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Playlist: Fluent Knowledge's Portfolio

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Ultimate Mark: "I Just Love Playing Too Much!"

From Fluent Knowledge | Part of the My Body Odyssey series | 18:49

In My Body Odyssey’s (MBO) first episode, we meet Ultimate Mark – uber-competitive weekend warrior in Ultimate Disc: “If it hurts me but helps the team, it's worth it in my mind.”

Problem is Ultimate Mark has a fully-fused spine dating back to scoliosis in high school. And that lack of flexibility, along with his competitive spirit, puts him at risk for frequent injuries and another surgery.

“There’s something called adjacent segment disease,” explains Mayo Clinic Neurosurgeon Mohamad Bydon. “It's not inforeseeable…a decision will have to be made on extending that fusion.”

Dr. Mark Stoutenberg of Temple University also sounds a cautionary note on competing with a fused spine: “I don't think our younger selves really understand what being fifty and having chronic back pain is like.”

Does Ultimate Mark love competition too much? Listen in to learn about Mark’s tradeoff of physical pain for behavioral benefit on this first episode of My Body Odyssey.

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In My Body Odyssey’s first full episode we meet Ultimate Mark– an uber competitive weekend warrior in many sports, but most frequently Ultimate Disc (formerly Ultimate Frisbee).  
Mark hurls himself on the Ultimate field just as he once did as an aspiring soccer goalie.  Problem is, Mark today has a fully fused spine dating back to severe scoliosis in high school. And that lack of spinal flexibility, along with his  love of competition and high pain tolerance, puts him at risk for frequent injuries and possibly another major surgery. 
“There’s something called adjacent segment disease,” explains Mayo Clinic Neurosurgeon Mohamad Bydon, one of two experts providing insights into Mark’s Body Odyssey. “It's not unforeseeable that as, as the years go by, he'll begin to develop problems and a decision will have to be made on extending that fusion.”
Meanwhile, Ultimate Mark continues to play at high intensity. “I'm extremely competitive and I want to win at all costs, he tells us.  “Like I, I do what I can to win and if it hurts me, but it helps the team, it's worth it in my mind.”
Our second expert guest, Mark Stoutenberg, PhD of Temple University and the NGO Exercise is Medicine, has led numerous studies and programs on the benefits of sport and exercise. Still, Dr. Stoutenberg sounds a cautionary note on Ultimate Mark’s love of  intense competition with a fully fused spine. “I don't think our younger selves really understand what being 50 and having chronic back pain is like,” says Dr. Stoutenberg. “I just hope people at that point would say, you know what, I gotta change my lifestyle.”
Does Ultimate Mark love sport too much? Mark finds the tradeoff acceptable for the social and behavioral benefits he gets from Ultimate Disc. Tune in to learn more about Mark’s highly intentional sacrifice of bodily injury for a healthier mind on this first episode of My Body Odyssey, a podcast about the rewards and challenges of an active lifestyle. 

Iron Woman Diane: The Rewards & Challenges of Exercise With Diabetes

From Fluent Knowledge | Part of the My Body Odyssey series | 18:04

This 2nd MBO episode features Diane, an amateur triathlete who’s also a Type 1 diabetic. Diane's completed three full Ironman triathlons, numerous marathons, and many cycling events, such as the New England Tour De Cure, where MBO first met her. One day, though, she drinks some juice before a yoga class and “next thing you know I’m inside an ambulance.”

With expert commentary from Dr. Michael Riddell of York University, one of the world's true experts on diabetes and exercise, this episode follows Diane's story, and the rewards and challenges of exercise with diabetes.

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Iron Woman Diane, a recently retired power industry executive with Type 1 diabetes, has completed three full Ironman triathlons, numerous marathons and many lengthy cycling events, such as the New England Tour De Cure where My Body Odyssey first met her. 

One day, though, Diane drinks some juice just before a yoga class and “next thing you know I’m inside an ambulance.”

Maintaining healthy blood sugar levels is a delicate, often dangerous balancing act for the many millions of Americans with diabetes, especially Type 1 or juvenile diabetics like Diane. Unable to create insulin, she wears an insulin pump to maintain normal blood chemistry. Even so, Diane’s triathlon race plan “consists of a two-page spreadsheet that’s nothing but…how to manage my blood sugars.” 

This episode also features expert commentary from Dr. Michael Riddell of York University, a Type 1 diabetic himself and one of the world’s great authorities on diabetes and exercise. “I was diagnosed at a time when insulin came in a vial and you took one or two shots a day… to keep your blood sugar in a reasonable range,” says Riddell, who on top of his research has helped world class athletes like the NHL’s Max Domi with their diabetes management.  

If Maxi Domi routinely handles the intensity of a pro hockey shift, and Diane has conquered 13-hour triathlons, how then did a simple yoga class land her in the emergency room? 


Listen in to find out on “Iron Woman Diane: The Rewards & Challenges of Exercise With Diabetes,” the second full episode of My Body Odyssey, a Fluent Knowledge production.

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.

Mom-on-the-Run Erin: The Challenges of Postpartum Depression

From Fluent Knowledge | Part of the My Body Odyssey series | 20:39

"Pregnancy is no joke," Erin tells us in this body odyssey that's both deeply personal and all-too-common. Having been on bed rest with preeclampsia, Erin confides, “I wasn’t good at being pregnant.” Weight gain and postpartum depression --a condition affecting 1 in 8 new moms-- made matters worse.

But when a close friend and fellow high school teacher tells Erin that running might help her behavioral and physical challenges, she (begrudgingly) starts training for a marathon.

“Each person needs a plan that is well suited for that personality and for their functioning level,” advises Dr. “Shosh” Bennett, a clinical psychologist who has personally struggled with postpartum. “The take-home message shouldn't be: I have to run a marathon in order to beat postpartum depression. It should be: Find something that's going to give them great satisfaction.”

Does Mom-on-the-Run Erin find that satisfaction on a 26.2-mile run? Listen in to see how putting in extra miles helps her kids, her partner and herself.

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Pregnancy is no joke, Erin tells us in this body odyssey, both deeply personal and all-too-common. According to the CDC, one in eight new mothers experience postpartum depression, which in Erin’s case, as with others, came after a difficult pregnancy. 

“I was on bedrest for a while and I had preeclampsia,” confides Erin. “And I wasn’t good at being pregnant.”

Weight gain didn’t help matters either. But Erin had a close friend and fellow high school teacher who convinced her that running might be part of the solution to her behavioral and physical challenges. “She said, I'm going to run a marathon… you should come with me,” recalls Erin, looking back over a year and a half of training. “I was like hard no, not gonna happen. But she's very good at talking people into stuff!”

And it was a lot of stuff Erin was talked into, in large part because Erin knew she had to make changes. That included a major change in diet, a lot of support from her husband making time for her early morning runs in the Buffalo, NY winter, and a treadmill from Santa Claus for those days when ice covered the roads outside. 

But it was also because Erin made her own goals and charted her own progress, which turns out to be a key element in finding a way out from postpartum depression.

“Each person needs a plan that is well suited for that personality and for their functioning level,” advises Dr. “Shosh” Bennett, a licensed clinical psychologist who founded Postpartum Assistance for Mothers and has personally struggled with postpartum. “The take home message to your listeners shouldn't be, I have to run a marathon in order to beat postpartum depression. It should be to find something that's going to give them great satisfaction.”

Did Mom-on-the-Run Erin find that satisfaction in running? Did she ever complete that awfully ambitious marathon? Or is that beside the point, considering the emotional distance traveled in this odyssey? 

Tune in to find out more about postpartum depression, the potential rewards of exercise for this condition, and a master class from a high school chemistry teacher who needed to put in those miles for the sake of her kids, her partner, and herself.

Deval Patrick Talks Governing: These Not So United States (MA Part One)

From Fluent Knowledge | Part of the The Purple Principle Podcast series | 31:26

Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick talks about polarization in the U.S. and his improbable American journey.

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“There are all kinds of ways in which we, as a community, enable the American story,” says Deval Patrick, implying that too often these success stories, even his own, emphasize only the individual.   

A former two-term Democratic Governor of Massachusetts, Patrick was and is a different kind of politician with a gift for communicating directly with citizens through stories, remarks and unscripted responses. 


His own American story is a remarkable one, starting in a tough, yet nurturing, South Chicago neighborhood, journeying to a planet called boarding school as a teenager, then onto Harvard, Harvard Law, and a distinguished legal career, before winning the Governorship on his first run for office. 


In our TPP interview, Patrick recounts how then Senator Barack Obama was initially quizzical, but supportive, of his seemingly long shot run for office. Patrick also underscores the unusual nature of politics in the Bay State, which has more unenrolled or independent voters than both parties combined and, in his view, a Democratic legislature that prefers a GOP Governor, at least historically, to enhance their own political power. 


“These are human dynamics,” says Patrick, “not so much partisan dynamics.”


But politics in Massachusetts is changing and polarizing, as throughout the nation. 

Patrick addresses the failure of language to adequately describe these changes, where once-centrist figures like former MA GOP Senator Ed Brooke now seem like liberals, outright radicals claim to be conservatives, and behavior once deemed anti-social is rewarded online and at the polls.

Listen in for a wide-ranging, clear-eyed, all-American discussion of politics state and national with Deval Patrick, former Governor and 2020 White House aspirant, now teaching at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the first in our two-part series on Massachusetts politics.

End of Bay State Bipartisanship?: These Not So United States (MA Part Two)

From Fluent Knowledge | Part of the The Purple Principle Podcast series | 28:51

Former MA Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and UMass Amherst Professor Alex Theodoridis discuss how national polarization is affecting Massachusetts politics in 2022.

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Massachusetts has long been a bipartisan enigma at the state level, electing moderate GOP governors for 30 of the past 60 years, while continuing to seat a Democratic state legislature, often with supermajorities. 

But despite having among the largest number of independent or unaffiliated voters in the nation (nearly 60%), Bay State politics are poised for a change, with the governor’s seat widely expected to revert to Democrats in 2022 and stay in the blue column until a shift towards moderation in the national GOP. 

In our second episode on Massachusetts, we discuss this unique history and current inflection point with former moderate GOP Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, who lost a run for the governor’s seat to Democrat Deval Patrick, our featured guest in episode one.

“Massachusetts is a wonderful model…..for the advantages of bipartisan government, “ says Healey pointing to her experience during the bipartisan passage of “Romneycare”  that would be the model for the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare.” 

Our second guest, Dr. Alexander Theodoridis of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, feels the tradition of bipartisanship and moderate Republicanism in Massachusetts is already well under attack. The pragmatic outgoing Governor Charlie Baker, one of the nation’s most popular executives, chose not to run again, thus avoiding a primary battle with a Trump-backed challenger. 

“Things have become nationalized,” says Dr. Theodoridis, a widely published scholar and columnist. “It becomes much more difficult for the average voter to think to themselves ‘well, you know, I really can't stand these Republicans at the national level, but I'm going to pull the lever for a Republican here in Massachusetts because they're different.’”

Is no state immune to the national forces of polarization? Tune in for an in depth discussion with both a uniquely experienced Massachusetts legislator, Dr. Kerry Healey, and the respected political scientist, Dr. Alexander Theodoridis. 

Politically Persuadable But Focused on Jobs? Hispanic American Swing Voters (Part 1 of 3)

From Fluent Knowledge | Part of the The Purple Principle Podcast series | 31:21

The first of 3 episodes in a mini-series on Hispanic American Swing Voters.

During National Hispanic Heritage Month, and in the lead-up to the 2022 midterm elections, The Purple Principle is exploring the overlaps between independent voters and Hispanic American political identity. Host Robert Pease speaks with a diverse range of guests, including political strategists, elected officials, academics, and even comedians, who offer engaging insights on a question that has long frustrated partisan politics: Who is the Latino voter?

Episode 1 features former Florida moderate GOP congressman Carlos Curbelo; UT San Antonio politics professor and author of "Latinas in Latino Politics," Dr. Sharon Navarro; and former 4-term San Antonio mayor, Clinton cabinet member, and Univision president, Henry Cisneros.

