Thirteen years ago, my wife was in the third trimester of her pregnancy, and her doctor put her on bed rest due to something called pre-eclampsia. It can be a dangerous situation so she was confined to the bed, the couch, and any number of other comfy spaces. To help pass the time, Dwight, Michael, Jim, Pam, and all the others from Dunder Mifflin accompanied her and I just about every night for three months straight. Then, after our daughter was born in 2010, they all accompanied us most nights up to the present. Yes, I’m proud to admit — we are super fans (our daughter is now also one of the many young teenage fans out there)

If that wasn’t awesome enough, in 2022, Rainn Wilson — via a mutual friend named Steve Sarowitz — joined us on the show and had an absolute blast of a conversation. Rainn Wilson!? On MY podcast? Wild!The trauma that our struggling species has experienced in recent years-because of both the pandemic and societal tensions that threaten to overwhelm us-is not going away anytime soon. Existing political and economic systems are not enough to bring the change that the world needs. In this book, Rainn Wilson explores the possibility and hope for a spiritual revolution, a “Soul Boom,” to find a healing transformation on both a personal and global level Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” I’m no authority on spirituality, religion, or holiness, and I’m anything but enlightened. Yes, I’ve read and studied a great deal. I’ve suffered deeply. I’ve pondered and contemplated and meditated. I’ve struggled and many times failed. But aren’t writers on spiritual topics supposed to have life all worked out? I’m here to tell you they (we) don’t. Although I have some insights from the work I’ve done, I still get anxious and confused a great deal. I swear too much. I’m impatient with my kid sometimes. I have a big ego that can sometimes subsume me. I compare and despair. I have been (and can be) overwhelmingly selfish and judgmental. While "Soul Boom" isn't immersed in Wilson's more humorous side, I'd expect his devoted fans to still be happy here as he still brings humor and his incredibly unique perspectives to needed conversations. Wilson's basic stance is that we have a world that is in need of profound healing and a unifying understanding AND that the spiritual traditions of the world all help provide this understanding. In a relaxed and relatable way, Wilson's approach to spirituality - the non-physical, eternal aspects of ourselves - applies to people of all beliefs and/or religions including the skeptics, agnostics, and atheists. Wilson offers up a variety of genuine insights along with Kung Fu and Star Trek references sure to make readers reflect and smile.

I think these 10 points are good conversation starter for those that are spiritual or religious as these are very important topics. We may have some common beliefs which is good to focus on. With "Soul Boom," Wilson digs deeper into ancient wisdom in an effort to foster transformative answers to life's biggest questions and the biggest challenges facing us today. It may not be the book you expected from Rainn Wilson, but it's likely the book we needed Rainn Wilson to give us. Dillard’s story reflects maturity and understanding from someone who was forced to mature and understand too much too soon. I hope this book will ignite discussion and inspire you, gentle reader, to view some universal spiritual ideas through some different-colored lenses. Sometimes silly, sometimes profound and earnest, I will attempt to explore some very old ground with some very new perspectives.

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I'm a "None", religiously. On my most enlightened days I'm "Spiritual but not Religious." More often I'm left-brained, data-driven, and annoyed by the hate that purports to be Christian love. And yet... There is some part of me that longs to believe in the message of this book... Some part that wants to believe that we are all divinely connected and that we have a sacred responsibility to our own selves and to our community and world to create the "kin-dom" of God here on earth. Soul Boom failed to make a convert out of me (among other reasons because following his religion would make one a … Boomer?). Even so, the book is valuable for its contribution to a broader spiritual dialogue and as a skillful apologetic for the Baha’i faith. Wilson wishes his readers to embrace a spirituality that adheres to some key precepts drawn from his faith tradition. Christians, who in many contexts today might find themselves with only slightly more cultural resonance than someone from the Baha’i faith, can take note of the way Soul Boom searches for cultural common ground and offers its distinctive prescriptions to the uninitiated.