Channel 4 — June 8, 2023
Today’s featured interview:
Laura
Formentini
speaking about “Twentyone Olive Trees: A Mother's Walk through the Grief of Suicide to Hope and Healing ”

TWENTYONE OLIVE TREES is the author's journey of transformation portrayed as a collection of letters, poetry, and fables she wrote to her son Blaise after his death. Before each of the letters, 21 fable narratives unfold, further illuminating this intimate look at coping with loss and acceptance that intrigues, inspires, and gives hope to readers looking for answers about life and death and those who long to transform their grief into something beautiful.
Currently playing:
Douglas
C
Atkins
speaking about “Diminishing Horizons”
Douglas Atkins understands the heart of man in all its beauty and complexity. Couple that with deep scientific knowledge and an imagination that ranges from futuristic Artificial Intelligence and Ice Age droughts to repressive governments and space colonies, and you get Diminishing Horizons. These stories explore what happens when flawed men and women encounter futuristic situations with few moral safeguards ... yet sometimes manage to find redemption (of sorts) where it doesn’t seem possible. These imaginative stories sparkle with intriguing what-ifs, humor, and surprise endings that will stay with you.
Currently playing:
Tom
Davis
speaking about “Empty Quiver”
As the Soviet Union deploys its new SS-20 missile, the US decides to counter by stationing its new Pershing II missile in West Germany. But many Germans are opposed to having the new weapons on their soil, a resistance the Soviet KGB decides to exploit, no matter who they must team with to halt the US deployment. In Washington, NSC staffer Carter Cardwell is sent to find out what forces are at work and what the KGB is up to. He brings with him CIA Analyst Katherine O’Connor, an expert on the Soviet Union with whom he has a personal relationship. Meanwhile, the KGB decides upon a very risky and complicated approach to broaden German opposition against the arrival of the new Pershings. The KGB chief responsible for Western Europe, Dimitry Zhukov, takes personal charge of the Soviet effort. Carter, Katherine and Zhukov have confronted each other before, but now find they must work together before a nuclear confrontation spins out of control as both sides discover they have to confront dark forces from the past in order to create the conditions for a more peaceful future. Will they succeed? Or will nuclear terrorists upset the nuclear balance?
Currently playing:
Thomas
Mark
Johnston
speaking about “My Kingdom for a Horse”
Scotland, 1585. Lord Warden Johnstone is leading a troop of his clansmen back home. Pursued by Lord Maxwell, a battle of survival is about to commence. Meanwhile, Lady Margaret and her son, James eagerly await, looking out over the battlements of Lochwood Castle.
The ensuing battle leads to a sequence of events that would reverberate down the ages through history. Referred to previously as border clans, The Border Reivers would be used throughout the world as mercenary soldiers because of their unrivalled fighting ability.
The theft of a horse by a band of Johnstones from Wamphray led to the Battle of Dryfe Sands, the disbandment of the border clans and their banishment to the colonies by King James VI of Scotland after he became King James I of England and Ireland in 1603. The kingdom was united, and all for the theft of a horse!
Currently playing:
David
F.
D'Orazi
speaking about “The In-Between Artist”
The successes and struggles of influential twentieth century artist Tony D'Orazi are detailed in this first-ever biography, The In-Between Artist: The Story of Tony D'Orazi, from his early years as a child prodigy in Missoula, Montana, to his ascension into an award-winning artist by way of New York City and Chicago and his days working for Disney to ultimately becoming the radio and television personality known as Uncle Tony O'Dare, "the first cartoonist of the air." Tony's personal struggles would repeatedly attempt to derail his artistic ambitions, but the art would always find a way to persevere.
Along his ascent, he would also meet his true love, whom he formed a vaudeville act with, which found them entertaining crowds across America. From there, he became a husband and father of four, who constantly struggled to find balance between his roles as a visual artist and family man, all while battling with severe bouts of mental illness.
This is a portrait of an artist and entertainer which also includes later chapters of his life, in which he went on to become a successful salesman and character actor, all while still pursuing his need to create. In the end, despite all these roles he played and the countless hurdles he faced, Tony remained an artist in between. Ultimately, his story proves that no matter what obstacles he faced, his art always found a way.
Currently playing:
Michelle Rene
DeBellis
speaking about “The Music We Make”
Surviving an accident that takes his mother’s life, 22-year-old songwriter Santiago DeAngelo is consumed by grief, guilt, and the opiates he is prescribed for his injuries. Nearing rock bottom, he receives inspiration for a song from his late mother. As he struggles to write it, he falls in love with Kitty Holladay, a music producer who offers a rare shot at fame with a hidden agenda. Kitty seduces him into the fast-paced world of pop music, where he records a hit album while fighting his opiate addiction to write the one song that will help him make peace with his mother’s death.
But when their relationship ends over the betrayal of that song, Santiago must decide the real value of his life in a moment that nearly ends it.
