EarthXperiences

“The behavior goes where the reinforcement flows.”

Dr. Jared Van is a behavior scientist, precision teacher, educator and abolitionist whose work explores how reinforcement, punishment, environment and systems influence human behavior.

In this Earth Xperiences conversation, Jared shares how an early concern with fairness eventually became connected to his work in education, behavior science, disability, racism and social systems.

We talk about what happens when people are repeatedly rewarded for certain behaviors, why struggling students may stop trying when failure becomes their normal experience, and what changes when we stop looking only at the individual and start examining the environment around them.

Jared also shares his perspective on research, skepticism and artificial intelligence. We explore whether AI can inherit human bias, how discriminatory assumptions can become embedded in technology, and what it might mean to use AI for good while still asking who benefits and who carries the cost.

The conversation moves into racism through a behavior science lens, including how associations are learned, how environments can reinforce harmful beliefs and why changing someone’s mind may require more than simply presenting better information.

We also talk about social media, outrage, algorithms and the ways attention itself can become reinforcement.

Then we play the Earth Xperiences game, where Jared is challenged to turn everyday human experiences into measurable behavior. He explores body image, arguments, laughter, screen time and what we might learn if we actually tracked the patterns of our lives.

Questions to sit with:

What behaviors are being reinforced around you every day?

How much of what we do comes from who we are, and how much comes from the environment around us?

Can racism and other harmful beliefs be understood as learned behavior?

What happens when social media rewards the content that makes us the most angry?

Can AI ever be neutral if it is created from human systems and human data?

What would change if schools measured learning differently?

What parts of your own life would you understand differently if you actually measured them?

ABOUT THE GUEST

Dr. Jared Van holds a PhD in special education and is a board certified behavior analyst at the doctoral level. He describes himself as a behavior scientist, precision teacher and abolitionist.

His work brings behavior science into conversations about education, disability, racism, social systems, measurement and the environments that influence human behavior.

Connect with Dr. Jared Van:

Website: https://www.jaredvan.com/

TikTok: @jaredvaneducation
https://www.tiktok.com/@jaredvaneducation

Instagram: @jaredvaneducation

YouTube: @jaredvaneducation

Facebook: Jared Van Education

Jared also shares resources related to precision teaching, the Standard Celeration Chart and measuring inner behavior through his website.

Earth Xperiences explores the beliefs, experiences and perspectives that shape how people move through the world. These conversations create room to slow down, consider another perspective and think more intentionally about what shapes the way we live.

“One of the first questions I ask my students every semester is, Do you care if your beliefs are true?”

Melanie Trecek-King is the creator of Thinking Is Power and an educator focused on critical thinking, information literacy and science literacy.

In this Earth Xperiences conversation, Melanie shares how growing up in a Young Earth Creationist church, studying biology and eventually questioning beliefs she once considered part of her identity shaped the work she does today.

We talk about what happens when a belief becomes part of who we are, why simply giving someone more evidence may not change their mind, and how intellectual humility can help us recognize our own blind spots.

Melanie and I explore faith and critical thinking, science and the supernatural, sleep paralysis, the God of the Gaps, cognitive biases, misinformation, changing deeply held beliefs and whether science can actually prove or disprove God.

We also play the Earth Xperiences game, where Melanie is challenged to create believable misinformation, think through what makes critical thinking difficult and revisit one of her own videos to write down three new observations about her work.

Questions to sit with:

Do you care if your beliefs are true?

If one of your beliefs were wrong, would you actually want to know?

Can faith and critical thinking exist together?

How much of what we believe comes from the culture, family and community we were born into?

Why do facts sometimes fail to change a person’s mind?

Can we experience something as real and still misunderstand what happened?

What beliefs have become so connected to our identity that questioning them feels like questioning ourselves?

ABOUT THE GUEST

Melanie Trecek-King is the creator of Thinking Is Power. Her background is in biology and ecology, and her work now focuses on helping people understand critical thinking, science literacy, information literacy, cognitive biases and the ways we can become more thoughtful about what we believe and why.

