Psychjourney Audio Book Club

The Good News Network- An Interview With founder, publisher, Geri Weis-Corbley

MP3 File

Length-1 hour, 23 minutes, 46 seconds

Dr. Kevin Keough interviews Ms. Geri Weis-Corbley, Founder and Publisher of the Good News Network International.

Topic: News That Reflects Our Values

Ms. Geri Weis-Corbley

WHO

Geri Weis-Corbley graduated with a degree in TV/Radio from Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, and went on to work in TV news and video production in Washington, D.C., in the 1980's. That's when she first conceived of the Good News Network as a television show and cable network (abbreviated GNN, like CNN). Ten years later she left her freelance career in television to raise a family at home during the 1990's.

WHEN

In 1997, she could stand it no longer. The declining state of the U.S. news media and the rising tide of the Internet combined to compel her into action. She bought some software and created the online edition of the Good News Network, premiering in August 1997.

WHAT (What else happened?)

She designed, wrote and uploaded weekly good news to the site for six years. A bimonthly printed newsletter, Some Good News, earned 75 paid subscribers.

A treatment for a weekly TV magazine news show and radio pilot for series of two-minute segments were produced, pitched to Hollywood, then set aside.

The number of visitors to the Web site jumped in a salient spike on 9/11 and the following day in 2001, when terrorists attacked the United States. (Commemorative 9/11 Edition, pdf format)

WHERE (Where’d she go in 2003?)

In 2003, Geri left the Good News Network on an 18-month sabbatical to work on a presidential campaign, or two. All during this sabbatical — even through September 2005 — GoodNewsNetwork.org was visited nearly 1,000 times a day, even without the benefit of any new content, for 18 months.

WHY (Why did she engage in politics and then return to the GN Network?)

"I dove into politics for the same reason I created the GN Network. I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to try to make a difference to my country when I saw it veering sharply from wiser paths.

But while I made inroads with my grassroots work, I couldn't help but notice that politics is mostly a negative business. Its very nature is divisive and seems to direct our focus onto the worst in people (opponents) ...

In our grassroots campaign, though, I experienced a tremendous outpouring of camaraderie from people young and old who, like me, had never been involved in politics before. It was spurred on by anger, yes, like the GN Network had been, but it was mostly a joy-filled effort infused with positive thinking, rather than negative.

Many, many Americans of every stripe appreciated the way we talked to them — on train platforms, sidewalks, libraries, and doorways — with respect, like citizens, rather than consumers.

However, I gladly returned to work on the GN Network with a goal to bring compassion back into our discourse. Instead of polarizing society into two camps (which politics necessarily must), we instead focus on the commonality of human experience, infusing both sides with the eagerness to overcome adversity and improve the human condition. We will nurture the instinct for community and cooperation over competition and tribalism."

HOW (How is the past relevant to the future of GNN-i?)

Working on all aspects of communications in the high-tech campaign world of 2003–04 imparted a vast array of knowledge to Geri along with ideas about how to build an exciting online community that empowers its members and elicits pure joy. 

"In an 'Aha moment' I realized that community is what the Good News Network was missing. Community will be the key to creating my success on the internet. And if Charles Schultz’s Linus were here, he'd say... 'Community is what the world is all about, Charlie Brown.'"

Visit the Good News website.

Visit Dr. Keough's website and blog.

Native American Culture and History- Part One

MP3 File

Length-1 hour, 6 minutes, 20 seconds

Dr. Kevin Keough interviews Dr. Thomas Holm, author of The Great Confusion in Indian Affairs: Native Americans and Whites in the Progressive Era published by University of Texas Press.

Dr. Thomas Holm

Dr. Thomas Holm (Creek/Cherokee; Ph.D., 1978, University of Oklahoma) came to The University of Arizona in 1980 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science.  He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1986 and to Full Professor in 1995.  In 1982 Professor Holm, Robert K. Thomas, Larry Evers, Vine Deloria, Jr., Emory Sekaquaptewa and N. Scott Momaday developed the M.A. program in American Indian Studies.  In 1994, Professor Holm transferred full time to the American Indian Studies Program.  He has taught over fifteen Native-related courses, nine of which he developed.  He has served as the chair of over thirty-five M.A. committees in both Political Science and American Indian Studies at The University of Arizona and has sat on a number of doctoral committees in American Indian Studies and for the departments of History, Political Science, Education, and Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies.

Professor Holm served as the chair of the first Ph.D. graduate—J. Diane Pearson—of the U of A American Indian Studies Program.  Four doctoral students whose dissertations he supervised—Pearson, Jeff Boyd, Elise Marubbio, and Ian Record—have had their work published as books.  Professor Holm is currently supervising two doctoral dissertations.  Twice the recipient of the Outstanding Native American faculty award, he has also been selected for an Excellence in Teaching Award during the U of A’s “year of the Undergraduate” in 1988.  In 2004 he was honored with the Graduate College’s Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring Award.

Since receiving his degree from the University of Oklahoma, Professor Holm has published over 50 articles, books, pamphlets, government reports, book reviews and essays, editorials and book chapters.  His 1996 book, Strong Hearts, Wounded Souls: The Native American Veterans of the Vietnam War was a finalist for the Victor Turner Prize in ethnographic writing in Canada.

His most recent articles and book chapters have dealt with the historical militarization of Native American peoples and the development of the “Peoplehood Matrix” as a theoretical construct for Native American/Indigenous Peoples Studies.  A contributor to a large number of historical dictionaries and encyclopedias, Professor Holm has also been called upon to add to forthcoming works on peoplehood, Native American diasporas, Native American leadership, and the late Vine Deloria’s contributions to scholarship.

Professor Holm currently is working on another book, tentatively entitled “Warfare and the Cherokee State” under contract at the University of Nebraska Press.  In 2006 he completed a book for younger readers, entitled Warriors and Code Talkers: Native Americans and World War II for Chelsea House/Facts on File.  It will be released in the spring of 2007.  He is a reviewer for several academic presses and journals and is an advisory/editorial board member of Ethnic Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, Red Ink and Wicazo Sa Review.

Recently, Professor Holm has written two novels: the first is a mystery set in 1920’s Oklahoma and the second an action/adventure set in South America.  The mystery, entitled The Shelby Rose, is to be published by the University of Arizona Press in 2008.  The action/adventure novel is still under consideration at a commercial press.  His latest academic book, The Great Confusion in Indian Affairs: Native Americans and Whites in the Progressive Era was released in 2005 by the University of Texas Press.   

A Cherokee-Muskogee Creek from Oklahoma, Professor Holm has served on numerous Native American boards, panels, and working groups.  He is a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War and has taken part in several federal programs dealing with veterans’ affairs.  In the 1980’s he served as an advisor for the Readjustment Counseling Services and as a member of the Native American commission on veterans’ affairs for the Veterans’ Administration.  Professor Holm also has done presentations on Native American veterans before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. 

In 2001, he was appointed to the Council of One Hundred Chiefs, Leaders, and Scholars for the American Indian Graduate Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the organization that handles the Gates Millennium and American Indian Scholarship Fund scholarships.  Visit Dr. Holm's website.

Visit Dr. Kevin Keough's website and blog.

UFO Research: An Interview With Dr. C. Scott Littleton

MP3 File

Length-1 hour, 59 minutes, 36 seconds

Dr. Kevin Keough interviews Dr. C. Scott Littleton about his study and research into and first hand experiences with UFO's.

Dr. C. Scott Littleton

A native Californian, C. Scott Littleton received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D from UCLA, and has taught anthropology at Occidental College in Los Angeles for many years. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at UCLA in 1957. In 1991 he received The Graham L. Sterling Memorial Award, given annually to a distinguished member of the Occidental College faculty. He’s also received grants from the John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation (1963), the American Council of Learned Societies (1972, 1978), the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (1983), and The American Philosophical Society (1983). In 1960-61, I was a Haynes Foundation-Town Hall Fellow.

He is considered an expert in comparative mythology and folklore, as well as in traditional Japanese culture, having lived and taught in Tokyo on several occasions. Littleton is the author of 8-9 scholarly books, including The New Comparative Mythology (3rd Edition, University of California Press, 1982), From Scythia to Camelot: A Radical Reinterpretation of the Legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the Holy Grail (paperback edition, Garland Publishing Inc., 2000), and Understanding Shinto (Oxford University Press, forthcoming), and numerous articles in professional journals. He has also researched the mythological dimensions of the UFO phenomenon, and his article "Divine Rebels, Alien Dissidents: Does the Mythology Surrounding Lucifer, Prometheus, and the Ancient Mesoamerican Deity Quétzalcoatl Reflect a Pro-Human Faction in the 'Alien Raj'?" has appeared in UFO Magazine. He has authored one science fiction novel. His latest book is scheduled for release within the next few weeks.  Visit Dr. Littleton’s website.

Visit Dr. Kevin Keough's website and blog.

Guazabara Fighting Arts & Hapkido/Warrior System- Part Two

MP3 File

Length-1 hour, 20 minutes, 15 seconds

Part Two of a Two Part Interview

Dr. Kevin Keough, host of Warrior Traditions and North Star Guardians, interviews Maestro Edgardo Pérez about  the Guazabara Fighting Arts & Hapkido/Warrior System.

Maestro Edgardo Pérez

Guazabara's Chief Instructor,  Edgardo Perez,  has more than 28 years of training in Hapkido in both the United States and South Korea, a Full Instructor in Filipino Largo Mano Eskrima as well as being the founder and Chief Instructor of The Defense Training Institute & The World Guazábara Federation. Master Perez began his Hapkido training in 1979 under the Fowler Brothers in Aurora, Illinois. Perez then took his training to South Korea where he trained under Grandmaster Yu Chong Su (Chong Su Kwan Hapkido) who in turn was trained by Grandmaster Choi Yong Sool (Founder of Hapkido).

Perez is a law enforcement veteran of more then twenty years who has also been teaching Police Defensive Tactics to local, state and military personal during that time. He is a member of  Illinois Tactical Officers Association and a  charter member of The International Law Enforcement Educators & Trainers Association (ILEETA). He has conducted numerous seminars in the United States and Puerto Rico.  As a veteran with tactical and combat training, and as a police sergeant who has quelled many dangerous situations. Maestro Pérez has reintroduced to the modern era  a realistic weapons system that can adapt to any hostile circumstances.

Honoring his Taino Warrior bloodline, Maestro Perez, who's family is from the mountains of Camuy & Lares, P.R., is also a  Nitaino-Chief of the Bramaya Tribe, Tequina (teacher) of Taino Tribal Warrior Ways and the Illinois Representative of The United Confederation of Taino People.

The reintroduction of this martial art from Boriken and the Caribbean islands to modern society is not only a tribute to the indigenous people of Boriken (Puerto Rico) but of tribal people everywhere. In the ancient Taino language, Guazabara can be interpreted several ways; but it ultimately means war, fighter, protector, hunter or warrior.   The Way of Guazabara has always been and remains a method of self-preservation.   Visit Maestro Perez's website.

May our ancestors find us worthy.  Maestro Perez.

Visit the Warrior Traditions blog and Dr. Kevin Keough's Light Therapy Company website.

Guazabara Fighting Arts & Hapkido/Warrior System

MP3 File

Length-1 hour, 8 minutes, 18 seconds

Part One of a Two Part Interview

Dr. Kevin Keough, host of Warrior Traditions and North Star Guardians, interviews Maestro Edgardo Pérez about  the Guazabara Fighting Arts & Hapkido/Warrior System.

Maestro Edgardo Pérez

Guazabara's Chief Instructor,  Edgardo Perez,  has more than 28 years of training in Hapkido in both the United States and South Korea, a Full Instructor in Filipino Largo Mano Eskrima as well as being the founder and Chief Instructor of The Defense Training Institute & The World Guazábara Federation. Master Perez began his Hapkido training in 1979 under the Fowler Brothers in Aurora, Illinois. Perez then took his training to South Korea where he trained under Grandmaster Yu Chong Su (Chong Su Kwan Hapkido) who in turn was trained by Grandmaster Choi Yong Sool (Founder of Hapkido).

Perez is a law enforcement veteran of more then twenty years who has also been teaching Police Defensive Tactics to local, state and military personal during that time. He is a member of  Illinois Tactical Officers Association and a  charter member of The International Law Enforcement Educators & Trainers Association (ILEETA). He has conducted numerous seminars in the United States and Puerto Rico.  As a veteran with tactical and combat training, and as a police sergeant who has quelled many dangerous situations. Maestro Pérez has reintroduced to the modern era  a realistic weapons system that can adapt to any hostile circumstances.

Honoring his Taino Warrior bloodline, Maestro Perez, who's family is from the mountains of Camuy & Lares, P.R., is also a  Nitaino-Chief of the Bramaya Tribe, Tequina (teacher) of Taino Tribal Warrior Ways and the Illinois Representative of The United Confederation of Taino People.

The reintroduction of this martial art from Boriken and the Caribbean islands to modern society is not only a tribute to the indigenous people of Boriken (Puerto Rico) but of tribal people everywhere. In the ancient Taino language, Guazabara can be interpreted several ways; but it ultimately means war, fighter, protector, hunter or warrior.   The Way of Guazabara has always been and remains a method of self-preservation.   Visit Maestro Perez's website.

May our ancestors find us worthy.  Maestro Perez.

Visit the Warrior Traditions blog and Dr. Kevin Keough's Light Therapy Company website.