The Mind Bod Adventure Pod
Join hosts Jeff and Tasha as they explore the world of practice, one adventurous guide at a time. Each episode introduces a different practice or perspective, inviting listeners to engage with new ideas and methods. The podcast is a journey of discovery, blending curiosity, humor, and personal experience. Learn more at mindbodpod.com.
Episodes
Irreverently Orthodox: Taking Practice Seriously and Yourself Lightly | Sam Bercholz
This week we’re hanging with the legendary Sam Bercholz: refugee kid turned founder of Shambhala Publications, the prolific dharma press behind many of the books on your shelf. In 1968, a London publisher handed him a manuscript by a Tibetan lama in Scotland whom Sam had never heard of. He read it sitting on the bed of a five-pound-a-night room, and it felt like it was speaking straight to him. It
7 Ways Your Body Keeps You Safe | Jan Winhall
Hi Mind Bod Squad!This week we're hanging with someone extra special: Jan Winhall — psychotherapist, nervous-system nerd, and (drumroll) Jeff's former therapist. As Jeff puts it, she's the one who helped him dig out of his own mental health sinkhole. Now she's on the other side of the mic.Jan’s spent 45 years in the trauma and addiction trenches, and along the way she built something super useful:
The Motion of Equanimity | Michael Uebel
This week we’re hanging with Michael Uebel, psychotherapist, researcher, longtime mindfulness teacher for military veterans, and author of Seeds of Equanimity: Knowing and Being.How did we all meet? Michael sent Jeff an email that said something like, “I hear you’re obsessed with equanimity… so am I!” Jeff read the new book and could not put it down. So here we are, nerding out about equanimity :)
The Spacious Body | Abigail Rose Clarke
This week we’re hanging with Abigail Rose Clarke, an author, artist, and somatic facilitator. Tasha’s been a fangirl of her Instagram for ages, so this one’s a long time coming. Abigail’s approach to the somatic lives in a sweet spot: grounded by science and expanded by magic and art.Case in point: her new Body Oracle Deck that is 80 cards of juicy art and body-based invitations, anatomy, and ench
You're Not Broken, You're Basically Good | Lodro Rinzler
Hello Mind Bod Squad!This week we’re hanging with Lodro Rinzler, Buddhist meditation teacher, award-winning author of eight books (including the bestseller The Buddha Walks into a Bar…), and the dude behind the Basic Goodness Collective. His brand-new book, You Are Good, You Are Enough, rests on one deceptively simple idea: underneath all the self-doubt and noise, you’re already basically (you gue
Democracy as a Practice of Care | Jeremy David Engels
Hi friends! The Mind Bod Squad is BACK!After a few months apart (Jeff squirreled away up in BC, Tasha bummin’ around in Toronto), we’re returning to you on this, America’s birthweek. And we’re here to celebrate INTERdependence instead of independence.This week we’re hanging with Jeremy David Engels — Penn State rhetoric professor, yoga teacher, student of meditation, and author of the gorgeous lit
My Friend Tara: Helping Kids Meet Compassion | Ivan Bercholz
This week we’re hanging with Ivan Bercholz, co-owner of Shambhala Publications, publisher of Bala Kids, and co-author (with illustrator Lasha Mutual) of My Friend Tara, a children’s book that introduces kids to Tara, the Buddhist archetype of compassion.Ivan set out to create a book that gets straight to the heart of practice: how can kids actually relate to an archetypal quality? How do you help
The Great Search for the Sacred | John Philip Newell & Cami Twilling
This week we're hanging with wandering Celtic teacher John Philip Newell and Earth & Soul Director Cami Twilling to talk about what it means to connect to the sacred when you're living outside the bounds of formal religious tradition.John Philip is an ordained-minister-turned-spiritual-exile who spent years with one foot in the church and one foot out in the wilderness, before finally giving back
When Stress Cracks You Open | Dr. Aditi Nerurkar
Happy New Year!One week into 2026 and we’re already firing on all cylinders. So let’s kick it off with some destress tools to keep us all cool as cucumbers when things get spicy. 🥒😅🌶️This week we sit down with Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, physician, Harvard Medical School faculty member, and author of The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain for Less Stress and More Resilience. We talk about what stress actually is
