
The Growing Edge
The Growing Edge Podcast is hosted by Parker J. Palmer and Carrie Newcomer. In this podcast Carrie, Parker and exciting guests will explore new life on the growing edge - personally, vocationally and politically. What's your growing edge?
Latest episodes

May 31, 2020 • 50min
Episode 22- Revolutionary Love - A Conversation With Valarie Kaur
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.

Apr 30, 2020 • 55min
Episode 21: Gardening In The Dark
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.

Mar 31, 2020 • 55min
Episode 20 - A Conversation About Living In Uncertain Times
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 understanding and skills might we acquire. How do we respond to this new window into what it means to be "at risk”? On the other side of this experience, what opening, what invitation to see and do things differently might we embrace?
Image for this podcast by Quint Buchholz: Giacomond, 1984
No restrictions on further use.

Feb 29, 2020 • 60min
Episode 19: A Conversation w/ Over The Rhine - Musicians Karin Bergquist & Lindford Detweiler
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 “Meet Me At The Edge Of The World.”

Feb 10, 2020 • 45min
Growing Edge Feb 2020 Episode 18
In this episode Carrie and Parker explore Wendell Berry's poem "The Wild Geese" and that what we need is here, within us and between us.

Jan 3, 2020 • 41min
Episode 17: New Year's Revolutions
Join Parker and Carrie as they explore the idea of New Year’s Revolutions.
At the turn of the year many of us engage in the cultural practice of New Year's resolutions. Often these intentions have to do with visiting the gym more frequently, diet or creating a more desirable habit to replace an old one. But what would it be like to begin the year with with a series of New Year's revolutions? What is a New Year's revolution and how could this new way of looking at intention and change be of benefit in the coming year?
We hope you'll listen and download our conversation starter pdf, and engage in your own New Year's Revolution conversations by visiting our website www.newcomerpalmer.com/podcast
In this episode is a BRAND NEW unrecorded song by Carrie Newcomer called "On The Day You Were Born"

Nov 28, 2019 • 43min
Episode 16 "Questions Before Dark" A Conversation About Living With Questions
Join Carrie and Parker as they explore Jeanne Lohmann's, "Questions Before Dark”
“Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart… Try to love the questions themselves… Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given because you would not be able to live them—and the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answers.” —Rainer Marie Rilke

5 snips
Oct 29, 2019 • 44min
Episode 15 The Violence of Overactivity—The Wisdom of Living at the Speed of Soul
Join Parker and Carrie for a conversation about this powerful Thomas Merton quote, and how they personally wrestle with overactivity and try to reclaim the wisdom of living at the speed of soul.

Aug 31, 2019 • 1h 2min
Episode 14 The Growing Edge of Navigating Conflict
In our September podcast, Carrie and Parker take on the topic of conflict on the personal, vocational, and political growing edges of our lives. We live in divisive times, culturally and politically. For many of us, navigating these complexities with family, friends, and colleagues has become challenging. When navigating conflict, what helps you stay true to yourself and your deepest values and beliefs? What touchstones and practices give you guidance in engaging other viewpoints creatively, and help you "know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em?"

Jul 30, 2019 • 60min
Episode 13: A Conversation With Beloved Author/Poet/Educator Mark Nepo
Join Parker and Carrie for a heart opening conversation with Author/Poet/Educator Mark Nepo as they discuss what it means to show up as our authentic self, balancing our inner and outer lives, and how when we are in touch with our deepest human experiences we are in touch with our shared human experience.
Mark Nepo has moved and inspired readers and seekers all over the world with his #1 New York Times bestseller The Book of Awakening. Beloved as a poet, teacher, and storyteller, Mark has been called “one of the finest spiritual guides of our time,” “a consummate storyteller,” and “an eloquent spiritual teacher.” His work is widely accessible and used by many and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages.
To learn more about Mark, his many powerful books and his upcoming retreats and workshops visit www.marknepo.com
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