Jen Hatmaker grew up in the church, surrounded by family and community, eventually rising up to become a central figure. But, over the years, she became increasingly uncomfortable with not so much the core tenets and teachings, but rather the trapping and limitations of the institution. She struggled with what she saw as a stifling of power, expression and contribution in the context of women, the exclusion of LGBTQ+ and gender-fluid or nonconforming people and more. So, she did something she kn...
Mar 22, 2021•56 min
Melissa Bernstein, along with her husband Doug, is the Co-Founder of the legendary toy company Melissa & Doug, which has created over 5,000 children’s products and sold billions of dollars of toys since its inception. Melissa and Doug started the business in their garage in 1988, and they’ve been on a mission ever since to provide open-ended, inventive, non-technologically driven playthings for young children. Sounds like a dream life, but throughout Melissa’s remarkable career, she kept sec...
Mar 18, 2021•1 hr 1 min
My guest today is Glasgow born photographer, Mark Mann, who has built a stunning career, photographing many of the most iconic celebrities in the world, from Robert Redford, Michael Douglas, Iggy Pop, and the Black Eyed Peas to Seinfeld, Rihanna, Queen Latifah, Stevie Wonder, Bradley Cooper, Willie Nelson, and hundreds of others. Funny thing is, Mark pretty much stumbled into photography in the most unexpected way in his late teens, then ended up on a plane to NYC where, with little experience, ...
Mar 15, 2021•1 hr 8 min
Christa Couture is an award-winning performing and recording artist, filmmaker, writer and broadcaster. She is also proudly Indigenous (mixed Cree and Scandinavian), queer, disabled, and a mom. Her seventh album Safe Harbour was released on Coax Records in 2020. As a writer and storyteller, Christa has been published in Room, Shameless, and Augur magazines, she’s gone viral on CBC with an article and photos on disability and pregnancy. Christa’s also a frequent contributor to CBC Radio and is cu...
Mar 11, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Lama Rod Owens is a Buddhist minister, author, activist, yoga instructor and authorized Lama, or Buddhist teacher, in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism and is considered one of the leaders of his generation of Buddhist teachers. He holds a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School and is a co-author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation, along with my friend and past GLP guest, Rev. angel Kyodo williams. Lama Rod is the co-founder of Bhumisparsh...
Mar 08, 2021•1 hr 4 min
Mari Andrew is what I’d call a flaneur, she navigates the world in search of moments of discovery, wonder, serendipity and connection. That novelty often drops her into those flickering moments of aliveness - that is her muse. It’s found an expression in the form of beloved illustrations and words on her Instagram account with a community of more than 1M people and her first book. But these last 4 or 5 years have led Mari into entire seasons of deep struggle, reflection, and, ultimately, revelat...
Mar 04, 2021•1 hr 5 min
My guest today, Chicago-born and raised, Roy Kinsey, is a bit of an anomaly. A black, queer-identified, rapper, and librarian or as he puts it, Rapbrarian. Roy’s escape from trauma and creative outlet as a kid was writing and music and also a love of books and learning. He began sharing his words and beats, rapping at a young age, but really began to elevate his pursuit of music-making in college, performing and refining his craft. Graduating, he began making a name for himself, performing, reco...
Mar 01, 2021•57 min
Jamie Kern Lima thought she’d spend her life in the world of broadcast TV, where after graduating, she began working her way up as a journalist, then eventually news anchor where a bright career was laid out in front of her. Then, the camera started picking up a genetic skin condition that she struggled to hide and threatened to derail what she’d worked for. That experience set in motion a quest that eventually led her out of broadcast journalism and into the world of entrepreneurship where she’...
Feb 25, 2021•1 hr 3 min
When Marine sniper Jake Wood arrived home in the States after two brutal tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he wasn't leaving war behind him. Ten years after returning home, Jake's unit lost more men to suicide than to enemy hands overseas. He watched in horror as his best friend and fellow Marine, Clay Hunt, plunged into depression upon returning, stripped of his purpose, community, and sense of identity. Despite Jake's attempts to intervene, Clay died by suicide, alone. Reeling, Jake remembered ho...
Feb 22, 2021•58 min
At 73, Denise Kaufman is the ultimate renaissance woman, an active member of the ‘60s Bay Area psychedelic rock scene who’s seen and done it all - and continues to do it all. The longtime singer and bassist is a member of Ace of Cups, the pioneering all-female psychedelic rock band that opened for Jimi Hendrix, The Band, Janis Joplin, and more, and that shared the stage with the likes of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. She continues to play and record new music with the recently reunit...
Feb 18, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Miles Chamley-Watson is on a mission to take fencing mainstream. A British-born, 6-foot-four Black man, covered in tattoos with bleached blond hair, he breaks pretty much every generations-old assumption and mold about what the staid, traditionally-conservative and often elitist sport is about. Miles actually struggled a lot as a young kid, especially with focus, attention and school, until one day a teacher introduced him to fencing. That moment changed everything. He was obsessed and it gave h...
Feb 15, 2021•46 min
Born in New York City to a Tunisian father and a Swiss mother, Suleika Jaouad attended The Juilliard School's pre-college program for the double bass, and earned her BA with highest honors from Princeton University and an MFA in writing and literature from Bennington College. Leaving music behind, she thought she’d a war correspondent, but her plans were cut short when, at age 22, she was diagnosed with leukemia that led to a brutal 4-year stint in and out of the hospital, with multiple rounds o...
Feb 11, 2021•1 hr 6 min
Born in the short-lived West African country of Biafra, Louis Chude-Sokei and his mom fled the country during the war that would take the life of his father, a figure of such great reverence in the country that it would create a set of expectations about who Louis was and should be that would follow him well into his adult life. Landing first in Jamaica, where his mother was from, then eventually making their way through DC, to LA, he spent his life, as the line from the Bowie song, Space Oddity...
Feb 08, 2021•1 hr 6 min
My guest, today, Renee Jain, started into her career as a tech entrepreneur who secretly suffered with her own sometimes dizzying and even paralyzing anxiety. One day, a panic attack led her to step back and re-examine her life, seek help and begin to acquire the skills and understanding to live with more ease. It was transformative. But, along the way, something she never expected began to happen, she began wondering why every child doesn’t learn those same skills early in life, so they can liv...
Feb 04, 2021•1 hr 9 min
What would it take to make you rethink a deeply held point of view or belief? That’s one of Adam Grant’s recent fascinations. Adam is an organizational psychologist and TED speaker who helps people find meaning and motivation at work. He has been Wharton’s top-rated professor for 7 straight years. As an organizational psychologist, he is a leading expert on how we can find motivation and meaning, and live more generous and creative lives. He has been recognized as one of the world’s 10 most infl...
Feb 01, 2021•1 hr 2 min
Ellen Harper has been around the folk music scene her whole life. Her mother, Dorothy Chase performed and taught banjo and guitar at Hecht House in the 1950s in Boston with Bess Lomax Hawes and her dad, Charles Chase repaired any and all instruments that came his way. Ellen learned to play, perform and teach guitar and other folk instruments at her mother’s knee and eventually, the family moved west to Claremont, California where they create the iconic Folk Music Center that became a hub for all...
Jan 28, 2021•1 hr 1 min
My guest today, Tara Brach, has been one of my teachers for years, though she never knew it. Back in the early days of podcasting, I stumbled upon her weekly dharma talks or Buddhist teachings and meditations that she’d offer at her Insight Meditation Center in DC, record, then air as podcasts, and the blend of her gentle presence, her deep wisdom that was clearly not just studied, but also lived, her humility, real-world sensibility, and humor drew me in. Tara’s teachings blend Western psycholo...
Jan 25, 2021•1 hr 2 min
I first learned about today’s guest, Jason Naylor, through his art, which at that point, started appearing on walls and buildings all over New York City, and now is featured all over the world and on products, shows, in fashion and beyond. Jason is originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, where he grew up in a Mormon community and eventually felt called to step away and define his own path. After getting his BFA in graphic design from Brigham Young, he moved to New York City where he began his care...
Jan 21, 2021•1 hr
For generations, when it came to your brain, we pretty much assumed that once you reach adulthood, it pretty much is what it is. That meant you couldn’t get smarter or faster or wittier or optimize it to perform at a higher level and, on the other side, if you suffered an injury, there was very little you could do to help your brain recover or even rewire itself to function at a higher level again. Turns out, much of that was wrong, and my guest today, Dr. Ryan D’Arcy, is an acclaimed neuroscien...
Jan 18, 2021•59 min
Question, when was the last time you made a really good new friend, as a grown-up? Like the kind that actually knows you, not just online, but the real you? Turns out, it’s not actually so easy to create those kinds of friendships. But it is critically important to our ability to live good lives, especially during challenging times. My guest today, Kat Vellos, is here to help, She earns her living as a UX designer, which means Kat figures out how to make experiences as easy and organic as humanl...
