Electric Sky: Recent Episodes
Mark Blevis
Three years in the making, episode one of Close Your Eyes examines the impact of sound, in a variety of forms, on our lives. I encourage you to listen to this entire program with your eyes closed.
- Guests (in order of first appearance)
- Tod Maffin
- Julian Treasure
- Victoria Fenner
- Jowi Taylor
- Adam Gratrix
- Songs (in order of appearance)
- With Love by Analog Heart
- Archetype-Writer by Celldweller
- To the Start – Instrumental by Shoji
- Floodlight by Traveler
- Good Good Day – Instrumental by Volunteer
- Special thanks
- Paolo Pietropaolo
- Bob Goyetche (1969-2016)
Social choirs are becoming increasingly popular. These are gatherings at which people, mostly strangers, of all levels of singing ability, leave the showers and stages of their lives, bolster their confidence with a drink and turn themselves over to a choirmaster to make music together.
On this edition of Electric Sky, 613 Casual Choir leaders Lee Hayes and Rob Cosh, and well over 75 singers who braved a frigid January evening in Ottawa, make the case for singing as an act of survival.
- Show ID and intro
- Interview with Lee Hayes and Rob Cosh, leaders of 613 Casual Choir
- Excerpts from the 613 Casual Choir gathering on January 10, 2019
For most aspiring rock stars, the prize is recording and touring, and having a loading dock to receive the mountains of cash being delivered to your home. However, a fulfilling music career can come in many forms that best suit the individual.
Guitar player and author Jeffrey Lee Campbell spoke with me about his book Do Stand So Close which documents his career journey which included an improbably, demanding and enlightening period playing guitar for Sting.
- Show ID and intro
- Interview with Jeffrey Lee Campbell, musician and author (follow Jeffrey on Twitter)
- Pick up a copy of Do Stand So Close
Related episodes:
- Stewart Copeland (August 2006)
- Miles Copeland (August 2006)
- Ian Copeland (June 2005)
This episode of Electric Sky is published as part of the Canadian National Day of Podcasting, initiated by the (now-retired) Canadian Podcast Buffet to bring dusty old podcasts out for a shine for a one-day reunion-like festival on December 1, 2010. Somehow it became an annual event.
We miss you Bob Goyetche (1969-2016).
The book Growing up With Lucy inspired Cliff Harris to try coding a neural network software program. The result is Democracy, a political simulation game for your computer and tablet that you can’t win. It’s amazingly engaging and fun and it reminds us that each political decision is like a flap of a butterfly’s wings.
- Show ID and intro
- Interview with Cliff Harris, creator of Democracy (follow Cliff on Twitter)
This episode of Electric Sky is published as part of the Canadian National Day of Podcasting, initiated by the (now-retired) Canadian Podcast Buffet to bring dusty old podcasts out for a shine for a one-day reunion-like festival on December 1, 2010. Somehow it became an annual event.
We miss you Bob Goyetche (1969-2016).
Shawn MacDonell grew up when computers were gaining popularity in the home and the Internet had not yet extended beyond military and academic circles. It was a time when guidance counsellors and aptitude tests pointed high school students like sheep toward computer science degrees.
That didn’t cut it for Shawn. He abandoned that path after taking his first few steps and, somewhat accidentally, he developed a program to teach children how to read. With baseballs.
- Show ID and intro
- Interview with Shawn MacDonell (blog)
This episode of Electric Sky is published as part of the Canadian National Day of Podcasting, initiated by the Canadian Podcast Buffet to bring dusty old podcasts out for a shine for a one-day reunion-like festival on December 1, 2010. Somehow it became an annual event.
Come on! The publication of this interview is LONG overdue. I originally recorded it on August 24, 2009, just six days before my wife (Andrea) found a lump in her breast — a lump which turned out to be cancer. It’s been a heck of a year. We’re now a happier, healthier us!
I’ve been looking forward to publishing this interview. Besides being related to Andrea’s and my favourite television show, it’s about two people (Neil and Jeff) following their passion, curiosity and creativity to embark on the ambitious Arrested Development Documentary Project (a documentary about the television show Arrested Development). You can watch a trailer for the project here.
According to Neil, “The project has been on hiatus for a number of months, but for good reason, director Jeff got hitched up, married, he took the plunge. In addition, we have been ensuring all our legal ducks are in a row. Too bad Bob Loblaw is not still practicing law, we could really use his legal advice. The project is far from dead, it is just going a whole lot slower than we expected.”
- Show ID and intro
- Interview with Neil and Jeff of the Arrested Development Documentary Project
This episode of Electric Sky was published as part of the Canadian National Day of Podcasting, initiated by the Canadian Podcast Buffet to bring dusty old podcasts out for a shine for a one-day reunion-like festival on December 1, 2010.
Photo from the Arrested Development Documentary Project photo collection.
I grew up with a romantic view of radio pirates; ordinary people using public airwaves to build communities from locations offshore, from basement studios and from mobile transmitters in the backs of vans. As passionate as I am about radio, I never knew pirate radio had a Canadian scene.
Then I found out my good friend Bob Goyetche was a host on CNOT (a Montreal-based pirate radio station) in the early 90s. And then I met Marian van der Zon at the Radio Without Boundaries conference in Toronto last year. At the time, she was editing a book about the Canadian pirate radio scene. That book, Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada, is now available.
- Show ID and intro
- Audio clip from Radio Barrie Lake
- Interview with Marian van der Zon
John Meadows interviewed Bob Goyetche about his experiences in pirate radio and has published the discussion on his On the Log Podcast. Click here to listen to Rebel Radio.
Also, check out this story about an Ottawa boy who set up his own pirate radio station this past winter. And I thought the younger generation didn’t care about radio anymore!
I’ve often heard people say they’re fighting or they’ve beaten cancer. It was a shift in my thinking when, after being diagnosed with breast cancer, my wife talked about healing and being a survivor.
Six months, three surgeries and six rounds of chemotherapy later, I understand.
- Show ID and intro
- Interview with Andrea Ross
You can follow Andrea’s incredibly inspiring online breast cancer journal at WeCanRebuildHer.com. The site features regular blog posts from everyone in our family as well as audio podcasts that document various stages of our journey, and videos that celebrate life and fun during a stressful time.
Andrea and I also collaborated on the children’s book podcast JustOneMoreBook.com, now on hiatus.
Hey! Electric Sky is five years old!!!
Featured photo: John Meadows
One of my favourite lessons taught by Dewitt Jones is to study your tools and how to use them so you can capture the extraordinary no matter which tool happens to be in your hand at the time. Dewitt knows this well. His extraordinary photographs have graced pages and covers of National Geographic magazine for seventeen years.
I had the privilege to meet and speak with Dewitt at a small private event designed to create a space for conversation. The conversations hinged on creativity, curiosity and the extraordinary.
- Show ID and intro
- Interview with Dewitt Jones
A new all-ages book by historian and author, Hugh Brewster, explores the valour and determination of the Canadian forces as one problem after another stacked against them for the raid on German forces at Dieppe. His book includes details on the planning and execution of the raid, as well as the incredible stories of survival of Canadian soldiers that became German prisoners — several of whom escaped through (patiently) hand dug tunnels.
- Show ID and intro
- Interview with Hugh Brewster
- Dieppe on Wikipedia
- Vimy Ridge on Wikipedia
- Gallipoli on Wikipedia
Relevant books by Hugh Brewster: * Dieppe: Canada’s Darkest Day of World War II * At Vimy Ridge: Canada’s Greatest World War I Victory * On Juno Beach: Canada’s D-Day Heroes
Listen to more with Hugh Brewster on JustOneMoreBook.com.
Photo of Hugh Brewster from HughBrewster.com.
We tend to be myopic when we face challenges — it’s much more comfortable to focus inwards. Leaders are no exception. So, when leaders talk about thinking out of the box, they should be first in line.
This concept has been embraced by Bill Hybels who founded The Leadership Summit fifteen years ago. While the event has faith-based overtones, the concepts that are discussed are relevant to leaders of any community. In fact, this year’s program included Chip and Dan Heath, David Gergen, Bono and Tony Blair.
- Show ID and Intro
- Taber Bucknell
- James Drew
- Gina
- Pastor Dave Kornelsen
- Julie Osborne
- …and several anonymous contributors
Relevant links:
- My blog post about The Leadership Summit
- The Leadership Summit 2009
- Growing Leadership
- Willow Creek Community Church
- Cedarview Alliance Church
Special thanks to Lois Warren for all of her logistical help.
In response to Amazon’s decision (something they’ve called a "glitch" in their swift and misguided damage control campaign) to remove books about gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transsexual lifestyles from their ranking system (both adult and children’s literature), I have joined a growing number of people who have removed all of the links to books and other merchandise sold by amazon.com from their sites.
You will no longer find links to amazon.com on this site. I encourage you to make your online purchases from an online retailer of your choice. For books, I recommend both Powell’s Books and Chapters.
I’ve published commentary on the Remembrance Day episode on my blog site, markblevis.com. In the commentrary I talk being fearless in gathering ‘streeters’, scraping ceremonial coverage from the radio, getting permission to use music by Bryan Adams and The Duhks, and making audio elements fit together tightly like an elaborate puzzle.
Relevant links:
- The Remembrance Day episode
During the month of August, I will be recording commentary on a small selection of my own podcast productions that are near and dear to me for any of many reasons. These recordings will be published on my blog site, markblevis.com. The first of my Producer’s Commentary series was published earlier this week.
If you have a particular Electric Sky episode you’d like hear my commentary on (e.g. guest and question selection, recording process, editing decisions, production techniques, etc…), send an email (markblevis@gmail.com) or call the Electric Sky Podcast listener hotline (+1.206.350.6487) and tell me which one you’d like to hear.
In order to make time available for some personal projects, I have decided to put Electric Sky on hiatus. The site (including a recent wave of new shows) and RSS feed will remain online and fully functional.
Stay tuned. Electric Sky will be back!
It’s amazing who you can meet in a park during your child’s soccer game. I was introduced to Stephen Gritt on one such occasion last summer by someone who knew that Stephen would make a great guest for Electric Sky. They were right.
- Show ID and intro
- Interview with Stephen Grit
- National Gallery of Canada
- Piet Mondrian (on Wikipedia)
- Paolo Veronese (on Wikipedia)
- Dead Christ with Angels: Fragment of the Lendinara Altarpiece (1565)
Outtakes from this interview can be found at MarkBlevis.com.
During the annual Great Glebe Garage Sale (a huge community garage sale in Ottawa), my family stumbed on Jennifer Barnaby, a Cordon Bleu Chef who was serving baked goods she’d made while her husband, Jim, brewed up espresso and handled the transactions. Every single cent collected from the sales went directly to charity. They didn’t even recover their expenses.
That’s how I met Jim and Jennifer. I had one of their espressos and a piece of the most incredible cake I have ever had to kick off my garage sale spree. It might have been 9:30am.
- Show ID and intro
- Interview with Jennifer Barnaby (Cakes for a Cause)
- Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation
I’ve wanted to produce a documentary on honesty for almost three years. In preparation, I gathered some street audio on honesty and dishonesty, definitions of the ideas and self-analysis (unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced some of this audio). I also conducted an incredibly insightful interview with Brad Blanton whose book Radical Honesty: How to Transform Your Life by Telling the Truth I was reading at the time.
When I conducted this interview in 2005, Dr. Blanton was preparing to pursue a political career as an independent, green candidate on a platform of honesty.
I still have designs on producing a documentary on honesty. At the same time, I can’t keep this interview to myself any longer.
- Show ID and intro
- Interview with Brad Blanton
- Anonymous ‘streeters’
- Audio clips from Sage Tyrtle and Charles Cadenhead
While in Perth, ON last August, I learned about Bracelets of Hope, an initiative to raise the money necessary to build a medical clinic for a Village of Hope in Harare, Zimbabwe — all by selling handmade bracelets. Even more impressive is that the initiative was dreamed up by a ten-year-old.
I met with Carrie-Anne Bauer and her mother, Pamela, in a park in Ottawa last August (2007) and conducted this interview. I’ve been beating myself up for not having released this interview sooner. That was before I received an update from Pamela this past Friday (April 4, 2008) . Her update inspired me to publish the interview now. I think it has more impact this way.
- Show ID and intro
- Interview with Carrie-Anne and Pamela Bauer (August 2007)
- Update on Bracelets of Hope fundraising (April 2008)
Relevant links:
- Bracelets of Hope
- Village of Hope Zimbabwe
- Sub-Saharan HIV and AIDS statistics
Photo of Carrie-Anne and the Bracelets of Hope provided by Pamela Bauer.
Our family vacation in August 2007 was a two-week, unplugged, extravaganza down the Fundy side of New Brunswick. The camping was fantastic and we were able to witness the awesome vertical tides of the Bay of Fundy.
The highlight of our trip was a whale watching expedition on the Jolly Breeze, a tall ship based out of (beautiful) St. Andrews by the sea.
- Soundseeing tour of the Jolly Breeze
- Interview with Rob Carney
- Interview with Captain Troy
Photo: Derek Beardsworth
In the conclusion of this two part series, Sir Ken Robinson explains what ‘back to basics’ means, offers ways in which parents can help foster creativity in their children, and outlines his ideal school.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interview with Sir Ken Robinson (part 2 of 2)
I recommend Sir Ken Robinson’s book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative and a video of his presentation Do Schools Kill Creativity? which he delivered at the TED conference.
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
I first learned about Sir Ken Robinson and his research on creativity and the decline of creativity in education when I saw a video of a presentation he delivered at the TED conference (Do Schools Kill Creativity?). His book Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative is an in depth analysis of education systems and the role of creativity as part of our ourselves and our education.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interview with Sir Ken Robinson (part 1 of 2)
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
In March 2006, I took a day off of work to spent time with the residents of Harvest House, a recovery program based in Ottawa. It was an incredibly educational and emotional day.
I am currently producing a thirty-minute documentary based on my experiences that day. The program will be available at Electric Sky later this summer.
Music for the documentary and the promo by Dawn Tyler Watson (used with permission).
You may have already noticed that I haven’t been releasing shows regularly for the last few months. I needed to forgive myself the weekly production schedule during a particularly busy spring. I plan to produce a few shows over the summer on no particular release schedule and will be back into regular production in September.
Have a great summer!
Ottawa Valley Honey is one of the popular attractions at the Ottawa Farmers’ Market. Children and adults flock to this booth to study the section of beehive that is always a part of the display.
I had the opportunity to interview Michael Kositsin, one of the beekeepers, about his amazing honey bees.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interview with Michael Kositsin of Ottawa Valley Honey
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
In the same way that many people figured Wayne Gretzky would always play hockey, I cannot imagine a time when William Hawkins, Bill, will no longer be driving his cab. And driving a cab is only one of the many lives he has led.
Bill was part of the Ottawa music scene that centered around the Cafe Hibou. Among the drops ins to the scene were Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, John Hammond and Frank Zappa.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interview with William Hawkins
- Song: Royal Boost
- Final thought from Bill
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
Photo of William Hawkins by John Garner.
I released my very first Podcast on April 29, 2005. Tod Maffin made me do it. That is to say, I heard him talk about podcasting during a technology segment on CBC Radio. That, combined with Brent Bambury’s announcement that he was leaving CBC Ottawa resulted in the launch of Electric Sky.
Electric Sky led to The Canadian Podcast Buffet (which led to Podcasters Across Borders). Some brainstorming at home led to Growing Enthusiasm. Podcasters Across Borders led to Just One More Book. Do you see the pattern yet?
In addition to all of my hobby podcasts, last year I started to produce a number of Podcasts on contract through my company, Third Storey. Suddenly this little seed that Tod planted had become an all encompassing way of life.
To celebrate my second anniversary as a podcaster, I invited the creator of the monster I have become to talk a bit about podcasting and how the movement looks two years later.
- Show ID and intro
- Interview with Tod Maffin
- Todbits
A long version of this interview will be released on MarkBlevis.com later this week.
The Electric Sky logo, second anniversary logo and website created by Nico.
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
In many respects, Alex Overwijk reminds me of my own high school math teachers – passionate, a good sense of humour and a unexpected skill that everyone knows them for. Alex is an unlikely celebrity for a viral YouTube video of him drawing a perfect freehand circle.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interview with Alex Overwijk
- Freehand Circle Drawing Society
- YouTube video
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
Since 2002, Pam Hunter has been organizing annual Scrabble tournaments to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. I dropped in on this year’s event and learned that, like baseball, Scrabble is rich with strategy and language including speed games, board-vision, heavy tiles and “box scores”.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interviews with participants and event organizer, Pam Hunter
- Ottawa Scrabble Club
- Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada
- The search for ‘qi’
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
Photo: Valeria Huber
This week’s episode of Electric Sky is heavy on the editing and production side. As a result, I will be publishing this week’s episode in the evening of Monday, March 26.
Thank you for your patience.
