How to Train a Happy Mind
- Episodes
- 353
- Released
- weekly
- Latest episode
- Nov 10, 2026
About the podcast
The How to Train a Happy Mind podcast brings meditation to modern people hungry for happy, meaningful lives. Each week, host Scott Snibbe and his guests share powerful mind training techniques that go beyond mindfulness to harness our intelligence, emotions, and imagination. Learn how to build a happy mind, fulfilling relationships, and a better world through a secular approach to meditation that is based on modern science and psychology, yet grounded in the authentic thousand-year old Tibetan Buddhist tradition of analytical meditation.
How to Train a Happy Mind is a project of the nonprofit Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment. Our host, Scott Snibbe, is a twenty-five-year student of Tibetan Buddhism whose teachers include His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Snibbe is the author of the popular How to Train a Happy Mind book, and leads meditation classes and retreats worldwide infused with science, humor, and the realities of the modern world.
Contributors
Episodes 353
Five Steps to Greater Love and Compassion #234
Is it really possible to love everybody? Is it possible to have compassion for everyone? And is this something we'd even want? Explore these questions through Exchanging Self with Others, a five-step …
Show notes
Is it really possible to love everybody? Is it possible to have compassion for everyone? And is this something we'd even want?
Explore these questions through Exchanging Self with Others, a five-step Buddhist meditation practice kept secret for centuries. Since the exile of Tibetans from their homeland, the Dalai Lama and other teachers have opened up these rare, powerful practices to everyone.In this episode, originally recorded in the Train a Happy Mind community, Scott explains the five-step meditation and leads a guided version of it.
Episode 234: Five Steps to Greater Love and Compassion
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Guided Meditation: Universalizing our Problems and Pleasures #32 [rebroadcast]
A guided meditation on “universalizing,” a Tibetan Buddhist mind training technique for transforming our everyday problems and pleasures through love and compassion.Episode 32. Guided Meditation: Universalizing …
Show notes
A guided meditation on “universalizing,” a Tibetan Buddhist mind training technique for transforming our everyday problems and pleasures through love and compassion.
Episode 32. Guided Meditation: Universalizing our Problems and PleasuresIf you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Universalizing: Transforming Pain and Pleasure into Love and Compassion #31 [rebroadcast]
One of the most powerful Tibetan Buddhist mind training techniques is universalizing, a practice that transforms everyday pains and pleasures into profound meditations. From arguing with the family to stuffing …
Show notes
One of the most powerful Tibetan Buddhist mind training techniques is universalizing, a practice that transforms everyday pains and pleasures into profound meditations. From arguing with the family to stuffing yourself with a delicious meal, life’s problems and pleasures can bring anger, guilt, and sadness. The meditation technique of “universalization” transforms our everyday experiences of pleasure and pain into engines of love and compassion.
Episode 31: Universalizing: Transforming Pain and Pleasure into Love and CompassionIf you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Awakening Your Inner Source of Compassion Meditation #233 | Dr. Shireen Mansouri
When we're going through difficult moments, it's easy to feel alone in our struggles or to be hard on ourselves. But compassion is a quality we can cultivate, not only for others, but also for …
Show notes
When we're going through difficult moments, it's easy to feel alone in our struggles or to be hard on ourselves. But compassion is a quality we can cultivate, not only for others, but also for ourselves.
In this gentle guided meditation, Dr. Shireen Mansouri invites us to imagine a source of compassion that embodies wisdom, strength, warmth, and unconditional acceptance. Through visualization and mindful breathing, we'll explore how to connect with these qualities within ourselves, meet our difficulties with greater kindness, and recognize the shared humanity in our suffering.Episode 233: Awakening Your Inner Source of Compassion Meditation
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Should I Meditate With My Doctor? | Shireen Mansouri #232
What if your doctor could help you feel better just by being more present? Scott Snibbe talks with Dr. Shireen Mansouri, a Canadian physician and teacher with the Compassion Institute, about how meditation and …
Show notes
What if your doctor could help you feel better just by being more present? Scott Snibbe talks with Dr. Shireen Mansouri, a Canadian physician and teacher with the Compassion Institute, about how meditation and compassion can transform the experience of healthcare for both doctors and patients.
Drawing on her own experience, Shireen shares how a daily meditation practice has helped her become more present, less stressed, and more connected to her patients. She also explains how she quietly practices tonglen, a Tibetan Buddhist compassion meditation, during difficult conversations, and why compassion fatigue might actually be something else entirely.
Together, they explore the science behind compassionate care, the role of meditation in healing, and how even a few mindful breaths can change what we say next.
Episode 232: Should I Meditate With My Doctor?
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Compassion Meditation #29 [rebroadcast]
A 15-minute guided meditation on compassion: the wish to take away others’ suffering.Episode 29. Guided Compassion MeditationIf you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our …
Show notes
A 15-minute guided meditation on compassion: the wish to take away others’ suffering.
Episode 29. Guided Compassion MeditationIf you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
What is Compassion? #28 [rebroadcast]
Compassion is starting to rival mindfulness as the next most popular up-and-coming form of secular meditation. But what is compassion? Compassion, from the Buddhist perspective, is not just empathizing with …
Show notes
Compassion is starting to rival mindfulness as the next most popular up-and-coming form of secular meditation. But what is compassion? Compassion, from the Buddhist perspective, is not just empathizing with others’ suffering, but actively wishing to take it away.
Episode 28. What Is Compassion?If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Chapters (13)
A Compassion Meditation for Difficult Moments — Aproteem Choudhury #231
In this episode, Aproteem Choudhury offers a gentle compassion meditation for those moments when something difficult is asking for our attention.Rather than turning away from discomfort or trying to fix it …
Show notes
In this episode, Aproteem Choudhury offers a gentle compassion meditation for those moments when something difficult is asking for our attention.
Rather than turning away from discomfort or trying to fix it, this practice invites us to acknowledge what’s here and meet it with care. Along the way, Aproteem reminds us that we’re not alone in our struggles and encourages us to listen for the wise and compassionate response that may already be available to us.
Episode 231: A Compassion Meditation for Difficult Moments — Aproteem Choudhury
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Compassion Means We're Not Alone — Aproteem Choudhury #230
Can compassion make loneliness less convincing?Aproteem Choudhury, Program Director of Health at The Compassion Institute, explores how compassion can transform the way we relate to loneliness, trauma, and …
Show notes
Can compassion make loneliness less convincing?
Aproteem Choudhury, Program Director of Health at The Compassion Institute, explores how compassion can transform the way we relate to loneliness, trauma, and suffering. Drawing on his work with communities affected by natural disasters, gun violence, and challenges in healthcare, Apro shares how care and connection can help us meet difficult experiences without becoming overwhelmed by them.Episode 230. Compassion Means We're Not Alone — Aproteem Choudhury
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
How Compassion Helps Us Through High-Stress Situations—Stephen Butler #229
What does compassion look like when we’re facing intense stress, trauma, or pressure? In this episode, we talk with Stephen Butler, Executive Director of the Compassion Institute, about how we can strengthen …
Show notes
What does compassion look like when we’re facing intense stress, trauma, or pressure? In this episode, we talk with Stephen Butler, Executive Director of the Compassion Institute, about how we can strengthen our innate capacity for compassion and use it to meet difficult situations with greater courage and resilience.
Episode 229: How Compassion Helps Us Through High-Stress Situations
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Guided Meditation on Love #26 [rebroadcast]
A guided meditation on love, or loving-kindness, the expansive form of love, wishing happiness not only to friends and family but to all beings everywhere, including our enemies. In the language of Buddhism, it …
Show notes
A guided meditation on love, or loving-kindness, the expansive form of love, wishing happiness not only to friends and family but to all beings everywhere, including our enemies. In the language of Buddhism, it is metta or maitri.
Episode 26. Guided Meditation on LoveIf you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Chapters (4)
What is Love? #25 [rebroadcast]
Love is complex in our culture, tied up with finding a single person to satisfy our huge list of needs and dreams, whom we then grant the exclusive gift of our affection. But love—loving-kindness from the …
Show notes
Love is complex in our culture, tied up with finding a single person to satisfy our huge list of needs and dreams, whom we then grant the exclusive gift of our affection. But love—loving-kindness from the Buddhist perspective—is simpler, free from attachment. It's wishing others to be happy.
Episode 25: What Is Love?If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Chapters
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Healthy Masculinity: A Meditation on Sex, Strength, and Love #228
A guided meditation led by Scott Snibbe on healthy masculinity, exploring sexuality, strength, compassion, self-acceptance, and emotional connection to help men feel more whole, grounded, and deeply connected …
Show notes
A guided meditation led by Scott Snibbe on healthy masculinity, exploring sexuality, strength, compassion, self-acceptance, and emotional connection to help men feel more whole, grounded, and deeply connected with themselves and others.
Episode 228: Healthy Masculinity: A Meditation on Sex, Strength, and Love
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Sex, Strength, and Love: Karen Brody on Modern Masculinity #227
Karen Brody has a unique perspective on modern masculinity, intimacy, and sexuality. She explores why men and women can misunderstand each other, how sexual confidence differs from neediness, what keeps love …
Show notes
Karen Brody has a unique perspective on modern masculinity, intimacy, and sexuality. She explores why men and women can misunderstand each other, how sexual confidence differs from neediness, what keeps love alive over decades together, and the surprising parallels between her work and Buddhist practice in transforming desire rather than suppressing it.
Episode 227. Sex, Strength, and Love: Karen Brody on Modern Masculinity
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Guided Meditation: Transforming Bias with Equanimity #23 [rebroadcast]
The Buddhist meditation on equanimity teaches a technique to eliminate bias and expand our love and concern from family and friends to strangers and even enemies. It tames our fierce attachment to loved ones …
Show notes
The Buddhist meditation on equanimity teaches a technique to eliminate bias and expand our love and concern from family and friends to strangers and even enemies. It tames our fierce attachment to loved ones and our anger toward enemies for a stabler, happier mind and a more just and equitable world.
Episode 23: Guided Meditation: Transforming Bias with EquanimityIf you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Spiritual Democracy #22 [rebroadcast]
In everyday life, we’re torn between fierce attachment to our loved ones and anger at those that give us trouble. But Buddhism, democracy, and social justice tell us that all people deserve the same rights and …
Show notes
In everyday life, we’re torn between fierce attachment to our loved ones and anger at those that give us trouble. But Buddhism, democracy, and social justice tell us that all people deserve the same rights and freedoms: we’re all equal, and we all deserve happiness.
The Buddhist meditation on equanimity, applied to our everyday relationships and the painful daily news, teaches us a technique of “spiritual democracy” for developing healthy feelings of connection to others—even those we most despise.
Episode 22. Spiritual DemocracyIf you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Meditation to Cultivate Hope for the Future | Geshe Legtsok #226
When uncertainty and bad news pull the mind toward pessimism, how can we cultivate genuine hope without ignoring reality?In this guided meditation, Geshe Legtsok leads a reflection on gratitude, good fortune …
Show notes
When uncertainty and bad news pull the mind toward pessimism, how can we cultivate genuine hope without ignoring reality?
In this guided meditation, Geshe Legtsok leads a reflection on gratitude, good fortune, impermanence, and intentional action. By recognizing the blessings in our own lives, appreciating the positive contributions of others, and remembering that change is always possible, we develop a more balanced and hopeful outlook.Episode 226: Meditation to Cultivate Hope for the Future | Geshe Legtsok
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Is This Actually the Best Time to Be Alive? — Geshe Legtsok #225
What if we've been looking at the modern world all wrong?Despite the headlines, extreme poverty has plummeted, knowledge is more accessible than ever, and ancient meditation practices are spreading across …
Show notes
What if we've been looking at the modern world all wrong?
Despite the headlines, extreme poverty has plummeted, knowledge is more accessible than ever, and ancient meditation practices are spreading across the globe. In this conversation, Geshe Tenzin Legtsok suggests that humanity may not be living in the worst of times, but on the edge of an unprecedented opportunity for wisdom, compassion, and human flourishing.
Episode 225: Is This Actually the Best Time to Be Alive? — Geshe Legtsok
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
The Determination to Be Free - Guided Meditation on Renunciation #18 [rebroadcast]
Dostoevsky is often credited with saying, “The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison.” The practice of renunciation begins by recognizing the ways …
Show notes
Dostoevsky is often credited with saying, “The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison.” The practice of renunciation begins by recognizing the ways we're already trapped—by anger, craving, impatience, and the endless search for satisfaction outside ourselves.
This meditation helps us see these patterns clearly and turn toward a deeper source of freedom, discovering a refuge within our own mind that no external circumstance can provide.
Episode 18. Guided Meditation - RenunciationIf you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
The Red Pill of Renunciation: Embracing Reality as It Is #17 [rebroadcast]
What do The Matrix and Jerry Seinfeld have in common with Buddhist wisdom? In this episode, Scott explores the practice of renunciation—not giving up life's pleasures, but letting go of the mistaken belief …
Show notes
What do The Matrix and Jerry Seinfeld have in common with Buddhist wisdom? In this episode, Scott explores the practice of renunciation—not giving up life's pleasures, but letting go of the mistaken belief that lasting happiness comes from external circumstances.
Through insights from The Matrix, comedy, and Buddhist psychology, discover how true freedom begins when we stop blaming the world for our suffering and start transforming our own minds.
Episode 17: The Red Pill of Renunciation: Embracing Reality As It Is
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Chapters
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Remembering Robert Thurman: Psychonaut, Scholar, and Friend #224
Following the passing of Robert Thurman, we wanted to revisit one of our favorite conversations with the beloved scholar, teacher, and pioneer who helped bring Tibetan Buddhist wisdom to the modern world.A …
Show notes
Following the passing of Robert Thurman, we wanted to revisit one of our favorite conversations with the beloved scholar, teacher, and pioneer who helped bring Tibetan Buddhist wisdom to the modern world.
A former monk ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Columbia University professor, bestselling author, and co-founder of Tibet House US, Thurman devoted his life to sharing profound insights on compassion, interconnectedness, and human flourishing. His books, teachings, and joyful spirit inspired generations of students and seekers around the world.
In this memorable conversation, we explore the illusion of separateness, the nature of reality, and the possibility that our deepest nature is joy itself. Thurman once said this was one of his favorite interviews, and we’re grateful to share it again in celebration of his extraordinary life and enduring legacy.
Episode 224: Remembering Robert Thurman: Psychonaut, Scholar, and Friend
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Our Best Possible Future—Kim Stanley Robinson #223
So many of us get lost in terror about humanity’s future, but how often do we ask, “What’s our best possible future?” Bestselling author and climate activist Kim Stanley Robinson joined Scott on Earth Day this …
Show notes
So many of us get lost in terror about humanity’s future, but how often do we ask, “What’s our best possible future?” Bestselling author and climate activist Kim Stanley Robinson joined Scott on Earth Day this year for an urgent and hopeful conversation at UC Berkeley’s School of Journalism.
This is the third time we've been fortunate enough to have Stan on the podcast, and this time we traced a through line across humanity’s past, present, and future through three of Scott's favorite books of Stan's: The Ministry for the Future, High Sierra: A Love Story, and Shaman.
Where do we find hope in the face of the climate crisis? How can we reconnect with the extraordinary nature that, for many of us, is right outside our door? And what can our ancestors from 30,000 years ago teach us about living in balance with the planet and one another today? Find out in today's episode.Episode 223: Our Best Possible Future—Kim Stanley Robinson
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Letting Go of Suffering - a Guided Meditation #16 [rebroadcast]
This is a clear-eyed meditation on suffering: both what suffering is, and the mental source of suffering in our delusions of attachment, anger, and self-centered ignorance. We practice the antidotes to these …
Show notes
This is a clear-eyed meditation on suffering: both what suffering is, and the mental source of suffering in our delusions of attachment, anger, and self-centered ignorance.
We practice the antidotes to these delusions, giving us tools for a more balanced, less self-centered view of our experience that offers sustained stability and happiness through life’s challenges and desires.
16. Guided Meditation: Letting Go of SufferingIf you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Chapters
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Am I More Important Than Everyone Else in the Universe #15 [rebroadcast]
Do we each secretly believe we matter just a little more than everyone else? That my happiness, my ambitions, my relationships carry greater weight? From a Buddhist perspective, this deeply ingrained belief is …
Show notes
Do we each secretly believe we matter just a little more than everyone else? That my happiness, my ambitions, my relationships carry greater weight?
From a Buddhist perspective, this deeply ingrained belief is the root of our suffering: a delusion known as ignorance, considered the true source of everything from heartbreak and disappointment to the quiet dissatisfaction that lingers even when we get exactly what we want.
This is a modern retelling of the Buddha’s first teaching, The Four Noble Truths, exploring the nature of suffering, its causes, and the path beyond it through a contemporary lens.
Episode 15. Am I More Important Than Everyone Else in the Universe?If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Chapters
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You Are Enough Meditation with Lodro Rinzler #222
In this guided meditation, Lodro Rinzler leads you through a gentle practice of mindfulness, emotional awareness, and reconnecting with your basic goodness. Beginning with simple breath awareness, this …
Show notes
In this guided meditation, Lodro Rinzler leads you through a gentle practice of mindfulness, emotional awareness, and reconnecting with your basic goodness. Beginning with simple breath awareness, this meditation helps you return to the present moment with kindness and without judgment.
In the second half of the practice, you’ll explore your emotional landscape using a powerful “yes, and” approach: acknowledging difficult feelings while also noticing the goodness that exists alongside them. This practice is a reminder that you are more than your emotions, and that peace, beauty, and connection can still be present even in hard moments.
Episode #222: You Are Enough Meditation with Lodro Rinzler
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Chapters
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You Are Good, You Are Enough with Lodro Rinzler #221
What if that voice telling you you’re broken or fundamentally flawed is wrong? That’s the radical message of today’s guest, Buddhist teacher and best-selling author Lodro Rinzler.His new book is called Your …
Show notes
What if that voice telling you you’re broken or fundamentally flawed is wrong? That’s the radical message of today’s guest, Buddhist teacher and best-selling author Lodro Rinzler.
His new book is called Your Good, You Are Enough. Lodro teaches a powerful idea from Tibetan Buddhism called basic goodness, that beneath all our self-doubt, anger, and anxiety, there’s something awake and whole already present in us. It sounds like a self-help slogan, but in fact, it’s something we can directly experience ourselves in meditation and in everyday life.
In this conversation, Lodro talks about how to trust your own goodness without using this powerful idea as an excuse to avoid growth. And how to see goodness in difficult people without excusing harm.
Episode #221: You Are Good, You Are Enough with Lodro Rinzler
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Chapters
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Guided Meditation: Alone Together #13 [rebroadcast]
The essence of meditation is getting to know yourself alone, without social stimulus, entertainment, or reputation—what we truly are deep inside ourselves. There, we can find in our mind a place of satisfaction …
Show notes
The essence of meditation is getting to know yourself alone, without social stimulus, entertainment, or reputation—what we truly are deep inside ourselves. There, we can find in our mind a place of satisfaction that’s equally at ease when we’re alone or when we’re with others.
Episode 13: Guided Meditation — Alone TogetherIf you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Chapters
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What Do You Do When You're Alone? #14 [rebroadcast]
What do you do when you’re alone? When you’re scared, anxious, lonely, or afraid, when you feel strong craving? What do you turn to? In this episode, we look at where our mind runs when we feel pain, when we …
Show notes
What do you do when you’re alone? When you’re scared, anxious, lonely, or afraid, when you feel strong craving? What do you turn to?
In this episode, we look at where our mind runs when we feel pain, when we don’t feel balanced or whole. We’ll examine the Buddhist view on this subject that reveals a deep source of strength and support within our own minds accessible to each of us any time we need it.
Episode 14: What do You do When You're Alone? [re-record]If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Chapters
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Preciousness of Human Life Form: A Guided Meditation with Robert Thurman #220
This guided meditation by Tibetan teacher Dr. Robert Thurman invites you to explore one of the most profound ideas in contemplative practice: the rarity and potential of being human.Through breath …
Show notes
This guided meditation by Tibetan teacher Dr. Robert Thurman invites you to explore one of the most profound ideas in contemplative practice: the rarity and potential of being human.
Through breath, visualization, and focused awareness, you’ll gently shift your attention inward to the center of your being, connecting with a deeper level of consciousness often overlooked in daily life. From this still point, the meditation expands your perspective, helping you reflect on the nature of awareness, your connection to other living beings, and the unique capacity you have for insight, empathy, and growth.Episode 220: Preciousness of Human Life Form: A Guided Meditation with Robert Thurman
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
Chapters
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Can AI Teach Happiness? Meet Dharma Bob: Robert Thurman’s AI Avatar #219
Can an AI really teach us how to have a happy life? Robert Thurman, one of the most respected Buddhist scholars, thinks it's possible—and he's testing out the idea with an AI avatar of himself called …
Show notes
Can an AI really teach us how to have a happy life? Robert Thurman, one of the most respected Buddhist scholars, thinks it's possible—and he's testing out the idea with an AI avatar of himself called Dharma Bob that was just released.
Scott got a chance to sit down with both of them last week to have a chat about enlightenment, the benefits of AI, compassion, and Buddhism.
Episode 219: Can AI Teach Happiness? Meet Dharma Bob: Robert Thurman’s AI Avatar
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
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These are the latest 40 of 353 episodes. You’ll find older episodes in the podcast’s feed.
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