Wonder Dome

Robin Alfred is an executive coach, educator, and trainer in leadership development — as well as a dear friend and mentor. He has a unique capacity to facilitate depth work, which is the work of understanding ourselves fully across all levels of awareness, where we can allow thoughts, feelings, and possibilities to arise organically through our relationships to others, to nature, and to reality. Rather than trying to make something happen through force, this work asks us how do we let it emerge the same way a butterfly emerges through a chrysalis?

In his latest offerings, Robin names the work of leadership as mystic and asks how we can live in a way that allows us to apply mysticism to our leadership work around some of the most important topics of our time. Often when we think about leadership, we conjure images of those with the most resources, the most political influence. But that’s not leadership — that’s just power. And though the word “mystic” comes with some baggage, mystics throughout history (Jesus Christ, the Buddha, and many, many more) continue to shape and influence the way we live our lives today. Robin invites us to gather whatever power we have, wherever we are in the world, and to get connected to reality in the ways mystics have done.

Robin’s course “Emergent Leadership: A Training in Applied Mysticism” runs from April-December 2024. His free masterclass, which is a great opportunity to get a taste for his work, is on March 6. To learn more about these offerings, visit the link in our show notes.

Let’s get settled in and hear what Robin has for us.

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them — that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they take.” — Lao Tzu

Show Notes:

• “Emergent Leadership: A Training in Applied Mysticism" with Robin Alfred

• Open Circle Consulting

• Robin on LinkedIn

• Thomas Hübl, PhD

Connect with Andy:

• KONU // Leadership development for mission-driven change agents

• KONU Events // Open enrollment leadership development workshops

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast

  The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Miles Borrero is a self-described spirit and body geek. He is a trans-masculine, gender-fluid Latinx yoga teacher, writer, and body therapist based in New York City. His recent memoir, Beautiful Monster: A Becoming is the heart-wrenching story of Miles’ journey of breaching bounds of gender, cultures, and borders to become the person he truly is. Miles was nearly 40 years old having lived most of his life as a woman in Bogota, Colombia when he experienced a moment of clarity: faced with his father’s impending death, grappling with the fragility of our human experience, Miles felt compelled to finally be known as his father’s son, before it was too late — despite the real fear of losing his family’s love.

The question of transgender identity is highly charged around the world — certainly here in the U.S. as many states pass laws that make it dangerous to identify as transgender. Part of our conversation today explores the question of, how do we claim our identity when there are people who would rather us be dead than be who we are? Miles is exemplary of what it’s like to see someone fully embodied in who they are; who is willing to work across boundaries that may not be successful; to know that some might not make the journey from their current worldview into one that makes space for people like Miles, like us; and to accept that as a loss while standing tall anyway.

Beautiful Monster brims with wonder, humor, and mythos — as does our conversation.

Let’s get settled in and hear what Miles has for us.

Show Notes:

• Beautiful Monster: A Becoming by Miles Borrero

• Miles Yoga

• Miles on Instagram

Connect with Andy:

• KONU // Leadership development for mission-driven change agents

• KONU Events // Open enrollment leadership development workshops

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast

The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Ken Liu is a multi-award winning speculative fiction author and third-time guest of The Wonder Dome. Even if you haven't read one of his dozens of stories, it’s likely you’ve seen work he’s contributed to on places like Netflix and AMC. His writing has reached a tremendous influence in the zeitgeist when we think about questions of humanity; identity; artificial intelligence; creativity; innovation and the future.

In today’s conversation, Ken and I discuss two of his recent pieces of work. The first is an achingly beautiful short story called The Passing of the Dragon. It follows Kay, a painter trying to rekindle her relationship with her own creative muse. It’s a bittersweet story for those of us who are trying to create things in a world that is profoundly noisy, where hot takes and cruel judgements are often dumped gleefully upon artists in an effort to diminish their gifts.

