Lives Radio Show With Stuart Chittenden

Luke Jensen is a veteran, neuroscience researcher, and plant medicine practitioner. Returning disenchanted and lost after a deployment to Afghanistan, Jensen shares how his search for healing led to him living in Peru’s beautiful Sacred Valley and now offering retreats rooted in indigenous spiritual wisdom, the healing properties of ayahuasca and other plant medicines, and the modern science of brain mapping and neurofeedback.Luke Jensen lives and works at the intersection of neuroscience, anthropology, and the mystical realm of plant medicines. A veteran of the Marine Corps and National Guard, Jensen experienced PTSD and other negative consequences from his deployment to Afghanistan. In 2014, Jensen began to find healing in the Amazon basin learning about shamanic spiritual practices, indigenous wisdom, and the healing properties of ayahuasca and other plant medicines. In collaboration with his mentor, Dr. Richard Soutar, Jensen began field research in Peru of the effects of ritual practice and plant medicin

Gold medal paralympian, Jeromie Meyer, shares how he adapted to life using a wheelchair after being paralyzed as a child by a drunk driver and, more than adapted, developed his athletic skills to earn the call to represent his country in wheelchair basketball, culminating in the exhilaration of wining gold at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.Iowa native Meyer is a member of the TeamUSA wheelchair basketball team that brought home gold from the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games as well as the 2022 USA gold-winning team at the world championships. Already athletic as a child, aged 9, Meyer was paralyzed from the waist down by a drunk driver incident. He turned to wheelchair basketball, often playing at the University of Nebraska - Omaha’s campus, where he later enrolled as a student. Meyer currently works in adaptive sports as a program coordinator and is earning his master’s degree in athletic administration at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Carol Horner shares how her decades long career and idiosyncratic approach to being an organization development consultant culminated in the Spiral of Accountability™, her model guiding personal growth and professional success. Horner also talks about her life below water - being an avid scuba diver whose spiritual experiences beneath the waves shape her landside perspectives on life.Horner’s extensive professional experience began in 1987. She works with for profit and nonprofit organizations, both large and small, in her learning and organization development consulting in the areas of leadership and team development, communication, and change management. In 2019, Horner created the Spiral of Accountability that expresses the complex dynamic of our self-talk and interactions into a visual representation that allows people to identify, name, and understand what is happening with them and the people around them. In early 2024, her book “The Spiral of Accountability” was released. Horner is certified in se

Chef Djamil Djibril Bah-Traore talks about a passion for cooking beginning in his childhood home in Togo, honoring a long if counter-cultural tradition in his family. Immigrating to America Bah-Traore has founded a family of culinary organizations furthering his belief that you can’t hate someone whose food you love.Chef Djamil Djibril Bah-Traore is a West African immigrant from Togo. He is a chef and entrepreneur who aims to cast fresh and diversified light on Africa's rich culinary history. Prior to founding his House of Bah nonprofit and business entities, Bah-Traore spent over a decade working for corporate America in management capacities in numerous industries before making a major career transition to culinary arts and hospitality in 2013. Bah-Traore holds an associate's degree in culinary arts from Metropolitan Community College, a bachelor's degree in business, and a master's degree in hospitality and restaurant management.

Philosophy professor Joe McCaffrey – in our conversation recorded in May at the end of the academic year – guides us through that broad labyrinth of meaning and purpose by sharing his students responses to the question: How might we lead good lives. McCaffrey also shares what it is to be a philosopher and how he came to be one.Joe McCaffrey is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nebraska, Omaha and is also a member of interdisciplinary programs in Neuroscience and Medical Humanities. McCaffrey teaches classes on consciousness, moral psychology, bioethics, artificial intelligence, and the meaning of life. Originally from Eugene, Oregon, McCaffrey now resides with his partner in Omaha. When not doing philosophy, he enjoys strategy board games and video games, reading science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories, and dinners and movie nights with his neighbors and friends.

Firefighter, cancer survivor and advocate Nick Howe shares his experiences of surviving cancer with an experimental treatment, only a few years later to require a new heart during which time a spinal stroke left him paralyzed from the waist down. Howe talks about a desire to dedicate his life in service to others initially taking the form of being a firefighter, as well as a spouse and father, but which now has assumed a new shape and vitality of purpose.Nick and Rachel Howe met initially in 2005 and later married. Nick worked as firefighter and Rachel as a teacher. In 2016, the onset of severe health issues for Nick was diagnosed as Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma that chemotherapy, immunotherapy and an autologous stem-cell transplant failed to treat. To save his life, he underwent a highly experimental therapy called CAR T-cell therapy and he has been in remission since. After welcoming their two children, in the summer of 2022, Nick experienced more illness and received a heart transplant. A few w

Leslie Smith candidly shares her journey from an abusive childhood to college and to a professional career, currently as the leader of the Omaha Municipal Land Bank, a quasi-public nonprofit organization that transforms vacant and abandoned properties into community assets, manifesting Smith’s passion for improving the quality of life for all people.Leslie Smith, a native Mississippian, serves as the Executive Director for the Omaha Municipal Land Bank, where she leads the organization’s efforts helping to stimulate the local economy by addressing systemic vacancy issues at its core. Before coming to Omaha, Smith worked for Truist Bank developing inclusive lending mortgage strategies. As one of the foundational programs of the Blight Authority Memphis, a quasi-governmental nonprofit, Smith helped launch and lead what became a full-scale operational land bank serving the city of Memphis, energizing her passion for improving all residents’ quality of life regardless of their zip code.

Musician and producer Laura Bird Burhenn talks about the changes in her vocation and life since we last spoke in 2018, including shifting more to work with her production company, Our Secret Handshake. Burhenn also shares how her commitment to a more loving, inclusive world, expressed through her art, has evolved and been re-imagined in her latest intimate tour across America.As a musician, Laura Bird Burhenn has toured the world as a member of The Postal Service, Bright Eyes, and her own band, The Mynabirds, releasing four full length albums and a host of other music. As a producer, Burhenn in 2018 founded her production company, Our Secret Handshake, based on one fundamental belief: Art Can Change the World, by exploring the spaces where art intersects activism, and where good storytelling reveals and encourages the human spirit. Burhenn has produced for various media, including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Late Show with Stephen Col

Artist Bart Vargas talks candidly about a chaotic childhood, which found expression in drawing. After military service, Vargas turned full-time to art. He shares his love for color theory and the use of salvaged materials in his craft, his exploration of themes of identity, consumerism, abundance and waste, and the unexpected discovering of his personal voice and purpose.Bart Vargas is a Visual Artist, Educator, and Advocate from Bellevue, Nebraska. He received his BFA from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and his MFA at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, and his work can be found in collections throughout the world. His works have also been featured in many publications including Sculpture Magazine, New American Paintings, and HGTV Magazine. Vargas lives with his wife Bekah Jerde, and their 70+ plants in Omaha where they operate an international studio. Vargas is a Professor and Chair of Visual Arts/Graphic Arts at Iowa Western Community College

Melissa Breazile, a mindful outdoor guide and master naturalist, shares those early experiences of nature that inspired her creation of Wild Tree Collaborative, which offers outdoor experiences that reconnect people with themselves, each other, and the living earth. Breazile also talks about the wonder inherent in our natural world, including its spiritual and intimately healing effects in her own life.Melissa Breazile was born and raised in Southeast Nebraska and has called Omaha homebase for much of her adult life. Intrigued by the healing power of nature, she guides experiences to help participants find ease, embodiment, and connection with themselves and the living earth through her project, Wild Tree Collaborative. Breazile is a trained Mindful Outdoor Guide, certified by the Kripalu School of Mindful Outdoor Leadership, and is a Nebraska Master Naturalist. Her experience also includes communications and public policy work in the nonprofit and political sectors, and public health work as a Peace Corps Vo

