This week, Robert and Dave explore the lessons of the TV series Homeland to illuminate one key aspect of what is challenging our world. All the shows talked about in this set of podcasts can deeply support us to break free from what we were taught when growing up in American culture and encourage us to contemplate this crucial distortion individually. We have our American perspective of being "the good country," while the Middle East is marginal at best, maybe even evil. Through its story, Homeland reveals the dangers of black-and-white thinking. Robert is advocating love for America while also pointing out how as Americans our view has been distorted in the way we have been conditioned. In Homeland, there is a Bin Laden-type character. The audience is shown how his son is killed in an unwitting attack also killing 20 children. This news was not advertised in the west and so the western world is completely unaware of his hurt and anger. This is one example, or many, of how we often do not realize a two-way street exists. There is a pure element that we Americans are not shown. Homeland reveals the decency that exists in the stories that happen to people that are in this version of the Middle East. 

The show is profound because it elucidates some of the deep flaws in democracy and deep flaws in Middle Eastern religion and corrupt political enterprises, which exist on both sides. Both sides are guilty and there is also innocence. Homeland demonstrates the sane elements that exist in both societies. We are shown a very moving love affair and protection of both a dedication to country and a love of children from the Middle East side. This allows us to learn another level of the same lesson, that love exists deeply in both societies.

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Robert will continue to look at the TV series 24 for its unique elements which highlight the struggle between being loyal to family and loyal and dedicated to supporting the world. In addition to that struggle, the show exemplifies the heroism of being a humanitarian and having your heart open to what is best for humanity. Beyond the glitz and the excitement of 24, we are looking to see what the deeper meanings are through the lens of psycho-politics, the 3 principles of which will be covered in the podcast. It is important to note that the themes explored isolate torture as being the one weakness of the show because torture doesn’t work and is inhumane.

Robert and Dave talk through the themes of 24 as it relates to taking care of our families and being more generous to the world. The show encourages you to imagine how this does and could apply to your life. If a sincere part of you wants to find a balanced way to love both your family and the world, then this episode is for you.

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Today's show has a very unique focus on the TV program 24. Robert points out from the start that it is a potential danger for the public to idealize Jack Bauer and 24 for torturing terrorists. In contrast to this insight, Robert emphasizes there is a movie called The Report, which is a true story where America acknowledges that America tortured prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and that America gained zero benefits from using torture as a strategy. 24 is viewed, instead, at a completely different level of depth by Robert and Dave, revealing examples of how it could wake up a part of us that is all too frequently asleep. The storyline helps bring us in touch with the potential of mass death, nuclear war, and other world threats. It shatters a level of denial that we are safe for those that really let themselves face a level of reality that we’re threatened by now. It models for us how to summon up the courage to look at and respond to what is needed for the greater good of our country and the world. 

Robert highlights in this series the tear that exists inside us when we feel a depth of protection for both our families and the world simultaneously. The relationship between the character leads Jack Bauer and President Palmer spotlights a humanitarian partnership and continuous conflicts that arise between protecting the world and one's family. The depth of the characters in 24 is layered and multi-dimensional. Robert connects that like the characters, we all have multiple parts of ourselves. The conflict between these essential parts of ourselves may even inspire you to watch 24 again and look at how it might impact your life and its implications for living in the world when we open up our protective instincts toward risking parts of our lives because we care so much.

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Join Robert and his special guest Erin Beasley. It is worth stretching our brains and hearts to comprehend her message and its potential positive implications. Erin is the Executive Director of the non-profit Ecosystem Restoration Camps in the USA. It is under the umbrella of psycho-politics that Robert welcomes Erin to the show because she represents it so well. Ecosystem restoration and better land management practices are one of the top tools that we have in our tool belt, anywhere around the world, to respond to climate change. These practices are relatively inexpensive and generally underfunded, but fortunately for our planet, gaining in recognition.

The world needs us to take action and think about our potential to respond from a protective place toward the world. We are not going to achieve a healthy planet without asking how we can contribute in small or large ways, whichever is viable for us. Hear Erin's friendly nature and glimpse her unique perspective on taking care of nature through regenerative land management, ecosystem restoration, and good old-fashioned getting your hands dirty. Working outside in the service of nature is something that often gets to the core of who we are. It can make us feel better and more relaxed. It can make us feel empowered and motivated and a part of something larger than ourselves. Finding a way to get involved and be able to take action is part of unlocking our contribution to our community and the space we inhabit here on earth. Robert invites you to reflect on, what is my role? We have the opportunity to contribute in the smallest of ways to collectively have a huge impact.

