Live Questions

In episode 4 of Live Questions, I am thrilled to be finally expanding the geographic range of this little project beyond Winston-Salem! There are still many more friends here in North Carolina that I’m looking forward to hosting, but all of my friends from before my 40s live in other places, so I’m excited to begin connecting with them too.

Up first is my friend Deb Norris! Deb lives in Austin, Texas, and she embodies the old-school Austin vibe that represents the best of the kind of people who used to make up the population of that city (before all the truly problematic tech bros arrived.) She’s a fellow alum of the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, and much of her career has been working in the health & human services branch of the state government. Originally from Michigan, she’s been living the quintessential life of an Austinite for a long minute: playing music in multiple bands, advocating for progressive issues, and being an active curator & collaborator in the local arts scene.

Exploring the origin story of our friendship, I realized that Deb and I were friends for a long time before we ever had a picture together. We first connected at a small gathering in 2015 for spiritual seekers hosted by our friend Amira, and then later were housemates during Covid - which meant lots of social distancing and masks before we ever got to just hang out casually together.

📷: Early “proof of friendship” includes a pic from our monthly Sacred Circle gathering in 2015, and Deb holding her pup Theo as we hung out in Deb’s backyard to avoid sharing indoor space in 2020. Finally on June 26, 2021, we got this first shot of us as we’re out for icecream at a new East Austin neighborhood spot called Zeds.

I truly couldn’t have asked for a better friend to brave the pandemic with, and I’ve been grateful for Deb’s encouragement and love in the years since I left her garage apartment to move with Phillip to NC.

Towards the end of the conversation, Deb shares some about an idea she has for a public art possibility, so I’d love to see some of my fellow friends collab with her on that. She sent me a pic of the poster that inspired the idea, and how cool is this?!

🐾❤️: Lastly, this episode is dedicated to Deb’s sweet dog, Theo, who recently crossed the rainbow bridge after having lived out a long & vibrant life of many adventures. He was the cutest little buddy to have as a fellow housemate during the pandemic — it always made me smile when he would come bouncing into my side of the yard to say hello, and anytime I got to dogsit for him, his company was a total treat. We miss you bud!

🎶 - Both the intro and outro music are original pieces by Phillip Nevels with Deborah Ellis Suárez. Thankful for their creative addition to this experiment!

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Live Questions is back after a bit of delay, due to some scheduling issues and a happily zany schedule of hosting people and events at our home all July. My guest for episode 3 is Tiffany Thompson, and I absolutely loved this conversation with her. Our friendship blossomed in Winston-Salem initially through me becoming a fan of her music (specifically her live shows around town), and then it grew as we discovered our shared interest in the intersection of creativity, theology, nature, and community.

📍We recorded this episode at the CMPND, a creative hub for artists in downtown Winston-Salem.

As I mention in the intro, I totally forgot to ask Tiffany the usual question of what is something that she would be open to collaborating on with other friends, but thankfully she’s got a couple places to go to learn more about her work:

Tiffany’s music: www.tiffanythompsonmusic.com

Tiffany’s work in Artistic Leadership: www.artisticleadership.com

📷: The first picture I could find of Tiffany was at my home in August 2023 when she was sharing a song that she’d brought to one of our neighborhood storytelling salons. The first one I found of us together was a month later when she served as a guest-host for Songbird Supper Club, and I had the honor of being a nontypical “songbird”who shared about the artistic practices of gathering-community and farming.

As you’ll hear when listening to her, Tiffany has an incredible range of talent and I feel like she is constantly discovering new sources of beauty, truth, & inspiration that she then curates into the glorious mosaic that is her life. Some things highlighted in our chat:

* Tiffany’s latest Substack post — an excellent read:

* She currently serves as the Executive Editor at Comment magazine, which recently hosted an incredible public theology festival called The Understory, which I wrote about HERE.

Some scenes from other favorite memories with Tiff:

I hope you enjoy this episode and I would love to hear from you if you’re interested in chatting more about any of what Tiffany and I talk about.

And per Tiffany’s request, here is what our animal medicine cards currently look like. They are from THIS book and deck of cards by David Carson, Jamie Sams, and illustrator Angela Wernecke. I quickly added the elephant to a blank card and need to create a more finalized version of it!

🎶 - Both the intro and outro music are original pieces by Phillip Nevels with Deborah Ellis Suárez. Thankful for their creative addition to this experiment!

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

For my second episode of Live Questions, I was joined by one of the first new friends that I made when I moved to Winston-Salem, NC — Veronica Kavass. She, her husband and her baby daughter moved from New Orleans to Camel City within weeks of Phillip and I moving from Austin, and it was friendship-at-first-sight.

📷 Our first photo together was taken June 26th, 2022 — just a week after we met, at a beautiful “sunflower extravaganza" at a local farm. Everyone in this (admittedly blurry) picture had just moved to Winston-Salem to begin a fresh chapter in life, and we were all feeling the excitement and curiosity of the New Beginning.

We quickly became close friends, bonding over things like our mutual stints in criminal defense investigation, love of jazz and foodie restaurants, and the way we’d both completed two master degrees but were still figuring out our chosen vocations in this modern labor market.

Four years, and many a’ Mardi Gras party & crawfish boil later, we are still friends and still exploring our Live Questions together. I hope you enjoy getting to know V in this conversation, and if you want to connect with her, just let me know!

🎶 - Both the intro and newly added (!) outro music are original pieces by Phillip Nevels with Deborah Ellis Suárez. Thankful for their creative addition to this experiment!

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The dream is coming true as I launch my first full-length episode of Live Questions! I’m so grateful that my best friend, Phillip Nevels, was game for joining me in recording my first conversation for this friendcast. We met in the fall of 2010 when we were both graduate students at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. We’ve been through so much together since those days, and it’s kinda crazy to me still that the guy I flirted with during flag football practice is now my life partner that I live with in a cabin in the woods in North Carolina. Life is wild, y’all.

(Photos visible on Substack)

📷 : First photos that I could find of Phillip and me:

— October 2010. This first one is our grad school flag football team “Baines of Pain”. The following season we would beat the Law School for the championship, which was definitely a highlight of my masters program, if not of life itself. Our motto: “We don’t practice law, we make it.”

— December 2010. First picture I could find of Phillip and I as an item. Hilarious explanation in the interview from Phillip about this one.

And a few of Phillip lately. I absolutely love the questions he is living and the good work he is doing in the world. If you want to connect with Phillip about something he speaks about during our conversation - email or text me!

📍If you want to learn more about Phillip’s professional work as a co-founder of Our Cause, check out their site here: Our Cause. I’m genuinely so proud of the work he and his team does to change the world for the better.

🎶 The intro music is an original composition by Phillip Nevels featuring Deborah Ellis Suárez. It was a total last-minute delight to have them create this lovely piece just for this friendcast!

🎶 More music: Phillip mentions our friend Tiffany Thompson in our conversation about the Understory, a public theology festival we attended last month at the National Cathedral. A gifted musician and creative leader, Tiffany’s work is incredible and we encourage you to check it out HERE.

Notes here...