Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor
What if you could reset your emotions in just 90 seconds?
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist and a world-renowned speaker whose life changed forever at the age of 37. After suffering a catastrophic stroke that erased her ability to walk, talk, or remember her life, she embarked on an eight-year journey to rebuild her brain. Her story, shared in her memoir My Stroke of Insight, became a global phenomenon and inspired millions to rethink the power of the human brain.
Dr. Taylor’s groundbreaking 90-Second Rule offers a transformative tool for managing emotions and achieving mental clarity, and her latest work explores the concept of whole-brain living to unlock our full potential. She has appeared on platforms like TED, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and TIME’s 100 Most Influential People list.
Join us as Dr. Taylor unpacks the science behind emotional resilience and offers simple yet profound tools to change the way you live, one moment at a time.
Diana de Vegh
An 83-year-old psychotherapist and grandmother of two, long described as a noted relationship expert, made headlines recently when she shared a very different side of herself. In an essay published last August in Air Mail, Diana de Vegh described an affair with the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, starting when she was 20 years old.
“Young woman, Great Man. Predictable outcome: heartbreak for her, no consequences for him. But wait … there’s a twist. He dies, abruptly, although he lives on in song and story, in history and in her story. “She”—her, me … I just plain live on. Flattened at first, marked by an invisible hoof print seared into my being, but then re-configuring and gathering speed toward an unexpected life”. Join Francesca when she interviews Diana De Vegh on Wednesday, September 7th when Diana will talk not just about her affair but the imbalance of power between men and women.
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Georgia Ede
Georgia Ede is a food fanatic, but not in the way most people might think. “I find foods fascinating—what they are, how they view the world, what motivates them, and how they behave in our bodies,” she says. Her interest in nutrition began in her early 40’s after discovering a diet that alleviated some perplexing health problems. Today, she is internationally recognized as an expert in nutrition and psychiatry. Her newest book delves deeply into these topics, offering insights and practical advice for achieving better mental and physical health through nutrition. She joins us to share her journey and to explain her the complex connections between diet and mental health.
In the U.S., roughly one in 10 children live with at least one parent with a drinking problem, and alcohol is the third-highest preventable cause of death. It’s implicated in a lot of partner abuse, sexual assault, and fatal accidents. All of these damning truths are acknowledged in Edward Slingerland’s “Drunk.” This absorbing book is a thoughtful and spirited defense of intoxication. Dr. Slingerland, an expert in Chinese philosophy with eclectic academic interests approach is stone-cold sober, “defending the power of Dionysus . . . in a way that bows to Apollo,” as he puts it. Dr. Slingerland argues that, despite its downsides, getting drunk has been, on balance, good for us, “enhancing creativity, alleviating stress, building trust, and pulling off the miracle of getting fiercely tribal primates to cooperate with strangers.”
Renowned sex therapist Ian Kerner shares his unique and indispensable methodology used to help thousands of couples get unstuck and into sexual sync. Dr. Ian Kerner is a Sherlock Holmes of the bedroom—a sexual detective helping individuals and couples solve the mystery of their sexual distress. His secret weapon? Kerner has perfected the art of the “sex script analysis,” a way of taking a magnifying glass to a recent sexual event and looking at the entire sequence of interactions—beginning, middle and end—from multiple angles. Ian is regularly quoted as an expert in various media, with recent features in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Economist and NPR. He contributes regularly on the topic of sex for CNN Health. He lectures on topics related to sex and relationships, with recent presentations at New York University, Yale, and Princeton.
Did you know that blueberries can help you cope with the aftereffects of trauma? That salami can cause depression, or that boosting Vitamin D intake can help treat anxiety?
When it comes to diet, most people’s concerns involve weight loss, fitness, cardiac health, and longevity. But what we eat affects more than our bodies; it also affects our brains. And recent studies have shown that diet can have a profound impact on mental health conditions ranging from ADHD to depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, OCD, dementia and beyond. Dr Uma Naidoo, Director of Nutritional and Lifestyle Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, is a Harvard trained Psychiatrist and one of the pioneers in the more newly recognized field of Nutritional Psychiatry. Featured in the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Harvard Health Press, Goop, and many others, Dr Uma has a special interest on the impact of food on mood and other mental health conditions. In her book, This Is Your Brain On Food, Dr Uma shows the cutting-edge science explaining the ways in which food contributes to our mental health and how a sound diet can help treat and prevent a wide range of psychological and cognitive health issues, from ADHD to anxiety, depression, OCD, and others.
For each feeling of burnout, there is opportunity for resilience.It’s all two sides of the same coin, said J. Bryan Sexton, associate professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke’s School of Medicine and an expert in the idea of resilience, the ability to bounce back from life’s obstacles. The trick is to build mental muscles to deal with challenges thrown our way, both personally and professionally, when many feel like they’re asked to do more.“Once we normalize it and make it less taboo to talk about burnout and resilience, then we can do something about it,” Sexton said. “You can eat right, sleep right and call your mom each week, but it’s more than that.”Sexton suggests these three ways to deal with the threat of burnout and increase resilience.
