The Paths To Understanding Podcast

In our last episode of Challenge 2.0, we opened a conversation examining the growing ‘rights of nature’ movement. Advocates assert extending legal personhood to corporations while withholding it from ecosystems has led to what they call a ‘plunderverse’; that is, a planet where resources are being rapidly depleted, leading to mass extinctions and threatening the survival of all but the wealthiest...

Four hundred years ago, scientists and philosophers asserted that animals were merely machines-that what might be interpreted as a dog’s cry of pain wasn’t an expression of feeling. The philosopher Rene Descartes taught such a cry was no different than a clock striking the hour-a purely mechanical reaction. That view was fundamental to reducing animals and nature to ‘things’, not ‘beings’ that exi...

In last week’s edition of Challenge 2.0, we began a conversation with Sociologist Pepper Schwartz to understand the hyper-vanity and hyper-masculinity of the Manosphere. We continue that conversation this week, exploring related movements, their implications and constructive responses.

It’s called Lookmaxxing, and the measures taken by it's adherents would be ludicrous if they weren’t so dangerous. They include ‘bonesmashing’, men breaking their facial bones with hammers for a more sculpted appearance, injecting themselves with plastic cement fillers, even spending thousands on height-extension surgery. This exaggerated form of vanity is preached through various media collective...

Women make up twenty percent of the U.S. military. They pilot helicopters and tactical aircraft, and serve in special operations forces such as the Army Rangers and Green Berets. Five of the eighteen US soldiers reported killed in the war on Iran have been women. Their deaths and the active service provided by thousands of other women come at a time when the Trump administration has fired high ran...

Black Americans make up seventeen percent of post-9/11 members of the military, which exceeds their proportion of the U.S. population. Although black Americans have served in every conflict since and including the American revolution, they have faced discrimination, disrespect and even physical intimidation and violence-trends that have increased since 2025. Two widely reported examples include wa...

Hate crimes and hate groups have increased sharply since the year 2000. Although hatred is often described as an emotion, psychologists assert it’s actually a learned behavior-a behavior that damages those that hate as much as those who are the subject of that hate. In this edition of Challenge 2.0, faith leaders from Christianity, Judaism and Islam examine the costly culture of contempt in the U....

Fewer Americans vote in elections than in most other western democracies. A Pew Research study ranked U.S. voter participation 31st out of 35 western democracies. It pointed to restrictive voting laws and manipulation of voting districts. Analysts have called current efforts to eliminate, reduce or manipulate voting as effectively gagging American citizens, preventing their ability to influence th...

In last week’s edition of Challenge 2.0, two Seattle area faith leaders examined the controversial claim that ‘God approves of the U.S. attack on Iran’. This week, we continue that conversation, examining whether war and violence can be divinely inspired, and what faith requires of each of us. 

More than 200 American soldiers from all branches of service have filed formal complaints against the US military, alleging their commanders told them the Iran war was ‘part of God’s plan’. One complaint quoted an officer as saying President Trump had been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark the return of Jesus to earth. The pushback from leading faith l...

In last week’s edition of Challenge 2.0, we began a conversation with two highly experienced western Washington law enforcement officials. One, a retired prosecutor-the other, a retired police chief are deeply concerned over the long-term impact of aggressive seizures of alleged illegal immigrants and refugees. We now continue that conversation

Political, legal and faith leaders have been increasingly criticizing the ICE and Border Patrol raids and tactics. Law enforcement officials are increasingly joining in those criticisms. In this edition of Challenge 2.0, we speak with a retired prosecutor and a retired police chief, both with decades of experience in the Puget Sound area. They contend the methods used by federal agents to impose l...

American religious leaders are becoming increasingly vocal in their opposition to federal seizures of alleged illegal immigrants and refugees. A leading Catholic biweekly newspaper asserted members of the faith must decide between loyalty to leaders supporting the raids or loyalty to the Gospel. Lutheran churches have filed lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security. An Episcopal Bishop...

Millie Smith was one of 20,000 American children secretly exposed to radioactive gases; gases released from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in eastern Washington. She later told Congress she developed metastasized Thyroid Cancer, describing classmates who died, illness-induced poverty that forced her to subsist at times on rice and popcorn. “We are as abused children, victims of our own country”,...

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.” That quote attributed to the late American Anthropologist Margaret Mead has inspired countless activists. That included a small but dedicated group of men and women who began a pilgrimage from Washington State to the Middle East in 1982. They walked 6700 miles! More than forty years later, their experience offe...

When Christians seek to celebrate the foundation of Christmas, they collide with what’s been called the scandal of the holiday. Jesus was born to a family not of power and wealth, but of poverty and humility-a family soon forced to flee, to become homeless refugees, their infant son targeted for death by the insecurities of a king. It resonates with the reality of many who have been our neighbors...

The word ‘hangry’ describes a real physical condition; when hunger-low blood sugar-causes the release of hormones that make people angry. It’s also been used to describe the emotional state in this country. In last week’s episode of Challenge 2.0, we explored the rise of Nihilism-the rising drive to destroy-institutions, relationships, individuals. This week, we continue our conversation

Faith in religion isn’t the only element at or near an all-time low in America; so is faith in American institutions. That was the finding of a recent Gallup poll. Observers say that masks an even more serious trend-the willing embrace of demonization and fearmongering, the drive to destroy and to gain power by any means possible. That trend, that orientation, is called Nihilism. In this episode o...

In last week’s edition of Challenge, we began a conversation centered on wisdom sharing by Pacific Northwest tribal leaders aimed at transforming the ongoing conflict-in our neighborhoods, country and on our home planet. This week, we continue our conversation with Dr. Kurt Russo, the co-executive director of a group founded by northwest indigenous nations called Se Si Le. In their collective work...

In 1988, the U.S. Senate recognized the Iroquois Confederacy of five native American tribes as a core foundation of the Constitution and our political system. That confederacy was founded in 1142, and has been recognized as the oldest living participatory democracy on earth. It ended a long, costly and destabilizing period of conflict among those tribes. In this episode of Challenge 2.0, we’ll lea...

As American forces pushed into Germany in early 1945, soldiers were also fighting a major morale problem. Many had not received mail for at least months. The newly formed Six-Triple Eight battalion was charged with finding a solution. The predominantly black Army unit processed seventeen million pieces of undelivered mail in half the time expected. Yet their dedication was met with repeated bigotr...

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www. PathsToUnderstanding.org Eleven years ago, a college student named Elliott Rodger shot three young women outside their California sorority, killing two of them. It was part of a rampage that would claim the lives of six and injure fourteen others. The coming months and years would bring copycat attacks by others, who like Rodger, were frustra...

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www. PathsToUnderstanding.org    In last week’s episode of Challenge 2.0, we met a small group of western Washington residents convinced that the courage to connect remains in what seems to be the Disunited States of America. They introduced us to the program they developed called Let’s Go Together that they believe can bring a sense of connection...

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www. PathsToUnderstanding.org America in the twenty first century seems to be defined by disconnection. That it’s become atoxic blend of distrust, discrimination and defiance; rejectingthe legal and social norms of cooperation built over decades. But aprogram called Let’s Go Together is proving that the courageto connect remainsin this countryand...

Allison Ralph is a thought leader in religious pluralism and social cohesion, Allison Ralph brings 20 years’ experience in strategy, research, and nonprofit and philanthropic leadership. She previously worked at The Aspen Institute, where she served as Associate Director of the Religion & Society Program and Director of its Religion and Philanthropy Initiative. Allison has a PhD in church hist...