I am really excited about the conversation I had with Tara Isabella Burton – who is a novelist, essayist and scholar of religion and spirituality – and we spoke about her new book, Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians, published by Public Affairs. Tara takes us on a historical tour of the evolution of self-making, that is, how our notions individuality and self-identity formed in response to dramatic social and economic upheavals. Our conversation begins with...

It would appear that Lululemon-wearing Yoga teachers are worlds apart from gun-toting, far-right Trumper conspiracists. Yet, during the Covid-shut down, when revenues from brick-and-mortar yoga studios dried up - many prominent yoga instructors, as well as wellness influencers who saw big bucks could made in the midst of the vaccine paranoia – these strange bedfellows warmed up to each other! I had the good fortune of speaking with Derek Beres, co-founder of the Conspirituality podcast,...

Since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT earlier this year, there has been a media frenzy – with AI suddenly becoming of mainstream interest and concern. In this episode, I spoke with Peter Hershock, a prolific scholar trained in Asian and comparative philosophy, who has had a long-term interest in the ethical dimensions of our relationship with technology. His latest book, Buddhism and Intelligent Technology: Toward a More Humane Future, is another example of Peter’s creative and penetrating...

I really enjoyed speaking with Martin Parker about his bold book, Shut Down the Business School: What’s Wrong with Management Education, published by Pluto Press. Yes, you heard that right – Shut Down the Business School, Bulldoze it over…flatten it! Sure, sounds a little hyperbolic, but this is a serious book and not some frivolous rant. Even as far back as 1995, Martin Parker was criticizing the corporatization of higher education – what he dubbed, “The McUniversity” – the title of an...

Has the American Dream been built on a fundamental delusion – that we are all independent and autonomous individuals – that whether we become insanely wealthy or completely broke  - is simply a matter of choice? That if we wish to be successful we just need to work hard, put our nose to the grindstone, and pull ourselves up by our own – well, Bootstraps? Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream is the title of Alissa Quart’s new book, published by Ecco Books/HarperCollins....

Could it be the case that the Western Buddhists have lost touch with the radical questioning and the transformative power of transcendence?  Has the focus on meditation, the mimicking of South Asian monastics with the necessity of engaging in long and austere silent retreats, and the dominant materialist view that Buddhism is a “science of mind” created an ecology that is elitist and exclusionary?  Will worshipping at the secular alter with its fMRI brain scans satisfy our yearnings for...

Our way of knowing seems seduced into seeing things – including ourselves as the self as the knower – as substantial. We believe and take for granted that the world is a myriad of things and objects, that the passage of time is real, and that we can rely on science to tell us how to live and what has meaning and value. Whether it’s our fascination with neuroscience or whether we are perpetual spiritual seekers, it seems the answers we find never seem to fully satisfy us.  And that’s because...

Is the climate crisis a reflection of our lack of understanding of our true nature as human beings in the cosmos? Could our inability to ask such difficult questions be at the root of our collective impotence to reduce carbon emissions and usher in the magnitude of cultural change necessary in order to avoid impending and irreversible tipping points?    Graham Parkes, thinks so. In fact, Graham Parkes’ new book, HOW TO THINK ABOUT THE CLIMATE CRISIS: A Philosophical Guide to Saner Ways of...

Why is everything now about wellness and “self-care”? And it’s not just about Goop – the global wellness industry – from leech therapy, MCT oils, to yoga, clean eating and New Age manifestation coaches -- is now a booming $4 trillion-dollar global industry. In this Episode, I spoke with Rina Raphael about her new book, The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop and the False Promise of Self-Care. Rina comes to this topic as a former wellness consumer herself, and as journalist working long...

In Episode 40, I spoke with Gail Stearns about her new book, Liberating Mindfulness: From Billion-dollar Industry to Engaged Spirituality (Orbis Books, 2022). Our conversation explored Gail's journey into the contemporary mindfulness world as she earnestly sought ways it could enhance her chaplaincy and counseling work with students at Chapman University. She soon encounters the unsavory highly individualistic aspects of the mindfulness movement, along with its crass commercialization. As an...

In this episode, I spoke with Pierce Salguero, Ph.D., about his new book Buddhish: A Guide to the 20 Most Important Buddhist Ideas for the Curious and Skeptical, published this year by Beacon Press. Pierce is a Professor of Asian History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State University, and is Editor-in-Chief of Asian Medicine: Journal of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine. Pierce received his PhD in the History of Medicine at  at John Hopkins...

I spoke with Johann Hari – whose new book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again – is already a New York Times best-seller.  I was fortunate enough to meet Johann in September 2019 when he was writing this book. He came to my house here in Pacifica, California – and we spent the whole day together and discussing a range of topics – from cruel optimism to the privatization of mindfulness as the new neoliberal, capitalist spirituality.  Johann Hari is the...

Check out our new trailer for The Mindful Cranks!

In Episode 37, I spoke with Kathleen Gregory about her chapter “The Modern Mindfulness Movement and the Search for Psychological Redemption” recently published in Richard Payne’s new edited volume, Secularizing Buddhism (Shambala Publications, 2021).

Richard Payne is the Yehan Numata Professor of Japanese Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California and the Graduate Theological Union. I spoke with Richard about his new edited volume, Secularizing Buddhism: New Perspectives on a Dynamic Tradition, just published by Shambala.

In this episode I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Sarah Shaw, who is an Honorary fellow of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies; and lecturer for the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education. We spoke about her new book, Mindfulness: Where It Comes From and What It Means – published in paperback by Shambala.

In this episode, I was fortunate to speak to Gregory Kramer, founding teacher of the Insight Dialogue Community and author of a new book: A Whole-Life Path: A Lay Buddhist’s Guide to Crafting a Dharma-Infused Life. I explore with Gregory how he came to a pragmatic understanding and creative application of the Eight Fold Noble Path into his daily life.

I spoke with Daniel Simpson about his new book, The Truth of Yoga: A Comprehensive Guide to Yoga’s History, Texts, Philosophy, and Practices, North Point Press. We dive deep into the complex and patchy history of Yoga, from early, classical and hatha yoga – to observations on modern yoga, including whether Silent Disco Yoga is a thing! Daniel Simpson teaches yoga philosophy at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. He earned his Master's degree from SOAS and his undergraduate degree from...

I spoke with Andrea R. Jain, Associate professor of religious studies at Indiana University, Indianapolis about her new book Peace Love Yoga: The Politics of Global Spirituality, published by Oxford University Press. Our conversation explores how modern, commodified yoga serves a neoliberal agenda by containing social activism and political dissent, something she calls gestural subversion.

In this episode I spoke with Michal Pagis who is an associate professor of sociology at Bar Ilan University, Israel about her new book Inward: Vipassana Meditation and the Embodiment of the Self published by the University of Chicago Press in 2019. Using micro-sociological analysis through  participant observation and auto-enthnography, Michal studied Western Vipassana practitioners of SN Goenka 10-day SILENT meditation retreats.

In this episode I spoke with Adrian Daub about his new book,  What Tech Calls Thinking, published by FSG Originals. His book is an engaging critique of an industry that is blinded by its own elitism and privilege while exploiting and distorting intellectual ideas in ways that function to erase cultural memory and blunt our analysis or skepticism.

Paula Haddock is a long-time social activist and spent many years working in non-profit fundraising and with NGOs – and she is a seasoned training manager – working worldwide in supporting civil society in capacity building.. She is the co-founder of the Mindfulness and Social Change Network which explore the potential for secular mindfulness training and practice to contribute to more sustainable, caring and socially just societies.

This conversation explores an obscure historical figure, Dhammaloka, who was perhaps one of the first Westerners ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1901 in British occupied Burma. Laurence Cox is co-author of The Irish Buddhist: The Forgotten Monk who Faced Down the British Empire, published by Oxford University Press.

In this Episode, I spoke with Daniel Nehring, an ascending and prolific scholar in the field of critical sociology about how therapeutic cultures have penetrated our social lives and now have a global reach. We talk about the rise of the “self-help entrepreneur, the dominance of the "psychological imagination," and the relevance and important of C. Wright Mills and his classic work, The Sociological Imagination for academics to wake up, stand up and speak up as public intellectuals.