New Dimensions

Fear can create chronic anxiety, depression, and disconnection. However, Manly shares a hidden aspect of this same fear that affords us the opportunity to live a life with fear as an ally rather than a foe. In her research and work as a psychotherapist she has discovered a way out of destructive fear and how we can turn it into transformational healing. She is the author of: Joy From Fear: Create the Life of Your Dreams by Making Fear Your Friend. (Familius 2019).Interview Date: 7/30/2019     Tags: Carla Manly, fear, mirror neurons, jealousy, addiction, pornography, psychotherapy, empathy, Psychology, Health & Healing, Personal Transformation

Mindfulness is not about holding the busy world at bay, it’s to cultivate a more alive, responsive, effective and warm-hearted way of being within the world as it already exists and within a life you already live. This deep dialogue explores how to find composure right in the midst of the storm and ways to integrate mindfulness into our daily life.Marc Lesser’s books include Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less (New World Library 2009), Know Yourself, Forget Yourself (New World Library 2013) and Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader: Lessons From Google and a Zen Monastery Kitchen (New World Library 2019).Interview Date: 6/7/2019    Tags: MP3, Marc Lesser, mindfulness, Norman Fischer, Tassajara Zen Center, Macmindfulness, loving kindness, sympathetic joy, listening, Michael Pollan, self-sufficient, collaboration, acceptance, simplicity, radical responsibility for yourself, Shunryu Suzuki Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, blame, showing up, compassion, Robert Gass, ground truth, Meditation, Philosophy, Personal Transformation, Buddhism, Work/Livelihood

Despite ever more sophisticated medical technology and more expensive healthcare, chronic diseases are increasing. If mainstream medicine is doing its job, why are the rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease rising instead of decreasing? This deep dialogue with Roberto Tostado explores how many of us are choosing a toxic lifestyle and what can we do to transform it into a healthy one. He is the author of WTF* (or What the Food) Is Wrong with Our Health? A Rebel Physician’s Manifesto for Reversing Disease and Increasing Smiles (Roberto Tostado, MD 2019) Interview Date: 5/27/2019      Tags: Roberto Tostado, nutrition, pharmaceuticals, prescription drugs, genetic propensity, Aldous Huxley, opioid epidemic, obesity, metabolic diseases, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, toxins, GMOs, sugar, protein, good oils and fats, liver, Optimum Health Institute, Thyroid testing, hypoglycemia, coconut oil, Alzheimer’s, salt, inflammation, anti-oxidants, farmers markets, iBody Wellness Center, regenerative medicine, Health & Healing 

Sun explores breaking the cycles of fear and hurt by making conscious choices and connecting to one's own power and intuition. She sees current global challenges as indicators of an evolutionary leap in consciousness urging us to explore the integration of intuitive and rational thinking, also known as right brain/left brain thinking. Patricia Sun is a scientific mystic, philosopher, spiritual teacher, and consciousness pioneer. She has traveled the world empowering people to tap into their inherent creative capacity, resulting in new ways of thinking. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 3-1/2 years from the University of California, Berkeley, with degrees in Social Sciences and Psychology and Conservation and Natural Resources. She concentrates directly on creative solutions: "re-creating" thought patterns and "re-perceiving" experience. She’s considered to be a teacher's teacher and leads workshops and gives private consultations.Interview Date: 5/23/2025.    Tags: Patricia Sun, genius, imagination, interconnectedness of life, paradox, rational mind, intuition, right brain, left brain, perspective, despair, collective consciousness, astrology, Niels Bohr, love, imaginal cells, duality, creativity, either/or thinking, trust, Health & Healing, Personal Transformation, Philosophy, Psychology

Guzmán shares her personal experience of growing up in a politically divided family. She highlights the need for in-person interactions, attention, and containment in dialogues. She also discusses the role of media in perpetuating polarization and the potential for small-scale conversations to impact larger institutions like politics and media. Mónica Guzmán is a journalist and entrepreneur and is the Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels, a grassroots, cross partisan, organization working to depolarize America. She is cofounder of the newsletter The Evergrey out of Seattle Washington and is the proud liberal daughter of conservative parents and is a dual US/Mexican citizen. She is the author of I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times (BenBella Books 2022).Interview Date: 5/15/2025    Tags: Mónica Guzmán, listening, storytelling, uncertainty, assumption, biases, curiosity, Murial Rukeyser, Braver Angels, depolarizing America, attention, attention economy, Personal Transformation, Social Change/Politics, Community

There are no shortcuts in navigating growing older. As we pass into the second half of our lives, we will face the challenge of accepting the forces of limitation. The reality of aging is that it is an apprenticeship into life with the invitation of new ways of seeing, feeling, and being. Here we explore the challenges and gifts of growing older. Mark Nepo is a poet and philosopher and a most eloquent spiritual teacher. In 2015 he was given a Life-Achievement Award by AgeNation and in 2016 was named by Watkins Mind Body Spirit as one of the Most Spiritually Influential Living People. He was part of Oprah Winfrey’s The Life You Want Tour in 2014 and has appeared several times with Oprah on her Super Soul Sunday program on OWN TV. As a cancer survivor, Mark devotes his writing and teaching to the journey of inner transformation and the life of relationship. Mark Nepo is the author of many audio learning projects and over 20 booksInterview Date: 5/9/2025     Tags: Mark Nepo, aging, curiosity, limitations, Odyssey, Odysseus, Helen Luke, Tiresias, position of mastery, confidence, aging dog, Claude Monet, Personal Transformation, Philosophy, Community, Death & Dying

Design experts explore how we can engage with uncertainty and shape the future with clarity, creativity, and intention. Drawing from their work at Stanford’s d.school and their book Assembling Tomorrow, they offer tools for navigating rapid technological change while anchoring our creations in empathy, responsibility, and hope. Carissa Carter is the academic director at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.school) and a former geologist. Her work focuses on systems thinking, climate innovation, and design futures. Scott Doorley is the creative director at Stanford’s d.school. He has worked at the intersection of storytelling, physical space, and creative education, and has a background in film and media. They are co-authors of Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving FutureInterview Date: 4/4/2025     Tags: Carissa Carter, Scott Doorley, design, future, innovation, creativity, ethics, emotion, healing, runaway design, AI, synthetic biology, maps, metaphors, empathy, humility, Michael Bierut, Antonio Damasio, Gregory Bateson, Creativity, Philosophy, Technology, Design Thinking, Systems Thinking

Nelson-Isaacs tells us that synchronicity is defined as a meaningful coincidence that is personal and that it is nature’s language for communicating directly with us. He writes: “As you develop your personal sense of the meaning of events in your life, you enter into a cosmic dance with the divine that is totally unique to you.” He’s the author of Living in Flow: The Science of Synchronicity and How Your Choices Shape Your World (North Atlantic Books 2019).Tags: Sky Nelson-Isaacs, synchronicity, cognitive illusion, quantum mechanics, fear, LORAX Process, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, flow, control, grief, joy, disempowerment, meaningfulness, purposefulness, Science, Personal Transformation, Philosophy

In honor of broadcast journalist and commentator Bill Moyers, who passed on June 25, 2025, we present this New Dimensions Archive Edition, recorded on October 4 1996 and hosted by MIchael Toms. Moyers was widely respected for accessible, provocative television programs that explore a broad spectrum of contemporary topics with depth and sensitivity. In this New Dimensons Archive Edition he discusses his original approach to broadcast journalism and his series “Genesis: A Living Conversation,” consisting of ten lively discussions about stories in the first book of the Bible. In these programs, he describes why these are among the most powerful stories in Western Civilization, and the fascinating process of uncovering their deeper, often controversial meanings. Moyers says, “Stories are the way we organize our response to the world…Listening to others, and having them listen to you, is a way to grow your own faith.”

Gustin explores how we create our personal myths. This begins when, as toddlers, we start to use language.Our thoughts do a great job of defining us as a discrete individual with a particular narrative about who we think we are but this can contribute to a negative self-concept. She emphasizes the concept of “selfing” as an on-going process rather than as a fixed identity. She is the author of: The No-Self Help Book: 40 Reasons to Get Over You Self & Find Peace of Mind (Non-duality Press 2018) Tags: Kate Gustin, language, consciousness, no self, selfing, no-self, conscious, ground of being, Max Planck, identity, eating, PTSD, EMDR, rational mind, Philosophy, Personal Transformation, psychology