RMV 20 Barbara Knickerbocker Beskind: You Can Design Aging

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Barbara has been designing her life for almost a century, with a stint at global design firm IDEO starting when she was just 93-years-old. After seeing founder David Kelley featured on an episode of 60 Minutes, Barbara wrote to the company offering to help design for aging and low-vision populations. Hailing from the field of occupational therapy, after training through the U.S. Army’s War Emergency Course, and serving for 20 years before retiring as a major in 1966, Barbara’s own experience with macular degeneration led her to design glasses to help her and others with the condition. 

In this episode of Results May Vary, Barbara shares her fascinating story of personal reinvention, and how rather than allowing her illnesses and advanced age to hold her back, she simply used them as new constraints to redesign her life around.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Beskind

RMV 11 Deke Sharon: You Can Design A Cappella Into A Global Phenomenon

Today we talk to the father of contemporary a cappella, Deke Sharon. In college, Deke decided to make a career of singing in this relatively obscure style, even though people laughed at him and thought he was crazy for doing so.

Now, at 47, after serving as music director and arranger for Pitch Perfect & Pitch Perfect 2, and producer of NBC's The Sing-Off, he's staring in his new show, Pitch Slapped premiering this week on Lifetime.

In this episode, we talk to Deke about how it's possible to spread harmony through harmony, and design a cappella into a global phenomenon based on passion and perseverance.

Show Links

The Beelzebubs, is an all-male a cappella group from Tufts University that performs a mix of pop, rock, R&B, and other types of music while spreading their motto of "Fun through Song."

Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert speaks out AGAINST passion, explaining why sometimes not having a passion can lead to an even more fulfilling life.

It's not "What do you want out of life?" but maybe rather, "What are you willing to struggle for?"