Zen Chaplaincy, Activism, and Scholarship, with Wakoh Shannon Hickey

Blue Beryl

In this episode, I sit down with my friend Wakoh Shannon Hickey, who is a Soto Zen priest, hospice chaplain, scholar, and activist. We talk about Wakoh’s early experiences with social violence in the 1980s, her work as a hospital chaplain, and her 2019 book Mind Cure, which is a groundbreaking social history of religion and mindfulness in the U.S.
Resources:

• Wakoh's Academia.edu page
• Hickey, Mind Cure: How Meditation Became Medicine (2019)
• Helderman, Prescribing the Dharma: Psychotherapists, Buddhist Traditions, and Defining Religion (2019)
• Brown, Debating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools: Reforming Secular Education or Reestablishing Religion? (2019)
• Purser, McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality (2019)

Find all episodes of the Blue Beryl Podcast at www.piercesalguero.com