Today's Change Agents: Social Entrepreneurs
In the '60s, perhaps the most remarkable change agents were the civil rights workers and antiwar protesters. Today the most remarkable young people are the social entrepreneurs, those who see a problem in society and roll up their sleeves to address it in new ways. Take Andrew Klaber, a 26-year-old playing hooky from Harvard Business School, who is an example of the social entrepreneur. He spent t... posted on Dec 11 2008, 2,572 reads

Laughter as Medicine
Laughter is the best medicine, a cliche to be sure, but a new study has shown that laughter yoga, a blend of playful laughter exercises coupled with gentle breathing and stretching, can significantly lower systolic and diastolic blood-pressure levels, as well as bring about significant reductions in the stress hormone cortisol.... posted on Dec 10 2008, 5,023 reads

The Art of Receiving
Receiving isn't easy. If it were, more of us would do it with grace and gratitude. Is there a way to change that? Can we learn to receive so we can be nourished and empowered? These are crucial questions, not just because the holiday season is a time when giving and receiving are part of our daily experience. The ability to receive is, in fact, essential to physical health, psychological balance a... posted on Dec 06 2008, 3,407 reads

San Diego's Highway Helper
Thomas Weller has two gardens - one in his backyard, where he grows morning glories and other plants - and one on the highway, where he sows the seeds of kindness. "There's too much anger and distrust and fear out there. I'd like the world to be a better place," Weller said. To that end, Weller patrols the highways of San Diego in his Ghostbuster-inspired rescue vehicle - rescuing people like Mr. ... posted on Dec 04 2008, 3,293 reads

Ivy Leaguers Play Chess With Inmates
David Wang is a young man who's clearly going places. The Princeton University sophomore is gifted with a brilliant mind, a movie-star smile and an understated self-confidence. Kelvin Washington is a middle-aged man who's not going anywhere for the next 44 years. He's a career criminal who has spent 29 years behind bars for a string of robberies and burglaries. An unlikely pairing, the two men wen... posted on Dec 03 2008, 3,730 reads

The Non-violent Soldier of Islam
Little known in the West is a figure named Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who argued that religiously justified violence was "not God's religion." Known as Badshah Khan to his followers, the devoutly Muslim leader was called "The Frontier Gandhi" and built an Islamic parallel to Gandhi's violence-eschewing ideals of compassion for one's enemies and peaceful resistance to oppression as a means of overcoming i... posted on Nov 29 2008, 3,420 reads

National Day of Listening
One of the largest oral history projects of its kind, the non-profit, Story Corps, has over the years enabled tens of thousands of everyday people to record the life stories of family and friends, because they believe that everybody's story matters and every life counts. This year, the organization has declared November 28, 2008 the first annual National Day of Listening -- and everyone's invited ... posted on Nov 28 2008, 2,271 reads

The Boy With An Incredible Brain
This is an in-depth look at the astonishing mental capabilities of Daniel Tammet, born in Britain, and from a young age able to do extraordinary calculations in his head. Skeptics have thrown a number of challenges at him, for instance testing his ability to recite to 22,500 decimal points the calculation of Pi, as well as learning a language in a week. Tammet, in his gentle unassuming way, has pa... posted on Nov 27 2008, 4,249 reads

Kids Embrace The Giving Spirit
The very rich and the very famous capture the headlines for their charitable giving. But another group of avid philanthropists is also leaving its mark. Young people from grade school on are engaged as never before in making a direct difference in the world. They are donating via the Internet to favorite projects overseas, creating their own nonprofits to pursue social causes, and becoming grantma... posted on Nov 25 2008, 3,718 reads

A Surprise Bouquet For A Stranger
"My cousin Heidi was stricken around age 16 with a debilitating disease, which took her life about 20 years later. As the disease progressed, she became wheelchair bound and unable to easily communicate (I'm not sure of the disease -- it may have been a combination, including Parkinson's).When she was in her late 20's, she would often have her mother take her out into the front yard when the weath... posted on Nov 24 2008, 5,322 reads