Jan 14, 2021•1 hr 4 min
What if your work could make you come alive? What if it could fill you with meaning, purpose, and excitement like you're fully accessing and expressing all parts of yourself and stepping into your fullest potential? Like you're doing the thing you're here to do. We call this state being "sparked." The first step isn't about big, painful or disruptive change. It's about knowing yourself better, discovering your unique imprint for work that makes you come alive - your Sparketype® In today's episod...
Jan 11, 2021•1 hr 23 min
When I think about Peter Frampton, I’m immediately transported back to my teens when Peter’s musical juggernaut of a live-album, Frampton Comes Alive, took the world and my life by storm with anthemic songs like Do You Feel Like We Do, Show Me the Way, Lines On My Face and Baby, I Love Your Way. I cannot think about those songs without also hearing what became his signature voice-box sound vibrating through my body. Known in his earlier years for his fierce talent as a guitarist and musician, co...
Jan 07, 2021•52 min
Success is not just about knowing what to do. It's about doing it. Information, plans and goals, alone, will not get you where you want to go. Nor will willpower. Success at anything truly meaningful is about something bigger. Today’s show is going to be very different. Instead of deep-dive conversations with guests, it’s just going to be Jonathan, going deep into how to find success accomplishing big, meaningful things. There’ll be a ton of myth-busting and you'll learn something called Success...
Jan 04, 2021•1 hr 10 min
Over the history of this show, we’ve been incredibly blessed to not only have hundreds of guests in the physical and now virtual studio for conversation but also live performances from a wide variety of acclaimed artists, many of whom are icons in their chosen form of creation and expression. The performances have ranged from unaccompanied to fully sound-designed spoken word, to a capella or instrument-accompanied live music. Many of these performances represented moments of emotion and awakenin...
Dec 31, 2020•1 hr 1 min
There’s something about the sound of Mark Nepo’s voice that just puts me at ease. He’s been immersed in a path of spiritual inquiry for more than forty years, taught all over the world, authored more than twenty books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller The Book of Awakening, More Together Than Alone and others. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages and in 2014, Mark traveled the country with Oprah Winfrey on her sold-out The Life You Want Tour and has appeared s...
Dec 28, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Christen Brandt and Tammy Tibbetts are on a mission to unlock the potential of girls and women, especially in parts of the world where they’re often excluded from education and, in turn, much of life and the opportunity to help shape their communities and lives in a meaningful way. Both Christen and Tammy grew up in households where they were loved and supported, taught to believe in themselves and the power of education and become strong advocates. They were the first in their families to go to...
Dec 23, 2020•1 hr 2 min
I’ve been fascinated with alternative approaches to healing and medicine for my entire adult life. Especially when so many millions of us are walking around with pain and inflammation that doesn’t seem to fair well with a more Western approach. But, at the same time, I’ll also admit, I’m equally skeptical of a lot of solutions, practices, and claims. Which is why I’ve been deeply curious, for many years, about Ayurveda - a healing methodology that has been practiced, refined and sustained for so...
Dec 21, 2020•1 hr 4 min
Peter Tunney is a legitimate force of nature with boundless creative energy, who loves spreading positive messages in unconventional ways. After a career in finance, biotech and then nearly a decade defined by wild adventures, photo-curating and documenting travels through Africa with photographer and society fixture, Peter Beard, Tunney returned to New York in 1987 and declared himself an artist. He quickly became a central player, artist and gallerist in the legendary downtown art scene of the...
Dec 17, 2020•1 hr 5 min
Kulap’s parents fled violence in Laos, finding themselves in a refugee camp in Thailand, before moving to DC, where Kulap would be born, and then Minnesota, where she’d grow up. Her world was blown apart when, at the age of 14, in the heat of a fight, Kulap’s mom revealed that her father was not, in fact, her biological dad. The trauma of that moment shook her, but would then get largely buried, as she left home, built a career and got married. Now, decades later, a successful writer/director, a...
Dec 14, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Ione is a British film, television and voiceover actress based in LA with many different credits including Marvel’s Black Widow, a leading role in a motion picture which premiered on the Syfy network, as well as guest-starring in hit TV shows on CBS, Spike TV, TLC, BBC and many others. Growing up biracial in West London’s Southall neighborhood, which has been known to many as little Punjab or Little India since the 60s, she was surrounded by different cultures, developed an early curiosity for p...
Dec 10, 2020•58 min
