One of the hopeful things in the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires is how I have seen people within L.A. show up with and for each other. And I'm especially grateful for this audience because I know you are all people who care to show up with people, and for people. Thank you for being light in these hard times.

Show Notes (from the episode page of For the Life of the World)

In this conversation, Pam King and Jamie Aten join Evan Rosa to discuss:

About Pam King

Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy. She hosts the With & For podcast, and you can follow her @drpamking.

About Jamie Aten

Jamie D. Aten is a disaster psychologist and disaster ministry expert. He helps others navigate mass, humanitarian, and personal disasters with scientific and spiritual insights. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute and Disaster Ministry Conference and holds the Blanchard Chair of Humanitarian & Disaster Leadership at Wheaton College. And he’s the author of A Walking Disaster: What Surviving Katrina and Cancer Taught Me about Faith and Resilience.

Show Notes

Production Notes

About the Thrive Center

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.  Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.

Our brains hold our relational history—all the joys, all the ruptures, all the repairs. And even in the most difficult childhood or parenting circumstances, the science of relationships and connection can give us hope for whole-brain and whole-life transformation.

Therapist, bestselling author, and mom—Dr. Tina Payne Bryson is seeking a connection revolution that brings neurobiology and practical relational wisdom to bear on both how we were parented, how we parent, and how we relate throughout our lifespan.

In this conversation with Tina Bryson, we discuss:

Books by Dr. Tina Bryson

Follow Tina Bryson

TinaBryson.com Instagram X The Center for Connection

Show Notes

About Tina Bryson

Dr. Tina Bryson is an expert in applying interpersonal neurobiology and neuropsychology to maybe the most central part of human life: our closest, most intimate relationships. A bestselling co-author (with Dan Siegal) of THE WHOLE-BRAIN CHILD and NO-DRAMA DISCIPLINE, she has written several other books on parenting and the brain. Her latest book on the science of play came out in January 2025.

Tina is a psychotherapist and the Founder and Executive Director of The Center for Connection. She speaks and advocates widely, has appeared across media outlets like TIME Magazine, “Good Morning America,” Huffington Post,Redbook, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Her doctoral research explored attachment science, childrearing theory, and the emerging field of interpersonal neurobiology. But Tina emphasizes that before she’s a parenting educator, or a researcher, she’s a mom.

Tina is an absolutely brilliant and motivating and encouraging communicator, breaking down the science of connection in a way that’s clear, realistic, humorous, and immediately helpful.

For more resources from Tina, including her books, and science-packed relationship tips, visit https://www.thecenterforconnection.org/ and tinabryson.com.

About the Thrive Center

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.  Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.

To realize MLK’s vision of a Beloved Community, we’re all called to live from a moral conscience that interconnects and permeates society with justice and peace.

Working at the intersection of politics, religion, and education, Dr. Lerone Martin of Stanford University is carrying forward the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a social and historical context desperately in need of renewed moral imagination, connection across racial and economic divides, and the transformative power of love.

In this conversation with Lerone Martin, we discuss:

About Dr. Lerone Martin

Dr. Lerone Martin is the Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial Professor in Religious Studies, and the Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University.

He’s a historian of 20th-century religion and a cultural commentator. He’s written books about White Christian Nationalism in the FBI, as well as the making of modern African American Christianity—as well as a book about MLK’s adolescence and his early sense of vocation and calling.

He stays deeply connected to teaching and community service, teaching the “Why College?” freshman course at Stanford, inspiring underserved high school students in Los Angeles and St. Louis, and developing programming and teaching courses for the incarcerated.

Visit the King Institute online at kinginstitute.stanford.edu or follow him on X @DirectorMLK.

Show Notes

About the Thrive Center

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.  Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.

Science can change your life. The more we study what makes people develop, grow, learn, and flourish—the more we see how the practical application of scientific findings can help us transform our life and experience—into a life of value, meaning, purpose and true thriving.

Yale psychologist Laurie Santos has spent her career investigating the human brain and how it thrives. From her popular Yale course to her podcast, The Happiness Lab, she’s communicating actionable and hopeful lessons for how to build lasting habits, cultivate self-compassion, manage complex emotions, and realign our lives toward meaningful happiness.

In this conversation with Dr. Laurie Santos, we discuss:

Laurie Santos on how to activate psychological science for more happiness and meaning (from the episode):

“Some of these factors that we know scientifically do work. From simple behavior changes like being more social, doing nice things for others, just healthy habits  like sleeping and moving your body,  to mindset shifts, to becoming a little bit more present, to becoming more other oriented, to becoming more grateful, more self-compassionate, and so on.

There are shifts that we can make that can have a huge effect on how we actually interact in the world.

We need to understand that we're not perfect, we're just human. And we will mess up a little bit too. But it's really the journey that   matters.”

About Laurie Santos

Dr. Laurie Santos is the Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon Professor of Psychology at Yale University and host of The Happiness Lab podcast. Dr. Santos is an expert on the science of happiness. Her Yale course, Psychology and the Good Life, teaches students how the science of psychology can provide important hints about how to make wiser choices and live a life that’s happier and more fulfilling. Her course recently became Yale’s most popular course in over 300 years, with almost one of our four students at Yale enrolled. Her course has been featured in numerous news outlets including the New York Times, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, GQ Magazine, Slate and O! Magazine. A winner of numerous awards both for her science and teaching, she was recently voted as one of Popular Science Magazine’s “Brilliant 10” young minds, and was named in Time Magazine as a “Leading Campus Celebrity.” Her podcast, The Happiness Lab, has over 100 million downloads.

