Books that Make the World Better

Books that Make the World Better

by Jennifer Browdy, PhD
BooksSociety & Culture
Season 1
Maria Sirois: How Appreciation of Beauty, Goodness and Excellence Can Change the World
Green Fire Press publisher Jennifer Browdy, the host of Books That Make the World Better, talks with positive psychologist Maria Sirois about her award-winning book The Generous Exchange, a collection of essays about the individual and collective benefits of the appreciation of beauty, goodness and excellence in the world around us. More about the book: https://greenfirepress.com/books/the-generous-exchange/ More about Maria Sirois: https://www.mariasirois.com More about Green Fire Press: https://greenfirepress.com More about Jennifer Browdy: https://www.jenniferbrowdy.com
S1 · E12
Jun 14, 2026
43:31
Calling the sacred mother, a conversation with poet Anne Yeomans
In this episode of Books That Make the World Better, Green Fire Press publisher Jennifer Browdy talks with poet Anne Yeomans, who has been a psychotherapist for over 50 years. She has facilitated dialogue groups and sacred women’s circles for decades in both the US and Russia. Anne is the co-founder of The Women's Well, an organization devoted to the healing and empowerment of women and girls and the reclaiming of the sacred feminine, which offered programs in the Boston area from 1994 to 2012, centered around essential questions in women’s spirituality: What do women experience as sacred? How do they know it and honor it? How do they bring it forth? The author of the bilingual Russian-English poetry collection We Used to Call Her Mother, Anne is the co-editor of the collection Willing to Love: Stories of the Couple's Journey as a Path of Transformation, for which she authored a chapter. A lifelong social activist, she is the mother of two children, with five grandchildren. Get a copy of We Used To Call Her Mother: https://bookshop.org/p/books/we-used-to-call-her-mother-anne-eastman-yeomans/9af50045ee2e1632/ Learn more about Anne Yeomans and The Women’s Well: http://womenswell.org/origins.html More about Green Fire Press: https://greenfirepress.com More about Jennifer Browdy: https://www.jenniferbrowdy.com
S1 · E11
May 10, 2026
46:44
Full-Spectrum Leadership with Nina Simons of Bioneers
In this episode of Books That Make the World Better, podcast host Jennifer Browdy PhD talks with Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers and the Everywomans Leadership Program, and the author of Nature, Culture & the Sacred, a Woman Listens for Leadership, a beautiful book about the wisdom and power of full-spectrum leadership. More about Nina Simons: https://ninasimons.com More about Bioneers: https://bioneers.org More about Nature, Culture & the Sacred: https://greenfirepress.com/books/nature-culture-and-the-sacred-a-woman-listens-for-leadership/ More about Jennifer Browdy: https://www.jenniferbrowdy.com More about Green Fire Press: https://greenfirepress.com
S1 · E10
Apr 24, 2026
38:36
Hilary Giovale: Becoming a Good Relative
In this inspiring conversation, Green Fire Press publisher Jennifer Browdy talks with Hilary Giovale, author of Becoming A Good Relative: Calling White Settlers Toward Truth, Healing and Repair. Going deep and ranging widely, Hilary talks with Jennifer about her identity as a ninth-generation American settler whose ancestors benefitted from grants of stolen land, the stolen lives and labor of enslaved peoples, and systemic racism. Becoming a Good Relative shares remedies for the debilitating shame that can overtake white Americans when we face our peoples’ colonial past and our current complicity with systemic white supremacy. It offers a unique methodology, supported by African American and Indigenous Elders, for entering into mutually beneficial reciprocal relationships with Native peoples, ancestors, and the spirits of the land. More about Hilary Giovale and Becoming a Good Relative: https://www.goodrelative.com More about Jennifer Browdy: https://www.jenniferbrowdy.com More about Green Fire Press: https://greenfirepress.com
S1 · E9
Apr 10, 2026
57:33
Leah Rampy: Reconnecting Earth and Soul for a Thriving Gaian Future
