The Middle Way Society

My guest today is Gavin Haynes, a freelance journalist, writer, presenter and former editor-at-large at Vice. He's here to talk to us about the Purity Spiral. How a process of moral outbidding is corroding communities from within.

In this week's podcast, the chair of the Middle Way Society, Robert M Ellis talks to us about his most recent book 'The Thought of Sangharakshita: A Critical Assessment'.

In this latest member profile, Anna Markey talks to us about her background in Australia, her time spent in India as a young woman and her initial engagement with Buddhism. She then goes on to talk about her interest in language and her career as a teacher, why she joined the society and what her understanding is of the Middle Way.

An extract from an interview with Stephen Batchelor for the Middle Way Society about his latest book 'The Art of Solitude' in which he offers some reflections and advice on how to deal with self-isolation during the corona virus emergency.

Our guest today is Stephen Batchelor, a patron of the MW Society, author and Buddhist scholar who's here to talk about his latest book 'The Art of Solitude'.

My guest today is Mark Austin who is an accredited teacher of 5Rhythms dance classes, which he runs regularly in the north of England. In the interview we explore the origins of the practice, what it is, how a typical session pans out and how it relates to the Middle Way.

Our guest today is Adam Luecke PH. D who is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. His research focuses on multiple areas of social psychology, including prosocial behaviour and the benefits of mindfulness. He's done a wide range of research that suggests that mindfulness increases analytical thought, decreases just world beliefs, reduces discrimination and implicit age and races bias. This research will be the topic of our discussion today.

My guest today is David Robson, David is an award-winning science writer and editor, who specialises in writing in-depth articles probing the extremes of the human mind, body and behaviour. He was a features editor at New Scientist for five years and is currently a senior journalist at BBC Future. He regularly features on the BBC World Service discussing scientific issues, and his writing has also appeared in Guardian, the Atlantic and the Washington Post. His first book ‘The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Stupid Mistakes and How to Make Wiser Decisions was published earlier this year and this will be the topic of our discussion today

Our guest today is Sally Kohn, who arguably is one of the leading progressive voices in America. A frequent guest on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. Sally is a popular keynote speaker including most recently with the Forgiveness Project , talking about political division, hate, otherizing, diversity and identity — and how we can solve the deep problems of our past and present. Her first book 'The Opposite of Hate' came out last year and will be the topic of our discussion today.

We are joined today by the philosopher and founder of the Middle Way Society. Robert has been a regular guest on the podcast and is the author of a range of books on Middle Way Philosophy, both within and beyond Buddhism, including The Christian Middle Way (Christian Alternative 2018). He has a PhD in Philosophy and a Cambridge BA in Oriental Studies and Theology. He has taught in many different contexts, and was formerly a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order. He's here to talk to us about his latest book The Buddha's Middle Way (Equinox 2019).

Our guest today is Katherine Weare who is Emeritus Professor at the University of Exeter where she is working to develop and evaluate mindfulness in schools programs. Katherine is a dedicated mindfulness practitioner herself as well as a qualified mindfulness teacher. Her overall field is social and emotional learning and mental health and wellbeing in schools. She is known as an international expert on evidence-based practice and has conducted several definitive reviews and led programmes which have informed policy and practice in many countries. She is the author of several books including Promoting Mental, Emotional and Social Health: A Whole School Approach, Developing the Emotionally Literate School and most recently Happy Teachers Change the World: A Guide for Cultivating Mindfulness in Education which she co-wrote with Tich Nath Hanh and will be the topic of our discussion today

Today's guest is the British environmental writer and political activist George Monbiot. George writes a weekly column for The Guardian, and is the author of a number of books, including Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain (2000) and Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding (2013). He will be discussing the topic of rewilding with the chair of the Middle Way Society, the philosopher Robert M Ellis.

Our guest today is Simon Bell. Simon is a retired mental health nurse who spent 37 years working in the National Health Service in the U.K. For 22 years he dealt solely with suspects, defendants and offenders from the time of their arrest until the point when criminal proceedings took place. He dealt with most types of offending behavior and over the course of his career was involved in assessing and caring for several thousand offenders and victims of crime. His passion for history goes back to childhood; his passion for the Holocaust has its origins in being involved with the care of survivors of Nazi brutality whom he met during his early days in mental health car. He's the author of 'Auschwitz-Birkenau - From Hell to Hope' and 'Tribalism and Prejudice - The Far-Right and Lessons From History which will be the topic of our discussion today.

