All posts by Barry Daniel

About Barry Daniel

I live in the Lake District in the UK where I run a guesthouse with my partner Kate and my cat Manuel. I enjoy painting, hillwalking, reading, visiting and entertaining friends, T’ai Chi and playing the guitar. I’m engaged to a certain degree in the local community, as a volunteer with Samaritans and I’m a fairly active member of the local Green party. I’ve had a relatively intuitive sense of the Middle Way most of my adult life but it found a greater articulation and a practical direction through joining the society. It’s also been interesting and great fun engaging with other people with a similar outlook. My main contribution to the society is conducting the podcast interviews, something that gives me a lot of satisfaction and that I’ve learnt a lot from.

The MWS Podcast 165: Jamie Bristow on a Middle Way approach to the Climate Crisis

Our guest today is Jamie Bristow, who is a writer and policy expert working at the intersection of inner and outer transformation and sustainability.

For eight years, he was Director of the Mindfulness Initiative and clerk to the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness. In 2023, he joined the Inner Development Goals team to lead on public narrative & policy development.

He’s here to talk to us today about a Middle Way approach to the climate crisis

The MWS Podcast 164: Chris Rose on the Amos Trust

Our guest today is Chris Rose. Chris is the Director of Amos Trust, a small creative human rights organisation which has three main areas of work: promoting Palestinian rights, creating opportunities for girls and young women on the streets and calling for climate justice. Chris has travelled extensively to Amos partner projects and led many trips and activities with them, such as home rebuilding, cycling and marathons trips in Palestine. He cofounded the Street Child World Cup in South Africa in 2010 and led Amos’ Just Walk from London to Jerusalem in 2017. Prior to this he was CEO of Romsey Mill a highly innovative youth project in Cambridge. He is an ordained Anglican Minister and he’s here to talk to us today about the Amos project.

The MWS Podcast 163: Rupert Read on the Climate Majority Project

Our guest today is Rupert Read, an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, former spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion and co-director of the new Climate Majority Project. He’s authored several books, including This Civilisation is Finished, Parents for a Future and Why Climate Breakdown Matters and has been many times on the Today programme, Question Time, Newsnight, Politics Live, Al Jazeera, and more and he’s here to talk to us today about the Climate Majority Project.

The MWS Podcast 162: Member profile, George Glen, the new Chair of the Middle Way Society

My guest today is George Glen. George is the new chair of the Middle Way Society, after taking over the role last year from the society’s founder Robert M Ellis. He’s going to talk to us today a little bit about his life and interests, how he became interested in Middle Way philosophy, as well as a range of topics from Yoga and meditation, to art and the joy of play, ways of seeing and value and navigating our lives.

The MWS Podcast 161: Robert M Ellis on the new Middle Way Philosophy Series.

Our guest today is Robert M Ellis, who is the chair of the Middle Way Society. For anyone unfamiliar with the society’s aims, it is devoted to developing the theory and practice of the Middle Way beyond the limitations of the Buddhist tradition. From this universal perspective, the Middle Way is understood as a principle of judgement that throws us onto experience by avoiding absolutes, both positive and negative . Robert has a PhD in Philosophy which formed the starting point of his work in developing Middle Way thought as an innovative practical philosophy drawing on various aspects of modern thought. He has produced a series of books on the subject including the Buddha’s Middle Way and the Christian Middle Way and he’s talk to us today about the Middle Way Philosophy series of books that he’s working on.