memories of a moonbird

She’s a NASA Astrophysicist who’s no stranger to public speaking.  She’s talked about her passion for all things space and science from the Library of Congress all the way to ComicCon.

Today, she works at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, studies how stars and black holes form in distant galaxies and how those processes change over time. 

She’s also the Deputy Project Scientist For Communication for the James Webb Space Telescope, and Associate Director Of The Astrophysics Science Division.

In addition to all of that, this former Southerner and amazing woman is also, in her own words, a “pilot, yogini, home brewer, Great Dane mom, and Pearl Jam super fan girl.”

Please welcome, the super cool, and forgive the pun... out of this world... Dr. Amber Straughn!

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Books we referenced on the show:

1) "The Three Body Problem" by Cixin Liu

2) "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" by Laura Numeroff

3) "A People’s History of the United States" by Howard Zinn

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If you'd like to learn more about Dr. Straughn, the James Webb Space Telescope or NASA, check out these links:

1)  Amber's Website and her social media is @astraughnomer

2)  The James Webb Space Telescope

3)  NASA's website

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Follow Daniel and the Memories of a Moonbird Podcast:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/moonbirdpodcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/memoriesofamoonbird/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MemoriesofaMoonBird/

YouTube: http://bit.ly/MoonbirdYouTube

Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/memoriesofamoonbird/

#moonbird #podcast #podcasting #Entertainment #entertainer #EntertainmentIndustry #movies #tv #DanielScherl #memoriesofamoonbird #amber #amberstraughn #astraughnomer #NASA #JamesWebb #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #arkansas #astronomy #astrophysics #astrophysicist #telescope #explore #space #outerspace #spaceprogram 

* Memories of a Moonbird is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.  I may get commissions for purchases made through links at no cost to you whatsoever, and I thank you in advance!

For more than ten years, as a first responder, she’s helped save people’s lives and been on the front lines of healthcare as a paramedic in Munich, Germany.

Born and raised in Germany, she also grew up in the country that only eighty years ago was at the center of World War II.

Today, we’re going to talk about what it’s like to see human beings in some of their most fragile moments, as well as delve a little into what it’s like growing up in the shadows of war and the Holocaust.

Please welcome, Sabine Einicke!

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If you'd like to learn more about the Holocaust, please visit:

1) Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center

2) History.com - The Holocaust

3) The United States Holocaust Museum

4) The Shoah Foundation

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Want to start your own podcast?! Use my affiliate link with Buzzsprout and you get a $20 Amazon Gift Card after signing up! They host this show and we love them! Click here to get started!

If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here.

To sign up for the Moonbird email newsletter, click here!

Follow Daniel and the Memories of a Moonbird Podcast:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/moonbirdpodcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/memoriesofamoonbird/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MemoriesofaMoonBird/

YouTube: http://bit.ly/MoonbirdYouTube

Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/memoriesofamoonbird/

#moonbird #podcast #podcasting #Entertainment #entertainer #EntertainmentIndustry #movies #tv #DanielScherl #memoriesofamoonbird #sabine #SabineEinicke #Einicke #paramedic #ambulance #Munich #Erfurt #germany #medicine #worldwarii #war #holocaust #shoah

* Memories of a Moonbird is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.  I may get commissions for purchases made through links at no cost to you whatsoever, and I thank you in advance!

When it comes to the need for speed… he’s the real deal.

As a fighter jet pilot for the United States Navy, for nearly 25 years, he flew the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet and the F-16. He accrued almost 4,000 flight hours, over 700 carrier landings, and served as both a TOPGUN Instructor and Air Wing Operations Officer.

Today, this family man flies for one of the major airlines and hosts his own awesome podcast called, appropriately, “The Fighter Pilot Podcast.” There, he explores the fascinating world of air combat: the aircraft, the weapons systems, and most importantly--the people. And you should absolutely subscribe.

I’m excited to chat with this amazing man, and fellow podcast host, about all things jets, life in the skies, what it feels like to be in control of something moving 1,200 miles an hour… and what his experiences around the globe have taught him about life back here on Earth.

Check out Vincent's podcast, The Fighter Pilot Podcast, by clicking here and check out the episode we referenced about Call Signs right here:

Click here to see Vincent on YouTube talking about how real fighter jet scenes in movies are!

The books we referenced:

"October Sky" by Homer Hickam *
https://amzn.to/2PdRj8T

"Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell *
https://amzn.to/3dJpjmZ

"Tools of Titans" by Timothy Ferriss *
https://amzn.to/2QK4vCV

If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here.

To sign up for the Moonbird email newsletter, click here!

