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 (22,353 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 (10,095 reads)

Sincerely Enthusiastic, by Gretchen Rubin
wanted to laugh more, I wanted to show more loving-kindness, and I also wanted to be more enthusiastic. I knew that it wasn't nice to criticize but it was fun. Why was it so deliciously satisfying to criticize? Being critical made me feel more sophisticated and intelligent — and in fact, studies show that people who are critical are often perceived to be more discerning. In one study, for example, people judged the writers of negative book reviews as more expert and competent than the writers of positive reviews, even when the content of both reviews was deemed to be of high quality. Another study showed that people tend to think that someone who criticizes them i... posted on Jun 18 2015 (13,979 reads)

Kentaro Toyama: Beyond Technological Utopianism, by Audrey Lin
12 years at Microsoft, 5 of which were spent in India, applying electronic technologies for international development, Kentaro Toyama came to one conclusion: technology is not the answer. In our digital age of exponential tech innovation—where the average American adult spends 11 hours a day on electronic media, the majority of the nation’s cell phone owners sleep with it by their side, and companies like Google and Levis are coming up with ‘smart jeans’— the undercurrents of mainstream culture seem to be marching to the beat of a drum far different from Kentaro’s—one that toots technology as an indefatigable sign of progress.  ... posted on Aug 12 2015 (14,371 reads)

"I Teach To Learn": Compassion In Education, by Nipun Mehta
Ward Mailliard’s students had a chance to visit Desmond Tutu in South Africa, one of them asked, "Bishop Tutu, what was it like to hold Nelson Mandela's hand as he was introduced as the first president of post-Apartheid South Africa?" "Oooo, that's something you can't describe," Desmond Tutu spontaneously remarked. And then quietly added, "I had a conversation with God and said, 'This is enough. Thank you.'" How can we engage with that which can't be described? In our incredibly rich circle of 40 educators, we probed into the question of "Cultivating Compassion Quotient." The challenge with a qu... posted on Aug 14 2015 (20,340 reads)

Why These Filmmakers Ate Nothing But Trash for Six Months, by Liz Pleasant
the new documentary "Just Eat It," filmmakers Grant Baldwin and Jenny Rustemeyer swear off grocery shopping for six months and eat only food that would otherwise be thrown out. Photo courtesy of Pure Souls Media. After learning that nearly 50 percent of the food grown in North Americaeach year is thrown out, filmmakers Grant Baldwin and Jenny Rustemeyer decided to stop buying groceries and only eat food that would otherwise be thrown away. The pair’s exploration into the wastefulness of the industrial food system—and their experience with life-sustaining dumpster diving—is documented in their film Just Eat It. Nearly 50 percent of ... posted on Jul 30 2015 (10,025 reads)

Stop Worrying About How Much You Matter, by Peter Bregman
many years — almost as long as he could remember — Ian* owned and ran a successful pub in his small town in Ireland. Ian was well-known around town. He had lots of friends, many of whom he saw when they came to eat and drink, and he was happy. Eventually, Ian decided to sell his establishment. Between his savings and the sale, he made enough money to continue to live comfortably. He was ready to relax and enjoy all his hard work. Except that almost immediately, he became depressed. That was 15 years ago and not much has changed. I’ve seen a version of Ian’s story many times. The CEO of an investment bank. A famous French singer. The founde... posted on Jul 21 2015 (48,611 reads)

Why We Do What We Do, by Tony Robbins
Thank you. I have to tell you I'm both challenged and excited. My excitement is: I get a chance to give something back. My challenge is: the shortest seminar I usually do is 50 hours. (Laughter) I'm not exaggerating. I do weekends -- I do more, obviously, I also coach people -- but I'm into immersion, because how did you learn language? Not just by learning principles, you got in it and you did it so often that it became real. 0:36    The bottom line of why I'm here, besides being a crazy mofo, is that -- I'm not here to motivate you, you don't need that, obviously. Often that's what people think I do, and it's ... posted on Aug 4 2015 (17,691 reads)

5 Reasons To Be Mindful, by KindSpring.org Editors
In today’s era of high-speed travel, incessant texting, and digital distractions, it's not society's defining trait. And we're all to blame. Because we’ve all been there. Driving to work while making a phone call. Eating dinner while writing tomorrow's to-do-list. Watching a movie while texting and eating popcorn. The list goes on. In a hyper connected world, bombarded by multiple forms of stimulation, how do we remain aware of the quiet gifts that the present moment has to offer? Cultivating a mindfulness practice can be a powerful way to train our minds and tune into the beauty of here and now. There are&nbs... posted on Aug 18 2015 (26,733 reads)

Cooking with Love, by T. Wayne Waters
Kitchen founders Helen Ashe (left), Director, and twin sister Ellen Turner, Manager, are delighted to still be serving up food and love at the Love Kitchen after 25 years. It’s a little past 8 a.m. on a Wednesday morning and 82-year-old twin sisters Helen Ashe and Ellen Turner are in the kitchen cracking eggs into wide-mouth wooden bowls. Brewing coffee infuses the air with an earthy aroma. Ellen gets a handheld electric mixer, plugs it in, and dips its shiny beaters into the yellow egg yolks in the bowl. A soft whirring sound signals the start of scrambled eggs. Helen meanwhile turns her attention from the eggs to white rounds of biscuit dough she begins to lay out on ... posted on Sep 5 2015 (12,334 reads)

Can People Change?, by Matthieu Ricard
day, after a talk I had given on altruism, a person in the audience got up and said in an irritated tone: “What are you hoping for by encouraging us to cultivate altruism? Look at the history of humanity! It’s always the same thing! An uninterrupted succession of wars and suffering. That’s human nature, you can’t change anything about that!” But is this truly the case? We have seen that cultures can evolve. For example, we have gone from regarding torture as an entirely acceptable public spectacle and war as noble and glorious, to tolerating violence less and less, and increasingly regarding war as immoral and barbaric. But can the individual change? ... posted on Sep 9 2015 (15,879 reads)

The Fear Project, by Alexa Strabuk
illustrations by Julie Elman. Julie Elman, like many artists, struggles with fear of the blank page. The creative process demands risk-taking, resilience, and messiness. An associate professor of visual communication at Ohio University, Elman understood the expectation to practice what she preached. To move beyond her fear and to explore what she was teaching her students, she conceived the Fear Project. People submit their fears to the project’s website, and Elman visually interprets them, bringing them to life. Perhaps the most interesting part, aside from the striking visuals, is the resulting effect. The venture brings different fears together on one interface, normal... posted on Sep 17 2015 (9,826 reads)