Explore Spirituality

Rachel Allyn, PhD has been a licensed holistic psychologist for almost 20 years. She specializes in body-mind medicine, relationships, and intimacy issues. She helps individuals and couples cope with their moods, life transitions, and relationship challenges. A certified yoga teacher, Dr. Allyn incorporates the body into her sessions and leads therapeutic body-mind workshops and retreats. She recently released a book called The Pleasure Is All Yours: Reclaim Your Body's Bliss and Reignite Your Passion for Life. In this episode, Rachel and Rabbi Rami chat about pleasure practices, the human condition, and the idea of "bodyfulness." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sweta Srivastava Vikram is an international speaker, best-selling author of 13 books, and Ayurveda and mindset coach who is committed to helping people thrive on their own terms. She also teaches yoga, meditation, and mindfulness to survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence as well as incarcerated men and women. She lives in New York City with her husband. In this episode, Sweta and Rabbi Rami discuss the healing power of Ayurveda, the benefits of daily practices, and how to start writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paul Denniston is the founder of Grief Yoga. Denniston is certified in Hatha Yoga, Vinyasa Flow, Kundalini Yoga, Laughter Yoga, Restorative Yoga, and Let Your Yoga Dance. He also has taught movement at the Stella Adler Academy in Hollywood. He has combined elements from many forms of yoga to help heal grief. In this episode, Denniston and Rabbi Rami discuss the origins of Grief Yoga, Denniston’s spiritual journey, and managing anger, among other topics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah Bowen is an animal chaplain, multi-faith spiritual educator, cofounder of Compassion Consortium, and author of Sacred Sendoffs: An Animal Chaplain’s Advice for Surviving Animal Loss, Making Life Meaningful, & Trying to Heal the Planet. As a member of One Spirit Interfaith Seminary’s faculty, Spiritual Directors International, the Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement, and several recovery communities, Bowen supports all beings regardless of their species or belief system. Bowen is also a co-founder of Compassion Consortium, the first interfaith, interspiritual, and interspecies spiritual community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zenju Earthlyn Manuel is an African-American Soto Zen Buddhist priest, author, poet, diviner, and medicine woman of the drum whose practices are influenced by Native American and African indigenous traditions. Her new book is The Shamanic Bones of Zen:Revealing the Ancestral Spirit and Mystical Heart of a Sacred Tradition. Her book was reviewed in the March/April 2022 issue of Spirituality & Health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A. H. Almaas (aka A. Hameed Ali) is a Kuwaiti American author and spiritual teacher who writes about and teaches spiritual development informed by the “Diamond Approach.” His new book is Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apolo Ohno is the most decorated American at the Winter Olympics and was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2019. In today’s episode, Rabbi Rami and Ohno explore Ohno’s new book, Hard Pivot. Rabbi Rami and Ohno start their conversation discussing the 2022 Winter Olympics currently going on in Beijing, before pivoting (pun intended) to focus on Ohno’s book. They dive into Ohno’s expedition into a life beyond speedskating, and the uncertainty, curiosity, and alienation that came along with retiring from the sport that had been the center of his life for so long. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Annabel Streets is a writer of highly researched, award-winning author of both narrative and practical nonfiction. She occasionally writes under the name Annabel Abbs, a pen name she is using for her forthcoming nonfiction book Windswept: Women Who Walked. Under the name Annabel Streets, which she uses for her practical nonfiction, she is coauthor of The Age Well Project. She is also the author of the novels The Joyce Girl and Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen. Her new book, 52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time, is reviewed in the March/April 2022 issue of Spirituality & Health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Morgan Harper Nichols is a mixed-media artist, Christian musician, writer, and autism advocate. Her work has been featured in collaboration with Target, Starbucks, Anthropologie, Athleta, Aerie, Barnes & Noble, TJ Maxx, and more. Nichols’ new book Peace is a Practice: An Invitation to Breathe Deep and Find a New Rhythm for Life examines stories from her own life and the lives of people around the world to find one common thread among humanity: We all long for peace. See Nichols’ essay, art, and poetry featured in the March/April 2022 print issue of Spirituality & Health on shelves February 23rd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vanessa Chakour is an herbalist, holistic arts educator, environmental activist, and the founder of Sacred Warrior. Sacred Warrior utilizes experiential learning to explore plant medicine, martial arts, wildlife conservation, meditation, and more. Chakour’s new book Awakening Artemis: Deepening Intimacy With the Living Earth and Reclaiming Our Wild Nature, a healing guide that blends practical plant-based knowledge and spiritual reconnection for deeper communication with