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2 episodes with find your joy
Do your thoughts ever get stuck in a cycle of what-ifs? What if something goes wrong? What if things don't work out? What if I'm not ready for what's ahead? In this episode, Bonnie shares a personal story about preparing for surgery and the unexpected moment that reminded her she wasn't walking through the valley alone. Through scripture & science of negativity bias, you'll discover why our minds naturally focus on fear—and a simple soul care practice that can help you shift your attention from the shadows to the Shepherd. If you're facing uncertainty, waiting for answers, navigating a health challenge, or feeling overwhelmed by what-ifs, this episode will encourage you to move from fear to faith—one step at a time. Key Takeaways — Why our minds naturally focus on worst-case scenarios— The difference between fear's what-ifs and faith's perspective— How Jesus comforts us in seasons of uncertainty— What to notice to calm an anxious heart— The science of negativity bias and emotional wellness— A simple soul care practice to help you move from fear to faith Breath Prayer Inhale: This is the wayExhale: Walk in it Scripture "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'" Isaiah 30:21 → Free Devotional Gift Download your free devotional: Bonnie’s FREE “Find Your Joy with Jesus: A 4-Day Devotional.”https://thebonniegray.com/findyourjoydevotional/Prioritize self-care the Jesus way and experience rest, renewal, and encouragement for your soul. Take Bonnie's Soul Care Courses: Breathe Joy with Jesus:Create Happy Wellness Rhythms to Cultivate Joy with God's PromisesRegister at https://thebonniegray.com/soulcareschool/ → Eucalyptus Shower Steamers for instant calm at Bonnie's Soul Care Store Watch YouTube Devotionals:https://youtube.com/thebonniegrayBestselling Books by Bonnie:https://amzn.to/3NpVYQd Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
Talk to KimIn this inspiring episode, Kim Benoy interviews April Garcia about her transformative journey through trauma, healing, and finding joy in midlife. They explore the 'rooms theory' for healing past wounds, the power of vulnerability, and practical ways to embrace courage and joy.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Kim Benoy and the podcast00:33 Kim introduces guest April Garcia00:56 The rooms theory and its significance02:17 Compartmentalizing memories and healing03:28 The importance of sitting with painful memories04:20 Revisiting past trauma with a new perspective05:40 April's childhood and early trauma07:18 Instability and its impact on identity09:13 Running from problems and carrying them forward10:28 Healing through resilience and purpose17:26 Courage in writing her book and overcoming addiction19:30 The process of honest storytelling and healing22:03 Using the rooms metaphor for anxiety and PTSD25:02 Supporting her daughter through anxiety26:16 Promoting joy in midlife with the Find Your Joy project29:12 Final message: Courage over past trauma30:05 Closing thoughts and gratitudeResourcesApril Garcia's Website - https://aprildaygarcia.com You can find a link to purchase her book The Room to Be Brave and the Find Your Joy Project. Support the showKim Benoy is a retired RN, Certified Aromatherapist, wife and mom who is passionate about inspiring and encouraging women over 40. She wants you to see your own beauty, value and worth through sharing stories of other women just like you.****************************************************If you are looking for deeper connection, encouragement, and support, you should join my free online community. It's a safe, uplifting space to be inspired, share honestly, and grow alongside women who truly get this season of life.Midlife with Courage™ Community*****************************************************Want to be a guest on Midlife with Courage™-Bold Women Thriving After Forty with Kim Benoy? Send Kim Benoy a message on PodMatch, here: Podmatch Link NEWSLETTER WEBSITEFACEBOOK
Have you ever felt like you signed up for one thing... only to find yourself on a completely different path? Maybe you thought a challenge would last a few weeks, but it turned into months. Maybe you expected life to move in one direction, and suddenly everything changed. In this episode, Bonnie shares a remarkable story about a race that went unexpectedly off course—and the surprising lesson it taught her about trusting God through uncertainty. You'll learn one of the most important keys to emotional wellness and resilience during difficult seasons based on research in psychology—and it may surprise you. If you're facing a setback, disappointment, delay, health challenge, or season of unexpected change, this episode will encourage you to keep moving forward with Jesus one step at a time.Key Takeaways— What to do when life doesn't go according to plan— Why unexpected detours don't mean you're on the wrong path— How to keep moving forward when a challenge lasts longer than expected— The difference between resilience and simply trying harder— Why support and connection are essential for emotional wellness— How asking for prayer can strengthen you during difficult seasons— A simple soul care practice to help you stop running aloneBreath PrayerInhale: Let us run with enduranceExhale: Looking to JesusScripture"Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith." Hebrews 12:1–2→ CNN: "9-year-old accidentally won a 10K race"https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/01/us/runner-misses-turn-wins-race-trnd → Free Devotional Gift Download your free devotional: Bonnie’s FREE “Find Your Joy with Jesus: A 4-Day Devotional.”https://thebonniegray.com/findyourjoydevotional/Prioritize self-care the Jesus way and experience rest, renewal, and encouragement for your soul. → Take Bonnie's Soul Care Courses: Breathe Joy with Jesus:Create Happy Wellness Rhythms to Cultivate Joy with God's PromisesRegister at https://thebonniegray.com/soulcareschool/ → Eucalyptus Shower Steamers for instant calm at Bonnie's Soul Care Store Watch YouTube Devotionals:https://youtube.com/thebonniegray Bestselling Books by Bonnie:https://amzn.to/3NpVYQd Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
ONCE UPON A MUTANT - BUILDING THE OUTBACK TEAM: NEW MUTANTS ANNUAL #2, X-MEN ANNUAL #10, and UNCANNY X-MEN #213-219 (1986-87) Jason R. Lady and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy celebrating a pivotal era of classic UNCANNY X-MEN as Chris Claremont turns the team's status quo upside down and assembles a new team that will become the legendary Outback X-Men! The journey begins with Psylocke's introduction to the mutant universe in NEW MUTANTS ANNUAL #2, followed by Longshot's first encounter with the X-Men in X-MEN ANNUAL #10. From there, Psylocke earns her place on the team in UNCANNY X-MEN #213, while Dazzler joins the ranks in #214. Then, in UNCANNY X-MEN #217-218, these new additions begin to come together as a true team. Finally, Havok makes his long-awaited return to the X-Men in UNCANNY X-MEN #219. Featuring stories by Chris Claremont and stunning artwork from Alan Davis, Art Adams, Barry Windsor-Smith, Butch Guice, and Marc Silvestri! 00:00:25 - Introductions 00:08:20 - Guest's origin with the X-Men 00:20:35 - Guest's favorite X-Men eras and characters 00:31:50 - New Mutants Annual #2 discussion 01:00:55 - X-Men Annual #10 discussion 01:19:15 - Uncanny X-Men #213 & 214 discussion 02:00:50 - Uncanny X-Men #217 & 218 discussion 03:01:25 - Uncanny X-Men #219 discussion 03:11:50 - Sign off Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag37/ Follow Jason R. Lady: Website: https://www.jasonrlady.com/ Purchase Jason's books online: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jason-R.-Lady/author/B07YN3QFKR See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Twitter/X: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek%20%23OUAG37&src=typed_query&f=live Bluesky: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG37 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Twitter/X: https://x.com/onceuponageek Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/onceuponageek.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onceuponageekpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Fire & Water website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Fire & Water on Twitter/X: https://x.com/FWPodcasts Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
ONCE UPON A MUTANT - BUILDING THE OUTBACK TEAM: NEW MUTANTS ANNUAL #2, X-MEN ANNUAL #10, and UNCANNY X-MEN #213-219 (1986-87) Jason R. Lady and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy celebrating a pivotal era of classic UNCANNY X-MEN as Chris Claremont turns the team's status quo upside down and assembles a new team that will become the legendary Outback X-Men! The journey begins with Psylocke's introduction to the mutant universe in NEW MUTANTS ANNUAL #2, followed by Longshot's first encounter with the X-Men in X-MEN ANNUAL #10. From there, Psylocke earns her place on the team in UNCANNY X-MEN #213, while Dazzler joins the ranks in #214. Then, in UNCANNY X-MEN #217-218, these new additions begin to come together as a true team. Finally, Havok makes his long-awaited return to the X-Men in UNCANNY X-MEN #219. Featuring stories by Chris Claremont and stunning artwork from Alan Davis, Art Adams, Barry Windsor-Smith, Butch Guice, and Marc Silvestri! 00:00:25 - Introductions 00:08:20 - Guest's origin with the X-Men 00:20:35 - Guest's favorite X-Men eras and characters 00:31:50 - New Mutants Annual #2 discussion 01:00:55 - X-Men Annual #10 discussion 01:19:15 - Uncanny X-Men #213 & 214 discussion 02:00:50 - Uncanny X-Men #217 & 218 discussion 03:01:25 - Uncanny X-Men #219 discussion 03:11:50 - Sign off Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag37/ Follow Jason R. Lady: Website: https://www.jasonrlady.com/ Purchase Jason's books online: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jason-R.-Lady/author/B07YN3QFKR See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Twitter/X: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek%20%23OUAG37&src=typed_query&f=live Bluesky: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG37 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Twitter/X: https://x.com/onceuponageek Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/onceuponageek.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onceuponageekpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Fire & Water website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Fire & Water on Twitter/X: https://x.com/FWPodcasts Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
Have you ever found yourself waiting for one more sign from God?One more confirmation? One more reassurance? One more reason to feel certain before moving forward.In this episode, Bonnie shares a deeply personal story about one of the hardest decisions she's made in recent years and a surprising discovery about finding peace rather than more answers.You'll discover why indecision can quietly drain your emotional energy and why letting go of even something beautiful may sometimes be part of stepping into a new season with Jesus.If you've been wrestling with a decision, waiting for more confirmation, or feeling stuck between staying and moving forward, this episode will encourage you to trust God's leading and find peace in the next step.Key Takeaways— Why indecision can quietly drain your emotional energy— The difference between having peace in your mind and experiencing peace in your soul— How to recognize when God may be inviting you to take a step of faith— What Isaiah 43 teaches us about God's new work in our lives— The psychology of "flow" and why losing track of time can be a sign of greater wellbeing— A simple soul care practice to help you create space for peace Breath PrayerInhale: See, I am doing a new thingExhale: Do you not perceive it?Scripture"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:19→ Free Devotional Gift Download your free devotional: Bonnie’s FREE “Find Your Joy with Jesus: A 4-Day Devotional.”https://thebonniegray.com/findyourjoydevotional/Prioritize self-care the Jesus way and experience rest, renewal, and encouragement for your soul. → Take Bonnie's Soul Care Courses: Breathe Joy with Jesus:Create Happy Wellness Rhythms to Cultivate Joy with God's PromisesRegister at https://thebonniegray.com/soulcareschool/ Take the FREE Soul Care Quiz at soulcarequiz.comGet your personal wellness assessment and learn which area of soul care you need most. → Eucalyptus Shower Steamers for instant calm at Bonnie's Soul Care Store Join the Soul Care Newsletter:https://thebonniegray.com/subscribe Watch YouTube Devotionals:https://youtube.com/thebonniegray Bestselling Books by Bonnie:https://amzn.to/3NpVYQd Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
Every recognition and reward we receive is a gift of God's steadfast love, poured out so that we might magnify the glory of his undeserved grace.
