Conversations With Remarkable Minds

Korten, David - Globalization Sustainability - 07.07.24

"The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community"; "When Corporations Rule the World" Global resistance against corporate globalization.

Dr. David Korten has become of our nation’s important visionary economists,   historians and critics of free-market globalization in the progressive community. He is former professor of Harvard University’s School of Business. For several decades he has lived on different continents in international development projects, mostly in south and southeast asia.  David is the founder of Yes Magazine and the Positive Futures Network.  He has written many important books, and most recently “The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community” and “An Agenda for a New Economy.”  His website is www.GreatTurning.org 

Kumar, Satish - Consciousness Civilization - 09.06.25

“No Destination” Spiritual Ecology; becoming an Earth pilgrim; vegetarianism as a means to live non-violently; the small is beautiful movement.

Satish Kumar is one of the few people in the world who fully embraces the principles of Mahatma Gandhi to promote a spirituality opposed to war & ecological destruction. Influenced by Bertrand Russell’s anti-nuclear war philosophy, Satish undertook an 8,000 mile peace pilgrimage, walking penniless from India to America to deliver “packets of peace tea” to the heads of government of the four nuclear powers: the Soviet Union, France, the UK and the US. He is the editor of the prestigious magazine Resurgence, which highlights many of our world’s greatest thinkers & visionaries. Influenced by the “small is beautiful” movement of Schumacher, he has founded pioneering schools & colleges that introduce ecological sanity & spiritual values into their curricula and continues to lecture internationally on reverential ecology, holistic education & voluntary simplicity. His autobiography is “No Destination”

Lakoff, George - Language Communicating Society - 07.03.07

"Metaphors We Live By", "Thinking Points: Communicating Our American Values". Thought & language: the centrality of metaphor to human thinking, political behavior & society.

George Lakoff is the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the Univ, of California at Berkeley, Although some of his research involves questions traditionally pursued by linguists, he is most famous for his ideas about the centrality of metaphor to human thinking, political behavior & society. He is well known for his concept of the "embodied mind", first written about in relation to mathematics, subsequently applied to politics as well. "Moral Politics" demonstrated that worldview differences arose from the application of the Nation-as-Family metaphor to two different idealized views of the family- a strict father family for conservatism, a nurturant parent family for liberalism. As a result, one could predict not only which policies conservatives & liberals would tend to support, what language would be used, but also the logic of apparently “irrational” positions, such as how conservatives could be pro-life & for the death penalty. “The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain” www.georgelakoff.com

Lakoff, George - Language Communicating Society - 11.02.25

"Metaphors We Live By", "Thinking Points: Communicating Our American Values". Thought & language: the centrality of metaphor to human thinking, political behavior & society. Continuing the discussion

George Lakoff is the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the Univ, of California at Berkeley,  Although some of his research involves questions traditionally pursued by linguists, he is most famous for his ideas about the centrality of metaphor to human thinking, political behavior & society. He is well known for his concept of the "embodied mind", first written about in relation to mathematics, subsequently applied to politics as well. "Moral Politics" demonstrated that worldview differences arose from the application of the Nation-as-Family metaphor to two different idealized views of the  family- a strict father family for conservatism, a nurturant parent family for liberalism.  As a result, one could predict not only which policies conservatives & liberals would tend to support, what language would be used, but also the logic of apparently “irrational” positions, such as how conservatives could be pro-life & for the death penalty. “The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain”    www.georgelakoff.com

Lappe, Frances Moore - Environment Consciousness Resilience - 07.10.30

"Getting A Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad" How we've created our culture and how we can step back to reshape it. We citizens of the world can take our lives & our governments into our own hands to create a better world, in which we can all thrive together.

Frances Moore Lappe is the author of 16 books, including her 1971 bestseller “Diet for a Small Planet” which influenced millions of people about the causes of hunger & the food choices we make.  Since then Frances has become one of the nation’s  leading social activists and an invaluable intellectual resource & visionary for a new democratic social movement. Towards this end, she has founded the Small Planet Institute & the Center for Living Democracy.   “EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want” argues that instead of becoming overcome by fear, guilt & despair towards our environmental and social crises, we need to make efforts to alter our mental constructs to embrace a commitment to positive action.

