Meditative Story

We’re inviting you into the Meditative Story library to explore the idea: what’s possible when you reframe the question? You’ll hear excerpts from some of our most beloved episodes in which storytellers see challenges from a new perspective, reframe something that they might have been stuck on, and ultimately move forward with a new sense of possibility. Listen to Meditative Story episodes feature...

Writer Florence Williams, grieving the loss of a long marriage, finds herself in Tulsa, Oklahoma; she's come to sit with Penny, her former mother-in-law, who is dying of cancer. Drawn together by the gravity of needing and being needed, the two women sit in the quiet house, in a space between life and death, between rootedness and uncertainty – and yet surrounded, always, by love. As Penny begins...

Rohan Gunatillake recounts his 2005 trip to Plum Village, the monastic community founded by the great Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. Author of over 100 books across mindfulness, Buddhism, activism, and nonviolence, Thich Nhat Hanh inspired generations of people all around the world to explore mindfulness and meditation. Thich Nhat Hanh founded Plum Village in 1982, and it was where he lived since he...

Boy meets girl, girl notices boy's squirrel painting, boy and girl fall in love. The plot of a classic Hollywood romcom? Not even close. But when struggling actor Randall Park meets the person of his dreams at an awkward LA art party, it is indeed the start of an epic love story – and a story of self-discovery too. If this episode resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a momen...

Keith Ferrazzi is the author of Never Eat Alone, a classic book about working relationships. But before he became an expert on building bonds at work, Keith is busy building emotional armor around himself – to hide his background, his ambitions, even his true feelings. He shares his story of building that armor, and then slowly learning to dismantle it, piece by piece. Listen to Adam Grant's episo...

Gracia María is a modern-day medicine woman, practicing community rituals in the tradition of her Peruvian ancestors. In connecting with her ancient roots, though, she realizes she also needs to rebuild the bonds with her immediate family, in order to share with them the person she's become. She learns the value of staying centered in her authentic self – knowing it will eventually bring others to...

Fluent in cheating time to squeeze productivity out of every minute, entrepreneur Keith Yamashita recounts the frightening details of a devastating stroke as it is actually happening, and discovers the second part of his life. It isn't a medical recovery. It’s an awakening.  Listen to Franklin Leonard's episode of Meditative Story "Writing the main character": https://link.chtbl.com...

As the pandemic drags on, Vanessa Hua finds herself in a dark place of panic and doom-scrolling. But that begins to change on one spring day, when she takes a walk outside with her kids – and recognizes a small jewel-green plant growing on the forest floor. Her discovery of wild food foraging helps her tap   into a body of shared, ancient knowledge, one that helps her find steadines...

Under the starry night sky, Rohan shares with us a ritual of ending and beginning. Bring to mind something you want to celebrate from this past year; release something you want to let go of; and mindfully choose a word, a beacon, that represents, in this fresh and unwritten year ahead, something that you want to become. If this episode resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a...

As an artist and writer, Beth Lisick has had her share of freelance side gigs. But nothing can prepare her for this latest assignment: tending to the unforgettable Bill, who leads Beth on an epic journey through New York City. What she learns along the way: Everyone’s struggles are not immediately visible. And neither are the gifts they have to offer us. If this episode resonates with you, we’d lo...

Today’s Meditative Story departs from our standard format. It’s not a story. But it’s as striking and resonant as any wisdom we’ve ever shared on this podcast. In this episode, Austin Mao – a listener in our community and a friend – shares a love letter to his wife, Chuchu, and another to his mother. These two are letters of love, grounded in vulnerability and integrity. The lesson here: When we l...

The end of a troubled life ignites a search for answers – a truth long buried, and a truth not yet formed. If this episode resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a moment to share your reflections by rating and reviewing Meditative Story in your podcast player. It helps other listeners find their way to the show, and we’d be so grateful. Each episode of Meditative Story combin...

