Aviv Shahar explores why we’re living through an Epochal Moment—a rare transition between ages where one epoch dies as another emerges. He maps the five-thousand-year journey that brought us here, reveals the “bugs” in our collective evolution that require remedying, and describes the emerging capacities of the universal human we’re becoming as we navigate this bewildering, transformative threshold.
Note: This interview 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 https://www.join.soundstrue.com
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.
Founded Sounds True in 1985 as a multimedia publishing house with a mission to disseminate spiritual wisdom. She hosts a popular weekly podcast called Insights at the Edge, where she has interviewed many of today's leading teachers. Tami lives with her wife, Julie M. Kramer, and their two spoodles, Rasberry and Bula, in Boulder, Colorado.
Aviv Shahar explores why we’re living through an Epochal Moment—a rare transition between ages where one epoch dies as another emerges. He maps the five-thousand-year journey that brought us here, reveals the “bugs” in our collective evolution that require remedying, and describes the emerging capacities of the universal human we’re becoming as we navigate this bewildering, transformative threshold.
Note: This interview 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 https://www.join.soundstrue.com
What if aging isn’t about decline, but about becoming brighter—like a meteor that grows more luminous even as it falls through the atmosphere?
Tami Simon speaks with beloved poet-philosopher Mark Nepo about his deeply moving new book, The Fifth Season: Creativity in the Second Half of Life. Drawing from Chinese wisdom traditions and his own journey through chronic pain and back surgery, Mark illuminates aging as the “heavenly pivot” (love that phrase) which is the transformative shift from living outwardly to inhabiting life from the inside out.
Join Mark and Tami for this episode to explore:
The meteor metaphor: how we grow brighter as our outer casing flakes away • “Entering time” versus moving through it—and why slowing down opens the eternal moment • The paradox of limitation: how loss simultaneously deepens and expands us • Breaking through to joy as the depth of being that holds all the waves • Why the heart, not the mind, must lead in the second half of life • Living with chronic pain and learning to let beauty in while suffering • The difference between being victims of life versus initiates into life • How grief changes everything and why we don’t get over it, we get under it • Being swift of heart—living without hesitation from the inside out
Mark’s wisdom arises from decades of spiritual practice, surviving cancer, and facing the inevitable losses that come with a long life—essential listening for anyone navigating aging, chronic pain, loss, or simply seeking to live more fully present to the life they have.
Listen now to discover how the second half of life can be your most luminous yet.
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.
How do we remain committed to staying sober when grief strikes, when stress becomes overwhelming, or when shame threatens to pull us back into old patterns?
This week on Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon welcomes Steven Washington, a former professional Broadway dancer who has transformed his 23-year recovery journey into a powerful practice of embodied healing. Steven is the author of Recovering You: Soul Care and Mindful Movement for Overcoming Addiction and creator of the SWE Studio, an online community offering movement and meditation support for people in recovery.
In this deeply personal interview, Tami and Steven explore:
Why recovery must be “non-negotiable”—with no conditions attached, regardless of life’s challenges
How shame operates as the linchpin of addiction and the healing power of sharing it with trusted others
The connection between sensitivity and addiction, and how to transform sensitivity from vulnerability into strength
Practical tools for creating a trigger plan that works for both small daily stressors and major life crises
How Qigong and embodied practices help regulate the nervous system and process emotions held in the body
The journey from inherited shame to self-compassion and authentic self-worth
Why asking for help—practiced with small things—prepares us for life’s biggest challenges
Developing a personal relationship with a higher power that feels authentic rather than inherited
If you’re navigating recovery, supporting someone who is, or seeking to understand the connection between embodiment and transformation, Steven offers both practical wisdom and profound compassion for the journey.
Note: This interview 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 https://www.join.soundstrue.com
