Host

The Garrison Institute Managing Director, Steve Varley.

Guest

Josh Korda has been the guiding teacher at DharmaPunx NYC since 2005. He is a spiritual counselor and retreat leader who has taught across the United States and internationally. His writing has appeared in publications including Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, and The Huffington Post. A former advertising creative director, he is the author of Unsubscribe and the host of the popular DharmaPunx podcast, which has more than five million downloads.

Read and download the full transcript.

Show Notes

• [03:13] Josh reflects on growing up in a creatively rich but emotionally unpredictable household shaped by his father’s alcoholism and bipolar disorder, and how early exposure to psychology, art, and Buddhism shaped his path.
• [06:13] Addiction, advertising culture, and alcohol as emotional regulation: Josh describes his years working in advertising and how the industry normalized heavy drinking and disconnection from meaning.
• [08:47] Josh recounts how the experience of being in New York on 9/11 shattered his ability to continue working in pharmaceutical advertising and deepened his commitment to Buddhist practice and service.
• [10:36] The founding of DharmaPunx NYC alongside Noah Levine, creating Buddhist community for people in recovery, punks, outsiders, and those who felt alienated from traditional spiritual spaces. [Note: Read more about Noah’s work, and recent controversy, here.]
• [12:54] Why early DharmaPunx meetings resembled 12-step groups as much as meditation centers, emphasizing vulnerability, storytelling, community support, and shared experience.
• [15:15] Josh challenges overly passive interpretations of mindfulness and “radical acceptance,” arguing that contemplative practice sometimes demands profound personal risk and life change rather than adaptation to unhealthy systems.
• [17:14] Josh reflects on the Buddha’s renunciation as a model for meaningful living, leaving behind security in search of ethical purpose, service, and authentic connection.
• [20:45] Josh explores why he integrates Buddhism, neuroscience, attachment theory, and psychology into his teaching, and why he sees Buddhism as a living tradition that naturally evolves within different cultures and historical contexts.
• [25:44] Josh critiques the use of meditation as a productivity tool designed to help people tolerate burnout and unsustainable work conditions as a corporate commodification of mindfulness.
• [28:12] “Wise spiritual friends” and the importance of sangha: Josh emphasizes that Buddhist practice is fundamentally relational, not simply an individual pursuit done alone on a meditation cushion.
• [29:57] Josh discusses how modern culture, including remote work, increasingly isolates people from meaningful support systems and community, resulting in loneliness and structural causes of suffering.
• [31:56] Why retreat environments matter: nature, novelty, and stepping outside familiar routines interrupt habitual mental narratives and create conditions for deeper awareness and transformation.
• [35:53] Josh distinguishes Buddhist teaching from psychotherapy, describing how contemplative guidance combines emotional understanding with practical tools, meditation practices, and community-based healing.
• [39:48] After two decades of teaching, Josh says loneliness and disconnection have become the defining struggles underlying much of modern suffering, resulting in a growing epidemic of isolation.
• [41:41] Josh shares ways listeners can engage with his work, including DharmaPunx NYC gatherings, online teachings, and his extensive archive of Dharma talks and guided meditations.