Heads Up: This episode discusses substance abuse and addiction. If these topics are problematic for you, please use discretion when consuming this episode and its accompanying material.

Richard Capriola spent 11 years working as an addictions counselor for Menninger Clinic in Houston, Texas before retiring in 2019. His passion for helping this vulnerable population continues through his book, “The Addicted Child, A Parent’s Guide to Adolescent Substance Abuse,” with a companion workbook containing assessments and tests for parents to use to best help their children.

In this episode, we discuss the challenges parents face in recognizing the signs their child may be struggling with substance use disorder and possible underlying mental health issues. We talk about how the COVID19 global pandemic affected adolescents, some of the experiences Richard had while working at the Meninger Clinic, and most importantly, the book he has written as a resource for parents to use if they are uncertain how to move forward with helping their adolescent child who may be struggling.

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To visit Richard’s website, click here: https://helptheaddictedchild.com/

To purchase Richard’s Book: The Addicted Child: A Parent’s Guide to Adolescent Substance Abuse,” click here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KJHJYBY

Today’s Parting Thought is titled, “A Mother’s Love Never Dies,” by Patricia Gale.
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Cool Gray in Studio A is an interview podcast that offers interesting conversations with interesting people on a wide variety of topics in hopes of inspiring deeper thought. Some of Cool Gray’s favorite topics are the arts, health and wellness, the paranormal, theoretical physics, and the mysteries of consciousness and the mind. Episodes release every 2 weeks on Thursdays. Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch the full video version on my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/coolgraystudios/.

Take my Listener Survey and be entered to win a prize! https://coolgraystudios.com/podcast-listener-survey/

To visit the companion blog about this episode, click here: https://coolgraystudios.com/blog/

All the links you’ll need to find and follow Cool Gray Studios: https://linktr.ee/coolgraystudios

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Music Credits
Opening Theme: “Busy City,” by Track Tribe from Epidemic Sound
End Title: “Walk Through the Park,” by Track Tribe from Epidemic Sound

Heads Up: This episode discusses nudity in art (the companion blog and my guest’s website display nudity) including some imagery of human models bound with the Japanese binding art form of Shibari. If these topics and images are problematic for you, please use discretion when consuming this episode and its accompanying material.

Randy Lagana was 6 years old when he drew his first serious piece of art. At age 13 he did his first oil painting and immediately knew that painting was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He has been exploring art and how to express himself through art for more than 60 years! Randy paints in acrylics using brushes, palette knives, sponge, paper, plastic, fingers, or anything else that will get the effect I’m looking for. In recent years, he has branched into photography and digital composites, applying his painterly skills to this newer medium. His photography work features nude models in both beautiful and decaying environments, which presents certain challenges when sharing on social media.

Community Guidelines on popular social platforms can be difficult to understand and may be subject to the platform reviewer’s opinion. Here, we discuss those frustrations and challenges as well as get to know Randy and his creative process. It’s an intimate look at the life of an artist over a lifetime, how his life experience has influenced his work and how his work has evolved through the years.

Randy believes art is a way to see, much like poetry is a way to speak.

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To view Randy’s work on his website, click here: https://randylagana.com.

Today’s Parting Thought is by Amy Weatherly: “Some people could be given an entire field of roses, and only see the thorns in it. Others could be given a single weed and only see the wildflower in it. Perception is a key component to gratitude. And gratitude is a key component to joy.”

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Cool Gray in Studio A is an interview podcast that offers interesting conversations with interesting people on a wide variety of topics in hopes of inspiring deeper thought. Some of Cool Gray’s favorite topics are the arts, health and wellness, the paranormal, theoretical physics, and the mysteries of consciousness and the mind. Episodes release every 2 weeks on Thursdays. Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch the full video version on my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/coolgraystudios/.

Take my Listener Survey and be entered to win a prize! https://coolgraystudios.com/podcast-listener-survey/

To visit the companion blog about this episode, click here: https://coolgraystudios.com/blog/

All the links you’ll need to find and follow Cool Gray Studios: https://linktr.ee/coolgraystudios

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Music Credits

Opening Theme: “Busy City,” by Track Tribe from Epidemic Sound

End Title: “Walk Through the Park,” by Track Tribe from Epidemic Sound

Melvin L Morse, MD, was an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington for 20 years and is the author of several books (along with science writer and documentary film maker Paul Perry) about the science and spirituality of near-death experiences. His international best seller “Closer to the Light” describes the near-death experiences of children and was based on his studies at Seattle Children’s Hospital under the supervision of the University of Washington’s Human Subject Review Board.

This episode contains the portion of the recorded interview that was concerned with Dr. Morse’s groundbreaking study on near-death experiences in children. The study was conducted over 30 years ago and included 27 children who had been through a resuscitation experience in Dr. Morse’s hospital after being clinically dead, as well as a control group of children who had also suffered trauma and been in the same intensive care environment, who may have been comatose, but were never deceased. The results were unexpected to the team and changed Dr. Morse’s life from that point forward.

However, our conversation went into some other areas and stretched to over 2 hours in length. So, I’ve extracted the parts of the interview that were about other topics and compiled them in a special video supplemental “minisode,” which can be found on my YouTube channel. There’s a link below. In that minisode, you can hear our conversations about:
*Split Brain surgery and its effects on consciousness
*Functional Neurogenesis (the concept that every thought and experience physically changes the brain)
*The nature of memory and where it is stored
*Dr. Morse’s latest book, “Where God Lives,” which is about Spiritual Neuroscience.

That’s a lot of great dialogue…too great to end up on the cutting room floor, so I’m grateful to Dr. Morse for that bonus content and I’m confident you will be, too!

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To visit Dr, Morse’s website, click here: https://melvinmorsemd.com.

Today’s Parting Thought is by Roald Dahl: “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”

For the special video supplement to this episode, click here: https://youtu.be/uIx8nDGzENE

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Cool Gray in Studio A is an interview podcast that offers interesting conversations with interesting people on a wide variety of topics in hopes of inspiring deeper thought. Some of Cool Gray’s favorite topics are the arts, health and wellness, the paranormal, theoretical physics, and the mysteries of consciousness and the mind. Episodes release every 2 weeks on Thursdays. Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch the full video version on my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/coolgraystudios/.

Take my Listener Survey and be entered to win a prize! https://coolgraystudios.com/podcast-listener-survey/

To visit the companion blog about this episode, click here: https://coolgraystudios.com/blog/

All the links you’ll need to find and follow Cool Gray Studios: https://linktr.ee/coolgraystudios

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Music Credits

Opening Theme: “Busy City,” by Track Tribe from Epidemic Sound
End Title: “Walk Through the Park,” by Track Tribe from Epidemic Sound

Welcome to Season 3 of the Cool Gray in Studio A Podcast!

Shane Thrapp is a Certified ADHD Life, Relationship, and Career Coach. Through his business, Creating Order From Chaos, he has helped hundreds of people find their paths through the chaos of life with ADHD and find their order and purpose. He is the Operations Director of the nationwide non-profit Men’s ADHD Support Group and is a public speaker who advocates for adult ADHD.

In this highly informative interview, we discuss what ADHD is and is not, what challenges those who have this neurological configuration face, and how they can successfully integrate in a neuro-typical society. Shane also shares his personal story of childhood abuse, learning he has ADHD and autism as an adult, and applying himself to overcoming the associated challenges to be successful in his relationships, his professional life, and even as a coach who specializes in helping others like him.

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To visit Shane’s website, click here: https://www.creatingorderfromchaos.com

To visit the Men’s ADHD Group on Facebook, click here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mensadhdsupportgroup

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Cool Gray in Studio A is an interview podcast that offers interesting conversations with interesting people on a wide variety of topics in hopes of inspiring deeper thought. Some of Cool Gray’s favorite topics are the arts, health and wellness, the paranormal, theoretical physics, and the mysteries of consciousness and the mind. Episodes release every 2 weeks on Thursdays. Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch the full video version on my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/coolgraystudios/.

Take my Listener Survey and be entered to win a prize! https://coolgraystudios.com/podcast-listener-survey/

To visit the companion blog about this episode, click here: https://coolgraystudios.com/blog/

All the links you’ll need to find and follow Cool Gray Studios: https://linktr.ee/coolgraystudios

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Music Credits

Opening Theme: “Busy City,” by Track Tribe from Epidemic Sound

End Title: “Walk Through the Park,” by Track Tribe from Epidemic Sound

I'm on hiatus for a month between Seasons 2 and 3 of the Cool Gray in Studio A Podcast, which makes this a perfect time to reintroduce the mission and provide a few tips for how to get the most out of the programming! For starters, use this brief break to catch up on episodes you may have missed along the way. I encourage you to choose an episode or two that you didn't think you'd be interested in at first glance. I mean, that's really the whole point of why I'm podcasting. I want to introduce you to interesting people who talk about interesting topics in hopes of encouraging deeper thought. In this age of click bait and fast forwarding and under-a-minute reels, this boomer is standing up for soaking in content and engaging your brain. Join me on the journey...I'm confident you won't regret it!

Find and follow me everywhere at https://linktr.ee/coolgraystuiods

Hope to see you around the studio!

Cool Gray

Kathleen Marden is an award-winning researcher, author, on-camera commentator, hypnosis practitioner, and international conference presenter. She is the founder and past director of MUFON’s Experiencer Resource Team, and she is widely considered one of the leading UFO contact researchers of our time. Since 1990, Kathleen has researched and experienced the perplexing nature of contact with non-human entities. She has worked on three comprehensive studies on nearly 5,000 experiencers and has published six books. The story of Betty and Barney Hill is best told in her bestseller with nuclear physicist Stanton T. Friedman “Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience.”

Because Kathleen has told the story of her aunt and uncle so many times, I have narrated a brief summary of the Betty and Barney Hill Story for those not already familiar with it. This portion of the podcast is also available as a Video Exclusive Minisode on the YouTube channel (link below).

Kathleen and I discuss how this extraordinary event and the repercussions from it looked through her eyes, as she was just 13 years old at the time of the incident. She shares how the trajectory of her life was formed by the events and how she has maintained an “appropriate skepticism,” while conducting her own extensive research on this and other incidents involving non-human entities.

For more details about this episode and my personal thoughts about this conversation, please visit the companion blog for this episode on my website. There’s a link below.

This episode concludes Season 2 of the Cool Gray in Studio A podcast. Season 3 begins after a brief hiatus on June 22, 2023.

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The information presented in the Betty and Barney Hill Story portion of this episode was collected from several sources, including the University of New Hampshire’s Special Collections website and the Wikipedia page about the Hills.

To learn more about Kathleen Marden, participate in the survey for her current study, and to purchase her books, click here: https://kathleen-marden.com

This episode’s parting thought is a portion of the lyrics from the song, “Starman” by David Bowie (as Ziggy Stardust).

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Cool Gray in Studio A is an interview podcast that offers interesting conversations with interesting people on a wide variety of topics in hopes of inspiring deeper thought. Some of Cool Gray’s favorite topics are the arts, health and wellness, the paranormal, theoretical physics, and the mysteries of consciousness and the mind. Episodes release every 2 weeks on Thursdays. Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch the full video version on my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/coolgraystudios/.
To visit the companion blog about this episode, click here: https://coolgraystudios.com/blog/
All the links you’ll need to find and follow Cool Gray Studios: https://linktr.ee/coolgraystudios

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Music Credits
Opening Theme: “Busy City,” by Track Tribe from Epidemic Sound

End Title: “Walk Through the Park,” by Track Tribe from Epidemic Sound

Background for The Betty and Barney Hill Story Sequence: “Shaman of Europe,” by Joseph Beg from Epidemic Sound

Image Credits
All images of Betty and Barney Hill were collected via image search and are used for educational and entertainment purposes. No copyright infringement is intended.

Additional images in the Betty and Barney Hill Story sequence were sourced on Unsplash.com and are used by permission of these artists: Melyna Valle, Elis Garvey, Luwadlin Bosman, Hanna Xu, Benjamin Davies, and Artem Kovalev.

Kirstyn Petras is a Brooklyn-based fiction writer but primarily identifies as caffeine in a human suit held together by hair spray and sheer force of will. She has been published in Punk Noir, Hoosier Noir, Alien Buddha Press, City Lights Theatre Company, and A Thin Slice of Anxiety. Her debut novel, The Next Witness, was released in May 2022 by Cinnabar Moth Publishing. When not writing, she trains contortion and aerial hoop. She is also the co-host of Dark Waters, a literary podcast exploring all that is dark, dreary, and wonderfully twisted.

In this episode, we nerd out about our favorite books and films, which somehow all seem to have dystopian themes. Kirstyn’s educational background in International Relations and Global Affairs lend themselves well to discussing this topic while Cool Gray’s decades of experience writing short fiction under the wing of some of her science fiction and horror heroes have informed her views. Together, they explore why dystopia is such a prevalent theme, how it is used in some of our favorite films and books, and what we are to do with these concepts once exposed to them. It’s a spirited, lively conversation between two women who may be a little too smart for their own good.

For more details about this episode and my personal thoughts about this conversation, please visit the companion blog for this episode on my website. There’s a link below.

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To learn more about Kirstyn Petras and to purchase The Next Witness, click here: https://youtube.com/coolgraystudios/.

This episode’s parting thought is “The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry.

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Cool Gray in Studio A is an interview podcast that offers interesting conversations with interesting people on a wide variety of topics in hopes of inspiring deeper thought. Some of Cool Gray’s favorite topics are the arts, health and wellness, the paranormal, theoretical physics, and the mysteries of consciousness and the mind. Episodes release every 2 weeks on Thursdays. Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch the full video version on my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/coolgraystudios/.

Take my Listener Survey and be entered to win a prize! https://coolgraystudios.com/podcast-listener-survey/

To visit the companion blog about this episode, click here: https://coolgraystudios.com/blog/

All the links you’ll need to find and follow Cool Gray Studios: https://linktr.ee/coolgraystudios

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Music Credits

Opening Theme: “Busy City,” by Track Tribe from Epidemic Sound

End Title: “Walk Through the Park,” by Track Tribe from Epidemic Sound

Ryan Cuthbert is an ordinary guy. He lives in the UK and works as a control room operator on an oil rig in the North Sea. But, when you peek behind the curtain, Ryan is really far from ordinary. He’s been expressing himself in written rhyme for most of his life, but please don’t call him a poet. The internet has come to know him by his nom de plume, Mesentire, and that fellow prefers the term, “scribbler.” Mesentire made his online debut in 2017 with a Facebook page on which he has regularly shared his scribbles. Since then, he has gained a steady following and today that page has 49,000 followers. His second book, “To talk to yourself is madness, to write to yourself is therapy,” was released in 2022. Ryan prefers the attention be focused on his writing and tends to shy away from the spotlight. He told me more than once that he wasn’t at all sure he was the sort of person that would make a good podcast guest, but we had a fascinating conversation.

In addition to writing his own scribbles, publishing them on his Facebook page and collecting them in books, Ryan also welcomes interaction and feedback from his followers. He’ll even create a custom, personalized poem for you if you tell him your story in enough detail for him to feel what you’re feeling. Online poetry and inspirational memes are trendy enough these days, but Ryan takes things to the next level with this intimate way of engaging with his fans.

For more details about this episode and my personal thoughts about this conversation, please visit the companion blog for this episode on my website. There’s a link below.

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Join the Mesentire Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/mesentire
Buy the Mesentire book here: https://a.co/d/0QeUtyb
The rest of Mesentire’s Links are here: https://linktr.ee/mesentire

This episode’s parting thought is comprised of one reading from Mesentire’s collection (untitled) and one reading from Lynn Erhorn (Cool Gray), titled, “The Mourning Jar.” The authors retain all rights to these original works.

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Cool Gray in Studio A is an interview podcast that offers interesting conversations with interesting people on a wide variety of topics in hopes of inspiring deeper thought. Some of Cool Gray’s favorite topics are the arts, health and wellness, the paranormal, theoretical physics, and the mysteries of consciousness and the mind. Episodes release every 2 weeks on Thursdays. Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch the full video version on my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/coolgraystudios/.

Take my Listener Survey and be entered to win a prize! https://coolgraystudios.com/podcast-listener-survey/

To visit the companion blog about this episode, click here: https://coolgraystudios.com/blog/

All the links you’ll need to find and follow Cool Gray Studios: https://linktr.ee/coolgraystudios

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Music Credits

Opening Theme: “Busy City,” by Track Tribe from Epidemic Sound

End Title: “Walk Through the Park,” by Track Tribe from Epidemic Sound