In this episode, Linda Broenniman talks with Wynne Leon and Vicki Atkinson about her journey of uncovering her family's Jewish heritage, which began with a surprising revelation about her father's identity. Through extensive research, she explores eight generations of her family history, revealing secrets, trauma, and the impact of historical events on her identity. The conversation delves into the emotional aspects of writing her book, 'The Pulitzer Saga,' and how it has facilitated healing and...
Jul 18, 2025•26 min
In this episode of Sharing the Heart of the Matter, hosts Wynne Leon and Vicki Atkinson engage with author RitishSharma, who, along with co-author Deepak Joshi, has created a series of books titled 'Unfold the Stories of Unsung Heroes.' The conversation explores the inspiration behind the series, the process of finding and vetting stories of global heroes, and the emotional impact these narratives have on readers. Ritish shares insights into the power of storytelling and the importance of highli...
Jul 04, 2025•16 min
In this episode of the Heart of the Matter podcast, host Wynne Leon and co-host Vicki Atkinson engage in a deepconversation with mentalist and author Alexander Beresford. They explore themes of human connection, the interplay between magic and writing, and the insights derived from Beresford's works, including 'Mr. Fenwick and the Door That Stayed Closed (Until It Didn't)' and 'The Inward Stage'. The discussion highlights the importance of vulnerability, presence, and the subtle nuances of human...
Jun 20, 2025•37 min
In this inspiring episode, Wynne Leon and Vicki Atkinson are talking with filmmaker, philanthropist and author, Peter Samuelson. Peter produced films such as Return of Pink Panther, and Revenge of the Nerds. He’s worked with Steve McQueen, Peter Sellers, and started four philanthropies, including one with Steven Spielberg. And now he’s written this incredible book that combines the amazing and entertaining episodes from all those adventures with reflective lessons and learning. He tells us how h...
Jun 06, 2025•46 min
In episode 115, Vicki and Wynne engage with author Danny Miller, who shares insights from his book, 'The Way of the Wave.' The conversation explores themes of surrendering control, embracing creativity, navigating life's challenges, and the importance of self-care. Danny recounts his personal journey of transformation, emphasizing the significance of trusting the flow of life and the lessons learned through various experiences. The episode concludes with Danny reading his poignant poem, 'Life's ...
May 23, 2025•30 min
In this fascinating episode, Vicki and Wynne talk with author, Mark Wukas. Mark has just released his debut novel, The Kiss of the Night. It’s a book more than 40 years in the making. Mark talks about how he cultivated the book that lived inside him for so long. We also get to hear about his careers as a journalist and teacher. He tells us what it was like to work a 5pm – 2pm shift as a City News reporter in Chicago. Vicki and Wynne get the details of the interplay of journalists and police and ...
May 09, 2025•44 min
In this thrilling episode, Vicki Atkinson and I have the pleasure of chatting with the captivating thriller author, Carl Vonderau. Carl left the world of international banking to become a writer, and he masterfully weaves his banking knowledge and upbringing as a Christian Scientist into his novels. Carl takes us on a journey as he shares his meticulous research process for the locations in his books. His dedication to capturing the essence of each place is truly fascinating. We admire and chuck...
Apr 25, 2025•32 min
In this exciting episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon have the pleasure of chatting with the phenomenal best-selling author, Andrew Mayne.Join us as Andrew Mayne takes us on an incredible journey through his captivating career – from mesmerizing audiences as an illusionist on cruise ships, starring in A&E’s hit show “Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne,” designing a groundbreaking stealth suit for diving with Great White sharks on Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, being a Prompt Whisperer and Science C...
Apr 18, 2025•49 min
In this exciting episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon have the pleasure of chatting with the phenomenal best-selling author, Andrew Mayne. Join us as Andrew Mayne takes us on an incredible journey through his captivating career – from mesmerizing audiences as an illusionist on cruise ships, starring in A&E’s hit show “Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne,” designing a groundbreaking stealth suit for diving with Great White sharks on Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, being a Prompt Whisperer and Science ...
Apr 18, 2025•52 min
Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are delighted to talk with author and publisher, Rick Kaempfer about his book EveryCubEver. This is the second game in our baseball double-header as we talk with the hilarious and engaging Rick about his labor of love, EveryCubEver. He swears this seventh edition of the book is the last time he’s going to update it until the Chicago Cubs win the World Series.There are 2600 Cubs in this book – 2296 players and the rest are managers and back office. Rick provides the ...
