Continuing the conversation this week Robert and Dave focus on one of the many issues that are dividing our country today, gun safety. They look at the most sincere elements from each political party to take the best potential inspiration from both approaches to serve The United States. The extreme ends of the left and right are pretty well excluded from this discourse as they only seem to polarize. It is emphasized that President Trump and all those that helped him in the various conspiracies and violations to democracy are excluded. Robert holds a strong view that he and his accomplices need to be tried on multiple accounts and if what appears evident, they need to be put in jail. Instead, the show strives to strike a balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility to support our evolving democracy. 

Thinking outside the box, Robert will be exploring an alternative narrative and a clarification of what the Second Amendment is trying to provoke. According to Justice Burger, the Second Amendment is about protecting states for the public good and the innocent. Between the years 1999 and 2020, more kids between 1 and 19 died of gun deaths than any other cause. Robert proposes that based on the assumption of the goodwill of gun owners a vast protection network should be created to be called upon in times of crisis. We cannot do what other countries have done. We cannot just buy the guns back. Instead, we can channel the goodwill of existing gun owners and harness it for protecting the whole state as envisioned by our founders.

These podcasts are attempting to foster a well-regulated militia for the benefit of the people. Robert and Dave work within the framework of the state that the U.S. is in right now. It could be one of the keys that help heal the division between Republicans and Democrats. However, it is really up to you and me as citizens to start to loosen up our rigid black and white thinking to empower our leaders to take bold action. We need to transform our addiction to being against, to be for. Imagine with us, regulated, dedicated gun-owning volunteers overwhelmingly good-natured, heroic, like our soldiers, and willing to risk their lives for the benefit of the innocent in our country.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

This week begins a new series exploring gun safety as a polarizing issue in the United States. Robert's approach deconstructs the us vs. them mentality to assume both political parties' goodwill, innocence, and virtuous intentions. The process requires us to begin to think in shades of gray rather than black and white. This is as much the purpose of this series as gun safety, as one will naturally support the other, as well as our democracy. 

What will make democracy flower is finding the balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility. In this situation, like many others, both parties are looking at extreme ends of the political difference and are ignoring the tangible, potentially reachable, sane, and safe ground. As you hear this podcast see if you are open to considering not being identified with only one party. As you do this, please eliminate former President Trump and all of the people that directly support him with corruption, flagrant lies, anti-democracy actions and attitudes. The series assumes the part of the goodwill of the Republican party that cares deeply about democracy, the whole country and the world.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

Join Robert as he speaks with another extraordinary guest on this week’s show, Dr. Paul Brenner. Paul has dedicated his career to counseling cancer patients. This has been the work and passion driving his life. He continued to share his unique love and wisdom with patients even as he also learned to live with cancer and profoundly accept limited mobility himself.  All the while he has maintained and cultivated a sense of wonder and innocence. For many the word cancer equals fear. His depth of acceptance of his illness is an inspiration. Dr. Brenner speaks eloquently and lovingly about the living of his heart's dream of becoming a doctor and how it has shaped who he is.

The show encourages us to take a moment to review our childhood. Reflect on things that happened that made you decide what you were going to do, and see if you can remember your dreams. The conversation highlights that success orientation has so often taken over due to our conditioning but encourages reflection on that common longing beyond political parties, beyond countries that are so commonly who we really are in our earlier years if we were fortunate enough not to be exposed to trauma or negligence. This is a loving world when we can go beyond or even see beyond our defenses. We can access that potential by facing fear and opening ourselves up and helping others do the same, even with cancer. Join Robert and Paul as they explore this sense of wonder and help us apply it to our own lives.

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This week, Robert is joined by a special guest Christian Cardoner. It is both heartfelt and moving to hear the journey of Cristian move through the dark night of his soul as he was profoundly touched when spontaneously faced with holding a baby as it died from hunger in his arms. We are in 2022 with more technology and access to information than ever before, yet this episode focuses on alternatives to the fact that there are still more than 500 million people who go to bed every single day with hunger. It can be difficult to sit with such a consuming reality. The cultivation of compassion can enable us to stay with what is uncomfortable and begin to ask ourselves questions that may move us into action. Here are two questions to start with. What do I see as the balance between giving energy and money to my family and the rest of the world that is suffering? What percentage of giving might I want to consider in this next part of my life?

