Art and Liberation

(photo courtesy of Lora R Fisher)
An interview with artist, Jan vonBergen

“You can feel really good everyday of your life when you do what you love, whether it’s read or do art or walk or dance or whatever you love to do. It makes you feel alive, that feeds you and gives you what you need everyday.”

In the last 3 years, Jan’s life and art has changed. Her life used to revolve around full-time teaching and family with her art making fitting in whatever space was left. It was a fulfilling puzzle with many pieces. Retirement was a mystery at first and a word Jan dislikes, “It sounds deadening. I would call it liberation.”

You can hear the rest of the interview with Jan where she talks more about art, life and liberation on the website Voices of Living Creatively.

God or Grand Design?

How was our universe created? Was it God? Was it the big bang? Was it something completely different?

Physics Professors Steven Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow join forces to explain life, the universe and everything in their new book, 'The Grand Design'. You can listen to this fascinating 30 minute interview by going to our website, Voices of Living Creatively. You'll hear Mike Turner and Leonard Mlodinow discuss the questions about the beginnings of the universe and quantum physics as well as whether Douglas Adams had it right in, 'Life The Universe and Everything'.

Hint: The right answer might be a little bigger than the number '42'.

Being a happy corporate camper.

Ever wonder if you can go to work and be your real self? What if you're a little weird? At Zappos.com, that's just the type of people they want working there. They even have a question on their employment applications asking future employees to decide how weird they are on a scale from 1 to 10.

Tony Hsieh, CEO and author of "Delivering Happiness - The Path to Profit, Passion and Purpose" describes a brand new kind of corporate culture. A corporation that recognizes and celebrates each employee's personality and creativity. He says it's possible to make customers happy, employees happy and make a profit, all at the same time. Even though Zappos was purchased by Amazon, Tony has made sure that they haven't lost their focus on happiness as a business model and he's proud that Zappos.com is listed with Fortune 500 as one of the best companies to work for.

But that doesn't mean everything always goes the right way. Failure is part of the path to success, according to Tony. And his favorite quote from Thomas Edison says it all, "I've failed my way to success." Learn more about Tony's unique path to success and see how passion, creativity and maybe a little weirdness can help you be a happier, healthier corporate camper.

Also, in the same podcast, you'll hear an interview with filmaker Eric Byler about the immigration issue and the new documentary, "9500 Liberty". Exploring the issure of how the dollar doesn't discriminate, the economic impact of immigration laws on local businesses in Prince William county, Virginia.

The oil spill, diving and his father: A Conversation with Jean-Michel Cousteau

A Conversation With Cousteau
"The Sea is Everything"

Ever since his father pushed him into the ocean at age 7 on his first dive, Jean-Michel Cousteau has been in love with diving and the ocean. Now he dives for fun and for science, as did his famous father, Jacques Cousteau. His visit to the Gulf oil spill left him deeply saddened by the destruction of wildlife and the ocean itself. In this podcast on Voices of Living Creatively, you can listen to Jean-Michel talk about the disaster in the gulf as well as his famous father.

His new book "My Father, The Captain: My Life with Jacques Cousteau." is being released now as a celebration of the 100th anniversary of his late father's birth on June 10th 1910. The conversation reveals a complex and loving relationship between father and son who also worked together as captain and crew, boss and manager of the Cousteau Society.

Jean-Michel Cousteau, who is also President of the Ocean Futures Society and Executive Producer of Ocean Adventures on PBS, talks about the disaster in the Gulf and how to avoid future oil spills.

Denis Hayes: Founding the environmental movement

It was the smell of the pollution belching from the local pulp mill in his childhood home of Camas, Washington that started Denis Hayes on the path of his life work in the environmental movement. Today, Denis is President and CEO of the Bullitt Foundation in Seattle. As an environmental lawyer, he's published more than 100 articles, books and papers on energy and the environment.

But it all began 40 years ago, when he left his Harvard graduate studies to coordinate the first Earth Day in New York city. You can hear the rest of the story in Mike Turner's interview podcast with Denis Hayes at Voices of Living Creatively website.

Darcelle reveals himself.

Portland, Oregon's most celebrated drag queen has a new show called, 'Just call me Darcelle' that tells the story of the man behind the costumes. Playing to sold out crowds, this one man show covers Walter Cole's life from the shy, quiet boy to a drag queen in Portland's famous Darcelle XV Showplace.

It all started when Walter Cole opened a tavern in Portland and dared to dance. At the time, there was a law prohibiting entertainment and dancing in taverns. But Walter wanted his tavern to expand beyond beer and fist fights, so he and his partner put together a show that's still entertaining audiences with top quality songs, dancing and comedy.

For many years, Darcelle took center stage in anything connected with the show or tavern. Now, at 80, Walter Cole decided to come out of the closet and tell his story on stage. You can hear the whole story along with music and song, in a podcast interview on the Voices of Living Creatively website.

It's a positive journey from the voice of a man living a very creative life.

Keeping Portland Weird: A creative way to make a living.

According to two Portland business owners, being weird and living creatively are not only good for your life but good for business, too. Music Millennium owner, Terry Currier brought the saying "Keep Portland Weird" to the city and Impresa consulting firm owner, Joe Cortright say it makes perfect economic sense to keep Portland weird. It's these weird ideas that eventually lead to new ideas and innovation that create new business and a thriving new economy.

Many companies in the so-called new economy see a creative company culture as an important element of their success. One such company is Zappos.com, where CEO Tony Hsieh asks those who apply to the company, "How weird are you?" Zappos uses a weirdness gauge from 1 to 10 to hire new employees.

To find out how the weirdness scale works and how other companies are getting business by being weird, listen to the podcast on Voices of Living Creatively website at www.voicesoflivingcreatively.com