Four years ago, in the wake of nationwide lockdowns necessitated by the pandemic, the Wonder Dome was born from a need to foster a space for connection, healing, and hope for humanity. 150 episodes later it continues to endeavor to provide guests and listeners alike with a space of rest and repose for the soul.

In this special episode, Andy takes a solo turn behind the mic to reflect with gratitude on the journey of this long-term creative project; what it means to alleviate the suffering of others and ourselves; to see beauty in the mundane; and to cultivate connection through deep listening and empathy.

Wherever you are in the world, whether you’ve listened to 1 episode or 149, we thank you for being a vital part of the Wonder Dome’s past, present, and future.

"For an Occasion of Celebration" by John O'Donohue Now is the time to free the heart, Let all intentions and worries stop, Free the joy inside the self, Awaken to the wonder of your life. Open your eyes and see the friends, Whose hearts recognize your face as kin, Those whose kindness watchful and near, Encouraging you to live everything here. See the gifts the years have given, Things your effort could never earn, The health to enjoy who you want to be And the mind to mirror mystery.

Show Notes:

* “Guanyin” at the San Diego Museum of Art

Connect with Andy:

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

* Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This Throwback Thursday, we’re revisiting one of our favorite episodes featuring long-time collaborators Parker Palmer and Carrie Newcomer. Parker is a celebrated author, educator, and activist. He and Carrie, the award-winning singer and songwriter, have produced a number of stage productions centered around collective healing and reimagining of our democracy. They have co-written songs, turned poetry into music, and hose The Growing Edge podcast - which is a beautiful venue for discovery and growth.

This conversation explores the many voices and cultures we’ll need to weave together if we're going to repair and restore the sacred lands we cohabitate, lands that have been desecrated by centuries of violence, theft, extraction, and forced displacement. Through music, poetry, and discussion, we tap into the spirit of possibility that can come if we're willing to show up in our lives and risk ourselves in our status, standing, and safety.

"Send Love, It Matters" by Carrie Newcomer Somewhere someone needs help. Send love. It matters. If you can’t get there yourself, then take a deep breath. Breathe in the weight of their troubles. Breathe out and send all those burdens into the Light where sorrows can be held with the most tender and infinite grace. Breathe in what you can do. Breathe out what you can’t change. Spool out a thread of connection, send courage and calm. For the nights can be long and filled with shadows, and sometimes terrible unexpected waters will rise. Somewhere someone needs help. Send love. It matters.

Show Notes:

* https://www.carrienewcomer.com

* https://www.newcomerpalmer.com/home

Connect with Andy:

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

* Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Aaron Cantor is a movement coach, bodyworker, personal trainer, yogi, and movement generalist. He’s the founder of Primal Practice, an intuitive and playful method of fostering wellness through the development of mindfulness and movement skills. He’s also a coach with Evolve Move Play, a collective that empowers people to cultivate transformative movement practices through their outdoor training program. Aaron’s work shows us that by reconnecting to the body and its capacities through a nourishing blend of strengthening, meditation, and restorative play, one can transform their perception of themselves and the world around them.

Aaron joins us under the Dome to guide listeners through a simple, embodied movement practice; to impart the importance of paying attention to the physical, embodied aspects of the human experience we’re often conditioned to ignore; and to share a vision for a more playful, interconnected, and creative society through the embodiment of more expressive and relational ways of being.

"Liquid Cartography" by Twila Newey I have known my body as a plexus of river maybe forever vessel & blue-green vein, a topographical map flowing just beneath my skin, raised, pooled at the pale inner bend of elbow full, easy target for red needled penetration. Recently they've discovered another liquid system, the color & substance of flow evaporated mystery. Unmapped channels have always run through me then. An elusive network that disappears into line of sinew when the body dries, a desert society of empty seasonal streams. What is the substance of impernance? A trick like light, both wave and particle? When I was as small as the child who floats by my window, his hands swimming through air carried high on the shoulders of an old man, I learned the heft of my body is ninety percent water. A fact that still slips through me like rain.

