Meditative Story

Meditative Story is a podcast that combines first-person storytelling, mindfulness prompts and original cinematic music, to create a unique listening experience. It is owned and produced by WaitWhat, the media company founded and led by former TED executives, Deron Triff and June Cohen. The first three seasons were created in partnership with Thrive Global, a behavior change technology company led by Arianna Huffington and Dan Katz. Variety describes Meditative Story as “part first-person narrative podcast and part guided meditation.” The podcast is hosted by Rohan Gunatillake and has featured guests such as On Being’s Krista Tippett, A Slight Change of Plans’ Maya Shankar, travel writer Pico Iyer, Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Jason Mraz, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, journalist and amateur boxer Thomas Page McBee, award-winning writer Isabel Allende, comedian Tig Notaro, Grammy award-winning composer and musician Terence Blanchard, actor Randall Park, musician and Leinster Rugby player Niall Breslin, NASA astronomer Michelle Thaller, Peloton exercise instructor Robin Arzón, and MOMA curator Paola Antonelli, among others.

History
The idea for Meditative Story originated with the show's executive producer Deron Triff, who told Forbes “[We're] big believers in storytelling as a vehicle to transform people’s lives... We wanted to blend the storytelling experience with tools and strategies for mindfulness and wellness. Our first call went to Arianna and her team, and we embarked on this venture together." Huffington described the series as “a response to a deep cultural need in our hyper sped up world to have a moment to recharge."

The first episode of Meditative Story, featuring author and surgeon Lucy Kalanithi, aired on July 29, 2019.

In 2021, the team behind Meditative Story launched a spinoff audio series, Meditative Story: Sleep Song, which is available in the Meditative Story podcast feed.

In 2022, the show was distributed by public media organization PRX's Dovetail publishing platform; PRX also provided sponsorship and promotional support.

Format
In each classic episode of Meditative Story a different guest narrates a personal story about a time and place where everything changed for them. All of the stories reflect on a broad theme, like friendship, discovery or loss. The stories are scored with original music, and punctuated by mindfullness prompts from the host Rohan Gunatillake, who also ends each episode with a guided meditation.

The brief mindfulness prompts, which are inserted directly into the narrative, invite listeners to observe and reflect on the details of the scenes and moments the storyteller is describing. And the original sound design for each episode is composed to complement the storyteller’s narrative.

There are also meditation episodes which solely feature host Rohan Gunatillake, who walks listeners through a meditation centered on a specific theme, topic or event.

Meditative Story: Sleep Song was created as a “dream score” - a bedtime experience born out of the positive feedback from listeners about the original music composed for the podcast. The immersive melodies from each Meditative Story episode are used to create these custom music-only soundtracks, which are available on the Meditative Story podcast feed.

Reception & Awards
Meditative Story has received strong praise from Variety, Forbes, Wired, The Today Show, CBC Radio and others. Forbes describes it as "a completely new kind of listening experience that blends intimate first-person stories with mindfulness prompts, enveloped in beautiful music composition.” It was named one of the Top Podcasts of 2019 by Canada's CBC Radio