Poema Podcast

This week I'm joined by activist and writer Justin Ancheta. In this episode they share their own story of discovering they were a biromantic demisexual & the prejudice they faced as a Filipino-Canadian, queer man with a stutter. They also talk about the connections between asexuality and tarot, and how discovering tarot helped them feel more at peace with their own identity, and discovering that liminal space of acceptance and belonging.    

In our first episode of 2024, my friend Cat Dean joins me for a fun conversation about being human in the changing seasons of life.  We discuss how the changes in the movement of the earth can impact our lives so directly, how we process change and the grief involved, and how it can impact our connection to our own humanity, and our creative lives.  We also explore how growth and healing increase connection to our bodies, and awaken us to the falseness of the systems we live in, connecting us more to our humanity, and to the earth.  This was such a fun, relaxed and often spontaneous conversation between friends, with great insights. Enjoy!

For Grief Awareness week this week, I'm joined by Vicky McQuarrie, who works for AtaLoss Charity, a non-profit organization that signposts bereaved people to support. TW: Suicide, grief, loss of spouse _ Vicky courageously shares her stories of loss and grief, both being widowed and losing her sister in the space of a year. She shares the impact this had on her life, the rituals and practices she discovered to help her grieve well. She also discusses how her first experience of processing grief impacted her second, and the biggest lessons she's learned, as well as the work of the bereavement charity AtaLoss. __ Find out more about Vicky's work at Ataloss.org

A new Poema podcast special episode with myself and Douglas Humphries - recorded during the strike specifically for a post-strike release.  In this episode we discuss Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer". We explore the various themes of the movie, how the movie impacted both of us, and the biggest lessons we can learn from the movie. We also talk about the storytelling in the movie, and the creative/storytelling lessons we can learn from Chris Nolan. 

I'm honoured today to be joined by author and speaker Daniel Finklestein. Daniel tells us the story about his parents and grandparents, Jewish families caught up in the growing anti-semitism of the 1920's & 1930's, ultimately leading to their imprisonment in concentration camps by the Nazi's.  But the story doesn't end there, they survived these camps and eventually moved to England where they raised a family. And of course there are shades of the shift to the hard right we've seen in the US & UK recently. It's a story of struggle, grief, courage and hope, and Daniel shares it beautifully. 

This week my friend Jenna DeWitt returns to the podcast to discuss two songs - "You're Losing Me" by Taylor Swift and "Faith" by Selmer - and exploring them in detail, in relation to their respective messages about queer liberation and owning your gender and identity. We breakdown the lyrics of each song and discuss them in depth, and Jenna gives great insight into the deeper meaning of these songs, how they've impacted her, and how they can speak to us too. We also touch on how despite one piece of art being labelled 'secular' and one more overtly, 'Christian', both can impart equally powerful messages about these issues.

This week my guest is my friend and colleague Maria French, author, speaker and theological coach. In this episode we discuss her new book, "Reconfiguring " A Collection of Post-Christian Thoughts and Theologies", and in particular two essays from this book. Firstly we explore the power of nostalgia, and how our yearning for some idealistic past which never existed can hinder our thriving and living now. We discuss this from both an individual and cultural perspective, looking at the impact of nostalgia on the political trajectory of both the US and UK in recent years. We then naturally move into a conversation about grief, death, and loss, and how sitting in our grief and allowing it to work on us, and doing healing work, can actually lead us become more fully alive. We explore how when we embrace the reality of death and grief, it can move us to be more fully present, and create a thriving life of purpose. *** You can buy Maria's new book "Reconfiguring " A Collection of Post-Christian Thoughts and Theologi

Today I'm joined by my friend Ali Smith, who shares their story of how they slowly discovered they were autistic, and ultimately had ADHD. They share common patterns of behaviour they experienced which they realised can be giveaways for these diagnoses, and the process of them obtaining a diagnosis.  Ali also talks about the challenges of coming to terms with their diagnoses and how they learned to acknowledge and accept who they are and thrive in their autistic and ADHD identities - and how we can too.

This week I'm joined by my friend Amber Kay to discuss living with epilepsy, how they discovered they were autistic and how this changed their life. They also share the story of discovering their bisexuality and embracing their true identity, and how this tied in with their autistic discovery. This episode is Amber sharing their journey of acknowledging and living fully into who they really are, and how we can do the same. 

This week I'm joined by author Lyndsey Medford, who tells us the story of when an autoimmune condition opened her eyes fully to the limitation of being in our bodies within the systems we live in.  Lyndsey talks about how learning to be comfortable in her body with its limitations impacted how she sees and interacts with the world. She also shares how it showed her how to heal and be free from the limitations of the systems we live in, and find a healthy, sustainable life for herself.

In this episode, my friend, ace advocate and writer Elle Rose, joins me to hear me tell my story of how I discovered I'm demisexual and on the asexual spectrum. Firstly, I talk about how I discovered what demisexaulity is and began to resonate with this label. I then discuss how once I acknowledged my demisexuality, and looked back at my life and my relationship to my sexuality, how it explained a lot of my experiences, lack of sexual attraction and why I was so different from my peers - and how what I thought was 'usual' wasn't the experience of others. Then I move to explain how this discovery has changed my life, helped my relationships, plutonic and romantic, and helped me find peace with myself. 

I'm honoured to welcome back my friend, author Marla Taviano today. In this episode we talk about her recent book of poetry, 'Jaded'. We talk about the messiness of deconstruction, the parts of the journey where we need to get things of our chest, release the grief, anger and trauma we carry, and learn to speak truth to ourselves and of ourselves.  Marla shares her own journey and how this is reflected in the poems and how writing the book helped that process. She talks about her experience of the anger and grief of discovering oppressive systems we've been a part of and damage we could have done, coming to terms with that, and the healing process. 

This week my friend Amanda Held Opelt returns, and we discuss grief rituals, why they were popular in the reign of Queen Victoria, and the impact of the first world war on our cultural grief rituals and how we process grief & loss. We also explore how the trauma and grief culturally felt and experienced in the first World War, had an impact on the allied nations initial response to Hitler's tyranny and how this could have inadvertently contributed to WWII.  We then discuss how defeat and having to face up to their actions as a nation, and do the work of healing and transformation, impacted Germany and their culture, and how victory contributed indirectly too many of the problems we now see in the UK and Germany.

This week my friend Douglas Humphreys returns to the show, and we discuss the show 'Obi Wan Kenobi', and the dynamic of the relationship between him and Anakin Skywalker (AKA Darth Vader) in the context of their respective journeys of grief and trauma. We discuss their experiences of grief, including in their own relationship, and the circumstances which contributed to the stories and outcomes of their lives. We talk about how unresolved grief and anger can consume and control us, and harm both ourselves and others - and how this story shows the contrast between this and healthy ways of processing grief, and how it transforms us.

This week Amanda Held Opelt returns to continue our exploration of grief and transformation in pop culture. Today we talk about the contrasting experiences of Loki, brother of Thor and Wanda Maximoff, and how we see this ultimately play out in their respective MCU shows.  We explore how Loki's confrontation with his own trauma, grief, and his actions, ultimately transforms and heals him. In contrast we discuss how Wanda's unhealthy response to trauma and grief causes harm to others, and herself. We then touch on what lessons we can learn from their respective journeys. 

I'm honoured to be joined today on my podcast by anti-racist activist, educator and speaker Tori Williams Douglass.  Tori runs 'White Homework', a resource educating people on anti-racism and whiteness. Today Tori tells us a bit of her story and journey into activism. She then discusses the concept of whiteness, where it originated, where we see it, and the harm it does, individually and societally. Tori also explores where we can see whiteness in ourselves and in the system we live in, and how we can begin to unlearn it and create a more equal, just world.

TW: Stories of acephobia Today Marshall Blount (@AceGentle on twitter) joins me today to share his story of discovering his identity as an asexaul (ace) and his journey into ace & LGBTQI activism.  We talk about the challenges he faced in discovering going public about his ace-ness and how others reacted, how it impacted his mental health, as well as his experiences of acephobia.  We also talk in depth about the activism he's been involved in, including how he obtained a proclamation for Ace Week 2020 from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the difference his work is making to ace awareness and equality - as well as words of encouragement for those still exploring their aceness. 

This week, in our 350th episode, Amanda Held Opelt joins me again for the second part of our series on superheroes, grief and modern mythology.  This week we explore the character and story of Superman, in particularly the one we see in the Christopher Reeve movies. He's a character who loses his adoptive father as a teenager, an event which drives him into a life trying to save people, never expressing his emotions, until another event finally unlocks his buried grief. We explore how Superman is a more hopeful character, and how his processing of grief doesn't dilute this, but rather makes him more hopeful, more kind, and more inspirational. We explore what lessons we can learn from his processing of grief, and his character, and why the world needs more people of sincerity and hope.

This week I begin a new series with my friend Amanda Held Opelt to discuss how grief is explored in superhero stories, and how they have become our modern mythology.  Today we focus mainly on Batman, exploring his story sand how his grief transforms and initially controls him, with Batman an expression of his raw grief. We discuss some of the stories in prominent Batman movies, as Bruce Wayne processes his grief and eventually Batman becomes a symbol of hope.  This episode explores how grief can control us if we let it, but if we allow ourselves to process it, it can transform us. 

This week Jenna DeWitt returns to the show for a conversation about Taylor Swift's recent album "Midnights" and the enneagram. Jenna briefly introduces the enneagram and we talk a bit about Taylor's likely enneagram numbers 9 (3w4). Then we explore how this relates to the recent fallout with Ticketmaster regarding her tour. Then we talk about how the album is reflective of Taylor's own personal and creative journey, her lived experiences and how she's often been perceived and treated by the media and those who aren't fans.  We also discuss how many of the challenges she can face are typical of her enneagram number, and end by exploring how all of us, whatever our enneagram number can embrace our identities and move into growth and transformation.