A Bahá'í Perspective

Martin is a singer songwriter that has produced a number of albums which you can find on his website href="https://martinkerrmusic.com" target="_blank"MartinKerrMusic.com. We feature six songs from his various albums in the interview.

Carl is the Principal United Nations Representative at the Baha'i Office of Public Affairs. He works with the UN and other non-governmental organizations in areas such as: the advancement of women, sustainable development and human rights.

Arthur worked in the field of sustainable development for over 50 years. He worked for many years for the href="http://web.unep.org/" target="_blank"United Nations Environment Programme, and a consultant to international organizations and research programmes on environmental assessment, coral reefs, biodiversity, environmental education, and social and economic development. During the interview, we talk about his work at UNEP, his early work in his career his involvment in two Baha'i inspired organizations, the International Environment Forum and the organization Ethical Business Building the Future, and his books, href="https://www.amazon.com/Unless-Until-BahaI-Focus-Environment/dp/1870989090/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8amp;qid=1487530060amp;sr=8-1amp;keywords=Unless+and+Until+Arthur+Dahl" target="_blank"Unless and Until: A Baha'i Focus on the Environment and href="https://www.amazon.com/Eco-Principle-Ecology-Economics-Symbiosis/dp/1856494349/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8amp;qid=1487530169amp;sr=8-1amp;keywords=The+Eco+Prin

Cindy has been an educator for more than 35 years in the U.S., South America and China. While in China Cindy implemented the href="http://www.worldambassadorprogram.org/wap/Welcome.html" target="_blank"World Ambassador Program, a joint venture with BestWay International. It's an educational program that expands the student's perspective to be world embracing. As a World Ambassador Teacher and trainer, Cindy teaches global awareness through a unique blend of stories, biographies of people making the world a better place, songs, games and art. She talks more about the program in the interview. She#39;s written 40+ novels for young people and 100+ textbooks. We talk about Cindy's href="http://www.9facets.org/9f/Bahai_Youth_Wave.html" target="_blank"Youth Wave book series as well as her href="http://www.cindysebooks.com/ce/Welcome.html" target="_blank"newest works in the interview. We also talk about her latest endeavor called Spirit Play, that combines activity with meditation. She talks about a recent S

Hoda has held a number of positions in academia including Dean of the College of Arts amp; Sciences at Northeaster Illinois University and Vice President and Dean of Olivet College. She href="http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/13/us/racial-tension-erupts-tearing-a-college-apart.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank"describes her work in the aftermath of the racial incident at Olivet that hit the news in 1992 to help avoid such an incident occurring again. Hoda is now head of the href="http://www.bahaichair.umd.edu/" target="_blank"Baha'i Chair for World Peace at the University of MD. She describes for us what a university chair is and what is the mission of the Baha'i Chair for World Peace.

Todd is Professor Emeritus of Islamic Thought at the University of Toronto. Todd has published numerous articles and books on the relationship between the Bahaacute;#39;iacute; Faith and Islam. Todd#39;s most recent publication is a large two-volume reference collection on Islamic eschatology entitled href="http://www.brill.com/products/reference-work/roads-paradise-eschatology-and-concepts-hereafter-islam-2-vols" target="_blank"Roads to Paradise which he edited with his colleague, Sebastian Guenther, Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Goettingen in Germany. Todd is now finishing a new book on the Baacute;b#39;s earliest writings, and a book on the Qur#39;an. Two volumes on the wriitngs of the Bab and Baha#39;u#39;llaacute;h - a collection of previously published material newly edited and revised, will be published by Kalimat in early 2018. We talk about who the Bab was in the interview.

href="http://bahaiteachings.org/" target="_blank"BahaiTeachings.org is a collection of essays on innumerable topics providing an individual Baha'i's perspective on contemporary issues. David writes and edits for BahaiTeachings.org and was a journalist and literary critic for Paste Magazine. He discusses how the site began, its content and his work as managing editor.

Paul has published four books and more than 1500 articles on the environment, agriculture, and other topics. He has been the environment columnist with the Saskatoon StarPhoenix since 1989. Paul is a recipient of the Canadian Environment Award, the Organic Connections Pioneer Organic Communicator Award, and the Meewasin Conservation Award. Paul's latest work is called href="http://www.elevenbillionpeople.com/" target="_blank"Eleven which discusses the impact of the projected 11 billion people that will reside on this planet at the end of this century. We discuss his book in the interview.

Al went to law school in the US but almost immediately he moved outside the United States and never ended up practicing law here. He first went to Paris and then to Africa. He describes his work in Africa in the interview. He was then asked to serve at the Baha'i world center in Haifa Israel. Of his achievements, one was to have the Baha'i holy places in Haifa and Acca placed on UNESCO's prestigious World Heritage List in 2008. Al explains how it is that the Baha'i holy places are located in Israel.

Elika is a vocalist, composer, pianist, and artist. She considers herself a world citizen; her parents are from Iran, she was born in the US, she was raised in Kenya, and now lives in China. Elika#39;s love of music began when she was a child growing up in Africa. In between she has lived in Israel and Hong Kong. Her music beautifully expresses the diverse cultures that have been a part of her upbringing, blending and reflecting the influences of this varied background, drawing upon classical Western structures but incorporating instrumentation and styles from Iran to Ireland and China to Spain. You can find her work at href="http://www.elikamahony.com" target="_blank"elikamahony.com.

Linda is a psychotherapist, specializing in suicide prevention and community healing and is the co-founder of the href="https://www.virtuesproject.com/" target="_blank"Virtues Project that in 1991 launched into a global grassroots initiative to inspire the practice of virtues in everyday life. She is also a best-selling author of href="https://virtuesshop.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemartamp;page=shop.product_detailsamp;flypage=flypage.tplamp;product_id=26amp;Itemid=53" target="_blank"The Family Virtues Guide and href="https://virtuesshop.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemartamp;page=shop.product_detailsamp;flypage=flypage.tplamp;product_id=117amp;Itemid=53" target="_blank"A Pace of Grace. She has also published href="https://www.amazon.com/Graceful-Endings-Navigating-Journey-Grief/dp/147916531X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8amp;qid=1481394980amp;sr=8-1amp;keywords=Graceful+Endings+Linda+Kavelin-Popov" target="_blank"Graceful Endings and the novel called href="https://www.amazon.com/Scent-Sage-Linda-Kavelin-Popov/dp

Karen collaborates with Shrin Youssefian Maanian and Yasmin Farhoumand under the name Sky to produce music based on the texts of the Baha'i Faith. They have created two CDs. Their first CD is called href="http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sky22" target="_blank"A Cycle of Divine Love Songs and their most recent CD is called href="http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sky2" target="_blank"Now. We feature music from both CDs in the interview. Karen describes how she met Shirin and their first collaboration together making the play href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_xN5ohjZXM" target="_blank"Pure, which is the story of a woman named Tahireh, who in the 19th century was an established Persian poetess who ultimately was martyred for her faith in the Bab, prophet founder of the Babi Faith and inaugurator of the Baha'i Faith. From that collaboration bloomed the inspiration of Sky.

Parivash left Iran in 1979 coincident with the inauguration of the Islamic Revolution in that country. Parivash describes how difficult it was for her to live in her country as a Baha'i. What pushed her over the edge to leave was the burning down of her family home by arsonists and not being allowed to attend university. She returned to Iran 30 years later and was amazed how much the country had changed in those 30 years. One of her missions while there was to find out how the Baha'is are doing under the oppression of the current regime. She committed herself to present to folks here in the States the situation of the Baha'is in Iran. I met Parivash when she was in my area making this presentation.

Chris is the author of the book href="https://www.amazon.com/Nudges-Grandfather-Honouring-Indigenous-Technologies-ebook/dp/B01DTLN5CG" target="_blank"Nudges From Grandfather: Honouring Indigenous Spiritual Technologies. It is the first in a series that is titled Honouring Indigenous Spiritual Technologies. Chris has a PhD in Law with his thesis titled ldquo;The Protection of Indigenous Medical Knowledge: Transforming Law to Engage Indigenous Spiritual Concerns.rdquo; It's not surprising the Chris is devoting his life to the protection of indigenous peoples. He grew up with a father that specialized in Indigenous Psychology and he lived and worked with several Native American communities. His website is href="http://chriskavelin.com" target="_blank"ChrisKavelin.com.

Robert is a musician from the Portland, Oregon area and has written about 60 songs. For this interview I asked Robert to feature some of his songs from his album href="http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rbassett" target="_blank" Sunshine Through the Rain. He has another CD called href="http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rbassett2" target="_blank"Shades of Love. His website is href="http://hadahproductions.com/" target="_blank"hadahproductions.com.

It wasn't Ken's intention, but life called him to serve at the Baha'i National Center in Wilmette, Illinois for 25 years. Ken currently serves as the Secretary General for the United States Baha'i National Spiritual Assembly, the governing council for the Baha'is in the US. Ken provides in this interview some very good explanations of some of the fundamental principles of the Baha'i Faith.

Lesa started out in life as a writer and then found the audio medium much more suitable in which to work with. She has taken the interviews from this program, A Baha'i Perspective, categorized segments from many of the interviews and then spliced together segments from different interviews but on the same theme. She presents these segments in a venue simulating a cafe. Thus she calls the work cafe Baha'i and more specifically Spiritual Journeys. You can find Spiritual Journeys on her website href="http://cafebahai.com/" target="_blank"cafeBahai.com. On her website she also presents her audio book work. I include samples from both Spiritual Journeys and her audio book work in the interview.

A group of four dedicated calendar lovers in Portland, OR are combining their talents to teach how the Baha#39;i 19-day calendar can be used to develop a process for spiritual growth and awareness. Using art, scripture and mathematics, Cora and her husband Michael Palazzolo have created 19-Day Cards, a daily method for tracking and practicing with the spiritual qualities in the Baha#39;i calendar. ldquo;Heartistrdquo; Tammy Hill and her husband, Mark as marketing manager/videographer, make up the fun group who call themselves: Team 19. You can find their work at href="http://www.19daycards.com/" target="_blank"19daycards.com. In this interview, Cora shares her story and how she came to create 19-Day Cards.

Beth is a physician, educator, writer and world traveler. In 1992 she was elected national President of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and since 2001 has represented the organization, International Society of Doctors for the Environment. As a result, she describes herself as an activist physician. She is currently developing a biography of Dr. Magdalene Carney, an African-American educator that had profound impact in her field. Beth explains in the interview how she used target="_top" href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/MagCarneyBiography"Facebook to gather stories and photos for the biography.

Shadi is a Baha'i musician that has produced three CDs: Leather Bound Book, Verdant Isle, and her latest release Daughters of the Kingdom. I asked Shadi to pick five songs from her latest CD to showcase for this interview. You can find her music at her website href="http://www.shaditolouiwallace.com/" target="_blank"http://www.shaditolouiwallace.com/