Life 2.0

Albert Einstein is the gold standard when it comes to being a genius. Is it possible that each of us has an "inner Albert" that remains dormant until something comes along and shakes us up and wakes us up to the possibilities life has to offer? Kenn Hundley (younger brother of the legendary Chicago Cubs catcher Randy Hundley) has had an interesting path to say the least, and he shares the concept...

Last Monday, I was able to virtually attend a service for my friend, the late Hal Thau, in Aspen, a man who made a difference in my life on many levels. Just two days later, the iconic Dr. Jane Goodall passed away, and I went on a search to find all of the audio I had from our conversations over the years. Hearing Dr. Jane's voice now reminded me that the lessons learned from both of these two lif...

Cynthia Jamison had an executive career as a crisis CFO before ascending to become a member of, and eventually Chair, of several public company Boards of Directors. She is a frequent keynote speaker on CFO and boardroom topics. She has been quoted as a financial/economic expert in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, CFO.com, Agenda, Corporate Board Member, and the Economist. She was also a...

There's a lotta turmoil in the land of the free these days. Talk show hosts getting suspended, millions of Disney subscribers dumping Dumbo, protesters battling ICE, the Tylenol debate, The Rapture (it was either yesterday or later today), and now comes the Windy City shattering news that the CEO of Portillo's has made an abrupt exit, amid "sluggish sales." Wait, what? Sluggish sales? Portillos? ...

Early this morning, I was checking out the last vestiges of veggies, and came across the last tomato of the season. It's that time of the year again, as the garden has gone through its life cycle. Bittersweet, for sure, as I'll have to wait until next season to watch the miracle of growth, with the elements of sun, dirt, and water doing their thing. Impossible for me not to draw parallels to my ow...

Millions of viewers know Bill Kurtis from his work on A&E, CBS News, and his many documentaries. In his recently released memoir, Kurtis brings us into some of the most iconic moments of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. He was in the streets during the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago; he uncovered the truth about the deadly effects of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War...

Joe "Animal" Laurinaitis, along with the late Mike "Hawk" Hegstrand, were known as "The Road Warriors," the greatest tag team in the history of pro wrestling. Joe passed away in 2020, and on September 12th, he would have celebrated his 65th birthday. I reached out to his daughter, Jessica, to celebrate his life, not just as one half of the best tag-team in the history of the sport, but more import...

Yeah, I know, it seems like a year (or a week) ago CCC (Cracker Barrel Chaos) was all over the headlines. The news cycle has gone on to chew on other fodder, like the looming threat of Chagas Disease caused by kissing bugs, but a recent road trip put me smack dab in CBC (Cracker Barrel Country), and I had to stop, not once but twice (within an hour) to feast on chicken covered with sawmill gravy a...

Since 1979, John Berry has recorded more than 20 studio albums, including one platinum album and two gold albums. In his career, Berry has also charted 19 songs on Billboard Hot Country Songs, including the Number One single "Your Love Amazes Me" in 1994. A Country Weekly article said of Berry, "John's greatest strength is his pure, soulful tenor," and The Entertainment Nexus described him as "one...

31 years ago this very weekend, I stood on the stage of the Aspen Music Tent for my first "public" speaking event at the Windstar Ninth Annual "Choices for the Future" Symposium by John Denver's invitation. From that point on, my life took a serious turn in ways I could never have predicted, and while discussing the "ripple effect" concept last night at dinner with two of my guys, I was transporte...

The only hero I've ever known, my cousin Richard C. Hoffman, passed away last week. My life is filled with countless memories of Rich and his pivotal role in our family on so many levels. A highly decorated Marine Corps Sergeant, he served two tours in Vietnam, and eventually Agent Orange would wreak havoc on his body. While he wasn't KIA like so many of his friends in 'Nam, he is very much a casu...

As I prepare to send out a few autographed copies of "Living an Uncommon Life," I realized that I haven't gone through the list of the 21 extraordinary people who are featured in quite some time. So, rolling back the years a bit, with a crib note review of the lessons I learned, and the people who made it all possible to become a perpetual best-seller. 

Against a background of construction noise, it's another attempt to find the obvious buried in the absurd and dispense common sense during uncommon times. It's a trip back to 1937 and the classic "Lost Horizon" via an article by Alan Cohen, who points out the fact that the tone and tenor of life 88 years ago was of doom, gloom, greed, despair, and "end of the world" kinda stuff. You know, like tod...

Capt. James Lovell (USN-Ret.) passed away a couple of days ago at the age of 97. He was one of the early space heroes for millions of people, as we boldly went where no one had gone before-to the moon. He was the commander of Apollo 13, who helped turn a failed moon mission into a triumph of on-the-fly can-do engineering and was made famous by the film of the same name, with Tom Hanks as Jim Lovel...

I've been ignoring the onslaught of AI B.S. for the past few weeks but can longer sit silent as images of Tom Brady attending Ryne Sandberg's funeral (he didn't) Jerry Kramer being honored with a statue outside of Lambeau Field (he wasn't) or Vince Gill sobbing on stage with Joe Walsh (neither of them did) came into my line of sight over and over again. The tipping point is when the AI-generated i...

Renita D. Young is a force of nature and a formidable voice in the media. In this episode, she teams up with her sister, Rhonda Williams, with practical wisdom on how to navigate the turbulent waters during a job loss and the importance of not confusing who you are as a person with what you do for a living in their new book, "Now What? The Ultimate Job Loss Toolkit." When Longfellow said, "The hum...

The anticipation of reconnecting with guys I played college football with back when Gerald Ford was POTUS was off the charts. However, in mere moments, one-half century melted away, and all of us were back in the huddle again, ready to strap it up one more time. But, for me, the lessons of football didn't end when the final whistle blew; in some way, they were just beginning. There are great paral...

They say that death comes in threes, and the past few days, we've said goodbye to Ozzy Osborne, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and Hulk Hogan. But those are only the names we know. The average life expectancy is 78.5 years, which is just 28,652 days to find out why you showed up on the planet in the first place. The truth is that 3,500 people die every day in America, and one million around the world per w...

110 years ago today, July 24th, 1915, The Eastland was bound for a day trip across Lake Michigan filled with employees of The Western Electric Company. Over 2,500 people boarded the boat, docked on the Chicago River, and less than an hour later,  844 men, women, children, and crew were killed in what was the largest loss of life from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes. So, how is it possible th...

When Sally McQuillen's twenty-one-year-old son died in a boat accident, her greatest fear was realized. Christopher was often drawn to risk and struggled with addiction. In this riveting memoir, Sally captures the wild ride of his jam-packed life and her deep love for him while reflecting on her own childhood and her family’s legacy of alcoholism.  A powerful conversation with an incredible author...

This episode only exists because of a loss. John Keith, one of the most erudite, eclectic, and impressive guys I've ever known and worked with in radio, passed away in May. My first call was to my radio right arm, Katherine Kelly Murphy, with the news about our friend, and that led to a conversation about putting together a reunion in John's memory with some of the original crew that built Oprah R...

40 years ago today, on June 29th, 1985, John Denver held the first of eleven public concerts in the former Soviet Union. The cultural agreement between the USA and the USSR had lapsed in 1980 after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and Denver, the world-renowned singer/songwriter and humanitarian, used his formidable international presence to build the first bridge between the two countries, thus...

At zero dark-thirty this morning, the boomerang of grief hit me right between the eyes. My brother from another mother-Bruce Hardwick-passed away on June 1st, and for whatever reason, today it was time for me to share a few thoughts about this incredible man. I've known some great people in my time, but none greater than Muk-Ta-The' (Black Striped Wolf), who is the man that held my hand (literally...

In 1975, JAWS was released into 450 theaters, creating the first summer blockbuster and effectively changing the way humans related to open water. I was just 16 years old, and while I had read an excerpt of JAWS in Reader's Digest before it became a best seller, I knew something was up when a friend of mine came back after watching the movie with..."I'll never swim in the ocean again."   I've grab...

I wasn't actually going to do a podcast today, and then I started getting text messages asking where the podcast was on a Saturday. Well, all the puzzle pieces fell together for a Father's Day episode, and some great memories and lessons of Poppa John, who was a banker by profession, Count Dracula during Halloween, a Friday night bowler, and above all, my dad.