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Episode 54: Columbia University Professor Dr Peter Coleman: Conflict: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
What if the key to resolving conflict isn’t avoiding it, but learning to navigate it better? Columbia University professor Dr. Peter Coleman thinks so. An expert in constructive conflict resolution and a sustainable peace expert, he’s explored the forces that drive conflict, from our families and workplaces to communities and nations. Join Roberta as she and Dr. Coleman discuss how even our deepest disagreements can be navigated with greater wisdom, adaptability, and understanding.

Episode 54: Columbia University Professor Dr Peter Coleman: Conflict: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
What if the key to resolving conflict isn’t avoiding it, but learning to navigate it better? Columbia University professor Dr. Peter Coleman thinks so. An expert in constructive conflict resolution and a sustainable peace expert, he’s explored the forces that drive conflict, from our families and workplaces to communities and nations. Join Roberta as she and Dr. Coleman discuss how even our deepest disagreements can be navigated with greater wisdom, adaptability, and understanding.
Past Episodes

Episode 4: Pippa Ehrlich: Free Dive
How did one tiny octopus change so many lives?
To combat burnout and depression, filmmaker & diver Craig Foster had taken up diving in the icy waters of South Africa’s Kelp Forest where he met one very special Common Octopus. A year of observing and filming the octopus’ short life later, he sent the film to fellow documentarian Pippa Erlich, who crafted the footage into a meditation on the importance of wildlife and a moving tale about her friend and his octopus teacher.
Join Roberta as she chats with Pippa about the Academy-Award winning documentary, her work with the Sea Change Project, and some of her favorite advice from Jane Goodall.

Episode 3: Olivia Barkley: Dreams From the Depths
Olivia Barkley loved diving. She ate, slept and breathed it, so much that her one dream was to get a full diving scholarship at a Division 1 school. After a serious accident on a dive left her with a life-altering concussion, the dream vanished…and then reformed in an unexpected new way.
Join Roberta as she sits down with Olivia to discuss how she managed the many different types of loss, how she found a new identity, and what it’s like to run an Ultra Marathon (50km!).
And did we mention she sings too?

Episode 2: Florence Williams: The Science of Awe
Florence Williams is a contributing editor for Outside magazine and the New York Times bestselling author of Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey (2022) and The Nature Fix (2017). For the unfamiliar, these books ask questions like: Why do the emotional effects of heartbreak manifest physically? and; how can exposure to nature make: us healthier, not only physically but mentally, emotionally, and socially too?
In this episode, Florence joins Roberta from her home in Washington, D.C. to discuss these questions, the difficult life changes that underpin them and how, to get us all outside, she claimed Oscar Wilde’s famously generous definition of nature: “Nature is where the birds fly around uncooked.”

Episode 1: J.D. Jackson: To Act You Have to Listen
J.D. Jackson is an award-winning audiobook narrator with 400 credits to his name and counting. An 2020 inductee into AudioFile Magazine’s Golden Voices Hall of Fame, J.D. has plenty of experience behind a mic. For this inaugural episode of A Bend in the Road, join Roberta as she talks with J.D. about the teacher that changed his life, the process of interpreting books of all genres, and his magic remedy for keeping his voice in top form (hint: it involves a lot of licorice tea.) And who knows? Maybe that recipe will lead to your own bend in the road.
Past Episodes

Episode 53: Lyndon Harris: Forgiveness at Ground Zero
Twenty-five years after 9/11, the haunting images remain etched in our collective memory. But some of the most extraordinary stories began after the smoke cleared.
Lyndon Harris was the priest-in-charge of St. Paul’s Chapel, just steps from Ground Zero, where he led a massive volunteer effort caring for first responders

Episode 52: Curtis Duffy: One of the Best Chefs “Ever” (Rebroadcast)
What happens when one of America’s most celebrated chefs meets one of television’s biggest hits?
At Ever, the worlds of fine dining and ‘The Bear’ collide. As the inspiration and filming location for the series’ acclaimed restaurant, Chef Curtis Duffy’s two-Michelin-starred Chicago restaurant helped bring some of the show’s most

Episode 51: House of Gael: Live from Northern Ireland
Live! From Portrush, Northern Ireland, it’s host Roberta Panjwani and Laura and Gavin, the founders of the Belfast-based band House of Gael! They discuss blending traditional Irish sounds with a modern spirit, the power of music to celebrate unity and diversity, and how music helped transform their lives after a

Episode 50: Pluribus Executive Producer and Writer Alison Tatlock
Apple TV+’s Plur1bus is one of the most talked-about shows of the year. Why? Well, the tagline says it all: “The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.”
This month, Roberta sits down with Plur1bus Executive Producer and Writer, Alison Tatlock, to talk storytelling, world-building, and

Episode 49: Anna Quindlen: Live from the Friends Foundation Author Luncheon
At the beginning of April, the Ridgewood Library Friends Foundation hosted their 36th Annual Author Luncheon with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anna Quindlen. It sold out – 416 tickets! – in an unprecedented 5 days. We are so pleased that Anna allowed us to publish her interview and talk from the

Episode 48: Author Russell Shorto: Taking Manhattan
This month Roberta talks to Russell Shorto about his new book Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America, which drawing on deep archival research to offer a fresh take on America’s beginnings and the transfer of power in the region from the Dutch to the

Episode 47: “Cinephile” Author and Podcaster Adnan Virk: Let’s Go to the Movies!
This month on A Bend in the Road, Roberta is joined by broadcaster, film critic, and host of the Cinephile podcast Adnan Virk for a lively deep dive into the movies that matter now.
Known for his sharp insights and contagious love of cinema, Virk brings his passion, encyclopedic knowledge,

Episode 46: Author Laurie Gwen Shapiro
What really happened inside the marriage that helped turn Amelia Earhart into a legend? That’s the question author Laurie Gwen Shapiro sought to answer in her new book: The Aviator and the Showman. Through newly uncovered letters and archival material, she reexamines the partnership between Amelia Earhart and George Putnam,

Episode 45: Author Gretchen Rubin: Get Happy (Rebroadcast)
Yale graduate Gretchen Rubin had quite the pivot when she went from clerking for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to founding the Happiness Project. How that came to be and what her surprising path to a life of more energy, creativity, luck, and love entails (hint: tune in to the five

Episode 44: Writer John Seabrook: From Fields of Ambition to a Fallen Empire
This month, Roberta sits down with The New Yorker writer John Seabrook to talk about his new book The Spinach King, a chronicle of the rise and fall of his family’s empire: Seabrook Farms. Recently selected as one of the 100 Most Notable Books of 2025 by the New York