Writing from Podcasts - A First Shot

I've been listening to podcasts on an almost daily basis, for over six months now. I can't begin to say how enriched I feel for the experience.

Been wanting to share the experience, (and yes, consolidate for self too).

Since I started, I've been meaning to pick my favorites and write about them. Six months. And I haven't gotten there yet.

It's over whelming. They're so beautiful, and evocative. It's a one hour conversation, and as I listen on my walk I have no notes. And therein I found excuses to procrastinate..... I need to listen again, maybe research some more, find the perfect right one to start, and so on and so forth.

Today I decided, this was it. If I didn't start, I just wouldn't. I owed it to myself to put some of those brilliant pieces here. I'm taking my first shot at it. No notes, no research, no perfect first one.... going with the one I heard today.

It's a talk called 'The Inner Landscape of Beauty' with Irish Poet, ( I have an unexplainable love for Ireland :) late John O'Donohue. A conversation that actually moved me to tears.

It's from 'On Being', one of my favorite sources. 

'On Being' is a podcast, hosted by Krista Tippett. It's been in existence for over seven years, and opens up some animated questions at the center of human life:

What does it mean to be human?  how do we want to live? ......taking up the big questions on meaning......an enquiry into the mystery and art of living

Krista avoids easy answers, embracing complexity and inviting people from varying background ranging from poets to physicists, doctors to historians, artists to activists to join her conversations.

She's had people like the Dalai Lama, Seth Godin, Daniel Kahneman, Martin Sheen, David Whyte, Sheryl Sandberg, Paulo Coelho, Thich Nhat Hanh, Brene Brown, Elizabeth Gilbert, Mary Angelou....and that list goes on. The ones I've listed are the ones I know. There are some amazing conversations with physicists and neuro scientists which are equally mind blowing.

There are days that just listening to those conversations has made me feel "wow, it's made my day"

It's not as much their thoughts or experience or expertise, as also how the thoughts get evoked, the subtlety of process, the articulation, the shifts in thinking, the nuances.........it's a whole process.

Well, that was long introduction. First one tomorrow, inshallah :)