Living Love: Recent Episodes
Beth Tener
This podcast is a home of conversations with good people, doing good work, who are not famous…yet. Host Beth Tener explores stories of how healthy communities and relationships can bring out the best in people and change destructive patterns. We glean what works to give you ideas you can apply in your context. For those ready to live in a way that generates more love and connection rather than more fear and separation, welcome to the conversation.This podcast is part of Kinship – a hub for people committed to activating the power of healthy community. Learn more at https://kinshiphub.net.
How can you create experiences of belonging and collective vitality, that support people’s creativity and thriving? Join Beth with her guest Bruce Nayowith as explore stories of how people have created environments of belonging in different contexts, as featured in podcast episodes 6-8 of Season 3. We explore how Minneapolis creatively engaged a diverse range of citizens to transform policies related to housing and hear from a local housing advocate about creating ways to engage residents in policy decisions. We unpack what it takes to ‘design’ inclusive spaces that facilitate authentic social connection and trust, with the story of the SeaCHANGE Conference. Finally, we discuss how people can strengthen a sense of their belonging and interconnectedness with all living things, learning from Four Arrows about moving beyond Western culture's assumptions to discover the kinship worldview.
Resources and links:
Home: Living Love Playlist Season 3: My gift to you - a Spotify playlist of favorite songs of the guests on the Living Love podcast Season 3.
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
Interconnected, by Daniel Siegel: Bookshop.org
Fire, poem by Judy Brown:
Green Acre Baha’i Learning Center:
Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age, by Bill McKibben: Bookshop.org
Great March for Climate Action (2014): http://climatemarch.org/
For a transcript of this episode see: Kinship website
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
How can we restore a sense of feeling at home with nature? In this podcast, we explore the sense of disconnection between humans and nature in modern Western cultures and contrast that to indigenous worldview that values interconnectedness. Four Arrows, a.k.a, Donald Trent Jacobs, shares stories from indigenous cultures, and his new book "Restoring the Kinship Worldview" which offers 28 precepts for rebalancing life on Earth. You’ll appreciate the richness of how a kinship worldview can help us restore biodiversity and balance with the earth, and personally to find courage in the face of fear and discover a deeper sense of belonging.
Resources and links:
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voies Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth, Book by Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez
2019 UN Biodiversity Report Article
Worldview Chart by Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez
The Evolved Nest, Darcia Narvaez’s Website
Wild Geese, poem by Mary Oliver
The Media Have Missed a Crucial Message of the UN’s Biodiversity Report, in The Nation by Four Arrows
Differing Worldviews in Higher Education: Two Scholars Argue Cooperatively About Justice Education, Walter Block and Four Arrows
A Time Before Deception: Truth in Communication, Culture, and Ethics, Thomas W. Cooper
You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times, Howard Zinn
For a transcript of this episode see: Kinship website
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
This conversation explores how we can create spaces where artists of all kinds can foster a sense of belonging and creative exploration. With Diannely Antigua, a poet and educator, and Najee Brown, a playwright, photographer, and arts producer, we share the story of the SeaCHANGE Conference, a conference like no other. We gather creators of different identities, races, and ages and explore how the arts can contribute to healing and social change. In this podcast, you’ll learn about the ways that the arts and creative community supported each of my guests in their paths, and how to create conferences where people can form meaningful connections that lead to lasting friendships and collaborations.
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
SeaCHANGE Conference - register for the conference here
SeaCHANGE Conference: Art + Conversation with Victoria Carrington and Robert Sapiro - earlier podcast sharing about the Conference
Diannely Antigua:
web site and Instagram
Bread & Poetry Podcast by Diannely Antigu
Diannely’s Book Good Monster: https://bookshop.org/p/books/good-monster/20252485?ean=9781556596902
Najee Brown:
najee visuals: photography web site
Theater for the People
Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge, MA
Green Acre
For a transcript of this episode see: Kinship website
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
In many communities, we are in a crisis where many people cannot access affordable stable housing. Andrea Pickett shares her personal experience of struggling to find housing in New Hampshire and the importance of engaging residents and shifting narratives around affordable housing. Janne Flisrand shares how the City of Minneapolis, with broad citizen engagement, created a systemic scale of change towards homes for all. You’ll learn about how the group Neighbors for More Neighbors rallied people to support new housing and the Mapping Prejudice project allowed people to see the harms of historical discrimination. Discover how community artists engaged many voices not usually in the process, wonky bloggers deciphered zoning codes, and elected leaders took bold city-wide policy action…with early signs showing the measures are keeping rents stable.
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
Kinship Blog Post: An overview of Minneapolis’s 2040 Plan
Janne Flisrand Blog Post: Minneapolis’ Secret 2040 Sauce Was Engagement
Neighbors for More Neighbors: Website
Minneapolis 2040 Plan: Website
Mapping Prejudice: Website
Streets.MN: Website
Wedge LIVE: Website
Pew Research on Minneapolis Rents: Article
Andrea Pickett TEDx Talk: YouTube Video
Atlantic Articles Featuring Janne Flisrand: Article and Article
Literary Hub Article Featuring Janne Flisrand: Article
For a transcript of this episode see: Kinship website
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
Join Beth with her guests Nancy Gabriel and Bruce Nayowith as they reflect on highlights and learning from episodes 1-4 in Season 3. We explore how to create intentional “pockets” where people try different ways of working together. The positive examples and inspiration from these experiences can spread. This episode offers facilitators, teachers, and coaches ideas on how to create positive environments for dialogue or learning. We draw insights from conversations with Ria Baeck with Collective Presencing, Emily Daniels with The Regulated Classroom, and Rosa Zubizarreta with Dynamic Facilitation and Citizen Assemblies. We discuss how to create environments for collaborative learning.
Resources and links:
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
New Directions Collaborative
Dartmouth’s NH/VT Schweitzer Fellows Program
Trauma and the Soul by Don Kalsched (book)
Thomas Huebl – website and Healing Collective Trauma (book)
The Pocket Project
Gottman Marriage Counseling Method
Circle Way
How a Caterpillar Turns into a Butterfly - Blog about Imaginal Cells: A Model from Nature for Transforming Systems from a book by Elisabet Sahtouris quoting Norrie Huddle
Ladder of Influence - A concept for slowing down our thinking to see how we jump to conclusions and/or interpret things, developed by Chris Argyri.
Collaborative Learning and Generous Exchange - Blog
For a transcript of this episode see: Kinship website
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
Conflict is a part of life. Instead of avoiding conflict or allowing it to split communities into polarized sides, how can we transform tension and conflict into creative responses and unity? My guest, Rosa Zubizarreta, author of From Conflict to Creative Collaboration, shares examples of innovative citizen engagement processes that allow people to feel a sense of psychological safety in speaking up and feeling heard. We learn about how Citizen Councils were used in Austria to address complex challenges - shifting from two polarized sides to find creative solutions. Rosa offers suggestions of approaches that anyone can use to help a group hold tension and conflict, including Dynamic Facilitation, Restorative Circles, and Empathy Circles.
Resources and links:
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
Rosa’s web site - DiaPraxis: Awakening the Spirit of Creative Collaboration. She is currently a Visiting Fellow in Democracy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
From Conflict to Creative Collaboration - Rosa’s book
Scaling Deliberation - Austrian Citizen Councils - article by Rosa
The Co-Intelligence Institute - Promoting innovations in collective wisdom, co-creativity, and collaborative governance. Tom Atlee, research director.
Citizens - book by Jon Alexander
Restorative Circles - An approach to working with conflict, developed by Dominic Barter
EmpathyCircles.com
For a transcript of this episode see: Kinship website
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
The Regulated Classroom is a framework to help teachers create specific experiences in the classroom that allow everyone to feel a sense of felt safety. Emily Daniels has trained thousands of teachers in
A translator of the what we understand from trauma and resilience research and apply it in classrooms. Training thousands of teachers and administrators - as a solution to educator burnout and overwhelm - how they can show up as safe present and attuned adults for the students. “This is the most hopeful thing I’ve done in education in 30 years.” How has trained thousands of teachers in these practices that allow felt safety to be established. How to create the quality of community people are desperate for. A group field where people act differently in the field. Design for belonging and design for psychological safety – a design for how we cultivate conditions for felt safety. Relational cues of safety
Never acknowledged the role of the adult in the experience of the students. They change, the classroom can change.
What’s happening in our body and nervous system affects if we are open to learning.
A paradigm shift - that we can’t choose our behaviors – that our nervous system and unconscious responses – things occur that mean we can’t think straight - because of physiology is focused on protection versus creativity.
Conscious, compassionate, control our impulses, apply a verbal filter - healthy social engagement.
An expanded understanding of what stress and overwhelm do to people, which has enormous relevance for classrooms and workplaces.
Explains why people struggle in challenging circumstances.
We can tend to the safety of the environment - to support everybody is staying in healthy social engagement.
an individual is quite impacted by the environment around you.-
Resources and links:
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
The Regulated Classroom - Emily Daniels’ website where you can learn about her framework and trainings
Bottom-Up Trauma-Informed Teaching - Guidebook of classroom practices and exercises by Emily Daniels
Trauma and the Nervous System - YouTube video about Polyvagal Theory from Dr. Stephen Porges from the Polyvagal Institute
Thomas Kuhn - studied how paradigms shift
Dr Peter Levine - developer of Somatic Experiencing, a naturalistic and neurobiological approach to healing trauma
Dr. Bruce Perry - Neuroscience researcher and author of “What Happened to You?” with Oprah Winfrey
Resmaa Manakem - Author of My Grandmother’s Hands
For a transcript of this episode see: Kinship website
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
If you’re hungry to find ways that groups can adapt to change in fluid, collaborative ways, this podcast conversation with Ria Baeck provides the nourishment of inspiration. She’s a facilitator and author of Collective Presencing, a book and web site exploring how groups can co-create. We explore specific ways that enable people to feel safe to speak and to be themselves in a group. Drawing on learning from The Art of Hosting and circle process, Ria shares how to hold a container for the group to find its own answers. We can enter a flow state with a group, where the collaboration is like a dance. In times of rapid change, this emerging human capacity to co-create will be vital to learn and practice.
