The Gift of Presence and the Perils of Advice
Parker Palmer is the founder and senior partner of the Center for Courage and Renewal. His work teaches us to connect with others through our authentic self. His courses help to develop courageous leadership and collectively evolve our spirits for social change. With humor and heart, Parker shares his perspectives on advice giving vs the gift of our presence. Leading us into presence with uncondit... posted on Jan 1, 15345 reads

The Extra-Ordinarily Committed Life of Lynne Twist
"We get to meet a lot of amazing, powerful leaders in our work here at Conscious Company and yet some people stand out even more from that rarified group. Lynne Twist is one of those standouts. She's a rare combination of driven and playful; flexible, yet clear. She brings a laser-sharp focus to living her values. She's relentless in her pursuit of changing the dream of modern society, and it's no... posted on Dec 7, 10779 reads

Consider Your Wake
Many of us like to consider the impact we make as a "footprint" we leave behind. But what if instead of a footprint, we imagined our actions leaving a wake? In this article, Andy Smallman explores how the metaphor of a boat in the water can be applied to our daily decisions and interpersonal exchanges. Just as a boat creates waves that affect the vessels around it, so too do our words and actions ... posted on Dec 15, 7769 reads

My Word of the Year
"My word of the year is listen. Its one of those words whose meaning is in its music. Listen is a quiet word, that half swallowed L and diffident I and softly hissing S. It defies the clamorous words it absorbs, the words that have defined this year, the shouts and roars, the bray and bluster. Listening is hard when the sounds around us grow mean and ugly. And listening takes particular courage in... posted on Jan 6, 8886 reads

A Moment with Mr. Rogers
"I interviewed Fred Rogers, creator and host of television's Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, by telephone a few years before he died. The occasion was the publication of his new book. Mister Rogers arrived on television after I grew up but I'd watched his show with our young daughter. She and I both preferred the often frantic Sesame Street, finding the Neighborhood a bit slow, sometimes a bit boring... posted on Mar 17, 9481 reads

The Geography of Sorrow
In this interview, psychotherapist Francis Weller, author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, invites us to view grief as a visitor to be welcomed, not shunned. He reminds us that, in addition to feeling pain over the loss of loved ones, we harbor sorrows stemming from the state of the world, the cultural maladies we inherit, and the misunderstood parts of ... posted on Feb 26, 62105 reads

Welcome to Fearless Dialogues. Are You Ready for Change?
Gregory Ellison II founded the non-profit organization Fearless Dialogues in 2013. In just 6 years they have worked with over 50,000 people worldwide. Fearless Dialogues provides safe space for seeing and hearing those who have been overlooked, forming unlikely alliances and engaging in hard conversations about difficult subjects like racism, classism, and community violence. Ellison is an associa... posted on May 20, 6333 reads

Thoughts in Passing
Artist Claudia Bicen spent two years meeting with, interviewing and drawing nine individuals approaching the ends of their lives. Through interviews, portraits and ultimately videos of their conversations, she sought to answer the question, "How should I live?" Her intent was also to "shine a light onto the darkness that covers death and dying in our culture and in doing so take away some of the f... posted on Apr 9, 13290 reads

The Naked Voice: Transforming Life through the Power of Sound
"Your voice is as unique as your twelve-stranded DNA. However, many don't know how to access it. Our schools and social conditioning don't offer many clues. Yet the human voice is everyone's birthright. It is a universal given, a bridge between the worlds, the soul's messenger, a gift of spirit capable of inspiring evolutionary shifts in consciousness. Your authentic singing voice is the muscle an... posted on Mar 18, 8186 reads

Students on Immigration and Unjust Assumptions
The treatment of immigrants and immigration policies in America are hot button topics. These policies, often seen as unlawful and dehumanizing, are catalyzing people across the nation to speak up for change. Prompted by YES! Magazine's winter 2019 student writing competition and Lornet Turnbull's article "Two-Thirds of Americans Live in the "Constitution-Free Zone", eight powerful young voices joi... posted on Mar 26, 0 reads