Lappe, Frances Moore - Environment Consciousness Resilience - 10.03.16

“Hope's Edge”; “You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear”. National & global democracy; the state of the nation & planet; powerlessness & fear; how to find new hope.

Frances Moore Lappe is the author of 16 books, including her 1971 bestseller “Diet for a Small Planet” which influenced millions of people about the causes of hunger & the food choices we make.  Since then Frances has become one of the nation’s  leading social activists and an invaluable intellectual resource & visionary for a new democratic social movement. Towards this end, she has founded the Small Planet Institute & the Center for Living Democracy.   “EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want” argues that instead of becoming overcome by fear, guilt & despair towards our environmental and social crises, we need to make efforts to alter our mental constructs to embrace a commitment to positive action.

Lappe, Frances Moore - Environment Consciousness Resilience - 11.09.19

“EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want” instead of becoming overcome by fear, guilt and despair towards our environmental and social crises, we can change the way we think to create the sustainable world we want.

Frances Moore Lappe is the author of 16 books, including her 1971 bestseller “Diet for a Small Planet” which influenced millions of people about the causes of hunger & the food choices we make.  Since then Frances has become one of the nation’s  leading social activists and an invaluable intellectual resource & visionary for a new democratic social movement. Towards this end, she has founded the Small Planet Institute & the Center for Living Democracy.   “EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want” argues that instead of becoming overcome by fear, guilt & despair towards our environmental and social crises, we need to make efforts to alter our mental constructs to embrace a commitment to positive action.

Lappe, Frances Moore - Environment GMO Sustainability - 12.10.12

“EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want” The GMO debate – her recent experiences in India with Vandana Shiva.

Frances Moore Lappe is the author of 16 books, including her 1971 bestseller “Diet for a Small Planet” which influenced millions of people about the causes of hunger & the food choices we make.  Since then Frances has become one of the nation’s  leading social activists and an invaluable intellectual resource & visionary for a new democratic social movement. Towards this end, she has founded the Small Planet Institute & the Center for Living Democracy.   “EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want” argues that instead of becoming overcome by fear, guilt & despair towards our environmental and social crises, we need to make efforts to alter our mental constructs to embrace a commitment to positive action.

Laszlo, Ervin - Consciousness Spirituality - 07.04.18

"The Chaos Point: The World at the Crossroads", A discussion of human consciousness: perception, thought, visualization & actualization; understanding the interconnectedness of all life, beings, & experiences; sharing experiences of intuition.

Dr. Evrin Laszlo is one of our planet’s great philosophers of science and integral theorists. He has published over 70 books and 100s of papers on post-modern culture and the interface between western civilization and the cutting edge of scientific discovery.  Since 1984, Dr. Laszlo has been concerned about the mounting threat challenging humanity across many disciplines: nuclear proliferation, climate change,  culture of egotism and corporatism, as well as the spiritual needs and thirst of peoples for a more equitable and enlightened world. In 1993, he founded the Club of Budapest with the goal to advance the evolution of human values and consciousness as a means to counter humanity’s race towards degradation, polarization and disaster.  “World Shift 2012: Making Green Business, New Politics and Higher Consciousness Work Together” offers a roadmap for integrating institutions with higher principles of consciousness science. www.ClubOfBudapest.org     

Laszlo, Erwin - Consciousness Spirituality - 09.11.10

"The Chaos Point: The World at the Crossroads", The need for a higher consciousness to tackle the global challenges facing us all.

Dr. Evrin Laszlo is one of our planet’s great philosophers of science and integral theorists. He has published over 70 books and 100s of papers on post-modern culture and the interface between western civilization and the cutting edge of scientific discovery.  Since 1984, Dr. Laszlo has been concerned about the mounting threat challenging humanity across many disciplines: nuclear proliferation, climate change,  culture of egotism and corporatism, as well as the spiritual needs and thirst of peoples for a more equitable and enlightened world. In 1993, he founded the Club of Budapest with the goal to advance the evolution of human values and consciousness as a            means to counter humanity’s race towards degradation, polarization and disaster.                          “World Shift 2012: Making Green Business, New Politics and Higher Consciousness Work Together” offers a roadmap for integrating institutions with higher principles of consciousness science.             www.ClubOfBudapest.org