Dan Harris is a fidgety, skeptical journalist who had a panic attack on live national television, which led him to try something he otherwise never would have considered: meditation. He went on to write the bestselling book, 10% Happier. On this show, Dan talks with eminent meditation teachers, top scientists, and even the odd celebrity. Guests include everyone from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Brené Brown to Karamo from Queer Eye. On some episodes, Dan ventures into the deep end of the pool, covering subjects such as enlightenment and psychedelics. On other episodes, it’s science-based techniques for issues such as anxiety, productivity, and relationships. Dan's approach is seemingly modest, but secretly radical: happiness is a skill you can train, just like working your bicep in the gym. Your progress may be incremental at first, but like any good investment, it compounds over time.New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Listen to 10% Happier on the Wondery App or wherever you listen to your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting https://wondery.com/links/ten-percent-happier-with-dan-harris now.
What ancient Greeks and Romans figured out about stress reduction.
You may have heard about stoicism, in the common parlance, as having a stiff upper lip, sucking it up, grinning and bearing it, suppressing your emotions, etcetera. Or you may have heard of Stoicism, the ancient Greco/Roman philosophy, that has become the de rigeur set of life hacks among millennial self-optimizers.
In this episode, guest Nancy Sherman argues that Stoicism is way deeper than any of that. She will argue that, in fact, Stoicism is kind of the opposite of all the above. It’s a way to truly know your patterns of thought and emotion.
Nancy Sherman is a Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University. She is an expert in ethics, the history of moral philosophy, moral psychology, military ethics, and emotions. Her most recent book is called Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience.
This episode is a rebroadcast from 2021: it’s one of our most-listened episodes, and we thought it might be particularly useful in this time of election-related stress.
In this conversation, we:
Content Warning: There is a brief reference to suicide.
Related Episodes:
Ancient Strategies for Managing Stress & Anxiety | Ryan Holiday
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Discomfort with the unknown is a natural human response. This meditation will help you relax as you practice allowing the rhythm of life to unfold.
About Alexis Santos:
Alexis has practiced and taught Insight Meditation in both the East and West since 2001. He has been a long-time student of Sayadaw U Tejaniya (a well respected meditation teacher in Burma whose teachings have attracted a global audience), and his teaching emphasizes knowing the mind through a natural and relaxed continuity -- a style of practice that's particularly useful during our crazy lives. Alexis has completed the Spirit Rock/IMS Teacher Training, teaches retreats across the globe, and currently lives in Portland, Maine.
To find this meditation in the Happier app, you can search for “Facing Uncertainty.”
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How to get the practice into your molecules—not in some militaristic way, but in a way that feels easy and natural.
Alexis Santos has been in the field of mindfulness and meditation since 2001. After graduating from Harvard University in 1995, he spent several years in medical school before leaving his chosen career as a doctor to seek out a different path. It was while traveling in India that he was introduced to insight meditation.
Since that time, Alexis has practiced in many meditative styles and traditions, including with Sayadaw U Tejaniya, the Thai Forest tradition with Ajahn Sumedho, the Tibetan tradition with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and within the lay Western insight community where he continues to learn from the growing diversity of voices.
Alexis's primary teacher has been Sayadaw U Tejaniya, from the Burmese Theravada tradition, and with whom he ordained as a Buddhist monk from 2003 - 2005. Sayadaw encouraged Alexis to teach in 2012. Alexis also completed the Spirit Rock/IMS four-year teacher training program with Jack Kornfield and others, including mentors Joseph Goldstein and Carol Wilson.
Alexis teaches meditation at retreat centers around the world. He is featured on the Ten Percent Happier meditation app and is co-founder of Open Door Meditation Community in Portland, Maine where he is a guest teacher.
Alexis's teaching style is natural and uncrafted. He brings a practical, intuitive and compassionate approach to the development of wisdom.
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Want to study and practice with Alexis? Visit his website at alexissantos.io where you can join his freely offered online practice sessions.
He will also be teaching at the Insight Meditation Society from March 5 - 12. When Awareness Becomes Natural: An U Tejaniya-style Insight Meditation Retreat
Related Episodes:
A More Relaxed Way to Meditate | Alexis Santos
I Just Did A 10-Day Silent Meditation Retreat With Joseph Goldstein. Here’s What I Learned
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How optimizing this skill can change your life – and the world.
