ABOUT THIS PODCAST 🔗
Shortly after my Huffington Post essay "Beyond McMindfulness" went viral, a popular mindfulness promoter accused me of being a "crank". So why not own it? Alas, The Mindful Cranks was born. The Mindful Cranks was the first podcast to critique the mindfulness movement. Conversations with guests soon expanded in scope to include critical perspectives on the wellness, happiness, resilience and positive psychology industries - sharing a common concern that such highly individualistic and market-friendly techniques ignore the larger structural and systemic problems plaguing society. Whether these be trendy Asian spiritualities such as mindfulness or yoga, or other interventions from therapeutic cultures, The Mindful Cranks will call them out without mercy.
I am very fortunate to engage with my favorite journalists, authors and public intellectuals whose works that I admire, as well as educators and spiritual teachers who I have learned from — fellow cranks who don't simply accept the way things are. They're modern muckrakers who dare to question the unquestionable.
But being cranky can be critically wise and compassionate. Casting a wide net around the impending meta-crisis, The Mindful Cranks also explores with leading thinkers how the problems of our times are deeply entangled with our ways of knowing and being. Rather than just retreating from such problems by sitting on cushion, doing yoga or listening to a meditation app, I believe using our minds is not necessarily a bad thing if it challenges the limits of human knowledge.
I am very fortunate to engage with my favorite journalists, authors and public intellectuals whose works that I admire, as well as educators and spiritual teachers who I have learned from — fellow cranks who don't simply accept the way things are. They're modern muckrakers who dare to question the unquestionable.
But being cranky can be critically wise and compassionate. Casting a wide net around the impending meta-crisis, The Mindful Cranks also explores with leading thinkers how the problems of our times are deeply entangled with our ways of knowing and being. Rather than just retreating from such problems by sitting on cushion, doing yoga or listening to a meditation app, I believe using our minds is not necessarily a bad thing if it challenges the limits of human knowledge.
Update frequency:
every 42 days
Average audio length:
66 minutes
English
United States
50 episodes
since Aug. 7, 2015
episodic
AUDIENCE OF THIS PODCAST 🔗
~67.94% of listeners are from United States.
🇺🇸
US
67.94%
🇦🇺
AU
8.13%
🇩🇪
DE
7.17%
🇬🇧
GB
5.26%
🇨🇦
CA
4.30%
🇪🇸
ES
1.43%
🇨🇭
CH
1.43%
🇦🇹
AT
0.95%
🇮🇳
IN
0.95%
🇧🇷
BR
0.47%
🇳🇵
NP
0.47%
🇧🇪
BE
0.47%
🇳🇱
NL
0.47%
🇺🇦
UA
0.47%
Others
0.09%
* Data source: directly measured on Listen Notes. real-time
LATEST EPISODE 🔗
I am really excited about the conversation I had with Tara Isabella Burton – who is a novelist, essayist and scholar of religion and spirituality – and we spoke about her new book, Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians, published by Public Affairs. Tara takes us on a h…
SEARCH PAST EPISODES
Search past episodes of The Mindful Cranks.
PREVIOUS EPISODES 🔗
It would appear that Lululemon-wearing Yoga teachers are worlds apart from gun-toting, far-right Trumper conspiracists. Yet, during the Covid-shut down, when revenues from brick-and-mortar yoga studios dried up - many prominent yoga instructors, as well as wellness influencers who saw big bucks cou…
Since the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT earlier this year, there has been a media frenzy – with AI suddenly becoming of mainstream interest and concern. In this episode, I spoke with Peter Hershock, a prolific scholar trained in Asian and comparative philosophy, who has had a long-term interest in t…
I really enjoyed speaking with Martin Parker about his bold book, Shut Down the Business School: What's Wrong with Management Education, published by Pluto Press. Yes, you heard that right – Shut Down the Business School, Bulldoze it over…flatten it! Sure, sounds a little hyperbolic, but this is a…
Has the American Dream been built on a fundamental delusion – that we are all independent and autonomous individuals – that whether we become insanely wealthy or completely broke - is simply a matter of choice? That if we wish to be successful we just need to work hard, put our nose to the grindsto…
Could it be the case that the Western Buddhists have lost touch with the radical questioning and the transformative power of transcendence? Has the focus on meditation, the mimicking of South Asian monastics with the necessity of engaging in long and austere silent retreats, and the dominant materi…
Our way of knowing seems seduced into seeing things – including ourselves as the self as the knower – as substantial. We believe and take for granted that the world is a myriad of things and objects, that the passage of time is real, and that we can rely on science to tell us how to live and what h…
Is the climate crisis a reflection of our lack of understanding of our true nature as human beings in the cosmos? Could our inability to ask such difficult questions be at the root of our collective impotence to reduce carbon emissions and usher in the magnitude of cultural change necessary in orde…
Why is everything now about wellness and "self-care"? And it's not just about Goop – the global wellness industry – from leech therapy, MCT oils, to yoga, clean eating and New Age manifestation coaches -- is now a booming $4 trillion-dollar global industry. In this Episode, I spoke with Rina Raphae…
In Episode 40, I spoke with Gail Stearns about her new book, Liberating Mindfulness: From Billion-dollar Industry to Engaged Spirituality (Orbis Books, 2022). Our conversation explored Gail's journey into the contemporary mindfulness world as she earnestly sought ways it could enhance her chaplain…
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ronald Purser, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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