Common Good Podcast

Common Good
  • 5.0 (21)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

This Podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation, and the structure of belonging. It's about leaving a culture of scarcity for a community of abundance. This first season is a series of interviews with Walter Brueggemann, Peter Block, and John McKnight. The subsequent episodes is where change agents, community facilitators, and faith and service leaders meet at the intersections of belonging, story, and local gifts. The Common Good Podcast is a coproduction of commongood.cc, bespokenlive.org and commonchange.com 

  1. Common Good Podcast x The Liminal Space Episode 4: Music, Courage and Resisting Collusion with Ncedisa

    16H AGO

    Common Good Podcast x The Liminal Space Episode 4: Music, Courage and Resisting Collusion with Ncedisa

    What does it take to stop colluding with systems that dehumanise us? In this episode, Tristan and Rashid explore the role music plays in grounding us, reminding us of our humanity, and giving us the courage to resist. They introduce us to Ncedisa Nkonyeni, an African-centred systems change and field learning partner who teaches organisations to apply systems change to their strategies and partners with collectives committed to organisational well-being. In a clip from the original Liminal Space episode, Ncedisa shares a story about a Tori Amos lyric that gave her the courage to walk away from a scholarship when she realised the research she was being asked to do was fundamentally afrophobic. From there, Tristan and Rashid reflect on what it means to negotiate our own complicity within unjust systems, and whether giving, in all its forms, could become an act of laying down power rather than exercising it. THEMES Music as resistance. Non-collusion. Ethical courage. Complicity and the status quo. Giving as laying down power. Joy as humanizing. Systems change. LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE This episode features clips from The Liminal Space Season 2, Episode 10: Systems Thinking and Rehumanising Narratives with Ncedisa Nkonyeni. The full conversation is available on all podcast platforms. Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube FEATURED VOICES Ncedisa Nkonyeni is an African-centred systems change and field learning partner. She teaches systems change, helps organisations apply it to their strategies, and partners with collectives committed to discovering organisational well-being. Tristan Pringle is a life and executive coach, facilitator, and poet based in Cape Town. Rashid Adams is a musician, songwriter, music producer, and ethnomusicologist based in Cape Town. CREDITS | Produced by | Rashid Epstein Adams | Music by | Rashid Epstein Adams (AKA Arkenstone) and Pursuit | A collaboration between | The Common Good Podcast & The Liminal Space Podcast LINKS | Podcast | linktr.ee/theliminalspacepod | Substack | theliminalspacepodcast.substack.com | Instagram | @theliminalspacepod

    16 min
  2. Common Good Podcast x The Liminal Space Episode 3: Critical Hope and the New Imagination with Ashley and Helene

    MAR 25

    Common Good Podcast x The Liminal Space Episode 3: Critical Hope and the New Imagination with Ashley and Helene

    What kind of hope is worth holding onto? In this episode, Tristan and Rashid unpack the idea of critical hope, drawing on the work of Jeff Duncan-Andrade and a powerful quote from Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of Hope. They introduce us to Ashley and Helene Visagie, founders of Bottom Up, a Cape Town youth organisation that equips teenagers with tools of critical thought to question the systems around them rather than simply plugging gaps. In clips from the original Liminal Space episode, Ashley describes the shift from fixing broken toilets to asking why they’re broken in the first place, and how capitalism alienates us from our work, each other, and the environment. Helene speaks about telling kids the truth without leaving them stranded in despair, and what it takes to move forward together. Tristan and Rashid reflect on when they first encountered critical thinking, and why imagining a new world requires us to question the imagination behind the current one. The episode closes with a guided imagination exercise inviting listeners to picture their neighbourhood 20 years from now. THEMES Critical hope. Democratizing critical thought. Stop plugging gaps. Alienation under capitalism. Education as liberation. Imagination as action. Youth as co-constructors of change. LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE This episode features clips from The Liminal Space Season 1, Episode 3: Critical Hope and Being Human with Ashley Visagie. The full conversation is available on all podcast platforms. Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube FEATURED VOICES Ashley & Helene Visagie are the founders of Bottom Up, a Cape Town-based youth organisation that develops socially engaged leaders who can critically analyse how political, economic, and cultural systems produce inequality, and then organise to change them. Tristan Pringle is a life and executive coach, facilitator, and poet based in Cape Town. Rashid Adams is a musician, songwriter, music producer, and ethnomusicologist based in Cape Town. CREDITS  | Produced by | Rashid Epstein Adams  | Music by | Rashid Epstein Adams (AKA Arkenstone) and Pursuit  | A collaboration between | The Common Good Podcast & The Liminal Space Podcast LINKS | Podcast | linktr.ee/theliminalspacepod | Substack | theliminalspacepodcast.substack.com | Instagram | @theliminalspacepod

    18 min
  3. Common Good Podcast x The Liminal Space Episode 2: A Safe Space in a Not-So-Safe Place with Bongeka and Aphiwe

