Personal Life Media

Episode Description:

“For human evolution to continue, the conversation must deepen.” – Margaret Mead

In this intriguing 3-part dialogue with my deep friend Angeles Arrien, the leading cross-cultural anthropologist of our time, we engage in one of the key 21st century projects – the co-creation of new planetary scale inspirational, normative, and unifying myths. Of the many compelling and informative perspectives emerging as this new world view takes shape is the report by Angeles of the results of an indigenous wisdom consensus prophecy for our time: the braiding of the sky wisdom and the earth wisdom together through the human heart.

See also my prior Dialogue 52 on this site with Angeles regarding the stages and role of an emerging new synthesizing elderhood and wisdom culture for our time.

“Dialogue is the Language of Evolutionary Transformation”™.

Contact me if you like at www.livingdialogues.com. Visit my blog at Duncan.personallifemedia.com. ”. (For more, including information on the Engaged Elder Wisdom Dialogue Series on my website www.livingdialogues.com, click on Episode Detail to the left above and go to Transcript section.)

Among others, programs you will find of interest on these themes are my Dialogues on this site with Duane Elgin, Paul Ray, Michael Meade, Coleman Barks, Sobonfu Some, Vine DeLoria Jr., Barbara Marx Hubbard, and Michael Dowd, among others [click on their name(s) in green on right hand column of the Living Dialogues Home Page on this site].

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey. My thanks and appreciation for your participation.

Episode Description:

“For human evolution to continue, the conversation must deepen.” – Margaret Mead

In this dialogue with Susan Jacoby, we dialogue (rather than argue) about the pressing need to reclaim a love of reading and genuine truth (rather than “truthiness”, in Stephen Colbert’s felicitous turn of phrase, which has been the coin of the realm of media and politicians of the last decades). The first step in the direction of a genuinely new empowerment of general citizen awareness and fulfillment must be in self-education and education of the youngest among us as they grow. That involves going beyond the “bubba” manipulation mentality that has sanctioned ignorance as a badge of pretend patriotism.

In view of the New Era of potential global political change many feel has dawned in the early winter of 2008, this dialogue is particularly interesting in its reference to the historical changes in the family and social mores in the Western world and America over the centuries and recent decades with regard to respect for education, including reference to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s seminal lecture on the thinking person as a foundational necessity of true freedom and evolving rather than devolving.

“Dialogue is the Language of Evolutionary Transformation”™.

Contact me if you like at www.livingdialogues.com. Visit my blog at Duncan.personallifemedia.com. (For more, including information on the Engaged Elder Wisdom Dialogue Series on my website www.livingdialogues.com, click on Episode Detail to the left above and go to the Transcript section.) (

Among others, programs you will find of interest on these themes are my Dialogues on this site with Deborah Tannen, David Boren, Ted Sorensen, George Lakoff, Andrew Weil, Paul Ray, Steve McIntosh, and Michael Dowd, among others [click on their name(s) in green on right hand column of the Living Dialogues Home Page on this site].

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey. My thanks and appreciation for your participation.

Episode Description:

“For human evolution to continue, the conversation must deepen.” – Margaret Mead

In this intriguing 2-part dialogue with my friend Professor Ari Berk, acclaimed mythologist and storyteller, we share back and forth a wealth of information illuminating the deep sources of the mystery of life and death enacted each year in the cosmos at the time of the Winter Solstice. Their hold on the spirit and imagination of peoples of all ages everywhere “leaning into, wanting to participate in, the cosmic mysteries” has generated throughout the ages numerous stories, songs, ceremonies and celebrations to honor and evoke our shared divinity and the joy of creation.

In view of the New Era of potential global political change many feel has dawned in the early winter of 2008, this Part 2 dialogue is particularly interesting in its understanding of how the celebration of the evergreen, renewing energies evoked at Christmastime and the Winter Solstice can lift the spirits and create a foundation for bringing the light and warmth of our inner sun alive, and into all our relations throughout the year and our shared journeys on the planet.

“Dialogue is the Language of Evolutionary Transformation”™.

Contact me if you like at www.livingdialogues.com. Visit my blog at Duncan.personallifemedia.com. ”. (For more, including information on the Engaged Elder Wisdom Dialogue Series on my website www.livingdialogues.com, click on Episode Detail to the left above and go to Transcript section.)

Among others, programs you will find of interest on these themes are my Dialogues on this site with Michael Meade, Angeles Arrien, Coleman Barks, Sobonfu Some, Vine DeLoria Jr., and Michael Dowd.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey. My thanks and appreciation for your participation.

Episode Description:

“For human evolution to continue, the conversation must deepen.” – Margaret Mead

In this intriguing 2-part dialogue with my friend Professor Ari Berk, acclaimed mythologist and storyteller, we share back and forth a wealth of information illuminating the deep sources of the mystery of life and death enacted each year in the cosmos at the time of the Winter Solstice. Their hold on the spirit and imagination of peoples of all ages everywhere “leaning into, wanting to participate in, the cosmic mysteries” has generated throughout the ages numerous stories, songs, ceremonies and celebrations to honor and evoke our shared divinity and the joy of creation.

In view of the New Era of potential global political change many feel has dawned in the early winter of 2008, this Part 1 dialogue is particularly interesting in its reference to the historical changes in the family and social mores in the Western world and America over the centuries -- and the restrictive or transformative role played by the different ways in which the secular and religious holiday of Christmas has been celebrated over time.

“Dialogue is the Language of Evolutionary Transformation”™.

Contact me if you like at www.livingdialogues.com. Visit my blog at Duncan.personallifemedia.com. ”. (For more, including information on the Engaged Elder Wisdom Dialogue Series on my website www.livingdialogues.com, click on Episode Detail to the left above and go to Transcript section.)

Among others, programs you will find of interest on these themes are my Dialogues on this site with Michael Meade, Angeles Arrien, Coleman Barks, Sobonfu Some, Vine DeLoria Jr., and Michael Dowd.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey. My thanks and appreciation for your participation.

Episode Description:

“…this is a fantastic interview. Like you said , this would be an exploration, a discovery process, and through this interview I’ve been challenged to expand my awareness and think in a more enriched way. And, one, I’m appreciative that you’ve created a platform for me to share many of the ideas. Two, is you really do your homework, and I appreciate that. And, three, you enrich the whole interview by bringing forth your wealth of knowledge as a sharing together. So thank you very much.” – John Gray, author of “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus”, one of the best-selling books of the past decade, and now the follow-up New York Times Best-seller “Why Mars and Venus Collide”

“For human evolution to continue, the conversation must deepen.” – Margaret Mead

In this highly engaging 2-part dialogue with internationally-acclaimed John Gray, the best-selling relationship author of all time and 30-year marriage counselor, we go considerably deeper into the differences and creative possibilities between men and women (Vive La Difference!), exploring much further the themes first described by John in his mega-bestselling book, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus (over 40 million sold in over 45 languages throughout the world).

In his new bestseller, Why Mars and Venus Collide, these themes are now updated and considerably expanded, and entirely new ones are introduced, in the light also of the latest relevant scientific research. Our dialogue is full of fascinating insights, often very funny moments of self-recognition, and spontaneous back and forth mutual observations and stories beyond what’s in either of the two books -- showing with specific examples that, indeed, “old dogs can learn new tricks” of real transformative relational value in this arena at any age and whatever your gender. Great whether you’re single, married, in or out of relationship.

Go to Dialogue Episode 75 for Part 1.

“Dialogue is the Language of Evolutionary Transformation”™.

Contact me if you like at www.livingdialogues.com. Visit my blog at Duncan.personallifemedia.com. ”. (For more, including information on the Engaged Elder Wisdom Dialogue Series on my website www.livingdialogues.com, click on Episode Detail to the left above and go to Transcript section.)

Other programs you will find of interest on these themes are Dialogues 72 and 73 with Deborah Tannen, Dialogue 52 with Angeles Arrien, Dialogues 53 and 54 with Coleman Barks, Dialogues 55-57 with Sobonfu Some, Dialogue 28 with Michael Dowd, and Dialogue 69 with Barbara Marx Hubbard.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey. My thanks and appreciation for your participation.

Episode Description:

“I’m Dr. John Gray, author of Why Mars and Venus Collide. You’re listening to Living Dialogues with Duncan Campbell – which is a real dialogue, not just an interview, but rather something which inspires more information than I would normally share in an interview. He participates, I participate, and the result is something greater than whatever I thought was possible.” – John Gray, author of “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus”, one of the best-selling books of the past decade, and now the follow-up New York Times Best-seller “Why Mars and Venus Collide”

“For human evolution to continue, the conversation must deepen.” – Margaret Mead

In this highly engaging 2-part dialogue with internationally-acclaimed John Gray, the best-selling relationship author of all time and 30-year marriage counselor, we go considerably deeper into the differences and creative possibilities between men and women (Vive La Difference!), exploring much further the themes first described by John in his mega-bestselling book, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus (over 40 million sold in over 45 languages throughout the world).

In his new bestseller, Why Mars and Venus Collide, these themes are now updated and considerably expanded, and entirely new ones are introduced, in the light also of the latest relevant scientific research. Our dialogue is full of fascinating insights, often very funny moments of self-recognition, and spontaneous back and forth mutual observations and stories beyond what’s in either of the two books -- showing with specific examples that, indeed, “old dogs can learn new tricks” of real transformative relational value in this arena at any age and whatever your gender. Great whether you’re single, married, in or out of relationship.

“Dialogue is the Language of Evolutionary Transformation”™.

Contact me if you like at www.livingdialogues.com. Visit my blog at Duncan.personallifemedia.com. ”. (For more, including information on the Engaged Elder Wisdom Dialogue Series on my website www.livingdialogues.com, click on Episode Detail to the left above and go to Transcript section.)

Other programs you will find of interest on these themes are Dialogues 72 and 73 with Deborah Tannen, Dialogue 52 with Angeles Arrien, Dialogues 53 and 54 with Coleman Barks, Dialogues 55-57 with Sobonfu Some, Dialogue 28 with Michael Dowd, and Dialogue 69 with Barbara Marx Hubbard.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey. My thanks and appreciation for your participation.

Episode Description:

“Duncan Campbell has just been a terrific conversationalist and I’ve been so grateful for the opportunity to enjoy Living Dialogues. It’s a privilege. I can’t thank you enough. I’ve had a lot of interviews, but this one has been very special.” – Deborah Tannen, author of New York Times best-seller You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation

“For human evolution to continue, the conversation must deepen.” – Margaret Mead

In this dialogue with internationally-acclaimed scholar and author Deborah Tannen, we converse about the kind of fresh dialogue we can generate between the sexes as we all learn to more deeply observe and bring together “masculine speak” and “feminine speak”. As we understand and appreciate our different communication styles and influences, we have in essence the experience of learning another language to enter together the mystery of our otherness and celebrate Vive La Difference!

With the 2008 U.S. elections over we can turn our attention to the various personal dialogues we can cultivate “in building bridges of understanding and wisdom in the reaching out and cooperative spirit required by our 21st century realities, and the essential roles that we all are called to play in our evolution for it to take place”. (For more, including information on the Engaged Elder Dialogue Series on my website www.livingdialogues.com, click on Episode Detail to the left above and go to Transcript section.)

“Dialogue is the Language of Evolutionary Transformation”™.

Contact me if you like at www.livingdialogues.com. Visit my blog at Duncan.personallifemedia.com.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey.

Episode Description:

“Duncan Campbell has just been a terrific conversationalist and I’ve been so grateful for the opportunity to enjoy Living Dialogues.  It’s a privilege.  I can’t thank you enough.  I’ve had a lot of interviews, but this one has been very special.” – Deborah Tannen, author of New York Times best-seller The Argument Culture:  Stopping America’s War of Words

In this dialogue with internationally-acclaimed scholar and author Deborah Tannen (click on ”Episode Detail” to the left here and then “Bio” on her photo there), we talk about the origins and history of confrontational, adversarial debate in our Western modern mind culture, and how it has degenerated and been corrupted to the point that its present form has poisoned our educational and legal systems, as well as our media and politics; and how we can go beyond that now into co-creating a renewed culture that is vital and wise, one that chooses and embodies truth-seeking and truth-telling in generative dialogue and respectful truth-seeking debate, and which values and honors genuine integrity and authenticity (much as Socrates did in response to the corruption of Sophist philosophy and the ensuing decline of Periclean Age democracy  in Greece).

