The Manic Episodes

Content warning for this episode: Eating disorders 

Mary and Wyatt welcome the fabulous author, podcast host, and world-creator Kathryn Nicolai (she/her) to the podcast. Kathryn is the creator of the enormously successful podcast Nothing Much Happens and the author of the book of the same name. She is an architect of coziness, writing soothing stories that both ease the reader into peaceful sleep and teach the principals of mindfulness so that waking hours likewise become sweet and serene. She leans on her years of experience as a yoga and meditation teacher to seamlessly blend storytelling with brain training techniques that build better sleep habits over time. She lives in Michigan with her wife and three dogs.

Mary and Wyatt chat with Kathryn about creating and maintaining boundaries, both in personal and professional life. They talk about the genesis of Nothing Much Happens (it involves a beagle), and the incredible world she has created through the stories on the podcast. She also talks about how those beautiful stories became a beautifully illustrated book. Also on the agenda: Mary and Wyatt pitch their own sleep stories; Kathryn tells us how to make butter tomato sauce; and poems by Ada Limón, Rumi, and Rachel Wiley. 

http://instagram.com/nothingmuchhappenspodcast

https://www.facebook.com/nothingmuchhappenspodcast/

https://twitter.com/nothingmuchpod

Mary and Wyatt are pleased as punch to welcome Hollis Wong-Wear to the pod. Hollis is a songwriter, musician, speaker, creative generator and community advocate who lives between Los Angeles and Seattle, WA. She is the lead vocalist of the electronic R&B trio The Flavr Blue, and was GRAMMY nominated in 2014 for her work with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

With her roots in spoken word and slam poetry through the nationally recognized Youth Speaks program, Hollis is passionate about how creativity and the arts fuel and shape civic discourse, and is dedicated to lending her voice and capacities towards vibrant social equity.

Hollis has been a featured speaker at conferences, conventions and speaker series, sharing her spoken word poetry and her candid insights on her experience as an independent artist and engaged activist. She has performed and spoken for an array of organizations and schools, including KEXP, WrapWomen, Planned Parenthood, University of Washington, YWCA and the Eileen Fisher Leadership Institute, has been featured by TedX University of Washington, and has presented alongside such luminaries as Gloria Steinem, Kimberle Crenshaw and Eve Ensler. 

A native of the Bay Area, Hollis graduated from Seattle University with a major in History and a minor in Global African Studies, and was recently named the recipient of Seattle University’s 2016 Outstanding Recent Alumna Award.  

She is a Google Next Gen Policy Leader, an alumna of the Hedgebrook Residency, and is a Humanity in Action Senior Fellow. Hollis has been appointed to several boards and commissions, including the Board of Directors for 4Culture and the Seattle Center Advisory Commission, and is currently an ad-hoc commissioner on the Seattle Music Commission.

Hollis, Mary, and Wyatt talk about friendship, community, and solidarity in a brief but lovely chat. They discuss the perils of social media, especially for artists in the early stages of their careers, and how Hollis and Mary inspired each other when they first met. Also on the agenda: Mary’s stinky ballet flats, furniture made of silly putty, and poems by Jon Pineda and Aya Alzubaidy. 

Mary and Wyatt are joined by their friend K Richardson (he/they), an out and proud Black Queer currently living in Brooklyn, NY. He is an organizer, facilitator, and racial equity educator. Before beginning his current role as Communications Manager at the Transgender Law Center, K served as the Manager of Hotline and Prevention Programs at the NYC Anti Violence Project, where his focus was supporting queer and trans survivors of sexual violence and has over 15 years of rape crisis work. They firmly believe in equity of all with a priority on trans + gender nonconforming, non-binary people and believes that there should be a place for Black Trans women of all experiences to live freely and thrive. For more than a decade, K. has been dedicated to creating spaces that foster community while centering Black Queer theory in his work. K drinks iced coffee all year, is frequently seen solving a Rubik’s cube, reading a book and has a Simpsons reference for *almost* everything. 

Mary, Wyatt, and K spend a few glorious hours talking about capitalism, collective bargaining, and how to engage in activism and advocacy while maintaining your mental health – or, as Mary calls it, your “brain paradise.” Y’all are going to adore K; we’re so lucky to have him on the pod. Also on the agenda: Mary tells a story about falling asleep during a concert as a performer, and K tells a story about falling asleep during a concert as an attendee; we’re all obsessed with snacks; and poems by Nikki Giovanni, Lucille Clifton, Adrienne Maree Brown, and Natasha Rao. 

