The Debbie Nigro Show Debbie Nigro

I’ve always admired hydrangea flowers but this year I was obsessed!
I was slamming on my brakes and jumping out of my car just to take pictures of ‘other people’s hydrangeas’!
It’s not like I'd never seen hydrangeas before. It’s just that this year for some reason they just seemed more beautiful than I ever remember. 
I wanted to share in the hydrangea joy, so I went and bought a pretty blue hydrangea plant at Home Depot.  I think it died in the car on the way home. I planted other pretty flowers that actually lived, but sadly not that one. I was bummed.
Apparently my dead hydrangea sparked my very severe case of “hydrangea envy’. 
Every time I’d spot a house with gorgeous hydrangeas I’d somehow on foot or by car, get up close or back up close, and whip out my phone to take a picture.
I now have a ridiuculous number of ‘other people’s hydrangeas’ photos in my phone.
I thought it was just me until I had lunch with a business pal and mentioned my 'Hydrangea Envy Problem’ and he whipped out his phone with the same number of Hydrangea photos!  That was a really good belly laugh.
We both really wanted to know ‘why’ suddenly, this year, were these plants so much more amazing?
We decided we needed to find a ‘hydrangea expert’! So, I went and found ‘the best’ and invited her to join my radio show. Her name is Lorraine Ballato, and she’s truly ‘The Queen of Hydrangeas’. 
Lorraine is an award-winning writer, speaker, horticulturist, photographer and confirmed plantaholic. She’s written a book called “Success with Hydrangeas’ A Gardeners Guide.
She has tips for knowledgeable and novice gardeners alike on how to grow this favorite garden shrub.
Success with Hydrangeas in an international best seller. It’s packed with valuable information like; when and how to prune; when and how to fertilize; when to transplant; how to propagate; and when to water -- or not.
I knew Lorraine would have the answer to 'WHY' the Hydrangeas were so extra gorgeous this year. Was it all the wild weather? 
Lorraine said,
“Well, not this year. Wild weather from one year to the next could be the culprit, but we didn't have any wild weather. The temperatures were fairly even over the course of the spring. We had a nice, kind of mild winter. We had good rain both in the fall and the winter and the spring, and that's a trifecta to create exactly what we're all enjoying."
“I can tell you from a very weakened memory bank that this is the best year I've ever seen in over 20.”
“Even if you get mild winters and even if you get a decent amount of rain, we invariably have those crazy spring temperature swings, you know? And we get those freezes in May or we get a freak late season snowstorm. And so even if you make it through with all the other factors, one of those, all you need is a couple days like that and your buds are gone, absolutely gone.”
“So to have all three happen in the same growing year is rare to say the least.”
Enjoy learning more about the 'Diva' hydrangeas and enjoy meeting Lorraine Ballato in this podcast of our live conversation on The Debbie Nigro Show.
Meanwhile, there’s no need for you to zone out and become envious of ‘other peoples plants’ like I did. You can have your own fabulous plants if you just look into what plant hardiness zone you’re in. Just type your zip code  into the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.