and respect for the natural world, is on-sale now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Professor of Theology, author, S&H contributor, and the host of Madang podcast returns to the Spirituality & Health Podcast to discuss her new book Invisible and her experience at COP26 Summit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reverend Dr. Jacqui Lewis is the first female and first Black Senior Minister at the historic Collegiate Church in New York City, which dates to 1628. Her new book, Fierce Love: A Bold Path to Ferocious Courage and Rule-Breaking Kindness That Can Heal the World was featured in Spirituality & Health’s Books We Love 2021 and is available now. Read Rev. Lewis’ guest column in the September/October 2021 issue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shelly Tygielski is the author of Sit Down to Rise Up: How Radical Self-Care Can Change the World and founder of the global grassroots mutual aid organization Pandemic of Love. Her work has been featured by over 100 media outlets, including CNN Heroes, The Kelly Clarkson Show, CBS This Morning, the New York Times, and Washington Post. Tygielski’s book Sit Down to Rise Up was reviewed in the November/December 2021 issue of Spirituality & Health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lisa Broderick is a business executive, social entrepreneur, and founder and Executive Director of Police2Peace—an organization devoted to reshaping policing in America. Her new book is All the Time in the World: Learn to Control Your Experience of Time to Live a Life Without Limitations. In this episode Rabbi Rami and Broderick explore two startling claims: “You can control your experience of time” and “You can live without limitations.” They dive into the science of brainwaves and states of consciousness and sleep through the lens of time, developing a limitless nature, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pamela Seelig’s journey began after a diagnosis of Bell’s Palsy, which led her to leave her high-stress Wall Street job and seek out alternative medicines to begin her healing process—which brought her into the world of yoga and meditation. She has now been practicing yoga for over 25 years. Seelig’s new book Threads of Yoga: Themes, Reflections, and Meditations to Weave into Your Practice was featured in Books We Love in the September/October 2021 issue of Spirituality & Health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Pavlovitz is a pastor, writer, and activist. His blog, Stuff That Needs To Be Said reaches a diverse worldwide audience. He is the author of such books as A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community, and Hope and Other Superpowers: A Life-Affirming, Love-Defending, Butt-Kicking, World-Saving Manifesto. His new book is If God Is Love, Don't Be a Jerk: Finding a Faith That Makes Us Better Humans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robert Thurman is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, and co-founder and president of Tibet House US. A close friend of His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama for over half a century, Bob is the first ordained American Buddhist monk in the Tibetan tradition. A passionate activist for the plight of the Tibetan people, a skilled translator of Buddhist texts, and an inspiring writer of popular books on Buddhism—Thurman’s newest book is Wisdom Is Bliss: Four Friendly Fun Facts That Can Change Your Life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Connie Zweig is a psychotherapist, former executive editor at Jeremy P Tarcher Publishing, a columnist for Esquire Magazine and a contributor to the LA Times, the author and co-author of several books on the psychology of the shadow. Her newest book is the Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul. In this episode Rami and Zweig discuss aging and midlife, fear, changing careers, cultivating deeper awareness, and more. “During our midlife period of life, we're all empire-building. We're building families and careers and our ego development is peaking. Then as those responsibilities begin to fall away, whether it's in our 50s, or 60s, 70s, or 80s, and there's a shift in the structure of our days and the demands and the stress on us, most people get disoriented. They don't know where to turn. They don't know what's meaningful to them anymore.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alejandro Mandes is a social worker and theologian. He is the founder of Immigrant Hope and is devoted to equipping immigrants with the tools to find the hope of the gospel, a path to legal residency, and a home and church that accepts them. His new book is Embracing the New Samaria: Opening Our Eyes to Our Multiethnic Future. Read our review of Embracing the New Samaria: Opening Our Eyes to Our Multiethnic Future from the July/August issue of Spirituality & Health. Mandes asks “Who aren’t we reaching?” In this episode Rami and Mandes discuss the multiethnic future of the Christian church, opening the doors to all individuals of all races and cultures, salvation outside the church, God’s love and image in humanity, and much more. “I think we try to understand God in paradigms we set up that are not always crystal clear. And I’m okay with that abstraction.