opinions are often based in emotion and group affiliation, not facts. Here’s how to engage productively when things get heated. It’s probably happened more than once: You spend a lot of time trying to convince someone that their opinion on a particular issue is wrong. You take pains to make sure your argument is air-tight. But instead of coming around to your point of view, your conversation partner pushes back, still convinced of her ultimate rightness. “What do you mean poor people need social programs? They have the same opportunities as everyone else!” By the end of your debate, you’re faced with the same stalemate you had at the beginning—and y... posted on Sep 8 2017 (11,371 reads)

had been a long, hot August day. We'd driven over six hundred miles and it was nearing 11 pm as we entered Kingman, Arizona. We pulled off and picked a motel. Much to my surprise, it being mid-week, the deskman informed me they were full. Next place, same story. This time, I asked the clerk for suggestions.      "Try the Hampton Inn."       At the Hampton we were greeted with, "We're booked. Sorry."      "What's going on?" I asked. "Is there some kind of convention in town?"      "A tour bus just pulled in with 60 people," the deskman said. "Plu... posted on Aug 22 2017 (9,686 reads)

she’s suited up in a duck costume at a library story hour, preserving Indigenous cultures in Belize, encountering small moments of beauty through free hugs, or blowing bubbles on the NYC subway, Kristin Pedemonti has got a knack for tapping into a depth of humanity around the world. The Accidental Librarian As a child, Kristin was “always the smallest kid in class— who was not athletic at all, almost legally blind, on top of being slightly hard of hearing”. After her grandmother taught her to read when she was four, stories became a way to escape and learn about the bigger world around her. In college, she tapped into into a passion for theater a... posted on Sep 17 2017 (9,313 reads)

Dienst, MD, is a rural family and emergency room physician from north central Washington who has been volunteering for humanitarian medical missions since 1982, when he was a young man in medical school. His first experience profoundly changed his life and he was “hooked,” he says, volunteering repeatedly for medical exchange programs in Veracruz, Mexico, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Most recently he served as the medical coordinator for Salaam Cultural Museum (SCM), a Seattle-based nonprofit conducting humanitarian and medical relief work with refugee populations in Jordan, Lebanon and Greece. After volunteering among Syrian refugees in Greece, Dienst and his fell... posted on Jan 6 2018 (9,574 reads)

economist Guy Standing, of the University of London, has popularized the term “precariat” to describe a global social class whose most salient characteristic is precariousness. Standing blames neoliberal economic policies, globalization, automation, and outsourcing for the rising number of precariats, who, if not completely locked out of the economy, must increasingly compete for temporary employment at low wages—to the point that they can’t pay off student loans or consumer debt, qualify for mortgages, save for retirement, or make plans for the future. Many are essentially one paycheck away from destitution. Standing’s solution is a 29-plank plat... posted on Nov 26 2017 (21,335 reads)

Also, and we use this in the program, it’s important to get rid of negativity.  I am totally involved in positivity. I don’t watch negative programs, I don’t like to be around people who swear, or are unpleasant. As a matter of fact, I have an Apple Watch that we’ve programmed so that, every 15 minutes, I receive a positive affirmation. So if you decide that you want to live a happier life, you can’t do it around negative people or negative headlines, or images. You need to fill up on positivity. I don’t own any Apple stock, but I think the Apple Watch is a wonderful thing to program so that you can receive positive messages throughout the day. ... posted on Nov 1 2017 (8,475 reads)

you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed, don’t cut yourself off from other people, says Kelly McGonigal. Instead, double down on your capacity for connection. One evening when I walked into a classroom to teach my Science of Stress course, I found a newspaper waiting for me on the lectern. A student had brought in an article called “Stress: It’s Contagious.” The report claimed that stress is “as contagious as any airborne pathogen” and compared its toxicity to secondhand smoke. As an example, the news story described a study showing that participants had an empathic physiological stress response when they observed another person strugglin... posted on Nov 21 2017 (25,250 reads)

following is an excerpt from Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution Our ecological predicament challenges us for many reasons, not least of which is that it calls us to examine how we live. It calls us to recognize that we are part of the miraculous biosphere, not outside of it or above it; to accept, deeply, that we will die, and that death is also part of this miracle. Our bodies arise from this spinning, burning biosphere, and we mix back into it when we die. There is nothing to hold on to, and nothing to be afraid of. In my darkest moments, when faced with the uncompromising reality of global warming in all of its surreal truth, I come back to my body. I fee... posted on Aug 19 2017 (9,570 reads)

following is an excerpt from Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe by Mike Massimino. When people ask me what it feels like the first time you spacewalk, what I tell them is this: Imagine you've been tapped to be the starting pitcher in game seven of the World Series. Fifty thousand screaming fans in the seats, millions of people watching around the world, and you're in the bullpen waiting to go out. But you've never actually played baseball before. [...] You've run drills and exercises with mock-ups and replicas. You've spent months playing MLB on your Sony PlayStation, but you've never once set foot on ... posted on Sep 15 2017 (6,003 reads)

to the Human Race” an Interview with Parker J. Palmer on the topic of depression Excerpted from Darkness Before Dawn: Redefining the Journey through Depression, April 2015, Sounds True. This experience called “depression” is isolating to a greater extent than I imagined could be survivable, but I realize that this incredibly isolating experience ultimately reconnected me with the human community in a deeper, wider, and richer way. Tami Simon:  Parker, I want to start our conversation by talking about redefining the journey through depression and your experience of navigating through the darkness. Parker J. Palmer:  I like your emphas... posted on Oct 31 2017 (16,014 reads)

