“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Son”—a review of Nick Harkaway’s novel Karla’s Choice, published in Air Mail, October 21, 2024
“The Moving River”—a short essay on my 37 years in Japan to go with Magdalena Sole’s series of seven artist’s books chronicling her 33 years of visits to the country—October 2024.
“The Zendo called the World”—an essay on art as contemplation and act of worship, based around the islands of Naoshima and Teshima, in Lion’s Roar, October/November 2024.
“The Light in Kyoto”—a short tribute to the irreplaceable editor Ken Rodgers in the indispensable Kyoto Journal, December 2024
“The Kid Stays Out of the Picture”–an essay (accompanied by podcast interview) on staying with some monks, published in Air-Mail, January 4, 2025
“What I Find in Solitude and Silence on the Cliffs of Big Sur”–an essay on Thoreau and the meaning of solitude for the Los Angeles Times, January 5, 2025.
“Pico Iyer’s Wide-Awake Silence”—A long interview with Nautilus, January 10, 2025.
“Hospitals of the Soul”—a long essay on what we stand to lose if monasteries become extinct–Globe & Mail, January 11, 2025.
Aflame: A book on my first 100 retreats at a Benedictine hermitage in Big Sur, California—published by Riverhead, January 14, 2025 (published by Cornerstone in Britain and Penguin India as Learning from Silence, in February 2025).
A long talk with Terry Gross for “Fresh Air” on public radio—January 15, 2025.
A very long talk with soulful Jenna Abdou on the 33 Voices podcast—January 15, 2025
An hour-long chat with Mina Kim at KQED’s “Forum” show—January 16, 2025.
“Losing Everything to Fire Changed How I Lived”–An essay on the Los Angeles Fires, for The New York Times Opinion page—January 18, 2025
A podcast interview with New York Times Book Review editor Gilbert Cruz—January 19, 2025
An essay on a cure for hopelessness, recorded as part of the Hidden Brain podcast (the first such essay ever to be a part of Hidden Brain)—January 20, 2025.
A conversation with the amazing William Green at the Asia Society, on January 22, 2025–
The Search for Liberation”—an essay to serve as Introduction to a new edition of Pankaj Mishra’s The End of Suffering. Published by Penguin India, January 2025.
Numerous podcasts with Jonathan Fields, Elise Loehnen, William Green, Christopher Lydon, Jeremy Bassetti, Rolf Potts, Jonathan Bastian, James Shaheen and many others—released January 2025.