Why We Can & Should Listen to Other Species
Listening closely for what her nonhuman neighbors are communicating, Melanie Challenger considers what it would take to expand the democratic imagination to include and represent animal voices in the decisions that affect them.... posted on Sep 11, 1875 reads

Life After Death
Laura Crafton Gilpin was a nurse, poet, and advocate for hospital reform. In 1976, she was given the Walt Whitman Award by the Academy of American Poets for her poetry book, "The Hocus-Pocus of the Universe." She was a founding member of Planetree, an organization dedicated to advancing patient-centered care. What follows is an excerpt from her powerful poem, "Life After Death." ... posted on Sep 30, 9440 reads

I Want to Be Unproductive & Other Poems
Danielle, Coffyn's poem titled, "I Want to Be Unproductive," opens with these evocative lines:
"to ponder the meaning of yellow. to listen as summer cicadas sing their final symphony of the season. to dine with friends. to savor course after course. to inhale the scent of San Marzano tomatoes bathed in balsamic brine. to taste vanilla bean gelato and espresso marry on my tongue. to study th... posted on Oct 2, 5532 reads

The Art of Conducting
"The mantra of my old teacher Jorma Panula the great Finnish conductor was always: help, but dont get in the way. I think a really good conductor works on a level that the musicians are not even consciously aware of. Its the Taoist principle of leading without leaving a trace. Under great conductors, the musicians will feel totally free." British conductor James Lowe talks about the nature of mu... posted on Oct 18, 1362 reads

Look Closely or You'll Miss It
"With the help of a historian, ornithologist, and birds themselves, Natalie Rose Richardson begins to embody a new quality of attention. Traveling from Chicago to South Carolina, she follows a migration path that brings birdwatching together with her own layered history."... posted on Oct 19, 1488 reads

3 Reasons Why You Need Anger
Feeling hot under the collar? This fresh take might cool you down: It turns out anger, often written off as a destructive emotion, could be an unlikely source of motivation. "Anger leads you towards responses that help you overcome obstacles," points out Heather Lench of Texas A&M University. Three surprising ways anger can actually be beneficial: it can help us reach challenging goals, may boost ... posted on Feb 12, 2364 reads

Strangers 'Scarf-Bomb' City to Give Warmth in Winter
Scarf-bombing (verb) -- the act of bombarding a public space with scarves for those in need during the cold winter months. Suzanne Volpe, a crochet enthusiast who is warming up her city of Pittsburgh, Penn., U.S., one scarf at a time. Since first learning about this trend in 2014, Volpe is using her passion for crocheting to create scarves for those in need in the winter. Along with a team of volu... posted on Feb 9, 1282 reads

Zero Problem Philanthropy
Christian Seelos reframes our concept of philanthropy with the idea of Zero-Problem Philanthropy, a shift from focusing on finding solutions for problems to creating healthy social contexts that inherently reduce the creation of problems to begin with. Our current "solution-focused" philanthropic methods often result in a never-ending cycle of problems and solutions. "What would it take to shift f... posted on Feb 18, 1453 reads

Why this Retired Professor Gives Driving Lessons for Free
Retired professor Gil Howard, 82, stumbled into a second career as a driving instructor. But he's no ordinary instructor. "He is the go-to teacher for women from Afghanistan, where driving is off limits for virtually all of them. In recent years, Mr. Howard has taught some 400 women in the 5,000-strong Afghan community based in Modesto, Calif., part of the Central Valley. ... For many Americans, l... posted on Mar 18, 1326 reads

Author Drops Everything To Visit Bronx Students
Tommy Orange, author of There There, dropped everything amidst an active book tour to visit a Bronx high school class. Their teacher, Rick Ouimet, had written an impassioned email invitation, sharing how deeply transformative the book had been for his students. "It’s not often that an author walks into a room full of readers, let alone teenagers, who talk about characters born in hi... posted on Mar 27, 1930 reads

Rethinking Identity, Embracing Destiny
Have you ever felt exhausted by your own identity? Is it even necessary? In a compelling dialogue with Zhenevere Sophia Dao, Alnoor Ladha from Culture Hack Labs discusses how identity can be overrated, and often distracts from truly belonging to life. According to Dao, identity can even be a replacement for genuine belonging. She offers a compelling argument against giving too much power to identi... posted on Apr 14, 1572 reads

Mountain Vapors
While hiking among the seemingly solid majestic peaks of the Canadian Rockies, photo essayist Keith Kozloff found himself more attracted to clouds than the steep, uphill trails of the landscape. Upon returning home, his images inspired him to reflect on impermanence and interdependence – the “cloudiness of everything.” He wondered if he could “perhaps treat challenges more ... posted on May 9, 412 reads

When the Lights Went Out
Never underestimate the power of caring, creativity and collaboration. During a presentation in India, one woman finds herself in total power shutdown. Complete darkness! But then, a spark of light from an audience member's phone glimmers. That spark ignited a chain reaction of lights from the crowd, illuminating the whole venue -- a reminder that even in the darkest moment, we're not alone.... posted on May 14, 1775 reads

What If Money Expired?
We are surrounded by useful myths: money is one of them. Yet many times, the myths we interact with on a daily basis go unchallenged: we experience the impact of the collective shared belief in the myth – the benefits and the costs – yet take it for granted that we can question whether the myth is serving its intended purpose, or has been hijacked.  Silvio Gesell questioned the my... posted on May 17, 1171 reads