{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"A Conversation With Pico Iyer","description":"Pico Iyer is a travel writer and a novelist who has spent time in far flung places like Ethiopia, Tibet, North Korea, Bhutan and Nepal exploring the history, culture and food of diverse cultures. In contrast to his life on the road in places, Iyer is now spending more time exploring his inner life. That\u2019s what his latest book called Aflame Is all about. Several times a year, Iyer visits a Benedictine monastery in Big Sur which he finds to be a refuge from the crowded noisy world he usually inhabits. Iyer examines the benefits of just sitting still and doing nothing. We talk about Iyer\u2019s relationship with the Dalai Lama and with singer Leonard Cohen when Cohen was a Buddhist monk living on a mountaintop. \u201cNow What?\u201d is produced with the help of Steve Zimmer, Lucy Little and Jackie Schwartz. Audio production is by Nick Ciavatta. ","author_name":"Now What? With Carole Zimmer","author_url":"http:\/\/www.carolezimmer.com\/podcast","html":"