Before I Go, by By Paul Kalanithi - Photography by Gregg Segal
warps for a young surgeon with metastatic lung cancer In residency, there’s a saying: The days are long, but the years are short. In neurosurgical training, the day usually began a little before 6 a.m., and lasted until the operating was done, which depended, in part, on how quick you were in the OR. Time at home. Time well spent A resident’s surgical skill is judged by his technique and his speed. You can’t be sloppy and you can’t be slow. From your first wound closure onward, spend too much time being precise and the scrub tech will announce, “Looks like we’ve got a plastic surgeon on our hands!” Or say: “I get y... posted on Mar 30 2015 (66,286 reads)

Black Madonna: A Song of Forgiveness, by Gayan Macher
you want to see the brave, look to those who can return love for hatred. If you want to see the heroic, look to those who can forgive.” - The Bhagavad-Gita It was an amazing act of forgiveness, an expression of human greatness in the realm of the heart. It occurred in a courtroom in Mobile Alabama. When I read the story I wept, and set out to write a song from the inspiration I felt. Here is the story, and a link to the song it inspired—offered freely as a tribute to this unassuming mother and the beauty of forgiveness. When I read the story I wept. I felt I was in the presence of greatness, a quiet greatness of the heart. It occurred in 1981 in... posted on Mar 26 2015 (18,586 reads)

Everybody Is Good At Something: Meeting V. R. Ferose, by Nipun Mehta
is good at something. In a ServiceSpace context, that's a daily assumption -- by design. When your organizing principles forbid you to hire staff, or fundraise, or sell anything, you are happily forced to make art with the colors you've got in front of you. And as we've witnessed over the years, creative constraints like these can actually end up seeding inspiring innovations.  Last Wednesday, I met V. R. Ferose, a like-hearted artist who applied this thinking in an unlikely setting: The corporate world. In fact, a tipping point in Ferose's journey came when he published an article in Forbes. The title? Everybody is Good at Something. T... posted on May 27 2015 (28,251 reads)

14 Surprising Ways To Boost Creativity, by Ed Decker
is one of the most mysterious human qualities. Seemingly effortless for a rare few, it can be elusive for the majority. While the most extensive training in the world can’t turn an average Joe into Paul McCartney, these simple techniques can help edge the creative muse closer. 1. Limit your options.Studies show that restricting one’s choices can more effectively trigger creative thought. That’s because leaving every door open makes it difficult to focus on which way to go, while having a more specific target helps you channel your thought process. And the target doesn’t even have to be logical. Recently I was having trouble finishing a chapter of a novel... posted on Mar 23 2015 (62,427 reads)

How to Forge a Mentoring Relationship, by Patrick Cook-Deegan
mentoring carries many benefits, but it's becoming more and more rare. Here are some tips for renewing an age-old practice. When I was in high school, I had a lot of big questions. I wanted to know if it was possible to devote your life to your work without compromising your integrity. I wanted to know how to be a powerful man without being a jerk. And I could not understand why so many adults seemed to be okay with the systematic injustices that plagued my hometown. I read dozens of biographies as a teenager, in search of some answers. But for many years, I did not feel safe talking to an adult about any of this, for fear of being told I was crazy. I crave... posted on May 22 2015 (27,866 reads)

Measuring Compassion in the Body, by Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas
happens in Vagus… may make or break compassion. Is there a biological fingerprint for compassion? Two scientific teams, one led by Zoe Taylor at Purdue and the other by Jenny Stellar at UC Berkeley, have found that the answer may lie in the Vagus nerve. That’s the cranial nerve in the body with the widest reach, influencing speech, head positioning, digestion, and—importantly for these two studies—the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system’s influence on the heart. Students typically memorize the parasympathetic branch (PNS) as the “rest and digest” branch of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which controls bodi... posted on May 19 2015 (13,529 reads)

These Gorgeous Photographs Show Indigenous Americans Without the Stereotypes, by Natasha Donovan
years ago, Matika Wilbur set out on an ambitious undertaking: a vast road trip across America to photograph members of all 562 of America’s federally-recognized tribes. Matika Wilbur, Darkfeather, Bibiana and Eckos Ancheta (Tulalip), 2014. Inkjet print 16 x 20 inches. Courtesy of the artist. Images of Native Americans made by non-Natives have a problematic history. During the 19th and early 20th centu­ries, ethnographers often used photos to document and romanticize the last traces of the New World’s “dying cul­tures.” Native Americans survived, but the tradition lives on: Posed images and media stereotypes continue to reduce indigenous peoples... posted on Sep 11 2015 (14,884 reads)

South Africa: From Dropouts to Innovators, by Ashoka
founded by Marlon Parker, is an innovation movement that transforms youth in troubled communities, gangsters, dropouts and ex-convicts, into changemakers. In this blog we look at how RLabs invests in young "problem experts" to beat crime & unemployment. "It works because RLabs is a movement by people for people." Marlon Parker grew up in the Cape Flats township of Cape Town, surrounded by increasing rates of unemployment, crime, gang violence and drug abuse. As the eldest in a single-parent household, Marlon was compelled to supplement the family's income and by age eight he was selling candy and carrying grocery bags to e... posted on Apr 20 2015 (173,350 reads)

Pay-As-You-Feel Cafe Feeds Thousands on Food Waste, by Cat Johnson
Smith knows food. A trained chef who has worked in numerous restaurants, the 29-year old also knows firsthand how much perfectly good food is wasted. Smith hails from Leeds, England, but it was a year spent working on farms in Australia that inspired The Real Junk Food Project (TRJFP), which changed the direction of his life. A pay-as-you-feel cafe model, TRJFP intercepts food headed for the landfill and turns it into restaurant-quality meals. As Smith tells it, all the downtime on sunny Australian beaches got him thinking about his life—what he had done so far and what he envisioned for the future. He realized he wanted to do something that would make a positive difference... posted on May 3 2015 (121,201 reads)

Young Entrepreneur Promotes Gifting to Heal His Cancer and Society, by Mira Luna
has published many stories about the gift economy and living without money. While they're often inspiring and popular, they often bring up fear of survival. People ask, “Is this really possible for ME?” or “Will I become homeless or sick and die from poverty?” Personally, I've questioned whether living in the gift economy is realistic only for privileged, healthy people. And so I tracked down Brice Royer for an interview. Brice is a young, now voluntarily unemployed entrepreneur from Vancouver with stomach cancer. He not only depends on gift exchange to survive, but helps other people survive through the gift and prosthelytizes gift culture with... posted on May 25 2015 (23,290 reads)

Can The Prison System Be Transformed? Shaka Senghor and #Cut50, by Molly Rowan Leach
Senghor. Credit: http://www.ecotrust.org. All rights reserved. Shaka Senghor spent seven out of his 19 years in prison in solitary confinement, known to other inmates as ‘the hole’ or ‘administrative segregation’ in the official language of the U.S. prison system - a term eerily designed to reduce the impact of its reality. Convicted of the murder of a fellow drug dealer, Senghor was incarcerated in a bare six-foot by eight-foot excuse for human habitation. A concrete slab juts out of the wall, threatening impalement instead of offering sleep. The hole in the wall that’s intended for bodily functions gapes back at him as if to say, I will... posted on May 18 2015 (12,524 reads)

The Role of Empathy in Entrepreneurship, by Ashoka
does empathy look like in action, and how can you incorporate into your business model? Last week saw the Ashoka Change Week host the Ashoka Support Network Global Summit, with social enterprises from around the world sharing their stories of how develop empathy in business... Empathy - the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, is a key skill for entrepreneurs that want to create impact. Without this foundational skill, we will hurt people and disrupt institutions. Everyone needs the empathic skill in order to adapt, make good decisions, collaborate effectively and thrive. Research in cognitive neuroscience has shown a strong correlation ... posted on May 26 2015 (17,564 reads)

The Biggest Reason We Steal Other People's Ideas, by Adam Grant
are that at some point in your career, you've taken an idea from someone else. I want to know why. There's a clue in a story about one of the great bands of our time. All good things come to an end, and by 1970, the beloved Beatles had decided to go their separate ways. Within a year, George Harrison reached No. 1 with a solo song, “My Sweet Lord.” But his sweet time at the top was short-lived. Within a month, a lawsuit was filed. Harrison’s song had original lyrics, but shared a melody and harmony with the 1963 hit song by the Chiffons, “He’s So Fine.” Was the Beatles’ lead guitarist guilty of plagiarism? Judge Ric... posted on Jun 14 2015 (12,966 reads)

