The Next Step #78 was taped 4/12/2011 and featured Josie Lehrer talking about her Men's Story Project (mensstoryproject.org) as well as multiple clips from the many dozens of short films on the site. The show has been posted here:
http://blip.tv/the-next-step/tns-78_mensstoryproject-5582992
What Josie has done is send out a call for submissions soliciting for men to share personal stories that address their issues/experiences with masculinity. This curated group of men was then coached on developing and sharing their stories for live audiences. The live Men's Story Project events are filmed, and video clips from these events are then posted on the mensstoryproject.org youtube channel (see link on the home page), as a means of crowdsourcing culture change on male gender norms and gender relations.
There are about 35 pieces posted to date - all of them poignant, many funny, some brilliant. She has done this in multiple cities now, and there are two feature films available which document the live events - one in English, and the other in Spanish. Very inspiring... thanks, Josie!
From her website: The Men's Story Project is a replicable community arts and dialog initiative in which local men explore social ideas about masculinity for the purpose of health and justice. The longterm goal is to help expand the presence of genuine personal expression of peace and social justice in communities.
“This program is about healing.”
Storytelling: For preserving and passing on traditions, for challenging and breaking traditions, and for the creation of new traditions.
Mission: To strengthen social norms that support healthy masculinities and gender equality, and to help eliminate gender-based violence, homophobia and other oppressions that are intertwined with masculinities, through ongoing events of men´s public story-sharing and community dialogue.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Saturday, June 18, 2011
TNS#77: Clearing The Air (Between the Sexes)
The Next Step #77 was taped 3/8/11 and featured Gordon Clay in a show titled Clearing The Air (Between Women & Men). Shauna Wilson Mora, Gordon's co-facilitator in their Clearing The Air workshops, was hoping to join us but didn't make it. Gordon and Shauna have run workshops together since 1993, under the names Healing The Father Wound, Healing The Mother Wound, and Family Reunion.
From their clearingtheair.net site:
"Turn what has impacted your life into the impact you can have in your life.
Transform: reaction into the power of choice, coping and settling into living with passion, numbness into clear, appropriate, emotional expression, fear of conflict into opportunities for positive change, blame and guilt into accountability, shame and/or resentment into forgiveness."
"The highly acclaimed Clearing the Air Workshop series features various interactive group experiences. It explores the wounds we hold around our family of origin, and how these initial wounds have continued to impact our adult lives. The series is designed to help men and women break through the unresolved issues that impede forgiveness and personal freedom.
The workshops are experiential in nature. There is very little lecture. The intention is to break through barriers and old patterns through movement, Tantrum Yoga® express and release work, breathwork, psychodrama, meditation, and processes that excavate wounds and ties that keep us stuck. It is an intense and transformational series.
Healing the Father Wound® and Healing the Mother Wound® workshops are four-night, three-day events offered for 12 men or 12 women. Clearing the Air™ Between Women & Men is a six-day, five-night event for 6 men and 6 women (not couples) who have completed both previous workshops."
Gordon Clay is also the creator of menstuff.org - the largest website in the world on men's issues, online since 1985. Our discussion was wide-ranging and highly enjoyable. Gordon lives in southern OR now so it was a treat to be able to catch him on the road. Gordon also spent years traveling the U.S. with his mobile Mens Resource Center library van. It was nice to see him participating in the recent (june'11) ultimatemenssummit.org online conference.
"Man's inherent nature is to be curious, gentle, intimate, responsible, enthusiastic, sensual, tolerant, courageous, honest, vulnerable, affectionate, proud, spiritual, committed, wild, nurturing, peaceful, helpful, intense, compassionate, happy, and to fully and safely express all emotions. When will we stop training him to be otherwise?"
-- Gordon Clay
From their clearingtheair.net site:
"Turn what has impacted your life into the impact you can have in your life.
Transform: reaction into the power of choice, coping and settling into living with passion, numbness into clear, appropriate, emotional expression, fear of conflict into opportunities for positive change, blame and guilt into accountability, shame and/or resentment into forgiveness."
"The highly acclaimed Clearing the Air Workshop series features various interactive group experiences. It explores the wounds we hold around our family of origin, and how these initial wounds have continued to impact our adult lives. The series is designed to help men and women break through the unresolved issues that impede forgiveness and personal freedom.
The workshops are experiential in nature. There is very little lecture. The intention is to break through barriers and old patterns through movement, Tantrum Yoga® express and release work, breathwork, psychodrama, meditation, and processes that excavate wounds and ties that keep us stuck. It is an intense and transformational series.
Healing the Father Wound® and Healing the Mother Wound® workshops are four-night, three-day events offered for 12 men or 12 women. Clearing the Air™ Between Women & Men is a six-day, five-night event for 6 men and 6 women (not couples) who have completed both previous workshops."
Gordon Clay is also the creator of menstuff.org - the largest website in the world on men's issues, online since 1985. Our discussion was wide-ranging and highly enjoyable. Gordon lives in southern OR now so it was a treat to be able to catch him on the road. Gordon also spent years traveling the U.S. with his mobile Mens Resource Center library van. It was nice to see him participating in the recent (june'11) ultimatemenssummit.org online conference.
"Man's inherent nature is to be curious, gentle, intimate, responsible, enthusiastic, sensual, tolerant, courageous, honest, vulnerable, affectionate, proud, spiritual, committed, wild, nurturing, peaceful, helpful, intense, compassionate, happy, and to fully and safely express all emotions. When will we stop training him to be otherwise?"
-- Gordon Clay
Monday, June 6, 2011
TNS#76: A Return to Healing
TheNextStep show #76 was taped 1/24/11, with Dr. Len Saputo about his book A Return to Healing: Radical Health Care Reform and the Future of Medicine (www.doctorsaputo.com, healthmedicinecenter.net). I heard Dr. Len on coasttocoastam.com last year, was very impressed and was delighted when a mutual friend introduced us and he was willing to come down to Palo Alto for a show.
Len founded the Health Medicine Forum in 1994 and subsequently founded the Health Medicine Center in Walnut Ck CA, one of the first clinics to bring the new model of integral-health medicine into practice. In addition to A Return to Healing, he is coauthor of Boosting Immunity and editor of six other books. Len and his wife Vicki produce a weekly radio show "Prescriptions for Health" Fri 9-11am on KEST 1450 AM.
From my show notes: Len's 4 principles of 'health medicine': integrated, holistic, person-centered, preventative. Conventional medicine focuses almost entirely on managing symptoms. New style of medicine needed: CAM (complementary and alternative medicine). The Orthomolecular premise: if all body cells were functioning perfectly, one would not be sick! The 4 factors of cellular health: nutrition, detox, genetic defects, psychospiritual factors. The 4 paths to cyto-pathology: genetics, toxins, nutritional deficiency, stress.
Reasons why a new approach is needed: US last place in preventable death among industrialized nations; cost of health care now causing a bankruptcy every 30 secs; premiums grown 4x faster than wages in last 8 yrs; 50% of all Amer. bankruptcy due to medical bills; obesity up to 33%/population now and #2 cause of preventable death; multiple chemical sensitivity now 30%/population; cancer up 85% since 1950, now 50%/population; "war on cancer" a failure: still #2 cause of death.
Len does a great job laying out the economic argument for universal health care. He supports 'healing circles'. He offers a 5-point plan for making America healthier:
1. Fund programs to make exercise universally available and attractive.
2. Tax junk food, subsidize sustainable farming and healthy foods.
3. Fund comparative assessment research for 'alternative' treatment regimes and require disclosure of all treatments supported by scientific evidence.
4. Provide broad support for preventive screenings.
5. Ban DTC (direct to consumer) drug ads, advertise healthy lifestyle.
I found Len personally charming and his book compelling, and hopeful. Check it out!
Great Albert Schweitzer quote: "It's supposed to be a secret, but I'll tell you... We doctors do nothing. We only help and encourage the doctor within."
Len founded the Health Medicine Forum in 1994 and subsequently founded the Health Medicine Center in Walnut Ck CA, one of the first clinics to bring the new model of integral-health medicine into practice. In addition to A Return to Healing, he is coauthor of Boosting Immunity and editor of six other books. Len and his wife Vicki produce a weekly radio show "Prescriptions for Health" Fri 9-11am on KEST 1450 AM.
From my show notes: Len's 4 principles of 'health medicine': integrated, holistic, person-centered, preventative. Conventional medicine focuses almost entirely on managing symptoms. New style of medicine needed: CAM (complementary and alternative medicine). The Orthomolecular premise: if all body cells were functioning perfectly, one would not be sick! The 4 factors of cellular health: nutrition, detox, genetic defects, psychospiritual factors. The 4 paths to cyto-pathology: genetics, toxins, nutritional deficiency, stress.
Reasons why a new approach is needed: US last place in preventable death among industrialized nations; cost of health care now causing a bankruptcy every 30 secs; premiums grown 4x faster than wages in last 8 yrs; 50% of all Amer. bankruptcy due to medical bills; obesity up to 33%/population now and #2 cause of preventable death; multiple chemical sensitivity now 30%/population; cancer up 85% since 1950, now 50%/population; "war on cancer" a failure: still #2 cause of death.
Len does a great job laying out the economic argument for universal health care. He supports 'healing circles'. He offers a 5-point plan for making America healthier:
1. Fund programs to make exercise universally available and attractive.
2. Tax junk food, subsidize sustainable farming and healthy foods.
3. Fund comparative assessment research for 'alternative' treatment regimes and require disclosure of all treatments supported by scientific evidence.
4. Provide broad support for preventive screenings.
5. Ban DTC (direct to consumer) drug ads, advertise healthy lifestyle.
I found Len personally charming and his book compelling, and hopeful. Check it out!
Great Albert Schweitzer quote: "It's supposed to be a secret, but I'll tell you... We doctors do nothing. We only help and encourage the doctor within."
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
TNS#75: Burning Man 2010 Travelogue
TheNextStep show #75 was taped 10/28/10... the fifth annual MST3K-style Burning Man travelogue! Featuring guests Shibumi, from my Leopard Martini Lounge BurningMan camp, and the renowned Dr. Hal Robins. Dr. Hal is well known in the bay area for his long-running Ask Dr. Hal Q&A show (www.askdrhal.com). In recent years he has served as emcee for the Burning Man fashion show, and he's also known as an early Church of the SubGenius co-conspirator. Mark McGothigan (home.pacbell.net/mcgmgb) was nice enough to contribute his footage of the fashion show this year, so the first part of the show has several video clips from that; then there was a slide show of 100+ photos I took this year; then a long video segment also by Mark showing the fireworks display and the start of the Man burning. All interspersed with informative, amusing or perplexing running commentary by Dr. Hal, Shibumi and myself! Shibumi (studioreflex.com) is a designer and producer, and gets credit for inviting Dr. Hal onto the show. Thx Shibumi and Dr. Hal, that was great fun!
Friday, October 22, 2010
TNS#74: Exploring the Enneagram
TheNextStep show #74 was taped 9/13/10 and featured a discussion of the Enneagram with local authors/workshop leaders David Fauvre and Katherine Chernick Fauvre (www.enneagram.net). The Enneagram is a psychospiritual typology or model of personality types, a nine-fold system of types where each is seen as expressing a distinctive and habitual pattern of thinking and feeling. Its development can be traced from the Sufis thru G.I. Gurdjieff, P.D. Ouspensky, Oscar Ichazo, Claudio Naranjo, and a host of current authors.
