Lost on the road to enlightenment

Unexplainable

Vox

Life Sciences, Science, Natural Sciences

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

So many of us have been told that meditation can make us less stressed, more productive, and happier. But for a small group of people, it has a dark side. What’s going on? Guests: Willoughby Britton, associate professor at Brown University; Richard Davidson, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Pierce Salguero, professor at the Abington College of Pennsylvania State University This episode was made in partnership with Vox’s ⁠Future Perfect⁠ team. For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And please email us! ⁠⁠⁠⁠unexplainable@vox.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ We read every email. Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/members⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I want
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0:28.8	I want you to find a comfortable seat. Maybe sitting in a chair or cross-legged on the floor.
0:35.5	You can lie down if you want for this meditation. And I want you to just focus on your breath. Breathing in and out.
0:47.3	In.
0:50.5	In. In and out.
1:02.3	How did you first get into meditation?
1:06.4	My dad sent me a book by Jack Hornfield called A Path with Heart.
1:11.6	And so that was my gateway drug.
1:16.6	Willoughby Britton is a scientist and a meditation expert,
1:20.6	but back then she was in college.
1:23.6	And all she knew was her childhood friend had just died, and she was spiraling.
1:31.0	It was sort of opened up the whole issue of mortality, which now I'm 50, and you're like, oh, yeah, it's kind of obvious.
1:37.5	But when you're young and it's the first person to have died who's also young, it just suddenly made me realize how vulnerable we are, and I just became
1:48.8	terrified. I just saw danger everywhere and just basically had an anxiety disorder. Now I would
1:57.9	call it that. Willoughby did not want to take anxiety meds, but she did like this book.
	...

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