RAW with Anouk

These past weeks have been intense and disorienting for many of us.

A lot of uncertainty.

A lot of holding our breath.

I haven’t been able to record or release anything for RAW during this time.

Between the war in Israel, missiles landing near my home, and then leaving through Jordan with my children, everything felt too immediate, too full.

But I kept coming back to very simple practices - even just a few minutes at a time - to steady my body and mind.

This is a short guided meditation by Lama Tilmann Lhundrup, recorded during a conversation for RAW that I never released.

He is a highly respected Buddhist teacher trained in the Tibetan tradition, with many years of deep retreat and teaching.

I’m sharing it here on its own because it feels especially needed right now.

—

If this resonates, you can follow RAW for more conversations and short practices on resilience, presence, and staying human in difficult times.

You can also find everything - episodes, meditations, and writing - at withanouk.com

As tensions rise once again between Israel, the United States, and Iran, we are resurfacing one of the most important conversations ever recorded on RAW.

This episode was originally recorded in Tel Aviv during active missile fire between Israel and Iran. In the midst of uncertainty, I sat down with world-renowned psychologist Rick Hanson to ask:

How do we stay steady when everything feels unstable?

Dr. Hanson shares practical tools grounded in neuroscience to help regulate the nervous system during acute stress, along with deeper reflections on resilience, parenting in crisis, and protecting our capacity for empathy during conflict.

We explore:

• The neuroscience of trauma and resilience

• Calming the body during high alert

• Parenting with steadiness in uncertain times

• Spiritual practice as psychological strength

• Holding onto humanity without denying reality

If you are feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or emotionally exhausted, this episode offers grounded guidance for this moment.

RAW is hosted by journalist and meditation teacher Anouk Lorie.

More at WithAnouk.com

In a time of escalating conflict in the Middle East, with open confrontation between Israel and Iran and a widening sense of uncertainty, anxiety can move quickly through the collective nervous system.

This guided meditation offers a way to stay grounded without denial, and alert without spiraling.

A practice in steadiness in the midst of unfolding events.

Closing with words from Israeli poet Leah Goldberg on the quiet courage of waiting — even when history is already in motion.

In this episode of RAW, I’m in conversation with Shlomo Mendlovic, psychiatrist and director of Shalvata Mental Health Center.

I first heard Shlomo speak to families of people in severe mental health crisis. What stayed with me was something simple but radical: his insistence on keeping even a drop of optimism — not as denial, but as a stance. A refusal to give up on the human being in front of you.

We speak about:

– Growing up with a Holocaust-survivor father who modeled grounded hope

– Choosing psychiatry from childhood after seeing an image of a psychiatrist “removing chains”

– What Shalvata actually is and why even severe mental illness can often be managed

– October 7th as both national and intimate trauma, including his son serving in Kissufim that day

– Why trauma lives beneath words

– The difference between resilience and post-traumatic growth

– The centrality of “being with”— presence over technique

Shlomo argues that our responsibility now is not to erase trauma, but to let something grow alongside it.

A sober, honest, deeply humane conversation about suffering, connection, and the possibility of growth.

---x---

If this conversation moved you, I invite you to share it — especially with someone who is navigating trauma, supporting someone in crisis, or working in mental health.

You can follow RAW on your podcast app to stay updated on future episodes, and if you feel inclined, leave a rating or review — it genuinely helps these conversations reach more people.

And as always, thank you for being here.

In this episode of RAW, I’m joined by Tamir Ashman — clinical social worker, therapist, and founder of Ashman – the School for Relationships.

Tamir has spent more than two decades working primarily with men — in clinics, prisons, boarding schools, the army, and educational settings — asking a difficult but urgent question: what does it mean to be born a man in Israeli society, and what happens when emotional life has nowhere to go?

We talk about anger, fear, anxiety, and the relational pain beneath them. About why masculinity can become both a source of strength and real danger when vulnerability is suppressed. And about the work of integrating hardness and softness — discipline with sensitivity, power with responsibility.

This conversation explores why emotional work can feel especially threatening for men, why staying with discomfort is often misunderstood as weakness, and how learning to feel — rather than act out — can be a profound act of courage.

A grounded, honest conversation about masculinity, responsibility, and what real strength actually looks like.

⸻

If this episode resonated with you, I’d love for you to share it — especially with someone you think might need this conversation.