Do you know God loves you… but somehow you don’t always feel it? You know you’re valuable to God. Yet when it’s time to set boundaries, pursue what brings you joy, take care of yourself, or believe your needs matter, you hesitate. Why? In this episode, Bonnie explores why knowing the truth in your head isn’t always enough to change how you feel about yourself. Through personal story, the power of labels, and scripture, you’ll discover how self-doubt often grows from identities we’ve accepted that were never meant to define us. You’ll learn how God reshapes your identity, why self-affirmation research matters, and a simple soul care practice to live with more confidence. If you’ve ever struggled to feel confident, worthy, beautiful, or enough, this episode will help you. Key Takeaways - Why knowing God loves you isn’t always the same as feeling loved - How labels shape self-doubt and confidence - Why God renames people throughout Scripture - What science says about self-affirmation and emotional resilience - How embracing God’s delight can transform your wellness - A practical exercise to help you break free of self-doubt & experience your God-given identity Breath Prayer Inhale: You will be called My Delight Exhale: The Lord delights in you Scripture “You will no longer be called Forsaken…but you will be called My Delight…for the Lord delights in you.” Isaiah 62:4 “To him who overcomes…I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone.” Rev 2:17 →
>> Get A Free Copy Of The Book (Big Idea To Bestseller): https://www.bigideatobestseller.com/free-book>> Book A Call With Our Team: https://write.bigideatobestseller.com/booking-page>> Step-By-Step Process To Becoming A Bestselling Author: https://write.bigideatobestseller.com/vsl-watch-pageIG: @jakekelferLinkedIn: @jakekelferIn this episode of the Big Idea to Bestseller podcast, bestselling author Jennifer Dean shares the powerful story behind her book Shadow of Joy and why she chose to shine a light on coercive control, abuse, healing, and rebuilding identity. If you've ever wondered how books can create real impact and change lives, this conversation is one you won't want to miss.Connect With Juliana:>>Instagram:https://instagram.com/JenniferDeanNovelist>>Facebook:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jennifer-Dean-Novelist/>>Youtube:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JenniferDean-BeyondtheShadow >>Websites:www.BeyondtheShadow.mehttps://a.co/d/0fdCcdfv
Have you had one of those weeks where everything seems to pile up at once?Unexpected stress. Health worries. Financial pressure. Too many fires to put out. And by the end of the week, your heart just feels tired.In this episode, Bonnie shares a personal story about a stressful week filled, unexpected expenses, painful health setbacks, and emotional exhaustion—and how Jesus gently met her in the middle of it all.You’ll discover why hard weeks affect both your emotions and nervous system, how sharing your fears with Jesus brings comfort and safety, and why laughter and moments of joy are actually restorative for your body, mind, and spirit.If your heart has been feeling weary lately, this episode will help you breathe deeper, feel less alone, and receive the comfort and care Jesus wants to give you right now.Key Takeaways- Why hard weeks leave us emotionally and physically drained- How Jesus meets us gently as our Good Shepherd- What science says about laughter, stress relief, and nervous system recovery- Why emotional safety helps us release fear and discouragement- Simple soul care practices that help your heart rest and recover Breath PrayerInhale: The Lord is my shepherdExhale: I shall not wantInhale: Even though I walk through the valleyExhale: You are with me Scripture“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Psalm 23:1“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,I will fear no evil, for you are with me;your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4“I am the good shepherd.” John 10:11→ Free Devotional Gift Download your free devotional: Bonnie’s FREE “Find Your Joy with Jesus: A 4-Day Devotional.”https://thebonniegray.com/findyourjoydevotional/Prioritize self-care the Jesus way and experience rest, renewal, and encouragement for your soul. → Take Bonnie's Soul Care Courses: Breathe Joy with Jesus:Create Happy Wellness Rhythms to Cultivate Joy with God's PromisesRegister at https://thebonniegray.com/soulcareschool/ Breathe Rest with Jesus:A Loving Course to Create Wellness Rhythms of Peace with God’s Promises Register at https://thebonniegray.com/soulcareschool-breatherest/ Praying the Psalms for Wellness:A Lifegiving 8-Week Wellness Course to Release Stress, Renew Peace & Find Rest for Your HeartRegister at https://thebonniegray.com/soulcareschool-prayingpsalms/ Take the FREE Soul Care Quiz at soulcarequiz.comGet your personal wellness assessment and learn which area of soul care you need most. → Eucalyptus Shower Steamers for instant calm at Bonnie's Soul Care Store Join the Soul Care Newsletter:https://thebonniegray.com/subscribe Watch YouTube Devotionals:https://youtube.com/thebonniegray Bestselling Books by Bonnie:https://amzn.to/3NpVYQd Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
Morning Mantra: "Joy is less about what happens to us and more about what we intentionally invite into our lives."Joy exists inside all of us.We just have to nurture it until it becomes our natural default setting more often than not.Cultivating joy doesn't mean pretending life is easy. It means making room for things that make us feel alive such as movement, fresh air, horses, sunshine, and spending times with people we love.Cultivating joy means letting go of some of the exhausting behaviors we think we need to use as adults and allowing ourselves to become childlike again.To laugh loudly and freely.To dance for no reason.To notice bugs and butterflies with awe.To walk in the grass barefoot.To hug tightly.To nap when we are tired and not feel guilty about it.The next time you've lost your joy, think about a child discovering something magical. Then cultivate that feeling.#BeJoyFilled #BeHappy #BeHorsey #BeHippie #HorseHippie #MorningMantra #WordsToInspire #InspirationalQuotes #SmallBusinessOwner #WomenOwned #HorseHippieBoutique #MorningMotivation #Equestrian #HorseLover #QuotesToInspire #HorseHippieBoutiqueAdapted from Aging Disgracefully
Have you ever felt suddenly overwhelmed… like your mind won’t stop spinning trying to figure everything out? Maybe something unexpected happened, and now you feel emotionally exhausted, tense, anxious, or unsure what to do next. The more you try to solve everything, the more overwhelmed you feel. In this episode, Bonnie shares a personal story about getting caught in a dangerous storm in her life —and how it gave insight into navigating life challenges.You’ll discover what helps calm your body and emotions and what you can do to meet with Jesus n the middle of uncertainty.If you’ve been feeling emotionally flooded, weary, or weighed down by stress, this episode will help you breathe deeper, quiet your heart, and experience God’s peace right beside you.Key Takeaways- Why overwhelming situations can push your body into stress and survival mode- How quietness and rest help calm your nervous system - What science says about chronic noise, stress, and emotional well-being- Why Jesus offers His presence before He offers explanations - A simple practice to release stress when life feels uncertainBreath PrayerInhale: Take heart; it is IExhale: Do not be afraidScripture“Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” — Mark 6:50“Even to your old age I will be the same, And even to your graying years I will carry you! I have done it, and I will bear you; And I will carry you and I will save you.” — Isaiah 46:4→ Free Devotional Gift Download your free devotional: Bonnie’s FREE “Find Your Joy with Jesus: A 4-Day Devotional.”https://thebonniegray.com/findyourjoydevotional/Prioritize self-care the Jesus way and experience rest, renewal, and encouragement for your soul. → Take Bonnie's Soul Care Courses: Breathe Joy with Jesus:Create Happy Wellness Rhythms to Cultivate Joy with God's PromisesRegister at https://thebonniegray.com/soulcareschool/ Breathe Rest with Jesus:A Loving Course to Create Wellness Rhythms of Peace with God’s Promises Register at https://thebonniegray.com/soulcareschool-breatherest/ Praying the Psalms for Wellness:A Lifegiving 8-Week Wellness Course to Release Stress, Renew Peace & Find Rest for Your HeartRegister at https://thebonniegray.com/soulcareschool-prayingpsalms/ Take the FREE Soul Care Quiz at soulcarequiz.comGet your personal wellness assessment and learn which area of soul care you need most. → Eucalyptus Shower Steamers for instant calm at Bonnie's Soul Care Store Join the Soul Care Newsletter:https://thebonniegray.com/subscribe Watch YouTube Devotionals:https://youtube.com/thebonniegray Bestselling Books by Bonnie:https://amzn.to/3NpVYQd Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
Welcome to today's Guided Prayer, where we invite you to find a quiet space to still your mind and body. Guided Prayers are a daily 5–10 minute, intentionally created moment to slow down and meet with God—through scripture, reflection, and honest prayer.It's not a program you attend.It's a pathway you practice.A guided space where people can stop, breathe, and connect with Jesus—every single day.
Have you ever found joy in unexpected places? In a world often defined by material success, we frequently lose sight of what truly brings us joy and fulfillment.Tune in to my conversation with Larry Kesslin and learn:How to find fulfillment and joy in lifeOne of the ways to define successWhy letting go of identity attachment leads to greater happinessHow to define your purpose and find your peaceWhy giving back is an essential part of finding joyThe Five Lessons about life, purpose and joyLarry Kesslin is an entrepreneur, business development consultant, and author of The Joy Molecule, a framework for understanding fulfillment through what we are, who we are, and why we are here. He helps leaders, founders, and coaches build values-driven businesses rooted in connection, purpose, and sustainable growth. Take the Joy Assessment (https://5-dots.com/assessment-1)Connect with Larry: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrykesslinWebsite: https://www.5-dots.com
It’s National Library Week at the new library! Tune in to hear all about the grand opening of the NEW Daland Memorial Library and what’s happening in the new space. Get book recommendations from Amy and get excited with JoAnn for the 9th Annual Wizarding Week. We hope you “Find Your Joy” at the library this week and always. Amy’s Book Recommendations Books I Read Recently That I Enjoyed: The Award by Matthew Pearl The Astral Library by Kate Quinn This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page The Women of Wild Hill by Kirsten Miller Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser American Fantasy by Emma Straub Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke New Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading: The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke A Far Flung Life by M.L. Stedman (also wrote The Light Between Oceans) The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer Into the Blue by Emma Brodie Upcoming Books The Midnight Train by Matt Haig 5/26/26 The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden 6/2/26 Down With the Shipmans by Meg Mitchell Moore 6/2/26 Whistler by Ann Patchett 6/2/26
Send us Fan MailOn this episode we are celebrating National Library Week. This year's theme is “Find Your Joy,” and Kacie and Eliza are here to tell us all about the many different ways the library can help you do just that. In addition, Kacie talks to Pat Sirulnick about the Friends of the Hamden Library and all that they do for us. If you don't already know, the Friends are absolutely crucial to what we do. If you're looking for a way to support the library, joining the Friends is a great way to do so. Visit our website for more details.
