Kindness Matters Podcast
So. Much. Division. Let's talk about how to change that. Re-engage as neighbors, friends, co-workers and family. Let's set out to change the world. Strike that. Change A World. One person at a time, make someone's life a little better and then do it again tomorrow and the day after that, through kindness.Kindness is a Super-Power that each of us has within us. It is so powerful it has the potential to change not only your life but those around you, too. Let's talk about kindness.
The Gratitude You Forgot To Notice
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The easiest kindness to miss is the one that shows up every day. We’re surrounded by small, steady acts that make life work: the friend who checks in, the coworker who makes you laugh when you don’t feel like it, the neighbor who quietly helps, the person who always answers the phone. When those things become dependable, they also become invisible, and our gratitude turns into an unspoken assumption.
I’m Mike Rathbun, and I’m inviting you to treat gratitude less like a list and more like a skill: a...
Still Your Neighbor
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The weird thing about elections is how loudly we treat them like an ending, even though real life keeps moving the very next morning. Wednesday still comes. The coffee still needs to be made. The boss still expects you to show up. And the person who voted differently is still standing next to you in the grocery line, coaching your kid’s team, or waving from across the street. So the real question isn’t only who wins. It’s how we live together afterward.Â
We talk about political polarization and the tem...
Can We See Beyond The Labels?
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“Those people” is a tiny phrase with a huge blast radius. Once I start talking that way, I’m not describing real human beings anymore, I’m describing a category I can judge, mock, or hate from a safe distance. This Kindness Matters conversation is a reset for anyone worn out by political polarization, online outrage, and the constant pressure to sort the world into teams.
We walk through why our brains love labels and how easily they become loaded stories: Trump voters, Democrats, immigrants, rich people, poor people, entire generations. The prob...
The Courage To Be Wrong
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Being wrong hits a nerve for most of us, and it’s rarely about the small stuff. It’s about what it feels like to be corrected when a belief is tied to our pride, our relationships, or our sense of identity. I’m Mike Rathman, and I want to make a case for something that sounds simple but can change the way you live: getting more comfortable changing your mind can be one of the kindest things you do for yourself and for the people around you.
We dig into the ps...
Kindness Without Agreement
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We’re surrounded by disagreement, but what’s unsettling is how quickly it turns personal. A different opinion used to be just that, a different opinion. Now it often becomes a verdict: stupid, ignorant, selfish, evil. I’m wrestling with a question that sits under so many tense conversations at home, at work, and online: are we losing the ability to talk to people we disagree with, and what happens to kindness when we do?
I unpack the difference between challenging an idea and attacking a person, and why that line matter...
AI And Kindness;
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AI can write a beautiful apology, a perfect condolence message, and a calm response when you’re furious. The real question is not whether artificial intelligence is “good” or “bad” it’s whether we’ll use it to become more compassionate, more thoughtful, and more connected, or whether we’ll use it to avoid the hard work of being human.
We talk through the everyday moments where AI can genuinely support kindness: helping us find words when we care but freeze, giving us a pause before we hit send on something cruel, and offer...
When Community Cares
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Someone walks out of a federal detention facility into a Minnesota winter with no phone, no coat, and no clear idea what comes next. Then a small crowd of strangers is waiting with hot chocolate, spare coats, cell phones, and rides. That moment captures the question I can’t shake: what makes ordinary people decide that a stranger shouldn’t have to face the cold alone?
I trace how that same spirit spreads beyond one sidewalk into mutual aid networks across Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Greater Minnesota. Accountants, parents, neighbors, and peop...
The Ones Who Do
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Somebody should do something. We all say it, we all mean it, and then life moves on. But there’s a moment when that sentence turns into a mirror, when a problem keeps tugging at you and the next thought lands hard: what if that somebody is me? That’s the heartbeat of Kindness Matters, and it’s where this conversation begins.Â
We walk through how meaningful community change actually happens, not through a single heroic gesture, but through ordinary people who notice what others have learned to overlook. We talk about t...
Capitalism, But Make It Human
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Capitalism gets talked about like a cage match: winners on one side, everyone else on the other. I’m not an economist, but a single line stopped me cold: capitalism actually works better when it’s built on a foundation of empathy and equity. So I follow that thread where it really matters, not in charts or jargon, but in people’s lives and the systems that shape their chances.
We start by naming what capitalism is at its best: innovation, risk, work, and the freedom to build something real. Then we ask...
The Bravest Seat In The School
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The loudest room in a school can be the most honest one. We’re talking about the cafeteria, that daily moment when kids carry a tray into a crowded space and have to answer a deceptively hard question: where do I sit, and what does that choice say about me?
We map the “ecosystem” almost every lunchroom develops; the confident table with its hidden hierarchy, the quiet table adults tend to overlook, the newcomers taking a social test with no study guide, the floaters who may be flexible or just searching for a...
