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The Point of Insight | Giving Back

,     —
July 30, 2026
Spirituality

The Point of Insight | Giving Back

Robin Wall Kimmerer & Tami Simon — July 30, 2026

What happens when a book doesn’t just inform you, but transmits something to you?

Welcome to The Point of Insight, a new monthly segment of Insights at the Edge where Tami Simon speaks directly to listeners about an insight that has stayed with her, often sparked by a conversation from the show’s archive. In this first episode, Tami reflects on preparing to interview ethnobotanist and Braiding Sweetgrass author Robin Wall Kimmerer, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. While reading Kimmerer’s work, Tami describes receiving what she calls a transmission, a sudden, embodied recognition of how generously the natural world gives to us, and how rarely we pause to receive it.

Join Tami to explore:

  • What a transmission is, drawn from her background in meditation and Tibetan Buddhist teachings
  • The point of reciprocity—what shifts when we truly feel how much the natural world gives us
  • Why gratitude naturally moves us toward wanting to give something back
  • A story from teacher Malidoma Somé about speaking directly to the trees
  • What it means to move from an extractive mindset to one of recognition and care toward the living world around us

This is an intimate, unscripted reflection, not a scripted teaching, but Tami thinking out loud about a moment that changed her, and an invitation for you to notice what the natural world may be offering you, too.

Listen now, and consider: what is being given to you, and what might you give back?

Find the original interview with Robin Wall Kimmerer here. 

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Tami Simon started Sounds True at the age of 22 with a dream and a tape recorder. Though she had no experience running a business and only a vague idea of what she wanted the company to be, Tami had her guiding principle strongly in place: to disseminate spiritual wisdom. Over its 36-year history, Sounds True has grown into a multimedia publisher that has produced over 6,000 titles, has been included twice in the Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing companies, and is North America’s leading publisher of spoken-word spiritual teachings.

One of the world’s very first organizations to focus on multiple bottom lines as part of its founding mandate, Sounds True has expanded steadily over the years while staying true to its original mission. Partnering with the leading spiritual teachers of our time, Sounds True now has a successful book publishing program (distributed by Macmillan) and has grown to produce events, certification programs, and transformational online learning experiences.

Tami hosts the popular Sounds True podcast, Insights at the Edge, which has now been downloaded more than 20 million times. She is also the founder of the Sounds True Foundation, which is dedicated to bringing spiritual education to people who would otherwise not have access. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, and in British Columbia with her wife, Julie Kramer, and their two spoodles, Raspberry and Bula.

Author photo © Jason Elias

Posted July 30, 2026
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Meet Your Host: Tami Simon

Each week on Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon interviews leading voices in the Mind/Body/Spirit space about a vast spectrum of fascinating ideas. Since 2009, Tami and her guests have been exploring the edge of understanding, nearly 1,000 episodes on the honest work of change, including spiritual discovery, awakening, intuition, purpose, trauma, and grief.

Photo © Jason Elias

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Spirituality

The Point of Insight | Giving Back

Robin Wall Kimmerer
Tami Simon — July 30, 2026

What happens when a book doesn’t just inform you, but transmits something to you?

Welcome to The Point of Insight, a new monthly segment of Insights at the Edge where Tami Simon speaks directly to listeners about an insight that has stayed with her, often sparked by a conversation from the show’s archive. In this first episode, Tami reflects on preparing to interview ethnobotanist and Braiding Sweetgrass author Robin Wall Kimmerer, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. While reading Kimmerer’s work, Tami describes receiving what she calls a transmission, a sudden, embodied recognition of how generously the natural world gives to us, and how rarely we pause to receive it.

Join Tami to explore:

  • What a transmission is, drawn from her background in meditation and Tibetan Buddhist teachings
  • The point of reciprocity—what shifts when we truly feel how much the natural world gives us
  • Why gratitude naturally moves us toward wanting to give something back
  • A story from teacher Malidoma Somé about speaking directly to the trees
  • What it means to move from an extractive mindset to one of recognition and care toward the living world around us

This is an intimate, unscripted reflection, not a scripted teaching, but Tami thinking out loud about a moment that changed her, and an invitation for you to notice what the natural world may be offering you, too.

Listen now, and consider: what is being given to you, and what might you give back?

Find the original interview with Robin Wall Kimmerer here. 

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Post Views: 9,824
Uncategorized

Robin Wall Kimmerer: What Does the Earth Ask of You To...

Robin Wall Kimmerer — March 24, 2026


Something shifts when you encounter Robin Wall Kimmerer’s work. The food in your bowl starts to look different. The tree at the corner of your block becomes something more than scenery. The world, quite suddenly, feels alive with relationship.

This is how her writing impacted Tami, and this week Tami and Robin—botanist, MacArthur Fellow, National Humanities Medal recipient, enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and author of the beloved Braiding Sweetgrass—talk about what it means to move through the world not as a consumer of natural resources, but as a participant in a web of living gifts.

Join Tami and Robin to explore:

  • Why Robin calls this moment in history “the Age of Remembering”—and what humanity is being called to reclaim
  • The profound difference between a commodity and a gift, and how that shift in perception changes everything
  • Brain chauvinism—why we’ve dismissed the intelligence of plants, rocks, and the more-than-human world, and what science is now revealing
  • The landmark sweetgrass experiment that proved humans can be partners to plants, not just threats
  • How to practice reciprocity with the earth, from small daily acts to systemic advocacy
  • Plant Baby Plant—Robin’s new movement offering a counter-narrative to extraction culture
  • How to hold grief, outrage, and love for the living world simultaneously—without surrendering to despair

In a time when the relationship between humans and the earth feels broken, Robin Wall Kimmerer offers something rare: a vision of healing rooted in science, indigenous wisdom, and the simple, radical act of giving your gifts back to the world.

Learn more about Robin Wall Kimmerer:
robinwallkimmerer.com
https://www.instagram.com/robinwallkimmerer/
plantbabyplant.com

This conversation offers genuine transmission—not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together. Originally aired on Sounds True One.

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What if the antidote to a world coming apart isn’t a bigger plan, but a smaller, daily act of devotion?

This week, Tami Simon speaks with Tracee Stanley—teacher of yoga nidra, meditation, and self-inquiry, founder of Empowered Life Circle, and author of the new Sounds True book Living Ritual: Infuse Each Day with Purpose and Spirit—about why ritual may be the most important practice we have during what she calls threshold times.

Join Tami and Tracee to explore:

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Tracee also speaks candidly about walking away from a successful film career, and what a surgery taught her about the ego that refuses to let the body rest.

Tracee opens and closes this interview with a short guided ritual you can practice along with.

Listen now, and let something be reshaped. →

This conversation offers genuine transmission, not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together, and it originally aired on Sounds True One.

Get a FREE month of membership at https://bit.ly/STOne-Free-Month.

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Thomas Moore — September 8, 2026

Thoreau said he wasn’t paddling the Assabet River—he was on the Ganges. Was he being poetic, or was he seeing something we’ve lost the capacity to see?

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Join Tami and Thomas to explore:

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Tami presses Moore on the parts she finds hard to swallow—and his answers are the heart of this episode.

Listen now, and find the cure. →

This conversation offers genuine transmission, not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together, and it originally aired on Sounds True One.

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Sounds True is a multimedia publishing company founded in 1985 by Tami Simon, with the mission of disseminating spiritual wisdom. The company is based in Lafayette, Colorado.

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