In this SAND Community Gathering (January 2025), journalist Naomi Klein and trauma expert Dr. Gabor Maté explored the complex intersection of collective trauma, political power, and memory in a discussion moderated by Cecilie Surasky.

Drawing from Naomi’s recent analysis of how trauma has been weaponized in current conflicts, and Gabor’s deep understanding of trauma’s psychological impacts, their conversation examined how media narratives and political rhetoric weaponize fear and trauma to gain public support for military and political crimes. The discussion addressed the troubling speed at which the Oct 7 Jewish trauma is now converted into a spectacle through virtual reality experiences, museum exhibitions, and immersive memorials, while questioning who gets to control these narratives and to what end. Together, they explored alternatives for remembering that might lead toward healing rather than perpetuating cycles of violence.

We hear from several Community Gathering audience members with their questions in the second half of the episode.

Gabor Maté, M.D. is a specialist on trauma, addiction, stress and childhood development. After 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience, Dr. Maté worked for over a decade in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. For his groundbreaking medical work and writing he has been awarded the Order of Canada, his country’s highest civilian distinction, and the Civic Merit Award from his hometown, Vancouver. Gabor is also the creator of a psychotherapeutic approach, Compassionate Inquiry, now studied by thousands of therapists, physicians, counselors, and others in over 80 countries.

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author. She is a columnist with The Guardian. In 2018 she was named the inaugural Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair at Rutgers University and is now Honorary Professor of Media and Climate at Rutgers. In September 2021 she joined the University of British Columbia as UBC Professor of Climate Justice (tenured) and co-director of the Centre for Climate Justice.

Cecilie Surasky is the Director of Communications and Narrative at the Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI), where she leads an incredible team focused on integrating strategic communications and narrative strategies. With a background in Religious Studies and Semiotics, Cecilie views all narratives as sacred, and believes that leaders, for better or worse, often serve as modern-day high priests. As former deputy director of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) she led impactful campaigns aimed at building a co-liberation movement and garnering support for Palestinian human rights.

Topics

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:45 Panel Introduction and Moderator

01:31 Exploring Trauma and Its Impact

02:44 Weaponizing Trauma in Conflict

06:14 Historical Context and Jewish Identity

10:54 Challenging Narratives and Identities

15:09 The Role of Trauma in Shaping Perspectives

30:35 The Impact of Trauma on Palestinians

32:17 Structures of Deliberate Traumatization

37:48 Healing and Moving Forward

41:50 Debunking Historical Myths

42:12 Instrumentalization of Trauma

43:24 Hollywood's Role in Shaping Trauma Narratives

46:30 Economic and Political Motives Behind the Holocaust

48:27 Comparing Historical and Modern Genocides

49:59 Imagining a State Focused on Healing Trauma

51:00 Reclaiming and Reinterpreting History

58:29 The Role of Compassion in Addressing Trauma

01:05:44 Palestinian Perspectives on Healing and Storytelling

01:13:21 Concluding Thoughts and Future Conversations

Resources

Naomi Klein’s Website

Gabor Maté’s Website

Other and Belonging Institute

Jewish Voices for Peace

Naomi Klein’s Article on Israel Weaponizing Trauma: “How Israel has made trauma a weapon of war” (The Guardian)

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein

The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté
 

Watch SAND’s Where Olive Trees Weep
 

Purchase SAND’s full 23-video series Conversations on Palestine

Watch SAND’s The Wisdom of Trauma
 

Learn more about the SAND Community Gatherings
 

Support the mission of SAND and the production of this podcast by becoming a SAND Member

Rawan Roshni is in conversation to discuss the recent ceasefire announcement affecting Palestine and offers a poignant and emotional reflection on the situation. She shares stories from her displaced Palestinian heritage, detailing her family's survival and the ongoing trauma faced by Palestinians. We explore the healing modalities of sound, music, and the human voice and listen to two of her newest live pieces of music and poetry, “Al-Tuyoor: Messages from the Birds” and “Prophecy of Remembrance”.

Rawan Roshni is a Palestinian/Balkan, Global Citizen, Arab Woman, based in Jordan. She uses her voice as an Artivist through her singing/songwriting and facilitation of brave spaces focusing her work in the SWANA region. She has co-founded multiple interfaith and world music projects and most recently has been touring her solo tri-lingual live-looping Music & Poetry performance Al-Tuyoor: Messages from the Birds for 2 years across 7 countries and counting! Her facilitation work over the past decade has ranged from issues such as conflict transformation, collective liberation, catalyzing community, emotional processing tools, conscious relating, consent and more! She fuses Sound, Movement and Intuitive Rituals as tools in her work, bringing elements such as group singing, sound work through vocalization, whirling dance, and intentional nature-based practices.

Topics:

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:29 Emotional Reactions to Ceasefire

01:38 Mixed Feelings and Skepticism

04:01 Personal Connection to Palestine

05:17 Family History and Displacement

09:21 Art and Music as Healing

11:43 The Power of the Human Voice

12:38 Artivism and Activism

19:20 “Prophecy of Rememberance” (song)

38:07 Birds as Messengers

57:50 Future Projects and Closing Remarks

Resources:

Website

Instagram

Nada Bramha

Aboriginal Song Lines

“Conference of the Birds” by Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr

Sacred Activism Course at Tamera

Sacred Activism Course in Montenegro

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In this live SAND Community Gathering (January 2025), SAND co-founders Maurizio and Zaya Benazzo welcome Darcia Narvaez, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Notre Dame, to discuss her interdisciplinary research on evolved morality, child development, and human flourishing. Narvaez shares insights from her book, The Evolved Nest, and explores the impact of modern parenting practices, the benefits of communal child-rearing, and the neurological and emotional development of children. The discussion also holds space for the importance of nature immersion, indigenous practices, and the detrimental effects of trauma on development. The episode concludes with practical tips for parents and communities to foster a nurturing environment based on centuries-old wisdom.

Topics

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:46 Guest Introduction: Darcia Narvaez

02:14 Darcia's Journey and Early Influences

05:32 The Concept of the Evolved Nest

08:34 Modern Birth Practices and Their Impact

14:08 Parenting and Child Development in Indigenous Communities

16:36 The Role of Community in Child Rearing

19:52 Education and Learning: Western vs. Indigenous Approaches

27:54 The Impact of Trauma in Modern and Natural Worlds

28:42 The Impact of Early Trauma on Male Elephants

29:04 Developmental Needs of Young Males

29:52 The Role of Older Males in Elephant Social Structure

30:43 Human Development and Mentorship

31:16 The Importance of Multi-Aged Groups

32:01 Rites of Passage and Ceremonial Transitions

33:03 Vertical and Horizontal Connectedness

34:10 The Influence of Christianity and Patriarchy

35:08 Creation Spirituality and Indigenous Worldview

36:05 The Evolved Nest and Modern Parenting

37:15 The Role of Community in Child Development

39:39 The Importance of Nature and Healing Practices

46:17 Learning from Octopus Intelligence

48:04 Restoring the Kinship Worldview

51:05 Conclusion and Call to Action

Resources

The Evolved Nest (website)

The Evolved Nest: Nature's Way of Raising Children and Creating Connected Communities (book)

Support the mission of SAND and the production of this podcast by becoming a SAND Member

Recorded live at a SAND Community Gathering (December 2024) hosted by Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo.

In this intimate conversation with poet and philosopher David Whyte and his wife, cultural architect Gayle Karen Young, explore the tender territories of grief, belonging and rest.

Drawing from David’s new book Consolations II, this unique dialogue offers a glimpse into how two lives intertwine in both understanding and living these essential human experiences and how loss and heartbreak can become doorways to deeper belonging.

The conversation weaves together poetry, contemplative wisdom, and the authentic experience of two people who have walked the path of partnership through its many thresholds. It offers both practical insight and spiritual nourishment for anyone seeking to understand how we grow through love’s many faces—from its first tender beginnings to its most profound depths of kinship.

David Whyte, raised between his Irish mother’s imaginative influence and his father’s Yorkshire landscapes, now calls the Pacific Northwest home. He is the author of twelve books of poetry and five books of prose, holding a degree in Marine Zoology and bringing rich experience from his years as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leader of expeditions in the Andes, Amazon, and Himalaya.

Gayle Karen Young is a cultural architect and catalyst for human and organizational development who believes the world needs leaders who are “able for” what lies ahead. With over two decades in leadership development, she focuses on both the visible, practical aspects of leadership and the invisible work of creating spaces where others can thrive.

Topics:

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:37 Meet the Guests: Gayle Karen Young and David Whyte

02:41 The Power of Poetry and Reflection

03:37 Exploring Grief and Intimacy

09:02 Collective Grief and Global Suffering

27:20 The Role of Vulnerability in Leadership

30:14 Exploring Grief and Progressive Patriotism

30:52 The Everyday Invitation to Vulnerability

31:42 Understanding the Path of Care

35:34 The Seasonality of Care and Grief

39:19 The Overwhelming Nature of Modern Connectivity

41:53 The Essence of Loving Your Neighbor

43:32 The Bell and the Blackbird: An Irish Koan

52:04 The Importance of Silence and Relationship

54:33 Concluding Thoughts and Gratitude

Resources:

David Whyte’s Website

Gayle Karen Young’s Website

David’s new book Consolations II

Mary Frances O’Connor - The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss

Martin Prechtel - The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise

Dacher Keltner - Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

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Join us as we journey into the depths of winter’s sacred darkness with renowned wisdom keepers Pat McCabe (Woman Stands Shining) and Francis Weller. Recorded on December 21, 2024, at SAND’s Winter Solstice gathering, this episode invites you into a virtual ceremonial space that honors the winter solstice as a powerful moment of transition and transformation.

 Through poetry, storytelling, and profound dialogue, McCabe and Weller guide us in exploring the sacred landscapes of loss and regeneration. Drawing from Indigenous wisdom and archetypal psychology, they illuminate how embracing grief and releasing what no longer serves can awaken the tender seeds of renewal within us. This is an invitation to witness and metabolize both personal and collective transitions, understanding death not as an end but as a sacred dreaming—a portal to transformation.

This episode offers a contemplative space to embrace life’s cyclical nature, reflecting on the solstice as a time for inner alchemy. Together, we honor the rhythms of descent and renewal, finding meaning and hope in the fertile darkness of winter. Whether you are seeking solace, inspiration, or deeper connection, this conversation is a profound offering for anyone navigating the thresholds of life.

Pat McCabe (Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining) is a Diné (Navajo) mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international speaker. She is a voice for global peace, and her paintings are created as tools for individual, earth and global healing. She draws upon the Indigenous sciences of Thriving Life to reframe questions about sustainability and balance, and she is devoted to supporting the next generations, Women’s Nation and Men’s Nation, in being functional members of the “Hoop of Life” and upholding the honor of being human.

Francis Weller, MFT, is a psychotherapist, writer and soul activist. He is a master of synthesizing diverse streams of thought from psychology, anthropology, mythology, alchemy, indigenous cultures and poetic traditions. Author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief; The Threshold Between Loss and Revelation, (with Rashani Réa) and In the Absence of the Ordinary: Essays in a Time of Uncertainty, he has introduced the healing work of ritual to thousands of people. He founded and directs WisdomBridge, an organization that offers educational programs that seek to integrate the wisdom from indigenous cultures with the insights and knowledge gathered from western poetic, psychological and spiritual traditions.

Topics

Resources from Episode

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Today we are in conversation with Ayurvedic doctor Dr. Avanti Kumar-Singh where we discuss longevity through the lens of intergenerational trauma, colonization, ecological collapse, and how the ancient practice of Ayurvedic medicine might contain remidies for what ails our modern health crises.

Avanti Kumar-Singh, MD, is an internationally recognized Ayurveda and integrative medicine practitioner, certified yoga therapist, and former ER doctor. Her approach blends Western medicine with the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda from her South Asian lineage. Dr. Avanti is the former co-lead facilitator at Northwestern Medicine's Osher Center for Integrative Health, hosts The Healing Catalyst podcast, and offers courses on integrative medicine. She is a sought-after speaker and advisor in the wellness community, sharing her expertise with Fortune 500 companies, top academic institutions, and leading industry and medical conferences. Her work has been featured in Huffington Post, Goop, mindbodygreen, and more.

Her new book is The Longevity Formula: Ayurvedic Principles to Reduce Inflammation, Increase Cellular Repair, and Live With Vitality (Sounds True, 2024).

Topics:

00:00 Introduction to Dr. Avanti Kumar-Singh
01:33 Inspiration Behind 'The Longevity Formula'
03:54 Understanding Lifespan vs. Health Span
05:42 Ayurveda's Role in Longevity
06:55 Integrating Ancient Practices with Modern Medicine
09:58 The Concept of Balance in Ayurveda
15:39 Ayurveda in Modern India
20:25 Inflammation and Its Impact on Health
24:33 Nourishing the Tissues: Connecting Practices
25:00 Understanding Inflammation: Signs and Symptoms
26:08 Listening to Your Body: Symptoms as Information
28:59 Ayurveda and Circadian Rhythms
32:47 Seasonal Eating: Aligning with Nature
35:30 Energetic Medicine: The Blueprint of Health
43:31 Practical Tips for Longevity
47:09 The Importance of Connection
49:06 Final Thoughts and Reflections

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Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo host this captivating conversation into divine and personal love with two modern-day mystics, held dear by SAND from a SAND Community Gaterhing from July 2023.

Love, a powerful catalyst for transformation on the spiritual path, resonates at the core of our being. Through this dialogue, we will transcend the limitations of a narrow, individualized perception of love, immersing ourselves in the boundless realm of our true nature—a universal expression of pure love.

Episcopal priest, writer, and internationally known retreat leader, Cynthia Bourgeault divides her time between solitude at her coastal home in Maine and a demanding schedule traveling globally to teach and spread the recovery of the Christian contemplative path. She is the founding Director of both The Contemplative Society and the Aspen Wisdom School.

Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas), Founder of the Diamond Approach, was born in the Middle East, but at age 18 he moved to the USA to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics, where he was studying Einstein’s theory of general relativity and nuclear physics, when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him more and more into inquiring into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature. Hameed is the founder of the Diamond Approach®—a spiritual teaching that utilizes a unique kind of inquiry into realization.

Topics:

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In this important conversation examining the vital role of journalists and documentarians in conflict zones, Palestinian journalist, Mariam Barghouti and Jenin resident, Rawand Arqawi share their firsthand experiences with Palestinian trauma healer, Ashira Darwish, cutting through the fog of misinformation to reveal the human realities often obscured in Western mainstream narratives.

Our guests shared first-hand experiences on reporting from Jenin and the broader region, exploring both the crucial importance of ground-level documentation and the challenges faced by those who undertake this work.  Documenting truth has become increasingly dangerous as we’ve seen more journalists killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza and Lebanon in the past 12 months than in any similar recorded period since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Mariam Barghouti is a Palestinian-American writer, researcher, and journalist based in Ramallah. She holds a BA in English from Birzeit University and an MSc in Sociology from the University of Edinburgh, where she focused on Israeli Ashkenazi-Mizrahi racial hierarchies.  Barghouti is known for monitoring humanitarian aid in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine for various organizations. Her political commentary and research have featured prominently in CNN, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, BBC, The New York Times, and more. She has contributed to books like I Found Myself in Palestine and written profiles on Palestinian figures such as artist Khaled Hourani and politician Dr. Hanan Ashrawi.

Ashira Ali Darwish worked for 15 years as a TV & Radio journalist and researcher in Palestine for the BBC, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. She is the founder of Catharsis Holistic Healing, a trauma therapy project pioneering a type of Sufi active meditation which draws its roots from ancestral and Indigenous knowledge. Her personal healing journey from full body paralysis with a severed spinal cord in 2012 has given her a deep insight into the process of recovery and healing. In 2021, she received the “ISABS Honours” from the Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science for her contribution to positive societal transformation.

Rawand Arqawi is a producer and cultural manager who was born and grew up in Jenin.  She worked as a production coordinator for nearly six years with the Freedom Theatre, working under theater artist Juliano Mer-Khamis. During her time with the Freedom Theatre, she coordinated dozens of performances, workshops, international tours, exchanges, as well as managing communications, international volunteers, fundraising, and logistics. Beyond her work with the Freedom Theatre, she has contributed to various local artistic projects and groups, including working as a production assistant for Al Jazeera Children. In 2013, she initiated Fragments theater, and has since then continued to produce several performances and workshops. She is passionate about using arts as a tool of resistance.

Topics:

Links:

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​“We are not walking through the world; we are interwoven with it. In everything we do, we participate in complexity.”
–Neil Theise

Neil Theise is a professor of pathology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Through his scientific research, he has been a pioneer of adult stem cell plasticity and the anatomy of the human interstitium. Dr. Theise’s studies in complexity theory have led to interdisciplinary collaborations in fields such as integrative medicine, consciousness studies, and science-religion dialogue.

Neil’s new book, which we discuss on the episode, is Notes on Complexity​

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Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology, who draws from his study of archetypal myths, ancestral wisdom and cross-cultural rituals to interpret our remarkable moment in human history. While many of us are attempting to recognize our own self-terminating patterns and inhabit new ways of being human, Michael helps us to see the stories we are living, and the new stories that are calling us.

He is the author of many books, including The Genius Myth, Fate and Destiny, Why the World Doesn’t End and The Water of Life.  He is also the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, a nonprofit organization that initiates innovative projects and unifying events that support and educate at-risk youth, refugees, combat veterans, and communities in need.

Resources:

Topics:

00:00 Introduction

02:11 US Elections and Political Climate

02:48 Cultural and Environmental Unraveling

06:42 The Role of Uncertainty and Inner Self

08:09 Mythology and the Deeper Self

10:25 Rite of Passage and Personal Transformation

18:47 The Genius Myth vs. The Hero Myth

23:47 The Nature of the Soul and Family Expectations

28:26 Discovering Your Calling in Descent

29:30 The Whisper of Genius

31:01 Flattening of Modern Culture

31:53 The Role of Inspiration in the Arts

32:40 The Power of Practice

33:19 The Sound of Creation

37:02 "Holding the Thread of Life" (Excerpt) live at SAND 19 by Michael Meade

40:25 Quieting Down to Hear the Call

41:47 Expressing Emotions for Healing

46:32 The Importance of Grief and Compassion

48:57 The Magic of Words

53:27 Connecting with Mythological Ideas

54:50 Conclusion and Future Conversations

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