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TRADITIONALISM & THE PERENNIAL WISDOM | Free Radical Podcast #59 | Kenneth Oldmeadow, Dec. 3, 2025
In this episode of the Free Radical Podcast, we sit down with Kenneth (Harry) Oldmeadow—author, scholar, and lifelong explorer of the world’s wisdom traditions. Carried to India as a baby and raised there through his first decade, Oldmeadow’s early immersion in a tapestry of cultures and faiths helped shape a life devoted to understanding the world’s spiritual inheritances. His later studies in history, politics, literature, and cinema—along with extensive travel across Europe, North Africa, and the subcontinent—widened that horizon even further. With more than fifteen books, award-winning research, and decades of teaching behind him, he brings an entire library’s worth of perspective to the table. Together, we wander into the heart of perennialism: the possibility that an eternal, unchanging truth breathes through the world’s diverse spiritual forms. From the paradox of a reality that is at once timeless and ever-unfolding, to the role of myth, symbol, and art as gateways to the inner life, this conversation opens like a many-petaled mandala. We explore the dance between exoteric and esoteric knowing, the gifts and hazards of modernity, and the subtle places where traditions converge without losing their distinct contours. Underneath it all is a shared longing: to discover a common ground deep enough to honor real diversity. It’s a rich, warm, far-reaching dialogue—an invitation to slow down, listen deeply, and rediscover the wisdom traditions as living companions. Pull up a chair. Join the conversation. https://youtu.be/msftlS8gISg ▶ CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION: Gaudiya Reform Forum on Facebook .~ Swami Padmanabha’s Channels ▶ FACEBOOK ▶ YOUTUBE ▶ INSTAGRAM ▶ WEBSITE ▶ PURCHASE RADICAL PERSONALISM: Revival Manifesto for Proactive Devotion in hardcover, paperback, and/or Kindle formats on Amazon ▶ WRITE your REVIEW of RADICAL PERSONALISM ~ Tadatmya Sangha’s Channels ▶ WEBSITE ▶ FACEBOOK ▶ INSTAGRAM ▶ YOUTUBE
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Rebooting Bhakti: The Plateau, the Reset, and the Hard Work | FRP #58 — Giri Govardhana 11/19/25
In this episode of the Free Radical Podcast, we continue our ongoing dialogue with reality—an ever-unfolding attempt to understand our place in the world and beyond it. Joining the conversation is Giri Govardhan Prabhu, whose journey in the Gaudiya tradition began in the early 1980s and has carried him through decades of service, reflection, and sincere inner search. In recent years, Giri Govardhan Prabhu has found himself in a familiar yet often unspoken space: a sense of spiritual stagnation. Rather than hiding it behind shame or guilt, he has taken it as an invitation for honest inquiry—a call to unlearn, relearn, and rediscover the heart of his practice. Together, we explore: • How to navigate spiritual plateaus without fear, shame, or self-blame• The hidden misconceptions that quietly shape our devotional lives• How to normalize experiences we often stigmatize• The art of rebooting our spiritual journey with clarity, humility, and purpose• Why deconstruction, when done with love, becomes an act of deeper construction Welcome to the conversation—an ongoing, never-ending dialogue with reality itself. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MgkcaXzFNZg ▶ CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION: Gaudiya Reform Forum on Facebook .~ Swami Padmanabha’s Channels ▶ FACEBOOK ▶ YOUTUBE ▶ INSTAGRAM ▶ WEBSITE ▶ PURCHASE RADICAL PERSONALISM: Revival Manifesto for Proactive Devotion in hardcover, paperback, and/or Kindle formats on Amazon ▶ WRITE your REVIEW of RADICAL PERSONALISM ~ Tadatmya Sangha’s Channels ▶ WEBSITE ▶ FACEBOOK ▶ INSTAGRAM ▶ YOUTUBE
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Everything Belongs: Contemplation at the Edges of Love and Mystery | FRP#57 — Mike Petrow 11/5/25
In this episode of the Free Radical Podcast, Swami Padmanabha sits down with Mike Petrow — Christian contemplative scholar, Jungian specialist, spiritual director, and close collaborator of Father Richard Rohr at the Center for Action and Contemplation. Together, they explore a living conversation where reality is not a conclusion but a continuous unfolding. Their dialogue weaves through: 🕊️ The contemplative Christian path and the legacy of Richard Rohr🌿 Everything belongs — embracing wholeness without losing discernment🔥 Risk-taking in love and the courage to live from our brightest potential🌓 Shadow work through a Jungian lens — befriending what we fear💫 The dance of union and separation with the Divine📚 The wisdom of Origen, Carl Jung, and mystical traditions✨ What it means to stay in dialogue when certainty tempts us to stop listening This is a conversation where questions illuminate more than answers, and transformation happens in the space between perspectives. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qzejhiWF_ls?si=_A5OXadwe2cgw1S9 ▶ CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION: Gaudiya Reform Forum on Facebook .~ Swami Padmanabha’s Channels ▶ FACEBOOK ▶ YOUTUBE ▶ INSTAGRAM ▶ WEBSITE ▶ PURCHASE RADICAL PERSONALISM: Revival Manifesto for Proactive Devotion in hardcover, paperback, and/or Kindle formats on Amazon ▶ WRITE your REVIEW of RADICAL PERSONALISM ~ Tadatmya Sangha’s Channels ▶ WEBSITE ▶ FACEBOOK ▶ INSTAGRAM ▶ YOUTUBE
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Does Hinduism Really Exist? | The Free Radical Podcast #56 — Arjuna | October, 15, 2025
