Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris
1,800 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 11.1K ratingsDan Harris is a fidgety, skeptical journalist who had a panic attack on live national television, which led him to try something he otherwise never would have considered: meditation. He went on to write the bestselling book, 10% Happier. On this show, Dan talks with eminent meditation teachers, top scientists, and even the odd celebrity. Guests include everyone from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Brené Brown to Karamo from Queer Eye. On some episodes, Dan ventures into the deep end of the pool, covering subjects such as enlightenment and psychedelics. On other episodes, it’s science-based techniques for issues such as anxiety, productivity, and relationships. Dan's approach is seemingly modest, but secretly radical: happiness is a skill you can train, just like working your bicep in the gym. Your progress may be incremental at first, but like any good investment, it compounds over time.
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free. Listen 1-week early and to all episodes ad-free with Wondery+ or Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Keeping Things in Perspective | Bonus Meditation with La Sarmiento
August 20, 2023 07:00 - 6 minutes - 6.04 MBOur busy lives rarely afford us time to reflect on what’s truly important. Remembering what matters most empowers us to engage meaningfully. About La Sarmiento: La Sarmiento is the the guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington's BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ Sanghas and a mentor for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program and for Cloud Sangha. They graduated from Spirit Rock Meditation Center's Community Dharma Leader Training Program in 2012. As an i...
How to Gracefully Handle Defeat I Former Congressman Tim Ryan
August 18, 2023 08:00 - 41 minutes - 37.8 MBRyan also talks about how meditation helped him ride out a brutal political campaign, escaping the grind, and whether he’ll run for office again. Tim Ryan served for 20 years in the U.S. Congress. He is the author of a book on the power of mindfulness. He is the author of a book on the power of mindfulness, Healing America: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Recapture the American Spirit and a book on reforming the broken food systems, The Real Food Revolution: Healthy Eating, Gree...
Legendary Record Producer Rick Rubin On: Creativity, Habits, Self-Doubt, Intuition and Meditation
August 16, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 57.6 MBWe also cover: What to do when you're feeling stuck, the difference between authenticity and sincerity, and his approach to work/life balance. Rick Rubin is a nine-time GRAMMY-winning producer and a New York Times number one best selling author of the book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time and the most successful producer in any genre by Rolling Stone. He has collaborated with artists from Tom Petty to Adele,...
How to Meditate If You Have No Time to Meditate | Jake Eagle and Michael Amster (Co-Interviewed by Dan’s Wife, Bianca!)
August 14, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 62 MBThe great meditation teacher Sebene Selassie said this about today’s guests: “I think their work is going to revolutionize mindfulness.” The guests in question are Jake Eagle, a licensed mental health counselor, and Dr. Michael Amster, a physician with a specialty in pain management who is also a certified yoga and meditation teacher. Together, they’re out with a new book called The Power of Awe: Overcome Burnout & Anxiety, Ease Chronic Pain, Find Clarity & Purpose―In Less Than 1 ...
How to Counteract Your Negativity Bias | Bonus Meditation with Oren Jay Sofer
August 11, 2023 07:00 - 7 minutes - 6.53 MBCounteract negativity bias by appreciating the goodness in life: simple acts of kindness, moments of beauty, and even your own good efforts. About Oren Jay Sofer: Oren Jay Sofer teaches mindfulness, meditation and Nonviolent Communication. He has practiced meditation since 1997, beginning his studies in Bodh Gaya, India and is a long-time student of Joseph Goldstein, Michele McDonald, and Ajahn Sucitto, and is a graduate of the IMS/Spirit Rock Teacher Training program. Oren teache...
The Science of Joy: Why You Need It and How to Get It | Ingrid Fetell Lee
August 09, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 56.2 MBThe hidden influence that your surroundings can have on your happiness. And how to tweak things in subtle but powerful ways. Today’s guest is Ingrid Fetell Lee, the author of Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness. She is the former design director at IDEO and the founder of the website The Aesthetics of Joy. She holds a Master’s in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute and a Bachelor’s in English and Creative Writing from Princeton Unive...
