The Dalai Lama Interview on Conflict and Mind

In 1995, it was my good fortune to be flown down to Atlanta to interview the Dalai Lama. It was in the middle of a very ambitious and (to me) fascinating multi-million dollar project I was producing at the time on conflict resolution, and the psychology of war, violence, reconciliation and peace.  This long form doc uses some clips from His Holiness, and is leavened with dramatized excerpts from his speeches on these subjects, voiced by my colleagues at the VOA’s Tibetan Service.

May these words benefit all sentient beings!


Posted in Buddhism, Long form docs (15" and up), Religion, Spirituality

The Ink Dark Moon: Buddhist Love/Sex Poetry from Courtly Japan (written by women)

This is a story about some of the most beautiful short poetry I have ever come across. Edited by the poet Jane Hirshfield (see “Given Sugar, Given Salt” elsewhere in this blog), it is a collection of short erotic haiku-like poems written by Ono No Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, who were part of the Japanese medieval court.  The themes – transience, love, loneliness, and erotic longing – are eternal, but the words come across both artful and vividly personal (not to mention steamy) across the centuries.


Posted in Arts, Buddhism, Poetry, Spirituality Tags: , , , , , , ,

The late Terence McKenna (Conversation Snippet – 2000)

The late Terence McKenna is one of the smartest and most inspiring guys I’ve ever interviewed. Ethnobotanist, psychedelic philosopher of DMT, shamanism and fundamental erotic connection between the “Deep Animal” and the “Deep Vegetative” Kingdoms. This is just a snippet from one of our many interviews. Over several years, I talked to him about space exploration, the rain forest, ecology, psychology, human evolution, ethno-botany, art, philosophy and the Eschaton. Many see him as the kind of serious man that Timothy Leary could have been if he hadn’t been so absorbed in his personal dramas with his family and the law and so addicted to playing to the media as brand.

I was allowed by VOA to make this tribute to him soon after he died of a brain tumor as a relatively young man. Very sad. Many of us really miss him.


Posted in Profile, Science, Spirituality Tags: , , , , , ,

The Meaning of Gratitude: Everyday Americans Reflect

For most Americans, the Thanksgiving feast means a traditional turkey feast with family and friends, and a moment’s pause to feel and express gratitude for the gifts life has given them, even during tough times. I took to the streets of New York to talk to people about what they are grateful for, and why.


Posted in Americana, Holidays-Season Specific, New York, Person on the Street Interviews, Spirituality Tags: , , , ,

The Mormon “Hill of Cumorah” Pageant

Every year, upwards of 700 Mormons take over the hill in upstate New York where they believe their founder, Joseph Smith, discovered the golden tablets making up the Book of Mormon. They reenact the history of the world and the history of their people on into the Future in ‘them thar hills,’ and believe me, it is both strange and impressive, even for “Gentiles” like me. Here is my sound-soaked report about it from a few years back.


Posted in Americana, Religion, Spirituality

The Pentacle and the Wand: Contemporary Witchcraft in America

The witch has come in for some pretty hard knocks in previous centuries, but lately there has been a resurgence of interest in what she has to offer both as a way of seeing, and a way of being that is female, strong, earthy, connected and wise. This is a half hour documentary that explores witchcraft in all its wholesomeness and mystery. Appearances by Z. Budapest, Starhawk, Gina Banghart, Matthew Fox, Joseph Campbell and many others. Come on in! The magick’s fine!

(Also of interest: my NPR long form documentary “The Goddess in the USA” )


Posted in Americana, History, Long form docs (15" and up), Religion, Spirituality, Women

The Romance and Poetry of Space (VOA 1995)

In which Adam explores the biological and the spiritual pull toward the great “Out There” through interviews with an astronaut, Terence McKenna, astophysicists, and many others.  Cameo appearance by his son Noah as an infant.


Posted in Americana, Arts, History, Science, Spirituality Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The Sacred Heart: An Atlas of the Body Seen Through Invasive Surgery (Book)

This is a extended, edited excerpt from my intervierw with (now Dr.)  Max Aguilera-Hellweg, who saw and photographed the strange and difficult beauty of the body as it undergoes radical surgery.  While this is a long form audio story, I hoped to give a sense of the ways the spirit, the “hotness” of fleshy life and medical skill come together in the operating room, and which were compassionately exalted in his remarkable 1997 book.


Posted in Arts, Books, Health, Long form docs (15" and up), Science, Spirituality

The Spiritual Music of Hawaii

Even given its colonial past and present day kitsch, Hawaii remains both an earthly paradise and a place of natural numinous power.  This is evident in its variety of spiritual musical idioms. Here is a taste of some of them,culled from a Smithsonian Festival a few years back.  Aloha!


Posted in Americana, Arts, History, Immigrants and Ethnic Life, Music, Religion, Spirituality

The Status of Women in Israel

Due to religion, socialism, the Zionist ideal, the militarization of the society, Western feminism, Arab culture and many other factors, Israeli women have complex competing factors that inform their self-image and their social roles.  This is a half hour documentary I did for National Public Radio back in the 1990s that is still relevant today.


Posted in History, Immigrants and Ethnic Life, Long form docs (15" and up), Religion, Spirituality, Travel outside the USA, Women
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