Spirit in Action

Today we follow up to a visit we had 2 months ago with Margaret Brown of Blue Zones, as we drill down into the same work from the local focus on up. True Wellness was formed about a year ago to explore and chart the way for better health, community wide, in Northwest Wisconsin, and Natasha Ward is their executive director.

Peterson Toscano is guest-host today. If you're a regular listener, you know about Peterson's incredible gifts in sharing transformational riches with you. He does a number of podcasts, and so he shares some samples here, with new content as well.

Keith Runyan is the General Secretary of QEW, that's Quaker Earthcare Witness, and among his duties in that role was as a participant of the 30th COP session.

John Scardina has worked in multiple fields, including as a teacher, and as a psychologist, but his passion for decades has been around AVP - the Alternatives to Violence Project, Men's work, and the work of the Friends Peace Teams., where John is co-clerk of Peacebuilding en las Americas.

There was an article by Bill Durland in the May/June 2023 issue of Western Friend called Martyrs for Conscience's Sake (and there is also a 

Today's guest-host, Peterson Toscano, is bringing us an incredible creative gift to us today, and it's clear to me that he's not just showing off his writing gifts, which are considerable, but he's hoping to inspire you to develop and use similar gifts, hopefully for the kind of world-growing, world-healing, purposes that are at the core of Peterson's work. So, on one level, you'll hear some of the steps that he goes through to hone his writing, but on another level you're going to be diving deep into the ideas, emotions, visions, and concerns that Peterson has for the world.

The religious soup we grow up in affects all of us. Sometimes the influences are helpful and favorable, but especially for those off the mainstream, they can be very painful and alienating. Even passages from holy books, initially innocent or positive, can by so badly misconstrued as to become life-threatening. K.

A visit with Ahmed Quereshi, the executive director of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee, a wide variety of 22 judicatories, large and small, working to build “a strong, peaceful, and sustainable community where all are treated with justice, mutual respect, and dignity”.

Our guest-host today is Jan Spencer, and in this episode of A Primer For Paradigm Shift, Jan Spencer describes several examples of "push back" to the System.

Today we'll introduce you to Betsy Small, and we'll take you on Betsy's moving saga in Sierra Leone, exploring the tribulations and elations of her Peace Corps experience in the West African country, as told in her book, Before Before: A Story of Discovery and Loss in Sierra Leone.

Peterson Toscano helps create a variety of podcasts, among them Climate Changed, Bubble & Squeak, Quakers Today, The Seed: Conversations for Radical Hope, Stories That Stay, and many others.

Today we're going on an adventure with Kazu Haga, a high school dropout whose path turned radically into a passionate study & sharing of nonviolence. Having learned from/with & befriended some of the greatest activist and nonviolence workers & trainers of the past 70 years, Kazu found & refined his life's mission in many phases.

The 2026 Earth Day in Eau Claire, WI, featured an Earth Fest with a wealth of tables, displays, demos, and more, among them the table for Kaiserson Bee Company. Their varieties of honey infusions, like chili, hibiscus, Tulsi, vanilla, coffee, and lavender were certainly intriguing, but the whole story and method of their production was even more interesting.

We've got some powerful witness to be shared today, brought together by Nonviolence International, doing powerful, insightful, work leveraging the world toward peace & wholeness. They brought together the webinar that will be over half of today's show, with 3 well-placed activists focused on the topic Solidarity in Action: Resisting Occupation in Palestine & Minnesota.

Peterson Toscano is back this week for his monthly guest-hosting, and this one feels so rich, so deep, so wonderful to me. He's really pulled together some amazing glimpses into the soul of Ireland.

Through the suggestion of one of our Northern Spirit Radio board members, Janine Thull, I decided to attend a presentation last week here in Eau Claire by the Blue Zones Project crew, and my eyes were opened. I''ll let their Vice President, Business Development, Margaret Brown, spell it out, but what I think I learned about was a thoughtful and brilliant mechanism to help us live longer and better, to help grow a community into well-being and health.

The 4th installment of songs inspired by the Minnesota Uprising, today's songs are harvested from Minnesota, Washington State, the Bay Area of California, and, again, Minnesota, so these songs will be witnessed and sung from both the inside and outside. You'll hear heartbreak & admiration, determination & inspiration, and love & power.

Thom Hartman just released his latest book, The Hidden History of American Democracy: Rediscovering Humanity's Ancient Way of Living, and it's full of the kind of historical scrutiny and keen analysis to expose and clarify the facts behind our much-vaun

In this special Spirit in Action episode, guest-host Nicole Diroff welcomes a new Climate Changed host, Autumn Brown, and the focus is on learning to create stories leading us into a better future, nurturing our wholeness as we find our path forward.

Chuck Collins, longtime activist with inequality.org, is a devoted worker for the good, and with his latest book, Altar to an Erupting Sun, he has become an amazing novelist.

We have an amazingly creative, thoughtful, and passionate guest with us today. Jamie Logan produces media to move our consciousness toward veganism and animal liberation.

In the third installment of songs inspired by the Minnesota Uprising, the songs are harvested from Minnesota, Nashville, Bethlehem, PA, and the Southern coast of England. All four musicians and songs you'll be hearing are energy & affirmation for the valiant community of the Twin Cities of Minnesota, and a spotlight on the vile government force the community has stood up against. Billy Bragg has a few decades of resisting the system under his belt, reaching all the way across the Atlantic Ocean.

Our guest-host today is Jan Spencer, bringing with him insights and guidance about sustainability and what he calls A Primer for Paradigm Shift. Jan has been at this for some decades, observing others moving toward sustainability, learning various systems, ideas, and techniques to support the transition, and experimenting with it on his own suburban property in Eugene, Oregon.

Peterson Toscano is guest-host today, and he's leading across a vast tapestry of people & subjects, starting with issues surrounding Period Poverty & Menstrual Cups.

Today we're sharing part 2 of songs inspired by the Minnesota Uprising, and today's songs were birthed in West Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina, highlighting the heart & spirit threads that knit the diverse regions of our country together with a shared passion and activism. Chris Haddox is a musician, but also an Associate Professor of Sustainable Design at West Virginia University.

Today we're looking at the Minnesota Uprising through the alchemy of music. Watching the events taking place in Minnesota, just next door to Wisconsin, has been both horrifying and inspirational. Watching the deaths of folks like Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti, and others has been frightening, but seeing how tens of thousands of common folks pulling together for their neighbors has been beautiful to watch. And there is rarely any better way to bring people together than music, so today, and also next week, we bring you newly-inspired songs birthed by the Minnesota Uprising.

We're fortunate to have Peterson Toscano back today as guest-host for Spirit In Action, is bringing us segments from his Bubble & Squeak podcast. This episode is about sex, gender, and Jesus - and what happens when our bodies get wrapped in shame, pleasure, politics, and power. It comes in 4 parts including a visit with Rev. Dr. Tina Beardsley, a priest, theologian, and trans woman who’s been quietly transforming the Church of England from the inside out.

Parfaite Ntahuba led a concerted effort in Burundi so that the 2020 national elections might have a much better outcome than the bloody results of the 2015 elections.

John Wilmerding's life as a traveling minstrel was cut short by a drunk driver, but it lead him into a vocation in peace, starting from his work with restorative justice.

After a couple years hiatus, we welcome back Patricia Stansbury (AKA Sunny Gardener) as guest-host for today's Spirit In Action, sharing programming from her What Wakes Me Up shows on WRIR - Richmond Independent Radio. She speaks with 2 different military veterans, one who served in Vietnam, one who served in the Middle East, about their experiences, some while in the military, and some from after their time in the military, things like PTSD, community, veteran benefits, and much more.

Few people have quite such wide roots across the globe, both the motivation & outgrowth of a life of compassionate work in many countries. Jens Braun grew up in Ecuador, the son of parents who had worked as missionaries and with the Peace Corps.

Don Neufeld's decades of service in social work, in child welfare, and in private practice has deeply equipped him for insights into a wide variety of men's (and society's) issues, like violence, fathering, and masculinity - and more. He's authored a number of books, including A New Hope and Living That Matters.

In 1987 David & Lise Abazs bought and built their off-the-grid Round River Farm, in Finland, Minnesota,

Anita Sanchez's books are mostly targeted toward young readers, anything from preschool to adult, and they help all readers fall in love with aspects of our world and nature that most ignore, whether talking about puddles, poison ivy, gardens, or visiting the night.

Gabrielle Cerberville is known to some as Chaotic Forager, to others as Mushroom Auntie, but you will certainly experience her as a person deeply connected to all the residents of the Earth, not only humans. Gabrielle's passions are wide-ranging, including music composition & gourmet cuisine, but she is especially known for thoughtfully bringing the fruits of the Earth to her table, and to teaching others of right relationship to our non-human cousins.

Sami Awad lives in Bethlehem, and has been dedicated to nonviolent action since his teen years, inspired by his uncle, Mubarak Awad. In a conflict focused on Jews and Muslims, Christian Palestinians are sometimes erased from the picture by many outsiders, although they have been an integral part of the Holy Land for many centuries.

In his book, The Prophetic Lens: The Camera and Black Moral Agency from MLK to Darnella Frazier, Phil Allen Jr. examines the history & the future of Black wholeness in the USA, especially the ways in which people of color have been made invisible, & how their power is being reclaimed through open eyes & lenses.

Thom Hartmann's completely articulate voice & extensive knowledge & insights all combine to insure his place as the USA's #1 progressive talk show host. His more than 30 books are equally compelling, and today we talk with Thom about his latest, The Hidden one of the most articulate voices of progressive radio in the USA, and he's a compelling writer as well.

Our guest-host today is Jan Spencer, and he'll describe his book disguised as a website - A Primer For Paradigm Shift. The Primer is dense with usable information explaining why, how and what paradigm shift can look like in the real world. Paradigm shift is not a fuzzy future utopia, it's a here-and-now work-in-progress. The more people are engaged, the better, so listen and then check out what you have to add to the book/Primer/website!

Mark Leach is guest-host for today's episode, sharing portions from his weekly radio show, Ecotopia Soon! Mark is a retired conservation biologist, activist, and a Quaker, and his perspective is that we are all in a leaky canoe together; we need to change our thinking to reach the safe shore of Ecotopia, where we treat Nature as our only life support system & we treat each other with respect.

One of my great delights is the growing number of folks from around the world that I can can find right here is my city, Eau Claire, WI, of about 75K people. Though the university plays a big part in that, an inspirational contributor to the diversity is the newly opened offices of World Relief - Wisconsin, and our Chippewa Valley offices.

Gary Eldred is a founder of The Prairie Enthusiasts, and he joins us today to talk about his newly released book, Healing Wounds: Giving Back to Nature.

I ran into Olivia Chalkley through an article of hers featured on the website of the Center for Action and Contemplation called A Home for My Loving Action, and I determined I needed to have a deeper visit with Olivia. It turns out that she has explored deeply and worked widely in the not-so-many years she's been on the planet.

We've got Chuck Collins with us here again today, sharing from his new book, Burned By Billionaires, a deep look into the damage to the entire world, and almost all Americans, of the soaring epidemic of wealth inequality in the US. Chuck was born on third base, but chose a better way, reducing his wealth. Notwithstanding his moderation, he has worked with the Patriotic Millionaires to bring our society back from the edge of the inferno, back to sanity and well-being.

Having done this program for 20 years, I have had the opportunity to see the work my guests do evolve over time, and such is the case with Eileen Flanagan.

Edgar Villanueva is back on Spirit In Action with an importantly updated edition of his book, Decolonizing Wealth 2nd Edition: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance.

I ran into Pete Bastounes at a campground in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and learned about his transition from a political conservative and a Rush Limbaugh enthusiast to a Thom Hartmann and Bernie Sanders liberal, a change that could be promising for those who wish to speak across the political & cultural spectrum. Pete Bastounes is union steward for local 150 operating engineers in Illinois, a compelling speaker, and a great hope for our future.

Jeremy Lent explores the way forward for humanity & all life on Earth by a deep dive into knowledge, connection, insight, and wisdom in his latest book, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science & Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe.

The work of the International Center for Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) is to develop & share the knowledge needed for effective civil resistance, and they are providing the info in more than 60 languages to freedom, justice, & democracy workers all around the world. Hardy Merriman has been Preside

I've seen alternative & sustainable energy technology evolve tremendously in my lifetime, and yet I know there are applications, like hydroelectric energy, that continue to be valuable contributors to our world. One that, sadly, has diminished mightily in most of our eyes, is the water-pumping windmills. At one time they were spread widely across our country, but now they are mostly broken, non-functional, and rusty relics seen here-and-there.