Bruce Feiler
Author of multiple New York Times bestsellers and the presenter of two prime-time series on PBS
Rabbi Steven Stark Lowenstein
Senior rabbi, Am Shalom, Glencoe, IL
Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age
Our personal narratives help shape us. Each of us carries around an unspoken set of assumptions that dictate how we expect our lives will unfold. But when those assumptions don’t hold true, when our lives don’t take the linear paths we’ve envisioned and counted on, where does that leave us? Galvanized by a personal crisis and family emergency, New York Times bestselling author of The Secrets of Happy Families and Council of Dads Bruce Feiler decided to find out why so many of us feel that our lives are being disrupted and upended. Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age is a pioneering study of the disruptions upending contemporary life and a bold guide for how to navigate life’s growing number of transitions with more meaning, balance, and joy.
To better understand how we find the meaning of our lives, Mr. Feiler set out on an epic journey to listen to life stories and learn from them. He traveled across the country, collecting hundreds of stories from a breathtaking range of Americans in all 50 states. He then sifted through and coded these stories, building a massive database of patterns and lessons that can help all of us live better. The takeaway from Mr. Feiler’s “Life Story Project” boiled down to this: The linear life — the idea that we’ll have one career, one marriage, one source of happiness — is dead.
Life Is in the Transitions introduces the fresh, pressing vision of the nonlinear life, in which personal disruptions and lifequakes are becoming more plentiful, nontraditional life shapes are becoming the norm, and each of us has the opportunity to embrace change as transformational. Drawing on an extraordinary trove of insights, Mr. Feiler illustrates that life transitions are a skill we can and must master and he offers a powerful, new transition toolkit with original strategies for coping with the difficult, painful, or unsettling times of life.
Mr. Feiler will be in conversation with Rabbi Steven Stark Lowenstein, who began his tenure as Senior Rabbi at Am Shalom in Glencoe, IL in 2002.
This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded and available later on our website and YouTube channel.
BONUS AFTER-HOURS EVENT: Attendees who purchase a copy of Life is in the Transitions from FAN’s partner bookseller The Book Stall are invited to attend an AFTER-HOURS event hosted by Mr. Feiler that will start immediately after the webinar. Details on the webinar registration page.
Event Sponsors
- Am Shalom
- Beacon Academy
- Bennett Day School
- Catherine Cook School
- Chiaravalle Montessori School
- Christ Church Winnetka
- Compass Health Center
- Countryside Day School
- Evanston Township High School D202
- Family Service Center
- Family Service of Glencoe
- Fusion Academy
- Lake Bluff D65
- Lake Forest Academy
- Lake Michigan Association of Independent Schools
- Mindful Psychology Associates PC
- New Trier High School D203
- New Trier Parents’ Association
- North Shore Country Day
- Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy
- Regina Dominican College Preparatory High School
- Roycemore School
- Sacred Heart Schools
- Science & Arts Academy
- Stevenson High School D125
- Winnetka D36
- Wintrust Bank
- Wolcott College Prep
- Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart
Upcoming Events
The Miraculous from the Material: Understanding the Wonders of Nature
Alan Lightman, Ph.D.
Professor of the practice of the humanities at MIT and author of seven novels
Dacher Keltner, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley, Faculty Director of the Greater Good Science Center, and bestselling author
ON ZOOM
The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions
Michael Norton, Ph.D.
Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
Sam Sommers, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair in the Department of Psychology and Director of the Racial Equity and Diversity Lab at Tufts University
ON ZOOM
