Afleveringen
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When her mother died, Hiroko Yoda was brought to her knees. What pulled her back was something that had been there all along: the ancient spiritual traditions of her home country, Japan. A decade-long journey through shrines and temples, sacred mountains, and waterfalls followed, one that culminated in her latest book, Eight Million Ways to Happiness.
The title comes from an ancient Japanese idea: that eight million spiritual beings inhabit everything around us. Not as a precise count, but as a way of saying the sacred is everywhere, in everything.
Recorded inside an ancient Shinto shrine deep in the sacred mountains of Kumano, a pilgrimage route walked for over a thousand years, Hiroko's conversation with Wonderstruck host Elizabeth Rovere explores:
✦ How "kami" spirit exists in everything
✦ How the concept of "half-belief, half-disbelief" makes room for mystery without demanding certainty
✦ Why gratitude, not belief, is the core of Japanese spirituality and the seed of happiness
✦ The flexibility of Japanese spirituality and what it offers a world grown rigid in its certainties
✦ The spirituality found in your favourite anime
Through Hiroko's journey, from grief to gratitude, from loss to a world where everything has a spirit, we begin to see that happiness isn't something to be chased or achieved. It's something to be noticed, in the smallest of things, in the spaces we walk past every day without looking.
Chapters:
00:00:00 Welcome to the Kumano Shrine
00:01:54 Kami: 8 Million Spiritual Beings
00:05:19 Rigid Society, Flexible Spirituality
00:16:32 Walking Through Grief
00:20:35 Gratitude, Not Belief
00:25:07 Half-belief, Half-disbelief
00:27:50 Mysteries of the Waterfall
00:35:52 Itadakimasu: Spirituality in Everyday Words
00:39:03 Meeting Itako, The Blind Shamaness
00:45:15 Masakado: Anger and Love
00:51:15 Anime, Yokai, and Healing
Follow Hiroko:
Website: https://www.hirokoyoda.com/
Substack: https://blog.hirokoyoda.com/
Book: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/eight-million-ways-to-happiness-9781526672162/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hi_yoda_1
Follow Wonderstruck:
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TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wonderstruckpod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wonderstruckpod
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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If we understood the true complexity of the natural world, would we call it conscious? Would we begin to question the boundaries we put between ourselves and everything around us?
We explore these questions with biologist Merlin Sheldrake and science journalist Zoë Schlanger. Their bestselling books, "Entangled Life" and "The Light Eaters", required monk-like study and deep immersion in the natural world. What they discovered quietly dismantles some of our most basic assumptions about intelligence, memory, and what individuality really means.
Recorded during Harvard Divinity School's "Thinking with Plants and Fungi" conference, this special episode brings together Merlin, Zoë, host Elizabeth Rovere, and guest co-host Rachael Peterson, the "Thinking with Plants and Fungi" Initiative Program Lead at Harvard, to explore:
✦ Whether plants have personalities and why they might be kinder to kin
✦ How a brainless slime mold can navigate its way out of an IKEA faster than a human
✦ How flatworms put into question where memory actually lives
✦ Whether it's possible to ferment a book and drink it
When we stop centering the individual and truly reckon with the entangled nature of all living things, something shifts. The question stops being how do we include more-than-human perspectives… it starts being whether that separation even makes sense to begin with.
Chapters:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:10 How to Write About the Hidden World
00:04:45 The Myth of the Individual
00:09:53 We Are Polluting Our Own Home
00:15:14 The Problem Isn't Science. It's Language.
00:18:18 The Plant That Can Copy Anything
00:24:25 As Temperatures Rise, Fungi Are Evolving
00:28:31 Do Plants Have Personalities and Prefer Their Family?
Follow Merlin Sheldrake:
Website: https://www.merlinsheldrake.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/merlin.sheldrake
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/merlinsheldrake
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566795/entangled-life-by-merlin-sheldrake/
Follow Zoë Schlanger:
Website: https://www.zoeschlanger.com/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/zoeschlanger.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoeschlanger/
The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-light-eaters-zoe-schlanger?variant=41096248295458
Follow Wonderstruck:
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Mystic poet Chelan Harkin doesn't write poems, she transmits them. At 21, after giving herself permission to write a "bad poem" every day, a creative channel cracked open and poems have flowed through her ever since.
Her work has drawn comparisons to Rumi, Hafiz and Khalil Gibran. Poets whose words slip beneath the thinking mind to reach something deeper, older and more alive within us.
Celebrating World Poetry Day this month, this episode features Chelan speaking with Wonderstruck's Elizabeth Rovere about:
✦ How a Hafiz poem she heard at 17 unlocked her heart and set her entire path in motion
✦ The "bad poem experiment" and how permission to fail became the key to creative flow
✦ How praying to her favourite dead poets led to a synchronicity that changed everything
✦ How our deepest fears, when met with consciousness, can transform into our strongest allies
✦ The extraordinary story behind her book The Prophetess which stands in conversation with Gibran’s The Prophet
This is a conversation for anyone who has suspected that the sacred isn’t elsewhere, but closer, more available and more alive than we ever dared to believe.
00:00:00 Introduction
00:07:06 The Poem That Changed Everything
00:13:47 The "Bad Poem Experiment"
00:19:22 Say Wow: The Poem That Went Viral
00:23:44 Praying To Her Favourite Dead Poets
00:30:50 The Meaning Of Authentic Service
00:35:55 Suffering and Our Great Cocoon
00:39:21 Writing The Prophetess
00:43:33 Meeting Hajjar Gibran
00:51:53 Fear as a Life Force
00:58:32 Closing Reflections
Follow Chelan Harkin:
Website: https://chelanharkinpoetry.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelanharkin/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chani.harkin
Find all Chelan's books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B08PL55XMD
Follow Wonderstruck:
Website: https://wonderstruck.org
Substack: https://newsletter.wonderstruck.org
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wonderstruckpod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wonderstruckpod
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw
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Can a mountain teach us how to live in peace? In his early twenties, George Thompson was living with intense anxiety and a deep sense of meaninglessness. His body carried constant tension, and the voice in his head told him that he was not good enough. That crisis became the catalyst for a decision that would change the direction of his life.
George travelled alone to China’s sacred Wudang Mountains, the birthplace of Tai Chi and a centre of Daoist (Taoist) practice for centuries. There, immersed in mountains, monasteries, and daily practice, he encountered Tai Chi.
In this conversation, George and Wonderstruck’s Elizabeth Rovere explore:
✦ Tai Chi as a martial art and moving meditation: powerful, peaceful, and beautiful
✦ Balance as something dynamic that allows you to hold your centre in the midst of change
✦ The inner critic (“the Underminer”) and learning not to identify with the story it tells
✦ Why peace can’t be learned, but arises through presence and awareness
✦ The universal language of wonder and awe
This episode reminds us to look at what lies beneath the thinking mind, and to discover, as George puts it, that balance is possible.
Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction
00:05:49 Journey to the Wudang Mountains
00:10:22 Finding Balance Through Tai Chi
00:18:14 Spirituality as a Form of Activism
00:24:45 Hope & The Vinegar Metaphor
00:29:58 Love, Connection & Fierce Compassion
00:35:29 Is Eminem Daoist?
00:42:04 Awe and Wonder Predates Language
00:46:27 Nature, AI, and the Technology Continuum
00:49:42 Why Are We Here?
Follow George:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@George-Thompson
The Subtle Art of Losing Yourself: https://youtu.be/9KArWcMldPM?si=fHt4OPWFb8-zSuAx
Balance is Possible: https://www.balanceispossible.com/
Taoist Wellness Community: https://www.taoistwellness.online/community
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/george.thompson._/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@george.thompson_
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgethompson.uk
Follow Wonderstruck:
Website: https://wonderstruck.org
Substack: https://newsletter.wonderstruck.org
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wonderstruckpod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wonderstruckpod
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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From a coffee farm in rural Colombia to the psychoanalytic couch, Macario Giraldo has spent his life listening for the quiet forces that shape a human life: language, loss, desire, and love.
At the age of ten, Macario left his family to join the La Salle Christian Brothers, a Catholic religious order that would become his home for the next twenty-five years. Beneath the structure of faith and vocation, an early sense of separation endured. Over time, it found expression as a desire for something he had long deferred: a family of his own.
A Fulbright scholarship brought Macario to Washington, D.C. It was here that he received a rare dispensation from the Church to leave the brotherhood and encountered psychology and the work of Jacques Lacan, which would shape the rest of his analytic life.
In dialogue with Colette Soler, an analysand of Lacan, as well as clinicians Marianne Goldberger and Hugh Mullan, Macario developed a distinctive approach to group therapy informed by Lacanian psychoanalysis. In his work, he listens not only to what is said, but to what stirs between people: the unconscious processes that emerge in groups, including conflict, desire, identification, and shared symbolic history.
