The Gale Hill Radio Hour

In this excerpt from a longer interview with cartoonist and historian Bentley Boyd, he talks about how he came up with his Choice Comix concept in which he does his best to replicate the vibrancy of the history that's made every single day. "I really have always wanted to put the reader in the middle," he says, "because today we are living history and we don’t know how tomorrow...

History, art and a Chesapeake Bay blue crab come together to create engaging stories about the people and events that shaped the United States into what it is today. Cartoonist and historian Bentley Boyd created his character Chester the crab as a way to explain Earth Day to readers of the daily newspaper in Williamsburg, Va. Chester evolved into the narrator of stories geared toward fifth-graders...

In this short segment, Madeline Lepidi-Carino offers her perspectives on age and professionalism in politics. Madeline, who's running for public office for the very first time, has a wealth of experience in the fields of mental health, juvenile law and mediation. She also stands firm in her strong belief in the power of collaboration and civility in resolving differences. Active listening and...

The Gale Hill Radio Hour is a show for those of us who live enthusiastically, with optimism, curiosity and humor, while also taking time to ponder life's big questions. To learn more, please listen to the trailer. It's short!  This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour! The show is available in Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast directories....

Have you ever found yourself in uncharted territory, faced with a challenge so mammoth, you had no idea where to start? That's where Marilyn Moss Rockefeller was when tasked with saving a company she knew virtually nothing about. In this episode, the second of two excerpts from a longer interview with the author of “Mountain Girl: From Barefoot to Boardroom," Marilyn describes how she sa...

Marilyn Moss Rockefeller was born at the end of the Depression in West Virginia, where  there was still a great deal of poverty.  Yet she was raised with a wealth of values that made her a businesswoman who built her success on integrity and resilience. In this excerpt from a longer interview, the author of "Mountain Girl: From Barefoot to Boardroom" talks about her childhood and how her...

In her absorbing memoir, “Mountain Girl: From Barefoot to Boardroom,” Marilyn Moss Rockefeller offers a compelling testament to the power of resilience and reinvention.  The book, which came out in late 2022, tells a story of a series of unexpected events that transformed her from a pigtailed girl in the mountains of West Virginia to the head of a multimillion-dollar manufacturing company in Maine...

Madeline Lepidi-Carino, a retired lawyer, is running for elected office for the very first time.  After a long career in mental health, juvenile law and mediation, she's now aiming to restore civil discourse in city government.  Madeline has lived in Hudson, Ohio, for 47 years and has paid attention to city government throughout the decades. Recently, she says, she's witnessed a decline...

Cat owners know that you don't really "own" a cat, so I'll just say that this episode is about the cat that lives with us. In this show, you'll hear how he came to be called Chauncey, a little about his neighborly ways, and his preferred way of being held. He's a character. Hope you enjoy hearing about him. For fairly obvious reasons, I mention Peter Sellers' bri...

Here is another installment of my occasional series, Everyday Exuberance. This one is about an efficient little exercise that I’ve been doing at home for a long time. Basically, I conduct without the benefit of an orchestra! In this episode, I explain why and offer a few tips about conducting. I'd love to hear what you think. By the way, I came across this article as I was doing a little more...

David Schunk is the creator and host of the podcast Voice of Adoptees, in which he speaks with a range of individuals who tell their stories about being adoptees, adoptive parents, adoption advocates and professionals, and birth family members. In this excerpt from my recent interview with Dave, he shared his own story about being adopted when he was 2, and what it was like to travel back to Russi...

David Schunk is the creator and host of Voice of Adoptees, a podcast that aims to empower and connect adopted people around the world. In his show, he speaks with a range of individuals, from adoptees and adoptive parents, to adoption advocates and professionals, and birth families.  Not all adoption stories are alike, he says, and everyone has "the right to share their perspective of their d...

In this short episode of The Gale Hill Radio Hour, you'll hear about the nicknames that my brother and I were affectionately called by our mom. One of the names has to do with Warner Bros.' first Academy Award, which the studio won for an animated short that broke the streak of four consecutive wins in that category by Hanna Barbera/MGM’s “Tom and Jerry” cartoons. In addition to my perso...

In 2015, Vivian Bosch brought Dolly Parton's Imagination Library to Cortland, New York, where she lives, and she's received great feedback from parents who sing the program's praises.  As a follow-up to Vivian's original Gale Hill Radio Hour interview, here are several testimonials, a few of which have been edited for brevity. Also, you can read all of the feedback in their ent...

Eight years ago, Vivian Bosch brought the Imagination Library to Cortland, New York, where she lives. This is a volunteer position for Vivian, who couldn't be happier about her community's receptiveness to this remarkable program, which mails free books to children from birth to when they turn five years old. The stories Vivian hears from parents still bring tears to her eyes because rea...

Meaghan Milner Reed is an accomplished artist who makes visually delightful works inspired by the natural world.  These works also have a deeper purpose. Meaghan's colorful depictions of plant life and butterflies are meant to feel alive and hopeful. And she wants them to offer a "literal common ground" for people to connect and build relationships with one another. This short episo...

This is an excerpt from a 39-minute interview with Dr. Elise Fillpot, who developed an online series of courses based on her highly researched project "Bringing History Home." The courses are focused toward children and their parents, and all have to do with social justice. Each one is a robust course of study. For example, Ancient Africa through Reconstruction has 77 lessons, including...

The History School is a fresh approach to teaching children about the lessons of the past. Elise Fillpot, PhD, developed the online series of courses based on her highly researched project "Bringing History Home," which she coordinated in Iowa schools from 2001 to almost 2013. The courses focus on social justice and are geared toward ages 7 through 12, though just about anyone can learn...

Inventor and researcher Tom Paladino wants to heal the world with custom-made instruments built around quantum energy. If you think that sounds like quite an undertaking, you're likely not alone. Tom's research, modeled on that of Nikola Tesla and Thomas Galen Hieronymus, has become his life's calling. He's been at it 50 years. Based in Florida, he administers light energy remo...

This short episode, part of an occasional series on living exuberantly, offers a potentially powerful way to shift our focus from worry and anxiety to calm and comfort. To listen to the other exuberance-related shows in this series, please go to:  A Happiness Exercise (episode 24), Moving Forward with Grace (32), A Cheerful Start to Your Day (33) and Be Our Authentic Selves (36). This is Kate Jone...

Rose Duignan researches and writes Golden Boomers, a blog about group living.  She knows the subject well, having lived for five years in a cooperative household in Berkeley, Calif.  Recently, Rose was the featured guest in Gale Hill Radio Hour's Group Living with Golden Boomers (episode 34). This follow-up  episode focuses on Rose's latest blog to date. In it, she writes about her inter...

This short essay about two Dollys is part of my occasional series, Everyday Exuberance.  In this episode, I recall reading a first-person piece written by Dolly Parton for Allure magazine. In the article, Parton fondly remembered her friend and mentor, Chet Atkins, even though she did not take his advice many years ago at the start of her performing career. No matter, Parton is a great success doi...

Veteran food writer Leslie Kelly's road-trip adventures with her husband, John Nelson, were featured in "Leslie Kelly, Freelance Food Writer and Nomad" (episode 31). After the interview, Leslie followed up by writing a column about what prompted them to hit the road nearly five years ago, and how they're faring now. You can find Leslie's short and charming piece on The Spo...

Rose Duignan, who retired from the visual effects industry working for George Lucas, researches and writes Golden Boomers, a blog about group living. Rose lives with three other women, one of whom is her sister, in Berkeley, Calif. And she extols the virtues of this type of living situation. Not only is it a "financial lightening of the load," she says, it's also psychologically and...

How about starting your day on a high note?  One way of doing that is by singing, saying or thinking the opening lines of "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah." To get inspired, you can listen to Louis Armstrong's version from his 1968 album, “Disney Songs the Satchmo Way.” I ran across the notion of the therapeutic qualities of "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" in one of Dr. Paul Bizjak's "Fri...