ONCE UPON A WEIRDNESS MAGNET - BLUE DEVIL #7! Our coverage of the classic 1980s BLUE DEVIL comic series continues with BLUE DEVIL #7 from December 1984! Diabolu Frank and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy as Dan Cassidy's first date with Sharon goes sideways thanks to Bolt vs. the Trickster! It's romance meets mayhem! Finally, we wrap up with YOUR listener feedback and we fan-cast The Trickster! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag36/ Follow Diabolu Frank: Rolled Spine Podcast Network: https://rolledspine.wordpress.com/ Bluesky: @diabolu.bsky.social Twitter/X: @rolledspine See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Bluesky images from this issue: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG36 Twitter/X images from this issue: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek+%23OUAG36&src=typed_query&f=live Shag's custom Blue Devil bound comics: https://x.com/onceuponageek/status/1770956835727585611 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Follow Once Upon A Geek on Bluesky: @onceuponageek.bsky.social Follow Once Upon A Geek on Instagram: @onceuponageekpodcast Follow Once Upon A Geek on Twitter/X: @onceuponageek Like the Once Upon A Geek Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Like our Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Follow Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Follow Fire & Water on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireandwaterpodcast/ Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
ONCE UPON A WEIRDNESS MAGNET - BLUE DEVIL #7! Our coverage of the classic 1980s BLUE DEVIL comic series continues with BLUE DEVIL #7 from December 1984! Diabolu Frank and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy as Dan Cassidy's first date with Sharon goes sideways thanks to Bolt vs. the Trickster! It's romance meets mayhem! Finally, we wrap up with YOUR listener feedback and we fan-cast The Trickster! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag36/ Follow Diabolu Frank: Rolled Spine Podcast Network: https://rolledspine.wordpress.com/ Bluesky: @diabolu.bsky.social Twitter/X: @rolledspine See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Bluesky images from this issue: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG36 Twitter/X images from this issue: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek+%23OUAG36&src=typed_query&f=live Shag's custom Blue Devil bound comics: https://x.com/onceuponageek/status/1770956835727585611 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Follow Once Upon A Geek on Bluesky: @onceuponageek.bsky.social Follow Once Upon A Geek on Instagram: @onceuponageekpodcast Follow Once Upon A Geek on Twitter/X: @onceuponageek Like the Once Upon A Geek Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Like our Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Follow Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Follow Fire & Water on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireandwaterpodcast/ Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight on APEX Express, join the Powerleegirls Host Miko Lee speaks with children's book authors Lorraine Nam, Uma Krishnaswami and Maggie Tokuda-Hall about Library Joy in honor of National School Library Month! To Learn More Lorrraine Nam, illustrator and author Michael Threet's book: I'm So Happy You're Here: A Celebration of Library Joy Uma Krishnaswami Her books: Book Uncle Triology Maggie Tokuda-Hall Her book: Love in the Library Every Library Authors Against Book Bans Show Transcript [00:00:00] Opening: Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express. [00:00:35] Ayame Keane-Lee: Welcome to tonight's episode of Apex Express Celebrating Library Joy. I'm Ayame Keane-Lee the editor of tonight's show, and part of the PowerLeeGirls bringing you the introduction to tonight's show. Did you know that April is National School Library Month and in just 10 days from April 19th to 25th is National Library Week? The theme for this year's National Library Week is Find Your Joy with Honorary Chair Mychal Threets. The first of three interviews you'll hear my mom, Miko Lee have tonight is with Lorraine Nam the illustrator for the newly released children's book written by that very Mychal Threets called, “I'm So Happy You're Here”. You will then hear Miko speak with Uma Krishnaswami about her children's book “Book Uncle and Me,” and lastly with Maggie Tokuda-Hall about her children's book, “Love in the Library,” and the important work of Authors Against Book Bans. As a library kid and current library worker, I have experienced firsthand the transformative power of library access and the importance of inclusive and diverse storytelling. In and out of schools, libraries are vital to nurturing and uplifting the autonomy and sovereignty of children, which always has and continues to be a liberatory practice. We hope tonight's show will inspire you right into your local library to check out some of the great books mentioned here or to put them on hold. Let's listen in. [00:02:06] Miko Lee: Welcome, Lorraine Nam, illustrator of amazing children's books. Welcome to Apex Express. [00:02:13] Lorraine Nam: I'm excited to be here. [00:02:16] Miko Lee: I wanna start with a question I ask all of my guests, which is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? [00:02:24] Lorraine Nam: Who are my people? I would say creative people. People who are interested in having an open mind, and looking at the bright side of things, the beautiful things, people who are curious. The type of legacy that I bring I think is just my parents who are creative and then bringing that, to this new generation. [00:02:57] Miko Lee: Thank you for sharing. I am, I'm looking at your beautiful face, and behind you is this, find your joy and, and it's in lots of colors on this pink banner and in at the top we see opening up of a library door with Mychal Threets, who's the author of this book, “I'm So Happy You're Here: A Celebration of Library Joy.” I'm wondering if you can talk about your collaborative process with Mychal Threets. [00:03:25] Lorraine Nam: The first impression that you have of writer and illustrator for a picture book is that they work really closely together, and that's actually not the case. We work pretty separately, but I was very excited. Mychal wrote the words to this book and they were looking for an illustrator and my agent called me and she asked me if I was interested. I was very excited about the project. I signed up for it and we worked pretty separately. We connected on Instagram, but he pretty much had no art notes, everything was pretty much whatever I was open to. Then we met for the first time and we got our very first copy of the book and we met in New York. [00:04:10] Miko Lee: And what was that like? [00:04:12] Lorraine Nam: Um, amazing. He is exactly who he is in his videos. [00:04:18] Miko Lee: Can you share for our audience who he is and a little bit more about him, just in case folks don't know. [00:04:24] Lorraine Nam: The book calls him a librarian ambassador. He describes himself as a reader, a lover of librarians or the number one fan of libraries. This is his first book and he's also the host of Reading Rainbow on PBS. We met at the New York Library, public Library for the first time, and he's just so nice, very kind. Honestly, it felt like we already knew each other just because we had been talking through the publisher about the book. [00:05:02] Miko Lee: Thank you for sharing. It's so beautifully illustrated and you have a incredibly diverse,, amount of people in the book, both racially but also physically, and I really appreciate how you encapsulated that. I'm just wondering what inspired you to develop this specific imagery for this book? [00:05:22] Lorraine Nam: Yeah, so one of the only stipulations in the art notes was that he wanted to have a diverse group of people attending the library. People of all ages of all color, all sizes, all disabilities. That seemed like a no brainer to me because I just know the message that he puts into the world. The only difficult part was narrowing down the cast. There's all these different types of people and just trying to figure out who to focus on. I wanted to make sure that you still see the same group of kids over and over. So it felt like you were following the along throughout the day, while still having lots of diversity and lots of different types of people. [00:06:11] Miko Lee: Had you set what the cover was gonna be at the beginning or did that come after you had already finished the whole book? [00:06:19] Lorraine Nam: Oh, that came much later. We pretty much had the art for the interior nailed down, and then we were working on concepts for the cover. I knew from Mychal's social media presence that maybe he didn't want to be the poster cover of the book. He wanted to be about the library goers and the people rather than himself. And so I was kind of towing that line of like obviously people wanna see him, it's his first book. They're such huge fans, and so like how much to put Mychal in and how much to showcase him, as well as showcase like all the other people who go to the library. [00:07:02] Miko Lee: He definitely does have a joyous kind of ebullient vibe to him. I recommend for audience to check out his socials because he has this, you wanna listen to him. He's so inviting and I love the poster behind you because he is saying, like, “welcome, come into the library. This is my world.” And you also made him look so cute. Really looks like a cartoon version of him. So sweet. In your artistic process, I'm wondering what helps you define the style of art you utilize? I'm thinking about the paper cutouts that you did for a tale of two princes. What is it about the work that inspires you to select that type of style? [00:07:43] Lorraine Nam: I actually had a very winding path to the style that I have today. So the style that I have today is very much layered. It's painted, a lot of it is painted. And then I cut it out and then I glue and collage different elements, and then I scan everything in and enhance certain aspects through Photoshop. But a lot of it started actually in wanting to make a physical book. So it was with book binding and then with book binding, because that's just a technique to produce a product, it was what goes in those pages and that's when I started doing cut paper. So just silhouetted, cut paper. And I was doing that for a long time, just cutting out rice paper to make silhouettes. I wanted to tell more of the story and depict people. So then I started making paper cut [laughs] sets. So I would build —almost like Legos— a whole set of paper buildings and paper people and paper objects that are three dimensional. And then I would photograph them. And then from there, I landed in this more 2D, but playing with still technique and texture and layers. [00:09:10] Miko Lee: Wow, that's so interesting. Can you share a little bit more about your artistic process? Do you start at a certain time of day? Do you only work at night? Do you have a whole studio set up? [00:09:20] Lorraine Nam: well, For the book projects because there's such a timeline to 'em and they're very specific. I'll do very loose sketches on Post-it notes. They're readily available and then you can stick two of them next to each other to make a full spread. I use these post-its, and then I would just fold them in half and use that as like very quick pencil drawings. And then if I had something that I liked, I would just go in and pen. But they were still very small. So it was more about looking at silhouettes and composition. And then I would print, it's a very old school technique, but I would print out all the text for the book and cut 'em out. And double sided tape and just stick them on to see where the text should be on the page and where it could fit. I would just do that manually until I had something that I liked a little bit more. Then I would start creating digital, like line drawings. [00:10:21] Miko Lee: And are you lining this all up on a wall or putting it on the desk? [00:10:26] Lorraine Nam: Um, so they're in like a notebook. [00:10:29] Miko Lee: Oh, you put 'em in book format? [00:10:31] Lorraine Nam: It's all the spread. So it should take about two pages basically. You should be able to look at it and look at it from like an eagle eye perspective of what the entire book will look like and what the flow will be like, and if there's closeups or this is like a far away saying, you get more of the like, setting of the library. [00:10:52] Miko Lee: And with the font printed out really small so that it's on the bottom of that Post-it note. [00:10:56] Lorraine Nam: Mm-hmm. [00:10:57] Miko Lee: Wow, that is so fascinating. And what is it when you're eagle eye-ing, what are you looking for? [00:11:04] Lorraine Nam: I'm pretending that I'm a kid looking at a book for the first time, with zero context and maybe zero reading level skill and just looking at the pictures and seeing if I can spot the same character and if there is a story that follows along, because this is a library book where it doesn't talk about specific people. I wanted to be able to follow each character in the book and see what their day was like in the library. So when they first came into the library, what they were doing during the day, what friends they made, and then maybe them leaving or, you know, a resolution of some kind, like their parents are checking out symbols at the library. [00:11:52] Miko Lee: the concept of having the character go throughout the book. Was that in the instruction or was something that you created. [00:11:59] Lorraine Nam: That was something that I wanted. Because I know looking at picture books, the pictures can also tell a story where, the words, it might not be in the words. So I wanted there to be more of a layered storytelling through image. [00:12:18] Miko Lee: I appreciate that as a mom. I remember when my girls were little, they would always say, where is that rabbit on the page? Or where is that thing? And so being able to track a character all the way through, is quite delightful. It adds another dimension for the multiple readings. You mentioned before about how you didn't really meet Mychal, the author of the book until the very end, and I guess that's common as an illustrator and you've worked with so many different experts in their fields from, physicist Neil Degrasse Tyson to Skater Nathan Chen. How is their very different fields, how does that impact your art making? [00:12:57] Lorraine Nam: It's actually the most fun. It's what drew me to illustration in the first place. I love being able to do like a deep dive and a specific subject that I wouldn't necessarily have gravitated towards and do that research. I actually do go to the library. I start the process at the library and I look at all the books about that particular topic, and then see what other people have done. And so working on the book for Neil deGrasse Tyson, it was so much fun looking at different how space is depicted the idea of galaxies and making that tangible and real for kids. And then for Nathan Chen, I was already a fan before I got the project, so it was very easy. But watching the videos, seeing all the different techniques and for his book it was more looking at sports books. Because he's such a unique person in his specific field in figure skating that there weren't very many books on figure skating and most are of a female portrayal. I was looking more at sports and how people show different types of movement, , and show like form. And the more technical aspects that are very, very, very specific and very critical to those things. [00:14:32] Miko Lee: And how did that manifest into your book? [00:14:35] Lorraine Nam: Um, a lot of drawings of like, the breakdown of his jumps and trying to figure out can a child do this jump [laughs]? And also doing a lot of research 'cause he's a very private person. His book is not about him, it's not a biography, but it's also loosely based off of him. You know, I have two other siblings. If I had a book based off of me, I want my siblings to be involved and represented in that as well. So I included his family, even though they're not a huge part of the book, his siblings are not like big characters. But they're still represented in there. So he can still be like, oh that's my family. This is based off of my story. [00:15:32] Miko Lee: So when you're doing these approaches, like including Nathan's family or in the library book, making sure characters go all the way through, is that something you have to check in with the writer about, to see if they're okay? Or is that something that you just do and then you submit and you see if they like it? [00:15:50] Lorraine Nam: That's something that I do, that I find joy in and see. Usually the first eyes on my sketches