KUCI: Ask A Leader

PhD coach excerpt, alone, of yesterday's broadcast.

This is the extended portion of Briana Walker's interview. Thank you for having this listen.

In advance of her 10/20 workshop at UCI for PhD students, is Kimberly Duong, UCI School of Engineering graduate, now employed as a water agency civil engineer. She will return to the show to talk about her new calling as a PhD coach, assisting PhD students in: productivity, project management, procrastination, and anything else related. She can be followed in various ways at: https://itscoachkimbe...

Irvine, the largest city in California to have at-large city council members, is undertaking the process of amending the city charter to create distinct city council elections districts from which the candidates would run. The charter amendment would also add 2 seats to the City Council. Returning to the show for the larger share of the hour is demographer Justin Levitt, retained by Irvine’s City...

For the larger share of the show are two childhood friends, building something special together. Saara Dang of Sage Hill High School, and Rohan Soni of Orange County School of the Arts - are partners in creating the app dearme.mentalhealth a project that assists youth in managing the challenges of chronic illness and mental health. The app is a platform for anonymous journaling. In the second segm...

Returning to the show is Vic Gerami, editor and publisher of the Blunt Post, host and producer of the “Blunt Post with Vic” on Radio KPFK, and documentary filmmaker of the feature film “Motherland.” Given that the Republic of Artsakh is in greater tatters than when he last was on "Ask A Leader," given that the media is watching a little bit more closely the mud show at Burning Man, or Barbie - tha...

Dr. Terry LePage, research chemist, transitional minister, and hospice chaplain, brings her brand new book: "Eye of the Storm: Facing climate and social chaos with calm and courage." It is a profound manual, which covers novel as well as recognizable domains. Copies can be ordered at: https://opendoorcommunication.org/eye. NOTE: the correct email to reach Terry LePage directly is terry@opendoorcom...

Our guest for the full hour is Olya Yaloza, chocolatier originally from Lviv, Ukraine, now setting up life and her enterprise here in OC. The host first met her at the World Refugee Day earlier this summer. As she explained what it was like to produce some of the finest chocolates one could find anywhere in the world, and to have to uproot from providing that choicest of treats, giving up her pers...

Today's guests are in financial spaces then brain places. In the first segment, Doug Ressler manager and analyst at Yardi Matrix, explains how Irvine is such an expensive home ownership proposition, the first year costs considered. Then we’re off to the annual tradition of the UCI MIND leading edge science about Alzheimer’s Disease (approx. minute 31:00); UCI MIND'S director of education Megan Wit...

We’re not done with labor issues or Jan 6, oh no. That and more are under examination in the latest Citric Acid; An online Orange County Literary Arts Quarterly of Imagination and Reimagination, out this very month. Talking about that today for the full hour are our two guests: founding editor Andrew Tonkevich, and contributor Anthony Pignataro. All the latest delectable submissions are available...

In the thick of strike-mode is our first guest Ada Briceno, Co-President of UNITE-HERE Local 11, representing over 30,000 hotel workers, 60 hotels in Los Angeles County, Orange County and Arizona. In the second segment (approx. minute 29:00), Youssef Kaddeche, transportation commissioner for Irvine City Council member Kathleen Treseder, talks e-bikes in around town; the software and the hardware o...

Today's guests are theater people with The Wayward Artist and the South Coast Rep, with plays we can all see in the next couple of weeks right here in the OC. We’ll begin with Craig Tyrl, Artistic Director of The Wayward Artist to talk about "Avenue Q," which runs until this Sunday, July 30th at the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana. Details are available at: https://www.thewaywardartist.org/a...

Along the US Mexican Border is one particular segment; reflecting on the software and the hardware on that *space* is Ricardo Arana Camarena, the director of the food justice project “Cultiva ya!” and co-creator of the community garden project around the binational garden of native plants on the Mexican side of Friendship Park. It’s hot alright on planet earth; and conditions along that slice of t...

Dr. Goonesinghe had just a bit more to say about the daily gratitude journal practice.

Dr. Iresha Goonesinghe, specializing in Cardiology and Internal Medicine, with a former private practice in Ridgecrest, CA, speaks as CEO at Compassionate Doctors. With her remarkable blend of life-long individual practice of meditation and clinical grounding, Dr. Goonesinghe’s work has always been focused on root causes in medical situations. She previously launched a couple of blogs: PeoplePower...

This is an extension to Jackie's interview; two observations about the impact of civic engagement on policy and word choices for refugees.

Jackie Menter, founder and executive director of the Orange County Jewish Coalition for Refugees, picks up where we left on her last appearance on 6/13. She starts with what we were treated to on the June 20 World Refugee Day Open House held at the nearby Merage Jewish Community Center in their Holocaust Memorial Garden; then plot the complicated immigration infrastructure that is being restored i...

For the full hour are human rights activist and veteran journalist Colin Stewart - and writer, actor journalist Rob Salerno who cover the scope and background of the Anti-Homosexuality Law of 2023 adopted in Uganda May 30th this year after many years of proposals, and then draw actual connections from Orange County. An essential guide toward following trends and specific cases, offering useful too...

Today my guests are: Alexis Tutunnique and Elizaveta Gogidze, both principal dancers with the United Ukrainian Ballet Company, an assemblage of refugee dancers from all over Ukraine, who will perform at our Segerstrom Hall, 6/29-7/2nd, in Alexei Ratmansky’s version of the ghost story “Giselle, with surprising nuances and a hopeful ending in place of the usual bleak one. They’ve performed in the Ne...

We open with Melissa Saavedra Gill, founder and CEO of Steamy Lit, prior to the book convention (August 18-19) in Anaheim celebrating diversity in romance and the romance genre. Representation, relevance, and agency all are on the menu. In the second segment (minute approx. minute 35:23), Jackie Mentor with OC Jewish Coalition for Refugees will return in advance of her organization’s June 20 World...

Gloria Mark, UCI Professor of Informatics, gets the full hour to talk about her latest book "Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity." It’s published by Hanover Square Press. Luckily there’s a few people left with long enough attention spans to write about it, so we can have a little agency to regain, shore up the decline of this capacity, and achieve so...

For this 2023 Memorial Day edition, my guests return in these reprised interviews, with emphasis on prize. The first is a segment of my longer interview with Air Force veteran Don Fisher who served during WWII. In his later years, Don understood the value he had as a relic of that war period, considering his experience in training, serving, and surviving those years, so he began offering his stori...

Finally, Irvine, the largest city in California to have at-large city council members, is transitioning toward creating distinct city council districts from which the candidates would run. The City will also add 2 seats to the City Council. Our guide to this process for the full hour is demographer Justin Levitt, retained by Irvine’s City Council. He lays out the process under way, wherein the Cit...

This is a continuation of Mark and A.J.'s discussion of nuclear power, including an industrial application of a closed loop system.

Taking the heat down a few notches are today’s guests: Mark Nelson, engineer and founder and managing director of Radiant Energy Group; and A. J. Shaka, UCI chemistry professor and director of the UCI Nuclear Reactor Facility. We go local and zoom out to international cases with their consideration of the viability of nuclear power in the energy mix, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gases over...