Bridging The Divide
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This is the Number One downloaded episode of the Kindness Matters Podcast.
You can feel the country pulling apart in tiny, personal ways: the friend you stop texting, the family group chat you mute, the coworker you avoid because one comment could turn into a fight. We want a different path, so we sit down with Bill Groner, a longtime trial lawyer who represented more than 10,000 Ground Zero responders after 9/11 and now teaches depolarization and civil dialogue skills to college students. His work is rooted in one big idea: society gets...
Coffee That Fights Homelessness
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This is the second most listened to episode of The Kindness Matters Podcast.Â
A tent city on the news can be easy to scroll past. For Rob Bergfalk, it became the moment he could not ignore, and it grew into Compassion Church and Compassion Coffee in Anoka, Minnesota. We talk with Rob about what it really looks like to feel “called” to something, and how purpose becomes tangible when you build a place where people who are often overlooked are seen, known, and supported.
Rob walks us through the long...
A Small Idea Turns Into One Good Deed
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This is the third-most-listened-to episode of The Kindness Matters Podcast.Â
A craft night with a few moms, a pile of extra gloves, and a simple desire to stay connected somehow turns into two coach buses packed with winter gear and volunteers. I’m joined by Michelle Christensen from Golden Valley, Minnesota, the founder of One Good Deed, to tell the story behind Scarf Bombing, a direct, practical kindness project that puts warmth where it’s needed most across Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Michelle walks me through the early days: askin...
Kindness For The Man In The Mirror
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The hardest kind of kindness is often the kind we refuse to give ourselves. I’m Mike Rathbun, and this is one of the most personal conversations I’ve ever shared, because it’s about men’s mental health, the pressure to stay “tough,” and what happens when we turn pain into silence.
I talk through the messages many of us learned as boys: walk it off, boys don’t cry, handle it yourself. Then we get specific about how depression in men can hide in plain sight. It doesn’t always look like...
Words That Restore Dignity
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One careless sentence can make someone shut down for years. One kind sentence can pull them back from the edge. That’s the tension we live in every day, and it’s why I wanted to bring on Shannon Roy, a veteran trial attorney and the founder of Roy Law Firm in Denver, Colorado. She spends her life inside emotionally charged, high-stakes conversations, where communication, tone, and trust are the difference between escalation and understanding.
We talk about how words can humanize or dehumanize, and why the very first moments of a co...
The Lesson of Gander.
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I can't believe it's been nearly 25 years.Â
7,000 people step off diverted planes into a town they’ve never heard of, carrying fear, exhaustion, and the sickening uncertainty of 9/11. Gander, Newfoundland a place of moose, cold weather, and a quiet airport suddenly becomes the safest spot in the world, not because it has more resources, but because it chooses to treat strangers like neighbors.
We walk through how 38 flights end up on this tiny corner of North America, what it feels like to sit on a plane for hours without ans...
How Kind Speech Builds Emotional Intelligence In Children
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A kid isn’t “being difficult” in a vacuum. Most of the time, they’re broadcasting a need they don’t have words for, and the adults around them are deciding what that behavior means. I sit down with Bobbi Chegwyn, an Australian-born life coach turned children’s author, to talk about the hidden power of everyday language, and why the way we speak to kids becomes the way they eventually speak to themselves.
Bobbi shares what changed for her when she moved to the United States and chose an unexpected job to learn...
Civic Exclusion And The Kind Communities Build
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You can feel it before you can explain it: you show up, you speak, and it’s like the decision was made before you walked in. Now zoom that feeling out from a meeting to an entire neighborhood and you start to see what civic alienation and political powerlessness do to real human lives. I wanted a quiet, solo conversation about what happens to a community when large groups of people stop believing their voice matters, and what kindness looks like when the stakes are high.
We dig into what social sc...
Bootleg Barbecue And Big-Heart Mentorship
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A lot of people say they want to support veterans. Jon King is building systems that actually do it, one mentor match and one shared meal at a time. John spent over 20 years in the Air Force and Army, flew medevac missions, and lived the kind of pressure most of us can’t fully picture. After leaving the service and navigating disability, career shifts, and a major layoff, he put his energy into work that feels real, local, and human.
We talk about Bootleg Barbecue and why feeding people is more th...
What If Small Kindness Is Anti Trafficking Work
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Human trafficking can feel like a distant headline until someone explains what it really is and how it actually works. We talk with Stephanie Page, co-founder and executive director of Stories Foundation, to break down the definition in plain language: trafficking is driven by force, fraud, or coercion, and it includes both sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Stephanie explains why labor trafficking is often the bigger global problem, and why awareness matters most when it changes how we see everyday vulnerability and control.
We also dig into what prevention looks like...
