Tricycle Talks

Tricycle Talks: Listen to Buddhist teachers, writers, and thinkers on life's big questions. Hosted by James Shaheen, editor in chief of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, the leading Buddhist magazine in the West. Life As It Is: Join James Shaheen with co-host Sharon Salzberg and learn how to bring Buddhist practice into your everyday life. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review creates award-winning editorial, podcasts, events, and video courses. Unlock access to all this Buddhist knowledge by subscribing to the magazine at tricycle.org/join

Episodes

Engaged Compassion with Lobsang Tenzin Negi

June 17, 2026 • 58 mins

Lobsang Tenzin Negi is the cofounder and executive director of the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics at Emory University. He is also a professor in Emory’s Department of Religion. In his new book, Engaged Compassion: Seven Practices to Cultivate Resilience, Connection, and a Joyous Life, he builds on more than twenty years of research in laying out concrete practices for developing compassion for ou...

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Reincarnating the Buddhas of Bamiyan with Tuan Andrew Nguyen

June 10, 2026 • 48 mins

Tuan Andrew Nguyen is a multidisciplinary artist whose work focuses on history, memory, and the ongoing impact of violence and war, particularly in his native Vietnam. He recently unveiled a new project on New York City’s High Line, which is a twenty-seven-foot-tall Buddha sculpture inspired by the Buddhas of Bamiyan titled The Light That Shines Through the Universe. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor...

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Writing into the Void with Ruth Ozeki

May 27, 2026 • 55 mins

Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen priest. She recently published her first short story collection, The Typing Lady and Other Fictions. With characteristic wit and grace, Ozeki astutely explores themes of identity, longing, loss, and the clarity that comes with old age. In one story, a couple watches their ambitions roam the woods as ghosts; in another, an aging writer enlists her granddaughter to fake her death as a way ...

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Finding Balance to Engage More Fully with Margaret Cullen

May 20, 2026 • 62 mins

Equanimity can often be mistaken for passivity or indifference. But meditation teacher Margaret Cullen insists that it is actually about feeling the entire range of human experience—and, in the process, responding from a place of love and discernment. Cullen is a licensed psychotherapist and mindfulness-based stress reduction instructor, and she has taught mindfulness and contemplative practices around the world. In her new ...

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A Beginner’s Guide to Dark Retreat with Andrew Holecek

May 13, 2026 • 47 mins

Andrew Holecek is an author and spiritual teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and he leads seminars and retreats on meditation, dream yoga, and death and dying. For the past thirty years, he has been engaging in a form of esoteric practice known as dark retreat. In his new book, Total Eclipse of the Mind: Unleashing the Power of Darkness for Creativity, Healing, and Transformation, he lays out a comprehensive introduction to...

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Did the Buddha Really Teach That There Is No Self?

April 22, 2026 • 56 mins

Thanissaro Bhikkhu is an American Theravada Buddhist monk trained in the Thai forest tradition. He currently serves as abbot of the Metta Forest Monastery in San Diego County and is a frequent contributor to Tricycle. Over the years, he has written extensively on the Buddhist concept of not-self, including the many misperceptions that have arisen about this teaching over the centuries. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tric...

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Opening to Wonder with Ada Limón

April 15, 2026 • 59 mins

Ada Limón is the author of seven books of poetry, and she recently completed her term as the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States. During her tenure as Poet Laureate, Limón undertook a series of projects harnessing poetry to transform our relationship to the natural world, from installing poems on picnic benches in national parks across the country to engraving a poem on a spacecraft that is on its way to the second moon of Jupi...

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Bridging Worlds with US Poet Laureate Arthur Sze

April 8, 2026 • 59 mins

Arthur Sze is a poet and translator based in Sante Fe, New Mexico, and he is currently serving as the 25th Poet Laureate of the United States. His new book, Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry, takes readers through nearly two millennia of poetry from across the world and explores how translation can deepen our understanding and appreciation of poetry. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James ...

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A Buddhist Guide to Understanding Emotion with Maria Heim

March 25, 2026 • 50 mins

Buddhism can often be mischaracterized as encouraging the elimination of emotion. Yet, as scholar Maria Heim points out, feeling is central to Buddhist teachings and practices—in fact, the Buddha presented the four noble truths as being “for one who feels.” Heim is the George Lyman Crosby 1896 & Stanley Warfield Crosby Professor in Religion at Amherst College, and her new book, How to Feel: An Ancient Guide t...

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Reimagining the Story of Citizenship with Daisy Hernández

March 18, 2026 • 57 mins

Daisy Hernández is an associate professor at Northwestern University and a Tricycle contributing editor. Her new book, Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth, blends memoir and political analysis to examine the shifting narratives around citizenship and what it means to be an American. This episode is a little different from our usual focus, but we wanted to talk with Hernández about how she brings her Buddhist practice to bear on ...

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Dementia and the Sense of Self with Philip Ryan

March 11, 2026 • 51 mins

Philip Ryan is Tricycle’s executive editor, and he has worked at Tricycle on and off for the past thirty years. In the Spring issue of Tricycle, he wrote an article, "Old Friend," about his father’s dementia diagnosis and the questions it has raised about memory, impermanence, and identity. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Ryan to dis...

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Demystifying Tantra with Richard Payne

February 25, 2026 • 67 mins

Tantric Buddhism is often mischaracterized or misunderstood, both in the academy and in the popular imagination. Scholar Richard Payne has dedicated much of the past twenty years to studying tantric teachings and practices—and to dispelling some of the common misconceptions associated with the tradition. Payne is the Yehan Numata Professor of Japanese Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies, Berkeley, as well a...

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The Practice of Refuge with Sunita Puri

February 18, 2026 • 59 mins

Sunita Puri is a writer, a palliative medicine physician, and an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. She is the author of That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour. She recently wrote an article for the Spring issue of Tricycle called “Seeking Refuge,” where she discusses how she has found refuge in nature in the face of burnout. In this episode of L...

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Poet Li-Young Lee on Awe, Adoration, and Turning Toward the Unknown

February 11, 2026 • 59 mins

For poet Li-Young Lee, writing is a deeply spiritual practice. Taking inspiration from Daoist and Christian texts, his poems investigate the paradoxical relationships between silence and sound, stillness and motion, and form and formlessness. He recently published his sixth collection of poetry, The Invention of the Darling, as well as a translation of the Dao De Jing, which he completed with the poet and cosmologist Yun Wang. In ...

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‘To Live the Right Way’ with David Guterson

January 28, 2026 • 48 mins

David Guterson is a writer based in Washington State. His new novel, Evelyn in Transit, follows the interlocking stories of Evelyn and Tsering, a young woman from Indiana and a Buddhist monk from the mountains of Tibet. Their lives come together when Evelyn’s son is revealed to be the seventh reincarnation of a high lama, and Evelyn must decide whether to send her young child to Nepal. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tric...

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Into the Long Dark with Francis Weller

January 21, 2026 • 67 mins

Francis Weller is a writer and soul activist who has worked as a psychotherapist for forty years, and he is currently on staff at Commonweal Cancer Help Program. In his most recent book, In the Absence of the Ordinary: Soul Work for Times of Uncertainty, he lays out practices for embodying new ways of being so that we can meet the anxieties and unknowns of our time with presence and faith. Weller is also the author of The Wild Edge...

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The Afterlife of Japanese American Wartime Incarceration

January 14, 2026 • 56 mins

Brandon Shimoda is a poet and a professor at Colorado College. His new book, The Afterlife Is Letting Go, examines the ongoing legacies of the US government’s mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Drawing from years of archival research, visits to the ruins of incarceration sites, interviews with survivors and their descendants, and his own family history, the book explores the resonances between forms...

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Choosing Kindness with Sarah Ruhl and Sharon Salzberg

December 17, 2025 • 50 mins

Sarah Ruhl is a playwright, poet, and professor based in New York. She recently published her first children’s book, as did meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg. Sarah’s book, The Dreams I’ll Dream Tonight, is a whimsical bedtime story that illustrates the power of choosing where we place our attention, while Sharon’s book, Kind Karl: A Little Crocodile with Big Feelings, follows a young crocodile as he learns...

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Being a 'Bad' Buddhist with Sharon A. Suh

December 10, 2025 • 54 mins

Sharon A. Suh is a professor of theology and religious studies at Seattle University, and she is currently the president of Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women. Her new book, Emergent Dharma, brings together the voices of eleven Asian American feminist Buddhists to present a dynamic vision of Buddhist practice and identity. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits ...

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Sitting in the Fire with Ralph Steele

November 26, 2025 • 39 mins

Ralph Steele is the founder and guiding teacher of Life Transition Meditation Center in Santa Fe, where he teaches somatic meditation and other practices geared toward supporting people through major life changes. Steele grew up on Pawleys Island, where he was raised by his grandparents after his father was killed by the Ku Klux Klan. As a teenager he moved with his mother to Japan, where his exposure to martial arts sparked a life...

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Tricycle Talks

Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Engaged Compassion with Lobsang Tenzin Negi

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Reincarnating the Buddhas of Bamiyan with Tuan Andrew Nguyen

Writing into the Void with Ruth Ozeki

Finding Balance to Engage More Fully with Margaret Cullen

A Beginner’s Guide to Dark Retreat with Andrew Holecek

Did the Buddha Really Teach That There Is No Self?

Opening to Wonder with Ada Limón

Bridging Worlds with US Poet Laureate Arthur Sze

A Buddhist Guide to Understanding Emotion with Maria Heim

Reimagining the Story of Citizenship with Daisy Hernández

Dementia and the Sense of Self with Philip Ryan

Demystifying Tantra with Richard Payne

The Practice of Refuge with Sunita Puri

Poet Li-Young Lee on Awe, Adoration, and Turning Toward the Unknown

‘To Live the Right Way’ with David Guterson

Into the Long Dark with Francis Weller

The Afterlife of Japanese American Wartime Incarceration

Choosing Kindness with Sarah Ruhl and Sharon Salzberg

Being a 'Bad' Buddhist with Sharon A. Suh

Sitting in the Fire with Ralph Steele

Popular Podcasts

Engaged Compassion with Lobsang Tenzin Negi

Reincarnating the Buddhas of Bamiyan with Tuan Andrew Nguyen