E48 How Much Ballast?

A “just right” amount of ballast provides steadiness so people can choose where they want to go—and choose a course to get there.

Work, Social ProximityBeth SandersApril 16, 2024Art of Hosting, Facilitation, Social Habitat, ballast, coaching

E47 Speaking From (vs talking about)

It feels good to fight and argue, but when there’s no pressure to convince others or be convinced, we listen in ways that allow us to improve our communities.

E46 Housing as Community Social Enterprise

Beth Sanders and Jason Syvixay investigate how their locational, gender, sexual orientation, age and racial identities shape their experience of cities, their work as city planners and some implications for the planning profession. (Note: you don’t have to be a city planner to enjoy this conversation!)

Civic Practice, Conversation, WorkBeth SandersJanuary 30, 2024housing, community, community social enterprise, Work

E45 It's All in the Cards

City making, the weaving of city building and city caring, only happens when we have a social habitat in which we choose to weave these perspectives together.

E44 Community Learning

We only organize together if we are in the push and pull of conversation, wrestling with the action we feel we need to take. If not, we are being organized, passive participants in the status quo doing others’ bidding.

E43 Stepping Into Vulnerability

An impromptu check-in invited awe in self, others and a beautiful place.

E42 Radical Reflection

In my quest to figure out how planners and everyone else in the city can work better together, I’ve learned the magic of finding the minimal critical structure that enables new possibilities.

Civic Practice, WorkBeth SandersJune 6, 2023Civic Practice, Values, work

A1 A Moment of Quiet

Think about an activation like a guided meditation. You can listen to them in order or in response to your intuition--which one catches your eye?

Civic Practice, ActivationBeth SandersMay 9, 2023Civic Practice, Activation

E41 Do it Scared

Radical honesty with my ski patrol colleagues makes me feel less scared. And more capable, too.

Civic PracticeBeth SandersApril 27, 2023Ski patrol, Radical honesty

E40 The Inconceivable Inconceivable

There are two kinds of inconceivable: 1) the one I tell myself isn’t possible and 2) the one I can’t imagine.

Civic Practice, WorkBeth SandersMarch 21, 2023Ski patrol, Mountain, Skiing, Jasper, Conversation

E39 Change as a Verb

Beth has landed in perimenopause, asking herself the question she asks others everywhere she goes: How do I make my way through this transition with care and compassion? The answer is in thinking not of The Change but of changing. Change as a verb.

E38 Intersectionality, GBA+ and City Making

What on earth are intersectionality and GBA+? And what do they have to do with city making? Beth Sanders and Soni Dasmohapatra explore intersectionality and Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) in their work as city makers; they land on this understanding: GBA+ is a means to be in a conversation about improvement.

City Making, Civic Practice, Social ProximityBeth SandersJanuary 30, 2023Intersectionality, GBA+, Soni

E37 The Agony of Conversation

How do you design a public meeting when you believe that everyone has something to say, not just the vocal few?

E36 Transition-Making is Choosing Changing

When we avoid sharing opportunities to make meaning of our experiences and make choices from the meaning we've made, we avoid the challenges and brilliance of community. And the choice, in every moment, rests with each of us. Choosing transition means choosing to participate in our changing.

E35 Transition Bypassing

We want change to happen without changing ourselves, without having to do anything differently. Yet, choosing transition means choosing to participate in our changing.

E34 Community Bypassing

When we avoid sharing opportunities to make meaning of our experiences and make choices from the meaning we’ve made, we avoid the challenges and brilliance of community.

E33 Upper Mountain Relationships

An emotional upset and a ski trip helped me unearth two limiting beliefs about relationship skills.

Civic PracticeBeth SandersApril 8, 2022Civic Practice, Relationship

E32 Relationship Bypassing

Agreements about how we’ll talk and relate to each other are a commitment to be responsible for the quality of our relationships. In this article: 2 symptoms of, and 7 antidotes to, relationship bypassing.

Images created for this episode can be found here.

E31 Conversation Bypassing

Assuming that the expertise in the room is in one or a few people disables and minimizes the resilience of a community. In this episode: 4 symptoms of conversation bypassing and 5 antidotes.

Civic Practice, Art of HostingBeth SandersFebruary 15, 2022Bypassing, Connection, Conversation, Art of Hosting

E30 Connection Bypassing

Whether online or in-person, how we gather fosters connection between people only when we design in opportunities for people to make contact with each other. When we don’t, we engage in connection bypassing.

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