131: Terry Real - Redefining Masculinity: Men’s Hidden Depression & Relational Healing
In this episode of The Sacred Speaks, host Dr. John W. Price sits down with pioneering therapist and author Terry Real, whose decades of work have redefined how we understand men, relationships, and emotional life.
Nearly thirty years after the release of his groundbreaking book I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression, Terry reflects on the evolution of men’s inner worlds, the cultural forces that still shape them, and the courageous work required to heal.
This conversation moves between the personal and the collective—between the suffering of individual men and the systems that taught them to suffer silently. Together, John and Terry explore how patriarchy has halved both men and women, severing men from their emotional lives, and how healing requires a return to connection, empathy, and embodied relational practice.
Through heartfelt stories, clinical insight, and grounded wisdom, Terry calls us toward a new model of masculinity—one rooted not in dominance or disconnection but in courage, accountability, and love.
This episode is an invitation to anyone longing to understand the hidden pain of men and the pathways toward relational wholeness.
Key Themes
-Male depression as a covert epidemic—often masked by addiction, anger, or withdrawal rather than sadness.
-How patriarchy teaches men to fear vulnerability and equate worth with production, control, and performance.
-The intergenerational inheritance of silence and shame between fathers and sons.
-Why true intimacy depends on empathy, humility, and repair—not dominance or emotional avoidance.
-The call for a new relational culture that honors interdependence and shared healing.
Time Stamps
00:00 – Introduction & framing the conversation
03:00 – Revisiting I Don’t Want to Talk About It nearly 30 years later
06:30 – How patriarchy harms men and the women who love them
10:45 – Understanding covert male depression
16:20 – The producer model: when net worth becomes self-worth
22:10 – Loneliness and the erosion of male friendship
29:40 – Family systems, shame, and the father wound
37:15 – Relational Life Therapy: a model for repair
44:00 – Vulnerability as strength
50:30 – Healing through accountability and compassion
58:00 – The future of masculinity and relational wholeness
Connect with Terry Real
Explore Terry’s courses and trainings in Relational Life Therapy (RLT) for both professionals and general audiences:
🌐 terryreal.com
🌐 relationallife.com
Connect with Dr. John W. Price
Website: https://drjohnwprice.com
Podcast: https://thesacredspeaks.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjohnwprice/
If this conversation resonates, please like, share, and subscribe to The Sacred Speaks to support these ongoing dialogues at the crossroads of psyche, soul, and the sacred.
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130 - Richard Rohr: Happiness is an Inside Job
In this heartfelt episode of The Sacred Speaks, John Price sits down with longtime spiritual guide and Franciscan friar, Father Richard Rohr. Together they explore the deeper dimensions of happiness and meaning—moving far beyond cultural clichés.
Drawing on Richard’s decades of integrating psychology, spirituality, and mysticism, the conversation challenges conventional ideas of happiness as mere pleasure or circumstance. Instead, Richard invites us to embrace a “just right mind”—a way of living that balances ego, suffering, and joy.
Speaking with candor and humility, he reflects on aging, facing death, and the transformative power of love, community, and humor. This conversation is a profound invitation to shift from sin management to radical compassion and participation in a bigger, joyful universal flow.
Key Takeaways
True happiness emerges from a “just right mind” that balances enough ego to appreciate life without judgment or denial.
Happiness is not external comfort, but the capacity to meet suffering with grace and mindfulness.
Radical acceptance and surrender open us to a joy larger than the self.
Humor and community sustain lightheartedness and connection in the face of life’s challenges.
