Wed Apr 15, 2009

On Today's Show: www.crntalk.com

Robert Renteria "From The Barrio to the Board Room"
"Don't let where you came from dictate who you are, but let it be part of who you become." These are the words of successful entrepreneur Robert Renteria, who today is Executive Vice President/Co-Founder of WashPro USA, but who grew up as an infant sleeping in a dresser drawer. This poignant and often hard-hitting memoir traces Robert's life from a childhood of poverty and abuse in one of the poorest areas of East Los Angeles, to his proud emergence as a business owner today. Along the way, Robert paints a vivid portrait of the numerous people who influenced his life, both good and bad - on one side, his loving and supportive mother, who always believed in him; and the US Army, which showed him that persistence, respect, integrity, commitment and honor could lead to great rewards. On the other side, he talks about the forces that dragged him down - gangs; doing and dealing drugs, an alcohol and drug addicted father that abandoned the family, a sometimes abusive stepfather and climbing the broken ladder of corporate America. Today, Robert gives back - eternally grateful for how his own life turned around. This is a man who works with people who need a break, who takes their hand and shows them how to get out of the proverbial gutter, how to have the kind of life he has. From the Barrio to the Board Room is his way of reaching out to all the people he can't meet personally. It's smart, practical self-help advice wrapped up in the exciting and inspiring, sometimes funny, and always gripping story. Only someone who actually came from the streets, someone who knows the specific obstacles that they face, can show them how to clear their path. The book drives home the point that there's nothing that any American - Latino or otherwise - can't accomplish through persistence, hard work, heart and soul.

Dr. Andrew Newberg "How God Changes Your Brain"
Andrew Newberg, M.D., is the director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania. He is one of the founders of the new interdisciplinary field called neurotheology. He is an associate professor in the department of radiology, with secondary appointments in the departments of psychiatry and religious studies, at the University of Pennsylvania. His work has been featured on Good Morning America, Nightline, Discovery Channel, BBC, NPR, and National Geographic Television. He is the co-author of Why God Won’t Go Away, Born to Believe, and The Mystical Mind.

Katherine (Katie) Buckland -Phil Spector Murder Conviction
Currently serves as the executive director of The California Women’s Law Center (CWLC), California’s leading organization that works for systematic change on behalf of women in the areas of sex discrimination, domestic violence and reproductive justice. CWLC is the first law center in California solely dedicated to addressing the comprehensive and unique legal needs of women and girls -- which are often distinctly different from the legal issues which confront men. Under Buckland’s leadership the organization has contributed to key impact litigation cases involving Title IX violations and passed legislation to strengthen the rights of domestic violence survivors that is currently being modeled for adoption in eight states.