International health professional, Ruth Stark, talks about a life in global health, training local health workers and developing nursing programs, eventually being appointed by the World Health Organization as its representative to Papua New Guinea. Stark shares the origins of this calling in her grandmother's stories of exploration, which inspired Stark - as a young single mother - to sell everything and embark with her family on this lifelong vocation.Doctor Ruth Stark is a nurse with over four decades of global health experience. From humble beginnings influenced by her grandmother's stories of exploration, Doctor Stark worked internationally for the World Health Organization, the United Nations, Catholic Relief Services, and other organizations across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands training local health workers, developing nursing programs, and leading initiatives like HIV/AIDS relief in South Africa. Her travels reshaped her perspective on health, deepening her understanding of the

Carol Russell, a community advocate and civic leader, talks about the events and experiences that have shaped her life vocation. Russell shares her early career as a medical technologist involved in cancer research studies, and, with more than 80 causes and organizations over many years, shares her passion for philanthropy and for Omaha’s collaborative philanthropic community.Carol Russell has been a leading community volunteer for nearly 50 years. She has been the Legislative or Governor’s appointee on multiple task forces, is an advocate for meaningful policy change when she’s passionate about a cause, and has a resume of around 83 nonprofit engagements running from A almost to Z. Russell has won numerous local, national, and international awards for her community service and is an advocate for voices that often go unheard or undervalued. Russell earned a Bachelor’s degree in Zoology and Chemistry and with her Master’s Degree in Pathology, worked as a trained medical technologist and supervised cancer resea

Maggie Wood, executive director of Film Streams, talks about working in the nonprofit world, especially in building welcoming communities and elevating the arts and cultural landscape. wood shares the evolution of her leadership, influenced not only by her work experience but also insights revealed during international travel and a recent career break.Born and raised around Bloomington/Normal, Illinois Maggie Wood came to Omaha in 1997 with the Clark Construction Group, as part of the general contracting team that built the Roman L. Hruska Federal Courthouse and then spent the following decade focusing on business development and operational management within the construction and supplier industry in Omaha. Building on her degree in Theater Arts and Communications from Eureka College, in 2006, Wood transitioned to the non-profit sector with development and operational management roles at Opera Omaha, Film Streams, and Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, before her leadership and strategic acumen took her to

Demetrius “Dee Dee” Gatson, the founder of Q.U.E.E.N.S. Butterfly House, talks about the many challenges that face formerly incarcerated people as they return to their communities and, drawing from her own experiences with incarceration, how she was inspired to create the nonprofit Q.U.E.E.N.S. Butterfly House a safe and supportive place for women to call home while navigating their reentry into the community.Being a formerly incarcerated person herself, Demetrius “Dee Dee” Gatson has seen how the lack of housing, resources, education, employment, and other supports can lead an individual back into incarceration. Gaston has worked with nonprofits such as Rise and with programs such as Dance to Be Free which supports incarcerated and formally incarcerated people in present lives and in their return to community.

Mindy Rush Chipman, the Executive Director of the ACLU of Nebraska, talks about difficult experiences in her early life and shares her personal story of seeking an abortion. She talks too about the stigma and the difficulties of telling that story. We’ll also hear Rush Chipman on the work of the ACLU and her path from working at a correctional facility library to legal practice.The ACLU of Nebraska’s advocacy and legal work regularly includes a range of impactful civil rights issues, featuring everything from police practices to LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights. Rush Chipman came to the ACLU of Nebraska after a 3-year tenure as the director of the Lincoln Commission on Human Rights, prior to which she represented Nebraskans through her roles at the Immigrant Legal Center and Legal Aid of Nebraska, as well as in her private legal practice in rural Nebraska. One of her first jobs out of high school was at the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services where, while working in the prison library, her ey

Professor of medical anthropology and ordained priest, Alexander Rödlach, talks about his early awareness of his calling to religion and to education, his vocational endeavors ministering around the world, a commitment to the intersections of health, service, and faith, and where his journey is leading him now.Alexander Rödlach was born in Innsbruck, Austria. He was ordained after completing his studies of philosophy and Roman Catholic theology and served for seven years in Zimbabwe to support the local church. Subsequently, Rödlach earned a doctorate in Anthropology and a Certificate in African Studies. Since 2007, he has been at Creighton University and teaches undergraduate courses on public and global health. His research tends to be conducted in collaboration with organizations and community groups, and focuses on themes at the intersection of health, volunteerism, and religion. For several years, he has been accompanying the Karenni, a refugee group in Omaha, and is pursuing other researc

Kevin Mahler, a nonprofit fundraising consultant, talks about the thoughtfulness required in effective fundraising, how he helps nonprofits to be responsive, and his own inexorable draw to entrepreneurship in service to the needs of philanthropic organizations. Mahler also talks about the influences in his life, from diabetes, art to astrology and faith.Kevin Mahler is the founder and owner of Contributed Line, a nonprofit fundraising consultancy based in Omaha, Nebraska, which engages multiple disciplines, diverse ways of thinking, collaboration, problem solving, and addressing the urgent issues facing the world. Mahler earned a Bachelor’s Degree from The University of Iowa and then a Master’s Degree from Michigan State University. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Nebraska Chapter of the Grant Professionals Association and the Board for The New Territory Magazine. He lives in Nebraska with his wife and children.

Native-American spiritual and cultural consultant Renee Sans Souci talks about being a lost and confused child living between indigenous and white American culture and her awakening to a Native spiritual tradition and wisdom. Sans Souci also talks about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement and her own traumatic encounters.With a degree in education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and being an Umonhon woman, Renee Sans Souci is a Cultural Consultant, Lecturer, and Curriculum Developer, and has since 2009 been a Teaching Artist with the Lied Center for Performing Arts. She has been invited to speak on topics such as Water and Environmental Science, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women advocacy, Native Science, History of Indian Education, and Native languages, Poetry, and Sustainability. Sans Souci was featured in the PBS American Masters Series, UNLADYLIKE 2020: Susan LaFlesche Picotte: The First American Indian Doctor. She is also a Co-Leader for the Niskithe Prayer Camp and is a recipi

Musician, author, and Jungian Depth Coach Orenda Fink talks about her forthcoming memoir The Witch’s Daughter: My Mother, Her Magic, and the Madness that Bound Us, which recounts life dominated by an abusive, mentally ill mother; seeking to make sense of magic and faith; and Fink’s escape through music and into Jungian therapy and her Last Eden in the Mojave Desert, from where she joined me remotely for this conversation. Fink will also read excerpts from this memoir of suffering, survival, and self-determination.Orenda Fink is an acclaimed musician, songwriter, performer, and writer getting her start in Birmingham, Alabama, with the pop rock group Little Red Rocket and later, in 2000, with the lauded ethereal folk duo Azure Ray, formed with longtime friend Maria Taylor in Athens, Georgia. Fink has collaborated with, among others, Moby, Bright Eyes, Sparklehorse, and the Faint, and their music has featured regularly in film and television programs. Fink’s memoir “The Witch’s Daughter: My M

Angela Cooper, an organization culture consultant and founder of Mindpower Strategic, talks about her passion for and the pressures of being a business leader responsible for thousands of employees and the physical and mental toll of the burn out she experienced. Cooper also talks candidly about the lived experiences and the evolution of beliefs from faith to humanism that have shaped her work and her life.As the Founder and Principal Consultant of Mindpower Strategic, Angela Cooper helps organizations shape their cultures. Cooper has over 20 years of experience evolving business environments in ways that help everyone thrive. As the inaugural Chief Diversity Officer at Mutual of Omaha, a Fortune 300 insurance company, for over five years she led the organization’s award-winning diversity, equity and inclusion and culture-shaping programs. Cooper herself has been recognized with numerous accolades for her DEI leadership. Cooper now works as a DEI strategist, change architect, and thought partner having founde