Samantha S. Campos

It’s a trait that’s often misunderstood. We might think empathy is about feeling others’ pain, that you either have empathy or you don’t. We might not see a need for it at work. But employers may underestimate its power to improve performance.

While the conversation about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has evolved at a swift pace in the last two years, it helps to have the perspective of age. Charles Moses, DBA, remembered having similar discussions about workplace culture 40 years ago. “Things were simpler then,” said the veteran journalist and current dean of Eberhardt School of Business at the University of the Pacific. Moderating a panel entitled, “Is Your Company Developing an Inclusive Culture?” at From Day One’s Silicon Valley...

A dozen or so years ago, it was rumored that pakalolo-seeking tourists on Front Street were being sold bags of oregano. Meanwhile, locals knew how to get the stickiest bud–-usually from a friend of a friend in Paia. Although Operation Green Harvest was winding down, the whir of any helicopter blades flying overhead would instill fear and secrecy in the island’s best weed purveyors.

I’ll admit it: I, too, drank the Prohibition Kool-Aid. I didn’t think pot was bad, I just didn’t necessarily think it did any good either. I thought marijuana was a pastime for hippies, a gateway to Cheetos for lazy people, a dopey supplement to the surfing lifestyle. When I left Maui in 2007, I swore I would never date a “stoner” again. Cut to 10 years later: I’m now living with a man whose family runs, arguably, the largest cannabis dispensary on the planet. Funny how life plays out like that.

Sonoma County is perhaps best known for its wine. But it also has a deep history of cannabis cultivation. Generations of farmers, forced underground by prohibition, have nurtured and harvested cannabis gardens for decades. As California ushers in a new era of legalization, those master growers and their protected genetics may finally get the recognition they deserve: Like its wine, Sonoma produces some of the best cannabis on the market today.

Just over a year and a half ago, Jane Ingalls retired as an Earth Sciences Librarian at Stanford University. Now on a fixed income, Ingalls knew she wouldn’t be able to afford to continue living in the Bay Area. But she did have land in Mendocino County. And she had known Stephen Marshall for years.

Marshall owns and operates Little House on the Trailer, a Petaluma-based business that has designed and manufactured secondary units for the past nine years. Also known as accessory dwelling units, these homes range from 400 to 800 square feet, are fully customizable and delivered with utility hookups, generally within two months.

During her TEDxMaui talk in 2014, champion freediver and spearfisher Kimi Werner explained her key to survival in the deep sea–and in life. “When you feel the need to speed up, slow down,” she said. Born and raised on Maui, Werner spoke of how the ocean provided food for her family, how she tagged along as a young girl when her father spearfished and, later, how she longed to be back in that underwater world “where I could fly.” Able to hold her breath for four minutes and 45 seconds, and swim to depths reaching 159 feet, Werner earned top titles in the U.S. National Spearfishing Championships off the murky coast of Rhode Island. An artist, teacher and chef, Werner is now a vocal proponent of marine conservation and sustainable hunting. She’s featured as one of six water lovers in the new documentary "Fishpeople."

By the time summer rolled around in 1997, Bill Clinton was President–again. Madeleine Albright had become the first female Secretary of State. Scottish scientists announced the successful cloning of a sheep named Dolly. The English Patient won “Best Picture” at the Academy Awards, J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was published, and Teletubbies debuted. Bruddah Iz passed away. And two intrepid young men from California launched Maui Time Weekly.

The transformation begins on the verdant, tree-canopied dirt road to the California School of Herbal Studies (CSHS), just off Highway 116, two miles west of Forestville. A sign alerts drivers to the 5 miles per hour speed limit, and goats graze quietly on the left, before the land dips into a woodland ravine. I roll the window down to take in the fresh air and my usual mind chatter ceases. I’m here for a weekend class, but I already feel like I’ve entered a kind of magical sanctuary.