• E33: Choosing Joy: A Life Without Psychological Pain

    Michael Singer — December 11, 2024

    While some physical suffering is unavoidable, most psychological suffering is self-created. We do this through resisting reality and clinging to preferences, attachments, and past ...

  • Insights At The Edge

    Tami Simon’s in-depth audio podcast interviews with leading spiritual teachers and luminaries. Listen in as they explore their latest challenges and breakthroughs - the leading edge of their work.

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Meet Your Host: Tami Simon

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.

Photo © Jason Elias

Most Recent

Lisa Marchiano: Meet the Dream Maker—The Wise, Myste...

Have dreams become a kind of endangered species? When a third of adults report an inability to recall their dreams, this may very well be the case. Jungian analyst Lisa Marchiano has a new book to shift the tides and help readers reclaim the vast wisdom and power awaiting our discovery in the world of our dreams. 

In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with the host of This Jungian Life and author of the new book Dream Wise. Enjoy this inspiring conversation about falling in love with dreaming; simple ways to boost dream recall; meeting the dream maker, the creator of your dreams; why even your worst nightmare may not really be a “bad dream”; the practice of dream incubation; curiosity and humility: two essentials for interpreting dreams; paying attention to the emotions in your dreams; fear in dreams, and what it might represent; receiving constructive criticism from the dream maker; Jung and the concept of the Self; working on your dreams in the context of community; a case study: the dream of the gold watch; the dream ego; the practice of active imagination; and more.

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.

Jessica Long: Don’t You Dare Give Up

Every competitive sport has its icons. To reach the top of their game, each of the champions we celebrate and adore must travel a difficult, often grueling path. And then there is Jessica Long—one of the most decorated American athletes of all time, a six-time Paralympic Games swimmer who in September 2024 won her 31st Paralympic medal (at the time of this writing, 18 of them gold!). In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Jessica about her life in and out of the pool—including her work as an inspirational speaker and her book Beyond the Surface.

Listen now to this powerful conversation on how we can transform our greatest struggles into the best possible outcomes, as Tami and Jessica discuss: claiming your intrinsic worth; the importance of goal-setting and challenging yourself to grow; turning pain into purpose; staying open to anger, shame, anxiety, and the full range of our emotions; reframing the situations we didn’t choose for ourselves; the winner’s mindset according to Jessica Long—“don’t you dare give up”; visualization and the superpower that is your mind; faith and forgiveness; boosting the popularity of the Paralympics and hearing the stories of its many remarkable athletes; and more.

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.

Gabby Bernstein & Richard Schwartz: Courageous Lo...

Internal Family Systems therapy (or IFS) is transforming the field of psychology, captivating interest among professionals and laypeople alike in the relatively few years since Dr. Richard C. Schwartz first introduced his revolutionary model. Bestselling author Gabby Bernstein proclaims herself to be among the growing number of people whose lives have been improved in seemingly miraculous ways through IFS. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Schwartz and Bernstein about the unique ways in which IFS can heal and deepen our intimate relationships. 

Give a listen to this empowering discussion of “Courageous Love,” exploring: breaking the “mono-mind” paradigm; uncovering the core Self; coming into full integration and aligning with the truth of who you are; being Self-led in relationships; a four-step method for engaging compassion, curiosity, connection, and choice; asking yourself, “What do I need right now?”; IFS as a devotional practice; becoming “the primary caretaker of our exiles”; the burden of worthlessness; the intensity of our protector parts; IFS for conflict resolution and the practice of speaking about our parts instead of from our parts; calling a time-out to return to calm and presence; the cumulative nature of the energy of the Self; why we need to dialogue with our parts before we try to discuss them with others; the vulnerability of courageous love; the magic of clarity; and more.

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.

Customer Favorites

Caroline Myss: The Power of Holy Language

Caroline Myss is a five-time New York Times bestselling author and a leading voice in the field of human consciousness, spirituality, mysticism, energy medicine, and the science of medical intuition. A long-time friend of Tami and Sounds True, Caroline has created more than 20 audio learning programs with us. Her latest audio program is called The Power of Holy Language to Change Your Life, which is the topic of this episode of Insights at the Edge. Tami and Caroline talk about how our souls will literally starve without holy language, and how it can both transform us and our understanding of our experiences. They also discuss how prayer, outside of any religious institutions, is the ultimate form of holy language. Finally, Tami and Caroline explore how we can open ourselves to the field of light and grace that is all around us and within us at all times.

