Podcast · Devotional & Spiritual

Tricycle Talks

by Tricycle: The Buddhist Review · English · Devotional & Spiritual

Tricycle Talks: Listen to Buddhist teachers, writers, and thinkers on life's big questions. Hosted by James Shaheen, editor in chief of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, the leading Buddhist magazine in the West. Life As It Is: Join James Shaheen with co-host Sharon Salzberg and learn how to bring Budd

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 58 min
Latest: 14 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

14 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 3 minNew

A Vision of Buddhist Democracy with William Edelglass

On October 14, 1956, B. R. Ambedkar, the Dalit activist and chief architect of the Indian constitution, led nearly half a million followers in a mass conversion to Buddhism. The conversion set in motion the development of a religious movement known as Navayana, or New Buddhism, which positioned Buddhism as a fierce rejection of Hindu nationalism and caste politics. In Ambedkar’s reading, Buddhism was uniquely suited to support a revolutionary reconstruction of Indian society grounded in religious transformation. In the years since his death, many Dalits have followed his example and…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

30 Sep 2026 · 56 min
Nirosta Steel on Buddhist Pop and the Making of ‘MY SKYSCRAPER’
Steven Hall, aka Nirosta Steel, has been making ambitious experimental music for more than forty years, though most of it has gone unreleased. This summer, the Indiana label ULYSSA dug through decades of Hall’s archives to put together his first album in years, MY SKYSCRAPER, which quickly rose to critical acclaim. Drawing from his longtime collaboration with Arthur Russell and building on their notion of “Buddhist pop,” the album presents four decades of Hall’s work, spanning folk, disco, and experimental synth-pop. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James…
16 Sep 2026 · 58 min
A Buddhist Guide to How to Truly Love with Maria Heim
Maria Heim is a professor of religion at Amherst College. Her new book, How to Truly Love: An Ancient Guide to a Life of Kindness, presents a fresh and accessible translation of a chapter from the Path of Purification, a meditation manual by the great 5th-century sage Buddhaghosa. Through a careful exploration of the brahmaviharas, or sublime attitudes, Buddhaghosa offers practical strategies for releasing anger and hatred and finding freedom. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Heim to discuss why Buddhaghosa considers love a kind of…
9 Sep 2026 · 57 min
Bridging Contemplation and Action with Jonathan F. P. Rose
Jonathan F. P. Rose is an urban planner and philanthropist whose work focuses on creating more environmentally, socially, and economically resilient cities. In 2003, he and his wife, Diana Rose, cofounded the Garrison Institute, a retreat center in the Hudson Valley dedicated to the intersection of contemplation and engaged action. In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Rose to discuss how he first came to Buddhism, how the Garrison Institute supports activists to address social challenges through a…
26 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 1 min
Illustrating Impermanence with Miya Ando
A sixteenth-generation descendant of Bizen swordsmiths, Miya Ando is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the ephemerality of natural phenomena. Her new book, Water of the Sky: A Dictionary of 2,000 Japanese Rain Words, presents a visual compendium of terms for rain, featuring expressions from Buddhist rain sutras, Heian-era poetic anthologies, and regionally specific terms from throughout Japan. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Ando to discuss the concept of mono no aware and how she aims to capture impermanence and…
19 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 9 min
The Practice of Freedom with Oneika Mays
Oneika Mays is a yoga and meditation teacher and former mindfulness coach at Rikers Island Correctional Facility, where she taught for more than a decade. In her new book, Sit with Me: A No-BS Journey to Mindfulness and Meditation, she draws from her experience at Rikers to lay out a clear and accessible guide to metta, or loving-kindness practice. In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Mays to discuss how she came to be Rikers Island’s first mindfulness coach, how metta can be a practice of internal…
12 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 3 min
Writing as Radical Refusal with Viet Thanh Nguyen
When Viet Thanh Nguyen was growing up as a refugee in the United States, it was hard for him to find stories that represented his experience. Now, as a Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist, he is determined to center the narratives of Vietnamese writers and artists in the diaspora. His most recent book, The Cleaving: Vietnamese Writers in the Diaspora, which he coedited with Isabelle Thuy Pelaud and Lan Duong, is the first anthology to gather the voices and perspectives of Vietnamese diasporic authors from around the globe. Featuring dialogues among thirty-seven writers and artists, the book…
