Lives Radio Show & Podcast with Stuart Chittenden

Laura Roccaforte, an organizational development consultant and leadership coach, talks about her many decades working globally to develop individuals and leadership teams and her passion for helping people create environments that are authentic, supportive and inclusive. We also talk about the recent death of her husband from the neurodegenerative disease ALS, what she experienced, and what comes next.

Laura Roccaforte has for decades worked globally with individuals and leadership teams who want to develop and grow. Originally from Sacramento, California, Roccaforte has lived in Nebraska for over 30 years with her late husband, Rich, and holds a BA...

Conservation biologist and science writer Conor Gearin talks about the science and the wonders of the natural world, especially how birds may connect us with the joy of nature, and how we humans may live sustainably with the wildlife around us. Gearin also talks about uniting his passion for writing with the science of the natural world as a way for us to see more completely and more strangely.

Conor Gearin is a writer from St. Louis living in Omaha. He's the Managing Producer of BirdNote, a daily radio program and podcast. Gearin’s work has appeared in The...

Poet Carolina Hotchandani talks about themes of identity, belonging, and loss in her debut poetry collection, The Book Eaters, as she explores her own lived experiences as a new mother, a daughter whose father is in cognitive decline, and a woman of mixed global heritage as well as the power of language to make and unmake us. Hotchandani also reads some of her poems.

Carolina Hotchandani is the author of The Book Eaters, 2023 Perugia Press Prize Winner, which was one of the ten debut poetry books featured in Poets & Writers Magazine’s 2024 debut poets issue. Hotchandani’s poetry ha...

Autumn Pruitt is the founder of Hardy Coffee Co. We talk about the vision Pruitt has for Hardy Coffee as a source of rhythm and ritual in people’s lives. She shares her entrepreneurial journey, the lessons and experiences encountered on the way, and how, like the business, she has grown to meet that aspiration.

Autumn Pruitt and her husband moved back to Omaha and started a small bakery in 2010. Soon after subleasing a kitchen and tiny storefront from Aromas Coffeehouse they purchased that coffee shop. In 2015, they began roasting their own coffee under the brand Hardy Cof...

In conversation with actor, writer, and secular chaplain, Elizabeth Morton. With Mass as her earliest performative expression, Morton talk about her twin vocations of acting and chaplaincy, and their similar characteristics, such as curiosity, deep listening, and personal surrender. Morton shares what people are seeking from her ministry and spiritual direction, and how her non-dogmatic chaplaincy supports others in their spiritual seeking.

Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Morton is an actor and writer living in New York. She's a graduate of the University of Evansville's celebrated theatre department and a member of the Actors Center. Morton is also...

Writer, air force veteran, and stroke survivor, Tamsen Butler talks about her life-threatening stroke in 2015, about her life before and her life after it, and the lessons she has learned about herself, authenticity, and how she chooses to show up in the world.

Born and raised in Southern California, Butler has lived in the Omaha area for two decades. An award-winning author and Air Force veteran, she’s the Senior Marketing Copywriter for a large financial services firm and a frequent contributor to Omaha Magazine. She also teaches yoga and indoor cycle classes at various gyms in th...

Architect and designer Tom Trenolone talks about design, our built environments, and beauty, including the beauty Trenolone creates and finds in and around Omaha. Trenolone also talks about founding design alliance Omaha aimed at elevating design awareness and appreciation.

Tom Trenolone is an architect and design advocate with the international architecture and engineering firm of HDR, where he currently serves as a Design Director and Senior Vice President, currently based in Omaha, NE. Trenolone has led teams working on architectural designs across the world, including the U2 Landmark Tower Competition in Dublin Ireland, the Hinoki-cho Performing Arts...

Writer and performer Zedeka Poindexter shares her passion for community and stories, and talks about her poems, essays, and performances that draw on complexities of race, class, struggle, and joy. Poindexter shares how that creative expression now is, in the form of a choreopoem, unearthing the lived experience of healthcare disparities encountered by black women. She also reads a couple of poems for us.

Zedeka Poindexter is a North Omaha-born writer and performer and is co-executive director with Gina Tranisi of Nebraska Writers Collective. Poindexter’s body of poems and essays draws on all five physical senses to...

Author and coach Mandy Kubicek talks about her book I Killed Mom and Other Lies: A Memoir of Early Loss, which recounts the lifelong effects of trauma, repressed emotions, and shame. Kubicek talks about the deaths of her mother and brother, coming to terms with these losses, and eventually finding peace and joy.

Mandy Kubicek helps online entrepreneurs achieve greater success. Before that she coached dozens of high-achieving women through career transitions and led teams of product managers at high-growth tech startups. Kubicek was last on the show in 2019, since when she has authored two books, the...

Sculptor Littleton Alston shares his personal and creative journey from a poor neighborhood in Washington D.C. to the creation of a portrait statue of Willa Cather unveiled in 2023 as one of Nebraska’s two contributions to the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. Capitol Building and the first in that collection made by an African-American.

Littleton Alston creates works of art that focus on the essence of the human figure and human spirit. Awarded the commission to create a portrait statue of Willa Cather, in 2023 his statue was unveiled in the National Statuary Hall Co...