KUCI: Get the Funk Out!

Janeane speaks with Sandra Tsing Loh, a performer, professor and author of seven books, including The Madwoman in the Volvo, which was named one of 20...

ABOUT SANDRA
SANDRA TSING LOH is the author of six books, including THE MADWOMAN IN THE VOLVO: MY YEAR OF RAGING HORMONES (2014, W.W. Norton), which was selected as one of the New York Times’ 100 Most Notable Books. It is based on her Best American Essay 2012 on menopause, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly. The Madwoman in the Volvo has inspired Sandra's new stand-up show, The B**** Is Back: An All-Too Intimate Conversation, running at The Broad Stage in July, 2015, as well as a multi-character play, which will premiere at South Coast Repertory Theatre in January, 2016.
SANDRA TSING LOH is the author of the THE MADWOMAN IN THE VOLVO: MY YEAR OF RAGING HORMONES (2014, W.W. Norton), which was selected as one of the New York Times' 100 Most Notable Books. It is based on her Best American Essay 2012 on menopause, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly. Her previous book, MOTHER ON FIRE, was inspired by her hit solo show about Los Angeles public education. During that time, she was named one of the 50 most influential comedians by Variety.
Her other solo shows include "Aliens in America" and "Bad Sex With Bud Kemp" (both off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre), "Sugar Plum Fairy" (Geffen Playhouse, Seattle Rep), and "I Worry" (Kennedy Center, Actor's Theatre of Louisville). Her short story, "My Father's Chinese Wives," won a Pushcart Prize in 1996, and is also featured in the Norton Anthology of Modern Literature. Loh's previous books include A Year in Van Nuys, Aliens in America, Depth Takes a Holiday, and a novel, If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home By Now, which was named by the Los Angeles Times as one of the 100 best fiction books of 1998.
She has been a regular commentator on NPR's "Morning Edition," and on PRI's "This American Life" and "Marketplace"; currently, her weekly segment "The Loh Life"" is heard on KPCC. Loh's education includes a BS in physics from the California Institute of Technology, an institution which granted her a Distinguished Alumna Award, its highest honor, and for whom she was the first alumna to give a now-famous commencement speech.
Loh's combining of her communication and science skills continue with her syndicated daily minute "The Loh Down on Science," which is heard weekly by 4 million people. Excerpts from her solo piano CD Pianovision has been heard on several NPR shows, and she also scored the music for the 1998 Oscar-winning documentary Breathing Lessons. A Pushcart Prize winner, MacDowell Fellow and three-time National Magazine Award nominee, she is a contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly and adjunct professor of visual art and science communication at the University of California, Irvine.
Sandra's stand-up show, The B**** Is Back: An All-Too Intimate Conversation, ran at The Broad Stage in July, 2015. Her multi-character play based on The Madwoman in the Volvo premiered at South Coast Repertory Theatre (SCR) in January, 2016, and enjoyed subsequent runs at The Pasadena Playhouse and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Loh workshopped a new piece, "Blue State," at the Ojai Playwrights Conference in August, 2017. A new three-actor version of "Sugar Plum Fairy" will be produced by SCR in December, 2017. Loh is an adjunct associate professor of Drama at UC Irvine, where she also teaches Science Communication.

Janeane speaks to Alka Joshi about her debut novel, THE HENNA ARTIST

A touching tribute to the life her mother didn’t have the opportunity to lead, Alka Joshi’s debut novel, THE HENNA ARTIST (MIRA Books; March 3, 2020; $26.99) is set in post-Raj 1950s Jaipur, about a young woman struggling to shape her own destiny in a world pivoting between the traditional and the modern. With her novel, Alka reimagines what life might have been like if her mother hadn’t been in an arranged marriage at 18 and instead been able to pursue the same independence and education that she always advocated for Alka.
After fleeing an arranged marriage as a fifteen-year-old to an abusive older man, Lakshmi Shastri steals away alone from her rural village to Jaipur. Against all odds, she carves out a living for herself as a henna artist, friend, and confidante to wealthy, upper caste women. She shares her knowledge and keeps their secrets in a delicate balancing act amid the changing 1950s social mores brought about by Indian Independence. But on the day her ex-husband arrives in town, all that Lakshmi has built threatens to unravel. He seeks money and brings with him a girl, a sister Lakshmi never knew she had and suddenly the caution that Lakshmi has carefully cultivated is threatened, along with her livelihood. Still she perseveres, applying her talents and lifting up those that surround her as she does.
Alka Joshi is a graduate of Stanford University and received her M.F.A. from the California College of the Arts. She has worked as an advertising copywriter, a marketing consultant, and an illustrator. Alka was born in India, in the state of Rajasthan. Her family came to the United States when she was nine, and she now lives on California's Monterey Peninsula with her husband and two misbehaving pups. The Henna Artist is her first novel.

