Play It Forward Episode 97

Listen to "Play It Forward Episode 97 With Lindsay Bushnell From Burn BootCamp" on Spreaker. Hey it’s Arroe. This is Play It Forward. A look at the unexpected changes endured by entertainers, writers, camera people and all others affected but not infected by the global invasion of the Coronavirus. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 97: Hey! Open the gyms! We’re told early in life that we don’t live in a house. We live in a home. A Future Home is about community. A city is a Future Home. The people, the businesses. During Covid-19 something of extreme value has been missing from our home. The gym. Lindsey Bushnell is co-owner of Burn BootCamp. What is and isn’t essential in the world of great health? The physical cause of future sickness sits in the decision to not reopen where we workout. We’re talking cardiovascular, pneumonia and other lung issues, weaknesses that could lead to falling. Taking a walk through the neighborhood isn’t working out. It’s a luxury. Before we leap into this conversation I’d like you to get Lindsay’s information. Burnbootcamp.com and on facebook at Burnbookcampcharlotte. That’s Play It Forward. You can listen to the full conversations with these artists on three different podcasts. Like Its Live, Unplugged and Totally Uncut and View from the Writing Instrument found on all digital platforms.

Carlos Watson Show

Listen to "Carlos Watson Show On YouTube" on Spreaker. The Carlos Watson Show plans an Aug. 3 launch for a new series starring the Emmy-winning OZY cofounder and CEO Carlos Watson. The show will premiere on the OZY YouTube channel and at OZY.com and will broadcast Monday through Friday. The series will launch with three episodes and plans a 12-week, 60 episode slate. Beginning as a digital magazine in 2013, OZY has evolved into a media company featuring podcasts, events, and original TV series with A+E, HISTORY, Lifetime, Amazon, Hulu, OWN, PBS and BBC. Led by Emmy Award-winning journalist Carlos Watson and co-founder Samir Rao, OZY is based in Mountain View, California. The show's lineup of guests slated for the first season of the new talk show include authors Malcolm Gladwell, Roxane Gay and Simon Sinek; actors and TV personalities Terry Crews, Karamo Brown, Maggie Siff, Bethenny Frankel, David Oyelowo and Paris Hilton; athletes Grant Hill and Baker Mayfield; politicians Rep. Karen Bass, Sean Spicer, and Andrew Yang. The series will also be launched as a podcast through a partnership between OZY and the iHeart Radio Podcast Network. It will be distributed across all iHeart Radio channels and on all podcast platforms. "We are living through a critical, defining moment for our society, and there has not been a more important time to hear fresh perspectives, bold ideas and genuine conversation,' said OZY cofounder, COO and executive producer Samir Rao. "We need someone as smart, open-minded and committed as Carlos to help facilitate those conversations - there's simply nobody better. He's the best interviewer on TV, is endlessly curious, and his own journey from humble beginnings to the Ivy League en route to incredible success as an anchor, entrepreneur and educator gives him a unique ability to connect with the wide diversity of voices that we NEED to hear right now." "Carlos Watson is a singular talent who is inspiring the change generation to get curious about the world in which we live and the issues we all are facing," said Emmy-Award winning EP Brad Bessey (The Talk, Entertainment Tonight).. His ability to create meaningful, flavorful conversations that are both substantive and entertaining is unmatched." The Carlos Watson Show is produced by OZY and is presented by American Family Insurance. Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=104&v=PkrLYD69Mns&feature=emb_logo

