[ENCORE EPISODE] Jon Kabat-Zinn: Befriending Pain
Sounds True: Insights at the Edge
Tami Simon
4.6 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2025
⏱️ 68 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Current statistics tell us that 20% of the US population has some form of chronic pain, defined as severe discomfort that has continued for six months or more. That’s more than 50 million people. Jon Kabat-Zinn has received international acclaim for his leading work in bringing the life-changing practices of meditation and mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine and society. In this inspiring podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Jon about his empowering new book, Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief, and how we can greatly improve our lives (and our entire world) by reframing the way we relate to our thoughts, our minds, and the sensations of our bodies.
Listen in as they discuss the epidemic of chronic pain and the power of mindfulness to ease suffering of all kinds, the myth of the “good meditator,” the body as the starting point for practice, exploring your “emotionally freighted thoughts,” our longing to be who we really are, working with the mind and learning to inhabit a space of embodied awareness, the refuge that is meditation practice, letting go of our stories, befriending the sensory field of what we call pain, the miracle of life on Earth, the Buddha’s teaching on mindfulness as the direct path to liberation, surfing the waves of your own experience, unity within diversity and the arising of compassion, focusing on what’s right instead of what’s wrong, how we are all on a growth curve on life’s journey, and more.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Listeners of Insights At The Edge get 10% off their first month at
www.betterhelp.com/soundstrue
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In this episode of Insights at the Edge, my guest is John Kavid Zinn. |
| 0:06.9 | John Kappet-Zinn is Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical |
| 0:12.8 | School, where he founded its world-renowned MBSR, Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Clinic in 1979 and also the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, |
| 0:27.4 | Healthcare and Society in 1995. John's also the author of a series of research papers on |
| 0:35.6 | MBSR that date back all the way to 1982. To put it plainly, |
| 0:42.5 | John Caput-Zinn has been hugely influential in introducing the practice of mindfulness to |
| 0:49.0 | medicine and also broadly to millions of people worldwide. |
| 0:57.1 | He's the author of 15 books, |
| 1:00.9 | currently in print in over 45 languages, |
| 1:04.1 | including a new book which sounds true. |
| 1:07.6 | It's called Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief. |
| 1:13.2 | This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. |
| 1:20.1 | We're joining with our friends at Better Help to celebrate and thank all of the therapists in our lives. |
| 1:22.2 | When I was in my 40s, I started regularly seeing a therapist who was a true mentor for me in many aspects of my life. |
| 1:30.8 | When it came to my relationship with myself, of course, but also in my marriage and in my work. |
| 1:37.0 | At one point, she said to me, you know, you're a real DIY type. |
| 1:42.0 | You always like plowing through by yourself. She continued, the people I know who reach |
| 1:48.5 | really high levels of performance, like elite athletes, for example, she knew that would get to me, |
| 1:55.2 | they're open to receiving all kinds of help and support. I know, Tammy, that excelling is important to you, so maybe it's |
| 2:04.8 | time you opened up to receiving support. Since that time, I don't hesitate to ask for help |
| 2:13.7 | when I need it, which is a lot. I want to flourish. I want to help others flourish. You probably |
| 2:21.3 | do too. And contribute everything we have without holding back. We're celebrating the therapists |
... |
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