Thirteen isn’t just an unlucky number. It’s also the number in millions of how many kids will be victims this year of the most common form of violence experienced by young people in the United States: bullying. From direct physical and emotional intimidation to the all-too-easy immediacy of social media, bullying lies behind 15% of school absences and results in consequences ranging from impeded learning to suicides.

Interviews by today’s in-studio guest, Carrie Keagan, have earned over a billion online views in addition to her numerous acting, writing, producing, and hosting gigs. Carrie will serve as the opposing general in November’s Peace Fund Games, and she joins her paintball nemesis Adrian Paul and our co-host Ethan Dettenmaier to share how she overcame being bullied to build her own entertainment empire.

I pop in to help welcome Matthew Kaplan, our 17-year-old Peace Fund Radio Hero of the Week, who created The Be O.N.E. Project in 2009 to promote “Positive Peer Pressure” by helping other young people understand how to replace aggression with acceptance. Matthew speaks thoughtfully and eloquently about why reaching out to bullies themselves is just as important as supporting kids who have been bullied.

Download here or hear it in our archive here!

Once again, the studio is filled with beautiful and talented women, and once again, I’m joining by Skype from Indiana.

Longtime Peace Fund Radio friend Kimberly Moore from The Kimberly Moore Foundation, international recording artist Anjali Ranadive, and Yvonne Elmasri (from Pynk Celebrity) join Adrian Paul and Ethan Dettenmaier to talk about Kimberly’s “Keeping Harmony Alive” initiative for protecting the increasingly endangered music programs in our children’s schools. Hear why music education is so vital to kids and learn how Harmony Project, Little Kids Rock, and Music to My Ears (founded by previous Hero of the Week Ethan Cruikshank) are fighting to keep it alive.

Later, I help welcome 17-year-old Alaina Podmorow from British Columbia, who tells us about founding Little Women for Little Women in Afghanistan at age 9 and the work she does to protect, educate, and aid young women there. Find out why Alaina is our latest Hero of the Week in this exclusive interview!

Always always, you can download it here or hear it in our archive here.