Data-driven, dharma-informed, Dan-tested strategies for improving relationships of all kinds. In this episode we talk about: The value of having platonic friends in addition to your spouse or partner A key communication skill that Dan picked up from the writer and researcher Brené Brown How humor can help your relationships – and how it can hurt A cognitive reframe from couples therapist Esther Perel How to manage conflict in a healthy way And one of Dan’s favorite Saturday Night Live sket...
Feb 07, 2025•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Practical strategies for managing our emotional lives. Dr. Ethan Kross , author of the international bestseller Chatter , is one of the world’s leading experts on emotion regulation. An award-winning professor in the University of Michigan’s top ranked Psychology Department and its Ross School of Business, he is the Director of the Emotion and Self-Control Laboratory. In this episode we talk about: What an emotion actually is The myth that we should only experience positive em...
Feb 05, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast How your reliance on being liked, being comfortable, and being perfect is blocking you from making the change you want. Dr. Rangan Chatterjee is one of the most influential doctors in the UK with over two decades of experience. He now hosts Europe's biggest health podcast, Feel Better, Live More , he is the author of 5 Sunday Times bestsellers, he regularly appears on BBC television, national radio and his TED talk, How To Make Disease Disappear , has almost 6 million views. In this episod...
Feb 03, 2025•1 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jay shares the most effective tool in his meditation toolkit. This targeted release can create huge physiological benefit and relaxation. About Jay Michaelson: Jay Michaelson is a writer & journalist, rabbi & meditation teacher, keynote speaker, and scholar of religion. Jay is the author of ten books , most recently The Secret That Is Not A Secret: Ten Heretical Tales . His 2022 book, The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth , won the National Jewish Book Award ...
Jan 31, 2025•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast A Buddhist doctor/nun on how we’re all addicted to something—and how to reduce craving. Sister Dang Nghiem, MD, (“Sister D”) was born in 1968 in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, the daughter of a Vietnamese mother and an American soldier. She lost her mother at the age of twelve and immigrated to the United States at the age of seventeen with her brother. Living in various foster homes, she learned English and went on to earn a medical degree from the University of California – San Francisco. A...
Jan 29, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast How to use your innate mindfulness to turn the volume down, or even uproot, your everyday addictions. Dr. Judson Brewer is the Director of Research and Innovation at the Mindfulness Center and professor in Behavioral and Social Sciences and Psychiatry at the Schools of Public Health & Medicine at Brown University. He is the author of several books, including The Craving Mind , Unwinding Anxiety , and The Hunger Habit . This episode is part of our monthlong Do Life Better series. We tal...
Jan 27, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast This loving-kindness meditation can serve as a protection from fear, guard against anxiety, & help you tap into support from your community. About Leslie Booker: Booker brings her heart and wisdom to the intersection of Dharma, Embodied Wisdom, and Liberation. Using this framework, she supports folks in creating a culture of belonging through her teaching and writing on changing the paradigm of self and community care. She shares her offering widely as a university lecturer, public speaker, ...
Jan 26, 2025•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast A podcast pioneer on failure, resilience, luck, work/life balance, and the power of questions. Guy Raz has been instrumental in creating some of the most iconic podcasts in the world, including Wondery's How I Built This , Wow in the World and TED Radio Hour. The New York Times has described him as “one of the most popular podcasters in history.” This episode is part of our monthlong Do Life Better series. We talk about: The challenge–and gift–of failure Getting comfortable with disc...
Jan 24, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast How to be less stressed and more productive. Nolitha Tsengiwe , a Dharma teacher and board member at Dharmagiri Retreat Center, in South Africa. She is also a graduate of Insight Meditation Society teacher training. This episode is part of our monthlong Do Life Better series. In this episode we talk about: How to weave mindfulness into your day without requiring a big formal sit How to have healthy conflict in the workplace Our attempts to explain the ineffable And much more Related Episod...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep 895•Transcript available on Metacast Burnout is on the rise. Two experts show us how to combat it. Dr. Kristin Neff is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a pioneer in the field of self-compassion research, conducting the first empirical studies on self-compassion more than twenty years ago. Christopher Germer is a clinical psychologist and lecturer on psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He also co-developed a highly impactful program called Mindful Self-Compassion, ...
Jan 20, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep 894•Transcript available on Metacast We’re so often glued to our devices, but mindful screen time is possible. Flip the script and catch yourself before you go into zombie mode. About Dawn Mauricio: Dawn Mauricio discovered the practices of Buddhist meditation in 2005, and from then on, did what any well-intentioned perfectionist would do — plunge in head first! Since then, she's graduated from several teaching programs, including Spirit Rock's four-year Teacher Training. Her teaching style is playful, dynamic, and heartfelt, and s...
Jan 17, 2025•6 min•Ep 893•Transcript available on Metacast A candid conversation about money: How much is enough? How to find real security? Sebene Selassie , an author and meditation teacher. She writes the popular newsletter Ancestors to Elements and her first book is called, You Belong . Jeff Warren is also an author and meditation teacher. He writes the popular Substack newsletter Home Base and is the coauthor, along with me, of a book called Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics . And he is the co-host of the mind/bod adventure pod. This episode is...
Jan 15, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep 892•Transcript available on Metacast A Wharton professor shares practical tips on increasing your financial security, and eradicating the taboo around financial conversations. Dr. Wendy De La Rosa is an Assistant Professor at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She focuses on behavioral science to improve consumers’ financial well-being. This episode is part of our monthlong Do Life Better series. We talk about: Psychological and technological tools for taking control of your finances How to get a hand...
Jan 13, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Ep 891•Transcript available on Metacast During major life transitions your emotional and mental world can kick into overdrive. Learn how to stay in the eye of the hurricane. About Joseph Goldstein: Joseph is one of the most respected meditation teachers in the world -- a key architect of the rise of mindfulness in our modern society -- with a sense of humor to boot. In the 1970's, he co-founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) alongside Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield. Since its founding, thousands of people from around the wor...
Jan 10, 2025•6 min•Ep 890•Transcript available on Metacast The science and dharma of mindful eating. How it can stop over eating—and how to actually make the habit. Brother Pháp Lưu is an ordained monk in the Plum Village tradition started by Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh. He’s worked with scientists at Dartmouth College and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to develop research on the effect of Plum Village mindfulness practices on children. This episode is part of our monthlong Do Life Better series. We talk about: The health benefits of...
Jan 08, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep 889•Transcript available on Metacast What exercise does to your brain—and how to actually do it regularly. Wendy Suzuki is a Professor of Neural Science and Psychology at New York University, where she is also the first Asian-American Dean of the College of Arts and Science. She is the author of two books, Good Anxiety and Healthy Brain, Happy Life . This episode is part of our monthlong Do Life Better series. We talk about: How exercise not only enhances cognitive function but also protects against age-related cognitive decline an...
Jan 06, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep 888•Transcript available on Metacast Explore letting your body's most natural habit take over, and enjoy the benefits this brings to any moment. About Jeff Warren: Jeff makes meditation and practice accessible to diverse audiences in order to help people live more fulfilled and connected lives. He’s taught meditation to suspicious journalists, US Army cadets, burned-out caregivers, Arizona cops, formerly-incarcerated youth, virtuoso popstars, distractible teens, and every other conceivable demographic of freethinker, including squi...
Jan 05, 2025•6 min•Ep 887•Transcript available on Metacast Dan briefly whittles down his top 10 takeaways from the science of behavior change. In this episode we talk about: How our brain’s evolution for short-term survival makes long-term goals harder Picking the right goals Making it easy Leveraging fresh starts How to make goals a team sport The crucial role of mindfulness and self-compassion This episode is part of our monthlong Do Life Better series. Related Episodes: The Science of Making – And Keeping – New Year’s Resolutions | Hal Hershfield How...
Jan 03, 2025•25 min•Ep 886•Transcript available on Metacast Contemplating your own death can feel like a massive bummer at first, but there’s good news: how you react to that inescapable fact really matters. Vinny Ferraro has practiced insight meditation (vipassanā) since the mid-90s. He’s the Guiding Teacher of the Big Heart City Sangha in San Francisco and has led a weekly sitting group for almost two decades. As a fully empowered Dharma Teacher thru Spirit Rock/IMS, he has taught residential retreats at Spirit Rock, Insight Meditation Society, a...
Jan 01, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep 885•Transcript available on Metacast “Radical self-love” — what it is and how to do it. It is incredibly common for many of us humans, whatever our gender, to be at war with our bodies -- trying to live up to the people we see in the movies, on social media, or even the versions of ourselves in old pictures. This never-enough-ness can lead to an ambient level of self-loathing that can be incredibly destructive. That's where "radical self-love" comes in. Our guest today is Sonya Renee Taylor . She is the author of three books, inclu...
Dec 30, 2024•1 hr•Ep 884•Transcript available on Metacast Returning to the practice of equanimity keeps you both grounded and receptive, especially during times of turmoil and uncertainty. About Roshi Joan Halifax: Roshi Joan Halifax speaks to Buddhists and non-followers alike on such universal topics as compassion, suffering, and what it is to be human. As Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya, her vision for the Zen Center embraces comprehensive Buddhist studies, meditation, service, dharma art, and environmental action as integrated paths cultiv...
Dec 29, 2024•6 min•Ep 883•Transcript available on Metacast Very few of us relish chaos and disruption, but they are facts of life, given the nonnegotiable nature of change. In this episode with Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, we’re going to talk about how to tune into the value of disruption, and learn how to sit with the chaos. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel is an ordained Zen priest, holds a Ph.D., and worked for decades as a social science researcher and development director for non-profit organizations. She is also a prolific author. In this conversation we’ll ...
Dec 27, 2024•52 min•Ep 882•Transcript available on Metacast Can mindfulness really pull you out of a spiral of self-judgment? Don’t you need to be judgmental sometimes? What’s the difference between being discerning and judgmental? Description: Meditation and mindfulness doesn’t uproot your capacity to be judgmental, but it can help you see the value in being judgmental by learning how to work with the judging mind. La Sarmiento has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 1998. La is a mentor for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certifi...
Dec 25, 2024•54 min•Ep 881•Transcript available on Metacast Equanimity: what it is, what it isn’t, and how to get it. Guest Kamala Masters was one of the teachers at Dan’s first ever meditation retreat. In this episode she dives into how to develop equanimity and shares her story of learning how to practice meditation during her everyday life while raising three children on her own. Kamala Masters has been meditating since the 1970s, first with Anagarika Munindra, who was Joseph Goldstein’s first teacher, and then with the Burmese master Saya...
Dec 23, 2024•59 min•Ep 880•Transcript available on Metacast How not to take sh*t for granted. About Jay Michaelson: Jay Michaelson is a writer & journalist, rabbi & meditation teacher, keynote speaker, and scholar of religion. Jay is the author of ten books , most recently The Secret That Is Not A Secret: Ten Heretical Tales . He holds a JD from Yale, a PhD in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University, and nondenominational rabbinic ordination. To find this meditation in the Happier Meditation app , you can search for “Delighting in Pleasure.” See Pr...
Dec 22, 2024•6 min•Ep 879•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Executive Producer, DJ Cashmere, pull back the curtain on what we do, how we do it—and what’s coming next. In this episode we talk about: An exciting New Year's series reveal and upcoming meditation challenge What goes into making the show–and why we do it The ins and outs of starting a new business And much more Sign up for Dan’s newsletter here Follow Dan on social: Instagram , TikTok Ten Percent Happier online bookstore Subscribe to our YouTube Channel Our favorite playlists on: Anxie...
Dec 20, 2024•36 min•Ep 878•Transcript available on Metacast How your blindspots hurt your decision-making— and how to fix it. Anu Gupta is an educator, lawyer, scientist, and the founder and CEO of BE MORE with Anu , an education technology benefit corporation that trains professionals across corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors to advance DEIB and wellness by breaking bias. His work has reached 300+ organizations training more than 80,000 professionals impacting over 30 million lives. Gupta holds a JD from NYU Law, MPhil in Development Studies f...
Dec 18, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep 877•Transcript available on Metacast The upside of the often misunderstood "tribalism". Michael Morris is the Chavkin-Chang Professor of Leadership at Columbia Business School as well as a Professor in its Psychology Department. Outside of academia, Professor Morris has consulted with and conducted executive training workshops for hundreds of clients across the globe, including Fortune 100 firms, governments, and the Obama and Clinton campaigns. He lives in New York City. His latest book is called Tribal: How The Cultural Instincts...
Dec 16, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep 876•Transcript available on Metacast Bring an open minded curiosity to your big emotions and get to know yourself more fully, developing resilience to deal with all the feels. About Sharon Salzberg: Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer, world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. She is among the first to bring mindfulness & lovingkindness meditation to mainstream American culture fifty years ago, inspiring generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. A co-founder of The Insight Meditation ...
Dec 15, 2024•6 min•Ep 875•Transcript available on Metacast A famed author and humorist takes a deep dive into grief (with Dr. Bianca Harris as co-host). Sloane Crosley is the author of The New York Times bestselling books Grief Is for People , How Did You Get This Number , and I Was Told There’d Be Cake . She is also the author of Look Alive Out There , Cult Classic and The Clasp , both of which have been optioned for film. She served as editor of The Best American Travel Writing series and is featured in The Library of America's 50 Funniest American Wr...
Dec 13, 2024•54 min•Ep 874•Transcript available on Metacast 
