Mentoris Project Podcast: Relentless Visionary: Alessandro Volta With Author, Michael Berick [Audio]

Mentoris Project Podcast: Relentless Visionary: Alessandro Volta With Author, Michael Berick

Mentoris Project Podcast: Relentless Visionary: Alessandro Volta With Author, Michael Berick [Audio]

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If asked to list important inventors, few remember to include Alessandro Volta. Yet, his is a household name more spoken than that of Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright Brothers, or even Thomas Edison. That’s because the terms “volt” and “voltage” can be attributed to Volta, the inventor of the “Voltaic pile,” which is recognized as the first electric battery. A product of the Age of Enlightenment—a time when ideas about reason, science, literature and liberty took center stage—Volta employed a very modern, hands-on approach to his work. Though he had no formal education, he was the first person to identify the gas known as methane, and created the first authoritative list of conducting metals. Alessandro Volta saw things not just as they were, but as what they could be. He was a disrupter, an innovator and a visionary. Above all, he was relentless. Without Volta’s hunger to create and his drive to invent and discover, we might not have electric cars, laptops, cellphones, and hearing aids today.

 


About the Author

Michael Berick is a writer and journalist, whose work has appeared in outlets such as the Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, LA Weekly, AAA Westways Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has written about European chocolate destinations, reviewed artist Ed Ruscha’s retrospective, and penned press material for the Grammy-nominated boxset, Battleground Korea: Songs And Sounds Of America’s Forgotten War. He also might possibly be the only music critic to have voted in both the Fids and Kamily Music Awards and the Village Voice’s annual Pazz & Jop Poll. Hailing from Cleveland, Ohio, Berick currently lives in Los Angeles with wife, playwright/screenwriter Jennifer Maisel, and their daughter and dog.

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Mentoris Project Podcast: The Faithful: A Novel Based on the Life of Giuseppe Verdi with Author, Collin Mitchell

Mentoris Project Podcast: The Faithful: A Novel Based on the Life of Giuseppe Verdi with Author, Collin Mitchell

Mentoris Project Podcast: The Faithful: A Novel Based on the Life of Giuseppe Verdi with Author, Collin Mitchell

Read The Faithful: A Novel Based on the Life of Giuseppe Verdi

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The rule of power in Europe is changing… 

Born in Italy at the tumultuous end of France’s influence in Europe, Giuseppe Verdi went on to become the world’s most recognizable name in opera. 

Set against the rise of the Italian states in the middle of the nineteenth century, The Faithful depicts an artist bedeviled by his role not just as a composer, but as an unassuming icon of the Italian Unification and the birth of modern Italy. 

Through chance encounters in gilded Milanese salons and the hushed politics of the Italian opera, we experience the struggles of a man conflicted by his role as an artist and by his commitment to a country yearning for independence.


About the Author

Collin Mitchell is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, with a degree in Comparative Literature and Film Studies. Originally from the Bay Area, he now resides in Los Angeles.

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Mentoris Project Podcast: Saving the Republic: A Novel Based on the Life of Marcus Cicero with Author, Eric D. Martin

Mentoris Project Podcast: Saving the Republic: A Novel Based on the Life of Marcus Cicero with Author, Eric Martin

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A boy, weak of body, became a pillar of strength.

As the first century approached, a sickly boy was born while the Roman Republic was nearing its ultimate demise. The boy’s life and the country both hung in the balance.  

But the strong and determined young man grew to be the Republic’s fiercest defender. With his dogged determination and towering intellect, Marcus Tullius Cicero became a famed statesman, celebrated orator, and an esteemed philosopher.  

Surviving civil wars, political intrigues, and assassination attempts, Cicero pushed against the grain, standing steadfastly in support of the Republic, even when it threatened his career—or his life.


About the Author

Eric D. Martin is a novelist and screenwriter. He has a BA in film studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MFA in screen and television writing from Pepperdine University. While studying at Pepperdine, Martin served as president of the student film society, Courier 12, and was a semifinalist for the Academy of Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship. Recently, Martin adapted the novel The Liar’s Chair for the screen and wrote the popular Lifetime thriller, The Other Mother. Currently, he is writing for the premium cable television drama Heels and for Starz, and developing the TV comedy King Elizabeth. 

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Mentoris Project Podcast: Humble Servant of Truth: A Novel Based on the Life of Thomas Aquinas with Author, Margaret O’Reilly

Mentoris Project Podcast: Humble Servant of Truth: A Novel Based on the Life of Thomas Aquinas with Author, Margaret O'Reilly

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Entering the world with a burning desire for knowledge, Thomas Aquinas set out on a quest for truth that forced him into captivity. But his thirst for truth never wavered. 

Known today among many as the most brilliant light of the Church, Aquinas was a Catholic priest and a Doctor of the Church. His synthesis of Aristotle’s philosophy with Christianity significantly influenced Western thought and solidified his legacy as one of the greatest philosophers of the Western world.   

Over his lifetime, Aquinas wrote many Eucharistic hymns, some of which are to this day included in the Church’s liturgy.  His theological insight and natural reason make him an ideal model teacher for those pursuing Catholic priesthood. 

Today, Saint Thomas is often depicted with a writing quill or an open book, proving that the search for knowledge and truth forever lives within his name. 


About the Author

Margaret O’Reilly attended Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California. After graduating in 1984, she earned catechetical certification from Our Lady of Peace Pontifical Catechetical Institute in Beaverton, Oregon. She taught high school theology and Church history at St. Agnes High School in St. Paul, Minnesota. Mrs. O’Reilly and her husband have twelve children whom they teach at home. Her articles on theological and apologetic topics have appeared in Catholic publications including Homiletic and Pastoral Review, and The Catholic Respons

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Sculpture of Vittorio Emanuelle II during battle for Italian Reunification via Instagram

What are your favorite period of Italian History? Share in the comments!

 Sculpture of Vittorio Emanuelle II during battle for Italian Reunification

Sculpture of Vittorio Emanuelle II during battle for Italian Reunification via Instagram

On our trip to Milan for the 2019 SRN Conference we had the time to visit the Museum of the Risorgimento so I could do some research on the Italian perspective of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the topic of my second Mentoris novel. It really helped me see him from several sides – and artwork like this highlighted the place he holds in world civilization. 

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