Paradise Reclaimed Podcast

We Americans value our independence so much that we even dedicated a day in July to it.Seriously, though, how independent are we, really? Are we - any of us, anywhere in the world - more independent or interdependent? You know the answer. Independence is an illusion. Relax. One advantage in taking stock of this is the realization that everything doesn't rest on your shoulders. Breathe a sigh of relief.This said, how can we embrace this interdependent web of ours in a way that empowers us and makes the world a better place? You have questions, and as always, Dr. Teri has answers.Listen now on: Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Photo credit: "Arthropoda (arthropods), by Unknown. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)]Education: Self-ImprovementReligion & SpiritualityBusiness: EntrepreneurshipSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

The global crisis triggered by COVID-19 has forced a lot of rethinking, not least concerning so-called "Essential Workers."What work can rightfully be considered essential, and by what standards? More important, why is is that so many workers deemed essential in this moment of crisis - grocery store clerks, delivery truck drivers, farm laborers, and meat packers, to take a small sample - are those earning the lowest wages, many with no employer-provided health insurance, and far too many unable even to take sick days.Will these unsung heroes get new recognition in a post-COVID world?Listen now on: Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Photo Credit: "DIY Face Masks," by Achmad Chadran.]Education: Self-ImprovementReligion & SpiritualityBusiness: EntrepreneurshipSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

The inaugural podcast, in which our hosts attempt to define the undefinable and brace listeners for what not to expect.Welcome to Paradise Reclaimed. While we tried gamely to give form to this podcast-series lump of clay, shape is elusive when the scope of our musings is intentionally open-ended.Who should listen? Folks who wonder about humanity and their role in it. People like Dr. Teri Baydar and me, who wrestle with the messy ideas that: (a) our creators put us here for a damned good reason, and (b) finding and living up to that reason is damned thorny, but worthy life pursuits.Yup, life pursuits. As in all life long. It never ends. Nor do we want it to.Clear as mud? That's kind of how life can be sometimes. But mud has its virtuesProduction notes: We recorded this cast from our respective home studios via Zoom web conferencing at a time when our home state of Massachusetts was under Governor Charlie Baker's executive order to isolate and quarantine. (You're welcome, of course.) Oh, and also, you'll hear Dr. Teri refer to me as "Deeds," which is a lifelong nickname I had originally planned to use for this venture, before deciding to podcast as "Achmad," my legal name, instead. Long story. Maybe we'll get around to podcasting it. Listen now on: Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: "Le Baiser, Magritte," by Ωméga. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)]Education: Self-ImprovementReligion & SpiritualityBusiness: EntrepreneurshipSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

Our hosts check in on urban raised-bed gardening to unearth some surprising facts and philosophies behind the practice, especially in light of our extraordinary #COVID19 time of isolation and quarantine. (Bonus: Dr. Teri shares tips for creating your own small-mammal farmshare.)This novel coronavirus pandemic notwithstanding, Spring has sprung, and shoots and blooms are breaking soil's surface as they have for eons. Spring's arrival alone should fill our hearts with hope.It's the hope that feeds Dr. Teri's passion for gardening. You can't garden without hope. You need hope to appreciate how the seeds you sow so gingerly into your fingertip-formed trenches will germinate, grow, and bear the delicious fruit and vegetables you'll harvest and enjoy a month or more later."There's a certain vulnerability to planting seeds," explains Dr. Teri. "Digging up the soil, understanding the soil, adding some manure or whatever the soil needs to be optimum for whatever I'm putting in...thinking about what the dirt needs, instead of thinking about what I need, what I want."For urban dwellers especially, gardening offers the ultimate feel-good diversion from the isolation blues.Seeds of DiversityWhat's going into the garden this year? Lots of heirloom seeds.Dr. Teri sees heirloom seeds as a fulfillment of the Bodhisattva Vows. "An heirloom seed is something that's not been hybridized or manipulated or genetically modified. We left it alone. We let it do what it does. Instead of forcing it to be something else – for us – we are listening to it and saying, 'what kind of plant are you? What do you do? Why are you here?' Working on the assumption that everything's supposed to work together." On the list this year: ● orange beets● purple carrots● purple lettuce● bok choy● French dandelions● purple basil● Asian basil● Mizuna greens● stinging nettleWild Things at the Welcome TableIn keeping with her Buddhist values, Dr. Teri plans to share her bounty with others...including the community of small mammals with whom she shares her ecosystem!"My neighbors were like, 'oh, that's a lot of work! The bunnies are gonna get it. They're gonna eat all your lettuce.' And I...don't care," says Dr. Teri with a shrug. In addition to rabbits, she welcomes local families of raccoons and skunks. As with most of us, when it came to food, Dr. Teri used to draw a line between humans and other species. But this changed after local wildlife got into her garbage cans repeatedly to feast on pungent cheese rinds, and subsequently strewing trash across the neighborhood. "I decided to stop doing that. I yielded to them, and started putting French cheese crusts out on the back patio on this metal tray." She draws parallels between her small mammal smörgåsbord and the Hindu-Buddhist tradition of leaving offerings after feasts. "There are Buddhist rituals where we have a feast and the leftovers of the feast end up going out in the backyard, for the animals. Beyond that, in the name of ecosystem balance, if they want my cheese crust...I don't want my cheese crust. They've been here for generations before I ever was, before this house was here. Why would I put it in the garbage? It started to not compute anymore."Listen now on: Apple Podcasts

