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Calm World: Introduction to Meditation

By: Alice Fraser, Ash Ranpura
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  • Summary

  • Meditation is everywhere: your mobile phone, clothing stores and even in colouring books. But where does it come from and what even is it? With the help of neuroscientist Ash Ranpura, comedian Alice Fraser explores the science, history and culture behind meditation. On the way we will meet the tiny part of the brain that triggers most of our fear and anxiety, the NBA coach who taught Michael Jordan how to meditate, and the writer who says the best way to cope with our polarised politics is to practice mindfulness.

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Episodes
  • Ep. 1: Why is Everyone Meditating?
    Nov 9 2018

    Alice Fraser starts this series by telling a story about how the world is speeding up. How did we get to a place where everything is so fast all the time? A place where we have no time to slow down. She chats to Robert Colville, an author who has written about the history of speeding up.

    Ash talks to Brigid Schulte. She wrote a book called Overwhelmed: How To Love Work And Play When No One Has The Time. She says technology and time management are taking over our lives and making us more and more distracted. And that is actually changing our brains. The episode will end with the author and journalist Robert Wright talking about the idea of the red pill in the Matrix. He tells Alice we have deluded ourselves for too long but there is a way out: meditation.

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    19 mins
  • Ep. 2: The Pause
    Nov 9 2018

    Alice tells Ash her own story of growing up in a Buddhist family. She says meditation allowed her to consider her emotions more but she doesn’t know why. What is it about that helps us deal with our emotions?

    To answer Ash goes back to Robert Wright who explains why we are so emotional in the first place. He says the main problem is we are not in as much control of our minds as we think. That’s because of evolution. But according to the neuroscientist Sara Lazar it’s also because of something else - this tiny part of our brains that controls our emotional response called the amygdala. Sara explains that meditation provides a pause between experiencing something and reacting this. This insight chimes with Alice’s experience of meditating.

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    24 mins
  • Ep. 3: How Does Meditation Change the Brain?
    Nov 9 2018

    Alice travels to Cambridge. She understands the experience of meditation but now she wants to know whether it actually changes the brain in any fundamental way. She has her brain imaged by the scientist Barbara Jachs, who is trying to work out the relationship between meditation and brain activity. This is now a mainstream area of science but it wasn’t always that way.

    Ash chats to Daniel Goleman who wrote the book The Science of Meditation. It turns out Dan was one of the first researchers to start studying this idea that meditation can change the brain. The idea was radical back then but a certain scientific theory changed everything: neuroplasticity. This theory has helped scientists realise meditation strengthens brain circuits like doing reps in the gym strengthens your muscles. Ash also talks to Sara Lazar about a pioneering study she did that shows meditation can make fundamental changes to the brain after just 8 weeks of practice.

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    24 mins

What listeners say about Calm World: Introduction to Meditation

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How to be less of an a***hole

Loved it!!! Will be recommending this to all my friends who think they can't meditate because their minds are too busy.

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Interesting listen

Enjoyed listening to the history behind meditation. I was a bit disappointed that the science behind it wasn't explained more fully.

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A 5alk about meditation

I loved it. Very informative. They covered every question I could have on meditation. Thank you.

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great

really enjoyed this podcast, they explained mediation well because it's not about not thinking, but about practicing refocusing

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annoying chuckle.

I like the subject on meditation. what I really don't like about this audio book is the constant stupid comments from Alice. And her chuckling is annoying when you just want to listen.

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Excellent overview

loved it, engaging delivery 10 out of 10 would recommend to people considering meditation keep u the great work with more like this please Amazon originals!

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Brilliant.

There was nothing in this I didn't like, o informative and interesting. I've very much struggled with meditation, thinking I should be doing it, and when I do I'm not doing it right. But this has completely changed my perception of why meditation is helpful and what doing it right really means. Thank you to everyone involved especially the hosts, Ash ranpura and Alice fraser, so worthwhile to listen to, especially for anyone sceptical to.

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Very interesting, makes you want to give it a try

An educating and practical look at meditation. Whistles through different aspects and viewpoints. I particularly liked the scientific part covering neuroplasticity and Dan Harris' experience getting into it. The two presenters, Alice and Ash, have good banter making it an easy listen. Almost everyone will benefit from taking up some form of meditation. Give it a go.

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fantastic Introduction

O really loved It,they interviewed plenty of incredibly interesting people on the subject of meditation and it was fun and enjoyable

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Loved it! you guys should make more podcasts!!!

love your approach! its scientific but also fun. and you approach the topic from so many different angles and have cool interviews. amazing!!

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