First part of Songs Beyond the Norm for the December 2023 Holidays, with humor and humility, for Hanukkah, Solstice, & Christmas, in ways you'd never expect. Today's 5 guests are Chuck Brodsky, Peter Alsop, Joe Jencks, Chris Rosser, and The Rustic Riders. 5 more guests next week.

Past/present religious/spiritual influences: Baha'i, Jewish, Indian, Buddhist, Christian, Presbyterian, Unitarian Universalist

Featured Music:

Christine Platt and Catherine Wigginton Greene are exploring the potentials and pitfalls of interracial friendships, and, really, all friendships with “the other”.

Today's guest-hosts from the Climate Changed Podcast of the BTS Center present a few heart-and-soul-deep features, starting with a moving audio essay called “Daddy, Did We Hurt Them?” by co-host, Ben Yosua-Davis and his 5 year-old-son, Michael. Co-host Nicole Diroff and her father, Michael DiMonte, continue the discussion, and then Nicole does a deep-dive with Hannah Malcolm who is an ordinand in the Church of England and is writing a PhD on a theology of climate and ecological grief.

John Lynch has decades of experience in the music world, performing full-time right out of school, traveling all around the USA with the group The Memories. Eventually the needs of raising kids reduced the territorial range over which he'd perform, but retirement freed his dedication to come back to the stage full-time.

John Janzen is on his way to “living the dream”, largely because he successfully planted the seeds of the dream of life as a musical artist in his young sons' hearts, and they've taken over making the dream a reality. The result is some really go-getter music makers known as The Janzen Boys. Though along the way they've lived in Japan for some years, home for them is Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada, so I count myself lucky to have discovered John, who, with his 2 oldest sons, is this multi-talented, multiple-harmony, roots and singer-songwriter band, all of them Janzens.

Past/present religious/spiritual influences: Mennonite, Pentacostal, Anglican, Catholic

Steve Chase has a long history of doing, teaching, and writing about activism, starting from the age of 13, when he first stood against war.

Guest-host Peterson Toscano of Citizen's Climate Radio is sitting in today, and he brings with him a wealth of connections to world-healing work. There are a few books and authers: The Twenty-One, The True Story of the Youth Who Sued the U.S.

Randy Sinz recently released his first personal album, This One's For You Dad, after a lifetime of performing, given that his dad pulled him onstage to perform in Randy's early teens. While he's mainly known as a bass player, and his native music genre is country, in fact he's played many instruments and numerous varieties of music.

We all know that the world needs all the energy for change that we can give it, but we also know how easy it is to burn out on activism. Fortunately Omkari Williams has formulated methods of activism for the long haul, and she shares the insights and strategies in her book, Micro Activism: How You Can Make a Difference in the World without a Bullhorn. Omkari has lots of earned wisdom about the issue because of her former work as a political consultant, followed by her decades as an activism coach. Considering the approaches and factors that make activism sustainable, she helps us find which kinds of work are right for us, including the structures that can keep us energized and effective long-term.