Bushwick Junction

Christian Larson-Sokaris is a social entrepreneur and software developer living in Brooklyn. Before that he was a fundraiser and consultant for non-profits, and before that a lobbyist and advocate in the fields of civil rights and criminal justice reform. He found these fields after leaving behind his adolescent dream of being an academic, as well as a brief stint in young adulthood as an artist and sculptor. He talks about the thread underlying these seemingly disparate jobs: a fascination with the systems that control us.

Musician and actor Samuel Cieri realized something important younger than most: no one can stop you from walking out of the life prescribed to you and choosing one that makes you happy instead. He first exercised this knowledge by walking out of high school and never returning. He tells us about the unconventional life that followed, working as a piano player, a motorcycle salesman, and in a touring musical before dedicating his life to songwriting for his current project, Nicotine Dolls.

Rinat Sherzer, social entrepreneur and founder of Of Course Global, spent much of her adulthood following her heart around the world. From using her engineering degree to become a bartender, to leaving behind a successful career to travel, to uprooting her life from Israel to the US, she's made plenty of decisions that didn't make sense to everyone around her. She tells us how she learned to love that about herself. She also observes that her non-traditional life experiences served her in finding her exact professional niche, one that didn't even exist yet in the years she spent afloat.

Pamela Villa Kundu, a Latina living in New York by way of Mexico, Miami, and Chicago, tells us how she decided to leave a career in finance to work in criminal justice advocacy, starting with the campaign to close Rikers Island.

Persephone Sarah Jane Smith has so many substantial junctions to share that it's impressive how seamlessly she wove between them in an hour. She tells us about joining the military, leaving it, coming out as trans, and deciding to run for City Council representing Brooklyn's 37th District.

We have lots of multi-hyphenates on this show, but Evan's combo is particularly impressive: he's both an engineer and an artist. He tells us how life took him from South Central LA to Brooklyn, and about rounding out his life to better integrate his varied interests.

Don't let the title mislead you: Tara is most certainly a badass herself. She's a social justice-oriented educator who tells us about leaving behind a career in IT to teach, about her philosophy around building a community in the classroom, and about all the women in education and the arts who helped her along the way.

Uluç Ulgen, host of RFB podcast Murmur, talks about a tough childhood as an immigrant in Minnesota. His alienation led to a love of music, which in turn led to him once falling onto Prince. Yes, that Prince! The real story here though is one of self-reflection in adulthood, and the adoption of a framework that would allow Uluç to pay forward kindnesses that got him to the life he enjoys in NYC.

Sean and Nico make up Deaf Poets, a Miami band recently transplanted to Brooklyn. They tell us about finding each other in grade school art class, getting their start together in the Miami music scene, finding their sound, and pushing each other out of their comfort zones.

Nick Brennan tells us about the pivots in his professional life - leaving college to become a touring musician, then leaving that life for a career in politics and news - and about the personal undercurrents that paved the way for them.