Unbroken Chain Podcast

Daniel and I sit down at the kitchen table to talk about travel and filmmaking, the magic of strangers, and the death of our friend Christophe.  You can find us online at MauraJames.com and DanielFox.tv.  [“The Greater Wings” - Julie Byrne]

My friend Kasem joins for a tender, deeply personal conversation about his lifelong dance with the mystic. From a childhood rooted in the Missionary Baptist church to his last 13 years as a practicing buddhist, Kasem has been following the radical meme of self-discovery.  We talk about everything from putting Jesus back in context and learning to examine the nature of reality, to the “double dutch” of code switching and navigating the American Dream as the child of immigrants. If you want to connect with Kasem, you can email him at ricanarab@gmail.com. More podcasts at MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“Haenim” - Kim Jung Me]

My friend Kasem joins for a tender, deeply personal conversation about his lifelong dance with the mystic. From a childhood rooted in the Missionary Baptist church, to his last 13 years as a practicing buddhist and through recent explorations with psychedelics, Kasem has been following the radical meme of self-discovery.  We talk about everything from putting Jesus back in context and learning to examine the nature of reality, to the “double dutch” of code switching and navigating the American Dream as the child of immigrants. If you want to connect with Kasem, you can email him at kasem@bustelogroup.com. More podcasts at MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“Haenim” - Kim Jung Me]

“Nerdy rebel” Kenton Bartlett discusses starting Alabama's first psychedelic studio where he shepherds people through therapeutic ketamine sessions. We talk about leaving behind traditional talk therapy models, holding space, curating music, legality, and combatting drug war propaganda.  “If I had to summarize my current philosophy, it would be: trust yourself. And everything I'm trying to do as a therapist is just get out of the way.” You can find photos of Kenton's meticulously designed trip spaces on Facebook and learn more about his offerings on his website. Listen to the higher consciousness playlist here. More podcasts at MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“Sit Around the Fire” feat. Ram Dass & East Forest]

Musician and human laser beam of positive energy Phil Cook comes to the woods in Alabama for an intimate conversation by the creek. We talk everything from space and swing, to dad's ski tapes, to getting diagnosed with ADHD at 40, and learning to respect the power of plants. It's been a big time of reflection and setting new direction. Welcome to Phil's big, beautiful world. You're part of the family now.  Watch Phil's new documentary Stay Prayed Up and listen to his new album All These Years. He's on IG @philcookmusic. More podcasts at MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“All These Years” - Phil Cook]

My dear friend Chase Bauer returns to the podcast with a deeply personal exploration of the nature of mind. In telling the story of a recent psychedelic ceremony, Chase reveals how a constellation of wisdom including nonviolent communication (NVC), guru yoga, and the witness of LSD helped him understand his relationship to addiction in a radically new way. Along the way we contemplate cults and spiritual abuse, whiteness, codependence, the value and limitations of constructing mental models, and doing whippets in your 30s. Watch Chase’s short films Calling For Home Care and Pleasant Valley Black and Blue and connect with him on IG @cosminomena. More podcasts at MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“Love Is Overtaking Me” - Arthur Russell]

Kathy Nida is an artist most well known for her quilts, which depict potent visions of the human experience. She describes quilting as a form of meditative practice that is essential to her mental health. She has intentionally prioritized it throughout her life, including while also being a mother and a full-time middle school science teacher. In this conversation, we explore truth-telling and censorship, art and capitalism, pantyhose revolt, and finding hope for the future in critically-thinking 12-year-olds, among much more. You can connect with her at kathynida.com and on IG @knida. More podcasts where podcasts are found and at MauraJames.com. [“Down By the River” - Letta Mbulu]

Hasan Oswald is a filmmaker who made the documentary film HIGHER LOVE in Camden, NJ with no professional experience, no budget, and no crew. Using YouTube to learn all things film and selling his blood plasma to make ends meet, he somehow pulled off a zero-budget hit. Higher Love tells the story of a blue-collar father tries to bring his pregnant, heroin-addicted girlfriend home from the streets. Oswald shares stories about the making of the project, as well as his next feature about Yazidi families in the Middle East seeking reunification after thousands of people were kidnapped by ISIS. You can connect with him at HigherLoveFilm.com and @HigherLoveFilm. More podcasts where podcasts are found and MauraJames.com. [“Dreamlands” - Still Corners]

Susan Ateh is a breathwork facilitator whose goal is for all people to experience love for themselves. An Irish-Cameroonian living in LA as a working actor for many years, Susan realized that the misogyny, materialism, and judgment inherent to the film industry had worn down her love for her craft, and she found herself paralyzed by depression. She shares how breathwork reconnected her to the beauty of her emotions and helped her begin to release decades of unprocessed emotion, a journey into reconnection that she now holds space for others to walk. We talk about the socialization of “the good girl,” the trope of the “angry black woman,” comparison culture, capitalism and colonialism in the wellness industry, and the importance of apologizing for our participation in white supremacy—unconscious and conscious—when we begin the work of deprogramming our minds and hearts. You can find Susan and her virtual breathwork circles at www.susanateh.com and IG @irishinfused. More podcasts where podcasts are found, www.maurajames.com and IG @maurajames.  [“Deep Silence” - Loma Suyo]

