Varun Soni is the Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California (USC) and the first Hindu to serve as the chief religious or spiritual leader of an American university.

In a time where it feels like we have never been more divided, this conversation is about unity. It’s about empathy. It’s about diversity. It’s about curiosity and regard.

There is so much to learn in this conversation.

Varun has been personally impacted by some of the most influential thought leaders in history… Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, to name a few.

As a leader (and I’m not throwing that term out there loosely) at the University of Southern California, Varun is deeply committed to helping students become, through embracing the tension between differences and commonalities.

His goal is to run the office of religious life at USC as the office of the future – to envision what religion and spirituality is going to look like 10 years from now rather than what it looked like 10 years ago.

In this conversation we talk about how to master the art of living – this includes the importance of asking yourself the right questions, redefining your metrics for success, and the importance of emotional intelligence.

Varun also sheds light on some of the difficulties today’s college students face that previous generations may have thought inconceivable.

“The philosophy that defines the way I want to live is to really pay attention to what’s happening inside.”

In This Episode:

• The Unique Mission of the USC Religious Office
• How his young age impacts the way he teaches his students
• His experience being a first generation Indian in America
• Why he rebelled against the expectations of his parents and chose the arts over medicine
• What he learned from the teachings of Gandhi and the Dalai Lama
• The reason the scholarly and the spiritual can co-exist
• How to become a master in the art of living
• Redefining your metrics for success
• The current mental illness crisis America is facing and how it’s impacting college social life
• What he loves about Hinduism
• How he helps students learn to trust themselves
• Tactics for combatting self-doubt