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Success to me is my significance. How many people can I positively impact? -Jean Kanokogi

When you are the daughter of a trailblazer, the bar is set pretty high. For Jean Kanokogi, PhD, accomplishing great things while doing good in the world has been her mission. Jean is the daughter of Rusty Kanokogi, the Mother of Women’s Judo whose life is chronicled is a memoir written by mother and daughter called Get Up & Fight. In this inspiring interview, Jean tells her mother’s incredible story from scrappy street fighter to judo champion to fearless advocate for equal sports for women and girls. Jean watched her mother team up with Billy Jean King to help pass Title 1X legislation in 1972, and to ensure that women’s judo was included in the 1988 Olympic Games for the first time ever. A 5th degree black belt and judo champion herself, Jean holds a doctorate in psychology and is a Senior Special Agent for the U.S. Government . Her many assignments over the last 23 years have included being one of the lead investigators in the attacks on 9/11 and as the volunteer director of Mental Health and Peer Support Services for the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. For a story about the unbreakable bond between mother and daughter, and the life lessons we learn from each another, hit that download button.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:25 — 23.3MB) | Embed

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Freedom means the ability to be who you are, to say what you want to say, and to live the life you want to live without anybody telling you: you can’t, you can’t you can’t. – Edra Toth

Imagine what it must be like to live under the control of an oppressive Communist government. Now imagine that you are only 4 years old and your parents decide it’s time to escape, knowing that if you are caught, you may be killed. You travel by night and hide by day with very little to eat until you reach the safety of a neighboring country and then, receive asylum in the United States. Meet Edra Toth. She lived this story when she and her parents escaped Hungary in 1956. This interview is all about what happened next and the lessons she learned along the way. Oh, and by the way, Edra became a world renowned prima ballerina. Go ahead and hit that download button.
www.northeasternballet.org #ballet

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:27 — 24.2MB) | Embed

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Our main goal, in everything we do, is to bring hope to a hopeless world. -Lily Isaacs

We’re on the road this week, just outside of Nashville, Tennessee for an interview with Lily Isaacs, co-founder & matriarch of The Isaacs, a multi-award-winning family group whose music is described as Southern Gospel, Country, and Americana. Born in Germany after World War II, Lily is the child of holocaust survivors. Her parents were Polish Jews and in this interview, she describes in detail how they were forced from their homes and into the streets at gunpoint by the Nazis. After spending time in the Warsaw ghetto, Lily’s parents were jammed with other terrified Jews into train cars and delivered to concentration camps where most were gassed and those who survived nearly starved to death. A proud immigrant to the United States, Lily grew up in the Bronx, New York where she loved to sing and was a bit of a hippy. She and her singing partner Marie were only 19 when they landed a recording contract with Columbia Records. After spending a summer performing in little clubs in Greenwich Village, she met a musician from Kentucky named Joe Isaacs and married him. Inspired by an experience in a little country church in Ohio, Lily converted to Christianity and was temporarily disowned by her heartbroken parents. Joe and Lily had 3 children and in this interview, Lily describes the incredible musical talents of Ben, Sonya & Becky. Formed 35 years ago and still going strong, The Isaacs family band continues to pack audiences worldwide with their own brand of deeply moving, faith-based music. For an inspiring story of faith, perseverance and success in the music business, hit that download button!