A Year of Listening

It’s the last episode of 2019 and Colleen is sharing what she learned this year from listening to all her guests. This year provided so much food for thought as she listened and learned from a variety of people. Find out what were the most popular episodes and which ones have stuck with Colleen long after the microphone was turned off.

Colleen also announced her future project, The Medium Talk Podcast with Jenn Batchelor and Anna Jordan. It drops in January and she’d love for you to be a part of the launch team. You can join the team here.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Episodes 47, 54, and 59: Sexual Orientation and the Church part One, Two and Three

Episode 48 :Parenting in an Age of Judgement

Episode 50: Separating Church and State, God and Politics

Episode 60: Reclaiming the Singular Narrative 

Episodes 46: Post Incarceration Rehabilitation and Employment and Episode 55: Mass Incarceration and Prison Reform

Episode 69: White Supremacy and the Church

Episode 72: Listening Across Differences

Episode 74: A Conversation About Outrage Culture

Episode 79: A Conversation About the Role of Government

#ListenFirst

Living Room Conversations

Pantsuit Politics

The Medium Talk Podcast 

Medium Talk Instagram

Happy Holidays! Today Colleen chats all things holiday with her friend Shannon. They are tackling all the most polarizing of holiday issues: Elf on a Shelf, appropriate times for decorations, how much glory Santa should get and whether or not Love Actually is a great Christmas movie. This lighthearted discussion will get you into the holiday spirit and perhaps disagreeing vehemently with our opinions. Grab a Mall Santa (the drink invented by Colleen’s siblings: whiskey and hot cocoa) and get ready to have some holiday opinions!

In this episode we talk Enneagram, or rather the pros and cons of this ancient self-knowledge tool.  Colleen chats with two friends, Jenn Batchelor and Anna Jordan (from episode 77), about why they love the Enneagram, how its current popularity has effected its use, and what can be problematic about the Enneagram.  Whether you’ve been doing a deep dive into the Enneagram for months, or you’ve just started wondering what the heck it is, this conversation will help you to understand the highest and best uses of the Enneagram.

If you are new to the Enneagram you can find information at the Enneagram Institute.  Check out The Liturgists Enneagram episode (episode 37) for a great overview of each of the nine types.  Annie F. Downs EnneaSummer is another great introductory series.  Suzanne Stabile is our favorite Enneagram Wizard.

Connect with Anna and Jenn!  They are both writers for the very popular Coffee + Crumbs website. You can find Anna on Instagram or at her website.  You can find Jenn on Instagram or her website.

This week we’ve got another special conversation.  Colleen sits down with her long time friend, Mike Lindberg, to discuss the role of government.  Mike and Colleen have spent many an hour discussing all the things they disagree about and over time they’ve come to realize their differences of opinion may root in what they each believe about the truest and best role of government.  So with a few microphones between them they hashed it out, dialoguing about government overreach, who to trust to solve problems and provide aid, and whether the government or the private sector would be more effective.   

Also mentioned in the episode:

Thomas Sowell

Milton Freedman

Mere Christianity by CS Lewis

What happens when you use the technology of Match.com to do its opposite? Instead of connecting people in common you try to connect people across differences. And then what would happen if you took that technology into classrooms and allowed students to video conference other students from vastly different socioeconomic, regional, and cultural places? And then helped the students to hold conversations where they discuss issues like immigration and free speech with these other students like them, but not like them. You’d have Mismatch. Mismatch is helping teachers connect their students with classrooms across the country and giving students opportunities for discourse and dialogue about the issues that are polarizing our country. On this episode Colleen learns about how Mismatch technology works with its founder Kristin Hansen and then speaks with educator Kent Lenci about his experience using the technology in the classroom. Kent and Colleen discuss what his students took away from their experience and why he pushes his students to pay attention to the differences in order to foster the skills to work with people who think differently than themselves.

Check out Mismatch and its partner All Sides for Schools. If you are an educator or know an educator, be sure to spread the word about this program. It could be incredibly powerful in schools. And if you’d like to connect with Kent about his experience or the work he is doing you can email him at [email protected].

