My ability to see my own imperfections is going to help me see the humanity in your imperfections and it doesn't mean we're best friends and it doesn't mean that I can don't what you do but it really does mean that I can see you for who you are and that way of

seeing one another I think is completely different from where we are as a culture today and I think that's where we need to go.

We've all been and felt other at some point in our lives. It feels awful but what happens when that experience rises to a level and pervasiveness of such intensity that it's not just about feeling unwelcome.

It's about fearing for your life and the lives of others you care about whether drawn from what we look like what or who we worship our values beliefs or any other identifier that fear of being othered on an extreme level because of something that defines us can lead to so much suffering and at times translate to anger even rage and it's understandable.

Question is is it the answer the way forward or is there a different more expansive empathy centered path and if so what does that look like and is it really a genuine option given the world we currently live in.

These are the questions and ideas today's guest.

Simran G Singh have been grappling with. Simran is the executive director for the Aspen Institute's Religion and Society program and a visiting professor of History and Religion at the Union Theological Seminary. He's a Soros Equality Fellow with the Open Society Foundations and in 2020 Time Magazine recognized him among 16 people fighting for a more equal America.

He's a columnist for the Religion News Service and his work has appeared in the near times Washington Post and more in today's conversation we take a deep dive into his experiences growing up becoming a visible advocate not only for his own culture and spiritual traditions but also a different approach to bridge building in his new book The Light We Give, How Sick Wisdom Can Transform Your Life.

He shares his complex fresh perspective on how empathy and tradition come into play to help us embrace each other's differences, find contentment and discover our universal connectedness.

And in our conversation today he offers a framework, a different approach designed to let us see each other's humanity more clearly and hopefully create a better and more equal world for ourselves and whoever comes after us.

So excited to share this conversation with you. I'm Jonathan Fields and this is Good Life Project.

One of my earliest introductions to sick traditions and faith was actually a friend of mine who years ago he and since he is a white guy from middle America who had really embraced the ideas of the traditions and then wanted to bring it into a business philosophy of how to treat the world.

And the domain of business, the least of interesting conversations around it, then more recently my exposure to the work of Valerie Kor who's been in previous guest on the show and her stories really open my eyes not just to more than just to be able to see the world.

And so I'm going to actually interact in the world and the domain of business, the least of interesting conversations around it, then more recently my exposure to the work of Valerie Kor who's been in previous guest on the show and her stories really open my eyes not just to more of the real stories.

And I think that's a different perspective on some of the major moments and major tragedies that have happened in this country. I know your folks are first generation immigrants, you were brought up in Centennial, Texas.

And one of it sounds like not too many of any other families in this town who looked like you who believed like you. And on the one hand you found ways around that but on the other hand it also.

Because the friction it caused issues occurred cause a certain amount of angst in your life.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean it was very much as you describe it, we thought of ourselves as normal kids and we did all the normal things that our friends did and mostly mostly sports.

I have three brothers, real close and age.

My primary experience of the world growing up was you go to school, you come home, you play basketball with your friends, you play soccer with your neighbors.

Our backyard was the soccer backyard, our next door neighbors was the basketball back. I mean we were we were always playing.

You know the thing about sports is it's in many ways it's an it's an equalizing force, right? It doesn't really matter how you look or where you come from.

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