Radio Headspace is a daily mindfulness podcast from Headspace that makes mental health accessible, practical, and inspiring—all in just a few minutes each weekday. Each episode offers a chance to pause, reset, and explore ideas that can genuinely improve wellbeing.
At its core, Radio Headspace is about introducing listeners to the breadth of thought in the mental health and mindfulness world. The show highlights leading voices in psychology and neuroscience—such as Dr. Ramani Durvasula, renowned for her work on narcissism and relationships—alongside world-respected mindfulness teachers like Rick and Forrest Hanson. By blending cutting-edge science with timeless contemplative traditions like Buddhism, Radio Headspace shows how these approaches are not separate but inextricably linked.
Listeners are exposed to a range of perspectives: from medical expertise and research-backed practices to wisdom rooted in global traditions. Each episode is short, engaging, and grounded—offering not only reflection but also practical tools people can bring into their everyday lives.
Crucially, Radio Headspace avoids pseudoscience. Every guest and theme is carefully chosen to ensure authenticity, credibility, and genuine usefulness. By featuring experts who truly know their fields, the podcast helps listeners cut through the noise of wellness fads and connect with ideas that are meaningful, trustworthy, and transformative.
With millions of downloads and a loyal, global audience, Radio Headspace continues to inspire people to approach life’s challenges with clarity, compassion, and presence—one short episode at a time.
Bringing the Project to Life
At the core of Radio Headspace is a commitment to credibility. In today’s mental health space, there are simply too many voices claiming to be experts, and it can be overwhelming to know what’s trustworthy online. Radio Headspace was created to solve that problem: a foundational source where listeners know they will encounter ideas that are authentic, research-informed, and genuinely helpful. We are not chasing clicks or views. We’re building a reliable place people can return to for daily guidance, knowing that every episode is grounded in real expertise.
The show comes to life through the collaboration of our meditation teachers, research teams, and creative producers. Both of our hosts have clinical backgrounds, and Rosie is currently training as a clinical psychologist, which gives her the unique ability to blend mindfulness practice with evidence-based psychology. Together with Headspace’s research team, they identify the “need states” our audience is facing—stress, relationships, resilience, uncertainty—and shape them into episodes that balance accessibility with depth.
Execution and Key Features
Each weekday, we deliver a five-to-seven-minute episode designed to be both practical and inspiring. To ensure credibility, we feature globally recognized experts like Dr. Ramani Durvasula, who brings authority in psychology and relationships, and leading mindfulness teachers like Rick and Forrest Hanson, who represent decades of contemplative practice. By weaving together clinical expertise and spiritual wisdom, Radio Headspace shows how mental health and meditation are inextricably linked.
Every episode is designed to be short and approachable, but never shallow. Listeners walk away not just with reflections but with tools they can apply to daily life. It’s a format that respects people’s time while still delivering depth and meaning.
Challenges and How We Overcame Them
One of our biggest challenges has been redefining what people think Headspace stands for. For years, we’ve been known primarily as a meditation company. With the introduction of therapy on the Headspace app, we are expanding into the broader world of mental health. That requires us to demonstrate that meditation is mental health, and that therapy is mental health too—that they are complementary, not mutually exclusive.
Radio Headspace became the bridge. By offering credible, accessible content that blends mindfulness and psychology, we have helped audiences shift their perspective and see how these practices reinforce one another.
What Makes Our Work Unique
What sets Radio Headspace apart is its ability to take complex mental health topics and make them short, engaging, and trustworthy. Few shows can deliver meaningful insights in under ten minutes while maintaining credibility across both scientific and contemplative traditions. Every decision—from our choice of hosts to our guest experts to our research-driven episode planning—is designed to ensure authenticity and trust.
And for listeners who want to go deeper, Radio Headspace connects directly back to the Headspace app, where they can explore therapy, guided meditations, and other mental health resources. In this way, the podcast isn’t just content—it’s a trusted entry point to an entire ecosystem of mental health support.
Results and Impact
We consider Radio Headspace a success because we’ve achieved our central goal: creating daily content that is both credible and genuinely helpful for people navigating their mental health journey. This is not a small task. It requires the combined efforts of producers, editors, writers, marketers, and Headspace’s research staff to ensure that every episode—delivered five days a week—meets our high standards for quality, accuracy, and accessibility. The fact that we have sustained this level of output while staying true to our mission is one of our proudest achievements.
What makes this work truly successful, however, is the impact on listeners. Our episodes don’t just fill airtime; they provide practical, relatable insights that can be applied immediately in everyday life. For example, the featured episode, “The 80-20 Rule,” explores the Japanese and Korean cultural tradition of eating until you are 80% full. Rosie, one of our meditation teachers, tells a personal story about growing up in Los Angeles and encountering this practice through her Korean friends. From there, she unpacks the broader philosophy with nuance—acknowledging differences between cultures while introducing listeners to an idea that’s both culturally rich and personally applicable.
Episodes like this embody the success of Radio Headspace: short, engaging, and rooted in credibility, yet offering tangible takeaways. By sparking curiosity and providing listeners with tools they can try immediately, we are helping people move toward healthier, more intentional lives—one mindful story at a time.
