Leading Conversations

Cheryl Esposito welcomes Justine Toms, co-founder of New Dimensions World Broadcasting Network and New Dimensions Radio and author of Small Pleasures: Finding Grace in a Chaotic World and co-author of True Work: Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do. Justine’s achievements include producing and hosting many award-winning radio series including “In Her Company: Deep Dialogues with Women of Wisdom” and “Deep Ecology for the 21st Century”. Throughout her career Justine has helped people to live life on purpose and find joy in the everyday. Now she shares with us her most important insights that, she says, have “firmly supported me like stepping stones as I've crossed the ever changing, chaotic stream of my life.” Step out of the chaos of the world for an hour and join the conversation as we explore living everyday life with joy and passion!

Cheryl Esposito welcomes Lynne Twist, global activist, fundraiser, Founder of The Soul of Money Institute and author of The Soul of Money. She founded the Soul of Money Institute to express her commitment to supporting and empowering people in finding peace and sufficiency in their relationship with money. She says, “Money is a current, a carrier, a conduit for our intention. Money carries the imprimatur of our soul.” Lynne has spent more than three decades leading global initiatives including: ending world hunger, protecting rainforests, empowering indigenous peoples, understanding human consciousness, creating a sustainable future for all life. Lynne sees our current economic crisis as a “natural unraveling” of a system that has never truly worked for our world. She believes, “We now have the opportunity to live the most meaningful lives any generation of humankind has ever lived.” Discover how we can “create a new future of sufficiency for ourselves and all beings everywhere.”

Cheryl Esposito welcomes Riane Eisler, bestselling author of The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics; The Chalice & the Blade and The Power of Partnership. Riane recognizes, Our nation and our world are hungry for new ways of thinking. She sees opportunity for a sympathetic world by creating caring societies working through the economic system. And as long as caring is off the economic scale, it's not realistic to expect more caring government and business policies. Riane emphasizes bringing a new type of cooperation into politics. Partnership politics takes us outside the box of the conventional political conversation. Instead of arguing about religious versus secular, right versus left, Eastern versus Western, capitalist versus socialist, and so forth, we focus on the long-term policies foundational for the more peaceful, equitable, and environmentally sustainable world we all want and need. Join in the conversation!

Cheryl Esposito welcomes Karen Tse, Founder & CEO of International Bridges to Justice. An international human rights attorney and ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, Karen Tse has been pioneering Rule of Law initiatives in Asia and Africa since 1994. As a United Nations Judicial Mentor, she trained judges and prosecutors and established the first arraignment court in Cambodia. IBJ has trained hundreds of defense lawyers in the 31 provinces of China, as well as in Cambodia and Vietnam. Karen says: “We envision a world without torture or unjust legal proceedings, and we work every day to achieve this end.” Thanks to Tse's efforts, posters in Chinese police stations that used to say, Resist punishment: confess [for] better treatment, now read: You have a right not to be tortured. This work is not for the faint of heart. Where does she find the courage to engage in this human rights mission in the face of potential personal danger? Karen’s advice: “You have to start from your center. It's from that place of stillness where you'll know how to move forward.”

Cheryl Esposito welcomes Philo Ikonya of Kenya, a human rights activist, social change motivator, ardent poet, writer and lecturer. Philo holds postgraduate degrees in the Arts and consults on gender, governance and media issues. Philo courageously writes about the injustices of Kenya. In her series, Kenya Is Burning, she reflects on her country's struggles with the devastating violence that has claimed so many lives and turned its people against each other. The women of Kenya have always been aware of injustice in our society...we've always known that the deep inequalities in our country would lead to the destruction of this nation. Philo has decided to wear sacks instead of regular clothes to protest the current violence in Kenya. She has helped organize a campaign urging Kenyan women to wear sacks for clothes for as long as we do not have peace in Kenya; as long as we do not have justice and reform. Join us to hear this extraordinary story of courage and vision for a just world.

Cheryl Esposito welcomes Barrie Bergman, Rock n' Roll CEO and visionary entrepreneur. As a child Barrie Bergman dreamt of a life in the music industry. He opened his first Record Bar music store in 1963. Through Barrie's charismatic leadership, Record Bar grew to a national chain of 180 stores in 30 states and was involved in the early careers of celebrities such as Lyle Lovett, Larry Gatlin, Jimmy Buffett, and Harry Chapin. At the age of 47, Barrie and his partners sold Record Bar for $92 million. Shortly after selling Record Bar, Barrie and partner, John Hansen, purchased bankrupt Bare Escentuals, then a 4-store skin care company. Twenty-four stores later and a constant presence on QVC, Bare Escentuals was recapitalized for over $200 million, just 14 years after its rescue from financial ruin.

Cheryl Esposito welcomes Bo Ekman, founder and Chairman of the Tällberg Foundation an international non-profit organization established in Sweden. The Foundation’s work is based on humanistic values and a holistic systems approach. It aims to help leaders grow as human beings and act with purpose when managing the challenges of global interdependence. For Bo, the key to our future is making globalization work—economically, politically, socially, and culturally. He says, “We must design solutions to reconcile the imbalances between earth systems and the human endeavor to support economic growth and energy provision.” No small projects for this man. Bo has advised the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the UN Executive Office. He has undertaken major projects for the United Nations Development Programme. Join the conversation to hear Bo Ekman speak to his own journey to cultivate a new leadership that is firmly grounded in a commitment to systems thinking and humanistic values.

Cheryl Esposito welcomes Benjamin Quinto, a youth advocate, movement strategist, and activARTist™. In 1996, at age 18, he authored a proposal for a United Nations Youth Assembly. I believed that, Youth Assembly or not, we would build a network of like-minded peers, so that in 20 years' time a global network of friends would prevent us from ever pressing a button that would bomb anywhere they lived. His efforts evolved into the Global Youth Action Network (GYAN). As its founder and executive director, he led GYAN to become one of the most expansive youth networks in the world, connecting thousands of organizations in 180 countries, and mobilizing millions of young people. Now, Benjamin has embarked upon a renewed journey of self-discovery. He says, Ten years later, I am learning who I am all over again. Join us as Benjamin shares what he has learned from youth around the world, and where these experiences will lead him next.

Cheryl Esposito welcomes Jeffrey Glassman, J.D., founder of RainforestMaker, a non profit organization dedicated to saving and growing back the Earth’s rainforests- one tree at a time. Jeff is a highly successful attorney – a “rainmaker”- with passion for his work. Not having much time to play, he vacations as hard as he works. He adventures to exotic lands, climbs mountains, and explores wild coastlines. In 2004, while in Costa Rica Jeff says, “I was awed by its incredible beauty and I remember feeling the Rainforest was alive! …And there were huge tracts of Rainforest land that had been completely destroyed.” With that, the seed was planted and over the next couple of years ideas sprouted - until he decided that ideas were not enough. It was time for action. Join us to hear Jeff share the most important adventure of his life that takes him from a childhood love of trees to a passionate mission to effect change in the rainforest and make a difference for the planet.

Cheryl Esposito welcomes Jerilyn Brusseau, a cook, baker, restaurateur, businesswoman, humanitarian and cultural diplomat. She is founder of PeaceTable and co-founder of PeaceTrees Vietnam. Her story begins in her grandmother’s kitchen and takes her globetrotting in the spirit of peace and diplomacy. Jerilyn passionately advocates warm-hearted, soul-connected food as the most common language spoken around the world. She founded PeaceTable to create shared culinary experiences between people of the United States and the former Soviet Republics as a tool for building cultural understanding. Her citizen diplomacy did not stop there. In 1995, she co-founded PeaceTrees Vietnam, a humanitarian organization that sponsors the removal of land mines and sends volunteers to plant trees and build homes in their place. To date, there have been 13,000 bombs removed and 32,000 trees planted. Jerilyn can imagine…all the people…living life in peace… Join us for a beautiful conversation!