Contemplify
The Contemplify podcast kindles the examined life for contemplatives in the world. Through artful musings & conversations with scholars, creatives, and master teachers each episode delivers a subtly intoxicating* exchange on the contemplative lifestyle with practical takeaways to emulate in daily life.
Host, Paul Swanson, is a husband, father and contemplative educator at the Center for Action and Contemplation and co-host of Another Name for Every Thing with Richard Rohr**.
*Contemplify is best served with a pint in hand. Please listen responsibly.
** All shenanigans, tom foolery and bally-hoo posted on Contemplify are my own. Contemplify is not representative of the Center for Action and Contemplation or Richard Rohr on any matter.
- Update frequency
- every 16 days
- Average duration
- 46 minutes
- Episodes
- 175
- Years Active
- 2016 - 2025
James Finley on the Healing Path
I was overly giddy, strangely nervous, but above all grateful to be in conversation with James Finley about his breathtaking new book, The Healing Path: A Memoir and an Invitation. Each page is a tho…
It's Not About the Beer, It's About the Beer
A musing inspired by Shawn Askinosie's story about Belgium beer brewing monks and the parables of Jesus from Feb 2023
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Prairie Eye & Woods Eye
A musing on Bill Holm's "Horizontal Grandeur" pulled from his book of essays, The Music of Failure.
Sitting on the Present Moment
A musing on the present moment of awareness that holds everything.
Engaged Contemplation in a Heartbreaking World with Fr. Adam Bucko
Father Adam Bucko has been a committed voice in the movement for the renewal of Christian Contemplative Spirituality and the growing New Monastic movement. He has taught engaged contemplative spiritu…
Heathen
Musing from November 9th, 2022 inspired by by reading Chris Dombrowski's The River You Touch
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Vitality Out of Emptiness with Fr. David Denny
Fr. David Denny is a lifelong seeker whose commitment to the unfolding mystery of life has brought him to explore the deserts of place and soul. In 1975 Fr Dave entered the Spiritual Life Institute…
The River You Touch with Chris Dombrowski
I have been waiting years to have this conversation with author, poet, and fly-fishing guide Chris Dombrowski. There is a kinship I feel with Chris's lens on life. He is a top-shelf writer to boot.
Inarticulate as Watercolors, Brazen as Graffiti
Musing from September 16, 2022
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Nine Poems from Coffin Honey by Todd Davis
I asked Todd Davis if he could read some of his poems from his latest collection called Coffin Honey. And he generously said yes. Take a beath, find a comfortable seat, preferably out of doors and le…
A Revelatory Elegy of Unknowing with Todd Davis (author of Coffin Honey)
The poems of Todd Davis sharpen a reader’s spirit and focus, on the bloodstained teeth breaking apart the day-to-day doldrums and on the mythic imagination necessary to bear witness to this daunting …
Contemplative Gleanings from the Hermits of Big Sur with Paula Huston
Paula Huston has written a book, The Hermits of the Big Sur, that charts the history of the New Camaldoli Hermitage. A history born amidst Vatican II and World War II with even deeper contemplatives …
Bill Porter (Red Pine) on Zen and Taoist Masters, Mountain Hermits, & the Life of a Translator
(My audio starts shaky, but gets better after 8 minutes) Bill Porter, aka Red Pine, calls the hermit life, "graduate school for the spiritually inclined." Bill Porter is a translator of Buddhist and…
Here There Are Woods, Foxes (Season 3 Trailer)
The hermit life is cool. That is the stone that skips across this season of Contemplify. The urging, the calling, to retreat from the hustle of the red dirt economy. To wash your face with cold water…
Solitude at the Center of All Beauty with Fenton Johnson
Fenton Johnson is the author of At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life. His book Geography of the Heart: A Memoir received the American Library Association and Lambda Literary …
The Harmonic Resonance Found in Unknowing with Brie Stoner
A Wild Mystical Woman of the Desert with Amy Frykholm
Amy Frykholm is a writer, scholar, and journalist. Long time listener’s will recognize Amy as the second guest ever on Contemplify when we spoke about her book on Julian of Norwich. For those new to …
Enlivening the First Christmas with Stephen Mitchell
Stephen Mitchell is a translator, author, and poet. I was first introduced to his work through his translation of the Tao Te Ching. Stephen was educated at Amherst, the Sorbonne, and Yale, and de-edu…
Backporch Advent Outpost with Chris Dombrowski (#2)
Blessed Darkness and Blessed Light, this Advent season. Here we are again, In the midst of Season Two of Contemplify and I am sliding in another bonus episode part of the 2nd annual Backporch Advent …