Lives Radio Show With Stuart Chittenden

Ruth Meints is a violinist, music educator, and executive director of the Omaha Conservatory of Music. She shares her thoughts about the importance of music education, why she wrote the String Sprouts curriculum, and a few stories about her childhood that fueled her passion to create access to musical excellence for everyone.

Betsy Finch of Fontenelle Forest's Raptor Recovery Center tours us around the Center and introduces us to a variety of eagles, owls, ospreys, falcons, and other birds of prey being cared for, including one golden eagle being treated for lead poisoning. Betsy shares the story behind the center and her own passion for caring for raptors as well as educating us about these astonishing creatures.

Improv comedian and writer Will Meinen was formerly a researcher and organizational psychologist before pursuing improv at Chicago’s iO Theater, as well as training at Annoyance and Second City. Meinen shares his path to comedy and beyond it, including his Saturday Night Live audition.

Author and teacher Kevin Clouther is the University of Nebraska - Omaha's coordinator of its MFA in Writing. In this show he talks about his evolution as a writer and his first story collection, his process for writing, and the philosophy guiding UNO's MFA program.

A special New Year show talking about resolutions, personal growth, and some stories about intention setting. Joined by co-host and former Lives Radio Show guest, life coach Mandy Kubicek, our guests in conversation about all things New Year resolutions are Pam Hagge, Annie Thompson, Katie Twit, and Joe Finelli.

Highlights from 2019, drawn from the world of film, some intimate personal stories, and the vibrant pleasure of live in-studio acoustic sets. Plus a few outtakes!

The Right Reverend Joseph Scott Barker is an American Episcopal clergyman and the eleventh and current Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska, caring for 52 church communities planted over 77,000 square miles of Nebraska’s beautiful landscape. Barker was born in Omaha, Nebraska and is a sixth generation Nebraskan. He talks about his family heritage, his journey to faith and clerical service, and the role of religious belief in the modern world.

Graham Herbst, a Community Forest Specialist with the Nebraska Forest Service, talks about what trees we should and shouldn't be planting, some surprising facts about how trees benefit us in urban environments, special wooded places, and why one of Nebraska’s champion trees has a special place in Herbst’s heart

Susan Henricks is the CEO of ICAN (the Institute for Career Advancement Needs), a non-profit leader development organization, prior to which she spent decades in strategic leadership roles in both private and public companies. Susan talks about the pressures facing women and younger generations in the business world as they cultivate their leadership skills and charts her own experiences as a female business leader.

[Note: Trigger Warning for this episode] Angie Lauritsen is the Council President for the City of Gretna and an original board member for Survivors Rising, a working group dedicated to advocacy, education, and support for survivors of sex trafficking, sexual exploitation, sexual assault, domestic/dating violence, and stalking. Angie discusses the need for the work of Survivors Rising and shares her own sexual assault trauma and emergence into her success today. Angie also speaks to her experiences as an elected official and the need for women to run for office.

Diana Martinez in an expert in film: its meaning, messaging, social impact and relevance, and the business of it all. In this conversation she shares some of her insights, passions, and personal story.

Beth Culross, Assistant Professor for the College of Nursing at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Steve Langan, poet and, among other roles, Director & Community Liaison of Medical Humanities at the University of Nebraska at Omaha discuss the Ted Kooser Health Humanities Center and the powerful possibilities of the humanities in the field of medical education and healthcare practice.

Mandy Kubicek is a Life and Business Coach. She talks about what coaching is and is not, and how she helps burned out professionals build energizing work lives. Mandy also shares how she overcame her own limiting beliefs to leave a software career to embark on her coaching business, and talks candidly about the loss of her mother and how that has shaped her life.

Amy Adrion is a film director and writer whose feature debut documentary "Half the Picture" explores the talent and resilience of female directors in an industry that to date sadly under-represents their vision and ability. Adrion discusses her film, her life, her inspirations, and her aspirations.

Justin Kemerling is an independent designer, activist, and collaborator working primarily with community organizations, political campaigns, and changemaking entities. Justin shares his passion for making activism beautiful, moving people to action, and getting good things done.

Dr. Samantha Senda-Cook is a communications professor and recently completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Japan studying rhetorical questions related to community gardening. In this conversation, she explains environmental communication, everyday tactical acts of resistance, and her experiences from living and researching in Japan.

Barber is an interdisciplinary artist whose work and performances have appeared across America. He uses his art practices to articulate various testimonies within and surrounding Black America, surfacing the questions society should be confronting around the black body and experience.

Theodore Wheeler discusses Omaha Lit Fest, which he co-directs, and the inspiration and joy behind the Dundee Book Company roving book cart, one of the world’s smallest bookstores. Wheeler also talks about his creative writing process and reads an excerpt set in 1919 from one of his novels, “Kings of Broken Things,” which has unsettling relevance in our modern climate of racial tension.

Chris Hochstetler is the Dean of Innovation and Creativity at Hastings College in Nebraska, before which he had a much decorated 20 year career in the Army, including development of special forces operations. Chris shares his veteran experiences, philosophy on creativity, and his formative upbringing of homelessness and foster care that he encountered as a child.

Sylvie Fortin is an independent art curator and critic and the current Curator-in-Residence at the Bemis Centre for Contemporary Arts. She discusses her work and inspiration, especially her current artistic exploration of the currencies of hospitality.