Guests
Bill Raney, author of Letters to Zerky, was born in Grand Forks, ND, and spent his teen years in Port Angeles, Washington. It was there he got a ham radio license and started cruising the world on the airwaves. After two and a half years at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, he dropped out to become a beatnik in San Francisco’s North Beach district in the late 1950s and the 1960s. It was there he met and then married JoAnne Walker, who owned and ran The Movie, a small art theatre in North Beach. In April of 1967, soon after Bill and JoAnne adopted their son Zerky (Eric Xerxes Raney), they left for the journey detailed in Letters to Zerky: A Father’s Legacy to a Lost Son and a Road Trip Around the World. Upon their return to California, thirteen months later, they moved down the coast to Santa Cruz, [...]
Rob Holmes is Founder & President of Green Living Project. Rob is responsible for overseeing the overall strategic direction of Green Living Project, along with supervising sales, marketing, and business development opportunities. Rob has a unique and diverse background in media production, responsible tourism, international conservation, and business startups. He also knows first-hand how to successfully build, promote, and sell businesses to corporate partners, media, and consumers. Rob brings over 18 years’ experience within the outdoor retail and travel industries with companies such as R.E.I., E.M.S., and Trails.com. As co-owner of Trails.com, Rob helped build, manage, and sell the company while becoming the #1 outdoor and adventure travel website in 2006. Rob has also worked and consulted with over 20 leading international conservation organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, International Snow Leopard Trust, Appalachian Mountain Club, and Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. Lastly, Rob is a well-known photojournalist and adventure traveler with [...]
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.'s reputation as a resolute defender of the environment stems from a litany of successful legal actions. Mr. Kennedy was named one of Time magazine's “Heroes for the Planet” for his success helping Riverkeeper lead the fight to restore the Hudson River. The group's achievement helped spawn over 190 Waterkeeper organizations across the globe. Mr. Kennedy serves as Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, Chief Prosecuting Attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and President of Waterkeeper Alliance. He is also a Clinical Professor and Supervising Attorney at Pace University School of Law’s Environmental Litigation Clinic and is co-host of Ring of Fire on Air America Radio. Earlier in his career he served as Assistant District Attorney in New York City. He has worked on environmental issues across the Americas and has assisted several indigenous tribes in Latin America and Canada in successfully negotiating treaties protecting traditional [...]
Bryan and Shannon Prince are from the historic Elgin Settlement and Buxton Mission, which was a haven for fugitive slaves. They have been married for 31 years and, along with their four children, continue to farm in this area where their ancestors once found freedom. Both are active with the Buxton National Historic Site & Museum, where Shannon is Curator and Bryan is an historian and board member. Both have been members of several organizations in Canada and the United States including Ontario’s Underground Railroad Alliance; The African Canadian Heritage Network; York University’s Harriet Tubman Institute; joint projects with Millersville University (Pennsylvania) and the advisory board for Chatham-Kent Tourism department. Bryan and Shannon Prince have lectured extensively across Ontario and the U. S. and are among the organizers of an annual Canadian/U.S. Black History and Genealogy Conference that brings together distinguished scholars from across the continent. In addition to farming, [...]
Composer, guitarist and violinist, Lucas Lechowski was born in Poland, where he began his professional music training at age seven in classical violin. He would go on to study classical violin, jazz violin, and jazz guitar. He eventually graduated from the Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland, receiving: B.A. in Violin Performance, M.A. in Jazz Violin Performance, and M.A. in Jazz Guitar Performance. Lechowski started his career as a classical violinist, participating in two elite European orchestras: The International Youth Orchestra Academy in Bayreuth, Germany and The Young Austrian Philharmonic in Innsbruck, Austria. He toured all over the Europe, performing at the most revered symphony halls, including the famous Wagner’s Bayreuth Festspielhaus. The multiple years of experience performing in different classical ensembles has given Lechowski an intimate understanding of the structure of orchestral and chamber music, as well as an insider’s view of the music of the great masters. As [...]
"I never had model cars or train sets when I was a kid," says TV naturalist Nigel Marven. "My bedroom was full of stick insects and green lizards, baby crickets and boa constrictors. Oh, and a giant eel in the bath tub.” Some 40 years later, the boy with bugs in his bedroom has become British televisions busiest wildlife presenter - spending at least 300 days a year away from home. Currently he wears the title International Ambassador to the Pandas at the Chengdu Panda Base in China. Nigel has swum with sharks and wrestled with alligators. He's slithered with snakes; crept and crawled with insects. He's even donated his own blood to mosquitoes, leeches and giant kissing bugs in the interests of science and television entertainment. Speaking of which, he also mislaid some giant millipedes somewhere in Jay Leno's studio during the latest of several appearances on the U.S. [...]
