I fell asleep last Thursday night, a copy of E. F. Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful on my chest, only to be jostled out of reverie by what I perceived to be an earthquake. In retrospect, the jolt could have been the seismic gyrations of my sister-in-law, who was in throes of labor just a mile away. In the wee hours of Friday morning, Lewis Kofi Krasno entered the world, trading seats with...

Teacher wisdom from Scott Schwenk: 

Our words are powerful. 

They can lift yourself and others up, or they can fortify our inner critic and judgments. A good practice before you speak to someone is to filter your words through what spiritual teacher Scott Schwenk called "the four gatekeepers of right speech." By doing so, you ensure that what you say and share is kind, true,...

Jules Evans is a prolific philosopher who writes on a wide variety of topics from stoicism and cognitive behavioral therapy to Artisotle and ayahuasca. Today’s conversation touches on the weaponization of social media, the need for real in-person community, the counterculture sparked by Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, and Krishnamurti, and the surprising affinity many Nazis had for the...

“Come on, honey, not at the dinner table.”

Anyone with a teenager knows what this futile request refers to. And, candidly, I raise my hand, guilty as charged, for sneaking an under-the-table peak at my Instagram between helpings.

What did we used to do in the backseat on those long family drives? Sing songs? Play the alphabet game? Just be bored?

Now, we furnish our beloved progeny...

You are hosting a big party. Not right now obviously. But in the future. You must be extremely popular because heaps more people than expected are showing up. And now you’re out of 7-layer bean dip, only remnant crumbs of tortilla chips litter the bottoms of bowls, and someone is licking the thin paste of remaining ranch dip off the veggie platter. You can sense a fomenting...

Teacher wisdom from Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts: 

Many of us have been and are silenced.

We have silenced ourselves, or we have allowed others to silence us. But by being silenced, we are then unable to express our gifts and contribute to the communities we care about. In this short video, Commune teacher Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts shares how yoga is more than a workout. In fact,...

This week, Jeff interviews the hosts of the Conspirituality podcast – Derek Beres, Julian Walker, and Matthew Remski – on the white nationalist and anti-Semitic origins of the QAnon movement and how it uses the heart-wrenching issue of child sex trafficking as a recruitment tool. The conversation also covers how weaponized misinformation on social media is creating extremism and...

Teacher wisdom from Dr. Rebecca Branstetter: 

Kids can sometimes ask for love and connection in unloveable ways.

When your child is experiencing big feelings they can't cope with them on their own, they express themselves through behavior you may not like. This behavior is actually a form of communication that you as a parent or caregiver need to tune into. In this video, Dr. Rebecca...

During this summer of reckoning on social justice, Justin Michael Williams took a step back from his social media and realized that in the flood of traumatizing news we were losing our ability to see a future bigger than our circumstances. So he wrote a long article titled Ending Racism: How to Change the World in One Generation. In this episode, he discusses that hopeful piece and reminds us...

Teacher wisdom from Kimberly Snyder: 

We are conditioned from an early age to think we are imperfect on the deepest level.

This creates an unconscious chase to feel good enough based on external views and circumstances. Commune teacher Kimberly Snyder explains how you can begin to unravel this conditioning by connecting to your own inner-worth.

Want to join a new conversation about beauty...