Memoirs & Biographies

Dr. Kevin Keough, clinical psychologist, and host of North Star Guardians and Warrior Traditions, interviews Mr. Marc "Animal" MacYoung.

Topic: Martial arts, self defense and the way of the warrior

Growing up on the gang-infested streets of Los Angeles not only gave Marc MacYoung his street name "Animal," but also extensive firsthand experience about what does and does not work for self-defense. What he teaches is based on experience and has proven reliability for surviving violence. He is considered by many to be one of the most analytical thinkers on the subject of  surviving violence and personal safety today.

He has taught police, military, martial artists and civilians around the world, his message is always the same: Hand-to-hand combat is a last ditch effort when other, more effective, preventive measures have failed. The best preventative measure of them all is not to put yourself into situations where you need to fight your way out. He knows that from personal experience and that is what he teaches, lest people find themselves in the same kind of situations that he did. Unlike many martial arts instructors, who claim to have been street fighters, his past is not a marketing promotion. Nor is it an exaggerated list of victories against legions of thugs through use of his undefeatable martial art style. It is filled with tales of ambushes, hit-and-run gang warfare, drugs, alcohol, bad behavior, stupid mistakes, weapons flashing in dark alleys, homicides, funerals and long nights spent in hospital waiting rooms praying  for wounded friends to survive. That is the reality of being a street fighter. It is nothing any sane person would brag about -- much less pretend to be. As he often says It's a whole different ballgame when the other side shoots back...(1)

Yet, as one who lived despite the blood-splattered streets, MacYoung knows that survival isn’t a matter of how "tough" you are or your ability to fight. Nor is it how many stripes you have on a black belt or how many tournaments you’ve won. Although some physical  skill is indeed necessary, survival is more a matter of knowledge and awareness. And that is what he stresses. Without those two key elements, you won’t make it out of a dark and lonely parking lot. 

About that "Animal" part of his name... yes, he did all the stupid and dangerous things one needs to do to earn that nickname. It is a lifestyle he no longer lives or endorses. Unfortunately, since Animal is the name he was first published under, like a tattoo, he's sort of stuck with it as a constant reminder of a violent and dangerous youth.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Lisa Alther, author of Kinfolks: Falling Off the Family Tree- The Search for My Melungeon Ancestors published by Arcade Publishing.

Lisa Alther was born in 1944 in Kingsport, Tennessee, where she went to public schools.  She was graduated from Wellesley College with a BA in English literature in 1966. After attending the Publishing Procedures Course at Radcliffe College and working for Atheneum Publishers in New York, she moved to Hinesburg, Vermont, where she has lived for thirty years, raising her daughter. She taught Southern Fiction at St. Michael's College in Winooski, Vermont and Southern fiction at East Tennessee State Univ. in Johnson City, TN.

Alther is the author of five novels -- Kinflicks, Original Sins, Other Women, Bedrock, and Five Minutes in Heaven.  Her reviews and articles have appeared in many periodicals, including the New York Times, Art and Antiques, Los Angeles Times,  and the Boston Globe.

 Having lived in London and Paris, she currently divides her time between Vermont and New York and Tennessee. Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Janine Latus, author of If I Am Missing or Dead: A Sister's Story of Love, Murder, and Liberation published by Simon & Schuster.

Janine Latus is a freelance writer, radio commentator, and regular speaker on domestic abuse issues. She has also taught writing and journalism at several universities and is on the board of directors of the American Society of Journalists and Authors . Her work has appeared in O, the Oprah magazine, More, Woman's Day, Family Circle, Parents, All You, American Baby. She has written for WomensWallStreet.com and her commentaries have aired on Public Radio International's Marketplace, and she routinely speaks at conferences, workshops and press events. If I Am Missing or Dead is her first book. She lives in Virginia. Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Professor Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She's Not There: A Life In Two Genders published by Broadway.

Since 1988, Jenny Boylan has been a professor of creative writing and American literature at Colby College, in Waterville, Maine. Boylan was a visiting professor at University College Cork, Ireland, in 1998-99.  She was promoted to the rank of full Professor in May of 2001, and was chosen by students as the Charles Walker Bassett "Professor of the Year" in 2000.  At present she is Director of Creative Writing at Colby.

Her books include The Planets, and The Constellations,  and Remind Me To Murder You Later. Her stories have appeared in such literary magazines as Confrontation, Florida Review, Quarterly West, Western Humanities Review, Writer's Digest and Southwest Review. She lives in Maine with her family. Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Mr. Shawn Decker, author of My Pet Virus: The True Story of a Rebel Without a Cure published by Tarcher.

Shawn Decker and his wife, fellow HIV educator, Gwenn Barringer- who is HIV negative, belong to CAMPUSPEAK, a speaker's bureau specializing in health issues. Since 2000, Shawn and Gwenn have spoken to over 50,000 students on colleges campuses, traveling nationally to share how they keep Gwenn HIV negative in their program, A Boy, A Girl, A Virus & The Relationship That Happened Anyway. Together they've been featured on MTV, the BBC, CNN.com and have appeared in an HBO documentary as well as in Cosmopolitan. My Pet Virus is Shawn's first book. They live in Charlottesville, Virginia. Visit his website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Vanessa Vega, author of  Comes the Darkness, Comes the Light: A Memoir of Cutting, Healing, and Hope  published by AMACOM/American Management Association.

Vanessa Leigh Vega is a high school English teacher and motivational speaker in Irving, Texas. She is a contributing author to the award-winning Taste Berries for Teens Volume IV.  She has been nationally recognized for excellence in teaching by being named to the Whos Who Among Americas Teachers in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. She has degrees from Texas Tech University and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. She resides in Irving, Texas where she is working on her next book.  Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Tina Kotulski, author of Saving Millie; a daughter's story of surviving her mother's schizophrenia published by Extraordinary Voices Press.

