Navigating the Complexities of Friendship and Emotional Connection

Can our friendships evolve as we evolve?

It feels like it’s getting harder and harder to make new friends—and keep old ones—as our values shift and priorities change. In this era of political and cultural polarization, can we actually be friends if we disagree politically? What if we embody our values differently? Where’s the line between judging someone for being different and honoring our own integrity?

This episode is an invitation to wrestle with discomfort, stay with the complexity, and consider what it means to make room for all of our humanity.

Joined by writer and cultural worker Kai Cheng Thom, Michelle explores the grief, shame, and judgment that often accompany political misalignment between friends—and the haunting ways we sometimes punish each other when what we really crave is love.

This episode is for anyone who’s ever lost a friend in a season of political reckoning. It’s for those holding heartbreak, anger, and the question: Can we find our way back to each other, even when it feels impossible?

ABOUT THE EPISODE GUEST, KAI CHENG THOM

Kai Cheng Thom is a somatically trained coach, process facilitator, and mediator whose work focuses on the intersections of trauma healing, Transformative Justice, and social change. A noted theorist and practitioner in the field of conflict resolution, Kai Cheng has made significant contributions towards the integration and application of conflict transformation, crisis intervention, and body-based trauma healing methods in an activist context through her writing and teaching. Kai Cheng maintains a private practice as a one-on-one somatic coach, consultant, and group facilitator, drawing from extensive professional trainings in a wide variety of healing and wellness disciplines. She has also trained hundreds of embodiment and wellness professionals as Adjunct Faculty with the Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education and a Senior Teacher at The Embody Lab. Learn more about Kai Cheng Thom at www.kaichengthom.com.

Follow Kai Cheng Thom on Instagram: @kaichengthom

Kai’s Book: Falling Back in Love with Human

ABOUT THE HOST, MICHELLE MIJUNG KIM

Michelle MiJung Kim is one of today’s most compelling voices on courage, complexity, and connection. With a voice that is both precise and expansive, Michelle helps people make sense of their inner worlds and the outer chaos. Through storytelling rooted in emotional honesty, she invites us to confront what’s hard, name what matters, and move through the world with deeper integrity and courage. She is the award-winning author of The Wake Up, a globally recognized speaker, and the producer and host of I Feel That Way Too, a narrative podcast that dares to ask life’s trickiest questions so we can feel less alone—and more alive—together. Whether on stage, on the page, or behind the mic, Michelle’s presence is a mirror and a call to courage—to live our lives more fully, to build resilient relationships, and to believe in the possibility of our personal transformation and collective liberation. Learn more about Michelle at www.michellemijungkim.com and follow her journey on Instagram @michellekimkim.

RESOURCES AND LINKS

Full Transcript is Available Here

Watch the full interview on I Feel That Way Too YouTube Channel

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