April 3rd, 2015

The man chosen to replace Jon Stewart on The Daily Show is more than the sum of his tweets. How much more? Joining Michael Schulder to discuss Trevor Noah and the challenges faced by all comedians is standup comic Pete Dominick, Host of the radio show Stand Up With Pete Dominick. Special features: excerpts from Dominick's interview of Noah two years ago and from Director David Paul Meyer's film "You Laugh But It's True," which documents Trevor Noah's struggle to get a one man show off the ground, just before his meteoric rise in the comedy world. How's THAT for timing?

The Trevor Noah Episode

April 30th, 2015

As the Supreme Court considers whether the Constitution guarantees same-sex couples the right to marry throughout the U.S., Schulder considers a different question. Is there something he and other heterosexual husbands and wives can learn from same-sex couples who already are married? Schulder explores dynamics unique to gay and lesbian couples -- including how they argue with one another, and how they talk about sex -- with guests Sam Garanzini, Executive Director of The Gay Couples Institute in California, and Deborah L. Hughes, President & CEO of the National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House and American Baptist Minister. Hughes lived in the closet for many years, including the clergy closet, when gay and lesbian gatherings required communicating in code. Quite a journey to finding and marrying the woman she loves.

Same-Sex Marriage: What Can Straight Couples Learn From Gay & Lesbian Couples

June 15th 2015

Schulder speaks with former First Lady, Rosalynn Carter, for the National Women's Hall of Fame oral history project. Mrs. Carter shares stories from her active role in the women's rights movement, the resistance she encountered advocating for the Equal Rights Amendment, the backstory of the first federally funded National Women's Conference, the personal encounters that triggered her early advocacy of mental health coverage, the biggest disappointment in her life, her advice for young girls and boys, and her days growing up in Plains, Georgia. As you'll hear, Mrs. Carter's full immersion in the issues she cares most about continues, today, at the age of 87.

Rosalynn Carter

September 25th, 2015

Schulder speaks with 84 year old psychiatrist & best-selling author Irvin Yalom about the healing value of staring death in the face, increasing one's fulfillment through "rippling," falling in love v standing in love, humor, and, finally, the essential question: what is the more effective way to cope with existential anxiety: sex or writing? Cameo appearances from Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Carol Dweck.

Dr. Irvin Yalom: 50 - Thousand Hours Of Therapy

Backstage with the pianist who has been called “the hottest classical artist on the planet” – Lang Lang.  Featuring a rare appearance by his mom, speaking in Mandarin with such emotion that her son’s translations are barely necessary.   Michael first sat down with Lang Lang more than a decade ago, for CNN. Lang Lang had recently graduated from Philadelphia’s prestigious Curtis Institute via China and was emerging as a star.  It was the very first international news profile of Lang Lang.  Back then, he was not ready to reveal what he shares with Michael now about the struggles of his journey to the top. Lang Lang’s mom shares with us the painful sacrifice she made for the sake of her son’s future.  And she movingly describes the piece she most loves to hear her son play and why.  He honors her request, for a memorable musical ending to this episode.  

Lang Lang (&Mom)

“The Sports Gene” author, David Epstein, joins me for a conversation that will empower young athletes, their parents, and coaches.  Our launching point is the case of late blooming QB Carson Wentz, the number 2 pick in the 2016 NFL draft.  Did Wentz rise to the top despite the fact that he was a late bloomer, or because of it?  The answer has profound implications for youth sports. Epstein’s superb synthesis of sports science studies (combined with his personal experience as an athlete) finds that, in most sports, specializing early puts young athletes at a disadvantage as they approach college age.  What is the best approach to maximizing a person’s athletic potential?  Epstein provides actionable intelligence on the key concept of “trainability.”  And it does not depend on 10-thousand hours of practice. 

The Late Bloomer Advantage In Sports

Bob Chapman turned a small, teetering 19th century manufacturing company that served the beer industry, into a 2.5 billion dollar enterprise. He owes his success to a traumatic experience, which forced him to find value that others couldn’t see. He figured out how to protect thousands of American jobs, rejecting the option of cheap, foreign labor. And he developed a new way of leading – focused on empathetic listening -- that he believes can help businesses, families, and our nation thrive. His journey is worth hearing and sharing.

Learn or Die: Lessons From A Leader Who Listens

You may be tempted to scream -- “don’t do it, Jack!” -- at the outset of this podcast.  My conversation with author Jack Gantos, at the Nantucket Book Festival, begins with a choice he made in 1971 that led him to a horrifying year-and-a-half as an inmate in a federal penitentiary.  He describes the crime and the time in unforgettable detail.  Where did he find the resilience to survive prison, catapult himself to college, and become a prolific and acclaimed author?  It begins with reading, which taught him how to “spelunk down” into the emotions.  Gantos won the Newbery Medal for his book “Dead End in Norvelt,” and other honors for his young adult fiction and his riveting memoir, “Hole in My Life.”  This is a long episode – 50 minutes.  I believe you’ll agree that listening to Gantos tell his story is worth every second.

Jack Gantos: Reading Saved His Life

6’2” Carey Kauffman, a March Madness veteran of the Duke University Blue Devils, couples her insights from a life in basketball with her experience as the mother of two children born with rare diseases.  Kauffman, the daughter of an NBA all-star. will help make you one of the most insightful people in the room during the Final Four – and help give your kids an edge if they play the game.  But it’s her mission in life, which she pursues through her company WellSelf 360, that will inspire you.  She applies what she learned on the court to empowering those who suffer from rare and chronic health conditions.  If you listen to the entire episode, I think you’ll find Carey Kauffman’s resilience is contagious.

A March Madness Special:  Thriving in College Basketball & Living With Rare Disease

Michael visits one of the most influential and beloved figures in the field of psychotherapy on the eve of the release of his memoir:  Becoming Myself.  At 86, after a recent health scare, The Atlantic magazine wrote:  "As a psychotherapist, Irvin Yalom has helped others grapple with their mortality. Now he is preparing for his own end."  Not quite.  Yalom's legions of fans will be gratified to hear his impassioned response to that analysis in this intimate Wavemaker Conversation.  He is still actively creating ripples, a therapeutic concept he explains here and which any of us can apply to our lives. He also shares a never-before-heard story about a recent patient who believed she was "beyond repair."  In Dr. Yalom's orbit, it's hard to imagine that anyone is beyond repair.

Dr. Irvin Yalom Is Still Rippling

Standup comic Pete Dominick joins me to dissect Michelle Wolf’s routine at the recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Why now? Because this Sunday, May 27th, Wolf’s new series, The Break, debuts on Netflix. That’s just as good an excuse as any. Dominick, with Wolf as a launching point, helps make us all more astute observers of the art of comedy. Among the issues we discuss: using the P word, punching up versus punching down, and what it was like being in the room during Wolf’s speech. Pete also takes a swing at my tennis coach in Georgia, who didn’t like Wolf’s routine. I gave Coach Ross air time to swing back. Is that punching up or down? Warning: contains some explicit language.

Punching Up (feat. Pete Dominick)

Jane Alexander’s illustrious acting career was launched in 1968 by her breakthrough performance in the Pulitzer Prize winning play (and later movie) The Great White Hope. She then took the political stage as Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, when the NEA was on the political right’s hit list. She and her husband had virtually all their money stolen by an accountant who did a convincing job acting like their friend. And now, after dozens of movies and TV shows, including Kramer vs. Kramer and All the President’s Men, and some one hundred plays, she puts the spotlight on the men and women leading the conservation battle in her book Wild Things, Wild Places. So much fascinating ground to cover in this conversation, which was recorded live at the 2018 Nantucket Book Festival, courtesy of @NCTV17. We begin with an angry outburst…

Jane Alexander: Live @ The Nantucket Book Festival

Environmentalists don’t vote. At least not nearly as much as the general population. They have a turnout problem. By Nathaniel Stinnett’s estimate, 10.1 million registered voters who consider climate change or the environment as one of their top two priorities, sat out the 2016 presidential election. An even larger number stayed home for the 2014 midterms. But for Stinnett, those big numbers mean a big opportunity. Right now, his Environmental Voter Project is targeting 2.4 million environmentalists in Georgia, Florida, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Pennsylvania – registered voters who are considered unlikely to vote. Stinnett employs an unusual messaging strategy to get them to the polls – which he explains in our conversation. If he succeeds, he believes no candidate will be able to get their name on a ballot without talking about the environment.

The Environmental Voter Project (feat. Nathaniel Stinnett

America is hungry for the voice of an honorable leader. So Wavemaker brings you the voice of Retired Admiral William McRaven, former Navy SEAL and Commander of all U.S. Special Operations Forces. He was the architect of the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. This episode features McRaven’s viral University of Texas commencement address: 10 memorable lessons from Navy SEAL training for those “who want to change the world” – aka the “Make Your Bed” speech. It’s 20 minutes of uninterrupted inspiration that parents can be proud to share with our children. My thanks to the Texas Exes, the University of Texas alumni association, for permission to post the speech.

Calling All Leaders (feat. Admiral William McRaven)

A Charlottesville, VA jury today convicted a white supremacist of first-degree murder for killing Heather Heyer. He intentionally drove his car into a crowd of counter-protestors at the “Unite the Right” rally for neo-Nazis and white nationalists. A week after that rally, in August 2017, I visited Charlottesville to speak with Henry Abraham. Abraham, now 97, spent his Jewish boyhood in Nazi Germany. He tells stories of anti-Semitism and how his mother made his survival and life in the United States possible. Armed with her optimism and his love of teaching, he became a scholar of the U.S. Constitution and an esteemed professor at the University of Virginia. We spoke about his life’s journey and the déjà vu he experienced during the rally. He has much to teach us.

Charlottesville (feat. Prof. Henry Abraham)

Yoka Verdoner was separated from her parents when she was only 8 years old. Now 84, her life story is a window into the trauma that has been inflicted on so many migrant children separated from their parents at the southern border of the U.S. I spoke with Yoka over the summer, at the height of those separations, after she'd published a piece in The Guardian that was widely shared. Her story has urgency again, following last week's news that the Trump Administration's "zero-tolerance" policy has led to the separation of many more children than we believed – perhaps thousands more. This is Yoka's journey from her childhood in The Netherlands to the United States and the trauma that follows her to this day.

Yoka Verdoner & The Child Separations

@YahooSports Senior NFL Writer and Hall of Fame Voter Terez Paylor joins me in Atlanta for a Super Bowl seminar and Football 101 combined – making it the perfect prep for those across the football spectrum: from super-novices to those who follow the NFL all year – all in under 25 minutes. Paylor’s show on Kansas City’s 610 Sports Radio & Radio.com has been a destination for Chiefs fans.  Even though his Chiefs missed this Super Bowl by one drive, Paylor got over the heartbreak long enough to give us a primer on the Patriots v Rams.  His crystal clear guidance might make us the smartest people in the room this Sunday.

How to Watch Super Bowl 53 Better Than Your Friends (feat. Terez Paylor)

What is your superpower? Is it writing, speaking, communicating with power? It could be if you listen to this conversation with Joseph Romm, author of How To Go Viral and Reach Millions: Top Persuasion Secrets from Social Media Superstars, Jesus, Shakespeare, Oprah, and Even Donald Trump. This episode is like a short master class. If you want to get the most out of it, I advise you start by listening to my October 29th episode, featuring one of the greatest speeches you’ll ever hear: Admiral William McRaven’s 2014 University of Texas Commencement Address. You’ve already done that? Now listen to Romm walk us through some of the highlights of McRaven’s speech – to point out what makes it so powerful and teach us techniques we can employ the next time we want to write or say something that matters.

Calling All Leaders Part 2: From Zero to Hero

This is the story, and backstory, of a workshop on feminism, led by men, for men, in an all-male prison. The Feminist on Cellblock Y is an immersive and memorable CNN documentary shot inside a California state prison. In this episode, we speak with the two inspired journalists behind the doc – CNN’s Emma Lacey-Bordeaux and Cocomotion Pictures founder Contessa Gayles. With a cameo from President Obama, who made news last week on the very subject at the heart of Cellblock Y.

Introducing the Feminist on Cellblock Y

This is my conversation with Rachel Held Evans – RHE – from 2012, after the publication of her "A Year of Biblical Womanhood," a provocative and entertaining account of her experiment living the Bible’s instructions for women as literally as possible. Evans died on May 4th, 2019 at the age of 37. Through her blog, books, and conferences, she built a large following challenging conservative evangelical thought on issues of women in church leadership, LGBTQ inclusion, and more. In our conversation, she opened up about the empowering example set by her parents, the driving question that shaped her reading of the Bible, what she learned from Jewish tradition, and her use of humor. #BecauseofRHE The Bible Belt meets The Borscht Belt.

Rachel Held Evans: The Girl With A Magic Book

A podcast for the insanely curious, featuring in-depth conversations with the most creative thinkers, respected leaders, and preeminent authors in a wide variety of fields including sports, the arts, parenting, business, psychology, politics, history, and medicine. Host Michael Schulder created the new journalism platform, Wavemaker, following 17 years as a Senior Executive Producer at CNN and 5 years as Peter Jennings’ Writer at ABC News. 

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