29 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 3 min
A Practitioner’s Guide to the Diamond Sutra with Ken McLeod
For the past forty years, Ken McLeod has worked as a teacher and translator of Tibetan texts, practices, and rituals. With his new book, This Unexpected Jewel: Reading the Diamond Sutra, he presents a fresh and accessible translation of the Diamond Sutra, one of the most revered texts in the Buddhist tradition. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with McLeod to discuss how his first encounter with the Diamond Sutra caused his mind to stop, why he frames his translation as a practitioner’s translation rather than an academic’s, how the…
22 Jul 2026 · 56 min
The Zen Art of Caregiving with Sister Tue Nghiem
Sister Tue Nghiem is a dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition. She is currently based in Australia. In her new book, Caregiving and the Art of Presence: A Zen Nun's Journey of Love and Letting Go, she reflects on the challenges and unexpected gifts of caring for her mother in the final seven years of her life. In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Nghiem to discuss how she came to be her mother’s caregiver, what caring for her mother taught her about the importance of letting go, how suffering…
15 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 5 min
The Shamanic Voice of Kim Hyesoon with Jack Saebyok Jung
In March 2014, the legendary avant-garde poet Kim Hyesoon embarked on her first foray into digital performance art. For a duration of eight months, she posted anonymously on the online blog of a major South Korean publisher under the moniker “Lady No.” Set in a fictional land called Aerok, or Korea spelled backward, the posts explore the anxieties and obsessions of modern Korean society, often using aspects of the occult to point at what is unspeakable or unsaid. In Lady No, poet Jack Saebyok Jung presents translations of these hybrid works into English for the first time. In this episode of…
24 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 4 min
The Courage to Choose Love with Tara Brach
Tara Brach is the founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, and she has been practicing and teaching meditation since 1975. She recently released a new book, The Courageous Heart Workbook: Choosing to Love in Perilous Times, which is a practical guide for awakening courage and cultivating compassion for ourselves and our world. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Brach to talk about what courage looks like in our current moment, how choosing love can help counter the dangers of what she calls the trance of separation,…
17 Jun 2026 · 58 min
Engaged Compassion with Lobsang Tenzin Negi
Lobsang Tenzin Negi is the cofounder and executive director of the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics at Emory University. He is also a professor in Emory’s Department of Religion. In his new book, Engaged Compassion: Seven Practices to Cultivate Resilience, Connection, and a Joyous Life, he builds on more than twenty years of research in laying out concrete practices for developing compassion for ourselves and others. In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Negi to discuss how…
10 Jun 2026 · 49 min
Reincarnating the Buddhas of Bamiyan with Tuan Andrew Nguyen
Tuan Andrew Nguyen is a multidisciplinary artist whose work focuses on history, memory, and the ongoing impact of violence and war, particularly in his native Vietnam. He recently unveiled a new project on New York City’s High Line, which is a twenty-seven-foot-tall Buddha sculpture inspired by the Buddhas of Bamiyan titled The Light That Shines Through the Universe. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Nguyen to discuss the backstory for his new installation, his process of transforming remnants of war into works of art, how…
27 May 2026 · 56 min
Writing into the Void with Ruth Ozeki
Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen priest. She recently published her first short story collection, The Typing Lady and Other Fictions. With characteristic wit and grace, Ozeki astutely explores themes of identity, longing, loss, and the clarity that comes with old age. In one story, a couple watches their ambitions roam the woods as ghosts; in another, an aging writer enlists her granddaughter to fake her death as a way of getting out of an upcoming book tour. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Ozeki to discuss what drew…
20 May 2026 · 1 hr 2 min
Finding Balance to Engage More Fully with Margaret Cullen
Equanimity can often be mistaken for passivity or indifference. But meditation teacher Margaret Cullen insists that it is actually about feeling the entire range of human experience—and, in the process, responding from a place of love and discernment. Cullen is a licensed psychotherapist and mindfulness-based stress reduction instructor, and she has taught mindfulness and contemplative practices around the world. In her new book, Quiet Strength: Find Peace, Feel Alive, and Love Boundlessly Through the Power of Equanimity, she explores how equanimity can help us respond to the challenges of…
