End of the Road Podcast (Immanence = Transcendence)

Joseph Schmidt is an author and founding member and former executive director of the New York Insight Meditation Center. This podcast will focus on his new collection of short stories called The Torchbearer which stands at the poignant intersection of literary short stories that double as meditations on big philosophical questions. As Kirkus Reviews writes: "Rod Sterling could have given a Twilight Zone intro to each story in this collection...they tend to focus on the saving grace of redemption and the transformation that comes with achieving true power." Joseph first became a practitioner of meditation while living in an ashram in India for three years in the 1970s before earning a masters degree in Psychology. In addition to his work at the New York Insight mediation center, he also serves as a volunteer chaplain at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ where he provides counseling to patients including end-of-life planning and grief trauma. For more information about this wonderful work, please see: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/joseph-schmidt/the-torchbearer/ This podcast is available on your favorite podcast platform, or here:https://endoftheroad.libsyn.com/episode-339-joseph-schmidt-the-torchbearerinsight-meditation Have a blessed weekend!

Constance Brenneman is an award-winning filmmaker, actor and producer in studio and independent film. In recent years, she has devoted her work to documentary filmmaking, creating projects that inspire, transform, and uplift. Her feature documentaries include Finding Inner Hero (2022), Built Different (2024), and Afterlife: Beyond the Light (2026--Vision Films). Afterlife was born from Constance's fascination with the culminating factors of phenomenal end-of-life experiences. Partnering with friend and producer Susan Brittain, she set out to explore both the science and the deeply human stories behind near-death experiences (NDEs) and shared-death experiences (SDEs). The film features powerful firsthand accounts alongside compellling interviews with two of the worlds leading experts in the field: Dr. Raymond Moody and William Peters. Both are internationally recognized pioneers whose decades of research and bestselling books have shaped modern understanding of these experiences. Additionally, Constance partnered with the Coming Home Channel to incorporate deeply personal testimonies from individuals who have directly encountered these phenomena, expanding the emotional and spiritual depth of the film. To create a sense of flow and visual poetry, Constance collaborated with a professional modern dance company to develop original movement pieces that align with prose, stories and interviews. The film further weaves in animation to visually interpret NDEs and SDEs as they have been documented across cultures for centuries. The film is available for download later this week on all platforms such as Itunes, Vimeo, and Amazon. Social media links: https://www.instagram.com/afterlifebeyondthelight/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583270437211# This podcast is available on your favorite podcast platform, or here: https://endoftheroad.libsyn.com/episode-338-constance-brenneman-and-susan-brittain-afterlife-beyond-the-light Have a blessed week!

Jeremy David Engels, PhD, is a Liberal Arts Professor of Communications and Ethics at Pennsylvania State University. He is also a longtime teacher of mindfulness, meditation, and yoga, having studied in both India and the United States, and he is certified to teach mindfulness after completing an intensive two-year training program under the direction of Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. Since undertaking a pilgrimage to walk in the footsteps of the Buddha in India and Nepal in 2018, he has been a student of Thich Nhat Hanh. He is dedicated to bringing the practice of mindfulness to democracy, and the practice of democracy to mindfulness. He is an award-winning scholar, and has published numerous books and articles about democracy, community building, deliberation, and peace, including On Mindful Democracy: A Declaration of Interdependence to Mend a Fractured World (Parallax, 2026) (which is the subject of this podcast). He is also the author of Living Namaste: A Practical Guide to Mindfulness, Yoga, and Building Community (Living Traditions, 2026); The Ethics of Oneness: Emerson, Whitman, and the Bhavagad Gita (U Chicago Press, 2021), and The Art of Gratitude (SUNY Press 2018). For more information about Professor Engels, see his website: https://jeremydavidengels.com/ or reach out to him directly at: [email protected]. This podcast is available on your favorite podcast platform, or here: https://endoftheroad.libsyn.com/episode-337-jeremy-david-engels-phd-on-mindful-democracy-a-declaration-of-interdependence-to-mend-a-fractured-world Have a blessed weekend!

