Randy Rolfe

FAMILY FIRST: The Challenges of Having a Family Business With Marie Maguire

Even before this recession, start-ups of family businesses were at an all time high. Now in this economy when many are being downsized from corporate jobs, more families are considering becoming entrepreneurs and starting their own businesses. Meanwhile, some families who have been operating family-owned businesses are finding the impact of the slump too much for their business to survive and are facing tough decisions. America was built on the entrepreneurial spirit and family businesses. Yet the challenges of building and running a business with family members have always been daunting. And the decisions about growth, selling, or passing on a family business always carry extra emotion. My guest this week on Family First has decades of experience with exactly these kinds of relationships. With expertise in both family counseling and business coaching, Marie Maguire will share the pitfalls and benefits of family businesses andways to minimize the stress and maximize the rewards.

FAMILY FIRST: How to Heal from Childhood Pain With David Marsh Lockridge

Often parents don't realize that their own childhoods are still having impacton their lives and particularly on how they are responding to being parents.Conditions like depression, anxiety, or angry outbursts are often treatedtoday with drug therapy as a first resort. But these and even physicalailments like headaches or stomachaches may actually result from adverseexperiences from childhood which have remained unresolved. Psychologistsand other therapists may help you discover and cope with these lingeringeffects, but my guest today, David Lockridge, has found a more rapid andeffective way to help people overcome unwanted emotional and physicaleffects of their childhoods. The founder of ACE Overcomers, David Lockridgewill discuss the groundbreaking research into connections between childhoodand future health on which he bases his program and also the ways in whichparents today can save their children from similar kinds of effects in theirlater lives.

FAMILY FIRST: The Resilient Family With James H. Lee

There's an awful lot of doom and gloom out there for families to contemplate. With persistent national and personal debt, shrinking resources, climate change, malnutrition along side of obesity, and adjustments in the very concept of family, families are feeling the stress of constant change. Fortunately, there is hope in the form of contemporary grassroots movements, according to my guest this week on Family First, James H. Lee. In his new book Resilience and the Future of Everyday Life, Lee shows how these movements can restore self-reliance and community engagement. He will discuss how families can take control of their own destiny and help to create the future they want for their children and grandchildren. Lee will be sharing such concepts as discreet consumption, transition towns, repurposing, the elder boom, moving beyond the adolescent culture, do-it-yourself banking, barter and digital commerce, and edible landscaping. His ideas will definitely expand your current options.

FAMILY FIRST: Keep Kids Safe on The Road With John E. Langan

As our kids go back to school excited about the new year, parents worry about seeing them get into cars. Traffic crashes are the #1 cause of death for all people in the world ages 10-24 and for all people in USA under the age of 35. America has lost more lives (over 2 million) in 110 years of driving than all the wars we fought during the last 234 years. My guest this week is John E. Langan, a highly respected expert on traffic safety and crashes. He has testified in criminal and civil proceedings as an expert in traffic crashes in state and federal courts in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Langan has been actively promoting traffic safety since 1969. He is founder and president of drive AWARE, a nonprofit traffic safety advocacy and victim support organization. In 1984, he founded and served as first president of the National Association of Traffic Accident Reconstructionists and Investigators. He has also testified before a Pennsylvania government committees on Teen Driver Safety.

FAMILY FIRST: Triumphing after a Troubled Childhood With James Krehbiel

Today's research is showing that many of the troubles adults are having stemfrom unresolved pain from childhood. Yet some adults go on to lead satisfyingproductive lives after experiencing horrendous childhoods. What's the differencebetween the two? How can an adult recover from childhood troubles which arestill affecting their approach to life? And how can today's parents spare theirchildren from having to deal with these issues as adults? My guest this week isJames Krehbiel, who is a long-time educator and professional counselor who hasbeen helping adults to deal with many emotional issues by overcoming theirtroubled childhood experiences and what he calls the "magical illusion" ofchildhood which many people carry into adulthood. James will share with ussome insights from his new book Troubled Childhood, Triumphant Life abouthow ineffective parenting can set us up for these challenges and how these canbe overcome or prevented in the first place.