How to Find a Calling That Feeds You | Chela Davison
This week we’re hanging with our friend Chela Davison — facilitator, sacred mischief maker, former master coach, and writer of the Substack, Wisdotainment.She brings her trademark mix of depth and irreverence to the question of what it means to live a “regenerative calling”, a purposeful life that actually feeds you instead of wringing you dry.Chela walks us through 4 dimensions of personal callin
Good Vibrations: Can tech train us to feel safe?| Dr. David Rabin
We chase healing in all directions: therapy, breathwork, cold plunges, maybe a lil microdosing… but what if all your nervous system is asking for is a safe place to land?This week, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. David Rabin joins us to talk about how safety is the foundation of healing. His research explores how vibration, touch, and rhythm can retrain the body for calm. He’s the creator of A
Reclaim Your Mind: Attention Activism in the Digital Age | Jay Vidyarthi
How do we stay aware in a world designed to steal our attention?This week, we sit down with Jay Vidyarthi — designer, tech founder, meditation teacher, and author of Reclaim Your Mind: Seven Strategies to Enjoy Tech Mindfully — to explore what it means to live mindfully with technology instead of fighting against it.We look at how our phones, apps, and algorithms are constantly training our nervou
Sex: The Final Frontier of Authenticity | Dr. Juliana Hauser
When it comes to “getting to know ourselves,” we talk about mindfulness, creativity, career… basically everything except sex. But as Dr. Juliana Hauser argues, sexuality might be the most direct doorway into who we really are. In this episode, she takes us past the performance of “being sexy” into the raw territory of authenticity, agency, and connection.Dr. Juliana has spent over two decades help
The Slow Fire of Reading | Chelene Knight
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made as a creative? Chelene Knight answers without hesitation: “I think the biggest mistake was just not being me.”This week, we sit down with acclaimed poet, novelist, memoirist, and Tasha’s own writing mentor, Chelene Knight, to talk about what it means to build a creative life. Not the tidy, “professionalized” version, but the messy, alive, human one that actua
Polyvagal Pathways: Tuning the Body Toward Connection | Stephen Porges & Karen Onderko
This is an exciting one, friends!Stephen Porges is the visionary scientist who gave us polyvagal theory—a framework that’s reshaped how the world understands trauma, safety, and human connection. His work has influenced everyone from therapists to meditation teachers to parents trying to soothe a colicky baby. And now he’s here with us, alongside his brilliant co-author Karen Onderko, to talk abou
How to Dream a Better World | Sherri Mitchell
This week on the Pod, we’re joined by the luminous Sherri Mitchell: Indigenous rights attorney, activist, ceremonial leader, and the author of Sacred Instructions.We dive into the birth canal of this moment — a world in transition, contracting and expanding as it labors to bring something new into being. Sherri doesn’t shy away from the pain, confusion, or cultural clusterf*ck of our times and she
Writing as Presence | Sarah Selecky
This week on the pod, we’re joined by writer and teacher Sarah Selecky for a beautiful, funny, and surprisingly deep exploration of writing as a contemplative practice.Sarah teaches writing as presence. As a way of being and noticing. She helps writers get out of their own way so that something real and alive can come through the page (or the google doc 😅).Together, we explore:* the overlap betwee
Silent Illumination: How to Meditate Without a Method | Rebecca Li
This week on the pod, we’re joined by Chan teacher and sociologist Rebecca Li for a luminous practice session in Silent Illumination, a deceptively simple, deeply transformative form of open awareness meditation.Rebecca guides us through a full-body relaxation and easefully invites us into the “method of no method,” offering a living glimpse into this subtle and powerful practice. As we settle int
Focusing: A Practice of Presence & Listening | Serge Prengel
This week, we’re in conversation with therapist and longtime Focusing teacher Serge Prengel about the transformative power of slowing down and listening from the body.Serge is one of those rare people who seem to live from a deeper layer of presence. His work blends Focusing, Somatic Experiencing, Core Energetics, and Polyvagal Theory to support real, embodied change.What stood out for us was how
Releasing Trauma with EFT Tapping | Mirjam Paninski
This week on the Mind Bod Adventure Pod, we get our somatic groove on with tapping wizard and trauma therapist Mirjam Paninski. Miriam guides us into the world of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)—a deceptively simple practice where tapping acupressure points while speaking truth can open up big shifts in the body, mind, and heart.It’s part therapy, part ritual, part emotional plumbing.In this epi
Beyond “Normal”: Neurodiversity-Affirming Therapy | Joel Schwartz
This week on the Mind Bod Adventure Pod, we sit down with Dr. Joel Schwartz, a psychologist and one of the early architects of the Neurodiversity-Affirming Therapy movement. Joel is known for speaking truth to systems that pathologize difference — and for offering a way of working with our minds that’s healing, joyful, and radically humane.In this episode, we explore:* Why the “pathology model” of
Learning to Relate with James-Olivia Chu Hillman
This week, we sit down with relational facilitator James-Olivia Chu Hillman, whose teachings on radical responsibility, integrity, and unconditional positive regard are already shifting how Jeff shows up in relationship… and how Tasha tries not to ghost people who annoy her. 😅Together, we explore:* The four core skills of relating well* why being “right” isn’t the same as being relational* Why say
The Science of Happiness with Axel Bouchon
What if happiness wasn’t just a feeling but something you could train and reinforce?This week on MindBod AdventurePod, we sit down with Dr. Axel Bouchon, a neuroscientist and biotech entrepreneur who spent 20 years searching for a cure for depression—only to realize he’d been asking the wrong question. Instead of curing sadness, he discovered the source code for happiness—a set of six neurotransmi
The Heart of Patience & Courage with Oren Jay Sofer
What if the secret sauce to navigating the world isn’t hustling harder, fixing yourself, or achieving inner peace like it’s an item on your to-do list—but something way simpler and right under your nose?This week on the Mind Bod Pod, we sit down with Oren Jay Sofer, a meditation teacher, communication wizard, and all-around wise human, to talk about his book, Your Heart Was Made for This.We dig in
Core Energetics & Human Design with Angela Ai
In this episode, we remix therapy and healing with Angela Ai, a syncretic teacher practitioner of Core Energetics, Radical Aliveness, and Human Design.What the heck are these modalities? Good question!In a nutshell: they’re different ways to get insight into — and intuitive contact with— the human experience. Into our internal patterns, our relationships, and the ways we meet the world.This is an
Ayahuasca & Spiritual Care with Celina De Leon
This week, we go deep into the spiritual heart of psychedelics with Celina de Leon, founder of the Circle of Sacred Nature Church, and adjunct faculty at the Graduate Theological Union. Celina has spent 20 years working with ayahuasca – or yagé, as it’s known in the Kamentsa indigenous community of Colombia, her root lineage.We talk about the contemplative practice of yagé, its unique characterist
No Enemies with Cara Lai
Cara Lai is awesome. That’s the first thing to say. She is humble and real and willing to explore a heated topic without having any easy prepared answers. Backtrack! Cara is a dharma teacher, artist, Mom and former therapist. These days she mostly teaches meditation retreats and a fun online drop-in class called “Meditate Your Face Off!” (Jeff: Be still my heart.)Our subject is the shitstorm happe
Realizing Freedom Together with Caverly Morgan
In this episode we welcome Caverly Morgan, former Zen monk and author of The Heart of Who We Are. Caverly is also the founder of Peace in Schools, a teen-centered mindfulness curriculum for teens.We jump right into it with a discussion of how teens very naturally want to challenge many of the culture’s bogus assumptions – in her words, teens “are on fire with wanting to dismantle what’s not real.”