Kathleen Masciana is my summer college intern. She’s a sweet and smart college gal with an impressive list of credits.
She insists on calling me Miss Nigro. I keep telling her to call me Debbie.
Kathleen who is blind, aspires to be a radio and podcast talk show host. She posted her first attempt at hosting a talk show  on YouTube on ‘BTGS Radio’ on Stationhead.com. 'BTGS Radio' stands for Blind Techie Geek Speaks.
Kathleen’s a self-proclaimed technology geek. That’s what she loves reading about, thinking about, learning about.
So I gave Kathleen an important job to fulfill her internship. I told her to go do research and contribute each week live on my ‘Trending Tuesday’ show, a report on the trending technologies that are helping  make life easier and more interesting for those with disabilities. 
This way I help her get real time experience on the air and she helps me stay informed and educates my listeners.
Kathleen is also a beta tester for Apple, and she tests pre-release software to see if there are bugs or issues before a software debuts.
“So, what I do for Apple, I test pre-release software before it's out in the public. And I want to make sure all the bugs are out of it. So, the software's untested. And I have to check everything, like what new features are in it. Like, for example, in iOS 17, there was a feature called Personal Voice. There was a feature called Personal Voice that was released back with iOS 17. And now with iOS 18, there's a twist. This feature is now integrated with voiceover and spoken content. Really? Yes. Mainly, Personal Voice is designed for people that are at risk of losing their ability to speak.
For example, Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. He had to use a synthesized voice from a computer program. But if this feature was released in his time, he could have created a voice that sounds like him with 15 minutes of training, and you have to read 150 phrases to complete the process. And it takes about one night for everything to process, all the voice recordings that you make.”
Fascinating!
Kathleen uses a Braille computer, an iPhone, an iPad and other devices with voiceover.
She and I communicate by texts which on her end are read out loud to her through a voice over screen reader.
As for her live debut, she did great, however I did tell her I wanted her to sound a little ‘peppier’ when she talks on the air because good energy attracts other good energy!
Her second report on my show was on the latest ‘apps for the deaf’. Because Kathleen videos our audio interviews on ‘her end’ you can hear her doing my show on her own You Tube station. 
Hope you feel the good energy of this collaboration in reading this post.
Here’s the podcast of Kathleen Masciana's first live segment reporting in on The Debbie Nigro Show.
 The Debbie Nigro Show Airs Weekdays 11-12 Noon EST in the NY/CT area on 1490 WGCH Radio. You can ‘Listen Live’ from anywhere in the world on WGCH.com

Talk About Risk It! Or Regret It!...
After reading one of my email newsletters (they’re free btw at DebbieNigro.com) where my headline was my question “What are you going to do with TODAY?” 
James (Jim) Flaherty a subscriber replied to my email:
“About to leave (Mon Morning) for a 19 day 11-flight trip, visiting Flagstaff, AZ; Las Cruces, NM; and Houston and San Antonio before landing in the Baja of Mexico to teach a Modern Elder Workshop on THE BLUE ZONES, where there are more centenarians than anywhere else in the world. Trust you are well.  Good column today.  xo Jim 
Jim Flaherty is a former ad agency guy, entrepreneur and writer. I made friends with Jim after randomly featuring his book on my show, which I randomly found on an old table, in a random old general store, in an old section of an old town in upstate NY. The only thing I won’t call old is Jim - even though he’s 89. This guy’s ageless!
And talk about Risk it or Regret It!  I was exhausted just reading about the trip he had planned. I asked Jim to call into my show from the airport while waiting for his first flight. I wanted to know how the hell an 89-year-old was gonna do all that airport walking? I couldn’t! LOL
Jim said: “The only part of me that really doesn't function as well as I expect it to, because I always expect everything to work perfectly, are my legs. I can walk around the house, I can walk around an office, I can walk onto a stage and give a speech but I've had three surgeries starting with one bad surgery in Mexico years ago on my right le,g and now my left leg is just being 89 years old and tired. So I find when I get to an airport, and it's a mile or a half a mile between one thing to another, I have to have a wheelchair. And of course, it really, basically, it pisses me off because I never did.”
 
 I was wondering how this 89-year-old was going to handle all those flights?
“I don't mind the fact that I'm going to have 11, I'm going to have 11 flights in the next 19 days. That doesn't bother me. I'm fine on a plane.”
 
Was this 89-year young guy going to rent a car and drive himself around the country in between flights?
“Yeah, I drive fine. I'm a good driver. I'm okay behind the wheel.”
 
 I wanted to know more about that ‘Modern Elder Academy’ I’d read about, and Jim’s workshop he was giving on the Blue Zones.
 
Jim said:
 
“The founder, Chip Conley, is a wonderful, wonderful human being. Chip, who was going through his own kind of midlife crisis in his 50s and saw so many of his friends just at the end of their rope, decided, God, there's nothing for people going through what he called the messy middle. And they put a long age range on it, ranging from 35 to 75. People are going through the messy middle with one transition or another at all of those ages. So he put together this academy.
 
“And the reason it ended up with the name Modern Elder Academy is that the Airbnb boys who were all, you know, well, they weren't 12 years old, but they might have been, they were 20, 22, 23 years old, you know, when they started Airbnb, they didn't know their ass from their elbow, but they had a wonderful idea. And they, they asked Chip to come aboard, to tell them about hospitality, because he had owned a chain of hotels out in San Francisco. And, yeah, and one of them one day said, gosh, Chip, you're our modern elder. Because he was at that point like 52. And he thought, That's an interesting point of view of modern elders.”