In this episode, we explore:
✦ Cause and triggers
✦ Group therapy as a modern ritual
✦ Lacanian thinking beyond the individual
✦ The fantasy of complete satisfaction
✦ Listening as a psychological practice
✦ The journey to become your own friend
Macario invites us to wonder about the desires that take shape in relation to others, the limits of certainty, and how, over a lifetime, we might learn to live more truthfully with ourselves and with one another
Chapters
0:00:00 Introduction
0:03:21 Picasso and the Desire of Others
0:08:27 Presence, Absence, and the Fort-Da Game
0:15:18 From Coffee Farm to the Christian Brothers
0:18:53 Discovering Jacques Lacan
0:24:49 Jouissance: The Pursuit and Crisis of Desire
0:30:34 The Unexplored Gold Mine of Group Therapy
0:38:34 The Power of Listening
0:41:35 Anxiety is an Index of the Real
0:48:27 Faith after Dogma
0:55:35 The Journey to Become Your Own Friend
0:58:13 Gardens, Love, and Wonder: The Closing Note
Follow Wonderstruck:
Website: https://wonderstruck.org
Substack: https://newsletter.wonderstruck.org
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wonderstruckpod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wonderstruckpod
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Plants are our ancient teachers, whispering and nudging… if only we’d listen. Dr. Monica Gagliano is an evolutionary ecologist who has turned the green world into something wonderfully surprising. Her research reveals plants that listen, remember, make choices and even teach one another. Some can sense eclipses before they happen. Others communicate in ways we’re only just beginning to catch up with.
In 2008, Monica did something bold: she stepped out of academia and followed her curiosity into the forest, literally. Blending scientific experimentation with Amazonian plant ceremonies and the guidance of shamans, she helped spark the field now known as plant intelligence. Since then, her work has captured imaginations around the world, appearing in The New York Times and the National Geographic.
In this episode, we explore:
✦ Pushing back against the scientific status quo
✦ Letting nature show you what it knows
✦ Welcoming indigenous plant teachings into scientific practice
✦ Paying attention as a joyful act of devotion
Monica invites us into a playful and daring question: what do plants actually know… and what might they be trying to tell us?
Chapters
0:00 Intro: Science, wonder, and pushing boundaries
03:03 Initiation on the Great Barrier Reef
12:53 “Plants rescued the scientist in me”
20:57 Monica’s first experiments with plants
27:10 Bringing empathy into science
32:37 "More-than-human" is a place
37:33 It's the human that needs saving
42:44 Indigenous science and plant communication
50:54 The ancient tree that spoke to her
56:14 Trees synchronize during solar eclipse
01:03:51 Attention is the beginning of devotion
Follow Monica:
Website: https://www.monicagagliano.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_monicagagliano_
Follow Wonderstruck:
Website: https://wonderstruck.org
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wonderstruckpod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wonderstruckpod
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mark Vernon is a former priest turned psychotherapist who has spent the last 30 years exploring one central question: how do we find meaning in a secular age?
After a crisis of faith pulled him away from the Church’s inner sanctum in his youth, Mark turned to Plato and Jung in pursuit of a deeper understanding of purpose, connection, and the soul. Today, his writing bridges ancient philosophy, religion, and modern psychology, a powerful triad he also applies to his work as a therapist.
In this episode, we discuss:
✦ The overwhelm of conflicting meanings and remembering the sacred
✦ The spiritual thread connecting Dante, William Blake, and Jesus
✦ How wonder helps us access the divine
✦ Why psychotherapy is a path for ‘spiritual intelligence’
Mark's work invites us into the depths of wonder and spirituality as a necessity for the soul.
Chapters
0:00 Intro: The modern crisis of meaning
5:08 Psychotherapy and the vertical dimension of life
11:25 The cloud of unknowing and mystical experiences
18:19 Kairos time: Moments of spiritual significance
23:01 William Blake on joy and eternity
27:04 Death as a transcendent and transformative experience
33:08 Early Christianity's deeper mysteries and meanings
40:44 Humility as an expansive spiritual virtue
50:56 Owen Barfield and the evolution of consciousness
57:35 Ontological shocks and transformative experiences
1:02:41 Outro: The importance of sacred experiences
Follow Mark:
Website: https://www.markvernon.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/platospodcasts/?hl=en-gb
X: https://x.com/platospodcasts
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PlatosPodcasts
Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination: https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/awake/
Follow Wonderstruck:
Website: https://wonderstruck.org
Newsletter: https://newsletter.wonderstruck.org
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TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wonderstruckpod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wonderstruckpod
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw
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What if the cracks in our world aren't flaws, but thresholds into the unknown? In this episode of Wonderstruck, we sit with philosopher, poet, and playful trickster Bayo Akomolafe. Bayo's vision invites us to linger in mystery rather than rush to solutions. He takes us into the unfolding terrain of post-activism, where possibility, not certainty, becomes our guide.
In this conversation, we explore:
✦ How physics becomes philosophy… and poetry offers a new way of seeing
✦ How AI unsettles our ideas of consciousness and what it means to be human
✦ His vision of an “autistic politics,” shaped by those who move differently through the world
✦ The role of sanctuary and sacred spaces in times of upheaval
This is less a conversation of answers than of reimagining; an invitation to pause, to listen otherwise, and to encounter the mystery shimmering inside the fractures of our time. In these transformational times, Bayo is a rare and radical voice, urging us to reimagine how we see the world.
This episode of Wonderstruck invites you into that space.
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
5:31 Autistic perception and expanded awareness
12:30 AI is redefining intelligence
18:58 The Ship of Theseus and posthumanism
25:50 A moment of wonder at the moon
40:00 Second sound and postactivism
55:38 Liminality and the Cracks
1:06:50 Death, Eshu and Jesus as trickster
1:14:51 Making sanctuary and examining life's glitches
Follow Bayo:
Website: https://www.bayoakomolafe.net/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bayoakomolafe/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bayoakomolafeampersand
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bayo.akomolafe/
Emergence Network: https://www.emergencenetwork.org/
Follow Wonderstruck:
Website: https://wonderstruck.org
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wonderstruckpod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wonderstruckpod
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw
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Fungi are everywhere. Under our feet, in our food, in our medicines. Yet they remain one of the most overlooked kingdoms of life.
In this episode of Wonderstruck, we speak to mycologist Giuliana Furci, a self-taught champion for fungi and founder of the first NGO in the world dedicated to fungal conservation, the Fungi Foundation. She reveals how mushrooms shape ecosystems, inspire culture, and hold ancient knowledge. They are alchemists of decay, transforming death and toxins into the fertile ground of new life. From sacred candlelit ceremonies to songs created with a cloud forest that has rights, Giuliana’s stories may change how you see the world forever.
We explore:
How fungi sustain life on Earth and make our survival possibleDocumenting indigenous relationships with fungi, from birth control to healingThe Song of the Cedars with Robert Macfarlane, Cosmo Sheldrake, César Rodríguez-Garavito Sacred mushrooms, Mazatec culture and Maria SabinaWhy protecting fungi may shape the future of our planetGiuliana’s story is a testament to what can happen when we follow our calling and, in the words of Giuliana's mother, that something doesn't have to be done in order for us to do it!
Chapters:
0:00 Intro: A fateful encounter with fungi
5:56 Mycology 101: Fungi's role in life on Earth
9:37 Studying fungi with experience and intuition
15:07 Don Pfister’s invitation to Harvard
23:13 The Song of the Cedars and forest rights
30:13 Documenting indigenous relationships with fungi
37:38 Surprising fungal uses across cultures
41:27 Fungi communication and sacred ceremonies
47:49 National Geographic award and impact
Follow Giuliana:
Website: https://giulianafurci.com/
Instagram: @giulifungi
Fungi Foundation https://www.ffungi.org/
LET THINGS ROT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpjWh1TXthM
Flora, Fauna, Funga Documentary National Geographic Society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DsnWcWeyoI
The Song of the Cedar by Cosmo Sheldrake and Robert Macfarlane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH_timp2S3E&list=RDHH_timp2S3E&start_radio=1
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/455147/is-a-river-alive-by-macfarlane-robert/9780241624814
Follow Wonderstruck:
Newsletter: https://newsletter.wonderstruck.org
Website: https://wonderstruck.org
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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A lot of what Jeffrey Kripal writes about and explores doesn’t fit into our current worldview. A professor at Rice University, where he holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought, Jeff specializes in extreme religious experiences, a new comparativism in the study of religion, the paranormal, and the extraordinary dimensions of human existence. He helped create the groundbreaking GEM Program (Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism) and serves on the board of the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.
From UFOs/UAPs to near-death experiences, psi phenomena, and mystical visitations, Jeff’s work challenges us to rethink reality itself. As he puts it, “The paranormal is trying to get our attention. Reality is not what we think it is.” His 13 books, including Authors of the Impossible, Mutants and Mystics, The Flip, How to Think Impossibly, and the upcoming three-volume set The Super Story, invite readers to explore the limits of current-day thought and the vast potential of the unknown.