She is an associate professor at Massasoit Community College, a Fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and a columnist for Skeptical Inquirer.

Connect with Melanie Trecek-King:

Website: https://thinkingispower.com/start-here/

Instagram: @thinkingpowers
https://www.instagram.com/thinkingpowers/

TikTok: @thinkingpowers
https://www.tiktok.com/@thinkingpowers

Earth Xperiences explores the beliefs, experiences and perspectives that shape how people move through the world. The goal is not simply to decide who is right, but to slow down long enough to understand how we arrived at what we believe.

“No more blind faith.”

Hope with Holly joins Dani on Earth Xperiences for a conversation about Christian deconstruction, questioning faith, religious identity, Christian nationalism, patriarchy, relationships, motherhood, and what happens when the beliefs that once shaped your entire life begin to change.

Holly shares her experience inside evangelical Christianity and the questions that eventually led her to reconsider what she had been taught about God, the Bible, women, men, marriage, leadership, and spiritual authority.

The conversation moves through faith deconstruction and the uncertainty that can come with no longer having the same answers. Holly reflects on losing her daughter, seeking answers through religion, reaching a point where blind faith was no longer enough, and learning to ask questions she once felt she could not ask.

Dani and Holly also explore self control, self respect, dating after divorce, motherhood, gender roles, patriarchy, hearing the voice of God, and how we decide whether a belief comes from God, culture, another person, or ourselves.

Questions explored in this Earth Xperience:

What happens when Christianity has been part of your entire identity and you begin questioning it?

How do you know when you are hearing God versus your own thoughts?

Can you question the Bible without immediately replacing your old beliefs with new certainty?

How do religious teachings about women and men shape relationships?

What does self respect look like after divorce?

How do you learn what you actually want after years of following expectations?

What happens when grief changes the way you understand faith?

And once you stop having blind faith, how do you decide what you believe now?

This conversation is for anyone interested in Christian deconstruction, religious deconstruction, questioning Christianity, evangelical Christianity, Christian nationalism, faith and doubt, women in Christianity, patriarchy and religion, spiritual identity, and life after a major change in belief.

About this Earth Xperience

Earth Xperiences is a conversation project with Dani centered on how people make sense of being human. Guests bring their stories, beliefs, questions, contradictions, and experiences to the table. The goal is to create room for curiosity, critical thinking, and perspectives we may not encounter in our own lives.

“The entire concept of you as a sinner, an unworthy sinner, is the most energy draining thing you’ll ever experience.”

Cyndi Savage spent more than 30 years inside Christianity, including years as a minister and missionary. Then she began questioning the Bible, the ideas she had been taught and the framework she had once used to understand God, morality and herself.

In this Earth Xperience, Cyndi and Dani explore what happens when someone begins rebuilding their worldview outside of Christianity.

The conversation moves through faith deconstruction, biblical interpretation, answered prayer, miracles, good and evil, sin, accountability, love and marriage. Cyndi reflects on anger, questioning long held beliefs and how she decides what information to trust after leaving a belief system she once trusted deeply.

Then we put some of those ideas to the test through the Earth Xperience game, where Cyndi responds in real time to questions about Jesus, the Bible, sin, belief and ideas from her own content.

Consider:

What makes a belief trustworthy?

If you remove the concept of sin, what creates accountability?

Can something feel spiritually real and still be questioned?

What happens to your definition of love when your religious framework changes?

When you leave one belief system, how do you know the next one is any closer to the truth?

“You have to set a new standard of familiarity for yourself.”

What happens when the beliefs, communities and expectations that once gave your life structure no longer feel honest?

In this Earth Xperiences conversation, Dani sits with artist, creative, speaker and musician Saiuri Diogé for a discussion about faith, identity, work, love and learning how to trust yourself outside of the roles other people assign to you.

Saiuri shares what led her to step away from the Seventh day Adventist environment she grew up in while still maintaining a belief in God. She reflects on the difference between sincere faith and performing righteousness, why she no longer believes questioning religion requires abandoning God, and how deconstruction changed the way she understands herself.

The conversation also moves beyond religion. Saiuri explores why people can repeatedly choose relationships and environments that hurt them simply because they feel familiar, and why changing those patterns may require creating an entirely new standard for what feels normal.

She also challenges ideas about work, productivity and worth. If someone becomes highly skilled at what they do, should finishing faster make their labor less valuable? And when work can be completed without sitting at a desk all day, how much of traditional work culture is actually about productivity and how much is about appearing productive?

Later, Saiuri steps into an Earth Xperiences game where she has two minutes to consider what human abilities may become more important as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly capable.

This Xperience asks us to consider:

What parts of our identity are actually ours, and what parts were handed to us?

Can someone leave a religious system without leaving God?

How do we distinguish healthy love from something that simply feels familiar?

Are we sometimes calling fear “waiting on God”?

Should greater skill give us more freedom rather than more work?

And as technology becomes more capable, what parts of being human become even more valuable?

Find Saiuri Diogé on Instagram by searching Saiuri Diogé and on YouTube at SIGH_YURI.

Earth Xperiences is a space for conversations about the beliefs, experiences and perspectives shaping how we understand ourselves and one another.

“If I didn’t know who Jesus was for myself, I would want nothing to do with Christianity.”

Can you question Christianity, challenge church culture and still choose faith?

In this episode of Earth Xperiences, Dani sits down with Vene for a conversation about Christianity, church hurt, Seventh Day Adventism, religious legalism, spiritual experiences, critical thinking and what happens when the faith you inherited begins to raise new questions.

Vene shares how growing up in the Adventist church shaped her discipline, identity and relationship with God. She also opens up about becoming pregnant outside of marriage, how that experience changed the way she viewed her church community and why she began examining beliefs she had accepted for most of her life.

The conversation explores the difference Vene sees between Jesus and Christianity as an institution, why she still has love for the church while questioning parts of it and how she makes room for faith alongside critical thinking.

Vene also shares personal experiences that strengthened her belief in God, including moments when she felt God with her during some of the lowest points of her life.

Later, Dani and Vene examine what faith actually means. If faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen, is belief something we know or something we choose?

They also explore what happens when religious beliefs become harmful, how conviction can turn into condemnation and why disagreement about religion does not always have to become an argument.

Consider:

Can you question your religious upbringing without abandoning your faith?

Can faith and critical thinking exist together?

When does a belief become harmful?

What would a healthier church look like?

Can you love a religious community while challenging the systems within it?

And if faith is something we choose, what responsibility do we have toward people who choose differently?

Vene is a creative, believer and critical thinker whose work explores faith, identity and the ideas that shape how we understand ourselves and the world around us.

She is also the curator of wholesome experiences through Vene Presents.

✨ A Creative, A Believer, A Critical Thinker ✨
Curator of wholesome experiences 🤍

TikTok: @norveneee

Instagram: @vene_presents

Follow Earth Xperiences for more conversations examining the beliefs, experiences and questions that shape who we become.

About Vene

“Death is nothing to fear.”

Josh, known online as Everyone’s Brother, says his understanding of life, God and identity changed after surviving multiple medical crises and near death experiences.

In this Earth Xperiences conversation, Josh shares what he remembers from being outside of his body, what he describes as an encounter with God, and how those experiences challenged the Christianity he grew up with.

We talk about what happened when he returned to life without many of his memories, his struggle with alcohol, rebuilding his identity, spirituality, intuition, fasting, love, good and evil, forgiveness, surrender and the beliefs we inherit from other people.

Josh also shares why he believes losing the person he used to be eventually gave him permission to create someone new.

