Travel Writer Pico Iyer Celebrates the Joys of Sitting Still

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After his California home burned in a wildfire, acclaimed author and travel writer Pico Iyer retreated to a remote monastery in Big Sur. There, he discovered the power of solitude and stillness to help process loss and cope with uncertainty. In his new book, “Aflame,” Iyer writes about his frequent visits to the monastery over the following three decades, always finding joy and renewal in the “silence and emptiness and light”… and lack of screens. We’ll talk with Iyer about the book, and why his inner journeys mean more to him than his far-flung trips across the globe. http://picoiyerjourneys.com Guests: Pico Iyer, journalist and author, "Aflame"; He is the author of 15 books, including "Video Night in Kathmandu" and "The Art of Stillness" and has been a contributor for more than thirty years to Time, The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, the Los Angeles Times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho La Puerta, a wellness resort on 4,000 acres in the mountains of Baja, California, just 45 minutes from San Diego.
0:09.4	Family owned and operated since 1940, Rancho La Pueerta offers adult summer camp-like vacations for anyone who enjoys hiking, mindfulness, and fitness classes.
0:19.8	Special rates and offers are available for summer stays and first-time guests.
0:25.0	Learn more at Rancho LaPuerta.com.
0:27.6	Greetings, boomtown.
0:29.0	The Xfinity Wi-Fi is booming!
0:31.3	Xfinity combines the power of internet and mobile.
0:34.4	So we've all got lightning fast speeds at home and on the go!
0:37.8	Learn more at Xfinity.com.
0:39.9	Restrictions apply.
0:40.6	Xfinity Internet required.
0:41.7	Actual speeds vary.
0:43.9	From KQED.
0:48.9	You know,
0:50.2	and you know, and you know, From KQBD in San Francisco, this is Forum. I'm Mina Kim. After his California home burned in a wildfire,
1:07.9	acclaimed author and travel writer Pico Ayer retreated to a remote monastery in Big Sur.
1:13.3	There he discovered the power of solitude and stillness to help process loss and cope with uncertainty.
1:19.7	In his new book of Flame, Ayer writes about his many visits to the monastery over the next three decades,
1:25.1	always finding renewal, and we'll talk with him about the book's
1:28.2	timely release, sadly, amid the ongoing devastation of the fires in L.A. County. Join us. Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. Pico Ayer may be best known for globe-trotting books like Video Night in Kathmandu and the Global Soul. But in recent years, his work has focused more on the joys and power of solitude and silence.
2:03.3	His new book, A Flame, is tragically timely as it comes out amid the destruction and loss of life of the L.A. wildfires.
2:10.5	Iyer lost his home in Santa Barbara in a previous wildfire.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.