Leadership Expert John St. James: Top 10 Ways To Create Your Best Life

21 September 2024

Wanting a better life is a universal desire. However, most people overlook the obvious, focus on the trivial, or make things too complicated when they try to manifest a successful life, contends one leadership expert.

“Success and achieving mastery are not for those who want it nor those who need it, but for those who are utterly determined to seize it,” says John St. James, leadership expert and author of The Master’s Path: How to Intentionally Create More Happiness, Joy, and Fulfillment in Your Life (2022).

Studying martial arts and overseeing martial arts studios for over five decades have provided St. James with the discipline to achieve balance throughout his life. He is a successful entrepreneur who also serves as president of both an international martial arts organization and a non-profit that helps at-risk and disadvantaged children and adults learn important life skills.

St. James is an internationally certified speaker, executive coach, and mentor with the John Maxwell Team and is also certified as a leadership coach with the APTSDF, having conducted leadership training in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, the Caribbean, and Mexico.

From his experience, St. James believes in the adage that it takes at least 10,000 hours (or approximately seven to ten years) of hard work for a person to move to the top of their field. For many, it may take ten to 12 years to get in the top 10%. For some, with expert mentoring, a lot less.

“What this means is simple,” says St. James. “If you want to get in the top 10% of your field, you need to stay focused and stick with it for the long haul.”

Here are the top ten ways St. James believes people need to master manifestation skills and create the best life possible:

Desire. You must have a burning passion, an all-consuming obsession, and a love of personal growth and development.
Belief. Challenge your old ideas and limiting beliefs about yourself and your life in general. Listen to those who believe in you and borrow their faith if you have to.
Action. When you see it, act. Be aware of opportunity as it is all around you.
Courage. Take the first step without knowing any of the others. Be willing to be afraid, and as the old Nike slogan goes, “Just do it!”
The Power of Yes. You must find your “Yes.” Be in relentless pursuit of your dream, no matter what.
Don’t Negotiate. Don’t negotiate with your dream. Be willing to pay the price no matter what.
Creativity. Be creative. Focus on possibilities, not limitations.
Sacrifice. Let go of the good and make room for the better. Move from good to better and better to best.
Vision. See yourself in possession of what you desire. Hold your image and do it with feeling and frequency.
Celebrate. Celebrate victories along the way and learn from failures. Take time to recognize success, and it will surely come. Remember, your perspective determines your potential.

Once a person has determined they are ready to attain mastery and have a better life, St. James suggests the focus on what he calls the five essentials. They are:

Having a Proper Perspective
Finding their Sacred Purpose
Living with Passion
Perseverance – Sticking to it.
Developing Keen Awareness

He believes the key to success is nothing more or less than focusing on these five essentials and serving others.

The book is being distributed by Indie Books International (Indie Books International.), which serves as an independent publishing and promotion alternative for executive coaches, strategic consultants, and agency owners to help create impact and influence.

Saving Abigail: The True Story of the Abduction and Rescue of a Hamas Hostage, Three-Year-Old Abigail Mor Edan

Jocie McKade

21 September 2024

Liz Hirsh Naftali is the great-aunt of Abigail Mor Edan, a three-year-old who was held hostage in Gaza for fifty-one days. Abigail was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 from her community, Kfar Aza, after her mother and father were murdered by Hamas terrorists in front of her and her brother and sister.

Saving Abigail tells the true and harrowing story about a little girl who miraculously survived the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack after thousands of terrorists breached Israel by land, sea, and air. That day, Hamas slaughtered 1,200 men, women, and children, and 246 innocent people were dragged across the border into Gaza against their will. Among them was three-year-old Abigail Mor Edan, whose border community was ransacked by fighters going from house to house and killing, raping, and abducting civilians from their homes.

The book recounts the unimaginable ordeal of her abduction and ultimate rescue, while painting a vivid picture of survival, courage, and loss in the face of terror.

With no prior experience or road map for how to save a hostage from captivity, Abigail’s great-aunt Liz Hirsh Naftali undertook an international effort to share her niece’s face and story—with the US government, bipartisan congressional leaders, and world leaders—finding unlikely allies and supporters along the way. Though not a diplomat, politician, or military expert, Liz was determined to extricate this child from an ongoing geopolitical nightmare and free her from the Hamas terrorists who held her.

Liz’s mission goes beyond just telling Abigail’s story. She has remained dedicated to the ongoing fight to free all of the hostages still held in Gaza even after Abigail’s release on November 26, 2023.

