Margaret Heffernan: Dare To Disagree, by Thu-Huong Ha
people instinctively avoid conflict, but as Margaret Heffernan shows us, good disagreement is central to progress. She illustrates (sometimes counterintuitively) how the best partners aren’t echo chambers — and how great research teams, relationships and businesses allow people to deeply disagree. Transcript: 0:11      In Oxford in the 1950s, there was a fantastic doctor, who was very unusual, named Alice Stewart. And Alice was unusual partly because, of course, she was a woman, which was pretty rare in the 1950s. And she was brilliant, she was one of the, at the time, the youngest Fellow to be elected to the Royal College of Physicia... posted on Jun 10 2015 (28,150 reads)

Should We Train Doctors for Empathy?, by Jill Suttie
years ago, I was told that I needed a full hip replacement. I was 46 years old and athletic, and had none of the precursors for the condition. I was devastated. The orthopedist who gave me my diagnosis, however, was not particularly sympathetic. He pointedly ignored my tears while presenting me with the hard facts, answering my questions—like, “How could this happen to me?”—with answers that were technically precise but emotionally detached. And, while he spoke, he didn’t make eye contact, reassure me, or make any other effort at acknowledging my pain and confusion. Needless to say, I didn’t choose him as my surgeon. Instead, I later found an or... posted on Nov 14 2015 (13,131 reads)

The Way We Think About Work Is Broken, by Barry Shwartz
I'm going to talk about work. And the question I want to ask and answer is this: "Why do we work?" Why do we drag ourselves out of bed every morning instead of living our lives just filled with bouncing from one TED-like adventure to another? You may be asking yourselves that very question. Now, I know of course, we have to make a living, but nobody in this room thinks that that's the answer to the question, "Why do we work?" For folks in this room, the work we do is challenging, it's engaging, it's stimulating, it's meaningful. And if we're lucky, it might even be important. So, we wouldn't work if we didn't get paid, but tha... posted on Nov 26 2015 (19,362 reads)

A University Art and Science Fusion Program, by Richard Whittaker
remember hearing about Donna Billick from John Toki some years ago. John is generous in spreading the word about artists who impress him. Thinking for oneself, passionate commitment, resourcefulness and actually getting things done would rank high among the qualities he values. John’s glowing description stuck in my mind.      So when a few months ago, at an open house at Toki’s Leslie Ceramics in Berkeley, I happened to meet Billick, I was already primed. She was arranging a display of handmade ceramic honeybees. I asked her what were they all about and in no time we were in a lively conversation. The honeybees, I learned, were ambassadors for the U. C. D... posted on Apr 30 2016 (10,234 reads)

The Science of the Story, by Jeremy Adam Smith
know in our gut when we’re hearing a good story—and research is starting to explain why. Stories are told in the body. It doesn’t seem that way. We tend to think of stories as emerging from consciousness—from dreams or fantasies—and traveling through words or images to other minds. We see them outside of us, on paper or on screen, never under the skin. But we do feel stories. We know in our gut when we’re hearing a good one—and science is starting to explain why. Experiencing a story alters our neurochemical processes, and stories are a powerful force in shaping human behavior. In this way, stories are not just instruments of... posted on Jun 9 2016 (19,720 reads)

Chris Henrikson: The Community Cure for a Violent Culture, by Leslee Goodman
Henrikson is the founder of Street Poets, Inc., a non-profit poetry-based violence intervention program for high-risk youth in the juvenile detention camps, continuation schools and streets of Los Angeles County. Henrikson also calls it “a poetry-based peace-making organization,” which uses the creative process as a vehicle for individual and community transformation. I first learned of Street Poets at a Malidoma Somé ancestor ceremony in Ojai, California, which two young Street Poets also attended. The young people—a heavily tattooed Latino male and a shy, curly-haired female—silenced us all with the power and vulnerability of the original s... posted on Jul 29 2016 (16,084 reads)

The Little Free Pantry, by Cat Johnson
this month, Shareable posted a short article about the Little Free Pantry in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Created by Jessica McClard, the Pantry is an easy way for people to share surplus food and household goods, and access items they may need. The response to the post has been incredible. In the first week, over 21,000 people read the article and it has been shared over 700 times on Facebook. Our hunch is that people love the low-cost, direct action approach that McClard is taking to fighting food insecurity on a neighborhood level. As we face overwhelming global issues, seeing a simple, human-scale project addressing problems on a local level is a welco... posted on Aug 11 2016 (16,023 reads)

To Feel the Love: A Conversation with Barry Svigals, by Jeff Zaleski
the beautiful woods of Newtown, Connecticut, a new elementary school is about to open. Pleasing to the eye and soul, this new school replaces the Sandy Hook Elementary School in which, on December 14, 2012, twenty young children and six adults were shot and killed by a lone gunman. Not long after the shootings, the town decided to raze the old school and to build a new one on its site. The architecture firm chosen to design the Sandy Hook School was Svigals + Partners, based in New Haven. In June 2016, Parabola sat down with Barry Svigals, founder of Svigals + Partners, to talk about the design and construction of the new school and the challenge of realizing its potential t... posted on Aug 22 2016 (17,166 reads)

A Deep Dive Into The Gift Ecology, by Audrey Lin
various corners of the US and globe—from CA to North Carolina, Boston to India, Dubai to China—a crew of our October Laddership Circle tuned in on Tuesday for a deeper dive breakout call on Gift Ecology. "Holding the Questions" Prior to the call, everyone shared initial reflections online. Then, after an opening couple minutes of silence, we each tossed in a question for the conversation—ranging from practical implementations and sustaining gift-based systems to notions of an “inner gift-ecology” and how to honor our families’ wishes along the way. Chris, who comes from many years of monastic living, qu... posted on Jan 26 2017 (11,897 reads)

Why Play? This is Serious. , by Sarah Huxley
isn’t the opposite of work—it’s vital for social transformation. Materials used at the inception workshop for Toybox Mums in Nairobi, January 2017. Credit: Sarah Huxley. All rights reserved. It’s fair to say that, like many other people, I’ve been a pin ball in the international development fruit machine for many years. Sometimes I’ve hit the jackpot by working with great people on programmes or advocacy that have truly benefitted young people; at other times I’ve fallen into the dark pit of skepticism and disappointment. For all the talk of ‘breaking down silos,’ some people seem inordinately invested in preserving them. W... posted on Mar 28 2017 (12,095 reads)

The Promise and Paradox of Community, by Margaret J. Wheatley & Myron Kellner-Rogers
human beings have a great need for one another. As described by the West African writer and teacher Malidoma Some, we have "an instinct of community." However, at the end of the 20th century this instinct to be together is materializing as growing fragmentation and separation. We experience increasing ethnic wars, militia groups, specialized interest clubs, and chat rooms. We are using the instinct of community to separate and protect us from one another, rather than creating a global culture of diverse yet interwoven communities. We search for those most like us in order to protect ourselves from the rest of society. Clearly, we cannot get to a future worth inhabiting through t... posted on Jun 4 2017 (12,605 reads)

Elisabet Sahtouris on Ecosophy, by Awakin Call Editors
Elisabet Sahtouris is an internationally known evolution biologist, futurist, professor, author and consultant on Living Systems Design. She shows the relevance of biological systems to organizational design in business, government and globalisation. She is a Fellow of the World Business Academy, an advisor to EthicalMarkets.com and the Masters in Business program at Schumacher College, also affiliated with the Bainbridge Graduate Institute's MBA program for sustainable business.  Dr. Sahtouris has convened two International Symposia on the Foundations of Science and written about integral cosmologies. Her books include A Walk Through Time: from Stardust to Us and... posted on Aug 11 2017 (11,666 reads)

The Grace of Great Things. Reclaiming the Sacred in Knowing, Teaching, and Learning, by Parker J. Palmer
all know that what will transform education is not another theory or another book or another formula but a transformed way of being in the world. In the midst of the familiar trappings of education—competition, intellectual combat, obsession with a narrow range of facts, credentials—we seek a life illumined by spirit and infused with soul. This is not romanticism, as John Cobb (President of the Naropa Institute and host of the Spirituality in Education conference) has properly cautioned us. I saw the other day a remarkable documentary called The Transformation of Allen School. Allen School is an inner-city school in Dayton, Ohio. It was for many years at the bottom of the l... posted on Aug 25 2017 (15,901 reads)

Why is it so Hard to Change People's Minds?, by Elizabeth Svoboda
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 (11,313 reads)

Living in Deep Time, by Krista Tippet
13, 2017 Image by Steve Pavey / Hope in Focus Richard Rohr Living in Deep Time Men of all ages say Richard Rohr has given them a new way into spiritual depth and religious thought — through his writing and retreats. This conversation with the Franciscan spiritual teacher delves into the expansive scope of his ideas: male formation and what he calls “father hunger”; why contemplation is as magnetic to people now, including millennials, as it’s ever been; and how to set about taking the first half of life — the drive to “successful survival” — all the way to meaning. Transcript Krista Tippett, host: I’... posted on Sep 11 2017 (15,067 reads)

Luc Reynaud: Welcome to My House, by Awakin Call Editors
Luc Reynaud was born and raised in the beautiful state of Washington and has had many seeds of music planted in him through his loved ones.  He eventually started his own band, Luc & the Lovingtons, and has toured the world over. Luc's journey has been inspiring, full of beautiful miracles, heartfelt service, dedication to the planet, and bringing light to the darkness. He is a shining example of how to follow our heart, dissolve our ego, and become an instrument of something much greater than ourselves. We welcome you and we are so excited to have you with us today. How are you? Luc: Hey, I'm good Nimo. Thanks for that sweet introduction. (laughs) Ni... posted on Jun 3 2019 (5,178 reads)

Kindness as an Avenue to Awe, by Awakin Call Editors
would happen if schools focused on kindness and gratitude before achievement and academics? This is a question that Andy Smallman not only entertained, but also acted upon. In 1994, Andy with a group of dedicated parents and their children started Puget Sound Community School [PSCS] “founded upon the belief that people are intrinsically compelled by their own curiosity and desires to learn, and when provided a positive and supportive environment…will enthusiastically pursue meaningful and challenging tasks.”  At PSCS, kindness was not just a concept, it was part of the curriculum—a class. The kindness class became so successful, that Smallman o... posted on Apr 7 2019 (7,815 reads)

Why Your Brain Needs to Dream, by Mathew Walker
shows that dreaming is not just a byproduct of sleep, but serves its own important functions in our well-being. We often hear stories of people who’ve learned from their dreams or been inspired by them. Think of Paul McCartney’s story of how his hit song “Yesterday” came to him in a dream or of Mendeleev’s dream-inspired construction of the periodic table of elements. But, while many of us may feel that our dreams have special meaning or a useful purpose, science has been more skeptical of that claim. Instead of being harbingers of creativity or some kind of message from our unconscious, some scientists have considered dreaming... posted on Apr 22 2018 (17,463 reads)

What the Dolphin Said, by Leslee Goodman
Simon Prager, PhD, is a therapist, author, and teacher who trains first responders and medical personnel around the world in Verbal First Aid, the protocol she and colleague Judith Acosta, LISW, developed to create calm, relieve pain, promote healing, and even save lives in emergency situations. She has co-authored several Verbal First Aid books with Acosta, including The Worst Is Over: What to Say When Every Moment Counts, which the International Journal of Emergency Mental Health called “the ‘bible’ for crisis communication.” In 2017, Prager published a different kind of book, What the Dolphin Said, about her journey to unders... posted on Mar 28 2018 (17,160 reads)

Sarah Kay Performs with Wonder, by Nathan Scolaro
Scolaro on Sarah Kay For over a decade, 28-year-old Sarah Kay has touched millions of people with her exquisite spoken word poetry. Her TED Talk, “If I should have a Daughter” has had over 9.5 million views, showing us the power of poetry in an often-cynical world. Whenever I watch Sarah perform, something remarkable happens. My heart rate quickens, I want to be more present. I want to feel more, love more, because she holds up a mirror to the deepest parts of our humanity—highlighting life’s nuances to make us taste, touch and feel the moment. Growing up in New York City the daughter of two photographers, Sarah was... posted on Jun 17 2018 (10,821 reads)