Tub Talks by Secular Sabbath

This week we sit in a hot tub for the first time with musical composer and artist, Aska Matsumiya. Aska is at the end of her third trimester of pregnancy as we bathe. Her belly is full and ripe, and the baby is ready to come out any day. Aska shares her experience on approaching early motherhood for a second time, 20 years after the birth of her first and only daughter, Bebel. Immigrating from Japan to California with her family as a young lady, Aska remembers her experience of cultural and linguistic differences between the two nations from childhood through today. Since she was three, Aska’s relationship with composition and piano grew as her own language, an alternative method of expression when words and socializing did not come naturally.

Aska explains how her relationship with piano continued to blossom and guided her towards her dream of going to Julliard, landing her at American art schools in her early childhood education. However, when Aska was 15, she found authentic friendship in school with kids who were alternative, artistic, and exposed her to a foreign genre of music: Punk. Aska experienced her first punk concert that would bring her to drop out of high school, drop her dream of being a concert pianist, and join her own punk band with whom she would begin touring in a van. Yet, life quickly had a different plan: at 19, Aska was pregnant, inciting her to quit the band and embark on her next journey in life: motherhood.

As a young mother, Aska describes how she dove into the musical culture of Seattle, playing in indie bands in the Sub Pop era. Her love of variant genres of music and doing odd jobs like working for fashion magazines, consulting for brands, or even playing piano for ballet classes helped to develop the skills, and give her experiences that would weave together to make her better at scoring films now. People come to her because she knows the patterns of classical music and simultaneously knows how to break all of the rules. People come to her to score films when they want something different.

At 25 years old, Aska began her scoring journey through working with director Crystal Moselle, composing pieces for various fashion clips and then, her breakout film: The Wolfpack. ‘There Are Many Of Us’ was Aska’s first original song featured as the central theme song of Spike Jonze’s film, ‘I’m Here’. Spike told her she could make things and that could be her work. This nugget was mind blowing, and helped Aska to transition from taking on all of the odd jobs she was piecing together, to focusing in on composing scores full time. 

Aska now incorporates her cultural identity with her Japan-based music production company: Black Cat White Cat Music, which she created with her brother. They curate musical artists from around the world to create original soundscapes and songs for Japanese commercials and productions. Aska explains cultural differences she has encountered in the Japanese business space. She explains that in Japan, trust comes from words. Whereas in America, everything is contracted. She describes how growing up in America has helped her and her brother create a bridge between Japanese culture and the world outside. Aska sees that the way people listen to music in Japan or Germany, resonates with the way that she likes to create music. She observes that Japanese culture is more comfortable with silence and space. She describes a Japanese word that doesn’t translate to English conceptually or lexically: “Kue-issho.” She couldn’t think of the word exactly in the bath, but later said that it is a Buddhist thought that means “you will eventually find yourself meeting up again with the one you wished for, in one place, and to keep that strength to seek the hope in destiny.”

Aska and I first met through our mutual close friend Desiree, who passed away in a tragic and shocking surfing accident in 2015. Our individual friendship began through our shared mourning and loss of someone we loved. Aska shares how she composed an album as an expression of her grief for Desiree, but she never released it. Simply the act of creating it was cathartic. 

Surfing had been a passion that Desiree and Aska enjoyed together. Aska learned to surf from our collaborator and Tub Talks guest, Kassia Meador. Aska was scoring a surf film for Kassia, and it was in the experience of paying attentions to the details, the micromovements and how to play sound to the movement, that she became interested in experiencing it herself. When she asked Kassia about it, Kassia put all the necessary materials into her hands and took Aska into the water. Aska describes surfing as feeling like a child on a playground because it’s playful. She understands how fundamentally important it is to feel joy so simply. Adults can forget how to have fun. Surfing elicits that joy in Aska’s life. And this conversation inspires us to find these joys, and our passions, in ourselves. I hope you enjoy this deep soak with my friend in bloom, Aska Matsumiya!

To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community. 

Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.

See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.

This week we soak with musician and newly inspired home ‘landscaper,’ Austin Bisnow. Austin and I have connected over taking walks with our dogs in the mountains. Today we spend time in the bath, where he shares his path to creating his band, Magic Giant and the magical story of meeting his life partner. 

Austin grew up in Washington D.C. and now lives in Los Angeles. He made stops in New York and Boulder, CO along the way. However, it wasn't until living in Venice, CA where, as he describes it, “he discovered he could be himself and it was embraced.” Inspired by the life of artists like Benny Blanco, Jon Batiste and his friend Doug Akin (not to be confused with the fine artist Doug Aitken). Yet his biggest inspiration was his own brother Elliott Bisnow - founder of Summit. Austin explains how he wouldn’t self-describe as musically gifted - but that his work ethic and dedication to what he loves (writing and producing songs) is what drives his success as an artist. Before starting his own band, Austin produced and wrote songs for other musicians, including Listen by David Guetta that featured John Legend. Austin recounts how he manifested this collaboration before either of the two artists ever met each other. 

As a firm believer in manifestation, Austin details how he called in his wife and life partner, Deena, through a series of manifestation exercises including a list of qualities and characteristics. Only a few months after completing the exercise, Austin would meet Deena. Austin traveled from California to New York and then to Montreal to “chase the women of his dreams.” 

Throughout his career, Austin mainly focused on pop records, but after attending Lollapalooza in Chicago and seeing Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, he was inspired to start a folk-electronic band: thus, the birth of Magic Giant. He observed that not only did they create a full band, but the energy in the emitted was infectious to the crowd and created a community. Community is something he actively builds with Magic Giant now. Listen now to hear how drive and manifestation have created synchronistic moments in Austin’s life journey!

To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community. 

Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.

See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.

This week we soak in the tub with Elena Stonaker, a long-time collaborator and multi-disciplinary artist whose artwork you may recognize from many of our Secular Sabbath environments, such as our giant green snake and larger-than-life mushrooms. Elena is a full-time ethereal artist, living in her whimsical inner landscape. A lot of her art is born out of her bedroom. In this episode, Elena and I reminisce on the earliest moments of our personal friendship through exploring an unconventional way of socializing that has come to define us both, and a live drawing class that would be imbued into the framework of Secular Sabbath.

Elena was inspired to host a live drawing class in her home after taking a figure drawing class in art school and painting on (her friend) Sarah Buckley’s body. Hosting a loosely-led class in the landscape of her soft sculptures was a way for Elena to hold space for others to be creative, while simultaneously and perhaps unintentionally, creating an unprecedented way for others to relax and hang out in Los Angeles.

Art and creativity ooze throughout Elena’s life, whether it is in the business or personal realm. Elena shares about the benefits and learning opportunities that exist in being a self-employed full-time artist. An example she describes is a commission from a friend - the opportunity to create a cat couch soft sculpture. She has learned from these experiences how to navigate expressing her own creative impetus, while collaborating with someone else’s vision and what they want as an end product. She compares commissions to giving birth to a child. And the metaphor sticks in our minds.

Coming from the lineage of creative resourceful parents, Elena was encouraged to explore an artistic life. Elena remembers a distinct adolescent moment when her surprise birthday party became a core memory, where her ethereal homelife clashed with her traditional assimilated school life. This led her into a melting pot of life in the inner and outer world coming together. Through working with beads in her art, Elena creates a meditative process which she describes as sowing prayers which originates from Southern American indigenous cultures. Beads became a staple in her art because she sees them as something small; when in a collective multitude, beads create something magnificent. 

Elena strives to portray a childlike space to experience feelings. From her “Big Mama” to our Secular Sabbath snake and green mushrooms, Elena creates a place for community to be held. Listen now to take a glance into Elena’s ethereal inner landscape! 

To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community. 

Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.

See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.

This week on Tub Talks, we soak in with one of my Esalen and Big Sur elders, Vicki Topp. Vicki has practiced bodywork for many decades alongside our first Tub Talks guest, Deborah Anne Medow. Vicki shares her journey of landing in Big Sur, as well as her immersion into the world of bodywork (massage therapy and other practices). She even demonstrates her skill set on my body during the bath! 

In the immediate aftermath of an eye injury the evening before our soak, Vicki opens the conversation with her original concept of something she calls ‘alternative futures’: a theory that guides her through encountering the possibilities of how to navigate life experiences, including the difficult ones. 

Falling pregnant in college, Vicki dropped out of law school and found herself in Big Sur. From working with elementary school children at Pacific Valley School in the south coast of Big Sur to starting the massage program at Ventana in Big Sur, Vicki details how Big Sur has always “kept her.” She compares her life in Big Sur to a long term relationship, seeing how her dynamic has shifted and adapted over the years. She tells us about her relationship to learning, to housing, to dating, to boats. She talks about losing friends to death as a result of brainwashing in experimental groups in the 70’s. She talks about losing friends now, as she enters a different phase of life. 

Vicki uses bodywork as her way of impacting society, teaching her technique across the world. Vicki’s experience of practicing bodywork is defined by working with a client, as opposed to working on someone. She describes bodywork metaphorically. She sees parallels to life through something she calls ‘reach patterns.’ Reach patterns are both physical and emotional. They can delineate the way we reach for our dreams, or expand the length of our arms from our body. Vicki claims to have grown reach patterns in her body, while being limited in her life goals. Vicki gives us permission to be unapologetically ourselves through her demonstration of how. Vicki paves the way by showing us how to be a strong, independent, intelligent woman. Her vulnerability and honesty about being lost in a nowness is permissive too. So soak in her wisdom, and learn a little bit more about Big Sur culture and the stewarding of the land through living as Vicki Topp! 

