Lonny Shavelson, M.D. is a national leader in medical aid in dying, reframing it as compassionate end-of-life care rooted in honest conversation, emotional support, and patient choice. He dispels myths equating it with suicide, explains safeguards against coercion, and highlights the importance of multidisciplinary, whole-person care.

Lonny Shavelson, M.D is a California physician best known as a national leader in medical aid in dying for terminally ill patients. Dr Shavelson worked for nearly three decades as an emergency department physician in Berkeley, California, and later served as a primary care doctor in a clinic for immigrants and refugees. He's a founder and Board Chair of the Academy of Medical Aid-In-Dying, where he helps develop best practices, clinician education, and policy in this emerging field. He has also consulted widely with hospitals, ethics committees, and state efforts to implement aid-in-dying laws. He is the author of A Chosen Death (Simon & Schuster 1995) and Medical Aid In Dying: A Guide For Patients And Their Supporters (American Clinicians Academy on Medical Aid in Dying, 2022)

Interview Date: 12/12/2025. Tags: Lonny Shavelson, Medical-aid-in dying, endoflife care, hospice, terminal illness, patient autonomy, coercion and safeguards, disability rights concerns , death doulas, suicide vs aid in dying, Death & Dying, Health & Healing, Social Change/Politics, Personal Transformation

Leffers explores consciousness through Spiral Dynamics reimagined as “facets” rather than hierarchy, from survival and belonging to care and authentic living, each with love-based gifts and fear-based shadows, and highlights practices like meditation to support this unfolding.

Regina Leffers, Ph.D. is the retired Director of the Center of Excellence for the Built Environment, and Professor of Sustainable Construction for the College of Engineering at Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her undergraduate degrees are in Psychology and Philosophy, and her doctoral degree is in Philosophy from Purdue University. She teaches classes on consciousness and meditation and has practiced meditation since 1980. She is the author of: Sustainable Construction and Design (Pearson 2009), I Am A Miracle Magnet: (In Ten Easy Steps) (CreateSpace 2016), The Green Age: Transforming Your Life Choices for the 21st Century (Green Age Press 2011), What Is Consciousness (Regina Leffers 2019), Rethinking the Heart of Being Human (CreateSpace 2013), My Darling: Memoirs of a Buddha Girl (Regina Leffers 2023) and This Is Consciousness (Regina Leffers 2025)

Interview Date: 12/5/2025 Tags: Regina Leffers, consciousness, facets of consciousness, Spiral Dynamics, levels of consciousness, love and fear, brainwaves, alpha brainwave, forgiveness, gratitude, trauma and healing, abusive father, neurofeedback, meditation, heart–brain coherence, HeartMath, empathy, belonging, individuation, compliance, risk and reindividuate, care and empathy, authentic living, connectivity, synchronicity, spiritual growth, self-development, polarization, othering, Religion, Science, Spirituality, Personal Transformation

The RAIN Process (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) reminds us to pause and reconnect with a wise and compassionate presence allowing us to align our lives with our hearts. It can assist us when we get lost in unconscious, mental, emotional reactivity, fear, and are living on “autopilot.” RAIN is a healing process available to us that opens us to our inner radiance. Tara Brach, PhD, is an internationally known teacher of mindfulness, meditation, emotional healing, and spiritual awakening. Tara is the senior teacher and founder of Insight Meditation Center of Washington, DC. and she produces a weekly podcast. She is the author of many books including Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your world with the Practice of RAIN (Viking 2019), Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha (Bantam 2004) and True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart (Bantam 2016)

Interview Date: 1/24/2020 Tags: Tara Brach, RAIN Process, Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture, mindfulness, fear, shame, anger, somatic, allowing, Viktor Frankl, grasping, compassion, pushing away, frustration, beliefs, reactive trance, ocean of lovingkindness, Jarvis Masters, Ruby Sales, white privilege, Personal Transformation, Meditation