The other story we discuss is Ken’s translation of Laozi’s Dao De Jing. It’s one of the world’s most ancient spiritual texts from China, predating Jesus Christ and Christianity by 400 years. It’s been translated and re-translated many times over the centuries, often by Western writers and thinkers already working from English versions of the text. Ken made a commitment to go back to the original Chinese and create his own fresh, beautiful and moving interpretation for this transformative time we’re living in.

What I love about how I’ve experienced Taoist philosophy is how playful and provocative it is, how much it both invites us into the beauty of language while also saying, language is not the thing — your experience comes first. It’s the paradox of how we need language to communicate this experience, and to point us in the direction of possibility, and yet we can’t show reality with language or art; only gift each other with a perspective or a possibility.

So what does it mean for us to claim responsibility for our own experience, in our own understanding of reality? How do we each of us make a home for ourselves in this world of ours, particularly as so much is breaking down culturally, economically, and politically?

Let’s get settled in and hear what Ken has for us.

Show Notes:

• The Passing of the Dragon by Ken Liu

• Laozi’s Dao De Jin by Ken Liu (available exclusively on Audible)

• The Lion’s Teeth: Ken Liu on Substack

• Ken Liu’s collection on Bookshop.org

• Ken Liu’s website

Connect with Andy:

• KONU // Leadership development for mission-driven change agents

• KONU Events // Open enrollment leadership development workshops

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

• Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

How do we help ourselves live healthily in a system that conspires to keep us sick? Noëlle Janka, dear friend and author of Rebel Healing: Transforming Ourselves and the Systems That Make Us Sick, seeks to answer that question.

Often in the world of healthcare and wellness, there’s a red herring debate between Western or “acute” medicine, and what others may call “alternative” medicine. You might refer to it as “original” medicine, or that back and forth between modern and ancient practices. Rebel Healing doesn’t mire itself in that debate, but rather delves deep into the systemic reasons behind why so many of us are getting sick. You may have heard someone off-handedly say, “The U.S. healthcare system is totally broken.” Noëlle unpacks this sentiment by asking, what is actually broken? Why is it that, even if a particular form of medicine or healing might help you, it’s so hard to get? What does it mean to understand that we do have agency when it comes to our health and wellbeing?

In her book, Noëlle offers a radical redefinition of what it means to heal, as well as an understanding of the social and political underpinnings of the policies enacted on our behalf when it comes to our health. While sharing her own incredible journey of managing chronic illness, Noëlle shows us how to build a foundation for healing right now, despite these social and political headwinds.

If you or someone you know suffers from chronic illness and could benefit from companionship, acknowledgment and affirmation as well as some new ways of thinking about your health and wellness, Rebel Healing and this conversation is a great place to begin that journey.

Let’s get settled in and hear what Noëlle has for us.

Show Notes:

• Noëlle Janka’s website

• Rebel Healing: Transforming Ourselves and the Systems That Make Us Sick by Noëlle Janka

Connect with Andy:

• KONU // Leadership development for mission-driven change agents

• KONU Events // Open enrollment leadership development workshops

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

• Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support this work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This week we welcome back Raj Sisodia, acclaimed author of books like The Healing Organization, Firms of Endearment and Conscious Capitalism. Today we're here to discuss his latest book, Awaken.

Raj has been on a mission to bring caring, humanity and healing to business since he first began writing books in 2007. He's spent this time thinking and feeling in the direction of how we can help groups of people in the form of businesses make a difference in the world, and help people live to their full potential.

As he embarked on his journey of writing The Healing Organization, Raj received wisdom from women and elders in his life that if he were to write a book about healing in business, that he needed to go deeper and heal as an individual, too.  Awaken is the intimate and personal product of that journey.

The word "healing" comes from the Indo-European roots word "kalo", which translates to "whole." Healing is an incredibly fundamental concept of what it means to be alive. Often we think of that purely in terms of our physical health, which is part of it. But our bodies also carry in it our psyche, our psychology, our soul -- Awaken is a book about the soul. It's a book about what it means to become whole, to bring in the parts of your life that you have ignored, that you're afraid of, or that caused you pain and to meet them.

