Over the past month on The Truth Is, I’ve had conversations about rest, nervous system regulation, pleasure, and the systems shaping our attention. After stepping back and looking at them together, I realized they were all circling the same question:

Why is it so difficult to access what’s actually true for us?

This episode is a pause to process what’s emerging across the season.

For most of my life, I believed that knowing myself required more effort — more thinking, more strategy, more trying to get it right. What I’m starting to see, through these conversations and through my own life, is that the opposite may be true.

Accessing what’s true often requires space. Space to rest. Space to feel. Space to process our lives as they’re actually happening.

But the culture many of us live inside of makes that space difficult to find. Hustle culture rewards exhaustion. Information ecosystems compete constantly for our attention. Certainty is broadcast everywhere, often louder than curiosity.

Across recent episodes, my guests have offered different doorways into the same realization:

This episode also reflects on a line from The Big Short, attributed to Mark Twain:

“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.

In a world saturated with certainty — algorithms, feeds, institutions, opinions — discernment becomes harder and more necessary at the same time. 

The work, as I see it right now, is not withdrawing from the world. It’s creating enough distance from the noise to decide where our attention and energy actually belong.

I close this conversation with an idea my recent guest Jiore Craig calls “dark hope.” 

When systems begin to fracture, the path forward can look surprisingly simple and human: Reconnect. Pay attention to what’s real. Build lives and communities rooted in truth rather than external authority. 

And maybe start by ending this year with more real friends than you started it with.

Part of what I’m building through The Truth Is are spaces where these conversations can continue beyond the podcast.

One of those is a retreat experience I’m developing in partnership with my guest from earlier this season, Sarah Spoto, and her community, Badii. We’re gathering early input from this community as we shape the experience. If you’d like to share what would make a retreat like this meaningful for you, you can add your thoughts at this link below:

Share input on the retreat experience: Early Access

I’m also launching a small cohort experience called Calibration, designed for people who want space to process where they are and discern their next step from a place that feels true.

Connect with The Truth Is on Instagram: 

@thetruthis_podcast

@kathrynflaschner

The present moment doesn’t just feel noisy. It feels disorienting. 

Not because we’ve become less thoughtful, but because we’re living inside systems that reward reaction over reflection — systems that pull at our nervous systems all day long and quietly influence what starts to feel obvious, urgent, or true. 

In this episode of The Truth Is, I sit down with strategist Jiore Craig to explore what it takes to reclaim agency inside an environment like this — and what becomes possible when we shift from endless reaction to intentional world-building. 

Jiore has spent her career inside political strategy and public opinion, with a front-row seat to how amplification becomes belief — how what rises in a feed begins to feel like consensus. She’s watched social media move from connection and organizing to optimization and extraction. And she’s seen how public debate often gets stuck in the wrong frame: “free speech vs. censorship,” when the deeper issue is design, incentives, and control. 

This conversation isn’t alarmist. It’s an invitation to take responsibility for where we place our attention — and what we choose to build.

Connect with Jiore: https://www.jiorecraig.com/ 

Connect with The Truth Is: @thetruthis_podcast

Credits

What does it actually mean to regulate in a world that feels increasingly dysregulated?

In this episode, I sit down with somatic movement educator and author Nahid de Belgeonne to explore the nervous system not as a self-improvement project, but as a doorway back to discernment.

Nahid is the creator of The Human Method™ and The Soothe Programme, a 12-week somatic approach designed for high-functioning people who are successful on the outside and quietly bracing on the inside. Before this work, she built her identity around composure, capability, and chronic motion. A near-death experience forced a reckoning. What emerged was a body-first understanding of regulation that challenges much of modern wellness culture.

We talk about:

• Why mistrusting the signals from your body makes you easier to manipulate
• The shift from “a brain with a body” to “a body with a brain”
• High-functioning collapse and how pushing harder becomes fused with identity
• How culture grooms us to turn back on ourselves
• Why you don’t “unlearn” patterns, you introduce new learning into the system
• Regulation as authorship, not obedience
• Staying human, engaged, and discerning in the context of late-stage capitalism and collective instability

This conversation is a continuation of a larger inquiry on this show: what does it mean to live truthfully underneath inherited assumptions about success, productivity, and worth?

If wellness has ever felt like another performance, this episode is for you.

Connect with Nahid

Substack: The Soothe Club
Instagram: @thehumanmethoduk
Programme: The Soothe Programme (12-week nervous system recalibration)

Connect with The Truth Is: @thetruthis_podcast

Credits

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

What would change if you believed you were worthy of pleasure?

In this episode of The Truth Is, I sit down with Cindy Scharkey — Registered Nurse, OB/GYN nurse, Certified Childbirth Educator, and host of the podcast and author of Permission for Pleasure. With nearly 40 years in women’s health, Cindy has witnessed how silence and shame shape women’s relationship with their bodies, sex, and desire.

Many women come to her with questions about sex and desire. What they often uncover is something deeper: a relationship with themselves that was never fully examined.

We talk about inherited narratives around purity, modesty, and worth. The belief that pleasure must be earned. Why what we call a “desire problem” is often a pleasure problem. And how difficult it can be to admit we were never taught to truly listen to our own bodies.

This conversation, and Cindy's work, goes beyond sex. It’s about permission — to feel, to listen, and to stay in relationship with yourself. And part of that practice is allowing what is present, without polishing it or performing.

At its core, this episode asks what happens when we stop living from inherited assumptions and start listening to what is actually true.

In this episode, we explore:

• The idea of a “pleasure crisis” — and what it feels like in real life
• Curiosity as a way back into relationship with your body
• Why what we call a “desire problem” may actually be a pleasure problem
• What happens when we override sensation — and what shifts when we listen
• The courage it takes to question what we were taught about sex and worth
• Permission not to manufacture meaning — but to be in the truth of the moment
• How pleasure, grief, and aliveness can coexist
• Small, embodied practices — from dancing naked to finding “sips of joy” — that keep us connected

Connect with Cindy: 

Website: www.cindyscharkey.com

Listen to her podcast: Permission for Pleasure

Explore her book: Permission for Pleasure

Follow Cindy on Instagram: @cindyscharkey

Connect with The Truth Is: @thetruthis_podcast

Credits

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

Rest isn’t just about slowing down. It’s about remembering who you are.

This conversation begins there.

My guest is Sam Bianchini, an international yoga teacher, psychedelic therapist, and artist. Sam led a Yoga Nidra training I took during a season of deep burnout — a moment when I didn’t yet know what was next, but knew I couldn’t keep moving the same way.

In this conversation, we talk about the ancient ritual she guided us through: Yoga Nidra — a deep form of rest that Sam teaches not as a technique to master, but as a state of consciousness. One that extends beyond the ritual itself, and offers a different way of relating to rest, clarity, and worth in today’s culture.

What unfolded — both that weekend and here — wasn’t a lesson in rest as recovery or self-care. It was an invitation to relate to rest as a return. To the body. To intuition. To an inherent sense of worth that exists before productivity or achievement.

We talk about why clarity requires nervous system regulation. About how many of us were taught — subtly or explicitly — that our value is tied to output, endurance, or optimization. And about what becomes possible when we slow down enough to hear what’s actually true.

This isn’t an episode about doing less so you can do more.
It’s about remembering who you are — and learning to move from that place.

• Rest as a return to self, not a reward for productivity
• Yoga Nidra as an ancient ritual and a state of consciousness
• How practices of rest can extend beyond the mat and into daily life
• Worthiness beyond achievement
• Nervous system regulation and clarity
• Ceremony, ritual, and remembrance as pathways back to truth
• Why we are designed to regulate and heal in community

• Website: https://sambianchini.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samdarlin/?hl=en

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetruthis_podcast/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetruthis_pod

• Hosted by Kathryn Flaschner
• Video Production & Editing by Anton LaPlume
• Edited by Dan Croll
• Music by Will Savino — https://wsavino.com
• Visual Identity by Sarah Gainor & Jonathan Bush
• Advised by Natalie Tulloch

In Spain, there’s a ritual called La Hora del Vermut — a pause in the middle of the day that isn’t about winding down or earning rest. It’s a celebration of the day itself.

This conversation starts there — with vermut, salty snacks, and a toast.

My guest is David Neimanis, a maker I grew up down the street from, whose life has moved through music, writing, food, and now building a Spanish vermouth brand called Cueva Nueva while living in Valencia.

What I loved about this conversation is that it isn’t a tidy story about one big pivot. It’s about a quieter shift — learning not to defer living to some future moment.

We talk about:

• what La Hora del Vermut reveals about pleasure, community, and pace — and what it feels like to live inside a different relationship to time
• the difference between freedom and autonomy, and how Dave came to understand both through life on the road
• redefining success — not as exits or endless scale, but as something livable, human, and sustainable
• how different environments shape attention, pace, and conversation
• what it takes to stay grounded in your “why,” especially when the culture around you keeps moving the goalposts

This isn’t an episode about slowing down to get more done.
It’s about learning how to enjoy the day without waiting for permission — and telling the truth when what you wanted stops fitting.

Find where you can drink and purchase a bottle of Cueva Nueva near you:
https://www.cuevanueva.com/find-us

Follow Cueva Nueva:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cuevanueva/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cueva_nueva

Follow David Neimanis:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidneimanis/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetruthis_podcast/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetruthis_pod

Hosted by Kathryn Flaschner
Video Production & Editing by Anton LaPlume
Edited by Dan Croll
Music by Will Savino — wsavino.com
Visual Identity by Sarah Gainor & 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.

• 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
• Edited by Dan Croll
• Music by Will Savino → wsavino.com
• Visual Identity by Sarah Gainor & Jonathan Bush
• Advised by Natalie Tulloch

A year-end solo reflection drawing three throughlines from the season: telling yourself the truth, loosening the grip of identity, and orienting toward curiosity. Featuring moments from conversations with Joanne Molinaro, John Markland, and Jedidiah Jenkins. This episode gathers what emerged, without conclusions, as the show steps into a new year.

We Revisit: 

• Telling yourself the truth as a daily practice, not a single reveal
• Identity as protection, and what becomes possible when it loosens
• Curiosity as an orientation, trusting the authority of your own questions

Referenced Episodes & Video

• Joanne Molinaro — Listen to the full episode
• John Markland — Listen to the full episode
• Jedidiah Jenkins — Listen to the full episode
• Watch this episode on YouTube

Connect with The Truth Is on Instagram @thetruthis_podcast

What happens when achievement delivers everything it promised, except fulfillment?

In this episode, Kathryn sits down with Megan Hellerer to examine the quiet crisis many high-achieving people experience: success on paper, disconnection inside.

Megan shares the moment when the old rules stopped working — and how that reckoning led her to develop a different way of living and working she calls Directional Living. Together, they unpack why hustle culture’s central promise falls apart, why ambition itself isn’t the problem, and what it looks like to rebuild a life from alignment rather than external expectations.

This conversation stays with the deeper questions beneath burnout and reinvention: how clarity actually forms, why curiosity matters more than certainty, and what becomes possible when we stop organizing our lives around destinations.

• Why success and fulfillment are not the same
• The limits of achievement as a life strategy
• Ambition vs. aligned ambition
• How clarity emerges through action, not planning
• Why not knowing can reduce anxiety rather than increase it
• The cultural reckoning beneath hustle culture
• How truth-telling creates collective permission
• What it means to live directionally in an unpredictable world

About Megan

Megan Hellerer is a coach, speaker, and author whose work centers on helping people unlearn inherited definitions of success and build lives rooted in alignment rather than expectation. She is the creator of the Directional Living framework and works with individuals navigating burnout, career transitions, and reinvention.

Megan’s book
Directional Living: A Transformational Guide to Fulfillment in Work and Life

Amazon

Bookshop.org

Learn more on her website

Follow Megan
Instagram: @meganhellerer
Website: meganhellerer.com

Connect with The Truth Is

Watch full episodes on YouTube:
youtube.com/@thetruthispodcast

Follow along on Instagram for clips, reflections, and episode highlights:
instagram.com/thetruthis.podcast

This week’s conversation widens the frame. The Truth Is has always centered the internal work—alignment, reckoning, truth-telling, and the quiet process of returning to ourselves. But for many of us, the tension isn’t only personal. It’s structural. The friction we feel inside is often a response to the systems, workplaces, and expectations we’ve been moving through.

My guest today, Jen Randle, co-founder of SGNL, names that intersection with clarity. Her work maps trust across three levels: the micro (self), the meso (teams and relationships), and the macro (organizations and institutions). Through that lens, our personal misalignment becomes inseparable from the collective dynamics shaping our lived experience.

We talk about the “season of sitting in it”—the pause, the discomfort, the in-between so many of us find ourselves in. We explore why hustle culture is losing its hold, why mistrust is surfacing everywhere, and what it takes to rebuild environments where trust isn’t performative, but practiced. Jen’s framework gives language to what so many are sensing: the world as it was built no longer fits, and the work now is to reimagine, not just endure.

We talk through:

• How post-2020 life reshaped our relationship to time, work, and what we’re willing to sacrifice
• Why so many high performers hit the wall at the same moment
• The micro: aligning head, heart, and gut—and why most of us have been over-relying on the head
• Turning everyday habits into rituals that reopen intuitive and emotional access
• Shifting from “purpose” as a pressure-filled destination to “contribution” as a grounded way of moving
• The truths we inherited or internalized about success—and how to begin unwinding them
• The meso: the relational tissue between teams and why most friction stems from fractures in trust
• The macro: what happens to an organization when its outsides stop matching its insides
• Congruency, stewardship, and why accountability—not branding—determines real culture
• The coming wealth transfer to women and what becomes possible when new worlds are built with intention
• Why we may need to stop fighting for a seat at old tables and imagine entirely new ones

If you’re in a pivot, a pause, a burnout, or a quiet questioning, this conversation offers perspective and orientation. A reminder that the season you’re in isn’t regression—it’s data. It’s part of the process of getting clear about who you are, what you value, and what no longer fits.

More from Jen Randle
• Website — www.sgnladvisory.com
• Jen on LinkedIn — www.linkedin.com/in/jenrandle
• Jen’s Substack — thetrustsgnl.substack.com

Connect with The Truth Is
Full conversation on YouTube → @thetruthis_pod
Follow on Instagram → @thetruthis_podcast

Credits
Hosted by Kathryn Flaschner
Edited by Dan Croll
Music by Will Savino → wsavino.com
Visual Identity by Sarah Gainor & Jonathan Bush
Advised by Natalie Tulloch