Shows
The Conscious ClassroomA Night Under the Bodhi Tree: The True Posture of MeditationSend a textIn a rare podcast, our host Amy Edelstein shares a personal experience of meditating at the site of the Buddha's awakening in Bodh Gaya back in 1985. In her inimitable narrative style, you'll feel the chill of a predawn rickshaw ride, the rustle of Bodhi leaves, and the mind challenge of conquering challenging mental states. Through Amy's experience, you'll settle into the posture of true meditation, open, curious, and willing to discover. If you’ve ever tried to “win” at practice, chased a perfect sit, or judged yourself by your ment...
2026-03-0816 minThe Conscious ClassroomAwe, Accountability, and AI: Teaching the Next Generation to Co-Create ResponsiblySend a textWhy awe belongs not the makers, not the machines...Awe belongs to the makers who dare, persist, and stand by their work. In this episode, Amy Edelstein opens with a striking contrast: Olympic snowboarders whose courage makes us hold our breath, and synchronized robots whose elegance points back to the human minds that designed every leap. From that lens, she digs into a question shaping classrooms and homes everywhere: how do we welcome synthetic intelligence as a powerful collaborator without losing the accountability, empathy, and taste that make le...
2026-02-2425 minThe Conscious ClassroomMeme Carriers - An Encounter with AlexaSend a textA simple request for the time turned into a lesson on hidden defaults and the values they carry. When Alexa, perhaps the most popular voice assistant offered eight new voices, Amy Edelstein follows the breadcrumb trail from “small” UX choices to big cultural scripts that land in our homes and classrooms. Along the way, she unpack how labels like “professional” for a male voice and “soothing” for female voices quietly reset expectations for students who are still forming their sense of agency and identity.She looks at the idea of “meme carriers”: everyday cues, t...
2026-01-1831 minThe Conscious ClassroomMindfulness, More than A Productivity HackSend a textIn this episode, Amy Edelstein unpacks why mindfulness goes beyond technique and how wonder is a key ingredient that develops authentic leadership in young people and adults. Mindfulness as only an add-on falls short of what it can be and how awe, gratitude, and presence foster the qualities of autonomy and leadership that are becoming more and more important. She encourages reflection on the wonder of human capacities, at a time when there is much attention on the capabilities of synthetic intelligence. In this session, Amy will• contrast typical executive coa...
2025-11-0128 minThe Conscious ClassroomTeaching Wonder: Jane Goodall inspires a Conscious GenerationSend a textWhat if the most powerful classroom tool isn’t another strategy, but a deeper way of seeing? In this episode, Amy Edelstein explore show purpose, presence, and philosophical clarity can reshape teaching from the inside out—so young people feel safe to grow, wonder, and lead with heart.As Amy reflects on the quiet force of Jane Goodall’s life—her translucent presence, her unflinching observation of beauty and brutality, and her devotion to conservation—and translates those lessons into daily actions educators can take: walk lighter, listen longer, hold paradox without flinching...
2025-10-0529 minThe Conscious ClassroomMiddle School Mindfulness, Made PracticalSend a textIn this episode, Amy Edelstein shares a practical, developmentally appropriate guidance on teaching mindfulness to middle schoolers. She describes how to adjust practices to this age group, with a focus on structure, repetition, and emotional intelligence. Paying attention to their emerging selfhood, a teacher can guide that emergence while recognizing that students are still very group oriented. Short, tactile practices, playful competition, and thoughtful repeated transitions help students build mindfulness habits that will last.Tips and Guidelines in this session:• modeling calm, order, and consistent routines
2025-09-0924 minThe Conscious ClassroomLetting Go & Creating Safe Spaces: Rituals for the Conscious ClassroomSend a textFor teachers feeling overwhelmed by global challenges and classroom responsibilities, this episode offers a lifeline of wisdom. Amy Edelstein delves into the transformative power of letting go—not as abandonment of responsibility, but as a profound acceptance that creates space for growth.Just as great trees stand witness through storms and seasons, we can bear witness, standing still, mindfully being with emotions without trying to fix them. We can practice being present with our own anxiety, grief, or despair. Inner work is essential. When we metabolize our emotions, we become capable of au...
2025-08-1020 minThe Conscious ClassroomMindful Interconnectedness: Seeing Beyond Personal StressSend a textIn this episode, Amy Edelstein explains why she included the lessons on systems thinking in the Inner Strength Teen Mindfulness Program. Teaching students how to understand their experiences within larger systems, helps them manage stress by seeing interconnections across time and society rather than taking challenges personally.You'll learn why:• Teaching teens to think in context allows them to see how their current stressors connect to broader historical developments• Systems thinking serves as powerful self-care by revealing our interdependence and reducing feelings of isolation• Understanding interde...
2025-06-3024 minThe Conscious ClassroomTrue North: The Key to Navigating Change in EducationSend a textIn this episode Amy Edelstein explores what it can meet to root in our True North, our deepest values, when we lean into how education needs to transform.The questions surrounding education's future form an intricate web: How do we pause and reflect while simultaneously responding to the immediate needs of our students? Who funds it and why? What outcomes do we desire? How do we serve students with vastly different backgrounds and trajectories? When confronting complexity, Amy looks at how returning to a "true north" of universal human va...