Listen to The Happiness Lab podcast

Visit [drlauriesantos.com](http://drlauriesantos.comhttps://www.drlauriesantos.com/)

Show Notes

About the Thrive Center

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.  Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.

Welcome to the fourth and final week of our Advent Meditation Journey.

If you’re longing for a more meaningful Advent season, this meditation invites you to reflect on love—the heart of Advent and the fulfillment of all our deepest hopes, longings, and desires.

Throughout this series, we’ve explored hope, peace, and joy. Now, we turn to love—the love of God made flesh in Christ, Emmanuel. In this quiet time, you’ll be guided to reflect on what you love most, where your life feels aligned—or out of alignment—and how God’s love might invite you to reorder your heart.

Find a quiet space, take a deep breath, and let yourself settle into this sacred moment. Let’s begin.

⁠https://youtu.be/zi2d5IPCCM0

Check out our blog - Fourth Sunday of Advent: Love.

https://thethrivecenter.org/fourth-sunday-of-advent-love/

https://depree.org/de-pree-journal/love-that-comes-near/

To receive all four meditations, visit https://thethrivecenter.org/ and sign up for our newsletter https://mailchi.mp/fuller.edu/sm-practices-for-spiritual-health-part2. We at the Thrive Center wish you a season filled with the hope, peace, joy, and love of Christ.

About the Thrive Center

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.  Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.

Welcome to the third week of our Advent Meditation Journey.

If you’re longing for a more meaningful Advent season, this meditation invites you to pause and reflect on the deeper joy that often hides beneath the noise and hustle of December. Each week, we focus on a different theme—Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love—and today we turn our attention to joy.

Joy is more than a fleeting feeling—it’s rooted in what we love and how we live. This short reflection will guide you to consider the longings that shape your joy and help you notice where God may be meeting you right now.

So take a few moments, find a quiet space, and let yourself be still. Wherever you are, however you are, know that God welcomes you here. Let’s begin.

We at the Thrive Center wish you a season filled with the hope, peace, joy, and love of Christ.

To receive all four meditations, visit 

https://thethrivecenter.org/ and sign up for our newsletter 

Check out our blog - Third Sunday of Advent: Joy.

https://thethrivecenter.org/third-sunday-of-advent-joy/

About the Thrive Center

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.  Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.

Welcome to the second week of our Advent Meditation Journey.

In this sacred season of waiting, we turn our attention to peace—not just as a feeling, but as a way of being rooted in God’s presence. This meditation invites you to pause, breathe deeply, and explore the longings that stir beneath the surface. However you are today—tense or calm, weary or expectant—you are welcome here. Let this be a moment to bring your whole self before God and receive the peace that passes understanding.

To receive all four meditations, visit 

https://thethrivecenter.org/ and sign up for our newsletter 

https://youtu.be/FYCPLepj1kU

We at the Thrive Center wish you a season filled with the hope, peace, joy, and love of Christ.

Check out our blog - Second Sunday of Advent: Peace.

About the Thrive Center

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.  Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.

Welcome to the 2025 Advent Meditation Journey.

If you are longing for a more meaningful Advent season, we invite you to join us in setting aside time each week to reflect, pray, and re-center. Advent is a season of preparation—a sacred invitation to slow down and open ourselves to the coming of Christ.

This is the first week of our Advent Meditation Journey. In this season of sacred waiting, we pause to reflect on longing and hope. Whether you’re feeling grounded or weary, hopeful or uncertain, you are welcome here. This brief meditation is an invitation to slow down, tune into your heart, and open yourself to the quiet stirrings of hope. Find a comfortable place, take a deep breath, and join me as we begin this Advent journey together—with honesty, stillness, and expectation.

Check out our blog - First Sunday of Advent: Hope.

https://thethrivecenter.org/first-sunday-of-advent-hope/

To receive all four meditations, visit 

https://thethrivecenter.org/

 and sign up for our newsletter 

https://mailchi.mp/fuller.edu/sm-practices-for-spiritual-health-part2

https://mailchi.mp/fuller.edu/web-thrive-advent2025

⁠https://youtu.be/FYCPLepj1kU

We at the Thrive Center wish you a season filled with the hope, peace, joy, and love of Christ.

About the Thrive Center

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.  Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.

Christmas is about the love of God given to us in Christ. Love compels us forward through darkness and light—enabling us to grow and change, connect and relate, forgive and let go, and make a difference and seek justice.

This December, we’re celebrating Advent with you by offering four guided meditations by Dr. Pam King—considering how to cultivate the Advent virtues of hope, peace, joy, and love into our lives this year.

We’d be grateful if you considered the Thrive Center in your year-end giving. To make a year-end tax-deductible gift, visit thethrivecenter.org/contribute.

Don't forget that Season 2 of With & For launches with all new episodes on January 6, 2025!

Show Notes

About the Thrive Center

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.  Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.

Joy is more than a feeling. It’s a virtue. And it’s something we can cultivate. We live into joy when we encounter who or what matters most to us. It’s associated with our life's deepest yearnings and connection.

This December, we’re celebrating Advent with you by offering four guided meditations by Dr. Pam King—considering how to cultivate the Advent virtues of hope, peace, joy, and love into our lives this year.

We’d be grateful if you considered the Thrive Center in your year-end giving. To make a year-end tax-deductible gift, visit thethrivecenter.org/contribute.

Don't forget that Season 2 of With & For launches with all new episodes on January 6, 2025!

Show Notes

About the Thrive Center

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.  Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.