Tina Kotulski, full time stay at home mom (S.A.H.M.) and author of Saving Millie; A Daughter's Story of Surviving Her Mother's Schizophrenia has played an active role in bringing awareness to the special needs of children, as well as families of the mentally ill. In 2006, she received an Award of Excellence in Consumer and Family Support from the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, as well as a recipient of a Global Award from the National Network of Adult and Adolescent Children who have a Mentally Ill Parent in Australia. Her most recent award was from the Midwest  Independent Publishers Association (MIPA) where Saving Millie won First Place in the category of Social Sciences.

Tina is founder of Extraordinary Voices, a national group of the "voices of those that have grown up in the shadow of mental illness", as well as President of of Extraordinary Voices Press.

Along with her husband, she is co-founder of Between The Bridges Healing Center, LLC,  a comprehensive medical center where personalized, comprehensive care and optimal health and wellness meet.

Tina speaks on the special needs of children of persons with mental illness, as well as the needs of families of those that have mental illness at conferences, seminars, churches, health care centers, schools, community centers and prisions. Tina, along with her husband Jeffrey Kotulski, D.O., and three children live in southern Minnesota. Visit her website.

Purchase the documentary about  Millie, created by her daughter Susan Smiley, Out of The Shadow.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Claire Fontaine, co-author of Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back written by Claire Fontaine and Mia Fontaine published by Harper Collins.

Claire Fontaine is an author and screenwriter who has worked with numerous award-winning producers and directors. She continues to write and leads writing workshops.  Visit her website  and blog.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Professor Charles Barber, author of Songs From The Black Chair: A Memoir of Mental Interiors, published by University of Nebraska Press.

Charles Barber is a lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. Barber won the 2005 Pushcart Prize for the title essay, Songs From The Black Chair. Excerpts or pieces related to Songs From the Black Chair have appeared in the New York Times, UTNE Reader, Psychotherapy Networker, and on National Public Radio.  Visit his website

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Mr. Bob Tarte, author of Fowl Weather: How thirty-nine animals and one sock monkey took over my life published by Algonquin Books.

Bob Tarte is a freelance writer who has written for a number of publications, including The Beat magazine, the Boston Globe, The New York Times, the Whole Earth Review, and the Miami New Times. He lives in Lowell, Michigan, with his wife, Linda, and more animals than we can list here. Bob is also the author of Enslaved By Ducks.  Visit his website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Mr. Bob Tarte, author of Enslaved by Ducks: How one man went from head of the household to bottom of the pecking order  published by Algonquin Books.

Bob Tarte is a freelance writer who has written for a number of publications, including The Beat magazine, the Boston Globe, The New York Times, the Whole Earth Review, and the Miami New Times. He lives in Lowell, Michigan, with his wife, Linda, and more animals than we can list here. Bob is also the author of Fowl Weather: How thirty-nine animals and one sock monkey took over my life.  Visit his website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Mr. William Poy Lee, author of The Eighth Promise: An American Son's Tribute to His Toisanese Mother published by Rodale Books.

William Poy Lee was born in the North Beach-Chinatown districts of San Francisco on January 16, 1951 where he lived with one foot in a very traditional Chinatown and one foot in the bohemian arts, music, and politics of North Beach. He received his Bachelors of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 1969 and his Juris Doctor from Hastings College of Law, University of California, San Francisco in 1978.

 A lawyer since 1979, he lives in Berkeley, where he writes full-time. The Eighth Promise is his first book. For more on the author, please visit www.TheEighthPromise.com.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Glasgow Phillips, author of The Royal Nonesuch: Or, What Will I Do When I Grow Up? published by Grove Press.

Glasgow Phillips is a film and television writer in Los Angeles. His credits include seasons on South Park, and Father of the Pride, and catastrophic pilots for Comedy Central and MTV.  He wrote and directed the important zombie-western feature film Undead of Alive.  Visit his website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Susan Shapiro, author of Lighting Up: How I Stopped Smoking, Drinking, And Everything Else I Love in Life Except Sex published by Delta.

Susan Shapiro has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Boston Globe, The Nation, Salon. com, Village Voice, and many other media.  She is the co-editor of the anthology "Food for the Soul," and the author of the acclaimed memoirs "Lighting Up" and Five Men Who Broke My Heart which was optioned for a movie by Paramount Pictures. She has appeared on the Today Show, Dateline, Good Day New York, E!, Entertainment, and prime time documentaries on ABC and the Oxygen network. Susan lives in Greenwich Village with her husband, a TV/film writer and teaches journalism at NYU, the New School, and Mediabistro.  Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Susan Shapiro, author of Five Men Who Broke My Heart: A Memoir published by Delta.

Susan Shapiro has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Boston Globe, The Nation, Salon. com, Village Voice, and many other media.  She is the co-editor of the anthology "Food for the Soul," and the author of the acclaimed memoirs "Lighting Up" and Five Men Who Broke My Heart which was optioned for a movie by Paramount Pictures. She has appeared on the Today Show, Dateline, Good Day New York, E!, Entertainment, and prime time documentaries on ABC and the Oxygen network. Susan lives in Greenwich Village with her husband, a TV/film writer and teaches journalism at NYU, the New School, and Mediabistro.  Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Professor Eric Liu, author of  The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker published by Vintage.

Eric Liu is the author of Guiding Lights: How to Mentor- And Find Life's Purpose, the Official Book of National Mentoring Month.  He is also the author of The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker, a New York Times Notable Book featured in the PBS documentary Matters of Race, and he edited the Norton anthology Next: Young American Writers on the New Generation.

Eric served as a speechwriter for President Clinton in the first term and as White House deputy domestic policy adviser in the second. After the White House, he was an executive at the digital media company RealNetworks. He's also been a frequent commentator of CNN, MSNBC and CNBC. In 2002, Eric was named by the World Economic Forum as one of the 100 "Global Leaders of Tomorrow."  He lives in Seattle, where he teaches at the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Affairs and hosts an acclaimed television interview program called Seattle Voices. In addition to organizing the annual Guilding Lights Weekend, Eric speaks regularly at conferences, corporations and campuses around the country. Visit his website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Margaret Sartor, author of Miss American Pie: A Diary of Love, Secrets, And Growing Up In the 1970s published by Bloomsbury USA.