2025-04-2627 minThe Conscious ClassroomBrave New Learning: Sal Khan, AI Tutors, & the Future of Mindfulness EducationSend a textThe educational landscape is undergoing a profound transformation through artificial intelligence, and mindfulness education stands at this exciting frontier. In this thought-provoking exploration, Amy Edelstein reviews Sal Khan's new book "Brave New Words" and unpacks the potential and challenge of AI tutors to support students' inner development, while maintaining crucial human connections.Amy examines Khan's great success with Khan Academy and the AI Khanmigo, looking specifically at how AI tutors can personalize learning experiences, making first-class education and tools more accessible. AI tutors can deliver mindfulness content in students' native l...
2025-03-1734 minThe Conscious ClassroomReturning to AnalogSend a textIn this episode of The Conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein questions the use of the popular idiom "returning to analog." While agreeing with the sentiment that we reconnect with the preciousness of our humanity as technology continues to advance rapidly, she questions placing that sentiment within in technical context. Amy discusses the balance between digital experiences and the visceral richness of our awareness and connections and looks at some of the questions surrounding Ed-Tech and the integration of AI into the classroom. Key themes include:• Exploring the concept of returning to analog in a...
2025-02-0425 minThe Conscious ClassroomInspiration, Illumination & Sacred Intention: A New Year's Day ContemplationSend a textThis episode of The Conscious Classroom with Amy Edelstein invites us to explore the power of setting meaningful intentions and to learn how to let go of will-based resolutions as the most effective means to create lasting transformation. By uncovering our deepest values and nurturing inspiration from within, we can align our actions with what truly matters to us and engage in positive change, both personally and collectively.Amy will delve into:• Identifying the value of intentions rather than resolutions• Reflecting on our deeper cares as we set our t...
2025-01-0541 minThe Conscious ClassroomBeing with What Is During the HolidaysSend a textHolidays are awe-filled and also can bring about feelings of sadness, grief and loneliness for ourselves and our students. Join Amy Edelstein in this episode of The Conscious Classroom Podcast as we explore how to let go into the present moment and find the posture that allows us to be with what is with grace, strength, and presence. The holiday season can be a challenging time, filled with mixed emotions and societal expectations. As educators, we have the unique opportunity to guide our students through these complexities with grace and awareness. This e...
2024-12-1128 minThe Conscious ClassroomDedication, Transformation & the ArtsSend a textExperience the essence of creativity and dedication with Amy Edelstein as we journey with her to CoSM, the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in the Catskills. This episode celebrates Alex and Alison Gray, the visionary artists who have devoted decades to the transformative power of art. For their entire adult life, they have been expressing their own adventures in consciousness through their unique for of art, becoming leaders and pillars of the psychedelic art movement. They exemplify how art can be a conduit for personal and collective growth, and their center stands as one of...
2024-11-2631 minThe Conscious ClassroomCreating Positive Spaces with a Grateful MindsetSend a textCreating Positive Spaces with a Grateful MindsetIt's so simple, could it really change our outlook, experience and classrooms? In this episode of the Conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein looks at ways that gratitude can transform our experience and deepen our understanding of presence, interconnectedness, and awe. You will see how we can shift our perspectives, working with everyday events like traffic irritation, and cultivate a very different mindset. It's not lightweight, it can have a real impact and reveal profound truths about the nature of our world. Discovering how...
2024-10-3122 minThe Conscious ClassroomAuthenticity: the elusive quality that ignites classroomsSend a textDo you feel like you're authentic in your teaching and in your life? How does we "become" more authentic? Can mindfulness bring authenticity or is it more than that?In this episode, Amy unpacks the elusive quality of authenticity. We all think we know it when we see it but how do we develop it? Authenticity brings integrity and stability into our classrooms. Embracing vulnerability and aligning with our core values revolutionizes our teaching and enables our students to trust and let go so they can learn. ...
2024-09-2934 minThe Conscious ClassroomContentment in Times of StressSend a textDiscover the secret to finding profound contentment even in the most stressful times. What if you could cultivate a deeper sense of fulfillment through mindful awareness and systems thinking? On today's Conscious Classroom podcast, Amy Edelstein guides you through transformative insights that will help you create spaces for rejuvenation. You'll learn how to harness the power of meditation to develop an inner sense of wholeness and simplicity, empowering you to maintain a backdrop of contentment no matter the challenges you face.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode please ...
2024-08-2630 minThe Conscious ClassroomPlato Knew It All Along - Teachers, Transmission & Trustworthy ImpactSend a textCan shifting the focus for teachers from content to connection be the key to lifting adolescent loneliness? Journey with Amy Edelstein on this episode of the Conscious Classroom podcast as she unpacks the role of teachers as moral exemplars, following the principles laid out by Plato. You'll explore how transmission occurs and why teachers impact not just academic success, but also ethics, values, and personal connection that can make a real difference in students' lives.Amy shares a personal story of how her fifth-grade teacher from Linden Elementary S...
