• Play It Forward Episode 642 Sofronio Vazquez Winner Of NBC's The Voice Season 26
    Dec 22 2024
    Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 642 with Sofronio Vasquez winner of NBC’s The Voice season 26. After several weeks of Blind Auditions, Battles, Knockouts, Playoffs, and Live Performance Shows, The Voice Season 26 Finale happened. Dozens of singers across four Coach teams were whittled down to just five finalists: Danny Joseph from Reba McEntire's team, Jeremy Beloate from Snoop Dogg's team, Sofronio Vasquez from Michael Bublé's team, Sydney Sterlace from Gwen Stefani's team, and Shye, also from Team Bublé. After singing their hearts out one last time in the December 9 episode, America sent in their votes. The results were revealed on live TV-and one Artist's life was changed forever. So, who won The Voice Season 26? Sofronio Vasquez won The Voice Season 26! Shye took second place. Sydney Sterlace took third place. Danny Joseph took fourth place. Jeremy Beloate took fifth place. Before the winner was announced, fans were treated to a star-studded Finale episode. Not only did all the Artists in the Top 5 perform duets with their respective Coaches, some of your favorite singers like Dan + Shay, Kelly Clarkson, and Sting also took the stage. Season 26 has been a rollercoaster, with two new Coaches, Michael Bublé and Snoop Dogg, entering the fold. "My strategy was to look, listen and learn," Snoop Dogg said about his first day of Blind Auditions. "First of all, I'm glad they didn't make me go first [during Blinds]. They made me go, like, second or third, so I was able to watch the other Coaches and see some of the things that they did. And then once I understood that, I could add some Snoop-ism to the situation, as far as my conversation and my lingo, to the Artist to try to get them to come home." Bublé said about the Blind Auditions experience, "Honestly, it's not what I'm best at. It's hard to advocate for yourself in that way. And when I did, I tried to do it with humor, to be self-deprecating and to hope that you could break down barriers that way. It would have been harder for me, I think in other seasons where there was a different energy, like more of an edge of Coaches kind of fighting each other. But I was trying to be genuine, to tell people that I might be able to help them, and use humor, again, just to break down those walls. Because my dad always said: If you're good, you don't have to tell people."
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    20 mins
  • Play It Forward Episode 641 The Littlest Sailboat A Journey Of The Soul From Theresa Contaxis
    Dec 8 2024
    Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 641 with Theresa Contaxis the author of The Littlest Sailboat: A Journey Of The Soul. As a child, Theresa Contaxis struggled to navigate her way in life. She faced challenges at home and felt insecure when measuring herself against others. In adulthood, she battled with feelings of anger, jealousy, and fear. Married, with her third child on the way, she fell into a deep depression. In a quest to confront these issues, Theresa went on a spiritual journey, embracing learnings from many belief systems and eventually becoming a reverend. But, self-improvement requires lifelong learning and Theresa is continually working to better herself. “This relatively short but meaningful book has been a work in progress for a long time,” shares Theresa. “But isn’t that who we are, in essence, as human beings, a work in progress? It takes time to learn that we are Divine beings living the human experience.”
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    12 mins
  • Play It Forward Episode 640 Cook Food Writer And Stylist Anna Jones The Cook Book Easy Wins
    Oct 6 2024
    Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 640 with food author and Cook Anna Jones whose new book is titled Easy Wins. Clever, delicious, heartfelt and wholesome - Anna gets it right again' - JAMIE OLIVER A brand new and essential book from award-winning and bestselling cook Anna Jones. Discover her golden rules for easy wins in the kitchen with super-simple recipes that are bursting with flavor and kind to the planet.
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    16 mins
  • Play It Forward Episode 639 Carlos Whittaker Releases The Book Reconnected
    Sep 30 2024
    Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 639 with Carlos Whittaker the author of the book Reconnected. In a world dominated by screens and technology, Carlos Whittaker takes readers on an extraordinary journey of self-discovery and reconnection. The book chronicles his seven-week experience of unplugging from the digital noise, completely screen free. Over the course of the seven weeks, Carlos spent time with 20 Benedictine monks in the high desert of Southern California in 23 hours a day of silence, lived on an Amish sheep farm, working the land, and sheering sheep, and learned how to exist with his family and truly connect with them completely unplugged. On top of that, he even had his brain scanned by a neuroscientist before and after the experiment to see what changed - and the results were quite staggering. Not many people have the opportunity to spend weeks entirely devoid of phone and computer screens, but Carlos' radical, screen-free experiment yields hope and wisdom to everyone who has felt the loneliness, low-key despair, and paradoxical disconnectedness that accompanies the always-on, always-plugged-in nature of modern life. Now bringing his message to the masses, he's eager to share some of the lessons he learned along the way.
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    18 mins
  • Play It Foward Episode 638 Racial Justice Educator Christine Saxman The Book Being White Today
    Sep 15 2024
    Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 638 with racial justice educator and author Christine Saxman. The idea that White people are under attack has permeated political discourse in recent elections. The election of 2024 will be no different. Being White Today: A Roadmap for a Positive Antiracist Life helps White people navigate the myriad messages they encounter about race. The book applies the White racial identity framework developed by psychologist Dr. Janet Helms to take a strong stance against racism. Using fictionalized scenarios and case studies, it offers a way to resist extremist messaging and recruitment. A helpful resource for White people who care about US society, in particular, White parents, educators, activists, and racial/social justice practitioners, this book also helps people understand antiracist messaging and how to use it strategically to create a larger community of White antiracists. The last decade witnessed two significant trends: (1) White nationalists successfully instilled weaponized messages related to White identity throughout conservative politics. (2) The movement for Black lives called on White people to grapple with their racial position and support racial justice efforts. While the far-right’s manipulative messaging is provocative and easy to grasp, antiracist messaging is complex and nuanced, which allows for significant misunderstanding. The competing narratives result in many White people disengaging entirely from issues of race and racial justice. Given that White identity is top-of-mind for politicians and activists across the political spectrum leading toward the 2024 election, it is essential that White people understand how White racial identity functions and react usefully. Being White Today connects the dots between far-right messaging, antiracism’s demands, and the role White racial identity plays in today’s politics and people’s lives. Tochluk and Saxman wrote Being White Today to help White people become resilient in the face of far-right manipulation. With empathy, nuance, and skill, the book achieves this by providing people with a positive vision for how to communicate effectively with White friends, family, and co-workers about race.
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    11 mins
  • Play It Forward Episode 637 With Chris Epting Author Of Where One Hearts The Rain
    Sep 1 2024
    Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 637 with author and historian Chris Epting. Where One Hears the Rain is a comprehensive, entertaining, and informative guide that explores the art of memoir writing and provides aspiring authors with the tools and inspiration to craft their own compelling personal narratives. Drawing on his journey as an author, collaborative writer, and decade-long tenure as a memoir writing workshop instructor, Chris Epting offers invaluable insights and practical advice to guide writers to their unique voice and shape their personal stories. This book delves into the essential aspects of memoir writing, from uncovering inspiration to developing compelling narratives to organizing and structuring the autobiographical narrative for maximum emotional impact. What sets Where One Hears the Rain apart is Epting's incorporation of lessons learned from his mentor, the legendary author John Cheever. Epting weaves Cheever's teachings seamlessly into the fabric of the book, enriching readers' understanding of the craft and exposing them to the wisdom passed down from one literary generation to another.
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    21 mins
  • Play It Forward Episode 636 Jeremy Kahn Releases The Book Mastering AI
    Aug 24 2024
    Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 636 is with the author of Mastering AI Jeremy Kahn. A Fortune magazine journalist draws on his expertise and extensive contacts among the companies and scientists at the forefront of artificial intelligence to offer dramatic predictions of AI's impact over the next decade, from reshaping our economy and the way we work, learn, and create to unknitting our social fabric, jeopardizing our democracy, and fundamentally altering the way we think. Within the next five years, Jeremy Kahn predicts, AI will disrupt almost every industry and enterprise, with vastly increased efficiency and productivity. It will restructure the workforce, making AI copilots a must for every knowledge worker. It will revamp education, meaning children around the world can have personal, portable tutors. It will revolutionize health care, making individualized, targeted pharmaceuticals more affordable. It will compel us to reimagine how we make art, compose music, and write and publish books. The potential of generative AI to extend our skills, talents, and creativity as humans is undeniably exciting and promising. But while this new technology has a bright future, it also casts a dark and fearful shadow. AI will provoke pervasive, disruptive, potentially devastating knock-on effects. Leveraging his unrivaled access to the leaders, scientists, futurists, and others who are making AI a reality, Kahn argues that if not carefully designed and vigilantly regulated AI will deepen income inequality, depressing wages while imposing winner-take-all markets across much of the economy. AI risks undermining democracy, as truth is overtaken by misinformation, racial bias, and harmful stereotypes. Continuing a process begun by the internet, AI will rewire our brains, likely inhibiting our ability to think critically, to remember, and even to get along with one another-unless we all take decisive action to prevent this from happening.
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    10 mins
  • Play It Forward Episode 635 Brigadier General Paul Greg Smith Confessions Of A Weekend Warrior
    Aug 18 2024
    Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 635 is with Brigadier General Paul Greg Smith the author of the book Confessions Of A Weekend Warrior. America's National Guard was once considered a ragtag gaggle of pretend soldiers. Beginning in the 1980s the National Guard gradually transformed into today's highly flexible operational force that answers our nation's call for overseas combat deployments as well as domestic emergencies that run the gamut from lifesaving disaster responses to staffing Covid clinics. Brigadier General Paul "Greg" Smith describes his personal journey during these years, from a callow cadet to a committed commander leading military forces in response to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Smith gives a humorous, gritty, and sometimes touching glimpse into the inner workings of this unique military organization while offering portraits of the men and women who serve as the minutemen of our age. His reflections on service, duty, and the complexities of command will enlighten anyone who seeks to better understand the challenges of leadership. Their stories reveal more than mere imitations; they demonstrate the fascinating ways ideas evolve as they cross borders.
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    16 mins