Ancient Futures

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What if change had more to do with relationships than miracle solutions? Which priorities help them work better? How does one take meaningful action without having the power to determine its outcomes? Who ought to act if not us? In this podcast, I talk about these questions – along with many others – with Jes...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What distinguishes contemporary breath-control from earlier prāṇāyāma ? 💨 To what extent have external influences shaped Indian practices? How have things changed since the mid-nineteenth century? How might that relate to broader trends in yoga history? Lena Kraler is the author of Yoga Breath: Prāṇa and Prā...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What distinguishes fiction from facts? John le Carré is renowned for Cold War spy thrillers, yet over half his books were published after 1990 and they tackled modern issues that he had to research. A new exhibition in Oxford documents his methods, and spotlights the networks of experts who helped him. An ac...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What was the impact of the Osho / Rajneesh cult on the families of members? Why might some people struggle to heal old wounds? To what extent is abuse of children still unacknowledged? How can telling one’s story facilitate recovery? Lily Dunn is an author, teacher and mentor of literary memoir. She explores...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What might scholars learn from yoga practitioners, as well as vice versa? To what extent do their worldviews differ? Are their methods of inquiry compatible? Since many academics also practise yoga, as well as educating teachers via courses and trainings, can these roles be compartmentalised? Theo Wildcroft a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What might we learn from the marginalised stories of women in yogic traditions? 🧘‍♀️ Although female practitioners are prevalent today, ancient texts mostly talk about men. However, broadening the focus beyond ascetic yogis, we find empowered women – as well as awkward truths about social restrictions. Anjal...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What does it mean to be well in yogic terms? How far does this involve integration with natural surroundings? 🌳 Many early teachings prioritise the opposite, promoting withdrawal and inward focus, while the goal in the best-known text – Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra – is to disengage completely from material things...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What can we learn from a medieval hermit about how to live? A surprising amount perhaps. Julian of Norwich is the author of the oldest surviving book by a woman in English – her Revelations of Divine Love provides a fascinating guide to what it means to be well despite experiencing suffering. Hannah Lucas is...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com To what extent has yoga been influenced by socio-political forces, or competition for resources between different groups? Does understanding historical context help to make sense of teachings? What might we learn from the past that’s still relevant today? Richard Davis is an emeritus professor of religion at...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What does it mean to have mental plasticity? ♳ Unless the mind is to some extent controlled, it controls our experience. This axiom of yoga philosophy has helpful applications in everyday life – from avoiding being triggered by politics to making wise choices. Jessica Frazier is a lecturer at Oxford Universit...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What might the world look like if heroin was provided on prescription at local pharmacies? 💉 This is not a thought experiment. It used to be the basis of a policy that experts call the “British System” – in the early 1960s in London, the biggest dealer of drugs was Boots the Chemists. JS Rafaeli is the autho...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com To what extent is knowledge an obstacle? Is ignorance bliss? 🤔 Although it can be helpful to admit to not knowing, it rarely feels comfortable. I’ve been reflecting on that recently while working on some writing about yoga and politics, and it’s also a theme on my year-long course , The Path of Knowledge. Th...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com Were the all-embracing visions of William Blake shaped by Indian philosophy? 🪷 A new book by Mark Vernon explores what inspired Blake alongside his influence. Although he died 200 years ago, he was a prophet for our times, perceiving the spirit of some of the issues we're still grappling with – from rapid te...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What does it mean to inhabit a world that’s alive with deities, which might be less like gods than enlightened aspects of the mind? How could that influence how we relate to ourselves, to each other and to our surroundings? Yeshe Palmo has practised tantric Buddhism for roughly four decades, inspired by an em...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What inspired the creation of Indian sacred images? They played no part in early Vedic rituals, in which priests made offerings into a fire, asking gods for reciprocal blessings. Others did something similar with embodiments of nature, whose spirits – called yakṣas and yakṣīs – were sculpted in earthenware an...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com Do yogic practices and psychoactive substances lead somewhere similar? Stuart Sarbacker is a scholar and practitioner of yoga based in Oregon, where adult use of psilocybin – the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms – was recently legalised (though some places opt out ). As well as studying and teaching...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com Life can be both physically and mentally fragile – as Michael Holden explores with candid humour. His most recent book , The Reluctant Carer , describes moving in with his ailing parents, and trying to look after them while navigating multiple personal setbacks. One of these – not featured in the book – invol...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What makes it holy to get really stoned? This is an unavoidable question in India, where smoking cannabis is banned but done by dreadlocked devotees. Meanwhile, weed smoothies are frequently drunk at religious festivals. The writer Karan Madhok investigates this paradox – along with many others – in his new b...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What if the most important yogic posture was curiosity? That’s how Paul Bramadat , a scholar and practitioner, approaches research on a personal passion. He describes his new book Yogalands as “a skeptical but devoted insider’s perspective” on postural yoga and its place in the world. As we discuss, this invo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com Are there limits to what can be said in factual prose? Might poets sometimes do a better job of conveying deeper meaning and emotional truth? Lindsey Hilsum has reported on conflicts for more than 30 years. Her latest book , I Brought the War with Me , juxtaposes poetry with frontline experiences. Our convers...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com How closely connected are yoga and politics? Many people today try to keep them apart, but an ancient tradition sees yoga as politics. Although its theories might be distinct from yogic philosophies and mind-body disciplines, they’re nonetheless part of a broader understanding of what yoga means. A new book c...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com How do people cope with uncertainty? What differentiates ways of predicting the future from scientific study of patterns – be that in epidemiology or forecasting weather? Might techniques of divination reveal as much about the past and the present as what happens next? Michelle Pfeffer (formerly Aroney) is a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com How can we address global problems – such as catastrophic climate change – when individual actions make very little difference? What’s the right thing to do when there aren’t easy answers? Is it wrong to do nothing? Is everything relative, or are there better ways to think about solutions? As Travis Rieder wr...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com What does it mean to be human, and how can one access one’s innermost self? Robert Rowland Smith writes popular books about practical philosophy, including a memoir that discusses what he’s learned from his relationships – as well as a career as an Oxford don, a strategic adviser and a personal coach, among o...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com "What are we doing wrong that requires us all to be so resilient so often?” That’s the basic question that frames a new book by Elliot Cohen. The Psychology of Slow Living investigates ways to avoid being frazzled by a culture of urgency fuelled by quests for instant gratification via digital technology and o...