Join us as we explore peacemaking in divided times with David Lamotte. David has a wide-ranging career as a singer-songwriter with a dozen albums and performances across all fifty states and five continents. He’s the author of four books, including two for children. His latest book, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not, serves as a textbook in colleges and universities across the U.S. and in Australia. In 2009-11, David interrupted his music career to accept a Rotary International Peace Fellowship, studying International Relations, Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. His TEDx talks—Why Heroes Don’t Change the World (2024) and Music Can Help Us Understand Peace and Conflict (2017)—have been widely praised. As David writes, “It’s not naive to think you can change the world. It’s naive to think you could possibly be in the world and not change it.” Join us as we talk with a deeply engaged artist and peace-maker from whom we have much to learn.
On our August The Growing Edge Podcast we revisit their conversation with musician, master songwriter, storyteller, multi-instrumentalist, author, activist, seven-time grammy nominee, John McCutcheon. In this episode we explore the power of story, song and what it means to speak with compassion, clarity and a sense of humor in these challenging times You can hear John’s most recent album "A Field of Stars" on Spotify, Itunes or by checking out his website www.folkmusic.com Parker and I loved this interview and we're so happy to revisit our conversation with John McCutcheon.
Please join us for a conversation with Unitarian Universalist Pastor & Activist Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray as we explore three powerful ways to stay engaged and grounded in challenging times. Rev. Susan was the ninth president of the Unitarian Universalist Association and the first woman to serve in that position. During her presidency, Frederick-Gray helped launch a program called UU the Vote in 2020. The program had over 500 churches and over 4,500 volunteers reach two million voters during the 2020 election. She was elected after serving congregations in Arizona, Ohio, and Tennessee. In Arizona she was one of the faith leaders in a place many consider ground zero in the fight for immigrant justice, she joined a federal class action lawsuit to stop Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph Arpaio from raiding businesses in order to charge undocumented workers with felony identity theft. She was among thirty-one UUs arrested in front of the White House during the three-day “Days of Action” organized by an interfaith group to stop mass deportations of immigrants. Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray has been a trail-blazer, a voice for inclusivity, diversity, justice grounded in the kind of love that changes the world! We hope you enjoy and are inspired as much as we were by this powerful interview AND join the conversation right here on Substack.
Please join us for a conversation about historian Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny. Carrie and Parker discuss four of the twenty hallmarks of authoritarian governments addressed in Synder’s clear and informative work. The book is relatively short, but chock-full of insights, stories and practical advice when navigating the very real challenges of our times. We’ll look at the large overarching symptoms of an existential threat to our democracy, but also how to bring it home and to focus upon the power we each have in our daily and personal lives for defending and preserving our most deeply held values, community and national aspirations.
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.