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Meet Susan Hough the woman and her work. Susan leads by example through vulnerable and courageous transparency by modeling the importance of honest communication, and awareness of self and others. You will see that she has an infectious generosity of spirit and is a very hard person not to like. She is the Executive Director of the nonprofit Wisdom Spring, a teen leadership humanitarian development program currently serving 7 high schools. Their fundraising efforts have thus far resulted in the construction of 45 water wells in Africa and India to serve marginalized communities. 

Robert and Susan explore how to find greater inspiration and fulfillment. In their exchange, you can feel the depth of reverence they share for each other’s work. They investigate the range in how some people are choosing not to give or even looking at their potential to support others and the planet outside of friends and family circles. On the other end of the spectrum, some suffer because they are not supporting themselves enough. Join the exploration of what your tendencies are with yourself and your community. How can you take care of yourself, be a leader, and awaken your contribution to the world?  

Susan shows naturally how she loves young people and provides an atmosphere where they can drop in and see the value of working together and finding autonomy simultaneously by nurturing their individual talents and each others. She reveals a glimpse of how she sees and empowers everyone to be inspired to find what they have naturally as a gift to offer their friends and the world. This is an “expose” for teenagers, schools, and parents to see how they can be an instrument of healing for the world by finding and activating themselves to live to their highest potential.

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Look forward to an inspirational conversation with the spirit of Buckminster Fuller and the practical programs and ideas of Robert and his guest Daniel Matalon. Daniel is the founder of Is There Enough, a provocative new conversation about the intersection of survival economics and social justice.

Psycho-Politics, and what Buckminster Fuller called the world game, relate to very complex existential issues that Robert and Daniel make accessible. It is centered around our human responsibility to make the world work for 100% of humanity. The world is dysfunctional, but what would it mean to have the opposite of that, which is optimal functioning? The Is There Enough campaign innovated by Daniel is meant to inspire humanity and bring us to a more contemplative and practical place. If real wealth is survival and choice over time, how do we build that? Only by agreement. How do we not have to go to war and create that expansion? It is a very simple and elusive idea that both Robert and Daniel's work attest to.

Mentioned in this episode Daniel Matalon Is There Enough Impact Launchpad

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Robert and Dave continue their spirited conversation in the final installment on gun safety. The attempt is to look at the most sincere elements of each political party. As they examine the details of what could inspire the country to unite the fringe extremes are excluded. Trump and his key supporters who are committed to the big lie, insurrection, and many illegal activities are not considered part of the solution. A vote for Trump is a vote that threatens gun ownership. The paranoia and fear that he has unleashed and the deaths and mass shootings that have been a result of the questioning of democracy and every institution are a result of his alternative fact environment. We must tone down this animosity through more programs and treatment centers to combat dangerous nationalists and the anti-democratic calls to violence on the internet and in schools. What will make democracy flourish once again is finding the balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility. The other major theme of this series makes the connection between gun safety and transforming the expression of hatred into strength. 

For a more step-by-step breakdown of how to address transforming your own anger and resistant emotions please visit AwarenessThatHeals.org. When we become aware of what we need, we can learn to express strongly what it is that we are for rather than what we are against. A big part of doing this is not to demonize a large percentage of our population believing this is going to create more peace. This method helps navigate converting black and white thinking into strength to be for democracy and against anti-democracy. 

Robert and Dave make an out-of-the-box proposal that is a new way of imagining people who have guns. It would require willing participants to go through approved training and psychological testing to become an additional layer of protection in the form of a militia in the way that The Second Amendment intended. There are plenty of people that want to do good. This would provide an opportunity for gun owners to become protectors. We want to create a sense of membership in the United States of America wanting to protect our democracy.

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Welcome to part 5 of a 6 part series on the very important topic of gun safety. As one of the most pressing issues The United States is facing today, Robert suggests that a solid starting point comes from taking a close look and realizing that a very large percentage of gun owners purchase them to protect their families. When we can begin to see the protective nature l we can find a way to create more peace and meaningful conversations. Robert expresses the need to set strong boundaries for those individuals that are fostering violence and increasing the dangers of guns. Those that have violated laws need to be jailed. We need not get lost in hating them but rather, they need to be taken out of circulation. This means empowering people with guns to step into the responsibility of being protectors (with close coordination with police/National Guard) but also empowering our police departments so they are ready. Stay tuned as Robert will be addressing police reform in future episodes.

There is also a responsibility on the part of the gun owners to recognize the unintended consequences that they don't see of the few enraged, mentally disturbed, impulsive, and untrained segments of their population. Trust is earned. Would you sit on a plane if you knew the pilot had no training or seek treatment from a doctor who did not go to medical school? These are minimum requirements. Why would we treat gun owners any differently? Robert offers the psychological perspective that until we have the best people trained to verify the credibility of gun owners there will be continued fear.

These subject matters are inherently polarizing and can be overwhelming. It is easy to want to close down, however, Robert urges, we must continue to open up the best we can to face our collective fear, anxiety, and paranoia and then respond with balanced actions. Our democracy likely depends on it. The point is not to hit the guilt button but to hit the wake-up button and create a shift. It is not about taking away guns. It is about lessening the chance of death. See that if you have common sense, you will be able to keep your guns. Understand that they are valid for safety, but they are not valid in careless hands.

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Robert and Dave continue to wrestle with the divisive issue of gun safety. This episode is part 4 of the series in search of the middle ground to make gun safety a viable possibility in our country. How can we avoid stereotypes to reduce the heat and the hate? As Robert focuses on creating a greater chance for peace, the extremes of both parties must be excluded. The fringe ends generally create more conflict than resolution. Former President Trump is in a completely different category. He is a danger to democracy. Nor does he have respect for the truth or voting rights. Trump fosters violence and gun danger.

 Hopefully, soon, a wave of centrist Republicans will turn the tide toward a party more in line with Justice Berger and see the sanity in the original intent of The Second Amendment. Gun owners have good intentions to protect their families. This mentality could be harnessed to protect and support the police, The National Guard, and create an extra protection layer for our country. As you're listening, do you find yourself dismissing this out of hand? No one yet knows that answer but the podcast conveys that it is a worthy debate that needs to happen to imagine and create a country we can all feel safe in. 

Join us for this spirited, frank, and honest conversation where Robert and Dave have a rare disagreement. How many people should be included in becoming gun-carrying protectors? Could it be 5,000 or 10,000, more, or many less that qualify for this peace corps? What is a healthy fear of creating a supportive force of trained and screened protectors versus danger and endless controversy? It is healthy to have fear and trust. It is healthy to be cautious. It is not healthy to be paranoid. It is not healthy to be hateful. The aim is the middle way. The conversation deals with both the ability to see into people's intentions and how to become safer with sensible gun control. All humans are vulnerable to seeing the extremes and we all would do well to see things in more relative terms.

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Continue to break from traditional thinking with Robert in the third installment of our series on gun safety. This is a tough yet current conversation where Robert and Dave grapple with the consequences of the Democratic and Republican parties acting from the extreme ends of the political difference. Trump is an extreme and bad actor. He should be prosecuted and taken off the map completely. His vitriol and insanity are exactly the extreme views hindering the democratic evolution of gun safety in our laws and politics. The Democrats also possess the extremes as well. This podcast attempts to think outside the box and back into the center to find the humanity in each party and find a safe ground on which to work together. 

The Second Amendment was intended to allow for the formation of militias as protection of the states against a rogue government or other rogue elements. Join Robert and Dave in their discourse as they imagine what the country could look like if we were able to return to this premise. The dominant instinct of gun owners is protectiveness. From this core good, join us in an innovative approach to qualify people who have that intention and harness it for greater protection.

Currently, gun owners are being condemned by the majority of non-gun owners especially those that carry heavier weapons, which causes them to be in reaction. If they can begin to be seen for the protective intentions that they are following, they could be carefully screened to protect the greater good of innocent civilians that are now in danger from shootings. They may even start to become a group of people that will want to vote differently because they are being honored and seen as protectors. They may start to be the ones that want background checks and dignify safety measures if they are put in a role of responsibility.

Robert explains from a psychological perspective that if you are raised in an environment where people hate you, it fills you with hate. It makes you want to be more violent. If we can see that the hatred against is causative in creating more hatred, we may be able to find a way to harness the pure intention.

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