Voices of Esalen Podcast

Sonya Renee Taylor is a renowned activist, best-selling author, and celebrated thought leader whose work in racial justice, body liberation, and radical self-love has reshaped conversations around identity and healing.

At the heart of her groundbreaking book, The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love lies a transformative message that dismantles shame and oppression, offering a profound roadmap to reclaiming innate self-worth, and fostering a revolutionary connection with the world around us.

Beyond her notable talents as a poet, writer and speaker, Sonya has a rich history in advocacy and activism, which including work as a sexuality health educator, therapeutic wilderness counselor; mental health case worker; Director of Peer Education at HIPS (Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive) in Washington, D.C.; and Capacity Building and Training Director at the Los Angeles-based Black AIDS Institute.

She is a great follow on social media; her series "What's up Y'all?" features Sonya riffing extemporaneously on issues of the day, including abortion, climate change, AI, white supremacy culture, the Supreme Court, and a lot more.

Above all, Sonya's journey has been marked by a dedication to reshaping narratives. Join us as we explore her journey, her insights, and her relentless pursuit of a world where self-love intersects with justice, redefining what it means to truly embrace others and ourselves.

Congressman David Price is a veteran of American politics. He served North Carolina's 4th congressional district for over three decades, retiring recently in 2022. Price was a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina and a graduate of Yale University, where he received a PhD in Political Science. In Congress, he was for many years a key member of the House Appropriations Committee, well-known for being able to work both sides of the aisle. In addition, he was an early opponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and a studied adversary of media consolidation. In recent years, he worked diligently to promote parliamentary democracy in other countries.

Together we delve into the diminishing bipartisanship in the United States Congress, a topic that Price has experienced firsthand, and explore the nature of conflict and its resolution within the political landscape. We also take a deep dive into the intricacies of North Carolina's electoral politics, shedding light on how Price leveraged polling data to secure his initial victories in the 1980s. Finally, we will touch upon the ongoing battle against cynicism in politics, a struggle that the congressman has confronted throughout his career.

During the first wave of psychedelics in the 1960s, mind-altering substances played a significant role in challenging capitalist values and systems. However, in our current landscape, we are witnessing a different rollout of psychedelics, one that is predominantly medicalized and intertwined with traditional capitalist models. This raises an important question: Does this convergence of psychedelics and Western capitalism feel incongruous? And if so, what can be done about it.

Jenny Stefanotti, the Founder and Steward of Denizen, a media platform and co-learning community dedicated to systemic change, explores this question in depth with us, utilizing her backgrounds in strategy, technology, business, philanthropy, design, policy, and economics.

In this conversation, we’ll examine some models where for-profit enterprises navigate ethical considerations associated with psychedelic use, such as with companies like Journey Collab. We’ll explore whether psychedelics are by their very nature designed to be tools for social justice and instruments for political activism, and if they have a role in movements for equity and liberation, is that role undermined by the predominant mode of distribution?

Join us as we navigate the intricate terrain where psychedelics and capitalism intersect, and explore the potential dangers and opportunities that arise from this convergence.

For more thought-provoking conversations, visit Jenny and Denizen at www.becomingdenizen.com.

Rhonda Magee is the author of the book The Inner Work of Racial Justice. She is a visionary law professor and mindfulness teacher who has dedicated her life and her work to integrating contemplative practices with issues of social justice.

In this episode, we dive deep into the idea that inner transformation can serve as a useful and effective catalyst for societal change. We discuss how mindfulness practices can support individuals in recognizing and transforming their own internalized biases — although of course, it’s no guarantee. To this point, Rhonda touches upon some of the obstacles individuals may face when engaging in the kind of inner work designed to confront privilege.

As Rhonda explores this interplay between compassion and fear, she highlights the dual nature of realizing our shared humanity — the complex emotions, the joys, and fears that arise when acknowledging our interconnectedness — as well as the internal conflicts individuals face when confronted with the need for societal change and personal discomfort.

