Podcast Episodes

October 21, 2022

In this episode, Wendy speaks with contemplative scholar and Indigenous activist Yuria Celidwen. Yuria has worked across many sectors to bring Indigenous ways of knowing into conversation with Western approaches, particularly in contemplative science. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• the importance of Indigenous languages;
• her roots in a lineage of mystics, healers, and explorers;
• insights from the Mayan calendric system;
• bringing Indigenous ideas into a dualistic culture;
• her own experience of othering;
• the role of contemplative practice amidst today’s challenges;
• opening our awareness to interdependence;
• bridging and safety as we come together across differences;
• kin relationality and ecological belonging;
• subtleties of language and what they reveal;
• implications of the term “mechanism” in the scientific approach;
• Indigenous contemplative science;
• and an inspiring closing poem.

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October 7, 2022

In this episode, Wendy speaks with contemplative researcher Norm Farb. Norm was one of the first people to study how meditation impacts our brains, and his broader work incorporates emotions, body sensations, and present-moment awareness. Their conversation covers many topics, including:

• his initial research on meditation, neural networks, and modes of self;
• predictive models of mind;
• reinforcing vs. updating our model of the world (and implications for political polarization);
• the default mode network and its role in cognition;
• how meditation can help shift our habitual patterns;
• what happens in our minds when we learn to meditate;
• the concept of mental foraging;
• interoception and how sensing the body might reduce conceptual processing;
• depression & interoception, and getting stuck avoiding difficult feelings;
• the self as the current model of the world;
• a deeper look at the idea of no-self;
• the ethics of updating our self model responsibly;
• localization vs. distribution in the brain;
• and the state of research on meditation and the brain.

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September 23, 2022

In this episode, Wendy speaks with contemplative educator and researcher Patricia (Tish) Jennings. Tish has been a pioneer in bringing mindfulness and compassion into school settings, with a particular focus on helping teachers. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• her experience as an educator and a meditator;
• how teacher stress contributes to the classroom environment;
• how contemplative practice can help bring awareness to automatic responses, and help shift them;
• the process of attunement and our core as social beings;
• how teachers can be sensitive to students who have experienced trauma;
• problems with the industrialized model of education;
• how teachers can be a force for change from the inside;
• yoga and body sensation as mindfulness for young children;
• somatic awareness and understanding emotions;
• and what young people need most right now.

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September 9, 2022

In this episode, Wendy speaks with renowned and beloved meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg. Sharon has been teaching meditation in the West for over 40 years, and is the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society. Their conversation covers many topics, including:

• finding Buddhism and meditation as a teenager, and where it led her;
• her experience as a woman in the early contemplative movement;
• loving kindness & metta, and their relationship to prayer;
• love as an ability;
• the role of narrative and story-telling in our world and minds;
• a call for balance and self-compassion on the path;
• the role of the body in meditation;
• why contemplation matters for societal change;
• and living into our interconnection.

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June 3, 2022

In this episode, Wendy speaks with Buddhist scholar and author Robert (Bob) Thurman. Bob is one of the foremost scholars in the world on Tibetan Buddhism, and played a major role in bringing Buddhism to America. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• his entry into Buddhism, and befriending the Dalai Lama;
• links between Buddhism and science (and why Buddhism is 1/6 religion);
• problems with scientific materialism;
• enlightenment and emptiness;
• stories of the Buddha leaving home;
• four friendly fun facts (noble truths);
• realistic vs. right approaches on the path;
• jumping into bliss prematurely;
• Buddhist ethics;
• practices to push against essentialism;
• the key role of compassion in enlightenment;
• how he thinks about reincarnation and continuation of consciousness;
• the role of science on the contemplative path;
• and Bob’s parting fun fact.

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