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We often hear celebrities talk about ‘giving back,’ a noble gesture and they surely have the money to do so. But how about the rest of us? We often feel like giving back or just helping others in need around the world and in our country, though we don’t know how to do it, and where to go.

Kathy LeMay is the founder, president and CEO of Raising Change and now the author of The Generosity Plan: Sharing Your Time, Treasure and Talent to Shape the World (www.thegenerosityplan.com)  a wonderful new book that provides ways we can share out time, talent and resources to make a difference in the world.

Listen in today to hear how you can make a generosity plan - yes you! - so you can help others while making good choices ~

Twice this past spring a bear made its way to our fenced in garbage area, took off the whole section of fence and rummaged through the garbage cans. He left the fence on the road. Last week a mangy looking fox sat at the window of the studio here at WTBQ in bustling Warwick looking longingly in. After a few moments of shock, then empathy, we called the police.

In Central Park and in suburban Westchester reports of wild animal sightings are up.  Why? and the most important question What are we to do? Well that is what I will talk about with Monica Engebretson from Born Free USA today www.bornfreeusa.org. She is going to enlighten us about what to do, how to avoid conflicts with wildlife and the dangers of putting out traps that can hurt our domestic dogs and cats. She is also going to inform us about how to change local laws. She has many resources such as www.coexistingwithwildlife.com   for us and lots of information that we need to know because as the police officer said to me” They live here too.”

Also joining me today will be Tony Award and Emmy Award nominated actor, producer and puppeteer John Tartaglia to talk about his Off-Broadway hit ImaginOcean. (www.imaginoceanthemusical.com) This is an innovative glow-in-the-dark musical featuring extraordinary puppets, songs and a great journey of discovery for all ages - and great fun!

So join me today so you can be informed and make good choices ~

Antidepressants are the most commonly prescribed medications in the U.S.  with more than 118 million prescriptions written per year. Is it a trend or are they filling a great need for many depressed Americans?  How much do you know about antidepressants? Are they right for you and for how long?

If you, or someone close to you is taking antidepressants listen in today when I talk with psychiatrist Dr. Michael D. Banov who has written a new book, Taking Antidepressants: Your Comprehensive Guide to Starting, Staying on and Safely Quitting (Sunrise River Press, 2010). This is an enlightening, informational and easy to read complete guide to antidepressants that everyone who takes antidepressants - or is considering it - should own. Go to his site www.takingantidepressants.com to purchase the book and learn more.  

Dr. Banov will talk about who should take antidepressants, the myths surrounding them, the different  ones, the side effects and how to get off them. This book is an invaluable reference for all who take antidepressants and for our family members who need to know everything about them. Listen in today to Dr. Banov so you can make good choices ~

If your summer was anything like mine, it has gone by fast and busy. Not that we are totally at the end, but with school only a few weeks away it is time to savor the last bit of hammock peace. Don’t you just love those hot steamy days where you don’t feel compelled to do anything but laze around in a hammock and read a good book? I do, even though currently I don’t have a hammock, I enjoy every bit of those days.

And if your kid has not been reading as much as you wish this summer, there is still time to have them read Gayle Brandeis’s new book, My Life With The Lincolns (published by Henry Holt & Company). This is such a fun book to read you may end of reading it yourself - I did and loved it! Gayle is an amazing writer and I just ordered her novel for adults, The Book of Dead Birds, which won the Barbara Kingsolver Bellwether Prize for Fiction.

Join me today when I talk to Gayle about her book, her life and her summer. Go to her website www.gaylebrandeis.com for more info and to order her books knowing you are definetely making good choices ~

When it comes to our kids parents have an intuitive knowledge and feelings about what they need, and most of us recognize it  - occasionally. But how would you communicate with your child if they could not actually speak with you? Would you be able to understand their needs?

All kids give us ’secret clues’ to what they are feeling. As parents our job is to know what they need even when they can’t or just don’t want to tell us.  But how can you do that?  My guest today, Dr. Debra Snyder, will explain how you can understand what your kids are needing and thinking even when they aren’t saying it. Her new book, Intuitive Parenting: Listening to the Wisdom of Your Heart, (Atria Books, SimonandShuster.com) explains to readers how to communicate through subtle energy, and she should know. Her daughter Raegan Aria, was born with a rare brain defect and Debra had to learn how to communicate with her daily on a deeper level. 

