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The Middle Way Society Podcast
207 Episodes
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Our guest today is Mike Berners-Lee. Mike is a UK-basedsustainability expert, professor at Lancaster University, and the founder of Small World Consulting, specializing in carbon accounting, sustainable food systems, and supply chain sustainability. He is the author of several books on environmental issues, including How Bad Are Bananas? and There Is No Planet B, and frequently appears in the media to discuss sustainability challenges. His work helps organizations, governments, and the public understand and respond to the climate and ecological crises of the Anthropocene. His latest book is entitled A climate ofTruth: How we need it and how to get it and this will be the topic of our discussion today.Hosted by Barry Daniel
Molly is a social historian and visiting research fellow at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. She has a PhD from the University of Bristol and has spent the last 10 years researching the social history of death and mourning. She’s also a bereavement counsellor and has had recently published the book ‘No Ordinary Deaths: A People’s History of Mortality and this will be the topic of our discussion today.www.middlewaysociety.org
Our guest today is Oliver Burkeman. Oliver is a British journalist and author renowned for his insightful exploration of psychology and philosophy. He wrote the popular Guardian column "This Column Will Change Your Life" and is the bestselling author of "Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals." His latest book, "Meditations forMortals," offers a practical philosophy of imperfectionism, encouraging readers to embrace life's limits and focus on what actually matters. An approach very much in accordance with the Middle Way and this is going to be the topic of our discussion today.
Our guest today is Jamie Bristow, who is a writer and policy expert working at the intersection of inner and outer transformation and sustainability.For eight years, he was Director of the Mindfulness Initiative and clerk to the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness. In 2023, he joined the Inner Development Goals team to lead on public narrative & policy development.He’s here to talk to us today about a Middle Way approach to the climate crisis
Our guest today is Chris Rose. Chris is the Director of Amos Trust, a small creative human rights organisation which has three main areas of work: promoting Palestinian rights, creating opportunities for girls and young women on the streets and calling for climate justice. Chris has travelled extensively to Amos partner projects and led many trips and activities with them, such as home rebuilding, cycling and marathons trips in Palestine. He cofounded the Street Child World Cup in South Africa in 2010 and led Amos’ Just Walk from London to Jerusalem in 2017. Prior to this he was CEO of Romsey Mill a highly innovative youth project in Cambridge. He is an ordained Anglican Minister and he’s here to talk to us today about the Amos project.
Our guest today is Rupert Read, an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, former spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion and co-director of the new Climate Majority Project. He’s authored several books, including This Civilisation is Finished, Parents for a Future and Why Climate Breakdown Matters and has been many times on the Today programme, Question Time, Newsnight, Politics Live, Al Jazeera, and more and he’s here to talk to us today about the Climate Majority Project.
My guest today is George Glen. George is the new chair of the Middle Way Society, after taking over the role last year from the society’s founder Robert M Ellis. He’s going to talk to us today a little bit about his life and interests, how he became interested in Middle Way philosophy, as well as a range of topics from Yoga and meditation, to art and the joy of play, ways of seeing and value and navigating our lives.
Our guest today is Robert M Ellis, who is the chair of the Middle Way Society. For anyone unfamiliar with the society’s aims, it is devoted to developing the theory and practice of the Middle Way beyond the limitations of the Buddhist tradition. From this universal perspective, the Middle Way is understood as a principle of judgement that throws us onto experience by avoiding absolutes, both positive and negative . Robert has a PhD in Philosophy which formed the starting point of his work in developing Middle Way thought as an innovative practical philosophy drawing on various aspects of modern thought. He has produced a series of books on the subject including the Buddha’s Middle Way and the Christian Middle Way and he’s talk to us today about the Middle Way Philosophy series of books that he’s working on.
Sukhema (aka Larry Butler) is a poet and a publisher who teaches tai-chi in healthcare settings, leads therapeutic writing groups for Lapidus Scotland, and has helped establish Towards Transition Glasgow. He completed a facilitator training in the Work That Reconnects (WTR) with Maitrisara, Chris Johnstone and others in England. He co-led a WTR facilitator training course in Scotland with Jenny Mackewn. Larry has 30 years experience facilitating groups and he’s here to talk to us today about the Art of Doing Nothing.
Our guest today is Margaret Wheatley. Margaret, or Meg has worked globally in various roles since 1966, such as a speaker, teacher, community worker, consultant, advisor, and formal leader. She believes that leaders must evoke people’s generosity, creativity, and community in a world that she feels is tearing us apart. A deep understanding of Systems Theory underpins her work and she has written nine books, including the Leadership and the New Science, her recent The Warrior’s Songline as well as the recently updated ‘Who do We choose to be’ Facing reality / Claiming Leadership / Restoring Sanity, the topic of our discussion today, which for me is an inspirational book on not only how to be a sane and compassionate leader in times of crisis and likely collapse but also for anyone who would like to embrace a more pragmatic version of hope that is based on action, courage, presence and responsibility rather than wishful thinking.
Our guest today is Dan Nixon. He’s a writer and researcher specialising in themes around attention, environmental philosophy and digital culture. A particular area of interest and expertise is the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty and he’s also a mindfulness teacher. He’s written a couple of essays for Aeon and his ideas have been picked up and discussed in the Sunday Times, The Economist and the Guardian among others. He co-lead Perspectiva’s work on the Digital Ego. He’s going to talk to us today about cultivating a spirit of questioning in relation to our digital lives.
Our guest today is Andy West, a senior specialist and training officer at the Philosophy Foundation. He has written for the Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and Lino amongst others. For the past several years he has taught philosophy in prisons and he’s here today to talk to us about his first book ‘The Life Inside: A memoir of prison, family and philosophy
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
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