Liz Hirsh Naftali shares this deeply personal story as a way to honor her family’s legacy and to raise awareness about the ongoing fight to free hostages still held in Gaza. This is not just a story of tragedy, but also of resilience, love, and the unyielding human spirit.

Published by Post Hill Press and distributed by Simon & Schuster, Saving Abigail is now available in bookstores nationwide and through online retailers, Amazon, Barnes & Noble. Internationally, Saving Abigail is available for purchase in Israel and the UK via amazon.co.uk and in Canada via amazon.ca

Apollo Astronaut’s Book “When Foxes Guard the Hen House” Details the Potential for Nuclear Annihilation in the Weaponization of Space

Jocie McKade

21 September 2024

WHEN FOXES GUARD THE HEN HOUSE

An unpublished, hand-typed manuscript by Apollo 14 Astronaut Edgar Mitchell that lay dormant in a bank vault for nearly forty years, now released by Pen-L Publishing, offers a startling parallel with today’s real-life scenarios in the emerging weaponization of space.

“… never before has the capacity existed for humans to terminate all living activity on the planet in one spasmodic hour of nuclear exchange.” – Apollo 14 Astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell

The U.S.’ ability to defend against an attack on its robust satellite-technology and the associated nuclear threats might be more complicated than we think.

When legendary rocket scientist, Wernher von Braun, German mastermind of the Apollo spacecraft, was working for NASA in Washington D.C. in 1972, he heard plans at the Pentagon of a technology he felt certain the U.S. knew little about and was ill-prepared to handle—space-based nuclear weapons.

When dying of cancer in 1974, he summoned his protégé and spokesperson, Carol Rosin, with the request that she contact his close friend Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell to craft an expose of the potential for nuclear annihilation in such a venture.

Von Braun’s cautions became reality in 1983 with President Ronald Reagan’s proposed “Star Wars” initiative for development of ground and space-based missile systems, ostensibly for defense. Rosin’s past work with von Braun afforded her access to the workings of high-level government agencies and provided Mitchell rich literary fodder for analysis.

“Thirty-four publishers refused to publish it or even seriously consider it,” Mitchell said. “Such was the power of the White House, which did not want it published. I was subject to harassment, tapped phones, and more…”

From the near-impossible “first strike” reaction time to the exorbitant “space junk” littering our terrestrial environment, Mitchell’s findings are as relevant today as the day it was written.

According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in 2024 China and Russia are on the verge of deploying non kinetic space weapons. These include lasers that can be used to temporarily dazzle or permanently blind sensors on U.S. satellites and jamming devices used in its vast network of communications to or from satellites.

It would also evoke a material disruption to society, as satellites play a growing role in cellphones, GPS, supply chain, logistics, and healthcare.

With the Pentagon’s increasing dependence on space, satellites are becoming coveted targets for adversaries.

In 2006, Mitchell retrieved his manuscript from a bank vault and released it to long-time friend and Oklahoma author, Carol Mersch, for publication.

Included in the book is Mersch’s 2005 one-on-one interview with Mitchell and a revealing FBI teletype response following the notorious “alien crash” in Roswell, NM near Mitchell’s hometown.

Articulate, comprehensive, and well foot-noted, Mitchell’s insights are frighteningly relevant in the current military landscape.

Sneak Peek: Revenge of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Jocie McKade

20 September 2024

Revenge of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand-new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light.

Why is Miami…Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena.

Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world’s most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell’s most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It’s time we took tipping points seriously.

RICHARD CORBEN’S “DIMWOOD” TO BE PUBLISHED FOR THE FIRST TIME

Jocie McKade

20 September 2024

The next volume of the Richard Corben Library from Dark Horse Features an introduction by Joe Lansdale

Dark Horse Books presents Dimwood, the final graphic novel by the celebrated artist, Grand Prix at Angoulême award-winner, and Will Eisner Hall of Fame member Richard Corben. Written and illustrated by Corben and lettered by Nate Piekos, this special edition collects the previously unpublished Gothic tale and includes a dust jacket, an introduction by award-winning author Joe Lansdale, an epilogue by project art director José Villarrubia, and other bonus material.

In the densely vegetated forest of Dimwood, a young woman returns to her family home after many years of absence. Xera has gaping holes in her memories of her childhood and family, as obscured and dim as the surrounding forest. In Dimwood Mansion, with its decaying, labyrinthine levels, she seeks the missing pieces of her past and makes connections with mysterious disappearances and gruesome murders.

