Politics

Iranian-born Fathali Moghaddam is the editor of Peace & Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, from the American Psychological Association.

For decades there has been a political war about abortion where the only acceptable answers were pro-choice or pro-life. Aspen Baker, founder of Exhale & author of Pro-Voice: How to Keep Listening When The World Wants a Fight, has been advocating for empathic listening to women who've had abortions as a new path to peace in the abortion wars.

The tables are turned in today's program, as Spirit In Action's regular host, Mark Helpsmeet, is himself interviewed by Robert Park of WIDE-LP, Madison, Wisconsin. Topics addressed are the roots of Mark's broadcasts and activism, the mechanics of building a syndicated community radio based program, and the goals and future of creation of spirit-focused shows aimed at improving the world.

Improvisational humor is an awesome tool used by The Theater of Public Policy (t2p2.net) to find new ways forward in public discourse. Co-founded by Tane Danger & Brandon Boat in 2011, they've tackled a surprisingly wide variety of issues with their creative and disarming approach, including farm policy, robotics, clean water, and religion. Back on Feb 15th they performed for the Love Your Planet Comedy Night sponsored by Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light.

Gary Dorrien is author of The Obama Question: A Progressive Perspective, in which he looks at Barack Obama, the man & his history, and his policies, to see whether they pass muster from a progressive political & theological perspective. Gary is the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University. He is the author of 14 books and around 250 articles on a range of topics.

John Noltner is photographer and author of a new book, A Peace of my Mind: Exploring the meaning of peace, one story at a time, a captivating inquiry into how common folks - and some not-so-common folks - think about peace. It attempts to bring diverse, sincere, voices into a big tent, to do the work of listening for possibilities.