All My Best Words Were Hers: A Tribute to Ursula Le Guin
The impact of literature and specifically, an author, on a person can be "unfathomable." In this tender tribute, Isaac Yuen recounts the many ways Ursula K. Le Guin influenced his life and his writing. He admits he is "only a fan." He confesses his inadequacy in expressing how her work guides his: "I write about how reading her words transported me to strange worlds and into new souls, how that sp... posted on Apr 30, 6998 reads

J.B. Priestley on Life's Delights
"I followed a path that led me into one of these woods, through a tunnel of green gloom and smoky blue dusk. It was very quiet, very remote, in there. My feet sank into the pile of the pine needles. The last bright tatters of sunlight vanished. Some bird went whirring and left behind a deeper silence. I breathed a different air, ancient and aromatic." A joyful observer of the quotidian, playwright... posted on May 2, 6510 reads

Kazu Haga: The Creation of Our Beloved Community
Kazu Haga is a nonviolence trainer and founder of the East Point Peace Academy in Oakland, California. East Point Peace Academy envisions a world where historic conflicts are fully reconciled and where new conflict arises solely as an opportunity for deeper growth. Where the depth of human relations are so high that it allows each individual to attain their fullest human potential. Kazu works in p... posted on Apr 8, 6548 reads

Wangari Maathai: Marching with Trees
The late Wangari Maathai--biologist, environmentalist, and the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize--founded the Green Belt Movement to create designated areas of park, farm, and uncultivated land around communities. It has contributed to the planting of over 52 million trees. Across two decades, she was at times beaten and imprisoned as she battled powerful economic forces and Kenya's t... posted on May 28, 5265 reads

Organizations Beyond Ego
Join Tami Simon from Sounds True in this evolutionary interview with Frederic Laloux, business analyst and author of Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness, perhaps the most influential business book of this decade. What does it mean to move beyond ego--in the business world? How do we balance fulfilling financial obligations ... posted on May 13, 7791 reads

A Gathering of Men with Robert Bly
In this interview between Bill Moyers and poet Robert Bly, they explore the confusion men feel about their roles in society and in their inner lives. In retreats like A Gathering of Men, their sense of loss is met with a sense of hope. Men learn from one another through sharing and listening to the wisdom, writings, and poetry of men like Bly. A father figure at these gatherings, Bly is an essayi... posted on Jul 20, 4386 reads

Vesuvius at Home: The Power of Emily Dickinson
"For years I have been not so much envisioning Emily Dickinson as trying to visit, to enter her mind, through her poems and letters, and through my own intimations of what it could have meant to be one of the two mid-19th-century American geniuses, and a woman, living in Amherst, Massachusetts. Of the other genius, Walt Whitman, Dickinson wrote that she had heard his poems were "disgraceful." She ... posted on Jul 17, 4554 reads

The Teachings of Grass
How do we relate to the land that sustains us--as a source of belonging or as a source of belongings? As the planet teeters on the brink of environmental collapse, botanist, teacher, and author Robin Wall Kimmerer urges us to consider our broken relationship to the Earth and the hard choices that lie before us by examining the history of her Potawatomi ancestors. Through cultivating the sense of r... posted on Jul 21, 2803 reads

Petra Wolf: Many Rivers Flowing
An early sense of abandonment, a missing gravestone, and an inheritance promised to her in a dream, were all part of the unusual chain of events that led Petra Wolf, a hairdresser-turned-environmental engineer, to the Camino de Santiago, and to Michael--the man she would one day marry. Over 15 years they followed an inner call and embraced the unknown together, walking to Jerusalem, sailing to Ind... posted on Aug 3, 5920 reads

A Man Without Words: The Story of a Contemporary Miracle
"When I met this man he was twenty-seven years old. Because he didn't know there was sound, because he didn't know he was deaf, he didn't know there was hearing and deafness. He studied lips and mouths. He knew something was happening. He's a very smart man. He'd be staring at lips. He'd stare at your mouth and he'd stare at this person's lips and he thought he was stupid. He thought he was stupid... posted on Aug 13, 3151 reads

Conscience and Resistance
At 20 Scott Russell Sanders was faced with whether to join the Vietnam conflict or find "a refuge from the pressures of a society obsessed with buying stuff, having fun, and waging war." Influenced by Thomas Merton's essay, "Rain and the Rhinoceros" to make a critical choice which you can read about here, he goes on to explain in this beautiful essay how he has found a life for himself beyond viol... posted on Aug 22, 5601 reads

The Animal Rescuer of Assam
Manoj Gogoi is a 44-year old father of two and self-taught naturalist dedicating his life to assisting the people and animals of India live in harmony. Through his tireless efforts thousands of animals have been rescued and returned to the wild. More than that, he has inspired others to volunteer with him and begun to alter the attitude and actions of people to consider the place of wildlife in th... posted on Sep 21, 5088 reads

Who Decides History's Future?
"The West is wrestling with its colonial heritage in the most literal sense: its museums teem with treasure taken on conquests abroad. Crowns and swords, books and bones. The breadth of culture ripped from its home is hard to comprehend, as is the sheer scale of it: ninety percent of Africas art is held on other continents. Imagine the Liberty Bell gone, Versailles stripped of its Hall of Mirrors,... posted on Aug 29, 4747 reads

Diane Ackerman: 100 Names for Love
Diane Ackerman, best selling author of A Natural History of the Senses, An Alchemy of Mind, and The Zookeeper's Wife, has built a reputation on her poetic sensibility and uncanny knack for scouting out connections between the heavens, Earth, and everything in between. In her latest memoir, One Hundred Names for Love: a Stroke, a Marriage, and the Language of Healing, Ackerman navigates between the... posted on Sep 23, 2994 reads

How to Make #My Khartoum Cool
"Andariya was established by Omnia Shawkat and Salma Amin, Sudanese women in their late twenties who saw the gap in bi-lingual digital cultural content on Sudan and South Sudan. Both Omnia and Salma were members of the Sudanese diaspora when they began planning for Andariya, as an active and engaging platform for Sudanese and South Sudanese inside and outside the Sudans." ... posted on Nov 12, 1269 reads

Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees
"Call of the Forest" is a documentary that follows visionary scientist, conservationist and author, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, on her journey to the most beautiful forests of the northern hemisphere. From the sacred sugi and cedar forests of Japan, the ancient Raheen Wood of Ireland, the walnut and redwood trees of America, to the great boreal forest of Canada, Beresford-Kroeger tells us the amazing... posted on Sep 26, 7492 reads

9 Inspiring Stories of Solidarity with Refugees and Migrants
While governments seal borders and erect walls, ordinary people are offering support and shelter. These nine inspiring stories of solidarity will encourage, uplift and incite you to action. Migrant offshore Aid Station rescues migrants along the central Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy. Miksaliste helps as many as 1,000 refugees a day in the heart of Belgrade. Lawal Dan Gashua, the Chair of... posted on Oct 17, 2828 reads

Ian Chillag: Everything Is Alive
Ian Chillag is the host and creator of the original podcast 'Everything is Alive,' in which inanimate objects are interviewed. The inventive, funny and frequently poignant series is almost entirely improvised. "We cast actors, and I have a running list of objects. When we find someone we like, and we have a couple objects that we've vetted through some research, we give them a couple to choose fro... posted on Oct 10, 2136 reads

Falling in Love With the Earth
"The natural world is one of the most resplendent and consistent sources of generosity in our lives whether we experience it directly moment-to-moment or not. When we allow ourselves to tune in and pay attention, our Earth is perpetually nourishing and providing for us, sustaining life and offering its abundant gifts with a breathtaking and consistent flourish. We are fed, literally and figurativ... posted on Nov 25, 6700 reads

Milo Runkle: Expanding Our Sphere of Concern
After witnessing the brutal handling of a live piglet brought into school for dissection, Milo Runkle discovered that the current legal system offered no recourse for him to press charges on behalf of the animal. The experience spurred him to found Mercy for Animals when he was 15 years old. Over the last 20 years, that organization has become an important group to assist in the move away from fac... posted on Dec 5, 4974 reads

