Suzanne Nichols learned her love for the arts as a child in Oakland.

Today she shares that passion with hundreds of kids every year.  This weekend she is putting on an event to bring the work of established artists like Shepard Fairey and John Lithgow to their fans to benefit art programs for children that attend LAUSD schools.

The program is called STARS ALIGNED TO SAVE THE ARTS – BENEFIT TO RAISE AWARENESS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF ARTS EDUCTION FOR OUR CHILDREN.  This event hopes to protect public school arts programs from the 100% proposed cuts they face.

On Saturday, June 2, 2012, from 3:00pm-6:30pm government officials and celebrities will join Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) teachers, students and parents for  Save the Arts, a benefit that includes performances to resuscitate arts education.  The event will be held at the historic Coconut Grove, 3400 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles 90010.

Listen as Suzanne vamps on all things thespianic (if that’s a word) and academic.  Enjoy 15 minutes with Suzanne and MIPtalk.com host Brad Rowe.

What are the major terrorist threats not yet on our radar?

How are New York and other cities around the world adjusting to modern security threats?  Just ask Mitchell Silber. He sat down with The Generation co-editor Brad Rowe in UCLA’s Murphy Sculpture Garden to discuss his new book The Al Qaeda Factor, terrorist threats in the Western Hemisphere, and his inspiring personal journey from Wall Street to NYPD (which he has served for seven years).

Silber is the Director of both the NYPD Intelligence Division’s Analytic and Cyber Units. He supervises the analysis of the portfolio of terrorism-related investigations within the Intelligence Division.

This episode was produced in partnership with The Generation, an online journal featuring students’ perspectives on international relations and global current events. The site’s title is a recognition that — through factors such as news, social media, and diversity — today’s generation of young people are more aware and active in global events than ever before.

Recently MIPtalk host Brad Rowe had the great pleasure to sit down with the founder of Echo Parenting & Education in LA.

Ruth Beaglehole’s story begins in New Zealand; born to Academic parents, with one sister and two brothers. Ruth’s childhood was “complicated”, to use her own words. Her own struggle would become Ruth’s biggest asset.

Her story is triumphant, disturbing, lovely and delivered with the indomitable wry wit many have come to know her by.

From her modest beginnings in the 1970s cutting her teeth on the relevant parenting and teaching issues of the day, she discovered and honed a philosophy that is changing the way we look at our children.  She has had a major impact through her work with LAUSD teachers, founding a Teen Mother Program, creating the Center for Nonviolent Education and Parenting and finally transforming her works into the center that bears the name of the neighborhood it was developed in – The Echo Parenting and Education Center.

This is an interview you won’t forget.

We’re back from our summer hiatus. This week’s guest is former Ning.com CEO Gina Bianchini.

I met Gina with a group of friends down in Cabo San Lucas last year.  While enjoying good Mexican food, drink, and sunsets, we got to talking about what is important in the world and what is missing from the business, political and media conversations these days.

What we settled on was a realization that there is a lack of humanity and compassion in how people communicate with each other in these realms.

Together with Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, Gina founded Ning, an online platform for people to create their own social networks in October 2005.   She left the company in March of 2010 to serve as an executive in residence at the Andreesen Horowitz venture firm.

Some time passed and I needed to follow up with her and thought it would be great to get her on film to talk about a new business venture she is launching in Palo Alto.  I asked her why she is working literally blocks from her alma mater Stanford.  For as worldly as she is in some ways, at heart she’s a Silicon Valley girl: born and raised in the shadow of Apple in Cupertino, a Stanford girl and now ten plus years in business in Palo Alto.  It seems like she may be here to stay.  And why not?

Join MIPtalk for a conversation with one of the nicest people around and a look into one of the most brilliant entrepreneurial minds of our day.

Hope you enjoy the conversation.

Lots more cool stuff on the horizon this fall.