Currently playing:
John
Mahaffey
speaking about “Shafted”
Back from rock bottom... Trey McCall, an up-and-coming superstar on the golf circuit, staggered past a mirror and gasped at his reflection; horrified, he froze and stared at his pathetic image—sweating profusely through a torn and faded Bob Seger tee shirt, eyes blood red and glazed, hands shaking, mouth dry and scratchy as sandpaper. The disciplined essence of an athlete, a thing of the past—each intoxicated day mirrors the last and the next—lured from his principled sheltered life on The Circle M Ranch by unscrupulous forces in the real world. Suddenly fully aware—he must escape this highway to nowhere—to regain purpose in and for his life. The obstacles were infinite—four truths, his only vehicle: He would need significant help to get there. He must own his past to have a future. Karma is real. Trust is earned. Lucky Richards, his nefarious business manager—a catalyst for disaster—vanishes, leaving in his wake an international trail of egregious felonies implicating McCall and his family. Survival becomes Trey’s primary concern, as golf takes a backseat.
Currently playing:
J.
W.
Webb
speaking about “Blood Feud: Berserker Trilogy, Book 1”
An epic tale of magic, revenge and power begins. Jaran Saerk is an exile from the North, driven out of his homeland by a sorceress who killed his father. He came of age while serving as a warrior in the armies of the Imperial Shen, but he’s never forgotten his vow to avenge his family and take back what is rightfully his. Recently captured and made a slave, Savarna hides a dark secret and doesn’t plan on staying in chains for long. She wants to escape, slip inside the Golden Palace and kill the Empress of Shen. When she meets the exiled warrior from the North, she finally may have her chance. Finvar the Droll, who claims to be a retired thief, insists he can help Jaran in his quest to regain his kingdom. But whose side is this trickster really on? As mighty nations ready for war, enemies surround the trio on all sides. They must unite not simply to stay alive, but also to fulfill their quest: Kill the witch Sheega before she destroys them all. Blood Feud is the start of a new trilogy set in the world of Ansu.
Currently playing:
Randy
Wojnarowicz
speaking about “Two Roads: The Unraveling of Dark Family Secrets”
Sometimes the life we lead is the culmination of a million small moments that we let slip by, pretending they don’t mean anything, until one day they mean everything. The meaning we give those moments will forever determine our fate. Ray Shipman faces losing not only himself but everyone he ever loved. Ever the optimist, however, Ray is determined to live out whatever time he has left- on his own terms- with the love of his life, Allison, and his children Dorothy and Jackie. As Ray slips deeper into the grips Alzheimer’s, he reveals a dark family secret that threatens to destroy the people he spent a lifetime protecting. Ray and Allison now face a reality they avoided since the first year of their marriage and it forces them to question if their 50 year love story was real. Ray’s beloved daughter, Dorothy, struggles to find the truth of who she really is and if Ray is the loving father she adores- or a fraud. With incredible storytelling, new author, Randy Wojnarowicz takes readers on an emotional ride seen through the eyes of three generations of the Shipman family as they grapple with their past, losing Ray and an unimaginable tragedy that no one sees coming. In the end, will love triumph over all or will Ray have destroyed the one thing he cares about most in this world- his family
Currently playing:
M.J.
Polelle
speaking about “American Conspiracy”
When the president-elect is assassinated, Jim Murphy of the Chicago PD gets the blame as the country encounters an unprecedented constitutional crisis. While serving as extra security his moment of distraction offered the assassin the opportunity to strike. To redeem his good name Jim Murphy volunteers to investigate the mysterious disappearance of gangbangers who turn up as blood-drained corpses. His investigation connects the murders to an ailing Big Pharma tycoon conducting secret blood experiments to save his life. Meanwhile, the election is thrown into Congress for resolution after no surviving candidate wins in the Electoral College. With many twists and turns Jim Murphy discovers a connection between the Big Pharma tycoon and a political coup in the making instigated by the same tycoon who wants to save not only life but his country by making it great again. Jim Murpy teams up with the "backdoor' president elected by the House of Representatives to put down the coup on the verge of succeeding. The tycoon escapea to Cuba where he dies a painful death as a result of his dangeroua experimentation with the young blood of gangbangers.
Currently playing:
Trina
Carroll-Houk
speaking about “Breaking Free from the Ego: A Course in Finding and Freeing Yourself”
“Breaking Free from the Ego: A Course in Finding and Freeing Yourself” reveals the secret to happiness and fulfillment which can only be learned through personal experience. Fortunately, Trina Carroll-Houk has had that experience. She can teach you how to break free from what’s holding you back from living a life of inner peace. To live a rewarding life, we need to break free from our ego, and that doesn’t happen by accident. It happens with intention.
Learn how to discover your true identity and embrace your inner spirituality. All of life’s problems are created in the mind―yet the solutions are found beyond the mind! This book will teach you the evolutionary process of living in a higher dimension of consciousness.
Currently playing:
Donna
Louis
speaking about “Miracles of Direction Miracles of Conquest Miracles of Provision Miracles of Purpose”
Miracles of Direction, Miracles of Conquest, Miracles of Provision, and Miracles of Purpose delves into biblical miracles that took place while Jesus was here on earth and cross references with miracles that take place on a daily basis now in the 21st century.