As I say in this Dialogue, we are in the midst of an evolutionary crisis, in which we need as a species to find a way to go beyond the adolescent “you’re either for us or against us” mentality into a co-creative discerning dialogue with mature voices.  We need to come to cultural consensus that knowing the truth is healthy and knowing what is real and deceptive is an important survival trait for the species.  We cannot continue, in our media and elsewhere, to allow deliberate deceit to be accepted and purveyed manipulatively as “negative ads” and other public pronouncements which are “just part of the ‘game’ of politics or advertising”. 

In this 2008 election, as supported by the global psyche and celebrated all around the world in a way not seen since V-E Day and V-J Day ending World War II, our entire species, including America, has survived this test of initiation into maturity.  More intiatic tests await us in the years to come until the Tipping Point is no longer in doubt.  Regressive and static forces are still in resistance, and so as I say in the Introduction to the Transcript section of the Episode Detail to this Dialogue:

This is the time for renewed dialogue, for visionary and inspiring discourse producing practical and innovative solutions together, to engage our own elder wisdom and youthful inspiration, and in so doing to experience and exemplify that “Dialogue is the Language of Evolutionary Transformation”™.

Next week, on Program 73, Deborah Tannen and I will converse about the kind of fresh dialogue we can generate between the sexes as we learn to more deeply observe, understand, and bring together “masculine speak” and “feminine speak” – as one of the kinds of dialogues we need to create “in building bridges of understanding and wisdom in the cooperative spirit and reaching out required by our 21st century realities, and the essential roles that we all are called to play in our evolution for it to take place”.

Ways in which we can all contribute our own new energy and ideas in this emerging paradigm shift are outlined in the dialogue with myself and Barbara Marx Hubbard re Citizen Solutions in Dialogue 69, and you can also go to the new website established by President-Elect Obama, http://Change.gov, click on "American Moment" and choose Share your Story or Share your Vision, and contact me if you live at www.livingdialogues.com.

 For a summary of some of the practical proposed solutions I have made to the New Era administration in this time of required change, you can see my additional website www.newenergycentury.com or contact me at www.livingdialogues.com.  Visit my blog at Duncan.personallifemedia.com.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey.

Episode Description:

“I can wholeheartedly say that this has been a most stimulating dialogue. Thank you so much.” – David Mendell, author and journalist with the Chicago Tribune

David Mendell is the first and premier biographer of the man newly elected President of the United States, Barack Obama.  This dialogue illuminates the background of the man and his/our mission in ways that illustrate why he is the destined choice in this role of and for our global zeitgeist, the world soul consciousness, the unfolding spirit of the times.  With the election of Barack Hussein Obama, we have successfully crossed an evolutionary threshold and are in position to dynamically move forward as a species.

The etymology of Barack is “blessed” and the etymology of Hussein is “beautiful” or “handsome”.  By our collective choice in this instance we have become blessed to once again talk of, aspire to, and embody Beauty, Truth, and Goodness in our lives without the sophistic soul-corroding irony of the past decades, and with the confidence and wisdom of Plato, Krishna, and all such predecessors everywhere in all cultures in renewed dialogues for the 21st century.

Neither redeemer nor prophet in the adolescent paradigm of “I will fight for you”, but in deep listening eloquence an expression and reflection of “Out of the Many We Are One”. 

Next week, on Program 72, my guest will be Deborah Tannen, widely-acclaimed author of the landmark New York Times bestseller You Just Don’t Understand:  Men and Women in Conversation, in conversation with me about how we can transform our Argument Culture into one of evolutionary dialogue.  “I have done many interviews, but this was very special.  A privilege.” – Deborah Tannen

 For a summary of the practical proposed solutions I have made in this time of required change, you can see my additional website www.newenergycentury.com or contact me at www.livingdialogues.com.  Visit my blog at Duncan.personallifemedia.com.

Ways in which we can all contribute our own new energy and ideas in this emerging paradigm shift are outlined in the dialogue with myself and Barbara Marx Hubbard re Citizen Solutions in Program 69.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey.

Episode Description:

“This dialogue, as the title of the program – Living Dialogues – indicates, is one of the keys to advancing thinking, in helping us to better understand the challenges that we face so that we can intelligently respond to them.  I’m delighted to be here.” – Lester Brown, President, the Earth Policy Institute

In this episode of our Engaged Elder series, I dialogue with globally-acclaimed author (Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization) Lester Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute and President of the Earth Policy Institute. We go into the details of why and how the New Energy Economy can and must be realized as the next major step in the conscious evolution of our species in the very near future, activated and empowered by understanding what technology and resources are already at our disposal, and the urgency of mobilizing to do so -- much as, for instance, FDR and America did in mobilizing existing resources and a determined and generous national will to emerge stable and stronger from the economic collapse of the 30s, leading the way to the beginnings of global consciousness with the creation of the United Nations after World War II.

Exciting new ideas emerge from the dialogue on the spot.

Since I began writing about my vision of an evolutionary New Energy Economy more than four years ago, I have called it New Energy for a New World, New Energy for a New Century, etc.  Bracken Hendricks and Jay Inslee (Programs 67 and 68) are the co-authors of the excellent recent book Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy.  Van Jones (Program 68) is the author of the just-published and highly praised The Green Collar Economy:  How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, with a foreword by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.   Together with Worldwatch Institute founder and current Earth Enterprise Institute president Lester Brown’s Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (in this Program 70), Apollo’s Fire and now The Green Collar Economy constitute perhaps the best trilogy of the key truly up-to-date educational and informational resources for personal and public policy choices that meet the ineluctable evolutionary imperative for us to now consciously move from the Old Oil Elite Fossil Fuel economy to a New Energy economy for a New World.  Such a New Energy economy will provide the foundation for self-reliant prosperity, real security and abundance, and generosity of collaboration for all in this New Century. 

Ways in which we can all contribute our own new energy and ideas in this emerging paradigm shift are outlined in the dialogue with myself and Barbara Marx Hubbard re Citizen Solutions in Program 69.

Next week, on Program 71

 For a summary of the practical proposed solutions I have made in this time of required change, you can see my additional website www.newenergycentury.com or contact me at www.livingdialogues.com.  Visit my blog at Duncan.personallifemedia.com.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey.

Episode Description:

“Thank you so much, Duncan.  You are definitely a co-creative partner!” – Barbara Marx Hubbard

In this episode of our Engaged Elder series, I dialogue with Barbara Marx Hubbard, President of the foundation for Conscious Evolution, who helped create the field of conscious evolution.  In addition to contextualizing the current global economic crisis and tipping point U.S. election as a great evolutionary call and opportunity, we discuss the proposal of Barbara and others for a three-point “Citizen Solutions” program to be integrated into the U.S. Vice-President’s office (as Barbara initially proposed when her name was placed in nomination for Vice-President in 1984), carried on the Internet, and embodied in local and regional Citizen Solutions Councils, to which each of us can contribute.

This democratization of engendering practical transformative proposals reflects the already emerging “prophetic consciousness” present in many of us (and in potential in all of us), and evolution’s requirement for a democratization of awareness, collaboration, and benefits for necessary change to take place – as illustrated in one example by my proposal for New Energy Bonds.  

Next week, on Program 70 in dialogue with globally-acclaimed author (Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization) Lester Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute and President of the Earth Policy Institute, we go into the details of why and how the New Energy Economy can and must be realized as the next major step in the conscious evolution of our species in the very near future, activated and empowered by understanding what technology and resources are already at our disposal, and the urgency of mobilizing to do so -- much as, for instance, FDR and America did in mobilizing existing resources and a determined and generous national will to emerge stable and stronger from the economic collapse of the 30s, leading the way to the beginnings of global consciousness with the creation of the United Nations after World War II.  Exciting new ideas emerge from the dialogue on the spot.

 For a summary of the practical proposed solutions I have made in this time of required change, you can see my additional website www.newenergycentury.com or contact me at www.livingdialogues.com.  Visit my blog at Duncan.personallifemedia.com.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey.

Episode Description:

In this episode of our Engaged Elder series, I dialogue with widely-acclaimed activist Van Jones, author of the just-issued The Green Collar Economy, Bob Gough, international clean energy award winner and Secretary of the InterTribal COUP Wind Energy association and project, Bracken Hendricks, co-founder of the Apollo Alliance, and Jay Inslee, U.S. Congressman from Seattle, who for a number of years has been the leading voice in the U.S. Congress for what I term New Energy and a New Energy economy.

Since I began writing about my vision of an evolutionary New Energy Economy more than four years ago, I have called it New Energy for a New World, New Energy for a New Century, etc.  Bracken Hendricks and Jay Inslee are the co-authors of the excellent recent book Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy.  Van Jones is the author of the just-published and highly praised The Green Collar Economy:  How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, with a foreword by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.   Together with Worldwatch Institute founder and current Earth Enterprise Institute president Lester Brown’s Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (see Program 70), Apollo’s Fire and now The Green Collar Economy constitute perhaps the best trilogy of the key truly up-to-date educational and informational resources for personal and public policy choices that meet the ineluctable evolutionary imperative for us to now consciously move from the Old Oil Elite Fossil Fuel economy to a New Energy economy for a New World.  Such a New Energy economy will provide the foundation for self-reliant prosperity, real security and abundance, and generosity of collaboration for all in this New Century.

In addition to my previous dialogue with Jay Inslee recorded during the Democratic National Convention in Denver on August 25, 2008 (Program 67), this Program 68 dialogue highlights in wider detail the great benefits and new energy resources that are readily available in the U.S., and the reality of the technological options now available for us that we can quickly, efficiently, and economically bring to scale, capable of moving us to the kind of New Energy economy and policy proposals I first put forth in 2004 and which the times are now catching up to:  to empower and reward all citizens, not just the already wealthy, and to salvage and repair our broken economy in the only sustainable ways possible.  My New Energy proposals discussed include both democratizing a portion of venture capital to restructure our economy, now in global crisis, through New Energy Bonds, and the job creation and training program I have termed O.N.E. America Corps.

The O.N.E. America Corps also presents us the possibility for the U.S. to go a long way in reality and in the eyes of the world to cleanse the national psyche of what Pulitzer Prize-wining historian Joseph Ellis (see Programs 37 and 38) has called the “two original sins of America” which have contracted and held America back from realizing its full destiny:  the ongoing long-term effects of slavery and our treatment of the Native Americans.

Next week, on Program 69 in dialogue with Barbara Marx Hubbard, we talk about how the evolution of consciousness can be reflected in Conscious Citizen Solutions to our current economic collapse, including as an example my proposal for New Energy Bonds, and how each of you can contribute your own new energy ideas.

For a summary of the practical proposals I have made in this time of global economic crisis and required change, you can see my additional website www.newenergycentury.com or contact me at www.livingdialogues.com.  Visit my blog at Duncan.personallifemedia.com.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey.

Episode Description:

In this episode of our Engaged Elder series, I dialogue with Jay Inslee, U.S. Congressman from Seattle, who for a number of years has been the leading voice in the U.S. Congress for what I term New Energy and a New Energy economy.  Since I began writing about my vision of it more than four years ago, I have called it New Energy for a New World, New Energy for a New Century, etc.  Jay is the co-author of the excellent recent book Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy, written with Brandon Hendricks, one of the original co-founders of the Apollo Alliance.   Together with Worldwatch Institute founder and current Earth Enterprise Institute president Lester Brown’s Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Apollo’s Fire is one of two of the key truly up-to-date educational and informational resources for personal and public policy choices that meet the ineluctable evolutionary imperative for us to consciously move from the Old Oil Elite Fossil Fuel economy to a New Energy economy for a New World.  Such a New Energy economy will provide the foundation for self-reliant prosperity, real security and abundance, and generosity of collaboration for all in this New Century.

Recorded during the Democratic National Convention in Denver on August 25, 2008, our dialogue highlights the reality of the technological options already available for us that we can quickly, efficiently, and economically bring to scale, capable of moving us to the kind of New Energy economy and policy proposals I first put forth in 2004 and which the times are now catching up to:  to empower and reward all citizens, not just the already wealthy, and to salvage and repair our broken economy in the only sustainable ways possible.  And in the process our dialogue also identifies where the blockages are occurring in our political system, and which individuals and interests are opposing, stalling and undermining that necessary evolution.

Next week, on Program 68 in dialogues with Jay Inslee and co-author Bracken Hendricks, and with Bob Gough of InterTribal COUP wind energy and Van Jones, author of The Green Collar Economy, I go into detail regarding my proposals for New Energy Bonds and the establishment of a O.N.E. AMERICA Corps.

For a summary of the practical proposals I have made in this time of required change, you can see my additional website www.newenergycentury.com or contact me at www.livingdialogues.com.  Visit my blog at Duncan.personallifemedia.com.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey.

