The ingredients came from somewhere. These are the books, broadcasters, and gathering places the Civilization borrowed from — the unnamed contributors, named at last. The Cookbook is ours. The Pantry is everyone else's kitchen.
Four categories of curated material. Click any category to expand. 45 entries across the shelves, each placed here because it sits in the same galaxy as the Civilization's subject — kindness, gratitude, giving, compassion, awareness.
| Title | Author | About | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Power of Kindness | Piero Ferrucci | The foundational modern argument that kindness is the actual secret of a fuller life. Still cited twenty years on. | Kindness |
| The War for Kindness | Jamil Zaki | A Stanford psychologist makes the case that empathy is a skill, not a fixed trait — and can be trained. | Compassion |
| The Art of Happiness | Dalai Lama & Howard Cutler | A Buddhist monk and Western psychiatrist on what compassion actually does to a human life. | Compassion |
| Radical Acceptance | Tara Brach | Self-compassion as the precondition for compassion toward anyone else. | Compassion |
| Start Where You Are | Pema Chödrön | A guide to compassionate living that refuses to demand you become someone else first. | Compassion |
| The Compassionate Mind | Paul Gilbert | A working clinician's framework for cultivating compassion, grounded in evolutionary psychology. | Compassion |
| How to Fight | Thich Nhat Hanh | A small book on resolving conflict without violence, by a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who lived through what he writes about. | Kindness |
| Thanks! | Robert A. Emmons | The researcher who moved gratitude from greeting-card territory into real science. Proves gratitude changes the body. | Gratitude |
| Gratitude | Oliver Sacks | Four essays written by a dying neurologist. A small book, read in an evening, that stays for years. | Gratitude |
| 365 Thank Yous | John Kralik | A man at the end of his rope writes one thank-you note every day for a year. His life reorganizes itself. | Gratitude |
| Lost & Found | Kathryn Schulz | A meditation on love, grief, and the kind of gratitude that only survives after loss. | Gratitude |
| Atlas of the Heart | Brené Brown | A field guide to 87 emotions so citizens can name what they are feeling instead of guessing. | Awareness |
| The Book of Joy | Dalai Lama & Desmond Tutu | A week-long conversation between two elders on the practice. Recorded at the Dalai Lama's residence. | Compassion |
| Give and Take | Adam Grant | Wharton's argument — with data — that people who give without keeping score end up ahead of those who do. | Giving |
| The Life You Can Save | Peter Singer | The philosopher's case that if you have the capacity to help and choose not to, you have made a choice. | Giving |
| The Most Good You Can Do | Peter Singer | The effective-altruism argument. Not every reader will agree. Included because disagreement sharpens the Cookbook. | Giving |
| Wonder | R.J. Palacio | A children's novel the author has called "a meditation on kindness." Read by adults as often as kids. | Kindness |
| Braiding Sweetgrass | Robin Wall Kimmerer | A botanist and Potawatomi elder on reciprocity with the natural world. Gratitude extended beyond humans. | Gratitude |
| Thanks A Thousand | A.J. Jacobs | The author tries to thank every person involved in producing his morning coffee. A practical demonstration of how far gratitude travels. | Gratitude |
| Simple Giving | Jennifer Iacovelli | After years in the nonprofit sector, the author asks: how does giving become a daily habit rather than a holiday gesture? | Giving |
| Organization | Mission | Domain | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation | A long-running nonprofit whose stated mission is "making kindness the norm." Free educational resources, kindness calendars, school curricula. | randomactsofkindness.org | Kindness |
| Kindness.org | A nonprofit conducting peer-reviewed research on kindness through its Kindlab program. Rang the NASDAQ closing bell on World Kindness Week 2025. | kindness.org | Kindness |
| Greater Good Science Center | Based at UC Berkeley. Studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being — kindness, gratitude, compassion, awe, forgiveness. | greatergood.berkeley.edu | Awareness |
| Random Acts | A 501(c)(3) that funds proposals for kindness — if you have an idea and need a little money to do it, they consider it. Active in Minneapolis schools. | randomacts.org | Kindness |
| KindSpring | A volunteer-run, non-commercial community practicing small acts of kindness since the early 2000s. Not a brand. A shared labor of love. | kindspring.org | Kindness |
| SpreadKindness.org | Free printable kindness cards you hand someone after an act, along with ideas and quotes. Simple, old-internet, practical. | spreadkindness.org | Kindness |
| Spreading Kindness Campaign | A network that tracks and links kindness-focused organizations around the country. Useful if you want to find a local chapter. | spreadingkindnesscampaign.org | Kindness |
| Compassion Games | "Survival of the kindest" — a community project that invites players worldwide to report acts of compassion on a shared map. Played in 40+ countries. | compassiongames.org | Compassion |
| Channel Kindness | A storytelling platform — writing, audio, and video on themes of kindness and mental health. For citizens who want stories, not research. | channelkindness.org | Kindness |
| City of Kindness | A coalition of U.S. mayors working to bring a culture of kindness into cities, businesses, schools. Runs a national "Kindness Counter." | socialimpactfund.org | Kindness |
| Show | Host / Network | About | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Science of Happiness | Dacher Keltner · PRX + Greater GoodUC Berkeley | The flagship on the research behind compassion, gratitude, mindfulness, awe. Short episodes, research-tested practices. | Awareness |
| The Happiness Lab | Dr. Laurie Santos · PushkinYale | A Yale psychology professor translates what decades of research say actually makes humans happier — and how much of what we assume is wrong. | Awareness |
| The Kindness Chronicles | Gorg, Brown, SchwietzMinneapolis | Three Minnesotans telling kindness stories through the lens of Minnesota Nice. A local voice. | Kindness |
| The Kindness Podcast | Nicole Phillips | Interviews with authors, teachers, musicians, and everyday practitioners on the transformative power of kindness. | Kindness |
| The Gratitude Diaries | Janice Kaplan · iHeartPodcasts | Short daily episodes on practical gratitude — marriage, friendship, money, health. Often under ten minutes. | Gratitude |
| Kind World | WBUR Public RadioBoston | Short kindness stories (12–20 min) produced by Boston's public radio station. Journalistic, documentary feel. | Kindness |
| Tara Brach | Tara Brach · weekly | Weekly guided meditations and talks blending Western psychology with Buddhist practice. Self-compassion as the door to everything else. | Compassion |
| The Daily Smile | Nikki Boyer · Wondery | Short morning episodes of reminders about how good people can be. Stories, interviews, companionship. | Kindness |
| The Kindness & Compassion Podcast | Gordon Brewer, LMFT · PsychCraft | A licensed psychotherapist exploring forgiveness, mindfulness, paying it forward. Clinically grounded. | Compassion |
| Long Distance Love Bombs | Dr. Jeremy Goldberg | A former scientist turned life coach and spoken-word poet interviewing people who make kindness cool. The most stylistically alive. | Kindness |
| Channel | Publisher | About | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Random Acts of Kindness Foundation | @randomactsofkindnessYouTube | The foundation's own channel. Short educational videos on "making kindness the norm," plus the Norm & Grace series and science-backed explainers. | Kindness |
| BYUtv's Random Acts | BYUtvYouTube | A long-running hidden-camera series celebrating "compassion in action" — unsung heroes given moments of surprise recognition. | Kindness |
| Kindness 101 with Steve Hartman | CBS News | CBS correspondent Steve Hartman's short pieces on themes of kindness and character. Originally a pandemic classroom series. | Kindness |
| Greater Good Science Center | @greatergoodberkeleyYouTube | UC Berkeley's video library of lectures, practices, and short explainers on the science of a meaningful life. | Awareness |
| Channel Kindness | channelkindness.org | Video content alongside the written archive — stories of kindness and mental health told on camera, often by young contributors. | Kindness |