Knitted Heart

Ben speaks with wilderness guide  and acclaimed author of books exploring off-the-grid living, Mark Sundeen. Mark is best known for his books, "The Man Who Quit Money", "The Unsettlers", and "Car Camping".  Before you heat up that microwave burrito, consider a cup of tea from herbs you grew in your garden and listen somewhere that enlivens your sense of wonder. This episode is packed with food for the soul that has nothing to do with microwave burritos and everything to do with making room to commune with beauty. (((   )))

In this episode Ben talks with filmmaker and sacred places activist Toby McLeod. Having produced and directed important films such as In the Light of Reverence and Standing on Sacred Ground, Toby has committed the last 40 years of his life to earning the trust of numerous indigenous communities around the globe, whose intimate relationship with the Land outlives the Colonial purging of their sacred places. Toby’s Sacred Land Film project has documented this assault, made in the name of progress and proselytizing, which has led to irreparable loss for generations of aboriginal peoples native to these homelands, Sacred cultural landscapes inhabited for thousands of years before they were pioneered by white settlers and latecomers seeking fortune at any cost. 

Toby’s openness, humility and dedication to the long and arduous road through the complicated history of these long-established cultures has touched Ben at the core. Ben hopes this conversation will impact you at the depth it has him.

More information on Toby's work at StandingOnSacredGround.org and SacredLand.org
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Ben speaks with Pigment Forager, Heidi Gustafson, of Early Futures.  Hold on to your butts. This conversation knocked Ben off his.  Heidi’s wholehearted devotion to contemplating our past and activating our future through the fully sensory experience of “playing with rocks”, as she says it, has so much to wisdom to teach us, some of it exhilarating, and most of it humbling. The pigment in our rocks and soil whispers living counsel from the hills, from the very ground we walk, excavate, drill, build, and exploit. In this conversation you can hear and feel Heidi’s bleeding heart for us to heed the Wisdom when the rocks of history cry out.  More info on Heidi's work at www.earlyfutures.com 

Ben speaks with Writer, TV Producer, and Black activist, Kim M. Williams. Kim is the author of such books as 40 hours and an Unwritten Rule, about the the double standard Black Women face in Corporate America. Kim’s first book was received so well, Kim adapted it into the three-season smash hit, and very addicting YouTube series, The Unwritten Rules.

With 2020 calling America to seriously re-assess the truest definition of Freedom by catching up on centuries of Black history that never made it into most school curricula in America, Kim’s books and episodic series prove to be excellent resources unto that end.

Kim worked in Los Angeles in TV production & Post production for 20 years, until she  made a big move to Johannesburg, South Africa, where she writes and produces content for her company, InkSpot Entertainment, and teaches film making workshops to girls throughout the African Continent. Kim's humorous and engaging demeanor make this conversation an easy and fascinating listen. For more information on Kim, visit her website at inkspotentertainment.com.  More info on at knittedheart.com/BLM (((   )))

In a deeply inspiring conversation about the Mythic Feminine, Ben speaks with renowned Writer, Psychologist, and Mythologist, Dr. Sharon Blackie. For Myth lovers and storytellers of all mediums out there, Sharon so beautifully re-casts our widely-accepted 20th century model, known as Joseph Campbell's “Hero’s Journey”, into a more expansive and all-gender empowering paradigm that charts endless trajectories unto new horizons for us all to adventure beyond. Dr. Blackie's two most recent books, If Women Rose Rooted, and Foxfire, Wolfskin (and other Stories of Shapeshifting Women), explore her favorite topic amidst her studies: The Mythic Feminine. More information about Dr. Sharon Blackie can be found at www.sharonblackie.net  (((    )))

Ben speaks with his friend, J. Todd Anderson. The Coen Brothers’ storyboard artist since 1987's Raising Arizona, J. Todd’s proven track-record of making the film on paper first is what attracted Ben to adopt J. Todd's tricks-of-the-trade into his own film making. After Ben spent two weeks in 2016 with J. Todd at his tranquil home in Dayton, Ohio planning  one of his upcoming films, Ben will never go back to another method of prep for any production.

To all you filmmakers out there. J. Todd brings with him endless boots-on-the-ground experience making movies.  Consider this conversation a rich opportunity to extract a train car full of film-making gold. So with that, sit back, relax and absorb the wise and humor-laden words of the one and only, J. Todd Anderson. 

Ben speaks with taboo-trashing and nerve-jangling comedian and activist, Margaret Cho. Margaret is a social justice warrior, known to stand up for the LGBTQ and People-of-Color communities. Growing up under, what she calls, “dignified Korean etiquette” Margaret’s sees her comedy as activism that forces social discomfort, with an ultimate hope to look our ugliness in the mirror and deal with it. Margaret speaks of the horrors of this unprecedented convergence of the Covid19 Pandemic, the murder of George Floyd by police brutality, and the historic rise of the Black Lives Matter revolution that was long overdue. We even get a chance to laugh our asses of about Donald Tr%#p's awkward Bible photo and the the wincing-horror of egg-shaped penises. 

In this episode, Ben speaks with poet and Trappist monk, Brother Paul Quenon. At age 79, Brother Paul has lived a life of contemplative silence at Our Lady of Gethsemani monastery, deep in the knobbed woods of rural Kentucky, since he was 18 years of age.  And if that isn’t cool enough, Paul lived with and studied under social agitator and author, Thomas Merton, for 10 years.

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This is Part 2 of Ben's discussion with Hollywood icon director and actor Joan Darling. In this episode Joan dives deep into the heavier issues of our existence, including fear of death. If you have yet to hear Part 1 of Ben's discussion with Joan in Episode 03, it will be well worth listening to this intimate conversation in sequential order. 

This is PART 1 of 2 episodes where Ben speaks with Emmy award-winning writer and director, Joan Darling (M*A*S*H*, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The President's Analyst). Joan is a world-respected trailblazer; a female director in the blooming era of 1960s film and television. Joan speaks of how invigorated she is by the truthful art-form of not knowing what's around the corner, and losing her breath with shock and delight. Be overtaken with surprise and wonder at how Joan connects the universal dots between acting and just being who we all are at our very core: hilarious.