Shows
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelHow the New “Song and Dance” Can Help Heal the Old Song-and-Dance of Political PolarizationAnnouncing NEW Signs of the Upwising PodcastInterview with Performance Artist and Shamanic Cheerleader Raina Satorihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbYQU9UeLgU“It’s time to bring red tribe and blue tribe together in sacred circle, to talk until they are purple in the face. The only way to overgrow corporate personhood is through purple peoplehood. “-- Swami BeyondanandaI am happy to announce that I am launching a new podcast, Signs of the Upwising, to help we the peop...2025-06-2847 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelFront and Center Podcast “Podner” Michael Maxsenti Launches Congressional Campaign … And He Can ACTUALLY WIN!“We need a new PRECEDENT – government of the people, by the people, for the people where the government does OUR bidding, not the bidding of the highest bidder.” – Swami BeyondanandaFront and Center podcast “podner” Michael Maxsenti, a self-declared “Rebel for Truth” is running as an independent thinking Republican for Congress in California’s highly-contested 47th Congressional District – and he actually has a chance to win!“Rebel” is an acronym for:Recognize the status quo has failed us.Educate yourself with nonpartisan facts and possible solutions. Be aware most represe...2025-05-0358 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelWriting Our New Story Together - From Divide-and-Conquer to Unite and Thrive“Truth lives in our hearts. Beliefs lie in our heads.” – Swami BeyondanandaSome years ago I wrote an article for a progressive publication about Fox News and their propensity for spreading outright lies. I called the article “Come On Baby, Fight My Liar,” and I ended it by saying that conservatives obviously like being lied to – whereas progressives prefer lying to themselves.Needless to say, I got some pushback on the piece – and also some knowing nods of “yes, I know exactly what you mean.”What did I...2024-12-1958 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelHow the Right Got Right, and the Left Got Left - Lessons From An Abusive Relationship“When you find yourself on a vicious cycle, for goodness sake, stop pedaling and get off.” -- Swami BeyondanandaWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXBh9F8IunkFrom Steve Bhaerman:One of the biggest challenges for me in the wake of the election results has been speaking into the field of grief, anger, profound disappointment, hopelessness and despair so many of my progressive co-hearts have been experiencing.And …I’ve been watching this slow-motio...2024-11-2546 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelBeyond Censorship – Mind Control. You Can’t “Know” What They Don’t Show You“If a speech falls freely in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, is it still free speech?” – Swami BeyondanandaWatch here on Rumble: https://rumble.com/v5l72zy-beyond-censorship-mind-control.-you-cant-know-what-they-dont-show-you.htmlWatch here on Locals: https://frontandcenter.locals.com/In 1974, the satirical troupe, Firesign Theatre, put out a comedy record, Everything You Know Is Wrong.Now, 50 years later …looks like they were right.When we think of censorship, we think of...2024-11-0143 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelWhy Free Speech Is a Life Or Death Issue - It’s Time to Wake Up and Smell the Coffins“It’s not vicious lies they are looking to censor. It’s those vicious truths they’re worried about.”– Swami BeyondanandaWatch the most recent Front & Center with Mike and Steve podcast here.https://rumble.com/v5j2ln9-why-free-speech-is-a-life-or-death-issue-its-time-to-wake-up-and-smell-the-.htmlhttps://frontandcenter.locals.com/Last week I wrote a post suggesting that free speech censorship was the gravest existential threat to democracy. I was heartened by the positive response, although I found something very curious about the few pushb...2024-10-1840 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelThe True Existential Threat to Democracy - And Why It’s So Hard for Some People to See“They’ve taken the Bill of Rights and boiled it down to just one.You have the right to remain silent.” – Swami BeyondanandaWatch the most recent Front & Center with Mike and Steve podcast here.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXL_WYJzrbMIn December 2008, Bruce Lipton and I were writing the final chapter of Spontaneous Evolution. Barack Obama had just been elected President, and I had just returned from a trip to Washington, D.C. – where people were literally dancing in the streets.And why not?...2024-10-1035 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelFront and Center “Rescue the Republic” Report“To make things simpler, they have taken the Bill of Rights and boiled it down to just one – you have the right to remain silent.” – Swami BeyondanandaJoin Steve and Mike as they discuss Mike’s recent trip to Washington, D.C. to be part of the Rescue the Republic rally, an independent political gathering convened by Bret Weinstein, and including luminaries like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Matt Taibbi, Jimmy Dore and many others. Says Mike, “I