Face2Face with David Peck

Dave talks about choice and responsisbility, leadership and why he believes in young people. He reminds us how they really do want to get their boots on the ground and change the world.

Biography

After presenting leadership seminars to students, teachers and parents in schools, leadership camps and conferences that have ranged from Tennessee, the North West Territories, Singapore and all across Canada; Dave finds his toughest audience still to be his four grown children and wife at home.

He is the writer and editor of three leadership books that have become the standard for leadership classroom curriculum and activities in Canada. As communications director for the Canadian Student Leadership Association, he put the first student leadership site on the Internet, one that is still a mecca for student activities and leadership ideas. His contributions to student leadership was recognized by his peers across Canada honouring him with the Barry Sharpe Award for Student Leadership.

Dave writes and publishes the CSLA newsletter, Above and Beyond, which is mailed three times a year to over 3400 schools in Canada. In his retirement, Dave enjoys playing Lego with his grandson and standing on the sidewalk waving at the bus with his grandaughter.

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Peter discusses science and religion, why stories are essential, modernist notions of truth and why fear makes us all do crazy things.

Biography

Peter Enns was born in Passaic, New Jersey, to German American immigrant parents. He grew up in River Vale, New Jersey and graduated from Pascack Valley High School in 1978.

He is married to Susan and has three children, Erich, Elizabeth, and Sophia. He holds a B.A. in behavioural science from Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania, an M.Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Enns returned to Westminster Theological Seminary in 1994 to begin his teaching career. He was tenured in 2000 and promoted to full professor in 2005 as Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Hermeneutics. Among other duties, he served as Associate Academic Dean from 1998 to 2001, chair of the Hermeneutics (Ph.D.) Field Committee (1997-2000), and edited the Westminster Theological Journal.

Enns is formerly Senior Fellow, Biblical Studies with The BioLogos Foundation,a Christian organization that “explores, promotes, and celebrates the integration of science and Christian faith”.

He wrote nearly 100 blog posts at The BioLogos Forum, “Science and the Sacred.” He also has written several pieces for the religion section of The Huffington Post: Religion.

Enns is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and has served on the Wisdom in Israel and Cognate Literature Session steering committee since 2006. He is also a member of the Institute for Biblical Research, where he served on the board of directors from 2004 to 2007 and the editorial board for the Bulletin for Biblical Researchfrom 2002 to 2004.

Enns is currently the Abram S. Clemens professor of biblical studies at Eastern University.

His current website you can find here.

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Jeff talks about happiness, creative energy, why he’s interested in emotional connections and global imbalance.

Biography

Jeff Gunn is Juno nominated guitarist, songwriter and producer for his work on Emmanuel Jal‘s The Key (Gatwitch/Universal). He is the author of the Hidden Sounds: Discover Your Own Method on Guitar series with Mayfair Music Publications and regular “guitar tips” contributor with Canadian Musician and The Guitar Mag (Thailand). He co-wrote the song “Scars” with Jal and Nelly Furtado for the film The Good Lie (Warner Brothers) soundtrack.

He has recorded with Emmanuel Jal, Nelly Furtado, Bibi McGill, Rayzak and Kae Sun, performed with Emmanuel Jal, Rayzak, Swizz Beatz, DMC, and continues to serve as musical director for Jal opening for such acts as K’naan, Nico & Vinz, Peter Gabriel, Bonnie Raitt, Angelique Kidjo, Mumford & Sons and Ellie Goulding.

Jeff is endorsed by Roland Canada/Boss.

Please visit www.jeffgunn.ca, gunnjeffrey on YouTube, and follow Jeff on Twitter @jeffgunn1.

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Derek talks about asking questions with compassion, his sometimes controversial approach to theology and why he’s been “Disarming Scripture” for some time now.

Biography

Derek is an artist, writer, and thinker and try to let all of those mingle together. Sometimes you can’t really get theology until you encounter it in the drama of a story or sing it at the top of your lungs in a song or hymn. Art is by nature made for communicating meaning, for speaking to the depths of a person’s soul. So he uses background in story and filmmaking and applies that to how he does theology.

Doing “theology as art” allows him to go beyond the merely academic and speak to the heart, to move. Tony Campolo once said “Artists are the best theologians. They feel things that are true before theologians can jargonize them into obscurity”.

As far as his religious background goes, he’s a born again spirit filled Christian. Since he cares about the poor and marginalized and believes in grace over law, he doesn’t relate to the religious right.

He’s been a long-time voice in the post-conservative evangelical movement, focusing on wrestling with questions of faith and doubt, violence in the Bible, relational theology, and understanding the cross from the perspective of grace and restorative justice.

This is the focus of his book Healing the Gospel which offers a major critique of penal substitution, and the corresponding idea that the gospel is about satisfying an angry God’s demand for retribution and violence, instead proposing that the gospel is actually about God’s demonstration of grace and enemy love in Jesus.

His second book is in the works now, and will deal with violence in the Bible proposing that rather than trying to excuse or ignore it, we need to learn to read the Bible like Jesus and Paul did.

In addition he writes for the Huffington Post, Red Letter Christians, and Sojourners.

Check out his website here.

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Rabbi Wise talks about the middle east, illogical fear, similarity through difference and Interfaith dialogue.

Biography

Rabbi Stephen Wise is the spiritual leader of Shaarei-Beth El Congregation of Oakville. He is excited to be part of a congregation as diverse, storied and unique as SBE; leading meaningful worship experiences for all, teaching thought provoking courses for adults and children, providing inspiring programming and being a catalyst for social activism.

Before joining SBE, Rabbi Wise spent two years as the assistant Rabbi at Temple Beth El in Boca Raton, FL. Rabbi Wise was ordained from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in May of 2005, has a BA from the University of Toronto and an MA from Brandeis University.

Rabbi Wise sits on the council of the Reform Rabbis of Greater Toronto, and is part of the Conference of North American Rabbi’s prayerbook committee. Rabbi Wise locally is the chair of the Interfaith Council of Halton, and is a member of the Halton Police Service multi-faith taskforce. Rabbi Wise is an author and speaker on Israel and her role in Tikkun Olam, with his first book “Israel: Repairing the World”.

Rabbi Wise and his wife Cheryl, the director of Education at SBE, have 3 young children, Jacob, Talia and Alexa

Summer camp for Jews and Palestinians:

In Canada

More info here

In USA

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Listen to Pietra talk about identity, the resilience of the human spirit, gender disparity, her new film and why she’s attracted to people in difficult situations.

Trailer

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Website

Film Synopsis

Director Pietra Brettkelly (The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins) follows a group of dedicated Afghan cinephiles who are literally excavating their country’s cinematic past, as they seek to retrieve over 8,000 hours of film footage that they risked their lives to conceal during the Taliban era.

Film preservation is a challenge all over the world, but on this scale of crisis Afghanistan ranks near the very top. The miniboom in film production that followed the establishment of the state Afghan Film organization in 1965 came to an end with the ascension of the Taliban, which viewed cinema as Western culture that needed to be expunged. The country’s film history might well have have been lost forever, if not for the brave custodians who risked their lives to conceal films from the regime.

In A Flickering Truth, we meet the dedicated cinephiles who are now excavating, preserving, and restoring thousands of hours of film footage, both drama and documentary, from Afghanistan’s cinematic past.

The effort is led by Ibrahim Arify, who had been jailed for filmmaking under the Mujahideen and fled the country to start a new life in Germany. Now, he has returned to rebuild Afghan Film and help bring a sense of order to a country where resources are scarce and needs are great. The heart of the organization is the elderly Uncle Isaaq Yousif, who was orphaned at age thirteen and has lived on the archive’s premises for thirty-one years. Isaaq considers the archives to be his family,

Director Pietra Brettkelly follows the archivists as they continue to struggle during the post-Taliban era, where suicide bombers continue to target anything with Western associations. As the caretakers thread old projectors with film from unmarked reels, the country’s history comes alive with images of former leaders, beloved actresses, and landmarks that have since been destroyed. A Flickering Truth is a testament to the urgency and necessity of film preservation.

Biography

Pietra Brettkelly is a New Zealand documentary director and producer, whose work has featured in four of the five top international film festivals – Sundance, Berlin, Venice and Toronto. Best known for the films A Flickering Truth and The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins, Brettkelly was a journalist before becoming a filmmaker and her work has taken her to nearly 100 countries.

