Radio Shows - Grand Central Radio

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Episode No. 1: Helping Kids Cope With COVID (January 22, 2021)

Host Geri Cole talks with Broadway legend and author Lisa Carroll and other grandparents across the nation about their suggestions for helping young children cope with the pandemic, including Lisa’s recently released children’s book, “The Big Bad Coronavirus And How We Can Beat It!”

Episode No. 2: Talking About Heritage and Ancestry With Grandchildren (April 1, 2021)

Sheila Wexler, genealogy enthusiast and President of a large, specialized genealogy society in the Greater Washington, D.C. area, shares with host Geri Cole and other grandparents Sheila’s suggestions and discusses their questions and ideas about researching their ancestry and engaging their grandchildren of all ages in exploring their heritage through questioning, interviewing, storytelling, photographs, objects, geography, food, clothing, and creative, interactive play.

Episode No. 3: Planning for Grandchildren’s Education and Financial Future (April 21, 2021)

Hannah Ahmed, an experienced certified financial planner employed by a registered investment advisor firm, discusses with host Geri Cole and other grandparents in East and West USA their concerns and ideas about investing for their grandchildren’s education and financial future and preparing their grandchildren to save and manage their own finances, shares tips for choosing a financial or investment adviser and various tools and strategies to save and invest for their grandchildren’s benefit, and encourages family conversations as essential to planning.

Episode No. 4: Grandchildren, Guns, and Gun Violence (May 13, 2021)

Host Geri Cole, other grandparents on America’s East and West Coasts, and NRA member, certified Range Safety Officer, and home security and safety counselor Kelan J. Vorbach talk about education, training, and discussions with grandchildren and other family members regarding guns, gun violence, vigilance, alertness, preparedness, and safety.

Episode No. 5: Product Safety Tips for Grandparents (June 21, 2021)

Dr. Gerald Goldhaber, known as “The Warnings Doctor,” an expert witness, consultant, author, and CNN Tonight and other radio and television show analyst, shares with host Geri Cole and another grandparent his extensive experience with dangers of and warnings about products, foods, beverages, and facilities and his suggestions to keep our grandchildren and ourselves safe.

Episode No. 6: Relationships Between Grandmothers and Their Daughters and Daughters-in-Law (August 3, 2021)

Dr. Bessie Fletcher, clinical psychologist, ordained Chaplain, magazine publisher, radio/television talk show personality focused on mother/daughter bonding, and great-grandmother, discusses with host Geri Cole and three other grandmothers Dr. Bessie’s strategies for developing loving “intra-conversations” and risk-free “honest conversations,” mutual trust and respect, and fulfilling relationships from generation to generation: requesting and receiving private time of mother with daughter or daughter-in-law and permission to give advice and take other action, recognizing and admitting failings, apologizing, forgiving, and giving eye contact and hugs. Geri interviews Dr. Bessie the first 45 minutes and notes takeaways the last 5 minutes. Other grandmothers share their questions and ideas for 25 minutes before the takeaways.

Episode No. 7: Handling 911 Emergencies With Grandchildren (February 16, 2022)

Nancy A. May, a renowned strategic advisor to senior executives and boards of public and private companies of various sizes and locations in a broad array of industries about business issues whose company focuses on guiding caregivers to obtain practical knowledge, resources, and access for their support and to avoid tricks and traps of care systems, talks with host Geri Cole and other grandparents about best practices to train young children when and how to dial 911 and to plan for medical and other emergencies while caring for young children and disabled persons.

Episode No. 8: Talking With Grandchildren About Climate Change (February 24, 2022)

Katie Ginsberg, founder and advisor of the Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation, CELF, a not-for-profit organization fostering education of young people about the links between human health, consumption, conflict, equity, and the environment and working with education and environmental thought leaders from around the world to bring best practices in Education for Sustainability to K-12 public and independent schools, discusses with host Geri Cole and another grandparent discussion topics and activities that grandparents can share with their grandchildren (including storytelling about grandparents’ childhood experiences with nature, connecting trees to environmental change, and nature journaling), actions that grandparents can encourage by their older grandchildren, vocabulary promoting open and collaborative conversations about environmental literacy in all communities, and five strategies to address climate change.

Episode No. 9: Introducing Grandchildren to Nature Through Art and to Art Through Nature (March 9, 2022)

Kristin Reiber Harris, an artist/animator/educator committed to visual storytelling about the natural world, host Geri Cole, and four other grandparents, including two other visual artists, discuss engaging and developing appreciation by grandchildren for nature and art, including enjoying nature together and creating parallel nature journals and other collaborative grandparent/grandchild art projects, integrating technological art creation with traditional art media, remaining non-judgmental about grandchildren’s and grandparent’s technical artistic competence and skills, and focusing on their mark-making and creative expressions of their perceptions and feelings in their art, validating their expressions as artists.

Episode No. 10: Building Resilience in Disaster (May 27, 2022)

Licensed clinical social workers experienced in assisting children and their caregivers in overcoming severe trauma resulting from such community disasters as 9/11, floods, and displacement and resettlement due to war or other disasters in Central America, Dr. Leslie Pena-Sullivan and Mr. William Stover, discuss with host Geri Cole and two other working grandmothers tools and strategies to help children in their care survive trauma and anxiety during and after community disaster when professional mental health and social worker services and – even the Internet – may not be available, including (a) listening more than talking, (b) asking open-ended questions, (c) collaborating and interacting in art, play and other activities with children, (d) modeling expressing and asking for help about our own fears and emotions, (e) asking children about the importance to them of what they lost and emphasizing what the children still have, including their caregiver, without promising that they will recover what they lost, (f) acknowledging and apologizing to children for our speaking or acting towards them in ways we regret, (g) redirecting children’s potentially harmful words and actions to safe activities such as ripping paper, (h) preparing for the inevitable community disaster affecting us and the children in our care by imaging how we would speak and behave in disasters reported in the news, (i) building and relying for support on a community of kind and compassionate persons experiencing the same disaster, (j) remembering that none of us are perfect caregivers and all we can do is the best that we can, and (k) urging our governmental representatives to devote financial resources for mental health providers and social workers, attired for easy identification, to accompany first responders to sites of disasters to provide counseling as and when needed.

To view/download transcript click here

Episode No. 11: Exercising With Grandchildren for Energy, Strength, and Mental Health (April 22, 2024)

Host Geri Cole converses with physical therapist, mental performance coach, educator, and public speaker Dr. Laurel Mines, PT, DPT OCS, who holds a Doctor of Physical Therapy from MGH Institute of Health Professions in Massachusetts and instructs at Stanford University in California, and with two other grandparents, their experiences and suggestions regarding exercise with children by persons in the role of grandparent to promote medical, physical, and mental wellbeing of all, including (a) making an exercise plan considering the different ages, stages of development, and other circumstances of all participants in each activity and the equipment and other resources available, (b) recognizing when to stop an activity, focusing on fun and connection with children an other companions in, and not solely on completion of, the activity, (c) arranging the activity environment for successful interaction among all participants in the activity and training for flexibility and resiliency, (d) attending sports games with children, both professional games and games the children play, and playing board games like chess, reading, and singing with children, (e) telling children a grandparent’s legacy stories of successes and failures of growing up and handling injuries and other setbacks, (f) using online resources about training for and enjoying exercise, and considering whether to consult with a physical therapist or a personal trainer depending upon goals and extent of any pain or dysfunction, (g) taking children to gyms admitting and providing appropriate activities for and supervision of them, and attaining from gym staff instructions for setting up equipment and using it safely, (h) encouraging children to engage in ball slams and other vigorous activities for exercise, fun, anger management, excess energy control, and other mental health improvements and augmentations, (i) testing the limits of all activity participants and tracking progress of increasing weights lifted, miles hiked, walked, run, or bicycled, and other benchmarks, to inspire further progress to physical and mental fitness, and (j) incorporating appreciation of nature and relaxed conversation in exercise activities like walking.

To view/download transcript click here