The Passing Through Podcast

This week, Diarmuid Lyng is Passing Through!

Many of us simply speak. Others load their language up with love, respect, humor, humility, kindness, poetry and play. Today’s guest, Diarmuid Lyng, is one of the latter.

Diarmuid is an educator, former Wexford hurling captain, facilitator and lover of nature with a great passion for the Irish language. His work is rooted in a deep commitment to helping others find clarity, purpose, and connection in their lives, while ensuring Ireland’s cultural heritage continues to inspire and transform future generations.

In our conversation we of course talk about language, we talk about faith in the unfolding moment, working with the full-spectrum of our human emotions, creating sacred spaces where we can experience profound and magical moments of alignment with nature (and one another), facilitation, and space-holding. Near the end he shares a beautiful story about a recent event he held with singer Peia Luzzi, and ends with the imagery of a benevolent boatman guiding us toward better shores.

I really loved this talk and hope you do, too.

You can find Diarmuid on his website at https://www.diarmuidlyng.ie

If you’re in Ireland you can join him at an upcoming retreat. He’s got one this month, on October 24th–26th in Donegal, and another from December 12th–14th in Wicklow for Fathers & Sons.

You can learn more about those retreats at https://natureofman.ie.

In this episode I’m joined by someone whose life is steeped in sound: musician and creative, Dan Barracuda.

Dan is a passionate musician with a gift for peeling back the layers of music we thought we knew, offering illuminating breakdowns of classic songs that reveal their hidden textures and timeless beauty. He brings both heart and craft to his work, reminding us that music is not just entertainment, but a living language that speaks across generations. Together, we’ll step into that space where music becomes more than melody — where it becomes memory, meaning...magic.

In our conversation we dig into music and share stories, discuss artists and albums and songs that influenced us, the physicality of music, and the incredible wonder of the human ear.

This was a really special episode for me because it's the first time a guest has played music live on the show! I had a ton of fun talking with Dan. His enthusiasm is contagious. His passion is palpable. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

I strongly advise you to find Dan on Instagram @danbarracuda

or on Spotify via the links below:

Danzón Brothers: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7EEnjayS533TLKuHxKayui?si=sQKwt-5ySveUVIXs9ywUhA

Barracuda Sound (Spanish Guitar): https://open.spotify.com/artist/7kh6kV95YvmhBPmbi2tIRU?si=6a4ak_NBQ9KLnLOL-tfCYA

Dan Barracuda: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/17oKlq2onDVkFWgD3VNxNe?si=2811e0e0fa454e84

A very incomplete list of the artists, albums and songs we spoke about in this episode:

Isolated Vocals for Gimme Shelter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilGVDgZj5mA&list=RDilGVDgZj5mA&start_radio=1

Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys

Time by Pink Floyd

Enter Sandman by Metallica

Nothing Else Matters by Metallica

Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin

Goin to California by Led Zeppelin

Ramble On by Led Zeppelin

Genesis

Phil Collins

Martha by Tom Waits

Spanish Boots Of Leather by Bob Dylan

Passenger by Deftones

Rage Against the Machine

The Beatles

Dreams by Fleetwood Mac

Schism by Tool

Lateralus by Tool

Astral Weeks by Van Morrison

In Rainbows by Radiohead

My Bloody Valentine

The Jesus and Mary Chain

This week Doctor Patricia June Vickers is Passing Through!

Dr Vickers is a poet, artist, writer and internationally respected psychotherapist specializing in trauma of first nation peoples. She is a member of the Eagle clan from the village of Gitxaala, British Columbia and carries a traditional name from her village as well as from the Nuxalk Nation in Bella Coola, British Columbia.

Dr Vickers has completed trainings that include Spiritual Direction, Neurofeedback, Deep Brain Reorienting, Somatic Experiencing, and Compassionate Inquiry. She grounds her clinical service on traditional ceremonies and spiritual principles. She teaches spiritual transformation, healing trauma, the meaning of forgiveness, and unearthing layers to find the authentic self.

We talk about trauma, Indian Residential Schools, dominator mentality, the overlap between Christian teachings and native wisdom traditions, the supernatural, and the importance of respect, forgiveness, truth-telling and love as a pathway for keeping a clean heart.

You can find Patricia at her website:

https://www.patriciajunevickers.com

Or at her practice in support of healing:

https://www.ravenscallcanada.com/

You can also see her in the film The Eternal Song by Science And Non Duality

You can find her book here:

Singing to the Darkness

https://atlanticbooks.ca/stories/a-brief-excerpt-from-patricia-june-vickers-singing-to-the-darkness

Other Links:

Polyvagal Theory: Dr. Stephen Porges

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec3AUMDjtKQ

Trauma Changes the brain: Dr. Bessel van der Kolk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKWUmwxi1ZI&t=12s

On Incest: Dr. Christine Courtois

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6PAncTH8Nk

Incest as complex trauma: Dr. Christine Courtois

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzbx1UO6iWw

In this episode, the phantastic Gabriel Durham is Passing Through — for the second time!

Longtime listeners will remember Gabriel as the meticulously learned Buddhist meditator and martial artist from episode 24. Gabriel is now a dad and we teamed up for a discussion as part of an upcoming publication called Outside The Center, which explores the topic of non-duality.

In our conversation we talk about lots of P-words. We talk about polytheism, permanence and impermanence, pregnancy, parenting, paradox, and of course, passing.

I loved getting to speak with Gabriel again and hope you enjoy our chat as much as I did.

This week I'm passing through Lake Balaton, Hungary.

Join me for a brief sweaty ramble after the Global Eco-village Network Gathering, musings about being beset by a biblical swarm of midges, murmurating starlings, animacy, and whatever else I was talking about when I recorded this episode.

In loving memory of the one and only, Mitch the Midge.

Not all heroes wear capes.

In this episode, we go straight to the streets of central Gaza where I speak with Khalid Qadas: photographer, medical student, and humanitarian volunteer with the Gaza Soup Kitchen.

Khalid is heroic and unwaveringly human — full of hope, heart, and determination to help — even in the face of incredible loss and genocide.

Khalid moved from the United Arab Emirates to Gaza to study medicine only months before October 2023. Since then, he’s lost his home, his possessions, 45 kilos (that’s roughly 100lbs), and has witnessed countless tragedies. What struck me most about Khalid is his tenacity of spirit.

Speaking to me from the streets of Gaza, I could hear his smile.

In our conversation we talk about life in Gaza, the Gaza Soup Kitchen, how to feed people under a famine, not just the lack of food — but the lack of water, hygiene, medicine — and the urgent need for infant formula. We talk about the future, loss, and the difficulty of sitting with the pain.

You’ll hear some background noise during our talk. I think it’s still totally listenable and adds a certain atmosphere to our conversation, so please bear with the audio and listen to Khalid’s story.

You can find the Gaza Soup Kitchen on Instagram, or support them on their website. Both links are below:

https://www.instagram.com/gazasoupkitchen/

https://gazasoupkitchen.com

In times of genocide, when silence is complicity, some courageous people are stepping forward to take action, and empowering others to do the same.

This week, I had the honor of speaking with Ahmed Bashbash, a Palestinian developer using his skills to build tools that help people around the world take a stand against atrocity.

Ahmed is the creator of No Thanks, a free mobile app designed to support the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement: one of the most visible and effective non-violent civil resistance campaigns of the past two decades. The movement's goal is to pressure governments and corporations to end their complicity in Israel’s violations of international law by shifting public discourse, influencing corporate decisions, and isolating Israel diplomatically.

The No Thanks app lets users scan barcodes while shopping or search a database to see whether a company or product supports Israel — economically, militarily, through surveillance technology, government contracts, or by operating in illegal settlements, like Coca-Cola does. While many people know about brands like McDonald’s, Starbucks, or Microsoft, I was stunned to learn that even major German supermarket chains like Aldi, Lidl, and Edeka are on the list.

In our conversation, you’ll hear Ahmed’s story and the inspiration behind the app, the personal risks and threats he’s faced, the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, the ongoing failure of international law to protect human rights, and much more.

Please download this app to make more informed purchasing decisions.

You can find Ahmed on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/afb_1999/ or on Twitter at https://x.com/ahmedbashbash

You can find the No Thanks app on the Apple App Store here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/no-thanks-app/id6476206516

You can also find it on the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bashsoftware.boycott&hl=en&pli=1

Follow No Thanks on Twitter at https://x.com/NoThanksBoycott

This week Manda Scott is Passing Through!

Manda is not only a bestselling author, podcaster and teacher, she’s a lovely and passionate human championing values like integrity, compassion, and generosity of spirit in a quest to envision the kinds of emergent futures we’d be proud to leave behind.

In our talk we explore the power of story, the myth of separability and powerlessness, the importance of coming together and creating spaces where we can be vulnerable, healing ourselves and the more-than-human-world, dreams, how to build better futures and a bunch more.

I absolutely loved this conversation and think you will too.

You can find Manda on her incredible podcast, Accidental Gods wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find her on her website, https://mandascott.co.uk. You can read one of her many books or attend one of her shamanic courses or gatherings listed on https://dreamingawake.co.uk.

Links

Manda Scott's website https://mandascott.co.uk
Accidental Gods website: https://accidentalgods.life
Thrutopia Masterclass: https://thrutopia.life
Narrative Ark: https://narrativeark.net

This week, the lovely Lydia Schamschula is Passing Through!

I had the privilege of meeting Lydia in April during my first experience with Holotropic breathwork.

She organizes and facilitates events with the team at Holotropic Breathwork Berlin, and has spent over a decade deepening her practice. Her background includes other modalities such as Zen and Osho meditation, Qigong, and yoga, which all inform her grounded, embodied approach.

Lydia brings a special blend of presence, care, and deep dedication to her work. She holds space with authenticity and openness, and is clearly committed to nurturing the inner healing wisdom; both in herself and in others.

In our conversation, we explore breathwork, Stanislav Grof’s pioneering research into psychedelics and birth matrices, non-ordinary states of consciousness, transpersonal experiences, and the deep healing that can emerge when we come together to be seen, heard, and held.

It was a real treat to sit with Lydia, and I hope you find as much insight and resonance in this conversation as I did.

You can find more about Lydia and her upcoming events at holotropicberlin.com.

If you’re curious about diving into this work yourself, there’s a special retreat blending Holotropic breathwork and Zen meditation starting October 18th, near Hanover, Germany.

This week I'm passing through Warsaw, Poland!

Join me for some thoughts about an elderly shamanic cat, dreams, the nature of ownership and control, the weird mystical magical madness of the human body, grief, Slot Art Festival, and an odd encounter with members of a religious cult!

This episode is sponsored by Cat-A-Pult and The Milk Shrimp & Nuts Food Emporium.