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, 4025 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

Kindness Is Everywhere
"Let me tell you about Don. He's a retired DC firefighter, about to turn 89, living alone in his Maryland apartment. Father of six, grandfather to a tribe, he's an Irishman, and darn proud of it. Around the start of the pandemic, he dropped me a line out of the blue, a reader offering his take on my novel 'Beneath the Same Stars'. Since then, we've struck up a fairly regular email correspondence. ... posted on Aug 4, 8598 reads

Infinite Potential: The Life and Ideas of David Bohm
Infinite Potential is a new film that "takes us on a mystical and scientific journey into the nature of life and reality with David Bohm, the man Einstein called his spiritual son and the Dalai Lama his science guru. A physicist and explorer of Consciousness, Bohm turned to Eastern wisdom to develop groundbreaking insights into the profound interconnectedness of the Universe and our place within i... posted on Aug 1, 16114 reads

Beyond Hope: Letting Go of a World in Collapse
"The rapid acceleration of violent events around the globe: the uprising of religious fundamentalism, xenophobia, homophobia, speciesism, misogyny, societal breakdown, mass animal die-offs, the unparalleled disintegration of the cryosphere, and the rapid decay of our very biosphere; it all weighs heavy on my mind and heart. There is no denying that we are living through what scientists are calling... posted on Aug 25, 8429 reads

Human Connections in 'This Brilliant Darkness'
"This Brilliant Darkness is a book born of insomnia. It's a collection of snapshots and written profiles by author Jeff Sharlet that take us deep into other people's lives. And by doing that, Sharlet says, he's really trying to tell us his own story. "I originally sort of thought of it as a memoir through other people's lives. It's bookended by two heart attacks, my father's, and then two years la... posted on Aug 14, 3606 reads

The Waters of Heterodoxy
"In The Fourth Phase of Water, Gerald Pollack [an award-winning and highly acclaimed professor) offers an elegant new theory of water chemistry that has profound implications not only for chemistry and biology, but for the metaphoric foundation of our understanding of reality and our treatment of nature.[...] The Fourth Phase of Water contributes to a much larger paradigm shift that is proceeding ... posted on Aug 23, 7469 reads

The Shadow of Humanity and the Spirit of Animals
"Krista Tippett and Jane Goodall are two pioneering women in their fields. Krista is perhaps best known for her work with On Being, a public radio show and podcast that explores the human experience through spiritual inquiry, science, social healing, community, poetry, and the arts. At twenty-six years old, Jane embarked on a revolutionary sixty-year study of the complex social and family life of ... posted on Sep 12, 2989 reads

Unconditional Presence: Letting Yourself Have Your Experience
"The journey from self-hatred to self-love involves learning to meet, accept, and open to the being that you are. This begins with letting yourself have your experience. Genuine self-acceptance is not possible as long as you are resisting, avoiding, judging, or trying to manipulate and control what you experience. Whenever you judge the experience you're having, you're not letting yourself be as y... posted on Sep 17, 4630 reads

Living Medicine: On Plant Intelligence and Natural Healing
"Every time some new evidence of plant-based intelligence intrudes on my awareness, it confronts perspectives about the world that I inherited from my culture or my family or my schooling, and some portion of that received worldview crumbles, and something new takes its place. The world is a great deal different than we have been led to believe. In fact, we know very little about what goes on here... posted on Sep 18, 5773 reads

What Women's Suffrage Owes to Indigenous Culture
"It's been 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment secured voting rights for womensort of. In She Votes: How U.S. Women Won Suffrage, and What Happened Next, author Bridget Quinn and 100 female artists survey the complex history of the struggle for women's rights, including racial segregation and accommodation to White supremacy. They celebrate the hitherto under-recognized efforts ... posted on Sep 22, 3208 reads

