The Commons

Tibetan healer Tenzin Namdul joins Arndt Braaten to talk faith, the mind as the root of illness, impermanence and why caring for others helps us heal.

Tibetan healer Tenzin Namdul joins Arndt Braaten to talk faith, the mind as the root of illness, impermanence and why caring for others helps us heal.

In Part 2 of this Headwaters Journal conversation, host Arndt Braaten and Dr. Tamim Saidi, a pharmacist, chaplain, and Afghan refugee, explore how faith carries us through hardship.

Tamim answers whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God, explains the difference between the Quran and the hadith, and shares the verses he turns to as a chaplain when people are suffering.

He also reflects on fleeing Kabul, raising four children in the Muslim faith, and the meaning of wudu. The episode closes with a heartfelt discussion of immigration, empathy, and an Ellis Island story from Arndt’s own family history.

Physician and pastor Arndt Braaten makes the case for bringing faith traditions back into public life. Explore the Naked Public Square, the Stone Soup model of community, and the Headwaters reading list on faith and health.

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Why faith traditions still belong in public life: Arndt Braaten on the public square, Stone Soup, and the books shaping Headwaters Journal.

Part two of my conversation with Anton Treuer picks up right where we left off, and it goes somewhere I honestly didn't expect.

We head out into the woods with Ezra on his first moose hunt, and what follows isn't just a hunting story.

It's a ceremony, a coming of age, and one of the most honest portraits of what it actually means to become an adult that I've come across in a long time.

This week I sat down with Anton Treuer, professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, author, ceremonial leader, and one of the most grounded and generous thinkers I've come across.