Licensed clinical professional counselor and board-certified dance/movement therapist Erica Hornthal (“The Therapist Who Moves You”) joins Aaron to explain how changing the way we move changes the way we feel. Recorded on November 3, 2025, the conversation grounds movement therapy in the realities of Chicagoland life: financial pressure, screen-driven immobility, community trauma in Highland Park, and heightened anxiety around recent ICE activity across the North Shore. Erica shares practical, …
How can celebrating cultural traditions strengthen a community? In this episode, host Aaron Masliansky is joined by Diana Gran — Founder of Diana Gran Portraits and Director of Día de los Muertos (DDM) Week in Highland Park — to explore how honoring heritage can create unity, healing, and connection across generations and cultures. Diana shares her journey from Acapulco to Highland Park, how reclaiming her roots transformed her life and art, and why DDM Week has become a meaningful celebration …
In this episode of The Chicagoland Guide, host Aaron Masliansky sits down with Jeff Haydon, President & CEO of the iconic Ravinia Festival in Highland Park-America’s oldest outdoor music festival. Jeff shares how Ravinia began as a railroad amusement park over a century ago and evolved into one of the nation’s leading cultural institutions. The conversation covers Ravinia’s deep roots in the community, its role as a good neighbor in Highland Park, and its vision for the future through the Setti…