host: I'm Krista Tippett. Earlier this year, the TerriSchiavo case raised ethical and medical questions that remain long after her death. But the media and political frenzy around her tragedy focused on the right to life. Missing in that debate was a real attention to the quality and the meaning of death. My guest today, Joan Halifax, works as a kind of midwife to dying people. She'll speak this hour about what she's learned and how she lives differently after three decades accompanying others to the final boundary of human life. She says that Americans often think of death as a failure.  Today, we'll explore her very different per... posted on Jun 5 2013 (25,267 reads)

(Host): Today, our guest is none other than Jacob Needleman, someone who really embodies today's theme and hopefully we'll be able to dive into on, "Money and the meaning of life." We are really looking forward to it. I know I am, personally. I really want to thank all of you for joining us. Our theme for this week is " Money and the meaning of life". Our guest today wrote that, " we as humans are uniquely beings of two natures. The material, which is focused on the world of action and doing and the spiritual or transcendent, longing for something higher greater and more inclusive of the ordinary self. He has noted that our great possibility... posted on Jul 4 2015 (8,480 reads)

Singer is a spiritual teacher, entrepreneur, and the bestselling author of the spiritual classic The Untethered Soul. He has collaborated with Sounds True to release the online course Living from a Place of Surrender: The Untethered Soul in Action. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Michael about the core idea of his teachings: that it is only through complete surrender to the essence of the moment that we experience life's full potential. They talk about what this sense of surrender actually means when it comes to decision-making and day-to-day activities, as well as how to recognize when we are still clinging to resistance. Micha... posted on Dec 22 2017 (46,805 reads)

FROM NATURE'S EMERGENT CREATIVITY From Noetic Sciences Review #37, Spring 1996   In my work with large organizations, one of the questions we often ask is, "How would we work differently if we really understood that we are truly self-organizing?" The first thing we recognize is that, just like individuals, the organizations we create have a natural tendency to change, to develop. This is completely counter to the current mantra of organizational life: "People resist change. People fear change. People hate change." Instead, in a self-organizing world, we see change as a power, a presence, a capacity, that is available. It's part ... posted on Jun 15 2018 (9,216 reads)

text is an adaptation of the first chapter in The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life (Jossey-Bass, 2007) by Parker J. Palmer. We Teach Who We Are I am a teacher at heart, and there are moments in the classroom when I can hardly hold the joy. When my students and I discover uncharted territory to explore, when the pathway out of a thicket opens up before us, when our experience is illumined by the lightning-life of the mind—then teaching is the finest work I know. But at other moments, the classroom is so lifeless or painful or confused—and I am so powerless to do anything about it that my claim to be a teacher seems a tra... posted on Oct 3 2016 (31,643 reads)

essential note is once again present in my consciousness, that song of the angels that is also the song of creation, of what is born and comes into being. Without this return to the Source nothing true can be born, just more layers of distortion, more veils that obscure us from what is real. And this note of the Source is so simple. It is not an answer to a question, because in the simplicity of Self there is no question. Like a bud breaking open in springtime, it just is—life returning after a long winter, after storms and snow. I will try to tell the story of this beginning, of this note of the Source, of this place of pure being. Because stories are what bring th... posted on Sep 20 2020 (6,874 reads)

do Michelle Obama, Bruce Springsteen and Sheryl Sandberg have in common? According to a new book by Stewart D. Friedman, founding director of the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project and a practice professor of management, each has developed the skills to integrate their life and work successfully. In Leading the Life You Want, Friedman profiles six people who he says embody these necessary skills – being real, being whole, and being innovative – and helps readers to begin to apply these skills and strategies in their own lives. Recently, Jeffrey Klein, executive director of the Wharton Leadership Program, sat down with Friedman to discuss why the phrase “work-life... posted on Dec 23 2014 (24,757 reads)

TIPPETT, HOST: Elizabeth Gilbert’s name is synonymous with her fantastically best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. But she started out writing for publications by men and for men. Eat Pray Love was borne of a moment of total collapse in her life. And you can call it “chick lit” — but it’s inspired millions to move forward with their lives differently. Through the disorienting process of becoming a global celebrity, Elizabeth Gilbert has reflected deeply on the gift and challenge of creativity. She defines creativity — in life as in art — as choosing the path of curiosity over the path of fear. This has resonance for our co... posted on Sep 5 2016 (16,704 reads)

boundaries when it comes to electronic media. Finally, Nancy considers the need for a "digital detox" and how it is imperative that we all set aside time to spend in silence. Tami Simon: You're listening to Insights at the Edge. Today my guest is Nancy Colier. Nancy Colier is a psychotherapist, interfaith minister, author, and veteran meditator. She has a private practice in New York City where she also leads ongoing groups and workshops on mindfulness in everyday life. She's the author of Getting Out of Your Own Way: Unlocking Your True Performance Potential,and Inviting a Monkey to Tea: Befriending Your Mind. With Sounds True. Nancy has wri... posted on Feb 8 2018 (17,958 reads)

attentive, in our culture, to the many faces of depression and its cousin, anxiety, and we’re fluent in the languages of psychology and medication. But depression is profound spiritual territory; and that is much harder to speak about and can only be traced years onward. It is the shadow side of human vitality and, as such, teaches us about vitality. Depression may be possible, as Andrew Solomon says, for the same reason that love is possible. This is important reflection for our common life. Like many millions of people, depression is an essential thread of the life that is mine. And, I think, “depression” may be one of the most inadequate words in our vocabulary. I&r... posted on Jun 19 2018 (14,454 reads)

of resolution in reverse. This is where the wisdom of lives that have already been lived can be of immense aid — a source of forward-facing resolutions, borrowed from people who have long died, having lived, by any reasonable standard, honorable and generous lives, lives of beauty and substance, irradiated by ideas that have endured across the epochs to make other lives more livable. Here are ten such ideas (after many more highlighted in years past) that make for life-expanding resolutions, and an extra eleventh as an overarching ethos. HANNAH ARENDT: LOVE WITHOUT FEAR OF LOSS We will lose everything we love, including our lives — so we might a... posted on Jan 2 2022 (7,314 reads)

Simon: You’re listening to Insights at the Edge. Today my guest is Mark Nepo. Mark is a poet and philosopher who has taught in the fields of poetry and spirituality for over 35 years. As a cancer survivor, Mark devotes his writing and teaching to the journey of inner transformation and the life of relationship. A New York Times #1 bestselling author, he has recorded eight audio projects and published thirteen books, including The Book of Awakening, which made the list of Opera’s “Ultimate Favorite Things.” With Sounds True, Mark has created an eight-session audio program called Staying Awake: The Ordinary Art, where he... posted on Dec 10 2016 (25,837 reads)

a quality in her singing that cuts to the heart of what it's like to be human," the American guitarist said of the Buddhist nun's chants. "That quality, that tonality, just goes right to the center of your chest." Eventually he got a second chance and passed on the tape to a music producer. Today, that nun's dozen albums have turned her into a household name in Nepal and an international celebrity.      As inspiring as Ani's music is, her life journey is perhaps even more so. From the age of five, Ani had to struggle to survive. Not a day went by without a bloody beating from her father, without Ani fearing for her mother's life or... posted on Nov 20 2017 (10,174 reads)

Oliver was one of the most beloved poets of our times. A writer who was dazzled by her daily experience of life, and dazzled the rest of us by telling about it in her poems and essays. She deliberately stayed out of the public eye and what follows is one of her rare interviews. Read on for a glimpse of the remarkable woman who  once wrote: "When it's over, I want to say: all my life/I was a bride married to amazement./I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms." What follows is the transcript of an On Being interview between Krista Tippett and Mary Oliver. October 15, 2015 KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: Mary Oliver is one of our greatest living poets, ... posted on Jan 18 2019 (45,458 reads)

a Happy Life Different from a Meaningful One? A scientific controversy about the relationship between meaning and happiness raises fundamental questions about how to live a good life. Philosophers, researchers, spiritual leaders—they’ve all debated what makes life worth living. Is it a life filled with happiness or a life filled with purpose and meaning? Is there even a difference between the two? Think of the human rights activist who fights oppression but ends up in prison—is she happy? Or the social animal who spends his nights (and some days) jumping from party to party—is that the good life? These aren’t just academic questions. The... posted on Mar 28 2014 (34,580 reads)

for Leonard Mlodinow — Randomness and Choice Leonard Mlodinow: When you look at your life, if you had to sit down and think about, and I'm talking about in detail, not just the headlines, if you think about all the details of what happened to you, you will find that there was a time where you had the extra cup of coffee, where if you hadn't, you wouldn't have met Person A. When I look back in my life, I could find so many instances like that. And I had fun tracing some of them. And the course of your life depends on how you react to those opportunities and challenges that the randomness presents to you. If you're awake and paying attent... posted on Jul 15 2014 (25,859 reads)

talk in sound bites. In this instance, we had an uninterrupted 90 minutes, and it really felt like an exploration. And at the end of the 90 minutes, I had to tell this person I had never seen that this had been the most soulful, searching, intimate conversation I could remember having. And I think it’s the same experience that Yo-Yo Ma, and Mary Oliver, and Desmond Tutu, and hundreds of others, have all known. I think to be on Krista’s show, On Being, really changes your life by clarifying it. And I think Krista and her guests have really become some of my closest companions, because they discuss the most essential issues with such honesty and vulnerability. But I ... posted on Jul 10 2016 (14,002 reads)

is much more than a medical event. It is a time for important psychological, emotional and spiritual work – a time for transition. To a large extent, the way we meet death is shaped by our habitual response to suffering, and our relationship to ourselves, to those we love, and to whatever image of ultimate kindness we hold.” - Frank Ostaseski Frank Ostaseski is a Buddhist teacher, international lecturer and a leading voice in contemplative end-of-life care.  He is the Guiding Teacher and visionary Founding Director of Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America, in San Francisco, and also author of  The Five In... posted on Jan 26 2018 (30,959 reads)

is a nonprofit dedicated to providing these transformational tools to communities in need, including at-risk youth, prisoners, veterans, and those in developing countries. If you’d like to learn more or feel inspired to become a supporter, please visit soundstruefoundation.org.  In this episode of Insights at the Edge, my guest is Lynne Twist. Lynne Twist is a hugely accomplished global activist, author and teacher. She’s an award-winning speaker who has devoted her life to sustainability and economic integrity. She is president and founder of the Soul of Money Institute and she’s the cofounder, along with her husband, Bill, of the Pachamama Alliance, which... posted on Mar 12 2022 (2,948 reads)

your life were a movie, where would the plot be headed right now? You may not be immortalized in film anytime soon, but your life is still a story. According to psychologists, we all have an internalized narrative that explains how we became the person we are today and where we are headed tomorrow. Like any Hollywood blockbuster, this narrative has settings, scenes, a plot, characters, and themes. As we ponder resolutions for the coming year, New Year’s can also be a time to reflect on our life story—and to figure out how everything fits together. Incorporating our goals into the larger narrative of our life can give us more energy to pursue them, and to become the ... posted on Jan 1 2017 (20,444 reads)