Our Picks for the Best New Cable Shows to Watch

Photo by Theo Wargo/Oxygen

Over the last few weeks all of the basic cable channels have been holding their upfronts. During these industry meetings the new slate of shows is presented in hopes of selling "upfront" ad space to the mega brands that attend. But for us, it's a chance to preview the new shows and pick the ones we're looking forward to. Here's our list of the offerings we most want to see in the upcoming months.

All the Right Moves (Oxygen)
You know we love us some So You Think We Can Dance. And the biggest success story to hail from the Dance is getting his own TV show. On All the Right Moves, Travis Wall is trying to launch his own dance company called Shaping Sound. And Oxygen is following his every graceful move. He's joined by Cirque du Soleil choreographer Teddy Forance, SYTYCD season one winner Nick Lazzarini and Dancing with the Stars' Kyle Robinson.

Life After Top Chef (Bravo)
The self-explanatory title says it all. The Magical Elves are taking viewers around the country to visit some of the best of the best from Top Chef. They'll go inside the restaurants and follow up on the careers of Jen Carroll, Richard Blais, Fabio Viviani, Spike Mendelsohn and more.

Blind Dinner Party (Food Network)
Our favorite Drop Dead Diva actress, Margaret Cho, is hitting the food circuit. On her new show Blind Dinner Party, she brings together seven complete strangers for a meal and what promises to be some interesting dinner conversation.

Best Sandwich in America (Travel Channel)
Who doesn't like a sandwich? Some contend it's the perfect food. This summer Man vs. Food's Adam Richman will go on a quest for the best thing to compliment sliced bread. Restaurants across the county compete to be named “Adam Richman’s Best Sandwich in America.” It's set to premiere on June 12.

Silicon Valley (Bravo)
Silicon Valley is kind of a Real Housewives for the nerd set. Entrepreneur Randi Zuckerberg (yes, she's the sister of Facebook founder Mark) has created this docu-drama following a bunch of techies up north.

This Week's Inspiring Pop Culture Moment: J.D Roth

Photo courtesy of the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences

We recently had the opportunity to attend the TV Summit, which was hosted by The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation and Variety magazine. While the whole day was filled with informative and thought-provoking discussions about the current state, as well as the future, of television, one panel was truly inspiring. The Power of TV — Making Content that Matters seminar featured network executives and TV producers creating television with a message. And we chose the words of one person from the panel, The Biggest Loser creator J.D. Roth, as our most inspiring moment of the week.

J.D. spoke about how difficult it was to get The Biggest Loser on the air originally because people thought it was going to be mean-spirited. But he battled hard to get the series seen saying, "If there's an idea that you're passionate about, you're the best advocate for it."

He continued, "Transformation is important to me, and so I was fighting to get transformation on television. But that wasn't the norm back then. And certainly putting overweight people on television and wanting to change their lives wasn't a popular choice... and I kept trying to explain that we were going to turn these people into Olympic heroes."

The producer reflected that back then, "Everyone knew someone at their dinner table that needed help. And you would always go to the smoker and say, 'Man, you shouldn't smoke that much.' Then next you go to the drinker and say, 'Maybe one less drink?' But you never go to the overweight person and say, 'Man, you need to move more and eat less.' No one would ever do that, for obvious risks."

But after a few seasons people understand the influence The Biggest Loser has had. J.D. stated, "The power of TV [is] when you think about the conversation and how it changed at the dinner table in five years. Where my kids started noticing, and their friends started noticing, the whole childhood obesity thing and not making fun of those kids but realizing maybe there's something there that they could help."

Amanda de Cadenet on The Conversation and Motherhood

Photo by Norman Jean Roy/Lifetime

Tonight photographer and TV personality Amanda de Cadenet hopes to change the face of the talk show when The Conversation with Amanda de Cadenet premieres on Lifetime. The new show, executive produced by Amanda's BFF Demi Moore, features the British TV host sitting down with some of the most recognizable women around to discuss some pretty hot topics. As the promos say, "Nothing is off-limits." From sexuality to death to relationships, Amanda's guests open up their hearts about very personal issues.

They Talk about Motherhood on The Conversation

One big point of discussion for Amanda is motherhood. She had her first child at the age of 19 and then just five years ago she had twins, a boy and a girl. In a recent conference call interview she stated, "I have the most compassion and time for women who are mothers. I know what a joyful and often challenging combination of emotions it is being a mom."

