Curiosity Collective

Join us as Bongiwe Grace Seleka joins us from Cape Town, South Africa to share some of her most difficult challenges as a college student during the pandemic, what she's learned, and where she's headed next.

Gracie (she/her) lives in South Africa, Cape Town.  She is a recent masters graduate, majoring in hydrogeology.  She has always found the environment fascinating, particularly how everything functions together.  She finds great joy in life exploring the outdoors.

Join us as Nicola shares his experience navigating the pandemic from the  first Italian red zone to being quarantined alone in the Dolomite Mountains, how his perspective and faith have evolved over the last two years, and how he cultivates joy and delight in his daily life.

As a big man with an even bigger heart, 45 year old Nicola Maj (he/him) lives in Casalpusterlengo, works in Parma,  and stays visits Primiero in the Dolomite Mountains as often as possible. He loves basketball, guitar, carbonara, and beers with friends.

Nicola is a nomad, an enthusiastic globetrotter, and is fascinated by the human soul, God's creation and nice girls. He is half psychologist and half IT service analyst, so considers himself capable of handling  just about anything! You can connect with him on a variety of social media platforms.

Contacts:
http://www.facebook.com/nicolamaj
http://www.facebook.com/nicolamajii
https://twitter.com/NicolaNomade
https://www.instagram.com/nicolanomade
www.linkedin.com/in/nicolamaj

Pete and Joyce share their Kiwi pandemic experience, including how New Zealanders' fierce independence helped eradicate coronavirus from the island, how they navigate grief and longing through creativity and connection, and what brings them hope.
Content warnings include mass shootings and gun violence.

From Christchurch, New Zealand, Pete & Joyce Majendie have spent a large chunk of their lives exploring faith and art, in particular, installational art in public spaces.  The 185 Empty White Chairs Earthquake Remembrance Installation (https://www.185chairs.co.nz/) has been an ongoing project for 10 plus years, and is listed by TripAdvisor as the city's top landmark attraction.

Peter is currently Artist in Residence at a large local church and Joyce is enjoying retirement from working in mental health.  They are fortunate to have all of their children and grandchildren living nearby and find them a source of hope and joy.

Solo world-traveler Rhys MacLean (she/her) joins us from the Pacific Crest Trail to share about her counter-cultural lifestyle living on the road, the adventure of traveling in some of the most remote parts of the planet, and what it's actually like to hike the most famous trails on the globe.

Content warnings include disordered eating.

Rhys is a world traveler, thru-hiker, and writer.  She has explored more than 50 countries and has hiked more than 5000 miles on trails around the world.  Follow along on Instagram @somedayisnow_rtw, or visit her blog at https://somedayisnowrtw.com/. 

Join us as Roberta (Jenkins) James (she/her) shares how she's harnessed and embodied deep self-worth, confidence, and an abiding sense of Black joy while navigating white supremacy culture, how she's attained success in an industry dominated by white men, and why she parents her children to shoot for the stars.

Content warnings include racism, redlining, and misogyny. 

Roberta James was born in Savannah, GA, moved to York, PA as an adolescent, and graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelor's degree in Media Studies & Communication.  Roberta is now a successful Financial Advisor, and resides minutes away from Tampa Bay with her husband, three daughters and one son. They enjoy traveling, sports, and supporting their children’s academics.

Join us as Dylan Julian (he/him/his) shares his unique experience navigating the complexities of gender identity and expression as a Trans man, the work he's doing to support the LGBTQIA+ community as a coach, and what gives him the courage to embrace the tension of the unknown.

Content and potential trigger warnings include abuse, transphobia, homophobia, and misogyny.

Dylan Julian is a trans man and mindset coach. He’s creating a legacy of love and empowering members of the LGBTQ+ community to do the same by helping them break generational curses and live their best life without guilt and shame. Follow him on Facebook and Instagram @_dylan_julian.

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we're lucky enough to have special guest and Licensed Clinical Social Worker Jessie Timmons (she/her) to help us navigate the wilds of our shared collective trauma, share themes she's observing as we emerge from our respective quarantine bunkers, and the realities of navigating shifting relationships in the midst of it all. 

Content warnings include acute and chronic trauma, global pandemic, and long-term isolation.

Jessie Timmons, LCSW is a therapist in private practice with extensive experience in a variety of outpatient settings including community mental health, agency and hospital work. She has been an adjunct and full time instructor at Temple University’s School of Social Work, in addition to developing and teaching many professional development courses related to ethics, clinical social work and supervision. As former president of the Pennsylvania Society for Clinical Social Work (PSCSW) she has experience with and passion for leadership and culture change work. Jessie has focused her clinical career on relational work with clients and has prioritized work with people in LGBTQ communities and those who have struggles with substance use. www.towardhealing.org

Join us as Melissa shares her unique parenting experience homeschooling 7 children including several with special needs, honestly reckoning with race in a multi-racial household, and the realities of navigating her own mental health in the midst of it all. 

Melissa Mowry (she/her) is a homeschooling mother of seven children, aged 8-22, four of whom have special needs of one sort or another.  She taught elementary school for four years before having her first child Hannah and becoming a stay-at-home-mom.  While it was never her intention to homeschool, she is now the middle of her thirteenth year doing so.  She has been married for 26 years to her husband Brad, and lives with her family in Frederick, Maryland.

Content warnings include ableism, racism, and transracial adoption. 

In this episode, my dear childhood friend Candice Shakur generously shares her experience as a Black girl growing up in small white Pennsylvania town, her current reality navigating the myriad challenges and  complexity of white supremacy culture as a Black woman, wife, and mother, and where she finds her hope.

Candice Shakur was born and raised in York, PA. She is a private person who would rather keep her stories to herself, but as an avid listener to this podcast, she couldn’t help but admit that sharing your story can sometimes be a good thing to do. Candice currently lives in the Midwest with her husband and 3 kids, and works as a professional organizer. You can find more of her work at moreroomathome.com.  

Content warnings include racism and racial slurs, microaggressions, and white supremacy.

Join us as historian and scholar Dr. Emily Seitz shares the complex and nuanced history of obstetrics in the 19th century, including when women began entering the workforce as physicians, the complexity of language and legislation of birth, and some of the the origins and intricacies of abortion and reproductive justice. 

Content warning include miscarriage, stillbirth, and abortion.

Emily Seitz (she/her) earned a PhD in history and women's, gender, and sexuality studies from The Pennsylvania State University in 2021.  By day she's a non profit fundraiser, and with her husband, Mat, toddler-wrangler extraordinaire to her three children, Isla, Benjamin, and Nathaniel.  In her spare time she's trying her hand at creative writing.  You can find her on Instagram @emilyseitzwrites. 

Print Resources

When Abortion was a Crime (academic book, though very accessible!) written by Leslie Reagan

Our Bodies, Ourselves (resource for women who want to   know more about their health and sexuality, including abortion), by the Boston Women's Health Collective

Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource By and For Transgender Communities, 2nd Edition by Laura Erickson-Schroth

Web Resources

Guttmacher Institute

National Network of Abortion Funds

Abortion Liberation Fund of PA

SisterSong

ACLU

National Advocates for Pregnant Women

Liberate Abortion

And of course, if anyone is a history nerd, I want to give a shout-out to the Drexel Legacy Center.  They have a very cool website where people can learn more about early medical education for women and have done such a nice job of making these resources accessible to the public.