Follow Daniel and the Memories of a Moonbird Podcast:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/moonbirdpodcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/memoriesofamoonbird/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MemoriesofaMoonBird/

YouTube: http://bit.ly/MoonbirdYouTube

Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/memoriesofamoonbird/

Want to start your own podcast?! Use my affiliate link with Buzzsprout and you get a $20 Amazon Gift Card after signing up! They host this show and we love them!  Click here to get started!

#moonbird #podcast #podcasting #Entertainment #entertainer #EntertainmentIndustry #movies #tv #DanielScherl #memoriesofamoonbird #VincentAiello #Aiello #FighterJet #FighterPilot #FighterPilotPodcast #Navy #ArmedForces #jet #jets

* Memories of a Moonbird is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.  I may get commissions for purchases made through links at no cost to you whatsoever, and I thank you in advance!

She’s a Swiss army knife of artists! She’s a singer, songwriter, musician, actor, dancer, choreographer, and public speaker with a silky voice that’s garnered her more than 3,500 performances in her career so far.

She’s opened for artists like Bruno Mars, Shawn Colvin, Paula Cole, Lisa Loeb, Anna Nalick, Josh Kelley, and Andy Grammer, just to name a few. But before she was performing with all of those amazing artists, we worked together back when I was a full time music producer. She’s smart, funny, talented, charismatic, and a lover of the color blue like no one else… please welcome, Alyssa Jacey!

If you'd like to check out Alyssa's music, head on over to her website or any of her music and social media links below!

Alyssa's Website = https://alyssajacey.com/
iTunes / Apple Music = https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/alyssa-jacey/id295171062
Facebook = https://www.facebook.com/AlyssaJaceyMusic
Instagram = https://www.instagram.com/AlyssaJaceyMusic/
Twitter = https://twitter.com/alyssajacey/
YouTube = https://www.youtube.com/user/alyssajacey
SoundCloud = https://soundcloud.com/alyssajacey

And that song Alyssa couldn't remember?  "I Wanna Be Bad" by Willa Ford = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5tKILoxrQ4

#AlyssaJacey #AlyssaJaceyMusic #BringTheCrewandWearYourBlue #musician #music #singer #artist #guitar #love #songwriter #producer #newmusic #song #instamusic #art #livemusic #musicians #musicislife #songs #singersongwriter #WillaFord

For more than 30 years, she’s been working in conservation to protect shore birds around the planet. She’s not only a Biologist and Field Ornithologist, but she's also the actual scientist who banded B95, the world famous Red Knot who was nicknamed "Moonbird," and whom my podcast  and website were founded in honor of.

Zooming in all the way from Argentina, she was kind enough to share with me the history of the real Moonbird, a look back on her career, and her views of the future of the Earth.

Her name is Patricia González, and it’s my honor to welcome, on this very special 50th episode of the show, the fabulous woman known around the globe as the ”Mother of Moonbird.”

* * * * *

Patricia is the Shorebird South American Coordinator with the International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC) and is the Ad Honorem Wetland Program Coordinator at Fundación Inalafquen in San Antonio Oeste, Argentina.

Learn more about birds at https://www.birds.com/ and https://www.allaboutbirds.org/

Patricia's Scientific Contributions at https://www.researchgate.net

If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here.

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Instagram: instagram.com/memoriesofamoonbird

Facebook: facebook.com/MemoriesofaMoonBird/

YouTube: youtube.com/MemoriesofaMoonBird/

Twitter: twitter.com/moonbirdpodcast

Pinterest:  pinterest.com/memoriesofamoonbird/

You can also get early access to the episodes and support the show all-at-once! Click the link below!

Hello friends!  And welcome to The Epilogue with Moonbird, my annual wrap-up and look back over the last twelve months.

Sign up now for the mailing list and get notified whenever new episodes premiere!  Click here to sign up!

You can also get early access to the episodes and support the show all-at-once! Click here to head on over to Patreon and sign up now!

Have a Happy and safe New Year and see you in 2021!

For over fifty years, he’s worked in the entertainment business as a director, writer and producer. He created iconic shows like the V miniseries, and characters like Jaime Sommers in the original Bionic Woman. He’s also produced, and directed, The Incredible Hulk, Alien Nation, Short Circuit 2, Steel, and JAG.

He’s graduate of Carnegie Mellon, a father of four, and a winner of multiple prestigious awards.

