
How to Train a Happy Mind
The How to Train a Happy Mind podcast brings meditation to modern people hungry for happy, meaningful lives. Each week, host Scott Snibbe and his guests share powerful mind training techniques that go beyond mindfulness to harness our intelligence, emotions, and imagination. Learn how to build a happy mind, fulfilling relationships, and a better world through a secular approach to meditation that is based on modern science and psychology, yet grounded in the authentic thousand-year old Tibetan Buddhist tradition of analytical meditation. How to Train a Happy Mind is a project of the nonprofit Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment. Our host, Scott Snibbe, is a twenty-five-year student of Tibetan Buddhism whose teachers include His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Snibbe is the author of the popular How to Train a Happy Mind book, and leads meditation classes and retreats worldwide infused with science, humor, and the realities of the modern world.
Latest episodes

Sep 12, 2023 • 44min
Compassionate AI with Kristian Simsarian #80 [rebroadcast]
Artificial intelligence expert Kristian Simsarian joins host Scott Snibbe to discuss how we can create ethical, unbiased and compassionate AI, whether we should be scared of AI, and the implications of AI on the future of work and spirituality.Kristian Simsarian has a Ph.D. in human-robot collaboration and worked as a Robotics and AI computer scientist before holding leadership positions at IDEO, the California College of the Arts, Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center and many other organizations. He helped found Humans for AI and helped grow the Center for Humane Technology in its early years. His work has appeared in NYT, Business Week, Huffington Post, along with several best-selling business books on innovation. He's also a board member for A Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment.Episode 80: Compassionate AI with Kristian SimsarianFrom August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in the beautiful redwood forests of California, while enjoying delicious vegetarian meals and meeting thoughtful new friends.SIGN UP NOWSupport the show

Sep 5, 2023 • 38min
Loving Our Parents, Loving Our Children #76 [rebroadcast]
Host Scott Snibbe offers touching personal stories and a meditation on how to best love our parents and our children using powerful Buddhist teachings and techniques on understanding, listening, and compassion.Episode 76: Loving Our Parents, Loving Our ChildrenFrom August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in the beautiful redwood forests of California, while enjoying delicious vegetarian meals and meeting thoughtful new friends.SIGN UP NOWSupport the show

Aug 29, 2023 • 28min
Guided Meditation on Healing Trauma with sujatha baliga #137
Sujatha baliga leads a guided meditation to work through past traumas in a gentle, loving, and healing manner.137. Guided Meditation on Healing Trauma with sujatha baligaFrom August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in the beautiful redwood forests of California, while enjoying delicious vegetarian meals and meeting thoughtful new friends.SIGN UP NOWSupport the show

Aug 22, 2023 • 56min
sujatha baliga on Healing Trauma and Restorative Justice #136
Macarthur Award winner sujatha baliga discusses healing trauma, restorative justice, and the power of love and meditation to build a better world.sujatha baliga is a restorative justice educator and advocate and a 2019 winner of the MacArthur fellowship. She has served as the director of the restorative justice project at Impact Justice, a co-founder of Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice, and a Soros Justice Fellow at Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth.Sujatha earned her undergraduate degree at Harvard University and went on to earn her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Her life's work in restorative justice was born of the personal advice she received when she was 24 years old from His Holiness the Dalai Lama on forgiving seemingly unforgivable acts.136. sujatha baliga on Healing Trauma and Restorative JusticeFrom August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in the beautiful redwood forests of California, while enjoying delicious vegetarian meals and meeting thoughtful new friends.SIGN UP NOWSupport the show

Aug 15, 2023 • 23min
Meditation on the Emptiness of Money [rebroadcast] #71
A 20-minute guided analytical meditation on how money exists through parts, causes, and the mind in our interdependent reality, seen through the Buddhist lens of emptiness.Episode 71. Guided Meditation: How Money ExistsPrevious Episode: Bitcoin and BuddhismFrom August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in the beautiful redwood forests of California, while enjoying delicious vegetarian meals and meeting thoughtful new friends.SIGN UP NOWSupport the show

Aug 8, 2023 • 43min
Bitcoin and Buddhism #70 [rebroadcast]
What can Buddhism teach us about how Bitcoin works and why it's so valuable? What can Bitcoin teach us about emptiness, the interdependent nature of reality?Episode 70. Bitcoin and BuddhismFrom August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in the beautiful redwood forests of California, while enjoying delicious vegetarian meals and meeting thoughtful new friends.SIGN UP NOWSupport the show

Aug 1, 2023 • 13min
Dan Harris Loving-Kindness Guided Meditation #135
Dan Harris, host of the hit podcast Ten Percent Happier, leads a loving-kindness meditation for skeptics. Recent research has shown that this practice positively impacts mental and physical health.Episode 135: Dan Harris Loving-Kindness Guided MeditationFrom August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in the beautiful redwood forests of California, while enjoying delicious vegetarian meals and meeting thoughtful new friends.SIGN UP NOWSupport the show

Jul 25, 2023 • 42min
Dan Harris: Love, Skepticism, and the "Cheesy Upward Spiral" #134
Dan Harris, former ABC News anchor and host of the hit podcast Ten Percent Happier, talks with Scott Snibbe about love, skepticism, Buddhism, and the "cheesy upward spiral."Episode 134: Dan Harris: Love, Skepticism, and the "Cheesy Upward Spiral"From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in the beautiful redwood forests of California, while enjoying delicious vegetarian meals and meeting thoughtful new friends.SIGN UP NOWSupport the show

Jul 18, 2023 • 11min
Mindfulness of the Body - A 10 Minute Guided Meditation
A 10 minute guided meditation on the body, relaxing into the open connection between body and mind through mindful awareness.Episode 63. 10 Minute Body MeditationFrom August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in the beautiful redwood forests of California, while enjoying delicious vegetarian meals and meeting thoughtful new friends.SIGN UP NOWSupport the show

Jul 11, 2023 • 21min
Why Mindfulness? #60 [rebroadcast]
Could the true cause of happiness be simply thinking about whatever we are doing at the moment, what scientists and meditators call mindfulness?Episode 60. Why Mindfulness?From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in the beautiful redwood forests of California, while enjoying delicious vegetarian meals and meeting thoughtful new friends.SIGN UP NOWSupport the show