Episode Description:

In this episode of our Engaged Elder series, I dialogue with Tom Hayden, known to many around the world as a leading activist for progressive change for the last five decades, spanning both his “youth” and “elder” roles in the ongoing “ethical dialogue” about society’s values – from being a Freedom Rider in the Deep South of the U.S. and a founding member of the Students for a Democratic Society in 1961 and author of its visionary call, the Port Huron Statement, to nearly two decades in the Legislature of the State of California passing over one hundred critical measures, to his role in Progressives for Obama and his commentaries on The Huffington Post.  As a writer, he is the author or editor of fifteen books, including the recent Voices of the Chicago Eight: A Generation on Trial and Writings for a Democratic Society.

In Part 1 (Program 65) Tom and I review the post-World War II creation of various institutions, including the United Nations, intended to secure a peaceful and cooperative world, succeeded by the transformational energies of the Sixties world-wide, led primarily by a younger generation and its vision of a coherent social movement that could energize and sustain those ideals in the face of the Cold War, widespread racial intolerance, and the Vietnam War.  This review of our role in social change as youth then leads into the era of the Eighties and Nineties, and sets the stage for a compelling analysis in Part 2 of the current evolutionary challenges of our times that comes full circle.

In Part 2 (Program 66), Tom and I speak in and about the present from the engaged elder perspective of the “wisdom of learned experience”.  I begin by describing the unprecedented breach of trust between the generations that occurred in our youth in the Sixties (“don’t trust anyone over 30”), fueled in large part by the U.S. government’s waging of the Vietnam War with massive deception, later revealed in the apologetic memoirs of Robert McNamara, the then Secretary of Defense, and others.  Tom and I then dialogue – reviewing a number of contemporary topics -- about the nature of leadership, and how a new form of collaborative and transparent leadership and participation (“yes we can”, rather than promises of “I will fight for you”) can restore the existence and vitality of an “ethical dialogue” between the generations, a dialogue that is critically important if we are to meet the new century’s evolutionary challenges.  The youthful “participatory democracy” of the Sixties can come into an evolved mature form in our time, and enable us together to reach a “tipping point” into a transformative, energizing future, rather than a “toppling” point into a great fall backward.

For practical proposals I have made in this time of required change, you can see my additional website www.newenergycentury.com or contact me at www.livingdialogues.com.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey.

Episode Description:

In this episode of our Engaged Elder series, I dialogue with Tom Hayden, known to many around the world as a leading activist for progressive change for the last five decades, spanning both his “youth” and “elder” roles in the ongoing “ethical dialogue” about society’s values – from being a Freedom Rider in the Deep South of the U.S. and a founding member of the Students for a Democratic Society in 1961 and author of its visionary call, the Port Huron Statement, to nearly two decades in the Legislature of the State of California passing over one hundred critical measures, to his role in Progressives for Obama and his commentaries on The Huffington Post.  As a writer, he is the author or editor of fifteen books, including the recent Voices of the Chicago Eight: A Generation on Trial and Writings for a Democratic Society.

In Part 1 Tom and I review the post-World War II creation of various institutions, including the United Nations, intended to secure a peaceful and cooperative world, succeeded by the transformational energies of the Sixties world-wide, led primarily by a younger generation and its vision of a coherent social movement that could energize and sustain those ideals in the face of the Cold War, widespread racial intolerance, and the Vietnam War.  This review of our role in social change as youth then leads into the era of the Eighties and Nineties, and sets the stage for a compelling analysis in Part 2 of the current evolutionary challenges of our times that comes full circle.

For practical proposals I have made in this time of required change, you can see my additional website www.newenergycentury.com or contact me at www.livingdialogues.com.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey.

Episode Description:

In Part 3 of the dialogue -- recorded September 12, 2008 after the Democratic and Republican Party Conventions -- George and I update and expand considerably on the “narrative” themes of the campaign, why the Republicans say that the campaign is not about “issues” but about “personalities”, and how that approach derived from a corporate marketing strategy begun by Nixon and firmly established as Republican precedent by Reagan.  Understanding the modes of manipulation of these “framings” – unconscious to the ordinary voter and not illuminated by the media – is a key to understanding the election as it proceeds, including the formal debates between the candidates.  The collective psyche of the U.S., like that of the planet, is at a critical evolutionary turning point.  As observed by C. G. Jung, if we bring the elements at work in the unconscious to awareness, as we do in participating in these kinds of dialogues, then we open the possibility of fulfilling our higher purpose and destiny, rather than enduring an unconscious fate.

 You can contact me at www.livingdialogues.com, and see also my new website www.newenergycentury.com.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey.

Episode Description:

In Part 2 of our dialogue, George and I recap how our political choices are influenced by the imprint of our early socialization in our families of origin, and the subsequent acculturation we receive in our education (or lack of it) and in our communities.  As George describes it, our early neurological imprints from our family lead us to think of political parties as a “family” (an idea often reaffirmed by the language of politicians themselves).  The Republican Party in the U.S. he sees as associated with the “strict father” parent and the Democratic Party associated with the “nurturing parents” archetype (belittled and caricatured by the Republicans, abetted by a compliant and somewhat cowed media, as the “Mommy” or “nanny” party, falsely represented as supposedly   taxing the “hard-working” middle class and doling out monies and welfare to the undeserving poor.)

Because of these neurological imprints – manipulated by negative and misleading ads, including outright deliberate deception – many voters do not vote their economic interests based on “the issues” (as one would expect from a Maslow hierarchy of external needs psychological model, based on “kitchen table” issues of food, shelter, and jobs).  Instead, many voters are emotionally triggered and duped by fabricated wedge distractions into voting based on fear, anxiety, and compliance with authority – often against their own interests and that of their children and grandchildren – in order to reaffirm their ”identity” within a group.

The final section is devoted to the dominant “narratives” that are at play between Obama and McCain, what they represent in the collective American psyche, and how they relate to the evolutionary challenge and initiation beyond adolescent group mind we are all confronted with.  Will this election be a Tipping Point and a leap forward, or a Toppling Point in a great fall backward.

 You can contact me at www.livingdialogues.com, and see also my new website www.newenergycentury.com.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey.

Episode Description:

In this episode of our Engaged Elder series, I dialogue with George Lakoff, distinguished professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California, and known to many as the author of the previous New York Times best-sellers ‘Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think’, and ‘Don’t Think of an Elephant’, and now his latest and very timely book ‘The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st Century American Politics with an 18th Century Brain’.

The matters George and I dialogue about have universal implications to any country and political system, even though we are here focused on examples from the upcoming “tipping (or toppling) point” 2008 election in the United States.  You will find it interesting no matter which country you live in because the archetypal structure of the human brain, as we know, is something we share across the globe and that really is the point of these programs.

We are all called to go beyond the initial adolescent “breaking away” from the oppressive rule of Mother Church and Father Sovereign in the 18th Century European Enlightenment through the celebration of “Reason”, using the printing press and widespread “democratized” dissemination of knowledge as a path to empowering the “middle class” and “the people”, to a more subtle leap of consciousness in the 21st Century.  In our present latter stage adolescent polarization – stuck in rationalized secular and religious “identity” ideologies and estranged from our early heritage of empathy, with our over-emphasis on expressing self through exclusivism and dominance rather than cooperation and co-creative collaboration – we need to move into a nurturing, mature politics based on self-confident, not self-assertive, transpartisan dialogue.

For practical proposals I have made in this vein, you can see my additional website www.newenergycentury.com or contact me at www.livingdialogues.com.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey.

Episode Description:

In this episode of our Engaged Elder series, I dialogue with David Boren, U.S. senior statesman and advisor to Barack Obama.  David has been the President of the University of Oklahoma since resigning from the U.S. Senate in 1995 to take that position.  He also teaches history classes to incoming freshman at the university, based on the understanding that if a people does not know how they achieved a certain greatness of contribution, they cannot remain great.  During his two-terms in the U.S. Senate he was the longest serving chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and was previously Governor of Oklahoma.

Keying in on his new book, A Letter to America, we talk about the challenges of the 21st Century for the U.S. to develop a new consciousness, a much better educated citizenry, and the financial and energy independence that will be required for America to play a positive collaborative leadership role in our emerging global world.  In particular we talk about the crucial importance of renewing and maintaining a financially self-reliant and educated middle class -- and I outline my original idea for New Energy Bonds as a not previously possible democratized venture vehicle to move from our traditional and no longer working “tax-and-redistribute” economic model to a new 21st century collaborative, share-the-wealth, empowering investment model.

For further detail on the proposals I have made see my website newenergycentury.com or contact me at livingdialogues.com.

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by clicking on the Episode Detail button at the top left of this program description, and by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey there (or click on the Listener Survey icon to the left of this column).

Appreciations:

“Duncan Campbell, I heard about your podcast a few months ago, and have been deeply listening to all the dialogues with your fantastic friends/guests. Your words, ideas, and wisdom are truly inspirational. You have evoked a new appetite for knowledge in me that I hope to share with a starving younger generation. Thank you for doing what you do, and creating a unique space, void of boundaries and classification. A breath of fresh air! Much love and respect.” – Amit Kapadiya

Episode Description:

In this book, Pulitzer Prize winner David Maraniss explores and documents the Olympics that set the tone for the second half of the 20th century, with African American stars Wilma Rudolph and flag-bearer decathlete Rafer Johnson heralding the acceleration of the civil rights movement and the arrival of the women’s rights movement in the U.S. in the sixties, and the intensification of the Cold War rivalry between the Soviet Union and the U.S. which prompted the Apollo space mission.

The era-defining 1960 Olympics give great insight into the underlying dynamics of the 2008 Bejing Olympics’ setting the tone for the first half of the 21st century. In his 8-12-08 Op-Ed column in the New York Times, David Brooks described a major aspect of the new U.S.-China rivalry as “the divide between the societies with an individualist mentality and the ones with a collectivist mentality”. As our planetary consciousness undergoes its initiation into a potential higher maturity, we see the peoples of the world bouncing back and forth between these two poles of adolescent affirmation and identity. Will China be able to move beyond its insecurity into a dialogue with the Dalai Lama (see Program 59 with Robert Thurman)? Will the U.S. be able to move beyond its oil addiction into a responsible New Energy for a New World policy as I have proposed (see my website newenergycentury.com)? We shall see. Dialogues 59 and 60 help us “live the questions” deeply, as the poet Rilke advocates.

There is more detail about this episode in the Transcription section on the episode page. Please read further. Thank you.

Appreciations:

“I’m Robert Thurman, and I’m having a lovely time on Living Dialogues with my friend Duncan Campbell.  I learned a lot today from Duncan about America and about the Persian poet Rumi, about many things, about even Tibet.

And I shared with Duncan the insights and inspirations in the book I have written, which is my tribute to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, called Why the Dalai Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World.  And this book is to inspire us and lift us out of our depression, that “NO we can’t”, which is what we’ve been hearing much too much of, from the world and media and everything.

And luckily now we are hearing “YES we can”, and we have to even hear that and say that to ourselves all the time. We must never accept that something is impossible and is hopeless. With despair comes violence, internal violence of depression, external violence between people.  But out of hope comes love, friendliness, heroism, and that’s what we need today, together today, and that’s what we can manifest. And it is what together we are manifesting in this dialogue.  All the best to you.”  -- Robert Thurman

“In your book you’ve collected from your 45 years of deep friendship with the Dalai Lama many stories of how the Dalai Lama is really, we might say, the great practitioner of what I call ‘the art of dialogue’, the art of communication, both inner dialogue with himself and understanding with great compassion and truthfulness, his own, we might say foibles as well as merits, and those of others…And what you brilliantly illuminate here is why the Dalia Lama matters at every level.  This is not just the “nice man’ who’s talking about being spiritual and kind.  He has a profound and pragmatic understanding of the nature of the planet, including our human hopes and desires, the crises we are all in, and very practical ways to deal with them.

And I will introduce this dialogue by saying that in it, Bob, you also compellingly describe your own analysis and five-part plan, from what we might call a global political perspective of how and why the Dalai Lama and China together could be a key to avoiding World War III.  And so I want to honor you for your life work and for this particular work, but also say what a deep pleasure it always is when you and I come together in these dialogues, and to acknowledge the role of the deep listening audience which is virtually present here that contributes to what has been evoked here in this dialogue.  As you say, “we are all one ocean of dialogue”.

And that is why we are inviting everyone into this dialogue, including the Dalai Lama’s virtual participation as well (whose name ‘dalai’ literally means ‘ocean’, while “lama” means ‘developed person’), since he does not proclaim “listen to what I say”, but rather:  “if you listen to what’s in your own heart, you yourself will have this inner dialogue that will show you and energize you and inspire you to right action”.  And it’s in that spirit that we celebrate this dialogue by honoring the ‘Dalai Lama’ in all of us.”  – Duncan Campbell

“Duncan Campbell, I heard about your podcast a few months ago, and have been deeply listening to all the dialogues with your fantastic friends/guests. Your words, ideas, and wisdom are truly inspirational.  You have evoked a new appetite for knowledge in me that I hope to share with a starving younger generation. Thank you for doing what you do, and creating a unique space, void of boundaries and classification.  A breath of fresh air!  Much love and respect.” –  Amit Kapadiya

Episode Description:
 
In furtherance of creating and maintaining the planetary dialogues now required in the 21st century, I will be featuring a special series of dialogues on this site with myself and other elders in the next few weeks during and after the 2008 Olympics hosted by China and the U.S. election season.  These dialogues will address various specific political aspects of our planetary crisis, with its dangers and opportunities for a visionary and evolutionary shift. (We remember that the Chinese character for “crisis” is often described as meaning both “danger” when visioned from a fear perspective, and “opportunity” when visioned from a wisdom perspective.)

Following last week’s dialogue with Ted Sorensen, counselor to John F. Kennedy, and this week’s dialogue with Robert Thurman on the Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World, other elders who will join me in coming weeks include Pulitzer Prize winner David Maraniss on Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World, former Senator David Boren on A Letter to America, George Lakoff on The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st Century Politics with an 18th Century Brain, and others.

In my preceding dialogues I have talked in various ways about the need to generate dialogues across generational, ethnic, gender, and national boundaries -- building bridges of understanding and wisdom in the cooperative spirit and reaching out required by our 21st century realities, and the essential roles that we all are called to play in our evolution for it to take place.

In this particular dialogue, Bob Thurman describes the world-affecting drama that China is currently engaged in with the Tibetan people and the associated environmental destruction imitative of our own Western past.  I bring in parallels with the European settlers of Australia, and of North and South America, and the conscious and unconscious genocide of the native peoples that took place in that settlement, the karmic effects of which are still with us, partially but not entirely expunged, and the restorative efforts recently being made by Australia and Canada -- as well as the issues of New Energy and what’s at stake in the U.S. and elsewhere to make dramatic changes in our energy habits and relationship to the natural world.
 
Of particular interest is Bob’s metaphor of Tibet as a crucial environmental zone for a great part of Asia, the “water tower” of that part of the world, and his statement of the essential need to keep the water clean that flows down from there, what is often called the “roof of the world”, the source of so many great rivers.

In reference to this, I describe water being both external and an inner symbol, mentioning the words of the poet Rumi (honored by UNESCO in naming 2007 the “Year of Rumi”): “we all know the taste of pure water”, and going on to say: “We need to protect not only the water tower of Tibet on the high plateau in protecting the rivers and Lake Manasarovar, but also protecting what you Bob have called the “inner revolution”, what I see as that inner stream of ‘pure water’, consciousness that can literally water our psyche and cleanse us of what the historian Joseph Ellis has referred to as the ‘original sins’ of how peoples have dealt with other peoples, such as slavery and de facto genocide, of the fear-based psychic contractions we all have individually and as nations.”

On the eve of the Bejing-hosted Olympics, I mention examples from past Olympics illustrating these parallels between the history of the West and the East, and Bob describes in detail his five-part plan, inspired by the world-wide work of the Dalai Lama, for how China could accept the overtures for dialogue from the Dalai Lama and develop a multi-faceted cooperation, both political and ecological, that could be a model for the world as well, based on “treating gently those in our power” and ourselves.

Bob observes at one point:  “It’s very hard for us to have faith that good things can happen, but if we’re more realistic, if we look at and follow the science as the Dalai Lama does, if we look at the reality and have faith in it, we will see that really there is only one way the planet can go and that we are rational beings and we do like our lives, and we like the lives of our children…so this approach, this kind of action, will sway realistic beings, which human beings basically are.  We got our evolutionary power by adapting, by being realistic, we will adapt in this crisis moment, in the twenty-first century, and we will save the planet and ourselves.  No question about it.”

Echoing that, we can conclude that kindness and altruistic outlook are not simply good things to embody, they are the truly wise and necessary practical tools of planetary co-existence – cultivating the deeper forces and energies that will lead us into a “kinder, happier twenty-first century”.  As the Dalai Lama’s spoke in addressing the European parliament after 9/11:  “In place of war, which is obsolete now on this planet, reconciliation has to come through dialogue.”

And there is much more in this stimulating and enriching conversation.  Please join us.

This is the time for renewed dialogue, for visionary and inspiring discourse producing practical and innovative solutions together, to engage our own elder wisdom and youthful inspiration, and in so doing to experience and exemplify that “Dialogue is the Language of Evolutionary Transformation”.

And that is what we all do, in our mutual roles as host, deep listeners, and guests, when we gather together here from all parts of the globe in Living Dialogues.

 Other programs you will find of immediate interest on these themes are the Dialogues I have had with mythologist and keeper of world stories Michael Meade `(Programs 48-51), world-renowned cross-cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien (Program 52), poet and translator of Persian poet Rumi Coleman Barks (Programs 3, 53-54), as well as Programs 13 and 14 with Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell (editor of The Enlightened Heart, which contains the poem The Swan by Indian poet Kabir which I mention in Part 3 of my Programs 55-57 with African teacher Sobonfu Some) and Program 58 with Ted Sorensen, counselor to John F. Kennedy.   Also of directly related interest in terms of the founding and traditions of the U.S. during its tipping point 2008 election season, with its implications for global shifts, are my dialogues with historian Joseph Ellis, honored as “the Founders’ historian” by The New York Review of Books (see Programs 38 and 39).

After you listen to this Dialogue, I invite you to both explore and make possible further interesting material on Living Dialogues by clicking on the Episode Detail button at the top left of this program description, and by taking less than 5 minutes to click on and fill out the Listener Survey there (or click on the Listener Survey icon to the left of this column).

