Circle This

We're back. And instead of rushing into "new year, new you" energy, Dre and Em open the season by honoring winter, integration, and the deep exhale that comes after a big creative year.

With 55 episodes behind them (and a podcast ranked in the top 2% globally), they circle around what's sustaining them now: chosen family, learning to receive support, and expanding the places love is allowed to live.

This episode is a love letter to the village—real village energy, not fantasy commune aesthetics. Dre and Em reflect on a recent desert celebration for their beloved mentor and friend Leigh Kilton Smith—a living example of community in action. Flash mobs, art-making, campfire circles, and collective participation become a case study in what happens when everyone gets to belong, be witnessed, and be held.

They also dive into what love looks like in everyday life: the "small acts" that make someone feel deeply loved, the subtle ways people block care and celebration, and why letting others love you can be one of the most radical forms of self-love.

Chosen family isn't built through networking. It's built through orientation. A state of mind. A way of being. And a choice.

Wand Drops: "If you are willing to love yourself through your friends, it can heal the world." "Think like a circle: every part matters and we take care of the whole."

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Stay connected with the Circle This team:

@andreabendewald @circlethispodcast

@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace For sponsorship inquiries: [email protected]

In this year-end episode, Dre and Em record under the final full moon in Gemini and reflect on the year through their own version of the rose, thorn, and bud.

Emily shares the joy of getting engaged and fully moving in with her fiancé, alongside the challenge of caretaking after a sudden injury. Dre reflects on the podcast as both her greatest joy and greatest stretch, a year shaped by learning, connection, and creative devotion.

Together, they talk about love without fixing, receiving without minimizing, entering the holidays aligned instead of depleted, and honoring community as the foundation of every ritual and celebration.

Merry everything. Thank you for being part of the circle. Let's keep rippling in 2026.

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Stay connected with the Circle This team: @andreabendewald @circlethispodcast

@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace

For sponsorship inquiries: [email protected]

Dre sits down with writer, teacher, and embodiment leader Natalie Kuhn, founder of Make the Sun and former Co-CEO of The Class. Natalie shares how her early experiences with conditional love shaped her sense of self, and how her current work in seminary and Al-Anon is revealing a different understanding of belonging and internal safety.

They explore the pressures of spiritual overload, the tendency to turn healing into constant self-improvement, and the impact this has on the nervous system. Natalie breaks down how breath and sound support emotional release, why the body often holds the breath under stress, and what happens physiologically and energetically during breath work ceremonies.

The conversation moves into the difference between loneliness and aloneness, the role of sound and voice for women who have been conditioned to stay quiet, and the relationship between energy, attention, and presence. Natalie also discusses the practice of listening beyond language and the effects of mirroring in group spaces, classrooms, and circles.

Dre reflects on her own experience in one of Natalie's ceremonies and the lasting shifts it created, as well as the parallels she has found between Al-Anon, circling, and her own facilitation work.

Follow: @thisisnatalie Learn more:

https://youmakethesun.com/ Substack: https://youmakethesun.substack.com/

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Stay connected with the Circle This team:

@andreabendewald @circlethispodcast

@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace For sponsorship inquiries: [email protected]

In this episode, beloved friend of the show, entrepreneur and founder, Nyakio "Kio" Grieco returns for a hard-won conversation about resilience, faith, and what adversity can reveal. After being named in a lawsuit nine months ago—and recently cleared with a full retraction—Kio shares publicly for the first time, what it was like to sit in the unknown, navigate loneliness, and how she managed to maintain her role as a leader throughout it all.

Together they explore gangster gratitude, shadow work, and how gossip or cross-talk create toxic intimacy. They dive into projection, reputation, and the illusory nature of other people's perceptions. Kio shares substantial takeaways from this testing experience: how challenges reveal who your people are, how success doesn't require partnership with a man, and that spiritual leadership belongs in the boardroom.

This conversation reminds us pain is universal, that witnessing is one of the most powerful forms of love, and that circling can accelerate healing in ways nothing else can. it's about becoming—even through adversity—the most self-aware, spiritually aligned, and unshakably grounded version of ourselves.

Follow: @nyakio & @thirteenlune Learn More: www.thirteenlune.com

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Stay connected with the Circle This team:

@andreabendewald @circlethispodcast

@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace

For sponsorship inquiries, email: [email protected]

In this special episode, Dre sits down with her 16-year-old son, the one and only Strummer James Rouse, for a tender, funny, and surprisingly profound look into the emotional world, entrepreneurial drive, and connection language of Gen Z.

Later, they're joined by Strummer's friend and collaborator, 19-year-old entrepreneur Jack Jiang, for an eye-opening second chapter on credibility, reputation, and the real cost of building a brand at a young age.

Sitting together in Tribeca, Dre and Strummer talk about everything from change-of-scenery magic ("even the rain lights me up") to why his generation is struggling with loneliness, and how ego, emotional fear, and screen culture all play a role. For Strummer, texting has become a kind of safe frequency, a channel where vulnerability is easier, and where emotional truth feels less risky.

Raised in circles and supported by a charter school that prioritized emotional intelligence over grades, Strummer shares the early trainings that shaped him: learning to listen, to sit in presence, to share from the heart. He reflects on Covid as a turning point, the blessing and complexity of screen-based connection, and how fashion, and the stories behind what we wear create belonging.

Dre also takes us inside Strummer's entrepreneurial world: Selling his first shoe at nine. Landing his first job at thirteen by boldly walking in and saying, "What's it going to take for me to work here?"

Understanding that people aren't just buying clothes, they're buying the story, the experience, the connection.

Then Jack joins, sharp, vulnerable, and wise beyond his years. He talks about the pressure of growing up online, why reputation is everything, the art of paying attention to details, and how social credibility can make or break a business. He shares the story of opening his first appointment-only showroom at nineteen and explains the trend-based heartbeat of the fashion world.

This episode is a window into Gen Z's emotional landscape, their honesty, their hustle, their heart, and a reminder that connection really is the currency that never loses value.

Follow: @strummer.rouse @saturdayservicepodcast @legossssssssss

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Stay connected with the Circle This team:

@andreabendewald @circlethispodcast

@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace

For sponsorship inquiries: [email protected]

In this episode, Dre welcomes storyteller and community-builder Tylah Jordan for full circle conversation about the unexpected pregnancy that changed the entire trajectory of her life.

Tylah opens up about discovering she was pregnant just one month into a new relationship, while navigating the weight of secrecy, shame, and a religious upbringing where she had never known anyone who became a mother outside of marriage. What could have been an isolating chapter instead became the doorway into a new identity, a deeper spiritual maturity, and the beginnings of Unfiltered Motherhood, the platform she now uses to support and anchor mothers in a world that often leaves them feeling alone.

Dre and Tylah circle around the real initiation of motherhood, the profound beauty, the need for connection and the parts rarely posted about, up until now.

Tylah shares effortlessly about her earlier experiences that shaped her, moving to LA at 18, financial separation from family, surviving sexual assault, toxic overload, and a period of being stalked that rewired her sense of safety.

These chapters became the soil of her spiritual awakening and the reason she felt drawn to women's circles years before she became a mother herself.

In one of the most beautiful full-circle moments, Tylah reveals how a meditation class she found on Instagram led her back to Dre, the same woman who facilitated her first-ever circle at The Den Meditation six years earlier, the circle that sparked her entire spiritual path. You couldn't script a more FULL circle moment!

This episode is a reminder that motherhood is not just about raising a child, it's about meeting the woman you're becoming. And that when one mother is supported, an entire family and the next generation is positively effected.

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Stay connected with the Circle This team: @andreabendewald @circlethispodcast

@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace

For sponsorship inquiries: [email protected]

In this episode, Dre sits down with influencer, speaker, and sober-living advocate Abby Calabrese to explore what happens when we stop numbing and start feeling.

What began as a 100-day challenge for Abby became a life-changing journey back to her truest self. Together, she and Dre unpack how our culture glorifies alcohol as a social glue, how "performing vulnerability" has replaced true emotional honesty, and how radical self-truth can set us free.

This episode invites listeners to look at their own attachments, whether to substances, screens, or stories and consider what might open up when we stop outsourcing our confidence and joy.

Tune in for a connected conversation about reclaiming authenticity, presence, and your power from the inside out.

Follow Abby: @alcoholfreeabby Learn More At: https://www.abbycalabrese.com/

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Stay connected with the Circle This team:

@andreabendewald @circlethispodcast

@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace For sponsorship inquiries, email: [email protected]

Recorded in New York City where it all began, Dre and Em reflect on how everything in life unfolds in systems, patterns, seasons, and cycles.

They circle around their love–hate relationship with social media, exploring the irony of creating a podcast about connection while spending so much time in virtual spaces and what happens to our nervous systems, creativity, and sense of belonging when we finally gather in person.

They also touch on the rise of "outsourced intimacy" from dating apps to digital wellness and how we're losing the art of being with one another. Together, they reframe what's "hard," remind us that giving and receiving are two sides of the same gift, and share stories that reveal how mindset creates reality.

They end with a call to connection: step away from the screen, gather your people, and create an opportunity to engage with one another in real life. Because luck and love aren't random. We create them.

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Stay connected

with the Circle This team:

@andreabendewald @circlethispodcast

@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace For sponsorship inquiries, email: [email protected]

In this episode, Dre welcomes actor, writer, director and all around creator, Alicia Coppola, a woman whose artistry and honesty are inseparable from her healing. They reflect on meeting and circling in countless audition rooms, and how they intuitively unsubscribed from the narrative of competition and scarcity.

Alicia opens up about grief, loss, and how creating art has always been her way to understand and alchemize pain. She shares about her latest chapter: relocating her family to support her child's athletic dreams, giving away nearly everything she owned, and finding expansion in letting go. Together, Dre and Alicia explore what it means to parent with presence, how to let your children show you who they are and to truly listen.

We learn about Transmission Moms, a movement born from Alicia's desire to help families and the medical community better understand and support children navigating gender identity. Her mission is simple: to make sure every child feels heard, seen, and safe enough to live their authentic truth.

From The I'm Sorry Monologues to her work as a storyteller and advocate, Alicia reminds us that art is both medicine and message — a way to transform pain into purpose, and isolation into connection.

Follow: @Alicia_Coppola

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Stay connected with the Circle This team:

@andreabendewald @circlethispodcast

@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace For sponsorship inquiries, email: [email protected]

In this episode, Dre is joined by two beloved friends and returning guests: producer and screenwriter Kristin Hahn and acting coach Leigh Kilton Smith. Together, they circle around how they've navigated decades of friendship—through grief, distance, conflict, and reconciliation—and what it really takes to sustain intimacy over time. They speak to the discipline of giving one another space and grace, the courage of telling hard truths, and the sacred act of creating magic with and for one another.

Beyond friendship, this conversation dives into the realities of aging, existential malaise, and even the call to become death doulas. They share what it's like to face the shifting way the world sees women as they grow, and how talking about death can actually enrich the way we live. Kristin, Leigh, and Dre remind us that friendship is an art form, and as sacred and precious as any marriage.

Follow Leigh: @respectfulleigh

Follow Kristin: @Kristin.Hahn1

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Stay connected with the Circle This team:

@andreabendewald @circlethispodcast

@emkratter @goodmessmedia @talkwithtrace For sponsorship inquiries, email: [email protected]