and the Practice of Wisdom, he has made multiple big waves in the public sector – as the "father" of the public interest law movement, as a social entrepreneur, and as a pioneer in the movement to bring mindfulness to the law and social justice efforts.  The outer waves of social transformation that Charlie has supported have been enabled by his inner waves of personal transformation.  And those inner waves are supporting him on his latest challenging quests: working for the mindful transformation of the criminal justice system, and preserving our social commitment to core values and practices – such as democratic participation, equality, and respect... posted on Jul 13 2017 (6,457 reads)

Christ, Original Blessing, Creation Spirituality, The Hidden Spirituality of Men, Occupy Spirituality, and most relevant to this month’s theme, The Reinvention of Work. He spoke with The MOON at length by phone. — Leslee Goodman                                         The MOON: What is the difference between “a job” and “work”? Fox: Work is your calling; your purpose; what you’ve come here to do in this lifetime. A job is something we do to pay our bills. The ideal job combines the two—enabli... posted on Nov 12 2020 (28,280 reads)

Call with Shay Beider. Shay Beider had a moment of clarity while still a pre-med college student at UCLA. Shadowing doctors at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and watching a girl tremble with fear before surgery, she suddenly awakened: “It doesn’t have to look like this.” Shay realized she could serve children and their families with something she’d already been delivering—healing touch. To put herself through college, Beider had been working as a massage therapist. Why not bring gentle, caring touch directly into healthcare? Beider would eventually create a new therapeutic approach called Integrative Touch Therapy -- providing han... posted on Dec 31 1969 (144 reads)

Shay is the founder of the nonprofit organization, Integrative Touch for Kids. She is a true visionary in pediatric integrative medicine for the past 15 years. Integrative Touch for Kids was born from a moment of clarity when Shay was a college student at UCLA. She was a pre-med major at the time, focused on becoming a pediatric surgeon. And one day when she was shadowing doctors at Children's Hospital, she watched a young girl freeze in terror before going into surgery. Shay was working as a massage therapist to put herself through college. And she realized in that moment how healing touch could support children in these situations. Her life then began to take a very differen... posted on Mar 16 2023 (2,554 reads)

Pranis learned about peacemaking circles through her work in restorative justice in the mid-1990s.  Her initial teachers were First Nations people of Yukon.  Since her initial "accidental" exposure to indigenous people's use of peacemaking circles, the circle has become the center of all of Kay's work: "The circle became a way for me to see how humans can live more successfully with each other and the natural world, balancing group and individual needs and gifts," Kay says. "The circle became a way to move to a kind of world that I want to live in." What follows is the edited transcript of an Awakin Call interview with Kay P... posted on May 17 2017 (21,194 reads)

Wheatley is a writer and management consultant who draws upon systems analysis, chaos theory, and other diverse fields of study to inform her work. She is the author of Leadership and the New Science and Who Do We Choose to Be?, among others. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon talks with Margaret about the cycles of life and history, especially as they apply to the chaotic contemporary world. Margaret emphasizes that we need to see our present moment with clear eyes, even if doing so might court despair. Tami and Margaret speak on the need to create "islands of sanity" within our communities and what it means to become a warrior for the... posted on Mar 29 2018 (26,829 reads)

this episode of Insights at the Edge, Meg and I spoke about the cyclical nature of life and how we are currently in a destructive end phase of the cycle of history in the United States. How we need to see this clearly and also the despair we can feel in looking at this reality without buying into the myth of progress. We also talked about her teaching on becoming a "Warrior for the Human Spirit," and how such warriors refrain from fear and aggression and engage in meaningful work in the context of community. Finally, we talked about what it might mean for each of us to create "islands of sanity" right where we are, during this particular time in human history. H... posted on May 17 2018 (15,841 reads)

school, an expert in contemplative pedagogy, the President of the Board of the Center for Contemplative Minds in Society, and a teacher of mindfulness-based stress reduction interventions for lawyers and law students. She has spent her career exploring the interrelationship between law, philosophy, and notions of justice and humanity. Having grown up in a segregated North Carolina, Magee developed an early interest in racial and social justice, as well as a deep sense of spirituality and inner work - both aspects of her personal life that profoundly inform her daily work. In this Awakin call conversation, with Preeta Bansal, Professor Magee shares of her commitment to inner transformation w... posted on Jun 1 2017 (13,557 reads)

resident of Vietnam, Giang Dang came from a traditional background in development.  After some years of working in a multi-national aid organization, she started to notice a need for depth of local connections and started Action for the City in Hanoi.  Showing how small scale actions can affect change through community's inter-connections, Giang is a champion of minimizing consumption of resources, reducing transportation emissions, and promoting green spaces and organic urban agriculture.What follows is the edited transcript of an Awakin Call with Giang. You can listen to the recording here. Xiao: Today I'm very excited to be moderating this phone ca... posted on Sep 5 2018 (3,650 reads)

Dutton's research focuses on how organizational conditions strengthen capabilities of individuals and firms. She is a co-founder of the Center for Positive Organizations. Monica Worline’s research is dedicated to the mission of enlivening work and workplaces is a founding member of CompassionLab, and a collaborating scientist at the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University. Immanual Joseph interviewed Jane and Monica on their lessons from decades long research on workplace compassion, and their new book Awakening Compassion at Work. What follows is an edited transcript of that interview. IJ: Let me start by congra... posted on Jul 15 2017 (11,400 reads)

five nuclear powers. She founded the Oxford Research Group, Peace Direct, and co-founded 'Rising Women, Rising World' and FemmeQ, and was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. She is interviewed here about her latest book, "The Business Plan for Peace: Building a World without War." In it, she points out that while 1,686 billion dollars is spent on militarization every year, it would only cost two billion dollars to put into action methodologies that are known to work to prevent war and armed conflict worldwide. What follows is the edited transcript of an Awakin Call interview with Scilla Elworthy. You can listen to the full recording here.  Aryae ... posted on Feb 15 2019 (7,379 reads)

you'll have that experience today.  Sujatha is the Director of the Restorative Justice Project at the National Council on Crime and Delinquency in Oakland, where she helps communities implement restorative justice alternatives to juvenile detention and zero tolerance school discipline policies. She's also specifically dedicated to advancing restorative justice as a tool to end child sexual abuse and inter-familial sexualized violence in the US as well as South Asia. Her work is characterized by an equal dedication to victims and persons accused of crimes. She's a former public defender herself and also a victim advocate, and she's been a frequent guest lectur... posted on Jan 27 2015 (44,362 reads)

out of looking forward to pleasures and rushing ahead to meet them that we can’t slow down enough to enjoy them when they come,”Alan Watts observed in 1970, aptly declaring us “a civilization which suffers from chronic disappointment.” Two millennia earlier, Aristotle asserted: “This is the main question, with what activity one’s leisure is filled.” Today, in our culture of productivity-fetishism, we have succumbed to the tyrannical notion of “work/life balance” and have come to see the very notion of “leisure” not as essential to the human spirit but as self-indulgent luxury reserved for the privileged or deplorable idlen... posted on Oct 15 2015 (10,869 reads)

a 30-part series that aired in the fall—called Waking Up in the World—that looked at the intersection of the spiritual journey and social change. One of my very favorite presentations from that series was with CNN host and bestselling author Van Jones. Quite honestly, Van Jones blew my mind when he talked about breaking out of our "resistance bubble"—our kale-eating and Prius-driving subculture; a subculture that many people I know live in—and instead working to find common ground with those that have different viewpoints from our own. I can't think of a more important and timely interview—one that I want to be heard far and wide—th... posted on Mar 5 2019 (8,043 reads)

to remind me of the amazing people I'd met in Australia. When I was in Sydney, I was with the folks that ran the National Student Leadership Forum on Faith and Values.  They told me the story of these guys that wanted to do something good for their country.  They used the idea of the Pay It Forward model which had been made popular in the Kevin Spacey movie and Catherine Ryan Hyde’s book.  They took college-age students around the coast of Australia to do service work and tell stories of their service journeys. When I got to the University of Minnesota, four of us sat up late, eating Top Ramen and Easy Mac.  We said,  “Hey we should chan... posted on Jan 2 2019 (3,193 reads)

tools to communities in need, including at-risk youth, prisoners, veterans, and those in developing countries. If you'd like to learn more, or feel inspired to become a supporter, please visit SoundsTrueFoundation.org. You're listening to Insights at the Edge. Today my guest is Frederic Laloux. Frederic is originally from Belgium, and is a former associate partner with McKinsey and Company and holds an MBA from INSEAD and a degree in coaching from the Newfield Network. Frederic's book, Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage in Human Consciousness has sold upwards of 400,000 copies self-published, a... posted on May 13 2019 (7,401 reads)

you happy? Could you be happier? Gretchen Rubin was already "pretty happy" when she asked herself these very questions. In search of the answers, she started her own pursuit of happiness, which eventually became a New York Times bestseller titled, The Happiness Project. She has now written a second book, Happier at Home, based on the idea that the home is the foundation of happiness. Knowledge@Wharton recently spoke with Rubin about why happy people work more hours each week, how to make and keep happiness resolutions, how to ward off the three happiness leeches and how to start your own Happiness Project. An edited version of the transcript appears below. Knowled... posted on Aug 13 2013 (23,708 reads)

unconventional studies have long suggested what neuroscience is now revealing: Our experiences are formed by the words and ideas we attach to them. Naming something play rather than work — or exercise rather than labor — can mean the difference between delight and drudgery, fatigue or weight loss. What makes a vacation a vacation is not only a change of scenery, but the fact that we let go of the mindless everyday illusion that we are in control. Ellen Langer says mindfulness is achievable without meditation or yoga. She defines it as “the simple act of actively noticing things.” What follows is the transcript of an On Being interview between ... posted on Apr 2 2018 (17,266 reads)

Ware is an author and speaker whose bestselling book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, is based on her time as a palliative care worker. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Bronnie outlines these five major life regrets with Tami Simon and discusses the experiences in end-of-life care that inspired them. Bronnie explains how most regrets arise from a lack of courage and why people are willing to share so openly during their last days. Tami and Bronnie speak on the healing power of sharing our most vulnerable selves, even if it's in a letter that we never send. Finally, they talk about maintaining trust in the flow of life and why happiness is ultimately a choice. Tuesda... posted on Aug 12 2019 (13,089 reads)

cooked, stories shared in their house down the road from Port Royal, Kentucky. And lots of flowers, because beauty matters, she reminds me, in a house full of paintings, fabric and stitching, and photographs. “It’s an important thing that’s left out of most people’s lives.” That’s the home Tanya Berry has made, in a rural community that endures—at least for now—because of people like her. Over those years, she has honed skills in farm work and the domestic arts, while serving as perhaps the most important fiction editor almost no one has heard of, married to one of the most important American writers almost everyone knows. All t... posted on Nov 24 2021 (5,818 reads)