The work of brilliant thinkers, creators, and collaborators around the world is essential to deepen and consolidate an intensity of consciousness needed Now to make sustainable change. The following list highlights some of the amazing people and organizations working to make a difference in our collective journey to sustainable wholeness. It is a journey that must be completed on two levels simultaneously—as individuals and as a global collective. When we begin to see and understand ourselves more whole, the good parts and the bad, we can embrace others with compassion, empathy, and kindness. We help each other do this by the stories we tell about ourselves and our world. Now, more than ever, we need to tell bigger, better stories about ourselves, each other, and the world we live in without leaving important pieces out of the story.
Today, the dominate Western narrative that rules our modern world leaves a lot of essential pieces out of its story arch, resulting in many individuals being pushed to the edge of existence and survival. Most of the world is stuck inside this bubble narrative that values money above life. COVID-19 is ripping the veils from this brutal narrative and making it very clear how this narrative values economic wellness over human wellness and human life.
This global narrative has become too shallow to sustain most of humanity (and most of life on Earth) much longer. It is a global narrative about dominance, abuse of power, and greed that uses brutality and fear to grab power and dominate the world. Now, we the citizens of the Earth need to imagine a new narrative that values all living beings, seeks truth and justice, and strives without blindness to its own inner good and bad qualities to find sustainable solutions and balances to the problems we (the humans) of Earth have created the very problems that are threatening life on our planet.
Stories of every kind deepen our understanding of the world around us and the world inside of us. They are portals to new perceptions, insights, and knowledge that can lead to transformative discoveries and change. Without deeper, truer stories, we are not going to survive as a species.
The categories below are a start for areas in desperate need of more of our time and attention. Each one begins with a song or two capturing some of the deeper meanings that each category seeks to delve more deeply into.
Music is one of our most ancient tools for accessing deeper layers of mind. Indeed, music probably helped primitive man survive more robustly and to consolidate the ability to think in the modern ways that we think that thinking is done Now. Music, song, and poetry are powerful tools that have been weaken in our modern system because their value has been mostly reduced to how much money they can generate, and this has allowed us to lose sight of what they really do—open portals to pathways inside of ourselves that help us find our wholeness.
If you begin each list by listening to the song before looking at (and judging) the content of each list, it may help you access deeper levels of thinking, sensing, and meaning—thus, opening doorways to archetypal knowledge through rhythm, trope, metaphor, myth, and primordial images where ancient knowledge has been stored for centuries and exists in us all, we’ve just forgotten how to recognize it or how to get there. If you have suggestions to add to this imperfect list, please leave a comment and I’ll add it.
WEAVING REALITY — SO MANY HUMANS, SO MANY VERSIONS OF REALITY: HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Click here to go to blog and list of resources delving into this conundrum of our time.
EQUALITY FOR ALL PEOPLES BEGINS BY BRINGING EVERYONE TO THE WORLD TABLE:
While one human being any where in the world remains oppressed, so do we all.
And see Rhiannon Giddens Speaks For The Silenced archived episode on Fresh Air from JULY 3, 2017.
Lady Midnight – Bloodsong [Official Video] — an awakening of the deepest parts of ourselves — Directed by Teddy Grimes and Mackenzie Owens. Music Produced by MMYYKK, recorded, mixed and mastered by Medium Zach at Woodgrain, Minneapolis. Released on May 17, 2019.
“The world always wants us dead.” So, a group of disabled teen campers join the fight for disability civil rights working with the Black Panthers to gain civil rights for persons with disabilities. It wasn’t easy. Watch it.
This is an absolutely stunning story told by Sarah Vowell and her twin sister, Amy, who retrace the Trail of Tears. It is absolutely heartbreaking what they discover, but what Sarah does even more spectacularly is recount the mixture of feelings she has while making this journey with her sister. Sarah and her sister are of mixed heritage, including Swedish, Cherokee, and many more heritages–thus, this journey is personal both as victims and perpetrators of this American genocide (not their direct ancestors, but rather the whiteness that elevated some of her relatives while destroying others). Sarah grapples with this dichotomy on her journey in one of the most beautiful expositions I have ever heard expressed in such a complicated story. It is well worth the time to listen.
Trail of Tears: “For the holiday weekend, a roadtrip through history. In this moment when Americans are tearing down monuments and rethinking how to address the shameful parts of America’s past, we return to a story from the early days of our radio show that took that on, in a vivid and complicated way. Sarah Vowell and her twin sister Amy headed out on the road to retrace the Trail of Tears – the route their Cherokee ancestors took when expelled from their own land – and reflected on the question, what are we supposed to do with the mix of good and bad that is this country?”
- Racism in America is Like Dust in the Air: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote this Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times where he says “racism in America is like dust in the air. It’s invisible until you let the sun in. Then, you see it everywhere.” Western Civilization’s norms and values have brutality baked into them. A good cleaning is needed now.
- Silence is Not an Option: This is a new podcast hosted by Don Lemon of CNN. We will not solve anything unless we can come together and eradicate racism. The podcast is described as follows: “America is in crisis right now. A lot of people want to help, but have no idea where to start. In our new podcast, we’re going to dig deep into the reality of being Black and Brown in America, and explore what you can do to help find a path forward. We’ll have tough conversations with activists, artists, and thinkers about our nation’s deep racial divide. As we look for meaningful and lasting solutions, there is a lot to learn and unlearn. These conversations are going to be challenging—even uncomfortable—but they’re important. Because this time, we get to rebuild America together.” Let’s get started, now.
- Kenya’s Police Are Notorious. Few People Are Protesting: Racism is global. It is a killer pandemic infecting humans for centuries turning them into brutal, vicious things because infected people have lost their humanity and steal it from others because they can and it is destroying our collective heritage as a human race capable of so much more than what we have achieved so far, which is so much pain and destruction. This is a heart-wrenching story and very hard to listen to. It occurred after George Floyd was brutally murdered and also caught on video.
- Resist the Urge to Simplify the Story: As protests multiply, uncertainty abounds and Trump is using it to frighten Americans. JUNE 3, 2020 Written by Anne Applebaum, Staff writer at The Atlantic.
- Policing Is An ‘Avatar Of American Racism,’ Marshall Project Journalist Says: Lartey is a staff writer for The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that covers the U.S. criminal justice system. Lartey notes that America’s model of policing is a relatively recent phenomenon: “Policing wasn’t always this way. It wasn’t always this big. It wasn’t always this bureaucratic,” he says. “Modern policing — the policing that you and I and listeners recognize today — is really a product of the 20th century.” He says that Floyd’s death — and the deaths of other black people in police custody — highlight the need to change a broken system.
- Why They’re Protesting: “Hate killed Mr. Floyd,” one said. “This kind of conduct has been allowed for far too long against people of color. And enough is enough.” This podcast is a series of interviews with individuals and what motivated them to take to the streets and protest now. It is a series of stunning interviews.
- Mapping Black Lives Matter Protests Around The World: To help give some perspective on the scope of the demonstrations, one man created an online map that shows the many cities worldwide standing up for racial justice. This segmented was aired on Here & Now. Take a look!
- What Is Next?: The death of George Floyd, a black man killed while being forcefully detained by a Minneapolis Police officer, has sparked peaceful demonstrations and destructive riots between protesters and police in the Twin Cities and across the country. MPR News host Angela Davis had a discussion with cultural trauma experts Resmaa Menakem, Justin Terrell, and Brittany Lewis about the most recent high-profile incident to become an example of historic racial injustice. “White comfort Trumps my liberation.” “Normal wasn’t good for me. We ain’t going back. Normal wasn’t good for me.” We need a new philosophy… a living philosophy to build a new cultural container for transformation.
- Talking to White Kids About Race and Racism: Most white kids have never had a discussion about racism with their parents. They have been protected from its brutality by silence. And so, silence becomes the unspoken weapon transmitting it from one generation to the next. This special report explores this silence and what some white parents are learning how to counteract it. To accomplish lasting, stable change, all races need to come to the common table of community and converse with dignity, respect, and knowledge not hidden in silence. This special aired on June 27, 2020.
- Hope After Hashtags: A Young Black Minnesotan Reflects On Race After Floyd Killing: Like many Americans, 22-year-old Erianna Jiles has been thinking a lot about racism in America. Perhaps even more so, since she’s Black and from Minnesota, where George Floyd was killed by police. She wonders what life will look like when the Black Lives Matter protests end and the hashtags disappear. This 2 minute piece aired on Here & Now June 12, 2012.
- Parents Of Sandy Hook Shooting Victim Hope Protesters Will Hold Out For Real Change: The same lopsided fragmentation of being human that made it possible for one deranged young man to kill innocent children is a close consciousness cousin to the deranged brutality inflicted on millions and millions of innocent people for centuries. And the same forces resisting healing, resisting a more fair, justice, and sustainable world are at work again. Excerpt from this piece: “Back then, she figured “nobody in their right mind is going to stare at the mother of a child who was murdered and shot seven, eight times and say, ‘I won’t enact legislation.’ And the truth is, that’s where we went wrong. Some of these legislators out there, they’re banking on you to stop putting pressure on.” Don’t stop paying attention. Concentrate for change. Consolidate it and never give up on it.
- The Poor People’s Campaign Is Marching On Washington — Virtually: This is another part of racisms brutal rule. These are glimpses of heart-wrenching stories of how racism has destroyed families and kept people in poverty. But, a tide is turning, if we pay attention.
- Ingrained Injustice: As protests for racial justice continue, many are asking how racism became so embedded in our lives. This hour, TED’s Whitney Pennington Rodgers guides us through talks that offer part of the answer.
- Criminal Justice: Keith Ellison talks about police power, protest and George Floyd murder prosecutions. Minnesota’s attorney general came of age as an anti-police-violence activist. Now he’ll prosecute one of the most important police murder cases ever. This is an in-depth discussion on how the system keeps bad cops on the streets. Produced by Reveal.
- Patent Racism: Violence, including racist attacks, stifles innovation and the economy. Dr. Lisa Cook proved how. It took 10 years to be heard. Produced by Planet Money. This episode shows how racism hurts everyone, including White people and the economy.
- Separate and Unequal: Ignoring America’s Racism: This documentary examines the findings of the Kerner Commission, which was created to address the inequities that were the root cause of the riots and civil disturbances of the summer of 1967. The commission’s recommendations were largely ignored, which has contributed to an ever-more divided country. The documentary also examines attitudes about race in today’s America, including its impact on education, housing, joblessness, and police relationships.
- Burn It Down: This American Life digs deeper into the roots of racism and why it is so hard to admit and change it. People existing in racists mindsets often are rather willing to burn down and destroy systems and things that benefit the good of all rather than deal with their inner realities of racism and destructive behavior. This episode explores the following: In the wake of George Floyd’s killing, people everywhere are demanding that police departments change not just their rules, but the culture inside that leads to these deaths. But those things are notoriously hard to change. As a case study, here’s the story of a fire department that gets a new boss who starts a war with his own firefighters, to change their macho, racist culture. They fight back hard.
- The Showdown in Lafayette Square: What happened outside the White House on June 1, 2020 when military and police violently cleared peaceful protestors from the square for Trump to do a photo op.
- Reality Shows ‘Cops’ And ‘Live PD’ Cancelled Amid Protests Against Police Brutality: Reality police shows “Cops” and “Live PD” were canceled this week in the wake of widespread protests against police brutality. Both shows had long been controversial, garnering criticism for consistently depicting Black suspects against white cops and allegedly glorifying police. This 5 minute piece aired on Here & Now June 12, 2012
- Jared Ball: Zionism and Black Radical Internationalism — he discusses psychic warfare through colonialism that absolutely needs to be dealt with in order for collective transformation to occur… all brothers and sisters of Earth must be at the table no matter the color of their skin or the colonialism that has kept them suppressed.
- Marc Lamont Hill: UN Speech That Got Him Fired for speaking up for freedom and justice on both sides of a division that goes back centuries. He speaks about the need for solidarity between all oppressed people around the world from apartheid in Africa to the movement of Gandhi in India.
- Dareen Tatour: A resident of the Galilee village of Reineh near Nazareth, she was arrested in October 2015 after publishing, among others, a poem titled “Resist, my people, resist them.”
- Mahmoud Darwish: Poetry Foundation Profile: Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish was born in al-Birwa in Galilee, a village that was occupied and later razed by the Israeli army. In the 1960s Darwish was imprisoned for reciting poetry and traveling between villages without a permit. Considered a “resistance poet,” he was placed under house arrest when his poem “Identity Card” was turned into a protest song.
- A Bird is not a Stone: This is a unique cultural exchange, giving both English and Arabic readers a unique insight into the political, social and emotional landscape of today’s Palestine.
- Paola & Karla: At the Wall, U.S./Mexico Border, Texas, 2020: beautiful spoken word poetry.
- Elizabeth S. Manley: The Paradox of Paternalism: Women and the Politics of Authoritarianism in the Dominican Republic : a powerful new book.
- Julia Alvarez: In The Time of the Butterflies is about the three Mirabal sisters who were brutally murdered for speaking out about injustices. They founded the underground, las Mariposas (the Butterflies, which was their code name) that inspired a resistance throughout their country.
- Independent: EU condemns rescue boats picking up drowning refugees in Mediterranean as leaders side with populists: As of December 13, 2018, the Artemis has been forced to cease operations and there are no recuse boats helping refugees who may be drowning
- We Are All Connected: Doaa and the Baby: This is a short piece inspired by Melissa Fleming’s TedTalk about an overloaded ship carrying more than 500 refugees, and a young woman who becomes an unlikely hero.
CREATIVE STORY TELLING LEADS TO NEW WAYS TO KNOWLEDGE & WISDOM:
More than any other time in human history, we need new stories, new narratives that unite us as one human tribe to thrive.
“Better living through chemistry… that’s our DNA!” A leader of a large chemical company tells a gathering of chemical company leaders at their annual Black Tie gala. This film is based on the 2016 New York Times Magazine article “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare” by Nathaniel Rich. (…) Robert Bilott is a corporate defense lawyer from Cincinnati, Ohio working for law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister. Farmer Wilbur Tennant, who knows Robert’s grandmother, asks Robert to investigate a number of unexplained animal deaths in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Tennant connects the deaths to the chemical manufacturing corporation DuPont, and gives Robert a large case of videotapes. (italic text above is from Wikipedia). This movie is about corporate lies. It is about leaders knowing how deadly something was but doing nothing about it… very much like this moment now September 2020 when we learn Donald Trump knew exactly how deadly the coronavirus was, but did nothing about it. Do we really want to be ruled by corporate leaders who are willing to throw everyone under the bus for money? This movie beautiful shows just how stuck all of us are in brutal systems that are designed to make the rich richer and the poor poorer (and when they are too weak to live, quicker ways to die). Watch it. Learn. Think.
Climate One at The Commonwealth Club is a thriving leadership dialogue on energy, the economy and the environment. We bring together top thinkers and doers from business, government, academia and advocacy groups to advance the discussion about a clean energy future.
- WILL CLIMATE MATTER IN THE ELECTION? This is a compelling, highly informative podcast about how to tell better stories about climate change so that listeners can connect the dots and understand the complexities and ways that they can matter and make a difference. And excerpt: ““10.1 million already-registered-to-vote environmentalists stayed home for the 2016 presidential election,” notes Nathaniel Stinnett, Founder and Executive Director of the Environmental Voter Project, an organization dedicated to changing nonvoting environmentalists into voters. (…) These people care so deeply about climate and the environment that it’s their number one priority,” says Stinnett, “and if we’re able to actually get them out to the polls that can have an enormous impact politically, but also on policymaking.”
- In The Dust Of This Planet: Last week I heard this story about a man who wrote a book that no one would read. He wrote it with the intention and expectation that no one would read it and he really put huge amount of time and work into it exploring the whole pot of nihilism, delving deep into Nietzsche and others. He put it online for free, then forgot about it. Then, things started happening… strange things. More and more I feel that nothing we do as individuals does not affect others, everything affects everything even when we can’t see its effects. We are ripples touching other ripples that touch other ripples like when Sonmi 451 says in Cloud Atlas: “To be is to be perceived, and so to know thyself is only possible through the eyes of the other. The nature of our immortal lives is in the consequences of our words and deeds, that go on and are pushing themselves throughout all time. – Our lives are not our own.“
- The Flag and the Fury: Why do people seem to get so passionate about symbols and intimate things over life? It is so strange, and yet over and over again people do this saying things such as, “That flag is just like my wife… you can’t take it down!” The psychology of lost is really strong. It often dovetails with failure to achieve what one feels like they should have achieved in our culture–predominately, it has been a white culture where a mediocre white man can experience meteoric success, but this is because people of color are suppressed, brutality. Alan Watts talked extensively about how humans get caught up in living inside the narrow bandwidth of their symbols and record keeping. I have been trying to understand why ever since I heard that and this episode begins to explain why to me.
- An Hour With “UNTAMED” Author Glennon Doyle: “I am Tabitha, the beautiful, majestic wild cheetah trained and tamed to chase a dirty, pink, stuffed bunny down a rutted track and then eat a dirty steak thrown in the hard pack dirt.” Glennon Doyle talks with Kojo about her life and her latest book about how we are raised to feel shame about ourselves, to not trust ourselves, to forget that we are wild, beautiful beings just like Tabitha the cheetah who was trained to forget her true, deep, enduring beauty. Glennon says that deep caring can be felt like anxiety, but she calls it her fire. Reconnect with your fire, your inner beauty. Read her book or listen to her here!
- Mary Kate O’Flanagan tells a compelling story about taking charge and responsibility at her father’s funeral, but this is only the beginning of her tale. What resonated with me is how she and her 5 sisters were left rudderless and adrift after the death of their beloved father. This is the story of reconnecting with those left behind when a beloved one dies as well as reconnecting with the one who has died and finding one’s power. It is a journey I have been on as well after my father died leaving me rudderless and adrift. There are 4 other powerful stories told by women around the world in this link to the Moth Radio Hour.
- WATER STORYTELLING: “Water is important in many ways. Water is critical for life on earth in many ways. Without water there would be not any life on earth. Water is critical for our living, well-being as well as being import social and cultural practices and our identities. Water has shaped and is shaping landscapes and terrestrial conditions.” This blog tells about the important work of Water Storytelling. Take a look.
- I was swallowed by a hippo: This is a terrifying, nail biting story told by Chris Broughton in this article in The Guardian as well as to Snap Judgement. Such stories of fate and survival against the odds are powerful. They will mean different things to different people, but the message of fate, balance, and survival against the odds are necessary to hear from time to time.
- Hidden Brain explores how prevalent racism is in this episode The Air We Breathe: Implicit Bias And Police Shootings: President Trump said this week that a few “bad apples” were to blame for police killings of black people. But research suggests that something more complicated is at play — a force that affects everyone in the culture, not just police officers. In this bonus episode, we revisit our 2017 look at implicit bias and how a culture of racism can infect us all.
- Too Little, Too Much is another podcast by The Hidden Brain that explores how our brains work and influence perceptions about reality. Our Better Angels: What We Lose When We Assume People Are Bad is a podcast that explore how laws written to govern the lawless end up changing the behavior of the lawful — for the worse.
- The Truth About Trump’s Economy is a podcast by Robert Reich who is revealing layers of reality that might have been missed if one was not paying attention.
- How to Be Happy (Ep. 345) is a podcast by Freakonomics that explores economics and how it shapes our lives.
- Margaret Wheatley is a consciousness warrior and systems change worker. Her latest book is Who Do We Choose to Be that begins with the quote: The Warriors arise when the people need protection.
- Unveiled Canal Mural Champions Women is a mural project depicting 17 actual and imaginary New Haven women committed to a more equitable future.
- Climate Cinema is dedicated to highlighting the individuals and films that are shedding light on the many facets and forces contributing to the climate crisis.
- Thrive Story is the new story we create together about our connection to each other and to nature.
- Mieke van der Bijl writes about why being smart is not enough — the social skills and structures of tackling complexity.
- D. Mann documents Voices of Change through Citizenship Documentaries.
- Donna Alena Hrabcakova‘s RECENT PAINTINGS: NEW ANCIENTS is a visual artists telling stories that bring ancient wisdom into the light.
- Hannelie Sensemaker WorldPainter Venucia‘s Joy Generation World is transforming the world through JOY.
- Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis‘s Beautiful Waters is a reflection of the water mothers, their forms, symbols, and messages.
DEFENDERS OF TRUTH ARE GUARDIANS OF OUR SHARED REALITY
Without truth, reality dissolves and social cohesion begins to pull apart, leaving a society susceptible to tyranny. Truth shines brightest when equality and justice for all are rigorously defended and upheld.
Rebel Wisdom, in this episode, looks into the question of who to trust, how we find truth and how we are being manipulated is central to understanding and solving all our other problems. The pandemic crisis has acted like an amplifier and catalyst of all the existing fractures in culture. The question of reliable sensemaking is right at the core of resolving any of these problems. Rebel Wisdom is beginning a series of films looking at the question of truth and sensemaking. Starting with a look back at one of the attempts to answer that question, the Intellectual Dark Web.