Dimwood (hardcover, 136 pages, 8”x11”) will be available in bookstores on April 22, 2025 and in comic shops on April 23, 2025. It is now available to preorder at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, TFAW, and your your local comic shop and bookstore for $39.99. Stay tuned for more news about Dark Horse’s Richard Corben Library.

Be sure to follow DarkHorseComics on social media and check our website, www.darkhorse.com for more news, announcements, and updates.

Praise for Richard Corben:

“Richard Corben…was one of the most gifted artists to emerge from the wonderfully fertile 1960s underground scene.”—The New York Times

“Corben is meta-cinematic, gloriously unbound by prudence, and seemingly without precedent or heirs. In an odd way, he is the one author that emerges from the American underground and seeds the imagination of authors everywhere- creating a movement that combines genre and rebellion and finds perch in filmmakers and artists in the entire world- traces can be found in France, Japan, Italy, etc., etc.”—Guillermo del Toro

“Corben’s work is singular in its humanity. He works with towering technical skill… …the wondrous thing of it all is that underneath all that technical tour-de-force is the sound of a beating heart.”—Will Eisner

“Mr. Richard Corben… a genuine giant of his chosen medium.”—Alan Moore

“Richard Corben stands among us like an extraterrestrial peak. He has sat in his throne a long time, above the moving and multi-colored field of world comics, like an effigy of the leader, a strange monolith, a sublime visitor, a solitary enigma.”—Mœbius

The Girl Who Changed the World By Machiel Hoek

Jocie McKade

19 September 2024

The Girl Who Changed the World By Machiel Hoek

A novel of discovery, balance and feminine leadership by critically acclaimed bestselling author, Machiel Hoek

Dive into “The Girl Who Changed The World,” where Lisa’s journey of self-discovery unravels the mysteries of life, guided by her enigmatic grandfather and the secrets he holds.

Explore the balance of ancient wisdom and modern insights as Lisa navigates through the complexities of truth and reality, reshaping her understanding of herself and the world around her.

In this book, you will:

Discover the power of thoughts and actions to shape your reality.
Learn the importance of balance between doing and being in life.
Explore the transformative journey of self-discovery and empowerment.
Uncover the secrets of fulfillment and personal growth.
Embrace a narrative that celebrates the influence of feminine energy in changing the world.

The Girl Who Changed The World weaves a tapestry of inspiration and allegory, appealing to readers of all ages with its message of empowerment and transformation. This book challenges perceptions and invites readers on a journey of self-reflection and empowerment.

Embark on a journey of discovery and empowerment and discover the power within you to shape your reality!

This novel includes a calling upon all women to unite and overturn the dominant masculine energy that has ruled our world for millennia. In order to save our world, we need feminine leadership to take control of the events on our planet.

The Girl Who Changed The World: Hoek, Machiel: 9798990805705: Amazon.com: Books

“If you have ever felt the stirrings of something greater, if you have ever dreamed of making a difference, if you have ever dared or wanted to follow your heart, this story is for you.” – Baptist de Pape, bestselling author of The Power of the Heart

“A thought-provoking and heartwarming story. Through the journey of Lisa and her grandfather, the book teaches valuable lessons about embracing one’s true self, creating a fulfilling life, and the interconnectedness of all things. A must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them.”- Grant Schreiber, General Manager of The World Academy of Art and Science

The book truly touches your soul. And it’s written in a way we can all relate. And the girl are we. We are all divine beings. Thanks Machiel for writing such an amazing book🌟”_ Astrid Tebberman Amazon Reviewer

“Saying I loved it does not measure the impact this book has on how I see myself, the world around me and the many possibilities we have to connect with one another and serve as a positive force. It encouraged me to step into my power and realize the difference we individually and collectively can make together. Truly, we can change the world. It starts with one. From classroom to corporate, this book is a must read and a gamechanger”_ Kristin Andress

“The first book in my life I read from front to back! I had plenty else to do. But from the moment I opened the book, Lisa (the main character) challenged me with her words: “Let’s do this!”_Charles D.A. Ruffolo MPA/MBA

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Since childhood, Machiel Hoek wrestled with the stringent norms of societal life. He followed the traditional path of becoming a corporate CPA and CEO working with people in various countries with the finest minds – but with incomplete lives. However, Machiel has always remained a spiritual searcher. A decade ago, while on a first holiday in years, an inner voice nudged him to radically alter his life’s course and dedicate it to unraveling the mystery of life.

Machiel left the world of international finance and started writing his book, The Girl Who Changed the World, which seeks to heal and unite humanity through its narrative. The novel has already reached over 25,000 readers in the Netherlands and continues to inspire – from corporate execs to youth.

