Rick’s Picks

• What Changes When a School Embraces Mindfulness?
• 7 Amazing Buildings Designed to Incorporate Nature
• El Capitan, My El Capitan
• A Four-Year-Old Reviews the French Laundry

• Living Simply in a Dumpster
• Collaborating with a 4-year Old
• Pico Iyer on Healthy Body, Unhealthy Mind
• The Fermi Paradox
• And So There Must Come an End

• ACLU
• Africare
• American Humane Association
• American Mindfulness Research Association
• Animal Welfare Institute
• Better Burma
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
• BRITE Initiative
• Center for Building a Culture of Empathy
• Center for Contemplative Mind in Society
• Center for Healthy Minds
• The Dana Foundation
• Earthworks
• Edge Foundation
• Fetzer Institute

• Fisher House
• The Fund for Global Human Rights
• The Hunger Project
• Institute of Noetic Sciences
• International Campaign for Tibet
• International Planned Parenthood Federation
• International Rescue Committee
• Kira Institute
• Kiva Make a loan, change a life
• Lupus Research Institute
• Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand
• Metanexus Institute
• Mind and Life Institute
• Monroe Institute

• American Association of Geographers – list of organizations involved in climate change research, policy making and education
• Australian Psychology Society’s list of 101 things you can do to help address climate change in daily life
• California Governor’s List of Worldwide Scientific Organizations that support the position that Climate Change has been caused by human action
• Citizens’ Climate Lobby – empowering people to work together on climate policy

• Climate Central– scientists leading the research into climate change
• Climate Change Resources – an excellent overall resource, including latest news bulletins and links to over 250 sites that serve to educate and inform about the climate crisis
• Climate Science – wonderful resources for teachers and students
• Earth.org’s List of 17 Best Books on Climate Change and Sustainability
• Food Tank’s List of 36 Organizations Helping Solve the Climate Crisis

• Amnesty International – list of ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement
• Black Improvement Media – a multi-media resource in support of the the Black Improvement Movement
• Buddhist Peace Fellowship
• Coalition on Human Needs advocates for public policies that impact low income, elderly, women, children and more
• Dialogues on Diversity – comprehensive list of social justice websites

• National Alliance to End Homelessness– advocates for homelessness, housing, and healthcare
• National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education – coalition of organizations working to improve education opportunities for women and girls
• National Criminal Justice Association – helps shape policy on criminal justice issues
• Pluralism Project

TV Series

• Alone
• The Queen’s Gambit
• A Place to Call Home
• Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
• White Collar

Inspiring Videos:

• Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold climbing the Nose of El Capitan in under two hours.
• South Face of Mt. Watkins
• Alex Honnold Solos: A Year’s Worth of Climbing in 16 Hours
• Chris Sharma climbing Dreamcatcher (5.14d)
• La Dura Complete: The Hardest Rock Climb In The World
• Mr. Rogers accepting his Emmy
• TED Talk on Gratitude by Dr Tanmeet Sethi
• Surfing an incredibly huge wave
• Randy Pausch’s (literally) “last lecture”
• How Bill Gates reads books
• Hans Rosling: The best stats you’ve ever seen
• Never, Ever Give Up. Arthur’s Inspirational Transformation!
• Exploring The Epic Chess Match Of Our Time
• The Power of Vulnerability
• Gratitude: Louie Schwartzberg at TEDxSF

Music Videos

• Heart Beats Slow by Angus and Julia Stone
• Oh Woman Oh Man by London Grammar (on an Italian music talent show)
• Lin-Manuel Miranda rapping the Founding Fathers at the White House
• Hope by Emily Brimlow
• Oingo Boingo singing Insanity from their farewell concert
• The Bengsons ad lib a stirring Keep Going Song to get us through difficult times
• Leonard Cohen – Come Healing
• Norah Jones Sings “Don’t Know Why” on Sesame Street
• ZOX ‘Canon’ Music Video
• OCEAN – John Butler

Feel-Good Videos:

• Grandpa delights granddaughter with DIY theme park
• Powerful Way of Saying Thank You
• John Oliver’s interview with the Dalai Lama
• Charlie & Jackie Spotlight Dance
• Dove Real Beauty Sketches | You’re more beautiful than you think

Introduction to Positive Neuroplasticity

• The Accidental Mind – David Linden
• Bouncing Back – Linda Graham
• Buddha’s Brain – Rick Hanson
• Hardwiring Happiness – Rick Hanson
• In Search of Memory – Eric Kandel
• Mind Wide Open – Steven Johnson
• The Mindful Brain – Daniel Siegel
• Synaptic Self – Joseph LeDoux
• Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain – Sharon Begley

