Conversations with friends & teachers about how our wounds lead us to our wandering, our wondering, our weird, our wisdom, and our work in the world.
Host Mike Petrow PhD interviews mystic and therapist James Finley PhD about wisdom gained from teachers and life experiences, offering insights into healing and the ongoing journey of life.
25 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
Wise Work with Dorcas Cheng--Tozun
Host Mike interviews activist and author Dorcas Cheng-Tozun about how sensitive souls can infuse their work with wisdom and avoid burnout while making a difference.
27 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT
Season One Check In!
Host Mike expresses gratitude and reflects on the inaugural season of "The Healer With a Thousand Faces."
7 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT
Creativity, Chronic Illness & Contemplation with Christine Valters Paintner
Host interviews Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, exploring how creativity, chronic illness, and contemplation offer wisdom for healing through artistic expression and ancient traditions.
15 Jul 2026TRANSCRIPT
Grieving Like Children with Dr Korie Leigh
Thanatologist Dr. Korie Leigh shares insights on how grieving like children can lead to a more fully alive existence in this interview.
17 Jun 2026TRANSCRIPT
Story Quest(ions) with Brian McLaren
Author Brian McLaren and host Mike explore how powerful questions and compelling stories shape our lives and foster empathy.
21 May 2026TRANSCRIPT
The Soul Purpose with Liza J. Rankow
Dr. Liza J. Rankow discusses finding your soul's purpose to bring healing to yourself and the world in this interview.
29 Apr 2026
Queering the Path with Rev. Dr. Cassidy Hall
Rev. Dr. Cassidy Hall shares insights with host Mike on embracing authentic healing, breaking free from societal boxes, and cultivating personal wisdom even with imperfect teachers.
3 Apr 2026TRANSCRIPT
Myth As Medicine with Dr. Martin Shaw
“If we are not protected by a cloak of good stories, we are constantly at the mercy of stories that do not wish us well.” Mike chats with his hero, master story teller, mythologist, and wilderness rites of passage guide, Dr Martin Shaw about how we “get grown” in a culture lacking rituals of initiation, how limit and absence can be our best teachers, why praise making matters, and above all how solid sacred stories and myths make life, meaningful, in a culture over inundated with competing stories.
12 Mar 2026TRANSCRIPT
Tessa Bielecki: On Betrayal and Becoming Alive
Mystic, monastic, teacher, and trauma survivor transformed, Tessa Bielecki shares with us insights about the mystical path, and how she survived being let down by a spiritual leader’s sexual scandals. If you’ve been hurt by a pastor, priest, politician, person in power, a parent, or a partner, this episode has some medicine for you.
24 Feb 2026TRANSCRIPT
Are We In a Global Dark Night of the Soul? (with Andrew Harvey)
Scholarly and spiritual sage Andrew Harvey shares what he learned in his own dark night experience, why he thinks we are all in one together right now, and offers wisdom for shining a light in the darkest of times. Founder of The Institute for Sacred Activism, Andrew is an teacher and translator of some of the world’s most sacred texts from Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, inspiring us to put our healing in the service of healing the world.
5 Feb 2026TRANSCRIPT
Four Paths to Healing with Alexander Shaia
Alexander John Shaia explores four symbolic paths to healing and personal growth found within the Christian New Testament's gospels in an interview with Mike.
7 Jan 2026TRANSCRIPT
Weird is the Way! With Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD
Carmen Acevedo Butcher and Mike geek out about words, wizards, how our wounds led to wisdom, and especially why it’s essential to LET OUR WEIRD LEAD THE WAY!! A fellow dyslexic doctor, Carmen is a teacher, a translator of ancient texts, a trauma survivor transformed, and Dean of Faculty at the Center for Action and Contemplation as well as Faculty at UC Berkeley.
11 Dec 2025TRANSCRIPT
Samuel Loncar PhD: Wisdom as a Healing Path
Samuel Loncar PhD explores wisdom as a healing path, discussing ancient philosophy, science, magic, and the secret to being fully alive in this interview with Mike.
18 Nov 2025TRANSCRIPT
Connie Zweig: Shadows on the Path
Jungian psychologist Connie Zweig explores the concept of the shadow self with the host, discussing religion, politics, and spirituality to reclaim lost aspects of oneself in this interview.
31 Oct 2025
Love As a Path to Healing with Swami Padmanabha
Mike Petrow interviews Swami Padmanabha, a Gaudiya Vaishnava monk, exploring vulnerability in heroes, navigating disillusionment with gurus, and understanding Bhakti Love as a path to spiritual healing.
15 Oct 2025
Healing in a Crowded Cosmos: Remembering Dr Barbara Holmes with Felicia Murrell
Felicia Murrell discusses the teachings of the late Dr. Barbara Holmes, exploring how personal wounds can lead to wisdom and how ancestors support individual evolution in this interview episode.
29 Sept 2025
Grief as a Sacred Path with Mirabai Starr
Mirabai Starr explores grief as a sacred path, sharing her interspiritual journey and insights on healing the world in this interview with Mike.
Inside a recent episode
Jim Class with James Finley PhD
Published 16 Oct 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] Yeah. And a person can be in a marriage and they can't bear the thought that anything could ever happen to it before the very ice is falling apart. So here's the thing, though. The person deals with the pain of that. But then the person discovers, here's no way I put it poetically. Sometimes things can get so dark that we lose our way in our own life. Yeah. it can get so dark but the thing is this if we don't panic if we don't panic and we sit in the dark we discover that in the dark we're not alone yeah that a presence has been coming and looking for us or was there all along and it's illuminating the interiority of our darkness yeah and it's paradoxically luminous Like the heart knowledge of brokenness, the heart knowledge of loss, the heart knowledge as a knowledge, this luminous. […]
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