KUCI: Get the Funk Out!

3/16/20 @9:30am pst - Author Val Walker joins host Janeane live on KUCI 88.9fm to talk about 400 FRIENDS AND NO ONE TO CALL

400 FRIENDS AND NO ONE TO CALL: Breaking Through Isolation and Building Community (a Central Recovery Press paperback, on sale March 26, 2020).
In this candid and comforting guide for isolating times, Walker explains how she found herself stranded and alone after major surgery when none of her friends showed up to help her. As a professional rehabilitation counselor, she was too embarrassed to reveal how utterly isolated she was by asking someone for help. As she recovered, Val found her voice and developed a plan of action for people who lack social support, not only to heal from the pain of isolation, but to create a solid strategy for rebuilding a sense of community.
Drawing on both her own experience as well as the accounts of others who overcame their own isolating ordeals, Walker compassionately yet realistically shows us how to break through our isolation by befriending our wider community, building a social safety net, and fostering our sense of belonging.

3/16/20 @9:15am pst - Emmy ® Winner Cady McClain joins host Janeane to talk about her Award-Winning Documentary - Seeing is Believing: Women Direct

Seeing is Believing: Women Direct Gets Distribution Deal, PBS Empire Broadcasts, Streaming Deal, Multiple Theatrical Screenings and Los Angeles Theatrical Premiere at ArenaCinelounge presented by CURATOR with Special Guests Marianna Palka, Andrew Van Den Houten, and Araeia Robinson
McClain’s film chronicles the challenges and triumphs of women directors
(Los Angeles, CA) - Cady McClain has just signed a nonexclusive distribution deal with Collective Eye for her award-winning documentary Seeing is Believing: Women Direct. The film emphasizes the opportunity for women to use their voice through media to change the social and political landscape and achieve full equality in a male dominated business.
In honor of Women’s History month there will be a Special Theatrical Los Angeles Premiere screening presented by CURATOR at Arena Cinelounge in Hollywood, on Saturday, March 28, 7PM, followed by a Q & A with McClain and special guests Marianna Palka, Andrew Van Den Houton, and Araeia Robinson.

3/16/20 at 9:00am pst - The 4 SEASON SOLUTION The Groundbreaking New Plan for Feeling Better, Living Well, and Powering Down Our Always-On Lives by Da...

The 4 SEASON SOLUTION
The Groundbreaking New Plan for Feeling Better, Living Well, and Powering Down Our Always-On Lives by Dallas Hartwig
“Quite simply, The 4 Season Solution is the answer to our stressful, unbalanced lives.
It is clear-eyed, accessible, and full of solid, practical information that will help readers change their lives for the better.”
–Robb Wolf, New York Times bestselling author of The Paleo Solution and Wired to Eat
New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Whole30 and It Starts With Food presents a paradigm-shifting plan that shows you how to boost energy, improve health, and feel happier by living more in tune with the seasons.
With his runaway bestsellers It Starts with Food and The Whole30, health trailblazer Dallas Hartwig has helped millions of people improve their lives by changing how they eat. In this groundbreaking new book, he reveals the antidote to today’s epidemics of burnout, weight gain, disease, and fatigue. Rooted in ancestral health, yet designed for our busy, modern lives, The 4 Season Solution is a blueprint for not just eating better, but living better.

3/9/20 @9:30am pst - Jennifer Hirsch, Ph.D. Professor and Deputy Chair for Doctoral Studies, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Pu...

In recent years, college campuses have come to the forefront of national conversations about sexual assault: its causes, the stigma survivors endure when they report, the consequences (or lack thereof) perpetrators face if exposed. How can we make college campuses safer so that sexual assault isn’t such a prevalent danger? How can external social pressures even before college predispose kids to commit assault? How can parents start dialogues with their children to teach them what constitutes healthy sexual behavior? And how can we change high school sex education in ways that make assaults less likely, and people’s sexual lives more fulfilling?
In SEXUAL CITIZENS: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus [W.W. Norton & Company; January 14, 2020; $27.95 hardcover], Columbia professors Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan answer these questions. The book is rich with the testimonies of over 150 Columbia students who participated in the Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation (SHIFT). Startling in their frankness and revelations, these experiences encompass explicit acts of violent rape and more subtle violations of consent that many people may not realize is assault, set in comparison to consensual sexual experiences that range from sweet and caring to startlingly impersonal and objectifying.
Hirsch and Khan’s goal, in sharing these stories, is not to make moral judgments or decide what the ideal legal ramifications of assault should be. Their approach is steeped in empathy, seeking to elucidate the social roots of sexual assault, approaching it as a public health problem, and to explain it by setting out a broader understanding of how sex is organized and what it means to young people in college. They put forth powerful new concepts to help explain the forces in young people’s sexual lives: sexual projects (the various motives college students have for pursuing sex), sexual citizenship (the possession of one’s sexual agency, and the respect for another’s), and sexual geographies (the landscapes, both physical and social, that shape the power dynamics and contexts of sex).
Hirsch and Khan have a remarkable eye for nuance—at every point in their exploration of campus culture they identify the ways race, class, age, and sexuality can intersect with gender to influence who is most at risk and who is most likely to commit offenses. In the chapter “The Toxic Campus Brew,” for example, Hirsch and Khan focus on the role alcohol plays in hookup culture, observing the way drinking laws often force students to enter spaces controlled by older men if they want alcohol—especially wealthy men from historically white fraternities.
Grounded in the intimate, often painful accounts of the human beings at its center, SEXUAL CITIZENS is a bold, comprehensive analysis of a social ecosystem where sexual assault is a regular feature. Eradicating this endemic problem in college life must begin with empowering teachers, policy makers, parents, and students. This text will be an essential impetus and resource for such progress.

