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March 8, 2012
The 13th-century mystic and poet Rumi is a best-selling author in the modern West who has long influenced Islamic thought and spirituality, though his Muslim identity is often lost in translation. Enter the exuberant world of Rumi with Iranian-American poet and scholar Fatemeh Keshavarz. Delve into why Rumi matters in our time and how he understood searching and restlessness as a kind of arrival. And through a lush production of his words and poetry — layered in Persian and English — experience how he saw every form of human love as a mirror of the divine. And, how Rumi inspired the whirling dervishes. » Learn more + listen to the show.

About the Image

A young man from Islamabad, Pakistan expresses himself through photography and the poetry of Rumi.

(photo: "Spirit" by Esâm Khattak)

» Do Nothing for Lent and Be Grateful
Perhaps the most difficult test comes in not giving up food or candy or booze for Lent, but in not working, "for we are sacrificing what defines us and what gives us life" and, guest contributor Amy Ruth Schacht suggests, we can discover "grace in every breath."

Uncovering the Codes for Reality
S. James Gates is a string theorist — a physicist on frontiers that stretch our imaginations about the fundamental nature of reality. And he's working to evolve the language of mathematics to tell a fuller story of what we're made of. Do we live in the Matrix?

Desmond Tutu's God of Surprises
Desmond Tutu says that despite all the evil and suffering in the world, human beings are "remarkable things" who are "made for goodness." We explore how his understanding of God and humanity has unfolded through the history he's shaped and even through his friendship with the Dalai Lama.

Meredith Monk's Voice
The singer and composer Meredith Monk is a kind of archeologist of the human voice. She's also an archeologist of the human soul, with a long-time Buddhist practice. Through music and meditation, she reaches to places in human experience where words get in the way — and she tells us what she learns about mercy and meaning, about spirit and play.

Journalism and Compassion
Journalism can make us care — or it can numb us to human suffering. Nicholas Kristof's columns in The New York Times wrap hard news inside human stories with broad appeal. Krista Tippett talks with him about the lessons of his life covering some of the worst atrocities in the world. He draws on insights of neuroscience, for example, to pierce through compassion fatigue.

Toward Living Memory
Public historian Tiya Miles unearths an especially painful chapter of the American experience — the little-known narratives that Cherokee landowners held black slaves. Even with history this difficult, she shows us that the canvas of the past can stretch wide enough to hold both hard truths and healing.

The Inner Landscape of Beauty
The late Irish poet and philosopher John O'Donohue insisted on beauty as a human calling. He believed that people can live through the toughest times if they manage to keep something beautiful in their mind.