Author: kltangen

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29 Karen Pryor

Karen Pryor

What’s it like to have made learning fun?

Rewards can change the lives of everyone around you, of every species. Dogs, dolphins, elephants, employees, children and you all share in the willingness to trade behavior for rewards. Dolphins jump for fish, you go to work for money. Everyone is impacted by smiles, hugs and nodding your head. Karen Pryor suggests you learn how to thoughtfully use operant conditioning. These principles mean you don’t have to push anyone around, impress them or dominate them. And if you don’t learn these tools, you tend to fall back on being a primate. Check out Karen Pryor’s ClickerTraining site here.

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28 Stacey Earl

Stacey Earl

What’s it like having a mother who’s bipolar?

Stacey Earl turned a difficult childhood into a productive adult life. Her father died when she was young, and his relatives didn’t keep in touch. And her mother suffered from bipolar disorder, often on the manic (scary) side. Stacey has a degree in kinesiology. In contrast to physical therapy, she works with people after they have recovered from surgery. She puts her energy into helping people improve their lives by increasing their flexibility and muscular functionality. She is a specialist in both resistance and muscle-activation training.

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27 Gwynn Lewis

Gwynn Lewis

What’s it like to be in prison for drugs?

When you go to prison in New Mexico for carrying 2 joints of marijuana (10 year sentence), and get out on parole, you naturally run away to Equator so you can get thrown into prison there for cooking cocaine. How you get from there to starting a charity that helps children who would otherwise be forgotten is the story of Gwynn Lewis. For more on Sowers International, click here.

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26 Victor Vanacore

Victor Vanacore

What’s it like being a pops conductor?

Grammy award winner, Victor Vanacore started playing piano professionally in his teens. Now as a Pops conductor, he directs an entire orchestra, which a playing gigantic instrument composed of multiple talents and different personalities. Getting them to all work together is the high-wire act of music. Victor tries to make his arrangements fun for the audience and challenging for the orchestra. He also has been musical director for many great singers, including Barry Manilow, Johnny Mathis and Ray Charles. For more about Victor click here.

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25 John Glore

John Glore

What’s it like being a playwright?

Although he interested in math and science, John Glore switched to theater in college. By night he is a playwright; by day he is a dramaturg (the drama expert in a theater). Sometimes his roles overlap. When John’s adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time was produced at SCR, he was both playwright and supervising producer. John’s advice for aspiring playwrights: reconsider. Or at least, make sure your day job can support you during the years it will take you to become and overnight success. Here’s where John worksL South Coast Rep

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24 Allison Bibicoff

Allison Bibicoff

What’s it like being a choreographer?

Allison Bibicoff notes that if you want a steady pay check and work normal hours, don’t be a dancer or choreographer. In theater, you work nights and weekends, and relationships last only for the run of the show. At the end of six weeks, you’re off to a new set of people. And when you’re not working, you’re looking for a job. The upside is that you get to be creative, work with top performers, and get paid for what a lot of people would do for free. For a link to Allison’s website, click here.

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23 Anthony Stauffer

Anthony Stauffer

What’s it like to teach guitar online?

If you want to play blues guitar, you need Anthony Stauffer’s StevieSnacks. Every week there’s a new lick to learn. Anthony has a degree in electrical engineering, so it’s not surprising that he finds fingering is like an engineering problem: little components can be added together into more complex patterns. His advice is to do what you do best. Others might come along and do it better but until they arrive get out your slide rule, pick up your guitar and keep going. For more on Stevie Snacks click here.