So I was Told

American Christianity insists it’s being attacked, but the real crisis is credibility.

In this episode I walk directly through Scripture, history, and real-world data to confront an uncomfortable truth: when you take Jesus at his word, the values of modern right-wing ideology repeatedly clash with the teachings at the heart of Christianity.

This isn’t a partisan rant, but a sober rebuke. From wealth and poverty to borders, punishment, nationalism, and power, this episode asks a simple question Christians often avoid.

Are we actually following Jesus or using him to protect comfort, control, and hierarchy?

In this episode, Eva and Kirbs talk about what daily life looks like right now living in Minneapolis as ICE activity escalates across the city. We cover the constant police presence, helicopters, sirens, bomb threats, and the fear shaping how people move through public space.

They share firsthand observations about ICE deployments, mutual aid networks, Signal alerts, door-to-door enforcement, and how residents are protecting one another. We also unpack how misinformation spreads online, how official narratives contradict what people are experiencing on the ground, and why “this could never happen here” is a dangerous assumption.

We discuss the emotional toll of living under surveillance, how identity and visibility increase risk, and why community response matters more than ever. The episode closes with information about the January 23 nationwide general strike and what collective refusal looks like in practice.

What do you do when nothing feels like it’s blooming, but nothing feels broken either?

In this solo episode, I talk about tending to the garden of the heart. About seasons of stillness and growth that happens beneath the surface. About the pressure to always be producing, healing, or becoming something visibly better and what it looks like to resist that.

What happens when people demand that mental health stay “apolitical”?

In this solo episode I unpack a real time online confrontation that exposed something deeper than an argument: the belief that comfort should come before truth, and that some people don’t deserve a political voice at all.

Drawing on psychology, lived experience, and what it means to live in a city where violence isn’t abstract, I explore why trauma can’t be separated from systems, why silence is often mistaken for neutrality, and why mental health spaces become dangerous when they don't name harm.

This isn’t about being divisive.

It’s about being honest.

Because healing that refuses to speak when people are being erased isn’t healing. It’s compliance.

Sources:

World Health Organization (WHO).
Mental Health: Strengthening Our Response.

American Psychological Association (APA).
Stress in America (annual reports).

Bonanno, G. A., et al. (2011).“Weighing the Costs of Avoidant Coping.”
Psychological Science.

Jost, J. T., & Banaji, M. R. (1994).“The Role of Stereotyping in System-Justification and the Production of False Consciousness.”
Psychological Review.

Bennett, W. L., & Segerberg, A. (2012).
The Logic of Connective Action.
Information, Communication & Society.

Fricker, M. (2007).
Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing.Oxford University Press.

Decety, J., & Cowell, J. M. (2014).“The Complex Relation Between Morality and Empathy.”
Frontiers in Psychology.

What starts as a nostalgic question about middle school lunches, video games, and the usual playground chaos slowly opens into something much bigger: how social rules form, why they stick, and which ones actually keep us safe.

In this episode, we bounce from Mario Kart cartridges and yearbook cameras to roughhousing bans, gender expectations, school hierarchies, and the strange way unspoken rules shape who we become. Along the way we unpack why some social constructs exist for protection, why others are purely aesthetic, and why trying to “escape the system” often just recreates a new one with different rules.

We talk about masculinity, femininity, power, safety, community, off-grid fantasies, generational fear, teachers who saw potential before we did, and how adults believing in us can alter an entire life trajectory. There’s humor, memory gaps, philosophical detours, and a lot of “wait, why is it like that?”

On this episode we revisit a time when housing was temporary, holidays were shared, and everyone was just trying to figure things out. Through mismatched memories and a lot of hindsight we talk about what it’s like to stay in someone else’s home, how stress messes with time and perception, and why certain moments stick with you more than others

In this episode, we unpack what happens when the holidays stop feeling magical and start feeling heavy. From childhood nostalgia and midnight Christmases to fractured families, financial pressure, and the erosion of tradition. This conversation traces how adulthood, trauma, and economic reality reshape the way we experience the holidays. We talk about why tradition isn’t neutral, how obligation replaces joy, and why so many of us feel indifferent rather than festive. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we got to share our perspectives!

In this episode we revisit our most played early release and use it as a jumping off point to talk honestly about what being “chronically online” actually means now. We trace the evolution from channel surfing and MySpace to modern algorithms designed to capture attention, shape behavior, and profit from addiction. We reflect on growth, validation, and why this podcast exists in the first place: not to perform, monetize, or chase approval, but to document thought, perspective, and change in real time. The internet can be powerful. Without balance and real-life community, it can also hollow you out.

We hit play on our past selves and perform a full audio autopsy of year one. We revisit an unreleased pilot and a long early episode filled with Domino’s tracker updates, local Chinese takeout with a surprise fly, free food ethics, POS loopholes that hand out free coffee, and our sincere belief that everyone should steal from corporations, not small businesses. Then things escalate into fake meat discourse, plant feelings, cats, dolphins, gooning apes, Black history, privilege, and the way our school books trained us not to feel the weight of it. Thank you for one year!

In this solo episode, I talk about shedding the pressure to deliver a polished year end character arc and why real growth rarely waits for a calendar to give permission. I get into the psychology of “temporal landmarks,” why New Year momentum fails most people, and what it means to choose your own turning points instead of performing them for an audience. This is an invitation to let December be a hinge instead of a finish line and to honor the shifts that never made it into a highlight reel. If you have been feeling behind, scattered, unfinished, or simply human this one is for you.

Sources:

• Milkman, K., et al. (2014). The Fresh Start Effect: Behavioral Science Explains Why “Temporal Landmarks” Motivate Change. Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

• Norcross, J. C., et al. (2002). Auld Lang Syne: Success Predictors, Change Processes, and Self Report Outcomes of New Year Resolvers and Nonresolvers. Journal of Clinical Psychology.

• University of Scranton. (2014). Study on New Year’s Resolutions and goal abandonment rates.