FAMILY FIRST: Can You Bully - Proof Your Child? With Rich Kohler

This month has been designated Anti-Bully Month and in recent years there havebeen some horrendous incidents of bullying in the news which have destroyedlives. Why has it become such a problem? Is it getting worse? And if so why?What is happening in the mind of the bully? And how can we protect the potentialvictim? Does the old idea of just hitting back work? Or can our child talk a bullyout of attack? What should our children watch out for to avoid being a target? Myguest Rich Kohler has answers which have been tested in the field. Rich is adynamic presenter who has created and presented award-winning child safetyprograms world-wide since 1997. Rich Kohler is considered one of the leadingexperts on child abduction safety and bully avoidance in the State of Connecticut.His unique teaching style is popular among the many public and privateorganizations to whom he has presented .. He receives glowing reports fromparents, teachers, police officers, and child psychologists.

FAMILY FIRST: Natural Ways to Help Prevent Cardio Problems With Dr. Joseph Keenan

Today people are still dying of cardiovascular problems after almost a century of research. Predictors include elevated blood pressure, cholesterol, and tryglycerides, so pharmaceutical companies have developed chemicals to lower these numbers, but we are learning more and more about unwanted side effects to these drugs, most recently impaired memory in some patients who are taking statins to lower cholesterol. Plus the long term studies leave some doubt whether artificially lowering cholesterol actually is as preventative as had been hoped. But there are natural ways to reduce these predictors and these have only good side effects. Myguest this week on Family First knows a great deal about these natural strategies. Dr. Keenan will discuss preventative cardiac research relating to nutrition and food and ways that we can improve our family's health with some simple dietary and lifestyle changes.

FAMILY FIRST: Unschooling and How Children Learn Best With DR. Robert E. Kay

You hear so often about children stressed by school, not doing well, oroverwhelmed by expectations from parents, teachers, and themselves.Even young children are having reading difficulties, are diagnosed withattention problems, and create worries for their parents that they will fallbehind and not be able to compete for college and jobs. Join our livelydiscussion this week with Dr. Robert E. Kay, who has strong opinionsabout how children learn best and how parents can really help them tocope with the demands of school and still maintain their self-esteem, theirlove of learning, and their sense of competency in the world. Find out howyou might be able to improve your child's learning, without becoming atiger mom.

FAMILY FIRST: Child - Rearing: Back to Basics With Dr. Robert E. Kay

Parenting seems to be in crisis today. The court case in Mississippi now in thenews about an assistant school principal paddling a child who was seriouslyinjured when he fainted afterwards, is bringing into stark focus the question ofwhat kind of discipline today's children need and from whom. How can parentsdecide what is the best way for them to raise their children? Especially when asparents they are hard pressed with economic stress, time stress, and widelydifferent advice from all sides? My guest this week is Dr. Robert E. Kay, apsychiatrist who has worked with families for decades. He urges parents to returnto the basics of child-rearing and he will share some powerful ideas which canhelp parents to make the best decision for their family and to help preventproblems later. Dr. Kay has wide familiarity with the many theories of child-rearing and believes parents can work with their children instead of against themto gain their cooperation and their respect. 

FAMILY FIRST: How to Protect Your Child from Phone Radiation With Shelly Kalnitsky

Today there are five billion cell phones in use. 80% of Europeans use them and 50% of Americans, more every day. With reports of health risks from cell phone radiation mounting, including a recent WHO report linking their use to cancer, industry giants still deny any problem. Are we damaging our kids by letting them use cell phones at an early age? Are we risking our own health? My guest this week on Family First is Shelly Kalnitsky. Kalnitsky compares where we are now with cell phones to where we used to be with cigarettes, believing industry assertions that nicotine was non-addictive and smoking didn’t cause cancer. Do we really want “radiation” and “microwaves” going into our child’s brain? After 10 years studying the data, Kalnitsky says we can’t know the long term effects yet, but there is enough evidence to warrant serious concern. He will describe the studies, the increased risks for children, how industry misinforms, how hand-free is no safer, and ways to minimize harm.