Bob McDonald, Canadian icon and host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks, discusses his book, Just Say Yes: A Memoir.

Bob McDonald has been the host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks since 1992. He is a regular science commentator on CBC News Network and science correspondent for CBC TV’s The National. He has been honoured with the 2001 Michael Smith Award for science promotion from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, as well as the 2002 Sandford Fleming Medal from the Royal Canadian Institute for Science, and the 2005 McNeil Medal for the public awareness of science from the Royal Society of Canada. In November 2011, McDonald was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He is the recipient of thirteen honorary doctorates . In 2014, asteroid 332324 was officially named bobmcdonald.

Paulina Stevens & Jezmina Von Thiele, cohosts of the Romanistan podcast, join Banyen for a discussion of their book, Secrets of Romani Fortune-Telling: Divining with Tarot, Palmistry, Tea Leaves, and More.

Jezmina Von Thiele (they/she) is a writer, educator, performer, and fortune-teller in their mixed Sinti Romani tradition. Their work has been published in Prairie Schooner, The Kenyon Review Online, and Narrative Magazine under the name Jessica Reidy. Jezmina reads tarot, palms, and tea leaves online and at Deadwicks Ethereal Emporium in Portsmouth, NH. They also teach classes on divination, spiritual wellness, and the creative arts, and perform poetry with The Poetry Brothel in Boston. Jezmina cohosts Romanistan, a podcast celebrating Romani culture, and runs the Etsy shop Evil Eye Edit. They are based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Paulina Stevens grew up in an insular Romani-American family, destined to leave school, marry young, and become a fortune-teller. By age seventeen, her fate was sealed—until she decided to leave it all behind. Paulina is the subject of the podcast Foretold. Hosted by Los Angeles Times reporter Faith Pinho, the podcast follows Paulina as she navigates the consequences of her decision to leave her community and redefine her identity. The cohost of Romanistan, a podcast celebrating Romani culture, Paulina is based in Los Angeles.

Martín Prechtel joins Banyen Books for a rare audio interview (part 4 of 4) on his book, The Canyon Wren.

Martín Prechtel is widely recognized as a profound and beloved teacher for our times. Raised in the Tzutujil Maya shamanic tradition, he has dedicated his life to the preservation and promulgation of indigenous spirituality. Sharing his deep shamanic wisdom within a grand overview of human history, Prechtel shows us how we can reconnect with the unique and unsuspected manifestations of our own sacred selves. He is the author of several contemporary classics, including The Smell of Rain on Dust and Secrets of the Talking Jaguar. His work has been highly praised by the likes of Clarissa Pinkola Éstes, Coleman Barks, and Mary Oliver.

Banyen Books speaks with Red Hawk on his new collection of poetry, Book of Lamentations. Red Hawk shares profound insights into his spiritual journey, the role of poetry as a vehicle for expression, and reflections on authentic spiritual leadership. He delves into the impact of technology on human connection and discusses the importance of nature and humility.

Nedra Glover Tawwab, New York Times bestselling author of Set Boundaries, Find Peace and Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships, joins Banyen Books for an engaging discussion on her book, Consider This: Reflections for Finding Peace.

Nedra Glover Tawwab, MSW, LCSW, is the author of New York Times bestsellers Drama Free and Set Boundaries, Find Peace. A licensed therapist and sought-after relationship expert, Nedra has appeared on Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, The Breakfast Club, and many other media outlets, and her work has been highlighted in The New York Times, The Guardian, and Vice. She hosts the podcast You Need to Hear This, and shares practices and reflections for mental health on her popular Instagram account. Nedra currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her family.

Gary Gach and Ari Honarvar, authors of Hafiz's Little Book of Life and A Girl Called Rumi, share the wisdom and poetry of Rumi and Hafiz.

Gary Gach is an author, translator, editor, and Zen teacher. His work has appeared in such publications as The Atlantic, The New Yorker and Yoga Journal, and has been translated into many languages. Lay ordained in the lineage of Thich Nhat Hanh, he teaches Zen Buddhism at the University of San Francisco and hosts the Zen Mindfulness Fellowship. Gach is the author of acclaimed titles such as The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buddhism (Nautilus Award) and editor of What Book!? Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop (American Book Award).

Ari Honarvar is the founder of Rumi with a View, dedicated to building music and poetry bridges across war-torn borders. As a Musical Ambassador of Peace, she hosts weekly dance sessions with refugees and asylum seekers on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Her words have appeared in The Guardian, Teen Vogue, Vice, Washington Post, Newsweek, and elsewhere. She is the author of Rumi's Gift and A Girl Called Rumi.

Christopher Germer, PhD, and Kristin Neff, PhD, join Banyen in conversation about their powerful book, Mindful Self-Compassion for Burnout: Tools to Help You Heal and Recharge When You're Wrung Out by Stress.

Kristin Neff, PhD, is Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and a pioneer in the field of self-compassion research. She has been recognized as one of the most influential researchers in psychology worldwide. Her books with Christopher Germer include The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook, Mindful Self-Compassion for Burnout and Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program. Dr. Neff is also the author of Self-Compassion and Fierce Self-Compassion. Along with Christopher Germer, Dr. Neff developed the empirically supported Mindful Self-Compassion program and founded the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion.

Christopher Germer, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and Lecturer on Psychiatry (part-time) at Harvard Medical School. His books with Kristin Neff include The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook and Mindful Self-Compassion for Burnout (for the general public) and Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program (for professionals). Dr. Germer is also author of The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion and coeditor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy and Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy. He lectures and leads workshops internationally, and has a small psychotherapy practice in Massachusetts.

Anne Michaels, bestselling award-winning author of Fugitive Pieces and The Winter Vault, speaks on her mysterious and breathtaking new novel, Held.

Anne Michaels is a world-renowned novelist and poet. Her books are translated into more than fifty languages and have won dozens of international awards, including the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, and the Lannan Award for Fiction. Among many other honours she is a Guggenheim Fellow, has received honorary degrees, and has served as Toronto’s Poet Laureate. Her novel Fugitive Pieces was adapted as a feature film. Her most recent books include All We Saw, Infinite Gradation, and Railtracks (co-written with John Berger). In 2020, her novel Fugitive Pieces was chosen as one of the BBC’s 100 Novels that Shaped the World.

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau joins Banyen Books for an discussion on her book, Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other.

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau is a mental health advocate, public speaker, and mentor. Over the past twenty years, she has been an ambassador and champion for youth self-esteem, gender equality, emotional literacy, and physical activity. Sophie has received UN recognition awards for her humanitarian work and was named the first National Volunteer for the Canadian Mental Health Association in 2022. She also serves as Youth Leadership Global Ambassador for Plan International Canada. A mother of three, Sophie is a certified yoga instructor and an adventurous outdoor sportswoman.

Donna Eden and David Feinstein, PhD, co-authors of the New York Times bestseller Energy Medicine, join Banyen Books for a discussion on Tapping: Self-Healing with the Transformative Power of Energy Psychology.

Donna Eden is the author of Energy Medicine. One of the world's most sought after experts on Energy Medicine, she has treated over 10,000 individual clients and has taught hundreds of classes to standing-room-only audiences worldwide. Able from childhood to perceive the body's subtle energies, she works with those energies to heal others and to teach others how to work with them.

David Feinstein, PhD, a clinical psychologist, has served on the faculty of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and has received nine national awards for his books on consciousness and healing.

Popular motivational speaker and entertainer David Roche discusses his book, Standing at the Back Door of Happiness: And How I Unlocked It, exploring the beauty found in unusual places with elegant humour and compassion.

David Roche was born with vascular malformation of the face, which he sees as an “incredible gift” that has forced him to look inside for beauty and self-worth. It has also helped him to see the beauty in others, despite their flaws, allowing him to live in a world of beautiful people. With a refreshingly good-natured outlook, Roche muses on disability, activism, religion and family.

V (formerly Eve Ensler), Tony Award-winning, bestselling author of The Vagina Monologues, and Naomi Klein, award-winning journalist and international bestselling author, discuss V's new book, Reckoning.

V (formerly Eve Ensler) is a Tony Award–winning playwright, author, performer, and activist. Her international phenomenon The Vagina Monologues has been published in 48 languages and performed in more than 140 countries. She is the author of The Apology (now a play set to debut in 2022), the New York Times bestseller I Am an Emotional Creature, the highly praised In the Body of the World, and many more. She is the founder of V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, and One Billion Rising, the largest global mass action to end gender-based violence in over 200 countries. She is a co-founder of the City of Joy, a revolutionary center for women survivors of violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, along with Christine Schuler Deschryver and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Denis Mukwege. She is one of Newsweek’s “150 Women Who Changed the World” and the Guardian’s “100 Most Influential Women.” She lives in New York.

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist and international and New York Times bestselling author of Doppelganger, How To Change Everything, On Fire, No Is Not Enough, This Changes Everything, The Shock Doctrine and No Logo. Naomi Klein is a columnist with The Guardian. She is one of the 100 People Who Are Changing America in Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker has described her as “the most visible and influential figure on the American left.” In 2018 she was named the inaugural Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair at Rutgers University, and is now Honorary Professor of Media and Climate at Rutgers. In September 2021 she joined the University of British Columbia as Professor of Climate Justice (tenured) and co-director of the Centre for Climate Justice.

Sandra Ingerman, renowned teacher of shamanism and author of Soul Retrieval, speaks on Walking through Darkness: A Nature-Based Path to Navigating Suffering and Loss.

Sandra Ingerman, MA, is an award-winning author of twelve books, including Soul Retrieval, Medicine for the Earth, Walking in Light, and The Book of Ceremony. She is the presenter of eight audio programs produced by Sounds True. For 40 years Sandra has been a world-renowned teacher of shamanism teaching workshops internationally on shamanism and reversing environmental pollution using spiritual methods. Sandra is devoted to teaching people to work together as a global community to manifest positive change. She is passionate about helping people to reconnect with nature. Since the 1980s thousands of people have healed from past and present traumas through the cross-cultural shamanic healing method called Soul Retrieval. Watkins Body Mind Spirit Magazine named Sandra one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential People in 2020. Sandra is a licensed marriage and family therapist and professional mental health counselor and a board-certified expert on traumatic stress.

Yogacharini Maitreyi explores nuances around the importance of reclaiming Tantra - India’s science of liberation. Maitreyi also shares some personal stories about how she has applied Tantric principles in her own life.

Yogacharini Maitreyi was born in India which was colonized by the British during her grandfather’s time. For over 200 years Yoga, Ayurveda, Indian martial arts, and other arts were banned by colonial rule just like bagpipes were banned in Scotland after the uprising of 1745 and drumming was banned amongst African slaves. The school she runs, Arkaya Foundation, is dedicated to reviving the deeper dimensions of these arts and sciences which have been watered down by mainstream appropriation. Maitreyi has been sharing the depth of Yoga and Tantra for over 26 years. When she settled in Vancouver over 6 years ago she connected with the First Nations community and elders to create more awareness about their Indigenous lifestyle, values and healing.

Conspirituality podcast co-host Matthew Remski joins Banyen for a conversation on his book, Surviving Modern Yoga: Cult Dynamics, Charismatic Leaders, and What Survivors Can Teach Us.

Matthew Remski is an author, freelance journalist, and co-host of Conspirituality podcast, with bylines in The Walrus, GEN by Medium, The Boston Globe, and The Globe and Mail. He’s published nine books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, including threads of yoga: a remix of patanjali’s sutras with commentary and reverie. His book Practice and All is Coming: Abuse, Cult Dynamics, and Healing in Yoga and Beyond has earned international praise as a groundbreaking resource for critical thinking and community health. In 2023 he co-authored Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat.

Two wisdom keepers have an illuminating conversation on the realities of colonization. Colonization has had an impact over many generations around the world. This conversation explores the challenges and solutions for decolonizing our own hearts, minds and bodies.

Aaju Peter is a renowned Inuit lawyer and activist who has spent her life fighting for Inuit rights in Canada, Greenland and Denmark. “I was born in Greenland and colonized by the Danes, and then I moved to the Canadian Arctic, then being colonized by Southern Canada. So our history has been written by outsiders and visitors.” She says, “I realized that I had been colonized twice, and that is done. Now I am in the process of decolonizing twice. So the next journey is about how I go back to my values, beliefs, and way of being in this world. I’m in the process of that right now, which is very exciting.” Yogacharini Maitreyi was born in India which was colonized by the British during her grandfather’s time. For over 200 years Yoga, Ayurveda, Indian martial arts, and other arts were banned by colonial rule just like bagpipes were banned in Scotland after the uprising of 1745 and drumming was banned amongst African slaves. The school she runs, Arkaya Foundation, is dedicated to reviving the deeper dimensions of these arts and sciences which have been watered down by mainstream appropriation. Maitreyi has been sharing the depth of Yoga and Tantra for over 26 years. When she settled in Vancouver over 6 years ago she connected with the First Nations community and elders to create more awareness about their Indigenous lifestyle, values and healing.

Peter Levine, bestselling author of Waking the Tiger, shares insights and stories from his new book, An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey.

Peter A. Levine, PhD, is the renowned developer of Somatic Experiencing®. He holds a doctorate in Medical and Biological Physics from the University of California at Berkeley and a doctorate in Psychology from International University. The recipient of four lifetime achievement awards, he is the author of several books, including Waking the Tiger, which has now been printed in 33 countries and has sold over a million copies.

Thais Gibson, PhD, shares insights and tools to heal and transform our relationships. Thais Gibson's work has touched the lives of millions. Her work helps us to identify our attachment styles (Anxious, Avoidant etc.) and the core wounds connected with it. Through integrated practices, we reprogram the unconscious beliefs that keep us stuck in painful patterns to create loving, secure relationships.

Thais Gibson is a relationship expert who has been recognized by the likes of Psychology Today for her revolutionary work in integrated attachment theory. She has garnered over 38 million views across her social platforms and has helped many thousands of people to transform their lives and relationships. Thais holds a PhD and is certified in over 13 different areas of therapy, including cognitive behavioural therapy, neurolinguistic programming and transpersonal psychology. She is the founder of Gibson Integrated Attachment Theory™ and co-founder of The Personal Development School.

Judith Orloff, MD, New York Times bestselling author, shares wisdom and practices from her new book, The Genius of Empathy: Practical Skills to Heal Yourself, Your Relationships and the World.

Judith Orloff, MD, is a New York Times bestselling author with the upcoming book The Genius of Empathy: Practical Skills to Heal Yourself, Your Relationships and the World. She has also written The Empath’s Survival Guide and Thriving as an Empath, which offers daily self-care tools for sensitive people. She integrates the pearls of conventional medicine with cutting edge knowledge of intuition, empathy, energy medicine, and spirituality. Dr. Orloff specializes in treating empaths and highly sensitive people in her private practice and online internationally. Her work has been featured on The Today Show, CNN, Oprah Magazine, the New York Times and USA Today.

Gwynne Dyer, renowned historian, journalist, broadcaster, and author, joins Banyen for a discussion of his book Intervention Earth: Life-Saving Ideas from the World's Climate Engineers.

Gwynne Dyer is an internationally renowned historian, journalist, broadcaster, and author. He is a Member of the Order of Canada, and recipient of the The Southam Fellowship and Canadian Queen's Jubilee Medal. His 7-part documentary series War was nominated for an Academy Award, and his series The Human Race and Protection Force both won Gemini awards. He served in three navies and held academic appointments at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Oxford University before launching his twice-weekly column on international affairs, which is published by over 175 papers in some 45 countries. He is the author of several books including War: The Lethal Custom and Climate Wars, based on his CBC Ideas series of the same name.