Connections to other humans are crucial. But what does that look like? How can we trust others? This second segment of Talking to Strangers focuses on Steph Thompson, founder of sound healing practice Sacred Bloom Tribe talking to strangers about music. Sound and rhythm are crucial aspects to building up our listening skills. Trusting one another--whomever we might be, whatever race, creed, religion, political persuasion--we have to learn to listen to one another and find a common vibration. ...
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When confusion reigns, where do you turn? We are strangers to ourselves in these moments, unfocused and unclear. I often turn to the piano, or other musical instruments to get at and get out what's going on inside. More even than writing, composing music allows thoughts and feelings to flow through me unencumbered (or, at least, less encumbered tha…
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Fans of Phoebe Bridgers Cite 'Collective Catharsis'
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What makes us love a musician? The connection with a performer and their music is not unlike other loves probably, a slightly inexplicable alchemy that hits us hard, right off the bat. Seeing a long line of people waiting mid-morning for the best seats for the Phoebe Bridgers benefit concert in Prospect Park last week, I was curious: why do these f…
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Moxie the Band: The Read on The Future is Great
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My interaction with the young band Moxie is a direct result of saying 'yes.' "Can a band stay with us a couple of nights?" my son Eli asked a couple weeks back and--based on my love of strangers, especially meeting them in my house--I didn't skip a beat. "Yes," I said. And so it was that I found myself in my kitchen with four of the most lovely dyn…
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When I sat down to write about Dani Markham, the first thing I did was look up "cool." Even though it was the first word that came to mind when I thought to describe her, I guess I don't really know why, or what 'cool' really means... Obviously, like all words, 'cool' is subjective. But what came up from psychologists who study perceptions of human…
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For this episode, I sat down naked at the piano. Sometimes, it is only through music and rhythm that I am able to get at what I'm REALLY thinking and feeling, what I want to express. Sometimes, often, words don't work. I so like to express my naked thoughts and ideas. And I like to hear other people's. People often can see that in my eyes, in my bo…
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Jason Naradzay - Relabeling Ex-Cons 'Humans'
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Trust is an interesting thing. To talk to someone, to engage with them, is to offer them a sort of trust. When I first talked to Jason Naradzay a few years back, it was to interview him for a piece I was writing in support of Musicambia, a nonprofit music education organization he had been involved with during his time served at Sing Sing Correctio…
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Jamee & Leonissa: An Artful Miami Connection
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I knew that Jamee Jurecki and Leonissa Morris were to be my pals back when I first encountered them in December of 2017. As we stood there in front of the long mirrors of the communal bathroom at the Posh Hostel in South Beach, brushing our teeth and hair, preparing to hit the town, it was very clear. We had come to Miami on our own, adventurous la…
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On Facebook the other day, someone posed the question, "what career did you dream of having when you were a kid?" I didn't skip a beat. "A singer!" I responded. My sister and I spent countless hours singing into a tape recorder (yes, a tape recorder, with cassette tapes whose plastic film we often had to detangle and re-roll with a pen. I am that o…
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Designer, Color Maven, Dog Whisperer Nora Fish
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I first met Nora Fish in a little cafe named Parco, in Park Slope. She had a beautiful German Shepherd named Annika and an adorable pug named Tootsie. As she reminds me during this podcast, she and I "were constantly complimenting each other's boots!" I have always admired Nora's style, from the great knit ponchos she makes herself to the gorgeous …
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How Do You Illustrate Meaning? Talk to James Yang
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When James Yang came to my kids' school to talk about his illustrated children's book back in 2013, I was immediately struck by its powerful simplicity. I had just started volunteering at a school where kids didn't get to meet authors like my kids did, and I invited James to join. We reminisced during this podcast about that day, about how the kids…
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It was quite the coup to get one of my teenagers to come on to the podcast. After all, they are independent humans with ideas of their own about how to live life, and doing my bidding often takes low priority, as it should be. Over the years, I humiliated them bi-weekly with my Fearless Parenting column in the Brooklyn Paper, subjected them to a fe…
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Talking with Plants: Permaculturist Emily Sause
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When I first met the lovely Emily Sause a few years back, she was 'head of community' for a stunning Manhattan co-working space called The Assemblage. It was part of her job to be welcoming, but she seemed to go above and beyond with her bright-eyed enthusiasm. While I didn't end up joining the super-cool workspace, I did manage to come for a coupl…
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The Games We Play with Strangers...Scrabble with Sarah and Roberto
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I met Roberto at Cafe Martin in Park Slope. He was a mathematician/philosopher working there between gigs. A song had come on and I asked a question about it, and he said how popular it was with the French kids. He said it with a bit of a scoff. He sounded French but...”where are you from?” I asked before I guessed. “I’m Italian,” he said. He grew …
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When I run out of coffee, I am always glad because it means I can take a walk over to Java Joe. For so many years, I have been going to this little shop on 8th Street, in Park Slope, to buy their deliciously strong Black Magic espresso beans. The shop is adorable, run by a lovely frank Irish lady, and besides the INCREDIBLE mint malted milk balls (…
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Drumming Up Trust: Finding Rhythm with Strangers
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In this episode, I head to the beach to drum, and I talk a bit about how we learn to trust ourselves and others. It's not easy. I often use the metaphor of music, and work with people, including homeless men, to try to get at thoughts about connection, and trust and flexibility through drumming together. What we can create together, quickly, us str…
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Samir LanGus: Playing the Sintir in Adidas
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What I loved about Samir LanGus from the first time I saw him was how comfortably he seemed to mix cultures seamlessly and stylishly. As a Moroccan musician steeped in the classically spiritual Gnawa music of his homeland, he is always sporting American fashions like his favored Adidas jackets or running pants along with more traditional Moroccan g…
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Discussing Fear & Other Emotions with Facebook 'Friend' Chris Rael
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33:23
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I'm "friends" on Facebook with a lot of people I've never met. Maybe we have mutual friends, maybe they read something of mine or listened to my podcast, maybe I heard them play somewhere. Neither Chris Rael nor I remember exactly how we became "friends," though we have a long list of friends in common, mostly musicians (since he is one.) Even thou…
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Talking to My Therapist (Friend): Mubasher Naseer
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I try not to take advantage of my friendship with veteran psychoanalyst Mubasher Naseer. After all, he is clearly easy to talk to, listens well and has many years' experience helping people sort out relationships and other of life's strains and stresses with his sage advice. Since we met, roughly six years ago, Mubasher is always a good person to c…
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Since meeting jazz pianist James Carney seven or so years ago in a little bar in Park Slope, I have sat many times in various venues to see and hear him tickle the ivories, his fingers flying fast across the keys masterfully to create rhythms that resound in the soul. It was a pleasure to sit with him again and hear a few of these sounds, this time…
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Hilary Robertson: Styling a Beautiful Truth
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It is fitting that in our chat, in her sumptuous living quarters in the Fort Greene area of Brooklyn, stylist/creative director Hilary Robertson would quote Keats' Ode to a Grecian Urn. She waved her hand this way and that with her usual English dramatic flair, and the crisp striped fabric of the full-length dress shirt she wore shifted slightly. "…
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Saskia Layden Kaya: Teacher of Yoga, and Love
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I first met Saskia Layden (now Saskia Layden Kaya) when she was teaching yoga to children at Still Waters in a Storm, a storefront after-school program in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Her smile and laugh lit up the room, and the children gathered around her, all over her, like puppies. I knew immediately I needed her to teach the kids in my ow…
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The Serious Stylings of Jazz Guitarist Andy Bianco
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It is fitting that I am posting this episode of Talking to Strangers late at night, as that's when I met today's guest, jazz guitarist Andy Bianco. We met at Korzo, a Park Slope restaurant and bar, during one of the late great Konceptions Music Series shows put on by pianist James Carney and his wife Heidi Bayer. He wasn't playing that night, but I…
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Trainer Stanley Mills: Believe, and the Body will Follow
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Believing in yourself can be a hard thing. With Stanley Mills' sure smile and easy laugh, and his gentle prodding, it seems easier. Stanley has been a personal trainer for over 20 years, though his body seems to defy that that's even possible! It is his physique that is physically impressive, but it is his amazing positivity that really drives one …
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Deep Chat with My Contractor & The Plumbers
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When you buy a house and decide to gut renovate it, you are suddenly in contact with a lot of strangers you have to learn to trust. Last November, I hired upstate contractor Andy Kane from Peak Builders, and he began to work on the fixer-upper we'd purchased in Elka Park, NY. It has been 10 months since then, and there have been an amazing cast of …
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Talking to my Teenage Stranger Self, Working at a 50s Diner
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It's funny to remember back nearly four decades ago to a time and place, to a 50s diner in Tucson, Arizona in the 80s. That young girl in the too-tight Laverne shirt making shakes behind the ice cream counter was me, Steph Saull. I found this recording I made talking about that time (and digressing, of course, onto other seemingly related topics) a…
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The Music of a Stranger: Pierre-Yves Plat at the Sunset in Paris
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Discovering a fabulous musician you've never heard of at a club, alone in a foreign city is...well, it is an amazing, life-affirming highly connected experience, one I wholeheartedly recommend. Rolling through recordings on my phone, searching for a podcast for Day 4 of my 30-day lead-up to 50, I happened upon a performance I'd recorded at the Suns…
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Trying to title this podcast, I was uncharacteristically at a loss for words. It's hard to put Alex in a box. He said he would go into one, but only if he knew who he was in there with...Ha. This is why Alex and I have become great friends and confidants over the last five years, ever since we met on the lunchroom balcony of the Omega Institute in …
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There is definitely something about the cadence of someone's voice. At the crowded poolside bar at the Raleigh Hotel in Miami Beach, on a gorgeous night when the Art Basel art fair had taken over the city, Per Adolfsen's urgent yet mellifluous Danish tone broke through the din. There had been some drinks consumed, surely, that fueled his passionate…
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Joelle Provost: Sculpting to Save the Environment
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I am always amazed at the power of instantaneous connection. The moment I met Joelle Provost at a diner in Brooklyn Heights is a perfect example. A wide-eyed young artist/art teacher, she struck me right away as a powerful force, one I wanted to get to know. I shortly thereafter visited her on the wide porch of the Ditmas Park Victorian she was liv…
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When we sat down together recently at an outdoor cafe on my corner, in Park Slope, I liked Giles Clement immediately. Though he might use one as a photographer, it was clear from his comment about the waitress that in conversation he had no filter. Just my style. I was told weeks ago by my friend Maggie to call Giles. Maggie is the owner of the Kro…
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Sitting at a lookout on a beautiful Catskills trail, staring out toward the Hudson Valley framed below, I caught sight of a young woman running along. She seemed wet, and I wondered aloud to her if there was water from where she'd come. It was a hot day and I was looking to dive in somewhere. She came to a complete stop to regard me, and clearly co…
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Why are Tara Sanders & Earl Legister, Jr. together? "We always connected on the dance floor," Tara says emphatically. And Earl agrees. Of course, there is no way of ever knowing, exactly, what brings two people together, on the dance floor and off. That alchemy is long-studied, long-pondered. But for the last year-plus, the strange chemical equatio…
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Finding Common Ground with Southern Historian Dr. Edward Lee
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I found Dr. Edward Lee on Facebook, not exactly sure how. He is a renown professor of history at South Carolina's Winthrop University, an author and lecturer who looks back with reason on the 20th Century. He has more than 4,000 friends on Facebook, humans of all kinds, former students, friends, and strangers he has made friends with from around th…
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Reason + Flexibility + Love. This is how we get in tune with the stranger within us, and the stranger outside. Nose to the wind...breathe it in. In this episode, we feel our way through. Join us on our journey.By Stephanie Thompson
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A Recipe for 'Friendship': Chai with Navodita Singh
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The concept of "friend" on Facebook is a strange one. So often, people request to be 'friends' from all over the world, and I don't even know them. "Why do you accept?" my husband asks. And I think about this. What better way to interact and learn about people from all over the world quickly and easily then social media? Seven years ago, a request …
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When I first met NYC artist Agni Zotis at a cafe near her apartment/studio in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, I knew she was a force to be reckoned with. In her iconic gravelly voice, inflected with a little Greek, by way of Queens, she offered up tales of the nonprofit she created to bring kids much-needed meditation and art, May Kids Trans…
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Singer Pi Jacobs: All There is to Do is Dance and Sing...
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The great Americana singer Pi Jacobs has a wonderful idea of how to cope in the face of Covid-19: dance and sing. In her newly released single off her Two Truths And a Lie album, called "No Sin to Be Poor," the effervescent Jacobs recalls her own childhood poverty, and how they managed to get through it by having fun and being silly. "There's no sh…
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At Home with The Lone Bellow's Brian Elmquist
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A major silver lining of the current pandemic is that one can find usually VERY BUSY people at home, and eager to chat. One-time stranger, longtime friend Mr. Brian Elmquist has been very busy in recent years on the road around the world with his spectacularly popular 'Americana' band, The Lone Bellow. But I was able to catch up with him at home in…
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To me, Raed El-Khazen is one of the best examples of how talking to strangers changes the course of one's life. It's hard to know what to say about this man I met 12 years ago at Dizzy's Diner in Park Slope, hard to pin down exactly why when his eyes sparkled at me and his gravelly voice spoke I felt the need to look more closely at myself and at t…
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I met Nena Hribar at my friend Saskia's wedding in Fethiye, Turkey, last spring. She is from the tiny European country of Slovenia, and was one of 14 women from all over the world--a mini United Nations--with whom I sat naked in the sauna at a beautiful Turkish Bath (otherwise known as a Hamam). We found ourselves together at the airport in Dalaman…
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Teens on Inspiration and That Pesky Inner Voice
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After an awesome rhythmic drum session and a collaborative chalkboard drawing (beautiful!), my new interns Jalissa and Breanna sat down with me over popcorn and chamomile tea to discuss...well, how they might stay inspired a la Kobe Bryant, to whom they dedicated their gorgeous art work. I talk too much in this, filling in the silence too often wit…
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My intern, Abby, and I were talking about self expression. She is 16 and admittedly quiet. "How do you do it? Talk to strangers?" she asked. So I decided to show her. We went to Barnes & Noble. We looked around, and I told her I would buy her a journal, and a pen so that she could better connect to her thoughts. We first need to connect to what we …
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Artist Claudia Vieira: Tracing the Connection
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Since I've known her, Brazilian artist Claudia Vieira has played with lines. Drawing them, using tape to make them, on walls and floors and various surfaces. Her line is continuous, spiraled, repetitive. It is an immersion, a self-reflective cathartic, healing experience of the crossing of space and time, both for the artist and the viewer/particip…
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Creativity with Nature: Talking to Artist/Store Owner Randy Tompkins
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Randy makes things from bones and stones, hence the name of his amazing shop in Tannersville, NY: Bones & Stones. He also makes things from animals and bugs. I was incredibly impressed with the creativity of Randy's work, how he takes things from the natural world and creates other things, like lighting fixtures and pipes. It is, of course, ancient…
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I talk to people all the time who are afraid to talk to strangers. You can see it in the set of their shoulders, the way they slump forward. You can see it in the way they avoid your gaze, how they look anywhere but in your eyes. I do what I can. I say something about their shirt or their dress, guess something about how they might be feeling about…
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I came across actor/producer Melissa Sutkowski in the park one day this summer, sitting at a tree stump 'desk.' I laughed at the site of her, chilling there with her laptop, which seemed so natural, literally. We got into a conversation about the incredible importance of appreciating nature and it turns out the subject is one of the main themes of …
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Woody Goldberg and I met years ago in a little cafe in Park Slope called Parco that has since closed. I caught up with him recently in another cafe nearby, Couleur Cafe, and we shared old memories of a bygone time, and talked about his new work as an extra for film and TV...He is, apparently, easily typecast as "an old Brooklyn guy." He is an aweso…
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Crystal healing is something I'm interested in, and I always buy pieces of rock and stone that appeal to me. I love reading about what they are meant to bring into my life, though I'm always terrible at remembering. When I arrived recently at the Omega Institute, a retreat center in Rhinebeck, NY, for the Juno Women's Leadership Residency I had app…
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I like to tell Dexter that he is the best guest I've ever had in my house, and I've had a lot of guests. His appreciation of my hors d'ouvres the night he came to perform as an alumni of the Musicambia program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility was seriously unparalleled. He is one of the most joyous enthusiastic people I have ever had the pleasure…
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Hip Hop Artist/Emcee Spiritchild Pushes Peace Through Polyamory:
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"Critical Revolutionary Hip Hop Pedagogy." He said it fast, like he would on stage. But I had to stop him, to get him to explain. Spiritchild's work with youth, and in the prison system, with homeless and refugees through programs including Urban Art Beat is something to stop and pay attention to. It's critical. And revolutionary. It uses Hip Hop a…
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