The Monk Behind the Myth
- play show:
Date: 16 September 2009
An Intimate Portrait of the 14th Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a complex figure- at once a Buddhist monk, the leader of the Tibetan community in exile and a spiritual celebrity. He is also a man whose human side few people know. We talk with Pico Iyer, a friend of the Dalai Lama for over thirty years, about the man behind the image.
Pico Iyer, author of The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
Joy Ladin, Finding Her True Self
Begins at 23 min 36 sec
Joy Ladin is an English professor at Yeshiva University, the nation's oldest Jewish university. She is also transgender. These identities met three years ago when, as a male, she informed her school that she would be transitioning from Jay to Joy. School officials responded by putting her on leave, though they later took her back. Hers is a story of a poet, a Jew, and above all - a woman, in her own words, "caught in the act of becoming."
Joy Ladin, author of Transmigration: Poems and an upcoming memoir, Inside Out: Confessions of a Woman Caught in the Act of Becoming
For our DC listeners: Joy Ladin will be appearing at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue on Oct. 9th
Soundscapes of Faith: The Call to Prayer
Begins at 48 min 32 sec
In this installment of our ongoing series on sacred sounds, we listen to the call to prayer, or adhan. It rings out in Muslim countries five times a day, reminding believers to pause, pray and reflect on God. Akbar Ahmed explains why the sound is part of the "symphony of Islam itself."
Akbar Ahmed, chair of Islamic studies at American University
