Ep. 277 – Kid's Series: Richie J. Davidson
Metta Hour with Sharon Salzberg
Be Here Now Network
4.6 • 682 Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2026
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For episode 277, we are continuing a new series on the Metta Hour, centered on kids, in honor of Sharon’s first children’s book, Kind Karl, released on December 9th!
Written with Jason Gruhl, this illustrated picture book is for 4-8 year-olds and is a children’s adaptation of Sharon’s beloved book Lovingkindness.
For this podcast series, Sharon speaks with educators, caregivers, and researchers about the ways meditation, mindfulness, and lovingkindness can impact children of all ages and the family systems that support them. For the sixth episode of the series, Sharon speaks with Richie J. Davidson.
Richie is the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Founder and Director of the Center for Healthy Minds. He is best known for his groundbreaking work studying emotion and the brain. A friend and confidante of the Dalai Lama, he is a highly sought-after expert and speaker, leading conversations on well-being on international stages such as the World Economic Forum, where he serves on the Global Council on Mental Health.
In this conversation, Sharon and Richie speak about:
- Richie’s pillars for human flourishing
- Free Kindness Curriculum app
- How to nurture enduring traits
- Lovingkindness as a training
- Our whole being is malleable
- Flourishing is contagious
- Temporary states vs lasting traits
- We are born to be kind
- The Born to Flourish book, coming in March
- Changing our narratives
- Affective Neuroscience
- Six basic emotional styles
- Evolving the K-12 education space
- Supporting Healthcare providers
- Community as contemplative intervention
- What is Contemplative Neuroscience?
The conversation closes with a guided meditation led by Richie. To learn more about Riche’s work or his different books, you can visit his website and access the free Healthy Minds Kindness Curriculum right here in English or Spanish.
You can learn more about Sharon’s brand-new children’s book, Kind Karl, right here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you're ready for some meditation in the new year, Sharon Salzberg has you covered. |
| 0:08.1 | Starting February 1st, she's offering a month of guided meditations, both for new and existing students. |
| 0:17.8 | All on a sliding scale. You can sign up for the challenge at Sharon Salzburg.com. |
| 0:24.6 | Hello and welcome to the Meta Hour podcast with Sharon Salzberg. |
| 0:45.3 | I'm Lily Cushman and I produce this podcast and welcome to our first episode of 2026. We're beaming in with another episode in our ongoing |
| 0:58.5 | kids series in honor of Sharon's brand new children's book, which came out in December, |
| 1:06.1 | Kind Carl, A Little crocodile with big feelings. |
| 1:16.4 | Today we are welcoming the wonderful Richie Davidson back to the podcast. |
| 1:18.7 | He's been a guest here before. |
| 1:25.1 | And if you don't know who Richie is, he is a professor of psychology and psychiatry, the University of Wisconsin-Madison. |
| 1:32.3 | He's also the founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds. He's most commonly known for his work studying emotion and the brain. |
| 1:39.3 | And he's also BFFs with the Dalai Lama. |
| 1:43.3 | So we're happy to have him here. |
| 1:45.0 | He's someone who felt like an important addition to this series talking about the ways that |
| 1:52.0 | meditation and mindfulness can impact young minds and bodies and, of course, the caregivers of young children, educators, and the likes. |
| 2:04.6 | So it's a great way to launch our year-in podcasts, and in this conversation, Sharon and Ritchie |
| 2:11.6 | start by talking about the four pillars of human flourishing that Richie's put together through his work, |
| 2:20.1 | and the ways that those aspects exist in young people, |
| 2:24.5 | and those pillars that develop later on in adolescence. |
| 2:28.8 | Ritchie shares about his kindness curriculum, |
| 2:31.8 | which is available in English and in Spanish, |
| 2:35.8 | and the difference between the formation of enduring traits |
... |
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