Show Notes:

* Evolve Move Play

* https://www.instagram.com/aaroncantor/

Connect with Andy:

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

* Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Jonathan Smales is the founder and CEO of Human + Nature, a campaigning development company working to create “a far, far better future” through sustainable building and design. As a former MD of Greenpeace (UK), a sustainability advisor to the government, and developer of some of the UK’s first major sustainability projects, Jonathan’s expertise is now focused on The Phoenix: a sustainable neighborhood in Lewes, East Sussex. Human + Nature, along with a team of some of the UK’s leading architects, designers, and engineers, seeks to transform a neglected former industrial site into a regenerative, restorative, and community-centered living space.

Principled and passionate, Jonathan shares with us his vision for a better world: one that recognizes the need for creating living spaces and communities with families and social connection in mind, rather than just adults with cars; the potential of sustainable developments like The Phoenix to create more vibrant, livable spaces in the face of climate change; and where we can collectively strive, despite the obstacles, to stay true to a better, more sustainable way of living for all.

"Let us gather in a flourishing way" by Juan Felipe Herrera Let us gather in a flourishing way with sunluz grains abriendo los cantos que cargamos cada día en el young pasto nuestro cuerpo para regalar y dar feliz perlas pearls of corn flowing árboles de vida en las cuatro esquinas let us gather in a flourishing way contentos llenos de fuerza to vida giving nacimientos to fragrant ríos dulces frescos verdes turquoise strong carne de nuestros hijos rainbows let us gather in a flourishing way en la luz y en la carne of our heart to toil tranquilos in fields of blossoms juntos to stretch los brazos tranquilos with the rain en la mañana temprana estrella on our forehead cielo de calor and wisdom to meet us where we toil siempre in the garden of our struggle and joy let us offer our hearts a saludar our águila rising freedom a celebrar woven brazos branches ramas piedras nopales plumas piercing bursting figs and aguacates ripe mariposa fields and mares claros of our face to breathe todos en el camino blessing seeds to give to grow maiztlán en las manos de nuestro amor

Show Notes:

* https://www.humannature-places.com/

* https://www.phoenixlewes.com/

* https://www.instagram.com/humannatureplaces/

* “The Phoenix, Lewes: a new riverside neighborhood that sounds almost too good to be true” by Rowan Moore, The Guardian

* Sign up for The Phoenix Project Newsletter

Connect with Andy:

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

* Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Catherine Bell is a successful entrepreneur, business leader, and best-selling author. She is the CEO and founder of The Awakened Company, which focuses on helping organizations foster healthy work cultures through the awakening of the self, relationships, and team dynamics. Her book of the same name is a response to the world-wide crisis of financial instability, and posits that a fundamental reset of the economy calls for a shift in practice where businesses are measured by their state of awareness, and not profitability alone.

In this conversation, we learn what it means to play in “the fourth moment.” In Buddhism, the fourth moment is known as not the past, present, or the future — but encapsulates and transcends all three. Described in Tibetan Buddhist literature as “nowness,” the fourth moment is a state of awareness and acceptance of the present exactly as it is, here, now. We discuss the importance of being connected to the larger story of life beyond its immediate challenges; the roles of creativity, play, and mindfulness — from the minutiae of daily living, to parenting, to even running a business; and a delightful practice of synchronicity and connection Catherine calls, “reverse pick-pocketing.

"Just Beyond Yourself" by David Whyte Just beyond yourself. It's where you need to be. Half a step into self-forgetting and the rest restored by what you'll meet. There is a road always beckoning. When you see the two sides of it closing together at that far horizon and deep in the foundations of your own heart at exactly the same time, that's how you know it's the road you have to follow. That's how you know it's where you have to go. That's how you know you have to go. That's how you know. Just beyond yourself, it's where you need to be.

Show Notes:

* www.catherinerbell.com

* www.theawakenedcompany.com

* www.instagram.com/theawakenedcompany

* “The Awakened Company” by Catherine Bell

* “Beyond Present, Past, and Future is The Fourth Moment” by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Connect with Andy:

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

* Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dr. Stephen Aizenstat has devoted his life to understanding the profound wisdom and healing power that exists within our dreams and imaginations. “Dream tending” is a process he developed that can help us work with our own dreams and the dreams of the world around us to see the consciousness that exists in all things, and to utilize them as a source of strength, insight, and potential.

