On Being with Krista Tippett

[Unedited] Kimberley Wilson with Krista Tippett

19 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The British psychologist Kimberley Wilson works in the emergent field of whole body mental health, one of the most astonishing frontiers we are on as ...

Robin Wall Kimmerer — The Intelligence of Plants

12 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Few books have been more eagerly passed from hand to hand with delight in these last years than Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. Krista in...

[Unedited] Robin Wall Kimmerer with Krista Tippett

12 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Few books have been more eagerly passed from hand to hand with delight in these last years than Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. Krista in...

Sylvia Boorstein – What We Nurture

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A few years ago, Krista hosted an event in Detroit — a city in flux — on the theme of raising children. The conversation that resulted with the Je...

A Lovingkindness Meditation with Sylvia Boorstein

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The beloved Buddhist-Jewish teacher Sylvia Boorstein led this impromptu, short meditation as part of her On Being conversation with Krista Tippett (“...

[Unedited] Sylvia Boorstein with Krista Tippett

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A few years ago, Krista hosted an event in Detroit — a city in flux — on the theme of raising children. The conversation that resulted with the Je...

Pádraig Ó Tuama — “This fantastic argument of being alive”

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Pádraig Ó Tuama is a friend, teacher, and colleague to the work of On Being. But before that was true, Krista took a revelatory trip to meet him at ...

[Unedited] Pádraig Ó Tuama with Krista Tippett

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Pádraig Ó Tuama is a friend, teacher, and colleague to the work of On Being. But before that was true, Krista took a revelatory trip to meet him at ...

Ai-jen Poo and Tarana Burke — The Future of Hope 5

21 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The visionary, next-generation organizer Ai-jen Poo says this of Tarana Burke: “There are just so many layers of hope that she brings to the world a...

Avivah Zornberg — Human Becoming, Between Biblical Lines

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

You probably know the outline of the Exodus story and its main characters: Moses, the Pharaoh, the burning bush, the plagues, the parting of the sea. ...

[Unedited] Avivah Zornberg with Krista Tippett

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

You probably know the outline of the Exodus story and its main characters: Moses, the Pharaoh, the burning bush, the plagues, the parting of the sea. ...

Eugene Peterson — Answering God

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“Prayers are tools not for doing or getting, but for being and becoming.” These are words of the late legendary biblical interpreter and teacher E...

[Unedited] Eugene Peterson with Krista Tippett

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“Prayers are tools not for doing or getting, but for being and becoming.” These are words of the late legendary biblical interpreter and teacher E...

Mary Oliver — “I got saved by the beauty of the world.”

31 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The late poet Mary Oliver is among the most beloved writers of modern times. Amidst the harshness of life, she found redemption in the natural world a...

[Unedited] Mary Oliver with Krista Tippett

31 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The late poet Mary Oliver is among the most beloved writers of modern times. Amidst the harshness of life, she found redemption in the natural world a...

BONUS: An Invitation from Pádraig and Krista

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What do poetry, songs, and prayer have in common? While preparing for the next season of Poetry Unbound, host Pádraig Ó Tuama sat down with Krista T...

J. Drew Lanham – Pathfinding Through the Improbable

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The ornithologist J. Drew Lanham is lyrical in the languages of science, humans, and birds. His celebrated books include The Home Place: Memoirs of a ...

[Unedited] J. Drew Lanham with Krista Tippett

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The ornithologist J. Drew Lanham is lyrical in the languages of science, humans, and birds. His celebrated books include The Home Place: Memoirs of a ...

[Unedited] Kate DiCamillo with Krista Tippett

17 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In her writing, it is Kate DiCamillo's gift to make bearable the fact that joy and sorrow live so close, side by side, in life as it is (if not as we ...

Mario Livio — Mathematics, Mystery, and the Universe

10 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The astrophysicist Mario Livio spent 24 years at the Space Telescope Science Institute working with the Hubble Telescope, which has revealed the reali...

[Unedited] Mario Livio with Krista Tippett

10 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The astrophysicist Mario Livio spent 24 years at the Space Telescope Science Institute working with the Hubble Telescope, which has revealed the reali...

[Unedited] Colette Pichon Battle with Krista Tippett

03 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There is an ecological transformation unfolding in the places we love and come from. On a front edge of this reality which will affect us all, Colette...

“Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower” by Rainer Maria Rilke

25 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve noticed that many people have been seeking out this poem by Rilke on our website this week. It feels like a meditation and a salve for this fr...

Gal Beckerman — How Newness Enters the World

24 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When time becomes history, different dynamics come into focus than the ones that are at any moment screaming for attention. The title of Gal Beckerman...

[Unedited] Gal Beckerman with Krista Tippett

24 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When time becomes history, different dynamics come into focus than the ones that are at any moment screaming for attention. The title of Gal Beckerman...

Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman — Love Your Enemies? (Really?)

17 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a piece of deep psychological acuity, carried in many religious traditions: that each of us is defined as much by who our enemies are and how w...

[Unedited] Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman with Krista Tippett

17 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a piece of deep psychological acuity, carried in many religious traditions: that each of us is defined as much by who our enemies are and how w...

John O'Donohue – The Inner Landscape of Beauty

10 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

No conversation we’ve ever done has been more beloved than this one. The Irish poet, theologian, and philosopher insisted on beauty as a human calli...

[Unedited] John O'Donohue with Krista Tippett

10 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

No conversation we’ve ever done has been more beloved than this one. The Irish poet, theologian, and philosopher insisted on beauty as a human calli...

Trabian Shorters – A Cognitive Skill to Magnify Humanity

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Trabian Shorters is a visionary who has seen and named a task that is necessary for all healing and building, for every vision and plan, whether in a ...

[Unedited] Trabian Shorters with Krista Tippett

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Trabian Shorters is a visionary who has seen and named a task that is necessary for all healing and building, for every vision and plan, whether in a ...

Remembering Thich Nhat Hanh, Brother Thay

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, revered Zen master, teacher, and poet, died on January 22, 2022, in his native Vietnam. Brother Thay, as he was known b...

[Unedited] Thich Nhat Hanh with Krista Tippett

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, revered Zen master, teacher, and poet, died on January 22, 2022, in his native Vietnam. Brother Thay, as he was known b...

[Unedited] Cheri Maples with Krista Tippett

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Krista interviewed Cheri Maples around the edges of a retreat with revered Zen master, teacher, and poet Thich Nhat Hanh in 2003. Parts of this interv...

[Unedited] Larry Ward with Krista Tippett

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Krista interviewed Larry Ward around the edges of a retreat with revered Zen master, teacher, and poet Thich Nhat Hanh in 2003. Parts of this intervie...

Michael Pollan and Katherine May - The Future of Hope 4

20 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Pollan is one of our most revelatory explorers of the interaction between the human and natural worlds — especially the plants with which we...

Oliver Burkeman – Time Management for Mortals

13 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist Oliver Burkeman has made a delightful and important philosophical, spiritual, and practical investigation of all that is truly at stake in ...

[Unedited] Oliver Burkeman with Krista Tippett

13 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist Oliver Burkeman has made a delightful and important philosophical, spiritual, and practical investigation of all that is truly at stake in ...

Remembering Desmond Tutu

06 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The remarkable Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and Nobel Laureate died in the closing days of 2021. He helped galvanize South Africa's improbably pea...

[Unedited] Desmond Tutu with Krista Tippett

06 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The remarkable Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and Nobel Laureate died in the closing days of 2021. He helped galvanize South Africa's improbably pea...

Gordon Hempton — Silence and the Presence of Everything

30 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton collects sounds from around the world. He’s recorded inside Sitka spruce logs in the Pacific Northwest, thunder in...

[Unedited] Gordon Hempton with Krista Tippett

30 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton collects sounds from around the world. He’s recorded inside Sitka spruce logs in the Pacific Northwest, thunder in...

Jeff Chu — A Life of Holy Curiosity (In Friendship with Rachel Held Evans)

23 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Here we are in a religiously-infused season — and in a world in which more and more of us experience ourselves to be religious nomads, misfits, even...

[Unedited] Jeff Chu with Krista Tippett

23 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Here we are in a religiously-infused season — and in a world in which more and more of us experience ourselves to be religious nomads, misfits, even...

Jane Hirshfield – The Fullness of Things

16 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The esteemed writer Jane Hirshfield has been a Zen monk and a visiting artist among neuroscientists. She has said this: “It’s my nature to questio...

[Unedited] Jane Hirshfield with Krista Tippett

16 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The esteemed writer Jane Hirshfield has been a Zen monk and a visiting artist among neuroscientists. She has said this: “It’s my nature to questio...

Katherine May – How ‘Wintering’ Replenishes

09 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In so many stories and fables that shape us, cold and snow, the closing in of the light — these have deep psychological as much as physical reality....

[Unedited] Katherine May with Krista Tippett

09 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In so many stories and fables that shape us, cold and snow, the closing in of the light — these have deep psychological as much as physical reality....

Vivek Murthy and Richard Davidson – The Future of Well-being

02 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What if the future of well-being is about “tipping the scales in the world away from fear and toward love”? And what if it’s a surgeon general o...

[Unedited] Vivek Murthy and Richard Davidson with Krista Tippett

02 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What if the future of well-being is about “tipping the scales in the world away from fear and toward love”? And what if it’s a surgeon general o...

Jane Goodall – What It Means to Be Human

24 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Goodall’s early research studying chimpanzees helped shape the self-understanding of our species and recalled modern Western science to the fac...

