From Ego-System to Eco-System
"We live in an age of profound disruptions. Global crises in finance, food, fuel, water, resource scarcity and poverty challenge every aspect of our societies. These disruptions also open up the possibilities for personal and societal renewal. To seize these possibilities we need to stop and ask ourselves some basic questions: why do our actions collectively create results that so few people want?... posted on Nov 05 2013, 27,166 reads

5 Life Lessons From 56 Up
Have you ever stopped to look back and reflect on the journey of your life thus far? Do you wonder what it would be like if at different phases in the past, you had the wisdom you have now from lessons learned through the years? "The "Up" documentaries have followed 14 people from ages seven to 56 -- and in the process illustrated recent discoveries about the science of a meaningful life." Their... posted on Nov 04 2013, 36,014 reads

Joanna Macy: A Wild Love for the World
Joanna Macy is best known today as a Buddhist scholar and activist. She also translated the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. Her adventurous life included working for the CIA in Cold War Germany, then, as a young mother, she moved with her husband to post-colonial India, where she cared for Tibetan refugees, joining the young, newly exiled Dalai Lama. Later, she became an environmental activist. Lear... posted on Nov 03 2013, 34,760 reads

Woody Harrelson: Thoughts from Within
"I sometimes feel like an alien creature, for which there is no earthly explanation," begins Woody Harrelson's introspective poem. "I feel like a run-on sentence in a punctuation-crazy world." This spoken-word piece is brought to life in video with arresting images of the contemporary dilemma, where norms and meaning are dictated by unnatural forces seemingly beyond the control of our individual l... posted on Nov 02 2013, 6,930 reads

The College Course That's Changing Lives
Although it might sound like a bunch of self-help hooey-wooey, students at Harvard University have been flocking to take part in a bespectacled professor's course that tries to impart the wisdom of ancient Chinese philosophers. With the bold claim that "this course will change your life," instructor Michael Puett teaches how the smallest of actions -- as simple as a smile or a wave -- can have the... posted on Nov 01 2013, 36,914 reads

Reclaiming the Streets
Expressing a need for ordinary citizens to come together and own their cities, young Nigerian-born artist and poet Inua Ellams has been leading impromptu 'runs' around London by night, searching the streets for alternative stories and new configurations. All over the world, through defiant protests, performances, citizen action, even unsolicited horticulture, the battle for civic space continues t... posted on Oct 31 2013, 3,824 reads

The Neuroscience Of Why Gratitude Makes Us Healthier
"Consider this: Negative attitudes are bad for you. And gratitude, it turns out, makes you happier and healthier. If you invest in a way of seeing the world that is mean and frustrated, you're going to get a world that is, well, more mean and frustrating. But if you can find any authentic reason to give thanks, anything that is going right with the world or your life, and put your attention there,... posted on Oct 30 2013, 352,604 reads

Why Your Best Ideas Happen In The Most Unusual Places
Last month, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg shared some questionable advice on how to become successful at work: Don't go to the bathroom and keep working. But according to Harvard psychologist Shelley H. Carson, author of "Your Creative Brain," little distractions like going to the bathroom can actually be a good thing when it comes to creativity. She explains that interruptions and diversi... posted on Oct 29 2013, 26,138 reads

The Double Life of Audette Excel
Meet audacious Audette Excel, former corporate lawyer and banker who uses her business and legal acumen to make money for the poor and to save the lives of thousands of mothers and children. Audette acts as a bridge between the nonprofit and corporate worlds and says that if you want to know who she truly is, you have to see her in the context of her work with the children of Nepal: "The truth of ... posted on Oct 28 2013, 29,435 reads

The Cancer Camp that Kids Want to Go To
"What if, instead of worrying whether your mom had sewed name tags into your underwear for summer camp, you had to wonder whether she would still be alive when you got home? Or what if you were 6 years old and got packed off to "Cancer Camp" by your grieving father not long after your mother died of the disease? That's what happened to Kieran Ward, of Menlo Park, now 13, who had to get on a wait... posted on Oct 27 2013, 4,075 reads