    MAR 18

    Common Good Podcast x The Liminal Space Episode 2: A Safe Space in a Not-So-Safe Place with Bongeka and Aphiwe

    In this episode, Tristan and Rashid take us to Khayelitsha, one of South Africa’s largest townships, about 20 miles southeast of central Cape Town. Built during apartheid-era forced removals, Khayelitsha continues to bear the scars of spatial inequality. But in the heart of its informal settlements, two young founders, Bongeka and Aphiwe (Qhama), have created something remarkable: Thembisa Ratanga, a community space they describe as “a safe space in a not-so-safe place.” Through a clip from the original Liminal Space episode, we hear Bongeka and Aphiwe reflect on the deep connection between nature, spirituality, and the body. Yoga poses that imitate trees and birds. Sunsets you don’t plan but can’t avoid. The quiet gift of a wetland on the edge of a township. Tristan and Rashid then unpack what it means to “just be” in a world that demands we constantly produce or consume, and ask whether rest itself might be a revolutionary act. THEMES Coming home to our bodies. Being vs doing. Nature as teacher. Rest as resistance. Spatial apartheid and its legacy. Yoga in the township. Eliminating economic isolation. LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE This episode features a clip from The Liminal Space Season 2, Episode 11: What happens when we reclaim our stories and find home in our bodies? With Bongeka and Aphiwe. The full conversation runs about an hour and is available on all podcast platforms. Listen on Apple Podcasts FEATURED VOICES Bongeka & Aphiwe (Qhama) are the founders of Thembisa Ratanga, a Khayelitsha-based NPO that uses education, art, and sport as tools for community development and self-empowerment. Their space has been dubbed “a waterfront in the township.” Tristan Pringle is a life and executive coach, facilitator, and poet based in Cape Town. Rashid Adams is a musician, songwriter, music producer, and ethnomusicologist based in Cape Town. SUPPORT THEMBISA RATANGA Bongeka and Aphiwe are currently running a BackaBuddy campaign to support day-to-day logistics and building improvements for the kids in their community. If you’d like to contribute, visit the link below. CREDITS  | Produced by | Rashid Adams  | Music by | Arkenstone  | A collaboration between | Common Good Podcast & The Liminal Space Podcast LINKS | BackaBuddy | backabuddy.co.za/campaign/tembisa-ratanga | Full Episode | Listen on Apple Podcasts | Podcast | linktr.ee/theliminalspacepod | Substack | theliminalspacepodcast.substack.com | Instagram | @theliminalspacepod

    16 min
  4. Common Good Podcast x The Liminal Space Episode 1: Welcome to the Liminal Space with Tristan and Rashid

    MAR 11

    Common Good Podcast x The Liminal Space Episode 1: Welcome to the Liminal Space with Tristan and Rashid

    What happens when imagination meets reality? In this pilot episode, we kick off a special miniseries in collaboration with The Liminal Space Podcast, bringing voices from Cape Town, South Africa to the Common Good conversation. Hosts Tristan Pringle and Rashid Adams introduce themselves, share what drew them to the idea of liminality, and explore the stories that ground them right now, from earth as a shared garden to the liberating power of intuition. The episode closes with a collectively written poem on imagination, storytelling, and the search for glimpses of a better world. ABOUT THE SERIES Over seven episodes, this miniseries brings a Global South perspective to the Common Good Podcast’s core themes: the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation, and the structure of belonging. Through conversations with guests in Cape Town, from yoga practitioners in Khayelitsha to musicians, educators, and community organisers, we explore what it looks like to rebuild belonging in the wake of extraction and inherited inequality. ABOUT THE GUESTS Tristan Pringle is a life and executive coach, facilitator, and poet based in Cape Town. He works across faith-based, corporate, and grassroots organisations to hold space for dreams of a better world, and to make them real. Rashid Adams is a musician, songwriter, music producer, and researcher based in Cape Town. His academic work explores how indigenous music-making within decolonial Christian frameworks functions as a form of sacred resistance. CREDITS  | Produced by | Rashid Adams  | Music by | Arkenstone  | A collaboration between | Common Good Podcast & The Liminal Space Podcast LINKS | Podcast | linktr.ee/theliminalspacepod | Substack | theliminalspacepodcast.substack.com | Instagram | @theliminalspacepod

    17 min
  5. Walter Brueggemann: Liturgy of Liberation

    09/05/2025

    Walter Brueggemann: Liturgy of Liberation

    Welcome to the Common Good podcast, a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging. Earlier this summer, Walter Brueggemann passed away. His friendship with Peter Block and John McKnight was the spark that inspired the Common Good Collective, and the first three seasons of this podcast captured conversations among these three voices. To honor Walter’s memory, friends of the Collective are hosting a local gathering in Cincinnati on September 19th in Cincinnati called The Provocation: Practicing Prophetic Imagination in Memory of Walter Brueggemann. We’d love for you to join us. Today’s episode is a talk Walter gave at the first Common Good Collective gathering in 2018. In it, he turns to the Exodus narrative as a guiding script for social imagination, showing how it helps us uncover hidden meta-narratives and resist the totalizing forces of extractive economies. This episode was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live & Common Change.

