Life 2.0

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.

Many years ago, when I was still bulletproof and could bench press a small car, I worked as a bouncer on the weekends at a local bar. The first lesson the owner gave me was that I should never argue with drunks or idiots- usually the same thing- because the second you do, they win. In the times we live in now, arguing with dimwits, nitwits and halfwits who are drunk with an inflated political sens...

Hitting the gym for the past 50 years has taught me a lot of lessons and given me some incredible insights into human nature, as a core sampling of society is always on display. I'm indebted to my grandfather Karl (pictured here) for passing along the "Discipline of Iron" and the reminder that no pain means no gain, be it on the bench press or in life. 

I had another episode planned for today, but that "still, small voice" nudged me to take a different route, and I'm glad I listened. I was led to one of my favorite writers and authors, Tom Hanratty, and specifically to his book Master Bao Stories. In this story, the lesson of perspective is revealed as Master Bao and his pupil Ping meet two men, who have very different experiences while traveling...

Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday for honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the armed forces. It is a day for visiting cemeteries and memorials to mourn the military personnel who died in the line of duty.  There's nothing happy about it. Like many things, it's been hijacked by retailers as another way to sell mattresses, t...

We are swamped moment by moment by information we have zero control over, but that info often takes control of us. Since what you focus on expands, you have to mind your focus (and focus your mind) just to make sure you don't lose the power of perspective. There is a great exercise by my old friend, the late, great Wayne Dyer, that can assist you in not majoring in minor things. A little musical i...

It's one of those days when I suddenly realized that my level was off and the "bubble" that is supposed to be in the middle wasn't. So, I stopped what I was "doing" and took a few minutes to just "be." Amazing what happens when you take a few minutes to lie down on the grass and do some cloud gazing in the middle of the day. 

This episode was created from a conversation with a kid I grew up with, who shared a story of a friend of his, whose mom drove him and a few of his friends to Woodstock when they were just teenagers. That "mom moment" gave me the idea to add a couple more voices. It's Mother's Day memories from Candace Jordan, Chris Joyce, and Mandy Jankus, as well as a few memories of my mom, Carol, who passed aw...

Longfellow once said, "The human voice is the organ of the soul." After attending a live event last week celebrating one of the podcasts I produce, I started thinking about all the voices I have had the opportunity to spend time with over the years, broadcasting. This episode is a montage of some of my favorites, including Ed McMahon, Royce Elliott, Ron Santo, Trudy Gronning, Dale Thomas, Bill Kur...

50 years ago today, on 30 April 1975, the Vietnam War came to a shuddering, chaotic end with the Fall of Saigon. The official war years are listed as 1954-1975, in which 58,148 US soldiers gave their lives. While the war might have ended on paper, for many veterans like my cousin Rich "The Sarge" Hoffman, it has been an ongoing battle. I pulled up a conversation that I had with Rich in 2018, and w...

This past week, the world lost two larger-than-life men. On the day after Easter, Pope Francis took his permanent leave of absence from the Vatican at the age of 89. Two days later, Steve "Mongo" McMichael, the Hall of Fame Chicago Bear, passed away at the age of 67 from ALS. Both men came from different camps, and while exact opposites in many ways, had one very important thing in common, and it'...

That little blue marble hanging in space is the only home we have. The message is clear and simple, as Chief Seattle said, "Contaminate your bed, one night you will suffocate in your own waste." While the environmental challenges at times seem overwhelming, there is one thing you can do to make a world of difference. A little help from Bill Kurtis and John Denver on this one.

On this day before Easter, as many are waiting for the Easter remembrance of the resurrection, it came to me that there have been many times in my life that I had to resurrect myself from something that had died off, be it physically, spiritually, emotionally, or even financially.  The lessons of resurrection are many and often lost in the endless erosion of life. So, it's important to look back o...

I happened across one of those Tesla Cyber-Trucks yesterday, and just a few hours later was listening to a conversation with my late, great friend Hillary Raimo, who spent a week at Tesla. No, not the Elon Musk EV factory, but rather the rooms that one of the greatest inventors-Nikola Tesla-lived in the last years of his life. Hillary's stay revealed the three secrets of the universe...that are av...

Chicago Cubs manager Leo Durocher once said, "Baseball is like church. Many attend, but few understand." Well, one guy who totally understands is best-selling author and media presence Rick Kaempfer. Rick's just cranked out the updated 7th edition of " Every Cub Ever " a book about every single player who ever played for the Chicago Cubs between the beginning of the 1871 season and the end of the...

The Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deep-water, semi-submersible drilling rig owned by Transocean and operated by the BP oil company. On 20 April 2010, while drilling in the Gulf of Mexico at the a blowout caused an explosion on the rig that killed 11 crewmen and ignited a fireball visible from 40 miles away. The fire was inextinguishable, and two days later, on April 22, the Horizon collapsed, lea...

There is no question that we are once again living in uncertain times... the key words are "once again." There has never been a time when things are ...certain...and history gives us this lesson over and over again. So, let's take a deep dive back to 1968, when the world was on fire, assassinations were making headlines, the Vietnam war raged on, civil rights marchers filled the streets in protest...

It's another zero dark thirty-type podcast, as I am up one more time before the crack o' dawn. In the turbulent times we live in, it's important to ensure you have anchors that will keep you steadfast and not swept away by the incessant headlines you can do nothing about except getting bent out of shape over. One of mine is hanging out later today and bending elbows with some guys I played footbal...