The Paths To Understanding Podcast

Challenge 2.0 Singing Away Silence

They are children with great needs but little ability to express them. The challenge these children and their families face have often resisted traditional therapies. But a talented recording Seattle artist has developed a program that harnesses the power of music to give these young people a voice and a future that once seemed impossible. That’s the focus of this week’s Challenge 2.0-Singing Away Silence. 

Challenge 2.0: Social Justice Parenting

Parenting is never an easy job, but the demands of parenting expanded during the pandemic. It wasn’t confined to teaching or supervising remote schooling. Parents also needed to help guide their children through the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Brianna Taylor, the increasing gulf between the haves and have nots plus the violent takeover the US Capitol. In this edition of Challenge 2.0, we talk with an education expert, parent of five and the author of a book designed to help parents help their children. 

Challenge 2.0 Serious Challenges Require Serious Fun

The death of a teenager from bone cancer seems to be an unlikely source of inspiration. But it led to the establishment of a unique camp that has lifted the spirits of thirty five thousand children and their families; each facing life altering medical conditions. Camp Korey is an inspiring story of compassion, connection and personal transformation; a story that offers lessons even to families who are not facing major medical challenges, but simply seeking to grow together, not apart. 

Challenge 2.0 No One Tells Me What To Do Part Two

In last week’s edition of Challenge 2.0, we examined the connection but also the tension between personal rights and personal responsibilities…a tension which has increased during the COVID pandemic. In “No One Tells Me What to Do-Part Two”, we continue this discussion on the implications, the dangers of this tension, and what balance is needed. 

Challenge 2.0 No One Tells Me What To Do Part One

Sixty one million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID as of this date-eight hundred and thirty eight thousand have died. The COVID Pandemic is proof of our interconnection, our interdependence. Yet instead of focusing on how we can meet and beat this threat together, we’re hearing much about personal ‘rights’. That’s the focus of this edition of Challenge 2.0, “No One Tells Me What to Do”.  

Challenge 2.0 In Shopping We Trust

When we celebrate holidays such as Christmas or Hanukkah, seasons marked less by personal or collective celebrations of faith and more by gatherings at stores-online or brick and mortar. Is this so much a trend related to a decline in religious faith or a larger question of what our society has come to value? That’s the subject of this weeks’ Challenge 2.0-“In Shopping We Trust”. 

Challenge 2.0 Merry Christmas or Merry Consume Us

Like it or not, Christmas has become the most commercialized holiday in the U.S. Americans spend over 600 billion dollars on the holiday, compared to 6 billion dollars for Halloween-the second most commercialized holiday. One in five Americans go into debt to finance their gift and decoration purchases. What is lost by the focus on consumer spending? What are alternatives? That’s the focus of this week’s Challenge 2.0.  

Challenge 2.0 The Unequal Pandemic

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Health impacts have been the most recognized cost of the COVID epidemic. But perhaps a longer lived impact will be on the learning and future of today’s children. The damage depends upon where the children live and attend school. In this edition of Challenge 2.0, we’ll discuss the problems educators and their students face, and what needs to be done for a recovery of possibilities as well as health.

Challenge 2.0 A State of Denial

Chief Seattle is among the best known of Native American leaders. A tribe he led, the Duwamish, were the first to sign the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855.  Yet the Duwamish people have been denied federal recognition. This episode will examine the struggle of the Duwamish and the prospects to achieve the recognition promised more than a century ago. 

Challenge 2.0: Rediscovering Creation’s Heartbeat

The environmental crisis has been called, at its core, a crisis of values and a crisis of faith. Organized religions have been criticized for contributing to if not even causing the disconnect between people, our planet and those we share it with. But in this episode of Challenge 2.0, we explore whether the ancient roots of faith may also offer solutions.