Banyen Books ~ Branches of Wisdom

Canadian activist, author, and water defender Maude Barlow discusses her new book, Earth for Sale: The Fight to Stop the Last Plunder of the Planet. A leading international advocate for water and environmental justice, Barlow has spent decades campaigning to protect water as a human right and the natural world as a shared commons. In this conversation, she explores the growing financialization of nature and the risks of turning forests, water, biodiversity, and other living systems into market assets, while offering a powerful vision for protecting the living world from corporate control.

Dr. Stephen G. Post, bestselling author and expert on compassionate care, and Victor Chan, co‑author with the Dalai Lama and co‑founder of the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, discuss Pure Unlimited Love: Science and the Seven Paths to Inner Peace. Drawing on more than four decades of research in medicine, spirituality, and ethics, Post outlines seven practical paths—such as giving, kindness, honoring nature, and raising kind children—for cultivating inner peace, connection, and wellbeing in a divided world. Together with Chan, whose long collaboration with the Dalai Lama helped bring teachings of compassion and forgiveness to a global audience, they offer a grounded, hopeful vision for personal and cultural healing rooted in love, generosity, and deep human care.

David A. Robertson, two‑time Governor General’s Literary Award winner and celebrated author, speaker, and advocate, joins Banyen Books for a deeply personal and illuminating conversation on mental health, healing, and hope. In All the Little Monsters: How I Learned to Live with Anxiety he explores the struggles and small victories of living with chronic anxiety, panic attacks, and depression, sharing hard‑earned wisdom to help others feel less alone. With warmth, humour, and insight, he shows how mental illness has shaped his life as a father, partner, and writer, and how he keeps going through therapy, medication, community, and self‑reflection—reminding listeners that healing isn’t about being cured, but about learning to live with care, courage, and hope. Robertson is a member of Norway House Cree Nation and was honoured in 2023 with a Doctor of Letters from the University of Manitoba, among other distinctions.

Elena Brower, bestselling author, podcast host and Zen practitioner, and Carrie-Anne Moss, acclaimed actor (Trinity in The Matrix series) and founder of Annapurna Living, discuss Elena’s new book, Hold Nothing: An Invitation to Let Go and Come Home to Yourself (Shambhala Publications). They explore how slowing down, embracing emptiness, and practicing self‑empathy can help us reconnect with presence, stillness, and inner clarity in a changing world, weaving together insights from yoga, nonviolent communication, Zen teachings, and Brower’s own life experience. The conversation frames Hold Nothing as a gentle yet powerful companion for personal transformation, inviting listeners to attend to what truly matters beneath the noise of daily life.

In this episode, Judith Orloff, MD—bestselling author of The Empath’s Survival Guide—returns to explore how to recognize, celebrate, and protect children’s sensitivity while nurturing resilience and healthy boundaries. Drawing from her new children’s book, The Highly Sensitive Rabbit, Orloff shares the story of Aurora, a caring cottontail who learns to embrace her gifts as a highly sensitive being after her family is displaced by a flash flood. Designed for parents, educators, and anyone who has ever been told they are “too sensitive,” this conversation weaves together storytelling, psychology, and lived experience, as Dr. Orloff reflects on her own journey as a sensitive child and offers compassionate guidance for supporting sensitive children—and the inner child within us all.

In this episode, pioneering psychotherapist Andrew Feldmár joins Kolin Lymworth, founder of Banyen Books, for a wide-ranging conversation on the evolving role of psychedelics in psychotherapy and the central importance of human relationship in healing. Drawing from his book Radical Adventure: An Inquiry Into Psychedelic Psychotherapy, Feldmár reflects on his early initiation into LSD therapy in the 1960s and decades of clinical practice, challenging standardized protocols in favor of deep, relational engagement between therapist and patient. A Vancouver-based psychologist trained by figures such as R. D. Laing and Stan Grof, Feldmár brings a lifetime of insight into psychedelic therapy, while Lymworth offers the perspective of a community-builder whose vision has helped make Banyen Books a gathering place for wisdom, inquiry, and healing.

In this episode, world-renowned herbalist, teacher, and author Rosemary Gladstar reflects on a lifetime of relationship with the plant world through her book The Generosity of Plants: Shared Wisdom from the Community of Herb Lovers. Drawing on more than five decades of practice, Rosemary shares stories, insights, and teachings rooted in herbal healing, gardening, and wildcrafting, illuminating the generosity, intelligence, and sacred presence of plants. Often called the “godmother of American herbalism,” Gladstar is a central figure in the modern herbal movement and the author of many influential works, including Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide, offering listeners a rich, contemplative exploration of plant wisdom and community.

In this episode, New York Times bestselling author and environmental thinker Paul Hawken explores the deeper story of carbon through his latest book, Carbon: The Book of Life. Moving beyond the familiar climate narrative, Hawken reveals carbon as the elemental force that animates all living systems—plants, animals, fungi, agriculture, and human life itself—and invites a more integrated, life-affirming relationship with the natural world. Founder of Project Drawdown and Regeneration, and author of influential works including The Ecology of Commerce, Blessed Unrest, and Regeneration, Hawken brings decades of insight into how re-imagining our relationship with nature can help shape a just, resilient, and hopeful future.

In this episode, mythologist and storyteller Michael Meade reflects on the ancient sources of wisdom that continue to surface amid the polarization and rapid change of modern life. Drawing on his deep background in mythology, anthropology, and psychology, Meade weaves together timeless myths, cross-cultural ritual, and contemporary insight to illuminate the stories we are living now. Author of Awakening the Soul, The Genius Myth, Fate and Destiny, Why the World Doesn’t End, and The Water of Life, and creator of the Living Myth podcast, Meade is also the founder of the Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, where he brings mythic understanding into service of cultural healing and community renewal.

In this episode, renowned scholar Elaine Pagels explores the hidden histories behind the figure of Jesus, drawing from her groundbreaking new book Miracles and Wonder. Blending rigorous historical scholarship with vivid storytelling, Pagels examines how stories of Jesus’s miracles, resurrection, and divine birth emerged, evolved, and came to shape a world-changing movement. A longtime professor of religion at Princeton University and recipient of the National Humanities Medal, Pagels reflects on why these narratives proved so enduring and what they continue to reveal about the spiritual questions at the heart of Christianity today.