DW Gibson Releases 14 Miles

Listen to "DW Gibson Releases The Book 14 Miles Building The Border Wall" on Spreaker. In 2017, when the Department of Homeland Security announced an open call for prototypes for Trump's border wall, DW Gibson, an award-winning journalist and Southern California native, began visiting the construction site and watching as the samples were erected. Gibson spent those two years closely observing the work and interviewing local residents to understand how it was impacting them. In 14 MILES: Building the Border Wall (Simon & Schuster; hardcover; 7/7/2020), Gibson takes us to the ecosystem surrounding the 14 completed miles of Trump's border wall in San Diego County - from a park that's home to anti-immigrant rallies to one that hosts bilingual church services, from a Methodist church housing more than 300 refugees to a small town that forms citizen border-watch groups, from the courts hearing asylum cases to the red-carpeted villa where a real estate developer boasts about his Carrera marble fountain and giant American flag - and shows what life is like for many living in the shadow of this "surreal political project" In the book, we meet: -April McKee, a border patrol agent leading a recruiting program called Explorers that trains local teenagers to work as agents. -Manuel Rodriguez, the chief of police in a mid-size San Diego County town, who himself is an immigrant from the border town of Nogales, Mexico. He worries about how local law enforcement is perceived and the ways in which in which it impacts his department's effectiveness. -Roque De La Fuente, an eccentric millionaire developer who uses the construction as a promotional opportunity. -Aurelia Avila, a young Mexican-American woman who lives with her daughter and brother in a makeshift shanty just south of the border. She cannot cross back into the US because she lacks the documentation she needs to prove her citizenship. Aurelia and her family live closer to the prototypes than anyone else and have become inured to the hammering and drilling sounds. -Bob Maupin, a resident of a rural town, population 315, who loves the idea of a wall and for years has led self-styled vigilante groups to catch border crossers-sometimes with government support. He has heard automatic weapon fire from his property and has been shot at. -Civile Ephedouard, a Haitian refugee who spent two years migrating through Central America to the United States and anxiously awaits the results of his asylum case. -Serge Dedina, who grew up surfing the slews at Imperial Beach, a town at the southwestern tip of the country that contends with incredible water pollution from nearby American factories in Tijuana. Dedina is now mayor and has been connecting with border patrol and military families to get clean-up work done. He believes border security includes improving air and water quality and that "you don't make borders more secure by dividing people." While most Americans think of the border as a dangerous place, Dedina insists otherwise: "It's actually a force of attraction that pulls people together. There is a functioning political, economic, ecological, and cultural ecosystem here." Through the varied perspectives of the people he interviewed, Gibson shows how complex and dynamic the idea of a border actually is, raising questions about safety, community, capitalism and politics - both local and national. Fascinating, propulsive, and incredibly timely, 14 MILES is an important, absorbing work that explains not only how the wall has reshaped our landscape and countless lives but also how its shadow looms over our very identity as a nation.

Do We Have Any Say

Listen to "Do We Have Any Say" on Spreaker. August 7, 2020 I still remember when Napster came under fire. Here was this website that was allowing all shapes of music to be given away free. Singer/songwriters and musicians were extremely angry because it was the first step of a new generation of stealing. It was no longer about duplicating CD’s or transferring music to your iPod from other people’s collections. The internet struck hard and it was about to change the face of the Rock Star appeal. On this podcast episode we jump into the present day mess with Tik Tok. Do we have any say? By presidential executive order it has to go away in 45 days. I don’t use it but I find it to be an incredible pleasure in watching what everybody else creates. Every video on Tik Tok proves that we still have what it takes to laugh, dance and sing during a pandemic and all other things gone totally wrong. But the reality of this moment isn’t based on that app. It’s all the other apps that are now in danger. If Tik Tok has earned the label of being a threat to national security, will we soon see an executive order tossing all podcasters off the digital air? Podcasters say what they want when they want. If you’ve heard them lately there’s a ton of free speech taking place and not all of it is in favor of the maker of the presidential executive order. Do we have any say? The question actually came up in my morning written prayer. I write out my prayers. I’m weird that way. They’re always there to go back to. To study the moment. To feel and reignite. Do we have any say? I asked God that. The prayer started with “You are the creator of the path and decisions made.” In writing that down I instantly went to “Do we have any say?” Is there enough room to invite what we think? Not to be a handful but to serve his word by example. A tough place to walk in 2020. We are the generation that’s trapped in proving how unique each of us are. To be different and accepted at the same time. To blurt out whatever we feel at any time. What happens if the next executive order ends social media? Do we have any say? Will my daily writing of 26 years be invaded? What if life has already been written out and we’re nothing more than actors on a soap opera that God happens to find joy in? Your role. My role. Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro. Life already written and we’re bringing the script to the world’s largest stage. If that’s true! As actors can we renegotiate? So how do I end this conversation without creating a reason for you to be upset or defensive about the truth and lack of value in a modern walk and way? If Tik Tok is what it’s been accused of. What’s going to be accused of being the next national threat? Grab your script and give it your best Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks appeal or go all out and become Joan Crawford in Mother Dearest, “I said no wire hangers!”