My guest today is Maryanne Wolf. Maryanne is the John Dibiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service and Director of the Center for Reading and Language Research. She is an expert on the neurological underpinnings of reading, language, and dyslexia. She is also the author of numerous scientific publications as well two books written for the general public ‘Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain' which has been translated in 10 languages and her latest book ‘Reader Come Home: The reading brain in a digital world which will be the topic of our discussion today.

Our guest today is Jeremy Sherman. Jeremy is a decision theorist researching and writing about choice from the origin of life to everyday living. He teaches college courses across the social sciences and blogs for Psychology Today. He's here to talk to us about his latest book Neither Ghost nor Manchine in which he distils for a general audience the theory developed by renowned neuroscientist Terrence Deacon that extends the breakthrough constraint-based insight that inspired evolutionary, information, and self-organization theory. He argues that emergent dynamics theory provides a testable hypothesis for how mattering arose from matter, function from physics, and means-to-ends behavior from cause-and-effect dynamics. In effect that what this offers, is a physics of purpose and can make science safe for value, We'll also talk about how this all might relate to the Middle Way

We are joined today by the writer, sociologist, lecture and music critic, Keith Kahn-Harris. His books include Judaism: All That Matters, Uncivil War: The Israel Conflict in the Jewish Community, Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge and his latest book Denial: The Unspeakable Truth and this will be the topic of our discussion today.

We are joined today by the author and integrator Jeremy Lent and the chair of the Middle Way Society Robert M Ellis. Jeremy was a recent guest on the podcast when he spoke to us about his book “The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's search for Meaning”. Shortly afterwards Robert wrote a review of the book and some of the themes and issues raised in that review will form the basis for our discussion today.

Our guest today is Alex Beard. Alex is a former English teacher at a London comprehensive and is now a senior director at Teach For All, a growing network of independent organizations working to ensure that all children fulfil their potential. He is fortunate to spend his time travelling the world in search of the practices that will shape the future of learning and has written about his experiences for the Independent, Guardian, Financial Times and Wired. His book Natural Born Learners is a user's guide to transforming learning in the twenty-first century and this will be the topic of our discussion today.

Our guest today is Laura Bridgman. Laura was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1995, and was resident at Amaravati and Chithurst monasteries in the UK for eighteen years until she moved out to live as a solitary nun in 2010. In 2015 Laura left the monastic tradition to pursue the Diamond Heart (Ridhwan) spiritual path alongside her Vipassana practice. She has run several retreats over the last couple of years on the subject of the ‘Inner Critic' and this will be the topic of our discussion today.

My guest today is Allan Frater, a psychotherapist and teacher at the Psychosynthesis Trust in London. Psychosynthesis is a transpersonal or psychospiritual psychology, in which the spiritual or soulful is integrated with the psychological. It has its origins in the work of Dr Roberto Assagioli, an early pioneer of psychoanalysis which he studied under Freud and as a contemporary of Carl Jung. On returning to Italy, Assagioli went beyond psychoanalysis in the formation of psychosynthesis, which included influences from his life-long interest in eastern traditions such as Buddhism, as well as the esoteric western traditions, such as alchemy, Neo-Platonism and kabbalah.However, psychosynthesis was presented as a secular psychology and an empirical science of human subjectivity. The topic of our discussion today will be the origins, aims and methods of psychosynthesis, as well the emphasis that Allan has been developing in his teaching which he calls, ‘wild imagination'.

Sangharakshita is the founder of the Triratna Buddhist Order and Community, previously known as the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO). He is also the author of dozens of books and hundreds of lectures on Buddhism. Brought up in London, Sangharakshita spent 20 years in India, where he was ordained as a Buddhist monk, but then returned to the UK in the 1960's to become one of the first figures to engage seriously with the need to interpret Buddhist practice for Western audiences. He has done so particularly through the use of practical concepts like integration, individuality, creativity and provisional belief. This wide-ranging conversation between Robert and Sangharakshita was recorded face-to-face in Sangharakshita's flat at Adhisthana, Herefordshire, UK. From about 1.45 to 7.40 Sangharakshita speaks unprompted about the Middle Way in his own life and the Buddha's, but after this the conversation is more interactive, including discussion of the Middle Way in relation to the Eightfold Path, the extremes of eternalism and nihilism, business decisions, and meditation. The Middle Way beyond Buddhism is discussed, in philosophy and Christianity, as well as the question of how much Buddhists have actually paid attention to it, and how far it has been important in Sangharakshita's approach to teaching Buddhism in the West.

We're joined this week by the creative and versatile polymath Anthony McCann. As a keynote speaker, after-dinner speaker, consultant, coach, trainer, and facilitator, he inspires people to reimagine and redesign their relationships, working environments, and communities through a better understanding of proximity, power, and possibility in their lives. His work is based on 20 years of original research and teaching across the humanities and social sciences, and also of practitioner experience in leadership, community development, and performing arts. He's here to talk to us today about ‘The Garaiocht Manifesto' . More an invitation than a message. When it comes to professional life, trust your humanity. The Manifesto offers a human-scale and humane set of principles for sustaining the heart of being human in the art of being human in professional life.

Our guest today is the philosopher Robert M Ellis. Robert is the creator of Middle Way Philosophy, a practical philosophy working out the implications of human uncertainty and embodiment for every aspect of our lives, and the founder of the Middle Way Society. He has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Lancaster and has earned a living as a teacher, lecturer and tutor. He's here to talk to us about his latest book The Christian Middle Way: The case against Christian Belief but for Christian Faith, published by Christian Alternative which comes out on the 27th July. He'll also be running a weekend retreat on the Christian Middle Way from the 20th to the 22nd July which will give people an opportunity to explore its approach at the Brazier's Park centre in the lovely Oxfordshire Countryside.

Our guest today is the author and integrator Jeremy Lent. Jeremy grew up in the UK but has spent most of his adult life in the US, where earlier in his career, he was the founder, chairman and CEO of the internet company NextCard.. His writings investigate the patterns of thought that have led civilization to its current crisis of sustainability. He is the founder of the non-profit Liology Institute, which is dedicated to a worldview that enables humanity to thrive sustainably. He is the author of Requiem of the ‘Human Soul' and ‘The Patterning Instinct' the latter of which will be the topic of our discussion.

We are joined today by the internationally renowned psychologist, author and science journalist Daniel Goleman. For twelve years, he wrote for The New York Times, reporting on the brain and behavioural sciences. His 1995 book Emotional Intelligence was on The New York Times Best Seller list for a year-and-a-half as well as being a best-seller in many countries, and is in print worldwide in 40 languages. He's the author of many other books on a wide array of topics including self-deception, creativity, transparency, meditation, social and emotional learning, ecoliteracy and the ecological crisis and he recently collaborated with the Dalai Lama on the book ‘A Force for Good: The Dalai Lama's Vision for Humanity'. He's here to talk to us today about his latest book which he co-wrote with his long –time friend and collaborator Richard J Davidson entitled ‘Altered Traits: Science Reveals how Meditation changes your Mind, Brain and Body.

We are joined today by the scientist Emma Byrne. Emma normally specialises in the field of artificial intelligence, however she's recently taken a different tack and is here to talk about her latest book entitled ‘Swearing is good for you'. Using peer reviewed science, she argues that swearing is likely to have been one of the first forms of language that we developed and that since then, it's been helping us to deal with pain, work together, manage our emotions and improve our minds.

Our guest today is Daniel P Keating, a professor of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Pediatrics at the University of Michigan. He's the author of several books including ‘Developmental Health and the Wealth of Nations', ‘Nature and Nurture in Early Child Development' and he's here to talk to us today about his latest book ‘Born Anxious: The lifelong impact of Early Life Adversity and how to break the cycle.

Our guest today is the British journalist and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell who is perhaps most well-known for his work with LBGT social movements and advocacy. He's here to talk to us today about homophobia, its history, causes and what can be done about it.

Our guest today is Barbara Gail Montero who is a Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York. Her work focuses on one or the other of two different notions of body: body as the physical or material basis of everything, and body as the moving, breathing, flesh and blood instrument that we use when we run, walk, or dance. Before entering academia, she was a professional ballet dancer and she's here to talk to us today about her recently published book ‘Thought in Action: Expertise and the conscious Mind'.

Our guest today is the British politician, Tim Farron. Tim was the leader of the Liberal Democrats from July 2015 to July 2017. He's been the Member of Parliament for Westmoreland and Lonsdale since 2005 and he's here to talk to us today about Liberalism, it's origins and development, its core values and how it might relate to the Middle Way.

Our guest today is Stephen Jenkinson a Harvard-trained theologian and a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house and learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. Before founding the school, he headed the counsel team of Canada's largest palliative care program and in 2008 a film ‘Griefwalker' was made about his work with the dying and their families and he's the author of several books including ‘Money and the Soul's desires' and ‘Die Wise' .

Our guest t0day is Arie Kruglanski. a Distinguished University Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland College Park, and has been at the forefront of research into closed-mindedness-or, the "need for closure"— in particular its relationship to fundamentalist belief systems and violent extremism. He is is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and has edited a variety of prominent journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition. During his long career he has received numerous awards, including the Donald Campbell Award for Outstanding Contributions to Social Psychology. His work in the domains of human judgment and belief formation has been disseminated in over 300 articles. He's the author of six books including the psychology of close-mindedness and the psychology of terrorism and the themes explored in these books will be the topic of our discussion today

Our guest today is Abeba Birhane. Abeba is an Ethiopian Cognitive science PhD student presently living in Dublin. She blogs regularly at https://abebabirhane.wordpress.com on topics including philosophy, psychology, feminism, anthropology. She recently drew quite a bit of attention on the internet in an article for Aeon entitled “Descartes was wrong: ‘a person is a person through other persons' and this will be the topic of our discussion today.

We are joined today by Amod Lele, who teaches Indian philosophy at Boston University. He is also Visiting Researcher at the Center for the Study of Asia, and an Educational Technologist with Information Services & Technology. He writes a regular blog in cross-cultural philosophy, called Love of All Wisdom on which I came across an article he wrote on ‘Literal Conservatism' and this will be the topic of our discussion today

Our guest today is Bernardo Sorj. Bernardo is a Brazilian social scientist, retired professor of Sociology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He is Director of The Edelstein Center for Social Research and of the Plataforma Democrática Project. He has published 30 books and more than 100 articles, on Latin American political development, international relations, the social impact of new technologies, social theory and Judaism and in 2005 was elected Brazil's Man of Ideas. He's here to talk to us about ‘Humanism without Hubris'.

We welcome back to the podcast ,Igor Grossmann, who is Associate Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Wisdom and Research Lab based at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. His main research interest is the complex processes that enable individuals to think and act wisely. He has also done pioneering work on the development of wisdom in different cultures. Dr. Grossmann was named one of the 2015 Rising Stars in the field of Psychological Science.He's going to be joined in discussion with a regular guest on the podcast, the philosopher Robert M Ellis, who is the chair of the Middle Way Society and author amongst other books of the Middle Way Philosophy series. Igor recently published a paper in Perspectives on Psychological Science entitled Wisdom in Context in which he puts forward 4 main Factors that foster wise thinking and this the topic that we'll be discussing today.

Our guest today is Lisa Miracchi. Lisa is a philosophy professor at the University of Pennsylvania . She's presently teaching a seminar entitled “Yoga and Philosophy' in which she argues that yoga is philosophy in physical form and this will be the topic of our discussion.

In our latest round table discussion we welcome back to the podcast In our latest round table discussion we welcome back to the podcast Hári Sewell who is a trainer and consultant in equality and social justice and author of Working with Ethnicity, Race and Culture in Mental Health , ex-white supremacist and now peace activist Arno Michaelis, author of My Life After Hate and the chair of the Middle Way Society, the philosopher Robert M Ellis, author of many books including the Middle Way Philosophy series. The topic today will be prejudice, what it is, how it affects us and what we might do about it. who is a trainer and consultant in equality and social justice and author of Working with Ethnicity, Race and Culture in Mental Health , ex-white supremacist and now peace activist Arno Michaelis, author of My Life After Hate and the chair of the Middle Way Society, the philosopher Robert M Ellis, author of many books including the Middle Way Philosophy series. The topic today will be prejudice, what it is, how it affects us and what we might do about it.

Our guest today is the Australian artist Abdul Abdullah. His interdisciplinary approach is primarily concerned with the experience of the ‘other' in society. This, and the wider topic of prejudice will be the focus of our conversation today. In the youtube version, there is also a slideshow of Abdul's work.

We are joined today by Tim Jackson who is Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey and Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP). He is also an award-winning playwright with numerous radio-writing credits for the BBC. Tim is perhaps most well-known for his best-selling book ‘Prosperity without Growth'. He has recently published a revised second edition and this will be the topic of our discussion today.

We are joined today by Jacob Dunne. Jacob was jailed for manslaughter after a fatal one punch attack in 2011. He talks to us about his early life, his time in prison and the transformative effect of restorative justice, especially how meeting his victim's parents completely turned his life around.

“We are joined today by Ellen Bialystok, a Canadian psychologist and professor who is one of the world's leading experts on bilingualism and this will be the topic of our conversation.”

Our guest today is Dr. Dan Siegel. Dan is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. He is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute which focuses on the development of mindsight, which teaches insight, empathy, and integration in individuals, families and communities. Dr. Siegel has published extensively for both the professional and lay audiences. He has written several New York Times bestsellers including: Mindsight, Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain, and two books with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D: The Whole-Brain Child, and No-Drama Discipline. He's going to talk to us today about his latest book Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human.

My guest today is Sugata Mitra, who is professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University in the UK. Sugata is by training a physicist with over 25 inventions to his name in the area of cognitive science and education technology. He is widely cited in works on literacy and education and is perhaps most well known as a proponent of minimally invasive education and his ‘Hole in the Wall' experiment. He won the 2013 Ted prize for his talk ‘Build a School in a Cloud' after which he used the prize money to set up a number of the schools. He's here to talk to us today about how learning might be seen as an emergent phenomenon in a self organising education system which emerges as spontaneous order at the edge of chaos.

Our guest today is Jamie Holmes, a former Research Coordinator at Harvard University in the Department of Economics and a Future Tense Fellow at New America . His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Slate, Politico, the Christian Science Monitor, The New Republic and The Atlantic and he's here to talk to us today about his new book Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing.

Our guest today is Guy Claxton. an internationally renowned writer, consultant and academic specialising in creativity, education and the mind.He is the author of more than twenty books including the best selling Building Learning Power. He's going to talk to us today about his latest book: Intelligence in the flesh: Why your mind needs your body much more than it thinks. In the discussion we explore some of the potential implications and ramifications of this perspective with regard to the role of the brain, emotions, the theory of embodied meaning, education and the arts as well as challenging dualisms such as reason and emotion, subjectivity and objectivity and facts and values.

We are joined today by the author and essayist Chuck Klosterman who has written books and essays focused on American popular culture. He has been a columnist for Esquire and ESPN.com and wrote "The Ethicist" column for The New York Times Magazine. Chuck is the author of eight books including two novels and the essay collection Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto. He talks to us today about his latest book But What If We're Wrong: Thinking about The Present as if it were the Past as well as other aspects of having a sceptical mind-set.

We are joined today by the author and book editor Roderick Tweedy who's here to talk to us about his book The God of the Left Hemisphere. The book explores the remarkable connections between the activities and functions of the human brain that writer William Blake termed 'Urizen' and the powerful complex of rationalising and ordering processes which modern neuroscience identifies as 'left hemisphere' brain activity. Blake's prescient insight into the nature and origins of this arguably dominant force within the brain allows him to radically reinterpret the psychological basis of the entity commonly referred to as 'God'.

Our guest today is Helena Bassil-Morozow , a cultural philosopher, writer, and lecturer in media and communication at Glasgow Caledonian University. She's interested in ways in which we interact with our society, and particularly how our identities are shaped by our environment. Her books include 'Tim Burton: The Monster and the Crowd' , 'The Trickster in Contemporary Film'. Her latest book which she has co-written with Luke Hockley and which comes out in December is entitled 'Jungian Film Studies: the Essential Guide' and this is going to be the topic of our discussion.

We are joined today by Nancy L Morgan, a psychologist at a private practice in Clinical Psychology and Director of Behavioral Health at LifeMoves. Life Moves is an organization that combats homelessness in the San Mateo and Santa Clara counties of California and this will be topic of our conversation.

We are joined today by Igor Grossmann, who is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Wisdom and Research Lab based at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. His main research interest is the complex processes that enable individuals to think and act wisely. He has also done pioneering work on the development of wisdom in different cultures and was named one of the 2015 Rising Stars in the field of Psychological Science. He recently co-wrote a paper with Alex C. Huynh entitled Emotional Complexity: Clarifying Definitions and Cultural Correlates in which certain common , especially Western assumptions about having ‘mixed feelings' are challenged