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
Backporch Advent Outpost with Todd Davis (#1)
Blessed Darkness and Blessed Light this Advent season. Here, In the midst of Season Two of Contemplify I am sliding in a bonus episode. This is the first episode of the 2nd annual Backporch Advent Ou…
The Monastic Heart & Prophetic Imagination with Sr. Joan Chittister
Sister Joan Chittister is a member of the Benedictine Sisters, played a huge hand in developing the Charter of Compassion, was president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious., director of …
Slow Yourself to be Awed with J. Drew Lanham
J. Drew Lanham is an Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology, Master Teacher, and Certified Wildlife Biologist at Clemson University . He's the author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Color…
Gary Nabhan (aka Brother Coyote) on Wisdom Gleaned from Fishers & Farmers
Gary Nabhan (aka Brother Coyote) is an Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, a first generation Lebanese-American, seed saver, agro-ecologist, ethnobotanist, agrarian activist, and author. A former MacArthu…
Season Two Trailer
On the cusp of season 2, I was ruminating on how I might introduce the tonality of this series of conversations. The September musing jumped to mind.
In this musing, I reflected one some words to liv…
Your Work Should Be the Praise of What You Love (September Musing)
September 2021 Musing on Ralph Waldo Emerson's philosophy of life. Season 2 of Contemplify is getting warmed up on the stove. I'll let you know when it is ready to be served.
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Like People or Dogs
This marks the 100th episode of Contemplify. We celebrate the triple digit with a musing and an announcement.
Charlie Chaplin in the Gears of Modern Times
A contemplative musing on machines, lifeblood, and facing the facts of life.
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Scott Ballew on Talking to Mountains & the Sublimity of Sad Songs
Scott Ballew is songwriter from Austin, Texas. He earns his keep as the Head of Films and Commercials at YETI, producing and directing films that inspire a life well-lived. During the pandemic, Scott…
Tending to the Spiritual Interior of Language with Lia Purpura
There is so much I can say about the poet and essayist Leah Purpura. I’ll give this brief introduction, Lia was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the writer in residence at the U…
Deadstock in the Storm with Jeffrey Foucault
Jeffrey Foucault is a top shelf songwriter. Foucault has a slew of albums worth your collection and his latest album, Deadstock, should be the first one you pick up. Deadstock has been a real good fr…
Being is Action with Andrew Krivak
Andrew Krivak is the author of three novels: The Signal Flame (2017), a Chautauqua Prize finalist, and The Sojourn (2011), a National Book Award finalist and winner of both the Chautauqua Prize and t…
Immersion Journalist of the Soul with Fred Bahnson
Fred Bahnson is an immersion journalist of the soul and one of my favorite public contemplative intellectuals. If you’ve been hanging out around Contemplify, you have likely heard his name or seen li…
Answering the Monk Within with Beverly Lanzetta
Beverly Lanzetta is a profound teacher who invites her readers and students to engage in the fullness of Mystery each day through the cultivation of practice and rhythm. I was elated to get my mitts …
Advent Outpost from the Backporch (#3)
I’m closing this Advent Series out with some poetic gifts. A few friends are stopping by to raise a glass and offer a poem or prayer, though I am unsure of the difference anymore. In this final Adven…
Advent Outpost from the Backporch (#2)
I’ve asked some friends to swing by and offer a few words. In this second Advent outpost, we move throuogh the course of a day, from dawn to dusk. one of my favorite poets, Chris Dombrowski, kicks us…
Advent Outpost from the Backporch (#1)
My wife and I started an Advent neighborhood get together last year; soup, wine, bread, cheese, poetry, stories, hymns, and children bellowing. A eucharist of sorts, but more with an ancient turn to …
Apprentice to the Slow Immediacy of Daily Life with Douglas E. Christie
It took me months to read Douglas E. Christie’s book Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology. I found it a joy to read slowly, soaking in the poetics married with scholarship on …
Everybody Now: Climate Emergency and Sacred Duty
Today’s episode is first. It is one voice among many podcasters from around the globe releasing the same episode, a collective call for awareness, grief, and loving action in our climate emergency an…
Moth & Mother / New Foundations
Ruminations on divine union and the contemplative uprisings available in each moment.
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