June 5, 2026
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Jon Kabat-Zinn didn’t invent MBSR as a stress reduction programme. He created it as a way of meeting suffering—individual, collective, planetary—with greater clarity and care. Somewhere in the journey to the mainstream, that wider vision narrowed in the public conception. This episode is, in part, a return to the source.
Guest host Jamie Bristow is joined by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Paula Ramírez Díazgranados and Liane Stephan to explore what mindfulness becomes when it is brought back into relationship with the world: with trauma and conflict, with institutions and food systems, with the tragedy of ecological crisis. Their conversation moves through medicine, humanitarian response and sustainability work, but the deeper thread running through all of it is relational: the question of what contemplative practice can offer when the patient is not only the individual, but the communities and systems we are part of.
The result is a wide-ranging and genuinely hopeful conversation about resilience, interdependence and the fuller promise of mindfulness in a time that needs more than personal wellbeing.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn is internationally known for his work as a scientist, writer, and meditation teacher engaged in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine and society including MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction). He is professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and author of numerous books, including Full Catastrophe Living, Arriving at Your Own Door, Coming to Our Senses, and Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief.
- Paula Ramírez Díazgranados is a Colombian anthropologist, peacebuilder, therapist, and somatic facilitator whose work integrates trauma-sensitive mindfulness, Somatic Experiencing, ancestral practice, and cultural and ecological wisdom. Since 2009, she has worked across more than 20 countries with individuals, communities, and humanitarian teams navigating trauma, systemic violence, displacement, and recovery. She is co-director of RESPIRA in Colombia and Breathe/Emerge International, organizations that combine peacebuilding and mental health through the restoration of human resilience.
- Liane Stephan is the co-founder and CEO of Awaris GmbH and co-founder of the Inner Green Deal. With more than three decades of experience in leadership development, mindfulness, systemic organizational development, and culture change, she supports leaders, teams, and organizations in cultivating resilience, awareness, and sustainable transformation. She is also co-author of The Resilient Culture: How Collective Resilience Leads to Business Success.
Jamie Bristow is a writer linking inner and outer transformation, and a policy advisor on the application of inner development and contemplative practices in public life. His work includes influential reports such as Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out and The System Within: Addressing the inner dimension of sustainability and systems transformation. From 2015 to 2023, Jamie played an instrumental role in the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness, acting as its clerk and serving as Director of the associated policy institute, The Mindfulness Initiative. During this time he worked with legislators around the world to make mindfulness and compassion training serious matters of public policy and catalysts for a healthier political process. Jamie’s earlier roles included being the Business Development Director at Headspace, and his background encompasses psychology, climate change campaigning, and advertising. He is a committed Insight Meditation practitioner and is training to teach.
Watch
Resources
You can find more information about Jamie at his website.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn’s website:
https://jonkabat-zinn.com/ - Listening as Safety: Trauma Sensitivity and Cultural Responsiveness in Mindfulness Teaching – Online webinar with Paula Ramirez Diazgranados from Oxford Mindfulness on Sat. Sept 5: https://oxfordmindfulness.org/other-events/listening-as-safety-trauma-sensitivity-and-cultural-responsiveness-in-mindfulness-teaching
- Awareness, Care and Sustainability for Our Earth – An interactive session about the role of mindfulness for sustainability, with Jon Kabat-Zinn, Christine Wamsler, Jamie Bristow, Liane Stephan, Bruce Barrett, and Margaret Fletcher. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTUc_0GroGM
- Bristow, J., Bell, R., & Wamsler, C. (2022). Reconnection: Meeting the climate crisis inside out. The Mindfulness Initiative. https://www.themindfulnessinitiative.org/reconnection
- Wamsler, C., Stephan, L., Fletcher, M., Bristow, J. (2026) Mindfulness and sustainability at the crossroads: towards mindfulness curricula for human and planetary wellbeing and transformation. Sustainability Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-025-01761-0
- Wamsler, C., Osberg, G., Janss, J., Stephan, L. (2024) Revolutionising sustainability leadership and education: Addressing the human dimension to support flourishing, culture and system transformation. Climatic Change 177, 4 (2024). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-023-03636-8
- Janss, J., Wamsler, C., Smith, A., Stephan, L. (2023). The human dimension of the Green Deal: How to overcome polarisation and facilitate culture and system change. Published by the Inner Green Deal gGmbH, Cologne, Germany, and Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS), Lund, Sweden. https://www.contemplative-sustainable-futures.com/_files/ugd/4cc31e_32a45e74d07a4b179d159f0deb9f5af5.pdf
- Ramstetter, L., Rupprecht, S., Mundaca, L., Klackl, J., Osika, W., Stenfors, C., Wamsler, C. (2023) Fostering collective climate action and leadership: Insights from a pilot experiment involving mindfulness and compassion, iScience 26(3):106191. https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(23)00268-7?_returnURL=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2589004223002687?showall%3Dtrue
- Find out more about Jamie’s work here: https://www.jamiebristow.com/
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