Apr 16, 2025•25 min
Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are delighted to talk with author and publisher, Rick Kaempfer about his book EveryCubEver. This is the second game in our baseball double-header as we talk with the hilarious and engaging Rick about his labor of love, EveryCubEver. He swears this seventh edition of the book is the last time he’s going to update it until the Chicago Cubs win the World Series. There are 2600 Cubs in this book – 2296 players and the rest are managers and back office. Rick provides the...
Apr 11, 2025•27 min
In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are delighted to be with Wynne's five-year-old son, Mr. D. Mr. D is so excited about starting on a Little League team that he asked to podcast about it. Which is saying something because he’s not as naturally voluble as his older sister. We're clearly biased about our guest. But in our opinion listening to the enthusiasm of a kid excited about a team, a sport, and the crack of the ball against a bat stirs the well of our own passions. Mr. D shows us...
Apr 04, 2025•24 min
In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are thrilled to be with the talented artist and author, Danny Gregory . Danny shares his incredible journey from being an ad agency creative director for 30 years to becoming a renowned author and artist. His books and newsletters are notjust inspiring; they are a daily call to create and live with purpose. They read like good philosophy, urging us to embrace creativity every day. Our conversation with Danny was nothing short of inspiring. We delved...
Mar 28, 2025•41 min
Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are with best-selling author, Barbara Nickless. Barbara's fascinating resume includes roles as a technical writer, instructional designer, raptor rehabilitator, piano teacher, performer, sword fighter, and Director of Education for the country’s largest public astronomical observatory. She shares her journey to becoming a best-selling author of thrillers and how devastating losses have led to new opportunities. Barbara also discusses how writing helps process experi...
Mar 21, 2025•26 min
In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are with the delightful author and blogger, Darlene Foster. Darlene shares how she started writing her young adult series featuring Amanda Ross. It’s such a great story that captures so well the struggle for tone and perspective.And how once that key is unlocked we can keep on building! She brings us the magic, the mystery, and discovery that come with travel and tweens. The delight of being unencumbered enough to not be afraid to see where things l...
Mar 14, 2025•28 min
In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are with Wynne's nine-year-old daughter, Miss O. Miss O was given a fourth grade class assignment to write about a perspective change. When she came home with this short essay about Wynne's dad, she was stunned. She reads the essay to us and tells us what inspired her. Clearly we have a personal interest in this but at a bigger level, it’s fascinating to see what kids take away from family stories. Vicki asks about how Miss O finds her voice and is ...
Mar 07, 2025•25 min
Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are talking with writer, poet, artist, and blogger, Dave Williams. Joy is…having Dave Williams come on the podcast to tell us what inspired his recent project to collect and publish what sparks joy in the blogging community. He tells us how he was inspired by the spirit of his Aunt Diane. Celebrating her infectious personality after she passed away last summer was one of the motivations behind this project. Another was the idea to strengthen the delight muscle. A su...
Feb 28, 2025•25 min
In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are with friend and author, Christina Dudley talking about Christina’s book Pride and Preston Lin . We love this book. Christina has created a fantastic adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved book Pride and Prejudice. And it is so much more than a contemporary retelling of the story. Christina’s dialogue and clever plot devices make it a compelling and devourable book. Trust me, Wynne can attest because she hid from her kids for an hour so she could fi...
Feb 21, 2025•33 min
In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon have turned the hosting duties over our Sharing the Heart of the Matter partner, Brian Hannon. Brian's roots as a journalist are on full display in this episode. He is such a fantastic interviewer. He coaxes out the lessons Vicki and I have learned in 100 episodes. And he challenges us to think big to answer who would be on our celebrity guest list. In some very delightful and prescient chit chat, we get to cheer on the Eagles in advance of their Su...
Feb 14, 2025•20 min
In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are back with author and blogger, Melanie McGauran and we are talking about writer lessons. Melanie always inspires us with her curiosity and willingness to learn. She is so generous to be willing to share her lessons with us. She tells us the story behind her essay Growing Up Fast in 1978. We love the essay for its revealing look at her family dynamics and the complicated path she had to walk to get to go to college. And then she shares some of the...
