“Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet / confinement of your aloneness / to learn / anything or anyone / that does not bring you alive / is too small for you.”

David Whyte is a poet and philosopher who believes in the power of a “beautiful question” amidst the drama of work as well as the drama of life — amidst the ways the two overlap, whether we want them to or not. He shared a deep friendship with the late Irish philosopher John O’Donohue. They were, David Whyte says, like “two bookends.” More recently, he’s written about the consolation, nourishment, and underlying meaning of everyday words.

Find more at www.onbeing.org/program/david-whyte-the-conversational-nature-of-reality/8560

David Whyte — The Conversational Nature of Reality

Joanna Macy is a Buddhist philosopher of ecology and an exquisite translator of the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. We take that poetry as a lens on her wisdom about the dramas of our time — ecological, political, and personal.

See more at www.onbeing.org/program/joanna-macy-a-wild-love-for-the-world/61

Joanna Macy — A Wild Love for the World

The Irish poet and philosopher John O'Donohue was beloved for his book Anam Ċara, Gaelic for "soul friend," and for his insistence on beauty as a human calling. In one of his last interviews before his death in 2008, he articulated a Celtic imagination about how the material and the spiritual — the visible and the invisible — intertwine in human experience. His voice and writings continue to bring ancient mystical wisdom to modern confusions and longings.

See more at www.onbeing.org/program/john-o-donohue-the-inner-landscape-beauty/203

John O'Donohue — The Inner Landscape of Beauty

The Irish poet and The New Yorker poetry editor Paul Muldoon has won the Pulitzer Prize, written for other media from radio to song, and plays in a rock band. He visited us for a magical day at the On Being studios on Loring Park in Minneapolis, including a dinner salon and reading from his work.

See more at http://www.onbeing.org/program/paul-muldoon-a-conversation-with-verse/8276

Paul Muldoon — A Conversation with Verse

David Whyte is an Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. His books include "The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America," "River Flow: New & Selected Poems," and "Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment, and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words." This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "David Whyte — The Conversational Nature of Reality." 

Find more at www.onbeing.org/program/david-whyte-the-conversational-nature-of-reality/8560

[Unedited] David Whyte with Krista Tippett

“Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet / confinement of your aloneness / to learn / anything or anyone / that does not bring you alive / is too small for you.”

David Whyte is a poet and philosopher who believes in the power of a “beautiful question” amidst the drama of work as well as the drama of life — amidst the ways the two overlap, whether we want them to or not. He shared a deep friendship with the late Irish philosopher John O’Donohue. They were, David Whyte says, like “two bookends.” More recently, he’s written about the consolation, nourishment, and underlying meaning of everyday words.

Find more www.onbeing.org/program/david-whyte-the-conversational-nature-of-reality/8560

David Whyte — The Conversational Nature of Reality

Groundbreaking Peabody Award-winning conversation about the big questions of meaning, hosted by Krista Tippett. Every Thursday a new discovery about the immensity of our lives — and frequent special features like poetry, music and Q + A with Krista.

David Whyte — The Conversational Nature of Reality

On Being Studios