Brad

Russ Feingold, the former US Senator from Wisconsin, is taking the campaign finance world by storm.  His Progressives United movement is working to tackle “Super PACs” and the corporate influence he feels is bastardizing democracy.  This is a critical time for Russ.  Continue pushing for change through his organization or go for another opening in the US Senate or the governorship of Wisconsin.

As Feingold so eloquently said in this speech:

Sound off in the comments.

When technology entrepreneurs need a seasoned advisor the man they often turn to is our guest attorney Rick Citron.

I recently met Rick at the iPad conference and wanted to speak with him about the ever evolving role of technology in our work and home lives.

He’s a partner in the firm of Citron and Deutsch is an entrepreneur and attorney specializing in entrepreneurial law.  Rick has contributed to the success stories of hundreds of companies, utilizing his experience and the synergy of a carefully nurtured network of professionals and businessmen. The firms clients have included Broadcom, Scosche Industries, Kistler Aerospace, Spacehab, Adventure Travel Magazine, Pfanner Communications, and Frontiers Magazine.  Rick graduated from UC Berkeley with a BS in Statistics, and an MBA in Marketing.  His law degree is from UCLA.

Hope you enjoy the conversation.

Until next time,

Brad

Part 2 of our discussion with Tiffany Shlain, director of Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology.

We discuss her new film, the lessons of her late father author/surgeon Leonard Shlain, her hopes for the role of technology in our lives and more.

For additional reference, check out this interview that Tiffany gave at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival

We’ll be talking to Tiffany again before her film gets released theatrically. We hope you enjoy the interview.

Brad and Noam

Tiffany Shlain, celebrated filmmaker and renowned founder of The Webby Awards, wants you to GET CONNECTED. And she has a fascinating story to tell.

In her new film Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology, she rallies audiences to participate in a “Declaration of Interdependence”  that celebrates human connection throughout time and the role that technology and social media has in shaping our future.

You can see the trailer here:

Here’s what she says in her director’s statement about the film:

I hope that “Connected,” will help create a global conversation about what it means to be connected in the 21st century.  I believe that by engaging people to talk about connectedness in their own lives and in the world, the ripple effect of these conversations will have far reaching impact.  Appreciating that this is a huge subject, I employ many tactics (humor, animation, archival and my own personal story) to attempt to untangle what interdependence and connectedness mean in terms of the history of the human species and moving forward. Through this journey, I wield a large magnifying glass to look at some of the absurd and beautiful behaviors of our species and our world. While the core components of humans desire to be “connected,” have not changed since we first appeared on this planet, I believe a new zeitgeist is emerging through all these new technologies that are making our world smaller and more intertwined.

In Part 1 of our interview, we talk about Tiffany’s upbringing, the work of her father (the late surgeon and author Leonard Shlain), her early career as a filmmaker and how she founded the Webbys.

Tiffany is an incredibly inspiring storyteller and we hope you enjoy hearing what she has to say.

Check out one of her TED talks for last year:

Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments about what you do to stay connected.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Brad and Noam

As many of you know, MIPtalk is partnered with The CMO Club, a private membership organization that brings together some of the world’s leading Chief Marketing Officers.

During the recent CMO Thought Leadership Summit in San Francisco, we talked to a range of CMOs about the changes in their industry in 2010 and the things they learned that will impact their business in 2011 and beyond.

One of our favorite marketing-centric interviews from last year’s spring summit was Terri Graham, head of marketing for the fast food chain Jack in the Box (So.Yummy.)

We caught up with her again to find out why an organization like The CMO Club is useful for her and what we can look forward to from her company this year.

What a view! But the ride up La Brea was treacherous dodging cars and hipsters. Man does Los Angeles need some urban bike trails! See map of LA and its bike trails. Ouch.

I think we should have a ‘walk / bike grid’ with dedicated trails every mile east to west and north to south. It would take cars off the road and encourage good exercise and green commuting.

What is YOUR city doing to accommodate bikers and provide a more ‘green’ environment for those who want some exercise or just want to go out for some fresh air? Would our representatives even listen to our requests?

Join the conversation!

Where are all the bike trails?