O'Malley is a grief counselor with more than 35 years of experience. He has written many well-regarded articles on grieving, including the namesake New York Times article that inspired his new Sounds True book Getting Grief Right: Finding Your Story of Love in the Sorrow of Loss. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon and Patrick discuss his unique approach to grief and how it diverts from the popularly accepted five-stage model created by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross. Patrick asserts that the Kübler-Ross model, while helpful as a foundation, can actually create an emotional cage for people as they struggle to find the acceptance and ... posted on Jan 17 2018 (62,838 reads)

GREENE experiences the effect a change makes to the dynamics in her garden, and considers how much more aware we need to be of the decisions we make, and their effect on the Earth. Creatures had been eating the strawberries. Not only nibbling the bright red juicy fruit but also chewing at the roots, causing stress to the plant, killing several of them. Root-chewed plants were scattered through the bed. I suspected voles since, when I lifted the straw mulch around the bed, I saw telltale holes dug into the soft black earth. Chipmunks were the next suspects, with several regularly bounding between the beds as they nibbled beans, raspberries and young cauliflower. They get away wit... posted on Oct 15 2017 (15,236 reads)

can be a safe, effective and lasting way to defeat injustice, but like any other science it takes knowledge, courage and determination. Oakland First Friday Protest, June 2015. Credit: Thomas Hawk, via Flickr. Some rights reserved Here are six guidelines that can help you carry out nonviolent action more safely and effectively, while drawing upon nonviolent practices from your own cultural heritage. These guidelines derive, as you’ll see, from two basic points to bear in mind: We are not against other people, only what they are doing. Means are ends in the making; nothing good can ultimately result from violence. 1. Respect everyone–including yourself... posted on Oct 3 2017 (24,973 reads)

is the transcribed version of Fabrizio Alberico's share at an Awakin Circle in California in 2017. Every time that we breathe, we are exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide. What exactly is that carbon dioxide? Those are little pieces of us, little burnt up pieces of us that we don't need anymore. We send them out there with every breath. Few years ago, Tyler Volk at New York University wanted to figure out exactly how many carbon atoms do we release with every exhale? Turns out to be a half a billion trillion carbon atoms with each exhale. That's a five followed by 20 zeroes. That's a lot of little pieces of us that we breathe out every single exhale, right? ... posted on Nov 14 2017 (12,351 reads)

following is an excerpt from Authentic Conversations: Moving from Manipulation to Truth an Commitment, Berret-Koehler Publishers, 2008 We were consulting with a large East Coast newspaper grappling with a multimillion-dollar shortfall and the plagues of the industry in general: declining circulation, shrinking advertising revenue, and increasing newsprint prices. The problems of this newspaper were compounded by changes in the region’s demographics, which raised questions about whether the paper’s content was relevant to the readers in their market. Layoffs seemed inevitable. Hundreds were likely to lose their jobs. In preparation for a large group meeting about the... posted on Oct 22 2017 (12,294 reads)

is a fundamental human trait. Everyone is curious, but the object and degree of that curiosity is different depending on the person and the situation. Astrophysicist and author Mario Livio was so curious about curiosity that he wrote a book about it. He recently appeared on the Knowledge@Wharton show on SiriusXM channel 111 to talk about what he learned in the course of writing his book, Why? What Makes Us Curious. An edited transcript of the conversation follows. Knowledge@Wharton: What is it that really drives our curiosity? Mario Livio: Curiosity has several kinds or flavors, and they are not driven by the same things. There is something that has been dubbed perc... posted on Sep 25 2017 (12,467 reads)

or the art form called Improv, may call to mind comedy shows but it is now also a serious business tool. Organizations are using it to foster team work, collaboration, positive engagement and mindfulness, says Bob Kulhan, founder and CEO of Business Improv, who is also a part-time comedian and an adjunct professor at Duke University and Columbia Business School. Kulhan describes his strategies in his new book, “Yes And: The Art of Business Improv", which he co-authored with Chuck Crisafulli. He recently discussed them on the Knowledge@Wharton show, part of Wharton Business Radio on SiriusXM channel 111. Click here to play audio. ... posted on Oct 27 2017 (7,567 reads)

May 30, 2017 Your browser does not support the audio element, but you can play it here. Diane Musho Hamilton is a spiritual teacher, mediator, and group facilitator who has been studying mindfulness for more than 30 years. She is a featured presenter for A Year of Mindfulness, Sounds True's yearlong online meditation program. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon and Diane discuss how her experience with mindfulness has helped her to become an effective group mediator. Diane speaks on how mindfulness skills transfer to interpersonal communication and skillful relationship—especially when it comes to being able to take on someone else's perspecti... posted on Oct 29 2017 (15,469 reads)

Life Without Fossil Fuels—Slow and Satisfying A visit to the Possibility Alliance reminded me also that the one constant of life is change. Photo by James Garcia on Unsplash. The Possibility Alliance is a 110-acre homestead run by Ethan and Sarah Hughes. Their reliance on fossil fuels is limited to trains for long-distance trips, municipal water, and a telephone landline. I stepped off the train in the farm town of La Plata, Missouri, with my 9-year-old son, Zane. Thomas was waiting to meet us with two well-maintained bikes, one with a trailer for our backpacks, the other with a long wooden seat for passengers, to make th... posted on Oct 12 2017 (11,602 reads)

question is not what to do but how to see. Seeing is the most important thing—the act of seeing. I need to realize that it is truly an act, an action that brings something entirely new, a new possibility of vision, certainty and knowledge. This possibility appears during the act itself and disappears as soon as the seeing stops. It is only in this act of seeing that I will find a certain freedom. So long as I have not seen the nature and movement of the mind, there is little sense in believing that I could be free of it. I am a slave to my mechanical thoughts. This is a fact. It is not the thoughts ­themselves that enslave me but my ­attachment to them. In order to ... posted on Dec 24 2017 (10,525 reads)