Bushwick Junction

Sarah Goodyear, Brooklyn-based journalist and novelist, has a life story with a recurring pattern: she's twice risen out of bad circumstances by sheer force of will. She tells us how she made her way into her dream school, and later into a happy marriage, by believing in herself and keeping a steadfast commitment to her work. We also chat about her current work on The War On Cars, a podcast about the century-long, ongoing battle to reclaim our cities from the automobile.

Introducing Bushwick Junction Short Cuts, a series of brief narratives built from live episodes of Bushwick Junction. The first tells the story of Amna Shamim, a digital nomad who works as a writer and marketer from all over the world. You can listen to Amna's unedited interview in episode 29.

Abbi Coulter is an Aussie transplant, advertising project manager, part-time cosmetolgist, dog mom, and cancer survivor. She tells us she envies people who make decisions easily, but in hindsight realizes that she's approached her most pivotal moments with impressive decisiveness. And she shares that her version of a happy ending is a life where she continually commits to learning new things.

Amna Shamim is a digital nomad who works remotely from all over the world as a writer and visibility consultant. She tells us about a big decision she was entrusted with as a child, and then about a relative lack of decisionmaking as a young adult, when she took the life steps that came most easily to her. But the decisions that formed the life she has now — the ones to find a career she loves, let go of a home in NYC, and travel all over the world — happened in increments. Bonus topic: which decisions are truly irreversible?

Audio producer Cher Vincent tells us about the courage it took to walk away from what she thought was her path, not once but twice: first, getting into her dream medical school but deciding not to go, then, leaving the career she chose instead in education. But when you're as curious about the world as Cher is, you never run out of options.

Amit Khera breaks the Bushwick Junction mold to focus on ONE big decision: his decision to found Soul Collective, a directory of conscious community-based events in NYC.

Billy Crosby's tone is deceiving: in this episode, he tells us his heavy lifestory with a lighthearted ease. He felt isolated as a young person, got fired from his dream job, got married and divorced two times over, and battled addiction and depression all the while. Why so cheerful, then? Because in recent years, Billy has found comfort and success as a radio DJ and visual artist, proving to us that after all great struggles lie better things.

April Soetarman is an experience designer, architect, and creator of art experiments with code, words and guerrilla street art at WeirdSideProjects.com. One of her latest projects feels right at home on Bushwick Junction: it's an exhibit called the Museum of Almost Realities, a collection of artifacts from the life you might have had. We talk about April's almost realities, and how she decided on the ones that actually occurred.

Conceptual artist and professional DJ Maria Chavez shares the story of her life's work in sound. From a condition at birth that affected her relationship to sound, to a not-quite-satisfying experience in the Houston underground electronic scene, Maria knew she needed an artistic outlet that made room for her indidviduality. So when she discovered abstract turntablism, the practice became the center of the career, taking her all over the world to perform and teach about improvisation.

Chicago Figueroa is a barber and musician who's on a mission to be happy. We talk through Chicago's past lives as a raver, a goth, an audio engineer, and a female-presenting person before taking hormones and getting top surgery. Listen as we talk through taking your well-being into your own hands, and jam to Chicago's band, Permanant Wave.

Christian Larson-Sokaris is a social entrepreneur and software developer living in Brooklyn. Before that he was a fundraiser and consultant for non-profits, and before that a lobbyist and advocate in the fields of civil rights and criminal justice reform. He found these fields after leaving behind his adolescent dream of being an academic, as well as a brief stint in young adulthood as an artist and sculptor. He talks about the thread underlying these seemingly disparate jobs: a fascination with the systems that control us.

Musician and actor Samuel Cieri realized something important younger than most: no one can stop you from walking out of the life prescribed to you and choosing one that makes you happy instead. He first exercised this knowledge by walking out of high school and never returning. He tells us about the unconventional life that followed, working as a piano player, a motorcycle salesman, and in a touring musical before dedicating his life to songwriting for his current project, Nicotine Dolls.

Rinat Sherzer, social entrepreneur and founder of Of Course Global, spent much of her adulthood following her heart around the world. From using her engineering degree to become a bartender, to leaving behind a successful career to travel, to uprooting her life from Israel to the US, she's made plenty of decisions that didn't make sense to everyone around her. She tells us how she learned to love that about herself. She also observes that her non-traditional life experiences served her in finding her exact professional niche, one that didn't even exist yet in the years she spent afloat.

Pamela Villa Kundu, a Latina living in New York by way of Mexico, Miami, and Chicago, tells us how she decided to leave a career in finance to work in criminal justice advocacy, starting with the campaign to close Rikers Island.

Persephone Sarah Jane Smith has so many substantial junctions to share that it's impressive how seamlessly she wove between them in an hour. She tells us about joining the military, leaving it, coming out as trans, and deciding to run for City Council representing Brooklyn's 37th District.

We have lots of multi-hyphenates on this show, but Evan's combo is particularly impressive: he's both an engineer and an artist. He tells us how life took him from South Central LA to Brooklyn, and about rounding out his life to better integrate his varied interests.

Don't let the title mislead you: Tara is most certainly a badass herself. She's a social justice-oriented educator who tells us about leaving behind a career in IT to teach, about her philosophy around building a community in the classroom, and about all the women in education and the arts who helped her along the way.

Uluç Ulgen, host of RFB podcast Murmur, talks about a tough childhood as an immigrant in Minnesota. His alienation led to a love of music, which in turn led to him once falling onto Prince. Yes, that Prince! The real story here though is one of self-reflection in adulthood, and the adoption of a framework that would allow Uluç to pay forward kindnesses that got him to the life he enjoys in NYC.

Sean and Nico make up Deaf Poets, a Miami band recently transplanted to Brooklyn. They tell us about finding each other in grade school art class, getting their start together in the Miami music scene, finding their sound, and pushing each other out of their comfort zones.

Nick Brennan tells us about the pivots in his professional life - leaving college to become a touring musician, then leaving that life for a career in politics and news - and about the personal undercurrents that paved the way for them.

Actor, director, and fellow RFB host Elann Danziger describes his pivot between creative fields as a young adult: he started life as an actor, but was seduced by college radio. He tells the story of returning to acting, and eventually to directing, while keeping his passion for audio alive too.

Television reporter and fellow RFB host Orie Givens tells the story of pursuing the career he'd always known he wanted, but not until the exact moment he was ready for it.

Vanessa Ide talks about her knack for instinctive decision-making, starting with a version of herself she chose not to become at the age of 14.

Shamia Casiano describes her decision not to succumb to darkness after a terrible loss at age 16. Instead, she summoned all her determination and took a series of small steps to embrace happiness and build her self-esteem. Years later, she's still enjoying the fruits of this labor.

Rachel Webb tells the story of how she came to practice Tibetan Buddhism. What started as an interest in yoga turned into a renunciation of meat and alcohol, a life-changing trip to Nepal, and an undertaking of vows aimed at customizing a more pleasant reality.

New Women Space co-founder Melissa Wong describes designing a life that allows her to channel her well-rounded nature into her passions for building communities and fostering IRL connections.

Tiffany Diane tells us how the universe conspired to move her from Austin to NYC, where she worked hard to land herself a career as an editor and journalist.

In our second episode, Radio Free Brooklyn co-founder Tom Tenney tell us about an early lesson about the power of unlimited thinking, his career in the performing arts, everything we ever wanted to know about clown school, and the confluence of passions that led him to launch RFB.

In our inaugural episode, RFB co-founder Rob Prichard takes us through his journey through his angry youth, finding solace in the punk scene, making a name for himself in alternative theater, and the decision to found RFB.