Jeffrey B. Simon

Kathryn interviews Attorney Jeffrey B. Simon.Attorney & law professor Jeffrey B. Simon recently won an historic $1.8 billion settlement against Johnson & Johnson and other pharmaceutical giants that will go towards opioid harm reduction in the state of Texas. He will share how they are spending this settlement money and how this model should be replicated across America in order to fund intensive harm reduction programs to combat the ongoing opioid epidemic. Standing between large corporations and the harm their self-interested policies do to American consumers, Simon is also focused on protecting consumer rights and giving a greater voice to the importance of this struggle. He has been recognized as a Texas Super Lawyer in Texas Monthly Magazine every year for over fifteen years, and in 2020, was recognized as a Texas Trailblazer by Texas Lawyer. Simon also hosts the popular Outside Counsel podcast series.Kathryn also interviews Author Deborah K. Shepherd.As her stultifying marriage is unraveling, and in the midst of mourning the loss of her creative self, Caro Tanner has a nightmare about Peter, an old love whom she hasn’t seen in twenty years. She takes this as a sign he still needs her. With her three children safely off to summer camp, Caro embarks on a pre-Facebook, pre-cell phone road trip to recapture who she once was and what she thinks she once had. Set in the rock ‘n roll ‘60s of Tucson, Arizona—when Caro and Peter were kooky, colorful, and inseparable drama students—and in the suburban ‘80s, when Caro’s creative spark has been quenched to serve the needs of her husband and children, Author Deborah K. Shepherd explores the conundrum of love and physical attraction, creativity and family responsibilities, and what happens when they are out of sync. She was the director of a domestic violence program in central Maine. Her essays have been published by Herstry, Persimmon Tree, Women on Writing, and Women Writers, Women’s Books.