Psychjourney Podcasts

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Scott M. Davis, M.D., author of Living Jonathans Life: A Doctors Descent Into Darkness & Addiction published by Health Communications, Inc.

Scott M. Davis, M.D., is an internist and addiction medicine specialist. A graduate of Boston University School of Medicine, Dr. Davis has served as the only full-time Addiction Medicine Physician in the world renowned Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage. Dr. Davis is widely regarded as a leading expert in the field of addiction medicine, garnering requests from numerous professional organizations including the California Board of Registered Nursing, American Society for Addiction Medicine (ASAM), and the U.S. Government's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT). At the Betty Ford Center, he developed a protocol for opiate detoxification, which has become recognized as the national model of treatment for opiate addiction. He has been published in The Journal of Addictive Diseases, The American Journal of Cardiology, and Men's Health magazines.  Visit his blog.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Dr. Gary Marcus,  author of Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind published by Houghton Mifflin Co.

Dr. Gary Marcus is Director of the NYU Infant Language Learning Center, and Professor of Psychology at New York University. Author of The Birth of the Mind, The Algebraic Mind: Integrating Connectionism and Cognitive Science, and editor of The Norton Psychology Reader, Marcus's research on developmental cognitive neuroscience has been published in over forty articles in leading journals such as Science, Nature, Cognition, Cognitive Psychology, and the Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

In 1996 he won the Robert L. Fantz award for new investigators in cognitive development, and in 2002-2003 Marcus he was a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in Social and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. His 2008 book Kluge was a New York Times Editor's Choice. Visit his website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Darby Penney and Dr. Peter Stastny co-authors of The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic written by Darby Penney, Peter Stastny, and Lisa Rinzler and published by Bellevue Literary Press.

 Darby Penney is a leader in the human rights movement for people with psychiatric disabilities and a former state mental health official who has experienced the mental health system inside and out. A Senior Research Associate with Advocates for Human Potential, Inc., she is a 2007 fellow in Nonfiction Literature from the New York Foundations for the Arts.

Dr. Peter Stastny is Senior Psychiatrist at South Beach Psychiatric Center in Brooklyn, New York .a filmmaker of several documentary films dealing with mental health subjects, and the author of numerous scholarly papers on psychosocial treatments, self-help and empowerment, film history and mental health.

Visit The Lives They Left Behind website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Dr. Dusty Miller, author of Stop Running from Love: 3 Steps to Overcoming Emotional Distancing & Fear of Intimacy  published by New Harbinger.

Dusty Miller, Ed.D.,is a clinical psychologist, writer, trainer, and internationally-recognized expert in the areas of trauma, addiction, and self-sabotage--including relationship self-sabotage such as distancing. She is the director of the ATRIUM Institute in Northampton, VA, Miller offers training, consultation, and workshops for professionals and paraprofessionals who work with traumatic stress, substance abuse, relational challenges, and more. She is author of Women Who Hurt Themselves, Addictions and Trauma Recovery, and Your Surviving Spirit. Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Amy Sutherland, M.A.,  author of What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers published by Random House.

Amy Sutherland is the author of Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched and Cookoff. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. Her feature piece “What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage,” on which this book is based, was the most viewed and most e-mailed article of The New York Times online in 2006. Sutherland divides her time between Boston and Portland, Maine.Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Pamela Paul, author of Parenting, Inc.: How We are Sold on $800 Strollers, Fetal Education, Baby Sign Language, Sleeping Coaches, Toddler Couture, and Diaper Wipe Warmers- and What It Means for Our Children published by Times Books.

Pamela Paul is a contributor to Time magazine and the author of is a contributor to Time magazine and the author of Pornified: How Pornography Is Damaging Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families and The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony. She writes for such publications as The New York Times Book Review, Psychology Today, Self, Ladies’ Home Journal, and The Economist, and she blogs for the Huffington Post.  She and her family live in New York. Visit her website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Dr. Elizabeth Brondolo co-author of Break the Bipolar Cycle: A Day-By-Day Guide to Living With Bipolar Disorder written by Dr. Elizabeth Brondolo and Xavier Amador, Ph.D. and published by McGraw Hill.

Dr. Brondolo is a clinical psychologist and Professor in the Department of Psychology at St. John’s University. She is a nationally known researcher studying the effects of stress and interpersonal conflict on health. She directs the Social Stress and Health Research Unit at St. John’s University. She has been practicing in New York City for more than fifteen years, specializing in the treatment of bipolar disorders.  Dr. Brondolo is also a member of the professional staff at the Jamaica Hospital Department of Family Medicine and Ambulatory Care.  Visit her website. 

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews  Pat Samples M.A. author of Secret Wisdom of a Woman's Body: Freeing Yourself to Live Passionately and Age Fearlessly  published by Llewellyn Publications.

Pat Samples is an international speaker and transformational educator, is the author of Body Odyssey: Lessons from the Bones and Belly. She speaks and gives workshops on conscious aging, body wisdom, caregiving, improvisational movement and creative living. 

Samples is also the author of six other books and has written widely on health, aging and human behavior. She is a past editor of The Phoenix, a wellness monthly. More than 300 organizations have hosted her keynotes and workshops. She has been a guest on the Tavis Smiley Show and dozens of other radio and television shows In her writing, speaking and teaching, Samples draws on her experience working and volunteering in health care, social services, ministry and the arts. Samples has master's degrees in creative writing and human development.  Visit her website.

Dr. John Riolo, host of The Insider Podcast, interviews Mr. Jason Emerson, author of The Madness of Mary Lincoln published by Southern Illinois University Press.

Jason Emerson is an independent historian and freelance writer writing from Fredericksburg, Va.  He has published articles and book reviews in both scholarly and popular publications, links to some of which can be found on this page.

He has worked as a National Park Service park ranger at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Gettysburg National Military Park, and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (the Arch) in St. Louis; a costumed interpreter at the Genesee Country Museum in Mumford, NY, a professional journalist, a newsletter publisher, and a freelance writer. Currently, he is a stay-at-home dad while he writes. Visit his website.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Marya Hornbacher, author of Madness: A Memoir published by Houghton Mifflin.

Marya Hornbacher published her first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.), in 1998, when she was twenty-three. What started as a crazy idea suggested by a writer friend became the classic book that has been published in fourteen languages, is taught in universities and writing programs all over the world, and has, according to the thousands of letters Marya has received over the years, changed lives.

Her second book, the acclaimed novel The Center of Winter (HarperCollins, 2005) has been called "masterful," "gorgeous writing," "a stunning achievement of storytelling," "delicious," and "compulsive reading." Told in three voices, by six-year-old Kate, her mentally ill brother Esau, and their mother Claire, The Center of Winter is the story of a family recovering from a father's suicide in the spare, wintry Minnesota north, a story of struggle, transformation, and hope.

Marya's new memoir Madness: A Life (Houghton Mifflin) is an intense, beautifully written book about the difficulties, and promise, of living with mental illness. It is already being called "the most visceral, important book on mental illness to be published in years."

The recipient of a host of awards for journalism and a Pulitzer Prize nominee, Marya has lectured at universities around the country, taught writing and literature, and published in academic and literary journals since 1992. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband Jeff, their cats Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot, and their miniature dachshunds Milton and Dante.  Visit her website.