This conversation does not ask you to accept Josh’s interpretation of what happened to him. It creates space to hear his experience and examine what it brings up in your own understanding of life, death, faith and being human.

As you listen, consider:

What would happen to your beliefs if you experienced something you could not explain?

How much of your understanding of God came from personal experience and how much was inherited?

If you lost the identity you spent your life building, who would you become next?

What is a belief about yourself that you eventually realized came from somebody else?

Can compassion have more power than judgment?

And if death were no longer something you feared, would it change the way you lived?

Josh shares more of his work as Everyone’s Brother through Instagram, YouTube, Substack and his Bringing Death to Life community.

BOUT THE GUEST

Josh is a guitar tech, dog trainer and rehabilitator who shares his work online as Everyone’s Brother. After surviving multiple medical emergencies and near death experiences, he began speaking publicly about death, identity, spirituality, healing and his understanding of God.

He also created Bringing Death to Life, a community focused on letting go of old identities and exploring personal transformation.

Connect with Josh:

Instagram: @everyonez.brother

YouTube: Everyone’s Brother

Substack: Everyone’s Brother

Community: Bringing Death to Life

Earth Xperiences is a collection of conversations exploring beliefs, experiences, perspectives and the complicated process of being human.

“I am one with God, but I am not God.”

Michael Monk describes himself as a spiritual teacher of energy mastery and metaphysics with a devotion to God. His path there has been anything but simple.

In this Earth Xperiences conversation, Michael shares why he rejected the church as a teenager, the experience he believes was his first encounter with God, a healing he describes as miraculous, and how those experiences eventually led him deeper into spirituality.

He also opens up about a period when his pursuit of spiritual power changed direction. Michael began believing that he was God, experienced what he describes as intense spiritual warfare, lost relationships and much of the public life he had built, and eventually returned to a belief in God outside of himself.

We explore organized religion, the Bible, miracles, spiritual experiences, free will, love, Christ, spiritual ego, and the difference Michael sees between being God and being connected to God.

Michael also shares his perspective on the living Word of God, why he believes spiritual experience can exist beyond religious institutions, what he means when he talks about energy mastery, and how his understanding of God has changed throughout his life.

Questions to sit with:

How do you know when an experience is God?

Can spirituality bring someone closer to God and also pull them away?

Where is the line between spiritual empowerment and spiritual ego?

Can someone experience God outside of organized religion?

What happens when the beliefs that once made us feel powerful no longer serve us?

How do we decide whether a spiritual experience is truth, interpretation, psychology, faith, or something we do not yet understand?

Listen with curiosity. You do not have to agree with every perspective to consider what it reveals about belief, identity, faith, and the ways humans try to understand experiences that are difficult to explain.

About the Guest

Michael Monk is a spiritual teacher focused on energy mastery, metaphysics, and devotion to God. He is the founder of the Avatar Energy Mastery Institute and the Metaphysical Church of the Tree of Life. His work explores spiritual development, extrasensory perception, out of body experiences, and what he describes as energy mastery.

Learn more about Michael and his work at MichaelMonk.bio.

Earth Xperiences is an ongoing study of self, belief, and how we make sense of this experience we share together.

Who Are You When You Stop Performing? | Dr. Crystal Harrell on Work, Faith and Being Seen

“I didn’t see myself. I didn’t acknowledge my own gifts, my own creativity, my own intellect, my own intuition. I neglected me first.”

Dr. Crystal T. Harrell spent more than a decade pursuing education as her path out of poverty, eventually earning more than $1 million in scholarships and grants and graduating from Yale. Then she entered the corporate world she had worked toward for years and found herself confronting a different question: What happens when achievement still doesn’t make you feel seen?

In this conversation, Crystal traces that question back through childhood, the loss of her father at eleven, becoming a high achiever, learning to grieve years later, and recognizing how much of her life had been shaped by performance and the desire for acceptance.

We also explore her changing relationship with Christianity and spirituality, what she believes God means to her now, why she describes love as presence, and how entrepreneurship became a way to create work that feels meaningful to her.

