Breathe deep, relax…and learn about art. Getty’s first video podcast encourages you to engage with works of art mindfully, wherever you are. Part art history, part mindfulness meditation, each episode focuses on one work of art and uses it as an inspiration for meditation and reflection. Learn about Edvard Munch’s time on Norway’s coast then imagine the blue light of his Starry Night traveling through your body, releasing tension as it goes. Or take inspiration from Van Gogh’s Irises to bring new awareness to your senses.
Long-time museum educator and meditation practitioner Lilit Sadoyan translates her work leading mindfulness meditation tours at the Getty Museum into a podcast that fits into your daily routine.
Can’t get enough? Between episodes, catch Lilit’s interviews with fascinating guests like a planetary climate scientist, a sleep historian, a mountain climber, and an art conservator. Conducted as part of the research process, these casual conversations provide new insights into the week’s artwork and meditation theme.
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Getty’s podcast for kids and their families, If Objects Could Talk, is back for season 2!
Listen as art leaves the museum vault and comes alive to share its own story. In this season, featuring objects from Getty's sculpture and decorative arts collection, each episode introduces listeners to the history, creation, and everyday use of incredible items like a rococo microscope, an inventive clock, and a majestic horse sculpture.
Today, we’re sharing our episode on Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s sculpture, The Vexed Man. Learn about sculpting alabaster, the Viennese Prater amusement park, and how to relax when you’re feeling particularly vexed.
To hear the rest of the series and learn more, visit us atwww.getty.edu/ioct or look for If Objects Could Talk on your favorite podcast app. Subscribe to catch new episodes and bonus content! And if you enjoy the show, leave us a rating and review to help others find it!
Deeper Dive: A Dance Critic on the Less Glamorous Aspects of Ballet
Season 1
Thursday, September 3, 2026 • Duration 18:17
Ballet may look effortless and beautiful to audiences, but the experience for dancers can be quite different.
In this final episode of the season, host Lilit Sadoyan speaks with New York Times dance critic Gia Kourlas about Edgar Degas’s pastel Waiting. In a wide-ranging conversation, the two discuss dancers’ experiences behind the scenes, how Kourlas approaches writing, and what makes a great experience at the theater.
If you missed this week’s patience meditation inspired by Degas’s pastel, look for it on your podcast player or find it on our website.
How does your body feel when you wait? Slow down and explore your body’s experience of patience (and impatience) inspired by Edgar Degas’s enigmatic pastel drawing Waiting (about 1882).
A dancer and an accompanying figure sit on a bench, their bodies bent forward in a state of fatigue. Rendered in pastel, with vivid streaks of color and variations in technique, Degas masterfully animates a scene that is otherwise still.
This scene raises more questions than it answers: how are the two figures related? Where are they? And what exactly are they waiting for? There are no obvious answers, and yet the emotions and exhaustion here are palpable.
In this final meditation of the season, we explore the sensations of patience—physically and emotionally—in an exercise that invites you to breathe, reflect, and recover as you wait.
This podcast uses chapters. If you'd like to jump straight to the meditation, find the forth chapter.
What does a New York Times dance critic think about Degas and patience? Find a conversation with Gia Kourlas in your podcast feed or on our YouTube channel Thursday, or find it on our website. Find it in your podcast feed or on our YouTube channel Thursday, or find it on our website.
Deeper Dive: Māori Haka Taps into Deep Emotions
Season 1
Thursday, August 27, 2026 • Duration 13:51
Extreme facial expressions are the first thing many notice when they see a haka performance.
It’s the same thing that people tend to notice with Getty’s sculpture of The Vexed Man, too. Haka is a traditional war dance of the Māori people, indigenous to New Zealand, and is now used in a wide range of ceremonies and sports events. In conversation with Lilit Sadoyan, Māori cultural practitioner and choreographer Amelia Butler explains the symbolic meaning of haka’s elements and how it can allow access to one’s deepest self.
If you missed this week’s progressive muscle relaxation exercise inspired by The Vexed Man, look for it on your podcast player or find it on our website.
Find images, a transcript, and more resources on our website: https://www.getty.edu/podcasts/ommm/deeper-dive-maori-haka-deep-emotions/
Subscribe to OMMM be the first to hear new episodes.
Production team:
Host: Lilit Sadoyan
Producers: Zoe Goldman and Gideon Brower
Video Editor: Jeremy Rhodes
Mixer and Sound Designer: Jaime Roque
Executive Producer: Christopher Sprinkle
Progressive Muscle Relaxation Exercise with The Vexed Man
Season 1
Tuesday, August 25, 2026 • Duration 20:46
Explore how deeply you can relax—by tensing each muscle in your body. This unusual exercise builds on Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s The Vexed Man (1771–83), a sculpture of a man with an exaggerated facial expression.