In This Episode
(00:00) Welcome to The Sacred Speaks
(03:57) A Deep Dive into Happiness
(05:33) The Concept of "Just Right" Mind
(10:49) Sin Management and Spiritual Growth
(14:40) The Role of Ritual and Authority
(18:27) Balancing Ego and Humility
(25:47) Order, Disorder, and Reorder
(27:45) The Illusion of Happiness in Modern Culture
(28:44) The Shadow Side of Comfort and Entertainment
(29:51) The Interplay of Happiness and Suffering
(33:28) Personal Reflections on Happiness
(36:11) Finding Joy in Simple Pleasures
(47:06) The Role of Humor in Happiness
(50:41) Nature as a Source of Happiness
(53:32) Final Thoughts on Happiness and Meaning
Connect with Richard Rohr
Official Website (Center for Action and Contemplation): https://cac.org
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cac_abq/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/richardrohrofm
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Rohr
CAC Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/re-release-father-richard-rohr-falling-upward/id1080170463
CAC YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMkqKAtSgijU439fJUNHnkA
Connect with Dr. John W. Price
Website: https://drjohnwprice.com
Podcast: https://thesacredspeaks.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjohnwprice/
If this conversation resonates, please like, share, and subscribe to The Sacred Speaks to support these ongoing dialogues at the crossroads of psyche, soul, and the sacred.
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129: Solo - Patterns Written in the Soul: Building a Rhythm for Spiritual Practice in Everyday Life
Explore the new site:
www.drjohnwprice.com
Join us in The Open Gate: https://www.drjohnwprice.com/the-open-gate-lt
In this solo episode, I explore what it means to build a rhythm of spiritual practice—not as an escape from life, but as a way of showing up for it.
I draw from my background growing up in a socially engaged religious community, my years as a psychotherapist, and the long process of returning to a deeper, embodied spirituality.
We’ll look at the difference between outer ritual and inner transformation, between spiritual performance and real participation. Along the way, I weave in ideas from Jungian psychology, the necessity of emotional honesty, and the quiet work of remembering the sacred within ordinary life.
This conversation is about developing a living rhythm, a pattern written in the soul, that keeps us connected to meaning, community, and presence.
Key Themes
Spiritual practice is both an inner path and a shared human process.
Rhythm matters more than perfection.
Emotional experiences—grief, fear, longing—are not obstacles; they are initiations.
Nature and everyday ritual reawaken a sense of belonging and presence.
Community, teaching, and discipline form the architecture of a spiritual life.
In This Episode
00:00 — Introduction to Spiritual Practice
02:06 — Defining Spirituality
03:53 — The Importance of Contemplative Practice
08:44 — Personal Experiences and Insights
18:07 — Challenges and Misconceptions
23:56 — Practical Steps and Final Reflections
Follow:
Instagram — @thesacredspeaks
Facebook — The Sacred Speaks
Brought to you by: www.centerforhas.com
Theme Music: www.modernnationmusic.com
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128 - Mirabai Starr: Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground
In this episode of The Sacred Speaks, host Dr. John W. Price welcomes Mirabai Starr—acclaimed translator of the mystics, teacher of interspiritual wisdom, and luminous guide to the sacred woven through daily life. Together, they explore the heart of ordinary mysticism: discovering holiness not only in monasteries or mountaintops, but in the tender rhythms of our own existence.
Mirabai opens her story with radical honesty—her countercultural Jewish upbringing, alternative education, and the teachers and traditions that shaped her. The conversation turns to how rigid ideas of “being spiritual” can keep us from true intimacy with the divine, and how humility, humor, and embodiment restore us to a living spirituality. Mirabai shares how the death of her teenage daughter became a devastating but sacred initiation, revealing grief as one of the deepest portals into divine love.
Moving between ancient voices and her own life, Mirabai offers a mysticism that is fiercely tender, humble, embodied, and accessible to all. This dialogue invites us to see our own lives as sacred ground—woven with loss and beauty, pain and joy, shadow and wonder.
Key Takeaways
Mysticism is accessible in everyday life, not just in monasteries or religious settings.
Rigid religious or cultural ideas of “spirituality” can block authentic spiritual experience.
Embodiment and emotions—especially grief—are sacred entry points into deeper connection.
Translating the mystics is less about history than entering a living dialogue across time.
Friendship, humor, humility, and even money can be part of an integrated spiritual life.
In This Episode
(00:00) Introduction and Welcome
(00:20) Introducing Mirabai
(01:14) Mirabai’s Background and Influences
(02:30) Personal Tragedy and Grief
(03:21) Housekeeping and Announcements
(05:26) Interview with Mirabai Starr Begins
(07:33) Ordinary Mysticism and Everyday Spirituality
(08:54) Critique of Organized Religion
(13:38) Counterculture Upbringing and Influence
(18:39) Alternative Education and Teaching Philosophy
(23:29) Feminine Mysticism and Embodiment
(38:32) Translating the Mystics as Living Companions
(43:33) The Supernatural and the Natural
(45:55) Writing as Dialogic Spiritual Practice
(51:27) Grief and the Sacredness of Loss
(01:00:21) Writing as a Spiritual Path
(01:14:02) Navigating Money and Spirituality
(01:18:17) Closing Reflections & Resources
Connect with Mirabai Starr
Company: Wild Heart
Community: Holy Lament (online support for grief; opens twice yearly, next in Nov 2025)
Book: Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground (HarperOne, Sept 2025)
Earlier Works: Wild Mercy, Caravan of No Despair, her translations of Dark Night of the Soul and The Interior Castle, and more - check out Mirabai's website: mirabaistarr.com
Connect with John
Come and join, The Open Gate. Link on website
Website: https://drjohnwprice.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjohnwprice/
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127 - Jeffrey Kripal: How To Think Impossibly
What does it mean to think impossibly? How do paranormal events, mystical visions, and encounters with the unknown reshape our understanding of what it means to be human?
In this episode, host Dr. John W. Price sits down with Dr. Jeffrey Kripal — J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, and one of today’s most daring scholars of religion — to explore the borders between the possible and the impossible.
Together, they trace the line where scholarship meets the mystical, where imagination bends into healing, and where our deepest worldviews determine what we are even able to see. From UFOs and near-death experiences to William Blake, dual-aspect monism, and the future of spirituality, this is a wide-ranging conversation about living at the edges of reality.
Be sure to check out Jeff’s latest book, How to Think Impossibly: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Else.
Key Takeaways
Embracing the impossible expands not just our knowledge, but our capacity for awe, healing, and transformation.
Worldviews — personal and cultural — filter what counts as “real,” shaping how we encounter extraordinary experiences.
Paranormal phenomena aren’t just curiosities; they are symbolic invitations into deeper practice and meaning.
Thinking impossibly is less about belief and more about orientation — a way of living that opens us to mystery.
Dialogue at the borderlands of science, religion, and imagination may hold the key to the future of spirituality.
In This Episode
(00:00) Introduction & Guest Bio
(01:59) Housekeeping & Announcements
(05:13) The Origins of “Thinking Impossibly”
(09:52) Stories of the Impossible
(13:16) The Role of Worldviews
(16:34) Religion, Science, and the Paranormal
(22:14) Healing, Suffering, and Transformation
(28:32) The Power of Story & Magic
(35:12) Teaching the Impossible
(42:39) The Future of Spirituality
(46:06) Closing Reflections & Resources
Connect:
Jeffrey: https://jeffreyjkripal.com
John: https://www.drjohnwprice.com
Join depth psychotherapist and Jungian scholar, John Price, in an exploration of extraordinary stories and phenomena that lurk beneath the surface of normal and everyday life. Listen in as John interviews experts, dilettantes, sinners, and saints to explore their professional and personal perspective on the underlying purpose of the mysteries which lurk within the seemingly mundane nature of day-to-day life.
John received his Master’s degree in clinical psychology and his Doctorate degree in Jungian psychology. He is in private practice and is also on the faculty of The Jung Center and The University of St. Thomas, both located in Houston, Texas. He lectures and teaches classes in subjects ranging from Parenting and Consciousness to Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll.
This podcast seeks to accept a challenge laid out by Carl Jung: to explore the universal human feelings of emotional incompleteness, spiritual curiosity and one’s related search for wholeness and meaning. Interviews commence with the belief that, by engaging in this exploration, we can learn more about the psyche, consciousness, spirituality, philosophy and the profound, though often hidden, meaning of the day-to-day lives we lead (or which will lead us, if we aren’t watchful).
Come along as John follows people into bars, universities, places of worship, financial districts and the home. He finds each context equally able to provide a setting for this worthy search and also that, through this process, we have an opportunity to come to know each other and ourselves much more deeply.
Brasil