Dying To Ask

Take the 21-Day Challenge With Olympian Shannon Bahrke

Need a one-woman hype squad?

Call Olympic silver medalist Shannon Bahrke.

Shannon is our 21-Day Challenge cheerleader for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Here's the ask.

Make a commitment to adopt a renewed focus on physical health and personal growth with the 21-Day Challenge. Each day for 21 days, athletes and other experts will be sharing tips for workouts, nutrition, mental health hacks and more.

Shannon Bahrke is a two-time Olympic medalist in freestyle skiing. She won silver at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and bronze in 2010 at the Vancouver Games.

Her trademark pink hair and energetic personality quickly made her a fan favorite during her 12 years on the US Ski Team.

Post Olympics, Shannon settled in Salt Lake City, Utah.

She's an entrepreneur, a ski ambassador at Deer Valley Ski Resort, a children's book author, and the founder of Team Empower Hour, a collaboration of Olympic motivational speakers.

In March, she'll launch a new online motivational platform called The W.I.L.L. Program aimed at helping women build confidence while helping companies retain top talent.

On this Dying to Ask:

• Shannon's expert advice for anyone taking the 21-Day Challenge
• How the mantra "just one more" helped Shannon achieve her dreams
• How Olympians like Shannon find focus and mental toughness
• How you can sign up for "The W.I.L.L. Program" and why Shannon believes it can help companies retain top talent

Please join our 21-Day Challenge!

This time we’ve made a printable calendar if anyone wants to participate and keep track of their goal.

Also, please consider sharing what you’re planning to do or your progress on our interactive bulletin board.

You can submit your challenge here or tweet or post on Instagram using the hashtag #kcrachallenge.

How To Take The Kindness Challenge

It's time to flip the script on acts of kindness.

Instead of doing something kind for someone else, how about doing an act of kindness for yourself?

My colleague Edie Lambert is back on the show and we're building on some concepts that came up in a recent episode about "pandemic brain."

It's the feeling of overwhelm and foggy thinking that a lot of us have after two years of pandemic life.

Psychologist Dr. Hillary Van Horn-Gatlin encouraged us to slow down, get outside, sleep and stop multi-tasking to get some mental relief.

Turns out, it's harder than you think.

Many listeners struggled to figure out how one could live a life of solo focus.

My conclusion? Start small and do what you can.

Edie's conclusion? Be kind to yourself.

Edie has come up with an efficient way to get a brain boost each day.

And there's an accountability hack that's one text away.

It works. We've tried it and we want to share our "kindness challenge" with you.

On this Dying to Ask:

• Why an act of self-kindness is powerful
• How to make sure you stick with the challenge
• And the surprising response to our pandemic brain episode

How To Regain Your Fitness After COVID-19

It's the number one resolution Americans make each year.

Get in shape.

It's not an easy resolution to keep.

Add in a pandemic and the latest COVID-19 surge and it can feel just about impossible.

Personal trainer Ty Rendlich-Texidor has a new appreciation for her clients who struggle to find energy to make it to the gym.

She's been working as a fitness professional for 20 years. But, she's only been a recovering COVID-19 patient for a month.

And, she's not afraid to say the virus kicked her butt.

"It absolutely wiped me out. It was similar to when I had my baby. I did not expect it," Rendlich-Texidor said.

She says it's been a heavy lift, figuratively and literally, to regain her energy and stamina to resume training.

So, she came up with a three-step plan on how to resume working out after recovering from the coronavirus.

It's a plan anyone can use post-injury, post-illness, or after a long break from working out for any reason.

It starts with a hard look in the mirror and ends with a balanced and reasonable plan to set yourself up for fitness success.

On this Dying to Ask:

• A reality check on what COVID-19 can be like even if you're fit and healthy
• Ty breaks down her three-part post-COVID-19 training plan
• And why a break in working out isn't always a bad thing

5 Ways To Fight Pandemic Brain With Dr. Hillary Van Horn-Gatlin

Feel like you're losing your mind?

So do I.

It's time to do something about a new phenomenon called pandemic brain.

"Pandemic brain" isn't an official disorder. But it's a real thing, according to Dr. Hillary Van Horn-Gatlin, a Kaiser Permanente psychologist.

Her office is filled with patients complaining of feeling foggy ever since the pandemic started and their work and home lives were turned upside down.

An article in Glamour Magazine went viral with the headline "Pandemic Brain is Real- And it Explains Why You Can't Focus."

The article predicted relief was right around the corner as vaccines were about to end the pandemic. That article was published in March of 2021 and you know what happened, or didn't happen, next.

Bottom line, pandemic brain is worse.

Van Horn-Gatlin said, "You know I can't tell you the number of patients I've talked to you recently that will say I will forget what I'm talking about in mid-sentence and I don't even know what I'm doing. We're seeing those behaviors and issues related to the pandemic."

Harvard medical researchers are studying the impact the pandemic is having on our brains as we reach its two-year mark.

It's not good.

They're noticing a neural inflammation caused by stress that's likely leading to what we're calling pandemic brain.

The bad news?

The pandemic isn't ending soon.

The good news?

Van Horn-Gatlin said there are five things we can do right now that could lead to a sense of relief (however small) in as soon as a week.

On this Dying to Ask:

• The science behind why you can't focus
• 5 things you can try to regain mental clarity
• And KCRA 3 anchor Edie Lambert joins me to talk about our shared experience of pandemic brain and what we're doing about it

How To Be More Hopeful With Author Annette Roberts-Murray

Finding clarity through pandemonium — that's what a school principal did in a new kids' book about the pandemic.

Annette Roberts-Murray is an elementary school principal.

She is one of the most positive, hopeful people I've interviewed on this show.

In this episode, she'll share her hacks for hopefulness.

One of those hacks is to be of service to people who need help.

A Zoom call with her nephew about his experiences of pandemic life mirrored frustrations Annette was already seeing in her school.

Annette wrote Pandemonium to make kids feel seen and heard and also to let them know they are not alone in how they feel.

The reality is that adults draw on decades of life experience to get through hard times.

Kids don't have that luxury and skyrocketing rates of pediatric depression and anxiety prove they're struggling to process two years of pandemic life.

Feeling a little down these days? Struggling as a parent? Annette Roberts-Murray will get you back on track.

On this Dying to Ask:

• How Annette decided to write her book and her goals for Pandemonium
• A reality check on what she's seeing in schools and her hacks for staying hopeful.
• And what Annette does in her free time helps her mental health and might make her the coolest principal ever.

Why People Are So Socially Awkward Right Now With Diane Gottsman

It's not you, it's me. Oh wait, it's me too.

People are really weird these days and there's a good reason for our social awkwardness.

Diane Gottsman is a modern etiquette expert and the founder of the Protocol School of Texas.

She specializes in corporate communication strategies. She helps employers and employees interact in productive, meaningful ways and helps identify behaviors that typically lead to conflict at the water cooler.

Diane says nothing has changed modern etiquette quicker than the pandemic.

Normal work-home boundaries are non-existent. Zoom is great until it's not. And The Great Resignation is exposing big obstacles in building culture for companies hiring people who may never step foot in an office.

Collaboration? Don't get her started.

That's why Diane and her expertise are in high demand as companies try to avoid conflict and business interruptions because people no longer know how to behave with each other.

Maybe you've noticed the weirdness in your personal life as you've reconnected socially with people you haven't seen since the pandemic started?

There's a social awkwardness in get-togethers. Diane explains the science fueling our interactions and provides a few hacks to help you and those around you feel at ease.

On this Dying to Ask:

• Find out why so many people find it difficult to be in groups again
• How to handle toxic personalities that didn't improve during the pandemic
• Why we all need a "word of the year"

Why You Should Gamify Gratitude

Want to get your kids to be more grateful? Turn it into a competitive sport.

That's what I did during the pandemic with my boys and it's turned into my ultimate #parentinghack.

There's no disputing the science behind a gratitude practice. Expressing thanks and recognizing the good things in your life can boost mood and improve physical health.

The UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center studied gratitude extensively and confirmed results that suggest gratitude is a game-changer for most people.

A recent Rolling Stone article called gratitude the ultimate door opener in a conversation.