Play It Forward Episode 96

Listen to "Play It Forward Episode 96 With Joe Morton And Kenny Lehman Wake Up America" on Spreaker. Hey it’s Arroe. This is Play It Forward. A look at the unexpected changes endured by entertainers, writers, camera people and all others affected but not infected by the global invasion of the Coronavirus. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 96: Wake Up America Actor Joe Morton. Emmy Award winner. Known for his role on ABC’s Scandal and most recently on God Friended Me on CBS. Because of the Covid shut down, Joe’s been relishing his time in the recording studio with life-long friend, composer, arranger, and Grammy nominee, Kenny Lehman. Born of this passionate and creative collaboration is "Wake Up America". Melodic, rhythmic a call to action. As a team they hope to inspire Americans of all ethnicities and political leanings to take a more active role in their own political lives, or at least restrain from the tribal posturing, the race baiting, and political gamesmanship, that does nothing but divide us. Ultimately, according to Joe and Kenny, unity is up to us, not the politicians. That’s Play It Forward. You can listen to the full conversations with these artists on three different podcasts. Like Its Live, Unplugged and Totally Uncut and View from the Writing Instrument found on all digital platforms.

Ronnie Platt From Kansas

Listen to "Ronnie Platt From Kansas Talking About The Absence Of Presence" on Spreaker. With a legendary career spanning nearly five decades, KANSAS has firmly established itself as one of America’s iconic classic rock bands. This "garage band" from Topeka released their debut album in 1974 after being discovered by Wally Gold, who worked for Don Kirshner, and have gone on to sell more than 30 million albums worldwide. Composing a catalogue that includes sixteen studio albums and five live albums, KANSAS has produced eight gold albums, three sextuple-Platinum albums (Leftoverture, Point of Know Return, Best of KANSAS), one platinum live album (Two for the Show), one quadruple-Platinum single ‘Carry On Wayward Son,’ and another triple-Platinum single ‘Dust in the Wind.’ KANSAS appeared on the Billboard charts for over 200 weeks throughout the ‘70's and ‘80's and played to sold-out arenas and stadiums throughout North America, Europe and Japan. ‘Carry On Wayward Son’ continues to be one of the top five most played songs on classic rock radio, and ‘Dust In the Wind’ has been played on the radio more than three million times! The summer of 2020 marks the release of “The Absence of Presence,” KANSAS’s sixteenth studio album. The wide-ranging progressive rock album, released by InsideOut Music, follows-up 2016’s “The Prelude Implicit,” which debuted at #14 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart. Throughout 2016-2017, the band celebrated the anniversary of breakout album “Leftoverture” with the highly successful KANSAS: Leftoverture 40th Anniversary Tour. That tour was released in 2017 as a live album, “Leftoverture Live & Beyond.” Since 2018, KANSAS has followed that tour with the even more successful KANSAS: Point of Know Return Anniversary Tour. The band is currently comprised of original drummer Phil Ehart, bassist/vocalist Billy Greer, vocalist/keyboardist Ronnie Platt, violinist/guitarist David Ragsdale, keyboardist/vocalist Tom Brislin, guitarist Zak Rizvi, and original guitarist Richard Williams. With no signs of slowing down, KANSAS continues to perform in front of large and enthusiastic audiences around the world. Along with constant touring, KANSAS continues to remain a fixture of Classic Rock radio. The band has reached a whole new audience through their unmistakable presence on the popular video games Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Grand Theft Auto; the band’s documentary film “KANSAS: Miracles Out of Nowhere” airing on AXSTV; and through their songs’ inclusion in various television shows such as ‘Supernatural,’ ‘South Park,’ ‘The Office,’ and ‘The Simpsons;’ and with films including ‘Old School,’ ‘Anchorman,’ and ‘Happy Gilmore.’

Mark Shulman

Listen to "Mark Shulman Releases The Books Show Me History" on Spreaker. Author Mark Shulman knows a lot about writing for kids. As the author of over 150 children’s books, he brings his trademark sense of humor to two of the latest installments in the SHOW ME HISTORY! GRAPHIC NOVELS series: Walt Disney: The Magical Innovator, and Susan B. Anthony: Champion for Voting Rights!. A dedicated researcher, Shulman digs deep to find interesting and often funny facts about his subject’s life, keeping kids (ages 8-12), but also comic book lovers, history buffs, and graphic novel fans engaged and entertained. (So they aren’t really novels, but full color biographies, just in the graphic novels format!)