Have The Conversation

Listen to "Have The Conversation" on Spreaker. Tweeting or texting a friend isn't seen in my heart as a conversation. Jotting down a few thoughts in an email or old fashioned snail mail totally lacks human inflection. To have a conversation means giving up what you call your glory and share it with a passerby. We experience so much that our minds bodies and souls look like an episode of Hoarders. On this podcast we dive into the subject of what we as everyday real people demand not only from ourselves but others. We want insurance, security, clarity as well as knowledge. Without sitting down to have a conversation your brain becomes a rust bucket. The storms you've traveled through are in essence conversation starters. Not to receive pity but to turn it into a tool to help someone along the way. I have a very good friend dealing with a child that's become a cutter. A little something I dealt thirty years ago and with psychotherapy and years of writing I've been able to become more aware of the circumstances that lead to wrong choices. I'm not an expert but I've experienced it. Lets talk about religion. So many hold onto to the glory without ever letting it pass through them to someone who doesn't know how to reach God. Someone that feels guilty because they can't instantly whip out a verse or remember a story. Have a conversation. Nobody is greater than. Through each others experiences with change, challenge, defeat and the occasional victory there's always a new tool placed in your heart to be used in an area you'll soon bump into. Insurance, security, clarity and knowledge grow forward when conversation is put into first gear.

Gianni Russo

Listen to "Gianni Russo Releases Hollywood Godfather" on Spreaker. "Gianni Russo walks the walk and talks the talk. What a life. Fascinating. A worthy read." -Robert De Niro "Gianni Russo is a true character who has led a most colorful life."-Gay Talese "Gianni Russo has seen a lot, done a lot, and tells it all. Amazing."-Nick Pileggi Kirkus (12/22)--Reads like a narrative for a mob movie script...Russo is an engaging raconteur, no doubt about it." Booklist (12/1)--"Fascinating...it's a hell of a story...and Russo comes across as a hell of an interesting guy." Library Journal(11/15)--"Fans of mob movies and unlikely success stories will find Russo's account compelling" In HOLLYWOOD GODFATHER: My Life in the Movies and the Mob, Gianni Russo reveals the behind the scenes story of the making of The Godfather, why it was almost never made at all, and how he landed a role in it with virtually no acting experience. He leveraged his connection with the mafia to get out of the crime business and into Hollywood, and eventually to a career as a Las Vegas casino and nightclub owner. In addition to behind the scenes stories of the making of the iconic movie, Gianni shares stories from his own incredible life, including: . Acting as a messenger to New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello during the Kennedy assassination, and being sent out of the country afterwards . Going on the run after shooting and killing a member of Pablo Escobar's drug cartel in his Vegas club. . Laundering mob casino money through the Vatican, until Pope John Paul I put a stop to it . Getting the Shah of Iran fortune out of the country before his regime fell Celebrity names and encounters fill the book, including an out-of-control food fight with Liza Minelli in Dionne Warwick's Las Vegas mansion, and a very unusual encounter with Zsa Zsa Gabor. This is a riveting mafia memoir filled with Hollywood glamour and more than one near death experience. This year is the 50th anniversary of the publication of the novel The Godfather, by Mario Puzo, and the anniversary of the release of the movie is also coming up in March (it premiered on March 24th, 1972), Gianni is the real thing--he grew up in Little Italy, and worked for infamous mobster Frank Costello as a young man. He parlayed his mob connections into a role in the movie with virtually no acting experience, and helped avert a complete shutdown of the film production during shooting in Little Italy. He even had to threaten Marlon Brando when he tried to get him fired from the film (the New York Post Page Six item is below) Marlon Brando didn't want to work with acting rookie Gianni Russo on "The Godfather" and tried to get him fired - until Russo threatened to kill him. Russo, who played Carlo Rizzi in the Francis Ford Coppola classic, tells in his memoir, "Hollywood Godfather," how Brando cornered him during a break and started asking about his résumé. "Brando finally realized that I had zero experience in the acting game. I could tell he was upset. He turned to Francis Ford Coppola," Russo writes. Russo quotes Brando as saying, "Francis, this guy married my [character's] daughter, sells out the family and is instrumental in getting my boy Sonny [James Caan] killed. This part needs to be given to an experienced actor. You should reconsider who has this part." "I put my arm around Brando," Russo writes, "and ushered him into a corner. I got right in his face, but kept my voice subdued. 'Who the f - - k are you to try to do this to me? I'll cut your heart out, you rat motherf - - ker. I'm part of this picture whether you like it or not, you c - - ksucker.' "Brando stared at me for what seemed like a minute . . . 'Man, you're f - - king good,' he said. 'I take back what I said. You've got great acting chops.' "

Neil Ratner

Listen to "Neil Ratner Releases Roc Doc" on Spreaker. In his new memoir, ROCK DOC -- slated for worldwide release the week of January 20, 2019 -- Neil tells you all about his escapades in the rock and roll business and much, much more, chronicling his extraordinary journey from the music business to medicine, back to music and everywhere in between... it's an amazing story with never-before-seen photos featured in the book including the one above with Nelson Mandela and Michael Jackson. Here's Neil, the "Rock Doc," himself, telling you about the book in a short one-minute trailer: https://youtu.be/k3XjhuJVz5o ROCK DOC will take you from backstage at a Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon concert in the early seventies, where Neil's production company, Circus Talents, Ltd. was providing production services, to the office operating rooms of elite New York surgeons where Neil Ratner MD was Director of Anesthesia. Although Dr. Ratner encountered many celebrities in his anesthesia practice, one would change his life... Michael Jackson. Eight years after establishing his anesthesia practice, Michael Jackson walked into an office in which Neil was the Director of Anesthesia. Neil became a trusted friend of Michael's from 1994 to 2002, periodically going on tour and spending time with Michael at Neverland. Read in ROCK DOC how their relationship profoundly affected both...

George Lopez

Listen to "George Lopez From Worlds Most Amazing Dog On FaceBook Watch" on Spreaker. George Lopez is an actor, a comedian and now he's out to find the world's most amazing dog on a new show. "World's Most Amazing Dog" premiered in February. On the new competition show Lopez is joined by fellow judge Lisa Vanderpump, and host Preacher Lawson. The show is seen on Facebook Watch, a new platform on Facebook that allows you to watch videos on demand. Think of it like YouTube, with both short and long-form shows and videos. "The World's Most Amazing Dog" is an interactive competition show with dog videos submitted from over 30 different countries. Lopez and Lisa Vanderpump will act as judges and the winner will receive $100,000 and a customized dog home. As of February 5th, they are still accepting video submissions for the contest. Lopez, a self-proclaimed dog lover, has hosted the World Dog Awards in the past, and so he comes into this show with some canine expertise.

Bram Presser

Listen to "Bram Presser Releases The Book Of Dirt" on Spreaker. Bram Presser’s grandparents never spoke of their Holocaust experience, but a few years after they died an article was published claiming that his grandfather had been selected by the Nazis as the literary curator of Hitler’s Museum of the Extinct Race. Presser realized he didn’t really know anything about the person he loved the most, thus he set out on an obsessive eight-year quest to uncover the Holocaust stories his grandparents could never tell. Part memoir, part investigation, part novel - The Book of Dirt is a wholly original approach to telling a story about survival, love, legacy, family secrets, the human condition, and “the great Perspex wall of Holocaust ownership.” “This is a book of memories, some my own, some acquired and some, I suppose, imagined,” Presser writes, but the pages that follow are unapologetically irreverent, sharp, visceral, and rich with lyrically beautiful prose that confronts history, memory, and silence. The Book of Dirt is Presser’s attempt to make sense of the stories his family built around two remarkable survivors, set against a reimagining of those extraordinary experiences from the scraps, rumors, and whispers he found along the way, resulting in a novel that is never clearly fact, fiction or fable. And it is a heart-warming story about a grandson’s devotion to the power of storytelling and his family’s legacy.

The Who What Where When And How

Listen to "The Who What Where When And How" on Spreaker. Look... I know it comes across that I have this huge bad ass love affair going for Broadcasting but what you don't see are the days when you don't feel like pouring your soul into a microphone. It eats away at every system of choice. Counting my practice years in the childhood bedroom I've been doing this insane talking to yourself act for 44 years. On this podcast we rip apart the whereabouts of why it is that we do. No matter how thick the clouds or rough the desert floor somehow someway you get the job done while others are thinking, "Oh my God they are so dedicated." Stop it. It's a guilt trip. You were given the gift to do what you do everyday and it's never been meant for you. The Who, What, When, Where and Why is who gave it to you. The guilt trip is not living up to the expectation of the gift sharer. 24 hours in a day is never enough and yet we always find time to throw ourselves down in a chair and become glued to a smart phone. Understanding the art that you've made public. The art of speaking, the art of business, the art of selling and the art of hitting Amazon every ten minutes to see if toilet paper is cheaper there or should we hit the Harris Teeter? How do you move through your moments when serving is the last thing you want to do?

Ananda Lewis

Listen to "Ananda Lewis From While You Were Out On TLC" on Spreaker. Saturday nights on TLC just got more colorful with the newly updated While You Were Out. Hosted by Ananda Lewis, the design series features an all-star cast comprised of designers from both TLC and HGTV. With a budget of $10,000 per room, each set of designers and carpenters will design one room in neighboring houses after the home owner sends their significant other on a weekend getaway. The ultimate surprise reveal culminates each episode upon their return. One home will include TLC designers and the other, HGTV designers. While You Were Out will air simultaneously on TLC and HGTV! Vibrant personality Ananda Lewis is a TV host and social activist. The Howard University graduate’s first job as an on air host was Teen Summit on BET, earning the program an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Youth Series because of Ananda's interview of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Ananda next became MTV’s first African American woman VJ. Lewis's style was recognized for bringing live celebrity interviewing to a new level on two daily MTV shows: Total Request Live and The Hot Zone. Her syndicated talk show, The Ananda Lewis Show, targeted women between the ages of 18 and 34 and addressed important issues such as domestic violence and breast cancer, and continues to run in syndication around the globe. Ananda became a correspondent for the nightly entertainment program The Insider and has numerous television as well as movie credits to her name. In the early 2000’s, Ananda made a conscious decision to step away from the camera in order to dedicate herself to caring for her ailing grandmother during the final two years of her life. In 2008, she pursued her true passion for building and earned an AS in Carpentry, honing her skills in furniture artistry and construction. In 2017 she hosted Change My Space on HGTV, began the non-profit Love Builds to help single moms and the elderly with home renovations and necessary improvements at no cost, and is currently in the planning stages for her passion project of building innovative housing communities for single moms and their children. Ananda’s first priority, and favorite job EVER, remains being a doting mother to her 7 year old son.