Family Life

• Awakening Joy for Kids – James Baraz and Michele Lilyana
• Beyond Nice: Nurturing Kindness with Young Children – Stuart Stotts
• The Central Park Lost Mitten Party – Fran Quittel
• How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk – Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
• Mindful Motherhood – Cassi Vieten
• Mother Nurture – Rick Hanson, Jan Hanson and Ricki Pollycove
• Raising Happiness – Christine Carter
• Raising Your Spirited Child – Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
• Sensational Meditation for Children Child-Friendly Meditation Techniques based on The Five Senses – Sarah Wood Vallely
• Sergio Sees the Good – Linda Ryden

Psychological Tools

• A Beautiful Mourning– Elizabeth A. Weber
• Awakening Joy – James Baraz & Shoshana Alexander
• Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman
• Fully Present – Susan Smalley Ph.D. and Diana Winston
• Focusing – Eugene Gendlin
• Happy for No Reason – Marci Shimoff
• How To Be Sick – Toni Bernhard
• Inner Strengths: Contemporary Psychotherapy and Hypnosis for Ego Strengthening – Shirley A. McNeal & Claire Frederick
• Integral Life Practice – Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, et al.
• Nonviolent Communication – Marshall Rosenberg
• Shaolin Chi Kung (eBook) – Marcus James Santer
• Shift Your Mood – Rik Isensee
• What We May Be – Piero Ferrucci
• The Wise Heart – Jack Kornfield
• You Just Don’t Understand – Deborah Tannen

Mathematics, and Physical and Biological Sciences

• Born to be Good – Dacher Keltner
• Godel, Escher, Bach – Douglas Hofstadter
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – Oliver Sacks
• Mind in Life – Evan Thompson
• Now: The Physics of Time – Richard A. Muller
• The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Bioidentical Hormones – Ricki Pollycove
• Six Easy Pieces – Richard Feynman
• Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers – Robert Sapolsky
• Wonderful Life – Stephen Jay Gould

Social Sciences

• Caste – Isabel Wilkerson
• The European Dream – Jeremy Rifkin
• Guns, Germs, and Steel – Jared Diamond
• The Interpersonal World of the Infant – Daniel Stern

Science Fiction and Fantasy

• All Systems Red – Martha Wells
• Ancillary Justice trilogy – Ann Leckie
• Consider Phlebas – Iain Banks
• Dune – Frank Herbert
• Haroun and the Sea of Stories – Salman Rushdie
• The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula Le Guin
• Lord of Light – Roger Zelazny
• Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
• A Memory Called Empire – Arkady Martine
• Neuromancer – William Gibson
• Spinning Silver – Naomi Novik
• Startide Rising – David Brin
• Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein
• A Wizard of Earthsea – Ursula Le Guin

General Fiction

• All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr
• The Cold Dish – Craig Johnson
• The Cold Millions – Jess Walter
• Deacon King Kong – James McBride
• Deliverance – James Dickey
• The Dog Stars – Peter Heller
• Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – Olga Tokarczukm
• East of Eden – John Steinbeck
• For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
• The Great Alone – Kristin Hannah
• Homegoing– Yaa Gyasi
• Master and Commander – Patrick O’Brian. This is the first of twenty novels in this incomparable series of funny, profound, exciting, lyrical, and deeply insightful books
• Night Soldiers – Alan Furst
• The Persian Boy – Mary Renault
• The Searcher – Tana French
• The Skull Mantra – Eliot Pattison
• Sweet Thursday – John Steinbeck
• Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
• Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel

Non-Buddhist Spiritual Literature

• Be Here Now – Ram Dass
• The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are – Alan Watts
• Easy Death – Adi Da Samraj
• How Can I Help? – Ram Dass and Paul Gorman
• I Am That – Nisargata Maharaj
• The Perennial Philosophy – Aldous Huxley
• Talks with Ramana Maharshi – Ramana Maharshi
• A Year to Live – Stephen Levine

Psychological Resources

• Anxiety & Addiction Guide
• Authentic Happiness
• Awakening Joy
• First 30 Days
• Good Therapy
• Inward Traveler
• Mental Health for Students with Loans
• Mental Help Net
• My Path TV
• National Institute of Mental Health Library
• Self-Compassion
• Wilderness Retreats through Desert Dharma
• Yoga for Depression

Good News

• Future Crunch
• Positive News
• Good Good Good
• The Good News Network

Blogs

• Cranky Fitness
• Developing Intelligence
• Imperfect Spirituality
• InformED
• Inquiring Deeply
• Meditation.com
• Pocket Perspectives

Scientific

• Astronomy Picture of the Day
• Science Magazine

Christian

• Center for Action and Contemplation
• Center for Process Studies
• Centering Prayer
• Christians Practicing Yoga
• Heart’s Rest Retreats
• Spiritual Directors International

Professional Associations

• Advance the Profession: American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
• American Academy of Neurology
• American Psychological Association
• Association for Appled Psychophysiology and Biofeedback
• GAINS (interpersonal neurobiology)

Culture

• Nothing but Hope and Passion

Relationships

• Relationship Development and Transformation

Family Life

• Child and Family Web Guide (Tufts Univ)
• Essential Parenting
• The Marce Society
• Mother Nurture
• Mothering Magazine
• Peace of Mind
• Postpartum Support International
• Raising Happiness (Christine Carter, Ph.D.)

