What Is Hedging and Why Do We Need It?

By REID HOLLOWAY

Read More

Lawsuits & Leftovers They Just Don't Go Away

Remember the last time you had a legal predicament? Whether it’s a will, divorce, an aggravated traffic problem or a lawsuit for millions, it does seem to happen to all of us occasionally. The question is... Read More

A Health Show Hosted by Barbra Alexander

I wanted to take a moment to let you know just how much I enjoyed being a guest on your show. The obvious preparation that you and your staff had done on the topic of increasing literacy helped immensely in making our discussion an interesting and engaging one. The fact that you were so prepared and knowledgeable "juxtaposed" with your light and wonderful sense of humor helped to make it a very informal...as well as...a very informative interview. As I told you before, your show was my very first full fledged foray into radio and I can say without a doubt that it was an hour well spent in my life...and will hopefully make a difference to a few young children who's parents, grandparents, or friends end up feeling inspired by listening to your show and actually go out and get a book to read to the children in their lives. Thank you for having me , I feel honored to have been a guest and would come back any time!

Sincerely,

John Mese -
Actor & Coauthor of the "Flippy and Friends" children's books series

P.S. Feel free to use the above statement or any part of it on your website. And thank you for sending me the CD of the show. I have listened to it twice now and am incredibly happy with the way it came out. So thanks again!

This morning I heard your program "Money Dots" for the first time (Sunday, WTOP, Washington DC) and was fascinated with your intellect, composure, and interactive skills with interviewee. I would like to know if your programs are podcasted (don't know if that's a verb yet) or better yet are available on hard storage medium.

Interactive: In particular I loved the comprehensive and convincing way that you presented the subject that you wished to talk about, allowed the man that you were talking to engage as an equal and not assume a superior/inferior role in the conversation, presented your credentials in an American culturally acceptable and non-threatening way (for women very difficult), and masterfully paced the program (through excellent use of pauses, voice inflections, supportive and counterpointual verbal insertions to the guest's statements).

Your voice is somewhat similar to mine and I too engage in dialog where I have to discuss fairly intellectual topics with very smart men & women with a multiplicity of backgrounds and with a lot of power (relative to mine). I learned an incredible amount listening to your program, about the program subject, but far more about the proper use of verbal and non-verbals in intellectual speech.

I hope your staff will forward this letter to you and at a minimum I hope they relay my thanks for an excellent presentation from which I've taken many things to think about and (as appropriate) assimilate.

Regards,

Ms. Sarah Elieti Brown

Dear Barbra ---..... I not only enjoy ed the interview but can't think of a talk show on which I've had a more straightforward balanced opportunity to express my point of view on current events and the subject matter of my book, "Invasion of the Party Snatchers." Best regards, Victor Gold

Victor Gold, national correspondent-Washington magazine; Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Los Angeles Times, National Review, New York Times, Playboy, Washington Post; former speechwriter & senior adviser to Vice President George Bush; co-authored Looking Forward, The Autobiography of George Bush; author-Invasion of the Party Snatchers

Tony Seton, Quality News Network--

There are a number of reasons to listen to MoneyDots, but the most important is that the smart people win in the end. And people who tune in to MoneyDots live or download programs from the archives know more and learn more. This isn’t learning as in school, which was mostly boring and painful. This is smart grown-up learning...call it discovery. Listening to MoneyDots you understand the world better, what are the issues we’ll face, and from some of the very players who will be moving us forward.

The success of MoneyDots is due entirely to host Barbra Alexander. Barbra has lived an incredibly wonderfully checkered life. From working in the world of upscale advertising to target shooting with the local police. Her current day job is putting deals together, mostly in real estate, in various sites across North America, but she also keeps her hand in a wide variety of interests from writing books and staging fashion shows. Her real passions have to do with engines, though especially fast cars and small planes.

It is the incredible scope of her experience, her broad range of interests that have produced Barbra’s deep and continuing interest in the details of how life works. Which explains why MoneyDots is in part about connecting the financial dots of our daily lives, but also about the much larger reality of science and literature, energy and style, politics and humor.

Over her first ten years with MoneyDots on the radio, Barbra has touched many lives, providing useful information through scintillating interviews, sharing ideas and purposes that have kept people tuned to MoneyDots week after week.

Listen in for yourself, and you’ll understand why tens of thousands of Americans have made the well-informed but ever curious Barbra Alexander the person to connect their MoneyDots every week.

From Tony Seton, Quality News Network www.qnn.com

Marie Vasari Taking Stock

Hosting a talk radio show isn't as easy as it sounds.

There's the issue of perfectly literate guests who just can't quite find a vocal focal point, and the time a celebrated artist chose a live broadcast to vent his own personal grudges.

Then there's the morning an on-air visitor, overcome by nerves, fainted before the introductions were through.

It's not easy to interview an unconscious guest.

It's a good thing Barbra Alexander, who hosts "MoneyDots" on KSCO, doesn't take things too seriously. Which doesn't mean she's not serious about her work.

" MoneyDots" has been on the air for close to a decade, even though its subject -- money -- is probably one of the most boring subjects imaginable, even to its host. That's partly why her initial concept for a radio show -- a trial run on real estate and mortgage advice for another local radio station-- was eventually tossed in favor of a different approach to the subject.

Alexander, a mortgage broker for Gold Coast Financial in Monterey, talks about money on her weekly Saturday morning show, but not in the traditional, academic sense. Rather, she says, her shows deal with the way money intersects with real life, viewing it as a tool in context rather than a sole pursuit.

"It's real people, talking about real things," said Alexander, who describes the economy as a real-life, everyday issue rather than a mysterious, otherworldly concept. "It's what's in your wallet, on your bank statement, it's your debts. It's not that tough."

Richard Ebeling, president of the Foundation for Economic Education, has been on "MoneyDots;" as have Dan Gainor, a former Washington Times editor and director of the Business and Media Institute, and Steve Forbes, president and CEO of Forbes magazine and a two-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

But she's also had such guests as Holly Davis and Ken McDougal, computer and network consultants, who talked about whether technology and the "paper reduction act" have really simplified our lives.

Recent guests have included Fox media commentator and author Ann Coulter, whose latest book "Godless: The Church of Liberalism," struck more than a few raw nerves, and Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, a laid-back leader who refuses to buy a car despite the classified Web site's runaway success.

Alexander said she makes it a point to let her guests be the experts on air. After all, "it's their moment in the sun," and she's more interested in floating ideas than arguments.

Not that she doesn't have plenty of her own opinions, and even more questions -- like why the environmental groups haven't jumped on ethanol "like white on rice," making alternative energies a central focus?

She's not making a fortune hosting a local radio show, and booking guests and preparing for shows takes time. But at the end of the day, said Alexander, what better way to accomplish something than to bring issues to light, to make people think a little? Or a lot?

"Money gets everyone's attention. I want to know the cost of life, and money is a part of it."

Taking Stock appears Tuesdays.