The Ten Fetters with Kevin Schanilec
Well, this one is cool. It may change your meditation practice and – if you stay with the inquiry – your life. You’d hardly know how ambitious it is though, from our guest Kevin Schanilec’s humble, deadpan delivery.Kevin is a long-time Buddhist practitioner from Seattle who has formalized a process for seeing through what Buddhists call “The Ten Fetters.” The fetters are fundamental (mis)beliefs w
Diary of a Young Psychic with Neon Dreamer
Today we head off the rails and into the spiritual undergrowth, where the wild things are. Our guest is Diana Piruzevska, aka Neon Dreamer – psychic, medium, healer. Yup – all that! Not her choice - at least not at first…Skeptics might scoff at these intuitions, experiences, and capacities, but that doesn’t change the fact that they kept happening to Diana and have always happened to some of her o
Mindfulness for Neurodivergent Teens with Tim Hwang
Welcome Tim Hwang, an occupational therapist in New York City's public school system. Tim’s specialty is teaching mindfulness to young people with “disabilities classifications” - Autism, ADHD, and so on. Some of these teens are into the practice, some are bored by it, and some are highly resistant to it. And that’s what we get into!Tim, Tasha, and Jeff all have experience teaching meditation to y
Deepening our Bond with Nature with Steven Martyn
This episode is a transmission, no doubt about. Our guest wandered out of the Ontario forest and is here to challenge how we think about ourselves and meditation and nature and agriculture and the old crafts and a lot more. Welcome, Steven Martyn, founder of The Sacred Gardener School.While living alone in the bush - mediating, surviving - Steven came to understand meditation as a form of hunting
The Autoimmune Feedback Loop with Eileen Laird
Welcome Eileen Laird, author of Healing Mindset. This episode, we target autoimmune disease and the role that the mind-body connection can play in reducing pain, increasing resilience, and living a more vital life.There are over a hundred different autoimmune conditions — from rheumatoid arthritis to lupus to Grave’s disease to multiple sclerosis and more — one in ten people have an autoimmune con
The Creativity of Practice with Toby Sola
Toby Sola is founder of the Brightmind Meditation app and an old friend of Jeff’s. In this episode, we chew on some tasty mini-meditation snacks – yum yum!We get all Jedi-mind and try splitting our attention between chatting and meditating. Finally, we explore an inventive and beautiful practice of nurturing our own sense of trustworthiness.All of these are ways of highlighting the basic creativit
Finding Home in Our Skin with Kaira Jewel Lingo
Welcome Kaira Jewel Lingo, author of We Were Made for These Times and coauthor of Healing Our Way Home. Kyra shares her journey from a communal upbringing and monastic life with Thich Nhat Hanh, her work in nurturing community, and her exploration of racial identity in spiritual practice.Her gentle guided practice is beautiful and completely original. We notice the experience of our skin - its age
Contemplative CrossFit with Frank Yang
Welcome, Frank Yang – we love you! Frank is an “Infinite Brah” – a true bodybuilder of consciousness who shares his “journey, insights and practices for accessing the highest states of consciousness, awakening and beyond” to quote his fresh and wildly kinetic YouTube channel.So, there’s lots of talk about the experience (and health benefits!) of non-duality and awakening, whether it shows up in di
Three Precious Pills with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
This week, we welcome Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, world-renowned meditation teacher, author, and lineage holder in the Bön tradition of Tibet, one of the oldest spiritual traditions on the planet. Today, we take three protective imaginary “pills” – a white pill, a red pill, and a blue pill. “Because in the West everybody loves to eat pills!”Each pill is both a syllable that we voice out loud and a mi
Zentangle! with Martha Huggins and Molly Hollibaugh
OK friends, enough with the talky talky. Grab some paper and a pencil: in this episode, we’re waking up our inner artists and making Zentangle magic!Martha Huggins and Molly Hollinbough are our sister guides. Many years ago, their romantic parents – Maria and Rick – figured out the Zentangle method together. Ever since, they’ve been teaching it to people around the world as a way to slip into a fu
Story Unbound with Pádraig Ó Tuama
Pádraig Ó Tuama is a poet, theologian, and the host of The On Being Project's Poetry Unbound podcast. He is interested in story and storytelling, in the practice of reading ourselves into stories, and sometimes in reading our lives as stories. All of which can shake us us up in surprising ways.**If you like these adventures in consciousness, consider supporting our work with a paid subscription!
