Lily Diamond is a writer and advocate harnessing the power of digital media to democratize wellness and empower women through storytelling, accessible practices for inner and outer nourishment, and revolutionary acts of self-care within our earth and human communities. She is the creator of internationally beloved blog Kale & Caramel and author of bestselling memoir-cookbook Kale & Caramel: Recipes for Body, Heart, and Table, celebrated as one of the top cookbooks of 2017 by the New York Times, The Independent, Cooking Light, mindbodygreen, and more.
Lily’s writing has been featured in VICE, Healthyish, the Huffington Post, Refinery29, and more. Her work is informed by two decades of study, certification, and teaching in the art and practice of meditation and psychosomatic therapies. She is a devoted co-conspirator to organizations decolonizing food and wellness for all. Lily was educated at Yale University and lives in Maui, Hawai‘i, where she grew up, on occupied native Hawaiian land.
Rebecca Walker has contributed to the global conversation about race, gender, power, and the evolution of the human family for three decades. Since graduating from Yale, she has authored seven bestselling books on subjects ranging from intergenerational feminism and multiracial identity to Black Cool and ambivalent motherhood, and written dozens of articles on topics as varied as Barack Obama’s masculinity, the work of visual artist Ana Mendieta, and the changing configuration of the American family.
Rebecca has written, developed, and produced film and television projects with Warner Brothers, NBC, Amazon, HBO, and Paramount, and spoken at over four hundred universities and corporate campuses internationally, including Harvard, Out and Equal, Museum of the African Diaspora, and TEDxLund. When Rebecca was 21, she cofounded the Third Wave Fund, which makes grants to women and transgender youth working for social justice. She was named by Time magazine as one of the most influential leaders of her generation—and continues to teach her masterclass, The Art of Memoir, at gorgeous and inspiring places around the world.
Rebecca Walker is a bestselling author, lifelong activist, and TV and film producer, named one of the most influential leaders of her generation by Time magazine. Lily Diamond is also a bestselling author and a photographer, wellness advocate, and creator of the award-winning blog and memoir cookbook Kale & Caramel. Together, they have written a book called What’s Your Story?: A Journal for Everyday Evolution, published by Sounds True. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami speaks with Lily and Rebecca about the power of the right question to move us in the direction of claiming our narratives and using the power of our imagination to create our future. They discuss the importance of telling our own stories in the ways only we can. They also explore how rewriting the stories we tell about ourselves and our world can ignite the alchemical process of everyday evolution, moving us in the direction of healing society, the Earth, and our own spirits.
What does it mean to truly see another person—not just their surface, but their soul, their yearning, their infinite dignity?
This week, Tami speaks with David Brooks—acclaimed New York Times columnist, author, and PBS NewsHour commentator—about his remarkable journey from emotional guardedness to what he calls “heart vision.” In this profound interview on Insights at the Edge, David shares the mystical experiences that transformed his understanding of human connection, including a pivotal moment in a New York subway when he suddenly perceived everyone around him as souls in motion.
Join Tami and David to explore:
David’s emotional awakening and the journey from cerebral detachment to human vulnerability
The distinction between diminishers and illuminators—and how we see others
Why attention is the ultimate form of generosity and morality
The difference between heart intelligence and mental intelligence
How perception itself is an act of creation, not passive observation
Practical skills for seeing others deeply: the on/off switch of attention, being a loud listener, and avoiding the topper trap
Why he identifies as a religious rather than a spiritual person
The moral order of the universe and how our yearnings reflect something woven into reality itself
How rupture and repair shape us—and why staying in pain can be necessary for growth
David’s wisdom reminds us that in a world increasingly dominated by data and algorithms, the art of truly seeing another human being remains our most sacred—and most practical—capacity.
Listen now to discover how cultivating the illuminator’s gaze can transform every relationship in your life.
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.
What truly matters when we face the end of life? After decades of sitting at the bedside of hundreds of dying people, Frank Ostaseski has distilled the deepest human concerns into two essential questions: Am I loved? Have I loved well?
This week on Insights at the Edge, Tami welcomes Frank Ostaseski—co-founder of America’s first Buddhist hospice, the Zen Hospice Project, founder of the Metta Institute, and author of The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully. Frank brings extraordinary wisdom from his pioneering work in compassionate end-of-life care, along with profound personal insights from his own encounters with heart surgery, strokes, and the transformative vulnerability of being “on the other side of the sheets.”
Join Tami and Frank to explore:
The two essential questions that arise when facing death—and what they reveal about living fully now
Why emotional flexibility is the true condition for healing and transformation
How to meet our own fear and pain without abandoning ourselves or others
The practice of “allowing” as a path to both wisdom and compassion
What happens in the dying process: surrender, reconstitution, and coming home
Why Frank is allergic to the notion of a “good death”
The indestructible love that emerges when we keep our hearts open through pain
How to practice dying by paying attention to everyday endings
This conversation is for anyone grappling with loss, change, or the fundamental questions of existence—offering not prescriptive answers, but the profound medicine of honest presence and the recognition that our vulnerability itself is one of our most beautiful human qualities.
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.
What if awakening isn’t a single destination but an endless unfolding of reality’s many faces? This week on Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon facilitates a groundbreaking conversation between two of the most profound spiritual teachers of our time: A.H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), founder of the Diamond Approach, and Zen teacher Henry Shukman.
In this rare dialogue, these teachers—meeting for the first time—explore how different wisdom traditions point to distinct dimensions of awakened experience. Rather than claiming all paths lead to the same mountaintop, they celebrate the unique territory each tradition reveals: from the “blazing forth” of creative emptiness to experiences where consciousness itself dissolves, from the recognition that each point contains the entire universe to the discovery that everything is made of love.
Join Tami, Hameed, and Henry to discover:
Why awakening is an endless process rather than a final arrival
The profound difference between thinking and heart-knowing
How to navigate the fear that arises at the threshold of ego dissolution
The role of trust, compassion, and basic trust in profound transformation
What happens when individual consciousness completely ceases
Why nothingness and being are inseparable faces of reality
How grief and catastrophic loss can become doorways to awakening
The Zen teaching of uni-locality—experiencing that one point is everything
Why love may be the most fundamental nature of reality itself
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.
