It is an exciting time for global seismologists: : with recent progress in our ability to simulate wave propagation in realistic 3D earth models combined with significant increases in  computational power, we are well positioned to start fully exploiting the wealth of information about earth structure and dynamics contained in a rapidly expanding database of high quality broadband seismic waveforms, accumulated globally and regionally over the last twenty five years. I will illustrate how the combination of elastic, anelastic and anisotropic forward and inverse modeling provides complementary constraints on outstanding questions, such as the nature of the lower mantle "superplumes" and their role in the global mantle circulation.