Kindness And Recovery
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A sober living home can be more than a roof. It can be a turning point. We sit down with Amber Miller, the founder of Angels House of Healing, to hear how she turned grief, addiction recovery, and a promise to break a generational cycle into a real transitional living community for women. Her story starts with losing her mother to alcoholism at 44, and the clarity that the deeper wound was unhealed trauma. From there, Amber shares what it took to get sober, face shame, and rebuild an identity rooted in values and...
Breaking The Silence On Suicide
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 *This episode includes open and honest discussion about suicide, suicide loss, and mental health struggles. We talk about lived experiences, prevention myths, language that reduces stigma, and ways to seek help when safety is at risk. If these topics are difficult or activating for you, please listen with care. You may want to pause, step away, or skip this episode entirely if it feels overwhelming. Your wellbeing matters, and it’s okay to take the space you need. *
Silence can feel polite, but around suicide it can be deadly. I sit dow...
Kindness Is The Comeback
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One bad stretch can make you believe you’re stuck as the worst thing that happened to you, and that’s exactly what we push back on with Jesse Lewis. Jesse is a professional stage hypnotist whose live shows vanished during Canada’s COVID shutdowns, and the fallout hit fast: lost income, a divorce, and a season of life where he lived in the cab of his truck on the side of a mountain in British Columbia.
We talk through what survival actually looks like when there’s no clean “turning point.” Je...
Why Small Acts Of Kindness Still Matter
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A car overheats on a scorching Sunday in 1969. No phones, no call boxes, no easy way out. What happens next is the kind of true story that quietly rewires your brain: a young cowboy pulls over, tows a stranded father and son into town, recruits a mechanic after church, and turns a miserable breakdown into one of the best days of their lives. That’s the heart of my conversation with Neal Foard, one of the most trusted modern voices in heartfelt storytelling.
We get into why this message hits so ha...
When Parents Become Advocates
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The moment you realize “the system” can’t carry this for you is the moment you become your child’s advocate. I sit down with Ashlyn Thompson, co-founder and executive hope director of Parent Empowerment Network, to unpack the kind of courage that gets built in hospital rooms at 2 a.m. Ashlyn shares the story of her daughter Emery’s rare congenital condition, bladder exstrophy, and what it’s like to hold joy and grief at the same time on the day your child is born.Â
We talk through the realities of complex pe...
Kindness On Cloudy Days
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A lot of us know the feeling: you’re doing your best, your kid needs you, and inside your own head the weather turns. I sit down with Kendall Consini Moore, the writer behind Cloudy Day Chronicles and the author of Mom’s Cloud and the Beach Adventure, to talk about a simple idea that can change family communication: giving big feelings a name kids can actually use.
We get specific about how her “cloud” metaphor was born from a bedtime story and a real parenting worry, and how the beach became t...
Storytelling That Turns Small Talk Into Trust
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Silence can feel like a conversation killer, but what if it’s the fastest path to trust? We sit down with John Nepper, a speaker, educator, and leadership trainer with 35+ years of experience, to unpack a practical approach to kindness and leadership that works in real workplaces, not just on posters.
We talk about why storytelling in leadership matters, how small talk becomes meaningful when you’re intentional, and what John calls the Story Formula for Extraordinary Retention. The big idea is deceptively simple: everyone’s story matters. When leaders learn to lis...
Kindness As A Lifeline
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Kindness can sound like a soft idea until you meet someone who survived because other people refused to look away. I’m joined by Betsy Ronel, host of Heavens To Betsy: Let’s Talk Midlife, and her story is as heartbreaking as it is human: she lost her husband suddenly in a car accident, right as they were growing their family, and her life changed overnight. What happened next wasn’t a miracle cure. It was something more believable and more repeatable: strangers showing up with meals, flowers, books, phone calls, and steady presen...
Music That Gives Back; Kindness You Can Hear
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What if generosity were as simple as pressing play? We sit down with Dave Lewis, a San Diego accountant and solo pianist who built Playing To Pitch In, a project that routes 100% of streaming royalties directly to six vetted charities. No tip jars, no detours—just music funding impact through automated splits to organizations like the Against Malaria Foundation, Helen Keller International, Best The Book Bus, a local food bank, the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation, and disaster relief groups.
Dave walks us through the moment that sparked it all—discovering “earning to giv...
Why Empathy Wins: Joe Charley On Art, Community, And Courage
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What if kindness isn’t a bonus trait but the backbone of how we build, lead, and create? We sit down with Minneapolis-based multidisciplinary artist Joe Charley—model, actor, musician, choreographer—to explore how empathy becomes skill, how structure unlocks flow, and why tenderness is a form of courage in high-stakes spaces.
Joe traces his journey from child performer to intentional creator, sharing the moment he stopped trying to outgrow his past and started forgiving it. That self-empathy, he says, saved him from shame and freed him to practice with focus. He exp...
Art, Memory, And The Power Of Care;
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What if Alzheimer’s didn’t close a life, but opened a new way to see it? That’s the question at the heart of our conversation with author and advocate Marilyn Raichle, whose book “Don’t Walk Away: A Care Partner’s Journey” chronicles how a reluctant daughter discovered joy, humor, and dignity alongside her mother living with dementia. We move from fear to curiosity as Marilyn shares the moment a simple painting class changed everything—the hum of focus, the pull of community, and the art that silenced stigma with beauty.
Togethe...
Kindness Isn’t A Soft Skill, It’s A Power Move
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Ever feel like you’re sprinting through life in the wrong shoes? We sat down with inner glow coach and author Angie Hawkins to unpack how compassion, boundaries, and vulnerable honesty can move you from chasing approval to living with grounded confidence. Angie’s memoir, Running in Slippers, becomes a vivid metaphor for growth: sometimes playful, sometimes painful, always real. She opens up about the childhood patterns that fuel people pleasing and perfectionism, then shares how an emotional rock bottom led her to rebuild from the inside out.
We dig into the...
How Chocolate And Coffee Spark Safer, Kinder Communities
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What if a warm cup and a square of chocolate could turn fear into trust? We sit down with speaker and community builder Andrea Putting, the heart behind Chocolate and Coffee Break, to explore how small, shared rituals help people feel safe, heard, and human again. Born from the aftermath of the Sydney siege and the #IllRideWithYou wave of solidarity, Andrea’s simple practice has grown from a single day into a year-round movement that workplaces, neighborhoods, and friends can use to bridge differences.
We unpack why familiar rituals matter: holding a...
New Here? Listen to These First: 5 Stories That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity | Kindness, Hope & Real Stories
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New to The Kindness Matters Podcast? Start here.
If you’re looking for uplifting podcast episodes, real stories about kindness, or inspiring conversations that restore hope, this episode is the perfect place to begin.
With over 150 episodes, we’ve pulled together 5 of the most impactful, meaningful, and inspiring stories that truly represent what The Kindness Matters Podcast is all about—kindness in action, real people making a difference, and hope in a world that needs it.Â
From “M...
Strength Through Compassion
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Compassion gets called a “soft skill,” but what if it’s the hardest form of strength? We sit down with Tammy Ward, a former RCMP leader who spent 24 years across federal, provincial, and municipal policing—from major crimes to remote northern posts—to unpack how empathy saves relationships, reduces conflict, and sustains teams in the toughest moments. Tammy shares clear, lived examples of de‑escalation through listening and presence, including why speaking with rather than at people can prevent force and build trust that lasts beyond a single call.
The conversation goes deep on...
Kindness That Advocates
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What if the strongest form of advocacy didn’t sound loud, but felt deeply human? We sit down with Whitney Price, founder and executive director of Unpuzzled Parents Connect, to unpack how empathy, clarity, and community can move mountains for families raising neurodiverse kids. From West Virginia’s resource deserts to two-hour doctor trips and long insurance battles, Whitney shows how facts over fury and kindness over shame can open doors that frustration often slams shut.
We trace the family journey from the shock of an early autism diagnosis to the quie...
Leading With Compassion At Work And Home
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What if the strongest performance tool you have isn’t a dashboard, but dignity? We sit down with Paul Meunier, executive director of the Youth Intervention Programs Association, and author of the book Relationships Are Everything: What Youth Workers Teach Us About Leadership, to unpack why kindness and empathy are not soft—they’re the hard, practical skills that power trust, retention, and meaningful results. Drawing on decades as a psychotherapist, community leader, and advocate, Paul shares what youth workers already know: relationships are the foundation of growth, whether you’re guiding a teenager...
Start Here: The Kindness Matters Podcast Trailer
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Welcome to The Kindness Matters Podcast — a space for people who believe small acts still change the world.
In a culture that feels loud, divided, and quick to judge, this podcast explores something quieter but stronger: kindness. Not as a cliché. Not as a slogan. But as a daily decision that shapes families, communities, and the tone of our hearts.
If you’re tired of outrage fatigue and ready for conversations that challenge you to live differently — this is your place.
New episodes drop every Thursda...
Start Here: The Kindness Matters Podcast Trailer
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 New here? Start with this 82-second overview of what this show is about.Â
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Empathy Isn’t Weakness
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A bold claim said empathy is “toxic.” We took that personally—and turned it into a rich, practical conversation about what empathy really is, how it works, and why it makes families, classrooms, and communities stronger. With consultant, author, and caregiver Linda Lemos, we move past slogans and look at empathy as a skill you can learn, teach, and use every day without lowering standards or excusing harm.
We start with caregiving, where pain and patience collide and where boundaries and compassion must live together. Linda shares how empathy shifts reactions from r...