Wednesday Martin’s newest work of non-fiction, UNTRUE: Why Nearly Everything We Believe About Women, Lust, and Adultery is Wrong and How the New Science Can Set Us Free cuts through the junk science and regressive cultural narratives that have shaped our beliefs about female infidelity for centuries, revealing a truth both liberating and disconcerting: women are no more “naturally monogamous” than men; nor are their libidos shrinking violets. Rich with game-changing data and polemical writing, it promises to take us far out of our comfort zone, and may change the way you think about women and sex.
Whether or not we mean to, we have the tendency to form judgment about people from reading the visual cues that we experience like their facial expressions or the gestures they display through their body language. We use these nonverbal signs to not only decide whether or not to trust them but also in order to help form clarity around the relationship. But as you’ll learn from Mark Bowden, a repeat guest on Talk With Francesca, “we go out there and we try either consciously or unconsciously to read other peoples body language, when it’s nothing like a book.”Mark is one of the foremost authorities on nonverbal communication and body language and this week we’re talking about his latest book, Truth And Lies: What people are really thinking.
I know you’re going to love this discussion, and you’re going to learn a ton from Mark Bowden
Listen to Wednesday’s episode at 8:30pm on 95.9FM and discover:
Why nonverbal communication is not actually a language.
When you should suspend judgement – which we don’t do enough.
Why reading body language isn’t as helpful to people as they think it might be.
Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, which is being adapted as a television series with Eva Longoria joins Francesca this week live on WATD Wednesday at 8pm. In addition to Lori’s clinical practice, she writes The Atlantic’s weekly “Dear Therapist” advice column and contributes to The New York Times and many other publications. A member of the Advisory Council for Bring Change to Mind and a contributing editor for the Atlantic, she has written hundreds of articles related to psychology and culture, many of which have become viral sensations. She is a sought-after expert on relationships, parenting, and hot-button mental health topics in media such as The Today Show, Good Morning America, The CBS Early Show and CNN.
Suzanne Venker, author of The Alpha Female’s Guide to Men and Marriage, has helped women embrace the way men and women are naturally wired,prioritize marriage and relationships over career, enjoy the power of their femininity in sex and relationshipsand build a lasting, satisfying relationship with a man. Suzanne’s work has appeared in publications such as Time, USA TODAY, The New York Post and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Forbes, The Huffington Post and London’s Daily Mail Her TV credits include Fox and Friends, STOSSEL, The View, CNN, and ABC.
At the age of 16, Edith Eger, a trained ballet dancer and gymnast, was sent to Auschwitz. Hours after her parents were killed, Nazi officer Dr. Josef Mengele forced Edit to dance fo his amusement and her survival. Edie spent decades struggling with flashbacks and survivor’s guilt. She raised a family and practiced and studied psychology. Thirty-five years after the war ended, she returned to Auschwitz and was finally able to fully heal and forgive the one person she’d been unable to forgive- herself. Winner of the National Jewish Book Award and Christopher Award, we are discussing her memoir, The Choice, Embrace the Possible.
Peggy Orenstein explores the changing landscape of modern sexual expectations and its troubling impact on adolescents and young women. From her groundbreaking book, Schoolgirls, to her latest, Don’t Call Me Princess, author Peggy Orenstein interviewed young women across the country, mapping the terrain of adolescent female sexuality and gender expectations. Her interviews reveal an uncomfortable truth: although women may display self-confidence in public society, their knowledge of their own sexuality has plummeted. In addition to her bestselling books, Orenstein writes for New York Times Magazine, comments for NPR and was recognized by the Columbia Journalism Review as among its “40 women who changed the media business in the past 40 years.”
In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Dr. Ernie Bodai, director of Kaiser Permanente’s Breast Cancer Survivorship Institute will join Francesca this week. He created the first Breast Cancer Research Stamp in 1998 to raise money for a cure. The stamp sells for 11 cents higher than the standard rate. Since its inception, the stamp has raised about 92 million dollars; it surpassed the Elvis Commemorative stamp, which was America’s bestseller. Dr. Bodai’s Breast Cancer Research Stamp was the first stamp ever to be unveiled at the White House, with Hilary Clinton doing the unveiling.
Lee Milteer is an internationally known and celebrated entrepreneur, visionary, best-selling author, award-winning professional speaker, TV personality, and intuitive business mentor. Milteer provides business and success advice and resources to nearly 250,000 people around the world. She is the founder of the Millionaire Smarts® coaching program which supplies tools for other coaches and businesses. Lee is former partners with GKIC (Glazer-Kennedy Insider Circle) and Peak Performers Implementation coaching program for entrepreneurs. Lee hosted America’s Premier Experts TV Show, which was aired on NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox Affiliates.
Does confidence come from our genes or can we learn it? Is it best demonstrated by bravado or is there another way to be confident? Is confidence more critical for success than competence? Why do so many women, even the most successful, seem to struggle with feelings of self-doubt? Francesca will interview Katty Kay, co-author of The Confidence Code.
Dan Ariely, author and professor of psychology at Duke University will discuss the predictability of being irrational and the honest truth about dishonesty. Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and is the founder of The Center for Advanced Hindsight. Ariely’s talks on TED have been watched over 7.8 million times. He is the author of Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality, both of which became New York Times bestsellers, as well as The Honest Truth about Dishonesty.