Self-Compassion (& Hip Hop) for Young People with Ofosu Jones-Quartey
This week, we welcome the multi-talented Ofosu Jones-Quartey, a meditation teacher, author, and hip-hop artist. This discussion is so fun! It starts with how to share meditation and mindfulness with young people – how to stay real and relatable. Then gets into the role of the artist, creativity, and what it means to connect to your actual voice.We do 2 practices: the first is a self-compassion pra
How to Communicate with Mudita Nisker and Dan Clurman
Welcome Mudita Nisker and Dan Clurman, authors of Let's Talk, An Essential Guide to Skillful Communication. Mudita and Dan have been teaching people how to communicate effectively for over 40 years, so there is serious wisdom in this episode. As Mudita points out, changing how you communicate can change your entire way of perceiving and relating to others. It is a profound practice, and it’s one e
Using Music to Shift Emotions with Jamie Pabst
We’re joined by Jamie Pabst, founder and CEO of Spiritune, a music therapy app that supports people’s mental health. Spiritune makes explicit what most of us know implicitly: music can shift our emotional and cognitive state.What does “clinical-grade music” sound like? We listen to two 3-minute tracks, the first designed to move us from anxious to peaceful and the second from lethargic to victorio
A Playful Approach to Psychedelics with Cardea
Last summer, we interviewed Ross Ellenhorn and Dimitri Mugianis, founders of Cardea, a psychedelic-assisted care organization based in NYC. This week, we’re finally posting that conversation! Made up of therapists, space holders, artists, and musicians, Cardea focuses on cultivating what they call “aliveness”: the sense that you are vital, fully engaged in your life, and connected to the world aro
Psychedelic Somatic Therapy with Saj Razvi
You don’t want to miss this one! A deep dive into “the heart of healing,” as we explore how medicines like cannabis and ketamine can amplify trauma therapy. Our guest is Saj Razvi, Director of Education at the Psychedelic Somatic Institute, and one of the original MAPS researchers and clinicians responsible for bringing MDMA-assisted therapy into the world.According to Saj, there’s a self-correcti
Crazy Wisdom with Lama Liz Monson
Welcome Lama Liz Monson, spiritual co-director of the Natural Dharma Fellowship, and author of a new book on “crazy wisdom,” Tales of a Mad Yogi. Contrary to its controversial reputation, crazy wisdom is more than a spiritual shock technique – of, say, covering oneself in feces (to use a classic example), or staggering drunkenly around the Tibetan countryside. It is, in fact, a powerful and time-t
The Dark Imaginal with JF Martel
Welcome JF Martel, filmmaker, writer, and cohost of the superb podcast, Weird Studies. Sometimes, we have a guest who really gets the spirit of what we’re up to here at the Mind Bod Pod… JF is one such guest. He full-on designed a practice for us based on his love of old-school, Dungeons-and-Dragons-style role-playing games… the kind that (in JF’s words) “usually happen in dank basements.”That’s r
Sassy Spirituality with Sah D'Simone
Welcome Sah D'Simone - a former “condescending spiritual c**t” (his words not ours!) who’s since grown into one of the best humans we’ve ever met. Sah is hilarious, fresh, wise and so loveable! You’ll feel all of that immediately, as we explore themes from his new book, Spiritually, We.**Watch this podcast and our fun-filled afterparty in VIDEO over at www.mindbodpod.com where you can comment and
Psychoacoustics & Safety with Paula Scatoloni
Welcome Paula Scatoloni, a wise somatic experiencing practitioner (she’s been doing this for 30 years!). Paula uses Stephen Porges’ “Safe and Sound Protocol” as a tool to soothe and heal our frazzled nervous systems. We start by exploring how sound can be healing—in particular, how to train our systems to move out of fight-and-flight and into safety-and-connection. The more our body finds this saf
Astrology & Participatory Magic with Caroline Casey
Arch-Trickster Caroline Casey is our guest today, rapping on the subject of astrology and participatory magic. For Caroline, astrology - like all divination - is an outward expression of an inner state. We don’t need to know astrology, it’s in us. The practice here is to participate - to actively engage with Caroline’s wild flood of words and let the language of interrelatedness provoke insights,
Glimpses into Freedom with Loch Kelly
Watch the video episode here: https://www.mindbodpod.com/p/loch-kelly-glimpses-into-freedom “The issue of suffering is a simple case of mistaken identity,” says our guest Loch Kelly. By this, he means the you that is thinking about you, is not the real you! Then who is it, you ask? His name is Percy, he lives on a riverboat, and makes a fine fish fillet. 😅 Just kidding! That’s not true at all.This
Harry Potter & The Sacred Text with Casper ter Kuile
This week’s guest is Casper ter Kuile, author of the excellent The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Rituals into Soulful Practices. Casper is passionate about spreading the goodness of ritual. Ritual? Isn’t that a religious thing?! HELL NO! For Casper (“Gay atheist goes to divinity school!”) a ritual is anything we do with “intention, attention and repetition.” Our rituals are a basic human need,
Connected Roots with Tracee Stanley
Tracee is the rock solid – and radiant! – author of Radiant Rest and The Luminous Self, both syncretic works that combine yoga nidra, self-inquiry, ancestor and nature practices, and much more. Tracee is truly a gem!We jump right into a practice that starts with a fresh take on alternate nostril breathing and then flows into a beautifully supportive practice that connects to gratitude, community,
Multiplayer Meditation with Vince Fakhoury Horn
Some very inventive practice exploration today, friends! We’re joined by dharma teacher and Buddhist Geeks founder Vince Fakhoury Horn, who leads us in a smorgasbord of short “social” practices, all designed to tap into the goodness of meditation in a bouncy, fun and interactive way. We explore Kenneth Folk’s social noting, try out a microdose-sized practice of loving kindness, and finally, an ima
Risking Freedom with adrienne maree brown
Do you love yourself and the world enough to risk making moves for other people’s freedom? For guest adrienne maree brown, any such movement has to be rooted in love. And that’s her practice: finding what and where we love, placing it deliberately in the centre of our lives, and then asking: what action wants to arise naturally from that? Not based on other people’s ideas of what’s right, but from
Cannabis and Meditation with Will Johnson
DISCLAIMER: we talk about smoking weed while meditating in this episode, and then we actually do it (its legal here in Canada) to see what it’s like. Our guide thinks there’s value in this practice, and so do we - FOR SOME PEOPLE. For others, particularly younger folks whose brains are not fully developed, cannabis can negatively affect mental health. It can also be addictive. As always, we are no
How to Relate to the News with Jay Michaelson
Although we recorded this interview back in September 2023, it could not be more timely. It is, in fact, about the times, about the news of the world as it comes in via our screen and newspapers, and whether there are practices that can support a more healthy relationship to that news. Our guest is Jay Michealson, writer of , who is both an excellent journalist (he appears regularly on CNN and oth
The Wheel of Consent with Betty Martin
In this episode of the Mind Bod Adventure Pod, we take a deep dive into the dynamics of giving, receiving, taking, and allowing with guest Betty Martin.Why does Jeff gush that Betty is the next Buddha? Because Jeff is overly-excitable! And because Betty’s Wheel of Consent is about much more than just sex and touch. It’s about how we’re human with each other. Her model of consent is now taught in d
The Practice of Activism with Lama Rod Owens
What do struggle and resistance look like as spiritual practices? What does it take to push for change in a violent and antagonistic world? Our guest in this week’s episode (which was recorded last summer) is Lama Rod Owens, in his words, “a fugitive” – disobedient and on the run in a culture where it’s not safe to be Black, not safe to be Queer, not safe to be an activist speaking truth to power.
Intuitive Knowing with Sebene Selassie
This episode is a rocket launcher for enabling all the weird ways you already half-know stuff, ie … intuition! The way we get into the subject is curious and open and “non-expert-y” – we hope it will create an opening for you to consider the possibilities of intuition in your own life. Via the gut, via empathy, via dreams – and via a bunch of other deliciously unsanctioned ways of knowing that cer
Lectio Divina with Nadia Bolz-Weber
In this episode, we chat with Nadia Bolz-Weber, a Lutheran pastor and public theologian celebrated (justly - excellent Christian word) for her edgy, honest, and sometimes hilarious approach to spirituality. The titles of her three bestselling memoirs say it well: Pastrix, Accidental Saints, and Shameless. Nadia also writes the popular Substack, The Corners – in fact, as you’ll learn at the end of
Season 2 is landing! Watch the Trailer 🧘🏽♀️👽🧘🏼♂️
Hello Friends!Jeff Warren & Tasha Schumann here with some exciting news for 2024 and beyond! The Consciousness Explorers Podcast has evolved into … *drumroll* …🚀 The Mind Bod Adventure Pod! 🚀Starting January 30, we’re coming at you with new weekly practice episodes, amazing guests, and rampant tomfoolery. In your inbox (and on Substack) every Tuesday.Here’s what’s new:* The Pod is now in VIDEO!! A
The Sensual Self with Ev'Yan Whitney
In today’s episode (the Season 1 finale!) we get slow and personal with Ev’Yan Whitney, sexuality doula, podcast host, and author of Sensual Self. “Sensuality” often gets lumped in with sexuality… Ev’Yan wants to change that, to tease apart these two aspects of being human and demonstrate how everyone can connect with a more sensual version of themselves.Ev’Yan’s 19-minute practice is a tour of th
Direct Pointing with Angelo Dilullo
Our guest today is Angelo DiLullo, a medical doctor and author of a fine book called Awake: It's Your Turn. Angelo points directly to the true nature of self / consciousness / or whatever you want to call this bizarre ululating mystery we all seem to be living inside. He probably wouldn’t even say he “teaches” this, since all he really does for his guided practice is describe his own experien
The Body's Intelligence with Philip Shepherd
In today’s episode, we’re joined by author and embodiment expert Philip Shepherd. Philip is also an actor, and thus a wonderfully entertaining tour guide. He takes us into the body’s “grounded sensitivity” – really the perfect phrase for it, a place both of exquisite intelligence and dependable common sense. Under Philip’s careful guidance, we explore how to move past the mind’s imaginary constrai
Unconscious Bias with Rima Dib
Today we’re joined by Rima Dib, a good friend of Tasha and Jeff’s who also happens to be an expert in unconscious bias and anti-oppression education. Rima teaches workshops about difference – race, age, gender, sexual preference, ability – to people around the planet. She makes it fun. Is this possible? Yes, it turns out. We laughed our asses off. In Rima’s words, “If it gets too heavy, we’re gonn
Spontaneous Thinking with Shinzen Young
Meet Shinzen Young, a long-time instructor of mindfulness, author of The Science of Enlightenment, and now co-director of the “Science Enhanced Mindful Awareness” or “SEMA” Lab at the University of Arizona. Shinzen is Jeff’s OG meditation teacher. He is both a scholar of comparative mysticism, and a highly creative designer of strange and beautiful (and practical) meditation techniques.In this epi
Tarot and the Imagination with Tatianna Morales
Today we hang out with the incomparable Tatianna Morales – aka @tatiannatarot – a Brooklyn-born spiritualist, priestess, and Tarot diviner! Together, we plunge into the imagination, learning how the age-old tradition of reading Tarot cards can give us insight into our personalities and our life situations. It turns out we’re meeting Tatianna at the very moment her own relationship to Tarot is chan
Effortless Meditation with Peter Russell
Today’s episode: Peter Russell. Peter started out as a theoretical physicist, a student of Stephen Hawking’s, until sometime in the early 70s he made his way to India and had his brain blown open. He became one of the West’s early proponents of meditation, and in the 80s wrote several seminal books on consciousness and technology. He’s had a big influence on the culture of meditation in general an
The Feldenkrais Method with Donna Ray
Meet psychotherapist and Feldenkrais teacher Donna Ray. In this episode, she makes us move! Ok, more like she makes us sit in chairs and roll our eyes and turn our heads a bit and suddenly everything feels better. Welcome to the subtle art of micro-movement. Donna shows us how small physical adjustments in the way we hold ourselves can change both our experience and our body’s overall functioning.
Addiction & Self-Compassion with Valerie Mason-John
Today we’re joined by the UK-based Valerie Mason-John, also known as Vimalasara, a leader in the field of mindfulness for addiction and trauma.This episode is about the ways we get disconnected from our bodies and our lives, and the role self-compassion can play in bringing us home. We explore this in the context of our addictions – even addictions we don’t realize are addictions, like, in Vimala
Technology-Enhanced Meditation with Dr. Baron Short
Today we’re joined by Dr Baron Short, an Interventional Psychiatrist at the Medical University of South Carolina, and co-founder of Zendo, an electronic device that purports to enhance both the experience and the long-term benefits of meditation.How might a direct current of electricity to the brain affect our meditation? This is not a hypothetical question. All three of us – two hosts and one gui
Hypnosis with Dr. David Spiegel
Today we’re joined by Stanford psychiatry professor Dr. David Spiegel, an expert in the clinical use of hypnosis. David is co-author, along with his late father Herbert Spiegel, of Trance and Treatment, a classic work on hypnosis published by the American Psychiatric Association. And therein lies a story … almost 20 years ago, Jeff interviewed David’s 92-year old father Herbert Spiegel. Not just i
Breath as Medicine with Therese Jornlin
Today we’re joined by Jeff’s good friend Therese Jornlin, teacher of meditation, yoga, and qi gong. Much happens in this episode! Therese re-introduces us to our breath as both medicine and guide. We learn how the specific way each of us breathes reflects our particular mental patterns and habits. The breath can show us where we’re stuck, and it can show us how to find a way through. This is real
Connecting to the Land with Warren Hooley
If you live in the US or Canada, you may have noticed a movement to acknowledge local indigenous groups who've historically lived in a particular territory. For example, Tasha and I live in Toronto, Ontario, which is also where our nonprofit meditation community group – The Consciousness Explorers Club or "CEC" – operates. These days, at the beginning of every CEC retreats and medi
The Wakeful Body with Lama Willa
Meet meditation teacher Willa Blythe Baker. Willa is an authorized Lama in the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, and author of our new favorite book: The Wakeful Body: Somatic Mindfulness as a Path to Freedom.She guides us in a practice called GROUND – an acronym that describes progressively more subtle and expansive "layers" of somatic experience. We drop from the physical body, to the
Radiant Rest with Tracee Stanley
Today our explorer-in-residence is Tracee Stanley, a longtime student and teacher of Yoga and Tantra, and author of Radiant Rest: Yoga Nidra for Deep Relaxation and Awakened Clarity. We’ve explored rest before on this pod, but not quite like this! When we sit and attempt to let go, what gets in the way? What messages about safety and worthiness are hiding in our nervous system?For Tracee, rest is
A Psychedelic Sangha with Erik Davis
Today we meet Erik Davis, award-winning journalist and author, most recently, of High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies.Erik guides us in an imagination-based open awareness practice that for him is about cultivating a very specific kind of watchful attention. This turns out to be the perfect setup to discuss one of Erik’s specialities: the defiantly unclassifi
Love and Rage with Lama Rod
Today’s episode we’re joined by Buddhist minister and social activist Lama Rod Owens, author of Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger. Our subject is anger, something Lama Rod once had to suppress in order to survive as “a Black queer body in America.” He writes: “My fear of death and policing has translated into a self-policing of my anger, to such an extent that if it weren’t for m
Freeing the Voice with Debora Joy
In today’s episode we’re joined by the delightful voice coach and kundalini teacher Debora Joy. Debora guides us through an array of voice exercises, all of them meant to free us from the shackles of bodily restriction. We learn how the way we speak reflects our conditioning, and how opening up our voice can change who we are.This episode is much more interactive than usual, almost all of it a pra
Wake Up to Sleep with Charlie Morley
Today’s episode is an energetic dive into the healing potential of the nighttime mind with Charlie Morley. Charlie is the author of several much-loved books on lucid dreaming, including his newest: Wake Up to Sleep: 5 Practices to Transform Trauma and Stress for Peaceful Sleep. Charlie guides us in two practices: a powerful protection practice inspired by the Bön tradition of Dream Yoga, and a sim