You can learn more about Kenny at his website: kennethjohnson.us

Hello, friends! Today on the show:

He's a lover of good music, a family man, and rocked some pretty great hair styles over the decades… and for more than twenty years, he’s also been a very well-respected film and television director. His long list of IMDb credits include shows as Alias, Law & Order, Blood & Treasure, Veronica Mars, Criminal Minds, Revolution, Arrow, Supernatural, and many, many others.

He’s a great conversationalist, dog lover, and a self-proclaimed muscle car and Tesla enthusiast.  In his spare time… he also dabbles in construction and other creative projects, and he’s just a really nice guy.  Pun intended.

See Guy's IMDb page here: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0066218/

He’s a true artisan who’s been working with wood for almost 15 years, turning gorgeous bowls on his lathe, and his pieces are as unique as he is.  But why is he so unique?

Because… he's blind.

Today, I’m going to talk with this Master Craftsman about his life’s journey, what caused his blindness, and how, without being able to see, he transforms a chunk of wood… into a work of art.

Check out John's beautiful wood work at his website, furnissstudios.com

For over 30 years, she’s worked in women’s health. She started her career as nurse and today is a certified doula and childbirth educator who’s helped welcome hundreds of babies into the world.

She’s passionate about working with people, talking about pregnancy, and birth, and helping families settle in to life with a new baby.

As a mom of four herself, she’s no stranger to all of those things. She says, “I believe that birth is an extraordinary expression of who we are, and I have always felt privileged to walk alongside a family as they meet the challenges and joys that mark this profound transition.”

Learn more about Janet and her services as a Doula at her website: thebellyblossom.com

She holds multiple degrees in music, has taught in universities from America to Transylvania, and throughout her amazing career, has been an honored guest conductor all across the world.

She’s not only passionate about music and the importance of arts education, but also the human experience itself.

Today, she’s the Director of Bands and Professor of Music at Texas Tech University. Read more about her by clicking here.

They’re a married couple raising four kids here in the United States.
 
Their youngest child, Declan, was born with cCMV, or congenital Cytomegalovirus, which eventually led to Cerebral Palsy.

Now, after having spent several years raising a child with cCMV, they have a website and a podcast to not only help other parents of the world understand the disease, but to share important information about cCMV and hopefully be a resource they wish they’d had when they first started this journey.

Today, they’re here to share their story.

Please visit their website, at: https://www.thehoutoguide.com/

The National CMV Foundation:  https://www.nationalcmv.org/

He’s a gentle giant with a wonderfully dry sense of humor and a rich, booming bass voice as smooth as they come. Over the last twenty years, he’s shared the screen with a multitude of actors like Ryan Reynolds and Adam Sandler in movies like Deadpool and Anger Management, and is very well known for playing Bo’sun in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

But he’s not just another pretty face! As a voiceover artist, he’s had the pleasure of bringing his incredible talents to more than sixty video games like World of Warcraft, Transformers, Half-Life, Halo, Street Fighter, and is the voice of Thanos in Marvel video games and the Marvel television series Avengers Assemble and Guardians of the Galaxy.

He’s also a really nice person to sit and have lunch with if I do say so myself.

You can follow Isaac on social media at: instagram.com/isaacsingletonjr

Today’s episode is the first in what I hope will be a series spanning many decades.

The idea of this series is to follow one young woman for many, many years, on her journey through life. The inspiration for this came from the “Up” series in Britain, a television show I’ve been incredibly moved by and wanted to do my own version of.

The first portion of this premiere episode was recorded in November of 2019, one year ago. After Covid-19 changed the world, we recorded a follow-up, which you’ll hear in the second part of the episode.

Part 1:  Tuesday, November 26th, 2019.  4:00 p.m. Two days before Thanksgiving.

Her name is Clare Whitney, and at the time of this first recording, she’s getting ready to leave for Australia to go to college at The University of Canberra.

Clare is the daughter and only child of Justine and Scott Whitney. They’ve been friends of mine for more than a decade, and Justine is not only an amazing Australian chef, but was one of the first guests on my show.

I met Clare when she was eight years old. Justine and Scott had agreed to allow us to shoot part of a short film in their home, and we not only hung out with their family, but some of the the chalk drawings that Clare had made on their sidewalk actually made it into the film. None of us knew back then that her artwork cameo would later lead to a project of this scope.

As we begin this journey, I not only wanted to ask Clare about her hopes, dreams, and goals, and how she thought her first year abroad at University would go, but I also wanted to give someone from her generation a chance to have a voice and talk about how they see the world today.

Welcome… to the life of Clare Whitney.

Part 2:  Wednesday, September 23rd, 2020.  7:00 p.m.

I talk with Clare ten months after our first episode to see how her life is after moving to Australia just before the Covid-19 pandemic changed the world.

For over fifty years, he’s been taking care of people in ways that would make most everybody a little uncomfortable. As a Funeral Director, he’s helped literally thousands and thousands of human beings through grief and the process of losing someone they loved.

Now retired, he was kind enough to sit with me and talk about his journey, his perspective on the world, and what it was like to work around death for most of his life.

Get ready for a really fun and poignant conversation with our family friend, and one of the nicest people you could ever meet, zooming in from Topeka, Kansas, Mr. Fred Holroyd.

He’s one of the most interesting people you’ll ever meet.

He was not only the Director of Academic Support for 22 years at the UCLA bookstores, but he’s traveled many places around the world, been a hippie, a playwright, an actor and now after retiring, helps cook food for the homeless in Los Angeles.

At 72, he looks back on a life lived with a myriad of experience and today, this California native is going to talk with me about that very thing… the journey of life.

With a passion for literature and a voice that should be narrating every documentary ever made…

Please welcome, Jacques Freydont!

She’s a musician, actress and all around amazing human being who’s doing her part to bring a positive awareness and healing to the world.

Many people around the globe know her as Dotti, the Guinness-loving lass as part of the infamous and revered comedy show, “The Washing Well Wenches” that’s performed at renaissance faires and festivals all across the United States.

And while she’s loved blacking out her teeth and making people laugh, her real passion is music. Raised by musical parents, she's the front of Kristen Lynn & The Foxgloves, a band whose blues-folk music has been described as a "head-turning, foot-tapping, ground-breaking twist on progressive blues-folk-Americana style with a modern vintage sound.”

Wow! I’ve heard them live and they are fantastic.

In addition to all of those amazing things, she’s also someone who’s passionate about helping people. Her mother passed away sixteen years ago, and earlier this year, she unexpectedly lost her brother. Through her own losses and grief, she feels compelled to connect with others through that process. 

Using her skills as an artist and a great communicator, she performs a live stream every Monday bringing joy and positivity through music.  But since her sudden loss happened she’s been opening up about her grief, and the response… has been astounding.

She says, “It’s the first time I'm creating through unbelievable heartache but wanted to move towards the pain, not away from it."

Please welcome, the amazing Kristen Lynn!

I’m excited to welcome one of the coolest women you’ll ever meet!

For more than thirty years, as an Assistant Director in network television and studio feature films, she’s worked on some of the biggest shows and with the biggest stars on programs like The Sopranos, Veronica Mars, The Shield, X-Files, CSI, and Deep Space Nine, just to name a few. She eventually created her own production company called “Wanderlust Films,” and began writing, producing, and directing her own projects.
 
Over her long career,  and as a woman in the entertainment business, she’s seen just about everything, from the darkest moments that led to the #MeToo movement, to the brightest accomplishments of a well-trained cast and crew.
 
 A lover of horror movies, a proud Mom, and an uncensored, kick ass human being… please welcome Venita Ozols-Graham!

Check out the official "Who Wants Dessert?" Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WhoWantsDessert1/

Nightmare's Film Festival world premiere October 21 - 25: https://nightmaresfest.com/

Hello friends! Can you believe it’s been a year?!

October 14th, 2020 is the first anniversary of the launch of this podcast and my accompanying website: memoriesofamoonbird.com.

In honor of that, today’s episode is not an interview with someone interesting and inspiring, but rather, a story that’s hopefully a little bit of both.

This episode is a companion piece to a post on my website entitled “An Unexpected Blizzard.”  It’s something I tried to record a year ago, but at the time, wasn’t able to get through for reasons that will become obvious. It continues a profound lesson I learned that I think has never been more relevant than today.

So, with no further ado…

He’s a passionate artist, musician, and an educator who’s been teaching astronomy for over thirty years. He’s exhibited his art at several different venues and released six albums of original music. But this renaissance man has also volunteered his time as a Scout Master for more than twenty years, helping teach kids about the importance of a connection to nature. 

We met in our early twenties when we both worked at a music store in Buffalo, NY. We became fast friends and even got in trouble for having fake lightsaber battles in the aisles with rolled up movie posters.

Today, we’re going to talk about the importance of music, education, our shared love and admiration of Carl Sagan, and maybe do a little reminiscing along the way.

Please welcome, Zooming in from Buffalo, New York, the city of my Alma Mater, my very good friend, and really cool human being, Stephen Dubois.

Stephen's Artwork: https://www.instagram.com/sduboisartwork/

Stephen's Music:  https://stephendubois.hearnow.com/beyond-the-dome and https://stephendubois.bandcamp.com