600 Podcasts and Counting...
Subscribe to Insights at the Edge to hear all of Tami's interviews (transcripts available, too!), featuring Eckhart Tolle, Caroline Myss, Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield, Adyashanti, and many more.
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Thomas Hübl: Alchemizing Individual, Ancestral, and C...
Visionary teacher Thomas Hübl is leading the way toward a new era of trauma healing on the individual, ancestral, and collective levels. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Hübl about his new book, Attuned: Practicing Interdependence to Heal Our Trauma—and Our World, and his unique synthesis of mysticism, science, and the world’s wisdom traditions.
Give a listen to this deeply inspiring, deep-end conversation exploring: Presence and the alchemy of the past in the now; the concept of relational coherence; post-traumatic learning; avoiding presence as a way to protect oneself; attunement versus numbness; our interconnected nervous systems; ethical development; privilege and responsibility; increasing our ability to remain grounded; the power of feeling met; global witnessing groups; bringing love to the edge of a conscious universe; the three-sync process for becoming more aware of your body, emotions, and mind; and more.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
Erotic Authenticity: Replacing Shame with Celebration
Sometime last year, I was having a conversation with a close relative of mine. I had sent them a recent news story I was quoted in and had been met with… silence. Eventually, I nudged a little bit and they responded, saying “I’m sorry, I just can’t be proud of someone who talks about sex and sex toys for a living. It’s embarrassing.” As we unpacked this statement, it became clear that they were unable to see the good—any good—in my work. As a therapist, as a writer, as an educator… my work was shameful in their eyes. In that moment, I understood my clients in a way I never had before.
With Sprinkles on Top was already finished by the time this occurred, but if it hadn’t? This conversation would have inspired me to write it. It can be incredibly painful to have someone you love tell you that “What you do is wrong. Who you are is not OK.” Many kinky people are afraid that if they share their innermost selves with the ones they love most, they too will be rejected, written off as broken or creepy or wrong. I wrote Sprinkles because I believe deeply that every single human being deserves to feel loved and worthy and whole, to know that their innermost desires are not just valid but beautiful, and to find others who can celebrate this beauty and their relationships together with them.
Sprinkles is also written for the partners of these kinky people, many of whom tell me that, if their spouse had just been willing to share their desires, they would have happily explored with them. For the spouses who don’t understand the fantasies or intimate practices they’re learning about and who need a guide to help them navigate these new relationship waters. For the men and women who call my office afraid—afraid that there’s something wrong with their partner or something inadequate in themselves.
They want me to “fix” them. I want to celebrate them.
With Sprinkles on Top is not a “how to” book. It’s a “what now?” book. My goal is to celebrate the things that make each person and each relationship unique and delightful—and to help them discover new unique qualities in themselves and new ways to delight one another. I want to celebrate vanilla relationship values while also normalizing and affirming kinky identities. I want to help my readers find new and exciting ways to enhance their own core sexual and relational “flavor” through interactive activities they do by themselves and with their partner.
Differences in desire represent an exciting opportunity to strengthen and reinforce the bonds of intimacy and trust we have created within our relationships, while also expanding the erotic playground we enjoy together. We don’t have to change who we are. We don’t have to be ashamed of what we want or embarrassed to talk about it. Sexuality, desire, and intimacy are, to me, sacred gifts. I’m honored to be able to help my readers, my clients, and others to build happier, healthier relationships with their bodies, their partners, and themselves. I hope you enjoy the process of finding your sprinkles and using them to communicate, explore, and connect with the one(s) you love.
Kol Tuv,
Stefani Goerlich
Stefani Goerlich, PhD, LMSW-Clinical, LISW, LCSW, CST, is a certified sex therapist and master social worker who specializes in working with gender, sexuality, and relationships. She is a sought-after clinical supervisor, media consultant, and conference presenter who has appeared in media ranging from CNN and the Washington Post to Cosmopolitan and Teen Vogue. She is the award-winning author of the professional books The Leather Couch and Kink-Affirming Practice.
Author photo © Kim Williams
With Sprinkles on Top
Jamie Della: Crafting a Wise and Magickal Life
Mystery and misunderstanding surround the practice of magick and witchcraft. In the decades since she chose to publicly “come out of the broom closet,” author, priestess, healer, and Xicana witch Jamie Della has made it her mission to help others activate their divine intuition and creativity. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Jamie about her new book, A Box of Magick, written to give readers both her personal mentorship and that of her own mentor, the late Elder Wiccan High Priestess Connie DeMasters.
Tune in for a perspective-shifting conversation about: The philosophy and lifestyle known as witchcraft; animism and our interconnection with all things; why you are always your own best teacher; “the nameless art;” Wicca as the practice of shaping energy; the four steps of ethical spellcasting; keeping the faith; answering a call of the wild within; shadow work and healing our parental relationships; bringing in ritual elements to support transformation; using magick for intergenerational healing; invoking a mentor; a guided blessing for grounding and stability at this time; and more.
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Meditation with Eckhart Tolle
Is it possible for meditation to be utterly effortless? To experience the depths of being in any given moment of our lives—not just while we practice? Not only is it possible, explains Eckhart Tolle, but it is the very way we come to touch the essence of meditation.
With Meditation: Practicing Presence in Every Moment of Your Life, we join this treasured teacher as he discusses the many methods of meditation and their shared purpose: accessing the richness and power of pure presence.
In its deepest sense, meditation is never a means to an end. It is about fully being and honoring the entire range of our experience—what Eckhart calls saying yes. Whether you’re just starting a practice or looking to go deeper than ever before, Meditation offers vital insights for anyone eager to taste the fruits of this revered discipline.
Clarissa Pinkola Estés: Untie the Strong Woman
Tami Simon speaks with Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, the award-winning poet, senior Jungian psychoanalyst, and cantadora (keeper of old stories in the Latina tradition). Dr. Estés is the author of the bestseller Women Who Run With the Wolves, along with over a dozen audio programs from Sounds True. Most recently, Dr. Estés has released with Sounds True her first book in over a decade, titled Untie the Strong Woman: Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Love for the Wild Soul. In this episode, Tami speaks with Dr. Estés about the different manifestations of the Holy Mother in many cultures, how our relationship with our own biological mother affects how we relate to the archetype of the great mother force, and what it means to live with “an unruined heart.” (64 minutes)
Father Thomas Keating: Inviting the Presence of the Di...
Father Thomas Keating was a Trappist monk in the Cistercian Order who served as abbot of Saint Joseph’s Abbey Monastery in Spencer, MA, for more than 20 years. He was the author of 20 books, and was one of the architects of the contemporary Centering Prayer movement. Father Keating passed away on October 25, 2018. In celebration of his life and to honor his death, Sounds True is rebroadcasting this classic Insights at the Edge interview. Here, Tami Simon and Father Keating discuss the monastic path, prayer, doubt, and how he has dealt with both little deaths and big deaths in his own life. They also talk about the afterlife and the transformative process that occurs when one engages regularly with the practice of Centering Prayer. (72 minutes)
Tami’s Takeaway:
This conversation was originally recorded in 2008, 10 years before Father Thomas Keating died on October 25, 2018, at the age of 95. We discussed in detail many little deaths that had occurred in his life, including a fire that occurred at his monastery, his resignation from being an abbot, and other events that Father Thomas called “invitations to greater and greater diminishment.” Surrendering and accepting these little deaths anchored Father Thomas in what he describes as a “boundless confidence with nothing to stand on.” We even discussed what Father Thomas imagined his own physical death would be like. His answer: “A plunge into the immensity of love, irresistibly.” Listening to this conversation afresh reminded me of how Father Thomas Keating is a truly great teacher of death and resurrection.
