Need A Lift? with Tim Shriver

Rev. angel Kyodo williams is a Zen Buddhist priest, and she says that her spiritual journey started when she was a child, after someone close to her let her down. In that moment, she realized that she needed to have compassion for this person and, in a way, let them off the hook. “Letting them off the hook is not saying… ‘Oh, it's okay that they did that,’” she tells Tim. “But it is part of the fabric of what it means to be human and alive. And I get to continue to love them, not despite, but because of all of those missteps and mistakes.”Rev. angel is a spiritual leader and an activist, someone searching for compassion and change at the same time. While working in social movements fighting against homophobia and racism, she noticed that conflict and frustration was eating her comrades alive. “We couldn't get things done because everybody was fighting with each other, because that's what we practiced,” she said. Now, Rev. angel teaches others how to “conflict well,” as she calls it. She thinks we can organize with love, while looking to the future for bigger solutions. ***Rev. angel Kyodo williams is a Zen Buddhist priest and author of “Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation” and “Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living With Fearlessness & Grace.” Her newest project is called the Healing Race Portal, what she calls the culmination of all her work. You can learn more at healingraceportal.com.***Our theme music was written by Andy Ogden and produced by Tim Lauer, Andy Ogden and Julian Raymond. All other music that you hear in this episode is courtesy of Epidemic Sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“What is our responsibility to one another?”“How do we create a culture that prioritizes community and the virtues it requires?” “What kind of world do we seek to create together, for ourselves and our children?”These are the fundamental questions Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy poses to all of us in his “Parting Prescription for America,” released publicly yesterday. Motivated by a quest to understand the deeper roots of despair he’s witnessed across America during his nearly 10 years of service, Dr. Murthy outlines four essential components of fulfillment and our overall well-being: relationships, service, purpose, and love. These elements are also core to building community, he shares with Tim in this episode.“If you can help people feel like someone does care about them, that they do belong… If you can give people the opportunity to connect by joint actions of service or by helping one another…[these small things] help us change culture.” As Dr. Murthy prepares to leave his role as Surgeon General later this month, his charge to the nation is simple. Focus on the small things. “Make five or 10 minutes to reach out each day to somebody [you] care about…look for one thing [you] can do each day to help somebody in [your life]. These things might seem small, but…for people who are struggling with a sense of despondency and despair, small moments can be lifelines,” Dr. Murthy says. “It's like dropping a pebble in a pond. They generate powerful ripples. Each person that you help is then more likely to go off and help somebody else.”***Dr. Vivek Murthy served as the 19th and 21st Surgeon General of the United States, first under President Obama and later under President Biden, and as Vice Admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.He led the nation's response during a number of public health challenges including Ebola, Zika virus, and the opioid crisis where he helped our nation see addiction as a chronic illness instead of as a character flaw. His work challenged us to notice the impact of social isolation and loneliness on America's physical, spiritual, social, and mental wellbeing. Most recently, he made headlines with his research linking alcohol and cancer.Learn more about Dr. Murthy’s public health initiatives and groundbreaking work on his website, vivekmurthy.com and read his latest report at surgeongeneral.gov/community. ***Our theme music was written by Andy Ogden and produced by Tim Lauer, Andy Ogden and Julian Raymond. All other music that you hear in this episode is courtesy of Epidemic Sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Dr. Anita Phillips was a kid, she didn’t understand why God wouldn’t heal her sister’s pain. She didn’t know then, but her sister Valerie had a severe mental illness, one that couldn’t be solved with her family’s prayers alone. Growing up, there was a sharp divide between Dr. Anita’s Christian background and mental health. In her community, “...if you went to therapy, it must mean that you didn't have enough faith,” she told Tim. That tension set her on a path to become a trauma therapist and a minister, someone who can support both our mind and our spirit. “I come alongside people of faith and help them improve their experience with God,” she said. Dr. Anita sees caring for your emotional health as being deeply connected to what we believe about the world and ourselves. And if we neglect our emotions, it can become a kind of “spiritual bypassing” where we try to avoid our feelings, hoping that they will go away, only to have them manifest in other ways. “Emotions don’t last forever, but they will wait forever…eventually that pain will find its way out,” says Dr. Anita. ***Dr. Anita Phillips is the host of the podcast “In the Light with Dr. Anita Phillips” and the author of “The Garden Within.” You can follow her on social media using the handle @dranitaphillips.***Our theme music was written by Andy Ogden and produced by Tim Lauer, Andy Ogden and Julian Raymond. All other music that you hear in this episode is courtesy of Epidemic Sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reverend Jen Bailey comes from a long line of Black women who “made a way out of no way.” As a young girl encouraged by church mothers who “made spiritual work come alive,” Jen discovered God was both a heavenly being to be revered and a confidant she could trust with hard questions about her daily life and reality. Today, Jen’s work is grounded in the belief that faith matters for action, and action manifests faith, both in her life as a preacher, a writer, and as an advocate for justice. In 2014, she founded Faith Matters Network, which supports faith leaders, community organizers, and social activists with the tools they need to heal themselves and their communities. And she also serves on the board of several philanthropic foundations and advisory groups helping people with resources invest in the work of spiritual and social change. On days when hope is harder to access in her work and in her life, Jen says she considers three important questions, “What is dying in the world? What wants to emerge? And what is already blooming beautifully?” ***Reverend Jennifer Bailey is an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a public theologian, and a leader in the multi-faith movement for justice. She is the founder of Faith Matters Network and a co-founder of The People's Supper. You can learn more about her work and her beautiful book, “To My Beloveds: Letters on Faith, Race, Loss, and Radical Hope” on her website reverendjen.com. ***Our theme music was written by Andy Ogden and produced by Tim Lauer, Andy Ogden and Julian Raymond. All other music that you hear in this episode is courtesy of Epidemic Sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.