I hope as you listen you think about what it is for you to awaken, to live with more love, simplicity, trust and truth in your own life. And if you begin there, you might leave behind a legacy of love and healing for those to come.

Let's get settled in and hear what Raj has for us.

Show Notes:
Awaken by Raj Sisodia
The Healing Organization by Raj Sisodia and Michael J. Gelb
Firms of Endearment by Raj Sisodia, David B. Wolfe and Jag Sheth
Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey and Raj Sisodia
Everybody Matters by Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia

“The Dangers of the Good Child”

Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by John E. Sarno, M.D.

• Raj Sisodia's website

• Raj Sisodia on LinkedIn

• Raj Sisodia on Twitter

• Raj Sisodia on Facebook

Connect with Andy:

• KONU // Leadership development for mission-driven change agents

• KONU Events // Open enrollment leadership development workshops

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

• Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Miles Enriquez-Morales is a poet, athlete and student in Los Angeles. His boxing journey began in Longmont, Colorado where he eventually became a coach for youth classes. He also hosts a class called Trans Boxing which is specifically for trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people in LA. He is a fellow student of past guest Tlotlo Tsamaase, who is a writer in the same Master of Fine Arts program.

Miles sits at a wonderful intersection as a poet and a boxer; in my head, I think of poetry as a practice of sensitivity, nuance and discernment. Whereas the story I have of boxing is one of competition, violence and domination, which can be beautiful and artistic in its own way. I haven't met many boxer/poets, but Miles is one of them.

The question of gender, biology and identity is both alive as well as politically charged right now, often in violent and harmful ways. When it comes to treating each other as humans first, we're not doing well as a culture. We'll hear Miles' story of becoming a boxer and finding camaraderie, kinship and safety to be himself in a space so often perceived to be meant for only one kind of person. As a teacher, artist and competitor, Miles shows us that this can be for anyone.

Let's get settled in and hear what Miles has for us.

Show Notes:
Miles Enriquez-Morales on Instagram
TransBoxing.org
Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist by Frans de Waal
#120 The Stories That Might Set Us Free (with Tlotlo Tsamaase)

Connect with Andy:

• KONU // Leadership development for mission-driven change agents

• KONU Events // Open enrollment leadership development workshops

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

• Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

  The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Our guest today is Rosi Greenberg: artist, author/illustrator, leadership development trainer, and a dear friend and colleague.

Rosi is a master of the art of bringing people together to learn and grow. She recently released Everyone Has a Sam, an illustrated book about meeting your inner critic and re-writing the rules for motivation, accomplishment, and self-worth.

Rosi's illustrations, combined with the insights she brings from her deep understanding of human development, are wonderfully funny, authentic, and useful. Because let's be honest: the last thing you need amid this complex, scary, and volatile time is some voice in your head shaming you for not being perfect!

In our conversation today, we play in a space of humor and vulnerability, exploring how and why our "inner critics" attempt to use shame and self-criticism as a source of motivation and self-protection. However well-meaning this approach is, it always fails in the long run. The good news is that amazing possibilities emerge when we release our shame.

So come join us and help your own "inner Sam" stop worrying so much :-)

Show Notes:

• Drawn to Lead (Rosi's leadership development website)

• Everyone Has a Sam: Meeting the Inner Critic and Re-Writing the Rules by Rosi Greenberg

• Meeting Your Inner Critic // KONU Leadership Development Workshop // Wednesday, March 13 @ 10:00 am - 11:30 am EST.

• Rosi on Instagram

• Rosi on LinkedIn

Connect with Andy:

• KONU // Leadership development for mission-driven change agents

• KONU Events // Open enrollment leadership development workshops

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

• Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Brandon Peele has built his profession around moving towards the most important and often triggering cultural and political topics. Brandon's willingness to look deeply and critically at the questions surrounding America's collective shadow and the horrors that shape our past and present comes through a lens of purpose.

