9 Essential Skills Kids Should Learn
"Unfortunately, I was educated in a school system that believed the world in which it existed would remain essentially the same, with minor changes in fashion. We had no idea what the world had in store for us. And here's the thing: we still don't. We never do. We have never been good at predicting the future, and so raising and educating our kids as if we have any idea what the future will hold i... posted on Mar 10, 188496 reads

Seeing in the Dark
A visually stunning ode to time, music, and the stars, Timothy Ferris' film "Seeing in the Dark" celebrates the wonders of stargazing -- from kids learning the constellations to amateur astronomers doing professional-grade research in discovering planets and exploding stars. Here, Ferris reflects on the PBS film, which features never-before seen astronomical photography and special effects. "Our a... posted on Apr 2, 7454 reads

A Nobel Prize View: Thinking, Fast & Slow
In 2002, Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel Prize in economics -- but he isn't an economist. Kahneman's field is the psychology of decision-making, and that's the topic of his new book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow." Kahneman tells NPR's Robert Siegel about the two systems that make up what he calls "the machinery of the mind:" System 1 -- or fast -- and System 2 -- or slow -- thinking. "We have a very narro... posted on Apr 1, 6778 reads

13-Year Old Gymnast: Fearless ...& Legally Blind
Most athletes have the benefit of seeing what's ahead of them -- an opponent, the bars, a vault. But for 13-year-old Lola Walters, she usually has no idea what's coming until she's literally five feet away from it. Walters, a Washington resident, is legally blind, and suffers from a disease called nystagmus which causes her eyes to shift constantly, leaving her with double vision and no depth perc... posted on Mar 30, 19834 reads

The Gift of the Swamp Shake Spill
"The lid came off, and the rotary movement of my body as I was rising from the bent over position created a mini-tsunami of green-brown liquid from the tops of my shoes, on to my papers -- covered desk, across the room to the credenza, the plants on top of it, the books in its lower shelves, up the wall and onto the ceiling -- where the fluid finally dissipated before completing the full circle an... posted on May 6, 9454 reads

9 Steps to Achieving Flow (and Happiness) at Work
Have you ever lost yourself in your work, so much so that you lost track of time? Being consumed by a task like that, while it can be rare for most people, is a state of being called Flow. In my experience, it's one of the keys to happiness at work, and a nice side benefit is that it not only reduces stress but increases your productivity. So how do you achieve this mystical state of being? Do you... posted on Apr 30, 34760 reads

On Seeking Stillness in Business
Pico Iyer -- essayist, author, travel writer and thinker -- has a unique perspective on many things. His physical domain ranges from California (where he lived as a child) and England (where he studied) to Cuba, North Korea and Ethiopia (which he visited) and Japan (where he resides). His mental domain knows no limiting boundaries. In this interview with Knowledge@Wharton, Iyer spoke on an unusual... posted on Jun 19, 20335 reads

An Indomitable Healing Spirit
For the past two years, James O'Dea has synthesized his remarkable life experience into what he calls "social healing". A former Director of Amnesty International's Washington, DC office and President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, O'Dea's journey has taken him through both the depths of human suffering -- and it's transcendence. Along the way he has been wrestling with profound questions: W... posted on Mar 27, 24513 reads

How Music Can Help The Terminally Ill
"Alternative medicine is increasingly accepted as part of palliative care and some studies show music is one method to ease pain and stress at the end of life. One of these methods includes live harp music, played at the bedside by a certified music practitioner. Carol Joy Loeb, a former opera singer, is a certified music practitioner and registered nurse. When she arrives at a patient's bedside, ... posted on Jun 3, 4440 reads

Six Ways To Empower Others
What makes a good leader? According to this article from YES! Magazine it's the gift of strengthening others. Also, "an empowering leader makes mistakes. If she doesn't, she's probably not experimenting enough. An empowering leader is also a good learner, an experienced and willing apologizer, someone who can make amends and move on." Starhawk, the author of "The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Co... posted on Apr 18, 56506 reads

