10% Happier with Dan Harris

Practical advice from a straight-talking former criminal and occasionally profane Dharma teacher. 
Vinny Ferarro has practiced insight meditation (vipassanā) since the mid-90s. He's the Guiding Teacher of the Big Heart City Sangha in San Francisco and has led a weekly sitting group for almost two decades.
As a fully empowered Dharma Teacher through Spirit Rock/IMS, he has taught residential retreats at various centers and currently leads Spirit Rock's Year to Live course. 
This episode originally dropped in May of 2024, but we're re-posting it because it was one of our most successful episodes. 
In this episode we talk about:
Alignment
Vinny's concept of "flashing your basic goodness"
Noting practice
The deep satisfaction in not seeking satisfaction
Redirecting awareness
Being an "empathetic witness" for yourself
When to opt for distraction
Not taking what's not yours 
Vinny's ancestor practice
What is the connection between seeing our family patterns and not taking what is not ours?  
How loyal have we been to our suffering?



Related Episodes:
How To Be Okay No Matter What | Kamala Masters

Vitamin E: How To Cultivate Equanimity Amidst Political Chaos | Roshi Joan Halifax

Non-Preachy Ethics | Jozen Tamori Gibson




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A smarter way to think about disease prevention.
Dr. Tara Narula is a board-certified cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan and Chief Medical Correspondent for ABC News. Her new book is The Healing Power of Resilience: A New Prescription for Health and Well-Being.
In this episode we talk about:
What resilience really is, why most of us already have it, and how it can be strengthened
The overlooked link between mental health, physical health, and recovery from illness
Why mindset and acceptance matter as much as medical treatment when facing health challenges
How resilience applies to major life changes, trauma, and chronic disease.
Practical psychological tools for working with anxiety, fear, and repetitive thought patterns
Why flexible thinking matters
How to adapt when life doesn't go according to plan
How beliefs, mindset, and the mind–body connection shape stress, healing, and resilience
Why movement, sleep, and facing fear are essential ingredients in building real resilience
How reframing identity can help people move forward after illness, trauma, or loss
Why connection, love, and small acts of kindness are powerful  and underused medicine
How hope, faith, and purpose shape resilience, healing, and long-term health
Related Episodes:
Dan's top 10 takeaways from the science of behavior change: How To Actually Keep Your New Year's Resolutions | Dan Solo Episode

 
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A conversation with Jay Michaelson, our Teacher of the Month for February, about his path to meditation, navigating multiple identities, and why he calls himself a "cynical, sarcastic bitch."
Jay Michaelson is a meditation teacher, journalist, rabbi, and author. In this conversation with executive producer DJ Cashmere, Jay gets candid about his unconventional path into meditation—driven initially by greed for mystical experiences rather than a desire to reduce suffering—and how his practice has evolved over 25 years.
We talk about:
Why Jay identifies as a "greed type" in Buddhist psychology (and what that means)

How to balance worldly activism with contemplative practice without getting "hollowed out"

The concept of creating a "permission structure" to live the life you actually want

That moment of spaciousness between stimulus and response (and how it saved Jay when he got heckled during LGBTQ activism)

Whether meditation can help save humanity—and why Jay is both cynical and hopeful about this

How neurotic Jay still is after 25 years of practice (spoiler: he's less reactive, but still neurotic)

"Micro-moments" of awareness—five-second practices for people who can't go on long retreats

Jay's guided meditations and live sangha sessions are available throughout February in the 10% Happier app. You can also find him at jaymichaelson.substack.com, where he writes Both/And, a newsletter about the intersection of spirituality, meditation, and politics.
 
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A conversation with celebrated author George Saunders about his new novel, Vigil, and what fiction can teach us about empathy, self-awareness, and mortality.
George Saunders is the bestselling, award-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo, Tenth of December, and many other books. His new novel, Vigil, tells the story of a woman who died in 1976 and has spent the decades since comforting the dying—until she encounters a former oil executive responsible for early climate change denial.
In this conversation, Dan and George talk about:
Why George keeps writing about ghosts and the afterlife (hint: it's not just about mortality dread)

The lavish empathy at the heart of Vigil—and whether we should extend that empathy even to people doing civilizational damage

What George calls "warm metacognition"—the practice of dropping back out of your thought loops to examine what kind of goggles you're wearing

How fiction can turn your mind into a "reconsideration machine" (and why that matters in real life)

The difference between kindness and niceness

George's relationship with death anxiety, which he's had since childhood and which has only intensified with age

What George has learned about listening from teaching and hosting his Substack, Story Club

Why the older he gets, the more important it is to stretch himself creatively

His advice for dealing with stuckness (in writing and in life): curiosity over self-accusation

George's new novel Vigil is out January 27th from Random House. Check out his Substack, Story Club, where he discusses classic short stories with an incredibly thoughtful community.
 
Related Episodes:
George Saunders on "Holy Befuddlement" and How to Be Less of a "Turd"

 
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Practical techniques for dealing with all of life's curveballs.
 
Maya Shankar is a cognitive scientist and creator of the podcast A Slight Change of Plans, previously named "Best Show of the Year" by Apple. She served as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Obama White House and was also appointed as the first Behavioral Science Advisor to the United Nations. She is the author of The Other Side of Change: Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans.



In this episode we talk about:
The two major life events that caused her to study the topic of change
How to build a more expansive sense of self
Practical tools for navigating change 
Cognitive biases such as  "the end of history illusion"
The utility of distraction and denial
Tools for getting unstuck from rumination
And much more



Related Episodes:
 The Science of Handling Uncertainty | Maya Shankar

 
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