North Star Guardians

Side Effects

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:51:00 GMT

Dr. Kevin Keough, host of the North Star Guardians Podcast, interviews Ms. Alison Bass, author of Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and A Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial published by Algonquin Books

Alison Bass is an award-winning journalist and long-time medical writer for The Boston Globe. Her articles and essays have also appeared in The Chicago Tribune, The Miami Herald, The Village Voice, Psychology Today, Technology Review, Readers Digest and numerous other newspapers and magazines around the country.

A series she wrote for The Boston Globe on psychiatry was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in the Public Service category, and she has received a number of other journalism awards for her work, including the Top Media Award from the National Mental Health Association and two Media Awards from the Alliance for the Mentally Ill. In 2007, she won a prestigious Alicia Patterson Fellowship for her investigative work.

She is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Mount Holyoke College and an Adjunct Professor of Journalism at Brandeis University.

Bass lives in Massachusetts, with her husband and two sons. Visit her website and blog.

What The Nose Knows

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:16:00 GMT

Dr. Kevin Keough, host of the North Star Guardians, interviews Dr. Avery Gilbert, author of What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life published by Crown.

Avery Gilbert is a psychologist, smell scientist, and entrepreneur. His groundbreaking studies in odor perception have been published in scientific journals, and he has helped design commercial scents for everything from perfume to kitty litter. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey. Visit him at Avery Gilbert and What The Nose Knows.

Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer's

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 06:35:00 GMT

Dr. Kevin Keough, host of the North Star Guardians Podcast, interviews Ms. Lauren Kessler, author of Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer's: One Daughter's Hopeful Story published by Penguin.

Lauren Kessler is the author of five works of narrative nonfiction, including Pacific Northwest Book Award winner Dancing with Rose (published in paperback as Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer's), Washington Post bestseller Clever Girl and Los Angeles Times bestseller The Happy Bottom Riding Club. She is also the author of Oregon Book Award winner Stubborn Twig, which was chosen as the book for all Oregon to read in honor of the stateâs 2009 sesquicentennial.

Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times Magazine, O magazine, Utne Reader, The Nation, newsweek.com and salon.com. She is a national speaker and workshop leader. The founder and editor of Etude, the online magazine of narrative nonfiction, she directs the graduate program in literary nonfiction at the University of Oregon.

She lives in Eugene, Oregon, with her writer husband, Tom Hager, her three brilliant and faultless children and a cat that thinks itâs a dog.

Visit her website

The Lolita Effect

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Fri, 8 Aug 2008 04:59:00 GMT

Deborah Harper, Co-host of the North Star Guardians, interviews Meenakshi Gigi Durham, PhD.,author of The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It published by Overlook Press.

Meenakshi Gigi Durham is an associate professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa. For more than a decade, she has been conducting research on adolescent girls and the media. The Lolita Effect is her first book for general audiences. She is committed to advocating for the rights of girls and women worldwide.

Her previous work has appeared in leading academic journals, including Critical Studies in Media Communication, Communication Theory, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, and Women's Studies in Communication. She serves on the editorial boards of a number of scholarly journals, including Feminist Media Studies and the Journal of Communication, and she is the Executive Editor of the Journal of Communication Inquiry. She also served on the advisory board for the Encyclopedia of Children, Adolescents and the Media. Her book, Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks (co-edited with Douglas M. Kellner) was published by Blackwell Publishers in 2001.

She lives with her husband, two daughters, and a friendly cat in Iowa City, IA. Visit her website and her blog .

Visit the North Star Guardians and Psychjourney Podcast blogs.

Maybe Baby: An Infertile Love Story

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Wed, 6 Aug 2008 06:36:00 GMT

Dr. Kevin Keough, host of the North Star Guardians, interviews Mr. Matthew Miller, M.A., author of "Maybe Baby: An Infertile Love Story published by Health Communications.

Matthew M.F. Miller is a syndicated blogger whose work has been published in more than 400 newspapers in the United States and Canada, including the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the Baltimore Sun. He holds a master's degree in professional writing from the University of Southern California, and was a member of the University of Iowa Undergraduate Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Poetry Writer's Workshops. Visit Miller's blog at http://www.maybebabyblog.com

Opting Out?

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 04:11:00 GMT

Dr. Kevin Keough, host of The North Star Guardians, interviews Dr. Pamela Stone, author of Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home published by University of California Press.

Pamela Stone is Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her research has been supported by a variety of funders including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Sloan Foundation. Former chair of the Department of Sociology at Hunter, Stone was the recipient of a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, where she also served as Associate Director of the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute. She is a fellow of Hunter's Gender Equity Program, supported by NSF's ADVANCE program, the goal of which is to promote women in science.

An honors graduate of Duke University, Stone received her PhD in Sociology from Johns Hopkins University. Active in her profession, she was recently elected Vice President of the Eastern Sociological Society for 2009-10 Visit Dr. Stone's website.

Sex and the Soul

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:57:00 GMT

Dr. Kevin Keough, host of North Star Guardians, interviews Dr. Donna Freitas, author of author of Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America's College Campuses published Oxford University Press.

Donna Freitas is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Boston University. She received her Ph.D. from Catholic University in 2002 and her B.A. in philosophy from Georgetown (CAS 94) In addition, to writing books, Donna regularly contributes to a number of magazines, newspapers, and webzines, including Beliefnet, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Christian Century, and the School Library Journal. Visit her website. Visit Dr. Kevin Keough's blog.

Madapple

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Tue, 1 Jul 2008 19:27:00 GMT

Jamie Mason, co-host of The North Star Guardians Podcast, interviews Ms. Christina Meldrum, author of Madapple, published by Knopf Books for Young Readers.

Christina Meldrum received her Bachelor of Arts in religious studies and political science from the University of Michigan. After working in grassroots development in Africa, she earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. She has worked for the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, Switzerland, and as a litigator at the law firm of Shearman & Sterling. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family and is on the advisory board of Women of the World Investments. Madapple is her first novel. Visit her website.

Visit Jamie Mason's website and blog.

The Fidelity Files

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:52:00 GMT

Jamie Mason, co-host of the North Star Guardians, interviews Ms. Jessica Brody, author of The Fidelity Files published by St. Martin Griffins.

Jessica Brody, 28, knew from a young age that she wanted to be a writer. She started self "publishing" her own books when she was seven years old, binding the pages together with cardboard, wallpaper samples and electrical tape.

After graduating from Smith College in 2001 where she double majored in Economics and French and minored in Japanese, Jessica later went on to work for MGM Studios as a Manager of Acquisitions and Business Development. In May of 2005, Jessica quit her job to follow her dream of becoming a published author. Between 2006 and 2007, Jessica sold two adult novels to St. Martin's Press and two young adult novels to Farrar, Straus, Giroux. The Fidelity Files, her debut, is now available in stores (in real binding) and the sequel, which she is currently completing, is slated for publication in the summer of 2009. The Karma Club, Jessica's debut YA novel will be released in the spring of 2010.

The Fidelity Files has already sold in the UK, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia and Taiwan (to date).Jessica now works as a freelance writer and producer. She currently writes for Yahoo's hilarious online TV recap show, "Prime Time in No Time." The most recent episodes can be viewed at: http://primetime.tv.yahoo.com

Additionally, Jessica produces feature-length films for Cyur Films. Please visit www.cyur.com for information on current and upcoming releases. Visit her website.

Visit Jaime Mason's website and blog.

Mommy I'm Still in Here: Raising Children with Bipolar Disorder

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:38:00 GMT

Jamie Mason, co-host of North Star Guardians Podcast, interviews Ms.Kate McLaughlin, author of Mommy I'm Still Here: Raising Children With Bipolar Disorder published by Behler Publications.

Kate McLaughlin was born and raised in Ontario, California. She attended Chaffey High School and graduated magna cum laude from the University of La Verne with a liberal arts degree. She married her high school sweetheart, attended graduate school at Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State San Bernardino, and worked in the Upland School District. Her three children were born in Southern California.

After teaching elementary school, coordinating special programs, and training fellow teachers and classroom aides for over a dozen years, Kate began her writing career. As a columnist for Southern Progress Corporation, a subsidiary of Time-Warner, Kate wrote dozens of magazine articles, then added two regional gardening books to her list of achievements before switching gears to write, speak, and advocate on topics related to Bipolar Disorder, Depression, and mental health.

Kate frequently writes and speaks to Parent-Teacher groups, high school and college students, mental health consumers and their families, and other community members. She is a member of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the Juvenile Bipolar Research. Visit her website www.katemclaughlin.net.

Visit Jamie Mason's website and blog.

Easter Everywhere: A Memoir

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 03:44:00 GMT

Jamie Mason, co-host of The North Star Guardians Podcast, interviews Author Darcey Steinke, author of Easter Everywhere: A Memoir published by Bloomsbury USA.

Darcey Steinke is the author of four novels, two of which were New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Her novel Suicide Blonde has been translated into eight languages, and her novel Milk has been translated into four. Her nonfiction has been featured in Vogue, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Village Voice, Spin, the Boston Review, and the New York Times Magazine. She currently teaches at both Columbia University and New School University in New York City. She lives with her daughter in Brooklyn. Visit her website.

Visit Jamie Mason's website and blog.

Holistic Parenting: Raising Children to a New Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Well-Being

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:12:00 GMT

Dr. Kevin Keough, creator of the Warrior Traditions Project, and co-host of Warrior Traditions Podcast and North Star Guardians Podcast, interviews Ms. Lynn Wiese Sneyd, author of Holistic Parenting: Raising Children to a New Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Well-Being published by Keats Publishing

Lynn Weise Sneyd is a freelance writer focusing on health and parenting issues. She earned a B.A. in English from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1998, she received a writing fellowship at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois, where she began work on her book Holistic Parenting: Raising Children To A New Physical, Emotional And Spiritual Well-Being.

Lynn became interested in Holistic Medicine as a result of her husbandâs degenerative nerve condition. After he endured seven years of unsuccessful conventional medical treatments, she decided to explore the world of Alternative Medicine. As she learned, she gradually incorporated changes in her familyâs lifestyle. A pantry of organic foods, a kitchen without chemical cleaners and a microwave, and a medicine cabinet full of herbal and homeopathic remedies have become her familyâs norms. In addition, her children no longer receive vaccinations. Her eight-year-old daughter has never been on an antibiotic, despite having childhood bouts with ear infections, sore throats, colds and flu.

After experiencing the simplicity and effectiveness of a holistic lifestyle, Lynn decided to write Holistic Parenting. The book explores such topics as Homeopathy, Herbal Medicine, Ayurveda, Organic Nutrition, Environmental Toxins, Vaccinations and Holistic Dentistry.

She also contributed to Healthy Solutions: A Guide to Simple Healing and Healthy Wisdom, written by David N. Russell, Ph.D, D.Sc., as well as How Happy Families Happen: Six Steps to Creating Emotional and Spiritual Health at Home, written by Audrey Ricker, Ph.D. Lynn's freelanced articles and poetry have appeared in publications around the country. Lynn resides in Tucson, Arizona with her husband and 2 children.

Lynn Wiese Sneyd directs the literary publicity division of Russell Public Communications, coordinating national, regional, and local publicity campaigns for authors of non-fiction and fiction works Visit her webpage.

Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:21:00 GMT

Dr. Kevin Keough, co-host of North Star Guardians interviews Professor Charles Barber, author of Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation published by Pantheon.

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 .

Visit the North Star Guardians blog and Dr. Kevin Keough's blog.

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

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:06:00 GMT

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.

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

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 04:32:00 GMT

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.

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

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:55:00 GMT

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.

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

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Sat, 1 Mar 2008 23:54:00 GMT

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

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 nationâs largest nonprofit research consortium regarding manic depression. She also founded a weekly community support group at UCLAâs Neuropsychiatric Institute.

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

Visit Jamie Mason's website and blog.

Your Critically Ill Child: Life and Death Choices Parents Must Face

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:01:00 GMT

Ms. Jamie Mason, co-host of North Star Guardians, interviews Dr. Christopher Johnson, MD, about his book, Your Critically Ill Child: Life and Death Choices Parents Must Face published by New Horizon Press.

Dr. Johnson is a native of Winona, Minnesota. He received his
undergraduate education in history and religion at Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania, where he was elected to phi beta kappa and graduated magna cum laude in 1974. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1978 from Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota. He subsequently trained in general pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Childrenâs Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, and in pediatric critical care medicine at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. He is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics in both general pediatrics and in pediatric critical care medicine, and am a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Johnson has had a long-standing interest in how medical practice evolved in America and how it reached its present state of affairs. Reflecting that interest, he earned a Master of Arts degree in History of Medicine from the University of Minnesota for his work on that subject, and is a member of the American Association for the History of Medicine.

Dr. Johnson has practiced pediatric critical care medicine for over twenty years. He was for many years Director of the Pediatric Critical Care Service at the Mayo Clinic and Professor of Pediatrics at Mayo Medical School, as well as Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Mayo Eugenio Litta Childrenâs Hospital. While on the faculty at Mayo, he was the author of over fifty scientific papers and book chapters in medical texts, and was the recipient of major grant awards from the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, and the March of Dimes Foundation. He now devotes his time to practicing pediatric critical care as President of Pediatric Intensive Care Associates, P.C., and to writing about medicine for general readers. Visit Dr. Johnson's website and blog.

Visit Jamie Mason's website and blog.

The Loss of Sadness-Part Two

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Tue, 5 Feb 2008 01:00:00 GMT

Dr. Kevin Keough, host of North Star Guardians, interviews Dr. Jerome C. Wakefield, co-author of The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder published by Oxford University Press.

We experienced minor audio recording difficulties that appear near the end of the first of a two part interview with Dr. Wakefield. Please accept our apologies for this technical problem that hasn't proven easy to eliminate. We intend to edit out the snafu as soon as possible. We thank Dr, Wakefield for a stimulating and informative conversation and his graciousness and patience re: a delay in posting this podcast.

Jerome C. Wakefield is University Professor and Professor of Social Work at New York University, and he has also taught at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and Rutgers University. He is an authority on the intersection between philosophy and the mental health professions and the author of many articles on diagnosis of mental disorder. Visit his web page.

Visit Dr. Keough's website and blog.

The Loss of Sadness: Part One

klkeough@gmail.com (Dr. Kevin keough) — Tue, 5 Feb 2008 00:10:00 GMT