Neuroaesthetics: How Art Can Improve and Extend Your Life | Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen
August 07, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 59.4 MBDid you know that just 20 minutes of art a day is as beneficial as exercise and mindfulness? Or that participating in one art experience per month can extend your life by ten years? Our guests Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen talk about their new book, Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. Together they explore the new science of neuroaesthetics, which explains how the arts can measurably change the body, brain, and our behaviors. This is the first installment in a three part...
How to Roll With Stuff | Bonus Meditation with Matthew Hepburn
August 04, 2023 07:00 - 7 minutes - 6.5 MBGuidance for any time you need to practice staying relaxed and ready for whatever life might throw your way. About Matthew Hepburn: Matthew is a meditation and dharma teacher with more than a decade of teaching experience and a passion for getting real about what it means to live well. He emphasizes humor, technique, and authentic kindness as a means to free the mind up from unnecessary struggle and leave a healthier impact on the world. Beyond Ten Percent Happier, Matthew has t...
The Dharma of Artificial Intelligence (AI) | Jasmine Wang & Iain S. Thomas
August 02, 2023 07:00 - 59 minutes - 54 MBOur guests today trained an AI on the world’s most beloved texts, from the Bible to the Koran to the words of Marcus Aurelius, Maya Angelou, and Leonard Cohen. Then, they asked the AI life’s hardest questions. The AI’s answers ranged from strange to surprising to transcendent. Jasmine Wang, a technologist, and Iain S. Thomas, a poet, join us to talk about not only the answers they received from the robot, but also why they are deeply concerned about where AI might be headed. In th...
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novelist Jennifer Egan On: Panic, Awe, Fetishizing Authenticity, and Our Possible AI Futures
July 31, 2023 08:00 - 1 hour - 69.6 MBJennifer Egan is not only a novelist, she's also written short stories and award-winning magazine journalism. She's one of those writers who can both spin a fascinating yarn and load it up with insights into everything from human nature to the future of technology, all while pulling off bewitching turns of phrase; what the writer Jonathan Franzen has called “micro felicities.” Egan is as funny, fascinating, and open IRL as she is on the page although it’s not clear she feels that ...
How to Fall Asleep | Bonus Meditation with Jeff Warren
July 28, 2023 07:00 - 6 minutes - 6.15 MBThe simple yet effective technique of trusting your body will help you fall into a quiet, restful sleep. About Jeff Warren: Jeff is an incredibly gifted meditation teacher. He's trained in multiple traditions, including with renowned teacher Shinzen Young. Jeff is the co-author of NY Times Bestseller "Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics," and the founder of the Consciousness Explorers Club, a meditation adventure group in Toronto. He has a knack for surfacing the exact meditation that...
Your Sleep Questions, Answered | Donn Posner
July 26, 2023 08:00 - 1 hour - 72.2 MBIn today’s episode, Dr. Donn Posner proposes a whole new way of thinking about sleep. First, he normalizes the sleep problems many of us experience. If you’re sleeping poorly right now, he says, don’t freak out; it’s natural and normal. Second, he has a bunch of tips for how to deal with insomnia, some of which you may have never heard before. Dr. Donn Posner is one of the leaders in the field of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia. Dr. Posner is the Founder and President o...
Zach Braff On: Anxiety, Sobriety, Insomnia, Grief, Social Media, and the Meaning of the Tattoo on His Wrist
July 21, 2023 08:05 - 46 minutes - 42.8 MBToday’s episode is a wide-ranging Interview with Zach Braff, one of those rare famous people who’s really willing to go there. You may know Braff from the TV show Scrubs or the movie Garden State but Braff is actually a genuine multi-hyphenate; a true triple threat. He acts, writes and directs his own movies and other people’s TV shows including Ted Lasso on Apple TV. Relatively recently he put out a new movie that he both wrote and directed called A Good Person starring Florence ...
Don’t Overcomplicate Your Meditation | Bonus Meditation with Joseph Goldstein
July 21, 2023 07:00 - 6 minutes - 6.17 MBLife is already complicated enough. Meditation doesn’t have to be, if we learn to be simple and easy. About Joseph Goldstein : Joseph is one of the most respected meditation teachers in the world -- a key architect of the rise of mindfulness in our modern society -- with a sense of humor to boot. In the 1970's, he co-founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) alongside Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield. Since its founding, thousands of people from around the world have come to ...
Three Strategies for Getting Over Yourself | Joseph Goldstein
July 19, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 68.6 MBEvery year, Joseph Goldstein does a three month silent meditation retreat by himself at his home in Massachusetts. In this conversation you're about to hear, Joseph had just emerged from one such retreat with a bunch of thoughts on what are called the three proliferating tendencies or three papañca to use the ancient Pali term. These are three ways in which we perpetuate an unhealthy sense of self. Joseph has explained that you can think about the process of going deeper in medita...
Don’t Push Away Difficult Emotions | Bonus Meditation with Sebene Selassie
July 14, 2023 07:00 - 7 minutes - 6.66 MBIn this gentle meditation, Sebene offers support for grief. She guides you through a practice of kindness and compassion for yourself. About Sebene Selassie: Growing up, Sebene felt like a big weirdo. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and raised in white neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., she was a tomboy Black girl who loved Monty Python and UB40. She never believed she belonged. Thirty years ago, she began studying Buddhism as an undergraduate at McGill University where she majored ...
Night School: How to Meditate While You’re Asleep | Andrew Holecek
July 12, 2023 07:00 - 53 minutes - 49.2 MBThis is a fun, weird, extremely interesting and inspiring episode. It’s about lucid dreaming, something that people might perceive as hippie nonsense, but is actually deeply woven into ancient and time-tested Buddhist traditions. Our guest today has been studying and practicing Buddhism and what he calls nocturnal meditations for more than four decades. And he has remarkably simple and down to earth tips for doing this in your own life. He argues anybody can do this. And the prop...
How Thinking About Death Can Improve Your Life | Alua Arthur
July 10, 2023 07:00 - 52 minutes - 47.9 MBThere seems to be one clear bug in the human operating system — most of us do not like talking about death. Yet when we do talk about it, it can genuinely upgrade the quality of our lives. Our guest today is Alua Arthur, a former attorney who is now what’s called a death doula, which is someone who helps guide people through the end of their lives. Through this work, she has learned some extraordinary stuff about how to live life right now. Alua is also the founder of Going with ...
How to Keep It Together When the Shit Hits the Fan | Bonus Meditation with Joseph Goldstein
July 07, 2023 07:00 - 7 minutes - 6.89 MBDuring major life transitions your emotional and mental world can kick into overdrive. Learn how to stay in the eye of the hurricane. About Joseph Goldstein: Joseph is one of the most respected meditation teachers in the world -- a key architect of the rise of mindfulness in our modern society -- with a sense of humor to boot. In the 1970's, he co-founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) alongside Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield. Since its founding, thousands of people from...
How to Disentangle from Toxic People | Lindsay C. Gibson
July 05, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 68.3 MBOur relationships are the most important variable in our health and happiness, but they may also be the most difficult. This is especially true when those closest to us turn out to be emotionally immature people. Lindsay C. Gibson is a clinical psychologist and bestselling author who specializes in helping people identify and deal with emotionally immature people, or EIP’s. Her first appearance on our show was one of our most popular episodes of 2022. Now she’s back to offer concre...
The Buddha’s Four-Part Strategy for “Ultimate Happiness” | Sally Armstrong
July 03, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 60.7 MB“Mindfulness” has become a buzz phrase. There are books on mindful parenting, mindful lawyering, even mindful sex. But what does the word even mean? And how do you actually do it? In one of his most famous and foundational discourses, the Buddha was said to have laid out, in great detail, four ways to establish mindfulness. In today’s episode we’re going to walk through these four “foundations” of mindfulness with Sally Armstrong, who started practicing in 1981, began teaching 15 ye...
Listen to TED's How to Be a Better Human
June 30, 2023 07:01 - 4 minutes - 4.55 MBCheck out our friends at How to Be a Better Human podcast, as we take a look within and beyond ourselves. How to Be a Better Human isn’t your average self-improvement podcast. It’s a show that understands that being a human is hard -- because no one tells you how to do it well! Join comedian Chris Duffy as he has conversations with the kind of brilliant experts you see giving TED Talks. Listen as they share how anyone can put big ideas into practice in their own lives, and make the...
How to Handle Your Self-Destructive Impulses | Bonus Meditation with Alexis Santos
June 30, 2023 07:00 - 12 minutes - 11.4 MBIf you’ve been listening to the podcast this week, you probably heard that we’re in the midst of a 3-week series on health and fitness – what we’re calling Get Fit Sanely. To state the obvious, one of the hardest parts of getting fit is to make and break habits. In conjunction with this series, we’re doing something cool over on the Ten Percent Happier app: we’re bringing back our Healthy Habits challenge, a 7-day course that pairs behavior change expert Kelly McGonigal and medita...
Nutrition Advice for People Who Don't Want to Go on a Diet | Rachael Hartley
June 28, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 66.2 MBIf you want to opt out of diet culture, then what should you actually eat? Today’s guest is endeavoring to answer this question. Rachel Hartley is a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and the author of a book called Gentle Nutrition: A Non-Diet Approach to Healthy Eating. In this episode we talk about: The basics of intuitive eating Her thoughts on whether or not we should weigh ourselves Whether or not adopting intuitive eating means living with your face in a cookie jar f...
Your Brain on Food | Dr. Uma Naidoo
June 26, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 55 MBMost of us have an intuitive sense that there’s a pretty serious link between what we eat and how we feel. Today’s guest is here to explain the science behind that relationship. Dr. Uma Naidoo is a pioneer in the field of nutritional psychiatry and an expert on both the gut-brain connection and the food-mood connection. She is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, a professional chef, and a nutrition specialist. She is the Director of Nutritional and Lifestyle Psychiatry at Massachusetts...
Can Radical Decluttering Significantly Boost Your Happiness? | Bonus Conversation with The Minimalists
June 23, 2023 07:01 - 41 minutes - 37.7 MBHave you ever noticed that no matter how much shit you buy, it never really does it for you? There’s always that next purchase. I’m no anti-capitalist, but I don’t think it hurts to acknowledge the lie—or if you want to be generous, misunderstanding—at the core of the enterprise: that somehow acquisition will lead to lasting satisfaction. This insight about the limits of materialism is what animates my friends Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, who together, are known as...
The Connection Between Autopilot Mode and Habit Formation | Bonus Meditation with Alexis Santos
June 23, 2023 07:00 - 12 minutes - 11.4 MBHappy Friday, everybody. It’s time for another bonus meditation, and we’re going to stick with our current theme of Get Fit Sanely. This week on the podcast we talked with mobility experts Kelly and Juliet Starrett about how to stay pain-free and flexible even as you get older, and then Cara Lai helped us think about how to exercise without being motivated by subtle self-hatred. Obviously, a key part of fitness— from exercise to diet— is making and breaking habits. And that’s what ...
Can You Get Fit Without Self-Loathing? | Cara Lai
June 21, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 59.5 MBIt’s an urgent question for so many of us: Can we exercise, can we take care of our bodies, without being driven by shame, self-loathing, or noxious comparison to other people? Our guest today has a unique perspective on this. Cara Lai is a former social worker and psychotherapist who is now a Buddhist teacher. She also used to be a marathoner. But in the last few years, her body has undergone some radical changes, leading her to some hard-won, fascinating, and deeply useful insigh...
An Owner’s Manual for Your Body | Juliet and Kelly Starrett
June 19, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 58.2 MBFrom the way we sit while watching TV to the way we put on our shoes, our days are filled with opportunities to improve our mobility–without getting all sweaty. That’s according to today’s guests, who are here to teach us about some simple ways to keep our bodies durable for as long as possible. Kelly and Juliet Starrett are the authors of the new book Built to Move: The 10 Essential Habits to Help You Move Freely and Live Fully. Their book covers 10 tests you can do to assess your...
How to Get In the Right Headspace to Make New Habits | Bonus Meditation with Alexis Santos
June 16, 2023 07:00 - 12 minutes - 11.7 MBIf you’ve been listening to the podcast this week, you probably heard that we’re in the midst of a 3-week series on health and fitness – what we’re calling Get Fit Sanely. To state the obvious, one of the hardest parts of getting fit is to make and break habits. In conjunction with this series, we’re doing something cool over on the Ten Percent Happier app: we’re bringing back our Healthy Habits challenge, a 7-day course that pairs behavior change expert Kelly McGonigal and medita...
Can You Really Live to 150 Years Old? | Dr. Mark Hyman
June 14, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 67.7 MBEveryone from the Buddha to the Stoics have exhorted us to remember that we’re going to die. So what are we to make of Dr. Mark Hyman? He’s a physician and a student of Buddhism who is just out with a new book, called, “Young Forever.” In it, he argues that your biological age can be reversed even as you grow chronologically older. So we decided to have him on, learn about his approach, and gently grill him on some of the things that made us most skeptical. This is the second part...
The Science of Longevity | Dr. Peter Attia
June 12, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 79.2 MBMost of us want to stay alive — and healthy — for as long as possible. But how to actually do that, given all the obstacles? What advice should we listen to? How do we find the time and motivation to follow it? And how do we do so without succumbing to what has been called the “subtle aggression of self improvement”? Today, we are launching an ambitious three-week series to tackle these questions. We are bringing on top experts from science and Buddhism who will talk about how to e...
Can A Buddhist Want A Beach Bod? | Behind the Scenes with TPH Producer DJ Cashmere
June 09, 2023 07:01 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBStarting next week, we’re launching a six part series where we’re going to talk to a vast array of experts on longevity, exercise, and diet — we’re calling it Get Fit Sanely. To kick the series off, I wanted to have our senior producer DJ Cashmere on, who’s the architect behind this project. You’re gonna hear him get really personal about how these issues have affected his own psychology, and you’ll hear a very thoughtful person talk about what he’s taken away from the months of re...
A Meditation for People Who Can’t Sit Still | Bonus Meditation with Dawn Mauricio
June 09, 2023 07:00 - 6 minutes - 6.32 MBMindful movement is an excellent way to integrate and even invigorate mindfulness while cultivating the power of curious awareness. About Dawn Mauricio: Dawn Mauricio discovered the practices of Buddhist meditation in 2005, and from then on, did what any well-intentioned perfectionist would do — plunge in head first! Since then, she's graduated from several teaching programs, including Spirit Rock's four-year Teacher Training. Her teaching style is playful, dynamic, and heartfelt,...
9 Strategies for Managing Your Time | Laura Vanderkam
June 05, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 67.8 MBSo many of us suffer over the issue of time management. Our guest today approaches the topic from research and personal experience and dives into how we can think more strategically about our time and aspire to build resilient schedules, rather than perfect ones. Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books. Her latest is Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters. Her work has appeared in The New York Times...
For When You're Overwhelmed | Bonus Meditation with Jeff Warren
June 02, 2023 07:00 - 6 minutes - 6.4 MBBe like a robot and try this light-hearted noting practice. Give your anxiety a break by immersing yourself fully in your external senses. About Jeff Warren: Jeff is an incredibly gifted meditation teacher. He's trained in multiple traditions, including with renowned teacher Shinzen Young. Jeff is the co-author of NY Times Bestseller "Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics," and the founder of the Consciousness Explorers Club, a meditation adventure group in Toronto. He has a knack for s...
A Three Part Plan for Anxiety | Dr. Luana Marques
May 31, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 65 MBThe notion of “being your authentic self” might sound like too much of a tired trope, but getting real and stripping away your fears and hang-ups can help you live a more meaningful life. In her new book, “Bold Move: A 3-Step Plan to Transform Anxiety into Power”, Dr. Luana Marques shares her story about growing up in chaos and learning early skills of cognitive behavioral therapy that helped her cope with anxiety and live boldly. Dr. Luana Marques is an Associate Professor of P...
A Personal Story from Dan
May 31, 2023 07:00 - 28 minutes - 25.8 MBAs you might already know, May is Mental Health Awareness Month – and, while mental health is important every month, it’s an important opportunity to share resources that can help one another. So, in that spirit – we’re going to bring you a bonus episode from a podcast we love called Meditative Story. We’re going to share my episode of Meditative Story with you, where I tell a personal story about a father-son trip that I went on with my son, Alexander, when he was four years old....
Why Dwight from The Office (Rainn Wilson) Is Calling for a “Spiritual Revolution”
May 29, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 63.7 MBWhy, you might fairly ask, am I interviewing Rainn Wilson, best known for his star turn on the sitcom The Office playing Dwight Schrute, the hilariously dysregulated paper salesman with a lust for power and a tragic haircut? Why, you may ask, am I interviewing that dude about mental health and spirituality? Because in real life, Rainn Wilson has spent many, many years wrestling with religion, sobriety, and marital ups and downs, and he's got a new book called Soul Boom in which he ...
The Cost of Living With a Secret | Geena Rocero
May 26, 2023 07:00 - 33 minutes - 30.5 MBWe’re going to start experimenting with these Friday episodes. Historically on Fridays, we’ve dropped guided meditations – and we will still do that – but we’re also going to try some different formats, including some shorter episodes with guests that might not be a fit for our traditional Monday and Wednesday shows. Today we’ve got Dan’s new friend Geena Rocero. She has an incredible story about what it’s like to live with an all-encompassing secret. Geena was born and raised in ...
Meditation Party with Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren: Psychedelics, ADHD, Waking Up From Distraction, and Singing Without Being Self-Conscious
May 24, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 61.6 MBWelcome to Round II of the Meditation Party. The feedback we got from our first episode was overwhelmingly positive, so we’re going for it again. Meditation Party is an experiment we’re running with a chattier format – more of a morning zoo vibe, but way deeper, of course. The real agenda here is to show that meditation doesn’t have to be a solo death march; it is vastly enhanced by having friends. Dan’s co-hosts in this episode are his two close friends: the great meditation teac...
Mayim Bialik On: Anxiety, Anger, Believing in Both Neuroscience and God, and the Pressures of Being a Teen TV Star
May 22, 2023 07:00 - 59 minutes - 54.2 MBHistorically on this show, we want guests who either have skills that they can teach us (i.e. meditation teachers or happiness researchers) or we want people who are willing to get super personal about their interior lives—and today you're gonna meet a bold-faced name who happens to have both qualifications in spades. Mayim Bialik burst onto the scene in the 1990s as the star of the TV show Blossom. Then she stepped away, got a bachelor's and a PhD in neuroscience, and became a mom...
How Not to Take Shit for Granted | Bonus Meditation with Pascal Auclair
May 19, 2023 07:00 - 7 minutes - 6.54 MBThrough the protection of gratitude, the world becomes brighter and more hopeful, and the mind becomes more balanced. Gratitude: cultivate it! About Pascal Auclair: Pascal Auclair has been immersed in Buddhist practice and study since 1997, sitting retreats in Asia and America with revered monastics and lay teachers. He has been mentored by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. He is ...
