Ready Living Podcast

In 2019, Catherine Bass’s husband died in an accident, leaving her to raise their two children on her own. In this Ready Living Podcast episode, she shares what it means to rebuild one’s identity and life after widowhood. She talks candidly about the shock of those early days and the cost of burying grief rather than facing it, a pattern she'd learned decades earlier after losing three young nephe...

Attorney Sam Imperati is a full-time mediator and Executive Director of ICM Resolutions who has spent decades helping individuals, businesses, and institutions find their way out of conflict without the punishing costs of traditional litigation, bringing a multidisciplinary background to some of the most entrenched disputes imaginable. He's critical of American culture’s deeply ingrained litigatio...

In 2024, around 44,000 people died of gun-related injuries in the United States, which includes both homicides and suicides. Spencer Cantrell , JD, co-lead of the National ERPO Resource Center at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions within Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, is working to reduce that number. In this Ready Living Podcast episode, she explains how extreme...

Born in Madagascar, Liva RJ's early years were marked by tragedy, instability, and frequent moves between countries, languages, and socioeconomic realities. Hypervigilance became a way to survive and adapt. Later, her career took her inside some of the world's most influential institutions, from working as a journalist at Bloomberg and the Financial Times to sitting down with leaders at the World...

Is the law doing enough to keep pace with the internet and technology? Attorney and political columnist Bennet Kelley, founder of the Internet Law Center , has seen what happens when tech moves fast but the legal system moves slowly. In this Ready Living Podcast episode, he talks about a wide range of issues, from the shielding of online platforms from legal liability, the absence of a federal ant...

People are feeling a lot of stress and insecurity around work these days, says award-winning workplace mental health expert Ken Dolan-Del Vecchio , and it's fundamentally because too often they’re treated not as valued members of an organization in their own right, but merely as something from which to extract productivity. With 30 years of experience, including nearly two decades overseeing behav...

How embedded is Christian nationalism in American politics and culture? In this Ready Living Podcast episode, Robert P. Jones, PhD , founder and president of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), explains where Christian nationalism is most concentrated and what it means for American democracy. The numbers are striking. Drawing on PRRI's landmark study based on more than 22,000 interviews acr...

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, veterinarian and animal death doula Dr. Ken Gorczyca talks about the profound work of helping families honor, release, and grieve their beloved animal companions with intention, ritual, and love. As the founder of A Beloved Farewell , a mobile in-home end-of-life care practice, he weaves together medical expertise, spiritual practice, and heartfelt storytellin...

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, internationally renowned facial profiler and body language expert Joseph McGuire argues that communication is far more complex than language alone. He reveals how noticing tiny signals can help us uncover people’s character and true intentions, transforming the way we negotiate, hire, and even date. With over three decades experience as a holistic therapist an...

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, Kimberly Haley-Coleman, founder and Executive Director of Globe Aware , reveals how short-term international volunteer vacations can transform communities and reshape the way people see the world and their place in it. She talks about the importance of “soft power,” the quiet influence of relationships formed through dignity, trust, and shared labor, and why t...

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, microplastics researcher and science communicator Dana Zhaxylykova talks about the prevalence and dangers of microplastics in our everyday lives. She explains how they move through water, air, soil, and food systems, are embedded in products people might never suspect, and are now found virtually everywhere on Earth. She bridges the gap between cutting-edge sc...

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, Viktorya Vilk , PEN America’s Director for Digital Safety and Free Expression , describes the authoritarian playbook being deployed to hollow out democratic institutions. She reveals how attacks on the media and journalism are intertwined with assaults on higher education, cultural institutions, libraries, and other entities using tactics designed to silence o...

Christy Hunter didn’t follow a traditional blueprint for entrepreneurship. What began as a deep love for photography, fashion, and storytelling grew into a brand now enjoyed by thousands of travelers each year. In this Ready Living Podcast episode, the CEO and founder of Photowalk Nashville and co-founder of Photowalk Your Travel reveals how she turned a single camera into a business rooted in con...

