Lifeslices with Steve Fisher

In 1938, a character was born that would endure to this very day, appearing in comic books, movies, TV and radio shows, video games, and one Broadway musical. That musical was “It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman.” And while 11 actors have played the role in TV, radio and film, only one wore the cape and tights on Broadway. That actor was Bob Holiday. Although Bob may not have been a househol...

More than 300 million people worldwide suffer from anxiety, a condition that can impair a person’s family, social, and school or working life. For years, mental health professionals have treated it with therapy and medications. But they don’t cure it. Daniel Packard, a mechanical engineer by training, claims he has developed a system that can do just that. He joins host Steve Fisher to explain how...

The Ojibwe people were mainly located in the Great Lakes region of Western New York, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and southern Quebec and Ontario. Like other indigenous peoples, they found themselves amidst the British and French settlers of the Americas. Over the decades and centuries since that time, they took to speaking the new pervasive languages and their language found itself becoming le...

One thing that unites humanity is everyone’s need for love. To find a partner in life. The advent of the Internet opened a whole bunch of ways to meet people. One aspect of Internet dating that has taken off in recent years is eastern women looking for western men. Monica Liu is a sociologist at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. Born in China, she moved to the US at the age of eight. She...

Humans are threatening the animal kingdom by taking over habitats, polluting our skies and waterways and fueling global warming, creating an extinction event not seen in more than 10 million years. There are more than 1 million species on the brink of disappearing right now. Thankfully, there are organizations working to save those species, and to collect the biological materials necessary to brin...

Western democracies are having a moment. And it’s not necessarily a good moment. People are questioning their leadership, their institutions, their systems of government. It’s at times like these where we need sane, rational and wise leaders. But they seem to be in short supply. History has shown us examples of the kinds of leaders we need and it takes someone who has observed, and worked with, th...

Many people regard cats as mysteries. Part of that is cats attached themselves to humans later in our evolutionary history than dogs, so we’re still trying to figure them out. One thing we do know is that they evolved from wild creatures to pets to our beloved fur babies. Dr. Jonathan Losos is an evolutionary biologist, herpetologist and professor at Washington University in St. Louis and joins ho...

Torbjorn Pedersen endeavored to visit every country in the world, spending at least 24 hours in each. And to make it more challenging, he decided to do it without flying. He left his native Denmark in October of 2013 and returned home in July of 2023, nearly a decade later. To say there were challenges would be putting it mildly.  

It’s known as the long goodbye. Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias rob a person of their humanity long before they shed their mortal coil. There’s no cure yet but recent medical advances give hope. The Alzheimer’s Association declares the “first survivor of Alzheimer’s is out there, giving optimism to those of us living with the sword of dementia hanging over our heads. But, in the meantime,...

What happened to the galaxy? It’s there. But if you live within 30 miles of a heavily populated area, chances are your view is hindered by light pollution. Vahé Peroomian is a USC professor and has been teaching physics and astronomy for over 25 years. He's also an avid photographer. He joins host Steve Fisher to talk about astro-tourism and photographing the night sky.  

Between books, the Internet and cable news, we’re overwhelmed by more information than ever before. But is that information reliable? How much is misinformation? Or worse, disinformation? Regardless of our philosophical or political leanings, any of us can be duped at any moment. Dr. Rakoen Maertens, a researcher at England’s Cambridge University, joins host Steve Fisher to talk about who's suscep...

D.C. Fontana was perhaps best known for her work on a number of Star Trek TV series and subsequent novels. Lynn Barker has been a journalist and writer for a number of TV shows. The two friends teamed up to produce a novel of King Arthur’s return to a future  post-apocalyptic world to help defeat a despotic regime. D.C. didn’t live to see the completion of the tale but Lynn and audio book narrator...

When her father died tragically in his early 50's, Laura Carney was devastated. Finding his bucket list, and taking it upon herself to complete it, gave her a new life.

When MacGyver ran on television, first for 7 years on ABC and then, rebooted, on CBS for 5, people of all ages and genders imagined what it would be like to be MacGyver. A new immersive stage experience, with songs, is giving those people a chance. MacGyver is not played by a professional performer, but by an audience volunteer. Series creator Lee David Zlotoff and composer/Lyricist talk about how...

It has the biggest growth of any sport in the last three years. It's not baseball or football or basketball. Not even tennis or golf. It's called Pickleball and despite the funny name, it's serious business. Roger BelAir has been teaching it on courts around the country. But it's in prisons where it might be having the greatest impact. 

The best characters in a movie or TV show are rarely the stars. It's often the character actors playing those idiosyncratic kooks or villains or comic best friends who steal the show. Podcaster Cullen Dixon focuses the spotlight on them in his new program What a Character!

As a follow up to our last episode about why we're not getting along, we offer two young politicians -- one a Democrat, the other Republican -- who have forged a partnership to get things done. And they're doing it. By starting with respect, friendship and a determination to find common ground.

Why cant' we agree on anything? Is it a recent phenomenon or have we been grappling with it since the dawn of humans? Law professor James Steiner-Dillon ponders those questions and more tackling why we're not Getting Along. On Lifeslices.

Imagine an atlas of roadmaps for aspects of life. It exists in the form of Septemics, a new philosophy to understand where you are in life and how to get to where you want to be. Jim Marshall spent 25 years developing it and joins Lifeslices to talk about his discovery.

When it comes to life in the universe, there's no question. Considering the vastness of space, there must be. The question is where and when will we find it ... and will it be sentient or basic one-cell creatures? Will it be friendly or hostile? Will they kill us or will we kill them? Okay, actually there are lots of questions. Dr. Amy Williams is one of those looking for answers.

What does it take to create a TV show? Writer René Balcer has done it several times on shows such as Law & Order: Criminal Intent and FBI: Most Wanted. He joins host Steve Fisher to share his expertise and experience.

No longer the thing of science fiction, thanks to CRISPR, genes can now be edited to remove disease and unwanted traits or to add more beneficial traits. But many of the advances are copyrighted by pharmaceutical companies that either charge millions for treatment or bury the code because of the lack of profit. Some scientists are trying to free up the biotech to democratize the technology. Health...

Mitchel Wu wasn't a big toy guy until he started shooting them. With a camera. Then, he created new meaning for the term "action figures."

People think doing voice-overs for advertising and TV shows is easy if you have a good voice. But there's much more to it than that. Jodi Gottlieb is a voice-over coach and helps actors to achieve what it takes for success.

Bobby Logan went from the mean streets of East L.A. to being a highly regarded comedy writer for some of the top names in show business. From there he took his talents to TV and the big screen and is now sharing his knowledge with the up and coming.