About Jack Petranker

Jack Petranker is Founder and Senior Teacher at the Center for Creative Inquiry and Director of the Mangalam Buddhist Research Center, both in Berkeley. He has studied and taught in the fields of Buddhism, consciousness, political theory, and mindfulness for more than 40 years.

Jack Petranker is Founder and Senior Teacher at the Center for Creative Inquiry and the Director of the Mangalam Research Center in Berkeley, CA. He presents programs in Full Presence Mindfulness, an approach grounded in the teachings of Tibetan lama Tarthang Tulku.

Jack's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Jack:

Seth Zuiho Segall, "The House We Live in: Virtue, Wisdom, and Pluralism" (Equinox, 2023)

February 8, 2024

The House We Live in

Seth Zuiho Segall
Hosted by Jack Petranker

The values of liberalism, pluralism, and democratic governance are under sustained attack from right-wing Christian fundamentalists, white ethnonation…

Hélène Landemore, "Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century" (Princeton UP, 2020)

June 28, 2021

Open Democracy

Hélène Landemore
Hosted by Jack Petranker

Students of American history know that the framers of the Constitution were deeply concerned that the United States would founder on the shoals of mob…

Seth Zuihō Segall, "Buddhism and Human Flourishing: A Modern Western Perspective" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)

June 25, 2021

Buddhism and Human Flourishing

Seth Zuihō Segall
Hosted by Jack Petranker

Western Buddhism is still in its infancy, but as it grows, it is evolving, as has been true in every country where Buddhism was introduced over the pa…

Steven B. Smith, "Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes" (Yale UP, 2021)

June 8, 2021

Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes

Steven B. Smith
Hosted by Jack Petranker

In a time when questions about patriotism, nationalism, multiculturalism, and the like are sure to stir up controversy, Steven Smith offers a careful,…

T. M. Luhrmann, "How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others" (Princeton UP, 2020)

February 18, 2021

How God Becomes Real

T. M. Luhrmann
Hosted by Jack Petranker

Tanya Luhrmann has spent much of her career as an anthropologist investigating the complex ways that people engage religion and the supernatural. In H…

Michal Pagis, "Inward: Vipassana Meditation and the Embodiment of the Self" (U Chicago Press, 2019)

December 14, 2020

Inward

Michal Pagis
Hosted by Jack Petranker

There is a strong interest today in turning inward to explore the mind and body. Mindfulness meditation exemplifies this trend, and has become increas…

Stephanie Kaza, "Green Buddhism: Practice and Compassionate Action in Uncertain Times" (Shambhala, 2019)

February 20, 2020

Green Buddhism

Stephanie Kaza
Hosted by Jack Petranker

Stephanie Kaza is Professor Emerita of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont, and has written widely on Buddhism and the environment. She…

Ira Helderman, "Prescribing the Dharma: Psychotherapists, Buddhist Traditions, and Defining Religion" (UNC Press, 2019)

October 24, 2019

Prescribing the Dharma

Ira Helderman
Hosted by Jack Petranker

Buddhism and psychotherapy have been in conversation since the days of Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Erich Fromm. Today, when practices drawn from Bud…

Ann Gleig, "American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity" (Yale UP, 2019)

August 30, 2019

American Dharma

Ann Gleig
Hosted by Jack Petranker

With Buddhism entering the mainstream of American society, it inevitably encounters the cultural and social forces that make ours a postmodern society…