Interview with Jeremy Engels, author of On Mindful Democracy: A Declaration of Interdependence to Mend a Fractured World
Jeremy Engels, author of On Mindful Democracy: A Declaration of Interdependence to Mend a Fractured World recommends a vital collection of books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Jeremy's book:
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On Mindful Democracy: A Declaration of Interdependence to Mend a Fractured World
An antidote to political burnout and civic despair: drawing on mindfulness and modern wisdom to cultivate resilience, healthy engagement, and skillful presence in turbulent times
A compact, beautifully designed guide offering 27 powerful teachings of interdependence to navigate news, social media, and civic engagement with clarity and courage
250 years after the US Declaration of Independence, this incisive Declaration of Interdependence is a timely, tender, and transformative guide for citizens who care deeply about the world but feel disillusioned by the state of public discourse. Professor Jeremy David Engels—scholar, mindfulness teacher, and longtime student of Thich Nhat Hanh—proposes that clarity and interconnection are not only paths to personal peace, but vital practices for renewing democracy itself.
Structured in the spirit of On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder, this compact, accessible book delivers 27 profound insights—each a short chapter—on how to show up for democracy with compassion, clarity, and courage. It invites readers to step away from enemyship, to root their activism in shared humanity, and to declare their interdependence.
Readers will discover:
• How mindfulness can heal the civic wounds of polarization and fear
• Practices for engaging with news and social media without being consumed
• A reimagining of democracy as collective empowerment, not endless conflict
• Zen stories and teachings to inspire transformation
• Practical tips for showing up skillfully in moments of disagreement and tension
Whether you’re a seasoned activist or a tender-hearted citizen seeking a new path forward, this luminous testament to resilience offers a lantern in the dark—and a quiet call to remember who we are, and what we’re here to do, together.
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Waterstones
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases)
I love Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. I’ve taught it several times in graduate courses, and have recommended it to countless friends. She accurately diagnoses our contemporary predicament—we’ve lost control of our attention—and offers several helpful suggestions for how to get our attention back. The writing is crisp and at times quite beautiful. Her book is the reason I took up bird watching.
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
In a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, it can seem impossible to escape. But in this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy, artist and critic Jenny Odell shows us how we can still win back our lives.
Odell sees our attention as the most precious—and overdrawn—resource we have. And we must actively and continuously choose how we use it. We might not spend it on things that capitalism has deemed important … but once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind’s role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress.
Far from the simple anti-technology screed, or the back-to-nature meditation we read so often, How to do Nothing is an action plan for thinking outside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, this book will change how you see your place in our world.
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Waterstones
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World by Jack Kornfield. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases)
I just read Jack Kornfield’s All In This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World. I had the privilege of training to be a meditation teacher with Jack (and Tara Brach), so I know him to be a wise teacher full of heart. This book shares several meditations, often drawn from real life, on human interconnectedness and the kindness we offer each other in moments of challenge. It’s a vital reminder that things are never as bad as they seem, so long as we have each other (and we always do). 5 stars.
All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World
At a time of collective anxiety, injustice, and suffering, this book helps us listen with compassion to the pulse of the world and to one another.
Beloved meditation teacher Jack Kornfield guides us toward our basic goodness.
He encourages us to remember our loving awareness, free ourselves and others from hatred and fear, and pave a path with heart where we all belong.
Through stories, poems, and fables, Kornfield shows us that the way to build a wise society within ourselves and for our world is through remembering our interconnectedness.
He reminds us to respect the world and ourselves even in the face of the incomprehensible.
He invites us to envision a generous world and therefore change it.
He guides us to heal our bodies and bring healing to the earth.
He teaches us that being of service is an endless source of happiness, and to remember that death also brings rebirth.
Accessible, timely, and heartfelt, the book offers a variety of perspectives, from Kornfield’s personal stories and the teachings of the Buddha to poetry from Mary Oliver and timeless legends.
Throughout, Kornfield reminds us that the inescapable pain and beauty of our human experience is what can ultimately connect us.
“Let yourself be tender with the world,” writes Kornfield, “The world is your lover in a way that almost nothing else is.
It's always here.
You can go out right now and kiss the earth.
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Waterstones
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases)
I grew up reading the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, and they remain a favorite. So much joy, wisdom, and playfulness! My Ph.D. is in rhetoric, the study of the power of language, and these cartoons are one of the reasons why I chose this field—the meditations on words, what they can do, how they can go wrong, are truly brilliant. I re-read the entire collection every year or two. Sometimes I dream as Spaceman Spiff.
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
Calvin and Hobbesis unquestionably one of the most popular comic strips of all time.
The imaginative world of a boy and his real-only-to-him tiger was first syndicated in 1985 and appeared in more than 2,400 newspapers when Bill Watterson retired on January 1, 1996.
The entire body of Calvin and Hobbescartoons was originally published in hardcover as a truly noteworthy tribute to this singular cartoon in The Complete Calvin and Hobbes.
Available for the first time in paperback, these four full-colour volumes in a sturdy slipcase include all the Calvin and Hobbescartoons that ever appeared in syndication.
This is the treasure that all Calvin and Hobbesfans seek.
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Bookshop.org UK
Bookshop.org US
Waterstones
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
I only read on paper—it’s part of my mindfulness practice of unplugging from screens as much as possible. I love the texture and feel of a book. Cracking one open is like coming home.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
Webster’s Bookstore
I worked in a bookstore in high school, so I know how much work goes into running a shop—I have so much gratitude for the people who do it! Honestly, I love just about any independent bookstore, especially ones that prominently feature staff recommendations, and especially especially ones where the staff write a few words about why the book they are recommending is amazing. I’ve found many of my favorite books from these recommendations. Anytime I visit NYC I go to The Strand—it’s like Disneyland for bibliophiles like me. It’s hard to beat The Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Politics & Prose in Washington D.C. I love The Raven in Lawrence, Kansas, and Broadway Books in Portland, Oregon (I’ll be doing book signings for my new book at both in the coming months). And, of course, in my hometown of State College, Pennsylvania, we have a true gem: Webster’s Bookstore. Go for the books, stay for the vegan food and community.
Many thanks to Jeremy for recommending a vital collection of books! Please don't forget to check out On Mindful Democracy: A Declaration of Interdependence to Mend a Fractured World.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: (On Mindful Democracy: A Declaration of Interdependence to Mend a Fractured World), Melville House Publishing (How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy), Sounds True Inc (All in This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World), Andrews McMeel Publishing (The Complete Calvin and Hobbes).
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