.” Bill Clinton “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but having the right to do what we ought.” Pope John Paul II “A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” Dwight David Eisenhower “Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.” Napoleon Bonaparte “All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.” Albert Einstein
Marie Howe | Kingdom & Poetry
April 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Today we spoke with poet Marie Howe. Marie Howe’s poems have appeared in the Atlantic, The NewYorker, Agni, Harvard Review, and New England Review, among others. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts and a Guggenheim Fellowship. More about Marie Howe and her new book from her publisher’s website:
Marie Howe is the author of two volumes of poetry, The Good Thief(1998), and What the Living Do (1997), and the co-editor of a book of essays, In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from the AIDS Pandemic (1994). Her third volume of poetry, Kingdom Of Ordinary Time is forthcoming. Stanley Kunitz selected Howe for a Lavan Younger Poets Prize from the American Academy of Poets. She has, in addition, been a fellow at the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College and a recipient of NEA and Guggenheim fellowships. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, Agni, Ploughsahres, Harvard Review, and The Partisan Review, among others. Currently, Howe teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Columbia, and New York University.
Marie Howe wowed readers and critics alike with her first book of poems, The Good Thief. Selected by Margaret Atwood as the 1989 winner of the National Poetry Series, the book explored the themes of relationship, attachment, and loss in a uniquely personal search for transcendence. Said Atwood, “Marie Howe’s poetry doesn’t fool around . . . these poems are intensely felt, sparely expressed, and difficult to forget; poems of obsession that transcend their own dark roots.” Howe sees her work as an act of confession, or of conversation. She says simply,” Poetry is telling something to someone.” The Boston Globe calls her work, “a poetry of intimacy, witness, honesty, and relation.”
Howe’s equally acclaimed second book, What the Living Do, addressed the grief of losing a loved one. “The tentative transformation of agonizing, slow-motion loss into redemption is Howe’s signal achievement in this wrenching second collection,” said Publisher’s Weekly, in choosing it as one of the five best volumes of poetry published that year. Part of the urgency and importance of Howe’s poetry stems from its rootedness in real life—just ten minutes into her 1987 residence at the MacDowell Colony, Howe received a call from her brother John telling her that her mother had had a heart attack. Two years later, John died of AIDS, and her book What the Living Do is in large part an elegy to him. Howe’s poetry is intensely intimate, and her bravery in laying bare the music of her own pain- but never the pain alone—is part of its resonance. Inside each poem there is also a joy, a new breath of life, some kind of redemption. “Each of them seems a love poem to me,” says Howe.
ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF ORDINARY TIMEAn anticipated new volume from Marie Howe. Hurrying through errands, attending a dying mother, helping her own child down the playground slide, the speaker in these poems wonders what is the difference between the self and the soul? The secular and the sacred? Where is the kingdom of heaven? And how does one live in Ordinary Time—during those periods that are not apparently miraculous? These are astonishing poems by a poet known as “a truth-teller of the first order.”
Saul Silas Fathi Transcript (2)
March 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. We have been speaking with Saul Silas Fathi, and his book is called “Full Circle: Escape from Baghdad and the Return”. I guess what I am interested in chatting about now is, I guess, the future and where we sit right now.The Middle East is such a mess right now, the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the Iraq conflict, clearly Iran is a mess. Tell me a little bit about your take on all of this.
Saul Silas Fathi: Well, I supported Bush in trying to get rid of Saddam Hussein. Because he felt that the Iraqi people deserved better. But, I was totally opposed to invading Iraq, especially the way we did it. I felt we went to destroy a regime. We ended up destroying a 6,000 year old civilization. So in that it was very sad to see what happened to the Iraqi people. In five years, according to some reports, 800,000 Iraqi people, including 50,000 children, died.The very premise of bringing democracy to an Arab country was completely based on falsehood and ignorance. There are 22 Arab countries, none of them are democratic. And none of them were elected by the people and probably never will. Among our biggest allies are some of those dictatorships and so forth. So this was totally uncalled for.But, at the same time it is realistic to know that we cannot leave Iraq before we’ve fixed it, before we’ve built its power again. Because we dismissed the army of 300,000, sent them home, created 50% unemployment and terrible destitution. For the first time in the 6,000 year history the Iraqi people have no drinking water to drink, and 60% of the people have no electricity.And unemployment is still, in certain places, over 60%. And this is what causes the most misery in Iraq. It is not any loyalty to Saddam. These people are just trying to feed their families, and that is why they were in the armed forces but they were punished collectively. I think that was the most colossal mistake that we made is dismissing the army.If we did not dismiss the army, but purged it. With maybe 15 or 20,000 people we would have been left with enough power, enough organization to govern and police the country and supplement it by just a few of our forces.But, now that we are in there our long-term interest is intertwined with the future of Iraq. If we move out prematurely there is absolutely no question in my mind that the Iranians will take over de facto of Iraq, and that is the dream that they have been dreaming for thousands of years of doing.The idea that the Sunnis and the Shiite were fighting between them for thousands of years is a total falsehood, total misrepresentation of real history. For 1400 years after Mohammed’s death there were no conflicts, no