Dana Stirling is a fine art photographer as well as co-founder & editor-in-chief of Float Photo Magazine. She was born in Jerusalem, of parents from London England, and now lives in Queens New York. Dana experimented with drawing and writing before discovering how much she enjoyed taking photos. She then found out she was following in the footsteps of both her father and grandfather, but she was the first one in the family to pursue photography seriously. Through her work, Dana explores very...
Jul 22, 2025•31 min•Season 5Ep. 114
This is an episode about receiving feedback, feedback relative to a goal, feedback versus distortion, and feedback helping us to see things that we may not be able to see ourselves.
Jul 08, 2025•11 min•Season 5Ep. 113
The last time I went out this far out on a limb in terms of topic on this podcast was my conversation with gardener Andi Strachan. But there's something about the interactions between human cultures and the natural environment that I find fascinating, and there's also a thread related not just to vulnerabilities of agrobiodiversity and food sovereignty, but also how our individual lives are entwined with the food that sustains, nourishes, and can hurt us and our environment. Carolina Modena is D...
Jun 22, 2025•29 min•Season 5Ep. 112
John Avilla is the founder of Sound Union, a creative studio and cultural hub designed for people who see music in terms of well-being, inspiration, and connection. With a background in brand strategy and creative direction, John built Sound Union as a new kind of social club for creatives, entrepreneurs, and thinkers who prioritize music as a vital part of their daily lives and identities. John shared a deep understanding and appreciation for the nature and benefits of music - so persuasive I b...
Jun 07, 2025•29 min•Season 5Ep. 111
This episode is about listening to our inner bass players and some of the different things that might mean.
Jun 01, 2025•20 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Lance Johnson has a decade of experience working as a freelance video editor. Based in New York City, he delivers work to clients like Tom Ford, MTV, and Showtime. He is also the founder and host of the podcast See-Through. Lance has an incurable eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa, which typically causes legal blindness by age 40. Today, at 34 years old, Lance has already spent five years having transparent conversations with people living with blindness and other disabilities, as a way of ...
May 11, 2025•29 min•Season 5Ep. 109
Jenn Seniuk works as an art therapist in Calgary, Alberta. We talked not just about art therapy - working with a professionally trained therapist to use art as another language for accessing and processing our feelings and sensations - but also 'art as therapy,' which is about engaging in the process of making art for creative self-expression, in the in-between spaces, and calming the nervous system. Everyone is innately creative and everyone can make art, if only we can let go of the judgments ...
Apr 27, 2025•30 min•Season 4Ep. 108
Clementine Morrigan is a writer and literary punk who has published six books and made 1000s of zines by hand over the last 25 years. Clementine explores complex and challenging human experiences - including incest and other forms of trauma, polyamory, and queer sexuality - with passion and integrity, as a responsibility and a calling. We talked about the constructed nature of confessional writing, cancel culture, and a sense of vulnerability that requires us to be aware and responsible about en...
Apr 13, 2025•28 min•Season 4Ep. 107
This is a brief story about something that really caught my attention. I'm not sure if it caught for the right reasons, or that I understand what those reasons are. But it's a story about what happened when I bumped into something that made me question the whole process of reading and writing stories (and sharing stories on this podcast).
Mar 30, 2025•10 min•Season 4Ep. 106
Urban artist Fluke got his start with graffiti sketchbook sessions, sitting around a picnic table in the park, a community of kids drawing essais together. He has moved on to creating and leading the production of art murals in Canada, the US, France, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. Fluke talks about the challenge of toning down his work and communicating core ideas more simply, what it means to him to be self-taught, measuring up to family expectations, hustling, and creating art for public spaces....
Mar 16, 2025•29 min•Season 4Ep. 105
Jaime Hjelm is a custom automotive expert and shop boss in the Netflix reality series TexMex Motors. She is also co-owner, with her sister, of Wicked Wrench, a car shop just outside Chicago. Jaime is a highly accomplished professional in a heavily male-dominated industry who knows car restoration is an art and she approaches it that way. Check out season 2 of TexMex Motors to watch how she designs a '52 Chevy after her purse. As shop boss, Jaime directs but also cares deeply for core cast member...
Mar 11, 2025•29 min•Season 4Ep. 104
Molly Roškar works with a constellation of objects, materials, and processes, from restoring heirloom cabinets to making natural dyes to whittling spoons, knives, and creatures, all within a core theme of tradition, sustainability, and great curiosity and care. Because I can get obsessed with details, we got into a bit of a conversation about shellac, which I now know is bug-processed resin. It has been used for thousands of years as a natural primer, stain, and varnish and it offers a deep lens...
Feb 06, 2025•30 min•Season 4Ep. 103
Gabrielle Rae Travis, literary artist and editor-in-chief of the zine whet , talks about the power of community, camaraderie, and connection and the role played by vulnerability and uncomfortable conversations. I relate in many ways to what Gabrielle talks about, including the appreciation and joy of helping to foster the work - learning from wonderful artists who share their insights with us. As she says, 'art is about stirring something in us.' And when the connections empower us to acquire th...
Feb 03, 2025•27 min•Season 4Ep. 102
I had the opportunity to speak with Emma Krebs via an introduction through a friend (thanks Joy!). Emma is a freelance expert in producing content in the creator economy, including podcasts and youtube videos, and she is curious and open to learning not just from what comes her way but what she goes after. Originally inspired by the concept of minimalism, she has been traveling the world gaining insight into human nature, connection, and relationships ever since. And when she talks about the 'wh...
Jan 20, 2025•29 min•Season 4Ep. 101
In spite of the fact that I took notes in preparation for this episode, there's more rambling than usual. All I can say in advance is that these are my reflections on having done 99 episodes to date, and planning for many more to come.
Jan 06, 2025•14 min•Season 4Ep. 100
Singer/songwriter (and spin instructor) Morgan Weinmeister and I talked about the kinds of music she likes to write and perform, her focus on lyrics, the nature of vulnerability, and the power of specificity to convey the deeper feelings, as people 'may not connect with the lyric, but they connect with what they know that lyric feels like.' And most importantly, that we should never feel like we need to be boxed into one thing. You can follow Morgan on instagram @morganweinmeister. Also be sure ...
Dec 22, 2024•28 min•Season 4Ep. 99
From sharing her experiences of academic mobbing to the ways in which she tries to create vulnerable (rather than safe) spaces for learning, professor of instructional design and technology Caroline Crawford is direct, engaged, and fully committed to the ongoing development and success of her student learners. To learn more about Caroline and her academic work, you can check out her faculty page on the University of Houston at Clear Lake website at uhcl.edu/education/faculty/crawford-caroline...
Dec 08, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 98
I had the pleasure of speaking with Craig Harrison - former British Army soldier, author, and Maverick Survival School course leader - not being quite sure how his story fit with the other conversations I've had over the past 3 and a half years. And he was a perfect fit. How he spoke about his life with PTSD, the importance of communicating and connecting with others, and the restorative power of time in nature was brave, gentle, open, and generous. You can check out themavericksurvivalschool.co...
Nov 24, 2024•30 min•Season 4Ep. 97
Jason 'Blackbird' Selman is a spoken word artist, poet, and trumpet player. In this conversation, Jason shares his insights into the freedom of poetry, Carribean community and cultures, and what it means to be a good man out in the world. Who am I, where do I come from, what does that mean, can I afford to be vulnerable... We can return to these questions, over and over, throughout our lives and experience how our responses evolve in time. If you're interested in learning more about Jason and hi...
Nov 10, 2024•30 min•Season 4Ep. 96
Two aspects of this conversation with dramaturg Aki Matsushita stood out to me most. One was learning what the expansive field of dramaturgy is all about. As Aki says, it’s an art practice that doesn’t necessarily show itself to people outside the development process. The practitioners themselves don’t even agree on how to pronounce it. My biggest takeaway was that the dramaturg can help answer the question, 'why this story now?' The other is a tangent I went on somewhere in the middle about cro...
Nov 06, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 95
This is an episode about what it means to know your thread, if it's important to know what your thread is, and the relationships between who you are and what you do.
Oct 25, 2024•12 min•Season 4Ep. 94
This is my conversation with David Gordon - artist, landscape designer, and owner of Bird Dog Arts Gallery in California's San Joaquin Valley. I probably should have edited out even more of our conversation about growing up in the 80s but David is sharp and insightful; I couldn't help it. Listen for David's insights into vulnerability, both for artists and also for people who buy art, people who then express a lot about themselves through pieces they have chosen to put on display. Learn more abo...
Oct 13, 2024•31 min•Season 4Ep. 93
'Failure is a lesson...I won't take one failure as a complete failure.' That adaptability and openness to learning stood out to me during my conversation with Anna Wojcik, a fitness entrepreneur in continual development, always finding new ways to challenge herself and her clients (including me). She warns against remaining comfortable with what we know, encouraging us instead to break out of the bubble to take risks, fail and succeed, and keep looking for opportunities to learn new things, for ...
Sep 20, 2024•28 min•Season 4Ep. 92
Claire Hankey first began making collages as a young child. Today, inspired by her father's brushes and paints, she creates fragile, dreamy pieces, in veils of mixed media. Her work reflects early childhood memories - her family home and garden, her glamorous grandmother Evelyne. Reflections on the past also inspired her podcast series Where the Art Began . A poignant moment for me is when Claire speaks about the importance of how we talk to people - children, young people, adults - about their ...
Sep 08, 2024•28 min•Season 4Ep. 91
This is an episode about feedback, reacting, and learning from what we hear from others.
Aug 18, 2024•13 min•Season 4Ep. 90
As you listen to my conversation with gardener Andi Strachan, see if you can look under the covers at what a garden - as art, creation, growth, and development - might mean to you. Where do you see yourself and your work within this ongoing process of dynamic and ongoing setbacks and bursts; natural individual beauties that develop over hours, days, and years; design through light and colour; sharing knowledge; social pressures and wildness versus cultivation; and 'the relentless emergence of li...
Aug 10, 2024•29 min
This episode, my conversation with collage artist Duane Toops, got me thinking. I got caught up in multiple dichotomoies - art versus craft, intuition versus analysis, conduit versus creator. And then, as Duane says, there's the quiet space between things, the unseen. Dichotomies set up false choices. What are you noticing? What’s coming up for you, ‘when this piece touches this piece?' You can learn more about Duane and his work here substack.com/@duanetoops and on instagram @duanetoops....
Aug 10, 2024•31 min•Season 4Ep. 88
I enjoyed a quickening conversation with poet Rachel McCrum about interpreting the crafts of writing and painting, poetry as a space of ambiguity and uncertainty, and burnout. She shares this beautiful line from Inua Ellams - 'poetry is the cheapest way to be free.' And the podcast she references is The Blindboy Podcast by Limerick-born musician and author David Chambers, also known as Blindboy Boatclub. To learn more about Rachel and her work, you can explore rachelmccrumpoetperformer.wordpress...
Jul 11, 2024•31 min•Season 4Ep. 87
Nola McConnan is unapologetically herself in the best ways, determined, self-reliant, and charmingly fierce. She has supported herself as an artist throughout her career, with mentorship and support, despite failing grade 13 French, and she turned a rec room into a room of her own. Please take note - when she talks about Sheilah, that is one of her older sisters. And due to timing, I wasn't able to include the amazing account of her family's connection with Emily Carr. Please be sure to check ou...
Jun 25, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 86
This is an admittedly odd little episode about tribes, belonging, support, feedback, inspiration, and propaganda.
Jun 09, 2024•14 min•Season 4Ep. 85
