Episodes

This week’s guest, Carol Markowitz is yet another remarkable person to share her stories with me! (Wow…have I been lucky to meet all these great people!!) Carol tells how as a student she discovered a passion that lead to a decades-long career in autism services (Spoiler alert…she helped a 7 year old girl to learn to speak!) We also learn how finding packets of old letters between her mother and soldiers in WWII led to her post-retirement fulfillment…. researching and writing a book of historic...

This week we circle back to the world of architecture and welcome Merilee Meacock, Architect and Partner at KSS Architects. Merilee was one of (what it’s starting to look like) a lot of people who reacted well to the isolation created by the pandemic. She likened the quietude to a “snow day”! I loved that analogy! There is a common thread throughout our conversation with Merilee, her passion for building communities. She does this through identifying common purpose and creating connections and ...

This week I’m delighted to welcome three guests from The Father Center of New Jersey: Marc Warren, Director of Operations, Carter Patterson, Director of Programs and Randall Toby, Programs/Projects Coordinator. Our conversation with these mission driven public servants continues our exploration of the particular impact the pandemic has had on community service organizations. It's wonderful to learn how, through creative thinking and use of resources, organizations like this can not only continue...

This week we continue our deep dive into how the community continued to be supported during the pandemic by the herculean efforts of caring individuals and organizations. Michael Roseborough, Project Director at the Princeton YMCA and director of the ACE program, is one of those exceptional individuals. He tells a heart-rending story that led to his Aha! moment and his commitment to helping young people overcome adverse circumstances. Mike shares insights into how the ACE program (Accept Compe...

This week my guest is Kate Bech, VP of Mission Advancement for the Greater Somerset County YMCA. Kate recounts her journey from artist to non-profit leader, and how her Midwest upbringing instilled a sense of duty, justice and fairness and a belief in public service that undoubtedly played a role in her following that path. We also learn how navigating the “rules” created by the government’s response to the pandemic made leading the Y so challenging. Kate attributes much of her and the Y’s abil...

This week we're talking with Tawanda McCrae, a multifaceted and socially pro-active person, veteran, Vegan and a Vegan business owner, founder of the charity Red Queen Foundation, animal activist, a cannabis advocate. and architectural designer and instructor. Tawanda is driven by the desire to help others through mentoring and charitable work. We talk about looking for those "light bulb moments" and how to perhaps ease into a vegan lifestyle to help our health and the environment. Hand made veg...

This is the second session of a two-parter with Karl Reutter. He had so much to talk about it took two sessions! In this episode we circle back to learn more about Karl’s time in Japan and the promising relationship he developed there. But also how the pandemic-imposed long-distance nature of that relationship was more than could be endured. It’s a tale of heartbreak and mental illness, and facing life beyond that. It's got everything: romance, intrigue, loneliness and tragedy! Take a listen!

This week’s guest is Ira Stanley, accomplished rock and blues guitarist, musician, and song writer. Currently Ira is the lead guitarist for the bands Checker’d Past and Blues Power. I was eager to learn how Ira kept his music going through the pandemic. (Here Social Media once again features front and center…in this case in a positive way…) As the owner of businesses that provided on call nursing and doctor’s services, Ira had an up-close vantage point of the demands on medical professionals cr...

This week’s guest is Alan Maimon, Pulitzer Prize finalist author of Twilight in Hazard – An Appalachian Reckoning and an investigator for Centurion, the nation’s oldest innocence organization. Alan shares with us the difficulties of pursuing freedom for wrongly incarcerated people, most of whom are on death row, even in the best of times…much less during a pandemic! As an investigative reporter for the Louisville Courier Journal, he also had a first-hand view of the environmental, identity and ...

This week we’re talking with Ed Klimek, Architect and Partner at KSS Architects. Our conversation with Ed covers a lot of ground, including changes in workplace and the future of robotics! But we start with family, including the impact of COVID on non-COVID healthcare, and the wisdom of not buying your adult kids washing machines so they still have to come home to do their laundry! We also learn of Ed’s inspiration in launching a new life path after Architecture, building on his dedication to s...

This week’s conversation is with Lauren Krause-Malave who is blessed with a wonderfully tight knit multicultural family (African-American, German, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Japanese….! Oh and her dog comes from Harlem!) and she tells us how that finds its way into shared traditions, particularly cuisine! (Lauren throws in some Italian for good measure.) She shares with us their techniques for staying tight knit even during the pandemic. Like many people, Lauren suffered the “pandemic postponemen...

This week we’re talking with Mel Gjonbalaj. Mel tells us how she actually found comfort and an opportunity for introspection while isolating during the pandemic. (Escape from FOMO!) Our conversation also (of course) covers the creation of the Princeton Fox Project, and how we “stalked” the suffering foxes on campus. We also learn how she patiently shares her point of view with those on “the other side”…an admirable skill many of us lack. (I am speaking for myself…). Mel advises us to “slow dow...

This is the first of a two-parter with Karl Reutter. He had so much to talk about it took two sessions! In this episode we talk about the confusion of being a front-line worker early in the pandemic. We also learn about his time in Japan, how he escaped the self-help loop of hell, how to avoid hustle culture, the importance of being true to yourself, and meditating through QiGong. We covered lots of ground, but more to come!