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, sustainability and technology leader Tom Raftery pulls back the curtain on the myth that renewable energy isn't powerful enough to fuel the world’s future. He exposes the forces behind this engineered narrative, why it persists, and calls for accountability on part of fossil fuel companies, their financial enablers, and the public relations firms that have spe...

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, writer Melissa Rodway recounts how she immersed herself in wild, unpredictable, and often hilarious adventures during her four months traveling through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China at age 35. The weekly emails sent from internet cafés to friends and family back home formed the basis of her new book The People You Meet: Luxury, Leeches, Love, an...

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, board-certified music therapist Dr. Jennifer Sokira offers an insider’s look into music therapy’s ability to transform lives. Renowned internationally for her trauma-informed expertise and work with the Sandy Hook community, she has devoted her career to helping support people through life’s biggest and most complex challenges. She explains how music reaches p...

Drawing from his debut book The Seven Rules of Trust , Internet entrepreneur and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales delves into why trust is essential to a well-functioning society. He argues that the erosion of trust, spanning government, media, technology, and industry, has become a national crisis that’s destabilized personal and public life alike. Fueled by partisanship, sensationalism, and algorit...

In this Ready Living Podcast interview, award-winning problem solver and change agent Art Chang examines one of the most important questions of our time: How can we save democracy and strengthen the moral and civic foundations of our country before it’s too late? Born in Atlanta, Georgia to Korean War refugee parents during Jim Crow, his early years were marked by isolation, racism, and domestic v...

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, sociology professor Corey Moss-Pech, PhD, dismantles one of higher education’s most enduring myths: that only ‘practical’ majors lead to worthwhile jobs. He shares details from his new book Major Trade-Offs: The Surprising Truths about College Majors and Entry-Level Jobs , where he followed 91 students across business, engineering, English, and communications...

In this Ready Living Podcast episode, veterinarian Cliff Redford, better known as "Dr. Cliff, Worldwide Vet,” shares extraordinary stories of animal care and rescue around the globe. Seemingly open to any challenge, he’s helped save a giant fruit bat tangled above seven lanes of traffic in India, crawled into an underground cave in Jamaica to track endangered bats, and performed surgery without be...

What if your next vacation isn’t just a source of adventure or relaxation, but an opportunity to truly impact others’ lives as well? Christopher Hill, founder of Hands Up Holidays and Impact Destinations , aims to help his guests do just that. In this Ready Living Podcast episode, he shares how a trip to South Africa over twenty years ago changed the trajectory of his life from working as a succes...

Drawing on years of prescribing ‘books as medicine’ to people around the world, bibliotherapist Ella Berthoud reveals how bibliotherapy can offer comfort, insight, and a way forward through life’s many challenges. Central to her work is an unwavering belief in fiction’s transformative power. When reading a book deeply, whether alone in a quiet room, nestled in a dedicated reading nook, or even whe...

Award-winning Australian travel writer and author Louise Southerden has spent over two decades venturing to some of the most awe-inspiring corners of the planet, from canoeing in Madagascar and kayaking in the Arctic and Antarctica, to hiking in Nepal, and expedition-cruising in the Galapagos and the Russian Far East. In this Ready Living Podcast episode, she speaks about her fear of becoming trap...

What if our gardens could be more than simply beautiful? What if they could also serve as shared spaces and vital habitat for pollinators and other wildlife? In this Ready Living Podcast episode, nature writer and habitat consultant Nancy Lawson , author of the books “ The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife ” and “ Wildscape: Trilling Chipmunks, Beckoning Blooms, Salty Butt...

Information and digital literacy are essential human rights crucial for building resilient societies, says internationally recognized digital transformation expert Dr. Danica Radovanović , author and editor of the book “ Digital Literacy and Inclusion: Stories, Platforms, Communities ” in this recent Ready Living Podcast episode. While nearly a third of the world still lives without internet conne...