REGISTRATION FOR CONFLICT SCHOOL OPENS JUNE 16TH!

Connect with me, Hanna, your host: 

Connect with Monika Alanna 

In this episode, Monika and I sit down for a deeply personal conversation about conflict, honesty, intimacy, self-betrayal, nervous system regulation, and what it actually means to love another human being truthfully.

We explore the ways our childhoods shaped our relationship to conflict, why so many people fear honest conversations, and how relational rupture can sometimes become the doorway to deeper intimacy, self-awareness, and transformation. We talk about family systems, tone policing, “canaries in the coal mine,” heartbreak, staying too long, leaving too late, and the difficult reality that sometimes love asks us to confront truths we desperately wish were not true.

Throughout the conversation, we return again and again to the idea that conflict is not inherently destructive. In many ways, conflict is the mechanism through which real connection becomes possible. We discuss how nervous system regulation impacts our ability to listen, why most people black out during difficult conversations, the difference between abusive communication and emotional intensity, and how learning to tolerate discomfort may actually be the pathway to the intimacy most people claim to want.

We also speak candidly about our own lives and relationships: what it means to feel unseen, how people carry old wounds into present relationships, the stories we tell ourselves after heartbreak, and the strange grace that can emerge when we stop avoiding difficult truths.

This episode is philosophical, emotionally raw, funny at times, and deeply rooted in the belief that the life we want often exists on the other side of the conversations we are most afraid to have.

Conflict School begins July 28th.

This year, the course will be six weeks long instead of four, giving us much more room to go deeper into the anatomy of conflict, communication, nervous system work, rupture and repair, relational dynamics, and actionable skills that can radically transform the way you engage with disagreement and intimacy.

Registration opens June 16th. From June 16th–23rd, we’ll be offering an early bird rate of $200 for the full six-week program. After that, the price increases to $250.

More details will be available on my website soon.

Let’s get into it.

guest info:

GO BUY HER BOOKS!!!!

host info:

In this episode of Gracepilled, I sat down with writer and “neo-troubadour animist” Sophie Strand for a sprawling conversation about mysticism, illness, ecology, beauty, paradox, and what it means to stay openhearted in a world that often feels unsafe.

Together we explore Sophie’s unusual upbringing around Buddhist monks, interfaith spirituality, rescued animals, and ecological thought, as well as the role chronic illness played in dismantling simplistic spiritual narratives about healing, fairness, and transcendence.

The conversation moves through topics like animism, Joan of Arc, climate anxiety, Groundhog Day as a spiritual text, mystical experience, riddles and parables, the difference between beauty and glamour, and why the deepest spiritual truths often live inside contradiction rather than certainty.

This episode is ultimately about surrender: not as passivity, but as the willingness to remain in relationship with reality even when there are no guarantees, no explanations, and no “happy ending” waiting at the end of suffering.

You can find Sophie’s work through her books, essays, and Substack.

SIGN UP FOR ATTENTION 101 (reclaim your agency for change) 
sign up here
Starts January 6th! 

Connect with me, Hanna, your host: 
Instagram: @grace.pilled
hannawilliams.com (bookings, conflict school, etc)
patreon.com/gracepilled
(join as a free member to get access to a collection of talks!)

Connect with Monica Alanna 
Instagram: 
@rooted.relating (coaching/grief counseling)
@magicksalt (handmade jewelry, art, writing)
www.magicksalt.com

In this episode, Monica interviews me about what it’s really like to live and work online as a creative & mentor. We talk about our digital duplicates, attention fatigue, curating our algorithms with intention, the tension between analog life vs. digital life, what it means to be authentic on social media, and how I think about creativity, boundaries, and running Gracepilled as a business. It’s an honest look at identity, influence, and staying human on the internet.

• Digital duplicates & online identity — how the internet forms a version of us, how others perceive that version, and how it affects real life.
• Attention, distraction & notification fatigue — the constant pull of screens, digital audits, and reclaiming focus.
• Analog vs. digital media — the sensory and emotional differences between reading physical books, using Kindles, and engaging offline.
• Creativity, authenticity & running an online business — how I create content, use data, navigate the algorithm, and balance privacy with visibility.
• Influence, boundaries & staying grounded online — curating your algorithm, resisting comparison culture, and choosing how you want to show up on the internet.

Connect with me, Hanna, your host: 
Instagram: @grace.pilled
hannawilliams.com (bookings, conflict school, etc)
patreon.com/gracepilled
(join as a free member to get access to a collection of talks!)

Connect with Monica Alanna 
Instagram: 
@rooted.relating (coaching/grief counseling)
@magicksalt (handmade jewelry, art, writing)
www.magicksalt.com

Today’s episode is a conversation with my friend & colleague Monica Alanna about the strange and complicated world of digital spaces. We personify the platforms we use every day—Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube—as if they were people, each with their own archetype and flavor.

We explore how these apps shape culture, attention, and even our sense of self, from the pull we all experience of wanting to peek at the comment section arguments to the addictive, casino-like design of social media apps that keep us emotionally hooked.

Along the way, we talk about digital “duplicates,” cancel culture, distraction, and what it takes to build real boundaries with screens. It’s funny, it’s sharp, and it gets into the gray areas of how technology can be both a tool and a trap.

I think you’ll leave this one reflecting on your own relationship with social media—and maybe even laughing about it too.

Connect with Ramon, my guest:
instagram
the drama of the planets [his book of poetry]

Connect with me, Hanna, your host: 
Instagram: @grace.pilled
hannawilliams.com (bookings, merch, etc)
patreon.com/gracepilled
(join as a free member to get access to a collection of talks!)

In this episode of GRACEPILLED, I sit down with poet, philosopher, and teacher Ramon Parish (a.k.a. Uriel Jones), whose journey weaves together stargazing, philosophy, poetry, and spiritual practice. Ramon recently released his first poetry collection Drama of the Planets, and in this conversation, he shares the stories, influences, and practices that shaped both his art and his spiritual path.

We talk about:

• How Ramon’s early stargazing experiences sparked a lifelong sense of spiritual purpose
• Why he sees philosophy and poetry as core spiritual practices
• The influence of Rastafari, music, and mythology on his worldview
• The role of movement, meditation, and community in his spiritual growth
• Balancing tradition with adaptation in spirituality, and why conduct and justice matter just as much as consciousness

Connect with Cindy:
Instagram: @clairvoyantcounseling
Website 

Connect with me, Hanna, your host: 
Instagram: @grace.pilled
hannawilliams.com (bookings, merch, etc)
patreon.com/gracepilled
(join as a free member to get access to a collection of talks!)

Today’s guest is Reverend Cindy Pincus—minister, death doula, and someone who I now consider a spiritual comrade. We originally met at a First Friday art market in Denver when she walked straight up to my table and picked up my “Money + the Spiritual Path” zine. I remember thinking, this person has sparkles around them. And I was right.

In this conversation, Cindy shares the wild, beautiful, and unexpected path that’s led her through Christian seminary, Indigenous ceremony, psychic training, and years of hospice and hospital chaplaincy. She speaks with rare clarity about death, grief, ministry, and spiritual courage—and about the surprising places her deepest convictions came from. (Spoiler: one involved a protest, a votive candle, and a head injury.)

There were a few things said in this interview that blew my mind — I hope you love it!

We cover:

• Cindy’s surprising journey from culturally Jewish roots to Christian ministry
• What it means to have a conversion experience in the modern world
• Her years working with death—hospitals, hospice, and the spiritual wisdom of the dying
• Why she believes Jesus was psychic (and probably a witch)
• The beauty and power of not looking away from grief, endings, and the collapse of empire

Connect with Aiden, my guest: 
Instagram: @aidenarata
https://aidenarata.com/
YOU HAVE A NEW MEMORY (her book!)

Connect with me, Hanna, your host: 
Instagram: @grace.pilled
hannawilliams.com (bookings, merch, etc)
patreon.com/gracepilled
(join as a free member to get access to a collection of talks!)

Today I’m joined by writer, poet, and internet oracle Aiden Arata. You might know her from her dreamy, timely memes, her prose that cuts through the screen of your phone, or her completely surreal yet relatable guided meditation reels on instagram. Aiden’s new book of essays, YOU HAVE A NEW MEMORY, came out just two days ago—and I haven’t read it yet, but I can’t wait to. I can only imagine that it will feel like a voice memo from a highly perceptive friend, sent from the edge of a spiritual breakthrough that happened alongside the produce rack at the grocery store.

In this conversation, we talk about the dread that surrounds creative work, the porousness required for both art and intuition, and what happens when you accidentally end up at a 14-hour-a-day solitary retreat in France. We also get into spiritual hysteria, memes as mystical artifacts, and the healing power of finally feeling seen.

