Continuing our series on the forced relocation of indigenous peoples in the southeast known as The Trail of Tears we now hear from Will Chavez from the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. The Cherokee people were one of the largest of the nations in the southeast back in the 1800's, with their lands covering much of present day Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina and more.

Now we begin a series on a particularly challenging period in history in the south east of the USA —the forced relocation of the great tribes from their ancestral lands known generically as The Trail Of Tears. It's not a pretty story but it is an important one to be told. In the series we'll hear from a number of indigenous voices about what happened and how the effects of this mass trauma still play out to these present times. In this show I’m talking to Deanna Byrd, Sue Folsom and Ryan Spring from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

In this episode I’m talking to Joe Jenkins from The Brave Effect about his incredible life journey including all the change he's both experienced and also now manifests in others lives. Joe's journey took him from being labelled the 'worst of the worst' following his time as a drug dealer, into incarceration and eventually ending up facing life in the federal prison system. Fortunately for all of us that was not to be so!

This episode we're exploring change through the theme of return from incarceration. We do so through hearing from a number of professionals working to support this in the community. We have Troy Rogers from the mayors office in Chattanooga as well as Bettie Kirkland and Larry Craig from Project Return, plus we hear from Joe Jenkins who not only spent 13 years in federal prisons but now works as CEO of The Brave Effect a project supporting returnees to successfully re-enter society.

This episode I'm speaking with Tina Tinsley founder of the Earthsong intentional community based outside Athens, Georgia in the USA. Therapist, wilderness activist, traveler and so much more, Tina was born in the south in the 1940’s and her extraordinary life has taken her across the globe, training with shamens in the deep Amazon through living wild in Alaska to working towards the evolution of a new human to meet these increasingly challenging times.

Once again we're back exploring stories of change of country and culture. Yes it's still the topic of immigration and this episode we hear from four US citizens who've moved abroad and listen to how that has changed them and their perspectives. We have Kimberly a designer and entrepreneur who's now resident in Shanghai, China, Stephen a teacher and choreographer living in London UK, Patrick a psychologist and researcher living in Stockholm Sweden and John a wilderness guide, teacher and carpenter now resident north of the border in Canada.

We're now exploring change through the theme of immigration. Many of us for all manner of reasons undergo the geographic and socio-cultural shift of leaving home environments for places new. Why? What are the reasons? And importantly what happens to us when we do? We explore this through four stories of immigrants to the USA: Aaron originally from Australia, Isabel originally from the Dominican Republic, Majida originally from Morocco and Tsambika who while born in the USA grew up in Greece and relocated back here in her late teens.

In this episode we hear a remarkable story of change from a young gawky Aussie kid called Aaron Cash growing up in semi-rural Brisbane whose talent takes them across the great stages of the world plus we hear how one negotiates the changes forced upon any professional athlete when the body begins to say enough. And it surely does. Aaron’s worked with many of the leaders in the entertainment industry, covering an extraordinary range from Kenny Ortega & Paula Abdul, was a featured dancer for Cher for many years, performed in the company of contemporary dance legend Twlya Tharp and alongside the great Baryshnikov, has graced stages and screens across the globe in films such as Titanic, was a judge on So You Think You Can Dance, performed his own one man show on Broadway and at leading arts festivals, was original cast on Tap Dogs and now choreographer for the smash Ballet Revolucion and all that barely scratches the surface!.

Now we now shift to hearing from some academic voices regarding the topic of agency, change and decision-making in relationship to culture, society and environment—how these factors impact on one's perspective of agency and choice in life. We hear from social psychologist Prof. Michael Varnum who heads the Culture and Ecology Lab at Arizona State University and my other esteemed guest is Professor Chandra Ward of the sociology department at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga.

Now we shift focus to explore socio-cultural perspective on change and agency by hearing from a variety of voices this time from within the USA. We hear from Howard a retired lawyer living in the south; Bijal, a consultant and organizational psychologist from Colorado; Troy an African American man also living in the south; Margaret an indigenous American woman from the mid-west; and James, a military veteran living in the DC area.