The Kindness Podcast

Think you’re a pretty good listener? I dare you to take Becky Harling’s quiz. Her new book lays it all out — it’s called “How to Listen so People Will Talk,” published by Bethany House. You might be surprised by what you find out about yourself!

After you’ve revealed how well you listen, take the Five Day Active Listening Challenge at http://beckyharling.com/the-5-day-active-listening-challenge/. You can also learn more about how to listen so people will talk by visiting BeckyHarling.com.

Liz Schwarzel was born and raised in Southeastern Ohio. A graduate of Ohio University, Liz has taught for the past 16 years in the same school district in which she grew up.

Liz’s classroom is part of a district wide initiative to teach lessons of kindness through the community based curriculum called Responsive Classroom, which focuses on the strong link between academic success and social-emotional learning.

Liz and her husband, Jan, have three children and are the proprietors of a guest lodge and special event venue located on their 150 acre farm. For more information, visit www.coppertopinn.com.

You better be careful who you hang out with— it turns out you can “catch” kindness! Filmmaker David Gaz has caught it all in his critically acclaimed documentary, Kindness is Contagious. It’s a film all about the benefits of being nice, narrated by Catherine Ryan Hyde, bestselling author of the book and movie, Pay it Forward.

Kindness is Contagious is distributed internationally via Cinedigm. You can get it on iTunes, or watch a trailer at kindness-is-contagious.com.

Tammy Joy Lane is a Kindness Business Owner who is on a mission to increase world kindness through awareness and sharing. She is an Iraq war veteran, a TedX Speaker and a mom of 3 girls who are teaching her kindness lessons daily. 

After years of fighting an uphill battle of Bi-polar Depression and PTSD, Tammy decided that instead of spending her life trying to herself, she would focus on her strengths. Through her website, Yestokindness.com, Tammy is hoping to fill the world with CRAK addicts. CRAK, of course, stands for Commit Random Acts of Kindness.

You might think of yourself as a kind person, but are you really? Former software engineer and current kindness activist, Barbara Hirsh, says there’s a formula to know for sure. She wrote about it in her booklet, Live Kinder.

You can honor someone for their kindness by nominating them for the Caring Heart and Kindness Warrior awards at livekinder.com. For your chance to win one of ten copies of the pocket-sized edition of Live Kinder, just share this podcast and include the hashtag #LIVEKINDER. The contest will run until all ten books have been given away or until March of 2018.

Jessica Reed is a mother of five kids below the age of 14. She is a registered and licensed dietitian. In her spare time, she swims, bikes, and runs. She has joyfully crossed the finish line of numerous marathons and an Ironman competition. As if she didn’t have enough on her well-balanced plate, Jessica decided to do something amazing on her 40th birthday. She ran 40 miles to deliver 40 gifts of kindness.

Jessica says her sports bottle is full of coffee, water, or chocolate milk, depending on time of day.

At the beginning of 2015, Donna Cameron embarked on a year of conscious kindness. She tried to make a mindful and concerted effort to choose kindness: to be kind, think kind thoughts, and respond to unkindness with compassion. She has documented the lessons learned in her blog, A Year of Living Kindly: adventures in trying to live a life of kindness.

After many years of non-profit management, Donna continues to work with organizations to help them determine their missions and visions, and aid them in creating and executing future plans. She consults with boards and leaders to help them identify their values and increase their own individual efficacy, as well as the effectiveness of their organizations.

Donna Cameron’s kindness also comes in the form of a book she co-authored in which she allows people to tell the transformative stories of their cancer journeys. It’s called One Hill, Many Voices: Stories of Hope and Healing.

You can follow the lessons of kindness yet to come through Donna’s blog at ayearoflivingkindly.com.

Ever wonder where the term “Helper’s High” came from? Allan Luks coined that phrase back in the 1990s. Allan is considered among the top experts on volunteerism. His pioneering research changed what we know about how the body benefits from being kind. For four decades Allan has directed well-known organizations dedicated to helping others, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City.

You can learn more about Allan’s book, “The Healing Power of Doing Good” and his other publications at allanluks.com.

Could 40 days of intentional kindness truly spark a revolution? Lisa Barrickman celebrated the days leading up to her 40th birthday by committing one act of kindness a day. Others embraced her endeavor, and in less than a year, more than 20,000 separate acts of kindness took place. In her new book, A Case for Kindness, Lisa shares the ripple effect that changed an entire community and how you can implement it in your own area of the world.

Lisa Barrickman is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Certified Secondary School Counselor. She is a stay-at-home mother and has been recognized for her work with community and volunteer organizations. Lisa is a graduate of the University of Dayton with a BA in Psychology and Loyola University in Maryland with a MS in Pastoral Counseling. She and her husband Josh have been married for seventeen years and they have three children. They live in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Visit Lisa at http://lisabarrickman.com.

Crystal McVea is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, Waking Up in Heaven and the follow-up story, Chasing Heaven. Crystal’s journey to Heaven and back has given her a deep rooted passion for the needy and lost.

Kindness, hope and redemption are central to the message she now shares with audiences across the country. Back home, Crystal boldly ministers under bridges to the homeless and ventures into the dark of night to reach women working in the adult entertainment industry.

Crystal is a schoolteacher and lives in Oklahoma with her husband, Virgil, a US Army veteran, and their four children. To learn more, go to CrystalMcVea.com.