10% Happier with Dan Harris - Duncan Trussell on: Being a Spiritual Omnivore, Whether Psychedelics Are a Bridge to the Divine, and How the Gates of Hell Are Locked From the Inside

Duncan Trussell on: Being a Spiritual Omnivore, Whether Psychedelics Are a Bridge to the Divine, and How the Gates of Hell Are Locked From the Inside

09/11/23 • 73 min

2 Listeners

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.

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Duncan Trussell is an American actor and stand-up comic. And he doesn’t like being called a Buddhist comedian. It makes sense... that label unfairly pigeonholes him in two ways. First, because he’s a legit, successful, hilarious comedian, no matter what his spiritual leanings. Duncan has written and appeared in sketches for two seasons of Fuel TV's Stupidface, Showtime's La La Land, Comedy Central's Nick Swardson's Pretend Time, and both seasons of HBO's Funny or Die Presents. His television credits include MADtv and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

And when it comes to the spiritual stuff, he’s not just a Buddhist. This guy is spiritually omnivorous. And he knows his shit. He has practiced extensively. And on his podcast, The Duncan Trussell Family Hour, he interviews meditation teachers like Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg. In fact, Netflix turned his pod into a cult favorite animated TV show, called The Midnight Gospel.

In this episode we talk about:

Depression, anxiety, death, and Duncan’s interpretation of God
How meditation helps him handle the insanity of Hollywood
The Buddhist hell realms as psychological states
Spirituality and psychedelics
If having a contemplative practice can hurt our job, form of expression, or ambition
Karmic and samsaric patterns – and enjoying your ego while you have one
If we’re all capable of love

Related Episodes:

#603. Why Dwight from The Office (Rainn Wilson) Is Calling for a “Spiritual Revolution”

#489. Can You Really Conquer Hatred Through Love? | Father Gregory Boyle

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/tph/podcast-episode/duncan-trussell

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.

---

In this episode we talk about:

Depression, anxiety, death, and Duncan’s interpretation of God
How meditation helps him handle the insanity of Hollywood
The Buddhist hell realms as psychological states
Spirituality and psychedelics
If having a contemplative practice can hurt our job, form of expression, or ambition
Karmic and samsaric patterns – and enjoying your ego while you have one
If we’re all capable of love

Related Episodes:

#603. Why Dwight from The Office (Rainn Wilson) Is Calling for a “Spiritual Revolution”

#489. Can You Really Conquer Hatred Through Love? | Father Gregory Boyle

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/tph/podcast-episode/duncan-trussell

Previous Episode

A Meditation for When You Badly Need to Calm Down | Bonus Meditation with Sebene Selassie

Find freedom from obsessive loops of fear by getting grounded in the body, dropping the stories, and bringing some kindness to the struggle.

About Sebene Selassie:

Growing up, Sebene felt like a big weirdo. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and raised in white neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., she was a tomboy Black girl who loved Monty Python and UB40. She never believed she belonged. Thirty years ago, she began studying Buddhism as an undergraduate at McGill University where she majored in Comparative Religious Studies. Now, Sebene is a teacher, author, and speaker who teaches that meditation can help us remember our inherent sense of belonging, that our individual freedom affects absolutely everyone and everything, and that our collective freedom depends on each and every one of us. Sebene is a three-time cancer survivor of Stage III and IV cancer.

To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Loosening the Grip of Panic.”

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Next Episode

A Controversial New Way To Think About Addiction | Carrie Wilkens

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.

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Wilkens talks about the stigma around substance abuse, potential alternatives to abstinence, and the role of meditation in recovery.

Carrie Wilkens, PhD, is the Co-founder, Co-president and CEO of the Center for Motivation and Change: Foundation for Change, a nonprofit organization with the mission of improving the dissemination of evidence-based ideas and strategies to professionals and loved ones of persons struggling with substance use through the Invitation to Change approach. She is co-author of the book, The Beyond Addiction Workbook for Family and Friends: Evidence-Based Skills to Help a Loved One Make Positive Change and Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change.

In this episode we talk about:

The stigma around substance abuse
Defining terms: addiction vs. substance use disorder and why it matters
How substance use disorder affects our brain
How to diagnose a substance abuse disorder
Whether there is an alternative to abstinence
How we all need to be thoughtful about the relationship we want with substances
How and why a substantial percentage of people naturally recover without going to treatment
The strategies to use if you have someone in your life who you think is on a destructive path
What positive communication is and how to practice it
How we live in a quick fix society and recovery from substance abuse disorder is a slow process
What actually makes people change
The role of meditation in recovery—for the patient and the family
And the importance of taking care of yourself so you can take care of others