Send us Fan Mail

On the latest episode of "Authenticated," Kate is joined by playwright Calley N. Anderson to explore what it means to hold an opinion in an age that has made having one seemingly easier and simultaneously more dangerous than ever before. Their mutual investment in the internal "why's" of life is the tool they share to dig into the architecture of an opinion: why it can never be separated from lived experience, why ego is the thing standing between a good opinion and a great one, and what it costs us when we confuse fact with the illusion of objectivity. 

Kate and Calley lead with their curiosities in the space between the globe and the spin of it, the panopticon and the performance of self, the "hit dog that hollers" and the person who sits quietly in the resounding of what just landed. Their conversation asks what is getting lost as we develop ourselves in public, whether the digital age has made us more seen or just more surveilled, and why the most honest creative act today might be the one you choose not to share.

Show Notes:

Calley N. Anderson Website
Calley N. Anderson Instagram

Authenticated All Access

ME³

Kate McLeod

Send us Fan Mail

On the latest episode of Authenticated, Kate welcomes Maggie Wilt, community builder and creative entrepreneur, to talk about what it means to constantly be defining the landscape of belonging.

The representation of Maggie's work looks simple on the surface: she photographs beautiful cafes, films moments of intentionally designed welcoming ambiance and defines community by the connection between residents to their local businesses. The underneath of it all, scales a more profound nature - a practice in witnessing, celebrating, and creating space for people to show up (and stay) as themselves.

From her initial impulse of seeking beauty to survive trauma, to building community during times when connection felt impossible, to developing a business model focused on integrating new residents into neighborhoods they don't yet know, Maggie reveals how authenticity becomes a beacon amidst the landscape of community. How being yourself doesn't just attract your people; it gives permission for everyone around you to mirror that permission.

Maggie and Kate sift through perspectives of what community actually requires in a city designed for isolation, why presence can matter more than you think, how neurodivergence changed their approaches their work, and how the smallest acts of connection can ripple out in ways you'll never fully realize.

The conversation of this episode is for anyone who's moved somewhere new and felt lost looking for their starting point. Anyone with a desire to build, but hindered by fear of failure. Someone in the midst of learning that showing up fully, authentically, without performing is your most daring and generous offering to the world.

Listen to Maggie discoveries from the gift of witnessing entrepreneurship fail, why a beautiful space nearly always brings tears to her eyes, and how community is a practice you have to keep choosing.

Show Notes to add for Maggie Wilt:

website: www.abetterwaycreative.com AbetterwaycreativeA Better Way Creative | For The Love of Local Business

instagram: @Maggie_onthemove Instagraminstagram.com/maggie_onthemove/?hl=en

Authenticated All Access

ME³

Kate McLeod

Send us Fan Mail

On the latest episode of Authenticated, Kate is joined by Broadway actor David Mattar Merten to workshop what it means to measure backwards in his career. 

David's always been a "look ahead" person, great at getting the job and currently in the practice of staying present in it. He reflects on the threads that have woven together to get him from his 11-year-old poster dream to now: showing up, following the artists that light his passion on fire, sending the email and making the ask when intuition says the moment calls for it, and trusting that work begets work. They explore what it means to actually see the evidence around you—the proof of what you've already done—rather than only chasing the dream ahead. 

Kate and David dig into the difference between gripping goals tightly and holding them with trust, how personal and professional growth are inseparable, and why the way you treat people in rooms matters more than any single audition. Their conversation moves through the simultaneous weight of imposter syndrome and belief, the gift of being exhausted from work you once begged for, and the quiet revolution of simply believing what the world is already telling you about who you are. 

They explore the mirrored evolution from smoothing yourself out to fit any mold to embracing the intersectionalities that make you a unique asset, the power of practicing being in the spaces you say you want to inhabit, and how sometimes the most generous thing you can do for your future self is look back and finally believe what you see.

David Mattar Merten:

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/david_merten_/?hl=en

Website: https://david-merten.com/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4AAGngl2oO-Y-FAEJ44kfSMyXQKKW3VHI9Cr6fpekwldV9Ovg7-y91tp6pCkxgaw_aem_HMC7t1UnIvkSllOSgWGdAg

Authenticated All Access

ME³

Kate McLeod

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of "Authenticated," Kate invites on entrepreneur, creative, and former Starface President Kara Brothers for a grounded exploration of intuition, leadership, and building a life system that actually reflects you. They unpack Kara's lifelong relationship with her intuition, the moments her internal voice showed up, how she learned to trust without external proof, and why patience arrives once control drops away. 

Kate and Kara examine the shift toward individual creativity and solo entrepreneurship, what it means to lead from internal alignment rather than systems designed to flatten everyone the same, and how "empty space" becomes a functional tool for creative clarity. Mirrors are meant for reflection, not direction. Their conversation moves through ego as an advantageous tool, listening as a creative discipline, and holding both teacher and student energy simultaneously. A direct, thought-provoking listen for anyone rethinking how they create, lead, or define their own path.

Kara Brothers:

Website: https://www.karabrothers.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karabrothersp/

Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/_sayitoutloud__/?hl=en

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/karabrothers/?hl=en

Authenticated All Access

ME³

Kate McLeod

Send us Fan Mail

On the latest episode of Authenticated, Kate sits opposite the LadyDi MegaDiva, a star on her ascent who is powered by perception. She's a real-life, adult, her-version Tinkerbell—she needs the applause and laughter or she dies. Give her an audience and she comes alive. Her songs are her scrapbook because she's terrible at journaling. Silly, cliche and real all at once. She sings them over and over, carrying past versions of herself into who she is now.

LadyDi told me she just wants to have fun. So I asked her the obvious question: if fun is your native language, your superpower, why isn't it everywhere? Why the social media anxiety? Why the overthinking? Why not sprinkle fun on all of it?
The conversation of artistic stretching through dialogue delivered LadyDi MegaDiva to the following: "I'm literally just trying to sing and be a showgirl for a living. Why wouldn't it be sprinkled with fun?"

This episode is about the gap between knowing what you're good at and taking confident action to delivering it everywhere. LadyDi has the talent and drive to make it to a massive platform. Kate sees it. Everyone who knows her sees it. But every artist can get in their own way. They know their superpower but don't trust it enough yet to let it loose consistently, and that informative journey along the way, is a story of solidarity every up and coming creative could stand to bear witness to.

Kate and LadyDi MegaDiva talk about vulnerability in singing, being powered by perception, authenticity as allowing yourself to be who you will in a moment without preemptive planning, and what it means to assume your audience will love you before you even start performing.

If you're an artist who knows what makes you special and wants to practice leaning all the way in, this conversation will surface some questions and answers that you need to hear yourself.

LadyDI MegaDiva

https://www.instagram.com/ladydi.megadiva/?hl=en

https://www.youtube.com/@ladydi.megadiva/videos

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6vMcINv5A40cYWlilPx1mZ

https://www.tiktok.com/@ladydi.megadiva

Authenticated All Access

ME³

Kate McLeod

Send us Fan Mail

On the latest episode of "Authenticated," Kate is joined by astrophysicist, folklorist, and science communicator Dr. Moiya McTier to explore what happens when you understand both the universe's vastness and your own insignificance — and allow that scale of knowledge to deliver you liberation. They leverage their shared comfort with not knowing everything to dig into curiosity as an intimate relationship, spite as a temporary fuel versus fun as sustainable propulsion, and why comparing yourself to galaxies is healthier (and better science) than comparing yourself to other humans. Kate and Moiya tinker and play in the intersection of astronomy and mythology as two languages attempting to answer the same fundamental questions, the practice of enjoying your own brain as a prerequisite for creative work, and how grief mirrors the physics of space filling voids. Their conversation surfaces the spiral versus the circle, the privilege of authenticity once you've proven yourself, and why the fastest force in the universe still takes time — so maybe you can cut yourself some slack. They examine how studying the cosmos teaches personal philosophy, why creativity requires malleability over rigidity, and what it means to be a curious nihilist who knows nothing matters cosmically but everything matters locally. A conversation between two people who both geek out about the human experience, just from wildly different disciplinary entry points—proving that the most valuable dialogues happen when people approach similar life lessons through completely different means.

Dr. Moiya McTier: https://www.moiyamctier.com/

Authenticated All Access

ME³

Kate McLeod

Send us Fan Mail

On the latest episode of "Authenticated," Kate sits down with harpist, artist and sound healer Terrease Rebecca Aiken to talk about the courage to choose your individual path. They share their practices of distinguishing ego from intuition—and all the masks ego has—and how surrendering perfectionism creates space for something else. Their conversation moves through the physical demands of playing a "diva" instrument that requires full-body presence to why stepping away from traditional acting pathways doesn't mean abandoning your craft but rather focusing your energy where it generates real momentum. Kate and Terrease spill some hard truths about the forced intimacy of performance training and how those early connections can confuse professional networks, the liberation that comes from honoring your "no," and why being peaceful makes you more valuable than being productive. They end somewhere in the realm of realization that how you show up in life is exactly how you show up in your art—your humanity on display—and that protecting your peace isn't selfish, it's the foundation for showing up authentically in every role you inhabit. Two multifaceted creatives proving that expansion happens when you stop shrinking yourself to make others comfortable or yourself easily digestible.

Terrease Rebecca Aiken Website: https://www.terreaseaiken.com

Terrease Rebecca Aiken Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noirhathorsounds/

Authenticated All Access

ME³

Kate McLeod

Send us Fan Mail

On the latest episode of "Authenticated," Kate converses with life coach Lindsey Mango all things exploring their personal work within interplay between intuition, logic, and the courage to trust your inner knowing. Sharing all inner musings of practices that identify expanders versus contractors—the people, places, and things that either open you up to possibility or shrink you into limitation—and how that awareness shapes everything from daily micro decisions to life-altering pivots you can never turn back from. Their conversation incorporates the art of rebuilding trust with intuition by honoring even the subtlest desires, the ever fascinating balance between writing voice and thinking voice, and why energy management isn't just self-care but the baseline for showing up authentically in every role you inhabit personally and professionally. Kate asks Lindsey to share insights on how motherhood can either fast-forward your growth or contract you into smallness depending on your willingness to stay present with the work, and they challenge the environmental cultural programming that teaches us not to trust ourselves from childhood forward. They land on a powerful realization: that intuition moves faster than logic, and sometimes the most logical thing you can do is follow what doesn't make sense yet—because the evidence always reveals itself in retrospect. Two creative thinkers proving that confidence isn't about having all the answers, and rather about trusting the questions enough to allow them to be momentum forward.

Lindsey Mango

Authenticated All Access

ME³

Kate McLeod

Send us Fan Mail

On the latest episode of "Authenticated," Kate is joined by personal branding coach and content creation strategist Courtney Johnson to explore what it actually means to authentically build online through content. They leverage their shared understanding that honesty, with yourself and your audience, is the only currency that matters, dissecting why most people fail before they even begin and how the fear of being seen is completely rational fear and one that can be faced. Kate and Courtney also examine the privilege of honesty that comes with financial stability and audience growth, the 95/5 rule that creating at its core is mostly internal healing work, and why posting imperfectly 10,000 times will always beat posting perfectly 100 times. Their conversation explores the intersection of propaganda and positive behavior change, the analytics as a reflective tool for deeper self-discovery rather than rejection, and how withholding truth is the biggest integrity breach of all. 

Courtney Johnson - All Links ✨

Authenticated All Access

ME³

Kate McLeod

Send us Fan Mail

On the latest episode of Authenticated, Kate reflects opposite Maria Müller, a Romanian-born artist who's mastered the audacity of believing multiple versions of herself can coexist—actor, writer, producer, co-founder of Italia Theater—despite growing up in a culture that insisted excellence could only exist in a singular focus. Maria and Kate side-by-side compassionately and comically unpack the alchemy of transforming a childhood spent planning her inevitable stardom into the more complex reality of building creative infrastructure, for Maria one visa application and 900-page extraordinary ability petition at a time. Their conversation excavates the tender brutality of cultural shapeshifting—how returning home after growing elsewhere, became a masterclass in holding your own evolution while others mourn the person you used to be. Kate and Maria dissect the capitalism-soaked delusion that worthiness lives in productivity, the comic revelation that boyfriends can introduce you to something called "weekends," and the particular violence of being told your dreams require documentation you cannot simply purchase at CVS. What surfaces is an archaeology of unbridled ambition—how the practice of collecting proof becomes a love letter to all versions of yourself, how fear reveals itself as the most honest creative collaborator, and how the deepest rebellion against a system designed to diminish you is the radical act of refusing to shrink, even when shrinking feels like survival.

Maria Müller: insta, website

Et Alia Theatre 

Authenticated All Access

ME³

Kate McLeod