Mind & Life

In this episode, Wendy speaks with Buddhist scholar and teacher Anne Klein. They speak about the role of the body in practice and transformation, and touch on many topics, including:

• her interest in Buddhism as a lens on the mind;
• the role of the body in contemplative practice;
• the dangers of not being embodied;
• microphenomenology;
• Eastern conceptions of the subtle/energy body;
• the construction of self and other;
• how the body can help us break out of rigid self-concepts;
• the power of the imagination;
• why we think things will always stay the same;
• and how studying the feminine sheds light on interdependence.

Full show notes and resources

We launch our second season featuring a conversation with psychologist, neuroscientist, and emotion researcher Lisa Feldman Barrett. She and Wendy discuss a broad range of topics about the mind, including:

• her unexpected path into studying emotions;
• how our brains construct and predict our reality;
• the brain's essential role in regulating the body;
• emotions as interpretations of our bodily state;
• how our past shapes and filters our present experience;
• the difference between affective feelings (mood) and emotions;
• our capacity to influence our own emotions;
• deconstructing our experience through mindfulness;
• how to improve our emotional lives;
• connections with Buddhist theories of mind;
• implications for our understanding of the self;
• how we regulate not only our own, but others' nervous systems;
• and how stress and modernity might lead to clinging to entrenched views.

Full show notes and resources