FreeTime Media

Elizabeth Rovere's Wonderstruck podcast launches its 2nd season today and FreeTime Media is honored and excited to return as producers! Congratulations, Elizabeth and team! The show focuses on topics that I think merit far more consideration in terms of how we all realize our potential: experiences of wonder and awe. How we access and internalize them, what we gain by being open to them, and why we flourish as a result of talking about them together. Season 2's first episode features the fascinating co-founder of Esalen Institute, a remarkable innovator in the field of human potential, Michael Murphy. He's an incredible storyteller, reflecting on his 93-years of impact and discovery. I hope you'll listen in! https://lnkd.in/eRUZZr92 MICHAEL?MURPHY: ESALEN'S WILD WEST AND THE PURSUIT OF A GREATER CONSCIOUSNESS? In 1950, a 19-year-old Stanford University sophomore named?Michael?Murphy?had a serendipitous encounter that changed his life.?Murphy?had prepared to sit through more of his pre-med coursework. Instead, he wound up in a lecture hall where the great religions scholar and professor Frederic Spiegelberg delivered a message that shook?Murphy?to his core, altering his ambitions, his career trajectory and his spiritual outlook. "Walking out of there, one sentence kept going through my head,"?Murphy, now 93, shares with Wonderstruck's Elizabeth Rovere, "It was like an obsessional thought: you will never be the same, you will never be the same." Spiegelberg's?influence set?Murphy?on a path that would lead him to turn a sacred plot of land on the Northern California?coast into a cliffside hub?for the study and practice of human potential. Co-founded with Richard Price in 1962, Esalen Institute has left an indelible mark on countless individuals and on a broader culture of seekers and scholars. Wonderstruck's second season kicks off with a story only?Michael?Murphy?can tell, about Esalen's wild evolution and impact, guarding it against drug dealers and cults, and a lifetime, says?Murphy, of moving "into this greater life that's pressing to be born in us all."

Learned yesterday of Audacy's bankruptcy filing. Among other premium holdings, Audacy is the parent company of the legendary NYC sports talk radio giant WFAN, which, to me, as a listener, a reporter, and as somebody who builds podcasts, speaks to the enduring power of audio. In terms of the medium shaping, giving voice to, empowering and growing a massive and influential community, WFAN set the pace. It was the chat long before entering the chat became a thing. In its deeper business background, the station demonstrated what happened when the right people gathered the right talent and all took the right gamble at the right time. Here's one from the vault--from Grantland! Alex French and I on the rise and the resonance of WFAN. https://lnkd.in/edEttR3x