Mind & Life

By Mind & Life InstituteSociety & Culture Science Religion & Spirituality

Mind & Life episodes

December 05, 2025Matthieu Ricard – Compassion and Care [From the Archive]
In this episode from the Mind & Life archive, Wendy spoke with the renowned Buddhist practitioner and author Matthieu Ricard. Matthieu was integral to the founding of contemplative science, serving as both a participant and co-investigator in many early studies, and has deep expertise in compassion, altruism, and well-being. This conversation covers many topics, including:
his roots in both science and Buddhism, and his appreciation for rigorous inquiry;
his role as a participant and collaborator in contemplative science;
lessons from research on compassion vs. empathy;
how the self shows up (or doesn't) in compassion;
links between self-focus and vulnerability;
hedonia, eudiamonia, and self;
altruism and our current crises;
reconciling three time scales of concern;
sentience, life, and interdependence;
caring for our whole interconnected system;
the practice of awe;
using photography to share basic human goodness;
balancing fame and monastic life;
and a poignant example of his own personal experience of care.
Full show notes and resources
1 hr 5 min
August 14, 2025Liz Monson – Reclaiming the Magic
In this episode, Wendy speaks with Buddhist scholar and meditation teacher Liz Monson. Liz is one of the pioneers in combining Buddhist teachings with nature-based practices, and her work helps us connect in an embodied way to the fundamental interconnectedness of the world. This conversation covers many topics, including:
how spirituality and connection to nature fed into her path to Buddhism;
nature-based practices in the Buddhist tradition;
moving beyond human-centrism;
the energies of the natural world;
the sandcastle of the constructed self;
why human beings are really here;
lessons about human nature from 9/11;
wisdom from the trees;
practices to connect with the elements of nature;
working with elemental energies to understand emotions;
understanding the divine masculine and feminine archetypes;
psychedelics and meditation as complementary pathways toward awakening;
an experiential approach to suffering and healing;
and the need for self-compassion and love.
Full show notes and resources
1 hr 14 min
July 17, 2025Christy Wilson-Mendenhall – Emotions in the World
In this episode, Wendy speaks with cognitive and affective scientist Christy Wilson-Mendenhall. Christy has a long history studying emotions, and her work integrates psychological science and contemplative philosophy to explore well-being and resilience. This conversation covers many topics, including:
integrating basic science and philosophy with on-the-ground research;
viewing emotions as malleable, situated, and learned;
working with emotions to enhance well-being;
intersections of cognitive science and Buddhist philosophy;
the critical role of community and relationships;
understanding deep resilience;
a free online course to help build resilience and emotional well-being;
making worldview explicit;
foregrounding interconnectedness when teaching;
the power of emotional granularity;
eco-anxiety, eco-grief, and solastalgia;
the role of imagination and visioning;
priming ourselves for a better future;
taking seriously and learning from the perspective of marginalized folks;
and making small personal changes to effect systems change.
Full show notes and resources
1 hr 1 min
June 19, 2025Karen O'Brien – Why We Matter
In this episode, Wendy speaks with professor, writer, and thought leader Karen O’Brien. Karen is an expert on the human and social dimensions of climate change, and her work helps us understand the role of the mind and worldview in how we create and respond to environmental change, and global change more broadly. This conversation covers many topics, including:
her path into environmental studies and understanding how humans respond to climate change;
consequences of a reductionist worldview;
understanding quantum social change;
entanglement, and relationships as a fundamental aspect of our world;
the importance of ethics and values in a system;
our power as individuals to change systems;
exploring causality and challenging the 'single cause';
why the way we show up matters;
how contemplative practice can help us embody transformative change;
envisioning a new paradigm;
Indigenous wisdom and interconnected views of nature;
emotional difficulties in deeply accepting an interconnected reality;
acknowledging and working with eco-grief and eco-anxiety;
living with uncertainty;
challenges in measuring transformative change;
art as a lens to understanding;
and the many possibilities for scaling change into societies.
Full show notes and resources
51 min
May 15, 2025Tania Singer – The Power of Two
In this episode, Wendy speaks with social neuroscientist and contemplative researcher Tania Singer. Tania is a world leader in studying empathy and compassion, and her pioneering work explores the interpersonal aspects of the brain and contemplative practice. This conversation covers many topics, including:
her lifelong fascination with social interactions;
foundational studies on empathy in the brain;
distinguishing the physical vs. emotional aspects of pain;
a chance meeting with Mind & Life and critical insights from a Buddhism-science collaboration;
the difference between emotion contagion, empathy, and compassion;
exploring the trainability of empathy and compassion;
schadenfreude in the brain;
empathy burnout and compassion as an antidote;
the importance of correlating subjective reports with brain scans;
a landmark longitudinal study of training different aspects of meditation;
why what you practice really matters;
contemplative dyads and the power of practicing with another person;
the benefits of dyads for the negative effects of COVID lockdown;
moving dyad work into schools and hospitals;
shifting from studying individual change to systems change;
and the role of contemplative science amidst current societal challenges.
Full show notes and resources
1 hr 18 min
April 17, 2025Melissa Rosenkranz – Mind, Body, World
In this episode, Wendy speaks with contemplative scientist Melissa Rosenkranz. Melissa's work examines the mind-body connection with a focus on how inflammation interacts with our brains and emotions, and how meditation might help. This conversation covers many topics, including:
her interest in the mind-body connection;
pros and cons of inflammation in the body;
bidirectional links between inflammation in the body and our emotions;
how inflammation can lead to hypersensitivity in the brain;
inflammation and dementia;
misperceptions around stress causing asthma;
meditation's effect on inflammation and our immune response;
meditation in asthma management (emotional and physical);
studying whether mindfulness can protect against inflammatory damage to the brain;
integrating meditation with medication;
polarization in society and the power of building weak ties;
increasing the safety signal to our bodies;
seeing the fuller humanity of the people in our world;
lovingkindness practice in action;
links between inflammation in society and in our bodies;
and a reminder that there's always a place to start when making change.
Full show notes and resources
51 min
March 13, 2025Otto Scharmer – Changing Systems
In this episode, Wendy speaks with action researcher, changemaker, and thought leader Otto Scharmer. Otto is a world leader in systems change, and his work across disciplines highlights how awareness and the quality of our relationships are critical for the change we need today. This conversation covers many topics, including:
regenerative farming, social change movements, and the "social soil";
inspiration from Francisco Varela;
presencing and the role of awareness in systems change;
three divides that contribute to our current crises;
the untold story of regeneration and renewal;
action learning and action research;
trends towards goodwill and lack of agency;
institutions vs. individuals;
the blind spot of the mindfulness movement;
speaking and listening across ideologies;
non-doing, action vs. reaction;
the need for holding spaces and building trust;
leading by letting go and letting come;
releasing old ways of thinking (ego) and shifting to more integrated mindsets (eco);
sensing and engaging with future possibilities;
fourth-person awareness;
the influence of Mind & Life on his career trajectory;
and resources for learning consciousness-based transformation.
Full show notes and resources
1 hr 13 min
February 20, 2025Neil Theise – Everything is Connected
In this episode, Wendy speaks with pathologist, scientist, author, and Zen Buddhist, Neil Theise. Neil's pioneering work in human anatomy has revolutionized our understanding of interconnectedness at the level of the body and beyond. This conversation covers many topics, including:
his interest in medicine & Buddhism;
pathology as contemplative practice;
how a mystery from the wall of the bile duct led to a new understanding of our bodies;
overview of the interstitium;
how the interstitium may relate to fascia, energy systems, chakras, meridians, and other traditional systems of healing;
connecting healing traditions through a cultural interstitium;
a meditation to visualize the interstitium;
studying living vs. dead tissue;
cell doctrine and reductionism;
complexity theory and interconnectedness at all scales;
Buddhist ideas of emptiness, interdependence, impermanence;
randomness in a complex system and adaptability;
and the power of an interconnected view.
Full show notes and resources
1 hr 23 min
January 16, 2025Molly Crockett – Changing the World is a Group Project
In this episode, Wendy speaks with psychologist and cognitive scientist Molly Crockett. Molly is a leader in studying moral cognition, with an emphasis on ethics, knowledge, and power in the digital age. This conversation covers many topics, including:
the limits of quantitative (scientific) ways of knowing;
the importance of narrative in shaping ideas and behavior;
moral outrage on social media;
who benefits from a culture of outrage;
the role of scientists in our narratives about human nature;
how artificial intelligence influences what we consider as human;
using artificial intelligence for compassion;
a Dalai Lama chatbot vs. the real Dalai Lama;
the importance of embodiment in human communication;
studying transformative experiences at Burning Man;
technology and "Paleolithic" emotions;
epistemic injustice;
and the critical importance of valuing multiple ways of knowing.
Full show notes and resources
1 hr 3 min
December 12, 2024Jim Coan – Our Social Baseline
In this episode, Wendy speaks with psychologist and affective neuroscientist Jim Coan. Jim is a leading researcher on how social connection impacts our minds, brains, and bodies, and he's also pushing the boundaries of impactful science communication. This conversation covers many topics, including:
studying relationships and emotions in the brain;
how a confusing research finding changed his career;
how holding hands impacts our bodies and minds;
understanding energy regulation and prediction;
social baseline theory;
the prefrontal cortex and self-regulation;
implications for the default mode network;
social support as energetic resources for the body;
effects of hand holding on pain processing;
introversion and social support;
the two things all his students must memorize;
the costs and benefits of social interactions;
implications for loss of relationship;
sense of self, belonging, and the importance of supporting others;
communicating science through comics;
and surviving—even flourishing—through climate change.
Full show notes and resources
1 hr 6 min