Margaret Sartor is a writer and photographer. She currently teaches at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and lives with her husband and two children in Durham, North Carolina.

Sartor's most recent book, Miss American Pie: A Diary of Love, Secrets, and Growing Up in the 1970s  is a New York Times bestseller and was chosen as a Best Book of the Year by the Chicago Tribune.

Margaret Sartor's photographs of her family have been widely published and exhibited and are in a number of permanent museum collections. As an editor, Sartor has published three books, What Was True: The Photographs and Notebooks of William Gedney (co-edited with Geoff Dyer) was chosen as one of the Top Ten Photography Books of 1999 by the Village Voice.  Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Sara Miles, author of Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion- The Spiritual Memoir of a twenty-first century Christian published by Ballentine.

Sara Miles is the author of How to Hack a Party Line: The Democrats and Silicon Valley and co-editor of Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan and the anthology Opposite Sex. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Out, The Progressive, La Jornada, and Salon, among others.  She has written extensively on military affairs, politics, and culture. The Founder of St. Gregory's Food Pantry, she lives in San Francisco, California with her family. Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Dr. William McKeen, author of Highway 61: A Father-Son Journey Through the Middle of America published by Norton.

Dr. William McKeen is the  author of five books and editor or three more. He has been copy editor and reporter at several newspapers, and was staff editor at The Saturday Evening Post and production editor for The American Spectator. His latest book, Highway 61, is a memoir of a 6,000-mile road trip with his college-age son. In addition to his anthology, Rock and Roll is Here to Stay, Mckeen has written critical biographies of Tom Wolfe, Hunter Thompson, Bob Dylan, and the Beatles. He is working on a full-scale biography of Hunter Thompson, an anthology about childhoods in Florida and a rock'n'roll book called Rip This Joint.

McKeen specializes in media history, popular culture and literary journalism. He has earned his B.A. in history and his M.A. in journalism from Indiana University and his Ph.D. in education from the University of Oklahoma. He is married and has seven children.  Visit his website.

Dr. Kevin Keough interviews Solicitor Adrian C. Laing, author of R.D. Laing: A Life published by Sutton Publishing.

Adrian C. Laing, is a practicing Solicitor Advocate of his own firm Laing and Co, and regularly writes and presents on issues relating to media and entertainment law. Adrian studied law at Exeter University and was called to the Bar (Inner Temple, London) in 1979 (aged 21). He subsequently studied under Michael Foucault at the College de France, Paris.

Adrian is the co-author (with his wife Deborah Fosbrook) of two leading law titles: 'The A-Z Contract Clauses' and 'The Media Contracts Handbook'. Adrian has five children and lives in Highgate, North London. Visit his website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman, author of From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava with Melinda Roth, published by Lyons Press.

Jay Kopelman is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, stationed at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, CA in September 2004, as the Special Operations Forces Liaison Officer for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (IMEF), Jay deployed to Iraq to train the Iraqi Special Forces. In October, he was assigned as the liaison officer to an Iraqi Army battalion, and in November they entered Fallujah to battle insurgents for control of the city. It was there that he met and adopted Lava, a five week old puppy abandoned during the during the invasion.

Following his return to the United States, based on his experiences in Iraq, Jay was asked to help train the Marines who would return to Iraq as advisors to the Iraqui armed forces and the police. He currently serves as the Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for advisor training at I MEF.

Jay lives in La Jolla, CA, with his wife, Pam: son Mattox; stepson Sean; their two dogs, Lava and Koda, and Cheddar the cat.  Both Jay and his wife, an anthropologist, are avid surfers who make annual pilgrimage to Costa Rica. They also spend time skiing, camping, waterskiing/wakeboarding and rock climbing. Visit his website.  Watch a video of Jay and Lava.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews lawyer Dylan Schaffer, author of Life, Death & Bialys: A Father/Son Baking Story published by Bloomsbury USA.

Dylan Schaffer has been a criminal defense lawyer in the Bay Area for 15 years. He writes the Misdemeanor Man legal thriller series. His first book, Misdemeanor Man, won Mystery Ink's 2004 Gumshoe for best debut. Misdemeanor Man and his second book in the series, I Right The Wrongs, were Booksense selections. His new book, a memoir called Life, Death & Bialys: A Father/Son Baking Story was a Chicago Tribune 2006 best book of the year and a 2006 Barnes & Nobles Discover New Writers selection. Visit his website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interview Ms. Kat Albrecht, author of The Lost Pet Chronicles: Adventures of a K-9 Cop Turned Pet Detective with Jean Murphy, published by Bloomsbury USA.

Kat Albrecht is an award-winning former police bloodhound handler, crime scene investigator, search and rescue manager, and police officer turned investigative pet detective. She is the founder of Missing Pet Partnership, a national nonprofit organization working to establish community-based lost-pet services.

Kat lives in Clovis, California, with her three dogs and three cats.  Visit her website. For suggestions on how to find a lost pet, visit Missing Pet Partnership.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Mindy Lewis, author of Life Inside: A Memoir published by Washington Square Press.

Mindy Lewis is a writer, painter, and graphic designer based in New York City. Her essays have been published in two anthologies and in Newsweek, Body & Soul, Poets & Writers and Lilith magazines. A finalist in The Writer's Voice 1999 New Voice Creative Non-Fiction Awards. She has been a resident at Vermont Studio Center, Palenville Interarts, Byrdcliffe Colony, and Banff Center for the Arts.  Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Mr. Joe Massengale author of Six Lessons for Six Sons: An Extraordinary Father, A Simple Formula for Success. published by Three Rivers Press.  Part One of a Two- Part Interview.

Boxer, preacher, and businessman, George Foreman says about our guest, Mr. Joe Massengale, "The Lessons Joe Massengale learned back in the piney woods around Marshall, Texas, and gave to his sons to take into the world are some of the same ones I hope my children, my congregation, the kids in my youth center and my customers get from me."

