Archbishop Desmond Tutu has long been a hero of mine. Like so many I was inspired by his fearless struggle to end apartheid in South Africa. He had offered the world his political message in several important books, but he had yet to give us his spiritual message—the beliefs and values that allowed him to have courage in times of often daunting despair. I contacted Lynn Franklin, Tutu’s longtime friend and agent, and together we presented the idea to the Archbishop. Lynn described our work together, "Doug has a unique ability to capture an author's inner purpose and to develop it for general readers. He has a vision for projects that have real inherent value and can make a difference for our society, and he is willing to go the distance to make them happen."

Since the publication of God Has a Dream, we were able to create an award-winning children’s picture book, God’s Dream, and are currently working on a global children’s bible. I am also working with the Archbishop and his daughter Mpho on a new book for adults: Made for Goodness (HarperCollins, 2010). We have also begun working together on a very exciting global initiative, The Desmond Tutu Training in Truth, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation.

Two of the greatest joys of my life were taking my son, Jesse, to Leah Tutu’s 70th birthday and my wife, Rachel, to the Archbishop’s 75th.

Frans De Waal is one of the world’s leading primatologists, and I was eager for him to use the depth of his research to shed light on the human primate. I asked him if he might contrast our species to its two closest cousins, the often murderous, power-hungry, and patriarchal chimpanzee, and the less-known peaceful, egalitarian, and matriarchal bonobo. Together we developed the structure and the proposal for a book that would not only reveal the bonobo’s fascinating counter image to ourselves as "killer apes" but what bonobos might tell us about our potential for compassion and altruism. Working as co-agent with Michelle Tessler, we sold the book, Our Inner Ape: The Past and Future of Human Nature, to Riverhead books, an imprint of Penguin, after a fierce auction.

I have had the privilege of working with Professor James Tabor for amore than a decade. James is a scholar and an archaeologist, and his book is a groundbreaking history of the life and times of Jesus as revealed by the untold story of the messianic dynasty he attempted to establish. This controversial and exciting book changes our entire understanding of Jesus and Christianity and became and international bestseller.

John Robbins has long been an inspiration to my wife and me and his books profoundly influenced our diet and health choices. When we moved to Santa Cruz, John became a close friend and then told me about his exciting exploration of the world’s healthiest and longest-lived cultures. His exploration of what these cultures have in common—their diet, their lifestyle, and their relations—became the extraordinary book, Healthy at 100.

A leader and inspiration to many in the movement toward a sane and more sustainable world, John is now working on a new book entitled, The New Good Life: Thriving on Less than You Ever Dreamed Possible.

Lee Holden is one of the country’s leading teachers of Qi Gong, the Chinese mindbody practice that, like yoga, is spreading around the world. His videos regularly appear on PBS, and in 7 Minutes of Magic he has created a mindbody workout that even I have time to do! Combining yoga, qi gong, and western exercise, these few minutes a day improve fitness, increase energy, and reduce stress. He’s also become one of my closest friends.

Kevin Bales is the world’s leading expert on "contemporary slavery," a reality that is often hard to accept. We worked together on a book entitled Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy, which became a landmark book in its demonstration that the horrors of forced labor are not confined to history. It explained that there are currently over 27 million slaves—people forced by violence or the threat of violence to work with little or no hope of freedom. Kevin’s book helped him to launch a non-profit called Free the Slaves, which is working around the world to stop slavery and to bring this global problem to public attention. A documentary film based on the book called Slavery: A Global Investigation won two Emmys and a Peabody Award.

Their work revealing the use of child slavery in the chocolate industry in West Africa has led to an agreement by the world's leading chocolate manufacturers to end the use of slaves in the production of chocolate.

In 2007, I again had the privilege of working with Kevin on Ending Slavery, which Bill Clinton declared was the blueprint for ending this global tragedy.

Light on Life: The Yoga Path to Freedom, Wholeness and Inner Peace
By B.K.S. Iyengar

The world’s leading teacher of yoga offers the millions of yoga practitioners and countless other spiritual seekers a way to discover the freedom, wholeness, and inner peace that comes from living a life that is based on the principles of yoga on and off the yoga mat.

I was extremely pleased with the reaction from publishers. I submitted the proposal electronically and had an offer within twenty minutes. We were not able to go to auction because within days there were five preemptive offers.

Publisher’s Weekly reported a seven figure advance for the book. When I called to tell Mr. Iyengar the scale of the offer, he explained that he had just adopted the village where he was born and for which he is named (the ‘B’ in B.K.S. Iyengar is for Bellur). He said that this advance would help him support the schools and infrastructure for the entire village.

My parent’s gave me a yogic book on breathing when I was in high school—I have had asthma—and I started doing Iyengar yoga in college. I was grateful to have learned of the life riches in the yogic tradition and was frustrated to see how often yoga is equated with exotic stretching. I had for many years wanted Mr. Iyengar to share with his millions of admirers the deeper wisdom that yoga offers for how we live and move in the world. I was immensely pleased with his recognition of the importance of sharing these teachings at this time. Getting to work together on the book and to do yoga with him in India was a great personal as well as professional joy. One of my favorite memories was sitting on the floor next to him, typing, while he was standing on his head.

The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos
By Nancy Abrams and Joel Primack

Move over Copernicus! One of the world’s leading astrophysicists and a poet/historian of science present the first attempt to create a science-based cosmology that can begin to show us an accurate and meaningful picture of humanity’s place in the universe.

Joel and Nancy have profound gifts to give us in learning to live at home in the universe and I feel privileged to have helped them convey their knowledge to the public. After our work together on this book, I will never look at the night sky the same again.

Kendall Webb believed that the power of the internet could be used to transform philanthropy and bring many more donors to worthy charities. She asked me to serve as Editorial Director and Vice-President of Content for the start-up. Together with a team of extremely talented Internet professionals, we created a philanthropy portal, JustGive.org, which has donated over 100 million dollars to charity and was named by Forbes Magazine "the best philanthropy site on the web."

Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn discovered that babies can be taught a natural sign language to express their needs, thoughts, and feelings up to a year before they can talk. Having used Baby Signs with my twin girls, I knew its power and how it opened up a world of communication that could replace tears and tantrums. Their discovery and method had lowered the bar for human communication by a year or more. I approached Linda and Susan about their work and together with acclaimed baby photographer Penny Gentieu we developed a board book series to teach Baby Signs to children that is being published by HarperCollins. Linda and Susan then asked me to revise their classic book to make it easier for parents and asked me to oversee the redesign and re-launching of their website: www.babysigns.com.

Ultimately, they asked me to help them to start a company, Baby Signs, Inc., and to serve as Interim CEO. I was able to help them identify their vision and draft a business plan for a company that offers a comprehensive family of research-based educational products.

The products help babies and toddlers develop their ability to communicate, to think, and to feel during the crucial first three years. Perhaps my most important responsibility was hiring key personnel including Baby Signs’ extraordinary CEO, Ron Berry, who is now continuing to build the company.

I worked with Islam scholar Michael Sells to bring alive the horror and devastation in Bosnia. The book was named the best book of the year by the American Academy of Religion, but it’s highest honor came when it was reported in The Washington Post that then-President Bill Clinton had read the book and had given copies to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other top advisors. According to the article, the book had changed Clinton’s opinion on the region and influenced his decision to stop Slobodan Milosevic and intervene in Kosovo. When the book was conceived, Milosevic was seen as the legitimate head of a nation-state exercising its territorial rights; after the book’s publication and his indictment by the International Criminal Tribunal he was seen as a war criminal who used his military and media propaganda to destroy centuries of coexistence for personal and national goals.

Jamling Tenzing Norgay was the Climbing Leader of the famed 1996 IMAX Everest Expedition. The IMAX movie depicted many of the triumphs and tragedies that were shared with the failed expeditions chronicled in Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. Jamling is also the son of Tenzing Norgay, who together with Sir Edmund Hillary first reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1953. I approached Jamling to see if he would write a book about his journey to the top of Everest, which was for him as much a Buddhist pilgrimage to his father’s soul and memory as it was a feat of physical and psychological endurance. Together with the skillful help of gifted coauthor Brot Coburn, we developed a book that was part adventure and part Buddhist teachings on the nature of life and death called Touching My Father’s Soul: A Sherpa’s Journey to the Top of Everest. The book was introduced by Jon Krakauer and His Holiness the Dalai Lama and climbed The New York Times Extended Bestseller List.

At Home on the Earth: Becoming Native to Our Place, edited by David Barnhill, included essays by Wendell Berry, bell hooks, N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Gary Snyder, Alice Walker, and Terry Tempest Williams. This book about living in a rooted way on the earth was a powerful and rewarding project for a New York City kid like me who knew more about asphalt than soil. That we can live with native values and with intimacy and connectedness in the city as well as the country was a powerful revelation.