Podcasts about Antioch University Los Angeles

Rubén and Dion kick of the show by reading "Eating Together," by Li-Young Lee. Then they read from Rubén Quesada's new book, Brutal Campanion.Ruben Quesada, Ph.D is an award-winning poet and editor. He edited the groundbreaking anthology Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry, winner of the Gold Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. His poetry and criticism appear in The New York Times Magazine, Best American Poetry, Ploughshares, Harvard Review, and American Poetry Review. He has served as poetry editor for AGNI, Poet Lore, Pleiades, Tab Journal, and as a poetry blogger for The Kenyon Review and Ploughshares. He currently teaches as Affiliate Faculty in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Antioch University Los Angeles.Brutal Companion is a haunting and visceral collection of poems that explores themes of identity, sexuality, loss, and personal transformation. Drawing from his own experiences as a gay man, the poet delves unflinchingly into memories of desire, trauma, and self-discovery against the backdrop of an often unforgiving world. From intimate encounters and dreamlike visions to searing societal critiques, the poems paint a complex portrait of navigating life at the margins. Deeply sensory and evocative, Brutal Companion is a fierce meditation on survival and a testament to poetry's ability to wrest meaning and resilience from even the darkest places. We mention The Blessing by James Wright.

Paul Lisicky is the author of the memoir Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell, available from HarperOne. Lisicky is the author of seven books, including Later: My Life at the Edge of the World, The Narrow Door, Unbuilt Projects, The Burning House, Famous Builder, and Lawnboy. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, Conjunctions, The Cut, Fence,the New York Times, Ploughshares, and in many other publications. His honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Michener/Copernicus Society, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Rose Dorothea Award from the Provincetown Library. He has taught in the creative writing programs at Antioch University Los Angeles, Cornell University, New York University, Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Texas at Austin and elsewhere. He is currently a Professor of English in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Rutgers University–Camden, where he is Editor of StoryQuarterly. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Twitter Instagram  TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this bonus episode of What's the TEA? host Jason Blitman talks to Hannah Silva about the exploration of queer single parenting and AI in her book, My Child, The Algorithm as well as Tom Pyun about his debut novel, Something Close to Nothing. What's the TEA? gets the inside scoop on new books–authors are tasked with describing their books with 3 words using the letters T, E, and A.Hannah Silva is a writer and performer working in sound poetry, radio and experimental non-fiction. An Artificially Intelligent Guide to Love (BBC Radio 4) starred Fiona Shaw and was the starting point for My Child, the Algorithm. Silva has authored seven other plays for BBC Radio 3 and 4, winning the Tinniswood Award and numerous placements in the BBC Audio Drama Awards. Her debut poetry collection Forms of Protest was Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes. Talk in a bit, a record of sound poetry and music was in the Wire's Top 25 albums of 2018. She lives in London with her child.Tom Pyun earned his MFA at Antioch University Los Angeles and has been awarded fellowships by the Vermont Studio Center, VONA, and Tin House. His creative fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Rumpus, Reed Magazine, Joyland, and Blue Mesa Review. His essay, “Mothers Always Know,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net 2015.BOOK CLUB!Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply.http://aardvarkbookclub.comWATCH!https://youtube.com/@gaysreadingBOOKS!Check out the list of books discussed on each episode on our Bookshop page: https://bookshop.org/shop/gaysreading MERCH!Purchase your Gays Reading podcast merchandise HERE! https://gaysreading.myspreadshop.com/ FOLLOW!@gaysreading | @jasonblitman CONTACT!hello@gaysreading.com

Hope Edelman is an author, ghostwriter, essayist, writing instructor and life coach. The through-line connecting much of her work, from the collaborations she's helped to write to her own best-selling memoirs, is the theme of parent-loss. “Navigating motherhood without your mom is like assembling a complex puzzle without the picture on the box,” she writes in a blog post on her website. She's been writing about the grief and loss in her own life since her best-selling 1994 memoir Motherless Daughters—a book she began as a graduate student at the University of Iowa, when she realized she was being called to write about her mother's death more than a decade earlier.  It's a calling that connects Hope to her ghostwriting clients as well. Her first collaboration, a dual memoir written with actors Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez—Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son—is informed by the death of Sheen's mother, when the actor was just 11 years old, while her current project, written with Owen Elliot-Kugell, the daughter of the late Cass Elliot—My Mama, Cass—finds its narrative drive in the sudden death of the author's mother, who died in her sleep in a London apartment nearly ten years after she shot to fame as a member of The Mamas & The Papas. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize for Creative Nonfiction, Hope has taught writing at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the University of Iowa, and Antioch University-Los Angeles.  Join us for a compelling conversation on what it means to find a way to heal as you find your voice as a writer.    Learn more about Hope Edelman: Website Facebook Instagram Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

April Brucker is a versatile American actress, author, comedienne, and television personality with a diverse range of credits to her name. Born and raised in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, April discovered her passion for entertainment at a young age. She honed her skills in acting and comedy over the years, eventually making a name for herself in the competitive worlds of New York City and Las Vegas. In New York City, April made a mark on the cabaret and comedy club scenes, performing at renowned venues such as Don't Tell Mama, The Duplex, and The Metropolitan Room. Her talents also extended to off-Broadway productions, including the long-running dinner theater show "Murdered by The Mob." April's television career is equally impressive, with appearances on popular shows like "Entertainment Tonight," "Inside Edition," and "The Wendy Williams Show." She has also showcased her comedic talents on programs such as "Judge Jerry," "Videos After Dark," and "What Would You Do?" Her appearance on Season 1, Episode 4, of TLC's "My Strange Addiction" (streaming on Amazon, Hulu, Max, etc.) has made April a cult fan favorite worldwide. In Las Vegas, April has become a fixture in the entertainment scene, performing at prestigious venues like Notoriety Theater and Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Her nine-month stint as a special guest star in the classic Vegas showgirl revue "BurlesQ" at Alexis Park Resort further solidified her status as a sought-after performer in the city. She hosts "April in Vegas," a streaming TV chat show produced on location at The English Hotel in the Las Vegas Arts District. Las Vegas Review-Journal entertainment columnist John Katsilometes has dubbed her the "ventriloquial vixen," Beyond her work on stage and screen, April is also a talented writer. She holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Creative Writing & Screenwriting from Antioch University Los Angeles and has authored two books, “Don't Read My Lips!” and “I Came, I Saw I Sang.” April Brucker's journey from a small town in Pennsylvania to the bright lights of New York City and Las Vegas is a testament to her dedication and passion for the arts. Her unique blend of humor, talent, and charisma continues to captivate audiences worldwide, solidifying her status as a multifaceted talent in the entertainment industry.​ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theanthonyrogersshow/message

What is a Rodeo Queen, and does it come with a golden lasso like Wonder Woman gets? Tune in to get the answer to this hard-hitting question and more as we take a deep dive into the world of Breaking Pattern. Buy Breaking Pattern from Inlandia Books and Barnes and Noble BIO: Chicana Feminist and former Rodeo Queen, Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera (she/her) writes so the desert landscape of her childhood can be heard as loudly as the urban chaos of her adulthood. She is obsessed with food. A former high school teacher, she earned an MFA at Antioch University Los Angeles and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California. Her fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, and is spotlighted in Best Small Fictions 2022. Her short stories have been anthologized in Rural Writers of Color (EastOver Press 2023), Made in L.A. Volume 4 and 5 (Resonant Earth 2022 and 2023), Ramblings & Reflections: SouthWest Writers Winning Words Anthology, and Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century. Her play Blind Thrust Fault was featured in Center Theater Group Writers' Workshop Festival 2022 and her young adult novel Breaking Pattern is forthcoming from Inlandia Books. She is a Macondista and works for literary equity through Women Who Submit. You can read her other work at http://tishareichle.com/

Adriana Elizabeth Herrera Bowen loves horses more than people and lives for junior rodeo competitions. For the first time, the All-Around Cowgirl saddle is within her reach. Except her old gray mare, Pearl, isn't as fast as she used to be, and another competitor has her eye on the same prize. So Adriana needs a faster horse. Is she willing to jeopardize her friendships and vet school dreams to win? Not if her parents have anything to say about it. Buy Breaking Pattern from Inlandia Books and Barnes and Noble BIO: Chicana Feminist and former Rodeo Queen, Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera (she/her) writes so the desert landscape of her childhood can be heard as loudly as the urban chaos of her adulthood. She is obsessed with food. A former high school teacher, she earned an MFA at Antioch University Los Angeles and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California. Her fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, and is spotlighted in Best Small Fictions 2022. Her short stories have been anthologized in Rural Writers of Color (EastOver Press 2023), Made in L.A. Volume 4 and 5 (Resonant Earth 2022 and 2023), Ramblings & Reflections: SouthWest Writers Winning Words Anthology, and Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century. Her play Blind Thrust Fault was featured in Center Theater Group Writers' Workshop Festival 2022 and her young adult novel Breaking Pattern is forthcoming from Inlandia Books. She is a Macondista and works for literary equity through Women Who Submit. You can read her other work at http://tishareichle.com/

Brennan DeFrisco is a poet, teaching artist, editor, voice actor, & ekphrastic artist from the San Francisco Bay Area. He's been a National Poetry Slam finalist, a Pushcart Prize nominee, Grand Slam Champion of the Oakland Poetry Slam, & regional coordinator for California Poets in the Schools, Poetry Out Loud, & the San Francisco Arts Commission. He's the author of A Heart With No Scars, published by Nomadic Press, & has served as poetry editor on the mastheads of Lunch Ticket, Caesura & Meow Meow Pow Pow. His work has been published in Red Wheelbarrow, Oracle Fine Arts Review, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, JMWW Journal, Words Dance, & elsewhere. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing with a focus in poetry from Antioch University Los Angeles. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/viewlesswings/support

46. Emily Stroia: Healing from Trauma and Finding Meaningful Purpose Emily Stroia is a life coach, spiritual counselor, military veteran, author and mom. She has mentored thousands of clients from all over the world on healing from loss, trauma, and finding purpose again. Currently Emily is working to obtain her master's degree in clinical psychology with a specialization in trauma at Antioch University Los Angeles. Knowing what you know now about her being a student, and a life coach, and a spiritual counselor, and most importantly a mom, you know that Emily doesn't have much free time, so for her to agree to be a guest on this show was a huge honor and privilege for me! In what little free time Emily has, she loves to spend time with her son, and her friends, and when possible, she loves to travel, hike, try new restaurants, and write. You would not likely guess, based on Emily's current life, that she would have had a horrific, terrifying, and painful childhood. But as is the case in so many childhood sexual assault and physical abuse stories, it isn't uncommon to find that some victims thrive in doing whatever they can to cover up their pain with successes and growth in other areas…such is the story with Emily. She was a model student, then went on to have a successful military stint. But after the service she provided to our country, Emily took a wild trip to New York, just to see what it was like. That didn't go so well for Emily and she wound up in a VA hospital, trying to find herself. Eventually, it was on to therapy. But when you're a victim of child abuse and sexual assault, facing the past can be an extremely scary and daunting prospect.  Emily found her way through the pain of working on her past…and continues to do so even now. It's a success story…and it continues as she raises her son, goes to school, and works on her memoir; her plans are to release the memoir on healing from childhood sexual abuse and trauma in 2025. It's something to look forward to! In the meantime, listen to this episode. And share it with everyone you know! Then rate and subscribe to the podcast, and leave a review, if you would please! I'd truly appreciate hearing from you! And don't forget to Start By Believing. Because we all know someone whose life has been affected by rape or sexual assault. Here is some really important information about Emily that I want you to read: Website:  Emily's book of poetry on healing from trauma:  And, here is some other important stuff I would like you to look at!:

On this episode, Chavonne Taylor speaks with Joel McLafferty, licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and the founder and Executive Director of the Westmont Counseling Center which provides quality, affordable counseling and other mental health services to the residents of Westmont and surrounding communities in South Los Angeles. These services are designed to help people build resilience, recover from trauma, live in peace, and improve the quality of their lives. Joel previously worked for several community mental health clinics, including Open Paths Counseling Center where he served as Clinical Director and he was also an Adjunct Professor at Antioch University Los Angeles.Resources:⁠www.westmontcounseling.org⁠

Have you ever wondered what therapy is really like? Or maybe you've heard some misconceptions about it that have made you hesitant to try it.Well, get ready because in this week's episode, I sit down with the incredible licensed marriage and family therapist and dear friend, Tina Hartney and we dig into these topics and more.Tina and I are going to:Share our personal experiences with therapy and debunk those common misconceptions that might be holding you back.Discuss different therapeutic modalities like emotional-focused therapy and EMDR.Talk about why it's so important to incorporate somatic and experiential therapy alongside talk therapy or when talk therapy no longer works.Discuss the difference between individual and couple therapy and how it can impact the relationship and each individual.Why we should take the shame out of going to therapy.And wait until the end when Tina shares a very personal confession about the power of reclaiming her own vulnerability. So hit the play button and join me for an empowering conversation that will deepen your understanding of therapy and open your mind to new possibilities.   It's a journey worth taking so you can find more freedom within.Click here to receive 8 Things You Should Stop Doing In Midlife to Find More Freedom.Sign up for my newsletter here to stay up to date on my upcoming offerings and podcast interviews!Click here to purchase my book: Sandwiched: A Memoir of Holding On and Letting GoConnect with me:Website www.laurieejames.comEmail: laurie@laurieejames.comIG: @laurie.jamesFB: laurie.jamesLinkedin: Laurie JamesIf you like this podcast, please follow, rate and review by telling others what you like about this show - your feedback really matters and helps other freebirds find me!About Tina:Tina Hartney is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.  She works with adults and specializes in couples therapy and trauma.  Tina's advanced training includes Bioenergetics Analysis which combines somatic and relational work, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Gestalt, and EMDR.  Tina's office is in Hermosa Beach, California and she offers in-person and virtual therapy.  She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science/International Relations from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles.Additional Training:Couples - Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT).Gestalt Experiential TherapyEye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)Bioenergetic AnalysisCollege CounselorConnect with Tina:Website: ***************************************************************************************DISCLAIMER: THE COMMENTARY AND OPINIONS AVAILABLE ON THIS PODCAST ARE FOR INFORMATIONAL AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY AND NOT FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING LEGAL, MEDICAL OR PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. YOU SHOULD CONTACT A LICENSED THERAPIST IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING SUICIDAL THOUGHTS. YOU SHOULD CONTACT AN ATTORNEY IN YOUR STATE TO OBTAIN LEGAL ADVICE. YOU SHOULD CONTACT A LICENSED MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL WITH RESPECT TO ANY MEDICAL ISSUE OR PROBLEM.

Telaina Eriksen is the author of the Amazon bestseller "Unconditional: A Guide to Loving and Supporting Your LGBTQ Child," which won the 2017 Bisexual Book Award for Nonfiction. Eriksen's poems, essays, and stories have appeared in many online and in-print publications, and she received her MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She is the proud mom of two adult children, one of whom identifies as gay. Learn more about Eriksen and her work at telaina.com. You can also follow her on Instagram. This episode of The Girls That Create Podcast is brought to you by Audible. Get a free audiobook download and 30-day free trial at www.AudibleTrial.com/girlsthatcreate. There are thousands of titles to choose from, including Eriksen's book and other writers who've appeared on our podcast.  Host Erin Prather Stafford launched Girls That Create in 2019, a site supports the parents and caregivers of creative girls while encouraging greater female representation across the arts. Go to www.girlsthatcreate.com for parenting tips, women empowerment, and everything in between. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube. Please support UnsilencedVoices.org. We thank Smith Sisters and the Sunday Drivers for our theme song, "She is You". WordofMomRadio.com - sharing the wisdom of women.

Alo Johnston (he/him) is a Latino trans man and licensed marriage and family therapist. He graduated with a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. It was there that he received specific, unique training in LGBTQ affirmative psychotherapy. He continued his training at the Los Angeles LGBT Center and completed his training with the Los Angeles Gender Center. He now works in private practice in downtown Los Angeles.His work integrates feminist and postmodern styles of psychotherapy and he always works to see mental health through an intersectional lens.Alo also works as a Wondermind mental health advisory committee board member and co-host of their show, Baggage Drop.---Support TBAS by becoming a patron!!!! - https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Call Zak with your advice @ 844-935-BEST---IG: @bestadviceshow & @muzacharyTWITTER: @muzacharybestadvice.show

Does woke ideology in psychotherapy education damage the field of professional counseling? Therapists are being evaluated more and more on the fundamental axioms that underlay critical social justice theory instead of the traditional principles that empower counselors to effectively and respectfully treat their patients. In this week's episode, I am joined by Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Christine Sefein to discuss her experiences in higher education that led her to a deep questioning of critical social justice and its anti-human sentiment.Christine is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in grief and trauma work.  She has worked most extensively with grieving adults and children in a variety of communities and settings including dual-diagnosis residential facilities, intensive outpatient treatment, homeless shelters and in private practice.  Christine has held positions such as Clinical Director of OUR HOUSE Grief Support Center, Clinical Supervisor of the Interpersonal Violence programs at California Lutheran University, and grief specialist. Christine Sefein is also Professor of Clinical Psychology, and most recently taught at Antioch University Los Angeles, in the Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology Program. Christine is currently co-hosting a podcast for Critical Therapy Antidote which will premiere soon, coinciding with the release of the book, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the AntiTherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice, which features an essay she authored. You can find this book in my bookshop or via this Amazon affiliate link; either way, your purchase supports the show. Thank you!As a public speaker and formal educator, Christine dedicates her time to educating others on the harms of Critical Social Justice in the field of Psychology. You can contact Christine at csefein@christinesefeinmft.com.In this episode, I mentioned previously aired episodes with Amy Gallagher, Leslie Elliot, James Esses, and Andrew Hartz. Those can be found below: 50. The Battle Against Discrimination in Psychotherapy with Amy Gallagher33. Therapists or Activists? The Ideological Capture of Counseling Education, with Leslie Elliott 23. Gender Updates Across the Pond with James Esses24. Counseling in a Cluster B Culture with Andrew Hartz, PhD If you enjoyed this conversation, please rate & review it on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Share this episode with a friend, or on social media. You can also head over to my YouTube channel, subscribe, like, comment, & share there as well.To get $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover visit EightSleep.com & enter promo code SOMETHERAPIST. Take 20% off your entire purchase of nourishing superfood beverages at Organifi with code SOMETHERAPIST.Be sure to check out my shop. In addition to wellness products, you can now find my favorite books!MUSIC: Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. www.joeypecoraro.comPRODUCTION: Thanks to Eric and Amber Beels at DifMix.comPLUS: early access to the documentary I'm proud to be a part of, Affirmation Generation, is now available! Stream now, check out the trailer & more at affirmationgenerationmovie.com. Follow Affirmation Generation on Twitter @2022affirmation or Instagram @affirmationgeneration. Please consider making a small donation to support the costs of production.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, plus other perks TBD. Get your first month free with promo code GRANDFATHER; after that, it's only $8/month. Check it out at somekindoftherapist.locals.com. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Join Happy Ali and therapist, Colin Stack-Troost, as they go in depth about the nature of psychedelic therapy. They discuss why psychedelics can be of benefit, as well as, potential dangers. They specifically discuss the benefits of MDMA and Ketamine Therapy. You can also watch this episode on YouTube. Happy Ali is a Los Angeles based Author, Hypnotherapist, Podcast Host, and Subconscious Manifestation Coach. He is the founder of the Subconscious Manifestation Methodology. His journey in helping others began in 1995 after a near death experience that caused a dramatic spiritual awakening. Happy has devoted his entire life to the exploration and study of metaphysical disciplines including the Kabbalah and the Law of Attraction. He has a B.A. in Psychology from UCLA, and is a certified Master NLP Practitioner, Master Hypnotherapist, Master Spiritual Life Coach, Master TIME Technique Coach, Master CORE Success Coach, and Health Coach! Click on Happy's link and visit his social media and sign up for his mailing list. https://linkr.ee/happyinsights Visit Colin Stack-Troost at https://colinstacktroost.com Colin received hisMaster's Degree in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles in 2014, with an emphasis in LGBTQ mental health. Since then he has worked with individuals, couples, and groups; utilizing a sex-positive and queer-affirmative approach that also recognizes multicultural issues and intersectionality. #happyali #psychedelictherapy #happyinsights #personalgrowth #healing #ketamine #mdma