Brettkelly’s most recent film, A Flickering Truth, which documents the unearthing of the Afghan Film Archive in Kabul, Afghanistan, premiered at the 2015 Venice Film Festival to great critical acclaim. The Hollywood Reporter’s Deborah Young praised the film, describing it as “a documentary not just for archivists but for those who see film as a vital part of local culture,”while Indiewire’s Eric Kohn called the movie an “eye-opening documentary … a moving navigation of Afghanistan’s past and present.

When filming in southern Sudan in 2006 for the television documentary series Ends of the Earth for Television New Zealand, Brettkelly met Italian artist Vanessa Beecroft.

Beecroft is famous for her provocative performance art, and while in Sudan for a project had decided to try and adopt motherless twins.Brettkelly had previously produced a documentary on international adoption, The Rescue of Iani and, along with cameraman Jacob Bryant, eventually followed Beecroft’s adoption efforts over 16 months, which formed the basis for The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins.

More on Pietra here. 

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John talks about being a charitable banker, what it means to be literate from a charitable perspective and why Canadians are generous when they’re asked and what it means to create a culture of giving.

Biography

John Bromley has dedicated his career to facilitating benevolence. The founder of three leading, innovative businesses in the charitable sector, he divides his time between working on material matters of charity (providing strategic advice about financing and organizational structure to local, national and international charities, foundations, non-profits, private and public companies), and developing web-based platforms that encourage mass awareness of and participation in the charitable sector.

John grew up with charity at the core of his family’s values. After completing a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University and gaining experience in corporate finance with RBC Capital Markets and PricewaterhouseCoopers, he steered his entrepreneurial inclinations toward the charitable sector, partnering with his father, charity lawyer Blake Bromley, to found Benefic Group. The internationally recognized firm provides expert counsel in charity related law, finance, strategy and policy in Canada and beyond. Benefic has provided strategic and legal advice for hundreds of charities, foundations, governments, non-profits and for-profits, and has worked with donors to arrange billions of dollars in giving.

As his work with Benefic exposed him to the struggle charities face in dividing their limited resources between cause-related work and administration, John began to shift his focus toward the application of technological solutions to financial constraints in the charitable sector. He launched Peer Giving to help charities engage the public and raise awareness and support by sharing their stories online.

Then he turned to the other side of the equation, and set to working on a solution that makes it easier for people and corporations to be charitable. He founded Chimp to make strategic and social giving more accessible by way of an online bank account that’s just for charity.

John’s innovative thinking about how we use technology, social media and internet culture to change the way people interact with, transact with and learn about charity has made him a thought leader in the charitable sector, and a sought-after advisor and speaker around the world.​For more information on CHIMP.

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Delayne talks about the gold mining, a better future for the extractive sector, social change, an ecology of commerce and making a difference in Cambodia.

Biography

Delayne Weeks was born and raised in rural northern Alberta, Canada. She studied Horticulture, Commerce, and Education and is a graduate of the University of Alberta. Delayne instructed business courses at post-secondary institutions and consulted in economic development and entrepreneurship over several decades. She also owned and operated a variety of successful businesses in the oil and gas service sector and financial services sectors.

Delayne is committed to implementing humanitarian aid to countries around the world as well as in her own community. For several decades, she has been involved in Social Responsibility Programs in Ethiopia, Peru and North Africa. In addition, as an active member in Rotary Canada, Delayne has worked on various international projects, including literacy programs, water and health solutions and shipping containers of textbooks and medical supplies.

Since 2009, Delayne has been instrumental in establishing and implementing CSR programs in Cambodia with Angkor Gold Corp. Canada. These programs have become precedent-setting in the Kingdom of Cambodia with federal and local governments now instituting CSR activities for all mining industries across the country. Angkor Gold’s CSR programs demonstrate a method of progress with a social conscience, ethical development and a way to build value for all stakeholders in the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Check out Angkor Gold here for more information.

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Listen in today as Neal talks about being human, un-sourced reporting, the dangers of social media and compassion.