Martin Fletcher is the author of WALKING ISRAEL: A Personal Search for the Soul of a Nation. He has been one of the most highly respected foreign correspondents in television news for more than thirty years. He has covered almost every conflict and natural disaster in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, winning five Emmys, a Columbia University Dupont Award, and several Overseas Press Club Awards. Fletcher was NBC Bureau Chief in Tel Aviv for many years, and is currently a special correspondent for NBC News. He is also the author of Breaking News. Fletcher and his wife, Hagar, have raised three sons. Martin Fletcher started with NBC News as a cameraman in 1977 in South Africa; after working in the Paris and Frankfurt bureaus he began his Tel Aviv assignment as network correspondent in 1982. He added Bureau Chief to his duties in 1996. He has received five Emmy awards [...]
The late William "Bill" Dreyer was the director and curator for The Art of Dr. Seuss Collection. He was recognized as the leading authority on The Art of Dr. Seuss, with research focused on prominent public and private collections including The Dr. Seuss Estate, The Dr. Seuss Archives at the University of California San Diego, The Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, as well as important private collections. As a 20-year art world veteran, William Dreyer had spent the past decade researching the life and art of Theodor Seuss Geisel. “Though Seuss’s most lasting legacy remains his inimitable impact on children’s literacy, we are just now cracking open the door to his influence throughout the modern art world. Ted Geisel’s artistic legacy continues to cross over generations and genres, while singularly impacting the worlds of art, literature, pop and high culture. Many of today’s top talents pay tribute to Dr. Seuss [...]
Kristin Lamoureux is the associate dean and a clinical associate professor for NYU's Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism. Formerly, she served as the Director of the International Institute of Tourism Studies within the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management at the George Washington University. She specializes in tourism and hospitality management, destination management, volunteer tourism, sustainable and niche tourism development. Currently, her duties include the oversight of all of the Institute’s activities including the Event Management and Destination Management Professional Education Programs and all grants/contracts. Additionally, she is involved in several projects focusing on tourism in developing countries including Mali, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Bulgaria and Jordan. Dr. Lamoureux has served as a consultant for USAID, the World Bank, the UN World Tourism Organization, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Ecotourism Society, and Conservation International, among others. Her primary focus areas include sustainable tourism development, destination management and tourism [...]
Elsa Gebreyesus lived in Ethiopia, Kenya, and United States before going to receive her BA from Brock University in Ontario, Canada. After Eritrea won its independence from Ethiopia, she lived there for five years, working as a Project Officer with an indigenous women's organization. After leaving Eritrea, she came to the U. S. where she's been pursuing her lifelong passion for art. In addition to her passion for art, she also volunteers and works with organizations involved with human rights issues especially in Africa. She continues to learn from artists she admires and has been greatly influenced by modernist painters from both Africa and the West. Visit Elsa's website to learn more. A Statement from Elsa Gebreyesus : "Each of my paintings starts with a loose sketch, landscape or object and is built up with layer upon layer of paint. Often it will be in a state of chaos before [...]
A native of the DC area, Toby Bloom is the Director of Wildlife Ecotourism for Humane Society International. Ms. Bloom focuses on community-based ecotourism development as a non-extractive income alternative for communities living in and around protected areas. Ms. Bloom is responsible for overseeing existing capacity building programs in Latin America dealing with ecotourism, biodiversity conservation and management, and sustainable use of natural resources. She also helps to identify and develop new projects and fundraising efforts in Latin America and worldwide. Most recently, Bloom has spearheaded HSI’s new Humane Travels Program. Prior to joining HSI, Toby Bloom worked as a Sustainable Tourism Specialist for USAID projects, where she created national tourism accreditation systems, trained local nature guides for protected areas, and administrated environmental projects in Latin America. She has also completed various sustainable tourism consultancies in Central America and the Andean countries of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. Past publications include “Desde [...]
Ever since he was a child, Tory Belleci knew he would work in the film industry. At age 11, his uncle gave him a Super 8 movie camera and he began making movies. Tory went on to San Francisco State University film school and graduated magnum cum-laude. In 1994 he started working with Jamie Hyneman, first as a stage manager, but he then quickly moved up the ranks. In a few years’ time, Tory Belleci started work at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), building models for films including Star Wars: Episode 1 -The Phantom Menace and Star Wars: Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones. Some of his models include the pod racers and Federation battleships. Tory worked for ILM for eight years as a model builder, sculptor and painter. His special effects work can also be seen in Starship Troopers, Sphere, Galaxy Quest, Bicentennial Man, Terminator 3, The Matrix, [...]
