John Marks is the founder of Search for Common Ground, an international NGO whose purpose is to end violent conflict around the world. In 2018, Search was nominated for a Nobel Peace prize. Over the years some of their notable work has included helping to avert genocide in Burundi, supporting free elections in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and creating…

Adam Bramlage is Founder and /CEO of Flow State Micro, a functional mushroom company and microdosing education platform. Adam has helped hundreds of people, from professional athletes to people suffering from addiction and depression, achieve results through microdosing in his private practice. This interview gives the basics of microdosing; it's a…

Louie Schwartzberg is the filmmaker behind "Fantastic Fungi" - he's back now with a follow up film: "Gratitude Revealed." Louie has created and worked on a score of films in his life, including his own features like Mysteries of the Unseen World and Wings of Life, as well as the Netflix series Moving Art. Over the process of his career, it's fair t…

Chef Elle Simone is a well-known American chef, culinary producer, test cook, and food stylist. In 2013, after realizing that women and persons of color were underrepresented among chefs, she founded SheChef, a mentoring and networking organization for women of color in the culinary field. She can be seen on PBS on America’s Test Kitchen and is the…

Today we’re sharing a conversation that took place in October, 2022, between members of the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County and the Esalen Institute. Representing the Esselen tribe are Jana Nason and Stephen Vicente Arevalo. Jana Nason is an Esselen and Rumsen descendant, and an enrolled tribal member of the ETMC. She is the nonprofit secretary, a…

Today our episode is an encore presentation of Michael Pollan’s keynote presentation at the 2019 Psychedelic Integration Conference at the Esalen Institute. Pollan is the author of six New York Times bestsellers, including 2018’s “How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depress…

✧༺mirrored fatality is the nonbinary Kapampangan-Pilipinx and Pakistani-Muslim performance art duo of Mango and Samar, artists in residence at Esalen during the summer of 2021. Together we discuss the difference between non-binary and trans, how they share their rituals, altars, and medicine through DIT (Do It Together) experimental and healing noi…

Dr. Brian Pace is a lecturer who teaches Psychedelic Studies at The Ohio State University. He is trained as an evolutionary ecologist, specializing in phytochemistry, ethnobotany, and ecophysiology. He believes in grassroots drug decriminalization efforts and hopes to find alternative policies to the imperial drug war. For more than a decade, Brian…

Akuyoe Graham is founder of the Spirit Awakening Foundation, an arts based non-profit dedicated to helping underserved youth in the juvenile justice system. Since its inception in 1995, SAF has been a pioneer in developing and offering restorative, trauma-informed, prevention and intervention programs to underserved, incarcerated and systems-involv…

Welcome to a Voices of Esalen archive edition. Our featured lecture was delivered at Esalen as a part of a weeklong training in 2018, by wise teachers Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman. Jack Kornfield is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. He trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India…

Dr. Deborah Egerton is a psychotherapist, Enneagram teacher, author, coach, and spiritual teacher. She brings a focus of inclusion, diversity, equity, and anti-racism to her enneagram work and uses that focus to help individuals and organizations release false historical narratives and open their minds and hearts to a more compassionate and connect…

Reverend Erika Allison is a queer interfaith minister and the author of the memoir "Gay the Pray Away: Healing your Life, Love, and Relationships from the Harms of LBGT Conversion Therapy." We spoke about her personal journey of healing after being sent to conversion therapy as a teenager in Texas, the coping strategies she developed after experien…

Mary Sanders is a founding board member of the People of Color Psychedelic Collective, an organization that provides psychedelic education to historically marginalized communities in order to foster empowerment and healing. She is a licensed psychotherapist who specializes in exploring the depths of transgenerational trauma and, in her words, peeli…

Senti Sojwal and Tiffany Diane Tso are founding members of the Asian American Feminist Collective, a grassroots racial and gender justice group that works to interrogate and dismantle systems of racism, patriarchy, and capitalism, telling their stories through various modes of feminist media while providing spaces for identity exploration, politica…

Today we celebrate Bicycle Day, a modern semi-holiday (unrecognized by official governmental agencies yet observed by psychedelic enthusiasts across the globe) that commemorates Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman’s bike ride home from his lab on April 19th, 1943, after ingesting 250 micrograms of lysergic acid diethlymide, and in the process creating the…

Laura Mae Northrup is a somatic psychotherapist, educator, podcaster, and author. Laura has been a guest on this show before, in 2020, when we discussed her podcast "Inside Eyes", a one-season tour de force that focuses on people using entheogens and psychedelics to heal from sexual trauma. She is now the author of a new book, "Radical Healership: …

Xochitl Ashe is a Medicine Woman in the Peruvian Andean tradition and has worked with sacred plant medicines since the time of her initiation. At 16 years old, she became the first female of five generations of men to be initiated into the healing traditions of her Peruvian ancestral lineage. Xochitl is the founder of an Indigenous women owned retr…

“All of these sort of regular things that biotech companies do, like snapping up patents so that they can get investor dollars moving forward, they’re intersecting with this culture in the psychedelics world, which is sort of anti-ownership. These forces will clash. They oppose with one another.” - Shayla Love, Vice Media Shayla Love is a senior st…

A glimpse under the hood at Voices of Esalen. Host Sam Stern interviews himself, entertaining questions such as How and why did you start Voices of Esalen - What was the first episode of the show and what was it about ? - Were the first episodes popular ? How many people listened to them? - What are your favorite podcasts and who are your favorite …

Jeff Kripal is a historian of religions - his work includes the study of comparative erotics and ethics in mystical literature, American countercultural translations of Asian religions, and the history of Western esotericism from gnosticism to New Age religions. He’s also the author of the book "Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion" - a …

This episode captures Jack Kornfield's lecture/ Dharma talk at Esalen on September 15th, 1983. Kornfield, one of the most articulate and compassionate voices in modern Western Buddhism, is co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. He trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, …

Justin Michael Williams is an author, speaker and musician who works at the intersection of social justice, mindfulness, and personal growth. Justin has become a pioneering voice of color for the new healing movement. His mission is to make sure that all people, of all backgrounds, have access to the information they need to change their lives. Tog…

Suzanne Simard is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia as well as the author of the excellent new memoir, “Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.” Suzanne is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; she’s been hailed as a scientist who conveys complex, technical ideas …

Akuyoe Graham is founder of the Spirit Awakening Foundation, an arts based non-profit dedicated to helping underserved youth in the juvenile justice system. Since 1995, SA has been a pioneer in developing restorative, trauma-informed prevention and intervention programs to incarcerated and systems-involved young people in Los Angeles County. Using …

Darnell Walker is Esalen's artist in residence for Spring 2021. Darnell is a writer and creator of children’s media, as well as a powerful documentary filmmaker - his efforts include 2015’s Seeking Asylum, which explored Black Americans’ desires to escape American tyranny and widespread police violence for safer lands, Outside the House, which focu…

Laura Mae Northrup is a somatic psychotherapist and podcast creator. Her remarkable show, Inside Eyes, focuses on the use of psychedelics and entheogens to heal from sexual trauma, drawing largely on personal stories from survivors of sexual violence and exploring the ways they have used these medicines to heal. Laura's work focuses on defining sex…

Justin Michael Williams is an author, activist, meditation teacher and musician. His book Stay Woke established him as a pioneering millennial voice for diversity and inclusion in wellness. His work has been featured by The Wall Street Journal, Grammy.com, Yoga Journal, Billboard, Wanderlust, and South by Southwest. Justin was the artist in residen…

Keith Thompson is an author, independent journalist, talk radio host, and former U.S. Senate staff member. Keith’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Esquire and the San Francisco Chronicle. He’s the author of the new book, The UFO Paradox: The Celestial and Symbolic World of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, in which he reveals how the UFO phen…

Today we have a special episode. We're bringing you something unique and powerful: a real Esalen check-in. This practice, rooted in the Gestalt therapy that evolved at Esalen over the years, has become a cornerstone of the Esalen experience, often described as a catalyst for self-awareness, connection, and personal growth. Our check-in features an …

Erik Davis stands tall at the intersection between mysticism, technology, and counterculture. He's one of my favorite writers, the author of many stupendous books, among them "TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information," "Nomad Codes," as well as "High Weirdness" a highly entertaining book that explores 1970s counterculture an…

Dr. Kamilah Majied is a contemplative inclusivity and equity consultant, mental health therapist, clinical educator, researcher, and internationally engaged consultant on building inclusivity and equity using meditative practices. After 15 years of teaching at Howard University, Dr. Majied joined the faculty at California State University, Monterey…

Today our episode centers on a talk given at Esalen in 1985 by Dr. Andrew Weil. Dr. Weil is a prominent figure and a trailblazer in the field of integrative medicine, which combines conventional medical practices with alternative and complementary therapies such as herbal medicine, acupuncture, and mind-body techniques. (All of this of course used …

Encore : Dr. Han Ren is a practitioner of decolonial mental health: she offers liberation-oriented, anti-oppressive, culturally informed therapy, and practices from a justice-oriented, systems-informed framework. Some of her specialties include Asian-American mental health, anxiety, perfectionism, high achievers, children of immigrants/third cultur…

Dr. Adele Lafrance is a clinical psychologist, research scientist, and a leader in the research and practice of psychedelic medicine. Currently, she is the clinical investigator and strategy lead for the MAPS-sponsored MDMA-assisted psychotherapy study for eating disorders and a collaborator on the Imperial College study for psilocybin and anorexia…

Dr. Han Ren is a practitioner of decolonial mental health: she offers liberation-oriented, anti-oppressive, culturally informed therapy, and practices from a justice-oriented, systems-informed framework. Some of her specialties include Asian-American mental health, anxiety, perfectionism, high achievers, children of immigrants/third culture kids, a…

Dr. Mellody Hayes is an evidence-based and spiritually-centered medical expert in the emerging clinical science of Psychedelic Medicine. Dr. Hayes is a graduate of Harvard and UCSF medical school and is an anesthesiologist, leader, public speaker and founding member of Decriminalize Nature. She’s also the founder of a Bay Area clinic that offers ps…

Alex Belser is the founding member and administrative director of a Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Trial at NYU School of Medicine where he’s investigated if psychedelic mushrooms can ease anxiety for folks facing end of life. In his psychotherapeutic practice, he focuses in part on preventing suicide amongst young gay and bisexual men. We spoke about h…

Dr. Biko Gray is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Syracuse University whose work and research focuses primarily on the connection between race, subjectivity, religion, and embodiment. Dr. Gray is currently working on a book that explores how contemporary racial justice movements, like Black Lives Matter, demonstrate new ways of theorizing the …

Nkechi Deanna Njaka - @ndnlifestylist - is a neuroscientist, meditation teacher, modern dancer, multi-disciplinary artist, and the co-host of the podcast "Dating White," where she and her co-host, sex and dating coach @myishabattle, speak about being women of color and their nuanced experiences in interracial dating. ⁠Nkechi is 2017 YBCA Truth Fell…

Dr. Stephen Finley, associate professor at Louisiana State University, where he teaches a host of courses that center around African American religious thought and culture, including Black Religion and Film, Race in the Age of Obama, and Black Intellectual Thought. He is the co-editor of “There is a Mystery: Esotericism, Gnosticism, and Mysticism i…

Dr. Kamilah Majied is a mental health therapist, professor, and internationally engaged consultant on social justice and inclusive contemplative pedagogy. The practice of Buddhism spurred a curiosity for Dr. Majied about the causes of unhappiness, particularly unhappiness as created by social oppression. A professor of social work, she is skilled i…

Dr. Mellody Hayes is a physician, writer, speaker, spiritual teacher and the Executive Director of Ceremony Health, a faith-based psychedelic healing center. Dr. Hayes was treated medically with psychedelic medicine for physician burnout, which made her aware of the power of psychedelics. She is graduate of Harvard University and UCSF Medical Schoo…

Richard Schwartz, Ph.D., is the founder of Internal Family Systems, a unique and astoundingly effective modality of psychotherapy that focuses on the various parts within a person. Internal Family Systems, or IFS, views multiplicity of mind as our natural state and our “parts” as sub-personalities that may be healed and transformed by bringing the …

Dr. Rick Hanson is a psychologist, best-selling author, and the co-founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom. The subtitle of one of his books, Budha’s Brain is "The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom," - and that speaks volumes about Rick’s purpose as a clinician and teacher: to show clients ef…

Dr. Shauna Shapiro is a clinical psychologist, professor, and best-selling author, most recently of the book Good Morning, I Love You: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Practices to Rewire Your Brain for Calm, Clarity, and Joy. We wanted to hear Shauna's perspective this April, 2020, amidst the global pandemic of the Coronavirus, in hopes that she co…

Dr. Emily Silverman came to Esalen to help faciliate Through Our Own Eyes, a retreat for and by women physicians. She’s the host and creator of the Nocturnists, a medical storytelling live show and podcast whose aim is to demystify doctorhood and bring to light the real people who toil behind the mask as our modern-society healers. We discussed whe…

Today's episode is part 3 of a series of panels presented at the 9th annual Blue Mind Summit at Esalen in the summer of 2019. Representing the "mind" in Blue Mindfulness is Dr. Dan Siegel, clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. An award-winning e…

Today's episode is part of a series of panels presented at the 9th annual Blue Mind Summit at the Esalen Institute in the summer of 2019. The Blue Mind summit is the brainchild of Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, whose stated mission is to create the new story of water and share it with the world, focusing on the cognitive, emotional, psychological, social,…

Dr. Ben Sessa is a psychiatrist from the United Kingdom, and currently a senior research fellow at Bristol, Cardiff and Imperial College London Universities, where he is conducting the UK's first clinical studies with MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of PTSD and alcohol dependence syndrome. Ben and I spoke at length about the current state o…

Dr. Hyman is an eleven-time #1 New York Times bestselling author, an internationally recognized leader, speaker, educator, and advocate in the field of functional medicine. He is the Director the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, the founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center, chairman of the board of the Institute for …