Entrepreneur Joe Massengale is the owner of Joe's Expert Tree Service. Visit his website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Mr. Joe Massengale author of Six Lessons for Six Sons: An Extraordinary Father, A Simple Formula for Success. published by Three Rivers Press.  Part One of a Two- Part Interview.

Boxer, preacher, and businessman, George Foreman says about our guest, Mr. Joe Massengale, "The Lessons Joe Massengale learned back in the piney woods around Marshall, Texas, and gave to his sons to take into the world are some of the same ones I hope my children, my congregation, the kids in my youth center and my customers get from me."

Entrepreneur Joe Massengale is the owner of Joe's Expert Tree Service. Visit his website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Mr. Allen Rucker, author of The Best Seat in the House: How I Woke Up One Tuesday and Was Paralyzed for Life  published by HarperCollins.

Allen Rucker is the author of seven books of non-fiction and humor, most of them written since he became paralyzed. He's written three books on the HBO series, "The Sopranos," including the New York Times #1 bestselling "The Sopranos Family Cookbook." His other books include "The History of White People in America," with Martin Mull, and "Redneck Woman," with Gretchen Wilson.  He is also an award-winning TV writer.

He is the recipient of the duPont-Columbia Journalism Award, the Writers Guild Annual Award, and two CableACE Awards among others. In 2005, he recieved the special WGA Joan Young Award for career distinction as a writer with a disability. "The History of White People In America" was honored by the Museum of Television & Radio in 2001 and TVTV was given a full MTR retrospective in 2004.

He also teaches at the USC School of Cinema-TV. He lives in LA with his wife, Ann-Marie. They have two sons. For more information visit his website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney  interviews Dr. Joy Castro, author of The Truth Book: Escaping a Childhood of Abuse Among Jehovah's Witnesses  published by Arcade.

Born in Miami, Joy Castro studied literature at Trinity University and Texas A&M University. She began publishing short stories during graduate school and took a position in 1997 teaching literature and creative writing at Wabash College, where she lectures on women's literature, race and gender issues, literary modernism, and the Harlem Renaissance. An award-winning teacher, she publishes articles on innovative strategies for the post-secondary classroom, and her published literary scholarship focuses on experimental women writers of the twentieth century such as Jean Rhys, Meridel Le Sueur, Sandra Cisneros, and Naomi Shihab Nye.

Committed to broadening the reach of higher education to communities in need, she has offered free courses to at-risk teenagers, low-income adults, and victims of domestic violence, and she runs the biannual Creative Writing/ Creative Teaching conference for Indiana high school and middle school teachers.

 Her honors include the Charles Gordone Award for Poetry and a Frank B. Vogel Scholarship in nonfiction at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and her short fiction and creative nonfiction appear in anthologies and in journals such as North American Review, Cream City Review, Chelsea, Quarterly West, and Puerto del Sol.  Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Hillary Carlip, author of Queen of the Oddballs: And Other True Stories from a Life Unaccording to Plan published by Harper.

Award winning author and Multi-Mediast, Hillary Carlip's memoir Queen of the Oddballs: And Other True Stories from a Life Unaccording to Plan  is an American Bookseller's Association Book Sense Pick, and was selected by Borders as one of the Top Literary Memoirs of 2006. She has appeared on countless radio and TV shows, including Oprah, who dedicated an entire episode to Hillary's first book, Girl Power: Young Women Speak Out, and the Ellen Degeneres Show, where she taught Ellen how to eat fire (complete with Liza Minnelli running onstage--unplanned--with a fire extinguisher!) Hillary's second book, Zine Scene, won an American Libray Association Award.

Hillary is the creator, host and editor of the acclaimed literary website FRESH YARN, an NPR commentator, an artist, and a creative and motivational consultant and speaker.  Currently Hillary is working on her fourth book, and developing a network television show based on Queen of the Oddballs.  You can find out more about her, see video clips, etc. at her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Evelyn McDonnell, author of Mamarama: A Memoir of Sex, Kids, & Rock' n' Roll published by Da Capo Life Long Books.

Evelyn McDonnell is the pop culture writer at the Miami Herald, where she has worked since 2001. She is the author of Mamarama: A Memoir of Sex, Kids and Rock 'n' Roll and  Army of She: Icelandic, Iconoclastic, Irrepressible Bjork.  She coedited the anthologies Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop and Rap and Stars Don't Stand Still in the Sky: Music and Myth. 

A former senior editor at the Village Voice and associate editor at SF Weekly, her writing on music, poetry, theater, and culture has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies, including Ms., Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Spin, Travel & Leisure, Us, Billboard, and Option.

Evelyn lives in Miami Beach with her husband, Bud, her stepdaughters, Karlie and Kendra, her son Cole, their dog, Otis, and two cats, Paleface and Moonpie.  Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Portia Iversen, author of Strange Son: Two Mothers, Two Sons, and the Quest to Unlock the Hidden World of Autism published by Riverhead.

Portia Iversen, an Emmy-winning art director, has been a vigorous proponent of autism research since her son Dov was diagnosed in 1994. Together with her husband, Jon Shestack, she established the Cure Autism Now Foundation, one of the largest nongovernmental funding resources for autism research worldwide. She lives in Los Angeles with her family.  Visit her website and new online community.

Purchase The Mind Tree: A Miraculous Child Breaks the Silence of Autism by Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Allen Shawn, MS, author of Wish I Could Be There: Notes From a Phobic Life published by Viking.

Allen Shawn grew up in New York City and currently lives in Vermont, where he is on the faculty of Bennington College. He started composing music at the age of ten, and has produced a large catalogue of orchestral, chamber, and piano works, as well as music for ballet, theater, and film. He performs frequently as a pianist, and he has contributed articles to The Atlantic Monthly, The Musical Times, and The Times Literary Supplement . Allen is also the author of the book "Arnold Schoenberg's Journey. He is the father of Annie and Harold Shawn.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Jeff Bell, author of Rewind, Replay, Repeat: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder published by Hazelden.

