With Roots

In this episode, the tables turn. Malia — my right hand since high school — steps into the interviewer's seat to help me trace my unconventional path from a nine-year-old tutor to the educator, mentor, and founder of Sovereign Storyteller that I am today.

I share what it was like growing up without formal K-12 schooling, how that lack became an unexpected gift for treasuring every learning experience, and how I taught myself new material ahead of teaching it to my students - the magic of being of a teacher-learner.

I explain how I learned to build my own metrics for what makes a "good teacher." We dig into the difference between external validation and deep purpose, why good teaching is always a co-creation between teacher and student, and how ancestral wisdom and collective survival keep hope alive in difficult times.

And then I get teary (again) when we reveal the creation of Teacher School — a decade-in-the-making project that includes Spacemakers (a hands-on program for building values-aligned learning experiences) and Teacher's School Apprenticeship (an apprenticeship in the art and methodology of teaching).

*Note: We changed the name of Teacher's Craft to Teacher School Apprenticeship after the filming of this episode*

This episode is about what it means to bring your life's work into existence — with fear, with reverence, and with the kind of care that changes everyone it touches.

Find more resources at drjoeyliu.com.

In this episode, I explore my experience of expansion through a series of stories where I found myself at the precipice - a liminal state in between an old version of me and a new expanded version of me - each time the threshold involved expanded roles & responsibilities.

I recount the practices and discoveries that allowed me to keep up and greet each precipice with willingness - even craving.

And then I reveal my recent discovery - a deeper truth about expansion that explains why my time meeting myself at my current precipice has felt slower and more obscure than all the rest. (It turns out to be a really good thing.)

Referenced in this episode:

Sovereign Storyteller

Ancestral Wealth

Claim Your Story

Love Letters

For free resources to support you in your self-inquiry & self-expression work check out my website: www.drjoeyliu.com

In this episode I talk about how questioning your worth, voice, and safety in visibility isn’t something you arrived at alone; it’s shaped by culture, caretakers, education, media, oppression, and capitalism, so we need context to give ourselves the right care. I share that decolonizing visibility isn’t a destination but a threshold: if being seen in your leadership still feels unsafe, it may signal you haven’t found the right ground for your self-concept. I invite you to audit your relationship with yourself—worthiness, perfection, forgiveness, repair, growth, responsibility—and to break “fear of visibility” into specific stories and memories to contextualize and heal. I also name disappointment and longing to be seen as possible roots, and I encourage daily self-tending as collective, generational work. We left the stars for this — so you might as well make your life a movie.

We do this specific work in Sovereign Storyteller — a 5-month cohort to decolonize voice & visibility for paradigm-shifting creators & founders.

Check out more resources on voice & story work at: drjoeyliu.com.

In this episode I talk story with one of the most brilliant minds, hearts, humans I've ever met, Giana Cerasia. Her journey from teaching in the oldest high school in America, to reforming prison education, to building the first virtual school in the state of Connecticut at age 25 is only the first act in her story of troubling systems from within and asking: "What are the most strategic ways I can make sustained, systemic change?"

Giana's story takes us from the peak of the corporate ladder all the way back to the depths of self -- an intersection of paradox, lineage, and the most powerful choice to return to yourself when you realize: "doing this costs too much".

Buckle up. This conversation is a full sojourn into what it means to be a human and find the truest places of our power, creativity, and agency.

Check out Giana's brilliant work here:

Apprenticeship: https://ravish.life/apprenticeship

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giana.cerasia/

Check out more resources on voice & story work at: drjoeyliu.com

What if I told you that you could make your body of work a love letter to your people?

That's what I did - because that's kind of all I know. As a misfit myself, I've always known I'm for the misfits. And as misfits, it's so important that we know how to find each other, stick together, and change our worlds together.

So my work, my love letters, my bat signal to my kind - it HAS to find it's people. And it always has.

I break it down for you in this episode and invite you to wonder with me - who needs YOU? What would it mean to them to come across your work as a love letter written with them uniquely in mind?

If this is shaking up something in you, I made this for you: MAKE YOUR BODY OF WORK LOVE LETTERS TO YOUR PEOPLE.

Check out more resources on voice & story work at: drjoeyliu.com

In this episode, I explore the idea of a pedagogy of love. Love as the central architecture for all that we do - our living, our working, our relating, our building new worlds.

I tap into some personal stories - from my time as a foster mom, to the classroom, to the work I do now - to illustrate the power of love as a north star and root system.

Listen all the way through for a feeling-filled heart-to-heart at the end - a word of life and love to YOU.

For more support in anchoring your work into a paradigm of love, check out  MAKE YOUR BODY OF WORK LOVE LETTERS TO YOUR PEOPLE.

Check out more resources on voice & story work at: ⁠drjoeyliu.com

This week I sit down with Sir Dushon, dancer, editor, and one-of-a-kind creative force. Shon brings 2 stories to the campfire. One story that breaks down the moments of facing fear and releasing it. In another story, Shon documents his up and down journey to pursue his creative purpose and what it means to preserve against the odds. Shon also takes a walk with me down memory lane and we swap stories of a very special time in our life when I was his high school teacher and spoken word coach.

This week I’m joined at the campfire by Jen Liwanag, certified professional trainer, certified nutrition coach, and now pre- and post-natal coach. Today Jen will be sharing her story of breaking societal & cultural expectations of her to follow her own path into coaching & entrepreneurship. In another story, Jen generously shares with us her journey into motherhood including her experience with pregnancy loss, navigating grief, and redefining her identity after the birth of her daughter.

Keep up with Jennifer on Instagram: GrowingGoddess.ca

More info about Jennifer at: www.growinggoddess.ca

You can always connect with Dr. Joey Liu at DrJoeyLiu.com or on Instagram @Dr.Joey.Liu

This week I sit down with Ph.D., Associate Marriage & Family Therapist specializing in Birth, Pregnancy, and Postpartum Trauma, Activist, Mother, and now Romantasy Novelist, KATE STAHL-KOVELL. Kate narrates her path to creating her first novel Mor and we discuss the theme of giving ourselves permission to be creative. Kate also shares her story of surviving trauma and channeling this experience into her service of others.

Learn more about Dr. Kate at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/kate-nicole-stahl-kovell-redlands-ca/977823

Connect with her on Instagram: @postpartumptsd

Learn more about Dr. Joey Liu at: DrJoeyLiu.com

Connect with her on Instagram: @dr.joey.liu

This week I sit down with professor, elected official, and activist Dr. Paolo Magcalas. Paolo brings the theme of love in his story of activism, tracing his days from the high school classroom all the way to the board room as an elected official. In his second story, Paolo candidly shares experiences of growing up in America as an immigrant and the effects of colonization on his life and his communities, both in the U.S. and the Philippines.

You can keep up with Dr. Paolo Magcalas on Instagram: @drmagcalas4auhsd

If you are interested in working with me to help, tell your story, find your people, and grow your mission, visit my website: DrJoeyLiu.com

The videos to all episodes of Everyone Needs a Story for the Campfire can be found on YouTube.