[Unedited] Jane Goodall with Krista Tippett

24 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Goodall’s early research studying chimpanzees helped shape the self-understanding of our species and recalled modern Western science to the fac...

Pico Iyer and Elizabeth Gilbert – The Future of Hope 3

18 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Pico Iyer is an esteemed journalist and essayist, and an explorer of inner life — for himself and in 21st-century society. For this episode in our F...

Bessel van der Kolk – How Trauma Lodges in the Body, Revisited

11 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When Krista interviewed the psychiatrist and trauma specialist Bessel van der Kolk for the first time, his book The Body Keeps the Score was about to ...

[Unedited] Bessel van der Kolk with Krista Tippett

11 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Krista interviewed the psychiatrist and trauma specialist Bessel van der Kolk for the first time in 2013, as his book The Body Keeps the Score was abo...

Bryan Stevenson – Finding the Courage for What's Redemptive

04 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How to embrace what’s right and corrective, redemptive and restorative — and an insistence that each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve do...

[Unedited] Bryan Stevenson with Krista Tippett

04 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How to embrace what’s right and corrective, redemptive and restorative — and an insistence that each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve do...

Pádraig Ó Tuama and Marilyn Nelson – “So let us pick up the stones over which we stumble, friends, and build altars”

28 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Where to turn to find my place of standing when it feels like the world is on fire? This question surfaced in a public conversation Krista had just a ...

[Unedited] Pádraig Ó Tuama and Marilyn Nelson with Krista Tippett

28 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Where to turn to find my place of standing when it feels like the world is on fire? This question surfaced in a public conversation Krista had just a ...

Katharine Hayhoe – "Our future is still in our hands"

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Katharine Hayhoe is one of the most esteemed atmospheric scientists in the world. She’s made her mark by connecting dots between climate systems and...

[Unedited] Katharine Hayhoe with Krista Tippett

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Katharine Hayhoe is one of the most esteemed atmospheric scientists in the world. She’s made her mark by connecting dots between climate systems and...

Darnell Moore and dream hampton — The Future of Hope 2

14 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We’re in a time as thick with uncertainty as with possibility. Many of us are still, and again, exhausted — and yet opening, fitfully, to what we’...

Mike Rose – The Deepest Meanings of Intelligence and Vocation

07 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

“I grew up a witness,” Mike Rose wrote, “to the intelligence of the waitress in motion, the reflective welder, the strategy of the guy on the as...

[Unedited] Mike Rose with Krista Tippett

07 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

“I grew up a witness,” Mike Rose wrote, “to the intelligence of the waitress in motion, the reflective welder, the strategy of the guy on the as...

Priya Parker — Remaking Gathering: Entering the Mess, Crossing the Thresholds

30 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Priya Parker has become the voice of what it means to gather in this world we inhabit now. She is helping remake the “how” of coming together — ...

[Unedited] Priya Parker with Krista Tippett

30 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Priya Parker has become the voice of what it means to gather in this world we inhabit now. She is helping remake the “how” of coming together — ...

Stephen Batchelor – Finding Ease in Aloneness

23 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

One of the great challenges of life is to learn to be alone peaceably, at home in oneself. The pandemic forced many of us inside both physically and e...

[Unedited] Stephen Batchelor with Krista Tippett

23 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

One of the great challenges of life is to learn to be alone peaceably, at home in oneself. The pandemic forced many of us inside both physically and e...

Kate Bowler and Wajahat Ali — The Future of Hope

16 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

An irreverent conversation about hope between journalist Wajahat Ali and theologian Kate Bowler. They speak to this moment we’re in through the frie...

Suzanne Simard — Forests Are Wired For Wisdom

09 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Suzanne Simard is the forest ecologist who has proven, beyond doubt, that trees communicate with each other — that a forest is a single organism wir...

[Unedited] Suzanne Simard with Krista Tippett

09 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Suzanne Simard is the forest ecologist who has proven, beyond doubt, that trees communicate with each other — that a forest is a single organism wir...

Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn – Truth, Beauty, Banjo

02 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We are digging into the archives to celebrate some of the conversations listeners have loved the most and that have shaped this project. Béla Fleck i...

[Unedited] Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn with Krista Tippett

02 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We are digging into the archives to celebrate some of the conversations listeners have loved the most and that have shaped this project. Béla Fleck i...

[Unedited] Luis Alberto Urrea with Krista Tippett

26 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We humans have this drive to erect barriers between ourselves and others, Luis Alberto Urrea says, and yet this makes us a little crazy. He is an exub...

Robin DiAngelo and Resmaa Menakem — Towards a Framework for Repair

19 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Through the ruptures of the past year and more, we’ve been given so much to learn, and callings to live differently. But how to do that, and where t...

