Daniel Beaty – “Transforming Pain to Power”   Daniel Beaty was brought up in a world of pain. The defining features of life in his Dayton, OH home were incarceration and drug addiction. But after hearing Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Beaty dared to dream himself—and came to realize that the pain he suffered was an avenue, not an obstacle, to his dreams. Today, he is an award-winning actor, writer, singer, and motivational speaker, and he shares his story of how he harnessed the power of pain in a new motivational memoir, “Transforming Pain to Power: Unlock Your Unlimited…

Tim Padgett – “What My Talks With Hugo Taught Me About Chavismo in Venezuela”  The oil-rich nation of Venezuela has been embroiled since mid-February in its worst turmoil in a decade, as angry citizens have taken to the streets to protest poor economic conditions. The chaos began nearly a year after former president Hugo Chavez died of cancer. Tim Padgett, Americas editor for WLRN in Miami, covered Chavez for more than 20 years. In his recent piece, “What My Talks With Hugo Taught Me About Chavismo in Venezuela”, Padgett reflects on his years covering the charismatic…

Emily Parker – “Now I Know Who My Comrades Are”  In 2011, Egyptians took to the streets of Cairo to protest that country’s authoritarian government. It took just 18 days for Hosni Mubarak’s regime to fall, once ordinary Egyptians were mobilized, largely by connecting online and through social media. Emily Parker, a former State Department policy adviser, looks at how the Internet is transforming lives of regular citizens living in authoritarian regimes in her new book, “Now I Know Who My Comrades Are: Voices from the Internet…

Listen on Stitcher
Listen on Soundcloud
Listen on iTunes
Listen on PRI