Tami Simon speaks with Sera Beak, a Harvard-trained scholar of comparative world religions and a dynamic new voice in modern spirituality. Sera spent years traveling the world to study with Sufi dervishes, Tibetan monks, Indian yogis, mystics, shamans, and more. She is the author of The Red Book, and her new book with Sounds True is Red Hot and Holy: A Heretic’s Love Story. In the first part of a two-part interview, Tami speaks with Sera about what she sees as the difference between spirit and soul, and what she learned during her own “red night of the soul.” She also speaks about the phenomenon of spiritual bypassing, and why she always sees the divine in shades of red. (60 minutes)
Sera Beak is a Harvard-trained scholar of comparative world religions who spent years traveling the world studying spirituality with Sufi dervishes, Tibetan monks, Croatian mystics, shamans, and more. She is the author of The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark and Red Hot and Holy: A Heretic's Love Story, has appeared in The New York Times, People, and Publisher's Weekly, and on NPR, The Dr. Oz Show, and Oprah and Friends. She lives in San Francisco, CA. For more, visit serabeak.com.
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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.
Sera Beak is a scholar of comparative religions who has conferred with shamans, monks, and mystics the world over. She is the author of The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark and Red Hot and Holy: A Heretic’s Love Story. With Sounds True, she has most recently published Redvelations: A Soul’s Journey to Becoming Human. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Sera about the fragmentation of the soul and the journey that Sera undertook when she realized that pieces of her own soul had gone missing. They discuss the passage of core wounds between lifetimes and Sera’s experiences of remembering and reclaiming Sarah, the forgotten daughter of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, as a lost part of her own soul. Sera describes how she reckoned with her experiences—first wanting to not share them with anyone else, and then growing into the realization that to not do so would be to abandon a key part of her essential self. Finally, Tami and Sera talk about how to embody true, divine love and how this eternal love transmits through “the organic lineage” of all life. (61 minutes)
Ever wonder what really happens behind the scenes at Sounds True? When the lights go down and the cameras start rolling? With our new book Red Hot & Holy, our red hot sister and friend Sera Beak offers a provocative and intimate view of what it means to get up close and personal with the divine in modern times. Sera’s luscious writing and renegade spiritual wisdom slices through religious and new age dogma, making her debut book The Red Book a breakout success. With Red Hot & Holy she offers something far more personal— an illuminating, extra-sensual, and utterly authentic portrait of the heart-opening process of mystical realization. This hot and holy book invites you to embrace your soul, unleash your true Self, and burn, baby, burn with divine love.
Tami Simon speaks with Sera Beak, a Harvard-trained scholar of comparative world religions and a dynamic new voice in modern spirituality. Sera spent years traveling the world to study with Sufi dervishes, Tibetan monks, Indian yogis, mystics, shamans, and more. She is the author of The Red Book, and with Sounds True her new book is Red Hot and Holy: A Heretic’s Love Story. In the second part of a two-part interview, Tami speaks with Sera about her experiences with sacred touch, shadow work, the power of “cosmic family therapy” to heal the wounds of someone in a different lifetime, and the revelation of knowing deep in our being that we are beloved. (61 minutes)
“This is sometimes what love looks like. People want to love you—let people love you.”
It’s a phrase death doula Darnell Lamont Walker has spoken countless times at bedsides, to those who feel ashamed of being seen in their vulnerability, those who don’t want to be a burden, those who have spent a lifetime giving but struggle to receive. What he’s discovered is that the end of life has a way of revealing what love actually is—and it often looks nothing like we expected.
An Emmy-nominated children’s television writer, documentary filmmaker, and death doula, Darnell has accompanied people through life’s final transition since he was a teenager. In this deeply moving conversation, he shares the profound lessons about love and connection he’s gathered from decades of this sacred work.
Join Tami and Darnell as they explore:
Why letting ourselves be loved—especially when we feel most vulnerable—is one of life’s hardest and most important lessons
“Grief is the sequel to love”—reframing loss as a testament to how deeply we’ve connected
The stories people most need to tell before they die, and how sharing them becomes an act of love
How spirits and ancestors return for the dying—and what this reveals about love’s continuity
The surprising joy that emerges from death work
What it means to “die empty” and leave nothing unloved or unexpressed
Whether you’ve supported someone through dying or are simply longing to love and be loved more fully, Darnell offers wisdom that will stay with you long after the conversation ends.
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.
Can the simple act of being kind to yourself actually be a doorway to awakening?
In this special episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon brings together two remarkable teachers whose friendship has sparked a revolutionary approach to inner transformation. Kristin Neff—the researcher who first measured self-compassion and author of Fierce Self-Compassion—joins Caverly Morgan, a meditation teacher and former Zen monk, to explore how self-compassion practices can become what they call “a lifeboat” to our deepest nature.
Together, they reveal why self-compassion isn’t just a psychological tool for feeling better—it’s a direct path to recognizing who we really are beyond our limited sense of self.
In this interview, Tami, Kristin, and Caverly explore:
Why every moment of self-compassion is a moment of “letting go of identification with the small, separate, limited self”
The difference between witnessing awareness and embodied loving awareness—and why it matters
How gender conditioning shapes our relationship to both compassion and awakening practices
The power of “relational dharma” and why we sometimes need another person to help us access self-compassion
A guided practice for moving from suffering into the “stance-less stance” of presence
If you’ve practiced self-compassion but sensed there’s something deeper available, or if awakening teachings have felt too abstract or disembodied, this conversation offers a bridge between heart and awareness that could transform your practice.
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 move beyond fear and separation to experience our true divine nature—especially in times of collective upheaval and uncertainty?
This week, Tami Simon welcomes Paul Selig, a channeler, author, and teacher who has brought through 13 extraordinary books from non-physical guides he describes as teaching from “the upper room.” Born an atheist and trained at Yale, Paul experienced a spontaneous kundalini awakening in 1987 that left him clairvoyant and fundamentally changed his understanding of reality. Since then, he has served as what he calls a “spoken stenographer” for teachings on consciousness, awakening, and our capacity to align with the divine.
Join Tami and Paul to explore:
Paul’s dramatic awakening experience and emergence as a channel
What it feels like to receive and transmit channeled wisdom
The “upper room”—a vibrational state beyond fear and separation
How to recognize when we’re acting from fear versus divine knowing
The clearing process that accompanies spiritual awakening
Why this particular time calls for radical transformation of old structures
The powerful attunement: “I am in God, I am of God, I am with God”
How to maintain trust and openness when part of us still holds back
Practical ways to realign with source amidst chaos and uncertainty
If you’re navigating this time of collective change and seeking a deeper connection to your divine nature, this conversation offers both inspiration and practical guidance for claiming the upper room—that aspect of consciousness where we already dwell in union with all that is.
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.