America e pluribus unum: out of many, one. What does it mean to actually build a national identity that can acknowledge the horrors of our past while also being willing to try to heal and learn from them? How do we build the America that exists in our minds and hearts, as opposed to the America that is fractured, polarized, and increasingly descending into breakdown?

Brandon has been thinking deeply about these questions, and is unafraid to let inquiries of spirituality, identity and history sit alongside ones of politics, capitalism, and economics. In our evocative conversation, Brandon shares how all of these are interrelated and offers a beautiful metaphor about the individual and collective power that calls us into relationship  with the land we're all trying to call home.

Show Notes:
http://brandonpeele.weebly.com
https://www.facebook.com/ensouledlife
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bpeele/
https://twitter.com/btp76
#121 Healing America's Narrative (with Reggie Marra)
Planet on Purpose by Brandon Peele
Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber

Connect with Andy:

• KONU // Leadership development for mission-driven change agents

• KONU Events // Open enrollment leadership development workshops

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

• Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

  The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Host of Mike's Search for Meaning, coach, and longtime supporter of the Wonder Dome, Mike Trugman has gone through a beautiful journey of growth and transformation of reorienting his career to include space for deep inner work for coaching, health and wellness, mindfulness, while coming from a background in accounting and finances.  He skillfully stands in both worlds now with a lot of curiosity and willingness to invite others into his own journey for growth.

When Mike reached out to see if we could do a Wonder Dome conversation together, I immediately said yes. An ongoing curiosity for myself as a father of three kids, was how Mike was emerging into that identity with his first child on the way and also having done some meaningful work to negotiate a deeper connection with his own father.

There's a beautiful sense of intergenerational growth and connection that Mike is standing for from a place of curiosity and love, and a real willingness to go straight towards some of the hardest topics that are easy to avoid. Mike goes towards these topics beautifully,  and we had a fun, enlightening conversation about how to navigate being a man, a parent, and a son at this moment in time.

Show Notes:
miketrugmancoaching.com
Listen to Mike's Search for Meaning
linkedin.com/in/michael-trugman-37863246
instagram.com/mytrugofchoice
#28 - Andy Cahill on Dreaming Big & the Healing Power of Internal Family Systems (IFS)
#100 - Alan Trugman (Dad, Poppy, Best Pal) on Creating a Family Culture, Masculinity, & How to Raise a Child

Connect with Andy:

• KONU // Leadership development for mission-driven change agents

• KONU Events // Open enrollment leadership development workshops

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

• Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

  The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

It's a joy to be joined by my dear friend, the inspiring Edi Pasalis. Edi is a mindfulness teacher, a yoga teacher, and a leadership practitioner.  Arguably, she is the person who gave me my first job in the world of leadership development that I inhabit pretty robustly now. By inviting me to join the leadership team with Kripalu's RISE program, Edi opened this doorway, so generously and beautifully into a world that has changed my life and also changes many others.

Right now, Edi is stepping more fully into this phase of her own life and journey.  Edi takes me into the world of menopause and what the common narrative of it is, and how isolating and pathologizing that can be. I learned so much from Edi about the ways in which the conventional narrative around menopause is actually deeply harmful for a lot of women - and by extension, deeply harmful for all of us as a society.  It can take these human beings, these elder women who are navigating this phase in their life who have so much wisdom and sort of push them off to the side.

It's really a tragedy, and I love how Edi is standing again, in the same way that she did for me and so many others, and saying, I see what maybe others haven't seen yet. I invite you join her and see what she sees.

Please note this was recorded several months ago, and does not reflect current crises in Israel/Gaza, Armenia, or Sudan. As always, The Wonder Dome stands for a world where humanity and its wonderful diversity of cultures can thrive and co-exist. If you'd like to join me in supporting displaced people around the globe, please consider making a donation to the UN Refugee Agency: unhcr.org/us.

Show Notes:
edipasalis.com
linkedin.com/in/edi-pasalis
kripalu.org/rise

Connect with Andy:

• KONU // Leadership development for mission-driven change agents

• KONU Events // Open enrollment leadership development workshops

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

• Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

  The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.