What Matters Most
The What Matters Most Podcast and the Home of Author Paul Samuel Dolman
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The What Matters Most Podcast and the Home of Author Paul Samuel Dolman
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The inspiring Nina Turner joins me to talk about the state of the union, what the 4th of July means to her, and so much more. This woman has been a courageous activist on behalf of social justice and an undaunted voice of truth for years. Here is a link to some of the books we mentioned on the show: Dumbing Us Down, The Underground History of American Education, Lies My Teacher Taught Me, A People’s History. Throughout her career, State Senator Nina Turner has fought to improve Northeast Ohio and the lives of those who call it home. Continually devoted to the issues of education, employment, a
An enlightening conversation with renowned filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg on the highly anticipated fourth season of his hit series, Moving Art – a breathtaking documentary experience which uses his slow-motion and time-lapse visual effects to take viewers on an immersive journey through nature. Originally airing on Netflix and streamed by millions worldwide, Moving Art immerses viewers in the beauty of nature. He is also award-winning director of the documentary Fantastic Fungi and the brilliant film, Gratitude Revealed!. Mr. Schwartzberg is a renowned filmmaker, and award-winning director of t
One of the most compelling voices on the current climate challenges joins me to discuss her work and where we find ourselves in this precarious moment. The inspiring Natalie Kyriacou OAM is the Founder and Chair of My Green World, the Creator of World of the Wild mobile game app, and climate and nature Director. We also discuss her brilliant new book, Nature’s Last Dance. For over ten years, Natalie has been endeavoring to drive positive change worldwide; her approach has been to inspire curiosity. As CEO of My Green World, Natalie created inclusive youth education programs and technologies to
A wonderful exchange with author and poet Colette Lafia on her latest book, Leaving the Shore: Experiencing Poetry as Prayer. Colette Lafia is a San Francisco-based blogger, spiritual director, workshop and retreat facilitator, and part‐time school librarian. She is an adjunct faculty member at Mercy Center Burlingame. She is the author of Comfort and Joy: Simple Ways to Care for Ourselves and Others. Here is her homepage for those who would like to find out more about this beautiful soul. Subscribe for Free to Never Miss an Episode Click the appropriate link to follow the show so you get ever
A beautiful conversation with the great wisdom keeper Gail Straub on her inspiring book, the critically acclaimed memoir, Home Inside the Globe. This show is loaded with goosebump moments and timeless jewels of revelation. Gail is the author of eight books, including the best-selling Empowerment, coauthored with her husband, David Gershon, and translated into fourteen languages; the highly praised The Rhythm of Compassion; her feminist memoir Returning to My Mother’s House; the fairy tale Réveil . . . and the Old One at the Edge of the World; her award-winning nature writings The Ashokan Way
This is a lovely conversation with English author Cathy Haynes on her new book, The Fullness of Time. This is a great read for anyone who loved Braiding Sweetgrass, The Hidden Life of Trees, or Wintering. Instead of clocks and calendars, Haynes explores how humans once told time by birdsong, flowers, shadows, and stars and what we’ve lost by surrendering to precision and screens. Cathy Haynes is a curator, writer, artist, and educator who has been developing a creative practice on aspects of time for more than two decades. Her new book is The Fullness of Time: Marking the Day by Birdsong, Bloo
A wonderful conversation with Aaron Poochigian on his new translation of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. I absolutely loved this book and its timeless wisdom from the great Roman philosopher. Aaron is a is a poet, classics scholar, and translator who lives and writes in New York City. His work has appeared in such newspapers and journals as The Financial Times, The New York Review of Books, and Poetry Magazine. He’s the author of Four Walks in Central Park: A Poetic Guide to the Park, and his translations include Sappho’s Stung with Love (Penguin UK). Learn more at aaronpoochigian.com Subscribe
A beautiful and deeply personal conversation with inspired author Ann Tashi Slater I absolutely love her new book, Traveling in Bardo: The Art of Living in an Impermanent World (Balance/Hachette), has been named a Next Big Idea Club “Must-Read.” Ann Tashi Slater has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Paris Review, and many others. In her Darjeeling Journal column for Catapult, she writes about her Tibetan family history and bardo, and she blogged for HuffPost on similar topics. She presents and teaches workshops at Princeton, Columbia, Oxford, Asia Society
A fascinating conversation with Jack El-Hai, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, recently adapted into the major movie Nuremberg, which opened in theaters worldwide in 2025. The film, directed by James Vanderbilt, stars Rami Malek and Russell Crowe. We also talk about the parallels to our current situation here in America. Jack writes nonfiction books, longform narratives, and the free monthly Damn History newsletter for writers and readers of popular history. He covers history, medicine, science, crime, and anything else that intrigues him and might intrigu
A beautiful and free flowing conversation with the great filmmaker and artist Pen Densham on his fascinating creative path. He also shares some wonderful wisdom for anyone in the creative world as timely life notes on how to be more fully yourself. Pen Densham is a fine art photographer whose work blends realism and abstraction, transforming the natural world into immersive, almost cinematic experiences. Beginning his artistic journey in England, where he captured nature in the New Forest and early portraits for the BBC, Pen has consistently used photography as a way to process emotion and cel
The wonderful Mary Madeiras and I discuss her fascinating new book, The Akashic Way: Living Through the Lens of the Akashic Records plus so much more in this inspiring exchange & dialogue. Mary Madeiras is an Advanced Akashic Records practitioner, author, and three-time Emmy Award-winning television director whose career bridges the worlds of spiritual transformation and broadcast storytelling. She has opened the Akashic Records for individuals and corporations around the world, offering soul-level guidance, healing, and divine remembrance. Her book, The Akashic Way – Living Through the Lens o
My scientific hero Dr. Michael E. Mann returns to discuss his essential new book, Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces that Threaten Our World. We cover the current state of climate change that we are dealing with and the concerted obstacles we are fighting. Dr. Mann is Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. He also serves as Director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media (PCSSM). Dr. Man
Writer, journalist, rhetorician, and Teilhardian scholar Christine M. Tracy joins me to talk about her beautiful new book, Just Trust Life: A Journey with Teilhard de Chardin. In this gritty memoir about tackling life’s challenges with the promise of transcendence, Christine illustrates how seemingly chance encounters with Teilhard’s work catalyzed her emotional and spiritual expansion. Christine holds a Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she studied the evolution of media and worked as a founding editor of one of the web’s first e-zines, Computer-Mediated Communication Magazin
The heroic and inspiring Roger Hallam returns to talk about his work as an environmental activist and his new book, Your Party – Grasping the Enormity of the Moment. Roger Hallam is an environmental activist known for having co-founded Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain, the cooperative federation organization Radical Routes, and the political party Burning Pink. Subscribe for Free to Never Miss an Episode Click the appropriate link to follow the show so you get every episode of What Matters Most as soon as they’re available! Your Review of What Matters Most Helps the Show R
Author Jodi-Ann Burey joins me to discuss her powerful new book, Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work, as well as several other topics & issues. Jodi-Ann Burey is a writer, critic, and sought-after speaker on race, culture, and health equity. Her essays appear in various arts, business, and literary publications. Jodi-Ann created and hosts the prose and poetry salon Lit Lounge: The People’s Art and the Black Cancer podcast. She was born in St. Catherine, Jamaica; lives in Seattle, Washington; and will always call New York City home. Subscribe for Free to Never Miss an Episode
Syrian expert and prolific author David W. Lesch joins me to talk about his captivating new biography, “Dodgers to Damascus: David Lesch’s Journey from Baseball to the Middle East,” written by Catherine Nixon Cooke. David W. Lesch is a modern-day Renaissance man whose work has spanned continents and allowed him to explore cultures near and far. An acclaimed scholar, educator, author, and conflict resolution specialist, he has advised five U.S. presidential administrations at the highest levels about the head-spinning political, religious, and cultural complexities of the Middle East. He is the
Science journalist Peter Brannen joins me to discuss his brilliant new book, The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World plus so much more. I am also a huge fan of his earlier book, The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions. Peter Brannen is a science journalist who specializes in planetary science. His stories cover deep time, astrobiology, paleoclimate, paleontology, geology, geochemistry, marine biology, the philosophy of science, and evolutionary biology. His work has appeared in
