Pamela Henriksen's Soul Project Soul Project

On today’s episode of Soul Project we talk to Bonnie Monteleone, Scientist, Artist, Entrepreneur, ocean advocate, documentary film maker and soo much more! Bonnie began her journey into the plastic ocean crisis in 2009 during her first field study exploring the North Atlantic Gyre while working on her Masters degree at University North Carolina, Wilmington. Since that time Bonnie has collected plastic marine samples globally including from four of the five main ocean gyres, the Caribbean, and Pyramid Lake, outside of Reno, Nevada. Deeply impacted by the devasting reality of the plastic crisis in our oceans and beyond, Bonnie founded the nonprofit Plastic Ocean Project (POP) in 2012 and sits as the Executive Director and Director of Science and Research and Academic Partnerships. Based in Wilmington, North Carolina, POP’s mission is to rid the ocean of plastic waste.

In addition to running POP, Bonnie works in the Environmental Studies Department at UNC Wilmington as an Adjunct Instructor teaching a Plastic Marine Debris Field Studies course and manages a lab working with student Directed Independent Studies (DIS) research. Furthermore, Bonnie is an accomplished artist who has turned some of the plastics collected on her voyages into modern artistic masterpieces, a traveling art exhibit titled “What Goes Around Comes Around”, which is equally beautiful as it is educational.

An accomplished advocate for the ocean, Bonnie’s current project is a documentary film titled “If the Ocean Could Talk”, a voice for the North Atlantic slated for release on World Ocean Day June 2022.

Please enjoy our conversation as today as Bonnie shares her incredibly inspiring journey to helping save our oceans and beyond!

Please check out Plastic Oceans Project’s Website and connect on Social media!

https://www.plasticoceanproject.org
Instagram: @plasticoceanproject.inc
Facebook: Plastic Ocean Project

I am so happy to have the brilliant and compassionate Howard Steven Pines on today’s episode.
Howard is a retired communication’s engineer whose career spanned over 25 years conducting digital speech and software engineering in Silicon Valley. Twenty years of three to four-hour commutes from Berkeley to Silicon Valley gave Howard lots of time to think about the potential for language and intelligence in big-brained humpbacks. Upon retiring ten years ago, Howard has had the time to pursue his passion and curiosity, combining his knowledge and analytical techniques used during his digital speech career to study humpback whale songs. In doing so Howard has discovered striking similarities in the phonetic and sub-unit architectures of human speech and humpback vocalizations, revealing, as he puts it, “stunning, quantitative evidence for the basis of a potentially complex language”. Howard has presented his research at the last two West Coast meetings of the Acoustical Society of America in Victoria, Canada and San Diego, California. Based on his research findings Howard has written a science-based, marine-mammal protectionist novel about a first-contact breakthrough with humpbacks. He self-published “The Whale Song Translation,” aka TWST, in 2013 on Amazon and a revised edition in 2019 on Amazon Kindle.

In our conversation Howard takes us through his journey and shares with us his Soul Project, an incredible idea to implement a technological device that can allow Humpback whales to communicate with humans.

As Howard puts it “Because of our cognitive minds and symbolic reasoning, we can never return to that primal natural bond, like the other animals, but we can do something just as good by using our abstract minds to break the communication codes of other big-brained beings, to build a bridge across the species divide and to begin a dialogue, and hopefully even offer them a gift, like the Torch of Prometheus in TWST. We’ve made great scientific discoveries with meaningful existential implications: We’re star dust, Earth is a speck of dust in the galaxies, our beings depend on water, air, and food, our umbilical connection with mother nature. These are discoveries that should make us humble in the scheme of things, not drive us deeper into the bubble of human exceptionalism, i.e. our personal and species ego trip. In my humble opinion, the antidote to human exceptionalism is a paradigm shift to planetary mindfulness. I coined the term, RUSH = Radical Ultra-Secular Humanism; a paradigm-shift to science, mindfulness. Instead of waiting for the Extra Terrestrial’s to contact us, “Break the communication codes of earth’s other big-brained beings and begin to have a dialogue before they are crushed by the juggernaut of human exceptionalism.” – Howard Steven Pines

Let’s join Howard in launching The Whale Song Translation Project!! If you or someone you know is interested in the research and wants to join the effort, to bridge the gap between human and Humpback whale communications please email Howard directly at HowardStevenPines@gmail.com
WWW.HowardStevenPines.com

Acoustical Society’s website: https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/2.0000957

Follow Soul Project podcast on Instagram @pamelas_soul_project

Today’s episode is very special to me. Today is April 22, Earth day, a day to celebrate and give gratitude for all the beauty and wonder this planet has to offer. Today is also the four-year anniversary of my Daddy leaving this beautiful earth after a two year battle with cancer. My Dad was a music man, he did not play an instrument or sing but he loved and appreciated music. I grew up in a household filled with music, my Dad had a huge stereo system that span an entire wall of the basement and on the weekend he loved to crank up the volume until the whole house shook. I owe my Dad soo much for instilling this love and appreciate for music into me.

Today is a day of celebration of all that I love. In honor of my Dad and all things I love, today's very special guest is Brother Yusef. Brother Yusef is an incredibly talented, self-taught blues musician known for a style he coined the Fattback Blues. He can be seen and heard around Southern California as well as the international stage! Brother Yusef shares his story with us today as well as some of his incredible music!

My Dad is the bridge to my connection with Brother Yusef in a story I tell in our conversation. I am so grateful to know Brother Yusef and his soulful and joyful music.

Please check out www.Brotheryusef.com
Instagram: @brotheryusef
Facebook: Brother Yusef
Band Camp: brotheryusef.bandcamp.com



If you are enjoying Pamela Henriksen’s Soul Project podcast please take a moment to subscribe, rate, review and share with friends and family!!

I would love to connect with you on social media!
Instagram: @pamelas_soul_project

On today’s episode I welcome my friend Tonya Payne. Tonya is a mother, an activist, a film maker and a domestic abuse survivor. In our difficult yet important conversation today Tonya shares with us her incredible story, which began over 25 years ago, and her continuous effort to heal inside and out. Exhibiting courage and vulnerability Tonya is in the process of making a documentary film called Off the Floor, Into the Mirror in which she shares her story and highlights the need for awareness on mental health and domestic abuse in our society. Tonya is currently in the funding phase for the movie, please help donate to this important cause via Venmo @OTFITM21 or by clicking on the Go Fund Me link below:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/dv-awareness-film-quotoff-the-floor-into-the-mirrorquot?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cp_guide_do&memberId=6215298

Check out the following to learn how you can get involved!
Instagram: @offthefloorintothemirror
Facebook: Off the Floor, Into the Mirror
Twitter: @offthefloor2021


**IMPORTANT**
If you are in a situation where you are in danger or feel threatened and need help please call the number or click on the link below for Domestic Violence Support.

https://www.thehotline.org

800.799.SAFE (7233)


If you are enjoying Pamela Henriksen’s Soul Project podcast please take a moment to subscribe, rate, review and share with friends and family !!

I would love to connect with you on social media!
Instagram: @pamelas_soul_project

On today’s episode of Soul Project I welcome guest Kirsten Donald, Director of Education at Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, CA. Kirsten is a dedicated advocate for marine mammals and the health of our oceans. The love for the sea started for her years ago in land locked Indiana and heading the call she headed to Florida where she began an exciting career working with dolphins which quickly lead to other marine mammals. In 2015 Kirsten headed west to California and joined the team at Pacific Marine Mammal Center (PMMC), a non-profit dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of seals and sea lions! Throughout the years Kirsten has inspired and educated thousands of school children and her continuous outreach within the community has raised much needed awareness for these incredible animals. I hope you enjoy this conversation!


Pacific Marine Mammal Center:
https://www.pacificmmc.org


If you are enjoying the Soul Project podcast please rate, subscribe, review and share.

I would love to connect with you on social media!
Instagram: @pamelas_soul_project

On today’s episode I am honored to speak with my dear friend Sara Nguyen. Sara is many things to many people. To me she started out at my Dental Hygienist and as we got to know each other she quickly became my friend. Sara is one of the brightest lights I have met in my life, exuding compassion, joy and gratitude from the moment I met her. She has always made her love and reverence for God known from the most joyful days to the most difficult ones. Sara is a mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend and a stage four cancer warrior!

Today Sara courageously shares with us her current battle with metastatic breast cancer. She discusses how her journey began with cancer, her treatments and her current prognosis. Sara imparts to us the gift of perspective and embracing all that life offers us. Her words and wisdom are hard earned yet full of love and acceptance. This is a message for everyone, a message of mindfulness, remaining present and not taking life for granted.

If you would like to donate to Sara’s Gofund Me, please click on the link below:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/r6yzdc-hope-for-sara

If you are enjoying the Soul Project podcast please subscribe, rate, review and share.

I would love to connect with you on social media!
Instagram: @pamelas_soul_project