Retreat from the Day-to-Day Life

Photo illustration by Angelo Bautista. Original images by Max, Jarl Schmidt, Marek Piwnicki (CC0)

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Original Air Date: 
January 18, 2025

Sometimes the world is just too much. Too much awful news, too many things to worry about, too much to do. When you can’t take another headline, can’t handle another email, when you know inside you need something deeper than a vacation—maybe it’s time for a retreat.

Pico Iyer’s second home

Audio

After losing his California home to a wildfire, writer Pico Iyer went on retreat to a hermitage in Big Sur. He’s since made more than 100 retreats to the monastery. He tells us how retreats brought him out of his mind and ‘into his senses.’

Length: 
30:13

A plant scientist explores her interior wilderness

The silhouette of a man standing in the mouth of a cave and looking up at the stars.
Audio

Plant scientist Monica Gagliano did a series of groundbreaking experiments that suggest plants have intelligence. But she hasn’t talked—until now—about the leap of faith she took when a plant told her to go on a darkness retreat—for 39 days.

Length: 
18:58
Show Details 📻
Airdates
January 18, 2025
Guests: 

Pico Iyer

Writer and Author
picoiyerjourneys.com
MONICA GAGLIANO

Monica Gagliano

Evolutionary Ecologist and Research Scientist
monicagagliano.com
Categories: 
Culture
Religion and Philosophy
Full Transcript 📄

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Last modified: 
January 17, 2025