1987, while teaching a class at MIT [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology] on nonviolence, philosophy lecturer Lee Perlman had a novel idea: Why not take the students to a prison, to talk with men who had committed extreme forms of violence?  Needless to say,” an MIT publication reported, “the experience was an eye-opener for students — a powerful way to help them understand, at a visceral level, the nature of violence. And it also sparked Perlman’s lifelong professional and personal interest in the prison system.” What follows is the edited transcript of an in-depth Awakin Calls interview with Dr. Perlman. You can listen to the recording ... posted on Dec 28 2019 (6,763 reads)

of the humanities. Positive psychology was founded by the University of Pennsylvania’s Martin Seligman, who, after decades of working as a research psychologist, had come to believe that his field was in crisis. He and his colleagues had made great progress with depression, helplessness, and anxiety, but, he realized, helping people overcome their demons is not the same thing as helping them live well. And so, in 1998, Seligman called on his colleagues to investigate what makes life fulfilling and worth living. Social scientists heeded his call, but most zeroed in on a topic that was both obvious and seemed easy to measure: happiness. Some researchers studied the benefits of... posted on Jan 25 2018 (35,612 reads)

Rohr Living in Deep Time Men of all ages say Richard Rohr has given them a new way into spiritual depth and religious thought — through his writing and retreats. This conversation with the Franciscan spiritual teacher delves into the expansive scope of his ideas: male formation and what he calls “father hunger”; why contemplation is as magnetic to people now, including millennials, as it’s ever been; and how to set about taking the first half of life — the drive to “successful survival” — all the way to meaning. Transcript Krista Tippett, host: I’m not sure any living spiritual teacher has been recommended ... posted on Sep 11 2017 (14,413 reads)

perception, thinking, effortless achievement and healing are inherent to life—they happen by themselves. When we observe children learning to walk or speak, ecosystems regenerating themselves, or animals self-organizing, we notice there’s a masterful way of functioning that’s fundamentally different from our dominant culture. Encaged in a reality bubble of fear and separation, as Westerners in particular, we’ve culturally barred ourselves from life. True unlearning is the process of bidding farewell to such detrimental cultural programming, fostering imagination and awe in relation to life, discernment and empathy in relation to our world, and community and ... posted on Dec 30 2018 (7,993 reads)

and coupledom with her TED talks, her books, and her singular podcast, Where Should We Begin? There, listeners are invited into emotionally raw therapy sessions she conducts with couples she’s never met before. Episode after episode lays bare the theater of relationship, which is also the drama of being human. And that’s what I take up with her this hour. What does “erotic intelligence,” one of her terms, have to do with the human condition writ large and to life at every stage — coupled or not? And how might it inform our emotionally raw societal dramas? [music: “Seven League Boots” by Zoë Keating] Esther Perel: My book ... posted on Dec 18 2019 (10,434 reads)

our labor and creativity would be better applied elsewhere. We might ask, having done without it for a while, whether we really need so much air travel, Disneyworld vacations, or trade shows. What parts of the economy will we want to restore, and what parts might we choose to let go of? And on a darker note, what among the things that are being taken away right now – civil liberties, freedom of assembly, sovereignty over our bodies, in-person gatherings, hugs, handshakes, and public life – might we need to exert intentional political and personal will to restore? For most of my life, I have had the feeling that humanity was nearing a crossroads. Always, the crisis, the c... posted on Apr 16 2020 (13,838 reads)

for On Exoplanets and Love: Natalie Batalha on Science That Connects Us to One Another February 14, 2013 Krista Tippett, Host: Natalie Batalha hunts for "exoplanets" — Earth-sized planets beyond our own solar system — that might have liquid water and harbor life. She works with the Kepler Mission at NASA, searching among millions of stars that emit "compelling signals" in the range of Kepler's space telescope. For her, it's only a matter of time — a when, not an if — that we discover planets where we know life exists. And, I've never met anyone who speaks more intriguingly than Natalie Batalha about the connection be... posted on Jan 29 2014 (26,314 reads)

my guest is Elizabeth Gilbert. Elizabeth is an author, essayist, short-story writer, and novelist.In 2006, she wrote her landmark memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, which spent 199 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Her latest novel, The Signature of All Things, is a sprawling tale of 19th-century botanical exploration. O, The Oprah Magazine named it “the novel of a lifetime.” Elizabeth Gilbertis a featured presenter at Sounds True’s 2014 Wake Up Festival. She’ll be speaking on the topic of “Big Magic: Thoughts on Creative Living.” The Wake Up Festival takes place August 20th–24th in Estes Park, Col... posted on Sep 16 2014 (23,743 reads)

we'd like to invite people to share something personal and perhaps even be vulnerable about their relationship with money. We'll start with a few friends who have been looking at these questions for a long time to help seed the conversation, and then we’ll go around and share our reflections.      To add some context, first, we'll have Jacob Needleman who is an author, a philosopher, a professor. He's written a couple dozen books on the inner life, including one called Money and the Meaning of Life. We'll also have Min Xuan Lee who has been asking these questions from the perspective of being a social entrepreneur. She will be fol... posted on Oct 2 2017 (10,639 reads)

fear can provoke more fear. In part, this may be why the Hebrew deity is conceived as eternally present,2 which is undoubtedly too tall an order for any human being to attain.  Whenever we become distant from ourselves and from the world, a direct, open, and unmediated experience of being alive can be a welcome gift.  image by W.carter, Wikimedia Commons One way to reconnect with ourselves and become more present is to listen. We can listen to ourselves, and to life. A good place to listen is in the natural world.  In our original experience of the natural world, life abounds everywhere: in Death Valley and Antarctica, as well as a cabin in the woods.&n... posted on Oct 26 2020 (5,885 reads)

and I actually refer to you as the Gratitude Lady when you’re not around. And the reason is, you write me so many beautiful notes of gratitude, and I’m sure you must have hundreds and hundreds of people on a list that you write such birthday notes and thanksgiving notes to. And I just want to know, first of all, how do you do it? How did you become the Gratitude Lady? Angeles Arrien: [Laughs] I don’t know how I became the Gratitude Lady, but I just feel so blessed in my life that it’s increased my own generosity of spirit, of excitement, and gratefulness about what has been extended to me. And certainly you’ve extended to me so many wonderful opportunitie... posted on Sep 17 2012 (29,921 reads)

