Lives Radio Show & Podcast with Stuart Chittenden

“Strength rock” musician and lawyer Stephen Pedersen shares the evolution of his musical life, with the bands Cursive , Criteria , and many others, and we’ll hear a few of Criteria’s songs to illustrate his musical style and ethos. Pedersen also talks about his career as an attorney and balancing his two life vocations of law and music. Stephen J. Pedersen is the Chief Legal Officer of Medical Sol...

Author, indigenous leader, and business professor Taylor Keen discusses his new book “Rediscovering Turtle Island: A First Peoples’ Account of the Sacred Geography of America” which presents an indigenous lens on history and creation myths. Keen also discusses his own “living red” transformation and evolution of purpose. A Cherokee Nation citizen, Keen carries the name “Bison Mane” of the Earthen...

Author Uche Okonkwo reads from and talks about her debut book “A Kind of Madness,” a collection of short stories set in Nigeria that explore the intricacies of human relationships and desires, our flawed thinking, religious and cultural norms, and the erosion of childhood innocence. Okonkwo also shares her own growth as an author and as a person. Uche Okonkwo is a writer whose stories have been pu...

Alexander Cayetano, formerly a Benedictine monk and now the senior director of Leadership Development with the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, talks about living life at crossroads, influenced by Cayetano’s Filipino heritage, the appeal of liturgy, coming to Nebraska, and their call to a community-minded monastic life. We talk also about Cayetano exiting the monastery to marry their same sex pa...

Tim Burke, the retired President & Chief Executive Officer of Omaha Public Power District , talks about his journey into leadership and the values he modeled, especially in the realm of diversity, equity and inclusion and the importance of DEI to our community, our organizations, and to Burke personally. Burke also shares why a guitar was a feature of his CEO office! In 1997 Timothy Burke join...

Ariel Panowicz , photographer and founder of Luli Creative House , talks about crafting her own photographic aesthetic, her inspirations, and her professional growth. Panowicz also talks about opening Luli Creative House, the magic she creates with her clients and for the community, and the joys of color and image. Ariel Panowicz has built her career on her love for uplifting others through her im...

A listen back to a show from 2017 on the theme of Quiet. My guests in that two-part conversation were Orenda Fink, a musician, writer, and Jungian Depth Coach, and the Benedictine monk, Brother James Dowd. In the second part of the show we’ll hear from Orenda Fink on her music and career, dream analysis, and how a health condition requiring the quiet of complete voice...

Laura Roccaforte, an organizational development consultant and leadership coach, talks about her many decades working globally to develop individuals and leadership teams and her passion for helping people create environments that are authentic, supportive and inclusive. We also talk about the recent death of her husband from the neurodegenerative disease ALS, what she experienced, and what comes...

Conservation biologist and science writer Conor Gearin talks about the science and the wonders of the natural world, especially how birds may connect us with the joy of nature, and how we humans may live sustainably with the wildlife around us. Gearin also talks about uniting his passion for writing with the science of the natural world as a way for us to see more completely and more strangely. Co...

Poet Carolina Hotchandani talks about themes of identity, belonging, and loss in her debut poetry collection, The Book Eaters , as she explores her own lived experiences as a new mother, a daughter whose father is in cognitive decline, and a woman of mixed global heritage as well as the power of language to make and unmake us. Hotchandani also reads some of her poems. Carolina Hotchandani&nbs...

Autumn Pruitt is the founder of Hardy Coffee Co . We talk about the vision Pruitt has for Hardy Coffee as a source of rhythm and ritual in people’s lives. She shares her entrepreneurial journey, the lessons and experiences encountered on the way, and how, like the business, she has grown to meet that aspiration. Autumn Pruitt and her husband moved back to Omaha and started a small bakery in 2010....

In conversation with actor, writer, and secular chaplain, Elizabeth Morton. With Mass as her earliest performative expression, Morton talk about her twin vocations of acting and chaplaincy, and their similar characteristics, such as curiosity, deep listening, and personal surrender. Morton shares what people are seeking from her ministry and spiritual direction, and how her non-dogmatic chaplaincy...

Writer, air force veteran, and stroke survivor, Tamsen Butler talks about her life-threatening stroke in 2015, about her life before and her life after it, and the lessons she has learned about herself, authenticity, and how she chooses to show up in the world. Born and raised in Southern California, Butler has lived in the Omaha area for two decades. An award-winning author and Air Force veteran,...

Architect and designer Tom Trenolone talks about design, our built environments, and beauty, including the beauty Trenolone creates and finds in and around Omaha. Trenolone also talks about founding design alliance Omaha aimed at elevating design awareness and appreciation. Tom Trenolone is an architect and design advocate with the international architecture and engineering firm of HDR , where he...

Writer and performer Zedeka Poindexter shares her passion for community and stories, and talks about her poems, essays, and performances that draw on complexities of race, class, struggle, and joy. Poindexter shares how that creative expression now is, in the form of a choreopoem, unearthing the lived experience of healthcare disparities encountered by black women. She also reads a couple of poems...

Author and coach Mandy Kubicek talks about her book I Killed Mom and Other Lies: A Memoir of Early Loss , which recounts the lifelong effects of trauma, repressed emotions, and shame. Kubicek talks about the deaths of her mother and brother, coming to terms with these losses, and eventually finding peace and joy. Mandy Kubicek helps online entrepreneurs achieve greater success. Before that she coa...

Sculptor Littleton Alston shares his personal and creative journey from a poor neighborhood in Washington D.C. to the creation of a portrait statue of Willa Cather unveiled in 2023 as one of Nebraska’s two contributions to the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. Capitol Building and the first in that collection made by an African-American. Littleton Alston creates works of art that focus...

Attorney, author, and military veteran John Waters shares the influences of his early life before enlisting in the marines. We talk also about the themes in his debut novel, River City One, including the dislocation felt by some combat troops returning to civilian lives and that effort to discern meaning. John Waters graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and was commissioned as a second lieut...

Matthew Ray, Interim Superintendent of Omaha Public Schools, whose years with the district have encompassed teaching, administrative, and leadership roles, as well as being a student and parent of students. Ray talks about education, leadership lessons, faith, and his hopes for the future. After 27 years with the Omaha Public Schools district, Matthew Ray began serving as the interim superintenden...

Returning guest, Father Keith Winton, talks about Christmas past and present. Why December 25th? What were the religious origins and evolution of this holiday celebration? What are some fascinating backstories to the creation of some favorite carols? Who saved Christmas and who is its Queen? All that and more in this Christmas Eve show. Before his ordination to the priesthood in 2019 and then beco...

Carole Boye, the CEO of Community Alliance, which serves those living with mental illness and substance use disorders, talks about changes in how mental illness is treated and how it is talked about publicly, as well as her tenure over more than four decades as a leader called to a purpose worth roaring about. Carole Boye has served as president and CEO of Community Alliance for 42 years. As the f...

Designer and business founder, Elizebeth Murphy, whose curiosity and fascination with design motivated her in 1992 to found her own communications agency, Emspace Group, which became Emspace + Lovgren in 2018, shares her design spirit, zest for community life, and lessons learned over her more than three decades as a business leader.

Wendy Goldberg, executive director of Tri-Faith Initiative , talks about her professional experiences and faith journey that brought her to lead Tri-Faith Initiative, which she describes as an audacious experiment in peaceful proximity for three Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faith communities. Goldberg shares the building and modeling of positive communal relations and how they are even more impor...

Engineer and artist Andrew Johnson talks about his engineering work and his artistic practice, blurring the lines between both, at the intersection of engineering’s crisp mathematics and physical materiality, and art, with its unbounded possibilities, creative expression, and playfulness. Johnson is an artist and engineer born and raised in Nebraska. He received an MAE degree in structur...

Poet Todd Robinson talks about investigating life through poetry, the everyday awkwardness, yearnings, loss, and triumphs explored in his intimate books of poetic praise Note at Heart Rock and Mass for Shut-ins, revealing why one reviewer described him as a “veritable Neruda of Nebraska.” Robinson shares the experiences that have shaped his life and writing, and will read for us some of his poems....