The Growing Edge

In this episode, Carrie & Parker welcome poet Lynn Ungar. In 2020 Her poem "Pandemic" went viral and introduce her insightful, spiritual, wry and sometimes political writing to a wider audience. We consider two different poems and discuss the role of the artist in public discourse.

In this episode Parker & Carrie discuss spirituality, justice and living authentically with author and theologian, Diana Butler Bass. Diana talks about her history as a person of faith, the challenges for woman in theological settings, her writing and work with "The Cottage" as an ongoing exploration what it means to live a life of revolutionary love.

In this episode Carrie & Parker welcome Author/Poet Barbara Kingsolver. Together they discuss the natural world, mortality, the promise of ambiguity, making, the writer's life, knitting and her new book of luminous poetry How To Fly (in Ten Thousands Easy Lessons.

This month on The Growing Edge podcast we revisit our December 2018 conversation with poet Naomi Shihab Nye. Naomi has received numerous honors for her work, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle, and the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award. She is currently the Poetry Foundation’s Young People’s Poet Laureate. In this conversation we read and discuss her luminous...

This month on The Growing Edge podcast we revisit our December 2018 conversation with poet Naomi Shihab Nye. Naomi has received numerous honors for her work, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle, and the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award. She is currently the Poetry Foundation’s Young People’s Poet Laureate. In this conversation we read and discuss her luminous...

In this episode Carrie and Parker discuss May Sarton's powerful poem, "The Angels & The Furies."   In this conversation we talk about the angels and furies of our nature.  In these times when many of us are wrestling with what to do with our furies in life giving ways, what does it mean to be "perfectly human but never perfect"?   How do we also incline our heads and notice where the graces of our...

In this episode Carrie and Parker continue their conversation about creativity and the undivided life, writing from the "margins", following a call to and beyond the growing edge, and the red threads that run through Parker's work over the past 50 years. This podcast also features one of Parker's poems, "The Poem I Would Have Writ."

In this episode Parker and Carrie take a moment to talk about Carrie's newest companion projects Until Now CD & Until Now: New Poems.  They discuss the themes that run through these two companion pieces; resilience and uncertainty, loss, discover and being in process. They discuss how creativity can be expressed in a traditional art form, but also in how we approach our relationships, parenting, c...

In this episode Parker and Carrie are in conversation with author, journalist, activist, Courtney Martin, about her new book, Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter's School.  Courtney has a popular Substack newsletter, called Examined Family, and speaks widely at conferences and colleges through out the country. She is also the co-founder of the Solutions Jour...

A conversation with beloved meditation teacher and founder of The Insight Meditation Society. In this episode we explore the practice of mindfulness and meditation to deepen our own lives and sustain our capacity to stay engaged and serve others. We discuss Sharon's book "Real Change" and her work with diverse groups to process suffering and create a sustainable positive change. Sharon leads us an...

Because Carrie was in the studio this month working on a new album, we decided not to record a new podcast for June. Instead, we are revisiting our 2019 interview with our dear friend, Mark Nepo, poet and author. In this interview we explored what it means to show up as our authentic self and how when we are in touch with our deepest human experiences we are in touch with our shared human experien...

For our May, 2021 podcast, we welcome Dr. Luther E. Smith Jr., Professor Emeritus at Candler Seminary, author, educator, pastor, mystic, and elder. In this episode we talk about how identity is shaped and expanded and how conversations about race could be more authentic and powerful. We also explore what it meant for him to follow a spiritual calling and the experiences that led him to his friends...

Parker and Carrie welcome singer songwriter, activist John McCutcheon, musician, activist and spiritual seeker.  He has 41 albums to his credit,  has received six Grammy Award nominations and worked for 40 years bringing together intelligent thoughtful songs, fearless commentary and music for social change. In this episode we talk about the power of music to connect and inspire, the dignity and va...

For our March, 2021 podcast, we welcome John Paul Lederach, Professor Emeritus of International Peacebuilding, and internationally respected expert in conflict transformation. John Paul describes the stages that lead to violence in a society, as well as the ways people heal and create communal networks of change. Please join us for this insightful conversation. "Peacebuilding is walking toward a h...

In this episode, Carrie and Parker reflect upon the happenings of 2020.  They discuss challenges we've faced in the past year as well as focus and evidence for hope in the new year.  They explore the idea of living in the "Tragic Gap" and living into creative citizenry.  They read Mary Oliver's lovely poem "Starlings in Winter" and discuss grief and getting past it, and what is is putting lift int...

In this episode, Carrie and Parker have a conversation with Poet, Ross Gay, author of The Book of Delights & Be Holding.  We talk about Ross's books, his thoughts about finding delight in his daily life as a daily practice, joy as an act of resistance and the importance of creating a connection to one another and to the natural world.  We hope you'll join us for this "delightful" and thoughtful co...

In this episode, Carrie and Parker ask how We the People can help renew the American body politic post-election. How do we have open-hearted conversations across lines of difference, without blinking facts or backing away from critical issues of equity and justice? As we step into the future, knowing we will help create it one way or another, how do we ground ourselves to do the hard work ahead, h...

Carrie and Parker have a conversation about the Inner work of democracy and the common good with Preeta Bansal. Preeta was Solicitor General of the State of New York, then as General Counsel in the Obama White House, where she played a major role in the Office of Management and Budget during the financial collapse of 2008. Preeta now finding expression in ServiceSpace, an ecosystem in which she is...

In this Growing Edge Podcast, we talk with author, educator, and activist Gregory Ellison II about his new book, Anchored in the Current, a collection of essays about the enduring influence of mystic, theologian, and civil rights activist Howard Thurman.

In this Growing Edge Podcast, we explore mortality, living with presence in the pandemic, the importance of creativity and collaboration—and we debut our new single, "The Music Will Play On” (lyrics by Parker, music by Carrie).

The July Growing Edge Podcast features a poem that illumines the American uprising for racial justice and our role in it. Carrie and Parker explore William Stafford’s poem, "A Ritual to Read to Each Other". Taking one verse at a time, they talk about the light the poem sheds on this moment of national awakening and our response to it. The work now required to rid the U.S. of structural racism has...

In this Growing Edge Podcast, Parker and Carrie talk with author, attorney, filmmaker, and activist Valarie Kaur. In her new book, See No Stranger: A Memoir & Manifesto of Revolutionary Love, Valarie invites us to a revised and renewed version of the historic nonviolent movement for social change.

In this Growing Edge Podcast Parker J. Palmer & Carrie Newcomer have an open hearted conversation about maintaining hope in the time of covid-19. They describe the many layers that come up when we ask one another, "How are you?" There are conversation starter pdf on the Growing Edge website to discuss the topic of this conversation with others in your life.

Carrie and Parker explore many questions about living with uncertainty, disruption, and revelation in this time of coronavirus. What helps us grow and still our hearts?  What comes up personally and emotionally when we slow down? What do we have no control over, and what is in our realm of care and influence? What experiences in the past can help us navigate what we are experiencing now? What new...

Carrie and Parker have a heart opening conversation with musicians Karin Bergquist & Linford Detweiler (Over The Rhine). They explore the creative process, the spiritual and personal threads that run through their music, balancing inward and outward engagement, creating community and “thin places in the world.” We discuss of three of their beautiful songs, “Betting on the Muse” “Broken Angels” and...