Mullyman returns to the podcast (episode 49!), this time with his sister NikStylz. Together they are the duo MicBroSis, releasing an album of consciousness lifting “anti-trap” trap music called “Godspeed" this winter. We dive into the current zeitgeist of deep questioning, exploring how we recognize manipulation, discern wisdom, and attain liberation. I get an education in how violence came to be associated with modern black music (spoiler alert: the prison industrial complex has a stake in it) and how Mully and Nikia are readjusting their values away from the mainstream. You can find them on IG: @iammullyman @NikStylz @MicBroSis. More podcasts where podcasts are found, MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“People” - MicBroSis]

Jeanette Waddell is a storyteller and wise elder based in middle Georgia. She returns to the podcast (catch her on episode 37!) to shares her experience as a black woman in America, from confronting racism in intimate relationships to underrepresentation of black bodies in the media to learning to keep her heart open with healthy boundaries through ongoing oppression. She shares the stories of community organizing and individual vision that ground her in her own agency: Malcolm X, MLK, the organizers of the bus boycotts, and the community of the black church. Through it all, she presents storytelling as a powerful tool for manifesting freedom in a world based on exploitation and enslavement. You can email her at vaughnfamily21@juno.com. More podcasts where podcasts are found and MauraJames.com.  [“If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me)” - The Staples Singers]

Nick Nail is a musician, painter, gentle soul, and friend of ours in Birmingham. Here Nick explores his lifelong quest for comfort and belonging after experiencing a painful split in his consciousness in the wake of early childhood sexual abuse. At times Nick has found relief in long distance running and creating music and art and at other times in codependent relationships and regular heroin use. Nick has a tremendous capacity for compassionate observation. He talks with radical transparency about the gifts and limitations of addiction, choosing homelessness, bearing the stigma of being a “bad person,” discovering the permission to enjoy life, and learning to be of service to the world. Nick recently detoxed from heroin at our house and this conversation was recorded a few days after he was finally walking, talking, and eating again. “Who’s to say that anybody is wrong for doing something that they’re lead to do? All the things that we go through are just something to help us do better tomorrow, you know?” More podcasts where podcasts are found, MauraJames.com and IG: @maurajames. [“Your Jewel” - Michael Nau]

Juliana Mulligan is the founder of Inner Vision Ibogaine, where she coaches people before and after treatment sessions with the powerful entheogen ibogaine. Her call to devote her life to helping others formulate a new healing life structure is deeply personal: after seven years of struggle with opioid dependency, which forced her into the further trauma of the mainstream rehab system, from methadone and Suboxone to 12 step programs and the justice system, Juliana finally found freedom with ibogaine. Although the treatment was a success, the clinic did not followed proper safety protocols and Juliana nearly died several times during the experience. Ever since, she has been focused on safety guidelines, promoting women run clinics and co-authoring a guide for vetting providers. She became a certified EMT and trained in three Ibogaine clinics in South Africa, Costa Rica, and Mexico, acting as a provider and lay-therapist. She currently works as the Psychedelic Program Coordinator at The Center for Optimal Living, which focuses on Harm Reduction. You can find her recent articles at Double Blind and Chacruna. More podcasts where podcasts are found and at MauraJames.com. [“A Calf Born in Winter” - Khruangbin]

Sophia Remolde aka Lobsterbird is a nomadic creator, performer, writer, and energy worker who helps guide spiritual creatives to phase out of their jobs and into careers they love and that serve the world. During lockdown at her parents house this year, she answered an unexpected internal call to start growing her own food, something she had no previous experience with aside from once killing some bamboo. Several months later, she is the proud cultivator of a thriving food forest and on her way to a permaculture certification. She has started a mycelium education initiative to support people around the world at all levels of resources and in all kinds of physical spaces to begin their own journey into relationship with the soil and their food. You can find those resources at Grow.me and all her other offerings at Lobsterbird.com. More podcasts where podcasts are found, at MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“We Are one” - MAZE ft. Frankie Beverly]

In honor of the two year anniversary of Unbroken Chain, I took a moment to look back on the journey. In a sweet conversation with my partner Daniel, I share my intentions for starting the podcast and touch on some of the things I’ve learned along the way: deep listening, connecting with the unbroken part of another’s soul, confronting suffering, reckoning with whiteness, psychedelic tools, plant medicine teachers, and other juicy goodness in between. I’m sending this out with much gratitude and love for the dear ones who have joined me on this ride. I see you, and I love you. More podcasts where podcasts are found, at MauraJames.com and IG: @maurajames. [“Solar Plexus Chakra” - Beautiful Chorus]  

