This Very Moment Episode 12: Devendra x Sam Bercholz

September 15, 2026

This Very Moment
Episode 12: Rude Awakenings: Devendra Banhart and Sam Bercholz in Conversation

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Show Notes

Singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart is a guest host on this episode featuring publisher, author, and Buddhist teacher Sam Bercholz for a warm, searching, and frequently hilarious conversation about wakefulness, suffering, friendship, and the unruly business of being human.

At the center of the episode is Sam’s new book, Rude Awakenings: An Unconventional Guide to the Buddhist Path, a book that resists polished self-improvement in favor of meeting life’s confusion, failure, and “muck” directly. Devendra reflects on the relief of finding a spiritual book that makes room for messiness rather than just asking you to become a better version of yourself.

Together they explore Buddhist ideas of deity, compassion, habitual patterns, death, and no-self without losing sight of the everyday comedy of distraction. The two consider how easily we miss the suffering of others, how social and personal habits become convincing stories, and how compassion may arise naturally when perception begins to clear.

Devendra also revisits Sam’s graphic memoir A Guided Tour of Hell, where their exchange turns to an intimate conversation about mortality, spiritual teachers, and the rare warmth of encountering genuine wisdom.

About the Interviewee and Guest Host

Sam Bercholz is an author, Buddhist teacher, and founder of Shambhala Publications. A devoted student of the late Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, he has been teaching Buddhist philosophy and meditation in North America, Europe, and Australia for more than fifty years. He is the author of A Guided Tour of Hell and the newly released Rude Awakenings: An Unconventional Guide to the Buddhist Path.

Devendra Obi Banhart is an American singer-songwriter and visual artist best known for his late 2000s albums Niño Rojo, Cripple Crow, and Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. Devendra was born in Houston and grew up in Venezuela and California. Often considered a leader in the freak folk impulse, Devendra’s art and music are described as poetic, experimental, and whimsical with reflective emotionality. Learn more about Devendra and his music at https://devendrabanhart.com/