Here’s a quick round-up of the latest Huffington Post writings, including two TED Weekends posts as well as an interview with the author of The Athena Doctrine, who I met at December’s TEDxWomen 2012 conference in Washington, D.C.

More to come from a few other publications soon – stay tuned.

• ‘The Operating System of the 21st Century’: John Gerzema on Femininity and The Athena Doctrine
• Documenting Secrets and Lives: The Web’s Immortal Effect
• Are We Thinking of Art All Wrong?

A few months ago, The Huffington Post began its weekly TED Weekends series, featuring commentary from opinion leaders around some of the best, most inspiring TED Talks.

I’ve been fortunate to participate in the conversations — my most recent article on psychopathy is a personal viewpoint on Jon Ronson’s TED Talk. All are invited to read and comment – more to come!

Recently, I published two articles on the Huffington Post. On the surface, they have no relationship to one another other. Self deception? Patience? Hardly an obvious connection.

Yet, a few friends pointed out this weekend that when linked together, the topics create an interesting conversation. The premise of the topics are drastically different, yet both touch on the ways our human mind, when exercised, can intelligently work in our favor.

Some food for thought – comments welcome!

Santa, Self-Deception & The Survival Instinct (Huffington Post / TED Weekends series)

Lessons from Miraval: Practicing Patience (Huffington Post / Healthy Living)

For the past few months, I’ve been interviewing musicians across genres to discuss not only what’s motivated them to create, but also about how they see their music changing the communities in which they live. Music, for these artists, has emerged as a cultural platform to engage and unify communities and in many cases, inspire social change efforts, alter perspectives and add color to existing paradigms.

Here are the latest two articles in the interview series, recently published on Huffington Post:

Mayday Radio Has Something to Sing

For centuries, music has been one of society’s most powerful ways that people share stories and ideas that create bonds while transcending geographic, personal or economic boundaries. However, in a time when our increasingly connected world has muted those limitations, new possibilities have emerged in ways that can change the way we communicate and in many cases, stimulate social action. More here.

Nick Africano: Music As An Art of Inclusion

It’s no secret that music has a unique way of unifying people across cultures, geographies and communities. It takes exceptional artists and performers to build those stories to which many can relate. Nick Africano, whose music blends folk, soul, storytelling and rock, does just that — his soulful storytelling performance style is built upon a philosophy of music as an ‘art of inclusion.’ During a conversation about his recently released album, The Butterfly Bull, Africano classified his sound as living “between the soulful, passionate, poetic space of rock and roll.” More here.

A few weeks ago, veteran musician and insightful creator Walter Parks and I spoke about what motivates him as a musician and individual. Many compelling insights – you can read more on HuffPost here.

I’m excited to share one in a series of perspective articles based on my experience at TEDGlobal 2012 in Edinburgh at the end of June. It was published on Huffington Post Impact a few weeks ago.

From TEDGlobal 2012: “Radical Openness: A Collective Responsibility to Drive the Next Learning Evolution”

More to come!

“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a door mat or a prostitute.” ~ Rebecca West

A woman obsessed with cultural conversation, Cicely Isabel Fairfield, aka Rebecca West, lived to be almost 100 years old. In that time, she did it all – from writing essays for New York Herald Tribune, befriended Charlie Chaplin and won the Women’s Press Club Award for Journalism from President Truman

Classified as a feminist or not – West had no hesitation to put her thoughts into the world. Well done.

“I always believed in the music we did and that’s why it was uncompromising.” ~ Jimmy Page

My first concert was a Robert Plant/Jimmy Page gig. Of course, I admire both of them – their collective artistic talents and the impact they’ve had on music are unmatched.

But Page reminds me of someone who, if he wasn’t busy being one of the world’s preeminent guitarists, magical songwriters and worshiped founder of Led Zeppelin, could also have been a stellar friend to have beers with on Saturday nights.

Alas, Page succinctly captures the intent of his broader legacy much better than I ever could in a 1993 interview with Guitar World:

Many people think of me as just a riff guitarist, but I think of myself in broader terms . . . As a producer I would like to be remembered as someone who was able to sustain a band of unquestionable individual talent, and push it to the forefront during its working career. I think I really captured the best of our output, growth, change and maturity on tape – the multifaceted gem that is Led Zeppelin.