Lives Radio Show & Podcast with Stuart Chittenden

Certified retirement coach and business consultant, Dr. Ginny Curley, as the seventh of eight children, learned early how relationships, and their loss, shape our lives — insights deepened through decades of study and personal experiences in surviving a near-fatal heart attack and cancer. Today, as a certified retirement coach and consultant to family-owned businesses, Curley brings wisdom to ques...

Dr Lucas Schulte, Director of Education and Outreach at Tri-Faith , was raised on a Nebraska farm, tutored in college and divinity schools, seasoned on archaeological digs, and blends grit and thoughtful reflection. As well as deep religious scholarship, he has spent decades asking how people of different faiths live well together. We talk about all that in the show, as well as Indiana-Jones momen...

Veteran and fundraising professional Kenley Sturdivant-Wilson traces a journey from a childhood in Thailand to a small Arkansas delta town, and from profound loss to a life of service. His story blends tragedy with resilience and weaves a diverse cultural heritage. What emerges is a life committed to equity, hope, and belonging. Sturdivant-Wilson’s life bridges cultures, tragedy, and service. Born...

Wellness entrepreneur Glenisha Nelson has faced obstacles in life, including a difficult childhood environment, becoming a teenage mom, and people that doubted her, but through talent, determination, and faith, she built her vision, creating The G Spot Spa & Wellness as a place for healing, balance, and community. Nelson shares her journey of strength, entrepreneurship, and purpose. Nelson, a...

Entomologist Doctor Jody Green takes us from her roundabout path into entomology to her current role as a science communicator and extension educator. With warmth, humor, and a no-nonsense style, Dr. Green talks about changing perceptions of the buzzing, crawling world around us and the surprising insights and life lessons she’s found through both bugs and people. Dr. Green is a Board‑Certified en...

Cartoon artist and comic book author Caitlin Cass creates comics about failing systems, strange historical narratives, and irrational hope. From mail-order zines to Eisner Award winning graphic histories, she crafts stories that are sharp, strange, and full of heart. Hear how ghosts, humor, and historical research fuel her singular artistic world. Cartoonist and illustrator Caitlin Cass uses comic...

Conversation with architect and sustainability consultant Stuart Shell for whom built environments are not just physical spaces—they are reflections of what we value and how we relate to one another. Who gets comfort, who gets beauty, who - and what - gets left out? Shell invites us along with him to consider the built world as our collective lived and moral landscape. Stuart Shell is an architect...

Brandy Wallar, President and CEO of New Visions Homeless Services , grew up in poverty and was raised lovingly by a mother trying to escape domestic violence with four kids and nowhere to go. Now Wallar leads one of the region’s most impactful homelessness organizations, turning lived experience into bold, compassionate leadership. In the show, Wallar shares powerful personal stories, ex...

Political activist and community organizer Joyce Vondrasek shares a deeply personal journey—from coming out in a conservative religious family to becoming a vibrant voice for democratic socialism in Nebraska. Influenced by the moral clarity of the Scout Law and Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail , Vondrasek reflects on civil disobedience, political activism, and hope through action. Vondrase...

Filmmaker, colorist and digital image technician Cody Jones , who takes us behind the scenes of a memorable shoot with the late Pope Francis. Jones shares not just the craft and technicalities of color and image in movies, but the deeper human connections that power his creative work across the globe, and how meaning and purpose for him are rooted in gratitude, collaboration, and making people fee...

Sisters Heather and Jessica Hottman, performing as The Hottman Sisters , share their evolving story of music, identity, and reconnection. After years apart pursuing individual paths—one to acting in New York, the other navigating life in the West—they reunite with their sister Tiffany to create the vibrant new EP titled "Human Form." Our conversation is a moving look at how creativity, distance, a...

Award-winning author Anna Monardo shares how her Italian-American heritage, family history, and exploration of memory, place, love, and belonging shape her writing. We talk about identity, gender, and the power of reimagining one’s life through story. From Italy to Pittsburgh to Omaha, fiction and memoir, Monardo traces the emotional geography of the immigrant heart. Anna Monardo was born in Pitts...

Dr. Andrea Grover, Associate Professor in Information Systems & Quantitative Analysis at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, discusses their journey from a childhood love of learning to an academic career focused on the intersection of technology, nature, and public participation in science. They explored how citizen science enables everyday people to contribute to meaningful research and our...

AB Gorham, artist, poet, and Assistant Professor of Book Arts and Papermaking at the University of Nebraska at Omaha . In the show Gorham talks about the tactile and transformative nature of book arts, where a choreography of sculpture, language, and paper come together in experiential forms. She shares how her creative process is driven by intuition, the discipline of daily practice, and even her...

Matthew Henkes is the Vice President of Grants and Initiatives at the Iowa West Foundation. He talks about a life spent exploring the tensions between human connection and achievement. Raised in California, Henkes studied and worked across the world on various philanthropic and community aid projects. He then made the choice to move to Council Bluffs to work on supporting others in making a positi...

Mike Battershell, President and CEO of Bergman Incentives , talks about growing up a punk kid in a cowboy town; his efforts to make Omaha better as a community trouble-making do-gooder, and the evolution of that spirit to better the world now through the lens of building his business as a self-described capitalist and socialist. Bergman Incentives a provider of promotional products and branding so...

Mental health counselor and community activist, Elaine Wells, talks about her work as a counselor - helping couples find relationship harmony - and what drew her to that field. Wells also shares her evolution from being raised in a conservative Southern Baptist faith to Unitarian Universalism and how that religion of love and humanism aligns with her values and a calling to community activism. Ela...

The Reverend Kevin Jagoe, minister to BuxMont Unitarian Universalist Fellowship , shares his journey from small-town Minnesota to Unitarian Universalist ministry, weaving together life as a gay man, humanism, and a call to serve. He reflects on religion, purpose, and - in a changing spiritual landscape - what it means to lead with love. The Reverend Kevin W. Jagoe was born and raised in small...

Poet Steve Langan talks about his poetic craft and his new poetry book, Bedtime Stories, with themes of death and desire, faith and healing. Langan also reads some of his poems for us and shares how art and poetry in his life have yielded new emotional knowledge. Steve Langan has a background in creative writing and public health. His most recent poetry collection “Bedtime Stories” follows on his...

Environmental consultant and biologist Barbi Hayes talks about a passion for the natural world that encouraged her as a nontraditional student to study biology and later to start her own environmental and research consultancy. Revealing a zest for life, Hayes shares her advocacy for changing our attitudes to nature and how we live with and within it. Barbi Hayes earned her degree in biology from t...

Author Teresa Carmody's work is creatively formed as autofiction, playfully structured by procedure and constraint. Wielding language to create space for change, Carmody explores her life experiences, including spirituality, gossip, queer relations, friendship, and much more, re-emerging into a fresh understanding of herself. Carmody also reads excerpts from her work. Carmody is the award-win...

Venture capital investor and retired executive, Doug Wilwerding, talks about the example set by his entrepreneurial father, finding his own way into effective leadership, and the lessons he learned in business and life. Wilwerding also shares the evolution of his personal values and perspective on the American Dream. Doug Wilwerding’s business career spanned from the 1980’s through 2020. Following...

Raúl Arcos Hawkins, a community leader in Grand Island, Nebraska, explores the American Dream from his perspective. Hawkins talks about his journey as a child from Mexico to Nebraska, his professional and personal contributions to his community, and the uncertainty faced by him and other DACA recipients across the country. Hawkins is the Executive Director of the nonprofit organization, Multicultu...

Research scientist and conservation geneticist Cynthia Frasier talks about her early natural world experiences in New Jersey, her pursuit of a career in science, and her work and life in Madagascar and now in the Midwest. Dr. Cynthia Frasier has a long-standing interest in wild places and habitat conservation and is particularly motivated to foster a balance between wildlife and people. Frasi...

Chef Cedric Fichepain talks about the origins of his passion for cuisine and combining the role of chef with the role of restaurateur, founding Le Voltaire French restaurant more than twenty years ago. Fichepain also shares his perspectives on being an immigrant and his position as Honorary Consul for France for the State of Nebraska. Cedric Fichepain is a chef and founder of Le Voltaire French re...