Brain Boogerz

Samhain isn’t just about Halloween. It’s about endings, ancestors, grief, and what we carry into the next chapter.

In the Brain Boogerz Sabbat Series finale, MJ brings the Wheel of the Year full circle with Samhain: The Wheel Turns—a personal exploration of seasonal living, remembrance, and planting something new in the dark.

We explore Samhain’s roots and its relationship to Halloween, distinguish older traditions from modern Pagan practices, and unpack the meaning behind the season’s symbols, colors, scents, and foods.

Then we get practical with city, nature, solo, and group ways to mark the season—including an ancestor dinner and a silent supper.

And we go where grief gets messy: remembering people who hurt us, feeling grief and relief together, and choosing which inherited stories to keep or change. Through continuing bonds, narrative identity, and reflection, we consider how relationships and memories can change without requiring us to erase them—or excuse harm.

You don’t have to be Pagan or Wiccan to join this conversation. Bring your curiosity, your questions, and whatever this season is asking you to sit with. No judgment, just real talk.

If this episode resonates, subscribe to Brain Boogerz, like the video, and share it with someone navigating grief or an ending. Explore the Sabbat Series for conversations on Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lammas, and Mabon.

Content note: Discussion of bereavement, harmful family relationships, and mixed feelings after a death. This episode is educational and reflective—not therapy, medical advice, or a substitute for professional care.

Light a candle. Say a name. Let something go. Plant something in the dark. The wheel turns. We turn with it.

Why do we feel drawn to some people—and keep repeating patterns with others? In this Brain Boogerz episode, MJ explores Helen Fisher’s four personality types—Explorers, Builders, Negotiators, and Directors—as one lens on attraction, compatibility, and connection.

We DIG into how personality, attachment, experience, culture, and circumstance shape the way we show up in dating, friendship, family, and work. These frameworks are prompts for curiosity—not diagnoses, measurements of brain chemistry, or predictions of whom you should choose.

In this episode:

• Fisher’s four types: strengths, challenges, and possible growth edges

• Where the Big Five / CANOE model overlaps—and where it differs

• Attachment patterns, early experiences, and the possibility of change

• HALT and SCARF as tools for pausing during conflict

• The halo effect, projection, and confirmation bias in relationships

• Boundaries, coercive control, and the pressures that shape self-expression

• Moving beyond chemistry toward honesty, accountability, and mutual care

Grab your water or tea, and let’s get KNOWZY about ourselves.

Which feels most familiar to you: seeking novelty, building stability, tuning into emotions, or solving problems? Share what resonates in the comments—without putting yourself or anyone else in a fixed box.

If this DIG lands for you, like, subscribe, tap the notification bell, and share it with someone who enjoys thoughtful conversations about connection.

This episode is for education and reflection, not diagnosis or treatment. MJ is not a clinician. If these topics bring up something difficult, consider reaching out to a licensed mental health professional or another qualified source of support

Hey friend!

This one's about the autumn equinox — Mabon, the second harvest, that quiet pivot where the year starts exhaling and the light and dark find their balance for a moment before tilting. I get into the Welsh myth roots, the modern naming by Aidan Kelly, the symbols (apples, gourds, wine, cornucopia), and how cultures worldwide mark this same turning — Mid-Autumn Festival, Chuseok, Higan, Sukkot, diasporic harvest traditions.

Then the real work: Dan Siegel's window of tolerance (balance), Robert Emmons' gratitude research (a harvest audit where "compost, not failure" is the reframe), and John Welwood's spiritual bypassing — because release requires grief, and you can't skip that step. Practical rituals included: Harvest Audit journaling, Burning Bowl, Equinox Meal. City, nature, solo, or group — there's a way in for everyone. No judgment, just real talk.

Medical disclaimer: Brain Boogerz is educational, not clinical advice. I'm a peer, not a licensed provider. If you're navigating something heavy, please reach out to a licensed mental health professional or emergency services.

HALT — Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired: The Four States That Hijack You

Ever notice how your worst decisions tend to come from the same four places? You snap at someone you love because you haven't eaten since noon. You send a text you regret because it's 1 a.m. and you're running on fumes. You spiral into a shame loop because you've been alone with your thoughts for too long. That's not a character flaw. That's HALT — and it's one of the most useful little frameworks I've ever stumbled across.

HALT stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. Four depleted states. Four signals your body and nervous system send when something basic needs attention before anything else gets decided.

In this Quick Picks episode, I walk through each letter — the bright side and the dark side — because every one of these states has a version that serves you and a version that sinks you. Hunger can be a cue to nourish. It can also be the thing that makes you trample a boundary. Anger can be fuel for change. It can also be the match that burns down a relationship you actually care about. We get into the nuance, not just the acronym.

From there we get into the neuroscience — what's actually happening in your brain when you're running on empty, why your prefrontal cortex goes quiet and your amygdala takes the wheel, and how depleted states literally change the way you perceive threat. I also bring in the ACEs connection, because if you grew up in an environment where basic needs weren't reliably met, your HALT signals may have learned to scream louder and sooner. That's not you being dramatic. That's your nervous system doing what it learned to do.

Then we get practical. I walk you through a 60-second HALT check you can use in real time — at work, in the car, mid-argument, wherever — so you can pause and ask, "Am I about to react, or am I just depleted?" We also talk about HALT in relationships: how to recognize when your partner is in a HALT state (and when you are), how to call it without weaponizing it, and how to build a shared language so "I need to eat before we keep talking" becomes a relief, not a fight.

A quick note: this is educational content from a fellow traveler, not a substitute for professional care. If something comes up that feels bigger than a podcast episode can hold, please reach out to a licensed mental health provider or a crisis line. You deserve real support, not just a framework.

If this landed for you, follow Brain Boogerz on Spotify so the next episode shows up in your feed. Share it with someone who's been snapping at you lately — maybe gently. And check out the rest of the Quick Picks series for more tools to help you move forward.

"Man up."

"Be strong."

Two sentences. Almost identical meaning. But if you grew up Black in America — one of them was handed to you. And one of them, maybe, you've already passed on.

This is the finale of the Am I Black Enough? arc — and it goes somewhere the whole series has been pointing toward: gender.

In this episode, MJ unpacks the gendered scripts embedded in the "Am I Black enough?" question — who wrote them, how the community enforces them, what they cost the body, and who profits when they go unexamined.

What we cover:

The masculine script: the cool pose, emotional suppression, and the armor that protects you from the threat — and from the people who love you

The feminine script: the Strong Black Woman image, controlling images (Patricia Hill Collins), misogynoir (Moya Bailey), and the biological cost of weathering (Arline Geronimus)

The policing loop: how community enforcement keeps the scripts running — and who benefits from the loop staying closed

The wound economy: how gendered Black identity anxiety gets productized — from the sneaker market to the beauty industry to the wellness complex

The Ubuntu reframe: why putting the script down isn't weakness — it's the structural argument for a more whole community

Featuring frameworks from bell hooks, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Saidiya Hartman, Paul Gilroy, and Frantz Fanon.

🎙️ This is education and reflection — not a replacement for professional mental health care.If you need more support than a podcast can offer, text HOME to 741741, or call/text 988. Real people are there.

If this episode gave language to something you've been carrying — send it to one person who will know exactly why you sent it.

👍 Like | 🔔 Subscribe & tap the bell | ⭐ Leave a review | 💬 Drop your reflection in the comments

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Who wrote the rubric for "authentic Blackness" — and what would it cost to stop trying to pass it?

Episode 3 of 4 in Brain Boogerz's Black identity arc. This one goes deep: whiteness as a political construction, colonization as a system of extraction, and the loyalty test as a form of internal colonization that keeps collective energy pointed the wrong direction.

MJ walks through the Black Radical Tradition in full — Douglass, Wells, Du Bois, Fanon, James, Malcolm, Assata, Rodney, Robinson — not as a history lesson, but as a live conversation between strategists. He traces global patterns of racial classification from the one-drop rule to apartheid South Africa to Haiti's 1805 declaration that everyone is Black. And he offers five orientations toward liberation grounded in Ubuntu: I am because we are.

This isn't about arriving at the right politics. It's about organizing around freedom instead of trying to pass someone else's test. Harriet Tubman went back 19 times. That's the image this episode closes on.

If you're new here, start with Episode 1 of this arc. If you've been with it from the jump, the finale is next.

If something in this episode hit hard — Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988. Free, confidential, 24/7.

This podcast is educational and is not a substitute for professional mental health care.

Subscribe and share with someone who's already in this conversation.

In Episode 2 of Brain Boogerz, MJ continues the five-part series on Black identity, belonging, and freedom with a deeper question: if we can name the test, why do we still keep taking it?

Am I Black Enough? — Tribalism, Totems, and the New Proctors explores the hidden machinery behind “Black card revoked” jokes, cultural receipts, and the pressure to prove belonging. Through philosophy, Black studies, comedy, and lived experience, MJ unpacks how tribalism, totemism, and socio-cultural essentialism can turn culture into a courtroom — and how love, responsibility, and a livable world offer another way forward.

This episode moves through Sartre’s “Look,” Hegel’s recognition, Heidegger’s thrownness, Paulo Freire’s internalization of the oppressor, Carter G. Woodson’s mis-education, Baldwin’s unsentimental love, Fanon’s prayer to the body, and Lewis Gordon’s call for a world where Black being no longer has to stand trial.

Along the way, MJ gets practical with the “receipts” segment: spades, HBCUs, pledging, fish fries, dancing, music, church, language, neighborhood credentials, and all the ways cultural symbols can become passports instead of invitations.

This is not an argument against Black culture. It is an argument against turning Blackness into a standardized exam. Culture can be shelter without becoming a cage. Tradition can be memory without becoming a weapon. Accountability can exist without turning belonging into surveillance.

If you have ever been asked to prove you were “really” Black — through your music, your speech, your hair, your politics, your upbringing, your education, your pain, or your performance — this episode is for you.

The card was never theirs to give. You were always already enough. You were always already home.

Next episode: Episode 3 — The Body as the Scoreboard, exploring embodiment, hair, skin tone, colorism, and the physical cost of performing identity in an anti-Black world.

Subscribe, share the episode with someone who has been sitting with these questions, and keep moving forward.

In this episode of Brain Boogerz, MJ continues the Sabbat Series with Episode 5: Lammas / Lughnasadh, the first harvest on the Wheel of the Year. Traditionally celebrated around August 1, Lammas is the season of bread, grain, gratitude, effort, and acknowledging what has already grown — even before the whole harvest is complete.

This episode looks at scarcity mindset, perfectionism, the “not yet” voice, and the mental health practice of honoring your effort. We talk bread, grain, gratitude, Lugh and Tailtiu, John Barleycorn, harvest traditions, simple Lammas rituals, and reflection prompts for noticing what you have already grown.

If you have been waiting for perfection before you let yourself celebrate, this episode is your reminder: the harvest is already here.

Disclaimer: This conversation is not medical or psychological advice. Please seek support from a qualified professional if you need mental health care.

We've all played "Black card revoked." But who built the test? And is the test actually describing something real — or just somebody's very specific, very historical version of what Blackness is supposed to look like?

In this first episode of a five-part series, MJ goes deep into the invisible measuring systems that shape how we perform — and police — Blackness. Starting with pre-colonial African peoples (the Yorùbá, Igbo, Akan, Kongo, and many more), through the philosophical frameworks of Du Bois, Fanon, Baldwin, Bell Hooks, and Sartre, all the way to the philosophy hidden inside the stand-up of Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor, and Paul Mooney — this is an examination of how a measuring system born outside our communities moved inside them, and what it costs the body to carry it.

Topics covered:

The 13 rules of the "invisible proctor" — and the history behind each one

Double consciousness, the Look, and Fanon's prayer

"You talk white" — AAVE, Standard American English, and who actually owns the gate

DEI as a potential new proctor

Gregory, Pryor, and Mooney as philosophers with microphones

Episode 2 — Tribalism, Totems, and the New Proctors — drops next week.

⚠️ Care note: This episode discusses identity policing and the psychology of conditional belonging. Pause and return whenever you need to.

📌 Brain Boogerz is educational and not a substitute for professional mental health care.

Brain Boogerz — Discovery, Introspection, Growth. Get, Be and Stay Knowzy.

We spend so much time chasing the peak — the breakthrough, the glow-up, the moment things finally click. But what happens when you get there?

Welcome to Litha — the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, and the point on the Wheel where the sun is at its absolute fullest. It's radiant. It's powerful. And honestly? It can be a little overwhelming.

In this episode of the Brain Boogerz Sabbat Series, we're diving into:

What Litha actually is — the history, the symbols, and why this Sabbat hits different

The cultural roots of midsummer celebration (it's older than you think)

Colors, scents, foods, and rituals for city dwellers, nature lovers, solo practitioners, and group vibes

The mental health reframe: What Litha teaches us about peak moments, burnout, and why the highest point also marks the slow return of darkness — and why that's not a bad thing

Because here's what nobody tells you: the solstice isn't just about abundance. It's about learning to hold what you've built. And that? That's a whole skill.

Whether you're thriving right now or just trying to stay lit — this one's for you.

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📤 Share with somebody who needs a little midsummer momentum.

📌 Medical Disclaimer: The content in this episode is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you're struggling, please reach out to a qualified mental health professional.