Season 2

My most recent guest for Higher Callings is Stephen Seckler. After graduating from law school, Steve took a job with Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, where he organized hundreds of educational programs for lawyers over several years. He then formed his own business, helping lawyers learn h…

In 1963, in a case called Gideon v. Wainwright, the United States Supreme Court held for the first time that a person accused of a crime in a state court has a right to counsel secured by the United States Constitution. Before that decision, a defendant’s federal constitutional right to an attorney…

I got to know Michael Bogdanow when we co-chaired the Litigation Section of the Boston Bar Association in the early 2000’s. An alum of Harvard Law School and chair of the appellate practice at a small but powerful personal injury law firm, Michael also is an accomplished artist. His vivid paintings…

(Photo: Kevin and Denise Reilly) Denise Reilly is a judge on the Minnesota Court of Appeals. As a religion major in college, her passion for justice instilled in her a calling to become a lawyer. While raising a young family, she attended law school. She then served as a law clerk to a federal d…

Last week I had the privilege of publishing portions of my interview of Rev. Pashington Obeng in which he described his work with descendants of Africans living in India, known as the Siddis. In this bonus episode, we shift our focus from India to Africa, as Pash describes an exciting project being…

Reverend Pashington Obeng, Ph.D. is a Protestant minister and scholar, who was born and raised in Ghana, West Africa, and has been living and working in Massachusetts for more than 30 years. In 1998, he learned of a community of people of African descent, known as the Siddis, who have lived in Indi…

Dr. Tom Benninger is a retired physician who lives in Louisville, Kentucky. On more than a dozen occasions, Tom, along with other volunteers, traveled to third world countries where they worked to address the medical needs of people who had little access to healthcare. Motivated by a deep and abidi…