Grant Hier is the Poet Laureate of Anaheim, California

Grant Hier is the Poet Laureate of Anaheim, California. He was the 2014 recipient of Prize Americana for his book Untended Garden , which was published by The Poetry Press in 2015, and nominated for both an American Book Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award.
G R A N T H I E R
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH + CREATIVE WRITING
LAGUNA COLLEGE OF ART + DESIGN
INAUGURAL POET LAUREATE OF ANAHEIM EMERITUS
www.granthier.com

Jessica Drew de Paz, Psy.D., is the Director of Mindfulness Services at UC Irvine’s Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute

Jessica Drew de Paz, Psy.D., is the Director of Mindfulness Services at UC Irvine’s Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute, and she teaches mindfulness to preschoolers through high-school students.
Jessica completed her undergraduate degree at UC Santa Barbara, her master’s degree and doctorate in clinical psychology at California School of Professional Psychology, an APA internship at UC Santa Cruz Counseling & Psychological Services, and a post-doctoral fellowship at University of San Francisco Counseling Center. With over 20 years of experience at the University of California, she has served as a clinical psychologist, led diversity efforts, overseen health and safety training, and conducted research on mindfulness in the workplace.

Janeane speaks with Aaron McHugh, a writer, podcaster, adventurer, and author of the best-selling book, Fire Your Boss: Discover Work You Love Without...

Aaron McHugh is a writer, podcaster, adventurer, and author of the best-selling book, Fire Your Boss: Discover Work You Love Without Quitting Your Job. He is mastering the art of living a sustainable work-life balance that constantly interweaves rhythms of play and adventure. That includes road trips in their 1974 VW Bus, aka The Joy Bus, catapulting them into many father-daughter adventures together.
Aaron works as an Affiliate Advisor to Aberkyn, a division of McKinsey & Co as a facilitator of transformation and executive coach. Aaron loves ideas. He loves to dream up new adventures. He is a Starbucks French press coffee snob and is at his best if he gets out for his daily run. He works for a global change leadership consulting company alongside Work Life Play.

Filmmaker and chairman of the Dean’s Arts Council of the UCI Claire Trever School of Arts, Ivan Williams, joins Janeane on KUCI 88.9fm to talk about N...

ABOUT IVAN WILLIAMS
Ivan Williams is a partner and Scenario’s executive vice president of finance. After a successful career as a senior business leader at major energy companies (ARCO and BP), he has been active starting up a media technology company, and executive producing feature films, Broadway musicals, musical recordings, theatrical plays, and Web tv shows. A member of Film Independent and the Sundance Institute,
Ivan holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Oregon State University, and is a Dean’s M.B.A. Scholar at the UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business, and a veteran Naval Reserve intelligence officer. An active contributor to his alma maters, Ivan serves as a member of the board of directors for Oregon State University’s Alumni Association, and is active with the University of California Irvine as chairman of the Dean’s Arts Council of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, serving as a member of the Graduate Division’s Dean’s Leadership Council, as an entertainment industry advisory board member for the Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute, and a founding board member of the L.A./Orange County Anteaters in the Arts organization.

Columnist and family advocate, Katie Burke, joins Janeane to talk about her forthcoming debut title Urban Playground: What Kids Say About Living in Sa...

Katie's book features interviews with fifty children, ages five to nine, on daily life in San Francisco, exploring different themes from family, school, pets, and work to heroes, holidays, favorite foods, talents, and sports.
Urban Playground offers insights and strategies to help adults open conversations with children all over the country about their experience of urban life.
She speaks on topics like:
How you can relate to children in your own life and hear their stories
The unique challenges of conveying a child’s perspective
The value of a child’s perspective, on everything from ice cream to the Golden Gate Bridge
Katie’s writing has appeared in San Francisco Attorney Magazine, the L.A. Times, KQED Perspectives, SoMa Literary Review, and the Noe Valley Voice, where she writes a monthly column about kids. She has also taught creative writing to children and adults in Kenya, South Africa, and San Francisco.

Tea Hacic-Vlahovic joins host Janeane Bernstein on KUCI 88.9fm

Everyone wants to get out right now (even if we can't), and the bestselling debut
Life of the Party by Tea Hacic-Vlahovic (pronounced: TAY-UH HA-CHEECH VLA-HO-VEECH) is the perfect escape— especially for people who like to have a good time!
It-girl Tea Hacic-Vlahovic's many hats include writer/columnist for Wired, Vice (among others), performer, comedian, TV host, and filmmaker. Tea is a smart, fun, exciting presence, and her true-life adventures inspired a book you won't put down until you finish!

Interested in voice-over, animation voice acting, learning dialects or narration? Janeane speaks with Pat Fraley, the most sought-after voice-over tea...

Patrick Fraley is the most sought-after voice-over teacher in North America. He has been performing and teaching for over 40 years. As a performer, he has created voices for over 4,000 characters, placing him in the top ten of all time to be cast in animated TV shows. As a teacher, Pat has guided more performers into meaningful voice-over careers than anyone in the history of VO Instruction. He lives and works out of L.A., California.
Brad Garrett “Pat Fraley is such a gifted and passionate coach that immediately after taking his class I became a hand model. He's truly brilliant. Bring your wallet.”
www.patfraley.com

Gabriele Oettingen Professor of Psychology - Department of Psychology New York University

Princess Gabriele of Oettingen-Oettingen and Oettingen-Spielberg, known professionally as Gabriele Oettingen, is a German academic and psychologist. She is a professor of psychology at New York University and the University of Hamburg.
WOOP my LIfe
www.woopmylife.org