Author and poet Stephen Mitchell has spent a career pursuing life's meaning as taught by history's great spiritual practices. His is a hero's journey, which ends with the presenting of an elixir, a blessing to the world. His gift to the world are his works, which distill his long sought and gained wisdom.

Guest: Stephen Mitchell was born in Brooklyn in 1943, educated at Amherst, the Sorbonne, and Yale, and de-educated through intensive Zen training. His many books include the bestselling Tao Te Ching, The Gospel According to Jesus, The Book of Job, Gilgamesh, The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, The Second Book of the Tao, Bhagavad Gita, The Iliad, The Odyssey, Beowulf, and Catullus: Selected Poems. He is also the co-author of three of his wife Byron Katie’s bestselling books: Loving What Is, A Thousand Names for Joy, and A Mind at Home with Itself. You can read extensive excerpts from all his books at www.stephenmitchellbooks.com.  

Photo credit: Brie Childers.

In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott reflects on the words of the sixth U. S. President, John Quincy Adams who once wrote (building on words his father had also written), “I am a warrior so that my son may be a merchant so that his son may be a poet.” With a volunteer army, few Americans are warriors. And the merchant class has been gobbled up by massive big box chains. Modern appliances and digital devices have relieved most of us from the back breaking labor that once consumed Americans' waking hours. We have more discretionary time than our ancestors. How many of us are poets? How do we use this gift of time? Time, once a luxury, is now a commodity. To pass, to kill. How could distracting ourselves be life's purpose?

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Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer Dossie McCraw, Co-Executive Producer Selena Lauterer and Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.

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