Quite by chance, my family and I learned about the CD release party for The World Voices Choir, an event that took place just over a month ago. We made it a family event — that includes our two daughters ages five and seven. It was an amazing and inspirational experience, and it raised money for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interview with Choir Director, Jeannie Hunter
- Song clips:
- Our Voices
- Dubula
- Ipharadisi
- Somagwaza
- The Drinking Gourd
- Freedom Is In Your Hand
- Funga Alafia
- We Shall Not Give Up The Fight
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
On a recent visit to the Canadian Museum of Nature, we were polled for our opinions on a proposed exhibit on water. A display of four concepts were on display for public comment. I had never considered how museum exhibits were conceived, planned and pulled together.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interview with June Creelman of Apropos Planning
- Canadian Museum of Nature
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
Thomas Wartenberg has created an entire program for his philosophy class at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. The program teaches his students how to facilitate a philosophical discussion with grade 1 through 5 students using picture books. The results are amazing.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interview with Thomas Wartenberg
- Philosophy for Children
The full length version of this interview is available at Just One More Book!!
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
Photo: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~twartenb/
For no apparent reason, I have always assumed that any coast guard operation was a military outfit. It turns out I was wrong. To learn more, I sat down with the Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, Mr. George Da Pont.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interview with Commissioner George Da Pont
- Search and Rescue
- Ice breaking program
- Active fleet (including self-righting vessels)
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
Crest of the Canadian Coast Guard: http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/
A two-week break has turned into a one month break. Electric Sky will be returning from holidays this weekend.
Thanks for your patience!
This is an unusual episode of Electric Sky in which I cut loose with my other Rogic Conglomerites to bring you a festive song.
Thank you very much for being a part of the Electric Sky audience.
All the best to you and yours for a happy, healthy and safe holiday season – no matter how you celebrate it.
I had some pretty severe server problems yesterday – Friday, December 8 – which resulted in all sorts of problems, most of which were resolved around 5amET today. As a result, most of my sites were down, and my feeds went crazy for a while.
My apologies for the inconvenience!
Mark
During a recent conversation about social media, my friend, Stephen Hardiman, started to talk about storytelling as a business tool. It was one of those times when I cut people off and tell them to save it for when the tape is rolling. Since Stephen has a radio background – he hosted Expert Radio, a radio show on Radio America – he completely understood.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interview with Stephen Hardiman
- Projects Stephen is involved in
- Gibby Media Group
- Discovery School
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
As a gift for his fiftieth birthday, Suzanne Roy-Seguin helped her husband, Yves Seguin, realize his dream of experiencing the launch of a Space Shuttle. I spoke with them about how they experienced this incredible event given that Yves is blind and Suzanne is legally blind – both from Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP).
- Show ID and Intro
-
Audio of STS-115 launch (recorded by Yves Seguin)
-
Interview with Yves Seguin and Suzanne Roy-Seguin
- STS-115 at the Canadian Space Agency
- STS-115 at NASA
- Information on Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP)
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
I’m finally putting some energy back into creating a documentary on honesty and I need your help – this after a year-and-a-half of threatening to do so. I’m looking for email and audio comments that will be used anonymously on my program.
I’m looking for you to provide any of the following information:
- What is your definition of honesty?
- Are you an honest person?
- Have you ever lied?
- Did you lie today?
- What is the worst lie you’ve ever been caught in?
- What is the worst lie you’ve ever caught someone in?
Please send your typewritten or audio (MP3) comments to markblevis@gmail.com, or call my voice feedback number 206-350-6487.
All comments will be used anonymously! Thanks for your participation.
Sheree Fitch is the author of more than twenty children’s picture and poetry books, a young adult book called Gravesavers, and several plays.
During a conversation with Sheree for Just One More Book (another Podcast I produce with my wife, Andrea), Sheree introduced an idea she has called The Theology of Nonsense. I had to have it on Electric Sky.
- Show ID and Intro
- Sheree Fitch explains The Theology of Nonsense
- Conversation with Sheree Fitch on Just One More Book
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
Thanks to Jill Pyle for alerting me to this…
Canada AM ran a piece this morning about the ‘Red Fridays’ organizers having created some scrapbooks to document rallies they organized and inspired, and media coverage they attracted. The scrapbooks have been sent to Canadian troops in Afganistan.
During the segment, CTV split the screen to show the interview with Red Friday co-organizer Lisa Miller in one window, and pages of the scrapbook in the other. It was hard to miss my yellow jacket when they showed a photograph of me interviewing Lisa and co-organizer Karen Boire for an episode of Portrait.
Best wishes to all of our troops for a safe return, and thank you to all of Canada’s veterans!
I attended the Railfair 2006 at Algonquin College in Ottawa. The setups were incredibly elaborate and the exhibitors were more than happy to talk about their hobbies.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interview with Neil Hutton of Cumberland Third Rail
- Railfair 2006 video on YouTube
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
Sometimes a chance meeting can take place when you grab the wrong airport shuttle. That’s exactly what happened to me when I arrived in San Francisco this past June. I shared a shuttle with Thomas Grande and his wife. Mr. Grande practices Qui Tam law and he gave me a brief education before we arrived at his hotel. I was able to recapture a bit of that discussion earlier this week when I called Mr. Grande at his office in Hawaii.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interview with Thomas Grande of Grande Law Offices
- The Qui Tam Online Network
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
Note: At the time that this interview was conducted, Mr. Grande was a partner with Davis Levin Livingston Grande Attorneys. This post has been updated to reflect that change.
Some time ago, I figured out how to use the category-casting feature of the PodPress plugin. It was the perfect motivator for me to create a second, category-based feed for Electric Sky. I called that feed ES2 and used it as a way to share outtakes and behind the scenes talk about Electric Sky. Things worked well for a while. Then, I upgraded to PodPress v6.7 and met with significant problems in the category-casting feature. So, I downgraded back to v6.6 and ran into different problems.
After three months, there is no immediate indication that the category casting feature is under repair. So, I am moving ES2 to www.markblevis.com and making it part of a relaxed and similarly irregular Podcast at that site.
There’s a certain irony with the timing of this episode. Nevertheless, I am amazed by Ashley’s passion for, and commitment to, her rabbits.
- Show ID and intro
- Interview with Ashley LaFave of the Spencerville Hillside Rabbitry
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
It’s a simple idea: wear red on Fridays to show support for the troops and families of the Canadian military. It’s not about politics or ideology. It’s about people. It’s called Red Fridays and it was organized by Karen Boire and Lisa Miller.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interview with Karen Boire and Lisa Miller
- Married to the Canadian Forces
- Audio clips from Red Friday on Parliament Hill (Ottawa, Canada)
- Steve Madely (CFRA)
- Gen. Rick Hillier
- Prime Minister Stephen Harper
How to subscribe to Electric Sky – it’s free.
I am gradually rolling out transcripts of all of my Electric Sky Podcasts. I am launching this new feature today with the release of the transcript for my interview with Stewart Copeland.
I will add transcripts to the existing show notes for each episode. Once the transcript is added, you can access the transcripts by clicking on the “Read on…” link in the show notes.
As always, comments are suggestions are welcome.
update September 20: I have added transcripts for my interviews with *Miles Copeland and Lee Edward Fodi.
His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is touring the world as part of the celebration of the Art of Living Foundation‘s twenty-fifth anniversary. I spoke with him during his stop in Ottawa.
- Show ID and Intro
- Interview with His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
How to SUBSCRIBE to Electric Sky – it’s free.
Transcript of “Portrait – His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar”
[Portrait theme music] Podcasting visual insound, this is another edition of Portrait on Electric Sky.
Mark Blevis: In February of this year, two-and-a-half million people including religious and political leaders of all faiths and backgrounds gathered in Bangalore, India to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Art of Living Foundation. I’m your host, Mark Blevis. On this edition of Portrait, humanitarian, spiritual leader, founder of The Art of Living Foundation and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Things are in concept in the mind about peace and love, but how to bring that in day-to-day life and how to get rid of all the negativity, how to break down the barriers and prejudice against each other?
What was bothering me was the prejudice that people had between urban and rural, between different religious groups or gender or race. I want to break down this prejudice in the minds of people and to become like children again and relate with each other with heart, sincerity and love.
We find that stress is the main cause that blocks people. Lack of understanding is testimony to that. So, we put together this program, The Art of Living. It all began very simply. I just started teaching whatever I knew to a bunch of people in the drawing room and then word of mouth, it kept growing.
Mark Blevis: It grew to two-and-a-half million people in one place.
His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yeah.
Mark Blevis: You have mentioned religion. In your mind, is there a distinction between religion and spirituality?
His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes. Spirituality is the essence of all religions. There is some common trait between all religions, it is spirituality, but in spirituality, you are in contact with the divinity deep within. Spirituality is honouring life. Spirituality is love and compassion, service. See?
The communication or communion with God can happen only in spirituality. Religion is the external thing though the central part of every religion is spirituality, but unfortunately people are more stuck in the outer periphery rather than reaching the center chord.
Mark Blevis: Do you think the concept of secular spirituality is threatening to religious leaders?