From the protruding veins in the neck to the deeply furrowed brow, this alabaster sculpture captures the vexed expression of a middle-aged man. Part of a series of 49 sculptures created by Messerschmidt during the last 13 years of his life, each bust depicts a different, often extreme, emotion.
During the Enlightenment, when this sculpture was made, there was a growing fascination with the human condition and many sought to understand it. Studying the face, as Messerschmidt did with this series, was one approach.
It is human instinct to respond to facial expressions; particularly when assessing danger, trust, pain, or pleasure. Bring awareness to the intricacy and subtlety of your own muscle movements through this guided progressive muscle relaxation (PMR).
PMR is not recommended if a person has a history of serious injuries, muscle spasms, or back problems, as the deliberate tensing of muscles could exacerbate any of these pre-existing conditions. Please consult with your doctor before practicing this meditation if you have concerns.
Deeper Dive: The Near-Universal Appeal of Tea with Friends
Season 1
Thursday, August 20, 2026 • Duration 15:31
Japanese chadō, or tea ceremony, is widely known for its beauty, precision, and meditative qualities.
So how does that compare to the story told by artist Jean-Ettienne Liotard’s Still Life: Tea Set? UCLA Professor and chadō practitioner Michelle Liu Carriger explores the near-universal appeal of a good cup of tea enjoyed in good company, while highlighting the meditative and aesthetic qualities of both Japanese and European tea traditions.
If you missed this week’s tea drinking meditation inspired by this still life, look for it on your podcast player or find it on our website.
Find images, a transcript, and more resources on our website: https://www.getty.edu/podcasts/ommm/deeper-dive-near-universal-appeal-tea-with-friends/
Subscribe to OMMM be the first to hear new episodes.
Production team:
Host: Lilit Sadoyan
Producers: Zoe Goldman and Gideon Brower
Video Editor: Jeremy Rhodes
Mixer and Sound Designer: Jaime Roque
Executive Producer: Christopher Sprinkle
For more art history insights, check out our other Getty Podcasts shows at www.getty.edu/podcasts
Calming Tea Meditation with a Still Life
Season 1
Tuesday, August 18, 2026 • Duration 19:50
Focus on fully experiencing the moment while you sip on a cup of tea in this relaxing meditation inspired by Jean-Étienne Liotard’s Still Life: Tea Set (1781–83).
This painting of a Chinese porcelain tea set shows a scene after use—its contents consumed and the pieces left on the tray in disarray. Liotard captures the tactility of these objects in oil paint, from the gleam of the spoon to the scattered crumbs of bread across the tray.
Depicting a social ritual enjoyed by the upper echelons of 18th‑century European society, Liotard directs our attention not to the people, but to the quiet beauty of these inanimate objects, emphasizing their curvaceous forms, precarious arrangement, and delicate details.
As we look upon the aftermath of this tea gathering, take a moment to savor the careful preparation of your own cup of tea, however you take it.
This podcast uses chapters. If you'd like to jump straight to the meditation, find the forth chapter.
Buddhist monks don't spend all day in quiet contemplation—they also spend a lot of time cleaning. Hear Shoukei Matsumoto, author of A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind, in this week's bonus episode. Find it in your podcast feed or on our YouTube channel Thursday, or find it on our website.
Deeper Dive: Chani Nicholas on the Ancient Appeal of Astrology
Season 1
Thursday, August 13, 2026 • Duration 27:42
People have made meaning from the movement of the stars and planets since before recorded history.
In this conversation with host Lilit Sadoyan, contemporary astrologer Chani Nicholas explores the rise and fall of astrology’s popularity and provides an overview of how she understands the discipline.
Chani Nicholas is the New York Times best-selling author of You Were Born for This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance and the world-renowned astrologer behind the CHANI app. She is known for blending ancient astrological wisdom with mindfulness, psychology, and practical tools that support purpose-driven living, community wellbeing, and mutual aid, giving 5 percent of her company’s revenue to survivors of gender-based violence. Her weekly podcast, Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas, is top-ranked in the Spirituality/Astrology category, and she has served as the resident astrologer for Oprah Daily and been featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and multiple Netflix series.
If you missed this week’s cleaning meditation inspired by a manuscript page on astrology, look for it on your podcast player or find it on our website.
Find images, a transcript, and more resources on our website: https://www.getty.edu/podcasts/ommm/deeper-dive-chani-nicholas-astrology/
Subscribe to OMMM be the first to hear new episodes.
Find Your Space in the Universe with a Medieval Astrology Diagram
Season 1
Tuesday, August 11, 2026 • Duration 20:10
Feel one with the cosmos as you explore your place in time and space inspired by a 15th-century astrological diagram found in an unusual manuscript.
Featuring a collection of diverse texts, this manuscript, called a miscellany, includes writings on medicine as well as magical practices, astronomy, and astrology. We focus the episode on a page about the astrological qualities of Mondays, or the moon’s day. This includes a diagram (with a smiling moon at the center) detailing how each of the seven planetary bodies ruled over different hours of the day. At bottom left is an illustration of Cancer, a constellation also associated with Mondays.
Medieval people used astrology and the planets to help inform important decisions and make sense of time. Take this moment to reflect on your own place within the universe as you ease into this expansive meditation practice.
This podcast uses chapters. If you'd like to jump straight to the meditation, find the fourth chapter.
Find images, a transcript, and more resources on our website: https://www.getty.edu/podcasts/ommm/medieval-astrology-diagram/
Hear astrologer Chani Nicholas explain the long appeal of astrology and how people use it today in this week's bonus episode. Find it in your podcast feed or on our YouTube channel Thursday, or find it on our website.
Production team:
Host: Lilit Sadoyan
Producers: Zoe Goldman and Gideon Brower
Video Editor: Jeremy Rhodes
Deeper Dive: A Buddhist Monk on the Value of Cleaning
Season 1
Thursday, August 6, 2026 • Duration 19:16
Buddhist monks don’t spend all their time in quiet meditation—they also do a lot of cleaning.
However, cleaning can also be a meditative practice, if done with intention and care. Monk Shoukei Matsumoto speaks with host Lilit Sadoyan about how we can find more mindfulness and approach our chores with gratitude.
Matsumoto is the author of A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind (2018) and Work Like a Monk: A Buddhist Guide to Embracing What Matters (2025).
If you missed this week’s cleaning meditation inspired by The Laundress by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, look for it on your podcast player or find it on our website.
Subscribe to OMMM be the first to hear new episodes.
Production team:
Host: Lilit Sadoyan
Producers: Zoe Goldman and Gideon Brower
Video Editor: Jeremy Rhodes
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Through its programs—Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Foundation, Getty Museum, Getty Research Institute, and Getty Trust—Getty shares and advances the world’s visual art and cultural heritage, both in Los Angeles and throughout the world.
Learn more about all we do for art on our website:
Through its programs—Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Foundation, Getty Museum, Getty Research Institute, and Getty Trust—Getty shares and advances the world’s visual art and cultural heritage, both in Los Angeles and throughout the world.
Learn more about all we do for art on our website:
Through its programs—Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Foundation, Getty Museum, Getty Research Institute, and Getty Trust—Getty shares and advances the world’s visual art and cultural heritage, both in Los Angeles and throughout the world.
Learn more about all we do for art on our website:
How does Māori haka channel strong emotion? Māori cultural practitioner Amelia Butler explains in this week's Deeper Dive. Find it in your podcast feed, our YouTube channel, or on our website this Thursday.
Production team:
Host: Lilit Sadoyan
Producers: Zoe Goldman and Gideon Brower
Video Editor: Jeremy Rhodes
Mixer and Sound Designer: Jaime Roque
Executive Producer: Christopher Sprinkle
For more art history insights, check out our other Getty Podcasts shows at www.getty.edu/podcasts
Through its programs—Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Foundation, Getty Museum, Getty Research Institute, and Getty Trust—Getty shares and advances the world’s visual art and cultural heritage, both in Los Angeles and throughout the world.
Learn more about all we do for art on our website:
Through its programs—Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Foundation, Getty Museum, Getty Research Institute, and Getty Trust—Getty shares and advances the world’s visual art and cultural heritage, both in Los Angeles and throughout the world.
Learn more about all we do for art on our website:
Through its programs—Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Foundation, Getty Museum, Getty Research Institute, and Getty Trust—Getty shares and advances the world’s visual art and cultural heritage, both in Los Angeles and throughout the world.
Learn more about all we do for art on our website:
Through its programs—Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Foundation, Getty Museum, Getty Research Institute, and Getty Trust—Getty shares and advances the world’s visual art and cultural heritage, both in Los Angeles and throughout the world.
Learn more about all we do for art on our website:
Through its programs—Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Foundation, Getty Museum, Getty Research Institute, and Getty Trust—Getty shares and advances the world’s visual art and cultural heritage, both in Los Angeles and throughout the world.
Learn more about all we do for art on our website:
Through its programs—Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Foundation, Getty Museum, Getty Research Institute, and Getty Trust—Getty shares and advances the world’s visual art and cultural heritage, both in Los Angeles and throughout the world.
Learn more about all we do for art on our website: