Jon Kabat-Zinn is an American author, professor, and meditation expert whose work at the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center is the basis of Full Catastrophe Living. Kabat-Zinn obtained his doctorate in molecular biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According to his website, jonkabat-zinn.com, Kabat-Zinn felt inspired to channel his knowledge of Buddhist meditation into a program called “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction,” or MBSR, after reading the 1979 US Surgeon General’s Report. He considered this program a kind of “public health project,” and over the years gathered scores of data from the people who attended his MBSR programs at the Stress Reduction Clinic (Kabat-Zinn, Jon. “About.” Jon Kabat-Zinn). A prolific author, Kabat-Zinn’s other works include Mindfulness for All: The Wisdom to Transform the World, Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment and Your Life, and Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting. He is also the author of numerous scientific papers about mindfulness and participatory medicine. According to his website, Kabat-Zinn’s MBSR program is now practiced at over 700 hospitals and medical centers in the US and internationally.

Kabat-Zinn’s passion for meditation and his decades of work in combining mindfulness and healthcare make him an authoritative narrator for Full Catastrophe Living.