How can we ReadMore, write more, and share more? Writer, editor, podcaster, and reader, Marva Hinton is always honoring people and their stories! Whether she is editing for Edutopia or hosting her podcast ReadMore, she asks the questions that bring us to a deeper understanding of the world around us. Transcript available at LainieRowell.com About Our Guest: Marva Hinton is a freelance journalist and a contributing editor for Edutopia. She also hosts the ReadMore Podcast, an interview show that primarily features writers of colors. As a freelance journalist, she tends to cover issues regarding marginalized communities, particularly in education. She has a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She's a big sports fan. She also loves cooking shows and game shows. She lives in South Florida with her husband, their two kids, and their beloved geriatric cat. Website: readmorepodcast.com Twitter: @MarvaAHinton Instagram: @marvaahinton About Lainie: Lainie Rowell is an educator, international consultant, podcaster, and TEDx speaker. She is the lead author of Evolving Learner and a contributing author of Because of a Teacher. Her latest book, Evolving with Gratitude, was just released. An experienced teacher and district leader, her expertise includes learner-driven design, community building, online/blended learning, and professional learning. Learn more at linktr.ee/lainierowell. Twitter - @LainieRowell Instagram - @LainieRowell Evolving with Gratitude, the book, is now available! Purchase here! You can also get bulk orders for your staff (10 copies or more) at a discounted price! Just fill out the form linked below and someone will get back to you ASAP! bit.ly/ewgbulkdiscount

Dr. Wendy Harris is my guest today! Wendy is a founding facilitator for Gabor Maté's Compassionate Inquiry program and leads groups from around the world through his year-long training. She is a Level II IKYTA certified teacher of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation, an International Trainer for Beyond Addiction: The Yogic Path to Recovery, and created and delivers the graduate-level curriculum for the Addiction and Recovery Specialization at Antioch University Los Angeles where she trains therapists. Dr. Harris graduated with her doctorate in clinical psychology from California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University and published Beyond Addiction: Kundalini Yoga and Mindfulness Meditation for Recovery from Opioid Dependence (2015). She is devoted to her work as a cutting edge, innovative Addiction and Trauma Specialist where she integrates the technology of Kundalini Yoga and evidence-based practices, while embodying compassion and inclusivity.    More info on Wendy: drwendyharris.com Email: doctorwendyharris@gmail.com IG: @DoctorDoubleU   ------------ ABOUT YOUR HOST: Porter Singer is a spiritually-inclined musician, podcaster, and founder of Body Cello. Her intention is to beam out a harmonious vibration that gathers lightworkers in collaborative community.  More info: https://portersinger.com/ ------------ MUSIC CREDITS:   INTRO: "Don't Worry, Be Happy (Instrumental)" by Porter Singer and Songs of Eden; OUTRO: "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out (Instrumental) by Porter Singer and Songs of Eden   ------------ AFFILIATE LINKS (support the podcast when you buy or join):   EARTH BREEZE LAUNDRY SHEETS ~ These Earth-friendly dehydrated laundry sheets will leave your clothes super clean, without the waste of bulky plastic containers. The referral money we get from YOU clicking on that link and ordering will help sustain this podcast AND help care for our beautiful Earth. Thank you in advance! Click to purchase: https://www.earthbreeze.com/?rfsn=6157640.8b8358   BANDZOOGLE WEBSITES ~ I have been using this website provider since the early 2000s. It is so easy to use and customize, and super efficient for selling your music and/or services. Best of all, it's super affordable! More info on Bandzoogle: https://bandzoogle.com/?memref=rd890    

April Brucker is an American actress, comedienne and television personality. Her television credits include "Entertainment Tonight" (CBS Paramount), "Inside Edition" (King World), "Judge Jerry" (NBC Universal), "The Layover" (Travel Channel), "My Strange Addiction" (TLC), "Today" (NBC), "Videos After Dark" (ABC), "The Wendy Williams Show" (FOX), "What's My Secret?" (MTV), "What Would You Do?" (ABC) and many other network, cable and international TV shows. ​ Growing up in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, April spent more than a decade living, acting and performing in New York City at cabarets (Don't Tell Mama, The Duplex, The Metropolitan Room), in comedy clubs (Broadway Comedy Club, New York Comedy Club, Standup New York) and in off-Broadway shows, including "Murdered By The Mob," New York's longest running dinner theater production. In Las Vegas, she has performed at Notoriety Theater, Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino and in a nine month engagement as the special guest star in the classic Vegas showgirl revue "BurlesQ" at Alexis Park Resort. April is the host of "April in Vegas," a Vegas-based streaming TV chat show produced on location at The English Hotel, a new Marriott Tribute Portfolio boutique hotel in the as Vegas Arts District. April earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Acting at New York University's Tisch School and was awarded a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Creative Writing & Screenwriting from Antioch University Los Angeles. She is the author of “Don't Read My Lips!” and “I Came, I Saw I Sang.”More at IMDb. www.AprilBrucker.TV

Don't forget to subscribe to the In the Lead Show Newsletter:https://mailchi.mp/6d05eb2d7fca/in-the-lead-show-weekly-newsletter (https://mailchi.mp/6d05eb2d7fca/in-the-lead-show-weekly-newsletter) What is relational mindfulness and why is it important in Leadership? In today's episode of the In the Lead Show, I have a conversation with Shari Foos, founder of the Narrative Method. We're all susceptible to a certain amount of influence that can negatively shift our self-perspective and our perspective of dissimilar cultures and people both near and far. Whether those influences come from our own community, popular culture, or artificial intelligence online, there's little we can do to avoid it. Shari's passion and mission with The Narrative Method is to help peel away participants' false assumptions and beliefs to help them refocus their perspectives and understanding. Through the modality of storytelling and a practice called “relational mindfulness,” participants are able to develop radical empathy, compassion, and understanding for those around them. Jennifer Tsang is an ICF Leadership Coach who partners with executives, leaders & everyday people to build more consciousness into how they lead their teams and most importantly, themselves. She believes that leadership is an inside out approach. As someone who has worked on her own personal development and self-leadership for over 15 years, she started her coaching practice in 2020 to help others discover how to lead themselves and grow professionally and personally. Today, Jennifer offers a wide variety of programs and services – from individual coaching, to group and team coaching, mindfulness programs and facilitated group conversations. Shari Foos Bio Shari Foos is a Marriage and Family Therapist, adjunct professor and the creator of The Narrative Method, a California 501c3 non-profit organization. Part of the Human Connection movement, TNM creates programs, products and experiences that address the growing isolation and need for real connection through sharing stories. Foos also co-founded the Bridge in 1999, a free humanities program for low-income adults at Antioch University Los Angeles. She received a MS in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University and a MA in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. If you want to contact Jennifer Tsang, visit Coaching Website: https://coachwithinsight.com/ (https://coachwithinsight.com/) Show website: https://intheleadshow.com (https://intheleadshow.com) Twitter: https://twitter/com/jenntsang (https://twitter/com/jenntsang)    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenn-tsang (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenn-tsang) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLH82NqeTJPyr3Yi_saY3Ng (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLH82NqeTJPyr3Yi_saY3Ng)

Marc Dones, CEO of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, and Crystal have an in-depth, honest conversation about addressing homelessness. They talk through the critical need to acknowledge the lack of appropriate housing supply, the harm our system has traditionally perpetuated on those it aims to serve, and the desperate state of a chronically underfunded service infrastructure. Though the scope of the problem is daunting, they discuss how the solutions are mostly straightforward, but hinge on a real commitment to resourcing them. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal on Twitter at @finchfrii, Marc at @marcformarc, and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority at @KC_RHA.   Resources King County Regional Homelessness Authority: https://kcrha.org/   “King County head of homelessness may be an ‘impossible' job, but Marc Dones is optimistic” by Scott Greenstone from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/king-county-head-of-homelessness-may-be-an-impossible-job-but-marc-dones-is-optimistic/    “Why does prosperous King County have a homelessness crisis?” by Benjamin Maritz and Dilip Wagle for McKinsey & Company: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/why-does-prosperous-king-county-have-a-homelessness-crisis   “Seattle homelessness nonprofits struggle to hire, complicating plans to expand shelters and housing” by Scott Greenstone from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/seattle-homelessness-nonprofits-struggle-to-hire-complicating-plans-to-expand-shelters-and-housing/   “A Literature Review of Single-Room Occupancy (SRO) Supportive Housing Structures in the United States: An Assessment to Ascertain the Viability of SROs to Address the Needs of Homeless and Vulnerably Housed Populations in New York City” by Ashwin Parulkar and Daniel C. Farrell for HELP USA: https://www.helpusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/A-Literature-Review-of-Single-Room-Occupancy-SRO-Supportive-Housing-Structures-in-the-United-States.pdf   “Building the Capacity of the Homeless Service Workforce” by Joan Mullen and Walter Leginski for The Open Health Services and Policy Journal: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=D7337FB9BA53EC10246DDFB46B6B37AE?doi=10.1.1.457.1884&rep=rep1&type=pdf   “Frontline Workers: Urban Solutions for Developing a Sustainable Workforce in the Homeless Services Sector of Los Angeles County” by Vanessa Rios from Antioch University Los Angeles: https://www.antioch.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RIOS-VANESSA.-URBAN-SOLUTIONS-FOR-DEVELOPING-A-SUSTAINABLE-WORKFORCE.-.pdf   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington State through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, I'm thrilled to be welcoming this person to the show. Today, we have joining us, the CEO of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, Marc Dones. Thank you so much for joining us. [00:00:52] Marc Dones: Thanks for having me. [00:00:54] Crystal Fincher: Well, I wanted to have this conversation - we have talked about homelessness, what the unhoused population needs, providing housing, services - throughout several shows here on Hacks & Wonks. But it's a conversation that is so rich and there are so many facets to it, we really can't talk about it enough. I was really excited to see you take the helm of the Homelessness Authority - and just listening to you in various venues, just the vision that you're bringing to it. So, I guess, just to start out for people who may not be familiar with who you are and what this job entails, what brought you here and what is the work that you are charged with doing? [00:01:42] Marc Dones: Well, for folks who aren't familiar with me - one, I'm jealous. You're living a great life and I encourage you to keep living it. You have managed to escape having to know about me or any of the things that I have to worry about, most of which are the worst things that our culture produces. So, kudos to you and teach me your ways. What brings me to the work to some degree is my life - I'm a queer, non-binary Black person, I have some significant mental health issues - I have been psychiatrically hospitalized twice - I did some couch surfing. And when I began my nominal professional career, I was, as most young people are, fascinated most with myself and I wanted to understand - I remember being in my early 20s and trying to understand how it had kind of worked out for me, right? And my work and my research really led to the fact that it was kind of luck - that statistically speaking, this is not likely. And so, I think that part of the reason why I have done this work for as long as I have and what I'm trying to do is - to make a world where luck is not the mediator of a positive outcome for a person who's like me - where we are able to rely on the government and our social structures and our safety net, to produce the kinds of outcomes that we deserve as opposed to having to luck out. So that's why I'm here, and I think that the work of the Authority - in a sentence - is to end homelessness. And homelessness is complicated, it is complex - I've said every which way to Sunday - there is no silver bullet here. There's just actually nuanced work, and it's just the one thing - that's all we got to do - is end homelessness in the county. [00:04:14] Crystal Fincher: Simple phrase, hard work. So, what does it take to end homelessness? [00:04:22] Marc Dones: It takes a couple thing - from my perspective, for our region and just broadly in this country, it takes a couple things. One is, we have to have a very serious conversation about housing. And it's critical we start every conversation with a conversation about housing, because for too long, frankly, we've started the conversation with everything but housing. And so, we've become obsessed with formulating homelessness through the lens of crime, or just of mental health, or all this service infrastructure without ever thinking about the roof. I say all the time that - with reverence and deep respect for the social workers I work with and know - no number of social workers becomes a home. It's not like you get assigned six case managers and they sort of Transformer-Autobot into a house. And so, in this country, we have done a terrible job of producing and maintaining low-income housing stock. And in particular, for wonks, that's the 0-30% AMI - so Area Median Income is the index we use - it's got a lot of flaws and we can talk about those, but it's a good barometer of how much money you need to make in order to live in a region without being cost burdened. For our truly lowest income residents, that 0-30% AMI, we don't produce anything for them. And I think what's really critical there is that 0-30% AMI - folks in their minds often, I think, picture - I don't know what people picture anymore actually. But the point that we should make is that 0-30% AMI is in many instances a barista, it is - a senior on fixed income is 0-30% AMI. And I'm not saying this in an effort to create the other thing we often do, which is the poor people we can empathize with and so, therefore we're worried about helping. I'm saying this just to be really clear that there was a time when getting to 0-30% AMI actually was hard to do because of the level of destitution it required. Now, you can work full-time or be attached to what's supposed to be our nation's greatest benefit structure and still be in that income bracket. The other thing that I think we really need to talk about when we talk about ending homelessness is - the harm the system does when it is attempting to house you. [00:07:18] Crystal Fincher: Yes. [00:07:18] Marc Dones: In all honesty, part of the reason that much has been made about our shot here at really implementing a system that centers the voices of people with lived experience and who are currently experiencing homelessness, is it gives us this opportunity for the first time to be like, These things do more than just not help - they hurt, right? [00:07:42] Crystal Fincher: Yes. [00:07:43] Marc Dones: And so much of our system has been organized through these punitive and paternalistic and carceral lenses that they really create - not just like, "Oh, this was unpleasant." - they create trauma. And that trauma disincentivizes people from engaging in whatever the supportive services they might need. It also creates really significant - I've been playing with this idea for a number of years - this attachment theory, but for housing. That by the time you get to housing, the process has been so traumatic that you attach to it poorly. And so, as a result, are more likely to then experience homelessness again, because of the psychological damage that getting to that housing has caused. And then the last thing would say is just that services are really important. We do need to support people who have experienced different kinds of trauma - whether it's intimate partner violence or war - and for reasons are or for those reasons, I should say, are experiencing housing instability. And our service infrastructure is awful - it is - we don't have it. [00:09:09] Crystal Fincher: Right. [00:09:10] Marc Dones: I think I would be remiss not to be clear that that is also racialized and classed in its construction. The vast majority of folks who do the frontline service work in the homelessness system are women, and in particular, women of color. To me, then it feels like no accident that it has been okay for 30, 35 years to pay them $27,000, while we ask them to manage people who are, in some cases, actively decompensating with psychotic spectrum disorders. Again, I say that not disrespectfully because I have been the person who's been decompensating with a psychotic spectrum disorder. It's hard to manage and we don't compensate those folks the way we compensate white men who do the exact same work, but with a different credentialing, because they had access and yada yada yada. For me, there is a really clear connection between ending homelessness and ending the poverty that we impose on the staff we are asking to do that work. [00:10:28] Crystal Fincher: Such good information with all of that. I want to start off with what you talked about with housing - and such a critical point of the need to start these conversations with housing. I want to ask about the lowest end and I forget - there was an article that I read a while back that was talking about what we used to have but don't have anymore - like one room rentals, day rentals. And that being a way that a lot of people made it back on their feet or actually prevented themselves from winding up on the street - hey, this is suboptimal and I ultimately want a different, larger place to stay, but this is shelter that I can afford. This is my place that I can afford, and in a room, and single-occupancy type thing - but those used to be here. We used to have more of that supply and don't. Do you see that as part of the issue? Is that a more minor missing part of it? Do you think that we also need to increase the amount of really low-income stock that we have? [00:11:37] Marc Dones: I think it's a huge part of it. I mean, let's be clear. America navigated two previous homelessness crises brought on by the two previous World Wars, largely through SRO [single room occupancy] stock. I mean, it was a known thing that vets could come back and get a room at the Y - that was just how we navigated that. And certainly before the passage of the GI Bill, that was it, that was literally it. With the passage of the GI Bill, we see vets having access to other kinds of monetary supports and financial tools to purchase homes in some instances. Although, we should also note that the GI Bill implementation was certainly quite racialized and so, who got access to those financial tools is its own story. Somebody's book, not mine. But I will be really clear that we lost those SRO units and other low-income housing units in the great suburbanization wave that begins at the end of the 40s and then pushes into the 50s and 60s. So, with the creation of the suburbs, we begin to see a corresponding almost unraveling, frankly, of a lot of what had been that standard low-income housing stock. And it then leads to, in particular, with the 60s and some of the work that happens inside the Civil Rights era - we then see a sudden reinvestment in low-income housing. But now, it's taking the form of the Projects and of these other forms of architectural investment that are much more family-oriented than they are for single adults. They're supposed to be stable long-term apartments and then we see the advent of certain kinds of programs like Section 8, et cetera, or voucher programs. But all of these post-suburbs conversations have at their core the same thing they're trying to solve for, which is a lack of the housing for people to access just on their own. In reality, again, if I think about most folks experiencing homelessness that I've known, most people could find their way to a thing and rent it themselves if it existed. They don't need my help to do that - that's demeaning. The only reason our voucher programs exist, the only reason we run the system we run is because that naturally occurring low-income stock is not available to people to find and get to on their own. [00:14:40] Crystal Fincher: I hope we do a better job collectively of prioritizing and addressing that because it's a mess. Also, the service delivery system has a number of challenges and this is an issue. I heard you speaking somewhere before on a panel, and it really struck me just - hey, we can throw millions of dollars at this today. That does not mean that tomorrow we are in a position to spend that millions of dollars and implement stuff based on that. I don't know that a lot of people have visibility into that part of the system. People just hear of services and they think people are operating shelters or some places for people to live. And there are some social workers who maybe connect people to mental health resources. And these things are offered to people every time there's a sweep on the street and they get to opt-in or opt-out. They opt-out and so - hey, we did our best and I guess we got to sweep them now - is where a lot of people are at. What actually happens within this system and what is the current state of our service infrastructure? [00:15:59] Marc Dones: Okay, so what currently happens, if we're being just very candid is - up until the pandemic, we offered you typically at best a mat on a floor with hundreds of other people. You needed to be in for the night, typically no later than 7 or 8 [PM], and out by around 5 or 6 in the morning. There was very little place for the storage of your personal belongings, if there was any place for the storage of your personal belongings. You couldn't - if you have a pet or had a pet, that - tough, no space for that. We oftentimes - well, actually in the vast majority of instances, not oftentimes - also run or ran those shelters, I should say, on the sole basis of gender. And so, if you are trans or non-binary, that can be a real uphill walk. Or if you are a couple and were like "I'm in a heterosexual relationship" - I mean, I am not, but if you were in a heterosexual relationship and wanted to - which no disrespect to heterosexual relationships to be clear, it's just it's not the one I am in. But if you were in a heterosexual relationship and wanted to go to a shelter as a couple, that's not a thing. If you are a family, you need to be a family that we understand - meaning that you have to be, typically, a biological parent with children. Those kids certainly can't be over 18 - they probably can't even be in their teens - because oftentimes if you're trying to access shelter and have teenage children, particularly teenage male children, then they will be sent to the adult male shelter far away from wherever you are. And that kind of goes on, actually. I could keep going through the many, many - frankly, to my mind - cruelties that we have imposed on people experiencing homelessness just to try to be inside for the night for decades. And so, when we say "we offered you shelter" that's what we've been saying. We didn't offer you - even a room - we have offered you kind of a place to be. In this community, in this region, we have worked hard over the last three-ish years to move many of our shelters towards what's called an enhanced shelter status, which means you might have greater service connectivity, or some small expectation of privacy, but that's really it. With the pandemic, suddenly we couldn't do that to people anymore. I just got to be honest - if it takes a world-altering deadly disease to force us to realize that our treatment of other human beings was so inhumane and so beyond the pale unacceptable that we couldn't contain disease spread, that's something. Since then, we have done a lot of work. Now, you see that hotel-motel shelter model - all of a sudden things that were not possible are suddenly possible. Certainly, now that I am in this position - let me just be very clear - we will continue to drive towards a model of shelter that is like SRO. That should be the minimum for what is considered shelter - a door, a key, dignity, the ability to mind your own business, to sleep when you want to sleep, to come and go when you need to come and go. Because the other thing I'll add, sorry, just because I think it's important is, we said to people, "You have a 7 PM curfew, you got to be out by 5 [AM]" and then told everybody to get a job, so heaven forbid they have the night shift. [00:20:57] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. [00:20:58] Marc Dones: What's the plan? There's no plan for that. [00:21:00] Crystal Fincher: There is no plan - right. [00:21:03] Marc Dones: That, I think, is what has been happening and I think it's really important for listeners to have that actual reality in their heads of the humaneness that we have pretended we have been operating with is - it should embarrass us, frankly. [00:21:24] Crystal Fincher: It absolutely should and that bare minimum of humaneness, to your point - if someone had a job, someone doesn't have a traditional family, which many people are kicked out of their homes as teens for a variety of reasons - because their parents didn't agree with their sexuality or lifestyle or whatever it is. And finding people who help them to survive that are a family and trying to stick together and that not being possible. So much of what is actually reality on the ground outside is not acknowledged as an acceptable reality for our services system and for shelter and that leaving so many people out. And so, hearing, "Well, they refused services," has been - I just remember when I realized that, "Oh no, actually - being offered services doesn't actually mean being offered services for that person." It could be services that don't apply, that they are not eligible for, that they can't fit into - and then just too bad. I guess, how do we get from, "Too bad, we can't accommodate you, this doesn't work," to being able to at least accommodate folks in shelter, to get people housed and on the path to becoming stable? [00:22:50] Marc Dones: Well, I think part of it is - the portion of your question around, what is the state of our system from a services perspective and why can't we just spend $20 million because it was given to us? The reality is that - you could give us $20 million - there's no one to spend it. It's like, yes, it is now in an account, cool. But spending it means it has to pay somebody's salary, or pay for the benefits of a person, or pay for a property. It has to do something and the capacity of the system, because it has been chronically underfunded at the staffing level for 30 years, is, I mean, we're worse than at the bone at this point. We are actually - this is a slow crumbling. I have agencies in the system right now that have north of 200 vacancies and no pipeline to fill those vacancies - because we too have been hit by the great wave of resignations as people are like, "I don't want to live like this." No one wants to hear this because it somehow - I don't know why it feels so weird - but we have to pay people more. I'm just going to keep saying it until it gets just really in people's little noggins, I guess. Because if we don't pay people more, then we continue to see these turnovers, we continue to see these vacancies, and more money can come and more money can come and it won't mean anything. There will be no one to do anything with it, full stop. And we have to spend more money. There are at least 45,000 people experiencing homelessness in the county. We don't have the budget - our budget, if I tried to divvy that up across everybody, it essentially turns into about $3,000 a year per person. Or what that translates into is a little over $10 a day, which is just - that's not doing anything. When a permanent supportive housing unit for scale costs about $24,000 per year - that's inclusive of services. Not everyone needs permanent supportive housing, but the difference then between PSH and where we are now is $20,000 per person. We have to put more money in the system, but in order for the system to be able to use that money, we really have to have the people who can do the work. The thing that I want to be really clear about is - this whole system - all of that, we use the word "system" and we use all these words that make it sound, I don't know, make it sound some type of way. I don't know. But at the end of this - this, all of this, is people helping people. That's what's happening - it is people who have chosen - because of their own lives, because of what they see, because of where they feel called in life - to help somebody else. If they can't do it because they can't afford to do it, then there's no help. I'm a big fan of technology, I think technology can do cool stuff - but you ask people how they got into stable recovery, it's not an app. They work with other people who've been on that journey, who can talk with them about it, who can be like, "Yeah. I know it's very hard actually." When we don't provide for that kind of support, when we create through our staffing models such incredibly high turnover, the reality then becomes that you're never able to build a relationship. You can never have that honest conversation. The first time I wanted to have a conversation about like, "I think I might have some very serious mental health problems." - I had to work up to - there was a lot of trust, there was a lot of like, "Oh, maybe I'll flirt with telling someone, maybe I won't." All of these things take time and trust to disclose, to begin to actively work on. We have created these positions that have such high velocity of turnover that no one can build the trust. No one can hold those relationships. And so, so much of what I'm trying to do and what my team is trying to do is - honor the fact that it's the relationships that do the work. And to turn this system into one that is relationship-oriented instead of always focused on these transactions. I guess, the last thing I would say is just that, in that vein, I think it's really critical that we be clear that this is not just some wacky notion I have. The first paper on the impacts of staff turnover on housing the chronically homeless came out in like 2010, I think. And noted that an initiative that the Feds started in 2003 to end chronic homelessness didn't get that done - largely suffered, largely suffered, because the implementation sites couldn't maintain staff. I mean, this is a question of, do we actually want to do this or not? The path is bright and clear. There are no tremendous unknowns. It's just a question of, do we actually care? Or is it just a thing that it makes us feel good to talk about? [00:28:26] Crystal Fincher: Right, or feel good to fund and not actually be concerned about the end result, which is what I feel like we set ourselves up for sometimes by saying, "Okay, we have a great appropriation. Boom, here, let's go. Solve it, Marc." But I also think it's helpful when we talk about service providers - I think some people envision this system of people and, "Hey, let me look up - someone needs shelter, let me dial up the shelter directory and ooh, I can see on my screen, there's a vacancy there. Let me send them here," where there is no cohesive system. We're talking about nonprofit organizations, we're talking about mental health and health organizations, we're talking about a huge hodgepodge of charities, nonprofits, health and mental health service providers who have some joint contracts, some individual contracts, but really it's just this patchwork of things all over the place. And I don't even - I think it was en vogue for a while to talk about - well, we just need a streamlined dashboard to have everybody just on the same page and see. I mean, that's been tried and has failed and several iterations in several places - because there are so many different providers. It just seems these are not people on one standard system, one standard way of doing things. But to that, these organizations have a model that is really not able to handle what is being asked of it. Unless those models change, it seems pretty apparent - unless frontline workers are paid more - we're asking them to de-escalate and mediate more than police officers and firefighters do. They're doing it oftentimes with more trauma behind them if they have lived experience. And being asked to do it while living in poverty - which doing anything and everything while living in poverty is harder. Also, these organizations are understaffed, so you have people making minimum wage who are also doing the job of two and three people and being asked to do as much as they can bear until they burn out. Until we engage with that - and there have been some conversations within some organizations - but it seems like until there's a much wider conversation about that and acknowledgement of that and pressure to address the needs that we have today in our system, that it's not a realistic expectation that if we provide the money or if we - certainly, money can do a lot in a lot of different areas, especially if we just give it to people directly. But for looking at the system of service providers, we really have to ask - if your model is not working today, then what is it serving and who is it serving? How do we reorient that towards the people who actually need the help the most? I really hope we have more of that conversation among here. I guess, looking forward, what do you think it's going to take to help some of those conversations along? Have you seen progress in any areas, or any models that can be followed for looking at how to align our provision of services to the actual needs of the people who need shelter? [00:32:17] Marc Dones: I mean, this is the scary part - is, I think we're actually the farthest down that road in the country. We're the only system - I report to someone who lives in a shelter. One of my board chairs lives in a shelter right now. Half of my staff, myself included, identify as people with lived experience. No other system can say that and so, we are the next great experiment. I think about what it means to not just say we're centering people with lived experience or to say we're centering the voices of people who are actually trying to use the stuff, but to have that be structural and not tokenistic and really, really embedded. I mean, there are so many things that - we should talk for hours. [00:33:05] Crystal Fincher: I know - I'm looking at the time going - man, I could ask you 17 more questions right now - yes. [00:33:05] Marc Dones: I think - there are so many things in which you just said that I want to talk about. The thing that I want to really lean in on is - I do think, and I have seen it personally - I've seen people change over the course of the pandemic and realize how bad some of the congregate shelters were and have to be like, "We can't go back there." People who I've had arguments about it with in the past were like, "Actually, no, this is terrible." I do have hope and when I think about how we move forward and how we as a region can maybe be the proof point for why it is successful to center people - this is hokey, but I think it is about the community conversation. And I want to disaggregate that from the media conversation. I'm on a podcast, but still. [00:34:24] Crystal Fincher: I'm just a political consultant. I am not media. [00:34:27] Marc Dones: There we go, but I think that we got to talk to each other more than be talked at by media. I love my journalist colleagues and I have great respect for what they do and, frankly, the work they do to hold government accountable and all the ways that that must be done. But the way we talk about homelessness in the media is broken. It is bereft of that fundamental humanity and is tied to almost every single misconception that I can name. And so, when people ask me, "How can I make a difference?" I say, "Look, we just had a really great conversation. I feel like you asked me some questions, you got some different information. In some cases, I was informed by one of your perspectives. Invite your neighbor over and have this conversation with them, host a little dinner for your block. If you're part of a Rotary Club..." And I really mean that because unless we, as the community, start to have a different conversation about homelessness, we cannot expect either at the elected official level or the budgeting level - we can't expect those things to change. If this is a democracy, for as long as we can try to hold onto that - [00:35:58] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, that's a whole other show, isn't it? [00:36:02] Marc Dones: - then, it's incumbent on us to be having the conversation we want to see leadership have. I try very hard to take my cue from the community so that I can just be like, "Look." I remember I got into a dust-up about some stuff a couple months ago and I remember calling my board chair who lives in a shelter. I was like, "Am I wrong? Tell me if I have lost my mind and I will stop. This is what I see, and if you tell me or the community tells me that I'm out of line, then we'll end this right now." And that's what I think we need to be doing, is really focusing on building that community conversation, building that community will. I say this all the time and I mean it - I don't say no to anything - I have been to Rotary Clubs, I have done little dinners to talk about homelessness, because I want us to hold the nuance and compassion necessary to build the system that will get this job done. [00:37:08] Crystal Fincher: Well, I certainly appreciate you taking the time to talk about this today and to shed some light on this for us. You are welcome back anytime - there's so much more we could talk about, but we are at time today. I just want to, once again, thank you, Marc Dones, CEO of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority for just helping to enlighten us. We are certainly going to keep an eye on how things unfold. Thanks so much. [00:37:36] Marc Dones: Well, thank you for having me - glad to be here, I'll come back. We'll talk about democracy. [00:37:40] Crystal Fincher: I thank you all for listening to Hacks & Wonks on KVRU 105.7 FM. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler with assistance from Shannon Cheng. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, spelled F-I-N-C-H-F-R-I-I. Now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcast - just type "Hacks & Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you next time.

Bill Kavanagh, LMFTAuthor of “Keep Your Fork; Something Sweet is Coming” Bill was determined to dedicate his future towards helping others discover the path of healing that he had personally discovered after a life of extreme highs and lows.  Today, his writings and therapy techniques are focused on creative methods of dealing with the challenges that life offers us.  As a writer for Psychology Today, he addresses ideas that can relieve trauma and transform it into happiness.  Bill is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Southern California.  After battling Stage IV cancer, he received his Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and was selected to be commencement speaker. Prior to becoming a mental health professional, Bill spent his career writing scripts and producing major events, including those for the Walt Disney Company,  Olympic Ceremonies and several  awards shows.   Bill has embraced beauty and acquired grace, along with the power and strength to write his book, which he believes can offer others a similar chance for courage and peace as they take their next steps forward.Contact Bill:  Bill@BillKavanagh.comPhoto: Copyright Wilkinson/2022Opening and closing music courtesy the very talented Zakhar Valaha via Pixabay.To contact Wilkinson- email him at BecomingWilkinson@gmail.com

We're eating fire with Jose Hernandez Diaz Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and Antioch University Los Angeles. His work appears in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Green Mountains Review, Huizache, New Orleans Review, North American Review, The Progressive, Witness, among others. He has served as an editor for Floricanto Press and Lunch Ticket. His manuscript was a finalist for the 2018 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. We'll be talking astrology, Frida Kahlo, and the different definitions of "pocho."

I had a great chat with Shari Foos. She and I discussed her mission: The Narrative Method. The Narrative Method was created to help peel away participants' false assumptions and beliefs to help them refocus their perspectives and understanding. Through the modality of storytelling and a practice called “relational mindfulness,” participants are able to develop radical empathy, compassion, and understanding for those around them. Shari Foos is a Marriage and Family Therapist, adjunct professor and the creator of The Narrative Method, a California 501c3 non-profit organization. Part of the Human Connection movement, TNM creates programs, products and experiences that address the growing isolation and need for real connection through sharing stories. Foos also co-founded the Bridge in 1999, a free humanities program for low-income adults at Antioch University Los Angeles. She received a MS in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University and a MA in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. As a sought-after expert on the subject of relationships, remote group dynamics and meaningful connection, her writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications and podcasts, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Women's Health, KBLA, Fatherly, Thrive Global, Shondaland, The LA Weekly, Sparks & Honey Culture Briefings, Sondership, Let Pleasure be The Measure, and Bustle. Ms. Foos serves on the board of the City Kids Foundation and is the recipient of the New Directions for Veterans Community Hero Award (2015) and The Antioch University Los Angeles Lifetime Achievement Award (2016). https://www.queenvisionnetwork.com https://www.instagram.com/theqchat_podcast/ https://www.instagram.com/iam_geauxqueen/ This Podcast is Sponsored by Queen's Arrogance LLC (c) #selflovepodcasts #podcastforwomen #podcastsforwomenofcolor --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-q-chat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-q-chat/support

Shari Foos is a Marriage and Family Therapist, adjunct professor and the creator of The Narrative Method, a California 501c3 non-profit organization. Part of the Human Connection movement, TNM creates programs, products and experiences that address the growing isolation and need for real connection through sharing stories. Foos also co-founded the Bridge in 1999, a free humanities program for low-income adults at Antioch University Los Angeles. She received a MS in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University and a MA in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles.   As a sought-after expert on the subject of relationships, remote group dynamics and meaningful connection, her writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications and podcasts, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Women's Health, KBLA, Fatherly, Thrive Global, Shondaland, The LA Weekly, Sparks & Honey Culture Briefings, Sondership, Let Pleasure be The Measure, and Bustle. Ms. Foos serves on the board of the City Kids Foundation and is the recipient of the New Directions for Veterans Community Hero Award (2015) and The Antioch University Los Angeles Lifetime Achievement Award (2016).   Website: www.thenarrativemethod.org Facebook: thenarrativemethod Instagram: @thenarrativemethod Twitter: @narrativemethod   For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/ Subscribe to this podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conceiving-your-divine-purpose/id1566737759

On this episode of the Jason Cavness Experience I talk to Shari Foos Creator of The Narrative Method We talk about the following The Creative Method Building meaningful human connections Why empathy is important Why radical gratitude is important Shari's Bio Shari Foos is a Marriage and Family Therapist, adjunct professor and the creator of The Narrative Method, a California 501c3 non-profit organization. Part of the Human Connection movement, TNM creates programs, products and experiences that address the growing isolation and need for real connection through sharing stories. Foos also co-founded the Bridge in 1999, a free humanities program for low-income adults at Antioch University Los Angeles. She received a MS in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University and a MA in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. As a sought-after expert on the subjects of relationships, remote group dynamics and meaningful connection, her writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications and podcasts, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Women's Health, KBLA, Fatherly, Thrive Global, Shondaland, The LA Weekly, Sparks & Honey Culture Briefings, Sondership, Let Pleasure be The Measure, and Bustle. Ms. Foos serves on the board of the City Kids Foundation and is the recipient of the New Directions for Veterans Community Hero Award (2015) and The Antioch University Los Angeles Lifetime Achievement Award (2016). The Narrative Method is a non-profit organization Shari Foos founded in 2014 to connect diverse people to themselves and each other through personal storytelling and other connective experiences. The organization counts NYU Los Angeles, Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab at the USC Marshall School of Business, Antioch University Los Angeles, LA Unified School District, City Kids Foundation, New Directions for Veterans, Get Lit, GAP Inc., and Kaiser Permanente among its long list of current and previous clients and collaborators. Shari's Social Media Shari's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shari-foos-7b083214/ Shari's FB: https://www.facebook.com/thenarrativemethod Company Website: http://www.thenarrativemethod.org/ Shari's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenarrativemethod/ Shari's Gift Shari invites you to her weekly zoom calls at www.thenarrativemethod.com Clear your head and open your mind to a fun and creative experience of short form creative writing. Shari also hosts other great weekly zoom topics. Sharri's Advice I'm going to give you a little self soothing tool. When you're stressed out, this is something you could do anywhere. Take your dominant hand and put it firmly on your heart so that you feel your heartbeat. That hand is kind of the most grown up and that part of you is telling your fears, your worries, it's cool, don't worry. But from the inside, you feel that pressure and you can relax. Because it is a way to signal to your unconscious. The way you know your mom or your dad or someone who loved you may have loved would say, it's okay. You don't have to worry and it can calm you down really fast.

In the last three episodes of Parenting Impossible, The Special Needs Survival Podcast,  Annette Hines has been telling her story to explain how her journey brought her into the disability community as a mother, caregiver, advocate, and attorney. Now we are going to explore with the help of Shari Foos how stories can provide us with a real human connection. Shari Foos is a therapist, relationship specialist, adjunct professor, and creator of The Narrative Method. The Narrative Method is an award-winning approach to building connections between people through their storytelling.  There are twelve Core Concepts within the Narrative Method. Relational Mindfulness is a core concept that promotes the humanistic practice of relating compassionately to build deeper understanding. Another concept, A.W.E.  is embracing Awareness, Wonder, and Empathy to see the world through someone else's perspectives. Each concept describes the ways in which we connect with one another. Shari shares with us that telling stories to one another allows us to be invited into belonging with others, creating mutual respect and empathy for each other. So please join us for this very insightful show! Learn more about Shari Foos's The Narrative Method, and the DIY Human Deck of Cards. Shari Foos is a marriage and family therapist, adjunct professor, and creator of The Narrative Method, a California non-profit organization. Shari also co-founded the Bridge in 1999, a free humanities program for low-income adults at Antioch University Los Angeles. She received an MS in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University and a MA in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. Ms. Foos serves on the board of the City Kids Foundation and is the recipient of the New Directions for Veterans Community Hero Award (2015) and The Antioch University Los Angeles Lifetime Achievement Award (2016). As a sought-after expert on the subject of relationships, remote group dynamics, and meaningful connection, her writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications and podcasts, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Women's Health, KBLA, Fatherly, Thrive Global, Shondaland, and The LA Weekly.

I talk with Shari Foos, a marriage and family therapist, about the power of storytelling and how it can help us connect to each other. She shares what the cult of culture is and what it tells us, and how we can replace neurotic thoughts to better serve us. We also talk about modesty and holding onto our moods and feelings. Shari Foos is a Marriage and Family Therapist and the creator of The Narrative Method. Part of the Human Connection Movement, TNM creates programs, products and experiences that use stories to deeply connect people to themselves and others. Foos also co-founded Bridge, (1999), a free university program in the humanities for low-income adults. She received a MS in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University and a MA in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, where she is an adjunct professor. As a sought-after expert on the subjects of relationships and meaningful connection, Foos' writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Women's Health, KBLA, Fatherly, Thrive Global, Shondaland, The LA Weekly, Sparks & Honey Culture Briefings and Bustle. Ms. Foos serves on the board of the City Kids Foundation and is the recipient of the New Directions for Veterans Community Hero Award (2015) and The Antioch University Los Angeles Lifetime Achievement Award (2016). Click here to preorder The Gemstone Flutter Dress Click here to see The All American Dress and sign up for the waitlist if your size is already sold out Click here to see The Snuggle Dress, and sign up for the waitlist if your size is already gone. To hear more episodes, subscribe and head over to Impactfashionnyc.com/blog/podcast. Be Impactful is presented by Impact Fashion, your destination for all things size inclusive modest fashion

Marc Dones, CEO of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, and Crystal have an in-depth, honest conversation about addressing homelessness. They talk through the critical need to acknowledge the lack of appropriate housing supply, the harm our system has traditionally perpetuated on those it aims to serve, and the desperate state of a chronically underfunded service infrastructure. Though the scope of the problem is daunting, they discuss how the solutions are mostly straightforward, but hinge on a real commitment to resourcing them. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal on Twitter at @finchfrii, Marc at @marcformarc, and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority at @KC_RHA.   Resources King County Regional Homelessness Authority: https://kcrha.org/   “King County head of homelessness may be an ‘impossible' job, but Marc Dones is optimistic” by Scott Greenstone from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/king-county-head-of-homelessness-may-be-an-impossible-job-but-marc-dones-is-optimistic/    “Why does prosperous King County have a homelessness crisis?” by Benjamin Maritz and Dilip Wagle for McKinsey & Company: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/why-does-prosperous-king-county-have-a-homelessness-crisis   “Seattle homelessness nonprofits struggle to hire, complicating plans to expand shelters and housing” by Scott Greenstone from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/seattle-homelessness-nonprofits-struggle-to-hire-complicating-plans-to-expand-shelters-and-housing/   “A Literature Review of Single-Room Occupancy (SRO) Supportive Housing Structures in the United States: An Assessment to Ascertain the Viability of SROs to Address the Needs of Homeless and Vulnerably Housed Populations in New York City” by Ashwin Parulkar and Daniel C. Farrell for HELP USA: https://www.helpusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/A-Literature-Review-of-Single-Room-Occupancy-SRO-Supportive-Housing-Structures-in-the-United-States.pdf   “Building the Capacity of the Homeless Service Workforce” by Joan Mullen and Walter Leginski for The Open Health Services and Policy Journal: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=D7337FB9BA53EC10246DDFB46B6B37AE?doi=10.1.1.457.1884&rep=rep1&type=pdf   “Frontline Workers: Urban Solutions for Developing a Sustainable Workforce in the Homeless Services Sector of Los Angeles County” by Vanessa Rios from Antioch University Los Angeles: https://www.antioch.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RIOS-VANESSA.-URBAN-SOLUTIONS-FOR-DEVELOPING-A-SUSTAINABLE-WORKFORCE.-.pdf   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington State through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, I'm thrilled to be welcoming this person to the show. Today, we have joining us, the CEO of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, Marc Dones. Thank you so much for joining us. [00:00:52] Marc Dones: Thanks for having me. [00:00:54] Crystal Fincher: Well, I wanted to have this conversation - we have talked about homelessness, what the unhoused population needs, providing housing, services - throughout several shows here on Hacks & Wonks. But it's a conversation that is so rich and there are so many facets to it, we really can't talk about it enough. I was really excited to see you take the helm of the Homelessness Authority - and just listening to you in various venues, just the vision that you're bringing to it. So, I guess, just to start out for people who may not be familiar with who you are and what this job entails, what brought you here and what is the work that you are charged with doing? [00:01:42] Marc Dones: Well, for folks who aren't familiar with me - one, I'm jealous. You're living a great life and I encourage you to keep living it. You have managed to escape having to know about me or any of the things that I have to worry about, most of which are the worst things that our culture produces. So, kudos to you and teach me your ways. What brings me to the work to some degree is my life - I'm a queer, non-binary Black person, I have some significant mental health issues - I have been psychiatrically hospitalized twice - I did some couch surfing. And when I began my nominal professional career, I was, as most young people are, fascinated most with myself and I wanted to understand - I remember being in my early 20s and trying to understand how it had kind of worked out for me, right? And my work and my research really led to the fact that it was kind of luck - that statistically speaking, this is not likely. And so, I think that part of the reason why I have done this work for as long as I have and what I'm trying to do is - to make a world where luck is not the mediator of a positive outcome for a person who's like me - where we are able to rely on the government and our social structures and our safety net, to produce the kinds of outcomes that we deserve as opposed to having to luck out. So that's why I'm here, and I think that the work of the Authority - in a sentence - is to end homelessness. And homelessness is complicated, it is complex - I've said every which way to Sunday - there is no silver bullet here. There's just actually nuanced work, and it's just the one thing - that's all we got to do - is end homelessness in the county. [00:04:14] Crystal Fincher: Simple phrase, hard work. So, what does it take to end homelessness? [00:04:22] Marc Dones: It takes a couple thing - from my perspective, for our region and just broadly in this country, it takes a couple things. One is, we have to have a very serious conversation about housing. And it's critical we start every conversation with a conversation about housing, because for too long, frankly, we've started the conversation with everything but housing. And so, we've become obsessed with formulating homelessness through the lens of crime, or just of mental health, or all this service infrastructure without ever thinking about the roof. I say all the time that - with reverence and deep respect for the social workers I work with and know - no number of social workers becomes a home. It's not like you get assigned six case managers and they sort of Transformer-Autobot into a house. And so, in this country, we have done a terrible job of producing and maintaining low-income housing stock. And in particular, for wonks, that's the 0-30% AMI - so Area Median Income is the index we use - it's got a lot of flaws and we can talk about those, but it's a good barometer of how much money you need to make in order to live in a region without being cost burdened. For our truly lowest income residents, that 0-30% AMI, we don't produce anything for them. And I think what's really critical there is that 0-30% AMI - folks in their minds often, I think, picture - I don't know what people picture anymore actually. But the point that we should make is that 0-30% AMI is in many instances a barista, it is - a senior on fixed income is 0-30% AMI. And I'm not saying this in an effort to create the other thing we often do, which is the poor people we can empathize with and so, therefore we're worried about helping. I'm saying this just to be really clear that there was a time when getting to 0-30% AMI actually was hard to do because of the level of destitution it required. Now, you can work full-time or be attached to what's supposed to be our nation's greatest benefit structure and still be in that income bracket. The other thing that I think we really need to talk about when we talk about ending homelessness is - the harm the system does when it is attempting to house you. [00:07:18] Crystal Fincher: Yes. [00:07:18] Marc Dones: In all honesty, part of the reason that much has been made about our shot here at really implementing a system that centers the voices of people with lived experience and who are currently experiencing homelessness, is it gives us this opportunity for the first time to be like, These things do more than just not help - they hurt, right? [00:07:42] Crystal Fincher: Yes. [00:07:43] Marc Dones: And so much of our system has been organized through these punitive and paternalistic and carceral lenses that they really create - not just like, "Oh, this was unpleasant." - they create trauma. And that trauma disincentivizes people from engaging in whatever the supportive services they might need. It also creates really significant - I've been playing with this idea for a number of years - this attachment theory, but for housing. That by the time you get to housing, the process has been so traumatic that you attach to it poorly. And so, as a result, are more likely to then experience homelessness again, because of the psychological damage that getting to that housing has caused. And then the last thing would say is just that services are really important. We do need to support people who have experienced different kinds of trauma - whether it's intimate partner violence or war - and for reasons are or for those reasons, I should say, are experiencing housing instability. And our service infrastructure is awful - it is - we don't have it. [00:09:09] Crystal Fincher: Right. [00:09:10] Marc Dones: I think I would be remiss not to be clear that that is also racialized and classed in its construction. The vast majority of folks who do the frontline service work in the homelessness system are women, and in particular, women of color. To me, then it feels like no accident that it has been okay for 30, 35 years to pay them $27,000, while we ask them to manage people who are, in some cases, actively decompensating with psychotic spectrum disorders. Again, I say that not disrespectfully because I have been the person who's been decompensating with a psychotic spectrum disorder. It's hard to manage and we don't compensate those folks the way we compensate white men who do the exact same work, but with a different credentialing, because they had access and yada yada yada. For me, there is a really clear connection between ending homelessness and ending the poverty that we impose on the staff we are asking to do that work. [00:10:28] Crystal Fincher: Such good information with all of that. I want to start off with what you talked about with housing - and such a critical point of the need to start these conversations with housing. I want to ask about the lowest end and I forget - there was an article that I read a while back that was talking about what we used to have but don't have anymore - like one room rentals, day rentals. And that being a way that a lot of people made it back on their feet or actually prevented themselves from winding up on the street - hey, this is suboptimal and I ultimately want a different, larger place to stay, but this is shelter that I can afford. This is my place that I can afford, and in a room, and single-occupancy type thing - but those used to be here. We used to have more of that supply and don't. Do you see that as part of the issue? Is that a more minor missing part of it? Do you think that we also need to increase the amount of really low-income stock that we have? [00:11:37] Marc Dones: I think it's a huge part of it. I mean, let's be clear. America navigated two previous homelessness crises brought on by the two previous World Wars, largely through SRO [single room occupancy] stock. I mean, it was a known thing that vets could come back and get a room at the Y - that was just how we navigated that. And certainly before the passage of the GI Bill, that was it, that was literally it. With the passage of the GI Bill, we see vets having access to other kinds of monetary supports and financial tools to purchase homes in some instances. Although, we should also note that the GI Bill implementation was certainly quite racialized and so, who got access to those financial tools is its own story. Somebody's book, not mine. But I will be really clear that we lost those SRO units and other low-income housing units in the great suburbanization wave that begins at the end of the 40s and then pushes into the 50s and 60s. So, with the creation of the suburbs, we begin to see a corresponding almost unraveling, frankly, of a lot of what had been that standard low-income housing stock. And it then leads to, in particular, with the 60s and some of the work that happens inside the Civil Rights era - we then see a sudden reinvestment in low-income housing. But now, it's taking the form of the Projects and of these other forms of architectural investment that are much more family-oriented than they are for single adults. They're supposed to be stable long-term apartments and then we see the advent of certain kinds of programs like Section 8, et cetera, or voucher programs. But all of these post-suburbs conversations have at their core the same thing they're trying to solve for, which is a lack of the housing for people to access just on their own. In reality, again, if I think about most folks experiencing homelessness that I've known, most people could find their way to a thing and rent it themselves if it existed. They don't need my help to do that - that's demeaning. The only reason our voucher programs exist, the only reason we run the system we run is because that naturally occurring low-income stock is not available to people to find and get to on their own. [00:14:40] Crystal Fincher: I hope we do a better job collectively of prioritizing and addressing that because it's a mess. Also, the service delivery system has a number of challenges and this is an issue. I heard you speaking somewhere before on a panel, and it really struck me just - hey, we can throw millions of dollars at this today. That does not mean that tomorrow we are in a position to spend that millions of dollars and implement stuff based on that. I don't know that a lot of people have visibility into that part of the system. People just hear of services and they think people are operating shelters or some places for people to live. And there are some social workers who maybe connect people to mental health resources. And these things are offered to people every time there's a sweep on the street and they get to opt-in or opt-out. They opt-out and so - hey, we did our best and I guess we got to sweep them now - is where a lot of people are at. What actually happens within this system and what is the current state of our service infrastructure? [00:15:59] Marc Dones: Okay, so what currently happens, if we're being just very candid is - up until the pandemic, we offered you typically at best a mat on a floor with hundreds of other people. You needed to be in for the night, typically no later than 7 or 8 [PM], and out by around 5 or 6 in the morning. There was very little place for the storage of your personal belongings, if there was any place for the storage of your personal belongings. You couldn't - if you have a pet or had a pet, that - tough, no space for that. We oftentimes - well, actually in the vast majority of instances, not oftentimes - also run or ran those shelters, I should say, on the sole basis of gender. And so, if you are trans or non-binary, that can be a real uphill walk. Or if you are a couple and were like "I'm in a heterosexual relationship" - I mean, I am not, but if you were in a heterosexual relationship and wanted to - which no disrespect to heterosexual relationships to be clear, it's just it's not the one I am in. But if you were in a heterosexual relationship and wanted to go to a shelter as a couple, that's not a thing. If you are a family, you need to be a family that we understand - meaning that you have to be, typically, a biological parent with children. Those kids certainly can't be over 18 - they probably can't even be in their teens - because oftentimes if you're trying to access shelter and have teenage children, particularly teenage male children, then they will be sent to the adult male shelter far away from wherever you are. And that kind of goes on, actually. I could keep going through the many, many - frankly, to my mind - cruelties that we have imposed on people experiencing homelessness just to try to be inside for the night for decades. And so, when we say "we offered you shelter" that's what we've been saying. We didn't offer you - even a room - we have offered you kind of a place to be. In this community, in this region, we have worked hard over the last three-ish years to move many of our shelters towards what's called an enhanced shelter status, which means you might have greater service connectivity, or some small expectation of privacy, but that's really it. With the pandemic, suddenly we couldn't do that to people anymore. I just got to be honest - if it takes a world-altering deadly disease to force us to realize that our treatment of other human beings was so inhumane and so beyond the pale unacceptable that we couldn't contain disease spread, that's something. Since then, we have done a lot of work. Now, you see that hotel-motel shelter model - all of a sudden things that were not possible are suddenly possible. Certainly, now that I am in this position - let me just be very clear - we will continue to drive towards a model of shelter that is like SRO. That should be the minimum for what is considered shelter - a door, a key, dignity, the ability to mind your own business, to sleep when you want to sleep, to come and go when you need to come and go. Because the other thing I'll add, sorry, just because I think it's important is, we said to people, "You have a 7 PM curfew, you got to be out by 5 [AM]" and then told everybody to get a job, so heaven forbid they have the night shift. [00:20:57] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. [00:20:58] Marc Dones: What's the plan? There's no plan for that. [00:21:00] Crystal Fincher: There is no plan - right. [00:21:03] Marc Dones: That, I think, is what has been happening and I think it's really important for listeners to have that actual reality in their heads of the humaneness that we have pretended we have been operating with is - it should embarrass us, frankly. [00:21:24] Crystal Fincher: It absolutely should and that bare minimum of humaneness, to your point - if someone had a job, someone doesn't have a traditional family, which many people are kicked out of their homes as teens for a variety of reasons - because their parents didn't agree with their sexuality or lifestyle or whatever it is. And finding people who help them to survive that are a family and trying to stick together and that not being possible. So much of what is actually reality on the ground outside is not acknowledged as an acceptable reality for our services system and for shelter and that leaving so many people out. And so, hearing, "Well, they refused services," has been - I just remember when I realized that, "Oh no, actually - being offered services doesn't actually mean being offered services for that person." It could be services that don't apply, that they are not eligible for, that they can't fit into - and then just too bad. I guess, how do we get from, "Too bad, we can't accommodate you, this doesn't work," to being able to at least accommodate folks in shelter, to get people housed and on the path to becoming stable? [00:22:50] Marc Dones: Well, I think part of it is - the portion of your question around, what is the state of our system from a services perspective and why can't we just spend $20 million because it was given to us? The reality is that - you could give us $20 million - there's no one to spend it. It's like, yes, it is now in an account, cool. But spending it means it has to pay somebody's salary, or pay for the benefits of a person, or pay for a property. It has to do something and the capacity of the system, because it has been chronically underfunded at the staffing level for 30 years, is, I mean, we're worse than at the bone at this point. We are actually - this is a slow crumbling. I have agencies in the system right now that have north of 200 vacancies and no pipeline to fill those vacancies - because we too have been hit by the great wave of resignations as people are like, "I don't want to live like this." No one wants to hear this because it somehow - I don't know why it feels so weird - but we have to pay people more. I'm just going to keep saying it until it gets just really in people's little noggins, I guess. Because if we don't pay people more, then we continue to see these turnovers, we continue to see these vacancies, and more money can come and more money can come and it won't mean anything. There will be no one to do anything with it, full stop. And we have to spend more money. There are at least 45,000 people experiencing homelessness in the county. We don't have the budget - our budget, if I tried to divvy that up across everybody, it essentially turns into about $3,000 a year per person. Or what that translates into is a little over $10 a day, which is just - that's not doing anything. When a permanent supportive housing unit for scale costs about $24,000 per year - that's inclusive of services. Not everyone needs permanent supportive housing, but the difference then between PSH and where we are now is $20,000 per person. We have to put more money in the system, but in order for the system to be able to use that money, we really have to have the people who can do the work. The thing that I want to be really clear about is - this whole system - all of that, we use the word "system" and we use all these words that make it sound, I don't know, make it sound some type of way. I don't know. But at the end of this - this, all of this, is people helping people. That's what's happening - it is people who have chosen - because of their own lives, because of what they see, because of where they feel called in life - to help somebody else. If they can't do it because they can't afford to do it, then there's no help. I'm a big fan of technology, I think technology can do cool stuff - but you ask people how they got into stable recovery, it's not an app. They work with other people who've been on that journey, who can talk with them about it, who can be like, "Yeah. I know it's very hard actually." When we don't provide for that kind of support, when we create through our staffing models such incredibly high turnover, the reality then becomes that you're never able to build a relationship. You can never have that honest conversation. The first time I wanted to have a conversation about like, "I think I might have some very serious mental health problems." - I had to work up to - there was a lot of trust, there was a lot of like, "Oh, maybe I'll flirt with telling someone, maybe I won't." All of these things take time and trust to disclose, to begin to actively work on. We have created these positions that have such high velocity of turnover that no one can build the trust. No one can hold those relationships. And so, so much of what I'm trying to do and what my team is trying to do is - honor the fact that it's the relationships that do the work. And to turn this system into one that is relationship-oriented instead of always focused on these transactions. I guess, the last thing I would say is just that, in that vein, I think it's really critical that we be clear that this is not just some wacky notion I have. The first paper on the impacts of staff turnover on housing the chronically homeless came out in like 2010, I think. And noted that an initiative that the Feds started in 2003 to end chronic homelessness didn't get that done - largely suffered, largely suffered, because the implementation sites couldn't maintain staff. I mean, this is a question of, do we actually want to do this or not? The path is bright and clear. There are no tremendous unknowns. It's just a question of, do we actually care? Or is it just a thing that it makes us feel good to talk about? [00:28:26] Crystal Fincher: Right, or feel good to fund and not actually be concerned about the end result, which is what I feel like we set ourselves up for sometimes by saying, "Okay, we have a great appropriation. Boom, here, let's go. Solve it, Marc." But I also think it's helpful when we talk about service providers - I think some people envision this system of people and, "Hey, let me look up - someone needs shelter, let me dial up the shelter directory and ooh, I can see on my screen, there's a vacancy there. Let me send them here," where there is no cohesive system. We're talking about nonprofit organizations, we're talking about mental health and health organizations, we're talking about a huge hodgepodge of charities, nonprofits, health and mental health service providers who have some joint contracts, some individual contracts, but really it's just this patchwork of things all over the place. And I don't even - I think it was en vogue for a while to talk about - well, we just need a streamlined dashboard to have everybody just on the same page and see. I mean, that's been tried and has failed and several iterations in several places - because there are so many different providers. It just seems these are not people on one standard system, one standard way of doing things. But to that, these organizations have a model that is really not able to handle what is being asked of it. Unless those models change, it seems pretty apparent - unless frontline workers are paid more - we're asking them to de-escalate and mediate more than police officers and firefighters do. They're doing it oftentimes with more trauma behind them if they have lived experience. And being asked to do it while living in poverty - which doing anything and everything while living in poverty is harder. Also, these organizations are understaffed, so you have people making minimum wage who are also doing the job of two and three people and being asked to do as much as they can bear until they burn out. Until we engage with that - and there have been some conversations within some organizations - but it seems like until there's a much wider conversation about that and acknowledgement of that and pressure to address the needs that we have today in our system, that it's not a realistic expectation that if we provide the money or if we - certainly, money can do a lot in a lot of different areas, especially if we just give it to people directly. But for looking at the system of service providers, we really have to ask - if your model is not working today, then what is it serving and who is it serving? How do we reorient that towards the people who actually need the help the most? I really hope we have more of that conversation among here. I guess, looking forward, what do you think it's going to take to help some of those conversations along? Have you seen progress in any areas, or any models that can be followed for looking at how to align our provision of services to the actual needs of the people who need shelter? [00:32:17] Marc Dones: I mean, this is the scary part - is, I think we're actually the farthest down that road in the country. We're the only system - I report to someone who lives in a shelter. One of my board chairs lives in a shelter right now. Half of my staff, myself included, identify as people with lived experience. No other system can say that and so, we are the next great experiment. I think about what it means to not just say we're centering people with lived experience or to say we're centering the voices of people who are actually trying to use the stuff, but to have that be structural and not tokenistic and really, really embedded. I mean, there are so many things that - we should talk for hours. [00:33:05] Crystal Fincher: I know - I'm looking at the time going - man, I could ask you 17 more questions right now - yes. [00:33:05] Marc Dones: I think - there are so many things in which you just said that I want to talk about. The thing that I want to really lean in on is - I do think, and I have seen it personally - I've seen people change over the course of the pandemic and realize how bad some of the congregate shelters were and have to be like, "We can't go back there." People who I've had arguments about it with in the past were like, "Actually, no, this is terrible." I do have hope and when I think about how we move forward and how we as a region can maybe be the proof point for why it is successful to center people - this is hokey, but I think it is about the community conversation. And I want to disaggregate that from the media conversation. I'm on a podcast, but still. [00:34:24] Crystal Fincher: I'm just a political consultant. I am not media. [00:34:27] Marc Dones: There we go, but I think that we got to talk to each other more than be talked at by media. I love my journalist colleagues and I have great respect for what they do and, frankly, the work they do to hold government accountable and all the ways that that must be done. But the way we talk about homelessness in the media is broken. It is bereft of that fundamental humanity and is tied to almost every single misconception that I can name. And so, when people ask me, "How can I make a difference?" I say, "Look, we just had a really great conversation. I feel like you asked me some questions, you got some different information. In some cases, I was informed by one of your perspectives. Invite your neighbor over and have this conversation with them, host a little dinner for your block. If you're part of a Rotary Club..." And I really mean that because unless we, as the community, start to have a different conversation about homelessness, we cannot expect either at the elected official level or the budgeting level - we can't expect those things to change. If this is a democracy, for as long as we can try to hold onto that - [00:35:58] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, that's a whole other show, isn't it? [00:36:02] Marc Dones: - then, it's incumbent on us to be having the conversation we want to see leadership have. I try very hard to take my cue from the community so that I can just be like, "Look." I remember I got into a dust-up about some stuff a couple months ago and I remember calling my board chair who lives in a shelter. I was like, "Am I wrong? Tell me if I have lost my mind and I will stop. This is what I see, and if you tell me or the community tells me that I'm out of line, then we'll end this right now." And that's what I think we need to be doing, is really focusing on building that community conversation, building that community will. I say this all the time and I mean it - I don't say no to anything - I have been to Rotary Clubs, I have done little dinners to talk about homelessness, because I want us to hold the nuance and compassion necessary to build the system that will get this job done. [00:37:08] Crystal Fincher: Well, I certainly appreciate you taking the time to talk about this today and to shed some light on this for us. You are welcome back anytime - there's so much more we could talk about, but we are at time today. I just want to, once again, thank you, Marc Dones, CEO of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority for just helping to enlighten us. We are certainly going to keep an eye on how things unfold. Thanks so much. [00:37:36] Marc Dones: Well, thank you for having me - glad to be here, I'll come back. We'll talk about democracy. [00:37:40] Crystal Fincher: I thank you all for listening to Hacks & Wonks on KVRU 105.7 FM. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler with assistance from Shannon Cheng. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, spelled F-I-N-C-H-F-R-I-I. Now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcast - just type "Hacks & Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you next time.

