Kindness Matters Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Capitalism gets talked about like a cage match: winners on one side, everyone else on the other. I’m not an economist, but a single line stopped me cold: capitalism actually works better when it’s built on a foundation of empathy and equity. So I follow that thread where it really matters, not in charts or jargon, but in people’s lives and the systems that shape their chances. We start by naming what capitalism is at its best: innovation, risk, work, and the freedom to build...

Send us Fan Mail The loudest room in a school can be the most honest one. We’re talking about the cafeteria, that daily moment when kids carry a tray into a crowded space and have to answer a deceptively hard question: where do I sit, and what does that choice say about me? We map the “ecosystem” almost every lunchroom develops; the confident table with its hidden hierarchy, the quiet table adults tend to overlook, the newcomers taking a social test with no study guide, the floaters who may ...

Send us Fan Mail This is the Number One downloaded episode of the Kindness Matters Podcast. You can feel the country pulling apart in tiny, personal ways: the friend you stop texting, the family group chat you mute, the coworker you avoid because one comment could turn into a fight. We want a different path, so we sit down with Bill Groner, a longtime trial lawyer who represented more than 10,000 Ground Zero responders after 9/11 and now teaches depolarization and civil dialogue skills to col...

Send us Fan Mail This is the second most listened to episode of The Kindness Matters Podcast. A tent city on the news can be easy to scroll past. For Rob Bergfalk, it became the moment he could not ignore, and it grew into Compassion Church and Compassion Coffee in Anoka, Minnesota. We talk with Rob about what it really looks like to feel “called” to something, and how purpose becomes tangible when you build a place where people who are often overlooked are seen, known, and supported. ...

Send us Fan Mail This is the third-most-listened-to episode of The Kindness Matters Podcast. A craft night with a few moms, a pile of extra gloves, and a simple desire to stay connected somehow turns into two coach buses packed with winter gear and volunteers. I’m joined by Michelle Christensen from Golden Valley, Minnesota, the founder of One Good Deed, to tell the story behind Scarf Bombing, a direct, practical kindness project that puts warmth where it’s needed most across Minneapoli...