Maggie Rousis, PharmD and author, talks to us about the making of and story behind her recently published book that revolves around her angel baby, Benji. 

Music credits:

1) "Inspiring story" by REDproductions (Pixabay)

2) "The first star" by HarumachiMusic (Pixabay)

Learn More:

https://benjisblessings.com/

Link to the book: https://a.co/d/gxAopa8

Meet Gloris Dunnous, Philadelphia resident since 1989 and a professional interior designer. She shares her childhood story of escaping Basra, Iraq, during the time of the Farhud, the violent anti-Jewish pogroms in 1941. The Farhud  persecution of Iraqi Jews has often been compared to the Nazi “Kristallnacht” destruction of Jewish lives and businesses in Germany.

Formerly an idyllic life for young Gloris, Iraq was once a country of harmonious cultural and religious diversity where Jews and Arabs flourished in peace for centuries. Rising Arab nationalism, infected by Nazi fascist ideology, obliterated the once thriving Iraqi Jewish community.

Gloris  journeys back to the time when, as a nine-year-old child fleeing her home, she was sent by her parents to India and Egypt, living on her own in convents as a Jewish girl, not knowing what the future would bring.


Credits
Sound Editors: Joe Brin, Julia Meyer Gross | Sound: (Freesound.org) – 129340_Le Abbaye Noirlac_crickets | Music: (Free Music Archive) – Chill Hop Arabic Main_Menachim Engel_Kabbalistic Village_Soundcloud;  TheGreatestHonorMain_Menachem Engel_Kabbalistic Village_Soundcloud | Photo: (Wikicommons) Iraq_Kifl_Native_Muslim Village_Jewish_shrine_Ezekiel's_tomb_w/ rabbi_caretakers

Christa Barfield of FarmerJawn, healthcare administrator turned urban farmer, shares her extraordinary journey to food sovereignty. Sarah Lewis, teacher and artist, also seeking new avenues, joins the conversation, bringing her own enthusiastic enquiry to Christa's mission.

We start with basic definitions, "Jawn?" "CSA?" then launch into Christa's multifaceted embrace of what it means to be a modern urban farmer.





Music: "Happy African Village" by John Bartmann (Free Music Archive); "Motivated" by Alexmakemusic (Pixabay)

Benjamin B. Olshin is a researcher, Fulbright scholar, author, teacher, artist, musician and consultant. His areas of expertise include the sociology of science and technology, design, Eastern /Western philosophy, and cross-cultural management. He has published and presented work internationally, including studies in history, philosophy, and cartography. Dr. Olshin is a deep thinker with a wide-ranging, accessible style, born from his international career in academia where he urged his students to think critically and challenge cultural assumptions.

David Austin, author and retired educator, has recently published his first work, a unique collaboration with Charles Middleberg, Holocaust survivor.

​Co-hosts Joe Brin, filmmaker (A STRING OF PEARLS: The Small Miracles of Charles Middleberg) and Julia Meyer Gross, linguist and oral historian, learn from Austin how his friendship with Charles Middleberg came to be and how Holocaust education and the craft of oral histories are conveyed to young students.

When Andy Warhol meets the "Black Picasso," where cactuses become a metaphor for African Americans, and when guests walk out of a gallery, you are in James Dupree's Philadelphia.








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Photo | James Dupree; Music | USaiditv13, Carefree by WatR on Pixabay.com

James Dupree, pathbreaking artist, and Philadelphia, historic city of firsts, are a good match.

Dupree invents his own pigments, forges new art styles and always creates outside societal boundaries, unwilling to play politics to get ahead in the art world. His rebellious life and work, protest and laughter, has been rewarded with several fellowships as well as the Living Legend Award of the Black Alumni Society of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dupree is committed to fostering the next generation of black artists, supporting them in ways he did not, necessarily, experience himself. Tune in to hear more about his colorful life and choice between "fame or fortune."


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Photo by James Dupree | Music by JuliusH and Lobo on pixabay.com

Happy travel stories shared by co-hosts Joe Brin and Julia Meyer Gross as they try to determine whether the nicest people live in Europe or America. They also wonder if the social safety net, or lack of one, prompts people's willingness to help those in need.