I'm honoured to welcome Carly Button to my podcast today. Carly, with great tenderness and courage, shares her own story. 

She speaks about moving to Canada as a child, her upbringing and worldview she was taught to believe, having to hide her nationality and identity. She then moves on to talk through her faith deconstruction, spiritual journey, embracing her native heritage and coming out.

I'll let the story speak from itself. But I'm certain it will deeply move you, challenge, discomfort and inspire you. It was an honour to bear witness to Carly sharing her story.

Today writer and activist Jo Luehmann joins me to explore how indoctrination to oppressive systems can impact our behaviours and lead to different forms abuse, prejudice & racist behaviour.

We discuss the roots of capitalism, going back to its colonial roots and links to archaic institutions in the UK and Europe, such the royal family. Jo shares how we can become so indoctrinated into these systems we often can't see how we're causing harm.

Then they cover how to unlearn these systems and be teachable in healthy ways so we can actually help tear down these systems, heal ourselves and love others well.

This week, my friend April Kling Meyer joins me to discuss and explore how we can reclaim our authentic creativity from the control of capitalism and toxic systems. 

We share our experiences of this and how we found creative freedom, and how to get more in tune with our intuition and authentic voice. April also shares about the power of journalling our dreams, and how this helps us connect with our deeper, truer selves, our spirituality and what we're here for.

Today I'm honoured to be joined by my friend Ali, who tells us their story.

They share about exploring and discovering their true gender identity and how this journey intertwined with faith deconstruction, discovering witchery, and being autistic.

It's a powerful and inspiring story. Ali has such courage and this a story we all need to hear.

(Oh, and we both love Taylor Swift and Ali makes Taylor Swift memes so this obviously that came up...)

I'm honoured today to be joined by author, activist and musician Andre Henry. In this episode we talk about his new book, "All The White Friends I Couldn't Keep". 

Andre talks about the power dynamics of systemic racism and it's origins, in particularly discussing the oppressive systems of the British empire, which was built on the breaking of black bodies. He also challenges the cultural assumptions we make which are often impacted by racial cultural conditioning, and the type of change we need, and how it can be achieved. 

This episode is discomforting in an absolutely necessary sense, and a must listen. 

*Please note, we had some technical issues with the recording so my track runs over Andre's on occasion - this is a tech issue which I couldn't resolve but I hope the spirit of the conversation comes through.

Today I'm joined by Mandy Capehart, a trauma-aware licenced grief coach, who shares her own experiences of grief, the lessons she learned and how we can have a healthy relationship with our grief. 

Mandy shares different practices she's found for helping her process grief and how she helps others to do the same. She makes the point we are different, all manifest our grief in unique ways, so the ways we process it will always be unique for each of us - and all of them belong.

Mandy also discusses how griefing ties in with the experience of faith deconstruction and our unique spiritual journeys - and how she experienced this herself.

My dear friends Tina Olsen and Trace Bell return to the podcast today, and Trace asks both myself and Tina to share our stories of grief and loss. We then explore this in the context of a fresh understanding of human consciousness, of our bodies living in our consciousness, and consciousness continuing after physical death.

Both Tina and myself have some transcendent experiences to share with the consciousness of family members who have passed. We share little incidents from their lives and what seem random stories from our lives and from experiences with movies we've seen since which suggest there is more going on with our consciousness than just our bodies. We also talk about the science which could suggest this might be true.

Trace adds his own perspective as someone exploring and learning about consciousness, and getting to know the consciousness of someone who has passed.

This is a fascinating conversation which opens up a lot of questions and possibilities..I'd encourage you as you listen to open yourself up to new ideas and questions yourself.

Amanda Held Opelt returns to the show this week, to discuss her new book 'A Hole in the World', and talk about her journey discovering and exploring rituals of grief. 

Using some examples, Amanda demonstrates the importance of having rituals around grief and mourning, and how these can aid the process of healing. We also discuss the damage which has and can be done to us individually and as a society, when we don't practice any kind of grief ritual or practice which engages with our grief and trauma. 

Finally, Amanda gives some examples of rituals she's found helpful and how we can begin to create our own practices which can help the healing process.

*****

Amanda's upcoming book, 'A Hole in the World: Finding Hope in Rituals of Grief and Healing', can be pre-ordered now at all online booksellers.

This week Dr Jill A. Harrington, DSW, LCSW, psychologist and author, joins me to discuss grief as explored in the context of superhero stories.

She is the co-author and editor of the book 'Superhero Grief'. In this episode we explore various experiences and responses to grief as we see in the stories of several superheroes - in particular Batman, a character who suffered violent trauma and grief.

We talk about how she's used various superhero stories in her research into the psychology of grief, attachment, and grief responses, and different ways we grieve. We also explore the concept of duality, and the background of the creation of Superman, and how in many ways this was a response to the grief experiences his creators and collective grieving and trauma Jews experienced in the 1930s and 1940s. 

With the recent release of 'The Batman', about this character who experienced grief, and in a world experiencing a collective grief and trauma, this conversation feels more relevant than ever.

Today my friend MJ Weissenberger joins me to tell her story.

MJ's is a powerful story of learning how to process grief of losing a parent, as well as recovering from abuse and trauma in the process of deconstruction.

We hear this story and then explore how this tied in with her personal and spiritual deconstruction, where this journey has taken her, and how this impacted her life, relationships, and understanding of the world we live in. MJ's story is powerful and I felt great solidarity as I bore witness to it.