3/9/20 - 9:00am pst - Shelly Peiken, a multi-platinum 2 X GRAMMY nominated songwriter who is best known for the #1 hits

A 2017 Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Nominee!
Confessions of a Serial Songwriter is an amusing and poignant memoir about songwriter Shelly Peiken's journey from young girl falling under the spell of magical songs to working professional songwriter writing hits of her own. It's about growing up, the creative process – the highs and the lows, the conflicts that arise between motherhood and career success, the divas and schemers, but also the talented and remarkable people she's found along the way. It's filled with stories and step-by-step advice about the songwriting process, especially collaboration. And it's about the challenge of staying relevant in a rapidly changing and youth-driven world.
As Shelly so eloquently states in Confessions of a Serial Songwriter: “If I had to come up with one X factor that I could cite as a characteristic most hit songs have in common (and this excludes hit songs that are put forth by an already well-oiled machine...that is, a recording artist who has so much notoriety and momentum that just about anything he or she releases, as long as it's 'pretty good ' will have a decent shot at succeeding), I would say it would be: A universal sentiment in a unique frame.” Peiken has tapped the universal sentiment again and again; her songs have been recorded by such artists as Christina Aguilera, Natalie Cole, Selena Gomez, Celine Dion, the Pretenders, and others. In Confessions of a Serial Songwriter, she pulls the curtain back on the music business from the perspective of a behind-the-scenes hit creator and shares invaluable insight into the craft of songwriting.

3/2/20 @9:30am pst - Janeane speaks with Angelika Buettner, the award-winning photographer behind I AM - Celebrating the Perfect Imperfect.

A CAPTIVATING COLLECTION OF NUDE PHOTOGRAPHY AND PERSONAL NARRATIVES IN THE NEW BOOK, I AM - CELEBRATING THE PERFECT IMPERFECT, DRAWS A SPOTLIGHT ON THE AGELESS BEAUTY OF 121 WOMEN OVER THE AGE OF 40
What is age anyway?
We are all ageless spiritual beings continuing to explore and celebrate our shared journeys.
In I AM - Celebrating the Perfect Imperfect, photographer Angelika Buettner celebrates ageless beauty through the voices of 121 women between the ages of 40 and 99. The beautiful photography book pairs nude photography of the women with essays, quotes and poems that depict their powerful stories. To challenge the stereotypes of beauty and age, Angelika uses her camera as a therapeutic tool and instrument of social commentary, and in doing so, she encourages women to embrace their femininity.
The book features portraits of strong women who dare to step out of their comfort zone. One of the profiles is around Chiara D’Agostino, who is photographed on pages next to her emotional personal story about her journey of self-love as a result of her battles with breast cancer. “Am I still a woman without breasts?” Chiara asks. “I’m the same person inside [without them], and I believe we shine from the inside out, so sexy and beautiful is how I feel about myself.”
Rather than creating another nude book where women are portrayed as sexual objects, Angelika’s vision was to empower women aged 40 and older to feel more visible. She found women from all walks of life and captured them in various urban and suburban settings, from shooting in icy snow and on the Manhattan Bridge, to taking photos on a roof, in the outdoors and more. None of the images have been retouched, and no makeup artist or stylist was involved. Contrary to her regular approach to photography, Angelika had no staff at the shoots for the book – she conducted one-on-one sessions to create a comfortable and intimate experience for each of the women.

3/2/20 @9:15am pst - Katherine Keith - Endurance Racer and Author of the Debut Memoir: EPIC SOLITUDE

About the Author
Katherine Keith is a wilderness athlete, experience junkie, spiritual questor, long-distance dog musher, and mother to a fifteen-year-old daughter Amelia and thirty-five dogs, living above the Arctic Circle in Kotzebue, Alaska (pop. 3,266). Professionally, and as a jack-of-all-trades survivalist, she is a small business owner, rural Alaska project director, energy engineer, commercial fisherman, and wellness advocate. Accomplishments such as completing six Ironman triathlons and five 1,000-mile dog sled races form the cornerstone of Katherine’s philosophy of generating grit through overcoming real-time obstacles. A never-ending dreamer, Katherine is currently pursuing climbing the seven tallest summits on every continent as a budding alpinist. EPIC SOLITUDE is her first book. Learn more at http://www.katherinekeith.com/.

3/2/20 @9:00am pst - Modern motherhood & mental health expert Katherine Wintsch joins host Janeane on KUCI 88.9fm

Modern motherhood & mental health expert Katherine Wintsch is founder CEO of The Mom Complex and author of SLAY LIKE A MOTHER: How to Destroy What’s Holding Your Back So You Can Live the Life You Want (paperback release March 3, 2020; Sourcebooks). In both her business and her book, Katherine’s goal is to help mothers embark on a new chapter in life as a parent – away from the self-defeating tendencies and feelings of inadequacy and toward the deeply held belief that you’ve always been more than enough as a mother and a woman. As a mom to a toddler, this book is exactly the positive mental health guidance I needed.

2/25/20 - Dani Shapiro, New York Times instant best-selling memoirist, novelist and host of the hit podcast Family Secrets shares her story about the...

DANI SHAPIROBestselling memoirist, novelist and host of the hit podcast Family Secrets shares her story about the staggering family secret uncovered by a genealogy test: an exploration of the urgent ethical questions surrounding fertility treatments and DNA testing, and a profound inquiry of paternity, identity, and love – now in paperback
In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA for analysis, Dani Shapiro received the stunning news that her father was not her biological father. She woke up one morning and her entire history—the life she had lived—crumbled beneath her.
This shocking revelation propelled Dani into a journalistic and personal quest that resulted in her latest memoir, INHERITANCE — the book she was literally born to write. Chronicling Dani’s journey to unlock the hidden story of her own identity, INHERITANCE, which became an instant New York Times bestseller in hardcover, is a gripping exploration of the secrets we keep from one another—out of shame, for self-protection, or in the name of love—and how to answer the fundamental question: What makes us who we are?
Dani Shapiro discusses:
· Her writing process for INHERITANCE and why she was driven to start writing in real time as the story was unfolding.
· How her own sense of identity -- a central theme of INHERITANCE – has changed over the course of her DNA discovery to now, as well as how it has affected so many readers on their own journeys of secrets and identity.
· Her advice to the millions of people who will take personal DNA tests (as many as 50 million are estimated to have received personal DNA test kits such as 23&Me and Ancestry for holiday gifts this past season alone). She shares her thoughts on how these tests have affected our society in both good and worrisome ways.
· Her hit podcast, Family Secrets, now in its third season, with over 7 million downloads.
INHERITANCE is a book about secrets—secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman’s urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years, years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history. It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in—a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.
About the Author
DANI SHAPIRO is the author of the memoirs Hourglass, Still Writing, Devotion, and Slow Motion and five novels including Black & White and Family History. Also an essayist and a journalist, Shapiro's short fiction, essays, and journalistic pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, One Story, Elle, Vogue, O, The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, the op-ed pages of the New York Times, and many other publications. She has taught in the writing programs at Columbia, NYU, the New School, and Wesleyan University; she is cofounder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. Shapiro is the host of the hit podcast, Family Secrets. She lives with her family in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

2/27/20 @9:30am pst - Joey Travolta chats with host Janeane Bernstein about his film Carol of the Bells

Carol of the Bells (2019) 1h 40min | Drama | 19 October 2019 (USA) A young man with a troubled past seeks out his biological mother. His world is turned upside down upon discovering that she is developmentally disabled.
WATCH the TRAILER
A crew of 70% individuals with developmental disabilities recently produced Inclusion Films’ first feature length film, Carol of the Bells, directed by Joey Travolta. Fresh from earning the Audience Favorite Feature award at the San Diego International Film Festival in October - Carol of the Bells will release in multiple cities in December. Travolta teaches filmmaking to individuals with developmental disabilities at 6 partner studios across California via Inclusion Films. Carol of the Bells was produced in association with Futures Explored, Inc. and Options for All.
“Carol of the Bells” was the world's first feature film production, where up to 70% of the crew had a developmental disability. Under the network and resources of Inclusion Films, this film was made within two weeks in Bakersfield, California.
Synopsis: A young father battles his past to find peace with his wife and son. Scott Johnson has always struggled with his secret adoption, and his life-changing moment as a child at Christmas time. Now, Scott has the answer to his greatest fear. Can he take the final step to bridge the truth about his first family and heal his wounds?
Director/Producer Joey Travolta shared “Carol of the Bells is a beautiful story by itself, but the way it was made is even more beautiful. Working with a crew where 70% are developmentally different offers insight into just how much they bring to the table when offered the opportunity. Having the opportunity is the key. Inclusion Films has a mission of inclusion - to train people with different abilities in the art of filmmaking. The soft skills learned in the training program can then be applied to other jobs and all aspects of their life.”
When asked what drives his passion for inclusion, Travolta shared “My father raised us in an environment of inclusivity. Family was important, kindness was important, everyone was equal and everyone was welcome. That’s what first led me to being a special education educator. Partnering that passion for equality with filmmaking has become my life’s work. I want everyone to have that sense of belonging when they are trained by us, come to our camps or work with us on a film. That sense of belonging brought out the best in everyone - and allowed for an environment for this talented diverse team to create an award winning feature film. No small feat. I’m looking forward to sharing their work on Carol of the Bells and helping to create a shift in employment opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities.”