Time & Other Thieves

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In this episode I explore some of the ideas that Jungian analyst James Hollis (1993) presents in his book, The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife. In discussing what we call the midlife crisis, Hollis talks a lot about the power of the unconscious mind, which can make itself known through symptoms (physical and otherwise), projections, and various phenomena related to our "shadow." He also expounds upon the difference between a vocation (from the Latin vocatus, or calling) and a job. I talk about how grateful I am to have those two things be the same for me—to have found my passion and also get paid for it! (But that can lead to a lot of heartache when others aren't as jazzed about it as I am.) I also discuss certain tasks of the Middle Passage that I've yet to fulfill: namely, the ability to do less and simply be with myself.

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In this episode I share an essay I recently wrote about my relationship with music, starting with myself as a five-year-old listening to Gram Parsons on vinyl and ending with present day and my decision to bring Time & Other Thieves back to the radio—live in the studio!—where I can play music again. My intention with this new iteration of the show is to only play the music I own and love, as opposed to getting seduced by the convenience and affordability of Spotify, with its overwhelming number of options. I miss the days of listening to the same albums over and over again until they become a part of my DNA. "It's so nice, I wanna hear the same song twice." This is my ode to repetitive listening.

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In this episode, I reproduce a three-part Zoom lecture that was inspired by a Lucy Holmes (2006) article titled, "Becoming an Analyst: Learning to Live with Madness, Aggression, and the Unknown," in which she gives therapists permission to be angry, stupid, and crazy. I apply her ideas to my own experience as a process-group leader, but one could apply them to any endeavor at becoming competent in a given field. 

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In this episode (the first of its kind that I've made in almost a year!), I explore some of the ideas presented in Marion Woodman's "Bone: Dying Into Life," which is a collection of journal entries that chronicle her experience with uterine cancer from 1993–1995. I mostly muse on a smattering of quotes that Woodman wrote in the margins of her journal, from the likes of Carl Jung, Emily Dickinson, and Rainer Maria Rilke. Topics include the fast pace of our society and the importance of slowing down (group can help with that!); how we see versions of ourselves in others (group, anyone?); how symptoms are an attempt at healing, and how physical travails can bring us to higher consciousness; the relentless demands of dinner; the value and necessity of mundane activities; the joy of dwelling in Possibility (group again!); and the impossibility of ever knowing someone completely, which means we should try all the more to do it, like good bodhisattvas (and group members!).

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In this episode, I share a conversation I recently had with award-winning audiobook narrator and voice actor Brittany Pressley, who has also been a friend of mine since high school. Alongside my BFF Courtney Wait as co-interviewer, I ask Brittany all (or at least some) of the questions I've been wanting to ask her since I started listening to her books (e.g. Katharine Smyth's "All the Lives We Ever Lived," Piper Weiss's "You All Grow Up and Leave Me," Lori Gottlieb's "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone") several years ago. (In the episode I say "at least ten years ago," but that might not be accurate.) Brittany has recorded over 700 audiobooks! Voice acting is such a fascinating job, and she is so good at it. Courtney and I had tons of fun asking her stuff and laughing with her. What a delight. At the end of the episode I share the recording that Brittany made (so kindly at my brazen request) of herself reading some of my own writing.

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In this episode I share an edited version of a radio show I did back in October of 2022, about Van Morrison's 1968 sophomore album, "Astral Weeks," released when he was just 23 years old. I provide some history on the record's creation and then focus on three songs: the title track, "Cyprus Avenue," and "Madame George." Music critic Lester Bangs called "Astral Weeks" a "mystical document" and said it was "a record about people stunned by life, completely overwhelmed, stalled in their skins, their ages and selves, paralyzed by the enormity of what in one moment of vision they can comprehend.”

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In this episode I share an edited version of a Zoom lecture I gave in December of 2025 about applying the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius to the practice of group psychotherapy, and to interpersonal process groups in particular. I focus on the Stoic disciplines of perception, action, and will (or "divine acquiescence") and provide examples of how we can thrive—as group members and leaders—by bringing more awareness to these disciplines as we sit in the group circle.

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In this episode I share an edited version of a Zoom lecture I gave in the spring of 2025 called "Group as Spiritual Practice." A collection and synthesis of some of my favorite spiritual teachings, this lecture explores how interpersonal process groups are a way of "getting beyond conditioning," of learning how to be alive, of cultivating courage, of becoming more of oneself and accepting life on life's terms—all definitions of spirituality that I love (among others). The ideas of Anthony de Mello, Paul Tillich, Martin Buber, Howard Thurman, Shunryu Suzuki, and Edward Espe Brown will support my thesis that group's many invitations are guiding us into closer and closer contact with the truth of the present moment and how we are both a reflection and a integral part of that moment, of this eternal here and now.

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In this short episode I recap the past month, which has been busier and more stressful than your average December because I signed a lease on a new therapy office and have been scrambling to set up the place in every spare moment!

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In this episode I revamp an Asheville FM radio broadcast from November of 2022, in honor of Joni Mitchell's 82nd birthday (November 7th). One track at a time, I explore her 1972 album, "For the Roses," providing biographical and thematic context to illuminate each song's depth and richness. I draw from music reviews written at the time of the album's release, from filmed interviews with Joni, from David Yaffe's biography of her ("Reckless Daughter"), from the fabulous documentary "Woman of Heart and Mind," and from J.W.N. Sullivan's 1927 book, "Beethoven: His Spiritual Development." As "For the Roses" tends to get overshadowed by what came before and after—"Blue" and "Court and Spark"—I hope this episode will endear you to an album that is too often overlooked and undersung.