Listening and the Crisis of Attention
Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee talks with biologist and author David G. Haskell about his latest book, Sounds Wild and Broken: a journey through deep time that traces the evolution of sound. Their conversation touches on the legacies of kinship that are present when we listen, and how deep experiences of beauty can serve as a moral guide for the future.... posted on Jun 20 2022, 1,730 reads

The Art of Soil
"Karen Vaughan is a scientist, paint maker, educator, mom, and artist. The soils she studies and learns from and with during her day job as an associate professor of pedology (the study of soil formation) have woven their way into her journey as an artist. Vaughan creates nature-inspired, soil-based watercolor paints that she uses to create art that communicates environmental challenges, condition... posted on Jun 19 2022, 2,389 reads

Seeing Truth in van Gogh
"In her book The Pursuit of Spiritual Wisdom: The Thought and Art of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, art historian Naomi Margois Maurer discusses the state of mystical consciousness in which an individual sees directly into the essence of reality, senses nature's unity, and 'feels himself to be part of the flow of universal life.' She goes on to describe it as a direct experience of fundamental... posted on Jun 18 2022, 2,174 reads

Down By the Riverside
What if we as a society could say we were going to live in the Spirit of Love, cooperation and nonviolence and "study war no more"? This song performed by the Playing For Change organization has inspired many people all around the planet to work together for a better world. Playing For Change (PFC) is a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music, born from the shared belief th... posted on Jun 17 2022, 1,674 reads

Let Us Make Sanctuary
"In this podcast, Sounds True founder Tami Simon speaks with Dr. Bayo Akomolafe about how sanctuary is where slowing down and healing happens. They discuss: how the function of slowing down in urgent times is not about simply resting so that we can continue forward in the same direction, but about how to engage in deep inquiry about where we are going; pouring drink to earthan African spiritual te... posted on Jun 16 2022, 2,525 reads

The Age of Stolen Salt
Salt is an ancestor. Older than ocean, old as stars. Salt flows through your saltwater body even now like blood, as blood. Salt is nonnegotiable, necessary for the working of every single cell.
Salt is time. Evidence of how long since evaporation. Resident time of water in basins. Measured future for the preserved dead. Salt is first and lasting." More in this beautiful piece from Orion. posted on Jun 15 2022, 2,130 reads

Overcoming the Stigma of Mental Health Issues
"A recent study published in December by the JAMA Network Open suggests that things may finally be starting to change. But the picture is complicated: Some kinds of illness are becoming less stigmatized, true, but people still want to keep distance from other forms. The good news is that young people are much less likely to stigmatize mental illness than older generations, and that there are speci... posted on Jun 14 2022, 2,779 reads

What Fear Can Teach Us
We all have fears, some of which can be quite vivid for those with active imaginations. As children, were encouraged to think of fear as a weakness, something we must conquer, fight, or overcome. In this TED Talk, Karen Thompson Walker invites listeners to conceptualize their fears in a different way: as stories. Fear is an unintentional form of storytelling, she argues, with characters, plots, i... posted on Jun 13 2022, 0 reads

Where Children Sleep
"When Fabrica (Benetton's creative research center) asked me to come up with an idea for engaging with children's rights, I found myself thinking about my bedroom: how significant it was during my childhood, and how it reflected what I had and who I was--my bedroom was my personal kingdom. It occurred to me that a way to address some of the complex situations and social issues affecting children w... posted on Jun 12 2022, 2,540 reads

Lily Yeh: Art for Social Transformation
On a 1989 trip to showcase her art in China, artist Lily Yeh witnessed the tragic events of Tiananmen Square and found her calling of "bringing colors" and beauty to communities with a dearth of hope. That put her on a journey to initiate various organizations, write a pioneering book, receive numerous awards, and most importantly, transform many communities -- from rundown areas of Philadelphia t... posted on Jun 11 2022, 1,573 reads