The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging. Your host is Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp. In this episode, Joey Taylor and I speak with Reverend Ben McBride.
Ben is a native of San Francisco, spiritual leader and longtime activist for peace and justice in the Bay Area. In 2008, he relocated his family to a difficult neighborhood in Oakland called the “Kill Zone” to understand and respond to the epidemic of gun violence, firsthand. During this tenure, he was an instrumental leader of relaunching Oakland’s first successful iteration of Operation Ceasefire, a data-driven, violence reduction strategy, contributing heavily to a 50% reduction in homicides over five years. In 2014 Ben launched Empower Initiative to support bridging and belonging work across the country. Ben is an expert at fostering belonging and serves as a national leader around reconstructing public safety systems and gun violence prevention work, including a background of training over 100 law enforcement departments and executives. Ben joined PICO California, the largest grassroots community organization in the state, representing 450,000 people across 73 cities, in 2015 and serves as the Co-Director. Ben founded the Bring the HEAT campaign, a peacemaking initiative to address police violence, and serves as the Co-Chair of California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board focusing on ending racial profiling in California. Ben was featured in the Sundance Film Festival Award winning film, THE FORCE, focusing on his peacemaking work. Ben is also an experienced trainer around equity, diversity and inclusion; working with companies and values based organizations across the country. Ben and his wife Gynelle have been married for 20 years and have 3 amazing daughters. They reside in Oakland, CA.
Ben's new book (coming out in October) is Troubling the Water: The Urgent Work of Radical Belonging.
Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp serves as the spiritual leader of Temple Sholom in Cincinnati, Ohio. Temple Sholom sets itself apart through dynamic, mission-driven initiatives. Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp, a native of Seattle and previous to joining Temple Sholom, she served as chaplain and at the Los Angeles County Men’s jail, the Los Angeles Home for the Aging, as a rabbinic fellow at Temple De Hirch Sinai in Seattle and a national Kol Tzedek fellow for American Jewish World Service. Rabbi Terlinchamp serves as the Immediate Past President of The Amos Project, the largest faith-based organizing body in Ohio with 55 Cincinnati-area congregations. She serves on the national clergy organizing board and the Large Grant Commission of Faith in Action. She is a Rabbis Without Borders Fellow and part of the CLAL Spiritual Entrepreneur 2017 cohort incubator, a collaborative partnership between CLAL and the Columbia Business School. Rabbi Terlinchamp received her Masters degree in Hebrew Letters in 2008, was ordained as a rabbi in 2010 at HUC-JIR, Los Angeles, received BA in Philosophy of Religion and Studio Art from Scripps College in Claremont, CA and received additional studio art training at the London Slade School of Art. Rabbi Terlinchamp is a poet, an artist and a mother to two fabulous daughters, Sienna and Magnolia.
This episode was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live & Common Change - Eliminating Personal Economic Isolation.