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tao Lin, is a novelist, poet, essayist, short-story author, and artist. He has published numerous novels and novella, two books of poetry, a collection of short stories, a memoir, and an assortment of digital content. His latest novel is called Leave Society, and a review of the book appears in the July/August 2021 issue of Spirituality & Health. Tao Lin, welcome to essential conversations. In this episode, Rabbi Rami and Lin discuss the philosophical nuances and therapeutic benefits of microdosing and recreational drug use, Daoism, autism, death and “leaving society,” and much more. “When I first got really disillusioned with my life ... I took a big dose of psilocybin and that combined with listening to a lot of Terence McKenna, made me have this idea that I should leave society, leave the life I had in New York City where I was really depressed. Then at that point, I realized that I didn't know what I would leave towards.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Susan Cross describes herself as a “well-wisher to ravens, bears, bumblebees, rattlesnakes, and coyotes.” She is a burial shroud maker, a rawhide hand drum and rattle builder, a ceremony writer, a gardener, an old mother, a tour driver, a self-proclaimed grief-stricken naturalist drowning her sorrows with single malt scotch, and a weary but wonder-filled pilgrim. Cross has written a number of essays for Spirituality & Health, including her essay “Rethinking Burial: Burial Shrouds and More Ideas” featured in the July/August 2021 print issue. She is also the author of a new book called A Fleeting Presence: Fieldnotes From a Crone. In this episode Rabbi Rami and Cross discuss the presence of the crone in all people— regardless of gender—burials, heritage, the “Disney-fication” of the feminine, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an activist, social justice warrior, author, anti-racism consultant and trainer, intuitive healer, and yoga teacher and practitioner. Her new book is Finding Refuge: Heartwork for Healing Collective Grief. Read our review of Finding Refuge from the July/August 2021 issue of Spirituality & Health. Rabbi Rami and Johnson start by defining racism throughout history. They explore ethnocentrism, white privilege, generational trauma, radicalizing yoga, the problematic nature of “color-blindness,” and more. “We are in physical bodies and yet we are not our bodies. But we need to recognize what our bodies are doing to other bodies as we remember our divinity. … We can hold both of these at the same time.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati is an acclaimed author, speaker, and spiritual leader initiated into the order of Sanyas in the year 2000 by His Holiness, Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji, one of India’s most revered spiritual leaders. Sadhvi also holds a PhD in psychology. She’s the author of several books including By God's Grace, and Come Home to Yourself. Her newest book is Hollywood to the Himalayas: A Journey of Healing and Transformation. In this episode, Rabbi Rami and Sadhvi discuss encounters with the Divine Mother, coming home to spirituality and to oneself, non-denominational experiences of god, and awakening to a new spiritual quest that feeds the soul. “I had this extraordinary experience, just spontaneously immediately of oneness, and connection, and awakening, and union, and ecstasy, and perfection, perfection of myself, perfection of the universe, perfection of my place in the universe, oneness with this incredible mother goddess. I experienced her, I experienced her presence on every level of my being.” Subscribe to the Spirituality & Health Podcast for free so that you will never miss an episode. Here is how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James Jeffrey spent nine years in the British Army, serving in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan, before attending journalism school in Austin, Texas. Since 2012, he has freelanced in America and the horn of Africa. His work has appeared in Irish Times, The New Humanitarian, CNN, and many more. Read James Jeffrey’s article in the July/August 2021 issue of Spirituality & Health: “How to Bring the Camino Vibe Into Your Life.” In this episode of the Spirituality & Health Podcast, Rabbi Rami and James Jeffrey discuss the Camino De Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage through the landscape of France and Spain, and the concept of walking as a spiritual practice. They explore Jeffrey’s experiences having done the pilgrimage twice and how readers can access the pilgrimage vibe from their own homes via the “mini-pilgrimage.” “On the Camino you can be walking for every day for five weeks, by the third week you really do enter this incredible stage—this repetitive pilgrimage act of walking going all the way back to Abraham—it takes your mind and heart to another place.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Neal Allen is a coach and author of Shapes of Truth: Discover God Inside You, a book that lays out 35 qualities of God that can be experienced by humans as they exist inside each person. In this episode, Rabbi Rami and Allen discuss these qualities, highlighting the “big 5”—joy, strength, will, compassion, and power. They also explore the divine objects or “white pearls” each human has within them, conformity, and the innate capacity of humans to be good. “When I talk about God I’m not quite talking here about the overall God, the God that’s outside you, inside you, that permeates everything … what I write about and talk about is an ability that we have to notice, and discover, and retrieve aspects of God that are particularly useful to us as human beings.” Read the magazine: spiritualityhealth.