Episode 19 :: When a House is More Than a House

Eventually the American Dream proves itself to be otherwise. For Sung and Myra Sohn, arriving in the States from their native Korea, what awaited them was getting established in architectural studies (Sung—quite a renaissance man) and starting a career in pharmacology (Myra) and then joining with the usual frantic and disjointed rhythms of American life. Eventually they found that life not to their liking as its demands took a toll on family identity and cohesion. Sung envisioned an alternative housing arrangement based on shared life and spiritual practice, not just for his own family but for other residents and guests.

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Episode 16 :: A Chaplain for a New Century

Lauren Van Ham has had a love affair with the natural world and has found renewal from being there. She has worked in nonprofit and for-profit settings, ministry settings, corporate settings, and has found herself instructing WalMart employees and management in what sustainablity means on a personal level. After some eye opening experiences showing her the great need for someone tuned into the needs of the Earth, she decided to recommit herself as an “eco-chaplain,” even re-ritualizing her ordination to solidify her commitment outwardly.

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Episode 14 :: Last Acts of Caring

This show features Eric Putt and Andrea Deerheart of Thresholds, a mortuary service that provides home- and family-directed funerals that put the human dimension back into taking care of the deceased—a real alternative to the commercial funeral industry, which by intent or accident has usurped the role of loved ones to care-fully tend to the body.

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Episode 12 :: Teaching Triple Bottom Line

How are business majors being trained for the marketplace in the new context shaped by Earth’s pushback on unlimited growth business models? That’s where The Common Good goes in this episode with guest Harry Watkins, Professor of Strategy and Sustainability at the Fermanian School of Business, Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego. Harry tells us about his “a ha” moments that moved him to a passion for incorporating the people and planet into the bottom line, and the drive to get others on board with the triple bottom line.

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Episode 10 :: Cooperatives

This month our guest is Nancy Cassidy, the General Manager of the Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Market, a cooperatively owned retail store in San Diego. OB People’s concentrates in selling vegetarian food, but the cooperative as a business model can be applied to any kind of business that is now run by a corporation. The difference of course, is that shares are held in a one-owner, one share manner and no one can accumulate shares and the influence that goes with them.

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Episode 8 :: Community. Land. Trust.

This month’s episode features two guests from the San Diego Community Land Trust, where Lee Van Ham is the board chairman. Richard Lawrence, ordained in the Methodist Church, has a long history in social justice work, affordable housing efforts and community building in Chicago and San Diego. Anastasia Brewster, coordinator, has experience in Real Estate consulting and has worked with a Phoenix area CLT before coming to San Diego and working with the local CLT.

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Episode 7 :: Fair Trade for Dummies

David Funkhouser of Fair Trade USA (formerly TransFair USA) is our featured guest for this episode which coincides with Fair Trade month (October). David is Strategic Relations coordinator for FTUSA in Oakland and just finished a day of presenting at three universities before coming to meet and talk with us. He talks about his attraction to and involvement in the movement, the origins of FT, the processes for certifying cooperatives that produce the goods, and how FT meets needs of smaller producers better than the so-called free trade market, ensuring that participating farmers and artisans can remain situated in their homelands, as dignified and productive citizens.

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