Common Good Podcast

You can register for the next Abundant Community Conversation on November 15 at 1pm with Jenn Hoos Rothberg here.

The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation & the structure of belonging. The previous series explored the 6 conversations from Peter Block. Now we're speaking with practitioners and today, Brad Wise & Joey Taylor speak with Ife Bell. You can find more about the conversations in Community: Structure of Belonging and from these videos.

The recited poem was "Right Here" by Dane Anthony.

Ife Bell believes that “Leadership is a Lifestyle” and is dedicated to expanding individuals’ capacity to bring their very best selves to every aspect of their lives. She is a thought leader and compassionate coach with over 15 years of experience working with organizations, communities, education institutions, and nonprofits, to increase business performance and develop strategies that focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Ife’s career track shows measurable success working with organizations and C-level leaders to increase business performance. As Chief Strategy Officer for To Be Consulting, LLC, she develops strategies that promote leadership, diversity, equity, and inclusion across all levels of an organization. She holds a master’s degree in Executive Leadership & Organizational Change and is a certified John Maxwell Coach. Her passion for providing guidance and effective solutions has driven her to pursue a Doctorate in Organizational Development and Change from Bowling Green State University. She graduates in the summer of 2023.

Brad Wise is the co-founder of three story-driven organizations: Boonrise, Bespoken Live, and Good vs Gooder. He is the chief creative officer for Boonrise based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Brad was also a Common Good Collective Fellow.

This episode was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective and the reader here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live & Common Change - Eliminating Personal Economic Isolation. 

The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging.  The host is Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp. This episode is the Abundant Community Conversation from September 15 where Rabbi Miriam spoke with David Whyte and Peter Block. Abundant Community conversations happen every couple of months on zoom and they always contain poetry, small groups and an exploration of a particular theme. 

David Whyte's writing explores the timeless relationship of human beings to their world, to creation, to others, and to the end of life itself. He makes his home in the Pacific Northwest, where rain and changeable skies remind him of the other, more distant homes from which he comes: Yorkshire, Wales and Ireland. He has traveled extensively, including working as a guide in the Galapagos and leading trips into the Himalaya; much of his work chronicles a close relationship to landscapes and histories. He speaks to the suffering and joy that accompany revelation, and the necessity of belonging to families, people and places. David Whyte's poetry can be heard in the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies, the hallowed halls of educational institutions, and from the stages of literary festivals and theological conferences. In each of these disparate settings, his work and compelling speaking style is moving and relevant, transcending the confines of any individual context.

Peter Block is an author, consultant and citizen of Cincinnati, Ohio. His work is about chosen accountability, and the reconciliation of community. Peter is the author of several best selling books including "Community: The Structure of Belonging" and he co-authored "The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods" with John McKnight. His writing is about ways to create workplaces and communities that work for all. They offer an alternative to the patriarchal beliefs that dominate our culture. His work is to bring change into the world through consent and connectedness rather than through mandate and force. He is founder of Designed Learning, a training company that offers workshops designed by Peter to build the skills outlined in his books. Peter serves on the Board of Directors LivePerson, a provider of online engagement solutions, and the Cincinnati Access Fund; he also serves on his local neighborhood council. He is director emeritus of Elementz, an urban arts center in Cincinnati and is on the Advisory Board for the Festival in the Workplace Institute, Bahamas. He was the first Distinguished Consultant-in-Residence at Xavier University. You can visit his websites at peterblock.com, abundantcommunity.com, designedlearning.com, restorecommons.com and asmallgroup.net. He welcomes being contacted at [email protected]. He lives with his wife, Cathy Kramer in Cincinnati, and helped raise a bunch of kids.

Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp serves as the spiritual leader of Temple Sholom in Cincinnati, Ohio.

You can register for the next Abundant Community Conversation on November 15 at 1pm with Jenn Hoos Rothberg here.

This episode was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective and the reader here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live & Common Change - Eliminating Personal Economic Isolation. 

The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation & the structure of belonging. The previous series explored the 6 conversations from Peter Block. Now we're speaking with practitioners and today, Brad Wise & Joey Taylor speaks with Maegan Scott & Courtney Ng. You can find more about the conversations in Community: Structure of Belonging and from these videos.

The recited poem was "Sweet Darkness" by David Whyte. David Whyte will speak with Peter Block about the phenomenology of conversation. Join us on September 15th at 2pm ET. Register at convowhyteblock.eventbrite.com

Maegan Scott is an organizational change luminary who leads with a racial justice lens. She founded Wayfinding Partners to create an affirming space for people of color wishing to dismantle systems of oppression and make way for a reimagined, liberated society. Maegan’s team has partnered with over 30 nonprofit, philanthropic, and private sector organizations. Some of her accomplishments include designing and launching Leadership Montgomery’s Racial Equity Action Leadership (REAL) Inclusion cohort-based program and supporting the reconstitution of A Way Home America’s board into one with a majority of youth with lived expertise of homelessness. Maegan brings more than 15 years of experience in philanthropy and nonprofits to Wayfinding. Her approach to facilitating change is emergent, holistic, and healing-centered. She is a Reiki practitioner who cultivates spaces where individuals' energetic, emotional, and physical selves are seen, heard, and respected. She resides in Kensington, Maryland with her husband and their entitled cat.

Courtney Ng is a racial equity advocate who fosters spaces where individuals and organizations can be vulnerable, learn together, and dream of a liberated world where all can show up fully as themselves. In her role at Wayfinding, she does this by designing and running cohort programs and workshops that bring together practitioners from different fields to engage in meaningful dialogue about race and racism. She brings mindfulness and yoga practices to these offerings to foster the presence, wellness, and self-compassion needed for sustainable equity work. She lives in New York City with her cat, Penelope Simone. She loves to dance, write, sip wine, and get lost in a jigsaw puzzle.

Brad Wise is the co-founder of three story-driven organizations: Boonrise, Bespoken Live, and Good vs Gooder. He is the chief creative officer for Boonrise based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Brad was also a Common Good Collective Fellow.

This episode was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective and the reader here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live & Common Change - Eliminating Personal Economic Isolation. 

The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging. The previous episodes explored the 6 conversations from Peter Block’s work. We journeyed through invitation, possibility, ownership, dissent, commitment and gifts. For the next five episodes, we’ll speak to practitioners who are using these conversations in the world. Today, Brad Wise speaks with Rama Naidu about how he was exposed to Peter’s conversations and how he translates them into his South African context and work by emphasizing confrontation and support.

What happens when you try to have a real conversation and why are they so difficult? How are silence and vulnerability forms of invitation to authentic encounter?  Does anyone survive a real conversation? David Whyte will speak with Peter Block and Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp about the phenomenology of conversation. This event will draw on David's poetry and attendees will be invited to be active participants in this emerging conversation. Common Good Collective is hosting a series of Abundant Community Conversations with authors, social innovators, change agents – people who have dedicated their lives to helping citizens develop their capacity to produce their own collective well-being. Join us on September 15th at 2pm ET for this important conversation. To register, go to convowhyteblock.eventbrite.com

You can find more about the conversations in Peter's book, Community: Structure of Belonging, and from these videos on Peter's website.

The recited poem was "Everything is Waiting" for You by David Whyte.

Dr. Rama Naidu is a social activist & disruptor of conventional thinking. He has more than 30 years of experience in the field of leadership, social justice, and organizational development and has held senior leadership positions in large organizations in South Africa. His work on transformation and diversity has taken him all around the country and the continent. He presently consults (6 Degree Shift) with a wide range of clients with the intention to shift their thinking into spaces of undiscovered possibilities and exploring ways of making it their current reality. He has a Doctorate from the University of KwaZulu Natal and is a past fellow of Northwestern University in Chicago. He has graduated from the International iGold Gestalt and Leadership program and has also completed a two-year organizational development program across East, North and South Africa.

Brad Wise is the co-founder of three story-driven organizations: Boonrise, Bespoken Live, and Good vs Gooder. He is the chief creative officer for Boonrise based in Cincinnati, Ohio. When he's not doing all that, Brad is hanging out with his beautiful wife, Leah, and their three kids, Henry, Jane & Eliza. Their crazy dogs, Huck & Lola, are usually close by, as well. Brad was also a Common Good Collective Fellow.

This episode was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective and the reader here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live and Common Change - Eliminating Personal Economic Isolation. 