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kristen Neff is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at University of Texas, Austin, specialist in self-compassion research, and author. Her new book is Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive. Read Neff’s interview by Spirituality & Health’s Stephen Kiesling in the May/June 2021 issue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tracee Stanley doesn’t want you to fear rest. Stanley is a yoga Nidra lineage holder, meditation and self-inquiry teacher, and co-founder of the Empowered Wisdom Yoga Nidra School. Her new book is Radiant Rest: Yoga Nidra for Deep Relaxation and Awakened Clarity. Be sure to read Stanley’s essay, “Embrace the Transition” which appears in the May/June 2021 issue of Spirituality & Health. “We have been out of balance for quite some time, and I think that the pandemics—the multiple pandemics—that we find ourselves in right now, whether it be covid, whether it be racism, whether it be climate crisis … they all to me have a thread of not honoring the divine feminine.” In this episode, Rabbi Rami and Stanley discuss yoga Nidra, “the yoga of sleep,” as it connects to the divine feminine, the earth, and the self. They explore the essentiality of the divine feminine and the return to the mother—and how such a return can offer humanity a “new story.” Later they discuss the necessity of yoga Nidra practice in recognizing the Self, and how the practice allows the expansion of Self in the face of oppression. They close out their conversation with the idea that yoga Nidra is the act of total surrender, that the practice of yoga Nidra is counter-culture to the grind mentality, to trauma, and that it is okay to let go and just rest. “Yoga nidra is this process of completely non-doing and releasing of thought—it’s a place of no thought.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grace Ji-Sun Kim is a Korean-American theologian and Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion. She is the author and editor of 20 books, a contributor to Spirituality & Health online and in print (Tune in for her upcoming article in the July/August 2021 issue!), and the host of Madang podcast hosted by The Christian Century. In her recent digital article for Spirituality & Health, “Body Prayer for Every Day,” Kim discusses her mother’s journey with prayer and ways you can engage in whole-body prayer, citing the practices of Julian of Norwich (1343–1416). In this episode, Rabbi Rami and Kim jump around Kim’s work from books to articles as they discuss the intersectionality of identity and religion, why we love labels, and how the Korean language evolves our ability to speak about God. They also dive into Kim’s first book, The Grace of Sophia: A Korean North American Women's Christology—in which they discuss the feminine dimensions of God and the divine feminine. “I hope people will retrieve, and welcome, the feminine dimension of the divine. It’s so liberative, it brings us together. And even in the old testament, it talks about God as the mother hen, and there are feminine images of God. But because we live in a dualistic world, we kind of separate the two, we can't seem to kind of welcome both of them.” They close out their conversation in a discussion of responsible doing as a means to knowing, and how praying with the whole body—beyond just words—can bring you closer to your religion and your understanding of God. Whole-body prayer, Kim explains, is a holistic approach to prayer. “People focus on the speaking aspect of prayer, that is the most highly valued way of prayer—through our speaking—which is also going back to this problem of dualism, we have separated everything up, compartmentalized. ... If we move away from this dualistic way of prayer, we can pray with our bodies, with our hands, with our feet, with our minds, with our words, with our language—it becomes a more holistic approach.” Subscribe to Essential Conversations for free so that you will never miss an episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lyanda Lynn Haupt is a naturalist, writer, educator, and the author of six books, including Mozart's Starling, an account of the composer's relationship with a unique bird who sang a version of his Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major. In her latest work, Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit, Haupt writes about how science, poetry, mysticism, and the traditions of earth-based cultures all point to the truth that we are interconnected and pose the “essential question of how to live on our broken, imperiled, beloved earth.” In this episode, Rabbi Rami and Haupt discuss the scientific reason that being in the natural world is so therapeutic to humans, the “industry” of forest therapy, solitude, and the innate human connection with nature. “For millennia mystics and poets and earth-based indigenous cultures and children have known that we are at our healthiest, our wisest, our most creative, in our most embodied sense of wellness when we are in the natural world.” They also explore the idea of “shedding” otherness, separateness, elevation, pretense, and comfort in order to become in deeper relationship with the earth and gain an understanding that “we are standing on holy ground.” Haupt and Rabbi Rami close out their conversation with the notion of “fruitful darkness” and why Haupt doesn’t equate darkness to being bad or negative, but rather, a part of the life-bringing cycle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Peter Lovatt is a dance psychologist, former professional dancer, and current teacher at the Royal Ballet School in London, UK. He is the founder of the Dance Psychology Lab at the University of Hertfordshire and has been a featured speaker alongside Barack Obama, Oprah, and Sir Richard Branson. Rabbi Rami and Dr. Lovatt discuss the universality of dancing within the human condition, how dancing is scientifically proven to improve your mental and physical health, and how dancing is the window to the human soul. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hala Khouri has been teaching yoga and movement for over 25 years. As a trained psychologist, she does clinical work with people struggling with trauma, depression, and anxiety. She trains clinicians and yoga teachers as well as educators and non-profits to be trauma informed. She and Rabbi Rami discuss her new book, Peace from Anxiety: Get Grounded, Build Resilience & Stay Connected Amidst the Chaos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian McLaren is a leading voice advocating for a new kind of Christianity. He was featured in Spirituality and Health’s January/February 2021 issue as one of the seven trailblazers who are helping define the future of spirituality. He and Rabbi Rami discuss McLaren's latest book Faith After Doubt, and the dangerous rise of right-wing Christian nationalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week it is our pleasure to interview Luvvie Ajayi Jones. Luvvie is an author, a sought-after speaker, and a podcast host who thrives at the intersection of comedy, technology and justice. She penned the New York Times bestselling I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual. Her latest book is Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual. Who is a professional troublemaker? They are the necessary truth-tellers in the room. Listen to the podcast to find out why they are so vital. @Luvvie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Rami's guest this week is author Natalie Goldberg. She is the author of 15 books, including the classic Writing Down the Bones, (Shambhala, 1986). Her new book is Three Simple Lines: A Writer's Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode’s guest is Maci Daye. Daye is a licensed professional counselor, a certified Hakomi therapist, and certified sex therapist. She and Rabbi Rami discuss the connection between spirituality and sex, and how mindfulness techniques can be used to rediscover erotic potential. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Rami’s guest this week is Rev. Jes Kast. She is a pastor at Faith United Church of Christ in State College, Penn. Rev. Kast is featured as one of the trailblazers in the Jan./Feb. 2021 issue of Spirituality and Health, in the feature story “7 Spiritual Radicals.” It interviews seven leaders who are redefining contemporary religion and making it more inclusive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Rabbi Rami speaks with Kevin Anderson, Ph.D. Dr. Anderson is a psychologist, life coach, author, and speaker. His recent books include Now Is Where God Lives: Nested Meditations to Delight the Mind and Awaken the Soul and The Inconceivable Surprise of Living: Sustaining Wisdom for Spiritual Beings Trying to Be Human. Using a playful approach to words, such as with nested meditations, can be a form of cognitive therapy, Anderson says, helping us deal with stuck emotions and maladaptive thoughts. Listen to the episode to learn how to use the technique. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Individualism and capitalism are simply not working. Author Sarah Wilson talks with Rabbi Rami about the challenges we face as humans, such as climate change and racial injustice, and proposes healthier systems to heal a fractured world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robyn Moreno is a certified yoga teacher, trained life coach, and practicing curandera (Mexican folk healer). In the past, she led a go-go life in publishing and as an Emmy-nominated TV host. But internally, she was in crisis—with unresolved childhood trauma and deep burnout. She calls this a soul crisis. Moreno found deeper roots, and healing, when she transitioned from media maven to modern curandera, rediscovering her family’s Mexican culture—and herself. She and Rabbi Rami discuss her journey to studying an earth-based wisdom tradition that her great-grandmother had practiced, curanderismo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who do you want at your deathbed? We do not like to think about such things, yet we will all die, and wrestling with such finitude can actually make our lives richer. Rabbi Rami’s guest this week is Lydia Dugdale MD, an associate professor of medicine and director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at Columbia University. She is an internal medicine primary care doctor and a medical ethicist. Dr. Dugdale is a frequent contributor to Spirituality & Health, and her new book, The Lost Art of Dying (July 2020), explores hopeful perspectives on death and dying—and living with intention—via the lost medieval practice of ars moriendi. Ars moriendi were originally two texts from the medieval era and when taken in the context of the Bubonic Plague, death was literally all around. The idea is you do not know when death will come upon you, so you need to always be ready and prepare for a good death. It sounds morbid, but doing the work can make life more meaningful. Take, for example, reconciling with family before it is too late. Dugdale finished her book prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and while it is thankfully