Graduation season is in full swing. Unfortunately many of us will have to sit through long and boring commencement addresses to see our favorite graduate cross the stage.  But there’s hope. On this edition of The Regina Brett Show, professional speaker and writer Scott Berkun gives advice on how you can sharpen your public speaking skills by learning from the best and worst commencement speeches.  Berkun is the author of “Confessions of a Public Speaker.” Mary Kay Bilczo, president of Cleveland’s Toastmasters Club #351, also joins the show to give practical tips on how anyone can become comfortable speaking in front of a crowd. A few lessons from the show: Focus on your audience (Ask the questions: who are these people and why are they here?) Divide your time into digestable chunks for your audience Tell personal stories that connect to your content and connect with your audience Make sure the quotes you use are rooted in your own personal story If you are...

The story is unbelievable!  Three women are found alive in a home on Cleveland’s West Side after being missing for a decade. Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were allegedly held captive in a house on Seymour Avenue and repeatedly beaten and raped by 52-year-old Ariel Castro.  They emerged from the shadows on Monday, May 6, 2013 after a neighbor helped Berry break free and call 911. Neighborhood residents are shocked.  How could three women, just teenagers and one a young adult when they disappeared, be held at a home for so long without anyone noticing?  Ironically, the home is in the same neighborhood where Berry and DeJesus went missing. Did a breakdown in the sense of community play a role in the prolonged captivity of the three women?  Nineteen year-old Seymour Avenue resident Omayra Noriega says yes. “If we would have been an actual community, I think we could have found something out,” Noriega tells Regina Brett Show producer Danielle...

“Mistakes can be a gift if you learn from them and grow.”  Those are the words of Plain Dealer business writer Marcia Pledger. Pledger has spent the last ten years covering the blunders of small business owners for her column My Biggest Mistake.  In the column entrepreneurs reveal their major mishaps in running a business and how they fixed them. Pledger joins Regina to share the lessons learned from close to 450 Northeast Ohio entrepreneurs. The website Zoho also covered the topic at a small business expo in the following video clip. Entrepreneurs on the show He turned one office products store in Mayfield Heights into an international retail giant.  He’s OfficeMax co-founder and Max-Wellness founder Michael Feuer.  Hear why he says standing still is sometimes the best way to get noticed. Plus, not diversifying clientele almost tanked Lori DeVore’s technology company.  She shares how she was able to recover. Whether you dream of one day starting your own...

Adolescence and the teen years are hard enough by themselves.  Imagine having to deal with cancer on top of it all. According to the National Cancer Institute, that’s the reality for one out of every 325 adolescents under the age of 20. However, there is hope.  The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital reports the teen cancer survival rate is now approximately 85 percent.  That’s an increase of 20 percent over the past 30 years. On this edition of The Regina Brett Show, Regina talks with teen cancer survivors about their journey through cancer and the lessons learned through their trials. Clinical psychologist Laura Gerak, PhD and pediatric oncologist Dr. Lisa Hackney also share the best ways to support a family who has a child diagnosed with cancer. Plus, Regina Brett Show producer Danielle Wiggins takes you to a local prom geared towards providing the ultimate experience for current and former cancer patients ages 12 through 19. Listen to Full Show Audio

Happy 75th anniversary Superman! Did you know the Man of Steel was created right here in Northeast Ohio?  Clevelanders Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster dreamed him up in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood. Mayor Frank Jackson also declared April 18th, 2013 Superman Day. In honor of Cleveland’s superhero, we return to conversations Regina had with former Marvel Comics editor and writer Danny Fingeroth and Plain Dealer reporter and comic writer Michael Sangiacomo. Regina also gets to the bottom of claims that Batman’s Bruce Wayne suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.  A clinical psychologist who studies superheroes and their impact gives her thoughts on the Batman PTSD claim. Listen to Full Show Audio

Not only does the month of April bring showers and flowers; it also brings the power to volunteer. Earth Day, Global Youth Service Day and National Volunteer Week take up eight of the 30 days in this month. No more cabin fever.  April is jammed pack with opportunities for you and your family to get out and serve in your neighborhood. On this edition of The Regina Brett Show, Regina talks to advocates for community service and engagement about ways we all can have a global impact on a local level. Plus, Danielle Wiggins is back with this month’s edition of Producer Picks.  Find out what conversations made the highlight reel and your responses to the topics discussed on the show.   Listen to the show

On this edition of The Regina Brett Show, Regina sits down with a panel of local and national Catholic leaders to discuss the future of the Catholic Church. How can the church recover from the sexual abuse scandal? Local nuns share their hurt feelings over being called radical feminist. An adjunct professor of theology shares his thoughts on what he calls the virtual underground church. Plus, how local Catholics plan to connect with area youth. Regina explores it all with: author and priest, Father Donald Cozzens, “America” magazine editor-at-Large, Father James Martin, and nuns Sister Diana Culbertson and Sister Mary Ann Flannery.     Listen to full show below

Followers of Christianity and Judaism are commemorating Easter and Passover respectively this week. One thing both of these major religions have in common is the idea of a Sabbath rest.   On this encore edition of The Regina Brett Show, Regina takes a look at rest from a spiritual and practical perspective to find out why so many of us have a hard time finding true rest.

We comb it. We wash it. We style it and sometimes we lose it. It’s our hair. On this edition of The Regina Brett Show, hair stylists from around Northeast Ohio share tips of their trade to assist you in taming your mane. They have advice for both men and women. Plus, one of our stylists told a Grammy award-winning singer that she needed a new do.  She sat in his chair and he gave her a signature style.  The songstress unveiled her new look on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine.  Find out who this songstress was and how the stylist got the nerve to tell her the truth. And, is gray the new blonde?  Regina’s sister Joan says yes!  She shares her story of how she ditched coloring and embraced her grayish white locks.

Do you believe in the therapeutic power of written words? Lance Colie and Dr. Lissa McKinley do. They both turned to writing to help cope with the grief of a cancer diagnosis. On this edition of The Regina Brett Show, both Lance and Dr. McKinley share with Regina how writing and poetry helped them see the world with new light through the lens of cancer.