Excerpts from this story that points to the crux of the moment we are living in now:
“These kinds of lies also have a way of building on one another. It takes time to persuade people to abandon their existing value systems. The process usually begins slowly, with small changes. Social scientists who have studied the erosion of values and the growth of corruption inside companies have found, for example, that “people are more likely to accept the unethical behavior of others if the behavior develops gradually (along a slippery slope) rather than occurring abruptly,” according to a 2009 article in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. This happens, in part, because most people have a built-in vision of themselves as moral and honest, and that self-image is resistant to change. Once certain behaviors become “normal,” then people stop seeing them as wrong.”
“The built-in vision of themselves as American patriots, or as competent administrators, or as loyal party members, also created a cognitive distortion that blinded many Republicans and Trump-administration officials to the precise nature of the president’s alternative value system. After all, the early incidents were so trivial. They overlooked the lie about the inauguration because it was silly. They ignored Trump’s appointment of the wealthiest Cabinet in history, and his decision to stuff his administration with former lobbyists, because that’s business as usual. They made excuses for Ivanka Trump’s use of a private email account, and for Jared Kushner’s conflicts of interest, because that’s just family stuff.”
“One step at a time, Trumpism fooled many of its most enthusiastic adherents. Recall that some of the original intellectual supporters of Trump—people like Steve Bannon, Michael Anton, and the advocates of “national conservatism,” an ideology invented, post hoc, to rationalize the president’s behavior—advertised their movement as a recognizable form of populism: an anti–Wall Street, anti-foreign-wars, anti-immigration alternative to the small-government libertarianism of the establishment Republican Party. Their “Drain the swamp” slogan implied that Trump would clean up the rotten world of lobbyists and campaign finance that distorts American politics, that he would make public debate more honest and legislation more fair. Had this actually been Trump’s ruling philosophy, it might well have posed difficulties for the Republican Party leadership in 2016, given that most of them had quite different values. But it would not necessarily have damaged the Constitution, and it would not necessarily have posed fundamental moral challenges to people in public life.”
Also, see Anne Applebaum: Resist the urge to simplify the story
Source: CNN
This is why I wear and mask and practice social distancing every day. It isn’t easy. In fact, it is awful and alienating and lonely, but I do not want to be that person who inadvertently infects someone who is vulnerable to this novel virus marching its way through the entire human population on Earth now. To reach natural “herd immunity” among humans, it will require the deaths of millions and millions of people worldwide, perhaps exceeding the 50 million souls who died during the 1918-1919 Flu Pandemic. The novel Coronavirus today is hitting people and families unfairly and brutality like this man who lost 7 precious members of his family to this virus. They were a family who were just trying to make a living in this world. One of my trusted news sources is the PBS NewsHour reported recently why herd immunity is a dangerous strategy (others have called it a fantasy) being promoted by people in power who do not care about how many people die. This is because, in my humble opinion, their only concern is the economy generating their wealth, which sustains their power over others.
- Intelligence Squared U.S. – Newt Minow on American Presidential Debates: This is a fascinating story. To me, Newt shares the evolution of Gotcha Politics and political movements as entertainment. This is the write up from Intelligence Squared: “In a 1955 memo to his boss, attorney Newt Minow first suggested the idea of presidential debates. In the decades since, these debates have become some of the biggest and most influential moments in political history. And Newt, who serves on the commission that sponsors them, has watched them evolve first-hand.In this program, John Donvan sits down with the father of American presidential debate to discuss just how these historic events came about, how they’ve changed with time and technology, and what role they should play in our future.”
- Owning Up: Why America Can’t Ignore Its Past And Its Failings: We, the United States of America, wobbles at a very dangerous moment in time. We are slipping down the hill of collapse. Understanding what is going on and how we got here (all of it…no more white washing reality) is essential to survive. This episode on 1A features 2 well-spoken, knowledgeable, and experienced individuals. Disregarding people who have spent their lives and careers studying these issues is going to kill democracy in America together with many more Americans than the 150,000+ who have already died due to the failed handling of the Coronavirus. Other countries measure their deaths in the hundreds, while Trump says: “It is what it is…” to justify his complete ignorance and arrogance in mishandling the worst global pandemic in over a century. This in-depth interview features Ibram X. Kendi is the author of “How to Be an Antiracist” and the founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. He’s written a cover story for The Atlantic detailing how President Donald Trump’s racism has forced America to confront its own, especially the prejudiced systems which have allowed the oppression of minority communities in the United States. And, Ed Yong is a staff writer for The Atlantic. He recently published a piece for the same magazinepainstakingly detailing the numerous failures and inadequacies in the federal government’s approach to combating the coronavirus. Yong explores how the underfunding of medical resources left minority communities particularly vulnerable to coronavirus, contributing to the country’s skyrocketing death toll.