How to Build a More Inclusive Dinner Table
How we eat, and who we eat with matters much more than we realize. For generations Muslims and Jews have often had to eat at separate tables, simply for lack of foods that are both Halal and Kosher. Mohammad Modarres was determined to change that. In creating interfaith foods that observe the dietary laws of both faiths, and making them more accessible, he hopes food can serve as a medium for cult... posted on Oct 22, 2099 reads

Voting as an Expression of Love and Gratefulness
"Though we typically think of voting in purely political terms, we can think about every choice we make as a vote and every moment in our lives as an election. We vote with our bodies, energy, money, time, attention, and more. How do our choices reflect our values and our vision for the world? When we explore voting and democracy as ongoing opportunities to choose our values and participate in col... posted on Oct 31, 4703 reads

Sustainable Social Change and Philanthropy
As a professional grantmaker and manager with some of the world's leading foundations, David Bonbright sought innovative approaches to strengthening citizen self-organization in place of prevailing bureaucratic, top-down models. While with the Ford Foundation, David was declared persona non grata by the apartheid government in South Africa for helping fund the liberation struggle. In 1990, in the ... posted on Dec 8, 3863 reads

Are You a Highly Sensitive Person?
"Dr. Elaine Aron is a clinical depth psychologist and the author of the seminal 1997 book The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You. With Sounds True, she has published The Highly Sensitive Person's Complete Learning Program: Essential Insights and Tools for Navigating Your Work, Relationships, and Life. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with... posted on Nov 17, 9604 reads

A War Orphan Who Became a Ballerina
Michaela DePrince is "the ballerina who flies." Orphaned at age three in war-torn Sierra Leone, DePrince was malnourished and sick when she and her "mat-mate" at the orphanage were adopted by Elaine and Charles DePrince of New Jersey. Inspired by a photograph of a ballerina in a magazine, DePrince trained as a ballet dancer and is now with the Dance Theater of Harlem. "I think no matter where you ... posted on Nov 21, 2794 reads

The Lost Spells: A Lyrical Rewilding of the Human Heart
"A century after the great nature writer Henry Beston insisted that we need "a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals," observing how "in a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear," Macfarlane and Morris bring us the mystery and wisdom of wild thi... posted on Nov 30, 5660 reads

Human Library
"The Human Library is based on a very simple idea: that conversation is key to understanding. The global, hands-on learning platform, which is based in Denmark, works to create a safe framework for personal conversations that can help to challenge prejudice and discrimination, prevent conflicts, and contribute to greater human cohesion across social, religious, and ethnic divisions. People who can... posted on Dec 1, 8753 reads

Mark Wolynn: Healing Inherited Family Trauma
"Mark Wolynn is the director of The Family Constellation Institute, The Inherited Trauma Institute, and The Hellinger Institute of Northern California. His book It Didnt Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle was a Silver Nautilus award-winner in 2016. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Mark about inherited trauma and how... posted on Dec 4, 10180 reads

Lessons in the Old Language
The "old language" that unites the human and more-than-human worlds is a recurrent archetype in the stories of indigenous peoples, those who have lived in intimate proximity with a particular bioregion for time immemorial. The word in its primordial force runs through us like a current: what we say still comes alive, or dies in the telling. Indeed, the power of language to create reality is a cons... posted on Dec 5, 7558 reads

The Alchemy of Befriending Ourselves in Difficult Times
Matt Licata's new book is titled, 'A Healing Space: Befriending Ourselves in Difficult Times.' Here he speaks with Tami Simon about what it means to "be a healing space, that is to hold space for ourselves and others, as well as how we can feel held by something greater than ourselves during challenging experiences. They also explore our inner wounds and self-abandonment, spiritual bypassing and t... posted on Dec 12, 5956 reads

Virtually Together
In honor of the first responders and heroes of the COVID-19 crisis, the musicians of River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO) came together virtually from across the U.S. and Canada to perform ROCO's commission "Anthem of Hope" by Anthony DiLorenzo -- offering hope and strength during this difficult time. This coming year, may you be safe, may you be healthy, and may you find peace. And please be kind ... posted on Jan 3, 2823 reads