Tell Me Something New

What if talking about death could actually help us live more fully?

In this episode of Tell Me Something New, I’m joined by Monica Remis, a death doula and end-of-life planning specialist who is passionate about changing the way we think about death, dying, and the transitions that shape our lives.

Monica shares the story behind Mere Mortals, her vision for a social club and mutual aid society centered around mortality awareness. Inspired in part by the community and culture of New Orleans, she imagines a space where people can come together to talk openly about death, learn about end-of-life planning, connect with others, and support their communities when unexpected loss occurs.

But this conversation goes far beyond planning for the end of life. We explore how our relationship with death shapes the way we live, love, create, and connect with one another. Monica shares how losing her husband to cancer in 2017 transformed her understanding of mortality and inspired her to become the kind of support person she wishes she and her loved ones had during that difficult time.

We talk about why death remains such a taboo subject in our culture, what it means to honor death as a sacred part of life, and how facing the unknown can help us move through fear and toward greater connection. We also explore the idea of the “little deaths” we experience throughout our lives: the endings, losses, and transformations that invite us to let go of old versions of ourselves and learn how to navigate change.

One of the ideas that stayed with me is that the very thing we fear can sometimes be what helps us appreciate life more deeply. What if acknowledging our mortality doesn't diminish our lives but instead gives us a greater appreciation for the little moments, the people we love, and the opportunities we have to be present?

Join Monica and me as we follow these threads of curiosity, exploring mortality awareness, creativity, grief, intuition, community, and the courage it takes to face uncomfortable truths. We also reflect on how making space for conversations about death can help us find meaning in our experiences and discover new ways of living.

Because maybe learning how to face death is, in some ways, learning how to live.

Listen to this episode of Tell Me Something New and join us in exploring a new way of thinking about life, death, and everything in between.

If you or someone you know would like to connect with the delightful Monica Remis, you can contact her through her website Holding the Light:

https://www.holdingthelight.net/about-1

Be a STRANGER (Someone That Really Allows New Good Energy). Email me at [email protected] if you would like to be featured on my podcast next.

Follow NewThoughtDoc:
Stay connected and join the conversation across platforms:

• Instagram: @newthoughtdoc
• TikTok: @NewThoughtDoc
• Facebook: NewThoughtDoc
• YouTube: NewThoughtDoc
• X (Twitter): @NewThoughtDoc
• Substack: NewThoughtDoc
• Bluesky: @newthoughtdoc.bsky.social

Disclaimer: AI helped write the show notes above.

What happens when we stop looking at a movie as just a movie—and start asking what it might be trying to teach us?  

In this episode of Tell Me Something New, I’m joined by Brent Scarpo, a former Hollywood casting director, intuitive life coach, and author of The Red Balloon: Transforming Your Life, One Inspirational Story at a Time. Brent has worked on films including The Shawshank Redemption, Air Force One, That Thing You Do, and wait for it... my favorite childhood movie... Matilda.  

We talk about the power of movies, synchronicities, intuition, and the unexpected messages that can show up when we create space to actually listen. Brent shares his 10 life lessons from The Shawshank Redemption—including the importance of taking action, holding onto hope, staying connected to our strengths, cultivating meaningful relationships, taking risks, and practicing random acts of kindness.  

We also talk about the “walls” we build around ourselves. Walls can protect us from things we don't want coming in, but they can also keep us from getting out. What happens when the very thing we built for protection starts limiting our freedom? Brent shares the deeply personal story behind his book, The Red Balloon, including a promise he made with his mother about finding a sign after death. His story becomes a conversation about grief, intuition, love, and the possibility that meaning can find us in unexpected ways.  

And somewhere along the way, a new thought emerged for me: a termite-ridden wall can look exactly like a perfectly intact wall from a distance. Maybe some of the structures we build inside ourselves look healthy from the outside, while something underneath is quietly changing them. And maybe sometimes the “termites” aren't necessarily something to get rid of—they might actually be helping us break through a wall we no longer need.  

This conversation is about being open to those moments of connection, curiosity, and possibility—and asking ourselves: What messages might we be missing because we haven't created the space to hear them? Listen to the full conversation with Brent Scarpo on Tell Me Something New.  

• CONTACT BRENT SCARPO FOR COACHING SERVICE, INTUITIVE READINGS, AND SO MUCH MORE: https://www.theredballoonbook.com/
• BUY BRENT'S BOOK AT https://www.theredballoonbook.com/ AND USE DISCOUNT CODE REDBALLOON (NO SPACES) FOR A $5 DISCOUNT.

Be a STRANGER (Someone That Really Allows New Good Energy). Email me at [email protected] if you would like to be featured on my podcast next.

Follow NewThoughtDoc:
Stay connected and join the conversation across platforms:

• Instagram: @newthoughtdoc
• TikTok: @NewThoughtDoc
• Facebook: NewThoughtDoc
• YouTube: NewThoughtDoc
• X (Twitter): @NewThoughtDoc
• Substack: NewThoughtDoc
• Bluesky: @newthoughtdoc.bsky.social

Disclaimer: I used AI to write the shownotes above.

In this reflective episode, New Thought Doc looks back at conversations with guests from Episodes 7–12 and explores the patterns emerging across their very different experiences.

From a burn survivor finding balance, to a psychiatrist embracing uncertainty, an astronomer using emotion to fuel discovery, and a karate black belt transforming setbacks into purpose, one idea keeps resurfacing: creativity may be less about creating something entirely new and more about seeing existing things in a new relationship.

Shelby explores the role of questioning assumptions, reframing, accepting uncertainty, and making meaning from difficult experiences. She also leaves listeners with questions of their own: What distractions are keeping your creativity from emerging? What can you do with what has happened to you? And what patterns might exist underneath your patterns?

A reflection on creativity, growth, uncertainty, and the unique ways each of us is called to create.

Want to be on the podcast? Email me at [email protected]. :)

^Disclaimer, captioned with AI

Hi All,

In this episode I am integrating episodes 1-6. There is so much we are learning and co-creating together. Thank you for listening and thank you so much for my guests who make this creative podcast possible.

Dr. Shelby, aka NewThoughtDoc

Join Black Belt Kris Schellhammer and I as we explore her journey to becoming an internationally competing martial artist. After overcoming setbacks, multiple surgeries, and the challenges of pursuing karate with a disability, Kris earned her black belt and went on to compete in tournaments across the country—and now internationally— all while balancing the responsibilities of motherhood. Her journey is a clear example that the occasional failure doesn't mean you're finished; sometimes, it is simply another step toward becoming who you are capable of being.

Together, we explore the discipline, courage, and determination it takes to keep pursuing a dream when the path isn't easy. Kris shares how being told she couldn't earn her black belt only strengthened her determination, how a young girl she met at a tournament inspired her to become a teacher, and how she is now creating Kristi's Library Kicks, a program designed to bring affordable karate and self-defense training to children through her local library. At the heart of her story is the belief that winning isn't always about a medal or a belt—it's about showing up, continuing to learn, and refusing to give up on yourself.

When I asked Kris what she wanted to share, she told me "Focus on what it is that you want, set a realistic goal. Start setting goals that you feel you can accomplish. Don't try to go right to the top in one leap. Every time you accomplish a goal you develop the strength and wisdom to accomplish the next one."

Thank you, Kris, for sharing your incredible journey with us! I can't wait to see where your journey—and Kristi's Library Kicks—takes you next!

Support Kris's GoFundMe here so she can kick her way to France this October: https://gofund.me/18642cde3

Follow Kris on social media:

Instagram: @road_to_france_2026

Be a STRANGER (Someone That Really Allows New Good Energy). Email me at [email protected] if you would like to be featured on my podcast next.

Follow NewThoughtDoc:
Stay connected and join the conversation across platforms:

• Instagram: @newthoughtdoc
• TikTok: @NewThoughtDoc
• Facebook: NewThoughtDoc
• YouTube: NewThoughtDoc
• X (Twitter): @NewThoughtDoc
• Substack: NewThoughtDoc
• Bluesky: @newthoughtdoc.bsky.social

The shownotes above was partially written by AI... hey, it's been a long day!

On today's part 2 episode of Tell Me Something New, join psychiatrist Shelby and astronomer David Hoyt to explore a powerful idea: that emotional anchoring drives new learning and discovery. Drawing from his work at the Daniels Observatory, David shares how storytelling transforms science and new knowledge in general into something deeply personal, helping people forge emotional connections as they learn new information.

When I asked David what new idea he wanted to share, he said:

"Emotion is not what we feel after we discover something. It is what makes discovery possible in the first place. Without an emotional anchor, knowledge stays inert. With one, it ignites.

This philosophy did not arrive fully formed. It emerged from a specific and ordinary moment that turned out to be anything but.

I was taking a little boy on evening walks and pointing out stars. He was learning the names but something was missing. The information was landing but not sticking in any way that mattered. Then I stopped naming and started telling stories. I gave the stars personalities. Histories. Lives.

He started calling them his friends.

From that point he remembered everything. Not just the bright familiar stars but the obscure ones. The ones most adults cannot name. He remembered them because they were no longer data points. They were characters in a world he felt connected to. The emotion created the memory. The story created the emotion. That was the beginning. I did not know yet what I had stumbled onto.

I volunteer at an observatory. One evening I was explaining the life story of a prominent star to a woman who had come with the general public. I told her about AE Auriga, a star ejected from its home system, an orphan traveling through a hydrogen cloud, causing it to glow as if in anger at its abandonment. I told her about Hodierna, who catalogued deep sky objects for decades and received almost none of the credit, and how Messier got the glory. I told her about William Herschel, a band director with an obsessive amateur passion who outperformed the professional astronomers of his era, driven entirely by something that had nothing to do with career or recognition.

A few minutes later I found her standing outside alone looking up at the sky.

She was softly crying.

I walked over and asked her why.

She said she felt like she was looking at a completely different sky.

She had seen that sky her entire life. The stars were not new. The telescope was not new. The facts were not new. What was new was that someone had given those stars a story. A life. A human dimension she had never been offered before. And in that moment the universe stopped being something out there and became something she was in relationship with.

That face was the proof. Not just that my approach to teaching worked. But that something much larger was true about human beings and how we actually grow."

Thank you so much, David, for sharing your unique approach to learning with us!

Be a STRANGER (Someone That Really Allows New Good Energy Reciprocity). Email me at [email protected] if you would like your new idea to be featured on my podcast.

Follow NewThoughtDoc:

Stay connected and join the conversation across platforms:

Instagram: @newthoughtdoc

TikTok: @NewThoughtDoc

Facebook: NewThoughtDoc

YouTube: NewThoughtDoc

X (Twitter): @NewThoughtDoc

Substack: NewThoughtDoc

Bluesky: @newthoughtdoc.bsky.social

This post was written with the help of AI in the essence of time ~ <3

On today's episode of Tell Me Something New, join psychiatrist Shelby and astronomer David Hoyt to explore a powerful idea: that emotional anchoring drives new learning and discovery. Drawing from his work at the Daniels Observatory, David shares how storytelling transforms science and new knowledge in general into something deeply personal, helping people forge emotional connections as they learn new information.

When I asked David what new idea he wanted to share, he said:

"Emotion is not what we feel after we discover something. It is what makes discovery possible in the first place. Without an emotional anchor, knowledge stays inert. With one, it ignites.

This philosophy did not arrive fully formed. It emerged from a specific and ordinary moment that turned out to be anything but.

I was taking a little boy on evening walks and pointing out stars. He was learning the names but something was missing. The information was landing but not sticking in any way that mattered. Then I stopped naming and started telling stories. I gave the stars personalities. Histories. Lives.

He started calling them his friends.

From that point he remembered everything. Not just the bright familiar stars but the obscure ones. The ones most adults cannot name. He remembered them because they were no longer data points. They were characters in a world he felt connected to. The emotion created the memory. The story created the emotion. That was the beginning. I did not know yet what I had stumbled onto.

I volunteer at an observatory. One evening I was explaining the life story of a prominent star to a woman who had come with the general public. I told her about AE Auriga, a star ejected from its home system, an orphan traveling through a hydrogen cloud, causing it to glow as if in anger at its abandonment. I told her about Hodierna, who catalogued deep sky objects for decades and received almost none of the credit, and how Messier got the glory. I told her about William Herschel, a band director with an obsessive amateur passion who outperformed the professional astronomers of his era, driven entirely by something that had nothing to do with career or recognition.

A few minutes later I found her standing outside alone looking up at the sky.

She was softly crying.

I walked over and asked her why.

She said she felt like she was looking at a completely different sky.

She had seen that sky her entire life. The stars were not new. The telescope was not new. The facts were not new. What was new was that someone had given those stars a story. A life. A human dimension she had never been offered before. And in that moment the universe stopped being something out there and became something she was in relationship with.

That face was the proof. Not just that my approach to teaching worked. But that something much larger was true about human beings and how we actually grow."

Thank you so much, David, for sharing your unique approach to learning with us!

Be a STRANGER (Someone That Really Allows New Good Energy). Email me at [email protected] if you would like your new idea to be featured on my podcast.

Follow NewThoughtDoc:

Stay connected and join the conversation across platforms:

Instagram: @newthoughtdoc

TikTok: @NewThoughtDoc

Facebook: NewThoughtDoc

YouTube: NewThoughtDoc

X (Twitter): @NewThoughtDoc

Substack: NewThoughtDoc

Bluesky: @newthoughtdoc.bsky.social

This post was written with the help of AI in the essence of time ~ <3

Join forensic psychiatrist Dr. Sumit Anand and I as we explore one of psychiatry's oldest—and perhaps most neglected—questions: What role do the soul, spirit, and human experience play in mental health?

Drawing on over 30 years of experience in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, and psychotherapy, Dr. Anand shares his ideas on the limits of a purely biological approach to mental illness. While modern neuroscience continues to deepen our understanding of receptors, brain networks, and medications, he argues that something essential can be lost when we overlook meaning, connection, creativity, spirituality, and the subjective experience of being human.

When I asked Dr. Anand what new idea he wanted to share, he told me ". I think it's for exploring the true mind/ body/spirit connection, because as practicing psychiatrist and now nearly 60-year-old man, I am realizing that there are distinct but separate aspects each human being's life entails, including their mind, their body and their 'spirit'. With our current zeitgeist being so computer/AI oriented I think the popular culture and media discussion is 'losing the plot' with respect to the real meaning of human life. Then, there's the enigma of how all these three entities interface with one another. This begs revisiting the meaning of the word 'psychiatry,' which originally comes from I think Aristotle, who talked about "care and healing of the soul."

Thank you, Dr. Anand, for the wonderful conversation!

Follow Dr. Anand on Youtube: @sumitanandmd

Be a STRANGER (Someone That Really Allows New Good Energy). Email me at [email protected] if you would like to be featured on my podcast.

Follow NewThoughtDoc:

Stay connected and join the conversation across platforms:

Instagram: @newthoughtdoc

TikTok: @NewThoughtDoc

Facebook: NewThoughtDoc

YouTube: NewThoughtDoc

X (Twitter): @NewThoughtDoc

Substack: NewThoughtDoc

Bluesky: @newthoughtdoc.bsky.social

This post was written with the help of AI in the essence of time ~ <3

Join Tae Bo®️ Master Instructor Lucija and I as she breaks down her new thought: exercise doesn't change you, it reveals you. Inspired by her experience teaching Billy Blanks’s Tae Bo®️, Lucija believes that exercise is not about changing who we are, but revealing who we already are. Together, we explore how joyful movement reconnects us with our inner child. The confidence, freedom, and authenticity we naturally possessed as children never left us: we just have to remember to reconnect with our inner child more than we currently connect with any societal pressure or self-judgment we carry into adulthood.

When I asked Lucija what idea she wanted to share, she said "We don’t exercise/move to become someone else, we move to recognize who we already are. Most people workout because they want to fix something (lose weight, get stronger, look better…). But what if that’s backwards? What if the movement isn’t about changing yourself, but about revealing yourself?"

Thank you Lucija, for sharing you thoughts with me, and for helping certify me as a Tae Bo®️ instructor!

Follow Lucija:

• Instagram: @taebocelje

Be a STRANGER (Someone That Really Allows New Good Energy). Email me at [email protected] if you would like to be featured on my podcast next.

Follow NewThoughtDoc:
Stay connected and join the conversation across platforms:

• Instagram: @newthoughtdoc
• TikTok: @NewThoughtDoc
• Facebook: NewThoughtDoc
• YouTube: NewThoughtDoc
• X (Twitter): @NewThoughtDoc
• Substack: NewThoughtDoc
• Bluesky: @newthoughtdoc.bsky.social

This podcast was edited by AI, but this post is 100% human written.

Join Youtuber Zaid Garcia and I as he breaks down his new thought - the power of balance - and how this perspective had helped him overcome adversity and find peace and humor as a burn survivor.

When I asked Zaid what idea he wanted to share, he told me "My name is Zaid and I am a burned survivor. The Burns has left scars on me, but they also left flames of love joy and peace. My life is not fair, but still good. The Burns have taught me to be strong, how to be brave, how to not be blinded by other people’s ignorance and how to be respectful to others."

Thank you Zaid, for sharing you thoughts with me. May you have success as a singer and aspiring comedian!

Follow Zaid:

• Youtube: Zaid's world official
• 2nd Youtube channel: Jamailene Official

Be a STRANGER (Someone That Really Allows New Good Energy). Email me at [email protected] if you would like to be featured on my podcast next.

Follow NewThoughtDoc:
Stay connected and join the conversation across platforms:

• Instagram: @newthoughtdoc
• TikTok: @NewThoughtDoc
• Facebook: NewThoughtDoc
• YouTube: NewThoughtDoc
• X (Twitter): @NewThoughtDoc
• Substack: NewThoughtDoc
• Bluesky: @newthoughtdoc.bsky.social

This podcast was edited by AI, but this post is 100% human written.