Arroe Collins Play It Forward

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."

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 634 with author Ed Glaser. For decades, filmmakers worldwide have been remaking Hollywood movies in colorful ways. They've chronicled a singing and dancing Hannibal Lecter in India, star-crossed lovers aboard the doomed Nigerian ship Titanic, a Japanese expedition to the planet of the apes, and an uncivil war in Turkey between Captain America and a mobbed-up Spider-Man. Most of these films were low budget and many were unauthorized, but all of them were fantastic-and lately have begun to resurface thanks to cherry-picked YouTube clips. But why and how were they made in the first place? This book tells the little-known stories of the wily filmmakers who made an Italian 007 flick by casting Sean Connery's tradesman brother, produced a Turkish space opera by stealing a print of Star Wars for its effects footage, and transported a full-fledged Terminator to the present day-not from a post-apocalyptic future, but from the vibrant mythology of Indonesia(!) Their stories reveal more than mere imitations; they demonstrate the fascinating ways ideas evolve as they cross borders.

Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 633 with author Peter S Goodman. In HOW THE WORLD RAN OUT OF EVERYTHING: Inside the Global Supply Chain (Mariner Books; on sale June 11), Peter S. Goodman, award-winning journalist and global economics correspondent at the New York Times, reveals the fascinating inner workings of our unstable worldwide supply chain and the factors that have led to its fragility. While the pandemic put a spotlight on the supply chain's state of distress, it merely laid bare the vulnerabilities that had building up over decades, underscoring the troubling reality that the system was always at risk of collapse-and still is.

Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 632 with the Bible Answer Man. The Complete Bible Answer Book Hank Hanegraaff is better known as the “Bible Answer Man,” which is also the name of the nationally syndicated radio program in which he answers questions about the Bible and how its teachings apply to our lives today. Hank is also the president and chairman of the Christian Research Institute and the author of more than twenty books including The Complete Bible Answer Book - which arrives in an all-new revised and expanded collector’s edition on June 18. We all have questions about the Bible (whether we’ve read it or not!). The Complete Bible Answer Book provides answers to more than 200 of the top questions people have asked Bible teacher and theologian Hank Hanegraaff over the last 40 years.

Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 631 is Adam Long’s extensive conversation with a radio host raised in Montana who came incredibly close to realizing his childhood fantasy. Then what?

Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 630…during this 50th anniversary of Michael Landon’s adaptation of Little House On The Prairie actor/producer Dean Butler shares with us Prairie Man Dean Butler shares the behind- the-scenes of Little House on the Prairie on a heartfelt journey of "good luck, good television, and the very good- if gloriously imperfect-people who made it so." Cast as Almanzo, Laura Ingalls' starring love interest, Butler captured the enduring affection of fans and co-stars alike. With a foreword from Melissa Gilbert (Laura) and Alison Arngrim (Nellie), this uplifting memoir follows Butler's journey from childhood to the Prairie and beyond. Cast at twenty-two years old, Butler had no idea of the lasting impact being cast in Little House on the Prairie would have on him. Having previously starred in Judy Blume's Forever with Stephanie Zimbalist, Butler was fresh- faced and naïve to Hollywood, eager to make his mark. He found his home in the Prairie and embraced his fellow cast members as family. Butler's passion for honest-to-goodness entertainment began in the Prairie and followed him throughout his rich career of acting, producing, and directing.

Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward. Episode 629 is with author Shaunie Henderson. Her book is Undefeated Changing the Rules and Winning on My Own Terms Shaunie Henderson (1.8 million followers on Instagram) left her marriage to Shaquille O'Neal with nothing more than her five young kids and her car and became a trailblazing media mogul, philanthropist, and creator of the hit TV franchise Basketball Wives. In her debut book, UNDEFEATED: Changing the Rules and Winning on My Own Terms, Shaunie Henderson-wife, mother, entrepreneur, producer -- opens up about finding love, offers advice for raising strong, smart, grounded Black children in today's world, and reveals how to define your career and personal life by your own terms in this inspirational memoir.

Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward Episode 628 with entertainment journalist and author Sean O’Connell. His new book is Bruce Willis Celebrating The Cinematic Legacy Of An Unbreakable Hollywood Icon When some of the most important parts of Hollywood are looked over, Sean O'Connell didn't want Bruce Willis' career to fade off into the sunset. From being one of the top notched entertaining bartenders in New York to purchasing his own town in Idaho. How about the writers and directors that Bruce helped out along the way? This book is history in forward emotion as well as motion.

Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward Episode 627 with radio personality and social media influencer Liz Luda. Her rich background in radio and vibrant personality has led her to the very dot on the map that inspired and empowered her dreams to become a connection to radio and internet listeners as well as viewers. She understands the expectations of today's leading communicators and delivers with an amazing hitting record.

Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward Episode 626 is with Kathy Higgins CEO Of Healthier Generation. The non-profit Alliance for a Healthier Generation (Healthier Generation) is expanding its work to give all young people a chance a t lifelong good health and the opportunities that come with it. Healthier Generation has partnered with Kohl’s Healthy at Home to provide a wealth of tools in English and Spanish to help families eat healthy, stay active, bolster mental/social/emotional health, combat stress and more. A $5 million donation from Kohl’s Healthy at Home to Healthier Generation is helping to expand the new, Healthy at Home Playbook for Schools, which provides schools with the necessary resources to be named one of America’s Healthiest Schools. (Nearly 3,000 schools have been honored with this recognition.)

Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward Episode 625 with actress now author Bonnie Bartlett Daniels. Middle Of The Rainbow Emmy Award winning actress, Bonnie Bartlett Daniels is still at it in front of the camera at 94 years old. The actively working actor (Little House on the Prairie, Golden Girls, Home Improvement, Twins, ER, Parks and Recreation and Better Call Saul, to name a few) has finally opened up with her life story and the not-so-pretty experiences she endured during the "Golden Age" of film and TV for her memoir Middle of the Rainbow. Now, Bonnie Bartlett Daniels herself narrates the Audible audiobook of Middle of the Rainbow, giving listeners a chance to hear her personal narrative in her own voice.

Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward Episode 624 with singer songwriter Sarah Reeves. With fans clamoring for the full track after she shared a raw demo on her social platforms, Sarah Reeves officially releases “More Than Enough” on Friday, May 3rd. The pop artist penned the self-affirming original following heightened insecurities amidst a painful divorce. The song’s viral success, however, stems from its universal message and Reeves’ uncanny ability to craft transparent lyrics that hit deep. The vibrant, 808-heavy anthem renounces the lies that tell us we’re not worthy of love and insists our value is not dependent on our relationship status or the opinions of others.

Thank you for being part of the conversation. This is Play It Forward. Real people. Real stories. The struggle to Play It Forward Episode 623 with U.S. Ambassador Ira Shapiro the author of The Betrayal How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America. The Founding Fathers gave the U.S. Senate many functions, but it had one fundamental responsibility—its raison d’etre: to provide the check against a dangerous president who threatened our democracy. Two hundred and thirty years later, when Donald Trump, a potential authoritarian, finally reached the White House, the Senate should have served as both America’s first and last lines of defense. Instead, we had the nightmare scenario: today’s Senate, reduced through a long period of decline to a hyper-partisan, gridlocked shadow of its former self, was unable to meet its fundamental responsibility. Shapiro documents the pivotal challenges facing the Senate during the Trump administration, arguing that the body’s failure to provide leadership represents the most catastrophic failure of government in American history. The last section of the book covers the Senate’s performance during President Biden’s first year in office and looks forward to the 2022 Senate elections and beyond.