TMC Podcast Archives

Thinking Outside the Box on Gun Safety in America – Episode 59

Continuing the conversation this week Robert and Dave focus on one of the many issues that are dividing our country today, gun safety. They look at the most sincere elements from each political party to take the best potential inspiration from both approaches to serve The United States. The extreme ends of the left and right are pretty well excluded from this discourse as they only seem to polarize. It is emphasized that President Trump and all those that helped him in the various conspiracies and violations to democracy are excluded.

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from the Us vs Them Mentality - Episode 58

Breaking Away from the Us vs. Them Mentality: Gun Safety in America – Episode 58

This week begins a new series exploring gun safety as a polarizing issue in the United States. Robert’s approach deconstructs the us vs. them mentality to assume both political parties’ goodwill, innocence, and virtuous intentions. The process requires us to begin to think in shades of gray rather than black and white. This is as much the purpose of this series as gun safety, as one will naturally support the other, as well as our democracy. What will make democracy flower is finding the balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility.

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Dr. Paul Brenner: Love, Wonder, and Purpose – Episode 57

Join Robert as he speaks with another extraordinary guest on this week’s show, Dr. Paul Brenner. Paul has dedicated his career to counseling cancer patients. This has been the work and passion driving his life. He continued to share his unique love and wisdom with patients even as he also learned to live with cancer and profoundly accept limited mobility himself. All the while he has maintained and cultivated a sense of wonder and innocence. For many the word cancer equals fear. His depth of acceptance of his illness is an inspiration.

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Cristian Cardoner: Minimizing the Sense of Us & Them - Episode 56

Cristián Cardoner: Minimizing the Sense of Us & Them – Episode 56

This week, Robert is joined by a special guest Cristián Cardoner. It is both heartfelt and moving to hear the journey of Cristian move through the dark night of his soul as he was profoundly touched when spontaneously faced with holding a baby as it died from hunger in his arms. We are in 2022 with more technology and access to information than ever before, yet this episode focuses on alternatives to the fact that there are still more than 500 million people who go to bed every single day with hunger.

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Adam Bendell: Reconsidering the Classic Definition of Success & Planting Seeds for Change – Episode 55

This week, Robert is joined by a guest that exemplifies the essence of a psycho-political life with his relationship with the world. Adam Bendell is the CEO of Toniic, a global action community for impact investors. Toniic creates community, provides educational resources, and curates impact investment opportunities for its members. Adam joined Toniic from his role as chief innovation officer for FTI Consulting. He was also CEO and co-founder of Strategic Discovery, an electronic discovery innovator.

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Brent Kessel: Ethical Wealth Management, One Small Step at a Time – Episode 54

This week, Robert is joined by a special guest and his step-son Brent Kassel. They meet with a sense of purpose and shared vulnerability here on The Missing Conversation. Brent is the co-founder and CEO of Abacus. Abacus is a holistic wealth management company that invests over 4 billion in companies and projects that, above all, do not create harm in our world. A significant portion of the funds aim to help society and the environment directly while earning competitive investment returns.

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Jack Lampl: The Gap Between Us and How to Move Toward Bridging It – Episode 53

Jack Lampl graduated from Harvard in 1973 and has been dominantly involved in the nonprofit sector for the last thirty years. During that time, he has worked as a community mediator and president of two national nonprofits. The Threshold Foundation is a progressive philanthropic fund for wealthy donors. The AK Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems advances a methodology for studying the unconscious dynamics of groups.

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Including Uncertainty On The Path You’re On – Episode 52

Join Robert in the final episode of the series regarding spirituality and religion. TMC continues to discuss the role of certainty in our religions and spiritual paths. Robert shares many of his own personal stories with his teachers to highlight some minor and major ways in which he experienced the dangers of certainty. How in many cases, the rigidity and demand for full compliance within the group ultimately led him to turn away from the communities themselves. While you listen, perhaps his experiences resonate with your own.

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Understanding the Perils of Certainty – Episode 51

This week on TMC Robert focuses on the importance of seeing the dangers of certainty as it applies to religious spiritual approaches or even anti-spiritual approaches. It is like putting on a blindfold and not differentiating between faith and being 100% sure. Being open to inquiry actually expands our ability to create a deeper faith with humility and a greater more grounded sense of humanity. In addition, each of us has the potential inspiration of including our doubts as alternative views of how to love.

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The Wisdom of Doubt – Episode 50

Robert and Dave continue the topic of spirituality and how our deepest beliefs affect not only us individually but the health of the planet as a whole. Robert believed at 18 that what he most desired was to become awakened. He believed that he could sidestep the fear and realness of death and firmly grasp the ultimate truth with such work. He found instead a great reverence for not knowing and shares his deeper insight of cultivating faith with a healthy amount of doubt.

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