David and Katherine seem to have made their own contributions to the field with their incorporation of 'tri-types' wherein the nine types are grouped with respect to one's 'motivational' factors, into the three groups of head/blue, heart/red, and gut/green. As I understood it they seem to be saying one could correlate the qualities of a type with each of these 3 aspects of psyche (head, heart, gut), but I could be wrong about that! Just before the show they had me take their online personality test, which I found surprisingly difficult and left my head spinning someewhat during the show... difficult because I was being asked repeatedly to choose between qualities that I was pretty darn ambivalent about. Perhaps if there was a personality type for ambivalence I'd be there and the whole process would've been easier. But I do definitely see the value in this kind of work, following directly from the Delphic Oracle's invocation to "Know Thyself". Another way they expressed the goal of this work is "to transform self-defeating behaviour into empowerment".
They eventually settled on a determination that I'm a social nine, in company with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, which I found flattering enough. Not that I'm the type to care much about flattery! Try their test yourself, at www.enneagram.net!
Here from my notes is a summary of the nine types:
1. perfectionist, reformer, judge, crusader, critic
2. giver, helper, nurturer, caretaker, advisor, manipulator
3. performer, motivator, achiever, producer, status-seeker; corp America!
4. tragic romantic,individualist, mystic, artist; authentic, sensitive, moody
5. observer, thinker, investigator, sage; self-suff; can be arrogant
6. devil's advocate, loyalist, skeptic, guardian, rebel; safe, secure
7. epicure, entertainer, optimist, adventurer;
8. leader, solution-master, maverick, protector; can be intimidating
9. peacemaker, mediator, naturalist, accomodater; conflict-avoidant
Types 8,9,1 relate to gut, instinct (green); types 2,3,4 relate to heart (red);
types 5,6,7 relate to head, ideas (in their work that is).
David and Katherine seem to have made their own contributions to the field with their incorporation of 'tri-types' wherein the nine types are grouped with respect to one's 'motivational' factors, into the three groups of head/blue, heart/red, and gut/green. As I understood it they seem to be saying one could correlate the qualities of a type with each of these 3 aspects of psyche (head, heart, gut), but I could be wrong about that! Just before the show they had me take their online personality test, which I found surprisingly difficult and left my head spinning someewhat during the show... difficult because I was being asked repeatedly to choose between qualities that I was pretty darn ambivalent about. Perhaps if there was a personality type for ambivalence I'd be there and the whole process would've been easier. But I do definitely see the value in this kind of work, following directly from the Delphic Oracle's invocation to "Know Thyself". Another way they expressed the goal of this work is "to transform self-defeating behaviour into empowerment".
They eventually settled on a determination that I'm a social nine, in company with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, which I found flattering enough. Not that I'm the type to care much about flattery! Try their test yourself, at www.enneagram.net!
Here from my notes is a summary of the nine types:
1. perfectionist, reformer, judge, crusader, critic
2. giver, helper, nurturer, caretaker, advisor, manipulator
3. performer, motivator, achiever, producer, status-seeker; corp America!
4. tragic romantic,individualist, mystic, artist; authentic, sensitive, moody
5. observer, thinker, investigator, sage; self-suff; can be arrogant
6. devil's advocate, loyalist, skeptic, guardian, rebel; safe, secure
7. epicure, entertainer, optimist, adventurer;
8. leader, solution-master, maverick, protector; can be intimidating
9. peacemaker, mediator, naturalist, accomodater; conflict-avoidant
Types 8,9,1 relate to gut, instinct (green); types 2,3,4 relate to heart (red);
types 5,6,7 relate to head, ideas (in their work that is).
TNS#73: Open Source Learning
TheNextStep show #73 was taped 8/11/10, a show on the topic of open-source learning with Scott MacLeod and Barbara Breuchert. Scott's the founder of World University & School (worlduniversity.wikia.com) - "the Global, Virtual/Digital, Open, Free, {potentially Degree- and Credit-Granting}, Multilingual University & School where anyone can teach or take a class or course." Barbara's a local Media Center producer and former educator.
From the WU&S site: "World University & School's mission, in reaching out to the entire world, is to provide a free, wiki-based education platform and, through facilitating the development of broadband worldwide, to make our service accessible
to under-served parts of the world. The WUaS mission is thus to facilitate all levels of teaching and learning opportunities (and future degrees) through an open, editable wiki in all languages, nation-states and subjects with great universities, and for One Laptop per Child countries and everyone." Very commendable vision, Scott!