13 May 2026 · 48 min
A Beginner’s Guide to Dark Retreat with Andrew Holecek
Andrew Holecek is an author and spiritual teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and he leads seminars and retreats on meditation, dream yoga, and death and dying. For the past thirty years, he has been engaging in a form of esoteric practice known as dark retreat. In his new book, Total Eclipse of the Mind: Unleashing the Power of Darkness for Creativity, Healing, and Transformation, he lays out a comprehensive introduction to the practice of dark retreat and how it can utterly transform our relationship to ourselves and our world. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s…
22 Apr 2026 · 56 min
Did the Buddha Really Teach That There Is No Self?
Thanissaro Bhikkhu is an American Theravada Buddhist monk trained in the Thai forest tradition. He currently serves as abbot of the Metta Forest Monastery in San Diego County and is a frequent contributor to Tricycle. Over the years, he has written extensively on the Buddhist concept of not-self, including the many misperceptions that have arisen about this teaching over the centuries. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Thanissaro Bhikkhu to discuss why the Buddha refused to answer when he was asked whether there was a self, what it…
15 Apr 2026 · 59 min
Opening to Wonder with Ada Limón
Ada Limón is the author of seven books of poetry, and she recently completed her term as the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States. During her tenure as Poet Laureate, Limón undertook a series of projects harnessing poetry to transform our relationship to the natural world, from installing poems on picnic benches in national parks across the country to engraving a poem on a spacecraft that is on its way to the second moon of Jupiter. In her new book, Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry, she draws from her experience as Poet Laureate to argue that poetry can be a powerful force for…
8 Apr 2026 · 59 min
Bridging Worlds with US Poet Laureate Arthur Sze
Arthur Sze is a poet and translator based in Sante Fe, New Mexico, and he is currently serving as the 25th Poet Laureate of the United States. His new book, Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry, takes readers through nearly two millennia of poetry from across the world and explores how translation can deepen our understanding and appreciation of poetry. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Sze to discuss why he views translation as the deepest form of reading, how poetry can prompt us toward moral and spiritual transformation, what…
25 Mar 2026 · 50 min
A Buddhist Guide to Understanding Emotion with Maria Heim
Buddhism can often be mischaracterized as encouraging the elimination of emotion. Yet, as scholar Maria Heim points out, feeling is central to Buddhist teachings and practices—in fact, the Buddha presented the four noble truths as being “for one who feels.” Heim is the George Lyman Crosby 1896 & Stanley Warfield Crosby Professor in Religion at Amherst College, and her new book, How to Feel: An Ancient Guide to Minding Our Emotions, presents new translations of essential early Buddhist teachings on emotion. Drawing from the Pali canon, she argues that the Buddhist psychology of emotions can…
18 Mar 2026 · 57 min
Reimagining the Story of Citizenship with Daisy Hernández
Daisy Hernández is an associate professor at Northwestern University and a Tricycle contributing editor. Her new book, Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth, blends memoir and political analysis to examine the shifting narratives around citizenship and what it means to be an American. This episode is a little different from our usual focus, but we wanted to talk with Hernández about how she brings her Buddhist practice to bear on this timely topic. In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Hernández to…
11 Mar 2026 · 52 min
Dementia and the Sense of Self with Philip Ryan
Philip Ryan is Tricycle’s executive editor, and he has worked at Tricycle on and off for the past thirty years. In the Spring issue of Tricycle, he wrote an article, "Old Friend," about his father’s dementia diagnosis and the questions it has raised about memory, impermanence, and identity. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Ryan to discuss how Buddhist teachings on the mind have helped him to make sense of his father’s diagnosis, why we are ultimately unknowable to each other and ourselves, and how dementia is the perfect…
25 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 7 min
Demystifying Tantra with Richard Payne
