Reconsidering

It's the Thanksgiving holiday break in the US, so we're re-broadcasting one of our favorite episodes about friendship and community, which is very timely as we approach the holiday season. Living in isolation for two years without the support of community clarified for many of us just how nourishing and essential relationships are to us. Now that we’re starting to re-enter the world, how might we be more intentional about cultivating community? Tina Roth-Eisenberg—Swissmiss to her hundreds of thousands of followers on the web—has thought about this deeply. She’s the founder of Creative Mornings, a global creative community in 224 cities and 67 countries that welcomes thousands of people each month to inspiring events. She’s also a master at bringing small groups together for support, and as you’ll hear in this episode, pretty clever at building new friendships. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/15

Katherine May first joined us on Reconsidering in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, to talk about her book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times. It was a timely topic and a memorable conversation as most of us were confronting one of the most challenging and isolating holidays seasons of our lifetimes. With that moment now thankfully behind us, Katherine has returned with a new book, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age. This time around, she turns our attention to fundamental questions about how else we might live and in particular how might we find a way to reconnect in a quiet and intimate way with the natural and immediate world that surrounds us all. It’s an important question, a wonderful book, and a rich starting point for our conversation. Thanks for listening. Show notes and transcript: http://reconsidering.org/episodes/37

It's time to confront one of life's most certain yet most avoided topics: the end of life. While death eventually greets us all, most of us skirt around the topic and what it means for us and our loved ones. In this illuminating conversation, we aim to demystify this phase of life and empower you to approach it with a sense of preparedness and dignity. Our guest, Shoshana Berger, serves as the Global Editorial Director at Ideo and brings a unique expertise to the table. She's worked on transformative projects with Zen Hospice to improve end-of-life experiences and is also the co-author of the pivotal book 'A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death' with Dr. BJ Miller. Together, we'll explore why people are so hesitant to talk about facing death, arm caregivers with essential knowledge for this stage, and discuss how to articulate your own wishes for this profound chapter of life. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/36

In the bestselling book Radical Candor, author Kim Scott laid out a simple framework for how to create, foster, and thrive in a culture that effectively gives and receives feedback—direct, clear, concise, and actionable. However, when you write a book about feedback, well, you get a lot of feedback, and indeed she did. Rather than ignoring or hiding from it, however, Kim decided to do the hard work of internalizing and processing it with the result being her latest book, Just Work. We had the pleasure of talking with Kim about just work, as well as hearing about the personal journey and experiences that motivated her to write it. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/35

Think your job is stressful? Try being an emergency response physician at the Mayo Clinic, one of the top hospitals in the US that sees some of the most extreme emergencies. Dr Richard Winters has been responding under pressure in chaotic situations for a long time, and it’s taught him valuable lessons about decision making and leadership. In his book, You're the Leader. Now What?, Richard distills his knowledge into simple frameworks and practical tactics that can help us lead colleagues and communities with confidence and make decisions with clarity. Show notes and transcript: http://reconsidering.org/episodes/34

Apology experts, Marjorie Ingall and Susan McCarthy, teach us about the power of a good apology and give examples of bad ones. They discuss personal growth, the influence of apology in psychiatry, and the impact of social media on apologies. They also examine bad examples of apologizing, explore the art of apologizing properly, and reflect on the importance of learning to apologize. Overall, this episode provides valuable insights on how to apologize well and strengthen relationships.

Brad Stulberg, author of Master of Change, shares deeply researched wisdom on embracing change and becoming resilient. The chapter explores cultural differences in perception of change, acceptance of pain, benefits of Athletic Greens' AG1, navigating traumatic change, finding stability amidst chaos, and identifying with values.

Oliver Roeder, a senior data journalist at the Financial Times and author of "Seven Games," explores the cultural significance of traditional games. He challenges the notion that gaming is trivial, discussing its vital role in personal growth and community bonding. The conversation touches on how games like chess and backgammon serve as tools for decision-making and creativity. Roeder also examines the relationships between gaming, AI, and the evolution of human intuition, highlighting games as a bridge across generations and a medium for deep learning.

Friendship is something that’s easy to take for granted. Meeting friends in our early years might have come easy but as we age friends move away, people couple off, careers and families start and suddenly making friends isn’t as easy as it used to be. As many studies have shown, if you want to live a longer, more fulfilling life you’ll need to invest in friendships now. In this episode we speak with friendship expert and author of We should get together: The secret to cultivating friendships, Kat Vellos. Kat shares practical guidance to jumpstart and strengthen your friendships. Show notes, a transcript, and links from this episode are at: http://reconsidering.org/episodes/30

Are you one of those people who thrives off a check-list? It feels satisfying to complete things, but the satisfaction only lasts for a fleeting moment as a cleared check-list invites more tasks. It's an exhausting treadmill that inevitably gives rise to guilt and shame when we can't keep up. Madeleine Dore, author of “I Didn’t Do the Thing Today; letting go of productivity guilt” joins us to talk about giving yourself permission to let go to focus on what really matters. We’ll talk about the difference between happiness and satisfaction, burnout and how to spot it, and how to create your own user manual so we can live a more energized and rewarding life that’s tailored just for us. Show notes and links for this episode are at http://reconsidering.org/episodes/29