Amanda has managed to structure her life around being a mother. She shoots her show at her home while the kids are at school and is available at a moment's notice if they need her. Admittedly she needs help with childcare to accomplish what she manages to do each day, but her kids always come first.

She said, "I'm really grateful for the woman who takes care of my kids because I wouldn't be able to do my job otherwise… But even with having childcare, to be a present mom, you've got a do it. You've got to read them the stories. You have to bathe them. You've got to spend time with them. You've got to know them. You've got to hang out with them. The biggest loss comes, for me, with working moms who have to choose whether to work — it's not a choice. You have to work to take care of your kids if you don't have anyone else giving you money. To me, the lack of childcare and the lack of support for working mothers, it just deeply saddens me."

Iyanla Vanzant Got a New Idea

Iyanla Vanzant and Oprah Winfrey by Amy and Nancy Harrington, Pop Culture Passionistas

If you ever wonder if you can change your life, check out Iyanla Vanzant’s story. Over the course of her life she has been a single teenage mother living in the projects, a school teacher, a lawyer, one of Oprah Winfrey’s chosen experts and suicidal following the death of her daughter and divorce from her husband. If anyone has lived their own advice, it’s the “have another thought” self-help author and star of the upcoming show Iyanla Fix My Life.

At a recent press event she talked about some of the twists and turns in her life. She recounted, “I taught first grade and kindergarten for about nine weeks. And, as you can hear, my voice is very heavy. So one of my students was doing something, I don’t even know sticking, his finger in the plug or something… And it frightened me and I said, ‘No!’”

What came next was a catastrophic meltdown. Iyanla continued, “The whole room stopped moving — everything — the goldfish stopped moving everything. And he just began to weep and it scared everybody else. So all the kids, all 19 of my kids, were on the floor weeping. So I sat down with them and we just sat there. I mean I gave them cookies. I wiped their noses. I had gum in my pocket… And I said, ‘Okay, I cannot come back in this place. They’re too little.’ They were too delicate so I went to middle school.”

Writer/Producer Jane Espenson Talks About Once Upon a Time

Photo by Jack Rowand/ABC

One of our favorite shows from the 2011-2012 TV season has been Once Upon a Time. The clever mix of modern day Storybrooke and fantasy fairytale lands has us guessing each week at where the plot twists will take us. These intricate stories can only be handled by great minds like Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, whose last gig was writing and producing Lost.

We are happy to say that the plot is a little easier to follow than the island drama, but just as engaging. Jane Espenson, part of the writing team, has contributed five scripts to the first season and in an exclusive interview revealed that these guys know exactly where the plot is heading. The season one finale is completed and there are plenty of unanswered questions to make for an interesting season two.

Jane had some theories as to why fairytale shows and movies are so popular these days. "It's one of those zeitgeist things. Everyone had the same idea at the same time. And we’ve seen it happen before. Everything was vampires and everything was zombies."

She continued, "You exhaust one thing and then you look to see what the next thing is. And our culture only has so many different built in mythologies and this is a very powerful one that had gone undeveloped before now."

Still she also theorized that is has to do with nostalgia. "There's something about the childhood comfort of these stories that are just a good fit for our times… People like some delicious horror, but I don’t know that people want acres of angst right now. People like to hear there's hope and that's built into stories where the answer is true love."

We asked her, if she could choose one fairytale character to embody who she would pick. And she did not name Snow White or Sleeping Beauty or even Malificent the Evil Queen. Instead she choose a more modern hero. "It would definitely be one that Disney did a movie of because they're the funniest, happiest brightest ones. I think I'd be very good as Dory in Finding Nemo."

Cuba Gooding, Jr. Reflects on His Famous Mentors

Photo by Linda D. Kozaryn   

Last night Cuba Gooding, Jr. starred in the TV movie Firelight with a group of up-and-coming young actresses including DeWanda Wise and Q’orianka Kilcher and Emily Tremaine. He played a women’s counselor who helped a young group of inmates realize their full potential by organizing a work release program in which they assisted in fighting fires and offered aide after natural disasters.

Cuba admitted that it was his first time being the elder statesman on set. And it caused him to reflect on some of the big name stars who have fostered his talent in the past.

In a recent exclusive interview he recalled one of his earliest experiences at the age of 13. “I remember sitting and talking Laurence Fishburne’s ear off every day on the set of Boys in the Hood.”

We've Been Eagerly Awaiting Chimpanzee

Photo by Mark Linfield/Disney

It's been quite some time since we were really excited for a movie release. But there's a film opening this month that we have been counting the days to. No it's not Titanic 3-D or The Five-Year Engagement. If you know us well enough, you'd be able to guess. Yes, that's right. Chimpanzee.

The new Disney doc follows a baby chimp named Oscar who loses his whole family to a rival band of primates. Left to fend for himself, Oscar encounters a sursprising caretaker.

The movie, which is narrated by Tim Allen, opens today in theaters nationwide. If you see it during the first week Disneynature will make a donation to the Jane Goodall Institute. And if you're luck enough to live in the Los Angeles area, take in the flick at the El Capitan and be treated to a live animal show courtesy of the Wildlife Learning Center before each screening.

Daily showtimes at the El Capitan are 10 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 3:45 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9:35 p.m. Tickets are available at the El Capitan Theatre box office or online at elcapitantickets.com. Check local listings for showtimes in other cities.

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This Week's Inspirational Pop Culture Moment — Fashion Star

  Photo by John Russo/NBC

Fashion Star is one of those rare reality shows where competitors get an immediate and significant response to their work. Not only are good designs showered with flattery, but buyers from three major retail chains actually make financial offers for the pieces they want to carry in their stores. And viewers can go into Saks Fifth Avenue, H&M and Macy's to actually pick up winning designs the day after an episode airs. So it's not surprising that Nikki Poulos, won of the show's top contenders said in a recent interview that the show is a real confidence booster.

Poulos described the array of emotions she's felt after having a winning design on the show, saying, "There’s happiness, there’s relief and there’s a real gratefulness that people have recognized what you’ve done and they believe in you. And that’s so encouraging… Everything I’ve done on the show that sold has sold out. So that to me really validates me as a designer."

The Pooch Hotel Comes to Hollywood

If you're anything like us, the current state of the economy has made you tighten the belt a bit and cut down on extravagances. But for those of you with a little expendable income and a furry friend you love to pamper, we thought we'd let you in on the latest pet indulgence — The Pooch Hotel.

You spend your vacations in the lap of luxury, getting spa treatments and other excesses. Why not give your pet the same? On Saturday, May 5, the five-star hotel and doggie daycare is opening in Hollywood, California. Each custom suite has glass doors, TVs, webcams and luxury bedding. The hotel also features an exercise pool, size-based playgrounds and a SPAW (a just for dogs spa) that includes massages, aromatherapy, paw-dicures and facials.

There is also a healthcare component, the Pooch Hotel Club, that offers holistic diet plans, nutrition management and treadmills. With an eye towards a low carbon Paw-print, Pooch Hotel uses Energy Star-rated purification systems and incorporates lots of natural lighting. And, of course, all canine guests will be supplied with round-the-clock water, scheduled feedings, access to vets and attention to any special needs.

LA's Pooch Hotel is the fourth in the chain, with two others in Chicago and one in Sunnyvale, California. It is the brain-child of Robin Tomb, an ex-Silicon Valley techie and owner of a Jack Russell Terrier. She said, “Pooch Hotel has gone to great lengths to deliver a higher level of quality, personalized services in a safe, eco-friendly environment. As a frequent traveler and someone who is very particular about the care of my dogs, I understand the importance of knowing your pet is safe and comfortable while you’re away. I’m thrilled that dog owners in Hollywood will have a five-star boarding option the next time they head to work or leave town.”

The Pooch Hotel starts accepting guests on Saturday, May 5, with a weekend-long grand opening celebration that will included tours, prizes and photos with your four-legged friend. To find out more visit Poochhotel.com.

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We Still Love a Good Old Fashioned Library

 Photo by Arnoldius

It’s 2012 so most people we know are rocking Kindles and Nook, reading 800-page tomes on a convenient, but cold, little computer screen. Not only do we still prefer to hold a good old-fashioned print version of a book in our hands, we’re even more nostalgic than that. We actually get our novels and non-fiction from the local library.

This practice seems to shock a lot of people. But not only does it save us money, it brings us back to our childhoods. At least once a week after our mother picked us up at school, we’d go a few blocks down the street to the Braintree Public Library and dive deep into the kids’ section in the basement. There we’d submerge ourselves in everything we could get our hands on — from Dr. Seuss to Judy Blume.

So we were touched when we saw the M.N. Spear Memorial Library in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, viral video asking for support in their effort to raise $1.4 million for a new building, which the Mass. government will match with $2.1 mill in additional funding if they meet their goal by June 30.

As their YouTube short explains (via readable signs to boot) their current location has no running water, limited space and a grated floor that melts patrons’ shoes. In addition to their fundraiser, they’ve taken to Tumblr with the “Where Would You Be Without Your Library” campaign.