Tantric Buddhism is often mischaracterized or misunderstood, both in the academy and in the popular imagination. Scholar Richard Payne has dedicated much of the past twenty years to studying tantric teachings and practices—and to dispelling some of the common misconceptions associated with the tradition. Payne is the Yehan Numata Professor of Japanese Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies, Berkeley, as well as an ordained priest in the Shingon tradition of Japanese esoteric Buddhism. In his new book, Tantra Across the Buddhist Cosmopolis, he examines the evolution of tantric…
18 Feb 2026 · 59 min
The Practice of Refuge with Sunita Puri
Sunita Puri is a writer, a palliative medicine physician, and an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. She is the author of That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour. She recently wrote an article for the Spring issue of Tricycle called “Seeking Refuge,” where she discusses how she has found refuge in nature in the face of burnout. In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Puri to discuss what first led her to turn to nature as a way to…
11 Feb 2026 · 59 min
Poet Li-Young Lee on Awe, Adoration, and Turning Toward the Unknown
For poet Li-Young Lee, writing is a deeply spiritual practice. Taking inspiration from Daoist and Christian texts, his poems investigate the paradoxical relationships between silence and sound, stillness and motion, and form and formlessness. He recently published his sixth collection of poetry, The Invention of the Darling, as well as a translation of the Dao De Jing, which he completed with the poet and cosmologist Yun Wang. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Lee to discuss the spiritual influences on his poetry, why he views every…
28 Jan 2026 · 48 min
‘To Live the Right Way’ with David Guterson
David Guterson is a writer based in Washington State. His new novel, Evelyn in Transit, follows the interlocking stories of Evelyn and Tsering, a young woman from Indiana and a Buddhist monk from the mountains of Tibet. Their lives come together when Evelyn’s son is revealed to be the seventh reincarnation of a high lama, and Evelyn must decide whether to send her young child to Nepal. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Guterson to discuss how a childhood fight with a member of the Sakya family first introduced him to Buddhism, the…
21 Jan 2026 · 1 hr 8 min
Into the Long Dark with Francis Weller
Francis Weller is a writer and soul activist who has worked as a psychotherapist for forty years, and he is currently on staff at Commonweal Cancer Help Program. In his most recent book, In the Absence of the Ordinary: Soul Work for Times of Uncertainty, he lays out practices for embodying new ways of being so that we can meet the anxieties and unknowns of our time with presence and faith. Weller is also the author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief and the companion workbook, Entering the Healing Ground, which will be released on February 24. In this…
14 Jan 2026 · 56 min
The Afterlife of Japanese American Wartime Incarceration
Brandon Shimoda is a poet and a professor at Colorado College. His new book, The Afterlife Is Letting Go, examines the ongoing legacies of the US government’s mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Drawing from years of archival research, visits to the ruins of incarceration sites, interviews with survivors and their descendants, and his own family history, the book explores the resonances between forms of oppression and state violence past and present. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Shimoda to talk about…
17 Dec 2025 · 50 min
Choosing Kindness with Sarah Ruhl and Sharon Salzberg
Sarah Ruhl is a playwright, poet, and professor based in New York. She recently published her first children’s book, as did meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg. Sarah’s book, The Dreams I’ll Dream Tonight, is a whimsical bedtime story that illustrates the power of choosing where we place our attention, while Sharon’s book, Kind Karl: A Little Crocodile with Big Feelings, follows a young crocodile as he learns to control his temper. In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Sarah and Sharon to discuss what inspired each of them to write…
10 Dec 2025 · 54 min
Being a 'Bad' Buddhist with Sharon A. Suh
Sharon A. Suh is a professor of theology and religious studies at Seattle University, and she is currently the president of Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women. Her new book, Emergent Dharma, brings together the voices of eleven Asian American feminist Buddhists to present a dynamic vision of Buddhist practice and identity. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Suh to discuss why she describes herself as a bad Buddhist, the dangers of equating Buddhism primarily with meditation, what it means for the book to be a…

About Tricycle Talks

Tricycle Talks is a English devotional & spiritual podcast from Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
Language: English
Category: Devotional & Spiritual
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 58 min
Latest episode: 14 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id695108281

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