This one’s funny, strange, and full of surprisingly delicious nuggets of gold. I hope you love it.

we cover:
– the dread that creeps in around creative work, especially writing, and how the language of the internet (short, catchy, algorithm-friendly) can distort your voice and make deep work feel impossible
– the porousness required for both creativity and spirituality—and how curating your sense impressions can be a way of clearing space for awe, intuition, and your own mind to come back online
– the shift from trying to use spirituality to fix yourself, to actually having a relationship with yourself—and how that changed everything (with the help of therapy, trauma work, and a more compassionate view of mental health)
– Catholic roots, spiritual hysteria, gold + gore aesthetics, and the unexpected joy of accidentally ending up in a 14-hour-a-day silent monastery retreat in France
– what the internet can be (divine connection through memes, shared humanity), and also what it is becoming (a pipeline for paranoia, commodified enlightenment, and people falling in love with chatbots)

Connect with Diana, my guest: 
Instagram: @ddamascenaa
patreon.com/ddamascenaa
ddamascenaa.com

Connect with me, Hanna, your host:
Instagram: @grace.pilled
hannawilliams.com (bookings, merch, etc)
patreon.com/gracepilled
(join as a free member to get access to a collection of talks!)

In this episode, I talk with Diana Rose about what it means to truly human. We start with a beautiful story she shares about choosing connection instead of isolation while navigating complex grief, and how that reflects the deeper healing work she’s done—work that’s allowed her to stay in relationship, even when things are hard. We also talk about the dream of village life and what it means to be supported by a web of people who are in mutual care with one another. Diana shares how her spiritual worldview formed outside of formal tradition, what led her to astrology, and how she uses it as a tool to help people release internalized “shoulds” and understand their own nature with more compassion.

Connect with Rami: 
Instagram: @ramidreams
ramidreams.com (booking, live programs, etc)
Enrollment for Rami's school ends July 8th

Connect with me, Hanna, your host: 
Instagram: @grace.pilled
hannawilliams.com (bookings, merch, etc)
patreon.com/gracepilled

We cover:

• The emotional and existential challenges of running a spiritual business, including the unexpected inner work around self-worth, shame, and the discomfort of marketing one's offerings with integrity.
• Authenticity in leadership and marketing, especially the importance of being your full self (including humor, messiness, and vulnerability) in your public presence so clients meet the real you—not just a shiny persona.
• The delicate dance of sharing personal process online, exploring how to discern when something is "cooked" enough to serve others, versus when it’s still raw and may unconsciously ask your audience to hold you.
• Projections, pedestals, and the myth of the perfect spiritual guide, including how to recognize golden shadow and navigate others’ expectations without fragmenting your identity or hiding your humanity.
• The spiritual necessity of creative expression, especially in the digital age—seeing Instagram and social media as modern landfills where we can still perform sacred service, wake people up, and keep the river of spirit flowing through us.

Connect with Yumi, my guest:
Instagram: @yumisakugawa
Website
Affirmation deck

Connect with me, Hanna, your host: 
Instagram: @grace.pilled
hannawilliams.com (bookings, merch, etc)
patreon.com/gracepilled
(join as a free member to get access to a collection of talks!)

In this episode of Gracepilled, I sit down with interdisciplinary artist and author Yumi Sakugawa (she/they) to trace the spiraling, unexpected path of her spiritual life—from childhood flashes of psychic imagery and goth teenage atheism to meditation, soul retrieval, and ancestral reclamation.

Yumi is the author of beloved illustrated books like There Is No Right Way to Meditate and Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Believer, and exhibitions at the Smithsonian and the Japanese American National Museum. But today we go beyond Yumi’s amazing career accomplishments and explore their inner world.

We talk about a recent health scare that became a surprisingly spiritual wake-up call, and how discipline, fueled by the powers of Virgo, interacts with creative ritual. We talk about their dark night of the soul experience teaching english in Japan, finding meditation through Eckhart Tolle and David Lynch, and how grief led her deeper into ancestral connection with her Okinawan roots. Yumi also shares the story of a traumatic ayahuasca ceremony—something she’s never spoken about publicly before—and the long, slow, embodied healing that followed. And, full disclosure, in telling this story and discussing it, neither of us are suggesting there is anything wrong with plant medicine or ayahuasca, we are simply exploring what that was like, and some potential aspects of modern Ayahuasca usage that aren’t so commonly discussed.

We cover: 

• Spiritual emergence through crisis: Yumi shares how a painful post-college experience teaching abroad in Japan led them to meditation, marking the beginning of their spiritual path.
• Creative discipline as ritual: She talks about her workshop “Discipline is Pleasure” and how creative practice, health routines, and spirituality all benefit from intentional containers of time and attention.
• Lineage, colonization, and ancestral reclamation: They reflect on visiting their paternal homeland of Okinawa and how it catalyzed a deeper connection to their ancestral roots and the region’s spiritual and political history.
• Ayahuasca, trauma, and healing: Yumi opens up—publicly for the first time—about a devastating ayahuasca experience, soul fragmentation, and the long arc of recovery supported by their community and energetic healing.
• Art, intuition, and the evolution of purpose: She reflects on how her creative journey has shifted from needing to prove herself to trusting intuition, play, and her unique voice.