Becoming Wise

Leonard Mlodinow is a physicist, and the author of several books including “The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives” and “Feynman’s Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life.” He’s also written for television, including “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Leonard Mlodinow — Randomness and Choice.” Find more at onbeing.org.

Alain de Botton is a philosopher who likes the best of religion, but doesn’t believe in God. He says that the most boring question you can ask of any religion is whether it is true. But how to live, how to die, what is good, and what is bad — these are questions religion has sophisticated ways of addressing. So he’s created The School of Life — where people young and old explore ritual, community, beauty, and wisdom. He explains why these ideas shouldn’t be reserved just for believers.

Alain de Botton is the founder and chairman of The School of Life. His books include “Religion for Atheists” and “How Proust Can Change Your Life.” His new book is a novel, “The Course of Love.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Alain de Botton — A School of Life for Atheists ” Find more at onbeing.org.

The history of rebellion is rife with excess and burnout. But new generations have a distinctive commitment to be reflective and activist at once, to be in service as much as in charge, and to learn from history while bringing very new realities into being. Quaker wise man Parker Palmer and journalist and entrepreneur Courtney Martin come together for a cross-generational conversation about the inner work of sustainable, resilient social change.

Parker Palmer is founder and Senior Partner of the Center for Courage and Renewal. He’s the author of bestselling books including “Let Your Life Speak,” “The Courage to Teach,” “A Hidden Wholeness,” and “Healing the Heart of Democracy.” Courtney Martin is the co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network and a strategist for the TED Prize. She’s the author of six books including “Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists” and most recently, “The New Better Off.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Parker Palmer and Courtney Martin — The Inner Life of Rebellion” Find more at onbeing.org.

In the 15 years since its inception, Wikipedia has become as much a global community as a business venture — a living organism with a mission statement to make “the sum of all human knowledge available to every person in the world.” And a conversation with co-founder Jimmy Wales — one of the architects of that philosophy and the world-changing project that has grown up around it — is full of surprises. What Wikipedia is learning has resonance for our wider public life — about the imperfect but gratifying work of navigating truth amidst difference, ongoing learning, and dynamic belonging.

Jimmy Wales is the co-founder and promoter of Wikipedia and chair emeritus of the Wikimedia Foundation. This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Jimmy Wales — The Sum of All Human Knowledge” Find more at onbeing.org.

Movies, for some of us, are a form of modern church. The Argentinian composer and musician Gustavo Santaolalla creates cinematic landscapes — movie soundtracks that become soundtracks for life. He’s won back-to-back Academy Awards for his original scores for “Brokeback Mountain” and “Babel.” We experience his humanity and creative philosophy behind a kind of music that moves us like no other.

Gustavo Santaolalla has composed film scores for over a dozen features including “Amores Perros,” “The Motorcycle Diaries,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Babel,” “On the Road,” and “Wild Tales.” His latest solo album is called “Camino.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Gustavo Santaolalla — How Movie Music Moves Us.” Find more at onbeing.org.

Joanna Macy is a philosopher of ecology and a scholar of Buddhism. Her translations include Rilke’s “Book of Hours: Love Poems to God,” “A Year with Rilke,” and the recently re-released “In Praise of Mortality.” She is the co-author of “Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects.” Find more at onbeing.org.