Resources and links:
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
Ria Baeck’s Web Site: Collective Presencing
World Café
Open Space
Circle Way
The Circle Way (Book)
Ways of Council - web site
The Fruits of Collaboration - blog post with the graphic Beth described about building foundation of strong relationships before action
Art of Hosting - Syrian refugee story
Questioning to Question Our Assumptions - blog
The Dawn of Everything: A New History (Book)
The Art of Hosting
Open Sourcing Social Change - blog
For a transcript of this episode see: Kinship website
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
How do we create group experiences where people feel at home? How can we come out of separation back into healthy groups so we can co-create and learn together? In conversation with Bruce Nayowith, we explore the contexts that bring out the best in people. We weave insights from trauma-informed research and practice, neuroscience, and many sources, including Thomas Hubl, The Pocket Project, The Art of Hosting, Riane Eisler, Dan Siegel, Sarah Peyton, and the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving address. These stories offer practical ideas on how to strengthen relational connections and trust.
Resources and links:
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
Still face experiments - This video shows an example of an experiment where a mother attuned and interacted with her baby. Then she showed up with a still expression and you see how much it affects the baby to lose this responsive connection.
Alarmed Aloneness - This video course from Sarah Peyton shares the about the neuroscience of this type of loneliness, which is common in Western cultures that “prize self-sufficiency and hyper-individualism.
Peter Senge - The Fifth Discipline (book)
Thomas Huebl - website and Healing Collective Trauma (book)
The Pocket Project
Carl Jung, The Psychology of the Transference (book)
Riane Eisler - Researcher, author, and speaker exploring the history of domination and partnership oriented societies.
Ernest Becker's Escape From Evil (book)
Mary Pipher, Reviving Ophelia (Book)
Dan Siegel's Neurobiological Trauma (Book)
Tom Atlee, The Co-intelligence Institute
Honoring the Four Directions - Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving address - "the words spoken before all other words"
Orthodox Jewish tradition of Berakhah
The Art of Hosting
For a transcript of this episode see: Kinship web site
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
Welcome back to Season 3 of the Living Love podcast!
One of our listeners said “This podcast reminds me that human relationships are the core of social change.”
Sadly, in too many workplaces, classrooms and communities, we have people feeling isolated, unsafe, or not welcome. When people lack this warm connection with others, they can enter a state called “alarmed aloneness.”
Whereas when people are in healthy social connection, this allows them to relax, think creatively, and learn together. In Season 3, the podcast will explore how we can create environments where people “feel at home.”
In our conversations with guests, we’ll look at how to make someone feel “at home” in interpersonal interactions, as well as in teams and workplaces. We’ll explore how communities are engaging people to create homes for all. We'll also look at what it means to welcome the newcomer and how multiple cultures can live together. As part of that, we’ll learn how we can be at home with difference and find a way to transform conflict.
Episode 1 of the new season drops on April 16th – stay tuned!
Thank you for listening!
For more information on Beth Tener and this podcast see: Kinship web site
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
Episode 10: Season 2 - Join Beth and Nancy Gabriel as they reflect on highlights and learning from episodes 6 to 9 in Season 2. We explore how having the support of a group can help us in times of big decisions and in the hardest times of loss. These are stories of what belonging and healing can look like - the opposite of loneliness. When we accompany each other and acknowledge grief and fear, it can help us move through the experience. Beth shares stories of how a community created participatory rituals to honor the loss of a loved one, recognizing that a community can hold grief in ways we can’t do alone. We also explore how restoring the flow of giving and receiving can allow people to translate their care into tangible action, in the hardest times.
Resources and links:
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
How We Heal: Podcast with Michael Bischoff: This podcast and transcript shares more of Michael Bischoff’s wisdom around healing while dying.
On Joy and Sorrow: poem by Kahlil Gibran
Soft Shoe Shuffle from Deep Democracy – This facilitation method offers an embodied way for a group to name tensions and see who is also feeling them.
Transcript: at Kinship web site.
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
Episode 9: Season 2 - Community and friendship can provide the support and comfort to cope with the death of a loved one. In this podcast episode, Beth shares personal stories of how her community created meaningful rituals to honor her husband after he died of cancer. She is joined by her friend, Adam, who brings insights from his training in hospice and Buddhist practices relating to dying and grieving. They explore the challenges of how to make sense of a big loss and how to journey through the times of grief. This conversation can support those going through loss with insights and encouragement to be in “Slow Time.”
Resources and links:
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
The Geography of Sorrow: Interview with Francis Weller about navigating our losses in the Sun Magazine
Pema Choedron, a Buddhist teacher, author, nun and mother, has written many books and articles about how to relate to difficult times. Adam mentioned her teachings on the wisdom of no hope (or no escape.)
Tibetan Book of Living and Dying - by Sogyal Rinpoche, who shared Tibetan teachings. He said the aim of the book was to “inspire a quiet revolution in the whole way we look at death and care for the dying and the whole way we look at life, and care for the living.”
Narayan Helen Liebenson - The Buddhist meditation teacher who was a helpful guide during a retreat at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA.
Creating Permaculture Gardens and Landscapes - my favorite book called Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway
Collaboration Lessons from the Basketball Court - A blog I wrote about the joy and learnings I got from a regular pick-up basketball game with friends.
Transcript: at Kinship web site.
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
Episode 8: Season 2 - In these times of great transition and change, we will encounter the experience of a crucible, where we have to face loss, letting go, and dying. How can we support each other through these most difficult times? In this episode, Beth shares her personal story of accompanying her partner going through cancer. She is joined by Greta Bro and they explore “the dark night of the soul,” that time of life where everything you're trying isn't working, where the life you knew is “destructured.” The stories bring us to the deeper truth of life and show how love, care, and accompaniment of friends can support us in times of crisis and endings.
Resources and links:
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
Greta Bro’s web site – Learn about Greta’s work as a singer/songwriter, psycho-spiritual healer and guide, poet, and activist blending in the arts.
Love’s Song – Listen to Greta’s album
Transcript: at Kinship website.
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
Episode 7: Season 2. How can kinship and community support us in the most challenging times, such as when we suddenly face the cancer journey? Beth shares the story of how she and her community supported her fiance, Rick, as he went through cancer. Her guest is Margie Zohn, a leadership coach, who was a close friend in those times. They share stories of how Rick brought humor and humanity into every hospital room and how caregiving can be a profound experience of love. As they reflect on how their community rallied in many creative ways, they show that opening to receive help allows people to be their most human and generous.
Resources and links:
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
Zohn Coaching - Margie’s web site for her coaching work
Margie Zohn’s web site - Margie’ web site with her work as a Director, Performer, and Coach for performers
Al Forno - Rick’s favorite pizza restaurant in Providence, RI - they grill pizza over a wood fire
Water Fire in Providence, RI - See images of this public art event that was mentioned in the podcast
YogaLife Teacher Training Program - This was the yoga teacher training program Beth was participating in.
How to Comfort Someone When They’re in the Hospital - article
Transcript: Kinship web site
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
How do you decide when you reach a threshold or crossroads? In this episode, Beth talks with Tenneson Woolf, a facilitator, coach, and poet, about how we make big decisions, careful not to let fear be in the lead. We explore how we can slow down as we make decisions, on a personal level or with groups, and use listening and other methods to help with discerning. These two facilitators share a range of methods and stories from their work.
Resources and links:
Tenneson Woolf’s web site - His web site includes the Human to Human Blog; Announcements of Events; and Resources & Inspirations
Most Mornings and In My Nature - These are books of Tenneson’s poetry
The Circle Way web site - We mentioned a way of having conversations sitting in a circle. This web site has more resources on this process.
The Artist’s Way tool called Morning Pages - Julia Cameron’s book provides a suite of tools for “creative recovery.” This links to a short video about Morning Pages.
Tell Me More: On the Fine Art of Listening - article by Brenda Ueland
The Two Loops Model from Berkana Institute - This video by Deborah Frieze shares this theory of change: “As one system culminates and starts to collapse, isolated alternatives slowly begin to arise and give way to the new.” Also, see this article by Margaret Wheatley Supporting Pioneering Leaders as Communities of Practice How to Rapidly Develop New Leaders in Great Numbers
Soft Shoe Shuffle from Deep Democracy - This facilitation method offers an embodied way for a group to see where there is agreement.
The World Cafe - This facilitation method offers a way for many small groups to discuss a topic and then mix and cross-pollinate the conversations.
Transcript: Kinship web site
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
Join Beth and Nancy Gabriel as they reflect on highlights and learning from episodes 1 to 4 in Season 2. The fast pace of our lives gives us little time to slow down and feel. Yet, part of why we move so fast is we don’t want to feel. In our conversation, we discuss how the way out of this dilemma is to have kinship and support, to be with people who create space for us to be ourselves and discern what we need and feel in the moment. We explore the ways that friendship and peer support in small groups can help us find balance and avoid burnout. We each share stories of friendships or interactions with strangers where the quality of listening and “taking delight in” allowed us to grow.
Resources and links:
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
The Joy & Necessity of Micro-Collaborations: This two-part blog by Beth Tener is full of examples of micro-collaborations – when two people or small groups work together in ways that support one another’s work or to co-create new work together. Here is part 1 and here is part 2.
What Google Learned from It’s Quest to Build the Perfect Team - Article about Google’s research on team that found that a sense of psychological safety was most important to team performance.
Thomas Kuhn’s theory of how paradigms shift - Article about Kuhn’s research in science that can apply at a personal or societal level as well.
Thirty Archaic Best Business Practices - Article by Carol Sanford, author of The Regenerative Business, about how we change and grow, yet business practices based on outdated values can hinder and block the “new” taking root.