Matthieu Ricard: Finding Inner Freedom

Matthieu Ricard is a French author, photographer, translator, and Buddhist monk. With Sounds True, he has joined with coauthors Christophe André, a well-known French psychiatrist, and Swiss philosopher Alexandre Jollien to create two books: In Search of Wisdom: A Monk, a Philosopher, and a Psychiatrist on What Matters Most and, most recently, Freedom for All of Us: A Monk, a Philosopher, and a Psychiatrist on Finding Inner Peace. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Matthieu about the path to inner freedom. They discuss the obstacles we encounter on the path, such as addiction or confusing our willpower with true freedom. Matthieu also explores what supports inner freedom, the nature of optimism, and the training we must go through. Finally, they move into the “harvest” that comes from cultivating deep and lasting inner freedom.

 

Trusting the Gold

Tara Brach has been practicing and teaching meditation since 1975, as well as leading workshops and meditation retreats throughout North America and Europe. She has a PhD in clinical psychology, is the founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW), and is the author of Radical Acceptance, True Refuge, Radical Compassion, and most recently, Trusting the Gold

In this podcast, Tara Brach speaks with Sounds True founder Tami Simon about rediscovering the inner “gold” of our intrinsic goodness, love, and purity. In addition, they discuss Tara’s teachings on the “trance of unworthiness” and how we can break free from it; recognizing the secret beauty in others and mirroring it back; relaxation for the go-getters; working with difficult emotions; how shame can become a portal to freedom; the RAIN practice for self-compassion; the power of the phrase “this belongs”; the practice of “softening” in response to contractions of fear or anger; and seeing the sacredness in all things.

Timeless Classics

Lance Allred: The New Alpha Male

Lance Allred is a former NBA player (who was the first legally deaf player in the league), public speaker, and author. With Sounds True, he has published The New Alpha Male: How to Win the Game When the Rules Are Changing. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Lance about the experiences he had in professional sports that led him to reevaluate what it means to be a man in contemporary society. Lance explains how his upbringing in a rural, polygamous commune informed his original ideas about masculinity, highlighting the subconscious assumptions about money and power that affect American men’s self-worth. Tami and Lance also discuss the roles of emotional vulnerability and surrender in the lives of modern men. Finally, they talk about the principle of perseverance and the increasingly urgent need for all cultures to reexamine their assumptions and core values.(63 minutes)

Micah Mortali: Rewilding

Micah Mortali is the director of the Kripalu School, a certified yoga teacher, and a longtime wilderness guide. With Sounds True, he has published Rewilding: Meditations, Practices, and Skills for Awakening in Nature. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Micah about humanity’s growing disconnection from the earth and how “rewilding” can help slow that trend. They talk about rewilding both as individuals and as part of whole ecosystems. Micah also shares the story of an intense, revelatory trail encounter with a bear and comments on the “species loneliness” of urban environments. Mulling the sense of grief they have for humankind’s effects on the environment, Tami and Micah consider how modern people can grapple with being in exile from the natural world. Finally, they discuss the barriers many have to reentering nature, as well as ways to initiate your own rewilding experience no matter where you are.(64 minutes)

Christian Conte: Healing Conflict: Listen, Validate, a...

Christian Conte, PhD, is a mental health specialist and leading authority on anger management. With Sounds True, Christian has published Walking Through Anger: A New Design for Confronting Conflict in an Emotionally Charged World. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon talks with Christian about his Yield Theory of emotional management, focusing on the process of “listen, validate, explore options.” Christian explains the events that led to his interest in anger management, as well as the origins of Yield Theory. He emphasizes the importance of meeting others where they are, giving them the opportunity to drain anger’s charge from their limbic system. Christian and Tami discuss why it’s necessary to cultivate humility and how Yield Theory might be applied to our currently divisive culture. Finally, they speak on “the cartoon world” that angry responses often create, as well as the importance of watching what we add to our minds.(63 minutes)

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