Claim OwnershipMeditations on Leadership with Don Carpenter
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© 2025 Meditations on Leadership with Don Carpenter
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Leadership begins within.
In Meditations on Leadership with Don Carpenter, author, youth development pioneer, and relational leadership coach Don Carpenter invites you into a weekly practice of deeper reflection, personal clarity, and meaningful connection.
Each episode begins with a short meditation from Don’s soon to be released book, The Inner Work of Leadership: 52 Meditations for a Life of Meaning, Courage, and Growth. From there, Don offers personal commentary and lived insights before welcoming a guest, leaders from all walks of life, to explore how that week’s theme plays out in their own professional journey. The episode closes with two powerful questions to help you pause, reflect, and grow as a leader from the inside out.
Whether you’re leading a team, a classroom, a nonprofit, or your own life, this podcast is a companion for those committed to doing the inner work that sustains courageous outer change.
18 Episodes
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As the year comes to a close, Meditations on Leadership pauses its usual rhythm for a special end-of-year Ask Me Anything episode. In this holiday mailbag, Don responds to thoughtful listener questions about what defines a leader, what he loves most about leading, and one often-overlooked skill that matters deeply in leadership, teams, families, and organizations. Through personal reflection and lived experience, this episode explores accountability, awakening potential, and the quiet moment...
What if leadership isn’t about what you accomplish, but who you’re becoming? In this episode of Meditations on Leadership, Don Carpenter sits down with writer, artist, and community builder Margot Anne Kelley to explore how character shapes leadership long before outcomes appear. Rooted in the meditation Be Before You Do, the conversation touches on creativity, vocation, and Margot’s work co-founding the Saint George Community Development Corporation, where neighbors come together to care fo...
In this episode, Don sits down with longtime friend and visionary youth leader Jim Cummings, founder of UrbanTrekkers. Together they explore the meditation “The Words That Lead” and unpack the power of language in building trust, shaping culture, and honoring the communities we serve. Through stories of calling, courage, and hard-earned wisdom, Jim reflects on launching experiential learning programs across the globe - and what it really means for words and values to align in leadership. The...
In this episode, Don reflects on what it means to lead through uncertainty, when clarity hasn’t yet come and all you can see is fog. Drawing from the concept of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity), he explores how curiosity, not control, becomes the true anchor in turbulent times. Joining him is Brandon Leppänen, Town Manager of St. George, Maine, a former mentee, longtime colleague, and now close friend. Together, they talk about learning to trust the process, balancin...
In this deeply personal episode of Meditations on Leadership, Don Carpenter explores what it truly means to lead toward something rather than simply reacting to what we fear or want to avoid. Through a candid reflection on scarcity, fundraising, and his own growth as a leader, Don shares how shifting from resistance to possibility reshaped his life and work. This week’s conversation is especially meaningful: Don sits down with his father, 87-year-old Reid Carpenter, the visionary founder of ...
In this episode, Don explores what it means to tend the flame - to lead with passion without being consumed by it. Through the lens of Ronald Heifetz’s “balcony view” and a personal story about navigating conflict with a group of community members, Don reflects on the inner work required to rise above emotion and lead with clarity and purpose. He’s joined by Julia Sleeper, co-founder and Executive Director of Tree Street Youth in Lewiston, Maine, and a powerful voice in community-based ...
In this episode, Don reflects on a lesson learned among the redwoods of the Pacific Northwest - that growth can’t be forced; it can only be cultivated when the conditions are right. His guest, Elias Edwards-Jenks, embodies that truth. A former Trekkers student turned educator and community leader, Elias now leads the NOVA Alternative Education Program in Rockland, Maine, where he’s creating a relationship-based model that helps students reconnect to learning and to themselves. Together, Don ...
This episode begins with the meditation Built to Last, Not to Impress - a reflection on the pull between wanting to grow fast and the discipline to build slow. Don explores how real leadership isn’t about scaling quickly but about honoring each step and building foundations that endure. Joining him is Dr. Bruce Main, founder and president of UrbanPromise, whose life’s work has embodied that very idea. From one summer camp in Camden, New Jersey, to a global network reaching across continents,...
