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Joan Brunwasser: John Robbins on "The New Good Life - Living Better Than Ever In an Age of Less" One of the reasons I wrote my latest book is to provide people with simple, easy and inexpensive suggestions on how to raise their quality of life while lowering their cost of living, and at the same time lowering their ecological footprint. Learning to live with respect for ourselves and the whole earth community is no easy task in a culture that has become as out of balance as ours has. |
Joan Brunwasser: Part Two: Renowned Stanford Psychologist Carol Dweck on "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" It isn't the answer to all of life's problems,but my research shows it allows you to break free from the concern that challenge is dangerous(because you might not be smart enough to pull it off),that effort is undermining(because smart people don't need so much effort), and that a setback would be devastating(because it will publicly reveal your limited ability).These shrink our world, growth mindset offers a larger one. |
Joan Brunwasser: Renowned Stanford Psychologist Carol Dweck on "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" My most compelling story relates to what happened when we introduced the growth mindset to adolescents. We taught them that the brain is like a muscle that grows with exercise. We also taught them that, every time they stretch themselves to learn something new, their brain grows new connections and, over time, they can get smarter. It was like a lightning bolt struck. One of the boys said, "You mean I don't have to be dumb?" |
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Joan Brunwasser: Omega Institute's Elizabeth Lesser on "Broken Open" and Personal Transformation The hardest aspect of memoir is that it involves writing about not only oneself, but also about the people in one's life. My children, my parents, my husband, my ex-husband, my friends: none of them asked to be characters in my book. I am sure I caused discomfort for some of the folks in my life. But I did it for a reason that I still feel clear and good about. |
 Joan Brunwasser: Chatting with Uncommon Thinker and Best-Selling Author, Robert Fulghum, Part Four Well, I wish people could say that about themselves: I do what I can do as well as I can do. And that's my part. I speak for a lot of people when I say I can't fix it all. But I can still take care of my own corner. And my corner involves writing what I write and saying what I say and hoping that it's useful. |
 Joan Brunwasser: Chatting with Uncommon Thinker and Best-Selling Author, Robert Fulghum, Part Three The band that got all the press was the Rock Bottom Remainders, which was a group of writers -" Stephen King, Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, people like that. And a publishers' rep in San Francisco found out that we were musicians. It was her idea that we should put this band together and we would raise money for good causes and,in the meantime, have a lot of fun. I can tell you outrageous stories. |
 Joan Brunwasser: Part Two: Chatting with Uncommon Thinker and Best-Selling Author, Robert Fulghum I don't have to be in one place anymore as a writer.I've got family in Seattle.I have friends now in many places. I feel so lucky that I can go and live in a place like Bali for several months and think, "Wow, mine is not the only way to live in the world." You know that abstractly. You live in a village, you experience it; that really jars you loose from your prejudices and preconceptions. |
 Joan Brunwasser: Chatting with Uncommon Thinker and Best-Selling Author, Robert Fulghum You suddenly look in the mirror and think "Why, I are a writer now. "And if they'll take that stuff,maybe if I put my mind to it, I could write something else." So, the second book, It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It came along. And they traded #1 and #2 at the top of the NYT best-seller list for months. And so I thought, "Well, this is something I can do." Well, it'd be crazy not to see how far it would go. |