Two Tragic Moments & One Boy's Compassion
Nearly a decade ago Eddie Canales was watching his son's football game. Chris Canales, a high school senior, had three offers to play college football, and that night, he was having the game of his life. With four minutes left in the fourth quarter, he made a touchdown-saving tackle. But something went wrong. "I could hear my teammates saying, 'Chris, come on, let's go,' " Chris, now 26, remembere... posted on Apr 5, 8270 reads

Are You Fixing, Helping or Serving?
Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen author of the best-selling Kitchen Table Wisdom is a beloved storyteller and a profound voice in the field of health and healing. In the following article she teases out crucial differences between the various modes in which we humans tend to reach out to the world: by fixing, helping or serving. Interwoven in the piece are two unforgettable stories of service; the first abo... posted on Apr 16, 101678 reads

10 Evolving Expressions of Simplicity
Voluntary simplicity gives voice to ways of living that are vital for building a workable and meaningful future. In the "garden of simplicity", as described in this classic article by Duane Elgin, there are many flowering expressions of the simple life, and he goes on to describe ten of them. According to Elgin, the great diversity of these expressions and their intertwined unity, are creating a r... posted on May 1, 35070 reads

The Day We Gave Away Millions...of Books
A young woman is jumping up and down in front of the New York Public Library wearing a sandwich sign that says, "Hate Reading? Talk To Me!" She's waving around several copies of "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls...Men and women in suits breeze by, but some passersby are curious about the spectacle. If you were roaming the streets of New York City or London last month you may have encountered a... posted on Jun 1, 8552 reads

Competencies and Inner Capacities
What are the core qualities and skills that transformational leaders share? Over the past 20 years, global health leader and changemaker Dr. Monica Sharma has encountered dozens of individuals from around the world who are leading their communities with courage and compassion. A few of the essential traits that they share are: knowing the power of their wisdom for action, embracing all with respec... posted on Jul 20, 17687 reads

Finding Nimo: A Rap Star's Journey With 16 Slum Kids
At the pinnacle of a dizzying career, Indo-American rapper Nimo was haunted by an unshakeable sense of emptiness. In his mid-twenties, he abandoned the limelight and found himself meditating in the foothills of the Himalayas. There an inner voice nudged him to radically simplify his life and find his purpose in service of others. He moved to the Gandhi Ashram in India and dedicated himself to the ... posted on May 4, 60726 reads

4 Ways Happiness Can Hurt You
The recent explosion of scientific research reveals precisely how positive feelings like happiness are good for us. We know that they motivate us to pursue important goals and overcome obstacles, protect us from some effects of stress, connect us closely with other people, and even stave off physical and mental ailments. This has made happiness pretty trendy. The science of happiness made the cove... posted on May 24, 22218 reads

Meditating with Dinosaurs ... Really?
"When I first encountered Pascal's words, I felt like they were telling me, in a poetic way, to sit down and shut up, and that just felt, well... sort of rude. It also felt a bit insulting, in suggesting that for myself or for others, we bring a chunk of our suffering onto ourselves because we're too cowardly to sit quietly and face our thoughts and our feelings. Over time, however, the quote grew... posted on May 31, 19182 reads

The Present of Being Present
"In the summer of 2005, things weren't looking very good for me. A broken relationship, a deadlock at work, a growing dependence on alcohol and tobacco all made for a downward spiral that I experienced every moment but couldn't snap out of. I was almost at breaking point when my mother decided to pay me a visit... On the first evening of her visit she tried to get me talking about where I was at i... posted on Sep 23, 23939 reads

What I've Learned About Learning
"I'm a lifelong learner and am always obsessively studying something, whether that's breadmaking or language or wine or chess or writing or fitness. Here are two key lessons -- both really the same lesson -- I've learned about learning, in all my years of study and in trying to teach people: Almost everything I've learned, I didn't learn in school; and almost everything my students (and kids) have... posted on Jul 1, 22043 reads