TIPPETT, HOST: Mary Oliver is one of our greatest living poets, beloved and often quoted by people across ages and backgrounds. She rarely gives interviews or speaks about the life behind her writing. But she's with us, this hour. [music: “Seven League Boots” by Zoe Keating] MARY OLIVER: "Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination, / calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting— / over and over announcing your place / in the family of things." Lord knows when I started writing poetry, it was rotten. MS. TIPPETT: The poetry was rotten? MS. OLIVER: Sure. I was 10, 11, 12 years old, but I... posted on Mar 18 2015 (28,291 reads)

the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, and he’s an assistant clinical professor of medicine at University of California San Francisco. A self-described “suburban boy,” he moved all over the U.S. growing up with his family until he attended Princeton. And there, the accident that nearly killed him set him on a path to medicine, but first to studying art. MS. TIPPETT: Design is such an important word for you and such an important notion that I feel runs through all your life and your work, and, to me, there is a spiritual aspect of that, expansively defined. And I’m just curious about where you trace the origins of that. Would you say that you always had a &ldq... posted on Apr 4 2016 (25,642 reads)

two lives saved twice as good as one life saved?” I asked my friend. He thought about it and said, “Yes, from a 30,000 feet view, that seems reasonable, but something about it doesn’t sit right.” What is it about reducing a life to a number that feels uncomfortable? Time Jump: 1922, Munich German Middle School The teacher walked into the class and nodded. The class stood up and took the oath they recited daily before beginning lessons, “I was born to die for Germany.” As they took their seats, the teacher noticed  one boy still standing. They locked eyes, and the boy found his voice, “I think I was born to live for Germany,&r... posted on Mar 27 2017 (10,928 reads)

Angel is an indigenous leader, wise (Sioux) Lakota elder woman, mother of five children, and lifelong devoted water protector who helped initiate and maintain the Standing Rock camp since April 2016, and who was vital in the nonviolent resistance to the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines. Her voice among the water protectors is one of integrating deep prayer with nonviolent direct action, guiding two women-led actions at Standing Rock. A spiritual activist from the Sicangu (Rosebud) tribe -- one of the seven tribes that conform the Lakota/Nakota/Dakota People in the Great Plains of North America -- Cheryl moves from a deep space of love and nonviolen... posted on Jan 7 2018 (8,750 reads)

at the Edge, Neil and I spoke about how to read a text as a Midrash and appreciate multiple interpretations. We also talked about body prayers and how they relate to how Jesus himself might have prayed. Neil also led us through a body prayer experience in relationship to the “I am” sayings of Jesus. And finally, we talked more about these “I am” sayings and how they were really designed as a communication to Jesus’ inner circle at the end of his life. Here’s my conversation with the very generous scholar, Neil Douglas-Klotz. To begin with, Neil, I’m wondering if you can introduce our listeners to the language of Aramaic. Give u... posted on Jul 28 2021 (7,261 reads)

we had the discipline. In his longtime column for The Guardian, and books with subtitles like Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, my guest Oliver Burkeman has long interrogated the possibilities for absurdity in self-help while also honoring the real and deep human longings it meets. And he himself became a time management and productivity “geek,” until one day, sitting on a bench in Brooklyn, he grasped that no one achieves perfect work–life balance — that in the end, even the most privileged of us rarely get around to doing the most important things. Where he went next is the conversation I have with him this hour: dee... posted on Jan 31 2022 (5,201 reads)

out of 37,000 guests. That’s quite an accolade. I know. It’s true. TT: Yes. In many ways, I think what Oprah did was giving a platform to the silencing of women, and making sure that there’s more awakening to women’s issues. And more awakening to education of women and girls. It wasn’t about me at all, though I am very grateful for being the vessel to carry the message, to continue to make sure that women own their voices, and they own their own spaces in life. TS: Here you are now, you say, this vessel for helping women own their voices and not be silenced. And I want our listeners to get a sense of the depth of obstacles that you encountered ... posted on May 24 2023 (2,781 reads)

FOR PICO IYER — THE ART OF STILLNESS KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: Pico Iyer is not a spiritual teacher or even, he says, a spiritual person per se. But he has become one of our most beloved and eloquent translators of the modern rediscovery of inner life. As a journalist and novelist, he travels the globe from Ethiopia to North Korea, and he lives in Japan. But he also experiences a remote Benedictine hermitage as his second home, retreating there many times each year. In this intimate conversation, we explore the “art of stillness” he practices — not in order to enrich the mountaintop, he writes, “but to bring calm into the motion of the world.&rdq... posted on Jul 10 2015 (19,976 reads)

follows is the transcript of an On Being interview between Krista Tippett and Rachel Naomi Remen. KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: Rachel Naomi Remen is one of the wise people in our world. I quote from my conversation with her all the time. She’s a physician and a lyrical writer whose long struggle with Crohn’s disease has shaped her view of life and medicine. Living well, she says, is not about eradicating our wounds and weaknesses but understanding how they complete our identity and equip us to help others. The way we deal with losses, large and small, shapes our capacity to be present to all of our experiences. There’s a difference, she says, between curing and heal... posted on Jan 15 2019 (13,873 reads)