Dr. Richard Davidson

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.   We’re going to start experimenting with these Friday episodes. Historically on Fridays, we’ve dropped guided meditations – and we will still do that – but we’re also going to try some different formats, including some shorter episodes with guests that might not be a fit for our traditional Monday and Wednesday shows.   Today we’ve got Dan’s new friend Geena Rocero. She has an incredible story about what it’s like to live with an all-encompassing secret.   Geena was born and raised in the Philippines. There, she became a star on that country’s thriving transgender beauty pageant scene. Then she moved to America to launch her modeling career. But here, in this new country, she was justifiably very worried about letting anybody in the fashion world know that she was transgender. So for many many years, she lived with a secret -- one that could destroy her livelihood at any moment. In 2014, she decided to come out publicly in a TED Talk that now has more than 4 million views. She’s now a public speaker, trans rights advocate and an award-winning producer/writer/director.   She is also an author, just out with a new memoir, called Horse Barbie. You’ll hear her explain what that title means. We also talk about the cost of living with a secret, why she decided to come out, and the overlap between gender and spirituality.     Where to find Geena Rocero online:  Twitter: twitter.com/geenarocero Instagram: instagram.com/geenarocero    Book Mentioned: Horse Barbie: A Memoir   Other Resources Mentioned: Geena’s TED talk: Why I Must Come Out   Download the Ten Percent Happier app today: https://10percenthappier.app.link/install

19 Maj 202333min

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Welcome to Round II of the Meditation Party. The feedback we got from our first episode was overwhelmingly positive, so we’re going for it again. Meditation Party is an experiment we’re running with a chattier format – more of a morning zoo vibe, but way deeper, of course. The real agenda here is to show that meditation doesn’t have to be a solo death march; it is vastly enhanced by having friends.  Dan’s co-hosts in this episode are his two close friends: the great meditation teachers Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren. Sebene Selassie is based in Brooklyn and describes herself as a “writer, teacher, and immigrant-weirdo.” She teaches meditation on the Ten Percent Happier app and is the author of a great book called, You Belong. Jeff Warren is based in Toronto and is also a writer and meditation teacher who co-wrote the book, Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics with Dan Harris. Jeff also hosts the Consciousness Explorers podcast. In this episode, we talk to Jeff about what it’s like to be a meditation teacher who has ADHD. And even if you don’t have ADHD, there’s a lot of practical value to this conversation, because we all have unruly minds, and Jeff has found some great ways to work with this condition.  We also take listener questions, discussing topics like drugs. Specifically, psychedelics — and whether you’re violating Buddhist precepts if you take them. We also talk about how frustrating it can be to repeatedly wake up from distraction in meditation.  And finally, we have a segment talking about the stuff we’re psyched about right now… in which Sebene sings for us.  Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/sebene-selassie-jeff-warren-601

17 Maj 20231h 7min

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Historically on this show, we want guests who either have skills that they can teach us (i.e. meditation teachers or happiness researchers) or we want people who are willing to get super personal about their interior lives—and today you're gonna meet a bold-faced name who happens to have both qualifications in spades. Mayim Bialik burst onto the scene in the 1990s as the star of the TV show Blossom. Then she stepped away, got a bachelor's and a PhD in neuroscience, and became a mom. She returned to TV with another sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. And now she has a very full plate as the co-host of Jeopardy! and the host of a podcast of her own called Mayim’s Breakdown. Oh, and she’s also written four books, including Girling Up: How to Be Strong, Smart, and Spectacular and Boying Up: How to Be Brave, Bold, and Brilliant.  In this episode we talk about: The pressures of being a teen star Mayim’s fascination with the brain How she squares her scientific expertise with her religious beliefs Why she half-jokingly says she was born “a mental health challenge”  The difference between anxiety attacks and panic disorder Why she's chosen to be so public about her complicated psychiatric history Whether it's possible to be overdiagnosed The tools she personally uses to stay afloat What’s behind her busyness, and what happened when she decided to stop working all the time And why at age 47, she's now taking the time to learn how to express her anger in a healthy way A note that there are some mentions of suicide and addiction in this episode.  Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/mayim-bialik-600

15 Maj 202359min

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- It's always a big deal when we get the maestro Joseph Goldstein on the show. He's one of the greatest living meditation teachers—and we cover a lot of ground in this conversation both related to meditation and to life. This is the third installment in a series we've been running this month on the Eightfold Path. If you missed the first two episodes, don't worry. Joseph starts our conversation with a brief description and explanation of this pivotal Buddhist list. The list is basically a recipe for living a good life. In this episode we talk about:   How to strike a balance between trying too hard and trying too little in meditation How to handle your doubts about whether you're meditating correctly What the Buddhists really mean when they say “let it go”  What Joseph means when he says, don't waste your suffering Why he uses the word ridiculous so much to describe the way our minds work How the eightfold path encompasses both daily life and formal meditation The simplest possible definition of mindfulness How mindfulness can prevent unwholesome or unhealthy states of mind from arising  What to do when unwholesome states have already arisen Being mindful of seeing, which is an often overlooked A simple explanation of the tricky Buddhist concept of not self  The Buddhist concept of wisdom  And the importance of having a sense of humor about your own mind  A note that we initially conducted this conversation live via Zoom as part of a benefit in support of an organization called the New York Insight Meditation Center, which is an offshoot of IMS. Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/joseph-goldstein-598

10 Maj 20231h 6min

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Today’s show features one of Dan’s personal musical heroes, Mike Diamond — “Mike D” from the Beastie Boys. Their conversation is wide ranging and covers topics from the role of failure in achieving success to Mike’s personal meditation practice. They say, “never meet your heroes”, but Mike D doesn’t disappoint in this smart and thoughtful discussion.  Mike D formed the Beastie Boys with Adam Yauch, aka MCA, in the early 80’s, winning a number of Grammys and spanning a multi-decade career. In 2018, along with his bandmate, Adam Horovitz, Diamond co-authored Beastie Boys Book, which told the story of the band in its own words and reached #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list. A limited series of live shows, in which the two brought stories from the book to life, was captured in the 2020 film Beastie Boys Story.  Content Warning: The content is a little mature at points so take care if you’re listening with kids. In this episode we talk about: How Mike reconciles the misogyny of the Beasties early work The evolution of the band — and how they freed themselves from feeling imprisoned by their own personas The role of failure in achieving success The value of taking risks in creative endeavors Watching his late bandmate, Adam Yauch, find Buddhism, and how that impacted their music The addictive nature of adrenaline when performing The role meditation and yoga played for Mike as he tried to calibrate the highs and lows while on tour — and how these practices also now play a role in parenting his two kids How he works through self-judgment while meditating How he and the other surviving bandmate, Adam Horovitz, managed their grief in the wake of the untimely death of Adam Yauch And how a Beastie Boy came to embrace, of all things, loving-kindness Full Show Notes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/mike-diamond-597

8 Maj 202356min

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Virtue is a tricky topic. It’s often sold to us by religious leaders who are thundering judgmentally, and sometimes hypocritically, down to us from the mountaintop. But from the Buddhist perspective, there is actually a deeply self-interested case for ethics and virtue. The Buddhists are not trying to get you to follow a bunch of very specific rules: they are trying to get you to do no harm because that will make you happy.   This is part two of our series on a venerable Buddhist list called the Noble Eightfold Path. The three middle items on the list all have to do with ethical conduct. They are: right speech, right action, and right livelihood.   Our guest today, Eugene Cash, is gonna talk about this stuff in super practical, non-dogmatic and non-preachy ways. Cash has been a Buddhist teacher since 1990. He's the founding teacher of San Francisco Insight and a senior teacher on the Spirit Rock Teachers Council. His teaching is influenced by many streams of Buddhism— Theravada, Zen and Tibetan.  In this conversation we talk about:  How to make terms such as virtue and ethics more attractive to skeptics Eugene's case that being ethical is in your self-interest His idea that kindness can actually be hard-nosed and tough How the Buddha could be hard on people when it was helpful for those people How to use right speech skillfully Why he says that practicing right action all day long is his idea of fun  The technical versus the holistic understanding of right livelihood The difference between “being present” and “presence”  And what has kept him devoted to the eightfold path for so many years   Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/eugene-cash-595

3 Maj 202342min

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Today’s guest is the legendary astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, the host of the Emmy nominated podcast, Star Talk, and the recipient of 21 honorary doctorates. He also has an asteroid named in his honor. Tyson’s latest book is right up our alley on the show. It's called Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization and it’s basically about how taking a scientific perspective can improve your life—and the world.   In this episode we talk about: Applying a scientific lens to our emotions The importance of intellectual humility How the knowledge of death brings meaning to life  Neil’s long view of social media Whether we are living in a simulation Neil's personal mental health regime And whether there is intelligent life in the universe Full Shownotes:https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/neil-degrasse-tyson-594

1 Maj 20231h 8min

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- This episode kicks off our series on the Eightfold Path which will continue on Wednesdays for the next two weeks with Eugene Cash and Joseph Goldstein. DaRa Williams is a trainer, meditation teacher and psychotherapist and has been a meditator for the past 25 years. She is a practitioner of both Vipassana and Ascension meditation and is a graduate of the Spirit Rock/Insight Meditation Society Teacher Training Program and is an IMS Emeritus Guiding Teacher.  In this episode we talk about: The first two components of the Eightfold Path: Right View and Right Thinking How the Eightfold Path has played out in DaRa’s life  The notions of Intuition, Clear Seeing, and Openness  And the very tricky skills of renunciation and fostering non-attachment to outcomes Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/dara-williams-592

26 Apr 202350min