The notion that power structures are pyramid-shaped by nature is as deeply ingrained as the fairy tales we're told in our youth and the corporate ladders we set out to climb as professionals. But is it time to explore alternative models?Let's talk about pyramid schemes. No, not the notorious business ruses where paying recruits try to turn profits by exacting fees from rubes they bring on. We're talking instead about all the hierarchies – from sports teams to companies, orchestras, governments, faith communities, and even grassroots groups like neighborhood watch committees - that just seem naturally to take on that familiar pyramidal aspect: a commander at the top, flanked by a handful of lieutenants, and supported by a greater number of soldiers below.There's an irresistible logic to this structure, of course. Yet it's useful to consider alternative structures, especially now, where the promise of benevolent leadership in our federal government has proven tenuous while the threat of authoritarian overreach grows daily. In the wake of COVID-19, what we're discovering is that when people at the lower echelons of corporate entities suffer, the people at the top suffer too. If people at the bottom can't go to work due to quarantine, isolation, or sickness, the value that they create no longer accrues for those at the top.Rethinking the Balance of Authority and ValueSo what alternative structures are there? Dr. Teri talks about peer networks of "pods," or teams organized to provide a focused service or produce a specific component. The gig economy continues to evolve, certain implementations of which empower workers to manage their own time and resources, and even set their own rates. You Don't Need to Throw Out the System to Reform ItGranted, some processes likely lend themselves to pyramidal organizations. Others, which may benefit from a different organizational approach, might need to change gradually.Our role as self-actualized leaders is to constantly reflect on what we can do to improve these structures, these processes, and the products and services they deliver. What can we do to ensure that people across the organization are treated fairly, with dignity, and in a way that aligns with the true value they provide? Listen now on: Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Photo credit: "Piramid," artist unknown. Used under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication.]Education: Self-ImprovementReligion & SpiritualityBusiness: EntrepreneurshipSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

It's grim. It's painful. It's jarring. But does COVID-19 necessarily mark a turn for the worse?We need to acknowledge – to sit with, to grieve – the pain, hardship, and loss that the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted on us. Of course we do, it would be disingenuous and irresponsible not to. Yet it would be equally disingenuous and irresponsible not to see in our pandemic crisis a once-in-a-generation opportunity to take stock in what we now now we can achieve as creative, resourceful human beings.Yes, everything has changed, is changing, and will change. Largely because we've never needed to step up so profoundly and so urgently in recent history.Learning How to Drive...Times FiveAs Dr. Teri recounts, "I had a colleague say in a Zoom conversation...'this pandemic has pushed us forward in tech to do – right now, right here – what would have taken five to ten years to do. So now we just have to, and everybody's on this super-steep learning curve.'"Remember how overwhelmed you were when you first learned to drive? How impossible it seemed to choreograph your work on the gas pedal, the steering wheel, the rearview mirrors, and the brake! And then, one day, it all came together. The act of driving morphed over time from a hectic, front-of-the-brain, rapid-fire sequence of "if-then" problems to an intuitive, almost autonomic operation. Amp that process up five-fold. This pandemic has us rethinking our family relationships, learning new ways to do work, picking up new skill sets...and discovering along the way that we've been taking the wrong approach. Ignoring flaws we needn't have ignored. Overlooking opportunities that were there all along. You've got this. We've all got this.Which is good, because it's time for us to pivot. The ground has shifted and the rules have changed.Let's find a new way to drive.Listen now on: Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: "Liaison pivot avec frottement: résistance au pivotement," by CDang. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)]Education: Self-ImprovementReligion & SpiritualityBusiness: EntrepreneurshipSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

Working from home, supporting distance-learning children, checking in on friends and family who need some extra support, and just making time to sweep up those unsightly dustballs just under the front of the sofa...our COVID-19 moment has driven our multitasking to frenzied heights.We've all been warned, haven't we? The human brain was primordially wired to do one thing at a time. When we try to push beyond that, we suffer. The work is not our best. Worse, we put our health at risk.Dr. Teri has a term for it: running on minimum."Constantly being on an almost-empty tank," to hear her define it. "Not having a full tank to be comfortable, to be able to go deep on something, to be able to get traction. We're jumping from Zoom room to Zoom room, texting...."Not that she's immune to it. "My calendar invites, with the Zooms and the Skypes, and the this and the that...it's kind of crazy." [3:20]But running on minimum encompasses more than mere multitasking. It's a mindset that seduces us into believing that we can accomplish more by touching lightly on one task or topic and then pivoting quickly to the next. That by doing so, we can actually preserve our energy, as if each job we're called to tackle is merely one frame in a feature-length movie, one stride in a marathon."You're constantly in an exhale mode," says Dr. Teri. "That's not sustainable. I believe that being in that state can cause you to fall ill, physically."The path to true productivity and sustainable health? Lose the shallow-and-broad mindset, and replace it with focused-and-deep.This holds whether the work at hand is creating a PowerPoint presentation for the board, sewing face masks for essential workers, or helping your daughter prove the Exterior Angle Theorem. What awaits you along your focused-and-deep journey? The Flow State.Listen to Episode 7: The Hazards of Running on Minimum, then tell us about your personal Flow State.Listen now on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: "The little blue wheel keeps following me," by Axel. Used under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)]Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

The United States (and, by extension, the world) is today confronting a tenacious legacy of abhorrent racism. A spate of recent atrocities committed against African-Americans – including George Floyd, whose neck was pinned under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer as three others looked on; Breonna Taylor, shot eight times by Louisville police officers in a misdirected drug raid; Ahmaud Arbery, shot while jogging by two white men near Brunswick, Georgia; and Eric Garner, killed in a police chokehold on New York's Staten Island – spurred protest rallies and marches in cities and towns across all 50 states, as well as in England, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, and South Africa.Officially, at least, the U.S. Civil War ended in 1865. Jim Crow-era racial segregation was supposed to have ended with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Yet here we are in 2020, still struggling – mostly peacefully, but at times violently – with toxic, institutionalized racism. Racism that blights our democracy, poisons our schools, corrupts business, and undermines our growth and advancement as humans.Dr. Teri points out that this racist tendency is just one part of a deeper human flaw called Otherism. Otherism is the process virtually all of us employ to feel better about ourselves by zeroing in on differences we perceive in others. "We have this systemic shaping in the way we oppress," Dr. Teri explains. "It's systematic objectification."But while systematic, otherism can be imperceptible, insidious, in many contexts and situations. It can show up in hiring and firing decisions, in feedback offered by teachers to individual students, and even in the decisions we make as consumers."When you have a group that considers itself exclusive, they systematically have to find somebody to exclude," she continues. "If you can't run somebody out of town once in a while, how do you know who you are?"Where can we start to overcome our othering tendencies? For starters, we can try to see the world through a different lens. "Think about it. Have courageous conversations. Look at it as a humanity issue. Have some accountability for what happens in your heart and mind in full honesty," prescribes Dr. Teri, "and what you're willing to do in your immediate environment to make it better."Is otherism holding you back? Reflect. Decide. Make the change.Listen now on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: "BoogeyMan," by Anne Worner. Used under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)]Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

Leadership is power. Still, leaders shouldn't pretend to be invincible.The paradox is undeniable. Yet Dr. Teri observes that it's high time leaders embrace their vulnerability. She points to research conducted by bestselling author Travis Bradberry that finds that CEOs tend to score extremely poorly in emotional intelligence."He pretty much demonstrates how the system...pushes a certain kind of leader up," explains Dr. Teri. "The farther up you go toward the C-suite, the lower the emotional intelligence."Who tends to score highest in emotional intelligence among your work colleagues? Middle managers, Bradberry finds. These are typically the people who rise into their supervisory roles due to their interpersonal skills and composure under pressure."It's not that we've never had any emotionally intelligent CEOs," Dr. Teri clarifies. "A lot of times those were the ones who did the absolute best."It's just that we live in a culture that, in general terms, doesn't support humility. It doesn't support long-term thinking. Nor sustainability. It doesn't value the happiness and well-being of stakeholders apart from investors, who are thirsty for hockey-stick performance charts, quarterly dividends, and compounding share values. ________________________________________________________________________We are at our most powerful the moment we no longer need to be powerful. - Eric Micha'el Leventhal________________________________________________________________________Surprisingly, Dr. Teri turns the mirror on us collectively. It is we who support these unhealthy values and cultures, whether consciously or tacitly, as employees, stockholders, customers, or partners.But the tide may be turning. A new generation of leaders have begun to rise up the ranks."We're starting to see that maybe stockholder supremacy is not the only variable that we need to look at," she notes. "The New School is a little bit more, 'Okay, what do you have to say? What is your take on this?' Collecting different perspectives. Listening to others instead of thinking you know everything."Indeed, the CEO of a prominent executive search firm recently emailed a newsletter extolling the virtues of humility and vulnerability in the C-suite. Its content and language marked a stark departure from establishment command-and-control credos. We've reached a palpable moment in our collective understanding of what leadership entails. Can our current crop of executives, schooled and groomed in more established, authoritarian ways, realistically make the transition?Listen now on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: "Sad mature businessman thinking about problems in living room," by Andrea Piacquadio. Source: Pexels.]Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

In July of 1961, a psychologist at Yale University recruited a group of men to participate in what was advertised as "a scientific study of memory and learning" in the basement of Linsly-Chittenden Hall, on the campus quad. These men, from a variety of occupations and education levels, were instructed to administer punishment – in the form of electric shocks – to so-called "learners" each time the latter failed to correctly recite blocks of content from memory. The truth about this now-infamous Milgram Experiment is that the learners were paid actors, the electric shock delivery system was a harmless prop, and the men themselves were the subjects. The imperious scientists in white lab coats who supervised and directed their actions were experimenting on them.The study was conceived to explore how far a person will go to obey an authority figure. To nearly everyone's surprise, almost all of the subjects were willing to push shock levels to the maximum 450 volts – much higher than a lethal dose – not just once, but three times in succession. The experiment was replicated by many others, and in many countries around the world. The results have been remarkably consistent.-------------------------------------------------------------“Control the manner in which a man interprets his world, and you have gone a long way toward controlling his behavior.”– Stanley Milgram, Obedience to Authority-------------------------------------------------------------In short, each of us is prone to the kind of manipulation that can lead us to commit dark atrocities we would otherwise condemn.The experiment raises other equally uncomfortable issues, including:Where are the ethical boundaries between devising fictitious situations for legitimate research and putting people at risk for traumatic stress and mental illness?How can we safeguard social order and cultural diversity against devious authority figures?What minimum debriefing standards and psychological support must we insist upon for research subjects?How can we train ourselves to stay vigilant against attempts to manipulate us?These questions are far from academic. We've all seen a steep rise in authoritarianism across the globe. We've watched unfold the weaponization of social media, the politicization of pandemic crises, and the flagrant denial of easily demonstrable facts and events.Listen to Episode 10: Obedience and Authority now on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: Untitled photograph, photographer unknown. Used under Creative Commons CC0. Source: PxHere.]Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

Isolation. Quarantine. Distance.We're all being asked to live in a new place that's way outside of our comfort zone, thanks to our COVID19 #pandemic. This new place is a station of solitude. We've pivoted overnight from a group-hugging, fist-bumping, Agile-scrumming, carpooling, and happy-hour reveling wonderland to a disquieting work-from-home, distance-teaching, virtual-meeting, and Zoom-concert limbo.And the pivot is clearly taking a toll on our physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being.Yet like so many phenomena we're coping with right now, our necessary solitude is in many respects just an escalation of a sickness that's been plaguing us for decades. Dr. Teri calls it Left-Brain Loneliness."We're living in little pods," she notes. "And that intensifies our sense of separation, the us-versus-them, the otherism."So what's the left-brain connection? Dr. Teri reminds us that this feeling of loneliness comes from the place in our minds dominated by linearity, binary modeling, manipulation, and materiality. -------------------------------------------------------------“Solitude is fine but you need someone to tell that solitude is fine.”– Honoré de Balzac-------------------------------------------------------------Our perception – our attitudes – create our experiences, which influence the way we react to people. Our reactions in turn influence the way they perceive us, and the ways in which they interact with us, in an ever-widening ripple effect. In this insidious spiral, left-brain loneliness marks the start of our descent into a dark, calculating, manipulating mindset.Moreover, for all the ills that come with commodifying our friends, colleagues, and even fellow family members – reducing them to mere units of value and risk – the real damage comes from the way this mindset leads us to dehumanize ourselves. Whether positive or negative, what goes around comes around.How do we free ourselves from this damaging cycle of loneliness and self-loathing?"Connect with the core of your being and the loneliness goes away," Dr. Teri assures us, "no matter how isolated you are." She describes a simple exercise she uses with clients coping with left-brain loneliness. "Try to see yourself moving from 'alone' to 'all one.' Just by adding that 'L,' you not only take comfort in the fact that you're not alone; you embark on your personal journey to becoming an altruist."In other words, by embracing the humanity in others – in real life or on Zoom meetings, at a distance or in close quarters – we grow into the richness of our own, vital humanity. We can thus become our own best friends.Listen to Episode 11: Left-Brain Loneliness now on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: Photograph by mikoto.raw. Used under Creative Commons CC0. Source: Pexels.]Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

A bullheaded woman is forced off an airplane for refusing to wear a mask during a pandemic. Facebook's lackluster efforts to control hate speech leads to an advertising boycott by more than 250 consumer companies. And years after former quarterback Colin Kaepernick is shunned the National Football League, players for Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Francisco Giants take a knee to open the season in a "pre-game tribute to Black Lives Matter." What goes around comes around. How sweet, the righteous hand of karma! Well no, actually. These aren't examples of karma. Moreover, karma probably isn't what you think it is. To complicate matters further, the question of karma's true nature, and where it begins and ends, remains a topic of disagreement even among scholars of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Taoism, where karma constitutes a central spiritual principle."People are using 'karma' from a place of judgment," observes Dr. Teri. They are, as she puts it, weaponizing the concept. It's a direct extension of their sense of superiority, a conviction not only that they can unflinchingly differentiate right from wrong, but also that they know the universe will intervene to right the wrong.One flaw in this thinking is the assumption that karmic consequence is necessarily negative, all stick and no carrot. Another flaw is the expectation that these consequences will be material in nature.Karma is not revenge. It's not justice. It's not fate, and it's not a scorecard.-------------------------------------------------------------“If I take yellow and blue paint and mix them together, that makes green. That is karma.”– Dr. Teri Baydar-------------------------------------------------------------In truth, karma is the principle that our intentions and actions bring consequences. A cause-and-effect phenomenon, to be sure, but one that allows for the effect to manifest today, next week, ten years from now, or in some future lifetime. Further, that manifestation may be material, emotional, or spiritual in nature."Karma is actually neutral," Dr. Teri explains. "If I take yellow and blue paint and mix them together, that makes green. That is karma." Why does karma matter from a leadership development perspective? Quite simply because to gain an understanding of karma is to develop one's self-awareness, to enable choices and vision for the greater good, and to connect with our higher selves.Listen to Episode 12: Seeing Karma in a Different Light now on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: "Gray Newton's Cradle." Photograph by Pixabay. Used under Creative Commons CC0. Source: Pexels.com]Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

Solitude doesn't always coincide with loneliness. On the contrary, solitude is an often-employed vehicle for sharpening focus, manifesting intention, or simply being in the present.But solitude as a means to strengthen relationships? Though the paradox is startling, the underlying logic is compelling."Be alone with your thoughts," advises Dr. Teri. "Then you get to be a whole person. That gives you something to check in with when you need to set boundaries, when you want to make a choice: Do I want to deepen this relationship? Are they in alignment with who I want to be? Do they bring something to the table that is in alignment with who I am?"What kinds of relationships are we talking about? Romantic relationships, certainly, but also family relationships, work and professional relationships, and even relatively transactional relationships, like the one you have with your plumber or your dentist. Of course, the more intimate the relationship, the greater the return on investment from your practice of intentional solitude.-------------------------------------------------------------“Cherish your solitude. Take trains by yourself to places you have never been. Sleep out alone under the stars.”– Eve Ensler-------------------------------------------------------------"It also allows you to be in a better position," adds Dr. Teri, "when you're negotiating...for a job or anything else. You're not taken for a ride as much if you're able to be with yourself while you're with other people."Of course, our current COVID-19 pandemic constrains the ways by which we can be with other people. It's thus worth asking: have you noticed any improvements in the quality of your relationships as a result of your isolation?The connection between solitude and healthy human relationships is vital. We need to overcome our tendency to think of relationships as dynamic and solitude as passive. Our intentional practice of solitude should be every bit as dynamic as our most formative relationships.With practice, Dr. Teri explains, there comes a point where your solitude becomes a strength. Once you fully know that you're okay when you're alone, you can check in with yourself even when other people are around, and notice your reactions to what they're doing, what they're saying. You start to notice new parts of yourself. This self-knowledge equips you to respond in healthier ways to the people with whom you're in relationship.Listen to Episode 13: How Solitude Strengthens Relationships now on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: "Couple Having a Misunderstanding." Photograph by Cottonbro. Used under Creative Commons CC0. Source: Pexels.com]Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

Do you see the world as a struggle between good and evil? Are there two sides to every story? If things seem black or white to you, you may be a victim of what Dr. Teri calls Binary Bullshit. "We lean so heavily," she observes, "into our left brain - the left brain function is capture, contain, and control, and it's anchored in fear - so everything gets reduced to very simple equations."Of course, there's nothing simpler than A vs. B. But does distilling problems to a choice of two polar opposites actually help us resolve issues or rise to challenges?"To walk around thinking that we're actually communicating, that we're actually making choices, when we're working in this binary bullshit construct, is the real problem," Dr. Teri explains. "Because we're not solving anything when we go about it that way."-------------------------------------------------------------Well, it may be the devil or it may be the LordBut you're gonna have to serve somebodyBob Dylan, "Gotta Serve Somebody"-------------------------------------------------------------Some questions are binary, offering us the luxury to flip a switch in one of two reasonable directions. Others are multivariate, and still others involve forking paths and contingencies.But in all cases, it's useful to take a step back to consider: are we addressing the right problem? If it turns out we're not, we may be missing out on the potential to innovate, to reinvent."There's an anecdote I heard long ago," recalls Achmad, "involving a building management company that was inundated by complaints about slow elevator service." The problem, he continues, was initially framed as a choice between (a) taking the elevator completely out of service to install a faster hoist technology and (b) adding a costly second elevator to double passenger capacity. Fortunately, a maverick on the team managed to sell the others on an oblique strategy: install large mirrors along the lobby walls. Remarkably, this change put an abrupt end to the complaints. Why? Because instead of standing awkwardly in the lobby, people now fixated their own reflections, and watching the elevator lights impatiently gave way to fixing their hair or straightening their lapels."If you take away the box," summarizes Dr. Teri, "what else is there? All of those questions add space. Embrace the openness, allowing all the possibilities to come into your mind."Listen to Episode 14: Rejecting Binary Bullshit now on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: "Person Marking Check on Opened Book." Photograph by Pixabay. Used under Creative Commons CC0. Source: Pexels.com]Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

Fake news can, and has, changed fortunes. Even when it barely registers on the infosphere, fake news can cause major upsets. A Princeton-led study found that fake news played a bigger role in swaying former Obama voters away from voting for Hillary Clinton than either being a Republican or personally disliking Clinton. The study found that false articles made up 2.6 percent of all hard-news articles late in the campaign, and Clinton ultimately lost the three states that delivered Trump the presidency - Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin - by less than a percentage point. The history of fake news goes at least as far back as the 13th century BCE, when King Ramses II of Egypt memorialized accounts of crushing the Hittite army in the Battle of Kadesh in official records, drawings, and poetry carved on temple walls. In truth the conflict ended in a stalemate."News has always been," Dr. Teri points out, "a manipulation tool." Further, she observes, "now anybody can make news. And on the other end, we can have massive organized manipulation of news."-------------------------------------------------------------"If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you do read it, you're misinformed."Denzel Washington-------------------------------------------------------------Yet, strange to say, we are all complicit in both the practice and in the effectiveness of fake news.True, each news item pushes an agenda, a response from its consumer. Each intends to push us in one direction or another, to buy something, to vote a certain way, to react in a certain way, ultimately to serve other interests. These interests may be corporate, government, or not-for-profit. But the agenda, the intention, and the call to action are always there. Our responsibility? To resist the temptation to accept news at face value. To peer deep into the sources of our news to uncover potential biases, affiliations, and alliances. Yes, consider the news outlet itself – its reputation for objectivity, integrity, and quality – but by no means should we let our guard down, even when the source is considered unimpeachable. Healthy skepticism makes for sound decision making. Sound decision making, in turn, makes for effective leadership.As individual thinkers, it's vital for us to apply this same skepticism to our own beliefs, attitudes, values, and politics. In a sense, the war on fake news begins in our own hearts and minds."We have the right to demand that media does a better job," says Dr. Teri. "But it's also up to us. We're at a place in history where we need to wake up. We need to think like individuals. Figure it out. Make the effort. Know yourself, make better choices, and see through the B.S. instead of becoming a victim of it."Listen to Episode 15: Fake News - Why We're Complicit now on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: "Woman Holding Burning Newspaper." Photograph by Jhefferson Santos. Used under Creative Commons CC0. Source:

Election Day is near at hand in the United States, and our judging faculties are working overtime.Given the high stakes, it's worthwhile to ask: how does this process work? How can we judge – ourselves, others, ideas, and institutions – more effectively? Is judging even a healthy process?"Really good judgment is discernment," offers Dr. Teri, "You've got to step away from the linear right-wrong, black-white, good-bad...that binary thing. Discernment comes from a different place." -------------------------------------------------------------"He who knows others is clever; He who knows himself has discernment."Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching-------------------------------------------------------------What's the difference between judgment and discernment? Judgment, first of all, draws from our more primal faculties, the fight-flight-freeze impulses we once relied upon for our survival. In other words, when we judge, we draw conclusions hastily, with little to no processing. Second, the act of judging assumes a power differential: courtroom judges and magistrates sit on a bench, stationed above the prosecutor, defendant, and jury. Finally, when we judge the actions and character of others, we really judge ourselves.And we deserve better than that, don't we?Discernment, on the other hand, is a process we use to distinguish among different degrees of appropriate and inappropriate. When we practice discernment, we're not sorting behaviors, decisions, statements, or – least of all – people into "good" and "bad" boxes. Discernment is about reflecting on varying shades of virtue: good, better, best. We can't truly discern without developing a holistic understanding of the context involved. It necessarily involves our brain's higher cognitive functions. Let's be clear, however: we all judge."Let's talk about how the judge inside us works," counsels Dr. Teri. "The judge's intention is to give us a sense of security even where there is none, to control the world in ways that it cannot be controlled. It's wired into us as a survival mechanism, but then it gets out of hand."To reach our highest potential, we need to break out of the judging mindset and embrace the practice of discernment.Listen to Episode 16: Judging Me, Judging You now on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: "Stylish black man showing thumb down." Photograph by Wallace Chuck. Used under Creative Commons CC0. Source: Pexels.com]Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

What constitutes effective leadership in a world defined by a pandemic, a tectonic pivot, and a near-crippling uncertainty about what tomorrow may bring?The very fabric of society is transforming before our eyes. The stakes for decisions we make every day – Do I wear a mask? Must I go into that store? Should I sanitize my hands again? – seem momentous, at times absurd. For many of us, our work modes have morphed too, shifting nearly overnight from desks in offices to video meetings at our dining tables. Yet while isolating from work colleagues and neighbors, we're in extremely tight quarters with our partners and family members, running Zoom meetings in parallel, stealing time from our jobs to help our distance-learning children prove a Geometry theorem or to give the sourdough one last knead."These are conditions that were always there, but everything has more gravitas because we're being confronted," Dr. Teri observes. "We're now seeing how we fit into this life as individuals, as organic beings, or as humans."-------------------------------------------------------------“Effective leadership has a core of love.”– Dr. Teri Baydar-------------------------------------------------------------Dr. Teri points out that we've all been lulled into accepting a status quo without due reflection or discernment. While nobody should neglect or disavow the suffering endured by many people and groups in the years before COVID-19 struck, certain of us have willingly surrendered our right to question convention, seduced by the sense of security – real or imagined – promised by the status quo."Now," she observes, "we're pivoting on every single front."Dr. Teri believes that we're on the verge of a larger global shift, within which COVID is but one of many catalyzing events. Post-lockdown leadership requires balance: yin and yang, left-brain and right-brain, thinking and feeling. Listen to Episode 17: Effective Leadership in a Lockdown World now on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: "People Wearing DIY Masks." Photograph by Cottonbro. Used under Creative Commons CC0. Source: Pexels.com]Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

As we welcome the hope and relief promised by the start of 2021, Dr. Teri and I discuss happiness: what it is and isn't, different strategies – effective and futile – for finding it, and some tips for keeping to the healthiest course for you. We all know what happiness is, don't we? Can't we at least say that we recognize happiness when we see it? Feel it?Not necessarily, says Dr. Teri."There's something that I call 'The Happiness Formula,' which is a lie. It's a social and adopted psychological construct that says that once you accumulate the right ingredients, and line them up in just the right way, you'll finally be happy," she explains.The right education from the right Ivy League school. The right job. The right spouse. The right kids. The right body shape. These are some of the many Happiness Formula checklist items we all carry around with us, often despite our own best intentions. The Happiness Formula is at the root of the constant ache and longing that smolders stubbornly in our subconscious. It prevents us from enjoying the joy and fulfillment we've already earned. It's the value template that marketers and advertisers prey upon to compel us to spend money we don't have for things we don't need.So on the occasion of the new year, let's choose happiness. Instead of trying vainly to tally up points on the irrational and unfulfilling Happiness Formula, let's work on ourselves – that is, our selves – work that can deliver the sense of belonging and inclusion we all thirst for as human beings. Let's take on meaningful challenges, challenges that promise positive transformation, that promise growth, and that foster an expansion of our minds and our hearts. -------------------------------------------------------------“The happiness we seek is already here and it will be found through letting go rather than through struggle.”– Pema Chödrön-------------------------------------------------------------Let's seek happiness in a way that brings healing to our troubled lives, our vital relationships, and our fragile universe. Let's rechart our life journeys to take us to destinations that are virtuous, life-affirming, and selfless. Listen to your inner leader, your inner parent, your inner child. Each of them loves you and looks to you to set the example – the standard, the ethos – that they can aspire to in turn. Don't let yourself get distracted or derailed as you forge your path to self-actualization and enlightenment. Do take that class you wish you'd taken back in college. Take another look at your personal mission statement, or draft one from scratch if necessary. Find that nonprofit organization that advances your personal vision for the future; found it if there isn't one already. Your happiness lies in manifesting the changes that make the world a better place, and manifesting those invariably requires an act of self-transformation. Take things step by step. This is your unfolding. This is your personal path. "Choosing happiness means making a really good choice," Dr. Teri succinctly summarizes, "about which direction to go in. That has to come from the inside."Listen to Episode 18: Choosing Happiness now on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: Photograph by SaSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

In Episode 19, Dr. Teri embraces the spirit of the new year by breaking free from the shackles of our past and embracing the now. Yet it's more – much more – than simply shaking off the trauma and heartbreak of 2020. Letting go is the process by which we allow ourselves to grow, to move forward, and to push ourselves, unbridled, toward the self-actualization we seek to realize for ourselves."It doesn't mean we have to pretend that some bad thing didn't happen to us. It's just that we get to step back from it...ease up, and stop holding on to something that happened to us.," explains Dr. Teri. And letting go of who we think we're supposed to be. Letting go of old versions of ourselves. -------------------------------------------------------------“Thank God I found the GOOD in goodbye.”– Beyoncé Knowles-------------------------------------------------------------"We have to allow ourselves our own becoming, our own evolution, our own growth," Dr. Teri continues. "You've got to make space for that."Listen to Episode 19: Letting Go now on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts[Graphic credit: Photograph by Pixabay. Used under Creative Commons CC0. Source: Pexels.com]Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)

Originally recorded in mid-January of 2021, we've decided to make this episode our final installment for Paradise Reclaimed Podcast Season 1, for reasons of circumstance and...let's call it editorial convenience. And in that it works quite well, actually, in that it ends the season with unusual spirit and some unexpected twists and turns. These twists and turns may well, we hope, hint at what's to come in Season 2, which we hope to bring to light after a short hiatus. But more on that later.For now, take a listen to what starts out as a free Dr. Teri coaching session for Achmad, but then transforms quickly into...well you decide. However you describe what follows, there's inarguably more interplay between Achmad and Dr. Teri than on prior podcasts. There's more of a side-by-side comparison of their views of normative and non-normative states and behaviors. Responding to Dr. Teri's prompts, Achmad observes, "Knowing myself as well as I feel I do now...entering a new situation, a new context...with a discipline to keep my freak flag furled at the outset, and then to gradually unfurl it over time...the joy comes from realizing that I've reached a point where I can fully wave that doggone freak flag."Achmad compares the process of transcending human embarrassment to writing poetry, in that both require a certain mastery of existing groundrules, conventions, and grammars to do effectively.For her part, Dr. Teri sees the stakes and the outcome of getting past human embarrassment in different terms altogether. "Be who you're going to be, wherever you can, safely," she counsels. "I hear in what you're saying that there's  a lot about the objective of being able to wave your freak flag. And I find that true, but there's something different in the way you're approaching that I don't 100% identify with.  I identify with a much softer, much more inner-journey acceptance of self-acceptance and self-love, and I get the sense that you have this belonging in the community aspect that's much stronger about showing who you are, and I'm more like, 'no, I'm going to be who I am even if it means not being in the world."So do yourself a favor and listen to Episode 20: The Embarrassment of Being Human. It's for entertainment purposes, so we hope there's some vaudeville value in if for you. And do take us up on our invitation to send us your responses to the question, "How do YOU wave YOUR freak flag?" Send those to paradisereclaimedpodcast@gmail.com. Now, to our hiatus: given the net-positive developments that Dr. Teri now finds herself penning two books and designing two new web sites, and that Achmad's contributions at work have led to a surge in demand for his involvement across a growing range of projects, we feel the time has come to press pause for a few months while we review what we do well as a podcast series and redefine the way we do that in a way that satisfies all the requisite gods and goddesses.In the meantime, please be sure to subscribe, bookmark, or favorite Paradise Reclaimed Podcast. That way, you'll be among the first to know when we're back. And we'll have a great big, freaking reunion party. [Graphic credit: Photograph by Sharon McCutcheon. Used under Creative Commons CC0. Source: Unsplash.com]Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParadiseReclaimed?fan_landing=true)