The Importance of Learned Optimism
"[The illiterate of the 21st century,' Alvin Toffler famously said, 'will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.' Martin Seligman's celebrated book, Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, was originally published 20 years ago and remains an indispensable tool for learning the cognitive skills that decades of research have shown t... posted on Jul 9, 18215 reads

Learning from the Wisdom of the Body
"It's amazing that our interpretation of experiences can generate intense visceral responses. The fact that we get goosebumps when we are inspired or afraid is one of many everyday indicators of just how deeply and intricately connected our minds and bodies are. In fact, the mind and body are an intertwined whole -- and there is great wisdom in the totality of our mind-body experience. There are s... posted on Jul 12, 16969 reads

Not Your Usual Panhandler
Doug Eaton wanted to celebrate his birthday on June 11 in a big way, so he turned to his friends for ideas. "I asked a bunch of my friends on Facebook what should I do on my 65th and I got a whole long list of stuff," he shared, "And one of my friends said, 'Why don't you do 65 random acts of kindness?'" So that's exactly what he did, spending 65 minutes standing on the corner of NW 39th Street a... posted on Jul 19, 23455 reads

The Way of the Peaceful Parent
"While I have learned a lot about being a dad, and finding joy in parenthood, I also know that stress-free parenting is a myth. Parents will always have stress: we not only have to deal with tantrums and scraped knees and refusing to eat anything you cook, but we worry about potential accidents, whether we are ruining our kids, whether our children will find happiness as adults and be able to prov... posted on Jul 24, 83102 reads

A Conspiracy of Love: Stanford Graduation Speech
In these video excerpts, charismatic Newark Mayor, Cory Booker, reminds Stanford graduates that their success is the product of a vast "conspiracy of love," and challenges all of us to engage in the conspiratorial caring that makes our society safe, strong, and ennobling. A clear and compelling message, and one of the most articulate and inspired commencement speeches of recent times.... posted on Aug 4, 5515 reads

5 Books to Inspire Innovation
The human brain is a few pounds of pale pink jello inside the skull. It's also the wondrous source of consciousness and creativity, the place from which our emotions and insights emerge. The following books look at the mystery of the creative mind from many different angles. They investigate the quirks of human nature and the science of beauty, the importance of stories and the necessity of invest... posted on Aug 11, 11691 reads

27 Non-School Skills Children Need
"When you got out of high school, did you know everything you needed in order to survive in life, let alone succeed? If you were lucky, you knew how to read and had some basic history and math skills, and if you were even luckier, you had good study habits that would serve you well in college. But were you prepared for life? Most likely not, unless you had parents who did you that favor. In fact, ... posted on Aug 28, 116655 reads

What Death Has Taught Me About Life
"When I was 12, I attended a boarding school that was also a temple. My parents came to pick me up to for winter break. My mom was planning on staying at the temple for a retreat, but I pleaded her to come back since I would finally be home. My mom listened to me, and we began heading back to my house. Dusk was drawing near, and the rain was drizzling. For the first time since I had gone to boardi... posted on Aug 30, 40019 reads

What I Learned From 30 Years Of Watching A River
"In all the years I have spent standing or sitting on the banks of this river, I have learned this: the more knowledge I have, the greater becomes the mystery of what holds that knowledge together, this reticulated miracle called an ecosystem. The longer I watch the river, the more amazed I become (afraid, actually, sometimes) at the confidence of those people who after a few summer seasons here a... posted on Jul 3, 9968 reads

The Idea of A Local Economy
In a total economy everything has a price and is for sale. Sometimes critical choices that once belonged to individuals or communities become the property of corporations. This can lead to the disintegration of communities, households, landscapes, and ecosystems. Aware of this, nation leaders developed the means of limiting and restraining such concentrations. But now all of these means are arguab... posted on Sep 22, 7444 reads

Reading Into Grief
"I had written a memoir three years earlier and couldn't find a publisher...I was burnt out. At 29, I contemplated retirement. I wasn't only disappointing myself. My dad, Lawrence J. Epstein, has always been my mentor and biggest cheerleader. A retired English professor who has published ten books on subjects ranging from comedy teams to folk singers to Jewish affairs, he and I often spent hours t... posted on Sep 27, 6993 reads

Lessons in the Old Language
"90% of the world's languages are dying and will be gone within decades, displaced by the cold, placeless tongues of global commerce and colonization. Millions of voices...are going silent and with them the local wisdom borne of millennia of intimate and sustainable communion with place extinguished. The very fabric of life on the planet is also under siege by the same forces. The problem of endan... posted on Oct 28, 15693 reads

98-Year-Old Woman Earns Judo's Highest Honor
"Is earning a black belt on your life list? Then this elderly woman in San Francisco just might be your ultimate hero. Just two years before her 100th birthday, Sensei Keiko Fukuda has become the first woman to achieve a tenth-degree black belt-the highest rank in the martial art and combat sport Judo. Fukuda is now one of only four living people who've earned the tenth-degree (or dan) black belt.... posted on Nov 8, 61396 reads

Lessons Learned from Writing Love Letters to Strangers
"I began leaving love letters all over New York City for strangers to find nearly two years ago. Though the idea sounds romantic, it was really a way to forget about my own feelings of sadness and loneliness for a while and focus on others in the big city who may have been feeling as let down as me. Every morning since that first love letter, I've pinned my cursive to writing and mailing love lett... posted on Oct 31, 29092 reads

Soil, Soul and Society
Nearly 50 years ago, Satish Kumar walked from India to the United States for peace, starting at the grave of Mahatma Gandhi and ending at the grave of John F. Kennedy. He walked without money, trusting in the kindness of strangers to support him. "Peace comes from trust. Wars come from fear." He advocates making peace with soil (nature), soul (yourself) and society (others) because the future well... posted on Nov 17, 3819 reads

See Good Intentions
"Recognizing the positive intentions in others, we feel safer, more supported, and happier. And when others feel that you get their good intentions, they feel seen, appreciated, and more inclined to treat you well. But it can be hard to recognize the goodwill in others. We're busy and distracted and stressed. Positive aims are often buried beneath negative behaviors. The brain's innate negativity ... posted on Nov 25, 14658 reads

The Benefits of Poetry for Professionals
"Wallace Stevens was one of America's greatest poets. The author of "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" and "The Idea of Order at Key West" was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1955 and offered a prestigious faculty position at Harvard University. Stevens turned it down. He didn't want to give up his position as Vice President of the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company...I've written in the pas... posted on Dec 7, 0 reads

Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Forest
"My ecological journey started in the forests of the Himalaya. My father was a forest conservator, and my mother became a farmer after fleeing the tragic partition of India and Pakistan. It is from the Himalayan forests and ecosystems that I learned most of what I know about ecology. The songs and poems our mother composed for us were about trees, forests, and India's forest civilizations. My invo... posted on Feb 13, 17189 reads

From Soap to Cities: Designs Inspired by Nature
"Imagine this assignment, says Bill McDonough in a recent TED talk: Design something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, converts nitrogen into ammonia, distills water, stores solar energy as fuel, builds complex sugars, creates microclimates, changes color with the seasons, and self-replicates. Sound impossible?Well, nature's already completed this one. It's called a plant. And the fact that it... posted on Feb 27, 12408 reads

Landfill Harmonic: An Orchestra Like No Other
A cello made from an oil can and pieces of wood thrown in the garbage; a saxophone made of spoons and buttons. These are the instruments crafted by Nicolas, a recycler with no previous experience making musical instruments, living hand-to-mouth by the garbage dump in Catuera, Paraguay. Inspired by this initiative and creativity, Maestro Luis Szaran, director of "Sounds of the Earth," formed a "rec... posted on Dec 21, 4256 reads

