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In this episode, Parker J. Palmer and Carrie Newcomer have a conversation with author/pastor/theologian Philip Gulley. Gulley is a pastor, an author, a source of wisdom and hope, and a clear and prophetic voice in progressive theology & spiritual activism in these challenging times. He has written 22 books, including the Harmony series recounting life in the eccentric Quaker community of Harmony, Indiana, several collections of essays including the best selling "Porch Talk", and a memoir called "I Love You, Miss Huddleston" which was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. In addition, he has co-authored with James Mulholland several works of theology and progressive faith including "If Grace Is True" and "If God Is Love", followed by "If the Church Were Christian".
I hope you’ll join us for a powerful conversation about living authentically into our deepest values and naming the more extreme voices of the Christian Nationalism and Maga Christianity as political movements with little to do with a philosophy of justice, inclusion and radical love.
Phillip has recently joined the Substack platform with “Plain Speech: With Phillip Gulley.” We hope you’ll check out his many works and subscribe to his Substack offerings.
In this episode Parker J. Palmer and Carrie Newcomer revisit favorite episode with Author/poet Ross Gay, who has touched countless readers with his books A catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude, Beholding, The Book of Delights, Incitements to Joy, AND The book of (more) delights”. This episode was recorded in December of 2020, and in it we discuss finding, noticing and experiencing delight as a daily practice, joy as an act of resistance and the importance of creating a connection to one another and to the natural world. We’re happy you’re here to join us for this "delightful" and thoughtful conversation.
Parker and I will return with a new episode of the Growing edge on Feb 1, 2024.
In this podcast Parker and Carrie wrestle with when and how we creatively hold the tension of our differences, and when differences are to grievous and do not yield to creative tension holding. We explore the meaning of “We Shall Over Come” and the power of prophetic voice in these challenging times for the democratic system. Carrie also sings the title track “A Great Wild Mercy” from her newest album.
For more about generative spaces for democracy and the common good check out Parker’s book Healing The Heart of Democracy
In this podcast, Carrie and Parker speak with Indiana State Senator, Shelli Yoder. We explore together Shelli’s history and vocation in passionate public service, as well as reclaiming the word politics and politician, holding difference and finding common ground. In a time when the most extreme and strident voices are more likely to get media sound bytes, it was deeply moving and encouraging to be in conversation with someone doing faithful and thoughtful daily work in public service.
For more about generative spaces for democracy and the common good check out Parker’s book Healing The Heart of Democracy
In this podcast, Carrie and Parker talk about our individual and collective longing for safe and generative community. We’ve always been tugged between our western culture’s drive toward individuality and our desire for a meaningful life together. In this Post-covid time, people are a little rusty at being in community. We are also reassessing what meaningful community looks like and how we choose to participate. Carrie and Parker explore how meeting happens in the space between us, and how critical it is to be mindful about how we hold that space. Gathering in circles is an ancient practice that is being revived in our time. But not all circles are designed to welcome the soul, and so how we intentionally create those safe and generative spaces?
In this podcast, Carrie and Parker talk with author Scott Russell Sanders about his new book Small Marvels. Scott’s work often explores the spirit of place, our relationship with the natural world, and creating communities of care and generosity rather a culture of fear and division. In this episode we talk about what inspired the stories in this lovely work, and share thoughts about the power of story and creativity. I hope you’ll join us for this heart-opening conversation.
Please join us as we explore the poem "Thanks, Robert Frost" by David Ray. Inspired by the poem, we revisit parts of our history and talk about reframing the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what has shaped us. Staying true to the facts as best we can, we explore ways of holding our experiences with greater compassion for others and ourselves, valuing all that we can learn when we’re able to befriend our own and others’ mistakes.
Join us for a beautiful conversation with journalist/author/poet, Judith Valente and monk/poet/photographer Brother Paul Quenon. We explore their friendship and creative collaborations as well as what it means to be intentional about “being” in a hectic and often uncertain world.
In this conversation with Jerry Colonna—co-founder and CEO of Reboot, an international executive coaching and leadership development firm—we range from childhood wounds and the way they can distort our adult roles, to race in America and role leaders can play in helping to build the Beloved Community. Jerry’s new book “Reunion: Leadership and the Journey to Belonging,” explores how being a better human means the ability to brave the truth and then actively engage in debunking myths of sameness, dismantling “othering" systems, and working directly for the wellbeing of the dispossessed and disinherited. Please join us for this timely, fascinating, and urgent conversation
Parker and Carrie talk about the challenges of staying in dialogue during divisive times, how to claim agency and the courage to stay engaged. Many of us were raised with a household rule to never talk about religion or politics in polite company. In this episode we unpack and reframe the true meaning of the words "religion" and "politics". We explore defining politics as not a listing of current events, but as a conversation about the holding of power and religion as not being about the particulars of theology, but as the quest for meaning. By redefining these terms, we might be able to get to places where we can talk about our most deeply held values and beliefs, find common ground and a way forward together. It’s worth a try!
Parker & Carrie talk about holding and acknowledging the simultaneous presence of great evil and great goodness in our world. In this open-hearted conversation, they visit two poems that encourage reflection and insights on this topic, holding the tension between the helplessness we sometimes feel and our need to maintain hope and agency. Below is the first poem we read in the podcast.
Episode 44: Memory, Witness & Lessons From Elie Wiesel's Classroom - A Conversation With Ariel Burger
This month on The Growing Edge Podcast Parker and Carrie have a conversation with Ariel Burger, author, teacher and artist whose work integrates spirituality, the arts and strategies for social change. An Orthodox-trained rabbi, Ariel received his PhD in Jewish Studies and Conflict Resolution under Elie Wiesel. Together we explore topics from his book Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom, his work as founding director and senior scholar of the Witness Institute, the nature of hope, navigating conflict and the powerful intersection of spirituality and art. We believe this conversation will inspire and offer compelling ideas ponder.
You can learn more about Ariel Burger, The Witness Project at the links below
Official Ariel Burger Website Here
The Witness Institute Here
A Gallery of Art Work By Ariel Burger Here
This month on The Growing Edge Podcast we will be revisiting our Feb 2021 conversation with John Paul Lederach, Professor Emeritus of International Peace Building, and internationally respected expert in conflict transformation. John Paul describes the stages that lead to violence in a society, as well as the ways people heal and create communal networks of change. In a time when we are all deeply concerned about the tragic violence happening The Ukraine, The Growing Edge is revisiting this Powerful conversation about how hope for a more peaceful world happens in daily and personal ways as well as through community, national and global efforts.
In this episode, Carrie & Parker welcome poet Lynn Ungar. In 2020 Her poem "Pandemic" went viral and introduce her insightful, spiritual, wry and sometimes political writing to a wider audience. We consider two different poems and discuss the role of the artist in public discourse.
In this episode Parker & Carrie discuss spirituality, justice and living authentically with author and theologian, Diana Butler Bass. Diana talks about her history as a person of faith, the challenges for woman in theological settings, her writing and work with "The Cottage" as an ongoing exploration what it means to live a life of revolutionary love.
In this episode Carrie & Parker welcome Author/Poet Barbara Kingsolver. Together they discuss the natural world, mortality, the promise of ambiguity, the pleasure of making, the writer's life, knitting and her new book of luminous poetry How To Fly (in Ten Thousands Easy Lessons.
This month on The Growing Edge podcast we revisit our December 2018 conversation with poet Naomi Shihab Nye. Naomi has received numerous honors for her work, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle, and the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award. She is currently the Poetry Foundation’s Young People’s Poet Laureate. In this conversation we read and discuss her luminous poem, “Shoulders” and explore the gift of being present to the small moments of our lives. We loved this conversation, and still treasure the life-giving ideas and stories that came up as we talked. Warmest Greetings of the season from The Growing Edge, and a lovely gift of wisdom from Naomi Shihab Nye!
In this episode Carrie and Parker discuss May Sarton's powerful poem, "The Angels & The Furies." In this conversation we talk about the angels and furies of our nature. In these times when many of us are wrestling with what to do with our furies in life giving ways, what does it mean to be "perfectly human but never perfect"? How do we also incline our heads and notice where the graces of our lives appear and support our own better angels? And finally, how do we balance the both/and of our lives.
In this episode Carrie and Parker continue their conversation about creativity and the undivided life, writing from the "margins", following a call to and beyond the growing edge, and the red threads that run through Parker's work over the past 50 years. This podcast also features one of Parker's poems, "The Poem I Would Have Writ."
In this episode Parker and Carrie take a moment to talk about Carrie's newest companion projects Until Now CD & Until Now: New Poems.
They discuss the themes that run through these two companion pieces; resilience and uncertainty, loss, discover and being in process. They discuss how creativity can be expressed in a traditional art form, but also in how we approach our relationships, parenting, community, vocation and as a spiritual practice. We'll be giving a sneak peek listen to the new songs and poetry before it's release date, September 10, 2021
In this episode Parker and Carrie are in conversation with author, journalist, activist, Courtney Martin, about her new book, Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter's School. Courtney has a popular Substack newsletter, called Examined Family, and speaks widely at conferences and colleges through out the country. She is also the co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network, FRESH Speakers Bureau, and the Bay Area chapter of Integrated Schools. We're both very moved by Courtney's new book and her open, honest, informed and humble presentation of the story of this book, which reads like a memoir and yet filled with such important information about what it means to try to live a moral and ethical life in such divided times.
A conversation with beloved meditation teacher and founder of The Insight Meditation Society. In this episode we explore the practice of mindfulness and meditation to deepen our own lives and sustain our capacity to stay engaged and serve others. We discuss Sharon's book "Real Change" and her work with diverse groups to process suffering and create a sustainable positive change. Sharon leads us and our Growing Edge listeners in a short mindful meditation.
Because Carrie was in the studio this month working on a new album, we decided not to record a new podcast for June. Instead, we are revisiting our 2019 interview with our dear friend, Mark Nepo, poet and author. In this interview we explored what it means to show up as our authentic self and how when we are in touch with our deepest human experiences we are in touch with our shared human experience.
For our May, 2021 podcast, we welcome Dr. Luther E. Smith Jr., Professor Emeritus at Candler Seminary, author, educator, pastor, mystic, and elder. In this episode we talk about how identity is shaped and expanded and how conversations about race could be more authentic and powerful. We also explore what it meant for him to follow a spiritual calling and the experiences that led him to his friendship and academic study of author and mystic, Howard Thurman.
Parker and Carrie welcome singer songwriter, activist John McCutcheon, musician, activist and spiritual seeker. He has 41 albums to his credit, has received six Grammy Award nominations and worked for 40 years bringing together intelligent thoughtful songs, fearless commentary and music for social change. In this episode we talk about the power of music to connect and inspire, the dignity and value of each human being told in story and song, spiritual seeking and embracing the role of elder.
For more information about John, his albums, workshops and performances visit his website HERE.
For our March, 2021 podcast, we welcome John Paul Lederach, Professor Emeritus of International Peacebuilding, and internationally respected expert in conflict transformation. John Paul describes the stages that lead to violence in a society, as well as the ways people heal and create communal networks of change. Please join us for this insightful conversation. "Peacebuilding is walking toward a horizon. You never really reach the end of that walk, but it gives you an orientation.”
To check out his many wonderful books click HERE
In this episode, Carrie and Parker reflect upon the happenings of 2020. They discuss challenges we've faced in the past year as well as focus and evidence for hope in the new year. They explore the idea of living in the "Tragic Gap" and living into creative citizenry. They read Mary Oliver's lovely poem "Starlings in Winter" and discuss grief and getting past it, and what is is putting lift into their boots. Carrie sings, the song “The Handing Over Time” by Carrie Newcomer and Gary Walters
In this episode, Carrie and Parker have a conversation with Poet, Ross Gay, author of The Book of Delights & Be Holding. We talk about Ross's books, his thoughts about finding delight in his daily life and as a daily practice, joy as an act of resistance and the importance of connection to one another and to the natural world. We hope you'll join us for this "delightful" and thoughtful conversation.
In this episode, Carrie and Parker ask how We the People can help renew the American body politic post-election. How do we have open-hearted conversations across lines of difference, without blinking facts or backing away from critical issues of equity and justice? As we step into the future, knowing we will help create it one way or another, how do we ground ourselves to do the hard work ahead, holding to hope and joy as we go?
In this episode Parker J. Palmer and Carrie Newcomer have a conversation with Buddy Huffaker,the Executive Director of the Aldo Leopold Foundation . We discuss the 75th anniversary of Aldos Leapold’s environmental classic A Sand County Almanac. the continuing work of the Leapold Foundation, the concept of Land Ethic, climate change and our individual and community work to heal of our natural world.