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In an often contentious, fractured society, Sandbox Cooperative seeks to build an extended community of listeners; knocking down walls of division with curiosity and conversation. Twice a month we explore topics that people are actually talking about, considering them through a lens of spirituality, humor and discovery. You’ll discover a permission giving platform to explore new ideas with an ever-growing perspective of our world, and as the hosts regularly say, “there is always more room in ...
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In the middle of navigating the coronavirus pandemic, people everywhere are trying to find creative ways to continue to create their work and develop community. We wanted to profile people who are finding creative solutions to keep moving forward in our new normal. Today’s episode is the second in this series. In Part Two, we talk with Matt Penz ab…
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In the middle of navigating the coronavirus pandemic, people everywhere are trying to find creative ways to continue to create their work and develop community. We wanted to profile people who are finding creative solutions to keep moving forward in our new normal. Today’s episode is the first in this series. In Part One, we talk with Ben Grace and…
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2020 has looked a bit different than we imagined, hasn’t it? As the coronavirus pandemic officially hit the United States, we were convinced we just needed to sit on the couch, wait it out, and watch Netflix - but our expectations of newly found free time turned into the hard reality of quarantine. In this episode we discuss our experience so far o…
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For today’s episode, we’re revisiting our live event with Drew Hart. To dig deeper, visit SandboxCooperative.com and click on the discussion tab. On May 7, 2017 we welcomed Drew Hart for one of our Sandbox Live Events. Drew is a Theology Professor, Church Anti-Racism Trainer, and Justice Activist and author of the book, Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing …
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A few weeks ago a groundhog told us how much longer winter would last, and that a new season is right around the corner. It got us thinking about seasons in our own lives, paying attention to where we are and what’s next. What season are you in? Are you in between seasons? What could be next in your story?…
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In today’s episode we talk about gratitude. What would it look like for us to practice gratitude more consistently? How might that shape our view of our lives and the world around us? Web comic, I’m Honestly Fed Up With All The Bad News, So I Illustrated 50 Of The Best Ones From 2019: https://www.boredpanda.com/positive-news-2019-illustrations-maur…
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Dale Fredrickson is a teacher and a poet. He is the author of multiple books and albums, most recently Blessed is the Man. Blessed is the man is the story of how men can grow their capacity for mutual love and become openhearted, emotionally expressive, and relationally connected. Through poetry and the sounds of banjos, mandolins, saxophones, viol…
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We hope you are all enjoying the holidays and have the chance to be rested and encouraged this season. We’ll be taking a short break from the podcast, but will be back in mid-late January. In the meantime, here’s a quick word from us and a gift of a poem, On This Night I Wonder, from our friend Dale Fredrickson.…
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In today’s episode we talk with Emmy Kegler about her book, One Coin Found: How God's Love Stretches to the Margins. In addition to talking about the book, Emmy shared her experience of tension with the Bible and the Christian story, specifically in the ways scripture has been used to marginalize people based on sexuality, race, or beliefs. She hop…
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In today’s episode each of us share a story of an experience we had that was somehow important - one of those experiences that seemed to be full of life, where we truly noticed something special about what was happening. They’re all tied together, but maybe in surprising ways. Here are a few things to listen for in today’s episode. Why were these a…
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For today’s episode, we share our conversation with Rick and Rose Admiral of New Life Prison Ministry in Pella, Iowa. We met Rick and Rose on our trip to Houston last summer and talked with them about their work starting a church inside a prison. They shared stories of hopefulness, encouraged us to consider restorative justice, and remind us of the…
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Today we’re excited to share a conversation we had with some folks from Decolonize Lutheranism. What started as an internet meme in response to jokes about Sven and Ole and Lutherans eating Jell-O has shifted into a movement advocating an expansive Lutheran tradition that includes and values the contributions of Lutherans from all cultural backgrou…
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Today marks something a little something different here in the Sandbox as we interviewed Dave about his time away this summer. We had the opportunity to learn a little bit more about his travels and what he learned during his time of sabbatical. We talked about his study of celtic spirituality, the need for rest and taking time to step back, and he…
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In this episode we share our conversation with Stephen Bouman, Director for Domestic Mission in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Stephen shares stories about a variety of experiences in his years as a pastor, church leader, and now with the ELCA, and encourages us to trust in the value of relationship and community to bring change…
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In this episode we talked with Ruthie Kolb, owner of Kindling Communication, about how to have healthy conversations around human sexuality and our sexual identities. Using researched-based best practices in sexual health education, Ruthie facilitates strengths-based, interactive, age-appropriate, and inclusive conversations about sexuality that ar…
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In today’s episode, we’ll hear from two women who represented the Women and Justice social statement at the National Youth Gathering in Houston, Texas last summer. We had the chance to sit down with them and learn a lot about the process of creating a social statement and why this one is especially important. As you’ll hear in the episode, in the E…
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Many of our conversations over the last several months came from our trip down to Houston last summer. One of those conversations was with an organization called Water to Thrive, a faith-based American nonprofit that funds the building of wells in eastern Africa and spreads awareness about the African water crisis. We had the opportunity to meet wi…
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In our world we see a lot of perfection, end result, and final product, but not a lot of the process of the people and things that inspire us. That might lead us to think our own work isn’t good enough if it doesn’t match someone else’s standard of success. But maybe something is worth doing just because of the joy it brings - even at our own level…
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Have you ever thought: “You know what somebody should do…? Somebody should…” Could it be that the “somebody” you are talking about is you? Last summer we had the opportunity to meet with Brad Otto, the founder and president of Acts of Wisdom, a non profit organization dedicated to assisting people in rural Africa in their quest to obtain quality, r…
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In the final episode of our immigration series, we connected again with our friends from St. Michael’s in Albuquerque, New Mexico to see what they have learned over the last 9 months or so since we had our initial conversation. With new developments on the southern border, St. Michael’s has expanded their work in immigration to meet the need, and o…
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As we continue our series on immigration, we’ll share our conversation with Marian Bock. We had the opportunity to connect with Marian through David and Joe, who shared about their community, St. Michael’s, in our last episode. Marian is a member of the Albuquerque Friends Meeting House, a quaker community in Albuquerque providing sanctuary for a w…
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The conversation on immigration is incredibly heated in our culture. But we believe the conversation can change when we begin with the dignity and value of all people - and our guests today showed us just that. As we continue our series on immigration, we’ll introduce you to the community at St. Michael Episcopal Church in Albuquerque. We felt an i…
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We are about to enter into yet another election cycle, and once again immigration issues are at the forefront of it all. We are no experts on the matter, but we wondered - what does the conversation look like if we start with the worth, value, and dignity of all people? In future weeks these episodes will include conversations we had in New Mexico …
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About a month ago we asked the question, “What do you wonder about?” We invited listeners to message us and let us know. In today’s episode we heard from a listener named Kelly. She was wondering what it means to live as a person of belief in a pluralistic society. What does it mean to maintain and strengthen relationships while still remembering t…
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While we were on a road trip we met leaders from Generation Justice in Albuquerque, New Mexico who taught us that love, listening and honoring people’s stories can change the world. Generation Justice is a multi-racial project that centers race equity to train youth to harness the power of community through leadership, media, narrative, and critica…
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In this episode we talk with writer and organizer Carla Godwin and musician Ben Grace about a new song they co-wrote called “Preacher’s Daughter.” The song sparked conversation on a wide range of topics from creativity, to faith, and to discovering, claiming, and using your voice. About Ben Grace Australian singer-songwriter Ben Grace’s impeccably …
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Have you ever experienced a change in your life, your relationships, your work… and just plowed ahead like everything is fine and nothing is different? How do we acknowledge when a season has changed and lean into a new reality? In this episode we will explore these ideas and consider some ways to get unstuck, to look up, and live into the “new thi…
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With Christmas and New Year’s coming, we are taking time to pull some new stories and podcasts together for 2019… and there is a whole lot of exciting stuff to look forward to: St. Michael's Church in Albuquerque, Generation Justice, and more conversations from our time in Houston last summer. But between now and then, we want to hear from you… Wha…
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A lot of our holiday traditions revolve around food… but maybe none more than Thanksgiving with its iconic turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes and gravy. As we enter this season current estimates are that more than 800 million people - or 11% of the world’s population - are hungry. Thankfully, there are organizations working to change this every …
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We live in a society that values speed, productivity and efficiency; and our technology drives this in a way that can often be unhealthy. These are good things to a point, but maybe we’ve gone a bit too far. In this episode, we talk about some practices that might help us get back on track and allow us to own our devices, rather than letting our de…
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What is it about our ancestors? Why do we care? When it comes to celebrations honoring those who have died, we often think of things like The Day of the Dead from Mexico, or maybe All Saint’s Day. These global observances and celebrations come from all different faith backgrounds: Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, as well as tribal traditions and religio…
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This past summer, we caught up with some friends from Mosaic. Mosaic is a faith-based organization serving people with intellectual disabilities. We learned about their unique approach to building community and connection through their life changing work. Learn more about Mosaic and how you can get involved at MosaicInfo.org.…
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On September 23, 2018 Sandbox Cooperative welcomed Dr. Jacqueline Bussie to the Sandbox stage to talk about her new book, Love Without Limits. We discussed how we can learn to love as God does—without limits or exceptions. This podcast contains the Q&A portion of the evening event. In Love Without Limits, Bussie imparts practical solutions for peop…
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On September 23, 2018 Sandbox Cooperative welcomed Dr. Jacqueline Bussie to the Sandbox stage to talk about her new book, Love Without Limits. We discussed how we can learn to love as God does—without limits or exceptions. In Love Without Limits, Bussie imparts practical solutions for people who yearn to love across difference. Through poignant mem…
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In Episode 72 we share our conversation with author, speaker and social entrepreneur, Linda Kay Klein. Linda just released her book, Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free. Linda is also the founder of Break Free Together - an organization that helps people to release shame and claim their…
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Growing up means something different to just about everyone. But if you could go back in time, what would you tell the 15-year-old version of yourself? In this episode, we talk about growing up, what to do with the advice we receive, and how we mark the ways that we grow and change over time. We also hear from a variety of people sharing what they …
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In our contentious society, it seems like we really have no idea how to share our thoughts, ideas, fears, hopes and dreams. How can we do this better? We’ve had several fascinating conversations with professional communicators and in part three of this series we share our conversation with Duane Sauke, a former educator and realtor who is currently…
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In our contentious society, it seems like we really have no idea how to share our thoughts, ideas, fears, hopes and dreams. How can we do this better? We’ve had several fascinating conversations with professional communicators and over the next few months we’ll be sharing these conversations. In part two of this series we share our conversation wit…
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In this episode, we continue our conversation Chris Tripolino of the Reimagined Songs Project. Chris and others are writing a whole new library of songs that can support communities growing together as they sing and seek and discover what is coming into existence as "church." Interested in joining the project? Consider joining the Facebook group, o…
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In this episode, we talk with Chris Tripolino of the Reimagined Songs Project (Part 1 of 2). Chris and others are writing a whole new library of songs that can support communities growing together as they sing and seek and discover what is coming into existence as "church." Interested in joining the project? Consider joining the Facebook group, or …
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We're live on location in Houston for the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) Youth Gathering. Each day of this gathering there are themes, and today's theme is Hope. Here are a few of our thoughts and some insights from a variety of youth and adults at the gathering.由Sandbox Cooperative
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We're live on location in Houston for the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) Youth Gathering. Each day of this gathering there are themes, and today's theme is Grace. Here are a few of our thoughts and some insights from a variety of youth and adults at the gathering.由Sandbox Cooperative
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We're live on location in Houston for the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) Youth Gathering. Each day of this gathering there are themes, and today's theme is Love. Here are a few of our thoughts and some insights from a variety of youth and adults at the gathering.由Sandbox Cooperative
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In our contentious society, it seems like we really have no idea how to share our thoughts, ideas, fears, hopes and dreams. How can we do this better? We’ve had several fascinating conversations with professional communicators recently, and over the next few months, we’ll be sharing these conversations. Part one of this series contains our conversa…
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We featured a conversation with Samir Selmanović a few weeks ago in Episode 62. We had so much fun with him, that we figured it was time for another round! Samir is a “secular pastor for business leaders” and focuses on the humanization of business. He loves his home country of Croatia, the streets and humans of New York City, and the changing seas…
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Have you ever been asked the question, “Where are you from?” One way of thinking about that question could also be “When you come back to yourself, to your core, Where are your roots?” Things like our family, our religious traditions, or even the town where we grew up can have a significant impact on the way that we think or the things we do. But t…
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A lot of religious traditions teach that you are lacking, that you are not enough. But others teach that you already have “it.” You have what you need. Perhaps the job of a leader in a community is to help bring that to the surface – to help bring your gift and strength forward so you can share it. And maybe when that happens we can live more abund…
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In Episode 62, we talk with Samir Selmanović about how meals and other rituals sit at the center of relationships that help us continue to learn and grow. (Note: this episode does contain explicit language) Existence is sacred; nothing is ordinary; work is intimacy. As a “secular pastor for business leaders” Samir is focusing on the humanization of…
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“Wait until you get to the real world.” Many of us hear that phrase as a young person, but what do we miss if we discredit youth and don’t hear their voices? Youth aren’t waiting for the real world (because where else would we live?). They’re in it and have valuable insight to share in our conversations.…
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For today’s episode, we’re revisiting our live event with Science Mike McHargue. To dig deeper, visit SandboxCooperative.com and click on the discussion tab. Mike McHargue (better known as Science Mike) is an author, podcaster, and speaker who travels the world helping people understand the science of life’s most profound experiences. His bestselli…
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