Becoming Who You Truly Are, with Marlena Fiol, PhD

I feel privileged and honored to kick off this season by introducing today's guest, a leader in the service arena, Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International and author of Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues that Will Change Your Life. Habitat for Humanity began in the 1970s as a grassroots effort on a community farm in southern Georgia. The housing organization has since grown to become a leading global nonprofit working in local communities across all 50 states in the U.S. and in more than 70 countries. Habitat has helped more than 29 million people gain access to new or improved housing.

I am truly honored to bring you the thinking of today's guest, Arno Michaelis, a former leader of the white power movement and a founding member of what became the largest racist skinhead organization in the world. Today, Arno is a public speaker, author and activist for peace and justice. Arno and I will be discussing a range of topics, such as the basis of violence in the world, what forgiveness and reconciliation mean in the face of racial wounds, and what each of us can do to make this a more compassionate and just world.

I am honored to introduce today's guest, Thomas DeWolf. Tom serves as executive director for Coming to the Table, which is a nonprofit that provides resources for all who wish to acknowledge and heal the wounds of racism.

We will be discussing a range of topics, such as linkages between individual and collective healing, the differences between restorative and retributive justice, and the meaning of reconciliation in the context of healing wounds of racism.

I am pleased to bring you the thinking of today's guest, Thordis Elva. Thordis is an Icelandic author, speaker, playwright, and activist for gender equality. Thordis collaborated on this book with her perpetrator, Tom Stranger, making her the first rape survivor in the world to publicly do this.

We will be discussing a range of topics, such as the meaning of forgiveness and atonement, the importance of anger and vengeance as steppingstones toward forgiveness, and the need to change misconceptions and myths about sexual abuse.

I am pleased to bring you the thinking of today's guest, Harriet Brown. She is a writer, magazine editor and professor of magazine journalism at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Harriet writes, researches and teaches about eating disorders and body image as well as other issues, including family estrangement. We will be discussing a range of topics, such as the different forms of family estrangement, how to avoid fake forgiveness, what parents and children owe each other, and the distinction between estrangement and family members simply drifting apart.

I am pleased to bring you the thinking of today's guest, Elizabeth Scott. Liz is a psychologist in private practice in Portland, and she is the author of This Never Happened, a memoir about her childhood journey with narcissistic parents and her relentless search for the truth for belonging and for a deeper understanding of her own life.

We will be discussing a range of topics, such as the meaning of forgiveness, the deep human need for belonging, and the important work of rewriting our childhood scripts.

I am pleased to bring you the thinking of today's guest, Dr. Joshua Coleman. Josh is a psychologist in private practice in the San Francisco area, with particular expertise in family dynamics, including estrangement.

We will be discussing a range of topics, such as cultural shifts that have impacted families, what forgiveness means in the context of family estrangement, and the importance of connection.

I am pleased to bring you the thinking of today's guest, Jackie Shannon Hollis. Jackie is a writer, storyteller, speaker and the author of the memoir, This Particular Happiness: A Childless Love Story. The book explores Jackie's evolving understanding of who she is in the unfolding relationships she describes between husband and wife, mother and daughter, friends, and sisters.

We will be discussing a range of topics, such as the struggle to please others and meet their expectations, the upsides and downsides of choosing to not have a child, and what it means to heal and forgive after being traumatized by rape.

I am pleased to bring you the thinking of today's guests, CrisMarie Campbell and Susan Clarke. Partners in work and in life for over two decades, they've adapted their proven step-by-step process, which they honed while working with numerous Fortune 100 companies, to help long-term couples use conflict as a catalyst to greater intimacy and passion.

We will be discussing a range of topics, such as the difference between conflict and violence in relationships, how to avoid fake forgiveness, and the challenges of walking the line between autonomy and connection in intimate relationships.