Episode 7: Quentin Vennie
With his honest telling of his struggle through profound prescription drug and alcohol addiction, Quentin Vennie gives us soul stirring life lessons. We can turn our traumas into our triumphs. We all have to receive forgiveness and extend it to people who hurt us, even when we don’t want to. And in a world where society often strips people of humanity, when we have the courage to tell our stories to one another honestly, that’s when we can feel and see each person we meet through a lens of empathy and compassion.
Episode 4: Regina Bain
Regina’s life and work have been a series of incredible victories based upon her ability to stand in the present reality of her life and take firmly in her hands the opportunities before her. Her immense creativity and critical mind are on full display in our conversation. She reminds us all that we must courageously ask ourselves the questions what is the goal of our hearts? and what secret desires move us? And when the answers come, you have to move joyfully in the direction of your soul.
Episode 2: Rachana Garg
In my wide-ranging conversation with the brilliant Rachana Garg, I was reminded that the antidote to chaos is not a staid peace, but rather a radical dose of empathy, detachment, and curiosity. Empathy is the vehicle to build community with the people in our world. All people. Not just our cohorts or political comrades. Not only those whom we go to church with on Sunday morning, or synagogue on Saturday night, or no church at all.
Episode 1: Pun Bandhu
My conversation with my dear friend and colleague Pun Bandu was a great reminder that we are not here to be supporting players in our narratives. There is power and freedom in recognizing and embracing with open arms the wide dimensionality of who we are, even if who we are doesn’t fit into a neat and convenient category of who the world, our parents, and even our friends think we should be. As Pun reminds us so beautifully, we must break free of prisms that prevent us from being the heroes and emotional engines of our own lives.