Podcast Episodes

May 18, 2023

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In this episode, Wendy speaks with neuroscientist and pain researcher Fadel Zeidan. Fadel is one of the leading experts on understanding how mindfulness and other contemplative practices can be used to help relieve physical pain and promote well-being. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• his interest in self, consciousness, mindfulness and the brain;
• bringing mindfulness to special education classrooms;
• historical use of mindfulness for pain;
• intensity vs. unpleasantness of pain;
• research showing that mindfulness induces pain relief;
• making mindfulness training more accessible;
• looking into the brain during pain;
• using “fake meditation” in research;
• our natural opiate system and its role in pain relief;
• the relationship of physical pain to more complex psychological pain;
• working with families of children who were killed by gun violence;
• studying psychedelics for phantom limb pain;
• role of the default mode network in pain and self;
• compassion meditation and increasing our connection to strangers;
• the opioid crisis in the United States;
• and the role of contemplation in larger society.

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May 4, 2023

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In this episode, Wendy speaks with Buddhist scholar and contemplative educator and researcher Brendan Ozawa-de Silva. Brendan has been studying and teaching mindfulness and compassion for over a decade, and has lately been focusing on integrating trauma-informed and embodied practices into his work. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• his interest in contemplation (and an introduction to the Japanese practice of Naikan);
• adapting contemplative training to a variety of settings;
• the capacity of young people for compassion, mindfulness, and conceptual frames;
• what’s missing in contemplative research;
• empathy/compassion as something that arises between people;
• the embeddedness of researchers in the systems they study;
• the SEE Learning program;
• trauma in the body & nervous system regulation;
• understanding different forms of trauma;
• healing and forgiveness;
• barriers to compassion, misunderstandings about the meaning of compassion;
• how the world is built on compassion;
• and new teaching endeavors with experiential learning.

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April 20, 2023

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In this episode, Wendy speaks with University of Washington vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, Ed Taylor. Ed has made major contributions in the areas of contemplative education and leadership, with a focus on moral and integrative education and social justice. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• growing up embedded in community and giant sequoias;
• learning to be still with the mind;
• teaching meditation amidst anger dysregulation;
• embodying contemplative skills in the classroom;
• the gap between our mind’s story and our body in the moment;
• the relevance of contemplation to wise and effective leadership;
• moving from ego-system to ecosystem awareness (systems thinking);
• implementing systems change in university settings;
• normalizing failure and modeling vulnerability;
• letting students lead in defining the community they want;
• imagining the world you want to live in when things are not OK (reflections on the days after George Floyd was killed);
• understanding critical race theory in education;
• and the central role of community in healing.

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April 6, 2023

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In this episode, Wendy speaks with social psychologist and contemplative researcher David Creswell. David has been studying the effects of meditation on stress and resilience for over a decade, and has conducted some of the most rigorous studies to date investigating which aspects of mindfulness interventions bring benefit. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• integrating psychology and Buddhism since high school;
• understanding stress and resilience;
• acceptance and equanimity in mindfulness;
• bringing scientific rigor to the study of mindfulness through dismantling trials;
• effects of equanimity on the stress response and positive emotions;
• how contemplative skills spill over from the cushion into daily life;
• how practice changes the brain and why those changes matter;
• a risky study with a president’s daughter;
• the promise of apps to deliver mindfulness;
• how acceptance differs from passive resignation;
• and viewing biology and psychology as two sides of the same coin.

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March 23, 2023

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In this episode, Wendy speaks with biological anthropologist and contemplative researcher Jenny Mascaro. Jenny’s work weaves together meditation, compassion, psychology, and healthcare, and moves us toward a deeper understanding of interconnectedness. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• her interest in social cognition in animals – and humans;
• what compassion is, and how it’s different from empathy;
• biological basis of compassion, and the role of oxytocin;
• how social factors and context shape compassion;
• training compassion and the skills underlying it;
• understanding self-compassion;
• the under-appreciated role of hospital chaplains;
• compassion training for chaplains;
• preparing for interpersonal interactions;
• how compassion shows up in language;
• how compassionate care can help anxiety and depression;
• responding to healthcare provider stress;
• how meditation has changed her;
• and building awareness of interdependence.

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