North Star Guardians

Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation

MP3 File

Length-37 minutes, 8 seconds

Dr. Kevin Keough interviews Professor Charles Barber, author of Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation published by Pantheon.

Professor Charles Barber

Charles Barber was educated at Harvard and Columbia and worked for ten years in New York City shelters for the homeless mentally ill. The title essay in his first book, Songs from the Black Chair, won a 2006 Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in the The Washington Post, The New York Times and Scientific American Mind, among other publications, and on NPR. He is a senior administrator at The Connection, an innovative social services agency, and a lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. He lives in Connecticut with his family.  Visit his website http://www.charlesbarberwriting.com

Love Signals: A Practical Field Guide to the Body Language of Courtship

MP3 File  Length-1 hour, 34 minutes, 29 seconds

Dr. Kevin Keough, co-host of North Star Guardians Podcast, interviews Dr. David Givens, author of Love Signals: A Practical Field Guide to the Body Language of Courtship published by St. Martin's Griffin.

Dr. David Givens

David Givens began studying body language at the University of Washington in Seattle. He served as Resident Anthropologist and Director of information services and programs at the American Anthropological Association in Washington, D.C. for more than a decade. He is currently Director of the Center for Non-Verbal Studies in Spokane, Washington. He teaches in the Department of Communication Arts at Gonzaga University. He offers seminars on nonverbal communication to diverse audiences, including lawyers, judges, social workers, salespeople, physicians. He works with law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Intelligence community.  Dr. Givens is also the author of Crime Signals: How to Spot a Criminal Before You Become a Victim.  Visit Dr. Given's website.

Visit The North Star Guardian's blog and Dr. Kevin Keough's blog.

The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die

MP3 File  Length-32 minutes, 54 seconds

Jamie Mason, co-host of North Star Guardians, interviews Dr. John Izzo, author of The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Dr. John Izzo

John Izzo is a visionary, author, community leader and professional speaker on leadership development, performance management, corporate culture, and organizational change. Dr. John Izzo has more than 17 years experience working in a wide variety of corporate settings. His clients include nonprofit organizations, Fortune 500 companies, Healthcare Organizations and mid-size companies. Over the last two decades, John Izzo has married his first career as a minister with his second career as a management & leadership consultant to help leaders create corporations and organizations where values and purpose are the foundations for success. Dr. Izzo spent five years as a senior organizational development consultant for Kaiser Permanente, and 4 years as Vice President of The Einstein Consulting Group, an international customer service consultancy prior to establishing his own firm. Currently he focuses on helping leaders and organizations reach sustainable success through the integration of purposeful leadership and business practices.

John Izzo obtained his Bachelor of Sociology from Hofstra University in 1978 before completing a dual Masters degree from McCormick Divinity School in Theology while simultaneously attending the University of Chicago to complete his Masters in Organizational Psychology. Dr. Izzo then completed his Ph.D. in Organizational Communication from Kent State University shortly thereafter. He is the author of over 60 articles, and is the co-author of the best selling book Awakening Corporate Soul: Four Paths to Unleash the Power of People at Work and its companion workbook. He is also the author of  Values-Shift: The New Work Ethic and What it Means for Business. His pioneering work has been featured on CNN, ABC World News, the LA Times, Canada AM, CBC Radio, The American Medical Journal, B.C. Business, The Seattle Times and the cover of Association Management Magazine on "Creating Inspiring Work Places".

Based on leading edge research and experiences with more than 200 companies, John Izzo helps people understand these shifting values and how they differ across generations and across gender.John Izzo works with leaders who are serious about finding and keeping talented people and who are willing to do what it takes to create an organization where values and purpose are the foundation of the culture. Visit his website.

Visit Jamie Mason's website and blog.

The Ditchdigger's Daughters: A Black Family's Astonishing Success Story

MP3 File   Length-40 minutes, 0 seconds

Jamie Mason, co-host of North Star Guardians, interviews Dr. Yvonne S. Thornton, author of The Ditchdigger's Daughters: A Black Family's Astonishing Success Story published by Kensington.

As senior perinatologist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Thornton established and developed the program for a new form of early prenatal diagnostic testing known as CVS (chronic villus sampling). Dr. Thornton was one of the original American investigators whose CVS results were relied upon by the FDA prior to its granting approval for the procedure in 1989.  Visit her website.

Dr. Thornton is a double-Board Certified specialist in obstetrics, gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine. She has risen to the academic rank of Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is a member of the Association of Women Surgeons, a life member of The New York Academy of Medicine, and is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American College of Surgeons.

Her biography is presently in  Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World. She is listed in The Best Doctors -- New York Metro Area. She was listed in New York Magazine as one of the Top Ten Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialists in New York City.

Doctor Thornton was the first black woman in the United States to be Board-certified in High-Risk obstetrics and to be accepted into The New York Obstetrical Society.

Dr. Thornton is the national best-selling author of the Pulitzer prize-nominated book entitled, The Ditchdigger's Daughters: A Black Family's Astonishing Success Story published in 1995, with over 300,000 copies in print. This family biography (co-authored with Jo Coudert) is a tribute to her parents and was condensed in The Reader's Digest, adapted into a World Premiere Movie and nominated for the Peabody Award and the Cable ACE Award for Best Picture.

In 1996, the American Library Association named it as one of the Best Books for Young Adults and Doctor Thornton was given the "Excellence in Literature" Award by the New Jersey Education Association. She has authored two other books;a medical text entitled, Primary Care for the Obstetrician and Gynecologist and Woman to Woman: Leading Gynecologist Tells You All You Need Know abt your Baby your Health.

As senior perinatologist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Thornton established and developed the program for a new form of early prenatal diagnostic testing known as CVS (chronic villus sampling). Dr. Thornton was one of the original American investigators whose CVS results were relied upon by the FDA prior to its granting approval for the procedure in 1989.  Visit her website.   

Visit Jamie Mason's website and blog.

Manic: A Memoir

MP3 File

Length-29 minutes, 6 seconds

Jamie Mason, co-host of the North Star Guardians Podcast, interviews Ms. Terri Cheney, author of Manic: A Memoir published by William Morrow.

Ms. Terri Cheney

After graduating Vassar College with honors, Ms. Cheney attended UCLA School of Law. She then specialized in intellectual property and entertainment litigation at several prominent L.A. firms, including Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Over the course of her sixteen-year career, Ms. Cheney represented many celebrities and major motion picture studios, including Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Universal, Columbia, etc. Her pro bono work ranged from counseling local theaters to petitioning the United States Supreme Court on behalf of the ACLU.

After years of secretly struggling with manic depression, Ms. Cheney decided to leave the law and devote her advocacy skills toward a cause that is closer to her heart: writing about her illness, and encouraging the mentally ill to tell their own stories. In recognition of her efforts, she was appointed a member of the Community Advisory Board of the UCLA Mood Disorders Research Program, the nation’s largest nonprofit research consortium regarding manic depression. She also founded a weekly community support group at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute.

Ms. Cheney currently lives in Los Angeles.  Visit her website.

Visit Jamie Mason's website and blog.