Banyen Books ~ Branches of Wisdom

In this episode, Judith Orloff, MD—bestselling author of The Empath’s Survival Guide—returns to explore how to recognize, celebrate, and protect children’s sensitivity while nurturing resilience and healthy boundaries. Drawing from her new children’s book, The Highly Sensitive Rabbit, Orloff shares the story of Aurora, a caring cottontail who learns to embrace her gifts as a highly sensitive being after her family is displaced by a flash flood. Designed for parents, educators, and anyone who has ever been told they are “too sensitive,” this conversation weaves together storytelling, psychology, and lived experience, as Dr. Orloff reflects on her own journey as a sensitive child and offers compassionate guidance for supporting sensitive children—and the inner child within us all.

In this episode, pioneering psychotherapist Andrew Feldmár joins Kolin Lymworth, founder of Banyen Books, for a wide-ranging conversation on the evolving role of psychedelics in psychotherapy and the central importance of human relationship in healing. Drawing from his book Radical Adventure: An Inquiry Into Psychedelic Psychotherapy, Feldmár reflects on his early initiation into LSD therapy in the 1960s and decades of clinical practice, challenging standardized protocols in favor of deep, relational engagement between therapist and patient. A Vancouver-based psychologist trained by figures such as R. D. Laing and Stan Grof, Feldmár brings a lifetime of insight into psychedelic therapy, while Lymworth offers the perspective of a community-builder whose vision has helped make Banyen Books a gathering place for wisdom, inquiry, and healing.

In this episode, world-renowned herbalist, teacher, and author Rosemary Gladstar reflects on a lifetime of relationship with the plant world through her book The Generosity of Plants: Shared Wisdom from the Community of Herb Lovers. Drawing on more than five decades of practice, Rosemary shares stories, insights, and teachings rooted in herbal healing, gardening, and wildcrafting, illuminating the generosity, intelligence, and sacred presence of plants. Often called the “godmother of American herbalism,” Gladstar is a central figure in the modern herbal movement and the author of many influential works, including Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide, offering listeners a rich, contemplative exploration of plant wisdom and community.

In this episode, New York Times bestselling author and environmental thinker Paul Hawken explores the deeper story of carbon through his latest book, Carbon: The Book of Life. Moving beyond the familiar climate narrative, Hawken reveals carbon as the elemental force that animates all living systems—plants, animals, fungi, agriculture, and human life itself—and invites a more integrated, life-affirming relationship with the natural world. Founder of Project Drawdown and Regeneration, and author of influential works including The Ecology of Commerce, Blessed Unrest, and Regeneration, Hawken brings decades of insight into how re-imagining our relationship with nature can help shape a just, resilient, and hopeful future.

In this episode, mythologist and storyteller Michael Meade reflects on the ancient sources of wisdom that continue to surface amid the polarization and rapid change of modern life. Drawing on his deep background in mythology, anthropology, and psychology, Meade weaves together timeless myths, cross-cultural ritual, and contemporary insight to illuminate the stories we are living now. Author of Awakening the Soul, The Genius Myth, Fate and Destiny, Why the World Doesn’t End, and The Water of Life, and creator of the Living Myth podcast, Meade is also the founder of the Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, where he brings mythic understanding into service of cultural healing and community renewal.

In this episode, renowned scholar Elaine Pagels explores the hidden histories behind the figure of Jesus, drawing from her groundbreaking new book Miracles and Wonder. Blending rigorous historical scholarship with vivid storytelling, Pagels examines how stories of Jesus’s miracles, resurrection, and divine birth emerged, evolved, and came to shape a world-changing movement. A longtime professor of religion at Princeton University and recipient of the National Humanities Medal, Pagels reflects on why these narratives proved so enduring and what they continue to reveal about the spiritual questions at the heart of Christianity today.

In this episode of Branches of Wisdom, guest host Tami Simon—founder and CEO of Sounds True—joins master shamanic healing practitioner Julie M. Kramer to explore the spiritual call to healing, which often arrives through dreams, illness, synchronicities, and life transitions. Julie, founding instructor of The Art and Practice of Shamanic Healingprofessional training, shares how to recognize this call and develop the skills needed to serve others, drawing on her decades of teaching and practice. Together they discuss core spiritual healing techniques Julie teaches—including soul retrieval, psychopomp work, compassionate depossession, and curse unraveling—and how spiritual healing can be thoughtfully integrated into a multidisciplinary approach to well-being.

Beloved poet and philosopher Mark Nepo joins Joel Fotinos to discuss The Fifth Season, an inspiring reflection on the gifts and challenges of aging. Now in his seventies, Nepo explores how growing older can be a time of integration, creativity, and deeper clarity—a “fifth season” when life’s true colours begin to shine. A New York Times #1 bestselling author of more than 20 books, including The Book of Awakening and Surviving Storms, and a cancer survivor interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and Robin Roberts, Nepo offers this new work as a companion for making meaning, finding grace, and sharing the journey of living and dying.

Stephen Jenkinson—author of the award-winning Die Wise and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School—presents his provocative new book, Matrimony: Ritual, Culture, and the Heart’s Work. In a time of hollow ceremonies and self-congratulatory rites, Jenkinson calls for a return to the true purpose of matrimony and ritual as communal acts of meaning. Through vivid storytelling, cultural reflection, and lived experience, he explores matrimony as a village rite—a shared acknowledgment of transformation and belonging to something older and truer than the self. A renowned teacher of grief, culture, and elderhood, Jenkinson brings decades of work in theology, social work, and cultural regeneration to this stirring exploration of the heart’s work.

Award-winning author and longtime As It Happens co-host Carol Off discusses her #1 national bestseller At a Loss for Words: Conversations in an Age of Rage, an urgent exploration of how words like democracy, freedom, and truth have been distorted and weaponized, eroding our shared political language. Drawing on decades of acclaimed reporting and over 25,000 interviews, Off shows how this loss of meaning silences dialogue, fuels division, and leaves us vulnerable to authoritarianism and greed. A celebrated journalist who has reported from war zones and political upheavals worldwide, Off is also the bestselling author of The Lion, the Fox, and the Eagle, Bitter Chocolate, The Ghosts of Medak Pocket, and All We Leave Behind—and the recipient of numerous honours including a Gemini Award, two New York Festival gold medals, ACTRA’s John Drainie Award, and the RTNDA Lifetime Achievement Award.