Nature Needs a New Pronoun: To Stop the Age of Extinction, Let's Start by Ditching "It", by Robin Wall Kimmerer
the natural world “it” absolves us of moral responsibility and opens the door to exploitation. Here's what we can say instead. Photo from Shutterstock. Singing whales, talking trees, dancing bees, birds who make art, fish who navigate, plants who learn and remember. We are surrounded by intelligences other than our own, by feathered people and people with leaves. But we’ve forgotten. There are many forces arrayed to help us forget—even the language we speak. I’m a beginning student of my native Anishinaabe language, trying to reclaim what was washed from the mouths of children in the Indian Boarding Schools. Children like... posted on Jun 6 2015 (17,993 reads)

How to Find Your Bliss: Joseph Campbell on What It Takes to Have a Fulfilling Life, by Maria Popova
have to learn to recognize your own depth.” In 1985, mythologist and writer Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904–October 30, 1987) sat down with legendary interviewer and idea-monger Bill Moyers for a lengthy conversation at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch in California, which continued the following year at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The resulting 24 hours of raw footage were edited down to six one-hour episodes and broadcast on PBS in 1988, shortly after Campbell’s death, in what became one of the most popular series in the history of public television. But Moyers and the team at PBS felt that the unedited conver... posted on Jun 5 2015 (19,350 reads)

The Science of Productivity, by Gregory Ciotti
today’s busy world, we’ve become a people obsessed with productivity and “work hacks.” Getting more done in less time allows us to get ahead, and even gives us more availability to do the things we love outside of work. The problem we run into is that it is easy to get motivated, but hard to stay disciplined. Most of us look at productivity in the wrong way: task management tools are shiny at first and then go unused. Being chained to your desk is as unhealthy as it is unproductive. Achievement isn’t about doing everything, it’s about doing the right things–productivity means saying no. Focus and consistency are the bread-and-butter... posted on Jun 8 2015 (19,520 reads)

Jimmy Nelson: Gorgeous Portraits Of The World's Vanishing People, by TedGlobal
Jimmy Nelson traveled to Siberia to photograph the Chukchi people, elders told him: "You cannot photograph us. You have to wait, you have to wait until you get to know us, you have to wait until you understand us." In this gorgeously photo-filled talk, join Nelson's quest to understand - the world, other people, himself - by making astonishing portraits of the world's vanishing tribes and cultures. Transcript: 0:11      Now, I've been making pictures for quite a long time, and normally speaking, a picture like this, for me, should be straightforward. I'm in southern Ethiopia. I'm with the Daasanach. There's ... posted on Jun 28 2015 (23,985 reads)

Can America Heal After Ferguson? We Asked Desmond Tutu and His Daughter, by Fania Davis & Sarah van Gelder
Africans surprised everyone by transitioning to a relatively peaceful post-apartheid society. Here’s what Americans can learn. The Rev. Mpho Tutu and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Photo by Andrew Zuckerman. Can we recover from the legacy of slavery, lynching, land theft, disenfranchisement, redlining, job discrimination, and mass imprisonment? We turned to Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his daughter the Rev. Mpho Tutu for wisdom on this question. Desmond Tutu led the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, formed in 1995. Many people anticipated violence and a breakdown of society as decades of apartheid ended. Instead, the country transitioned relati... posted on Jun 21 2015 (13,441 reads)

How to Transform Stress into Courage and Connection, by Kelly McGonigal
doesn't always lead to fight-or-flight, says Kelly McGonigal. It can also activate brain systems that help us connect with other people. In the late 1990s, two psychology researchers at UCLA were talking about how the female scientists in their lab responded differently to stress than the men did. The men would disappear into their offices; the women would bring cookies to lab meetings and bond over coffee. Forget fight-or-flight, they joked. The women were tending and befriending. The joke stuck in the mind of one of the women, postdoctoral researcher Laura Cousino Klein. Psychology research has suggested that stress leads to aggression, but that wasn’t her experi... posted on Jun 29 2015 (22,354 reads)

Building a Reading Revolution, by Ashoka
this guest blog, Felicity McLean from Ashoka introduces The Reader Organisation and how they're working to create a reading revolution, instilling and encouraging empathy and community cohesion in companies (and other groups) through reading aloud... Reading aloud is more than words on a page. Shared Reading interactive groups delivered by The Reader Organisation in health, care, criminal justice, education, corporate and community settings for wellbeing, personal development and community-building, can also be an invigorating team building exercise. It's a slow, almost meditative activity. Don't choose the obvious, says Jane Davis, Founder of The Reader Organi... posted on Jul 3 2015 (10,097 reads)