Spirit In Action

Kim Callinan is Chief Program Officer of Compassion & Choices, an organization that works for and attempts to empower personal choice in end-of-life decisions. After Oregon approved the Death With Dignity Act in 1997, other states have continued and advanced the ways in which medical consumers were put in control of their own life decisions. The latest initiative by Compassion & Choices is Truth In Treatment. Kim Callinan's degrees include government, public policy, & public health, and she clearly works in the field of her passion.

Scott Macleod is founder & president of World University and School (WUaS), an effort to make a high-quality, versatile, free education available to all who desire it, via the Internet. Drawing on wiki technology and with a tremendous supply creative commons-licensed open courseware from MIT & Yale, WUaS is launching its first 4-year class this fall. This project aims to make the education and learning available in a vast number of languages, eventually all languages from all countries - always free to the student. While the vision is breath-taking and the goals lofty, the plan draws on established and tried tools, and overlapping projects like Stanford Online High School and other ground-breaking implementations. Featured Music: Building a School - by Sue Kranz The Teacher Song - by Hot Soup Trio

It's time for a super-charged, profoundly-rooted, sustainable and transformative revolution, and Chris Moore-Backman has an inspired take on the needed way forward. He is the author The Gandhian Iceberg: A Nonviolence Manifesto for the Age of the Great Turning, loaded with thoughts, words, and images which will radically enrich the path of all who read it. Chris has a couple decades experience with nonviolent action and training, most recently with an emphasis on efforts to end the age of mass incarceration.

A vital part of improving the world is organizing people by getting the word out, which is the work of The Progressive Populist and its editior/founder, Jim Cullen. The populist movement and it's message prioritizing people over corporations has be transforming this country since the 1880's, and continues to do so today. Email populist@usa.net or call 800-205-7067 for your free sample copy. The magazine is produced in Manchaca, Texas, and printed/distributed in Storm Lake, Iowa.

We care about & for that which we know, so B.J. Hollars leads us into Flock Together: A Love Affair with Extinct Birds. While captivating & enjoyable, B.J. also narrates a story that is deeply compelling in how we live in relationship to our world. He is founder of Chippewa Valley Writers Guild and associate professor of English at UW-Eau Claire. Among his other books: Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence and the Last Lynching in America Opening the Doors: The Desegregation of the University of Alabama and the Fight for Civil Rights in Tuscaloosa

Students of higher education have valuable knowledge & skills to offer to organizations outside of school walls, and rural areas can provide real-life opportunity & experience to such students, while helping bridge the town-gown gap. Nicholas Holton is co-editor of The Landscape of Rural Service Learning & What It Teaches Us All, and Eva Hagenhofer is a contributor, both with decades of experience in the field and active with The Rural Alliance for Service Learning. Another valuable resource for campus civic engagement is Campus Compact. The Landscape of Rural Service Learning was co-edited by Randy Stoecker, Nicholas Holton, and Charles Ganzert.

Ash Kyrie spent 18 months serving the USA as a Wisconsin National Guardsperson sent to Iraq, and it changed him. The road home to fullness includes time with other vets, support from family & community, and a long peace march in Japan, plus lots of subsequent Japanese connections. And art that helps bridge the gap from soldier to civilian, and war zone to back home. Watch a few videos, including a slideshow with narrative of Japanese peaceworkers Ash has met, and a walk-through of several of Ash's art projects related to understanding war, and a video about Ash's OSU MFA Thesis exhibition.

Sarah (or Seres) Kyrie is living a life exploring the edge of the American cultural tides, and she captures the inner journey powerfully through her writing. Some of this experience and reflection is captured in a series of articles she wrote for Friends Journal entitled Choice Poverty, Quakers and Unschooling, and Guns & Pepper Spray, and she has some-time blog with some more of her writings. Original Air Date: 02/26/2017

Josette Jackson is an ordained Unity pastor, international speaker, spiritual educator, and peace educator, who helps Unity and the wider world tap into the power of Nonviolent Communication, A Season of Nonviolence: 64 Ways in 64 Days, and Inclusivity 101, and more. As an African-American, Josette can help lead predominantly white groups to wider inclusively and empowerment. She is offering her Inclusivity 101 workshop at Unity Christ Center in Eau Claire (WI) on Sunday, 2/26/17.

Guest host for the week is Peterson Toscano of Citizens' Climate Radio, speaking with Chandler Green on discussing climate issues with Republicans, poet & writer Lilace Mellin Guignard, Elke Arnesen of the Put A Price On It campaign, Dr. Natasha DeJarnett on the health risks of a warmer planet, Dr. Jalonne White-Newsome on a new framework for looking at resiliency, and awesome singer/songwriter Ashley Mazanec and her album Let's Talk About The Weather.

Three strong men among the thousands led to the confrontation with the DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline) at Standing Rock. Myron Buchholz was born & raised in North Dakota, and both Ash Kyrie & Kevin Basl felt called to join the Oceti Sakowin Camp for a variety of reasons, including as part of the Veterans Stand. Read Kevin Basl's Op Ed, find about 2 of the groups he works with, Warrior Writers and Combat Paper NJ.

Today's topic is Venerable Women: Transform Ourselves, Transform the World, a book and work into which Dawn Morningstar was launched by a statement by the Dalai Lama, "The world will be saved by the Western woman". As a Master Coach from Learning Journeys, a former DJ in the Twin Cities on a show called Delicious Conversations, and as a passionate advocate for love, light and laughter, Dawn seeks healing & strength for a better world. Those in the Twin Cities area can see & hear Dawn in person at Breakaway Arts Cafe, on Feb 9, 2017 at 7 PM, and where, on Sat Feb 10, you'll also see a previous Song of the Soul guest and writer of the Venerable Women theme song, Gina Citoli.

Aaron Dunn makes the world a better place as co-founder & medical director of Community Connections Free Clinic in Dodgeville, WI, through his use of Integrative Medicine, and with the music he makes as part of the PointFiveBand.com. What's not to love in such a free & charitable doctor? Wisconsin Assn of Free & Charitable Clinics, and around the country there's The Natl Assoc of Free & Charitable Clinics Featured Music Tell Topeka - by PointFiveBand.com

A visit with Texas-raised attorney J.E. McNeil about the need to hear each other beyond the liberal/conservative, urban/rural, ivory tower/commonfolk divides, what holds us back, and how to bridge the gap. J.E. is the former executive director of the Center on Conscience & War and author of a review of the book Dark Money in Friends Journal. Also part of this discussion with J.E. is mention of the Western Friend article by Tom Head about corporations, including the new "B Corp" classification.

The dramatic events at the Standing Rock Reservation are inspiring support for the work there, but also in many places across the country where the same kind of work is needed to care for our land, water, & future. The Chippewa Valley Earth Keepers (CVEK) were birthed in September, 2016, and have hit the ground running, making both practical and inspirational differences for our Earth, and core members Mary & Rob share the growing story of CVEK.

Anne Hills opens eyes and changes hearts & minds with the kind of beautiful music that obviates the need of any kind of lecture, putting us all in the same family and with the same cause. Because her day job is in the social work domain, she has plenty of opportunities to work on concrete on-the-ground improvements, at the same time she uplifts and inspires us with her music. All songs in this program are written & performed by Anne Hills: The Moon's Song - from Points of View I'm Nobody - from Points of View New Companion - from Bittersweet Street I Am You - from Points of View Over the Bridge - from Angle of the Light Nighttime Falls - from Rhubarb Trees (with David Roth)

Katherine van Wormer's book, The Maid Narratives: Black Domestics and White Families in the Jim Crow South draws on interviews from black maids and white women who had maids, to understand the reality of segregation, its norms, and its consequences.

There's a long history of trying to convince folks to go vegetarian or vegan by argument, but Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA) (or on FaceBook) is trying something different - emphasizing the sheer fun of it. We visit with out-going CAA director, Unny Nambudiripad, and his immanent replacement, Laura Matanah, talking about the why and how of it, including their annual vegan extravaganza, Twin Cities Veg Fest, and much more. Original Air Date: 11/20/2016

With tensions so high currently between left/right, religious/secular, and more, it's time to revisit an article by Kat Griffith called Conversations from the Heartland, from Friends Journal. Kat compassionately & with insight observes the problems & solutions around dealing with them!. Kat teaches a variety of subjects at the high school level, sometimes taking heat for pushing the envelope in class content. Because "some of her best friends are religious fundamentalists", way different than her, Kat has been living real ways forward.

Peterson Toscano of Citizens Climate Radio sits in today as host of Spirit In Action, adding to our Climate Change IQ and giving us reasons for hope and diligence in face of some very compelling needs. As always, Peterson does it with style, creativity, and a generous helping of his brand-name quirky humor & comedy. His guests today include Cathy Orlando, Clara Fang, Piper Christian, Madeleine Para, Lilace Mellin Guignard, and Joanna Huxster