In this episode, Wendy speaks with professor, writer, and thought leader Karen O’Brien. Karen is an expert on the human and social dimensions of climate change, and her work helps us understand the role of the mind and worldview in how we create and respond to environmental change, and global change more broadly. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• her path into environmental studies and understanding how humans respond to climate change;
• consequences of a reductionist worldview;
• understanding quantum social change;
• entanglement, and relationships as a fundamental aspect of our world;
• the importance of ethics and values in a system;
• our power as individuals to change systems;
• exploring causality and challenging the 'single cause';
• why the way we show up matters;
• how contemplative practice can help us embody transformative change;
• envisioning a new paradigm;
• Indigenous wisdom and interconnected views of nature;
• emotional difficulties in deeply accepting an interconnected reality;
• acknowledging and working with eco-grief and eco-anxiety;
• living with uncertainty;
• challenges in measuring transformative change;
• art as a lens to understanding;
• and the many possibilities for scaling change into societies.

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In this episode, Wendy speaks with social neuroscientist and contemplative researcher Tania Singer. Tania is a world leader in studying empathy and compassion, and her pioneering work explores the interpersonal aspects of the brain and contemplative practice. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• her lifelong fascination with social interactions;
• foundational studies on empathy in the brain;
• distinguishing the physical vs. emotional aspects of pain;
• a chance meeting with Mind & Life and critical insights from a Buddhism-science collaboration;
• the difference between emotion contagion, empathy, and compassion;
• exploring the trainability of empathy and compassion;
• schadenfreude in the brain;
• empathy burnout and compassion as an antidote;
• the importance of correlating subjective reports with brain scans;
• a landmark longitudinal study of training different aspects of meditation;
• why what you practice really matters;
• contemplative dyads and the power of practicing with another person;
• the benefits of dyads for the negative effects of COVID lockdown;
• moving dyad work into schools and hospitals;
• shifting from studying individual change to systems change;
• and the role of contemplative science amidst current societal challenges.

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In this episode, Wendy speaks with contemplative scientist Melissa Rosenkranz. Melissa's work examines the mind-body connection with a focus on how inflammation interacts with our brains and emotions, and how meditation might help. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• her interest in the mind-body connection;
• pros and cons of inflammation in the body;
• bidirectional links between inflammation in the body and our emotions;
• how inflammation can lead to hypersensitivity in the brain;
• inflammation and dementia;
• misperceptions around stress causing asthma;
• meditation's effect on inflammation and our immune response;
• meditation in asthma management (emotional and physical);
• studying whether mindfulness can protect against inflammatory damage to the brain;
• integrating meditation with medication;
• polarization in society and the power of building weak ties;
• increasing the safety signal to our bodies;
• seeing the fuller humanity of the people in our world;
• lovingkindness practice in action;
• links between inflammation in society and in our bodies;
• and a reminder that there's always a place to start when making change.

Full show notes and resources