- Romeo & Juliet In Rwanda: This episode explores Hilter’s Germany all the way to the hills of Rwanda. This episode (this links to the transcript where the following pieces have been taken) begins with the story of Ervin Staub who as a small child, his family had a live-in caretaker named Maria Gogan. Ervin was not just a 6-year-old child; he was a Jewish child in a German occupied the country. It was their caretaker and her actions that allowed him to survive. He went on to study violence. Ervin developed a theory of how genocide comes about. As leaders spread hateful ideologies and as people get used to ostracizing others, hostility between groups slowly evolves into violence. Ervin came up with a term for this gradual process – the continuum of destruction. rvin tried to imagine what might’ve stopped this march to violence. From his own experience, he knew that active bystanders can have a huge impact in saving the lives of victims. But in any conflict, why do some bystanders choose to intervene while so many others stay silent? Ervin felt that his personal experiences provided a roadmap to combat hatred. He started to think about how to inoculate people against hate speech and intolerance. Here are three things Ervin came to understand about how to combat hate devolving into violence and how this was used in Rwanda to help heal the tremendous pain and suffering after the genocide: 1) Violence evolves slowly, 2) Bystanders matter (they have to act early to prevent violence), 3) Close personal relationships between different groups creates a barrier to violence cascading into disaster.
- What We Value: In my story Sapience, I am writing about dynamic balances and the fatal belief that economic growth can go on forever and ever. Corey Hajim talks to the TED Radio hour about how the 2020 pandemic is revealing the tremendous imbalances baked into our modern economic fantasies and how we might re-imagine our shared future.
- Researchers Say Fresh Air Can Prevent Aerosol Transmission Of The Coronavirus: Coronavirus clouds…there’s increasing evidence that the coronavirus can linger and spread through the air in crowded indoor rooms. Researchers say infectious clouds can be dispersed with fresh air. “Linsey Marr, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech, says these clouds of coronavirus floating through the air seem to be playing a key role in super-spreading events where the coronavirus spreads to a lot of people at once – at weddings and nursing homes, prisons and dorms. Jimenez at UC Boulder says the unifying thread seems to be enclosed spaces with a lot of people and not a lot of air. So they’re situations he stays away from.” Avoid places if it’s crowded, if people cannot keep the distance, if it’s a long time, if there is low ventilation, if people are not wearing masks or if people are talking or especially singing or yelling or also breathing hard.
- WHO: Airborne Transmission Plays Limited Role In Coronavirus Spread: COVID-19 is testing our ability to agree on reality more than anything has tested our shared experience of reality in decades on a global level. Recently, the WHO expressed airborne transmission plays a limited role in its spread, but 239 scientist singed and sent an an open letter to the WHO to reconsider its position on aerosol transmission. Dr. Donald Milton, an aerobiologist at the University of Maryland and a lead author on the open letter pushing for more attention to aerosol transmission, says he still believes that aerosols could be responsible for superspreading events such as a choir practice in Washington state. Listen to the full NPR report, which is listed in NPR’s special section of all the news related to Coronavirus found here: The Coronavirus Crisis — Everything You Need to Know About The Global Outbreak.
- Anatomy Of A COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory: We have become very vulnerable as a global people to conspiracies. Perhaps it elevates us out of what may otherwise be mundane daily existence because believing in such thinking adds meaning, purpose, and a sense of power to one’s life. It also greatly simplifies reality, which can be very dangerous to do–to not see all of reality. In this report, NPR reports that conspiracy theories need just the right ingredients to take off within a population, and the COVID-19 pandemic has been a breeding ground for them. A Pew Research Center survey recently asked people if they had heard the theory that the COVID-19 outbreak was intentionally planned by people in power. Seventy-one percent of U.S. adults said they had. And a third of those respondents said it was “definitely” or “probably” true. This is shocking and makes hopes of containing a virus that thrives in environments that refuse to see all of reality less and less possible.
- How George Soros Became The Subject Of So Many Far-Right Conspiracies: Algorithmic game theory makes Facebook and YouTube light up 24/7 with posts, uploads, and comments of outraged users consumed with the cockeyed idea that there is one man in the entire world who is working day and night to control your mind. This conspiracy theroy is an overly simplified version of reality, but it is an extremely popular one that is used by far right politicians and media gate keepers to mobilize their base (to be fair, there are extreme far left gatekeepers and conspiracies too, but visibly there are far more conspiracies being concocted on the right). In reality, there are many people who are contributing to warping reality with money that they aggressively push into media streams to manipulate minds. Take for instance Robert Mercer, a reclusive U.S. billionaire who helped Donald Trump win the presidency, or the Coen brothers and decline of the American middle class. Take a moment to listen to this July 8 episode of 1A.
- How Facebook Is Undermining ‘Black Lives Matter’: This is an extremely important episode that was produced by The Daily exploring how social media giants like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have come out in support of Black Lives Matter and its mission. But, some platforms seem to be undermining the movement for racial justice, such as Facebook that static’s show is used much more by conservative activists in America and around the world becoming a powerful tool for promoting and preserving conservative agendas. A person who is a social conservative wants to preserve traditional morality and social mores, which harbor the structural racism of our current culture and society and imbedded in every system all of us have to use to survive. Social conservatives often opposed what they consider radical policies or social engineering. They want to keep things the same, the way they have always been. Social change is generally regarded as suspect and often demonized. It is being used as a weapon by Trump to win a second term. He relies and thrives on pushing social conservatives emotional buttons to keep them engaged and supporting him.
- Amid Confusion About Reopening, An Expert Explains How To Assess COVID Risk: This Fresh Air broadcast interviews Michael Osterholm who is founder and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. The virus will expose the truth of dishonest political rhetoric. If ever we need an epidemic of kindness, now is the time. From the transcript, Osterholm says: “From the earliest days of the pandemic, the virus has often been treated as a political issue rather than a public health issue — and much has been made of President Trump’s refusal to wear a mask in public. But, the risks from COVID supersede partisanship. We will all know somebody — we will all love somebody — who will die from this disease,” he says. “Eventually there won’t be any blue states or red states. There won’t be any blue cities or red rural areas. It’ll all be COVID colored.”
- Four New Insights About the Coronavirus: Six months into a global pandemic, the U.S. fails in a staggering way to contain this novel virus amid denial and misinformation downplaying the severity of this new disease. These the four things scientists have learned about COVID-19. Number 1, it is not a lung disease. It is a vascular disease. It goes wherever there are lots of blood vessels–the heart, kidneys, brain–and sets up shop devastating organs with damage lasting for months, years, and even the rest of that person’s life. Even mild cases can leave permanent marks, science reporter tells. Find out more on this podcast produced by the NYT’s Daily.
- Divided States of the Pandemic this is a podcast produced by Reveal about the U.S. response to COVID-19, which has been vastly more deadly to black and brown people–a fact ignited when George Floyd was brutally murdered by a white police officer. This episode shows how hard it is to clearly see reality as it is happening. It explores step by step the competing political narratives about this pandemic and how denial of the reality of this novel virus made the outbreak in the U.S. far worst than in other countries. This is an extremely important story because if we as human beings cannot agree on the reality of a novel virus sweeping the entire world, how are we going to agree on the reality of racism, on the reality of climate change, on the reality of hunger and war and injustice occurring all over the world… on the reality that every human life, no matter how humble or forgotten, is percious.
- Hate Online: Yet Another ‘Free Speech’ Reckoning For Social Media: Social media platforms are not doing what they say they are doing. Algorithms created on these platforms don’t feed us the content we want to see. They feed us the information that will fracture our attention, keep us outraged (thus glued to the platform reacting in smaller and smaller pools of other outraged individuals), and shatter our ability to concentrate. They are actually keeping us from each other rather than uniting us. Hear more about this pandering to hate for profit on 1A.
- The Post Pandemic City this Planet Money podcast tells how big American cities might never look the same again, post coronavirus. And that could be the making of them. And, this Planet Money podcast tells What A 1968 Report Tells Us About The Persistence Of Racial Inequality. While this one explores the economics of Police Unions And Police Violence.
- Pema Chodron‘s No Time to Lose guides the reader through the way of the Bohisattva; a path to inner wholeness, peace, and no suffering for self and all living beings.
- John G. Neihardt‘s Black Elk Speaks is a book about a holy man of the Oglala Sioux nation.
ARE OUR LIVES FUTILE?
How do we sustain ourselves, our minds in the face of overwhelming waves of destructive unconsciousness–forces of oppression, enslavement, annihilation of being?
During this five part episode, Umbrellas Down, This American Life recounts both sides of divide as residents of Hong Kong struggle to keep their freedoms. All the stories are absolutely compelling, especially the last one where Ira Glass asks the first woman from the first story if she is sorry she participated in the protests. She says she is not and goes on to recount the same exact reasons as why Sonmi-451 (an enslaved fabricant from Cloud Atlas) did what she did. Especially, the final question that was asked by the Archivist just before she is lead off to her execution.
Archivist: “If I may ask one last question. You had to know this union scheme was doom to fail.”
Sonmi-451: “Yes.”
Archivist: “Then, why did you agree to it?”
Sonmi-451: “This is what General Apis asked of me.”
Archivist: “What? To be executed?”
Sonmi-451: “If I had been invisible, the truth would have stayed hidden. I could not allow that.”
Archivist: “And, if no one believes this truth?”
Sonmi-451: “Someone already does.”
— Excerpt from: For The Thinking Sapiens: Short takes on life
SYSTEMS CHANGE ALERTS & CHANGERS:
Will we be undone by our clever minds?
- 350.org: This is an international environmental organization established in 2007 by Bill McKibben, Kelly Blynn, Jeremy Osborn, Jamie Henn, May Boeve, Phil Aroneanu to address the climate crisis. Its stated goal is to end the use of fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy by building a global, grassroots movement.
- The Only Way To Save The Economy Is To Stop The Pandemic, Disease Expert Laurie Garrett Says: Understanding and dealing with reality seems to be harder and harder for humans to do in our modern era. Even with a clear-cut danger like COVID-19, taking right action is proving harder than it should be for humans. Laurie Garrett is a pandemic expert and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. She says, “We either stop this epidemic or we have economic collapse.” It is a sad state to reckon with and if nation-states can survive this challenge, how are they going to handle the difficult sacrifices needed now to mitigate Climate Change.
- Economic Update: Great American Purge
- Economic Update: Reconstructing Economic Development for People and the Planet: Stories of Economic Democracy from Jackson to PR to the Bronx
- Floris Koot: The Human Failure — How our cultural DNA is killing us and 5 things to do & The Gentle Revolution, which is a space dedicated to a revolution where we will want to dance in a flourishing planet.
- The RIVER’S PATH is a blog space dedicated to wisdom and inner discovery.
- Sister Susan Francois: Every day Sister Susan Francois tweets @POTUS with a prayer.
CLIMATE CHANGE ALERTERS & CHANGERS:
All of Earth’s beautiful creatures hold their breath waiting to see if we (the humans) notice the choice that we have to make…the one that will determine the fate and destiny all of life on this small blue planet in the endless void of space.
- UTOPIACORNUCOPIA: Is a collaboration of activists, artists, and experts from various fields who are are passionate about restoring and regenerating our world, restructuring governing from hierarchical, vertical to horizontal, which is virtually incorruptible. They have a plan. Take a look.
- Living Systems Institute: Is an agent of livable habitat. Executive Director, David Braden says: “Our task is to heal nature, produce abundance, sequester excess atmospheric carbon and reduce the violence. We do that through cooperation with the living things around us.” Everyone can be an agent of sustainable change. Take a look.
- CNN: Sixth mass extinction: The era of ‘biological annihilation’
- Jeremy Lent: Yuval Harari: Please Recognize Your Own Unacknowledged Fictions
- Lynn Ilon: Capturing local community value using global networks.
- Heiner Benking brings together disparate perspectives and models to deepen understanding and more effectively collaborate. Visit his personal website, open-forum site, BenkingNews, or Medium blog.
CLIMATE CHANGE INNOVATORS:
Be the creators of change so we might all ascend the final mountain of consciousness and find the wisdom and compassion to care for Earth…our home, our origins, our very soul.
- Saving Our Planet is dedicated to providing information, training, and videos about climate change that can inspire our work together (for it requires every person) to save the planet.
- Human Voices is a space helping people build a stable and functioning world by new visions that can steer the world in a sustainable direction that we choose.
- BBC: Climate change: Warming made UK heatwave 30 times more likely
- Agents of Habitat: Taking personal responsibility for the condition of our world.
- NGO Major Group: This group is tasked with facilitating participation and enhancing engagement of non-governmental organizations in the processes directly and indirectly related to the High Level Political Forum
- Global Ecovillage Network: This network envisions a world of empowered citizens and communities, designing and implementing their own pathways to a sustainable future, and building bridges of hope and international solidarity.
- Institute for Evolutionary Leadership: This site provides a collection of videos, seminars, and workshops about evolutionary crisis and systems change— Introduction to Conscious Leadership: In this video, Manuel Manga introduces Evolutionary Leadership.
EMERGING GROUPS & HUBS AROUND CLIMATE CHANGE, CONSCIOUSNESS, COLLABORATION, AND COLLECTIVE TRANSFORMATION:
Only together can we generate the gravity needed to resist destruction.
NowWhat?! offers a platform for people around the global to gather as well as a gift economy to help collectively navigate the complexities of our time, in order to support action, build community, foster healing, and unleash generosity.
- Michael Aschenbach‘s Vision 3000: The Transformation of Humanity in the New Millenium describes the stages of our future transformation as they affect six social functions.
- Andrew MacDonald‘s Practicing Presence PLUS guides individuals in tuning into and seeing the wholeness and best potentials of groups.
- Zhiwa Woodbury‘s EcoPsychology NOW! is about the Climate Crisis and how to resolve it (or survive it) collectively.
- Academy for Systems Change is a nonprofit organization focused on advancing the field of awareness-based systemic change to accelerate ecological, social, and economic well-being.
- World Summit is a gathering of change makers from all over the globe united to bypass individual agendas and discover our oneness as a great global tribe.
- Human Library is a Worldwide Movement for Social Change.
- Collaboration Incubator is a place where people can learn about social technologies and integrate activism and intuition.
- Global Challenges Foundation is committed to eliminating major global threats to humanity.
- Global Summit of Conscious Leadership promotes a leadership paradigm shift that balances common good with individual self-interests.
- NEWA is a fearless collective action collaborative driven by joy, love and care for the whole – evolutionary consciousness quantum leap.
- Virtual Augmented intelligence Server Cloud, Organic Platform Evolving (Vaiscope) is building online collaboration micro hubs through P2P networks.
- REconomy practitioners is a virtual community of practice (CoP) for regenerative entrepreneurs.
- The Resilience Academy implements the Growing Systems of Success PhD Framework to Boost Resilience; En-COURAGE-ing, Connection and Kindness; Working with Children, Parents, Schools & Business.
- Group Start Up is a website dedicated to highlighting issues around climate change and providing collaborative links, resources, framework to supportP2P collaborative networks
BEING HUMAN IN A TIME OF CRISIS
We are beautiful creatures of Earth…if only we could slow down and remember how magnificent we are
- How Outrage Is Hijacking Our Culture And Our Minds — It can feel impossible to escape outrage nowadays. Anger is present across our screens — from TV news to social media. New social science research asks: What’s the effect of all this outrage? [Hidden Brain]
- Screaming Into The Void: How Outrage Is Hijacking Our Culture, And Our Minds — Social media changed after the 2016 presidential election. “I felt myself getting sucked into feedback loops where I would read something, I would feel outraged about it, [and] I would feel compelled to share it with my friends,” says Yale psychologist Molly Crockett. “I would then be sort of obsessively checking to see whether people had responded, how they had responded, you know, lather, rinse, repeat.” [Hidden Brain]
- The Logic of Rage — Neuroscientist Doug Fields was on a trip to Europe when a pickpocket stole his wallet. Doug, normally mild-mannered, became enraged — and his fury turned him into a stranger to himself. Today on Hidden Brain, we explore the secret logic of irrational anger. [Hidden Brain]