Jim wants everybody in the world to look up modernelderacademy.com and put their name on the free mailing list. He said you get a free daily blog that is worth its weight in gold. And he said they have free monthly webinars that are just terrific. The workshops are too, adding that the workshops aren't for free, but he said he read the blog for two years before he signed up for one.
 
Jim said:
 "Fell madly head ov

 Was missing my ol’ belly laugh pal TV Producer Adrienne Lopez. She used to live close by me but moved, and moved on to traveling for work. Hadn’t seen her in person since before Covid. Happened to a lot of friendships.
Can’t remember exactly how we originally became friends, but I think it started way back when 5000 years ago when she once booked me on a TV show. Adrienne’s been in the tv & film business a long time.
She’s a veteran television producer and talent executive. She’s been a casting director/producer in all tv genres including, reality tv, docu-series, and competition shows as well as scripted programming. She is a very successful celebrity talent booker and is currently The Senior Talent Producer on The Tamron Hall Show in NYC. 
Adrienne said, “We usually tape a live show at ABC on 67th and Columbus, but the news is we're moving. All of ABC Disney is moving down way downtown to Tribeca. I just found out today that we're moving in December. Everybody else is moving right after the election”. 
Adrienne is used to being on the move. Both Adrienne and I were independent female entrepreneurs and single moms along the way of life. Always hustling because single moms always have to hustle, but also always laughing – even when things weren’t exactly going our way. 
We'd stop and have a glass of wine together and commiserate. Once we were so broke, we had to share a glass of wine…at happy hour. LOL We still laugh like hell about that one.
Though we haven’t seen in each in person in a while, I’d kept up with Adrienne online, knew she became the Sr. Talent Producer at The Tamron Hall Show, always joked she had fancier friends than me when I’d see her post about her celebrity pals, and found out when the great Willie Mays passed, she actually was his neighbor for a while growing up near ‘Shea Stadium’. Yes Willie Mays was her neighbor for while on the street she grew up on in East Elmhurst, Queens. 
Told Adrienne it was time for her to come visit me and have a few of those same ol’ belly laughs we always like to have. I thought it would be fun to catch up with her in the studio live on the air with me, so she could talk about all those things that she does and knows that might interest you guys too. (Like what goes on behind the scenes on a live TV show and how to get booked as a guest on one!) 
Adrienne has been at The Tamron Hall Show five seasons now and is very proud she’s been nominated for an Emmy twice. She didn’t win, but oh well, she says she’ll get ‘em next time!  The new season starts September 3rd.
 
Meet Adrienne Lopez and find out how getting booked a TV show works and more, in this podcast of our live conversation on The Debbie Nigro Show.
 

“Super Nanny’ Shannon Albrecht is the creator and President of President/Nanny-Land®️, LLC, the world’s only company specializing in Nannies at Disney!
 
Located at most Disney locations worldwide, and available on Disney cruise Lines they provide you with a Magical Nanny for your Family Adventures!
 
Shannon joined The Debbie Nigro Show to share that most of her clients are simply families who could use an extra set of hands when they take a Disney Adventure.
 
Typical families who book with her might have 3 or 4 kids, a child with special needs, or kids with a large age gap. Single parents find this service invaluable as do parents with disabilities. 
 
Shannon knows firsthand how helpful her service is because she herself uses a wheelchair and has a son with autism spectrum disorder.
 
Shannon says, “A lot of parents will ask, what’s the difference between your Disney nannies and me just bringing my nanny from home. Of course, your nanny from home knows you and they know your children personally, but they may also not really know the Disney parks. They also probably do not have, especially if you're traveling from out of state, a Disney annual pass, so therefore you have to buy their tickets in the park every day. Our nannies that help in parks are called our golden crown nannies. They're local to Disney. They visit Disney multiple times a week, some of them every single day. They have Disney annual passes so they're not only childcare professionals, they're also Disney masters and Disney experts.”
 
