Blissful Thinking Rajeev Balasubramanyam: Writer

Vimalasara (Valerie) Mason-John, an award winning author of 9 books, including her latest, I'm Still Your Negro. She is the co-founder of the Mindfulness Based Addiction Recovery MBAR and of Eight Step Recovery and one of the leading African Descent voices in mindfulness approaches to addiction.

Ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Community, she is a senior teacher in her lineage, and works as a lead facilitator and practitioner in the field of Compassionate Inquiry. www.valeriemason-john.com

My guest this week is Mita Mistry, a writer, mindfulness-based cognitive therapist, and acupuncturist. Mita is an incredibly sensitive and empathic person, and in this episode she introduces us to Taoist five elements acupuncture, along with many other subjects including narcissism, codependence, and abuse south Asian families. Her website is below, and you can also find her articles at https://muckrack.com/mita-mistry/articles. She tweets @mitamistry .

https://www.mitamistry.co.uk/

My guest this week is my friend Kevin Martin. He is a native of the Bay Area and a practitioner of vipassana and, more recently, a student in the Dharmacharya Program under the teachings of Venerable Pannavati Bhikkhuni and Venerable Pannidipa Bhikkhu.  Kevin is a Dharma Community teacher at Insight Richmond. Kevin's take on the world is always original, and he has those essential qualities for the path: curiosity, honesty, humour, warmth, and humility. 

www.insightrichmond.com

This episode features Kadija George! She's a legendary figure in the Black British literary world, writing under the name Kadija Sesay. A literary activist, poet, short-story writer and publisher of Sable LitMag, which is on hiatus but will be back. Kadija's achievements are huge. She has helped so many writers, soooo many, and has been rewarded with the Cosmopolitan Woman of Achievement and multiple other honours.

Dean Dorsett is my oldest friend! He was my comrade-in-arms during our 3 years at Oriel College, Oxford, in the news now due to the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. In this episode we try to understand Oxford's intellectual culture, its racism, and Dean describes his transition from Jehovah's Witness in Dominica to medical student at one of the most right-wing institutions in Britain. He explains how his experience as a doctor aligns with everything else he has learned about western civilisation. 

This week's episode is with my friend, the dharma teacher Thomas Davis. Thomas graduated from the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader Training Program, and after co-founding the the Insight Richmond Meditation Group, moved to Los Angeles where he now teaches at Insight LA. Thomas combines warmth, calm, and love with acute political insight and has one of the best laughs of anyone I know. I love him dearly, and I'm sure you will too.