[Unedited] Robin DiAngelo and Resmaa Menakem with Krista Tippett

19 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Through the ruptures of the past year and more, we’ve been given so much to learn, and callings to live differently. But how to do that, and where t...

Kevin Kling — The Losses We Grow Into

12 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We are digging into the archives to celebrate some of the conversations listeners have loved the most and that have shaped this project. Kevin Kling i...

Sharon Salzberg — The Healing Is In The Return

05 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As we reflect back on 2020 and look ahead, how do we keep walking forward, and even find renewal along the way? How can we hold to our sense of what i...

[Unedited] Sharon Salzberg with Krista Tippett

05 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As we reflect back on 2020 and look ahead, how do we keep walking forward, and even find renewal along the way? How can we hold to our sense of what i...

Jen Bailey — What We Inherit & What We Send Forth

29 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

“I’m entering into this next phase… with a great deal of curiosity and perhaps tenderness, wanting to hold each other tight, because I think tha...

[Unedited] Jen Bailey with Krista Tippett

29 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

“I’m entering into this next phase… with a great deal of curiosity and perhaps tenderness, wanting to hold each other tight, because I think tha...

Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach — ‘Courage is the presence of fear, and going anyway.’

22 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Glennon Doyle’s book Untamed has been a sensation of 2020 and beyond, and now she’s launched a new podcast titled with words of hers that have bec...

[Unedited] Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach with Krista Tippett

22 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Glennon Doyle’s book Untamed has been a sensation of 2020 and beyond, and now she’s launched a new podcast titled with words of hers that have bec...

Brian Greene — This Tiny Slice of Eternity

15 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If we didn’t have vast civilizational challenges upon us, we might be living in a constant state of wonder at what science in this century is learni...

[Unedited] Brian Greene with Krista Tippett – 2021 Conversation

15 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If we didn’t have vast civilizational challenges upon us, we might be living in a constant state of wonder at what science in this century is learni...

Esther Perel – The Erotic Is an Antidote to Death

08 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The psychotherapist Esther Perel has changed our discourse about sexuality and coupledom with her TED talks, her books, and her podcast, Where Should ...

[Unedited] Esther Perel with Krista Tippett

08 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The psychotherapist Esther Perel has changed our discourse about sexuality and coupledom with her TED talks, her books, and her podcast, Where Should ...

Jason Reynolds — Imagination and Fortitude

01 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jason Reynolds is the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature of the Library of Congress — and a magnificent source of wisdom for human ...

[Unedited] Jason Reynolds with Krista Tippett

01 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jason Reynolds is the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature of the Library of Congress — and a magnificent source of wisdom for human ...

[Unedited] Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows with Krista Tippett

24 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A new translation of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet has been released in a world in which his voice and vision feel as resonant as eve...

Alex Elle — Self-Care as Generational Healing

17 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Alex Elle complicates the idea of self-care, opening it up as community-care, as a way towards generational healing. And she’s revivifying the meani...

[Unedited] Alex Elle with Liliana Maria Percy Ruiz

17 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Alex Elle complicates the idea of self-care, opening it up as community-care, as a way towards generational healing. And she’s revivifying the meani...

Nicholas Christakis — How We’re Wired for Goodness

10 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elemental human capacities like friendship and love, teaching and learning, have tremendous, constant, practical force. We don’t think of these in t...

[Unedited] Nicholas Christakis with Krista Tippett

10 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elemental human capacities like friendship and love, teaching and learning, have tremendous, constant, practical force. We don’t think of these in t...

Robert Macfarlane — The Worlds Beneath Our Feet

03 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There’s dark matter in the cosmos, and inside us, and hidden beneath our feet. Robert Macfarlane is an explorer and linguist of landscape and his bo...

[Unedited] Robert Macfarlane with Krista Tippett

03 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There’s dark matter in the cosmos, and inside us, and hidden beneath our feet. Robert Macfarlane is an explorer and linguist of landscape and his bo...

Tracy K. Smith and Michael Kleber-Diggs — ‘History is upon us... its hand against our back.’

27 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The pandemic memoirs began almost immediately, and now comes another kind of offering — a searching look at the meaning of the racial catharsis to w...

[Unedited] Tracy K. Smith and Michael Kleber-Diggs with Krista Tippett

27 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The pandemic memoirs began almost immediately, and now comes another kind of offering — a searching look at the meaning of the racial catharsis to w...

Jill Tarter — 'It Takes a Cosmos to Make a Human'

20 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence — or SETI — goes beyond hunting for E.T. and habitable planets. Scientists in the field are using tel...

[Unedited] Jill Tarter with Krista Tippett

20 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence — or SETI — goes beyond hunting for E.T. and habitable planets. Scientists in the field are using tel...