This week Virginia Spotts returns to the podcast to talk about her acting and creative career, and her experiences of trauma. We talk about the various roles and different types of characters she's played, and how these have helped her process trauma and grief. She also shares the challenges of playing certain types of characters & how she tries to…

Jenna DeWitt returns to the podcast this week to discuss Taylor Swift's latest album, the "Tortured Poets Department". We explore several of the tracks and how they relate to the deconstruction journey, living as an LGBTQI person and the experiences of grief and trauma. We look at them in the context of our own journeys and Taylor's own story, and …

This week I welcome back my friend, poet and author Marla Taviano, to talk about her latest collection of poems, "Whole". "Whole" is the third in a series of 3 compliations of poetry exploring Marla's own deconstruction journey, and all the grief, doubt conflict, challenges and healing of this journey. We talk about the creative process both behind…

Today, my friend, qualified IFS practitioner Becky Castle Miller, joins me to discuss and explore Internal Family Systems therapy, how it works, and how it can benefit us. Becky and I both shares our own experiences with this kind of therapy and we also discuss internal managers, exiles and firefighters. We explore who they are, why they exist and …

My friend Trace Bell returns to the podcast this week to have a discussion about the mysterious power of music. Together we explore how music can tap in to both our consciousness, our subsoncious and our bodies and help us somehow connect with the wider energy of the universe. We explore the mystery of how it unlocks emotions, energy and even desir…

Today I talk to creators and filmmakers Ien Chi and Jon Bregel about Jon's recent documentary, the short film "I Do" which tells the grief story of a married man, from diagnosis, through loss, to grieve and finding life after death. Ien and Jon share their own experiences with creating and producing the movie, and how this exploration of grief in a…

Friend of the podcast Rob Bell returns today to discuss his new latest work, a novel, "Where'd You Park Your Spaceship? An Interplanetary Tale of Love, Loss and Bread: Book One, Welcome to Firdus." (Yes this is the title). It's an incredible novel, which explores grief, identity, toxic systems, all from the perspective of someone outside of earth l…

This week my friend MJ joins me to discuss Dan Levy's movie director debut, 'Good Grief', which is available on Netflix. The movie is about a person who loses their mother and husband in the space of the year, and their grieving process which reveals a lot of secrets and surprises, and how it impacts his life. MJ and I, who both have lived experien…

This week my friend Jenna DeWitt returns to discuss Taylor Swift's "1989 - Taylor's Version" which released earlier this year. Jenna shares her own experience with the album - both the new version, and the original - and what these meant for her as she explored her own identity. Then together we explore various tracks on the album and the stories b…

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #265 The Tar Heels are the ACC regular season outright Champs! After taking down Duke and never trailing in Cameron, UNC gets one championship. Now it's on to the ACC Tourney in Washington D.C. and the Heels path to another championship. Should UNC hoops be the last #1 seed? As always, thanks for listening and Go Heels! Make …

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #264 The North Carolina Tar Heels are ACC regular season champs once again...at least co-champs...for now! It seems like UNC is back on track heading into the 2nd match-up with Duke and tournament time! Let's sit down together and discuss the last few games, look ahead to the rivalry and both the ACC tourney and NCAA tourname…

My guest today is Virginia Spotts. She is a writer, actor, fiction podcaster, and aspiring death doula. In this episode she shares her experiences of grief and how they impacted her. As a writer, actor and fiction broadcaster, she shares unique experiences of how witnessing death and going through the grieving impacted the creative aspects of her l…

Today we begin another series exploring grief on the podcast, with Andrea De Ward talking about her experiences of doing pastoral work with the dying, as chaplain of a care home. Andrea talks about how this impacted her perspectives on death and grief, as she then herself had experiences of grief and loss. She tells us how these impacted her life, …

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #263 Every year the Tar Heels have a time where there are up and down, game to game and we are right in the middle of it now. UNC has dropped 3 of 5 surrounding the Duke game. Are they just not as good as we thought? Are we on a downward spiral? As always, thanks for listening and Go Heels! Make sure to support the podcast: S…

Today I'm joined by writer, advocate and podcast host Shari A Smith. She talks to us about her advocacy works with trauma victims and survivors, and the importance of sharing our stories. Shari shares her experiences of sharing and bearing witness to trauma and grief stories, and how its' impacted her and the people sharing those stories. She tells…

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #262 After beating Florida State over the weekend, the Tar Heels fall in the trap game at Georgia Tech heading into the Duke game on Saturday! Sloppy play in both of them, but after recovering in the 2nd half vs. the Seminoles, UNC couldn't do quite do it tonight against the yellowjackets. Of course, we also have to spend tim…

Today I'm joined by therapist Heidi Dennis, MS LPC, to discuss her new book, "Hello Anxiety", and explore a new approach to dealing with anxiety. Heidi shares how we can learn to say "hello" to our anxiety. Heidi shares what anxiety is, why it’s there and how to respond to it instead of distracting from it. She tells us how listen to our anxious fe…

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #261 We again have gone way too long without a podcast! Especially for how the Tar Heels are playing! Tonight, #3 UNC ran away from Wake Forest at home to stay perfect and atop of the ACC! The first Duke match-up is looming, can they keep it rolling? And how far can the North Carolina team go in March? Let's discuss As always…

This week I'm joined by activist and writer Justin Ancheta. In this episode they share their own story of discovering they were a biromantic demisexual & the prejudice they faced as a Filipino-Canadian, queer man with a stutter. They also talk about the connections between asexuality and tarot, and how discovering tarot helped them feel more at pea…

In our first episode of 2024, my friend Cat Dean joins me for a fun conversation about being human in the changing seasons of life. We discuss how the changes in the movement of the earth can impact our lives so directly, how we process change and the grief involved, and how it can impact our connection to our own humanity, and our creative lives. …

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #260 Didn't get that last podcast in last year, so it's time to catch up and then discuss tonight's game at Pitt! We are fully in ACC play now! Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! As always, thanks for listening and Go Heels! Make sure to support the podcast: Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: http://bit.…

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #259 Time to recap our last 3 big games! Big win over the Vols barely holding on, then the big comeback against FSU to start ACC play off 1-0, before the loss against UConn. It doesn't stop there though, 2 more big games to look ahead to in this one with Kentucky and undefeated Oklahoma coming up next on the schedule! As alwa…

For Grief Awareness week this week, I'm joined by Vicky McQuarrie, who works for AtaLoss Charity, a non-profit organization that signposts bereaved people to support. TW: Suicide, grief, loss of spouse _ Vicky courageously shares her stories of loss and grief, both being widowed and losing her sister in the space of a year. She shares the impact th…

A new Poema podcast special episode with myself and Douglas Humphries - recorded during the strike specifically for a post-strike release. In this episode we discuss Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer". We explore the various themes of the movie, how the movie impacted both of us, and the biggest lessons we can learn from the movie. We also talk abou…

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #258 It's time to recap and go back over the Tar Heels' games in the Bahamas at the Battle 4 Atlantis! After that thorough discussion, we will look ahead to the next couple weeks games. We have some big ones coming up and it isn't going to get any easier for UNC hoops! Will they step up and get some big time wins or are you a…

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #257 We take a look back at the Lehigh and UC Riverside games before turning our sights on Thanksgiving week and the Bahamas! We will preview the Battle for Atlantis for the Tar Heels! As always, thanks for listening and Go Heels! Make sure to support the podcast: Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/subscribeapple Subs…

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #256 Basketball is officially back and we have real meaningful games to talk about (mostly)! Of course, we will run through the Radford game that just finished with some thoughts and observations. Also, since we haven't yet, we will go through some player predictions for the season. Scoring leader, rebounding leader, X factor…

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #255 Live Action is in the books and we are getting closer to basketball season! Here are the season predictions that were sent in to me by you guys! Now they are down so we can see how right we were at the end of the season! Mine- 5 regular season losses so 26-5, 2-1 in ACC tourney, 3-1 in NCAA tourney (Elite 8) so total 31-…

I'm honoured today to be joined by author and speaker Daniel Finklestein. Daniel tells us the story about his parents and grandparents, Jewish families caught up in the growing anti-semitism of the 1920's & 1930's, ultimately leading to their imprisonment in concentration camps by the Nazi's. But the story doesn't end there, they survived these cam…

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #254 Well, I've done it again! It's been way too long since the last pod (since April), but after taking the summer off, I'm back! Did you miss me? Did you even notice I was gone? Plenty to talk about though and I hope you'll come back and join me, either live on YouTube (make sure to hit the bell so you know when I go live) …

This week my friend Jenna DeWitt returns to the podcast to discuss two songs - "You're Losing Me" by Taylor Swift and "Faith" by Selmer - and exploring them in detail, in relation to their respective messages about queer liberation and owning your gender and identity. We breakdown the lyrics of each song and discuss them in depth, and Jenna gives g…

This week my guest is my friend and colleague Maria French, author, speaker and theological coach. In this episode we discuss her new book, "Reconfiguring " A Collection of Post-Christian Thoughts and Theologies", and in particular two essays from this book. Firstly we explore the power of nostalgia, and how our yearning for some idealistic past wh…

Today I'm joined by my friend Ali Smith, who shares their story of how they slowly discovered they were autistic, and ultimately had ADHD. They share common patterns of behaviour they experienced which they realised can be giveaways for these diagnoses, and the process of them obtaining a diagnosis. Ali also talks about the challenges of coming to …

This week I'm joined by my friend Amber Kay to discuss living with epilepsy, how they discovered they were autistic and how this changed their life. They also share the story of discovering their bisexuality and embracing their true identity, and how this tied in with their autistic discovery. This episode is Amber sharing their journey of acknowle…

This week I'm joined by author Lyndsey Medford, who tells us the story of when an autoimmune condition opened her eyes fully to the limitation of being in our bodies within the systems we live in. Lyndsey talks about how learning to be comfortable in her body with its limitations impacted how she sees and interacts with the world. She also shares h…

In this episode, my friend, ace advocate and writer Elle Rose, joins me to hear me tell my story of how I discovered I'm demisexual and on the asexual spectrum. Firstly, I talk about how I discovered what demisexaulity is and began to resonate with this label. I then discuss how once I acknowledged my demisexuality, and looked back at my life and m…

I'm honoured to welcome back my friend, author Marla Taviano today. In this episode we talk about her recent book of poetry, 'Jaded'. We talk about the messiness of deconstruction, the parts of the journey where we need to get things of our chest, release the grief, anger and trauma we carry, and learn to speak truth to ourselves and of ourselves. …

This week my friend Amanda Held Opelt returns, and we discuss grief rituals, why they were popular in the reign of Queen Victoria, and the impact of the first world war on our cultural grief rituals and how we process grief & loss. We also explore how the trauma and grief culturally felt and experienced in the first World War, had an impact on the …

This week my friend Douglas Humphreys returns to the show, and we discuss the show 'Obi Wan Kenobi', and the dynamic of the relationship between him and Anakin Skywalker (AKA Darth Vader) in the context of their respective journeys of grief and trauma. We discuss their experiences of grief, including in their own relationship, and the circumstances…

This week Amanda Held Opelt returns to continue our exploration of grief and transformation in pop culture. Today we talk about the contrasting experiences of Loki, brother of Thor and Wanda Maximoff, and how we see this ultimately play out in their respective MCU shows. We explore how Loki's confrontation with his own trauma, grief, and his action…

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #253 First podcast of the off-season and there is plenty to talk about! We haven't had a podcast since the Tar Heels missed the NCAA tournament, we have seen players transfer out, transfer in, and lots of talk about reclassifying and a change to the coaching staff. I will try to remember all the names, but otherwise, hopefull…

I'm honoured to be joined today on my podcast by anti-racist activist, educator and speaker Tori Williams Douglass. Tori runs 'White Homework', a resource educating people on anti-racism and whiteness. Today Tori tells us a bit of her story and journey into activism. She then discusses the concept of whiteness, where it originated, where we see it,…

TW: Stories of acephobia Today Marshall Blount (@AceGentle on twitter) joins me today to share his story of discovering his identity as an asexaul (ace) and his journey into ace & LGBTQI activism. We talk about the challenges he faced in discovering going public about his ace-ness and how others reacted, how it impacted his mental health, as well a…

This week, in our 350th episode, Amanda Held Opelt joins me again for the second part of our series on superheroes, grief and modern mythology. This week we explore the character and story of Superman, in particularly the one we see in the Christopher Reeve movies. He's a character who loses his adoptive father as a teenager, an event which drives …

This week I begin a new series with my friend Amanda Held Opelt to discuss how grief is explored in superhero stories, and how they have become our modern mythology. Today we focus mainly on Batman, exploring his story sand how his grief transforms and initially controls him, with Batman an expression of his raw grief. We discuss some of the storie…

This week Jenna DeWitt returns to the show for a conversation about Taylor Swift's recent album "Midnights" and the enneagram. Jenna briefly introduces the enneagram and we talk a bit about Taylor's likely enneagram numbers 9 (3w4). Then we explore how this relates to the recent fallout with Ticketmaster regarding her tour. Then we talk about how t…

TW: Spiritual abuse, evangelicalism, toxic religion Today I'm joined by Carissa (@carissaexplainsnothing) who courageously shares her story, including her deconstruction and experience of toxic religion. She talks about her upbringing with evangelicalism, and a path she began to see as already pre-determined and inevitable. Carissa shares some of t…

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #252 The Tar Heels fell short tonight against Virginia to all officially end their season short of an NCAA tourney bid, becoming the first preseason #1 team to do so. So what is next? Who transfers or leaves? Who comes back? What does our roster look like next season? For some fun in this one; who wins this year's championshi…

This week I'm honoured to be joined by Candice Czubernat. She is a therapist (known as @lesbiantherapist on IG), and founder of The Christian Closet, an LGBTQ affirming counseling, coaching and spiritual direction organization. She is also the founder of Gloriously Queer a conference for LGBTQ people of faith developed by LGBTQ people of faith. Tod…

UNC Hoops Talk Podcast #251 The Tar Heels took care of business, up until the finale in Chapel Hill against Duke. Similar to the first match-up they came up short not being able to score in the end and losing to the Devils. This sets UNC up to have to win the ACC tournament, no matter what Hubert Davis says, to get into the NCAA tournament. They wi…