are the publisher and the art director. And I actually have no idea what, at what stage they really share the sketches, if it's like at a more finalized stage or if it's an early on one, but I usually just go with my own ideas and see what they think about it. [00:16:20] Miko Lee: Wow. I didn't know that you could have that much say into it. That's lovely. You talked a little bit about using the library for research. Gosh, I imagine that Neil deGrasse Tyson, there's so much research on it, that must have been a deep dive. I'm wondering what the library meant to you as a child. [00:16:38] Lorraine Nam: Yeah. I grew up as a big reader. The library for me it was a magical space that I wasn't really sure what it was. My parents, because they grew up in Korea and moved here to the States, there was a big language barrier between us and they're also very not talkative people. They just took us to this place one day and it was our local public library and it was right before closing and we were able to check out as many books as we wanted in whatever type of book that we wanted. I felt like that was magical, that there was no limit to it. [00:17:19] Miko Lee: My last question is, what are you working on now? [00:17:22] Lorraine Nam: I'm working on a few books, actually. I'm juggling a few, but they're all very fun and different. I'm doing a book about a boy dreaming of flying, being a pilot. So I think that will be a really fun imaginative book. [00:17:43] Miko Lee: What is one of your books that you would've liked to read to your younger self? [00:17:50] Lorraine Nam: Mm, I probably Wei Skates On, the book with Nathan Chen. ‘Cause his story is about overcoming obstacles and being disappointed. And just feeling frustrated and upset. And I feel like that's an important lesson even in adulthood. It's not really resolved through words. It's more of like the, everyone is there for him, his family is there for him, and they all just want him to enjoy what he's doing and to not care about winning or losing. [00:18:33] Miko Lee: Lorraine Nam, thank you so much for chatting with us about your work and about the library as a magical place, appreciate talking with you. [00:18:42] Lorraine Nam: Thank you so much. I had so much fun talking with you. [00:18:45] Miko Lee: Welcome, amazing award-winning children's book author Uma Krishnaswami, I'm so happy to have you here on Apex Express. [00:18:54] Uma Krishnaswami: Miko, it's my pleasure to be here. [00:18:57] Miko Lee: I wanted to start with a question I ask all of my guests, which is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? [00:19:05] Uma Krishnaswami: What a wonderful question. Who are my people? My people are children who are, my ideal readership is the eight to 12-year-old group. I write for children. I'm not particularly thinking about audience when I begin writing. But at some point I want my readership to feel validated, whether they recognize themselves as being in my stories or my stories are offering them a window into a world that they are not immediately familiar with. So I would say those are my people. [00:19:45] Miko Lee: And what is the legacy that you carry with you? [00:19:48] Uma Krishnaswami: I grew up in India. The year that I was born India had been independent for all of nine years. So I carry very much that colonial legacy. I also am an immigrant to two countries, early in my adulthood to the United States and about 12 years ago to Canada. So my legacy is one of moving and finding new roots, finding community. Those are the things that I try to carry forward in my stories. When I began writing, I lived in the US and I started writing when my son was born. So there I was with a little brown baby and I went looking for books that would represent him and I didn't find them. And I think that is what made me think in my early thirties that, real life people could write children's books because of course the books I had read as a child were all written by people from England and many of them were dead. I kind of thought you had to be dead and British to be a writer. So yeah, it's complicated, isn't it? All of that works into, what you think of as, as your legacy. Having done this for 30 plus years now. [00:21:03] Miko Lee: And you've written so many beautiful books. Tell us about a little bit more about that first book. [00:21:09] Uma Krishnaswami: So the very first book, it was called Stories of the Flood. I realized very quickly that I didn't really know what I was doing. I looked to folk tales and traditional tales as a way to teach me about story. My second book called The Broken Tusk Stories of the Hindu God Ganesha. That is the one that I consider as the book that taught me how to write. I had a wonderful editor [unintelligble] Thorpe at a small press in Connecticut, Linnet Books. She told me to lean into story and to see myself as a storyteller. In a way, every book I've written has taught me how to write. [00:21:47] Miko Lee: Can you tell us about your favorite book as a kid? [00:21:52] Uma Krishnaswami: My favorite book as a kid, it would have to be Winnie The Pooh. [00:21:58] Miko Lee: And what was it about Winnie the Pooh that enamored you? [00:22:01] Uma Krishnaswami: I came to it very early and aunt had traveled to England and she brought me my copy of winnie the Pooh in the House of Poo Corner. And I read them, sitting in very Indian gardens, sometimes up in trees. I spent lots of time up in trees and I took my own geography and placed it over the geography of the book. , So that for me, the a hundred acre wood had lime trees and banyan trees and possibly mango trees. It didn't occur to me, until much later when I read an Enid Blyton reader. I had my moment of disillusionment with Enid Blyton and that's when it really occurred to me that there was an us and a them in, in some of the storytelling I was consuming. [00:22:49] Miko Lee: What age was that where you recognized that? [00:22:51] Uma Krishnaswami: My post-colonial moment? [00:22:53] Miko Lee: Yes. [00:22:54] Uma Krishnaswami: I might have been a 11. [00:22:56] Miko Lee: Oh, wow. And were you still living in India at that time? [00:22:59] Uma Krishnaswami: Yeah, yeah. 11 was a very formative year for me. My grandfather passed away, so it sort of brought mortality , into the framework for me. Also that was my year of disillusionment with Blyton. 'cause I read The , river of Adventure. And the villain in it had my name. He was called. Uma, Raya or Raya Uma or something like that. And yeah, I was just shocked. Just totally shocked. It was pure coincidence, I'm sure. She probably just, pulled the name out of the air and plunked it in. But. I began to notice that he was described as dark skinned and he was described as cunning. All this language that had slid right past me before began to be apparent. So, yeah, [00:23:47] Miko Lee: I love that. That is so amazing. This name, like what? That's my name as the villain. [00:23:53] Uma Krishnaswami: I'm the Bad Guy. No, I'm not. [00:23:56] Miko Lee: And all of your books are such a wonderful clap back to that because you have a multitude of characters and so many different worlds. Initially reached out to you because I started reading book Uncle this trilogy of books that are so lovely. Can you first share a little bit about what the Book Uncle's Trilogy is about. [00:24:16] Uma Krishnaswami: Okay, so it didn't start out as a trilogy. It didn't even start out as a book. It started out as a short story and then it didn't quite fit. It wasn't a picture book. It seemed to have more layers than that, so it kind of grew. But what started Book Uncle and Me was I was visiting my parents in India. At the time, and I was on this very busy urban street and there was this kid sitting on this on the, on the sidewalk. Um, it was kind of a broken brick sidewalk, and she was sitting cross-legged right in the middle and she was reading book and she was just oblivious to the crowd going around her and the. Buses on the road and there were, you know, random goats and dogs running around and she just was ignoring everything and she was absorbed in her book. And I remembered that I had been that kind of reader as a child. There was an election going on at the time as well, and I thought, I wonder what would happen if I put those two things together. And that is how Book Uncle came to be. [00:25:14] Miko Lee: And then there was just, you wanted to live in those characters more, so you ended up writing additional books? [00:25:20] Uma Krishnaswami: Hmm and that's a very good question. And actually no, I didn't, I thought I was done. I wrote Book Uncle and Me back in, I'm say 2009, 2010, something like that. I probably started it in 2010. Um, it got published originally in India in 2012, I believe. And then it was picked up by Ground Wood in Canada and published in Canada and the US so North American edition in 2016. And I thought, you know, I'm done. I'm writing other things. And then come the pandemic and we're all in lockdown. And like a lot of writers, I was doing, um, many, many, virtual. Presentations and programs. Um, and I did something through the North Vancouver Public Library and, there were kids zooming in from, you know, some from home, some from their bubbles, some from classrooms, whatever. And we were talking about book uncle and one of the kids, I think in third grade maybe, she said, Are you gonna write a sequel? And I am just joshing, right? I am. I said, yeah, should I? And they're all going, yeah, you should. And you should write three because you've got three characters you should give them each a [story]. And I'm like, all right guys i'll think about it. I absolutely will but not really taking it seriously. And then as often happens. the session ended and, you know, there we were all in lockdown going nowhere. And I thought maybe, maybe there's something there. Maybe I could return to that. And in a way I was kind of intrigued because I hadn't, had never thought about a trilogy and I was interested in how that would play out. Um, and it was kind of a writing challenge to myself, but honestly, once I started writing Birds on the Brain, which was book two it just kind of, I hesitate to say wrote itself 'cause I, that just seems, you know, so kind of woo woo. But, um, it did, it did. Uh, the, the kid came in and she took over and then a bird flew onto the rooftop and there I was on my way. So that's the story of, of how that that happened. In retrospect, I'm really sorry I didn't ask that child's name because I would've absolutely loved to have acknowledged her in the book. But thank you child from North Vancouver, whoever you are. [00:27:40] Miko Lee: That is so amazing. That's by request, by audience request. You fulfilled this goal of a trilogy and and I I love that they even said, not just a sequel, but a trilogy. [00:27:52] Uma Krishnaswami: Oh, they were. Yeah. They had it. I mean, they had, then they, they figured it out, which was really lovely. [00:27:58] Miko Lee: And those, that trilogy is really geared, as you were saying to the second and third grade audience and I So many of your books are written around kids that can make a difference. What is it about that age that appeals to you and that motivation to show them how they can change the world? [00:28:16] Uma Krishnaswami: I think they have this really, strong sense of what's fair. It's the age at which, you know, you start pushing back against what you see as small unfairnesses in your life. Parental restrictions quite often, or older siblings. You're pushing back. You're doing a little bit of finding who you are. And I think that uh, you begin to get a sense of awareness of the big world outside your small circle. And I think also one of the things that drives me, with writing to this age is that, I feel that it is so unfair that grownups, the adult world, has created so much injustice. And we just kind of expect the next generation to step up and step into it and, and do the best they can. and it just, it doesn't seem right not to at least give them the wherewithal to think about that. And they do, they have children have voices and their voices matter. As we found out with, the climate strikes. I mean it really was young people who brought those messages out into the world and forced us to think about them and talk about them. So, I think that we owe children that. [00:29:34] Miko Lee: So which of your books would you want to read to the second or third grade Uma? [00:29:43] Uma Krishnaswami: [Laughs] Maybe Book Uncle and Me. Because I think there's a lot of second and third grade Uma in that book. I was a compulsive reader like Yasmin. I would've absolutely read a book every day for the rest of my life if I'd had that many books available to me. I didn't. So I read the ones I had over and over again. I lived in an imaginary world, quite a bit of the time. [00:30:06] Miko Lee: Speaking of having access to lots of books, I'm wondering what your relationship was like to libraries, both as a child and then now. [00:30:15] Uma Krishnaswami: I'm a proud and inveterate library goer. I put holds on things. I go browse on shelves. I download eBooks and audio books. I always have a pending list. I'm very, very grateful for libraries and also for librarians whom many of whom I have come to know over my life and am immensely grateful for. I did not have access to libraries much as a child. We didn't have a public library system that was free and available and open to everybody. There were the kind of unofficial lending library types that I feature in Book Uncle and Me. There are sadly fewer of them now, but you still find them on street corners in India. I remember taking a book and giving one and then getting one back in return. That was, that was part of my life in some of the places we lived. [00:31:07] Miko Lee: Did you know an actual book uncle? [00:31:10] Uma Krishnaswami: I didn't actually pay much attention, to the people who handed those books out. I was much more, focused on the books I was getting. There are characters who I've seen who have run these things. I once had somebody email me and say, I'm a book uncle. This is what I do. So that was really nice. [00:31:31] Miko Lee: That's sweet. I wanna roll back and talk a little bit more about your artistic process. I'm wondering if you, as a writer, as illustrator, you can sometimes be in your own world, and I'm wondering what your process is. [00:31:43] Uma Krishnaswami: My place is right here. This is my office room, and I'm standing at a treadmill desk, and usually what I will do, is when I'm writing, I will turn that on very, very slowly. I usually start out at the idea stage with a notebook and a pen. I have fountain pens with very varied colors of ink, and I use those always to write my initial notes and questions about a new story idea. I don't go to the computer and the keyboard until the idea has started showing up quite a few times. In, perhaps in a few iterations, almost as if I'm actually pushing it away at first, you know, saying, don't scratch up my window until you are developed a little bit more. I'm not going to, indulge, the initial shallowness that usually the first idea is often not what it's gonna end up being. I question that, and sometimes this is gonna sound really crazy, but, if I write those questions many times over in different colored inks, the answers begin to break out in clumps. Once I've begun to think, okay, well maybe I, I know what I could do with this. That's when I open up a file. [00:32:56] Miko Lee: Ooh share a little bit more about the different colored inks. How does that work? [00:33:00] Uma Krishnaswami: Um, right over there, there's a whole row of inks, and right over here is a fountain pen, and I have several of them. I change the ink colors, and when I get stuck with something, it really does help to write those questions to myself, in a journal notebook. I have a terrible handwriting, so I used to really worry about when people gave me nice notebooks. Little empty notebooks with beautiful glossy pages. I used to think, God, my writing is so awful. I feel like I'm desecrating this beautiful book. I've gotten over that and it's actually really helpful to physically write that thought for me is very, very useful. [00:33:39] Miko Lee: And when you see the different colors, is it like words that stand out to you, that you piece together? Yeah. [00:33:44] Uma Krishnaswami: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or sometimes I'll write something, in a paragraph, and then I'll break it up and write it in a lineated way, maybe in a different color. You just start seeing things differently when you try different ways of thinking about the same thing. It's all a trick to get the kind of managerial editorial mind out of the way. You need her later, but I don't need her when I'm trying to shape something. [00:34:13] Miko Lee: The, for the creative process. Mm-hmm. The multiple colors just helps [00:34:16] Uma Krishnaswami: Right. [00:34:16] Miko Lee: Pull you into that. [00:34:17] Uma Krishnaswami: Yeah. It just loosens, it loosens my mind up so I don't feel so focused on the objective. I often tell myself, I think Linda Sue Park used to say this. You don't have to write a whole novel. You just write a scene. And so that's what I tell myself, I'm a sceneist. I'm not a novelist. I'm just a sceneist. I write one scene. And that's all I need to write. Then I will write another one and so forth. [00:34:38] Miko Lee: And do you use sticky notes or something to keep those scenes separately or [00:34:42] Uma Krishnaswami: just all kinds of things? I use sticky notes. I use little boards on which I draw plot lines, and then I write, notes to myself. I use the journal notebooks. I've started using Scrivener and I actually have found that helpful but not until I've got something, in enough shape to plug things in. [00:35:01] Miko Lee: Oh, I love hearing about artistic process. That's so fascinating. I appreciate you and you're showing your beautiful pen and everything. It's so great. [00:35:08] Uma Krishnaswami: It's messy, right? One of the things I've learned is to lean into the messiness and not try to organize things too fast, too early. [00:35:16] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm. Giving yourself the time for the creative juices to flow. [00:35:20] Uma Krishnaswami: Yeah. Yeah. [00:35:21] Miko Lee: So my last question is, what are you working on now? [00:35:25] Uma Krishnaswami: I've actually just got done with edits on a picture book, which is going to be called Mango Sun. And then I'm working on another picture book. That's just gone to my agent. It's got to do with wildlife rescue and conservation in the Himalayas. It's an Indian setting, but a very different setting from Mango Sun. [00:35:44] Miko Lee: And most of the ideas from your books are just coming from your imagination or something you read or where are you pulling from to get your inspiration? [00:35:52] Uma Krishnaswami: Everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. I have a picture book that came out of a trip that we took to Galapagos and will it ever take form? I don't know, it's about the rewilding of an island , and how when you bring one species back, the other one follows. Some of it's from my childhood. I have two picture books that came out of a memory of planting a mango seed and watching it grow. [00:36:21] Miko Lee: Sounds lovely. Two of my favorite things, mango and Sun [laughs], appreciate you joining us and sharing about your artistic process and your amazing book. And I'll put a link to your website in our show notes. And thank you so much for joining us and talking to us about Book Uncle and your work. [00:36:37] Uma Krishnaswami: Miko, thank you so much. It's really a delight. [00:36:41] Miko Lee: Welcome, Maggie Tokuda Hall to Apex Express. [00:36:45] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Thank you so much for having me. [00:36:47] Miko Lee: I'm so happy to have you talking about, your wonderful book, love in the Library. But first I wanna, ask you a question I ask my guest, which is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? [00:37:01] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Oh man. I feel like I have so many tribes that I identify with in different ways. , Gosh, who are my people? I mean, generally speaking, angry queer teenage girls very much my people. Tired Jewish aunties also my people. Exhausted Asian mothers also my people, [laughs] librarians and book people are my people. I, I, I don't know. I feel like I have so many people that I feel an affinity toward and an affection for, and kinship with. [00:37:38] Miko Lee: I like you naming all of those because we're multifaceted people and there's many different things that make up who we are. Yeah. And what is the legacy that you carry with you from all these tribes you're a part of? [00:37:50] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: From my mother, I carry a legacy of honoring the truth, like really believing that children are owed the truth and that part of being an adult is being courageous enough to tell it. but I also come from like a vibrant family of Jewish storytellers and I feel like I have that, that I carry with me as well. [00:38:17] Miko Lee: Thank you. So you've written the book Love in the Library about Tamma, a woman who works at a library in the Minidoka concentration camp during World War ii. [00:38:28] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Mm-hmm. [00:38:28] Miko Lee: And she meets George and falls in love. Can you tell me about how you very first heard this true love story of your grandparents? [00:38:40] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I can't actually, I don't remember the first time I heard this story. It is a story that I've just always known. like for me it's very much a fabric of how I came to understand the world and my place in it. Like sky is blue, grandma and grandpa met in a prison camp, you know, normal stuff. And so, um, [00:39:00] Miko Lee: so it's just part of the family lore? [00:39:03] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yeah. Like, it's not something my mother was ever shy about telling us. And I truly do not remember the first time she talked to me about it because I remember being very small and already feeling like I knew that story. [00:39:15] Miko Lee: Okay. Then how did you decide to turn it into a children's book? [00:39:19] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yeah, so, in 2017 when President Trump took office for the first time, in his very first executive order was to sign the travel or Muslim ban where he was banning people from Muslim majority countries from coming to the United States. It was clear immediately that he was gonna be using his time and power to enact a white supremacist agenda. I knew I needed to do all the things that we're supposed to do. Like I called my representatives and I wrote my postcards and I marched and I did all those things. But I really did try to audit what I had to offer, particularly children in that moment. That was unique to me. And I realized I had this beautiful story in my own family, not just about the cruelty of those sorts of policies, but also the resilience and power of the people who they target. [00:40:05] Miko Lee: Ooh. Fired up the, that truth teller part of you just became ready to go. [00:40:11] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yeah. [00:40:11] Miko Lee: Um, speaking of the impact of politics and what's going on and how that relates to books, I know that in April, 2023, Scholastic wanted to include love in the library in a collection around AANHPI folks, but they wanted to edit your amazingly fierce author's note. Can you share with our audience what happened? [00:40:34] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I mean, first of all, thank you for calling it amazingly fierce. In my author's note, I talk about how what happened to my grandparents wasn't an isolated moment in American history and that it was racist, which I think is a, a reflection of a very basic understanding of that history. It, it's not, a creative extrapolation and. Scholastic offered to license the book, but my licensing offer came with a caveat, which was that I had to remove that entire paragraph. Um, and I had to remove the word racism from the text altogether. And so I decided to say no and say no publicly. And for about three months, my full-time job was talking about Scholastic, but also about our obligation to tell children, American history, honestly. [00:41:19] Miko Lee: And they wanted you to get word of the word racist. Did they say why? [00:41:24] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yes, they basically said, the language is too strong and we fear that some teachers won't bring it in for fear of this political climate, which is the nice way of saying like, we have to sell into places where book bans are happening and we think that this language is too incendiary for people who would ban books, which to me was always really, Unsatisfactory logic, because books about Japanese American incarceration are banned all the time and they don't use as strident of language as I use in that author's note. baseball saved us, gets banned. They called us, the enemy gets banned. This story is already considered dangerous by the people who would ban books, so they were trying to hold a center that just doesn't exist. [00:42:04] Miko Lee: And so what did you end up doing? [00:42:07] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I said no and said no publicly, just with like, sort of the hope of, sparking some intra community conversation among kid lit creators about what sort of edits are appropriate to offer people. I would, I still posit, that that's a completely inappropriate edit and that's about sanding down people of color's, history and perspective to cater to a white audience. And I was unwilling to do it. and Scholastic initially released like a very, incomplete apology. And then when they received a lot of pushback about that, they offered a much more full apology. They offered to meet with me and my publisher, the CEO of Scholastic and the head of their education divisions, which is the division that made me this offer. And then they also had me work with a restorative justice consultant, for like a year to try to figure out what they could do better. But what I said to them at the end of that time that I told them, I was extremely transparent that I would be talking about this publicly. So I don't feel bad saying exactly what I said to them here is, I think the exact same thing would've happened. It just would've happened more politely. [00:43:17] Miko Lee: Wow. [00:43:18] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I don't think that they actually reexamined what their role is as a publisher of Books for Children under Unconsolidated authoritarianism. They just figured out how to ask people to make racist edits more, more, uh, gently. [00:43:33] Miko Lee: And you worked with them for one year with an RJ consultant. [00:43:36] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I mean, like, not every day, but we had, you know, meetings over the months. And she was a smart lady. Like I don't think that she, you know, did nothing. I think she was trying her best, but I think that, you know, big institutions are very slow to institute cultural change and that that on the one hand has to happen from the top down, but also can't happen from the top down. [00:43:56] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm. [00:43:56] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: And so I genuinely believe that there CEO was trying his hardest to, to make a meaningful change, but without them really stopping and examining and questioning what their own role in this moment is in a critical way. I don't think that they are going to be able to have answered what I would've required for them to, for me to then accept their licensing offer. ‘Cause they made it again. [00:44:25] Miko Lee: So at the end of the one year long, they made the licensing offer to you again? [00:44:29] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yeah. I think just to be kind, just as like a gesture of like, listen, we know we messed up. We'd love to license your book and I still said no because I don't think that they made meaningful enough change. [00:44:40] Miko Lee: Hmm. Wow. I love this. What did you learn from this experience? [00:44:47] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: That it is very unusual for people to blow the whistle within publishing, even when the examples are egregious. [00:44:54] Miko Lee: Tell me about your connection with Authors Against Book Bans. Did that come out of this experience with Scholastic, or were you involved actively involved in this prior to that? [00:45:05] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: No, it absolutely came as a result of my experience with Scholastic. Authors against Book Bans is an organization that I'm currently the president of. We're over 5,000 book creators across the country who are united under a single point of view, which is that the government shouldn't be allowed to tell us what to read. That's what we believe and that's what we fight for. And I got involved in founding the group along with specifically David Levithan, who's a really wonderful young adult and middle grade author, who had put together most of this group before I even came on board. Cause we realized that authors needed a central place to fight. There was no one organizing specifically us. And so Authors Against Book Bans was born out of necessity and, the dearth of a place that existed for us. Everyone would call on us to come speak, but it was extremely ad hoc. We weren't making any kind of unified movement, even though we all so passionately agree that, you know, book bans are anti-American and in violation of our First Amendment rights. And, you know, the freedom to read is a necessary freedom for a free and democratic society. and the reason I'd reached out to David initially was because I was hoping to put together something like Authors Against Book Bans, but just by myself, which is, maybe a testament more to my own personality [laughs] problems than anything else, but I was like, I'll just figure it out. And he was like, you know, I'm actually assembling a group that's trying to do this. Would you like to be a part of it? And that's how I came aboard. But I had gotten interested in it because as a result of the Scholastic fiasco, I was invited to give the keynote speech at the Idaho Library Association in 2023. I gave my little speech that I'd been giving a lot then, um, about how we have an obligation to tell American history honestly. And, people were like, the reaction was so emotional to it and so profound and like, I thought it was a good speech. I'm proud of the speech, but like it, something else was going on and I could feel it. And I started talking to the people who were there and when these librarians started telling me what they had gone through, just for making books like mine available to children, stalking, harassment, death threats. One of them had been followed home, like really frightening, scary things happening to them on like, in some cases a daily basis. I realized like I was gonna be a part of this fight. That was that. I wasn't gonna let them fight alone. And so, you know, in, in my advocacy work now, Idaho still holds like a very precious place in my heart because I think that it's a very forgotten state. When we think about places that need help, when we think about places that have been gerrymandered, when we think about places where there are so many good people who are disenfranchised and unable to affect meaningful change in their state level, governments. That have just been absolutely run roughshod over by Christian nationalists. We should be thinking about Idaho. They have, I think, like the highest neo-Nazi population in the United States. so it's a very direct line between my grandparents being incarcerated to the activism that I do now. And it wouldn't have happened without Scholastic's offensive offer. [00:48:22] Miko Lee: I did not realize that librarians were personally being assaulted or attacked or followed. For books. [00:48:29] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: You should watch, the librarian's documentary that's now streaming on PBS. Okay. Um, it's common across the country. Amanda Jones, who's an Authors Against Book Bans member no big deal, is a librarian in Louisiana that can't go grocery shopping in her own hometown anymore for fear for her own safety because she has taken a stand to like refuse to remove lgbtq plus books from her school library shelves. It's really dire. And I think people understand objectively that book bans are a problem in our country. I do not think that they understand how violent that this fight is. It's a really dark and hard time to be a librarian. So if you're a person who supports libraries, you should be thanking your librarians and letting them know one-on-one and in person face-to-face that you appreciate the work that they do, because there are people who are making their lives really difficult. [00:49:25] Miko Lee: Can you talk about what the library meant to you as a child? [00:49:30] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I mean, honestly it was like a part-time babysitter. You're a kid, there's a library. Entertain yourself, you figure it out. I think the first time I really felt like a sense of belonging in the library was in middle school. We moved from LA to Northern California and I had to start a new school in seventh grade. I didn't really know anyone