Aaron invites listeners into a quiet inner space where uncertainty is no longer something to overcome, but something to notice and meet with care. Through personal reflection and thoughtful inquiry, the episode explores how uncertainty shapes our sense of self, revealing the ways we cling to certainty for safety and how that grip can quietly limit us. Rather than offering guidance or resolution, the reflection lingers with questions of identity, creativity, and courage, suggesting that uncertainty may be the very condition that allows us to choose who we are becoming. This is an invitation to pause at the edge of what cannot be known, to soften our resistance, and to consider how we show up when the future offers no guarantees.

Key Takeaways:

1. An exploration of uncertainty as a constant condition of human life rather than an interruption.
2. A personal story of standing at a life crossroads and the paralysis that certainty-seeking can create.
3. The idea that creativity depends on uncertainty and cannot exist without it.
4. A reframing of courage as curiosity applied in moments of resistance.
5. An invitation to define identity not by outcomes, but by character and presence in uncertain times.

About Aaron:

Aaron Tabacco, PhD, has spent more than thirty years guiding people through growth and change, often in complex and high-stakes environments. He currently serves as Director of Staff Experience for a major academic medical university. With a background spanning nursing, neuroscience, education, coaching, and mediation, his work centers on helping individuals and organizations navigate identity, connection, and transformation with greater clarity and care.

Known for his grounded presence and compassionate communication, Aaron works with staff leaders, clinicians, faculty, executives, and senior leaders across healthcare and other industries. His approach integrates relational depth, reflective practice, and a commitment to creating more humane, integrated ways of working and living. He lives in Vancouver, Washington, where he continues a lifelong engagement with writing, music, and the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest alongside his husband and three adult sons.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-tabacco-phd-83359b9/

https://lucusgroup.com/home

https://substack.com/@aarontabacco?r=b5ap9&utm_medium=ios

https://www.youtube.com/@CirclesEdges

Email: [email protected]

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

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This show was brought to you in part by the Magic Thread Media Network. To learn more visit: https://magicthreadmedia.com/

Our lives move in patterns long before we notice them. We learn what keeps us safe, what helps us belong, and what allows us to move through the world with less risk and less pain. In this first quiet gathering of Circles | Edges, Aaron invites listeners into a candlelit, late night space to reflect on those familiar cycles and the masks we wear to survive them. Beginning with a story from his nursing education and expanding outward into the ways we protect ourselves emotionally and socially, the episode lingers at the moment when awareness begins to stir. This is not a search for answers or solutions, but a place of arrival. A pause at the edge of what feels familiar, and an invitation to consider, together, what it costs to stay protected and what becomes possible when we start to notice.

Key Takeaways:

1. A reflection on why late night talk radio once mattered and why that intimate, solitary voice still feels necessary today
2. The origin of Circles | Edges and its intention to explore shared human patterns without chasing solutions or certainty
3. A nursing school story that becomes a metaphor for how emotional and social masks interfere with real connection
4. An exploration of how masks form, why they feel necessary, and how they quietly create cycles of disconnection
5. A gentle invitation to consider what it might mean to pause at the edge of a familiar pattern rather than rushing past it

About Aaron:

Aaron Tabacco, PhD, has spent more than thirty years guiding people through growth and change, often in complex and high-stakes environments. He currently serves as Director of Staff Experience in the UCSF Department of Medicine. With a background spanning nursing, neuroscience, education, coaching, and mediation, his work centers on helping individuals and organizations navigate identity, connection, and transformation with greater clarity and care.

Known for his grounded presence and compassionate communication, Aaron works with students, clinicians, faculty, executives, and senior leaders across healthcare and other industries. His approach integrates relational depth, reflective practice, and a commitment to creating more humane, integrated ways of working and living. He lives in Vancouver, Washington, where he continues a lifelong engagement with writing, music, and the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest alongside his husband and three adult sons.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-tabacco-phd-83359b9/

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

This show was brought to you in part by the Magic Thread Media Network. To learn more visit: https://magicthreadmedia.com/

In this trailer, Aaron Tabacco introduces the heart of the show and the two forces that shape our human experience. The circles are the patterns, rituals, relationships, and rhythms we move through every day. The edges are the moments of choice, the boundaries we meet or create, and the thresholds where growth quietly begins.

This podcast is a space for reflection, attention, and connection. A place to notice what often goes unseen and to listen inward during moments of transition. Circles | Edges is not about fixing or forcing change. It is about awareness, presence, and understanding who we are becoming.

Intro music "Unraveling the Night" composed by Miriam Milewska provided under license through Pond5