Born and raised in rural Pennsylvania, Melissa Meszaros has set the precedent for breaking tropes and forging the way for the modern nomadic. As tenured entertainment industry publicist, Melissa is also the founder of Grrrl Front PDX Music Festival and the comic book publicity firm, Don't Hide PR. She is a self-proclaimed grunge aficionado, graduate of Antioch University Los Angeles' MFA in Creative Writing, and proudly shares a birthday with Melvins leader, Buzz Osborne.   Brought to you by: Integrated Brain Centers Enjoying this podcast? Please consider supporting it for just $5 a month with a Patreon membership: https://patreon.com/amyzellmer

Shari Foos is a Marriage and Family Therapist, adjunct professor and the creator of The Narrative Method, a California 501c3 non-profit organization. Part of the Human Connection movement, TNM creates programs, products and experiences that address the growing isolation and need for real connection through sharing stories. Foos also co-founded the Bridge in 1999, a free humanities program for low-income adults at Antioch University Los Angeles. She received a MS in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University and a MA in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. As a sought-after expert on the subject of relationships, remote group dynamics and meaningful connection, her writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications and podcasts, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Women's Health, KBLA, Fatherly, Thrive Global, Shondaland, The LA Weekly, Sparks & Honey Culture Briefings, Sondership, Let Pleasure be The Measure, and Bustle. Ms. Foos serves on the board of the City Kids Foundation and is the recipient of the New Directions for Veterans Community Hero Award (2015) and The Antioch University Los Angeles Lifetime Achievement Award (2016). Listen to this insightful Whinypaluza episode with Shari Foos about The Narrative Method. Here is what to expect on this week's show: How children can't help but see the injustices in the world and how that affects them. How it has been observed that even infants have a sense of morality. Why people must separate themselves from the negative things that happened to them in the past. How connecting with yourself allows you to discover what you want to do in the world. Why empathy can be a powerful tool to help you see that everyone has issues.  Links Mentioned: thenarrativemethod.org Connect with Shari: Twitter @NarrativeMethod Instagram @thenarrativemethod Facebook facebook.com/thenarrativemethod LinkedIn linkedin.com/company/thenarrativemethod Follow Rebecca Greene Blog  whinypaluza.com Book  bit.ly/WhinypaluzaBook Facebook  facebook.com/whinypaluzaparenting Instagram @becgreene5 TikTok @whinypaluzamom Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If I dont ask that question that I am curious about, so I stop my potential of learning right there - Shari Foos Are you afraid of looking like you dont know, or being caught out that you dont know? Most of us (if not all of us), face some level of imposter syndrome, especially when in the growth zone. With hindsight, we can see that we are more than our hard times, but when in those moments, ask yourself is that all that is true? In this weeks episode, Shari Foos, shares relatable insight, steps and movements we can all take to not only get out of the negative self-talk loops but be able to address this to lead ourselves, and others, with this vulnerability. And sometimes....its about using humour to find release and relief. About Shari Foos Shari Foos is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. As a sought-after expert on the subjects of relationships and meaningful connection, Sharis writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Thrive, Shondaland, Womens Health, and Bustle. Connect with Shari LinkedIN Twitter Instagram The Narrative Method Some topics discussed Vulnerability through unexpressed connection Staying curious by asking questions Feeling heard when sharing our stories Asking yourself is that all that is true right now? Redefining the tone and words when communicating Addressing your inner voice in those moments Getting out of negative loops with a change of scenery Challenging the cult of culture The beauty in simple connection Leading others with vulnerability Connect with Sope Website Instagram LinkedIn Twitter Email: hello@mindsetshift.co.uk I am always keen to hear your thoughts and connect with the community of listeners. If you have any comments, feedback or thoughts, please drop me a voice message: https://mindsetshift.co.uk/#ask-me-anything

“If I don't ask that question that I am curious about, so I stop my potential of learning right there” - Shari Foos Are you afraid of looking like you don't know, or being “caught out” that you don't know? Most of us (if not all of us), face some level of imposter syndrome, especially when in the growth zone. With hindsight, we can see that we are more than our hard times, but when in those moments, ask yourself “is that all that is true”? In this week's episode, Shari Foos, shares relatable insight, steps and movements we can all take to not only get out of the negative self-talk loops but be able to address this to lead ourselves, and others, with this vulnerability. And sometimes....it's about using humour to find release and relief. About Shari Foos Shari Foos is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. As a sought-after expert on the subjects of relationships and meaningful connection, Shari's writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Thrive, Shondaland, Women's Health, and Bustle. Connect with Shari LinkedIN Twitter Instagram The Narrative Method Some topics discussed Vulnerability through unexpressed connection Staying curious by asking questions Feeling heard when sharing our stories Asking yourself “is that all that is true right now?” Redefining the tone and words when communicating Addressing your inner voice in those moments Getting out of negative loops with a change of scenery Challenging the cult of culture The beauty in simple connection Leading others with vulnerability Connect with Sope Website Instagram  LinkedIn  Twitter  Email: hello@mindsetshift.co.uk I am always keen to hear your thoughts and connect with the community of listeners. If you have any comments, feedback or thoughts, please drop me a voice message: https://mindsetshift.co.uk/#ask-me-anything

“If I don't ask that question that I am curious about, so I stop my potential of learning right there” - Shari FoosAre you afraid of looking like you don't know, or being “caught out” that you don't know? Most of us (if not all of us), face some level of imposter syndrome, especially when in the growth zone. With hindsight, we can see that we are more than our hard times, but when in those moments, ask yourself “is that all that is true”?In this week's episode, Shari Foos, shares relatable insight, steps and movements we can all take to not only get out of the negative self-talk loops but be able to address this to lead ourselves, and others, with this vulnerability.And sometimes....it's about using humour to find release and relief.About Shari FoosShari Foos is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. As a sought-after expert on the subjects of relationships and meaningful connection, Shari's writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Thrive, Shondaland, Women's Health, and Bustle.Connect with ShariLinkedINTwitterInstagramThe Narrative MethodSome topics discussedVulnerability through unexpressed connectionStaying curious by asking questionsFeeling heard when sharing our storiesAsking yourself “is that all that is true right now?”Redefining the tone and words when communicatingAddressing your inner voice in those momentsGetting out of negative loops with a change of sceneryChallenging the cult of cultureThe beauty in simple connectionLeading others with vulnerabilityConnect with SopeWebsiteInstagram LinkedIn Twitter Email: hello@mindsetshift.co.ukI am always keen to hear your thoughts and connect with the community of listeners. If you have any comments, feedback or thoughts, please drop me a voice message: https://mindsetshift.co.uk/#ask-me-anything

Shari Foos is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. As a sought-after expert on the subjects of relationships and meaningful connection, Shari's writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Thrive, Shondaland, Women's Health, and Bustle.  web: http://www.thenarrativemethod.org/ (TheNarrativeMethod.com) fb: https://www.facebook.com/thenarrativemethod (thenarrativemethod) insta: https://www.instagram.com/thenarrativemethod/ (@thenarrativemethod) twitter: https://twitter.com/NarrativeMethod (@NarrativeMethod) The A World of Difference Podcast is brought to you in partnership with https://www.missioalliance.org/ (Missio Alliance). Stay In Touch: Connect on Facebook and Instagram with thoughts, questions, and feedback. Rate, review and share this podcast with anyone that would love to listen.   Find Us Online: https://www.instagram.com/aworldof.difference/ (@aworldof.difference) on Instagram and https://www.facebook.com/A-World-of-Difference-613933132591673/ (A World of Difference) on Facebook, on Twitter at https://twitter.com/loriadbr (@loriadbr) & on Clubhouse https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@loriadbr (@loriadbr).https://linktr.ee/aworldofdifference (https://linktr.ee/aworldofdifference) or http://loriadamsbrown.com/ (loriadamsbrown.com)Interested in one-on-one or group coaching on how to live a life that makes a difference? Check out: https://www.loriadamsbrown.com/coaching (https://www.loriadamsbrown.com/coaching) Did you know that podcasts are a great way to grow your personal and business brand voice? Here's the secret, we all want to feel connected to brands we buy from. What better way to humanize a brand than through sharing your story on a podcast. Kitcaster is a podcast booking agency that specializes in developing real human connections through podcast appearances. If you are an expert in your field, have a unique story to share, or an interesting point of view-- it's time to explore the world of podcasting with Kitcaster. You can expect a completely customized concierge service from our staff of communication experts. Kitcaster is your secret weapon in podcasting for business. Your audience is waiting to hear from you. Go to https://kitcaster.com/difference/ (https://kitcaster.com/difference/) to apply for a special offer for friends of this podcast. Mentioned in this episode: Coaching Sept 22 Want to get unstuck and make a difference? Go to loriadamsbrown.com/coachnig for a free exploratory session. Patreon Support us for as little as $5/month at Patreon.com/aworldofdifference and receive exclusive audio content and free merch. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Shari Foos is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. As a sought-after expert on the subjects of relationships and meaningful connection, Shari's writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Thrive, Shondaland, Women's Health, and Bustle. web: TheNarrativeMethod.comfb: thenarrativemethodinsta: @thenarrativemethodtwitter: @NarrativeMethodThe A World of Difference Podcast is brought to you in partnership with Missio Alliance.Stay In Touch: Connect on Facebook and Instagram with thoughts, questions, and feedback. Rate, review and share this podcast with anyone that would love to listen.   Find Us Online: @aworldof.difference on Instagram and A World of Difference on Facebook, on Twitter at @loriadbr & on Clubhouse @loriadbr.https://linktr.ee/aworldofdifference or loriadamsbrown.comInterested in one-on-one or group coaching on how to live a life that makes a difference? Check out: https://www.loriadamsbrown.com/coachingDid you know that podcasts are a great way to grow your personal and business brand voice?Here's the secret, we all want to feel connected to brands we buy from. What better way to humanize a brand than through sharing your story on a podcast.Kitcaster is a podcast booking agency that specializes in developing real human connections through podcast appearances.If you are an expert in your field, have a unique story to share, or an interesting point of view-- it's time to explore the world of podcasting with Kitcaster.You can expect a completely customized concierge service from our staff of communication experts. Kitcaster is your secret weapon in podcasting for business. Your audience is waiting to hear from you.Go to https://kitcaster.com/difference/ to apply for a special offer for friends of this podcast.Mentioned in this episode:Do you want to go deeper?Join us in Difference Makers, a community where we watch and discuss exclusive content that truly makes a difference. Give us $5 a month (the price of a latte), and join in on the conversation with our host Lori and others who want to make a difference. We'd love to have you join us!PatreonJoin Difference MakersJoin us in our membership community for exclusive content for only $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/aworldofdifference. We go deeper with each guest, and it makes such a difference.PatreonThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacyPodtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp

Shari Foos is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. As a sought-after expert on the subjects of relationships and meaningful connection, Shari's writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Thrive, Shondaland, Women's Health, and Bustle.  web: http://www.thenarrativemethod.org/ (TheNarrativeMethod.com) fb: https://www.facebook.com/thenarrativemethod (thenarrativemethod) insta: https://www.instagram.com/thenarrativemethod/ (@thenarrativemethod) twitter: https://twitter.com/NarrativeMethod (@NarrativeMethod) The A World of Difference Podcast is brought to you in partnership with https://www.missioalliance.org/ (Missio Alliance). Stay In Touch: Connect on Facebook and Instagram with thoughts, questions, and feedback. Rate, review and share this podcast with anyone that would love to listen.   Find Us Online: https://www.instagram.com/aworldof.difference/ (@aworldof.difference) on Instagram and https://www.facebook.com/A-World-of-Difference-613933132591673/ (A World of Difference) on Facebook, on Twitter at https://twitter.com/loriadbr (@loriadbr) & on Clubhouse https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@loriadbr (@loriadbr).https://linktr.ee/aworldofdifference (https://linktr.ee/aworldofdifference) or http://loriadamsbrown.com/ (loriadamsbrown.com)Interested in one-on-one or group coaching on how to live a life that makes a difference? Check out: https://www.loriadamsbrown.com/coaching (https://www.loriadamsbrown.com/coaching) Did you know that podcasts are a great way to grow your personal and business brand voice? Here's the secret, we all want to feel connected to brands we buy from. What better way to humanize a brand than through sharing your story on a podcast. Kitcaster is a podcast booking agency that specializes in developing real human connections through podcast appearances. If you are an expert in your field, have a unique story to share, or an interesting point of view-- it's time to explore the world of podcasting with Kitcaster. You can expect a completely customized concierge service from our staff of communication experts. Kitcaster is your secret weapon in podcasting for business. Your audience is waiting to hear from you. Go to https://kitcaster.com/difference/ (https://kitcaster.com/difference/) to apply for a special offer for friends of this podcast. Mentioned in this episode: Coaching Sept 22 Want to get unstuck and make a difference? Go to loriadamsbrown.com/coachnig for a free exploratory session. Patreon Support us for as little as $5/month at Patreon.com/aworldofdifference and receive exclusive audio content and free merch. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Shari Foos is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. As a sought-after expert on the subjects of relationships and meaningful connection, Shari's writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Thrive, Shondaland, Women's Health, and Bustle. web: TheNarrativeMethod.comfb: thenarrativemethodinsta: @thenarrativemethodtwitter: @NarrativeMethodThe A World of Difference Podcast is brought to you in partnership with Missio Alliance.Stay In Touch: Connect on Facebook and Instagram with thoughts, questions, and feedback. Rate, review and share this podcast with anyone that would love to listen.   Find Us Online: @aworldof.difference on Instagram and A World of Difference on Facebook, on Twitter at @loriadbr & on Clubhouse @loriadbr.https://linktr.ee/aworldofdifference or loriadamsbrown.comInterested in one-on-one or group coaching on how to live a life that makes a difference? Check out: https://www.loriadamsbrown.com/coachingDid you know that podcasts are a great way to grow your personal and business brand voice?Here's the secret, we all want to feel connected to brands we buy from. What better way to humanize a brand than through sharing your story on a podcast.Kitcaster is a podcast booking agency that specializes in developing real human connections through podcast appearances.If you are an expert in your field, have a unique story to share, or an interesting point of view-- it's time to explore the world of podcasting with Kitcaster.You can expect a completely customized concierge service from our staff of communication experts. Kitcaster is your secret weapon in podcasting for business. Your audience is waiting to hear from you.Go to https://kitcaster.com/difference/ to apply for a special offer for friends of this podcast.Mentioned in this episode:Do you want to go deeper?Join us in Difference Makers, a community where we watch and discuss exclusive content that truly makes a difference. Give us $5 a month (the price of a latte), and join in on the conversation with our host Lori and others who want to make a difference. We'd love to have you join us!PatreonJoin Difference MakersJoin us in our membership community for exclusive content for only $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/aworldofdifference. We go deeper with each guest, and it makes such a difference.PatreonThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacyPodtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp

Welcome to Unlikely Leadership with Audrey. Today I will be speaking with Shari Foos. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. As a sought-after expert on the subjects of relationships and meaningful connection, Shari's writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Thrive, Shondaland, Women's Health, and Bustle.

Welcome to Unlikely Leadership with Audrey. Today I will be speaking with Shari Foos. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. As a sought-after expert on the subjects of relationships and meaningful connection, Shari's writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Thrive, Shondaland, Women's Health, and Bustle.

Welcome to Unlikely Leadership with Audrey. Today I will be speaking with Shari Foos. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. As a sought-after expert on the subjects of relationships and meaningful connection, Shari's writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Thrive, Shondaland, Women's Health, and Bustle.

Welcome to Unlikely Leadership with Audrey. Today I will be speaking with Shari Foos. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. As a sought-after expert on the subjects of relationships and meaningful connection, Shari's writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Thrive, Shondaland, Women's Health, and Bustle.

“And so while it is my job to support artists in the work they're doing, I often see my own survival in the work that they're sharing, and for me that just deepens the sense of not being alone. And every time, I think “Oh, right -- that's the basic tenet of a healing community -- remembering ‘I'm not alone.'”… And for me it is the thing I need to continually remember and come back to: “I'm not alone, I'm not alone” -- I think forever it will be helpful to hear and to see that.” Molly spends time talking with Jeri Fredrickson, the Creative Director of Awakenings, a nonprofit arts organization whose mission centers survivors of sexual violence. She sees literary, visual, and performing art as a channel to nurture love and access beauty while questioning the experiences that hold people together. She has an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles and her book You Are Not Lost was published in Fall 2021. Awakenings is a non-profit organization dedicated to making visible the artistic expression of survivors of sexual violence. We are committed to creating a physical and virtual artistic space in which to engage in an open dialogue that promotes healing of survivors through the arts and furthers awareness and understanding of sexual violence. We do this by producing year-round art events and opportunities spanning every medium, including visual art, literature, music, theater, and performance art that are made by, for, and about survivors of sexual violence.  -------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE to the show to be the first to hear about new episodes!   Contact Jeri: https://awakeningsart.org/ // Jeri@awakeningsart.org or jericreatesthings@gmail.com // @awakeningsart (IG&Twitter) // @jfredcreates (IG) // @awakeningsartchicago (FB)   Contact Molly: theembodyconnection.com // molly@theembodyconnection.com   -------------------------------------------- Special thanks to:   Jenn Baykan, virtual assistant for creatives: https://www.jbaykan.com/   Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/   Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag  

How do you avoid and numb uncomfortable thoughts and feelings? How have you avoided and numbed your thoughts and feelings of loneliness, not belonging or being alone? Let's talk about numbing and loneliness over a coffee with my friend Justin Oberste (@justinoberste) in this episode of my podcast for gay men. The conversation follows the article I published last week about paying attention to how we numb (see link). Let me get you a coffee and let's have a real chat. About Justin: Justin Oberste is an associate psychotherapist specialising in LGBTQ+ Affirmative Psychology and Religious Trauma Therapy, and is currently training to become a Sex Therapist. Justin received his Masters in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and has recently begun full-time private practive work with Dr Chris Donaghue, author of 'Rebel Love' and 'Sex Outside The Lines' and the host of the radio show 'Loveline'. Originally from Power Springs, Georgia, Justin now resides in Santa Barbara, California. IG: @justinoberste Share in the vision for The Loneliness Guy: www.thelonelinessguy.com/invest Buy me a coffee to say thanks for the episode: https://bit.ly/3nDMrZm Links Website: www.thelonelinessguy.com Join the mailing list and community: www.thelonelinessguy.com/subscribe Read ‘How do you numb?': https://bit.ly/3rxVDAJ Michael DiIorio's work: www.wellismo.com Join me on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3l35iMh Need some help through your loneliness?: www.thelonelinessguy.com/help Contact me: connect@thelonelinessguy.com Sounds recorded with permission at Prefab Eatery, Wellington: www.pre-fab.co.nz

A Winning Cup: http://awinningcup.weebly.com. Please donate to Ask Win by going to Payment Venmo Win1195 at https://venmo.com/. Win Kelly Charles' Books: https://www.amazon.com/Win-Kelly-Charles/e/B009VNJEKE/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1. Win Kelly Charles' MONAT: https://wincharles.mymonat.com.   On A Winning Cup today (Monday, November 29, 2021), Best-Selling Author, Win C welcomes Shari Foos. Shari is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. As a sought-after expert on the subjects of relationships and meaningful connection, Shari's writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Thrive, Shondaland, Women's Health, and Bustle. To learn more about Shari visit www.TheNarrativeMethod.org.

Chris sits down for a one-on-one conversation with Jose Hernandez Diaz on passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He is the author of a collection of prose poems: The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020). He holds degrees in English and Creative Writing from UC Berkeley and Antioch University Los Angeles. His work appears in The American Poetry Review, Cincinnati Review, Georgia Review, Huizache, Iowa Review, The Nation, Poetry, and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading. Currently, he is an Editor for Frontier and Palette Poetry. The Poetry Question Website The Poetry Question Merchandise --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

SHOW NOTES Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9_RZSGGz1dg (https://youtu.be/9_RZSGGz1dg) Shari Foos is the founder of The Narrative Method, a non-profit dedicated to connecting individuals to and through their stories. She holds both an MS in Narrative Medicine from Columbia and an MA in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and her writing and commentary have appeared in a range of online and print publications, including Real Simple, Huffington Post, Women's Health, Fatherly, Thrive Global, The LA Weekly, and Bustle. Shari created The Narrative Method because she wanted to bring people from all backgrounds together to explore who they really are, separate from the things they had been told and had internalized about themselves. She wanted them to have the opportunity to connect through their stories so they could recognize themselves in each other and discover similarities over differences and new perspectives over the fear of the unknown. In today's episode, we talk about the power of sharing your narrative, the vulnerability, and the connection it generates with people…Let's get into today's episode. Guest: www.thenarrativemethod.org https://www.instagram.com/thenarrativemethod/ https://www.facebook.com/thenarrativemethod Twitter: https://twitter.com/NarrativeMethod Offer: 15% discount on DIY Human products including DIY Human card decks at thenarrativemethod.org/shop with the code CC15 Host:  Carine Camara  website: http://carinecamara.com/ (carinecamara.com)  instagram: http://instagram.com/carinejcamara (instagram.com/carinejcamara)  facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carinehealing (https://www.facebook.com/carinehealing)  Music Credits: Laughing Matters- https://laughingmusic.com (https://laughingmusic.com)

In this episode of my podcast for gay men experiencing loneliness, I have a coffee with my friend Justin Oberste who shared his beautiful reflections on the loneliness of change on my blog last week. Change can be hard. We avoid it. We try to do everything in our power to ignore it. We numb ourselves. Think for a moment how you wrestle within yourself when you feel pulled to make change: changing jobs, ending a relationship or indeed, coming out. However we numb, ignore or deny, sooner or later, we find ourselves back at the same decision point. That point can be lonely. We wrestle with some uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. We have a dark night of the soul. Let me get you a coffee and let's talk about that with Justin. About Justin: Justin Oberste is an associate psychotherapist specialising in LGBTQ+ Affirmative Psychology and Religious Trauma Therapy, and is currently training to become a Sex Therapist. Justin received his Masters in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, and has recently begun full-time private practive work with Dr Chris Donaghue, author of 'Rebel Love' and 'Sex Outside The Lines' and the host of the radio show 'Loveline'. Originally from Power Springs, Georgia, Justin now resides in Santa Barbara, California. IG: @justinoberste Links Website: www.thelonelinessguy.com Join the community: www.thelonelinessguy.com/subscribe Read ‘The loneliness of change – by Justin Oberste': https://bit.ly/3ldXGq2 Join us on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3l35iMh Need some help through your loneliness?: www.thelonelinessguy.com/help Contact me: connect@thelonelinessguy.com Sounds recorded with permission at Prefab Eatery, Wellington: www.pre-fab.co.nz

Don Kingfisher Campbell, MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, taught Writers Seminar at Occidental College Upward Bound for 36 years, been a coach and judge for Poetry Out Loud, a performing poet/teacher for Red Hen Press Youth Writing Workshops, L.A. Coordinator and Board Member of California Poets In The Schools, poetry editor of the Angel City Review, publisher of Spectrum magazine, and host of the Saturday Afternoon Poetry reading series in Pasadena, California. For awards, features, and publication credits, please go to: http://dkc1031.blogspot.com    

What about trauma makes a person feel lost and alone? How does trauma get in the way of intimacy? How can we best support our partners when their trauma gets triggered? Find out the answer to these questions and more in this week's episode of The Learn to Love Podcast, where your host Zach Beach interviews both the therapist, writer and educator Jamila M. Dawson, LMFT and the journalist and podcast host, August McLaughlin on Managing Trauma Triggers For more on this episode click here: https://www.the-heart-center.com/ep-68-managing-trauma-triggers-with-august-mclaughlin-and-jamila-m-dawson-lmft/ Learn more about your guests below: Jamila M. Dawson, LMFT is a licensed sex and relationship therapist, writer, and educator. She runs her private psychotherapy and consulting business, Fire & Flow Therapy while also teaching as adjunct faculty at Antioch University Los Angeles. She has lectured at University of Southern California, ASSECT Summer Institute, collaborated with a variety of sex therapists and educators as well as with Buzzfeed, Playboy, Harper's Bazaar and other media outlets. She presents locally and nationally on sexuality, empowerment, BDSM/kink, pleasure, relationships and trauma-informed/healing-focused psychotherapy. Learn more about Jamila at: - Website: https://fireandflowtherapy.com - Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jamila_Dawson - Instagram: @fireandflowtherapy - Facebook: @everydayeroticsextherapy - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamila-dawson-2a033b2b/ August McLaughlin is a nationally recognized journalist and host and producer of the podcast, Girl Boner Radio, a story-driven podcast where she explores sexual empowerment and pleasure with a broad range of guests. Her articles have been featured by Cosmopolitan, the Washington Post, Salon, HuffPost, LIVESTRONG.com, and more. Her 2018 release, Girl Boner, was featured in the New York Times and called “equally fun, risqué, and informative” by Publishers Weekly. She has presented at colleges, recovery centers, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters, attended the 2016 United State of Women summit as a nominated changemaker and gave a TEDx talk on her experience overcoming an eating disorder she was diagnosed with while working abroad in the fashion industry. Learn more about August at: - Website: https://augustmclaughlin.com/ - Podcast: https://augustmclaughlin.com/podcast/ - Twitter: @AugstMcLaughlin - Instagram: @AugustMcLaughlin + @GirlBonerMedia - Facebook: @AugustMcLaughlin + @MyGirlBoner - LinkedIn: August J. McLaughlin Learn more about your host and the show at: www.zachbeach.com www.the-heart-center.com Support The Show: If you like the show there are many ways you can support it, such as, - Register for Relationship Mastery, a 6-week self-guided course to take your relationship to the next level. https://www.the-heart-center.com/relationship-mastery-landing-page/ - Check out one of our sponsors, Listenable and use the discount code “zachbeach” for the first seven days on the platform for free. There you can find Zach's How To Be a Better Partner Course. https://frstre.com/go/?a=76205-87a7d9&s=1256514-e13191&p_affiliate.referral_code=zachbeach - Purchase The Seven Lessons of Love: Heart Wisdom for Troubling Times on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Love-Heart-Wisdom-Troubling/dp/1983940704/ - Purchase a love shirt and show the world your love of love https://www.bonfire.com/store/the-heart-center/ - Review, Like, and Subscribe to the show on iTunes. - Like us on Facebook facebook.com/learntolovenow - Join the  Facebook Community Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1428012130828678/

For Video Edition, Please Click and Subscribe Here:  https://youtu.be/YXZxB7kf9jI The Rev. Steve Pieters is the epitome of theindomitable spirit and a force to be reckoned with. His remarkable story of surviving AIDS in the 1980s is considered an anomaly in the medical world, and a miracle in the world of religion and spirituality.  He was given 8 months to live. In 1985, his cancers went into complete remission while on suramin, the first antiviral drug trial.  Rev. Pieters served for the next 11 years as Field Director of AIDS Ministry for the MCC denomination. He traveled the world, teaching and preaching about hope, grief, and surviving AIDS. He also volunteered as a chaplain at an AIDS hospice in Los Angeles. As an AIDS activist, he served on the Los Angeles AIDS Task Force, as well as the Boards of Directors of AIDS Project Los Angeles and the AIDS National Interfaith Network. He was featured in LIFE, TIME, and OMNI magazines, as well as the Los Angeles Times.  Most recently, he has reversed his type 2 diabetes through diet and exercise. Pieters received his B.S. in Speech from Northwestern University, his M.Div. from McCormick Theological Seminary, and his M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. Pieters is now retired and lives in Los Angeles where he takes great delight in singing with the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles.

Lyrics Born (Tom Shimura) As the first Asian-American solo rapper to perform at Lollapalooza and Coachella and to release a greatest hits record, LYRICS BORN has broken through countless barriers to cement his illustrious career. In addition to establishing himself among the upper echelon of indie Hip Hop artists, LB has expanded his empire into film, including roles in Boots Riley's critically acclaimed Sorry To Bother You and the Netflix film Always Be My Maybe starring comedian Ali Wong, Randall Park, and Keanu Reeves. Lyrics Born is currently working on his forthcoming collaborative compilation Lyrics Born presents: Mobile Homies Season 1. Cutso (Paolo Bello) DJ/producer/remixer Cutso is on-air host/mixer for Rebel Pop Radio on Wild 94.9FM and iHeartRadio. A member of The Bangerz, he also doubles as Tour DJ for Lyrics Born. In addition for an upcoming follow-up to 2019's Rapp Nite project with Lyrics Born, Cutso is working on a new album and a Las Vegas show with the Jabbawockeez. He will also be adding more limited gear releases to his clothing brand, Cutty Mart (https://cuttymart.bigcartel.com). Follow Lyrics Born at: https://www.lyricsborn.com Cutso: http://soundcloud.com/djcutso Dave Brandwein is a producer, engineer, writer, and touring musician. When Brandwein is not traveling the country with his 9-piece band Turkuaz, he's busy in his studio writing and recording his own music, or mixing and producing other artists. What diehard Turkuaz fans might be surprised to hear, is that Turkuaz is a departure from Dave's musical roots. “I grew up on The Beatles and Pink Floyd, James Taylor and Paul Simon. This is who I've always been deep down,” shares Brandwein. https://spark.adobe.com/page/BgdtW28hyDcCj/ Jose Hernandez Diaz was born in Anaheim, CA (1984). He is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He holds degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and Antioch University Los Angeles. He is the author of a collection of prose poems: The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020). His work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Boulevard, Cincinnati Review, Georgia Review, Huizache, Iowa Review, The Nation, Poetry, POETS.org, and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He has been a finalist for The Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, The Colorado Prize, and The National Poetry Series. Currently, he is an editor at Frontier and Palette Poetry. Additionally, he has taught creative writing at Sevilla Writers House and Litro Magazine. Music Featured: “Don't Call Me No More” Neal Francis “ANTI” by Lyrics Born & Cutso "Ophidiophobia" by Turkuaz "Cycles of Existential Rhyme" Chicano Batman Special thanks go out to: Autism Speaks: www.autismspeaks.org The Red Phone Booth: www.redphonebooth.com Linden Row Inn: www.lindenrowinn.com Office Evolution of Roswell: www.officeevolution.com/locations/roswell Poetry read on this show is from the host's existing books. To get a great deal on all three, please contact Clifford Brooks at cliffordbrooks@southerncollectiveexperience.com.

Angie Cibis is a freelance graphic designer with over 15 years of experience with clients of all sizes across a number of industries and non-profit causes. She has a BA in Graphic Design from Columbia College Chicago and a MA in Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. Angie's client feedback frequently mentions her reliability, efficiency and being easy to work with - descriptions not always associated with creatives. She works on a wide variety of digital and print projects, always prioritizing partnerships that are streamlined, positive and pragmatic. Angie lives with her husband and rescue dog Biscuit (gotta love that name) in Los Angeles. They enjoy being active in the community and tasting all the delicious things the city has to offer.What you'll hear in this episode:

This week on the pod we got to sit down with Levi Rogers, who is an old and dear friend of ours! Levi has an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles and a Bachelors of English from the University of Utah. In July of 2018 Rogers attended The Tin House Summer Workshop and is currently working with the new broadside literary journal Meow Meow Pow Pow as a blog editor. He's published essays, poetry, and reviews in Entropy, Sojourners, Lunch Ticket, Drunk Monkeys, Akashic Books, Hoot, Daily Coffee News, and Devour Magazine, amongst others. He owns and runs a coffee roasting company, La Barba Coffee, in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he lived for the last eight years before moving to Portland, Oregon. He lives with his wife Cat, his daughter Evangeline, his dog Amelie, and two cats–Chicken and Waffles. Utah! A Novel is his first book and is available in 2021 from Atmosphere Press. He is also working on a book about faith, depression, and belonging called All We Can Hope For in This Dark and Beautiful World: Memoirs on Belonging Connect with Levi at his website https://levirogersisafraud.com/ Pre-order Levi's novel Utah : https://levirogersisafraud.com/books/

On Episode 39 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete has the pleasure to be joined by the talented prose poet José Hernández Diaz.  Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He holds degrees in English and Creative Writing from the University of California at Berkeley and Antioch University Los Angeles. His The Fire Eater: Poems has been described as follows: “Surreal, playful, and always poignant, the prose poems in Jose Hernandez Diaz's masterful debut chapbook introduce us to a mime, a skeleton, and the man in the Pink Floyd t-shirt, all of whom explore their inner selves in Hernandez Diaz's startling and spare style. With nods to Russell Edson and the surrealists, Hernandez Diaz explores the ordinary and the not-so-ordinary occurrences of life, set against the backdrop of the moon, and the poet's native Los Angeles.”  Buy his collection today!   Show Notes and Links to José Hernández Diaz's Work Jose Hernandez Diaz Page at The Poetry Foundation The Fire Eater: Poems-buy it here (Bookshop) The Fire Eater: Poems-buy it here (Amazon) Surrealism defined by The Poetry Foundation Three Poems by Jose Hernandez Diaz, including one in which he writes of his appreciation for Mrs. Weir, his life-changing high school English teacher   Talking Points/Authors/Books Mentioned and Allusions Referenced During the Episode: José talks about growing up, speaking Spanish and English in different contexts, and living in Buena Park and Norwalk-at about 3:40   José talks about “Chicanismo”/”Mexican-American” and similar terms-at about 6:45   José talks about his childhood and adolescent days as basketball-obsessed and how complimentary words from a high school teacher, Mrs. Weir, helped him believe in his writing abilities-at about 9:00   José talks about being drawn to Salinger's Catcher in the Rye as a formative book, due to its subject matter and “everyday language”-at about 11:00   José talks about often sending copies of literary journals in which he's been published to Mrs. Weir, his life-changing teacher and about his early writing for an “American Dream” prompt where the essay was well-received; the essay was based on Rage Against the Machine's “Wake Up”-at about 11:55   José talks about another formative writing experience, a college assignment in which he successfully bucked tradition to make a point about tradition-at about 13:00   José and Pete talk about their shared appreciation of the politically-active Rage Against the Machine-at about 14:00   José talks about his college experience and his appreciation for the culture of Cal Berkeley-at about 15:40   José talks about MF Doom and his influence on José as a person and as a writer-at about 16:30   José talks about the beginning of his publishing career with “The Border Within” in response to SB1070-at about 17:30   José talks about what has been chill-inducing for him, including Snake Poems by Francisco Alarcon, and writers including Ray Gonzalez, Richard Garcia, Marosa DiGiorgio-at about 19:20   Pete and José talk about José's appreciation for Octavio Paz as a chill-inducing writer and a bit about his writing style-at about 20:15   José talks about the creative aspect and the “freedom” that comes with surrealism, as Pete and José talk about some defining characteristics of the genre, as well as its connections to magical realism-21:30   José talks about the themes and background of The Fire Eater: Poems-at about 26:10   José talks about bringing together non sequiturs and disparate ideas to make surrealist poetry, as well as how his music listening history, his voracious reading, and living a “minimalist” lifestyle helps him nail the “sound” of his own poetry-at about 27:30   José reads and discusses his “Cuauhtémoc Xochipilli"-at about 30:25   Pete reads José's “The Longboard” from The Fire Eater: Poems, and José talks about its significance and background-at about 36:45   José talks about his writing schedule and daily life as a writer-at about 39:20   José talks about prose poetry and about his future projects, including his first teaching gig coming up-at about 42:00 José shouts out current writers who he really enjoys, including Michael Torres, Felicia Zamora-at about 44:20       If you have enjoyed The Chills at Will Podcast, pause your podcast player right now, and go to Apple Podcasts to leave me a nice review.  You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Spotify and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode is “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.

ABOUT JACQUE MULAR:Jacque Mular, MS, RDN, LMFT has devoted her life’s work to helping others heal their relationships with food, exercise, and body image. Additionally, Jacque is Level One trained in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. Prior to moving into her role as Clinical Director of the Eating Disorder Center of Portland (EDCP), Jacque served as a Registered Dietitian at the Eating Disorder Center of California and Primary Therapist at Monte Nido Vista. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Idaho and went on to earn two graduate degrees— her Masters in nutrition from California State University at Northridge and her Masters in psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles.Jacque co-authored Real World Recovery and is a contributing author to Monte Nido Founder Carolyn Costin’s new book on multi-disciplinary treatment of eating disorders in special populations.CONNECT WITH JACQUE MULAR: • Visit the Eating Disorder Center of Portland to learn about the EDCP and other Monte Nido programs• Follow Jacque on Facebook• Connect with Jacque on LinkedIn＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ABOUT KARIN LEWIS:Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS has been recovered from Anorexia Nervosa for over 20 years and has been specializing in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders since 2005. To learn more about Karin and her center’s services, please visit Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center. You can connect with Karin on social media by following her on Facebook and Instagram.If you enjoyed the podcast, we would be so grateful if you would please consider leaving a review here. Thank you!Are you interested in becoming a guest on the Recovery Bites podcast? If so, please fill out our brief application form to start the process.

In today’s episode of Words on a Wire, host Tim Z. Hernandez interviews Guatemalan poet, memoirist, and photographer Claudia D. Hernandez. So, don't forget to tune at KTEP 88.5 at 12 pm MST to listen to the conversation! Hernandez holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, she is a translator and bilingual educator residing in Los Angeles. She is the author of KNITTING THE FOG and a finalist for the 2020 Firecracker Award in Creative Nonfiction.

Robert Morgan Fisher is an incredibly talented singer/songwriter, writer, and voiceover artist. I had the pleasure of speaking with him recently, and he treated me to two original songs. I've listed his bio below. Check out his website - its a fun place to go !!! Robert Morgan Fisher won the 2018 Chester Himes Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the 2019 John Steinbeck Award. His fiction and essays have appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals including Upstreet, Cowboy Jamboree Magazine, Pleiades, Storyscape Journal, Teach. Write., The Wild Word, The Arkansas Review, Red Wheelbarrow, The Missouri Review Soundbooth Podcast, Dime Show Review, 0-Dark-Thirty, Psychopomp, The Seattle Review, The Spry Literary Journal, 34th Parallel, The Journal of Microliterature, Spindrift, The Rumpus, Bluerailroad and many other publications. He’s written for TV, radio and film. Robert holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles and is currently on the teaching faculty of Antioch University in several capacities. Since 2016, Robert has led the UCLA Wordcommandos, an acclaimed twice-weekly writing workshop for veterans with PTSD. He often writes companion songs to his short stories. Both his music and fiction have won many awards. Robert also voices audiobooks. (www.robertmorganfisher.com) --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/michelemarotta/support

ABOUT ANNA KOWALSKI:Anna Kowalski received her Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. She has been licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist since 2001. Anna was honored to have an 18-year career at Monte Nido & Affiliates: Residential Treatment for Eating Disorders, and left her position as Chief Experience Office at the end of 2017.Anna has provided training and mentoring in several eating disorder treatment centers across the United States and firmly holds the belief that full recovery from an eating disorder is possible.Anna is a person first, therapist second practitioner. She is a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist who also loves to work with individuals, couples, and all configurations of families. In working with families, Anna’s help to restore/teach communication skills, while working through the discord to create a sense of wholeness.With fierce protection, uncanny humor, and insightful honesty, Anna's unique gift of bringing out each client's healthy self. Her bold authenticity and use of positive psychology have endeared her to clients through the years. Supporting clients and their families as they navigate their way from eating disordered to fully recovered, Anna's clinical expertise, strength, and insight have made her a sought after therapist in the realm of family therapy and eating disorders. She inspires clients with her zest for life, sense-of-humor, and ability to make every person that crosses her path feel special. Anna is also a dynamic, engaging speaker and has presented nationally on eating disorders and recovery.While Anna has had a private practice in the Calabasas CA area for the past 20 years, she currently has a cherished private practice in Agoura Hills, California.SPECIAL LISTENER Q&A FEATURE:• Submit your questions for a chance to have them answered when Anna returns to the podcast!• You can email questions to Karin directly, comment on the episode webpage, and/or send them via Instagram and Facebook.• All questions will be anonymous to protect our listeners.ABOUT KARIN LEWIS:Karin Lewis, MA, LMFT, CEDS has been recovered from Anorexia Nervosa for over 20 years and has been specializing in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders since 2005. To learn more about Karin and her center’s services, please visit Karin Lewis Eating Disorder Center. You can connect with Karin on social media by following her on Facebook and Instagram.If you enjoyed the podcast, we would be so grateful if you would please consider leaving a review here. Thank you!Are you interested in becoming a guest on the Recovery Bites podcast? If so, please fill out our brief application form to start the process.

Erica Holmes, PsyD is Core Faculty and the Director of the Psychological Trauma Studies Specialization in the Master’s in Psychology program at Antioch University Los Angeles and Executive Director of Champion Counseling Center at Faithful Central Bible Church and the founder of HOMMs Consulting. Since 2001, Dr. Holmes has provided psychotherapy and counseling, training and consultation, education and research services to individuals and organizations for over 20 year. We talked about her new book, Dating with Purpose: A Single Woman’s Guide to Escaping No Man’s Land, and finding new connections.     This episode was recorded for the Echo Training 2020 Conference And Still We Rise: Survivors Becoming Empowered, on March 11th and 12th at The California Endowment Center for Healthy Communities in downtown Los Angeles. Listeners who hear this before March 11, 2020 can learn more and register to attend the conference at the Echo Training website, at echotraining.org.     Hi-res photos and bios for all Echo 2020 speakers, facilitators, and presenters can be found here: https://www.echotraining.org/conf2020-bios-2/   ***WARNING***  This podcast contains graphic conversations about trauma, rape, and sexual violence.

I thoroughly enjoyed this insightful conversation with Dr. Erica Holmes on her role as Director of the Psychological Trauma Studies Specialization at Antioch University Los Angeles, covering the topics of: her role as a trainer of soon-to-be therapists on the global impact of trauma her role as a licensed psychologist philosophies on the impact of … Continue reading Dr. Erica Holmes – The Impact of Psychological Trauma , Dating with Purpose, & Post-Traumatic Growth →

"I want to share a technique that I teach Health Care Providers. It is a tool to tend to our hearts and stay connected to the heart of care. A way to summon a sense of interest and discovery about our feelings. It's difficult to be judging when you are curious." As the Washington State Poet Laureate for 2014-16, Elizabeth Austen traveled to all of the state's 39 counties, offering writing workshops and giving readings. Her collection Every Dress a Decision (Blue Begonia Press, 2011) was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She's also the author of two chapbooks, The Girl Who Goes Alone (Floating Bridge Press, 2010) and Where Currents Meet (Toadlily Press, 2010). Her poems have been featured on The Writer's Almanac and Verse Daily, in the Los Angeles Review, Bellingham Review and Willow Springs. She has been featured at Poets House in New York City, Minneapolis's The Loft, the Skagit River Poetry Festival, Spokane's Get Lit!, Seattle's Cheap Wine and Poetry and Bumbershoot, among others. Elizabeth produces poetry programming for NPR-affiliate KUOW 94.9 and earned an MFA at Antioch University Los Angeles. She makes her living at Seattle Children's Hospital, where she also offers poetry and journaling workshops for the staff. To learn more about Holden Village, visit: www.holdenvillage.org or to listen to more audio recordings visit: http://audio.holdenvillage.org

About Marva Hinton, MFA Marva Hinton is a contributing writer for Education Week and the host of the ReadMore podcast, an interview show that primarily features authors of color. She has also reported for School Library Journal, National Public Radio and various radio stations across the southeast. She has an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she double majored in journalism and political science. She lives in South Florida with her husband and their two young children. Show Highlights Does slang have a place within classrooms? Codeswitching Does Spanglish have a place within schools and classrooms? Challenges students face when speaking in their natural language Slang in Young Adult literature Connect with Marva Email: marva333@gmail.com Twitter: @MarvaAHinton Website: www.readmorepodcast.com Additional Resources To Slang or Not to Slang: Defending authentic language in YA and children’s literature Key & Peele- Obama Meet & Greet Connect with me on Twitter @sheldoneakins For more episodes visit: www.sheldoneakins.com For professional development visit: www.leadingequitycenter.com

Wayne M. Levine, M.A. is the director of BetterMen Coaching in Agoura Hills, CA (est. 2001) where he coaches men to be the best men, fathers, husbands and leaders they can be. He also facilitates men’s groups and created the BetterMen Retreats for men. Over the years, his practice has expanded to support couples, young men and families.In addition, Wayne is the author of the best-selling “Hold On to Your N.U.T.s—The Relationship Manual for Men.”Through years of facilitating men’s events, speaking to groups of men and women, and regularly appearing on radio talk shows, Wayne has evolved into an articulate, opinionated, and humorous speaker on men’s issues and relationships.Wayne’s interest in men’s issues began in the early ‘90s with his participation in men’s work activities. His experiences with men’s groups, as a participant, leader and program developer, taught Wayne to “father” men and to support them in making difficult and important changes in their lives.Wayne earned his Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University/Los Angeles. Wayne also received his B.A. in Journalism and graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Southern California.Links: http://bettermencoaching.com/ http://www.facebook.com/pages/BetterMen/290272574765https://twitter.com/menslifecoachhttp://www.linkedin.com/pub/wayne-m-levine-m-a/7/885/492/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Webinar Sign-Up: https://mailchi.mp/af6a8a39cc41/4-simple-things-webinar   A little bit about Natalie: My background is in art and design. After graduating from art school, I took my first job as an illustrator in a newsroom. I built up my full-time freelance work as an illustrator for 15 years, and eventually transitioned into graphic design, branding and photography working on projects for global brands like Time, Inc., Target, Linus Bike and Whole Foods.  In my late 20's, my childhood trauma and crumbling religion led me to a path of healing in pursuit of my scattered pieces and connection to Self. Exploring how the unconscious mind, emotions and story impact our quality of life became my passion. As a consequence of uncovering my own patterns, I feel more joyous and empowered than ever. I am a certified NLP Master Practitioner and Life Coach with additional certification in Motivational Coaching, and Social and Emotional Intelligence Coaching. I received my training through Global NLP Training based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. I have a degree in illustration from Ringling College of Art and Design, and a B.A. in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. Additionally, I am a Reiki Master.    Find her directly here: Website: https://nataliecoxlifecoaching.com/ - Hey I’m Nick Duska, host of Right After Breakfast. This is a podcast of stories, lessons, and tips to help boost your personal growth and push you towards your highest potential. Episodes give you bite sized tools that can be used immediately to assist you in daily life. Learn more at www.rightafterbreakfast.com    Do you have a personal growth question you'd like me to answer? Please email me at nickduska@rightafterbreakfast.com, I’d love to hear from you! Once you submit a question you'll have a chance to get it featured on the podcast.     Find out how I can help you with Career Development: https://www.nickduska.com/

Norman D. Golden II AKA Enormus was born in Racine Wisconsin. He moved to California with his family when he was 3 years old. He grew up in the South Bay Area of California. Norman is best known for his co-starring role as Devon Butler in the movie "Cop and a half" with Burt Reynolds. Norman has starred and co-starred in several movies such as, his portrayal of Pharaoh Rivers in the made for television movie "There Are No Children Here" starring Oprah Winfrey, Jim Jam Ween in "On Promised Land" Joan Plowright, Aaron Crawford in "America's Dream": "The Boy Who Painted Christ Black", Wesley Snipes and the remake of "Moby Dick", where he played the role of Pip, starring Patrick Stewart and the late Gregory Peck.Norman has an enormous heart of generosity and believes in helping people to become happy. While on the set of "Cop N Half" he visited the cancer division of a Florida children hospital. He also joined Tatiana Ali, Jonathan Taylor Thomas and other child actors on a Celebrity Cruise to raise funds to help with research for Juvenile Diabetes. He spoke before 1500 young people at the Festival Hall in his hometown (Racine WI) at "Violence No More" events. Norman made several visits to various schools encouraging students to stay in school and make sure they learn how to read. And at six years old he created his very own Public Service Announcement encouraging people to learn how to read!Norman had an incredible career as a child actor; without regret, he took time off from the entertainment industry to concentrate on his education. He received his AA degree in English and is finishing his BA in Liberal Arts with a concentration in creative writing at Antioch University Los Angeles. While on his hiatus, he developed other skills and interests such as music and writing screenplays. Norman is quite a diverse artist and always hard at work, he is continuously working on new film and music projects that are in various stages of development. Norman is now entering the music business as "Enormus"He has collaborated and performed with Grammy-award winning flutist Nestor Torres and has graced the stage with Jazz greats such as Herbie Hancock and Bennie Maupin. Enormus continues to do live performances across Southern California. He released his debut EP entitled SEEDS Vol 1 "Pick of the Litter" with Vol II in development/production.As a child actor Norman burst onto the silver screen where he stole the hearts of many and is preparing to take the hip-hop/spoken word scene by storm as a rapper-poet and producer. Through the measure of time Norman has evolved into an enthusiastic young adult with a dynamic presence expanding his artistry into several areas. Norman's approach to creating this artistry is one of unlimited possibility and straying from what is considered to be the "norm". With experience in hand, and a global vision of sharing his gifts, one can say that, "Norman is truly Enormus"! Meet: Norman Golden II.

Harley and Me: Embracing Risk On The Road To a More Authentic Life with Bernadette Murphy Bernadette Murphy’s book Harley and Me, is a hybrid narrative that combines memoir with research into neuroscience and biology, the book explores female risk-taking through the lens of her own experience of learning to ride a motorcycle at age 48 and makes a compelling case for how and why taking risks is a healthy part of an expansive life. Bernadette served as weekly book critic for the Los Angeles Times for six years and is currently an Associate Professor of Creative Writing for the MFA program at Antioch University Los Angeles, where she heads up the Creative Nonfiction genre. Her essays on literature and life have appeared in Salon, The New York Observer, Ms. Magazine, Climbing Magazine, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Newsday, Literary Hub, San Francisco Chronicle, MUTHA, The Rumpus, The Nervous Breakdown and elsewhere. http://www.bernadette-murphy.comStrays: A Lost Cast, A Homeless Man and Their Journey Across America with Britt CollinsBritt Collins is a British journalist and writes for The Guardian, Sunday Times, the Independent, Harper’s Bazaar, Condé Nast Traveller, and is a contributing editor for Billionaire.com. She has volunteered at sanctuaries around the world, from tending big cats and baboons in Namibia to wild horses in Nevada, that have inspired features for The Guardian and the Sunday Times. While writing for the British tabloid, the Sunday People, she has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for many international charities through her investigative animal-cruelty stories; as an activist, she has help shut down controversial breeders of laboratory animals. She lives with her cats in London. http://www.brittcollins.net

Conversation #5. Gaea Woods speaks to Antioch University Los Angeles Spiritual Depth Psychology alumni Susan Clayton, MA, MFTI. Spiritual Depth Psychology Alumni Susan Clayton and I discuss: What brought Susan to Psychology, and to studying Spiritual Depth Psychology (SDP) at Antioch University Los Angeles. How SDP has assisted Susan in honing her skills regarding the ‘how’ of sitting with clients. Incorporating depth techniques into working with clients. Using mindfulness with Susan’s male veteran clients. What language Susan uses with her clients to express SDP concepts. Working with transference and countertransference. Susan’s book recommendations, including: The Body Keeps The Score.

Conversation #4. Gaea Woods speaks to Antioch University Los Angeles Spiritual Depth Psychology student Roxy Ardebilchi, MA Candidate. Spiritual Depth Psychology Student Roxy Ardebilchi and I discuss: What brought Roxy to want to study Spiritual Depth Psychology (SDP) at Antioch University Los Angeles. Defining SDP. Incorporating SDP concepts into working with clients. Dreamwork. Mindfulness. The 3 A’s: Awareness, Acceptance, and Action. Working with the shadow. Shadow projection. Shadow work and meaning making. The transparent nature of working through an SDP lens. The power of dream symbolism. How SDP accesses multiculturalism. Universal archetypal energies. Roxy’s book recommendations. Typologies.

Conversation #2. Gaea Woods speaks to Antioch University Los Angeles Spiritual Depth Psychology student Evan Perlo, MA Candidate. Evan Perlo and I discuss: What sparked Evan’s interest in studying Spiritual Depth Psychology (SDP) at the Graduate level at Antioch University Los Angeles. Studying Abroad in Sao Paulo, Brazil. What it means to incorporate elements of SDP in your everyday life, including learning from the mundane. Utilizing mindfulness (on oneself) when working with clients. Basic components of Vipassana Insight meditation. SDP language clinicians can use with clients. Using authenticity as a gauge for monitoring how you are with client’s. Evan’s meditation teacher, George Haas, defines authenticity as: “the moment where you could change course and present yourself differently in order to keep a connection going.” Evan’s book recommendations. Ecstatic dance and the multifaceted self.

In the third session of Seats At The Table, Christina gets some insight into pregnancy and motherhood from Meymuna Hussein-Cattan, the co-founder and executive director of The Tiyya Foundation. --- Get to know the guest: Meymuna Hussein-Cattan and her mother, Owliya Dima-Hussein, are co-founders of The Tiyya Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing community support & educational opportunities for refugees and displaced American families in the Orange County and Greater Los Angeles regions. Meymuna was born in an Ethiopian refugee camp in Somalia, in 1980; her parents having fled Ethiopia in the early 1970s due to civil unrest. She received her B.A. in Social Sciences from the University of California, Irvine, her M.A. in Organizational Management from Antioch University - Los Angeles, and she holds a certificate from Cal State Dominguez Hills in Administration & Grant Writing. --- Special thanks to: Meymuna Hussein-Cattan http://tiyya.org/ Logo design by Sukanya Ray https://sukanyaray.com/ Seats At The Table Theme by Tyler Freedom https://soundcloud.com/tenlittlerabbits

Bruja (Civil Coping Mechanism) Book of Endless Sleepovers (Civil Coping Mechanism) CCM is pleased to announce Bruja by Wendy C. Ortiz, the author of the critically acclaimed Excavation: A Memoir and Hollywood Notebook. With Bruja, Ortiz continues to upend and reinvent the memoir in inventive and deeply emotional ways to better fit the terms and trajectory of her exploration.  Behold the “dreamoir”–the details from the most malleable and revelatory portions of one’s dreams, catalogued in bold detail. Ortiz has created a new literary form, a parallel plane where the cast of characters are the people that occupied one’s waking life; Bruja is a narrative that’s equal parts delicate and bold, a literary adventure through the boundaries of memoir, where the self is viewed from a position anchored into the deepest recesses of the mind.  The end result is perhaps one of the most candid expressions of personal history, the subconscious bared in full, revealing the part of oneself that is often the most difficult to see. Bruja will be released as part of the Quarter Four 2016 CCM Catalogue. We can’t wait to show you more. We’re coping.  Guests are encouraged to come dressed as a character/person/animal/object from their dreams.  Praise for Bruja  "In Bruja, Wendy C. Ortiz deftly navigates the land of dreams in what she calls a dreamoir. By telling us her dreams, by revealing her most unguarded and vulnerable self, Ortiz is, truly, offering readers the most intimate parts of herself–how she loves, how she wants, how she lives, who she is. Bruja is not just a book–it is an enigma and a wonder and utterly entrancing." -- Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist and An Untamed State "Bruja calls into question not only what is a memoir, but what is a life. Politics, books, mass media, random encounters, work, relationships tumble into the depths of consciousness, and the self spirals open, huge and passionate. Ortiz’s dreamoir is a multidimensional love story with the whole mess of existence. I loved it."--Dodie Bellamy, author of When the Sick Rule the World, The TV Sutras, Cunt-Ups, and many more "Wendy C. Ortiz has invented her own genre, in her sleep, no less. Bruja is at once lush and spare, funny and weird, disturbing and sometimes even beautiful in the way that dreams can be. She’s crafted an absurdly real and compelling story here, one dream at a time." - Elizabeth Crane, author of The History of Great Things Wendy C. Ortiz is the author of Excavation: A Memoir and Hollywood Notebook. Her work has been profiled or featured in the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, and the National Book Critics Circle Small Press Spotlight blog. Her writing has appeared in such places as The New York Times, Hazlitt, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Nervous Breakdown, Fanzine, and a year-long series appeared at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Wendy lives in Los Angeles. Book of Endless Sleepovers Bring your favorite stuffed animal, hold it tight, and stay awake as long as you can. The Book of Endless Sleepovers tosses and turns with telepathic campfire stories, crypto-zoological memoir and Mark Twain slash fiction. It’s fourteen interconnected tales of haunted childhood identity and exploded imagination. Nobody wants to fall asleep first. Praise for Book of Endless Sleeovers “I love how Henry Hoke plays fast and loose with autobiography and genre. His Book of Endless Sleepovers is wry and finely-wrought, a philosophical fever dream studded with the pleasure of proper names and surprising turns of phrase, a lyric page-turner.”-Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts “In his atmospheric debut, Henry Hoke maps the wild country of adolescence, the murky realm of childhood and its mysterious stirrings, where the names of cities are always changing along with our own, as we swap them for those of our favorite characters: The Hardy Boys or Huck Finn or Peter Pan. A land where pet bunnies are eaten by owls in the night and cats change owners at their own will. The Book of Endless Sleepovers is beguiling and evocative and sometimes sad. It is not to be missed.”-Kate Durbin, author of E! Entertainment “The Book of Endless Sleepovers is hot and cool, fine and blunt, new and ancient, puzzling and cannily revealing. Hoke's sharp, funny fictions are like shards of the books I hope to find lying around in Borges' garden of forking paths.”-Mark Childress, author of Crazy in Alabama “Hoke’s book dazzles. Beneath the surface of linguistic playfulness and narrative experimentation are real truths about love and brotherhood and especially about childhood: wild and thrilling and, as all childhoods are, full of terror. Worth reading for the brilliant reimaginings of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn alone, there is so much here that will astonish, surprise, and delight.”-Rahul Mehta, author of No Other World Henry Hoke was a child in the South and an adult in New York and California. He's the author of Genevieves (winner of the Subito Press prose contest, forthcoming 2017) and The Book of Endless Sleepovers (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2016). Some of his stories appear in The Collagist, Gigantic, Winter Tangerine and Carve. He co-created and directs Enter>text, a living literary journal.  Ashley Perez lives, writes, and causes trouble in Los Angeles. She has a strong affinity for tattoos, otters, cat mystery books, and actual cats, but has mixed feelings about pants. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She runs the literary site Arts Collide and does work of all varieties for Jaded Ibis Press, and Midnight Breakfast. Iris De Anda is a Guanaca Tapatia poet who hosts The Writers Underground Open Mic at the Eastside Cafe every third Thursday of the month and the author of CODESWITCH: Fires From Mi Corazon. www.irisdeanda.com. Myriam Gurba is a writer, artist, and low key bon vivant living at the southern most tip of LA County. Her memoir Mean is forthcoming from Coffee House Press. Amanda Yates Garcia is an artist, writer, witch, healer and the Oracle of Los Angeles. Recent performance rituals include Capitalism Exorcism at Human Resources and Devouring Patriarchy at the Women’s Center for Creative Work. Her writing has been featured in publications such as Black Clock, the Rough Magick anthology, Entropy, Synema Publikationen (Cinema Magazine), and WITCH. Amanda hosts her bi-monthly show The Oracle Hour on KCHUNG radio; teaches the Magical Praxis monthly mystery school; and performs private rites of healing and empowerment at her magical studio in West Adams.

Kate Maruyama‘s novel Harrowgate was published by 47North. Her short work has appeared in Arcadia, Stoneboat and Controlled Burn and is now featured in two new anthologies, Phantasma: Stories and Winter Horror Tales as well as on The Rumpus, Salon and The Citron Review among other journals. She teaches at Antioch University Los Angeles in the BA and MFA Programs and for inspiration2publication.com as well as for Writing Workshops Los Angeles. She writes, teaches, cooks and eats in Los Angeles where she lives with her family. How Do You Write Podcast: Explore the processes of working writers with bestselling author Rachael Herron. Want tips on how to write the book you long to finish? Here you'll gain insight from other writers on how to get in the chair, tricks to stay in it, and inspiration to get your own words flowing. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

[image: 20161217_arts_post-134_2,left,300x390,5852f415280b1e0339fc7fb2]Ever been in an American Legion hall?They're not fancy, but for a certain generation they're as familiar as the corner taproom. They're the place to go for a chat, cheap drinks and of course, monthly bingo — not to mention the assurance of finding people who've experienced military service.Legion membership is shrinking nationally, but one hall in Northeast Portland — an old Quonset hut with a dropped ceiling and scuffed floors — found revival by embracing new people and new voices.American Legion Post 134 on Alberta Street has become a home for all kinds of new voices. In the course of one evening, the audience heard a blazing variety of personal stories and essays, as well as poems and songs. Some writers are vets. Some aren't. Post commander Sean Davis holds book release parties for veterans who are publishing their own work. The post even has its own small press and published an anthology of war stories. 
[image: 20161217_arts_post-134,right,300x390,5852f395ba7639033f073981]So how do you convert a failing American Legion post into an oasis of community and expression, where veterans rub shoulders with queer kids and street people mix with art curators?We recently sat down with Davis, who — as you might remember — ran for Portland mayor last spring. He teaches writing at Mt Hood Community College and is the author of a memoir called "The Wax Bullet War." We were joined by Amelia McDanel — another Legion member, a Navy veteran and MFA grad of Antioch University-Los Angeles — who oversees the Legion Readers' series at the post.Read the full story: http://www.opb.org/radio/programs/state-of-wonder/article/portland-american-legion-post-134/

We speak to author Patrick O’Neil – Gun Needle Spoon. This memoir follows a punk rock pioneer on his slide into drug abuse and life as an armed robber, all the way through life in recovery and what it’s like to look back on those times, knowing all the while that he is still under the threat of three strikes, a twenty-five-to-life prison sentence waiting. He has no choice but to deal with it all drug free. During punk rock’s heyday, Patrick O’Neil worked at the San Francisco’s legendary Mabuhay Gardens. He went on to become the road manager for Dead Kennedys and Flipper, as well as T.S.O.L. and the Subhumans. He holds an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles. http://patrick-oneil.com/gun-needle-spoon/

The Rev. Steve Pieters’s remarkable story of surviving AIDS in the 1980’s is considered an anomaly in the medical world, and a miracle in the world of religion and spirituality. With no treatments available when he was initially diagnosed, Steve devised his own plan to beat AIDS, combining prayer, meditation, exercise, nutrition, laughter, music, and just a bit of fairy dust. An AIDS activist and survivor who was first diagnosed back in the days when it was still called GRIDS, Steve has been interviewed by people as diverse as Tom Snyder and Tammy Faye Bakker, and was profiled by Jane Pauley to mark the 10th anniversary of the first diagnosis of AIDS. Steve was also invited to lunch at the White House where he was seated next to then President Bill Clinton. In addition, Steve is also a featured character (portrayed by an actor) in a play about Tammy Faye Bakker.  Pieters received his B.S. in Speech from Northwestern University, his M.Div. from McCormick Theological Seminary, and his M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. Pieters is now retired, and lives in Los Angeles where he takes great delight in singing with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles. Interview w/Tammy Bakker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjXXdQ6VceQ Jann Jaffe (Northwestern University, BA,MA) is an iPEC Certified Professional Coach, ELI-MP, and a COR.E Leadership, Performance, and Wellbeing Dynamics Specialist. Traumatic brain injuries cut short her successful career as an international opera/concert singer, and master class teacher, and drastically altered her life. Jann is dedicated to helping professionals and performing artists, especially opera singers, achieve optimal success, realization of their potential, and passion, purpose, life balance and wellbeing in every aspect of their lives. Contact Jann at info@forwardtosuccess.com

Please join us for the roundtable discussion, Beyond Lolita: Literary Writers on Sex and Sexuality. The proceeds will benefit PEN American Center and its Writers' Emergency Fund. Joining us will be Robin Rinaldi, Wendy C. Ortiz, J. Ryan Stradal, and Julia Fierro. Moderated by Anna March, these events will be taking place in Boston, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland this coming November and January. Cheryl Strayed, Audrey Niffenegger, Rachel DeWoskin, Cathi Hanauer, Megan Stielstra, Benoit Denizet-Lewis, Elissa Schappell, Daniel Jones, Luis Urrea, Ashley Ford, Lidia Yuknavitch and many others are participating around the country. The events will be free but attendees will be encouraged to join and support PEN, and an additional $500 will be donated to PEN for each event to support its emergency fund for writers.Robin Rinaldi is a journalist and author of The Wild Oats Project: One Woman's Midlife Quest for Passion at Any Cost. Before she left her day job to write a book, Robin was executive editor at 7x7, a San Francisco city magazine. Prior to that she wrote an award-winning food column for Philadelphia Weekly. Robin has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Oprah Magazine, Yoga Journal, and others. Robin grew up in a small Pennsylvania town but has spent most of her life in California. She currently lives in Los Angeles, where she writes, reads, cooks peasant-style meals, does a lot of yoga, listens to a lot of music, watches a lot of premium cable dramas, and plays with her scruffy little terrier named Tengo (after the protagonist in 1Q84).Wendy C. Ortiz is a Los Angeles native. She is the author of Excavation: A Memoir, Hollywood Notebook, and the forthcoming Bruja. Wendy holds an M.A. in Clinical Psychology and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. A Writer-in-Residence at Hedgebrook in 2007 and 2009, Wendy is also co-founder and curator of the Rhapsodomancy Reading Series. She has read and given talks at California State University Chico, University of California Santa Barbara, University of California Riverside's Low-Residency M.F.A. Program, and Lock Haven University. Wendy has been an adjunct faculty in creative writing and has also facilitated creative writing workshops with Los Angeles youth in juvenile detention facilities. While living in Olympia, Washington, she was a library worker, editor and publisher of 4th Street, a handbound literary journal, and an occasional mudwrestler. Wendy received a B.A. in Liberal Arts from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where she lived for eight years before returning to Los Angeles.She is at work on a book based on her Modern Love essay published in The New York Times, a short story collection, and other projects. Wendy is represented by Bridget Wagner Matzie of Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency. She parents and works as a registered marriage and family therapist intern in Los Angeles.J. Ryan Stradal’s first novel, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, was published by Viking / Pamela Dorman Books on July 28th, 2015, and reached the New York Times Hardcover Best Seller list at #19 on its third week of release. In November 2014, the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society awarded Kitchens of the Great Midwest first prize in their annual novel competition. In September 2015, Warner Bros. optioned the film/TV rights. A selection of his short stories, compiled under the title "Nerd & Whore are Friends," was a 2013 finalist in the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Competition. His short fiction has also been anthologized, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and named a finalist for the James Kirkwood Literary Prize. He works as the fiction editor at The Nervous Breakdown  and  as an editor-at-large at Unnamed Press in Los Angeles.  He was also editor of the 2014 California Prose Directory, an anthology of writing about California by California writers, published by Outpost19. He volunteers for & is on the advisory board of the educational non-profit 826LA. He also helps make products and materials for their affiliated store, the Echo Park Time Travel Mart. He likes books, wine, sports, root beer, and peas. Julia Fierro is the author of Cutting Teeth, which The New Yorker called “a comically energetic debut novel.” Her next novel, The Gypsy Moth Summer, will be published in 2017. Julia founded The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in 2002, and it has since grown into a creative home to over 2,500 writers. She lives in Brooklyn and Los Angeles.

This week we present poet Suzy La Follette. Suzanne La Follette hates writing bios about herself in third person but does it anyway. She spent several years doing the slam poetry thing. Was on the Flagstaff, AZ team twice and the Austin Poetry Slam team once in 2005. She made it to the finals stage in 2003 in Chicago and walked away with 6th place. She just got her MFA in poetry and non-fiction at Antioch University Los Angeles. Her non-fiction piece “The Art of Reading Smoke” was nominated by Antioch to represent the school in AWP’s Intro Journal’s Project. She is a firefighter and lives in Austin, TX. She wants to bring the best of the literary world and the slam world together in one website, SWR, that will function like so many on-line literary journals, but better because spoken word is much more exciting! She has been writing a sonnet a day since July 4th, 2013.@WANPoetryyoutube.com/user/WANpoetryfacebook.com/WANpoetrywanpoetry.tumblr.com/Hosted by Davis Land.davisland.infoSuzy La Follette's performance recorded in Bryan, TX.Arranged in Bryan, TX.Music by dustmoteshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/WANPoetryhttp://archive.org/download/SuzyLaFollette01/Suzy%20La%20Follette_01.mp3

On Sunday, January 25, 2015, Jennifer Genest, MFA will join me on Behind the Prose to discuss two of her recent publications in the genres of fiction and creative nonfiction. We will be close reading and discussing her flash fiction story "Ways to Prepare White Perch" and her creative non-fiction essay "Her Fighting Weight - A Postpartum Experience," published in New Delta Review and The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review. Genest holds and MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles and was a Peter Taylor Fellow for the 2013 Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. Currently, she is shopping her literary novel, The Mending Wall. Listen at 6 PM EST / 3 PM PST this Sunday on BlogTalkRadio.    

Listen to the interview by clicking the arrow on the audio player below. When I first connected with Beatrice Hogg, she said she wanted to share her story to show people that "being over fifty and long-term unemployed isn't the end of the world." In this interview, she shares the events that derailed her original career, and she discusses her next steps. About Beatrice Hogg: Beatrice M. Hogg was born in Greensboro, North Carolina and raised in the coal-mining town of Lawrence, Pennsylvania. She has a B.A. in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. Since moving to California in 1988, her articles and essays have appeared in many publications and anthologies. She spent over twenty years working in the social services field, including work determining eligibility for public assistance programs, unemployment insurance benefits, Social Security benefits, and Supplemental Security Income. For five years, she facilitated a writing workshop for women at St. John’s Shelter Program for Women and Children in Sacramento, CA. Genesis Press published her novel "Three Chords One Song" as an e-Book in 2012. She is working on "WTF: Five Years of Bad Decisions," a book about her experiences as a long-term unemployed woman over fifty. Her short essays on family, music, and more can be found on her blog, Marvellaland.

Running the Rift follows Jean Patrick Nkuba, a gifted Rwandan boy, from the day he knows that running will be his life to the moment he must run to save his life, a ten-year span in which his country is undone by the Hutu-Tutsi tensions. When the killing begins, Jean Patrick is forced to flee, leaving behind the woman, the family, and the country he loves. Finding them again is the race of his life. Winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction. Naomi Benaron is a fiction writer and a poet. Her short story collection, Love Letters from a Fat Man, won the 2006 Sharat Chandra Prize for Fiction. She has an MFA in fiction from Antioch University Los Angeles. She teaches through the UCLA Extension Writers' Program and is a mentor Afghan women through AWWP, the Afghan Women's Writing Project—an online group where Afghan women can express themselves in safety and in freedom. Benaron is a marathon runner and an Ironman triathlete. In her first career she worked as a seismologist and geophysicist for companies including Mobil Oil and a consulting company for JPL. Benaron has degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

This Intimate Conversation Wayne provided so much fantastic insight to men, for men, and about men. Wayne understands the male dynamic in a way that is honestly impressive and intriguing. From his ability to relay his life experiences into the guidance that a man needs to make himself the best he can possibly be. Wayne M. Levine, M.A. is the director of BetterMen Agoura Hills, CA where he coaches men to be the best men, fathers, husbands and leaders they can be. He also facilitates men’s groups, and created the BetterMen Retreats for men. In addition, Wayne is the author of the best-selling “Hold On to Your N.U.T.s—The Relationship Manual for Men.” Wayne’s interest in men’s issues began in the early ‘90s with his participation in men’s work activities. His experiences with men’s groups, as a participant, leader and program developer, taught Wayne to “father” men and to support them in making difficult and important changes in their lives. Over the years, his practice has expanded to support couples, young men and families. Wayne earned his Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University/Los Angeles. Wayne also received his BA in journalism and graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Southern California. Wayne’s been married to his first and only wife, Ria, for 28 years and is the proud dad of Ph.D candidate Emma, college junior Austin, and the family’s menagerie of rescued and expensive animals. Wayne strives to be a better man, husband and father each day in Oak Park, CA.

Working Backwards from the Worst Moment of My Life (Red Hen Press) Local author Rob Roberge will read from and sign his short story collection Working Backwards from the Worst Moment of My Life. Rob Roberge is the author of the story collection Working Backwards From the Worst Moment of My Life and the novels More Than They Could Chew and Drive. He teaches writing at the Antioch University Los Angeles, MFA in Creative Writing, UC-Riverside's Palm Desert MFA program and the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, where he received the Outstanding Instructor Award in Creative Writing in 2003. His stories have been featured in ZYZZYVA, Chelsea, Black Clock, Other Voices, Alaska Quarterly Review, and the Ten Writers Worth Knowing Issue of The Literary Review. His work has also been anthologized in Another City (City Lights, 2001), It's All Good (Manic D Press, 2004) SANTI: Lives of the Modern Saints (Black Arrow Press, 2007) and Orange County Noir (Akashic, 2010). Non-fiction appears, or has appeared, in The Nervous Breakdown and Penthouse. He plays guitar and sings with several LA bands, including, among others, the punk pioneers, The Urinals. In his spare time, he restores and rebuilds vintage amplifiers and quack medical devices. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 2, 2010.

Paul Lisicky is the author of a novel, Lawnboy, and Famous Builder, a collection of essays. His work has appeared in Ploughshares, Short Takes, Open House, Boulevard, Flash Fiction, and many other anthologies and magazines. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he’s the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Michener/Copernicus Society, the Henfield Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, where he was twice a fellow. He lives in New York City, and has taught at Cornell University, NYU, Sarah Lawrence College, Antioch University-Los Angeles, The University of Houston, and The Bread Loaf Writers Conference. A new novel, Lumina Harbor, is forthcoming.Paul Lisicky read from his work on February 15th, 2008, at the Schwartz Auditorium of Cornell’s Rockefeller Hall. This interview took place two weeks later.

April thought she had finally found Mr. Right and became engaged after just three dates with the man of her dreams. However, her fiancé became increasingly jealous of her 16 ventriloquist puppets that she uses in her one-woman touring show. In less than a year, he gave her an ultimatum: “It's either me or your puppets!”The British tabloid “The Daily Mail” ignited a firestorm of press coverage for April Brucker with a feature story headlined, “Ventriloquist who splashes out £134,000 a year on her 16 PUPPETS that even have their own bedroom dumps her fiancé after he tells her, ‘It's them or me!'”The story spread internationally thanks to dozens of foreign newspapers and magazines and went viral on the Web. And then came obsessed suitors from all over the world. Now her dating resume includes stalkers, ex-cons and of course restraining orders. Police sirens often accompany April when she is breaking up with an obsessed suitor.April isn't asking for the moon. She doesn't want a doctor, lawyer, or Native American chieftain. Nope, those are pipe dreams her mother told her to abandon long ago: “Sweetie, just remember people don't want to break up with you.” April Brucker just wants a dude who can put up with 16 puppet children, a closet full of costumes, boxes of books and comics and her love for non-fiction history documentaries and pretzels. If you can deal with those things, you are Mr. Okay and maybe your one arrest and partial lobotomy just may be okay, too.April earned her BFA in Acting in 2007 from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and in 2019 was awarded an MFA in Creative Writing/Screenwriting from Antioch University Los Angeles. She has been a volunteer advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness, LGBTQ+ rights, cervical cancer awareness, anti-bullying, domestic violence prevention and body positivity. She has authored "Don't Read My Lips! — America's Foremost Female Ventriloquist Reveals the Secrets of a Successful Vent" (ISBN: 0984208585) and “I Came, I Saw, I Sang: Memoirs of a Singing Telegram Delivery Girl” (ISBN 0741477939), which are available from bookstores and online retailers.April currently is appearing as the special guest star in "BurlesQ," an all-female review at Alexis Park Resort Las Vegas. Find out what April is up to here:http://www.aprilbrucker.tvHere's the link for the great BHHCast I talked about in this episode:https://podcast.bhhcast.com/Make sure to check out HighBrow Drivel on all the podcast apps and their website:https://www.highbrowdrivel.com/Aaron has cerebral palsy and is a professionally-trained personal trainer, as well as a former international basketball player and world champion powerlifter.If you'd like to support the show and get some cool perks, check out our Patreon page:https://www.patreon.com/btbpcLook for new stuff for Patrons soon!Head over to the Behind the Bits website for extra content:https://www.thebtbpc.com/Get on our mailing list for news about future guests and more great content:https://www.thebtbpc.com/p/mailing-list/Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy