600 Podcasts and Counting...
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Most Recent
Frederic Laloux: The Adventure of Remaking Our World
The modern workplace is a source of so much pain in so many peoples’ lives. And with the extreme challenges facing humanity, it’s easy to understand the gloom-and-doom perspective that has become prevalent today. Frederic Laloux sees things differently. “I look at it from a place of adventure,” he tells us. “If we don’t have a lens of ‘these are times that are confusing and difficult’ we can see them instead as extraordinary times for us to learn and to grow as individuals.”
In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with the renowned author of Reinventing Organizations about his life’s mission to transform our approach to business. Give a listen as Tami and Frederic discuss: becoming change makers at the systemic level; applying Ken Wilber’s Integral Model to the way we organize businesses; the “inner angle,” or the mindset and beliefs that we bring to any problem; societal leaps and the people who drive them; a polycrisis or a great adventure: how do you see it?; three cornerstones for the future of business: self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose; creating fluid hierarchies at work; leadership that inspires and connects; the fundamental shift from predict and control to sense and respond (especially in these uncertain times); to budget or not to budget…; finding support and community during a “dark night of the soul”; bringing joy, pride, and courage to our social change activism; climate change and the concept of pluralistic ignorance; and more.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
Stefanie Iris Weiss: The Liberatory Power of Sex and Y...
Stefanie Iris Weiss is illuminating the mysterious ways that our bodies, the natural world, and the cosmos intersect and comingle. With her book Sex and Your Stars: A Sexologist’s Guide to the Erotic Energy of the Zodiac, she brings readers an approach “to truly know ourselves, to shed our shame, and to explore our erotic energy with others.” In this podcast, Sounds True founder Tami Simon speaks with Stefanie about the inspiration and intention for the book, and her unique perspective on the astrology renaissance of the last 20 years.
Tami and Stefanie discuss the Saturn return; the prerequisites for becoming a professional astrologer; what the charts tell us about the chaos of our times; the American Pluto return; embodiment in a tech-obsessed world; sex as a liberating force; Erotic Energy Mapping; natal charts and transits; empowerment through the Black Moon Lilith; the benefits of working with your sun sign; coming back to our sensuality; pleasure activism; tikkun olam: healing and repairing the world; and more.
Kamilah Majied: Joyfully Just
The painful injustices we see across society may seem insurmountable. Yet as therapist and author Dr. Kamilah Majied teaches, “Undoing some of the injustice that we do to ourselves and others is actually one of the most joyful things we can do.” Instilling joy into our social change work is the theme of Dr. Majied’s new book, Joyfully Just, and the subject of this inspiring conversation hosted by Tami Simon.
Give a listen to this energizing and infectious discussion of: the power of literacy; exploring the roots of suffering; uncovering and healing our unconscious biases; the destructive limitations of our “isms”; releasing the song that wants to burst forth; using our creativity to transmute suffering into joy; making a genuine resolution to be joyful; an enlightened experience of grief; a daily mantra—“let me manifest my highest self, my greater self, my most wise, courageous self”; gratitude and growth; the freedom to create value out of suffering; living with courage; honest conversations; the concept of Black joy; resilience; the contagious nature of “undefeated joy”; respect as the act of looking again; connecting with our heritage and appreciating our interdependence; language as a meditative practice; the shift from cultural appropriation to reparative relationality; resisting despair and “suffering with determination”; self-worth; overcoming the bias of ableism; the practice of “a new moment resolution”; and more.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
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Making the darkness conscious
Much is being said these days about spiritual awakening, and the causeless joy, clarity, and peace that are inevitable milestones of the inner journey. Not all that much is mentioned, however, about the disappointment of awakening, or of the ways it can break our hearts, cracking us open to the reality of the crucifixion, the resurrection, *and* the transfiguration we are likely to encounter along the way. In the full embrace of life—right inside the yucky, messy, shadowy nether regions of the heart—we are invited to meet the wholeness of what we are, which includes the dark *and* the light, the movement of separation *and* union, and the entirety of what it means to be an embodied human being.
As Carl Jung so poignantly reminds us, we do not become enlightened by “imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” He went on to say that the integral journey of the dark *and* the light is one that is often “disagreeable” and thus would never be popular. I believe Jung is offering very important guidance for us and the voyage of the heart in contemporary times.
The ancient path of love may never conform to our hopes, fears, dreams, and fantasies, for it is emerging in the here and now as an emissary of the unknown itself. Let us rest in the aching truth that one of the primary roles of the beloved is to seed deflation in the field of separation. Yes, awakening may always be a disappointment, from the perspective of egoic organization. In this sense, the journey is eternally hopeless, but it is in the creation of a home for our hopelessness—and allowing it to be illuminated within us—that we are finally able to step into a world beyond our wildest imagination.
As we journey together as fellow travelers, let us find a way to embrace both the joy *and* the heartbreak of spiritual awakening, and bear witness to the wisdom shining out of our immediate experience, whether it appears as sadness, bliss, despair, or great joy. It is true that grace will appear in both sweet *and* fierce forms, but regardless of its particular manifestation, it is still grace, sent from beyond to open us to the radiant fullness of being.
– Matt Licata, from the Preface to the forthcoming, It’s Okay to Be Broken: Embracing the Joy and Heartbreak of Spiritual Awakening.
Joan Chittister: Presence and Perpetual Goodness
Sister Joan Chittister is an American theologian, Benedictine nun, and the author of more than 50 books. For over 40 years, she has passionately advocated on behalf of peace, human rights, women’s issues, and church renewal. This week’s podcast shares with you an excerpt from Sister Joan’s audio program, Catching Fire: Being Transformed, Becoming Transforming, a seven-hour conversation with Tami Simon intended to spark the fire of the divine within each one of us.
Terry Real: Standing Up to One Another with Love
Terry Real is a family therapist, public speaker, and the founder of the Relational Life Institute. Terry’s written works include I Don’t Want to Talk About It, How Can I Get Through to You?, and The New Rules of Marriage. With Sounds True, he has created the audio program Fierce Intimacy: Standing Up to One Another with Love. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Terry about his somewhat unusual, do-or-divorce approach to couples therapy. They talk about deal breakers in relationships and why they don’t necessarily need to end a partnership. Terry explains what it means to hold a “core negative image” of a partner, why this is all too common, and why recognition of that core image can actually strengthen a relationship. Finally, Terry and Tami discuss what “fierce intimacy” truly entails and why canny relationship skills are the very same qualities that will help the human race rise to meet the challenges of the future. (64 minutes)