In this interview, David Achata speaks Dr. Elizabeth Santiago. She is a writer, educator, and mentor who teaches at Emerson College in Boston, where she works in literature, storytelling, and narrative. Through her work with The Untold Narratives, she has mentored emerging writers from diverse backgrounds in finding and telling the stories that matter to them.

In this conversation, Elizabeth and David explore the Call to Adventure—the moment when something within us begins to stir and asks us to pay attention. They talk about identity, finding our voice, the stories we inherit and the stories we haven't yet told, and what can happen when we begin listening to the inner call toward a more authentic life.

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David sits down with filmmaker and storyteller Stanley Pomianowski, founder of Duck Duck Productions, to explore why the Hero’s Journey continues to show up across cultures, religions, films, and human lives. Stanley helps us see how stories mirror our own journeys of transformation—and what happens when we recognize that we may be living inside a story much larger than the one we thought we were writing.

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David Achata introduces the new season of How People Grow, Becoming Who We Are—an exploration of the inner journey of transformation. Drawing from the Hero’s Journey, Brian McLaren’s stages of faith, Richard Rohr’s Order → Disorder → Reorder, and the wisdom of writers like James Hollis and Rumi, David reflects on desire, identity, dreams, spiritual development, and the courage to listen to the life unfolding within us. This season asks a simple but profound question: What does it mean to become who we truly are?

To support this podcast go to: https://substack.com/@davidachata 

Original music by Azad Murtazin

In the late 1960's John Perkins nearly died in the Amazonian Jungle of Ecuador... he was saved by a traditional healer and it changed his life.

In this season finale episode, he shares his story.

John Perkins is a New York Times bestselling author, international speaker, and activist best known for his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and other works including The World Is As You Dream It. A former chief economist at a major international consulting firm, he advised the World Bank, United Nations, Fortune 500 corporations, and governments around the world. His writing explores global economics, indigenous wisdom, and pathways toward a more just and sustainable world. Perkins is also a co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance, which partners with Indigenous communities to protect the Amazon rainforest and advance global sustainability. 

Learn more at https://johnperkins.org/ and https://pachamama.org/ 

To support this podcast go to: https://substack.com/@davidachata

Can plants really teach? 

In this episode, I speak with Francisca Santibáñez, founder of Plant Spirit Talk, about plant communication, and her own journey of healing that reshaped her life. Raised across Brazil, Chile, and California, Francisca traces her lineage to the Tupi-Guarani people of Brazil and has spent over a decade studying plant healing with Shipibo teachers in the Peruvian Amazon, alongside other Indigenous lineages in Peru.

We talk about how a severe health crisis became a turning point that led her into herbal medicine, plant initiations, and a lifelong path of remembrance and healing. Our conversation explores what it means to listen to nature, heal ancestral wounds, and how that listening can restore connection, meaning, and wholeness.

Learn more about her work at https://www.plantspirittalk.com/

To support this podcast go to: https://substack.com/@davidachata

Leonard “Casey” Church is a member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, of the Bear and Crane clans. A former U.S. Marine, he is a cultural practitioner, teacher, and spiritual leader who has spent decades working to restore Indigenous ceremony and identity in contemporary life. He’s the author of Holy Smoke and Native American Rites of Passage, and his work explores how ritual and ceremony can foster healing, belonging, and personal transformation.

Today Casey joins us to talk about the role ceremony plays in the lives of indigenous peoples and how "everyone has a native heart."

To learn more go to https://www.gmwgathering.org/

To support this podcast go to: https://substack.com/@davidachata

Lorena Saavedra Smith is the author of the new book, Awaken Your Roots: Reclaim Your Ancestry and Sovereignty by Heeding the Jaguar’s Call.

Lorena is a Pacha Philosopher, an Eco-Psychologist, and a wellness consultant dedicated to helping individuals heal through ancestral wisdom, nature reconnection, and holistic well-being.

She joins the podcast to share Pacha Philosophy, and her ideas on how to reweave the broken soul. 

Connect with Lorena at https://www.lorenasaavedrasmith.com/

To support this podcast go to: https://substack.com/@davidachata

Dr. Damian Costello joins us this week to talk about the role of visions in an indigenous worldview.

Dr. Costello is an international expert on Nicholas Black Elk, a Lakota Medicine Man. Damian is the author of Black Elk: Colonialism and Lakota Catholicism, and holds a Ph.D. in theological studies from the University of Dayton. Currently serving as the Director of Postgraduate Studies at NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, he focuses on the intersection of Indigenous traditions and Catholic theology, with a career deeply informed by extensive ethnographic research.

To support this podcast go to: https://substack.com/@davidachata

Dr. Stephanie Goins joins the show this week to share what it means to "Walk in a Good Way." Stephanie calls on her research working with former child soldiers in Sierra Leone, her work as a Psychologist, teacher, and more. 

Dr. Goins helps us understand in this episode some of the factors that come into play when we think about living in a good relationship with ourselves, the earth, and others. 

If you'd like to connect with Stephanie, you may email her here or connect with her on Linkedin.

To support this podcast go to: https://substack.com/@davidachata

To learn more about David's leadership & personal work: https://jointherootedway.com/

Original music by Makete and Mad Hellelujah: https://makete.bandcamp.com/

Rev. Dr. Randy Woodley, Ph. D., is a farmer, activist/scholar, distinguished speaker, teacher and wisdom keeper who addresses a variety of issues concerning American culture, faith/spirituality, justice, race/diversity, regenerative farming, our relationship with the earth and Indigenous realities.

In this episode, he talks with us about the Harmony Way of native cultures and how that impacts how we live with one another and even govern.

Learn more about Randy Woodley at https://www.randywoodley.com/ and check out his books here. Randy writes regularly at Substack.com

To hear David's first interview with Randy from September of 2024, click here.

To support this podcast go to: https://substack.com/@davidachata

To learn more about David's leadership & personal work: https://jointherootedway.com/

Original music by Makete and Mad Hellelujah: https://makete.bandcamp.com/