2024-06-041h 04The Conscious ClassroomEducation Design that Works: Blending Visionary Ideas with Classroom RealitiesSend a textIn this episode we pack two levels of insight that are mostly at odds with one another when it comes to improving educational design. We examine the dual landscape of educational innovation, where grand visions and data analysis for systemic change clash with the hands-on challenges of classroom application. Working with systems thinking, the fact that we are all innovating around the same core issue, Amy Edelstein illuminates what can become synergy between high-level design and practical program execution. For true reform to be meaningful and pragmatic, we must work with the tools that h...
2024-05-0729 minThe Conscious ClassroomJim Crow's Pink Slip - Dismantling the Education GapSend a textJim Crow's Pink Slip - Dismantling the Education Gap with Amy EdelsteinIn this episode of The conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein helps illuminate the little-known history and ongoing influence of resistance to de-segregation within America's education system - and how mindfulness, being conscious and aware of our biases, is an important part of our work to redress inequity. Leslie Fenwick's seminal work, Jim Crow's Pink Slip, serves as a guide and compass, unveiling the long shadow left by the dismissal or demotion of a significant number of black principals and educators after t...
2024-04-1832 minThe Conscious ClassroomAwareness & Innovation: The Wings of Tomorrow's EducationSend a textUnlock the synergy between mindfulness and innovation as Amy Edelstein explores the relationship between these two orientations in this episode of the Conscious Classroom. Imagine a learning environment where the air is alive with creativity, and students and teachers alike are inspired to view the world through a lens of fresh possibilities. This discussion unearths the possibilities that contemplative practice can reveal, and shows how marrying innovation and inner exploration is working. In Inner Strength Education's pilot project with 10 student interns explore the XPRIZE Connect innovation curriculum and Inner Strength Education's tools of open a...
2024-03-2730 minThe Conscious ClassroomMindful Joy: The Secret Sauce in Educational LeadershipSend a textIn this episode of The Conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein unpacks the importance of teacher happiness and how to use mindful awareness and perspectives to improve teacher wellbeing and sense of possibility prior to making practical changes, which undoubtedly also need to occur. Amy explores the impact of educators who tap into their passion, setting the classroom tone and invigorating their students with a love for learning. In this insightful episode, she dissects how a teacher's zest for their craft can revolutionize the traditional learning space, fostering innovation and a thriving environment for b...
2024-03-0325 min
Handful of Leaves | Mindfulness & Buddhism in Everyday LifeEp 9: Near Death Experience Ft Amy Edelstein- #1 Amazon Bestselling Author)About Amy Edelstein:
IPPY-award winner and #1 Amazon bestselling author
Begun her own meditation practice in 1978, spent four decades practicing, studying, researching, writing about
Founder of Inner Strength Education, which brings mindfulness, systems thinking, and social-emotional tools to under-resourced schools, training more than 17,000 teens in Philadelphia public high schools.
Created a trauma-informed free mindfulness app for teens Inner Strength VIBE, available on GooglePlay and App Stores.
Awarded a Philadelphia Social Innovation Award for her organisation’s work in Violence Reduction.
She is a Cornell University College scholar and the author of six books, including The Conscious Classroom.
T...
2024-02-2047 minThe Conscious ClassroomMindfulness Is Not A Pill, It's a PerspectiveSend a textDiscover the keys to unlocking our children's potential in an era where education is at a crossroads and technology's influence is undeniable. This enlightening journey through the world of learning reveals how an evolved mindset, coupled with a transformative educational system, is essential for nurturing the curiosity, purpose, wisdom, and respect desperately needed today. Amy delves into the challenges presented by outdated institutions, and the pressures faced by both students and educators as they navigate the fragmented structures of modern society. While mindfulness is a tool, and a valuable one, what it reveals is...
2024-02-1821 minThe Conscious ClassroomA Human Relationship to AISend a textDiscover how the relationship we forge with AI in our classrooms can go beyond mere functionality to touch the very core of our humanity. Join me, Amy Edelstein, as we unveil the transformative potential of AI when approached with the same reverence we approach the great mysteries and subtleties of sentience and life. It's an invitation to infuse our relationship to educational technologies with wonder, respect, and a co-creative spirit that not only advances our learning tools but also shapes the hearts and minds of learners. By instilling these values, we contribute to a...
2024-02-0524 minThe Conscious ClassroomScaling Compassion? AI possibilities & Real Life ExamplesSend a textIn this episode, Amy Edelstein reflects on a recent trip to India, which raised intriguing and inspiring possibilities as she visiting with the founders of the Happiness Curriculum, that reaches 1.7 million students each day. She also explores AI potential and urgency to train AI on compassion and wisdom and scale that use for the benefit of all. She also shares the value of reflection, retreat, and time to let our minds open up to new ways of seeing as essential to keep our relationship to life and those we teach awake and alive.
2024-01-2131 min