Rod MacDonald spins deeply emotional tapestry with his songs, a sort of emotional journalism, powerfully capturing the aspirations and angst of the listener. He was a principle in the 1980s folk revival in Greenwich village, co-founding the Greenwich Village Folk Festival. You'll find a couple of his songs in Rise Up Singing because of their penetrating & enduring power. Follow him on FaceBook.

Nelia Sargent is a life-long activist, with decades under her belt doing and teaching nonviolence methods, coming of age with the anti-nuclear organization called the Clamshell Alliance. She's chair of the board of the Albert Einstein Institution, founded by Gene Sharp to advance the study & use of nonviolent action. Nelia became blind at 20, vastly compensated for this though the training & techniques of Robert Amendola, gave away an inherited fortune, and eventually got a law degree, though not to be a lawyer. And she's got marvelous, inspirational, stories to tell.

Micah Sommersmith has a real range to the music he's involved in. Part of his work is as a church music director, but he's also the kind of creative, quirky, musician you'd expect of someone who has played piano, trumpet, euphonium, guitar, and accordion, and who'd write a Song about Glass. He mixes deep and playful, and profound and surprisingly profound, lyrics.

For the past 3 years, Joe Kidd & Sheila Burke have been awarded the Detroit Music Awards for Outstanding World Music. With 60's folk music roots mixed with Appalachian/Celtic/Bluegrass/Country/Middle Eastern/African/Native American spirituality, influences, and rhythms, Joe & Sheila make moving, meaningful, music.

John Greenler is part of 2 institutions looking for energy ways forward in Wisconsin, the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and the Wisconsin Energy Institute, where John works as director of education & outreach. In addition to these professional roles, John is co-owner of a CSA called Zephyr Farm, which keeps him grounded in hands-on sustainable alternatives as well.

More insights & music from Peter Alsop on sex, sex roles, sexuality, & relationships, using humor and creativity to shine a light on our society's too-little-examined wounds, presumptions, and possibilities of health & balance.

All the songs in this program are written & performed by Peter Alsop:
Hopelessly Heterosexual
You Ain't Been Doin' Nothin' If They Haven't Called You Gay - modified from song by Ted Judd
Good Time
Ghosts
Man Oh Man I Can
My Secret>
Look at the Ceiling
Love Is the Only Medicine

A different format for Song of the Soul - we sit in on the quarterly open-mic experience known as White Pines. In a low-tech, high-personality event, folks come out to share their down-home skills and creativity for a special community-building opportunity, 26 years into its life. The winter solstice event, actually held on 1/7/2016, MC'd by Bryce Black in the beautiful building of Simply Dunn/Dunn County Pottery host John Thomas, this kind of evening deepens the soul of a community.

Peter Alsop has the wit & talent to discuss tough topics in a way that can open eyes & change minds. Today & next week he'll talk with us about love, sex, sex roles, sexuality and more. Peter is a great combination of deep thinker & musician, humorous & creative lyricist, and educational psychologist. Among other places, find this songs in the video of Alsop for Adults Concert: Peter's Song on Love, Sex & Gender.

All the songs in this program are written & performed by Peter Alsop:

It's Only A Wee-Wee
Let The Woman In You Come Through
Baby Needs a parent
Don't Put Your Hand In My Pants
My Body

Many people find an important piece of themselves in nature, but Deirdre Jenkins knows herself in oneness with nature at a whole new depth. Through her journeys with trauma, devotion, and remembering-the-self, Deirdre produces music that transports and transforms the listener. Contact her on Facebook.

There's a young Peace Studies program at UW-Stout, where we talk to Senior Lecturer in Peace Studies and Geography, James Handley, a current student, Emma Kornack, and a Peace Studies graduate and Americorps volunteer, Shelby Schuppe. What does the program teach, and what changes does it bring about, in students and in the community?

Music Featured:

Christmas in the Trenches - John McCutcheon