Author: stuart

Lisa Smith, Holding Space for Community

“Everybody has a voice and if we just take the time to hear it, we can get underneath the things that keep us from deep learning, from deep interaction, from deep humanness,” says Lisa Smith in Hastings as she reflects in this vignette upon the nature of conversation, self-doubt, having a voice and shared human engagement. Recorded in a Chinese restaurant over dinner, we talked also about how Lisa holds space for community, as well as the potential necessity of the Heimlich maneuver… Listen below

Kimberly Craven and a Social Media Community

November is the National Native American Heritage Month and my conversation with Kimberly Craven about Native American affairs was fascinating. I met Kimberly in Chadron and we talked at length about the richness of native culture, ethnic passing, identity, politics, religion, and beef… Some of that conversation will follow in another post, however, as in this short extract Kimberly offers a view of what community means that I heard little while traveling for this project. Listen below:

Mark Swanson

Mark has spent much of his life ministering to others. I found his warmth and spiritual intelligence to be utterly compelling. In these brief excerpts Mark talks about the therapeutic, freeing and connecting power of conversation. Listen below