How to Train a Happy Mind

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► Tell us about you and your podcast

A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment podcast brings the inner science of Buddhist meditation to twenty-first century people hungry for happy, meaningful lives. It’s a secular approach to meditation that requires no belief beyond our current understanding of science and psychology. The meditation techniques we teach and discuss are based on powerful Buddhist mind training techniques that use imagination, emotions, and critical inquiry to probe our inner and outer realities and expand our compassion.

I’m a digital artist and entrepreneur who’s been practicing Tibetan Buddhism for 20 years, and leading meditations for 13 years. I have an eclectic background, having started several tech companies, including one acquired by Facebook for it’s Snapchat-like camera effects; and I’ve also worked as a digital artist collaborating with people like Björk, Beck, Philip Glass, and Avatar director James Cameron. My producing partner, Stephen Butler, is also a long-time Tibetan Buddhist practitioner, and a music producer who’s been nominated for over 20 Grammy awards, and a dear friend.

► Why & how did you start this podcast? 

In teaching traditional style Tibetan meditation, I found that students had many obstacles to the beliefs embedded within Buddhism that can’t be supported by today’s understanding of science and psychology, such as karma, rebirth, and other realms. About seven years ago I started planning new ways to teach the same topics, but without requiring any scientifically unverifiable beliefs.

I also noticed the rise of meditation apps like Calm, Headspace, and Ten Percent Happier, which are very beneficial, but focus on the worldly benefits of meditation, such as sleeping better or improving focus at work. I wanted to create a place for people who had tried some of those types of meditation and then become curious about the deeper spiritual questions that meditation can help you probe, such as how to be happy, how to live a meaningful life, or even what happens when you die.

We launched our podcast in February, 2020 and we release new episodes weekly.

► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?

I wanted to make sure this podcast didn’t require advertising to support it, since it’s a spiritually-based program, and I wanted to give it the time it deserves to do justice to the meaningful topics. So, I’ve been saving up from well-paying tech jobs over the years until I had enough saved to quit last year to focus completely on producing A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment with my producer partner Stephen Butler.

► What do you gain from podcasting?        

Writing and producing this podcast makes me feel that my work and life are as meaningful as they can be, producing a program that helps people tame their minds and create the causes for their own happy, meaningful lives. Our podcast has all five star reviews so far, we're hitting the top 50 podcasts in our category, and we receive regular feedback that people are benefitting from our approach, so I feel really grateful to have found this meaningful work.

► How does your podcasting process look like? 

Episodes alternate between discussions and meditations. I write and revise each discussion over the course of 2-6 weeks, with feedback from my partner Stephen. Meditations are easier to prepare, with outlines that I’ve been using for many years. I record both episodes for a topic, the discussion and the meditation, in a session in a sound-dampened room at home using a great mic (Electro-voice RE320[amazon link]). I roughly edit the track for content and timing, and then Stephen turns that rough audio into a well-produced episode.

► How do you market your show?

Our website skepticspath.org attracts new and returning listeners with full transcripts, original blog posts, and videos. We have a newsletter we share episodes out to, and Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIN, and YouTube accounts we share each episode out to.
We often do a modest amount of targeted Facebook ads that take our weekly post about a new episode and show it to people interested in meditation who don’t yet know about our podcast. We’ve also had success with display advertising on Overcast, where you can advertise in a specific category.

► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?

I would give the same advice to anyone working on anything, which is to examine closely your motivation. Why are you doing this? Be careful if your motivation is ego, as podcasting is a huge amount of work and your ego may be upset by the small audience you start with. A motivation to genuinely want to help, teach, or entertain people can be a great place to start. Try and choose something meaningful and important to you as a topic, where you have something original to contribute to the world. And learn how to produce quality recordings: it’s not that hard and shows that you take yourself seriously.

► Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?

Our website skepticspath.org has all of our episodes and lots of additional content including blog posts and videos. The podcast is available to listen and subscribe on all podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Pandora. And you can follow us on social media under the name “skepticspath” on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIN.