Spirituality

We listen to a 1983 interview with psychologist Timothy Leary, a 1990 interview with spiritual leader Ram Dass and a 2018 interview with How to Change Your Mind author Michael Pollan.

Dass, who died Dec. 22, was a practitioner of Eastern-inspired philosophy who became interested in the religious potential of LSD in the '60s and '70s. Originally broadcast in 1990.

Musician and writer Leonard Cohen died in 2016, leaving behind many unpublished poems and lyrics. His son Adam Cohen discusses The Flame, a collection of some of Leonard's final works.

n her new memoir, On Living, Kerry Egan describes her hospice work and the impact it's had on her own life. She says that despite the sadness and loss that is implicit in her work, there is also great joy.

Unitarian minister Forrest Church believed that the knowledge that we must die makes us question what life means. Church, who died Sept. 24, 2009 after a long battle with cancer of the esophagus, was the author of Love and Death: My Journey through the Valley of the Shadow.

Unitarian minister Forrest Church was diagnosed with terminal esophageal cancer last February. He has written and edited over 20 books since 1985. His latest, Love and Death, is a memoir that confronts the fact of death and, in the process, offers readers a meditation on the end of life.

Fresh Air music critic Milo Miles reviews Classic African American Gospel, a Smithsonian Folkways "Classic" that spans over a half century of recordings. Featuring Reverend Gary Davis, Sonny Terry and others, the compilation illustrates a truly American musical tradition.

Comedian Robert Schimmel has suffered tragedies, including the death of his child and his own battle with cancer. But throughout it all, Schimmel managed to find strength in humor. His recent memoir is Cancer on $5 a Day.

Novelist and screenwriter Michael Tolkin. He's just directed his first film, "The Rapture," based on his own screenplay about a woman's search for faith. Tolkin's novel, "The Player" will soon come out as a movie, directed by Robert Altman.