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What Woodstock Can Teach Us About Society’s Problems… 40 Years Later

Interview Introduction and Framing

August 15, 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, a seminal music and cultural event in which half a million people gathered for three days of peace, love, rock ‘n’ roll and folk music at Max Yasgur’s Farm in Bethel, New York. For many who attended, including award-winning psychologist David Gruder who was then 15, Woodstock was a life changing experience. He joins us today to tell a surprising and funny story of how he ended up at Woodstock at such a young age, some of his favorite memories from this historic event, and how his Woodstock experience continues to shape his life and career even now, 40 years later.

Questions to Consider Asking Dr. Gruder During the Interview

1. You were only 15 years old when Woodstock was held, and that was a pretty young age back in 1969 to make your way to a three-day event far from home and in the middle of nowhere. How did you end up there? Did you run away from home? Did your parents know where you went?
2. Some of the most famous bands of the late 1960s played at Woodstock. Who was your favorite and why? Who did you like the least and why?
3. On the first night, between when one band was breaking down and the next was setting up, the event organizers did something that sticks with you to this day. What was that?
4. Woodstock’s organizers hoped that as many as 50,000 people might attend so they had enough toilets and food on hand to handle that maximum. Tell us what happened instead and why this moves you to this day.
5. The cliche about Woodstock was that it was a half-a-million people sharing three days of sex, drugs and rock-and-roll. But you say in The New IQ, your latest five-award-winning book about how to restore integrity in our country, that Woodstock’s real lessons were about individual freedom, love, and social responsibility. Say more.
6. The classic movie, Easy Rider, came out the same year as Woodstock. Over the years since then, Peter Fonda, one of its co-stars, has repeatedly been asked what he meant by one of the movie's most famous lines: "We blew it." He recently answered this way: "We look outside the window today. The air is bad, everything has gone south; it's all gone to hell in a hand basket. We all had this idea you could get rich and you're free. And that's wrong." Was Woodstock's message that the key to freedom was getting rich?

CLOSING COMMENT/QUESTION: You have a website where people can read your IntegrityWatch Blog, download your Integrity Stimulus Plan public service project, and learn more about your five-award-winning book on integrity, sustainable happiness and social responsibility, The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and Our World. What is that website? People can also follow you on Facebook and Twitter. How can they find you?

Dr. Gruder's On-Air Bio

Dr. David Gruder, Ph.D., is perhaps the world’s only clinical and organizational psychologist whose expertise is integrity enhancement. He teaches “everyday people to world leaders” the secrets to sustainable happiness and “self-development that serves us all™.” He is the author of THE NEW IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and Our World (2008), winner of five book awards in the categories of Social Change, Current Events in Politics & Society, Health & Wellness, Metapsychology, and Self-Help. For nearly three decades, Dr. Gruder has facilitated integrity enhancement for business executives to clinicians to World Trade Organization ambassadors, earning him the nickname, “The Integrity Warrior.” He also co-hosts Integrity Talk Radio, a radio talk show that exposes our society’s integrity deficits and offers practical integrity-centered solutions to the challenges we face as individuals, families, communities, countries, and as a planet..

What to Plug During the Interview

Dr. Gruder's main website, www.TheNewIQ.com, and his five-award-winning book, “The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and Our World.”

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Read Dr. Gruder's "Ode to Woodstock" article in his IntegrityWatch Blog (at the end is a recording of him being interviewed on the radio about his Woodstock experience)

Schedule Dr. Gruder to Give This Interview

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