Gathering Lab Podcast

Casper’s MO? Building a world of joyful belonging through reimagining spirituality and gathering. The study he co-authored with Angie Thurston for Harvard Divinity School, “How We Gather,” shines a light on how people are finding divinity and belonging outside of the traditional religious constructs. He details how to build a modern community founded on the act of doing versus aligning on beliefs. Through re-defining community roles, and creating a safe space designed to extract...

Priya Parker - facilitator, strategic advisor, founder of Thrive Labs, has been making big waves since releasing her book, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters. In this interview, we discuss why gatherings are of increased interest at this historical moment, how we can make them more meaningful, how we can sustain them, and the importance of bringing them to a graceful end. We also go into the need to embrace conflict and non-neutrality more, not less! ”For me, a question...

Learning to master ritual is a critical skill for anyone interested in fostering belonging. It sits right at this edge between what’s comfortable and what forges strong bonds: without ritual, everyone gets to stay in their safe zone, but nobody really connects. With just a little creative thinking, however, a well-designed ritual can generate incredible relationships consistently. At the Ritual Design Lab, Kursat Ozenc and his collaborators have been experimenting with all kinds of...

Learning to master ritual is a critical skill for anyone interested in fostering belonging. It sits right at this edge between what's comfortable and what forges strong bonds: without ritual, everyone gets to stay in their safe zone, but nobody really connects. With just a little creative thinking, however, a well-designed ritual can generate incredible relationships consistently. At the Ritual Design Lab, Kursat Ozenc and his collaborators have been experimenting with all kinds of creative...

Ida C. Benedetto is an experience designer who sparks new insight through adventure and play. Major projects include the Night Heron Speakeasy and Starbucks' National Anti-Bias Training. She has researched the design of transformative social experiences by comparing sex parties, funerals, and wilderness trips. Her work has been featured in Businessweek, The New York Times, Fast Company, NPR, and The New Yorker. She is a Senior Experience Designer at SYPartners in New York City.