The Truth Is with Kathryn Flaschner

In this week’s episode, I sit down with Sarah Spoto, founder of Badii, a bathing culture brand inspired by her transformational experience living in Baden, Switzerland. After nearly a decade in corporate America, Sarah made the leap to create something of her own — a shift fueled by burnout, hard lessons about politics and bias, and a deep desire to center wellbeing, community, and the joy of everyday rituals.

What I’ve always admired about Sarah — even back in business school — is how rooted she seemed in her own lane, without bending to others’ definitions of success. She’s carried that through to Badii, a business built on nourishing relationship to self, to nature, and to one another. Along the way, she’s discovered principles that feel missing in the U.S.: ways of caring for ourselves that are inseparable from how we care for each other.

Our conversation moves between the realities of corporate life and the possibility of something different — one that asks us to stop perpetuating what isn’t working and instead return to what’s essential: health, connection, and a deeper sense of care.

We talk about:

• Making sense of people, systems, and where accountability fits
• How anger can lead to clarity — and why it’s worth paying attention to
• Wellness as an everyday ritual, not a luxury
• How experience deepens intuition and self-trust
• Relatable advice for navigating big career transitions

Sarah and I are co-hosting True Nature, a four-day retreat at Sowilo in Cambridge, NY, built on the ideas in this episode: everyday ritual, time in nature, and care for ourselves and each other. We work through the body first, with yoga, forest bathing, sauna ritual, and contrast therapy, and our gathering circles catch what surfaces. It's in community, through nature and ritual, that we remember the power of interdependence. Lodging, meals, and programming are included, and space is limited. → Learn more

USE CODE THETRUTHIS100 for $100 off.

Learn more about Badii → badii.life

Sign up for the Badii newsletter → badii.life/subscribe

Listen to the Badii Talk podcast → Spotify | Apple

Follow Badii on Instagram → @badii.life

Follow The Truth Is on Instagram → @thetruthispod

Follow The Truth Is on TikTok → @thetruthispod

Hosted by Kathryn Flaschner  

Edited by Dan Croll  

Music by Will Savino → wsavino.com  

Visual Identity by Sarah Gainer & Jonathan Bush  

Advised by Natalie Tulloch

In this conversation, I sit down with Samantha Abrams to explore how that distinction quietly shapes our work, our relationships, and the lives we build—and why it takes real courage to live it.

Samantha is a transformational guide and entrepreneur whose work centers on embodiment, self-trust, and aliveness. Many people first come to know her as the co-founder of Emmy’s Organics, a nationally beloved natural foods brand she built in her early twenties and grew for over a decade. What makes her story compelling isn’t reinvention, but continuity. The same intuition and devotion that built a successful company continue to guide her life and work today.

We talk about the subtle ways we abandon ourselves to be chosen or to feel worthy. About why it can be tempting to rewrite the past as “misaligned” instead of honoring that it once fit. And about the courage it takes to leave a life that is beautiful—not because it was wrong, but because you’ve changed.

At the heart of this conversation is a simple but clarifying idea: when we act for love, we contort ourselves to earn it. When we act from love, we move from fullness. Not urgency. Not performance. But aliveness.

This is not a conversation about reinvention or arrival. It’s about staying in relationship with yourself as life unfolds—letting discomfort inform you, letting trust build slowly, and allowing what feels alive to lead.

This conversation originally aired in January of 2026, but we are bringing it back as one of our favorites.

• The difference between doing things from love and for love
• Why leaving something good can be harder than leaving something bad
• “It was aligned—until it wasn’t” as a truer way to name change
• The quiet ways we abandon ourselves in relationships and work
• Following aliveness instead of certainty as a compass forward
• Why moving on doesn’t mean you didn’t love what came before

Samantha Abrams is a transformational guide and entrepreneur whose work focuses on embodiment, self-trust, and aliveness. She is the co-founder of Emmy’s Organics and now supports people through deep listening, embodied practice, and honest inquiry.

• Website: https://www.samanthaabrams.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samanthaabrams/
• Substack: https://samanthaabrams.substack.com/
• Podcast — I’m Just Listening: https://open.spotify.com/show/3FffNb8xRXYi6xZqW9UL0s?si=b0e384c850424ccf

• Follow The Truth Is on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetruthis_podcast/
• Watch The Truth Is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetruthis_pod

• Hosted by Kathryn Flaschner
• Video Production & Editing by Anton LaPlume
• Music by Will Savino → wsavino.com
• Visual Identity by Sarah Gainor & Jonathan Bush
• Advised by Natalie Tulloch

Checking in with you from the liminal space between season 2 and 3. For those who don't know me personally (hi, I'm Kathryn, the creator and host of this show), shifting from my 10+ years in corporate spaces to this pathless path of a creative entrepreneur (I guess that's the current buzz title that fits best), has been filled with many lessons. And I frequently say it has been both liberating and terrifying...and liberating!

This week I am recording from the Blue Ridge Mountains, on what I justified as a "strategic offsite to plan Season 3" (there's corporate Sally again). I even rushed to the Walmart (awkwardly one of my former employers) for that big white paper you stick on walls and brainstorm on. I swear by day two the bunnies and the deer and the birds and even the baby black bear I saw scamper across the road were laughing at me as I performed productivity for them. And then the realization that has consistently showed up over this past year showed up again...busy doesn't mean forward movement, sometimes it is just the spiral of fear and a lack of self-trust.

More on that, and more on welcoming you to the show, reflecting on what's happened and feeling into what's ahead, out now.

And lastly, a quick note on getting analog with it: I am co-hosting my first retreat (PLEASE GET OFF SCREENS WITH ME) with friend and guest of the pod, Sarah Spoto of Badii, in Upstate NY in October. Sarah and I reconnected last year (8+ years after getting our MBAs together and hilariously being appointed two "MBAs to Watch of 2017") as we simultaneously embarked on our own pathless paths. This offline experience is called True Nature, and it is for women that are at that same inflection point of: ok this is no longer working, how do I get clear on what is true and what is next for me? (And if you do not identify as a woman, please still reach out to me if this resonates, I want to hear from you, too).

This podcast was always meant to be the starting point to us creating spaces and experiences together that make it possible for us to sit with truth instead of run from it, and step forward from a place of integrity that is fully your own.

If this is speaking to you, the first five pod listeners that register can use code THETRUTHIS100 for $100 off your deposit. Check out more info here: https://www.badii.life/retreat and please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly on instagram @thetruthis_podcast or @kathrynflaschner.

We're revisiting this conversation from October 2025 because hearing Joanne speak is the jolt of conviction we all need.

This week on The Truth Is, Kathryn sits down with Joanne Molinaro — or as many know her, The Korean Vegan — a New York Times best-selling and James Beard Award–winning author, attorney, and creator whose storytelling and advocacy invite millions to look more closely at who they are, what they stand for, and how they show up in the world.

At the height of her legal career, Joanne realized that to be “successful,” she was becoming someone she wasn’t sure she could respect. That moment of reckoning — between achievement and integrity — sits at the center of her story, and at the center of this conversation.

Together, they explore what it really means to fight for yourself, to tell the truth to yourself first, and to leave the life that looks right in order to build the one that actually is. Joanne shares how she turned fear into agency, how writing became a lifelong practice of truth-telling, and how her voice — through food, advocacy, and storytelling — continues to be a force for compassion and change.

A conversation about courage, integrity, and the ongoing practice of becoming someone you respect.

In this episode, they talk about:

Connect with Joanne

Connect with The Truth Is

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We're revisiting this conversation from October 2025 because it's stayed with us — and we think it will with you too.

John Markland is a highly respected director, screenwriter, producer, and acting teacher, and the founder of The Markland Studio, whose work has guided countless artists and performers toward deeper, more authentic expression.

In this conversation, we talk about what happens when the identity you’ve built to feel safe or successful starts to feel out of alignment. John shares how a lifetime of adapting shaped his work with artists, and why he believes honesty matters more than approval — on stage and in life. We explore the unexpressed parts of ourselves we learn to hide, how reconnecting to instinct and curiosity can bring us closer to what’s real, and why taking the time to understand the moments that shaped you can open more freedom in how you move forward.

It’s a conversation about truth, creativity, and what becomes possible when we stop performing and start allowing.

We talk about:

If this episode leaves you thinking about the self beneath your own identity, share it with someone who might need it — or leave a review so others can find the show.

Connect with John & The Markland Studio:

Website → www.marklandstudio.com

Connect with The Truth Is on Instagram → @thetruthis_podcast

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Romance author Joss Richard joins us this week to talk about what happens when something that's lived quietly inside you for years finally asks to be shared.

We talk about the leap from corporate to a creative life, how writing fan fiction became her quiet training ground, and the months of 5 a.m. mornings that led to It's Different This Time — a story that began in the Notes app on her phone and turned into a USA Today bestselling debut.

It's a conversation about creative permission, evolving dreams, and what it looks like to follow the thing that feels most true to you, even when it asks you to let go of the plan you thought you had.

A quick update: since we first aired this episode, Joss's debut has continued to be beloved by many, and Let's Kiss and Tell — her follow-up — releases this August, with a book tour to follow. We're bringing this conversation back as a reminder of where it all started.

Her debut novel, It's Different This Time — a New York-in-the-fall, Nora Ephron–style second-chance romance — is out now wherever books are sold.

We talk about:

If this episode leaves you thinking about the part of yourself that's been waiting to be seen — share it with someone who might need to hear it, or leave a review so others can find it too.

Connect with Joss Richard:

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If you missed this one when it first aired in October 2025, here's your moment.

Kathryn sits down with her sister, Alyssa Flaschner, for a conversation about paying attention to what makes us feel alive, and how change really happens: not all at once, but through tiny degree shifts that slowly realign our lives toward what feels true.

In the stillness of COVID, Alyssa began to notice a quiet pull toward something else. What started as weeknights with her cookbook collection soon turned into a decision to take herself—and her curiosity—seriously. That choice led to nine months of commuting to New York City for culinary school—twenty-seven weekends in a row—couch surfing with friends and family and rolling a little suitcase full of knives through the city. Nine months later, that curiosity had become a craft—and eventually, a full-time role on the team at Philadelphia’s acclaimed restaurant My Loup.

Together, we talk about what it means to find the thing that makes you come alive—and to keep following it, even when it asks you to rewrite the life you thought you were building.

In this episode, we talk about: 

It’s an intimate, sister-to-sister conversation about curiosity, courage, and learning to trust the pull toward what makes you come alive.

Visit My Loup, where Alyssa is part of the culinary team

Instagram → @thetruthis_podcast

Video production and editing by Anton LaPlume

This episode first aired in December 2025. We're bringing it back because it's one that stays with you.

What if the clarity you’re looking for isn’t “out there” at all, but already inside you — waiting for the moment it comes into view?

In this conversation, NYT bestselling author and adventurer Jedidiah Jenkins sits down with us to talk about revelation, habituation, aging, and what it means to build a life you’re actually comfortable being yourself in.

Jed talks about how his books — from To Shake the Sleeping Self through Mother, Nature and now his upcoming fourth — trace the long arc of becoming, moving through the mother wound, his religious upbringing, and the early experiences that sharpened his curiosity. He shares why he sees revelation as the moment when previously collected pieces finally organize into clarity, and how trusting the authority of his own questions has guided his life and work.

We talk through:

We also talk about the truth of the moment — how naming what’s real as it arises becomes its own form of presence — and how Jed has had to rebuild his sense of truth from the inside out after growing up inside a religious system that defined it for him. He reflects on learning to trust the authority of his own questions, and why that practice continues to shape his life and his work.

And yes — we talk about the leaf.

More from Jedidiah Jenkins:

Connect with The Truth Is:

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Kate Boyer is a Los Angeles-based stunt woman and actor who has built her career one leap at a time — literally. She grew up in Philadelphia with an explorer's mindset, found her way to martial arts young, and eventually packed everything into a Honda Civic and drove cross-country with a vision. What she found on the other side of that move became the foundation of a decade-plus career in film and television, doubling for actors and executing the kind of work that demands total trust in yourself and the people around you.

Kathryn has known Kate through their shared world as actors, and has watched up close what it looks like to build a self-led life in one of the most uncertain industries there is. This conversation is about the posture you have to take to do that — not waiting for the golden ticket, but deciding what the next move is and going. Kate is beginning to bring that practice to other artists, helping them find the clarity to do the same.

In this conversation:

Follow Kate: Instagram The Truth Is: Instagram | Video production and editing by Anton LaPlume. Music by Will Savino. Visual identity by Sarah Gainor and Jonathan Bush. Guidance and advising by Natalie Tulloch.

Wilfredo Perdomo is the founder of DESTINO, a wellness-focused hospitality and lifestyle concept he's building in the Catskills. As a Cuban-American raised by immigrant parents, his foundation is rooted in working hard, creating beauty with what you have, and making people feel genuinely welcomed. He spent eight years working with Drew Barrymore, most recently as president of Barrymore Brands — building products with heart and creating things people truly connect with. Now he's bringing all of that into something entirely his own: a micro-resort and retreat space centered around wellness, design, nature, and emotional reset. His mission is to make wellness feel accessible and less performative — to give people permission to pause.

Kathryn met Wilfredo during those brand-building years. This conversation is about what it looks like when you take everything you've learned and take a faithful leap into yourself — and what it costs, demands, and opens up when you do.

In this conversation:

Mentioned in this episode: The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer

Follow Wilfredo: Instagram DESTINO: Instagram Website

The Truth Is: Instagram YouTube

Video production and editing by Anton LaPlume. Music by Will Savino. Visual identity by Sarah Gainor and Jonathan Bush. Guidance and advising by Natalie Tulloch.