Pema Chödrön, a beloved Buddhist teacher and nun, was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in 1936 to a Catholic family in New York City. She attended an elite boarding school as a teenager, where her interest in spirituality began to expand. She married young and had two children, but was divorced by her mid-20s; though she remarried a few years later, that partnership also dissolved, and Chödrön found herself unmoored.

Following this period of personal turmoil, and inspired by the writings of Tibetan teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Chödrön eventually embraced Buddhism. In 1981, she became the first American woman to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. Chödrön is perhaps best known for her book When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (1996). Her straightforward, actionable steps on relatable struggles such as heartbreak and uncertainty offer grounded, real-life advice that has resonated widely. Chödrön’s home monastery is the Gampo Abbey in rural Nova Scotia, Canada.