Seeds of Change: Meet A Hero of the Urban Farm Movement
It began with a single tomato. Watching her own home-grown plant take form before her eyes, and tasting for herself the deliciousness, Karen Washington dove into gardening as more than just a hobby --...
View ArticleOde To Women: A Musical Mother's Day Special
A decade ago South Asian Hip Hop artists Nimo, Swap, and KB collaborated on a song called Ode to Women.Ten years later they reunited along with gifted filmmaker, Ellie Walton, to bring it to life...
View ArticleTeri Delane: From Addiction to Academy Founder
How did a law-breaking, heroin-using, 9th-grade dropout go on to earn two Masters degrees and a Ph.D? By learning about trust and community at a critical time in her life. At the Delancey Street...
View ArticleMore Than Your Average Cup of Joe
A popular coffee shop in Denver is making a difference, and not just through their drinks. The Purple Door Coffee Shop, founded by Madison Chandler and Mark Smesrud, helps support youth coming out of...
View ArticleKay Pranis: The Art of Holding Circle
Kay Pranis, a facilitator of peacemaking circles, believes that each of us is inherently good, wise, and powerful. This, along with the remaining six core assumptions, form the foundation for her...
View ArticleGratefulness: An Opportunity to Practice
Each moment as we go through our day, we are practicing habits of mind and being. Too often, we unconsciously end up practicing habits that are unhelpful for us. Resentment, fear and projection become...
View ArticleA Conversation with Carl Cheng: The John Doe Company
"My grandfather was the mayor of Canton and on my mother's side there were even more distinguished figures." All that was wiped in the Cultural Revolution and when Carl was five his family emigrated to...
View ArticleWhy Stories Matter
"Storytelling, recognised in every society as a way of making sense of cultural roots or social reality, is an elaborate form of metaphor, and memoir is its masterpiece: life stories enable us to share...
View ArticleSergeant Helps Abandoned Animals in Afghanistan Find Homes
While Staff Sgt. Edwin Caba served in Afghanistan, a litter of puppies born on his base brought a sense of much needed joy and relief to the soldiers. Many didn't want to part with them once their tour...
View ArticleThomas Ponce: On Behalf of All Living Beings
Thomas Ponce is a 16-year-old animal rights advocate and a citizen lobbyist from Casselberry, Florida. He is the founder of Lobby For Animals, the Coordinator for Fin Free FL, and founder of Harley's...
View ArticleAgainst the Clock: How Tech Has Changed Our Perception of Time
Alan Burdick's most recent book, "Why Time Flies: A Mostly Scientific Investigation," chronicles his quest to understand the nature of lived time. He recently joined Douglas Rushkoff, media theorist...
View ArticleThe Vibrations of Conflict
"Cole Porter clearly got it right. But what exactly is it that changes from major to minor when we say goodbye? What permits music to express and stimulate our moods so precisely? How does it ignite or...
View ArticleAnnie Dillard: Living Like Weasels
Annie Dillard tells us we could learn from weasels "something of the purity of living in the physical sense and the dignity of living without bias or motive...open to time and death painlessly,...
View ArticleSpotlight on Kids Who Are Changing the World
We live in challenging and stressful times and may wonder how our children must be feeling when we are struggling ourselves.But, even as we try to shelter and protect them, we discover that children...
View ArticleHelping Young Adults Successfully Transition out of Foster Care
For children reaching the age at which their foster care ends, transitioning to adulthood can be extremely difficult. While other young adults can rely on their families for advice or financial...
View ArticleThe Bicycle Machines of Guatemala
Since 1997, Maya Pedal has been focused on sustainable development in Guatemala. Locals were handed control in 2001. Recycling bicycles from the USA and Canada to create Bicimaquinas or pedal-powered...
View ArticleRed Onions: Transformed by Beauty
Alanda Greene peeled back the outer layer of a red onion. As the sun caught its redness, lit it up like a ruby, she gasped at the startling beauty of it. Her mind had been elsewhere, grumbling about...
View ArticleWhy Is It So Hard to Take Your Own Advice?
Melissa Dahl says she loves to give advice to friends on how to solve their problems but rarely takes her own advice. Sound familiar? It's a question of perspective, she points out. We are too close to...
View ArticleSleeping Enough to Be Truly Awake
"Human beings are the only species that deprives themselves of sleep. No other species that we see will do this... And what that means is that evolution has never faced the challenge of insufficient...
View ArticleAddressing Social Justice with Compassion
Professor Rhonda Magee is a faculty member at the University of San Francisco law school, an expert in contemplative pedagogy, the President of the Board of the Center for Contemplative Minds in...
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