America is about to turn 250 years old. My guest today believes this moment is asking something from all of us. Not a celebration or parade, but a reckoning, a chance to find our way back to each other. Brandon Peele is a bestselling author of 6 books on purpose and civic leadership, is Executive Director of the National Pilgrimage, and a trusted keynote speaker and consultant. His work sits at the intersection of purpose, democracy, and what it means to be a nation.
On June 9th, 2026, a caravan of diverse Americans will set out on the National Pilgrimage — driving through the heart of this nation, sitting with people along the way, and asking the questions our political system never asks: What values should guide us? What would it take for this to be a great place for all of us to raise children? What kind of country do we want to leave for the next generation? The journey culminates in the National Assembly — a virtual gathering open to everyone on July 6th and 7th, 2026, from 5 to 8 pm PDT, where your voice will be heard and counted. Six storytellers will then travel to Chicago, and on July 9th — the anniversary of the 14th Amendment — they will read aloud a new national covenant. PBS documentarians are capturing every mile.
You’ll learn more details and how to get involved. We discuss why empathy is the core mechanism of e pluribus unum — out of many, one — and why, just like any organization, we need a shared moral vision to know where we’re going and who we want to be. Brandon shares the three layers of democracy and why our nation’s problems are as much moral, psychological, and spiritual as they are political.
To access the episode transcript, please scroll down below.
Listen in for…
- The purpose of government and how we have forgotten the core vision of our democracy
- How the founding beliefs of spirituality and Natural Law shaped the country
- A shared vision of what we can all be as diverse Americans
- Ways you can join in or support the pilgrimage and virtual assembly
“This is not about politics. This is about a shared moral vision that includes all of us, and so I don’t care how you voted or if you voted. I don’t care how you make love. I don’t care how much melanin is in your skin. You’re an American, and you belong in this conversation.” — Brandon Peele
References:
The Empathy Edge:
- Dr. Claire Yorke: Can Empathy Fix Broken Politics?
- Sam Daley-Harris: Reclaiming Our Democracy
- James Coan: Closing the Perception Gap that Tears Us Apart
About Brandon Peele: Executive Director, National Pilgrimage
Brandon Peele is a best-selling author and the Executive Director of the National Pilgrimage. He’s trusted as a keynote speaker, consultant, and program leader by organizations such as Google, Harvard Business School, Johnson & Johnson, Stanford University, JDRF, Morgan Stanley, U.S. Marine Corps, YPO, University of California – Berkeley, Vistage, Forum for Workplace Inclusion, LinkedIn, the U.S. Navy, Slalom Consulting, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the University of Minnesota.
He is the author of Bison Medicine (2025), Purpose Work Nation (2022), The Purpose Field Guide (2019), and Planet on Purpose (2018), and co-author of Purpose Rising (2017) and The Purpose Blueprint (2015). His work has been featured by news organizations such as USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, the US Business Journal, and Forbes.
Connect with Brandon:
Brandon Peele: nationalpilgrimage.us
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bpeele
Instagram: instagram.com/natnlpilgrimage
The National Pilgrimage and Assembly: chuffed.org/project/nationalpilgrimage
Synanim (platform enabling the Assembly’s virtual collaboration): synanim.com
Connect with Maria:
Books: Red-Slice.com/books
Speaking: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross
LinkedIn Learning Courses! Leading with Empathy and Balancing Empathy, Accountability, and Results as a Leader
LinkedIn: Maria Ross
Instagram: @redslicemaria
Facebook: Red Slice
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Maria Ross 00:04
welcome to the empathy edge podcast, the show that proves why cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. I’m your host, Maria Ross, I’m a speaker, author, mom, facilitator and empathy advocate. And here you’ll meet trailblazing leaders and executives, authors and experts who embrace empathy to achieve radical success. We discuss all facets of empathy, from trends and research to the future of work to how to heal societal divisions and collaborate more effectively. Our goal is to redefine success and prove that empathy isn’t just good for society. It’s great for business. America is about to turn 250 years old, and my guest today believes this moment is asking something from all of us, not a celebration, not a parade, but a reckoning, a renewal, a chance to find our way back to each other. Brandon peel is a best selling author of six books on purpose and civic leadership. He’s Executive Director of the National pilgrimage and a trusted keynote speaker and consultant to organizations including Google, Harvard Business School, Stanford, Johnson and Johnson the US Marine Corps and the US Navy. His work sits at the intersection of purpose, democracy and what it means to be a nation, and right now, that work has never felt more urgent. The reason I rushed this episode out to you was So Brandon could share an amazing initiative with everyone. On June 9, a caravan of diverse Americans will set out on the national pilgrimage, driving through the heart of this nation, sitting with people along the way, and asking the questions our political system never asks. What values should guide us? What would it take for this to be a great place for all of us to raise children? What kind of country do we want to leave to the next generation? The Journey culminates in the National Assembly, a virtual gathering open to every single one of us on July 6 and seventh, from five to 8pm Pacific, where your voice will be heard and counted. Then six storytellers will emerge and travel to Chicago. And on July 9, the anniversary of the 14th Amendment, they will read aloud a new national covenant. PBS, documentarians are capturing every mile today. You’ll learn more details of this amazing effort and how to get involved. And we discuss why empathy is the core mechanism of E Pluribus Unum, or out of many one, why, just like any organization, we as a country, need a shared moral vision to know where we’re going and who we want to be. Brandon shares the three layers of democracy shared by American poet and philosopher Walt Whitman, ideas, political economy and culture and spirit and why our nation’s problems are as much moral, psychological and spiritual as they are political. This is the most audacious and hopeful thing I’ve come across in a long time, and I think you need to hear it. Take a listen and then get involved. Brandon peel, welcome to the empathy edge podcast. I am so excited to create this special edition of the podcast just to make sure that we get it out in time for the National pilgrimage, which you are going to talk to us about today. Welcome to the show.
Brandon Peele 03:26
Thank you for having me.
Maria Ross 03:26
I know you’re going to talk to us all about this initiative and the National Assembly and the whole intent behind it, but I love this idea of that you are really a proponent of which is civic faith and bringing us together under one umbrella, to focus on the things that we have in common versus the things that divide us. Right? And empathy is such a part of your work and your story, and that’s why we are kindred spirits. But before we even get into the pilgrimage and the assembly and why and what your goals are, I would just love for you to share a little bit of your story, how you got into the work you do, the books you’ve written, the consulting you provide. Because I’ve noticed a common thread of purpose, helping people and helping others find their purpose, and helping us find our collective, shared purpose. How did you get here?
Brandon Peele 04:16
Well, I mean, it’s probably like all every other story, so through pain. So for me, growing up in the Midwest, there was this very like conformist package offered, study, get good grades, get a good job, move out to the suburbs, make some kids die on a golf course, right? And for me, I was like, there’s more. There must be more than that, because my parents said that. Their parents did that. They’re, you know, probably back to however long, but, and so I was very lucky in my early 20s, got to start to do my inner work, which most men don’t get to at all, but if they do, it’s midlife. And so I got, yeah, I got to kind of a quarter life. And I discovered the powerful, liberating power of purpose. And I was like, this is a civil right, like everybody needs this, because without that deep understanding of who we are and who we serve, and what what we’re supposed to contribute here, all these other institutions which we now know don’t have our best interests at heart, are going to turn us into something else. They’re going to put us in the tiny little boxes and say, do that, do this. So that’s what sparked the writing, the research, and then, beginning in 2020 my fascination with the United States purpose.
Maria Ross 05:28
I love it. So tell us a little bit about empathy and government and the vision of the country and how it all fits together. You talk about empathy as the core mechanism of E Pluribus Unum, and we have an international audience, but we are talking specifically about the United States. And how is empathy a core part of that?
Brandon Peele 05:49
Yeah, great question. I mean, you and I both know that that’s just a pro social belief, behavior attribute, way of moving through the world that, like any adult has and democracy requires adults, and that actually, it takes something to develop that in a society like ours, obviously, because we are not set up to empathize and to connect and to be generous of spirit. We’re set up to, you know, be little eagles who scoop down, try to scavenge, hunt, and not to actually kind of like build the herd like the bison.
Brandon Peele 06:23
So when the Pilgrims got here, and they had a very tight compact, they had this covenant, we’re gonna we’re gonna pledge ourselves to our mutual flourishing. That went way over time. Now we’re essentially where we’re at right now. We’re this multicultural, diverse, three, 30 million people talking past each other at best, pointing guns at each other, obviously now and so, yeah, empathy went out. And as my understanding and understanding of people who study nations and what holds them together, a unifying story, shared values. They elevate heroes, but they really need a shared sense of culture and spiritual identity.
Brandon Peele 07:09
And the first nations who were here when the Pilgrims arrived had that they were animist. They empathize with not just each other and other nations, but with all of life and rock and star and moon and wind and all of that. And so when the Pilgrims got here, they saw democracy working really well, because the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nations, had tended to this spirit culture layer where through rites of passage, through rituals, through norms, they develop their empathy, develop their ability to feel and sense and really identify with all of life. That’s what it actually takes to fulfill a democracy. Yeah, if you’re not connected, it’s going to be really hard to act on another’s to act for another’s benefit basically.
Maria Ross 07:58
exactly, exactly i for the listeners. I’m going to throw in the show notes two links to past guests I had. One was Dr Claire York, where we talked about the role of empathy in politics and the need for it when the whole role of politics is to serve the community and to serve a diverse community, that’s the whole role of government, right? And then Sam Daly Harris, who talked about the role of the citizen activist in making sure that we can have a flourishing government and a flourishing democracy. So these threads are coming together, and I love that there are these voices, very loud voices out there, like yours, like Dr York’s saying that this we have to remember what the whole point of government is, and what the whole point of nation building is, and it’s to make us stronger together, right? It’s not for individual power grabs. It’s not for all the things that we’re seeing in our world today, right? And there’s with the loss of civics in schools, and studying civics and trying to understand what our government is about, with people trying to rewrite history, we’re straying from that core purpose and that core vision. And just like an organization, which many of my listeners are corporate leaders, right, if you don’t have that shared vision and that mission and that everybody knows where they’re rowing the boat, it’s chaos. It’s you can’t move forward. And as a country, we can’t move forward unless we have that shared vision. So before we get to your project to build that shared vision, I’d like to talk about the three layers of democracy and why, why this work is so important, and why it it ebbs and flows between sort of these cold ideas of government and agencies and laws and the world of spirituality and mutual benefit, it sort of does this dance. And so what are those layers that you see?
Brandon Peele 09:53
Well, I wish I could take credit for this framework of these three layers. That’s actually Walt Whitman, and so he’s. Was poetically imagining the American character leading up to and through the Civil War During basically the First Republic. 1776 to 1863, it was because of folks like Whitman and Dickinson, who were fiercely abolitionists, who sensed that you couldn’t have a democracy when you’re enslaving an entire people or you’re silencing and half of the race, you know, with women like no vote they were, you know. And so Whitman, with his poetic sensibilities and philosophical mind, you know, began to think deeply about what it actually takes and because there are still, obviously today, we still have many Native communities, and there are many more. When the Civil War was happening, and his understanding was that democracy, the Haudenosaunee democracy, they have ideas. They have ideas that they’re they’re coming together to achieve things they can only do together. So in our case, it’s all created equal, and we then fought a war. Two thirds of a million of us died for that singular idea of equality. So it’s that first idea that construct like, what is the thing that we’re we’re trying to get up to today, to create all this equal? Then you have the political economy, and that is the institutions, public and private, that ensure in our case, you know, we wrote this in here like the government has to deliver everything we need to realize the fullness of life, liberty, happiness. If it doesn’t, it is our duty to change it or abolish it. And so our political economy. Every sector now works stridently against that idea of equality. It’s trying to decrease our life, decrease our happiness, decrease our freedom. And that’s we’re seeing that right after right is being rolled back, rolled back, rolled back, rolled back. Now the right to vote basically, which is crazy. So that’s just the idea in the political economy, and what sustains it is this fabric, this cultural, moral, psychological, spiritual fabric of norms. Haudenosaunee they there were six distinct nations with distinct cosmologies, different rites of passage, different economies, different traditions, but they agreed on the Thanksgiving address, which is they read every time or before they conducted business as the great council. So it was essentially honoring our animus nature, giving thanks in all the directions for all the winged ones, failed ones. And so it was like this, their version of a shared spiritual cultural core, like we all believe these things, even though we express it completely differently.
Brandon Peele 12:49
So that third layer that we didn’t really attend to at all, we just, I think, kind of assumed, you know, the Christian church would take care of it. But then, as soon as we found it, it was just all kinds of religious expression, even Christians can’t get along. So we’re now reaping the benefits, or reaping what we have sown into not developing that third level, that culture, spirituality.
Maria Ross 13:12
Well, the rub here is that we were also a nation founded on religious freedom, and so when we use the words like spirituality, or whatever it conjures up that’s different for different people that are here. So do you think it’s possible for this country to have that shared layer of spirituality, if there’s so many different definitions of that spirituality and expressions of it, by design, right? By Design of bringing together everyone into this melting pot?
Brandon Peele 13:44
Yeah,
Maria Ross 13:45
I feel like that’s a rub, because you see these extremists on one end trying to force one version of that spirituality onto everybody, which I would argue is not actually a genuine expression of and then you have others who are like, Well, no, what about me? What about mine? What about this group? And so can we get to that point? And is that actually the point of the pilgrimage?
Brandon Peele 14:07
Basically, yes. So first, let me swing back to the First Amendment around freedom of speech, assembly, religion. It’s not freedom from religion, it’s freedom of so it was implicit. Like all the founders were either Christian, deist, Freemason, they, none of them were like, I’m just made of atoms. You know, the universe is a lifeless clock, because that’s not like 99% of our history on this earth is animist, like everyone in their right mind, even the Enlightenment thinkers that who thought up, you know, our constitution believed everything was alive, not just belief, but they they knew it. They knew it. That’s why we capitalize nature’s God and natural law. That’s the only deity referenced in our thought. Activists. So I know it probably doesn’t square well with folks living in cities or like there is no god or, you know, but unfortunately, everyone who founded this nation understood that spirit was everywhere. So it is a new phenomenon that we have folks questioning the existence of God. Then I think it’s it’s fine to go there, explore and read existentialist philosophy and nihilism. And I did, I found it very liberating. And my own personal experience, having worked with different faith traditions and rituals, is that there is something there that I think 99% of all humans who have ever existed say that same thing. So that’s a weird thing to say today, in this kind of
Maria Ross 15:45
Yeah,
Brandon Peele 15:46
nothing matters, and everyone’s irreverent and disconnected and individualized and atomized all that. But democracy has never worked without it, and we’re seeing that.
Maria Ross 15:55
Interesting, interesting. I have a different take on that as someone who is married to someone who doesn’t believe in anything, and he’s a humanist, and he’s one of the best people I know. But there’s other shared values that come into play that I don’t even think we’re in agreement on those. I think that’s the fundamental issue, right? Whether it’s you know, Jesus or Allah or not you know, or the trees or whatever, that’s a different expression of it. But the underlying values, I don’t know that we’re all in agreement on, or we say we’re in agreement, but then when push comes to shove, like legislation or policy, it’s like, no, actually, it’s just about me and mine, right? So it’s interesting that but I think you’re absolutely right that if we really look at the foundation, it’s almost like all these groups that are actually arguing about this now are actually agreeing, yes, that was the foundation of our country, but it’s pick your flavor, right? Like, what is your expression of that?
Brandon Peele 16:57
Yeah,
Maria Ross 16:58
I also wanted to talk about, you know, how you square, you know, I guess when people talk about the separation of church and state, you know, whatever church is, I love what you said about what the language of the First Amendment actually is freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. But when we talk about the separation of church and state, where is there a role, where it starts to blend into just spirituality and ethics and morals, and that bleeds into religion. You know what I mean? Is there a hard line? Or, you know, what’s your just, what’s your take on that?
Brandon Peele 17:32
I don’t think it’s a hard line. I think it’s, it’s so overlapping. I mean, if you just look at all the pro social qualities and behaviors, those are, you know, literally the teachings of Jesus or Allah or the Buddha. I mean, it’s
Maria Ross 17:47
100%
Brandon Peele 17:48
all the it’s all this, like all the wisdom traditions point to the same stuff. Now we’ve got a Seligman looking at all the virtues across all the cultures, and it’s like the same stuff kind of gets grouped in these seven different virtues in the United States, in particular, being a covenantal nation, you know, one that is not just or is not like explicitly not an ethnic nation. It’s explicitly multiracial, bound by an idea and a covenant like we more than, more than anybody else, need to be recognizing and tending to this core, the ties that bind, the morals, the values of this Civic faith, and that’s really what is at the heart of our problems right now. It’s not for lack of resources. You know, we have research came out last year, we have enough for all 8.5 billion of us on the planet to thrive with 30% of the current energy resource and labor output. So delete 70% your calendar. You’re thriving. What are you doing the rest of that time? Yeah, that’s that’s what should be happening. But yeah, now all that surplus gets extracted into the hands of like,
Maria Ross 19:02
of a few,
Brandon Peele 19:03
yeah, 10,000 wealthy white families, generally.
Maria Ross 19:05
it’s crazy making when we realize we have everything that we need, and it’s just not just it’s a distribution problem.
Brandon Peele 19:12
Well, it’s a spiritual, moral, psychological issue, and so like, we even have the mechanisms to distribute it. We invented most of them. We invented socialized healthcare, we invented mass transit, we invented all the stuff that all the other grown up nations are doing.
Brandon Peele 19:26
And so for us, it’s the political will to actually do, to implement the tools and technologies that we invented is missing because we’ve not tended to this spiritual layer, this Civic faith, this shared morality and so as as the way of things move in societies and political movements, you can’t have a political movement or strategy or a party without a covenant with without some kind of cultural shift, right? And that’s what we are working towards. Building this. Summer with the with the pilgrimage in the assembly,
Maria Ross 20:02
yeah, okay, so let’s get into that. Because I think I love this conversation about and you know, otherwise, we’re going to go down this rabbit hole of all these individual problems that we have, and what is the psychological and spiritual aspect of those problems. You know, we can, like you mentioned quite a few, like health care, access to food and water, poverty, all of these things, actually, you know, our rights being taken away, all of it. So there is that aspect. So tell us a little bit about the pilgrimage and the assembly. And what is it, and how did it even get started?
Brandon Peele 20:36
Well, I’ll answer the latter question.
Maria Ross 20:38
Okay. First, easier, yeah,
Brandon Peele 20:40
illustrative. So like, some like, February, March last year, after the inauguration, just hit me. It was like, Oh no, it turned 250 next year. Yeah, this going to suck.
Maria Ross 20:53
I’m not feeling like celebrating right now, yeah.
Brandon Peele 20:58
I mean, I’m just like, I don’t know what they’re planning, but it’s going to be terrible, like tone death at best, and likely antithetical to our very purpose of equality, life, liberty and happiness. And so I reached out to some friends of mine at Citizen University. So I did a fellowship there a few years ago, and I said, Hey, what are we going to do about this? We like, this is a very special moment, and we have a lot to own and atone for and to reckon with and elevate. And it’s not going to happen at the federal level. Likely won’t happen at the state level, like, there, it’s just going to be this big birthday that everyone you know eats hot dogs, fireworks and watches the UFC fight and fell on the White House like
Brandon Peele 21:44
Yeah.
Brandon Peele 21:45
So the result of those conversations is this pilgrimage and the assembly. So what the pilgrimage is, it’s a four week road trip. And so I’m asking you, Maria, your partner, and all other three, 30 million Americans to drop what they’re doing and to join us on the road. So we’re going to be moving through the nation, mostly through the center of the nation, starting in Western New York, the birthplace of democracy, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, down through Philadelphia, and then into the center of the Civil Rights South Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma, down through Galveston for June teeth, and then up into Wyoming for the solstice. For the all nations prayer gathering. Look at the Lakota seven councils fire from there on to Montana to greasy grass for the 150th anniversary of the Battle Little Bighorn, which is a huge battle in, obviously, US history, but in the hearts and pride in mind of many indigenous nations, this is when we essentially gave Custer the gave him the business, been on the Yellowstone to go Meet our bison, our national mammal, who are doing exhibiting some unique behavior, some herds are combining and starting to reclaim some ancient migratory paths.
Maria Ross 23:09
Wow,
Brandon Peele 23:10
We can see that? Yeah,
Maria Ross 23:11
yeah.
Brandon Peele 23:12
Then down in the South Dakota to the All nations gathering center in Pine Ridge to meet with Lakota elders and leaders, and then up into Minneapolis for vigils for Blondeau, Castile, George Floyd, Alex preddy and Renee Nicole good, and then down to Chicago. We’re going to land the plane. We’re gonna spend a week in Chicago so or July 4. But then right after July 4 is National Assembly. So with our partner synonym, we’re inviting all three, 3 million Americans, whether you’re on the road with us or not, and I really want you to be on the road with us. I’m not going to stop inviting you to come on the other to us. So it’s the evenings of July 6 and July 7, where we will engage in a virtual National Assembly. So all of us will be talking to one another about what matters most. We’ll be looking at, you know, what, what morals and values do we are going to best serve us for this next chapter? What type of place do we want to leave our children? What do we want to be true for this place to be an amazing nation, to raise kids, to be a parent to elder, to die. Like, what is it going to take to really fulfill it? And the result of that process will be this new moral vision for our next chapter,
Maria Ross 24:32
right.
Brandon Peele 24:32
So I have some ideas what that might look like you do, but like, I want all of us in the room,
Maria Ross 24:38
yeah,
Brandon Peele 24:38
so that we can actually say this from us. This isn’t from a coastal elite, from a professor, from Hollywood, from politician. This is the people say. This is who we are. Now give us a government to deliver that.
Maria Ross 24:51
And I should, I should mention that just because you’re not hitting certain areas in certain states, the goal of the assembly is for everyone to have. Have a voice, yes, because it’s online, it’s virtual. With the pilgrimage, though, what’s the goal of the traveling caravan? Is it to have listening tours along the way? Is it are you doing? I know you mentioned the different kind of marquee events that you’re hitting those cities for, but are you going to be gathering people along the way in those areas to have conversations. How is it going to work?
Brandon Peele 25:24
So much we don’t know yet.
Maria Ross 25:26
We’re going to find out!
Brandon Peele 25:28
Yeah. So we do know where we’re going and in some cases with whom we’re meeting. Everyone on the pilgrimage is going to be asking a lot of these same questions for the for the assembly. So we’re going to be meeting folks in diners, bars and little league games and County Fairs and things like that.
Maria Ross 25:47
Love it,
Brandon Peele 25:47
and asking the most same questions, what would need to be true for this place to be a great place to raise kids right? What? What virtue should we elevate for our next 250 it’s going to be that same kind of, like grassroots civic engagement,
Maria Ross 26:03
yeah,
Brandon Peele 26:04
conversation, and we’ll have a documentary crew with us to tell the tell the whole story from start to finish. So to that end, we are also raising money. There’s a crowdfunding campaign that I’m sure we’ll link to in the show notes.
Maria Ross 26:20
We are going to definitely link to it, because that is the whole goal of I wanted to amplify what you’re doing and encourage people, if they can, to support it, even if they can’t go on the pilgrimage, encourage them to support you with with dollars to make all this happen. This is a Herculean feat. I’m sure, to be spearheading this and putting it together. And you know, it’s like, it’s like anything else. You know, when you throw a party, it’s like, will anyone come? So, so the more you can get people involved and have a vested interest and have, you know, skin in the game, if you will. Of No, I this is important to me, and even though I might, if I might not be able to drop things for four weeks, I want to support this effort. And, like I said, be able to be a part of maybe even the virtual assembly, if they can. What is your hope for this? I mean, if this worked out exactly the way your heart desires, what does that look like?
Brandon Peele 27:12
So I’m going to answer this, but through a story.
Maria Ross 27:17
Please do
Brandon Peele 27:18
So a couple of weeks ago, we have a soft launch of the crowdfunding and so I was ready to go, and then I get this notice from Indiegogo. They say we reject your campaign outright. It has been deemed politically and religiously agitating.
Maria Ross 27:37
Oh,
Brandon Peele 27:37
I’ve never felt so seen like this is exactly what I’m trying to do, is politically and religiously agitate myself and my fellow Americans. We’re up to something big. We have this beautiful purpose. We’re not doing it our government and our private sector. Every sector of society is working against it. Like, I want you to be mad, like, I want this to be like, the Gen X version of like I’m mad as hell. I’m not gonna take any more. Like we I’m tired of throwing good money, time votes, energy after bad, like we need a full rewrite, right? So the the goal the pilgrimage is, is personal for all of us on it, it’s lament, it’s imagining, it’s honoring. It’s going to be sitting around the campfire every night and processing, holy cow, what have we become like? So it’s going to be a real like atoning, enlivening process. Of course, we’ll be capturing that and sharing that out. So the goal is that all 330 million of us, those of us on the road not are with us on this journey,
Maria Ross 28:44
right?
Brandon Peele 28:44
And so a civic awakening is really what we’re trying to do.
Maria Ross 28:49
Love it.
Brandon Peele 28:50
The moral vision that we come up with through the synonym process will be a discrete artifact of that, but it’s going to begin on day one of the pilgrimage, on June 9. Now, will it be a sufficiently large moral civic awakening that all of a sudden states are like, hey, we need a new constitution? I don’t know. Yeah, I do know that we need one. We have the oldest constitution in in use right now. Every other grown up country is rewritten theirs. France has done it 15 times, and it obviously has so many loopholes that any anybody can exploit it and turn it into a casino. So it’s like, we
Maria Ross 29:34
Right, right? And how do you do you balance? Well, I have two questions. One is, what is the call for inclusion and ensuring that we do have and I, you know, I’m going to bring the word up like bipartisan voices in this. And how will you address, how will you address that reaction from people along the way? As a, you know, I don’t want to get involved with this, because you’re just a bunch of. Or whatever, you know, whatever they’re going to say on either side, right? Have you thought through what, what is the mechanism to include those voices and empathetically say, No, this place is for you too.
Brandon Peele 30:12
Yeah, yeah, thanks for asking that. I get that asked some version of that all the time. The beautiful thing is that we have wide alignment around core values. I mean, they’re not It’s not shared. So pew studies this stuff, there’s wide alignment, you know, compassion, independence, curiosity, empathy. There’s wide alignment around what we want. We want, living wage, wage jobs, safe communities, great school, affordable health care. I mean, just like 80% of the country, no matter what thinks we should have this, every other grown up country has this.
Brandon Peele 30:51
Yeah.
Brandon Peele 30:52
So when I get those types of questions, I just say, Listen, this is not about politics. This is about politics. We’d be advocating for some candidate or some party. This is about a shared moral vision that includes all of us, and so I don’t care how you voted or if you voted. I don’t care how you make love. I don’t care how much melanin is in your skin, how you go to the bathroom. You’re an American, and you belong in this conversation. Join us for the assembly. I really do want every single American from five day pm Pacific on the sixth and the seventh. Yeah, part of that, and we’re going to fly six folks out of from that process to Chicago on the ninth for a live reading of our new moral vision.
Maria Ross 31:37
Is that almost like the statement on human rights that Eleanor Roosevelt spearheaded way back when, with the UN is that kind of what you’re looking for?
Brandon Peele 31:45
Yeah, very similar to that, very similar to the call to consciousness that the First Nations put together in, I want to say 70s or 80s. Very similar to our own declaration and preamble the Constitution, like we need this moral vision before we can implement change at the political or
Maria Ross 32:04
right, we have to again. We have to all be rowing in the same direction. We have to know we’re on the right boat, to get to the shore, right? What do you see? How do you see it being disseminated once it’s created? Where could it be most impactful?
Brandon Peele 32:20
Well, my hope is that folks much more talented and established than me and our team like see that a thing just happened. People spoke. They’re not revolting, you know, not protesting. They’re saying this is who we are, and we can say, Okay, well, if this is who we really are, then we should do things differently, allocate resources differently, compose laws differently. So my my hope again, I’m not a Republican, Democrat, green, you know, I’m registered Independent. My hope is that this is a giant wake up call, and we can make some necessary reforms to get us out of this, this gridlock, or we keep doing opposite day, like I’m ready to start doing like regular America Day, instead of like tyranny day, like I’m just done with tyranny day.
Maria Ross 33:09
yeah, well, I mean, and the the catalyst for this of our 250th birthday, it’s weighing heavy on a lot of people. It’s weighing heavy on me. Of just, I don’t there’s that pessimism that creeps in of like, I don’t know what we have to celebrate right now, and I love that this is an initiative that will hopefully wake us up to that shared vision of, like, No, this is what we can be if we actually come back together again. So I love it. I love it.
Brandon Peele 33:37
That’s the whole point. Is to give us a more soulful, humble, honest alternative to what’s going to be on your television and your town square. It’s like, no, there’s actual, real people who are not paid, who ask these deeper questions and come together and produce this moral vision. That’s it.
Maria Ross 33:56
Yeah, I had someone on the show a couple maybe it was more than a few months ago, and the name is escaping me. I apologize, but I will find it and I will link to it. Who was talking about his work helping people understand the true story behind media. And one of the things that he was talking about over and over again is that there’s study after study showing that we as Americans have more in common than we do that divides us, not the biased polls, not the things we’re hearing that are whether you know questionably true, questionably not. But when you dig into, like you said, the people that are at the layer down where they’re not getting paid, they’re not chasing celebrity or wealth or anything, down to real people in this country at whatever socio economic level they’re at, they have more in common than they do when then that divides us and yet that doesn’t sell clicks, that doesn’t sell airtime that doesn’t sell, you know, it’s, it’s fear and division that sell.
Brandon Peele 34:56
Yeah,
Maria Ross 34:56
and we have to keep reminding ourselves of that.
Brandon Peele 34:59
Yeah, 100%.
Maria Ross 35:00
Yeah, okay, I love it. Well. Brandon, this has been great. I of course, I’m gonna have all the links in the show notes so people can learn more about the National pilgrimage, learn about the assembly in July, July 6 and seventh, and also learn more about you. But for anyone that’s on the go right now, can you share where’s the best place to find out more?
Brandon Peele 35:20
Yeah, just go to national pilgrimage.us.
Maria Ross 35:24
Love it. National pilgrimage.us. Brandon, thank you for your time and for your work and for your commitment, and I think most especially for your optimism, because I think that’s what we need right now.
Brandon Peele 35:35
Thank you Maria,
Maria Ross 35:36
and thank you everyone for listening to another episode of the empathy edge podcast. If you like what you heard, you know what to do. Please rate, review and share it with a friend or a colleague, and until next time, please remember that cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. Take care and be kind For more on how to achieve radical success through empathy. Visit the empathy edge calm. There. You can listen to past episodes, access show notes and free resources. Book me for a Keynote or workshop and sign up for our email list to get new episodes, insights, news and events. Please follow me on Instagram at Red slice. Maria, never forget, empathy is your superpower. Use it to make your work and the world a better place.
