Wonder Dome

R.S.A. Garcia is a Trinbagonian speculative fiction author who lives in Trinidad and Tobago with her extended family, and as she says, too many cats and dogs :^) Her debut science fiction mystery novel, Lex Talionis, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, silver medal for best sci-fi fantasy horror ebook from the Independent Publishers award, and became an Amazon Best Seller.

She's also published some incredible short fiction, including the novella Philia, Eros, Storge, Agápe, Pragma. If you speak Greek, then you may know the meaning of those words: they are all different kinds of love. The novella explores the question of love in its many different forms.

The story’s science-fictional world - which includes artificial intelligence, space travel, and interplanetary conflict - is imbued with relationship, family, and respect for tradition, but also a willingness to risk everything for a better future. It draws on both historical realities from our world and richly imagined possibilities from R.S.A.'s incredible imagination. So I'm really excited for you to hear this one, and I hope that you leave here with an urge to read even more of her beautiful writing.

Connect with R.S.A.:
rsagarcia.com
rsagarcia.com/publications
Lex Talionis by R.S.A. Garcia
"The Anchorite Wakes" by R.S.A. Garcia
"PHILIA, EROS, STORGE, AGÁPE, PRAGMA" by R.S.A. Garcia
The seven kinds of love from Psychology Today
"The Sun from both Sides"
"The Bois" by R.S.A. Garcia
Papa Bois
"The Guardian" by R.S.A. Garcia
Trinidad and Tobago
Calypso Music
"King" by Florence and the Machine

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Eric Larson, SB Rawz, and I met several years ago. We're all coaches, and we're all on varying parts of our journey into the profession: building our careers, building our businesses, and I immediately felt a deep resonance with both of them.

Eric is a return visitor to The Wonder Dome. SB is a new arrival, but feels like an old friend to The Dome. She brings a wonderful depth of insight. And both of them in combination with their expertise and experience are just so god damn fun :^)

If you listen in, you'll learn a lot. You'll laugh. You'll sit with some big questions. You might occasionally throw your arms up in irritation - or in joy. I invite you to make sure you listen all the way to the end, where Eric leads us in an experiment about resetting the frame of our lives, and play along with us in a way that feels right for you, wherever you are in this moment.

Episode Notes:
Connect with Eric on LinkedIn
Connect with SB on LinkedIn
Ep 45 “You Can Get There from Anywhere” with Eric Larson
rawzcoaching.com
The Golden Buddha
Tara Brach
The Bright Side of Shame by Claude-Hélène Mayer and Elisabeth Vanderheiden
Spare by Prince Harry the Duke of Sussex
Spalding Gray
Taproot
Big Fish (film)
Tinkers by Paul Harding

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Julie Nováková is an award-winning Czech author of science fiction and detective stories. She tells inspiring stories of possible futures rooted in a really solid understanding of practical science, without sacrificing the heart and humanity of her characters.

She's published seven novels, one anthology, one story collection, and over thirty short pieces in Czech. And her work in English has appeared in some of the premier magazines in the world of speculative fiction and imaginative literature.

She's also a PhD candidate in evolutionary biology at Charles University and writes wonderful popular science articles about fields ranging from behavioral science to planetary dynamics for Clarkesworld magazine and others.

Julie does what is not easy to do: threading together big ideas, and high quality research with strong, character-driven storytelling. It's both really fun stuff and also inspiring stuff to read. Listen in to journey with us into some of these dreams from beyond.

Connect with Julie:
julienovakova.com
facebook.com/JulieNovakovaAuthor
twitter.com/Julianne_SF
The Ship Whisperer, collection of stories by Julie, including:
• Second Generation
• Ship Whisperer
• Becoming
• Reset in Peace
julienovakova.com/strangest-of-all
julienovakova.com/life-beyond-us-anthology
clarkesworldmagazine.com
europeanastrobiology.eu

View full show notes at bit.ly/3RT9yMX

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Sara Rivera is a Cuban/Peruvian artist, writer, translator, and educator. Her poetry and fiction have been published in a number of literary journals and anthologies. She was awarded a 2017 St. Botolph's Emerging Artist Award and won the 2018 Stephen Dunn Prize in Poetry.

Her drawings, sculptures, and community-based installations focus on text-in-space as social intervention, and her public art projects are often developed in collaboration with youth, who bring a really important perspective and voice to the question of who we are and who we're becoming.

What is possible for us as a society and the future we are building? Sara and I explore these questions of who we are as a species, the societies we’ve built, and where we’re headed through her own brilliant writing & poetry and through the writings of others.

Connect with Sarah:
saradanielerivera.com
instagram.com/sdr_arts
twitter.com/sdr_arts
grubstreet.org
Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements by Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Octavia Butler, sci-fi writer
Alejandra Pizarnik, Argentine poet
Read Sara’s “Bird Sanctuary” in Waxwing

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The world is as noisy as ever, and only getting more so. And we're not just talking about the actual sound waves produced by machines, cars, televisions, etc. There's a lot of real noise, but there's also informational noise (news, videos, updates, ‘likes’, ‘feeds’, etc) and interior noise (anxiety, worry, doubt, anger, fear, rumination, self-judgment, etc).

Today’s guests, Leigh Marz and Justin Zorn, are taking this issue head-on. They are the co-authors of the timely book Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise. It is a beautifully written and researched exploration of the spiritual, cultural, social, and collective traditions of accessing spaces of silence in the midst of noisy life.

Golden is written to help us connect to what silence actually is - not just the absence of noise, but a kind of energizing, inspiring presence. And it outlines how the presence of silence can transform us as individuals, as groups, and even as a society.

What might it look like for us to orient towards a society where there is less inner and outer noise? Where we have more access to spaces of silence that allow us to truly listen for what is possible in our lives and in the world? New outcomes emerge that simply are not possible when we're scrambling, hustling, and drowning in all this noise. Tune in to this conversation to experience those questions and explorations for yourself.

Connect with Leigh and Justin:
Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise by Leigh Marz and Justin Zorn
astreastrategies.com
leighmarz.com
justinzorn.com
”A new book considers what silence is and how it can enrich us” by Christina Tucker (via The Boston Globe)
”We once had a law to defend human attention. It’s time for an update.” by Leigh Marz and Justin Zorn (via The Washington Post)

Connect with Leigh on LinkedIn | Twitter
Connect with Justin on LinkedIn | Twitter

View full show notes at bit.ly/3XH2WU3

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Dr. Nerina Ramlakhan has worked 25+ years as a physiologist and sleep and energy expert. At the core of our conversation is her most recent book, Finding Inner Safety, which she describes as a natural extension of and deepening of her expertise and human physiology, the science of sleep, and the behaviors that can help us sleep better. Underneath our ability to sleep is our capacity to feel safe. If you don't feel safe, you can't sleep.

So after 25 years of developing an incredible body of work and impacting thousands of people to help them live healthier lives by sleeping better, she's stepping even more fully into this reality that the deeper truth of our society is that many of us, regardless of wealth, income, and location, live in an epidemic of unsafety.

Nerina is stepping beautifully into this space to make a case for the collective, individual, and ancestral healing work we need to do. She affirms that each one of us has access to healing and finding our own inner safety - if we’re willing to go on the journey. I hope you can begin that journey with us starting with this powerful conversation.

Connect with Nerina:
drnerina.com
facebook.com/DrNerina
instagram.com/drnerina
twitter.com/drnerina
Finding Inner Safety: The Key to Healing, Thriving, and Overcoming Burnout by Dr. Nerina Ramlakhan

For full show notes, please visit bit.ly/3IvRoOz

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From the moment I first encountered Kate Elliott’s short story, ”I am a handsome man, said Apollo Crow,” I knew I was in the hands of a master storyteller. Kate is an incredibly talented and prolific author who has written so many cool, fun, enriching books - and they serve as the spine of our conversation today.

One of her most recent books, Unconquerable Sun, is a gender-swapped story of Alexander the Great set on an interstellar scale. It's operatic. It's beautiful. It's also deeply researched - essentially everything you're reading in the book is pulled from the various tellings of the story of Alexander the Great. You’ll get an inside look into Kate's mind to understand what it takes to write a book of this scope that’s just brimming with insight, historical nuance, and texture.

This conversation was a powerful exploration of craft, history, identity, of what it is to step into our calling despite resistance, despite even risk of loss of life - which is true for so many of the characters that Kate writes about.

Connect with Kate:
Visit kateelliott.com
twitter.com/KateElliottSFF
youtube.com/@SFWA
Subscribe to Kate’s Newlsetter
Support Kate on Patreon
Check out The Sun Chronicles Series
“We know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know.” - Donald Rumsfield
Dmitri Shostakovich
Alexander the Great
Ptolemaic Dynasty
The Crossroads Trilogy (Spirit Gate, Shadow Gate, and Traitors Gate by Kate Elliott)
The Cold Magic Trilogy (Cold Magic, Cold Fire, and Cold Steel by Kate Elliott)
Widukind of Corvey, 10th Century Chronicler

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I’ve had the pleasure of bringing Yotam Schachter into The Wonder Dome several times now. This particular conversation is a bonus mini-episode where Yotam walks us through his method of Self-Coaching, a simple and powerful practice for engaging with life’s many growth opportunities.

Self-coaching teaches us how to dialog with ourselves, acting as both client and coach. Just like a professional coach, you will listen, ask questions, and empathize with yourself. As a result, you can grow your own capacity to navigate life’s challenges and opportunities with more skill, grace, and self-compassion.

If you’re interested in learning more about self-coaching, Yotam is hosting both a “taster” workshop and a full, seven-session program. I’ve worked with Yotam in a variety of ways, and he is truly a gifted practitioner. If you’re interested in cultivating your own learning and growth - and may not have the means or desire to invest in private 1:1 coaching - then I highly recommend checking out his Self-Coaching program. 

Connect with Yotam:
linkedin.com/in/yotam-schachter-07b78018
Presence Tree Leadership
Ep 18 “The Strength Beyond Our Fear” with Yotam Schachter
Ep 106 "Facing the Violence Within" with Lawrence Barriner and Yotam Schachter
Conscious Becoming: Foundations of Self-Coaching (Taster Workshop)
Conscious Becoming: Self-Coaching Practices for Efficacy, Harmony, and Growth (Full Program)

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Rebecca F. Kuang is a multi-award winning Best Selling Author and an accomplished scholar and academic. Her epic fantasy trilogy, The Poppy War, is a beautiful, brutal, story that combines the history of 20th-century China with a universe of monsters, magic, and gods. It is a heartbreaking and powerful piece of art, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in things like Game of Thrones and other fantasy works.

Her latest book, Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution, is a number one New York Times best seller. I think it's safe to say the book is a masterpiece. It explores an alternative history of academia centered at Oxford University in a magical version of London where literary translation is magical.

The book's central character, Robin Swift, is orphaned by cholera in Canton and is brought from China to London by a mysterious professor. We come to discover the truth of the Royal Institution of Translation alongside Robin, and in the process, we are given an unflinching look at the oppressive, colonial, racist ideology that allowed this institution to come into being.

What the best science fiction and fantasy do so well is make us look long and hard at our own world. Babel does so without sacrificing the story, which is filled with moments of sweetness and love and tenderness, and also moments of violence and loss and brutality.

In our conversation, Rebecca and I explore what it is to translate, what it is to speak, what it is to have an identity and a sense of place or home, and what it is to lose that. Rebecca, ever the scholar and storyteller, leads us into that territory in a beautiful way. 

Connect with Rebecca:
instagram.com/kuangrf
twitter.com/kuangrf
rfkuang.com
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang
The Poppy War Trilogy by R.F. Kuang
Ebony and Ivory: Race Slavery and the Troubled History of America's Universities by Craig Steven Wilder
The Phaedo by Plato

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Nina Simons is the co-founder of Bioneers, an organization focused on helping the human species reach a place of true racial and gender justice for all, while also rekindling our sacred relationship with the planet Earth - and in the process, supporting a just transition to a future that's regenerative, sustainable, and allows every living being on this planet to flourish.

The mission of Bioneers and their extensive body of work also serve as a powerful example of what I aspire to build with The Wonder Dome: a place where people who care about our collective future can be nourished and inspired as they connect to hope, possibility, mystery, and beauty.

In our conversation today, we use Nina’s award-winning book, Nature, Culture, & the Sacred: A Women Listens for Leadership, as the departure point for a wide-ranging conversation about the essentiality of bringing more feminine energy into leadership.

Nina has spent decades cultivating the leadership of women around the world. She embodies the wisdom she teaches. There's so much more I could say about her career and journey, but suffice it to say it was an incredible honor to host Nina in The Wonder Dome.

Connect with Nina:
facebook.com/nina.simons
instagram.com/1ninasimons
linkedin.com/in/nina-simons-47a1355
twitter.com/ninabioneers
ninasimons.com
bioneers.org
Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership
Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart

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