could never in good conscience ask anyone to vote for Donald Trump – but I can ask them to vote...2024-10-0433 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelThe New Independents Movement - We the People vs. the UnipartyA Front and Center Conversation with Steve Bhaerman and Michael Maxsenti“We have a two-faced one-party system – and we the people haven’t been invited to the party.” – Swami BeyondanandaWhen RFK, Jr. announced he was suspending his campaign to throw his support behind Donald Trump, I had mixed feelings. I had supported Bobby because he represented the “independent” movement, which I recognized as the politics of the future. As most Americans don’t know, 51% of American voters now identify as “independent.”While I could understand his move as a Hail Mary pass to get...2024-09-2553 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelA Conversation with INC Convener Christopher LifeThe Second Great Independence Movement is the Politics of the Future – If We Are to Have OneA Conversation with INC Convener Christopher Life“Independents of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your Cheneys …and Bidens …and Trumps.” – Swami BeyondanandaThere’s a Buckminster Fuller quote that is perhaps more pertinent today than ever before:“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”So, while the mainstream conversation is focused strictly on the horse race (or is...2024-07-241h 01
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelThe America That Almost Was …And May Yet Be - Charles Eisenstein Speaks Out About Healing America and Why He Has Joined the RFK, Jr. Campaign“The two-potty shit-show has been detrimental to us all, and now we have a chance to bring it down in one swell poop.”– Swami Beyondanandahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_qrlIb7pCQHere is the paradox of our current “bi-polar insanity” and “two-potty” political system.The two political sides seem more intractably polarized than ever, and yet there is a political movement emerging from what Charles Eisenstein calls “the Transcendent Center”, a great “upwising” if you will, that seeks to bring us together around “the common moral agreements, and basic human impulses tha...2024-05-011h 24
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelA New Transpartisan Movement to Break the Partisan Trance – And a Candidate to Heal America“There are no sides, only angles, and when we see it from the right angle, we’re all on the same side.” – Swami BeyondanandaAs we find ourselves in the midst of another toxically-divisive electoral campaign (that’s where we spend $14 billion to elect a candidate nearly half the people despise and the rest merely dislike), don’t you think it’s time to put an end to this bi-polar insanity?We think so.We – Steve Bhaerman and Michael Maxsenti – are rededicating our Front and Center podcast and platform to bringing America together around the virtues...2024-04-0849 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelBirthing the Symbiotic Age - Interview with Author Richard Flyer“The idea of bringing heaven to earth for me, is not metaphoric. It's not a story. And I believe -- from my own experience -- that you can actually connect to the Transcendent as a power and it can be embodied within us.” -- Richard FlyerGreetings and welcome to what we hope will be a truly NEW New Year!Front and Center launches a new year of podcasts with a conversation with Richard Flyer, whose life work has been all about lifting us off the old battlefield of what he calls “the culture of separatio...2024-01-111h 08
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelFrom Divide-and-Conquer to Unite and Thrive Using the “Adjacent Possible” to Get Us from the Ideal to the Real Deal - Interview with “Thrive” Producer Foster Gamble“The best way to overgrow the ‘deep state’ is by cultivating a deeper state.” -- Swami BeyondanandaHere is the oxymoronic political contradiction of our times. We seem more polarized than ever, and yet the vast majority of us long to work together for mutual benefit. Perhaps the resolution of this seemingly impossible “shituation” can be found in the “real” American dream of our founders: individual freedom AND collective wellbeing.The accentuated polarization of our times has put these two universal aspirations in conflict with one another. But what if they need to co-evolve together? Is there a way to tra...2023-07-251h 24
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelHealthy Food, Healthy People, Healthy Communities: A Conversation with Food Safety Advocate Zen Honeycutt and Former California Secretary of Agriculture A. G. Kawamura“There are no sides, only angles and when we see it from the right angle, we’re all on the same side.” -- Swami BeyondanandaWe have three founding principles at Front and Center:From political battlefields to cooperative playing fields.Seeking the whole truth together.Putting the government on the side of the people.Each one is a challenge, to be sure, in these politically polarized times. Number two is particularly challenging because most political “discussions” devolve into dueling narratives. So, in this “conversation for possibilities” we brought togeth...2023-06-141h 23