Jeff Bell is a longtime veteran of radio and television news. He currently co-anchors afternoon drive at KCBS-AM, the CBS Network's San Francisco flagship and one of the most successful all-news radio stations in America.

Prior to joining KCBS, Bell spent eight years hosting drive-time news programs at KFBK in Sacramento. His reporting has aired on the CBS Radio Network; and The Associated Press, The Radio-Television News Directors Association of Northern California, and The Sacramento Bee have all recognized him for his radio work. On the television side, Bell spent several years as a writer for KTVU-TV's Mornings on Two, a ground-breaking and hugely successful Bay Area news program.

Bell holds a master's degree in business from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo; and a bachelor's degree in engineering from the University of California, Irvine. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife and two daughters. Visit his websites RewindReplayRepeat and Beyond the Doubt.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Michael Datcher, M.A., author of Raising Fences: A Black Man's Love Story published by Riverhead Trade.

Michael Datcher is the author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times Bestseller RAISING FENCES -- a TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB Book of the Month pick. The film rights were optioned by actor Will Smith's Overbrook Productions, who hired Datcher to write the screenplay. He is co-editor of TOUGH LOVE: The Life and Death of Tupac Shakur. Datcher's latest play SILENCE was commissioned by and premiered at the Getty Museum. He has appeared on both news programs Nightline and Dateline as an analyst and is a frequent commentator on BBC Radio. He is co-host of the weekly public affairs news magazine BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE on 90.7 FM KPFK. Datcher's writing has appeared in the Washington Post, LA Times, Baltimore Sun, The Source, Ladies Home Journal, Vibe among many other publications. He has curated and/or presented his work at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hammer Museum and other art institutions.

Datcher is the former Director of Literary Programs at the World Stage Writer's Workshop in Leimert Park. He is co-editor of the new national journal of literary nonfiction THE TRUTH ABOUT THE FACT.  Datcher is a professor of English at Loyola Marymount University

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Dr. Robert V. Hine, author of Broken Glass: A Family's Journey Through Mental Illness published by University of New Mexico Press.

Robert Hine studied at UCLA, Pomona College, and Yale. He spent the bulk of his teaching life at the University of California, Riverside. On retirement he moved to UCIrvine. His historical works involved the search for community both in California and on the wider frontier (with a few digressions into Western art). Since retirement he has written two memoirs: Second Sight and Broken Glass. His first fiction will be published late this year.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Jane Ganahl, author of Naked On The Page: The Misadventures of My Unmarried Midlife, published by Viking.

Jane Ganahl has been a journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area for 25 years. For both the Examiner and Chronicle, she served as City Hall muckraker, pop music critic, and cultural observer. For four and a half years, until she left the paper this summer, she was columnist of the popular Single Minded feature, which celebrated the unmarried life.

Last year, Jane edited the well-received anthology, Single Woman of a Certain Age: 29 Women Writers on the Unmarried Midlife. She has also contributed essays to three other female-centric anthologies, including the upcoming �Single State of the Union.� She has also made numerous radio and TV appearances talking about la vida sola (most notably on The Today Show).

Because she can�t stand to sit still, Jane also organizes a monthly a dinner for creative people in San Francisco, as well as the annual Litquake literary festival which she co-founded in 1999. She lives south of The City on the beautiful San Mateo County coast, dotes on her grown daughter and enjoys her single life. She is looking forward to the post-journalism world so she can get more involved in politics. Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews, Dr. Richard McKenzie, author of The Home: A Memoir of Growing Up in an Orphanage published by Dickens Press.

Richard McKenzie is the Walter B. Gerken Professor of Enterprise and Society in the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. Professor McKenzie has written more than Twenty-five books and monographs.

Professor McKenzie grew up at Barium Springs Home for Children (near Charlotte, North Carolina), an experience that led him to write The Home: A Memoir of Growing Up in an Orphanage and that caused him to edit Rethinking Orphanages for the 21st Century.

He is executive producer of documentary film on The Homecomings:The Forgotten World of America's Orphanages that has been selected for screenings at several film festivals around the country and that received the Best Documentary Award in the Sedona (AZ) International Film Festival in early 2005.  He is married to Karen Albers McKenzie and has four children.  Visit his website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney interviews Ron Saxen the author of The Good Eater: The True Story of One Man's Struggle with Binge Eating Disorder published by New Harbinger.

Ron Saxen has worked as a model, stand-up comedian, and comedy writer and had worked in sales for a number of high-profile companies. Ron Saxen is a recovered Binge Eater and is currently living successfully in Northern California. He continues to create new true life stories to tell and one's that he hopes will not only entertain, but provide help and inspiration to the millions of people with eating disorders and the tens of millions fighting the battle of obesity.

Ron's never felt happier, luckier, and more in love than right now. Just in case it is a dream, Ron vows to never pinch himself, and would appreciate it if you wouldn't either. Visit his website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Danielle Trussoni, MFA, author of Falling Through the Earth: A Memoir published by Picador.

Danielle Trussoni grew up in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and attended the University of Wisconsin and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island. Visit her website.

Share your comments about the book and interview on the Psychjourney Audio Book Club blog.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Peggy Orenstein, author of Waiting for Daisy: A Tale of Two Continents, Three Religions, Five Infertility Doctors, An Oscar, An Atomic Bomb, A Romantic Night and One Woman's Quest to Become a Mother published by Bloomsbury USA.

Peggy Orenstein is an internationally recognized writer, editor and speaker about issues affecting girls and women, her previous books include Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Kids, Love and Life in a Half-Changed World (Doubleday/Anchor), and the best-selling SchoolGirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem and the Confidence Gap (Doubleday/Anchor)

A contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, Orenstein has also written for such publications as Vogue, Elle, Discover, More, Glamour, Mother Jones, Salon, Parenting, "O: The Oprah Magazine," and The New Yorker. Her work has been included in many anthologies, including The Best American Science Writing (2004).

