Hello, and welcome to the inaugural episode of The Inner Work of Changemaking, where we will share practical guidance to help you cultivate the capacity for impact and joy.

I’m your host Katherine Golub, joining you from the unceded, ancestral lands of the Pocumtuck people, colonially known as Greenfield, Massachusetts.

This podcast is a love letter to those of us who have heard the call of these times, those of us who believe that a better world is possible and who are committed to doing our part to bring forth that world.

Because our work is hard, and we deserve support.

If you ever feel exhausted, frustrated, saddened, bewildered, alone, despairing, self-doubting, overwhelmed, or stressed out in your work to make a difference in this world, here’s what I want you to know:

You are not alone.

And burnout is not inevitable. It is possible to feel well-nourished and fully alive as we show up for change in this world.

For over a decade, I’ve coached community leaders, organizers, activists, and healers, and during this time, I’ve discovered practices that consistently help my clients heal and prevent burnout, cultivate clarity and confidence, discover that imperfect yet supportive balance, and show up more effectively. In this podcast, I will share these practices with you.

My experience coaching changemakers, doing my own work on myself, and training extensively in the fields of human development, somatics, systems change, community organizing, interpersonal communication, group facilitation, and anti-oppression have convinced me that we do not have to choose between caring for others or caring for ourselves.

We can live in the both/and.

We can feel good about our contribution and having fun doing the work and living our lives, we can show up for justice and work in life-affirming ways.

And I’ve discovered that the very same practices that can help us increase our impact can also increase our joy.

Now, you may be wondering, who is Katherine—a white, cisgender, middle class, currently able-bodied, and multi-privileged woman—to be speaking to the intersections of personal and collective transformation?

It is a really important question. And to answer it, I want to give you just a snippet of what brought me to doing this work:

I first became politicized as a high school senior in 1999 while learning about US foreign policy in Central America. During college I interned on Taos Pueblo reservation in New Mexico, started the Progressive Students’ Alliance at my college, mobilized students against the war in Iraq, tuition hikes, and sweatshop procurement, directed the field canvass for the CT Citizen Action Group, and did human rights accompaniment and solidarity research in Mexico, Central America, and Colombia. During those years, I learned a lot at a young age about my tendencies toward martyrdom and how not to show up as a white person.

After college, I worked for several years in strategic affairs for UNITE HERE!, the hotel workers’ union, lobbying for fair organizing rights for hotel works in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Arizona.

And while I fell quickly in love with activism, in those early years, it took a toll. I based my self-worth on my success, neglected my relationships, and exhausted myself. As a result, I struggled with chronic anxiety, migraines, and other health problems.

Then, a series of wake-up calls compelled me to change paths. First, on a work trip to DC, I got the call that my partner, who was undocumented at the time, had been racially profiled and stopped by a cop while driving to work. He was detained and then deported back to Mexico six months later. I moved from CT to Arizona to be closer to him, and few months after that, I discovered—at a routine doctor’s visit—that I was pregnant. Finally, in January 2008, I left my union job and moved to Oaxaca, Mexico, seven months pregnant.

At that point, I knew that if I was going to be the mother I wanted to...