The beautiful and mystical Priyanka Kumar joins me to talk about her inspiring new book The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit has been called “environmental writing at its best.” Priyanka Kumar is a nationally acclaimed naturalist and the author of Conversations with Birds, praised as “a landmark book” that “could help people around the world rewild their hearts and souls” (Psychology Today). She profoundly re-envisions our place in Nature—and Nature’s place in our hearts—and has been compared _to Rachel Carson. A documentary inspired by Convers
The inspiring Carole Hopson joins us to talk about her compelling new book, A Pair of Wings: A Novel plus so many other topics. Carole Hopson is a Boeing 737 Captain for United Airlines, based in Newark, NJ. After a remarkable 20-year career as a journalist and executive, she followed her dream to become a pilot and share her passion with others as a flight instructor, while raising her family. Walking away from executive-level positions, she went to flight school with gusto and completed flight training at the peak of her corporate accomplishments. True to her roots as a writer, Carole publis
My friend Fred Mollin joins me to talk about his wonderful new memoir, Unplugged: Stories and Secrets from a Life of Making Records, Scoring Film, and Working with the Legends of Music covering his five decades in the entertainment industry. This one was fun because is such an incredible storyteller. Fred Mollin is a Grammy-nominated and Juno Award-winning record producer and arranger with a diverse career spanning various genres. He has collaborated with renowned artists like Kris Kristofferson, America, Jimmy Webb, Billy Joel, and many others. His early success includes producing Dan Hill’s
Author Megan Greenwell joins me to discuss her riveting new book, Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream―An Exposé of Private Equity’s Devastating Impact on American Lives, Communities, and the Economy plus so much more. This is a topic I have wanted to cover for a couple of years and how private capital is destroying America. Megan Greenwell is a journalist who has written or edited for publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, WIRED, and ESPN. She is also the deputy director of the Princeton Summer Journalism Program, a worksh
The brilliant Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs returns to talk about her powerful new book, Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us. I also dedicated this show to my beloved mother, since we taped it on her birthday. All glories to the Divine Feminine and may it rise up into balance for the good of all being. Anna is a New York Times bestselling author and multidisciplinary expert on current and historical understandings of race, gender, and equity. With a Ph.D. in Sociology and a Masters in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies from the University of Cambridge in addition to a Bachelors in Medic
The great political sage and one of my favorite truth tellers Sarah Kendzior (also find her on Substack!) returns to talk about what is unfolding in our country as well as her brilliant new bestselling book, The Last American Road Trip. Sarah also wrote the bestsellers, Hiding in Plain Site (2020), and They Knew (2022). Sarah was also the co-host of Gaslit Nation, a weekly podcast which covered corruption in the United States and the rise of authoritarianism around the world. She currently lives in St. Louis, Missouri. Subscribe for Free to Never Miss an Episode Click the appropriate link to f
A fascinating and deep conversation with Addison Witt (find him on TikTok and Instagram, too!) is an accomplished actor, political poet, creative entrepreneur, and social commentator whose work spans entertainment, activism, and human empowerment. Once a renowned Hollywood talent manager and acting coach, Addison now uses his voice and platform to inspire and challenge audiences toward a more conscious, compassionate world. He is also the author of I STAND WITH THE SOUL OF AMERICA: A belief in the possibility of betterment, justice, and human potential. Subscribe for Free to Never Miss an Epis
The inspiring Maggie Doyne (find her on X, Instagram, and Facebook!) returns to talk about the documentary, Between the Mountain and the Sky as well as co-founding the Kopila Valley Children’s Home and School in Surkhet, Nepal. The BlinkNow Foundation has also broken ground on the sustainable Children’s Village in Nepal. For my friends in Martha’s Vineyard, there is the screening there on March 30th! Maggie is co-founder of the BlinkNow Foundation and Kopila Valley Children’s Home and School in Surkhet, Nepal. At age nineteen, she used her babysitting money and worked with the local community