Christian Cardoner worked in banking and finance in his early years. He quit, feeling something inside him was intrinsically lost. At 33 he began to study philosophy, theater, and social anthropology. At the same time, he started to develop several interesting businesses including social impact investing. This type of investing makes the world the priority and profit secondary. It is difficult to put Christian in one zone. He is really a multidimensional individual who has contributed and studied in many different fields. His inclination to social anthropology took him to different places in the world. He found himself focusing on isolated communities,  and through this, found a deep knowledge of what the act of a grounded tangible compassion truly looked like. Compassion cannot be found by way of pity or not even helping, but passion with trying to live with everyone as if they matter.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

This week, Robert is joined by a guest that exemplifies the essence of a psycho-political life with his relationship with the world. Adam Bendell is the CEO of Toniic, a global action community for impact investors. Toniic creates community, provides educational resources, and curates impact investment opportunities for its members. Adam joined Toniic from his role as chief innovation officer for FTI Consulting. He was also CEO and co-founder of Strategic Discovery, an electronic discovery innovator. Adam is an active impact investor, philanthropist, innovator, meditator, yogi, backpacker, motorcyclist, utilitarian, student of collaborative communication, and a lifelong learner. Here, Robert and Adam discuss the great work he is currently doing and share the seeds of change that led him away from the classic definitions of success. It also reveals how well this motivation dovetails into Psycho-Economics.

Psycho-Politics can be broken down into three core principles. The first is to become aware of our tendency to externalize our challenging emotions on others. Instead, we can learn to relate to challenging emotions without letting them rule our responses. The effect of externalizing our emotions on others is to believe they are the source of our anger, distrust, alienation etc. This is a setup for war, divorce, competition, corruption, rationalization and much more. The first principle also reflects that It is natural to want to take care of ourselves and our family first, but given that this is what almost all of us do, we need to contemplate giving a greater percentage of our heart, time and energy to the greater world. Very few are taking care of the poor, the planet and natural resources. This leaves us at great risk of killing ourselves if we cannot see that our emotions are our responsibility.

The second is similar to the first principle except it is related to those that have some extra money.  It is an encouragement to revamp our relationship to money and success as we consider how to care more for others by  increasing our percentage of sharing wealth from those that have some to give. This also highlights the realization that if those that have extra money, which is in the hundreds of trillions of dollars, don't make these new moves, then the chances for our planet's survival are deeply imperiled.

The third is to ask ourselves, what is the balance for me between taking care of those I love and also the poor, the country and planet on which I live? We must continue to reflect on this for the rest of our lives. Join Robert and Adam as they traverse the many issues facing our world today with vulnerability, heart, and the opportunity to see their joy in giving.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

This week, Robert is joined by a special guest and his step-son Brent Kassel. They meet with a sense of purpose and shared vulnerability here on The Missing Conversation. Brent is the co-founder and CEO of Abacus. Abacus is a holistic wealth management company that invests over 4 billion in companies and projects that, above all,  do not create harm in our world. A significant portion of the funds aim to help society and the environment directly while earning competitive investment returns. He is also the author of The Next Fifty Years of the Racial Wealth Gap, and What You Can Do About It, as well as, It’s Not About the Money, which was named one of the top five business books of the year by Kiplinger. 

Being faced with his own mortality after a surprise health event, Brent began to ponder, how much was enough? Engaging his wife and children he began a deep financial exercise to quantify this. Working with outside experts, including Robert, he began to work out ways to use the surplus to have as much impact on reducing suffering as a family could. Although Brent has dedicated himself to a life of giving, Robert and Brent candidly talk about the fears and complicated feelings around making these non-traditional financial and life decisions. As well as what’s involved in contemplating and recalibrating what it means to have a good quality of life both for oneself and the greater world. 

Philanthropy as well as a healthy life balance is directional. It is not about waking up tomorrow and being that perfect ideal version of yourself that you wish you were. It is not about radical change and doing it all in one month. It is about ongoing contemplation and directionally guiding yourself with this new kind of habit or muscle that you are developing. This episode encourages us to ask, “What is needed to optimize your most fulfilling quality of life?”  This includes your relationship to money and the present state of the country and world.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

Jack Lampl graduated from Harvard in 1973 and has been dominantly involved in the nonprofit sector for the last thirty years. During that time, he has worked as a community mediator and president of two national nonprofits. The Threshold Foundation is a progressive philanthropic fund for wealthy donors. The AK Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems advances a methodology for studying the unconscious dynamics of groups. He now consults with various nonprofits, and psychological and religious organizations, pro bono for the most part, and is a non-ST board member of the San Diego Psychoanalytic Center.

Robert and Jack seamlessly weave their conversation around topics of psycho-politics, diversity, race, and inequity. These factors have effects on each of us that are both conscious and unconscious. Some unseen parts of our behavior often do not serve our best interests. This conversation is both insightful and introspective of Jack Lampl’s journey on an unusual life and someone who exemplifies a psycho-political relationship with the world. The main point of this episode is to support you to get a clearer glimpse of your most sensitive self, and to expand your trust in your capacity to be of support to our troubled world.  It also can serve as an inspiration to develop your friendships to support what is most treasured inside you.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

Join Robert in the final episode of the series regarding spirituality and religion. TMC continues to discuss the role of certainty in our religions and spiritual paths. Robert shares many of his own personal stories with his teachers to highlight some minor and major ways in which he experienced the dangers of certainty. How in many cases, the rigidity and demand for full compliance within the group ultimately led him to turn away from the communities themselves. While you listen, perhaps his experiences resonate with your own. You may begin to ask yourself, how much freedom do you feel you have to add your wisdom to whatever approach you are embarking on?

A power dynamic is created when a leader takes on an almost superhuman quality and does not allow space for humanness and vulnerability. This can translate into anything as benign as the teacher appearing to have it all together or something much more dangerous such as sexual impropriety. You could hold the keys for your community to go to them and say, I would really like you, as a teacher, to be willing to share the human side of yourself. This image of togetherness or a persona of certainty of well-being is not beneficial to the planet because it makes us all try to seek a state of certainty rather than recognize we are all human no matter how spiritual we are. Robert envisions a new representation of teachers who would be vulnerable enough to share what their suffering is and thereby encourage us to openly and safely address our own.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

This week on TMC Robert focuses on the importance of seeing the dangers of certainty as it applies to religious spiritual approaches or even anti-spiritual approaches. It is like putting on a blindfold and not differentiating between faith and being 100% sure. Being open to inquiry actually expands our ability to create a deeper faith with humility and a greater more grounded sense of humanity. In addition, each of us has the potential inspiration of including our doubts as alternative views of how to love. It gives us the chance to learn how to love our extended world family and live beyond the bounds of our prior views and conditioning. It is not about criticism, but about the more inclusive vision that the doubts inspire. This kind of profound, not knowing approach is the ground that makes virtually every practice grow, stay humble and be curious.

The world is so polarized that we must try to connect even to those that have opposing views. Our leaders are often so concerned about preserving their brand that they will be unwilling to expose their vulnerabilities. Robert candidly speaks about some of his experiences with his teachers and spiritual communities to highlight the frequency in which this occurs. There are real perils in certainty. Perhaps with this respect of both our faith and our doubts as a guide, you may begin to see the naturalness of no one path having all the answers and taking care of all humanity and the planet.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

Robert and Dave continue the topic of spirituality and how our deepest beliefs affect not only us individually but the health of the planet as a whole. Robert believed at 18 that what he most desired was to become awakened. He believed that he could sidestep the fear and realness of death and firmly grasp the ultimate truth with such work.  He found instead a great reverence for not knowing and shares his deeper insight of cultivating faith with a healthy amount of doubt. 

Doubt is what allows us to make space for everyone and a vast array of views. Humanness softens the edges of certainty to make way for empathy and inclusiveness, and this is what the world is most in need of now. To continue to remain uncritical of our traditions is dangerous by unwittingly creating a kind of exclusivity, superiority, and even callous indifference toward others that are not in our particular state of certainty. Every religion and every spiritual approach needs to be the protector of all of life. The exclusive boundaries are the only ones that are playing favorites. Here, we are looking at fostering religions,  spiritual approaches, and anti-spiritual approaches to develop character that cares about the world.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.