Front and Center with Steve and Michael

Restoring A Common Culture Through Kinship and Reunion Conversation with Bobby Austin, Neighborhood Associates “The currency of our evolved species, Humankind, is human kindness.” -- Swami Beyondananda In these times of division and polarization, can our multifaceted, multicultural and multiracial society find a “common culture”? This week’s guest on Front and Center, Bobby Austin has made his life’s work “repairing the breach”, through kinship – which to him means living the Golden Rule. This is how, he says, “an unkind world dies and a new one is born.” Can we come together from different worldviews to encompass an ever-changing truth? Watch the conversation trailer here, and then the full conversation that follows. Live transcript: https://otter.ai/u/BDX6VLqoxopky1RimbXTAKVS1Vo

A Conversation with Randall Paul Foundation for Religious Diplomacy What if the key to breakthrough is not getting opposing parties to agree – but getting them to disagree agreeably? To do so, says our guest this week, Randall Paul, we must transform opponents into “trustworthy rivals”. By creating “peaceful tension” among rivals who are both “critical and appreciative”, we find the “whole truth” together. A lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he offers his own vision of “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible”: “God wants this world here and new before heaven to be a place where people who have differences can thrive together, and where the best of all worldviews can be digested and used by all tribes.” Can we find unity in the heart, even as we fully express a diversity of beliefs? Tune in to find out. Live transcript: https://otter.ai/u/G6-9SJBRf-rZRi4BOiJGHFmuQ70

“If we truly want peace in the Middle East, we must first have peace in the Middle West.” -- Swami Beyondananda For decades, we’ve been exposed to the meme, “visualize world peace.” Well, maybe the key to transforming the world at large is to transform the “world at small” – a peace-building movement to bring together our red and blue tribes to sit in “sacred circle” and talk until they’re “purple in the face.” That’s the approach this week’s guest, Joan Blades, is taking. The co-founder of MoveOn.org, known for its partisan alignment with the Democratic Party, she has spent the last decade building “Living Room Conversations” to bring parties from both parties into heart-opening, re-humanizing dialogue, which she describes as “respectful discourse across ideological, cultural and party lines, grassroots engagement around allowing people at the community level to really connect.” In this conversation about seeing beyond the divide to recognize our shared values, Joan speaks of her involvement with MoveOn (which began, she says, as a transpartisan call to move beyond Bill Clinton’s impeachment), and the insights and influences that led her to co-found Living Room Conversations as a “listening practice to grow connection and understanding, a way to get in right relationship with those around us.” She also discusses the obstacles to “trust” conversations, including the role of social media in deepening the gap between the two sides, citing last year’s documentary, The Social Dilemma. In response to the defensive question coming from both sides “Why would I want to talk to THEM?” Joan offers plenty of good reasons, including finding our way forward together as a society – or, as the Swami puts it, “Hey, let’s put the CIVIL back in civilization.” You’ll find out why Living Room conversations work, how they create “safety” for participants, even as they discuss divisive issues, and hear success stories about how heart-to-heart connections have been made, and how these conversations have led to fruitful collaboration. In contrast to mainstream media and social network platforms that benefit from sowing the seeds of mistrust and separation, Living Room Conversations offers face-to-face communication to lift us off the political battlefield and onto the cooperative playing field – so left and right can come front and center to “face the music” and dance together. Live transcript: https://otter.ai/u/_wXBMN40L18_6HkRPIig_2f0IO8 https://livingroomconversations.org/ Learn about and watch the documentary: Social Dilemma https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/ https://youtu.be/uaaC57tcci0 Learn about and watch the Black Mirror series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mirror https://youtu.be/di6emt8_ie8 “Courage” Our Front and Center Theme Song http://www.danceawake.com/