“I should also throw in there that most families that come to us have never even been to Disney. It's usually their once-in-a-lifetime trip or their first trip I'd say as high as 70 or 80 percent of families. We do get reoccurring
families but a lot of them are new to Disney and when they arrive, parents especially have no idea how exhausting it is and so providing them with a nanny for Disney helps them navigate the parks, it helps keep an eye on the best of both worlds. The family fun time and just adult assistance or adult downtime. I think most parents don't take that into consideration how physically and emotionally exhausting it is.”
 
 
 
Nanny-Land offers lots of ways to make the trip more fun for everybody traveling, including Nannies for date nights and Nannies to grab the kids early mornings so adults can get a little more sleep. (Which if you’ve ever been on a vacation with kids, you know is desperately needed.)
 

Shannon says, “That's a very popular service we call a sleepy session and that's from our silver crown nannies which are the nannies that help with the resorts and the hotels. Because we operate around the clock we never close so we work any hours and and not for an extra price. We'll work really early really late throughout the night. A sleepy session is when a silver crown nanny comes to the resort or hotel as early as you want 3 a.m. 4 a.m. 5 a.m. to wake up with the kids, get them ready for the day, have breakfast with them, and start the morning so that mom and dad can sleep in. And this is really popular after a date night, the night before. That's huge. Huge. And or after a big park day, the day before, so they can recharge, so they can be there at the parks for their children.”
 
All Nanny-Land Nannies are CPR certified and background checked, and all Nannies are Disney annual theme park pass holders and locals familiar with the parks. They make great stroller pushers and family photographers too. All Nannies and families are paired before the trip.
 
Enjoy meeting Founder Shannon Albrecht / President/Nanny-Land®️, LLC in this podcast of our live conversation on The Debbie Nigro Show!
 
And check out Nanny-Land.com. Feel free to email them with any questions at Smile@Nanny-Land.com
The Debbie Nigro Show airs 11-12 Noon EST on #WGCH Radio. Tune in live from anywhere on WGCH.com.

Have you heard about The Key to The Castle workshops for writers? The next one is taking place in Torre di Cittara, Italy from October 19th to 26th this year.
Kathy Curto, Patricia Dunn, William Papaleo and Angela Derecas Taylor are behind this. It's their signature workshop on the Amalfi Coast but they offer workshops for writers, artists and yoga enthusiasts both online, locally in the NY area and in other cool places abroad.
I found about  this when ran into Angela at a writer’s event. I’d known her from her days working in the mayor’s office in my city. When she retired 2 years ago - she started this cool company.
 
So who is the ideal participant for a writers trip to Italy?
Someone who is open to adventure and discovery as a community of artists.
 
 One benefit of working as an artist in community with others is the gaining of new insight, particularly when it comes to ways of seeing and valuing their own work. This applies on the page, the mat, out in the natural world and on the canvas. 
 
An ideal student also recognizes the importance of getting away from their own day to day life to experience the illuminating effects of travel and the sharing of culture—in all ways.
 
Many students attend their workshops to collect fresh understandings of their own promise as artists and to gain the variety of perspectives that come from being in a new place.
 
Kathy and Patricia joined me in the studio to tell us all about it.
Kathy says, “The Key To the Castle is  sort of our signature program and that is in October for, and as  Pat said, writers really of all levels. We do writing and painting primarily and some meditation and yoga and lots of eating and sort of collaborating with one another. It's really community driven.

We've been doing it for several years now in Cittara. We have a great relationship with the community, with the merchants there, with the people who help us actually organize the housing and the trips.
You actually stay in this beautiful fishing town right the Amalfi coast and everybody gets apartments like the person that arranges you it's like condos Everybody gets their condos and then we actually do the writing right in the castle.”
 
Seems many great writers just don't really ‘get it’ until they are with other people who bring it out in them and see it.

Pat said,  “You can write alone, and you might get to certain things in your work, but until you share it with people you trust, in a safe environment, you're not going to get the kind of feedback that you need to move on to the next step unless you want to wait 25, 30 years.”
Wow. Who the heck has that kind of time to waste? LOL
If this sounds like something you’d like to know more about check out KeysToTheCastleWorkshop.com.
Meanwhile enjoy this podcast of our live conversation on the Debbie Nigro Show.