Feb 07, 2025•40 min
In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are back with author and blogger Mark Petruska and we are out of our comfort zone. This format was Mark’s idea - to do a podcast without any prompts. To be fair, it’s not that different than our standard format. Usually we go into an episode with three or so prompts of things to talk about. But as all you listeners know, we clearly go down any side roads and questions that occur as we talk. But in this episode, we each came up with a question for th...
Jan 31, 2025•37 min
In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon celebrate our 100th episode. We sit down to mark the moment and answer four questions: What were our favorite stories? Do we have a biggest a-ha moment? What have we learned as hosts? Goals for the Sharing the Heart of the Matter podcast in 2025? Vicki shares that she actually went back and listened to the very first episode. She says that instead of the cringe-worthy moment she expected, it was worth listening to our goals of being authentic and vu...
Jan 24, 2025•24 min
In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are with author and retired teacher, Pete Springer. Pete always delivers inspiration and in this episode, it comes in remembrance of his great mentor and friend, Nancy Wheeler. Nancy showed how to give the gift of herself, to quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. In her years as a teacher, principal, mentor and community member, she lived a life full of service and joy. Pete tells us the stories that are so uplifting and exemplary. Of how Nancy empowered ...
Jan 17, 2025•27 min
Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are with blogger and teacher, Beth Kennedy, over a big pot of soup. Metaphorically speaking of course because we’re separated by three different times zones. But otherwise, we can really stretch the goodness of soup. Beth tells us why she likes soup so much to inspire more than 20 posts over the years. We discuss the multicultural as well as the community aspect of it. Vicki and Wynne ask about how she finds the terrific quotes to go with the hearty content. Beth sh...
Jan 10, 2025•30 min
In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are talking with author, public speaker, and parental advocate, Vickie Rubin. Vickie gives us the elevator pitch for her book, Raising Jess . She jokes that it's long enough to require an elevator in the tallest building in Manhattan. Fitting, because there is so much goodness in her book about raising her child with a chromosome deletion: mother’s intuition, decisions about whether to have more children, the grandparent’s point of view, and more. V...
Dec 13, 2024•48 min
In this episode, Vicki Atkinson and Wynne are talking with author, blogger, and WordPress pro, Mark Petruska. This year is Mark’s 15th year blogging on WordPress. And he blogged on a different platform before that. Clearly, he’s a pro. So he walks us through the many things that he’s done to keep things fresh over the years. Switching themes, changing site names, even combining two blogs and changing URLs. His advice as a veteran? Know the purpose of your blog and keep it in mind as you redesign...
Dec 06, 2024•29 min
In this episode, Wynne Leon and Vicki Atkinson are with blogger, parent and social justice advocate, Ab. Ab tells us the great story of a chance encounter he had with a woman standing next to him and his family in an hour-long line. She led with a query and Ab answered with his trademark humor and openness. Vicki and Wynne delve into how these encounters can be very different from what we imagine when we genuinely lean into them. Ab talks about the loneliness epidemic and how the antidote to neg...
Nov 29, 2024•29 min
In this episode Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon are talking with author, blogger, and former newspaper writer, Melanie McGauran about decoding our dreams. This is such a fascinating episode. The interior of our minds is an interesting, and sometimes scary, place. But it is so fun how Melanie brings her love of mysteries to this practice of sifting through the clues. Melanie talks about her fascination with dreams and how she both remembers hers and extends them. It’s a wonderful practice to not on...
Nov 22, 2024•33 min
Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon talk with author, blogger, life coach, and health and wellness professional, Cindy Georgakas. In this vibrant conversation we get such a wonderful taste of Cindy’s energized and connected presence. She tells us how Covid was the impetus of starting to share wellness information in a different format. That led to her book released last year in the Happiness Category, Re-Create and Celebrate: 7 Steps to Live the Life of Your Dreams.” In the process of releasing that b...
Nov 15, 2024•30 min
Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon talk with author, and blogger, Lauren Scott. Lauren tell us the beautiful story about how she started a poetry blog 14 years ago. In the process, she cultivated the roots she’d planted as a young girl for poetry as a destination for her emotions. Vicki and Wynne ask how she took the step from her blog to publishing books. Lauren tells us the themes of each of her FOUR published books. She weaves the theme of love through all of them, even the most serious, just the ...
Nov 08, 2024•28 min