In this episode, Don reflects on the quiet strength it takes to lead without rushing to fill the space. Drawing from Meditation #10: The Discipline of Holding Back, he explores the power of restraint—how silence, patience, and presence can become acts of courage in leadership. Joining him is Krystal Williams, attorney, social entrepreneur, and founder of the Providentia Group and the Alpha Legal Foundation. Krystal shares how she’s learned to balance conviction with curiosity, structure with...
What happens when leadership is guided not by power, but by love? In this episode, Don explores the tension between love and control - and what it really means to lead with honesty, courage, and care. Based on his meditation “When Love Leads,” Don reflects on how love, when practiced in leadership, doesn’t soften accountability - it deepens it. Joining him is Alan Furth, co-founder of the Cobscook Institute and a lifelong educator whose work has been rooted in peace, honesty, respect, and em...
In this episode of Meditations on Leadership, Don reflects on Dr. Richard Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems model and what it means to lead from the grounded center of the Self. He’s joined by Bill Burke, founder of The Optimism Institute, former CEO of The Weather Channel, and host of the Blue Sky podcast, to explore how optimism, presence, and inner clarity shape authentic leadership. Together, they consider how the best leaders create safety within themselves - and, in doing so, invite o...
Episode 7 — Leading Without Hidden Agendas In this episode of Meditations on Leadership, Don Carpenter sits down with Dr. Jacqueline “Jackie” Edmondson, President of the University of Southern Maine. A first-generation college student who grew up in rural America, Jackie’s journey from the piano bench to the presidency of one of Maine’s largest public universities is a story of courage, curiosity, and purpose. Together, Don and Jackie explore what it means to lead from wholeness rather...
This episode of Meditations on Leadership begins with Meditation #17: The Broker, Not the Keeper, a reflection on collaboration—why it’s harder than we often admit, and how real partnership requires trust, belonging, and agency. Don is then joined by Molly Feeney, Executive Director of Homeworthy, the only dedicated homeless service agency serving Knox, Waldo, and parts of Lincoln County, Maine. With a background that spans teaching in a youth detention facility, leading a residential treatm...
This episode of Meditations on Leadership opens with Meditation #9: The Message Is You, a reflection on how true leadership is remembered less for eloquent words and more for authentic presence—the way a leader makes others feel seen, safe, and valued. Don is then joined by Owen McCarthy, co-founder of MedRhythms, former trustee of the University of Maine System, and now board chair of the Rural Futures Fund. Raised in Patten, Maine, Owen’s journey has taken him from UMaine to Harvard Busine...
This episode of Meditations on Leadership opens with Meditation #1: The Art of Letting Go, reflecting on the challenge of knowing when to hold on and when to release. Don is then joined by Megan Taft, the first Executive Director of the Rural Youth Institute, a new nonprofit dedicated to advancing rural youth development. Together they talk about Meg’s journey as a relationship-centered leader, the future of rural youth work, and the transition now underway as Don steps back from leading the...
Episode 3: Ripple of Influence Every leader carries an energy that ripples outward — shaping culture, relationships, and the sustainability of the work long after they leave the room. In this episode, Don reads his meditation Ripple of Influence, reflecting on the unseen ways our presence becomes the real ROI of leadership. Joining Don is longtime friend and colleague Joseph Hufnagel, Director of The Landing Place at Homeworthy. Their conversation explores how leaders feed the energies that ...
Episode #2 – Let Them See You In this episode, Don reflects on the courage it takes to let others truly see us, not just as leaders who have answers, but as people still learning, growing, and wrestling with our own doubts. He shares how authenticity deepens trust and creates space for real connection. Joining Don for this conversation is Professor Dean Borgman - mentor, theologian, and longtime leader in youth work. Together, they explore how transparency shapes leadership, teaching, ...
In today’s episode, “The Stillness That Leads,” Don reflects on the power of contemplation and silence as essential foundations for grounded, authentic leadership. Joining him is Jack Carpenter — a lifelong mentor, spiritual guide, and Don’s uncle. Jack served with Young Life from 1961 to 2015, including over 20 years as a regional director. He and his wife Judith raised four children, spent twelve years living and working on the campus of Dana Hall School, and later moved to Maine, where th...
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