From Sparks to Light - Inspiring Stories for Challenging Times

Today we’re talking to Annie Bacon, the Executive Director of Seeds of Learning, a non-profit organization that works to improve educational opportunities in rural Latin America. I caught up with Ann…

Today on the podcast we’re talking to Mark Rimple, a musician, educator, composer, performer, union member, father and all around deep thinker. I met Mark through my brother Robert. They’re colleague…

I met Michael Pritchard many years ago when I heard him speak at a holiday party for a roomful of social service types tasked with lifting up the disenfranchised in our community. That afternoon, he …

One of the greatest gifts of teaching is to watch a former student spread their wings in the world. Take the years of education, the life experience, the curiosity and passion they possess and find t…

My guest this week is Shugri Said Salh, the author of the beautiful memoir, The Last Nomad, Coming of Age in the Somali Desert and the passage comes from a novel she’s currently working on.

Shugri’s i…

This week on From Sparks TO LIGHT we meet Mark Oberschmidt, a returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Thailand. He’s also a fellow peregrino and someone I’ve known since I was in high school. Ma…

This week on From Sparks TO LIGHT we meet Gary Mallon, a fellow peregrino I met this summer while walking the Camino Primitivo in the north of Spain. As fellow east coasters, we bonded right away, an…

A new season is right around the corner. Join us on September 8th for a whole new collection of stories of people who are giving back. New episodes drop on Thursdays. You will find us on iTunes, Spot…

Last week we finished our first season of from Sparks to Light. This week I'm sharing an interview I did with Leigh Brennan on her podcast, The Camino Cafe.  It was a fun interview about walking the …

Many years ago, when I was a Jesuit Volunteer in Montana, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit several reservations and learn about Native culture and traditions from some of the local tribal m…

Today we’re talking to D’Lynda Fischer, a city council member for the city of Petaluma, a community in northern California about 45 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge. But the truth is, this cou…

We’re going to try something different today. I was introduced to the work of Abby Van Muijen by one of my social work students who found a feeling wheel Abby had created in searching for inspiring a…

“The two most important words that you can say are I am”, says Jimmy Carrethers, inspirational speaker, teacher, personal development trainer and life coach. “But be careful with that because whateve…

“If we’re going to do what I believe we need to do for the rest of our lives, you need to go back with me.” - Peter Pretorius

Ann’s husband Peter had just returned from Mozambique where he learned fir…

Joe Cuddemi and I travelled in similar circles in our college days, although we didn’t know each other well.  After graduation we both ended up in Montana as Jesuit Volunteers; Joe was a teacher on t…

For years I’ve been teaching service learning courses, classes that expand beyond the classroom out into the community, that pair academic learning with hands on community engagement. One of my favor…

My relationship with Patti Digh’s work began many years ago when I stumbled upon her wonderful blog, “37 days”.  Despite the obvious differences, (she was raised in a small town in North Carolina, is…

I have known Heidi Pidcoke since the late 1990s, when we worked together at the Family Institute of Marin, a mental health nonprofit in Marin County, California. At the time Heidi was a Marriage and …

That’s the voice of Egypt Worthy, and the little bodies she’s talking about are the third graders she worked with as a City Year Volunteer back in 2016.  National Service is a topic that is near and …

For over twenty years, Darlene O’Brien has been an inspiring speaker, dynamic trainer, and passionate disability rights advocate.  She’s also a holistic educator, with a successful bio-energetics pra…