Today I sit down with Mary Shutan, a spiritual teacher specializing in awakening and shadow work. Our conversation focuses on the weirdness, emotional volatility, darkness, and other challenges that inevitably accompany serious spiritual practi...

Today I sit down with Miguel Farias, an experimental psychologist and researcher of religion, spirituality, and cognition. Together we try to get to the bottom of whether meditation is actually good for you through a comparison of Miguel's rese...

Today I sit down with David Gordon White, a distinguished indologist and scholar of Tantra. Our conversation focuses on David’s most recent project tracing the transregional histories of spirits, gods, demons, and their associated rituals acros...

💀💀 Warning: This episode contains potentially disturbing content! 💀💀Today I sit down with Justin McDaniel, a scholar of Theravada Buddhist literature and art. Together we explore the darker side of Thai Buddhism, including meditation on ...

Today I sit down with Jack Schaefer and Josh Paynter, co-abbots of the Parting Clouds Temple, to discuss their practice of Daoist exorcism. We talk about the differences between spirits, ghosts, demons, and other entities; as well as a range of...