In May, FATHER GREGORY BOYLE, founder of HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES in Los Angeles — the largest gang intervention and re-entry program in the world — was honored by President Biden with the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Homeboy said that Boyle “…exemplifies the transformative power of compassion, forgiveness, and second chances. For nearly forty years, Father Greg has empowered hundreds of thousands of individuals to break free from the cycles of poverty, violence, and incarceration.” Here’s our 2010 conversation where we talk about his work and his first book, TATTOOS ON THE HEART. We were joined by Luis Perez, one of the senior staff at Homeboy. Learn more: homeboyindustries.org

With an eye on the election, I speak with RICHARD CIZIK, founder of Evangelicals for Democracy, which aims to build a community of evangelicals across the political spectrum who champion democracy as an act of Christian faith. Earlier he spent nearly three decades deep inside the Religious Right. In 2008, after 28 years at the National Association of Evangelicals, Rev. Cizik was forced to resign as VP for Governmental Affairs, for publicly supporting civil unions and for advocacy on climate change. Learn more: EvangelicalsforDemocracy.org

In response to the wonderful positive reaction to last week’s episode with DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN on her new best-seller An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, here’s our 2013 conversation re her book, THE BULLY PULPIT: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, a history of the first decade of the Progressive era when courageous journalists and an ambitious president took on the Robber Barons - the 1% of their day – and won. You can learn more at doriskearnsgoodwin.com

In this recording of a recent LiveTalksLA event, I speak with historian and best-selling author, DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, about her latest book, AN UNFINISHED LOVE STORY: A Personal History of the 1960s, which combines personal memoir with presidential history. Her late husband of 42 years, Dick Goodwin, worked closely with JFK and LBJ in the White House, and with Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy on their presidential campaigns. She and Goodwin went through hundreds of boxes of letters, diaries, and documents he'd saved for over 50 years, a record of politics and power in the 1960s. Doris hopes her book reminds us of the enormous progress achieved in those years as well as opportunities lost, and sheds light on our own challenging time offering lessons we might carry forward. Learn more at doriskearnsgoodwin.com

http://aworldthatjustmightwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/FF_Goodwin-DK-LiveTalksLA-Full-Transcript.pdf

I don’t know if my big question is “Why don’t the rich/super-rich and their corporations get the value of a society that works?” Or is it - “Why don’t they care?” Despite the knowledge that it might be impossible, moving society in that direction calls for getting ideas and models out into the world that show it’s actually possible to reduce inequality. CHUCK COLLINS has been doing that for years in his work and writing. He runs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-edits Inequality.org and its (highly recommended) weekly newsletter.

Earlier this year my dear friend, meditation teacher, TRUDY GOODMAN, experienced a medical emergency that almost killed her. Another reminder of the preciousness and fragility of life and friendship. Here’s my 2015 conversation with TRUDY and JACK KORNFIELD on the occasion of an event at Insight LA, the mindfulness mediation center founded by Trudy. The event featured virtual dialogues with Jon Kabat-Zinn (Wherever You Go, There You Are), Ram Dass (Be Here Now), Tara Brach (Radical Acceptance), Joseph Goldstein (Insight Meditation), and then-Congressman Tim Ryan (A Mindful Nation). We talk about Trudy and Jack’s personal paths, what each of their guests means to them, and tell the story of mindfulness in America over the last 45 years.

In 2020, I talked about democracy with filmmaker/writer/organizer/activist, ASTRA TAYLOR. Four years later, following a pandemic, waves of protests, an insurrection, and a couple of ongoing wars, we revisit our fragile and threatened way of political life. She’s been busy - working with the Debt Collective, a union of debtors she co-founded, and writing two new books, THE AGE OF INSECURITY and SOLIDARITY: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea.