"this culture, the one that holds the power around us is a culture that asks us to suffer. It invites, it expects, it valorizes suffering. It wants us- It tells us that if we aren't hurting, it doesn't count... But let's bring it back to pleasure. What is the tiny thing that still feels good?"

Is it the gift of giving, and the gift of receiving?

Here is a link to Leela's recent guest sermon at Northwest Inland Universalist Unitarian Community, which ze refers to in this episode:

https://youtu.be/CR0hjR_ZoP8

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/the-gift-of-a-plant

Recorded 26 February 2023.

"I can't say as I'd know how to tell what it was like to take the road more traveled, because I'm not sure I've ever done that."

Join Leela on a walk to sit near a pond and get close to the pond's inhabitants. And do some deep thinking in the quiet, of course.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/the-pond-and-the-gate

Recorded 16 March, 2023.

How often do we stray from ourselves in pursuit of survival for ourselves? How often do we do things that put bread on our tables, but don't truly feed us?

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/straying-from-my-roots

Recorded 1 March 2023.

"These shoes mean to me the ability to inhabit my gender. I, and this complex gender of mine, belong everywhere."

Gender, complex gender, representation, bookstores, long distance love and... whole-cut Venetian loafers? Naturally, when Leela Sinha is doing the talking, it all fits together.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/venetian-loafers

Recorded 1 March 2023

Making space to find- and create- beauty where we need and want it.

Cole Arthur Riley:

https://colearthurriley.com/

The type of camera that Leela carried in zir pocket in Chicago:

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Canon_MC

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/something-beautiful

"We don't have reentry protocols, because we're not supposed to need them. We're supposed to magically stay in touch just the right amount."

They didn't not text you back because they hate you. More likely, for the last three days they've been trying to put just the right words together at just the right time in order to be there for you. And failing. Because life happens and life is a rolling distraction. Trust that they love you. It's not about you. Especially if you are both intensives. Especially then.

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/not-about-you

Recorded 22 February 2023.

"what I've noticed about myself is that, I have to realize that I would like it to be different ,that something bugs me. I have to realize that something doesn't feel okay before I can change it."

Transcript and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/know-it-is-not-okay

Recorded 15 February 2023.

"You have choices. But the first, most important choice, is to celebrate who and how you are as an intensive."

As an intensive, your phasic work cycles- and perhaps your phasic chaos cycles- are part of who you are. They are as much a part of you as the color of your eye. Learning to embrace those phases, instead of fighting them, will help us to accomplish our goals. We need the flow, the go-go-go, the connecting six seemingly unrelated things before breakfast. And we need the deep rest so that we can redecorate our minds and start the process again.

Transcription and notes:

https://dev.intensivesinstitute.com/captivate-podcast/in-praise-of-phases

Recorded 13 February 2023.

A poem, a meditation, a gift:

"In the face of the world being difficult, and impossible, and glorious, over and over again. In the face of destruction and creation. In the face of hope, and ongoing, grinding impossibility, I want to give you this: that the sun also rises. That the sun always rises. That the sun even now is coming up over the horizon."

"Turning Toward the Morning" by Gordon Bok:

https://youtu.be/WbKkXR0lHVE

Transcript and notes:

https://powerpivot2.captivate.fm/episode/only-our-way-to-find

Recorded 9 February 2023.

Sometimes, almost always, some version of the solution has already been invented. What are we going to remember that we already know how to do?

Let us take a mental tour of the Terrible Patents Division as we try to imagine- or re-imagine- sustainable solutions to some basic and persistent problems.

Transcript and notes:

https://powerpivot2.captivate.fm/episode/innovation-invention-and-survival

Recorded 9 February 2023.