This is a follow up interview with Dr. Aaron Breidenbach. In our first episode (EOTR 326), we discussed the crystals of Zn-Barlowite and Herbertsmithite that he grew and studied in his PhD at Stanford. These crystal have the potential to be used in applications in future quantum computers. See our first episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5YlHkGM3p6nfzSGU4yZjAv These crystals also grow naturally in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Aaron recently returned from an expedition with Chilean Anthopologist Vincente Carrasola Vega. They were successful in finding natural crystals of Herbertsmithite. These crystals are likely to be purer than laboratory synthetics, and this could enable new experiments in quantum physics. Tragically, however, these crystals are currently being destroyed in massive quantities as low-grade copper ore in ecologically damaging mining practices. We discuss the implications of this discovery, and the irony and tragedy of overextraction. We conclude this episode by talking about the relation of this disovery to Ayni, the local indigenous system of animistic reciprocity with the land. Aaron proposes a return expedition to Chile to look for one of the country's most famous lost archeological artifacts; a crystal ball found at the summit of the sacred volcano Licanabur. He believes that the ancient people of the land may have used these spheres to focus sunlight onto mineral samples to learn more about their properties. He hopes to replicate this experiment with the help of indigenous Aymara and Atacamenian collaborators. Aaron can be reached at: https://thequantumarcheologist.org/ This podcast is available on your favorite podcast feed, or here:https://endoftheroad.libsyn.com/episode-336-aaron-breidenbach-quantum-physicsanimism-ii Have a blessed weekend!

Ronnnie Pontiac is an author who worked seven years as Manly P. Hall's research assistant, screener, and designated substitute lecturer. He is the author of American Metaphysical Religion (EOTR episode 251) and, along with Tamra, Sacred Music/The Magic of the Orphic Mysteries (EOTR episode 270). Tamra Lucid produced documentary films including the Emmy nominated End of the Line: The Women of Standing Rock, and is the author of Making the Ordinary Extraordinary (EOTR episode 208). She is the former writer and art editor for Newtopia Magazine and her work has appeared in Reality Sandwich. She and Ronnnie are also founding members of the experimental (and riotous) rock band Lucid Nation. More information concerning the book can be found at: https://whitecrowbooks.com/book/the-unobstructed-way-a-true-account-of-the-exploration-of-life-after-death/ Check out Tamra and Ronnie at: https://linktr.ee/tamralucid https://linktr.ee/ronniepontiac This podcast is available on your favorite podcast platform, or here: https://endoftheroad.libsyn.com/episode-335-ronnie-pontiac-tamra-lucid-the-unobstructed-waydeathlife Link to Tamra's Celebration of Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL2FV4UoxU4 Have a blessed. weekend!

Dr. Reid is a clinical assistant professor at University of Pennsylvania and an associate professor at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. She attended medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed her psychiatry residency at UCLA. This podcast will focus on her new book, Guilt Free: Reclaiming Your Life from Unreasonable Expectations. Dr. Reid also writes and podcasts on Substack at A Mind of Her Own focused on helping individuals nurture a deep and lasting self-trust. She is also a regular contributor to Psychology Today with her blog "Think like a Shrink." Her writing has also been featured on KevinMD and Doximity. For more information, please see: https://www.jenniferreidmd.com/ This podcast is available on your favorite podcast platform, or here:https://endoftheroad.libsyn.com/episode-334-dr-jennifer-reid-guilt-free-reclaiming-your-life-from-unreasonable-expectations Have a blessed weekend!

Lynn is a clinical psychologist and professor emerita of psychology at the University of Illinois Springfield. She has published work on stress-illness relationships, program evaluation, and bias in treatment and research. Lynn also has a long-standing interest in transpersonal psychology and Buddhist perspectives on personality and human development. Hopefully, Lynn will be gracing future episodes of the podcast as a co-host. This mini episode is available on your favorite podcast platform, or here: https://endoftheroad.libsyn.com/episode-333-lynn-pardie-phd-mini-chop-woodcarry-water Have a blessed week! P.S. Cover art by the fabulous Wendy Allen.