ALEX MORRIS
In today’s Soul Curriculum, Rohan speaks candidly with writer Alex Morris about how to become more comfortable asking for help. As Alex shares, it’s often our preconceptions of how we will be received that prevent us from reaching out. However, as Alex realizes in his own story, when we take the risk and acknowledge our need for help, people around us rise to our aid and can help make our world wider.
SARA BENINCASA
As a young writer and performer, Sara Benincasa found her voice doing stand-up comedy. For years, it seemed better than therapy. But slowly, doubts surfaced. While the external validation she received made her feel successful and even loved, something was missing. In this episode of Meditative Story, Sara shares how she came to look inward, instead of outward, for richer feelings of worth.
PATTON OSWALT
CASE KENNY
ALEX MORRIS
FLORENCE WILLIAMS
RACHEL CARGLE
Growing up, Rachel Cargle was used to seeing things her family couldn’t afford. As she got older, became a writer, lecturer, and philanthropist, she continued to seek opportunities just beyond her grasp. Hard work and creativity allowed her to grow successful as an entrepreneur, but deeper challenges still remained. In this episode of Meditative Story, Rachel unfolds how she found fulfillment by turning her gifts outward.
KINO MACGREGOR
How do the challenges and trauma we encounter in our lives tie to our ancestral roots? How do we hold on to these experiences in our physical body? These are questions that we explore featuring author, entrepreneur, and yoga instructor Kino MacGregor. Rohan and Kino go deeper into how generational pain can become expressed in the body, and explore ways in which physical practices can provide an antidote.
ROHAN GUNATILLAKE
On the Mexican holiday Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, we allow ourselves space for our memories and our grief about those we’ve lost — as well as for joy, and even humor, around the continuity between life and death.
SHANI TRAN
LEX GILLETTE
CARLA HALL
Celebrity chef Carla Hall wasn’t always interested in cooking. As a child, she finds that puzzles and play help her to discover her true character. When she falls upon a hard time, she instinctively turns to memories of her grandmother’s kitchen for comfort. In this story, Carla shares how sensory play finally allows her to solve her biggest puzzle yet — herself.
ROHAN GUNATILLAKE & HENRY SHUKMAN
Rohan spends time with Henry Shukman, author and spiritual director of the Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe. The two dive into the theme of deep listening and what it can open up in us; how to hone our ability to be present to the world around us and to each other; and the importance of finding mentors to guide us along the way.
LEX GILLETTE
KRISTIN WINDBIGLER
When Kristin Windbigler moves to rural Humboldt County, California, she falls in love with the wild, green, growing landscape. Her dream of being a journalist leads her to San Francisco. And it isn’t until she moves back home again that she realizes just how special her hometown is — a place where our differences fall away.
REV. MONIQUE ORTIZ
GRACIA MARIA
DR. MARLA SPIVAK
Before becoming a MacArthur-winning entomologist, Dr. Marla Spivak is adrift – first as a young woman in search of direction, then deep in the Amazon, severely ill and fearing death. Time and again, it’s the hum of bees that shows her a path forward.
ROHAN GUNATILLAKE
TONY TJAN
Tony Tjan grows up in the cold and dramatic landscape of Newfoundland, where snow piles high and storms rage – but the neighbors always keep a door open to help one another.
ROHAN GUNATILLAKE
In telling three short stories from his life as a meditator, host Rohan Gunatillake explores the way a few simple words of wisdom, said at the right moment, can build your strength and resilience for a lifetime.
DAVID DUCHOVNY
Years after graduating, actor David Duchovny realizes that what he mistook for dislike from a teacher was in fact an encouragement to go his own way, in his own time.
JAI PUNJABI
Hoping to preserve the recipes of his beloved family dishes, Jai Punjabi returns to his parents’ home in Bombay and discovers that the secret is not in the ingredients, but in a way of being.
CAL RIPKEN JR.
Legendary shortstop and third baseman Cal Ripken Jr. holds the record for the most consecutive games played. But just showing up was never an end in itself – it’s how he showed up that distinguishes his legacy.
What he learns: How to show up for others
ANGELA AHRENDTS
After a series of bold choices, legendary executive Angela Ahrendts realizes that with each new day she has an opportunity to discover a new sanctuary – and that the truest sanctuary is the one within us.
ANDREW BIRD
Looking for space to recalibrate, singer-songwriter Andrew Bird heads to his family’s desolate farmhouse. It’s there that he begins seeing, sensing, and hearing new music.
PAOLA ANTONELLI
Struggling to make a decision that will shape the rest of her life, a young artist returns to the place where she feels most true to herself: the sea.
REID HOFFMAN
A busy venture capitalist realizes that the driving force in his life are his friends. In his story, he celebrates the way friendship has shaped his life.
KEITH YAMASHITA
A rushed and busy executive suffers a massive stroke; in the days and months that follow, he learns to live again, more wisely and more lovingly.
ZENJU EARTHLYN MANUEL
One small girl, in the backseat of her family car, takes a road trip through the segregated South to her father’s Louisiana hometown.
Krista Tippett
In the midst of the Cold War, a young security analyst steps away from the tables of power, and finds herself in an island garden, reconnecting with what truly matters to her.
MICHELLE THALLER
While working on an experiment about the age of the universe, an astronomer is reminded once again about both the impersonal immensity around us, and the deeply personal significance of each of us.
Larry Jackson
Working late nights in the studio on a project that feels like it’s going nowhere, a young music producer learns the clarifying power of setting audacious goals.
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
Arianna Huffington takes us on her journey from Athens to Cambridge, and shares a lesson she learned from her mother of embracing life’s journey without being attached to the outcome.
PICO IYER
Stuck on a long layover in Japan, a young writer steps out to see the city – and finds himself feeling at home, for the first time in his life.
LUCY KALANITHI
While grieving her husband, a young mom helps their daughter build a relationship with him that is based on joy as well as loss.