His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: They shouldn’t because they must be tired by now with all the conflict, you see.
A religious leader cannot afford to think “only these people belong to me.” When a Catholic priest prays, he should pray for the entire population of the world, not just for only Catholics; or a Buddhist monk when he prays, he doesn’t pray only for his people. Or even for that matter, a Muslim imam or a Hindu priest. I feel when a swami prays or a priest prays, they pray for the entire world and if they are not, the prayer is not very fruitful.
Mark Blevis: The other interesting point that I see mentioned in a lot of your literature is the blame culture. Do you think that we can get past the blame culture and what are ways that we can do that?
His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: A stress-free mind will stop blaming. If you are stressed, you start blaming; either you blame yourself or blame somebody else. Wherever you begin you end up in the other. So, to get over the blame culture we need to be more compassionate.
When you see a culprit is also a victim, when you broaden your horizon, you will see that every culprit is also a victim. So then you can’t be angry on a victim. You will not take revenge on a victim. Inside every culprit, there is a victim crying for help. We need to heal that victim. Help them out. Non-violence and compassion should be the guiding force. If this is prevalent in our society, we can definitely make a difference. It may sound very impractical, but we will have to move in that direction because non-violence is — nobody likes violence for themselves, but we need to bring those values in life. It has to come from education and from culturing.
Just for example, nobody litters in Ottawa, but if you go to third world countries, people are littering. What is the difference? Because that has been a part of education. Everyone, mostly, follows the rule and they drive on the right side here and left side in England and that’s a matter of education. Similarly, dental hygiene, the physical hygiene we teach, but we are not teaching mental hygiene where you should handle rage and anger and frustration and depression and these sorts of antisocial feelings. That’s where yoga, meditation, breathing, all these techniques will be of immense help to bring such a balance in the mind and softness in the heart and behaviour.
Mark Blevis: At your Silver Jubilee back in February, you had two-and-a-half million people in India and among them were religious and spiritual leaders and people of backgrounds of every sort. What was it about the Silver Jubilee that drew all these people to one place and to one mind?
His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know, Silver Jubilee was to be celebrated and we have known people would all be coming from all over the world because anywhere we had to celebrate, somewhere we had to begin that. So, we had to make the big arrangements for that and we invited religious leaders. They readily accepted and we had nearly one thousand religious leaders of all denominations and many political leaders and three-thousand-eight-hundred musicians all on the same stage.
Yeah, I know, you look back now and see it’s a humongous task. Mind you there was no traffic jam even. There was no incident. That was what somebody asked me in the Belgium Parliament. He said, “Here in Belgium, we have a soccer game where ten-thousand people coming, there are a hundred casualties. We need to have five hundred police. How could you manage 2.5 million people?” I said, “The peace and silence and the non-violence as main theme and goal will make everyone move in that direction.” I think it’s our intention when we want to bring that non-violence and meditation as part of our event in the society, people will get into it.
Mark Blevis: Has anything changed in the world or through your organization since the Silver Jubilee?
His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: A Silver Jubilee is just an event, but a lot of social work is happening through the organization whether in tsunami or recent flooding in parts of India or earthquake or bomb blast, train bomb blast. Trauma relief work is going on. We are keeping the temper cool on the planet wherever we can reach. Of course, Israel and Lebanon we are not able to reach as much as we would love to. We need more volunteers.
Generally, I feel the stress and depression level wherever we have started working have tremendously changed. I still feel what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. There is a lot be done, a lot to be done in this field to educate people, to handle their emotions and to be happy and compassionate.
Mark Blevis: Show notes and links to resources discussed in this episode can be found on my website, electricsky.net. While you’re there, be sure to check out my podcast archives. The theme song for Portrait is Bigfoot by Robert Farrell. Electric Sky is a proud member of the Rogic Podcast Conglomerate. Thanks for listening and please stay subscribed.
Send feedback to markblevis@gmail.com.
Featured photo: AM2_6777 uploaded to Flickr by Andrew Amerikov (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Thank you to everyone for your kind words, good wishes, and offers of help. My family and I have been touched by the generosity and concern.
I have begun replacing what was stolen and hope to be back in production in a week or so. I have also started to identify some of the recordings that are now gone forever. This includes some personal data and recordings, and interviews with Stomp (they performed with some Tic Tac containers), Kayaking for Cancer and four episodes of Just One More Book.
I’ll be back, soon.