Dementia and the Sense of Self with Philip Ryan

Philip Ryan is Tricycle’s executive editor, and he has worked at Tricycle on and off for the past thirty years. In the Spring issue of Tricycle, he wrote an article, "Old Friend," about his father’s dementia diagnosis and the questions it has raised about memory, impermanence, and identity. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Ryan to discuss how Buddhist teachings on the mind have helped him to make sense of his father’s diagnosis, why we are ultimately unknowable to each other and ourselves, and how dementia is the perfect illustration of the truths of impermanence, suffering, and nonself—or maybe a mockery of those truths.

You can listen to Dementia and the Sense of Self with Philip Ryan online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Dementia and the Sense of Self with Philip Ryan is an episode from Tricycle Talks by Tricycle Talks.

This episode is 51:36 long.

This episode was published on Mar 11, 2026.

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