It has ever and always been true, David Whyte reminds us, that so much of human experience is a conversation between loss and celebration. This conversational nature of reality — indeed, this drama of vitality — is something we have all been shown, willing or unwilling, in these years. Many have turned to David Whyte for his gorgeous, life-giving poetry and his wisdom at the interplay of theology, psychology, and leadership — his insistence on the power of a beautiful question and of everyday words amidst the drama of work as well as the drama of life. The notion of “frontier” — inner frontiers, outer frontiers — weaves through this hour. We surface this as a companion for the frontiers we are all on just by virtue of being alive in this time.
David Whyte is the author of many books of poetry and prose. He grew up with a strong, imaginative influence from his Irish mother among the hills and valleys of his father’s Yorkshire. He now makes his home in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. He holds a degree in Marine Zoology and has worked as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands. His books include The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, and The Bell and the Blackbird. His latest collections are David Whyte: Essentials and Still Possible.
This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough." Find the transcript for that show at onbeing.org.
This show originally aired in April, 2016.
Bessel van der Kolk – How Trauma Lodges in the Body, Revisited
[Unedited] Bessel van der Kolk with Krista Tippett
Bryan Stevenson – Finding the Courage for What's Redemptive
[Unedited] Bryan Stevenson with Krista Tippett
Pádraig Ó Tuama and Marilyn Nelson – “So let us pick up the stones over which we stumble, friends, and build altars”
[Unedited] Pádraig Ó Tuama and Marilyn Nelson with Krista Tippett
Katharine Hayhoe – "Our future is still in our hands"
[Unedited] Katharine Hayhoe with Krista Tippett
Darnell Moore and dream hampton — The Future of Hope 2
Mike Rose – The Deepest Meanings of Intelligence and Vocation
[Unedited] Mike Rose with Krista Tippett
Priya Parker — Remaking Gathering: Entering the Mess, Crossing the Thresholds
[Unedited] Priya Parker with Krista Tippett
Stephen Batchelor – Finding Ease in Aloneness
[Unedited] Stephen Batchelor with Krista Tippett
Kate Bowler and Wajahat Ali — The Future of Hope
Suzanne Simard — Forests Are Wired For Wisdom
[Unedited] Suzanne Simard with Krista Tippett
Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn – Truth, Beauty, Banjo
[Unedited] Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn with Krista Tippett
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney
Selected Shorts
This American Life
The Frank Skinner Show
Judge John Hodgman