Back in America

Hilary Porta is a leading mindset expert and life architect who helps people design a career and life they love by combining neuroscience-based mindset coaching to shatter the mental limits and provide strategy and a framework for an epic life.

Hilary travels across the globe not only speaking on stages both domestically and internationally but also where she helps Fortune 500 CEOs, professional motorsport as well as pro sports (think: Formula One driver, NFL ) to level up and become unstoppable.

However, life hasn’t always been easy for Hilary. She went through some very dark times but that's where she learned the power of resilience and choice and has turned her loss into leverage.

Hilary Porta's website

Hilary recommends a Netflix Series and a book:

• The Kindness diaries
• The Noticer: Sometimes, all a person needs is a little perspective

In this episode, we explore the idea behind a school system created 100 years ago in Germany and which is increasingly popular throughout the world: the Waldorf education based on the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy.

My guest is Elan Leibner the chair of the Pedagogical Section Council of North America and a teacher at the Waldorf School of Princeton. Elan grew up in Israel, lived in a kibbutz, and moved to the US at the age of 23. He married Tertia, the woman who recruited him to teach at Waldorf. He was a class teacher at there for 18 years, before directing the Teacher Education program at Emerson College in England.

Altogether, he has been involved in Waldorf education for almost thirty years.

Anyone researching Waldorf School on Google quickly realizes that the school has many fans but also some skeptics.

Elan recommends two movies:

What Dreams May Comes 
Round Midnight 

Leticia Fraga is the first Latinx ever elected to Princeton Municipal Government.

She has many responsibilities in Princeton. Born in Mexicali, Mexico, Leticia is one of eight children. At the age of 12, she immigrated to the US, settling in Washington State with her family.

During their first five years in the US, she worked in the fields, side by side with her siblings and parents.

With their earnings, the Fraga family was eventually able to purchase their plot of land on which they cultivated asparagus.

In this episode, Leticia shares her experience as a young Mexican immigrant, her first meal at KFC, her difficulty settling in Princeton and how she made it to an elected councilwoman.
Leticia also shares her hope for some of the large projects she is currently working on.

For more information about Leticia Fraga visit her website (you will find the photo that she describes in this episode)

Links to the books mentioned in this episode

Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother

American Dirt: A Novel

Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust

This is part 3, the final part of my interview with Chris Tylor, in parts 1 and 2 we learned how he worked as a carpenter for 15 years. How he went on to lived in a Zen monastery for a year before deciding to go back to university for graduate social studies.

Here in episode 11, part 3 we talk about white men's privileges and reparations to the African-Americans.

How can white, educated men deal with the reckoning of their privileges?

As often in this podcast, I will ask Chris where he thinks this country will be in five years from today and what it means to be an American.

Music from Kabbalistic Village
https://soundcloud.com/kabbalisticvillage

In part 2 of my interview with Chris Tyler, we talk about his experience working with victims of domestic violence.

Chris is now a student in social studies and works with abusers. This conversation brings us on the topic of masculinity.

Chris is helping men step out of a cycle of trauma and abusive behaviors.

He talks about the social stereotypes of men and how to deal with them.

Listen to episode 11 part 3, the third and final episode of this conversation. Chris will dive into the notion of privileges.

How can white educated men deal with the reckoning of their privileges?

Chris will also discuss the difficult topic of reparation to the African-American.

Music from Kabbalistic Village
https://soundcloud.com/kabbalisticvillage

I have edited my interview with Chris Tyler into three installments.

In part 1 we meet Chris. After being a carpenter for 15 years he is thinking about becoming a monk in a Zen monastery.
We discover what its like to seat for hours practicing mindfulness. Chris shares moments of doubt and awakening when what he calls a 'voice,' helps him move forward with his new life.

Listen to part 2 to hear Chris talk about his experience working with victims of domestic violence.

He wants to help men step out of a cycle of trauma and abusive behaviors.

This conversation brings us on the topic of masculinity.

Music from Kabbalistic Village
https://soundcloud.com/kabbalisticvillage

In this installment is speak with Cassandra Shuck from Hunterville, North Carolina. I met Cassandra, at a press event in New York last October and her story immediately struck me as amazing.

Erden Eruç, a Turkish-American adventurer, is the 1st man to do a solo a circumnavigation by human power. He has done it on a 24-foot ocean rowing boat. He & his wife Nancy Board joined Back in America to discussed the challenges and the mental health issues experienced by Erden upon return.
Now Erden embarks on a new adventure, the #Themidgardexpedition to explore sustainable ways to live.

