The Lion’s Roar Podcast

Pema Chödrön, a beloved Buddhist nun and teacher, shares her insights on authentic spiritual practice and self-acceptance. She emphasizes the significance of stabilizing the mind through shamatha meditation as a pathway to genuine growth. The discussion highlights the importance of unconditional self-friendship and the role of compassion in our connections with others. Pema reflects on breaking free from fixed mindsets and encourages listeners to embrace transformative moments that arise from vulnerability and shared experiences.

Sister Clear Grace is a black, non-binary monastic traveling across the country to lean in to the collective experience of the United States. The traveling nunk speaks with Lion’s Roar’s associate editor Pamela Ayo Yetunde about letting go of privilege, answering the call to become a monastic, and encounters on the road to liberation.

Seth Godin is an expert on failure. While he’s founded several hugely successful ventures and written 20 bestselling books around the world including his newest book, The Practice, he has also learned from failing over and over. Today he explains what helps creative thought, and what so often gets in the way of true success.

While the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh may seem simple, they are profound. Anh-Huong Nguyen, one of the first students to be ordained as a meditation teacher in the Plum Village tradition, demonstrates how mindfulness has helped her and the fearful inner child within, through the worst of times.

We reflect on the death of one of the greatest Buddhist teachers of our time, and preview the new issue of Lion’s Roar magazine. Then makeup artist, monk, and author of This Monk Wears Heels, Kodo Nishimura tells Pamela Ayo Yetunde how even makeup and drag can be an expression of the dharma.

Anxiety can be a pretty reasonable response to times of wide spread disease, environmental disaster, social unrest and polarization. Associate editor Chris Pacheco talks to Bruce Tift, psychotherapist and author of Already Free: Buddhism Meets Psychotherapy on the Path of Liberation, about attempting to control feelings of anxiety, why that only makes it worse, and what to do instead.

Wellbeing and social justice are one and the same, according to neuroscientist Dr. Sará King. Pamela Ayo Yetunde asks about The Science of Social Justice, her illustrative Systems-Based Awareness Map, and the implications of the framework that has the power to change how you understand yourself, your community, and even political events such as the January 6 insurrection.

A guided body scan meditation from Insight LA founder Trudy Goodman, plus  an audio clip from her presentation for the new Insight and Mindfulness online learning series, available now at learn.lionsorar.com.

How can Buddhist practice help you find refuge from racism? Especially from the internalized sense of inferiority that lives within the minds and bodies of racialized people? Teacher Sensei Alex Kakuyo and Lion’s Roar Associate Editor Pamela Ayo Yetunde discuss.

Centered on a friendship between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the documentary Mission: Joy was produced and co-directed by Peggy Callahan while its real life complement, The Big Joy Project, is an experiment in “citizen science.” She and Dr. Elissa Epel, vice chair of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, talk about how both point the way to more joy in our everyday lives.