Crystal also shares the memory of a father who repeatedly reminded her there was nothing wrong with her, even when the world made her believe otherwise.

Questions to sit with after listening:

How much of what you have accomplished was created from desire, and how much came from wanting to be seen?

What are you asking the world to recognize in you that you have yet to recognize in yourself?

Does your work give you energy or continually ask you to perform?

What does it mean to love someone without trying to possess or change them?

Who are you when you stop trying to prove who you are?

Crystal T. Harrell, PhD is a Yale trained public health researcher, bestselling author, entrepreneur, and founder of a holistic health and beauty company created alongside her sisters.

Continue exploring Crystal’s work through her website and social platforms mentioned at the end of the conversation.

Is Capitalism the Root of All Evil? Financial Trauma, Faith & AI with Rahkim Sabree

“A dysregulated person is a profitable one.”

What if our relationship with money is telling us something about the systems we live in, the experiences we carry, and what we believe makes a good life?

In this episode of Earth Xperiences, I sit down with financial trauma expert, author, speaker, and financial therapist Rahkim Sabree.

Rahkim shares how leaving a decade long career in banking eventually led him into financial therapy and the work behind his book, Overcoming Financial Trauma: How to Break Free from Guilt, Build Wealth, and Redefine Success.

Our conversation begins with money, but it does not stay there.

We explore financial trauma, capitalism, financial literacy, credentials, who gets to be considered an expert, and why simply telling people to budget better can ignore the larger systems shaping their choices.

Rahkim makes a provocative declaration during our conversation:

“Capitalism is the root of all evil, not money.”

So I ask him another question.

If capitalism is the root of evil, what is good?

His answer is community.

From there, we explore what community actually requires, why individual success can still leave people disconnected, and whether the systems designed to help us can sometimes become another form of gatekeeping.

We also talk about AI and the possibility that technology could free people from some forms of labor while creating entirely new questions about power, surveillance, inequality, environmental impact, and who ultimately benefits from technological progress.

Then the conversation becomes deeply personal.

Rahkim shares the story of an intuition telling him to return home shortly before discovering his house on fire. His dog was still inside.

That experience leads us into a larger conversation about God, intuition, Islam, fasting, spiritual readings, ancestors, purpose, love, and the experiences Rahkim believes have shaped the work he is here to do.

We eventually arrive at one of my favorite ideas from the conversation.

What makes us human may be our ability to experience.

AI can collect information. It can generate language. It can recognize patterns.

But can it ever have an experience?

QUESTIONS TO EXPLORE

What parts of your relationship with money were actually taught to you, and what parts developed through experience?

When does a credential protect people, and when can it become a gate around knowledge?

Can we criticize capitalism while benefiting from it?

If financial success requires someone else to struggle, how should we define success?

What does community require beyond simply belonging to a group?

Do you believe intuition can tell us something that reason cannot?

How do you decide whether a spiritual experience is meaningful, coincidence, or something else?

What does love look like when performance, money, status, and expectation are removed?

If AI eventually becomes capable of reproducing much of human knowledge, what remains uniquely human?

And finally, what do you believe makes a human?

ABOUT RAHKIM SABREE

Rahkim Sabree is a financial trauma expert, author, speaker, Accredited Financial Counselor, financial therapist, and Forbes contributor whose work explores money, trauma, culture, systems, and financial healing.

CONNECT WITH RAHKIM

Website
https://www.rahkimsabree.com

Instagram
@RahkimSabree

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahkimsabree/

YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/rahkimsabree

Substack
https://rahkimsabree.substack.com

READ OVERCOMING FINANCIAL TRAUMA

Overcoming Financial Trauma: How to Break Free from Guilt, Build Wealth, and Redefine Success

Book information
https://www.rahkimsabree.com/book

Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Financial-Trauma-Redefine-Success-ebook/dp/B0FZF5BSRX/