Mary and Wyatt are in Seattle with some bomb-ass new recording equipment, and they’re thrilled to welcome Kim Selling to the pod. Kim sent us two bios, and they’re too good not to include here:

Kim’s pre-Covid professional bio: Kim Selling is a fat queer femme based in Seattle. They can be found generating content for The Stranger, yelling about poetry for various small presses, and selling piles of glittering vintage for bunny ranch madams, crop top goths, and lizard queens alike on the World Wide Web.

Kim’s Actual Present-Day Bio:

My depression is at an all-time high, my personality is the new person I'm dating, and I have nothing to look forward to because I'm still functionally unemployed!!!!

Kim, Wyatt, and Mary talk about fashion, representation, and mental health for queer people in fat bodies. They also play a spirited game of “What sign is this thing?”, which was a delight because of Kim’s dazzling array of astrological knowledge. Also on the agenda: the cruel, hidden world inside snow globes; climbing the ladder at Abercrombie; and poems by Tracy K. Smith, Frank O’Hara, Patricia No, and Ellen Bryant Voigt. 

Kim’s Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/croptopgoth/

https://www.instagram.com/heavydutyvintage/

Mary and Wyatt are elated to welcome Trenda Loftin to the pod. Black, queer, and polyamorous,  Trenda (she/her) has a variety of callings that she strives to weave together to work towards liberation.  She is a social justice consultant, theatre artist, worker-owner of The Compost Cooperative, and a REALTOR with Coldwell Banker Community Realtors. She works with theatre companies, organizations, and individuals to address inequity within programs, practices, and policies, utilizing interactive and creative approaches. Trenda recognizes the importance of cultivating home spaces- not just as spaces for living, but for dreaming and co-creating. Her real estate and consulting work is anchored in seeking ways to increase access for those who face barriers to securing safe and enriching home and work spaces. 

Mary, Wyatt, and Trenda talk about the power of theater and imagination, how to weave together activism and community while also creating sustainable income for ourselves and our families, and the power of seeing yourself represented in stories.

Also on the agenda: MARY AND WYATT GOT ENGAGED!; Wyatt, Mary, and Trenda collaborate on unsolicited jingles; and poems by Maya Angelou, Kevin Young, and Diane Seuss. 

IG: @trenda.realtor.ma; @compostcooperative; @willowprec

FB: @trenda.realtor.ma; @tlo.happenings; @reallivetheatre

Website: www.trendaloftin.com; www.willowprec.com

Mary and Wyatt kick off Season 2 with the usual spate of unhinged silliness and their very first guest, Andrew Sackett-Taylor. Andrew (he/him) works as a psychiatric nurse practitioner at Transhealth Northampton, a healthcare start-up serving trans, non-binary, and gender diverse individuals across the lifespan. Trans- and queer-identified himself, it’s been his longstanding dream to serve the community through compassionate, affirming, patient-centered care. 

Mary, Wyatt, and Andrew chat about everything from the pure pleasure of dancing in one’s driveway to the importance of connection and authenticity in trans-affirming psychiatric care. Andrew talks about his own experiences with neurodivergency and psychiatric care and how he offers radical kindness, vulnerability, and compassion in his own practice. 

Also on the agenda: A spirited round of Gay or Straight, an important conversation about Halloween candy, and poems by Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver, and Charlie Petch. 

Learn more about Transhealth Northampton here:

www.transhealth.org

@ourtranshealth on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

Mary & Wyatt peel off their sweaty running clothes and settle in for a very real & vulnerable conversation about failure and some big changes coming to the pod. Mary talks about the trajectory of success in her career and her uncertainty about the future. Wyatt talks about the relationship between their bipolar disorder and their fear of failure. Also on the agenda: Mary is risking it all to be a TikTok star and is related to Marie Antoinette (probably), Wyatt wants to start the College School Bus, and poems by Forrest Gander and Rosemary Tonks. 

Donate or volunteer for Houston Haitians United to help Haitian migrants transitioning to life in Texas: https://linktr.ee/hhunited1804

Mary and Wyatt settle in for a discussion about the recent Supreme Court ruling about the ultra-restrictive Texas abortion ban. What’s the path forward for reproductive justice? How do we help advocate for people left in the wake of this decision? Also on the agenda: The Whisper Game, the calming properties of lofi beats, and poems by Joshua Bennett and Nicole Sealey. 

Mary and Wyatt perch on the couch for a chat about greed. From Adam Smith to Ayn Rand to Gordon Gecko, they talk about the evolution of attitudes toward wealth, accumulation, and capital. Also on the agenda: Mary’s Netflix show comes out today, herons eating gigantic fish, more Harvest Town lore, and poems by Roger Reeves and Nicole Sealey.