This is where our community of authors, readers, and viewers has a chance to explore our latest work helping visionaries create a wiser, healthier, and more just world. We get to meet, laugh with, and learn from many of the most inspiring people on the planet, and we invite you on this journey of discovery and friendship. Please join us at the table and at the white-board as we shape the stories that we believe can shape the future.
I have long hoped for a way for others to share our fascinating, idea-stuffed, story-filled discussions as we brainstorm our books and media projects. My idea for this began when we met with Archbishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala for a week of side-splittingly funny and heart-growing dialogue about the nature of joy in the face of life’s inevitable suffering, with our conversations recorded by an international film crew and five video cameras. That nerve-wracking stress was bearable thanks to the indescribable bliss of staring into Archbishop Tutu’s and the Dalai Lama’s eyes for five days, but realizing that we would be able to give this to others felt like a further happiness. Joy, as they told us, comes most profoundly from our relationships with others.
Our first attempt at capturing that week was in The Book of Joy, which has now been published in thirty-eight languages and has touched over a million lives. A film is being made by Producer Peggy Callahan, and I am so excited that others will be able truly to see these spiritual masters let down their hair (not that they have much left) and witness their special friendship, as they tease each other and share their lives and learning.
On this blog, we will also announce our new books and films and share how these works are impacting the world, whether it’s the announcement of Anthony Ray Hinton’s The Sun Does Shine being picked as an Oprah Book Club Pick or Edith Eger’s The Choice winning the National Jewish Book Award or 26 million viewers logging in for our videos of Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.
We will talk about how our authors’ work and research are creating waves beyond their books, such as Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative’s recent opening of the Legacy Museum and the Lynching Monument. I’ll write about that profound experience of confronting our racial history in another post and offer clips from the opening. We’ll offer quotes and brief excerpts from our most inspirational books in-progress. And finally, we eventually hope to launch an IA podcast, which will allow you to join these conversations in real time. We want you to become part of our growing community of visionary authors and readers who are passionate about life-changing, world-changing books by reading this blog, following us on social media, and signing up for our newsletter.