Host Jennifer Browdy engages in deep conversation with author Leah Rampy about her book Earth and Soul: Reconnecting Amid Climate Chaos. The book invites us to relax into the space of not knowing, where we can reconnect with our soul purpose for being on the Earth today, in such trying times. As Leah writes: "We are on the threshold. We cannot return to the past. The future is not yet clear. Our responsibility is to listen for what is waiting to be born and to understand what we are called to midwife. Typical leadership is woefully insufficient for these edge times. We need to claim a new leadership that engages each of us at the point of our gifts and enables us to seek a collective wisdom far beyond what can be summoned from rational thinking and experience alone. "We cannot know what future is possible. The Earth, the Cosmos, Wisdom will unfold in ways we cannot comprehend. It’s likely that our contributions will not manifest results in our lifetime. It is ours to plant seeds for the future, to lay stepping stones that others may follow toward a future of greater mutual flourishing and well-being." More about Leah Rampy: https://www.leahmoranrampy.com More about Jennifer Browdy: https://www.jenniferbrowdy.com More about Green Fire Press: https://greenfirepress.com
S1 · E8
Mar 17, 2026
1:00:01
Flying Lead Change: Kelly Wendorf on Letting Horses Lead the Way to Individual & Cultural Transformation
Host Jennifer Browdy talks with leadership development coach and horse whisperer Kelly Wendorf, founder of the EQUUS Experience program, which she runs at her ranch in Sante Fe, New Mexico, and the author of Flying Lead Change: 56 Million Years of Wisdom for Leading and Living. Since we live in rapidly changing times, our lives and our organizations need to be highly adaptive in order to thrive. Conventional approaches to living and leading are no longer effective for today’s challenges. New capacities of awareness, wisdom, and presence are now required, yet these cannot be learned in the same way other skill sets are learned. Instead, conditions need to be created for such capacities to emerge. EQUUS creates those conditions. In a heartfelt, wide-ranging conversation, Kelly talks about how she came to be the wise, earth-centered leader that she is today; how her deep work with indigenous elders, including Australian Aboriginal Uncle Bob Randall, has informed her worldview and perspectives; and how horses, ancient companions of human beings for millennia, can help us repair our frayed relationships with each other and the natural world of which we are a part. To learn more about Kelly Wendorf and the EQUUS program: https://www.equusinspired.com To learn more about Green Fire Press: https://greenfirepress.com To learn more about Jennifer Browdy: https://www.jenniferbrowdy.com
S1 · E7
Mar 16, 2026
56:11
Delving into China, Cross-Cultural Friendships & the Environment, with author Mary E. Klug
Another inspiring author conversation hosted by Green Fire Press Publisher Jennifer Browdy, PhD. “Get to China before it changes too much,” Mary was advised. It was 1982, and China was beginning to transform itself after years of isolation. When Mary, a seasoned Delta flight attendant, arrived in Hangzhou a year later, her life also began a major transformation. China became her passion—at times her nemesis and ultimately her teacher—as she returned year after year, decade after decade. Her memoir, Butterfly Dreams, tells the story of how, through years of friendship and exploration, Mary came to discover her life’s purpose: working with others, in China and the United States, to create a sustainable and thriving Earth for all. For 36 years, Mary Klug was a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines. She has been teaching English as a Second Language for several decades, both professionally and as a volunteer. Mary is presently the Vice President of the New England chapter of the US-China Peoples Friendship Association, and an active member of the Pachamama Alliance. She volunteers for the North Shore Node of the environmental group 350MASS. Mary lives with her cat Emma in Marblehead, Massachusetts. More about Mary Klug: https://ecojourneyinchina.blog More about Jennifer Browdy: https://www.jenniferbrowdy.com More about Green Fire Press: https://greenfirepress.com
S1 · E6
Feb 20, 2026
50:10
Holding Space for Love and Freedom, A Conversation with Ojibwe Elder Mary Lyons
Green Fire Press publisher Jennifer Browdy in conversation with Ojibwe Great Grandmother Mary Lyons, bearing witness to the events of early 2026 in her homelands of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Great Grandmother Mary Lyons is an Ojibwe Elder who holds space with the United Nations Indigenous Knowledge Holders and Wisdom-keepers of the seven regions of the world. The author of Wisdom Lessons: Spirited Guidance from an Ojibwe Great-Grandmother (Green Fire Press, 2018), Mary Lyons is a documentarian and circle keeper of wellness, holding freedom for all close to her heart through her work as a spiritual advisor and storyteller. She travels and teaches internationally, with a particular focus on families, communities and individuals who have faced disparities that prevent them from moving forward in a healthier manner. She continues to support the wellness of sobriety as she walked in those footprints and treasures the organic ways of her ancestral lifestyles. More about Mary Lyons: https://greenfirepress.com/books/wisdom-lessons-spirited-guidance-from-an-ojibwe-great-grandmother/ More about Jennifer Browdy: https://www.jenniferbrowdy.com More about Green Fire Press: https://greenfirepress.com
S1 · E5
Jan 31, 2026
1:15:39
Good Work, Grit & Gratitude: Making Lemonade with Adrian Dubow and Laura Koffsky
Green Fire Press publisher Jennifer Browdy in conversation with Adrian Dubow and Laura Koffsky, authors of a memoir of the Covid years: Good Work, Grit and Gratitude: The Bittersweet Lessons of the Lemonade Generation. Even in the sourest of times, there is still good to be found. This is one of the lessons of the pandemic and the ethos of the Lemonade Generation. In this co-authored memoir, two veteran moms and partners in non-profit work watched as the world came to a halt and their adult sons moved back into their homes in March 2020. With masks on their faces, ironically some of the most unscripted, transparent, and transformative conversations took place, laying a new foundation for communication and collaboration. Heartfelt, humorous and real, Living in the Generation illuminates stories of gratitude and resilience that will inspire readers across all generations. More about Good Work Miami: https://goodworkmiami.org More about Good Work, Grit & Gratitude: https://greenfirepress.com/books/good-work-grit-and-gratitude/ More about Green Fire Press: https://greenfirepress.com More about Jennifer Browdy: https://www.jenniferbrowdy.com
S1 · E4
Jan 30, 2026
59:12
The Radiant Heart of the Cosmos, a Conversation with Penny Gill
Listen in on a soul-stirring event: Jennifer Browdy in conversation with Penny Gill, author of the new book Radiant Heart of the Cosmos, in which a great teacher and her Teachers share wisdom and compassion that we desperately need now. More about Penny Gill: https://www.pennygillwisdomteachings.org More about Jennifer Browdy: https://www.jenniferbrowdy.com More about The Radiant Heart of the Cosmos: https://greenfirepress.com/books/radiant-heart-of-the-cosmos-by-penny-gill/ Purchase the book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-radiant-heart-of-the-cosmos-compassion-teachings-for-our-time-penny-gill/05207626ac3d68f8/ From the book: "The cosmos—the energy of Source…intends for life in form to flourish…. "We have taught you how fear causes blockages and suffering. Then, we’ve explained how to heal the blockages to the vast compassion of Spirit and its energy, its warmth, its power to enliven, and its gifts of insight and ease and freedom…. “The work now is to open to this great flow of Spirit and expand deep recognition of your interdependence and interrelatedness with all beings…. "This is not about good and evil, not at all. It is not a time for judgment. It is a time for profound healing, for individuals, for communities, for your world. "This is well within your reach, truly. Open to this downpour of Spirit and let it energize and guide you. It is the greatest call imaginable, to the fullest of life for all beings." --Manjushri, through Penny Gill
S1 · E3
Jan 28, 2026
40:22
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