Rabbi Sharon Brous has some extremely practical tips for how to improve what psychologists call your social health. She is the senior and founding rabbi of IKAR, a Jewish community in LA. Her new book, a bestseller, is called The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Heal Our Hearts and Mend Our Broken World.
Related Episodes:
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Full Shownotes: https://happierapp.com/podcast/tph/rabbi-sharon-brous-852
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Unraveling one of our main sources of unhappiness.
About Sebene Selassie:
Growing up, Sebene felt like a big weirdo. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and raised in white neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., she was a tomboy Black girl who loved Monty Python and UB40. She never believed she belonged. Thirty years ago, she began studying Buddhism as an undergraduate at McGill University where she majored in Comparative Religious Studies. Now, Sebene is a teacher, author, and speaker who teaches that meditation can help us remember our inherent sense of belonging, that our individual freedom affects absolutely everyone and everything, and that our collective freedom depends on each and every one of us. Sebene is a three-time cancer survivor of Stage III and IV cancer.
Check out Sebene’s Substack newsletter, Ancestors to Elements.
To find this meditation in the Happier app, you can search for “Hope in the Everyday.”
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The Buddhist case — and toolkit — for “don’t-know mind.”
For this episode, Executive Producer DJ Cashmere interviewed a trio of brilliant Dharma teachers to get their advice about how to handle being wrong. This is the third in a series of 'correspondent' episodes, in which DJ identifies a pain point in his life and meditation practice, then goes out into the world to report on the best ways to address it.
Kaira Jewel Lingo is a former nun in the Plum Village tradition started by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Vinny Ferraro teaches at the Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock, and also in prisons. Matthew Brensilver teaches at many of the same retreat centers, and spent many years working in the field of addiction pharmacotherapy.
*Matthew’s Dharma talk on Knowing And Not-Knowing
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Want to study and practice with today's guests? Please check out these Spirit Rock offerings:
Matthew Brensilver, Buddhist Psychology Training (Begins in January)
Vinny Ferraro: A Year to Live; Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully (Begins in January)
Kaira Jewel Lingo: Healing Our Way Home (Oct. 20); Insight Meditation Retreat (April 9-16; opens Dec. 11)
All 10% Happier listeners receive a discount code for our December Insight Retreat (Dec. 8-18) with the code TENPERCENT
& if you'd like to study with these guests on the East Coast, check out these retreats at the Insight Meditation Society:
Kaira Jewel Lingo, Strength to Love: Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King: Jr. (Jan 17 - Jan 20), and Return to Wholeness: Opening to Wisdom & Love (Mar 23 - Mar 29)
Vinny Ferraro, Peace in Presence: A Four-Night Retreat for All (Jan 31 - Feb 4)
Related Episodes:
Also, the teachers’ sites:
Vinny Ferraro's Course, A Year To Live
https://www.matthewbrensilver.org/
Feedback form: Let us know what you think!
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A Stanford innovation expert shares practical tips on future-proofing your mind.
Frederik Pferdt was Google’s first Chief Innovation Evangelist, where founded Google’s Innovation Lab. He’s also taught classes on innovation and creativity at Stanford University for more than a decade. His new book is called What's Next Is Now: How to Live Future Ready.
In this episode we talk about:
Related Episodes:
Dua Lipa On: Radical Optimism, Falling On Stage, And “Writing Yourself Into A Good Idea”
#516. Robin Roberts on the Skill of Optimism
#274 The Case for Optimism | Dr. Jonathan Salk
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More from Frederik Pferdt:
Book: What's Next Is Now: How to Live Future Ready
NextLetter (newsletter signup): https://www.frederikgpferdt.com/#nextletter
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frederikgpferdt/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fgpferdt/?locale=en_US
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Cultivating what’s good in us helps during times of both abundance and adversity. In fact, it’s when times are hard that we need it the most.
About Kaira Jewel Lingo:
At the age of twenty-five, Kaira Jewel Lingo entered a Buddhist monastery in the Plum Village tradition and spent fifteen years living as a nun under the guidance of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Now based in New York, she sees her work as a continuation of Engaged Buddhism as well as the work of her parents, inspired by their stories and her dad’s work with Martin Luther King Jr. on desegregating the South. The author of We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons on Moving through Change, Loss and Disruption, Kaira Jewel especially feels called to share mindfulness and meditation with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, as well as activists, educators, youth, artists, and families.
