M. J. Harding has co-written a musical in which characters vested with institutional power come to use Nonviolent Communication for purposes of surveillance and state-sponsored violence. It's called Removal Men, and some clips are available here.

A retired Army Ranger has had second thoughts about the meaning of his career. Now he struggles to know how to respond, especially in casual situations, to being acknowledged for it.

Ryan and I discuss some recent progress he's made employing the NVC framework.

I give Mariska empathy concerning her love life, and invite or challenge her to go beyond her "natural" skills.

Mariska and I delve into an incident, trivial in itself, that represents a pattern of disconnection between herself and her boyfriend.

The episode begins with a response to feedback that suggests I make the podcast and its marketing a little more polished, and then I go on to say a bit about how I understand what one actually does to "practice" NVC. The role play with Marilyn represents the two-step form of learning empathy that I value, and that I'm trying to figure out how to feature more often.

Marilyn teaches NVC, and has three moms in her class who are at a loss as to how to communicate with their adolescents. Marilyn and I role play a conflict as a way to generate resources that might help her in her future role plays with the distraught moms.

Jodie has a lot of passion for putting into practice some definite ideas about child rearing. But this has led to some friction with her husband, and she finds herself stuck when wanting to offer him empathy. We try to role play our way to some resources. Apologies for some echo in the audio.

In response to a divorce, Kate's piqued father cut her out of his life. Thirty years later, when she finally had a chance to talk to him on his deathbed, he had throat cancer and an unreconciled heart. We seek some daughterly peace for her through role play.

Kristin Collier talks about her book Housewife: Home-Remaking in a Transgender Marriage. I reviewed it here, and her website is here.