My main comment was that if there are to be course credits granted, somewhere there have to be human beings reviewing the work of students, and those human beings need to be compensated for their time somehow... and I'm dubious that some form of barter is going to be workable in this situation, and hence dubious that 'free' will be compatible with 'degree-granting'... but optimistic that some form of workable economic model can be found. Now I've joined Scott's advisory board so there will likely be more TNS shows on the topic!
We also discussed John Taylor Gatto's books Weapons of Mass Instruction and Dumbing Us Down, which I'm a big fan of, since he came to P.A. to speak at a futuresalon in 2008. Also discussed was Scott McNealy's new project Curriki.org: his vision for a "free and open source digital compendium of just about everything teachers use to teach -- textbooks, worksheets, tests, video presentations, podcasts, you name it." The project, run by McNealy and former Sun executive Kim Jones, started inside Sun six years ago and spun out as a nonprofit in 2006. Curriki now has 38,000 educational pieces on the site, and about 135,000 registered users.
From the WU&S site: "World University & School's mission, in reaching out to the entire world, is to provide a free, wiki-based education platform and, through facilitating the development of broadband worldwide, to make our service accessible
to under-served parts of the world. The WUaS mission is thus to facilitate all levels of teaching and learning opportunities (and future degrees) through an open, editable wiki in all languages, nation-states and subjects with great universities, and for One Laptop per Child countries and everyone." Very commendable vision, Scott!
My main comment was that if there are to be course credits granted, somewhere there have to be human beings reviewing the work of students, and those human beings need to be compensated for their time somehow... and I'm dubious that some form of barter is going to be workable in this situation, and hence dubious that 'free' will be compatible with 'degree-granting'... but optimistic that some form of workable economic model can be found. Now I've joined Scott's advisory board so there will likely be more TNS shows on the topic!
We also discussed John Taylor Gatto's books Weapons of Mass Instruction and Dumbing Us Down, which I'm a big fan of, since he came to P.A. to speak at a futuresalon in 2008. Also discussed was Scott McNealy's new project Curriki.org: his vision for a "free and open source digital compendium of just about everything teachers use to teach -- textbooks, worksheets, tests, video presentations, podcasts, you name it." The project, run by McNealy and former Sun executive Kim Jones, started inside Sun six years ago and spun out as a nonprofit in 2006. Curriki now has 38,000 educational pieces on the site, and about 135,000 registered users.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
TNS#72: Kumbh Mela travelogue
TheNextStep show #72 was taped 5/12/10 and featured Maurizio Benazzo and Gopi Kallayil. Maurizio was co-director of the documentary film Short Cut to Nirvana: Kumbh Mela (2004) and the show featured a number of short clips from the film. Gopi is a local Media Center producer, Google engineer and world traveler who brought his slide show of photos from his trip to this year's Kumbh Mela. Maurizio had colorful stories about making their documentary on a shoe-string budget in the massive chaotic festival in 2004. His film company is melafilms.com. Maurizio is also producer of the upcoming scienceandnonduality.com conference (Oct 2010 in Marin, CA).
From the imdb.com entry for Short Cut to Nirvana:
"Every 12 years over 70 million pilgrims gather at the meeting of India's holiest rivers, the Ganges and the Yamuna, for a spectacular spiritual festival: the Kumbh Mela. This documentary takes a voyage of discovery through this colorful event through the eyes of several Westerners and an ebullient young Hindu monk, Swami Krishnanand. Featuring encounters with some of India's most respected holy men and exclusive footage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama."
From the imdb.com entry for Short Cut to Nirvana:
"Every 12 years over 70 million pilgrims gather at the meeting of India's holiest rivers, the Ganges and the Yamuna, for a spectacular spiritual festival: the Kumbh Mela. This documentary takes a voyage of discovery through this colorful event through the eyes of several Westerners and an ebullient young Hindu monk, Swami Krishnanand. Featuring encounters with some of India's most respected holy men and exclusive footage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama."
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