Episode descrip­tion: 

In this episode I speak with Ellen Bakker, a singer and vocal coach from the Nether­lands, who has been coach­ing for over 20 years. Ellen’s mis­sion is to con­tribute to healthy, effec­tive and ‘happy’ vocal habits, for singers and speak­ers (f.i. teach­ers) alike. Being able to express our­selves well in the way of our choos­ing has a pos­i­tive effect on con­fi­dence and self-esteem and Ellen loves being part of that.

Ellen shares with us some of the sim­ple, effec­tive, healthy and happy tech­niques of using our voice. She also debunks some of the pop­u­lar myths about how we can take care of our vocal cords, espe­cially dur­ing the cold sea­son, and shares some of the “throaty wis­doms” that actu­ally can make a dif­fer­ence for our vocal cords. She empha­sizes the impor­tance of enthu­si­asm and pres­ence, whether we stand in front of an audi­ence or are speak­ing to some­one on the phone.

We also talk about singing  as a com­mu­nal act that brings peo­ple together and makes us feel included and accepted. Ellen demon­strates the imag­i­nary tech­nique of pro­ject­ing the voice into the back of our head, that results in a big­ger and warmer sound, both in speak­ing and in singing. She also talks about the advan­tages of attend­ing a vocal fes­ti­val and the upcom­ing The Real Group Fes­ti­val in Swe­den in August 2012.

Fea­tured track:

I close the episode with the record­ing of Ellen’s live per­for­mance of the famous tango Jac­into Chi­clana.

Music: Astor Piaz­zolla. Lyrics: Jorge Luis Borges.

 

Episode related resources:

Ellen Bakker’s homepage

The Real Group Academy

 

 

 

 

 

Episode descrip­tion: 

In this episode I speak with Leif Lindh, the founder of Gård­sjö Elk­park, a place where every­one is guar­an­teed a chance to come close to a moose. We dis­cuss the charm of these mag­nif­i­cent ani­mals, how Leif first came up with the idea of start­ing an ani­mal park and what it takes to make some­thing like this happen.

 

 

 

 

Fea­tured track:  

I close the episode with the track Golden Chasene by the Swedish band Den Fly­gande Bokrullen from their lat­est album Shuff! It car­ries the same energy that I felt was ema­nat­ing from Leif as he was talk­ing about his pas­sion and has the same sense of pres­ence. The track makes me think about div­ing into what mat­ters and giv­ing your­self fully to this some­times chaotic dance of life.

 

Episode related resources:

Gård­sjö moose park homepage

Den Fly­gande Bokrullen homepage

 

 

 Is there a per­son who has never known the eerie dis­tance of iso­la­tion and sep­a­ra­tion, who has never suf­fered the pain of rejec­tion or the loss of love? Lone­li­ness is an aching void in the cen­ter of our being, a deep long­ing to love and to be loved, to be fully known and accepted by at least one other person.

- James Park 

Episode descrip­tion: 

In this episode I speak with Emily White about her mem­oir Lonely: Learn­ing to Live With Soli­tude,  in which Emily recounts her strug­gle to com­pre­hend and over­come her chronic loneliness.

In the con­ver­sa­tion Emily dis­cusses some of the roots of lone­li­ness and how the exist­ing in the West­ern soci­eties stigma around the state makes it harder for lonely peo­ple to bat­ter lone­li­ness. She also talks about the core dif­fer­ences between lone­li­ness and depres­sion, the dif­fi­culty of tran­si­tion­ing from lone­li­ness and how it can be helped and touches upon how  expe­ri­ence of lone­li­ness day after day can influ­ence our phys­i­ol­ogy and behavior.

 

 

 

Fea­tured track:

I close the episode with the track Your Are My Applepie by North­ern Safari, which I ded­i­cated to my spe­cial friend Andy, who’s always been there for me, even if “there” is a place some­where in rural England.

The lyrics are writ­ten by my friend, a tal­ented writer and an amaz­ingly warm per­son Anette Skåhlberg.

 

 

 

Episode related resources:

Emily White’s website

Inter­ac­tive ver­sion of the UCLA Lone­li­ness Scale

Lonely: Learn­ing to Love With Soli­tude by Emily White

Lone­li­ness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Con­nec­tion by John Cacioppo

Lone­li­ness: The Expe­ri­ence of Emo­tional and Social Iso­la­tion by Robert Weiss

Pro­fes­sor John Cacioppo on Lone­li­ness (video, Cor­nell University)

North­ern Safari

My two favourate lonely tracks:

Lonely Lonely by Feist from Let It Die, 2004

Lonely town by fLako (feat. Dirg Gerner), From Carv­ing Away the Clay– EP, 2011

 

 

 

 

Episode descrip­tion:

I con­tinue my con­ver­sa­tion with psy­chol­o­gist and pod­caster Dr David Van Nuys on dreams and how they can inform our wak­ing life. In this episode Dr Dave and I dis­cuss pre-cognitive and psy­chic dreams, syn­chronic­i­ties and sim­ple but effec­tive tech­niques to improve our dream recall.

Dr Dave, host of Shrink Rap Radio Psy­chol­ogy Pod­cast and Wise Coun­cil Pod­cast, also talks about his pod­cast­ing career, its chal­lenges and its rewards.

After the inter­view I talk about some of the find­ings of con­tent analy­sis research, a sci­en­tific method for accu­rately describ­ing what we dream about, con­ducted by Calvin Hall and Bill Domhoff.