Books
Firdaus Kharas Achieves Milestone of 5,000 Media Productions for Social Change
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Since founding the social enterprise Chocolate Moose Media in 1995, Kharas has dedicated his career to tackling some of the world’s most pressing issues through innovative media solutions. His work focuses on fostering societal and individual behavioral change using human-centered communications that transcend cultural and national boundaries, all with the goal of improving the human condition.
Firdaus Kharas is a trailblazer in using animation for social change and has emerged as the world’s leading and most prolific individual producer and director of media dedicated to social good.
These 5,000 productions, grouped into 100 distinct series, cover a vast array of topics from Anti-racism to Zika eradication. Capacity building, children’s rights, climate change, democracy, dementia, disease prevention, domestic violence, education, governance, health, housing, human rights, literacy, mental health, migration, peace, refugees, sexual harassment, universal values, and violence reduction, are some of Kharas’ main topics that span the entire spectrum of social challenges.
Kharas’ media has been viewed by over a billion people in 198 countries and exist in hundreds of language and accent versions. Over 6.5 billion people can see some of his work in their own language. His commitment to inclusivity is evident in the use of both widely spoken and local languages.
With commissioning and distribution organizations such as United Nations agencies, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), other international governmental and non-governmental organizations, and numerous governments and universities, Kharas’ impactful content that fosters real-world change have been disseminated both online and on the ground across the globe.
Reaching the 5,000th production recently included two animated videos on perimenopause based on research by two professors; and a live-action educational documentary on the mental health context and needs of Afghan refugees.
Over 95% of Kharas’ media productions do not carry a copyright notice and are available under a Creative Commons license allowing them to be freely viewed, downloaded, and used without any cost. This fully open-access model, implemented since 1995, reflects his dedication to maximizing the free availability, reach and impact of his work. With over 3,600 videos available on his Vimeo channel, and hundreds of others hosted on sponsors’ websites, Kharas ensures that his content remains accessible to all.
In recognition of his extraordinary contributions, Firdaus Kharas was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. A recipient of the prestigious Peabody Award, and a recipient of honorary doctorates from two alma maters, he has received 125 awards and recognitions throughout his career.
The cumulative effect of Kharas’ 5,000 productions continues to inspire, educate and empower individuals and communities worldwide, proving that values-based innovative media content can be a powerful force to better the human condition in today’s hyper-connected world.
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Books
Scottsdale Author Joe Reina’s New Novel Follows a Killer Who Gets Away With It
Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk
Joe Reina has published a new novel, "Shadows over Scottsdale: An Unsolved Murder Mystery," built around a scenario true-crime statistics make uncomfortably familiar: a man commits a devastating crime and simply disappears, leaving investigators and a grieving community with no resolution.
The book follows a character named Robert, who flees the country using forged documents and a cargo ship after an act of destruction that leaves behind, as the publisher describes it, charred remains and an unanswered investigation. The case goes cold. The novel, according to its publisher, is less concerned with the mechanics of the escape than with what happens afterward, to the people left waiting for answers that never come.
Reina, now retired in Scottsdale, spent decades in international business across apparel, footwear, and real estate, with extensive time in Europe and a particular connection to Italy that shaped two earlier books, "The Goat Sleeps in the Kitchen" and "A Love Affair in Tuscany." "Shadows over Scottsdale" marks a different direction, built instead around the real scale of unsolved homicide in the U.S. The publisher’s materials cite roughly 346,000 unsolved homicides since 1965, with more than a dozen occurring unresolved each day. Separate reporting on the book has cited a figure of about 7,778 murders in 2023 alone, which it similarly frames as more than a dozen a day going unresolved.
"Writing ‘Shadows over Scottsdale’ forced me to confront uncomfortable questions about justice itself," Reina said, according to the announcement. "Too many crimes go unsolved, too many families wait endlessly for answers. I wanted readers to understand that behind every cold case statistic is a real story, real suffering, and real questions that may never be answered."
The publisher positions the novel as an examination of institutional limits as much as a crime story: the toll of a case gone cold on the people who can’t move past it, and what it means for a community when accountability simply never arrives.
"Shadows over Scottsdale" is published by Covenant Books and is available in paperback and hardcover through the publisher’s website and major retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books.
Cold-case statistics tend to get cited and then forgotten. Studio CarryOnHarry is curious whether fiction built directly around that number does more to stick with a reader than the number alone ever does.
Read more People’s Choice stories on Studio CarryOnHarry. Reporting via Live News Vault.
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Books
Joe Reina’s ‘Lost Masterpieces’ Imagines a Fictional Farewell Among Renaissance Painters
Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk
Joe Reina has published a new novel, "Lost Masterpieces: Three Paintings, 500 Years A Journey Through Time," built around an imagined scene from Renaissance history: the night before Leonardo da Vinci leaves for Milan, when three fellow painters each hand him a small work carrying a private message.
According to the announcement, those three gifts come from Sandro Botticelli, Titian, and Andrea Mantegna, each painting standing in for a different kind of counsel. Botticelli’s piece is described as layered with allegory and coded warnings about power and patronage. Titian’s is framed as warm and sensual, suggesting reinvention and a break from convention. Mantegna’s is austere and classically precise, encoding discipline and endurance. According to the announcement, these three paintings form a wordless exchange between masters, transmitting wisdom, mutual regard, and assurance across generations through visual means.
Reina comes to this material from outside the art world. His career was built in apparel, footwear, and real estate development in Chicago, and the publisher’s materials trace his interest in European history, and in Italy specifically, to years of international business travel. He has published several previous books, including "The Goat Sleeps in the Kitchen," "A Love Affair in Tuscany," and "Shadows over Scottsdale," before turning to this account of a fictionalized moment at the hinge of the Renaissance.
"I wanted to capture that extraordinary moment when masters speak to each other across time through their work," Reina said in the announcement. "These paintings represent not just gifts, but a conversation about what it means to pursue greatness while remaining grounded in purpose and principle."
The book is published through Covenant Books and is available in hardcover and paperback, as well as through Apple Books, Amazon, Google Play, and Barnes & Noble.
Studio CarryOnHarry is intrigued by novels that build fiction around real historical figures at a specific, dramatized turning point rather than attempting straight biography — the approach succeeds or fails based on how seamlessly the fictional moment integrates with documented historical fact.
Read more People’s Choice stories on Studio CarryOnHarry. Reporting via Live News Vault.
Are you an author with a new release? We’re always looking for books to cover and authors to interview — tell us about yours here.
Press Releases at Studio CarryOnHarry
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