Daniel Fox is a filmmaker, music curator, cosmic coordinator, and deep lover of humans who also happens to also be my partner. The son of a Southern Baptist preacher, Daniel grew up deeply formed by evangelical conditioning in the Deep South: toxic masculinity, the eternal threat of hell, overt racism, sports as religion, rabid materialism, sexual shame, and so much fear. He talks about the suicidal depression that overtook his life when he finally left the only community he had ever known and speaks publicly for the first time about coming to terms with childhood trauma that he spent many years trying to avoid. He honors the many teachers including hiphop artists, powerful women, and entheogens like cannabis and mushrooms that offered him a path to reconnection with himself and divine wisdom, and helped him find the grace to see his parents and their culture with new perspective. He now walks with others emerging from religious trauma in confronting harm, breaking cycles of abuse, and making meaning on their own terms. You can reach out to Daniel at DanielFox.tv and IG @daniel.carl.the.fox. More podcasts where podcasts are found, MauraJames.com and Ig @MauraJames. [“The Sun Will Shine On You” - Jeff Lynne’s ELO]

Royal Parker is an activist based in New York’s Hudson Valley. On July 18, 2020, he lead a rally of 400 peaceful protestors in support of voting rights and police oversight. The event became the subject of national news when his group was met with hate speech and violence from counter-protestors representing the Duchess County Conservative Party and pro-police supporters. In this thoughtful and transparent conversation, Royal reflects on his experience as a highly visible black leader in the movement for justice. We talk about learning to integrate non-violence into practice, the psycho-emotional fallout of violent confrontation, and the call to serve, as well as his background in the US military during the era of the trans ban as he was beginning to transition genders. You can connect with Royal on facebook @UntilWe’reAllFree and online at untilwereallfree.com. More podcasts at MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. You can watch Chase Bauer’s short documentary about the recent rally and conflict, “Pleasant Valley Black and Blue,” for free online: https://vimeo.com/449899198 [“Someday We’ll All Be Free” - Donny Hathaway]

Samantha Zipporah is an educator and support person for rites of passage related to reproductive and sexual health. She helps people understand the power, pleasure, and magic available in fertility and sexuality, particularly centered on wombs and ovaries. On her website and Patreon, you can find an abundance of resources related to conscious contraception and ovulation awareness, holistic healing after abortion and miscarriage, and non-medicalized reproductive health. In this conversation we explore the intersection of physiology and spirituality, reclaiming our bodies from pharmaceuticals, and becoming attuned to the natural cycles of our internal ecology, touching on PMS, grief, and moon lodge practice along the way. Some of the books she recommends in this episode include: The Mysteries of the Dark Moon: The Healing Power of the Dark Goddess, The Great Cosmic Mother, The Chalice and the Blade, and Wild Power from the Red School. Find Sam online at SamanthaZipporah.com and IG @SamanthaZipporah. More podcasts where podcasts are found, MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“Eternal Life” - Shira Small]

Ananda is my housemate and one of the kindest, most beautiful old souls in a young body I’ve ever met. He has spent the last five years teaching himself to play music and channel it into the world as an expression of love and healing. In this hang from my kitchen, we explore what it means to be alive in a human experience in this world, from the nature of reality to the relationship between matter and consciousness, all deeply informed by relationships with psychedelic medicines. Ananda shares what he learned growing up surrounded by addiction and other destructive energies, how he learned to think for himself, embrace neurodivergence, drive his life with intention, and channel the masculine. Come on in. More podcasts where podcasts are found, on IG @maurajames and MauraJames.com.   [“In Every Direction” - Junip]

Voice Porter is a poet, muralist, and master gardener, among many other creative roles. He is a founding member of Ensley Alive, a collective movement dedicated to the renaissance of Ensley, a neglected neighborhood where he grew up in Birmingham, Alabama which became synonymous with violence and poverty in the city’s imagination. He heads the Color Project, which creates gardens and public art that have transformed the area into a destination space for creativity, physical and mental wellbeing, and community for residents and visitors. In this expansive conversation, he talks about his experience of America as a black man and father, exploring the exposure of willful ignorance, rejecting the language of the oppressor, wielding art as revolution, and honoring his family’s lineage of growing food, bartering, and nourishing his community. You can contact Voice at voiceporter@gmail.com, find him on facebook under Brian Voice Porter Hawkins, or on IG @freevoice. More podcasts where podcasts are found, MauraJames.com, and IG @maurajames. [“Wake Up Everybody” - Teddy Pendergrass]

Cameron Whetstone is a tarot reader and intuitive based in Brooklyn, NY. In this juicy and expansive conversation, she shares her journey into the work of being human—resolving trauma and honoring her ancestors. From growing up biracial in America, to climbing the corporate fashion ladder and numbing out to reality TV and alcohol until her immune system could no longer tolerate it, Cameron shares valuable insights about awakening to her conditioning and freeing herself from it. She offers a comprehensive understanding of the physiology of trauma through the nervous system and how we can create a conscious, compassionate relationship to it. So many grounding tools here to anchor us in times of undoing. Find Cameron on IG @cameron_whetstone. More podcasts where podcasts are found, MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“Turtle Medicine” - Delia Chariker]