Roxana Brusso on Touch and Living Life to the Fullest

There's so much good TV on right now, it's really hard to decide what to tune into. Even we can't watch it all.  But one new show that has caught our eye is Touch. We love Kiefer Sutherland and were big 24 fans so when we heard he was back on the small screen, we knew it would become appointment television for us. And we were not disappointed. Kiefer plays a the single father of an autistic kid who never speaks, but his fascination with numbers and sequences eventually is exposed as a gift that allows him to perceive patterns that connect every life on the planet.

The supporting cast includes David Mazouz as Kiefer's son Jake and Danny Glover as Arthur Tiller, the professor who exposes Jake's gift. Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays the social worker Clea Hopkinss who believes Jakes should be institutionalized and Roxana Brusso is the director of the facility where they take Jake for evaluation. We recently spoke with Roxy about what she hopes people will take away from this show and what she personally is passionate about.

On What Touch Can Teach Us
"The human connection is what I personally get out of the show. How we're all the same. We might be different ethnicities, different in color, but we're all human beings, we all share the same range of emotions. We're all really one. Even though we live in different parts of the world, especially now with the Internet, with Facebook, Twitter, we're connecting in ways that we never imagined. And this show really plays to that message of having that human connection, that we're all one. That everything we do has a consequence. What you do in the next hour can affect what you do tomorrow at 2 o'clock in the afternoon."

On How Has Touch Has Changed Her Outlook
"What I'm getting out of the show, with every script that I read, is everything does have a consequence. What you do now can really affect not just your life but other people's lives as well, your behavior. We're all responsible. Being role models, like that old fashioned saying, 'It takes a village.' I get that from every episode... Whatever I do in front of a ten-year-old, just because they're not my kid, doesn't mean that I don't have a responsibility for that ten-year-old."

On What She's Passionate About
"I'm passionate about living your life to the fullest. Stopping and smelling the flowers. Making time to do that, because I never know what's going to happen next. I never used to feel that way, but after I lost my parents, certain things that come in to your life make you really become aware of things. Life is short. We don't know how long we're going to be here. I could cross the street in an hour and get killed by a car. If I were to die in an hour, would I be satisfied with my life? That I did the best I could? And I try to live my life like that every day. Every morning I try to give myself affirmations. You know that saying, 'Live like you're dying?' I'm really passionate about that. Spending time with friends. That's really important to me. I always say, 'Life is like a big barbeque.' That's what life is about... I like to spend time with the people that I love."

On Which Pop Culture Icon She Would Like to Be for a Day
"It would be Atahualpa, who was the King of the Incas. I would like to walk in his shoes. I feel like sometimes, these Indians, the Incas and the Mayas, I think they had the answers to life. Life that we don't know. We're so busy with our remote control and technology, which is necessary and wonderful, too. But I think in worrying about all that stuff we've lost our knowledge of human nature... I feel like these guys had these answers... I would like to walk in his shows and see what life was like then. Find out how did they build that wall? How'd they build these pyramids?"

Watch Touch on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. EST/8 p.m. Central on FOX.

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Finally Vanity Fair Gives TV Its Due

Photo by Mahlum

For years it seemed people looked down their noses at those of us who not only liked television, but loved it. Film goers seemed to convey the belief that movies were simply better and TV was playing to the common denominator. While we couldn’t always justify some of our viewing habits, we always stood by the firm conviction that there was just us much good to be found on the small screen as their was in a theater.

Now as more and more mega-stars make their move to series regulars, former movie snobs are finally willing to concede that they do, in fact, watch TV. It’s hard to argue that there’s nothing worth tuning in to when you’ve got Oscar-winning directors like Martin Scorsese steering Boardwalk Empire and Anjelica Houston starring on Smash. And while they’re participation doesn’t guarantee quality, it’s made it okay for people to justify that they are watching.

Tony Robbins on Real vs. Facebook Friends

Photo by Pop Culture Passionistas

We recently got a chance to talk with Tony Robbins behind the scenes of Oprah's Lifeclass: the Tour. He spoke about a lot of topics from the changing economic times to finding yourself to being ready for a relationship. He also talked about real friends versus Facebook friends.

Tony mentioned the happiness index and pointed out that the U.S. as a whole was the most unhappy in a century when we were at our highest economic peak. Thus defeating the premise that money buys happiness. Sadly that state of being unfulfilled continues throughout the country today with the tough economic times we are in.

Tony has a theory for why that is. "People today tend to play life more shallow than deep. When people tell me, "I'm going to visit my friends,' and they go on Facebook, I think, 'Get a life.' If your idea of connection and relationships is texting, there's nothing wrong with that, but as the primary way you're staying in a relationship with people, I think you forgot what a friend is."

He reminds us, "Having a lot of people you barely know versus the people you go deep with is not very fulfilling, but it keeps you busy."

And he said that is exactly what people look for when they are unhappy. "When life is scary what most of us want is a distraction. So in the past it was food and it was alcohol and drugs — those still exist — movies, shopping, whatever. Now we have the Internet. We have the web. We have social media."

And he warns, "You have a bunch of people who have gotten addicted to a drug called technology. And that drug can also be a tool, it just depends how we use it. If we use it as a drug we pay the price and we feel that emptiness that you're talking about."

Watch the rest of our interview with Tony at our YouTube channel.

Watch Breakthrough with Tony Robbins on Monday nights at 10 p.m. EST/9 p.m. Central on OWN. And see Robbins on Oprah's Lifeclass: the Tour on Monday night April 16 at 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. Central on OWN. Follow the show online at Oprah.com and see the coursework that corresponds to each episode's theme. Join the "Lifeclass" conversation online on Twitter @OprahsLifeclass and using #lifeclass.

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This Week's Most Inspiring Pop Culture Moment — Sherri Shepherd

Photo by Adam Taylor  

As fans of The View we have watched for years as Sherri Shepherd has gushed about her love of Dancing with the Stars and how much she wanted to be a contestant. We were thrilled when they announced that she would strut her stuff on the ballroom floor in season 14. But to say the field is tough this go round is an understatement, as pretty much any celebrity is capable of winning that Mirror Ball Trophy.

Sherri danced with grace, style, humor and excitement for three weeks, but in a shocking elimination was sent home this week. She could not control the tears as she talked to Tom Bergeron and Brooke Burke Charvet before taking her final spin with partner Val Chmerkovsky.

But through the sadness came the most inspiring words we heard this week. She first displayed her gratitude to the show, "Thank you for letting me live a dream that I've always had."

And then she encouraged all the viewers to do the same. "I want to say to every person out there, that thing that scares you the most, that makes you say, ‘I don’t know if I can do it, I’m scared,' run towards it because it’s so amazing on the other side.”

The next morning in an interview with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America she said, "If you don't go towards the thing you fear, you won't be able to say you lived, even if you fail. I got voted off. I wanted the ride to continue, but I got voted off. But I got to say I did it. So that thing that you fear in your stomach, the bubbles, run towards it. I absolutely believe that."

Watch Sherri Shepherd on The View weekdays. Check local listings for time. Tune in to see who takes the Mirror Ball Trophy on Dancing with the Stars Monday nights at 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. Central and Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. EST/8 p.m. Central on ABC.


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Joseph Kahn Goes on Pop Culture Overload with Detention

Photo Courtesy of MPRM

Even if you don’t like horror movies, you might not want to rule out a trip to the theater to see Detention. The new film, by Joseph Kahn the director of the motorcycle cult classic Torque, looks like a slasher flick on the surface but it’s actually a multi-genre adventure. And it’s chock full of so many pop culture references even we couldn’t keep up.

At a recent press event that we attended on behalf of ScreenCrave.com, director Joseph Kahn talked about the movie’s many nods to the ‘90s. “One of the big debates we had, the screenwriter and I, was over Oasis. Because he thought [lead character] Clapton Davis [played by Josh Hutcherson] as a music critic, would not like Oasis and it was too obvious. And I explained to him that an 18-year-old watching this film doesn't even know who Oasis is. That obvious '90s reference now becomes obscure and by him saying it, it makes him sound more like an interesting film critic to an 18-year-old. And he was like, 'No, I still don't agree with you.' So then I wrote in the line, 'They're a Beatles cover band.' And he was like, 'Okay, we're cool.'”

Tune-In Alert: Autism: The Musical on Super Soul Sunday

Photo by Cindy Gould

Coming up this weekend on Super Soul Sunday, to honor National Autism Awareness Month, OWN is broadcasting Autism: the Musical on April 15. 

Against all odds a woman leads five autistic kids in writing, rehearsing and performing a full-length musical. The Emmy-winning doc took home statues for Outstanding Nonfictional Special and Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming.