But telling your kids to be more "grateful" is a conversation non-starter in most households.

That's why I gamified gratitude during the pandemic.

Hear me out.

I'm a #boymom. My kids absorb life lessons through movement and quite often, competition and making a mess in the kitchen.

So, I started the "gratitude game" during the pandemic.

Yes, I gamified gratitude.

We play it in the car. It's a rapid-fire, round-robin declaration of all things good.

It takes just a few minutes and it's changed our family dynamic during some of the most challenging days of the pandemic.

My guest this week is my 12-year-old son who happened to be home sick from school on the day I was recording this episode.

Buckle up. He's a handful.

On this Dying to Ask:

• The science behind gratitude and the impact it has on mood and health
• How to play the gratitude game
• And what my younger son says he gets out of our family gratitude practice

How To Reinvent Yourself With Amy Schmidt

Amy Schmidt is a reinvention specialist and her own guinea pig.

Schmidt's journey for her next big thing started five months before her 50th birthday. Her kids were heading to college, she'd recently lost a parent and she had just moved back to the United States after living in Germany for six years.

Answering the questions "who am I now?" and "what do I want to do next?" are daunting at any age.

However, there's something about midlife that forces a hard look at how you want to spend your time.

Her path of self-reflection and personal reinvention resulted in a book, "Cannonball: Fearlessly Facing Midlife and Beyond."

She gave a Ted Talk, created a podcast and is about to host a new TV show.

That feeling of being "stuck" is a familiar one, regardless of age, for many people in this lingering pandemic.

Schmidt's simple strategy for reinvention will resonate with anyone craving personal and professional change and it starts with six words.

Schmidt said, "Get up, get dressed and get going. There's power in those things, every day, get up get dressed and get going it's about that momentum again."

On this Dying to Ask:

• Why procrastination and perfectionism are a toxic combo
• How to create a personal highlight reel and what to do with it to find your next thing
• And why everyone needs a compliment jar

How To Constantly Pivot With Tamron Hall

Tamron Hall is the ultimate utility player, a brand new author and the master of the pivot.

It's not easy to transition between serious breaking news and lifestyle segments on a TV show. But Tamron found a new niche in daytime TV after a nearly 30-year career in news.

Tamron got her start working in local news in Dallas and Chicago.

Then she spent 20 years at NBC News hosting the third hour of the "Today" show and anchoring "MSNBC Live with Tamron Hall."

She has also hosted "Deadline: Crime with Tamron Hall" on Investigation Discovery since September 2013.

Tamron left NBC News to launch the "Tamron Hall Show" in 2019.

Then came the pandemic, working from home and a near-daily pivot to create daytime television relevant for an ever-changing audience.

Season 3 of the "Tamron Hall Show" is underway and this season's guests are a reflection of the challenges the host and her viewers are facing in the fall of 2021.

Also, Tamron wrote her first fiction book during lockdown. "As the Wicked Watch: The First Jordan Manning Novel" is inspired by real-life crimes she covered early in her career that never left her mind.

On this Dying to Ask:

• What Tamron figured out during the pandemic while working from home that changed how she approached Season 3
• How to use your personal life experience to navigate changes at work because of the pandemic
• And the real-life inspiration behind Tamron's first work of fiction

WebMD‘s Dr. John Whyte On Taking Control Of Your Cancer Risk

Can you prevent cancer?

WebMD's top doc says the answer is "yes" in many cases.

Dr. John Whyte is the Chief Medical Officer of WebMD.

His new book is called "Take Control of Your Cancer Risk."

Whyte wrote the book during quarantine in between home-schooling his kids and working from home.

He says 1 million Americans get a cancer diagnosis each year. Whyte says it doesn't have to be that way.

"The reality is only about 30% of cancer is due to genetics, the rest or 70% is influenced by lifestyle," he says. "What you eat, how you sleep, your level of stress level of physical activity, and that means you have the control to take control of your cancer."

On this Dying to Ask:

• What you should and shouldn't be eating to stay healthy
• Why adding spice to your life is a good thing in many ways
• And Whyte has a reality check on what it's going to take to get out of pandemic life