In this conversation, we dive into grief, humor, and the transcendent. Jeff suggests that laughter can help us step outside our worldview, grief can open us to the impossible, and humanity’s tendency to dismiss the extraordinary may actually conceal profound truths. With meaningful observations like “Certainty is a big problem” and “Reality is transcending itself,” Jeff invites us to embrace the mysteries that defy explanation and to see the impossible as a gateway to deeper understanding.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro: Reality is not what we think
5:31 Psychoanalysis and spiritual experiences
13:17 John Mack's UFO research at Harvard
18:06 The impossible and expanding worldviews
24:04 Consciousness: brain vs. perception models
29:31 Grief, humor and paranormal experiences
36:44 UFOs as a "wedge issue" in science
43:17 Historical perspectives on UFO phenomena
50:46 Wonder, awe and the "impossible"
About Wonderstruck:
The Wonderstruck Podcast with Elizabeth Rovere is a deep yet lighthearted exploration of the mystical, metaphysical, transcendent, transformative, esoteric, and ecstatic aspects of human experience. It bridges science, spirituality, and philosophy through engaging conversations with scientists, scholars, experts, and experiencers.
In this season of the Wonderstruck Podcast, we delve into the profound mysteries of existence, exploring the depths of human consciousness, spirituality, and the interconnectedness of life. Through engaging conversations with professors, neuroscientists, comedians, healers, poets, psychotherapists, group therapists, philosophers, activists, and authors,we invite listeners to challenge conventional thinking and embrace a multidimensional understanding of reality.
Wonderstruck Links:
https://wonderstruck.org
https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod/
https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661
https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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What if pain wasn’t just a problem to fix, but a portal to something deeper?
Diane Goldner didn’t set out to become a healer. As an investigative journalist writing for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, she approached energy healing with the sharp eye of a skeptic, ready to expose what didn’t hold up. But instead, she found something that flipped her world upside down. Today, she’s an internationally recognized healer and medical intuitive, helping people unlock their body’s hidden wisdom in ways the medical field could learn from.
In this episode, Diane shares the story of her awakening into the world of subtle energy — and how she now helps others access the hidden intelligence of the body. We talk about the surprising signals our pain carries, what it means to receive shaktipat, and why the boundary between science and mysticism may not be a boundary at all.
This is a conversation about seeing differently — about tuning in to what lies just beneath the surface, and discovering that healing might be less about fixing, and more about remembering who we really are.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro: Reality is more mutable than we realize
5:06 Diane's journey from skeptic to energy healer
10:27 What is energy healing and subtle energy?
15:45 Examples of energy healing in action
26:26 How Diane perceives energy during healings
32:35 The relationship between science and spirituality
38:41 Princeton's research on mind-matter interaction
46:44 Why energy healing sometimes doesn't work
54:39 The role of love in the healing process
1:04:23 Chakras and their role in energy healing
1:14:17 Diane's experiences with spiritual figures
1:16:25 How changing consciousness changes reality
1:20:59 Closing thoughts on imagination and perception
About Wonderstruck:
The Wonderstruck Podcast with Elizabeth Rovere is a deep yet lighthearted exploration of the mystical, metaphysical, transcendent, transformative, esoteric, and ecstatic aspects of human experience. It bridges science, spirituality, and philosophy through engaging conversations with scientists, scholars, experts, and experiencers.
In this season of the Wonderstruck Podcast, we delve into the profound mysteries of existence, exploring the depths of human consciousness, spirituality, and the interconnectedness of life. Through engaging conversations with professors, neuroscientists, comedians, healers, poets, psychotherapists, group therapists, philosophers, activists, and authors,we invite listeners to challenge conventional thinking and embrace a multidimensional understanding of reality.
Wonderstruck Links:
https://wonderstruck.org
https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod/
https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661
https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw
Diane's Books:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Diane-Goldner/author/B001K8F9G6
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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John Cleese and Dr. Iain McGilchrist are good friends who share a deep appreciation for the power of humor and a fascination with neuroscience and consciousness. McGilchrist recalls falling asleep laughing at an episode of Fawlty Towers—only to wake up the next morning still laughing.
Cleese has spent a lifetime using humor not just to entertain but to challenge rigid thinking, expose absurdities, and reveal truths hiding in plain sight. McGilchrist, a psychiatrist, philosopher, and neuroscientist, has transformed our understanding of the mind, particularly how modern culture leans too heavily on the left hemisphere’s need for certainty—often at the expense of creativity, nuance, and vision.
In this special episode of Wonderstruck, co-hosts Elizabeth Rovere and Mary Attwood bring us a spirited “quadrologue” exploring humor, creativity, and consciousness. Cleese reflects on how comedy topples hierarchies, sharpens perception, and fosters resilience, while McGilchrist explains why humor itself depends on the brain’s ability to shift perspectives—something the right hemisphere thrives on.
Together, they unpack how laughter, play, and spontaneity expand our ways of thinking, helping us loosen up in a world that often takes itself far too seriously.
As Cleese puts it: "If humor isn’t woven into the fabric of the cosmos, I need to know why not."
Chapters:
0:00 Intro: Humor and consciousness
5:07 Humor as a democratizing force
10:23 Criticism and self-laughter in comedy
15:26 Humor's role in consciousness and creativity
20:42 Theory of mind and humor
26:56 Free will and determinism debate
32:45 Unlearning and the importance of humor
38:55 Creativity, relaxation, and uncertainty
44:40 Introversion and never being bored
48:38 Art, consciousness, and cosmic values
About Wonderstruck:
The Wonderstruck Podcast with Elizabeth Rovere is a deep yet lighthearted exploration of the mystical, metaphysical, transcendent, transformative, esoteric, and ecstatic aspects of human experience. It bridges science, spirituality, and philosophy through engaging conversations with scientists, scholars, experts, and experiencers.
In this season of the Wonderstruck Podcast, we delve into the profound mysteries of existence, exploring the depths of human consciousness, spirituality, and the interconnectedness of life. Through engaging conversations with professors, neuroscientists, comedians, healers, poets, psychotherapists, group therapists, philosophers, activists, and authors,we invite listeners to challenge conventional thinking and embrace a multidimensional understanding of reality.
Wonderstruck Links:
https://wonderstruck.org
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https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661
https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw
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A lot of what Dr. Alex Gomez-Marin explores challenges the boundaries of traditional science. A physicist and neuroscientist, Alex leads the Behavior of Organisms Laboratory at the Instituto de Neurociencias in Alicante, Spain, and serves as the director of the Pari Center in Italy. His groundbreaking work spans neuroscience, physics, and the study of consciousness, with a focus on what he calls “the edges of consciousness.”
In this episode, Elizabeth joins Alex for a mind-expanding conversation about the limits of science as it’s traditionally understood. As Alex highlights, “What is funded is what gets studied,” meaning that the edges of consciousness are often dismissed as fringe and ignored by mainstream science. But materialism is not the only game in town—"science is far more than materialism and reductionism."
From his transformative Near-Death Experience (NDE) to his pioneering research on phenomena beyond the five senses, Alex bridges science, spirituality, and the humanities. He explains the receiver model of consciousness, which suggests that the brain functions more like an antenna than a generator, and explores phenomena such as remote viewing and telepathy, pushing the boundaries of what mainstream science considers possible.
Together, they discuss Alex's neuroscience research on blind individuals who “see” with their hearts called E.O.V., telepathy as the blending of thought and knowing, and the concept of reality as an evolving perception. Alex’s unique perspective invites us to question everything and embrace the unknown, reminding us that the cracks in the matrix may reveal that reality is far richer than we ever imagined.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro: Near-death experience and neuroscience
5:07 The Pari Center and exploring consciousness
10:04 Sharing a profound near-death experience
16:59 Science beyond materialism and reductionism
28:24 Different philosophical approaches to consciousness
34:44 The need for listening in scientific discourse
40:50 Studying extraocular vision scientifically
47:40 Using science to validate extraordinary experiences
51:52 Outro: Exploring the edges of consciousness
About Wonderstruck:
The Wonderstruck Podcast with Elizabeth Rovere is a deep yet lighthearted exploration of the mystical, metaphysical, transcendent, transformative, esoteric, and ecstatic aspects of human experience. It bridges science, spirituality, and philosophy through engaging conversations with scientists, scholars, experts, and experiencers.
In this season of the Wonderstruck Podcast, we delve into the profound mysteries of existence, exploring the depths of human consciousness, spirituality, and the interconnectedness of life. Through engaging conversations with professors, neuroscientists, comedians, healers, poets, psychotherapists, group therapists, philosophers, activists, and authors,we invite listeners to challenge conventional thinking and embrace a multidimensional understanding of reality.
Wonderstruck Links:
https://wonderstruck.org
https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod/
https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661
https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Vandana Shiva is not just an activist, she is a visionary, a force of nature, and a firebrand for a world in crisis.
She doesn’t merely challenge the mechanistic view of life; she dismantles it with the precision of a physicist and the passion of a poet. In its place, she offers something far more powerful: a universe alive with intelligence, diversity, and self-organization. This is a cosmos where everything pulses with meaning.
A scientist and warrior for the Earth, Vandana bridges worlds that many see as separate such as quantum physics and ancient wisdom, or science and spirit. Her message is meaningful: matter is not inert; it is consciousness in motion. From the sacred cycle of soil, food, and humanity to the concepts of autopoiesis, and symbiosis she reveals the elegant, often invisible web that connects us all.
She warns against the dangerous illusion that nature is a machine to be manipulated. In reality, the Earth is a living system, responsive and intelligent, and when we exploit it as if it were lifeless, we create imbalance, and what she calls the metabolic disorder of Gaia. Climate change, in her view, is not just an environmental crisis, rather, it is a profound disruption of life’s symphony, a call to return to harmony before it is too late.
But Vandana is not here to preach despair; she is here to ignite transformation. She speaks of joy as an act of resistance, humility as the gateway to true wisdom, and creativity as the very essence of life. The same Shakti, the regenerative power that makes trees grow, rivers flow, and galaxies spin, exists within us, and is inexhaustible and eternal.
In this conversation, Vandana invites us to awaken not just to the urgency of the moment but to the deeper truth of our existence. We are not separate from nature; we are nature. And when we embrace this reality, we don’t just sustain the world, we help it flourish. With unwavering courage, wisdom, and love, she calls us to step into a regenerative future, where we become stewards, co-creators, and protectors of the great, living Earth that carries us all.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro: Quantum physics and healing the planet
5:49 Living in consciousness vs. mechanistic thinking
11:00 Principles of quantum thinking in everyday life
16:19 Earth University: Nature as the teacher
22:25 Seed freedom and biodiversity preservation
28:01 Finding joy in interconnection and service
33:12 Humility and elevated consciousness
36:43 Quantum physics and divinity
40:51 Story of women's strength from nature
About Wonderstruck:
The Wonderstruck Podcast with Elizabeth Rovere is a deep yet lighthearted exploration of the mystical, metaphysical, transcendent, transformative, esoteric, and ecstatic aspects of human experience. It bridges science, spirituality, and philosophy through engaging conversations with scientists, scholars, experts, and experiencers.
In this season of the Wonderstruck Podcast, we delve into the profound mysteries of existence, exploring the depths of human consciousness, spirituality, and the interconnectedness of life. Through engaging conversations with professors, neuroscientists, comedians, healers, poets, psychotherapists, group therapists, philosophers, activists, and authors,we invite listeners to challenge conventional thinking and embrace a multidimensional understanding of reality.
Wonderstruck Links:
https://wonderstruck.org
https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod/
https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661
https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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For Wonderstruck's Season 2 finale, host Elizabeth Rovere introduces a special conversation between Zentatsu Richard Baker Roshi, one of Zen's leading voices, and his Dharma Successor and Dharma Sangha colleague Tatsudo Nicole Baden Roshi. The mentor-protégé duo display their compassion and respect for one another while introducing vital ideas about navigating existence, seeking connection, and recalibrating perception.
https://wonderstruck.org
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https://www.facebook.com/wonderstruckpod
https://www.dharma-sangha.de
https://www.dharmasangha.org
https://www.instagram.com/zendharmasangha/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/crestonemountainzen/
https://www.facebook.com/zendharmasangha
https://www.facebook.com/dharmasanghacrestone
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Healer, author and world-renowned qigong master Robert Peng traces his singular journey and shares stories about the teacher that changed his life. Recovering from a childhood illness during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Peng started apprenticing with a legendary monk named Xiao Yao. Having witnessed and learned from his master’s extraordinary, and seemingly supernatural powers, Peng himself developed his own remarkable capabilities, feats of strength and healing which many would consider impossible. He did it, he says, by cultivating his qi. In a revealing conversation recorded last summer at Wonderstruck’s Symposium on Wisdom and Pedagogy in Guainville, France, host Elizabeth Rovere sat down with Peng to explore what qi really is, what it has to do with the energy centers of Chinese Medicine, and how we can cultivate our own.
https://wonderstruck.org
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https://www.robertpeng.com
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Emma Mumford is the best-selling author of Hurt, Healing, Healed, and Spiritual Queen, and host of Spiritual Queen’s Badass Podcast. There, she covers topics like manifestation, out of body experiences, The Law of Attraction and processing trauma. Emma’s own spiritual awakening came as a surprise. She had found professional success after years of personal struggle, becoming a popular couponing advocate and presenter in the UK. Nevertheless, she still suffered from depression and anxiety. A moment of surrender changed Emma’s life. “I remember looking out the window and saying, ‘Universe, help me.’ And that was it,” Emma tells Wonderstruck’s Elizabeth Rovere. As Emma let go of control and led more from her heart, she opened up to newfound teachings, therapy, and self-help tools. She began tapping into deep personal wells of agency and creativity, working through childhood trauma, developing her intuition and, ultimately, drawing upon her learnings to help others find happiness. “When you find yourself in the trenches of life,” Emma says. “There is a purpose to that. You may not know it at that time, you may not know what abundance or happiness or joy awaits you."