not the Plague, death is again front and center in our culture. Dr. Dugdale and Rabbi Rami discuss, for example, the important difference between dying alone and lonely dying. At the height of the pandemic, she reports working in the hospital and seeing, due to the shortage of PPE that would have allowed closer human contact, patients dying in a very lonely way, Dugdale. “To have patients die and have their last contact be through an iPad, it was a tragedy not only for the patients and for their families, but also for the doctors and nurses.” So what happens when we die? For more on that, you will have to listen to the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From a very young age, Jacqueline Suskin felt called to the path of poetry. Her most recent book is Every Day is a Poem (Sounds True, 2020), and she is the author of six other books including The Collected, Go Ahead & Like It, The Edge of The Continent Volume One, The Edge of The Continent Volume Two, Help in the Dark Season, and The Edge of The Continent Volume Three. With her project Poem Store, Suskin has composed over 40,000 improvisational poems for people who chose a topic in exchange for a unique verse. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, and other publications. She is also featured on the cover of the November-December 2020 issue of Spirituality & Health. Poetry is having a huge renaissance. Suskin credits this partly due to shorter attention spans among the reading public, but also a desire to reach the heart of the matter, to connect more quickly with that which is vital. Poetry is an accessible tool for people, she notes, that can help us “sift through the chaos and enjoy being alive.” It is the combination of micro and macro content that makes poetry so special, Suskin says. She and Rabbi Rami also talk about how poetry is similar to prayer, and how it can translate suffering into something meaningful. Listen to the whole podcast to hear this beautiful conversation. For more on Suskin’s poetry, teaching and other work, visit her website. And please subscribe to Essential Conversations (always free) so you will never miss an episode! Here is how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lama Rod Owens is a Buddhist minister, activist, yoga instructor and authorized Lama (Buddhist teacher) in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. Owens holds a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School and has given talks, retreats and workshops around the U.S. and internationally. He is considered a leading teacher of his generation. In this week's podcast, he and Rabbi Rami discuss Owens' latest book, Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation Through Anger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this electrifying conversation, Rabbi Rami talks with the Most Rev. Michael Curry. He is the presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church. They discuss his new book, Love is the Way, and how Jesus has over the millennia been turned into a meeker and milder version than the radical figure he may have actually been at the time. He was founding a nonviolent movement, true, but he was challenging the status quo. “I think it would have been lovingly unsettling to be around Jesus,” says Curry. “The way of love calls out injustice. I grew up hearing the language of love within the context of the civil rights movement,” explains Curry. “This is how we were intended to live, and this is why it has such positive energy.” Do not miss listening to this amazing conversation between Rabbi Rami and Bishop Curry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Rami’s guest this week is Jaimal Yogis. Yogis is an award-winning writer and frequent speaker, and we are delighted to have him gracing our September/October 2020 cover, along with his insanely cute son. A graduate of Columbia Journalism school, Yogis is featured in our annual Books We Love feature. He has an impressive body of work, including three coming-of-age/journalistic memoirs: Saltwater Buddha, The Fear Project, and All Our Waves Are Water. His latest is a children’s picture book, Mop Rides the Waves of Life. It is about a free-spirited kid (hmm, that hair looks familiar...) who loves to surf. His mom teaches him how to meditate, and he makes the connection between sitting on his surfboard and meditating, learning how to ride emotions and allowing them to pass like waves. He and Rabbi Rami discuss the metaphor of the ocean and how it relates to the divine and how we are all connected. “The Rumi saying,‘You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the entire ocean in a single drop,’is something I always come back to, both on a spiritual level and also on a quantum physics level,” says Yogis. And Rabbi Rami adds, “Just as it is never too late to learn to surf, it is never too late to learn to be spiritual.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Rabbi Rami puts on his wellies and garden gloves to interview celebrated gardener Sue Stuart-Smith. She is also a prominent psychiatrist and psychotherapist, and the author of the book The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature. It weaves together stories about neuroscience, psychoanalysis, and how gardening can heal us mentally and physically. The book is especially timely in the time of COVID-19, she and Rabbi Rami discuss, as planting seeds and caring for living things helps us feel grounded when the future feels so uncertain. To feel calmer and more relaxed in a flourishing landscape may even be hard-wired into our brains from our earliest days as a species, explaining our continued enjoyment of the therapeutic effects of horticulture today. Being fully present in a garden is also much like meditating, says Stuart-Smith, as it is a mindful focus. After 20 to 30 minutes out in the garden or nature, the human body experiences lowered stress hormones and blood pressure. Raising our own food also provides people with a sense of pride and connection, providing community-strengthening benefits, she says. What if you live in a urban high rise and have no patch of soil to call your own? Indoor potted plants can provide benefits, too, assures Stuart-Smith. “They boost mood and concentration, and just the effect of caring for a plant has tremendous importance,” she says. “Caring for something, nurturing something ... can sustain us.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know we can reverse-engineer happiness and contentment by warming up our body’s own neural circuitry? That is the essence of the new book, Neurodharma: New Science, Ancient Wisdom, and Seven Practices of the Highest Happiness, by Rick Hanson, PhD. In this episode of the podcast, he and Rabbi Rami have a very deep conversation about Buddhism, the Buddha (who Hanson likes to see kind of as a coach), and Reality with a capital R. But there is practical, actionable advice here, too. Listen and enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Our birthright is innate resilience,” Dr. Rangel says. The question is how to build that up, and nurture it. This week, Rabbi Rami is talking with one of Spirituality and Health’s newest contributors, Dr. Josefa Rangel. Dr. Rangel is a board-certified internist and integrative medicine specialist who trained at Stanford University School of Medicine, the University of California San Francisco, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and The Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine. She also recently completed training in medical advocacy. Dr. Rangel has practiced integrative medicine since 2005. Her belief in the body’s innate capacity to heal led her to establish the Innate Medicine Clinic, in search of a new paradigm in medical care. “Sickness and death are part of life,” she discusses with Rabbi Rami. From her perspective as a healer, the goal is to tap into inner vitality, as opposed to try to be well at all times, which is simply not realistic. “We have inner knowing that any living thing wants to thrive, so that is view we want to take. We respond with skillful means.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week’s guest is Sarah Bowen. Bowen is an award-winning author, multifaith spiritual educator, animal chaplain, and is completing postgraduate work at Chicago Theological Seminary on the intersection of human spiritual values and animal welfare. She and Rabbi Rami discuss how we humans tend to categorize animals into groups, such as the ones we love, the ones we eat, the ones we wear... Bowen says, “Those of us who are interested in theo-ethics are really keen on trying to have conversations and figure out how far do we extend compassion, rights, relationships,” to animals other than ourselves, becoming, basically, less species-centric. A lot of people’s theology leaves out many sentient beings, Rabbi Rami and Bowen discuss, but if we expand compassion outward from ourselves, it is inevitable that we need to examine our behavior and ethics toward animals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“We were doing spine surgeries on anxiety, and it doesn’t work,” David Hanscom, M.D. tells Rabbi Rami. Hanscom is former spinal surgeon. His most recent book is Do You Really Need Spine Surgery? Take Control with a Surgeon’s Advice. After more than 32 years of surgical practice (and 15 years of suffering through chronic pain himself) he quit in 2018 to focus on teaching people how to break through cycles of chronic mental and physical pain, without undergoing surgery. Hanscom teaches pain-sufferers to use a variety of techniques, such as expressive writing, meditation, how to make use of sensory input, and here is an interesting one: Never talking about chronic pain with anyone except your doctor. Listen to the podcast to find out why. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the final episode in Rabbi Rami’s special four-part series on how to stay healthy from social, psychological, and spiritual perspectives during the COVID-19 crisis. This week, Rabbi Rami focuses on the Buddhist practice of metta, or lovingkindness, which fosters compassion. This practice encourages us to wish others well, and allows us to be free from fear. Rabbi Rami bases some of the conversation on the work of Sharon Salzberg, and her seminal book, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness. As Salzberg explains metta, “We open continuously to the truth of our actual experience ... metta is the sense of love that is not bound to desire, that does not have to pretend things are other than the way they are overcomes the illusion of separateness, of not being a part of the whole. Metta overcomes all the states that accompany this fundamental error of separateness: Fear, alienation, loneliness, and despair.” Metta softens your heart and allows you to act compassionately. It will change how you engage with others, Rabbi Rami promises us, which may actually change how others interact with us in turn. In this podcast, he will teach you how to try the metta practice. Listen to the podcast to give it a go. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices