Today's guest, Nadine Nakagawa, is an organizer, activist, intersectional feminist, clinical counsellor, and two-term city councillor. She is also the co-founder of Feminist Campaign School which supports underrepresented people to run for and serve in elected office. 

She is also the author of the forthcoming book, Moss, Molt, Murmur: Contemplations on Nature, which is now available for pre-order from 9th House Press!

This conversation was recorded over a month ago and we were still using the working title "Imaginal Discs” which is just one of the essays in this little book. I say “essays” but they’re not exactly essays…

It’s more like a compendium of prose poems and musings and tiny immersions into an animist, anticapitalist, interconnected world.

I know this book will resonate with activists, environmentalists, animists, artists, pagans, witches, people developing secure attachment with beings and places of the natural world.

It’s a book for people trying to find their way out of the narrative of a white capitalist imperialist patriarchal overculture. It's for those people who are looking for the exit by entering into communion with the natural world.

And when you hear more from Nadine today, I think you’ll see why I think this book is going to be wildly popular when it arrives.

Kai Cheng Thom

Indiginews 

Eden Fineday

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Pre-order now from 9th House Press

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If you are in the mood for something soothing, cozy, wholesome, and heartwarming, this episode is for you. If you are craving some quality time with a neighbour who is grounded, good-hearted, generous and genuinely curious about you and life in general, this episode is for you. If you need a comfort listen, this episode is for you.

And so is the forthcoming book from today's guest, Marianne Unger. It's called Farm Stand News: Letters to the Neighbourhood and it's now available for pre-order from 9th House Press.

It's about neighbourliness, baking, gardening, place-making, heritage and chosen family, the gift economy, and turning capitalist colonialism on its head. And most of all, it's about love. 

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Author and educator, Dionne Grayman, is here to talk about her new book, I Call My Own Name: A Homegirl's Lyrical Memoir of Hip-Hop, Healing and Holy Reclamation, now available for pre-order from 9th House Press.

In the 90s, Dionne was just 20 years old and pregnant when her baby's father was killed. Now in her late 50s, Dionne recounts how literature and music helped her "remember herself whole", her whole story, with herself as lead not victim. With a warm voice and engaging storytelling, Dionne rewrites the story of how this MC saved her own life.

Pre-order I Call My Own Name from 9th House Press

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More show notes with links to all of Dionne's references and recommendations coming soon!

Check out my next book, How to Connect: Build Strong Bonds and Deep Connections Through Contact Nutrition (No Matter Your Attachment Style, Trauma History or Neurotype)

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New from 9th House Press: Mother Juniper: On Matrescence in Ecological Crisis, by Dr.Allison Claire Davis, explores the question, What happens when a woman becomes a mother during the slow emergency of our ecological crisis?

Matrescence is the developmental transition of becoming a mother. As far as I can find, this is the first book published that focuses exclusively on the unique psychoemotional context of becoming a mother during a time of climate crisis.

Dr.Allie Davis is a licensed therapist, researcher, and educator who coined the term maternal ecodistress. Her research has been published in journals including Ecopsychology and Women’s Studies International. She teaches at Pacifica Graduate Institute, directs the Maternal Ecopsychology Certification program for clinicians and birth workers, serves as associate editor of the Journal of Mental Health and Climate Change, and runs Southwest Perinatal Counseling.

Mother Juniper draws on the juniper’s pioneer species carework as a developmental framework for supporting the Earth-Self that awakens in matrescence. It is grounded in attachment theory, ecopsychology, feminist theory, and depth psychology. Throughout the book, Davis holds Indigenous ways of knowing and Western science in relationship with each other and reframes maternal climate distress as accurate perception rather than pathology.

Along with a developmental framework for moving through ecological crisis, Mother Juniper supports mothers in building earned secure attachment to Earth during matrescence. Therapists and healthcare providers will also benefit from this book as gives clinicians language and a framework for the ecological dimensions of maternal care.

⭐️ Buy the book ⭐️

www.dralliedavis.com

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Production Note: I used a different recording program than usual without any background noise dampening so you get to hear the summer storm roll in, my dog, Mona slurping her water, my movements as I shuffle stuff on my desk, etc...So real! So high def! So intimate and interactive!

Trigger warning: Discussion of suicide and brief non-specific mention of sexual assault, overall a bummer of a topic but I try to keep it moving along fairly briskly and we end with some good coping strategies.

On this Mother's Day weekend, I'm taking about some grief-y things and some tough things, and also some funny things and some empowering things. If you're a caregiver nearing the end of her rope, this is for you.

International Crisis Lines

Quality of Life assessment: https://qli.uic.edu/

Professional Quality of Life Scale (Satisfaction, Compassion Fatigue and Burnout):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vzvQVeakBzCbjDCaypwZ_dEy3vHs-37K/view?usp=drive_link

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide

https://sprc.org/about-suicide/suicide-data/suicide-by-age/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3603326/

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2791161

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7292717/

https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/12/e032391.full.pdf

https://www.explorationpub.com/Journals/ei/Article/1003241

Come join us in The Numinous Network for some structured social interaction! 💖

If you've enjoyed discourse on this podcast about the barefoot doctor approach, community-based and culturally-relevant mental health initiatives and disability justice, as well as how ritual and spiritual literacy helps weave a stronger collective nervous system and increases community resilience, then you need to read, The Friendship Bench: How Fourteen Grandmothers Inspired a Mental Health Revolution by Dr.Dixon Chibanda. It's about a mental health program of elder lay counsellors who deliver mental health support from neighbourhood park benches, and the 100+ published studies on its efficacy in measurable improvements to individual patients and public health.

Dr.Dixon Chibanda is a medical doctor, a practicing psychiatrist, and a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, as well as at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also director of the African Mental Health Research Initiative (AMARI). His TEDx Talk about the Friendship Bench has over 3 million views.

The Friendship Bench: How Fourteen Grandmothers Inspired a Mental Health Revolution

FriendshipBench.org

Friendship Bench-in-a-Box

Dixon's socials and podcasts:

Instagram  and FriendshipBenchGlobal Insta

Join us in The Numinous Network for some Contact Nutrition

Sign up for my newsletter to be notified when pre-orders open for my next book:

How to Connect: Build Deep Connection and a Strong Bond Through Contact Nutrition (No Matter Your Attachment Style, Trauma History or Neurotype)

Welcome to your new hyper-niche comfort listen, my fellow disability nerds! Today we're talking with Dr.Diana Driscoll about some of the recent research on Inflammatory POTS as well as promising treatment approaches.

Diana Driscoll, OD, FAAO received her Doctoral degree from The University of Houston College of Optometry, and began studying idiopathic autonomic dysfunction through the ophthalmic examination of affected patients. Her work extended into abnormal vagus nerve function, vascular endothelial health, Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, premature aging associated with connective tissue disorders, the genetic traits involved, and the reversal of symptoms.

She has published in The Journal of Vitreoretinal Disease and is a peer-reviewer for retinal journals. Dr. Driscoll created Genetic Disease Investigators, LLC in 2011 to conduct formalized research into autonomic dysfunction. She is the recipient of five patents to date concerning the enigmatic autonomic nervous system, including dry eye disease. She is the author of The Driscoll Theory which details the role of intracranial pressure, vagus nerve function, fibrosis, and inflammation in connective tissue patients.

She also authored Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome: Your Eyes and EDS – the only publication of its type.

Dr. Driscoll is the Clinical Director of POTS Care, the owner of TJ Nutrition, and the President of Genetic Disease Investigators.

Download The Driscoll Theory: The cause of POTS in Ehlers-Danlos and how to reverse the process

Learn more about Dr.Driscoll's work and offerings:

POTS Rebels on Patreon

TNP169 Sophie Macklin on Antifascist Folklore and Ungovernable Bodies

TNP205 Sophie Strand on Mary Magdalene + Miracles

TNP210 RCCX Theory of Complex Illness with Carmen Spagnola

TNP215 Before Capitalism (from a European Perspective) with Sophie Macklin

TNP267 The Body Is A Doorway with Sophie Strand

Past episodes featuring Numinous Network Members and Guides 

TNP281 23 Dates with My Dead Dad with Corey MacAuliffe

TNP275 Community Building in Tough Times with Asteria Elzea

TNP270 Art, Pleasure and Consent with Marisa Sullivan

Join us in The Numinous Network – sliding scale rate of $50, $75 or $100USD per month for 50+ live support calls, including weekly sessions for people with Sensitive Systems & Long Covid. (Camera optional, verbal or non-verbal participation a-ok, no forced sharing, slow pacing and lots of mini breaks to reset, calibrate, and discern the goldilocks amount of connection in the moment).

Apologies: I misspoke in the intro of this episode and said "RCCX syndrome" which is definitely not a thing. I meant "RCCX Theory", the work of Dr.Sharon Meglathery.

I also misspoke in the outro when I said that pre-orders are now available for my book, How to Connect: Build Deep Connection and a Strong Bond Through Contact Nutrition (No Matter Your Attachment Style, Trauma History or Neurotype) – PRE-ORDERS AVAILABLE MAY 8! ✨🎉 Sign up for my newsletter for the announcement.

Today's episode is part announcement, part request, part inspiration, part call to action – I am delighted to welcome back my dear friend and colleague, Taraneh Erfan, in her role as Editorial Director for 9th House Press. Regular listeners will know that 9th House Press is a worker co-op founded by Taraneh, myself and our colleague, Thérèse Cator, and we are bringing you world-building books that are a response to the question, How then shall we live?

We are pleased to officially announce that our debut catalogue arrives May 8, 2026!

Check out our Submissions Guidelines and send us your work to be considered for our upcoming anthology of poetry and prose by marginalized and equity-denied voices, Assembly: Liberatory Words for Revolutionary Times. On November 4, 2026, our title will be on bookstore shelves, and your words could be within the pages!

Sign up for accessible group or self-paced expressive arts therapy with Taraneh Erfan

Become an Associate Member of the 9th House Press Co-operative today! (Entries prior to 5pm PDT on May 8, 2026 are automatically entered into our Grand Prize Giveaway.)

Get a 30-day free trial of The Numinous Network when you use promo code FREE30 before April 30, 2026.

This episode features my very special guest, Alysha! She's here for her third work-stay on the land, learning construction skills as she helps my husband, Ruben, build a livestock shelter. Alysha has been an amazing role model, resource, and thought partner for me around anti-colonialism for many years. Once again, here she is, advancing my thinking on the subject. Come grapple with us as we do morning horse chores!

I know that as a settler, a Land Acknowledgement isn't for me.

But as a participant in settler colonialism, it is about me in a way, and it does impact me in that it has been and continues to be  a learning process.

I hope that, since we're trying to have a holistic, nuanced, and relational conversation about Land Acknowledgements, I'll be forgiven for saying that I believe having moral ambition benefits me by improving my self-esteem. I believe awkward participation in Land Acknowledgements is a pro-social, collective good. I don't know where the line is where it becomes a social detriment or we become numb to it, but I do think it's important they are not limited to formal events and those involving people who move the levers of institutional power.

Again, this process is of course not about making me, as a settler, feel good. But it does make me feel a lot of things, and not all of them are bad.

UPDATE March 26, 2026: I'm realizing that I threw the term "moral ambition" out into the conversation via the show notes and it perhaps lands a bit out of context. I recently published an episode, TNP306 {Dispatch: Jan 30, 2026} Lively v. Baldoni, Avoidant Attachment, and Moral Ambition, in which I grapple with, and ultimately endorse, that concept. The way I feel it relates here is that I tend to think that the way we ought to address numbness to the challenges of life is not to curtail our engagement but rather to become more present, to cultivate more maturity (emotional and spiritual), to stick with the trouble. There is a risk we fail, but it's honourable to try.

And that's all I have to say about that. 😅

Note: Dispatch episodes are recorded en plein air with all the sounds of farm life and chores in the background, (and sometimes a bit loud). We tried not to sniff too much but it was a cold morning, and sometimes the feed bags make a big tarp-in-the-wind-like sound. If auditory sensitivity is part of your experience, please consult your podcast player for a transcript.

With gratitude for the article of note to the writer, Khelsilem: Understanding the Purpose, Limits, and Misuse of "Land Acknowledgements": On symbolism, substance, and the limits of public ritual

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Today we're engaging in thought partnership around critical impact ratings, mental models, and reaching for what we care about in a risk assessment framework.

Note: Dispatch episodes are recorded while I'm doing farm chores and feeding the horses in the morning, so people with sensory processing challenges may not find this episode enjoyable. In this episode I'm walking in snow, jostling with metal chains, shovelling hay and packing it into hay nets. Lots of background sounds! Apologies for that – please check your podcast player for a transcript.

Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen (book/autobiography)

So Sinopoulous Lloyd of Queer Nature who appeared on ep.93 of this podcast

The actual 2025 StatsCan data on small business longevity in Canada: About 22% of small businesses fail in the first year and only 50% survive after five years.

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why, by Laurence Gonzales (Major trigger warning: Story after story of smart, well-equipped, experienced people dying by accident because this is actually really common)

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