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PODCAST

Ancient Futures

Timeless wisdom for modern dilemmas, combining yoga philosophy, practical insight and critical thinking. Hosted by Daniel Simpson. ancientfutures.substack.com

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

70:03

Spiritual Cannabliss? – Karan Madhok

Ancient Futures ·

2025/03/26

What makes it holy to get really stoned? This is an unavoidable question in India, where smoking cannabis is banned but done by dreadlocked devotees. Meanwhile, weed smoothies are frequently drunk at religious festivals.The writer Karan Madhok investigates this paradox – along with many others – in his new book Ananda, subtitled “An Exploration of Cannabis in India”. It also covers lots of other subjects, including cultural history, indigenous medicine, politicised religion, the pleasures of travel

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99:04

Yoga for Adults – Paul Bramadat

Ancient Futures ·

2025/03/12

What if the most important yogic posture was curiosity? That’s how Paul Bramadat, a scholar and practitioner, approaches research on a personal passion. He describes his new book Yogalands as “a skeptical but devoted insider’s perspective” on postural yoga and its place in the world.As we discuss, this involves nuanced thinking on its practical benefits, the role of religion, the significance of politics and ways to engage with contemporary debates about guru abuses and cross-cultural borrowing. The

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60:41

The Rest is Poetry – Lindsey Hilsum

Ancient Futures ·

2025/02/26

Are there limits to what can be said in factual prose? Might poets sometimes do a better job of conveying deeper meaning and emotional truth? Lindsey Hilsum has reported on conflicts for more than 30 years. Her latest book, I Brought the War with Me, juxtaposes poetry with frontline experiences.Our conversation explores her reflections on a wide range of topics, including:* Why poetry speaks more timelessly than journalism* How difficult situations can bring out the best in people* Some potential

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67:22

Political Yoga – Sunila Kalé and Christian Lee Novetzke

Ancient Futures ·

2025/02/12

How closely connected are yoga and politics? Many people today try to keep them apart, but an ancient tradition sees yoga as politics. Although its theories might be distinct from yogic philosophies and mind-body disciplines, they’re nonetheless part of a broader understanding of what yoga means.A new book called The Yoga of Power, by Sunila Kalé and Christian Lee Novetzke, unpacks the implications. Initially inspired by events such as a U.S. court case about whether yoga in schools was religious

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63:22

Historical Prediction – Michelle Aroney

Ancient Futures ·

2025/01/29

How do people cope with uncertainty? What differentiates ways of predicting the future from scientific study of patterns – be that in epidemiology or forecasting weather? Might techniques of divination reveal as much about the past and the present as what happens next?Michelle Aroney is a historian at Magdalen College, Oxford, and co-curator – with David Zeitlyn – of an exhibition at the Bodleian Library titled “Oracles, Omens and Answers”. As we discuss, there are fascinating links between modern

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68:07

Catastrophe Ethics – Travis Rieder

Ancient Futures ·

2025/01/15

How can we address global problems – such as catastrophic climate change – when individual actions make very little difference? What’s the right thing to do when there aren’t easy answers? Is it wrong to do nothing? Is everything relative, or are there better ways to think about solutions?As Travis Rieder writes in Catastrophe Ethics, we need our own frameworks for making decisions. Two common pitfalls can get in the way. One highlights universal rules and the other is averse to them. To avoid being

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60:11

Who Am I? – Robert Rowland Smith

Ancient Futures ·

2025/01/01

What does it mean to be human, and how can one access one’s innermost self? Robert Rowland Smith writes popular books about practical philosophy, including a memoir that discusses what he’s learned from his relationships – as well as a career as an Oxford don, a strategic adviser and a personal coach, among other things…Our conversation explores the extent to which people can change, and how to get attuned to an inner alarm that reveals when it’s necessary. We also talk about intuitive ways of

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65:15

Slowing Down – Elliot Cohen

Ancient Futures ·

2024/12/18

"What are we doing wrong that requires us all to be so resilient so often?” That’s the basic question that frames a new book by Elliot Cohen. The Psychology of Slow Living investigates ways to avoid being frazzled by a culture of urgency fuelled by quests for instant gratification via digital technology and overconsumption.Drawing on ideas from Buddhist, Hindu, Daoist and Jewish traditions – as well as social psychology – the book explores how to slow down from a range of perspectives. It warns

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68:27

Why History Matters – Philipp Maas

Ancient Futures ·

2024/12/04

What if the text known as the Yoga Sūtra never existed – at least not to start with? Philipp Maas is a scholar of Patañjali’s yoga, whose work suggests its teachings were originally transmitted as part of a larger philosophical text with explanations.We discuss how this accompanying commentary (bhāṣya) interprets the sūtras, and reflect on the broader significance of studying history for modern practitioners. We also consider the distance in time and space between yogic texts and their uses today

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64:43

Lost in Translation – Dorothy Figueira

Ancient Futures ·

2024/11/20

What do Heinrich Himmler and Mohandas Gandhi have in common? Both were inspired by the Bhagavad Gītā. As Dorothy Figueira explains, what they found in it were mental projections. So Gandhi saw promotion of non-violence, while Himmler thought it justified killing for an avatar of God called Adolf Hitler.These interpretations – among many others – are the subject of Dorothy’s recent book, The Afterlives of the Bhagavad Gītā. As a scholar of religion and comparative literature, she shows how modern

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104:02

Disaster Nationalism – Richard Seymour

Ancient Futures ·

2024/11/06

A shift in focus for the podcast this week to discuss a new book by Richard Seymour. Subtitled “The Downfall of Liberal Civilization”, Disaster Nationalism investigates “a struggle for our collective soul”, along with the psychology of far-right movements.As Richard warns, these can take many forms – including the perversion of liberal and leftist agendas into authoritarianism. “There is a fascist temptation for everyone,” he writes: “we all have our jackboots.” Rather than focusing on charismatic

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83:02

Life and Breath – Isabel Tew

Ancient Futures ·

2024/10/23

Is prāṇāyāma the same thing as breath-work? Both labels are commonly used to teach similar techniques. They’re also increasingly hard to distinguish, because of ongoing changes in methods and objectives. This conversation with Isabel Tew examines the overlaps as well as distinctions between modern systems.Isabel started with yoga, which made her curious about prāṇāyāma – a much older form of practice than sequences of postures. However, she’s also explored modern breath-work, and some of its

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58:26

Yogic Flashbacks – Daniel Simpson

Ancient Futures ·

2024/10/09

This is a different sort of podcast, featuring interviews I did half my life ago. I originally planned to make a radio documentary, but the audio wound up on MiniDiscs gathering dust.In 2001, I was a foreign correspondent searching for answers. I hoped I might find some in India at the world’s biggest gathering – the Mahā Kumbha Melā, where the Ganges meets the Yamuna. I talked to a wide range of people, asking Westerners what had inspired their journeys Eastward.Looking back, I’ve made one myself –

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62:43

From Me to We – Thomas Legrand

Ancient Futures ·

2024/09/25

What might it look like to live in a world that combines ancient wisdom with newer ideas about sustainable development? In his recent book Politics of Being, the social scientist Thomas Legrand explores the potential for shifts in perspective that could help us to face converging challenges.At the heart of his vision is an inner transformation, rejecting a paradigm that fuels separation while awakening values that promote collective consciousness. Although this is rooted in a spiritual worldview,

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68:14

Dark Sides of Light – Mariana Alessandri

Ancient Futures ·

2024/09/11

Why is “light” used as a metaphor for “good”, while “dark” means “bad”? How does that blind us and what might we do about it? As Mariana Alessandri writes in Night Vision, difficult feelings such as anger, sorrow, grief, depression and anxiety can be sources of knowledge, so we need to embrace them as part of humanity.Her book is not a gloom manifesto. Instead, it seeks to clarify why we feel bad about feeling bad. This is an outcome of social pressure to look on the bright side, so telling each

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78:24

Gurus Go West – Mick Brown

Ancient Futures ·

2024/08/28

How did Westerners first get involved with Eastern teachers, and is the age of the guru now over? In his latest book, The Nirvana Express, Mick Brown presents a colourful cast of seekers, writers, mystics, tricksters and chancers – he reveals people’s flaws without obscuring the sincerity of spiritual quests.Alongside portraits of better-known subjects, from Vivekananda and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to Rajneesh, Mick notes the influence of Western occultists, and early interest in Ramana Maharshi –

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86:55

Recovery Dharma – Matthew Hahn

Ancient Futures ·

2024/08/14

How does someone heal an addictive mind? Matthew Hahn is a co-founder of Recovery Dharma, which uses Buddhist methods to overcome addictions. He also contributes to the Boundless Freedom Project, teaching mindfulness, ethics and compassion to people in prison and on their return to the outside world.Our conversation explores how Buddhist principles and practices empower those in recovery to find inner wisdom. We consider how this differs from “12 step” approaches, which enlist the help of God, while

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85:24

Asian Inspiration – Chris Harding

Ancient Futures ·

2024/07/31

What can we learn from over 2,000 years of fascination with the East? Chris Harding explores this question in The Light of Asia – a book that shares its title with a poem about the Buddha from the nineteenth century. His focus is on characters whose personal engagement with Asian traditions shaped Western perceptions.Our conversation reflects on the impact of efforts to reconcile different viewpoints. Does one way of seeing predominate? What guards against cherry-picking? Among many other topics, we

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66:22

Union or Duality? – Zoë Slatoff

Ancient Futures ·

2024/07/17

Does yoga really mean union? As Zoë Slatoff explains in this fascinating chat about philosophy and Sanskrit, the simplest answer is probably “sometimes”…Zoë’s PhD explores how yoga became entangled with non-dual Vedānta, blurring distinctions between the two systems. One important catalyst was the popularity of physical practice, whose aims were framed in terms of oneness. So gnostic teachers adapted its methods, which were slowly combined with Patañjali’s yoga.We discuss how this happened through

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72:49

Into the Unknown – Kamalashila

Ancient Futures ·

2024/07/03

Who are we really, beyond our ideas about ourselves and the world? After more than half a century as a Buddhist practitioner, Kamalashila (Anthony Matthews) reflects on his life and impending death – he was recently told he had four months to live.As he wrote back in April: “What is happening to me happens to everyone and it will happen to you, so think about that too and practice some dharma.” Our conversation explores what this means from a range of perspectives, drawing inspiration from a

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