Beautiful Voyager

Jordan Brown is a mental health advocate, writer, and entrepreneur. Since 2016, he’s been blogging to make mental health more accessible and meaningful (a project near and dear to our hearts). Formally trained as a social worker, Jordan considers his mental health struggles and open-heart surgery the greatest, most life-affirming lessons. He is the author of the book In Search of Happiness: Healing Through Mental Health Poetry. He is tolerated by his lovely wife and cats in Missoula, Montana. 

I've known Leslie Dotson Van Every for over a decade. We first worked together at CBS, where she rocked her role as Director of PR. Since then, she's led communications and content for companies like Overstock, Scribd, and Future Family.

In her spare time(!), she and two partners built a powerful and well-respected community action group called Solidarity Sundays. With over 17K active participants, Solidarity Sundays gathers people together in real life to develop and share current action for political change.

Leslie and I discuss mental health, procrastination, and crafting. Leslie digs into her identity as a White-presenting-Black women, and how it has changed recently. She shares helpful ideas for how to feel better in challenging times.

Learn more about Solidarity Sundays: https://www.solidaritysundays.org/ 
Follow Leslie on Instagram: @missdottie

Ryan Fan is a writer and special-ed teacher in Baltimore, Maryland. A co-editor of the Medium publication Invisible Illness, Ryan is a passionate advocate for new writers in the mental health space. In his free time, Ryan runs marathons.

To read some of Ryan's writing on his faith, mental health, and education, follow him on Medium @ryanfan.

Ashwini Dodani is a poet and writer who lives in Mumbai, India. Originally trained as a mechanical engineer, Ashwini switched career paths to work in the ever-evolving realm of social media, helping support the launch of major TV shows from the likes of Amazon in India.

We talk about his adopted city and I learn how Mumbai is a way of life, but Bombay is a feeling. We also discuss his philosophy of how to help people whenever he can. I got such a positive feeling from this talk and am sure you will too. For more good vibes, follow Ashwini on Instagram @ashwinidodani and on Medium @AshwiniDodani. 

This the first experimental episode of the Beautiful Voyager podcast! 

I talk with Logan Johnston, community builder extraordinaire. Logan and I first met years ago at a startup called Outdoorsy ("the Airbnb of RVs"). He now works with community leaders of Facebook Groups. We delve into social media use and community-building in a difficult environment, as well as overthinking, habit building, and the feeling of taking on roles in movements and in communities.