What We’re Listening To

PODCAST EPISODE

Women & the Body in Buddhism (with Amy Langenberg)

The podcast host and history of medicine scholar C. Pierce Salguero and the South Asian Buddhism scholar Amy Langenberg discuss Buddhist views on women and the body and the pushback feminist scholars face when bringing issues of gender, sex, and abuse to light. They move beyond patriarchy and reveal ways women monastics wielded agency in shaping understandings of their bodies. This insightful conversation will enlighten the expert and nonexpert alike. 

MUSIC

Buddha Sadar Bandana by Devika Bandana

Award-winning Nepalese solo and playback singer Devika Bandana went viral with this catchy number. A sacred homage to the Buddha and his mother, Bandana’s song quickly exceeded one million YouTube views. A visual wonder, the video takes the viewer on a journey through sacred sites and traditions of the Asian Buddhist landscape. If you’re a fan of over-the-top Bollywood productions or want an energetic chant to listen to while cleaning around the house, pop on Bandana’s video for some Buddhist beats. 

PODCAST EPISODE

May We Gather by Jeff Wilson

This thirty-eight-minute podcast episode from Jeff Wilson, a professor at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, examines the beginnings of the May We Gather project of collaborative healing for Asian American Buddhists through conversations with its organizers, Duncan Ryūken Williams, Funie Hsu, and Chenxing Han. May We Gather was organized in just forty-nine days following the March 2021 Atlanta spa shootings in which six of the eight victims were Asian women. 

TED TALK

Do we see reality as it is? by Donald Hoffman

The popular American cognitive psychologist and professor at the University of California, Irvine, Dr. Donald Hoffman has spent his career exploring human consciousness and how our perceptions create our reality. Practitioners interested in how consciousness works will appreciate this accessible discussion, which comes to conclusions strikingly similar to the “mind-only” school of the Buddhist Yogacara. Hoffman argues that it isn’t possible to see the world “as it is”; in fact, we’ve evolved perceptions to hide that fact.