Throughout this conversation, Rhonda emphasizes the importance of creating spaces, spaces like Esalen, where we can honestly explore and embrace our emotions. She urges us to examine this collective longing for a new way forward, one that transcends historical patterns of oppression, one that invites all individuals to a grounded and inclusive existence.

We also get into the history of the human potential movement, and talk about how the focus from individual human potential is shifting to a collective vision, and we talk about how institutions can leverage mindfulness and compassion to create more inclusive and equitable organizations.

East Forest is a multidisciplinary artist, known by some for his 5-hour album Music for Mushrooms, designed to accompany a psychedelic journey. Other folks may know him from his album Ram Dass, where he created beautiful soundscapes to accompany interviews he did with Ram Dass, in fact the last known interviews ever done with Ram Dass before he passed into the next realm. Some people know him from his podcast, Ten Laws with East Forest, an extraordinary interview podcast where he talks with the likes of Duncan Trussell, Aurbrey Marcus, Danica Patrick. He has found a unique way to combine music, meditation, technology, and the experience of deep listening as a doorway, as a pathway towards acknowledging our own human essence. Its fair to say his creations are not just musical compositions; they are gateways to spiritual encounters, designed to inspire introspection.

In this episode, we dive deep into his thoughts around the creative process, and get into his early days as a musician, when he was an up and coming Brooklynite around the time of Occupy Wall Street. We speak about his success, and about how success can actually make the creative process much more difficult. We talk a little bit about generative AI and how it’s coming for musicians, the ambient musicians in particular, and what can be done about it. We of course chat about his collaboration with Ram Das and how the track Sit Around the Fire, a collaboration with Jon Hopkins, was created.

I just love this dude and his commitment to simple honesty, to discipline, to ritual, to reverence, to creativity. He’s good people and a great artist. One of my most enjoyable conversations in recent memory.

Check out his recent single, The Cosmic Dance.

Amber and Marcus Capone are founders of VETS solutions, a pioneering organization dedicated to supporting veterans struggling with the invisible wounds of war.

Amber and Marcus's journey began with the often difficult reality of life after Marcus's retirement from the U.S. Navy SEALs, where Amber witnessed the devastating toll that Marcus's service had taken on him, as he battled depression, anger, addiction, and an array of mental health challenges.

But when all hope seemed lost, a glimmer of possibility emerged — a potential solution that lay beyond the traditional bounds of medicine and therapy. In their quest for healing, Marcus's fellow Navy SEAL friend introduced them to Ibogaine, a psychedelic drug known for its ability to unlock deep-seated traumas and offer profound insights. While he was initially skeptical, Marcus embarked on this intense psychedelic experience, and what would become a life-altering journey, one where both Amber and Marcus would find a way forward, towards renewed clarity and purpose.

Join us as Amber and Marcus share their courageous and deeply personal account of how psychedelic-assisted therapy changed their life, and paved a path to supporting veterans through their organization, VETS solutions.

Stacia Butterfield is a somatic practitioner and a Holotropic Breathwork facilitator.

Stacia's journey into Holotropic breath work started in 1999. Since then, she has been on a quest to explore the wisdom of the body and the intrinsic healing orientation of the psyche. She worked with Dr. Deborah Mash at Healing Visions, an early Ibogaine clinic in the British Virgin Islands and certified as a Holotropic Breathwork facilitator in 2005. She worked closely with Stanislav Grof for over 13 years.

In this episode, we delve into Stacia's personal journey into this work, her experience with breathwork versus psychedelics, and the importance of set and setting in creating a safe and supportive environment for healing. We also discuss how she creates and uses an environment for integration after the breathwork sessions, and why Esalen, in particular, is such a significant place for integration.

Katy Bowman is a bestselling author and speaker who’s revolutionizing the way that we think about movement and our need for it in today’s modern culture.

In this episode, we explore Katy's unique perspective on movement and discuss her upcoming book, Rethink Your Position. We touch on topics such as "tech neck," junk-food movement, sedentary culture, furniture-free homes, minimalist footwear, the art of long distance walking, the benefits of hanging, dynamic workstations, your "sleep shapes" and how to change them, trampolines, jumping, creating movement-positive zones for children, and more.

Check out Katy's website and her podcast, Move Your DNA.

This episode centers on a talk given at Esalen in 1985 by Andrew Weil, a is a prominent figure and a trailblazer in the field of integrative medicine, which combines conventional medical practices with alternative and complementary therapies such as herbal medicine, acupuncture, and mind-body techniques. (All of this of course used to be rather fringe; Esalen in the 1980’s, was a bit fringe, too. Nowadays, things like acupuncture and herbal medicine raise nary an eyebrow, and Esalen, to be honest, is pretty darn mainstream too.)

On this date in 1985, Weil speaks about various drugs and psychedelics, as well as the cultural attitudes attached to them. To this point he had had a curious relationship to psychedelics: in the early 1960s, while a student at Harvard, he observed the infamous Harvard Psilocybin experiments conducted by Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, and then reported on them in the Harvard Crimson, ultimately leading to the academic downfall and subsequent dismissal of Leary and Alpert. Later in his life, Weil would reconnect with Alpert, who had by then assumed the moniker of Ram Das, and he would finally taste the forbidden fruit, and henceforth become an advocate of psychedelics.

Weil speaks a great deal during this talk about the drug MDMA, otherwise known as Ecstasy, which on June 1st of that very year was made illegal and classified as a Schedule 1 substance. MDMA had been widely used as a therapy drug for nearly 15 years since its rediscovery in the 1970s by chemist Sasha Shulgin, but in the early 1980s, it also became quite popular in dance subcultures, particularly in the gay community, and most notably in Dallas, Texas. Of course, in the mid 1980’s, Ronald Reagan’s war on drugs was raging, and it provided the perfect storm for MDMA to be made unlawful. So given this context, it’s both interesting and informative to hear Weil, the former psychedelic whistleblower turned hippie physician, speak at length and quite intelligently about MDMA. He also addresses a host of other topics, including whether or not marijuana causes brain damage, peyote, how DEA scheduling works, the so-called new physics, how belief interacts with the physical mechanisms of the body, hypnotherapy, fire-walking, coffee, chocolate, and more. It's a fun episode.

Deborah Eden Tull is a spiritual activist, author, and sustainability educator who works to teach the integration of compassionate awareness into our everyday lives. For seven years, she trained as a Buddhist monk at a silent Zen monastery. She has been teaching engaged meditation for over 20 years. Her latest book, Luminous Darkness: An Engaged Buddhist Approach to Embracing the Unknown was released in September of 2022.

She currently resides in the mountains of western North Carolina, originally Cherokee land, with her husband, offering retreats, workshops, classes, and consultations nationally and internationally, integrating presence and partnership with nature.

Eden’s teaching emphasizes the personal, interpersonal, transpersonal, societal, ecological, mystical, and global impacts of awareness practice. She has worked with a wide range of audiences, from dharma students and people wanting to cultivate more compassion in their lives, to concerned citizens and activists, parents, schools, inner city youth, non-profits and corporations, and people who are incarcerated. Her current focus is training and empowering leaders and facilitators in conscious response and regenerative leadership as we collectively navigate the climate crisis.

In this episode, we explore her childhood and her journey as a Buddhist monk, then discuss her longstanding interest in shadow work, the path by which she helps individuals release limiting beliefs, and how she believes mindfulness and meditation can help up tap into our full potential. We'll also explore her work on post-patriarchal thought and practices, her insights on relational intelligence, and principally, we discuss the major themes of her book, Luminous Darkness, focusing on her approach of "Endarkenment," which seeks to challenge traditional dualistic understandings of light and dark in spiritual practice.

Eden’s work has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, Tricycle, Yogi Times, Shambhala Times, The Shift Network, Best Self, and The Ecologist. You can visit her and check out her books, upcoming retreats, and workshops and many of her podcast interviews on her website.