Season 3 Episode 5 of the MLE Podcast

Johanna Magin is MLE's Community and Programs Manager. Originally American and based in Paris, Johanna holds a PhD in French literature from Columbia University (New York) and a BA in French from the University of Chicago. Her research has focused on the medico-philosophical practices of several early-modern French authors in an attempt to understand the relationship between mind and body, and more broadly between science and spirituality, in that time period. Always keen to understand mind-body processes from an experiential perspective, she has also practiced Buddhism intensively since 2008 (Zen and Dzogchen), practiced improvisational dance and theatre since 2009, and is currently training to become a Rosen Method bodywork therapist. Before joining MLE, she worked as an academic program manager and adjunct faculty member at Sciences Po in France, where she taught on a wide number of subjects, from philosophy as a way of life to the politics of poetry.

Dr Stephen Nachmanovitch performs and teaches internationally as an improvisational violinist and at the intersections of multimedia, performing arts, ecology, and philosophy. He is the author of two books on the creative process: Free Play and The Art of Is. Born in 1950, he graduated in 1971 from Harvard with a degree in psychology and in 1975 from the University of California, where he earned a Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness for an exploration of William Blake. His mentor was the anthropologist and philosopher Gregory Bateson. He has taught and lectured in many countries on creativity and the spiritual, social, and ethical underpinnings of art, and on Bateson’s ecology of mind. Since the 1970s he has been a pioneer in free improvisation on violin, viola, and electric violin. He has presented lectures, master classes and workshops at many universities and conservatories, and has had numerous appearances on radio, television, and at music and theatre festivals. He has collaborated with other artists in media including music, dance, theatre, and film, and has developed programs melding art, music, literature, and computer technology. He has published articles in many fields since 1966 and has created computer software including The World Music Menu and Visual Music Tone Painter. He has been a Buddhist practitioner for decades and his Buddhist and musical practices inform each other. He is currently performing, recording, teaching, and writing. He lives with his family in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo Credit: Gregory Nachmanovitch)