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Is a large and growing segment of Hispanic American voters leaning independent, as in less securely tied to either of the two major parties? 

That’s the operative question in this first episode on Hispanic swing voters, featuring three noted experts: former Florida Congressman Carlos Curbelo, UT San Antonio political scientist Dr. Sharon Navarro, and former four-term San Antonio Mayor and Clinton Cabinet member, Dr. Henry Cisneros. 

Curbelo notes the growing diversity of Hispanic voters, even within the south Florida district he represented. He goes on to explain that the recent and, to many, surprising shift of Latinos toward the Republican Party may be a result of discomfort with far left rhetoric among families who have emigrated from socialist dictatorships such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. 

Dr. Sharon Navarro observes many Hispanic voters may be registered to a political party yet remain “persuadable” by candidates speaking to concerns from the opposing side. She notes, for example, that the federal government’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is a major employer in the South Texas region. As a result, calls from the far left to completely shut down the border patrol may have persuaded some Texas Hispanics to vote GOP despite the extreme white nationalist rhetoric on the far right. 

“Politics is a marketplace of ideas,” notes Dr. Henry Cisneros, one of the nation’s first Hispanic mayors who governed as a pragmatic centrist. “Progressives, people to the left, Democrats generally would do well to try to put yourself in other people's shoes who are striving to create a better life for their families, who want the best possible education for their children in basic ways and in traditional ways, with respect to views about the country and patriotism.” 

Our nation’s fastest growing ethnic group may be our least predictable voting bloc again in the 2022 elections and beyond. Tune in for a better understanding of the diverse backgrounds, priorities and viewpoints characterizing Hispanic American swing voters.

Election Lessons Unheeded? A Cautionary View of the New U.S. House

From Fluent Knowledge | Part of the The Purple Principle Podcast series | 27:39

Rep. Will Hurd on the 2022 election results, congressional factions, and how bipartisan legislation gets passed.

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“The American people want serious people to solve serious challenges,“ declares former Texas Congressman Will Hurd in this season finale on the U.S. House of Representatives. “That’s the lesson we should take away from 2022.” 

But he is quick to add, “I don’t think that lesson is going to be implemented in this new Congress.”


Having served three terms in the House, Hurd then dissects the GOP factionalism at work in the currently contested speaker’s election, a position that traditionally goes to the party leader. And he confirms the disappointing fact that most House members are more interested in “messaging bills” with no chance of passage than progress on tough, important issues like immigration, climate change and support for Ukraine. 


TPP’s Rob Pease and Dylan Nicholls discuss each of these important issues in detail with former Congressman Hurd, paying special attention to immigration. His South Texas district shares an 800-mile border with Mexico, bearing the initial burden of huge numbers of migrants. But he’s not optimistic about any major immigration reform passing in these next two years of divided government.


The Purple Principle covered the U.S. Senate in our previous episode with former centrist Senators Doug Jones and Bob Corker. This episode we turn to the unruly chamber next door in our discussion with repeat guest Will B. Hurd, former CIA officer, three-term Texas Congressman and author of one the best recent reads on U.S. politics, American Reboot: An Idealist’s Guide to Getting Big Things Done (Simon & Schuster, 2022)


The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.


My Expert Odyssey (Part 1): Depression, Diabetes & Trauma

From Fluent Knowledge | Part of the My Body Odyssey series | 13:16

In this first of two Season 1 bonus episodes, we get a bit more personal with the expert guests whose own experiences have motivated and informed their professional endeavors.

Dr. Jacob Meyer, Director of the Wellbeing & Exercise Lab at Iowa State, on his experience with depression and exercise; Dr. Sheri Colberg, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age four; and physical therapist Dr. Lisa Lowe, who became a para rower after a terrible car accident.

S1e10_social_small In this first of two Season 1 bonus episodes, we get a bit more personal with the expert guests whose own experiences have motivated and informed their professional endeavors. Dr. Jacob Meyer, Director of the Wellbeing & Exercise Lab at Iowa State, on his experience with depression and exercise; Dr. Sheri Colberg, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age four; and physical therapist Dr. Lisa Lowe, who became a para rower after a terrible car accident.