Contemplify
The Contemplify podcast kindles the examined life for contemplatives in the world. Through artful musings & conversations with scholars, creatives, and master teachers each episode delivers a subtly intoxicating* exchange on the contemplative lifestyle with practical takeaways to emulate in daily life.
Host, Paul Swanson, is a husband, father and contemplative educator at the Center for Action and Contemplation and co-host of Another Name for Every Thing with Richard Rohr**.
*Contemplify is best served with a pint in hand. Please listen responsibly.
** All shenanigans, tom foolery and bally-hoo posted on Contemplify are my own. Contemplify is not representative of the Center for Action and Contemplation or Richard Rohr on any matter.
Latest episodes
Jul 19, 2023 • 1h 13min
Scott Avett on Being Here for the Feast
Scott Avett is a visual artist, musician, and songwriter. No amount of descriptors quite do him justice. Scott’s work was met by my ears before my eyes. His songs slip into the ear stream, reverberate off the rib cage and remind the heart it was born free. Scott’s paintings hold your gaze in absorption, jostle you awake, and drop you off a block later. In our conversation today Scott and I talk about creativity and contemplation, mysterious inputs that need to be absence of the thought of outputs, the study of sacred texts, parenting and death, and much more. Visit Contemplify.com for show notes. Visit Scott at scottavett.com or theavettbrothers.com | IG: @avettar | T: @ScottAvett
Jul 5, 2023 • 59min
Haleh Liza Gafori on Putting Mystery in the Middle
Haleh Liza Gafori is a translator, vocalist, poet, and educator born in New York City of Iranian descent. Her latest work, is a translation of Rumi poems entitled Gold. I first heard one of her translations of Rumi sitting around a campfire on a Sunday morning in Patagonia, Arizona. I was bit by the passion and this conversation does not disappoint. Haleh and I converse about being raised in a family that celebrates poetry, how a translator’s work is never done alone, what clergy of today might learn from Rumi’s transformation, translating as a spiritual practice, and much more. Visit Haleh at halehliza.com | @halehliza Visit contemplify.com
Jun 20, 2023 • 54min
Belden Lane on the Unbroken Desert of God
Belden Lane is Professor Emeritus of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University, author of numerous books including The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality and Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice. Belden Lane is a true elder, and in our conversation he exhibits that when we talk about wild places, the rough play and laughter of God, grief after losing a son, what we can learn from trees, and much more. Visit contemplify.com
Jun 13, 2023 • 6min
Your Naked Freedom
Good poetry is inherently spiritual. It is a clown car of interpretation. Once a door of perception is opened, endless and surprising “Ahas” tumble out. When you have a spiritual teacher who embodies a poem, their words become thunder and contemplation soaks you. Get a taste of Season Four of Contemplify. First full episode is out in a week. slide over to contemplify.com
May 12, 2023 • 6min
Spare Me Nothing
A musing on practice, desire, and its evolutions vist contemplify.com
Mar 30, 2023 • 1h 29min
James Finley on the Healing Path
I was overly giddy, strangely nervous, but above all grateful to be in conversation with James Finley about his breathtaking new book, The Healing Path: A Memoir and an Invitation. Each page is a thousand pages deep, that is how Jim walks about the world, drawing from the depths and teaching with winsome grace, poetics, and of course, wisdom. I have read The Healing Path twice now and I don’t see an end to rereading it, it charts the unfolding of Jim’s life; terrorizing trauma and abuse he endured as a child and at the monastery, graced invitations of transformative amidst the anguish, spiritual guidance from Thomas Merton, the richness of marriage to his beloved late wife, Maureen, and so much more. Learn more about this episode at contemplify.com.
Feb 25, 2023 • 9min
It's Not About the Beer, It's About the Beer
A musing inspired by Shawn Askinosie's story about Belgium beer brewing monks and the parables of Jesus from Feb 2023 vist contemplify.com
Feb 8, 2023 • 5min
Prairie Eye & Woods Eye
A musing on Bill Holm's "Horizontal Grandeur" pulled from his book of essays, The Music of Failure.
Jan 24, 2023 • 7min
Sitting on the Present Moment
A musing on the present moment of awareness that holds everything.
Nov 27, 2022 • 1h 1min
Engaged Contemplation in a Heartbreaking World with Fr. Adam Bucko
Father Adam Bucko has been a committed voice in the movement for the renewal of Christian Contemplative Spirituality and the growing New Monastic movement. He has taught engaged contemplative spirituality in Europe and the United States and has authored Let Your Heartbreak be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation, and co-authored Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation (with Matthew Fox), and The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living (with Rory McEntee). His work has been has been featured by ABC News, CBS, NBC, Harper’s Magazine, New York Daily News, and Sojourner Magazine and he currently serves as a director of the Center for Spiritual Imagination and the Cathedral of the Incarnation serving Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island in New York. Follow Adam on social media: Twitter | Instagram Visit Contemplify.com