and it was embarrassing to not have people to eat lunch with and things like that. So I would eat lunch in the library. And the librarian was really kind about it. Like she never called attention to it. She never embarrassed me about it. She would let me sneakily eat in there, even though there was a very specific rule that you weren't allowed to eat in the library. she put, the Enchanted Forest Chronicles on an end cap once, and that's how I found them and ended up reading the entire series and that was really when I became a fantasy reader and you know, my debut novel was a fantasy novel. I still feel very much like a fantasy reader kind of at heart, and that started there. I mean, we never know when libraries are going to save a kid's life. [00:50:39] Miko Lee: Can we go back to how you ended up writing this book about your grandparents' experience? Sure. And what was the first spark for you to say, I wanna turn this into something. It's a family lore, but I want more people to know about it. [00:50:54] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I mean, the Trump administration thing, [00:50:56] Miko Lee: it was truly that. You said it was [00:50:57] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yeah. Trump was it [00:50:58] Miko Lee: Trump got elected. People should know this happened. [00:51:00] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yes. What do you have to tell children in this moment If they're Muslim, they're scared, and if they're not, they need a way to understand what it means to feel afraid. Both of those things need to happen at the same time of like, you have to offer comfort to the children of the marginalized. You have to offer perspective to the children who have the privilege not to feel that fear. And so I have this story and what I love about this story is. I know that children are capable of holding the complexity of this story is both very romantic and very sweet, and also the circumstances it happened under were completely unfair. That's the kind of logic children are able to hold, and they should be given the opportunity to hold that kind of complexity because it'll serve them for the rest of their life because most of most situations we confront are complex. [00:51:57] Miko Lee: And how were you able to eke out more details of that story? Did you do family interviews or was it more from your imagination? [00:52:05] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: My mother is a journalist and she kept my grandmother's journals from the time she was in Minidoka. So some of it comes from my grandmother's journals. Some of it comes from working with my mother to make sure that it felt accurate, tonally and factually. ‘Cause she was not gonna let me publish a book that was nonsense. I always say it's Truman Capote true. ‘Cause the situation, the sensory details, all that stuff real, but the dialogue is made up. The dialogue is art. The dialogue is a way for children to understand how they might've been feeling. They never had succinct, quick conversations like this about their humanity and how they felt about each other. It was a long courting process, and so, you know. That part is made up for children, [00:52:49] Miko Lee: but you, but you did include actual quotes from her journal too, right? [00:52:53] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yes. The book closes with her words, not mine. [00:52:57] Miko Lee: Can you give us those final words? [00:53:00] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: The miracle is in us as long as we believe in beauty, in change, in hope. Which are words she wrote while she was imprisoned in Minidoka. [00:53:11] Miko Lee: And how does that resonate with you in the time of now? [00:53:15] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: They are words that I desperately cling to in the hope that I can see them become manifest. [00:53:23] Miko Lee: And what are you working on now? [00:53:26] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Making Authors Against Book Bans as operational as possible. [00:53:31] Miko Lee: And what does that look like? [00:53:32] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: In late 2025, we became a nonprofit corporation. We have fiscal sponsorship under EveryLibrary, which is a really wonderful advocacy group that's a combination [501](c)3-(c)4, which means you can make tax deductible donations to them, but also they do overtly political work. And so now we can receive tax deductible, donations and continue to do the overtly political work that we do. We are an unapologetically political organization. We are more than happy to help get people elected who fight for the freedom to read, and we are delighted to show the door to people who would stand in our way of that freedom. [00:54:09] Miko Lee: And how can people get more involved in your work? [00:54:13] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: They could absolutely go to authorsagainstbookbans.com and make a donation. We need it [laughs]. We are one of the only organizations that receives donations that exists for the sole purpose of fighting book bans. Most every other group in our space have an angle that book bans affect them, and so they fight against them, but that's not their only purview. It is our only purview. So if it is something that you were interested in fighting, then you could make a donation to us. I would suggest signing up to be on the email list from EveryLibrary because they mobilize everybody, not just authors and book creators. And if you are a book creator, self-published, traditionally published, we don't care. Then you should sign up to be a member of Authors Against Book Bans and you'll get calls to action every Friday. [00:55:07] Miko Lee: Thank you so much for sharing with us about your book and educating us about the work you're doing and appreciate hearing from you. Thank you for joining us. [00:55:16] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Thank you for having me. [00:55:28] Miko Lee: Please check out our website, kpfa.org/program/apexexpress to find out more about our show and our guests tonight. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. Apex Express is produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Miata Tan, Preti Mangala-Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's show was produced by me Miko Lee, and edited by Ayame Keane-Lee. Have a great night.. The post APEX Express – 4.9.26 – Library Joy appeared first on KPFA.
We are living through difficult times, tough times, and we're not alone. Genocide, catastrophic capitalist climate collapse, increasing inequality, unapologetic imperial dreams and white supremacist policies unleashed, fascism on the rise—people all over the world are suffering, they get hurt and they get hard. Our rage and our sadness for all the unnecessary suffering, while understandable, can easily lead to despair and worse. But despair is deactivating, distorting, and destructive—a weapon of the powerful. Activism is a necessary antidote to despair, and activism opens a practical space where hope can come alive. Join us in conversation with one of the most joyful freedom fighters we know: Vijay Prashad, director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research—a primer about everything that matters! Vijay is the author of forty books, including The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of Global South, and (with Grieve Chelwa) How the International Monetary Fund Suffocates Africa. He is an editor at LeftWord Books (New Delhi), Inkani Books (Johannesburg), and La Trocha (Santiago).
Find Your Joy in Christ's Righteousness
Send a textThis conversation will change how you think about trauma, healing, and what it actually means to be brave.
In deze podcast vertel ik een persoonlijk verhaal over mijn danscarrière. Het gaat over ballet, perfectionisme, een dansles zonder spiegels (without mirrors ) en hoe ik mijn "joy" in het dansen terug vond!Voel je de druk (pressure) om alles perfect te doen?Denk je: “Ik wil wel Nederlands spreken… maar eerst (first) moet ik nóg beter worden.”In deze aflevering laat ik je zien waarom plezier zo belangrijk (important) is in al mijn programma's. Niet alleen in dans of in het leven, maar ook in het leren van Nederlands. Je leert in deze podcast ook handige woorden en zinnen voor de verleden tijd. Let dus goed op de woorden “en toen”, “daarna” en “vervolgens”.Ik ben benieuwd: waar ben jij de 'joy' verloren (lost) in het Nederlands leren? En hoe kan jij dit plezier deze week weer een beetje terugvinden?Laat het me weten in de comments.✨Wil jij dit jaar écht de switch maken en vloeiend Nederlands spreken? In maart start mijn gloednieuwe Community: The Dutch Speaking Circle!
ONCE UPON A WHAT IF! M.A. Solko and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy discussing the Marvel comic series that explores the multiverse of cause-and-effect.. WHAT IF! We discuss Solko's history with the series, then we take a deep dive into two issues: What If (vol 1) #36 - “What if the Fantastic Four Had Not Gained Their Powers?” by John Byrne What If (vol 2) #12 - “What if the X-Men had Stayed in Asgard?” by Jim Valentino Finally, Shag covers YOUR listener feedback from the past few episodes! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag35/ Follow M.A. Solko: The Pod Opaque: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePodOpaque Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/masolko.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/masolko See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Twitter: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek%20%23OUAG35&src=typed_query&f=live Bluesky: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG35 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: https://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Twitter/X: https://x.com/onceuponageek Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/onceuponageek.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onceuponageekpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Like our Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Follow Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Follow Fire & Water on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireandwaterpodcast/ Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
ONCE UPON A WHAT IF! M.A. Solko and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy discussing the Marvel comic series that explores the multiverse of cause-and-effect.. WHAT IF! We discuss Solko's history with the series, then we take a deep dive into two issues: What If (vol 1) #36 - “What if the Fantastic Four Had Not Gained Their Powers?” by John Byrne What If (vol 2) #12 - “What if the X-Men had Stayed in Asgard?” by Jim Valentino Finally, Shag covers YOUR listener feedback from the past few episodes! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag35/ Follow M.A. Solko: The Pod Opaque: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePodOpaque Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/masolko.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/masolko See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Twitter: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek%20%23OUAG35&src=typed_query&f=live Bluesky: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG35 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: https://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Twitter/X: https://x.com/onceuponageek Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/onceuponageek.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onceuponageekpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Like our Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Follow Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Follow Fire & Water on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireandwaterpodcast/ Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
Kendra Scott reveals the shocking truth about 2020: while the world saw a billion-dollar brand thriving, she was sobbing herself to sleep every night, feeling like a complete fraud.From dropping out of college to build a hat company that failed, to becoming a single mom starting over with $500 worth of jewelry supplies, Kendra's path to building one of America's most beloved jewelry brands was anything but glamorous.She opens up about the moment she closed her first business in the pouring rain, saw a sign that said "Yes, We're Open," and realized failure was simply the bridge to her next breakthrough.Whether you're struggling to start, scared to pivot, or exhausted from trying to be perfect for everyone else, this conversation will show you how vulnerability becomes your greatest competitive advantage and why your mess is actually your message.Buy a copy of Kendra's book: Born to Shine: Do Good, Find Your Joy, and Build a Life You LoveIn this episode you will:Break through the dangerous myth of balance and perfection that keeps you playing small and burning outUncover the power of making genuine connections before transactions, and why cupcakes and champagne might be your secret weaponDiscover why treating failure as a gift instead of a death sentence unlocks exponential growth in business and lifeTransform your relationship with vulnerability and learn how being authentic attracts the right people, opportunities, and successMaster the art of pivoting when life shakes your snow globe, turning recessions and setbacks into rocket fuel for your next levelFor more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1883For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you'll love:Lewis Howes [SOLO]Michelle ObamaSage Robbins Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
What if joy isn't a reward for getting life “right,” but your natural baseline? Coach Mikki sits down with Sensei Nancy, author, life sensei, and founder of The Dojo, to explore what happens when we stop trying to fix ourselves and start remembering who we really are. This isn't a pep talk; it's a grounded look at the mindset, language, and community that make lasting change feel possible.The conversation turns deeply personal as Sensei Nancy reflects on her divorce and the identity free fall that comes when roles fall away. If you answer “Who are you?” with titles and tasks, this part will land. We talk about becoming someone who can look in the mirror with unflinching love, about declining invitations into unworthiness, and about picking rooms that expand you rather than compress you. Expect practical takeaways and an invitation to try a weekly cadence of reflection, language upgrades, and community support that keeps momentum alive.If you're ready to honor your gifts, raise your frequency, and find a circle where your joy is welcome, you'll feel at home here. Explore Nancy's books, YouTube topics, and how to join the Dojo. Subscribe, share this with a friend who's awakening, and leave a review telling us one word you're retiring from your vocabulary. Your light belongs here. We look forward to seeing you succeed! - www.KeepOnSharing.com - Code - KOSSupport the showJoin my guests on my YouTube Channel
ONCE UPON A GREEN LANTERN! Michael The Unmasked Geek and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy as they honor the Torchbearer of the Green Lantern Corps, Kyle Rayner! In brightest day, in blackest night, they recharge their rings to share why Kyle shines so brightly, celebrate some memorable moments, and spotlight Green Lantern issues #58, #59, #72, #100, plus Green Lantern 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular! Finally, in the spirit of the season, they cover two Kyle stories celebrating Christmas (Green Lantern #59) and Hanukkah (DCU Holiday Bash 1996)! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag34/ See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Twitter/X: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek%20%23OUAG34&src=typed_query&f=live Bluesky: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG34 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: https://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Twitter/X: https://x.com/onceuponageek Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/onceuponageek.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onceuponageekpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Like our Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Follow Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Follow Fire & Water on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireandwaterpodcast/ Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
ONCE UPON A GREEN LANTERN! Michael The Unmasked Geek and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy as they honor the Torchbearer of the Green Lantern Corps, Kyle Rayner! In brightest day, in blackest night, they recharge their rings to share why Kyle shines so brightly, celebrate some memorable moments, and spotlight Green Lantern issues #58, #59, #72, #100, plus Green Lantern 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular! Finally, in the spirit of the season, they cover two Kyle stories celebrating Christmas (Green Lantern #59) and Hanukkah (DCU Holiday Bash 1996)! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag34/ See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Twitter/X: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek%20%23OUAG34&src=typed_query&f=live Bluesky: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG34 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: https://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Twitter/X: https://x.com/onceuponageek Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/onceuponageek.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onceuponageekpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Like our Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Follow Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Follow Fire & Water on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireandwaterpodcast/ Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
ONCE UPON A WEIRDNESS MAGNET - BLUE DEVIL #6! Our coverage of the classic 1980s BLUE DEVIL comic series continues with BLUE DEVIL #6 from November 1984! Diabolu Frank and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy in Las Vegas alongside Dan Cassidy and Norm the cameraman! It's weirdness and chaos in Sin City... hope they survive the experience! Finally, we wrap up with YOUR listener feedback and we fan-cast Norm! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag33/ Follow Diabolu Frank: Rolled Spine Podcast Network: https://rolledspine.wordpress.com/ Bluesky: @diabolu.bsky.social Twitter/X: @rolledspine See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Shag's custom Blue Devil bound comics: https://x.com/onceuponageek/status/1770956835727585611 Bluesky: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG33 Twitter/X: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek+%23OUAG33&src=typed_query&f=live This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Follow Once Upon A Geek on Bluesky: @onceuponageek.bsky.social Follow Once Upon A Geek on Instagram: @onceuponageekpodcast Follow Once Upon A Geek on Twitter/X: @onceuponageek Like the Once Upon A Geek Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Like our Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Follow Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Follow Fire & Water on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireandwaterpodcast/ Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
ONCE UPON A WEIRDNESS MAGNET - BLUE DEVIL #6! Our coverage of the classic 1980s BLUE DEVIL comic series continues with BLUE DEVIL #6 from November 1984! Diabolu Frank and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy in Las Vegas alongside Dan Cassidy and Norm the cameraman! It's weirdness and chaos in Sin City... hope they survive the experience! Finally, we wrap up with YOUR listener feedback and we fan-cast Norm! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag33/ Follow Diabolu Frank: Rolled Spine Podcast Network: https://rolledspine.wordpress.com/ Bluesky: @diabolu.bsky.social Twitter/X: @rolledspine See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Shag's custom Blue Devil bound comics: https://x.com/onceuponageek/status/1770956835727585611 Bluesky images from this issue: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG33 Twitter/X images from this issue: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek+%23OUAG33&src=typed_query&f=live This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Follow Once Upon A Geek on Bluesky: @onceuponageek.bsky.social Follow Once Upon A Geek on Instagram: @onceuponageekpodcast Follow Once Upon A Geek on Twitter/X: @onceuponageek Like the Once Upon A Geek Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Like our Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Follow Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Follow Fire & Water on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireandwaterpodcast/ Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
ACOFAE Podcast Presents: Empire of Shadows: "Find your joy, find your niche." It's 2025 and we are all trying to survive and find a little snippet of joy wherever it can be found. Whether that be in genres that ACOFAE is familiar with or in new genres with new authors, it's in the journey that fun is discovered. Such is ACOFAE's experience with Gaslamp Fantasy! A new genre with a new author- Laura Marie and Jessica Marie are riveted by the story of Adam and Ellie and their adventures through British Honduras. Set in the late 1800's Ellie is a suffragette who is educated and not afraid to speak her mind in a time when it's frowned upon to do so. After she discovers a secret map the adventure is on taking us on boats, boats, and more boats on our way to discover a lost city before the villains do. Add in a handsome and capable American surveyor who also happens to deeply care about preservation and stopping the looting and robbing of archaeological sites, and boom we have a love story too! Keeping things slightly spoiler free, ACOFAE encourages everyone to get lost with Adam and Ellie in this new adventure series that has captured ACOFAE's heart and mind. "Children?! Marriage!? Absolutely not." Spoilers: Empire of Shadows Mentions: The Mummy, Josie and the Pussycats, Jungle Cruise, Shadow and Bone, Cleopatra Fox series TW / CW: none to our awareness For additional TW/CW information for your future reads, head to this site for more: https://triggerwarningdatabase.com/ *Thank you for listening to us! Please subscribe and leave a 5 star review and follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/acofaepodcast/) at @ACOFAEpodcast and on our TikToks! TikTok: ACOFAELaura : Laura Marie (https://www.tiktok.com/@acofaelaura?) ( https://www.tiktok.com/@acofaelaura) ACOFAEJessica : Jessica Marie (https://www.tiktok.com/@acofaejessica?) (https://www.tiktok.com/@acofaejessica)
ONCE UPON A FLUX CAPACITOR! Henry Bernstein and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy in a flying DeLorean while discussing BACK THE FUTURE! We hit 88 mph as we race into the first 4 issues of the 2015 IDW comic! Plus, we discuss our love for the franchise and other expanded universe stories! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag32/ Follow Henry Bernstein: Songs of Experience: A Bob Dylan Podcast: https://songsofbob.simplecast.com/ Funny They Don't Look Jewish Podcast: https://jewishcomicspod.simplecast.com/ Superman & Lois & Pals Podcast: https://supermanandloisandpals.simplecast.com/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/henrybernstein.bsky.social See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Twitter/X: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek%20%23OUAG32&src=typed_query&f=live Bluesky: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG32 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Twitter/X: https://x.com/onceuponageek Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/onceuponageek.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onceuponageekpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water WEBSITE: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Like our Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Follow Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
ONCE UPON A FLUX CAPACITOR! Henry Bernstein and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy in a flying DeLorean while discussing BACK THE FUTURE! We hit 88 mph as we race into the first 4 issues of the 2015 IDW comic! Plus, we discuss our love for the franchise and other expanded universe stories! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag32/ Follow Henry Bernstein: Songs of Experience: A Bob Dylan Podcast: https://songsofbob.simplecast.com/ Funny They Don't Look Jewish Podcast: https://jewishcomicspod.simplecast.com/ Superman & Lois & Pals Podcast: https://supermanandloisandpals.simplecast.com/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/henrybernstein.bsky.social See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Twitter/X: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek%20%23OUAG32&src=typed_query&f=live Bluesky: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG32 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Twitter/X: https://x.com/onceuponageek Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/onceuponageek.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onceuponageekpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water WEBSITE: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Like our Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Follow Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
In this episode, Nicole explores the concept of negative cognitive bias and how it affects our happiness. She gives practical strategies to reprogram your brain and focus on the little joys in life, shifting your mindset from pessimism to optimism. She shares actionable techniques to help you cultivate awareness of positive experiences and embrace gratitude daily.
Do you feel lost transitioning from healthcare into entrepreneurship? Are you exhausted from always caring for others but never feeling restored yourself? Many former nurses and caregivers entering the business world struggle with burnout, self-doubt, and the pressure to separate their personal healing from their new ventures. The good news? There's an easier, more compassionate path forward.In this episode, nurse life coach and intuitive coach Dawn Kralovich reveals how your own healing journey is not only essential but transformative for your business success. Dawn Kralovich and Suzy Wraines dive deep into what it means to truly care for yourself while caring for others, how to let go of harsh self-judgment, and why embracing vulnerability is actually your greatest strength as an entrepreneur. You'll discover real-life strategies, from small daily pauses to redefining receiving, and how to finally blend holistic wellness with business, so you can build a soul-aligned practice without losing your sense of self.Get inspired to prioritize your own needs, create empowered boundaries, and reconnect with your purpose. If you're ready to step out of survival mode and into a new paradigm where self-compassion fuels your business, this episode is your starting point.Starting a Business Simplified Websitehttps://www.startingabusinesssimplified.com/Bonus Episode #59 -Contents:(00:00) Into(00:29) "Launching a Soulful Health Business"(05:49) Nurse's 22-Year Career Journey(09:20) Healing Through Shared Experiences(11:40) Embracing Vulnerability and Trust(14:58) "Actors on a Stage"(19:00) Self-Care and Recognizing Anger(21:45) Prioritize Self-Care in Healthcare(23:34) "Golden Ticket to Eternity"(29:00) Struggles with Self-Love and Compassion(31:44) Pause and Find Your Joy(33:20) Finding Personal Joy(36:58) Connect with Dawn Today Get full access to Starting a Business Simplified at startingabusinesssimplified.substack.com/subscribe
In this episode, Katie introduces the concept of “pockets of joy” as a path to reclaim happiness when life feels flat...Katie dives deep into the all-too-common “blah” feeling many women experience in midlife. If you've ever wondered why the things that used to bring you joy now feel dull—or if you've found yourself asking, “Is this all there is?”—this conversation is for you.Katie explores the real reasons joy can feel out of reach during this phase, from hormonal changes to identity shifts and major life transitions. She shares how the midlife journey mirrors a caterpillar's transformation inside the chrysalis—a powerful, yet uncomfortable time of letting go and becoming.You'll learn:Why old sources of happiness may no longer work—and what to do insteadHow to find “pockets of joy” that gently lift your spiritsWhy midlife is a gateway to discovering your true self and purposeA 5-step process to navigate uncertainty with more peace and compassionHow tools like meditation, journaling, and soul questions can guide you home to yourselfKatie offers vulnerable personal stories, a beautiful metaphor for midlife transformation, and actionable practices to help you reclaim joy—even when life feels uncertain or overwhelming.✨ Subscribe to Katie's newsletter for deeper insights and free resources: katiefarinas.comCheck out these related episodes.The Essence of Self CompassionEmbracing The Dark Night of The Soul
ONCE UPON A WEIRDNESS MAGNET - BLUE DEVIL #5! Our coverage of the classic 1980s BLUE DEVIL comic series continues with BLUE DEVIL #5 from October 1984! Diabolu Frank and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy alongside Dan Cassidy and Zatanna as they battle Nebiros and his horde of demons for control of Blue Devil's trident! Finally, we wrap up with YOUR listener feedback and we fan-cast Nebiros! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag31/ Follow Diabolu Frank: Rolled Spine Podcast Network: https://rolledspine.wordpress.com/ Twitter/X: @rolledspine Bluesky: @diabolu.bsky.social See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Shag's custom Blue Devil bound comics: https://x.com/onceuponageek/status/1770956835727585611 Twitter/X: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek+%23OUAG31&src=typed_query&f=live Bluesky: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG31 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Follow Once Upon A Geek on TWITTER/X: @onceuponageek Follow Once Upon A Geek on BLUESKY: @onceuponageek.bsky.social Follow Once Upon A Geek on INSTAGRAM: @onceuponageekpodcast Like the Once Upon A Geek FACEBOOK page: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water WEBSITE: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com Follow Fire & Water on TWITTER/X: @FWPodcasts Follow Fire & Water on BLUESKY: @fwpodcasts.bsky.social Like our Fire & Water FACEBOOK page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
ONCE UPON A WEIRDNESS MAGNET - BLUE DEVIL #5! Our coverage of the classic 1980s BLUE DEVIL comic series continues with BLUE DEVIL #5 from October 1984! Diabolu Frank and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy alongside Dan Cassidy and Zatanna as they battle Nebiros and his horde of demons for control of Blue Devil's trident! Finally, we wrap up with YOUR listener feedback and we fan-cast Nebiros! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag31/ Follow Diabolu Frank: Rolled Spine Podcast Network: https://rolledspine.wordpress.com/ Twitter/X: @rolledspine Bluesky: @diabolu.bsky.social See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Shag's custom Blue Devil bound comics: https://x.com/onceuponageek/status/1770956835727585611 Twitter/X: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek+%23OUAG31&src=typed_query&f=live Bluesky: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG31 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Follow Once Upon A Geek on TWITTER/X: @onceuponageek Follow Once Upon A Geek on BLUESKY: @onceuponageek.bsky.social Follow Once Upon A Geek on INSTAGRAM: @onceuponageekpodcast Like the Once Upon A Geek FACEBOOK page: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water WEBSITE: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com Follow Fire & Water on TWITTER/X: @FWPodcasts Follow Fire & Water on BLUESKY: @fwpodcasts.bsky.social Like our Fire & Water FACEBOOK page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
Nancy Dillingham Marks, a Fused Glass Artist. After a corporate career, she took a creative leap, discovering her passion for glass art. She founded Glass Arts Collective, a local studio, providing unique, handmade gifts. She has built a supportive community around the joy of creation. Find Nancy at: https://www.glassartscollective.com
Have you ever been asked, “What's your passion?”—and found yourself coming up blank? In this heartfelt episode, CJMiller explores why so many of us feel disconnected from our deepest loves, and how passion is often something we remember, not find.Drawing from personal stories, childhood insights, and spiritual reflection, CJ shares how our Creative DNA is imprinted long before society, money, or fear pulls us off course. You'll be guided to reconnect with what once lit you up—without explanation, without apology.This episode includes a powerful visualization exercise to help you quiet the noise and listen for the passions you may have been ignoring. Because when you honor what you love, you step into the joy of your true expression—as a Spiritual Artist, here to create from the inside out.For more information, visit www.spiritualartisttoday.com.
