Following up on the successful efforts of Save the Dogs to close down the dog breeding for experimentation operations at Ridglan Farms in Blue Mounds, WI, eyes have turned to other major contributors to such abusive companies. Gretchen Primack is the co-director of the March to Abolish Animal Testing (MAAT), a march taking place in New York from September 12-26, 2026 traveling 207 miles from Albany to the small town where Marshall BioResources is located. Gretchen and other volunteers are doing amazing, deeply-motivated work bringing together many hundreds of people to organize and participate in part or all of this march.
We don't have much rap music as part of Song of the Soul, so it's about time, and I think I found a perfect guest for my show; Colby Jeffers is all about making a better world, as evident from the title of his book, Building a Better World: 5 Pillars for Transforming Yourself and Humanity. He also has released 9 rap recording over the past 13 years, and done numerous concerts across the lower 48 states. He is Baha'i and draws on inspiration and motivation of the religion, on top of his personal experience, to craft rap songs as part of his Better World Project. Colby Jeffers is from Phoenix, Arizona.
Past/present religious/spiritual influences: Baha'i
Michael Todd Fink and his brother founded The Giving Tree Band in 2004 with a powerful vision, including living communally and with strong environmental stewardship. While the music expresses through elements of folk, rock, country, bluegrass, and much more, the lyrics often come from and express deep truths and understandings. So it is no surprise when Todd released his contemplative collection, Losslessness: Reflections on Impermanence, Glimpses of Forever, this past spring. Todd is and has been many things beyond “just” a musician and writer, among them a mindfulness meditation teacher, an addiction counselor, and a licensed psychotherapist. And did I mention he has been a Naperville TedX speaker?
Patti Nesbitt & Kristin Camitta Zimet have co-written a book dealing with end-of-life preparation and issues. The name of the book is A Tender Time, which it beautifully helps us prepare for, with the subtitle, Quaker Voices On the End of Life, created under the care of Baltimore Yearly Meeting. They are Quaker, so the title is accurate, but actually this book is for everyone, with very widely appropriate information, knowledge, & counsel for all people. In fact, Patti's work with palliative care was with a general population, so her expertise was honed with a wide range of people of a wide range of spiritual, on non-spiritual, viewpoints. Patti's education, expertise, and work included time with environmental issues, organic agriculture, and as a cancer survivor.
Greg Greenway is sharing his music today, especially appreciated since I delayed so long in contacting him. I first learned of Greg's work as part of Brother Sun with Joe Jencks and Pat Wictor about 10 years ago. After that, there has been his work with Reggie Harris, who's also been my guest a couple times, with the two of them performing as Deeper Than The Skin. I'm grateful that Greg has been successful in his wrestling with cancer, rising perennial in the face of adversity, so I could finally invite him to join us. There's a powerful current of love and connection throughout Greg's music, which you'll feel in this hour, and maybe it will energize you in that direction as well.
Today we follow up to a visit we had 2 months ago with Margaret Brown of Blue Zones, as we drill down into the same work from the local focus on up. True Wellness was formed about a year ago to explore and chart the way for better health, community wide, in Northwest Wisconsin, and Natasha Ward is their executive director. The decision started from a business need for better health coverage and costs, and became a pursuit of a transformed region with longer-lived, healthier citizens.
Peterson Toscano is guest-host today. If you're a regular listener, you know about Peterson's incredible gifts in sharing transformational riches with you. He does a number of podcasts, and so he shares some samples here, with new content as well. Because I'm crazy busy heading out to California for a vital family gathering, I'll just let Peterson explain all of this about capitalism, opportunism, environmentalism, integrity, and such related topics and themes today, along with the full cast of characters - co-host Diana Yañez and guests including Gwyneth Jones, Nina Bentley, Phil McGraw, and Trey McCain. Find more about Peterson & the full range of works, podcast, video, theological, & more, at PetersonToscano.com.
Past/present religious/spiritual influences: Evangelical Christian, Quaker
Keith Runyan is the General Secretary of QEW, that's Quaker Earthcare Witness, and among his duties in that role was as a participant of the 30th COP session. You likely know of several earlier COP conferences, including COP3 in Kyoto in 1977, COP21 in Paris in 2015, and so last year, 2025, was the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference. We'll learn a bit about COP30 and Keith's role there, but also about the kind of work we all can do, individually, and as part of organizations, to stop and reverse the damage we are doing to the Earth, and the kind of strength and skill we need, personally, to do such work. We sat down now with Keith Runyan at the University of Vermont in Burlington.
John-Michael Field, initials JMF, is mostly known as JAMOOF, but I think an even better name might be Big Love's Dowsing Rod, because his music is so powerfully aimed at the Big Love; not just the personal romantic connection but the thing that also gets called by the Light, the Tao, and many other names. There is naked soul and gritty mountain climbing in JAMOOF's songs, with reflections of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and other rich folk fodder. His guitar and voice are compelling, solid, and completely real, with no artificial sweetener or illusions mastered over by studio gimmicks. You'll sometimes see him on stage with the likes of Claire Dacey, but often solo. And best of all, he joins us here, in person, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, instead of via Zoom from Massachusetts, which he calls home.
John Scardina has worked in multiple fields, including as a teacher, and as a psychologist, but his passion for decades has been around AVP - the Alternatives to Violence Project, Men's work, and the work of the Friends Peace Teams., where John is co-clerk of Peacebuilding en las Americas. John has amazing talent to accompany his deep passion, and is therefore willing and able to work places and with people that too many ignore. Whether it's in Sing Sing Prison, in Central America, or in Palestine, John works at making this world better with a rich bag of tools and a caring heart. John Scardina joins us in person in Burlington, Vermont before a live audience at the 2026 FGC Gathering.