Welcome to the Common Good podcast, a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging.

Earlier this summer, Walter Brueggemann passed away. His friendship with Peter Block and John McKnight was the spark that inspired the Common Good Collective, and the first three seasons of this podcast captured conversations among these three voices.

To honor Walter’s memory, friends of the Collective are hosting a local gathering in Cincinnati on September 19th in Cincinnati called The Provocation: Practicing Prophetic Imagination in Memory of Walter Brueggemann. We’d love for you to join us.

Today’s episode is a talk Walter gave at the first Common Good Collective gathering in 2018. In it, he turns to the Exodus narrative as a guiding script for social imagination, showing how it helps us uncover hidden meta-narratives and resist the totalizing forces of extractive economies.

This episode was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live & Common Change.

Welcome to the Common Good podcast, a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging.

Today’s episode is something a little different. We’re sharing a recent conversation with Peter Block that originally aired on the Avenue M, hosted by Joey Taylor and Haroon Moghul. In each episode they speak with remarkable guests to help unpack the moments that shape us, the struggles that build us and the questions that intrigue us.

This rich and intimate conversation centers on Peter Block, a long-time organizational development thinker, and his reflections on mortality, loneliness, freedom, and purpose.

Peter Block is an author and citizen of Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the co-founder of
Designed Learning, a training company that offers workshops designed to build the skills outlined in his books. Peter is part of the Common Good Alliance of Greater Cincinnati and was a member of his local neighborhood council. His books include Activating the Common Good, Confronting Our Freedom, Flawless Consulting, Stewardship, The Answer to How Is Yes, Community, and The Abundant Community.

Things referenced in episode:

• The Vitality of Death: Essays in Existential Psychology and Philosophy by Peter Koestenbaum
• Vitality of Death (video of conversation between Peter Koestenbaum and Peter Block)

Avenue M is sponsored by Queen City Diwan, which leads travel adventures, immersive experiences, leadership retreats and religious pilgrimages. Queen City Diwan is excited to share its fall schedule, including an October ‘umrah in Saudi Arabia, a January trip to Andalucía just for college students—and, over Thanksgiving break, we’re planning an incredible tour across three countries. Learn more on our website. Avenue M is produced by Bespoken Live with music by Zach Swelber, who plays in Circle It and Mosant.

This Common Good Podcast was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live & Common Change.

The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging. For this week's episode Chris LaRue, the Director of The Hive, speaks with Kristen Barker.

In addition to being a fellow at the Hive, Kristen Barker is a social entrepreneur and the President and Co-Founder of Co-op Cincy and is a Co-Founder of 1worker1vote. She designs and leads participatory education events with English- and Spanish-speaking co-op workers, and helps worker-owners make their businesses more successful. Kristen also helps our design team determine the feasibility of potential co-op businesses, helps retiring business owners determine whether they can sell their business to their employees, and helps viable co-ops access the capital they need to leverage their ideas.

Chris La Rue has been the Executive Director of The Hive since 2023. As the “chief storyteller,” Chris seeks to amplify the story of transformation The Hive has to tell: one in which people integrate the wisdom of our contemplative traditions in ways that make meaningful collective change possible. He believes that The Hive is uniquely positioned to create a better world by helping individuals find their people, and find their practice.

The Hive is a grassroots mindfulness community curating multi-week classes, workshops and a Membership community. It has been formed by facilitators asking the question, "What are the resources that lie within our vast lineages, traditions, and modalities of healing, and how can we place them in service of the common good?"

Check out Co-Op Fest on June 7th.

Here's the writing shared by Howard Thurman: All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree, the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new lives, fresh blossoms, green fruit. Such is the growing edge! It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor. This is the basis of hope in moments of despair, the incentive to carry on when times are out of joint and men have lost their reason, the source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash. The birth of a child — life’s most dramatic answer to death — this is the growing edge incarnate. Look well to the growing edge!

This episode was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live & Common Change.