Elsplend Realities

Can faith and science truly coexist—or have we been taught to see them as opposites?

In this thoughtful episode of Elsplend Realities, we sit down with Dr. Angela Deulen to explore the profound intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and spiritual formation. Drawing from decades of clinical experience, behavioral neuroscience research, and Biblical scholarship, Angela unpacks how the human brain, emotional healing, and spiritual growth may be far more connected than we realize.

Together, we discuss fear-based religion, the power of human connection, neuroplasticity and renewal of the mind, emotional awareness, and what it means to be intentionally designed for growth and purpose.

This conversation offers a grounded and compassionate perspective for anyone longing for a faith that feels intellectually honest, emotionally healthy, and spiritually deep.

If you’ve ever wrestled with the tension between belief and understanding, this episode invites you to see them not as rivals—but as reflections of a deeper design.

In this episode of Elsplend Realities, we explore what it means to build confidence, resilience, and self-trust in environments where you may feel unseen, underestimated, or outnumbered. This is a conversation about identity, leadership, and the quiet but powerful decision to stop shrinking in spaces that were not always designed with you in mind.

Our guest, Samantha Kaye Harris, is a Workforce Retention and Confidence Strategist with over 25 years of experience in male-dominated industries such as aviation and maintenance. Drawing from her lived experience, she shares practical insight into what it really takes to stay grounded, speak up, and thrive without losing yourself in the process.

We also explore her Brag Bag™️ Strategy—a tool designed to help women recognize their accomplishments, reinforce self-worth, and build lasting confidence in their careers. Together, we unpack the challenges women face in the workplace, the importance of visibility and voice, and how both individuals and organizations can create environments where women don’t just survive, but lead authentically.

This episode is a grounded and empowering reminder that your voice matters, your presence has value, and you don’t have to shrink to belong—you can rise and lead as you are.

In this episode of Elsplend Realities, we explore what it truly means to slow down, reconnect with the body, and return to a sense of inner safety. Many people live in cycles of emotional overwhelm, survival mode, and disconnection without realizing how deeply their nervous system is shaping their daily experience.

Our guest, Natalie Bedard—also known as NatNat—is an Emotional Healing and Nervous System Guide and founder of Lift OneSelf. Through her trauma-informed, somatic, and deeply compassionate approach, she supports people in releasing stored emotional pain, regulating the nervous system, and reconnecting with themselves through what she calls emotional sobriety.

Together, we unpack why healing is less about fixing ourselves and more about creating safety, how protective emotional patterns form and persist, and what it looks like to gently build trust with the body again. NatNat also shares her personal journey through illness and transformation, offering grounded insight into resilience and embodied healing.

This is a tender and grounding conversation for anyone ready to soften self-judgment, slow down, and return to presence, compassion, and connection from within.

In this deeply moving episode of Elsplend Realities, we explore what it means to live with loss, navigate trauma, and slowly rebuild a sense of safety and meaning after profound tragedy. This conversation centers on grief, resilience, faith, and the quiet courage it takes to keep choosing healing when the past refuses to stay silent.

Our guest, Allicia Johnson Niles—author, speaker, and educator—shares her powerful story of growing up in the aftermath of her father’s murder while he served in the U.S. Navy. Through years of searching for truth, wrestling with fear, and learning to trust her own inner knowing, she eventually uncovered answers that reshaped her understanding of love, forgiveness, and justice.

We also explore how trauma shapes identity, how hypervigilance becomes a way of life, and how self-awareness, community, and faith can become anchors in the healing process. Allicia’s journey reminds us that healing does not erase pain—it transforms our relationship to it.

This episode is a compassionate space for anyone carrying unresolved grief, offering a message of hope: even the deepest wounds can evolve into purpose, connection, and peace.

In this episode of Elsplend Realities, we explore the deeply personal and often difficult terrain of trust, betrayal, and emotional safety in relationships. Many people enter love seeking connection, only to find themselves navigating confusion, red flags they didn’t see in time, and the lasting impact of emotional harm.

Our guest, Justin Smith—entrepreneur and founder of the dating safety app Cray—shares his powerful story of rebuilding after a life-altering betrayal in an eight-year relationship. What began as personal pain evolved into a mission to help others date with greater clarity, awareness, and protection.

Together, we unpack how people miss early warning signs, why intuition is often ignored, and what it truly takes to rebuild trust without losing emotional openness. This conversation bridges personal healing and practical tools, offering insight into how we can protect our hearts without closing them off.

A grounded and honest episode for anyone seeking healthier, safer, and more intentional connections in today’s dating world.

In this episode of Elsplend Realities, we explore what it truly means to move out of survival mode and reconnect with the body’s natural intelligence. So many people are navigating chronic stress, burnout, and emotional disconnection while still appearing “fine” on the outside—often without realizing how deeply their nervous system has adapted to cope.

Our guest, Kelly Hale (also known as Kelly Kale), is an occupational therapist, movement specialist, and nervous system regulation practitioner with over 25 years of experience. She shares how her integrative approach—Gutsy Brain Movement—brings together movement, gut health, emotional well-being, and nervous system regulation to support real, lasting healing.

Together, we unpack why traditional approaches like “just relax” or meditation alone often fall short, how survival states show up in everyday life, and what it actually looks like to build safety in the body again.

This is a grounded, compassionate conversation for anyone ready to stop forcing healing—and start listening to the body instead.

In this episode of Elsplend Realities, we explore the foundation of all meaningful relationships: the one you have with yourself. From there, we move into the patterns, triggers, and communication styles that shape how we connect with others—and how those patterns can either create distance or deepen intimacy.

We’re joined by Paige Farrington and Ashlyn Farrington, a mother-daughter duo behind Love Ignites Peace #BathtubChats, The 6 Conflict Styles, and Love’s 6 Actions. Together, they bring a blend of lived experience, coaching insight, and practical frameworks designed to help people navigate conflict with more awareness, compassion, and clarity.

Paige, an International Impact Award-Winning author of Love Ignites Peace: Our Next Evolution, and Ashlyn share tools that move beyond theory—offering grounded, actionable ways to shift how we respond in moments of tension, misunderstanding, and emotional disconnection.

In this conversation, we explore:

How self-judgment shapes our relationships and how to shift it

Common mother-daughter (and family) dynamics that create recurring tension

The framework behind Love’s 6 Actions and how to apply it daily

How subconscious patterns influence conflict responses

Understanding conflict styles to build empathy and reduce friction

Breaking cycles of repetitive relational conflict

How self-relationship impacts every connection in our lives

Tools for staying grounded during emotional tension

Real stories of relational breakthroughs and healing

Simple, practical practices for improving relationships immediately

This episode is for anyone who wants to move from reactive patterns into more conscious, connected, and compassionate relationships.

Because real change doesn’t begin in the middle of conflict.

It begins in the way we choose to see ourselves—and each other.

In this episode of Elsplend Realities, we explore what it truly means to move forward in the face of physical limitation, uncertainty, and fear—and how resilience is often built one careful step at a time. This conversation centers on courage not as a personality trait, but as a practiced way of showing up for life, especially when conditions are far from ideal.

We’re joined by Darrow Kirkpatrick, an engineer, early retiree, and adventurer who completed the 500-mile Colorado Trail while managing chronic injuries and anxiety. In his memoir Two Sticks, One Path, he reflects on the realities of endurance hiking, adaptive strategies for aging bodies, and the mental discipline required to continue forward when both body and mind are tested.

Through lived experience, Darrow offers a grounded perspective on resilience, mindfulness, and intentional action—showing that meaningful challenges are not reserved for the young or the unburdened, but are still possible at any stage of life.

In this conversation, we explore:

What drives someone to take on a 500-mile physical challenge despite limitations

How courage is built through action, not absence of fear

Managing anxiety and maintaining focus over long, demanding journeys

Practical strategies for adapting to injury and physical constraint

The relationship between endurance, mindset, and personal growth

The role of support systems in sustaining resilience

Mindfulness practices that help navigate fear and uncertainty

Lessons learned about failure, risk, and persistence

How to balance honesty about struggle with inspiration for others

What it means to begin—or continue—when conditions are imperfect

This episode is for anyone standing at the edge of a challenge, wondering if they’re capable, ready, or “fit enough” to begin.

Because sometimes courage doesn’t look like certainty.

Sometimes it just looks like taking the next step anyway.

In this episode of Elsplend Realities, we explore a life shaped by extremes—early adversity, high-stakes leadership in global corporations, pioneering work in early AI, and a parallel career as a novelist, inventor, and adventurer. It’s a conversation about how resilience is built, how judgment is sharpened under pressure, and how curiosity can become a lifelong operating system.

We’re joined by Guy Morris, a retired executive with a 38-year career across software, high-tech, and global energy sectors, where he helped lead early-stage AI and large-scale technology transformation initiatives. Beyond the corporate world, he is an award-winning thriller author, songwriter for Disney Records, patented inventor, and charter captain whose life experiences span leadership, exploration, and creative storytelling.

Guy’s novels—often compared to Dan Brown and Robert Ludlum—draw from real history, technology, politics, and lived experience, offering a unique lens into how systems, power, and human behavior intersect.

In this conversation, we explore:

How early life adversity shapes leadership and decision-making

What it takes to lead through uncertainty and large-scale change

The connection between storytelling, human behavior, and real-world systems

How resilience is built and sustained under pressure

Risk-taking across corporate leadership and real-world adventure

The ethical and societal implications of AI and emerging technologies

How curiosity and creativity strengthen problem-solving

Principles for staying grounded in high-stakes environments

Balancing ambition, purpose, and personal integrity over a lifetime

This episode is for anyone interested in the intersection of leadership, technology, creativity, and resilience—and how a life fully lived can become both a lesson and a legacy.

Because sometimes the most powerful insights come not from a single path, but from many lives lived in one.

What happens when the life you built no longer feels fully aligned with who you’re becoming?

In this episode of Elsplend Realities, we sit down with Shannon Russell — career transition coach, entrepreneur, author, and former television producer — for a grounded conversation about reinvention, identity, and the quiet courage it takes to choose a new chapter.

After spending more than sixteen years producing stories for others, Shannon made the life-changing decision to step away from a successful career and build something more aligned with her values, joy, and sense of purpose. Through her work with women navigating career and life transitions, she now helps others recognize that change doesn’t have to come from collapse — sometimes it begins with an inner knowing that there’s more waiting beyond familiarity.

Together, we explore:

Why success and fulfillment are not always the same thing

The emotional weight of leaving familiar identities behind

How fear shows up during major life transitions

Redefining success on your own terms

The role of joy, intuition, and self-trust in reinvention

What a “second act” can look like without starting over from scratch

This conversation is for anyone standing between who they’ve been and who they’re becoming — wondering whether they’re allowed to want a life that feels more honest, alive, and aligned.

Because sometimes clarity doesn’t arrive all at once.

Sometimes it begins the moment you finally listen to yourself.