Tami Simon speaks with Deva Premal, a classically trained singer and musician known around the world for her devotional chanting and the inspiring music she creates with her partner Miten. When performing, Deva and Miten both have incredible presence on stage and transmit a kind of openness and emptiness that is beautiful to be with and quite rare. Deva speaks about her experiences sharing music all around the world, mantras, and how devotional music can actually create a space that she believes welcomes all of our emotional experience. (56 minutes)
Deva Premal has released 14 albums with her partner, Miten. She is a classically trained singer and musician known around the globe for her serene, sacred chants. Raised in a German home permeated with Eastern spirituality, Deva Premal was chanting the Gayatri Mantra by age five and has practiced meditation throughout much of her life. The healing effects of her music are informed by her training in shiatsu, reflexology, craniosacral therapy, and massage. Many of her records have topped the New Age charts including The Essence, Love is Space, Embrace, and Dakshina. Visit www.devapremalusa.com for more info.
I love the music of Deva Premal and Miten. It is truly a portal into Presence. As you listen, the sacred space that lies beyond the mind emerges naturally and effortlessly. Pure magic. ECKHART TOLLE, author of The Power of Now
Beautiful, beautiful music. H.H. THE DALAI LAMA
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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.
Tami Simon speaks with Deva Premal, a classically trained singer and musician known around the world for her devotional chanting and the inspiring music she creates with her partner Miten. When performing, Deva and Miten both have incredible presence on stage and transmit a kind of openness and emptiness that is beautiful to be with and quite rare. Deva speaks about her experiences sharing music all around the world, mantras, and how devotional music can actually create a space that she believes welcomes all of our emotional experience. (56 minutes)
An encore presentation in honor of Coleman Barks, who passed away on February 23, 2026. Tami Simon speaks with Coleman, a leading scholar and translator of the 13th-century Persian mystic, Jelaluddin Rumi. Coleman’s work was the subject of an hour-long segment in Bill Moyers’ Language of Life series with PBS. He has published numerous Rumi translations, including with Sounds True the audio programs I Want Burning, Rumi: The Voice of Longing, and his new three-CD collaboration with cellist David Darling called Just Being Here: Rumi and Human Friendship. In this episode, Tami speaks with Coleman about the extraordinary friendship between Rumi and his teacher, Shams Tabriz, and how translating Rumi requires entering a trance state. Coleman offers insights on grace as he and Tami listen to selections from Just Being Here.
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.
**SPECIAL ENCORE PRESENTATION IN SUPPORT OF WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY**
Anne Lamott is the celebrated author of many books of fiction, essays, and memoirs. Her works include Bird by Bird, Hallelujah Anyway, and Crooked Little Heart. In this special edition of Insights at the Edge originally recorded for The Self-Acceptance Summit, Tami Simon speaks with Anne about acts of “radical self-care” and how they are essential for anyone’s well-being. Anne talks about self-acceptance as an inherently feminist concept, especially around issues of body image and self-esteem. Finally, Anne and Tami discuss how it is necessary to fully accept oneself before being able to show up for others, and why modern society often argues the opposite.
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.
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Listeners of Insights At The Edge get 10% off their first month at www.betterhelp.com/soundstrue.
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