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelInterview with Zen Honeycutt: Healthy Communities, Healthy Food – Makes Uncommon Common Sense“Why should corporations pay taxes, when they can simply pay the legislators directly and eliminate the middle man?”-- Swami BeyondanandaIn case you haven’t noticed, there has been a key missing element in government of, by, and for the people – the PEOPLE!So … it’s up to the people on the outside to stir and move those on the inside. Zen Honeycutt, our guest on Front and Center this week, is one of those “inciteful outsiders”. Her organization Moms Across America, has led a highly-successful campaign to educate moms – and everyone else –...2023-05-2658 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelInterview with Marianne Williamson: Why She Is Running and Why It Matters“The Status Quo Will Not Disrupt Itself”“Trickle-down economics is when all the wealth is at the top, and a small portion of it trickles down to the masses. That’s why they call the people at the bottom peons.”-- Swami BeyondanandaWhen I interviewed Marianne Williamson after her 2020 Presidential campaign, she told me that she was shaken and a bit shocked at the meanness of campaign politics – and that was just from her own side!So naturally, the first question Michael Maxsenti and I asked in ou...2023-03-2547 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelIndependent National Convention in Austin Seeks to Restore Missing Piece in Government by the People – the PEOPLEConversation with Independent National Conference Convener Christopher Life“We have a deeply divided body politic. Half the people think our system is broken. The other half believe it is fixed.” -- Swami BeyondanandaJoin Independent National Conference convener Christopher Life in a lively discussion about how we the people can stopping fighting one another and unite to restore the missing element in government by the people – the people!Here is the paradox of our times. The body politic seems more divided and polarized than ever – and yet the great majority of us would much prefer...2023-02-2155 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelMarie Alvarado-Gil Represents an Uncommonly Sensible Common-Sense Consensus – A Servant with Integrity“It’s time to bring left and right front and center to face the music and dance together.” -- Swami BeyondanandaOur Front and Center podcast is dedicated to inspiring our community to get off the political battlefield and onto the cooperative playing field, to seeking the whole truth together, and finding a “commonly-sensed common sense consensus” that represents the virtues and values we share in common above and beyond our political differences.Yes, yes. I know. We are proposing a sane world. We must be crazy.Well, there is good news. There’s a “sane asylum...2022-10-031h 02
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelThe Secret War to Occupy Your MindConversation with Author and Propaganda Expert Mark Crispin Miller“Who needs conspiracy theories when we have con’s piracy facts?” -- Swami BeyondanandaIf you’re like most Americans I know, you are watching the train wreck that is American politics chugging down the track to oblivion, and wondering how it is that the likes of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln have devolved into the (dis)likes of Trump and Biden? How is it we have hunkered into angry rival political camps spending our fury on one another rather than coming together to face our...2022-07-121h 13
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelA Commonsense Approach to the Gender AgendaPart 3 of conversation with Political and Community Activist Nancy Vogl“I believe in fundamental minority rights. Each of us has the right to be the individual we truly are.” -- Swami BeyondanandaOne of our missions at Front and Center is “finding the whole truth together”, and on a practical level it means unpacking narratives that have become too volatile to talk about. In part 2 of our interview with Nancy Vogl, we addressed Critical Race Theory (CRT), and how polarized misunderstandings have put our body politic on the “critical list.”In Part 3, we a...2022-06-2439 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelA Commonsense Approach to Critical Race TheoryPart 2 of Conversation with Political and Community Activist Nancy Vogl“Not only do hot-button issues activate the base, they activate the basest of the base.’” -- Swami BeyondanandaOne of our missions at Front and Center is “finding the whole truth together”, and on a practical level it means unpacking narratives that have become too volatile to talk about. One such issue is “critical race theory”. To get a “bilateral” view of this hot button issue, we invited Nancy Vogl, who has journeyed across the political spectrum, from Republican to gay activist to evolutionary revol...2022-06-2034 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelWhat America Do You Want to Live In? A Story of Political EvolutionConversation with Political and Community Activist Nancy Vogl“Even Jesus believed in evolution. Otherwise, he would have said, ‘Now don’t do a thing until I return.’” -- Swami BeyondanandaAs per a recent Atlantic Monthly article, the new phrase describing America’s ever-deepening