100 episodes

Old news. Bad news. Fake news. Sometimes you want to shut down and get no news at all! I aim to change that by focusing on good people doing good works. I visit with artists, educators, civic & spiritual leaders, musicians, business owners, students, volunteers, and everyday citizens who are using their creativity, resources, and talents to bring hope, happiness, and goodness to their corner of the world.

Find the Good News with Oran Parker findthegoodnews

    • News

Old news. Bad news. Fake news. Sometimes you want to shut down and get no news at all! I aim to change that by focusing on good people doing good works. I visit with artists, educators, civic & spiritual leaders, musicians, business owners, students, volunteers, and everyday citizens who are using their creativity, resources, and talents to bring hope, happiness, and goodness to their corner of the world.

    Ep. 124 - The Bridges That Connect Us - Ft. CSE Federal Credit Union - Find the Good News with Oran Parker

    Ep. 124 - The Bridges That Connect Us - Ft. CSE Federal Credit Union - Find the Good News with Oran Parker

    Ep. 124 - The Bridges That Connect Us - Ft. CSE Federal Credit Union - Find the Good News with Oran Parker
     
    What happens when a brand sets service to the community as their moral north star? In the case of CSE Federal Credit Union, you get a brand with 80 years of local involvement that sets a standard of excellence I find difficult to fully quantify.
     
    I've had the pleasure of working with the CSE team on a variety of projects over the last 20 years, and while very real personal friendships have formed through the course of our professional history, I've never had the chance to sit down with their team in an intimate way and touch the beating heart of the CSE family.
     
    In this episode, I got that opportunity through visiting with CSE President & CEO Matt Koch, Chief Marketing Officer Colleen Desselle, and retired past CEO Eddie Oakley to discuss CSE's 80-year history in Southwest Louisiana, their commitment to serving CSE's members and their efforts to bring their unique passion for people to other markets.
     
    Our world is very busy, and would be very easy to box any business into your peripherals, but I encourage you to bring your focus in on what Matt, Colleen, and Eddie have to share regarding CSE's unique credit union culture. I think you will find, as I did, that in their 80-year history, CSE has not only developed deep roots, but also ever widening branches that embrace many of the projects that enhance our quality of life.
     
    So, I invite you to sit with me and get to know CSE. Now, let's queue the music and press play on a little good news.
    Learn about CSE Federal Credit Union » www.CSEFCU.org
    Learn more about Parker Brand Creative Services » www.ParkerBrandUp.com
    Listen to more Find the Good News episodes » www.FindtheGood.News

    • 1 hr 3 min
    Ep. 123 - The Right Chemistry - Ft. George Swift - Find the Good News with Oran Parker

    Ep. 123 - The Right Chemistry - Ft. George Swift - Find the Good News with Oran Parker

    For over 20 years, George Swift, the CEO & President of the Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance has been using his unique chemistry of professional skills and personal strengths in service to the Southwest Louisiana region.

    • 1 hr
    Ep. 122 - The Shifters - Beacon Series Ft. Steve Taylor - Find the Good News with Brother Oran

    Ep. 122 - The Shifters - Beacon Series Ft. Steve Taylor - Find the Good News with Brother Oran

    You’re listening to Find the Good News, Episode 122, “The Shifters,” A Beacon Series conversation featuring Steve Taylor, author of  "Extraordinary Awakenings: When Trauma Leads to Transformation" published by New World Library.

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    "Just like a blind man that has discovered a jewel in a heap of rubbish, likewise, by some coincidence, an awakening mind has been born within me." With this simple, powerful turn of phrase, the Indian mystic Shantideva laid claim on my heart and framed my personal awakening experience over 25 years ago.
     
    It was a profound moment of illumination in the midst of deep personal pain and set in motion years of curious seeking, discovery, experience, and practice that has offered shelter over my life to this very day. Perhaps this was the reason I so enjoyed the new book by Steve Taylor, "Extraordinary Awakenings: When Trauma Leads to Transformation," and why I was so eager to have him visit me on "Find the Good News."
     
    Steve's new book is a collection of potent awakening stories spanning across a wide spectrum of traumatic human experiences such as imprisonment, war, addiction, depression, tragedy, and grief. He presents the common markers exhibited by the awakened—"shifters"—on the other side of a trauma experience.
     
    No stranger to these uncommon causes of awakening, Steve offers a view of minds-and-hearts dawning in plain view, in the shadowy-yet-lovely circumstances of human existence, and in the beautiful, bumpy, ordinary enlightened beings blooming around us in this "heap of rubbish."
     
    Now, I invite you to move beyond fundamentalism, past religious framing, and open yourself to the idea of your own potential for extraordinary awakening, then tune your attention to this Good News Beacon, and press play on a little good news.


    ==========
    SUPPORT FIND THE GOOD NEWS — https://www.findthegood.news/donate/ 
    ==========
    LEARN MORE ABOUT STEVE TAYLOR — https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/about-steve-taylor/ 
    BUY A COPY OF "EXTRAORDINARY AWAKENINGS" — https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/books/extraordinary-awakenings/ 
    SEE MORE BOOKS FROM NEW WORLD LIBRARY — https://www.newworldlibrary.com/ 
    ==========
    FIND THE GOOD NEWS IS PRODUCED BY PARKER BRAND CREATIVE SERVICES — www.ParkerBrandUp.com  
    ==========

    • 1 hr 4 min
    Ep. 121 - The Raw Honey - Beacon Series Ft. Kori Hahn - Find the Good News with Brother Oran

    Ep. 121 - The Raw Honey - Beacon Series Ft. Kori Hahn - Find the Good News with Brother Oran

    You’re listening to Find the Good News, Episode 121, “The Raw Honey,” A Beacon Series conversation featuring Kori Hahn, author of  "Rituals of the Soul: Using the 8 Principles of Yoga to Create a Modern & Meaningful Life" published by New World Library.

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    Have you ever had to reinvent yourself, to start again? Did you find that there was a process of letting go, of unlearning, as you started to embrace the changes that came with your rebirth?
     
    Sometimes, it's difficult to use the pieces of our existing life as the compost for new growth, and it can often seem haphazard and clumsy, but with a fair amount of right effort and right attention, plus some helpful advice and guidance along the way, it is possible to build something new, whole, and more familiar and comfortable than we'd likely imagined possible.
     
    In the episode of Find the Good News, I visit with Kori Hahn, author of the new book "Rituals of the Soul: Using the 8 Principles of Yoga to Create a Modern & Meaningful Life," published by New World Library.
     
    In her book and through our conversation, Kori shares the textured and rich accounts of her own journey while imparting important Yogic wisdom in a digestible and engaging format I'd not yet experienced.
     
    What I found in Kori was someone who has searched for meaning and found it—even in the face of great personal loss—reborn with a passionate personal calling to help others find, cultivate, and embrace the sacred rituals evident in their own lives. Where they do not seem to exist, she shows how to create them, then lovingly encourages us to do so.
     
    Now, take a look at your life just as it, with all its twists and bends, all of its ordinary colors and tones, and prepare to discover anew the raw and extraordinary sacred hiding in plain sight, then tune your attention to this Good News Beacon, and press play on a little good news.


    ==========
    SUPPORT FIND THE GOOD NEWS — https://www.findthegood.news/donate/ 
    ==========
    LEARN MORE ABOUT KORI HAHN — https://santoshasociety.com/kori-hahn/ 
    BUY A COPY OF "RITUALS OF THE SOUL" — https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781608687527 
    SEE MORE BOOKS FROM NEW WORLD LIBRARY — https://www.newworldlibrary.com/ 
    ==========
    FIND THE GOOD NEWS IS PRODUCED BY PARKER BRAND CREATIVE SERVICES — www.ParkerBrandUp.com  
    ==========

    • 1 hr 21 min
    Ep. 120 - The Permission Slip - Beacon Series Ft. Regina Louise - Find the Good News with Brother Oran

    Ep. 120 - The Permission Slip - Beacon Series Ft. Regina Louise - Find the Good News with Brother Oran

    You’re listening to Find the Good News, Episode 120, “The Permission Slip,” A Beacon Series conversation featuring Regina Louise, author of  Permission Granted: Kick-Ass Strategies to Bootstrap Your Way to Unconditional Self-Love published by New World Library.

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    Is there something in your life that you feel you should have done, but you just couldn't find it in yourself to get started? Maybe you had an internal and unspoken checklist of reasons that you believed were valid enough to keep your personal passions and dreams in check. You might have thought that you weren't old enough, young enough, wealthy enough, educated enough, attractive enough, supported enough, nurtured enough,... normal enough (whatever that means).
     
    I can absolutely recall the times that my inner critic has clubbed me into submission, even as I sit down to share these words with you. What would happen if you and I stopped casting internal stones and stopped believing the negative stories we tell ourselves, and instead started a plan of self-encouragement that pushed us through the gravel of self-doubt?
     
    In this episode, I visit with Regina Louise, author of the new book "Permission Granted: Kick-Ass Strategies to Bootstrap Your Way to Unconditional Self-Love."
     
    Regina is an energetic light with an attractive vibe that makes you want to latch on to her message. It would be easy to say that she's overcome a lot in her life to get to this plateau where she can help others rise and thrive, but that simply doesn't do her story justice. She instead encourages us to wrap our arms around all the broken and damaged bits that weigh people down (that nasty checklist I mentioned earlier) and instead learn to grow through what we go through.
     
