Wonder And Awe

Sara Luria is the founder of Beloved, a home-based experiment in Jewish life in Brooklyn. In her family’s home, she hosts Shabbat meals, creative rituals based on the Jewish calendar, meditation circles, learning for families with young children, and more. Prior to Beloved, Luria’s experiences as a community organizer, birth doula, and hospital chaplain inspired her to found ImmerseNYC, a pluralistic, feminist, grassroots-energized community mikveh (ritual bath) project. She has published poetry and essays on motherhood, Jewish innovation, and healing in various Jewish books and publications. Luria was ordained as a rabbi from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 2013.

Lynne Twist has been a recognized global visionary committed to alleviating poverty, ending world hunger, and supporting social justice and sustainability for more than forty years. She is also the cofounder of the Pachamama Alliance and founder of the Soul of Money Institute. Twist has worked with over 100,000 people in fifty countries in workshops, keynote presentations, and one-on-one coaching sessions on how to fundraise with integrity, practice conscious philanthropy, and create a healthy relationship with money. She is the bestselling author of The Soul of Money, which has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide and has been translated into nine languages.

Rita D. Sherma is founding Director and Associate Professor at the Center for Dharma Studies; Core Doctoral Faculty; Department Chair of Theology & Ethics; and Co-Chair of Sustainability 360 Initiative at GTU, Berkeley, CA. Formerly, she was the Swami Vivekananda Visiting Professor in Hindu Studies at USC, Los Angeles. She holds an MA in Women’s Studies in Religion, and a PhD in Theology & Ethics from Claremont Graduate University, CA. Sherma is co-founder of the American Academy of Religion’s Hinduism Program Unit. She is the founding Vice President of DANAM (Dharma Academy of North America)—a scholarly society for research on Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religious & interreligious studies—and serves as Vice President of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. Dr. Sherma has authored/edited/co-edited numerous books and is the founding Editor-in-Chief of "Journal of Dharma Studies." She serves on the Editorial Board of "Reading Religion" Journal (an AAR publication), serves as Advisor to the Parliament of the World’s Religions Climate Action-sponsored Faith for the Earth online & print project, as well as on the Advisory Board of the Yale Forum for Religion and Ecology. Her pedagogical approach goes beyond encounters in the classroom to create collaborations with her students in research, writing, publications, and sponsoring students' leadership in their disciplines.

Anna Sun, an Associate Professor at Duke University, holds a Princeton PhD in Sociology and is a prominent scholar in the field of religion and culture. Her research focuses on Confucianism as a world religion, gender and Global Confucianism, comparative studies of prayer and ritual, and methodological issues in studying East Asian religions. Throughout her career, Professor Sun has been a fellow at prestigious institutions such as the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She is actively involved in various academic organizations, including serving as a trustee of the Fetzer Institute and being part of the Advisory Committee for the "Women's Studies in Religion Program" at Harvard Divinity School. Additionally, she is an advisor for the Pew Research Center on surveys of religion in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the US (Asian-Americans). Professor Sun has held leadership positions as Chair of the Board of Directors of ASIANetwork, Vice President of the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions, and Co-Chair of the Chinese Religions Unit of the American Academy of Religion. Among her notable publications are "Confucianism as a World Religion: Contested Histories and Contemporary Realities," which received book awards from the American Academy of Religion and the American Sociological Association. She has also co-edited "Situating Spirituality: Context, Practice, and Power" and co-authored "Against Happiness," exploring comparative notions of wellbeing. Currently, Professor Sun is working on two monographs: one focusing on Global Confucianism and the other examining contemporary ritual life in relation to magic, rationality, gender, time, and urban space.

Adah Parris is a highly sought-after keynote speaker, polymath, anti-disciplinary artist, tech futurist, and activist who is dedicated to inspiring individuals and organizations to embrace new ways of thinking and doing. She has a unique blend of expertise in multiple fields, including living systems, technologies (digital and ecological) and systems design. Her perspective on innovation, transformation, and technology is both empathetic and subversive, challenging the status quo and helping people to recognise and bridge the gap between their external stories and internal behaviors. Adah is the Chair of Mental Health First Aid England and the advisory group for the Centre for Cultural Value, and she has also been recognised as a TED Talks Global Emerging Innovator. Her work explores the anatomy of transformation and innovation, and she focuses on changing how we experience the world by asking the question, “What type of Ancestor do you want to be?” Her cutting-edge philosophy, Cyborg Shamanism™, merges ancient wisdom, living systems, traditional ecological knowledge and practices, and digital technologies, and she provides individuals with the tools and practices to bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to be through her consulting and her Ancestors Retreats. Adah has over 20 years of experience in transforming cultures to nurture decentralized innovation environments and has worked with some of the world’s leading organizations and institutions.

Louie Schwartzberg, Howard and Michele Hall have a longterm beautiful friendship, the core of which is based in capturing and celebrating nature's wonders. While Louie explores the earth and air, Howard and Michele have magnificently captured the splendors of what lies within beneath our waters. Howard and Michele Hall are perhaps best known for their underwater IMAX films. In 1994 Howard directed the first underwater IMAX 3D feature, Into the Deep. In 1998 Michele produced and Howard directed the IMAX feature, Island of the Sharks, which was an enterprise of Howard Hall Productions. In 2005 they returned to the IMAX 3D format by directing and producing Deep Sea 3D which was awarded Best Picture at the Giant Screen Cinema Association Conference and Best Large Format Film at Wildscreen 2006. In 2009 the Hall’s released Under the Sea 3D. This film won best cinematography at the Giant Screen Cinema Association Conference in 2009 and Best Documentary at the Internationnal 3D Society in 2010. Howard was director of underwater cinematography for the Primesco Productions film Lost Worlds, the MacGillivray Freeman film The Living Sea, the IMAX 3D feature Return to Hubble, and was underwater cinematographer for MacGillivray Freeman’s Journey Into Amazing Caves. In 2002 Howard was underwater sequence director and Michele was location manager for MacGillivray Freeman’s IMAX feature Coral Reef Adventure, a film in which both he and Michele are featured on-camera. Of the five highest grossing 3D films produced by IMAX Corporation, two were directed by Howard Hall. Into the Deep has earned box office receipts of over $70 million and Deep Sea 3D has earned over $96 million. The Hall’s recently released Under the Sea 3D has earned over $52 million. Between them, Howard and Michele have won seven Emmy Awards. Howard has produced and/or directed many award winning natural history television films including a National Geographic Special, which he co-produced with Michele, and three episodes of the PBS series Nature. Howard also directed and Michele produced the award winning, five-hour series Secrets of the Ocean Realm for PBS. Howard holds a BS degree in zoology from San Diego State University. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Michele is a Registered Nurse and holds a B.S. degree in Health Sciences. She is a member of the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Women Divers Hall of Fame.

Uvinie Lubecki brings compassionate leadership to organizations and is passionate about the role of mindfulness and compassion in leadership and building cultures of connection. In this episode, Louie and Uvinie discuss the the positive impact wonder and awe can have on large organizations who are willing to risk vulnerability and change.

Brenda Salgado is the author of Real World Mindfulness for Beginners: Navigate Daily Life One Practice at a Time. She is a mindfulness teacher, motivational and public speaker, a facilitator and consultant, a health and wellness expert, a traditional medicine woman, and a Toltec energy healer. The founder of Nepantla Consulting, Brenda has two decades of experience in leadership development, nonprofit management, spiritual teaching, movement building, women’s health, and environmental and social justice. Enjoy this episode of Wonder & Awe as Louie and Brenda discuss how social justice and wonder and awe are intricately related."

"Michelle ""Lani"" Shiota is an associate professor of social psychology at Arizona State University. Her studies of positive emotions, emotion regulation, and emotional mechanisms of close relationships use multiple methods including perpheral psychophysiology measures, behavioral coding, cognitive tasks, and narrative analysis as well as self-reports. Shiota's research has been funded by National Institutes of Health, the John Templeton Foundation, and the National Science Foundation, and has been published in high-impact journals including: Emotion, JPSP, Cognition and Emotion, Psychology and Aging, and American Psychologist. She is lead author of the textbook ""Emotion"" (Oxford), and co-editor of the ""Handbook of Positive Emotions"" (Guilford). She is currently on the Executive Committee of the Society for Affective Science, she is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS), Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), and member of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology (SESP). She received her bachelor's in communication from Stanford University, and her doctorate in social/personality psychology from University of California at Berkeley. Shiota joined the social psychology faculty at ASU in 2006, establishing the Shiota Psychophysiology Laboratory for Affective Testing (a.k.a. SPLAT Lab).

"Professor Mark Unno's interests lie in Medieval Japanese Buddhism, specifically in the relation between intellectual history and social practices. He also researches and has published in the areas of modern Japanese religious thought, comparative religion, and Buddhism and psychotherpay. He is the author of Shingon Refractions: Myoe and the Mantra of Light, an study and translation of the medieval Japanese ritual practice of the Mantra of Light. He is also the translator of Hayao Kawai, The Buddhist Priest Myoe-A Life of Dreams (Lapis Press, 1992) and author of over a dozen articles in English and Japanese including: ""Questions in the Making - A Review Essay on Zen Buddhist Ethics in the Context of Buddhist and Comparative Ethics,"" Journal of Religious Ethics (Fall 1999); ""Myoe Koben and the Komyo Shingon dosha kanjinki: The Ritual of Sand and the Mantra of Light,"" study and translation, in Re-visioning ""Kamakura"" Buddhism, edited by Richard Payne (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998); and ""Divine Madness-Exploring the Boundaries of Modern Japanese Religion,"" Zen Buddhism Today 10. Enjoy this philosophical discussion with Professor Unno and Louie Schwartzberg as they examine the meaning of wonder and awe."

The Reverend Alicia Roxanne Forde serves with the Unitarian Universalist Association as the Director of the International Office. She is a graduate of The Iliff School of Theology and currently lives in Longmont, Colorado. Alicia was born and spent her formative years in Trinidad and Tobago. She identifies as an African descent queer, cis-gender female with deep roots in Tobago. She considers herself bi-cultural and is grateful that her formative years enabled her to cultivate a global perspective. Alicia is a certified Spiritual Director and has a strong interest in health and wellness. In this episode, Louie and Rev. Forde examine in the definition of words we use everyday - beauty, wonder, gratitude, awe - which may deepen our practice and help us to become more present and full of joy, peace and awareness.

Andrew Weil, M.D., is a world-renowned leader and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, a healing-oriented approach to health care which encompasses body, mind, and spirit. Combining a Harvard education and a lifetime of practicing natural and preventive medicine, Dr. Weil is the founder and director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, where he also holds the Lovell-Jones Endowed Chair in Integrative Rheumatology, and is Clinical Professor of Medicine and Professor of Public Health. The Center is the leading effort in the world to develop a comprehensive curriculum in integrative medicine. Graduates serve as directors of integrative medicine programs throughout the United States, and through its fellowship, the Center is now training doctors and nurse practitioners around the world. Dr. Weil is an internationally recognized expert for his views on leading a healthy lifestyle, his philosophy of healthy aging, and his critique of the future of medicine and health care. In this episode, Louie and Andy recall how the Fantastic Fungi journey began, and why gratitude, wonder and awe are so essential to our future.

Deepa Gulrukh Patel is a Sufi teacher in the Inayati Order, which she also serves in her capacity as International Coordinator and Executive Director for the Zenith Institute, a four-week Sufi meditation camp in the Swiss Alps, where she guides retreats for young adults. She is also the Chair of Tamasha Theatre Company and the Loss Foundation, a bereavement support service for people who have lost loved ones to cancer. Her past roles have included being a music education producer for the BBC, a campaigner on HIV/AIDS for Action Aid, and Managing Director of Creative Partnerships (a national UK Government Initiative on creativity in schools). She currently facilitates programs for organizations globally on the art of collaboration, conversation and contemplation.

Brother David Steindl-Rast — 96 year-old author, scholar, and Benedictine monk — is beloved the world over for his enduring message about gratefulness as the true source of lasting happiness. Known to many as the “grandfather of gratitude,” Br. David has been a source of inspiration and spiritual friendship to countless leaders and luminaries around the world including Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thomas Merton, and more. He has been one of the most important figures in the modern interfaith dialogue movement, and has taught with thought-leaders such as Eckhart Tolle, Jack Kornfield, and Roshi Joan Halifax. His wisdom has been featured in recent interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Krista Tippett, and Tami Simon and his TED talk has been viewed almost 10,000,000 times. In this delightful episode, Louie and Br. David share intimate stories, explore true miracles that surround us every day, and share a long history of friendship with us. 

Koya Webb is an internationally recognized yoga teacher, celebrity holistic health coach, author, speaker, and vegan activist whose core mission is to promote daily self-care, oneness and eco friendly living to combat some of the world’s biggest challenges including mental health, social injustices and global warming. Inspiring millions of lives, Koya is the founder of Get Loved Up, an international lifestyle community and Yoga School that promotes mental, spiritual and physical health. She is also the author of LET YOUR FEARS MAKE YOU FIERCE: How to Turn Common Obstacles into Seeds for Growth, which addresses daily self assessment and mindfulness, understanding how to make fear your friend, and using the power of holistic health to heal. As a former competitive track and field athlete training for the Olympics, Koya first got introduced to yoga after a debilitating track injury. In this episode, Louie and Koya discuss holistic approaches to wonder & awe, and how both can infuse their way into the smallest of habits to help improve our sprits.... right now.

Singer Snow Raven grew up in a remote tribe in Arctic Siberia. She has performed for SXSW and has appeared on America’s Got Talent, enchanting audiences with her extraordinary talents from her ancestors. Snow Raven hopes to heal people through her music-- combining traditional songs, shamanistic rituals from her tribe, and animal noises.  In this episode, Louie discusses the role of wonder and awe in the songwriter’s process and we hear two examples of her magical talent. Video of this episode is avaliable to watch exclusively on The Louie Channel, a free app that inspires!

Louie Schwartzberg hosts Cosmo Sheldrake multi-instrumentalist, musician, composer, and producer to discuss creativity, connection, bio music, and the power of sounds in nature.

Louie and Anna Bjurstam embark on a conversation about personal health, growth, wellness, and healing. Bjurstam is a wellness pioneer and Founding Board Member of the Global Wellness Summit. Bjurstam has a Masters in Finance and a passion for quantum physics and science. She has been leading the wellness industry for the last 25 years as a shaman, independent consultant, and Vice President of Six Senses Spas

Join Wonder & Awe as Louie Schwartzberg sits down for a chat with Lindsey Stirling is an American violinist, songwriter, and dancer. Schwartzberg and Stirling have worked together on projects before. The two will delve into topics like grief, pain, healing, energy, artistry, and creative flow.

Louie Schwartzberg hosts Giuliana Furci, Founder of the Fungi Foundation and Nathalie Kelley, Actress, Activist, and Board Member of the Fungi Foundation to discuss the miraculous possibilities of fungi and the importance of discovery and conservation of fungal species.