The Legacy of Baghcheban
"One day three deaf boys were brought to the school. No one in all of Iran in all of its history had ever thought of educating a deaf person. Everyone believed the deaf to be uneducable; they were treated as imbeciles. But Baghcheban could not ignore these three children. He tried to make them laugh, to reach them, to connect. He went to sleep that night haunted by the confusion and loneliness he ... posted on Feb 1, 13267 reads

Naomi Shihab Nye On Kindness
The poems of Naomi Shihab Nye have an uncanny way of showing up at exactly the right moment to summon you below the surface of your life. The child of a Palestinian father and an American mother, her poems speak a language deeper than culture, history or religion. Through the portal of the everyday -- a grocery store, an olive press, the headlines -- she draws us into the most profound questions a... posted on Jan 10, 27759 reads

GirlTank: A Sisterhood of Changemakers
Sejal Hathi and Tara Roberts found each other coincidentally while independently pursuing their dream of empowering young women worldwide. These dynamic young women joined forces and founded Girltank, an online community supporting young entrepreneurs doing exceptional things. "All around the world girls are starting promising projects," says Sejal, "yet there was no infrastructure for them to sus... posted on Jul 17, 7399 reads

Why Gratitude Makes Us Healthier
"Our world is pretty messed up. With all the violence, pollution and crazy things people do, it would be easy to turn into a grouchy old man without being either elderly or male. There's certainly no shortage of justification for disappointment and cynicism. But consider this: Negative attitudes are bad for you. And gratitude, it turns out, makes you happier and healthier (...) if you can find any... posted on Jan 24, 38377 reads

Mary Oliver On Mornings
Mary Oliver is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whose body of work is largely filled with imagery of the natural world -- cats, opossums crossing the street, sunflowers and black oaks in the sunshine. Her most recent collection is entitled "A Thousand Mornings"...Mornings with the notebook are part of a regular ritual for Oliver, though. "Most mornings I'm up to see the sun, and that rising of the li... posted on Dec 30, 8368 reads

Surfing For Change
It was around five years ago that Brazilian surfer Jairo Lumertz got the idea to join his two passions of surfing and protecting nature by creating surfboards made out of plastic bottles. The 39-year-old surfer is now traveling from beach to beach with his partner Carolina Scorsin promoting his invention to help children take up surfing and reduce waste at the same time. Lumertz's "eco surfboard... posted on Jan 19, 6350 reads

Until I Say Goodbye
"Susan Spencer-Wendel knows how to spend a year. She left her job as an award-winning criminal courts reporter and went to the Yukon to see the northern lights. Then to Cyprus, to meet family that she never knew. She and her husband, John, took their children on trips on which her daughter got to try on wedding dresses and Susan got kissed by a dolphin.She also got a new dog, put a splendid hut in... posted on Mar 10, 12940 reads

Who's On Your Fridge?
"His name, I later found out, was Marvin Moster. In the obvious ways, he was unremarkable. And yet, I couldn't help noticing him. He was older -- I guessed in his seventies -- and he was boxing with a trainer, punching in a rhythm they had obviously practiced before, ducking his head whenever the trainer threw a hook. Two things struck me: he was in excellent shape -- evidenced by his balance, his... posted on Mar 22, 17455 reads

Jessie's Joy Jars
Jessie Rees was diagnosed with an inoperable and incurable brain tumor at age 11. As part of an outpatient clinical trial, she was asked to undergo 30 days of radiation and chemotherapy. When she found out that some of the kids in the cancer ward did not get to go home everyday, she decided to do something to cheer them up and give them hope, and Jessie's Joy Jars was born. Before Jessie died a li... posted on Mar 23, 6996 reads

Six Ways to Sustainable Happiness
"Sustainable happiness takes into account that happiness is interconnected with other people, other species, and the natural environment by a remarkable web of interdependence. This means that our daily actions and decisions contribute to -- or detract from -- our own well-being, and that of others. Sometimes things that make us happy may harm our community, ecosystems, or future generations. Sus... posted on Mar 29, 41642 reads