Crisis is not the end of the story—it’s the beginning of a deeper one. In this episode, we examine how disruption, grief, and global upheaval can become holy catalysts for unity. Dr. Atkinson speaks to the evolutionary necessity of breakdown as breakthrough, and how personal and collective suffering can be part of the sacred architecture for transformation.
Robert Atkinson, Ph.D., author, speaker, and developmental psychologist, is a 2017 Nautilus Book Award winner for The Story of Our Time: From D...
Crisis is not the end of the story—it’s the beginning of a deeper one. In this episode, we examine how disruption, grief, and global upheaval can become holy catalysts for unity. Dr. Atkinson speaks to the evolutionary necessity of breakdown as breakthrough, and how personal and collective suffering can be part of the sacred architecture for transformation.
Robert Atkinson, Ph.D., author, speaker, and developmental psychologist, is a 2017 Nautilus Book Award winner for The Story of Our Time: From Duality to Interconnectedness to Oneness, and a co-editor of Our Moment of Choice: Evolutionary Visions and Hope for the Future (2020). He is also the founder of One Planet Peace Forum, and StoryCommons, an internationally recognized authority on life story interviewing, a pioneer in the techniques of personal myth making and soul making, and a member of the Evolutionary Leaders Circle, a project of the Source of Synergy Foundation.
He is the author of nine books, including The Story of Our Time, called “…a must read by the widest of global audiences…” by Michael Bernard Beckwith, and Mystic Journey: Getting to the Heart of Your Soul’s Story (2012), which was called “an exquisite exploration of the spiritual craft of soul-making” by Jean Houston. Of his memoir, Remembering 1969: Searching for the Eternal in Changing Times (2008), Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul, said it was “profound, friendly, inspiring, and nostalgic… I loved it.” He also assisted Babatunde Olatunji with his autobiography, The Beat of My Drum (2005), of which Pete Seeger said, “It is good to have this book, with his words, to tell his story more completely.”
He received his B.A. in philosophy and American Studies from Southampton College of Long Island University, and an M.A. in American Folk Culture from SUNY, Cooperstown. Then his journeys took him to the Hudson River and a series of adventures, including: sailing on the maiden voyage of the Clearwater with Pete Seeger and his singing crew; attending the Woodstock music festival; living in a cabin in the woods near the Hudson River; visiting Arlo Guthrie at his farm in the Berkshires; having a synchronistic and fateful meeting with Joseph Campbell that became a mentoring relationship; being given a cell in a Franciscan monastery as a guest; and, returning to teach a course at Southampton College, all of which frame his memoir of that period, Remembering 1969.
Following the publication of his first book – Songs of the Open Road: The Poetry of Folk Rock and the Journey of the Hero (1974, out of print, but still around somewhere) – he completed his second master’s at the University of New Hampshire in Counseling, and his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in cross-cultural human development. He then did a post-doctoral research fellowship in adolescent development at the University of Chicago, which resulted in the publication of The Teenage World (1987), with his mentors.
His books on life storytelling, The Gift of Stories: Practical and Spiritual Applications of Autobiography, Life Stories, and Personal Mythmaking (1995) and The Life Story Interview (1998), have been translated into Japanese, Italian, and Romanian and are widely used in personal growth and life review settings.
He is professor emeritus of cross-cultural human development and religious studies at the University of Southern Maine, and director of Story Commons. At USM, he was the first Diversity Scholar in the College of Education and Human Development (2002-2004) and a co-founding faculty of the Russell Scholars Program and the Religious Studies minor. He has also taught a week long summer course sailing the Maine coast on a traditional schooner. In the fall of 2002, he was a faculty member on the Semester at Sea around the world voyage with 30 other faculty and 600 undergraduates. He has since sailed on Semester at Sea’s Enrichment Voyages a number of times as a workshop leader.
His other interests are photography (his gallery, where he enjoys sharing with others the beauty, mystery, and wonder of the world in which we live, can be seen here), sailing, biking, hiking, and traveling.
The Whole Conversation
A tuning fork for the Unitive Age, The Whole Conversation is where ancient wisdom meets emerging science, and personal awakening ripples into global transformation. Hosted by Dr. Julie Krull—evolutionary leader, spiritual mentor, and soulful disruptor—this show delivers 20-minute microdoses of coherence, resonance, and embodied wholeness for these turbulent times.
From mystics and movement makers to scientists and soul-guides, each episode transmits a pulse from the Field: a sacred remembering that you are not separate—you are part of the Whole.
Rooted in the vision of a conscious, connected future, The Whole Conversation is a proud partner of the Holomovement. Together, we’re not just talking about change—we’re becoming it.
