Julie Nelson is a Zen teacher who has also thought and written about economics, gender, ethics, and ecology. In this conversation, we talk about something that is often bypassed in discussions about spirituality: power dynamics and abuse of authority.

















Julie Seido Nelson is a transmitted teacher (Sensei) in the Maezumi Roshi Zen lineage. Her home spiritual community is the Greater Boston Zen Center in Massachusetts, where she resides. She is also a teacher at the Great Plains Zen Center in Monroe, Wisconsin. Her book Practicing Safe Zen: Navigating the Pitfalls on the Road to Liberation was published in June 2025. She has also written for popular Buddhist audiences in Tricycle magazine and on her blog. She is a Professor Emeritus after a career in research and teaching, during which she authored Economics for Humans and many academic publications, some of which drew on a Buddhist philosophy and practice. Having begun Zen practice in about 2004, she has found it to be of immense value. She is deeply saddened when people, either in addition to or instead of realizing the benefits, suffer great harm. See website.