Marc Ian Barasch

Marc Ian Barasch is an award-winning writer, editor, television producer and environmental activist. In his most recent book, The Compassionate Life: Walking the Path of Kindness, Barasch poses vital questions: What if the great driving force of our evolution were actually "survival of the kindest?" Can we increase our compassion quotient with practice? What can be learned from the study of altruistic personalities? How do empathy and forgiveness produce new strategies for conflict resolution and "social healing?" Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu calls the book "balanced, persuasive, and long overdue. It ought to be a compulsory read for all." Says the Washington Post: "It will interest anyone who struggles to be kinder in a not-so-kind world." Kirkus Reviews sums up: "The more who read Barasch, the better the world will be."

Barasch's last book, Healing Dreams (Riverhead, PenguinPutnam, 2000), was hailed by the Washington Post as "lucid...courageous...trailblazing." It won the Nautilus Award for Best Psychology Title 2001. His previous book, Remarkable Recovery (Riverhead/Putnam, 1995, with Caryle Hirshberg), a study of spontaneous remission, was a national bestseller and a Literary Guild Main Selection. It was translated into a dozen languages, was the subject of a full-length feature in Newsweek, and continues to be used in medical schools, hospitals, and healing centers worldwide.

Barasch is also the author of the award-winning classic, The Healing Path (PenguinPutnam), about which Dr. Larry Dossey has written, "If you read one book about the mind-body connection, make it this one. It is a beacon of science, spirituality, and sanity."

In the television field, Marc was the writer and co-producer of the Emmy-nominated "One Child, One Voice" (www.earthsecure.org) an international TV special for the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), which aired in 150 countries.

In 2006, Barasch founded the Green World Campaign (www.greenworld.org), a nonprofit whose stated mission is linking "holistic" development models like agroforestry with the broader environmental movement. With its motto, "It's amazing what one seed can grow," the organization has proposed a massive global afforestation effort of billions of trees, connecting donors to grassroots NGOs via media-driven, Web-based campaigns. Barasch, who calls his strategy "green compassion," has focused the group's work on ecological restoration at a village level, planting multi-purpose trees (MPTs) to address a synergistic grab-bag of issues: restoration of indigenous ecology, poverty, sustainable rural economy, soil remediation, cultural preservation, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration. The first pilot program was in Ethiopia's Gurage Zone, and work has expanded to Ethiopia's Menegasha-Suba forest, Mexico's San Juan Atzingo, and Maharashtra, India.

Barasch was educated at Yale University and has taught at Naropa University, where he was one of the founders of the M.A. psychology program. As a hobby, he plays and records with the "lit-rock" band The Rock Bottom Remainders (Stephen King, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom, et. al.). Interview magazine once called him "one of today's coolest grown-ups." He is a member of the National Arts Club and the recipient of many awards and honors.

Marc has received media exposure through the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, People, O, Reader's Digest, Good Morning, America, NBC Dateline, National Public Radio, Psychology Today, Utne Reader, Tikkun, Science of Mind, Chicago Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle.