For the 8-Year-Old In You
Kate DiCamillo's books include, "Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, The Magician's Elephant, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, and Flora & Ulysses. Krista Tippett read Kate's books with her children. Then, in the early pandemic months, feeling unmoored, she cracked them open to read by herself, inspired by a piece in the New York Times by the wonderful writer of adult novels, An... posted on Mar 30, 4499 reads

Writing a Better Story
There comes a time when we choose what stories we tell ourselves personally or as a community. "So let us all honor the stories that gave us courage and personal grounding, the stories that brought us here, the finest ones the ancestors carried for us until we could carry them for ourselves. Let us acknowledge the stories that its time to finally release, to name the dragon so that the dragon can... posted on Apr 1, 2282 reads

Four Poems Born from Stillness
"When I was a child and my mother needed me to entertain myself, she would give me a poem to memorize. So began a lifelong love affair with poetry. There are so many poets I love; and new ones I discover each day. I've written poems for most of my adult life. They emerge through deep stillness. Through paying attention to what is stirring in my heart, and what is happening in the world around me. ... posted on Apr 14, 5383 reads

Seeing Truth in van Gogh
"In her book The Pursuit of Spiritual Wisdom: The Thought and Art of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, art historian Naomi Margois Maurer discusses the state of mystical consciousness in which an individual sees directly into the essence of reality, senses nature's unity, and 'feels himself to be part of the flow of universal life.' She goes on to describe it as a direct experience of fundamental... posted on Jun 18, 2175 reads

A Cloud Never Dies
A Cloud Never Dies is a biographical documentary of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Narrated by actor Peter Coyote, "it weaves together original film and photographic archives, telling the story of a humble young Vietnamese monk and poet whose wisdom and compassion were forged in the suffering of war. In the face of violence, fear, and discrimination, Thich Nhat Hanh's courageous path of engaged actio... posted on Jul 29, 4764 reads

A Thing of Beauty
"When the artist James Turrell was a young boy, his grandmother gave him some advice about what to do in the meetings they would attend as a Quaker family: "go inside, and greet the light". Her words appear to have struck something of a chord. Today, Turrell is virtually synonymous with light art and his work is often discussed in terms of engendering sublime experiences and representing a spiritu... posted on May 7, 2506 reads

What We Nurture
"A few years ago, Krista Tippett hosted an event in Detroit -- a city in flux -- on the theme of raising children. The conversation that resulted with the Jewish-Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist Sylvia Boorstein has been a companion to her and to many from that day forward. Here it is again as an offering for Mothers Day in a world still and again in flux, and where the matter of raising new ... posted on May 8, 4499 reads

Becoming Who You Are Meant to Be
"In this podcast, Dr. Bolen joins Sounds True founder Tami Simon to reflect on her many years as a writer, teacher, and activist, and how doing our soul work becomes the path to self-actualization, connection, and contribution throughout our lives. They also discuss our innate capacity for love and awe; becoming a whole-brain person; speaking up as a key aspect of individuation; gratitude and appr... posted on May 9, 4096 reads

Painting with Mom
"My mother requires such presence, slowing down and attentiveness. Due to a very rare blood disorder, as we move her, we cannot let any part of her body bump into anything as it will create huge internal bruises that often do not stop bleeding. Additionally, due to a traumatic brain injury and subsequent mini strokes, her left side is now paralyzed and the right side is also very limited in streng... posted on May 26, 3493 reads

This Fantastic Argument of Being Alive
"Padraig O Tuama is a friend, teacher, and colleague to the work of On Being. But before that was true, Krista took a revelatory trip to meet him at his home in Northern Ireland, a place that has known sectarianism and violent fracture and has evolved, not to perfection, yet to new life and once unimaginable repair and relationship. Our whole world screams of fracture, more now than when Krista sa... posted on May 18, 3361 reads

Surrendering and Opening to Hope in Times of Crisis
When Anna-Zoe Herr's father passed four years ago, she grappled with almost unbearable pain and grief and was finding it difficult to find hope. One night, she had a dream in which her father appeared, sitting opposite her. "I came back because you have a question for me," he said. Zoe was taken aback and then said quickly, "Yes, I do. How do I overcome your death?" "You don't overcome my death," ... posted on May 24, 3125 reads

For One Day of Freedom
""Even if life stops, love goes on." This quote of Bishop Steven Charleston's has never been more real to me than this year, which has seen the posthumous publication by ANTIBOOKCLUB of my husband Blyden B. Jackson Jr's final novel, 'For One Day of Freedom,' completed before his death in April of 2012. The publication of this novel, which was passed over by mainstream publishers when we tried unsu... posted on May 31, 2771 reads

Sami Awad: A Holy Land for All
When Sami Awad was 16, his uncle was permanently exiled for leading Palestinian nonviolent resistance during the first Intifada. That is how dangerous non-violence is, says Sami. His parents were refugees, displaced by the conflict, and Sami watched his own father abused by Israeli authorities. Yet his mother emphasized the Christian teachings of loving your enemies and forgiveness, while his uncl... posted on Jun 7, 2199 reads

Lily Yeh: Art for Social Transformation
On a 1989 trip to showcase her art in China, artist Lily Yeh witnessed the tragic events of Tiananmen Square and found her calling of "bringing colors" and beauty to communities with a dearth of hope. That put her on a journey to initiate various organizations, write a pioneering book, receive numerous awards, and most importantly, transform many communities -- from rundown areas of Philadelphia t... posted on Jun 11, 1573 reads

Let Us Make Sanctuary
"In this podcast, Sounds True founder Tami Simon speaks with Dr. Bayo Akomolafe about how sanctuary is where slowing down and healing happens. They discuss: how the function of slowing down in urgent times is not about simply resting so that we can continue forward in the same direction, but about how to engage in deep inquiry about where we are going; pouring drink to earthan African spiritual te... posted on Jun 16, 2526 reads

The Art of Soil
"Karen Vaughan is a scientist, paint maker, educator, mom, and artist. The soils she studies and learns from and with during her day job as an associate professor of pedology (the study of soil formation) have woven their way into her journey as an artist. Vaughan creates nature-inspired, soil-based watercolor paints that she uses to create art that communicates environmental challenges, condition... posted on Jun 19, 2390 reads

How Animals See Themselves
"In 1909, the biologist Jakob von Uexkll noted that every animal exists in its own unique perceptual world a smorgasbord of sights, smells, sounds and textures that it can sense but that other species might not. These stimuli defined what von Uexkll called the Umwelt an animals bespoke sliver of reality. A ticks Umwelt is limited to the touch of hair, the odor that emanates from skin and the he... posted on Jun 23, 2683 reads

Agnes Callard: A Philosophy of Change
"We can all think back to a time when we were substantially different people, value wise, from the people we are now. There was a time when we were not even aware of the existence of some of the people, activity, institutions and ideology that now figure so centrally in our lives. Maybe we had different political views or no political views at all. Maybe we used to be religious or used not to be. ... posted on Jul 11, 2088 reads

Aanchal Malhotra: Remnants of a Separation
"Aanchal Malhotra is a writer and historian reorienting the way we think and talk about our past, present and future. Inspired by objects her family had carried with them during the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan, Aanchal began her journey of collecting and archiving objects, or material memories, treasured and preserved by displaced survivors of Partition, eventually compiled into her debut... posted on Jul 26, 1410 reads

At the Gate
"Wheelchairs in wild spaces shouldn't be an anomaly some thirty years since the Americans with Disabilities Act, but here I am, in front of another gate, asserting my right to exist in nature. The very fact of me seems to rankle the men I am here to meet. King Estates Open Space Park is a verdant area of native grasses, wildflowers, and spectacular vistas overlooking the San Francisco Bay. During ... posted on Aug 2, 1725 reads

Silent Drum: Tips for Rhythmic Meditation
"'Drumming may be the oldest form of active meditation known to humanity.' What could meditation and drumming possibly have in common? I've been asking myself this question ever since I heard world-famous sound healing expert Jill Purce say, 'The purpose of sound is silence.' First, both meditation and drumming help us get out of our heads and into our hearts. They just go about it in different wa... posted on Sep 6, 4226 reads

The Greatest Nature Essay Ever
"The Greatest Nature Essay ever would begin with an image so startling and lovely and wondrous that you would stop riffling through the rest of the mail, take your jacket off, sit down at the table, adjust your spectacles, tell the dog to lie down, tell the kids to make their own sandwiches for heavenssake, thats why god gave you hands, and read straight through the piece, marveling that you had i... posted on Sep 24, 3084 reads

Horse Medicine, Horse Mystery
"Whether we love horses or not, whether we have contact with horses or not, they can teach us a lot about wisdom, love, and beauty. How do we get close to an honest openness to the potential magic of horses? And what does it even mean? The horse as a mirror for the soul and a vehicle for the soul could show us our true nature, and carry us into sacred spaces, initiating us into transformational he... posted on Oct 19, 3852 reads

George Saunders on Writing
"As a writer, the work is always particularization to move from mere concept (tree, forest) into specific descriptions that sort of take that thing apart and then cause a new and more intense perception of it to occur within a particular mindstate (usually that of a character). So, what really happens is that you start to dissolve the traditional distinction between the natural and man-made world... posted on Nov 1, 1553 reads

Activating Moral Discomfort & Spiritual Community for the Earth
"The Rev. Fletcher Harper believes that he felt God while mourning his fathers death on a solo camping trip in Montana. A violent hailstorm struck one night, and he sought shelter in the lee of a rock. "At about three in the morning, I felt this deep sense of well-being, he recalls. "I realized that I was going to be OK. I thought, 'I can move on with my life now.'"Later in his life and career whe... posted on Nov 17, 2062 reads

Shinrin-Yoku: Forest Bathing
Hopefully you have a little piece of green forest--a kind of a heaven on earth-- where you can find peace. If so, you already have experienced the health benefits of soaking up the beauty of nature. Forest bathing, in Japan where the practice originated, is called shinrin-yoku. This is the practice of walking through the forest slowly and quietly as a way to heal body, mind and spirit. This film, ... posted on Dec 8, 2165 reads

Balakrishnan Raghavan: Belonging to the World
When he was ten years old, Balakrishnan Raghavan was moved to tears listening to a centuries-old Tamil hymn about Lord Shiva, sung by musician M S Subbulakshmi. "I was wailing. Subbulakshmi's voice soaring high and low, calling out to that divine-beloved, the voice of the poet who lived hundreds of years before us, the fierceness of their devotion, the ultimate surrender of the devotee, the madnes... posted on Dec 15, 2101 reads

Davis Dimock: The Gift
"A guy came here once from some outsider art magazine. He was taking pictures and he asked, "Do you do anything else?" So, I showed him some of my drawings. He said, "These are great. We could use these." I told him I didn't want them out in the world. It seems pretentious to think of myself as an artist. I think of artists as people who are going through the angst of creating stuff, and then the ... posted on Dec 16, 1568 reads

A Special Kind of Grace: The Remarkable Story of the Devadosses
He was a writer and an artist whose captivating pen-and-ink drawings, books and greeting cards reflect the beauty of southern India. His wife helped compose his work. What makes their story extraordinary? Manohar Devadoss was near blind. His art was produced through a painstaking process of extraordinary will-power and dedication. His wife Mahema was paralyzed below the shoulders, the result of a ... posted on Dec 27, 0 reads

Five Thoughts About Sacrifice
"Sacrifice zone is defined as a geographic area that has been permanently impaired by environmental damage, often through locally unwanted land use. Take, for example, the boreal forest surrounding Fort McMurray near the Athabasca River in Alberta, once an expanse of wetlands, bogs, and trembling-aspen and white-spruce forest hunting grounds for First Nations people and habitat to caribou, bears,... posted on Jan 8, 1739 reads

Caverly Morgan: The Heart of Who We Are
"When Caverly Morgan reentered society after eight years as a Zen monk, she was confronted with a question many of us are asking these days: Considering the enormity of the problems before us, how can one individual's spiritual practice make a tangible difference in our world? Tami Simon speaks with Caverly about her new book, The Heart of Who We Are, and the connection between self-realization an... posted on Jan 17, 3083 reads

Waging Conflict Without Violence: Maria Stephan
"Can nonviolent civil resistance be successful even against the most militarily sophisticated and brutal regimes? My podcast guest this month, political scientist Maria Stephan, says unequivocally 'yes.' Co-Lead and Chief Organizer at The Horizons Project and the former Director of the Program on Nonviolent Action at the United States Institute of Peace, Maria is the co-author, with Erica Chenowet... posted on Feb 6, 1137 reads

Bicycling Around the World for Love
A young Indian artist met a Swedish tourist in New Delhi, and painted her portrait in the 1970's. They formed an immediate bond and got married in PK Mahanadia's ancestral village. When the love of his life, Charlotte von Schedvin, had to go back to Sweden after a few weeks, he worked on a plan to sell his few possessions, purchased a used bicycle, and traveled 8000 kilometers to reunite with her.... posted on Feb 10, 1739 reads

World Peace & Other 4th Grade Achievements
The World Peace Game, a brainchild of public school teacher John Hunter, pits teams of students against each other as leaders of countries in crises and conflict. The students scheme and negotiate, compete and cooperate, wage war and make peace. But the game is not won until all countries enjoy security and prosperity. Says one fourth grader, "One of the things I learned is that other people matte... posted on Feb 16, 1251 reads

An Ethics of Wild Mind
"Winter is a kind of pregnant emptiness. Spring emerges out of that--it flourishes. And life flourishes in summer and then dies back into that emptiness of winter. And you realize, oh, my thoughts are doing the same thing that the ten thousand things do--they're part of the same tissue...And so that's another radical reweaving of consciousness and wildness--what I mean by "wild mind." In this conv... posted on Feb 18, 2111 reads

The Rights of All Beings
"The UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, inspired by Franklin D Roosevelt's four freedoms, outlines the rights to which humans are equally and inalienably entitled: of speech and religion, from want and fear. They are our global guiding principles for protecting humans from humans essential in establishing the legal frameworks within which humanity can operate freely to express ourselves,... posted on Apr 2, 1409 reads

It's Not A Thing You Do. It's A Thing You Are
"I think people just want to feel like they're home like there's no one they have to be and there's nowhere else they have to be. Here we are. It's enough. You belong. There was never any condition to that, ever. You distance yourself and you say, "Well, they're wrong over there. They should believe what I believe." When all along, you could wrap your arms around them, everyone, no matter wha... posted on Apr 11, 3283 reads

Irises: Shape-shifters and Magical Reinventors
"In grocery stores iris buds are bundled together, like perfectly sharpened purple-pointed pencils, like slender indigo-edged spears, like a quiver of Spring arrows poised to unbend unhappy bents of mind. Take a sheaf home, place it in a glass vase and by morning, from poised purple-tipped silence, spill sepals and petals frothy with filaments and ruffles, loquacious little fountains self-released... posted on Apr 24, 3209 reads

A Whetstone to the Spirit: An Interview with Barbara Kingsolver
"I'm reluctant to give advice to people Ive never met. Every relationship is unique. I can only say whats worked for me as a parent, and to boil it down to its essence, its this: I trust my animal instincts. Regardless of our myriad plans, were hardwired for reproduction. Pregnancy is the most natural of processes, not a medical condition, and parenting follows from there. All this hard work is ba... posted on Apr 30, 1935 reads

Sacred Time
"Beneath the thin surface layer of our present consciousness--a world of rushed days and time crushed into ever shorter segmentsis the older world of the collective psyche, the archetypal world that used to be known as the domain of the gods. Here time moves more slowly, according to ancient rhythms. This is the home of Kronos, the primordial god of time, whose rhythm is like the movement of the s... posted on May 2, 3550 reads

The Alphabet Rockers
"Based in Oakland, California, Alphabet Rockers is unlike other bands that make music primarily for children, and over the last several years, Grammy voters have noticed. The hip-hop collective--which weaves the stories, spirit, and voices of a widely diverse group of young people into their work has earned a total of four nominations for Best Children's Album. This year, they took home their firs... posted on May 18, 1209 reads

Off By an Inch in the Beginning...
The Venerable Master Hua, famously and pithily recounted: "Off by an inch in the beginning, off by ten thousand miles at the end." I have to say -- Christopher Columbus might have benefited from that advice in 1492 when he missed India by nearly 10,000 miles. I wonder what that says about the scope of our compounding trajectory 530 years later. But luckily the NASA engineers working on getting Apo... posted on May 30, 8722 reads

Murmurations: Breaking is Part of Healing
"The material world is necessarily temporary, and it is only a matter of how deep we are willing to look, how far into the past and future we are willing to consider, to understand this. If you don't believe me, look at the ruins of every society that has predated us on this planet. Remember that the matter that makes up our moon and planet is the dust of stars exploding in other galaxies. Remembe... posted on Jul 12, 5232 reads

Honey Church
"Our first summer in Baltimore. The first year of our marriage--your only marriage, my second one--when my kid became our kid. This house, our home. We watched the parade of ants--polite little soldiers marching single file along the kitchen baseboards in a thin and steady stream. You took a white sheet of paper from the printer, slipped it under their quick feet, then whoosh, like a magician and ... posted on Jul 17, 2131 reads

The Medicine of Memory
"Every life is like a day. We begin the night before and, in the darkness, we are formed as a word that strikes a spark. This spark lands like a seed coming to the ground in the soul of the womb. Then miraculous growth pulses like wildfirean unstoppable explosion of unimaginable geniusthe exponential roar of universal proportion. Every life well-lived holds in its hearts core the knowing that all ... posted on Jul 18, 4962 reads

Beannacht (Blessing) for Our Death
Tracey Schmidt's poetic reading of a Blessing for Our Death reminds us of the complexities of life - how we can be gatekeepers and entrance points, light filled and vulnerable, lonely and loved, all at the same time. She praises life and exhorts us to do the same, to "sing as if tomorrow will not come because one day it will not." This singing of life's praises enables us to live fully, "as if hom... posted on Jul 21, 4179 reads

Parenting Advice from Mister Rogers
"Being responsible for ourselves, knowing our own wants and meeting them, is difficult enough -- so difficult that the notion of being responsible for anyone else, knowing anyone else's innermost desires and slaking them, seems like a superhuman feat. And yet the entire history of our species rests upon it -- the scores of generations of parents who, despite the near-impossibility of getting it ri... posted on Aug 3, 4825 reads

Alison Benis White: Light on the Page
"Chaos--confusion, bewilderment--these are things I'm always working against and within as a writer. Frost famously argued that a poem is a "temporary stay against confusion"--and by "stay," within the context of 'The Figure a Poem Makes,' he means clarification--a temporary clarification of life. This resonates with me, although I don't know if I agree with the certainty of his claim. I think poe... posted on Aug 1, 1039 reads

A Turtle's Silver Bead of Quietude
"One day in the fall, as water and air cooled, at some precise temperature an ancient bell sounded in the turtle brain. A signal: Take a deep breath. Each creature slipped off her log and swam for the warmer muck bottom. Stroking her way through the woven walls of plant stems, she found her bottom place. She closed her eyes and dug into the mud. She buried herself. And then, pulled into her shell,... posted on Aug 7, 3812 reads

Eating the Wild
"In recent decades, and especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a growing interest in foraging and cooking with food gathered from the countryside around us. In this article, Charlotte Maberly talks to the distinguished Scottish food writer Fi Martynoga about the benefits of eating wild food, and also looks at the history of the movement and its wider implications in terms of health... posted on Aug 15, 1300 reads