For Jai Punjabi, the most powerful connection to home is through food – specifically the wonderful Indian cuisine he was raised on. Hoping to preserve the recipes of his beloved family dishes, Jai returns to his parents’ home in Bombay, only to discover that the secret lay not in the ingredients, but in a way of being. It isn’t the recipes to learn. It’s the process. If this episode resonates with...

All her life, Meredith Arthur is a model of competence and control, and it sweeps her higher and higher up the professional ladder. But inside, something isn’t right. After a painful wake-up call, Meredith drops the version of herself that she’s constructed and starts noticing the one she’s long neglected. Learn more about Meredith's website Beautiful Voyager : https://bevoya.com If this episode r...

It happens not in a yellow wood, but in author Steve Almond's befuddled 20s, when he is facing for the first time a decision that might actually matter. To the left lies success. To the right, something more interesting. If this episode resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a moment to share your reflections by rating and reviewing Meditative Story in your podcast player. It...

As a Night Minister with San Francisco Night Ministry, Rev. Monique Ortiz walks the dark streets of a beautiful and aching city – a city that transforms completely when the sun goes down. Reaching out to the most desperate souls, she learns to help in a way she hadn’t imagined. Learn more at www.sfnightministry.org If this episode resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a momen...

The chaotic nature and noise of life as a musician – touring from city to city – eventually erodes Andrew Bird's ability to hear the music that is really inside of him. In a courageous effort to understand the faint calling of sound playing in his head, Andrew deserts his Chicago apartment for a rural piece of land where he believes an old farmhouse might unlock his personal renewal as an experime...

Before becoming a MacArthur award–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. Apiculture doesn’t just become her life’s passion, it reveals a deeper truth about the connections that bind us. If this episode resonates with...

What do we do with the not-quite-perfect relationships in our lives? Growing up, the comedian and actor Milana Vayntrub adores her father — but all their happy times together end with him getting back on a plane. What does it mean to love someone who insists on living on another continent? And what might it mean to forge a new kind of intimacy? If this episode resonates wi...

Years before his YouTube-phenomenon cooking show Binging with Babish, the filmmaker Andrew Rea finds himself slipping into despair. His day job is draining him; so is an unhappy marriage. He finds the courage to take big bold steps toward a new life that’s centered on his passion for food. But there's a Part Two of this story. Because even as he finds a more fulfilled version of himself, he learns...

You might know actor Michael Imperioli as Christopher Moltisanti from The Sopranos — and now The Many Saints of Newark. But before all that, he was a 17-year-old kid, adrift, curious about acting. His parents are baffled, but they give him an enormous gift: they trust him. As he grows as an artist, Michael realizes the way that the courage to trust – in your instincts, in your teachers, and i...

Russ Ellis has led the kind of life they write books about. The first full-time Black professor at California’s Claremont Colleges. Acclaimed sociologist. Celebrated sculptor and painter. Even a recording artist. But as he reveals in this episode, even the fullest life can be haunted by a single event half a century earlier. If this episode resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you....

Learn these calming techniques to help navigate tricky family dynamics, the challenges of disconnecting from work, and the loneliness that can arise at even the most joyful times of year. Notice them, name them, release them. To learn more about the RAIN mindfulness technique – an acronym first coined by senior Buddhist teacher, Michele McDonald – visit Tara Brach’s website (you’ll see how Rohan’s...

A street in Honduras. A conference room. The fifth lap of a bike ride. Crisis can descend on you in unexpected places – and so can clarity. All that’s required of you, really, is to be there for it, and to stretch yourself in ways you hadn’t expected. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese in Washington, DC, tells of three defining moments of struggle and grace in her life. If this episode...

Boy meets girl, girl notices boy's squirrel painting, boy and girl fall in love. The plot of a classic Hollywood romcom? Not even close. But when struggling actor Randall Park meets the person of his dreams at an awkward LA art party, it is indeed the start of an epic love story – and a story of self-discovery too. If this episode resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a momen...