Willow Defebaugh is a writer who transmutes the teachings of nature for this era of climate crisis. As Editor-in-Chief of Atmos Magazine, author of The Overview, and host of The Nature Of podcast, she has a remarkable ability to hold darkness and light in tandem, re-enchanting the natural world for those who wish to see the magick in it. In time for summer solstice, Willow joins us by the riverbank to discuss the ritual that allows her to take a meaningful pause, how she tells the difference bet...
Jun 20, 2025•33 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Writer, playwright, and dramaturg Ashley Thomas is no stranger to the gift of presence - embracing the stillness of life, even in the midst of chaos. Ashley reminds us that beautiful things call upon us to dream big. She joins Rebecca to reflect on the meaning of the Earthkeeper, the importance of stillness, and the power of love and freedom in sparking our creativity. Read more about Ashley here. Subscribe to her newsletter here. This independent show is a delight to make, and it also takes a l...
May 26, 2025•30 min•Season 2Ep. 11
We will be back on the next new moon, May 26th, 2025 with a new episode! In the meantime, Rebecca shares how you can contribute to our show, so we can keep making these conversations about power and intuition accessible to all. Click here to support the show.
May 12, 2025•5 min
Writer Chloe Garcia Roberts describes translating as the practice of doing divination with a dictionary. As she carries meaning from one language to another, or from the spirit world to her original writing, she steps outside of societal structures to channel a fundamental kind of mystery, resisting dogma and letting herself be led by instinct. Chloe joins Rebecca to talk about the difference between religion and spirituality, translation as a spiritual act, and how she taps into the language of...
Apr 27, 2025•26 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Valerie June is a star being. Her music invites us to trust the path, to live with our whole hearts, and to embrace joy and attunement while navigating darkness. Celebrating the release of her new album, “Owls, Omens, and Oracles”, Valerie joins Rebecca to share how she connects to plants, neighbors, owls, ancestors, power, breath, and her own spirit, which she calls upon and even seems to pray to in her celestial songs. Rebecca and Valerie mention writer and activist adrienne maree brown, whose...
Apr 12, 2025•43 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Anna Sale, host of “Death, Sex & Money,” was at a professional and personal turning point in January of 2024. As she was trying to predict what the new year had in store, she came to Rebecca for a “year ahead spread”—a tarot reading that would tell her what to expect and what to tap into in a time of tumult and transition. A year later, Anna joins Rebecca on the show to reflect on how last year’s reading manifested in her life, while also exploring her wishes for the present and future. Anna...
Mar 29, 2025•37 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Comedian Rachel Dratch (Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock) never wanted to be seen as just another “woo-woo” Hollywood actress. She prefers to hold the idea of magick lightly, treating it with her characteristic curiosity and humor. Even so, when she visited a channeler whose uncanny predictions came true, Rachel started to pay more attention to signs, as well as what the woo can tell us about being human. Now, Rachel hosts a podcast fittingly called “Woo-Woo With Rachel Dratch.” You can hear Rebecca...
Mar 14, 2025•29 min
Throughout the political tumult of the mid 20th century, painters Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo made deeply spiritual, surreal, and mythic art, drawing from a dream world to envision a distinctly feminine form of power. Their stories inspired our guest Claire McMillan to write “Alchemy of a Blackbird,” a novel that follows the geographical and spiritual journeys that led Carrington and Varo’s lives to intertwine. Rebecca and Claire channel the wisdom of the two artists to discuss the powe...
Feb 27, 2025•27 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Throughout her time co-hosting and producing NPR’s “Code Switch,” Shereen Marisol Meraji has reported countless stories that complicate American narratives about race and identity. Now a journalism professor, Shereen reflects on how she has stepped into her own power as a listener and a leader. And, prompted by a card pull, Shereen and Rebecca look to the past, discussing ancestral relationships as a source of strength and support. This independent show is a delight to make, and it also takes a ...
Feb 12, 2025•36 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Rachel Khong’s 2024 novel Real Americans is a gorgeous and sweeping portrayal of an American immigrant family. It is also, in a sense, a novel about magick, about what it means to stop time, and about connections that reverberate across generations. Joining Rebecca as a voice in the river, Rachel explains her use of intuition in facing the blank page and her use of prayer in facing publicity, as well as how she relates to her ancestral past. Learn more about Rachel on her website. This independe...
Jan 29, 2025•35 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Rebecca has been collecting the offerings of artists and writers Fia and Kai Skye for many years, including art and writings from their studio, Flying Edna. One is a piece of reclaimed wood that carries the words: “You cannot believe in magick all you want, she said, but it's a lot like holding your breath for your whole life because you don't believe in air.” Fia and Rebecca talk about how words are tricky right now, what it might mean if we all saw trees as our aunts and uncles, and dancing na...
Jan 13, 2025•24 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Archaeologist and YouTuber Dr. Smiti Nathan helps us delight in the magick of the material past. While guided by the rigor of her discipline, her work also revolves around her intuition and her love of storytelling, as she illuminates untold and often undervalued histories. Smiti joins Rebecca to discuss her expansive approach to material history on her YouTube channel, the influence of her Hindu upbringing on her spirituality, and a vision of power that stems from kindness and community. This i...
Dec 31, 2024•32 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Rebecca begins our second season with an invitation for the winter solstice: to remind ourselves that while we are going into the darkness, we have the tools already inside of us, and outside of us in nature, to move us through. She was inspired by our guest, Katherine May, and her book called Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times. Rebecca and Katherine talk about being allowed to feel the full spectrum of human emotion, searching for omens between solstice and the new year...
Dec 15, 2024•46 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Two pieces of news to share: we’re coming back with season two in time for the winter solstice. And we’re finalists for a Signal Award. Click here to vote for Voices in the River for Most Inspirational Podcast - Shows, General. And thank you. Listen in to hear a card for the collective, too. Rebecca helps women remember who they are and become leaders of their own destiny. If you’d like to work with Rebecca, her website is rebeccaauman.com.
Oct 04, 2024•4 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Rebecca Auman created the show with journalist Theo Balcomb. She and Rebecca dive into how they’ve channeled these conversations, what they’ve learned since they began, and why loosening up can teach us everything doesn’t have to be so hard. Theo Balcomb created the audio show The Daily at The New York Times. It changed the genre and listening habits worldwide. Now, she makes audio with independent producers and newsrooms alike. If you’d like to work with her, please reach out. Rebecca helps wom...
Jun 20, 2024•31 min•Season 1Ep. 13
SaraJo Berman is a healer but her healing practice has nothing to do with her. She and Rebecca discuss how it's all about “the object or the person or the living animal or the tree” that she’s with, offering a space in which they are safe, and able to heal themselves. Rebecca helps women remember who they are and become leaders of their own destiny. If you’d like to work with Rebecca, her website is rebeccaauman.com. Thanks to Marc Maximov.
May 31, 2024•27 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Artists Murielle Elizéon and Shana Tucker join Rebecca to dive deep into chosen sisters, ancestral journeys, and generational trauma. You can learn more about Murielle Elizéon and her work at Culture Mill. For more about Shana Tucker, visit her website. Her new album comes out June 4, 2024. Music credit: “Body Story in Dmi (excerpt),” Shana Tucker. Rebecca helps women remember who they are and become leaders of their own destiny. If you’d like to work with Rebecca, her website is rebeccaauman.co...
May 06, 2024•30 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Elizabeth Greenwood is a writer who questions things that other people don’t necessarily think about. She’s now diving into writing a book about intuition, a process kicked off by becoming a mother. She and Rebecca discuss how becoming a parent showed her a new sense of knowing, how manifesting can be hijacked for capitalist gains, and how giving birth and using psychedelics are surprisingly similar. Elizabeth talks about her “fortuitous listening to of The Deep Dive” podcast. Here’s that interv...
Apr 17, 2024•23 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Jordan-Marie Smith is holding a lot: growing up in a traditional, Seventh-day Adventist community, finding power in tarot, maintaining a belief in God and in herself, finding joy in what she manifests, and fear about what might happen if it all works out. She and Rebecca talk about holding the divine god within us and, as Jordan-Marie puts it, “hobbling and cobbling” your own religion. If you’d like to learn more about Jordan-Marie, here’s her website. Rebecca helps women remember who they are a...
Mar 29, 2024•31 min•Season 1Ep. 10
After they first met, Rebecca and her friend Meredith Emmett were creating a conspiracy of success for each other. Then they didn’t speak for 18 years. How did they find their way back? To learn more about Meredith and her work, her website is Third Space Studio. Rebecca helps women remember who they are and become leaders of their own destiny. If you’d like to work with Rebecca, her website is rebeccaauman.com. Special thanks to Marc Maximov.
Mar 13, 2024•27 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Listening to your intuition is at the core of Rebecca’s teachings. Together, she and Emily Lerner, a coach for leaders across industries, discuss what intuition feels like, how it’s often like a radio station, and how you can tune into it yourself. If you’d like to connect with Emily, her website is skillstruckstudio.com. Rebecca helps women remember who they are and become leaders of their own destiny. If you’d like to work with Rebecca, her website is rebeccaauman.com.
Feb 14, 2024•18 min•Season 1Ep. 8
How do science and mystery coexist? For Dr. Sarah Laszlo, her intuition informs her work as a cognitive neuroscientist. She and Rebecca discuss what it’s like to be an experienced, smart, big, loud woman in a place of power, how to keep yourself whole when you start a new job, and the idea that how we learn to read is magick. Rebecca helps women remember who they are and become leaders of their own destiny. If you’d like to work with Rebecca, her website is rebeccaauman.com.
Feb 02, 2024•20 min•Season 1Ep. 7
When Rebecca was dreaming of who to feature on the next episode of Voices in the River, one image kept resurfacing, asking to speak with her: It was her stage actor friend, Kate Eastwood Norris, playing Lady Macbeth. Now Rebecca and Kate finally get that chance to talk. The two of them discuss the different identities we all play like theater roles — whether or not we’re actors — and how we can bring them all together to become whole. Rebecca helps women remember who they are and become leaders ...
Jan 12, 2024•24 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Rebecca feels as if she’d be a bad witch if she didn’t have at least one conversation about nature here. Enter Keri Rosebraugh, a critically acclaimed artist who brings nature into every one of her creations. She and Rebecca discuss the role that nature, the shadow and the sublime play in making art. What if our shadow work -- what we repress or do not like to acknowledge -- is really our brilliance? To learn more about Keri Rosebraugh’s work, follow her on Instagram @kerirosebraugh and visit he...
Dec 15, 2023•22 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Katie Harbath is an edge walker. She walks the line between Midwest and East Coast, and between being a good Catholic and a wonderful witch. A single woman in her 40s, working at the intersection of tech, elections, and geopolitics, she contains multitudes — which don’t often match up with the expectations of family and society writ large. In this episode, Katie and Rebecca talk about learning how to trust themselves and find comfort in just being — oh, and how Katie uses AI to generate images f...
Dec 01, 2023•21 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Rebecca Auman has been using tarot to make life decisions for over 30 years. But this episode’s guest, Emi Kolawole, only recently turned to tarot as a way to help her “tell a different kind of story.” She explains how tarot opened a window on what she had been hoping to find: who she was without work, and what it was she really wanted. They discuss how something as simple as paying attention to your internal knowing can be such a disruptive force. Rebecca helps women remember who they are and b...
Nov 17, 2023•24 min•Season 1Ep. 4
This episode contains references to suicide. So many people, many of them women, have been punished for speaking their truth. What if one of them was your ancestor? In this episode, Rebecca talks to Amy Gorely about her shamanic journey to the underworld, and the lengths she went to in order to bring her great-grandmother back into the light of family memory. Amy Gorely is an executive director of a local foundation in North Carolina, a thought leader, and speaker in the area of ageism, and has ...
Oct 27, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Rebecca Auman helps women remember who they are and become leaders of their own destiny. In this episode, your devoted witch tells us how she got here — her background, her initial hesitations making the show, and what she hopes it will achieve. If you’d like to work with Rebecca, her website is rebeccaauman.com.
Oct 27, 2023•5 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Rebecca Auman helps women remember who they are and become leaders of their own destiny. In each episode, she talks to women reclaiming their power. Join us as we throw our voices in the river to see if we can disrupt something.
Oct 16, 2023•4 min•Season 1Ep. 1
