logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2022
28m 23s

Michael Imperioli: Having the courage to...

Waitwhat
About this episode

When actor Michael Imperioli is 17, he makes an impulsive move: on the day he's supposed to drive up to college, instead he takes the train down to New York City and signs up for acting classes. His parents are baffled, but they give him an enormous gift: they trust him. As he grows as an artist, Michael realizes the way that the courage to trust – in your instincts, in your teachers, and in one another – is what forms the foundation for a brave, creative life.

Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story: meditativestory.com

Sign up for the Meditative Story newsletter: https://meditativestory.com/subscribe

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Up next
Yesterday
Asking for what we need, by Kathryn Nicolai
Kathryn Nicolai, creator of the Nothing Much Happens podcast, learns at an early age to diminish her own needs. She never wants to become a problem for other people, so she pretends like she’s always okay. When she gets an opportunity to study abroad in Italy, a difficult experie ... Show More
35m 17s
Aug 19
Building trust in ourselves, by Rohan Gunatillake
Today’s meditation features a special guest, Rohan’s 7 year-old son, Arne. Letting go can come in stages, or so Rohan experiences on a recent holiday with his family. As his 7 year-old son Arne builds his swimming skills, Rohan realizes he’s gone from an active, hands-on support ... Show More
17m 39s
Aug 12
Loving our living world, by Carl Safina
We all need to love and be loved, we all want to feel not alone in this world. And this is true for all of the living world, says ecologist and author Carl Safina. Carl has spent his whole life interacting with the wild, from raising pigeons on a Brooklyn rooftop to trekking thro ... Show More
30m 38s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2023
The “Performance Whisperer” George Mumford Has Deep Strategies for Flow and Success
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. ---- Perhaps nobody is better at helping people unlock themselves than the Buddhist meditation teacher George Mumford who taught meditation to Michael Jordan and ... Show More
56m 9s
Nov 2020
135: Mara Wilson, Acting Cults And Isolation Tanks
We are joined this week by writer and actress Mara Wilson to discuss how acting classes can function like cults and why. Mara reveals her personal Alison Mack story and talks about how we can protect child actors on sets. Then she tells us about her personal isolation tank experi ... Show More
47m 18s
Apr 2022
Prologue: What’s More Than A Feeling?
Before we dive deep into stories about fear, acceptance, jealousy, joy, shame and other big feelings, we have to get philosophical and ask: what are emotions anyway? Host Saleem Reshamwala was always trying to figure this question out when he was growing up as a mashup kid: bounc ... Show More
35m 17s
Dec 2020
A Reason to Reveal Your Secrets
GP is joined by Ed Catmull, cofounder of Pixar, former president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, and author of the New York Times–bestselling book Creativity, Inc. They talk about what it takes to establish the kind of company culture Catmull is revered for. The first step, he ... Show More
56m 28s
Feb 2020
#071: Free Yourself with Sylvester McNutt
Sylvester McNutt III is an 8x best selling author and his passion for living a life of freedom and truth is contagious. Join us as we roll through the experiences that shaped his work as a writer, from his childhood to teen life, to today where he is now expecting a child of his ... Show More
1h 12m
Apr 2023
Michael Imperioli (From The Sopranos and White Lotus) Knows a Shitload About Buddhist Meditation
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. -------- Actor Michael Imperioli is best known for a string of memorable onscreen performances that include Goodfellas, The Sopranos, and most recently on The Wh ... Show More
58m 24s
May 2023
A Personal Story from Dan
As you might already know, May is Mental Health Awareness Month – and, while mental health is important every month, it’s an important opportunity to share resources that can help one another.  So, in that spirit – we’re going to bring you a bonus episode from a podcast we love c ... Show More
28m 11s
Jan 2023
Love, Heartbreak & Healing, an Artist’s Journey | Timothy Goodman
What if you didn’t have to keep everything bottled up? Or show up a certain way? Or deny what you’re going through or feeling? What if you could just sit with it, feel it fully, then find a way to not only release it, but turn those feelings, thoughts, and emotions into something ... Show More
54m 1s
Oct 2022
If You’ve Ever Doubted Whether Meditation Works, Listen to This Story | Ali Smith, Atman Smith, and Andres Gonzalez
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- You may remember hearing a massively viral story from a few years ago about a school in Baltimore that gave students meditation, instead of detention.  Ali S ... Show More
1h 6m
Apr 2022
Fear: Get Me Out of Here
Everyone’s afraid of something. But how often do we talk openly about our biggest fears with friends or even complete strangers? In this episode, producer Mark Pagán opens up to Saleem about something that’s been freaking him out for years, so much so that it's seriously affected ... Show More
54m 13s