Author of the groundbreaking book, “Modern Masculinity for the Conscious Man. Making Sense in Troubled Times”, Michael is an interdisciplinary cultural commentator, pulling together the threads of an unraveling world to provide clarity amidst all the Crazy. If there is a single objective truth, then it is found between many different trains of thought. Therefore, he generates insights that shed light onto that “truth” from diverse angles and viewpoints. In his words, “I’ve spent a large proportion of my adult life trying to see the world as it really is and coming to my own conclusions. Conclusions about everything I’ve been told or have learned from others. Most people, especially nowadays through their social media preferences, live in an echo chamber. Strangely, I find there aren’t enough groups or people out there whose thinking is closely mirrored by my own. I find myself constantly and intentionally challenging my thinking by reading and reviewing stuff from all over the informational map. I digest as much as possible from as wide an array of rock-solid sources as I can, picking and choosing those that make the most sense to me, and then synthesizing it all into something coherent. As I ingest information and perspectives, I try to accept and acknowledge my own limited ability to fully understand everything and, instead, embrace a growth mindset, however flawed or imperfect I might be at any moment. I am at war with my level of ignorance. I’m deeply concerned with society and our shared journey together as a species and in particular how it affects men. Even in western cultures, society is “not fit for human consumption.” It in no way works for the benefit of the vast majority of people. I’m both fascinated and disturbed about how the world is screwed up, how it got to be screwed up, how I got to be screwed up, and the parts we all play in creating the best conditions for people and planet.”

SusanMason.com As a Professional Conscious Uncoupling Coach™  Susan is Trained and Certified by Katherine Woodward Thomas, M.A., MFT. (creator of Conscious Uncoupling). She is also a Relationship Coach, a Parent Coach, and an Educational Consultant, with extensive experience in alternative and Remedial Education. Many years spent working with parents to optimize their children’s education relevant for today’s world. The foundation of this work is also relationship and connection. Her beginnings included Waldorf Early Childhood Education, and then work as a Remedial Educational Therapist working with children in Waldorf Schools. She homeschooled her two creative inventive sons, K through 12, along with being asked to mentor other boys in the community. 
She is currently an Elder in the College of Teachers at the North Fork School of Integrated Studies – a Waldorf School  in Paonia. She is in her 36th year of marriage with husband James, who is a dynamic entrepreneur and a deep sheltering spirit with big love. When there are Relationship difficulties she works to guide clients to discover the rich possibility of the awakening that can come by transforming this disappointment or loss into a sacred journey. Professional Conscious Uncoupling Coach™ – Trained and Certified by Katherine Woodward Thomas, M.A., MFT. Relationship Coach Parent Coach Certified. Remedial Waldorf Educational Therapist. Early Childhood Waldorf Teacher. Educational Consultant – Alternative Education; Homeschooling; Remedial Education Elder for Waldorf Teachers at the NFSIS

Shellygibbs.com Recently featured on Dr. Karen Becker’s Healthy Pets website, Shelly Gibbs cannot remember a day when her life wasn’t filled with loads of furry critters. As the daughter of large animal veterinarian dad and a former rodeo trick rider mom, her earliest memories growing up in rural Colorado were formed astride her favorite horses, playing with her favorite dogs and cats, corralling sheep, feeding cattle, milking goats and dairy cows, and helping out her folks on their ranch with calving, lambing, bottle-feeding lambs, fence repairs, irrigation, and haying – she remembers back in high school driving the windrower as one of her chores. When not busy with farm or ranch chores, Shelly was involved with 4H, showing horses at the county fair, and representing the local western-riding equestrian club as the official parade queen in 1976. It would be fair to say Shelly learned to speak “animal” long before her first human words were uttered. As a result, she could hardly wait until the final bell of the school day rang so she could rush home to her beloved four-legged friends! Animal communication for Shelly wasn’t merely part of crafting some kind of contrived new age identity, it was quite literally her first language! For her to survive, and indeed thrive in her hardworking home environment meant forming deep, trusted sacred bonds with her nonverbal extended family. Constantly steeped in deep rapport with her animal teachers, Shelly gradually immersed herself into their arcane vocabulary. This, of course, inclined her to devote her life to forming extraordinary connections with extraordinary beasts. After decades of studying horsemanship, teaching her own kids to ride, volunteering at animal shelters, and assisting veterinarians with healing work, she eventually realized this pre-verbal language she learned was being given the name “animal communication”. She then set out to learn to be an interpreter, as the communication was already innate. This took her into a bit more esoteric realm of connection. She has spent the better part of 20-years deeply immersed in Polarity Therapy, Craniosacral bodywork and clairvoyant energy work. It is truly uncanny what Shelly’s clients have observed in her work. I have been the fortunate beneficiary of some stunning insights she has made with my own cats and also the beautiful Jersey cows that I help milk and care for in a local Biodynamic, A2/A2 shareholder dairy. Suffice to say, she has blown any skepticism I might have had out of the water! Just two years ago I invited Shelly to spend 5-weeks with me on my Regenerative Costa Rican cacao farm amid the cloud forest just south of Arenal Volcano. Twenty-minutes upon her arrival, this remarkable woman who blesses me with her friendship, drew her first wild neotropical critter near to her. In this case it was an iguana, prompting me to chortle in bewildered amazement, “Wow, so your superpower works on reptiles as well as mammals?!” Working on the farm and hiking the rainforest with my mystical friend Shelly is such an incredible treat! Almost daily we were treated to encounters with Costa Rica’s most extraordinary fauna; mammalian, avian, insect, reptilian, amphibian. Indeed in 13 prior visits I hadn’t encountered as many of the creatures who uncannily seemed to gravitate to her presence – including my first herd of tapir, Costa Rica’s largest mammal! Shelly grew up in rural areas with animals ever present in her life as friends and companions.  Her experience with them is deep and intuitive and horses in particular have taught her many profound lessons, which have helped her in expanding and refining her skills as an animal communicator.  She integrates training in the healing arts of Polarity Therapy, Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and Clairvoyance and has offered healing to animals since 2004. Shelly lives in rural Colorado in a tiny house on her dad’s farm that she built herself.  When she is not working on a project or doing healing work with animals,  she can be found walking outside in the sunshine wearing cowboy boots and her favorite jeans.  Her  work in all its forms is connected by the common thread of deep listening and creative self expression. Her desire is that any diminishment of energy, well-being or self expression can be lifted so that the essence of your animal can shine through.

Scott Gallant is a permaculture designer and educator with nearly a decade of experience working in Central America. He is the co-founder of Porvenir Design, a landscape design firm specializing in productive landscapes. He graduated from Wabash College in 2008 with a degree in Economics. He was the farm manager at Rancho Mastatal for nine years, and has worked with diverse projects such as VersaLand, Open Source Ecology, Project Bonafide and many more as he has developed his skill-set in permaculture design. Passionate about regenerative agriculture, holistic thinking, ethnobotany, community development, and re-skilling, he still makes time to hike and bike, read exhaustively, and work on his basketball jump shot and frisbee throw.  He has traveled extensively in Latin America, leading to a love of the culture, food, and language, which he attempts to speak.  Scott writes for the Permaculture Research Institute and has been featured on the Permaculture Voices and Abundant Edge podcasts.

(Bio pending…)