This week’s discussion deals with the topic of transracial adoption and parenting.  Guest Anna Jordan is a writer and educator as well as a mom to three, including a son who came to her family through adoption.  Anna and Colleen discuss Anna’s family’s story, the unique challenges that face transracial families, and how the conversation around transracial adoption has changed in the last 30 or so years.  They also delve into adoption ethics and what family’s need to consider before diving into transracial adoption.

Follow Anna!  Find information about Anna on her website and follow her on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.  Also, if you are interested in more information about Anna and adoption check out her appearance on the Coffee and Crumbs podcast.

Also Mentioned in this Episode:

No White Saviors instagram account

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Today we have two special guests.  Graham Bodie and Pearce Godwin are two colleagues who are doing good work to help our country listen across the divide.  Graham Bodie is a listening scholar, educator, and consultant. Pearce Godwin is Founder & CEO of Listen First Project, Executive Director of National Conversation Project, and leader of the #ListenFirst Coalition of ~250 partner organizations. Together the two have incredible experience helping people to listen across divides. Today we will discuss how people can move from listening to understand towards working together for change. This is a conversation about how we have productive conversations, what compromise is and isn’t and the roles both good conversation and activism play in any social movement.

Connect with Graham and Pearce! Find Graham at his website and on Twitter and follow Pearce on Twitter! And be sure to check out the #ListenFirst Project. Find more here and follow on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Additionally take a look at the National Conversation Project. You can find information here and follow the movement on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Also mentioned in this episode:

The Only Human Podcast: The Birth of Climate Change Denial

Listen First Pledge

This week’s episode features a discussion about the new film about the organization Preemptive Love. Jeremy and Jessica started Preemptive Love Coalition during the middle of the Iraq War in in 2008. Over the past decade they have been a non-profit on the front lines, providing relief and serving and working for peace in conflict rich areas of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, Palestine and Israel, Korea and at the Mexico/U.S. border. Recently a short documentary was released that features their story and the work they do. My friend Charity hosted a viewing event to share this film with our community. We sat down to chat about what stood out to us about this documentary and to encourage you all to take a half an hour this week and watch it for yourself. Preemptive Love is doing some tremendous work and we want people to know about it.

First and foremost, watch this short film about Preemptive Love! And check out Preemptive Love’s work, follow them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Also Mentioned in this Episode:

Preemptive Love Podcast episode “The Enemy” about Sadiq’s story of loving his enemy

This week’s episode is a little different. Over the next few months we will be hosting a series of dialogues with friends and listeners around topics of disagreement. In an effort to practice what we preach about engaging polarizing topics with compassion, civility and nuance, we’re going to be doing just that. This week I sat down with my husband Tommy to discuss the idea of “outrage culture.” We both have different reactions to the way our culture has responded to the consequences of former acts of indiscretion and it’s a topic we’ve returned to again and again. We’ll pick up this conversation again, this time with a microphone.

This discussion wasn’t perfect, by any means. And it ended up leading to another conversation the next night off mic. I’m sure we’ll circle back to these things again and again. The point of this episode, and the others like it, are to practice engaging with people we disagree with, particularly our loved ones, on those points of disagreement. To practice listening for understanding and not argument, sharing to bring points of unity not just to prove a point and to refrain from demonizing others based on their differing opinions. It’s easy to walk away from these kinds of conversations with our loved ones. But if you can stay in it you may open each other up to more nuanced and complex understandings of the issue.

Also mentioned in the episode:

Clive Cussler books

This week we the Triad family is here to discuss polyamory and their family.  Katie, Luis and Raquel are a polyamorous family From Baltimore, Maryland.  We discuss the backlash they received for their choice to pursue this lifestyle, what challenges do they face and why they choose each other despite those challenges.  You may not agree with their unconventional family dynamic but it’s worth listening if only  to challenge pre-conceived notions and judgements.  

Connect with the Triad Family!  You can find them on Instagram or on their website.