    20 min
  6. Avenue M Podcast with Peter Block: I'm Not Done Yet

    08/01/2025

    Avenue M Podcast with Peter Block: I'm Not Done Yet

    Welcome to the Common Good podcast, a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging. Today’s episode is something a little different. We’re sharing a recent conversation with Peter Block that originally aired on the Avenue M, hosted by Joey Taylor and Haroon Moghul. In each episode they speak with remarkable guests to help unpack the moments that shape us, the struggles that build us and the questions that intrigue us. This rich and intimate conversation centers on Peter Block, a long-time organizational development thinker, and his reflections on mortality, loneliness, freedom, and purpose.  Peter Block is an author and citizen of Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the co-founder of Designed Learning, a training company that offers workshops designed to build the skills outlined in his books. Peter is part of the Common Good Alliance of Greater Cincinnati and was a member of his local neighborhood council. His books include Activating the Common Good, Confronting Our Freedom, Flawless Consulting, Stewardship, The Answer to How Is Yes, Community, and The Abundant Community. Things referenced in episode: The Vitality of Death: Essays in Existential Psychology and Philosophy by Peter KoestenbaumVitality of Death (video of conversation between Peter Koestenbaum and Peter Block)Avenue M is sponsored by Queen City Diwan, which leads travel adventures, immersive experiences, leadership retreats and religious pilgrimages. Queen City Diwan is excited to share its fall schedule, including an October ‘umrah in Saudi Arabia, a January trip to Andalucía just for college students—and, over Thanksgiving break, we’re planning an incredible tour across three countries. Learn more on our website. Avenue M is produced by Bespoken Live with music by Zach Swelber, who plays in Circle It and Mosant. This Common Good Podcast was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live & Common Change.

    48 min
  7. Kristen Barker: Wholeness, Staying in It, Building Together

    05/29/2025

    Kristen Barker: Wholeness, Staying in It, Building Together

    The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging. For this week's episode Chris LaRue, the Director of The Hive, speaks with Kristen Barker. In addition to being a fellow at the Hive, Kristen Barker is a social entrepreneur and the President and Co-Founder of Co-op Cincy and is a Co-Founder of 1worker1vote.  She designs and leads participatory education events with English- and Spanish-speaking co-op workers, and helps worker-owners make their businesses more successful. Kristen also helps our design team determine the feasibility of potential co-op businesses, helps retiring business owners determine whether they can sell their business to their employees, and helps viable co-ops access the capital they need to leverage their ideas.  Chris La Rue has been the Executive Director of The Hive since 2023. As the “chief storyteller,” Chris seeks to amplify the story of transformation The Hive has to tell: one in which people integrate the wisdom of our contemplative traditions in ways that make meaningful collective change possible. He believes that The Hive is uniquely positioned to create a better world by helping individuals find their people, and find their practice. The Hive is a grassroots mindfulness community curating multi-week classes, workshops and a Membership community. It has been formed by facilitators asking the question, "What are the resources that lie within our vast lineages, traditions, and modalities of healing, and how can we place them in service of the common good?"  Check out Co-Op Fest on June 7th. Here's the writing shared by Howard Thurman: All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree, the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new lives, fresh blossoms, green fruit. Such is the growing edge! It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor. This is the basis of hope in moments of despair, the incentive to carry on when times are out of joint and men have lost their reason, the source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash. The birth of a child — life’s most dramatic answer to death — this is the growing edge incarnate. Look well to the growing edge! This episode was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live & Common Change.

    33 min
  8. Prentis Hemphill: Longing, Belonging & Love

    01/17/2025

    Prentis Hemphill: Longing, Belonging & Love

    The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging. In this episode, Joey Taylor and Sarah Buffie speak with Prentis Hemphill. Sarah Buffie is the visionary founding director of Soul Bird Consulting ,which believes that nothing has the power to heal like supportive relationships. Specializing in trauma responsive care, Sarah helps organizations and individuals disrupt current models of thinking by building empathy and understanding around the effects of trauma.  Prentis Hemphill is a writer, embodiment facilitator, political organizer, and therapist. They are the founder and director of The Embodiment Institute and the Black Embodiment Initiative, the host of the acclaimed podcast, Finding Our Way, and author of the book, What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World. The poem shared was You Must Be Present by Jose Olivarez. This episode was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live & Common Change.

    33 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
21 Ratings

About

This Podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation, and the structure of belonging. It's about leaving a culture of scarcity for a community of abundance. This first season is a series of interviews with Walter Brueggemann, Peter Block, and John McKnight. The subsequent episodes is where change agents, community facilitators, and faith and service leaders meet at the intersections of belonging, story, and local gifts. The Common Good Podcast is a coproduction of commongood.cc, bespokenlive.org and commonchange.com 

Information

  • Creator
    Common Good
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    106
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Common Good Podcast
  • Show Website
    Common Good Podcast

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