The film's director Tricia Regan stated, "This movie is a love song to everyone who has ever dealt with autism, and anyone who ever will. Its message of hope and strength against all odds has the power to inspire and change lives... I salute OWN for bringing this film to their audience.”

Here's a sneak peek for you:

Noisy Jelly — This Century's High-Tech Play-Doh

Photo by Véronique HUYGHE via flicker

We've been writing about a lot of heavy stuff lately. And while we are committed to telling you about the good things going on in the world of pop culture, every once in a while we have to just take a minute for something silly. And so we give you Noisy Jelly.

The game is this century's answer to Play-Doh or Slime but with a high-tech twist. This gelatinous science project is also a musical instrument. Players use agar agar powder (we admit we don't know what that is), a variety of dyes and some plastic molds to create their own wiggly sculptures. 

The playing surface is a high-tech piece of wood covered in foil that somehow knows when you touch the jelly and magically (OK, it's not magic, it's science) turns the touch into a sound. Apparently the noise changes depending on the shape of the jelly sculpture, how hard you touch the surface, where you apply the pressure and how much salt was added to the mixture.

The game is the invention of students Marianne Cauvard and Raphael Pluvinage at Ensci — Les Ateliers, the French national institute for design studies in Paris, where students specialize in digital, service and product design. They say there was no audio editing in the video we've included below. Just one question: where can we get one?

NOISY JELLY from Raphaël Pluvinage on Vimeo.


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Dreama Walker Is Passionate about 'Boring, Cuddly Hallmark Things'

Photo by Bob D'Amico  

Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 premieres tonight after much fan anticipation. Brought to us by the brilliant minds behind such shows as American Dad, How I Met Your Mother and Modern Family, the show promises to deliver the laughs and the edge viewers are yearning for. The series pairs June (played by Gossip Girls' Dreama Walker) and Chloe (portrayed by Breaking Bad's Krysten Ritter) as the female odd couple of this century. One is a sweet, naive, Midwesterner newly transplanted to NYC. The other is well, The B____ in Apartment 23.

In a recent exclsive interview we asked Dreama why fans will like the show. She replied, "It's very relevant. It's edgy. It's a lot of fun and refreshing, but it's not contrived at all."

She added that unlike some recent shows that attempt to be hip, there's just is. "They're trying so hard and our show is effortless in that way. It's just naturally funny. We would get the scripts and we would laugh out loud. And we would laugh out loud while doing it."

She said that being in a show she is 100% behind makes press junkets simple. "It's so much easier to promote something like this when you're really passionate about it. Thank goodness. I really love it and I'm proud of it, so it's easy for me to sit here and say good things about it."

And speaking of passions, we just had to ask, what are hers? She commented, "It so depends on the hour, really. I'm a heart-on-the-sleeves kind of person. It just depends. I love food. I'm a big food person. I'm really passionate about eating good food all the time. I'm passionate about animals. I love animals. I love to laugh. I love to make people laugh. I feel like a total hippie right now. I'm passionate about all sorts of things — a lot of boring, cuddly Hallmark things, to be honest."

Her passion shines through in every word she utters as it will onscreen in Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23. Tune in to the premiere tonight at 9:30 p.m. EST/8:30 p.m. Central on ABC. And watch our entire interview with her on our YouTube channel.

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Deepak Chopra’s Advice for Changing Your Life

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Photo by Pop Culture Passionistas

We’re still chewing on some of the life lessons we were exposed to during our Oprah’s Lifeclass tour and we keep getting pulled back to our meeting with Deepak Chopra. That’s partly because we’ve been reading his new book Spiritual Solutions, but also because his message seemed more accessible to people who don’t necessarily connect to any one brand of organized religion.

That’s partly to do with the fact that Deepak approaches spirituality from both sides of his background. In a recent backstage interview he explained how he merged his metaphysical beliefs with his secular training. He revealed, “I came from an Eastern tradition. I was trained in a Western model and I see the connection as others do, too.”

Chopra is an M.D. who focused on internal medicine and endocrinology and neuroendocrinology. He recounted, “When I was training we were identifying molecules that everyone talks about these days – serotonin, dopamine, opiates, oxytocin. Now we know that these molecules are actually molecules of emotion. And that they also are immune-modulators. They modulate the activity of the immune system. So whatever happens in your emotional life, in your spiritual life, in your mental life has a consequence in your brain, changes the chemistry of your brain. And these chemicals have receptors in other parts of the body. So your immune cells, for example, respond to these chemicals. In other words you cannot separate your mental, your spiritual and your emotional life from what’s happening in your brain or in your body.”