In his recent book, “The Imagination Matrix”, Dr. Aizenstat offers a comprehensive, step-by-step exploration of how we can tap into these deeper layers of the psyche to bring more beauty, meaning, and potential to our lives and communities. He believes that these deeper realms of the psyche contain an innate intelligence beyond the rational mind. In accessing this through development of our sense of wonder, we are able to unlock all manner of creativity, innovation, and new possibilities for personal growth and transformation.

Dr. Aizenstat joins us under the dome to discuss the importance of curiosity, befriending our inner critics, the influence of Joseph Campbell, and the transformative impact of engaging with our dreams to overcome fear and unearth new possibilities.

"Concordance [Working backward in sleep]" by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge Working backward in sleep, the last thing you numbed to is what wakes you. What if that image were Eros as words? What would it be like if you contemplated my words and I felt you? Animals, an owl, frog, open their eyes, and a mirror forms on the ground. When insight comes in a dream, and events the next day illuminate it, this begins your streaming consciousness, synchronicity, asymptotic lines of the flights of concordances. An owl opens its eyes in deep woods. For the first time, I write and you don't know me. Milkweed I touch floats.

Show Notes:

* https://dreamtending.com

* https://pacifica.edu

* “The Imagination Matrix” by Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D.

* “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell

Connect with Andy:

* KONU // Leadership development for mission-driven change agents

* KONU Events // Open enrollment leadership development workshops

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

* Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Raised in Karachi, Pakistan, fahad punjwani is a strategist, designer, poet, and uncle who now calls Houston home. Their work is rooted in creativity, beauty, and empathy. He is the founder of Suchee Studios, a collective that helps mission-driven leaders and organizations use design thinking to foster capacity for connection in order to tackle the “Big, Gnarly Problems” we face as a species.

fahad joins us under the dome to discuss what it means to apprentice oneself to the unknown; to apprentice oneself to younger generations and embrace what’s possible for the world from their unique vantage point; parenting with self-awareness and learning from children’s perspectives and wisdom; to embrace transitions and change; the nature of power dynamics and leadership in our country during times of social upheaval and protest; and the important of slowing down, self-regulating, and pausing in the face of collective stress and anxiety.

With insight and empathy, fahad helps us understand that transition is not a feature of life, but life itself — that rest is resistance — and that the wisdom we seek is within us already.

"Earthseed" by Octavia Butler Here we are -- Energy, Mass, Life, Shaping life, Mind, Shaping Mind God, Shaping God. Consider -- We are born Not with purpose, But with potential. All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change. God Is Change.

Show Notes:

* https://www.theprocessissuch.com/

* https://www.insightswithinus.com/

* https://www.instagram.com/punjwanifahad/

Connect with Andy:

* KONU // Leadership development for mission-driven change agents

* KONU Events // Open enrollment leadership development workshops

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

* Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Next in our Throwback Thursday series is a fresh look at this ever-relevant conversation with Nina Simons, the co-founder and Chief Relationship Strategist of Bioneers. For over 30 years, this organization has focused on helping the human species reach a place of true racial and gender justice for all, while also rekindling our sacred relationship with the planet Earth - and in the process, supporting a just transition to a future that's regenerative, sustainable, and allows every living being on this planet to flourish.

Nina’s work, and by extension the mission of Bioneers, is once that resonates powerfully with all we hope to build here in The Wonder Dome: a place where people who care about our collective future can be nourished and inspired as they connect to hope, possibility, mystery, and beauty.Nina’s award-winning book, Nature, Culture, & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership, serves as both the centerpiece and as the departure point for a wide-ranging conversation about the essentiality of bringing more feminine energy into leadership.

"legacy" by rupi kaur i stand on the sacrifices of a million women before me thinking what can i do to make this mountain taller so the women affter me can see farther

Show Notes:facebook.com/nina.simonsinstagram.com/1ninasimonslinkedin.com/in/nina-simons-47a1355ninasimons.combioneers.orgNature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for LeadershipMoonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart

Connect with Andy:

* KONU // Leadership development for mission-driven change agents

* KONU Events // Open enrollment leadership development workshops

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjcahill/

* Instagram: instagram.com/wonderdomepodcast​

The Wonder Dome is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.