You can learn her HeartGlow techniques of intuitive connection by listening in today. You can also go to her website www.heartglowparenting.com to get a copy of her book, learn more about her, her daughter and what she does to help others so you can make good choices ~

Summer is a great time to catch up on reading. If you have lost interest in reading because you spend more time on computers, phones and TV then today is the day to respark your reading interest and go get a book!

My guest today, Pam Allyn, is amazing.  You may have seen her on the Today Show or read about her in the NYTimes or heard her on Oprah Radio, and if you did you will know how amazing she is. Pam is a literacy expert/advocate and she does more for reading than any one I have ever talked to or heard about. Pam’s love of reading is contagious and she spreads her work to schools worldwide. She is a multi award winning author and her latest book is, What to Read When. Go to her website www.whattoreadwhen.com to learn more about Pam, her work and you can watch her on the Today Show. You can also learn about her nonprofit work -which is truly inspiring.

I look forward to talking with Pam today and listen in so you and your family can make good choices ~

Tracing your ancestors has become a serious hobby for many, thanks to the Internet.  It can prove to be quite exciting, and some say it is liberating, to search through documents about your family generations ago. Uncovering family history, and sometimes discovering family secrets, can be enlightening.  Just to know where your great grandfather was born can be a thrill.

Join me today when Elizabeth Ruderman Miller, author of How Will I Know Where I’m Going if I Don’t Know Where I’ve Been? A Genealogical Journey, tells us how inspiring it can be to find your ancestors and relatives, and she will show us how to do it.  To learn more go on her website www.howwilliknow.com and listen in today to find out how you can trace your roots and learn to make good choices ~

According to the US Dept. of Education nearly 1.2 million students dropped out of high school in 2008.  While 70% do complete high school, the drop out rate is too high. As President Obama said in March, “Not long ago you could drop out of high school and find a blue-collar job. That is just not the case anymore. Graduating from high school is an economic imperative.”

Luckily for students in Orange County who are finding it difficult, or are just unmotivated in the traditional high school setting, there is an option. It is called GO, short for Graduation Option Academy. Today I am going to talk to the Principal of the GO Academy, Paula Ray, and she will tell us what we need to know so students who are at risk of dropping out can take advantage of this option.  To learn more online go to www.ouboces.org.

This is a terrific alternative that every parent should know about it. So listen in today and learn what you need to know about keeping your kids in school so that can make good choices ~

If you are married you will want to listen in today to our special broadcast on Marriages That Grow Beyond Your Wildest Dreams with Dr. Stephen Frueh. I will be doing an hour long show today just on this topic, which is especially for baby boomers. Yes, those of us born before 1964 and have been raised with an old paradigm of marriage. If that is you  - listen in today and redefine your marriage and the way you look at it.  

Dr. Frueh is the author of With These Rings, From Marginal to Magnificent, and The Heart of a Wedding. Visit his website www.marriageconversation.com learn more and get involved. Dr. Frueh has devoted his career to marriage and will show us today why we need to reinvent ourselves and look at marriage in a new way. We are living longer and with new years ahead of us we need our marriage to be inter connected to who we are growing to be.  

Marriage is no longer dependent, but independent and you need to listen in today to learn how you can grow your marriage and make good choices ~

Kids aren’t born extraordinary they become that way because of parents and teachers, like my guest today, Rafe Esquith, who guide them.  And guide them he does! Esquith has devoted his life to helping fifth graders succeed at tough school in the Los Angeles ghetto for the past twenty-four years. He believes in these kids and he has helped thousands of them learn how to maximize their potential. He has been awarded the President’s Medal of the Arts, Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award, People Magazine’s Heroes Among Us Award and many honors like American Teacher Award.

When on tour with his last book, Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire, he was consistently asked, “What can I do to help my own kid be great?” and those questions inspired his new book, Lighting Their Fires: How Parents and Teachers Can Raise Extraordinary Kids in a Mixed-Up, Muddled-Up, Shook-Up World (Penguin Books).

With reviews like “Rafe Esquith is a genius and a saint,” from the NY Times, and “The most interesting and influential classroom teacher in the country,” from the Washington Post, you must listen in today at 1:00 to hear how you can raise extraordinary kids and make good choices ~