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This is a Stereo Forest production from StereoForest
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.com.
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Information, resources and opportunities to support the show
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and connect with others are available at StereoForest
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.com slash Daily Reconnect.
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This podcast is for informational and educational purposes
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only and is not a substitute for medical
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advice, diagnosis or treatment.
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If you have specific mental health concerns please
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consult with a qualified healthcare professional.
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Now on to the show.
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In this episode we will do an exercise
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that helps you reconnect while reflecting on your
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core values and then we'll discuss some reasons
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why we feel isolated while struggling.
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Welcome to the Daily Reconnect.
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It's March 17th and I'm your host Janda
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Han.
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This brief session aims to help you connect
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with the present moment when feeling disconnected or
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adrift from your surroundings.
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Together we'll rediscover and reconnect with our place
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in this beautiful, wild, distressing, fascinating reality.
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After we complete this practice we'll hopefully gather
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the strength or just the willingness to face
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our day.
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Take the elements that resonate during this exercise
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and feel free to adjust or leave behind
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anything that doesn't work for you.
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This is your time to focus and reset.
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Then you'll hear some encouraging words to help
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you align your actions with these values throughout
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your day.
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This week's episodes offer exercises that can help
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in particular with an inundation of news.
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Something that might affect us even during less
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stressful times.
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The exercise today helps you reconnect with your
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fundamental principles during times of news overwhelm.
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It can provide some steadiness in the face
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of this onslaught by helping you navigate information
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while being able to return to your core
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values to remind you who you are and
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how to proceed.
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So find a comfortable position or a walking
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pace and take several deep breaths as we
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get started.
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As you begin to regulate your breathing allow
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yourself to become curious about what matters most
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to you beyond your daily concerns.
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Think of a moment when you felt truly
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aligned with your authentic self.
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This might be a time when your actions
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reflected what you deeply believe in.
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Perhaps it was standing up for someone, creating
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something meaningful, connecting deeply with others, or pursuing
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knowledge.
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Notice how your body feels as you recall
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this memory of living or acting aligned with
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those values.
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Now begin to identify specific core values that
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guide your life.
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It might be a pattern, it might be
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something you keep coming back to, or perhaps
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it's something related to your work or a
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lifelong hobby.
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These values might include compassion or truth, justice,
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your family, creativity, learning, your community around you.
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There's no right or wrong set of values,
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only what genuinely matters to you.
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And now if you can, visualize those values
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as signposts that surround you.
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Or you might visualize a compass or a
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map if that's easier, or just acknowledge them
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if visualizations are not available to you.
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Now choose one value that feels particularly important
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to you right now, one that might help
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you navigate your current challenges.
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Imagine this value as more prominent in your
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visualization, a bigger sign, it might be glowing,
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perhaps it's a mark on the map, and
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allow this value to fill your awareness.
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Now consider how this core value might guide
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your response to overwhelming information this week.
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Could you return to this when encountering fear
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or anger inducing headlines or some form of
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disinformation, in confusing unpredictable times or situations that
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may lead you to want to give up?
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Could returning to this value help balance emotions
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that are not useful to you in the
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moment?
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So now take some deep breaths as we
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end our exercise, return your awareness to the
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present time.
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And I want to acknowledge something that many
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of us feel quite deeply.
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In this struggle against oppressive systems, we quite
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often feel profoundly alone and isolated.
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And this isolation, it really isn't an accident.
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The systems around us of capitalism and fascism
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are designed to fragment us apart, to make
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our struggles feel individual rather than collective, really
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to convince us that our pain is a
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personal failure rather than a problem of the
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system.
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When you can't make rent even though you
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work full-time, or when healthcare remains out
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of your reach because of cost or access
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issues or both of those things, when your
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community faces targeted harassment, these experiences are deliberately
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structured to make them feel like they're just
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your burden alone.
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And the message that we receive is quite
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clear.
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You're on your own and figure it out
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by yourself.
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This isolation is made worse because of the
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physical and digital parts of our life.
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Neighborhoods are not all that walkable for so
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many of us.
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They're designed that way.
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They're designed without community in mind or our
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third spaces.
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Those are pretty much completely gone now.
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Online algorithms that amplify this division.
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Workplaces, they discourage unions.
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And the constant grind means that we don't
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really have a lot of time for connection
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as it is.
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But I want you to know that recognizing,
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that acknowledging this isolation, naming it and seeing
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it, that's an act of resistance.
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And just doing that starts the process of
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weakening the powers that are making us so
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isolated by discussing it with others, by identifying
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it with somebody else, even more so.
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So take a moment and recognize that so
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many other people around you are experiencing the
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same kind of struggles, the same kind of
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doubts.
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They have similar moments of despair.
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Not because there's something wrong with you or
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them or any of us, but because these
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systems are functioning just as they were designed
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to do.
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Unfortunately, your isolation, that isn't a personal failing
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of yours, but it was a structural, like
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an obstacle that was placed into your path,
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really with intention, with forethought, by somebody else
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to benefit them, not you.
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Now, recognizing this isn't going to immediately transform
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your circumstances, what's happening right now, of course
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it won't, but it shifts something essential in
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how we might relate to these feelings, to
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relate to this isolation.
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It places your experience, it places that loneliness
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in a much larger context, and that opens
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the possibility of connection.
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Even when physical proximity might not be accessible
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or might not be possible for some of
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us, there are other ways.
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But remember that throughout history, the very first
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step in all of these movements for justice,
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movements for change, it was when humans recognized
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that their individual suffering was connected to a
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much larger system, to a larger design or
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plan.
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Before collective action, before mass movements even came
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about, there was this moment of clarity that
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this thing, it isn't just happening to me,
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it's happening to all of us.
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And in this case, it's not really a
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left versus right, but more a top versus
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bottom.
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So you're not alone in what you're experiencing,
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even when everything might make it feel that
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way.
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And in the next episode, we'll explore how
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to maintain your strength and your dignity when
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the systems are designed to break it.
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Your struggles, they're shared by many people, and
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this shared experience, even when we might be
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physically distant from each other, it contains the
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beginnings of real connection and real possibility.
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And remember that the world is better due
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to your presence within it.
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So that's it for today, March 17th.
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Thank you so much for joining me in
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this brief episode, and let's connect again on
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Wednesday.
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Thank you for listening to The Daily Reconnect.
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Episodes are released on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
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every week.
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This show was created, written, hosted, edited, and
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produced by Jen DeHaan.
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Links to contact information, ways to support the
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show, transcripts, the free newsletter, and our community
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discord can be found in the show notes.
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This is a Stereo Forest production.