Kimra Luna: "...when you're with those like-minded people, and you know that you're doing something to make the world better... you get hope automatically. It starts filling you up."

Leela Sinha in compelling conversation with Kimra Luna: abortion doula, professional ranter, and founder of Idaho Abortion Rights mutual aid. They talk about finding hope in community, taking individual action, strategies for regaining reproductive rights in the US, and the journey that led Kimra to take on the work of an abortion doula.

Transcript and Notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/episode/kimra-luna

Links! Find Kimra on Instagram, Twitch, Twitter, and beyond. There are also links to Idaho Abortion Rights and other orgs mentioned in the conversation:

Idaho Abortion Rights: https://idahoabortionrights.com/

Kimra Luna website: https://kimraluna.com/.

Kimra Luna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimraluna/.

Kimra Luna on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kimraluna_

Kimra Luna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KimraLuna

Plan C Pills: https://www.plancpills.org/

Las Libres: https://laslibres.org/

Act Up: https://actupny.com/

Recorded 24 April 2023.

"this is not Pollyanna, like, oh, there's something beautiful in everything. No, no, some things are just terrible. I'm not gonna lie to you about that.... and, I refuse to shape my identity around oppression. I won't do it."

Forming our worlds around meeting our collective and individual needs; so that we can defeat oppression without forming ourselves around the oppression itself. If we form our identities around the oppression, we risk creating a void within ourselves in the very shape of that oppression.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/pleasure-and-pain-woven-fine

Recorded 1 May 2023.

"the lemon balm, the peppermint and the comfrey all have a reputation. They have reputations for being bullies, they have a reputation for being too loud, too big, too much. Oh... maybe that's why I like them. They are a lot. And that power is very, very appealing."

On creating containers that allow us and our ideas to flourish while limiting the harm that we and our ideas might do.

Transcript and notes: https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/expectations

Recorded 1 May 2023.

"What did I do today, to make today a place that I could live in?

Tiny hopes. Tiny, absolutely persistent hopes."

We seldom talk about depression while it is happening, about the strategies for getting through the hard days. Some days are strung together from a million tiny little hopes.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/a-million-tiny-little-hopes/

Recorded 24 April 2023.

"...and so I have come to the point in my life, where I am pacing around my office saying I need thank you notes."

On the challenges of writing thank you notes; and the absolute joy of writing them when you really do have something to be grateful for.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/thank-you-notes

Recorded 6 April 2023.

"the bottom line is I want to give you everything all at once. All at once, all at once, all at once. Which is such an intensive thing to do, right? Like I'm so into all these different things that I'm learning and exploring and getting deeper in. And I want to share them with everybody. The impulse to everything all at once has a reason. And it needs to be celebrated."

Celebrating intensiveness, and intensiveness in community.

For more information on joining the Intensives Institute:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/membership/

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/everything-all-at-once

Recorded 16 April 2023.

"As an intensive, you know, if it's not quite right, it's not right.

And if it's not right, it's not been done.

And if it hasn't been done, well, then we're gonna have to do it, aren't we?"

A look into the thought process behind the construction of the Sinha Intensive-Expansive Framework, and how it can be a tool that helps us meet everyone's needs, all the time.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/why-is-the-sief-like-this

Recorded 29 March 2023.

"I want to say something about the shooting. But I'm out of words. I found just enough, scraped out of the corners with a corner of a spoon, to say: I'm so sorry. We are together. Here are a few threads of hope. But that's all I've got. That's all I've got...."

This episode refers to the school shooting in Nashville on March 27, 2023.

Editor's note: While Leela says that to zir memory only one student was killed in the shooting at Simon's Rock at Bard College in 1992, there were in fact two people killed: one student and one professor, as well as four others wounded.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/different-choices

Recorded 30 March 2023

We have many interests. We work with different types of clients and different organizations. How do we- especially intensives- create the conditions that allow us to get into the right flow, where we can do our best work, smoothly and at the times when it is required? Sometimes a little nudge, and a little context- and perhaps the right feather boa- is all we need.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/a-little-nudge-and-a-little-context

Recorded 20 March 2023.

"If you have a community, or a company, or a team, probably you have mostly people who believe in airing it all,o r they believe in not talking about it. I'm here to advocate for a blend, a mix of the two. I'm here to advocate for the judicious use of gentle silence."

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/the-judicious-use-of-gentle-silence

Recorded 20 March 2023.