political divide is “pernicious polarization”. That old phrase “I wouldn’t want my son / daughter to marry one”, that used to apply to someone of another race, now applies to someone of a different political persuasion. Let that one sink in, folks. While we as a society have largely accepted racial, ethnic and religious interm...2022-05-3036 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelThe Common Sense Party -- An Uncommonly Sensible Way to Get Government on the Side of The PeopleConversation with Former US Congressman and CSP Founder Tom Campbell“We have a deeply-divided body politic. Half the people believe our system is broken. The other half believe it is fixed.” -- Swami BeyondanandaWhen asked if we need a new third party in the United States, our cosmic comic uncommontator Swami Beyondananda answered, “No. We need a new FIRST party in this country.” And … what if there were a “third force” that could transform our system from a dysfunctional two-party duopoly to a thriving multi-party system?Our conversation with former U.S. Congressman a...2022-04-011h 04Front and Center with Steve and MichaelEXCERPTS - Developmental Politics: How America Can Grow into a Better Version of ItselfConversation with Integral Philosopher Steve McIntosh “Instead of the familiar political tug-of-war pulling us apart, we need a tug of peace where we all pull together in the same direction.” -- Swami BeyondanandaIn this “bite-size excerpt” from our longer interview with Integral philosopher, Steve McIntosh, author of Developmental Politics: How America Can Grow into a Better Version of Itself, we explore the deeper reasons for our political “hyper-polarization”, and why “centrism” won’t bring us together. How can we move from “stuck polarization” to healthy polarization? How do we evolve our political culture? And how do we expand inclusivit...2022-03-0116 minFront and Center with Steve and MichaelDevelopmental Politics: How America Can Grow into a Better Version of ItselfConversation with Integral Philosopher Steve McIntosh“Instead of the familiar political tug-of-war pulling us apart, we need a tug of peace where we all pull together in the same direction." -- Swami BeyondanandaHere is the political paradox of our times.At a time when the body politic seems more polarized than ever, there seems to be a parallel impulse to come together at a coherent and cohesive center. However, as author and integral thinker Steve McIntosh tells us, “Centrism” has failed us, and is no longer workable. That means, instead of coming together i...2022-03-011h 37Front and Center with Steve and MichaelHabits of Unity – Changing Our Country and the World One Citizen at a TimeFront and Center Interview with “Habits of Unity” Author Elaine Parke“There’s no need to change the world. There is a better way. I say let’s toilet train the world, and we’ll never have to change it again.” -- Swami BeyondanandaIn these times of division, fear, misunderstanding, and confusion, those who are awakening to the “shituation” are asking, “What can I do?”Maybe the better question is, “Who can I BE?” For as Gandhi famously said, “Be the change you seek.” Could it be that the key to changing what’s out there is changing what’...2022-02-0654 minFront and Center with Steve and MichaelWe’ve Boiled It Down for You!We – Steve Bhaerman and Michael Maxsenti -- launched our Front and Center podcast in September with the intention to help all sides get off the political battlefields and onto the cooperative playing fields so we could write our new story together.Our first seven guests have shown us the pathway to turn this ideal into the REAL DEAL – by awakening the recognition of what is possible and highlighting how to navigate there. This seemingly dark time is actually leading us to the birth of a new era for humanity, an era of REUNION …where we can come togeth...2022-01-0310 minFront and Center with Steve and MichaelPart II 'How the “Lost People” Can Find Themselves by Finding One Another’“There are no sides, only angles. And if we see things from the right angle, we’re all on the same side.” -- Swami BeyondanandaThree months ago, amidst very little fanfare, we – Michael Maxsenti and Steve Bhaerman – launched a podcast to bring awakening individuals from all sides “front and center” to get off the political battlefields, and on to the cooperative playing fields, so that we could write humanity’s new story together.At a time when the news “out there” emphasizes division and conflict, we recognized that the new story begins “in here” with an emerging desire to...2021-11-2916 minFront and Center with Steve and Michael'From the Illusion of Separation to Kinship and Reunion' Seven Foundational Conversations Part 1“There are no sides, only angles. And if we see things from the right angle, we’re all on the same side.” -- Swami BeyondanandaThree months ago, amidst very little fanfare, we – Michael Maxsenti and Steve Bhaerman – launched a podcast to bring awakening individuals from all sides “front and center” to get off the political battlefields, and on to the cooperative playing fields, so that we could write humanity’s new story together.At a time when the news “out there” emphasizes division and conflict, we recognized that the new story begins “in here” with an emerging desire to...2021-11-2918 minFront and Center with Steve and MichaelLiving Room Conversations: Transpartisan Dialogue to Overgrow the Partisan Trance with Joan Blades“If we truly want peace in the Middle East, we must first have peace in the Middle West.” -- Swami BeyondanandaFor decades, we’ve been exposed to the meme, “visualize world peace.” Well, maybe the key to transforming the world at large is to transform the “world at small” – a peace-building movement to bring together our red and blue tribes to sit in “sacred circle” and talk until they’re “purple in the face.”That’s the approach this week’s guest, Joan Blades, is taking. The co-founder of MoveOn.org, known for its partisan alignment with the Democ...2021-11-161h 00
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelOriginal Politics: America’s Sacred Purpose and Untold StoryA Conversation with Author and Eco-psychologist Glenn Aparicio Parry“When we shift our’ c-ing from fear to love, we move from scared to sacred.” -- Swami BeyondanandaSacred purpose?Given the current political polarization and deep division, we see a lot more scared than we do sacred. And yet, that “sacred purpose” embedded in the untold story of how Native Americans and English settlers lived in relative harmony for 150 years, may hold the key to healing our body politic in these challenging times.Our guest on Front and Center this...2021-11-061h 02
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelThe Lost People: The Loss of Indigenous Culture and the Roots of “Wetiko”A Conversation with Author and Talk Show Host Thom Hartmann“We need to replace the Four E’s – extraction, exploitation, extortion and extinction -- with the Four C’s, cooperation, collaboration, cultivation and community.” -- Swami BeyondanandaThe lost people.What an intriguing title. Who are those “lost people”? Are they an ancient people whose ways and history are lost to us? Or are they the “hungry ghosts” in our own society, unhinged from meaning and purpose, who have acquiesced to, and perpetuate the “taker” culture?According to award-winning talk show host and prolific author...2021-10-311h 02
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelThe Reverence Code: The Indigenous Path to Take Us From Domination to CooperationA Conversation with Activist and Wisdom-Keeper Shawna Bluestar Newcomb“Life calls on us to move from survival of the fittest to thrival of the fittingest.” -- Swami BeyondanandaAre you familiar with the “Doctrine of Discovery”? Probably not. It sounds innocuous, but was the Papal bull that legitimized the conquest of the new world and the genocide of its inhabitants. Believe it or not, this 15th century decree is still recognized as legal precedent by our own U.S. Supreme Court! We know this thanks to Native American legal and Latin scholar Steven Newcomb.In looking...2021-10-201h 01
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelRepairing the Breach: Restoring A Common Culture Through Kinship and Reunion“The currency of our evolved species, Humankind, is human kindness.” -- Swami Beyondananda"...you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in." -- Isaiah 58:12There seems to be one thing everyone across the political spectrum can agree on – we are divided like never before.So, can this breach be breached? Can we put the “civil” back in civilization, and find that sane and sacred space where we can gather as one?This week’s guest, Bobby Au...2021-10-101h 14
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelSeeking the Whole Truth Together - A Conversation with Randall PaulA Conversation with Randall PaulFoundation for Religious DiplomacyWhat if the key to breakthrough is not getting opposing parties to agree – but getting them to disagree agreeably? This week’s guest, Randall Paul, President of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, says that when we transform those we perceive as opponents into “trustworthy rivals”, we open the door to finding the “whole truth” together. This is similar to what Abraham Lincoln did when he turned his political opponents into a “team of rivals”, uniting to preserve the Union.Randall Paul came to his notion of “...2021-09-2658 min
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelNavigating Our Evolutionary Times: A Conversation with Charles EisensteinTo launch our podcast Front And Center: Writing Our New Story Together ... and to help propel us off the political battlefields and on to the creative playing fields, we had a conversation with visionary philosopher Charles Eisenstein, author of several books including, “The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible.”Says Charles: “We are immersed in a story of separation, a story that has served us for millennia, and is now breaking down, leaving us with a crisis of meaning, a crisis of identity, an uncertainty, and panic even -- and also a sense of possibility of trans...2021-09-221h 06
Front and Center with Steve and MichaelSteve and Michael Welcome You to Front and CenterOur fundamental purpose and mission is summed up in our show title, slogan and subtitle … Front and Center ... ‘From Political Battlefields to Cooperative Playing Fields’ ... Writing Our New Story Together.2021-09-2203 min