The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging. This is the final episode in the series focusing on the 6 conversations from Peter Block’s work. We’ve journeyed through invitation, possibility, ownership, dissent and commitment. Now, we land the plane with the gifts conversation. These conversations are designed to occur in small groups, seeking to produce transformation in communities.

You can find more about the conversations in Peter's book, Community: Structure of Belonging, and from these videos on Peter's website.

The recited poem was written by your host, Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp:

I saw the owl again tonight 
Wings spread like silver fingers 
A screech
Deep dive
Making all the rabbits scatter 
When I was little 
It was all bramble and trees out here 
And you never heard the highway 
Which now gives the feel of a distant raging river whose torrents crest their way through the thick foliage
With it’s perfectly manicured trails 
Back then the tree in the front yard was as high as the house
Now it towers above the roof
A foot for every year 
Evergreen and growing 
My home
My heart
Is a great owl hiding between the crush of traffic and the deciduous saplings
Hunter and prey equal in size
Hoot hoot hooting 
With the tensions of time

Dr. Yabome Gilpin-Jackson is an award-winning organizational development leader and scholar who centers equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in all she does. Throughout her career, which has spanned the public, private and non-profit sectors, she has helped people and organizations build capacity for transformational change to advance EDI and belonging in workplaces and society. On January 5th, 2022, Yabome was named SFU’s first Vice-President, People, Equity and Inclusion. Yabome served as the Chief People Officer for the British Columbia Lotteries Corporation, Executive Director of Organizational Development for Fraser Health, and Regional Lead of Organizational Development for Vancouver Coastal Health, as well as a leader of several provincial leadership development and engagement healthcare committees. She is also the founder of Supporting Learning and Development Consulting Inc., which has helped mission-driven organizations, including SFU, UBC and Lululemon, advance leadership, organizational development and processes for systemic and social change.

This episode was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective and the reader here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live and Common Change - Eliminating Personal Economic Isolation. 

The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging.  This is the fifth episode in a series of six episodes focusing on the six conversations from Peter Block’s work. Beginning with invitation, possibility, ownership and dissent, we now turn to the commitment conversation.  The final conversation for the next episode is the gifts conversation.  These conversations are designed to occur in small groups, seeking to produce transformation in communities.

You can find more about the conversations in Peter's book, Community: Structure of Belonging, and from these videos on Peter's website.

The recited poem was written by guest host, Devin Bustin:

39 miles into your road
You woke in a dark wood
The whole way was wholly lost
Shadow the noonday sun

Further into every fear
You can’t go back
You can’t stay here

Noises you can’t name
Song without a shape
If you find a path
Then it’s not your path

Blind to all light
Except the spark
Flicker behind the fright
Just step and let it leap to flame
And whirl at the weakest wave

Further into every fear
You can’t go back
God knows what’s here

Notice how the ground
Wants to pull you down
Fire in its core
Fire in your core

Let it light your song
Brittle but your own
Everything will change
Every time you change 

This episode was guest hosted by Devin Bustin. Devin Bustin is a writer and teacher who lives in Loveland, Ohio. Growing up, Devin attended well over a dozen schools across Canada and the United States. This gave him a longing to know specific places, to connect with openness, and to create belonging. Raised Pentecostal, Devin wrestles with the faith he inherited, often through fiction, essays, and poetry. He is often working on a song, and his emergent work can be found at devinbustin.com.

This episode was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective and the reader here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live and Common Change - Eliminating Personal Economic Isolation. 

The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging.  This is the fourth episode in a series of six episodes focusing on the six conversations from Peter Block’s work. Beginning with invitation, possibility, and ownership, we will now focus on the dissent conversation.  The final two conversations for the next two episodes are commitment and gifts.  These conversations are designed to occur in small groups, seeking to produce transformation in communities.

You can find more about the conversations in Peter's book, Community: Structure of Belonging, and from these videos on Peter's website.

The recited poem is “Matching Pairs" by Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp.

There is no match
A single
Blue cloud white toe
Or
Faded red to almost pink
Or
The black one that cost me $12
Waiting because I know that the matching partner
The one that makes them a pair
That makes them useful
Is still out there
So until then
they collect
heaped in a corner
of the laundry room
growing a community
of other lost ones
trying to sell their mismatched existence as hope
for the forgotten
lost
destroyed
until one day
I take a look
Pair what I can pair
And then
Throw the rest away.

