Beyond Wellness, Toward Well-being: In conversation with Liz Bucar

We’re obsessed with “wellness.” But are we actually well?

In this episode, I sit down with Liz Bucar, author of the newly released “Beyond Wellness,” a book that challenges the modern wellness industry and the assumptions we make about self-care and so-called spiritual practices such yoga, mindfulness, sound-baths, cleansing diets, and more.

Somewhere along the way, wellness became something we could buy, optimize, and even perform. But, as Liz argues, feeling better isn’t always the same thing as being well. We talk about the rise of the “spiritual but not religious” identity and what gets lost when we disconnect spirituality from religious traditions, community, and ethical responsibility. What if thinking more seriously about faith, ritual, and meaning could actually help us build better worlds—not just better routines?

This conversation invites us to look a little closer—not just at how we take care of ourselves, but at the systems, values, and stories shaping what we call “wellness.”