Trailer

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Film Synopsis

In the early hours of March 16, 2013 Sunil Tripathi, a Brown University philosophy student in a desperate battle with depression, walked out of his apartment and disappeared into the cold darkness of a Providence winter’s night. He left behind his keys, his wallet, and his cell phone. Sunil’s family immediately headed to Providence and began what would evolve into a highly organized search for Sunil. They were assisted by the Brown University Police Department, the Providence Police Department, the FBI, many friends, extended family and complete strangers. The social media campaign they launched quickly reached across the United States.

The family appeared on local Providence news stations as the family reached out for help and Sunil’s image was on leaflets, posters and billboards. Four weeks later on April 15, 2013 the Boston Marathon was bombed. On social media Web sites the speculation about who was responsible for the bombing began immediately. Three days later the FBI released two blurry photographs of their suspects – Suspect 1 and Suspect 2. Within a few short hours Sunil’s name and picture blazed across social media Web sites, jumping from one platform to the next as each fed off the other. The frenzy intensified as the family was forced to take down the Facebook page dedicated to finding Sunil. Journalists from major news outlets bombarded the family with phone calls and left messages laced with cryptic references to anonymous sources. Correspondents from national news outlets and broadcasters reported that Sunil Tripathi was a suspect in the terrorist attack.

His family was threatened, accused of being terrorists and of hiding one. They were harassed relentlessly by the mainstream media and the accusation would impact the police investigation. Sunil Tripathi was implicated solely on the strength of social media speculation. ‘Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi’ is about two unrelated events that become tragically intertwined through on-line vigilantism and a mainstream press willing to push the boundaries of journalistic ethics in order to satisfy the constant demand for “breaking news”.

In Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi, the Tripathi family tells a story of the healing and destructive power of social media and director Neal Broffman offers an intimate look at the enduring love that unites a family in crisis.

For more info visit the website here.

Biography

Neal Broffman grew up in his father’s photographic darkroom where he was mesmerized by the powerful and iconic images of the American Civil Rights Movement his father had taken.  For more than two decades Neal has been filming and documenting stories around the world and that early and influential aesthetic informs his work to this day.

Neal’s decade with CNN International, while based in London, Rome and Moscow took him to Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East where he covered wars, elections, famines and upheaval in more than forty countries and where he solidified his credentials as a journalist.

Working with One Production Place since its founding in 2001, Broffman’s work has received many domestic and international awards.  Hot Spots: Martin Parr in the American South was featured in the Arte Cinema Festival of Contemporary Arts in Naples, Italy in October 2013 and was screened in Paris at the prestigious Maison Européenne de la Photographie.  Hot Spots received a 2012 southeast Emmy nomination for best documentary.

Voices of Freedom, produced for the High Museum of Art in Atlanta as part of a comprehensive exhibition of Civil Rights Movement photographs, won the 2009 CINE Special Jury Prize for best in class and was screened at The Field Museum in Chicago, The Smithsonian Institution, The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles and The Bronx Museum.

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Check out our conversation with Mark today as we talk about his new book, why he's a recovering Catholic and how to use philosophy as a way of life. 

Biography

Mark Kingwell, M.Litt, M.Phil, PhD, D.F.A. (born March 1, 1963) is a Canadian professor of philosophy and associate chair at the University of Toronto‘s Department of Philosophy. Kingwell is a fellow of Trinity College. He specialises in theories of politics and culture.

Kingwell has published twelve books, most notably, A Civil Tongue: Justice, Dialogue, and the Politics of Pluralism, which was awarded the Spitz Prize for political theory in 1997. In 2000 Kingwell received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, for contributions to theory and criticism. He has held visiting posts at institutions including: University of Cambridge, University of California at Berkeley, and City University of New York where he held the title of Weissman Distinguished Professor of Humanities.

His books have included, A Civil Tongue (1995); Dreams of Millennium (1997); Better Living (1998); The WorldWe Want (2000); Practical Judgments (2002); Catch and Release (2003); Opening Gambits (2008) and a sample of his articles with wonderful titles like, “Is It Rational To Be Polite?” (1993); “Interpretation, Dialogue, and the Just Citizen” (1993); “Madpeople and Ideologues” (1994); “The Plain Truth About Common Sense” (1995); “Defending Political Virtue” (1996); “Two Concepts of Pluralism”

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