New & Upcoming
The Cultural Translator:
Seven Steps to Turning Conflict into Connection Across Deep Divides
I worked closely with Rich Tafel as a developmental editor, structural strategist, and high-level thought partner on The Cultural Translator. A central part of my role was helping break down complex developmental psychology and worldview theory into language that is both accessible and actionable. I helped shape the manuscript’s structure, clarify its conceptual framework, strengthen its case studies, and turn a rich but highly layered body of thought into a more coherent and compelling book.
The Cultural Translator explores how our deepest divisions are driven not just by politics, but by different ways of understanding truth, identity, and human meaning. It offers a practical framework for bridging conflict without collapsing conviction. Rich teaches this work in settings ranging from the NYPD and universities to leadership fellowships, professional associations, and civic institutions. He brings to it a rare combination of pastoral depth, political experience, and lived credibility as someone who has spent decades translating across America’s hardest cultural divides.
Strength with Heart
Updating Masculinity without Losing the Man
Keith Martin-Smith, Fred Rabinowitz PhD., Daniel Ellenberg, PhD.
I collaborated with Frederic and Daniel to bring their initial manuscript to full form—expanding its length, rewriting it from the ground up, and weaving in key developmental and spiritual dimensions. I helped shape the book’s opening contextual chapters and closing integrations, ensuring the arc was both intellectually rigorous and emotionally resonant.
Strength with Heart explores a new vision of modern masculinity—one that unites strength with compassion, discipline with presence, and courage with care. Moving beyond both the traditional “strong man” and the modern “sensitive man,” it maps how men can grow through power, tradition, achievement, and equality into an integrated, antifragile form of manhood built for today’s world.
** Currently represented by The Amy Rennert Agency, Inc.
The STAGES Model of Human Development:
A Comprehensive Map of Ego, Awareness, and the Evolution of Meaning
Terri O’Fallon, with support from Keith Martin-Smith
To bring this groundbreaking work to publication, I am collaborating closely with Dr. O’Fallon through an intensive, months-long process of refinement and creative partnership. Our weekly one-on-one sessions focus on clarifying complex ideas, tightening the book’s arc, and ensuring accessibility without losing scholarly rigor. Together we decide what to condense, what to expand, and how to preserve the essence of Terri’s voice. We raised $30k to privately fund the start of the book.
At the heart of the STAGES model lies a simple but profound insight: human development can be described not by what people think, but by how they construct meaning—how self, time, space, and mind interweave into coherent worlds of experience. This structural precision allows Terri to chart the repeating patterns that underlie all development, showing how concrete, subtle, and metaware tiers unfold through predictable shifts in learning, social preference, and awareness.
Shinzen Young
A Spiritual Biography of one of Zen’s Most Illuminated Minds
Paddy Kamen, with support from Keith Martin-Smith
I’m collaborating on a forthcoming biography of Shinzen Young, serving as developmental editor to refine the story arc, deepen the clarity, and bring coherence to decades of material. My work includes restructuring chapters, editing for narrative flow and precision, and shaping the book’s developmental and spiritual through-lines—from early life to late-career legacy.
The book chronicles Shinzen’s journey from his birth in New York City, through years of monastic training in Japan, to his pioneering role at the intersection of Buddhism, neuroscience, and consciousness research. Now in his 80s, Shinzen continues to explore the cutting edge of the science of meditation, uniting ancient wisdom with modern inquiry in a way that has influenced teachers, scientists, and seekers worldwide.
More at https://www.shinzenbook.com/