Our guest on Front and Center this week, Glenn Aparicio Parry, author of Original Politics: America’s Sacred Purpose, offers an enlightening glimpse into how the Native peoples influenced the colonists’ cultural, spiritual and political views, and how this cultural exchange shaped what was to become “the American.” For example, did you know the first Native American visitor to the Plymouth settlement in 1621 … spoke English? That the Iroquois Nation’s Great Law of Peace became the foundation of our own Constitution? That Benjamin Franklin’s meeting with Onandoga chief Canasatego on JULY 4TH (1744) led to our creating our own confederacy? Then, there were the sacred aspects of Native American awareness that got ignored by our Founders – like the Council of Grandmothers who brought feminine wisdom to issues like going to war or impeaching a chief – and the reverence for the natural world as the source of wellbeing. And now, as we write our new story together, Aparicio Parry says, we must reintegrate the feminine, and sacred respect for nature as we embody America’s sacred purpose – unity and diversity. Not just diverse colors and genders, but diverse beliefs and worldviews. And if we think of political polarities as incompatible as “oil and water”, Aparicio Parry offers the example of “sacred mayonnaise” where both oil and water can exist in a stable suspension. By “suspending” our judgments of one another, we can bring forth the most functional aspects of “progressive” and “conservative”, as we ask, “How do we want to progress?” and “What would we like to conserve?” Glenn Aparicio Parry, PhD, is a writer, educational consultant, international speaker, and entrepreneur with a vision to reform thinking and education into a coherent, cohesive whole. From 1999-2011, he organized and participated in the groundbreaking Language of Spirit Conferences, bringing together Native and Western scientists in dialogue. The founder and past president of the SEED Institute, he currently runs a think tank and regularly moderates dialogues. In addition to his current book, “Original Politics: Making America Sacred Again”, he is the author of the Nautilus award-winning Original Thinking: A Radical Revisioning of Time, Humanity and Nature. He lives in northern New Mexico. If you’re ready for a meta-view of how we can establish the heart and soul of who we really are at a time of toxic polarization, please tune in. Live transcript: https://otter.ai/u/_nGItnPxWt-flaGWCp7FfhEAm1o To learn more of Glenn Aparicio Parry’s work visit www.originalpolitics.us “Courage” Our Front and Center Theme Song http://www.danceawake.com/

A Conversation with Author and Talk Show Host Thom Hartmann “We need to replace the Four E’s – extraction, exploitation, extortion and extinction -- with the Four C’s, cooperation, collaboration, cultivation and community.” -- Swami Beyondananda The lost people. What an intriguing title. Who are those “lost people”? Are they an ancient people whose ways and history are lost to us? Or are they the “hungry ghosts” in our own society, unhinged from meaning and purpose, who have acquiesced to, and perpetuate the “taker” culture? According to award-winning talk show host and prolific author Thom Hartmann, the answer to both questions is “yes.” There is a profound and significant connection between the “lost” ways of our indigenous ancestors, and the many “lost souls” who inhabit modern industrial society. “The Lost People” was an essay Thom wrote nearly 25 years ago that he recently re-published, that is perfectly timed for our times, when we are re-examining both the genocide of Native Peoples of the new world, and forced to reckon with the fruits of 300 years of black African slavery on this continent. The article explores the unfathomable loss of the indigenous heritage of European peoples, and how that led to the domination of Native peoples, and the unsuccessful attempts to dominate nature. The essay – first published in 1998 – was inspired by a conversation Thom had with a Native American elder at a ceremony, and informed by meeting an Aboriginal elder who suffered greatly at the hands of white settlers. Thom also introduces the word “Wetiko”, a term he discovered in Native American scholar Jack Forbes’ book first published in 1978, Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism. Indeed, “Wetiko” means cannibal, and that is the term many Native Peoples used to characterize the white invaders. To find out how we got here, and the reunion that holds the key to our species’ survival and thrival, please join us for this eye-opening and sobering conversation. In the process, you’ll learn about the two entirely different Maori cultures in New Zealand, and how each came about. You’ll hear about an indigenous society that occupied what is now New Orleans that had a four-tiered hierarchical society with an intriguing twist. And you’ll discover a nomadic Malaysian tribe that lived in the “dream world” they considered the “real” world, and used their dreams to navigate “this world.” Most importantly, you will learn how the shared trauma of all peoples living in a dominate-or-be-dominated world has brought us to the brink of extinction – and the cultural reweaving required for us to navigate this evolutionary passage. Thom Hartmann, ranked by Talkers Magazine as the #1 progressive talk show host in America for over a decade. His show airs live nationwide daily (M-F) on SiriusXM from 12-3pm ET. He’s also a four-time Project Censored-award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of more than 30 books in print in 17 languages. Thom has co-written and been featured in 6 climate-related documentaries with Leonardo DiCaprio, and his book The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, about the end of the age of oil and climate change, is an international bestseller and used as a textbook in many schools and colleges. Live transcript: https://otter.ai/u/700M_L0o225LHAmh3bXNpuoJaZg To find out more about Thom Hartmann’s work: https://www.thomhartmann.com/ To read ‘The Lost People’ https://hartmannreport.com/p/the-lost-people #ThomHartman, #indigenouspeoplesday, #indigenouspeoplesday2021 #indigenouspeoples, #indigenous

Conversation with Activist and Wisdom-Keeper Shawna Bluestar Newcomb “Life calls on us to move from survival of the fittest to thrival of the fittingest.” -- Swami Beyondananda Are you familiar with the “Doctrine of Discovery”? Probably not. It sounds innocuous, but was the Papal bull that legitimized the conquest of the new world and the genocide of its inhabitants. Believe it or not, this 15th century decree is still recognized as legal precedent by our own U.S. Supreme Court! We know this thanks to Native American legal and Latin scholar Steven Newcomb. In looking to take us from a toxic past to a healthy future, his daughter, Shawna Bluestar Newcomb, has developed what she calls “the Reverence Code”, to bring our society into harmony with the web of life, and the web of love. The Reverence Code, she explains, isn’t so much a learning process as an “unlearning process” where so many ideas we took for “reality” must be re-examined, lest our species be woven out of the web of life. If you’ve been feeling frustrated …confused … hopeless, about our so-called “civilization”, please join us for this heartening and enlightening conversation. Live transcript: https://otter.ai/u/vYus_9yDPkAiy6mtUmIJ8HlpNdI To learn much more about Shawna’s work visit: https://www.shawnabluestar.com/ The Doctrine of Discovery, Unmasking the Domination Code https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/the-doctrine-of-discovery-unmasking-the-domination-code/ Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery https://www.amazon.com/Pagans-Promised-Land-Christian-Discovery-ebook/dp/B00AXS5U9U/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Steven+Newcomb&qid=1634497030&s=books&sr=1-1 #ShawnaBluestar, #ShawnaBluestarNewcomb, #indigenouspeoplesday, #indigenouspeoplesday2021 #indigenouspeoples, #indigenous

Conversation with Bobby Austin, Neighborhood Associates “The currency of our evolved species, Humankind, is human kindness.” -- Swami Beyondananda "...you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in." ​-- Isaiah 58:12 There seems to be one thing everyone across the political spectrum can agree on – we are divided like never before. So, can this breach be breached? Can we put the “civil” back in civilization, and find that sane and sacred space where we can gather as one? This week’s guest, Bobby Austin, has spent more than a half century looking to repair the breach. Working with the Kellogg Foundation in a program for African American boys years ago, he realized that above and beyond all the problems and programs, the one thing that was absent – and needed most – is kinship. Since that time, he has promoted what he calls “public kinship”, which is really short-hand for the Golden Rule. Simple. But not necessarily easy. Rather than offering a top-down prescription, Bobby says the key to creating a common culture is “self-leadership”, and surprisingly includes music and the arts. What has he learned over the years? What does public kinship look like in the “real world”? Where does he find the most hope for the future? Tune in and find out! Live transcript: https://otter.ai/u/6pyXV9p9P2NGDHicq1ryWvg2G00 To find out more about Bobby Austin, Neighborhood Associates, and Public Kinship, please go here: https://www.neighborhoodassociates.org/about-us

A Conversation with Randall Paul Foundation for Religious Diplomacy What if the key to breakthrough is not getting opposing parties to agree – but getting them to disagree agreeably? This week’s guest, Randall Paul, President of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, says that when we transform those we perceive as opponents into “trustworthy rivals”, we open the door to finding the “whole truth” together. This is similar to what Abraham Lincoln did when he turned his political opponents into a “team of rivals”, uniting to preserve the Union. Randall Paul came to his notion of “religious diplomacy” early. Growing up in New Jersey as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he was clearly in a minority. Other than another LDS family, his high school was one third Protestant, one third Catholic, and one third Jewish. As a teenaged “missionary”, he was eager to share his faith with others. However, when he visited the homes of his Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish friends, he found happy, healthy people secure in their own faith. Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with this picture?” he asked, “What’s RIGHT with this picture?” He recognized the power of what he calls “collaborative contestation” – those with different religious (or for that matter, political) beliefs engaging in heart-centered conversation, so that their strongly-held beliefs could be fully aired and heard, in the context of seeking the whole truth together. This “peaceful tension” among rivals who are both “critical and appreciative”, creates a little “psychological miracle” where they are able to engage in conflict with respect and honesty. How has this approach worked in the past? Can it work in the contentious and polarized present? Tune in and find out how diverse tribes with seemingly conflicting beliefs can continue to disagree and yet find the “higher truth that matters more than any human difficulty.” Live transcript: https://otter.ai/u/uk69m5jA9_2fsHiARgIA0dE6XUk To learn more about Foundation for Religious Diplomacy visit http://religious-diplomacy.org/

To launch our podcast Front And Center: Writing Our New Story Together ... and to help propel us off the political battlefields and on to the creative playing fields, we had a conversation with visionary philosopher Charles Eisenstein, author of several books including, “The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible.” Says Charles: “We are immersed in a story of separation, a story that has served us for millennia, and is now breaking down, leaving us with a crisis of meaning, a crisis of identity, an uncertainty, and panic even -- and also a sense of possibility of transcending the circumstances we call the human condition.” He calls the vision of a brighter future “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible” because, he says, “that feeling often goes against what the rational mind, which is steeped in the old story, believes to be possible. But the heart knows the world is supposed to be, and can be, so much more beautiful, authentic, joyful, harmonious and alive than what we’re accustomed to.” Of course, on our way to that “beautiful world”, we have to deal with the contrast – “the more ugly world our programming insists is probable.” Charles recently came up against that ugliness after publishing a piece called “Mob Morality and the Unvaxxed” that got him canceled and de-platformed because he dared to – mildly – criticize the official pandemic story. Charles discusses that too, and offers a much-needed pathway to sanity and sanctity at a time of fear and manipulation. He also addresses these “frequently UNASKED questions”: How do we use this “more beautiful world” as a guiding light we navigate toward? How do we re-humanize one another, and emerge from seeking to control life’s conditions, and take command of our own lives? How do we balance the needs of the collective and the sacredness of the individual? And how do we create a “sane asylum” in the midst of our current polarized insanity? Join us for this enlivening and heartening conversation. Live transcript: https://otter.ai/u/8IPUBAS050wuqzNckFmoIgBrbeU To lean much more about Charles Eisenstein we suggest you start by visiting https://charleseisenstein.org/

In Front and Center’s first podcast, Charles Eisenstein offers “the more beautiful world our hearts know as possible” which is a key foundational element of our work and to help us write our new story together. To hear the full conversation where we discuss and learn: How do we use this “more beautiful world” as a guiding light we navigate toward? How do we re-humanize one another, emerge from seeking to control life’s conditions, and take command of our own lives? How do we balance the needs of the collective and the sacredness of the individual? And how do we create a “sane asylum” in the midst of our current polarized insanity? After watching (2:14) Charles offer his vision of “the more beautiful world our hearts know as possible” here. Please scroll below to watch the entire conversation. Live transcript: https://otter.ai/u/GrkIele5UcQIBWwzh62tndNst2M Tendrils definition: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tendril

From Political Battlefields to Cooperative Playing Fields To introduce their new podcast, Front and Center, co-hosts Michael Maxsenti and Steve Bhaerman sat down for a Zoom conversation to discuss their own political backgrounds and evolution. Steve, who – as he puts it – spent his “deformative years” in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in a Democrat New Deal household, and has been a lifelong progressive. Michael, who grew up in Torrance, in Los Angeles County, was a member of SDS in college, but once out in the work world, became a “Reagan Republican.” To find out how their paths evolved and came to work together, please watch the video. They also introduce the podcast – its purpose and intention, the kinds of guests they will invite, and how and why the Locals platform is perfect for building the “sane and sacred community” needed to shift our focus away from the issues that divide us so we can develop a vision of “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.” Live transcript: https://otter.ai/u/2xDACNC_Zl3qQsOM8-sMQUmekq4

Our fundamental purpose and mission is summed up in our show title, slogan and subtitle … Front and Center ... ‘From Political Battlefields to Cooperative Playing Fields’ ... Writing Our New Story Together. We are facing and embracing the irony of our times. We seem more divided than ever, and yet there is a great desire to work together to face our evolutionary challenges. Our "beacon", is what Charles Eisenstein describes as "the more beautiful world our hearts know as possible." Steve and Mike will host conversations with leaders and inspirational ‘ordinary people.’ There will be: Visionaries, Heroes of the Heart, Illuminators, Solutionaries and Connectors. People who bring people from all sides together in purposeful dialogue so we can develop a shared vision of the world we want to live in. Through these conversations, Steve Bhaerman and Michael Maxsenti will work to deepen and expand our understandings to help us get off the battlefields and onto playing fields of collaboration and communion. There we can create the new story that our hearts know is possible. Live transcript: https://otter.ai/u/06NuiOSMFU7JhExy6bjCyvqhh4M