Jarmel Reitz is a Philly-based artist, font of sunshine and rainbows, and convicted felon. Here she tells the intimate story of her arrest over 16 pounds of cannabis and her subsequent experiences in jail, where she received a radicalizing education in systemic dehumanization and white privilege. This conversation was originally recorded and briefly released in 2018 before we took it offline. Today, on what would have been her release date from prison if not for a plea bargain extended because of her whiteness, Jarmel decided it was time to make this conversation public. It is more prescient than ever as we collectively grapple with deep inequity and systemic violence against people of color and those without resources. From her teen years experimenting with drugs in Jersey through incarceration in Chicago, Jarmel radiates a fundamental devotion to radical acceptance and self expression that is infectious and liberating. Find Jarmel at www.jarmelbyjarmel.com and IG @jarmelbyjarmel. More podcasts where podcasts are found, at MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“Hold Onto Your Dreams” - Jah Wobble, The Edge, Holger Czukay]

Jasmyn Elise Story is an international Restorative Justice Facilitator and founder of The People’s Coalition, an organization that aims to provide information, access, and resources to lower the impact of structural violence experienced by historically marginalized groups. Jasmyn recently bought a 15 acre farm in the heart of Alabama, which will be home to Freedom Farm Azul, a retreat space in the tradition of Fannie Lou Hamer and Frida Kahlo. In this powerful offering, Jasmyn walks us through transformative justice process as an alternative to traditional law enforcement and punitive justice, exploring communal listening, accountability, forgiveness, relational culture, plant medicine healing, and much more along the way. This is a potent vision for a world in the throes of deep structural change. Find Jasmyn online at jasmynstory.com and IG @storyismyname. More podcasts where podcasts are found, at MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“That’s A Sign Of The Times” - Floyd Family Singers]

Emma Zeck is a writer, mystic, complex trauma survivor, and recovery coach for womxn. She writes and teaches about self-love, social change, and coming into wholeness by embracing and becoming lovers with the shadow as much as the light. In this conversation, she shares some of the wisdom she has gleaned on her journey to break the generational wounds that deeply formed her early life. We talk about gaslighting, covert narcissism, dealing with feeling unsafe in your body, spiritual bypassing, and the intersection of privilege and healing. You can find her online at EmmaZeck.com and IG @emmazeck_. More podcasts where podcasts are found, MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“Wild Time” - Weyes Blood]

Emily Vino is an artist, Human Design reader, and ex-evangelical Christian now helping women from all walks of life reconnect to their intuition and sensuality. Born out of her personal experiences dealing with sexual repression and shame in the church, Emily is currently developing a project about purity culture. She has started conducting informal phone interviews with others who have experienced its harm and together explore new ways to ground back into the intelligence of the body. In this vulnerable conversation, Emily shares her journey out of the church and into embodiment, undoing harmful programming around “virginity,” pre-marital sex, and patriarchy and reclaiming prayer, dance, pleasure, and the divine Mother along the way. You can find Emily’s healing offerings and illustrations at EmilyVino.com and HumanDesignPDX.com and on IG @emilyvino. She recommends following @themotherspirit for teaching on the Maiden to Mother myth. More podcasts and art at MauraJames.com and on IG @maurajames. [“Follow My Voice” - Julie Byrne]

Johanna Warren is a musician, artist, and healer. Her newest album, Chaotic Good, came out on May 1. In this sweet and vulnerable conversation, we dive into the shadows and gifts of the creative life, touching on the karmic drives that inform self-expression, and how her understanding of her most challenging experiences has shifted as she has healed her body and spirit, releasing damaging beliefs and stepping into stories of magic and wisdom. From discipline to self-annihilation, musical ancestors to herbal wizards, this is a tender exploration of personal catharsis and the call to service as an artist. You can find her at JohannaWarren.com, her music at JohannaWarren.bandcamp.com and on IG @johahanna. More podcasts where podcasts are found, MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“Rose Potion” - Johanna Warren]

Michael Stuart Ani is a farmer, writer, and advocate for the protection of the environment. He has lived and worked intimately with some of the most remote indigenous communities of Central and South America and has been carrying the ritual steps of the Ghost Dance for decades. In the 1960s and 70s, he was the only outsider allowed into Mexico's Sierra Mazateca cloud forest where he developed a lifelong relationship with an entheogenic mushroom called Deshetō. He later spent 12 years with the Yanomami tribe of Venezuela, fighting epidemics. He is featured in the 1992 documentary, ”Yanomami: Keepers of the Flame” and wrote the book “The Ghost Dance: The Untold Story of the Americas.” In this fascinating and wide ranging conversation we talk about the sacred connection between plants and humans, cultivation of botanical medicines, the lineage of ritual, the fallacies of the modern approach to healing, ancestors, gods, and reclaiming our place in the weave of nature. You can find Michael at MichaelStuartAni.com and on IG @theghostdance. More podcasts where podcasts are found, MauraJames.com and on IG @maurajames. [“Ghost Dance” - Patti Smith Group]

