UC Berkeley professor and founder of the Greater Good Science Center Dacher Keltner teaches a Cultivating Awe workshop each December at MEA Baja. His research has shown that the #1 common pathway to awe is to witness “moral beauty.” It feels like the world could use more compassionate, courageous, humble, graceful and gritty humans these days as role models for the rest of us.
No where is this more true than in the world of politics where we seem to have “clowns on the left, jokers on the right” to steal a line from the Scottish band Stealers Wheel. I’ve been listening to Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” quite a bit lately as it reminds me to embrace ambiguity, let go of certainty, and acknowledge that we don’t really know it all. This is the kind of mindset we could use from our politicians.
As I’ve created my own podcast recently, I’ve become a podcast addict. Here are a few moderate-ish podcasts I regularly listen to as well as an inspiring episode from each:
THE EZRA KLEIN SHOW: Last week’s episode with Delaware Congresswoman Sarah McBride, the first transgender member of Congress, is quite surprising as this wise young woman isn’t strident and speaks more about grace than anything.
THIS IS GAVIN NEWSOM: My first mentee (from 30 years ago) spoke of “humility and grace” in his nationally-televised speech two weeks ago and, while his podcast has been skewered by many on the left, it offers the opportunity for Gavin to converse civilly with people he disagrees with. I appreciated the episode with Newt Gingrich
HONESTLY WITH BARI WEISS: This former NY Times reporter who left the paper because it skewed too far left from her perspective offers a wide range of views at The Free Press. I appreciated her episode with Ross Douthat about religion.
INTERESTING TIMES: One of the NY Times most reliable conservatives is Ross Douthat who I disagree with much of the time, but I really appreciate his perspective. I enjoyed this episode with Senator Chris Murphy as it proves you can disagree without being disagreeable.
THE BULWARK PODCAST: Tim Miller’s “Never Trump Republican” org has a variety of podcasts but this is the one I listen to all the time as I appreciate my fellow gay buddy Tim’s antics. His recent episode with Ta-Nehisi Coates was revelatory.
RAGING MODERATES: Scott Galloway may be the most entertaining podcaster on the planet and, while I listen to him and Kara Swisher on their “Pivot” podcast each week, I like Scott’s partner on this podcast Jessica Tarlov more than Kara because her arguments are more reasoned than the entertaining Kara. I like their episode with Congressman Ritchie Torres who I once went out on a date with.
-Chip
P.S. THE MIDLIFE CHRYSALIS’ newest episode with Seth Godin is live and Seth gives some suggestions about how to deal with political polarity as well as talking about his midlife journey. It’s a very personal episode since we co-authored our first books together more than 40 years ago.