ONCE UPON A VISITOR IN THE UK! Steven Boyd and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy discussing V UK: VISITATION! This brand-new audio drama by Big Finish Productions faithfully adapts Kenneth Johnson's original "V" mini-series! As life-long fans of "V", we discuss our love for the original "V", and then dig into this new audio adaptation! Finally, Shag covers YOUR listener feedback from the past few episodes! 00:00:30 - Introductions 00:02:45 - Steven's origin story with "V" 00:12:23 - V: The Original Mini-Series (1983) history 00:14:50 - V UK: Visitation - our thoughts on the production, adaptation, and casting 00:34:48 - Steven's story about meeting Kenneth Johnson 00:42:30 - V UK: Visitation SPOILERS start here 00:51:00 - Your listener feedback from the past few episodes 01:42:00 - Sign off Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag30/ Order your copy of V UK: VISITATION from Big Finish: https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/v-uk-visitation-3180 Follow Steven Boyd: Comic Collector Live: https://www.comiccollectorlive.com/ Email Steven at: operationccl@panellogicmedia.com This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Twitter/X: https://x.com/onceuponageek Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/onceuponageek.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onceuponageekpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Fire & Water website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Fire & Water on Twitter/X: https://x.com/FWPodcasts Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy... and V for Victory.
ONCE UPON A TIMELORD - LUCIE MILLER AND GALLIFREY ONE PREGAME David "Ace" Gutiérrez and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy discussing Doctor Who, specifically our favorite Eighth Doctor companions, Big Finish audio dramas featuring Lucie Miller, and they do some pregaming for next week's GALLIFREY ONE convention in Los Angeles! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag29/ Follow David "Ace" Gutiérrez: Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/davidacegutierrez.bsky.social Mr. Ghost Adventures: https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/mr-ghost-adventures/list?title_no=925744 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Twitter/X: https://x.com/onceuponageek Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/onceuponageek.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onceuponageekpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Fire & Water website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Fire & Water on Twitter/X: https://x.com/FWPodcasts Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
ONCE UPON A MUTANT - UNCANNY X-MEN #190-191 Chris Pine and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy discussing classic UNCANNY X-MEN comics and favorite eras! Then we follow our favorite Mutants into NYC turned barbarian battleground with Uncanny X-Men #190-191 written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by John Romita Jr & Dan Green! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag28/ Follow Chris Pine: Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/chrispine.bsky.social See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Twitter/X: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek%20%23OUAG28&src=typed_query&f=live Bluesky: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG28 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Twitter/X: https://x.com/onceuponageek Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/onceuponageek.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onceuponageekpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Fire & Water website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Fire & Water on Twitter/X: https://x.com/FWPodcasts Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
From frosted pastries to frozen football fields, this week's episode covers it all. We kick things off with a deep dive into the surprisingly complex world of frozen Pop-Tarts: are they a breakfast of champions or a culinary crime against toaster ovens? Then, we shift gears to the gridiron, previewing the upcoming NFL playoffs and dissecting the key matchups that will shape the road to the Super Bowl. We also tackle the latest drama surrounding Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat, exploring the trade rumors and speculating on what the future holds for "Jimmy Buckets." Finally, we wade into the often-overlooked but universally experienced topic of showering direction: are you a face-to-the-water or back-to-the-water bather? Prepare for a wild ride through the worlds of breakfast, basketball, football, and personal hygiene.
Feeling like you need a fresh start? In this episode of The Encourager Podcast, we’re diving into three simple steps to help you reset, refocus, and feel more energized in your day-to-day life. These practical tips are designed to help you gain clarity, find joy, and make room for what truly matters. Episode highlights: Step 1: Clean Something. Whether it’s a small drawer, your workspace, or a cluttered corner of your home, cleaning something gives you an instant mental and physical boost, setting the stage for a fresh start. Step 2: Find Your Joy! We’ll guide you through answering key questions—who, what, when, where, why, and how—to reconnect with what brings you joy and how to incorporate more of it into your life. Step 3: Cancel Something. With newfound clarity and joy, it’s time to take a hard look at your commitments. Learn how to cancel tasks, obligations, or routines that no longer align with your goals, giving you the space to focus on what truly matters. Pro Tip: Approach these steps with just 1% effort initially and aim for 80% completion—no need for perfection. This leaves room for adjustments and keeps the momentum going. Helpful Links: Download the FREE Fresh Start Resource Stay in the Know:Get direct links to new episodes, free resources and more. Join our newsletter. Connect with Me:Got a burning question about home or work life? Drop it along with your review and rating on Apple Podcasts, and I'll personally answer it in an upcoming episode!Join the Community:Let's be buddies! Social Media is where we hang out the most, go live to chat about your pressing questions, and even offer some free coaching. Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram.Utilize Your 5 Systems:Every woman operates in 5 systems: Me, Food, Family, Home, and Work. Discover how to bring joy and clarity to all 5 systems here.Explore More:EncouragerPodcast.com Grab my book and access FREE resources.EncouragerAcademy.com Dive into my digital courses covering the 5 systems and join my Encourager Cohort!Shop Our Brands & Favorites:Support the podcast by shopping our brands: Rebekah Scott Designs & 1948 LeatherExplore our favorite wares for your 5 systems in our Amazon shop Thanks to our Podcast Sponsor:If you love my energy and zest, here's my secret - Just Thrive Probiotic & Just Thrive Calm. These products help me function well and feel better! Use the code "ENCOURAGER" for 15% off!Spread the Joy:Your listens and shares mean the world to me! Share with another mama hoping to navigate both home and work life with JOY!Stay Updated:Follow the podcast for automatic updates on new episodes! Find us on all major platforms: Apple, Stitcher, Google Play, YouTube, Spotify, and more.Connect Outside the Podcast:Follow me on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for additional content and updates!Your support is invaluable, and I'm grateful for every share and listen. Together, let's bring joy and clarity to every aspect of our lives! Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
ONCE UPON A BLUE DEVIL - BLUE DEVIL #4! Our coverage of the classic 1980s BLUE DEVIL comic series continues with BLUE DEVIL #4, plus the Blue Devil pages from DC SAMPLER #2, both cover dated September 1984! Diabolu Frank and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy alongside Dan Cassidy as he arm wrestles Superman, flirts with Zatanna, and comes face-to-face with Nebiros again! Finally, we wrap up with YOUR listener feedback and we fan-cast Sharon Scott! Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag27/ Follow Diabolu Frank: Rolled Spine Podcast Network: https://rolledspine.wordpress.com/ Twitter/X: @rolledspine Bluesky: @diabolu.bsky.social See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Shag's custom Blue Devil bound comics: https://x.com/onceuponageek/status/1770956835727585611 Twitter/X: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek+%23OUAG27&src=typed_query&f=live Bluesky: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG27 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: https://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Follow Once Upon A Geek on TWITTER/X: @onceuponageek Follow Once Upon A Geek on BLUESKY: @onceuponageek.bsky.social Follow Once Upon A Geek on INSTAGRAM: @onceuponageekpodcast Like the Once Upon A Geek FACEBOOK page: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Visit the Fire & Water WEBSITE: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com Follow Fire & Water on TWITTER/X: @FWPodcasts Follow Fire & Water on BLUESKY: @fwpodcasts.bsky.social Like our Fire & Water FACEBOOK page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
ONCE UPON A WHAT IF! Andrew Leyland and The Irredeemable Shag find their joy discussing the Marvel comic series that explores the multiverse of cause-and-effect.. WHAT IF! We discuss Andy's history with the series, then we take a deep dive into two issues: What If (vol 1) #24 - “What if… Gwen Stacy had Lived?” What If (vol 2) #2 - “What if… Daredevil Killed the Kingpin?” Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content? Leave comments on the FIRE & WATER PODCAST website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/ouag26/ Follow Andrew Leyland: Hey Kids Comics: https://twotruefreaks.com/podcast/qt-series/hey-kids-comics/ Amazing Spider-Man from the Beginning: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/andrew-leyland0 Palace of Glittering Delights: https://twotruefreaks.com/podcast/category/palace-of-glittering-delights/ Overlooked Dark Knight: https://www.fortressofbaileytude.com/shows-on-the-network/the-overlooked-dark-knight/ See Shag's social media posts related to this episode: Twitter: https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aonceuponageek%20%23OUAG26&src=typed_query&f=live Bluesky: https://bsky.app/search?q=OUAG26 This episode brought to you by InStockTrades: http://instocktrades.com Follow Once Upon a Geek: Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-geek/id1615296641 Subscribe via other podcatchers: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onceuponageek Also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible Twitter/X: https://x.com/onceuponageek Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/onceuponageek.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onceuponageekpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponageekpodcast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Fire & Water website: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Fire & Water on Twitter/X: https://x.com/FWPodcasts Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Life is short. Focus on the positive. Find Your Joy.
Feeling like you need a fresh start? In this episode of The Encourager Podcast, we're diving into three simple steps to help you reset, refocus, and feel more energized in your day-to-day life. These practical tips are designed to help you gain clarity, find joy, and make room for what truly matters. Episode highlights: Step 1: Clean Something. Whether it's a small drawer, your workspace, or a cluttered corner of your home, cleaning something gives you an instant mental and physical boost, setting the stage for a fresh start. Step 2: Find Your Joy! We'll guide you through answering key questions—who, what, when, where, why, and how—to reconnect with what brings you joy and how to incorporate more of it into your life. Step 3: Cancel Something. With newfound clarity and joy, it's time to take a hard look at your commitments. Learn how to cancel tasks, obligations, or routines that no longer align with your goals, giving you the space to focus on what truly matters. Pro Tip: Approach these steps with just 1% effort initially and aim for 80% completion—no need for perfection. This leaves room for adjustments and keeps the momentum going. Helpful Links: Download the FREE Fresh Start Resource Stay in the Know:Get direct links to new episodes, free resources and more. Join our newsletter. Connect with Me:Got a burning question about home or work life? Drop it along with your review and rating on Apple Podcasts, and I'll personally answer it in an upcoming episode!Join the Community:Let's be buddies! Social Media is where we hang out the most, go live to chat about your pressing questions, and even offer some free coaching. Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram.Utilize Your 5 Systems:Every woman operates in 5 systems: Me, Food, Family, Home, and Work. Discover how to bring joy and clarity to all 5 systems here.Explore More:EncouragerPodcast.com Grab my book and access FREE resources.EncouragerAcademy.com Dive into my digital courses covering the 5 systems.Shop Our Brands & Favorites:Support the podcast by shopping our brands: Rebekah Scott Designs & 1948 LeatherExplore our favorite wares for your 5 systems in our Amazon shop Thanks to our Podcast Sponsor:If you love my energy and zest, here's my secret - Just Thrive Probiotic & Just Thrive Calm. These products help me function well and feel better! Use the code "ENCOURAGER" for 15% off!Spread the Joy:Your listens and shares mean the world to me! Share with another mama hoping to navigate both home and work life with JOY!Stay Updated:Follow the podcast for automatic updates on new episodes! Find us on all major platforms: Apple, Stitcher, Google Play, YouTube, Spotify, and more.Connect Outside the Podcast:Follow me on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for additional content and updates!Your support is invaluable, and I'm grateful for every share and listen. Together, let's bring joy and clarity to every aspect of our lives! Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
As Louise prepares to teach her annual online course, she is joined by Californian artist (and former student) Rachel Davis, to discuss the ideas behind the course. The conversation centers on the importance of finding our own creative flow, and also the ways in which we sometimes block ourselves from accessing it. We hope this conversation unlocks something for you, and we also hope you'll join the free Find Your Joy taster course for 8 days of unfettered creative flow!
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