Beth Shelburne is a journalist who specializes in investigative long-form reporting on criminal justice and mass incarceration. Formerly a reporter with WBRC in Birmingham, AL, Beth left television news to focus full-time on amplifying the voices of those who are stuck inside the system and often silenced. Her recent essay on conditions inside the largest maximum security prison in the nation, “Angola’s Angst,” can be read in the Bitter Southerner. In this conversation, Beth shares wisdom from her friends and collaborators inside the system and honors the incredible odds they have overcome to develop emotionally and spiritually while imprisoned in a system not designed for rehabilitation. She taps her extensive knowledge of the systemic problems within the carceral state, and we discuss the pervasion of contraband, extortion and corruption, “tough on crime” culture, and three strikes laws (called the Habitual Felony Offender Act in Alabama) that can send people who commit non-violent offenses to prison for life. You can find Beth’s writing and documentary films at BethShelburne.com and IG @bshelburnebham. More podcasts where podcasts are found, on MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“The World (Is Going Up In Flames)” - Charles Bradley]

Cindy Milstein is an anarchist organizer and writer long engaged in contemporary social movements and collective spaces. She is the author of  “Anarchism and It’s Aspirations”, coauthor of “Paths toward Utopia: Graphic Explorations of Everyday Anarchism,” and editor of the new anthology “Deciding for Ourselves: The Promise of Direct Democracy.” For the past couple years, Cindy has focused on doing support work for the J20 defendants and others facing state repression, touring extensively with her latest edited anthology, “Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief,” and co-organizing the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair. Currently, Cindy co-organizes the Institute for Advanced Troublemaking and its Anarchist Summer School, and is honored, when called on, to do death doula and grief care. We talk about ways to step into the promise of anarchy in the crisis of our current times, the need for deep grieving in our culture of unnecessary losses, and the history of Mutual Aid projects past and present including the Zapatistas, Black Panthers, and Underground Railroad, among so much more. You can find Cindy’s writing online at cbmilstein.wordpress.com and on facebook and IG @cindymilstein. Her crowd-sourced directory of Mutual Aid Pandemic Disaster Relief lives at mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/collective-care/. More podcasts where podcasts are found and at MauraJames.com and IG @maurajames. [“Eclipse of All Love” - Linda Perhacs]

Astrologer and author Juliana McCarthy returns to the podcast (find her on Episode 2)! We talk from our offices in bed, quarantined 2,000 miles apart. I called Juliana to get some context and grounding for our current situation: to understand more about 2020, an unprecedented year of transformation, and the new age of individual liberation. And she gives us a massive download on Saturn, lord of karma, Chiron, the Wounded Healer, and the new Age of Aquarius. We talk about loneliness and aloneness, retreat mentality, looking our demons in the eyes, making our healers our heroes, and building peaceful Queendom. This is a time of potent and desperately needed change, and there are new paradigms afoot. You can find Juliana’s offerings online at EtherealCulture.com and patreon.com/astrologer and on IG @etherealculture. Her book, The Stars Within You, is available everywhere. More podcasts at MauraJames.com and on IG @maurajames. [“There’s A Rugged Road” - Judee Sill]

Dave Barnhart is a writer and Methodist pastor who leads a network of house churches as well as a monthly psychedelic integration meet up in Birmingham, AL. In addition to maintaining a beautifully thought-provoking blog, he is the author of two books, What’s in the Bible About Church? (2008) and God Shows No Partiality (2012). This conversation, recorded the week before COVID-19 and global recession, is as relevant now as ever. Dave shares his experiences participating in a psilocybin study at Johns Hopkins University and his journey to find transparency and vulnerability as a spiritual leader. We talk about guilt culture, the longing and loneliness of life, civic religion and nationalism, disruptive religion (“the kind that Jesus actually preached”), and finding God at the margins. This is good medicine for those striving to navigate these challenging times with integrity, grace, and some kind of sanity. You can find Dave online at SaintJunia.org and  DaveBarnhart.net. More podcasts where podcasts are found and at MauraJames.com and IG: @maurajames. [“The Ark” - Gerry Rafferty]

Salaam Green is the founder and director of the Literary Healing Arts Foundation in Birmingham, Alabama. After writing helped her recover her sense of self during the lowest point in her life, she has devoted her life to helping others use their voice and tell their stories as a healing tool as well. In this uplifting conversation, we talk about worthiness, resilience, rewiring trauma triggers, letting joy drive our lives, and following the blueprint for social change left for us by indigenous and enslaved ancestors. This is a beautiful exploration of our inherent ability to heal ourselves with the power of our imagination. You can find Salaam at literaryhealingartsdotcom.wordpress.com. More podcasts where podcasts are found, MauraJames.com and IG: @MauraJames. [“A Place” - Nils Frahm]

