Ep. 136 - The Heart Sutra, Groundlessness, Joy, and Crumbling Patriarchy with Susan Piver
The Road Home with Ethan Nichtern
Release Date: 03/07/2025
Ep. 158 - Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Buddhist Socialism, and Standing (or Sitting) For Something
The Road Home with Ethan Nichtern
How did NYC become the epicenter of all the tensions and promise of American society and politics, and do the Buddhist teachings have anything to offer to understanding this political moment? Using the rise of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in his home city—a city of perpetual immigrants—Ethan explores themes of community engagement, sangha, social democracy and the power of standing up for what you believe in to talk about this chaotic (yet potent) moment on Earth. Please support the podcast via and subscribe for free or with small monthly contributions. Additional links and show notes are...
info_outline
Ep. 157 - How Am I (Really?) Doing: The Power of Accurate Self-Assessment
The Road Home with Ethan Nichtern
Drawing on concepts from his latest book, , Ethan explores how it is that our self-assessment can be so off the mark so frequently, especially when it comes to seeing our progress along a long-term path like meditation, or the deeper journey of spiritual and psychological . Why is it so hard assess our traits, and to see our strengths as well as our stuck places, clearly? How can we overcome our negativity bias and meet the inner critic more skillfully in everyday life. What does it mean to develop clarity when asking ourselves the question: “How am I doing, really?” Please support the...
info_outline
Ep. 156 - The Myth of (Conditional) Freedom
The Road Home with Ethan Nichtern
Ethan is back with a solo episode to discuss the Buddhist experience of liberation and (moksha) and how we can glimpse an experience it in our awareness and meditation practice. He also discusses the related question of the collapsing American mythology of “freedom.” In the discussion, he highlights several categories of freedom, first “conditional” freedom versus “unconditional” freedom. Then he discusses individual, or personal freedom versus “collective” freedom. Please support the podcast via and subscribe for free or with small monthly contributions. Additional links and...
info_outline
Ep. 155 - What Should a Teacher Say? with Francesca Cervero
The Road Home with Ethan Nichtern
Ethan is joined by friend and yoga teacher to talk about becoming a teacher as a livelihood, the duty of the teacher when it comes to building community in a post-pandemic world, and how to be clear and open with students about the ethical teachings of Buddhism and yoga in a world of chaos, violence and oppression. Francesca Cervero (she/her) has been a full time yoga and meditation teacher since 2005 and offers private and group yoga classes as well as yoga teacher mentoring and education. She is the host of the podcast “” and you can find out more about her work at Please support the...
info_outline
Ep. 154 - How Do I Know If I’m Enlightened?
The Road Home with Ethan Nichtern
In this episode, Ethan discusses the crucial question of “enlightenment,” better translated as “awakening.” What does this word mean? What doesn’t it mean? How would we know if we were really there? Is awakening a big deal? And most importantly, how can we glimpse it, or notice the glimpses we are already having of our awakening, and build off of those powerful moments with confidence in our development? Please support the podcast via and subscribe for free or with small monthly contributions. Additional links and show notes are available . Paid subscribers will receive occasional...
info_outline
Ep. 153 - You Won’t Heal Until You Love It : Inside The Neurological Storm with Reggie Hubbard
The Road Home with Ethan Nichtern
16 months ago, yoga/meditation/sound teacher Reggie Hubbard had a near-death experience, a major stroke. He visits the podcast to describe the experience of his "neurological storm" and the path of collapse and healing that he's been on ever since, and how it has profoundly affected his views as a practitioner, teacher, and his views of the neurological storm that the United States and the world is currently experiencing. If there's such a thing as a "must-listen" episode of this podcast, this it it. Reggie Hubbard is a senior political strategist, certified yoga and meditation teacher,...
info_outline
Ep. 152 - Crucial Questions: What Is The Bodhisattva Vow?
The Road Home with Ethan Nichtern
Ethan discusses three reasons we take vows and make commitments from a Buddhist perspective, and gives special emphasis to The Bodhisattva Vow, where we commit to not only pursue our own path of liberation and awakening, but also vow to work for the benefit of all beings, to the limits of space, until all beings are awake. It is a commitment to the collective liberation of all beings. Of course, this is impossible (at least in our lifetimes), so why would we agree to do it? Using the classic structure of the vow, along with modern commentary, Ethan dissects the reasons we would take on such a...
info_outline
Ep. 151 - Buddhist Geeks, 21st Century Practice, and The Duhkha of Palestine
The Road Home with Ethan Nichtern
Ethan welcomes Co-Founder, teacher, and Palestinian-American Dharma teacher . They discuss the rise of "podcast dharma" in the early 21st century, Vince's path to Vince's experience of his Palestinian heritage, why it's hard to get Dharma teachers to speak out about the genocide in Gaza, The Buddhist practice of , and the complex legacy of Chogyam Trungpa and Tibetan refugees in relation to the Palestinian experience. is part of a new generation bringing dharma, meditation, & mindfulness to life in the 21st century. A computer engineering dropout turned full-time meditator, Vince...
info_outline
Ep. 150 - The Virtues of Boredom (The Most Boring Podcast Ever!)
The Road Home with Ethan Nichtern
This is the 150th episode of The Road Home Podcast! Yay, Big Deal! But, it’s—as always—also a conversation about the Dharma, and the mind, and how to work with your own experience. And your mind, especially during meditation, can be boring. Very boring. So why is boredom such a difficult, yet important—and creative—experience? What do we do about boredom in meditation practice, as well as boredom in daily life? Using a teaching on working with boredom in three stages, along with teachings from earliest Buddhism on the “hindrance” of restlessness, Ethan unpacks the creative power...
info_outline
Ep. 149 - The Whole World Is Gold To Me: Tantra and Generosity
The Road Home with Ethan Nichtern
(This episode of The Road Home is dedicated to the memory of —founder of the Eco-Dharma and Deep Ecology Movements—who passed this weekend at the age of 96) On this episode, a follow-up to episode 148, Ethan explores wealth and generosity from a tantric perspective. If you could take the view, for just one moment, that you, your perceptions, and your world were all perfect in being exactly what they were, how would that change your experience of yourself, your resources, and your participation in society? What is generosity (“dana” in the Buddhist languages) from a Tantric perspective?...
info_outlineEthan welcomes bestselling author and Dharma teacher Susan Piver for a discussion of the groundlessness of our current world framed through her new book Inexplicable Joy: On The Heart Sutra. If you'd like to read a translation of this classic Buddhist text, you can find that on Ethan's Substack.
Susan Piver is the New York Times bestselling author of many books, including The Four Noble Truths of Love: Buddhist Wisdom for Modern Relationships and The Buddhist Enneagram: Nine Paths to Warriorship. Her most recent book is Inexplicable Joy: On the Heart Sutra.
Susan has been a student of Buddhism since 1993, graduated from a Buddhist seminary in 2004 and began to teach meditation in 2005. In 2014, she founded The Open Heart Project, an online dharma center with nearly 20000 members.
Please support the podcast via Substack and subscribe for free or with small monthly contributions. Paid subscribers will receive occasional extras like guided meditations, extra podcast episodes and more!
Check out all the cool offerings at our sponsor Dharma Moon, including the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training, starting March 21. Free video courses, such as The Three Marks of Existence, are also available for download.