Maegan Scott is the Founder/CEO of Wayfinding Partners. She is an organizational change luminary who leads with a racial justice lens. She founded Wayfinding Partners to create an affirming space for people of color wishing to dismantle systems of oppression and make way for a reimagined, liberated society. Since its founding, Wayfinding has blossomed into a team of seven full-time staff members and a cadre of more than twenty racial equity training specialists. Maegan’s carefully curated team has partnered with over 30 nonprofit, philanthropic, and private sector organizations. Some of her accomplishments include designing and launching Leadership Montgomery’s Racial Equity Action Leadership (REAL) Inclusion cohort-based program and supporting the reconstitution of A Way Home America’s board into one with a majority of youth with lived expertise of homelessness. Maegan brings more than 15 years of experience in philanthropy and nonprofits to Wayfinding. Her approach to facilitating change is emergent, holistic, and healing-centered. She is a Reiki practitioner who cultivates spaces where individuals' energetic, emotional, and physical selves are seen, heard, and respected. Maegan has a bachelor’s degree from American University, an executive certificate in nonprofit management from Georgetown University, and a master’s in organization development from the Graziadio Business School at Pepperdine University. She resides in Kensington, Maryland with her husband and their entitled cat.

This episode was hosted by Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp, produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective and the reader here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live and Common Change - Eliminating Personal Economic Isolation.

The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging.  This is the third episode in a series of 6 episodes focusing on the 6 conversations from Peter Block’s work. We began with the invitation conversation and the possibility conversation and today we will focus on the ownership conversation.  The final three conversations for the next three episodes are dissent, commitment and gifts.  These conversations are designed to occur in small groups, seeking to produce transformation in communities.
 
You can find more about the conversations in Peter's book, Community: Structure of Belonging, and from these videos on Peter's website.

The recited poem is “Prayer During a Flood" by Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp.

Inside each of us
An ocean
Of roaring waves,
And amid the endless torrent of water
There is an island.
Your toes find the sandy bottom
Your feet the dry ground
On that island
An altar
Do you see it?
The sacred spot
Where you lay down
Your fear
Your panic
Your obsessions
Your loneliness, anger, and suffering
the thrashing rhythm of your soul
dies in that place.
So, leave it there.
An offering to the Source
A blood letting price you pay to live
In
Through
and
Beyond
The flood waters.
The boat you are building
Loves your sea legs
Reminds you
That you have oceans within you
That you know how to take the waters
One wave at a time
Until you emerge
Into your fullest self
And breathe air again.

This episode was hosted by Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp, produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective and the reader here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live and Common Change - Eliminating Personal Economic Isolation.

The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging.  Last episode we started a series of 6 episodes focusing on the 6 conversations from Peter Block’s work. We began with the invitation conversation and today we will focus on the possibility conversation. The final four conversations for the next four episodes are ownership, dissent, commitment and gifts.  These conversations are designed to occur in small groups, seeking to produce transformation in communities.

You can find more about the conversations in Peter's book, Community: Structure of Belonging, and from these videos, the first of which is called, "The Possibility."

The recited poem is "There is No Going Back" by Wendell Berry.

This episode was hosted by Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp, produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective and the reader here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live and Common Change - Eliminating Personal Economic Isolation.

The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging.  Today’s conversation is between Peter, Rama Naidu and Louise van Rhyn. For the next 6 episodes we will be focusing on the 6 conversations from Peter Block’s work. This was recorded at the outset of the pandemic and you’ll hear that moment in history referenced a few times throughout the episode. For those who are new to Peter’s work, the 6 conversations are invitation, possibility, ownership, dissent, commitment and gifts.  These conversations are designed to occur in small groups, seeking to produce transformation in communities.

You can find more about the conversations in Peter's book, Community: Structure of Belonging, and from these videos, the first of which is called, "The Proposition."

The recited poem is “Prayer for an Invitation" by David Whyte.

This episode was hosted by Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp, produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective and the reader here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live and Common Change - Eliminating Personal Economic Isolation.