Earth as Goddess
Baba Mandaza Augustine Kademwa, from Zimbabwe, was born a Svikiro (in Shona, his native tongue), a carrier of many earth and water spirits, and a Mondhoro (Lion), one who is in constant prayer on behalf of others.Mandaza is an African traditional healer and voice for Mother Nature, he carries with him, in his heart, the Central African spiritual tradition of healing and peacemaking. In the followi... posted on Dec 8, 6035 reads

The Biggest Little Farm
"Many people have dreamed of leaving the city for the country, to live in a way that would reflect their concerns about the environment. John and Molly Chester, are a couple who did just that; they left their home in Los Angeles and started an organic farm. The Chesters tried to turn a dry and soil-depleted 200-acre parcel into a lush, organic farm. They were determined to tend fruit orchards and ... posted on Dec 10, 3652 reads

Micah Mortali: Rewilding
"Micah Mortali is the director of the Kripalu School, and a longtime wilderness guide. With Sounds True, he has published Rewilding: Meditations, Practices, and Skills for Awakening in Nature. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Micah about humanity's growing disconnection from the earth and how "rewilding" can help slow that trend. They talk about rewilding both as ind... posted on Jan 14, 8350 reads

The Deep Heart
"John Prendergast is a retired psychology professor, spiritual teacher, and the author of books such as 'In Touch' and 'Listening from the Heart of Silence.' His new book is titled 'The Deep Heart: Our Portal to Presence.' In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with John about subtle and sublime experiences of the heart. John comments on the childhood wounding that often leads ... posted on Dec 23, 8976 reads

Seeking Wholeness in a Time of Brokenness
Reverend Victor Kazanjian is the executive director of the United Religions Initiative (URI), a global grassroots interfaith peacebuilding network. URI has more than a thousand multi-faith groups working in over a hundred countries with a million volunteers to build bridges of cooperation between people of all faiths and cultures. Victor is ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church and was tra... posted on Jan 16, 4024 reads

Herd: A Spiritual Journey
In 1999 Liz Mitten Ryan, award-winning artist, mother of six and founder of a successful fine art publishing company in Vancouver, moved with her architect husband, and a herd of eleven horses, to Gateway 2 Ranch -- a 320-acre slice of paradise nestled in the grasslands of British Columbia. For several months their home was a simple tent in the midst of an enchanted landscape studded with lakes, w... posted on Jan 29, 4153 reads

Gratitude, Grief and Finding Your Yes
"No one can say with certainty how our civilizational crisis will play out. We dont know exactly how much suffering and destructionhuman and nonhumanmight lie in store for us, or how soon. But we do know, with increasing certainty, that the actions of human beings have created horrific disasters and an existential predicament; and we also know that the actions of human beingsfor good or for illwil... posted on Feb 3, 9036 reads

Of Wild Wolves And Bottle-Fed Squirrels
"In the arena of ocean ecology and conservation, Carl Safina is a superstar. Through television documentaries, his writings and the Safina Center, he's been a vital force for years in educating the public about ocean pollution, overfishing and conservation [...] I was enthralled with Safina's blend of stories from his time in the field with elephants, wolves and orcas (killer whales) and the peopl... posted on Feb 5, 3297 reads

Justin Michael Williams: Stay Woke
"Justin Michael Williams is a meditation teacher and personal coach who is also a Billboard top 20 recording artist. With Sounds True, he has published Stay Woke: A Meditation Guide for the Rest of Us. In this special video episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Justin about his upcoming "Stay Woke, Give Back" tour, in which he will explain his unique approach to meditation and gi... posted on Feb 17, 6586 reads

Teaching & Learning from the Heart in Troubled Times
"The current moment calls for moral ferocity. We should not sleep well at night when we know others are suffering. We need to raise our voices with clarity and channel our anger into protest and resistance. Ferocity itself, though, holds danger. Let's not forget that some of the worst perpetrators of evil have often claimed to act in the name of the good, or God, or the national interest, or a fut... posted on Mar 23, 7071 reads

