Elizabeth Alexander: Light of the World
"In 2009 at President Barack Obama's first inauguration, Elizabeth Alexander read a poem she wrote for the occasion called "Praise Song for the Day". It was a high point in her celebrated career as a poet, essayist, playwright, and academic. She has published many books of poetry and prose, she taught at Yale for many years, and now she's teaching at Columbia, in New York City, where she was born.... posted on Oct 01 2023, 1,618 reads

Life After Death
Laura Crafton Gilpin was a nurse, poet, and advocate for hospital reform. In 1976, she was given the Walt Whitman Award by the Academy of American Poets for her poetry book, "The Hocus-Pocus of the Universe." She was a founding member of Planetree, an organization dedicated to advancing patient-centered care. What follows is an excerpt from her powerful poem, "Life After Death." ... posted on Sep 30 2023, 9,275 reads

Elijah & Jeremiah
In this short documentary, filmmaker Jenny Schweitzer profiles Elijah Staley (known to many as Carolina Slim) and Jeremiah Lockwood. The duo began busking together in the mid-nineties, and performed old-style rural Piedmont blues for 12 years. "I gave him the opportunity to practice what he knew," says Staley of his much younger counterpart. While filming this documentary, Schweitzer captured the ... posted on Sep 29 2023, 1,209 reads

Touch at A Distance: Language, Music, Sound
This 2007 Radiolab episode takes the listener, "on a tour of language, music, and the properties of sound. We look at what sound does to our bodies, our brains, our feelings and we go back to the reason we at Radiolab tell you stories the way we do. First, we look at Diana Deutsch's work on language and music, and how certain languages seem to promote musicality in humans. Then we meet Psychologis... posted on Sep 28 2023, 1,366 reads

Saying Hi to the Moon
"Lots of times I talk with him. Especially when he gets big and I can see the expression on his face. 'Hi, Moon!' I say, so happy to see him always, 'What's up?'" Jane Wodening is an American artist, writer and the mother of five grown children. She spent ten years living alone, "in a tiny cabin with no amenities at ten thousand feet altitude...During this time I played and thought and hiked, enjo... posted on Sep 27 2023, 3,191 reads

Relational Neuroscience & Art: A Love Story
"I want to tell you a love story. It spans 20 years. A woman exploring tide pools was approached by a 24-legged sunflower sea star who came out of the sea grass, touching her shoe and exploring her pant leg. The woman fell in love with that beautiful creature, and it changed her life forever. The woman is me, an artist, psychotherapist, and student of Relational Neuroscience and Interpersonal Ne... posted on Sep 26 2023, 3,246 reads

Jeffrey Bale: The World Needs Beauty
"Jeffrey Bale received his degree in landscape architecture from the University of Oregon back in 1981. He quickly landed a job at a Portland architecture firm -- but he only lasted 20 minutes behind a desk. Instead, he began traveling the world, finding inspiration in the stunning architecture of Europe and SE Asia. He returned home and began creating elaborate and intricate pebble mosaics from s... posted on Sep 25 2023, 2,488 reads

Willing to Be Dazzled
"I decided to visit my friend Aristotle, who lives in a house on a hill at the west end of the ranch. We sampled various kinds of cookies and sipped decaffeinated green tea, and we vented, kvetched, and rhapsodized, as we are prone to do. Mostly kvetched, if the truth be told. Aristotle just turned ninety, and I seek the wisdom of an elder from him, but he is too modest to admit he has acquired an... posted on Sep 24 2023, 3,095 reads

3 Steps to Build Peace & Create Change
As the child of Holocaust survivors and a World War II refugee herself, peace builder Georgette Bennett was stunned by the human toll and tragedy of the Syrian civil war. She got to work, bringing together historical enemies to build an aid pipeline from Israel to Syria -- a feat many considered impossible, but she and her organization -- the Multi-faith Alliance for Syrian refugees -- has since h... posted on Sep 23 2023, 1,567 reads

Beyond Beauty: A Conversation with Paul Reynard
"My own experience is that there are moments when suddenly, after I've been working a long time at painting, I'm no longer trying to make or do something. I begin to be led, as if my brush were just following where the painting in its finished state was leading me. At that point I am open to something which most of the time I am unable to express, because I want to direct it. I want to make it mys... posted on Sep 22 2023, 1,272 reads