The Paths To Understanding Podcast

Fewer Americans vote in elections than in most other western democracies. A Pew Research study ranked U.S. voter participation 31st out of 35 western democracies. It pointed to restrictive voting laws and manipulation of voting districts. Analysts have called current efforts to eliminate, reduce or manipulate voting as effectively gagging American citizens, preventing their ability to influence their future and that of their childr...

More than 200 American soldiers from all branches of service have filed formal complaints against the US military, alleging their commanders told them the Iran war was ‘part of God’s plan’. One complaint quoted an officer as saying President Trump had been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark the return of Jesus to earth. The pushback from leading faith leaders was strong...

Political, legal and faith leaders have been increasingly criticizing the ICE and Border Patrol raids and tactics. Law enforcement officials are increasingly joining in those criticisms. In this edition of Challenge 2.0, we speak with a retired prosecutor and a retired police chief, both with decades of experience in the Puget Sound area. They contend the methods used by federal agents to impose law and order, may actually increase...

American religious leaders are becoming increasingly vocal in their opposition to federal seizures of alleged illegal immigrants and refugees. A leading Catholic biweekly newspaper asserted members of the faith must decide between loyalty to leaders supporting the raids or loyalty to the Gospel. Lutheran churches have filed lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security. An Episcopal Bishop told his clergy that “it may ...

Millie Smith was one of 20,000 American children secretly exposed to radioactive gases; gases released from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in eastern Washington. She later told Congress she developed metastasized Thyroid Cancer, describing classmates who died, illness-induced poverty that forced her to subsist at times on rice and popcorn. “We are as abused children, victims of our own country”, she testified. Despite ...

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.” That quote attributed to the late American Anthropologist Margaret Mead has inspired countless activists. That included a small but dedicated group of men and women who began a pilgrimage from Washington State to the Middle East in 1982. They walked 6700 miles! More than forty years later, their experience offers important guidance to acti...

When Christians seek to celebrate the foundation of Christmas, they collide with what’s been called the scandal of the holiday. Jesus was born to a family not of power and wealth, but of poverty and humility-a family soon forced to flee, to become homeless refugees, their infant son targeted for death by the insecurities of a king. It resonates with the reality of many who have been our neighbors but are now themselves forced...

Faith in religion isn’t the only element at or near an all-time low in America; so is faith in American institutions. That was the finding of a recent Gallup poll. Observers say that masks an even more serious trend-the willing embrace of demonization and fearmongering, the drive to destroy and to gain power by any means possible. That trend, that orientation, is called Nihilism. In this episode of Challenge 2.0, three Seattl...

In last week’s edition of Challenge, we began a conversation centered on wisdom sharing by Pacific Northwest tribal leaders aimed at transforming the ongoing conflict-in our neighborhoods, country and on our home planet. This week, we continue our conversation with Dr. Kurt Russo, the co-executive director of a group founded by northwest indigenous nations called Se Si Le. In their collective work “In the Spirit of Righ...

In 1988, the U.S. Senate recognized the Iroquois Confederacy of five native American tribes as a core foundation of the Constitution and our political system. That confederacy was founded in 1142, and has been recognized as the oldest living participatory democracy on earth. It ended a long, costly and destabilizing period of conflict among those tribes. In this episode of Challenge 2.0, we’ll learn of a new wisdom sharing, t...

As American forces pushed into Germany in early 1945, soldiers were also fighting a major morale problem. Many had not received mail for at least months.

The newly formed Six-Triple Eight battalion was charged with finding a solution. The predominantly black Army unit processed seventeen million pieces of undelivered mail in half the time expected. Yet their dedication was met with repeated bigotry. That historic mistreatment was m...

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www.PathsToUnderstanding.org

Eleven years ago, a college student named Elliott Rodger shot three young women outside their California sorority, killing two of them. It was part of a rampage that would claim the lives of six and injure fourteen others. The coming months and years would bring copycat attacks by others, who like Rodger, were frustrated by their inability to successful...

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www.PathsToUnderstanding.org 

In last week’s episode of Challenge 2.0, we met a small group of western Washington residents convinced that the courage to connect remains in what seems to be the Disunited States of America. They introduced us to the program they developed called Let’s Go Together that they believe can bring a sense of connection where there’s...

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www.PathsToUnderstanding.org

America in the twenty first century seems to be defined by disconnection. That it’s become atoxic blend of distrust, discrimination and defiance; rejectingthe legal and social norms of cooperation built over decades. But aprogram called Let’s Go Together is proving that the courageto connect remainsin this countryand can be nourished; that ...

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