How to Strengthen Your Inner Shield
Cynthia Li MD is a gifted physician and author who has had experience with battling an autoimmune disorder and recognizing both the power and limits of conventional medicine. "In the current pandemic, the strength of your immune system is the critical difference between milder and more severe illness caused by the COVID-19 virus. In a gift e-booklet, 'How to Strengthen Your Inner Shield,' Li offer... posted on Apr 2, 45264 reads

Call to Prayer
"Prayer can be anything your heart yearns for." As crowded spaces have become empty and many of us around the world are staying away from loved ones for mutual health and safety concerns, the one thing we can all do is to pray. We can all sit in silence and send out smiles and positive thoughts. Allow Nimo Patel's moving music and the accompanying inspirational visuals by Ellie Walton to inspire y... posted on Apr 10, 4367 reads

Beyond Overwhelm into Refuge
"We are in the midst of an emergency that is forcing us into varying states of economic distress, isolation and anxiety. We are united in our vulnerability and our courageous attempts to think and live differently as the fragility of the economy reveals itself to us. There is a deep desire among us to find freedom and imagination in this moment. Much of the work, of course, is in cultivating the r... posted on May 17, 9182 reads

5 Poems to Celebrate National Poetry Month
"I write this at the end of what seems like the longest month of my life. For a poet here in the United States, April is almost always the loudest, stormiest, busiest month--filled with readings to attend, to give, and new poetry collections blooming every week. What a time to luxuriate and revel in the power of a finely crafted metaphor, a clever line break, or a last line that just pierces you i... posted on May 20, 6595 reads

30 Articles on Nonviolent Protest
"Even under aggressive provocation, nonviolence remains the key to success in the struggle against injustice. But nonviolence is a complex and challenging field of strategy, methodology and tactics which are always context-specific, eschewing easy generalizations about 'what works' from one time and place to another. To explore these complexities -- and often borrowing material from incredible par... posted on Jun 5, 4465 reads

How to Fight Racism Through Inner Work
Mindfulness meditation may hold the key to grappling with interpersonal racism, says Rhonda Magee, because it helps people tolerate the discomfort that comes with deeper discussions about race. And it can help cultivate a sense of belonging and community for those who experience and fight racism in our everyday lives. For more than 20 years, Magee has worked to address issues of race, racism, and ... posted on Jun 10, 10331 reads

Spell to Be Said Against Hatred
"It is especially in times of uncertainty, in tremulous times of fear and loss, that the curtain rises and the minstrel show resumes -- a show of hate that can be as vicious and pointed as the murderous violence human beings are capable of directing at one another, or as ambient and slow-seething as the deadly disregard for the universe of non-human lives with which we share this fragile, irreplac... posted on Jun 12, 6565 reads

Lonnie Holley: The Man is the Music
Prolific artist, musician and lover of Mother Earth, Lonnie Holley treasures the discarded and nurtures the neglected, finding healing in the transformative power of art. This short documentary is not so much a portrait of the prolific artist and musician, as an experiential reflection on art as a way of life. Atlanta-based Holleys work is a product of the environment in which he was raised Jim Cr... posted on Jun 19, 1866 reads

Totto Chan: The Little Girl at the Window
"This engaging series of childhood recollections tells about an ideal school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom, and love. This unusual school had old railroad cars for classrooms, and it was run by an extraordinary man--its founder and headmaster, Sosaku Kobayashi--who was a firm believer in freedom of expression and activity. In real life, the Totto-chan of the... posted on Jun 23, 4006 reads

How to Support Antiracism in Yourself & in the World
"Today, the serious and deadly problems caused by our racism are even more obvious than they were in 2016, and as people in the United States and across the world gather to protest racism and police brutality, I thought it might help to give you good things to read, people to follow, organizations to support, and ideas for creating the kind of serious structural change that's required for an antir... posted on Jun 29, 15072 reads