    In a world obsessed with celebrities, Regina uses her very real (and sometimes painful) story to advocate for the voiceless without the clout and fame that so many celebrities enjoy and squander.
     
    She wasn't groomed for success. Instead, Regina found a kind of truth in the bumpiness of her own edges. This allowed her to lay down false images of perfection that so many in our society cling to. In allowing her authentic self to blossom, unplugged from the dream of the mainstream, she now leans into and develops her natural gifts to help others realize the same self-love and personal freedom.
     
    Now, I encourage you to think about those fears and jeers you lay upon yourself, all those unnecessary fictions and frictions you've shackled yourself to, and find out what would happen if you loved yourself just as you are, then tune your attention to this Good News Beacon, and press play on a little good news.


    ==========
    SUPPORT FIND THE GOOD NEWS — https://www.findthegood.news/donate/ 
    ==========
    LEARN MORE ABOUT REGINA LOUISE — https://www.iamreginalouise.com/ 
    BUY A COPY OF "PERMISSION GRANTED" — https://www.amazon.com/Permission-Granted-Strategies-Bootstrap-Unconditional/dp/1608687260/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= 
    SEE MORE BOOKS FROM NEW WORLD LIBRARY — https://www.newworldlibrary.com/ 
    ==========
    FIND THE GOOD NEWS IS PRODUCED BY PARKER BRAND CREATIVE SERVICES — www.ParkerBrandUp.com  
    ==========

    • 59 min
    Ep. 119 - The Trembling Trees - Beacon Series Ft. Jonathon Stalls - Find the Good News with Brother Oran

    Ep. 119 - The Trembling Trees - Beacon Series Ft. Jonathon Stalls - Find the Good News with Brother Oran

    You’re listening to Find the Good News, Episode 119, “The Trembling Trees,” A Beacon Series conversation featuring Jonathon Stalls, artist, writer, activist, and founder of Intrinsic Paths.

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    Have you ever had a transformative personal experience so profound, so mysterious, that escaped your ability to frame it with words? If you've listened to this program for any length of time then you likely know that I have had such an experience, a moment in this lifetime that seemed to change every other day after it or at least my perception of those moments.
     
    Many of my guests have intimately shared their experiences, and I am fascinated how across language barriers, geography, and varied circumstantial occurrences, so many walk through the transformative door and end up in similar places, motivated and invigorated to use their lives in the service of goodness, justice, mercy, and love.
     
    In this episode, I visit with a being who has shown up in the world with a genuineness that I deeply appreciate. My guest, Jonathon Stalls, is the founder of Intrinsic Paths, and his feet have carried him on a mission to inspire the people he encounters.
     
    Jonathon encourages us to embrace an unhurried, meditative way of being that has the potential to heal on a very deep and personal level, in turn offering the tools required to repair the desperate fissures in this world we all share.
     
    He did not come to this place without going through the Bardo of personal pain, which I feel largely influenced his visceral understanding of the aching his human brothers and sisters experience. By acknowledging this deep creaking in the world, he is able to fully embrace the joyous cacophony that we so often disregard in the hustle to "be someone."
     
    This is clear in Jonathon's deep love and connection to the unabashedly beautiful and simple things to be found in nature, which take on new and profound visual meaning through his artwork and nature-craft.
     
    Through his Pedestrian Dignity signal, he adopts a role as an advocate for our fellow beings that find themselves at the mercy of congested, poorly planned roadways and cities designed primarily for those of us with vehicles, cities, and communities that largely forget those that use their feet to carry them to school and work.
     
    It is my reflection that Jonathon Stalls, through his life and work, is holding up a living mirror to the world. What we find in him is a shimmering beauty firmly attached to a murky pain. In that, I find a type of truth that escapes words or full understanding, but in this conversation, Jonathon and I try to put prose to this mystery.
     
    Now, for just a little while, allow yourself to show up just as you are, with all your hopes and happiness, your failures and fears. Make a point to look right into the lovely mess, then tune your attention to this Good News Beacon, and press play on a little good news.


    ==========
    SUPPORT FIND THE GOOD NEWS — https://www.findthegood.news/donate/ 
    ==========
    LEARN MORE ABOUT JONATHAN STALLS — https://www.intrinsicpaths.com/ 
    SUPPORT JONATHAN'S WORD — https://www.patreon.com/intrinsicpaths 
    ==========
    FIND THE GOOD NEWS IS PRODUCED BY PARKER BRAND CREATIVE SERVICES — www.ParkerBrandUp.com  
    ==========

    • 1 hr 41 min

Top Podcasts In News

COCKTAILS AND TAKEAWAYS
cocktails and takeaways
Global News Podcast
BBC World Service
Focus on Africa
BBC World Service
C Jizzle In The Wizzle
C Jizzle In The Wizzle
The Story
The Times
Drum Tower
The Economist