Community Development

We live in a culture that suppresses our ability to truly feel our grief—deeply, safely, and on our own terms. But each person’s experience is as unique as the grief itself. Here, Camille Barton’s take on grief speaks directly to the ways that BIPOC and queer readers disproportionately experience unique constellations of loss.

You are a successful, intelligent person with so much to feel good about. But when you are confronted with the omnipresent clutter in your life, you feel like a failure. No matter how hard you try to get organized, you can’t figure out how to make the clutter go away for good. You can tell that there’s something bigger going on, but you have no idea what it is. You’re stuck. The good news is, you absolutely can learn how to free yourself from clutter.

In The Soul of Desire, psychiatrist Curt Thompson suggests that underneath all our longings is the desire to be known - and what's more, that this fundamental yearning manifests itself in our deep need to make things of beauty, revealing who we are to others. Weaving together neuroscience and spiritual formation to open up new horizons for thinking not only about the nature of the mind but about what it means to be human, The Soul of Desire is a mature, creative work.

In this easy-to-follow self-help manual sprinkled with relatable stories, Florence Ann Romano introduces the six roles commonly found in villages and provides a road map to help the listener build their own support systems.

Sisterhood is that sacred space where all the masks that are worn for the world fall off. Dr. Joy Harden Bradford has been doing the work to help Black women heal together for over twenty years. In a sisterhood community with more than half a million members, she’s the go-to therapist for Black women looking to prioritize their mental health and become the best possible versions of themselves. Now she’s sharing all she’s learned using the tenets of psychology and group therapy to help us foster relationships that are not only positive, but transformative.

In 2008, with no event production experience and two college degrees between the four of them, Elliott Bisnow, Brett Leve, Jeff Rosenthal, and Jeremy Schwartz became business partners and set out to build a global events company. With passion and tenacity, they began cold calling as many inspiring company founders as they could and tried to convince them to attend their first event. In the beginning, only nineteen people said yes.

In this inspiring book, founders of The Holistic Life Foundation Ali Smith, Atman Smith, and Andres Gonzalez describe how they have spent the past twenty years teaching yoga, meditation, and breathwork to thousands of at-risk kids in Baltimore schools helping them to develop deep reserves of patience, empathy, resolve, and—when needed—the righteous anger that fuels deep structural change. Their work has received wide national attention due to their remarkable results.

In a world overflowing with information, how can we adapt our learning methods to thrive? Dave Cormier, a pioneering figure in digital education, presents a thought-provoking manifesto in Learning in a Time of Abundance. A leading voice in digital learning, Cormier offers a fresh perspective on how we can face the uncertainty of a world where our challenges don't have clear answers amid an overwhelming digital landscape.

Coping Skills for Teens with Autism provides essential guides and tips for helping teenagers with autism develop the skills they need to navigate life's challenges and improve their quality of life. The coping skills shared here are not just for immediate relief—rather, they will become an integral part of the teenager and fortify them with a lifetime of knowledge and self-help tools.

Listen to How to Be a Mindful Drinker: a practical support plan to help you take control of your alcohol intake, with tools to track progress, deal with triggers, social stresses, and stay on track for the long term. Fed up with weekend hangovers? Motivated by budgetary or health concerns? Or just want to feel your best every day of the week? Without preaching or waffling, How to Be a Mindful Drinker will help you to understand your drinking behavior and plan your self-moderation goals.

Eco-distress is real. How to Live in a Chaotic Climate is here to help you rediscover meaning, joy, and connection as the tumult around us increases. Based on the Good Grief Network’s acclaimed 10 Steps to Resilience and Empowerment in a Chaotic Climate program, this book unpacks the social, political, and spiritual nuances of the climate emergency, step by step.

In this powerful and practical guide, Minaa shares therapeutic tools, client stories, and actionable insights to help you on your healing journey, along with reflections from her personal experiences. Each chapter focuses on a common emotional struggle—from overcoming dysfunctional family patterns to developing emotional maturity, finding our village, navigating racial trauma, and moving past isolation and despair.

Finding Comfort is a book about easing grief and trauma after unimaginable horrors - mass shootings, catastrophic natural disasters, and terrorist acts. Through personal recollections of responding to tragedy, combined with a practical application, Earl Johnson offers listeners the tools they need to seek support and offer it to those in need. The book walks through the life cycle of disaster care from the first hours and days to the years that follow.

So, let's talk about loneliness. Human connection specialist Simone Heng knows a lot about being lonely. She left an enviable career and social life to move back to her family home to care for her mother. All alone in a house filled with memories but devoid of people, she was faced with the realization that human connection is one of our most essential needs. Simone shares her journey to understanding the value of human connection and explains how to distinguish authentic relationships from fake substitutes.

Craftivism, or the space where art and activism meet, is a powerful, ever-evolving social justice movement that continues to grow and diversify as more voices and mediums take part in it. In Let's Move the Needle, Shannon Downey, an outspoken voice in the craftivist movement for over a decade, provides a roadmap and accessible toolkit for burgeoning art activists.

Drawing on dozens of intimate audio interviews with families from all across the country, award-winning psychologist and writer Andrew Solomon redefines what it means to be an “ideal family” in America today. Solomon observes that America, led in large part by the women’s, civil rights, and gay rights movements, has undergone a radical social shift in the last few decades. Although the structure of family has changed, economic and legal structures lag behind and need to adapt to accommodate this explosive new reality.

Trans Bodies, Trans Selves is a priceless tool for anyone who identifies as transgender, questions their gender identity, or wants to learn more about and support the transgender community. This comprehensive book equips listeners with the knowledge, compassion, and resilience they need to successfully manage their particular journeys through its wealth of facts, personal accounts, and helpful advice.

In 2001, when Jacqueline Novogratz founded Acumen, a global community of socially and environmentally responsible partners dedicated to changing the way the world tackles poverty, few had heard of impact investing - Acumen’s practice of “doing well by doing good”. Nineteen years later, there’s been a seismic shift in how corporate boards and other stakeholders evaluate businesses: Impact investment is not only morally defensible, but now also economically advantageous, even necessary.

Caring for someone with dementia is challenging, especially when it comes time to think about other living arrangements. What do you need to know about dementia, including its different stages? Gerontologist and dementia care consultant Rachael Wonderlin has written a compassionate book to help friends and family members of those living with dementia answer the tough questions. In practical, down-to-earth language, The Caregiver's Guide to Memory Care and Dementia Communities walks the listener through key points about dementia care.

Inconceivable combines memoir and investigative reporting to reveal an underground community of sperm donors and recipients who have chosen to circumvent traditional fertility avenues and meet up on their own terms. As an active participant in this community, Valerie Bauman uses her own story as a lens into this movement of people attempting to dodge the costly and often discriminatory world of sperm banks and fertility clinics.