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Every Sunday at 3:00amAbout the Show
Inspired
Inspired is the nation's leading public radio show about faith, ethics and spirituality. Each week we offer you analyses of the big headlines alongside lesser-told stories – those of Orthodox Jewish artists and African-American atheists, Muslim feminists and spiritual seekers. Through these stories, a rough sketch of our country’s religious landscape begins to emerge. It’s a marketplace of beliefs and ideas too complex for sound bites, and too important to ignore.
The Zen Thing
Koshin Paley Ellison is one of a small but growing number of chaplains in the United States who are Buddhists. In fact, Koshin is a Zen Buddhist monk. He works in hospice, and his goal is to take “the Zen thing” out into the world…and then change the very nature of caregiving itself. Koshin Paley Ellison is co-founder of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care and editor of Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End of Life Care. Produced by Will Coley and KalaLea. Music by LD Brown.
Mindfulness in Medicine
We speak to a palliative care physician and a Buddhist chaplain about contemplative care– a mindful approach to the patient-caregiver relationship that could even be an antidote to empathy fatigue and doctor burnout. Craig Blinderman is an associate professor, director of Adult Palliative Care Service at Columbia University Medical Center. Tim Ford is fellow at the Transforming Chaplaincy project. This series is supported by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education.
The House of Mourning
Kate Braestrup is an unusual chaplain. She ministers to game wardens- people who come to the aid of hunters, fishermen, and hikers who’ve had mishaps in the wilderness. In this story, Braestrup tells the story of a young girl’s unusual request, and how it lead her to believe that the bereaved should be trusted to see the body of their loved one. Kate Braestrup is chaplain to the Maine Warden Service and author of Anchor and Flares. This story first aired on The Moth and is included in a new book by The Moth called All These Wonders: True Stories About Facing the Unknown.
Two Poems by Koshin
We asked Koshin Paley Ellison to read a couple poems that have taken on special meaning for him in his work as a hospice chaplain. He shares with us “The Gate” and “The Last Time” by Marie Howe.