Website and crowdfunding site:

http://www.erdeneruc.com/

https://midgardexpedition.com/

https://midgard-expedition.causevox.com/

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Music from Kabbalistic Village

In this episode of Back in America, I meet with Denis Devine a 46 years old man from Fishtown, Philadelphia. Denis, an ex-journalist, is the organizer of Dad's night a monthly meeting of men.

For the last 6 years, Denis' Dads Night has brought together dads from his neighborhoods at different bars.
The idea of dad's group, which count 350 members, came to him one day at a play-ground when he was watching over his kids.
This safe space allows men to address topics related to dad-hood, dads-related cause, and non-traditional understandings of masculinity.

In Back in America Denis talks about how he came to realize what toxic masculinity behaviors are after being beat-up one day, after school. He had the chance to be mentored by one of his school provisor who told him to embrace empathy and to express his emotions.

In the interview, we also talk about the links between the traditional behavior associated with masculinity and the marketing promotion of the fossil fuel industry.

Denis raises his children to behave in an environmentally conscious way and he wants to help them to understand how their lives will be affected by climate change.

Denis and his wife gave-up their car last year, ride on a cargo-bike for his current job and to take his kids to school. He turns the heat down in winter and the AC off in summer.

Music from Kabbalistic Village

Hello Liliana,

I meet you a few weeks ago and I immediately realized that you are a pillar of the Latino community here in Princeton.

You work for Princeton public schools and for the Princeton township human services department.

You are highly educated: you have a law degree from the University of Madrid and a Minor in international law from Harvard.

You've moved to Princeton in 2007 and a year later you were already deeply involved as a volunteer helping the immigrant community.

In 2010 you joined the board of the Koko Fund which subsidizes after school activities for children whose family can't afford it.

And in 2015, you were officially working as a community outreach liaison for the Princeton Public Schools. At the same time, you started distributing food for the needy in a program that was officially recognized as the Henry Pannell Mobile Food Pantry in 2018

Today you are part of Solidaridad that assists the immigrant community and the Princeton Children fund and other food sharing association which we will cover on another podcast.

Recently you became the Princeton coordinator for the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF) a program that assists first-generation immigrants in going to college.

Last May, the Princeton Council recognized you for your work for the community, the students and their families.

It seems that you’ve always lived to give and to help others. Is that so? If I could have asked your mother: ‘How old was Lily when you first realized that she cared so much for other people, what do you think she would she have told me?

Music from Kabbalistic Village

For the first installment of a series on amazing survivors of domestic violence, I speak with Sheri Kurdakul from Princeton, NJ. Sheri is the CEO and founder of VictimsVoice an app that provides a legally admissible way for victims to document abuse incidents.

Sheri speaks with Back in America about her father’s abuse that started when she was a toddler, her recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD and how she reclaimed her life to become who she is today.

In the United States, an average of 20 people experiences intimate partner physical violence every minute.

This equates to more than 10 million abuse victims annually.

1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men experience severe intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner contact, sexual violence, and/or intimate partner stalking with impacts such as injury, fearfulness, posttraumatic stress disorder, use of victim services

Photo (C) Kapu Patel 

This is the third installment of Back in America
In this podcast,​ I explore unique and amazing American stories from my multicultural perspective.

This episode is part of a series on masculinity in America. Here I speak to Robert Kandell an author and coach. I met Robert in New York as he was promoting his book, unHIDDEN - 'A book for Men and Those Confused by Them'.

I speak with Robert about how his own personal challenges prompted him to work on masculinity.

This is the second installment of Back in America

In this podcast,​ I explore unique and amazing American stories from my multicultural perspective.

This episode is part of a series on masculinity in America. Here I speak to Toby Fraser a social worker and manager at the Lutheran Settlement House in Philadelphia.

I met Toby at a workshop on toxic masculinity that he has been running for some time now. During our conversation, we speak about his own experience working with domestic violence, gender roles, the impact of Trump on American men, and many other topics around what it means to be a man in America.

This is the first installment of Back in America.

In this podcast, I explore unique amazing American stories from my multicultural perspective.

This episode is part of a series on masculinity in America.

Here I speak to Eric Marsh a black activist and social worker in Philadelphia.

We speak about being a black man in America; the impact of slavery. The impact of Trump election; consumerism.

We discuss an art piece by Hank Willis Thomas, Branded Head, a photo of black man’s head with the shape of the Nike swoosh and what Thomas called commodifiable blackness.