In this episode I speak with Nigerian conceptual photographer, film maker, and creative director Wami Aluko. Her photographs evoke the magic of humanity, culture, and the stories we tell. In our conversation, Wami talks about how faith, intentionality, and tarot all play a role in her storytelling process and the photographs that result from her unique genius.

Growing up in Lagos, she celebrates the diversity amongst Nigerians and the Nigerian diaspora in her work. Her debut documentary, ‘For Those Who Listen’, was an exploration of the impact of music on the Lagos creative youth. Since starting her creative journey in 2016, she has gone on to do exhibitions in Edinburgh, London, and Lagos, and her work has been celebrated in publications such as Vogue Italia, BBC Africa, Sukeban Magazine, Konbini, Punch newspaper, and more.

In this episode I talk with Gangotri Garg about the power of reclaiming cultural mythologies, cultivating a practice of elevating our ancestors, and how intuition bestows compassion on ourselves and others with whom we disagree or misunderstand.

Gangotri is a certified Integral Coach and a Facilitator for Stanford’s Graduate Business School’s Interpersonal Dynamics course. Over the past 21 years, she has held leadership positions within large healthcare organizations, led yoga teacher training programs, coached leaders across a wide range of professions, and run several small businesses. Through coaching, workshops, group work and speaking engagements, Gangotri teaches and mentors leaders to embrace a model of embodied leadership so that they can integrate inclusion and belonging while empowering their teams to co-create the transformation necessary in today’s environment of extreme disruption.

Gangotri uses her combined experience and expertise of corporate leadership, mindfulness and empathy, DEI, and leadership development to create a unique learning experience that results in profitable and sustainable change.

In her spare time, Gangotri enjoys being in nature, stand-up paddle boarding, and relaxing with her husband and two children in their home in California.

Blake Spalding is co-owner and chef at Hell's Backbone Grill at the edge of Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Blake is more than an advocate for the land--she is in deep relationship with the spirit and the body of the land. As a brilliantly sensitive human, Blake talks about how ritual and poetry give her courage to face the suffering and pain we are all experiencing in the shadow of patriarchy, white supremacy, and other systems that keep us sick. Her resiliency as she lives a life of activism and advocacy is proof of the radical courage of her heart. Her work is to feed people, and Blake's hearth is always open to seen and unseen friends and allies. In this episode, Blake reads the poems of Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Denise Levertov.

Poetry, the rhythm and power of the word, can heal us. Beauty heals. In this first installment of Poetry Prescriptions, I offer you words and rhythms from Rainer Maria Rilke in his Sonnet to Orpheus number eight. I'll walk you through this poem of Lament and Jubilation to remind all of us that we have otherworldly allies within and all around us as we find our way through this human landscape. 

This week's guest is the author and personal coach Erin Yu-Juin McMorrow. Erin's new book "Grounded" tells the story of soil, the carbon cycle, and how our bodies and souls are inextricably linked to the ground we have forgotten. I talk with Erin about soil, the root chakra, remembering our own nature, and how to heal by going deep within. Climate solutions are far more simple than more giant technological machines. Climate change is possible only when we heal our own disconnect from the earth.

Join me to hear how photographer Chris Michel has found miracles and adventures of the heart through his daily ritual. Chris is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He has documented humans working in extreme locations like the North & South Poles, Everest, Papua New Guinea, DR Congo, and the edge of space (aboard a U-2 Spy Plane). He's also had the opportunity to photograph many global leaders, including as the photographer for the 14th Dalai Lama.

Allison Kesler talks about her seasonal anchors, the fire that she cannot put out, and her fascination with darkness and dissolution. Her morning rituals ground her in her passions as she expands herself to the edges of her knowing day in and day out. Ritual, for Allie, is sacred and gives her a way to tune in at the turning points within each day.

Allie is a writer of stories, an astrological navigator, a miner of systems and patterns, a dreamer, a podcaster, and a highly feminine explorer of things unsaid and unseen. She is my IONAA podcast co-host as we delve into the mysteries of seasonal cycles and the human psyche.

Anne Marie Vivienne tells the story of how her ritual Breakfast Poetry came to be as she left a marriage and a religion to find Beauty and Meaning within herself. Beyond her personal story, Anne Marie guides you through the basics of poetry, ritual, and the holiness of the heart's affections.