Transcript: At Kinship web site
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
This episode starts with a love story. You’ll hear about a relationship that had profound “growth-promoting” qualities for each of us. My guests, Simon d’Orsogna of Mind Beyond and Bruce Nayowith, reflect on the story with me. We discuss how we can find safety in human connection and we explore how listening allows people to feel held, seen, and understand themselves better. Plus, there are practical tips about how to be a good listener. This one may be my favorite episode yet!
Resources and links:Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
The Mind Beyond Institute: Learn about Simon d’Orsogna’s work as an individual and family therapist, clinical trainer and process-oriented facilitator based in Melbourne. He is an Internal Family Systems practitioner and trainer.
The Focusing Institute - Bruce mentioned the process of focusing, which is a experiential, embodied practice for self-reflection and listening. Here’s another link: Focusing Initiatives International
Dr. Gordon Neufeld - Bruce mentioned his work. Dr. Neufeld specializes in “helping adults provide the conditions for children to flourish.”
The Peter Wilberg quote Bruce shared is from the book The Therapist as Listener.Simon’s quote at the end is from Brenda Ueland. Here’s an article from her Tell Me More: On the Fine Art of Listening.
Closer than Ever - Beth mentioned a quote from this song, in a musical of the same name, Closer than Ever, by Maltby & Shire. These are lines:
And now
We're steadier by half
Thank god we learned to laugh
Thank god when you found your new you
I loved her tooTranscript: at the Kinship web site
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
When the world around us is on overdrive and we are working to make positive change, we can end up in overdrive - and overwhelm. This episode explores how we can find strength and balance through connection with healers, meditation, and the spiritual path. My guest is Greta Bro, a psycho-spiritual guide who I worked with; she coached me to mimic nature’s cycles with times of action and growth and times of rest and stillness. Part of why we get over-busy is to avoid feeling. Working with a healer or therapist can allow us to be with the feelings. We also explore the power of mindfulness meditation and the incredible experiences and realizations that unfolded when I did a 7-day silent retreat. Greta is a singer-songwriter so this one also includes some of her music. Resources and links:Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
Greta Bro’s web site - Learn about Greta’s work as a singer/songwriter, psycho-spiritual healer and guide, poet, and activist blending in the arts.
Love’s Song - Listen to Greta’s album
Gaia's Breath poem that Greta read
Voces Arts and Healing - Greta is part of this organization, which brings together expressive arts therapists dedicated to addressing the growing humanitarian crisis with immigrant and refugee children and families.
Wild Geese - poem by Mary Oliver
Insight Meditation Society - This is the place Beth did the seven-day silent retreat.
Transcript: At the Kinship web site
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
One way to see burnout is that “something is wrong with me” but in this podcast, we look at the deeper sources in the cultural norms that make it hard to say no and toxic workplace cultures. Jennice Chewlin of The Chewlin Group and Lori Hanau of Global Round Table Leadership talk with Beth Tener about turning to kinship and community in times of burnout. Listen and get inspired about how we can shift our workplace cultures to encourage authenticity, shared leadership, and well being.
Resources and links:Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.
Jennice Chewlin is Founder/CEO of Chewlin Group which focuses on leveraging public health principles and positive psychology models to help you and your organization manage stress, prevent burnout, and return to joy. You can join her newsletter here.
Lori Hanau is Founder/CEO of Global Round Table Leadership, (GRTL) a virtual training company and leadership consultants who support group vitality, business model innovation, and creative collaboration.
GRTL offers Foundations of Shared Leadership Program is a 10-week team learning journey.
Self-Silencing is Making Women Sick - This Time Magazine article highlights the costs of not saying no to allow self-care and balance. “It seems that the very virtues our culture rewards in women—agreeability, extreme selflessness, and suppression of anger—may predispose us to chronic illness and disease.”
Transcript is available at the Kinship web site
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
This first episode of Season 2 explores how we navigate the change when we are called to leave the status quo. Sometimes the need to change arises from exhaustion or heartache, other times it’s your choice. Katherine Golub of the Center for Callings and Courage and Nancy Gabriel talk with Beth Tener about the tensions of making the decision to make a big change, the big callings and the little gates of small steps, and listening to your inner guidance amidst the waters of self-doubt.
Resources and links:Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: This is Beth Tener’s current initiative. You can sign up for her newsletter here.
Beth Tener and Nancy Gabriel work with New Directions Collaborative. Nancy also works with the New Hampshire/Vermont Schweitzer Fellows Program.
Katherine Golub is a coach with the Center for Callings and Courage. She works with changemakers and has a podcast called Radical Discernment. You can sign up for her newsletter here.
The Natural Step - The teachings in this approach were one of the sparks for Beth’s calling to focus on an innovation-oriented approach to sustainability.
Study circles offered by EcoChallenge are a great way to create a small group learning experience, to get inspired to take action. Examples are Choices for Sustainable Living and Living Simply in a Complex World.
Cobb Hill Cohousing - This is a link to learn about the co-housing community in Vermont, co-founded by Donella Meadows.
Donella Meadows - Learn about the work of Donella Meadows here. She wrote over 700 newspaper columns, books, and inspired many.
Joseph Campbell and the Hero’s Journey - Here is a graphic of the phases of the hero’s journey.
This is the quote from William H. Murray that Beth mentioned:
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!” ― William H. Murray
Peter Senge - Here’s a quote on the creative tension between current reality and your vision.
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle - Excellent book Katherine mentions by Emily Nagoski, PhD and Amelia Nagoski, DMA
Transcript available at: KinshipHub web site
Audio
Welcome back to Season 2 of the Living Love Podcast!
In Season 1, we talked about the spaces where we come together. In Season 2, we'll be exploring kinship through life transitions. I wrote a memoir, and this season, we'll be tracking the arc of those stories in conversations.
I look forward to exploring how we navigate life with the support of friends and community. See you later in October when the first episode drops.
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Beth Tener, Living Love’s podcast host, invites people to explore how to create a resource-rich culture of peer support and healthy collaboration within our communities.
Join Beth and Nancy Gabriel as they reflect on highlights and learning from the podcast episodes 6 through 9. They explore themes of how to create conferences which create transformational moments, the power of intergenerational collaboration, generosity, and how we can weave the arts into how we gather and work together. In this final episode for Season 1 on The Spaces Where We Come Together, they reflect on highlights of the podcasting experience.
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Through initiative, Beth Tener, Living Love’s podcast host, invites people to explore how to create resource-rich culture of peer support and healthy collaboration within our communities.
Beth Tener and Nancy Gabriel work with New Directions Collaborative. Nancy also works with the New Hampshire/Vermont Schweitzer Fellows Program.
This Resource page has many of our ‘go to’ tools and methods for hosting gatherings and creating spaces where groups can connect, co-create, and learn together.
This link has more information on the SeaCHANGE conference held at Green Acre Bahai Center of Learning.
Transcript: See kinshiphub.net/podcast
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
Spirit Matters were a series of gatherings, held in Toronto, that created circles where Indigenous wisdom keepers from many places connected with social justice wisdom keepers, students, artists, and healers. In this episode, I talk with Eimear O’Neill about how she and her late husband Ed O’Sullivan shared an interest in how to heal the historical traumas of Europe and of colonizations of Africa and North America. These gatherings are a story of working in partnership with indigenous peoples to restore connections with land, people, spirit, and ancestors. We follow the story of how Hazel Bell Koski, a young artist, found her way to this home for her spirit she had been hungry for. Hazel shares how the mentorship of Ed and Eimear and the Spirit Matter experiences inspired her to create PrayerStream, a community art project.
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Through initiative, Beth Tener, Living Love’s podcast host, invites people to explore how to create resource-rich culture of peer support and healthy collaboration within our communities.
Hazel Bell Koski’s web site
PrayerStream is a community art project and collection of handmade spirit flags, created by Hazel Bell Koski. You can see photos of the prayer flags in the forest.
Eimear O’Neill’s web site
Indigeneyez offers leadership and facilitation training—rooted in Indigenous ways of being—that help strengthen communities to restore the circle and cultivate hope. Hazel works with them now.
Hazel also mentions: Partners for Youth which offers adults who work with youth the capacity to lead transformative programs that promote equity, creativity, emotional intelligence, and community engagement.
Soul of the Mother - “Kahontakwas Diane Longboat, MEd is a member of the Turtle Clan and Mohawk Nation at Six Nations Grand River Territory, Canada. She is a ceremonial leader, traditional teacher, and healer.”
Transcript: See kinshiphub.net/podcast
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
Imagine a conference where people are still talking about some of the conversations and experiences a year later, using words like ‘magic’ and ‘transformational’. At the SeaCHANGE Conference, we created a space where people of different identities, races, and ages could get into deep conversations that generated mutual understanding. Artists who attended said they felt regal, in how they were honored and appreciated; young people of color said, that for one of the first times, they really felt seen and heard. We wove the arts throughout. In this episode, Victoria Carrington, Robert Sapiro, and Beth Tener explore how we created the conditions for the magic that unfolded and the ripple effects since.
The SeaCHANGE Conference web site has information on this year’s event and a video, photos, and quotes from the 2022 gathering.
The three SeaCHANGE Conference hosts were:
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: This is Beth Tener’s current initiative (with logo designed by Victoria Carrington.) Her facilitation work can be found at this web site: New Directions Collaborative. It includes blogs and a Resource page on the processes used to design and host the SeaChange Conference.
Green Acre Bahai School of Learning - You can learn more about Green Acre and see photos of the campus, where Robert Sapiro is the Executive Director.
Theater for the People - Najee Brown is Founder and Artistic Director of this BIPOC-produced, touring theater company based in New England.
Victoria Carrington’s graphic design firm is Lilac & Aspen, focused on web site design and branding.
The painting Unbound by Arya Badiyan can be seen on her web site.
Here are some resources on the conference methods we used:
Conversations Connect Across Silos
Making Large Events Participatory
Time to Rethink Brainstorming - overview of the 1-2-4-All conversation approach we used.
Open Space
The Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations that Matter
Liberating Structures - great toolbox of methods to bring life to your gatherings
Transcript: See Kinship web site
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
This episode takes the three stories we heard from Belvie Rooks in Part 1 and shows how those became seeds for inspiration, growth, and meaningful work in others lives. We explore the synchronicity of meeting people who change the course of our lives and the power of intergenerational collaboration. Liz Miller and Matt Davis of the Pseads Institute share how the legacy and example of Belvie and Dedan Gills’ work has infused the learning experiences they have offered over 29,000 students. Fran Grace of Inner Pathways shares how meeting them offered her a fuller understanding of how to transcend suffering to live in love. May 11, 2023
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: This is Beth Tener’s current initiative.
Pseads Institute - Learn about the work of Elizabeth Miller and Matthew Davis in this education and design institute.
Growing a Global Heart - Learn more about how Belvie and Dedan’s vision and lived example of learning, healing and intergenerational collaboration served as an inspiration for Pseads Institute. You can find their bios here too.
I Give You the Springtime of My Blushing Heart: A Poetic Love Song - a book of poems and stories co-authored by Belvie Rooks and Dedan Gills. This book written by Fran Grace, features a chapter on their story: The Power of Love: A Transformed Heart Changes the World.Paradigms of Healing and Wholeness course: An on-line course taught by Fran Grace that features the Power of Love book.
The Movement Made Us, a memoir that Belvie referred to about the Civil Rights movement.
The Art of Eldering - a course Belvie Rooks co-taught at UC Berkeley - Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
Transcript:See kinshiphub.net/podcast
Audio editing by:Podcasting for Creatives
What does it mean to commit to love and life, even when facing some of the hardest historic and current struggles? Beth invites Belvie Rooks, an author, activist, and educator, to share how meeting Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as a youth planted seeds that grew over decades. We learn about an educational program she developed for young people dealing with urban violence to expand their sense of identity and purpose by seeing themselves within the larger story of the universe’ evolution. Belvie shares how she and her husband Dedan confronted the reality of what their enslaved African ancestors endured led to the powerful question of "What would healing look like?" Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: This is Beth Tener’s current initiative. These Ways of Kinship videos highlight some of the themes of this podcast conversation.
Growing a Global Heart - Learn more about Belvie and Dedan’s vision to inspire the ceremonial planting of millions of trees to honor the forgotten souls of our past and as a solution to climate change. You can find their bios here too.
Give You the Springtime of My Blushing Heart: A Poetic Love Song - a book of poems and stories co-authored by Belvie Rooks and Dedan Gills. And this book features a chapter on their story: The Power of Love: A Transformed Heart Changes the World.
Hearts in Tandem - A video of Belvie and Dedan.
The Tree of Life - One Zoom has created this interactive visual of the entire tree of life of over 2 million species.
The Universe Story - Check out this documentary, Journey of the Universe, with Brianne Swimme, that shares how “over the course of 14.5 years hydrogen transformed itself into mountains, butterflies, the music of Bach, and you and me.” Or these books.
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
Join Beth and Nancy Gabriel as they reflect on highlights and learning from the first four podcast conversations. They explore themes such as the time it takes to build trust, how to draw out the gifts already there in communities, and what can unfold when we listen rather than start by promoting our answers. Plus, Beth shares some questions and a format you can use for hosting your own learning and reflection conversations. Resources and links:
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: This is Beth Tener’s current initiative. These Ways of Kinship videos highlight some of the themes of this podcast conversation.
Beth Tener and Nancy Gabriel work with New Directions Collaborative. Nancy also works with the New Hampshire/Vermont Schweitzer Fellows Program.
Needs met and gifts received - This is a great prompt question to invite people to reflect on a group experience or someone’s talk or offering, in a way that builds more human connection and resonance. From Sarah Peyton.
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in the World is Restoring Grace, Justice and Beauty to the World - book by Paul Hawken. In this video clip, around 2:00 minutes, a list begins of over 130,000 organizations globally working toward social and environmental justice.
Collective Impact at Community Scale - A blog by Beth Tener about inviting a community to identify gifts and assets that could be better connected and utilized.
U Process: Learn more about this process Nancy mentioned for how to work with groups in ways that generate deep insight and innovative solutions.
Transcript available at Kinship web site.
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
In US culture, the values of individualism, mobility, and leaving home are prized; yet, this can also lead to social isolation and a lack of connection to communities that care for each other. How do we recreate the village? This conversation with Kile Adumene, who experienced a village culture growing up in Nigeria and then lived in the US for 24 years, explores how we can grow that sense of care and belonging. We learn about her community work creating space for people to connect as part of a village, within a city. Resources and links:
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: This is Beth Tener’s current initiative. These Ways of Kinship videos highlight some of the themes of this podcast conversation.
Kile Adumene works with Manchester Community Action Coalition (MCAC.) Here is their website
This article features a tutoring project that MCAC developed: Grassroots Tutoring Initiative Serves Black, Immigrant Students.
From Rugged Individualism to Self-Organized Connected Communities - this blog by Beth Tener encourages a shift from focusing on projects and individual leaders to focusing on building the capacity of a community to self-organize and find their own solutions.
A Ritual to Read to Each Other - poem by William Stafford
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
What can happen when we invest in supporting people and communities to have a voice and take leadership rather than imposing solutions from the outside? This conversation with Libby Hoffman explores the story of a community-led process, begun after the civil war in Sierra Leone, to reconcile and work together to lead change at the local level. We see that when the health of a community is restored, all kinds of resources can be activated. March 14, 2023. Resources and links:Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: This is Beth Tener’s current initiative. These Ways of Kinship videos highlight some of the themes of this podcast conversation.
Libby Hoffman’s website featuring her book The Answers Are ThereCatalyst for Peace - A peace and development foundation that Libby founded and directs.
Fambul Tok - The Sierra Leone organization, led by John Caulker, that works with post-conflict countries to create community-led reconciliation that leads to peace.
Fambul Tok documentary - This award-winning film tells the story of the community-based approach to reconciliation in Sierra Leone. It is free to watch online.
Inviting Leadership - This inspiring short video is about inviting and encouraging leadership of local people, featuring Lilliam and Fatim, who Libby mentioned.
The Community Cup - In this video, Libby does a live demonstration of the metaphor of the community as a cup that is broken and can be healed.
Mending the Community Cup - In this blog, Beth Tener shares learnings from her trip to Sierra Leone, with links to more articles and resources. Questions
- Libby and John came into communities with “eyes to see” their innate resources and leadership potential. Where have you encountered a person or group situation where people saw you this way? What was then possible?
- This conversation explored the idea of investing time and creating space for learning and reflection, whether as groups, in a friendship, or as collaborators, as John and Libby had with their car talk time. How do you create time for this in your life and work? Where could you invest more in this valuable practice?
Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives
This conversation with Reverend Charles Gibbs explores the story of how the United Religions Initiative brought people together to bridge religious and cultural differences and work together for the good of their communities and the world. We explore how they convened inter-faith dialogues around the world to “find words of a common vision that an amazing diversity of people could find themselves in.” February 28, 2023.
Questions
- What insights did you take from Charles’ stories of how they got people from such different backgrounds to work together and what it took to get consensus on one sentence of purpose?
- Charles shared the story of a woman in the Philippines who started a multi-faith conversation circle and had to do some work to find someone not Catholic. In the US, we could see this also relating to race, culture or class. How might you start a conversation that connects you with people you usually don’t interact with?
Resources & Links
Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community is Beth’s current initiative and includes this Resource page with sources of positive news stories and articles on the themes of this podcast.
Reverend Charles Gibbs website
Opening the Dream – Beyond the Limits of Otherness – Essay by Charles Gibbs. Includes questions that Charles and his team used to invite people to discuss in one-on-one conversations at URI gathering.
United Religions Institute - The Preamble, Purpose, and Principles
“I can’t tell you how difficult it was to bring thousands of people into one sentence.
Video: Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue - We Unite
Appreciative inquiry - Appreciative Inquiry Commons website
What is Appreciative Inquiry? Website of David Cooperrider who worked with URI
Click here on the Kinship web site for the transcript.
In this launch episode, Beth Tener explores how we create communities that generate more love and trust, rather than fear and isolation. She and Nancy Gabriel, a social change facilitator, discuss stories of how a team created high levels of trust and of how a school community came together after a challenging time.
Questions
- Nancy's story of the listening circle with the school community opened up channels of communication that had atrophied. How can a time of disruption enable a community to come together and heal in a positive way?
- Where might you create spaces for people to come together in conversations like the ones that Beth and Nancy shared?
Resources & LinksKinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Beth’s current initiative and Resource page with sources of positive news stories and articles on the themes of this podcast. New Directions Collaborative - This website shares the work that Nancy and Beth have done serving as facilitators to help communities bring their collaborative work to the next level. You’ll find many blogs and resources here, as well as their bios.
Starting a meeting with a check-in question is a good way to build a trusting team. In this blog, Connection before Content, there is a list of check-in questions you can use in meetings.
In Nancy’s story about the school board, she shared about Circle process. This is a good resource on Circle process and this is a longer article about it: The Power of Story, Sun Magazine.A transcript of this podcast is available on the Kinship website.
Coming February 14th, Living Love is a home of conversations with good people, doing good work, who are not famous…yet. The news is full of stories of the world we don’t want. Beth Tener brings stories of people living into the world we do want and how we can create it together. As an experienced facilitator and community weaver, she engages with inspiring people who have worked in collaboration to seed and grow healthy teams, workplaces, and communities. From these conversations, we glean what works to give you inspiration, practical ideas and resources you can apply in your own life and work.
For those ready to live in a way that generates more love and connection rather than more fear and separation, welcome to the conversation. This podcast is part of Kinship – a hub for people committed to activating the power of healthy community.
Learn more at https://kinshiphub.net