Welcome to...

An Adventure
in the mystery and the art of living

A Home
for shaping your presence in a tender, tumultuous world

A Companion
to the pleasure in thinking deeply with others

A Calling
to be part of the generative story of our time

On Being is a conversation that has been building for over two decades with wise and graceful lives — across spiritual inquiry and science, social healing and the arts. You likely know us through On Being with Krista Tippett, our Peabody award-winning show that began on public radio — now podcasting special seasons. We can be found in ears, and in conversations that matter, around the world.

We are animated by humanity’s ancient questions, newly alive in this century:

What does it mean to be human? 

How do we want to live? 

And who will we be to each other?

Wonder and strangeness commingle with the commonplace and universal in Danielle Chapman’s “Trespassing with Tweens.” In a not-quite mirroring, a human mother and her children stand and watch together in awe as a great blue heron flaps in and feeds its two offspring. The pleasures found here are profound and multiple – the joys in seeing, in sharing an experience of seeing, in seeing with fresh eyes, and in being seen.


We’re pleased to offer Danielle Chapman’s poem and invite you to subscribe to Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack newsletter, read the Poetry Unbound book, or listen to past episodes of the podcast. We also have two books coming out in early 2025 — Kitchen Hymns (new poems from Pádraig) and 44 Poems on Being with Each Other (new essays by Pádraig). You can pre-order them wherever you buy books.

Grounding Virtues

We speak together differently in order to live together differently. These six “grounding virtues” guide the On Being way of conversation. They are inspiring and grounding initiatives — analog and digital, institutional and communal — around the world. Read More.

Libraries

Our Libraries are thematic collections of writings and episodes from the On Being archive dating back to 2003. Wander the rows and scan the shelves.

Explore all Libraries

Our Funding Partners