Machiel made it his mission to share this book and its messages broadly, believing that this book is what the world needs now and what America needs now. Apart from inspiring individuals, this book also has its place in the business world for those people and leaders often lost regarding what truly matters. It aligns with messages blending spirituality with business, and the quest for personal fulfillment and transformation. It is Machiel’s earnest ambition to contribute tremendous value to a much needed, more balanced world, especially between masculine and feminine energy. Such a world lies within our grasp.

Book Review: A Whisper of Death (Raven & Wren, #1) by Darcy Burke

Jocie McKade

18 September 2024

A Whisper of Death by Darcy Burke

It’s the first in her Raven and Wren series. An Historical Crime Fiction with a paranormal twist of retro-psychometry and a hint of possible romance… many of the things I enjoy! The character relationship started a bit slow. A lot of the characters’ internal thoughts were then said in dialogue, when it could have been either or…
However, once the characters connected, the twists started, and the pace picked up. It became a “one more chapter” read… turning pages, wanting to know what was revealed about the crimes, villains, and protagonists, with a few oh wows! and I’m looking forward to the next book. Awesome cover, too.

Guest Post: Historical Research for Fleeing France By Alan Hlad

Jocie McKade

18 September 2024

Flying Officer Jimmie Quill’s character was inspired by real fighter pilots of the No. 73 Squadron, Royal Air Force. The squadron was equipped with Hawker Hurricanes, British single-seat fighter aircraft, and deployed to France at the outbreak of World War II. Several real pilots of the No. 73 Squadron make appearances in Fleeing France, including flying aces Edgar “Cobber” Kain and Newell “Fanny” Orton.

The RAF’s first ace of the war was Flying Officer Edgar “Cobber” Kain of No. 73 Squadron, seen here with his Hurricane at the beginning of April 1940.

A Hawker Hurricane of No. 73 Squadron being refueled and rearmed between sorties at Reims-Champagne Airfield, France.

Flying Officers Newell “Fanny” Orton and Edgar “Cobber” Kain of No. 73 Squadron RAF, standing by a Hawker Hurricane between sorties at Reims-Champagne Airfield, France.

Hawker Hurricane in flight.

FLEEING FRANCE

Driving an ambulance in France after the fall of Dunkirk, an American nightclub singer races to evacuate a British pilot and a Jewish orphan across more than 4,000 miles towards a precarious freedom in this emotional, action-packed story of sacrifice, hope, and devotion inspired by real wartime events.

France, 1939: A talented singer, Ruth Lacroix has left Maine to live with her aunt and uncle, dreaming of performing at the Casino de Paris. But with the outbreak of war, and the heartbreaking news that her cousin has been killed by German forces, that goal is supplanted by another—to support France in any way she can.

Though Ruth has never driven a vehicle larger than the tractor on her parents’ farm, she joins a friend in enlisting as a driver for the French ambulance corps. On their way to transfer injured soldiers to Dunkirk for evacuation, they encounter Jimmie, a British Royal Air Force pilot with No. 73 Squadron RAF, who has bailed out of his burning plane. As Dunkirk falls, blocking off the route to the northern coast, word spreads of a daring Allied plan to rescue the remaining troops and civilians from ports in western France: code name Operation Aerial.

Over two hazardous weeks, Ruth and Jimmie will journey hundreds of miles together, helping other refugees as they rush to reach the sea before they are overtaken by the Germany army. But all their courage and resilience offer no certainty in wartime, when a single stroke of luck, or a split-second decision, can mean the difference between life and death . . .

Reprinted with permission from Kensington Books.

Sneak Peek: Bestselling Authors Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll, Jr. Return to Release Ghosts of Panama

Jocie McKade

18 September 2024

Harper Select will publish the next installment from Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll, Jr., Ghosts of Panama: A Strongman Out of Control, A Murdered Marine, and the Special Agents Caught in the Middle of an Invasion, on November 19, 2024.
Panama, 1989. The once warm relationship between United States and Gen. Manuel Noriega has eroded dangerously. Newly elected President George H.W. Bush has declared the strongman a drug trafficker and a rigger of elections. Intimidation on the streets is a daily reality for U.S. personnel and their families. The nation is a powder keg.

Naval Investigative Service (NIS) Special Agent Rick Yell has worked the job in Panama since 1986, and lives there with his wife Annya and infant child. Like most NIS agents, he’s a civilian with no military rank with a specialty in working criminal cases. The dynamic changes suddenly when Yell inadvertently develops an intelligence source with unparalleled access to the Noriega regime. Now the agent is thrust into a world of spy-versus-spy, of secret meetings and hidden documents.

Yell’s source – known as “The Old Man” – warns when Cuban military personnel arrive and identifies anti-American officers within the Panamanian Defense Forces, and helps track Noriega’s movements, agitating for the dictator’s kidnapping. The reports created by Yell and his NIS colleagues shape the decisions made in Washington D.C., CIA headquarters in Langley and the innermost sanctums of Pentagon.

The powder keg is lit on December 16, 1989, when a young U.S. Marine is gunned down at a checkpoint in Panama City. Yell and his cadre of trusted agents deploy immediately to investigate the killing, and what they determine will decide the fate of two nations. When President Bush hears the details they uncover, he orders an invasion that puts Yell’s family, informants and fellow agents directly in harm’s way.

Using a blend of research and interviews with the NIS agents who were directly involved, Ghosts of Panama reveals the untold, clandestine story of counterintelligence professionals placed in a pressure cooker assignment of historic proportions.

Ghosts of Panama will be available November 19, 2024, in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook. You can pre-order today at: https://www.harpercollinsfocus.com/harper-horizon/ghosts-panama/.

Harmon and Carroll’s first book together, Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, follows a U.S. naval counterintelligence officer working to safeguard Pearl Harbor and a Japanese spy ordered to Hawaii to gather information on the American fleet. On December 7, 1941, their hidden stories are exposed by a morning of bloodshed that will change the world forever. After a successful release, spending multiple weeks on The New York Times’ Best Seller List, Ghosts of Honolulu is now available in paperback. The book was chosen as a Barnes & Noble Book Pick for September 2024. There will be an in-person author event at the Barnes & Noble at The Grove in Los Angeles, CA on September 14. See more details here: https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780062171736-0.

ABOUT MARK HARMON:
MARK HARMON starred as Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS and also served as executive producer of the show. On the new CBS series, NCIS: Origins which explores the early career of Gibbs, Harmon will serve as narrator in addition to executive producer. In other television work, Hamon received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for the critically acclaimed The West Wing and for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Special for Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years. Other credits include Reasonable Doubts, for which he received two Golden Globe nominations, Chicago Hope, From Earth to the Moon, St. Elsewhere, and Moonlighting.

ABOUT LEON CARROLL, JR.:
LEON CARROLL, Jr. co-authored the New York Times bestseller Ghosts of Honolulu. He previously served as technical advisor on the hit drama NCIS for twenty-one seasons and is currently working on the new show NCIS: Origins. Previously, he was a commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps, attaining the rank of Major. Leon then began a twenty-year career as a Special Agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). He served in seven different locations, including tours as a Special Agent Afloat on the USS Ranger (CV-61) and as the Special Agent in Charge of NCIS offices in the Republic of Panama and the Pacific Northwest.

ABOUT HARPER SELECT:
Harper Select, based in Nashville, TN, publishes an exclusive number of hand-selected memoirs and narrative nonfiction each year. Recent NYT Bestsellers include books from Joanna Gaines, Mark Harmon, Leon Carroll, Jr., and Loyola Chicago’s Sister Jean.

Audible and Higher Ground Announce “The Wonder of Stevie”

Jocie McKade

17 September 2024

Audible and Higher Ground, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s media company, along with Audacy’s Pineapple Street Studios, today announced the premiere of The Wonder of Stevie, the third release from Audible and Higher Ground’s exclusive first-look deal. This seven-episode podcast covers Stevie Wonder’s iconic legacy with a focus on his “classic period,” from 1972-1976, when the musician, songwriter, and singer released a streak of five albums that forever changed American music. Hosted by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning culture critic Wesley Morris, featuring exclusive conversations with Stevie Wonder and a wide range of A-list fans, all seven episodes of The Wonder of Stevie debut today on Audible. Higher Ground and Audacy’s Pineapple Street Studios produced the series alongside Questlove through his Two One Five Entertainment banner with Stevie Wonder executive producing.

The Wonder of Stevie focuses on a five-year stretch in which Stevie Wonder achieved a peak of greatness unmatched by virtually any other American artist—releasing five celebrated albums on Motown Records’ Tamla imprint. This run of creativity garnered Wonder 12 GRAMMY Awards for the music on these iconic albums, a 13th GRAMMY for himself as Non-Classical Producer of the Year, sold over 10 million albums, and secured his place as one of the most important American musicians and songwriters in history. The Higher Ground and Audible Original invites audiences on an intimate journey infused with its star-studded contributors’ unique experiences and impassioned fandoms.

