Ace of Pentacles

In this episode, Brendan Lorber shares his multifaceted career as a poet, visual artist, and teacher, exploring how living many lives enriches creativity.

We talk about the power of maps as a metaphor for life, the importance of serendipity, and the impact of AI on art and consciousness.

Check out Brendan's work at: www.brendanlorber.com

Brendan Lorber is a writer, visual artist, and teacher. He is the author of If this is paradise why are we still driving? (subpress, 2018) and several chapbooks, most recently Unfixed Elegy and Other Poems. He's had work in The American Poetry Review, Brooklyn Rail, Fence, McSweeney's, The Recluse, and elsewhere.

He hosts Overhear a cross-generational reading series in Brooklyn in which at least one reader must live within walking distance of the venue. He edited Lungfull! Magazine, currently in hibernation, an annual anthology of contemporary literature that prints the rough draft of contributors' work, to reveal the creative process. He's also edited The Poetry Project Newsletter, taught writing workshops, and curated both the Zinc Bar Reading Series and the Segue Foundation Reading Series.

His visual art is in The Museum of Modern Art, The Free Black Women's Library, Opus 40 Gallery, Artists Space, The Free Library of Philadelphia, The Woodland Pattern Center, The Scottish Poetry Library, and in private collections. It's been featured on CNN, NBC's The Today Show, and Oprah.

He is also a graphic designer with a wide-ranging body of work that includes major campaign rollouts, new visions for cultural organizations, and innovative compositions for artists and musicians.

To further explore the possibilities of what these artforms can accomplish, he teaches classes on fantasy cartography, workshops on poetry, and gives talks on design. He lives in a little observatory in a Brooklyn neighborhood that nobody can quite find on a map.

www.brendanlorber.com

In this episode, Farah Yasmeen Shaikh shares her journey as a Kathak artist, the cultural significance of her work, and the importance of valuing art in society. Sara and Farah discuss the challenges artists face, the history of South Asian dance, and how art can be a tool for healing and connection.

Farah Yasmeen Shaikh is an internationally recognized Kathak dance artist, choreographer, educator, and Founder/Artistic Director of Noorani Dance.

Farah has been a practitioner of Kathak for over 30 years, initiating her training under the late Pandit Chitresh Das in 1996, and receiving almost two decades of training under his guidance, holding roles as a senior instructor in his institution and as a leading member in his performing company.

Known for her evocative storytelling, technical precision, delicacy and grace, Farah has developed a unique artistic voice, while also maintaining the classical elements of Kathak - producing work in the Bay Area, and touring extensively throughout the US and internationally, with ongoing performances and workshops throughout Pakistan.

Farah's unique positionality as a Pakistani American Muslim Kathak Artist is evident in her personal, and yet globally relevant, approach and amplification of topics of historical and social relevance through her performances and choreography, with many of her original works receiving prestigious awards and grants - including being named as an Established Artist through the California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, and as a recipient of the Isadora Duncan Dance "Sustained Achievement Award" for The Forgotten Empress .

A fierce advocate for the arts, Farah is also a TEDx speaker, hosts her own podcast, Heartistry, and is an Arts Commissioner for San Mateo County.

IG: @farahyasmeenshaikh @nooranidance

FB: @farahyasmeenshaikh @nooranidance

Website: https://nooranidance.com/ and/or farahyasmeenshaikh.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt8Y2ltCqWDTxp7Y14j7oqg

In this episode, I chat with Jesse Kalsi about numerology and intuitive development.

Jesse is a world-renowned numerologist. He specializes in residential and business numerology and provides valuable insight on the power of numbers and how they affect our lives. In his books, The Power of Home Numbers and All About Numbers, he combines his Eastern upbringing with his Western experience to bring awareness and understanding of this phenomenon. Over the past twenty years, Jesse has consulted thousands of people and affected their lives positively. His clients include prominent business people and extremely successful communication and entertainment companies. Jesse has appeared on many radio and television shows in the U.S. and his unique perspective on Numerology has amazed his audience.

A successful real estate broker by trade, Jesse is also a Certified Federal Aviation Administration Flight Instructor and holds a commercial pilot's license. He received his Bachelor's Degree in India and holds an LLM in International Legal Studies from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California. Jesse graduated from the National Defense Academy of India and pursued advanced studies at the Indian Military Academy. He served as a Captain in the 1st Battalion, 3rd Gurkha Rifles, formerly called "The Queen's Own." Intending to devote his life to military affairs, Jesse left the army when he was informed of his true life purpose while posted at the Jammu-Kashmir frontier. He originally came to the U.S. to learn to fly, but eventually returned here to make his home in California.

Jesse Kalsi lives in California with his family.

You can learn more about Jesse's work and his writing at: www.jessekalsi.com

Check out his books: The Power of Home Numbers and All About Numbers

Follow him on IG: @iamjessekalsi

What if the greatest adventure you'll ever take doesn't require a passport, a mountain to climb, or an ocean to cross?

What if the greatest adventure you'll ever take doesn't require a passport, a mountain to climb, or an ocean to cross?

In this conversation with Dr. Claire Green-Ford, we explore what psychological safety requires, why safety is experienced differently across identity and role, and how leaders can create cultures that honor people's humanity, boundaries, contributions, and well-being.

Dr. Claire Green-Forde, LCSW—The Culture & Well-Being Architect™—is a mental health executive, leadership strategist, transformational speaker, and Founder & CEO of Dr. Claire SPEAKS!™.

Her strategic advisory and thought leadership firm partners with senior leaders and executives across high-impact organizations, including healthcare systems and social impact institutions. With more than 20 years of experience across behavioral health, healthcare, government, and mission-driven systems, Dr. Claire works at the intersection of leadership, organizational culture, and well-being. She helps leaders address the root causes of workplace harm by examining leadership behaviors, power dynamics, and how culture and policy are operationalized day to day.

Through keynotes, leadership development workshops, and short-term strategic advisement, she blends neuroscience, research, human behavior insight, and systems-level strategy to help leaders build trust, strengthen teams, improve retention, reduce organizational risk, and drive innovation and profitability. Guided by her proprietary L.E.A.D. with C.A.R.E.™ framework and the belief that Work Shouldn't Hurt™, her mission is to help leaders build workplaces worthy of the people inside of them™.

Company Website: www.drclairespeaks.com

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-claire-green-forde/

IG: @dr.clairespeaks

Many people talk about leadership theoretically. We also tend to teach it as if it were a theory. But leadership is a practice and a hard one to master. In this episode, I chat with someone who is helping people learn leadership as a practice, not just ideas, step-by-step guides, and frameworks.

Donnacadh O'Briain is an Olivier and Offie Award-winning Director and creative leader working all across the Experience Economy, with a 20-year habit of delivering exceptional results. An expert in story and narrative, he works extensively as a creative director & strategist as well as a writer, narrative designer and experience designer.

His career has seen me leading on everything from musicals and West End Comedy, to large scale attractions for families, to creating innovative learning projects for major companies and educational institutions. With a diverse list of partners and clients that runs across several industries and includes the likes of The Royal Shakespeare Company, Asahi, Wells Fargo and Hasbro.

You can connect with Donnacadh on LinkedIn.

As we grow up, we intentionally leave behind traditions that don't suit us. We might reject holidays, rituals, belief systems, and even language that we grew up with.

But we carry something with us our whole lives that our parents unknowingly gift us: the habit of comparison. And we'll abandon the rituals that seem outdated, but we won't abandon the outdated comparison scripts.

So we move through our lives measuring ourselves against others, weighing our joy, our success, our worth against someone else's story.

In this episode I share a story of something I observed at a park that got me thinking about when and why we start comparing ourselves and our lives to those around us.

In this episode, we explore what it means to approach life and career with a sense of play, creativity, and intention. Joined by a magician and board game designer, we dive into the idea of life as a game - one that can be redesigned to create more joy, meaning, and "magical moments" in everyday experiences.

We talk about how creativity naturally ebbs and flows, practical ways to reconnect with creativity when it feels out of reach, and how small shifts in perspective can transform the way you work, live, and create.

This conversation is an invitation to stop simply going through the motions and start actively designing a life that feels engaging, expansive, and fun.

Visit questinyboardgame.com to join the adventure!

In this episode, I share the story of an unexpected career move I made—hesitantly—during a challenging season of life.

What I thought was a temporary thing ended up being the most beneficial move of my career.

In this short bonus episode, I share the mindset and perspective that got me through it and propelled my career for the next decade to places I could not have ever imagined.

If there's one thing I hope to inspire people to do more of, it's this:

Lean into the uncomfortable, surprising, even disorienting life moments. Know that everything that is happening to you is actually happening for you.