A War Orphan Who Became a Ballerina
Michaela DePrince is "the ballerina who flies." Orphaned at age three in war-torn Sierra Leone, DePrince was malnourished and sick when she and her "mat-mate" at the orphanage were adopted by Elaine...
View ArticleHow to Love a Country
The Cuban American civil engineer turned writer, Richard Blanco, straddles the many ways a sense of place merges with human emotion to make home and belonging -- personal and communal. The most recent...
View ArticleLet's Be Well: A Video Game Born From a Child's Grief
Paula Toledo was the mother of a two-year old, and a two-week-old baby when she lost her husband to mental illness and suicide. In the wake of that devastating loss, "I felt the most important thing I...
View ArticleTo Be a Loved Horse: Dufresne's Story
"A friend of mine was looking to buy a horse that could be a backyard buddy. She didn't want to spend a lot of money, so I suggested we go to the local monthly horse auction to see if we might rescue...
View ArticleDeciphering Words in the Woods
"Ogham is Ireland's earliest form of writing. Dating from the fourth century, it is often affectionately called a tree alphabet. It is an archaic script using trees for letters. In Ogham, the...
View ArticleWhat We Get Wrong About Time
"Most of us tend to think of time as linear, absolute and constantly "running out" -- but is that really true? However much time feels like something that flows in one direction, some scientists beg to...
View ArticlePrince Ea: Three Seconds
A presentation, in the inimitable style of spoken word artist Prince Ea, of where humanity stands today and how we must all work together to make it to the fourth second. This film won first prize in...
View ArticleEating the Sun: Small Musings on a Vast Universe
Says Maria Popova of Ella Frances Sanders' latest book,"In fifty-one miniature essays, each accompanied by one of her playful and poignant ink-and-watercolor drawings, Sanders goes on to explore a...
View ArticleUncommon Gratitude
"Before me lies a slope of wild grasses, saturated in the copper light of early autumn. Insects dabble in wild asters and Queen Anne's lace, and animal trails wind through the dense greenery. But just...
View ArticleThe Lost Spells: A Lyrical Rewilding of the Human Heart
"A century after the great nature writer Henry Beston insisted that we need "a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals," observing how "in a world older and more complete than ours they...
View ArticleHuman Library
"The Human Library is based on a very simple idea: that conversation is key to understanding. The global, hands-on learning platform, which is based in Denmark, works to create a safe framework for...
View ArticleSix Tips For Speaking Up When Called For
"When I was in college, my boss drove me to a meeting. He had trouble finding a parking place, and, when he realized we were going to be late, pulled into a handicapped parking spot. As we got out of...
View ArticleMark Wolynn: Healing Inherited Family Trauma
"Mark Wolynn is the director of The Family Constellation Institute, The Inherited Trauma Institute, and The Hellinger Institute of Northern California. His book It Didnt Start With You: How Inherited...
View ArticleLessons in the Old Language
The "old language" that unites the human and more-than-human worlds is a recurrent archetype in the stories of indigenous peoples, those who have lived in intimate proximity with a particular bioregion...
View ArticleSnack Attack
Waiting to board a train, an old lady just wants to eat her cookies in peace, but hijinks ensue when a teenager on the bench next to her seems intent on sharing them, too. This delightful animation was...
View ArticleCOVID: Etymologies of the Word that Changed the World
What is in a word? Writer Becca Rose Hall creatively explores that question using the word that indelibly entered the collective consciousness of humanity this year: COVID. Breaking the word down in...
View ArticleSustainable Social Change and Philanthropy
As a professional grantmaker and manager with some of the world's leading foundations, David Bonbright sought innovative approaches to strengthening citizen self-organization in place of prevailing...
View ArticleWilliam Segal: The Force of Attention
"Attention is an independent force which will not be manipulated by one's parts. Cleared of all internal noise, conscious attention is an instrument which vibrates like a crystal at its own frequency....
View ArticleThe Hero/Heroine's Journey: Responding to the Call of Our Times
"I believe we have entered a sacred and very difficult time, a time in which the Hero/Heroines Journey is for all of humanity, not just individuals. How will we engage the forces of destruction the...
View ArticleFools and Dreamers: Regenerating a Native Forest
This 30-minute documentary about Hinewai Reserve, on New Zealands Banks Peninsula, is an incredible story of how degraded, gorse-infested farmland, has been regenerated into beautiful native forest...
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