Humans Dealing with Humans

Portia felt like her life was pretty normal, until it took a sharp turn in a very difficult direction when she went to prison on a real estate charge. While there she felt, well, imprisoned. But not just physically. She knew there was a way to free herself, mentally and emotionally, but she didn't know how. One day a courageous soul in Portia's treatment program shared a shockingly honest moral inventory with the group and Portia knew it was her way out. Turns out owning your past is the key to unlocking your future, but it's way easier said than done.

Two of our listeners who answered the social media call about hobbies had side hustles involving goats, yet had zero overlap in the services they provided. Who knew there were so many business possibilities with goat services?

Chad the veterinarian returns to the show, this time to tell us about his brand new side hustle, dog breeding. Being a vet already, Chad is uniquely qualified to perform all the procedures of breeding, which makes for some extremely interesting--and sometimes awkward--situations.

This episode contains anatomical terminology and content that may be considered inappropriate for children.

Meet Linda, an art teacher and maker of things. She dreamed of a backyard farm in the suburbs, so she just went ahead and made it happen. Now Linda's life is full of alpacas, sheep, goats, shearing days, and spinning wheels. Learning all the stuff was a big job, but fuzzy hats, sweaters, and snuggles are completely worth it.

In the last of our Women Empowering Women series, we get to talk with Mariah. Mariah is a therapist specializing in women's mental health, and though her life hasn't turned out the way she'd hoped or planned, her understanding of resilience, flexibility, grief, loss and shared experience makes her a VALUABLE asset for women needing professional help in their mental health.

Humans have interests, passions, and pursuits as wide and varied as the humans themselves. Allow us to introduce Dave, a guy who's dedicated some serious time to interviewing people who have had Bigfoot encounters. Dave has spent time collecting stories, comparing similarities, and putting together entertaining and educational shows for his local communities, in order to give people an outlet to share and learn about these elusive creatures that are the stuff of human legend.

If you've never heard that a menstrual cycle can be a powerful tool to maximize a woman's natural capacity for getting stuff done, you're not alone. Most of us are told it's just a gross and inconvenient thing women have to get through, preferably quietly. Meredith Ashton Cohen, a certified holistic doula and menstrual expert, educates us on the better news: There's way more to the period than something to endure, and by supporting a woman's natural capacities in each stage of her cycle, it can be something we all benefit from.

We all have unique gifts and talents. But what happens when our gifts are so unique they're misunderstood by others? How do we give ourselves permission to share our gifts when our gifts are met with suspicion? Welcome to Errin's world. She's had to deal with disbelief, suspicion, and flat-out rejection because of her talents, and, like the rest of us, learning to trust herself doesn't always come easy.

It's women's history month, AND international women's day. We're gonna take a few episodes to feature stories of Women Empowering Women.

This week's guest is Janice. Like all humans, Janice has had trauma in her life she's had to face and overcome. What makes Janice so remarkable, though, is how she's turned that overcoming into a platform to help others, in an industry many would say is anti-feminist. Janice is living proof that lifting and empowering others can be done anywhere, and even if someone else sees it differently, your purpose doesn't need to carry one ounce of controversy.

We all experience friction in our relationships at home, at work, in our social circles. And SOMETIMES that friction shows up in patterns, returning over and over in similar ways. We find ourselves facing the same types of problems with different faces and different scenarios. We may not necessarily want to look too deeply at that, because in all those friction patterns, we're the constant in a sea of variables, so what would that mean about us?

It means we're part of the problem.

One of the biggest issues is the running narrative we're telling ourselves about the world and others in it. If we're playing out a storyline that isn't serving us, our deep-rooted-and-often-unhelpful beliefs about ourselves and others drive our emotions, thought-patterns, and behaviors in every single interaction.

This week we welcome back Dr. Alli Mangrum as she points out the unhelpful stories we sometimes tell ourselves, and gives us ideas and tools to better let go of them. Enjoy!