Joseph Goldstein On: How Not To Try Too Hard in Meditation, Why You Shouldn't "Waste Your Suffering," and the Value Of Seeing How Ridiculous You Are
May 17, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 60.4 MBIt's always a big deal when we get the maestro Joseph Goldstein on the show. He's one of the greatest living meditation teachers—and we cover a lot of ground in this conversation both related to meditation and to life. This is the third installment in a series we've been running this month on the Eightfold Path. If you missed the first two episodes, don't worry. Joseph starts our conversation with a brief description and explanation of this pivotal Buddhist list. The list is basica...
Mike D On: The Value of Failure, the Addictive Power of Adrenaline, and How a Beastie Boy Got Into Lovingkindness
May 15, 2023 07:00 - 56 minutes - 51.7 MBToday’s show features one of Dan’s personal musical heroes, Mike Diamond — “Mike D” from the Beastie Boys. Their conversation is wide ranging and covers topics from the role of failure in achieving success to Mike’s personal meditation practice. They say, “never meet your heroes”, but Mike D doesn’t disappoint in this smart and thoughtful discussion. Mike D formed the Beastie Boys with Adam Yauch, aka MCA, in the early 80’s, winning a number of Grammys and spanning a multi-decade ...
Is It Really Possible (Or Wise) to Send Good Vibes to Literally Everyone? | Bonus Meditation with Sharon Salzberg
May 12, 2023 07:00 - 6 minutes - 5.95 MBTame your inner curmudgeon and turn up the good vibes by wishing everyone well. And we mean e v e r y o n e. About Sharon Salzberg: A towering figure in the meditation world, Sharon Salzberg is a prominent teacher & New York Times best-selling author. She has played a crucial role bringing mindfulness and lovingkindness practices to the West. Sharon co-founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) alongside Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield and is the author of nine books, inclu...
The Selfish Case for Being Ethical | Eugene Cash
May 10, 2023 07:00 - 42 minutes - 38.7 MBVirtue is a tricky topic. It’s often sold to us by religious leaders who are thundering judgmentally, and sometimes hypocritically, down to us from the mountaintop. But from the Buddhist perspective, there is actually a deeply self-interested case for ethics and virtue. The Buddhists are not trying to get you to follow a bunch of very specific rules: they are trying to get you to do no harm because that will make you happy. This is part two of our series on a venerable Buddhist l...
Neil DeGrasse Tyson on Why Having a “Cosmic Perspective” Will Help You Do Life Better
May 08, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 62.3 MBToday’s guest is the legendary astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, the host of the Emmy nominated podcast, Star Talk, and the recipient of 21 honorary doctorates. He also has an asteroid named in his honor. Tyson’s latest book is right up our alley on the show. It's called Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization and it’s basically about how taking a scientific perspective can im...
Clearing Your Mind Is Impossible – But You Can Do This Instead | Bonus Meditation with Cara Lai
May 05, 2023 07:00 - 7 minutes - 7.03 MBNot thinking is not the point of mindfulness. We know, shocking! Emotions and thoughts are inextricably linked: know them to know yourself. About Cara Lai: Cara Lai spent most of her life trying to figure out how to be happy, or at least avoid total misery, which landed her on a meditation cushion for the majority of her adulthood. Throughout many consciousness adventures including a few mind-bendingly long meditation retreats, she has explored the wilderness of the mind, chronic ...
The Buddha’s Eight Part Recipe for Happiness | DaRa Williams
May 03, 2023 07:00 - 50 minutes - 46 MBThis episode kicks off our series on the Eightfold Path which will continue on Wednesdays for the next two weeks with Eugene Cash and Joseph Goldstein. DaRa Williams is a trainer, meditation teacher and psychotherapist and has been a meditator for the past 25 years. She is a practitioner of both Vipassana and Ascension meditation and is a graduate of the Spirit Rock/Insight Meditation Society Teacher Training Program and is an IMS Emeritus Guiding Teacher. In this episode we talk...