Should Have Listened to My Mother Podcast Jackie Tantillo

Though conflicted, Dawn Friedman always speaks highly of her mother, Joyce. Friedman continues, "she overcame a lot. After generations of trauma, mom put a stop to it, she put her foot down." Estranged from her mom for over 5 years has not been easy for her daughter. Dawn is very proud of all that her mother has overcome and says "I still get to remember the good parts of my mom, they still belong to me."

Should Have Listened To My Mother is very happy to have Shaun Banks as our guest this week. Shaun, is also know as 'SF', which stands for "Shaun's Free." This moniker came about when he was a young boy and would visit his dad in the San Francisco Bay area. "One of my goals at this time was to have a sense of freedom, be able to work for myself and dance to my own tune," Shaun proudly remarks. Shaun is an entrepreneur and has founded several businesses, all geared to lifting kids expectations up and helping them believe in themselves and become inspired. He lives with his family in the Atlanta, Georgia area.

Donna Burke is an Australian actress, singer and voice over artist living in Tokyo, Japan since 1996. You may have heard her singing with the Tokyo Philharmonic live in concert in Japan and voicing roles for legendary Japanese video games. She's from a family of seven children and her mum's name is Margaret but she was called, Marg.

There's a process that I go through in finding my guests. I spend lot's of time searching on the internet and reading books, newspapers and magazines, reading anything really. I've got a 'small world' story to share with you about my guest, Lorraine Duffy Merkl. But before I do that, I want to tell you that I found her NY Times "Tiny Love Story" feature one Sunday morning and I knew I wanted to interview her. Her story was touching and poignant all within 100 or less words, which is very hard to do. It's entitled "True Tales of Love."

Stephen DiJoseph and his mother Angelina had a wonderful relationship. Stephen credits both his parents for all of their support especially when it came to allowing him to follow his passion for music. It was Angelina who wanted Stephen to follow his musical interests because it was something that she was unable to pursue throughout her life. A mom's love for her son, lead her on a search for ten years, trying to get an accurate diagnosis of his tics/fidgeting condition. Tourette Syndrome is what the final diagnosis was and Stephen takes his talent, sense of humor and his tics with him everywhere he goes including on and off the stage.

This week on SHLTMM, my guest, author and poet, Anthony McDuffie Jr, shares stories of his childhood struggles beginning after the loss of his father and looking for love and support in the wrong places. His mother, Shottie, had several children to take care of and was distraught as well. She tried to guide her son, but it took fifteen years in prison before she saw her son turn his life around. He now understands that his mother was trying to help him, but he wasn't ready to listen. Now Anthony is speaking with and listening to many young kids in similar situations and offering words of encouragement and advice.