The Great Remembering

Powerful Ancient Practices – and the New Science Bringing Them Back

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A quest to re-discover the ancient wisdom behind today’s most resonant wellness trends, exploring the science that underpins resilience, connection and healing - perfect for readers of Michael Pollen and Robin Wall Kimmerer.

What if the most powerful solutions for the crises of modern life are ten thousand years old?

Modern life is full of advice about how to feel better, think better and live better – yet many of us still feel anxious, lonely and cut off from meaning.

In The Great Remembering, June Cohen travels across cultures, continents and centuries to uncover the wisdom systems our ancestors built to feel more fully alive.

From epic physical ordeals, sauna and cold plunge to psychedelic ceremony and shared rituals of grief, these were not superstitions, but sophisticated social technologies grounded in close observation of the body, the mind and the bonds between people.

The Great Remembering is a bold, hopeful book about how we might live now – by recovering what modern life has left behind.

'We were right all along. A joyous baedeker of six ancient traditions that can recharge, inspire and perhaps change us for the better.' Seth Godin, author of The Knot

'What a revelation, what an invitation . . . a cathedral of meaning' Maria Popova, author of Figuring

© June Cohen 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

We were right all along. A joyous baedeker of six ancient traditions that can recharge, inspire and perhaps change us for the better.
Seth Godin, author, The Knot

With compassionate curiosity about what makes us human, June takes us on an archeological tour of the ancient yearning pulsating beneath all of our evolving technologies and changing moral fashions – to make sense of our mortality and rejoice in our aliveness, to salve our suffering and give shape to our joy. What a revelation, what an invitation, to discover that people who had no notion of gravity, genetics, or democracy answered the questions we live with more wisely than we do – a beckoning to rethink how we make of our fragile embodiment a cathedral of meaning.
Maria Popova, creator of The Marginalian

June Cohen’s essential book hooks you from the very first sentence and takes you on a journey of rediscovery that will fill you with joy and rouse you with determination to implement the wisdom she animates with effortless grace. The Great Remembering is an urgent and important book that you won’t soon forget.
Bruce Feiler, seven-time best-selling author of Walking The Bible, Life is in the Transitions and A Time to Gather

June Cohen is such a friendly, open-hearted, deeply informed guide to recovering the wisdom that can make us whole and alive once more. She knows all the science, she writes with a professional's clarity and precision and, most of all, she can make us feel joyful and in love again as we go about the beautiful business of living.
Chip Conley, Founder, Modern Elder Academy; Founder, Joie de Vivre Hospitality Group

An epic and intimate journey into what makes us human, what heals us, and what binds us together. June Cohen is an unparalleled guide to the ancient wisdom and modern science that remind us why we’re here and how we find joy and meaning in our lives each and every day. What a gift she has rescued from our ancestors.
Doug Abrams, Co-Author of the New York Times-bestselling The Book of Joy and The Book of Hope

About June Cohen

June Cohen is a pioneer in media and technology, best known as the co-creator of TED Talks, Masters of Scale and Meditative Story. During her 11 years at TED (2005–2016), she co-hosted the flagship event – working with hundreds of speakers on their talks – and launched TED Talks online. She’s earned 100+ industry awards for her work, including 67 Webby honours, 8 Apple “Podcast of the Year” Awards, and a Peabody.

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