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
April 23, 2025 • 59 mins
Over the course of the last hundred years, breathing mindfulness has become the most popular method of meditation around the world. Yet its history remains largely unrecorded. In her new book, Breathing Mindfulness: Discovering the Riches at the Heart of the Buddhist Path, scholar Sarah Shaw provides a historical survey of some of the methods of breathing mindfulness and how they developed.
In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricyc...
Mark as Played
April 16, 2025 • 58 mins
For the next few episodes of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg will be talking about specific themes that have been coming up in their practice, with a particular focus on navigating our current social and political climate. In this episode, they discuss how to stay engaged without burning out—and how cultivating equanimity can provide a necessary balance between wisdom...
Mark as Played
April 9, 2025 • 56 mins
For poet and translator Arthur Sze, poetry offers a way to ask difficult questions without any expectation of an answer. “It helps us slow down, hear clearly, see deeply, and envision what matters most in our lives,” he told Tricycle in a 2020 interview. “When one reads a poem, one has to pay attention to the sounds of words, to the rhythm of language, [and] experience the dance and tension between sound and silence.”
His twelfth ...
Mark as Played
March 26, 2025 • 54 mins
Emma Varvaloucas is the executive director of the Progress Network, a nonprofit media organization that aims to take a constructive approach to solving some of our most intractable problems. In her article in the February issue of Tricycle called “Classroom Mindfulness Put to the Test,” she explores the surprising results of recent research on mindfulness programs for adolescents.
In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s edit...
Mark as Played
March 19, 2025 • 75 mins
Grief is often thought of as a psychological phenomenon. Yet loss also has a profound impact on our bodies, often affecting our cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems. As a Professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Arizona, Mary-Frances O’Connor specializes in studying the physiology of grief. In her new book, The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing, she draws fr...
Mark as Played
March 12, 2025 • 46 mins
Donald S. Lopez Jr. is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan and a longtime Tricycle contributing editor. In his new book, Buddhism: A Journey through History, he lays out a comprehensive introduction to the history of Buddhism, tracing its development across continents and centuries.
In this episode of T...
Mark as Played
February 26, 2025 • 48 mins
Valerie (Vimalasara) Mason-John is a senior teacher in the Triratna Buddhist Community, and their work focuses on how Buddhist teachings can support a sustainable path to recovery. In their new book, First Aid Kit for the Mind: Breaking the Cycle of Habitual Behaviors, they lay out practical tools for uprooting harmful habits, building emotional resilience, and reconnecting with our bodies.
In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricyc...
Mark as Played
February 19, 2025 • 56 mins
Kimberly Brown is a meditation teacher and author based in New York City. In her new book, Happy Relationships: 25 Buddhist Practices to Transform Your Connections with Your Partner, Family, and Friends, she lays out a practical guide to help us cultivate and maintain healthy relationships with the people who matter most to us.
In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Shar...
Mark as Played
February 12, 2025 • 59 mins
No-self is a core teaching across Buddhist traditions. Yet what does it look like to actually live without a self? In How to Lose Yourself: An Ancient Guide to Letting Go, scholars Jay L. Garfield, Maria Heim, and Robert H. Sharf present a series of accessible and engaging translations of key Buddhist texts on why we are selfless persons—and why this insight leads to greater freedom and compassion.
In this episode of Tricycle Talks...
Mark as Played
January 22, 2025 • 58 mins
After his family home burned down in a California wildfire in the 1990s, journalist Pico Iyer found refuge in an unlikely location: a small Benedictine hermitage outside of Big Sur. Though Iyer initially arrived looking for a bed to sleep in, he soon found the silence of monastic life transformative, and over the course of the past thirty-three years, he has returned to the hermitage more than one hundred times. In his new book, Af...
Mark as Played
January 15, 2025 • 48 mins
Oliver Burkeman is an author and journalist based in northern England. In his new book, Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts, he lays out a practical guide for living meaningful and fulfilling lives as finite, imperfect humans.
In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Burkeman to discuss...
Mark as Played
December 18, 2024 • 50 mins
Noelle Oxenhandler is a writer and longtime Tricycle contributing editor based in northern California. Recently, she has been thinking a lot about what it means to be ready to die—and what will happen to all her belongings when she does. In her article in the November issue of Tricycle called “Everything Is Buddha,” she explores the sense of obligation she has toward the objects she has accumulated over the years, including a rubbe...
Mark as Played
December 11, 2024 • 48 mins
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche is a Tibetan Buddhist teacher and author based in southern Colorado. In his new book, Diligence: The Joyful Endeavor of the Buddhist Path, he draws from the teachings of the 8th-century Buddhist philosopher Shantideva to explore how we can meet the world with joy and openheartedness.
In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Kongtrul Rinpoche to discuss th...
Mark as Played
November 27, 2024 • 69 mins
When Roger R. Jackson was an undergraduate at Wesleyan, he came across the verses of Saraha, a 10th-century mystic known for his fierce exhortations to cut through the layers of delusion in order to experience the true nature of mind directly.
While Saraha is considered one of the founders of the Vajrayana tradition and has been incorporated into a number of Tibetan Buddhist lineages, there have been relatively few academic examin...
Mark as Played
November 20, 2024 • 55 mins
Sameet Kumar is a clinical psychologist at the Memorial Cancer Institute and Moffitt Hematology and Cellular Therapy program. His work focuses on mindfulness-based approaches to grief and loss. In his new book, How to Grieve What We’ve Lost: Evidence-Based Skills to Process Grief and Reconnect with What Matters, which he co-wrote with four other therapists, he lays out concrete strategies for finding meaning and cultivating resilie...
Mark as Played
November 13, 2024 • 49 mins
When journalist Katy Butler first committed to the Buddhist precepts, it didn’t occur to her to consider her two abortions in their light. Now, fifty years later, she has come to understand abortion in the context of harm reduction and the alleviation of suffering. In her article in the November issue of Tricycle called “Abortion and the First Precept,” she discusses the Buddhist ethics of abortion and why she believes abortion can...
Mark as Played
October 23, 2024 • 55 mins
Vajra Chandrasekera is a novelist based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. His new novel, Rakesfall, follows two characters as they're reincarnated across histories and worlds from the mythic past to modern Sri Lanka to the far future Earth through endless epicycles of love, violence, and betrayal.
In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Chandrasekera to discuss the weaponization of religio...
Mark as Played
October 16, 2024 • 54 mins
When BJ Miller was a sophomore in college, he climbed atop a commuter train and was immediately electrocuted, causing him to lose both legs and half an arm. In the aftermath of his own near-death experience, he turned to the arts to make sense of his injuries and to grapple with questions of disability and what it means to live a good life.
Miller is now a palliative care physician and the cofounder of Mettle Health, a multidiscip...
Mark as Played
October 9, 2024 • 43 mins
Thich Nhat Hanh was one of the most influential figures in contemporary Buddhism, from his founding of the Order of Interbeing and the Plum Village Tradition to his popularization of Engaged Buddhism. Yet his background is often overlooked.
Adrienne Minh-Châu Lê, a Columbia University PhD candidate in international history, is one of the first scholars to examine Thich Nhat Hanh in the context of the global Cold War and Vietnam’s ...
Mark as Played
September 25, 2024 • 80 mins
Cortland Dahl is a Buddhist scholar, translator, meditation teacher, and contemplative scientist based in Madison, Wisconsin. In his new book, A Meditator's Guide to Buddhism: The Path of Awareness, Compassion, and Wisdom, he offers an accessible introduction to Buddhist principles and practices through the lens of the three yanas, or vehicles.
In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits dow...
Mark as Played
Popular Podcasts
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!