Wisdom and Practice

What if unity isn’t a lofty ideal, but a daily practice rooted in how we speak, act and build together? This week, Simran is joined by writer, podcaster, and spiritual thinker, Nava Kavelin, for a conversation that grounds the Baha’i teachings of oneness and justice in real, everyday action. Together, they reflect on the collective exhaustion so many are feeling and how spiritual frameworks can he...

What happens when a poet, a rabbi and an imam walk into a room - not to debate, but to listen? In this special live episode of Wisdom and Practice, Simran moderates an honest, soul-stretching panel at NYU’s Fritzi Weitzmann Owens Memorial Lecture with Kaitlyn B. Curtice, Dr. Shaykh Faiyaz Jaffer, and Rabbi Joshua Stanton. Together, they wrestle with the tensions and truths of interfaith work - its...

What if family isn’t just who you’re born to, but who you choose to grow with? This week on Wisdom and Practice , we’re joined by community organizer and thought leaderAnurima Bhargava. In this episode, we explore how presence, faith, and mutual care can reshape the way we build and belong. She invites us to see each other not as weeds to be managed, but as seeds to be nurtured - reminding us that...

What if good and evil aren’t as clear-cut as we think? This week, Simran sits down with Laurie Santos, a Yale professor and the mind behind the Science of Wellbeing course, to unpack the messy, complicated nature of human behavior.  Together, they talk about small but powerful tools like ritual objects and cognitive reappraisal that help us manage our emotions and reshape our habits, rooting us mo...

Where do we turn for hope when the world doesn’t make sense? This week, Simran welcomes comedian, storyteller, and How to Be a Better Human host Chris Duffy for a conversation that begins with laughter but opens into something far more tender. Simran and Chris explore how humor can be an offering, a bridge between pain and connection. They speak about the sacredness of listening, the beauty in imp...

How do we teach our children to be kind in a fractured world? Simran sits down with author and workplace expert Amy Gallo to explore how spiritual and emotional intelligence can begin at home and ripple outward. Reflecting on the lifelong impact of raising children with an inner compass rooted in faith, empathy, and self-awareness, Simran and Amy unpack how embracing imperfection can be a powerful...

What does it mean to experience the divine from within? This week, Simran invites us into a rich conversation with Satpal Singh, founder of the nonprofit Nanak Naam, to explore a spirituality that focuses less on dogma and more on direct experience. Together, they reflect on a radical reimagining of God—not as an external figure, but as an inner current of oneness available to all. Through stories...

How can radical welcoming transform the way we build spiritual community? This week, Simran sits down with Rabbi Shira Statman for a moving conversation about belonging, identity, and the evolving face of faith. Raised in a predominantly Christian town, Rabbi Shira shares how her early experiences shaped her understanding of what it means to hold space for difference—and why radical hospitality is...

How might facing our mortality help us cherish the beauty in each moment? This week, Simran sits down with death doula Adrianna Prosser for a heartfelt exploration of life’s most universal—and often avoided—truth: death. Adrianna opens up about her deeply personal journey into death care, shaped by the trauma of her brother’s suicide. These moments became the catalyst for her calling: to hold spac...

What can silence teach us about presence, purpose, and connection? How might traveling inward be as transformative as journeying across the globe? This week, Simran journeys into stillness and simplicity with celebrated writer Pico Iyer. Together, they explore the quiet truths discovered through travel, solitude, and spiritual seeking. Pico reflects on his life between worlds—from the stillness of...

How do words shape the way we understand ourselves and each other? Can poetry and kindness be powerful tools for healing and connection in a fragmented world? This week, Simran explores the profound impact of poetry and kindness with acclaimed poet Naomi Shihab Nye. Together, they unpack her evolving understanding of identity—not as a rigid box, but as something fluid and ever-changing.  Naomi sha...

We often think that purpose comes from big moments or grand gestures. But what if it’s the small, quiet connections that truly shape the way we see the world? In this week’s episode, Simran speaks with Rabbi Sharon Brous, a spiritual leader whose journey to faith is deeply intertwined with her passion for social justice. Rabbi Brous shares how her path shifted from aspiring civil rights attorney t...

It can be easy to assume that purpose comes from grand gestures or major life events. But what about the moments of quiet connection that shape how we see the world? In this week’s episode, Simran speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. From reflecting on remarkable experiences in the midst of global conflicts, to a childhood memory of spiritual...

It can feel natural to seek wisdom in the big moments of life. But what about looking for wisdom in the smaller moments, the everyday encounters that shape us? In this week’s episode, Simran speaks with bestselling memoirist, Kelly Corrigan. She opens up about the transformative experiences that shaped her life, from a spiritual experience in her youth to the quiet interactions that often hold the...

Growing up in a strict religious environment can leave deep imprints on us. Addiction can too. So what happens when we dare to step beyond these and discover spirituality on our own terms?  In this week’s episode, Simran Jeet Singh sits down with Nadia Bolz-Weber, ordained Lutheran pastor, best-selling author, and founder of the House for All Sinners and Saints, to explore the journey of transform...

Leaning into love and compassion doesn’t always feel natural, especially when the people we’re dealing with are fueled by hate. But what happens when we resist our urges to hate, and instead, see humanity in one another? And how might we begin to do that? In this week’s episode, Krista Tippett, Peabody award-winning journalist and the host of the podcast On Being, explores how we can practice love...

Today, we have a special episode for you! If you’ve been enjoying this show, Wisdom and Practice, here's another podcast we think you’ll like. On “Know What You See”, host Brian Lowery delves into the ways our fundamental need to connect with others profoundly shapes our experience of life. Brian is a professor of social psychology at Stanford University, and on his podcast, he explores the surpri...

What happens when spiritual wisdom meets scientific inquiry? In this episode of Wisdom and Practice , host Simran Jeet Singh engages in a thought-provoking conversation with David DeSteno—renowned psychologist, Northeastern University professor, and host of the How God Works podcast. From his Catholic roots to his journey as a scientist and agnostic, David shares how his exploration of human behav...

Have you ever thought that discipline was a burden? Well, you’re not the only one. So many people have felt the same way. And yet, for Pulitzer Prize-winning author Charles Duhigg, discipline may be a path to freedom for many. Simran and Charles unpack the science of habit formation—why cues, routines, and rewards are the secret to sustainable change— like laying out gym clothes or finding moments...

College, for many of us, is a time of intense growth, self discovery and exploration.  That was certainly the case for Starsky Wilson, an activist, philanthropist, and public theologian. Though in Starsky’s case, that journey was one of deep introspection about one question that began to gnaw at him: what was his purpose?  From his early years growing up in Dallas attending a Baptist Church to dis...

Our experiences in faith communities can be as diverse and layered as the facets of our identities.  For Rima Vesely-Flad, a visiting fellow at Princeton University, her winding journey to the Theravada Buddhist tradition has also been a path to finding a community where she feels seen and challenged to live with radical compassion. Rima is the author of Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradi...

Biases shape how we see the world, how we interact with others, and even how we see ourselves. But what if we could reimagine those patterns and break free from them? Today’s guest, Anu Gupta, has made it his mission to do just that. Anu is a thought leader, mindfulness expert, and the author of the groundbreaking book Breaking Bias . Simran, in hearing about Anu’s rich tapestry of spiritual explo...

Despite having grown within The Baháʼí Faith, Rainn Wilson didn’t feel particularly connected to God or really any sense of spirituality.  But during the height of his career, while he was starring in the hit TV series “The Office”, in which he played Dwight Shrute– the strong willed, over-confident and ever-nerdy assistant regional manager to Michael Scott at the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company– Rai...

Growing up as a Muslim in America comes with its own challenges.   For Assistant Dean for Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School, Hussein Rashid, that struggle lies at the center of his work on modern day pop culture and its representations of Islam. In this raw and candid conversation, Simran and Hussein discuss different forms of Islamic practice and growing up code-switching, with...

Did you have a profound spiritual experience in your youth?  Rabbi Rick Jacobs' spiritual connection came during his summer camps in Northern California. Forging a bond with the natural world shaped his approach to blending traditional religious practices with universal spirituality, and they also inspired an appreciation for spiritual experiences outside conventional settings of worship.  Now ser...