Vox and the Vox Media Podcast Network today announced the launch of Future Perfect: The Way Through, a limited eight-episode series that will explore the ways in which humans have navigated suffering throughout history. As we live through a year that has tested our resolve both as individuals and as communities, Vox’s Sean Illing and Sigal Samuel will interview religious leaders, scholars, historians, and more to help us understand and process this moment.
In the premiere episode, available now, Samuel speaks with Valerie Brown, an African American mindfulness teacher with a racial justice lens. She discusses the fascinating historical connections between Buddhist practice and Black activism, and explains how we can all use Buddhist spiritual teachings not just to soothe us as individuals, but also to tackle broader racial inequality today. “Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh has coined the term inter-being,” Brown tells Samuel. “Inter-being meaning that we are interconnected connected. So when a black person is able to obtain justice and peace, all people are going to benefit. And so it’s an illusion to think that somehow the white suburban person in the Midwest is separate.”
Future Perfect is Vox’s content vertical about how to find the best ways to do good. Previous seasons of the Future Perfect podcast have explored effective altruism and how philanthropy clashes with democracy.
Listen to the show trailer and the first episode of the new series, and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or in your favorite podcast app to automatically receive new episodes, which will publish weekly on Wednesday mornings.
Sigal Samuel is an award-winning novelist and journalist. Currently a staff writer at Vox, she previously worked as religion editor at The Atlantic, opinion editor at the Forward, and associate editor at the Daily Beast.
Sean Illing is the Interviews Writer for Vox. Before publishing things on the Internet, he taught politics and philosophy at Louisiana State University. Before that, he served in the United States Air Force.
