The grave challenge of mental illness has darkened the arts over the centuries; yet other ailments such as asthma, TB, blindness, STD's and others have plagued artists throughout the centuries. We explore this and the backdrop of determination, faith and.

In this episode we explore the decline of passion and imagination in our society and lives and how this came to be and how maybe we can reverse it.  Segments include: convenience of society luxury of technology decline of values in principles, philosophi.

This episode is positioned to be a primer or refresher for writers embarking on a new year of creativity. Some of the topics covered involve: guidelines, submissions, journals, interviews, reviews, covid, zoom, and politics.  

First interview of 2021 brings the show to the creative shores of poet & editor (1870 & Heroin Love Songs) -- California-based Jack Henry.

Dreams have been with humanity since the beginning of time. And since earliest recorded history dreams served as a escape value to people in search of answers in a complex world. 

This episode is more or less my avante garde practice of book review and my melding of the act with my philosophy of more writers willing to review and help other writers.

In this episode I chat about life and preparation behind the scenes of an average recorded literary podcast. You can leave feedback for future mailbag episodes @ strengthtobehuman@ravemail.com  

in the final episode for 2020 we go to the inspirational and lovely poet Maya Angelou, a full and rich life of a young black girl who went from abused child to presidential poet.    You can leave feedback for future mailbag episodes @ strengthtobehuman@r.

This episode is more like a friendly warning against various forces that seek to steal our voice because they are intellectually or morally lazy to question their own. Below are the segment titles for the show: 1. Family 2. Religion 3. Society  

In the third installment we focus on four writers who made the internal pledge to write and publish a major work meant to warn or possibly change the world.   Alexandr Solzhenitstyn -- The Gulag Archipelago Elie Wiesel -- Night George Orwell -- `1984 Sun.