SUBSCRIBE HERE FOR FREE TO LIVING DIALOGUES AND IN THE COMING WEEKS HEAR DUNCAN CAMPELL’S DIALOGUES WITH OTHER GROUND-BREAKING TRANSFORMATIONAL THINKERS LISTED ON THE WEBSITE WWW.LIVINGDIALOGUES.COM.  TO LISTEN TO PREVIOUS RELATED DIALOGUES ON THIS SITE, SCROLL DOWN ON THE LIVING DIALOGUES SHOW PAGE HERE -- OR CLICK ON THE NAME OF A GUEST ON THE LIST AT THE RIGHT -- TO HEAR DUNCAN’S DIALOGUES WITH DR. ANDREW WEIL, BRIAN WEISS, COLEMAN BARKS, RUPERT SHELDRAKE, LARRY DOSSEY, JUDY COLLINS, MARIANNE WILLIAMSON, MATTHEW FOX, JOSEPH CHILTON PEARCE, DEEPAK CHOPRA, BYRON KATIE AND STEPHEN MITCHELL, CAROLINE MYSS, GANGAJI, VINE DELORIA, JR., MICHAEL DOWD (THE UNIVERSE STORY OF THOMAS BERRY AND BRIAN SWIMME), STEVE MCINTOSH, FRANCES MOORE LAPPE, STANISLAV GROF, RICHARD TARNAS, MARC BEKOFF AND JANE GOODALL, RICHARD MOSS, PAUL HAWKEN, PAUL RAY, JOSEPH ELLIS, DUANE ELGIN, LYNNE MCTAGGART, ECKHART TOLLE, MICHAEL MEADE, ANGELES ARRIEN, SOBONFU SOME. TED SORENSEN AND OTHER EVOLUTIONARY THINKERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

The best way to reach me is through my website: www.livingdialogues.com.  Many thanks again for your attentive deep listening in helping co-create this program.  All the best, Duncan.

P.S. As a way of further acknowledging and appreciating your part in these dialogues, and since I cannot personally answer all of them, I have begun to publish from time to time in these pages some of the numerous (unsolicited) appreciations received from you.

more.

Appreciations:

“I’m Ted Sorensen, former counsel to John F. Kennedy and author of the new book Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History.  And I have so enjoyed talking for an extended length of time with Duncan Campbell.  Whoever puts him on the air deserves a Nobel, Pulitzer, or any other prize, because clearly this is a program that advances the security and best interest of all the American people, not just a few high-powered lobbyists or special interest groups.  It serves the country well, and I am proud to have been a part of it.  Duncan, I can’t thank you enough.  I have never had a dialogue, much less an interview, anything like this.  And I salute you for the path that you’re following.  Thanks so much.  Keep up the good work.  This has been a joy.” – Ted Sorensen

“And it has been for me too, Ted.  I’ve been so inspired by your example.  So I want to thank you not only for my generation, but for all subsequent generations, for being there, for everything that you have done, and for giving us this latest and great gift of your book Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History.  It’s been such a real deep pleasure to connect with you and to spend this time together.” – Duncan Campbell

“Duncan Campbell, I heard about your podcast a few months ago, and have been deeply listening to all the dialogues with your fantastic friends/guests. Your words, ideas, and wisdom are truly inspirational. You have evoked a new appetite for knowledge in me that I hope to share with a starving younger generation. Thank you for doing what you do, and creating a unique space, void of boundaries and classification. A breath of fresh air! Much love and respect.” – July 23, 2008 Amit Kapadiya

Episode Description:
 
In furtherance of creating and maintaining the planetary dialogues now required in the 21st century, I will be featuring a special series of dialogues on this site with myself and other elders in the next few weeks during the 2008 Olympics hosted by China and the U.S. election season.  These dialogues will address various specific political aspects of our planetary crisis, with its dangers and opportunities for a visionary and evolutionary shift. (We remember that the Chinese character for “crisis” is often described as meaning both “danger” when visioned from a fear perspective, and “opportunity” when visioned from a wisdom perspective.)

Following this dialogue with Ted Sorensen, other elders that will join me in coming weeks include Robert Thurman on the Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World, Pulitzer Prize winner David Maraniss on Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World, former Senator David Boren on A Letter to America, George Lakoff on The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st Century Politics with an 18th Century Brain, and others.

In my preceding dialogues with African teacher Sobonfu Some and others here on Living Dialogues,  I have talked about how our fragmented, specialized modern culture often lacks a rich, nourishing sense of community, and how there is a yearning for unity and peace awakening in different countries all over the world -- where elders are starting to come forward in this time of planetary crisis, and previously indifferent and discouraged youth are voicing their concerns about the future. I have talked also about the foundational role of intimacy, relationships and appreciation in sharing our stories across generational, ethnic, gender, and national boundaries -- building bridges of understanding and wisdom in the cooperative spirit and reaching out required by our 21st century realities, and the essential roles that both youth and elders must play in our evolution for it to take place.

In the early part of the 19th century, the German poet and scientist Goethe observed: “The future of any given nation at any given time depends on the thoughts of its youth under five and twenty”.   In the mid-20th century, the psychological historian Erik Erikson (author of Ghandi’s Truth and Youth: Identity and Crisis) called attention to what he termed the “ethical dialogue” which must take place continuously between open-minded elders sharing their experience and responding in co-creative, mutually respectful interchange to the concerns and perspectives of the next generations, in order for a nation’s civilization to survive.

In my dialogue with Michael Meade in Program 51 and its description, I observed how “the modern mind paradigm and its ‘mid-level’ national myths (including America’s dominance in the late 20th century, sometimes dubbed “the American Century”) are losing their energy and no longer have the hold on the planetary imagination they once did”.  (See also my reference in the Episode Description of Program 51 to Fareed Zakaria, international editor of Newsweek magazine, and his new book The Post-American World).

And so, we begin this special political series with my dialogue with Ted Sorensen, who was the 11 years younger “youth” to John F. Kennedy’s “elder” during their extraordinarily important and visionary collaboration at the beginnings of the nuclear age from 1952 through Kennedy’s death in 1963.  Now a highly-respected elder and sought-after counselor to many worldwide, Ted has performed an invaluable service by taking the last six years to prepare his new book, despite a debilitating stroke which significantly impaired his eyesight, to review documents, and meticulously chronicle, and share with us with his great gift of eloquence, the stories of those years with JFK in a manner supremely relevant to our time.

We start with Ted Sorensen’s elder recollections and stories of John Kennedy because in my view JFK was the first “21st century president” in outlook, a prophetic and inspiring voice -- since the policies he developed, working with Ted and other key advisors, and influenced by a newly-educated (thanks to the G.I. Bill) and awakening public, remain models of the internationalist policies we most need today: honoring both diversity and planetary unity based on cooperation rather than dominance.

Among those very successful policies were the creation, over much