A is for Adulthood

It's a hot and beautiful day in the neighborhood today. I hope you are all staying cool and enjoying yourselves this fourth of July holiday. This week we are doing something different and sharing with you an interview conducted by someone else. In 1999 Karen Herman, the director of the Archive of America Television, sat down with Fred Rogers (aka Mr. Rogers) for a 4 and a 1/2 hour conversation. Mr. Rogers is a rock star in my books and I would like to share a little bit of his story with you. Here is the first thirty minutes of that conversation. The rest of the conversation can be found on youtube and mentalfloss.com. This interview is being shared for educational purposes only! Enjoy!

How many of us are willing to make a drastic change in our belief system? How many would be willing to do it twice? Join us as we speak to Lynn Wilder to discuss her time with the LDS church, why she entered, why she left and -true to GAK form- a whole lot in between!

Erik Gordon is the owner and operate of Carabiner Coffee. He drives across the country in his VW van making and selling coffee. We wanted to understand how this venture came to be and asked Erik if he would talk with us. Here is our discussion. 

This week with chat with Derrick Scott about his difficult youth growing up on the streets, and how it landed him behind bars. Now that he is on the other side of the bars, Derrick is a father, an actor and a wonderful young man. But the journey to his current self, wasn't all that easy. This is Derrick's story...

1 in 5 adults experience mental illness in a given year. This means that there is a good chance that you or someone you know will battle depression, anxiety, etc. in your life time. However, due to the invisible nature of these illnesses, it's not easy to recognize when someone is battling a mental illness. It's a common response to think that someone who is mentally ill is careless, heartless, self involved or wild. So often we see the behaviors, but not the illness. We rarely consider that a mental illness may be at play.  In an effort to shine some light on mental illness, Scheereen and I speak this week with Diana Noble, a woman who has suffered from Bipolar disorder for most of her life. Mental illness devastates both the sufferer and their loved ones. So often people suffer alone due to a lack of education and understanding. This conversation is our attempt to further our understanding of mental illnesses. This is Diana's journey...

Tommy Edison has been blind since birth. His experience in the world has been different from those that are sighted from day one. Tommy started a video series that allows us to look (no pun intended) into his life. It's called "The Tommy Edison Experience" and it can be viewed on Youtube and Amazon. But we wanted more. So in this episode Tommy allows us to ask him about his life and what it's like to be blind. We learned a lot, and laughed a whole lot more!

Glynn Washington is a storyteller, but once he was a believer, a believer of things he no longer believes in. In today's episode, Glynn tells of how he grew out of believing... in a cult. These days Glynn curates and tells stories along with fellow producer Mark Ristich. Mark and Glynn along with a small army of snappers, produce the hit NPR show: Snap Judgment , from their headquarters in downtown Oakland. Enjoy!

Jeanette reads some ridiculous Headlines and Stories. 

Scheereen and Jeanette are back to talk about nonsense with a Holiday slant. 

Meet Keith and Reina. Keith has wanted to walk across the U.S. since he was kid, and this year he finally made it happen when he met Reina. But he didn't stop with just one walk, he is currently in the process of walk number 2. This is his story. 

Last month while traveling through Portland I encountered a young man working at the Society Hotel. We spoke briefly, and he has me at: My mom use to invite the circus over for dinner. The is the tragic and adventurous tale of Antonio. Little is held back in this story of a complete stranger growing up in California. 

This is my conversation with Jocelyne, a trans woman residing in Reno, Nevada. Jocelyne was kind enough to welcome me into her home for an open conversation about her life and journey to self discovery. This is a slice of her story.

I've never been in a book club, but I imagined that if I was part of one that everyone would read a book, we would gather over coffee to discuss it and at the end of the meeting perhaps catch up on life. Wanting to test this assumption, I asked Scheereen and Sarah to read: My Life on the road, by Gloria Steinem, and gather for a discussion. This is what really ended up happening. 

Camp grounded is a summer camp where adults bunk in cabins, play dodgeball, put on talent shows, sit around camp fires, play pranks and get their hands covered in paint. However, in 2015 we have so many distractions that make it near impossible for us to unplug and fully enjoy a camp experience. This is why Camp Grounded enforces a digital detox.  This is my conversation with Levi Felix, founder and CEO of Camp Grounded. Note: We experienced some technical difficulty with reception and static interference, so I ask for your audio forgiveness. I cleaned up the file as best I could, but some clicks and pops remain. Thanks!

This is the story of Ramon Sotelo. Ramon is a Mexican American who grew up in Central California and found that at times he was too brown for some...and not brown enough for others.