Global Spirit is a unique "internal travel" series that brings to light the various practices - spiritual, mental and physical - that help us define who we are as human beings and explore how this effects our relationships to our families, our communities, ourselves and the world at large.
Global Spirit offers insights into some of mankind’s deepest existential questions, tracing our collective human journey in the timeless quest for truth, wisdom and understanding. Each Global Spirit program highlights the trans-cultural, transcendent dimensions of human inquiry, from the ancient or indigenous wisdom traditions to the latest advances in scientific knowledge. Global Spirit has, for the first time on national television, done what the Mars Rover did for space: beam back a celestial wonder, a glimmer of what is possible in the realm of human consciousness, spirit and the mind.
Phil Cousineau is a freelance writer, independent filmmaker, photographer, worldwide lecturer and adventure travel guide. For the last thirty years he has published widely on such themes as creativity, soul, movies, sports, and the mythic imagination. His first documentary film, in 1987, was "The Hero's Journey", on the life and work of Joseph Campbell. Since then he has worked on more than twenty documentary films including: "Ecological Design: Inventing the Future"; "Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey"; "The Peyote Road"; "Forever Activists: Stories from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade" (1991 Academy Award nominated); and a recent collaboration with Huston Smith and Gary Rhine: "A Seat at the Table: The Struggle for American Indian Religious Freedom."
Cousineau has published over twenty-five books, including the "Stoking the Creative Fires," "The Way Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life," and "The Olympic Odyssey: Rekindling the Spirit of the Ancient Games," which was selected by the United States Olympic Committee as a gift book for American athletes at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens. He is also the author of "Once and Future Myths," "The Art of Pilgrimage," "Deadlines: A Rhapsody on a Theme of Famous Last Words," which won the 1991 Fallot Literary Award, and "The Blue Museum," which was acclaimed by the San Francisco Chronicle as a book of “dazzling … exquisite lyrics … that is able to draw profound questions out of ordinary life.”
Stephen Olsson, Link TV’s Senior Director of Original Programming, has produced and created a number of original television series and documentary films for Link TV, including "Lunch with Bokara", a hosted, 13-part discussion series which explores the intersection of philosophy, metaphysics and science. He created Link TV’s Peabody Award-winning "Mosaic: World News from the Middle East", and has produced several other Link TV series, including "The Active Opposition", "Spotlight" and "Bridge to Iran". Prior to his work for Link TV, he produced many documentary films and feature news reports all over the world.
He received the National Emmy Award for Outstanding Director for his BBC documentary "Last Images of War", and the du-Pont Columbia Award for the PBS Frontline special "School Colors". Along with his communications work, Stephen has studied various spiritual traditions in the USA and in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Thailand and other parts of the world. He holds graduate degrees in Communications and Anthropology.
Lorraine Hess is Vice President of Program Acquisitions for Link TV and is responsible for managing the acquisitions department and seeking international and domestic documentaries for the network. Lorraine is also a producer for Link TV, having produced a live studio discussion between notable Palestinian and Jewish scholars and experts about John Pilger's film "Palestine is Still the Issue" and co-creator of Link TV’s strand of investigative documentaries, "Spotlight". She also co-produced "Ethics and the World Crisis: A Dialogue with the Dalai Lama" – a Link TV exclusive documentary that presents highlights of an extraordinary day-long ethics conference, featuring the Dalai Lama in conversation with some of the nation’s leading thinkers and activists. The program brought together for the first time one of the world’s most important spiritual leaders with renowned journalists, economists, environmentalists and politicians to discuss the ethical dilemmas of the new millennium.
Before joining Link TV for its launch in 1999, Lorraine worked on dozens of non-fiction programs and series with an international focus in the capacity of Executive Producer, Producer, or Field Producer. From travel and nature series to documentaries about cultural and social issues, the films were shown on worldwide television on The Discovery Channel, PBS, The BBC, National Geographic and the Disney Channel.
Joseph Kulin is a Media and Publishing consultant with extensive experience in not-for-profit management and fundraising development. As publisher of Parabola magazine for over 20 years he was instrumental in significantly expanding the journal's readership as well as developing new product lines such as the Parabola Video and Audio Series, acquiring distribution rights to such classics as "The Power of Myth" and Peter Brook's "The Mahabharata." He produced an award-winning audio/radio series, "Native American Storytime," and was Executive Producer of "A Sense of the Sacred," the film biography of Jungian counselor, Helen Luke, which aired on public television. He launched and directed Cinema of the Spirit Film Festivals which played in a half dozen major cities, and continues to present spiritual film programs to the public. He currently serves on the board of the New York Open Center and the Greenfield Review Press. He is also a board advisor to Land is Life, an international grassroots organization which advocates for the land and human rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Adrianne Anderson, Co-Producer and Editor
Adrianne Anderson is a Co-Producer and Editor for Global Spirit. Before joining Link TV, she produced and directed a documentary with Urban VOICE, titled Crossroads in Nihonmachi. She has also worked with Cultural & Educational Media, Barbary Coast Productions, Red Poppy, Cinequest Film Festival, and 8th Wonder Films. While at Santa Clara University, she was also Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine, Santa Clara Review.
Kristin Tieche is a Northern California-based independent producer and Emmy-nominated editor. She has edited award-winning films and television programming for national cable and satellite networks such as PBS, CBS–5 (KPIX), Link TV, Fine Living Channel, Food Network, Home and Garden, Smithsonian On Demand and Current TV. Ms. Tieche founded SelvaVision to showcase new perspectives on issues dealing with sustainability and social responsibility. She is also co-founder and co-editor of Vélo Vogue, a popular blog focusing on San Francisco’s vibrant and stylish bicycle culture. Ms. Tieche holds a Master of Arts in Television, Radio and Film from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where she received awards from the regional chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in screenwriting and sound design.
Megan McFeely, Outreach Director and Associate Producer
Megan McFeely has been in communications for over 20 years gathering experience in public broadcasting, cable television, Internet, radio, public relations, film and advertising. She has worked internationally and been responsible for communications strategies for business applications in technology companies – IBM, Microsoft and several Internet start-ups.
Over the last 12 years she worked communicating spiritual ideals and perspectives to a more mainstream audience, working with leaders in consciousness research and human development such as the Esalen Institute, Institute of Noetic Sciences, California Institute of Integral Studies, Planetwork, and on film projects One the movie, Global Oneness Project and Shift of the Ages, as well as with several spiritual teachers and authors. She currently writes a blog on the Huffington Post about the internal journey and her own efforts to reclaim the feminine voice and wisdom.
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