To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community. 

Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.

See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.

This week we soak in the bath with Lindsey Ross, the modern-day woman behind the lens of the 19th-century wet plate photography: The Alchemistress. Over the last few years, you may have encountered her unique style of photography at a few of our events where she is typically covered in her classic overalls with her mobile darkroom van parked nearby and her unique pop-up portrait studio within reach. With nature as a focal point for many of her subjects, Lindsey’s work brings a sense of wonder, curiosity, and intrigue especially as the images reveal themselves on the glass plates, changing before our very eyes. There is a sense of slowing down, of patience that comes with her process, something that resonates with what we too create in all of our sensory experiences. With her latest body of work, she has stepped into our dreamy world to play with us and has even brought a few of our own familiar faces to the moody dream world in her latest mushroom series.

In this episode, we learn all about her upbringing in Southern California and her discovery of this large-format style of photography. This field of photography had been traditionally dominated by men at the beginning. When she broke into the community of photographers who are still keeping this art form alive, she brought a unique passion for mixing the modern era with the classic lens to shape her own approach. We’ll sit in on her story around why she pursued this unique style, her personal discovery of learning how to master this time-consuming and laborious process, and how she is giving new life to this old-world art form. Lindsey creates tintype and ambrotype portraits and landscape images. Most recently, she has been working on a mushroom portrait series, where her subjects seem to be shrunken down to the world of insects lounging about in a mythological setting. You can even find some of our own inner circle members among the mix. Listen now to her artist’s journey or go see her large-scale glass photos in person at her studio next time you’re visiting the coast of Santa Barbara.

To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community. 

Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.

See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.

This week, we sit in the tub with Mars: Secular Sabbath collaborator, folk herbalist and earth lover. Mars inspires us by outlining the path she went through on her journey in coming back to herself and her culture through herbal healing. As she went on to help others heal themselves through her Dose of Diosa community, she guides people through remembering, a term which carries bespoke meaning for Mars.

Through exposing the people around her to their states of remembering, Mars speaks to moments of sharing with women, bringing themselves back to nature through learning about the healing properties of everything the Earth has to offer us. Mars shares how powerful these rememberings have been in what she calls “shifting consciousness.”

Mars recounts her journey in reconnecting with her heritage of the indigenous people of El Salvador, starting with an intimate tea ceremony as an inspirational healing practice. The intuitive feeling that grew from this personal healing is what drove her to her purpose: plant healer and teacher. Starting out by attending events with her own blend of herbal teas, Mars spread her mission of guiding people to have safe spaces with nature from walks to plant medicine ceremonies. She learned entrepreneurship through trial and error, and in this conversation, she tells stories of where she has been (from working at an insurance company) to where she is going. 

After discovering her passion for healing, Mars continues to explore new avenues in which she can further this self awareness by exploring her dreams. Referencing our own Secular Sabbath Book Club read, Dream Yoga, Mars explains how dreams can further this remembering, and dreams also express areas of her inner psyche. Spaces that are open for healing. 

As Mars recounts her experience of living a conventional 9-to-5  life in hopes of changing and rewriting her indigenous history, she finds through her remembering that the Earth has always given her everything she needed. Listen now to be inspired to seek your own remembering!

To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community. 

Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.

See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.

This week we sit in the tub with George Augusto, co-founder of fashion brand: STAUD, and Los Angeles restaurant and cafe: Kitchen Mouse. He met his two co-founders in the midst of a multitude of other ventures. Ventures that eventually failed, and whose failure led him to where he is today. George discusses how these experiences of failure gave him moments to discover his gifts and strong suits. Failure is a source of success. 

George chronicles how getting a job as a production assistant on a commercial set was the moment that changed his life trajectory. He went from being arrested for deviant activities to leading creative endeavors. His entrepreneurial pursuits began with Dilettante: an enterprise George used to express his ADD ideas. From publishing books to releasing albums and hosting events, Dilettante gave George an avenue to connect with others. These meeting spaces are where George met two women who would become his current career partners, Erica Daking of Kitchen Mouse and Sara Staudinger of STAUD. 

George discusses the balance between creative and corporate mentality in partnership, while learning to navigate leading teams as a result of scaling projects. George explains practices that his team introduced as they grew and the essential components that come into play when collaborating in space that considers another person’s livelihood. 

As George recounts key moments of his path into adulthood, he shares with us the magic of fate and how falling flat on your face sparks creative inspiration. He shows us the full picture, when we can be so focused on tunnel vision moments. Listen now to be inspired to reconsider your vantage point of your path.

To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community. 

Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.

See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.

This week we soak in the bath with our close friend and co-founder of FriendsWithYou,

Sam Borkson. He started the art project FriendsWithYou with Tury many years ago, in order to help people open their creative channels. He shares about how they use elements of fine art to bring cuteness and a smile to people’s faces. He sees art as a unifier: a way to impact others through storytelling. He creates art as love letters. In this episode, he does it all through even just this conversation. We will learn about his deep desire to save, touch and heal the world by using his influence as a writer and animator to alter the narrative of children’s stories in a way to promote unity for the planet. He exists in a nonstop pursuit of friendship, kindness, and art! Making stuff is not easy. It is perseverance that gets us through. Being stubborn and committed to doing is not to be taken for granted and Sam shares that wisdom with us.

Sharing all about his past, Sam was raised in a broken Florida home. His childhood was exploratory: both outdoors, playing in the wild landscape, and in his inner landscape, in which he was reading about worldwide mythology, psychology, and religions. Much of this deep dive into the human psyche and various belief systems, helped lead him to the positive outlook he has about the power of art. Art has the capacity to shift the modern world. And as Sam tells us about the forthcoming FriendsWithYou projects such as Happy World and Oceans, we begin to understand the purpose before we even can conceptualize the project.  We’ll find that like many, his personal rituals such as deepening connections to friends, childhood memories, and staying true to his authentic self (even while surrounded by Hollywood chaos) - these are what’s keeping him grounded in his practice as an artist. Talking with Sam, a passionately playful individual, brought a smile to our faces, and we hope it brings just as much joy to you too. Listen now to discover how he harnesses a unique essence of happiness in everything he creates. 

To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community. 

Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.

See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.

This week on Tub Talks we revisit some of the most insightful conversations that we’ve had in the baths. Listen to our best moments with our first 11 guests as we look back on our favorite talks with Mia Moretti, Sophie Hawley-Weld, Austyn Weiner, B. Hayes, Loria Stern, Scout LaRue Willis, Krotchy, Mia Maestro, Kassia Meador, Niia Rocco, and my own mother Deborah Medow. Enjoy these little moments we’ve plucked from our deeper discussions, then dive into their full episodes next!

To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community. 

Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.

See what we get up to at 

@secularsabbath

This week we are joined under the oak tree for a soak with DJ and artist, Mia Moretti. A Bay Area native, Mia grew up in an alternative household in Northern California where creativity flowed. Her childhood was colored by her parents’ culture of freedom and exploration, encouraging Mia to follow her dreams of moving in the big city rhythm. In her childhood home, there was always music and jamming, but as someone who didn’t play instruments or sing, Mia had yet to find her place. Moving to LA at 18, Mia found herself fully immersed and comfortable in the music scene at clubs, where tracks ran wild into the night and she explored sound in her own way. This is where the story begins, as Mia thrust herself into the nightlife, absorbing the energy of the space and people around her. This is where she learned to embrace DJing as a means to transform people through the power of musical storytelling.

Starting to DJ at a young age in influential scenes, these opportunities pushed Mia to learn the art of vinyl. This acted as a form of training that would develop her own personal style and develop a niche sound, distinguishing her from others in the field. Mia tells us how her desire to become a curator in the music industry stemmed from her love of seeing the agency that DJs hold over an energetic group of people, and how the DJ’s role was to lead them on a specific journey through the night, guiding people in and out of moments of bliss. To ground herself in what can be a hectic part of the nightlife world, she takes action by writing poems (like she did during the pandemic), setting rituals for herself during long weeks, and wiping away fear by embracing her authentic self in her curation. 

Music has become a way for Mia to transform the emotions, moods, and energies on the dance floor. We dive deep into her philosophy on the control DJs have over set and setting within the spaces they take over. With an inclusive mindset, Mia fosters community with her sound through beats that ask us to let loose, get outside of ourselves, and listen in to the quirky sounds that might pop into her mixes. As we discuss healing our childhood wounds through the modern-day experiences we create, we unveil how these moments of angst shaped the way Mia now approaches the world with a feeling of embodiment and forging her own path in life. As she continues to study, conceptualize, and experiment in her life, Mia invites us to drop into her poetic world of melodic tunes and learn about the backdrops of her life - the elements that influence her philosophies and artistic output. Mia reminds us that, at the core of her belief system, is a deep knowing that music and the earth have the power to connect us back together. Soak in these wisdoms now with our inspiring friend, Mia Moretti.

To join Secular Sabbath membership, you can find us at secular-sabbath.com/membership. Joining grants you access to our Inner Circle community of sensory-exploring like-minded people, where you can gather with us locally in LA for monthly meet-up experiences, and pop-up events around the globe, and partake in our exclusive ambient online community. 

Ready to dive into the dialogue deeper? Join us on our Discord channel.

See what we get up to at @secularsabbath.