really good podcast, But difficult to listen to because her voice fluctuates from soft and quiet to loud and high pitched. hopefully the publisher can level it out.

I agree with the previous comment. The sound quality needs some help.

On March 14, 2020, just after COVID was declared a national emergency, meditation teacher and activist Shelly Tygielski wanted to find a way to support her community in South Florida. She created two simple Google forms—one to give help and one to get help—and shared both on social media. The next morning, each form had over 500 responses from around the country, and the mutual aid organization Pandemic of Love was born. Since Pandemic of Love’s conception, the organization has connected over 2 million donors with individuals and families in need and has responded directly to global crises including hurricanes, mass shootings, and the ongoing war in Ukraine. Just this past month, Tygielski returned from the Poland-Ukraine border, where she was supporting Ukrainian refugees displaced by war.

In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle editor-in-chief James Shaheen and co-host Sharon Salzberg sit down with Tygielski to discuss her work in Ukraine, the history of mutual aid movements, and the radical power of just showing up.

The Radical Power of Just Showing Up with Shelly Tygielski

Ritual is a foundational component of many Buddhist traditions, yet Western Buddhists are often reluctant to engage in ritual practice. According to Buddhist teacher and professor Anne Klein, this resistance can actually be generative. In fact, Klein believes that working with our resistance to ritual can open us to spaces of wonder, liberation, and belonging.

In today’s episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle editor-in-chief James Shaheen sits down with Klein to discuss why so many of us are resistant to ritual, the types of freedom that ritual makes possible, and how ritual practices can support us in the face of loneliness and alienation.

Revisiting Ritual with Anne Klein

Over the past few years, the pressures placed on healthcare workers have mounted steadily, and rates of burnout and exhaustion are on the rise. According to Jan Chozen Bays, a pediatrician and Zen priest, mindfulness practices can provide an antidote to burnout and support those who are working on the frontlines of human suffering. In her new book, "Mindful Medicine: 40 Simple Practices to Help Healthcare Professionals Heal Burnout and Reconnect to Purpose," Bays presents short, simple practices to help healthcare workers reconnect with themselves and their patients in the midst of demanding workdays.

In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and co-host Sharon Salzberg sit down with Bays to discuss her own experience of burnout, her work in creating supportive communities for physicians, and how we can experience a greater sense of presence and flow in our daily lives.

Healing Burnout with Jan Chozen Bays

Catherine Burns is a firm believer in the power of stories. For the past 20 years, she has served as the artistic director at The Moth, a nonprofit dedicated to the art of storytelling. In this role, she has helped hundreds of people craft their stories, including a New York City sanitation worker, a Nobel Laureate, a jaguar tracker, and an exonerated prisoner. For Burns, listening to stories can be a way of cultivating empathy and healing from trauma. 

In today’s episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and co-host Sharon Salzberg sit down with Burns to talk about how to tell a good story, how we can break free from harmful narratives, and how stories can help us find community in the midst of isolation.

Breaking Free of the Stories We Tell Ourselves with Catherine Burns

There are lots of reasons to be angry right now. It’s often said that if you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention. But according to scholar Allison Aitken, anger only leads to further harm, no matter how justified it may feel in the moment. As a professor of philosophy, Aitken believes that Buddhist texts offer valuable resources for working with our anger and healing contemporary divisions. Drawing from the work of the eighth-century Indian philosopher Shantideva, she positions compassion as a substitute attitude for anger and lays out methods for moving beyond righteous rage.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Aitken to talk about how anger distorts our perceptions, why anger can be so seductive, and how we can transform our rage into compassion.

Transforming Anger into Compassion with Allison Aitken

It can be so tempting to be pessimistic about our present moment. But poet Diego Perez believes that we live in an unprecedented time of global healing. Perez publishes his poems using the pen name Yung Pueblo, or “young people,” because he believes that humanity as a whole is still young and has a lot of maturing to do. In his new book, "Lighter: Let Go of the Past, Connect with the Present, and Expand the Future," Perez shares his personal path to healing from addiction and lays out practices to help us cultivate what he calls structural compassion.

In today’s episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief James Shaheen and cohost Sharon Salzberg sit down with Perez to talk about the connection between personal and global transformation, the difference between self-love and narcissism, and what gives him hope about our present moment.

Not Enlightened, But Lighter with Yung Pueblo

For twenty years, Valerie Brown worked as a lawyer lobbyist, persuading politicians on Capitol Hill. But after a chance encounter with the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, she began searching for a deeper sense of meaning and purpose. Eventually, she quit her job and became ordained as a dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition. In her new book, "Hope Leans Forward: Braving Your Way toward Simplicity, Awakening, and Peace," Brown shares her journey through personal loss and how she has grappled with the question, “Where is hope now?”

In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief James Shaheen and co-host Sharon Salzberg sit down with Brown to talk about the distinction between active and passive hope, her unique blend of Buddhist and Quaker traditions, and how she has learned to listen to her soul’s voice.

Making Peace with Our Longing to Belong with Valerie Brown

For 50 years, Pico Iyer has been traveling the globe, seeking out sacred sites from the hidden shrines of Tehran to the funeral pyres of Varanasi. Iyer believes that travel can help us confront questions that we tend to avoid or bypass when we’re at home, forcing us out of our usual routines and bringing us into contact with the “crisscrossing of cultures.” In his latest book, "The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise," Iyer investigates how different cultures have understood the notion of paradise, recounting his travels to contested places including Jerusalem, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, and Ladakh.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor in chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Iyer to discuss the risks of the commercialization of paradise, the power of not knowing, and how we can find paradise in the midst of impermanence.

Searching for Paradise with Pico Iyer

The Zen precepts of non-killing, non-stealing, and non-lying can sometimes be presented as a list of rules and regulations. But Zen teacher Nancy Mujo Baker prefers to see them as expressions of enlightened reality. Drawing from the work of 13th-century Zen priest Eihei Dogen, Baker believes that working with the precepts can be a way of revealing our inherent buddhahood. In her new book, "Opening to Oneness: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to the Zen Precepts," Baker offers practical exercises for compassionately acknowledging the liar, stealer, and killer within each of us.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Baker to discuss Dogen’s commentary on the precepts, the importance of getting to know our anger, and how we can cultivate compassion for the parts of ourselves we tend to reject.

A Practical Guide to the Zen Precepts with Nancy Mujo Baker

A world-renowned meditation teacher, Sharon Salzberg is the founding teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. In her new book, "Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom," she weaves together Buddhist psychology, her own experiences, and insights from a variety of contemplative traditions to examine how we can live with greater creativity, connection, and joy. Through exploring the forces that keep us trapped in constriction, she lays out a path toward what she calls “real life,” or a life of spaciousness and freedom.

In today’s episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Salzberg to talk about what it means to live a real life, how we can break free of our habitual patterns, and how expansiveness makes love more available to us.

Opening to Freedom with Sharon Salzberg

The more you experience the power of wise attention, the more your trust in the ground of awareness itself will grow. You will learn to relax and let go. In any moment of being caught, awareness will step in, a presence without judging or resisting. Close-in or vast, near or far, awareness illuminates the ungraspable nature of the universe. It returns the heart and mind to its birthright, naturally luminous and free.

SR Monday and Wednesday Talks http://www.spiritrock.org/

Big Sky Mind Meditation 1 - Jack  Kornfield

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

Transforming Anger into Compassion with Allison Aitken

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