I recently had the opportunity to interview John McKnight and Peter Block – the first time these two men have been interviewed together.

The interview was done for Tyze.com and PLAN Institute for Caring Citizenship, and was released this week as part of the newly revamped Tyze website, which also features video content I created for Tzye.com

These two men are known around the world for their work in community development and citizenship empowerment. Having the opportunity to meet with them was extra exciting for me. When I was first started out as a consultant, Peter Block’s book Flawless Consulting was in invaluable resource – and I return to it when I’m finding challenges in my work.

Here’s the podcast created for Tyze.

John McKnight’s landmark books on community development include Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets, and his series of articles collected in The Careless Society. He’s a professor of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University in Chicago, and co-chair of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern.

Peter Block is best known for his book Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used, and is the author of number of other best selling books including Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest and The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work.

Peter’s most recent book Belonging: The Structure of Community, has been called “the most important intergenerational book of our time”.

Runs 19:05

For more on John McKnight’s work, visit the Asset-Based Community Development Institute website. You can also read more about his work on the Northwestern University website.

You can find out more about Peter Block’s work on his website.

BrianPicker is a new podcast series I’ve started.

The idea is simple:  interviews with people who’s brains are worth picking, sparked by something they’ve Tweeted or posted on Facebook or other social networking site.   It isn’t brain surgery, just a quick chat with someone who’s fun and interesting.

Hear episode #1 now – featuring Vancouver actor and director Jay Brazeau.

I’ve started producing a series of podcasts about Urban Agriculture, hosted by Spring Gillard and David Tracey.  The series will run on Spring’s website, CompostDiaries.com, as well as on  VanGoGreen.

We recorded the first in the series on Tuesday at the YWCA downtown’s roof garden.  It’s an interesting project, and all the food grown in the garden is taken to a women’s group on the downtown east side. You can read more about the rooftop garden / food project on the Y’s website.

Ted Cathcart runs the project, and he was kind enough to spend an hour with us explaining the project and discussing the challenges.

The podcast runs just over 18 minutes.

podcast and photo © Bigsnit Media Consulting Inc.
podcast ISBN 978-0-9809054-9-6