Featured guests include President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and celebrated musicians Smokey Robinson, Dionne Warwick, King Britt, Babyface, Bob Margouleff, Jimmy Jam, Ray Parker Jr., Janelle Monáe, Mereba, Yolanda Adams, Greg Phillinganes, Rick McLaughlin, Will Butler, Deniece Williams, journalists Robert Christgau, Maureen Orth, Alex Pappademas and Brittany Luse, art curator Thelma Golden, artist Lorna Simpson, activist Michaela Angela Davis, and legendary entertainment executive Suzanne de Passe.

Including over 40 legendary Stevie Wonder songs, The Wonder of Stevie culminates in a final episode where Stevie Wonder himself joins President Barack Obama and host Wesley Morris in the studio, giving his first-hand, personal account of this remarkable time period. President Obama and Stevie Wonder sing Golden Lady together and reflect on Wonder’s lasting impact. This final episode will be exclusively on Audible through December.

President Obama said: “The first album I ever bought with my own money was Talking Book, by Stevie Wonder. Since then, his music has brought warmth and humanity to my life, just like it has for so many others. With an incredible array of artists, experts, and the legend himself, this podcast gives you an even greater appreciation of Stevie’s genius and his impact on American culture.”

Michelle Obama said: “We all know Stevie Wonder is a legend—the songs, the albums, the melodies take hold in your soul and just won’t let go. I’ve been a fan of his for as long as I can remember. That’s why this podcast was so surprising — Wesley walks us through the full magnitude of his work, uncovering how Stevie’s magic has shaped not just the world of music, but the world itself.”

Stevie Wonder said: “The only gift that’s greater is my being able to thank God for every note, every lyric, every song, that I have been given to share forever with the world. As I reflect back on some of my fondest and proudest moments on this music journey, I am beyond humbled to have those that I respect and deeply cherish, show me the kind of love that I can hear and feel in their voices.”

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson said: “Stevie is someone who I have looked up to for as long as I can remember, and his continued impact on music, in the 1970s and now, is undeniable. It was a no-brainer to join the production of this comprehensive study of some of my favorite Stevie Wonder tracks through Two One Five Entertainment. More importantly, I’m humbled to be a part of this historic conversation with a fellow Philly native in Wesley. I’m looking forward to reintroducing the incomparable passion in Stevie’s work to listeners old and new.”

Rachel Ghiazza, Chief Content Officer at Audible, said: “Stevie Wonder’s voice has been part of the soundtrack of our lives for the past 60 years, and this is the first authorized account of his iconic and singular life story. As a creator-focused company, Audible recognizes the power of audio to tell the most important and enduring stories of our time. We’re incredibly proud to bring Wonder’s legacy to listeners globally, and who better than the acclaimed Wesley Morris to guide us through such a vividly rendered and spectacularly original narrative? This series is so full of joy – it’s a true celebration of musical storytelling.”

Produced with Two One Five Entertainment and Audacy’s Pineapple Street Studios, the series marks the third project from Audible and Higher Ground’s exclusive first-look deal. Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast, released in Spring 2023, featured Michelle Obama’s inspiring conversations with esteemed friends like Ellen DeGeneres, Tyler Perry, Conan O’Brien, and Oprah Winfrey. Your Mama’s Kitchen: Conversations from the Heart of the Home, hosted by Emmy and Peabody award-winning journalist Michele Norris, explored the complexities of family life and how guests’ earliest culinary experiences helped shape their personal and professional lives. Forthcoming, Audible and Higher Ground will collaborate with the History Channel and Malcolm Gladwell’s Pushkin Industries on an eight-part Original audio series about the legacy of America’s Reconstruction era. Audible and Higher Ground’s ongoing collaboration reinforces Higher Ground’s commitment to audio. Since its inception, Higher Ground, an Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning media company, has brought powerful stories to life.

Stevie Wonder is one of the most beloved and revered names in music history. Since being discovered at the age of 11, and earning his first No. 1 single just two years later at age 13 with Fingertips – Pt. 2 (the youngest solo artist ever to do so), he’s gone on to become one of the best-selling artists of all time with more than 100 million records sold. His incredible catalog of work has earned him 25 GRAMMY Awards including a Lifetime Achievement Award, an Academy Award, inductions into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame, the youngest ever Kennedy Center honoree, and inclusion of his work in the Library of Congress.

1...141516...937 Page 15 of 937