Recently on the podcast:
To find this meditation in the Happier app, you can search for “Growing the Good.”
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Why the man behind “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” is a self-help junkie.
Judd Apatow is one of the most prolific comedic minds in the industry. Recently, Apatow produced Peacock’s buddy comedy Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain and Universal’s romcom, Bros, starring and co-written by Billy Eichner. Apatow also directed, produced, and co-wrote with Pam Brady, the Netflix comedy The Bubble and produced and co-directed HBO Films’ Emmy®-winning documentary George Carlin’s American Dream with Michael Bonfiglio. His Netflix comedy special, Judd Apatow: The Return, released in 2017 and premiered to critical acclaim. Previous director credits include the Emmy®-award-winning documentary, The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and The King of Staten Island. He produced Academy Award®-nominated The Big Sick and Bridesmaids, as well as Superbad, Pineapple Express and Anchorman. For television, he executive produced Crashing, Girls, and Freaks and Geeks. Off screen, Apatow authored Sicker in the Head, a follow-up to his New York Times best-seller Sick in the Head.
In this episode we talk about:
Related Episodes:
Bill Hader on Anxiety, Imposter Syndrome, and Leaning into Discomfort
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What you resist persists. Buddhist strategies for acceptance and equanimity.
Ofosu Jones-Quartey, a meditation teacher, author, and musician hailing from the Washington DC area brings over 17 years of experience in sharing mindfulness, meditation and self-compassion practices with the world. Holding a bachelor’s degree from American University and certified by the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, Ofosu is a graduate of the Teleos Coaching Institute and is the male voice on the Balance meditation app, reaching over 10 million subscribers.
Ofosu leads meditation classes and retreats nationwide, having taught and led retreats at the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, The Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock, Brooklyn Zen Center, Cleveland Insight, Inward Bound Mindfulness and more.
As an accomplished hip hop artist under the name “Born I,” Ofosu released the mindfulness-themed album “In This Moment” in 2021. His most recent album is “AMIDA”, a spiritual, Lo-Fi Hip Hop album exploring life, death and his Buddhist faith.
Beyond music, Ofosu is an author. His self-published children’s book “You Are Enough” debuted in 2020 and his next work “Love Your Amazing Self” via Storey Publishing in 2022. Ofosu’s latest book: “Lyrical Dharma: Hip Hop as Mindfulness” will be released in 2025 via Parallax Press. You can pre-order the book here.
Ofosu lives in Rockville, Maryland, with his wife and four children.
Cara Lai has worked as an artist, wilderness guide, social worker, and therapist before becoming a full time meditation teacher. She teaches teens and adults at Spirit Rock, Insight Meditation Society, and Ten Percent Happier.
To find out more about what Cara does, you can go to her website, www.caralai.org – where she’s got some online meditation classes, including one called Meditate Your Face Off. She also has a monthly class for parents, co-led by Ofosu Jones-Quartey.
Speaking of podcasts, Cara also co-hosts a podcast called Adventures in Meditating (For Parents), along with Jess Morey and Jon Roberts.
Cara lives in Vermont with her husband and their 2-year-old son.
Related Episodes:
The Upside of Desire | Cara Lai
Can You Get Fit Without Self-Loathing? | Cara Lai
Rewire How You Talk To Yourself | Ofosu Jones-Quartey
What It’s Like To Do A Year-Long Silent Meditation Retreat—By Yourself | Cara Lai
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Full Shownotes: https://happierapp.com/podcast/tph/cara-ofosu-848
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“America's Government Teacher” has smart tips for staying calm in turbulent times.
After years of serving as a high school government and law teacher, Sharon McMahon took her passion for education to Instagram, where more than a million people (who affectionately call themselves “Governerds”) rely on her for non-partisan, fact-based information.
Sharon is also the host of the award-winning podcast, Here’s Where It Gets Interesting, where, each week, she provides entertaining yet factual accounts of America’s most fascinating moments and people. In addition, she is the author of The Preamble, a Substack newsletter about politics and history.
In this episode we talk about:
Related Episodes:
Eight Things I’m Doing To Stay Sane During Election Season | Dan Harris
3 Buddhist Strategies for When the News is Overwhelming | Kaira Jewel Lingo
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