Earth and Spirit Podcast

Inward Bound Mindfulness is a nonprofit organization offering intensive mindfulness retreats to youth across the country. In this episode, Inward Bound Executive Director Erik Osugi, and Nikki Cistac, the lead for programs and community engagement, talk about the transformative power of mindfulness for a richly diverse community of young people. Resources: Donate to support this podcast: https://w...

Matt Weir is a Louisville-based sculptor and stonecarver who has been commissioned to create an outdoor sculpture for the Earth & Spirit Center. In this episode, Matt reflects on his creative process, including the cosmic humility and contemplative practice entailed in working slowly with ancient natural materials. RESOURCES: Donate to support this podcast: https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/don...

Louisville Collegiate School is an independent school committed to whole-child education. In this episode, Head of School Rob Macrae and Assistant Head of School Jim McGuire describe how they are introducing spiritual practices and principles in a secular educational context, as a way to cultivate kids with self-awareness, a sense of community, resilience, and a commitment to the common good of pe...

Will Hunter is a former monk, hermit, and wilderness therapy guide, who currently serves as the retreat director for the Earth & Spirit Center in Louisville, KY. In this episode, Will and I talk about the evolution of monastic life and how the desert or wilderness spirituality of monastic practice is possible – and even essential – for all of us, even in the midst of our built environments and our...

Shelly Sowell is a therapist and well-being coach who integrates mindfulness and self-compassion into her work with individuals and organizations. In this episode, we reflect on how mindfulness provides a helpful path of healing, integration, and hope for individuals and communities in the wake of the 2024 elections. RESOURCES: Donate to support this podcast: https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/d...

In this brief episode, Earth & Spirit Podcast host and producer Kyle Kramer gives some background on why the podcast feed has been dark for a bit, and what the future holds for the podcast moving forward.

David Gershon is the co-founder and CEO of Empowerment Institute, author of a dozen books, and is one of the foremost social change experts in the world. In this conversation, David shares his vision of world peace by 2030 and the inspired and inspiring way he is helping create the means to achieve it. RESOURCES: Donate to support this podcast: https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/donate/ Earth &...

Brayton Bowen is an organizational consultant, author, educator, and speaker, who served as a senior human resources officer for Fortune 500 companies. He’s also a fierce advocate for compassion in the workplace. In this episode, we explore the benefits compassion can bring in organizational life and beyond. RESOURCES: Donate to support the Earth & Spirit Podcast: https://www.earthandspiritcenter....

John Gage is a Louisville-based folk singer-songwriter and a former public radio host. For over six decades, his music has engaged deeply with spirituality, social justice, and care for the Earth. John brought his beloved old Martin guitar with him to the Earth & Spirit Center to add a few live songs to this wide-ranging conversation about music as a force for good in the world. His most recent al...

Mat McDermott is Senior Director of Communications for the Hindu American Foundation, a non-profit advocacy organization for the Hindu American community, and an author and contributor for many Hindu American Foundation policy positions on environmental care and the ethical treatment of animals. This conversation explores how Hindu spirituality, and especially the various forms of yoga, help culti...

In honor of the Earth & Spirit Center’s upcoming summer camps, we’re replaying an episode from the archives, about the importance of nature-based free play. Claude Stephens is the Facilitator of Outreach and Regenerative Design for Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest. He’s also the director of Bernheim’s Children at Play Network, an initiative that helps connect children to nature through free...

Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares is a priest in the Rinzai Zen Buddhist tradition and serves as the executive director of Spiritual Directors International, an interfaith non-profit that provides resources for spiritual guidance and counsel. This conversation explores what spiritual direction is and how important it is for discerning wisdom and divine presence in all aspects of our life. RESOURCE...

Rebecca and Pete Davis are a sister-and-brother filmmaking team who have created “Join or Die,” a documentary film about the decline of civic life in America and the importance of joining clubs and other associations as a way to restore the health of our democracy. This episode explores how we are all made for belonging and how we can lean into the profoundly joyful work of becoming more deeply co...

Osprey Orielle Lake is the founder executive director of WECAN, the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, and the author of The Story is in Our Bones: How Worldviews and Climate Justice Can Remake a World in Crisis. In this episode, we explore how embracing a different story about our belonging in a living, animate world can transform our self-understanding and can help to heal our relationshi...

Tom Williams is a Louisville-based labor relations attorney with a deep commitment to the contemplative path, with the wild idea that a lawyer’s vocation may ultimately be to serve as a healer. In this conversation, Tom shares how he puts spiritual principles and insights into action as a tireless advocate for radical compassion, restorative justice, equity, and inclusion. RESOURCES: Donate to sup...

Dr. Susan Taylor is a PhD economist who has given her life to weaving together commitments of religious faith and commitments to a more just economy. In this episode, we reflect on the central and complicated role that money plays in human life. As an alternative to bare-knuckled capitalism, Susan offers the idea of Sabbath Economics – a radical vision of abundance and economic justice for people...

Dr. Michael Hollifield is a psychiatrist and general practitioner who serves as the Founder, President, and CEO of the War Survivors Institute, a nonprofit organization devoted to restoring health to civilians and soldiers who have been harmed by war, as well as mitigating the causes of violent conflicts. In this conversation, Michael reflects on the causes of war, its devasting effects, and how m...

Denise Davis taught writing for decades and is deeply committed to the spiritual journey and to journaling as a particular avenue of spiritual practice. In this conversation, Denise describes journaling as a chance to create what Howard Thurman called an Isle of Peace, where it’s safe to reflect on our experience, cultivate compassion for others, and seek the imprint of the divine in our lives. RE...

Stephanie Barnett is a healthcare consultant, spiritual director, and nonprofit leader who understands her work as accompanying those on the margins, including young mothers who are in active recovery from substance abuse. In this conversation, Stephanie shares how compassion is the spiritual thread woven throughout all her work, knitting together communities of kinship and belonging, where all ca...

Matthew Fox is an author, theologian, and activist Episcopal priest whose radical interfaith work attempts to reawaken us to the sacredness of the created world. In this conversation, originally released in October 2022, Matthew reflects on how creation-centered spirituality, and the marriage of the divine feminine and sacred masculine, can help us respond with hope to the troubles of our apocalyp...

Andy Loving is the founder of Just Money Advisors, a financial advising firm that specializes in working with clients who have strong interests in socially responsible and ecologically sustainable investing. This conversation delves into the complicated role that money plays in our lives and how spiritual values can inspire us to use money and investing as tools for bringing about the more beautif...

Dr. Patricia Gianotti is the Academic Director of The Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy at Loyola University Chicago. As a clinician in private practice, she works with clients around issues related to trauma, shame, and narcissism. She’s also the founder of the Center for Spiritual Integration, an organization dedicated to the integration of spiritual and psychological aspects of the...

After successful careers in business, Di Anne and Tom Kerrigan have become deeply involved in sharing mindfulness with those who need its practical benefits but may have barriers to access. This episode is the second half of a conversation with them about the democratization of mindfulness and the role mindfulness and compassion can play not only in improving the lives of individuals, but also in...

Di Anne and Tom Kerrigan are an entrepreneurial couple who sold their successful business and then devoted their considerable energy and talents to sharing mindfulness with underserved community members, in collaboration with the Earth & Spirit Center. In this first of a two-part conversation, Di and Tom reflect on the difference mindfulness can make in the lives of people who face extraordinary c...

Scott Russell Sanders is a Cambridge-educated novelist, essayist, conservationist, and a distinguished professor of English, emeritus, at Indiana University. He wrote and taught for decades about nature and place, family and community, and the concerns of social justice and ecology, woven together with a spirituality that is rooted in awe and wonder. This conversation, from our archives, explores...