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https://emmamumford.co.uk
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What do you want? Who are you bound to? Who are you, really? And what will you do when faced with difficult decisions? These are some of the questions at the heart of religion and tragedy, dramas about extreme situations, impossible choices, and their consequences. William Robert, a professor of religion at Syracuse University, studies religion by studying tragedies, since both ask the same kinds of big questions about being human: questions about love and connection, about purpose and passion, about morality and mortality. And they’re persistent questions that don’t have final answers. In performance-based classes and workshops, and in print, William uses tragic dramas to rethink how religion works, what it does, and why it matters. His most recent book, Unbridled: Studying Religion in Performance, won the American Academy of Religion’s Religion and the Arts Book Award. On this episode of Wonderstruck, William and host Elizabeth Rovere discuss performance and pedagogy as practices of wonder that generate learning. Using teaching methods that draw upon embodied participation, earnest curiosity, props and disarming playfulness, William breaks down the barriers of academia to reach new and transformative conclusions. "When we're using our bodies, we are inevitably thinking and feeling together," he says. "The intellectual and the affective and the corporeal dimensions are all mixed together. And that's much more powerful than just the intellect."
https://wonderstruck.org
https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod/
https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod
https://www.facebook.com/wonderstruckpod
https://artsandsciences.syracuse.edu/people/faculty/robert-william/
https://artsandsciences.syracuse.edu/news-all/news-2024/william-robert-wins-american-academy-of-religion-book-award/
https://a.co/d/3xYgkQE
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/U/bo128919176.html
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Seeking relief from her migraine headaches, Dr. Sue Morter turned to meditation. As a new meditator, 24 years ago, she sat down to meditate as part of a group. As she followed along chanting a mantra, her mind was stilled and she was instantaneously transported into a higher state of consciousness, that she explains "was completely altered from where we operate on a daily basis." Dr. Sue shares with Wonderderstruck's Elizabeth Rovere, "I could see 360 degrees...I could see in every direction simultaneously...I was a ray of light. And I had always been there. I knew instantly that this was the truth of who I was. " Her life's work has evolved from this formative moment and the multi-dimensional experiences and understandings she continues to access as she works to embody this greater truth of who we are, teaching it and sharing it with others through her Energy Codes coursework, BodyAwake Yoga, Spiritual B.E.S.T. (Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique) and as a best-selling author. Dr. Sue is a transformational leader, teaching us how we're contributing to the expansion of human consciousness as "we're waking to the truth of why we're here and what we're capable of."
https://wonderstruck.org
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https://drsuemorter.com
https://www.facebook.com/DrSueMorter
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https://www.youtube.com/@DrSueMorter
https://nt113.isrefer.com/go/HYHYLEbook/ElizabethRovere/
https://nt113.isrefer.com/go/HYHYLMed/ElizabethRovere/
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Nicole Baden's life in Zen began with a crisis. She was 17, overwhelmed and felt she may not survive. With help from her father, and her own intuition, Nicole looked for relief in the form of her 18th birthday gift: a trip to a Zen meditation retreat. Hoping to quiet her existential dread, what Nicole took away from that trip was even greater. It set her on a path that would entirely change her concept of self, and the way she'd experience being in the world. Now known as Tatsudo Nicole Baden Roshi, she is a Dharma Successor of Zentatsu Richard Baker Roshi, and director and a resident teacher at the Zen Buddhist Center Schwarzwald in Germany---the very same place she arrived as a frightened teen many years ago. The way Nicole teaches about Zen clarifies, demystifies and prescribes ways for her students to change their own paths by practicing meditation. "You can start sitting at home in homeopathic doses," she tells Wonderstruck's Elizabeth Rovere. "If you start introducing bodily stillness into your daily life, that would be a really good start." Beginning next year, Nicole intends to do more teaching in the United States, online and in-person, expanding the offerings at Dharma Sangha's Crestone Mountain Zen Center in Crestone, Colorado, where she serves as Assistant Abbot.
https://wonderstruck.org
https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod/
https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod
https://www.facebook.com/wonderstruckpod
https://www.dharma-sangha.de
https://www.dharmasangha.org
https://www.instagram.com/zendharmasangha/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/crestonemountainzen/
https://www.facebook.com/zendharmasangha
https://www.facebook.com/dharmasanghacrestone
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