She has been a guest lecturer and keynote speaker at numerous college campuses; at state, regional and municipal conferences on gender equity and on juvenile justice; at the National Education Association's National Conference on Women and Minorities and at the conference of the Canadian Teachers Federation. She has published editorials relating to her research in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and USA Today and has appeared on, among other programs, Nightline, Good Morning America, The Today Show, NPR's Fresh Air and Morning Edition and CBC's As It Happens. Visit her website .

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Abigail Thomas, author of A Three Dog Life published by Harcourt.

Abigail Thomas, the daughter of renowned science writer Lewis Thomas (The Lives of a Cell, etc.) is the mother of four children and the grandmother of twelve. Her academic education stopped when, pregnant with her oldest daughter, she was asked to leave Bryn Mawr during her first year.  She's lived most of her life on Manhattan's Upper West Side, and was for a time a book editor and for another time a book agent. Then she started writing for publication. A Three Dog Life is her fifth book; the most recent, Safekeeping, is also a memoir.

She teaches fiction writing in the graduate program at the New School and lives in Woodstock, New York.  Visit her website.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Susan Senator, author of Making Peace with Autism: One Family's Story of Struggle, Discovery, and Unexpected Gifts published by Trumpeter.

Susan Senator, is a mother of three, a writer, a speaker, and an advocate for children and the disabled. Her writing on autism has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Education Week, Teacher Magazine, and Exceptional Parent Magazine. She has been invited to the White House in connections with her writings about the Special Olympics. Visit her website.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Aimee Liu, MFA, author of Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders published by Warner Books.

Aimee Liu, MFA, wrote her first book, Solitaire, about her eating disorder in 1979, at age twenty-five.  Aimee is also a novelist. Flash House is a tale of suspense and Cold War intrigue set in Central Asia. Cloud Mountain is based on the true story of her American grandmother and Chinese revolutionary grandfather. Liu's first novel, Face deals with mixed-race identity. These books have been translated into more then a dozen languages.

Before turning to writing fulltime, Liu edited business and trade publications and worked as an associate producer for NBC's TODAY show. She has co-authored seven books on medical and psychological topics. Her articles, essays, and short stories have appeared in anthologies and periodicals such as Cosmopolitan, Self, Glamour, and Good Housekeeping.

Aimee  Liu was born in 1953 and raised in Connecticut. She received her B.A. from Yale University in 1975 and her MFA from Bennington College in 2006. She lives in Los Angeles with her family; teaches creative writing in Goodard College's MFA program and serves on the Advisory Board of the Academy for Eating Disorders. Visit her website.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Dr. Ronald L. Mallett, author of Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality  published by the Avalon Publishing Group.

Ronald L. Mallett, Ph.D. is a professor of physics at the University of Connecticut.  He received his BS in physics in 1969, MS in 1979 and Ph.D in pysics in 1973, all from the Pennsylvania State University. He has published many papers on black holes and relativistic cosmology in professional journals.  His time-travel research has been featured in an hour-long TV special on the Learning Channel, "The World's First Time Machine," as well as in publications as diverse as Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, Astronomy Magazine, and New Scientist.  Visit his webpage.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Karen Ely, author of Daring To Dream: Reflections on the Year I Found Myself.

In 2003 Karen Ely fulfilled a lifelong dream of creating a women's spiritual retreat program. Located in Sedona, Arizona, A Woman's Way is her latest project in a life filled with commitment to issues affecting women.

Through her 30 year non-profit career - from domestic violence and sexual assault to drug prevention and welfare-to-work. Karen has helped assist many women through difficult life transitions. It is her hope that A Woman's Way will benefit other women searching for a spiritual center and a path to find themselves. Visit her website.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Professor Sue William Silverman, author of Love Sick: One Woman's Journey through Sexual Addiction  published by W.W. Norton.

Sue William Silverman's first memoir, Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You (University of Georgia Press), won the Association of Writers and Writing Programs award series in creative nonfiction. Love Sick: One Woman's Journey Through Sexual Addiction (W.W. Norton) is her second memoir. Her books have been translated into German, Chinese, Japanese, and Norwegian. She teaches in the low-residency MFA in Writing progam at Vermont College.

As a professional speaker, she has appeared on many nationally syndicated radio and TV programs, including Anderson Cooper, 360 on CNN,  and Montel Williams. She is featured in the award-winning documentary Pursuit of Pleasure.  Visit her website.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Professor Sue William Silverman, author of Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You (University of Georgia Press)

Sue William Silverman's first memoir, Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You (University of Georgia Press), won the Association of Writers and Writing Programs award series in creative nonfiction. Love Sick: One Woman's Journey Through Sexual Addiction (W.W. Norton) is her second memoir. Her books have been translated into German, Chinese, Japanese, and Norwegian. She teaches in the low-residency MFA in Writing progam at Vermont College.

As a professional speaker, she has appeared on many nationally syndicated radio and TV programs, including Anderson Cooper, 360 on CNN,  and Montel Williams. She is featured in the award-winning documentary Pursuit of Pleasure.  Visit her website.

Share your comments on the book and interview on the Psychjourney Audio Book Club blog.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Professor Michele Weldon, author of I Closed My Eyes: Revelations of a Battered Woman published by Hazelden.

Nationally recognized as an advocate for women's issues and an authority on the power of writing, Michele Weldon has been an award-winning journalist for more then 25 years. She is an author, keynote speaker, and workshop owner as well as an assistant professor of Northwestern Universities' Medill School of Journalism, her alma mater, where she received both undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Her first book a creative nonfiction memoir, I Closed My Eyes, has been translated into seven languages and was featured with her second book on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2002.

Weldon's second book, Writing To Save Your Life has been translated into four languages and is used by therapists and medical professionals in the field of narrative therapy. She trademarked the term Scribotherapy and won the Chicago Women in Publishing 2002 Excellence Award in nonfiction for that book.

She has written for scores of major daily newspapers, such as the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Dallas Times Herald, New York Times, Newsday, and major magazines in publishing. Visit her website.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Mr. Daniel S.  Hanson, M.A., author of Room For J: A Family Struggles With Schizophrenia  published by Beavers Pond Press.

Daniel S. Hanson is an experienced leader, an author, and a teacher. For 30 years he held key executive postions with four Fortune 500 companies. His experiences as a leader inside corporate America promted him to write about creating and sustaining caring environments that bring out the best in people and the organization.  He is the author of A Place To Shine: Emerging From the Shadows at Work and Cultivating Common Ground: Releasing the Power of Relationships at Work.
Dan is currently a member of the faculty at Augsburg College where he teaches courses in Communication.

Dan and his wife Sue are also the parents of a son Joel who struggles with a severe mental illness.  It is this experience which promoted Dan to write Room For J: A Family Struggles With Schizophrenia.  Dan  and Sue are comitted to help other parents like them who struggle to care for someone who does not willingly accept their care.  Dan and Sue live on a small lake in Maple Grove, MN. Visit Dan's webpage and the NAMI website.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Mr. Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.

The son of Mexican immigrants, Luis J. Rodriquez began writing in his early teens and has won national recognition as a poet, journalist, fiction writer, children's book writer, and critic. Currently working as a peacemaker among gangs on a national and international level, Rodriguez helped create Tia Chucha's Cafe and Centro Cultural, a multiarts, multimedia cultural center in the Northeast San Fernando Valley in California.  Visit his website and blog.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Professor Nahid Rachlin, author of Persian Girls: A Memoir  published by Tarcher/Penguin.

Nahid Rachlin is the author of the critically acclaimed novels, Jumping Over Fire, Married to a Stranger, and The Heart's Desire, as well as a collection of short stories, Veils.  Currently an associate fellow at Yale, Rachlin teaches at the New School and the Unterberg Poetry Center in New York.  Visit her website.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Dr. Carolyn S. Spiro, M.D., co-author of Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia  published by St. Martin's Press.

This is part two of a two part interview.  Dr. Spiro's  twin sister and co-author, Pamela Spiro Wagner, was interviewed earlier about her life and the book.  Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizoprhenia won them the 2006  Literary Award from NAMI.   The book was also a finalist in the 2006 Connecticut Book Award.

Dr. Carolyn S. Spiro, M.D., is a psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of adults with anxiety and mood disorders (OCD, mood swings) as well as the diagnosis and treatment of neuropsychiatric Lyme disease. Dr. Spiro attended Harvard Medical School and completed a year of medical residency before she went into psychiatry at Harvard�s Mass. Mental Health Center. Completing the residency, she, her husband and new daughter moved to Connecticut. She was a unit chief and Asst. Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale Psychiatric Institute for three years until her son was born when she left the pressures of academia for private practice and more time with her children.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Pamela Spiro Wagner, co-author of Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizoprhenia, co-authored with her twin sister, Dr. Carlolyn Spiro, M.D.

Pamela Spiro Wagner is a prize-winning writer and poet who suffers from schizoprhenia. She has been writing about her illness for many years, most recently at WAGblog. Born in Tacoma Washington, one of a pair of identical twins, she grew up in North Haven Connecticut, went to high school in New Haven, and attended Brown University from 1970-1975, whence she graduated magna cum laude. She subsequently attended medical school for one and a half years, before being hospitalized for psychiatric care.  She never returned.

She did however, start to write, and despite more then 60 hospitalizations in the following years, she never stopped writing. Her prose and poetry have been published in Tikkun, Schizorphenia Bulletin, Trinity Review, The Connecticut Writer, LA Weekly, and the New York Times Sunday Magazine, among others.

She won the 1993  Mental Health Media Award; took second place in the 1997 Mental Illness Awareness Media Awards; first place in theTunxis Poetry Review twice, and First Place in the 2002 BBC World Service International poetry awards.

She lives in Wethersfield CT with her cat, Eemie. She is now recovering from schizophrenia after more than 35 years of chronic illness. Visit her blog.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Dr. Stephen Hinshaw, author of The Years of Silence are Past: My Father's Life with Bipolar Disorder published by Cambridge University Press.

Stephen Hinshaw, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. After receiving his B.A. from Harvard in 1974, summa cum laude, he directed day school and residential programs for children with developmental disabilities for three years. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from UCLA in 1983. He taught in the Psychology Department at UCLA from 1986-1990 and joined the Berkeley faculty in 1990.

Hinshaw has authored over 170 articles, chapters, and reviews on child psychopathology. His books include Attention Deficits and Hyperactivity Disorder, and The Mark of Shame: Stigma and Mental Illness and an Agenda for Change. Visit his website.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney interviews Ms. Molly Bruce Jacobs, author of Secret Girl: A Memoir.

Brucie Jacobs, born in Baltimore, Maryland, graduated from Cornell University where she studied Mandarin Chinese. After working for the National Council for Us-China Trade in Washington, D.C., she went on to receive a law degree from Columbia University, practiced law for several years, and then turned to writing full-time. Her essays and articles have appeared in Redbook, Baltimore Magazine, The Baltimore Sun, three of the books in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and other publications.  Her short stories have been published in numerous literary journals.

Brucie is also a painter. She works with encaustics-that is, painting from molten, pigmented beeswaz.  Her technique involves applying layer after layer of wax on rigid, wood panels, and fusing each layer with heat from a blow torch.  Visit her website www.mollybrucejacobs.com

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photo credit: Gary Adams

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Dr. Betty Jean  Lifton, author of Twice Born: Memoirs of an Adopted Daughter 
re-issued in September 2006 by Other Press.

Betty Jean Lifton, Ph.D., is an outspoken advocate for an open adoption system. A former member of the Ethics Committee of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, and a former board member of the American Adoption Congress, she believes that children should have the right to know the truth about their adoption and be allowed to get in touch with their birth parents if they choose to do so.  She should know, Lifton found her birth mother despite years of struggle.

She is now an adoption counselor with a practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New York.  She offers telephone counseling across the country. Visit her website.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney interviews Dr. Catherine McCall, author of Lifeguarding: A Memoir of Secrets, Swimming, and the South

Catherine McCall has done regular commentary for regional public radio and her writing has appeared in various publications including the New York Times, the Wilmington Star-News, and the North Carolina Literary Review.  A psychiatrist based in Wilmington, North Carolina, Caroline holds an M.F.A. in creative nonfiction from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

She graduated from Emory College (B.A. in Chemistry and Psychology) and its medical school. At Emory, she completed a residency in general psychiatry and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry, serving as chief resident in her final year. After all that schooling, she moved to the beach, started a private practice in psychiatry and stepped up her focus on writing. That focus eventually led her to do commentaries on public radio on to receive an MFA in creative nonfiction from UNCW. Her first book, Lifeguarding: A Memoir of Secrets, Swimming and the South
(Harmony Books, Random House, July 2006) was her MFA thesis.  Visit her website.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, author of Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir

Girls of Tender Age has been selected by the Washington Post and NPR's "Fresh Air" as their top nonfiction pick  for 2006 and one of the best books for 2006.

Mary-Ann Tirone Smith is also the novel of eight novels.  She has lived all her life in Connecticut expect for two years when she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Lee Montgomery, author of The Things Between Us: A Memoir

Lee Montgomery is the editorial director for Tin House Books and the executive editor for Tin House magazine. She was a fiction editor at the Iowa Review, the editor of the Santa Monica Review, and for the anthologies Absolute Disaster: Fiction From Los Angeles and Transactions: The Iowa Anthology of Innovative Fiction.  Her stories and non-fiction have appeared in numerous publications including Alaska Quarterly, Black Clock, and Denver Quarterly. Visit her website.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Adrienne Martini, author of Hillbilly Gothic: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood

Adrienne Martini has been a theatre technician, apprentice massage therapist, bookstore bookeeper and pizza joint waitress.  Eventually someone started paying her for her words and an editorial mercenary was born. She is a former editor for Knoxville, Tennessee's Metro Pulse and recently picked up an AAN award for feature writing. During the day, she fields freelance gigs and crams knowledge into the heads of college students in Upstate New York.  At all hours, she is mom to Maddy and Cory, and wife to Scott.  Visit her blog.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney interviews Mr. Victor Rivers author of  A Private Family Matter: A Memoir

In 1978, the Miami Herald dubbed Victor Rivas (AKA Victor Rivers) "The Longest Long Shot" when he became the first Cuban American to be out for two seasons with the Miami Dolphins. He had defied the odds by surviving a violent upbringing and by playing in the postion of offensive guard- usually reserved football players much larger than he was at the time.  Coming next to Hollywood in 1979, again as a long shot, he went on to attain starring roles in television, film and on stage.

Today Victor Rivers is a veteran star of more than two dozen films, with a worldwide following for such memorable roles as Magic Mike, the prision gang warlord in the cult hit BLOOD IN/BLOOD OUt and as Joaquin Murrietta, Antonio Bandera's ill-fated brother in THE MASK OF ZORRO.

In 1999 Victor became the national spokesperson for the National Network to End Domestic Violence.  Today having broken the cycle of violence, Victor Rivas Rivers is also a devoted husband and father- what he believes are his two most important roles.  Visit his website. 
Watch a video receiving the 21 Leaders for the 21st Century Award.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney  interviews Mr. Gene Cheek, author of The Color of Love: A Mother's Choice in the Jim Crow South

Mr. Gene Cheek describes himself as a blue-collar son of the South. He was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on March 2, 1951. He spent the first twelve years of his life living in various parts of Winston-Salem. He presently lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina Visit his website www.genecheek.com

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney interviews Dr.Louis Cozolino, the author of  The Making Of A Therapist, A Practical Guide For The Inner Journey published by Norton.

Dr. Cozolino has diverse clinical and research interests and holds degrees in philosophy and theology, in addition to his doctoral in clinical psychology. He has conducted emperical research in schizophrenia, child abuse, and the long-term impact of stress.  Recently, his interests have turned to a synthesis of the biobehavioral sciences and psychotherapy.  He is the author of The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy, as well as numerous articles and chapters on various topics.  He maintains a clinical and consulting practice in Los Angeles. Dr. Cozolino is a professor of psychology at Pepperdine University.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney interviews Mr. William Cope Moyers, author of  Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption

William C. Moyers, vice president of external affairs, at Hazelden carries the message about addiction and recovery into the public arena, especially to policy makers and civic groups across America.  He uses his own personal experiences to highlight the power of addiction and the power of recovery.

Before joining Hazelden in 1996, Moyers was an award-winning journalist for 15 years. He has worked at CNN, Newsday and various other newspapers across the country. In 1981, Moyers received his BA degree in journalism from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA.

Visit the Hazelden website and Moyer's website.

Garry Cooper, LCSW interviews award winning  poet Carol Hebald author of The Heart Too Long Suppressed: A Chronicle of Mental Illness 

After a lifetime of mental illness, marked by repeated suicide attempts and hospitalizations, and a parade of ineffectual psychiatrists, Hebald, at the age of 44, threw her prescribed drugs into the ocean and walked away from therapy. Since then, she has lived mostly free from madness, managing to earn her living as a writing teacher.   

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney interviews Andy Behrman author of Electroboy: A Memoir Of Mania

Electroboy is under development for a movie staring Tobey Maguire of "Spiderman."  Andy is working on a follow-up memoir to Electroboy.

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Dr. Tammie Bryam-Fowles interviews Ms. Lyca Shan, author of Fire Walker.

Firewalker is Shan's courageous story of her first hand experience with cult indoctrination. This book illustrates - in captivating detail - the horrors of growing up in a cruel environment of mind control and physical isolation. It is Shan's compelling account of falling victim to the cult mentality, and finding the inner strength to break free.

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Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney interviews Ms. Katy Hutchison, author of Walking After Midnight: One Woman's Journey Through Murder, Justice and Forgiveness

Katy Hutchison, a passionate advocate for restorative justice, is a professional speaker working with young people on topics of social responsibility. Her program, inspired by the event surrounding the murder of her husband, has reached more than 150,000 people across Canada and the United States.

Visit the Psychjourney Audio Book Club website.