In this episode of the Free Radical Podcast, Swami Padmanabha sits down with Arjuna—devotee, podcaster, and creator of Theology Unleashed. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, Arjuna has been practicing bhakti-yoga for 15 years, grew up in a Christian background, and brings a thoughtful, inclusivist lens to the world’s wisdom traditions. Together they explore a provocative question: Does “Hinduism” really exist?Where did the term come from? Does it actually reflect the richness and diversity of the Indian subcontinent’s traditions—ranging from atheism, skepticism, and logic to panentheism, polytheism, monotheism, impersonalism, and radical personalism? Or does it flatten this vast landscape into something misleadingly uniform? ✨ This conversation unpacks the nuances behind the term and searches for creative, universal ways to engage with India’s spiritual heritage—and beyond—in a manner that truly honors its depth and diversity. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXo_MpsMr20 ▶ CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION: Gaudiya Reform Forum on Facebook .~ Swami Padmanabha’s Channels ▶ FACEBOOK ▶ YOUTUBE ▶ INSTAGRAM ▶ WEBSITE ▶ PURCHASE RADICAL PERSONALISM: Revival Manifesto for Proactive Devotion in hardcover, paperback, and/or Kindle formats on Amazon ▶ WRITE your REVIEW of RADICAL PERSONALISM ~ Tadatmya Sangha’s Channels ▶ WEBSITE ▶ FACEBOOK ▶ INSTAGRAM ▶ YOUTUBE
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Hindu and Catholic, Priest and Scholar—a Love Story | Francis X Clooney—Free Radical Podcast 10/1/25
In this episode, Swami Padmanabha sits down with Francis X. Clooney, Jesuit priest, scholar, and Parkman Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School. A pioneer in comparative theology, Professor Clooney has spent decades engaging Hindu and Christian traditions through deep study of Sanskrit and Tamil classics, interreligious dialogue, and spiritual practice. Their conversation revolves around his newly published memoir, Hindu and Catholic, Priest and Scholar: A Love Story, and touches on themes of vocation, celibacy, academia and faith, Ramanuja and Gaudiya Vaishnavism, interspirituality, Ignatian spirituality, poetry, regret, choice, and the ever-evolving path of divine love. This enriching dialogue explores what it means to live faithfully and authentically at the crossroads of traditions, scholarship, and personal devotion. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jGFqVkFDMtc ▶ CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION: Gaudiya Reform Forum on Facebook .~ Swami Padmanabha’s Channels ▶ FACEBOOK ▶ YOUTUBE ▶ INSTAGRAM ▶ WEBSITE ▶ PURCHASE RADICAL PERSONALISM: Revival Manifesto for Proactive Devotion in hardcover, paperback, and/or Kindle formats on Amazon ▶ WRITE your REVIEW of RADICAL PERSONALISM ~ Tadatmya Sangha’s Channels ▶ WEBSITE ▶ FACEBOOK ▶ INSTAGRAM ▶ YOUTUBE
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About The Free Radical Podcast

The Free Radical Podcast is a creative encounter among like-minded and like-hearted spirits, regardless of their background or affiliation—or even non-affiliation. Following the call of our 21st Century spirituality, we embrace a trans-institutional commitment to spirituality rather than an institutionalized version of it. It is not so much about the demarkation of buildings but the exploration of hearts, not so much about fitting in but about deeply belonging—not so much about mere holiness but about wholeness as well. And it is the freedom born in the fire of these shared hearts who deeply belong to a process of becoming fully whole, fully persons, that creates the sacred space to step into new ways of being, deeper ways of being, radical—to the core—ways of being….and being what?….Being fully integrated individuals, whose humanity contextualizes their spirituality.Swami Padmanabha is an author, monk, and spiritual mentor who has just published his second book, called "Radical Personalism: Revival Manifesto for Proactive Devotion." The format of the podcast is not an interview as much as spontaneous exploration in dialogue, encouraging a multi-trait interdisciplinary method of approaching how we understand something—of looking at it from different angles and perspectives. We don’t expect to agree on everything with each person, but we do expect to use our differences as a way to approach each other, rather than an excuse for further distancing. The time has come to let down the draw bridges and learn how to deeply relate with ourselves, each other, and the world in meaningful ways. This experience of mutual enlightenment can be also called “Collective Introspection.” This joint reflection is probably “the highest form of worship and communion. Restricted to the individual, this power of reflection remains limited and rudimentary. It is only in connection to kindred spirits that we can discover our own depth and wholeness. In other words, the deepest form of reflection can be developed only in communion with others. It is essentially a social phenomenon.” (excerpt from Radical Personalism: Revival Manifesto for Proactive Devotion”). The Free Radical Podcast attempts to invoke sacred space and sacred conversation through deep expressive exchanges with like-minded souls with whom we share one same purpose in mind and heart, that purpose being to align our lives with the loving will of the Sweet Absolute, and to compassionately point to those things that need to be addressed for that miracle to continue happening in each of us. Please join the conversation. It won’t be the same without you.

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