Soul + Practice: Raw Conversations & Real Practices with Kathy Escobar & Phyllis Mathis

It's always fun to play with Jamison Escobar, Kathy's son. This year he is now working as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator for the LA Lakers and so this episode is about learning, listening, considering the challenges DEI is facing in our country at the moment and what we can keep doing personally and organizationally to cultivate greater equity and health despite so much resistance.

It's November 2023 and we're less than a year away from a big ugly election. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves but we also want to make sure we recognize what's ahead and what's at stake and what we're feeling and others are wrestling with, too. Really, it's just a raw conversation because that's what we do here.

Phyllis's book--The Subversive Soul: the gentle revolution everyone needs--is now available on her website for download and we're so grateful it's in the world. In this episode she shares more about it and some of the major moments. It's got so much goodness in it. Her website is phyllismathis.com if you want to download your free copy.

This episode is our real transition into the new season. Last week's conversation was so important to not wait on and so in this one we do what we normally do after a break--ramble about real life, what's alive for us, what we're learning, what we're practicing in this season as we regroup.

Content Warning: Gaza War through the lens of Palestinian refugees. It's been a while and a lot of horrifying things are happening in the world. We decided to skip over the intro episode and just start this new season off with what's heavy on so many souls right now--what's happening in Gaza and the reality of over 10,000 Palestinian civilians killed so far. This conversation with our longtime friend Suzann Mollner, Founder Executive Director of Beirut and Beyond, which is dedicated to relief, reconciliation, and relationship with Palestinian refugees, is an honest and raw one related to advocacy on behalf of Palestinians. We are grateful for her voice, long-haul love and advocacy, and bridge building and challenge to us all. Follow Suzann's work at beirutandbeyond.org.

Wow, this is our 60th Episode of Soul + Practice and our Season 4 Wrap, where we look back at the last 5 months of conversations and reflect on all the goodness before a 3 month summer break. Thanks for listening!

What an incredible conversation we had with our friend Melvin Bray, author of the 12 Steps Truth and Transformation Model, and co-catalyzer of a group of black men walking through the steps together and healing from patriarchy in community. We could have talked all day but this episode is packed with so many gems of wisdom and deep challenges for all of us. More on Melvin's work at collabyrinthconsulting.com. He also refers to the work of relationaluprising.org--check them out!

Years ago at an event centered on Toxic Masculinity at The Refuge, someone asked the speaker, Regan Byrd, a Denver-based organizational consultant and black community organizer, what work related to toxic masculinity looked like for females. Her response was we needed to untangle from "internalized misogyny." It runs deep and damages us all.

We loved this conversation with Rabbi Charna Rosenholtz, who facilitates trainings and workshops for The Right Use of Power Institute in addition to her extensive work as a teacher specializing in psycho-spiritual growth and applications of spiritual wisdom. All roads lead to power and we need to respect it, honor it, process it, engage with it together if we want to embody healthier power personally and systemically. She is the founder of the Shulchan community (shulchan.net, shulchan translates to "table"), an online community dedicated to learning and fellowship. More on the Right Use of Power institute rightuseofpower.org.

Yeah, we need more honest conversations about death. We've had a few since Soul Practice started and were honored to hang out with our friend Becky Davis with The Natural Funeral for a conversation about death planning and healthier ways to navigate something that's going to happen to all of us. More at thenaturalfuneral.com.