Mindfulness

• The Centre for Mindfulness Studies
• Mindful Awareness Research Center (UCLA)
• The Mindfulness Association
• Openground Mindfulness Training

Religious

• Ajayan (Henry James Borys)
• Belief Net
• Marin Interfaith Council

2024

• The Good News Network (1/5/24)
• Speaking Up to Save a Believed-Extinct Language of Indigenous People Who Revered Silence (1/19/24)
• How To Love Yourself: 5 Ways to Let Go of the River Bank and Go With the Flow (2/2/24)
• The Thousand Dollar Breakfast Club (2/28/24)
• Song: “All Right Now” by Tracy Spuehler (3/8/24)
• “Zzzzzz….” A Short Story by Dan Brook (3/22/24)
• Pakistan Bucks Global Trend with 30-Year Mangrove Expansion (4/5/24)
• Finding Mudita: The Crimson Tide’s Path to the Final Four (4/21/24)
• The Mind-Blowing Scale of the Milky Way (5/3/24)
• New Meditation App: The Way (5/17/24)
• Pioneering Cherokee Nation Medical School (5/31/24)
• Roger Federer on Perfection (6/14/24)
• Finding Good within the Difficult (6/28/24)
• Hearing Clearly for the First Time (7/12/24)
• Books and Beyond (7/26/24)
• 5 Keys to Complete Mindfulness (8/16/24)
• Helping Others Helps Us Too (8/30/24)
• Circles in the Sand (9/13/24)
• A Listening Room in Munich for a Restless Urban Society (9/27/24
• Political Empathy Instead of Political Enemies (10/11/24)
• Protecting Our Water (10/25/24)
• Walking Our Way to Better Mental Health (11/8/24)
• This Is How We Win (11/22/24)
• The Art of Healing (12/6/24)
• Curiosity George Quotes (12/20/24)

2023

• Listening to Earth’s Subtle Vibrations (1/13/23)
• Dr Robert Sapolsky and the Keekorok Baboon Troop (1/27/23)
• Song: Being Somebody by Rachel Druckenmiller (2/10/23)
• Jazz Hands for Autism (2/24/23)
• Travel With a Conscience – Millennial Channel (3/10/23)
• Book: The Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Awakening from the Underground (3/24/23)
• Stressed Plants ‘Cry’—and Some Animals Can Probably Hear Them (4/21/23)
• The Amazing Power of Awe (5/5/23)
• Turning the Tide on the World’s Water Crisis (5/19/23)
• The Trevor Project Turns 25 (6/2/23)
• Novel: Observer by Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress (6/16/23)
• Book: A Future We Can Love by Susan Bauer (7/14/23)
• Music and Meditation: Cellist Barbara Bogatin (8/4/23)
• Advocate for Teen Mental Health: Adam Avin &Wuf Shanti  (8/18/23)
• Kinship with the Natural World (9/1/23)
• A Broken Heart for Planet Earth (9/16/23)
• Final Supermoon of 2023 (9/29/23)
• Rethinking What Really Matters: The Four Most Important Things in Life (10/15/23)
• Symphony of Synapses: The Brain’s Intricate Dance with Music (10/27/23)
• Creating a Feedback-Rich & Respectful Workplace (11/10/23)
• Gratitude Quiz (11/25/23)
• At the Intersection of Mind and Climate Change (12/8/23)
• Song: Lightbulbs by Rachel Druckenmiller (12/22/23)

2021

• Love Song for the World (1/8/21)
• Ethiopia’s Church Forests (1/22/21)
• Forest man saves island from extinction (2/5/21)
• Overcoming Vaccine Phobia  (2/19/21)
• Mindful Melodies (3/5/21)
• Ode to Vincent (3/19/21)
• Know Your Why (4/2/21)
• Tiny Masterpieces (4/16/21)
• Do We Control Our Happiness? (4/28/21)
• How to Overcome Feelings of Inadequacy (5/14/21)
• Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry’s documentary series (5/28/21)
• Spider Sonification (6/11/21)
• Pandas at Play (6/25/21)
• Visionary Climbing (7/9/21)
• National Make a Difference to Children’s Month (7/23/21)
• Connect with Your Inner Child (8/6/21)
• World Class Climbing (8/20/21)
• World Class Nature Climbing (9/3/21)
• Letting Go and Letting In with Thich Nhat Hanh (9/17/21)
• Understanding Environmental Racism (10/15/21)
• Wildlife Winning Wonders (10/29/21)
• Mending Heart and Mind (11/12/21)
• Being Kind to Those Who Survive You (11/26/21)
• Hilarious Winners of the 2021 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards (12/10/21)