On Being (Religion-Spirituality)

Krista Tippett interviewed spoken word poet Sarah Kay on April 12, 2012. This interview is included in the show "Sarah Kay's Way with Words." Download the mp3 of the produced show at onbeing.org.

Krista Tippett interviewed acoustic ecologist on April 27, 2012. This interview is included in the show "The Last Quiet Places." Download the mp3 of the produced show at onbeing.org.

Matthew Sanford says he's never seen anyone live more deeply in their body -- in all of its grace and all of its flaws -- without becoming more compassionate toward all of life. He is a renowned yoga teacher, and he has been paralyzed from the chest down since he was 13. He teaches yoga to the able-bodied and adapts yoga for people with ailments and disabilities, including military veterans. With Krista Tippett, he shares his story on finding his own way in to what we call the mind-body...

What if we understand death as a developmental stage -- like adolescence or mid-life? Dr. Ira Byock is a leading figure in palliative care and hospice in the United States. He says we lose sight of "the remarkable value" of the time of life we call dying if we forget that it's always a personal and human event, and not just a medical one. From his place on this medical frontier, he shares how we can understand dying as a time of learning, repair, and completion of our lives.

Sitting Bull is best known for defeating General Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn. But for many Lakota, his resistance to federal appropriation of sacred lands reflects humility towards the land and compassion towards his people -- with his death 120 years ago being his ultimate moment of sacrifice. We explore Sitting Bull's spiritual legacy as a force for identity and healing among the living.

Cedric Good House talked to Krista Tippett from a studio in Bismarck, North Dakota with his son Rick and wife Sissy. Hear him speak about Lakota tradition and Sitting Bull's legacy, while his wife and son accompany with music. This interview is included in the show "Tatanka Iyotake: Reimagining Sitting Bull." Download the mp3 of the produced show at onbeing.org.

The poet Christian Wiman is giving voice to the hunger for faith -- and the challenges of faith -- for people living now. After a Texas upbringing soaked in a history of violence and a charismatic Christian culture, he was agnostic until he became actively religious again in his late 30s. Then he was diagnosed with a rare form of incurable blood cancer. He's bearing witness to something new happening in himself and in the world.

Playwright Norman Allen offers this thoughtful guest essay on Easter not just being about Jesus' resurrection but Mary Magdalene too. Take two minutes to listen and read at the On Being Blog at onbeing.org.

Krista Tippett interviewed Armenian Orthodox theologian Vigen Guorian on February 22, 2007. This interview is included in the show "Restoring the Senses: Gardening and an Orthodox Easter." Download the mp3 of the produced show at onbeing.org.

How do we prime our brains to take the meandering mental paths necessary for creativity? New techniques of brain imaging, neuropsychologist Rex Jung says, are helping us gain a whole new view on the differences between intelligence, creativity, and personality. He unsettles some old assumptions -- and suggests some new connections between creativity and family life, creativity and aging, and creativity and purpose.

Being able-bodied, Kevin Kling says, is always only a temporary condition. Part funny guy, part poet and playwright, part wise man, Kling is known for NPR commentaries in his Minnesota accent that sounds straight out of the movie Fargo. With Krista Tippett, you'll hear his own special angle on life's humor and its ruptures. Born with a partially disabled left arm, in his 40s he then lost the use of his fully functional right one after a motorcycle accident nearly killed him. Take in his...

The 13th-century mystic and poet Rumi is a best-selling author in the modern West who has long influenced Islamic thought and spirituality, though his Muslim identity is often lost in translation. Enter the exuberant world of Rumi with Iranian-American poet and scholar Fatemeh Keshavarz. Delve into why Rumi matters in our time and how he understood searching and restlessness as a kind of arrival. And through a lush production of his words and poetry -- layered in Persian and English --...

Could codes like we see in computer programs be in the DNA of the cosmos? The physicist James Gates is a leading string theorist who is evolving mathematics to convey truth much like poetry does. He reveals why string theory stretches our imaginations about the fundamental nature of reality. And he shares what his life in science has taught him about how fallibility makes us more complete, and imagination makes us more knowledgeable.

Desmond Tutu says that despite all the evil and suffering in the world, human beings are "remarkable things" who are "made for goodness." We explore how his understanding of God and humanity has unfolded through the history he's shaped -- and even through his friendship with the Dalai Lama.

Meredith Monk is a kind of archeologist of the human voice. She says that "the voice could be like the body" -- flexible and fluid with practice. Through music as through meditation, the longtime Buddhist practitioner pushes the boundaries of what we can do without words. And she tells Krista Tippett what she's learned about mercy and impermanence, spirit and play. A lush hour of music and thought not to be forgotten.