Dr. Peter Hendricks is a clinical psychologist and associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham currently conducting a study on psilocybin facilitated psychotherapy for cocaine dependence. He talks about the nature of addiction, the benefits and challenges of the scientific approach, the history of psychedelic research and its suppression, and the proliferation of psychedelic culture at large. The conversation opened up beautifully to explore the search for meaning in our modern times, creativity, unconditional love, Hildegard von Bingen, Viking invaders, and much more. More podcasts where podcasts are found and MauraJames.com or IG: @maurajames. [“Mam Yinnie Wa” - Alogte Oho & His Sounds of Joy]

Damian Warren is a new Birmingham friend we met in peyote ceremony at the Native American Church of Inner light. A beautiful and kind spirit, Damian has been undergoing a radical year of growth and healing with the help of plant medicine sacraments. He is also a corrections officer at a notoriously violent prison in Alabama that was recently cited in federal court by the Equal Justice Initiative for "severe overcrowding, understaffing and dangerous conditions” at high safety risk to its guards. In this deeply vulnerable conversation, Damian talks about his experience in the system, both as an officer and a child in juvenile detention, and traces back to his childhood growing up in a “slum of a neighborhood” where he had no positive adult role models. We talk institutional corruption, racism, abuse, and how people end up in cycles of violence. He also shares insights from his journey into healing, his new outlook on life, overcoming homophobia during a ceremony, and much more. This conversation is as honest and generous as they come. You can connect with Damian on facebook and IG @hismajesty0_0. More podcasts where podcasts are found and at MauraJames.com. Currently crowd funding a documentary about life after prison; watch the trailer and join in at igg.me/at/surviving-america. [“Babylon System” - Bob Marley & the Wailers]

T. Marie King is a community organizer and activist based in Birmingham, AL who has devoted herself to addressing bias and oppression by helping people become “custodians” of their thoughts. In this inspiring hang, we explore inaction, defensiveness, reconciliation, atonement, and inclusion among much more. She shares pragmatic tools that all of us can begin using today to address the broken relationships that this country was built on and that persist today. She is a beautiful living example of our personal responsibility and opportunity to heal ourselves and our communities. You can find her on twitter @tMKing1 and instagram @tmking79. More podcasts where podcasts are found and MauraJames.com. [“(If You’re Ready) Come Go With Me" - Staple Singers]

Shawn Thornton is a visionary artist based in Philadelphia, PA. His paintings are highly detailed and symbolic, often taking him years to complete. He had a tumor in his pineal gland that went undiagnosed for six years and during that time began to experience unusual states of consciousness, including invasive voices and episodes of psychosis, energies which can be seen reflected in his visual language. In this conversation, he describes the experience of losing his mind, navigating western medicine and antipsychotic drugs, and finally finding relief in painting and exercise. He hypothesizes on the damage he did to himself as a young artist and shares what it is like to navigate life now with lasting cognitive repercussions and a new awareness and appreciation of his mental health. Find Shawn’s incredible art online at ShawnThorntonPainting.com and on IG @shawn_thornton_paintings. More podcasts where podcasts are found, MauraJames.com and on IG @maurajames. [“Lost My Head There” - Kurt Vile]

Dr. Hannah McLane is a physician, psychotherapist, and founder of the SoundMind Project in Philadelphia, PA. This nonprofit mental health center is poised to become one of the country’s first FDA-approved MDMA therapy clinics and will soon offer safe, legal, clinician-supported MDMA treatment for PTSD to the general public. MDMA is showing “incredible efficacy” at tackling treatment-resistant PTSD in Phase 3 trials at MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), with the majority of patients no longer meeting the diagnosis of PTSD and never going back on pharmaceuticals after the completion of the therapy. In this conversation, Hannah talks about what these sessions look like, how the brain deals with trauma, and her mission to provide these revolutionary therapies to the most marginalized communities with the highest rates of PTSD. Join her mission at SoundMindProject.org. More podcasts where podcasts are found and on MauraJames.com. [“Behind That Locked Door (George Harrison cover)” - Jim James]

Sheri Bagwell is a healer and meditation coach who offers support “beyond therapy” for those working to embody their higher self. Sheri discovered these tools in her own life and was able to heal her endometriosis and avoid a hysterectomy by stepping into her own intuition. In this intimate conversation we talk about what it means to be awake in a time of chaos, how to honor the sovereignty of all beings including our children, and how to love our sadness and grief. Along the way we touch on destiny versus choice, epigenetics, psychotic breaks, white guilt, god as energy, eating intuitively, and much more. Find Sheri at SheriBagwell.com, facebook and IG: @sheri_bagwell. More podcasts where podcasts are found, MauraJames.com and IG: @maurajames. [“Dark Thoughts” - East Forest x Ram Dass]

Legacy is the insanely talented Macon-based music duo of Mark and Martaze. Their explosive freestyle flows are powered by an unstoppable DIY spirit and a determination to think and act differently than their default environment. At just 20 years old, they are creating radical community by investing in their own art and using music to open hearts and minds. In this conversation, we discuss the challenges and opportunities facing young people in our current state of the world and touch on living off the land, fame, the NFL, minimum wage, music as energy, and freestyling as meditation, amid much more. Find them on instagram: @478legacy or on soundcloud: @s8ge and @martaz3. More podcasts where podcasts are found and maurajames.com. [“Cay’s Crays” - Fat Freddy’s Drop]

Duquette Johnston is a musician and creator based in Birmingham, Alabama. This winter, in addition to new music, he is releasing a reissue of “Etowah,” an album born from a challenging period of his life 13 years ago, which began with an arrest for felony possession of cocaine. In this conversation, Duquette tells the intimate story of that intense time of growth and shares revelations from his transformation from a “young brat” into a loving human, partner, artist and father. This is an intimate offering from the journey of one artist navigating the war on drugs and the undying need to make music. Find him online at duquettejohnston.com and on IG @rebelking and @clubduquette. More podcasts where podcasts are found and at maurajames.com. [“Don’t Go Back to Etowah” - Duquette Johnston]

Kate Boccia is the founder of the National Incarceration Association. When her son was arrested for armed robbery despite not having a weapon, he was snatched into the machinery of the criminal justice system and she along with him. In her effort to bring him home from prison, she undertook a massive education in mass incarceration and began to relentlessly petition for more human communication among all involved: prisoners, COs, lawmakers, and families. In this conversation she shares her deeply personal experience of the toll that our current system takes on millions of families just like hers. From mandatory minimum sentencing to the criminalization of poverty, visitation room vending machines to prisons without air conditioning, Kate presents an aging and inefficient system that dehumanizes not only its inmates, but their families as well. Luckily she has a clear vision for how it can be transformed. Join her mission at JoinNIA.com. More podcasts where podcasts are found and at MauraJames.com. [“We Got a Race to Run” - Staples Jr. Singers]

Chase is a filmmaker, buddhist practitioner, and dear friend of mine. In this wide open conversation he shares stories from a lifetime of seeking, from an unintentionally massive psychedelic trip at age 16, where an unknown amount of liquid LSD blasted him off into space (and police custody) to several years in the “fucking hell” of severe alcoholism. His subsequent search for grounding and a workable context of reality  lead him to Buddhism and Trungpa Rinpoche, his beloved and “incredibly controversial” teacher. We talk about the scandals that have recently rocked his spiritual community at Shambala and his ongoing navigation of truth, power, harm and healing, the sacred and the mundane. This is a generous offering on addiction and sobriety, meaning-making and self-knowledge. You can find Chase on instagram @cosminomena. More podcasts where podcasts are found and maurajames.com. [“Buzzing in the Light” - Dr. Dog]

Huey D. Jackson is a veteran of the War in Afghanistan living in Macon, GA. Now a creative on the path of healing and self-knowledge, he generously shares the deeply personal story of how he ended up in combat and what he has learned in the process. From a lonely childhood as a “7-year-old nihilist” raised by his grandmother in post-9/11 America, to the toxic military culture that celebrates murder and cheap Hollywood heroism, Huey drops truth after truth. This is a view behind the curtain at the wages of our culture’s values through the story of one kid’s emergence from that matrix. Join us for the powerful dose of reality. More podcasts where podcasts are found and at MauraJames.com. [“Ramona Reborn” - Delicate Steve]

Robert Rosenberger is a philosopher of technology, author of “Callous Objects” (2017), and associate professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. A major line of his research and career has been exposing an anti-homeless agenda built into public spaces. In this conversation recorded at his home in Macon, GA, he reveals how our environments subtly encode and support the criminalization of poverty, whether we are conditioned to recognize it or not. From dominator culture to bike lanes, feminist epistemology to “trickle down Silicon Valley attitude,” this is an awakening conversation about what and how we perceive in the deceptively communicative world around us. Connect with Robert and read “Callous Objects” at https://rosenberger.spp.gatech.edu/. More podcasts where podcasts are found and at MauraJames.com. [“Blue Haze” - Alan Parker & Alan Hackshaw]

Patricia Hurley, also known as Grandmother Red Hawk, is a Pipe Carrier in the Bear Tribe tradition and a Water Pourer for the Stone Peoples Lodge. She also offers Elemental Divinations and Rituals from the Dagara People of West Africa, as well as Plant Spirit Healing, a modality based upon two ancient healing traditions of Classical Chinese Medicine and Shamanism. In the Shamanic tradition, Patricia teaches how to journey to the Upper and Lower Worlds to meet with animal, plant, and spirit guides. In this intimate conversation, she shares her magical journey into healing and truth, the rituals and initiations that have opened her connection to deep knowing, and the struggle to “trust the process” amidst wild loss and grief. You can find her at patricia9hawk.com or call her directly: 828-551-0840. More podcasts where podcasts are found and maurajames.com.   [“The Secret Kissing of the Sun and Moon” - Hang Massive]

MullyMan is a motivator, infinite student of life, and one of Baltimore’s most recognized hip hop artists, bringing truth and purpose to a time of confusion and emptiness. After first meeting during a Lyft ride, we hung at his place in Atlanta to go deep on waking up to our truth and de-conditioning from the bullshit narratives perpetrated by institutionalized healthcare, education, policing, and propaganda. He talks about the controlled environment of the hood where he grew up in Baltimore and the freedom he found in hip hop, which has become part of the solution for healing on an international level. Along the way he touches on the myth of Christopher Columbus, the history of Black Wall Street, defying ignorance, cultural appropriation, reparations, the dangerous comforts of the “infinite argument,” and so much more. Find him on IG @iammullyman or bookmullyman@gmail.com. More podcasts where podcasts are found and MauraJames.com.   [“Happy Jazz Piano Oldschool Hip Hop Instrumental” - CJ Beats]

Shanté Paradigm Smalls is a scholar, artist, and writer focusing on Black popular culture in music, film, and the arts. Dr. Smalls’ first scholarly manuscript “Hip Hop Heresies: Queer Aesthetics in New York City” is forthcoming, as well as a podcast called Fantastic Blackness! In addition to teaching at St. John University, Dr. Smalls has been a meditation instructor since 2015 in the Shambala tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. In this generous offering, Dr. Smalls makes a wide and deep contemplation of suffering and transformation, exploring the historic and contemporary pain of slavery, war, and police brutality alongside the entwinement of dharma and capitalism. Step into the rehabilitation of the human heart. More from Dr. Smalls at shanteparadigm.com. More podcasts where podcasts are found and maurajames.com. [“Children Hold On (To Your Dreams)” - William WeeGee Howard]

Arielle Crawford (Ep 3!) returns to the podcast, this time to talk sustainability, consumerism, and revolution in the streets. Arielle is the founder of ARIELLE, a conscious womenswear collective focused on sustainable textiles, domestic manufacturing, and fair-trade practices. She runs it single-handedly from design and sourcing to production and sales. She also created “Plastic Free in NYC: a Guide to Living Less Trashy,” which is available digitally for free. In this conversation, Arielle shares the impact of her first year as a plastic-free citizen on her kitchen, bathroom, and closet, and shares insights about how she has reconsidered her legacy and recalibrated her joy. Find her at www.shop-arielle.com and on instagram @shop_arielle. More podcasts where podcasts are found and www.maurajames.com. [“Nostalgia” - Piero Umiliani]

Vanessa Cuccia is a pioneer in the sex toy industry. She is the founder of Chakrubs, the original crystal sex toy company and author of “Crystal Healing and Sacred Pleasure." As a certified crystal healer and reiki practitioner, Vanessa integrates her knowledge of crystals and metaphysical modes of healing to help those who have experienced sexual trauma or simply wish to deepen pleasure and connection to self, spirit, and others. She is an advocate for sex positivity, self-love, and personal awareness by bridging the gap between sensuality and spirituality. We talk about relearning to experience pleasure after trauma, navigating boundaries, remaining open to wonderment, and her current interest in “anti-mindfulness." You can connect with Vanessa on instagram @vanessa_cuccia and at www.chakrubs.com. More podcasts where podcasts are found and MauraJames.com. [“Alegría” - Elia y Elizabeth]

Tom Patterson has been curating and writing about contemporary folk, visionary, and outsider art for more than 30 years. He is known for his biographies of Georgia visionaries Howard Finster and Eddie Owens Martin, aka St. EOM, as well as “Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum” (2001) and countless articles in Aperture, BOMB, Folk Art, Public Art Review and Raw Vision, among many others. Here we explore the relationship between artist and source, transformative experiences of expanded consciousness, rewiring social conditioning, trapping spirits, synchrotism, and the singular obsession that grips some of us to pull down experiences from visionary planes of consciousness into visual language.   Tom shares a selection from his forthcoming memoir describing his psychedelic awakening in Huautla de Jimenez in 1975 (working title: Chance Operations: Cultural Adventures of a Fledgling Scribe. Copyright by Tom Patterson, 2019). You can email him at Tom41052@aol.com and find many of his articles online. More podcasts where podcasts are found, at MauraJames.com, and on instagram @maurajames or @unbroken.chain.   [“This Must Be The Place” - Talking Heads]

Morgan Caraway is the founder of the Sustainable Life School alongside his wife Mary Jane. At their off-grid property in rural North Carolina, they’ve build themselves an earth bag home and started an intentional community called Bottom Leaf. Morgan teaches regular workshops on earth based dwellings and is the author of several books including “Ecological Awakening.” In this frank and funny conversation, he shares his self-education process into sustainability, non-duality, and self-care for counterculturalists. He offers practical advice for homesteaders and discusses his recent steps to stop “swallowing big chunks of despair” through the news and social media. You can find Morgan at MorganCaraway.com and SustainableLifeSchool.com. More podcasts where podcasts are found and at MauraJames.com. [“Summer Nights” - Lonnie Liston Smith & the Cosmic Echoes]