You can also follow RAW on your podcast app to get notified when new episodes are released, and leave a rating or review — it really helps this work reach more people.

And as always, thank you for listening.

What happens to dialogue under trauma?

Can cooperation survive when trust has collapsed?

And what does climate change reveal about our shared fate in a region defined by borders and conflict?

 In this episode of RAW, I speak with Tareq Abu-Hamed, an environmental scientist and Executive Director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies — a joint Israeli-Palestinian institute working at the intersection of climate change, conflict, and dialogue in the Middle East.

Tareq grew up in East Jerusalem and came of age during the first Intifada. An early encounter with Jewish neighbors in a nearby kibbutz shaped his life and his path. His academic journey took him through Turkey, the Weizmann Institute, and the United States, before returning to the region to help build one of the most unusual institutions here: a place where Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, and international students live and study together while confronting shared environmental challenges.

In our conversation, we speak about climate change as a security issue, the reality of shared aquifers, Gaza’s environmental devastation, and why ecology does not stop at borders. We talk honestly about October 7th, trauma, dehumanization, and what it takes to keep dialogue alive when fear and grief make it harder to see the human on the other side.

This is not a conversation about easy answers.

It’s about trust being more scarce than water in a region where nothing is separate — and where refusing cooperation comes at a real human cost.

You can find more episodes of RAW, along with my writing, guided meditations, and newsletter, at WithAnouk.com.

If this conversation resonated, you’re welcome to subscribe, share it with someone who might listen with care, or simply stay in touch there.

Thank you for listening.

2026 Guided Meditation: What We Carry Forward (And What We Don’t)

This guided meditation is an invitation to pause at the threshold between years, and to acknowledge the weight many of us have been holding.

After a year marked by war, ceasefires, political division, and ongoing global violence, this practice offers space for discernment rather than resolution. It’s not about letting go of the past, but about sensing what still belongs with us — and what quietly exhausts our capacity to care.

We explore:

• how to set down burdens that were never ours to carry alone

• what remains alive in us despite everything

• how to step forward with clarity, tenderness, and integrity

You can listen on December 31 or January 1 — or whenever you find yourself at a threshold.

For more episodes, reflections, and to sign up for the RAW newsletter, visit withanouk.com.

If this meditation resonated, consider sharing it with someone who might need it — and subscribing to RAW for future episodes.

Dr. Stephen Fulder—founder of Tovana, longtime Buddhist teacher, author of What’s Beyond Mindfulness and The Five Powers, and co-founder of the ecological spiritual community Clil—returns to RAW two years after becoming the show’s very first guest.

Together we explore the emotional and spiritual landscape of Israel since October 7th: the rise of fear and tribalism, the exhaustion many of us carry, and the human tendency to collapse into constricted narratives when we feel threatened.

Stephen offers a grounded, compassionate invitation to widen the space inside us, meet fear without letting it become a worldview, and reconnect with the deeper sources of clarity, resilience and humanity that live within us.

We talk about:

•⁠ ⁠How fear shapes our identity and our politics

•⁠ ⁠Why societies contract into “us vs. them”

•⁠ ⁠Meditation as a practical way to create inner spaciousness

•⁠ ⁠Compassion for Israelis, Palestinians, and ourselves

•⁠ ⁠The role of spiritual activism today

•⁠ ⁠How ecological, grounded living supports psychological resilience

This is a conversation about staying human—tender, courageous, and open—in a moment when the world pushes us toward contraction.

If this episode resonates, please follow RAW, leave a review, and share it with someone who might need a breath of clarity today.

*More about Stephen: *

Dr. Stephen Fulder is one of the pioneers of Buddhist practice in Israel. Born in London in 1946, he studied at Oxford, completed his PhD at the National Institute for Medical Research, and went on to write fourteen books while spending nearly five decades exploring alternative medicine and spiritual life. Since 1976, he has been a devoted practitioner of Theravada Buddhism, enriched by Dzogchen and Advaita teachings.

He is the founder and senior teacher of Tovana, the Israel Insight Meditation Society—now the country’s largest Buddhist practice organization, offering more than 45 retreats a year. He also helped establish Mashiv Nefesh, and the ecological spiritual community of Clil, where he lives, grows his own food and medicines, teaches, and continues his long-standing commitment to peace work between Israelis and Palestinians. His books include the bestseller What’s Beyond Mindfulness and The Five Powers.